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On first looking through Baade’s window Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, And many goodly stars and clusters seen; Round celestial islands have I been With telescope after telescope to the night sky hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That Galileo ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Baade speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new star cluster swims into his ken; Through his majestic window looks upon the Milky Way He star’d at the centre of our galaxy. Like a diamond shining in the sky, with a wild surmise— Silent, through the mists of space and time. (–Keats, Chapman’s Homer sonnet, adapted for this article.) Lying in the western portion of Sagittarius, the archer, is a small region of sky that has unusual importance for astronomers around the world and which to med is one of the most beautiful things in the whole sky.  It was most thoroughly studied by the German astronomer Walter Baade while using the great 100-inch Hooker reflector at Mt. Wilson Observatory in California while searching for the center of […]

What an excellent outing with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Young Men’s Encampment! There were about 60 guests on site, and what a pleasure! We started off with a fairly detailed tour of the whole facility followed by a bit of Lunar viewing thru John’s refractor and Cecil running the 20″ Newt… Jim fielded questions in between folks looking at the site and looking thru gear while I demoed the classroom/dome and gave a quick demo of the 14″ SCT… So special thanks to those members! Thanks to Alan, Rusty and Sam who were able to come out, but due to the cloudy weather, I asked that they only come out if they wanted as there would be little to see with the 50% or more cloud cover. As usual, we were tied up with guests and didn’t get much in the line of pictures… but I did take 2 quick shots in the classroom/dome. Again, thanx to the youth group, and you are welcome back any time!!!

Hi all! Tomorrow, Tuessday, August 2nd, from 6PM to 8PM I will be at the Riverdale, IA Fire Station for public solar viewing. On the evening of Wednesday, August 3rd we have the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Young Men’s Encampment at the Menke/QCAS Observatory…  about 70 guests are anticipated. On Monday, August 15th we have our 7 PM club meeting at St Ambrose, McCarthy Hall (lower level) or via Zoom. On Saturdays, August 20th, 27th and September 3rd we have public nites at the Menke/QCAS Observatory. As a member, your attendance at at least a couple events is appreciated. Clear Skies! Jeff

Great Meteor Shower Party at the Menke/QCAS Observatory last nite! —— THE RAFFLE WINNER —— From Riverdale, Iowa! Anthony H! —— CONGRATULATIONS!!! —— Thank you to all that purchased tickets, and those that attended the event!!! We did see a number of ‘Shooting Stars’… and folks were able to look thru a number of member scopes as well as 2 of the very large scopes permanently set up at the observatory. Objects viewed included the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter with their moons… Whirlpool, Bodes, and Cigar galaxies… Ring, Dumbell, and Blue Snowball Nebulae… Alberio and Mizar Binary Star Systems… M3, M,13, M22, M53 and NGC457 Star Clusters… all pretty awesome! But to me one of the coolest things is that the Milky Way was clearly and fully visible! A special thanx to club members, Robert, Jim, Sam, Mike, Travis, Cecil, John and Dana for helping with the event. On Tuessday, August 2nd I will be at the Riverdale, IA Firestation from 6PM to 8PM for public solar viewing. On Monday, August 15th our club meeting, will be held at St Ambrose University McCarthy Hall or virtually via Zoom… guests always welcome! On Saturday, August 20, 27th and September 3rd we […]

Weather pending, the Quad Cities Astronomical Society (QCAS) will be hosting it’s annual Meteor Shower Party, a free public viewing session, on Saturday, July 30th. The event begins shortly after sunset. Their observatory is located near the entrance of the Wapsi River Environmental Educational Center outside of Dixon, Iowa. A Google Map link to the site is as follows: https://goo.gl/maps/svKoY9kGvQ6sQuaN8 This facility house’s some of the areas largest telescopes including 30″, 20″,and 12″ Newtonians and a 14″ computer controlled Schmidt Cassegrain, all expected to be available for guests to look through. There will generally be member telescopes doing a variety of things in addition to visual astronomy such as electronically assisted astronomy (EAA) and astrophotography. After the event, the QCAS will be raffling off a new 4.5″ Orion Starblast table top Dobsonian telescope! This is a great entry level scope, and a great grab-n-go scope for the more advanced… it even could make a great finder scope if you have a large telescope! Tickets are $2 each or three for $5 and are available at the event… you can also do a Reply and maybe we can meet up for the purchase of tickets. You don’t need to be present […]

The sky reborn Ever since I read Bart J. Bok’s foreword to Rose Wilder’s and Gerald Ames’ The Golden Book of Astronomy, I have marvelled at what the night sky had to offer and how much of that has changed. “Such wonders,” Bok wrote, ”fill this book.” I have never forgotten those beauties, in particular Bart’s favourite: The Eta Carinae nebula, deep in the southern sky. On Tuesday, July 12, 2022, NASA released the first light pictures from the Webb telescope. One of them is the Eta Carinae nebula. If Bart Bok could come back to us for one minute, he would be thrilled and elated beyond expression. The image is unadulterated joy. It shows so much more than anyone has ever seen before. It tells how this faint star suddenly became the second brightest star in the sky in 1843, the year of a great comet, and it had a second eruption near the end of the 19th century. If Eta Carinae should one day become a supernova it may become as bright as, or even much brighter than, Venus. The other picture that really got to me was Stephan’s Quintet. It was the first compact group of interacting […]

We had a great turn out at the Putnam today. Inside displays included: John displaying club astrophotography Robert with solar system planets and active artificial satellites and a Webb PowerPoint. Jeff with Wilton Observatory solar display, Quad City Coin Club astronomy in numismatics display. Dino brought in space rocks and display. Sam brought the Orion Starblast for the July 30th raffle. Outdoors Rolando, Cecil, and Rusty set up solar scopes for viewing. Great event!

Hi all! Dispite the evil orb and a bit of dew, we had a great outing last night! For those that missed it, you really need to try and attend future activities! Cecil manned the 20″ Newtonian in the roll off roof building, Robert manned the 14″ Schmidt Cassegrain, and from the classroom I remoted into the Wilton School Systems Observatory to use their 12″ Schmidt Cassegrain. Outside, Travis set up his 6″ Dob and brought friends Chas & Adrian who joined the QCAS last night! Welcome Chas and Adrian and thank you Travis! Rolando, assisted by Sam, set up an astrophotography rig as did John… we’ll watch for any images they’d like to share. Last but not least we did have a few guests as well, and we all had quite the time chatting about gear and checking out various objects… the objects viewed included The Moon… the Dumbell, Little Dumbell, Blue Snowball and the Ring Nebulae… Albierio and the Garnet Star… the Hercules, Wild Duck, Owl, M92 and M2 Star Clusters… the Cigar and Whirlpool Galaxies… and to wrap things up, Saturn and a few of it’s moons. Again, thanks to all in attendance and welcome to Adrian […]

Skyward for July 2022 The Meteor Shower that wasn’t, but not so much By David H. Levy On May 30 observers all across the western hemisphere were outside, hoping to see a wonderful “new” meteor shower. The shower is actually not new. It is called the Tau Herculids, and it sends us dust particles from Comet Schwassmann-Wachman III. In 1995 this normally faint comet brightened dramatically as it split into several parts, releasing huge amounts of dust into space. On May 30, at 10 pm Mountain Standard time, the Earth plowed through the debris released in 1995. We were hoping for a possible meteor storm of hundreds of thousands of meteors. Wendee and I sat outside at Jarnac observatory, waited, watched, and waited some more. There was one bright meteor that seemed too far from the direction my camera was pointing for its lens to detect. Ten o’clock came and went, and we counted a few shooting stars here and there. Over the course of the evening we counted 18 meteors. But a meteor storm? To use the Yiddish word that means what you think it means, we saw bupkis. Somewhat disappointed, we went indoors and completed a quiet evening. […]

Nothing in the night sky quite beats a total eclipse of the Moon. Other than a shooting star, eclipses prove to all who watch them that the sky is a changing place. During the several hours of a lunar eclipse, we can actually watch as the Moon slowly orbits the Earth, and as it passes through the shadow of the Earth we can enjoy its changing illumination. Last Sunday evening, May 15, 2022, there was a total eclipse of the Moon. It was perfectly timed for observers throughout most of North America. On the east coast, the eclipse began in mid-evening. For those of us who live in Arizona, in the great American southwest, the eclipse began just as the Moon was rising, and it ended late in the hours of the evening. As the Moon marched its way eastward, the penumbral shadow manifested itself as a shading, slowly dimming the Moon’s light as it spread across. Gradually the eastward facing limb, or edge, of the Moon grew darker and darker. About 90 minutes into the event, the full and profound darkness of the umbra, the central shadow of the Earth, struck the Moon’s leading edge. Over the next hour […]