Upcoming Monthly Meetings on Zoom
Tuesday, April 26, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, May 31, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, June 28, 7:00 pm
We will continue to use this format for monthly meetings until it is safe to meet in person again. A week or two before each meeting, members will receive an email announcement with a link that will allow them to connect to the online meeting.
Just click the link or copy and paste in your browser and that will connect you to the meeting. You can do this on any device that has an internet connection and a browser. You can do this on a smart phone. You can display yourself if you like with your selfie camera on your device. If you don’t that’s okay, don’t feel you have to.
You can also dial in to the meeting. The number and password will be given in the announcement.
Upcoming Public Events
Public outreach events are being planned for the next several months and into the fall. To see what is coming up, click on the calendar tab at the top of the page. Be sure to check periodically as new events may be added later.
Reports of Monthly Meetings on Zoom
By Donna Pursley
January 25, 2021
There were 23 members in attendance.
Ray sent a link to the NASA site for the James Webb telescope.
The Winter Solstice Quiz winners are: 1st place – Dave Johnson, 3-way tie for 2nd place – Bob Carruthers, Jim Mazur, and Laurie Averill.
We have 85 members. 2 new members: Carlos Forray and Charles Vossbrinck.
Shop Talk
Al Washburn is still looking at Jupiter.
Ray Kaville saw Comet Lenard very low on the horizon.
There are a couple of comets coming but may be faint.
Mike Amato and his brother saw some nice dark sunspots. The Sun is blossoming with spots.
Carlos belongs to the Rockland group also. He just moved here from New Jersey.
They have done public outreach and he is into astrophotography also.
Greg Barker gave a short explanation of CSP, Silver Sands and Young’s Park. We also do outreach for private events (except during Covid).
Fred Danowski took pictures of the Orion Nebula. He showed the group and will send to Jim for the newsletter. The deadline for the next newsletter is late March.
Donna Pursley mentioned that the Westport group and the Skyscrapers in Rhode Island have nice speakers that we could listen to on Zoom.
Laurie saw the Wolf Moon rising over Rt. 68. Very low and looked very large.
Don Straka mentioned that a setting Moon is great for public outreach because we can spend time on the Moon and when it sets and we can move on to fainter objects.
The public likes looking at the Moon, the terminator. People don’t realize that some of the mountains are 5 miles tall. All of the mountains on the Moon were formed by craters.
Rich Asarisi had a telescope behind him that was imaging for the first time in a month. He has IR lights in the room.
James Menturweck mentioned that Prospect has lots of sky glow from surrounding towns. Can see the Pleiades but not the Hyades.
The snow on the ground reflects the light and causes more light pollution.
Rich Cosgrove saw the Wolf Moon coming up through the trees. Looked like a fire.
James said that the Bethany Airport is a good site. He has set up his telescope in an area there. He saw Comet NEOWISE from his kitchen window.
February 22, 2021
There were 18 members in attendance.
We have 82 members.
Bob Carruthers – Presentation on Radio Astronomy
About 18-20 years ago he listened to Radio Jove. There was a NASA project to make a radio telescope to try and hear emissions from Jupiter.
Dave Johnson and Chris Hungerford helped build a radio telescope at Bethany.
There was a 12-foot tower, a tin can / bowling ball mount and a 4-element Yagi antenna tuned to 17MHz.
They did hear the Jupiter emissions. The sounds only happen when certain longitudes on Jupiter face towards the Earth and the moon Io is between Jupiter and the Earth.
Bob and Gianne Jenkins played a few tapes of the emissions. Some sounded like ocean waves. They also played a sample of a NASA tape of the bursts. Long waves and short burst that sound like popcorn.
Bob has also heard sounds from Sagittarius A – sounds like static.
Bethany was built in its location because of radio astronomy. A focus point between to ridges, but high. Bethany received transmissions from Sputnik. Morris code for Hello.
Bob has a smaller Yagi – handheld – 170MHz AM band – could hear radio noise from the sun. There is more noise when there are sunspots.
Shop Talk
Chris Predom – occultations of the Moon – talked about Astronomics wide angle eyepieces on sale.
Gianne – viewed the moon 12hr before full. Could see craters along part of the rim.
Michael Amato – at West Haven beach – very cold – sky was dark – was nice just to look at the constellations –Pleiades, Hyades, Orion, Canis major – all lined up.
Ray Kaville– Orion is very bright – stunning.
Donna Pursley’s Presentation – Some objects to find on the Moon
She has started the Astronomical League’s Lunar Observing and thought these would be a good challenge for the group.
In Sinus Iridum – Promontorium Heraclides, Promontorium Laplace
In Mar Nubium – Rima Birt, Repes Recta
In Palus Putredinis – Rima Hadley
She will have Greg send something out to try and find these objects.
Many members are very much into looking at the Moon and made some suggestions.
Bob sketches the Moon.
Chris uses Moonglobe app on iPhone.
Ray like looking at small areas and concentrating on those.