The agenda for the next meeting has been changed. Unforunately Jim will not be available this day/time to deliver his presentation of the “Life of the Stars”.

However, the rest of the meeting is unchanged. This will allow us to spend a little more time finishing the Pot Luck Dinner and listen to the presentations from Jon and Clevis.

So keep your calendars unchanged for the next meeting and observing session after the meeting at Charlie Elliott’s observing field!!!

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

Clear Skies

Don’t forget the next meeting is this Saturday August 30, at 5:00pm EDT.

Dr. Richard Schmude Jr is the presenter of the Featured Presentation: “Jupiter”.
Listen to Dr Schmude Jr. as he discusses his work on Jupiter.

Activity around the Great Red Spot, the Oval B and the Little Red Spot as well as other regions, has made Jupiter an interesting object to observe and image this season.

Than listen to Jon Wood’s next episode of Observing 101, and see if you missed some of the astronomical news this month during Theo Ramakers’ “Current Events in Astronomy and Space Exploration”.

The meeting will be held at Charlie Elliott’s Visitors Center. Everyone is welcome, member or not.

For further information about the agenda and location, see the Home page of our website:
www.ceastronomy.org/blog/home

Hope to see you there. And if the weather allows, we will have a great observing event following the meeting at the Observing Field.

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers
Director, Charlie Elliott Chapter of the AAC.

We have a challenge for all our members!!

We are working on a remake / redesign of our website and need an image for the background (wallpaper) of the webpages and ask you — our members — to submit images for this challenge.

Here are the guidelines:

* The images were made at Charlie Elliott observing field

* The images are suitable for use as a background image (preferably dark and low grain, maybe a sunset). It would be nice if it includes the tree line as at least part of the horizon.

* The images should not interfere with text or other information on the pages.

Please use your imagination. We will put all submitted images in a special Gallery folder in the “Events” section for all to see. Final selection of the winning image(s) will be made by the CE chapter officers and Larry Owens, the CE webmaster.

Only submit an image if you are willing to allow the CE chapter the unrevokable right to use it as the chapter’s website background image.

All entries should be in by midnight Monday, July 21, (the Monday before our next meeting).

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

This is a follow up to the post below.  I made several images of the rising moon and did add one of the best image of the Solstice Moon on June 18, 2008 to my Gallery. 

Click here for the image: http://ceastronomy.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3050

Theo

Did anyone see that Moon rise tonight?

Yesterday Jon and I watched the biggest moon and I had the honor of also making an image of Jon while he was mooning the moon, by looking through his legs to see the moon while getting rid of the illusion.

However tonight the moon was BIG and ORANGE as well as the sky around it.

I don’t recall seeing a moon so beautiful!!
Clear skies
Theo

I have listened to one of these teleconferences and thought it was very interesting.  If you have the time, it would be worth your while to listen in and download the material.

Theo

Each year in June, our monthly Cassini CHARM telecon features a panel of distinguished Cassini Scientists, presenting the years science results.
This year there is so much to talk about well be doing two 4th year anniversary telecons, one in June and the other in July.

The Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results of the Mission (CHARM) telecon for June 24, 2008 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Pacific Time (888) 677-6566 and the passcode is 3832523 (a permanent number)

Topic: Cassini 4th Anniversary

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/CHARM.cfm (package will be available Monday, June 23)

We will be joined by a distinguished panel comprised of:

Dr. Linda Spilker, providing an introduction to Cassinis 4th Anniversary
Dr. Elizabeth Turtle presenting Icy Satellites and
d Dr. Andy Ingersoll on Saturn science.
Trina Ray will be the moderator this month.
An audio recording of this telecon will be made and linked to our website within a couple of days after the telecon. We will also be making the powerpoint presentation available in addition to the pdf version for download.

EASY REFERENCE:

CHARM telecons are the last Tuesday of the month at 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Pacific Time

The phone number is (888) 677-6566 and the passcode is 3832523

The CHARM pdfs are located at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/CHARM.cfm The CHARM ppts are located at:ttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/doclib/

This is a password protected site, here are the details (they are case sensitive): Username: cassini Password: Doc$85

If you have any questions please feel free to contact charm_leads_01@cdsa.jpl.nasa.gov

Jane Houston Jones
Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program
JPL – 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 230-205
Pasadena, CA 91109
Phone – 818-393-6435
Fax – 818-393-4495
jane.h.jones@jpl.nasa.gov

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Do you still remember Clevis Jones Current Event presentation from February about the two Columbus missions? You might remember that it was pretty emotional!

Now you can replay this presentation. We have created a short movie with the presentation and the clip of the shuttle Atlantis launch. To replay, please click here.

The movie is big but most reports we have received indicate that the movie will start in less than 15 seconds to one minute. If it takes longer, please wait, it’s worth your time! Click here to replay this event! Thanks Clevis.

You also can replay the June 7th Current Event presentation of the Phoenix Mars landing
and learn about its operation by clicking here. This movie is longer than the Columbus movie but its also worth your time!

On a side note, did you know that it took the signals from Phoenix over 15 minutes to reach the Earth and the total Entry, Descent and Landing took a little more than 7 minutes. So Phoenix was sitting on the Mars surface for 15 minutes before the team knew its final status.

Enjoy and let us know if you believe presenting our Current Events in this format is usefull!

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

I have uploaded my presentations from last Saturday to the CEAstronomy website. You can download them from the following URL:

http://ceastronomy.org/blog/downloads

The Current Events presentation shows the link also to the movie of the Phoenix entry, descent and landing. If you activate this movie please be aware it is a large file!

I suggest to run the presentations in “Presentation mode” they auto advance and start the music.

Enjoy!
Theo

Although the ISS and Spaceshuttle Discovery will be visible tonight and tomorrow night, the real opportunity comes up on Thursday. Wednesday it is planned is for Discovery to de-dock from the ISS, and the predicted flyby for us for Thursday should have both the ISS and Discovery at the same time visible in the sky!

Very low in the sky, (about one fist above the horizon) both should become visible 13 degrees above West and will disappear 10 degrees above South. First you should see the ISS appear at 9:26pm EST and the Space Shuttle should follow at 9:26pm. We should have both at the same time in the sky for approx. 1 minute!

Let’s hope that the clouds, if there, will move away for a few minutes!
Clear Skies!
Theo

Hey Clevis,

I looked at this image and guess that the chute and the cover could be here also at the left.  It seems there is a bright object of a good size?

Click here for the image: http://fawkes4.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=509&cID=8

Theo