What: APL Astronomy Club monthly 
meeting
Where: Gibson Library room L-2
When: Wednesday, September 18, noon to 1:00 pm
Club business: October Star Party planning
Other club events coming soon:
October 11: Friends & Family Star Party at APL (rain date in November)
October 16: Club meeting
Earlier this year I finished up my astro-lapse video, Maryland Nights II. It can be found on vimeo and YouTube. The vimeo link is here:
At some point when I get some free time I am going to be working on an extended version of this video. I also have five other astro-lapse videos in the queue for processing and rendering. Fingers crossed I can get some of these out before Christmas!!
Shortly after the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, in the constellation Delphinus, not far from Sagitta, a naked-eye nova appeared. While not overly bright (it only got to maybe +4.2 mv?), it was bright enough to be seen with the naked eye (which is fairly rare, all things considered), and readily visible in binoculars. However, it is also set against the backdrop of the edge of the Milky Way, so easily lost amongst all the other stars. On the night of August 16th I set up my DSLR camera mounted with an 80-400mm lens, and despite the light of gibbous moon, managed to locate Sagitta quite readily. Knowing that the nova was approximately one Sagitta length away, and in the general direction that Sagitta is pointing, I repositioned the camera to aim at that spot, keeping Gamma Sagittae in the field of view, and snapped some images.
The attached document shows finder charts for the nova as well as one of the images I shot. As you page through the document, the nova will be identified, as will some of the surrounding stars, which can be then cross-checked against the finder charts.
Enjoy this little view of celestial history. While the star is beginning to fade once again, it should still be in easy binocular reach for another month, and should be picked up in long-duration exposures taken with camera fairly readily.
What: APL Astronomy Club monthly meeting
Where: Gibson Library room L-2
When: Wednesday, August 21, noon to 1:00 pm
Club business: We’ll share the finalized 2014 budget.
Member observing reports: Mark Kochte will report on Green Bank Star Quest X.
Other club events coming soon:
September 18: monthly meeting
October 11: Friends & Family Star Party at APL (rain date in November)
What: APL Astronomy Club monthly meeting
Where: Gibson Library room L-2
When: Wednesday, July 17, noon to 1:00 pm
Club business: Discuss the FY 2014 budget/equipment wish list.
Member observing reports: Mark Kochte will report on Green Bank Star Quest X.
The Summer Solstice Open House at Spoutwood Farm Observatory will be held on July 19th (not June 28 nor July12).
Meetings are open to anyone with an interest in astronomy.
Other club events coming soon:
August 21: monthly meeting
October 11: Friends & Family Star Party at APL (rain date in November)
What: APL Astronomy Club monthly meeting
Where: Gibson Library room L-2
When: Wednesday, June 19, noon to 1:00 pm
Club business: Welcome to the new Officers: President Dan Smith, VP Mark Kochte, Treasurer Dave Tillman, Secretary Helen Hart.
Member observing reports: Dave Dunham may be able to join us from Russia to present his recent occultation work.
The Summer Solstice Open House at Spoutwood Farm Observatory will be held on June 28th (not June 21).
Meetings are open to anyone with an interest in astronomy.
Other club events coming soon:
July 17 monthly meeting; introduction of the new club officers.
October 11: Friends & Family Star Party at APL (rain date in November)
What: APL Astronomy Club monthly meeting
Where: Gibson Library room L-2
When: Wednesday, May 15, noon to 1:00 pm
Club business: ELECTIONS. We need volunteers and nominees, please!
Elected positions: President (2-year term limit); Vice President; Secretary; Treasurer.
There won’t be time for member observing reports, sorry.
Guest Speaker: Bob Prokop, “Star Hopping to Earth’s Nearest Neighbors”. Bob is a former president of the Howard Astronomical League (HAL). He specializes in using manual star finding techniques (aka star hopping) to observe stars in the Solar Neighborhood. Most of these stars are very faint. It sounds like a prodigious feat!
Meetings are open to anyone with an interest in astronomy.
Other club events coming soon:
May 25 – June 1 Election of Officers (ballot and vote by email).
June 19 monthly meeting; introduction of the new club officers.
October 11: Friends & Family Star Party at APL (rain date in November)
The APL Astronomy Club’s Friends & Family Star Party will be held on Friday, April 19th, at 8:00pm until 10:30pm or so, depending on how things are going, how enthused the telescope volunteers are for staying late, etc. (with daylight saving time in place, the sun sets pretty late in the evening now, hence the late starting time – at least you can get dinner ahead of time! 🙂 ) has been cancelled due to inclimate weather (mutter grumble mutter grumble) We will try again in the Fall, possibly around the October 11th time frame
Star gazing (and telescope viewing) is always dependent and contingent upon the weather. Please check back to this post as the date draws nigh to verify whether or not the star party has been cancelled due to inclimate weather (rain and clouds being the biggest impactors). We will be putting weather updates here as they are necessary. There will be no rain date. Continue reading Spring Friends/Family Star Party – April 19, 2013
What: APL Astronomy Club monthly meeting
Where: Gibson Library room L-2
When: Wednesday, April 17, noon to 1:00 pm
This month’s topic: APL’s Don Mitchell will tell us about “The Cassini Magnetospheric Imager.” Also club business and members’ observing reports. Continue reading Meeting April 17 2013
The following two photos of Jupiter and four photos of the Moon were taken from the sidewalk in front of my house in Crofton, MD. I used my Celestron 130 SLT, a 2X Barlow (except for one of the moon photos), a MacBook Pro (courtesy of APL) and the club’s new Orion StarShoot Solar System Color Imaging Camera IV to take these photos. The hardest part of acquiring the images was focusing, since the image bounces all over the place when you touch the focuser (or any part of the telescope, really). Adjusting the gamma level before recording was also critical for the shots of Jupiter. I used the WebCam Monitor software that came with the camera to capture movies and stills. I used the open source Lynkeos software (which also came with the camera) to stack the movie frames into a single image. The whole process was a little frustrating at first. A little patience yielded some reasonable results. Here they are.
JHU/APL Astronomy Club 