August Business Meeting Officer for the meeting: Mike Keefe Club Picnic The picnic will be at Bond Park on September 23 from 1:30 to 7:30. This will include club members and family. It will be in the Buehler Shelter. The shelter closes at 7:30, so we may have a bit of time after 7:30 as well. The Shelter has access to restrooms, electricity, lights, water and a grill. Capacity is approximately 50. The club will provide the meat and drinks,…
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…
Cloudy weather prevented an outdoor observing session (RACOBS), so a dozen members & guests attended an informal meeting at the Museum. The evening’s roundtable topic was ‘cleaning optics’. Following on the theme of the previous weekend’s optics cleaning session at NCSU, techniques were shared for cleaning eyepieces, mirrors and Schmidt-Cassegrain corrector plates.
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!
RAC Treasurer’s Report dated 6/7/2012 Regular checking account activity since 4/26/2012 report: (No checks were written) Two deposits totaling $235.00 were made for membership fees. $4,267.68————Regular checking account balance $10.00—————Special Purpose (PayPal transfer) account balance $10,306.12———–Saving account balance $14,583.80———–Total balance all funds on hand. MEMBERSHIP: 29 memberships were dropped from the list in April. 39 new memberships have signed on since October 1. We presently have a total of 134 memberships consisting of 100 Individual and 34 Family. The %…
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.
The general meeting featured George Howard with his talk on the evidence for an extraterrestrial impact origin of the Carolina Bays. There was a great deal of interaction from the audience and many questions.
Below are descriptions of the various RAC exhibits at 2012 Astronomy Days requiring volunteers: Solar Observing: Using a scope with a safe white light, H-alpha, or other filter and encourage passersby to observe the Sun. Scopes without filters may observe distant objects in buildings but not the Sun. RAC Table & Ask the Astronomer: Meet and greet museum visitors who are interested in Astronomy. Pass out club literature and answer general questions concerning astronomy, The Raleigh Astronomy Club, and locations…
Regular checking account activity since 3/8/2012 report: (No checks were written) Three deposits totaling $1,046.89 were made for membership dues. $4,032.68———Regular checking account balance. $10.00———Special purpose (PayPal transfer) account balance. $10,305.26———Savings account balance. $14,347.94———Total balance all funds on hand. 2012 DUES: Anyone who has not paid their dues for 2012 by now will be dropped from the membership list and will lose all benefits of club membership including access to the RAC Yahoo Discussion Group. If you are in this…
The Raleigh Astronomy Club particpated in the grand opening even for the new Nature Research Center in downtown Raleigh. This was a 24-hour event with an attendance of the over 70,000! Although the skies were not always cooperative, there was a lot of interest in the telescopes, with the wait times on the rooftop observing exceeding 1 hour at times! We thank all the members of the public who attended and all our volunteers who gave up a night of…
