NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

Once again, the skies did not cooperate with Kenwood Elementary School’s science night. We had plenty of volunteers with scopes at the ready, but they were told to stand down early in the afternoon since the skies were totally overcast.

But, all was not lost. Tom Haugh set up a telescope inside the cafeteria along with all the other science exhibits. He had it focused on a picture of Saturn hung on the opposite wall. This was a hands-on exhibit with the students and parents getting a view of the inverted image provided by most telescopes of today. He reported a total of 74 students and additional parents and siblings getting a look through the scope.

He also set up a NASA Solar System Ambassador display featuring SOFIA, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. There was a video describing the aircraft, its modifications and descriptions of its recent missions. He also had a model of the modified 747.

He said there were a lot of great questions and discussions about the scope and the aircraft as well as current activity aboard the International Space Station.

We look forward to next year and our next attempt to show Kenwood Elementary School students the night sky.

Veteran’s Day dawned with mostly clear skies with only some high wispy clouds to interfere with observing Mercury cross the face of the Sun. Dawn was the operative word since the transit started at 0636(L). We, of course, had to be setup and ready to go well before that. The club had a good turnout with most getting to Valparaiso’s Florida park before sunrise. However, a couple slept in and showed up later during the transit.

• Dean Covey
• James Dubben
• Walter Dunn
• Rob Guillaum
• Dave Halupowski
• Tom Haugh
• Dennis & Marietta Hausch
• Scott Morgan

Here are some of the usual suspects:

Dean

Walter

Dennis

Scott

In contrast to the 9 May 2016 transit of Mercury, we had a much larger group of guest observers. In total, we had 47 guests, the majority were members of the Shalimar chapter of the Classical Conversations home school group. They were able to view the Sun/Mercury pair through white light and Hydrogen-Alpha scopes. The Sun continues to be in a very low activity period but there was one very small prominence visible in the H-alpha scopes.

Viewing through Scott’s white light filtered 10″ Orion.	Dennis’ H-alpha scope with a secondary DSLR.
One of our guest observers using Dennis’ H-alpha scope.	Tom discussing the transit with the home school leader.

The high wispy clouds came and went throughout the event and did provide an alternate object to view. For a short time portions of a 22 deg halo were visible along with a sun dog (a parhelion) to the east of the Sun. Fourth contact occurred at 1204(L) and concluded the transit.

Transit at 1013(L). Mercury above right of center.

Transit at 1158(L). Mercury just on right edge above center.

We would like to thank Marietta Hausch for the event photos, Rob Guillaum for the mug shots and Dennis Hausch for the transit photos.

The next Mercury transit visible here on the panhandle will be in 2032. Hope to see you there.

Our last pubic star gaze of 2019 started with solar viewing and more than the normal complement of solar observers. A home school group had gotten the word that we started with viewing the Sun and had passed the word around, so we had a good crowd viewing the featureless Sun.

The NWFAA turned out lots of members and lots of scopes for both solar and nighttime observing:

• Dean Covey
• Chris Foley
• Walter Dunn
• Tom Haugh
• Marietta & Dennis Hausch
• Scott Morgan

In addition to the Sun, we were also able to see Venus well before sunset.

Dennis shows off the Sun.	Walter’s guest observes Venus.
Dean aligns his scope to a new target.	Scott provides one last look at the Sun before the shadows close in.

As the Sun dropped below the horizon, we swapped out solar instruments for nighttime equipment.

After dark targets included:

• Jupiter
• Venus
• Mercury
• Saturn
• Neptune
• M 2
• M 15

The chilly weather kept the after dark crowd down to about 40-50 guest observers. As the night progressed some very high haze limited our target selection to the brighter objects.

We need to thanks, once again, Marietta Hausch for the event photos.

We also need to thank the rangers and staff at all the state parks we hold star gazes in for allowing us the opportunity to share our passion for the night sky. We look forward to next year’s star gazes at the parks. In 2019 we had to deal with too much inclimate weather. Let’s hope next year is better.

Our first visit to Camp Longleaf at E.O.Wilson Biophilia Center was a great success. The center is located in a heavily forested area of the Florida panhandle. It is also in an area of little light pollution. Understandably, they are reluctant to cut down any of the pines they are preserving and our past events at the center were exercises in matching gaps in the trees to objects in the sky.

This past year though, the center constructed an overnight camping area and as a result had to do a little land clearing. That resulted in a small area of much clearer viewing than was available before and we took advantage of that for the Girl Scout event. Since we already had an event scheduled for International Observe the Moon Night, the scouts changed their schedule and asked us to come out the night before.

We had plenty of members support this event with scopes and information:

• Walter Dunn
• Chris Foley (our newest member)
• George & Renee Gollehon
• Tom Haugh
• John Walker (all the way from Milton, FL)

Once we had the scopes set up and were waiting for the sky to darken, we were treated to a great spaghetti dinner. After dinner and before we headed out to the scopes, Tom gave instructions on how to use the sky maps that we handed out. He also handed out a NASA solar system trading card set to each of our guest observers.

We had about 20 Girl Scouts and leaders. In addition to the scopes set up by our members, there was also the binocular table and a library scope that the scouts could use at their leisure. This scope had continuous usage throughout the evening and one scout got a great smart phone picture of the Moon using it.

Since the event was one day shy of International Observe the Moon Night, the Moon was well situated and was a prime target. In addition to the Moon we also observed:

• Jupiter (before sunset)
• Saturn
• M 13 (The Great Hercules Cluster)
• M 31 (The Andromeda Galaxy)
• NGC 869/884 (The Double Cluster)
• Neptune

We would like to thank the Girl Scouts of Gateway Council for the invitation to share our passion for the night sky with their scouts. We would also like to thank the E.O.Wilson Biophilia Center for once again hosting one of our events.

Our first visit to the Children in Crisis center was a resounding success. We had about 50 youngsters and house parents take advantage of our telescopes throughout the afternoon and evening. Some stated early enough to view the Sun using both white light and Hydrogen-Alpha telescopes.

Several club members were able support the CiC event:

• Walter Dunn
• George & Renee Gollehon
• Tom & Christopher Haugh
• Scott Morgan

Once the skies darkened more guest observers arrived on scene for the nighttime portion of the event. First up was Jupiter which was visible well before sunset. Afterwards Saturn, then Vega and Arcturus. Once the skies were dark the other members of the summer triangle (Deneb and Altair) joined the growing target list. We also brought along our copy of the library scope to be used by the guests. Chris was kept busy providing the instructions on how to point the scope and how to adjust the focus. He had a constant line of budding astronomers.

Other notable objects were Alcor & Mizar in the Big Dipper asterism as well as the Wild Duck Cluster (M 11).

The only annoyance during the evening was a motion controlled security light. The constant movement of the enthusiastic youngsters kept the light very busy.

We would like to thank the staff of the Children in Crisis center for the invitation and opportunity to share our passion for the night sky.