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News & Announcements   

Dear Members and Friends of CCAS,                               September 17, 2022

As things are beginning to pick up again, yet another update is not amiss, both for our newsletter and for the website. Here goes!

Dark Sky Festival

First, we have a very nice “Dark Sky Festival” event planned together with the Cape Cod National Seashore on Saturday, September 24^th (rain date September 25^th).  For details, Google “Cape Cod National Seashore Events” or try this link: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/event-details.htm?id=C3465C27-F6B0-C9BA-F1994CB27B2DF19B .  The morning program (9 AM – Noon) will feature events oriented to children which will be organized by the Park Rangers. The afternoon (1-5 PM) will feature four general public lectures by CCAS speakers, covering dark skies, Solar System exploration, amateur astronomy, and astrophotography. These events will both be at the Salt Pond Visitor Center. The evening program will be a star party at the Marconi Beach site (730-1000 PM) which will be staffed by both Park Rangers and CCAS members.

For details, consult the Cape Cod National Seashore website. If you are a CCAS member who is  interested in helping with the star party, contact Jim Lynch at jlynchwhoi@gmail.com . We should be adequately staffed, but it never hurts to have a few more knowledgeable members around to help, and to talk to people. This should be a fun event, and we hope to see you there!

Some Interesting Links

The Moon, usually taken as a pest by dark sky observing and photography aficionados, will be a guest of honor this fall, and we’re planning some events around it. These are some web events and photos worth looking at already, and thanks to Jim Head and Ashish Dutta, here are a couple of good links.

1)  INTERNATIONAL OBSERVE THE MOON NIGHT: OCTOBER 1, 2022

International Observe the Moon Night is a worldwide celebration of
lunar science and exploration, celestial observation, and the cultural
and personal connections we have to the Moon. Everyone, everywhere can participate. You can join by hosting or attending an event, or
observing the Moon with your family, friends, or on your own.
Learn more about International Observe the Moon Night, find our
program Moon Map and other resources and activities, links to live
streams of the Moon from telescopes and a NASA TV Broadcast, and
register your participation on:
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe
Raise awareness and share your experience participating on social
media, tagging #ObserveTheMoon.

2)  Here is a “composite image” of the Moon that is absolutely beautiful!
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/22/1118713393/astrophotographers-moon-reddit-image

Turning to some non-lunar items, here are two more good links that Jim Head supplied!

3)  Rhode Island AstroAssembly:
http://www.theskyscrapers.org/astroassembly2022

4) And for a rather weird Astro-connection –  Dung Beetle/Milky Way link:
https://spaceweather.com/

Upcoming Speakers

We also have a very good speaker lineup this fall. All will be on Zoom, and the November talk will be live at DYHS as well.

October – James Lowenthal from Smith College will talk about gravitationally lensed distant starburst galaxies and what the JWST might have to say about them.

November – Martin Elvis from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will talk about his recent book: “Asteroids: How Love, Fear and Greed Will Determine Our Future In Space.”

December – Nathan Whitehorn from Michigan State University will be talking about neutrino astronomy.

Closing Remarks for this Update

We are making efforts to get updated information on our website, and not just in our newsletter. These will be reflected under the category headings, rather than in the “Introductory Remarks” section!