November 2020 The Monthly Newsletter of the Bays Mountain Astronomy Club More on Edited by Adam Thanz this image. See FN1 Chapter 1 Cosmic Reflections William Troxel - BMAC Chair More on this image. See FN2 William Troxel More on Cosmic Reflections this image. See FN3 Greetings fellow BMACers! November is here already and of see being offered at the BMAC meetings? What subjects? A course it is only two months until Christmas. 2020 has been a series? Activities? Games? Please let me know. very different year for the club. We, as a club, have had to work November's meeting will be hosted by Shawn Beamish. Shawn with some very different ways of meeting and communicating has many times during show & tell shared his robots and a little with each other. I personally miss being able to see each of you bit of what they can do. November’s meeting will feature him and in person at Bays Mountain each month. I wish I could be his robots. Shawn will do a brief overview, including a little bit of reporting that we are able to start meeting again, however that is what area he enjoys and focuses on. After that he hopes he will not possible yet. We will be able to meet again at some point in be able to open a link to the robots so each of us will be able to the future. Until that time, this is the club's new normal. control them remotely. It will give us a chance to see what it First, let me thank Brandon for closing out the presentation could be like to control a robot on a distant planet like the series on Personal Observatories. I hope that all the speakers planetary scientists do. Hope you can sign on and be a part of helped you understand the process you need to go through to what I think will be a fun meeting. As part of the November get one of your own observatories started. Should you find Meeting, I will be having random questions running during the yourself needing additional information, I am sure any of the meeting. Our subjects will be Mars and Meteors so get out your speakers will be happy to answer your questions. All you have to astronomy books, connect with your favorite astronomy teachers do is reach out to them. and be ready to answer the questions. Once the questions close out, I will share the results with you. I will also put the full I have the programs set through December and I encourage you questions and responses in the December newsletter. to check out the web page for the speakers and dates of the online meetings. I want to start talking about going forward for a Before I close this month, I wanted to remind each of you to bit. I need your help. What type of programs would you like to keep working on the astronomy photos that you would want to Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter November 2020 3 share as part of the program in December 2020. I will give you more details next month. We have had some really nice evening skies so hopefully you have been able to get out and get some shots. In closing, I want to encourage you to continue to stay safe. No one knows what "Normal" will look like when the global pandemic is under control. I still remain 100% behind the idea that we, the members of Bays Mountain Astronomy Club, will get through this together. Our club will have to adjust to whatever normal is and we will. Until that day arrives when we can meet together, get out and enjoy the night sky and practice with your equipment. Until next time, this is your Chairman William Troxel wishing you… Clear Skies. 4 Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter November 2020 Chapter 2 BMAC Notes More on this image. See FN4 More on BMAC News this image. See FN3 Mars! This image is from BMACer Dan Mullen. He used a ZWO CMOS video camera along with some good amount of magnification and frame stacking processing. Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter November 2020 6 M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy The yellowish interior reveals older stars shifting to redder hues. The bluish outer rim is caused by newly forming hot stars. Dust lanes can be seen, especially against the central bulge. A warping of the spiral arm disk can bee seen. Image 2.14°x3.22° Image by Adam Thanz 7 Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter November 2020 Chapter 3 Celestial Happenings Jason Dorfman More on this image. See FN5 Jason Dorfman More on Celestial Happenings this image. See FN3 We should all feel a bit refreshed as November begins, having with Jupiter closing the gap between the two giant worlds. gained an hour of sleep the previous night. Daylight Saving Time Jupiter sets just after 10 p.m. and Saturn about 25 minutes later ends at 2 a.m. on the morning of the 1st, so be sure to set your at the start of November, so your best observations of these two clocks back an hour. The night hours continue to lengthen and gas giants with their many moons will occur just after sunset now arrive earlier with the Sun setting at 5:32 p.m. as November while they are at their highest elevations. As the month comes to begins. By month's end, the Sun will set almost 20 minutes a close, you'll find the pair above the SW horizon an hour after earlier. Sunrise comes at 6:54 a.m. on the 1st and will shift to sunset with Saturn sitting higher at 23° and Jupiter now just 2.3° 7:23 a.m. on the 30th. away to the west at 21°. This month, we’ll be able to observe all the planets in the Solar Jupiter begins the month at a still bright magnitude of -2.2 and System. As twilight is beginning to fade and the brighter stars are will dim by just 0.2 magnitudes by month's end. Optical just turning on, you should be able to make out Jupiter, Saturn instruments will reveal the banded disk spanning 37", which will and Mars spread across the southern sky from the southwest to decrease slightly to 34" during the month as we continue to pull the southeast. The planetary highlights will be our focus this away from Jupiter in our faster orbit. month. Saturn shines more dimly at magnitude +0.6. Though further Planets away, Saturn is still an impressive sight with the planet's disk An hour after sunset on the 1st of November, look southward spanning 16" and the ring plane extending to 38", rivaling that of and you'll find Saturn and Jupiter straddling an altitude of 30°. Jupiter. The north pole of Saturn is currently tilted towards us by The two are 5° apart with Jupiter to the west outshining Saturn 22°. This will decrease over the next few years as we head by almost two magnitudes. Both are found east of the Teapot in towards another ring plane crossing in 2025. Sagittarius and are moving slowly in a normal eastward direction Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter November 2020 9 Now, let's turn our gaze to the SE for the most distant planet in Mars is located just south of 4th-magnitude epsilon Pisces (ε the Solar System, Neptune. On the 1st, you can find this icy giant Psc). It will move from 3° to a little over 1° away from the star over in the northeast section of Aquarius, sitting about 38° above the the month as its motion changes direction. The disk of Mars will southeast horizon an hour and a half after sunset. It will reach its appear 20" in diameter and will decrease to 15" as we reach the highest elevation of 47° at 9 p.m. Neptune's slow retrograde 30th. With that in mind and even though we're now past motion will decrease over the month until it comes to a standstill opposition, you can still enjoy some impressive views of the Red on the 29th. As December begins, it will start to move in a Planet during the first half of November. The magnitude of Mars normally eastward direction. will lessen by a magnitude to -1.1 as we see the phase change from 98% to 92% over the month. At a dim magnitude of +7.9, you'll need a telescope and a star chart to locate Neptune. Start by centering 4th-magnitude Phi Now let’s take a look at another distant icy world, Uranus. This ice Aquarii (Φ Aqu) in your eyepiece and then shift eastward and a giant reached opposition on Halloween, and therefore is in a little north to find bluish Neptune less than a degree away. There prime observing position as November begins. Though a bit are two 6th-magnitude stars located about twice this distance brighter at magnitude +5.7 than more distant Neptune, Uranus further east that form a small triangle with Phi Aqu. Neptune is currently resides in a rather sparse region of sky in the located in the middle of this triangle and appears as a small, constellation of Aries, the ram. On the 1st, an hour and a half after bluish disk spanning just 2". sundown, Uranus sits just under 25° in altitude above the horizon due east and climbs to its highest elevation due south just after Up next on our planetary journey is last month's "star," the Red midnight.