las meeting july 16 7pm open forum - longmontastro.org · in constellation leo. its apparent size...

LAS Newsletter – July 2015

Copyright © Longmont Astronomical Society, 2015. All rights reserved.

LAS Meeting July 16 7pm

Open Forum

The July 16th meeting at IHop will be an open forum where anyone can talk about

something astronomy related that they have been doing recently. Tell us about a

new telescope eyepiece you have bought recently. Maybe describe a trip you have

taken to Palomar or the Herschel Museum. Perhaps you've taken some great

nightscape photos along the Peak-to-Peak

high. We'd love to see and hear about it.

Upcoming Events

City of Longmont Recreation Services and Rim Valley FFA star party at

Sandstone Ranch visitor center parking area on July 24

LAS Meeting Aug 20th “Beginner Spectroscopy” by Vern Raben

City of Superior Recreation star party Aug 22nd

Meeting notes – June 18

Twenty-six people attended our June 18th

meeting. The speaker was Dr. Fran Bagenal who gave a talk on the New Horizons

Mission to Pluto.

Fran talked why the mission was important

and what it may discover. She described the spacecraft instruments and showed us a

movie of the launch and its trajectory. She showed comparison photos from ground

based telescopes, from the Hubble Space Telescope, and recent images from New

Horizons. Fran is fascinating to listen to and her presentation at the meeting was great

as always. She has been involved with the New Horizons mission to Pluto since it

began and her perspective was interesting

hear. The New Horizons mission has managed to stay on time and within budget

since it began. An amazing accomplishment in itself given the length of the mission and

number of people involved.

At the business meeting Mike Fellows presented the financial statement and

reported that we now have 68 members.

Gary Garzone gave us an update on the club telescope project. Four mirrors were

tested by Jerry Wilkins; three were found to be excellent. Mike Hotka has delivered the

mirrors to Optical Mechanics, Inc.

Bill Fierra completed modification of the

three library telescopes that the club will donate to the library. Leonard Sitongia

completed review of the manual. Vern will assemble manuals and align scopes. Target

date for completion is our next meeting.

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 2


Celestial Highlights

Moon

Full moon: July 1 8:21 pm

Third quarter: July 8 2:25 pm

New moon: July 15 7:26 pm

First quarter: July 23 10:05 pm

Full moon: July 30 4:44 am

Mercury

Mercury is visible in the morning sky in the

constellation Taurus through the 7th. It spends a

day in Orion; moves into Gemini from the 9th

through the 21st and then spends the rest of the

month in Cancer. It begins the month at magnitude -

0.2 in brightness and increases in brightness to -2

magnitude the third week this month. Its apparent

size decreases from 6.8 to 5.1 arc sec this month.

Venus

Venus is prominent in the west northwest after

sunset in the constellation Leo. It is magnitude -4.5

in brightness and its apparent diameter increases

from 34 to 53 arc sec across by month end. In a

telescope it appears as a waxing crescent.

Venus and Jupiter are close together at the start of

the month when they appear to be about 40 arc min

apart.

Mars

Mars is not visible this month.

Jupiter

Jupiter is visible in western sky as darkness begins

in constellation Leo. Its apparent size is 18 arc sec

across this month and it is magnitude 0.3 in

brightness. Times to view or photograph the “Great

Red Spot” at mid transit this month:

July 2 08:45 pm Alt 24°

Saturn

Saturn is currently in the constellation Libra. It is

magnitude +0.3 in brightness and its disk is 18 arc

sec across.

Uranus

Uranus is visible in the morning sky this month in

the constellation Pisces. It is magnitude 5.8 in

brightness and is 3.4 arc sec across.

Neptune

Neptune is visible in the morning sky in the

constellation Aquarius. Its apparent magnitude is

+7.8 and it is 2.3 arc sec across.

Pluto

Pluto is visible in the evening sky in the constellation

Sagittarius. Its apparent magnitude is +14.1 and it

is 0.1 arc sec across. See finder chart on page 7?

Pluto will be at opposition on July 6th.

Comets

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) moves from constellation Ursa

Minor to Draco on July 16. It is magnitude +8.8 now

and it is expected to dim to magnitude +9.6 by

month’s end. See chart on page 4.

C/2014 Q1 (PANSTARRS) is very low near the

horizon this month. It is currently magnitude 4.8 in

brightness so though difficult to view in bright

twilight it may be possible. Best time will probably

be the first two weeks in July in the evening about

9:30 to 10 pm. During the first week it should also

be visible in the morning sky around 4:30 to 5 am.

See chart on page 3.

Meteor Showers

The Alpha Capricornids meteor shower begins

around July 11th and continues into August. This

shower produces maybe 5 per hour. It is notable in

that it may produce bright balls.

The Perseid meteor shower begins on July 13th and

continues through August 26th. It peaks during the

evening of Aug 12th/13th.

Darkness

On July 1st astronomical darkness begins at 10:39

pm and ends at 3:41 am MDT.

On July 31st astronomical darkness begins at 10:08

pm and ends at 4:17 am

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 3


Comet C/2014 Q1 (PANSTARRS) in July 2015

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 4


Date RA(Ap) Dec (Ap)

Jul 1 14h48m47.8s +73°03'28"

Jul 2 14h49m23.0s +72°32'10"

Jul 3 14h49m59.8s +72°00'53"

Jul 4 14h50m37.8s +71°29'36"

Jul 5 14h51m17.2s +70°58'20"

Jul 6 14h51m57.7s +70°27'05"

Jul 7 14h52m39.3s +69°55'50"

Jul 8 14h53m22.0s +69°24'38"

Jul 9 14h54m05.6s +68°53'27"

Jul 10 14h54m50.2s +68°22'18"

Jul 11 14h55m35.7s +67°51'11"

Jul 12 14h56m21.9s +67°20'07"

Jul 13 14h57m09.0s +66°49'06"

Jul 14 14h57m56.9s +66°18'09"

Jul 15 14h58m45.4s +65°47'14"

Jul 16 14h59m34.7s +65°16'24"

Date RA (Ap) Dec (Ap)

Jul 17 15h00m24.6s +64°45'38"

Jul 18 15h01m15.1s +64°14'56"

Jul 19 15h02m06.2s +63°44'19"

Jul 20 15h02m57.9s +63°13'48"

Jul 21 15h03m50.0s +62°43'21"

Jul 22 15h04m42.7s +62°13'01"

Jul 23 15h05m35.9s +61°42'46"

Jul 24 15h06m29.6s +61°12'37"

Jul 25 15h07m23.6s +60°42'35"

Jul 26 15h08m18.1s +60°12'40"

Jul 27 15h09m13.1s +59°42'51"

Jul 28 15h10m08.3s +59°13'10"

Jul 29 15h11m04.0s +58°43'36"

Jul 30 15h12m00.0s +58°14'10"

Jul 31 15h12m56.4s +57°44'52"

*All positions for 10 pm MDT on the

date shown

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) in July 2015

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 5


J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 6


Milky Way and Sagittarius on June 19th from Danish Flats, UT by Tally O’Donnell

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 7


C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) on June 19th by Gary Garzone

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 8


M57 Ring Nebula by Tally O’Donnell

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 9


vdB105 Nebula in Scorpius by Tally O’Donnell

J u l y 2 0 1 5 - P a g e 10


M13 Hercules globular cluster by Gary Garzone

las meeting july 16 7pm open forum - longmontastro.org · in constellation leo. its apparent size...

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