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…
Speaker: Doug Lively, Tony Hopp, Matt Lochansky, Michael Carnes, Travis Wills This meeting consisted of members that are doing video astronomy. It was done in a panel format. Mike Keefe ask questions and the panel members answered them. First they describe why they go into video astronomy and what sort of equipment they used. Various answers were given. One answer was a way of giving his daughter a way to view the stars via a smartphone. This allowed her to…
Astronomy Days The officers took a moment to thank all of the people that participated in Astronomy Days. The event went well, even with the weather. The special meeting with Jim Green went well and there were over 50 people in the audience. Astronomy Days Feedback Mike Keefe solicited feedback about Astronomy Days from the members. There is a survey that is available as well. The link is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/87KTB6D. Please take a moment to fill out the survey, if you…
This past Saturday, the Raleigh Astronomy Club hosted it’s first Telescope Tune Up Clinc of 2013 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s Prairie Ridge Ecostation. It was well attnded despite the cold weather and cloudy skies. Attendees learned about telescope basics, alligning finders, collimation, polar alignment and lots of advice that was out of this world. 🙂
Speaker: Dr. James Green, Director, NASA Planetary Sciences Division This was a very special meeting for the RAC club and for the public. Dr. James Green was our guest speaker. There were many people from the club and from the public that attended. It was held in the auditorium in the museum. Afterwards there were questions and some give aways.
RAC hosted a telescope observing session for the public at North Cary Park on Saturday evening, January 19 from 7pm to 9:30. As always, the event was free. Attendance was good for a cold January evening. About 100 or so people of all ages visited the telescopes and asked many questions. RAC members provided 18 telescopes for viewing, from small refractors to reflectors to Schmidt-Cassegrains. Most telescopes provided views of the moon and Jupiter which were great crowd-pleasers. Others showed…
The RACOBS for January 11th was clouded out, rather fogged out! Â However about ten or so members showed up for a short presentation of Grazing Lunar Occultations by our own Mark Lang. This was an incredibly interesting presentation about a topic not often discussed in amateur astronomy circles.
Report Period: 1 Sep 2012 – 31 Dec 2012 Income & Expenses INCOME Membership Dues 545.00 Interest 1.72 Total $546.72 EXPENSES PayPal Transaction Fees (PayPal) -15.99 Picnic Shelter Rental (Doug Lively) -120.00 Picnic Supplies (Ian Hewitt) -134.97 Filing Office Supplies (Chuck Jaynes) -27.52 Envelopes & Stamps (Chuck Jaynes) -23.33 Website Fees – raleighastro.org (Chuck Jaynes) -145.38 Website Fees – astronomydays.org (IPower) -25.98 Post Office Box Yearly Fee (U.S. Post Office) -120.00 Total -$613.17 Account Balances Business Checking 2170.75 PayPal 174.24…
A few dozen people gathered at the December indoor meeting to see and hear about various members’ newest astronomical toys. Items shared with the group ranged from books to telescopes to various observing and imaging gadgets. The discussion was accompanied by refreshments which added a festive tone to the meeting. Co-chairman Ian Hewitt also shared a few items of business related to the upcoming Astronomy Days event at the Museum on January 26-27.
Despite the threat of high clouds early and cold temperatures, a small group of observers showed up at our observing site for the Dec. 14 RACOBS.  Surprisingly, the skies were clear up to around 9:30 giving us a couple of good hours of observing. There were four club members present with telescopes. Jeff M. had his new, fully automated Meade 8″ SCT, Phyllis and Mark L. used a 14.5″ Dob, and Jim D. used his 14″ Dob.  We had five…
16 RAC members and a few guests gathered to watch and photograph the annual Geminid meteor shower Thursday night/ Friday morning. While everyone pursued different activities, all fought dew, frost and cool temperatures that reached into the upper 20s. The sky conditions were just good enough for imaging and visual observers to have some success. We had no clouds, but transparency was surprisingly mediocre due to significant atmospheric aerosols and high humidity. Transparency improved during the post-midnight hours but never…
The Co-Chairs met with NC Museum of Natural Sciences staff for the first Astronomy Days 2013 planning meeting this past Thursday evening. We were informed that the main speaker for Astronomy Days will be Dr. Jim Green, NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director. We are also hoping that Dr. Green will address the club on the Friday night before Astronomy Days. However, this has not been confirmed. We also discussed the list of possible exhibits as well as the location of…
We had a nice turn out for RAC’s November 9th RACOBS, approximately 20 or so members and about 8 guests were present at one time or another. The skies were very clear and the seeing was quite steady. However dew was a factor later in the observing session. The last of us packed up and headed home about 1:30am.
Astronomy Days Mike Keefe went over the different exhibits from last year. This is located in a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet has the exhibit, the equipment requirements and lessons learned. Contact Mike Keefe for the location of the spreadsheet. We are looking for people to work the exhibits, to give more talks and a coordinator for Astronomy Days. This happens on January 26 and 27, which is Saturday (9am-5pm) and Sunday (1pm-5pm). The meeting for January 25 (Friday) will take place…
