Club Meetings

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

Robert Werkman and Josh Wright will be discussing their experiences while observing from dark sites a world apart, simultaneously, in October 2016.
Josh was in New Mexico near the Magdalena Mountains and Robert at a working sheep paddock in New South Wales, Australia.

Did they both observe the Orion nebula? Could they? Did they?
What about those Fall galaxies in Eridanus when seen from from 30°S?
Hear about views of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds when transiting, 47 Tucanae, and the Homunculus in Eta Carina ?
How does observing in thin air (or standing upside down in sheep do-do) effect to your observing experience  😉

Come on Down (or UP) and find out!

Robert will not be present tonight do to unexpected work-related responsibilities.
He extends his apologies in advance.  Perhaps another time.

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

Robert Werkman will be discussing his experiences while observing from dark sites from the opposite end of the world in October 2016.

Last month Josh entertained the club with his trip to New Mexico near the Magdalena Mountains.  This month Robert will regale the club with his experiences at a working sheep paddock in New South Wales, Australia.

Did they both observe the Orion nebula? Could they? Did they?
What about those Fall galaxies in Eridanus when seen from from 30°S?
Hear about views of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds when transiting, 47 Tucanae, and the Homunculus in Eta Carina?  There will be a quiz.

After learning how observing in thin air effected Josh’s observing experience, the club with find out if standing upside down in sheep do-do has any adverse effects. 😉

Come on Down (or UP) OVER and find out!

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

CAS co-founder and galaxy observing expert Karl Krasley (Galaxyman) will be giving a presentation on observing spring galaxies. In this presentation much of the galaxies presented are great for observing in less than dark skies, like your own backyard.

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

Presenter:

John Conrad

NASA/JPL Ambassador

This is the final year of the extremely successful NASA/ESA (European Space Agency) Cassini-Huygens mission.  The results of the 13 years orbiting Saturn and its moons has produced some amazing results.  While the introductory materials for this talk cover the spacecraft and the Saturnian system, the main focus is on the amazing “planet-like moon” Titan.  Many of the most exciting findings – from the US and European-led research teams – based on the data from the Cassini orbiter and Huygens probe/lander, will be presented.

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

Members Steve DeMarco, Doc Werkman and Marco Calderon will present tonight.  Steve will talk to us about his observatory.  Doc will highlight his weekend on Chincoteague Island, Virginia.  Marco will tell us what he saw with his binoculars in Costa Rica.

There will also be a discussion on 501c3 proceedings and bylaw changes.

See you all there!

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

Astronomical spectroscopy until recently was limited to professionals and a few hardy amateurs who had the skills to make their own instrumentation.  There are now several companies that produce spectrometers that can be purchased for as low $200.  In this presentation, Steve Conard will describe what spectroscopy is, and what it can tell us about the objects we observe.  He will demonstrate a moderate resolution spectrometer and show spectra generated “live”.  Audience members are asked to bring any unusual light sources or optical filters they may possess to be used as part of the demonstration. 

Steve Conard is a life-long amateur astronomer, and vice president of the Westminster Astronomical Society in Maryland.  He is an optical engineer working for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, supporting the New Horizons mission to the Kuiper Belt and the Lucy mission to the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids

Join us at the Crow’s Nest Preserve for our monthly club meeting.

Updates concerning StarFest 2017.

CAS V.P. Robert W will give a presentation about his experience last week at the Maine Astronomy Retreat and Symposia (MARS) and his interactions with Babak Tafreshi (world famous nightscape photographer and founder of the TWAN (The World at Night) web site) and well as Dr Richard Binzel of MIT, world famous asteroid and planetary scientist and a lead investigators on the New Horizons mission to Pluto.  Daytime AND nighttime AstroPhotos to be presented.

A discussion of members’ experiences this year at Stellafane 2017.