July 2016

21 people attended, 2 visitors

Treasurer's Report:

Opening balance June 1 $2589.34.

Received donation for projector $50.00

Paid Astronomical League dues $200.00 (based on 38 memberships covering 46 members—some are family memberships)

Ending balance June 30 $2439.34

This balance marks the end of the 2016 fiscal year.

The club’s fiscal report is in our Google documents but here is a summary:

Beginning balance July 1, 2015 $1689.67

Income:

Membership dues—38 memberships with 46 members $751.67

1 member subscription for Sky and Telescope $32.95

One year old check #1037 to Astro Tech Today not submitted for payment $14.00

BAS projector donations $575.00

Total income $1373.62.

Expenses:

Mercer Consumer for New Hampshire Insurance, liability 8/18/15 $320.00

Sky Publishing for Sky and Telescope 1 member subscription 11/3/15 $32.95

Printing and postage for newsletters to James Vogh 1/4/16 $12.00

OK SOS Charitable Organization Registration 3/1/16 $15.00

SunFest Booth Registration 4/4/16 $30.00

Don Fudge 1 Astro Tech Today refund subscription not charged 4/4/16 $14.00

Astronomical League dues based on 38 memberships 6/23/16 $200.00

Total expenses $623.95

Ending balance June 30, 2016 $2439.34

President's Report:

New projector order: Will order in a week or so—cost now $489.00

The Club has had several outings recently with great videos and pictures taken:

ISS moon crossing twice (youth group)

Mercury transiting the Sun

Will try to have a star party this month (open to public) when the weather is good. If you would like to do a presentation before a star party, let Steve know.

We had a brief discussion of the start of the Club. It started as a Moon Watch Group in 1958—one of the original members was at tonight’s meeting!

OKM:

The June start party we were going to have at Wah-Shah-She was cancelled the week of the event because only 7 people signed up. We had a members-only star party instead which turned out great; 22 members came, a number of telescopes, and we saw planets, the Moon, star clusters, and the ISS passed over about 10:30 pm.

A possible suggestion for next year: Rather than plan an outdoor event—which could end up getting cancelled at the last minute again—plan an indoor Showcase event where we could speak. We could possibly use some or all of the 20X20 presentations that are all ready to go that we did at the April BAS meeting. Doing something like this could help advertise the club to locals who might not know about the BAS.

Night Sky Network:

Steve encouraged all members to start using this!

International Occultation Timing Association meeting: There will be one in Stillwater at the end of July. Let John Grismore know if intererested.

Main Presentation—Jerry Koenig on Virtual Lunar Atlas

Rule of thumb when making observations: Always follow the terminator. This will keep you grounded and help you to spot new craters as you explore successive new nights of a lunar phase.

To work your way through the Astro League’s Lunar 100 program takes about 2-3 months

There is also a Lunar II program you can work your way through.

The learning curve for lunar study is relatively easy.

You can download the Virtual Moon Atlas (now version 6). You can change your “view” when using the app; for example, you can do it by lunar rock mineral colors.

The Russians named most of the craters on the back side of the Moon.

Using a 200+ power telescope on a good night, you can see terraces within craters! It is also fun to find domes on the moon!

There is also an Arcturus program you can use.

Observing the Moon during the day (provided you are not looking at the Sun!) is not that bad. His 12-inch scope gets good resolution on craters 2 miles across!

He also recommends using Taki’s Start Atlases and astronomylogs.com. With finder charts you can look for different categories of things. Look for free download.

Another site is SOHO put out by NASA.

With a Helioviewer you can make a movie of the Sun.

July 29—rare lunar-Aldebaran occultation coming up

Abby’s Astronomy News:

5-year extension of the Hubble Space Telescope has been announced. The Hubble has operated nearly 3 decades!

Abby showed a Hubble picture of a new “Tadpole” galaxy Kisso 5639—a new dark galaxy

A Japanese space probe has captured Venus in Infrared

New ice caps on Mars?

India launched a new satellite June 20

A small asteroid 2016 HU3 orbits the Sun and also the Earth

Large aurora on Jupiter

August 27—Mission Juno

More info: youthbastro@gmail.com password astronomy