Club phone # (352) 556-2253
BCC Astronomy Club
Brooksville Christian Church
Club News Page
This page will change as news comes in so check it daily.
For our next meeting look to the calendar for dates and time. The inclement weather will be cause to cancel(clouds and rain). We will let you know 7 days in advance of a meeting what the weather could be by using shy news 9.
Remember August 12 - 15 will have a meteors
falling to earth.
So go outside the watch them after dark.
The August Mars Hoax Is Back
NO WAY. This is a screen shot from a version of the August Mars
chain letter we've received, pictures and all. Some versions of
the letter mention that the Mars view has to be magnified 75
times to look like this, but even that hasn't been true since
August 2003. For the real comparison, see below.
S&T: Alan MacRobert
It's almost August, and you know what that means. The August
Mars Hoax is going around again.
I just got a call from an astronomy educator in Louisiana. A TV
station in Shreveport called him to check the news they'd heard
that Mars will soon come so close to Earth that it will appear
as big and bright as the Moon.
Actually, "hoax" is the wrong word for this thing, unless some
joker is now spreading it knowingly (quite possible). It's an
e-mail chain letter claiming that Mars will come closer than
ever in history on August 23rd and will look as big as the full
Moon. If your well-meaning great-aunt or your cousin's
brother-in-law's dog hasn't sent it to you, it's probably just a
matter of time.
What's going on is this. Back on August 23, 2003 (that's 2003
with a 3, folks), Mars had an especially favorable opposition,
coming close enough to appear 25 arcseconds wide. That's still
pretty tiny even in a telescope — smaller, for instance, than
Jupiter always appears.
THE
REAL STORY. Even when Mars is closest and brightest at
opposition, it looks like an orangish star, nowhere near as big
and bright as the full Moon.
S&T: Rick Fienberg
Back then, someone somewhere pointed out that at a magnification
of 75× in a telescope, Mars would appear as big in the eyepiece
(½° wide) as the Moon does unmagnified. True enough. But two
things happened, as often do with chain letters. First, it got
rewritten bit by bit to improve the story as people passed it
around, so that the "75× in a telescope" was downplayed or, in
some versions, left out. Second, the chain letter kept going and
going, with the same breathless excitement, long after August
2003 receded into the mists of history.
In 2010, for instance, Mars's opposition happened on January
29th, and even that was a poor one, with Mars appearing just 14
arcseconds wide. In August this year Mars appears about as
small as it gets, as it is sinks low in twilight on the far
side of the Sun from Earth.
Every year I give members of the news media, when they phone
Sky & Telescope, the following quote:
"The Mars chain letter is not a bad thing, it's a good thing.
It is basically harmless, so it is an immunization. That
is, if you make a fool of yourself to your family and friends by
sending it to them, you may be embarrassed enough that you won't
send them the next e-mail chain letter you get, which
could be a lot less benign."
March Sky Party
- Rick Ballou mounts a camera to his telescope for photos.
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Astronomy club looks to the stars
By JEFF SCHMUCKER | Hernando Today
Published: March 24, 2010
For years, Rick Ballou's telescope sat in his garage unused. Without much knowledge of how to find constellations or even planets in the night sky, he didn't see much reason to take it out of the box.
Now the gadget fanatic has found he has a passion for the stars, mapping the craters of the moon and recently, looking at Saturn.
Not that he claims to be an expert. He still relies on his cell phone and his computer-assisted telescope to find where constellations are located and where the best angles might be to view them.
However, his interest in the hobby has grown and his goal is to purchase a $1,400 telescope that takes better pictures than his current one.
"It's a hobby that's really grown," Ballou said. "It started as just a suggestion for a group of us to get together one night and look at the stars and the next thing you know, we got about five or more guys all bringing out their telescopes."
The new group gathers every month or so at the Brooksville Christian Church and currently works to map the craters and other features of the moon. Since it keeps moving, and the group is new at it, it's not as easy as it might sound.
Most members have similar stories to Ballou and claimed they received telescopes as gifts or bought them on a whim and then left them sitting unused.
That was before meeting astronomy enthusiast Terry Walters."That's about the third thing we like to do is save telescopes from closets," Walters said. "People have a tendency to look down, not up and what we did here is find a group of people with a common interest and get together to not only look at the sky, but also talk and think objectively about the Earth."
Upgrades in technology have made learning astronomy easier. Ballou often pulls out his phone and uses an astrology feature that shows him where constellations are located as he points his phone at the sky. His $200 telescope, which can be found at nearby retail stores, can also point itself in the direction it needs to after Ballou punches in what he's looking for on the hand-held device.
Those features have made it easier for beginners, but Walters said he's just starting to try to teach club members to work without the help of devices.
For Karl Kinzer, what's nice about the group is everyone tries to help each other, especially while learning the ropes.
"Before when we'd look at a map up of the stars, it was all Greek," Kinzer said. "Hopefully, we'll keep things going so we can keep learning what's all up there."
Along with mapping the moon, the group has also been viewing Saturn, which more and more has come into view just as the sun goes down.
Ballou said after the group is through mapping, they will look at constellations and then planets. So far the group has about 11 members that include some teenagers and even a 9-year-old.
The group wants to offer a spot in the church's parking lot for others who might want to bring their telescopes out of the closet and learn about the stars.
"This is something for people of all ages," Ballou said. "And they don't have to have a passion for it. You just have to be inquisitive."
- Event Title
- The club is on YouTube. Link below to see the newest Videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZwAvaRYj3I
- Bcc astronomy Club has a new logo.
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