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Auburn Astronomical Society E-Newsletter September 2011 In this Issue
There will be NO MEETING IN SEPTEMBER. Our normal “first Friday” date conflicts with Labor Day weekend and the Utah State football weekend in Auburn. The second Friday would be the fall-back date, but it’s another home game weekend. By the time we get to the first away game, we’re halfway through the month, so let’s just plan to have our dark sky star party at Cliff Hill’s farm on Saturday, September 17. September 24th is actually closer to the new moon, but lights from another home game destroys the eastern half of the sky. We shouldn’t have any more home game weekend conflicts this year. Sep. 01-06,
An unusual run of consecutive evening ISS
passes
Students from the Auburn University School of Architecture shared with the community of Wetumpka and the media several proposals regarding the Alabama Impact Crater and Science Center to be located in Wetumpka. From John Zachry: A good place to watch NASA TV over the Internet is: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ustream.html If you are
interested in back issues of Sky & Telescope magazine
from the last twelve years or so please contact me at <cookala@auburn.edu>
to make arrangements for their acquisition.
Lisa Spencer wrote: My brother was asking about the comet Elenin. Will you tell me more about it?I replied: How are things down your way? To be honest, I was unfamiliar this one. Here's what I found on the Sky & Telescope site: Comet Elenin Thanks for calling this to my attention and for staying in touch. I hope you can come back for another star party this fall. From: Chad
Ellington
Recorded a
miss from the backyard. I also ran a scope up at exit 181 on I-65 though
I think it recorded a miss as well. The UA observatory in Tuscaloosa recorded
over 2 seconds of occultation though, so the shadow probably went north
of here.
From Rex Roach: Yep, still here. I just turned 65, so I'm beginning to at least THINK about retirement. That was a heck of a gate, as I recall. Seems like we used some or one of those little 18:1 gearboxes to crank the roof on the observatory as well. Of course my wife says I remember a lot of things that never happened. Too bad that site didn't last very long. Sure was convenient.Rex was replying to one of our ISS pass alerts. He is referring to our old Moore’s Meadow Observatory, where he and Rhon installed a steel gate in front of the entrance in an effort to deter our annual fall visitors. Rex still works at DeepRock Manufacturing, in Opelika. They used a DeepRock two-man power auger to set the gate. It’s good to hear from you again Rex. I found your information on the auburnastro.org website. I have been looking for a group in the Montgomery area of amateur astronomers. I recently received a telescope, and was hoping to find out about any star parties that may be occurring soon. I would like to learn more about the night sky, and observing techniques. I have an Orion XT8 as well as binoculars. The XT8 seems simple enough to use. I have been trying to get it out any clear night we get, even if it is in the city. I would like to learn more about various lenses for different viewing situations, but I may start to learn that just by getting it out and looking through it more. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to look us up and for asking about the AAS. Our next star party is scheduled for Saturday, September 17, at Cliff Hill's Farm. If you're just beginning to learn the night sky, you may want to try the link to "The Stars" by H. A. Rey, on our FAQ page. If you have specific questions about your telescope, we'll do our best to get you going. I'm adding your address to our e-mail list so you can keep up with what we're up to. Friday September 30
Russell
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