RAC News

RACOBS is cancelled, primarily due to a forecast with more clouds than clear sky Black Friday turns into the Raleigh Astronomy Club’s monthly observing session at our usual dark sky site.  Check back for a go/no-go decision and timing to open the gate.    This is our first peak at the winter sky close to dark!  It’s also the first session since DST ended, so we have an extra hour of darkness in the evening. Date:   Friday, November 25,…

When:  November 11, 2016, 7:30pm-9:30pm Where:  NC State Crafts Center (directions) Who: The meeting is open to the public! We will have a short business meeting at 7:30 followed by a swap meet and social. There should be quite a bit of gear there available for purchase. If you have spare gear you want to get rid of, be sure to bring it in. If you need a table to display your items, please let us know.  If you have any…

We had one of the best showings that I’ve seen in a while for RACOBS. Sky conditions were above average and everyone was petty excited to be out there. There were at least 10-15 people there. Some members of the NCSU astronomy club showed up, and we had a chance to talk and help them out. Mike M. offered to do an imaging class for them on campus sometime. Thanks to David K. who spent most of the the evening with…

When:  October 14, 2016, 7:30pm Where:  NC State Crafts Center (directions) Who: The meeting is open to the public!   The October RAC indoor meeting will feature RAC Solar Astronomers presenting some of their latest work. Sit back and enjoy the fascinating beauty of our nearest star. This meeting is intended to be an informal presentation/discussion, a chance to show off some of solar observing talent, and an opportunity to share some excellent solar observing tips and practices! Our own…

Date:  September 23, 2016 Time:  7:30pm RECAP: About 15 club members and guests ventured out to RACOBS this month.   Once dark, the skies were unusually steady.  Mars, and Saturn were sights for the first hour, but unfortunately Jupiter set soon after the sun.  The milky way was obvious with some structure visible.  Some of the objects observed include M31 Andromeda Galaxy, M57 Ring Nebula, the double cluster (NGC 869/884), NGC 6760, M8 Lagoon, M17, Swan nebula, and more.  Several new…

All RAC members are invited to an outdoor club barbecue.  The club will provide midwestern style pork barbecue, hot wings, homemade ice cream, and maybe hot dogs.   Members are encouraged to bring a side dish to share. Host/Organizer:  Chris Cole When:  October 15, Time TBD (late morning/early afternoon) Where:  Apex, NC (see member’s email listserv for address) Please RSVP via the club email discussion.   We need at least 20 attendees to make this happen and an accurate headcount for…

Despite getting off to a cloudy start, last night’s RACOBS was quite enjoyable.  11 people in attendance.  The weather was hot and humid.  However, over the course of the evening the temperatures started to drop and clouds began to dissipate.  The sky conditions were not ideal but allowed for good viewing of Saturn, Mars, nebulae and clusters.  However, transparency was quite bad and limited galaxy viewing. Mike Keefe reported using video astronomy and getting a nice capture of the Eagle…

All, August promises to be a very special month as Jim Pressley, Carl Moreschi, Al Hamrick and Michael Searle team up to give us their impressions of the OzSky Star Fest held in Australia this April!  They traveled together, roomed together and observed together on an excellent 25″ f/5 Obsession.  The southern skies must have been excellent. Most important, RAC is trying a different location and time.  Plus, this meeting is being moved back to Friday.   Currently, this is only for…

Recap: The July meeting of the RAC featured a talk by special guest Dr. Chris Richardson, Assistant Professor of Physics at Elon University. Dr. Richardson gave a lively and engaging presentation about Exoplanets. He discussed recent results in this popular area of research, especially the enormous amount of data coming from the Kepler Space Telescope. He also discussed the various components of the famous Drake Equation. Dr. Frank Drake created the equation in 1961. It attempts to compute the number…