Come Experience the Universe With Us!

Club Meetings
Share knowledge and experience, see presentations, view videos and discuss all astronomy related topics. Meetings are 7:00 pm every second Tuesday of the month at RCTC in the College Center building. Everyone is welcome!
See here for directions.

Under the Sky, May 13th 7:30 p.m.

Although the weather failed to cooperate for our last under the sky club meeting, we are going to try it again in May. This time, however, we have events planned regardless of sky condition. This meeting will be a go! This meeting will be held at RAC president, Randy's house (click for map). June's meeting will return to our usual location in the Charter room at RCTC.

Public Outreach

Public events where we view objects and explain the facts of our universe. An opportunity for the general public to ask questions and view the sky like never before.

On Friday, May 9th and Saturday, May 10th, the RAC will host Astronomy Day!

Friday night at Mayo High School was a huge success. We viewed the Moon and Saturn, along with several other objects. The planetarium was the main attraction as people saw our little planet in perspective with the rest of the universe.

Saturday, May 10th, was a different storry. The outreach at Gamehaven Scout Reservation was rained out. Keep an eye on our web site, as we'll likely be planning something there in the future. Gamehaven is about as close to town as we can get and yet still see some distant galaxies and resolve individual stars in globular clusters. It's a great opportunity to really see the sky without using much gas.

Star Parties
Get out under the sky with us! Bring a scope or look through ours. Observe the heavens: planets, comets, Sun and Moon, nebulae, galaxies, multiple star systems too.

Star Party, Eagle Bluff, June 6/7

Join us on the weekend of June 6th to enjoy an evening under the Milkyway. Due to light pollution, only 1 out of 5 people have ever seen the Milkyway. By driving a short distance to a dark sky, you can see the Milkyway in all its glory, along with a baraige of detailed deep sky objects you'll never see under a dome of light.

Eagle Bluff for May 2nd was a no-go, but Saturday May 3rd wonderful. A couple of us got there and shot the breeze before dark, while the actual breeze was still winding down. When Saturn popped into view, we both started keeping a regular eye on it. Banding was particularly noticeable and it was very stable. Iapetus, Titan, Tethys, Enceladus, Dione and Rhea were all visible, but with the stability of the seeing, we were trying to pull in Enceladus. Then Randy showed up with the big gun!

We tested out some equipment which we'd be using at astronomy day, and by the time we were back at the eyepiece the sky was considerably darker. When Randy's obsession was setup, the first thing out of Randy's mouth when centering on Saturn was, "Wow, look at the banding!" We then immediately saw Enceladus, a sixth moon of Saturn that is normally hidden from prying eyes. I could even see it in my 12" Lightbridge! I was very happy. We spent a considerable amount of time gawking at Saturn and we then spotted a seventh moon of Saturn, Hyperion! Once again I ran over to the lightbridge, but I couldn't see it in my 12" aperture. Back at Randy's scope it was unmistakable, very near an even dimmer star and right where our sky atlas software said it should be.

The evening made it extremely easy to incite Dean's proclamation of, "It is a Glorious Night for Astronomy"; which now carries the proper acronym GNFA.

We pulled in many objects, especially galaxies. M84 and M86, which make up the eyes of a face pained in galaxies, was an area of quite a bit of interest. M51 was spectacular and Randy really bumped up the power as we peered at detail at the galactic arms which had wonderful knots and areas of interest. Then we moved to M101 which is generally just a faint patch of light, but not tonight. There was structure all over the place. These were just plain indescribable.

Our galaxy hunt didn't stop there. We moved on to the Bode's galaxies (M81 and 82) and could see the normally hidden spiral shape of M81. M82 was wonderfully mottled, and out of curiosity, we added a narrowband filter, which surprisingly made half of the galaxy come alive in contrast and the other half fade into near nothingness. What's up with that?!

NGC 4565, an edge on galaxy so sharp you can poke your eye out, was even better than usual and M104 (the Sombrero)... well, what can you say, too cool... and by this time it was getting cool. Everybody was very glad they had warm coats

We hit a few planetaries after that, starting with the cat's eye in Draco. It was so bright in Randy's scope that it practically needed a filter. Then a little planetary nebula in Corvus (NGC 4361) which plays tricks on your eyes. It was a fun one to study but difficult to come away with a firm description.

About that time a guy and gal dropped by to learn a little about the sky. They were fairly knowledgeable already and very appreciative of what they were seeing. Lots of good questions and big interest in the hobby. I sure hope to see them there again.

The dew got worse and we finished the evening a little after 4:00AM. We were all ready to pack it in, heading home tired, cold and satisfied.

Contact Us
Questions? Contact us at: contact @ rochesterskies.org