RAC

The September indoor RAC meeting was held in the Daily Planet Theater and member Dr. Steven Christensen presented on multiverses. This topic can be very hard to grasp for non-physicists, but as usual, Dr. Christensen did a great overview of the background and current theories of this very heady topic, but in a very accessible way so that everyone could understand it. However, even folks familiar with the topic learned something during this presentation. Thanks again to Steve for taking…

The Raleigh Astronomy Club had a member picnic/social gathering on a great September Saturday. Co-chair Chris Cole coordinated/hosted a great event on a strawberry farm featuring barbecue (pork and chicken) with homemade sauces and homemade strawberry ice cream. A lot of members brought side dishes to share sot there was ample good food to go around. All the members and their families that were able to attend had a great afternoon talking and eating in really nice weather. Congratulations to…

The August 2015 meeting of the Raleigh Astronomy Club featured Dr. John Blondin of the North Carolina State Department of Astronomy and Physics presenting on X-Ray Binary Star systems This is a very active area of research in astronomy and a number of hist students are doing work in this area. Dr Blondin is a great presenter and provided an excellent overview of the current understanding in this field. A recording of the meeting is available on the Raleigh Astronomy…

The Raleigh Astronomy Club and Morehead planetarium partnered with North Carolina Museum of Art for the 2015 Stargazing in the Museum Park member event. In addition to beverages supplied by local breweries, the crowd of over 300 enjoyed clear cool skies and views of the International Space Station (ISS), M13, the Moon, and Saturn. Saturn was definitely the crowd favorite with multiple scopes providing views of the ringed planet in white light and through colored filters (like orange to enhace…

The Perseid metor shower is one of the better showers of the year. This year’s event was widely anticipated because the Moon did not interfere with the veiwing. Here in Raleigh, we were doubly luck as some cooler drier weather also happened to settle into the area making conditions very good indeed. Many members and public got some gret views due to a public observing session by Morehead Planetarium, a RAC impromptu observing session, and the regulary scheduled RACOBS

The RAC July Indoor meeting featured a presentation by Dr. Barbara Becker on her resaerch into the life and accomplishments of British amateur astronomers William and Margaret Huggins in the 19th century work. In a time when amateurs did a great deal of the astronomical work, this husband/wife team did pioneering work in the field of spectroscopy. Much of modern astronomy is rooted in spectral analysis of the light from stars, nebula, galaxies and many other objects and their contributions…

Several members of RAC (and a couple from CHAOS) joined Jim Pressley and Phyllis Lang at the NCSU Crafts Center Saturday for an informal eyepice cleaning clinic. Supplies and refreshments were provided for attendees who brought an eyepiece or two for cleaning.

Pluto has very much been on everyone’s mind this week with all the information from NASA’s New Horizons mission that has been released this week. Long time RAC member Mark Lang took advantage of the skies during the July RAC observing session to build his own very cool animation of Pluto taken from here in North Carolina. Please note, you need to click the image to see the animation.

Although it was warm and muggy and sky conditions not optimal, the July outdoor observing session offered a chance for some summer season observing for about a dozen RAC members. Some members even took advantage of the conditions to get some imaging time, including this spectacular photograph of the Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules by Steve Christensen (Image Used With Permission).

Speaker:  Tony Rice, Solar System Ambassador This month’s speaker was Tony Rice, one of our local NASA Solar System Ambassadors.  His topic was Planetary Atmospheres.  Tony began by giving the club members a quiz he normally gives to teachers and broadcast meteorologists.  It had 4 questions which our group were able to answer correctly, but the area teachers and TV broadcasters (including the Daily Show with Jon Stewart) had trouble answering.