UPCOMING  MEETINGS

Meetings are held monthly, on the first or second Saturday, from September through May and normally start at 2:30pm (times may vary), and via ZOOM. A brief business meeting is held prior to the main presentation. Meetings last about one and one half hours.

SPECIAL MESSAGE:

Our meetings at La Posada have come to an end. We have been using the Rec Center since long before I joined the club 17 years ago. We cannot afford the fee they are now charging us. The current best option is the Sahuarita library. Unfortunately, this means that meetings would have to be held during the day. This would make meetings difficult for those still working and for finding speakers. However, the Sahuarita library is open on Saturdays so that would be a better choice than a weekday. I sent out a survey to club members in late September to find their views concerning whether they would be willing to attend meetings on Saturday during the day. The majority of those who answered the question were willing to attend meetings on Saturday primarily in the afternoon. Hopefully if we can get the library to promote our club, we can begin to increase our membership especially gaining younger members. This will help the club to stay viable. The schedule, time, and location for future meetings will be posted as soon as they are available.

              John Dwyer,  President

THE NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING IS:

DATE:          January 4th, 2024

LOCATION: Sahuarita Public Library and on ZOOM 

Zoom Access will be sent by email.

Guests – Please attend in person or use Contact Us page to request Zoom access.

TIME:           Meeting @ 2:30 pm   (Room Access at 2:15PM)

SPEAKER: Fr Christopher Corbally, Vatican Observatory

SUBJECT:  Weird Binaries Under Close Surveillance: TU Tau and HD 5501″

ABSTRACT: These two binaries are weird, but different. TU Tau was long thought to be a regular carbon star, but it has a companion which is recently under investigation, thanks to a Pro-Am group. The companion turns out to be the first example of a “massive” Barium dwarf, caught in the act of becoming a Barium giant. The companion’s habit of disappearing requires close surveillance of the system.

HD 5501 is an unusual eclipsing binary with a light curve that does not repeat exactly from one cycle to the next. The system is under strong suspicion of harboring a hotspot on the secondary’s disk that shows dynamical chaos, and it defies the usual change of period with mass loss for a reason that is becoming clear. Again close surveillance by the Pro-Am group is being repaid.

BIOGRAPHY: Christopher Corbally is a Jesuit priest, emeritus vice director of the Vatican Observatory, and an adjunct astronomer at the University of Arizona. He was a project scientist for building the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope and pursues his interest in stars primarily through spectroscopy.

See the CALENDAR For Full Details


 WANT TO BE MORE INVOLVED IN ASTRONOMY? CHECK OUT THESE ACTIVITIES:

What is the Zooniverse?

The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Our goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community.

Click HERE to learn more.               Want to get involved? click HERE.

To see the projects, look HERE.      Good luck and have FUN!             

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Become a Citizen Scientist with NASA!

Ever want to mix in some science with your stargazing, but not sure where to start? NASA hosts a galaxy of citizen science programs that you can join! You’ll find programs perfect for dedicated astronomers and novices alike, from reporting aurora, creating amazing images from real NASA data, searching for asteroids, and scouring data from NASA missions from the comfort of your home. If you can’t get to your favorite stargazing spot, then NASA’s suite of citizen science programs may be just the thing for you. Click HERE.

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