It Must Be Astronomical

The loaner program offers members a means to try scopes of various sizes and technologies before you buy. For more information please see the loaner program web page: http://www.sjaa.net/loaners

Elections 2010

The elections of officers for the SJAA board was done during the board meeting in March. The current officers were all elected to continue in those positions for another year.

Q: What is the distance to the closest black hole?

A: The closest know black hole is Cygnus X-1 which is 1,600 lightyears away. But there may be millions of black holes in the galaxy. How often does one come near to us? Just ordinary stars come within 1 parsec (3.26 lightyears) about once in a 100,000 years. There are thousands of stars for every black hole. (“Death from the Skies”, Phil Plait, pg. 161)

Golden State Star Party, July 10-14, Adin, California. Early registration is $60 and registration is now open. For more information, see http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org.

SETIcon - Aug. 13-15, Santa Clara. SETIcon will offer fascinating and fun panels about astrobiology and SETI research, with speakers ranging from SETI Institute scientists to science fiction actors. We’ll have four simultaneous program tracks: general sessions, hard-core science, education/family activities, and individual sessions. For more info go to: http://www.seticon.com/

SJAA Yosemite Public Star Party 2010 - Sept. 3-5

CalStar - Oct. 7-10. http://www.observers.org/CalStar/

“All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.” - Carl Sagan