Richmond Astronomical Society
808th Consecutive Meeting
January 10, 2017
Greetings – approximately 24 in attendance at the meeting.
Jim Browder called our meeting to order in the Eureka meeting room
Announcements / Share Table
Telescope for sale: Celestron Astro Master 130 EQ (#31045), two years old, unused eyepieces still in boxes. Contact Ernie Irby at 804-282-0202 or ebirbyjr@verizon.net
A new image gallery page has been created for richastro.org: On our web site, we have a new section for archiving some of the extraordinary images that friends and members have shared with us. See http://richastro.org/index.php/gallery/
Appearance of a red nova has been predicted for 2022 (+/- a year).
A prediction that star KIC 9832227 will undergo an explosion in about 2022. Researchers at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan have studied the orbital motion of the star system and believe that they understand the motion sufficiently well to predict when they will merge and for a red nova, which will result in a 10,000 fold brightening of the star, making it visible in Earth’s night sky, possibly reaching the brightness of Polaris. More info at this link:
http://wvnv.universetoday.com/l32763/exploding-binary-stars-will-light-sky-2022/
Library Report: Virginia Eckert
Welcome Visitors:
Events and Individual Observing:
RAS members
Science Museum
Belmead
Upcoming Events
Area skywatches: Currently scheduled dates below — if you can help with any of these events, please see Terry Barker or Madhup Rathi at a meeting or contact Jim Browder at president@richastro.org.
Stargazing workshop with L. L. Bean at Tucker Park in Goochland,
January 17, 7:00 – 8:00 PM (contact Jim Browder if you can help)
Skywatch at Maggie Walker
Skywatch at Matoaca Middle School, Wednesday, March 1
Skywatch at Glen Allen High School, Monday, March 6
Skywatch at Woodlake, Friday, March 24
Upcoming Star Parties:
Staunton River Star Party, March 22-26, Staunton River State Park: Outstanding star party in Halifax County; see www.chaosastro.org for more info.
Lots of regional star party action coming up — see richastro.org main page for a link to more details
Science Museum of Virginia Skywatch, Friday, February 17, 6:30
(no skywatch in January):
Please join RAS astronomers at the Science Museum of Virginia for a skywatch in conjunction with the Museum’s Science After Dark event. RAS astronomers will have telescopes deployed in front of the Museum for visitors to see celestial objects visible in the night sky. Please feel free to set up before dark.
RAS Monthly Meeting, Tuesday, February 14, 7:30 PM, Science Museum of Virginia: Please join us for the meeting and, if you can, for dinner before the meeting about 6:00 PM at Chicken Fiesta across the street from the Museum. Bring your valentine — who could ask for a better way to spend Valentine’s Day
For those that cannot attend the meeting in person, we will stream video of the meeting (internet bandwidth permitting) at: http://ustream.tv/channel/richastro
Presentation: “The Last Apollo Mission — Over 40 Years Later — What’s Next,” Ted Bethune