I am pleased to announce that Joey Hazan’s Milky Way widefield image from July 26th has been selected as the Image of the Month for August 2014!  Joey used a Canon T3i at ISO 1600 with a 20 second exposure.  This single exposure image was taken on Jon Wood Astronomy Field during the Observing session after the July 26th meeting under some of the clearest skies we’ve seen in several months.  Many of you will recognize Joey as he’s been a frequent visitor to Charlie Elliott events.  Joey formally joined Charlie Elliott Astronomy in June and we’re looking forward to his involvement in chapter activities and events.  Nice work, Joey!

This month’s meeting was held at the Charlie Elliott Conference Center in Conference Room A.  Fifty-one members and visitors attended the meeting.

Steve Siedentop, Chapter Director, convened the gathering by introducing himself and John Towne (Chapter Observing Supervisor) began the monthly ‘What’s Up’ presentation.  After covering a few choice conjunctions and meteor showers, John discussed the Charlie Elliott July Target list, which the following targets in Sagittarius:  M17, M25, M20, M8, M54, and M70.  The Charlie Elliott Astronomy Challenge Object for this month was NGC6822, Barnard’s Galaxy.

Handouts were available to all attendees.  The What’s Up! presentation and handout are also available for download:

What’s Up! Presentation
Charlie Elliott Astronomy Target List

This month’s feature presenter, Dr. Rachel Kuzio de Naray from Georgia State University, was introduced by Steve.  Dr. Kuzio delivered an engaging presentation providing an overview of her research on dark matter.

Steve dismissed the meeting by inviting all to the Jon Wood Observing Field.

Approximately 75 members and visitors enjoyed observing and imaging on Jon Wood Astronomy Field under spectacularly clear skies until the last few diehards left the field just before 4 a.m.

Photos from the event can be viewed here.

This months meeting was held at the Campbell Aquatic Activities Building, Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center near Mansfield Georgia.  Thirty-three members and visitors attended the meeting.

Steve Siedentop, Chapter Director, convened the gathering by introducing himself and then adjourning us to enjoy the quarterly potluck meal.  These Potlucks have become a tradition and one of our most well attended events.  There was plenty of great food and desserts to pick from.

After eating, Steve brought us back to order and introduced John Towne (Chapter Observing Supervisor) for the monthly ‘What’s Up’ presentation.  After pointing out that we were meeting on the day of the Summer Solstice, John centered our mental telescopes on the constellation Hydra and the half dozen key objects it contains including Galaxy M48, Globular Cluster M68, Open Cluster M83, Planetary Nebula NGC 3242, Variable Star Epsilon Hydra and Binary Star Alphard.  John also made mention of the upcoming Conjunctions, Occultation’s and Meteor Showers that will occur in June/July.  This months Observing Challenge is M1-92 (Minkowski 92), AKA the Footprint Nebula.

Handouts were available to all attendees.  John’s presentation is available on the Club’s website.

This month’s feature presenter, Rich Jakiel, was introduced by Steve.  Rich delivered a great presentation on Lunar Geology.  Why observe the moon?  “It is close, unaffected by light pollution and it is up more than half the month”.  What followed was a complete run down of examples of different geological features on the moon.  Each was accompanied by photographic examples captured by Rich.   The presentation is posted on the clubs web site.

Steve dismissed the meeting by inviting all to the Jon Wood Observing Field.

Approximately 25 optimistic attendees and visitors continued to socialize and talk astronomy over the 9 set-up telescopes while waiting on the clouds to part.

Here is an self explanatory email from Rusty Garisson, the Program Manager at CEWC about our recent outreach:

Theo, Thank you very much for coming out the last two weeks to conduct programs for us at CEWC. I am not sure what you did with the children this last week but you certainly made an impression. We asked a question on the evaluation: “Were there any speakers you would particularly like to see again?” We have 18 different speakers throughout the week but you rated as the top speaker! The next closest was the bat speaker. So, whatever you did, keep it up!
Again, thanks for your assistance.
Rusty Garrison
Program Manager, Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, Nongame Conservation Section

Thanks to Dan for coming out and helping me.

Dan Schmitt and I went to CEWC yesterday evening to broaden the knowledge of astronomy for the 20 kids that participated in the Summer Camp. Cloudy skies and rain, so we could not observe the sky from the JWF. However for two hours we had them participate in our astronomical activities, and we went on a trip through the Solar System visiting many planets and their moons. They learned a lot and based on their smiley faces they liked the evening session while they made a to scale model f the solar system, learned about how we can escape the gravity of Earth and how we search for asteroids and determine if rocks come out of space or are Earth rocks. A very rewarding evening for us! I forgot my camera, so today no pictures of the event. Thanks Dan for helping out!
Theo Ramakers

Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center organized the Outdoor Wildlife Leadership School workshop at CEWC for members of different locations of the Department of Natural Resources in Georgia. Of course if it is CEWC, astronomy is part of the curriculum. So we went to show these leaders what we do. It was clouded when we started, so we did our inside presentations and as time went on, the skies started to break open allowing us to go to the JWF to show them what we wanted to show them. Transparency stayed bad but they got a pretty good look at Saturn, Mars, the ring nebula, the great cluster in Hercules, M4 and M7 as well as the double stars Mizar and Albireo and learned a lot about the summer constellations. They all loved it. Thanks to Jim Lancaster and his wife, Jon and Marilyn Edwards, Dan Schmitt, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers to participate in this great event.
Theo

I had the opportunity to show Josh O’Brien how we image the Sun, and to prove that he learned what I was talking about he made an image himself. After capturing the raw avi, we went inside and I showed how we process the data. Here is Josh’s image captured by him and also processed by him in AV2 and Photoshop. Well done Josh!!! I love it when these students really like science
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

This was our 7th annual outreach event for the Garden Club of Georgia. About 18 youngsters and 7 adults spend the evening on the Jon Wood Field to observe what all is “up” there. CEA was represented with 12 individuals using 9 telescopes. We started the evening off by visually observing and explaining what we could see. Then it went to the scopes. The conditions were not that good, but all were able to see Mars, Saturn, M57, M4, M13, Albereo and at the end even the Moon, although some had to look through some serious clouds to make out the craters. A great evening again and thanks to Jack Fitzmier, Dan Schmitt, Marie and Tim Lott, Frank and Shelby Garner with her friend, Valorie and David Whalen, Jim Lancaster and his wife, and myself for showing these kids “our Universe”
Clear Skies,
Theo

The Captain Planet Foundation asked us to show the night sky to a group of educators participating in one of their many workshops.  The goal:  educate the educators so they can take their new-found knowledge back to the classroom.

On the theme “Just a little goes a long way …”

We hosted an outreach session for 15 teachers who were attending a Captain Planet Foundation workshop at CE.  The skies were not very good — Polaris never showed up, and as the evening moved on it clouded over totally.  But our intrepid CE volunteers managed to show our guests the Moon, Mars, Saturn, M13, the Ring, several double stars, a few other celestial objects.  For seasoned observers, not a very good night.  But I got this message from Karan, the Captain Planet coordinator: