Terry Barker

September Meeting minutes

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Richmond Astronomical Society 720th Consecutive Meeting September 8, 2009 —– Jim Browder called our meeting to order, in the Eureka Room. Greeting & Announcements – approximately 34 in attendance at the meeting. Share table: There were a few magazines who want them.  There was also information regarding how far the TV broadcast signals have traveled … Read more

Twitter feed

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I post stuff periodically on the club’s Twitter site, richastrova. Up to this point, you had to have a Twitter account to see those postings, but now we’ve made those “tweets” available from the club’s web page. If you go to the web site, and page down, looking in the right hand column, you’ll see them, under the title “Twitter feed.”

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Orionid Meteor Shower viewing

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The best time to view this shower will be tomorrow morning, before sunrise. I plan on going out to the scout camp around midnight–is anyone else up for going? Send me an email, and maybe we can ride together.

Iridium flare tonight (Oct. 20)

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If it’s like last night,there will be a very nice Iridium flare tonight, 20 Oct, at  8:02 pm. It will be  -5  magnitude, 38° high, in the NNE direction.

Orionids should be good this year

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October 19, 2009: The Orionid meteor shower peaks this week and it could be a very good show.

“Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, the source of the Orionids,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour.”

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What a Presentation!

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Many, many thanks to Anne Verbiscer for fascinating us at our meeting on October 13 with the story of the discovery of Saturn’s largest ring by her, Michael Skrutskie (UVA) and Douglas Hamilton (University of Maryland)! In February of this year, Anne and her colleagues used Spitzer’s infrared camera, called the multiband imaging photometer, to … Read more

August 2009 Board meeting

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RAS Board Meeting August 17, 2009  Attendees: Jim Browder, President Gary Cowardin, Vice President Jim Blowers, Treasurer Chris McCann, Secretary John Barnett, Observatory Director Preston Kirby Bill Jeffries Jeff Pike  Treasurer’s report given by Jim Blowers. Balance Summary: General Fund:                $7150.85 Observatory Fund:           $198.28 TOTAL:                         $7349.13 Checking Account:        $2327.47 Savings Account:           $2857.22 Certificate of Deposit:    … Read more

Skywatches, Star Parties and Meetings – Oh My!

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We understand that the Masonic Home and Meadow Glen skywatches went smoothly this past week.  John Raymond reports that the attendance was good and the weather allowed for enough viewing time at each event, although some clouds rolled in and abbreviated one viewing session.  Thanks very much to John, Tim Streagle, John Barnett and Prashant … Read more

NASA tweetup

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Cindy Bowers and I went to a NASA tweetup with the crew of the STS-127 space shuttle in Washington, DC this week. I have the story on my web page.

Bryan Park Skywatch – Cancelled!

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_________________ Alert! The Bryan Park Skywatch scheduled for the rain date of September 28 has been cancelled due to maintenance on the soccer fields.  We will resume the Bryan Park skywatches in October. Thanks to everyone for helping out with the skywatches.