Amateur Astronomy – The Next 50 Years. Johnny Horne reflects on his time spent in the hobby…and plans for the future. Johnny Horne started off talking about where he grew up and lived his entire life. This is Stedman, NC. He had the advantage of being able to see the same sky his entire life. He has been interested in astronomy since age ten. The other topics included his observatory, the eclipses that he has seen and a general talk…
On 6/15/2013, several members took advantage of the nice weather to go out to Howell Woods
Six intrepid members traveled to Howell Woods for a night of viewing and imaging on Thursday, May 30. Favorite objects, and these are just a few, were Saturn, M16,M51,M81-82, M57, M65-66, and a number of globular clusters.
Although attendance at the May Imaging Meeting was light (as often happens this time of year), but everyone still had an enjoyable and interesting time.
On Tuesday evening, May 14th, there was an impromptu observing session at the club’s Big Woods site. There were only two members present, Greg Bradburn and Michael Keefe, but that is enough to have a productive evening. Greg started out with some imaging of Saturn and then moved over the take some images of the Markarian Chain. For Mike, this was “first light” for his new (to him) Celestron CPC 1100 telescope.
Date: April 18th, 2013 Officers attending: Ann Murphy, Ian Hewitt, Mike Keefe, Chuck Jaynes Elections – All The elections need to be announced for the next meeting. The election must take place in April, May or June. The nominations will be opened for the April meeting. Nominations needed by May. The nominations can take place at the meeting or on-line. The members can vote in person, on-line voting, or absentee ballots. The election will take place during the June meeting. Even if…
RAC was privileged to bring in Rod Mollise from Alabama for the April 2013 meeting. Rod is now a contributing editor for Sky & Telescope Magazine. He has recently completed a big project: observing 2500 deep-sky objects cataloged by William and Carolina Herschel. Rod began his discussion by giving the group a history lesson on the Herschel’s. Wilhelm and Lina (William and Caroline) were born in Hannover Germany in the early1700s. They emigrated to England. William was initially a musician…
A small group of diehards observers, some new members and guests made it out to Big Woods on Friday, April 12. Despite the pollen, which is a problem when observing in April, everyone had a pretty good time. It was pretty clear for the most part, but some small clouds rolled in later in the evening. Everyone stayed out until around midnight.
The 2013 NC Science Festival started on Friday, April 5th with a “Statewide Star Party,” where groups all over NC held public observing on the same day. After weeks of planning, gloom, and rain (from an unusually cool Spring) we were rewarded with an awesome sky, an excellent Museum program, and enthusiastic crowds for these festive and exciting observing events. In fact, before dark we had lines at each of the telescopes at all the events. We would like to…
Report Period: 1 Jan 2013 – 31 Mar 2013 Income & Expenses INCOME Membership Dues 2,430.00 Interest 1.27 Total $2,431.27 EXPENSES PayPal Transaction Fees (PayPal) -68.21 Business Cards & Brochures (Phyllis Lang) -364.15 Liability Insurance (Marsh U.S. Consumer) -320.00 IDA Membership (IDA) -100.00 Total -$852.36 Account Balances Business Checking 3,260.20 PayPal 92.01 Regular Savings 10,310.47 Special Purpose 580.42 Total $14,243.04 Memberships Individual Memberships 64 Family Memberships 40 Total Memberships 104 DETAIL New Memberships 35 Renewed Memberships 68 Lifetime Memberships 1…
Astronomy League Binocular Pin Brian Reasor received this pin after completing an Astronomy League observing program.
In the March 2013 meeting, Dr Juthika Khargharia presented on the techniques to measure the mass of black holes in x-ray binaries developed by Dr. Khargharia. These results have been accepted by the Astronomical Journal. This talk covered a lot of ground and it generated many questions. This was quite a popular meeting.
Over 10 members of the Raleigh Astronomy Club came out to Science Thursday 3/15 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to view comet PanSTARRS and some other objects. Over 50 members of the public came out to brave the cold and windy conditions.
A large number of RAC members took advantage of excellent weather conditions from March 7-11 to do some spring season observing. A rare string of very good transparency coincident with the new moon allowed great observing of deep sky objects. Some members attended the Staunton River Star Party in Virgina, while others attending observing sessions in the Raleigh area.
The Raleigh Astronomy Club (RAC) partnered with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Time Warner Cable to kick off Thursday Night at the Museum on Febuary 28th. The museum will now be open later into the evening/night on Thursday Nights. RAC set up 6 telescopes and 1 binocular station outside the museum on the Bicentennial Plaza. Additionally the club had a table set up inside the Nature Research Center (NRC) near the entrance to provide visitors with more…
