7:30 pm – Main Presentation
Title: How the CATE Experiment Advances Solar Studies
Presenter: Dr. Matt Penn, astronomer at the National Solar Observatory and principal investigator for the Total Solar Eclipse CATE Experiment.
Dr. Penn will speak about CATE (Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse Experiment), the national citizen astronomer experiment with 68 telescopes and 250 volunteers capturing images of the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse along the 2500 mile-long path of totality. The goal was to collect data only available during a total solar eclipse for studying the sun’s corona and polar plumes. Learn about CATE’s early successes and about the 90-minute movie being produced from some 45,000 solar coronal images. For more information, visit citizencate.org.
International Wildlife Museum.
FAR WEST TUCSON
Setup: 5:30 pm
Observing: 6 – 9 pm
Viewing Location: TBD outside of Museum
Estimated # Participants: 100
Age/Grade: All Ages
# Scopes Required: 3
Other Activities: Museum Wildlife Activities, Planetarium
TAAA POC: Jim Knoll
Tucson Parks & Recreation will be hosting a Family Festival in the Park (Reid Park) from 10 AM to 2 PM. There will be plenty of family friendly activities. Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association will have several Solar Telescopes to safely view the Sun and will have other Astronomy Information and interactive activities.
Join Tumacacori National Historical Park and the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association for an evening of Astronomy Star Gazing from 6 – 8 PM. You will see planets, nebulae, star clusters, double stars, and lots more. Weather dependent — Follow the event on the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association Facebook Page to get weather and real-time updates.
Stephen Ferris will discuss Star Clusters. The “Constellation of the Month” will be determined later.
Total Solar Eclipse Night! Everyone’s invited. From 6:30 P.M. to 9:00 or so, the entire meeting is devoted to TAAA members sharing photos and experiences from the great Total Solar Eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017.
An event supporting the main branch (Joel V Valdez) of the Pima County Library. The event is called: Observe the Moon Costume Party. This is open to the public and we hope you will wear a costume. Also, the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association will donate a small telescope to the Library to be available for checking out. Come join us and the Pima County Library for a fun evening of observing the moon with their new telescope.
6:30 pm – Introductory Presentation
Title: The Fall Night Sky
Presenter: Dr. Mary Turner
TAAA’s Chief Observer, Mary Turner, takes us on a tour of the fall night sky, with a quarterly look at celestial objects and some skylore.
Main Presentation: 7:30 P.M.
Title: A Tale of Epsilon Eridani – How Debris Disks Tell Us about Exoplanetary Systems
Presenter: Dr. Kate Su, astronomer from Steward Observatory
Epsilon Eridani, a young solar-like star—at a distance of 10.5 light years from the Sun—is one of the closest stars with a planetary system. Dr. Su’s talk will focus on how astronomers use the emission from orbiting dust to reveal the underlying planetary architecture of Epsilon Eridani. Her main research—with the goal of understanding the origin and evolution of our own solar system—involves interpreting data obtained from ground-based telescopes around the globe, as well as from space telescopes and the airborne observatory SOFIA.
Come join us for a presentation from the fundamentals of amateur astronomy. At the October meeting Dennis McMacken will demonstrate the Collimation of a Dobsonian Telescope.
The “Constellation of the Month” will be Pegasus. Bill Yohey will do the presentation.
Branden Dickerson will provide us with “A Non-Mathematical Introduction to Relativity”. The “Constellation of the Month”, will be Sagittarius. Bill Yohey will do the presentation, delayed from August.
