the vol. 46 no. 01 Skyscraper January 2019 AMATEUR ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF RHODE ISLAND 47 PEEPTOAD ROAD NORTH SCITUATE, RHODE ISLAND 02857 WWW.THESKYSCRAPERS.ORG In This Issue: Friday, January 4, 7:00pm 2 President’s Message at North Scituate Community House 3 Quandrantids Meteor Stepping Through the Cosmos by Diana Hannikainen Shower and a Total Lunar One of the most striking concepts people learn at some point or another Eclipse for January is that the light from various objects we see in the night sky has taken years, 3 & Other Astronomical or thousands of years, or millions of years to reach us here on Earth. It's Events of Interest always an interesting exercise to compare the physical distance of a source with the temporal gulf that spans in historical terms. Diana Hannikainen, 4 Messier's Comets observing editor from Sky & Telescope magazine, would like to take you on a journey backward in time by visiting binocular or small scope targets 5 NASA Night Sky Notes: along the way. At each stop, we shall identify the easiest way to locate these January’s Evening Eclipse and Morning Conjunctions targets, and also explore the interesting physics of the different classes of object. 6 NGC 1514: Planetary Diana Hannikainen graduated from the University of Edinburgh in Scot- Nebula in Taurus land with a BSc in Physics and Astronomy, and then decided to she needed to explore my Finnish roots ... she therefore attended the University of Hel- 7 The Sun, Moon & sinki where she obtained an MSc and then a PhD in high-energy astrophys- Planets in January ics (the latter in conjunction with the University of Sydney in Australia). Diana's research focused on modeling the accretion-ejection connection in X-ray binaries, and so she spent most of her time observing these objects in the X-rays and radio. She has always been keen on science writing and all that it entailed, and she couldn't believe her good fortune when just a little more than a year ago Sky & Telescope hired her. It's been sheer joy recon- necting with the night sky from a visual perspective. Phases of the Moon New Moon Seagrave Memorial January 6 01:28 Observatory First Quarter Moon January 14 06:46 Open Nights Full Wolf Moon (eclipse) January 21 05:16 Saturdays st 7:00 pm weather & conditions permitting Last Quarter Moon January 27 21:10 President’s Message by Steve Hubbard Finally! We’ve reached the end of 2018, it will only be visible from land in a narrow let’s all hope that 2019 brings some welcome the year we forgot what the night sky looked area of Chile and Argentina, but now that changes and lets us get back to doing what like and can move on with hopeful anticipa- you know, you’ve got some time to make we all enjoy, viewing the night sky and see- tion to a better 2019. your plans. ing what the universe has to offer. Happy Just to start things off, we will be treated Finally, there is another astronomical New Year to you all and thank you for being to a very favorable total eclipse of the Moon highlight to look forward to this year. On a part of The Skyscrapers. on the night of Sunday, January 20 going Monday, November 11 there is a rare Tran- into the early morning hours of the 21st. sit of the planet Mercury across the face of Conditions are most favorable for north and the Sun. The last time there was one that we south America this time with the Moon well could see was also on a Monday, May 9 2016. positioned for us. The total phase will start at The next opportunity for us won’t be until a relatively early 11:41pm and go for an hour November of 2032 so this is also a must see. or so. If you miss this one, you won’t get an- Let’s hope that the skies cooperate for us! other chance until May 26 of 2021, so let’s We’ve got some great meetings planned keep our fingers crossed for clear weather! tor the coming year and some great events Later on in the year, there will be a total to go along with that. With 2018 being one eclipse of the Sun on July 2. Unfortunately of the cloudiest, rainiest years in memory, Skyscrapers Food Basket Shop AmazonSmile Skyscrapers has now started a food Skyscrapers Library Borrowing Procedure donation program! Just simply bring a The catalog of available items to borrow is available at and Support caned good or two each time you visit http://www.theskyscrapers.org/library-procedures, as well as in the meeting hall in the meeting hall or observatory; place proximity to the bookcases. Skyscrapers, Inc. it in the Food Donation box in the hall and they will be donated to our local To borrow an item a member can: 1) review the list online before coming to a meeting food bank on a monthly basis. 2) review a hard copy of the list on a meeting night. Once a member chooses an item they can ask Dave Huestis or Weston Ambrose to retrieve it from the bookcase. The member will then sign the item out. This check out procedure will occur only between 7:00pm and 7:30pm on monthly meeting nights held at Seagrave. Borrowed items should be returned at the next meeting unless other arrangements are made. https://smile.amazon.com/ch/05-0382371 The Skyscraper is published President Outreach Committee monthly by Skyscrapers, Inc. Steve Hubbard [email protected] Linda Bergemann [email protected] Meetings are held monthly, Francine Jackson [email protected] usually on the first or second 1st Vice President Friday or Saturday of the month. Jim Hendrickson [email protected] Observatory Committee Chairperson Seagrave Memorial Observatory Jeff Padell [email protected] is open every Saturday night, 2nd Vice President weather permitting. Terry Turner [email protected] New Member Steward Tracy Prell [email protected] Directions Secretary Directions to Seagrave Memorial Observatory are Kathy Siok [email protected] Librarian located on the back page of this newsletter. Dave Huestis [email protected] Treasurer Submissions Submissions to The Skyscraper are always welcome. Matt Ouellette [email protected] Assistant Librarian Please submit items for the newsletter no later than Weston Ambrose January 15 to Jim Hendrickson, 1 Sunflower Circle, Members at Large North Providence, RI 02911 or e-mail to jim@ Bob Janus [email protected] Historian distantgalaxy.com. Tracy Prell [email protected] Dave Huestis [email protected] E-mail subscriptions Trustees Editor To receive The Skyscraper by e-mail, send e-mail Jeff Padell [email protected] Jim Hendrickson [email protected] with your name and address to jim@distantgalaxy. com. Note that you will no longer receive the news- Tom Thibault [email protected] letter by postal mail. Jim Crawford [email protected] 2 The Skyscraper January 2019 Quandrantids Meteor Shower and a Total Lunar Eclipse for January by Dave Huestis Happy New Year everyone. I can’t be- portion of it. So location, location, location, I still recommend that you get comfort- lieve another year has come and gone. is the key to observing the higher rates. If able in a lounge chair to conduct your ob- While 2018 is a blur in this stargazers’ mind, time permits don’t give up unless you have serving session. Just be careful that you do I do unfortunately recall how weather con- to. I did so one year and missed a great out- not get frostbite. ditions thwarted many of our observing burst of shooting stars. As agent Maxwell The Quadrantid meteors blaze across sessions. After experiencing similar past Smart would say, “Missed it by that much.” the sky at 25.5 miles per second. The major- depressing astronomical years I have of- Furthermore, despite the potential for ity of them are blue in color. ten remarked that the new year couldn’t be lots of meteors, many casual stargazers The grand event for January occurs on any worse. Then Mother Nature proves me who live in colder regions do not place this the night of January 20-21 with a total lunar wrong. I am hoping 2019 begins a refresh- shower high on their observing list. The eclipse. If clear skies prevail we will have ing trend towards clear and transparent August Perseids are more popular. Howev- the opportunity to observe this eclipse in skies where the beauty of the Universe can er, I’d rather dress up for the cold than swat its entirety. Totality doesn’t begin until just be appreciated. mosquitoes! before midnight on Sunday night, so I ex- In this first column of the year I usually While these Quadrantids can appear pect there will be some bleary-eyed folks at preview the best upcoming astronomical anywhere in the sky, their radiant point work on Monday morning. highlights. However, because January offers (the area of sky from where the meteors ap- Please cut out the accompanying graph- two main events, I will focus on those and pear to originate) is not far from the end ic for the times of specific “phases” of this defer my Astronomical Highlights for 2019 star, Alkaid, of the Big Dipper’s handle. eclipse. You can easily reference this infor- until my February column. From midnight till dawn, this area of sky mation while you are outside enjoying the A great new year gift is the annual Qua- will rise higher and higher above the north- view.