Discussed this months observations in particular trying to split Sirius and Eridanus B. It was successfully completed and what a sight it was! The club watched the recent Space X launch as well. Future star parties discussed as well as this summers plan for astronomy outreach at Craters of the Moon.
This month’s meeting was a potluck dinner, the club discussed this year’s highlights of observing. This meeting members John Reed and Kasey Davis received the astronomical leagues outreach award certificate and pin. John and Kasey have spearheaded quite a bit of outreach projects for public star parties at Craters of the Moon the past few years. The club is always excited to introduce people to the wonders of space and it was a pleasure getting people to look up at the stars with us. Looking forward to more observations this year and hopefully we have lots of clear skies next year!
This meeting we discussed this month’s observations and decided on a star party this weekend at Gibson Jack Trailhead. Mike Beer continued his presentation about the fate of sun like stars. We are looking forward to some observing this weekend hopefully the weather is cooperative!
Sorry about lack of recent updates. Been busy with other commitments!
This month we discussed recent observations and the upcoming Perseid meteor shower. We are planing for a star party up at Lava Hot springs this month on the 18th and 19th. It has excellent skies for not being a far spot to travel to. That Saturday will be a pot luck dinner so weather permitting we should have an excellent night under the sky.
Exciting meeting this week; we are going to Craters of the Moon for our big summer star party. The skies are excellent and we will have lots of telescopes set up at The Cave parking lot. We plan on meeting there on the 16th and 17th of June.
Several members of the Pocatello Astronomical society will be show off the splendors of the night sky as volunteers for this event. We look forward to seeing lots of new faces this year!
This months meeting we discussed the past months observing. The Venus and Jupiter conjunction was the main topic of conversation. Several club member got excellent photos of the conjunction. We also welcomed some new members to the club as well as to the Astronomical League we look forward to observing with them.
After discussions and showing off some new gear and eyepieces we did a telescope trouble shoot and maintenance clinic for members of the Pocatello Astronomical society. We troubleshot their EQ mount and verified collimation of the telescope with a sight collimator, it was unfortunately very cloudy so hopefully we have a change to see how the scope operates as the storm this week passes by.
The March stary party was discussed as well and we determined that the week of the 20th this month during new moon would be the best day to shoot for (weather permitting) we planed on going to East fork of Mink Creek past the Nordic Center again due to it having excellent skies to the East and South, we should get good views of Winter Milky Way as well as the last good look at the Great Orion Nebula and a little preview of Leo the Lion roaring in with galaxy season!
This months meeting started with discussion of last months observations by club members. Many in the club have been checking out Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), we all agreed this was a much better binocular target. We also discussed the observations from last star party.
After discussion of observations we viewed and discussed some of the photos taken by club members Jeff Reitzel and John Reed. Jeff shared his recent photo of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and shared how he would track background stars to photograph the comet. John Shared his photo of North American and Pelican Nebula in the Hubble pallet. John also shared an incredible photo the Triangulum galaxy M33 (see in club photos). Mike Beer Shared a very interesting GIF of a periodic comet named P96 Macholz as it orbited the sun.
After sharing of photos club member Kasey Davis received his award and pin from the Astronomical League lunar observing program. Kasey competed the telescopic and binocular observing programs. Kasey stated “It was a surprisingly difficult program.”
This months star party was planed for the 17th and 18th February and will take place again the 2nd gate of Mink Creek.
The Triangulum Galaxy located in the constellation Triangulum is 2.7 million light years from Earth and is the second closest galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy and is part of the local group. The galaxy is rich in H2 star forming regions. Close examination reveals the spherical hydrogen gas being blown from the new formed stars. This image was taken with an ASI2600MM camera. John took RGBL and Ha narrow band data. Most of this data was taken at Craters of the Moon and Massacre Rocks. The telescope used was Explorer Scientific APO 104mm f7.
