Monthly Meetings on Zoom
By Donna Pursley
October 26, 2021
There was an event at the Sacred Heart Discovery Museum on Friday. It was just for astronomy clubs to show off their new planetarium. A few people from ASNH attended. There were pictures on display from Shannon Calvert, Jim Mazur and Elliot Severn. They have a model of Jupiter made up with 4 projectors. There is a touch screen that controls the projectors. It can show any of the planets or the Moon. You can zoom in and flip it all around. The images of Earth are real time. It uses Stellarium for the photographs of the other planets.
We have been in contact with two high school astronomy clubs. Al Washburn did a presentation of the meteorites for three members of the Cheshire Academy. They are very sharp young people. We are still waiting to see what the Hopkins School would like. Ivano DelPrete wants to do a presentation on extra-terrestrial life.
Shop Talk
It is all about the Moon and Jupiter right now.
Andy Buynak said that on October 7 it was a very clear night and he had a very successful night observing. Bob Carruthers has been looking at the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and sunspots. Jim Mazur has been taking pictures including some nebulas.
We talked about the bears at CSP.
Bob has been in contact with Dr. Drew, the person who purchased the Bethany observatory. They discussed maybe setting up to do some radio astronomy. Bob could do a talk on radio astronomy for the club.
On November 19 there will be an early morning eclipse of the Moon.
Fred Danowski is trying out his new telescope and eyepieces.
We need to arrange to pick up the English Brother’s equipment including eyepieces.
Chris Predom just received his new telescope today.
The Moon looked huge this past week.
There will be a morning comet in December, Comet Leonard. It will be very low but might be binocular object.
We might need help with presentations for the high school astronomy clubs. The Zoom meetings might need to be around 5pm. Bob offered to help.
Bob was glad to share that he tested cancer free a month ago. We are all very glad to hear this.
November 30, 2021
27 attendees
For Cheshire Academy, Ivano DelPrete did a Zoom presentation on the History of Extraterrestrial Life.
Al Washburn and Ray Kaville picked up the telescopes, tripods and accessories from the English Brother’s collection at the New Haven Museum. They will be going back again on December 1 for some more stuff.
We have 84 members to date, including two new members: Neil Gundel (November) and Stephanie Dudding (October).
How many saw the lunar eclipse?
Andy Buynak – 4am very good took pictures. Mike Amato – 4am took photos – both sent photos for newsletter. Some others were able to catch pieces of the eclipse. Bob Carruthers saw it with some clouds that made it look very eerie. Marty Connor had clear skies in West Hartford to view the eclipse.
Mike Amato saw the Flaming Star Nebula for the first time and was very happy.
Bob and Gianne Jenkins were watching Venus goes through its phases as a crescent. Al also saw the crescent and said it was very impressive. Venus has a crescent phase because it is between the Sun and the Earth so we see the Sun light the planet in different phases, like the Moon. Mercury does the same thing.
We talked about Comet Leonard. A few people knew where it was going to be and how bright. It should be in the morning from Dec 5-9 and change to the evening a few days after that. It will be very low in the western sky in the evenings. It should be about mag 4.6. There are some reports that it broke up so that would be a bummer.
Chris Predom was trying out his new Astro-Tech scope. He has spent a lot of time with it and thinks it is a really nice scope.
Jim Mazur had a few images displayed on the screen. The first was M15, a globular is Pegasus. Next there was the Cocoon Nebula. Then he showed Abell 41 which is a cluster of galaxies. All of the spots in the middle of the image were galaxies from 3 billion light years away. Then there was an enlarged image of the galaxy cluster with a few of them pointed out. There are about 150 galaxies in the area. He used a 2 ½ hour exposure with a clear filter and added half-hour exposures of red, green, and blue. All were very nice pictures.
Bob and Gianne were spiritually married on Halloween.
Rich Cosgrove will be retiring after 48 years!
December 17, 2021, Solstice Dinner
The Solstice Dinner was held on Zoom again this year. We had 12 people attending. Most everyone has been able to get their booster shot.
Al Washburn gave the 29th Edition of The Winter Solstice Party Quiz.
There were 12 multiple choice questions. No one was able to receive a 100% score. Dave Johnson was the winner with the best score. He won the book ‘The Night Sky Month by Month’. There was a tie for second place with Leo Taylor, Bob Carruthers, Laurie Averill and Jim Mazur. They will all receive a copy of the ‘Hubble Space Calendar’.
We then had good conversation about astronomy books and any observing that members have done. We all have seen the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Venus in alignment. A few were able to see sun dogs. I don’t believe anyone has been able to spot the comet Leonard yet. There was mention of another bright comet in the morning sky coming this way.
We all ran out of stories, good cheer and well wishes were spread around and the meeting ended about 8:15.