VIRTUAL
CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL DARK SKY WEEK
Star Party-Oracle State Park
Tucson, AZ
Viewing Location: ONLINE
Information: Great dark skies just north of Tucson at Oracle State Park. Star Party open to the Public. This event will be streamed online to the Oracle State Park Facebook Page and/or YouTube Channel. Additional details to follow.
Anticipate an introduction with music, a talk by the International Dark Sky Association, and a Star Party by Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association.
Join Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association for a Virtual tour of the Night Sky. We will explore planets, Nebulae, Star Clusters, Galaxies, and much more. The event will be streamed from our Facebook Page (TAAA Facebook Live)
by Erich Karkoschka
Mercury is up at dawn far below Venus, but not much longer. The last naked-eye visibility ends August 7.
Venus rises at 2:30 am and is more than 40 degrees up at sunrise. It is at greatest elongation on the 12th, 46 degrees from the sun. It still is brighter than average and can be seen after sunrise, especially on the 15th when the lunar crescent is nearby. Of course, this pairing is best observed before sunrise.
The best night to watch the moon move is August 8/9, right next to Mars. When they rise, they are 1.6 degrees apart, narrowing to 1.3 degrees later and back up to 1.9 degrees at sunrise. A challenging first moon after New Moon will be visible on the 19th, but visible with naked eye only if it is completely clear, shortly after sunset.
Mars rises around 10 pm and is 60 degrees up at dawn. By the end of the month, it is even brighter than Sirius. In a telescope, its 15-19 arc-sec disk shows detail. During many years, it does not get that big.
The first minor planet Ceres is in opposition in southern
Aquarius, but with magnitude 8 not as bright as at other oppositions.
Jupiter and Saturn are well up all evening, just a few weeks past opposition. Saturn trails Jupiter by 8 degrees in their diurnal motion and also their current retrograde motion across Sagittarius. Ganymede will cast a shadow onto Jupiter on the 14th until 11 pm. On the 21st it will transit
8 – 11 pm and then show its shadow after 11:30. Another transit will start at 11:30 pm on the 28th. The night before one can see Callisto transiting 8:30 – 12:30, which will look like a shadow due to its dark surface.
August is the best month for watching meteors. The Perseids show up during the first three weeks, peaking on the night of 11/12. During dusk, the radiant is just rising, creating few meteors, but they can go for several seconds across the whole sky. By Dawn, we are heading right into the stream with up to 1 meteor per minute, but they only last less than half a second typically. The moon will rise at midnight on the peak night, so the evening will be dark.
Join Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association for a Virtual tour of the Night Sky. We will explore planets, Nebulae, Star Clusters, Galaxies, and much more. The event will be streamed on our Facebook page (TAAA Facebook).
Speaker: Zarah Brown is a 4th year graduate student at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. She studies Saturn’s upper atmosphere using Cassini data with her adviser, Tommi Koskinen, and did her undergraduate research on Saturn’s rings. She has degrees in both astrophysics and fine arts and helps run LPL’s annual Art of Planetary Science show.
The upper atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are all hotter than would be expected if they were heated in the same way that Earth’s upper atmosphere is heated—a longstanding unanswered question in planetary science called the “energy crisis.” In the months before the Cassini spacecraft’s final plunge into Saturn, it made a series of observations of Saturn’s upper atmosphere to try and understand the origin of the additional heat. In a technique called stellar occultation, Cassini used the passages behind Saturn’s upper atmosphere of stars in Orion and Canis Major to provide detailed information about the ringed planet’s density and temperature. This unique set of observations has shed light on the outer planet energy crisis and was published in Nature Astronomy this April.
Speaker: none
To be determined
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Speakers:
• Vannessa Gressieux is the Program Coordinator for the Mt Lemmon SkyCenter SkyNights program, a NASA / JPL Solar System Ambassador, and an OSIRIS REx Ambassador. She supports a variety of Tucson community-based events at schools and public outreach events, and coordinates tours and outreach for the Richard F Caris Mirror Lab. Originally from the East Coast, Vannessa fell in love with the dark skies of the Western US. sky. She encourages everyone to look up!
• Travis Deyoe began working for the SkyCenter as an undergraduate at the UA studying Astronomy. He graduated in May 2015 and has recently taken on an increased role in leading outreach programs. As a student, he worked for the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium as a Planetarium Operator, and as a Telescope Operator at Steward Observatory’s 61-inch Kuiper Telescope on top of Mount Bigelow. Travis enjoys imaging the night sky with his DSLR and taking planetary images through SkyCenter telescopes.
Tonight’s presentation will be a light overview of the history of the SkyCenter, with a focus on their Remote program. In 2008, Adam Block and the University of Arizona College of Science launched the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter at Steward Observatory’s Field Station. The mission of the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter is to engage people of all ages in interdisciplinary scientific exploration at research facilities in the Sky Island environment for a deeper understanding of our Earth and our place within the Universe. The SkyCenter’s educational activities include a public evening observing program, summer Sky Island programs, workshops, camps, remote observing, and special educational events. Our presentation will focus on remote astrophotography capabilities of the Schulman Telescope, and weather permitting, include a live demo of the astrophotography possible.
Speaker: none
Elections will be held following the presentation. To vote, TAAA members will be requested to register to attend the meeting using a link that will be emailed to them. Following registration approval, you will receive a Zoom link unique to only to you for joining the meeting.
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Speaker: Jessica Barnes is an Assistant Professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. She completed her undergraduate and Ph.D. training in her native UK, and was a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Jess’s research background is in lunar mineralogy and geochemistry. Her current research centers on the origin and evolution of inner solar system volatiles.
In preparation for future lunar missions in the 2020s and beyond, it is important to maximize the science derived from samples returned by the Apollo Program. By applying cutting-edge analytical techniques to Apollo samples we address both longstanding and new scientific questions. NASA’s Apollo sample collection includes a subset of samples that were specially curated in 1972 and have remained untouched and unstudied since then. The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) initiative was designed to examine these pristine samples. Jess will talk about the preliminary examination of a never-before-studied lunar drill core and plans for the analyses of a frozen piece of lava from the Moon.
Speaker: Mary Turner
Mary Turner, TAAA’s appointed Chief Observer, takes us on an tour of the summer night sky. As usual in her popular talks, Mary’s use of astronomical data, images, and mythology brings the seasonal changes in the sky to life.
by Erich Karkoschka
Mercury is visible at dawn during the second half of the month
to the left of Orion. On the 19th, it is to the upper right of
the extremely thin lunar crescent that is about as difficult to
see as Mercury. The following days Mercury becomes easier to spot.
Venus is the morning star, with -4.7 magnitude at its brightest.
In early July it moves through the Hyades and then shines only
1 degree north of Aldebaran on the 11th. This is the closest
approach of a planet to Aldebaran during this century.
Venus is a nice crescent in a telescope and large binoculars,
especially early in the month. Venus is so bright that it can
be seen during daytime. The best opportunity to find it is on
the 17th when it is 4 degrees to the right of the thin lunar
crescent after sunrise.
The moon celebrates our national holiday with a penumbral eclipse.
At 10:30pm, the upper left part of its disk is 1/3 less illuminated
than the rest of the disk. This is not noticeable since features
on the moon have larger contrasts. Despite the eclipse, this
Full Moon is brighter than most others.
Mars rises just before midnight and is 60 degrees high up at dawn.
It reaches -1 magnitude and 15 arc-sec diameter, rising toward
its good October opposition.
Jupiter and Saturn come in Opposition in July and are visible
all night. Their opposition dates (Jupiter on the 14th and
Saturn on the 20th) are only six days apart, which means that
they are only six degrees apart in the sky. Since their distance
is larger during all other oppositions between 1981 and 2059, it
may be called a once-in-a-lifetime event. Jupiter is magnitude
-2.8, almost its maximum possible, Saturn 0.1. In a telescope
they show their largest disks, Jupiter 48 arc-sec and Saturn
19 arc-sec, although its rings show up 42 arc-sec wide.
Saturn’s rings brighten significantly for several days around
opposition. This time they brighten up exceptionally because
the opposition is a perfect lineup as the Earth would be visible
transiting the disk of the sun as seen from Saturn, which happens
once every 15 years.
In the night of July 8 after 1am, Callisto and its shadow will
be visible on Jupiter’s disk, and the same happens for Ganymede
after midnight the following night. You can also catch the end
of a Callisto shadow transit on the 25th before 9:45pm.
Uranus and Neptune are up before dawn and will soon be back in
the evening sky.
Join Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association for a Virtual tour of the Night Sky. We will explore planets, Nebulae, Star Clusters, Galaxies, and much more. The event will be streamed Live from our Facebook Page (TAAA Facebook)
Join Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association for a Virtual tour of the Night Sky. We will explore planets, Nebulae, Star Clusters, Galaxies, and much more. The event will be streamed on our Facebook page as a Facebook Premiere (TAAA Facebook). It will also air on our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com). Search Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association.