Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Observing: Tuesday, Sept. 18

A friendly warm night was popular for sky knowledge and general stargazing. Jupiter is increasingly lower in the sky, making it harder to see with the binoculars on the deck. The moon was at first quarter, so the sky was fairly bright. The Summer Triangle is straight overhead during observing this time of year, so interesting telescope sights like Albireo and the Ring Nebula are more easily visible. Not so visible was M-13, the globular cluster in Hercules, which was wiped out by a combination of haze, moonlight, and light pollution.

Our next scheduled observing session is Saturday October 29th, during Parents' Weekend, so if you have family members on campus be sure to bring them by.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Observing: Wednesday, Sept. 5

Our first observing of the year was a great success, even though the weather conspired to annoy us. Despite a solid week of perfectly clear skies, it managed to be hazy, but in any case we didn't let that stop us.

Through the telescope we looked at Jupiter and its Galilean moons, Albireo, the double star at the head of Cygnus, M-57, the Ring Nebula, which is part of Lyra, and very last we looked at M-13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. Out on the deck we saw the usual suspects for late summer observing, such as the Summer Triangle (Lyra, Cygnus, and Aquila), Cassiopeia, Pegasus, and the Little Dipper. The new binoculars with the parallel mount stayed trained on Jupiter all evening (until it went below the trees, anyway).

The next class-scheduled session is Tuesday, September 18.

Meeting: September 4

Hi Astronomy fans! Our first meeting of the year was a HUGE success. Thanks to all who came.

Here's the meeting rundown:
Introductions- We introduced the officers and Dr. Fleisch. Our email addresses can be found on the W.A.S. webpage. Feel free to contact any of us about club events, ideas for the club, etc.

The goal of astronomy club is to get you involved with astronomy at any level you want to be involved. That said we talked about observing sessions (the schedule for them is posted in the previous post) and other club activities.

Activities include:
Observing sessions, going to Dark Sky sites, taking trips to planetariums and other neat places, having guest speakers, maintaining the observatory, deciding how to spend our money from Student Senate, and outreach programs.
We also need to make one or more radio spots for WUSO to broadcast during sporting events, work on a 3D rendering of the observatory for GoogleEarth, and be ready for the Atrium Display System LCD screens which are coming soon.

Scheduled Events:
Aside from scheduled class observing sessions, on October 19th Keith Ward will be presenting "Music of the Spheres". If you would like to help in any way, email the officers or Dr. Fleisch.

Finally we mentioned astrobiology, SETI, and a summer course in the U.K.

Suggestions made by members were:
Observing Kuiper belt objects and dwarf planets
Photographing galaxies
Hosting a speaker on Cosmology
Learning the mythology of constellations

Thanks for a great meeting!

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, October 1st at 9:30pm.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Observing Sessions: Astronomy Class

These sessions are open to everyone.

That said, they were scheduled for the benefit of the astronomy class, who have to do sky knowledge for an actual grade. As such, there were will be a lot of constellation-and-star-names learning, as well as any planets that are out.

So, weather permitting,* the observatory will be open on the following dates and times:

Wednesday, 9/5 9:30-11:00
Tuesday, 9/18 9:00-10:30
Saturday, 9/29 9:00-10:30
Monday, 10/8 9:00-10:30
Friday, 10/19 8:30-10:00
Wednesday, 10/31 8:30-10:00
Thursday, 11/8 8:00-9:30
Monday, 11/19 8:00-9:30
Tuesday, 11/27 7:30-9:00
Friday, 12/7 7:30-9:00

*weather permitting=visible stars. Complete cloud cover all the time, thunderstorms, rain, snow, tornadoes, and heavy fog are good reasons to not come, since no one will be there.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Meeting reminder

The first meeting of the semester is:

Tuesday, September 4, at 9:30 pm, in room 319 of the science building. Open to all whether you are on our mailing list or not.