Fort Worth Astronomical Society (Est. 1949) February 2010 : Astronomical League Member Club Calendar – 2 Opportunities & The Sky this Month – 3 How to Make $1000 with your Telescope! – 4 Astronaut Sally Ride to speak at UTA – 4 Aurgia the Charioteer – 5 Stargazers’ Diary – 6 Bode’s Galaxy by Steve Tuttle 1 February 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 Algol at Minima Last Qtr Moon Æ 5:48 am 11:07 pm Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for February: M35, M41, M46, M47, M50, M93, NGC 2244, NGC 2264, NGC 2301, NGC 2360 Top ten deep-sky objects for February: M35, M41, M46, M47, M50, M93, NGC 2261, NGC 2362, NGC 2392, NGC 2403 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Algol at Minima Morning sports a Moon at Apogee New Moon Æ super thin crescent (252,612 miles) 8:51 am 7:56 pm Moon 8:00 pm 3RF Star Party Make use of the New Moon Weekend for . better viewing at the Dark Sky Site See Notes Below New Moon New Moon Weekend Weekend 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Presidents Day 3RF Star Party Valentine’s Day FWAS Traveler’s Guide Meeting to the Planets UTA’s Maverick Clyde Tombaugh Ranger 8 returns Normal Room premiers on Speakers Series discovered Pluto photographs and NatGeo 7pm Sally Ride “Fat Tuesday” Ash Wednesday 80 years ago. impacts Moon. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Algol at Minima First Qtr Moon Moon at Perigee Å (222,345 miles) 6:42 pm 12:52 am 4 pm {Low in the NW) Algol at Minima Æ 9:43 pm Challenge binary star for month: 15 Lyncis (Lynx) Challenge deep-sky object for month: IC 443 (Gemini) Notable carbon star for month: BL Orionis (Orion) 28 Notes: Full Moon Look for a very thin waning crescent moon perched just above and slightly right of tiny Mercury on the morning of 10:38 pm Feb. 11; the previous morning will have the moon more illuminated and higher from the eastern horizon; those with very low eastern outlooks can perhaps spot the near-record thin crescent moon about 30 minutes before dawn on Feb. 12. On the evening of our meeting night on Feb. 16, you might want to try to find some high vantage point with a western unobstructed horizon to view the Jupiter-Venus conjunction. When you see this remarkable sight, watch for STS-38 Atlantis the crescent moon much higher in the sky directly above this pair. launched 20 years http://www.astronomyblogs.com/member/saberscorpx/?xjMsgID=50821 for tips on spotting extreme crescent ago Moons. 2 The Sky This Month – Thomsen Foundation -- 9 pm local time, January 15 (from Heavens-Above.com) The Sky This Month Star Charts: Sky & Telescope Sky Maps http://tinyrul.com/5np8n http://www.skymaps.com Heavens Above International Space Station Transits http://www.heavens-above.com http://tinyrul.com/y8zk5c Observing and Outreach Opportunities Weather permitting (FWAS contacts in parentheses) February 13 (DSO) & 20 (Lunar) - Three Rivers Foundation (3RF) Star Party - 3RF invites you out to Comanche Springs near Crowell, Texas for a night under the stars. The dark skies of Big Ranch Country provide a spectacular view of the universe. The party starts with solar observing followed by a break. Evening activities begin with a short educational introduction to astronomy. The observatories and Star Field are then opened to the public to enjoy the use of many different kinds of astronomy instruments. For more information the day of a scheduled star party, please call 940-655-3384. (Russ Boatright and Doug Brown) (Panhandle Plains, where Oklahoma tucks into the Texas Panhandle) February 20 - Goose Island State Park — Goose Island Under the Stars — Join us in the evening when volunteers from the Corpus Christi Astronomical Society will lead a tour of the night skies. Learn about the constellations and see the moon, planets, stars and galaxies through the telescope. Bring your lawn chairs and your binoculars and meets us at the Recreation Hall for an informative and fun night. Accessible for the mobility impaired. 7-8 PM (361) 729-2858. [ February 27 - Purtis Creek State Park - Stargazing - Take a walk through the solar system and view the night sky through a telescope. Then make your own star wheel and learn how to use it. Weather permitting, meet at the overflow camping parking lot. Accessible for the mobility impaired. 7:30 p.m. (903) 425-2332. 3 How to Make $$$111000000000 with Your Telescope! Tom Koonce Antelope Valley Astronomy Club, Inc. Lancaster, California So…You’ve observed the Moon and the planets in detail. eyepiece, but instead by getting a charge out of someone’s You’ve awed your family with close-up views of craters, rings, first spectacular view through your telescope! and subtle hues of color. You’ve used your observational successes to justify “investment” in the purchase of a bigger, How can you make $1000 from your telescope? If you want better telescope and sharper eyepieces with wider fields of fast cash, I suggest that you start out with a telescope worth view so that you can observe deep-sky objects like remote $2500 and offer it for sale on AstroMart.com. But by offering galaxies and faint nebulae. You know what a SCT is and views of the night sky to people who have never had the know and understand cool down times, stellar magnitude, opportunity, you’ll easily get $1000 of value for every adult seeing, and why every serious amateur needs a Telrad. who gasps in astonishment when seeing the Ring Nebula or a Perhaps you invested in imaging equipment and are starting distant galaxy, comprehending their physical significance. to produce night sky pictures like those in the magazines. You’ll get a million dollars of satisfaction each child that sees Does this fit you? the craters on the Moon and the rings of Saturn for the first time and cries out with joy. Now you’re asking yourself, “How can I make some money with my telescope to recoup my investment? …How can I How can you make money in amateur astronomy? The truth make $1000 with my telescope?” is, if you’re involved in this hobby to make cash, you can either sell your amazing astrophotos, meteorites that you The weather will be warming up soon, and the opportunity to found, or maybe invent the next Telrad. But if you want the feel that sense of sustained excitement you always get as you real payoff, then share your love of astronomy with others as head back out under the stars. More importantly, you’ll soon the weather turns warmer. You will provide them inspiration have opportunities to interact with others who don’t have your and enrichment worth $1000 and more. knowledge of astronomy, and certainly don’t have the kind of telescope equipment you’ve put together! Sharing nighttime views with others is the key to getting a big payoff from your telescope. No, not by charging people to view through your Outreach Resources: For individuals: http://www.noao.edu/education/ http://astronomywebguide.com/links_amateurastronomers.html For Clubs: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/AAISASurveyResults.pdf http://kepler.nasa.gov/education/amateurAstronomersResourceKits/ Maverick Speaker Series: Sally Ride Sally Ride speaks at UT Arlington February 15 at 8:00 pm in Texas Hall on the UTA campus. One of America's most-famous and most-beloved astronauts, Ride became the first American woman in space when she joined the STS-7 crew on June 18, 1983. At the time, she was also the youngest American (32)—male or female—ever to enter space. Ride flew two Shuttle missions, totaling more than two weeks in space. In the wake of the 1986 Challenger disaster, Ride was named to the Presidential Commission investigating the accident and authored NASA's first strategic plan. She also served on the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003. Ride is now a professor of physics at the University of California at San Diego and is president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, which focuses on getting children, especially girls, interested in science. Click to get FREE tickets today! 4 Auriga, the Charioteer Auriga, the celestial charioteer, has neither chariot nor horse. Instead, he's drawn as a man holding the reins in his right hand, with a goat on his left shoulder — the star Capella — and two baby goats in his left arm. Look for him cruising high across the southern sky in January and February. Map above from Wiki Commons Depiction at left from http://hsci.cas.ou.edu/ The constellation has an uncertain origin. It might represent Neptune rising from the sea in a chariot. Or it might honor a legendary king of Athens; according to this tale, he invented a chariot that was drawn by four horses. Capella is one of the few bright stars that is yellow, like our Sun. Both Capella and the Sun are yellow because they have roughly the same surface temperature. But the light from Capella actually comes from two separate stars. Both are yellow, and both lie about 43 light-years from Earth. Each star emits dozens of times more light than the Sun. In fact, any residents of the Capella system probably would take little notice of our Sun, which at Capella's distance would barely be visible to human eyes. The constellation of Auriga the Charioteer lies atop the Milky Way on cold winter nights. Auriga is easy to find due to its one very bright star, Capella, and its proximity to the easily recognizable constellations Orion and Taurus.