From Lou Mayo (NASA):  History will be made today as a spacecraft touches down on a comst! The ESA Rosetta spacecraft has released its Philae lander on target for Comet 67P C-G. Touchdown is expected at around 11am EST. You can watch the feed on NASA TV beginning at 9am EST. Check out the details of this amazing accomplishment in human history at http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/.  Also, live coverage can be found here: http://new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding

At roughly 10 AM CST the Philae Lander will touch down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.  It separated from the Rosetta spacecraft last night.  Check out the ESA website:  http://rosetta.esa.int/​ for live updates and images as they come in.

The Astronomical League is working with NASA to bring you some special observing opportunities and awards.  The second of these is coming up very soon.  It is to celebrate rendezvous of  Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the Rosetta spacecraft.  The target date is November 12, 2014.  Submissions must be made to the NASA website by January 12, 2015.

In brief, you need to take a picture of the comet and submit it to the NASA website.  You also need to do an outreach event related to this event before January 12, 2015 and note it when you submit your image.  There is no pin, this does NOT count towards a Master Observer Certification, but there is a certificate signed by NASA and the AL President.

The NASA website address is:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/observe67p.cfm

If you have questions, send them to Aaron Clevenson at aaron@clevenson.org.

The Astronomical League is looking for a few good men and women to volunteer as observing program coordinators.  We are specifically looking for coordinators for the Outreach Program and for the Herschel 400 Program.  If you are interested and willing, please contact Aaron Clevenson, a National AL Observing Program Coordinator, at aaron@clevenson.org by the end of December 2014.  There may be additional opportunities as well.

The Astronomical League is working with NASA to bring you some special observing opportunities and awards.  The first of these is coming up very soon.  It is to celebrate the flyby of Mars by Comet Siding-Spring.  The target date is October 19, 2014.  Submissions must be made to the NASA website by December 19, 2014.

In brief, you need to take a picture of the comet and/or Mars and submit it to the NASA website.  You also need to do an outreach event related to this event before December 19, 2014 and note it when you submit your image.  There is no pin, this does NOT count towards a Master Observer Certification, but there is a certificate signed by NASA and the AL President.

The NASA website address is:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/challenges.cfm

If you have questions, send them to Aaron Clevenson at aaron@clevenson.org.
 

Did you know that the Astronomical League provides a way for you to get answers to your questions from astronomers who have done a good bit of observing?  We do.  It is the Master Observers Network.  It is a list server that sends an email to participating Master Observers, and they will respond to your querries.

To submit a question, use the Observe Tab and select Ask A Question.

If you are a master observer and would like to be added to the list of recipients, please contact Aaron Clevenson at aaron@clevenson.org.  We would love for you to join us.

The Astronomical League offers posters for clubs to download, then have printed for display at their public events such as Astronomy Day. They range in size from 20 x 30 inch sheets to materials that can be mounted on tri-fold project display boards. Some are available in 8.5 x 11 inch format. These documents can be printed at a local print shop at a rate of about $0.75 per square foot for black and white copies. Please visit https://www.astroleague.org//outreach

A few of the titles offered:

You Are Here — Illustrates our location in the Milky Way galaxy.

Navigating the Spring (or Fall) Night Sky — Gives the novice a tour of the sky.

How is Your Stargazing Knowledge? — Tests the public’s knowledge of the night sky in a friendly, interactive way.

Our Unnatural Night — Confronts the problem of light pollution.

What Telescope is Best for Me? — Guides the newcomer towards a suitable telescope.

How to Find Celestial Objects — Shows the methods amateur astronomers use to locate faint objects with ease.

The Need for Telescopes — Using the moon for comparison, the relative sizes of the planets are shown.

The ABCs of Stargazing — Explains the concepts of angular distance, brightness, and the altitude-azimuth coordinate system.

Is That a Planet or a Star? — Answers the question of how to tell a planet from a star.

If you would like to develop a set of downloadable materials in the style of those already available at Outreach Downloads, please contact Astronomical League President John Goss, president@astroleague.org.

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The Astronomical League is working with NASA to bring you some special
observing opportunities and awards.  The first of these is coming up very
soon.  It is to celebrate the flyby of Mars by Comet Siding-Spring.  The
target date is October 19, 2014.  Submissions must be made to the NASA
website by December 19, 2014.

In brief, you need to take a picture of the comet and/or Mars and submit it
to the NASA website.  You also need to do an outreach event related to this
event before December 19, 2014 and note it when you submit your
image.  There is no pin, this does NOT count towards a Master Observer
Certification, but there is a certificate signed by NASA and the AL leaders.

The NASA website address is:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/challenges.cfm

If you have questions, send them to Aaron Clevenson at aaron@clevenson.org.

Having been “bitten by the bug” as a young boy in the 1950s, Jim began his amateur astronomy “career” as a member of a “Junior Moon-Watch Team,” eagerly awaiting the launch of the first artificial Earth satellites during the International Geophysical Year toward the end of that decade. But, unlike the young man in Walt Whitman’s famous poem, he never tired of the “Learn’d Astronomer” and quickly grew tired of simply gazing up at the beauty of the stars. He wanted to “Do something to contribute.”

2014 Peltier Award presented to James Fox by Carroll Iorg, A.L. President at ALcon 2014 in San Antonio.

Like many amateur astronomers in the 1960s and 1970s, he made a variety of telescopes, grinding his own mirrors for many of them. But he always had that nagging urge to put them to use. While in college, Jim made a brief foray into variable star observing at the suggestion of a member of the astronomy department at Northwestern University where he was studying for an engineering degree. He admits that some “bribery” was involved.

After graduation, his local club joined the Astronomical League, and, at his first regional convention, Jim learned about the fascinating study of occultatioins – lunar grazing occultations in particular. During the next two decades, he led teams that successfully observed several dozen of these “grazes,” despite occasional encounters with deputy sheriffs, curious farmers and wandering cattle!

By the mid-1980s, Jim had a house and built his longtime dream: an observatory. Using his 8-inch refractor, Jim proceeded to make lunar and planetary observations for the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers. Seeing was not too bad, considering his location in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area. But that changed shortly after the Shumacher-Levy 9 comet impacted Jupiter.

Not to be deterred, Jim acquired an Optec SSP-3 photoelectric photometer and began making photometric measurements of various targets. The refractor was soon replaced with an SCT for better balance. First, he worked directly with researchers who requested observations via IAPPP, then through the PEP committee of AAVSO. He eventually added the remote planets of Uranus and Neptune to his observing program. With the integration time of several seconds on the photometer, Jim found that scintillation noise was smoothed out when compared to visual observing. He continues to make several hundred PEP observations per year, and he currently chairs the PEP Committee for AAVSO.

This year’s Leslie C. Peltier Award goes to Astronomical League Past President: Jim Fox