December 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 everyone. Wow, what a year 2020 has been! December speaker for one of the meetings. It does not matter what stage or marks the last month of the calendar year 2020. It goes without level you are, we have all been at that level at some point. I hope saying this has been the strangest year I can ever remember in you will consider it in the upcoming year, 2021. my life. Yes, I did write “life.” I have been using my monthly letter to each of you to attempt to First, I want to thank Shawn for his willingness to share his keep you upbeat when the normal we all lived by is no longer interest in robots with us last month. It is a very interesting field there. No one knows what things will be in the future, nor do I. that I know will become more a part of not only our hobby of Each month, I write my belief that our club will come out of this astronomy, but all aspects of science as well. Shawn’s stronger as a club and as citizens of this planet. Those are not presentation shows that he is on the cutting edge of this very just words on a page, I believe them in my soul. The operations interesting technology. I think this is a good time to encourage of the club will change. How, I do not know yet. All I am sure of is any of you reading this article, should you have any interest in that They Will Change. getting started with this hobby, to directly contact Shawn. I am The point is, just because we will have to get used to a new sure he will be happy to share what he can, answer your normal does not mean that we have to "cut back" or “scale questions and direct you to resources to help you. Again, thank down” or “drop out” of what we enjoy. Use the time we have you Shawn for your willingness to be our speaker and share. during this very strange period to sharpen the skills of whatever I hope each of you have been able to see that even you can your interest is. When we come out of this pandemic, and yes we share your interest(s) with the club members. Each month, I will come out of this, each of us will be ready to move forward to know I am learning not only many very cool and interesting share our/your hobby/interest with others. things from each of you, I am also seeing how diverse our club members are. Please, I encourage you to contact me to be a Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter December 2020 3 December’s Zoom meeting is one I hope that you will look can add them to the monthly newsletter. I hope to see you on forward to as much as I. December is Member Astrophotography Zoom for the December Meeting. month. I hope you have been getting out and getting some shots Before I close this article, I want to remind you that if you have of the night (or day) sky to share with your fellow BMACers. I not paid your dues, please contact the Park and get them paid. I know we have had some really amazing nights. Now remember, do not want to see the member list without your name. Send this is not about having to have the best, perfectly cropped, color Adam an e-mail to let him know when you paid, it really helps him corrected, noise cancelling picture. It’s not about having taken the to keep the member list up to date. Last thing: if I can help you or shot with the most advanced equipment on the market. It's about you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look being proud that you got a picture of the full Moon after 100 tries, forward to seeing you on Zoom. Until next time…. Clear Skies. or the satellite that looked so close you could reach out and touch it. The key here is that you took it. It can be with you smart phone camera or the $10 point-and-shoot camera. No one will know it took two weeks to get the shot, unless you share that information. Other forms of capturing are also welcome, like sketches, paintings, poetry, etc. Let's share our artistic side! Now that I hope you know every one of you can share, I want to set a few guidelines so we can all be on the same page. To start, I will be limiting each member to five pictures/entries. Once everyone that wants to share has done so, I will then allow you to show more of your photos if there is time. You will need to know where the shot was taken and camera or equipment you used to capture the image. This is so other members who really like the photo can maybe use a similar lens to get a shot in the future. I would also remind you that you should have a digital version so you can share your screen so that it can go through Zoom. Last, I hope that you will be willing to send the photo file to Adam so he 4 Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter December 2020 Chapter 2 BMAC Notes More on this image. See FN4 More on BMAC News this image. See FN3 November 2020 Zoom Poll Questions 4. Perseids, a famous Meteor, peeks for us on Earth in ( Single 1. It is believed that channels proved in the terrain and rocks that Choice) could have formed only in the presence of water on Mars ( Single √ Answer 1: August every year (13) 100% Choice) Answer 2: Once every 100 years in August to November √ Answer 1: True (12) 92% (0) 0% Answer 2: False (1) 8% Answer 3: It dose not pass close to our solar system (0) 2. Who was the first person to view Mars? ( Single Choice) 0% Answer 1: Christian Huygens ( 1629 ) (0) 0% Answer 4: January every other year (0) 0% √ Answer 2: Galileo Galilei ( 1564 ) (5) 38% 5. Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest volcano known on a planet in our solar system. It is ----------- in height. (Single Answer 3: Nicolas Copernicus ( 1492 ) (1) 8% Choice) Answer 4: none of the above (7) 54% Answer 1: 72.4 Km ( 45miles ) (2) 15% 3. All Meteorites originate in the Asteroid Belt ( Single Choice) Answer 2: 90.1 Km ( 56 miles ) (1) 8% Answer 1: True (2) 15% √ Answer 3: 25 Km ( 16 miles ) (10) 77% √ Answer 2: False (11) 85% Answer 4: Trick Statement, it's not on Mars at all. (0) 0% Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter December 2020 6 6. Meteorites are worth as much as $1000 per gram. They are √ Answer 2: -81 Deg F (9) 69% rarer than ( Single Choice) Answer 3: 19.2 K (0) 0% Answer 1: Gold & emeralds (0) 0% Answer 4: 312.0 K (0) 0% Answer 2: Platinum & diamonds (0) 0% 10. The Chelyabinsk Meteor is estimated to be a mass of ( Single √ Answer 3: Both A & B (9) 69% Choice) Answer 4: None of the above (4) 31% Answer 1: 50 tons (3) 23% 7. Mars has Methane in its Atmosphere ( Single Choice) Answer 2: 15000 lbs (4) 31% Answer 1: True (6) 46% √ Answer 3: 10000 tonnes (6) 46% Answer 2: False (6) 46% Answer 4: 750 Hectors (0) 0% √ Answer 3: Unknown (1) 8% Person Seeking Assistance with Telescope We received an inquiry for help in collimating and cleaning a 10” 8. How many meteors hit the earth a day? ( Single Choice) Dob. If you are interested, click on the name below to send an e- Answer 1: 6100 (10) 77% mail. Answer 2: 30 (1) 8% Rob Schisla Answer 3: 25 (0) 0% √ Answer 4: 17 (2) 15% 9. The average temperature on Mars surface is ( Single Choice) Answer 1: 286.4 K (4) 31% 7 Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter December 2020 Chapter 3 Celestial Happenings Jason Dorfman More on this image. See FN5 Jason Dorfman More on Celestial Happenings this image. See FN3 December is here and with it we can finally say goodbye to what separated by a mere 2.1° near the eastern edge of Sagittarius has been quite a terrible year for many. Let’s hope that 2021 along its boundary with Capricornus. An hour after sunset, look brings an end to the virus and allows us to get together once to the southwest and you’ll easily spy magnitude -2.0 Jupiter again. But, before we move into the new year, December shining brightly about 22° above the horizon. Fainter Saturn at presents us with a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that magnitude +0.6 sits to the upper left of Jupiter. you won’t want to miss. And, oddly enough, it occurs on the day By the 16th, Jupiter will have closed the gap with Saturn to just of the Winter Solstice (the astrology believers are sure to bring half a degree, about the width of the Moon in the sky, which, out some wild predictions for this one, so keep your skeptical coincidently, lies just 5° from the giants on this night.