Erik Bakke, CWU Astronomy Club Secretary
For the week starting with Sunday, November 6, 2005
Greetings
everyone!!
This is Erik Bakke, your CWU Astronomy Club secretary for Fall
Quarter 2005,
filling you in on news that has been happening
and will be happening with the Astronomy Club.
The
next meeting of the CWU Astronomy Club during Fall Quarter 2005 will
be on
Be sure to
read Bruce Palmquist's column in the Saturday edition
of the Ellensburg Daily Record that is titled "What's Up In The Sky"
so that
you will know what will be available in
the night sky for the coming week.
Be sure to
check out the CWU Astronomy Club web site at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
A. Basic
Astronomy
B. CNN news
and link
C. Astronomy
Picture of the Day and link
D. NASA
news and link
E. Space.com
news and link
F. Sky
and Telescope news and link
G. Last
meeting and minutes (in brief)
H. Announcements
I. Local
Media
J. Close
A. Basic
Astronomy
The
Milky Way Galaxy
is the galaxy which is the home of our Solar system,
along with about 200 to (most recent
estimates say) 400 billion stars and
their planets, along with thousands of
clusters and nebulae, including most of
of the objectrs
in Messier's catalog, along with some dwarf galaxies.
The Milky Way
is actually a giant spiral galaxy, as its mass is somewhere between
750 billion
and 1 trillion solar masses; its diameter is about 100,000 light years.
Further
information can be found at theselinks:
http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html
http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way
B. CNN news
and link
Astronomers using the Hubble Space
Telescope last May glimpsed
what may be two new moons in orbit around Pluto, as
scientists made
this announcement last Monday.
For now, the new moons are
titled P1 and P2 until confirmed by the
International
Astronomical
Further
information can be found at these links:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/10/31/pluto.moons.reut/index.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051103.html
C. Astronomy
Picture of the Day and link
There is a
different image or picture each day of our fascinating universe,
and this picture is of an aurora from
space, taken in 2003 from the
International
Space Station as it moved across northern
Further
information can be found at this link:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051105.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001213.html
D. NASA
news and link
Scientists
using the Spitzer Space Telescope say that they have
detected light that may be from the
earliest objects in the universe.
Further
information can be found at this link:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/universe_objects.html
E. Space.com
news and link
A huge dust
storm on Mars is giving scientists something else to look
at; and while NASA does not plan on
sending a manned mission to
Mars until
after 2020, repors from NASA say that the dust on
Mars
poses one of the biggest potential problems
in sending a manned
mission to Mars.
Further
information can be found at this link:
http://space.com/scienceastronomy/051101_science_tuesdayhtml
F. Sky
and Telescope news and link
Exploding
stars explained? For many years, theorists have used computer
simulations to try to understand exactly how
massive stars explode as
supernove. But their biggest problem was that their simulated
supernovae
experiments usually fizzled.
A teama of scientists led by Adam S. Burrows (
the key missing ingredient: sound.
Further
information can be found at this link:
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1622_1.asp
G. Last
meeting and minutes (in brief)
October 31. 2005
Total Meeting time:
AGENDA
Note taker: Erik
Attendees: Tony, Erik, Kathy, Christa, and Eric, with
a special
appearance by one of our
regular members: Brooke Waterman!
It is confirmed, as of Oct. 24, we have a Senator (Emily
Early-Griffith)
and an alternate
Senator (Becky Paige)
Christa will be available to be Senator for Winter Quarter
2006.
There was no "Stump The
Astronomer", as we plan on doing that on
Nov. 14, along with a Topic of The Week (presented by Erik Bakke)
which is about CWUAC
Basic Astronomy/Topic of the Week.
We did have fun with the Halloween party, and it was great
to see Brooke!
Mars vewing on
from
visibility.
The next meeting of the CWU Astronomy Club during Fall
Quarter 2005 will
be on
H. Announcements
The next
meeting of the CWU Astronomy Club during Fall
Quarter 2005 will
be on
at
The next
activity for the CWUAC is Nov. 7 with
a Pool Party and
a short meeting!
Be sure to look
at the CWUAC web pages, as they have been updated,
revised, and revamped (especially the Members,
Calendar, and the Links
pages), with thanks to Kathy.
I. Local
Media
The CWU
Astronomy Club web site can be found at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb ; send any
comments to Kathy.
The
Ellensburg, WA Daily Record can be found on line at www.kvnews.com.
Be sure to
read Bruce Palmquist's column in the Saturday edition
of the Ellensburg, WA Daily Record that is titled "What's Up In The Sky" so that you will know what will be
available in the night sky for the coming week, or view on line at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb or www.kvnews.com.
The CWU
Astronomy Club Newsletter can also be found on line at the CWU Astronomy Club
web site, which is www.cwu.edu/~astroclb/htmls/Newsletter.htm
.
People from
the Astronomy Club also have pictures that can be viewed at the
CWU Astronomy
Club web site at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb/htmls/pics.htm
Mars Close
Approach on
due to poor weather and poor visibility.
J. Close
If you want to
be removed from this list, e-mail the club secretary.
If you have
any comments or suggestions about the newsletter, or ideas for astronomy
related topics that you would like to see in the newsletter, please e-mail the
club secretary.
Be sure to
check your junk mail file (and filters) so that your copy of the newsletter is
not deleted and ensure that you have enough free hard drive space in your
computer’s e-mail system for the newsletter
As Fall Quarter 2005 continues, there will be more to talk about and
inform you as to what will be happening with the CWU Astronomy Club.
See you on
Monday night!!
Look to the stars and see what you can see....
Enjoy your fall,
Erik Bakke