Richastro
Richmond Astronomical Society

    News

    The Richmond Astronomical Society will meet on February 14, 7:30 PM at the Science Museum of Virginia.  Please join us for the meeting and for dinner before the meeting at Arby’s across the street from the Museum.

    Be sure to read John Goss’ article on some great observing opportunities for amateur astronomers in 2012 in the Richastro Blog!

    Tim Streagle captured this cool image of the supernova in Leo (2012A in NGC 3239).  Thanks to Tim for sharing his image with us.  This is a stack of 7 images; the arrow marks the location of the supernova.






Events

Earth Wins Game Of Chicken With Sun

Some surprising facts about the potentially dangerous effects of a large solar eruption. And we’re going into a solar maximum, where the possibility of “the big one” exists.

http://www.blottr.com/world/breaking-news/earth-wins-game-chicken-sun

December Potluck Dinner

Potluck Dinner Delectables

Thanks to all who attended our annual potluck dinner.  Everything was absolutely delicious, the images of the Heart of Virginia Fall Star Party were great and the Astro-Jeopardy was a lot of fun.  It was really great to see everyone. Hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe holiday season.
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Regards,.
Jim Browder 

The Noose Around Relativity is Tightening

Interesting article from Michio Kaku, http://bigthink.com/ideas/41222

Asteroid YU55


 

Asteroid YU55 blew past us on November 8. RAS member Tim Streagle appeared on WTVR Channel 6 in a story about the asteroid pass at this link.
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So did anyone observe or image the asteroid? Please let us know or pass along an image or video and we will be happy to post it.
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An article in Sky and Telescope about the asteroid is here.

VAAS 2011

Back Bay Amateur Astronomers

The annual meeting of the Virginia Association of Astronomical Societies was hosted this year by our friends, the Back Bay Amateur Astronomers, on Saturday, October 1, in Virginia Beach at Tidewater Community College. From the Richmond area we had Jim Blowers, Daryl Douglas, Bill Jeffries, Dave Medici, Dave Walton, Betty Wilson, Ken Wilson me.

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NASA’S Kepler Discovery Confirms First Planet Orbiting Two Stars

WASHINGTON — The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA’s Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet — a planet orbiting two stars — 200 light-years from Earth.  

 

 

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The 2011 meeting of the Virginia Association of Astronomical Societies will be on October 1

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News from our friends with the Back Amateur Astronomers who are hosting this years meeting of the Virginia Association of Astronomical Societies:  The VAAS Annual Convention for 2011 is scheduled for Saturday, October 1, at Tidewater Community College, Virginia Beach Campus. Times are approximately 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM with an observing session planned for that evening at York River Park. More information is at this link.

Juno is on the way

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:25 a.m. PDT (12:25 p.m. EDT) Friday to begin a five-year journey to Jupiter.

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Juno’s detailed study of the largest planet in our solar system will help reveal Jupiter’s origin and evolution. As the archetype of giant gas planets, Jupiter can help scientists understand the origin of our solar system and learn more about planetary systems around other stars.

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Read more about it here.

December Meeting Minutes

RichmondAstronomical Society

747th Consecutive Meeting

December 13, 2011

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Jim Browder called our meeting to order in a room off of the rotunda.

 

Greeting & Announcements – approximately 41 in attendance at the meeting.

Please check the link to our RAS blog: http://richastro.org/index.php/category/blog/

 

Annual dues are due. $30 for a regular membership; $10 more to be an observatory operator: discount subscriptions are available to Sky & Telescope and Astronomy. You can pay by check to Jim Blowers or by PayPal at this link:

http://richastro.org/ras_payments.htm

If you joined our organization after July 1, your dues payment will be applied to next year.

 

The 2012 Board of Directors and 2012 Officers have been elected:

Board of Directors: Jim Blowers, Jim Browder, Gary Cowardin, Chris McCann, David P. Medici, Bill Newman, Prashant Reddy, Tim Streagle, David Walton, Betty Wilson, Ken Wilson

Officers: Jim Browder, President; David Medici, Vice-President; Chris McCann, Secretary; Jim Blowers, Treasurer

 

Congratulations to Betty Wilson:

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) Minor Planet Division has designated asteroid 84991 (2003 YM94) for Betty Philpotts Wilson at the request of the discoverer – Rik Hill of the Catalina Sky Survey. The orbital information and citation are available at this link:

http://ssd .jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi#top

 

Share Table

    A lot of good food!!

 

Library Report – none

 

Events and Individual Observing Recent Events:

  • Heart of Virginia Fall Star Party and school skywatches.
  • Individual observing
  • Observatory maintenance

 

Upcoming Events:

  • Science Museum Skywatch, December 16: Please sign up if you can bring a telescope. More information is at http://smv.org/events.html. The theme of the LiveSky event will be ‘Hollywoodin Space.” Come and see what they did right and what they did wrong.  If you have a chance, please have a look at the promotional video by theScienceMuseumon the RAS web site.
  • January RAS meeting, January 10: We will have as our special guests a group of fourth graders fromRidgeElementary SchoolinHenricoCountyalong with their parents and teachers. The students will be presenting some recent special projects in astronomy and space science. These should be very special evening. Please join us if you can.

 

Visitor and New Member Welcome:

There were several visitors.  Two of our visitors were first time visitors – Cierra and Wallace Bracey.  Cierra is interested in astronomy and wants to study it at U.Va.

Our other visitors, Dee Remmick, Karen Streagle, Marie Barnett, and Anne Blowers are spouses of some of our regular members. 

 

Short Talk:

Tim Streagle had a very humorous photo show, showing people and their telescopes.  It was great seeing several of our members and their “collections of equipment” that they bring to the skywatches. 

 

Potluck Dinner

 

Presentation: Astro-Jeopardy, Leslie Bochenski

After our potluck dinner, we were divided up into 4 teams and played a friendly and lively game of astronomy Jeopardy

 

Thank you to all who donated food for our potluck dinner!  Lots of delicious food and friendly conversation was a great way to end 2011.

 

 

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Reminders:

The next RAS meeting will be Tuesday, January 10th at the SMV.

The next board meeting will be Monday, February 20 at Extra Billy’s at 7:00 PM (arrive earlier for dinner). Meeting is open to all members.

Check out the web site at http://www.richastro.org/

RAS Café Press store.  Please take a look at the online store where you can purchase items embossed with the RAS label. The site can be found at http://www.cafepress.com/RichAstroShop .