Jan 282012
Jan 172012
Saturday Evening 3 March 2012:
Mars Opposition
Friday and Saturday Evening 23 & 24 March 2012:
Messier Marathon #1, Saturday Evening Alternate Evening
Private Party Monday and Tuesday Evenings 2 & 3 of April 2012:
Pizza and Rootbeer at Doug’s Condo 256 772-6788 before and at Dusk
Venus in the Pleiades Cluster
Bring Scopes and Cameras, wider field of view the better
Friday Evening 13 April 2012:
Youth and Adult Observing Night Planetarium Show on Saturn begins at 7:00 P.M. for kids,
Observing afterward for kids and adults, both bring scopes.
Friday and Saturday Evenings 20 & 21 April 2012:
Messier Marathon, Saturday evening alternate evening
Friday Evening 11 May 2012:
Youth and Adult Observing Night Planetarium Show on Venus Transit begins at 7:00 P.M. for kids,
Observing afterward for kids and adults, both bring scopes.
Tuesday afternoon early evening 5 June 2012:
Set up at 3:00 or 4:00 in evening to be arranged, Transit of Venus
Possible locations:
Airfield in Decatuar with HAL5
Huntsville Botanical Garden
Burritt Museum
Friday evening 24 August 2012:
First Quarter Moon Walk with Land Trust and Sierra Club, Doug
Friday 28 September 2012 Evening:
Your and Adult Observing Night Planetarium Show on Soap Opera in the Sky for kids, Observing afterward for kids and adults bring scopes.
Morning 12 September 2012:
At 4:00 or 5:00 in morning the Beehive, M44, Venus and the Moon are less than a degree apart each in a line with the waning crescent Moon and Venus pointing to the Beehive Cluster, M44.
Best weekend for star party: 14-16 September 2012:
If you want French Camp on this date start thinking about now!
Friday Evening 5 October 2012:
Youth and Adult Observing Night Planetarium Show on Meteor showers for the Season begins at 7:00 P.M. Observing for Adults and Kids afterward.
Possible Star Party Weekend Friday thru Sunday 12-14 October 2012:
Possible star party, close to New Moon, Astronomy Day Concerns
Possible Star Party Weekend Friday thru Sunday 19-21 October 2012:
Possible Star Party, member meeting night and Astronomy Day Concerns
Possible Star Party Weekend Friday thru Sunday 9-11 November 2012:
Still Close to Last Quarter Moon, Possible Star Party
Possible Star Party Weekend Friday thru Sunday 16-18 November 2012:
Members Meeting Conflict, Close to First Quarter Moon, Weekend before Thanksgiving, Possible Star Party
Jan 162012
Dec 282011
Nov 262011
25 November 2011, 23:00-1:00 U.T.
Watched Jupiter’s Moon Europa approach the planet for a transit and later casting a shadow on the face of the planet.
Earlier saw Venus in its gibbous phase and Venus rises in the sky as our evening star.
Last, I showed the Pleiades under low power with my 3.5 inch Orion Refractor and low power wide angle eyepiece to a neighbor, capture most of the bright stars in the cluster.
Although there were a few clouds and there was much light pollution to deal with, it was a moonless night with fairly stable viewing conditions and moderate temperatures.
Observations were made from my condo on Water’s Edge Lane in Madison Town Center.
Doug Horacek
Resident Astronomer
Von Braun Astronomical Society
Nov 122011
Europa is the shadow on the upper right, Ganymede is on lower right. Frank Schenk stacked the above image from our 21 inch telescope.
Aug 282011
The night of August 27 proved to be one of the better Saturday nights of the summer for observing. The temperature was pretty warm during the day, but a strong northerly breeze helped keep the humidity and haze low. Earlier in the week I had made plans to set up my telescope and support the observing effort after the Saturday night planetarium show since it looked like the weather was going to be decent. I also hoped to get the chance to use the Society’s MallinCam with my scope. In order to facilitate connecting the MallinCam to my Meade 8 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, I asked Richard Norman to bring his focal reducer if he intended to be there on Saturday evening. (My Schmidt-Cassegrain is an f/10, so its focal length is pretty long and why a focal reducer was needed.) Luckliy for me, Richard was there on Saturday night with his case of adapters, extension tubes and a couple focal reducers.
After setting up and balancing my scope we waited for the end of “civil twilight”, which Doug Horacek announced was going to be at 7:46 pm. I made the comment that at that point “uncivil twilight” would begin, to which there was a mild response of laughter from those within earshot. Once darkness fell, I was able to polar align my Orion Atlas EQ-G mount and make a three-star alignment. It was time to hook up the MallinCam and set our sights on M101 in Ursa Major in hopes of spotting the Type Ia supernova PTF11kly that had only been discovered in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) a few days earlier. Continue reading »