Wellington Astronomical Society May 2017 Volume 47 Issue 4 WWW.WAS.ORG.NZ, ISSN 01147706 - PRINT, ISSN 2230-5912 ONLINE The next WAS meeting will be held on Wednesday 3rd of May 2017 at 7:30 pm at Carter Observatory, Upland Rd, Kelburn, Wellington The analemma, dials, and digits: some unusual combinations, or Clocks of the Really Long Now Duncan Hall As part of his talk, Duncan will demonstrate: • The main aspects of the natural phenomena that power sundials • Various types of solar-powered timepieces, and • A digital clock with a display that uses shadows cast by a mini-gnomon Duncan Hall is a founding member of WAS. Having previously attended the Wellington RASNZ meetings, he signed up as a member of WAS when it was formed in 1974 (he thinks). At various times Duncan has been WAS President, Vice-President, Observatory Director, Council member, and ordinary mem- ber. He is currently a Trustee of the Gifford Observatory Trust. He was a co-Director of the Gifford Observatory in 1974 and 1975 while at Wellington College. Duncan’s had a long-term interest in solar-powered, low-powered, and no-powered timepieces. Inside this issue: Wellington Astronomical Society May 3 2017 Events WAS April Meeting Talks “Introducing the WAS Research Group” by Roland 4 Idaczyk and “Variable Stars” by Aline Homes WAS Observatory Re-establishment at 5 Tawa College NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) to monitor Earth as never be- 6 fore Occultations for May 2017 7 May Night Sky Chart 15 The Night Sky in May 16 Page 2 VOLUME 47 ISSUE 4 2016 — 2017 SUBSCRIPTIONS DUE The new subscription year began in Adult/Waged: $ 50.00 Box 3181, Wellington 6140 September, so WAS looks forward to Student/Unwaged: $ 30.00 Direct Deposit or Internet Banking - receiving your subscription renewal. use Acc No: 03-0502-0508656-00, Family: $ 70.00 Renewal forms can be found on the please include reference so WAS knows website, but a summary follows: Payment methods: who is making the payment Subscription for Newsletter by Cheque - make out to Wellington As- Cash - please bring exact amount to Email 2016-2017 tronomical Society Inc, and mail to PO meeting It appears that quite a few members from last year have not yet renewed their subscriptions. If this is an oversight, can you please remedy it as soon as possible. WAS COUNCIL MEMBERS AND CONTACTS Council Members The following members were elected to Council at the Nov 2016 Website : Peter Woods AGM [email protected] President: Antony Gomez Council [email protected] / 021_253_4979 Andrew Fuller Vice President: Duncan Hall Edward Wilcock [email protected] Frank Andrews Secretary/Telescope custodian: Chris Monigatti Janine Bidmead [email protected] / 021_890_222 Murray Forbes Treasurer: John Homes Peter Woods Sarah Taylor Newsletter Editor: Gerard Coyle [email protected] Postal Address: Wellington Astronom- Membership Secretary: Janine Bidmead ical Society, PO Box 3181, Wellington [email protected] 6140, New Zealand WAS ON FACEBOOK Our Facebook page “Wellington Astro- Remember you will need to interact anyone to join by request. The public nomical Society” is now operational. occasionally with the page by liking or group is open for discussion or postings You can search for it on Facebook or commenting on postings, or indicating on astronomical news. The WAS Astro- click on this link https:// whether you are coming to an event. photography Group https:// www.facebook.com/ Otherwise Facebook will, after a time, www.facebook.com/ WellingtonAstronomicalSociety/. stop sending you new postings. So keep groups/1684738758511214/ is for those visiting the page as there are a number interested in astrophotography. It If you are a Facebook user, please use of Society events coming up in the next serves as a place to notify others of the page to receive up-to-date notifica- few months. astrophotography gatherings at short tions of our Society’s events and news. notice and to display images captured This is the easiest way to keep informed We also have Facebook group “WAS – by members. as to what is going on in the Society, as Wellington Astronomical Society” well as keeping up with astronomical https://www.facebook.com/ news. groups/96304353012/ which is open for Page 3 VOLUME 47 ISSUE 4 Wellington Astronomical Society May 2017 Events WAS May Meeting Our talk this month will; be given byu As part of his talk, Duncan will mini-gnomon Duncan Hall, and is titled “The ana- demonstrate: Date: Wednesday 3rd May lemma, dials, and digits: some unusual • The main aspects of the natural combinations, or Clocks of the Really Time: 7:30pm, phenomena that power sundials Long Now.” The analemma is the plot Venue: Space Place at Carter Obser- • Various types of solar-powered of how the sun’s position in the sky vatory changes throughout the year when timepieces, and viewed from the same point on the • A digital clock with a display earth’s surface. that uses shadows cast by a Space & Science Festival @Night Evening event focused on Astronomy A full programme is available at Time: 6:00 to 10:00pm, with the Wellington Astronomical S & S Festival Evening programme Venue: Onslow College, Burma Society, Bioluminescent Bug Art with Tickets are required for this event Road, Johnsonville Dr Siouxsie Wiles, Science Talks and S & S Festival Shop fun with Physics. Plus a chance to Date: Saturday 6th May (backup Sat- meet special guests from NASA! urday evening 13th May ) STEMM Discovery Day This annual event, which runs from Programmable robots called BeeBots, Date: Sunday 7th May 6th – 21st May, celebrates Science, build your own model Earth, and ex- Time: 11:00am to 3:00pm, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics perience a chemical reaction in your and Manufacturing. On the Discovery mouth. WAS will be participating with Venue: Pelorus Trust Sports House, Day, get hands-on with fun activities solar scopes to observe the Sun. See 93 Hutt Park Rd, Lower Hutt and fascinating science experiments. here for more details. Space & Science Festival @Day Daytime event focused on Flying Ma- observing the Sun with solar scopes. Time: 12:00 to 4:00pm, chines, Maths Craft, Engineering with A full programme is available at Venue: Onslow College, Burma Robots & Electronics, Coding, Science S & S Festival Day programme Road, Johnsonville Talks and fun with Physics, Chemistry Tickets are required for this event & Biological sciences. Plus chance to S & S Festival Shop meet special guests from NASA! WAS Date: Saturday 13th May is a part of this event and we will be Space & Science Festival - The Art of Night with Mark Gee Late night event focused on Astropho- Date: Saturday 20th May ton (weather dependent). tography with award winning local Time: 7:00pm, till late Astrophotographer Mark Gee. Regis- ter for event on Facebook here . Venue: Red Rocks Reserve, Welling- Page 4 VOLUME 47 ISSUE 4 WAS Astrophotography Group Location and updates will be posted on skies are cloudy we will meet indoors Date: Saturday 27th May the WAS Astrophotography Group and learn more about processing image Time: 7:00pm Facebook page closer to the time. data. For further details or cancella- tions contact Edward 021_08304802 Venue: See WAS Astrophotography We will aim for a darker location this or Chris 021_ 890222. Group Facebook page. time to try out our new skills. If the WAS Observing Evenings No official Society Observing Evening and near the Southern Cross, the night sky. this month due to our participation in spectacular globular cluster 47 Tu- Date: Every Friday in May (weather the Space & Science Festival., but do canae and the Tarantula Nebula in the permitting) come along on Fridays to the WAS Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Jupiter Tawa Observatory and see the many is visible while Saturn rises around Time: 7:00pm, wonderful objects, star clusters, galax- 8pm. Learn how to use the telescope Venue: Tawa College ies, dying stars and nebulae around and how to find these objects in the WAS April Meeting Talks“ Introducing the WAS Research Group” by Roland Idaczyk and “Variable Stars” by Aline Homes In a change to our usual format, we are support, mentoring from more star. As the size increases, the star had not one but two speakers at out experienced members and advice on grows brighter, as it decreases, the April meeting. suitable subjects to pursue. He also star grows dimmer. There are a wide drew attention to the fact that the variety of types, most well-known of First was Roland Idaczyk, who gave a group works with professional astro- such is the Cepheid Variables, whose brief overview of the WAS Research nomical organisations, and that mem- period of variability is directly linked to Group. bers past contributions to research the range in brightness variation. The main purpose of the WAS Re- have been noted in their inclusion as In binary systems, the variation in search Group iis to provide a forum authors for peer-reviewed literature. brightness is not related specifically to for WAS members to share their en- Aline Homes then spoke about varia- the star itself, but to the way it inter- thusiasms for research. At the mo- ble stars, one of the WAS Research acts with any companions. Most stars ment, its main three areas of interest Group main interests. are actually part of a binary system, are occultations, variable stars and and it in some cases, the stars that exoplanets, but it is looking to expand Aline began by explaining variability in a make up the system interact with one into such areas as CCD spectrometry star is defined as significant and meas- another to affect the brightness.