1. Art and Diseño

Volume No. 65
February 2015
Issue No. 2
Stockton Astronomical Society: founded November 1950 by Clarence P. Custer, M.D., 1906-1998
(Meetings of the Stockton Astronomical Society
are held on the second Thursday of each month,
and are open to the public.)
IN THIS ISSUE:
Stockton Astronomical Society
Editor’s Corner
NuSTAR ..................................................... 2
Stars R Us
February Star Parties ............................... 3
Directions to Star Party Sites .................. 3
Amateur Telescope Makers………......….3
Teaching Opportunities for Partners in
Science (TOPS) in need of volunteers....3
Hubble: Pillars of Creation are also
Pillars of Destruction……………………...3
Telescope Nut
Musée des Arts et Métiers ....................... 4
Letter from Eric Holland………………......5
Night Skies Star Stencils………………….5
NASA Space Place
Minor mergers have massive
consequences for black holes ................ 6
Public Astronomy
Star Party Reports .................................... 7
Science@NASA
Kepler Discovers 1000th Exoplanet ....... 8
January Sky Calendar .............................. 9
Stockton Evening Sky............................ 10
Membership Application........................ 11
What’s Up? .............................................. 11
NASA’s Image of the Day Gallery..........11
General Meeting:
Olson Hall Room 120, at Pacific
Thursday, February 12 – 7:30 p.m.
Stockton Astronomical Society
Presents
Omar Anzaldua, Eric Holland, Doug Christensen and Jeff
Baldwin
How to Find Stuff With Your Telescope
This session will cover the use of setting circles, GoTo
programs, star charts, and finding planets during the daytime. This is
an installment of in-club personnel showing club members basic
astronomy and telescope procedures. Future shows will include
collimation of optics, cleaning of optics, astrophotography, optical
fabrication and other practical jobs and activities. If you want to
practice with us you can bring your telescope along. If it’s clear we
might even go outside afterwards and gawk at a few fine objects. All
four of our speakers [and maybe more may join in] are members of
the Stockton Astronomical Society, are experienced observers and
imagers, and are all dedicated to promoting astronomy to the public,
to schools, and to club members. Next month will be a program on the
Messier Marathon, and this discussion will help tremendously in the
ability to find and document Messier objects.
…Jeff Baldwin, Program Director
Visit the SAS Web Site at: www.stocktonastro.org
Valley Skies
STOCKTON ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
February 2015
page 2
Editor’s CornEr…
P.O. Box 243, Stockton, CA 95201
OFFICERS FOR 2015:
President
Eric Holland……..……..351-0206, [email protected]
Vice President & Program Director
Jeff Baldwin……………...594-1894, [email protected]
Secretary
Bret Ford………………..471-2131, [email protected]
Treasurer
Gerald Hyatt………565-1424, [email protected]
Newsletter Editor
Rebecca Lewis……………………………..(925) 549-1352,
[email protected]
Members-at-Large
Doug Christensen.. …462-0798, [email protected]
Dave Jacobi…...….823-0328, [email protected]
APPOINTED OFFICERS:
Public Outreach Coordinator
School Star parties:
Doug Christensen.. …462-0798, [email protected]
Sky Tours & other public viewing:
Doug Christensen.. …462-0798, [email protected]
Star Party Coordinators
Hi-Altitude:
Miguel Ortiz…….…823-0723, [email protected]
Highway 4:
Jim Schuknecht……………224-5267, [email protected]
Shawn Kerns……….……986-4185 [email protected]
Star Party Bulletin Board
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/stocktonastro/info
Equipment Manager
Jeff Baldwin……..……..594-1894, [email protected]
ATM Workshops
Jeff Baldwin……..……..594-1894, [email protected]
Observing Program Chairman
Jeff Baldwin……..……..594-1894, [email protected]
Striking Sparks Program Coordinator
Gerald Hyatt………565-1424, [email protected]
SAS Rep to A.A.N.C.
Dennis LeClert……………..477-4756, [email protected]
Web Site Administrator
Ray Lukaszewski……………….…………..916-683-2186
[email protected]
SAS Web Site: www.stocktonastro.org
(All numbers are area code 209 except as noted)
Valley Skies is published monthly. Except where noted, it is not
copyrighted and may be freely copied and distributed, with
appropriate credits. Articles of interest, letters, news items or
announcements are welcome. Please send them to the Society
address above.
Non-commercial advertising of astronomy-related products or
services will be printed free of charge for members, for up to three
months if necessary. Submission deadline is the 15th of each month.
NuSTAR
Besides the telescopes such as those
amateur astronomers possess or have access to,
other scopes include ones like the Nuclear
Spectroscopic Telescope Array, which detect the
X-rays given off by certain cosmic objects in order to view them.
Following the theme of telescopes themselves at this month's
meeting, I wanted to concentrate on this particular scope. It is the
first orbiting telescope to use true focusing optics to focus X-rays,
an arrangement that is a modification of the Wolter-1 design.
Previous X-ray telescopes in orbit have not done this, and instead
used coded apertures to detect the required electromagnetic range.
The NuSTAR mainly targets black holes, relativistic jets,
neutron stars, and supernovae explosions. The purpose of studying
black holes is to understand how they are both the remnants of
dead stars as well as the foundations for galaxies, as made evident
by their existence at galactic centers. Some super massive black
holes exhibit the behavior of shooting off jets of material, called
relativistic jets, close to the speed of light. The physics behind the
phenomenon of these jets is not understood, making it another of
the primary missions of NuSTAR. In addition, NuSTAR also hunts
for other remnants of stars in order to understand the evolution of
them. Neutron stars and supernovae exist as part of the fossil
record of the universe. Supernovae explosions can inform us on the
creation of elements during a star’s death, and neutron stars
illustrate how matter is affected by gravity and magnetic fields at
their extremes.
For further information on the Nuclear Spectroscopic
Telescope Array, visit http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/page/about
…Rebecca Lewis
SAS Meeting: Thursday February 12, 7:30 p.m.
Olson Room 120 at UOP
(Refreshments generously provided by Jeff and Glenda Baldwin)
Valley Skies
Page 3
February 2015
Stars R Us...
SAS Star Party News
February:
Saturday, Feb 14
Sunset:
Moonset
Saturday, Feb 21
Sunset:
Moonset
Hwy 4 Star Party
5:43 PM PST
1:23 PM PST
Hi-Alt Star Party
5:50 PM PST
9:28 PM PST
Directions to SAS Star Party Sites
Highway 4/Shirley Road:
Drive 30 miles east on Hwy 4 from Hwy 99. At the sign for Shirley
Road/Telegraph Road, turn right off Hwy 4, then left at the stop
sign. You will again be heading east, parallel to Hwy 4. Drive to
the setup area at the end of the road.
4000' Heliport on Highway 88:
Drive 21.8 miles east from Jackson on Hwy 88 till you pass the
“Elevation 4,000 ft.” sign, (0.4 miles past Amador Station). Turn
left at the “Emergency Heliport” sign and double back parallel to
the road about 400 feet to the helipad. Set up on the north side.
(Please park on N side of road only at both the Hwy 4 and 4000 ft.
site.
Peddler Hill: (Access unlikely)
Amateur Telescope
Makers
ATM
We had an ATM session at the shop
Saturday, January 10, 2015. Omar, Larry, Eric and
Jeff kept pretty busy the whole time. Marshal
showed up to hand his telescope over to Larry, who
showed up later. Jeff worked on a TDE on a
mirror. Eric ground from 220 grit through 500 grit
on his mirror, and is now ready for aluminum
oxide fine-grinding. Omar tore his wedge apart,
sand blasted it, and painted it a nice, shiny black.
We also over-drilled his wedge-to-tripod holes so
he can have some fine adjustment on his polar
alignment. Larry got used to his new Dobsonian
scope, and we finished the day off looking at
Mercury and Venus, ½ a degree apart on the
western horizon. We then found Mars, and finally,
we nailed comet Lovejoy, which was amazing
considering it was in town before full dark. All in
all, it was a very busy ATM day.
...Baldy
Teaching Opportunities for Partners in
Science (TOPS) in need of volunteers
The San Joaquin County Office of
Education is searching for scientists and engineers
who want to volunteer their time to teach students
at elementary schools in grades K-6 about science.
Through the Teaching Opportunities for Partners in
Science (TOPS), the skills of classroom teachers
are combined with the background expertise of
TOPS partners. TOPS partners volunteer for 8 to
10 hours a month, and receive a $300 stripend.
Training and materials for the program are
provided.
Volunteers are currently wanted in the area,
expecially at Linden Elementary School. To learn
more about the TOPS program, read the story
featured in Outlook, which is the SJCOE’s monthly
publication:
http://www.sjcoe.org/newsDetails.aspx?ID=3570
For more information about how to become
a TOPS partner, call Nancy Stenzler at 468-4881 or
email: [email protected]
…Rebecca Lewis
Hubble: Pillars of Creation are also Pillars of
Destruction
Read about Hubble’s revisitation to the Eagle
Nebula in celebration of the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the photograph “Pillars of Creation”
at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-atnasa/2015/07jan_pillarsofcreation/
Valley Skies
Page 4
February 2015
The Telescope Nut
Musée des Arts et Métiers
Glenda and I went to Paris for Christmas, and had some wonderful
memories made there. To see a write-up on this, check out www.jeffbaldwin.org/paris.htm. That,
however, isn’t what this article is about, but it does tell of the time while we were there in which she took
me to the Musée des Arts et Métiers. That museum, about a mile northeast of Notre Dame, is filled with
scientific historical artifacts. The reason Glenda took me there was to see the ball the Leon Foucault
swung as a pendulum to prove that the Earth was rotating, or rather, to illustrate it as well as to test his
predicted precession. That ball, and a second ball hanging on the wire, were awesome. However, the
experience didn’t stop there.
We also saw the double repeating circle. This device is used to survey angles with extreme
precision. Méchain and Delambre were assigned the job of surveying France from the north shore to the
south shore, accurately determine
the polar circumference of the
Earth, divide that by 4 to get the
distance from the North Pole to
the equator, and divide that
measurement by 10 million to
create the meter. This would be
the unit of measure for length for
the entire world. So, this device in
fact is the basis of every single
thing we measure on Earth and in
the universe. I didn’t know it was
there, and to see it really
surprised me. Now, the date on
this one said 1804, and the survey
was performed in or about 1790.
So either there is a mismark, or
this just isn’t the one they used.
But it was exactly the same, and I
know of no others. Its precision is
incredible. There are four little
microscopes on it to read the
The Double Repeating Circle
measurements on the circles,
because the measurements are so small. There are two telescopes on the double repeating circle. Méchain
and Delambre would look at a landmark in one scope, point the other scope to another landmark, and read
the measurement. Then they would rotate the first around to the landmark, read the measurements again,
rotate the second scope around, and once again read the measurements. This repeating system allowed
them to make multiple readings and then divide out how many times they went around. This offered
higher precision than a single measurement.
In this museum is also Pascal’s calculators. These are the first mechanical digital calculators. I
understand that he made them and sold them, and that is how he made his living. They also had early
cassegrain telescopes, which are very slow, perhaps f/30 or more.
Valley Skies
Page 5
February 2015
About 14 years ago, Glenda and I went to London and visited the Royal Museum of Science and
Industry, which holds Lord Rosse’s 72” telescope mirror, some duplicative instruments from Galileo,
some of Newton’s equipment and more. It’s really exciting to go somewhere and see all this extremely
old, technologically famous equipment first hand.
In the Pantheon we saw Pierre and Marie Curie’s tomb. Next time, I’d like to go check out
Messier’s grave and, if I can find it, Méchain’s grave. By the way, if you didn’t know, Méchain is the guy
who completed the Messier catalog as well as who is the guy we can all credit for creating the meter.
Clear skies!.................Bald
Dear SAS Members,
Last year in November, Jacquelyn Bowers, an Instructional Coach at Marshall
Elementary School in Stockton, contacted me. The school was in possession of
approximately 200 books relating to Astronomy that fall outside the reading level of
the students. The books are a bit dated but still have some great content. Some are
college level textbooks, but there are other books and even some fictional stories.
I finally got around to making a list of all the books. There is now a link
posted on our club website http://stocktonastro.org which contains a downloadable pdf file listing all the
books. You can find the link on the home page under the "SAS Services" section. I'm currently storing
the books at my house, so any member who is interested in checking out a book may contact me and I'll
make arrangements to bring it to you at the next club meeting or ATM session.
I would like to thank Jacquelyn for reaching out to us and thank Marshall Elementary School for
donating the books to our club. I’m sure we will be able to make great use of them. I know of several
I’m planning on reading. If you are in possession of any books that you would also like to donate to the
club library please contact me.
Thanks,
Eric Holland
SAS President
Night Skies Star Stencils
The Night Skies Star Stencils can create a relaxing and romantic display of a real night sky in any
darkened room of anyone lured by the attraction to the night time sky. The Night Skies Star Stencils are
available in two sizes featuring accurate and educational winter or summer night time displays over the
Northern Hemisphere. Luminous paint and a corresponding star map are included with each Night Skies
Star Stencils to enhance their educational value. The stencils can be used more than once and additional
luminous paint is available. They can be purchased from many retailers who can be found by searching
“Night Skies Star Stencils” on the Internet.
The Night Skies Star Stencils are a portion of the Ursa Major stencil selection produced by
Bridgeway headquartered in Illinois. Bridgeway is a not-for-profit agency that provides an assortment of
services to disabled people. Sales of its American made products help fund those programs.
Dick Shimmin
Bridgeway, Inc.
Galesburg, Illinois
Valley Skies
Page 6
February 2015
.
Minor mergers have massive consequences for black holes
By Dr. Ethan Siegel
When you think of our sun, the nearest star to our world, you think of an isolated entity, with more
than four light years separating it from its next nearest neighbor. But it wasn't always so: billions of years
ago, when our sun was first created, it very likely formed in concert with thousands of other stars, when a
giant molecular cloud containing perhaps a million times the mass of our solar system collapsed. While the
vast majority of stars that the universe
forms—some ninety-five percent—are the
mass of our sun or smaller, a rare but
significant fraction are ultra-massive,
containing tens or even hundreds of times
the mass our star contains. When these stars
run out of fuel in their cores, they explode
in a fantastic Type II supernova, where the
star's core collapses. In the most massive
cases, this forms a black hole.
Over time, many generations of
stars—and hence, many black holes—form, with the
Images credit: NGC 3393 in the optical (L) by M. Malkan
majority eventually migrating towards the centers of
(UCLA), HST, NASA (L); NGC 3393 in the X-ray and optical
their host galaxies and merging together. Our own
(R), composite by NASA / CXC / SAO / G. Fabbiano et al.
galaxy, the Milky Way, houses a supermassive black (X-ray) and NASA/STScI (optical).
hole that weighs in at about four million solar masses,
Editors download photo here:
while our big sister, Andromeda, has one nearly
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/partners/2015twenty times as massive. But even relatively isolated 01/ngc3393.jpg
galaxies didn't simply form from the monolithic
collapse of an isolated clump of matter, but by hierarchical mergers of smaller galaxies over tremendous
timescales. If galaxies with large amounts of stars all have black holes at their centers, then we should be
able to see some fraction of Milky Way-sized galaxies with not just one, but multiple supermassive black
holes at their center!
It was only in the early 2000s that NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was able to find the first
binary supermassive black hole in a galaxy, and that was in an ultra-luminous galaxy with a double core.
Many other examples were discovered since, but for a decade they were all in ultra-massive, active galaxies.
That all changed in 2011, with the discovery of two active, massive black holes at the center of the regular
spiral galaxy NGC 3393, a galaxy that must have undergone only minor mergers no less than a billion years
ago, where the black hole pair is separated by only 490 light years! It's only in the cores of active, X-ray
emitting galaxies that we can detect binary black holes like this. Examples like NGC 3393 and IC 4970 are
not only confirming our picture of galaxy growth and formation, but are teaching us that supermassive relics
from ancient, minor mergers might persist as standalone entities for longer than we ever thought!
Check out some cool images and artist reconstructions of black holes from Chandra:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/category/blackholes.html
Kids can learn all about Black Holes from this cool animation at NASA’s Space Place:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/black-holes.
Valley Skies
Page 7
February 2015
Public Astronomy
Saturday Dec. 27 - Astronomy in the Park
The day was partially overcast, but it was also partly clear. So, as sunset
neared, Eric and I agreed that we needed to pack our gear and get to the park. The
event had been advertised in The Record, but with the date being so close to Christmas and the weather
being fickle, we weren’t sure if the public would show up.
James Schuknecht was at the park and ready for the night when we arrived. I was getting my
scope set up as the first vehicle of customers drove up, and James and I were showing them Earth’s big
Moon in the scopes as Eric joined us. We decided that since the traffic at the two scopes would be light,
we really didn’t need Eric to set up his big scope, and the skies weren’t clear enough to see anything faint
anyway. As the first group saw what they came to see, another small group arrived. We once again gave
them the “tour,” but then another family arrived and so it went on as such for a few hours. The skies were
clear enough here and there from time to time. When there was something to look at in a clear spot, I
would move a scope to it. However, I was never able to center my scope on three bright stars. Thus, I
never did get my “Go-To” system running and the Moon was almost always bright enough to “burn
through” the thin clouds. By the end of the evening, we had had about two dozen customers. All of them
were very happy that we were there with our scopes as well as glad that they came out to join us.
Our next Astronomy in the Park was on January 24th, but the coming one is on February 28th.
Grab your scope and join us in the Park.
…Doug Christensen
Impromptu Highway 4 Star Party
The Clear Sky Chart for October 10, 2015 was for the sky to gunk up about
5 p.m.. So, I didn’t go to the star party, nor did most of the people I talked to.
However, it seemed pretty clear later on. I never heard if anybody went. However,
Larry Grimes and I went to Highway 4 midweek to check out comet Lovejoy. It got
dark about 6 p.m., with the Moon rising just before 8 o’clock, so we had about an
hour and a half star party on a school night. The comet was very pretty and fairly
bright, about magnitude 4.5 [on January 7, 2015].
I never go to Highway 4 to observe alone. On this night I was reminded why. While Larry and I
were setting up in the dark, a van drove in on us at high speed with the lights off. The only reason he saw
us was because my dome light being on due to my car door being open. He locked up the brakes, stopped,
then pulled off to the side and sat there in his van for about twenty minutes. It was weird. He then started
his vehicle, pulled out, and drove away. On the way back to Stockton, we noticed that the van was headfirst in the ditch with the doors open. My point with this story is that when he was sitting there for twenty
minutes, Larry and I didn’t feel very comfortable. This is why when I go to the Highway 4 site, I don’t
start setting stuff up unless I have a friend there too. Being alone out there isn’t a good idea. With others, I
think it’s fairly safe, but alone, it is not.
…Baldy
Valley Skies
Page 8
February 2015
Science@NASA
Kepler Discovers 1000th Exoplanet
Jan. 6, 2015: How many stars like our sun host
planets like our Earth? NASA’s Kepler Space
Telescope continuously monitored more than
150,000 stars beyond our solar system, and to
date has offered scientists an assortment of more
than 4,000 candidate planets for further study -the 1,000th of which was recently verified.
Using Kepler data, scientists reached
this millenary milestone after validating that
eight more candidates spotted by the planethunting telescope are, in fact, planets. The
Kepler team also has added another 554
candidates to the roll of potential planets, six of
which are near-Earth-size and orbit in the
habitable zone of stars similar to our sun.
Three of the newly-validated planets are located in their distant suns’ habitable zone, the range of distances
from the host star where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet. Of the three, two are likely
made of rock, like Earth.
"Each result from the planet-hunting Kepler mission's treasure trove of data takes us another step closer to
answering the question of whether we are alone in the Universe," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “The Kepler team and its
science community continue to produce impressive results with the data from this venerable explorer."
To determine whether a planet is made of rock, water or gas, scientists must know its size and mass. When
its mass can’t be directly determined, scientists can infer what the planet is made of based on its size.
Two of the newly validated planets, Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, are less than 1.5 times the diameter of Earth.
Kepler-438b, 475 light-years away, is 12 percent bigger than Earth and orbits its star once every 35.2 days. Kepler442b, 1,100 light-years away, is 33 percent bigger than Earth and orbits its star once every 112 days.
Both Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b orbit stars smaller and cooler than our sun, making the habitable zone
closer to their parent star, in the direction of the constellation Lyra. The research paper reporting this finding has
been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
"With each new discovery of these small, possibly rocky worlds, our confidence strengthens in the
determination of the true frequency of planets like Earth," said co-author Doug Caldwell, SETI Institute Kepler
scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. "The day is on the horizon when we’ll
know how common temperate, rocky planets like Earth are.”
With the detection of 554 more planet candidates from Kepler observations conducted May 2009 to April
2013, the Kepler team has raised the candidate count to 4,175. Eight of these new candidates are between one to
two times the size of Earth, and orbit in their sun's habitable zone. Of these eight, six orbit stars that are similar to
our sun in size and temperature. All candidates require follow-up observations and analysis to verify they are actual
planets.
“Kepler collected data for four years -- long enough that we can now tease out the Earth-size candidates in
one Earth-year orbits”, said Fergal Mullally, SETI Institute Kepler scientist at Ames who led the analysis of a new
candidate catalog. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been to finding Earth twins around other sun-like stars. These are
the planets we’re looking for”.
These findings also have been submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement.
Work is underway to translate these recent discoveries into estimates of how often rocky planets appear in
the habitable zones of stars like our sun, a key step toward NASA's goal of understanding our place in the universe.
Credits:
Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
Valley Skies
page 9
February 2015
February 2015 Sky Calendar
Sunday
1
Monday
Tuesday
PLANETS AT DUSK
Venus: WSW in early
evening. Close
conjunction with Moon
and Mars on 20/21st.
Mars: Low in SW
evening sky, moving
from Aquarius into
Pisces on the 10th.
Jupiter: In Cancer, rises
near sunset and visible
all night.
Uranus: Low in Pisces
and sets mid-evenings.
Neptune: Early twilight.
PLANETS AT DAWN
Mercury: Morning sky
from 6th through 28th.
Saturn: In Scorpius,
18° below celestial
equator.
2
3
GROUND HOG
DAY
4
9
16
10
17
30
A.M.: Aldebaran 1.2°
south of Moon.
Juno at opposition.
Mercury at inferior
conjunction.
5
6
11
12
13
SAS Monthly Meeting
7:30 PM at UOP
Olson Hall Room 120
Mercury appears
stationary
PM Saturn 2° south of
Moon
18
19
AM Mercury 3° south of
Moon
23
Saturday
31
7
Moon at apogee
Jupiter at opposition
24
25
VALENTINE’S
DAY
20
Aldebaran 1° south of
Moon
21
SAS High-Altitude Star
Party
Moon at perigee
PM Mars 1.5° south of
Moon
PM Venus 2° south of
Moon
PM Venus 0.5° south of
Maars
PM Uranus 0.3° south of
Moon
26
27
28
First Quarter
9:14 AM PST
Mercury at greatest
elongation (27° W)
14
SAS Hwy 4 Star Party
New Moon
3:47 PM PST
PRESIDENTS’
DAY
22
Friday
29
AM Jupiter 5° north of
Moon
Last Quarter
7:50 PM PST
15
Thursday
Full Moon
3:47 PM PST
A.M. Venus 0.8° south
of Neptune
8
Wednesday
Sky Tours at Delta
College
7:00—9:00 PM
Neptune in conjunction
with Sun
Astronomy in the Park
Oak Grove Reg. Park
Sunset: 5:55 PM
Valley Skies
Page 10
February 2015
Stockton Evening Sky
For Saturday, February 28 – 8:00 p.m. PST
(Chart by CyberSky 5.0.3)
Public Outreach
Sky Tours: Friday, February 27, 7:00 – 9:00 PM – Delta College Athletics 1 parking lot.
Astronomy in the Park: Saturday, February 28 – Sunset 5:55 PM – Oak Grove Regional Park.
Valley Skies
February 2015
page 11
Stockton Astronomical Society - Mission Statement:
The purpose of this society is to foster interest in and promote the
general knowledge of astronomy and related sciences.
Membership Application
Mark the selected category
and mail check
(payable to SAS)
to:
SAS
P.O. Box 243
Stockton, CA 95201
or bring to the
next meeting.
 Renewal
SAS Membership:
 New
 Student Rate: $10/yr (Full-time student, no age restrictions)
 General/Family Rate: $20/yr (Covers all members of immediate family)
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For new membership or renewal, complete the form above and bring it with your check to the next meeting or mail it to:
SAS, P.O. Box 243, Stockton, CA 95201
“What’s Up?”
Don’t forget to check the “What’s Up”
Podcast by Jane Houston Jones each month.
Using a combination of
NASA images, beautifully
clear graphics and her own
narration, Jane does an
outstanding job of
explaining what you can
expect to see in the night sky each month.
Bookmark the site:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm
Check out interesting
photographs in NASA’s
Image of the Day
Gallery at
http://www.nasa.gov/mult
imedia/imagegallery
Stockton Astronomical Society
P.O. Box 243
Stockton, CA 95201
Date Sensitive Material
Please Deliver Promptly
SAS Monthly Meeting
Thursday, February 12 -- 7:30 PM
Olson Hall Room 120
University of the Pacific
(See UOP campus map on page 2)
Sky Tours at Delta College
Friday, February 27, 7:00-9:00 pm
Athletics I parking lot
Astronomy in the Park
Saturday, February 28
(Sunset 5:55 PM PST)
Oak Grove Regional Park
(location will depend on ground condition)