Rainwater Observatory E-News 5/16/10
JUNE 11 PROGRAM FEATURES A PICNIC, SOLAR VIEWING, & TALK BY DAVE TESKE
Please note: our June program will be a bit different. We plan to have a picnic. Dues paying club members especially invited, but anyone is welcome. This will be a great time to meet other folks who are interested in astronomy and learn of the plans we have for the coming year.
We’ll have the grill going and start the picnic and solar viewing at 6:00 pm. To plan we ask that you RSVP with how many are coming to eat. If you would be able to bring food, please let us know what. (Hamburgers, hot dogs, condiments, potato salad, baked beans, French bread, desert, etc.
Around 7:00 pm David Teske will give a talk about the Sun and the features we can see through the telescopes.
As always, we will go to the telescopes after the talk to view Venus, Saturn, and other objects.
CHECK OUT GREAT ISS/SHUTTLE PASSES OVER THE CENTRAL US TONIGHT AND TUESDAY NIGHT
It will be -3 magnitude. Check http://www.heavens-above.com for where it will be seen from your site shortly after 8:00 pm CDT.
ASTRONOMY CAMP IN JUNE
A summer astronomy camp is scheduled for June 20-26 in conjunction with the Camp of the Rising Son. This week long event will be for 13-16 year olds. Registration information can be found at info@campoftherisingson.com cost is $484.00 for the week. If you’d like to help fund a camper let us know.
CALENDAR OF COMING EVENTS Contact us to schedule a program or field trip
May 17: at Grenada, 1st Methodist Men’s Supper
May 18: Carthage United Methodist Church group
May 21: at Millry Alabama Elementary School
May 24: trip to retrieve 10 foot dome for the solar observatory.
May 29: Pack 12 Cub Scouts form Clinton camping visit
May 31: CRS Summer Staff observing and orientation
June 1: at Artesia Library
June 4: Atlanta Boy Scouts cycler’s group.
ASTRONOMY EDUCATION CEU WORKSHOPS FOR THE COMING YEAR
We have been included in the Mississippi NASA Space Grant budget for the coming year and are planning on hosting two weekend teacher workshops at Rainwater and several “away” one day workshops at sites around the state. We are currently scheduling the away workshops which will be focused on hands-on astronomy activities for elementary and middle school science standards. The weekend workshops will be:
November 5-6, 2010, Using Constellations to Teach Astronomy, Dr. Chris Sirola of USM.
January 28-29, 2011, Implementing and Enhancing High School Astronomy Classes, Dr. Larry Krumenaker, founder of “To Teach the Stars”.
“ASTRONOMY FOR TEACHERS” SUMMER CLASS DEADLINE LOOMS
The “Astronomy for Teachers” class for 3 semester hour credit through Ole Miss is scheduled for June 13-18. This is an intensive week and you must be enrolled in the university to take the course for credit. Information at www.outreach.olemiss.edu/teachers If you have questions contact Jonnie Fitch at Ole Miss jwfitch@olemiss.edu 662-915-7158
SUPPORT THE RAA BY BECOMING A MEMBER OR WITH A DONATION
Just a reminder!! Rainwater Astronomical Association membership is $15. (Just $10.00 for the rest of the year.) This allows a discounted subscription to Sky & Telescope magazine if you wish. Send a separate check for $32.95 made out to Sky & Telescope if you want to have this. Be sure to take advantage of our facility. Let us know if we can be of service.
NEWS FROM THE HILL
Things are being extra busy at the end of the school year with multiple programs almost every day (or evening). We are definitely going to get the 10 foot fiberglass dome from Mark Lancaster in Alabama on Monday May 24. The plan is to remove the roll off roof from the 10 foot square building housing the 10 “ Cave and putting the dome there. We’ll install the new 90mm Coronado H-alpha scope in that facility on the Atlas mount. We are getting an adapter to attach the mount made. It’s worth an extra trip to Rainwater to view the Sun with this scope. Prominences and surface features are much better than anything we’ve ever had.
4-County Co-Op had a power outage in the middle of the night and messed with the Sangre scope’s computer again. We will be contacting them to see about getting some sort of surge protection for this as well as a UPS for the control box.
We received some special screws from Las Cumbres and the CCD camera is reattached onto the scope. A failed power supply for a USB extender has been replaced so everything should be in working order.
One of the items we have just received to use with the Astronomy for Teachers class and the Astronomy Camp is an Orion “StarShoot” Planetary Camera. It will be a good tool if you want to get images of the Moon, Sun, or bright planets. You just connect it to your laptop and download the images. It’s made to be simple. (Well, sort of.)
ASTRO NEWS: If you have info or links you’d like to share please email it to us.
Learn about neutron stars at the link below.
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/15/astronomy-without-a-telescope-making-sense-of-the-neutron-zoo/ The spectacular gravity of neutron stars offers great opportunities for thought experiments. For example, if you dropped an object from a height of 1 meter above a neutron star’s surface, it would hit the surface within a millionth of a second having been accelerated to over 7 million kilometers an hour.
Normal baryonic matter only makes up about 4% of the “stuff” of the universe, but much of that hasn’t been detected until now (possibly) http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/11/x-ray-observations-find-evidence-for-missing-matter-in-the-universe/
Deposits of volcanic ash seen on Mars http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/14/new-views-of-meridiani-planum-show-deposits-of-volcanic-ash/
Jupiter’s south equatorial belt has disappeared http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/13/jupiter-it-is-a-changing/
You can keep track of Iceland’s unpronounceable volcano at http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/13/volcano-cam-now-available/ or http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/12/latest-satellite-images-of-eyjafjallajokull-the-volcano-that-keeps-on-giving/
Cassini has snapped a neat image of the Herschel crater on Mimas. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100511.html
Finally, if you’re into astronomical history, try downloading these two episodes of AstroCast. These are in our library http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/12/podcasts-history-of-astronomy-parts-1-2/
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