The Meteor Escambia Amateur Astronomy Association Lunar Shots courtesy: Chloe Gunter, M Coates, M Coates, and Nick Elliott, respectively. Journal of the Escambia Amateur Astronomy Association VOLUME XLII Numbers 3-4 March-April 2017 President: Richard Mannarino (281) 785-3678 Vice-President: Tom Riederer (920) 540-8337 Secretary: Richard Walker (850) 477-7136 Treasurer: Jim Larduskey (850) 434-3638 Librarian: Jacque Falzone (850) 261-9745 Education Chair: Dewey Barker (850) 458-1591 NWFAA Contact: Dennis Hausch (850) 428-9467 Deep Sky Committee: Dave Haluposki (850) 678-4052 UWF Astronomy Club Contact: Jon Ellard (251) 228-6042 jbe5@students.uwf.edu Mobile AS Contact: Rod Mollise (251) 591-5357 rmollise@bellsouth.net PSC Student Chapter officers for 2016-17: President: Jacob Herrea (850) 293-2021 Vice President: Tom Lloyd Secretary: Nicole Gunter (253) 320-5837 craftlifeguru@gmail.com Treasurer: Brittany Spears Co-Editors: Rebecca Carlson (512) 755-5847 r_c1229@students.pensacolastate.edu Nicole Gunter (253) 320-5837 craftlifeguru@gmail.com Sponsor/ ALCOR: Dr. J. Wayne Wooten, Physical Sciences Department, Room 1751, Pensacola State College, Pensacola, FL 32504-8998 Phone (850) 484-1152 wwooten@pensacolastate.edu Please mail all dues to: EAAA Treasurer, 4660 Shannon Circle, Pensacola, FL 32504
Calendar of Events March 10: EAAA Meeting PSC Campus, 7-9pm March 18: Big Lagoon State Park gaze, 6-10pm March 20: Spring Equinox, 4:28am EAAA Field Trip We are a go for Wetumpka Meteor Crater visit on Friday, March 3 rd. If you would like to go, and are a student member, we have room for ten more students on the PSC van that Kathleen Shelton has checked out for the geology and astronomy student clubs. If you would like to carpool along with the van, let us know. More on this largest meteor crater in the SE US: http://www.auburnastro.org/wetu.htm EAAA Meetings For 2017, the meetings will be on the Second Friday of each month. Pay at the next meeting or by mail with a check, payable to EAAA to treasurer Jim Larduskey, 4660 Shannon Circle, Pensacola, FL 32504; call him at 850-434- 3638 if you have questions. Dues are $24 for individual or family membership, $12 for senior (60+) and student membership. Join us for: Fun Night Under the Stars The Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association Will Hold Free Public The Astronomy Club will meet at: Pensacola State College 9th Ave Campus at 7:00 PM Building 17 upstairs in room 1775. For more information about the Astronomy Club, or for scheduling a star gaze for a school, scouting, or other social event at your location; Contact Dewey Barker after 4:00 PM at (850) 450-7767 for any questions.
Astrophotography by Dan Haefner Photography March 13 th and 15 th - 2 night event This class will be about using your Digital Camera to capture photos of the night sky with emphasis on the Milky Way. We will cover all aspects of an intro to astrophotography. You need to have a Digital Camera and be proficient on how to use it and some it's menu functions. March 13 th : How and when to find the Milky Way, Lens selection, Camera setup, Getting the correct focus, Equipment used, Capture settings, Types of Astrophotography, and many more. March 15 th : Discuss things from the 13th and how to edit the Milky Way using Adobe Lightroom This class also includes an opportunity to join my private Astro Club Facebook group where we post and discuss Astro photos and I will post locations and times I'm shooting. Cost of the class is $50.00. Class is limited to 30 people. Prepay by PayPal: fjhaefner@gmail.com or night of. Prepay attendants will secure a space. Things to bring: 1st night -you may bring your camera gear -laptop for taking notes (I will have a few extension cords.) -Pen and paper for notes (I will provide and guide for the class) 2nd night -Laptop with Adobe Lightroom installed -Pen and paper (editing guide will be provided) -questions from the first night :) There will also be door prizes provided by Calagaz Photo of Pensacola. Drinks and small snacks provided. Location: Bayview, Senior Citizens Center, 2000 East Lloyd Street, Pensacola, FL 32503
Upcoming Star Gazes Big Lagoon State Park Winter Gaze for 2017 Saturday, March 18th Mar 09 Myrtle Grove Elementary 5:00 7:00 6115 Lillian Hwy 32506 Robin Maloy Principal RMaloy@escambia.k12.fl.us 850-453- 7410 Sherwood Elementary 5:00 7:00 501 Cherokee trail 32506 Tamika Wyrick TWyrick@escdambia.k12.fl.us 850-453- 7420 Scenic Heights Elementary 5:30 7:00 3801 Cherry Laurel Drive 32504 Denise Walden DWalden@escambia.k12.fl.us 850-494- 5635 Note: Three schools in 1 night is doable, just need 2-3 scopes per school Mar 10 Roy Hyatt Environmental Center 5:30 9:00 1300 Tobias Road 32533 Molly O Connor (850) 937-2117 moconnor@escambia.k12.fl.us Mar 11 Camp Paquette Nicole Radcliff 850-982- 9334 Mar 14 Holley-Navarre Intermediate School 5:30 7:00 1936 Navarre School Rd 32566 Linda Matthews MatthewsL@santarosa.k12.fl.us 850-936- 6020 Waxing Crescent Moon, March 2, by Chloe Gunter The gaze is free, but normal park entry fees will still apply, front gate contact: 850-492-1595. Participants must enter park before sunset, the gate is locked at that time. Member Telescopes and Binoculars will be set up for views of: the Moon, Planets, and other Celestial Objects. Clear skies permitting, members will begin setting up telescopes just before sunset in the Amphitheater Parking Lot. Please be sure to visit our Facebook page or go to our website at: http://rlwalker.gulfweb.net/ astronomy/index.html for our calendar of events and to view our club members Astro Photos
Near Earth Objects Tom Haugh, Director, Pear Tree Observatory, IAU H23, was able to get a couple of images of near earth object (NEO) 2017 BS32 on Feb 1 st. The asteroid was discovered on Jan 30 th by Pan-STARSS 1 in Hawaii and is forecast to make its closest approach to the Earth (0.42 lunar distance) at 14:41 (local) Feb 2 nd. The image is a stack of three 300 second images. The asteroid is visible as three faint streaks moving from top right to bottom center. The wispy vertical artifact at lower center is either an aircraft contrail or a meteortrain. Animating several of these exposures shows a slow drift indicating it is atmospheric in nature. Astro Gallery Kaylee Updegrave and Katie Cavenaugh used their smartphones yesterday afternoon about 3-4 PM to take several photos of solar activity at Pensacola State with our Lunt 60 hydrogen alpha scope and Eon 72 fitted with a B1200 Lunt Ca K filter. Four of the better shots are on Spaceweather.com now. Below, a shot by Malone Calvert s 130mm Apo.
Dr. Wayne Wooten, Rebecca Carlson, EAAA Co-Editor, Nicole Gunter, EAAA Co-Editor and Student Secretary, present a Galileo telescope to PSC President Dr. Ed Meadows. Dr. Wooten Presents Galileo Telescope to PSC President By: Jay Phillips For decades, Pensacola State College students have been inspired to dig deeper into the world of natural sciences and astronomy thanks to the passion Dr. Wooten brings. Now, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Wooten s Galileo Project and other astronomy inspired events, he has spread his joy and passion of astronomy to so many different children and schools all over the area. As of token of his appreciation to the college, Dr. Wooten presented one of his Galileo Telescopes to PSC s president, Dr. Meadows on Tuesday, February 28th. With events, such as stargazes held at Fort Pickens, The Meteor and the Galileo Project, which Dr. Wooten has been running for the past two years, PSC has made a valiant effort to support not only astronomy in general but the Escambia Amateur Astronomy Association (or EAAA) as well. With the Galileo Project, students assemble 30-power refractive Galileo telescopes and paint them for extra credit. At that point the students can either buy the telescope for themselves or return it to Dr. Wooten to be donated to a local school that schedules a star gaze with EAAA. We already have 30 in circulation and more in preparation, Dr. Wooten said about the number of telescopes he has donated to high schools all over the area already. The telescope presented to Dr. Meadows was painted and assembled by two of Dr. Wooten s students, Nicole Gunter and Losmie Lutaya, respectively. Chosen by Dr. Wooten to help present the telescope to Dr. Meadows, Nicole Gunter gave an insightful speech regarding why the telescopes are such an important project. Putting the telescope together is an invaluable opportunity, she said, It gives Dr. Wooten s students a much better understanding of how they work and how to use them properly. Dr. Wooten expanded on this, After building the telescope, the students have to bring it to me, I check it and they get to keep it and use it for 30 days after that. Even if they re donating it. To all the board members, Dr. Wooten presented a different gift, 10-power binoculars, equivalent to what Galileo used, but these have a solar filter. With these solar filters, you can view the sunspots and eclipse on August 21 st, safely. PSC s Vice President, Tom Giliam, shared a few words regarding his time being a student in Dr. Wooten s class in addition to how much he respected Wooten and all of the things he s done for the college. Talking to him after the event, Giliam went even further into why he holds Wooten in such high regard. Dr. Wooten was my favorite professor when I was a student at PJC. I know he is retiring soon and I wanted to make my comments to the board to give him the recognition he deserves. Even though he will be retired by that time, Dr. Wooten s passion for astronomy still shines bright. If the weather permits on the date of the solar eclipse, he plans to set up a spot outside of the planetarium to watch the event with whoever would like to come.
Picture Courtesy: Nick Elliott, Emily Adams, and Nicole Gunter Solar Gaze at Pensacon By: Becca Carlson The Escambia Armature Astronomy Association s (EAAA) participation at Pensacon continues to be a highly successful opportunity for community outreach. With visitors from all over the country attending this up-and-coming Con, the EAAA s reach is greater than ever. Members of the group once again made telescopes available for viewing solar activity to con-goers at Pensacon. The solar gaze event was in the Bay Center s east parking lot, catching the traffic of all the Con attendees that ventured to the classic cars and other outside activities. Raven and John Bull, first timers to Pensacon, traveled all the way from Cincinnati for this event. After hearing about the Con from Mrs. Bull s sister, a resident of Mary Esther, the couple couldn t miss the opportunity to visit Pensacola and check it out this increasingly popular activity. This was also the first time the Bulls had participated in a solar gaze. I didn t really know what to expect, said Mrs. Bull. I thought it was really cool! Most people would naturally have questions about what exactly is visible during the day and whether or not it s safe to gaze at the sun. Fortunately, the experts from EAAA have just the right equipment to safely view amazing events such as solar flares and prominence spotting. The most amazing part, Just being able to look at it, said Mr. Bull. The Bulls first heard about the solar gaze after seeing the listing for it in the Pensacon app. At first, Mrs. Bull didn t quite know what to make of the telescopes focused on the sun. I thought it was shenanigans at first! All I saw was an orange ball, said Mrs. Bull. After a few seconds, the orange ball became clearer, revealing a nice solar flare at the top. Solar gazes were just one of the amazing Pensacon events facilitated by the EAAA. 1,000 special solar filter glasses were handed out to con-goers in anticipation of the partial solar eclipse happening August 21, 2017. The closest place to view it as a nearly total solar eclipse will be in the Tennessee area. The couple agreed that the eleven-hour drive was definitely worth it. Both the solar viewing and Pensacon left a lasting impression that the Bulls are happy to share with friends and family back in Ohio. It s pretty cool, said Mrs. Bull.
EAAA Pensacon Colonizing Mars Panel By: Becca Carlson A perfect topic for science enthusiast, sci-fi experts, space creatures and cosplayers Mars Colonization was the theme of the highly anticipated Escambia Armature Astronomy Association's (EAAA) panel discussion at Pensacon 2017. This year, in addition to setting up telescopes for gazing, the EAAA drew big crowds at the panel discussion held at the Grand Hotel. The evening began with a presentation by Merry Wooten and discussion of pieces from her space art exhibit. As data, has been collected over the years, elements of these images have proven surprisingly accurate. The Mars Colonization panelist included Dr. Wayne Wooten, Tom Riederer, Thor Garber, Ed Magowan, and Jon Ellard. Discussion centered around the many obstacles that must be addressed before such an endeavor can be seriously considered. The biggest thing I d like people to take away is that this is not going to be like the moon mission, said Magowan, former EAAA president, and panel participant. Most importantly the EAAA wanted to inform the public of the realities of such a massive logistical undertaking. Mars has caught people s fancy for a number of years, said Magowan. It s easy to look at movies and think, gee, we ll be able to do this in 20 years. Realistically, it s a difficult undertaking. Magowan's thoughts on spacecraft also differ from the Hollywood glamorized version we have come to know. Spaceships in 500 years may look more like the interior of the ship at the beginning of Alien, said Magowan. They re going to have pipes and wires all over the place. They re not going to look like the Enterprise. When they say, in 20 years from now, we ll have people on Mars it s probably not a very realistic timeframe, said Magowan who believes one-way missions may be possible in the next two decades, however, he doesn t believe back and forth mission will be feasible. Space exploration isn t going to be anything like Star Wars, said Magowan. The panel discussion was a welcome addition to the standard gaze events facilitated by the group, however, it was a different sort of community outreach event. We try to get a little audience interaction we got some, said Magowan. We actually get more animated discussions at our star gazes.
This event was especially important as a continued effort towards community outreach and promoting awareness of the group and its activities. EAAA members invited panel visitors to join them in future stargazing events at Gulfside Performance Pavilion, Big Lagoon State Park and Fort Pickens. That s where we really have fun, said Magowan. Showing people the sky. Earthshine, January 29, 2017, by Dr. Wooten (even better this evening, catch it about 5:45-6 PM!) with his Canon SX 150, and a new solar shot, January 30, 2017, with Mike Allen of PSC with Lunt CaK filter, Eon 72 Apo, 32mm Plossl, and Canon SX 150 at 1/8 exposure, ISO 400. Here are photos from January 30, 2017, of the crescent moon just below Venus. As the moon moves its own ½ degree diameter eastward every hour, by now it is passing just south of brilliant Venus in the afternoon sky, and both are easily visible in daylight. The moon is about 25% sunlight, and Venus about 40% sunlight crescent. If you find the moon well up in the SE, look about 6 moon diameters (3 degrees) north of the moon for a tiny very bright speck. Come over to the patio of building 17 for a look through the new Virtuoso telescope.
Maggie Roberts: In looking at our timeline, I am feeling blessed that we have inspired and nurtured a community of photographers that love to get out and shoot. Some of you enjoy shooting sunrises and sunsets. Some have shared the birds and insects that call our area around Navarre home. Some of you have stayed up in the wee hours of the night to shoot the stars and moon-- and Milky Way. Some of my favorite shoots have been at night on Navarre Beach or on the National Seashore with friends of ECCC. Our Dogwood Challenges have continued to bring out the creative side of our photography too. We are going into our 3rd Year as the Emerald Coast Camera Club thanks to all of you. And a special thanks to Boyd Caton, Patrick J. McCabe, Beth Kieffer Harms, Mari Darr- Welch, Jon Deckert, Kelvin Espada, Wayne Wooten of The Escambia County Astronomy Club, Wayne Chai and friends of Camera South, Jillian Southerland, and everyone who has mentored other members or led an outing to teach us more about our cameras and shooting outdoors. Keep shooting and sharing so we can continue to learn from one another... And inspiring others. I'm looking forward to another year with all of you!
For our report on the Venus/Moon spotting party outside building 17 January 31, 2017, in the evening, you will have the crescent moon just below brilliant Venus, with red much fainter Mars to the upper left of them in the 6 PM twilight. Link to: http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=132614 I am still trying to experiment around with taking videos with my Skyris 236C camera & Celestron 8 telescope. Anyway, I came out with some very good photos the other night 4 Feb. These videos were taken at ~1310x1040 frame size and a 30 sec time. I am sending a couple of photos processed w/registax and enhanced by Corel Paintshop.
1st Photo: Straight Wall at left (110 km long, 2-3 km wide) Crater Ptolemaseus (right large crater, look closely along floor of crater and see several small crater) 2nd Photo:Montes Piton (isolated mountain to left) Crater Cassini (left center0 Vallis Alpes (upper center) Crater Aristoteles (large crater, left center) This photo shoot was one of the best I have had. ~Dean Covey From Dr. Wooten, for the March Sky: For March 2017, the moon is new on February 26th, an annular solar eclipse for South Africa, and just six new moons until our own Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017. On February 28th, look for the crescent moon ten degrees south of brilliant Venus in the twilight. On March 1st, the waxing crescent moon passes four degrees south of red Mars. The moon is first quarter on March 4, and passes through the Hyades cluster in the head of Taurus, occulting several of the stars that make up the V shape of the Bull s face. The Full Moon of March, the Grass Moon, is on March 12th. The waning gibbous moon passes two degrees north of bright Jupiter on March 15th, with the bright star Spica in Virgo just south of Jupiter as well; all three rise about 10 PM in the southeast. The Vernal Equinox occurs at 5:29 AM CST on March 20th. On the same morning, look for the last quarter moon passing three degrees north of Saturn, both rising in the SE about 12:30 AM. The new moon is on March27th, but note that by now, retrograding Venus has already moved into the dawn sky. However, Mercury temporarily is taking her place in the evening sky, and is visible seven degree to the lower right of the waxing crescent moon on March 29th, with Mars five degrees north of the Moon on the same evening. While the naked eye, dark adapted by several minutes away from any bright lights, is a wonderful instrument to stare up into deep space, far beyond our own Milky Way, binoculars are better for spotting specific deep sky objects. For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, about February 28th, visit the www.skymaps.com website and download the map for March 2017; it will have a more extensive calendar, and list of best objects for the naked eyes, binoculars, and scopes on the back of the map. Also a wonderful video exploring the March 2017 sky is available from the Hubble Space Telescope at: http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/tonights_sky/. Mercury moves into the evening sky at the end of March. Venus starts the month well up in the SW and very bright. On March 1st, she is magnitude -4.6, shows a 16% illuminated crescent disk 47 wide. But as she retrogrades between earth and Sun this month, she draws closer and bigger, but a more slender crescent as seen from earth. On the 15th, she is up to 57 wide, but only 4% still sunlit, and setting right after the Sun, about 7 PM. Try spotting her thin crescent with hand held binoculars during the last weeks of March in twilight. Then on March 25th, Venus is at inferior conjunction, passing just north of the Sun into the dawn sky by month s end.
Mars is slowing losing its race with the sun, but still visible in the SW evening sky throughout the month. Jupiter is nearing opposition on April 7th, and rising earlier in the evening sky each day in March. Small telescopes will reveal the four Galilean moons, all in a row around Jupiter s equator. The bright star of Virgo, Spica, is much fainter and just south of the giant planet this month. Saturn is now in the dawn sky in Sagittarius, and rises about 1 AM by the end of March. The rings are now tilted most toward earth and Sun, and a spectacular sight in the telescope for the rest of this year. The constellation Cassiopeia makes a striking W in the NW. South of Cassiopeia is Andromeda s hero, Perseus. Between him and Cassiopeia is the fine Double Cluster, faintly visible with the naked eye and two fine binocular objects in the same field. Perseus contains the famed eclipsing binary star Algol, where the Arabs imagined the eye of the gorgon Medusa would lie. It fades to a third its normal brightness for six out of every 70 hours, as a larger but cooler orange giant covers about 80% of the smaller but hotter and thus brighter companion as seen from Earth. At Perseus feet for the famed Pleiades cluster; they lie about 400 light years distant, and over 250 stars are members of this fine group. East of the seven sisters is the V of stars marking the face of Taurus the Bull, with bright orange Aldebaran as his eye. The V of stars is the Hyades cluster, older than the blue Pleiades, but about half their distance. Yellow Capella, a giant star the same temperature and color as our much smaller Sun, dominates the overhead sky in the northwest. It is part of the pentagon on stars making up Auriga, the Charioteer (think Ben Hur). Several nice binocular Messier open clusters are found in the winter milky way here. East of Auriga, the twins, Castor and Pollux highlight the Gemini; it is directly above us as darkness falls in early March. UWF alumni can associate the pair with Jason and the Golden Fleece legend, for they were the first two Argonauts to sign up on his crew of adventurers. South of Gemini, Orion is the most familiar winter constellation, dominating the southern sky at dusk. The reddish supergiant Betelguese marks his eastern shoulder, while blue-white supergiant Rigel stands opposite on his west knee. Just south of the belt, hanging like a sword downward, is M-42, the Great Nebula of Orion, an outstanding binocular and telescopic stellar nursery. The bright diamond of four stars that light it up are the trapezium cluster, one of the finest sights in a telescope and among the youngest known stars. In the east are the hunter s two faithful companions, Canis major and minor. Procyon is the bright star in the little dog, and rises minutes before Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Sirius dominates the SE sky as darkness falls. At 8 light years distance, Sirius is the closest star we can easily see with the naked eye from West Florida. When Sirius is highest, along our southern horizon look for the second brightest star, Canopus, getting just above the horizon and sparkling like an exquisite diamond as the turbulent winter air twists and turns this shaft of starlight, after a trip of about 200 years! To the northeast, look for the bowl of the Big Dipper rising, with the top two stars, the pointers, giving you a line to find Polaris, the Pole Star. Here it sits unmoving 30 degrees high in on our northern sky locally. If you take the pointers of the Big Dipper s bowl to the south, you are guided instead to the head of Leo the Lion rising in the east, looking much like the profile of the famed
Sphinx. The bright star at the Lion s heart is Regulus, the regal star. The folk wisdom that March comes in like a Lion probably refers to the head of Leo rising just after sunset in early March. Below the hind quarters of the lion is the Leo Trio of galaxies; EAAA member Rick Kuntz captures M-65 at top left, M-66 at lower left, and almost edge on NGC 6538 at the right. If you follow the handle of the Big Dipper to the south, by 9 PM you will be able to arc to Arcturus, the brightest star of Spring and distinctly orange in color. It color is an indication of its uniqueness. It large speed and direction through the Milky Way suggests it was not formed with our Galaxy, but is a recent capture from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, a smaller satellite galaxy now being assimilated by our huge spiral galaxy. Many of its lost stars, like Arcturus, follow a band across the sky at about a 70 degree angle to our galactic plane. Arcturus is at the tail of kite shaped Bootes, the celestrial bear driver chasing the two bears from his flocks. Spike south then to Jupiter and Spica in Virgo. Our Big Lagoon gazes continue on Saturday, March 4th and 18th. We hope to have our Pensacola Beach Pavilion and Fort Pickens gaze schedule set up soon as well. Check out our website on Facebook for an update. For information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers, visit our website at www.eaaa.net or call our sponsor, Dr. Wayne Wooten at Pensacola State College at (850) 484-1152, join us on Facebook at Escambia Amateur Astronomers, or e- mail wwooten@pensacolastate.edu.
February Meeting Minutes EAAA Meeting Agenda Room 1775 2nd Floor February 10, 2017 7:00pm TONIGHT'S PROGRAM: - EAAA Pensacon Practice Panel discussion for the Mars Colonization talk which will be held at next weekend s Pensacon February 17-19, 2017 at the Bay Center at 10:00am. We will have 1000+ eclipse glasses to hand out. - Steve Wise is providing passes for EAAA volunteers. These are daily passes. Friday: Thor, Tom, Jon, Wayne, Ed, Merry, Richard M, Saturday: Thor, Tom, Jon, Wayne, Ed, Merry, Ron F Sunday: Way, Ron F, Ed, Richard M Merry Wooten will be providing about 150 copies of When Worlds Erupt Those on the Mars Colonization panel described the topics they would be presenting and the practice went very well. - EAAA Individual presentations Chris Gomez presented his most recent work, explaining some equipment changes he has made. NEXT PROGRAM: (2nd Friday of the month) - March 10, 2017 Introduce Students and Guests Several students and guests attended the meeting. REPORTS Awards (Wayne Wooten) - no education awards were presented this month. Amateur Astronomer Education Program and Levels (Dewey Barker) Dewey to inform any new members about the education program, and benefits Treasurer Report (Jim Larduskey provides the numbers) Checking 364.86
Savings 6401.86 Cash 678.80 Total 7445.52 Main expenditures for the month: Credit card reimbursement for calendar purchases. Shirts and Hats (Dave Halupowski) Dave has hats (about $15) and all sizes of shirts (about $15) for sale. He is also able to arrange to have personal items embroidered for a reasonable fee (about $12). International Dark Skies Report no report this month Last Month's Minutes (distributed in the last Meteor) Please let secretary know of any needed corrections. BUSINESS Dewey Barker led the discussion on past and future gazes. The schedule is attached to the minutes. Past Star Gazes - maintained on EAAA calendar at http://www.gulfweb.net/rlwalker/astronomy/index.html Star Gaze reports appear in the Meteor. Future Star Gazes - maintained on EAAA calendar at http://www.gulfweb.net/rlwalker/astronomy/index.html Clicking on any posted star gaze should bring up additional information about that event (Point of contact, begin time, location including GPS coordinates) Dewey Barker also sends out lists of gazes occurring in the near future.
ANNOUNCEMENTS STUDENTS Wetumpka Meteor Crater visit on Saturday, March 4rd. There is room for 10 more student members on the PSC van that Kathleen Shelton has checked out for the geology and astronomy student clubs. There will be car pooling along with the van. If you would like to go, let us know tonight. More on this largest meteor crater in the SE US at: http://www.auburnastro.org/wetu.htm - Dr Wooten has devised a modified eyepiece for use with the Galileo scopes that provides right side up images. He will sell them for $10 each. Local Dark Skies Locations: If you use established or find new dark skies please let the club know about them so we can compile a list with GPS coordinates, aiding other members to find them. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned; skies were clear and a gaze was held outside the planetarium.
Join us for a Fun Night Under the Stars! The Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association Will Hold Free Public Star Gazes on the following dates at: Big Lagoon State Park Winter Gazes for 2016 are scheduled for Saturday; November 12 th & 26 th, December 10 th, Big Lagoon State Park Winter Gazes for 2017 are scheduled for Saturday; January 7 th & 11 th, February 4 th & 18 th, March 4 th & 18th The gaze is free, but normal park entry fees will still apply, front gate contact: 850-492-1595. Participants must enter park before sunset, the gate is locked at that time. Members Telescopes and Binoculars will be set up for views of: the Moon, the Planets, and other Celestial Objects. Clear skies permitting, Members will begin setting up their Telescopes for these events just before sunset in the Amphitheater Parking Lot. The Astronomy Club will meet on Friday, Nov 18 th and Dec 16 th and on the second Friday of each month for 2017 at Pensacola State College, 9 th Ave Campus at 7:00 PM, building 17, upstairs in room 1775. For more information about the Astronomy Club, or for scheduling a star gaze for a school, scouting, or other social event at your location; Contact Dewey Barker after 4:00 PM at (850) 450-7767 for any questions. Please be sure to visit our Facebook page or go to our website at: http://rlwalker.gulfweb.net/astronomy/index.html for our calendar of events and to view our club members Astro Photos Join us on Facebook at Escambia Amateur Astronomers for more of our files, galleries, and events.