AEA Astronomy Club
Newsletter October
2016
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 6
Astronomy News p. 10
General Calendar p. 16
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 16
Observing p. 19
Useful
Links p. 20
About the Club p.
21
Club News &
Calendar.
Club Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
6 Oct
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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Pizza & Online Astronomy videos
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(A1/1735)
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3 Nov
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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“The Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center,” Breann
Sitarsky, Aerospace
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(A1/1735)
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AEA
Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st Thursdays at 11:45 am. For all of 2016, the meeting room is A1/1735.
Club
News:
Mt. Wilson Reports:
Paul Rousseau:
The observation time on the
60-inch telescope was awesome. The clarity was much better from what I remember
from the previous trips and we caught Saturn which was amazing. The gentlemen
running the telescope did a great job educating the group and providing a ton
of insight and history on for what we were observing. You should be receiving
an email from them with a list of all the objects observed. I would greatly
appreciate getting a copy.
My carpool was late to for
MAFIOT tour, mostly due to our own fault for not just driving right through the
gate and parking by the 60-inch telescope. We successfully arrived just before
5:00 PM, but took 30 minutes to figure out where we needed to park and find the
tour. Nonetheless, we got there just in time to walk around and view the
hardware, so that was good.
Unfortunately, our Mt Wilson
docent (Tim from LAAS was scheduled) never arrived, so the group stood around
waiting in the parking lot and eating their dinner. Eventually, the two
gentlemen running the 60-inch telescope provided us a quick tour of the
100-inch telescope which everyone seemed to enjoy very much. We also got to see
inside the control room of the CHARA interferometer where some folks were doing
research. That was special since tours normally don’t get inside there.
Overall, I think it was an
outstanding success and I heard comments that folks are wanting to sign up for
the next opportunity.
Here is a link to my Flckr album with the photos I took during our
trip to Mt Wilson on 1 September:
Here are my photos from previous tours and observing sessions at
Mt Wilson by our Astronomy club.
2016:
2015:
2014:
2010:
Paul Rousseau
From the Observing Director:
“Here's a list of object that were observed:
- Saturn
- M92
- T Draconis
- NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula)
- Epsilon Lyrae (Double-Double)
- M57 (Ring Nebula)
- Albireo
- PK 64+5.1 (Campbell's Hydrogen Star)
- NGC 6826 (Blinking Planetary Nebula)
- NGC 7009 (Saturn Nebula)
- Neptune (and its moon Triton)
“Last but not least, attached is a picture of the group
standing on the balcony of the 100-inch dome. It was taken by our webcam
mounted on the 150 foot solar tower located here: http://obs.astro.ucla.edu/towercam.htm
William Hatton: “It was a great evening for all of us.
Weather was clear, and viewing was nearly ideal. The Mt Wilson staff were
knowledgeable and articulate. The Mt Wilson staff provided a bonus
feature of allowing us to go into the CHARA array work room and talk to two
researchers who were there. Some photos from the evening are attached.
John
Nocerino: I wanted to share this
photo I took at the Mt. Wilson 2016 event.
Canon S120 Powershot pocket camera, on tripod, 20 second exposure.
Astronomy Video(s)
& Picture(s) of the Month
(from Astronomy
Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
Philae Lander Found on Comet 67P
Image Credit & Copyright: ESA, Rosetta, MPS, OSIRIS;
UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/Navcam
Explanation: A little spacecraft that was presumed lost has now been
found. In 2014, the Philae lander slowly descended from its parent Rosetta spacecraft to the nucleus of Comet
C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
At the surface, after a harpoon malfunction, the lander bounced softly twice and eventually sent
back images from an unknown location. Earlier this month, though, Rosetta swooped low enough to spot
its cub. The meter-sized
Philae is
seen on the far right of the main image,
with inset images showing both a zoom out and a zoom in. At the end of this
month, Rosetta itself will be directed to land on 67P, but Rosetta's landing will be harder
and, although taking unique images and data, will bring the mission to an end.
Explanation: A wide, looping orbit brought Juno close to Jupiter on August
27. As the spacecraft swung around the giant planet's poles JunoCam acquired these premier direct polar
views, a change from the usual nearly equatorial perspective of outbound
spacecraft and the telescopes of planet Earth. The sunlit side of Jupiter's north polar region (left) was imaged about 125,000
kilometers from the cloud tops, two hours before Juno's closest approach. An
hour after close approach the south polar region was captured from 94,500 kilometers
away. Strikingly different from the alternating light-colored zones and darker
belts girdling more familiar equatorial regions, the
polar region clouds appear more convoluted and mottled by many clockwise and counterclockwise rotating
storm systems. Another 35 close orbital flybys are planned during the Juno
mission.
Explanation: The Five-hundred-meter
Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is nestled within a natural basin
in China's remote and mountainous southwestern Guizhou province. Nicknamed
Tianyan, or the Eye of Heaven, the new radio telescope is seen in this photograph taken near the start of its testing phase of
operations on September 25. Designed with an active surface for pointing and
focusing, its enormous dish antenna is constructed with 4,450 individual
triangular-shaped panels. The 500 meter physical diameter of the dish makes FAST the largest filled, single dish radio telescope on planet Earth. FAST will explore the Universe at radio frequencies, detecting emission
from hydrogen gas in the Milky Way and distant galaxies, finding faint galactic
and extragalactic pulsars, and searching for potential radio signals from extraterrestrials.
Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little,
actually. Although oceans
of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The featured illustration shows what would happen if all of the
water on
or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The
radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the
radius of the Earth's
Moon, but slightly larger
than Saturn's moon Rhea which, like many moons in our outer Solar
System, is mostly water ice. How even this muchwater came to be on the
Earth and
whether any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth's surface remain topics of research.
Astronomy
News:
Ripples in Fabric of
Space-time? Hundreds of Undiscovered
Black Holes
New
research shines startling light on star systems that host hundreds of black
holes.
New research by the University of Surrey published today in
the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has
shone light on a globular cluster of stars that could host several hundred
black holes, a phenomenon that until recently was thought impossible.
Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars which
orbit around a galactic centre such as our Milky-way galaxy. Using advanced
computer simulations, the team at the University of Surrey were able to see the
un-see-able by mapping a globular cluster known as NGC 6101, from which the
existence of black holes within the system was deduced. These black holes are a
few times larger than the Sun, and form in the gravitational collapse of
massive stars at the end of their lives. It was previously thought that these
black holes would almost all be expelled from their parent cluster due to the
effects of supernova explosion, during the death of a star.
Hubble Space Telescope Observation of the central region of the Galactic
globular cluster NGC 6101: Compared to the majority of Galactic globular
clusters, NGC 6101 shows a less concentrated distribution of observable stars.
Credit: NASA
"Due to their nature, black holes are impossible to see
with a telescope, because no photons can escape," explained lead author
Miklos Peuten of the University of Surrey. "In order to find them we look
for their gravitational effect on their surroundings. Using observations and
simulations we are able to spot the distinctive clues to their whereabouts and
therefore effectively 'see' the un-seeable."
It is only as recently as 2013 that astrophysicists found
individual black holes in globular clusters via rare phenomena in which a
companion star donates material to the black hole. This work, which was
supported by the European Research Council (ERC), has shown that in NGC 6101
there could be several hundred black holes, overturning old theories as to how
black holes form.
Co-author Professor Mark Gieles, University of Surrey
continued, "Our work is intended to help answer fundamental questions
related to dynamics of stars and black holes, and the recently observed
gravitational waves. These are emitted when two black holes merge, and if our
interpretation is right, the cores of some globular clusters may be where black
hole mergers take place."
The researchers chose to map this particular ancient
globular cluster due to its recently found distinctive makeup, which suggested
that it could be different to other clusters. Compared to other globular
clusters NGC 6101 appears dynamically young in contrast to the ages of the
individual stars. Also the cluster appears inflated, with the core being
under-populated by observable stars.
Using computer simulation, the team recreated every
individual star and black hole in the cluster and their behaviour. Over the
whole lifetime of thirteen billion years the simulation demonstrated how NGC
6101 has evolved. It was possible to see the effects of large numbers of black
holes on the visible stars, and to reproduce what was observed for NGC6101.
From this, the researchers showed that the unexplainable dynamical apparent
youth is an effect of the large black hole population.
"This research is exciting as we were able to
theoretically observe the spectacle of an entire population of black holes
using computer simulations. The results show that globular clusters like NGC
6101, which were always considered boring are in fact the most interesting
ones, possibly each harbouring hundreds of black holes. This will help us to
find more black holes in other globular clusters in the Universe. "
concluded Peuten.
Story Source:
First stars formed even later than
previously thought
Date:
September 2, 2016
Source:
European Space Agency (ESA)
Summary:
ESA's Planck
satellite has revealed that the first stars in the Universe started forming
later than previous observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background indicated.
This new analysis also shows that these stars were the only sources needed to
account for reionising atoms in the cosmos, having completed half of this
process when the Universe had reached an age of 700 million years.
Cosmic reionisation.
Credit: ESA – C. Carreau
Cosmic
reionisation.
Credit: ESA
– C. Carreau
Close
ESA's Planck
satellite has revealed that the first stars in the Universe started forming
later than previous observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background indicated.
This new analysis also shows that these stars were the only sources needed to
account for reionising atoms in the cosmos, having completed half of this
process when the Universe had reached an age of 700 million years.
With the
multitude of stars and galaxies that populate the present Universe, it's hard
to imagine how different our 13.8 billion year cosmos was when it was only a
few seconds old. At that early phase, it was a hot, dense primordial soup of
particles, mostly electrons, protons, neutrinos, and photons -- the particles
of light.
In such a dense
environment the Universe appeared like an 'opaque' fog, as light particles
could not travel any significant distance before colliding with electrons.
As the cosmos
expanded, the Universe grew cooler and more rarefied and, after about 380,000
years, finally became 'transparent'. By then, particle collisions were
extremely sporadic and photons could travel freely across the cosmos.
Today,
telescopes like Planck can observe this fossil light across the entire sky as
the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB. Its distribution on the sky reveals
tiny fluctuations that contain a wealth of information about the history,
composition and geometry of the Universe.
The release of
the CMB happened at the time when electrons and protons joined to form hydrogen
atoms. This is the first moment in the history of the cosmos when matter was in
an electrically neutral state.
After that, a
few hundred million years passed before these atoms could assemble and
eventually give rise to the Universe's first generation of stars.
As these first
stars came to life, they filled their surroundings with light, which
subsequently split neutral atoms apart, turning them back into their
constituent particles: electrons and protons. Scientists refer to this as the
'epoch of reionisation'. It did not take long for most material in the Universe
to become completely ionised, and -- except in a very few, isolated places --
it has been like that ever since.
Observations of
very distant galaxies hosting supermassive black holes indicate that the
Universe had been completely reionised by the time it was about 900 million
years old. The starting point of this process, however, is much harder to
determine and has been a hotly debated topic in recent years.
"The CMB
can tell us when the epoch of reionisation started and, in turn, when the first
stars formed in the Universe," explains Jan Tauber, Planck project
scientist at ESA.
To make this
measurement, scientists exploit the fact that a fraction of the CMB is
polarised: part of the light vibrates in a preferred direction. This results
from CMB photons bouncing off electrons -- something that happened very
frequently in the primordial soup, before the CMB was released, and then again
later, after reionisation, when light from the first stars brought free
electrons back onto the cosmic stage.
"It is in
the tiny fluctuations of the CMB polarisation that we can see the influence of
the reionisation process and deduce when it began," adds Tauber.
A first estimate
of the epoch of reionisation came in 2003 from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), suggesting that this process might have started early
in cosmic history, when the Universe was only a couple of hundred million years
old. This result was problematic, because there is no evidence that any stars
had formed by then, which would mean postulating the existence of other, exotic
sources that could have caused the reionisation at that time.
This first
estimate was soon to be corrected, as subsequent data from WMAP pushed the
starting time to later epochs, indicating that the Universe had not been
significantly reionised until at least some 450 million years into its history.
This eased, but
did not completely solve the puzzle: although the earliest of the first stars
have been observed to be present already when the Universe was 300 to 400
million years old, it remained unclear whether these stars were the main
culprits for reionising fully the cosmos or whether additional, more exotic
sources must have played a role too.
In 2015, the
Planck Collaboration provided new data to tackle the problem, moving the
reionisation epoch even later in cosmic history and revealing that this process
was about half-way through when the Universe was around 550 million years old.
The result was based on Planck's first all-sky maps of the CMB polarisation,
obtained with its Low-Frequency Instrument (LFI).
Now, a new
analysis of data from Planck's other detector, the High-Frequency Instrument
(HFI), which is more sensitive to this phenomenon than any other so far, shows
that reionisation started even later -- much later than any previous data have
suggested.
"The highly
sensitive measurements from HFI have clearly demonstrated that reionisation was
a very quick process, starting fairly late in cosmic history and having
half-reionised the Universe by the time it was about 700 million years
old," says Jean-Loup Puget from Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in
Orsay, France, principal investigator of Planck's HFI.
"These
results are now helping us to model the beginning of the reionisation phase."
"We have
also confirmed that no other agents are needed, besides the first stars, to
reionise the Universe," adds Matthieu Tristram, a Planck Collaboration
scientist at Laboratoire de l'Accélérateur Linéaire in Orsay, France.
The new study
locates the formation of the first stars much later than previously thought on
the cosmic timeline, suggesting that the first generation of galaxies are well
within the observational reach of future astronomical facilities, and possibly
even some current ones.
In fact, it is
likely that some of the very first galaxies have already been detected with
long exposures, such as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field observed with the NASA/ESA
Hubble Space Telescope, and it will be easier than expected to catch many more
with future observatories such as the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.
Story Source:
Materials provided by European Space Agency (ESA).
NASA's WISE, Fermi missions
reveal a surprising blazar connection
NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center/Francesco Massaro, University of Turin
M. Weiss/CfA
Astronomers studying distant
galaxies powered by monster black holes have uncovered an unexpected link
between two very different wavelengths of the light they emit, the mid-infrared
and gamma rays. The discovery, which was accomplished by comparing data from
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Fermi Gamma-ray Space
Telescope, has enabled the researchers to uncover dozens of new blazar
candidates. Francesco Massaro at the University of Turin in Italy and Raffaele
D'Abrusco at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, show for the first time that the mid-infrared colors of blazars
in WISE data correlate to an equivalent measurement of their gamma-ray output.
An analysis of blazar properties observed by
the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Fermi's Large Area Telescope
(LAT) reveal a correlation in emissions from the mid-infrared to gamma rays, an
energy range spanning a factor of 10 billion. When plotted by gamma-ray and
mid-infrared colors, confirmed Fermi blazars (gold dots) form a unique band not
shared by other sources beyond our galaxy. A blue line marks the best fit of
these values. The relationship allows astronomers to identify potential new
gamma-ray blazars by studying WISE infrared data.
"This connection links two
vastly different forms of light over an energy range spanning a factor of 10
billion," said Massaro. "Ultimately, it will help us decipher how
supermassive black holes in these galaxies manage to convert the matter around
them into vast amounts of energy."
Blazars constitute more than half
of the discrete gamma-ray sources seen by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT).
At the heart of a blazar lies a supersized black hole with millions of times
the sun's mass surrounded by a disk of hot gas and dust. As material in the
disk falls toward the black hole, some of it forms dual jets that blast
subatomic particles straight out of the disk in opposite directions at nearly
the speed of light. A blazar appears bright to Fermi for two reasons. Its jets
produce many gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light, and we happen to be
viewing the galaxy face on, which means one of its jets is pointing in our
direction.
From January to August 2010,
NASA's WISE mapped the entire sky in four infrared wavelengths, cataloging more
than half a billion sources. In 2011, Massaro, D'Abrusco and their colleagues
began using WISE data to investigate Fermi blazars.
"WISE made it possible to
explore the mid-infrared colors of known gamma-ray blazars," said
D'Abrusco. "We found that when we plotted Fermi blazars by their WISE
colors in a particular way, they occupied a distinctly different part of the plot
than other extragalactic gamma-ray sources."
The scientists detail new aspects
of the infrared/gamma-ray connection in a paper published in The
Astrophysical Journal on Aug. 9. They say the electrons, protons and other
particles accelerated in blazar jets leave a specific "fingerprint"
in the infrared light they emit. This same pattern is also clearly evident in
their gamma rays. The relationship effectively connects the dots for blazars
across an enormous swath of the electromagnetic spectrum.
About a thousand Fermi sources
remain unassociated with known objects at any other wavelength. Astronomers
suspect many of these are blazars, but there isn't enough information to
classify them. The infrared/gamma-ray connection led the authors to search for
new blazar candidates among WISE infrared sources located within the positional
uncertainties of Fermi's unidentified gamma-ray objects. When the researchers
applied this relationship to Fermi's unknown sources, they quickly found 130
potential blazars. Efforts are now under way to confirm the nature of these
objects through follow-up studies and to search for additional candidates using
the WISE connection.
"About a third of the
gamma-ray objects seen by Fermi remained unknown in the most recent catalog,
and this result represents an important advance in understanding their
natures," said David Thompson, a Fermi deputy project scientist at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
General Calendar:
Colloquia,
Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Carnegie
astronomy lectures
– only 4 per year in the Spring www.obs.carnegiescience.edu. Visit www.huntington.org for directions. For more
information about the Carnegie Observatories or this lecture series, please
contact Reed Haynie. . Click here for more information.
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3 Oct
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Griffith
Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM
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6 Oct
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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Pizza & Online Astronomy videos
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(A1/1735)
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7
Oct
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Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS Monthly General Meeting
in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw
Bl. In Torrance)
Topic: “TBA”
Speaker: Tim Thompson
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16 Oct
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2:30 PM
UCLA Meteorite Gallery Lecture Series
Prof. Hilke Schlichting
Planets around other Stars
Location: Slichter 3853
Time: 2:30PM
Recent observations by the Kepler space telescope have led to
the discovery of more than 4000 exoplanets consisting of many systems with
Earth- to Neptune-sized objects that reside well inside Mercury-like orbits
around their respective host stars. Hilke Schlichting will discuss how and
where these close-in planets formed and will highlight some of the planets
residing in the habitable zone, like Promina Centauri b. She will conclude
with summarizing our prospects for learning more about these systems in the
near future and for assessing their suitability to harbor life. Photo credit:
NASA/JPL
3853 Slichter Hall, 595 Charles E. Young Drive
East, Los Angeles
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October 20 & 21 The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2016
Asteroid Anchors, Rock Climbing Robots,
Gecko Grippers, and Other Ways to Stick in Space
The ability to rove the surface of Mars
has revolutionized JPL missions. With more advanced mobility, new targets like
cliff faces, cave ceilings, and the surfaces of asteroids and comets could be
explored. This talk will present the work of JPL’s Robotic Rapid Prototyping
Lab. This includes grippers for NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission, which plans
to extract a 15-ton boulder from the surface and alter the asteroid’s orbit, a
method that could prevent future impacts to the Earth. The talk will also present
gecko inspired adhesives currently being tested on the International Space
Station, miniaturized robots that can drive across surfaces in zero gravity,
and rock climbing robots traversing giant lava tubes in New Mexico. We will
discuss not only the projects, but the new tools and techniques (3D printers,
computer-aided-design software, miniature electronics) that allow us to build
and iterate robots more quickly than ever before.
Speaker:
Dr. Aaron Parness
Extreme Environment Robotics Group, JPL
3 Nov
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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“The Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center,”
Breann Sitarsky, Aerospace
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(A1/1735)
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4 November Friday Evening 7:30 PM SBAS Monthly General Meeting
Topic: Update on JUNO Speaker: Theo
Clarke, JPL
Observing:
The
following data are from the 2016 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s
2016 Skygazer’s Almanac & monthly Sky at a Glance.
Sun,
Moon & Planets for October:
Moon: Oct 9 1st
quarter, Oct 16 full, Oct 22 last quarter, Oct 30 new
Planets:
Saturn
& Mars are up for a few hours after
sunset. Venus visible
briefly after sunset in the west. Jupiter & Mercury are visible for
an hour or so before sunrise.
Other
Events:
3-9 October Friday
Astronomy Week
Astronomy Day is
a world-wide event observed each spring and fall. The next Astronomy Day this
year is October 8, 2016; Astronomy Day next spring will be May 14, 2016. Local
astronomical societies, planetariums, museums, and observatories will be
sponsoring public viewing sessions, presentations, workshops, and other
activities to increase public awareness about astronomy and our wonderful
universe.
4-10 October World
Space Week Since
its United Nations declaration in 1999, World Space Week has grown into the
largest public space event on Earth. More than 1,800 events in 73 countries
celebrated the benefits of space and excitement about space exploration in
2015. With our new Theme “Remote Sensing – Enabling Our Future” we aim to
inspire even more events around the world in October 2016. See http://www.worldspaceweek.org/ for more
information.
8 Oct
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LAAS
Public Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm
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9 October Draconids
Meteor Shower Peak The
maximum rate typically reaches 1-2 per hour, but outbursts of hundreds or
thousands per hour occurred several times during the 20th century.
5,12,19,26 Oct
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LAAS
The Garvey Ranch Observatory is open to the public every
Wednesday evening from 7:30 PM to 10 PM. Go into the dome to use the 8 Inch
Refractor or observe through one of our telescopes on the lawn. Visit our
workshop to learn how you can build your own telescope, grind your own
mirror, or sign up for our free seasonal astronomy classes.
Call 213-673-7355 for further information.
Time: 7:30
PM - 10:00 PM
Location: Garvey
Ranch Obs. , 781 Orange Ave., Monterey Park, CA 91755
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21 October Orionid
Meteor Shower Peak
The Orionid meteor shower is the second of two showers that occur each year as
a result of Earth passing through dust released by Halley's Comet, with the
first being the Eta Aquarids. The point from where the Orionid meteors appear
to radiate is located within the constellation Orion. Observers in the Northern Hemisphere will see
around 20 meteors per hour at maximum
22 October
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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/
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30
October Venus Passes 3 Degrees from Saturn
Internet
Links:
Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying
Guides
General
Regional
(Southern California, Washington, D.C. & Colorado)
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/.
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
