las meeting june 21 - longmontastro.org€¦ · join us for coffee, dinner, or just desert around 6...

Copyright © May 2018. All Rights Reserved. Longmont Astronomical Society

LAS Meeting June 21 – “Jupiter and the Juno Mission”

by Dr. Fran Bagenal

Join Dr. Bagenal as we explore what NASA’s Juno spacecraft is telling us about the largest

planet in our solar system. Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of

Jupiter. Instruments on Juno are revealing swirling clouds, intense aurora and deep weather

systems - plus the spinning Great Red Spot. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter

safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar

system during its formation.

Bio

Fran Bagenal is professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of

Colorado, Boulder and is a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission. Her main area of

expertise is the study of charged particles trapped in planetary magnetic fields. She is

interested in finding out if the solar wind interaction with Pluto's escaping atmosphere acts

like a comet.

Fran received her doctorate degree from MIT in 1981 and spent five years as a postdoctoral

researcher at Imperial College, London, before returning to the United States for research

and faculty positions in Boulder, Colorado.

She has participated in many of NASA's planetary exploration missions, including the

Voyager mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. She was on the science teams of

the Galileo and Deep Space 1 missions and looks forward to participating in the recently-

selected Juno mission to Jupiter. Dr. Bagenal chairs NASA's Outer Planet Assessment Group

that provides input from the scientific community on exploration of the outer solar system.


Location:

The meeting will be at the IHOP Restaurant, 2040 Ken Pratt Boulevard, Longmont. Please

join us for coffee, dinner, or just desert around 6 pm; The general meeting and presentation

will begin at 7 pm.

June Solar System Highlights

Moon

Third quarter: June 6 12:33 pm

New moon: June 13 1:44 pm

First quarter: June 20 4:52 am

Full moon: June 27 10:54 pm

Mercury

Mercury is not visible this month.

Venus

Venus is visible in the evening sky in constellation Gemini. It moves to constellation Cancer

on the 11th and then to Leo on the 29th. It is around magnitude -4 and its disk is increases

from 13 arc sec across to 16 arc sec this month.

Mars

Mars is visible in the morning sky in constellation Capricornus. It increases in brightness

from magnitude -1.2 to -2.2 this month; its disk increases in apparent size from 16 to 21 arc

sec across. Best time to view this month is 3 to 4 am. Mars will be at opposition with Earth

on July 27th.


Jupiter

Best time to view Jupiter is

early evening in the

constellation Libra. It decreases

from magnitude -2.5 to 2.3

magnitude in brightness this

month; the disc decreases from

45 arc sec to 41 arc sec across.

The table at the right shows

Great Red Spot Mid Transits

this month based on longitude

of 290° (See

http://jupos.privat.t-

online.de/rGrs.htm ).

Jupiter was at opposition on

May 8th.

Saturn

Best time to view Saturn is around 1 to 2 am in the constellation Sagittarius; it increases in

brightness from magnitude 0.1 to 0.0. Its disk is 18 arc sec across. Saturn is at opposition on

June 27th.

Uranus

Best time to view Uranus is around 4 am in constellation Aries. It magnitude 5.9 in

brightness and its disk is 3.4 arc sec across.

Neptune

Best time to view Neptune is about 4 am in constellation Aquarius; it is magnitude 7.9 and

brightness and its disk is 2.2 arc seconds across.

Date Time Alt Date Time Alt

Jun 3 1:00 am 30° Jun 17 19:24 pm 36°

Jun 3 8:52 pm 28° Jun 20 2:02 pm 29°

Jun 5 10:30 pm 36° Jun 20 7:54 am 30°

Jun 8 12:08 am 33° Jun 22 9:32 pm 37°

Jun 8 7:59 pm 25° Jun 24 11:19 pm 32°

Jun 9 1:46 am 21° Jun 25 7:02 pm 27°

Jun 10 9:38 pm 35° Jun 26 12:49 am 19°

Jun 12 11:16 pm 35° Jun 27 8:40 pm 36°

Jun 13 7:07 pm 20° Jun 29 10:19 pm 35°

Jun 15 12:54 am 25° Jul 1 11:57 pm 24°

Jun 15 8:45 pm 33° Jul 4 9:27 pm 36°

http://jupos.privat.t-online.de/rGrs.htm

http://jupos.privat.t-online.de/rGrs.htm


Comets

Comet C/2016 M1 PANSTARRS is currently magnitude 9.5 in constellation Sagittarius; it

moves into Corona Australis on the 17th. It increases to magnitude 9 brightness by the end

of the month but gets much lower in the sky.


Comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) is in constellation Auriga; it moves to constellation Lynx on

June 15. It is about magnitude 11.5 in apparent brightness this month. The coma is about

2.1 arc min across.


Thursday, May 17th Meeting Minutes

1900 hours MDT 2040 Ken Pratt Boulevard Longmont, Colorado Vern Raben, President, opens and moderates: Introductions Officers Vern Raben - President Gary Garzone - Vice President Treasurer and AL Coordinator - Marty Butley Joe Hudson – Secretary (not present) Jim Elkins – Board of Directors Tally O’Donnell – Board of Directors Brian Kimball – Board of Directors Announcements:

City of Louisville Library “Solar Scopes with LAS” event on patio in front of library on Saturday June 2 from 10 am to noon.

Anythink Wright Farms Solar Event in Thornton on Saturday June 9 from 10 am to noon

LAS Meeting on 21st at IHop Restaurant

City of Longmont Recreation star party at Sandstone Ranch Visitor Center parking area 9:30 pm

Presentation “Sky Safari – Past, Present, and Future” by Bill Tschumy In 2004 Tim Benedicitis began developing astronomy software for a company called Carina Software. He and Bill Tschummy began working on an astronomy application for the iPhone called SkyVoyager which was released in 2009. Tim founded the company Southern Stars in 2009 and developed “SkyWire” and “SkyFi”, the first wireless and serial cable control for the iPhone. That product, and the initial release of the SkySafari iPhone app, won a MacWorld “2010 Best of Show” award. In 2013 Southern Stars was acquired by Simulation Curriculum Corp. of Minneapolis. Bill then demonstrated features of the latest version of SkySafari and answered questions from those present. At the business meeting Marty Butley presented the finance report and Vern Raben gave library telescope update – partition repairs for the High Plains Regional Library telescopes.


Overhead Sky 10 pm June 15


Milky Way from

Orion to Cassiopeia

in H-Alpha

by David Elmore

On March 10


M13 “Dumbbell Nebula” by Gary Garzone on May 9


Solar active region 2712 in H-Alpha by Brian Kimball on May 31


NGC 4767 by MJ Post on May 23

M63 “Sunflower Galaxy” by M.J. Post on May 20


Cygnus Wall by Stephen Garretson on June 1

las meeting june 21 - longmontastro.org€¦ · join us for coffee, dinner, or just desert around 6...

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