Planets of the Month: MARCH

By Eric Karkoschka

Mars is the only evening planet. During dusk, it becomes visible in the southwest 70 degrees high and sets around midnight. It passes the Pleiades on the 4th within 3 degrees, which is closer than during the next 17 years.

The morning sky has three planets close to each other, the same planets that were close together in the evening sky at the beginning of the year: Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Saturn rises first, before twilight starts. Mercury and Jupiter rise half an hour later during the first week. They are close together, closest in the morning of the 5th (only .4 degrees). Jupiter is the brighter one of the close pair. Mercury races away from Jupiter and will get lost too close to the Sun on the 23rd. Jupiter and Saturn separate only slowly, from 8 degrees at the beginning of March to 11 degrees at the end.

Two additional planets can be seen in the evening sky with good eyes. Both are 6th magnitude this month. Uranus is about 30 degrees below Mars (~3 clenched fists width at arms length). Minor planet Vesta is in Leo, transiting 75 degrees high around midnight. Vesta’s motion is much faster than Uranus’, so it is easy to see its motion from night to night. Only once every three years or so does a minor planet become naked eye for several weeks.

The Moon will be close to the trio of planets in the morning sky on the 9th and then only three degrees from Mars on the 19th. The thin lunar crescent will be first visible in the evening sky on the 14th, setting before 8 pm.

ONLINE – Astronomy Fundamentals Meeting – April 2021

AFSIG monthly meetings will be held online, starting at 6:30 P.M. The presentation is open to the general public. To view the meeting, please visit https://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy

Constellation of the Month:

Chameleon

Presenter: David Evans

David Evans will be presenting Chameleon as the constellation of the month.

Main Presentation:

Neptune and Uranus

Presenter: Doug Smith

Doug Smith will be talking about Neptune and Uranus for the nights main topic.

ONLINE – General Meeting – April 2021

TAAA’s general member meeting will be held on April 2 and be conducted online. The meeting will start at 6:30 P.M. It will be followed by Mary Turner’s popular Seasonal Night Sky Presentation. The main presentation and Night Sky Presentation are open to the public. A Members Only Meeting will follow. To view the meeting, please visit Tucson Astronomy Facebook Live

6:30 pm – Main Public Presentation

Title: OSIRIS-REx: Mission Update Before Final Farewell Flyby of Bennu

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission team has passed many milestones in its long journey to study near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu; overcoming unforeseen obstacles including house-sized boulders in its path, pandemics, and concerns of sample loss after successful sample collection in October 2020. This presentation will focus on recent discoveries and results of the Touch-and-Go-Sample Acquisition Maneuver (TAG event) last Oct. 20^th.

Before heading back toward Earth, the team will conduct a Final Flyby of Bennu on April 7. Presenter Dolores H. Hill will explain the purpose of the flyby, as well as the important discoveries made all along both about navigating the mission, and about this “rubble-pile” asteroid’s formation and the history of the Solar System. The returned sample will reveal even more important details about Bennu, and the organic materials important to life. Join us us on Friday, April 2^nd for the latest OSIRIS-REx news, and what to look forward to as well.

Presenter: Dolores H. Hill is former OSIRIS-REx Ambassadors lead and is currently a member of the sample team for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and coordinates LPL outreach. She is co-lead of the Astronomical League’s Target NEOs! Observing Program that transitioned from OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroids! citizen science program, honored as a White House Champion of Change for Citizen Science in 2013. Since 1981 Dolores has analyzed a wide range of meteorites at UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, and provided technical support to space missions and LPL laboratories. A longtime member of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, Dolores also co-founded the Sunset Astronomical Society in Midland, Michigan, and was a member of the Warren Astronomical Society in the Detroit-area. Near-Earth asteroid (164215) Doloreshill is named after her. She looks forward to seeing samples of near-Earth asteroid Bennu in 2023!

32 inch Cassegrain Project

Planets of the Month: FEBRUARY

by Erich Karkoschka

Mars is the only naked eye evening planet. It transits at sunset more than 72 degrees high and sets past midnight. It moves through Aries and almost reaches the Pleiades by the end of the month.

On the 17th, three planets appear simultaneously in the morning sky. Jupiter is the brightest, but also lowest. Mercury is 4 degrees above Jupiter and Saturn is 4 degrees to the right of Mercury. For the next week, the three planets become easier to see while

maintaining their relative positions. Then, Mercury will be approaching Jupiter faster and faster and pass it very close on March 5th. By February 28, Mercury will be at its best while Jupiter and Saturn continue to become more obvious in March. During February, they all rise during dawn and remain low. The best

time is shortly after 6 am. Remember, those three planets were even closer together in the evening sky around January 10th.

Uranus is still visible in Aries to the lower right of Mars in the evening sky.

Vesta, minor planet number 4, is getting up to 6th magnitude in Leo and might be seen naked eye in March.

On the evening of February 12th, the 1 percent illuminated moon can be found low at dusk just before 7 pm. Last Quarter Moon is on the 4th, New Moon on the 11th, First Quarter Moon on the 19th, and Full Moon on February 27th.

ONLINE – Astronomy Fundamentals Meeting – March 2021

AFSIG monthly meetings will be held online, starting at 6:30 P.M. The presentation is open to the general public. To view the meeting, please visit https://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy

Constellation of the Month:

Musca

Presenter: Doug Smith

Doug Smith will start the evening off with a presentation on the constellation Musca.

Main Presentation:

Hidden Structures of the Milky Way

Presenter: Connor Justice

Connor Justice will be giving the main presentation on Hidden Structures of the Milky Way.

ONLINE – General Meeting – March 2021

6:30 pm – Main Public Presentation

Title: Tuning into the Radio Universe

Speaker: Ardis Herrold works as the Education Specialist for Vera C. Rubin Observatory, (formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and being built in Chile to survey the night-sky with unprecedented depth and detail). A lifelong amateur and educator, Ardis established and advised a high school club, the Radio Astronomy Team (the RATs) for nearly three decades at Gross Pointe North High School in Michigan, where she taught. She and many of her former students have a long-established relationship with the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, home of the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope.

This talk will provide a brief introduction to how radio telescopes operate, what sort of observations can be made with them, and the advantages and disadvantages of radio observing. Amateur astronomers can build and operate radio telescopes. Ardis will look at some of the different types of radio telescopes that can be constructed, and what resources are available for those interested in learning more or getting started in radio astronomy.

Solar System

Planets of the Month: JANUARY

By Erich Karkoschka

Venus. After the start of morning twilight, Venus rises, but does not come up very high before dawn gets too bright. By the end of the month, Venus will appear dim. On the 11th, the think Moon illuminated only 3 percent, will be just 4 degrees from Venus.

Planet Parade Evening Sky (Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Moon). Jupiter and Saturn will still be closer than 2 degrees from each other until the 8th. The 7th or 8th is the last day Saturn is visible by naked eye. But don’t neglect these planets the following days! On the 9th, Mercury will be only 1.5 degrees from Saturn. To spot
Mercury, you might also need binoculars, but the close trio is easy to find because of bright Jupiter. The planet-of-the-month-saturn

following evening, Mercury will be closer to Jupiter than to Saturn and probably visible by naked eye. After the 10th, you will see Mercury and Jupiter separating very quickly. On the 13th, the Moon will be next to Jupiter and Mercury, but Saturn will be too low to add to the small configuration. Jupiter will eave the scene at the middle of the month, while Mercury will hold out until the end of the month.

After these three planets have set, Mars remains up until after 1 am It moves from Pisces into Aries in an area without bright stars. With Mars transiting 70 degrees high around 7 pm, it is placed conveniently to be viewed in a telescope. It still shows features at 10 arc-seconds diameter, but not like in October when it was twice as large. On the 21st, Mars passes 1.7 degrees north of Uranus, a good opportunity to easily find Uranus in binoculars.

Neptune is further west and lower. It is also fainter and more difficult to find.

Vesta, minor planet number 4, is magnitude 7 in Leo and getting ready for naked eye visibility in February and March.

During January, sunset shifts by 26 minutes. It further shifts for the following five months, but the shift each month will be less than in January. On the other hand, sunrise on the 31st will be only 7 minutes earlier than on the 1st, far eclipsed by the 38 minute shift during March.

ONLINE – Astronomy Fundamentals Meeting – February 2021

AFSIG monthly meetings will be held online, starting at 6:30 P.M. The presentation is open to the general public. To view the meeting, please visit https://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy

Constellation of the Month:

Musca

Presenter: Doug Smith

Doug Smith will start the evening off with a presentation on the constellation Musca.

Main Presentation:

Hidden Structures of the Milky Way

Presenter: Connor Justice

Connor Justice will be giving the main presentation on Hidden Structures of the Milky Way.

ONLINE – General Meeting – February 2021

TAAA’s general member meeting will be held on February 5 and be conducted online. The meeting will start at 6:30 P.M. All presentations at this meeting are open to the public, to give potential new members a chance to learn more about TAAA. These will be followed by members-only open discussion and breakout rooms at approx. 8:30 P.M. To view the meeting, please visit https://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy/

6:30 pm – Main Public Presentation

Title: Astronomical League (AL) observing programs

Speaker: Douglas Smith

Douglas Smith will present a general summary of the new Astronomical League (AL) observing programs and status of our club’s AL membership and awards. The AL, comprised of over 240 amateur societies from across the USA, is dedicated to promoting the science of astronomy.

7:15 pm (Approx) – Open to Public

Title: Update on Chiricahua Astronomy Complex

Speakers: Jim Knoll, Mike McDowell and Ed Foley

Jim Knoll, Mike McDowell and Ed Foley will provide an update on Chiricahua Astronomy Complex, TAAA’s dark-sky observing site about 100 miles SE of Tucson near the Chiricahua Mountains. The 16 acres, with incredibly dark skies, provide an opportunity for members to observe extremely faint and distant deep-sky objects. We have several large telescopes and observing pads for member use and are in the process of building a state-of-the-art Learning Center with classroom facilities and a building with sleeping rooms for overnight accommodations. This will allow us to provide first class astronomy education outreach to schools and youth groups throughout Southeastern Arizona and enhance our member observing experience. Join us for an update on this member benefit.