THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 46, Number 2 February 2021 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1 Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month – M42 & Bernie 2 President’s Note 3 Calendar of Astronomical Events – February 2021 3 New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4 This Month’s Phases of the Moon 4 This Month’s Solar Phenomena 4 Minutes of the January 5 TCAA BoD Meeting 5 Agenda Set for February 6th TCAA Annual Meeting 6 AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 6 The Central Illinois Photometry Connection 6 Winter Mood 8 Wynken, Blynken and Nod – Eugene Field 9 A Homebuilt Solar Wind Magnetometer – Tim Stone 11 February 2021 with Jeffrey L. Hunt 17 Public Viewing Sessions for 2021 18 TCAA Monthly Club Meetings to Resume in March 19 Unwanted TCAA Assets – FINAL NOTICE! 20 Did You Know? 20 TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of January 28, 2021 The TCAA is an affiliate of the Astronomical League as well as its North Central Region. For more information about the TCAA, be certain to visit the TCAA website at http://www.tcaa.us/ Visit http://www.astroleague.org for additional information about the Astronomical League and its numerous membership benefits, including observing programs. EDITOR’S CHOICE: IMAGE OF THE MONTH – M42 & BERNIE Also, visit the NCRAL website at This month’s image includes the popular meme of “Find http://ncral.wordpress.com for in- Bernie.” Bernie Sanders has been seen everywhere since formation about our North Central Inauguration Day, and The OBSERVER is no exception. Can Region. Find out about the many you find Bernie elsewhere in this publication? Look carefully. benefits of your membership from If you find him elsewhere in this issue, give a shout out to the this site. editor and win a prize! Copyright © 2021 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 46, No. 2 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers February 2021 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER I dedicate this month's President's Note space is the monthly electronic newsletter of to Carl Wenning. He will soon be stepping down as Twin City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit editor of The OBSERVER after a term of seven years educational organiz-ation of amateur that predates my re-entry into TCAA and culminates astronomers interested in studying with the March 2021 issue. His success as editor of astronomy and sharing their hobby our newsletter is indisputable. In addition to with the public. elevating its format, overseeing its transition from a physical newsletter to an emailed PDF, and TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS contributing countless quality features and articles, President, Director, & Property Manager he received the Astronomical League 2017 Mable Tim Stone 309-531-2401 Sterns Newsletter Award. He would tirelessly gather [email protected] tidbits from around the club and assemble the “AstroBits” feature every month – a feature I have Vice President & Director/Membership TCAA President Tim Stone Coord. very much enjoyed. His articles on various aspects of Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 astronomical observation and theory were always informative. I sincerely hope that Carl, [email protected] like me, will continue to be a regular contributor to our newsletter. Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent We have all benefited greatly from the time and talent he generously gave to editing Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 our newsletter. He genuinely enjoys writing and derived a great deal of joy from its [email protected] production, even though, at times, it must have felt like a thankless job. I am personally Assistant Property Manager/ALCor grateful for his acceptance of articles I would submit, even if their quality was sometimes Scott Wade 309-310-2464 [email protected] a matter of question. As a professional writer, I'm sure he swallowed hard more than a few times as he read some of my rambling sentences and tense disagreements. I learned th 5 Director a lot from Carl simply by reading how he wrote, as much as by reading what he wrote. Sunil Chebolu 678-896-5967 [email protected] I’m happy to let you know that Sandullah Epsicokhan, a member, NASA Ambassador, and experienced newsletter editor, has agreed to take over responsibility for our Secretary/Historian/Editor Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 newsletter. I’m looking forward to sending my articles to him, and I thank him already for [email protected] his service. I’m sure there will be a process of Carl working with Sandullah to fully transition the responsibility. I look forward to seeing his newsletters receive the same national Technology Coordinator/Assistant Editor Sandullah Epsicokhan 309-828-0227 attention! [email protected] Let me end this note with a reminder that our Annual Banquet is upon us! Our Webmaster program will be on Zoom this year, starting at 6:00 PM on Saturday, February 6. You should Lee Green 309-454-7349 probably dial in a little early. If you do, we can chat for a while! The zoom link is [email protected] https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88682226910?pwd=ZXBFbHZnUzRUcE4vczF6V3k1YnRwZz09. AL Observing Club Coordinator I REALLY hope you’re planning to attend. The program is going to be very interesting. I Lisa Wentzel unlisted number hope to see you there! [email protected] Tim Stone The OBSERVER Carl J. Wenning, Editor TCAA President 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 © 2021 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 46, No. 2 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers February 2021 CALENDAR OF ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS – FEB 2021 NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS MORNING PLANETS (2/14): Venus (♀︎) The following individuals have paid dues for new or EVENING PLANETS (2/14): Mercury (☿), Mars (♂︎), Jupiter (♃), renewed memberships as of January 28, 2021. (Others Saturn (♄), Uranus (⛢), and Neptune (♆) who paid after that date will appear in the March 2021 issue of The OBSERVER.) The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! important astronomical events for this month. All events are given in Central Standard Time. New: Stephen & Jill Mayes Renewing: Dave Peters, Lee Green Day Time Event 03 13:33 Moon at Perigee: 370127 km Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! 04 11:37 LAST QUARTER MOON DUES BLUES 06 02:33 Antares 5.5°S of Moon 06 18:29 Moon at Descending Node If you have received a dues statement email along with this issue of The OBSERVER, please send your dues 08 08 Mercury at Inferior Conjunction to Mr. Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 11 13:06 NEW MOON Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for seniors (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 15 08 Mercury 3.8° of Jupiter 18 04:22 Moon at Apogee: 404467 km SUBSCRIBING TO THE TCAA EMAIL LISTSERV 18 16:47 Mars 3.7°N of Moon Welcome to the [email protected] group at Groups.io. 19 12:47 FIRST QUARTER MOON This is a free, easy-to-use group email service set up for 19 23 Venus at Aphelion the TCAA’s communication purposes. You can subscribe, visit your group, read and post messages here: 20 07:15 Aldebaran 5.0°S of Moon https://groups.io/g/tcaa 20 19:44 Moon at Ascending Node The email address for this group is [email protected]. 23 02 Mercury 4.0° of Saturn After you successfully subscribe, please add this email address to your safe sender list in your email client’s 23 19:10 Pollux 3.7°N of Moon contacts, so emails from this list are not classified as junk 24 18:16 Beehive 2.4°S of Moon mail. Once subscribed, you can set your subscription 26 08:04 Regulus 4.6°S of Moon settings here: https://groups.io/g/tcaa/editsub. You can 27 02:17 FULL MOON opt to receive all messages in individual emails, collections of messages in a digest, a daily summary, or only special This Calendar of Astronomical Events courtesy of Fred Espenak. notices. If you do not wish to belong to this group, you http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2021cst.html may unsubscribe by sending an email to tcaa+[email protected] If you have general questions about the group, email VENING KY AP E S M tcaa+[email protected]. For questions not answered there, Get the current evening sky contact the moderators of this group (Deva C., Tim S., and map along with a more Carl W.) by emailing tcaa+[email protected]. detailed celestial events calendar at the following URL: http://www.skymaps.com/ Copyright © 2021 TCAA 3 All rights reserved. Vol. 46, No. 2 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers February 2021 THIS MONTH’S PHASES OF THE MOON Last Quarter New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Thursday, February 4 Thursday, February 11 Friday, February 19 Saturday, February 27 All moon phase dates are Central Time. Moon phases for the 2021 calendar year can be found by clicking here: http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2021cst.html 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 (Az), length of the day including the change from the previous day, start and end times of astronomical twilight, the time of solar noon along with the elevation (El) of the midday sun, and solar distance.