Southwest Montana Astronomical Society

International Observe the Moon Night

Join SMAS at the Museum of the Rockies plaza on Saturday October 8, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. for the International Observe the Moon Night.  SMAS will bring out telescopes and have several moon activities for visitors.  Many people think that the best time to observe the moon is when it is full, but that is probably the worst time to look at the moon.  When the moon is full it tends to be dazzlingly bright as well as flat and one dimensional.  On Saturday we will have a Waxing Gibbous moon which will give the moon more definition from the shadows of the mountains and craters.  Clouds Cancel.

Forecasters say Earth is heading for a stream of dust from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner.   A close encounter with the comet’s fragile debris could spark a meteor outburst over parts of our planet on October 8th – another fun thing we’ll be watching for.

Stars Over Yellowstone 2012

The dates are set for our 15th year of Stars Over Yellowstone Summer 2012.

Put these dates on your calendar and come join us for the fun.

June 22 & 23 – speaker: Jim Manning
July 20 & 21 – speakers: Michelle and Shane Larson
Aug. 17 & 18 – speaker: SPOT program from MSU

Be sure and check the details on our Stars Over Yellowstone page.

Enjoy a few pictures from our July 2011 event, more pictures are posted on our Stars Over Yellowstone page.

Total Solar Eclipse

As of 11:34 this morning, 21 August 2011, it is just six short years until we experience a total solar eclipse right here in our neighborhood. As this will be a once in a lifetime experience, it’s never too early to start planning…

From the Big Bang to Broadway: How Things Evolve – Lecture at MOR

Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7pm, Museum of the Rockies
Join Robert M. Hazen of the Carnegie Institute of Washington for a presentation on how things evolve. Hazen will compare evolution is everything from the development of language and progress in culture and the arts, to the formation of chemical elements in stars following the Big Bang and diversification of minerals on Earth-like planets. The similarities and differences among these systems underscore general principles of emergent complexity and underscore the power and plausibility of biological evolution.
Free and open to the public. Presented by the MSU Astrobiology Biogeocatalysis Research Center.

Follow Us

You can follow  us on Twitter @1SMAS or like our Facebook Page, search under Southwest Montana Astronomical Society.  We’re trying to follow the new technologies that are emerging in today’s society.  We’ve had our solar observing schedule sent out on twitter as well as posted on FB by NightSkyNetwork and CamillaSDO this past summer.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southwest-Montana-Astronomical-Society/134749956618566?ref=hl

Summer Observing

Dates have been set for some summer time observing.

Stars over Bozeman – Friday July 8th and Friday August 5th.  Set up scopes around 9:00, observing when it gets dark.  We’ll be at the Hundred Acre Park off of Oak Street again this year.

Solar Sidewalk Observing – We’ll be at the Lunch on the Lawn at the Emerson on Wednesdays 11:30-1:30 starting on July 6th. (July 13, July 20, July 27, Aug. 3, Aug. 10 and Aug. 17)

Solar Sidewalk Observing at Sweet Pea.

Plan on coming and join us this summer for some observing.

Telescope Class

Do you own a telescope that has turned into an expensive coat rack?  Did you lose your instructions and forgot how to set it up?  Well dust off that scope and bring it over to the Museum of the Rockies (come even if you don’t own a telescope but intend to purchase one) on Saturday May 28th between 1:00 and 3:00 and meet some of the SMAS telescope experts.  We can help you get it set up, show you how to align it and collimate it if necessary.  Then we’ll show you how to use it to find some objects in the night sky.  Free with admission to the Museum of the Rockies.

WINTER LECTURE SERIES

Our popular series of winter lectures returns in 2011, with a lecture on the last Friday night of the month in January, February, and March. The winter lecture series is sponsored by the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society and the Museum of the Rockies. All lectures begin at 7:00, doors open at 6:30, and all are free and open to the public.

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January 28th – IRIS: a Fresh Look at the Solar Chromosphere

Dr. Charles Kankelborg, MSU Physics Department Space Science and Engineering Laboratory

The Sun is a fairly typical G-type star, about 4.5 billion years old. Well established stellar models accurately predict the radius, temperature and luminosity of a star of a given mass. Yet the Sun has observable characteristics that are not predicted by any model, including a million degree corona. But to understand the corona, we may first have to understand an older riddle: the solar chromosphere. Ironically, professional and amateur astronomers have been observing the chromosphere (and, in less detail, the chromospheres of other stars) from the ground for more than a century, yet it remains the most enigmatic layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. The NASA IRIS mission, to be launched in 2012, will observe the chromosphere from space in unprecedented detail and explore how the chromosphere interacts with the rest of the Sun’s atmosphere.

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February 25th – Astrobiology: The Search for Life in the Universe

Dr. John Peters, MSU Director of the Thermal Biology Institute

How did life begin and evolve? Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? Join MSU Professor John Peters as he examines these questions and explains the search for life in the universe. Peters is also the director of the MSU Astrobiology Biogeocatalysis Center, part of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute. Peters will explain why Yellowstone National Park is important to NASA scientists and discuss some of the pioneering research happening in Montana.

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March 25th – Creating the Giant: Fabricating the Mirrors of the European Extremely Large Telescope

Dr. Christina Dunn, MSU Solar Physics research engineer

A new generation of astronomical telescopes is taking shape, giants three or four times larger than the world’s current largest telescopes. Bringing these massive designs from theoretical possibility to reality will require a revolution in optical fabrication techniques and technologies, combining the craft traditions of master opticians with the cutting edge in robotic machinery. In this talk, the challenges of creating a telescope mirror wider than the wingspan of a Boeing 737 will be addressed, as well as the solutions that have been devised to meet those challenges.

The Astronomer

‘The Astronomer’

It appears my reputation as ‘The Astronomer’ precedes me.  Here is an example.  I was at the office of my dentist.  Everybody there knows already of my interest.  During the examination Tanya (name changed), one of the technicians, walked by and asked

“Hey Fred, how are the stars these days?”

Fred: “Good, they are still there”

Later I thought I needed to amend my simplistic answer.

F.: “Actually, somewhere out there in the vast universe some stars have exploded in the meantime, they are called novae.”

Now Dr. Perry (name changed) is interested.

P.: “Will the sun explode too?”

F.: “No, it will not, it is not massive enough. But, it will toward the end of its life turn into a red giant and swell in size to the orbit of Mars and most likely consume the four inner planet including Earth.”

P.:“Whow, when will this happen?”

F.: “In about four to five billion years.”

P.: “Ah, that’s good to hear, that’s a long time out.  But if ‘we’ still inhabit Earth at that time we better make sure we have left the planet.”

F.: “We have four billion years to learn how to practice interstellar space flight”

P.: “Yeah that is a good justification of space flight.”

There is always an opportunity to ‘spread the word’.  I have practiced this for a long time and always enjoy it.  If we all do this kind of thing, slow but steady, we might make a tiny dent every time that we have this opportunity.

F.B. 11-17-2010

Co-founder and chief scientist of the SETI@home to give next SMAS lecture!

Dan Werthimer, co-founder and chief scientist of the SETI@home project, will present “IS ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Search for ET with help from Eight Million Volunteers,” on Friday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. in the Hager Auditorium at the Museum the Rockies.

Werthimer will discuss the possibility of life in the universe and the search for radio and optical signals from other civilizations. He will also discuss other citizen science projects, next generation telescopes, instrumentation, and algorithms for SETI, as well as speculate on when earthlings might discover other civilizations.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Sponsors of the lecture include the Montana State University Physics Department, Museum of the Rockies, Montana ESPCoR and Southwest Montana Astronomical Society.