Astronomy Day at Kartchner Caverns State Park – October 1, 2016

The next Kartchner Caverns State Park astronomy program will be Saturday, October 1, 2016. The guest speaker will be Mr. Ken Zoll, the Executive Director of the Verde Valley Archeological Center. His talk will be given in the Discovery Center auditorium at 5:30 pm. Mr. Zoll will cover the results of his research in Archeo-Astronomy in Arizona. He has studied archeological sites across the region, and during his program, he will show links between pictographs and astronomical events.

Starting in the early afternoon, the Huachuca Astronomy Club of Southeastern Arizona (HAC) will have solar telescopes set up for observing the sun. If the skies are clear, we will see close-ups of sunspots and prominences through specially filtered astronomical telescopes. After sunset about 7 pm and weather permitting, everyone will have another chance to look through the HAC telescopes. Don’t miss the close-up views of the ringed planet Saturn, the red planet Mars, the Hercules star cluster (M13), and many other wonders of the night sky. Sunset will be at about 6:05 pm, and bring your jackets.

This event is open to the public. There is a $7.00 per-car entry fee (up to 4 adults). There is no additional fee for parking. The telescopes will be setup in the bus parking area.

For additional information about visiting Kartchner Caverns, visit: http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/

Solar Observing at Kartchner Caverns:

Here’s a recent photo of Saturn by HAC President, David Roemer:

2016 photo of the Hercules Globular Star Cluster, by HAC President David Roemer. This star cluster has over 100,000 stars and is 26,000 light years away:

Club Meeting Announcement for October 2016

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, October 21st, at 7 pm in the Student Union community room of Cochise College.

megan-kiminki The speaker will be Megan Kiminki. Megan is a Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona. Megan received a B.S. in Astronomy and Biology from the University of Wyoming in 2010, and an M.S. in Astronomy from the University of Arizona in 2012. Her research interests include star formation, massive stars, stellar kinematics, optical spectroscopy, and the development of user-friendly data analysis tools.

Megan’s talk will be entitled “Eta Carinae, the Supernova Impostor: A Tale of Three Cosmic Eruptions”.

Continue reading→

September 2016 Nightfall Newsletter is now available

The September 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.

NASA OSIRIS-REx Launch Viewing Party – September 8, 2016 at 2:30 PM

The NASA OSIRIS-REx mission to capture and return a sample of the surface of the asteroid Bennu is scheduled to launch on September 8, 2016 at 4:05 PM from the Kennedy Space Center. The Huachuca Astronomy Club, with the support of The NASA Museum Alliance and the University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory (LPL), is planning to host a launch viewing party at the Patterson Observatory on the campus of the University of Arizona Sierra Vista at 1140 N. Colombo Ave Sierra Vista, AZ 85635.

The Observatory will open at 2:30 PM on the 8th for the launch viewing. While plans are still being finalized, HAC is planning to show the launch from a live stream with other live and recorded presentations about the mission and the history of the LPL.

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information about OSIRIS-REx you can visit the mission’s home page.

At sunset, following the launch viewing party, the Huachuca Astronomy Club will host their monthly public night sky viewing event at the Patterson Observatory. This star party is subject to cancellation due to inclement weather, but is also free to the public.

Club Meeting Announcement for September 2016

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, September 16th, at 7 pm in the Student Union community room of Cochise College.

The speaker will be HAC member Ted Forte. Ted is HAC’s liaison with NASA and is a NASA Solar System Ambassador. He will provide an update on the OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu.

Club Meeting Announcement for August 2016

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, August 19th, at 7 pm in the Student Union community room of Cochise College.

The speaker will be Wen-fai Fong, Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Arizona. Her talk is entitled “The Energetic World of Gamma-ray Bursts and Gravitational Waves”.

Abstract:

Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang itself. Decades of research suggest that these explosions are likely caused by the mergers of two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole. In addition to gamma-ray bursts, these merging neutron stars are also expected to produce gravitational wave emission. Here, I introduce you to the exciting world of gamma-ray bursts and describe what it is like to study them. I also discuss the first detection of gravitational waves and prospects for the upcoming revolutionary era of gravitational wave discovery.Continue reading→

August 2016 Nightfall Newsletter is now available

The August 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.

July 2016 Nightfall Newsletter is now available

The July 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.

Club Meeting Announcement for July 2016

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, July 15th, at 7 pm in the Student Union community room of Cochise College.

The featured speaker is Tom Polakis of the Saguaro Astronomy Club. He will discuss time-lapse imaging with DSLR, planetary, and CCD cameras.

Tom is a well-known amateur astronomer, photographer and writer. His articles have appeared in Deep Sky, Astronomy magazine and Sky & Telescope magazine. Most notable was a series called “Celestial Portraits”, which Astronomy ran for six years. In 46 articles he discussed the constellations, north and south, until he ran out of sky.

He has traveled to Australia, Chile and Namibia to study the southern sky and travels extensively in Arizona which he describes as “the greatest state in the US”

His other scientific interests include meteorology.

June 2016 Nightfall Newsletter is now available

The June 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.