Rainwater Observatory E-News 5/28/10
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. 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 start the picnic and solar viewing around 6:00 pm. If you can’t get there by 6:00, come on when you can. Please let us know how many are coming to eat. If you would be able to bring food, please let us know what. (Condiments, potato salad, baked beans, French bread, desert, etc. We’ve been given funds by a member that can’t come to provide hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone!
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.
LAST CALL FOR 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 29: Pack 12 Cub Scouts form Clinton camping visit
May 31: CRS Summer Staff observing and orientation
June 1: at Artesia Library
June 1: XYZ Group from 1st Baptist, Oxford
June 4: Atlanta Boy Scouts cycler’s group.
June 10: Moore Memorial Methodist Church, Winona
June 11: Lena Baptist Church
June 11: Rainwater Picnic
June 12: MS Tourism meeting
June 19: Royal Rangers, Columbus
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”.
FALL “BACKYARD ASTRONOMY”
Plan ahead for the fall “Backyard Astronomy “series. We’re having the programs on Saturdays in October to avoid conflict with football. Talks will be on fall constellations, Jupiter, “Death from the Skies”, and the life and death of stars. If you have other suggestions, like black holes or cosmology, we’d like to try to schedule them for the spring 2011 series
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
We are now posting images of the Rainwater facility and Rainwater happenings on PhotoBucket. Here are the first images. One is a pan of the hill looking east and the other is of the Sangre RC scope. Also posted are images of the Sangre facility with rainbows as well as an image showing some of the buildings. http://s986.photobucket.com/albums/ae347/rainwaterobservatory_photo/ We’ll add more later so keep checking our album.
On May 24 we traveled to Alabama where we dismantled a 10 foot fiberglass dome that was donated to the observatory by Mark Lancaster. Our trailer had no lights so we just made it back before dark. We’ve begun reconstructing the dome and the plan is to use the dome for the 90mm Coronado H-alpha scope. We’ve also had an adapter machined so we can attach the scope to the pier in the current building. We’ll keep using the roll-off roof until the dome base is reconstructed. The dome has been modified, so it may take a while to get it all fixed.
Finally, we have reworked our 50 foot galaxy model to conform to the new map. New display labels and signage have been produced.
ASTRO NEWS: If you have info or links you’d like to share please email it to us.
Here is a great source for short space news tidbits from JPL. If you’re into sky lore, check out the YouTube for May by Jane Houston Jones. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u
A time lapse video of the oil slick in the gulf is posted on YouTube here http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/27/time-lapse-satellite-view-of-growing-oil-spill/
Asimov wrote an SF novel titled “The Stars Like Dust”. Here is an image by the ESA Herschel Infra Red space telescopes that shows galaxies like dust. http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/26/galaxies-like-grains-of-sand-in-new-herschel-image/
There’s lots of new information about galactic black holes. Try these links. http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/26/galaxy-mergers-make-black-holes-light-up/ or http://www.nasa.gov/swift
The Andromeda galaxy has a variable black hole http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/27/andromedas-unstable-black-hole/ M-87 has a double black hole. http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/27/black-hole-in-m87-wanders-using-jetpack/
Attempts to contact the Phoenix Mars polar mission have given up. Images from orbit show its solar panels broken. http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/24/new-image-shows-phoenix-landers-solar-panel-is-missing/ Mars’ polar caps reveal a mystery solved. http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/26/mars-polar-cap-mystery-solved/ A neat tribute video to Phoenix can be found here http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/25/phoenix-mission-tribute-video/
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