November 2013

Highlights of theHighlights of the

May SkyMay Sky. . .. . .

-- -- -- 11stst -- -- -- DUSK: Mercury is high DUSK: Mercury is high above the WNW horizon for above the WNW horizon for the next two weeks. Look the next two weeks. Look for it to the lower right of for it to the lower right of Venus about an hour after Venus about an hour after sunset. Tonight it's just left sunset. Tonight it's just left of the Pleiades. of the Pleiades.

-- -- -- 33rdrd -- -- -- Full MoonFull Moon 11:42 pm EDT11:42 pm EDT

---- -- -- 44thth -- -- -- PM: A Waning Gibbous PM: A Waning Gibbous Moon is ~5Moon is ~5ºº from Saturn.from Saturn.

-- -- -- 66thth -- -- -- AM: Eta Aquarid Meteor AM: Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower peaks.Shower peaks.

-- -- -- 1010thth -- -- -- AM: The Moon is ~3AM: The Moon is ~3ºº from from 3rd3rd--magnitude star Beta magnitude star Beta (() Capricorni.) Capricorni.

-- -- -- 1111thth -- -- -- Last Quarter MoonLast Quarter Moon 6:36 am EDT6:36 am EDT

-- -- -- 1818thth -- -- -- New MoonNew Moon 12:13 am EDT12:13 am EDT

-- -- -- 2121stst -- -- -- PM: Venus ~9º to upper right of the Moon.

-- -- -- 2323rdrd -- -- -- PM: Jupiter is ~6PM: Jupiter is ~6ºº north of north of the Moon.the Moon.

-- -- -- 2525thth -- -- -- First Quarter MoonFirst Quarter Moon 1:19 pm EDT1:19 pm EDT

PM: Regulus is ~5PM: Regulus is ~5ºº above above the Moon.the Moon.

-- -- -- 2727thth -- -- -- PM: A double shadow PM: A double shadow transit occurs on Jupiter transit occurs on Jupiter from 10:01 pm to 12:18 from 10:01 pm to 12:18 am EDT.am EDT.

-- -- -- 3030thth -- -- -- PM: Spica is to the lower PM: Spica is to the lower left of a gibbous Moon.left of a gibbous Moon.

www.kasonline.org

General Meeting: Friday, May 1 @ 7:00 pm Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center - See Page 10 for Details

Observing Session: Saturday, May 9 @ 9:00 pm Venus, Jupiter & Saturn - Kalamazoo Nature Center

Observing Session: Saturday, May 23 @ 9:00 pm Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster - Kalamazoo Nature Center

Introduction to Amateur Astronomy Series Concludes

Portage District Library - See Page 4 for Dates, Times & Topics

This Months This Months KAS EventsEvents

Prime FocusPrime FocusPrime Focus A Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical SocietyA Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical SocietyA Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society

May 2015

Inside the Newsletter. . .Inside the Newsletter. . .

April Meeting Minutes........................... p. 2

Board Meeting Minutes......................... p. 3

Observations............................................p. 3

Intro. to Amateur Astronomy............. p. 4

NASA Space Place.................................. p. 4

MESSENGER Completes Mission....... p. 5

Custom Foam for Your Gear.............. p. 6

May Night Sky..........................................p. 8

KAS Board & Announcements............ p. 9

General Meeting Preview......................p. 10

May 2015

The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society was brought to order by President Richard Bell on Friday, April 10, 2015 at 7:14 pm. Approximately 32 members and guests were in attendance at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center (KAMSC). Dr. Shannon Schmoll, the new director of Abrams Planetarium in East Lansing, was the guest speaker of the evening. The title of her presentation was ALMA: A New Way to See Our Cosmic Origins. ALMA is the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array, located at an altitude of 5,000 meters (over 16,000 feet) in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The ALMA site offers the exceptionally dry and clear sky required to operate at millimeter and submillimeter wavelength. ALMA is an international partnership among Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and Chile. ALMA is one of the premier tools for studying the first stars and galaxies that emerged from the cosmic "dark ages" billions of years ago. These objects now are seen at great cosmic distances, with most of their light stretched out to millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths by the expansion of the Universe. ALMA has also provided an unprecedented ability to study the processes of star and planet formation. Unimpeded by the dust that obscures visible-light observations, ALMA is able to reveal the details of young, still-forming stars, and has shown young planets still in the process of developing. In addition, ALMA allows scientists to learn in detail about the complex chemistry of the giant clouds of gas and dust that spawn stars and planetary systems. As its name suggests, ALMA is an array or interferometer of radio telescopes that currently consists of 66 12-meter (39

feet) high-precision antennae. The resolution of a single telescope depends both on the wavelength it operates at and on the diameter of the main dish or mirror. The longer the wavelength, the worse the resolution, and the larger the diameter, the better the resolution. Consequently, a long-wavelength radio telescope like ALMA has worse resolution than an optical- or infrared-wavelength telescope of the same size. The resolution of an interferometer depends not on the diameter of individual dishes, but on the maximum separation between the antennas. Moving the antennas further apart increases the resolution. Dr. Schmoll then shared some of the results from ALMA thus far. The first was of the protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri, a million-year-old orange-dwarf star located approximately 450 light-years from Earth in Taurus. (Mike Cook wrote about this remarkable image in the March 2015 issue of Prime Focus.) ALMA has also been used to pinpoint the exact position of Pluto, which helps the New Horizons team plan the historic flyby this July. Using ALMA, scientists discovered intriguing zones of organic molecules unexpectedly shifted away from the north and south pole of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Scientists currently think thermal or other effects tied to interaction with Saturn's powerful magnetic field, which extends far enough to engulf Titan, as potential sources of this skewed molecular concentration. ALMA also recently revealed surface features on the asteroid Juno. ALMA has also detected Pluto-sized objects kicking-up dust as they crash into each other around Sun-like star HD 107146. Astronomers using ALMA have discovered a totally unexpected spiral structure in the material around the old red giant star R Sculptoris. ALMA also found spiral arms of molecular gas and dust around the "baby twin" stars L1551 NE. These results unveil for the first time, the mechanism of the birth and growth of binary stars. ALMA has also observed the binary star Mira. Observations show how the winds from the two stars have created a fascinating, beautiful and complex nebula. ALMA has also studied starburst galaxies and supermassive black holes at the hearts of galaxies. More was covered, but space is running out! Richard gave his President’s Report after the snack break. He discussed the need for volunteers for Astronomy Day and at the Rock & Mineral Show. Richard also talked about the recent Messier Marathon on March 21st and other members shared their thoughts. Roger Williams reported that Comet Lovejoy Q2 is still a decent sight in binoculars. Greg Sirna mentioned NASA’s “flying saucer” was recently tested. This project is designed to help get heavy payloads down safely on Mars. Dawn’s science mission at Ceres is expected to begin on April 23rd. After discussing upcoming events, the meeting concluded at 9:02 pm.

Prime Focus Page 2

April Meeting Minutes

Our guest speaker for the April General Meeting was Dr. Shannon Schmoll from Abrams Planetarium.

May 2015 Prime Focus Page 3

BOARDBOARDBOARD Meeting MinutesMeeting MinutesMeeting Minutes

The KAS Board assembled for the regular monthly meeting on April 12, 2015 at Sunnyside Church. The meeting was called to order by President Richard Bell at 5:20 pm. Other members present were Joe Comiskey, Mike Cook, Rich Mather, Jack Price, Don Stilwell, and Roger Williams. Rich presented the Treasurer’s Report, beginning with the information that $3,000 in the Robotic Telescope Fund had been set aside to establish a maintenance fund. The money is still physically in a certificate of deposit, but it will now be reserved to cover maintenance expenses that occur with the robotic system. After questions and discussion about expenditures up to date for equipment to be used with the robotic project, the report was accepted. In discussion of Follow-Up items from the previous meeting, Richard reported that the latest planned meeting of the Robotic Telescope Task Force had been canceled because of conflicting schedules. Meanwhile, two CCD cameras have been ordered, along with some accessories. It was reported that Owl Observatory is once again in need of cleaning and re-staining, and some wood may need to be replaced. Jack suggested a drip edge should be installed to decrease rotting of the wood. It was agreed that after a reconnaissance run to check what is needed, we should schedule another work project. It was further reported that the telescope motor drives had been degreased. The repaired circuit board had not yet been reinstalled, but plans were made to do this as soon as possible. Don reported on his efforts to schedule a field trip to Yerkes Observatory. The initially selected date (June 20th) turned out to conflict with Don’s schedule. July 18th was being considered as an alternative. Under New Business, Richard reported that April 15th was Free Admission Day at Kalamazoo Nature Center, and they had asked about KAS having a presence that day. Only very limited room was available, and a single telescope set up for solar observing was suggested. Mike Cook agreed to check further what KNC would like and to coordinate our appearance if possible. The Kalamazoo Rock, Gem, Fossil, and Mineral Show was also a good opportunity for KAS involvement, but given three days to staff and a May 2nd conflict with Richard’s lecture series, it was not clear whether we could handle an appearance this year. In Other Business, it was reported that our SkyShop was out of Miller Planispheres. The Board voted to authorize purchase of 3 dozen more planispheres for inventory. Since the regular date for the next meeting (May 10th) is Mother’s Day, the date was changed to May 17th, same time and place. The meeting was adjourned at 6:25 pm.

ObservationsObservations by Richard S. Bell

April was a very busy month for the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society and May will be the same. Parts 2 & 3 of the Introduction to Amateur Astronomy lecture series were held on April 4th & 18th, respectively. Attendance continues to be strong. About 50 people attended Part 2, Discovering the Night Sky, and 47 people attended Part 3, Binocular Basics. The series concludes this month. Part 4, Telescope Tutorial, is on May 2nd, while Part 5, The Art of Astrophotography, is on May 16th. Both begin at 2pm at the Portage District Library (see page 4 for more). Thanks to all that have attended and helped out with the series thus far. Dr. Shannon Schmoll gave an excellent presentation on ALMA at the general meeting on April 10th. I foresee her being a regular guest speaker, since she’s just started her career at Abrams Planetarium. It’d be great if the Kalamazoo Valley Museum would hire someone as young and as enthusiastic as Dr. Schmoll to run our local planetarium. It seems they have different plans though. Our guest speaker for the general meeting on May 1st should be excellent as well (although maybe a little depressing). Dr. Edwin Loh, from Michigan State University, will talk about A Trillion Years in the Future. The extreme future of the universe is a fascinating subject, but pretty bleak! Don’t know what I’m talking about? Then join us on May 1st and find out! Our first Public Observing Session on April 11th was a great success. Both the transparency and seeing were excellent and a nice crowd joined us to gaze up at the night sky. Unfortunately, our next session on April 25th had to be canceled thanks to cloudy skies. Public sessions will be held on May 9th and 23rd at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Please be sure to attend if skies are clear and bring a telescope if you can. We are dependent on member participation. Astronomy Day 2015 was a great success. Outdoor activities weren’t too successful, thanks to aforementioned Michigan clouds, but the indoor activities more than made up for it. I’ll have a full report in next month’s issue of Prime Focus, but special thanks to all the members that volunteered their precious free time to even make the event possible. Kalamazoo Astronomical Society would just be a name without its loyal members. We’ll participate in the Kalamazoo Geological & Mineral Society’s Rock, Gem, Fossil & Mineral Show from May 1st - 3rd (see the full schedule on page 9). Our participation was in jeopardy, but several members, including Charles Bibart, Beverly Byle, Jim Dyer, Frank Severance, Mike Sinclair, Don Stilwell, Karen Woodworth, and Dave Woolf, came through. Thank you!

May 2015 Prime Focus Page 4

Introduction to

Amateur Astronomy The five-part lecture series that will help you become a star-hopping skymaster concludes this month! Please register (if you haven’t done so already) to ensure we have enough materials for everyone. Here are the topics for May:

Part 4 - May 2nd:

Telescope Tutorial Sooner or later, every amateur astronomer faces the decision of purchasing a first telescope. There are literally hundreds of choices today! What's the difference between a refractor and reflector? Which telescope is the right one for you? To make this daunting task easier, we'll compare several of the top telescopes available today and tell you which ones to avoid. We'll also look at the countless array of accessories available for your telescope. If you already have a telescope but need help then bring it along.

Part 5 - May 16th:

The Art of Astrophotography Astrophotography is the art of photographing the night sky. In the past few years that art has undergone a revolution as digital cameras have overtaken their film counterparts. In some ways this has made the field more technical, but in many ways shooting the sky is easier than ever! We’ll start with the basics like using a stationary photographic tripod and work our way up to imaging with sophisticated CCD cameras. Constellation patterns, the Milky Way, the night-to-night motion of the planets, bright comets, northern lights, and perhaps a meteor all await you.

Time: 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Location: Portage District Library 300 Library Lane Portage, MI 49002 Please visit the Introduction to Amateur Astronomy web page for more information on the entire series.

Is the Most Massive Star Still Alive?

by Dr. Ethan Siegel

The brilliant specks of light twinkling in the night sky, with more and more visible under darker skies and with larger tele-scope apertures, each have their own story to tell. In general, a star's color correlates very well with its mass and its total life-time, with the bluest stars representing the hottest, most mas-sive and shortest-lived stars in the universe. Even though they contain the most fuel overall, their cores achieve incredibly high temperatures, meaning they burn through their fuel the fastest, in only a few million years instead of roughly ten bil-lion like our sun. Because of this, it's only the youngest of all star clusters that contain the hottest, bluest stars, and so if we want to find the most massive stars in the universe, we have to look to the larg-est regions of space that are actively forming them right now. In our local group of galaxies, that region doesn't belong to the giants, the Milky Way or Andromeda, but to the Large Mag-ellanic Cloud (LMC), a small, satel-lite galaxy (and fourth-largest in the local group) located 170,000 light years distant. Despite containing only one percent of the mass of our galaxy, the LMC contains the Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus), a star-forming nebula ap-proximately 1,000 light years in size, or roughly seven percent of the gal-axy itself. You'll have to be south of the Tropic of Cancer to observe it, but if you can locate it, its center con-tains the super star cluster NGC 2070, holding more than 500,000 unique stars, including many hundreds of spectacular, bright blue ones. With a maximum age of two million years, the stars in this cluster are some of the youngest and most massive ever found. At the center of NGC 2070 is a very compact concentration of stars known as R136, which is responsible for most of the light illuminating the entire Tarantula Nebula. Consisting of no less than 72 O-class and Wolf-Rayet stars within just 20 arc seconds of one another, the most massive is R136a1, with 260 times the sun's mass and a luminosity that outshines us by a factor of seven million. Since the light has to travel 170,000 light years to reach us, it's quite possible that this star has al-ready died in a spectacular supernova, and might not even exist any longer! The next time you get a good glimpse of the southern skies, look for the most massive star in the universe, and ponder that it might not even still be alive.

May 2015

After extraordinary science findings and technological innovations, a NASA spacecraft launched in 2004 to study Mercury will impact the planet’s surface, most likely on April 30th, after it runs out of propellant. NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft will impact the planet at more than 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 kilometers per second) on the side of the planet facing away from Earth. Due to the expected location, engineers will be unable to view in real time the exact location of impact. On April 14th, mission operators in mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, completed the fourth in a series of orbit correction maneuvers designed to delay the spacecraft’s impact into the surface of Mercury. The last maneuver occurred on Friday, April 24th. "Following this last maneuver, we will finally declare the spacecraft out of propellant, as this maneuver will deplete nearly all of our remaining helium gas,” said Daniel O’Shaughnessy, mission systems engineer at APL. “At that point, the spacecraft will no longer be capable of fighting the downward push of the sun's gravity.” Although Mercury is one of Earth’s nearest planetary neighbors, little was known about the planet prior to the MESSENGER mission. “For the first time in history we now have real knowledge about the planet Mercury that shows it to be a fascinating world as part of our diverse solar system,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “While spacecraft operations will end, we are celebrating MESSENGER as more than a successful mission. It’s the beginning of a longer journey to analyze the data that reveals all the scientific mysteries of Mercury.” The spacecraft traveled more than six and a half years before

it was inserted into orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011. The prime mission was to orbit the planet and collect data for one Earth year. The spacecraft’s healthy instruments, remaining fuel, and new questions raised by early findings resulted in two approved operations extensions, allowing the mission to continue for almost four years and resulting in more scientific firsts. One key science finding in 2012 provided compelling support for the hypothesis that Mercury harbors abundant frozen water and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters. Data indicated the ice in Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington, would be more than two miles thick. For the first time, scientists began seeing clearly a chapter in the story of how the inner planets, including Earth, acquired water and some of the chemical building blocks for life. A dark layer covering most of the water ice deposits supports the theory that organic compounds, as well as water, were delivered from the outer solar system to the inner planets and may have led to prebiotic chemical synthesis and, thusly, life on Earth. “The water now stored in ice deposits in the permanently shadowed floors of impact craters at Mercury’s poles most likely was delivered to the innermost planet by the impacts of comets and volatile-rich asteroids,” said Sean Solomon, the mission’s principal investigator, and director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. “Those same impacts also likely delivered the dark organic material.” In addition to science discoveries, the mission provided many technological firsts, including the development of a vital heat-resistant and highly reflective ceramic cloth sunshade that isolated the spacecraft’s instruments and electronics from direct solar radiation – vital to mission success given Mercury’s proximity to the Sun. The technology will help inform future designs for planetary missions within our solar system. “The front side of the sunshade routinely experienced temperatures in excess of 300° C (570° F), whereas the majority of components in its shadow routinely operated near room temperature (20° C or 68° F),” said Helene Winters, mission project manager at APL. “This technology to protect the spacecraft’s instruments was a key to mission success during its prime and extended operations.” For a complete listing of science findings and technological achievements of the mission visit: nasa.gov/messenger

Prime Focus Page 5

Spacecraft’s Unprecedented Success Studying MercurySpacecraft’s Unprecedented Success Studying MercurySpacecraft’s Unprecedented Success Studying Mercury

May 2015

Does your eyepiece case need a makeover? Has your pic-n-pluck foam seen better days? I know mine has. Just see the picture of my 12 plus year old case. The pic-n-pluck foam has been picked and plucked more than one too many times! I’ve changed eyepiece and accessories over the years and tried my best to modify the foam to match my latest acquisitions in astro-gear with only moderate success. I knew it was time for a new piece of foam, but what were my options? Maybe I could carve out a solid piece of foam. I had tried this method in the past using a sharp knife with only limited success. The knife approach just did not give me the contoured fit or professional look that I desired. I knew there had to be something better, but would I have to go with the pic-n-pluck again with its generic cut-outs and approximated profiles and recesses?

the pictures of the finished works as they are quite impressive and may give insight in how to lay out your foam insert. Next you will need to figure out which of the 3 options available will fit your personal needs.

1. ‘A new case’. Browse from a wide variety of new cases.

2. ‘A case I already have’. Browse from cases by brand to find yours.

3. ‘My own custom size’. Foam cut to your exact case. I had a case that was perfectly usable, but it was not in their database of existing cases, so I choose option 3. After measuring the inner size of my case’s 3 dimensions (height, width and depth), and I was good to start the design process. Additionally, you can input an upper and lower dimension if your case has a taper to it. My case did not have a taper, so I used the same numbers for the top and bottom. See partial screen shot below. Additionally, after you enter the sizes for your foam an estimated price will be given.

Prime Focus Page 6

I found the answer to my question was a resounding NO! Things have changed in the custom foam market place with a company called ‘My Case Builder’ leading the way. My Case Builder (no affiliation) can remedy all your custom foam needs. Now you may say, how much will this cost? For a thrifty guy like me, the cost of the new replacement foam was very reasonable. My case, being the standard size of 12” × 17” only added a few dollars per piece of astro-gear. Considering the cost of the gear itself, I found this to be very reasonable for the level of fit and finish ‘My Case Builder’ provides. The entire process from start to finish was very easy. The first step is to log on to their website. Be sure to check out

Now the fun begins, you actually get to design the cut outs in the foam. If you do not feel comfortable doing this you can have My Case Builder design your foam for an additional fee. Initially, I started playing with all the options to see what this software could do. It is very impressive. You can design your own shapes with the ‘CREATE A SHAPE’ menu which builds complex shapes from simpler shapes like CIRCLES, RECTANGLES and DRAW or see what is available in the ‘Shape Library’. This library is constantly growing as new designs are added. A special feature of the software is the ability to import a stored image via the ‘Photo Tracer’ menu. This image is one that you have saved on your computer. The software then allows you to very accurately trace around that image there-by creating your own one of a kind custom outline. In order for the software to know what size your object is, you will need to make just one accurate measurement of the parts length. I tried this option by taking a picture of my 2” diagonal with it lying on its side. By imaging it from

Custom Foam for Your Astro-Gear by David Standen

May 2015 Prime Focus Page 7

directly above I got a nice traceable outline of the shape. This option works surprisingly well. My diagonal fit perfectly in its new foam home, proving the accuracy of this feature.

There are additional tools available (see above) to the designer in the EDIT SHAPE menu. These will help you work faster and more efficiently. They include:

UNDO: Erase last performed action. REDO: Recall a step you just erased with the undo button. CLONE: Create an exact replica of a selected shape. DELETE: Remove a selected shape.

The hardest part of this eyepiece case project was trying to decide what type of foam I wanted. Case Builder gives you two choices, PE (Polyethylene) and Ester (Polyurethane). PE foam is fairly dense, and only slightly pliable, like a pool noodle. It offers a secure, snug fit. Ester foam is like the pic-n-pluck or traditional eyepiece case foam. It is forgiving and exhibits excellent shock absorption. I chose the denser PE foam and couldn’t be happier. It holds everything very securely. I would recommend you add the finger notches if going with the PE foam as they really help facilitate the removal of the gear. The finger notches are semi-circular cut outs that allow you to put a finger or thumb down along the side of the item you want to remove. It takes up some extra space in your design but they really help when it comes to retrieving the items from the case. You may even want to provide 2 of these semicircular cut outs for each item, one for your thumb and the other for your opposing finger. If you are worried, as I was, that your cutouts will not work as intended don’t worry, My Case Builder has a kind of insurance policy (for a small fee) that will allow you to return the foam with the corrections you make to your drawing. It’s kind of a second chance. I was tempted to choose this option, but did not think it would be necessary. My Foam insert turned out perfect!

There is another noteworthy design feature to be considered when designing your foam. You can have multiple depths for one or all of your cut outs. An example of this application would be an eyepiece lying on its side having more than one flat support point. For mine I used 2 depths, one to support the eyepiece body and another to support the barrel. This creates a step like feature that firmly supports your gear. See picture above. Have fun with the software. Try it out, there is a slight learning curve, but take your time and have fun with it. There are many options that you can explore. Mycasebuilder.com allows for you to customize your foam to meet almost any need your case may have. The end result will astound you with what can be done on a consumer level. My finished case is shown below.

Hots: Perfect fit, fair price, about 1 week turn around. Nots: Slight learning curve, not all shapes in the eyepiece library are accurate.

May Night Sky.............................May Night Sky.............................

NORTH

EA

ST

WE

ST

C atch the elusive inner-most planet, Mercury, high above the west-northwest horizon during

the first two weeks of May. Look for Mercury to the lower right of Venus about an hour after sunset on May 1st. It’ll be just to the left of the Pleiades star cluster. Both planet and cluster will fit

into the field-of-view of 7×50 or 10×50 binoculars. Venus will be 9º to the upper right of a Waxing Crescent Moon on the evening of May 21st. Jupiter gets its turn on the night of May 23rd when it will be about 6º north of the Moon.

A double shadow transit occurs on Jupiter on May 27th. Io’s shadow will join Ganymede’s at 10:01 pm EDT. Ganymede’s shadow will be above the Great Red Spot during the entire event. The two shadows will appear to nearly converge at about 11:47 pm. Io’s shadow will then disappear at 12:18 am EDT.

SOUTH

This star map is property of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. However you may make as many copies as you wish free-of-charge, so long as it is for non-profit educational purposes and full credit is given to the KAS.

www.kasonline.org

Late April 12 am

Early May 11 pm

Late May 10 pm

Early June Dusk

This map represents the sky at the following local times:

PRESIDENT

Richard S. Bell 373-8942

VICE PRESIDENT

Jack Price 343-3193

TREASURER

Rich Mather 629-5312

SECRETARY/ALCOR

Roger Williams 375-4867

MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Joe Comiskey 329-4251 Mike Cook 345-4998 Scott Macfarlane 679-2865 Don Stilwell 963-5856

E-MAIL a BOARD MEMBER

KAS BOARD May 2015 Page 9

Kalamazoo Nature Center Kalamazoo Nature Center ◆ 7000 N. Westnedge Ave.7000 N. Westnedge Ave.

Public Observing SessionsPublic Observing Sessions

Volunteers Needed @ Rock Show The KAS has been invited to par cipate in the Kalamazoo Geological & Mineral Society’s 56th annual Rock, Gem and Mineral Show at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center. We’ll par cipate on May 1st (9am ‐ 2pm), May 2nd (10am ‐ 6pm), and May 3rd (10am ‐ 5pm). We need at  least two volunteers inside on all three days and at least one solar observer outside on May 2nd & 3rd. Please contact  us if you’d like to volunteer for one or more dates.

Saturday, May 9th Feature: Venus, Jupiter & Saturn

Saturday, May 23rd Feature: Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster

Gates Open: 9:00 pm Observing Begins: 9:30 pm

Apparel is Back!Apparel is Back! It’s been well over ten years since the KAS has offered a full line of clothing. We now have several items in stock and ready for purchase. These include:

Short‐sleeve T‐Shirts: $17.00 

Long‐sleeve T‐Shirts: $20.00 

Sweatshirts (unhooded): $17.00 

Sweatshirts (hooded): $22.00 

KAS Embroidered Caps: $15.00 

Full details, including sizes and colors, will be listed on our online store, The SkyShop, soon. Clothing will also be available to purchase at most general mee ngs.

© May 2015, Stargazer Productions

Kalamazoo Astronomical Society c/o KAMSC 600 West Vine, Suite 400 Kalamazoo, MI 49008

STAMP

General Meeting Preview

Every winter we observe the Crab Nebula; every day we see the Sun. What would we see in a trillion years? In a trillion years, the sky will be dark. The Sun and the Crab Nebula will emit a very feeble light. Worse yet, dark energy moves most of our beau ful universe too far to see.

Friday, May 1 @ 7:00 pm Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center 

600 West Vine, Suite 400 • Use Du on St. Entrance  

─  Du on Entrance Locked by 7:10 pm  ─