Richmond Astronomical Society
786th Consecutive Meeting
March 10, 2015
Greetings – approximately 45 in attendance at the meeting.
Jim Browder called our meeting to order in the Eureka meeting room
Announcements / Share Table
• Member Recognition: One of our members, Fernando Pascual-Marquez, has been selected as a nominee of the week for the 2014-2015 Lexus Pursuit of Perfection Leadership Award. Jim played a short video and interview of Fernando about his athletic and educational accomplishments. At the time, Fernando had not arrived at the meeting. When he did arrive, we greeted him with applause as he entered the door. He didn’t know the reason for the greeting until Jim played the video a few minutes later. One of his accomplishments is starting an Astronomy club at the Math & Science School at Clover Hill High. Good work, congratulations, and good luck!
• Ken Wilson suggested an idea to present the best RAS astro-photos. Submit your best photos by November’s meeting. Twelve (12) will be selected to be made into a calendar for 2016.
• John Raymond had equipment on sale.
• Assorted magazines were for perusing and taking.
• Meteorites for Betty’s talk.
• Dave’s honor to Leonard Nimoy, who just passed away. Dave had a telescope advertisement that had Leonard Nimoy on it. It happened to be the same telescope that Dave has been using for years. To top that off, Dave was dressed in the same colors and suit jacket as Leonard Nimoy. Live long and Prosper.
Welcome Visitors:
• Tom Muse, past RAS Vice-President
• David Winslow
• Dave Toth
• Philip C Pedersen
Events and Individual Observing:
• RAS member observing: Our members mentioned the sightings of Jupiter, Venus, ISS, and an occultation of a star in Gemini.
• Betty and Ken Wilson held a skywatch for 18 boy scouts
• Science Museum skywatch – small crowd
Upcoming Events
Science Museum Skywatch, Friday, March 20, 7:00 PM: Our regular monthly skywatch at the Science Museum is scheduled to start at 7:00 PM on the 20th, but we might want to have some astronomers set up closer to dusk. If those of us who will be helping out with the skywatch can be at the Museum closer to dusk it would be helpful since there may be visitors at that time.
RAS Monthly Meeting, Tuesday, April 14, 7:30 PM: The next meeting of the Richmond Astronomical Society will be on Tuesday, April 14, 7:30 PM at the Science Museum of Virginia. Please join us for the meeting and, if you can, for dinner at Arby’s, across the street from the Museum about 6:00 PM.
For those that cannot attend the meeting in person, we will stream video of the meeting, internet bandwidth permitting, at the following link:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/richastro
Skywatch at Belmead, March 14, 7:00 PM: RAS and Francis Emma Inc. will host a skywatch and a talk at Belmead on the James in Powhatan. We will hear about the famous Messier objects cataloged by Charles Messier which represent some of the most spectacular deep sky objects visible in the night sky. Astronomers and visitors are welcome to set up their telescopes in the paved area near the mansion and observe as long as they like, but no telescope is required, just an interest in the night sky. Those that wish to observe all night may wish to attempt a “Messier Marathon” to observe as many Messier objects as possible.
The entrance to Belmead is located at 5004 CarterslIe Road, Powhatan, VA. A Google Map showing the location is at this link: https://goo.gI/maps/llnF3.
Once you enter Belmead, follow signs to the mansion. Indoor session starts at 7:00 PM: RAS volunteer astronomers are invited to join a light supper at 5:00pm at the mansion.
Staunton River Star Party, March 19-22: Registration is now open! Thanks to all the good support, the Chapel Hill Astronomical and Observational Society is able to continue to hold the SRSP twice a year. They look forward to having astronomers join them between March 19th and 22nd this year at Staunton River State Park near Scottsburg, VA. As before, the spring version of the star party is a lower-key affair just three nights, but this year the Richmond Astronomical Society is holding a day of informal talks during the spring star party. Check out the SRSP web site (http://www.chaosastro.com/starparty/l) for more information and look under “Schedule” link to see the list of talks. Jim Browder will be one of the speakers.
RAS Open house at the observatory, March 28, 2015 from sunset till ???. We will be looking at the Moon and Jupiter, and anything else we can find.
Break
Presentation: “History of Meteorites” by Betty Wilson
Betty has a very interesting hobby – collecting meteorites. She gave us a history of major events:
• The first meteorite on record to be seen is the Ensisheim meteorite. It fell on November 7, 1492 in a field outside of Ensisheim in Alsace. Locals began breaking off pieces to keep, but King Maximilian ordered it to be preserved. The meteorite can still be seen in Ensisheim’s museum.
• Ernst F F Chladni made a controversial proposal that meteorites are from outer space. He became the ‘father’ of meteorite research.
• The Wold Cottage meteorite fell near Wold Cottage farm at around 3 o’clock, on December 13, 1795. It was seen by several people, claiming it was hot and smoking when they found it. It has been preserved in a London museum.
• The Krasnojarsk meteorite was found in 1749 and was the first pallasite meteorite ever found. This means it was composed of metals and crystals. Acid was used to clean it and it was the first one to show the Widmanstätten pattern.
• Betty told us about a brief afternoon shower of meteorites falling on L’Aigle, France on April 26, 1803.
• The 1st to be seen in the US fell in Weston, Connecticut on December 14, 1807.
• One of the largest iron meteorites found was the Cape York meteorite, found in Greenland. It was broken into several pieces and was shipped away piece by piece through rough stormy seas. Robert Peary sold one of them to fund his arctic exploration.
• The 1st iron meteorite to be seen during a fall was over Sikhote-Alin in Russia on February 12, 1947. It broke into pieces as it fell. Scientists tracked its projection and determined it came from the asteroid belt.
• Williamette was the largest iron-nickel meteorite to fall in the US (Oregon in 1902), and was the 6th largest in the world. It was approximately 32,000 pounds. Legend has it landing 13,000 years ago in Canada and brought down to the US by a glacier.
• Historic uses of meteorites have been on display in museums. It has been used in anvils, jewelry, beads, and knife blades.
• Meteorites have hit building, cars, animals, and people. Ann Hodges was the 1st human to be injured by one as it hit her on November 30, 1954 in Sylacauga, Alabama.
• On October 9, 1980, one hit a 1980 Chevrolet Malibu in Peekskill, NY. Several different videos of it falling can be found on Youtube.
• One of the most recent sightings was a superbolide, exploding 18 miles over Chelyabinsk, Russia on February 15, 2013. It may be the most video-taped sighting ever. It was confirmed to have resulted in the largest number of injuries.
• A local landing was in Lorton, Virginia on January 18, 2010 between 5:30-5:45 pm.
More information on meteorites can be found on www.youtube.com and at www.amsmeteors.org , the American Meteor Society website.