RAC

The weather forecast for this month’s RACOBS was truly puzzling. Various club members collaborated throughout the day questioning the suitability of the weather for observing. Late in the day, most parties agreed that observing conditions would likely be decent, but not excellent. The decision to hold RACOBS turned out to be a good one. The gate was opened at 7:30pm for 4 waiting carloads of astronomers and equipment. Several more joined us over the next few hours.

This was a good talk by our co-chair Ian Hewitt. We also tried out a new venue at the Daily Planet Cafe. So you could enjoy the talk and dinner as well. The talk began with a history of how Pluto was discovered.  It was discovered in 1939 in the Lowell Observatory.  It was named after the Mythical God of the Underworld, not the dog.

This month’s meeting featured  “Astrobiology – The Search for Alien Life” by Dr. Mike Malaska In order to understand how to find life beyond the Earth, Mike began his presentation with a review of how life formed on Earth.  The questions “What is life?” and “When did life begin?” were addressed.  Mike explained that life is chemistry and life began on earth 3.8 billion years ago.  Life started from water and small organic molecules. The talked then focused on bacteria…

On Saturday, 07-Jul-2012, RAC had an opportunity to help NCSU students refurbish NCSU Observatory scopes and eyepieces. This event had been coordinated through the RAC Officers and NCSU Astrophysics department as an effort to revitalize NCSU’s Observatory. An additional benefit to the event was that of providing sustainability for future classes of rising astronomers, astrophysicists, and cosmologists. This sustainability was achieved in two ways: Eyepiece Cleaning and Scope Maintenance.

There were a three attempted observing sessions during the month of June. The sessions occured on June 15th, 16th and 22nd. A brief synopsis of each follows: June 15 – Impromptu Observing session at Bigwoods: Sky conditions for this event were simply amazing and offered a rare clarity that is seldom seen in the later spring and early summer months.  Five RAC members were on hand for this event.  Mike Keefe provided the following account of the session:

Speaker: Michel Tournay 2012-06-28 – June General Meeting This was a very informative and interesting talk.  Michel Tournay is a repeat speaker and a very good one.  He is a prolific photographer and an avid solar eclipse chaser.  He gave two talks for the price of one.

On the afternoon of June 5th, 2012 (the morning of June 6th on other parts of the planet) the black silhouette of Venus was observed crossing the face of the sun.  This passing in front of the sun is what astronomers call a transit.  The next time Venus will transit the Sun, from the Earth’s vantage point, will be December of 2117.  Yes, 2117; that’s 105 years from now!

The Raleigh Astronomy Club and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences again hosted the premiere astronomy event in North Carolina, Astronomy Days on May 19th and 20th 2012. The event drew over 10,000 people who were able to enjoys displays, activities, workshops, and presentations from the Raleigh Astronomy Club, NASA/JPL, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, the Nature Research Center, and many other organizations.

We had a great turn out for the May 11th RACOBS.  At one point we counted over 28 cars and at least 45 attendees, many were new members and visitors.  There was lots of activity with many people floating back and forth between telescopes sharing views, equipment and stories.