The Space Shuttle and the International Space Station undock tonight [Mon] at 6:07p.m. What this means is that tomorrow night we should have an awesome pass over Tulsa of triple objects within four minutes of each other. First will be the Jules Verne European satellite, followed four minutes later by the Shuttle and ISS. I will have better information after the undocking as to how close the Shuttle and ISS will be from each other. It should make for a memorable pass that you will not want to miss. More details tomorrow.

We had a very good Astronomy Club Meeting last Friday if you didn’t attend. Ron Wood got every excited about the upcoming Messier Marathon and talked to us about Cosmic Rays. I wanted to remind everyone that the 2008 Messier Marathon is just around the corner scheduled for Saturday night April 5^th . If you haven’t already made plans to attend you better mark your calendar for a great night of observing the Messier objects. Prior to the evening you can bring your favorite dish and share with everyone in a pot luck Messier dinner. If you haven’t tasted Tom’s special menu you are in for a treat. As we get closer I will have more details on the marathon. We also will be having a caravan to the site, appx. 40 min drive leaving from the 91^st and Memorial Parking Lot at 3:30p.m. on that Saturday. If you plan to travel with us in the caravan please e-mail me and let me know so that I can get a count and you won’t be left behind. I will also have directions for the site for those of you that may come down later.

One of the brightest if not the brightest gamma ray bursts ever recorded happened yesterday. The intense gamma ray burst was detected in gamma ray, x-ray, optical light and indicated by two automated cameras that the optical afterglow of the burst may have briefly reached naked eye visibility Mg. 5.7 within seconds of the onset. It is highly unlikely the burst was caught visually, but is is possible the burst may have been detected if any observers just happened to be monitoring the area of the sky when it happened. That would have been a sight, being the first person to see a gamma ray burst visually. Just in case you might have been imaging the area you are urged to check your images for the possible burst. If so, please submit them to the AAVSO with the name GRB 080319B to http://www.aavso.org/observing/submit/

In the next coming days we will be having the opportunity to observe some very bright passes of the ISS/Shuttle in the mornings and moving into the evening later next week. I have listed the brightest passes below.

Sat. Morning March 22 6:16a.m. Altitude 35 degrees in the West traveling to the SSE reaching a blinding -2.1Mg. and reaching a Max altitude of 45 degrees . This is one you will want to get up early to see.

Then on Tuesday March 25^th the station moves into the evening sky for four straight nights of unbelievable passes.

Tuesday March 25^th – Starting at 8:40p.m. low in the SSW traveling to the East and reaching and altitude of 40 degrees and Mg. of -1.9

Wed. March 26^th – Starting at 9:04p.m. low in the WSW traveling to the NNE and reaching an altitude of 43 degrees and Mg. of -1.3 This will be unique in that it will pass very near the star Aldebaran in Taurus then Capella in Auriga, ,maybe even an occultation.

Thur. March 27^th – Starting at 7:54p.m. low in the SSW traveling to the ENE and reaching an altitude of 43 degrees and Mg. of -1.9

Fri March 28^th – Starting at 8:19p.m. low in the WSW traveling to the NE and reaching an altitude of 40 degrees and Mg. -1.0

Four straight evenings of ISS. I don’t have the Shuttles date for undocking so if the Shuttle has undocked some time next week, it also will be viewable. I will have updates for you next week.

Did you know that there is also another satellite now circling the Earth that now makes passes over Tulsa? This is the European Satellite called Jules Verne or ATV. Jules Verne makes three good passes over Tulsa that you may want to catch. They are listed below

Saturday March 22 – Starting at 6:11a.m. just five minutes prior to ISS passing, Jules Verne will start at an altitude of 47 degrees in the SW and travel to the SE and reach a max altitude of 54 degrees and be -0.3Mg.

Wed. March 26^th – Starting at 8:46p.m. appx. 20 minutes prior to ISS, it will start low in the SW and travel to the NE and reach an altitude of 75 degrees and reach a Mg. of -0.3

Fri March 28^th – Starting at 7:52p.m. low in the SW and going directly overhead at an altitude of 89 degrees and traveling to the NE and reaching -0.4 Mg.

So not only do we have the ISS/Shuttle to watch, we now have the European Jules Verne/ATV. The skies are lighting up with manmade objects.

One last thing, we also have a fairly bright Irdium Flare tonight at 8:27p.m. in the SSE. It should flare to -3 Mg. It will be an altitude of 58 degrees at azimuth 151 degrees. Then Friday night an even brighter flare at 8:21p.m. same location and altitude but flaring to -6 Mg. Try and catch these two flares, they should be awesome.

The weather is great right now, so hopefully it can be extending through this evenings of great passes of ISS/Shuttle, Jules Verne and Iridium flares.

Last but not least be sure and let me know if you will be going with us on the caravan to the Messier Marathon.

A rare double Iridium Flare will take place Saturday night. It is always a treat to see a bright Iridium Flare go from invisibility to Venus brightness in less than a few seconds. But Saturday night you will have a chance to see two Iridium flares within 6 seconds of each other and in almost the exact spot in the sky. Satellite Iridium 55 will go off first. Look to the SSE at azimuth 165 degrees and at an altitude of 50 degrees. I-55 will flare between -3Mg. and -8Mg. depending on where you are in the Tulsa area. Those East of Harvard will get the brighter side of the flare. West between -1 and -5. This flare will happen at 7:10:22. Be sure and start watching for it a few minutes prior. Then just 6 seconds later at 7:10:28 Iridium 96 will go off at the same altitude and just 2 degrees to the east of Iridium 55 at azimuth 163 degrees. I-96 will not be quite as bright but somewhere between -1 and -3 for the Tulsa area. Then Flare center for this one max of -8 Mg. is 22.1km East of Harvard. If you get a chance tomorrow night you should try and catch these two almost simultaneous Iridium Flares.

Tonight we also will be having a very bright Iridium Flare and it too will be very near the location of Saturday nights Flares. Iridium 58 will take place at 7:16:27 at an altitude of 49 degrees and in the SSE at azimuth 164 degrees. This flare will be approximately -5 Mg. for most Tulsa residents. Tonight’s flare will orient you to where tomorrow nights flare will be and give you an opportunity to set your camera up to image Saturdays double flare.

This weekend we are going to have several good passes of the International Space Ship/Shuttle over Tulsa and possibly our last chance to see USA 193 satellite. Many of you may not be aware of USA 193. It is a satellite that is slowly loosing altitude and could eventually burn up in the atmosphere as a flaming fireball. However since no one is sure where the pieces of this flaming fireball might land the government announced plans today to intercept it and blow it up with a missile before the decaying begins. Luckily this satellite is fairly bright and this weekend you can watch it pass over Tulsa. A time table for blowing this satellite out of the air has not been announced but it probably will be by the end of the month. So if the weather holds up, we have three good opportunities to see USA 193 Sat-Monday. Each night the satellite will be approximately as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper. Below is the information for the upcoming passes:

Mon, Feb. 18 – 6:51p.m. low in the WSW reaching an altitude of 40 degrees in the NW and disappearing in the NNE at 6:55p.m. This pass will not be as good as it is earlier and the satellite will only be Mg. 2.6, but it could be our only chance if the weather blocks us out on Sat. and Sunday.

Now lucky us we will be also having two excellent passes by the ISS and docked Shuttle. There have been reports in Europe that the ISS is so big now that even in binoculars you can start making out its shape. They also reported it as -5Mg, when it went over. This will be out first good chance to see the space station since the shuttle went up to it. The best night will be the 17^th Sunday night. See below for the passes:

Mon. Feb. 18 – MUST SEE PASS – Starting low in the NW at 6:14p.m. and moving to the SW reaching an altitude of 78 degrees then disappearing in the SE at 6:20p.m. Again reaching a minimum brightness of -2.2Mg.

The weather is not too promising so we can only hope and watch for these excellent passes this weekend and Monday. Good Luck .

Astronomy Club Star Party – Friday Feb 8th

Alternate date will be Saturday Feb 9th if sky is cloudy on Friday.

Gates open at 6:00 PM Driving Directions below.

Due to the early sunset many of you may be arriving after dark. Please be careful driving onto the observing grounds when people and equipment are present.

Special Date to add to your calendar.

Total Eclipse of the Moon Weds Feb. 20th

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html

First Umbral Contact will be at 7:43 PM. Totality begins at 9:01 PM and ends at 9:55 PM.

There will not be another one visible from our area until December of 2010!

You won’t need any special equipment to enjoy the eclipse from your own backyard but its always more fun to share the experience with friends.

The Astronomy Club of Tulsa and Tulsa Air and Space Museum invite you for an evening of viewing the spectacular total lunar eclipse and other night sky wonders through telescopes. TASM will present short versions of their popular planetarium shows as well, so bring your families for an unforgettable evening!

Admission to the eclipse viewing is free, but any donations to the Astronomy Club of Tulsa will be appreciated. Prices for the planetarium shows are $3 for ages 4 and up, under 4 free if sitting on a parent or other adult guardian's lap.

Volunteers needed: If you can help with the telescope event, we will have a sign up sheet at the Star party or contact our President Tamara Green ( Contact information on the club website )

Publicity Flyers are attached: Feel free to print some off and pass on to local schools or Libraries.

Note: We will not be having our regular TCC lecture series in February due to conflicts with scheduling our meeting room. If you need to renew membership or magazine, forms are available on the club website www.AstroTulsa.com Print them off and mail them in.

Beginners Telescope Set Up on Center Pad

Several of our new members and guests have new telescopes they are trying to learn how to use. We would like to invite you to set up your equipment near the center concrete observing pad. Members lets all take time to meet these novice astronomers and help them get a good start with their equipment.

Observing sights for the evening.

A 2 day old waxing crescent moon will open the evenings viewing in the SW. You may need binoculars to locate it . On Feb 13 and 14th the Moon will be near the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. Then on Feb. 15th it glides near Mars. The big event comes Feb 20 with at Total Lunar eclipse in Leo near the planet Saturn.

Mars still rides high in the sky crossing from Taurus back to Gemini in March. Saturn rises in the NE about 7:00 PM and should be well placed for viewing by 9:00 PM. Most of us are familiar with the brilliant star Sirius to the lower left of Orion’s belt. Did you know there is another winter brilliant star visible from our observatory? Zero Magnitude Canopus is just visible 1.5 degrees above the south horizon at 9:32 PM Though rarely visible from Tulsa, the observatory’s location a few miles farther south provides an opportunity to see this southern beacon.

Wanting to keep up with What’s Coming Up in Space

Then Here’s the Calendar for You. The official JPL Space Calendar www2.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar

Winter Observing can be very rewarding with crisp clear skies and brilliant 1st magnitude stars. In order to enjoy the experience be sure to wear adequate clothing. Cap, Gloves layered jackets and insulated slacks with warm shoes and socks. Don’t let the daytime temperature fool you, the temperature drops quickly on a clear night. The observatory classroom has new insulation and an improved heater but don’t expect it to be a cozy as your living room. We generally have a pot of coffee going. You may want to bring your own snacks and warm drinks to keep you going through the night.

Your telescope also needs time to cool down. If it has been kept indoors, images will be wavy and look out of focus until it cools down. This cool down time may take as long as an hour. If you’re observing from home you can put your telescope out in the yard before your observing time. Be sure to cover it with a lightweight plastic bag to avoid dew forming on the optics. If security is a problem you can set it inside your car with the windows slightly cracked open.

Things to Bring to a Star party. Of course a telescope or binoculars are great for observing but you don’t have to have one to enjoy the evening. You don’t have to own a telescope to enjoy an observing night. Our members are eager to share their views with others. There will be plenty of people willing to share the view if you just ask. Also bring a red colored or covered flashlight to see your way around. We have plenty of folding chairs and a clean restroom.

Children are welcome but must be supervised and must stay on observatory grounds. It’s always wise to have an alternate activity such as a favorite book or tapes for younger children who may tire early. Closed toed shoes are preferred and a light jacket as needed.

Beginners Constellation Sky tour around 7:30 PM.

We would like to encourage our new members and guests to join us for a brief orientation to the club’s observatory. We would also like to give you a short introduction to telescopes and some of the sights you might see while observing. Later in the evening we will have an informal laser guided tour of the constellations. Please sign our observatory guest book when you visit and sign up for our club mailing list of future events. A donation of $1.00 per guest would be appreciated to help us maintain the observatory.

NASA has a new monthly video feature on the internet called “What’s Up”

Giving you information and background of sights in the evening sky. It also comes with closed

captions – transcript or podcast format. Sky charts and other past programs are available for

viewing or download. http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/amateurastronomy/index.html

Let's Go Stargazing! http://www.skyandtelescope.com/letsgo

A great set of family learning activities is available from Sky & Telescope.

Astronomy doesn’t have to be hard. If you simply want to make some sense of what’s overhead, learn a few new constellations, see the rings of Saturn through your telescope, and maybe track down a galaxy or two, no formal training is required. Rather, the essence of backyard stargazing is your own curiosity. Armed with that and a clear sky, the only other thing you need is a guide to show you the way.

PARKING MAY BE AT A PREMIUM. Reserve Parking is available next door in old ATT lot for those without equipment or planning to leave early. PLEASE DO NOT PARK VEHICLES near the center observing pad blocking the view and traffic access.

SAFETY ISSUE: When large groups are present it is better to turn on your park lights or headlights on low beam rather than to try driving in or out without lights. Especially if those groups include children. Just warn everyone when you are getting ready to leave. NEVER try driving down the hill without lights.

Directions to Club Observing Nights at Mounds Observatory –

Plan to arrive before dark. We have plenty of chairs and a classroom area.

We have a microwave and you can bring your own snacks. You need to bring your own drinking water!

There is a restroom available but we don’t recommend you drink the water. Bring your own telescope or just enjoy sharing the view with some of the members.

Map at http://www.astrotulsa.com/Resources/Maps/rmccmap.asp

To get there take Highway 75 South toward Okmulgee. Watch out for GLENPOOL SPEED TRAPS

Turn WEST (Right) on 241st St South (across from Duck Creek Indian Casino )

Continue on 241st about 6.5 miles ( Its a dirt and gravel mixed road)

As you reach the west end of 241st it turns up a steep hill to the right

As you reach the top of the hill it turns into a paved road.

Continue on pavement about 1 mile and you will see the observatory on the top of the hill.

Children are welcome but must be supervised and must stay on observatory grounds.

Insect repellant is beneficial in the warmer months.

ALTERNATE DRIVING 251st route to Observatory. ( See regular route and map below )

This route provides a wider well-paved road and avoids about 3 miles of dirt and gravel as well.

It’s a little tricky to find so if you’re new you may want to try the direct route listed below instead.

Go one mile south of 241st (Duck Creek Indian Casino)

Look for small green sign that says “Winchester”

You will TURN RIGHT ( WEST ) on 251st. It’s not well marked and easy to miss.

You’ll have 3 miles of wide well paved road to old 75 highway.

When you cross old 75 highway. Note your odometer reading.

Go exactly 3 miles more west. Look for N 140 Rd. Its just before a turn and small bridge.

Turn Right – Go 1 mile north on N 140 Rd

Turn Left and proceed west as usual another mile to the road up the hill to the observatory.

Sorry this is a bit late – The planets will still be close together in the morning sky all next week.

Plan to join us for the club Star Party Friday Feb 8th and Ring in the Chinese Year of the RAT !

Due to conflict in scheduling our meeting room the Feb 22nd meeting at TCC has been canceled

We will need lots of volunteers to bring telescopes or just visit with the public.

If you are new to the club , just come out - introduce yourself and look through our telescopes.

This week the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, are headed for a spectacular close encounter in the morning sky. Astronomers call these kinds of events a planetary conjunction. To locate them look low in the SE between 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM. You will quickly see brilliant Venus then look down to its left for Jupiter. Jupiter is rising progressively higher each day while Venus is sinking back toward the Sun. They will be their closest on Friday Feb 1 – then switch places with Venus to the lower left as they pull apart. A thin crescent moon will pass 4 degrees below the pair on the morning of Feb 4^th.

While you are planning your February calendar, circle Wednesday Feb 20^th. There will be a Total Eclipse of the Moon that evening in the constellation of Leo. The eclipse begins about 7:43 PM and continues to about midnight. You don’t need any special equipment to see a Lunar Eclipse but binoculars or telescopes always enhance the view. The Astronomy Club of Tulsa and the Planetarium at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum are teaming up for a public eclipse viewing event. More will be sent later.

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL BE MAKING AN AWESOME PASS OVER TULSA AND OKLAHOMA TONIGHT AT 7:10:37. YOU DON ‘T WANT TO MISS THIS PASS. IT WILL BEGIN LOW IN THE SW AT AN ALTITUDE OF 10 DEGREES AT 7:10:37, TRAVEL TO THE NW AND REACH AN ALTITUDE OF 69 DEGREES AT 7:13PM AND THEN DISAPPEAR INTO THE EARTHS SHADOW AT 7:13:43P.M.. AT ITS BRIGHTEST IT SHOULD REACH MG. -2.3. THE SPACE STATION WILL BE MAKING SEVERAL PASSES OVER TULSA THIS WEEK BUT THEY WILL BE LOWER AND NOT AS BRIGHT. THERE WILL BE A PASS ON THURSDAY NIGHT THAT MAY BE BETTER THAN TONIGHTS PASS, BUT THE WEATHER PROSPECTS DON’T LOOK GOOD FOR THURSDAYS PASS. WILL UPDATE IF WEATHER CHANGES.

Headlines could read like this in the mornings newspaper “ASTEROID IMPACTS OKLAHOMA, DESTROYS TULSA, LEAVES LARGE CRATER STRETCHING FROM 61^st ST SOUTH TO 11^TH ST .” Fortunately for us this won’t be the headlines tomorrow, but we will have a near miss by Asteroid 2007 TU24 after midnight tonight and you can watch it through your backyard telescopes. This will be the closest approach by a known asteroid of this size or larger until 2027. The asteroid is between 500 feet and 2,000 feet in size. The pass still will be about one and a half times the distance of Earth to the moon, still close in astronomical terms. According to Meteorobs 2007 TU24 will be moving over 10 degrees per hour at it most rapid rate, and will reach a peak magnitude of +10.2 at this time, easily visible in a 3 inch telescope. A rough outline of its path is below:

6p.m. Tonight – Triangulum-Andromeda border, moving about 3 degrees per hour.

Peak motion and brightness in Camelopardlis about 10 degrees per hour is during daylight for North America at about Noon.

As darkness falls for Tulsa on Tuesday night its motion will be back down to 4 degrees per hour and will be traveling through Ursa Major and will come very close to the star betaUrsa Major(the lower corner of the Big Dipper’s bowl furthest from the handle from 2a.m.-3a.m. Wed morning.

You should be able to see movement in just a few minutes in your telescope, so after you have found it, it shouldn’t be to hard to track. Watching an object move so fast through a telescope is an amazing site. Those who have watched comets move know it takes quite a few minutes to notice the movement, but with this asteroid it won’t take much. So where do I look. There is a chart of the path through the sky from Jan 28 – 31^st at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/2007tu24.jpg

Just remember as fast as this baby is moving the Ephemerides will only get you in the area. You might be able calculate in any of your astronomy computer programs minute by minute track from the orbital elements in the Ephemeris.

Now our only obstacle is the weather. Hopefully the skies will clear up and you will be able to watch this close encounter by 2007 TU24 and be glad its going to stay far enough away that we won’t be reading headlines.

There are two excellent images that have been released that I thought you would like to see if you haven’t already seen them. The first one below can be better seen as the Astronomy Picture of the Day. Look closely at this beautiful wide angle image and you will find the Perseus constellation at the top center, then to the right of Perseus you will find the fuzzy glow of Comet Holmes. Above Holmes at the 1:oo Position is the star cluster M34. Almost directly below and just a little to the left of Holmes is the distinguishable pinkish/reddish glow of the California Nebula, then to the lower right of the California Nebula is the group of stars that sometimes people mistake as the Little Dipper, the Pleiades Star Cluster or Seven Sisters. Look directly left of the Pleiades into the tree tops and you can just barely see the reddish glow of Mars halfway hidden by a tree limb. Then below the Pleiades is the Hyades Star Cluster with the bright reddish star Aldebaran. And finally in the center just above the Castle in the center is the orange glow of Betelgeuse with Orion behind the castle hiding its famous nebula.

See what other stars and deep sky objects you can find in this picture. The next image is a composite showing how Comet Holmes developed from invisibility overnight to almost Mg. 2. The image shows it progress from Oct. through now. To print or see a better image go to http://aida.astroinfo.org/albums/userpics/10230/holmes_26ott-27dic62giorni6-8.jpg

There haven’t been any new outbursts from Holmes so it doesn’t look like we will see a repeat of the 1800 event. Maybe the comet will still be bright enough during our Feb. 20^th Total Eclipse of the Moon to show the public after the moon becomes total.

There will be a nice close pairing of Mars and the Moon tonight you might want to try and catch. They will only be two degrees apart. It should be very striking seeing the Red point of light next to the bright bluish white moon. Yes, that’s what I said Bluish. There have been a lot of volcanic activity in the eastern nations and when this happen it gives the moon a bluish tint in some places on Earth. See if you can detect any of this blue color tonight when viewing the close pairing of Mars and the Moon.

If you are a new member to the club I send to the readers my Astro Alerts that inform them of astronomical real time events. If you do not wish to receive these alerts please e-mail me and I will remove your name.

Mars is getting pretty good now if you can stand the cold. Here’s an image from this morning:

Scope: Celestron CGE 1400 Focal length: around 19550 (5x Powermate) Filters: Astronomik RGB Frames: about 14,000 stacked

This Image was taken by club member Richard Smedley . Check out the detail. It is now the brightest star in the evenings and can’t be missed.

If you missed last nights ISS pass, attached is a picture taken of the pass by Frank Boston from Admiral and Yale. It was probably one of the brightest passes I have seen and part of it was in twilight. Looks like we will be clouded out for tonight’s pass and probably all weekend. Lets hope the skies clear up for the best meteor shower of the year Dec. 13-14.

Here is the latest image of Comet Holmes taken with an off the shelf digital camera for 90 seconds. The comet is still hanging in there and you can still get great camera shots. Notice in the picture that he was able to get a small star cluster to the right of the comet and the double star cluster to the left. What a great image.

missed last nights ISS pass, attached is a picture taken of the pass by Frank Boston from Admiral and Yale. It was probably one of the brightest passes I have seen and part of it was in twilight. Looks like we will be clouded out for tonight’s pass and probably all weekend. Lets hope the skies clear up for the best meteor shower of the year Dec. 13-14.

Everyone’s eyes have been on Comet Holmes the last few months, but there is another possible naked eye comet coming our way by the end of the month, 8P Tuttle. This comet is expected to peak out at Mg. 5.8 between Dec. 31^st-January 5^th. The comet is now visible at 10^th Mg. It will be crossing the top of Cepheus and pass near the point star Gamma Cepheus(Errai) on December 11^th. By this time it will have started to brighten rapidly and be at 8^th Mg. It will continue on toward Cassiopeia and cross through the middle of the constellation near the middle star(Gamma Cassiopeia) of the W shape by December 22. At this time it should have brightened to 7^th Mg. By the 26^th the comet will be moving through Andromeda through the 28^th and be near 6^th Mg. The last few days of the month it should be its brightest possibly being able to see 8P with the naked eye from a dark location passing by Triangulum and crossing the outskirts of M33 the Triangulum Galaxy on the 30^th. You might start checking this comet out this weekend and a good place would be at the club star party Friday night to begin observing its progress. There is a good article in January Sky and Telescope on the prospects of this comet on page 73-75. Also there is a very good chart at http://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/8P.gif

Attention will also be on Holmes at the same time, which actually won’t be that far away from 8P Tuttle in neighboring Perseus to see if the comet will have a second outburst at the end of the month and beginning of the new year. Two comets to watch and anticipate to end the year on.