Rainwater E-News 3/17/08
“Spring Backyard Astronomy” 7pm Friday evenings in March, 2008.
The next program will be Friday March 21 at 7pm.: Spring Constellations with David Teske.
This talk will feature stories of Leo, the Great Bear and Little Bear and other star patterns. A full Moon and Saturn will be in the sky to observe after the talk. Dave Teske is a teacher in Winston County and has many years of planetarium experience.
Plan to come and bring your friends. See below for the other programs in this series. Teachers please tell your students, and if anyone is planning to bring a group, please contact us or pre-register on our web site under “Backyard Astronomy”. The programs are free and open to the public but donations are welcome. Observing will follow, weather permitting. Registration and info at http://www.rainwaterobservatory.org/programs/backyard.html These events are underwritten by the Mississippi NASA Space Grant Consortium. Rainwater Observatory is located 1 mile east of the Natchez Trace at French Camp.
COMING PROGRAMS (Contact us to arrange a program at Rainwater or in your community.)
March 17: 8:00pm 50 middle schoolers from Tupelo, help appreciated
March 20: 10:30am Montpelier Kindergarten
March 20: 11:30am Kosciusko 3rd grade
March 21: Constellations of the March Sky, David Teske
The winter constellations, Orion and his hunting dogs are still in the western sky and the spring galaxy filled groups like Leo and Ursa Major are high overhead. Learn to find them and about their lore.
March 28: Saturn: The Lord of the Rings, Gary Lazich
The solar system’s seventh planet has revealed new aspects to the Cassini spacecraft that has been orbiting it for the past four years. Observe the rings as they become almost edge on to our view
Mid-South Star Gaze will be April 2-5, 2008. The registration form is up on the web site. Details and speakers will be added. http://www.rainwaterobservatory.org/stargaze/regform.html We have 92 pre-registered so far from 14 states.
Astronomy for Teachers: June 8-13 at Rainwater. 3 semester hours credit. www.outreach.olemiss.edu/teachers 662-915-7621 for info
NEWS FROM THE HILL
The grass is turning green on the hill! By the time you read this the Sangre telescope will be in a truck headed from California to French Camp. March 24 is set for lifting the scope into the dome and beginning the set up. Some folks are arriving for the Star Gaze as early as March 29. There is a lot of prep work to do for the Mid-South so if you are free and like to clean-up/fix-up, please contact me. The mirrors are in for the 20 inch and 32 inch scopes, but they need some tweaking and collimation to be ready for the star gaze.
Before and during the Mid-South we plan to get visiting staff of the Las Cumbres observatory together with potential area partners to begin organizing a consortium of telescope users and area support entities. If you are interested in being part of such a coalition or being involved as a member of the advisory committee, let us know.
The Johannes Kepler summer course scheduled for mid-June has had to be cancelled, but we hope to work with the Kepler foundation in the future.
ASTRO NEWS: If you have info or links you’d like to share, let us know.
Sirius, the brightest star in the sky has quite a history. Learn about it at http://www.space.com/spacewatch/080314-ns-dog-star.html We have a really interesting book in the library, just about Sirius. You might like to check it out. It is “Sirius: Brightest Diamond in the Sky” by Jay Holberg. Another article about Sirius and how to find it as at http://www.universetoday.com:80/2008/03/10/binocular-astronomy-get-sirius/
Ever wonder about the new ”dwarf” planets”. Get the take on these objects from Mike Brown, the most prolific discoverer of them at http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/dwarfplanets/ There is even more info at a good Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet
A new study says that meteorites may have delivered lots of pre-biotic organic chemicals to the early Earth. http://www.universetoday.com:80/2008/03/13/meteorites-can-be-rich-with-the-ingredients-of-life/ Another story of a star with possible organic material around it is at http://www.universetoday.com:80/2008/03/13/could-aa-tauri-hold-the-biochemical-key-to-extra-terrestrial-life/
More discoveries of disks around other stars hint at how our solar system formed. http://www.universetoday.com:80/2008/03/13/a-disk-of-sand-found-orbiting-a-young-binary-system/
A puzzling storm has been spotted by the European Venus Express mission http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6733 and a new mosaic of images from Mercury has been posted. http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6719
We keep getting a new biggest telescope every few years. Here is the newest giant scope. http://www.universetoday.com:80/2008/03/10/the-worlds-most-powerful-telescope-sees-first-light/
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