Star Party supporting Vail community 4th of July Celebration. Observing will be behind the Vail Lutheran Church.
School, Non-Profit, & Public Events
(by Jim Knoll)
2018 was another successful year for our School, Non-Profit, & Public Events. Here is a summary:
To request a school or non-profit star party, visit our Community Involvement, Star Party Page.
Planets of the Month: February 2019
by Erich Karkoschka
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Mercury has the best evening apparition of 2019, visible after the 12th in the west at dusk, best around the 24th. |
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Mars is still magnitude 1, 50 degrees high at dusk, sets after 11 pm. It is moving toward Aries and Taurus with Aldebaran of similar brightness and color. |
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Uranus is 1 degree south of Mars on February 12. Although Mars is 100 times as bright as Uranus, both are of similar sizes, 6 arcsec versus 4 arcsec, but very different colors. |
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Jupiter rises at 3 am and is 30 degrees high at dawn. |
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Venus rises 4:30 am and is 20 degrees high at dawn. Venus and Jupiter are only separated by 10 degrees at the beginning of the month. |
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Saturn rises after Venus in early February. On the 18th, it is within 1 degree of Venus. Saturn and Jupiter are separated by 30 degrees, the closest since 2001. |
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The moon will be back in the evening sky on the 6th, possibly on the 5th, very low in the WSW in bright twilight. Binoculars may be needed to spot it depending on the atmospheric conditions. |
Tucson Hebrew Academy
Solar Observing & NSN Toolkit for the annual Tucson Hebrew Academy (THA) Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) event.
THA STEM Event is open to the public.
Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association will have a couple telescopes to safely view the Sun throughout the event. We may also have an astronomy interactive activity as part of the STEM event.
Tucson Festival of Books
Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association will have several telescopes to safely view the Sun as well as interactive exhibits for families. Activities will be in the Science City Tent. Interactive activities will focus on the Moon and the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 Landing.
Activities from 8:30 am to 5 pm each day.
Tucson Festival of Books
Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association will have several telescopes to safely view the Sun as well as interactive exhibits for families. Activities will be in the Science City Tent. Interactive activities will focus on the Moon and the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 Landing.
Activities from 8:30 am to 5 pm each day.
Astronomy Fundamentals Meeting – March 2019
THIS MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE UA EDUCATION NORTH BUILDING (ADDRESS AND MAP BELOW).
DETAILED LOCATION, PARKING AND ACCESSIBILITY INFO AVAILABLE ON THE AFSIG MAIN EVENT PAGE (FOUND ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE TAAA WEBSITE).
Constellation of the Month:
Carina
Presenter: Doug Smith
Doug Smith will be presenting Carina as the constellation of the month.
Main Presentation:
Black Holes
Presenter: Connor Justice
Connor Justice will be discussing Black Holes.
General Meeting – March 2019
6:30 pm – Introductory Presentation
Title: Annual Report
Speaker: Mae Smith, Ph.D.
TAAA President Mae Smith will give the club’s annual report for 2018.
7:30 pm – Main Presentation
Title: Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association: Sixty-Five Years of Celebrating The Skies
Speaker: Tim Hunter has been an amateur astronomer since 1950, and owns two observatories, the 3towers Observatory and the Grasslands Observatory. He is a past president of Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, Inc. and a member of TAAA since 1975. He is currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Planetary Science Institute (PSI). In 1987, he and Dr. David Crawford founded the International Dark-Sky Association, Inc. (IDA), a nonprofit devoted to promoting quality outdoor lighting and combatting the effects of light pollution.
For this month’s main presentation, Tim Hunter celebrates TAAA’s 65th anniversary year. The TAAA was founded in 1954 as the Tucson Amateur Astronomers (TAA) by a small group of amateurs with the strong support of Dr. Edwin F Carpenter, Director of Steward Observatory.
Learn how TAA evolved into the current TAAA, one of the largest and most active amateur clubs in the United States. Ever since its founding, the TAAA has had a close relationship with Steward Observatory and the University of Arizona. In his talk, Tim will highlight some important landmarks of the TAAA as well as the changes in amateur astronomy from 1954. A special feature of the evening will be short presentations by several former TAAA Presidents.
January & February Astronomy Events
(By Jim Knoll)
We have quite a few public events in the next two months and are all free unless otherwise noted below. All are weather dependent and could be cancelled if we have extensive cloud cover. They are also posted on the TAAA Calendar so you can get directions and additional information. The All our public events are also posted on then TAAA Facebook Page as an Event and you can follow one and get weather and other updates in real-time.
January 12. Catalina State Park. 6:30 – 9:30 pm. State Park entrance fee required.
January 19. Tucson Mountain Park Ironwood Picnic area. 6 – 8 pm.
January 20. Total Lunar Eclipse. University of Arizona Mall just south of Flandrau Science Center. We will have several telescopes set ups to view the total eclipse. Partial begins 8:33 pm. Total from 9:41 – 10:43 pm, and partial again after that. We will have telescopes operating from 8 – 11 pm. Flandrau Science Center will also be open late.
February 2. Tucson Mountain Park Ironwood Picnic area. 6:30 – 8:30.
February 9. Two events scheduled
— Tucson Star Party, co-hosted with Astronomy Magazine. Pima Community College East
Campus. Solar observing 10 am to 5:30 pm. Evening observing from 6:30 – 9 pm. Astronomy Magazine Blog Post: http://cs.astronomy.com/asy/b/astronomy/archive/2019/01/02/the-tucson-star-party-will-be-a-day-of-sun-and-stars.aspx.
— Agua Caliente Park. 6:30 – 8:30 pm.
Come join us for any of these events. They are a lot of fun and really good for a family activity.
Planets of the Month: January 2019
by Erich Karkoschka
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TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE January 20: 8:34-11:51 pm, totality 9:41-10:44 pm. High in sky, near Castor and Pollux. Southern limb of moon gets very close to the center of the umbra at mid eclipse (10:12 pm). |
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Mars at magnitude 1, 60 degegrees high at dusk, sets after 11 pm. It is moving fast through the faint stars of Pisces. |
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Uranus and Neptune on both sides of Mars visible in binoculars. |
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Venus rises 4 am at brillant magnitude -4.5, high during dawn, naked eye visibility after sunrise. |
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Jupiter at magnitude -2 rises first at 5 am. Jupiter and Venus approach each other. Closest on 21st, 2.5 degrees separation, spectacular around 6 am! |
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Comet Wirtanen, magnitude 5 and dimming, moves fast from Lynx to Ursa Major, circumpolar. |
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The moon will be close to Mars on the 12th and close to Venus on the 31st. |
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Latest sunrise is January 8. |