Activities & Events

  •  The EAS will participate in the Seattle Science Festival's event 'Puget Sound and Beyond Star Party', by hosting a public observing night at Harborview Park in Everett from 4:00 pm until midnight on Saturday June 8th. Telescopes will be set up for public viewing of the Sun, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, various star clusters, galaxies, and nebulae visible from Everett.
  • Our June club meeting will be on Saturday the 22nd at 3pm at the Evergreen branch library in South Everett. The speaker has not been confirmed.
  • Our May club meeting was on Saturday the 25th at the Evergreen branch library in South Everett. EAS member Ken Hoffman gave an excellent presentation on “Getting Started with DSLR Astro-Imaging”.
    Ken covered some fundamental topics, and provide some handouts with tips and info.

    His talk included:
    • How I use tools, like Stellarium and Cartes Du Ceil, to pick my scope for a target
    • Low / medium cost guiding
    • Low cost tools to control your camera
    • DSS: Darks, Flats, Bias, etc., for ‘calibrating’ your image
    • Tweaking the final image
    • Camera mods and filters

EAS member Ron Tam has offered a flexible opportunity to EAS members to come to his home north of Snohomish for observing on clear weekend evenings and for EAS star parties. Anyone wishing to do so needs to contact him in advance and confirm available dates, and let him know if plans change. “Our place is open for star parties any Saturday except weekends of the Full Moon. People can call to get weather conditions or to confirm that there is a star party. Our phone number is (360) 568-5152. They can e-mail me too (tam1951 at frontier.com) but I don't check my email daily. They can email me for directions if they have never been out here.” Listed below are proposed dates for planned EAS star parties at my *Ron Tam’s place, depending upon the weather, of course. Call Ron about spur-of-the- moment observing.

Upcoming Star Parties
Date:
(weather permitting)		 Location of Star Party
  Shutdown for the winter. Will resume in the spring.

Astro Calendar
June
Jun 05-07 Sedona Star Festival, Sedona, Arizona
Jun 06-09 Cherry Springs Star Party 2013, Cherry Springs State Park, PA
Jun 12 Mercury at its greatest eastern elongation (24 degrees) western sky
Jun 16 Kuiper Belt Object 50000 Quaoar at opposition (42.05 AU)
Jun 20 Mercury passes 2.0 degrees from Venus
Jun 20 Asteroid 3325 TARDIS closest approach to Earth (2.26 AU)
Jun 21 Summer Solstice, 05:04 UT
Jun 22 EAS Meeting - 3:00 PM at Evergreen branch library
Jun 24 Moon occults Pluto
July
Jul 01 Dwarf planet 134340 Pluto at opposition (31.45 AU)
Jul 05 Earth at aphelion (1.017 AU from Sun)
Jul 08 Asteroid 99942 Apophis closest approach to Earth (0.24 AU)
Jul 10-14 Mason-Dixon Star Party, Welllsville, Pennsylvania
Jul 21 Moon occults Pluto
Jul 22 Mars passes 0.8 degrees from Jupiter
Jul 29 South Delta-Aquarids meteor shower peak
Jul 30 Mercury at its greatest western elongation (20 degrees) morning sky
Jul 31 Mars Spring Equinox