HAC News
February 2012

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, February 3, at 7:00 pm at the Sierra Vista campus of Cochise College in the community room of the Student Union Building. The guest speaker will be Jeremy Moss, Archaeologist at Tumacacori National Historical Park, National Park Service. Mr Moss graduated from the University of New Mexico where he studied archaeology, and he also holds an MA from the University of Wyoming where he studied prehistoric archaeology. Before arriving at Tumacacori, he worked for seven years at Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in New Mexico.

Mr Moss will discuss "Archaeoastronomy in the American SW: A Brief Overview." Archaeoastronomy on a broad level is the study of how prehistoric people used astronomy in their daily lives. The American SW has been a focal point of American archaeoastronomy due to the excellent preservation of archaeological sites. This presentation will be an overview of archaeological sites in the American SW with evidence of purposeful design, artistic expression, and manipulation of light to record celestial events and time. The ancient astronomers await your discovery!!

This meeting is open to the general public free of charge, and the door prize will include a Galileo Telescope. This is a new telescope made about the same size as the telescopes used by Galileo over 400 years ago.

HAC News
January 2012

The Patterson Observatory and the Huachuca Astronomy Club invite you to a Public Astronomy Night on Thursday, January 26 starting at about 6:30 PM, weather permitting. Using the Patterson Observatory 20-inch telescope, you will be able to view double stars, open and globular star clusters, nebulae, galaxies and Jupiter and it's largest moons. Everyone is invited to this free event. The observatory is located at 1140 Colombo Dr., on the campus of the University of Arizona South, just east of Cochise College.

Sky Calendar Blog Updated for 2012

Doug Snyder has been busy updating the Sky Calendar Blog for 2012. You can get the latest update at his website:

http://skycalendar.blackskies.org

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held at Cochise College on Friday, January 6, 2012 at 7 PM. This meeting will be held in the community room of the Student Union building. Our guest speaker will be Tommy Neyhart, President of the Friends of the Brown Canyon Ranch. Among other activities, Tommy has been hosting astronomy nights on the Brown Canyon Ranch, Coronado National Forest. Tommy's presentation will focus on relating astronomical events, including the latest lunar eclipse and winter solstice, to everyday life. During his presentation, he will show how the diameter of the Moon as well as the diameter and circumference of the Earth can be measured with surprising accuracy using common everyday materials found at home.

HAC News
December 2011

Have you every been placed under house arrest for your astronomical observations? That probably has not happened to anyone for several decades, but it was a real issue for early astronomers. Keith Schlottman covered not only the everyday dangers, like snakes and heavy equipment, but also several historical dangers like contradicting the church and being lost at sea while trying to view an eclipse. The next time you go out gazing, think for a moment about those astronomers who came before you and what some have sacrificed in the name of science. Oh, and don't forget to kick that log before you step over it!

HAC President Bob Gent read aloud the letter of recognition bestowed upon the HAC by the Arizona State Parks Board for our support of the Star Nights at Kartchner Caverns. Many thanks to those members who bring scopes and volunteer for this event!

The Arizona State Parks Board holds the Huachuca Astronomy Club in high regard.

The Patterson Observatory and the Huachuca Astronomy Club invite you to come view Jupiter and it's moons, star clusters, nebulae and galaxies through the 20-inch Patterson telescope on the University of Arizona South campus. This free event begins at about 6:00 PM, weather permitting, on Thursday, December 15 at 1140 Colombo Dr., just east of the Cochise College campus.

Meeting Announcement

The next meeting on the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, December 9th, at 7:00 PM at Cochise College in the community room of the Student Union Building. Our guest speaker is Keith Schlottman, and his presentation is titled, "The Dangers and Risk-Takers in Astronomy". We tend to think of astronomy as a peaceful pursuit, but history includes many examples of individuals who placed their finances, careers, families, and even their lives in jeopardy as they tried to advance the science. Keith Schlottman is a Senior Instructional Specialist at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, and he is the President of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association. His interest in astronomy traces back to his childhood, when he saved paper-route earnings for a year to purchase a telescope. His crowded back yard is home to two observatories, and he enjoys visual observing, astro-imaging, and spectroscopy.

Please note that we will be meeting in the Community Room of the Student Union Building, not in room 704 or 900. This building is on the east side of the college library.

HAC Christmas Party

The HAC Christmas Party is on Saturday, December 3rd and will be hosted at the RepoGazer Observatory (RGO). Keith and Teresa Mullen will provide the beverages, plates and utensils; everyone should bring a main dish or desert. Arrivals at 5:00 PM are OK, and we'd like to eat no later than 6:00 pm. Keith has requested RSVPs at 366-0049. Please let him know how many are coming and what you are bringing. Also, back by popular demand is the gift exchange. Please bring a gift valued at NOT LESS than $15 (Corrected!).

There have been some new photos added the Glen Sanner's HAC Photo Gallery. Glen attended the Okie-Tex star party this past September and took some great pictures! You can view them here. If you have some photo's to share with the HAC, please send an e-mail to info@hacastronomy.com and we'll get them on display.

Congratulations to the 2012 HAC Board members and thanks to all of the HAC members who participated in our 2011 elections!

Those elected to Board of Directors:

Officers:

President: Bob Gent

Vice President: Glen Sanner

Treasurer: Bob Kepple

Secretary: Bob Hoover

Members-at-Large:

Keith Mullen

Ken Kirchner

Doug Snyder

Natasha Nichols

Wayne Johnson will continue to serve as Past President.

Ken will also continue to serve as Website Manager.

Rich Swanson will continue to serve as Outreach Director.

HAC News
November 2011

You can find the November update and future versions of Doug Snyder's Sky Calendar Blog at this website:

http://skycalendar.blackskies.org

Dr. Peter Wehinger provided the HAC members with a presentation on the Large Binocular Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope. The LBT is located on Mt. Graham here in Arizona. The GMT will be built in Chile. Dr. Wehinger showed the group many slides that covered the creation and transportation of the extremely large mirrors that are constructed at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab.

You can view photos from Friday's meeting in our Event Gallery. There are also photo galleries with pictures taken from the HAC's 2008 tour of the LBT facility.

The club business consisted of a few notes. If you are going to attend the HAC Picnic please bring a chair and a food item. The picnic is a pot-luck affair. You are welcome to bring your telescope, but that is not required. Bob Kepple, the HAC Treasurer, is taking orders for the 2012 Observer's Handbook and the 2012 Calendar. See him if you are interested. The Board has proposed to change all officer and member-at-large positions to a 1 year term. In 2012, all HAC meetings will be the first Friday of the month.

The door prize, provided by Starizona, was a DVD on planetary imaging. Wayne "Mr. Galaxy" Johnson was the lucky winner. Congrats, Wayne!

The election of new officers for the HAC Board will take place at November's meeting. Please attend!

A few words from our club President, Bob Gent, on the Huber Middle School event:

I'd like to thank all the HAC members who participated. Glen Sanner brought his 12.5 inch Dobsonian, and every time I glanced his way, there were long lines at his big Dob. Bob Hoover brought his 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, and Rich Swanson brought his refractor. I brought two Newtonian telescopes, and local college students from Natasha Nichols' classes helped me.

Somewhere near 300 people attended, and this included teachers, parents, students and guests. Most of the time during the early evening, we observed the moon. Later, we observed Jupiter, some bright stars, and double stars. Glen was able to observer a galaxy or two with his 12.5-inch Dobsonian. I was able to lock in the M57 Ring Nebula for a short while. Some of the middle school students made solar system models, and these were on display in the cafeteria. There were cakes, cookies, drinks, and much more served.

Of all the many dozens of school star parties I've helped with over the years, this one had the most students. And they were quite enthusiastic which makes it fun. The school principal and teachers asked me to thank everyone for making this wonderful event possible.

Thank you and congratulations!

Regards,
Bob Gent

You can view some photos of the event in our Event Photo Gallery.

The October update for his 2011 Sky Calendar blog is now available. See what Doug has to say about our October skies!

The guest speaker for the HAC October meeting will be Dr. Peter A. Wehinger from Tucson. He will discuss the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The GMT will include six 8.4 meter diameter mirrors. Dr. Wehinger is a staff astronomer at the University of Arizona, and he earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from Case Western Reserve University. As an observer, Dr. Wehinger was involved in some of the early imaging and spectroscopy of quasar host galaxies. He has done imaging and long slit spectroscopy of the Crab Nebula and of molecular ions in plasma tails of comets, and of the sodium torus associated with Io and Jupiter.

Please note that we will be meeting in room 900 at the College, not 704. This room is located on the south side of the college library.

HAC News
September 2011

Doug Snyder has posted the September update for his 2011 Sky Calendar blog. Check out the latest edition!

Our guest speaker for the HAC September meeting will be Tom Kaye. Tom is the leader of the Spectrashift Project, which is an all-amateur effort to discover a new extrasolar planet. In 2000 they successfully built a high precision radial velocity spectrograph and detected the KNOWN exoplanet orbiting Tau Bootis. This was the first ever amateur detection of an exoplanet using radial velocity, an achievement that stood alone for 8 years. Tom will talk about the problems and hurtles that had to be overcome to produce the equipment, get the data and finally to overcome the professional opinion that "they detected nothing!" in order to pass peer review and publish. He will also show where the team is today with the construction of the 1.1 meter telescope and the plan to actually discover a new exoplanet. Please join us on Saturday, September 9th, at Cochise College.

The next Star Night Event at Kartchner Caverns is September 24, 2011 at 5:30 pm. Come spend a cool evening with your family and friends at the park, and observe the wonders of the night sky through several astronomers' telescopes.

Special guest speaker, Dr. Richard Green, Director Large Binocular Telescope. Dr. Green will speak in the auditorium, and his talk will be titled, "The Large Binocular Telescope: A New Era in Astronomy and Engineering." Dr. Green graduated from Harvard University, and he also holds a PhD in astronomy from CalTech.

There will be a solar telescope viewing from noon to 4 pm. This is a chance to safely view the sun through a special solar telescope! Then in the theater an introduction by Dr. Bob Casavant, ASP Science & Research Manager and Kartchner Caverns Astronomer Bob Gent in the Discovery Center auditorium at 5:30 pm. Later, enjoy the magnificent night skies through telescopes of the Huachuca Astronomy Club and JD Maddy, President of the Astronomers of Verde Valley. In the event of heavy cloud cover or rain, there will be an abbreviated program including slide talks held in the auditorium.

What will we see? The planet Jupiter will be rising in the eastern skies after sunset, and the Andromeda Galaxy will be visible most of the night. In addition to many other wonders of the night sky, everyone will enjoy seeing galaxies from far, far away.

What to bring? A folding chair, red light, sweater or jacket, enthusiasm to enjoy and conserve our beautiful night skies. Entrance fees: $6/vehicle for the night of viewing, instruction and family fun. Can't make it? The next Star Night will be at Alamo Lake on November 19, 2011. The next Kartchner Caverns Star Nights will be March 24, 2012 and September 15, 2012

Click HERE to view photo's from the March 2011 Kartchner Star Night!

HAC News
August 2011

With roughly 25 members in attendance, Dr. Tim Hunter gave an interesting talk about his early days as an amateur astronomer. The presentation covered his life between the age of eleven up until present. He discussed some of the high points, like the publication of his first article in Sky & Telescope, and his astrophotography picture of the Echo 1 satellite. Some of the low points included a rather terse rejection letter (funny if you are not the recipient) for some of his lunar eclipse photos. Dr. Hunter is very active in the fight against light pollution. He shared stories from his time in Los Angeles where light pollution is a serious concern. More of Dr. Hunter's essays and astrophotography pictures can be found on his website: www.3towers.com.

Congratulations to Calvin Hoyt, who has completed all the requirements to obtain the Astronomical League's Herschel 400 award. The Herschel 400 is an advanced project for amateurs who already have a fair degree of deep-sky experience.

Other club business brought up during the meeting covered upcoming speakers and events. Tom Kaye will give us an update on exo-planets at next months meeting. The Kartchner Caverns Star Night is quickly approaching. This will be held on September 24th and Dr. Richard Green, Director of the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, will be a guest speaker! The Patterson Observatory's Dining Under the Stars (DUTS) event is scheduled for October 1st. Tickets for the event are $50. The plans for the trip to Page, AZ for the 2012 Annular Eclipse are shaping up. Please contact Glen Sanner or Doug Snyder if you want to participate. The club picnic at Bob Kepple's observatory is October 28th, so mark your calendars.

The board has decided to dedicate a plaque in memory Dave Healy for his support and contributions to the club and astronomy in general. Once completed, the plaque will be displayed in the Patterson Observatory.

Tonights door prize was a 20 milliwatt green laser pointer provided by Starizona. Congrats to Rob Shernick who had the lucky ticket. The HAC sincerely appreciates the support it receives from our sponsors, Starizona and Farpoint. Please support these sponsors when you need to upgrade or add to your stargazing equipment.

Doug Snyder has posted the August update for his 2011 Sky Calendar blog. Read up and see what new wonders await in the skies above Arizona!

Please note that we will be meeting in room 900 at the College, not 704. This room is located on the south side of the college library.

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, August 12th at 7 pm at Cochise College, Room 704. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Tim Hunter. He is a Professor of Radiology and Orthopaedic Surgery in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona and is Head of the Department of Radiology. His areas of interest in radiology are musculoskeletal imaging and medical devices. Tim Hunter has also been an amateur astronomer since 1950. He is a prime example of someone whose hobby has run amok, spending more time and money on it than common sense would dictate. Since 1986, he has been interested in the growing problem of light pollution. In 1987, Tim Hunter and Dr. David Crawford founded the International Dark-Sky Association, Inc. (IDA). IDA is a nonprofit corporation devoted to promoting quality outdoor lighting and combating the effects of light pollution.

The title of his talk is "1950-2011: My Life and Hard Times as an Amateur Astronomer." In this talk, he will review his "career" as an amateur astronomer, its high points and low points (that latter of which he reports there are several). He will offer his view of amateur astronomy going from the 1950's to the present with a slight emphasis on astrophotography and light pollution. Tim will also touch on where he thinks amateur astronomy is heading for better or worse.

HAC News
July 2011

Tonights meeting provided several presentations. Bob Gent began with an update of several astronomical events. The Perseids meteor shower should peek on August 13th, but a full moon might make viewing difficult. Keep an eye out, you never know what will happen. The transit of Venus is less than a year away, occurring on June 6th, 2012. Our next Kartchner Caverns Star Night is approaching quickly! We will need volunteers to assist at this September 24th event. Dr. Tim Hunter, co-founder of the International Dark-Sky Association, will be making a presentation at our next HAC meeting. Don't miss it! Awards for those who completed the 2010 Messier Marathon were distributed. The awards for the 2011 Messier Marathon should be ready by the August meeting.

Glen Sanner, HAC Vice President, gave a presentation on "The Markarian Chain of Galaxies." This collection of 8 galaxies includes M84 and M86 and was named after Armenian astrophysicist B. E. Markarian. More details on this collection can be found here. Glen also reminds us that the upcoming Star Party is to be held at his Discovery Observatory West (DSO). Be prepared for a monsoon rain-out, but hope for the best.

Doug Snyder provided the evenings final presentations. The first was a brief overview of the kits that are being provided to the club free of charge by the Night Sky Network. The kits cover a variety of topics, from asteroids to life on other planets. The kits provide materials and training instructions to coach you through presentation of the material. We would love to see some club members make a presentation of one of these kits at a future meeting! Get with Doug if you think you might be interested. His final topic was the planning of a possible 2012 annular eclipse day trip for club members. The current plan is to gather 10 or so interested club members to book rooms in Page, Arizona, and split transportation costs. Page is the ideal location to view this event and the club must act quickly to secure lodging in the area. If you would like to participate, please contact Doug. No committment is required yet, we simply want to gauge interest in a club trip.

The club treasurer reports roughly $5800 in available funds. Tonights door-prize was a Farpoint Desiccant Cap which was won by Doug Snyder.

Doug Snyder has posted the July update for his 2011 Sky Calendar blog. Be sure to check it out and see whats coming up in the skies above Arizona!

HAC News
June 2011

Attendance was understandably low at tonights meeting, but that did not stop Steve Coe from showing up and giving members an entertaining and educational presentation. Steve talked about photographs he had taken of the conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury that occurred in May 2011. He used some visual aides created by StarCalc, a free star mapping software application, to help identify the objects in his pictures. The photos were taken in "Fredericksen's Meadow," which is located in Happy Jack, Arizona, south of Flagstaff. The meadow has been unofficially named after the late David Fredericksen. Steve claims the view from the meadow is a solid 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. He also spoke highly of his AstroTrac autoguide. His pictures using this unit were amazing! Steve says his setup times were remarkably short and it was a hands-free operation once the shutter was opened. We sincerely appreciate Steve making his presentation to our members and hope to hear more of his adventures in the future.

After Steve's conjunction presentation, and another short talk about some of his greatest viewing nights, Glen Sanner, HAC Vice President, discussed club business. The dates for the Astronomy Nights and Star Parties for the rest of 2011 have been finalized. Look at the HAC Calendar page for the updates. There are a few dates that we do not yet have hosts for the parties. If you would like to host one of these parties, please contact Glen.

Doug Snyder spoke about the May 2012 solar eclipse. He would like to see if there is enough interest to arrange a day trip up to Page, AZ, for the viewing. Planning ahead will ensure we have rooms reserved in one of the best locations to view this event. Please contact Doug if you are interested.

Bob Kepple is now the club's Astronomical League Correspondent (ALCor). If you are working on any Astronomical League projects or certificates and need something submitted to the league, please see Bob.

The next Meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, June 17th at 7 pm at Cochise College, Room 704. Steve Coe will be visiting again and giving a presentation on his recent trip to the the Mogollon Rim country. Steve has been observing Arizona skies for 35 years. He has written three books on observing, and he is the largest contributor to the Deep Sky Observing Guide. Please come and join us!

HAC News
May 2011

Astronomy Day is almost here!

The Huachuca Astronomy Club, in association with the University South Foundation, will be celebrating Astronomy Day 2011 on Saturday, May 7th. The event is open to the public and will be held at the Patterson Observatory. The observatory is located on the University of Arizona South campus, just east of Cochise College on Columbo Drive in Sierra Vista. This family event begins at 3 PM with safe solar viewing and a large-scale model of the Solar System. The evening events will include views of The planet Saturn, the Moon, and other celestial wonders through the observatory telescopes. Admission and parking are free! For more information call 366-5788.

We are still looking for volunteers to help with the setup and operation of the event. Please get with Glen Sanner, Doug Snyder, or Bob Gent if you can lend a hand!

HAC News
April 2011

Dr. Mark Sykes was the guest speaker at last nights HAC meeting. He provided the audience with a lively talk about the NASA Dawn Mission as well as a bit of history about some of the other space missions he has proposed in the past. The Dawn spacecraft was launched in 2007 and is headed to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to observe Ceres and Vesta, two of the largest objects in the belt. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at Vesta first, in July 2011, and then Ceres in February 2015. Dr. Sykes explained how the ion thruster that provides propulsion for the spacecraft works by using electricity from the solar panels to accelerate Xenon gas atoms. He also described some of the things they want to look for when they visit Ceres and Vesta. Vesta has had a substantial collision in it's past that has exposed some of the core material on to it's surface. It is hoped that Ceres will show signs of an ocean beneath it's crust.

Dr. Sykes is the CEO and Director of the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit science research institute focusing on the exploration of the solar system. The HAC greatly appreciates his talking with our members about the Dawn mission and we hope he can come back again when Vesta and Ceres have been explored.

You can become a friend of PSI and receive their newsletter as well as advanced noticed of podcasts and invitations to special events for a small donation. More information is availabe here.

Volunteer Support Needed

The HAC is calling on it's members to help support the Math and Science Experience at Cochise College, Friday, April 29th, from 8:30 AM to 1 PM. There will be several hundred 4th to 8th grade students present. If you have a solar telescope, we could use your help. Please bring your scope and enjoy the joy of these children. Contact Bob Hoover if you can assist with this event.

The next club meeting is this Friday, April 15th. Our guest speaker is Dr. Mark Sykes. He will be dicussing the NASA Dawn Mission. The Dawn mission, launched in September 2007, will be visiting both Vesta and Ceres. These are two large proto-planetary bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft will enter orbit around Vesta in July 2011, studying it for a year, then departing for Ceres and entering orbit there in February 2015.

If you wish to attend the dinner at the Outback Steakhouse with our guest speaker prior to the meeting, please get in touch with Bob Hoover before Friday afternoon.

The club is still planning the Astronomy Day event that will occur on May 7th. If you have any ideas or would like to volunteer to help out, we would greatly appreciate the assistance. Contact any one of the board members with your idea or availability. We have come up with an Astronomy Day Flyer that you can distribute around your workplace and school.

The Kartchner Caverns event was quite a success! There were hundreds of people, young and old, lined up to take a look at the heavens. Doug Snyder snapped a few shots and they have been made available on the HAC gallery. Take a look!

If you have not checked it out yet, Doug Snyder has posted his April update for his 2011 Sky Calendar blog.

HAC News
March 2011

Light pollution is the enemy of astronomy! One of the goals of the Huachuca Astronomy Club is to increase public awareness of the issue and make sure legislators, builders, developers, and property owners adhere to the local ordinances to protect our night skies. You can help measure our local light pollution levels by participating in the 2011 GLOBE at Night campaign.

"The GLOBE at Night program is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone everywhere to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map. All it takes is a few minutes to participate between 8-10 pm, March 22 through April 6. Your measurements will make a world of difference."

Don't forget to check out our local light pollution information here.

Steve Coe presented an informative talk about how he uses his Canon XT SLR camera and a few trusty Pentax lenses to capture impressive images of the night sky. He began with a brief explanation of how SLR cameras operate. After a several slides showing the effects of different focal lengths, Mr. Coe demonstrated how one of his specially modified cameras has enough sensitivity to capture nebulosity that is normally lost. He also discussed the pro's and con's of film and digital photography. He said both offer stunning images, but he favors digital because of the instant gratification and ease of use. Film is still king if you plan on doing large prints. Mr. Coe uses fixed focal length Pentax lenses and says he has not had any luck with auto focus lenses. After the presentation, Mr. Coe took questions from the audience and offered some of his books and photographs for sale at the break.

The HAC would like to thank Mr. Coe for making the trip down to share his experiences with our members!

You can purchase Mr. Coe's books through Amazon.com and support the club by using these links:

Here are some additional points from Keith Mullen, the owner of RGO and our gracious host for the Messier Marathon:

We have traditionaly given out Messier Marathon certificates and will be issuing those belated certs along with the current years to all who make an honest attempt. If you were a participant from last year, I've lost the list to make the certs, so please call me (366-0049).

At RGO the rules are "No Rules", catch as many M's as you can with whatever instrument you have, we don't restrict anyone from using "Go-To" or even peeking at anothers find. The only Firm Rule is , If you want to be a Breakfast Club member (Teresa and Jeannie, chairpersons) you have to spend the entire night.

All are welcome, and if you would like to bring a snack to throw on the goodie pile to share, that would be great.

The Star Party being held at the RepoGazer Observatory is also the offical HAC Messier Marathon event! Everyone is encouraged to join us on April 1st (no joke!) and see how many of the 110 Messier objects you can observe. There are many Messier events taking place in Arizona during March and April (some are already in progress), but the RGO Star Party will be the HAC's official observance of this event.

Here are some additional links if you are not quite sure what a Messier Marathon is:

Stargazer Onlines's Guide to the Messier Marathon
Cincinati Astronomical Society - The Messier Marathon Is Upon Us
The Messier Marathon according to Wikipedia
The HAC Messier Marathon Sequence and Checklist

The next Meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, March 18 at 7 pm at Cochise College, Room 704. Our guest speaker will be Steve Coe who has been observing Arizona skies for 35 years. He has written two books on observing, and he is the largest contributor to the Deep Sky Observing Guide. Steve is now writing his third book, entitled "Touching the Universe." His talk is titled, "Wide Field Astro-imaging". For many years, he has been taking photos and images of the sky with a variety of cameras and lenses. He will discuss how the images are taken and show a variety of his beautiful pictures of the night sky.

Hope to see you there!


--Bob Gent
President, HAC

On Saturday, March 26, everyone is invited to Star Night at Kartchner Caverns. The event starts off with Kartchner Caverns Astronomer Bob Gent presenting an "Introduction to the Night Skies of Kartchner" talk in the Discovery Center auditorium at 5:30 PM. Later, enjoy the magnificent night skies through telescopes of the Huachuca Astronomy Club and JD Maddy, President of the Astronomers of Verde Valley. In the event of heavy cloud cover or rain, there will be an abbreviated program including talks held in the auditorium. You can now make a campsite reservations online 24/7.

The Bat Cave Cafe and the Gift Shop will also be open to support this special event.

What will we see? The planet Saturn will be rising in the eastern skies after sunset, and the Great Orion nebula will be in the southwestern skies. In addition to many other wonders of the night sky, everyone will enjoy seeing galaxies from far, far away.

See photos from the 2010 Star Night at Kartchner event!

What to bring: folding chair, red light, sweater or jacket, enthusiasm to enjoy and conserve our beautiful night skies.

Entrance fees: $6/vehicle for the night of viewing, instruction, and family fun. Come spend a cool evening with your family and friends at the park, and observe the wonders of the night sky through several astronomers' telescopes.

Can't make it? The next Star Night at this park will be September 24th, 2011. There will be another Star Night at Alamo Lake on November 19th, 2011.

Doug Snyder has posted his March update for his 2011 Sky Calendar blog! Read up and find out what will be happening in the heavens above Arizona this month!

HAC News
February 2011

Tom Polakis provided Friday nights HAC audience with an interesting talk about his hobby of imaging the sun and planets with inexpensive CCD cameras (webcams). His computer takes thousands of images, anywhere from 30 to 60 per second, and then uses freely available software to merge the details to make one picture. Color images require the use of a colorwheel filter (Red, Green, Blue) for best results, and thousands of images have to be taken with each filter. The process is not completely automatic, and some judgement calls have to be made during the image processing. Since the planets are just tiny specs in the sky, it takes a fair amount of magnification to get the image to fill enough of the camera's image sensor to make it worth capturing. Mr. Polakis displayed several pictures of the Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and the sun. He and his wife also had some nice shots of the International Space Station. Some of the images from the talk can be viewed here:

The HAC would like to thank Mr. Polakis for visiting and sharing his fascinating hobby with us!

Some additional resources for those interested:

AZcendant - Planetary Photography
WebCam Astronomy
Ray Shore's Astronomy and Astrophotography Site

Our guest speaker will be Tom Polakis who has placed astronomy as his top hobby for 33 years. His main interest is in visual deep-sky observing, but he is also very active in planetary imaging and landscape photography. He is a Contributing Editor for Astronomy magazine. His talk is "Rounding the Curve in Planetary Imaging." The advent of simple digital video cameras (webcams) has made top-notch planetary imaging available to anybody with a driven telescope. Tom Polakis shows what's required both at the telescope and after the frames have been acquired to produce high-resolution images of the moon and planets.


--Bob Gent
President, HAC

The next Meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, February 18 at 7 pm at Cochise College, Room 704.

Our guest speaker will be Tom Polakis who has placed astronomy as his top hobby for 33 years. His main interest is in visual deep-sky observing, but he is also very active in planetary imaging and landscape photography. He is a Contributing Editor for Astronomy magazine.

The talk is "Rounding the Curve In Planetary Imaging." The advent of simple digital video cameras (webcams) has made top-notch planetary imaging available to anybody with a driven telescope. Tom Polakis shows what's required both at the telescope and after the frames have been acquired to produce high-resolution images of the moon and planets.

HAC News
January 2011

At Friday nights HAC meeting, Dr. Jack Schrader delighted the audience by recounting his find of the June 23rd, 2009 Whetstone meteorite. He was able to recover the meteorite in less than 48 hours of its sighting. Dr. Schrader is the second person in history to have triangulated the strewnfield of a meteorite by using eye witness reports. It is also the second witnessed fall to ever be recovered in Arizona. During the talk, he discussed how he and his team of professional meteorite hunters meticulousily collected and catalogued each meteorite. He involved the Univeristy of Arizona early in the recovery so that the find could benefit the entire scientific community. Dr. Schrader brought some specimens from the site and from other parts of the world for the HAC audience to inspect. They exhibited perfect examples of the fusion crust he covered in his presentation. He has generously donated two monographs to the HAC library. One is from the first Arizona witnessed fall in Aztec, and the second is from his Whetstone fall.

Our January speaker will be Dr. Jack Schrader. Dr. Schrader was born in Douglas, Arizona and has been a resident of Sierra Vista since 1957. He is a graduate of Buena High School, attended the University of Arizona, and graduated from the UCLA School of Dentistry in 1975. He has practiced dentistry since 1978. He has many hobbies, but meteorite hunting is his favorite. He recently discovered the meteorite that impacted near the Whetstone Mountains. Dr. Schrader will talk to us about meteorite hunting techniques.

We will be meeting for dinner at the Outback restaurant starting 5 pm on Friday, January 21. Dr. Schrader wrote to us, You will be interested to know that the Outback restaurant is where the story of Whetstone Mountains meteorite recovery begins so what more fitting beginning to the club meeting I cannot imagine.

If you would like to attend the dinner, please RSVP to me not later than 4 pm January 20.

The meeting is open to everyone and no RSPV is needed for the talk at Cochise College. Thank you and we hope to see you at the dinner and/or meeting.

--Bob Gent
President, HAC

Happy New Year from the HAC!

Starting this year, Doug Snyder will be presenting additional information about the events occuring on his Sky Calendar through his blog here on the HAC website. You can also find a link under the News & Events menu.