AEA Astronomy Club
Newsletter August 2014
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 3
Astronomy News p. 10
General Calendar p.11
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 11
Observing p. 13
Useful Links p. 14
About the Club p. 15
Club News & Calendar.
Calendar
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 3
Astronomy News p. 10
General Calendar p.11
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 11
Observing p. 13
Useful Links p. 14
About the Club p. 15
Club News & Calendar.
Calendar
Club Meeting
Schedule:
|
21 Aug 2014
|
Club Meeting
|
Cancelled
(vacation)
|
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18 Sept
|
Club Meeting
|
A Tour
of the new Aerospace E POD (A6) Telescope & Facility
|
Richard Rudy
|
Gather in A6 Lobby
then to E Pod
|
AEA Astronomy Club meetings are on 3rd Thursdays at 11:45am. For all of 2014 except May, the meeting room is A1/1735.
News:
This
month (August) the club will take a day of vacation instead of our usual monthly
meeting. Hopefully the A6 EPod telescope
tour will be Sept. 18.
Preliminary
reports from the Aug. 5 observing night at the Mt. Wilson 60-inch telescope are very
favorable. Here is a link to photos
taken by Paul Rousseau: https://www.flickr.com/gp/15354333@N05/C4YDM9/
and Don Hall: https://www.flickr.com/photos/twobears2/
Alan Olson's report on the August 5 Mt Wilson 60-inch session
Conditions were great. The air was smooth
and we had the clear views for which Mt. Wilson is famous. Even better, a
marine layer crept in over the course of the night until by the time we left
most of the city was covered. We still had the moon to contend with, but
on the upside it made for a great viewing target itself.
The objects we looked at:
Mars: Just after sundown it wasn't the best conditions, but Mars was pretty clear and I was pretty sure I could make out a polar ice cap.
Saturn: Gorgeous! Bands visible in the atmosphere, the Cassini division clearly visible, and four moons strung out - three to one side and Titan alone on the other. A fifth moon was visible right next to the rings with averted vision.
NGC 6826 (Blinking Planetary): I didn't see this one as we went out to watch an Iridium flare.
Moon: More like one small patch of the moon. Only a couple of big craters could be seen in the eyepiece. The detail was incredible. Our docent attached his camera and took some pictures.
Messier 13 (Hercules Cluster): Always a great object. Filled the eyepiece, and resolved nearly down to the core.
NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula): Bright and green. Our docent took some pictures of this one too. This proved a little difficult to pull off. The nebula didn't show up on the camera's preview, and he had to go old school with the viewfinder. Getting the nebula centered and focused was a little challenging. In the end he got some pretty good shots.
M 57 (Ring Nebula): Stood out clearly, but no color, and while I thought I could see the central star with averted vision I couldn't be sure it wasn't just wishful thinking.
Epsilon 1 Lyrae (Double Double): Split the double double clearly.
Beta 1 Cygni (Alberio): Blue and gold binary star. Colors clear and bright.
NGC 7331: They broke their guidelines by looking at this galaxy. It is a bright spiral seen nearly edge-on. All we could see was an elliptical blob with no obvious details. Averted vision allowed me to see some hints of structure, but I couldn't see a definite spiral.
NGC 7662 (Blue Snowball Nebula): A fuzzy blue ball that showed an internal ring with averted vision.
Messier 15: Smaller and less spectacular than Messier 13, but a lovely object.
Neptune: A small geen disc with Triton hovering nearby. I've never seen Neptune resolve as anything other than a green dot, and it was a great way to end the session.
Alan
The objects we looked at:
Mars: Just after sundown it wasn't the best conditions, but Mars was pretty clear and I was pretty sure I could make out a polar ice cap.
Saturn: Gorgeous! Bands visible in the atmosphere, the Cassini division clearly visible, and four moons strung out - three to one side and Titan alone on the other. A fifth moon was visible right next to the rings with averted vision.
NGC 6826 (Blinking Planetary): I didn't see this one as we went out to watch an Iridium flare.
Moon: More like one small patch of the moon. Only a couple of big craters could be seen in the eyepiece. The detail was incredible. Our docent attached his camera and took some pictures.
Messier 13 (Hercules Cluster): Always a great object. Filled the eyepiece, and resolved nearly down to the core.
NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula): Bright and green. Our docent took some pictures of this one too. This proved a little difficult to pull off. The nebula didn't show up on the camera's preview, and he had to go old school with the viewfinder. Getting the nebula centered and focused was a little challenging. In the end he got some pretty good shots.
M 57 (Ring Nebula): Stood out clearly, but no color, and while I thought I could see the central star with averted vision I couldn't be sure it wasn't just wishful thinking.
Epsilon 1 Lyrae (Double Double): Split the double double clearly.
Beta 1 Cygni (Alberio): Blue and gold binary star. Colors clear and bright.
NGC 7331: They broke their guidelines by looking at this galaxy. It is a bright spiral seen nearly edge-on. All we could see was an elliptical blob with no obvious details. Averted vision allowed me to see some hints of structure, but I couldn't see a definite spiral.
NGC 7662 (Blue Snowball Nebula): A fuzzy blue ball that showed an internal ring with averted vision.
Messier 15: Smaller and less spectacular than Messier 13, but a lovely object.
Neptune: A small geen disc with Triton hovering nearby. I've never seen Neptune resolve as anything other than a green dot, and it was a great way to end the session.
Alan
We’re still looking into scheduling another Mt.
Wilson 60-inch session maybe in the Fall (we’ll
see what our AEA budget allocation is).
Also, We’re also checking on the possibility of using
Aerospace’s new 0.8m telescope at Mt. Wilson.
Another report from Jim Edwards:
Edwards’ Procedural &
Observing Report:
Night of 7/30/14 – 8/1/14
·
Started
about 10pm
o
no
wind, approx 70° (dropping), patchy clouds clearing completely by 11:30, fine
seeing
·
First
use of Meade 10” SCT since dismantling to clean front corrector plate and
primary mirror.
o
lots
of preparation with cleaning solutions, materials, tools, etc
o
easier
than expected, especially after all the horror stories I read on the i’net
·
Had
spent an hour or so during the week writing set-up and operations procedures
o
too
many times have I forgotten to do something and had to take much apart to
correct
o
some
steps are complicated and I forget exactly what to do
·
Did
a bottom-up “fresh” set-up on my roof deck of all equipment in new location
o
hoping
to be able to leave my system in place (and polar aligned), at least for the
summer & fall
o
leveled
tripod; added mount, comm’ed to laptop,
and polar aligned using EQMOD toolè tight; added weights (forgot once- disaster!); attached OTA, etc
o
test
fit new “slide off” shelter that I had finished the previous day--- adequate
·
Worried
about collimation of optics after disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly
o
aimed
at bright star Arcturus with 25mm eyepiece, saw nothing--- oh no!
o
used
my longest eyepiece (40mm) hoping I simply wasn’t centered on the star--- still
nothing
o
then
remembered that primary mirror had been moved all the way back in the tube so
as to disconnect the focusing assembly
o
used
focus knob to return mirror to mid-range positionè focus!
o
installed
highest power eyepiece (4.5 mm) and defocussed slightly to examine Airy diskè collimation was already
amazingly good! Only minor tweaking to
secondary mirror was needed (ala “Bob’s Knobs” on corrector plate).
·
Centered
Arcturus in eyepiece (switched to 16 mm Nagler for all subsequent viewing)
o
aligned
finder scope, Telrad, and green laser pointer correspondingly
o
synced
EQMOD’s s/w to Arcturus as first star for “3 Star (polar) Alignment”
======
Now to work!
·
Wanted
to inspect Landolt stars near zenith (for future photometric efforts) so slewed
to nearby Vega (high overhead)
o
checked
focus after slew--- little/no primary mirror shift, no adjustment needed
o
used
as second star for “3 Star (polar) Alignment”
o
note:
all subsequent goto’s (all in this approx region) were “spot on”, nearly centered
in 16mm Nagler eyepiece
·
Slewed
to highest grouping of Landolts west of meridian (to avoid mount “flip”)
o
shortly
after midnight
o
SA
111-209 (magn 10.60): RA 19° 37.904’ / Dec 0° 26.437 (J2000)
§ confirmed with very nearby
SA 111-1969 (magn 10.38)
§ note: had little trouble
viewing very nearby SA 111-1965 (magn 11.41), aided by averted vision
·
Slewed
to asteroid “39 Laetitia” (approx 12:30 am)
o
candidate
for my first photometric data collection
o
currently
magn 9.57--- very easily seen
o
confirmed
location wrt 3 other stars (magn 7.53, 7.37, and 10.12)
·
Did
a couple of quick “safari hunt” slews to popular objects (note: did not
allow for dark vision to kick in)
o
Dumbbell
Nebula (M27)- hazy amorphous cloud, no discernable “dumbbell” shape
o
Ring
Nebula (M57)- easily identified as a ring, some annular structure discernable
o
M92
(globular cluster)- ??? couldn’t see
o
Hercules
(globular) Cluster (M3)- easily identified circular cloud, radial Gaussian
distribution very evident, individual stars not visually discernable
·
Did
not hook up club’s ATIK imager this time
·
Wrapped
up around 1:30
o
slid
new shelter over telescope, pretty easy
Astronomy
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month
(from
Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html) 
Rosetta's
Rendezvous
Image Credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team; MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Explanation: On August
3rd, the Rosetta spacecraft's narrow angle camera captured this stunning image of the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After
10 years and 6.5 billion kilometers of travel along gravity assist trajectories looping throughinterplanetary space, Rosetta had
approached to within 285 kilometers of its target. The curious double-lobed shape of the nucleus is revealed in amazing
detail at an
image resolution of 5.3 meters per pixel. About 4 kilometers across, the comet
nucleus is presently just over 400 million kilometers from Earth, between the
orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Now the first
spacecraft to
achieve a delicate orbit around a comet, Rosetta will swing to
within 50 kilometers and closer in the coming weeks, identifiying candidate
sites for landing its probe Philae later this year.Image Credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team; MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Tomorrow's
picture: island universe
Video: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140721.html 2014 July
21
Spacecraft
Rosetta Shows Comet has Two Components
Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team; MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Explanation: Why does
this comet's nucleus have two components? The surprising discovery that Comet
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has a
double nucleus came late last week as ESA's
robotic interplanetary spacecraft Rosetta continued its approach
toward the ancient comet's core. Speculative ideas on how the double core was created include,
currently, that Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko is actually the result of the merger of two
comets, that the comet is a loose pile of rubble pulled apart by tidal forces, that
ice evaporation on the comet has been asymmetric, or that the comet has
undergone some sort of explosive event. Pictured above, the
comet's unusual 5-km sized comet nucleus is seen rotating over the course of a
few hours, with each frame taken 20-minutes apart. Better images -- and
hopefully more refined theories -- are expected as Rosetta is on track to enter orbit around Comet
Churyumov–Gerasimenko's nucleus early next month, and by the end of the year, if
possible, land a probe on it.Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team; MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
M106
Across the Spectrum
Image Credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / Caltech / P.Ogle et al.,
Optical - NASA/STScI, IR - NASA/JPL-Caltech, Radio - NSF/NRAO/VLA
Explanation: The
spiral arms of bright, active galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiwavelength portrait,
composed of image data from radio to X-rays, across the electromagnetic spectrum. Also
known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward the northern
constellation Canes Venatici. The well-measured distance
to M106 is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 60,000
light-years across. Typical in grand spiral galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful
star clusters, and star forming regions trace spiral arms that converge on a bright nucleus. But this
composite highlights two anomalous arms in radio (purple) and X-ray (blue) that seem
to arise in the central region of M106, evidence of energetic jets of material blasting into
the galaxy's disk. The jets are likely powered by matter falling into a massive central black
hole.Image Credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / Caltech / P.Ogle et al.,
Optical - NASA/STScI, IR - NASA/JPL-Caltech, Radio - NSF/NRAO/VLA
3D
Homunculus Nebula
Science Credit: W. Steffen (UNAM), M. Teodoro, T.I. Madura,
J.H. Groh, T.R. Gull, A. Mehner, M.F. Corcoran, A. Damineli, K. Hamaguchi
Image Credit: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center/SVS - Inset: NASA, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Explanation: If you're looking for something to print with that new 3D printer, try out a copy of
the Homunculus Nebula. The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year
across but is slightly scaled down for
printing to about
1/4 light-nanosecond or 80 millimeters. The full scale Homunculus
surrounds Eta Carinae, famously unstable massive stars in a binary system embedded in
the extensive Carina Nebula about 7,500 light-years distant. Between 1838
and 1845, Eta Carinae underwent the Great Eruption becoming the second
brightest star in planet Earth's night sky and ejecting the Homunculus Nebula. The new 3D model of the still expanding Homunculus was created
by exploring the
nebula with the European Southern Observatory's VLT/X-Shooter. That instrument
is capable of mapping the velocity of molecular hydrogen gas through the
nebula's dust at a fine resolution. It reveals trenches, divots and
protrusions, even in the dust obscured regions that face away from Earth. Eta Carinae itself still undergoes violent outbursts, a
candidate to explode in a spectacular supernova in the next few million years.Science Credit: W. Steffen (UNAM), M. Teodoro, T.I. Madura,
J.H. Groh, T.R. Gull, A. Mehner, M.F. Corcoran, A. Damineli, K. Hamaguchi
Image Credit: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center/SVS - Inset: NASA, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Astronomy
News:
Solar System Evolution: Peering Back
at the Sun's Cosmic Womb
By Mike
Wall, Senior Writer | August 07, 2014 02:01pm ET
[from www.Space.com]
|
|
 &media=http://i.space.com/images/i/000/041/240/original/protoplanetary-disc-art-1.jpg?1407426751&description=This%20illustration%20depicts%20a%20protoplanetary%20disc%20around%20a%20newborn%20star.){kind=small} This illustration depicts a protoplanetary disc
around a newborn star.Credit: University  of Copenhagen/Lars Buchhave |
Astronomers have traced the
growth of Earth's solar system back to its cosmic womb, before the sun and
planets were born.
The solar system coalesced from a huge cloud of dust and gas that was isolated from the
rest of the Milky Way
galaxy for up
to 30 million years before the sun's birth nearly 4.6 billion years ago, a new
study published online today (Aug. 7) in the journal Science suggests. This
cloud spawned perhaps tens of thousands of other stars as well, researchers
said.
of dust and gas that was isolated from the
rest of the Milky Way
galaxy for up
to 30 million years before the sun's birth nearly 4.6 billion years ago, a new
study published online today (Aug. 7) in the journal Science suggests. This
cloud spawned perhaps tens of thousands of other stars as well, researchers
said.
If further work confirms these findings, "we will have the
proof that planetary systems can survive very well early interactions with many
stellar siblings," said lead author Maria Lugaro, of Monash University in
Australia. [Take Our
Solar System Quiz]
"In general, becoming more intimate with the stellar
nursery where the sun was born can help us [set] the sun within the context of
the other billions of stars that are born in our galaxy, and the solar system
within the context of the large family of extrasolar planetary
systems that
are currently being discovered," Lugaro told Space.com via email.
of extrasolar planetary
systems that
are currently being discovered," Lugaro told Space.com via email.
A star is born
Radiometric dating of meteorites has given scientists a precise
age for the solar system — 4.57 billion years, give or take a few hundred
thousand years. (The sun formed first, and the planets then
coalesced from the disk of leftover material orbiting our star.)
But Lugaro and her colleagues wanted to go back even further in
time, to better understand how and when the solar
system started
taking shape.
This can be done by estimating the isotope abundances of certain
radioactive elements known to be present throughout the Milky Way when the
solar system was forming, and then comparing those abundances to the ones seen
in ancient meteorites. (Isotopes are versions of an element that have different
numbers of neutrons in their atomic nuclei.)
Because radioactive materials decay from one isotope to another
at precise rates, this
information allows researchers to determine when the cloud that formed the
solar system segregated out from the greater galaxy — that is, when it
ceased absorbing newly produced material from the interstellar medium.
, this
information allows researchers to determine when the cloud that formed the
solar system segregated out from the greater galaxy — that is, when it
ceased absorbing newly produced material from the interstellar medium.
Estimating radioisotope abudances throughout the Milky Way long
ago is a tall order and involves complex computer modeling of how stars evolve, generate
heavy elements in their interiors and eventually eject these materials into
space, Lugaro said.
modeling of how stars evolve, generate
heavy elements in their interiors and eventually eject these materials into
space, Lugaro said.
But she and her team made a key breakthrough, coming up with a
better understanding of the nuclear structure of one radioisotope known as
hafnium-181. This advance led the researchers to a much improved picture of how
hafnium-182 — a different isotope whose abundances in the early solar system
are well known — is created inside stars.
"I think our main advantage has been to be a team of
experts in different fields: stellar astrophysics, nuclear physics, and
meteoritic and planetary science so we have managed to exchange information
effectively," Lugaro said.
A long-lasting stellar nursery
The team's calculations suggest that the solar system's raw
materials were isolated for a long time before the sun formed — perhaps as long
as 30 million years.
"Considering that it took less than 100 million years for
the terrestrial planets to form, this incubation time seems astonishingly
long," Martin Bizzarro, of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, wrote
in an accompanying "Perspectives" piece in the same issue of Science.
Bizzarro, like Lugaro, thinks the new results could have application far beyond our neck of the cosmic woods.
far beyond our neck of the cosmic woods.
"With the anticipated discovery of Earthlike
planets in
habitable zones, the development of a unified model for the formation and
evolution of our solar system is timely," Bizarro wrote. "The study
of Lugaro et al. nicely illustrates that the integration of astrophysics,
astronomy and cosmochemistry is the quickest route toward this challenging
goal."
The researchers plan to investigate other heavy radioactive
elements to confirm and refine their timing estimates, Lugaro said.
The abstract of the new study can be found
here, while this link leads to the abstract of Bizzarro's
companion piece.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow
us@Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com
General
Calendar:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia: Carnegie
(Tues. 4pm), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena
(daily 12-4pm): http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/
|
1
Aug
|
7:30PM
SBAS
Monthly General Meeting
Topic: What is Remotely
Possible
Speaker: John Hoot
|
|
11 Aug
|
LAAS
LAAS General Meeting.
|
Griffith
Observatory
Event Horizon Theater 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM |
Aug.
14 & 15 The von Kármán
Lecture Series: 2014
Curiosity's
Second Year: The Epic and Occasionally Bogus Journey to the Foothills of Mt.
Sharp
Curiosity, the rover that
successfully landed on Mars in early August, 2012, has been busy refining how
we think of Mars as a habitable planet. Gale Crater has presented the rover
with rich new landscapes to study, such as ancient streambeds and shifting sand
dunes. In July, 2013, Curiosity set off toward the 3-mile-high Mt. Sharp, where
layers of ancient rock may hold clues to the environment of early Mars. The
journey is nearing its end, but has not been without challenges. This talk will
reveal some of the latest results from the last year of the mission and discuss
the obstacles that the team has overcome along the way.
|
Speaker:
|
Dr. Ashwin Vasavada, MSL
Deputy Project Scientist.
|
|
Locations:
|
Thursday,
Aug 14, 2014, 7pm The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA › Directions Friday, Aug 15, 2014, 7pm The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College 1570 East Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA › Directions |
|
|
Webcast:
|
We offer
two options to view the live streaming of our webcast on Thursday: › 1) Ustream with real-time web chat to take public questions. › 2) Flash Player with open captioning If you don't have Flash Player, you can download for free here. |
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21 Aug 2014
|
Club Meeting
|
Cancelled
(vacation)
|
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Observing:
The
following data are from the 2014 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s
2014 Skygazer’s Almanac & monthly Sky at a Glance.
Current
sun & moon rise/set/phase data for L.A.:
http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/usa/los-angeles
A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night
sky: www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.
Sun,
Moon & Planets for July:
Moon: Aug 4 1st
quarter, Aug 10 full, Aug 17 last quarter, Aug25 new
Planets: Mercury is at superior conjunction Aug 8, so not visible most of the month. Venus is visible in ENE dawn twilight. Jupiter reappears in ENE
morning twilight mid-month. Saturn
is in the SW evening sky, setting late evening, and Mars in
the SW evening sky.
Other
Events:
|
2
Aug
|
Public
Star Party: Griffith
Observatory Grounds 2-10pm
|
12/13 August Perseids Meteor Shower peak
|
16
Aug
|
SBAS Saturday Night In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at Ridgecrest Middle School– 28915 North Bay Rd. RPV, Weather Permitting:
Please contact Greg Benecke to confirm that the gate will be opened! http://www.sbastro.net/
|
18 August before Sunrise Venus Passes within 0.2 Degrees
of Jupiter
Look low in the eastern sky
before sunrise to see a close pairing of these two planets. They may
even be visible in daylight
with a telescope.
|
23
Aug
|
SBAS
out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke http://www.sbastro.net/.
|
|
?
|
LAAS Dark Sky Night : Lockwood Valley
(Steve
Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)
|
29 August Neptune at Opposition
|
30
Aug
|
Public
Star Party: Griffith
Observatory Grounds 2-10pm
|
31 Aug Saturn 0.4 deg S of Moon, occultation in eastern
USA
Internet
Links:
Link(s) of the Month
Link(s) of the Month
A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night
sky: www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.
Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying
Guides
General
About
the Club
Club Websites: Internal (Aerospace): https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club It is updated to reflect this newsletter, in addition to a listing of past club mtg. presentations, astronomy news, photos & events from prior newsletters, club equipment, membership & constitution. We have linked some presentation materials from past mtgs. Our club newsletters are also being posted to an external blog, “An Astronomical View” http://astronomicalview.blogspot.com/.
Club Websites: Internal (Aerospace): https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club It is updated to reflect this newsletter, in addition to a listing of past club mtg. presentations, astronomy news, photos & events from prior newsletters, club equipment, membership & constitution. We have linked some presentation materials from past mtgs. Our club newsletters are also being posted to an external blog, “An Astronomical View” http://astronomicalview.blogspot.com/.
Membership. For information, current dues & application, contact Alan Olson, or see the club website (or Aerolink folder) where a form is also available (go to the membership link/folder & look at the bottom). Benefits will include use of club telescope(s) & library/software, membership in The Astronomical League, discounts on Sky & Telescope magazine and Observer’s Handbook, field trips, great programs, having a say in club activities, acquisitions & elections, etc.
Committee Suggestions & Volunteers. Feel free to contact: Mark Clayson, President & Program Committee Chairman (& acting club VP), TBD Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Alan Olson, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President
