20 July 2019 –
50th Anniversary
of Humankind’s First Steps on the Lunar Surface
– NASA’s Apollo 11 Mission image
Upcoming Public Star Gazes
Continue to check this home page as weather could change the venue or postpone and possibly cancel a star gaze. Check-in again after 5:00 p.m. on the afternoon of the observing session for the latest info and update. (image by Joy Marie de Block, taken from Grassland Mountain Observatory)
26 July 2019 – Friday night – The site for this star gaze is the club’s private observatory in Madison County, Grassland Mountain Observatory, with a weather backup night of Saturday, 27 July. This event is free and open to the general public — registration is not necessary to attend. A temporary gate code, required for entry, will be provided on the day of the star gaze by 5:00 p.m. Directions to Grassland Mountain Observatory can be found here. Sunset occurs at 8:39 p.m.
2 August 2019 – Friday night – This public star gaze site will be held at Grassland Mountain Observatory in Madison County, with a weather backup night of
Saturday, 3 August. This event is free and open to the general public — registration is not necessary to attend. A temporary gate code, required for entry, will be provided on the day of the star gaze by 5:00 p.m. Directions to Grassland Mountain Observatory can be found here. Sunset occurs at 8:34 p.m.
23 August 2019 – Friday night – The location for this star gaze will be Lookout Observatory on the UNC Asheville campus, with a weather backup date of
Saturday, 24 August. While the event is free and open to the general public, pre-registration is required to attend. To learn more about how to register, please visit the UNCA Lookout Observatory website here. Sunset occurs at 8:10 p.m., with shuttle service beginning at 8:30 p.m.
28 – 30 July 2019 – Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower Peaks
Ilustration courtesy of
Sky & Telescope
1 August 2019 – Next Club Meeting
Thursday night, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – In the Reuter Center‘s Manheimer Room, located on the UNC Asheville campus. The meeting is free and open to the general public.
“Beyond Pluto: the New Horizons Mission to Ultima Thule” – presented by Steven J. Conard, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sped past Pluto in July 2015, offering unprecedented (and unexpected) views of the strange dwarf planet, its mission was considered an unparalleled success. As the spacecraft continued into the far reaches of our solar system, scientists were cautiously hopeful that the mission could be extended to explore an object in the Kuiper Belt, the distant region located one billion miles past Neptune’s orbit that contains comets, asteroids and other small icy bodies.
The mission’s new target did not disappoint; on New Year’s Day 2019, 13 years after the spacecraft’s launch, New Horizons had its closest encounter with Kuiper Belt Object 2014MU69, nicknamed “Ultima Thule“, the most distant – and quite possibly the oddest – object ever explored. Read more…
9 August 2019 –
The Moon Pairs Up
with Jupiter
– The view about an hour after sunset
(Illustration created using SkySafari software.)
11 August 2019 –
Let the Moon Guide You to Saturn
– The view about an hour after sunset
(Illustration created using SkySafari software.)