It Must be Astronomical ...

 

Loaners

The loaner program offers members a means to try scopes of various sizes and technologies before you buy. It is one of the real jewels of being a member of the club. Scopes are available for all experience levels. The inventory is constantly changing. The following list is a sample. For more information please see the loaner program web page: http://www.sjaa.net/loaners

 

Hot Dates

April 22 - Margaret Race speaks at Foothill College. Her topic is "Protecting the Earth and Other Planets". For more info see http://www.foothill.edu/ast/SVL.htm

May 12 - Scheduled launch date of STS-125, the shuttle mission to repair the HST.

May 20 - Patricia Burchat speaks at Foothill College. Her topic is "Dark Matter and Dark Energy"

June 20-24 - Golden State Star Party - http://www.goldenstatestarparty.blogspot.com/

[Wondering when and where other astronomers are planning to be? Check out the observer intentions site at: http://observers.org/OI-calendar/ ]

 
 
Deep Sky Objects

Here are three recommendations for deep sky objects in April. For more information see http://www.resource-intl.com/Observing.Lists/Deep.Sky.Feb.09.html

 

Difficulty

Name

RA

Dec

Easy

NGC 2567

08h 18m 30s

-30° 38’ 42"

Open cluster of about 24 stars elongated N-S. Mag 7.4

Medium

NGC 2613

08h 33m 22s

-22° 58’ 24"

Edge-on spiral located in a rich star field. Mag 11.2.

Difficult

Abell 29

08h 40m 18s

-20° 54’ 36"

Planetary Nebula in Pyxis. Mag. 14.3

 

 

  

"Does Sex Matter? Of course it does. But does it matter enough to Matter? That’s a different question." - Vera Rubin, research astronomer who provided the best evidence of dark matter

 
 

Q: What is the star with highest apparent magnitude that is at least 1000 light years away?
A: That would be Deneb in Cygnus and part of the summer triangle. (RASC 2009, pg. 287)