LAS Newsletter -July 2015 - Longmont Astro · Valley FFA Sept. 27th, 7 pm “Watch the Moon Disappear” at Beach Shelter July 16th Meeting-Open Forum Open forum meetings are always

LAS Newsletter – August 2015

Copyright © Longmont Astronomical Society, 2015. All rights reserved.

LAS Meeting Aug 20th 7 pm

“Beginners Spectroscopy”

by Vern Raben

Spectroscopy is used by astronomers to analyze the chemical composition,

temperature, density, relative motion, and distance of stars, nebulas, galaxies,

and other bodies. Backyard astronomers may use spectroscopy

tools and techniques in their own personal explorations of the universe as

well. This presentation will provide an introduction to spectroscopy and some

of the tools that are available to

amateurs.

Data from a low resolution spectrograph, the Star Analyzer, will be

used to demonstrate how to capture, calibrate, and correct for instrument

response. Some example explorations that have been done with the Star

Analyzer will be shown.

Several medium and high resolution spectrographs are available

commercially for backyard telescopes. Such instruments may be constructed

as a DIY project for less money. Some

of the design considerations and tradeoffs involved in building your own

will be presented.

Las Meeting Aug 20 cont’d Location:

The meeting will be at the IHOP Restaurant, 2040 Ken Pratt Boulevard, Longmont. Please

join us for coffee, dinner, or just desert around 6 pm; The general meeting and

presentation will begin at 7 pm.

Upcoming Events Aug 21st 7:30 pm, “Night Skies at the

Library”, kickoff party for the Library Telescope program at Longmont Public

Library Sept.11th 8:30 pm, Longmont LDS

Stake Boy Scouts at Union Reservoir

Sept. 17th 7 pm, “A Timely Discussion about Time” by Dr. Suzanne Metlay,

Western Governors University at September LAS meeting at IHop

Sept. 18th 7:30 pm, star party for Rimm Valley FFA

Sept. 27th, 7 pm “Watch the Moon Disappear” at Beach Shelter

July 16th Meeting-Open Forum Open forum meetings are always great and so was this one. Saied Malbrouck talked about

collimation of his refractor which appears wrong but star test indicates no problem.

Tally O’Donnel described trips he took to Utah and Nebraska and showed us some of his

images. Jim Ellkins displayed a glider used by

NOAA to perform high altitude air sampling. Tim Brown described a few of his ATM efforts

and plans. Gary Garzone talked about his dome construction and images he has taken.

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 2


Celestial Highlights

Moon

Third quarter moon: Aug. 6 8:04 pm

New moon: Aug 13 8:55 am

First quarter: Aug 22 1:32 pm

Full moon: Aug. 29 12:36 pm

Mercury

Mercury will become visible low in the western

evening sky around the last week of August. It will

then be magnitude 0 in brightness and 6 arc sec

across so difficult to spot.

Venus

Venus is not visible this month.

Mars

Mars is visible low in the ENE before sunrise in the

constellation Gemini; it moves into Cancer on the

5th. It is currently magnitude 1.7 in apparent

brightness and 3.6 arc sec across.

Jupiter

Jupiter is not visible this month.

Saturn

Saturn is currently visible in the SW after sunset in

the constellation Libra. It is magnitude +0.5 in

brightness and its disk is 17 arc sec across.

Uranus

View Uranus around 4 am this month in the

constellation Pisces. It is magnitude 5.8 in

brightness and is 3.6 arc sec across.

Neptune

View Neptune around 2 am in the constellation

Aquarius. Its apparent magnitude is +7.8 and it is

2.3 arc sec across.

Comets

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is in constellation Draco as the

month begins and moves into Bootes on the 12th. It

is magnitude +9.6 now and it is expected to dim to

magnitude +10.3 by month’s end. See chart on

page 3.

Comets Cont’d

Periodic comet 88P (Howell) is currently magnitude

10.3 and will dim to magnitude 10.8 at the end of

this month. It is in the constellation Aries all month.

See chart on page 4.

C/2015 F4 (Jacques) is in constellation Cygnus as

the month begins. It moves into Lyra on Aug 5th. It

is currently magnitude 11.3 and will dim to 12 by the

end of the month. The nucleus is 2 arc min across.

Meteor Showers

The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak on the

night of August 12-13. Best time to view them will

be just before dawn on the Thurs. morning Aug.

13th. Expect to see about a hundred per hour from a

dark sky location.

Darkness

On Aug. 1st astronomical darkness begins at 10:07

pm and ends at 4:17 am MDT. (6h 10m of

astronomical darkness).

On Aug. 31st astronomical darkness begins at 9:14

pm and ends at 4:58 am (7h 44m of darkness).

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 3


Date Time RA(Ap) Dec (Ap)

Aug 1 10:03p 15h13m53.1s +57°15'38"

Aug 2 09:35p 15h14m49.0s +56°47'10"

Aug 3 09:57p 15h15m47.2s +56°17'50"

Aug 4 09:55p 15h16m44.7s +55°49'07"

Aug 5 09:53p 15h17m42.5s +55°20'33"

Aug 6 09:52p 15h18m40.6s +54°52'07"

Aug 7 09:50p 15h19m38.9s +54°23'51"

Aug 8 09:48p 15h20m37.6s +53°55'45"

Aug 9 09:46p 15h21m36.5s +53°27'48"

Aug 10 09:44p 15h22m35.6s +53°00'01"

Aug 11 09:43p 15h23m35.0s +52°32'23"

Aug 12 09:41p 15h24m34.7s +52°04'55"

Aug 13 09:39p 15h25m34.6s +51°37'38"

Aug 14 09:38p 15h26m34.8s +51°10'31"

Aug 15 09:35p 15h27m35.1s +50°43'35"

Aug 16 09:34p 15h28m35.7s +50°16'50"

Date Time RA (Ap) Dec (Ap)

Aug 17 09:32p 15h29m36.5s +49°50'16"

Aug 18 09:30p 15h30m37.5s +49°23'53"

Aug 19 09:28p 15h31m38.7s +48°57'42"

Aug 20 09:26p 15h32m40.1s +48°31'41"

Aug 21 09:24p 15h33m41.7s +48°05'51"

Aug 22 09:22p 15h34m43.4s +47°40'15"

Aug 23 09:19p 15h35m45.3s +47°14'50"

Aug 24 09:18p 15h36m47.4s +46°49'35"

Aug 25 09:15p 15h37m49.7s +46°24'34"

Aug 26 09:13p 15h38m52.1s +45°59'44"

Aug 27 09:10p 15h39m54.6s +45°35'06"

Aug 28 09:09p 15h40m57.3s +45°10'40"

Aug 29 09:08p 15h42m00.2s +44°46'25"

Aug 30 09:08p 15h43m03.2s +44°22'22"

Aug 31 08:47p 15h44m05.4s +43°58'52"

*Positions at optimal view time MDT on the

date shown

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) in August 2015

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 4


Date Time RA(Ap) Dec (Ap)

Aug 1 10:00p 02h36m59.6s +11°07'33"

Aug 2 10:00p 02h38m07.1s +11°12'56"

Aug 3 10:00p 02h39m12.9s +11°18'10"

Aug 4 10:00p 02h40m17.1s +11°23'15"

Aug 5 10:00p 02h41m19.6s +11°28'11"

Aug 6 10:00p 02h42m20.3s +11°32'58"

Aug 7 10:00p 02h43m19.3s +11°37'37"

Aug 8 10:00p 02h44m16.5s +11°42'06"

Aug 9 10:00p 02h45m11.9s +11°46'26"

Aug 10 10:00p 02h46m05.4s +11°50'37"

Aug 11 10:00p 02h46m57.2s +11°54'39"

Aug 12 10:00p 02h47m47.0s +11°58'33"

Aug 13 10:00p 02h48m35.0s +12°02'17"

Aug 14 10:00p 02h49m21.0s +12°05'53"

Aug 15 10:00p 02h50m05.1s +12°09'19"

Aug 16 10:00p 02h50m47.3s +12°12'37"

Date Time RA (Ap) Dec (Ap)

Aug 17 10:00p 02h51m27.4s +12°15'46"

Aug 18 10:00p 02h52m05.6s +12°18'47"

Aug 19 10:00p 02h52m41.8s +12°21'38"

Aug 20 10:00p 02h53m16.0s +12°24'21"

Aug 21 10:00p 02h53m48.1s +12°26'55"

Aug 22 10:00p 02h54m18.2s +12°29'20"

Aug 23 10:00p 02h54m46.2s +12°31'37"

Aug 24 10:00p 02h55m12.2s +12°33'45"

Aug 25 10:00p 02h55m36.0s +12°35'45"

Aug 26 10:00p 02h55m57.8s +12°37'36"

Aug 27 10:00p 02h56m17.4s +12°39'19"

Aug 28 10:00p 02h56m34.8s +12°40'53"

Aug 29 10:00p 02h56m50.2s +12°42'18"

Aug 30 10:00p 02h57m03.3s +12°43'35"

Aug 31 10:00p 02h57m14.3s +12°44'44"

*All positions for optimal view time MDT on the

date shown

Comet 88P (Howell)

in August 2015

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 5


A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 6


Moon and Venus by Brian Kimball on July 18

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 7


Veil Nebula by Gary Garzone on July 28th

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 8


Setting up for star party at Sandstone on July 25 by Gary Garzone

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 9


M31 by Gary Garzone on Aug. 1st

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 10


Sun in H-alpha on July 26 by Brian Kimball

Documents

LAS Newsletter -July 2015 - Longmont Astro · Valley FFA Sept. 27th, 7 pm “Watch the Moon Disappear” at Beach Shelter July 16th Meeting-Open Forum Open forum meetings are always