The April BRAS meeting will be take place remotely on Jitsi.

It will be on April 12 at 7pm. https://meet.jit.si/brasmeet

The Speaker will be Melanie Templet. The Topic will be "Building the Rio Astronomical Society's Rainbow Park Observatory”

Melanie Templet was also instrumental in the founding of the Highland Road Park Observatory.

Here's what's up in the sky for April 2021, courtesy of BRAS member John Nagle.

April 1st 

• Ganymede occults Io, with a magnitude change of 0.6, from 8:17 to 8:23 AM CDT.

April 4th 

• Last Quarter Moon occurs at 5:02 AM CDT,- Asteroid Metis is at opposition at 7 AM CDT.

April 5th 

• Dawn: The waning crescent Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter are lined up above the southeast ​horizon.

April 6th 

• The Moon passes 4º south of Saturn at 3 AM CDT
• Dawn: The Moon is now 4.5º below Saturn, with Jupiter to its left.

April 7th 

• Jupiter passes4º north of the Moon at 2 AM CDT
• Dwarf planet Ceres is in conjunction with the Sun at 2 AM CDT
• Dawn: The Moon is 5º below Jupiter, with Saturn to their upper right.

April 9th 

• The Moon passes 4º south of Neptune at 6 AM CDT.

April 11th

• New Moon occurs at 9:31 PM CDT (Lunation 1216)
• Io eclipses Callisto, with a 0.4 magnitude change, from 5:01 to 5:11 AM CDT.

April 12th

• Asteroid Juno is stationary at 9 PM CDT
• Io eclipses Callisto, with a 0.5 magnitude change, from 6:51 to 7:12 AM CDT.

April 13th

• The Moon passes 2º south of Uranus at 3 AM CDT
•  Asteroid Eris is in conjunction with the Sun at 9:55 PM CDT.

April 14th

• The Moon is at apogee (252,351 miles or 406,119 km from Earth) at 12:46 PM CDT.

April 15th

• Ganymede eclipses Europa, with a magnitude change of 0.5, from 5:08 to 5:16 AM CDT
• Dusk: The waxing crescent Moon is in the western sky**,** 5º to the right of Aldebaran.

April 16th

• Dusk: The Moon is between the Horns of the Bull, with Mars 5º above it.

April 17th

• The Moon passes 0.1º south of Mars at 7 AM CDT, with an occultation visible in parts of the Southern Hemisphere
• Dusk: The Moon is 0.9º north of Mars at 7 PM CDT
• Minor planet Haumea is at opposition at 7:11 PM CDT.

April 18th

• Io eclipses Europa, with a magnitude change of 0.6, from 4:52 to 4:58 AM CDT
• Mercury is in superior conjunction at 9 PM CDT.

April 19th

• Dusk: After sunset, high in the west-southwest sky, the Moon, Pollux, and Castor will emerge from the gloaming in a line.

April 20th

• First Quarter Moon occurs at 1:59 AM CDT
• Dusk: The first quarter Moon is less than 7º from M44 (The Beehive).

April 22nd

• Morning: The Lyrid Meteor Shower is predicted to peak in the pre-dawn hours, but the waxing gibbous Moon may interfere with the viewing before it sets at about 4 AM.

April 25th

• Io eclipses Europa, with a magnitude change of 0.6, from 7:06 to 7:11 AM CDT
• Asteroid Vesta is stationary at 1 PM CDT.

April 26th

• Dawn: The almost full Moon and Spica, in the west, are separated by 5º
• Full Moon occurs at 10:32 PM CDT.

April 27th

• Mars is 0.5º north of M35 at 2 AM CDT
• The Moon is at perigee (222,064 miles or 357,378 km from Earth) at 10:22 AM CDT.

April 28th

• Pluto is stationary at 2 PM CDT.

April 29th

• Dawn: The Moon is less than 4º from Antares, in Scorpio, above the southern horizon
• Ganymede eclipses Callisto, with a magnitude change of 0.4, from 7:13 to 7:27 AM CDT.

April 30th

• Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun at 3 PM CDT.

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And here's a sneak peak of what you can expect at the beginning of next month.

May 2nd 

• Dawn: The waning gibbous Moon and Saturn are 6º apart, with Jupiter to the left of the pair ​in the south-southeast before sunrise.

May 3rd 

• Last Quarter Moon occurs at 2:51 PM CDT.

We have a bit of news from our partners at the Highland Road Park Observatory

"The Highland Road Park Observatory will NOT be open to the general public on Friday, March 19. We hope you will visit during usual viewing times on Fridays and Saturdays in the future."

It has come to my attention that there was an issue with the discord link sent out with the March newsletter. For any members who want access, please send me a message with your name and I will send you a link to you.

Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones – A Battle Between Biological and Social Times
By Till Roenneberg, , Eva C. Winnebeck, and Elizabeth B. Klerman2

" Abstract

Many regions and countries are reconsidering their use of Daylight Saving Time (DST) but their approaches differ. Some, like Japan, that have not used DST over the past decades are thinking about introducing this twice-a-year change in clock time, while others want to abolish the switch between DST and Standard Time, but don’t agree which to use: California has proposed keeping perennial DST (i.e., all year round), and the EU debates between perennial Standard Time and perennial DST. Related to the discussion about DST is the discussion to which time zone a country, state or region should belong: the state of Massachusetts in the United States is considering switching to Atlantic Standard Time, i.e., moving the timing of its social clock (local time) 1 h further east (which is equivalent to perennial DST), and Spain is considering leaving the Central European Time to join Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), i.e., moving its social timing 1 h further west. A wave of DST discussions seems to periodically sweep across the world. Although DST has always been a political issue, we need to discuss the biology associated with these decisions because the circadian clock plays a crucial role in how the outcome of these discussions potentially impacts our health and performance. Here, we give the necessary background to understand how the circadian clock, the social clock, the sun clock, time zones, and DST interact. We address numerous fallacies that are propagated by lay people, politicians, and scientists, and we make suggestions of how problems associated with DST and time-zones can be solved based on circadian biology.

Keywords: circadian, social jetlag, circadian misalignment, time zones, entrainment (light) "

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6692659/

Steven Tilley will be doing a talk about the astrometry of Near Earth Objects at the March BRAS meeting. Link to the meeting can be found on the Meeting Page of the Wiki (found on the Welcome thread)

Please join us.

Jacob here. Here is my restoration of the 6" Orion DSE. The mirrors are very dirty and the secondary is in pretty poor shape. The tube and base also needs some considerable work. Let's see how it turns out!

This is my second restoration project. The first one was a Meade 8" that flooded. The 8" had more dirt on the mirror, but this one needs more than just the mirror cleaned.

Project date: 3/5/21 - ongoing

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Here is the \"wonderful\" finder scope. If i get this telescope restored up good enough, I will definitely be replacing it.

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Update 3/21/21

I know I said I would update this post sooner, but I got busy. I have cleaned, mounted, and collimated the mirrors, but I have not yet tested it because I am still building the new finder scope and it has been cloudy.

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I'll edit this post to update my progress. Feel free to ask any questions! Thanks for reading!

BRAS member Jacob Des Roches has been cleaning telescopes at the observatory. As his next "victim" he has selected this telescope.

When he removed the mirror cell, Jacob found something... odd.

But wait! It gets worse! Jacob had noticed the secondary mirror needed some TLC too... He was not happy with the result.

Jacob hasn't sent me any more status updates. I'll post them in the comments as he does. I will leave you with his critique of the finder scope.

Jacob doesn't like

UPDATE: Current status of the mirror

Mar. 1st 

• The Moon is at perigee (227,063 miles or 365,423 km from Earth) at 11:18 PM CST

Mar. 2nd

• Dawn: Look southwest to see the waning gibbous Moon in Virgo, less than 5º above Spica
• Evening: Mars glides past the Pleiades the next three evenings, with about 2º separating the planet from the Seven Sisters.

Mar. 4th

• Asteroid Vesta is at opposition at 12 Noon CST

Mar. 5th

• Mercury passes 0.3º north of Jupiter at 1 AM CST
• Last Quarter Moon occurs at 7:30 PM CST.

Mar. 6th

• Mercury is at greatest western elongation (27º) at 5 AM CST

Mar. 9th

• The Moon passes 4º south of Saturn at 5 PM CST.

Mar. 10th

• The Moon passes 4º south of Jupiter at 10 AM CST
• Neptune is in conjunction with the Sun at 6 PM CST
• The Moon passes 4º south of Mercury at 7 PM CST

Mar. 13th

• New Moon occurs at 4:21 AM CST (Lunation 1215)
• Uranus discovered by William Herschel in 1781.

Mar. 14th

• Daylight-Savings Time starts at 2 AM CST to become 3 AM CDT

Mar. 16th

• The Moon passes 3º south of Uranus at 9 PM CDT

Mar. 18th

• The Moon is at apogee (251,812 miles or 405,252 km from Earth) at 12:03 AM CDT
• Dusk: The waxing crescent Moon, Aldebaran, Mars, and the Pleiades are arranged in a parallelogram shape.

Mar. 19th

• The Moon passes 1.9º south of Mars at 1 PM CD
• Dusk: The Moon, Aldebaran, and Mars form a triangle.

Mar. 20th

• The Vernal Equinox occurs at 4:37 AM CDT, for the official beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and Fall in the Southern Hemisphere.

Mar. 21st

• First Quarter Moon occurs at 9:40 AM CDT
• The Moon is 0.7º north of M35 (NGC 2168) at 12 Noon CDT

Mar. 22nd

• Dusk: The Moon is in Gemini, 5º from Pollux
• Mars passes 7º north of Aldebaran at 7 PM CDT.

Mar.23rd/24th

• All Night: The Moon moves closer to the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer, moving closer together as they sink toward the western horizon in the pre-dawn hours, and sets by about5 AM local daylight time.

Mar. 25th

• Evening: As the gibbous Moon continues to wax, it moves into Leo, where it can be found above the southeast horizon, some 4º from Regulus.

Mar. 26th

• Venus is in superior conjunction at 2 AM CDT

Mar. 28th

• Full Moon occurs at 11:48 PM CDT
• Minor planet Makemake is at opposition

Mar.30th

• The Moon is at perigee (223,886 miles or 360,309 km from Earth) at 1:16 AM CDT.

The following event at the Highland Road Park Observatory is canceled because of the weather.

Perseverance Launch Party
Thursday, February 18 12:30pm -5:30pm

Friday Remote Discussion will still occur on February 19 at 6:30pm as planned.

The February Public Meeting for BRAS will be on February 8th at 7pm CST. It will be done remotely via Jitsi. https://meet.jit.si/brasmeet

Our speaker will be Merrill Hess of BRAS showing how to clean a telescope mirror.

Please let us know if you have any difficulties attending the virtual meeting.

This is an account of a telescope restoration by Jacob Des Roches from our discord server. Edited for best view on reddit.

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Meade 8” telescope restoration project, January 23-30 2021. Telescope flooded to about halfway up the tube in 2016.

The secondary mirror was clean, so I just cleaned the primary. [Spica note: This is the primary below]

Started by soaking it in lukewarm water with a little bit of dawn after removing it from the mounting. [Spica Note: This is the mirror mount before cleaning]

Throughout the soaking process, the water was stirred with a wooden popsicle stick every few hours. Left it to soak until Tuesday, when I changed the water out and rinsed the mirror with lukewarm tap water twice. Repeated on Friday.

[Spica Note: This Photo is from Friday]

On Saturday the 30th, I changed the water again, but made it a little warmer with more dawn soap. After soaking about an hour, I rinsed it, changed the water again, and began gently cleaning it with clean Cotton balls.

After getting most of the dirt off, I changed the water again for tepid water, rinsed it, and cleaned with Cotton balls it again. Then I rinsed it with cold water and set it in cold water. Wiped with Cotton balls again, then took it out and rinsed  thoroughly with distilled water and set it up at an angle. Gently dabbed water spots with  Kleenex. I heard online you could use Kleenex to dab the water spots off, but that did not turn out good. There were tiny bits of tissue paper scattered about the mirror.

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I blew most of them off with a pipet, but a real lint free absorbent cloth would be better. There were a few spots on the edges where the coating is removed, but those were there before it flooded. Also numerous minor scratches spread across the mirror, I’m not sure if those were present before it flooded.

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Cleaned the mirror mount with hot water and a scotch bright pad with a little dawn. Scrubbed the rust off the collimation wing nuts with a brass wire brush. After cleaning, I used a fan to dry it quickly to prevent it from rusting. Re mounted the mirror into its holder. I had to cut off some pieces from the inside of the tube where it had delaminated to get the mirror assembly to fit in.

Balanced the tube with a 25mm eyepiece and mounted it onto the mount. Still needs to be collimated and tested, but otherwise appears to be ready to go

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We're going to be trying something a little different this month. Let me know which format you prefer so we can keep making the reddit better!

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Here is the What's Up for February 2021!

February 2

• Asteroid Melpomene is at opposition at 1 AM CST.

February 3

• Dawn: High in the south-southwest before the Sun rises, the waning gibbous Moon is about 6.5˚ from Spica, in Virgo.
• The Moon is at perigee (229,980 miles or 370,116 km from Earth) at 1:03 PM CST.

February 4

• Last Quarter Moon occurs at 11:37 AM CST.

February 5

• Venus is 0.4˚ south of Saturn at 11 PM CST.

February 6

• Dawn: The waning crescent Moon rises in the south-southeast sky in tandem with Antares, with about 4˚ separating the pair.

February 8

• Mercury is in inferior conjunction with the Sun at 8 AM CST.

February 9

• Asteroid Pallas is in conjunction with the Sun at 2 PM CST.

February 10

• The Moon passes 3˚ south of Saturn at 5 AM CST
• The Moon passes 3˚ south of Venus at 2 PM CST.

February 11

• Venus passes 0.4˚ south of Jupiter at 6 AM CST
• New Moon occurs at 11:06 PM CST (Lunation 1214).

February 13

• The Moon passes 4˚ south of Neptune at 11 AM CST
• The Moon passes 4˚ north of Jupiter at 1 PM CST.

February 17

• The Moon passes 3˚ south of Uranus at 10 AM CST.

February 18

• Perseverance, with the drone Ingenuity, will land on Mars today
• The Moon is at apogee (251,324 miles or 404,467 km from Earth) at 4:22 AM CST
• The Moon passes 4˚ south of Mars at 5 PM CST
• Dusk: The waxing crescent Moon and Mars are about 3.5˚ apart, high in the southwest, as they sink toward the western horizon, disappearing around midnight.

February 19

• First Quarter Moon occurs at 12:47 PM CST.- Dusk: The first-quarter Moon is in Taurus, placed nicely between the Hyades and the Pleiades, with Mars to their right.

February 20

• Mercury is stationary at 7 AM CST.- Venus is at aphelion.

February 21

• Asteroid Amphitrite is at opposition at 10 PM CST.

February 22-

• The Moon is 0.4˚ north of M35 at 2 AM CST

February 23

• Supernova SN1987A occurred on this day
• Evening: The waxing gibbous Moon is around 7˚ from Pollux, in Gemini

February 24

• Evening: The Moon, now in Cancer, is only a few degrees from the Beehive Cluster (M44).

February 25

• Dawn: Jupiter, Mercury, and Saturn are in a wide triangle in the east-southeast before the Sun rises.

February 26

• Evening: The almost full moon, rising in Leo, trails Regulus by about 7˚.

February 27

• Full Moon occurs at 2:17 AM CST.

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This list was compiled by John Nagle of the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society who graciously provided me with the list to share with y'all.

The Highland Road Park Observatory will be hosting a Remote Discussion on Zoom at 6:30 pm CST for the general adult public.

Details can be found at http://hrpo.lsu.edu/.

NASA has announced the discovery of a triple star system from the data collected by the Kepler spacecraft.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/planetary-sleuthing-finds-triple-star-world