The Quasar

March 1, 2010 meeting minutes

2010-03-04T10:28:00.003-05:00

Chicago Trip
We are hoping to go April 2nd - 4th, which is Easter weekend. The price for lodging is estimated at $70 for the first night and $40 for the second night plus money for food and entertainment. Museum admission is covered. We have 14 people signed up so far and Dr. Fleisch is holding 8 double-occupancy rooms.

Cleveland trip
So far, it's looking like we'll be going to Cleveland the weekend of April 17. More details to follow as we get closer.

Gaby demonstrated the Galaxy Zoo and Solar Stormwatch websites. These websites allow anyone on the internet to contribute to real, fascinating scientific research. Both are free, and no programs need to be downloaded. As Dr. Fleisch pointed out boredom and time on your hands can lead to some fascinating discoveries.
* www.GalaxyZoo.org
* www.SolarStormwatch.com

Murchison Meteorite. This large meteorite was found to contain non-terrestrial organic material, a good piece of evidence toward life on other planets.

The Wow! signal. In 1977, the Big Ear radio telescope picked up a shockingly strong radio signal that lasted 72 seconds. The signal very closely resembled a man-made radio signal, giving scientists reason to believe that this might have been our first evidence of extra-terrestrial intelligence!

2010-01-30T12:07:00.003-05:00

Our first meeting of the Spring 2010 semester will take place on Feb.1 at 9:30pm in room 319 BDK!!!

We'll discuss upcoming activities, talk about recent news in Astronomy, hand out t-shirts and learn about the "WoW!" signal.

See you then!

400 Years of the Telescope. The movie.

2010-01-08T16:34:00.002-05:00

400 Years of the Telescope is a documentary that came out in light of the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. The movie portrays the evolution of the telescope - from Galileo's observations to the Hubble telescope and new multi-mirror telescopes projects in progress - and also tells how our perception of the universe and the sky changed over time.
I truly enjoyed watching the DVD. Besides an educational value, this movie shows some of the most remarkable images taken here, on Earth, and remotely.

Meeting Minutes Oct. 12, 2009

2009-10-13T14:55:00.001-05:00

Meeting Minutes October 12, 2009

T shirts

2009-2010 Astronomy Club t shirts will be white with navy lettering.
Design will be the same as last year.
$5 for S/S and $8 for L/S.
Order forms will be emailed to the club members.

Open House and Galilean Nights Homecoming Weekend (Oct 23rd)

We will have an Open House on Homecoming Weekend. The date coincides with the Galilean Nights planned as part of the International Year of Astronomy.
Entire Wittenberg and Springfield community will be invited to participate in the observing sessions.
We are planning to purchase several Galileoscopes (telescope similar in capacity to the one Galileo used).

Trips

We are planning short trips to Catawba and South Vienna. These would be evening trips to the dark sites.
Other trips in mind are Serpent Mound and NYC.
We will email with approximate dates and $$$.

WAS Activity Room

The larger bulletin board in the WAS activity room (the room in the lower level of the observatory) will have general information about planets, FAQ, myths, asteroid impacts, etc. Please email other ideas to the members of Astro Club.

Telescope Training Sessions

We will have several telescope training sessions. This will not depend on the weather conditions and can be done in daytime.
We will email dates for the training sessions.
Anyone interested, please email Keith (s11.kmeyers) or Anjelika (s10.agasilina).

Latest Astronomy News

Moon bombing was successful, however at this point NASA has no definite answer whether there is frozen water on the Moon.
And no, the world did not come to an end (whatever your definition of “the world” might be).

Saturn has yet another ring!!! It's extremely gigantic and the distance from the planet to the dust ring's outer “rim” is something like 7.4 million miles. The ring is formed by numerous meteorites that impacted Saturn's moon Phoebe and kicked up some dust as a result. The ring was discovered using NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.

Fall 2009

2009-09-06T08:32:00.002-05:00

Hey all-you-astronomers-out-there!

We are back and in full action for this coming semester! We were pleased to see that we had 90 new people rush at the speed of light to the astro table and are excited about our first meeting tomorrow September 7th at 9:30 pm in 319 Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center!

The observing sessions for the semester are:
8/28 8:30-11;00
9/9 at 9
9/17 9:00-10:30
10/4 9:00-10:30
10/12 9-10:30
10/23 8:30-10
11/4 8:30-10:00
11/12 8-9:30
11/23 8-9:30
12/1 7:30-9
12/11 7:30-9

We are proud to announce that the observatory is all cleaned up and looking great for this coming fall's observing sessions.

To be discussed at our 1st meeting;
tee-shirts
activities: Including Home-School children groups, trips, anything else you bring up

See you all tomorrow!
Heidi Wollaeger

NM Trip is on!

2009-05-31T00:57:00.003-05:00

The NM/AZ/UT/CO is going to take place June 21st through June 28th. It would be good to know who is coming.
I already booked a ticket. Will be going for the entire week.
Who is flying when and from which airport?

New Officers

2009-05-06T07:03:00.002-05:00

Yesterday the club voted and here's our new officers for 2009-2010:

President: Anjelika Gasilina
Vice President: Keith Meyers
Secretary: Heidi Wollaeger
Treasurer: Casey Browder
PR: Gaby Biordi and Courtnay Dollinger

Congratulations everyone!

We're not dead

2009-03-18T11:17:00.003-05:00

I've been reminded that this blog exists, and I should update it. So!

Tshirts:
the design for this year has already been sent out via email, and order forms will follow soon

Events:

Girl Scout Science Night is April 3
-if it's clear (which is historically unlikely), volunteers to help guide the crowd and answer questions will be needed

100 Hours of Astronomy is April 2-5
-there will be some observing event, which we haven't decided on yet

April meeting is April 7
-it's at 9:30, in 319 Science

Relay for Life is April 25-26
-go here and sign up for the Astronomy Club team!

10th Anniversary Party is not scheduled yet
-but it'll be fun

Updated Activities

2008-09-12T11:13:00.004-05:00

The Upcoming Activities page of the website has been updated with details of our planned trips and some scheduled activities this semester: http://www4.wittenberg.edu/student_organizations/astronomy_club/members.html

If going on a trip has ever even crossed your mind, go read about them now. If you're interested, Dr Fleisch needs to know so we can get the planning started.

Observing tonight!

2008-09-10T11:39:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone: observing, tonight, 9:30, the observatory. Clear Sky Clock says it's gonna be awesome.

Class observing, so usually I wouldn't announce it, but it's the first one.

Meeting: Tuesday, September 9

2008-09-10T07:09:00.002-05:00

Hey all,

On behalf of your secretary who hasn't had a chance to register with the blog yet, here are the minutes from last night's meeting. Remember, if you have questions about any of the events we're planning, email any of your officers; all the contact information is here.

§ Meeting Dates

o 9/25

o 10/07

o 10/23

o 11/4

o 11/20

o 12/12

§ Observing Sessions

o 9/10

o 9/18

o 10/5

o 10/13

o 10/24

o 11/5

o 11/13

o 11/24

o 12/2

o 12/12

§ Special Events

o Music of the Spheres 9/19

o Speaker Dr. Stahl on replacement for Hubble Telescope 10/9

o Trip to Pittsburgh 9/26-9/28

o Trip to Stonehenge 12/28-1/7

§ Other discussed topics

o Rocket Field Day, Interclub activities, Julia Kregenow/Jason Wright speakers, Bad Scifi movies, Planet Watch, Messier objects, rappelling w/ caving club

FALL 2008 Class Observing Schedule

2008-08-25T11:11:00.003-05:00

Friday August 29, 9:30 to 11:30

Wednesday September 10, 9:30 to 11:00

Thursday September 18, 9:00 to 10:30

Sunday October 5, 9:00 to 10:30

Monday October 13, 9:00 to 10:30

Friday October 24, 8:30 to 10:00

Wednesday November 5, 8:30 to 10:00

Thursday November 13, 8:00 to 9:30

Monday November 24, 8:00 to 9:30

Tuesday December 2, 7:30 to 9:00

Friday December 12, 7:30 to 9:00

Meeting: April 1, 2008

2008-04-03T18:42:00.003-05:00

Hello all Wittenberg Astronomical Society members,

I hope you all have enjoyed a fabulous year in the Astonomy Club.

In case you missed the last meeting of the 07-08 academic year, here's the minutes:

We played a game of "Astro" (aka Bingo) with common Dr. Fleisch sayings and astronomy words.

If you were planning to go on the Chicago trip, Dr. Fleisch is trying to reschedule it, so email him ASAP if the weekend of the 11th, the 18th, or the 26th works for you.

This Friday, April 4th, is the next Friday Night Lecture. Come hear our wonderful president, Nick's presentation titled "I bet Newton could draw" at 7:30 in Bailey Auditorium. Observing will follow.

Another Friday Night Lecture is also in the works: Music of the Spheres II presented by Keith Ward is scheduled for April 25th at 7:30.

Our remaining observing sessions are all at our beloved Weaver Observatory
April 4 8:30pm
April 18 start time 9 or 10 pm (it's Girl Scout Science Night)
May 9 9pm (if you're around for graduation)

We talked some more about the Flag of Earth. SETI and the North American Astrophysical Society are in charge of it, so check out their websites or google 'Flag of Earth' for more information.

SENIORS: contact me to sign our Alumni Canvas. Leave your mark on the Observatory (well, just our canvas).

We appointed next year's officers (see Nick's post).

Other topics:

Gamma Ray Bursts
badastronomy.com
AIBS Science Wars: April 15 8:30 watch for flyers

Meteorites!!!

We're thinking of buying some small ones for the club.
The three types are iron, stony, and stony-iron.
meteoroid = in space; meteor = in atmosphere; meteorite = on Earth's surface
A meteorite fall lands next to you. A meteorite find is found later and must be analyzed to know it is a meteorite.

Dr. Fleisch's book A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations is "selling like hotcakes" and has sold out on Amazon twice!! See him if you want a copy or more information.

Erin and I will be ordering T-shirts this week, so email her if you have not already. T-shirts will be in by April 25.

I guess that's it, gang. See you at the upcoming events!

Officers

2008-04-01T23:29:00.002-05:00

Hey all,

Well, new officers were decided at the last meeting of the year (yesterday). Here are the new officers for Astro club 08-09':

President: Erin Kapp

Vice President: Caroline Rentz

Secretary: Keith Meyers

Treasurer: Karsten Treu

PR officer: Anjelika Gasilina

Congrats to all, I know you'll do a good job in the following year.

Cheers,

Nick (lame-duck President 07-08')

Final Tshirt Design

2008-03-29T11:00:00.001-05:00

Front:

Back:

Meeting: March 11, 2008

2008-03-12T16:05:00.002-05:00

Greetings Astronomy fans!

Welcome back from Spring Break. Here's what we talked about at this month's meeting:

Observing sessions:
3-14 @ 9 to look at Saturn
4-4 @ 9
4-18 @ 9 to look at the moon

Nick's Friday Night Lecture is April 4th at 7:30 pm. We are planning to have this recorded on video. Try to make it. Observing will happen afterward at the Observatory.

TRIPS:
The group going to Chicago is leaving Friday at 9 AM. If this includes you, check your email for details.
The UK trip does not have enough interest to be a group, per se, but you can still email Dr. Fleisch if you want to meet up with him in Europe.

At next month's meeting we will be electing officers for next year. Be sure to email Nick if you are interested. We will also be discussing ways to spend this semester's budget. Let us know if you have ideas.

Other topics of discussion:
Gamma ray burster, "Death Star," badastronomy.com
Water on Mars
eclipse pictures are on the website
Dr. Bob Dixon is speaking on SETI tomorrow at 3.

Next Meeting is April 1st at 9:30 pm in Science Center room 319.

Observing: Wednesday, Feb. 20

2008-02-22T08:06:00.003-05:00

43 people turned up for the eclipse Wednesday night. It was clear, so we had an excellent view of the moon in the eastern sky as it moved into the Earth's shadow. Once the moon was actually eclipsed, it turned a reddish color and it was much easier to see the nearby star Regulus and planet Saturn. Unfortunately, because of the recent snow and ice, it was impossible to open up the dome (in case it got stuck open, because that would be bad news for the telescope). Hopefully the weather will let up soon and we'll be able to have observing sessions in a little more comfort.

Observing Tonight

2008-02-20T18:43:00.000-05:00

Tonight at 9pm the observatory will open so we can check out the total lunar eclipse tonight. It's clear as I type, the Clear Sky Clock looks promising, and we can hope the weather got all the snow out of its system earlier today, so be sure to stop by. Totality (complete eclipse) will be reached at about 10:00 and stay for the next fifty minutes.

Observing: Saturday, Feb. 9

2008-02-11T17:51:00.001-05:00

So, despite the cold and predicted impending clouds a few brave souls made their way up into the observatory Saturday night. In between periods of complete cloud cover, the sky was remarkably clear, affording us a great view of the Orion Nebula. M-42 is one of the places where stars are born, and in the telescope it was especially distinct, with tendrils spreading from the top to the bottom of the field of view, which is unusual. Mars is also up high in the sky, with some small variations in the coloring visible; Saturn is rising later and beginning to tilt so that the rings will soon become edge-on from our point of view.

Our next scheduled observing is Friday, March 14, after Nick's lecture. It's possible that more sessions will be scheduled between now and then, but we're limited by the tendency of Ohio to be entirely overcast at this time of year.

Observing Reminder

2008-02-09T19:27:00.000-05:00

A really delayed observing reminder, but hey, there's more than half an hour to go...

Observing is scheduled tonight for 8pm in the observatory.

Meeting: February 5, 2008

2008-02-06T19:31:00.000-05:00

Hey Club members!

Here's what's coming up for the Wittenberg Astronomical Society:

Very soon we will be ordering club t-shirts, so keep an eye and ear out for more info on that.

The upcoming observing sessions are always listed on the WAS website and the next one is Saturday, February 9th @ 8pm. We are tentatively planning to go to Hocking Hills in April.

Other possible trips are to the Pittsburg Planetarium and the summer UK trip.

We also have 2 Friday Night Lectures this semester: "Magic and Science" on March 14 presented by our favorite president, Nick; and "Music of the Spheres" in April presented by Keith.

Topics of discussion at the meeting:
Asteroids
Near Earth Object Program
Clear Sky Clock
Mercury Messenger
Deep Space Broadcasting

See you all at our next meeting March 11th @ 9:30pm

Meeting tomorrow

2008-02-04T16:56:00.000-05:00

If your inboxes have not jogged your memory enough, remember that tomorrow is our February meeting of astronomy club. 9:30, 319 Science. It will feature our three favorite meeting activities of talking, planning, and eating.

Meeting: January 8, 2008

2008-01-10T17:29:00.000-05:00

Welcome back, Astronomy Fans! I hope you all are getting off to a great start this semester.

Here's what we covered at the meeting.

The first ever Spring Activities Fair is happening at dinner in the CDR on Jan 23.

Observing sessions (weather permitting, of course) :

Tues, Jan 15 8:00 pm at Weaver Observatory, to look at the first quarter moon
Tues, Jan 22 11:30 am in front of the Student Center, to look at the sun
Sat, Feb 9 8:00 pm at Weaver Observatory, to see the sky during the new moon
Fri, March 14 8:30 pm at Weaver Observatory, first quarter moon, after Nick's lecture
Fri, April 4 9:00 pm at Weaver, new moon
Fri, April 18 9:00 pm at Weaver, full moon

*On any clear night, you can call Dr. Fleisch and go to the Observatory.*

Friday Night Lectures

We have 2 this semester already scheduled: a repeat of Music of the Spheres in February, and Nick Gladman is presenting one on March 14 at 7:30 pm.

Trips

Chicago- one night, March 22 or March 28, price TBA
UK- summer, no credit, email Dr. Fleisch if interested
Pittsburg- overnight, email us if interested
Tucson/Arizona/somewhere in the Southwest- are you guys interested?

Astronomy News

Asteroid 2007 WD5 has a 4% chance of impacting Mars on Jan 30 at about 6:30am our time. This will be the first time scientists might be able to observe a plume of ejecta.

Atrium Display

In case you haven't noticed, it's up and working. Any suggestions? See Dr. Fleisch.

See you at the next meeting: February 5 at 9:30pm in BDK 319.

December Meeting Cancelled

2007-12-04T09:30:00.001-05:00

Since the final meeting falls so close to finals and we are all busy, the next meeting will be in January: 1/8/08.

If you're still interested in going to Chicago over break, check your email.

Tshirt winner & observing reminder

2007-11-14T22:23:00.001-05:00

The winner of the shirt design contest was design #1. Thanks to everyone who voted, and start thinking about if you want a shirt and if you would prefer a tshirt/hoodie/either/both.

We are scheduled to have observing tomorrow at 8:30 when a group of Boy Scouts visits the observatory, but depending on the weather it might or might not happen. Stay tuned to your inboxes.

Meeting: November 6

2007-11-07T15:32:00.000-05:00

Hi All,

Here's the recap from the meeting:

We started off by talking about the T-shirt voting (see previous post). Then we moved on to regular meeting stuff.

Future Observing:
Thurs. Nov. 8 @ Dr. Lewis' leave from student center at 7:30pm
Thurs. Nov. 15 @ Weaver Observatory, Cub Scouts will be there 8:30
Mon. Nov. 19 @ Weaver Observatory 8-9:30pm

Trips:
The trip to Booneshoft was not so impressive, but we are planning to go next semester and try to have more control over the show.
Chicago is booked this month. Email Dr. Fleisch if you want to go over winter break or early next semester or if you have suggestions.
The non-credit UK trip has about 8 of you interested. If anyone else is possibly interested email Dr. Fleisch right away.

Comet:
The comet 17P Holmes is on its way out. You might be able to see it in the constellation Perseus (down from Cassiopeia). It is slightly fuzzy.

Thanks to Keith for presenting on Deep Space galaxies!

Next meeting we will be talking about Sky & Telescope pictures.

The Atrium Display will be put up over Christmas break.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 4th at 9:30pm.

Tshirt Design Voting Post

2007-11-06T16:29:00.002-05:00

Here is how you vote:

Look at the options. Send an email to wittenberg.astronomyclub@gmail.com with the subject "astroclub tshirt vote". In the body of the email, include your name and the number of the shirt you are voting for.

Voting will run from Wednesday November 7 until Saturday November 10 at 5pm. Votes before or after this time will not be counted. Voting more than once means all your votes are thrown out.

And now the shirts (in the order the designs were submitted, if you were wondering):

The front sides for #1 & #2 will be the club's name.
-----------------------

#1

----------------------

#2- if this shirt is the winner, a version with clean lines will be provided.

----------------------

#3

Music of the Spheres reminder

2007-10-19T09:42:00.000-05:00

Remember, Music of the Spheres is tonight at 7:30 in Bayley. If it's clear afterwards we'll have observing over at Weaver.

Observing postponed

2007-10-10T16:51:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,
The sky has come down with a severe case of cloud cover. Since side effects include total inability to see anything interesting, we'll reschedule our dark-sky trip for sometime after fall break.

tshirt reminder (updated)

2007-10-06T11:14:00.000-05:00

If you have an idea for an astronomy club tshirt/hoodie, remember that designs are due in ~~by Tuesday October 9~~Update: by the end of Wednesday October 10 to Erin (s09.ekapp). Make sure you have attached a picture file of your design to your email.

Meeting: October 2

2007-10-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone. Here's what we talked about at October's meeting:

Astronomy News:
We had 3 news presentations.
1) Lunar Impact Monitoring -how often meteors collide with the moon
2) Dawn Mission Project - ion propulsion, photography of Vesta and Ceres
3) Double Helix Nebula (aka DNA nebula)
**a new club goal is for everyone to see a nebula**

Trip Planning:
Dayton Planetarium - Sat. Oct. 27th 1pm-4:30pm
Chicago - Nov 3-4th or Nov 10-11th
Cleaveland - next semester
U.K. - right after graduation, 10 days, $1700

Observing schedule:
see club website or other posts labelled observing

Constellation Mythology:
We are hoping that several people will learn about a few constellations each (which stars, the past mythology, maybe of several cultures) to share during observing activities. Let us know if you are interested.

Music of the Spheres:
presentation Oct. 19th at 7:30pm in Bayley Auditorium by Keith Ward
There will possibly be other times of presentation of this.

If you are interested in the Atrium Display, SETI, the Allen Telescope Array, email any of the officers.

Also, email T-shirt ideas to Erin at s09.ekapp@witt

Our next meeting is Tuesday, November 6th at 9:30pm. See you there!

Meeting reminder & Parents' Weekend observing

2007-10-01T19:14:00.000-05:00

Next meeting is tomorrow, October 2.

This weekend observing was great on Friday and basically a wash on Saturday.

The good news: We had at least 93 people attend just one observing session!
The bad news: It was the Saturday one, so they were all squished into the dome or they got to stand on the deck and look at clouds or they were trapped in the stairwell. If you were trapped in the stairs or otherwise bored, we hope you come back and try for clearer skies.

So we got to look at Albireo both nights, although it wasn't until quite late on Saturday that it cleared up enough.

The club is starting up a logbook for a variety of reasons, including: we want to know what part of campus we're reaching, whether we have a lot of repeat attendees, how often we see non-students, and also Student Senate asks us questions during budget hearings like "who comes to your activities?" So if you're in the observatory for observing at all, even if you're there every single time and we all know who you are but especially if you've never signed before, please sign the logbook.

So remember: tomorrow. Pizza. Pop. 319 Science. 9:30.

Observing: Tuesday, Sept. 18

2007-09-18T23:45:00.000-05:00

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.

Observing: Wednesday, Sept. 5

2007-09-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-05T09:33:00.000-05:00

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.

Observing Sessions: Astronomy Class

2007-09-04T22:12:00.000-05:00

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.

Meeting reminder

2007-09-02T22:07:00.001-05:00

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.

Celestial Gazing and Lunar Surprising*, August 24

2007-08-25T20:24:00.000-05:00

The astronomy club is officially on for the semester. Last night was our inaugural observing session. There were clouds and a telescope pin broke. But no worries, the clouds went away sometimes and the pin thing is fixable. But in the daytime.

We will be present at the activities fair on Thursday August 30 so come visit us and sign up for our mailing list if you're not on it already.

The Tuesday after that should be our first meeting, official announcement forthcoming. Same bat time, same bat channel.

*I volunteered at a planetarium over the summer with a Mr. Rogers show. You all watched Mr. Rogers, right? King Friday called it "celestial gazing and lunar surprising" and if it's good enough for King Friday it's good enough for us. All club-scheduled observing sessions will now carry this tag (as opposed to observing requested by groups, which will still be observing).

Observing & a sneak preview

2007-08-16T21:12:00.000-05:00

Even now freshmen are on campus, and that means a new semester is about to start. And the astronomy club will start it with two things:

1. Observing on Friday August 24 at 9:30 at Weaver. This is near the anniversary of Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune.

2. A new and sleeker webpage which will debut sometime in September. Sneak preview:

Moon-landing observing!

2007-07-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

For everyone who didn't get Dr. Fleisch's email, or didn't read it, or forgot about it, and is not going to a Harry Potter book party (cough), tonight at 9:15 is observing during, apparently, the one time of night it's supposed to be cloudy. But even if it's cloudy, while you huddle around the telescope hoping for a break, you can celebrate the 38th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Solstice observing

2007-06-21T21:12:00.000-05:00

Okay everyone, it's officially been summer for eight hours and seven minutes as of my typing this sentence. That means new and exciting stars to look at. And if you're inclined to do so, there's observing tomorrow night at Weaver at 9:30pm (as always, weather permitting). Right now Venus and Saturn are in the western sky, while Jupiter is very bright in Scorpius in the east. As for constellations, the ever-famous Summer Triangle is starting to creep higher in the sky along with Hercules, Ophiuchus, and Scoprius, while Leo's still hanging around with Saturn and Venus over toward the west.

New Officers!!

2007-05-03T17:35:00.000-05:00

The new officers for Astronomy Club were elected! They are:
President- Nick Gladman
Vice President- Erin Kapp
Secretary/Treasurer- Whitney Foster
Congratualtions and hope everyone has a great summer!

Meeting: Tuesday, May 1

2007-05-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all, it's the last meeting of the spring semester and okay, I lied, there was not pizza and drinks. There was cookies and chips and drinks instead.

New equipment is on the way, including the Bluestar telescope adapter so we can control one of our telescopes wirelessly, a pair of 20x80 binoculars, and tripod and parallelogram mount for these binoculars. The book "99 Sights for Binocular Users" is already here, in Dr Fleisch's office. This has used up our student senate budget for the spring semester.

There was a new planet discovered which is Earthlike, the article we looked at is here.

There are over 220 planets that have been found orbiting other stars now. Most are large, jupiter-sized, very close to their star, and very hot, and Gleise 581c is the one which looks most like there could actually be water on it.

Seti@home is a neat use of your computer's offtime, so if you're interesting in learning more about it visit their website or talk to Dr Fleisch. Or both.

Speaking of radio telescopes, Witt's Society of Physics Students has restored the radio telescopes on the science building roof, which we took a brief field trip to see. There are two, they are very cool, and should definitely last longer than the last ones because they are weather-proofed and having nice covers made for them. If you have a chance take a look at them. Radio telescopes don't give pictures, like the observatory telescope; instead they pick up radio waves (hence the name), and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory has a page on how they work, although ours are not as large as the ones in the picture, nor do they have one of the dishes on them.

We also briefly discussed the WOW signal, a radio pickup from the 70s.

Summer observing sessions are on the Member Information page of the website. On the June 22 observing session, Keith, a club member who is also a music major, will be giving a talk about the music of the spheres before the observing session, something to keep in mind if you're in Springfield over the summer.

Mercy St John's postponed, and other things.

2007-04-27T17:55:00.000-05:00

As you might have guessed from not hearing anything about it, the visit to Mercy St John's has been postponed. The hospital is definitely interested in having us there, but we haven't been able to find a date that works yet, and the weather is not cooperating in any case.

On the other hand, the weather on Girl Scout Science Night last week cooperated fully. After five consecutive years of being clouded out, there was a great turnout from the girls and their parents, as Girl Scouts filled the dome, deck, and the grass outside. The event wound up going past midnight so that everyone in the group got a chance to look at Saturn.

The next meeting is still scheduled for next Tuesday, May 1st, where we'll probably talk about the Earthlike planet just found, among other things. And of course pizza and drinks as always.

Hocking Hills trip postponed

2007-04-14T11:44:00.000-05:00

Due to horrible weather, the observing trip to Hocking Hills originally scheduled for tonight is being postponed. Keep an eye on your email for the new date and time.

Meeting: Tuesday, April 4

2007-04-03T21:58:00.000-05:00

Our first meeting back from break!

First off, activities this month: there's no confirmation from Mercy St. John's on the date we can visit them yet, so definitely write it down in pencil, if at all. Next Saturday, April 14, is observing at Mandy's house in Hocking Hills. An email will be going out about this, but we'll be leaving from the Student Center parking lot at 7:30. Friday April 20 is Girl Scout Science Night, for those of you interested, with more details to come on that and also on the observatory spring cleaning later in the month, April 22. Those will be arranged more definitively closer to their actual date.

The 40 or so files we recently recovered, all of which dealt with the history and building of the observatory, have been read through by four of us. A lot of it was letters, catalogs, price quotes, and other things, but here are some of the more interesting facts:
-The grand total budget was $42,500 in 1931, which is $496,561 today: almost half a million dollars.

-The telescope itself was about $8,500-$9,000, which is $99,312-$105,154 today. This is all according to the inflation calculator at westegg.com.

-One of the proposals included putting in a meteorological station, to be used by aircraft, including those at the nearby air force base. The catch was very accurate measurements would have to be taken three times a day, seven days a week, 365.25 days per year. The proposed staff to do this was two student workers, who in exchange for this extremely rigid routine would be able to attend Wittenberg free of charge: no tuition, room, or board. The university (then Wittenberg College) turned it down. Back then, most of the departments had one faculty member; some of the larger ones had two. Their reason for refusing the proposal didn't have to do with the idea that the kind of weather station involved would be better suited to a large university who could maintain a paid staff to do the measurements- they didn't want to give the student workers the free ride.

-There were originally five proposals for the telescope design. Two were dismissed for being of inferior quality; of the remaining three, the lowest bidder got the job.

-The dedication ceremony was part of commencement for that year. It also happened in June. Semesters, as far as we could glean from the documents, ran from August-January and then February-June.

-Some things are eternal, like internal arguing and passing of blame between different contractors.

-As mentioned in a previous post, Heber Curtis, winner of the Curtis-Shapley debate, gave the dedication speech.

-Back then, astronomy was its own department. Its faculty member was Hugh G. Harp, and the observatory was very much his project. Eventually astronomy was absorbed into earth science, and only integrated into physics relatively recently.

-The Weavers, who donated money toward the observatory and from whence it derives its name, originally gave $6,000 toward a telescope, then upped their donation to $20,000 and finally around $50,000. The final budget for the observatory/telescope/instruments was around $80,000. ($70,102, $23,3675, $584,189, and $934,703, respectively)

-The observatory used to keep paper observing sheets, which recorded how many people visited, the weather, what was observed, and other things like that at each observing event. The club would like to readopt this tradition, except update it to some time past the Great Depression.

Right now, the observatory is partially occupied by The Torch and the psychology department. The club would really, really like all that classroom space and storage space back, since right now actual astronomy is limited to the dome and a small janitorial area. With the additional room, the astronomy club and astronomy classes could have more events, and a place for people to gather and talk about astronomy (and look at club items like books and magazines) other than Dr Fleisch's office.

The budget results are in! We asked for $1200, and got $400 for the fall semester and $550 for the spring semester from student senate, which is a pretty good turnout.

We looked at some more stuff on the Hubble Heritage Site, like new pictures of a barred spiral galaxy. Clicking on any gallery picture and then the "caption" or "fast facts" links at the top of the page will lead you to more information about that picture.

Talking about galaxies, some questions about the Milky Way came up. As far as size and shape, it's a fairly average spiral or maybe barred spiral galaxy (it's hard to tell from inside), which is on a collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy, M-31, in a few million years.

Dr Fleisch has a book in his office about galaxies, called... "Galaxies." If you want to look at it stop by and check it out.

It's been found that stable orbits for planets around binary star pairs do exist, within some parameters, so for all you other Star Wars fans, Tatooine could still be out there. It's even reasonably likely, seeing that current estimates run that about half the stars we can see have some kind of planet, although not necessarily a habitable one.

Speaking of habitable planets, if it weren't for the moon Earth probably wouldn't be one. The axis of the Earth wobbles very slowly, rotating between three north pole stars with approximately 26000 years between each star, leading to very stable seasonal cycles. If the moon wasn't there, simulations indicate the Earth would instead be on a cycle so dramatic that seasons would change significantly every few hundred years, and the probability of the evolution of life would be drastically affected.

Nick Gladman has been elected president for the 2007-2008 school year. Other officer positions are being sorted out and more information will come through email.

The next meeting is Tuesday, May 1, last one of the semester. See you then!

Activities: Observatory Group Visit

2007-03-26T12:51:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, the observatory had a whole bunch of visitors in the form of Gamma Delta, who came to visit the observatory. Dr Fleisch talked to the group in Bayley Auditorium first, but then the sky unexpectedly cleared up, so everyone went over to the observatory to look at Saturn. Despite being cloudy all day it was remarkably clear, and multiple moons and the Cassini division were visible. With around sixty people there, the observatory was as full as it's ever been, but it was still a good visit, and everyone got a chance to look through the telescope.

Document day time set.

2007-03-16T14:33:00.000-05:00

March 31 has been on the schedule as the day we meet to go over the documents about the building of Weaver Observatory, but there wasn't a time before. It's now:

Saturday, March 31, at 2pm

~~The webpage will be updated to reflect this as soon as I can make it let me edit.~~ The webpage has been updated to reflect this.

Adventures in Budgeting

2007-03-14T21:49:00.000-05:00

Uh-oh. Jon's taking over the Quasar. Well not really, but I thought it would be good for me to post at least once before giving up my position as treasurer.

Continuing from yesterday's meeting, the budget discussion continues. Erin and I attended the budget hearing in the bowels of Shouvlin before a panel of what appeared to be very hungry Student Senate members (they have to sit through a lot of hearings and as such keep snacks in front of them.) The hearing went fairly smoothly, and there were only a few details of our budget that they had questions about.

I'll receive notice about the panel's decision in the next few weeks and from there we can plan out next year's plans in more detail.

That's the news. See you all later.

Meeting: Tuesday, March 13

2007-03-13T21:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight, we talked about our budget a lot.

The SkyScout that we ordered is here! Unfortunately it seems that the copper dome of the observatory might be interfering with the magnetic components of the SkyScout when we're on the deck of the observatory. We'll have to work with it some more, but it will definitely be useful on the ground and at dark sky sites.

Things we want to buy with this year's budget:
Guy Ottewell's Astronomy Calendar: $25- voted yes in the meeting
BlueStar telescope controller- previously mentioned a couple meetings ago
Oberwerk 20x80mm big binoculars and one of these types of mounts to put it on- will run about $500
That's not the actual mount we want to get, but the page we showed at the meeting does not have the option to direct link to a specific page.
99 Celestial Sights- $25
A book so we know what to look at with our new binoculars.

Things we want to put in the budget for next year:
At least one visiting speaker
Subscriptions to astronomy magazines
The Cosmos book of astronomy photographs
We would like to plan trips for next year, but Student Senate has some pretty strict rules about how university funds can be used for trips. We'll try to get this clarified at the budget meeting for the next year, which coincidentally is tomorrow, March 14.
So if you have anything you can think of to put in next year's budget, email one of the officers right away.

We also discussed the recent eclipse, which was basically cloudy for everyone in Ohio and surrounding areas. If we could have seen it, though, we would have seen the information described on this page:
the eclipse page we looked at in the meeting.

Why is the moon reddish during an eclipse? When the sun, earth, and moon are lined up in that order, the Earth's atmosphere extending above its surface refracts the light from the sun. The blue light scatters most, while the red makes it through the most. This is why the moon is tinted toward the red end of the spectrum- more of the light from the blue end has been bounced away by the atmosphere. The page linked above also has some information about upcoming lunar and solar eclipses.

The New Horizons Mission was also the source of much admiration as new pictures from the spacecraft's swing by Jupiter were released. Click on the Gallery link to see them.

The next event is the going-over-documents day on March 31, and the next observing session is April 14 at Hocking Hills.

We were reading a copy of the club constitution today, which includes provisions for a publication named "The Quasar," so the blog has been renamed accordingly.

Also, tomorrow, March 14 aka 3.14 is Pi Day. So hug your favorite irrational number.

See the lunar eclipse!

2007-02-28T22:11:00.000-05:00

Saturday night there's a total lunar eclipse: the first article I found was this one, but here's a less city-centric one. The first link has some interesting graphics & audio tidbits linked on the right. NASA also has information about lunar eclipses.

So weather permitting and clouds cooperating, find a dark spot and see the eclipse- the last total eclipse happened in 2004.

Observing: Friday, January 23

2007-02-23T23:09:00.000-05:00

Tonight Boy Scouts visited the observatory! It was cold and icy but they came anyway, and we got to look at winter constellations like Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Auriga, and Taurus, as well as the always popular Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Cassiopeia. Bright stars in these constellations included Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Castor, Pollux, Aldebaran, and Polaris. We also saw three things through the telescope: the first-quarter moon in the west, right near the Pleiades, the Orion Nebula (M42) toward the south, and Saturn in a generally east direction.

Lots of good questions were asked, and all links will open in a new window.
What is the Great Red Spot on Jupiter?
Why is Pluto no longer a planet?
What causes meteors, and how are they different from meteorites?
What's a meteor shower?
What is it that they just found on Titan?
Can we see the things left on the moon with a telescope? (scroll down to "The Moon")
How do we know the moon landings weren't a hoax?
Is there a southern pole star?
What is precession?
What's a nebula?
How are stars born?
What will happen to the sun?
Will the sun turn into a black hole?
What are wormholes? (Note: wormholes are more theoretical than these other questions, so there are three links to three different articles: the other two here and here, to provide a variety of explanations at varying levels: the first link is from Scientific American, the second from National Geographic, and the third from the Astronomy Cafe Ask the Astronomer)
Is the Hubble the biggest telescope?

Meeting: Tuesday, February 20

2007-02-20T22:50:00.000-05:00

So it took a couple tries, but we finally had the February meeting. All of the dates mentioned below will be listed on the Member Information page of the website by the end of Wednesday.

It's confirmed that there will be Boy Scouts visiting the observatory this Friday, February 23, at 8pm. If it's cloudy, the session will be postponed until March 2nd, which is the last Friday classes are held before spring break. Don't feel obligated to come if you were planning on leaving.

We're trying to set up a date with Mercy St John's to go and take telescopes to patients there who are bedridden and can't leave the hospital. Also, Dr Fleisch has talked to Mercy Hospice and the Hospice of Dayton, both of which are interested in an event of the same kind. As well, there are groups for kids who have gone through difficulty, either by being severely injured themselves or by having lost family members, and we think this would be a good project for not only the patients, but for the club as well to share some of what we do with people in need. There is also a plan to buy or create some kind of device that would render photographs of astronomical phenomena tactilely for the benefit of the blind.

Trudy Bell will be writing a piece on historic observatories for Ohio Magazine this summer, and Weaver is one of them! Look for this magazine if you have a chance.

Summer observing sessions have also been added to the schedule. They are all Fridays at 8:30 pm: June 22 (the day after summer solstice), July 20 (the day Apollo 11 landed on the moon), and August 24 (back to school). The following Saturday is the backup day for each of these events.

Girl Scout Science Night is a great event that all the science departments at Wittenberg participate in, and we always try to have observing although in the history of the event it keeps being cloudy. That's on Friday, April 20th, and the observatory part will happen sometime around or after 10pm.

Remember all those documents that were recovered about the history of Weaver? We'll be going through them on Saturday, March 31, at a time yet to be decided.

It's nearing the end of the year, and that means the observatory needs cleaned. Spring cleaning and possible painting will happen on Sunday, April 22.

The SkyScout has made it through the acquisitions part of the buying process, which is good news. We're also planning to purchase the BlueStar telescope adapter so we can control telescopes using the program Starry Night. Anyone on campus with a campus Windows account (students, faculty, and staff) can access Starry Night in on the class (not class programs) drive by going to Class>Physics>Astronomy>Starry Night Pro.

Also, Wittenberg's chapter of the Society of Physics Students earlier embarked on a really cool project to restore two defunct radio telescopes that used to sit up on the science building, and they're almost done! After that it will be possible to do radio observations of the sky, in addition to the visible light observing we can already do.

If there are any books, software, or pieces of equipment you think the club can use, please email one of the officers or Dr Fleisch with your idea-- the club has a budget for the year and we'd like to put as much of it to use as possible.

We also looked at the Hubble Heritage Site during the meeting with the projector. It's one of the sites linked from the Astronomy Links section of the website, but it's here as well.

The next meeting is Tuesday March 13, the first Tuesday back after break; we will be discussing officer elections for the coming year.

2007-02-16T19:34:00.000-05:00

For Valentine's Day, the observatory got a nice snow blanket.

Next observing session, someone bring a St Bernard just in case.

Observing: Friday, January 9

2007-01-19T22:20:00.000-05:00

Really clear skies alternated with cloudy periods for a while, but soon it clouded over completely. While we could see, though, the visibility was excellent, and we looked at the Orion Nebula, M42, through the telescope, using both the regular eyepiece and two other filters to test the filter and try and get better clarity. We tried to look at Saturn, but once the telescope was lined up only a few people managed to get a look before it clouded over permanently.

Constellations we saw included Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Taurus, Auriga, Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, and Cepheus. Stars were Rigel, Saiph, Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, Bellatrix, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, El Nath, Capella, Castor, Pollux, Procyon, Sirius, and Polaris.

We also decided that we need to buy more working red lights so we can see what we're doing without ruining our night vision.

Since we could observe tonight, there won't be any observing tomorrow, January 20.

Meeting: Tuesday, January 9th

2007-01-09T23:04:00.000-05:00

Full moons are on 2/2, 3/3, 4/1, and 4/29 this spring, so we've scheduled events around them this semester, including observing at both Weaver and Hocking Hills. They will be listed in the Upcoming Activities section of the club webpage by the end of Wednesday.

There are several out-of-town trips that the club could go on. Email Dr Fleisch if you are interested in any of these.

One-weekend trips would take place over the weekend of March 23rd. The possibilities are:
Cleveland: the museum, an arboreum, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, any other events. Transportation would be Wittvans or individual cars, and if we make it a one-day trip the only cost would be food and admission to places other than the museum. For a two-day trip, a hotel would cost an additional $50 per person, plus food.
Chicago: the Adler planetarium, the Field Museum, the aquarium, the art institute, and many many other things that Chicago has to offer. Transportation would be a one or two night stay, leaving Friday evening for a two-night and Saturday morning for a one-night. Hotel would be approximately $60 per person.
Washington DC: the National Air and Space Museum is the main attraction. It would be a two-night trip at $60 per person with about $250 in airfare.
New York City: the Hayden Planetarium, other NYC attractions. Another two-night stay, $250 airfare, $70 per night per person in hotel costs.

These multiple-day trips would take place over spring break, which is March 5-9.

Lick Observatory is near San Francisco. The club would be able to get time to take data and make observations on one of the big telescopes, and it would be a 4-5 day trip. Cost would be about $450 for airfare, $300 for five days of rooms, and another $30 to rent cars or a van.
Scotland and England would take up pretty much all of break, leaving the first Friday night from Cincinnati and flying to London, where it would be a 3-4 day stay, seeing attractions such as Greenwich Observatory and Stonehenge. After that, there would be a 3-4 day stay in Edinburgh for the sights in Scotland, and the club would try to fly back to Cincy out of Edinburgh. It will probably cost around $700 in airfare, $700 in lodging, and $250 for a rail pass to travel.

With any of these trips, no one is required to stay with the group for all or any of the time, so if you want to go with the club and then visit different attractions, that's possible too.

If you are interested in helping read through and summarize the documents about Weaver's history which were recently recovered, email Nick (s08.ngladman).

We're still working on the Friday night lecture series (which may or may not actually be on Friday nights). If you have any ideas at all for how the series should be marketed to the campus and Springfield communities, possible topics for lectures, or anything else related to the series, email them Nick (s08.ngladman) and also Dr. Fleisch.

The meetings for the spring semester will be on February 6th, March 13th, April 3rd, and May 1st. The Meetings section of the club webpage will be updated with the date, time, and location of the coming meeting each month. At the current time they are all at 9:30 in room 319 of the BDK building, as they've been all this year.

Meeting: Tuesday, December 5

2006-12-05T23:01:00.000-05:00

We discussed the NASA exhibit at the Springfield Museum of Art. If you have a chance, definitely check it out- it's a great exhibit with some neat things, and it runs through December 16th. We also discussed NASA's current proposal to begin a new series of moon missions, basically replicating the Apollo program of the sixties, and how this course of action compares to that proposed by Robert Zubrin and the Mars Society. For next semester, we will of course have more observing sessions and tours in Weaver, as well as another trip to Hocking Hills in March or April, when it's warmer. Another warm-weather project would be to visit Mercy St John's hospital with some telescopes and a group of students. It would involve visiting and talking about astronomy with patients who are extremely ill, many of whom are not mobile, and a visit by students would be really appreciated by them. The club is also considering a trip to Chicago or New York; comparative prices will be available when plans solidify. Any student who knows about an area of astronomy, or wants to study one more in-depth, and is willing to give a five to ten minute talk at one of the talks Dr. Fleisch gives to community groups is welcome to do so. Contact Dr. Fleisch for more details if this is something you might be interested in. The club is working to create a Friday night lecture series, which would be a scientific lecture accessible to non-scientists on a monthly basis. If you would like to help or have any ideas about ways to get people to attend or topics people would find interesting, email an astronomy club officer or Dr. Fleisch. Also, with the recovery of many of the documents detailing Weaver's history, the club needs to find some way to get this information out. The current plan is to gather a group of students, give each one just a few files, and then students will read and summarize their files, to get the information out into the world without overwhelming any one person. This will not happen at our first meeting in January, but will probably be scheduled then.

Meeting: Tuesday, November 7

2006-11-07T23:03:00.000-05:00

The club approved the purchase of a SkyScout for club use. The observing which was cancelled earlier in the semester will be rescheduled in the spring. The links of sites we looked at during the meeting are here for the data-matching on the extrasolar planet search(or here for the less cryptic page), and here for the site on black holes. We also found out some information about the recently recovered documents chronicling the history of the observatory, especially its early years; watch for a new page to the site detailing some of this information and its loss and retrieval in the next few months. Quick facts: the observatory was dedicated by famous astronomer Heber Curtis, the cost of the telescope was $8910, and many famous astronomer were written to for advice on things like who should manufacture the dome or the telescope. The club is also considering sponsoring a public showing of the movie A Brief History of Time.

Observing: Friday, November 3

2006-11-03T18:09:00.000-05:00

An 8:00pm observing session in Weaver Observatory. Lots of Circle K members from many different universities came (even though it was really cold), and everyone got to see something. Outside, the sky was clear but the moon was just a couple days shy of full, meaning that a large portion of the sky was washed out. The Summer Triangle is on its way down, so as the night went on the people viewing Albireo through the telescope had to climb higher and higher on the stairs to see it. In the east, Auriga and Taurus are rising toward the middle of the evening, while later, around eleven, Orion is just visible over the chapel. Click here for a guide to the more obvious winter constellations or here for a guide to winter Messier objects.

Trunk-or-Treat: Saturday, October 28

2006-10-28T18:11:00.000-05:00

We saw lots of kids at this event, which was fun although extremely windy. Pictures of the club's car are on the images page, under activities.

Observing: Saturday, October 21

2006-10-21T18:10:00.000-05:00

Some dark sky observing in Hocking Hills. The sky at Hocking Hills was extremely impressive, dark enough that you could easily see the Milky Way with the naked eye. There were so many stars that it was sometimes a little difficult to pick out familiar constellations. Some people saw shooting stars, and everyone got to see constellations like Sagitta, Delphinus, Aquila, Lyra, Cygnus, Auriga, Taurus, Cassiopeia, Pisces, Ursa Minor, Pegasus, Cepheus, Andromeda, Perseus, and Draco; a few people saw Sagittarius before it set. An interesting easily visible star was Fomalhaut, in Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish: it's a southern constellation that is only occasionally visible at Wittenberg because of light pollution from Springfield. Along with Fomalhaut, Albireo, Altair, Vega, Alpheratz, Polaris, Capella, Aldebaran, El Nath, Phercad, Kochab, Mirfak, Algol, Rastaban, Eltanin, and Thuban were up. The Pleiades were also up, and we looked at Albireo through the telescope. A fun fact about Polaris, Thuban, and Vega all being visible at the same time: due to the wobble of the Earth's axis as it spins, called precession, Polaris has not always been the North Star. Thuban was the most recent one before Polaris, and Vega is next in line for the honor. Read more about precession here. Sadly, clouds moved in after an hour or so, and we didn't get to see fainter Messier objects like the Ring Nebula or later-rising constellations like Gemini and Orion. Thanks to everyone who drove and to the Reno family for hosting us.

Meeting: Tuesday, October 10

2006-10-10T23:08:00.000-05:00

We discussed Eris and Dysnomia, the dwarf planet and its moon formerly known as Xena and Gabrielle. We also looked at the research of the most recent Nobel Laureates, who won for research related to the big bang- click the link for biographies and details of the reseach of the newest winners. Dr. Lewis graciously allowed us to take a look at his new SkyScout and see how it would have been in action had it not been cloudy out. We did some more planning for upcoming events, and all members are encouraged to submit ideas for future events and trips.

Homecoming Observing: Saturday, October 7

2006-10-07T18:14:00.000-05:00

The moon was still bright enough to wash out stars, but since it wasn't completely full as it was the previous night, there were some craters along the edge of the moon that made for interesting viewing. Even with the moon, the sky was clear enough to see Delphinus, the dolphin, and Sagitta, the arrow, two constellations in the area of the Summer Triangle that weren't visible Friday night. There were also two shooting stars visible during the initial viewing session on the deck, in the general vicinity of Hercules and Ophiuchus in the western sky. Click here to learn more about falling stars.

Homecoming Observing: Friday, October 6

2006-10-06T23:17:00.000-05:00

While it was very clear, unlike the last session, the moon was as full as it could get, washing out a good part of the visible stars. While we did view the moon through the telescope, its lack of a terminator (the line between light and dark) meant that there wasn't much in the way of defined craters or mountains. We also had the opportunity to hear from the husband of a returning alumna; he was actually at the meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague where the vote on Pluto was taken. Here is a brief article about the Pluto vote.

Observing: Saturday, September 16

2006-09-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

It was hazier than we would have liked, but we got a look at the Ring Nebula (M-57, an exploded star) and Albireo (a double star in Cygnus) through the telescope. We also saw a few constellations from the observing deck.