The Longmont Astronomical Society's January meeting will be on Saturday, January 17th at Carinos Italian Resturaunt (also known as Johnny Carinos) at 2033 Pratt Blvd, Longmont, CO. The speakers this year are Dr. Robert Stencel with Univerity of Denver, and Dave Gingerich with Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
Dr. Stencel will make a presentation about International Year of Astronomy activities and the peculiar variable star Epsilon Auriga.
Dave Gingerich will talk about his experiences as a senior mission controller for the Phoenix and the Stardust NExt mission which will make a flyby of the Earth a few days before the banquet.
The LAS 2009 membership renewal forms were mailed on Dec. 31st so they should be received in a few days. Information about how to sign up for the banquet is included with the mailing.
Agenda
4:30 to 5:30 pm Social (cash bar)
5:30 6:30 Dinner
6:30 to 6:50 Dr. Stencel presentation on IYA 2009 activiites and Epsilon Lyra
6:50 to 8 pm Dave Gingerich presenation on Phoenix and Stardust NExt Mission
Correction - astronomical darkness on Jan 3 ends at 5:45 am, not 6:30 am as stated in video. Best time to watch Quadrantids meteor shower would be that last hour, 4:45 to 5:45
On Sunday Dec. 28 sunrise is at 7:24 am and sunset is at 4:45 pm MST)
On Saturday Jan. 3 sunrise is at 7:25 am and sunset is at 4:50 pm MST.
There are no active regions currently visible on the solar disk as of Sunday evening.
Moon
On Sunday Dec 28 the moon is at lunation 1.5
On Saturday Jan 3 the moon is at lunation 7.5
Planets
Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus are visible in the southwest after about 5:20 pm.
Saturn rises at 10:46 pm Sunday and 10:22 pm by Saturday. This is the best time to get an edge-on view of the rings this year. The rings are tilted less than a degree to us at the present time. Although minimum tilt is in the fall, Saturn will be very low in the west.
Dark Sky
Moon interfers with early evening dark sky views by this weekend.
Meteor Showers
The annual Quadrantid meteor shower (aka Bootids) peaks on Saturday morning, Jan 3rd around 6 am, MST. Astronomical darkness lasts till 5:45 am that morning so circumstances are fairly good for those of us in Denver and other locations in the western United States (especially those further west). If you are far away from the haze of city lights, you may see around 50 Quadrantid meteors per hour from 4:45 to 5:45 am. If you can not get away from city lights you will see only a few of the brighter ones. The meteors will appear to come from Quandrantid's radiant which will be very high up in the northeast. The radiant is in the north central portion of constellation Bootes or roughly midway between the end of the Big Dipper's handle and the western side of the keystone of Hercules. An additional 15 sporadic meteors per hour (those not associated with any radiant) may be seen during that time period as well. For more information about meteors, see http://www.amsmeteors.org/lunsford/
International Space Station
On Thurs. Jan 1st at 6:26 am the ISS appears in the NNW and disappears at 6:31 am in the ENE (magnitude -0.2
On Fri. Jan 2nd at 6:53 am the ISS appears in the NW and disappears at 6:58 am in ESE (magnitude -1.5, difficult though as the sky will be fairly bright))
On Sat. Jan 3rd at 5:46 am the ISS appears in the North and disappears at 5:49 am in the ENE (magnitude -0.2)
On Sun. Jan 4 at 6:12 am the ISS appears in the NW and disappears iat 6:16 am in the ESE (magnitude -1.7)
