We are astronomy enthusiasts in Longview, WA. We love to learn and to share our wonder at the amaz
Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm in classroom D8.
Operating as usual
October 1 is International Observe the Moon Night. Get out there and view the waxing moon. Tonight, you'll find it in its waxing crescent phase. Jupiter (in Pisces) and Saturn (in Capricorn) are out too, and past 11 pm you will find Mars in the east in Ta**us.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220828.html
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
A thunderstorm as seen from Space...
A towering thunderstorm lights up the night skies over Panama, as seen at 37,000 feet.
One of the sharpest images of our 4.5 billion year old I have ever seen. 📸 Captured by amateur astronomer Andrew McCarthy.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220809.html
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220726.html
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
Mind-blowing image of Jupiter and it's Moons as captured by an astrophotographer. In this photo, Jupiter is in the glow of Moonlight as Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto are on the left side of the gas giant planet while Io on the right. Some stars are also visible in the glare. This is beautiful
📸 ©: Luis Argerich
The Carrington Event.
The James Web Space Telescope: what are the mirrors made of?
Interesting article here (p. 20):
https://www.astroleague.org/files/reflector/REFLECTOR%20JUNE%202022%20pages.pdf
"Surrealism"
Night Photo of Deadvlei in Namibia. In the foreground you can see the famous dead trees of the Vlei, the clay pan and one of the highest dunes in the world.
The sky shows the rotation of the stars around the southern center of rotation. 1900 images in a period of 11 hours were stitched together to create the star trails. What a job! The colors are from the stars.
This image is absolutely beautiful surreal and shows how dynamic our night sky is.
1900 Single Photos: Sony A7 III | Sony FE 12-24 F2.8 GM | 12mm | F/2.8 | 20s | ISO 1600
Sony Deutschland Sony - Professional Europe Sony Alpha Universe Milky Way Milky Way Chasers Astronomy Magazine Astronomy Magazine Astronomy Thoughts Astronomy Daily Space ESA - European Space Agency The World at Night - TWAN International Dark-Sky Association Chasseurs de Nuits
A potentially impactful, informative, technical symposium is taking place (online) Tuesday, June 28, in which speakers from astronomy, industry and NIST (U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology) will be discussing "Commercial Space and Astronomy Partnering in Best Practices and Guidelines for Brightness Mitigation": https://www.nist.gov/.../commercial-space-and-astronomy.... Check out the agenda and register, if you would like to attend. The symposium offers a closer tie to industry and a future, possible collaboration in terms of brightness measurements of satellite constellations.
We’ll have not one but many opportunities to enjoy a rare lineup of the bright planets over the next few weeks.
Five visible planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, will be aligned and visible at dawn through early July. In addition, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are among the planets in the morning, but very faint which requires a good, detailed map and large telescope to view.
It is not terribly rare for the visible planets to be lined up, but it is rare to see them all at the same time. The best news is that viewers will not have to wait all night to spot them all. These planets were last lined up in sequential order in 2004, and it is not set to happen again in March 2041. It is rare that we get the opportunity to view them with clear skies. Just step outside before sunrise and check it out.
The planet Venus (-4 mag) will be the brightest, then Jupiter (-2 mag), Saturn (+0.7 mag) and Mars (+0.6 mag). The challenge will be locating Mercury (+1.3 mag), barely visible low above the eastern horizon. Technically, there are eight planets in the sky before sunrise! Uranus (+5.8 mag), Neptune (+7.9 mag) and Pluto (+14 mag) will not be visible in bright twilight before dawn.
The key date will be on June 24 when Mercury is at highest altitude of 11 degrees ENE. Then on June 25 before sunrise, there will be a conjunction of the waning crescent moon and Venus.
To view the planets, you will need a clear view of the southeastern horizon with little or no clouds. Go outside a little early to get oriented and find a safe place to settle in for a view. An hour and 30 minutes before local sunrise (~5:20 am) is ideal. All five planets will be best visible from about 1 hour to 45 minutes before sunrise.
Those with DSLR camera, need at least a 12 to 14 mm lens with horizontal fields of view of 104° to 112°, to squeeze them all in. A better alternative would be to take several photos of the scene with a standard lens and combine them into a single image using an imaging program.
The planet extravaganza will continue through early July. Enjoy the show!!
From our club president Jim Todd:
Summer Solstice: June 21
Believe it or not, summer officially begins with the summer solstice on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 2:13 a.m.. The earth is tilted so that the north pole is at its closest point with the sun. (Yet, the earth will be at its farthest distance from the sun, called aphelion, on July 5)
The summer solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is most inclined towards the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midsummer to refer to the day on which it occurs. Except in the Polar Regions (where daylight is continuous for many months during the spring and summer), the day on which the summer solstice occurs is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight. Thus the seasonal significance of the Summer solstice is in the reversal of the gradual shortening of nights and lengthening of days. The summer solstice occurs in June in the Northern Hemisphere and in December in the Southern Hemisphere.
North of the Tropic of Cancer (23°26'N) and south of the Tropic of Capricorn (23°26'S), the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky on the day of the summer solstice. However, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the highest sun position does not occur at the summer solstice, since the sun reaches the zenith here and it does so at different times of the year depending on the latitude of the observer.
For the summer solstice, the sun will reach its highest northern point in the sky at 67.54 degrees from the horizon. The earth is tilted so that the north pole is at its closest point with the sun. As a result, there will be more minutes of sunlight in the northern hemisphere than there are at any other time of the year.
On November 12, 1833, there was an intense meteor shower with up to 100,000 meteorites crossing the night-sky per hour. Many of those witnessing it believed the world was coming to an end— inspiring Adolf Vollmy to create this woodcut engraving
Pac-Man!
(Photo credit: This stunning pic was taken by a French astronomer Éric Lagadec in Chile at the ESO VLT https://twitter.com/ericlagadec/status/1466486780681723904?s=21&t=8vdJ6TboVxqtUpVYjIkEZw Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique - SF2A)
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220527.html
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
The world’s oldest-known mechanical astronomical calculator. Check out the video - fascinating!
Around 60 BC, a ship was wrecked off the northeast coast of a small island called Aigila in the straits between Crete and the Peloponnese. The exact character of the ship is not known, but it was probably a large merchant vessel
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220520.html
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220519.html
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
At over 11.4 million acres, the ODSN is working to nominate the area bounded in red as the world's largest International Dark Sky Sanctuary (even at Phase 1) and largest dark sky place of any kind by the last of three phases. (Texas just had a dark sky reserve certified at over 9 million acres. Texans take pride in doing everything bigger, but Texas is no match for our inky dark Outback).
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220518.html
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
Longview, WA
98632
| Tuesday | 9am - 5am |
| Wednesday | 9am - 5am |
| Thursday | 9am - 11pm |
| Friday | 9pm - 2am |
| Saturday | 12am - 2am |
| Sunday | 12am - 2am |
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We are astronomy enthusiasts in Longview, WA. We love to learn and to share our wonder at the amazing sights right overhead.
You don't need your own telescope to join!
Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.
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