Astronomy Club

To the Shasta Astronomy Club/Network

Hope you all have had a good winter. We spent our usual month in Kona and enjoyed the warmth. We also had a big Christmas party with the entire extended family including 4 generations. The great granddaughter is now 8 and is as smart as can be.

Below is the tentative star party schedule for the coming season. Changes will probably be made along the way when necessary.and other events could be added as well. All will commence at the Mines, Trailhead Parking Lot at Whiskeytown Lake Park about 30 minutes after sunset.

• April 18, 25
• May 16, 23
• June 20, 27
• July 18, 25
• Aug 22
• Sept 19
• Oct 17

Below are some interesting astronomy articles from the last few months.

Dark matter apparently not needed for galaxy formation

www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/41011/title/Galaxy_mix_No_dark_matter_required

A Green Visitor Makes It's Approach: A new comet (Lulin) can be seen for the next few days. It will be at about mag 5. Look in the southeast at about 3-4 AM and look for a green object. It will be very close to Earth and so will move about 5 degrees/day. Use binocs for the best result but remember it will be hard to see a green object. Monday and Tuesday will be the closest approach. But try it on any clear morning. If you get a picture, send it to me and I'll send it out to the club.

science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/04feb_greencomet.htm

Colossal Black Holes Common in the Early Universe. They were probably around before some of the larger galaxies formed and became the engines for those galaxies. Even today it's still true after 14 billion years.

www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=873

New Fermi Space Telescope Discovers Gamma Ray Spewing Pulsar. We wouldn't want to be within 2 or 3 hundred lightyears of this thing.

www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=874

Search for Antimatter in the Universe may Prove More Difficult. Sure, much of it would be gone by now atter this long a time: 14 billion years.

www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=877

16-Year Long Study Tracks Stars Orbiting the Milky Way Black Hole

www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=885

Billions of Particles of Anti-Matter Created at Lawrence Livermore Labs. There goes the Bay Area. Bye, Bye.

www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=881

The 1843 Eruption of Eta Carinae may Represent a New Class of Star Explosion. I saw this star system a few years ago from Tahiti and it looks like a bright star with a cloud around it using binocs. It may be about ready to go boom, or maybe it already has and we don't know it yet.
www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=882

The Evolution of Darwin's Theory: It may be a theory, but it's the way nature works. It's also a theory that the Earth orbits the Sun and also rotates once every day or so. That's also the way nature works.
www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-evolution8-2009feb08%2c0%2c3139110%2cfull.story

See you soon, clear skies, Bob