February 2013

February 4, 2013

Bartlesville Public Library Meeting Room

6:45 p.m. Setup and Discussion

7:00 p.m. Club Business

7:15 p.m. Current Astronomy News

Object of the Month

7:00 p.m.

The Night Sky Network

by Steve Plank

We will go over the many benefits of belonging to The Night Sky Network, including keeping the club records and helping with public outreach programs, which includes kits used at public and school events.

Reminder: Member renewal dues are still due for about 25% of our members. Members no longer interested in belonging to BAS please let the treasurer know at miltvend@sbcglobal.net. Check your email in-box and spam box, you may have a dues request with amount due. Thank you for your attention.

John Land Astronomy Club of Tulsa astroclubbiz@windstream.net

In the Dec 2012 Sky & Tel they are advertising a Great Courses offer on Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1884

Twelve 30 min lectures for $40 plus shipping until Jan 4^th

Description says: Because of the highly visual nature of the subject matter, this course is available exclusively on DVD. It features more than 450 visual elements, including breathtaking images from the Hubble Space Telescope, detailed animations and graphics, and historical stock footage.

While searching The Great Courses website I also found a set of 96 lectures on sale for $ 230

Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1810

Are you a science hobbyist?

We need your help with a new National Science Foundation sponsored research study that will investigate the characteristics and educational experiences of people who are active in science hobbies. More and more people are engaging in science hobbies; schools and science centers would like to know more about the characteristics of science hobbyists and how these organizations might better support hobbyists’ networking and education.

What will happen if you take part in the study?

The information gained from this research can help science educators and researchers understand how to better teach science in schools and museums, and how to design better community-based science programs. Participation in this study is voluntary. Information you provide will be anonymous. If you complete the survey, you may elect to enter a drawing for a $100 Target gift card.

Click on this link when you are ready to complete the survey:

http://ncsu.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_7OOsR9G0Pkp5I2N

We have been contacted by Mrs. Judy Moreland to participate in the upcoming Symphony Under the Stars program. This will be held out at Prairie Song the evening of May 16, 2013. This is a Thursday and Mrs. Moreland told me they are limiting tickets to 100 people and she wants our club to have members out there with telescopes so that we can show and explain the night sky. I checked that date with Stellarium and the night sky will be dark enough by 9 PM to see several prominent objects: Jupiter will be low in the west, setting about 10 PM. The Moon will be easily seen, about 5-6 days from new Moon. Saturn will be easily visible in the constellation, Virgo, in the southeast. The Big Dipper will be high in the sky and other prominent constellations will be visible, including Hercules rising in the northeast with M13.

She mentioned a program they had years ago while Ken Willcox was still with the club, and how he had a large tarp he spread out on the ground with people laying head to head so they could look up easily. She mentioned she worked in a planetarium and how she used a laser pointer to locate objects. When I told her we had members with pointers that could do that out in the open she seemed excited. In order to get set to print up the program notices she needs to know how many of our members would be participating and she needs that information in the next few days. As an inducement, you will get a free meal and an ensemble orchestra program. She would like our members to sit amongst the guests so they could visit with us during the meal. Please let me know if you would be interested as soon as possible. Thanks for your attention.

Daryl Doughty

Moose Jaw Observatory

The great tradition of dark sky observing continues with the 35th Annual TEXAS STAR PARTY, May 5-12, 2013!

Staying on the Ranch in housing, RV, or camping? Staying off-site in other accommodations? Everyone needs to enter the TSP drawing, held in late January. You should submit a Registration/Reservation Request Form to ENTER THE TSP DRAWING before January 15, 2013. This will provide you the highest possible chance of being selected as one of the 500 people who will be able to attend TSP this year.

Follow this link to get started!

http://texasstarparty.org/get-started/

SIGN UP NOW!

You can find out the status of your TSP Registration at any time by visiting http://texasstarparty.org/account/

We have some really neat new stuff for TSP 2013... including

- The 1st annual Texas Imaging Symposium,

- Scope Check Using Resolution Target (SCURT),

- Map my Scope feature

Find out about these and other news at:

http://texasstarparty.org/news/

Questions? Visit our web site for the latest and complete details!

http://www.texasstarparty.org/ or email TSPRooms@TexasStarParty.org

We look forward to seeing you next May!

Sincerely, the volunteers for Texas Star Party

Current News from Sky and Telescope

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news

February 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BZ3cwoGbcyE

Water Once Flowed Beneath Martian Surface — January 31, 2013

Fossilized wrinkles in impact craters suggest once again that water might once have flowed on Mars — this time, beneath the surface.

Dead Stars Might Make Good Exoplanet Targets — January 28, 2013

White dwarfs can have stable habitable zones for a few billion years, and planets with Earth-like atmospheres might be much easier to detect around these stellar remnants than normal, hydrogen-fusing stars.

Astronomers Zoom in on Solar Hairs — January 23, 2013

New observations with a rocket-launched imager reveal individual strands of plasma wound around each other in the Sun’s corona. These strands could be tied to the mysteriously high temperature of this region.

Asteroid Mining Gets Competitive — January 23, 2013

Deep Space Industries, Inc, announced plans to send a fleet of asteroid-prospecting to target asteroids in 2015 — and that’s just the first step in their ambitious proposal.

Mapping the Milky Way — January 18, 2013

New observations of spaghetti-thin clouds, faraway star-forming regions and mysterious magnetic fields are revealing the hard-to-see structure of the galaxy we call home.

The Saga of an Astronomer's Hat — January 18, 2013

When a rampaging bushfire tore through Australia's Warrumbungle National Park, home to Siding Spring Observatory, it spared all of the telescopes but destroyed the homes of several staffers — the author's among them.

NGC 6872: Largest Spiral Galaxy Known — January 12, 2013

Our Milky Way ranks near the top in the pecking order of spiral galaxies, but it's no match for an enormous "island universe" in the constellation Pavo that is more than 500,000 light-years across.

Mapping Alien Atmospheres in 3D — January 12, 2013

A new technique charts the stormy weather of a brown dwarf 35 light-years away, allowing astronomers to probe deep into the atmosphere as well as across the cloud tops.

Skyweek from Sky and Telescope Magazine also presents a variety of astronomical events for the naked eye as well as telescope viewing.http://www.skyandtelescope.com/videos/skyweek

• • January 27 - Full Moon. The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This phase occurs at 04:38 UTC.

  • February 10 - New Moon. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth. This phase occurs at 07:20 UTC.

  • February 25 - Full Moon. The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This phase occurs at 20:26 UTC.

  • March 11 - New Moon. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth. This phase occurs at 19:51 UTC.

(Source: http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2013.html)

2013 BAS Programs

Next Meeting

March 4, Monday. Bartlesville Public Library Meeting Room (tentative)

Newsletter Contributions Needed

Our club newsletter is reaching more people each month, and member contributions in the form of short articles, interesting news items, alerts of upcoming astronomical events or activities, descriptions of personal observations or useful equipment, and observing tips, are encouraged. Recurring columns or multipart articles are also welcome. Please submit your contributions to Mike Woods or to bvilleastro@gmail.com .

Bartlesville Astronomical Society - Membership

B.A.S. is an organization of people interested in Astronomy and related fields of science.

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