THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 43, Number 12 December 2018 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: December Image – Full Moon 1«3rd Mag Comet 46P/Wirtanen on its Way 2«President’s Note 3«Calendar of Celestial Events – December 2018 3«New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4«This Month’s Phases of the Moon 4«This Month’s Solar Phenomena 4«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 5«The Pleiades and a Minor Planet 6«TCAA Saturnalia Party December 7th 6«Basic Small Scope Lunar Imaging 11«December 2018: Morning Planet Dance 16«Minutes of the November 27th Board Meeting 17«ISU Planetarium Renovations Noted 18«ISU Planetarium Holiday Offering 18«Call for Nominations 18«Dave Osenga’s Father Passes Away 18«Education/Public Outreach for November 2018 19«Public Viewing Schedule for 2019 19«TCAA Calendar of Events for 2018-2019 20«HowTimeFlies 20«Renewing Your TCAA Membership EDITOR’S CHOICE: IMAGE OF THE MONTH – FULL MOON 21«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of November 30, 2018 This month’s Editor’s Choice is a picture of the Thanksgiving full moon by Tim Stone. 3RD MAG COMET 46P/WIRTANEN ON ITS WAY http://bit.ly/2BHqLTW The TCAA is an affiliate of the Astronomical League. For more information about the TCAA, be certain to visit the TCAA website. Visit Astroleague.org for additional information about the League and its membership benefits. Copyright © 2018 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 43, No. 12 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers December 2018 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER With the Holiday season in full swing, it’s is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin time for family and friends to enjoy each other City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational and reflect upon a successful year. To that organization of amateur astronomers end, Diann and I would like to invite the TCAA th interested in studying astronomy and to our home on December 7 at 6:30 PM for sharing their hobby with the public. our Astronomical Christmas Party. The location is 920 Summit St. in Bloomington. TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS Last year’s party was well received and so much fun. We hope you’ll come and have President, Director, & Property Manager Tim Stone 309-531-2401 some food and fellowship with us again this [email protected] year. We will provide desert and hot sandwiches. If you would bring a dish and soft TCAA President Tim Stone Vice President & Director/Membership Coord. drink to share, that would be great. We’re Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 [email protected] looking forward to hosting this party, and I’m looking forward to what 2019 has in store for our club. Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent Our Annual Meeting is coming soon! In fact, it’s just around the corner. We are Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 [email protected] making plans, we have a speaker lined up, and we have officer nominations. Nominations are still open, so if you’d like to participate in the club in that way, just Secretary & Director/Historian/Editor let one of the current officers know. Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 [email protected] Meanwhile, I hope you and yours have a warm and happy holiday! Director/Technology Coordinator Tim Stone, President Justin Meyer 630-649-0611 P.S. For those of you who are wondering, the 2019 Tim Stone Astrophotography [email protected] Calendar is almost ready to go on sale. I've created a new website where you can Astronomical League Correspondent order it, instead of having to find me to give me a check, or mail it to me, or Robert Finnigan 309-846-9533 whatever. Check it out at http://bit.ly/2Q6jRk6. [email protected] Webmaster Lee Green 309-454-7349 [email protected] Lighting Educ. & AL Observing Club Coordinator Lisa Wentzel unlisted number [email protected] Publicist Rick Lasher 309-825-2768 [email protected] The OBSERVER Carl J. Wenning, Editor in Chief Submission deadline two days before the end of each month. MEMBERSHIP DUES Individual Adult/Family $40 Full-time Student/Senior $25 (Senior status equals ages 60+) To join, send your name, contact info and dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL 61761-1471. Copyright © 2018 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 43, No. 12 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers December 2018 ALENDAR OF ELESTIAL VENTS ECEMBER EW ENEWING EMBERS C C E – D 2018 N & R M The following individuals have paid dues for new or MORNING PLANETS (12/15): Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter renewed memberships as of November 30, 2018. (Others EVENING PLANETS (12/15): Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune who paid after that date will appear in the January 2019 issue of The OBSERVER.) The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of important astronomical events for this month. All times are Central Daylight Time. Allan Griffith Day Time Event 03 12:42 Venus 3.6°S of Moon DUES BLUES 05 15:06 Mercury 1.9°S of Moon If you have received a “your dues are due” 07 01:20 NEW MOON statement along with the email that brought you this 08 23:30 Saturn 1.1°S of Moon: Occn. issue of The OBSERVER, please remit your dues to Mr. Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 10 11:57 Moon at Descending Node Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for 12 06:25 Moon at Apogee: 405177 km seniors (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 14 06 Geminid Meteor Shower 14 17:21 Mars 3.6°N of Moon SUBSCRIBING TO THE TCAA EMAIL LIST 15 05 Mercury at Greatest Elong: 21.3°W By subscribing to a group’s mailing list, you will 15 05:49 FIRST QUARTER MOON receive email messages from the group though you 21 01:31 Aldebaran 1.7°S of Moon won’t have access to the group’s web features (like 21 14 Mercury 0.8° of Jupiter photos, files, links, polls, calendar, etc.) unless members activate it later. The club has an open email listserv. It is 21 16:22 Winter Solstice known as the TCAA YahooGroups listserv. It will be used 22 02:05 Mercury 5.8°N of Antares to share announcements and reminders about 22 09:03 Jupiter 5.1°N of Antares astronomical and club events. To join this main listserv, 22 11:49 FULL MOON you must do the following: 22 15 Ursid Meteor Shower 1. To subscribe: Send a blank email to TCAA- 24 03:52 Moon at Perigee: 361060 km [email protected] Note: You’ll be sent a 24 05:54 Moon at Ascending Node confirmation email from the group. Reply to the 24 22:52 Beehive 0.6°N of Moon confirmation email to activate your subscription. 2. To post a message: [email protected] 26 10:06 Regulus 2.5°S of Moon 3. To unsubscribe: [email protected] 26 12 Venus at Perihelion 29 03:34 LAST QUARTER MOON http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2018cst.html EVENING SKY MAP Click on the icon found here to access a current evening sky map along with a more detailed celestial events calendar. Copyright © 2018 TCAA 3 All rights reserved. Vol. 43, No. 12 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers December 2018 THIS MONTH’S PHASES OF THE MOON New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Last Quarter Friday, December 7 Saturday, December 15 Saturday, December 22 Saturday, December 29 All moon phase dates are Central Daylight Time. Additional moon phases for the 2018 calendar year (Central Time) can be found by clicking here. Images provided by J. K. Howell of the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society & used with permission. THIS MONTH’S SOLAR PHENOMENA In the table below, you will find times of sunrise and sunset along with rising and setting azimuths, length of day including difference from previous day, start and end times of astronomical twilight, and the time of solar noon along with the elevation of the midday sun. These data come from https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/bloomington 2018 Sunrise/Sunset Day Length Astronomical Twilight Solar Noon Dec Sunrise Sunset Length Difference Start End Time 1 6:59 AM (118°) 4:29 PM (241°) 9:29:55 -1:17 5:22 AM 6:06 PM 11:45 PM (27.7°) 11 7:09 AM (120°) 4:29 PM (240°) 9:20:11 -0:42 5:31 AM 6:07 PM 11:49 PM (26.5°) 21 7:15 AM (121°) 4:32 PM (239°) 09:16:44 -0:02 5:37 AM 6:10 PM 11:54 PM (26.1°) ASTROBITS – NEWS FROM AROUND THE TCAA ó On November 5th, Carl Wenning submitted the TCAA’s 2019 Public Viewing Sessions brochure to Bloomington Offset Press, Inc. (BOPI) for inclusion in their Print4Good Campaign. Each year, BOPI prints 2,000 full-color brochures for local non-profit organizations. The TCAA has benefited from this program in 2016 and 2017, and likely will do so again in 2018. ó On November 13th Bob Finnigan wrote, “Well, the sky was good so Scott and Emily (Wade) came out and we went through the opening of MaxIm and getting a guide star, calibrating it, and tracking it. We went on to focus but had some trouble. I think that the 12” Meade is not retaining its focus.” Scott replied, “Even though we had problems with the focus, it was worthwhile to go through the troubleshooting.