Here a solar opportunity for you who have solar filters. The ISS is expected to transit the sun, visible from my general area this coming Monday 10/12/2009 at 14:33:29 Eastern. The center line passes Knox Chapel Road one mile from my house. The weather forecast is not good, but than, who knows.
Clear Skies
Theo

Telecon August 27th LCROSS Mission with Brian Day
The Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is scheduled to impact the lunar surface on October 9th, at 11:30 UT (7:30 a.m. EDT, 4:30 a.m. PDT), +/- 30 minutes, to confirm the presence or absence of water in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon’s South Pole. Our speaker will give us the background on the Mission and how we as amateurs can actively participate.

Brian Day is an avid amateur astronomer with the Fremont Peak Observatory Association in Northern California and Education and Public Outreach Lead for the LCROSS Mission and Technical Educational Lead for NASA/Ames Educational Technology Team.

To join the Teleconference on Thursday, August 27th at 6:00 pm PDT (9:00 pm Eastern) call the toll-free conference call line: 1-888-455-9236
Call anytime after 5:45 pm the evening of the telecon. An operator will answer and:
- You will be asked for the passcode: NIGHT SKY NETWORK
- You will be asked to give your NAME and the CLUB you belong to, and number of people listening with you.
(Charlie Elliott chapter of the AAC)

The PowerPoint to accompany Brian Day’s talk is available here:

http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=384

View the Online Version of LCROSS Telecon here:

http://www.astrosociety.org/nsntelecon/

Clear Skies,
Theo

This is a reminder for our monthly meeting and observing at Charlie Elliott’s visitor’s center this coming Saturday July 18, starting at 5:00 p.m.

Our feature presentation will be Larry Owen’s: “Philosophy of Astronomy”.

Human spaceflight has long been the dream of mankind. As we enter our 48th year as a space fairing civilization, only a select few have had the opportunity to experience space travel. These lucky few often speak of how profound and life changing this experience can be.

Of course, space travel for the masses is many years in the future, but is there a way we can have this profound experience from Earth? Amateur astronomers have the tools!

The cloud cover forecast is 37% with a humidity of 52%, so maybe we get to spend some time observing this month!!

Hope to see you there!
Clear skies
Theo

Is an occultation something you would like to observe? Here is your chance: June 29, around 1:35 a.m. the gallilean moon Io will partially occult the moon Europa!!

This year the orbital plane of the galilean moons around Jupiter is aligned with earth perfectly for a large number of these (partially and total) occultation. The next one after that, convenient for our time zone, is July 6th when Io will partially occult Europa again at 3:45 a.m. And if a little later is more convenient for you, try July 13th. You than will have to observe at 5:55 a.m.

Happy (moon) hunting under Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

Tonight we finally will have another nice flyby of the ISS for the Atlanta area. For my location (Social Circle), the ISS will become visible (mag. 0.4) at the horizon at 21:09 in the NNE and will cross over and set at 21:18 in the WSW. The culmination will be azimuth 320degrees at an height of 37 degrees at 21:13 with a brightness of mag. -2.2. (distance 554km)

For those closer to Atlanta, the ISS overpass should be higher than for me. Let me know if you had a chance to see it.

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

This is a reminder for our next meeting on Saturday May 16 at 5:00 p.m. at the Charlie Elliott WC Visitors Center. This month we will screen the PBS documentary “400 Years of the Telescope”, which aired in April and was made in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescope. As usual, Jon and Theo will present their “Observing 101″ and “Current Events in Astronomy and Space Exploration”.

In addition we will elect the Chapter’s officers for the next 12 months. So, if you would like to nominate someone, send your choice to Debbie Jones at Debbie@CEastronomy.org, or make the nomination on the floor during the meeting.

Last but not least, we need help with Charlie Elliott’s JAKES day, their anual outdoor festival. We are trying to have some solar scopes outside the Visitor Center around 10:00am until around 3:00 or 4:00pm for the visitors to take a close up of the Sun, and if we are lucky, sunspots might have moved “around the corner” and be visible. (the sun has been active in the last days)

Inside in the meeting room we will show the movie we viewed in the last meeting and we will have some tables with images, star maps, books etc and a regular scope. We will use this to explain to interested individuals what we do, what we use, and answer any of the questions they might have. We also will help the youngsters answer the questions on their Museum Scavenger Hunt sheet. The CE staff has decided to use the same questions from last year:
At an average distance of 92,957,000 miles away, how long does it take light from the Sun to get to the Earth?
a. 499.012 seconds b. 8.317 minutes c. 8 minutes, 19 seconds d. All the above
and
Which planet has a beautiful system of rings that are visible from Earth through a small telescope?
a. Neptune b. Uranus (Yur-a-nus) c. Saturn d. Jupiter

We also will be handing out some nice gifts to the visitors from the Night Sky Network.
Please come out and give us a hand, even if it is for a short time! This event qualifies for the Night Sky Network and the AL awards

Clear Skies
Theo

Next week Saturday, May 16th is JAKES Day at Charlie Elliott. This is one of the times where we can re-pay Charlie Elliott’s staff for the hospitality they show us all year. We have planned for Solar viewing from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. (Stephen has already volunteered). At the same time we will show inside the Visiters Center a movie, show images, books , telescopes, star maps and other Night Sky Network goodys to all interested. At 5:00 p.m. we will have our May meeting.

If you can spare some time to help out during the day, either outside with a solar scope, or inside discussing Astronomy, or if you want to come a few hours earlier for the meeting and help, please let me know asap so we can plan accordingly.

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

May marks the month when the Chapter will elect its new Officers for the next 12 months. I would like to thank the current board for doing a wonderful job. We accomplished some nice goals in the last 12 months, saw the chapter grow with some YOUNGER individuals interested in astronomy, and held some major outreach events. And to top it off, we presented ourselves to the world on a complete new website, and overall, we had fun doing it

As in previous years, Debbie Jones has volunteered to head our election committee. She will collect the names of the nominees for the new board, and conduct the elections during the meeting on May 16th. All current board members will run for another year for the same positions currently held, if no other nominations have been made. So if you would like to volunteer for one of the 3 board positions, director, observing supervisor or secretary, please send an email to Debbie at debbie@ceastronomy.org. Debbie will also accept nominations from the floor during the meeting. So get busy if you have time run for one of the offices and send Debbie an email!!

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

The Charlie Elliott Chapter is a member of the NSN Network, so we suggest to join the call if you can.
The subject of this month’s NSN conference call will be “Our Sun”

Our Sun Telecon: Tuesday, April 21st
This is a reminder for the telecon in our Monthly IYA 2009 Series (all beginning at 6 PM Pacific 9 PM Eastern) with Dr. Laura Peticolas on the May theme: Our Sun. Dr. Peticolas is a solar scientist working as Co-Principal Investigator, Center for Science Education, at UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Lab.

To log into the Telecon on Tuesday, April 21st, between 5:45 – 6:00pm (Pacific Time):
Use the IYA toll-free conference call line: 1-888-455-9236. This number will be used for the whole year.

An operator will answer and:

You will be asked for the passcode: NIGHT SKY NETWORK
You will be asked to give your NAME and the CLUB you belong to, and number of people listening with you.

If you have any questions or are having any difficulties logging into the Night Sky Network, send an email to: nightskyinfo@astrosociety.org

The download of the PowerPoint and more can be found here:

http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=372

View the Online Version of Our Sun Telecon:

http://www.astrosociety.org/nsntelecon/

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

Panoramic visuals, cutting-edge technologies and introspective contemplations position 400 Years of the Telescope as the must-see cinematic feature for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.

Check your local PBS schedule, in some places it airs this weekend. Here in Monroe it airs on GPB, Channel 8, Sunday 6:00 pm.

Check your local listings below…

http://www.pbs.org/soptv/400years/