First Quarter 2010 Meeting Summaries by Mark Lang Jan. 8, 2010 – RACOBS – A group of 10 very hardy members and a couple of visitors headed out to the Lake. The weather conditions were brutal – cold, windy, and some clouds. Some observing happened during holes in the clouds, but by 9:30 everyone had left due to the bad conditions. Jan. 22, 2010 – Regular meeting. Filmaker Stephen van Vuuren from Greensboro, talked with the Club about how he…
Fourth Quarter Meeting Summaries By Mark Lang Oct. 2 and 4, 2009. The public observing sessions at the Museum of Art were both clouded out. They may be rescheduled at a later date. Oct. 9, 2009 – Special meeting “The Rene Ward Memorial Lecture”. This special meeting was held in the main auditorium of the Natural Sciences Museum. To start the night off, Jerry Watson gave a narrated PowerPoint presentation about Rene Ward and her connection to the Raleigh Astronomy…
Third Quarter 2009 Meeting Summaries By Mark Lang July 10, 2009 – Regular meeting – RAC swap meet. This was the first RAC swap meet. Members brought their astronomy gear that was no longer wanted or needed and tried to sell it to others. A few telescopes and accessories were sold. There were also drawings for door prizes which included some nice books. A cake and refreshments were also provided. Turnout was light due to it being a summer night,…
Hello, It’s been a while since I blogged, I will get back on schedule and start posting some new entries regularly…. We have a lot of events coming up this fall and hopefully will get some good weather. Details can be found on the web site, but they include: September – Dark Sky Weekend at Pettigrew state park October – Public observing at the NC Museum of Art and the Mid Atlantic Star Party November – Public observing at Howell…
Second Quarter 2009 RAC Meeting Summaries by Mark Lang April 10, 2009 – Regular Meeting. Tonight’s presentation was “Russell W. Porter – Innovator, Designer, and Builder” by Gayle Riggsbee of the Charlotte Amateur Astronomers. To put things into perspective in terms of today’s prices, Gayle informed us that 100 years ago it took one year’s salary to purchase a telescope. Back then, the few manufacturers were W&D Mogey who produced medium quality scopes, Clark Telescopes which were very expensive, and…
(This article originally appeared in the Q1 2007 STAR Newsletter and was written by Brian Reasor. -I) Messier Marathon 2007 by Brian Reasor Thanks to all who came out for the RAC 2007 Messier Marathon at Howell Woods. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event. Skies were clear, although seeing suffered some due to wind, and it got down to about freezing overnight. We had, by my count, 16 people and maybe a few more who showed up after dark. Most…
(This article appeared in the first quarter 2007 STAR Newsletter. -I) Astronomy Days 2007 By Ian Hewitt It was January again (seems to come around every year) and you know what that means! New Year’s? Playoff Games? No! Astronomy Days!!! This year, RAC had another great event and you all deserve a big hand of applause! This year everyone focused on updating many of the exhibits to help keep the event fresh and it resulted in an attendance of 16,695…
A nice crowd showed up for a public observing session on the soccer field at North Cary Park on Saturday April 4 from 8:30 to 11:00. The main objects shown were the Moon and Saturn because high clouds plagued us almost the whole observing session. Fittingly, the skies cleared after the observing session was over. Many guests asked about the large ice crystal halo around the Moon. Over the two and a half hour event, I would estimate that there were around 300…
First Quarter 2009 Meeting Summaries By Mark Lang Jan. 9 – Regular meeting with Ian Hewitt in charge. Tonight’s meeting was a member slide show. To start off, Ian showed us some of his Mars and Saturn images taken recently. Mark Lang followed by showing his astrophotography which consisted many times of objects which move like comets, asteroids, and Barnard’s star’s motion over the last three years. He also showed some lunar eclipse shots and shots taken with his “barn…
The February meeting for the Raleigh Astronomy Club was held on Friday, February 13th at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. We had great presentation from Johnny Horne, Photo Editor for the Fayetteville News and Observer, entitled Earth and Sky. Johnny talked about some of his terrific astrophotos and how he planned and used natural features to improve the images. You can read more about Johnny and his activities at his blog at http://blogs.fayobserver.com/backyarduniverse.
On January 24 and 25th The Raleigh Astronomy Club and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosted the 18th Astronomy Days event in downtown Raleigh. Over 14,500 people participated in this free weekend event. It features exhibits and presentations from local astronomy clubs, NASA, the Museum, and mayn other organizations. This year’s them was the international year of astronomy. The Raleigh Astronomy Club would like to sincerely thank every individual and every organization who attended or volunteered for the Astronomy…
The January 9th meeting had a great turnout and featured presentations from the RAC Imaging Subgroup. This is a special interest group with the Raleigh Astronomy Club that focuses on astrophotography and imaging. It is open to any member of RAC and has been holding meetings for almost a year. They have discussions on everything from getting starting in astrophotography to advanced techniques and even conduct field sessions. Steve Izzo leads the group and introduced the session. Ian Hewitt, Mark Lang, Joe…
Raleigh Astronomy Club 2008 Meeting Summaries By Mark Lang Jan. 11, 2008 – RACOBS was clouded out, so an indoor meeting was held. A 20 minute long NASA video called “The Saturn Essays” was shown. It included many stunning photos accompanied by music. See: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/cassini-essay-4/index-flash.html. After the video, a discussion was held about the 2008 Astronomy Days. Jan. 25, 2008 – Regular meeting night, but a special Astronomy Days presentation was given in the main museum auditorium. Ian Hewitt ran…
Secretary’s Blog, August 22, 2008 by Mark Lang On Monday Aug. 18, the Club got an email in the [email protected] mailbox from Lisa Corbett who along with her husband are members of the Wayne Co. Astronomy Club. Lisa, who works for the N.C. Dept. of Justice, has a co-worker friend Susannah Cox. It just so happened that Susannah’s father, Dr. Colin Cox, was to be in town visiting for the weekend. The Wayne Co. group had already met earlier in…
