NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

Dennis reports that the comet is getting more difficult to spot even with the comet setting much later than the sun. He said that he finally spotted it only about 15 minutes before it dropped into the ground haze.

Dennis Hausch – 16 Mar 2013

Ken Leone chose the Fort Walton Beach Yacht Club for his low horizon and took the following images using his Celestron 8″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Ken used a Canon S-95 camera and eyepiece projection to record these pictures.

Ken Leone – 13 Mar 2013

Ken Leone – 13 Mar 2013

Ken performed some additional post-processing and added the following close-up of the comet’s coma.

Ken Leone – 13 Mar 2013

Spanish Trail Scout Reservation near DeFuniak Springs, Florida was the site for Boy Scout Troop 553’s February sky view. The scout reservation is one of our favorite locations as it hosts very dark skies. The weather also cooperated as far as clear skies was concerned, but the temperature could have been a little better. The night was one of the coldest so far this year.

Dennis Hausch, Dave Halupowski, Tom Haugh and Frank Atchison supported the event with telescopes. Tony Russo provided a seasonal constellation lecture/tour. Jupiter was the obvious starting target as it was high in the sky right at sunset. Other targets included the Crab and Orion nebulae, the Andromeda galaxy, and the Beehive cluster in Cancer. Double stars Castor and Mizar were on the list as well.

Once the scouts and leaders made the rounds of all the sights and listened to all the stories, the star view broke up fairly quickly. Did I mention that it was cold (for Florida).

We would like to thank the scouts and their leaders for the invitation to share the night sky with them.

In October, we held a daytime viewing of the sun at Seaside, Florida’s  “Back To Nature” Family Fun Day event.  One of the guest observers who stopped by was a staff member from the E.O.Wilson Biophilia Center.    She asked if we could do something similar at the center.  We, of course, said yes.  However, our schedule was full to the end of the year, so we had to wait until 2013 to honor that request.

Tom Haugh gave two presentations of “Our Star: An Owner’s Manual” in the center’s auditorium.

The presentation is an introduction to our star, the Sun.   It starts with the Sun’s physical properties, shows how it fits into our solar system, it’s place in our galaxy, and ends with the effects of living so close to it (both good and bad).

The sessions were sparsely attended but we think the weather had something to do with that.  Frank Atchison, Ken Leone, and Tom each had solar telescopes  setup outside but did not have an example of a star to look at.  The clouds were constant all day until just as we were packing up the scopes. Then the sun made an appearance just brief enough for one family to take a quick peek and then the clouds closed up again.

This was our first event at the Biophilia Center.  The facilities are first rate and the staff very helpful and enthusiastic.  We had a great time and look forward to future events there.

We would like to thank the center and staff for the opportunity to share our passion for astronomy.

One of the stories read during Holley-Navarre’s reading night was about stars.  That was all the excuse we needed to support the event with a short star gaze for the participating students and parents.  Reading night started early enough that we were able to briefly view the current crop of sunspots before the Sun dipped below the school building.  While we waited for the sky to darken we answered questions and viewed terrestrial targets with Tom’s library scope.  We made sure that all the guest observers were aware of the impending ISS pass later that evening.

EAAA members Tom Sajwaj and Lyen McAbee along with NWFAA members Frank Atchison and Tom Haugh each brought instruments for the students to view the sky.  We set up the scopes on the asphalt pad behind the school.  It is the best school ‘back yard’ for star gazes that we have seen this year.  The area was fairly dark with few direct lights.

Once the skies started to darken the costumed participants started to line up.  The Ring Nebula, Wild Duck Cluster, and Albireo were among the objects presented.  Tom’s crippled 6″ Newtonian sat on Epsilon Lyrae for the whole presentation.  All the while anticipation built for the ISS pass. 

The ISS showed up right on schedule and passed almost directly overhead.  Tom explained that there were 6 crew members currently on board and that the current space station commander, Sunita Williams, had received her Masters degree from a Florida college.  The pass of the station proved to be the highlight of the evening.  The event broke up about 7:30 P.M.

We would like to thank the staff and students of Holley-Navarre Intermediate School for their warm welcome and enthusiastic participation.  We look forward to future events at their school.