Southwest Montana Astronomical Society

Stars Over Yellowstone – July `09

The kids and I headed down to Madison on Friday afternoon leaving a sweltering Bozeman behind us. As they always are this time of year, things were pretty busy in the park but the weather was beautiful and things were relatively quiet at the Madison campground. After hooking up with Dr. Stacy Palin, Dr. John Anderson and Dr. Shane Larson and family as well as other club members and having a nice dinner followed up with s’mores around the campfire, we all headed over to the amphitheater to get setup.

Dr. Palin presented her lecture The Lives of Stars to a large audience while SMAS members got the telescopes setup below on the meadow. After the lecture it was fairly crowded but it looked as though everyone got to put their eye to the eyepiece on several telescopes and see the many wonders of a very dark sky. A few of the favorite objects viewed were M13, the Hercules Cluster, M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and of course, Jupiter and its Galilean moons as they rose in the southeast.

As things quieted down, we toured Sagittarius and Scorpius on the big telescopes hitting many  of the wonderful emission nebulae in those constellations that we only get to see this time of year. As the night worn on, Dr. Larson and SMAS president Dr. Richard Sabo took a group of us on a wonderful tour of lesser known but spectacular objects such as NGC 5907, the Splinter Galaxy, NGC 6543, the Cats Eye Nebula, and the Veil Nebula supernova remnant.

The weather did not cooperate much on Saturday. The solar observing session at Old Faithful was pretty much clouded and rained out, although Lynn Powers stuck it out and provided handouts and deployed the solar system scale model. In the evening, the skies began to clear and Dr. Palin presented Astrostories: Constellation Stories from the Ancients to a large audience at the amphitheater but high thin clouds preventing any observing.

All in all, a good time was had by all over the weekend. Special thanks to Dr. Palin for her presentations and to all of the SMAS members who came and helped out. I also want the thank the National Park Service for letting us come and enjoy the dark skies of Yellowstone and share our love of astronomy with others.

100 Hours of Astronomy Awards

Thanks primarily to the hard work and dedication of our Observing Chairperson, Lynn Powers, SMAS comes ‘Highly Recommended’ for our Community Outreach by the good folks at 100 Hours of Astronomy. Please take a look the 100 Hours of Astronomy site.

Thank you Lynn and all of the other club members who help with our outreach programs and activities.

July & August Stars Over Bozeman Star Parties

The Southwest Montana Astronomical Society is pleased to announce Stars Over Bozeman. As a group of amateur astronomers we wish to share our telescopes and knowledge of the night skies to all who wish to attend this free after dark event. Telescopes to be used range in size from small traditional 3 inch telescopes to our Pasley Dobsonian which has a 20 inch diameter lens mirror and is close to 8 feet tall when pointing straight up requiring the use of a ladder to look into the eyepiece. Bring your own telescope if you wish and members of SMAS will help you to use it.

The events will be held at the 100 Acre Gallatin Regional Park located on Oak St 1.2 miles west of North 19^th Street in Bozeman. The events will be held on Friday, July 17^th and Friday, August 14^th starting at 10:00 PM with better viewing after 11:00 PM.If it is cloudy, the event will be cancelled.

[ Due to an editing error, the date was published in the Montana Pioneer as July 18th, so we need to have a few scopes out for a star party that night as well. ]
View Larger Map

Upcoming Star Party!

Star Gazing Montana Style
May 29, 2009
9:30 – 12:00PM
Gallatin Regional Park – West Oak Street

The Southwest Montana Astronomical Society will be holding a public star party at the Gallatin Regional Park on West Oak Street on Friday, May 29th starting at 9:30PM. This event will last until mid-night, and if the weather is poor then the event will be rescheduled for Saturday, May 30th. The 100 acre Gallatin Regional Park is located 1.2 miles west of 19th street.

Gallatin Valley Forum to feature Dr. Joe Shaw

Club member and Montana State University professor, Dr. Joe Shaw, will present at the next Gallatin Valley Forum. Shaw’s presentation will discuss Preserving the Big Sky at Night and Montana Optical Technology. Within his presentation, Dr. Shaw will cover how he develops optical sensors and uses them to explore the natural Earth’s environment. This program will take place on Wednesday, April 29, 7pm at the Bozeman Public Library, and is free and open to the public.

For more information, please call Paula Beswick at 582-2426.

Upcoming meeting: April 24th, 2009

Ryan Hannahoe, director of client support services with the Fair Dinkum Skies Observatory and an MSU student, will discuss “Astronomical Imaging: The Point When Art Breaks Through Science” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 24, in the Museum of the Rockies’ Hager Auditorium.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Participants are invited to join Hannahoe as he discusses the art of digital astronomical photography. Hannahoe is expected to share some of his works and process an image ‘on-the-fly’ for the audience to see how processing techniques can be applied.

The Museum’s winter lecture series is sponsored by the Montana Space Grant Consortium, Museum of the Rockies and the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society.

Exit Gallery exhibition (April 20th – May 1st)

SMAS member and MSU undergraduate, Ryan Hannahoe, will be having his astronomical work featured in a solo art exhibit appearing in Montana State University’s  Exit Gallery. This exhibition will occur from April 20th through May 1st, and the hours of operation for the gallery are Monday through Friday from 9 to 5PM.

On April 22nd a catered artist reception will be held in room 212 of the Student Union Building from 5 to 7PM. Come out to support Ryan and his work!

The GLOBE at Night

The Southwest Montana Astronomical Society (SMAS) invites you to participate in the annual global sky observation known as GLOBE at Night.  GLOBE at Night brings people outside to observe the constellation Orion from 16-28 March 2009. Participants simply choose a clear night on which stars are visible, take measurements of stars in this portion of the sky using GLOBE’s Magnitude Charts, and enter observations into the GLOBE at Night Web site.  Data about sky quality is collected, from which scientists can begin to explore the concept of light pollution and to research the patterns of light pollution across the globe.

SMAS will be holding an informational meeting about the 2009 observation week in the Bozeman Public Library large meeting room on Saturday March 21, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.  SMAS members will demonstrate how to find Orion in the night sky, how to use the GLOBE’s magnitude charts and how to log your observations.  With 2009 designated as the “International Year of Astronomy”, SMAS and Globe at Night are trying to get everyone outside and looking up. This is a great way to view a fun constellation and learn more about our night sky.

March 24th UPDATE:  The local CBS affiliate, KBZK, ran a piece on the GLOBE at Night event on their 5:00 and 10:00 newscast this evening, and a link to the GLOBE at Night website can be found on the KBZK website

Astronomy Day 2009 at the Museum of the Rockies

Four-hundred years ago Galileo Galilei began using telescopes to examine objects that were located in the sky. Immediately he made important discoveries: the Moon’s craters and mountains, moons revolving around Jupiter, dark spots on the Sun, phases of Venus, etc. The year 2009 has been named the International Year of Astronomy and commemorates the beginning of a new science ushered in by Galileo himself. The public is invited to join the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society, the Museum of the Rockies, the Montana Space Grant Consortium, the Solar Physics Research Group of Montana State University, and the SPIE Student Chapter of Montana State University, during Astronomy Day on April 4^th to participate in the celebration.

Planned activities include: planetarium shows, a number of presentations that will cover exciting subjects ranging from ‘Astronauts and Aliens’ to ‘Crow Indian Perspectives on the Night Sky’. A telescope exhibit will showcase many astronomical types of equipment and the Sun can be observed from the plaza entrance to the Museum (weather permitting). A fun children’s program will be offered and also a live demo on Internet astronomy will occur.

Astronomy Day will take place at the Museum of the Rockies from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on Saturday, April 4, 2009. The day’s events and Museum admission will be FREE to the public. For more information please view the ‘Astronomy Day 2009‘ section of this website for a more detailed agenda.

Comet Lulin

Great job Robert, and thanks for your hard work on the web site!

I may temporarily be without big glass, but that hasn’t stifled by my interest in comets.  I took my Nikon D70 out tonight and with a 300mm zoom lens was able to capture Comet Lulin. . . at least I think. . . maybe this picture is M100!   I expected it  to be significantly brighter.  But then, I was not very far outside of Butte, so the skys were not real dark.\I’ll post a heavily processed image when I figure out how!  (exposure details:  f4.6, ~2min, 300mm (maybe a bit less), from a spot about 2 miles SE of Butte, MT, about 11:30PM. 21FEB09)  It looks like I have created a new gallery named Comet Lulin into which I have stuffed a snap shot from tonight’s session.