NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

Thunder & lightning let us know that viewing the Moon was not going to happen at the Girl Scout Adventurer Badge event. We were able to give a presentation on the Moon and its phases as well as information on constellations. We showed the formal constellations based for the most part on Greek & Roman mythology. And since most ancient cultures had their own stories and patterns in the sky, we also discussed several Native American, Arabic and Indigenous Australian constellations using a software planetarium program.

We had a group of about 20 energetic scouts. This led to a a lively question and answer session that continued until our time was up. The scouts also received NWFAA star gaze schedules, March sky maps and 2019 Astronomy calendars.

This year’s “How to use your new telescope” event drew one more scope than last year. This year we had 4 telescopes and their owners come to the Emerald Coast Science Center. Norm Dingle, Dennis Hausch and Tom Haugh were on hand to assist and advise our guests.

Three of our guests went away with a better understanding of their equipment and how to use it. We even received help from one of our guests. The finder on one of our guests’ small refractor didn’t work due to a dead battery. Another of our guests had a spare and quickly donated it to the cause. Thank you Richard.

Unfortunately, one guest only received a diagnosis of a recently purchased second hand scope. Missing parts and a jammed flip mirror need to be addressed to return the scope to full service.

There was a short period of time that the skies were somewhat clear and the scopes were quickly taken outside and used to view the Orion Nebula, Sirius and Mars.

Once again we need to thank the Emerald Coast Science Center for hosting our event.

The NWFAA’s first event of the new year was to support Destin Elementary School’s Science night. While the event’s hours and the rotation of the Earth did not coincide to provide dark skies, we were able to set up static displays inside along with the event’s other science stations. Tom Haugh set up a telescope to demonstrate the inverted image that scopes provide. He also handed out January star charts as well as NWFAA’s state park public star gaze schedules.

The highlight of NWFAA’s participation was club member and Indiana snow bird Norm Dingle. He attended in his guise of NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and setup several solar system displays. He discussed NASA’s space science as well as current missions. He also handed out a lot of mission informational handouts and NASA stickers.

The event coordinators estimated an attendance of 200+ students, siblings and parents.

We would like to thank Destin Elementary School principal Joe Jannazo for the invitation and support during the evening. We look forward to supporting the school’s future events. We had a great time and we hope the rest of 2019 is as successful as our first event.

The members of the NWFAA that supported our Eden Gardens State Park star gaze drove through light rain showers on the way to the park but the skies were clear when we arrived. As usual for this park we had several early guest observers arrive as we were setting up. They were rewarded by getting a view of a crescent Venus in broad daylight just before the planet set behind the treeline.

Eden Gardens is arguably our most photogenic star gaze location. The only problem with Eden Gardens is the ancient Spanish moss draped trees providing a 360° wall blocking every view of the horizon. However, the dark skies at the park more than make up for an obscured horizon.

Trees, trees and more trees.

In the foreground, James sets up the club 16″ Dob.

The members who braved the weather were:

• James Dubben
• Tom Haugh
• Dennis & Marietta Hausch

A 30% lit Moon was also visible before the Sun set. Then, as the sky darkened, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all became visible spread out along the ecliptic. Jupiter’s Galilean moons were all situated to one side of the planet and Mars’ southern polar ice cap was plainly visible.

Ultimately, we had 45+ guest observers for the evening. We always encourage our guests to bring their scopes with them and join in the fun. This time we had a family bring their small Newtonian reflector along. Once we replaced the battery in their finder and aligned it, they spent the evening checking out the planets.

The family owned scope gets good use.

Dennis explains what is currently visible through his Maksutov.

The guests included a sizable group of Girl Scouts. They tried to attend several of our previous star gazes but the weather always conspired against them. Their determination finally paid off.

Once again, we need to thank Marietta Hausch for the event photos.

Several members of the NWFAA joined forces to observe the Perseid meteor shower on the night it was predicted to peak. We converged on the dark sky site that we share with the EAAA near Munson, FL. The skies started out with heavy clouds to the southwest but they continued moving to the southwest and cleared before sunset. What was left was a very high layer of wispy clouds.

The first objects to come into view once the Sun set were the lineup of planets strung out along the ecliptic. From west to east Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars were all plainly visible. New NWFAA member John Walker had brought along his Celestron C-11 and everyone took turns viewing the planets in turn. What was nice to see was the atmosphere of Mars finally starting to clear of the planet wide dust storm. Martian surface detail was faintly visible.

The meteor count started fairly slow but noticeably picked up around 01:00 AM. The one thing that we did have plenty of were mosquitoes. The skies continued to clear as the night progressed but every once in a while a high wispy cloud would pass over.

A few of our group were keeping a count of the meteors observed. The others were there to enjoy the show. By the time we decided to pack it in (0300) the final counts were:

• Dave Halupowski (103)
• Dennis Hausch (85)
• Tom Haugh (69)

In addition to visually watching the skies, Frank and Dave set up still cameras and took extended exposures in attempts to capture some of the action. Dave was able to catch a couple.


Below are copies of the meteor images with annotations showing the constellations, major stars and deep space objects identified. The image fields of view are quite large leading to the annotations being somewhat misaligned as you move away from the center of the picture.

 
Tom set up an all-sky camera and took a continuous series of 10 second images. Assembled into a time-lapsed video several meteors can be seen. Unfortunately, more aircraft were viewed than meteors.