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Click the link below to view or download this month's newsletter. 
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Click the link below to view or download this month's newsletter.
Congratulations to Steve Powell! Steve retired after 37 years of teaching physical sciences at Mark Morris High School in Longview.  Steve's last day in the classroom. Teaching
Steve mainly taught elective physics and freshman physical science, but occasionally also math and astronomy. For much of the most recent school year, teaching was done via Zoom, but eventually switched to a hybrid model with some students in class and some on Zoom. What was Steve's highest award? The senior class last year voted him the "most dedicated educator." That meant a great deal to to Steve. Friends of Galileo Steve has been a member of Friends of Galileo since the club started in 1995. He is our Treasurer (and past President and VP) and for years has arranged our meeting space at Mark Morris High School. FoG gave a "Human Sundial" to Lower Columbia College in 2005. Steve was instrumental in its design (and describes it here https://www.friendsofgalileo.com/blog/the-human-sundial). Club members first tried purchasing plans that were supposed to be accurate for Longview's coordinates. They tested the plans. "In June of 2005 we used chalk to mark out part of the sundial on my asphalt basketball court. It failed miserably! So I decided to do some online research on the mathematics for such a sundial. Then I created a spreadsheet that calculated the positions of the various parts of the sundial... When we were finally finished, we were delighted and relieved to see that the sundial was accurate to within a minute of the correct time. Not too shabby!" More recently, Steve was the the guest speaker for the FoG meeting in April. He spoke about the tidal forces of the sun and moon on the earth - and the tidal forces affecting galaxies and black holes. He started with basic descriptions of vectors and acceleration, and brought us along to fascinating descriptions of the largest structures in the universe. Retirement plans Steve says the reality of retirement hasn't really hit yet because he's taken off 37 summers already, but this fall it will sink in when he doesn't have to go back to school. He's looking forward to traveling, reading, and home improvement projects. Good luck in retirement, Steve! Sky Report by Ted Gruber
Evening Sky Venus (magnitude -3.9) and Mercury (1.9) become visible in the northwest as the sky darkens right after sunset. Currently, both planets remain visible until setting just after 10:00pm, with Mercury appearing just above Venus. On May 28, the two planets appear less than 0.5° apart, and after that conjunction, brighter Venus appears above Mercury, with the gap between the planets increasing each evening. Mercury remains visible through the first week in June. A thin crescent moon appears about 1.5° north of Venus the evening of June 11. Mars (magnitude 1.7) becomes visible in the west-northwest as the sky darkens. The red planet currently sets just after midnight and around 11:30pm by mid-June. A crescent moon appears about 3° north of Mars the evening of June 13. Morning Sky Saturn (magnitude 0.6) currently rises in the east-southeast just after 1:00am, with Jupiter (-2.4) following about 45 minutes later. Both planets rise about 90 minutes earlier by mid-June and remain visible until fading into the morning sunlight. The moon appears about 5° southeast of Saturn the morning of May 31 and about 5° southeast of Jupiter the next morning. Moon Phases Last (6/2), new (6/10), first (6/17), full (6/24) Hello, everyone. Can you help us with a minor mystery? We're trying to identify the exact model and year of a Celestron NexStar telescope kindly donated to the Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club. It needs some repairs but it should be a valuable part of our telescope library. It's an older model NexStar so the current user manuals don't quite fit. The scope says item #31132, D=130mm, F=650mm. Celestron hasn't responded. The donor said the telescope is functional except for the external battery pack, which takes eight AA batteries. There is no internal power pack is there is in new models. We cleaned up some battery corrosion but no luck getting the hand controller to power on at all. Rose City Astronomers did give us some tips to go on (thanks, RCA!) but we need more info.
If you have any suggestions, let us know through our Contact page. Thanks in advance! Evening Sky Mars (magnitude 1.5) is visible high in the western sky as darkness falls. The red planet currently sets around 1:00am and about 30 minutes earlier by mid-May. The moon passes 1.5° north of (above) Mars on the evening of May 15. Venus (magnitude -3.9) has returned to the evening sky and now appears low in the south-southwest just after sunset. It continues to get slightly higher above the horizon each evening. A crescent moon appears less than 1° south of Venus the evening of May 12. Mercury (magnitude -1.3) returns to the evening sky toward the end of April. It appears low in the south-southwest just after sunset, a few degrees higher above the horizon than Venus. Like Venus, the innermost planet appears higher above the horizon each evening, but it also becomes dimmer, reaching magnitude 0.3 by mid-May. The Pleiades star cluster (M45) appears about 5° from Mercury on May 2, 3, and 4. The moon passes less than 3° south of Mercury on May 13. Morning Sky Jupiter (magnitude -2.2) and Saturn (0.7) are visible in the early morning southeastern sky. Saturn rises first, currently just before 3:30am, with Jupiter following about 30 minutes later. Both planets remain visible until fading into the morning sunlight. The moon passes about 4° south of Saturn the morning of May 3, and about 5° south of Jupiter the next morning. Meteor Showers The Lyrids meteor shower is active from April 16 to April 30, peaking the night of April 21-22, with an expected rate of 18 meteors per hour at the peak when the moon is about 70% illuminated. The shower produces its highest rates over three nights centered on the peak. The Lyrids are so named because the meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation Lyra in the eastern sky. The Eta Aquariids meteor shower is active from April 19 to May 28, peaking the night of May 4-5. Best viewing is from the southern tropics, but even in the northern hemisphere the shower produces 10-30 meteors per hour at the peak just before dawn. The moon, about 40% illuminated, rises just before 4:00am on May 5. Activity is good for about a week centered on the peak. The Eta Aquariids are so named because the meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation Aquarius in the eastern sky. Total Lunar Eclipse A total lunar eclipse occurs in the early morning hours of May 26. The partial phase begins at 1:47am and ends at 5:52am. Totality is less than 15 minutes, lasting from 4:11am to 4:25am. More on this in next month’s sky report. Moon Phases Full (4/26), last (5/3), new (5/11), first (5/19), full (5/26) Click the link below to view or download this month's newsletter.re to edit.
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Friends of Galileo
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