• NEXT EVENT •
TBA – Star Parties and unique events other than monthly meetings are posted here.
• NEXT MEETING •
May 10, 2023. | Wed | 7P-9P Every second Wednesday
ONLINE MEETINGS
Via Zoom.
Details are emailed to members prior to the meeting. Become a member
IN-PERSON MEETINGS (when noted below)
Address
Chemeketa Community College Planetarium
4000 Lancaster Dr NE
Salem, OR 97305
Map it
5/10/2023
7PM
Note: This meeting will be both in person AND online.
The Origin of the Elements
How was the gold in our jewelry, the carbon in our bodies, and the iron in our cars made?
Presenter: Dr. Edward Murphy
The world around us is made of atoms. Did you ever wonder where these atoms came from? How was the gold in our jewelry, the carbon in our bodies, and the iron in our cars made?
In this lecture, we will trace the origin of a gold atom from the Big Bang to the present day, and beyond. You will learn how the elements were forged in the nuclear furnaces inside stars, and how, when they die, these massive stars spread the elements into space.
You will learn about the origin of the building blocks of matter in the Big Bang, and we will speculate on the future of the atoms around us today.
Dr. Edward Murphy:
Dr. Edward Murphy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia.
*Details for joining live meetings are emailed to members prior to the start of each meeting.
• PAST MEETINGS •
4/12/2023
7PM
Note: This meeting will be both in person AND online.
A TOUR OF THE SPRING SKYS
Presenter: Mike Conley
As we get further into the year and clear skies with warmer nights start to come along, now would be a good time to introduce the highlights found in the sky at this time of the year. His talk will therefore center around the best objects found in the spring skies.
While he can’t promise clear skies, he can prepare you for what to look for when they do come.
Mike Conley, NS45 Club President:
3/8/2023
7PM
Note: This meeting will be both in person AND online.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY IN SPACE
Presenter: Bill Carton
Current Space Activity: Countries as well as private companies are now heavily involved in space – with crewed spacecraft and private satellites.
Including: Robots on other planets and on-asteroid missions, suborbital space tourism, International Space Station improvements and expansion plans, and the James Webb Space Telescope (pictured).
Plus: The US is going back to the moon with the Artemis program!
Bill Carton:
A space enthusiast for 60+ years since the Mercury program, Bill was the prototype nerd through school and became an electrical engineer, specializing in semiconductor testing. Met his wife of 50 years in college at a Boston science fiction convention, living in Oregon City now, with one daughter living in SE Portland. Part of their honeymoon trip to Florida in 1973 was visiting Kennedy Space Center, of course.
Now semi-retired, he is super-active in the space journalism and advocacy community. Runs the best Facebook SpaceX enthusiast group, enjoys the occasional NASA Social Media press credentialing for up-close tours of SpaceX launches, is a docent/tour guide and speaker at Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinnville, and was recently appointed a Mars Society Ambassador for promotion of missions to the red planet. He is also a regular speaker and trivia contest coordinator at San Diego and Portland area venues.
His collection of SpaceX mission swag and flown hardware is unbeatable, although with over 300 t-shirts, it’s a fine line between “collecting” and “hoarding” he’s been advised by his loving wife.
2/8/2023
7PM
No February meeting
1/11/2023
7PM
Note: This meeting will be both in person AND online.
State Of The Astronomy Industry
A history of the manufacturers in the astronomy industry
Presenter: Greg Bragg
history of the manufacturers in the astronomy industry. It contains info about the ups and downs of a few of the companies as well as the costs of doing business in this industry. It will include a timeline and details of who and how this industry operates – which is generally not known to the average astronomer.
Greg Bragg:
Greg has been in Astronomy industry since 1983 when he started selling telescopes and astronomy related products while working in a camera store. In 2005, he became an independent representative for Meade instruments covering the southeastern US and 2 years later was catapulted to the VP of Specialty Sales – North America for Meade Instruments. Greg worked with Meade for 7 years total, worked for Explore Scientific for 8 years, and has now been with Celestron for the last 3 years.
12/_/2022
_PM
NO DECEMBER MEETING
We will continue our recent tradition of taking a break from our monthly meetings in December.
❄⛄Happy holidays⛄❄, as/if it applies, and here’s hoping you can take advantage of the crystal clear viewing nights we have coming up as Winter approaches. Enjoy!
11/9/2022
7PM
Note: This meeting will be both in person AND online.
Telescopious: Astronomy Planning Made Easy
Presenter: Sebastian Garcia
Telescopius is a free tool to plan astronomy sessions, an also an astrophotography social network. In this presentation we’ll talk briefly about Telescopius background and how it can help you today, then we’ll spend some time with a live demonstration of the main sections, and lastly we’ll talk about some exciting features for the upcoming months.
Sebastian Garcia:
Sebastian Garcia is a professional Programmer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He became interested in astronomy and astrophotography 12 years ago, when he couldn’t find a tool to find astrophotography targets easily so he made Telescopius.
10/12/2022
7PM
Note: This meeting will be both in person AND online.
Oregon’s Disappearing Starry Night Skies
Presenter: Bill Kowalik
Bill Kowalik:
Bill Kowalik is a founding board member of the Oregon Chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association (2019) and is currently the Board Chair. Our chapter educates about the problems of light pollution, facilitates the certification of dark sky places in Oregon and coordinates the measurement of light pollution at key sites across the state.
Bill is an earth scientist with 35 years of industry experience and degrees in geology and applied earth science from the University of Pittsburgh (BSc), Pennsylvania State University (MSc), and Stanford University (PhD). Originally from Pennsylvania, Bill lives in Bend, Oregon. Bill is an avid woodworker and also enjoys bicycling, running and cross-country skiing.
9/14/2022
7PM
Forgotten Gems of the Autumn Skies
Presenter: Andy Edelen
Andy Edelen:
Andy Edelen is the current president of the Eugene Astronomical Society, president emeritus of the Astronomical Association of Southern Illinois, observing chairman of the Millstream (Ohio) Astronomy Club, and former “First Lady” of the Northern Arizona University Astronomy Club. He is the writer and title character of The Unfrozen Caveman Astronomer, a WordPress blog dedicated to deep-sky observing (https://unfrozencavemanastronomer.wordpress.com), and the writer of Night Sky Almanac, a monthly astronomy-themed radio broadcast for WSIU-FM in Carbondale, IL. An avid amateur astronomer for 50 of his 54 years, he has completed the Herschel 400, Herschel II, and Globular Cluster programs and earned two Outreach awards from the Astronomical League, and his garage houses three refractors, a Schmidt-Cassegrain, and six Dobsonian telescopes ranging from 4.25” to 20” in aperture.
8/10/2022
7PM
James Webb Space Telescope Images
Presenter: David Woods
The discussion will begin with the group talking about multispectral infrared as color images, then about how the program selects and features imagery for the public. Alan is uniquely qualified to lead this discussion as he worked on the design and operations planning for the Hubble Space Telescope. It isn’t simply science and technology, but egos, public relations, budgets, and bureaucracy!
Alan Goldberg:
Our speaker is Alan Goldberg, vice president of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, and a member since 2001. He recently retired as a principal scientist with The MITRE Corp. in McLean, VA. He’s been an amateur astronomer since elementary school, and observes with an 8” SCT. After decades of trying, he’s still trying to take a great astrophoto. After graduate study at Univ. of Texas and MIT in astronomy and planetary science, he worked on the design and operation of the Hubble Space Telescope. He subsequently worked on Landsat, NASA’s Terra-Aqua-Aura series, and NOAA’s NPOESS weather satellites. He most recently assisted the Government in buying satellite remote sensing data products and systems to produce them
7/13/2022
7PM
Telescope Mount Knowledge
Presenter: David Woods
David Woods is the engineer behind DarkFrame Ltd, in the UK. His experience spans nearly 1200 mounts, making him the most experienced telescope mount rebuilder in the world, with owners in over 50 countries. Drawing upon over 60,000 hours of customer data, he has a unique insight in how to get the best from any mount, and tonight he will be sharing some of what he knows with you.
6/8/2022
7PM
FROM EARTH TO MARS
Steps Toward the First Human Journey to the Red Planet
Presenter: Pascal Lee, Ph.D
The first human mission to Mars will be humanity’s greatest adventure in space exploration this century. As with all expeditions, its success will depend on planning. The first steps are already under way, as we achieve longer spaceflight missions, plan for our return to the Moon, and work in extreme environments on Earth viewed as Mars “analogs”. Dr Lee will discuss progress made around the world, from the Arctic to Antarctica, from basement labs to the International Space Station and the Artemis Program, to achieve our return to the Moon and the first human voyage to Mars. He will examine the what, why, how, when, and who of the first human mission to Mars.
Bio:
Dr Pascal Lee is a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute, the Mars Institute, and NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. He studied physics and geology at the University of Paris, and earned a PhD in astronomy and space sciences from Cornell University where he was Carl Sagan’s last T.A.. He is internationally recognized for his work on the history of water on Mars, the study of ice and caves on the Moon, the origin of Mars’ moons, and planning the future human exploration of Mars. Dr Lee has led over 30 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica to study Mars by comparison with the Earth. He is a recipient of the United States Antarctic Service Medal. He recently led the Northwest Passage Drive Expedition, the subject of the award-winning documentary film Passage To Mars (2016). He is also committed to science education. Dr Lee’s first book, Mission: Mars, won the 2015 Prize for Excellence in children’s science books from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In his free time, Pascal likes to be walked by his dogApollo, fly, and paint. He is an FAA-certified helicopter commercial pilot and flight instructor, and an artist member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists.
5/11/2022
7PM
Spectroscopy
Presenter: Tom Field
Even if you wanted to touch a star, they’re all impossibly distant. Despite these great distances, astronomers have learned an enormous amount about stars. How? The most common method to study the stars is called spectroscopy, which is the science of analyzing the colorful rainbow spectrum produced by a prism-like device.
Until recently, spectroscopy was too expensive and too complicated for all but a handful of
amateurs. Today, though, new tools make spectroscopy accessible to almost all of us. You no longer need a PhD, dark skies, long exposures, enormous aperture … or a big budget! With your current telescope and FITS camera (or a simple web cam or even a DSLR without atelescope) you can now easily study the stars yourself. Wouldn’t you like to detect the
atmosphere on Neptune or the red shift of a quasar right from your own backyard?!
This talk, with lots of interesting examples, will show you what it’s all about and help you
understand how spectroscopy is used in research. Even if you are an armchair astronomer,
understanding this field will enhance your understanding of the things your read and the night sky. We’ll do a live Q&A after Tom’s 45-minute presentation.
Tom Field was a Contributing Editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine from 2011 to 2021. He is the author of the RSpec software (www.rspec-astro.com) which received the S&T “Hot Product” award. Tom is a popular speaker who has spoken to hundreds of clubs via the web and in-person at many conferences, including NEAF, the NEAF Imaging Conference, the Winter Star Party, the Advanced Imaging Conference, and others.
4/13/2022
7PM
Star Parties
Presenter: Greg Bragg
Greg will discuss star parties in general, plus details about the major ones. Having been to the majority of the larger star parties around the US and Canada, he is prepared to give us the ins and outs and how to make them successful and enjoyable.
Greg Bragg:
Greg Bragg started selling astronomy related products in the early 1980’s in a camera store. He knew nothing about astronomy when he started. Seeing Saturn on the hood of a car in the mall parking lot hooked him. In 2005, Meade hired him as an independent sales rep while selling photo products in the southeast. He then worked as their VP of Specialty Sales for 5 years. In early 2012 though mid-2013, he distributed Olivon optics and astronomy products. He also represented a couple of other astronomy companies including Explore Scientific. In Oct of 2012, he was hired as the Director of Specialty Sales at Explore Scientific. In Aug 2018, he became the Sales Manager of Sport Optics at Pentax. In Nov of 2019, he was hired by Celestron as their Specialty Accounts Sales Manager. The favorite part of his job is showing astronomy products under dark skies.
He has had the pleasure of attending over 100 star parties in the US and Canada including one star party in Japan.
3/9/2022
7PM
How We Got Here:
Navigating By The Sky Over Oceans And Continents
Presenter: Alan Goldberg
This is a talk on very basic celestial navigation: how the simple concepts of Sun and star height above the horizon could be used for navigation before radio aids. This is the history of determining latitude from star heights (esp. Polaris, of course), and how longitude can be determined by what stars are overhead, once you can keep track of the time at Greenwich. Later, determining latitude and longitude were combined. I will also mention how the techniques developed by ancient and more recent sailors for using the stars were adapted by land explorers (Lewis & Clark) and from airplanes. And I will relate the concepts of goto telescope automation.
Alan Goldberg:
Our speaker is Alan Goldberg, vice president of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, and a member since 2001. He recently retired as a principal scientist with The MITRE Corp. in McLean, VA. He’s been an amateur astronomer since elementary school, and observes with an 8” SCT. After decades of trying, he’s still trying to take a great astrophoto. After graduate study at Univ. of Texas and MIT in astronomy and planetary science, he worked on the design and operation of the Hubble Space Telescope. He subsequently worked on Landsat, NASA’s Terra-Aqua-Aura series, and NOAA’s NPOESS weather satellites. He most recently assisted the Government in buying satellite remote sensing data products and systems to produce them
2/9/2022
7PM
Topic Is A Surprise
Presenter: Kevin LeGore
Kevin LeGore:
- Product Specialist for Sky-Watcher.
- Host of Sky-Watcher’s “What’s Up?” webcast.
- Avid astronomer, imager and outreach advocate.
- Owner of Focus Astronomy outreach program (schools and public).
1/12/2022
7PM
Some Of The Nicest Refractors Your Eyes Will Ever See Or Look Through!
Vic Maris, President of Stellarvue Inc
