Affiliated with ReflectionsReflections The Newsletter of the Popular Astronomy Club ESTABLISHED 1936 April 2020 President’s Corner APRIL 2020 let me thank the entire Nelson Family Welcome to anoth- for their legacy of service and support er edition of the to the science of astronomy and to the “Reflections”. As I Popular Astronomy Club. Their recent Page Topic write this month’s donations will enable us to proceed column, I am com- with updating and remodeling of the 1-2 Presidents pleting my second Paul Castle Memorial Observatory. Corner 2-3 Announcements/ week of “shelter in In the meantime, your PAC board has Info place” against the Alan Sheidler been working to forge alignment on 4-6 Contributions onslaught of the 7-8 The Paul Castle next steps for the observatory remod- coronavirus. This has been a difficult Observatory Re- eling project. Last Thursday evening newal Project time for everyone. We are all trying the PAC board participated in a “Zoom” 9 Thank you letter to find new ways to work, shop, and videoconference to discuss possibilities to the Nelson’s stay safe against the pandemic. 10-11 Skyward for a new telescope. The Zoom vide- Some of us have been laid off and are 12 Upcoming Events oconference actually worked very well. 13 Sign up report battling boredom with nothing to do. Wayland Bauer, Rusty Case, Terry 14 Astronomical Cal- Similarly, club activities have been Dufek, Roy Gustafson, Dale Hachtel, endar of Events/ severely curtailed as well. We must The Planets Dino Milani and I were able to partici- all respect the requests from our 15 Skyviews pate in a nearly hour-long meeting, 16 Planetary Align- leaders in government to practice each of us from our own homes using ments/ Comet social distancing and self- our personal computers with webcams C/2017 T2 quarantining until the virus subsides. 17 Comet Atlas to have a virtual meeting. Rusty had This could easily be another month, 18 Deep Sky Won- put together some cost numbers from ders but who knows? In any event, we three different telescope suppliers and 19-21 Navigating the must maintain resolve and get ready for two different telescopes. You can April Night Sky for that blessed day when we can (AL) read about the specifics here in this once again engage in face to face 22 Spotlight newsletter, but the important point is NGC4216 Silver club meetings and observing ses- we were able to make a selection. Streak Galaxy sions. Rusty and Dale are in the final stages of 23-24 NASA Space Place Partner While we wait for the pandemic to placing an order for a brand new Celes- Article subside and for warmer weather, I tron CPC 1100 HD telescope which will 25-28 Newslinks wanted to keep you informed of be placed in Paul’s observatory as part 29-31 Member Obser- some of the “indoor” activities we of the remodeling project. Thanks to vations 32-34 Paul Castle Ob- have been doing. First, I wanted to the participants in the videoconference serving Sessions point out that we received another and to PAC members who provided 35-36 PAC Monthly very nice donation from the Harry & input and support for the selection pro- Meeting Lillian Nelson Charitable Fund. Again, cess. 37-38 Treasurers Re- port (Continued in next column) (Continued on next page) 1 (Continued from previous page) ANNOUNCEMENTS / INFO Popular Let’s see how things develop in early Astronomy April on the virus front. It may be NCRAL Club Officers that we will have to cancel our April Seasonal th 13 meeting at the Butterworth Cen- Messier PRESIDENT - Alan Sheidler t ter (and the Niabi night on the 18 ). Marathon 3528 56th Street Court, Moline, Hopefully not, but if so, we might Program IL, 61265 want to try doing a Zoom conference Phone: (309) 797-3120 for that as well. Stay tuned on these NCRAL’s Seasonal Messier Marathon VICE PRESIDENT – Dino Milani developments. We must all do our observing program is NOT designed to 2317 29 1/2 Street, Rock Island, part to stem the spread of the coro- qualify observers for the Astronomical IL, 61201 Phone: (309) 269-4735 navirus. In any event, you cannot League’s Messier Observing program; the two programs are unrelated and keep a dynamic club like ours down observing requirements are quite SECRETARY - Terry Dufek 2812 W. 65th Street, Davenport, for long! I am ready to go out and different. In the NCRAL program, the observe NCRAL’s Spring Messier IA, 52806 Phone: (563) 386-3509 main requirement is to quickly observe Marathon. Get ready for that and and essentially check off items from TREASURER – Dale Hachtel get psyched up to start working on one of four seasonal lists of Messier 1617 Elm Shore Drive, Port Byron Paul’s observatory remodeling pro- objects as noted in the section to fol- IL, 61275 low. Phone: (614) 935-5748 ject. I am confident this remodeling will result in the world’s greatest NCRAL recognition will consist a suita- ALCOR – Roy E. Gustafson PAC observatory! Keep looking up! ble printed certificate and a 3⁄4-inch 11 Deer Run Road, Orion, IL, Alan Sheidler enameled star pin (a different color for 61273 Phone: (309)526-3592 each season). There will be no direct cost to the membership for partici- DIRECTOR OF OBSERVATORIES - pating in the award program; the cost Rusty Case of the program (pins, certificates, mail- 2123 W. 16th Street, Davenport, ers, postage) will be borne by the Re- IA, 52804 gion as a benefit of affiliation. Relevant Phone: (563) 349-2444 program documents are linked below PAST PRESIDENT - NCRAL Seasonal Messier Marathon Pro- Wayland Bauer gram Rules 3256 Pleasant Drive, Bettendorf, IA., 52722 NCRAL WINTER Seasonal Messier List Phone: (563) 332-4032 NEWSLETTER EDITOR - NCRAL SPRING Seasonal Messier List Terry Dufek 2812 W. 65th Street, Davenport, NCRAL SUMMER Seasonal Messier List IA, 52806 Phone: (563) 386-3509 NCRAL AUTUMN Seasonal Messier List Contact for Information or questions here: popularastronomy- [email protected] 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS / INFO READY FOR MEMBERSHIP OR TO RENEW? LOOKING FOR OLDERLOOKING ISSUES FOR OF OLDER For PAC Documents REFLECTIONSISSUES OF REFLECTIONS Use NEWSLETTER?NEWSLETTER? “Enrollment Form” Click HERE HISTORY OF PAC? HISTORY OFClick PAC? HERE SUBMISSIONS If you have an article or photos to submit or Popular Astronomy Club items of interest, we encourage you to send Popular Astronomyon Facebook? Club them in by the 25th of the month. Links to on Facebook?Click HERE stories are welcome also. Thank you! Astronomical League Observing Programs The Astronomical League provides many different Observing Programs. These Observing Programs are designed to provide a direction for your obser- vations and to provide a goal. The Observing Pro- grams have certificates and pins to recognize the observers’ accomplishments and for demon- stratingstrating their their observingobserving skills skills withwith a avarie- variety of in- ty of instrumentsstruments and and objects objects Check out the Astronomical Click Here League ONLINE! Check out the North Central Region of the Astronomical 3-18-2020 Breaking News: The NCRAL League (NCRAL) VISION 2020 Convention is CANCELLED online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Northern Cross Science Foundations will be contacting attendees about re- funds! 3 CONTRIBUTIONS BBC’s The Sky At Night What to see in the night sky: April 2020 Astronomy Pictures: Sky and Telescope’s Online Library! If you saw “Hidden Figures” or know a bit of NASA history, then you understand. Farewell Katherine and thank you for helping get us to the Moon. 4 CONTRIBUTIONS Same great articles with a great new look. Take a peek at our brand new website .org/astronomy- resources/ before heading out to enjoy the stars tonight. Venus Stunner by the Japanese probe Akatsuki. The image is in the infrared. Credit Image: JAXA A Wolf-Rayet Bubble and the Early Solar System 5 CONTRIBUTIONS Some You Tube videos for you to view while being home bound 6 THE PAUL CASTLE OBSERVATORY RENEWAL PROJECT On March 26, 2020 a board meeting was held (via OVERVIEW of the CPC Edge ZOOM) to discuss the telescope that was to go into the Paul Castle Observatory. Attending were Al General Features Sheidler, Dale Hachtel, Rusty Case, Wayland Bauer, EdgeHD Optics Dino Milani, Roy Gustafson and Terry Dufek . Also contributing his input was Ken Boquist. • Celestron's premium StarBright XLT coatings Dale reviewed the financials for the project. • Fully computerized dual fork arm Altazimuth A discussion was held whether to have an Alt- mount azimuth or equatorial mount and it was felt for • 50 mm finder scope to help accurately find ob- ease of use from the membership to go with alt- jects azimuth and to add equatorial later on. • Heavy-duty tripod makes attaching the telescope Roy thought it might be useful to have one of our so easy you can do it in the dark; also features meeting nights out at Paul Castle to a. encourage sturdy 2"; stainless steel legs and aluminum ac- member usage and possible encourage new cessory tray member sign ups. • 23 mm, 82 degree Luminos Eyepiece - 2" We decided to go with the Celestron CPC Edge • Ergonomic design allows you to comfortably lift over the CPC GPS and move the telescope from location to location A motion was made by Roy and seconded by Wayland to have Rusty Case negotiate the price • Star diagonal provides a more comfortable view- and package through Orange County Telescopes ing position when observing objects that are high (as they had the best price to begin with) in the sky NOTE: The • Convenient remote hand control holder holder package was allows you to view information hands-free while approved by using