TAAA Support to the Saguaro National Park EAST monthly astronomy event.
Join park naturalists for an introduction to astronomy and a look at the desert night sky. Telescopes and binoculars will be available. Reservations are required. Call the Visitor Center at (520) 733-5153. Accessible Program.
Observing and talk will be at the Visitor Center from 7 – 9 pm.
by Erich Karkoschka
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Mercury starts to be visible far below Venus in the West on the 26th. It will be well visible in early February. |
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Venus is extending its visibility in the West from 2 to 3 hours and sets after 9 pm by the end of the month. |
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The thin lunar crescent after New Moon in the West will be near Mercury on the 26th and near Venus on the 27th & 28th. |
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Mars rises at 4 am. On the 18th & 19th, it will be 5 degrees north of Antares. Two red objects near each other. |
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Jupiter will slowly appear in the morning sky starting the 11th. |
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Saturn is not visible. It get occulted by the Sun on the 13th. |
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Uranus is 70 degrees high after dusk in the SW. |
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Neptune in Aquarius gets visited by Venus on the 27th with a separation of only 10 arc minutes, makiong it possible to fit two planets in the filed of view even at high magnification. |
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Minor planet #4, Vesta, is further near Uranus in Cetus and still brighter than 8th magnitude. |
Presenter: Gus Gomez
Gus Gomez will be presenting Auriga for the constellation of the month.
Main Presentation:
Presenter:
Our main topic will be an open discussion on equipment modifications that members have done to enhance their viewing sessions.
Speaker: David Rosetter
TAAA member, David Rosetter, in charge of the TAAA Member Planet system, (which manages the TAAA member database), will talk about expanded web benefits for TAAA members and provide information on the web options available. Bring any questions you have on how to best access TAAA information.
Speaker: Dr. Knut Olsen is a staff astronomer at the National Science Foundation’s Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, based in Tucson. Born in Norway, he moved to the U.S. at a young age and quickly developed a fascination for astronomy. He worked on the Magellanic Clouds as part of his Ph.D. thesis, and continued his exploration of them while living and working in La Serena, Chile, where the Clouds are naked eye objects. He moved to Tucson in 2007.
Dr. Olsen will present a personal story of how a chance observing run kicked off more than a decade of exploration of and discovery in the Magellanic Clouds, two of our most prominent neighbor galaxies. The Magellanic Clouds have been key to establishing the extragalactic distance scale, played a seminal role in the discovery of Dark Energy, and are causing us to adjust our view of the Milky Way.
by Erich Karkoschka
Planets for December 2019
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Mercury will be visible until December 19th, rising just after Mars (15 degrees below) before dawn. |
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Venus is in the evening sky, getting higher and more obvious. |
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New Moon will be at Christmas, last visible in the morning of the 24th and coming back in the evening sky on the 27th below Venus and the 28th right next to Venus, a beautiful pair. |
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Mars rises before dawn in Libra, followed by Mercury 15 degrees below. |
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Saturn is to the upper left of Venus in the evening sky until December 10 & 11, when Venus passes two degrees south of Saturn. At that time, Pluto is right next to both planets, but 15 million times fainter than Venus and not an easy target. After Christmas, Saturn will be too close to the Sun to be visible. |
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Uranus is well placed in the evening for observers with binoculars or a telescope. |
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Neptune is well placed in the evening for observers with binoculars or a telescope. |
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Pluto is next to Venus & Saturn December 10 & 11 but is 15 million times fianter and not an easy target. The brightest minor planet, Vesta, is not too far from Uranus and only slightly fainter. |
We have two Tucson public observing events this month.
– Agua Caliente Park (NE Tucson) on December 21st: CANCELLED
– Tucson Mountain Park Ironwood Picnic Area (SW Tucson) on December 28 from 6 – 8 pm. Follow the Facebook event for real-time updates.
Meteor Shower. The Geminids peak early morning on December 14th or late evening on the 14th. There will be a bright Moon in the sky very close to Gemini which will limit what you can see. If possible put the Moon to your back and look for meteors in the opposite direction.
Presenter:
The constellation of the month has not yet been determined.
Main Presentation:
Presenter: Doug Smith
Doug Smith will be giving the main topic on Telescope Maintenance.
Speaker: Mary Turner, PhD
Mary Turner, TAAA’s appointed Chief Observer, takes us on a tour of the winter night sky. Dr. Turner’s use of astronomical data, images, and mythology will bring seasonal changes in the sky to life, as always in her popular quarterly talks.
Speaker: Ewan Douglas joined the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory in the Spring of 2019 as an assistant professor. His research focuses on space instrumentation, wavefront sensing and control, and high-contrast imaging of extrasolar planets and debris disks, and small spacecraft such as CubeSats. Dr. Douglas graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelors in Physics in 2008. He worked for a year at the Hanford Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory before attending graduate school at Boston University, where he received a PhD from the Astronomy Department in 2016 followed by a postdoc in the MIT Space, Telecommunications, Astronomy, and Radiation Laboratory.
Dr. Douglas’ talk will focus on his ongoing work in the University of Arizona’s Space Astrophysics Lab (UASAL) to leverage low-cost spacecraft such as CubeSats, sounding rockets, and SmallSats, so that they efficiently and effectively, as well as relatively inexpensively, advance the technologies needed to image Earth-sized planets and asteroid belts around other stars. With Dr. Douglas’ work in cutting edge technologies, and ability to simplify complicated topics, TAAA’s first main presentation of 2020 promises to be interesting to all.
Topics to be determined.
Speaker: Mae Smith, TAAA President
TAAA President Mae Smith will give a presentation on the group’s Minor Policy updates, review and training. Minor Policy procedures are to be fully enacted throughout TAAA by January 1, 2020. Mae’s talk will include updates on any changes to the policy, reviews of responsibilities of members and leaders, and review of the procedures for TAAA members involved in the different TAAA activities. Attendance at this meeting will count as training in the fundamental minor policy course for TAAA leaders and members and as the required annual review for leaders who previously took the training.
Speaker: Tim Hunter has been an amateur astronomer since 1950, and he is the owner of two observatories, the 3towers Observatory and the Grasslands Observatory (http://www.3towers.com). He also considers himself “a prime example of someone whose hobby has run amok, spending more time and money on it than common sense would dictate.” Tim has been the President of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, Inc. (TAAA) and a member of the TAAA since 1975. He is the immediate past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Planetary Science Institute (PSI). For decades, he has been interested in the growing problem of light pollution. In 1987, he and Dr. David Crawford founded the International Dark-Sky Association, Inc. (IDA). IDA is a nonprofit corporation devoted to promoting quality outdoor lighting and combatting the effects of light pollution.
Tim’s talk to TAAA will describe his experience owning and operating the Grasslands Observatory near Sonoita, Arizona. As Tim explains: “The observatory was founded in 1987 and evolved from a mainly visual use facility to three remotely operated telescopes used for astrophotography.” He will illustrate the evolution of the observatory, and discuss remote telescopic operations in general and how his three telescopes—a PlaneWave CDK24 24-inch f/6.5 telescope, an ASA 20-inch f/3.6 telescope, and a Takahashi Epsilon 180 f/2.8 telescope—are remotely operated from Tucson and used for various astrophotographic projects. As Tim explains, “Remote telescope operation is quite possible and offers great convenience with respect to travel and sleeping. It comes with considerable costs including monetary as well as the need for constant attention to maintain the operation. Things can and will go wrong. One must be prepared to respond to the gravest of contingencies at a remote location in the darkest hours of the night. “