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PAGE 2 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
Contact information: Info Officer (General Info) – [email protected] Website Administrator – [email protected]
Postal Address: Fort Worth Astronomical Society c/o Matt McCullar 5801 Trail Lake Drive Fort Worth, TX 76133 Web Site: http://www.fortworthastro.org (or .com) Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3eutb22 Twitter: http://twitter.com/ftwastro Yahoo! eGroup (members only): http://tinyurl.com/7qu5vkn
Officers (2015-2016): President – Si Simonson, [email protected] Vice President – , [email protected] Tres – Laura Cowles, [email protected]
Secretary—Pam Klich, [email protected]
Board Members: 2016-2018 Bill Nichols Larry Barker John McCrea Pam Kloepfer Observing Site Reminders:
Be careful with fire, mind all local burn bans!
Dark Site Usage Requirements (ALL MEMBERS):
• Maintain Dark-Sky Etiquette (http://tinyurl.com/75hjajy)
• Turn out your headlights at the gate!
• Sign the logbook (in camo-painted storage shed. Inside the door on the left-hand side)
• Log club equipment problems (please contact a FWAS board member to inform them of any problems)
• Put equipment back neatly when finished
• Last person out:
Check all doors – secured, but NOT locked
Make sure nothing is left out
I ns id e th is i s s ue :
Cover Photo: IC 443 and IC 444
Information concerning equipment and processing can be found <Here>
Photo by Marco Favro
The Fort Worth Astronomical Society (FWAS) was founded in 1949 and is a non-profit 501(c)3 scientific educational organization, and incorporated in the state of Texas. This publication may be copied and distributed for free only. This publication cannot be uploaded or distributed into any media unless it is in its original, full, unaltered, published form. All rights reserved by FWAS.
Page
E d i t o r :
G e o r g e C . L u t c h
I s s u e C o n t r i b u -
t o r s :
S e i j i
Pa m K l i c h
December Club Calendar 3
Young Astronomer News 4
Tandy Hills Star Party Info 4
Celestial Events 5
Interesting Objects 6
Abbreviations/Classifications 6
Cloudy Night Library 7
Constellation of the Month 9
Constellation of the Month 10
AL Observing Program 11
AL Observing Program 12
ISS visibility info 13
Planetary Visibility info 13
Sky Chart for Month 14
Lunar Calendar 15
Lunar Info 16
Mercury/Jupiter Data 17
November Meeting Minutes 18-19
Fundraising/Donation Info 20-21
Obituary for Don 22
Foto Files 23
FWAS Fotos 21
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 3
See our full FWAS Event Calendar at:
http://www.fortworthastro.com/meetings.html
for the latest updates on what our club has scheduled
FQ
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Click calendar icons above to see details of bright ISS passes this month.
Moon Apogee
FM
Young
Astronomers
Meeting
Starts @ 7pm-9pm
FWAS
Monthly
Meeting
Starts @ 7pm
LQ
Moon Perigee
NM
Tandy
Hills
Prairie Sky
Star Party
D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7
Nostradamas
Birthday (1503)
FQ
Maurice H. Wilkins
Birthday (1916)
Louis Pasteur
Birthday (1822)
Sir Isaac Newton
Birthday (1642)
Margaret Mead
Birthday (1901)
Johannes Kepler Birthday (1571)
PAGE 4 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
Young Astronomers With days getting shorter and nights getting longer there is of
course more time to get out and observe. Along with the in-
creased amount of dark sky there is also the weather or for us
the cold. Here are some tips to stay warm while observing.
• Dress in layers. This will allow you to add or remove cloth-ing as needed to keep you warm without sweating.
• While you might think that sweating would mean your stay-ing warm it is not a good thing during cold weather as it gets your clothing wet and wet clothing is harder to keep warm.
• Put a top on it. A large portion of your body heat is lost via your head. Wear a warm cap or hat.
• Wear gloves that allow you to work your scope while still being warm. This will prevent you from having to take them off to work with things and keep your hands warm. Check out the Young Astronomers Web Page at: http://
www.fortworthastro.com/young_astronomers.html
e
Tandy Hills Prairie Sky/Star Party: Astronomy—Community Engagement After many years at the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History, the well-attended, monthly public star parties presented by the Fort Worth Astronomical Society (FWAS) have moved to Tandy Hills Natural Area. Established in 1949, FWAS is one of the first adult amateur astronomy clubs formed in the country and one of the largest with more than 200 active mem-bers.
Members will have several telescopes set up at Tandy Hills for viewing the night sky.
Free & open to the public. All ages wel-come. Family/kid-friendly - No dogs - Cool-ers welcome - Steel City Pops will be on hand More details at the NASA website: https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/event-view.cfm?Event_ID=76024 S t a r par t y E t i q u e t t e : h t t p : / /www.fortworthastro.com/etiquette.html
WHEN: Second Saturday of every month http://www.tandyhills.org/events/prairie-sky-star-party
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 5
Dec 01 Fr Venus: 9.4° W
03 Su 07:00 Moon-Aldebaran: 0.8° S
03 Su 09:47 Full Moon
04 Mo 02:42 Moon Perigee: 357500 km
05 Tu 05:43 Moon North Dec.: 20° N
07 Th 03:30 Moon-Beehive: 2.5° N
07 Th 18:39 Moon Ascending Node
08 Fr 16:25 Moon-Regulus: 0.7° S
10 Su 01:51 Last Quarter
12 Tu 19:40 Mercury Inferior Conj.
13 We 10:27 Moon-Mars: 4.5° S
14 Th 00:07 Geminid Shower: ZHR = 120
14 Th 08:26 Moon-Jupiter: 4.7° S
18 Mo 00:31 New Moon
18 Mo 19:27 Moon Apogee: 406600 km
19 Tu 03:31 Moon South Dec.: 20.1° S
21 Th 10:29 Winter Solstice
21 Th 14:18 Saturn Conjunction
22 Fr 04:04 Moon Descending Node
22 Fr 09:00 Ursid Shower: ZHR = 10
26 Tu 03:20 First Quarter
30 Sa 18:25 Moon-Aldebaran: 0.7° S
C E L E S T I A L E V E N T S T H I S M O N T H
(* Times are Local) D a t a S o u r c e : N A S A S K Y C A L - S K Y E V E N T S C A LE N D A R
PAGE 6 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
I N T E R E S T I N G O B J E C T S
Deep Sky* - M35 (NGC 2168), NGC 2158 , Eskimo Nebula (NGC
2392), Medusa Nebula
Double/Multiple Stars** - - α Gem (Castor) , δ Gem (Wasat) , ε
Gem (Mebsuta) , ζ Gem (Mekbuda), η Gem (Propus), κ Gem, ν Gem
Constellations* - - Gemini, Orion, Auriga
Asterisms*** - - Little Leo, Leaping Minnow, Dolidze 17—Metranome, Smiley
Face
Lunar Features**** - - Argo Alpha & Beta (35), Serpentine Ridge (24), Lacus
Mortise (14)
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 7
Just when we think we've finally seen everything on Earth, another astonishing discovery comes along. “Nova: At the Edge of Space” is a one-hour documentary about a strange atmospheric phenomenon called “sprites.” The DVD's title and cover graphics may lead one to think that the program is strictly about au-roras, but it isn't; it's also about the little-known lightning bolts that shoot up above thunderstorms into the low-er regions of space.
Scientists are still trying to understand sprites and what causes them, be-cause they were discovered only re-cently. Sprites are difficult to locate and even harder to photograph because they are essentially bolts of lightning that appear above very powerful thun-derstorms. They are invisi-ble from the ground because we are on the “wrong” side of the cloud systems. In 1973 a U.S. Air Force pilot named Ronald Williams, flying over a typhoon in the South China Sea, reported seeing a sprite shooting straight up from the clouds. No one be-lieved him, but other pilots had witnessed similar events. It wasn't until 1989 when a sprite was fi-nally photographed for the first time – and entirely by accident – that the phenomenon was scientifi-cally verified.
It takes a rare set of circumstances for sprites to form. Despite the fact that 8 million lightning bolts occur around the world every day (that's about 100 strikes each second!), sprites occur only over lightning bolts over 10 times more powerful than regular lightning. A sprite lasts only for 70 millisec-onds, and only one in every 10,000 lightning bolts produces a sprite. They can be up to 40 miles tall. The best way to see them is from above – from
either aircraft or spacecraft.
“Nova” takes us on a ride with scien-tists on two high-altitude observation airplanes over the Great Plains to cap-ture 3-D images of sprites. They got them, too: beautiful, high-definition pictures! These sprites look like jelly-fish with tentacles, with glowing em-bers falling from them. We also see helium balloons being launched, car-rying scientific equipment to investi-gate these events; we see the bal-loons expand as they gain altitude.
More stunning images come from the International Space Station. Astronauts look for sprites constantly over nighttime regions of the Earth from more than 200 miles up, particularly while passing over central Africa – the most light-ning-prone region in the world.
(Following the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, astronaut Ilan Ramon's video camera was found; it survived re-entry and the data was sal-vaged. He'd tried to photograph sprites from space.)
(Continued on page 8)
Media Reviews Media reviews by Matt J. McCullar, FWAS
Nova: At the Edge of Space
DVD
54 minutes
Produced by NHK for WGBH Boston – 2013
Available on YouTube
PAGE 8 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
As I watched this program, I couldn't help but wonder: Do sprites exist on other planets? Jupi-ter has lightning, too, but does it have sprites? Sprites interact with our ionosphere by helping to complete a global electric circuit, allowing electric charge to flow continuously around the Earth. We know that Jupiter's volcanic moon Io is part of a vast electric circuit between itself and Jupiter.
Scientists have learned to detect sprites by the radio signals they emit... sometimes from great distances. Strokes that generate sprites are so powerful that they reverberate literally around the world... sometimes a wave can go around the Earth several times. Electromagnetic waves radi-ate throughout the “global electric circuit.” The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been running a monitoring station in rural western Rhode Island for almost 20 years, and we get to see it here. A sprite generated in Colorado can easily be picked up in Rhode Island.
“Nova: At the Edge of Space” discusses auroras, too. It shows that discrete auroras have definite boundaries that can be seen by the naked eye, while diffuse auroras are spread out over a wide area and are less colorful. Some solar particles otherwise blocked by the Earth's magnetosphere sneak in through a back door in the Earth's shad-ow. They enter between gaps in the Earth's mag-netic field and cause auroras – luminous rings around the polar regions. Auroras appear in different colors at different altitudes – it depends on the gases present.
The visuals in “Nova: At the Edge of Space” are
incredible. I enjoyed the interviews with the sci-entists studying these events. (My favorite quote describes the Sun as a “really big, angry hair dry-er.”) Curiously, there are no extra features in-cluded on the DVD, and I would have liked to have seen more.
What else is out there, waiting to be discovered?
Four sprites out of five. Recommended.
(Book Review—Continued from page 7)
If you have an idea for an article, have astronomical related photos or an astronomy pro-
ject you’ve done, and you’d like to share or want to contribute to the newsletter in any oth-
er way, please contact the editor at [email protected] or through the club’s
Yahoo! eGroup forum.
e
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 9
G emini lies be-tween Taurus to the west and Cancer to
the east, with Auriga and Lynx to the north and Monoceros and Canis Mi-nor to the south.
The Sun resides in the astrological sign of Gemini from June 20 to July 20 each year (though the zodiac dates it May 21 - June 21).[3] By mid August, Gemini will appear along the eastern horizon in the morning sky prior to sunrise. The best time to ob-serve Gemini at night is overhead during the months of January and February. By April and May, the con-stellation will be visible soon after sunset in the west.
The easiest way to locate the con-stellation is to find its two brightest stars Castor and Pollux eastward from the familiar “V” shaped asterism of Taurus and the three stars of Orion’s belt. Another way is to mentally draw a line from the Pleiades star cluster located in Taurus and the brightest star in Leo, Regulus. In do-ing so, you are drawing an imaginary line that is relatively close to the ecliptic, a line which inter-sects Gemini roughly at the midpoint of the constellation, just below Castor and Pollux.
Gemini is dominated by Castor and Pollux, two bright stars that appear relatively very closely to-gether forming an o shape, encouraging the mythological link between the constellation and twin-ship. The twin above and to the right (as seen from the Northern Hemisphere) is Castor, whose brightest star is α Gem; it is a second magnitude star and represents Castor's head. The twin be-low and to the left is Pollux, whose brightest star is β Gem (more commonly called Pollux); it is of the first magnitude and represents Pollux's head. Furthermore, the other stars can be visualized as two parallel lines descending from the two main stars, making it look like two figures.
H.A. Rey has suggested an alternative to the traditional visualization that connected the stars of Gemini to show twins holding hands. Pollux's torso is represented by the star υ Gem, Pollux's right hand by ι Gem, Pollux's left hand by κ Gem; all three of these stars are of the fourth magni-tude. Pollux's pelvis is represented by the star δ Gem, Pollux's right knee by ζ Gem, Pollux's right foot by γ Gem, Pollux's left knee by λ Gem, and Pollux's left foot by ξ Gem. γ Gem is of the sec-ond magnitude, while δ and ξ Gem are of the third magnitude. Castor's torso is represented by the star τ Gem, Castor's left hand by ι Gem (which he shares with Pollux), Castor's right hand by θ Gem; all three of these stars are of the fourth magnitude. Castor's pelvis is represented by the star ε Gem, Castor's left foot by ν Gem, and Castor's right foot by μ Gem and η Gem; ε, μ, and η Gem are of the third magnitude. The brightest star in this constellation is Pollux.
C o n s t e l l a t i o n o f T h e M o n t h
e
Gemini
PAGE 10 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
e
I n Babylonian astronomy, the stars Castor and Pollux were known as the Great Twins
(MUL.MASH.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL). The Twins were regarded as minor gods and were called Meshlam-
taea and Lugalirra, meaning respectively 'The One who has arisen from the Underworld' and the
'Mighty King'. Both names can be understood as titles of Nergal, the major Babylonian god of plague and pesti-
lence, who was king of the Underworld.[11]
In Greek mythology, Gemini was associated with the myth of Castor and Pollux, the children
of Leda and Argonauts both. Pollux was the son of Zeus, who seduced Leda, while Castor was the son
of Tyndareus, king of Sparta and Leda's husband. Castor and Pollux were also mythologically associated with St.
Elmo's fire in their role as the protectors of sailors.[6] When Castor died, because he was mortal, Pollux begged
his father Zeus to give Castor immortality, and he did, by uniting them together in the heavens.
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 11
Al Observing Club
Highlight Of The Month
Introduction
Welcome to the Astronomical League's Earth Orbiting Satellite Observing Program. The purpose of this observing program is to introduce observers, new to satellite observing, with the terminology, and techniques of tracking satel-lites. The list of objects required for the basic award include targets that can be easily tracked using the unaided eye or binoculars, including the international space station - Alpha, several operational vehicles, and numerous rocket bodies such as GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites, Russian Molniya spacecraft, and even geosynchronous/geostationary satellites. Some of the smaller targets may require telescopes and/or photographic techniques to iden-tify.
To obtain more information about this observing program, please visit the web site at Colorado Spring's EOSOC In-troduction.
The EOSOC is supported and maintained by the membership of the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society, of Colo-rado Springs, Colorado. Our club is dedicated to observing the night sky and educating the community. The EOSOC is just an extension of our club and we hope that you will enjoy it. club and we hope that you will enjoy it.
Rules and Regulations To qualify for the AL's EOSOC Certificate and pin, you need only be a member of the Astronomical League, either through an affiliated club or as a Member-at-Large. If you are not a member now, click here to view information on becoming a member.
To see what kinds of observations are necessary to fulfill the requirements of this observing club, please visit the link at the Colorado Spring's Tutorial Page.
Be sure to include: Name of object, date and time (local or UT), latitude and longitude, seeing and trans-
parency, and a sketch of the observation
Earth Orbiting Satellite Observing Program
O b s e r v i n g E x p e r i e n c e L E V E L
I n t e r m e d i a t e
e
e
PAGE 12 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
Al Observing Club
Highlight Of The Month
e
e
Submitting for Certification
To receive your EOSOC Certificate and Award Pin, send
a COPY of your observations, along with your name, mail-
ing address, email address, phone number, society affilia-
tion, and to whom the certification should be sent, to:
Earth Orbiting Satellite Observing Program Chair:
Tom DeClue
Colorado Springs Astronomical Society
P.O. Box 16318
Colorado Springs, CO 80935-6318
E-mail: [email protected]
Upon verification of your observations, your certificate and award
pin will be sent to you or your society's Awards Co-ordinator,
whomever you choose.
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 13
Times and Data are for Fort Worth, Texas Locations Only Data Source: Heavens Above
NOTE: NO bright ISS passes visible in the DFW area, for dates not listed.
Date Bright-ness
Start Highest point End Pass type
(mag) Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. 01 Dec -1.2 17:58:10 10° WNW 17:59:48 13° NNW 18:01:26 10° N visible
13 Dec -1.9 18:47:48 10° NNW 18:49:12 18° N 18:49:12 18° N visible
14 Dec -1.8 17:56:00 10° N 17:57:49 14° NNE 17:59:37 10° ENE visible
14 Dec -1.3 19:31:18 10° NW 19:32:22 19° WNW 19:32:22 19° WNW visible
15 Dec -3.9 18:38:45 10° NW 18:42:00 61° NE 18:43:13 33° ESE visible
16 Dec -1.1 19:23:19 10° W 19:25:41 19° SW 19:27:26 13° SSW visible
17 Dec -2.5 18:30:09 10° WNW 18:33:16 41° SW 18:36:20 10° SSE visible
19 Dec -0.5 18:22:24 10° W 18:24:19 15° SW 18:26:13 10° SSW visible
23 Dec -0.2 06:45:34 10° SSE 06:46:53 12° SE 06:48:12 10° ESE visible
25 Dec -1.9 06:34:49 10° SSW 06:37:46 33° SE 06:40:45 10° ENE visible 26 Dec -0.7 05:43:17 10° SSE 05:45:16 15° SE 05:47:15 10° E visible
27 Dec -4.0 06:25:30 10° SW 06:28:45 79° NW 06:32:01 10° NE visible 28 Dec -2.6 05:36:17 42° ESE 05:36:17 42° ESE 05:39:13 10° ENE visible
29 Dec -2.9 06:19:40 28° NW 06:19:49 28° NW 06:22:43 10° NNE visible
30 Dec -1.0 05:29:56 12° NE 05:29:56 12° NE 05:30:17 10° NE visible
31 Dec -1.3 06:12:34 11° N 06:12:34 11° N 06:12:48 10° N visible
PAGE 14 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
Chart displayed is for December 15, 2017 @ 2400 Local Time
Fort Worth, TX (32.7555°N, 97.3308°W)
December Sky Chart
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 15
PAGE 16 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
Data source: http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/moon/moon2017.html
Sunday 17 December 2017
7.1 A.M. Moon
Monday 18 December 2017
5.7 P.M. Moon
First and Last Lunar Crescent Visibility
Data source: https://www.calsky.com
Lunar Crescent probably visible with optical aid, only 17.1 hours before new moon
Elongation: 8.1°, 0.6% illuminated, Position angle of crescent (from Zenith to East): 176.7° - crescent is horizontal like
a boat, Width of the crescent: 0.15', Length of the crescent: 66°, Moon lower limb relative to sunrise point at sunrise:
dalt=7.1° daz=0.7° (i.e. westward), Altitude of moon center at listed time: 3.8°, Azimuth: 115.5°/ESE, Altitude of Sun:
-4.4°, Moon rises at 6:43am, 43 minutes before the Sun (Azimuth: 112°/ESE)
The Yallop (1998) criteria additionally states for this event with q=-0.175: Telescope required to find crescent -
please send us observation report!
Lunar Crescent probably visible with optical aid, only 17.2 hours after new moon
Elongation: 7.6°, 0.5% illuminated, Position angle of crescent (from Zenith to East): 193° - crescent is
horizontal like a boat, Width of the crescent: 0.13', Moon lower limb relative to sunset point at sunset:
dalt=6.4° daz=-1.9° (i.e. eastward), Altitude of moon center at listed time: 3.4°, Azimuth: 243.0°/WSW,
Altitude of Sun: -4.1°, Moon sets at 6:06pm, 40 minutes after the Sun (Azimuth: 246°/WSW)
The Yallop (1998) criteria additionally states for this event with q=-0.257: Crescent not visible with tele-
scope - please send us observation report!
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 17
Data and Image Sources: www.calsky.com
Dec 1
Dec 15
LOCAL SUNRISE
Dec 01
Dec 15
Dec 31
Dec 31 LOCAL SUNRISE
PAGE 18 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
T he meeting was called to order
by Si Simonson, President.
38 members and visitors were in attendance.
Si welcomed everyone and recognized visitors and
new members.
General Session
Note – this is the last general meeting of the year.
3RF Event – 2018 reservation has been confirmed
for the weekend of September 7-9.
Christmas Party – scheduled for Saturday, 12/2/17 from 6-9p. The location is Spring Creek BBQ in Bed-ford, the same as last year. There will be a white elephant gift exchange and door prizes. Tandy Hills – Tandy agreed to follow the monthly
star party schedule recommended by FWAS. Pam
Kloepfer will send the schedule to Si and Shawn for
publishing. The star party dates coincide with the
quarter moon schedule.
Tonight’s Speaker – Steve Tuttle. The topic was “Scientific Discoveries During Total Solar Eclipses”. Steve touched on accounts of historical total solar eclipses, Prominences, Coronal Mass Ejections, Dis-covery of the Element Helium, and the Gravitational Deflection of Light.
Business Meeting Possible Upcoming Programs – Meteor Museum, (March) Hubble Telescope program, Arlington Plan-etarium. Newsletter – Please submit articles.
Elections – Coming up in June. Current openings are President and 2 Board members. Board Meeting – the next meeting is 1/9/18 and will be held at Tony’s Pizza and Pasta in Bedford. Treasurer’s Report – given by Laura Cowles. The club has $4,376 in the checking account. Meeting Adjourned
Submitted by Pam Klich, Secretary.
Club Meeting Minutes— November 21, 2017 Pam Klich, Secretary-Treasurer
e
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 19
A ttendees: Bill Nichols, John
McCrea, Larry Barker,
Laura Cowles, Matt McCullar, Pam Klich, Pam
Kloepfer, Si Simonson
Si Simonson called the meeting to order.
Discussion Topics
3RF Weekend – 2018 reservation has been
confirmed for the weekend of September 7-
9.
Christmas Party – plans are all set for Bed-
ford Spring Creek BBQ on 12/2/17 from 6-
9p. Planning on 40 people. Bruce will work
on the door prizes. Will use the raffle tickets
to manage the door prizes.
Tandy Hills – Tandy agreed to follow the
monthly star party schedule recommended
by FWAS. Pam Kloepfer will send the sched-
ule to Si and Shawn for publishing. The star
party dates coincide with the quarter moon
schedule.
FWAS Star Party Schedule – Will focus on the
year’s schedule starting in January.
Optional Venue – a suggestion was made to
consider other venues for star parties, in-
cluding the Ft Worth library options.
Treasurer Report – Laura shared the treasur-
er’s report on Wells Fargo checking account.
Balance $4,376.
Required Signatures – Pam Klich shared the
list of documents which require member sig-
natures. The team agreed to set up a pro-
cess for storing signed documents electroni-
cally. The options are to store the hard-
copies, use an eSignature service, or a scan-
ner.
The meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Pam Klich, Secretary.
Board Meeting Minutes— November 14, 2017 Pam Klich, Secretary-Treasurer
e
PAGE 20 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
AmazonSmile is a website operated by Ama-
zon that lets customers enjoy the same wide
selection of products, low prices, and con-
venient shopping features as on Ama-
zon.com. The difference is that when custom-
ers shop on AmazonSmile at
smile.amazon.com, the AmazonSmile Foun-
dation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligi-
ble purchases to the charitable organizations
selected by customers.
To participate, visit AmazonSmile and select
Fort Worth Astronomical Society as your
charity upon log-in. For more information vis-
it org.amazon.com. The site will remember
your charity automatically when you visit
AmazonSmile to shop. If you are already an
Amazon.com user, you can use the same ac-
count to log-in to AmazonSmile to shop. You
must sign-in to AmazonSmile each time you
shop in order for your purchases to count to-
wards a donation to your charitable organiza-
tion. If you do not have an Amazon account,
signing up is free!
FWAS Club
Fundraiser FWAS is still asking for donations to raise
the $3000 to cover the costs of purchasing
our new Lunt LS60THa solar telescope and
an iOptron ZEQ25 GT mount. We have al-
ready used this at some outreach and edu-
cational events, and
it was a hit!
Donations are tax
deductible. We are a
501(c)3 non-profit
organization dedicat-
ed to educating and
sparking the interest
in Astronomy and
Space in the public.
If you would like to
help us recoup this
expense, it’s still not
too late. You can still
donate. Please click
the button below or
go to the URL shown
at the bottom. Any
amount is welcome
and greatly appreci-
ated.
http://www.fortworthastro.com/donate.html
December 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 21
Newsletter: The FWAS newsletter, Prime Focus, is published monthly. Letters to the editor, articles for publication, photos you’ve taken, per-sonal equipment reviews, or just about anything you would like to have included in the newsletter that is astronomy related should be sent to: [email protected]
Meetings: FWAS meets at 7:00 PM on the third Tuesday of the month at the UNT Health Science Center – Research & Education Building, Room 100; 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd; Ft. Worth. Guests and visitors are always welcome.
Outreach: Items regarding FWAS Outreach activities, or requests for FWAS to attend an event, should be sent to: [email protected]
Young Astronomers: FWAS’ youth activities (known as YA!) meet on the 3rd Saturday of every month between 7pm and 9pm (check our calendar for time changes throughout the year - determined by seasonal sun-set times). This group meets for one hour at the Parkwood Hill HOA Club House - 5573 Eastwedge Dr., Fort Worth, TX 76137. YA! Coordinators: [email protected]
FWAS Annual Dues: $60 for adults / families & households $50 for adults (individual) $30.00 for students (half-price Dec 1 thru May 31); Membership runs June 1st through May 31st. Please make checks payable to: Fort Worth Astronomical Society See our Secretary/Treasurer for more info: [email protected] Cash and checks should be paid in-person at the next indoor meeting, or checks can be mailed in the traditional way. Members should check the eGroup for the latest postal mailing address listed by the Secretary/Treasurer. Credit card payments (for existing membership renewals only) can be made through our PayPal link (private link is on the club’s Ya-hoo eGroup – no PayPal account required).
Discount Magazine Subscriptions: Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and StarDate (McDonald Observato-ry) magazines are available for discounted subscription rates through our association with the NASA Night Sky Network and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The link can be found on the club’s Yahoo eGroup. (Members Only)
Astronomical League Membership: Your FWAS membership gives you associate membership in the Astronomical League. This gives you access to earn various ob-serving certificates through the AL observing clubs. You also re-ceive their quarterly magazine, Reflector. AL Observing clubs: http://tinyurl.com/7pyr8qg
The There are two kinds of black holes out
there: the supermassive black holes at the
heart of every galaxy, and the stellar mass
black holes formed when massive stars
die in a supernova
This is the month when the winter cold fastens its
grip and the nights become long and dark. This
full Moon is also called the Long Nights Moon by
some Native American tribes.
Source: OId Farmer’s Almanac
“Full Cold Moon”
Dece mbe r
That’s a Fact!
Just go to their website at http://www.amsmeteors.org/
and hover your cursor on the Fireball menu item at the
top of the page and you will see the link to report a fire-
ball. They will ask you several questions in a web ques-
tionnaire and your observations will be added to the
other witnesses for the same event. These will be com-
piled and analyzed to determine the location and direc-
tion from which the object entered the atmosphere.
Seen a Fireball Lately? Report it to the
American Meteor Society (AMS)
Source
e
PAGE 22 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY December2017
Although I do not have the obituary we also lost Harry Bearman We will greatly miss them and wish their families our sympathies.
In Harry’s and Don’s memory Matt McCullar has donated $50.00 each towards the clubs solar scope.
People lost this year
Don Garland was born March 24, 1954 in Fort Worth, TX. At an early age, he developed a love for sci-ence, especially astronomy. During his high school years, he joined the Junior Texas Astronomical Socie-ty, and served as president for several years. Don continued his education at newly-founded Richland College, where he helped with the formation of the planetarium program, working with the director, John Williams. He assisted with the creation of the la-ser programs that soon became very popular. He also worked extensively with the Richardson ISD plane-tarium, helping to create programs, building special effect projectors, and teaching classes.
Don earned his BA in geosciences from UT Dallas, and became the full-time director of the Charlie Mary Noble planetarium at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in 1979. He helped bring laser shows to Ft. Worth, and went on many meteorite hunting expeditions. One of his favorite pastimes was photo-graphing the skies. During this time, he was one of the founders of The Texas Star Party, along with Dave Clark and George Ellis. He consulted with the science department when the University of North Texas planetarium was being con-structed, and later became the observing coordinator of the Rafes Urban Astronomy Center. His passion was sharing his love of the skies with others, no matter what age or background. When the Ft. Worth Museum opened its remodeled building in 2009, Don returned to the museum he had
enjoyed so much during his childhood. Health issues forced his retirement in 2013. His health continued to
decline, and he passed away on October 24, 2017. He is survived by his wife Shelly and their two chil-
dren, Ian and Jennifer.
