Tag: Space

Potluck Dinner Meeting 9 December 2023

Posted on By pocatelloastro
Meeting Minutes

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!

Meeting Minutes 10 Aug 2023

Posted on By pocatelloastro
Meeting Minutes

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.

Meeting Minutes February 9th 2023

Posted on By pocatelloastro
Meeting Minutes

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.

Clear skies and keep looking up!

Leo Triplet photo by Jeff Reitzel

Posted on By pocatelloastro
Photos

This photo of the Leo Triplet is brought to us by club member Jeff Reitzel. The Leo triplet is a small group of Galaxies seen in the Constellation Leo. It consists of three spiral galaxies identified as Messier 65, Messier 66, and NGC 3628 located about 35 million light years from Earth. This group is very unique in that you see each galaxy from a very different angle ranging from face-on to edge-on. This was imaged using a Stellarvue SVX127D scope and QHY410C ca.

NGC 281 core (Pac-man nebula) from Jeff Reitzel

Posted on By pocatelloastro
Photos

This outstanding photo is brought to us by club member Jeff Reitzel. NGC 281 aslo known as the Pac-man Nebula, it is a popular target for amateur astronomers due to its resemblance to the popular arcade character when seen in larger images. It is found in the Constellation Cassiopeia and actually located about 10,000 light years away in the Perseus Arm of our galaxy. Jeff’s goal for this photo was to capture detail of the intricate structure within the core area. It is full of dark dust lanes and Bok Globules all in the process of condensing to eventually ignite into new stars. A lot of this was done at our clubs observing site near Massacre Rocks. Imaged with a Stellarvue SVX127D scope, QHY268M camera, and narrow band filters (Ha, Oiii, Sii).