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Rochester, Minnesota


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Observe Titan shadow transits

This year 2025, we still have a unique opportunity to observe Titan’s shadow passing across Saturn’s disk as we learned at the last members’ meeting from Bob Fealey. Below is an adapted table taken from Sky and Telescope. For mid transits, there are links to Saturn in stellarium-web.org , opens in new tab. Upcoming Titan shadow transits (UT/CDT) Date DoW […]
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Sun at RochesterFest

A public observation of the Sun at RochesterFest was planned for Tuesday 6/24 and for Saturday 6/28. Tuesday 6/24 we planned a public observation of the Sun at RochesterFest from 5 to 7 p.m. Actually, 2025 was the first year that RAC participated in RochesterFest. We were pleasantly surprised by the organizers, who provided transportation for our telescopes and other […]
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Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has indeed become very observable with the naked eye after all. It can be photographed quite well with smartphones. Of course, a camera with a larger aperture provides a better image, not to mention the quality lenses. How to find the comet in the sky is described quite well in the Sky and Telescope article  Comet […]
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Root River Park 2024

Root River Park is located south of Rochester and is owned by Olmstead County. It is a small but pretty park adjacent to the North branch of the Root river. Rochester residents don’t use this park much and that’s a shame. However, this park is beneficial to amateur astronomers. The sky is dark enough to observe faint objects on a […]
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Aurora on May 10, 2024

The night of Friday, May 10, was the first night for club members under the dark skies of Eagle Bluff after a long winter. To our surprise, it wasn’t even dark yet and already we saw something very special – the Northern Lights, and even in the south. A few minutes later, while it was still dusk, the International Space […]
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Total Eclipse 2024

Did you observe the last total solar eclipse on April 8? Do you have valuable photos, video or notes? Perhaps they are suitable for submission and certification by the Astronomical League. Here is the information you need for submission: Location of the observer’s site, including longitude and latitude* Date and time of the observations (either UT or local time)* Instrument […]

Submitted Photos

Forums RAC Main Forum General Discussion Observing tonight? Re: Observing tonight?

#11203
Dean Johnson
Participant

    Yes. The Flatin Farm Hayfield is not totally a cornfield this year. On each side of the driveway, that will be organic corn, but below them Ed and Matthew left a nice wide haystrip we can use IF they harvest it shortly before Aug. 10/11. (I've been using it. It's great.) The Bistro Bar B-Q Boxelder  area is big enough for our group to use for the meal purposes.

    Barb, if we can't use the Flatin Farm, you live on a farm, do you not? Any chance of that for a possible backup if needed?

    Also I need assistance from anyone that was at the March Messier Marathon. I just finished totalling up the tally and came up with a total of 78 Messier's. But we should have seen M33 in Triangulum early on in the evening. I just don't have it in my notes. Does anyone remember looking at that?

    A quick reply would be great because I'd like to write up an article on the event for the newsletter if anyone hasn't already done so. Thanks!