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.
Pocatello Astronomical Society met Thursday to vote on the new bylaw changes with the Astronomical League (AL) to change some wording on the main website for the AL. The yes vote was unanimous. John Reed club president will pass the yes vote along to the AL.
Club member Kasey Davis turned in his lunar observing program for the AL this meeting as well, he can look forward to receiving a pin and a certificate for his work last summer.
Not much observing got done in December and the first half of January due to persistent clouds, we just can’t seem to catch a break! The next star party was discussed and we plan on going on January 20th or 21st depending on weather.
Club member Mike Beer gave a very informative presentation on taking night sky photos with only a cell phone. Mike did a lot of experimenting on how to achieve the best quality photo using a phone. Mike recommends using nightscape settings on the the cellphones camera app and he stressed to just keep it simple. Mike recommended using a tripod to keep the camera still but he also showed that simply propping the cellphone on the hood of his truck yielded excellent results.
The presentation was excellent and Mike is a very engaging speaker, no doubt many in the club will try their hands at a few of Mikes techniques for cellphone sky photos.
Meeting tonight was mainly focused on the new website. Club member Kasey Davis showed off the past few weeks of work on this site as well as some of the challenges faced during web design. Club members wanted to see a roster of club members added in the futures so stand by for that.
After discussing the website, club member Mike Beer shared some photos from last star party. Mikes photos of the southern milky way with his cell phone camera, with a very cool app for his apple phone called Night Cap produced some impressive results. Mike even added constellation and deep sky locations in a GIF.
After Showing off pictures the Club discussed this months star party, if the weather cooperates we are going to try for Massacre Rocks about 30 minutes west of Pocatello. This site is very dark and offers excellent views of deep sky objects and it being so close to town is major plus. More details to follow as the date gets closer we are very much looking forward to getting in some quality observing.
The last 30 minutes of the meeting were spent watching another excellent Smithsonian Institute lecture. This lecture was about how nebula are formed and illustrated the stunning work of the Spitzer Space Telescope infrared instruments. Infrared helped scientists see past non visible light so they could unravel the mystery of star formation in the Swan Nebula
Clear skies and keep looking up!
Mikes cellphone shot of the southern Milky Way with constellation and deep sky objects highlighted
