Meeting: January 8, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

If you have an idea for an astronomy club tshirt/hoodie, remember that designs are due in by Tuesday October 9Update: 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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Celestial Gazing and Lunar Surprising*, August 24

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

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!

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

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!!

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!