Timed to the 50th anniversary of NASA’s celebrated Apollo 11 mission, Apollo 11: First Steps Edition is a thrilling cinematic experience that showcases the real-life moments of humankind’s first steps on the Moon.
In this special 45-minute giant-screen edition of Todd Douglas Miller’s critically acclaimed Apollo 11 documentary, created exclusively for science centers and museum theaters, the filmmakers reconstruct the exhilarating final moments of preparation, liftoff, landing and return of this historic mission—one of humanity’s greatest achievements and the first to put men on the Moon.
With a newly-discovered trove of never-before-seen 70mm footage and audio recordings, Apollo 11: First Steps Edition joins Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, the Mission Control team and millions of spectators around the world, during those momentous days and hours in 1969 when humankind took a giant leap into the future.
How massive can a black hole get? Can you hide one star inside another? Why would a star only pretend to explode? Astronomers have built careers on answering these baffling questions, observing and studying some of the weirdest and most fascinating objects in the universe. Our speaker Dr. Emily Levesque will highlight some of the weirdest objects in the universe and share the adventures (and misadventures) of the scientists behind their discovery. Dr. Levesque is an astronomy professor at the University of Washington. Her research is focused on understanding how the most massive stars in the universe evolve and die. She's currently writing a popular science book titled "The Last Stargazers" that shares the stories and adventures of astronomical observing.
If it’s May, it’s time for our Astronomy Day Fair and Swap Meet. On Monday, May 20 at OMSI from 7:30 – 9:00 p.m., our usual meeting will take a different turn...
It’s not too late to ask for some table space if you want to bring something to sell or swap. And if you are in the market for telescopes or eyepieces or imaging equipment, filters, carry-all cases, Barlows, Telrads, a mirror, sky atlas, or any of the myriad other telescope accessories, this is an excellent place and time to stock up on items at good prices.
RCA will also have a full set of tables and displays from each of the various quarters of our club. We’ll have a Dark Sky Exhibit, the Telescope Library and Workshop will have full setups, we’ll have a Mars Corner and a Kids With Scopes interactive area, as well as our usual Sales Table and Book Library. It’s a good chance for new members to learn the ins and outs, hallways and doors of the club, as well as for the longer-term members to say hello to all their friends in a setting where we can actually see each other.
In Classroom One, we’re offering “What’s Up There,” by Matt Vartainian, “How to Find Stuff,” by Ken Hose, and “How to Prepare for a Night of Observing” by Alexe Mastanduno. In the planetarium, Dawn Nilson will offer a Dark Sky presentation and Jim Todd will offer a seasonal Night Sky Report. Finally, Craig Hlady will once again teach us how to get started in astro-imaging using only a regular DSLR camera. As of this moment, I’m not quite sure where he will be but don’t worry, I’ll get that sorted out. We expect that Sunriver Nature Center will come again; we’ll have an EAA demonstration, and if I can find room for myself, I still want to do a workshop on earning observing certificates.
This is an event we advertise to the public more than usual, so there will be lots of people getting into the spirit of astronomy that we don’t always meet. I hear there will be a classroom of science students. Let’s hope so. It’s going to be a good time. See you all soon.
- Margaret
PLANETARIUM
Dark Skies 7:40 – 8:00
Finding Objects 8:10 – 8:30
Night Sky May 8:35 – 9:00
CLASSROOM ONE
What’s Up There? 7:40 – 8:00
DSLR Imaging 8:10 – 8:30
Prepping for a Star Party 8:40 – 9:00
In only two decades, we have gone from the mere speculation about planets beyond our solar system (“exoplanets) to being able to observe them through a variety of methods. Dr. Franck Marchis, Senior Planetary Astronomer at the SETI Institute will discuss new and sophisticated projects which aim to image directly those exoplanets. Future instruments could soon deliver an image of a cousin of Earth, or another Pale Blue Dot, a planet similar to our own. His talk will be followed by a demo of the Unistellar eVscope, an innovative digital telescope developed in partnership with the SETI Institute.
It's not every day you get to artisanally hand-craft a nanosatellite! That's exactly what we're doing for OreSat, Oregon's first satellite. OreSat is being built at Portland State University as a collaboration of Oregon universities and community colleges by a team of students, makers, and citizen scientists. Our speaker Andrew Greenberg will discuss getting to space, orbits, the space environment, nanosatellites, and CubeSats. OreSat's mission is to bring an innovative space-based Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) educational project to all Oregon high schools, and will be studying the global coverage of "invisible" high-altitude Cirrus clouds
Mars is far from a dead planet, especially when it comes to weather. From clouds that can interfere with imaging from orbit, to dust storms that can affect rovers on the surface, to seasonal and long-term changes in weather and climate, there are many reasons scientists keep an eye on Mars' weather. Thanks to a continuous presence in orbit around Mars for nearly 20 years, the planet's weather patterns haven been routinely monitored on a near-daily basis. Planetary scientist and former "martian weather reporter” Dr. Tanya Harrison, Director of Research for Arizona State University’s Space Technology and Science (“NewSpace”) Initiative, will present a photographic tour of atmospheric processes on the Red Planet.
John Goar will discuss astronomical infrastructure in Chile and why the majority of astronomical investment will soon be there. John is a Bremerton, WA high school science teacher who participated in the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program (ACEAP) last year. He also leads public observing programs at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park in the summer and won the George and Helen Hartzog Volunteer Service Award as the Outstanding Individual Volunteer from the National Park Service in 2016.
The RCA Holiday Potluck will be meeting in the Theory Cafe, which is the main restaurant in the museum, at 6:30 p.m., which is an hour earlier than our usual meeting time.
We will be collecting unopened, non-perishable food to donate to SnowCap Community Charities and winter clothes to donate to Transition Projects. As usual, there will be no club services except for a brief period of calendar sales.
The club will be providing drinks, plates, cups, and utensils as well as a small amount of food intended to supplement what everyone brings. The following table shows the dishes we're asking you to bring based on the first letter of your last name. (Unfortunately we won't have access to power in Theory, so won't be able to warm or cook dishes there.)
A through E: Main Dish
F through K: Side Dish
L through Z: Dessert
There are advantages to holding our event in Theory but also some conditions. We also need to clean thoroughly afterwards. So, please consider staying to help out at the end of the event.
We'll have a brief program consisting of awards, acknowledgements, and a retrospective of notable space missions. We're also considering showing a video in the Planetarium with an astronomical or holiday theme to be announced at the meeting.
We’ll be collecting images for a slide show featuring club-related activities from the past year. If you’d like to contribute images, please send them to our Calendar Director.
It has been a great year for the club. Please come help us celebrate it!
While Matt Damon's character engaged us in the challenges of growing potatoes on Mars, the reality of off-world living is even more complicated than author Andy Weir described. Our speaker Kai Staats is project lead for the Arizona State University School of Earth & Space Exploration Interplanetary Initiative pilot project SIMOC (see-mok). His team has developed this scalable, interactive model of an off-world community built on decades of NASA research and data. In this interactive presentation, Kai will introduce the audience to closed ecosystems experiments, provide a tour of SIMOC, and engage the audience in consideration of how closed ecosystem studies have and continue to help us understand our first home as we prepare to make new homes among the stars.
In astronomy, people often ask questions like “how bright” or “how far” or “how old” when talking about stars and other deep sky objects. Today it is possible for amateur astronomers to find answers to these questions from observations using modest equipment. Amateurs can do real backyard science from detection of exoplanets to estimating the age of star clusters and more. Note: Jerry Oltion’s lecture on Unusual Telescopes has been postponed.
Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist for the Planetary Society, will present on The Search for Life in Our Solar System. We'll tour the solar system and learn about the variety of different science missions actively exploring our solar system, with emphasis on the scientific motivations for their exploration (our origins and the search for life), with lots and lots of pretty pictures.
Emily Lakdawalla is an internationally admired science communicator and educator, passionate about advancing public understanding of space and sharing the wonder of scientific discovery. She has been writing and editing the Planetary Society Blog since 2005, reporting on space news, explaining planetary science, and sharing beautiful space photos. In 2018, she became editor of the Society's member magazine, The Planetary Report. Her first book, titled The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job, was published by Springer-Praxis in March, 2018.
The RCA General meeting is in the Auditorium beginning at 7:30. Mark Lowenthal and Jeff Lee will discuss Electronically Assisted Astronomy.
Join Greg Crinklaw, the developer for the world premiere of SkyTools 4 Imaging! SkyTools 4 is the next step in software for planning observations. It marries a new state of the art scientific model with a new and innovative approach to selecting appropriate targets, scheduling, making observations, and archiving the results.
The RCA General meeting is in the Auditorium beginning at 7:30. Ken Hose and Joe Minato will present Student scholarship awards and the Pine Mountain Observatory Summer Program. The new member orientation will begin at 6:30 in the Planetarium. Most club services will be available in the Auditorium prior to the meeting. In particular, the Telescope Library will be operating near the Planetarium door.
Come explore how to start doing astronomy yourself; to find a community where you can learn about space science and astronomy; and for opportunities to buy, sell, or trade quality astronomy equipment.
Also the Book Library will be having a sale — bring quarters!
Are we alone? Humans have been asking this question throughout history. We want to know where we came from, how we fit into the cosmos, and where we are going. We want to know whether there is life beyond the Earth and whether any of it is intelligent. Jill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for that institution.
This month our general meeting has been moved to the OMSI Empirical Theater. The Empirical Theater has an upper level wheelchair accessible entrance and theater restrooms.
Dr Erin Macdonald will present the science behind spacetime/general relativity and discuss how it applies to artificial gravity and faster-than-light (FTL) travel in science fiction. We will explore the best examples of gravity in fiction, and the three main ways sci-fi utilizes FTL and the long-shot "feasibility" of each while geeking out over our favorite sci-fi worlds!
From tricorders to warp drive, Star Trek became the first series to bring us a vision of a future where humans were just as flawed as ever, but where technology and the way we used it had created a utopian society. There was no hunger, no homelessness, no rampant diseases, only long-lived humans exploring the galaxy, enjoying all the comforts one could ask for in life. Many of these technologies, dreamed up by Star Trek, are already real, while others are quickly approaching, and a few still remain elusive. From communications to starships to medical breakthroughs to civilian life, Star Trek promised us a future we can all aspire to. As we attempt to "make it so," let's take a look at the real-life science of how far we've come!
The RCA Holiday Potluck dinner is one week from tomorrow (Monday, December 18th). This year’s event is going to be different from those of previous years in several important respects. So please read this message carefully if you’re thinking about attending. Also, a preview of January’s meeting is at the bottom of this message. It will be a fun event as well and you might want to take a peek.
The RCA November General meeting date has changed to Monday, November 27th, and it will be special. OMSI Director of Space Science Education Jim Todd will be giving us a personal, behind-the-scenes tour of the newly remodeled and updated OMSI Planetarium. The program will include a complete showing of one of the one of the professionally-produced shows currently running. It should be a lot of fun. The change of date is caused by a street closure and interruption of electrical service on our usual meeting night.
After a grueling three-year journey of over 150,000 miles traveled and 3,000,000 pictures taken, renowned timelapse filmmakers Harun Mehmedinovic and Gavin Heffernan are proud to introduce SKYGLOW; a hardcover photo book and timelapse video series exploring North America’s remaining magnificent night skies and the grave threat of light pollution to our fragile environment. SKYGLOW explores the history and mythology of celestial observation, the proliferation of electrical outdoor lighting that spurred the rise of the phenomena known as "skyglow,” and the Dark Sky Movement that's fighting to reclaim the night skies.
Everyday, astronauts on the International Space Station take picture after picture of our planet earth and the spacescape they see out their cupola window. Astronomer and pioneer in astronomy podcasting, Dr. Pamela Gay will be inviting us to participate in CosmoQuest's new citizen science project, Image Detective: exploring astronaut photos, adding metadata about what's in the images, and helping identify what the images are of so they can be readily used by scientists, the media, and schoolchildren.
Tales From the Dark Side: Eclipse Lessons Learned "The Hard Way" — From an Expert, Yet Very Human, Eclipse Chaser
This lighthearted yet informative lecture reveals the difference between expectation and reality. Stephen, an avid eclipse chaser and observer of more than a dozen total and annular solar eclipses shares what we should do (and what not to do) so that we can have the best eclipse experience possible — without encountering the foibles described in this lecture. This entertaining romp should help eclipse watchers in Oregon to prepare for the unexpected. Who knows, maybe by the talk’s end, other veteran eclipse chasers in the audience will have their own stories and advice to share.
Eclipse expert Sean League will tell us stories of past total solar eclipses from the Sahara to Mongolia to the South Pacific and discuss what to watch for in the upcoming August eclipse. Learn what scopes and filters are good choices whether it's white light or H-alpha, and see how to photograph the eclipse.
Our speaker will be Greg Babcock, telescope designer and author of "Stargazing for Everyone with Binoculars."
Note: We will be auctioning off a 10 inch Dobsonian from the telescope library inventory during this meeting.
RCA’s annual Astronomy Fair is loosely allied with Astronomy Day, but since May's skies are often too cloudy to reliably host a star party, we have turned our celebration into a club information fair.
NASA aerospace technologist Les Johnson discusses technologies for making travel to other star systems possible. Some possibilities he will discuss are propulsion systems based on antimatter-matter annihilation, nuclear fusion, atomic warheads, and laser power. Mr Johnson is an excellent speaker and has made presentations at both TEDx and Google[X].
In 1888 astronomer John Dreyer compiled a list of 7840 “nebulae” for his New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC). Our speaker Steve Gottlieb recently completed observing the entire NGC, a project that took over 35 years and many trips to the southern hemisphere. Steve will be discussing the NGC/IC Project, a joint amateur-professional effort to re-examine the 100 to 200 year-old source material used by Dreyer.
In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble's observations of stars in distant nebulae not only proved that the grand spirals in the sky were galaxies beyond the Milky Way, but allowed us to determine, for the first time, that the Universe was expanding. However, measuring the rate of this expansion has proved challenging: first for geologists, then for stellar astronomers, then for cosmologists and even today. This talk will examine the history of the expanding Universe and detail, up until the present day, how cutting edge science looks to determine, once and for all, exactly how the Universe has been expanding for the entire history of the cosmos.
Donald Edward Machholz is the most successful living visual comet hunter in the United States, being credited with the discovery of 11 comets, including the periodic comets 96P/Machholz, 141P/Machholz, the non-periodic C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) that was easily visible in binoculars in the northern sky in 2004 and 2005, and most recently, C/2010 F4 (Machholz). Machholz is also considered to be one of the inventors of the Messier marathon, which is a race to observe all the Messier objects in a single night.
When populations of humans eventually make multigenerational, interstellar voyages to settle an exoplanet, they will not be chisel-chinned astronauts living by checklists; they will be families, communities, entire cultures. How can we give them the best chance to succeed? We can begin by researching how humanity has adapted to global environments in the last 50,000 years. Both biology and culture will evolve beyond Earth.
Star formation is pervasive across the universe. Understanding why some galaxies form stars more quickly and in a greater quantity than other galaxies is a fundamental question in astronomy.I use a sample of distant galaxies to investigate how star formation proceeds and how the process of star formation affects the shape of galaxies. Specifically, I use data from the Hubble and Keck telescopes to study how star formation can cause bubbles of gas and dust to be blown out of galaxies ("galactic winds").
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is NASA's next Great Observatory, the scientific successor to both the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. Its scientific equipment will include several cameras to produce amazing images in the tradition of Hubble. JWST will see the first galaxies to form in the universe, and explore how stars are born and develop planetary systems. It will examine planets around other stars to investigate their potential for life, and study planets within our own Solar System.
The surge of DSLR photography has brought a unique opportunity to the world of astronomy. Ben will speak about the ability of this growing night photography interestto connect newcomers to the expansive world of traditional astronomy. Ben will also share photos and timelapse videos of our night skies above the landscapes of our Pacific Northwest.
Douglas will be focusing on conveying a basic understanding of comet orbits, using real examples in historical context, including comets in elliptical, parabolic, and hyperbolic orbits, and showing how energy concepts can be use to characterize comet orbits.Examples will include some of the great comets of history, such as the Great Comet of 1577, the Great Comet of 1680, and Halley's Comet, as well as some illustrative recent comets, as a prelude to a discussion of the hyperbolic orbit of C/2012 S1 ISON. Will ISON survive solar passage?
The sky is home to many visual wonders some closer to earth than others. When attending a star party sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate. When this happens the weather itself can be the source of enjoyment for the educated observer.This presentation will explore the many atmospheric phenomena that occur within our atmosphere during both day and night, under both clear skies and overcast. In this survey Matt will cover common and not so common occurrences in the sky and explain the mechanics behind these often spectacular sights. From Sundogs to St. Elmo's fire come learn what you can see in the sky.
Star and planet formation is highly dynamic: the appearance of the youngest stars can change dramatically in as little as a week. Even by the standards of typically unruly young stars, some /*stars*/ exhibit remarkable changes, increasing or decreasing in brightness by factors of 1000 or more. These brightness changes are thought to be caused by sudden changes in the star's growth rate, or in the structure of the planet forming material in orbit around the star.
Have you ever dreamed of observing the pristine night sky at a truly dark site from the comfort of your home in the city? Or dreamed of sending a distant telescope on a mission to collect images of beautiful deep sky objects while you get a full night's sleep and wake up refreshed and ready for an early day at work? Then remote observing may be just what you're looking for.
David Grinspoon is an astrobiologist who studies the possible conditions for life on other planets. In November 2012, he began a one-year appointment as the inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg/NASA Chair in Astrobiology at the John W. Kluge Center of the United States Library of Congress, where he is researching and writing a book about the human influence on Earth, seen in cosmic perspective.
A product review in the most recent issue of Sky & Telescope Magazine begins with the statement "No name is better known in the world of amateur CCD imaging than SBIG, short for Santa Barbara Instrument Group." What is not so well known is how the threat of US/USSR nuclear test ban treaty violations and an "Ogre" were crucial to SBIG's beginnings. To fill in some of these interesting details, one of SBIG's co-founders, Michael Barber, will present a talk about SBIG's origins, some milestones in its history and the latest developments in its product line for amateur astronomers, including some demonstration and prototype items.
A video-packed, family-friendly exploration of the Mars exploration program through the stories of Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity — and the scientists and engineers behind the missions. Children's book author Elizabeth Rusch will take the audience behind the scenes of these successful missions by sharing NASA video clips and stories from researching and writing her book The Mighty Mars Rovers: The incredible adventures of Spirit and Opportunity.
During our general meeting on Monday, March 18th, weather at the telescope permitting, we will receive a tour of the Discovery Channel Telescope and its control room, conducted live via video teleconference, as the DCT team prepares for and begins to conduct an observing session. Our hosts will be Kevin Covey and Lowell Astronomer and Deputy Director of Technology Stephen Levine.
Richard Berry has been an amateur astronomer and telescope maker for as long as he can remember. In 1976, Berry joined the staff of Astronomy magazine. In sixteen years as its editor, he built Astronomy magazine from a struggling start-up to the largest circulation astronomy magazine in the world. During this time, he also founded and edited Telescope Making, the quarterly journal that helped make the 1980s such explosive growth years for amateur astronomy. In the last two decades, Richard's books "Build Your Own Telescope", "Discover the Stars", "The CCD Camera Cookbook", "The Dobsonian Telescope" and "The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing" have introduced thousands to the joys of amateur astronomy, telescope making, CCD imaging, and digital image processing.
The "golden age" of relativity, from 1960 to 1974, was a period during which black holes were closely studied and understood.Cosmology today finds itself at a similar stage of development, with breathtaking observations now making it possible to more fully grasp the role played by general relativity in shaping our view of the origin and evolution of the cosmos as a whole. The Universe has much in common with black holes, and appears to be far simpler than once thought.
The Stardust spacecraft, which has traveled 2 billion miles, was launched Feb. 7, 1999, and returned to earth Jan. 15, 2006, when its Aerogel-embedded samples of comet and interstellar dust will be returned to earth on a capsule designed to safely land them in Utah. Comets are thought to have been created before the planets, so scientists hope analysis of the comet samples will reveal information about the creation of our solar system.
In the late 1950s, anticipating the introduction of artificial earth orbiting satellites, the Smithsonian Institution developed an ambitious program to track these satellites. Almost every aspect of this major endeavor was an innovation: the science of satellite orbits, the technology of imaging and tracking, and the bureaucracy of this complex global organization. The specialized photographic telescope developed for the purpose of imaging the track of a satellite across the sky was the Baker-Nunn camera and and Joseph Nunn used 55 mm Cinemascope film.
Turn Left at Orion has become one of the most popular guides to using a small telescope ever published... but the adventures of getting it written and published were almost as much fun as all the observing we did for the book! Hear stories of the steps, and missteps, that have gone into various editions of their book... what we learned about astronomy, and observing... and watch out for those pesky wabbits!
Server Sky is a proposal to build large dispersed arrays of 3 gram paper-thin solar-powered computer satellites and launch them into 6400km earth orbit. Thinsat arrays use unlimited space solar power and operate outside the biosphere. The environmental impact of power generation and heat disposal is tiny. Earth can return to what it is good at — green and growing things — while space can be filled with gray and computing things. Besides the presentation of the overall system, we will discuss the astronomical and ecological consequences of very large solar collectors in orbit, and how Server Sky will minimize or eliminate them.
Pat Hanrahan is the Planetarium Director and teaches astronomy for Mt. Hood Community College and has been a member of RCA for many years. Last fall, Pat spent over two months as an unpaid astronomer in the NamibRand Nature Reserve of Namibia. He will be presenting an interactive visual program showing the southern skies on the OMSI Planetarium dome.
All of this -- everything that we know of in existence -- had to come from somewhere. In this journey, we'll start with the world that we know and journey out into the Universe, exploring where the elements that form everything on our planet originate from, how they were created in previous generations of stars, where the building blocks of those stars came from and how they formed into galaxies, where those very first atoms came from in the earliest stages of the Big Bang, and finally, why we have a Universe with something in it instead of nothing at all.
The last 20 years have been a golden age for astronomy as advances in space technology has allowed us to study the Universe at wavelengths impossible to observe from the surface of the Earth. Space telescopes allow us to see the most violent phenomenon in the Universe (supernovae, black holes, colliding galaxies) and the most exotic phenomenon (expanding Universe, cosmic background radiation, protostars). This talk will be a non-technical review of the history of space telescopes from the 1960's to today, our discoveries, our plans for the future and the probable decline of American science in the 21st century.
Learn just why it's so hard to get to space, and follow along some of the trials and successes of Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) through the years. Then explore some of the astronomy potential of high altitude platforms like sounding rockets and day-dream about the day when we can all afford our own backyard space telescope.Nathan Bergey is freelance data scientist and programmer who has spent thelast several years helping build Portland's own home grown space program with the Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS). He has a life-long passion for all things space.
William Herschel and his son John Herschel carried out the first comprehensive surveys of deep-sky objects and created a catalog we now call the New General Catalog, or NGC. To do this, they built and used the first really big telescopes with what today we consider primitive technology. Richard Berry will describe the telescopes these early amateur astronomers built, and show that they were well designed and effectively employed tools for discovery. The story of the Herschels begins in about 1780 and continues through about 1835.
Uncle Rod has written many articles in magazines such as Sky & Telescope and Astronomy Technology Today and a plethora of reviews on Cloudy Nights. He maintains a popular astronomy blog and is the author of several fine books.He is a great fan of catadioptric telescopes, such as the Celestron and Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain designs, and his latest book is titled Choosing and Using a New CAT: Getting the Most from Your Schmidt-Cassegrain or Any Catadioptric Telescope.
There is an extensive history involving telescopes in our area — contrary to most expectations. A major public telescope was in use in Portland by 1910. An Alvan Clark telescope was in use by the 1920s. An amateur built reflecting telescope of 16 inches aperture was photographed in Portland in 1930, very early for such a large ATM project — though the mirror was commercial.
There is more in this history than can be shown in an hour, but we can have a quick overview as part of marking the upcoming 30th anniversary of RCA.