March 2013 Business Meeting
Astronomy League Binocular Pin Brian Reasor received this pin after completing an Astronomy League observing program.
The Mass of the Black Hole in XTE J1118+480
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.
Comet PANSTARRS Viewing
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.
Observe-a-rama
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.
Thursday Night at the Museum
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…
Panel Discussion on Video Astronomy
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…
Februrary 2013 Business Meeting
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…
February Telescope Tune Up Clinic
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. 🙂
Astronomy Days Keynote – Science isn’t Done Until it’s Shared
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.
Public Observing Session on Jan 19, 2013
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…
January RACOBS Clouded Out – Great Indoor Meeting Instead!
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.
Treasurer’s Report: Dec 31 2012
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…
December 28 Meeting: Astronomical Toys
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.
RAC December Observing Session
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…
Geminid Meteor Observing: 13-14 Dec 2012
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…
