Southwest Montana Astronomical Society

New Resources added

Our May meeting was a lot of fun, it is so nice to learn something new. Members and guests shared some of their favorite sites, including Telescopius.

This is a free online website that has a lot of information. Some members use this website to help them plan their astrophotography sessions. You can set up a free account, add your equipment, and the software will help you figure out the best configuration for your next astrophotography session. If you don’t do astrophotography, that is okay, because the software can help you figure out your next viewing session, too. Select targets, how to frame your binoculars or telescope, and how it will look through different eye pieces.

We’ll be adding in all of the new resources that were shared during the meeting, including a section for astronomy related online zoom meetings with archives to give you something fun to look through when you have some spare time.

Our Resource page continues to be a great tool for many. On the page, it requests viewers to let us know if there are any bad links, or any links that they like, and feel would be a good addition to our page. We have received many who email us from across the world with a new resource to share, including just this week.

Thank you to everyone who has helped contribute to the SMAS Resource page!

May 2025 SMAS meeting

What are your best tips, tricks, tools, apps, and sites that are your ‘go-to’ favorite?

Join us on Wednesday May 14th at 7 pm as we run through the list we have on our SMAS website Resources page, and add your recommendations to the list!

Via Zoom, link will be sent out through the Night Sky Network email portal. Send us an email if you don’t get the link.

Bighorn Canyon Rec Area Star Party

UPDATE: The park has canceled this event for now.

SMAS will be at the Bighorn Canyon Rec Area over Memorial Day weekend. As part of Solar Education Week, we’ll have solar observing and solar education events. After dark, there will be a guest speaker, one of the elders from the Crow tribe, followed by dark sky viewing. Currently we have about 7 telescopes coming.

For updates, you can look at the NPS website for Bighorn Canyons.

March 2025 club meeting

The best weather to stargaze can also be one of the most uncomfortable. Learn how to stay comfortable in the winter months while being able to teach others how to easily get started in cold weather stargazing.

Either planning to stargaze or go aurora hunting, Montana’s cold weather prevents many from heading outside to enjoy the night sky.

Join us on Wednesday March 1, 2025, for the next SMAS club meeting via Zoom, starting at 7:00 p.m. guest speaker Greg Ripley. Greg, a cold weather camping instructor and amateur astronomer, will give us some high-tech and low-tech ways to stay warm while out observing.

February & March SMAS Meetings

We have two guest speakers lined up for our February and March SMAS club meetings. Zoom links will be emailed to members, contact us if you have any questions.

February 12th, at 7 p.m. the topic will be on Exoplanets. (see description below)

March 12th, at 7 p.m. the topic will be how to stay warm when out observing during the winter.

We are also looking at a star party this summer, most likely on July 26th.

“EXOPLANETS – FINDING PLANETS AROUND OTHER STARS”

Just a few decades ago, exoplanets – planets circling other stars – were science fiction. No more. The first exoplanets were found in 1992. Today, that number is nearing 6,000 confirmed, with many more waiting to be reviewed. And the closest exoplanet is only 4.2 light years away. But how do we find planets that are even “only” 4.2 light years – 25,300,000,000,000 miles – away? Can non-astronomers help?

Come to this presentation to find out. We’ll look at: – What are exoplanets? – What types of exoplanets have we found? What do these findings indicate? – How to find exoplanets using techniques like transit, radial velocity, and microlensing. And what are these techniques? If you’re not an astronomer, they sound incomprehensible, but their concepts are often straightforward. For example, if you’ve ever had a moth fly in front of your porch light, you understand the concept behind the transit technique. – Two ways for non-scientists to investigate exoplanets. The more we learn, the stranger and more interesting the universe becomes.

January 8, 2025, Club Meeting

The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Launched on October 13, 2023, this orbiter mission will be spending the next few years getting to its intended destination.

Come join us for for guest speaker SSA Trena Johnson Wednesday January 8th starting at 7 p.m. to learn more about this mission.

The meeting will be done via zoom.

YVAA is back!

Over the past several months, SMAS has been contacted by different people in the Billings area asking if we knew anything about the Yellowstone Valley Astronomical Association or how to contact their board members. Together we did some research and hunted down some answers. On Saturday, November 12th at 3:00 p.m. at the Billings Public Library ( 510 N Broadway), the new YVAA will hold its first meeting. A guest speaker will give a talk on the James Webb Space Telescope and an update on the Artemis 1 mission. This will be immediately followed by a general club meeting for those interested in the YVAA. This is free and open to the public. SMAS is excited to see YVAA back up and running.

JWST resources

Here are some of the websites that we like to use for information about the James Webb Space Telescope mission, as well as their image releases.

JWST Fact Sheet: https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/assets/documents/WebbFactSheet.pdf

JWST website and Gallery: https://webbtelescope.org/

NASA JWST Mission Page: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/main/index.html

JWST at NASA Goddard: https://jwst.nasa.gov/index.html

European Space Agence and JWST: https://esawebb.org/

Canadian Space Agency and JWST: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/jwst/

Toolbox to download and analyze the JWST pictures yourself: https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/data-analysis-toolbox

Where is the JWST: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

JWST side by side comparison to Hubble images: https://www.webbcompare.com/

Deep Space Network: https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

JWST STEM toolkit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/nextgenstem/webb-toolkit.html

JWST Gallery, media videos: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/JWST.html

NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/home

Archive, Hubble Mosaics: https://archive.stsci.edu/contents/newsletters/may-2022/multi-visit-mosaics-from-hubble-now-available

SMAS March Winter Lecture Series

Join us Thursday March 3, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. via zoom.

The SMAS Winter Lecture Series continues, we will be joined by Jack Howard who will give a zoom presentation starting at 7:00 p.m. 
“Hello Out There – Anybody Home?” – the search for intelligent life among nearby planetary systems.  
One of the mission directives for the James Webb Space Telescope is to look for exoplanets, so this seems timely. 
Jack Howard first became interested in astronomy and space exploration when Sputnik was launched, Echo I crossed the night sky, and the race to the Moon began. He earned a BS in physics and math at King College and a master’s degree in astronomy from James Cook University. In 2000, he started the astronomy program at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in North Carolina, where he teaches physics and astronomy. Since then, he has shared the wonders of space and the excitement of discovery with diverse groups in the Charlotte (NC) area. Jack is a member of the Charlotte astronomy club. His main interests are solar system exploration, exoplanet research, human space flight, and cosmology.

What was your first telescope?