Ventura County Astronomical Society

Run outside an catch the BLUE MOON and MARS!! It's a quite a sight! Mars is bright orange/red and the moon is pale yellow/white. You will not see another full moon on Halloween until 2039! BTW, the moon will NOT be blue. it's just a term for a second full moon in a same month, averaging 2.5 blue moons!

The clouds stayed away long enough tonight to see a nice conjunction of the Moon with both Jupiter and Saturn.

From Matthew D Brown While I save up for the telescope I want right now most of my astronomy consists of laying on an air mattress at night trying to learn the constellations in detail. I go up to the parking lot of Happy Camp Park in Moorpark a few times a month, where I have to use binoculars to see some of the fainter stars. As occasion permits, usually around a new moon, I take my wife to Red Rock Canyon State Park just north of Mojave, under Bortle Class 3 skies. It's gr...eat, because there are no people. Last night on the way home from Utah we found another great location. We camped at Afton Campground, just a few miles off the I-15 between Baker and Barstow. Bortle Class 2 (light grey), though I don't think it was much better than Red Rock Canyon. It's a BLM site, so only $6 a night. The downside is that the camp ground seems to fill up quickly. But it's a great stop over if you are heading to, or coming from that direction. Thank you for your inspiring story Matthew See more

FREE MEMBERSHIP to VCAS Ventura County Astronomical Society is offering "Free" trial Memeberships for the duration of the COVID pandemic. For details email: [email protected] and write "I read about your free membership offer in Facebook."

Supernova SN2020uxz in NGC 514 If the brightness of a dazzling red Mars is hurting your eyes try something a little farther away, about 80 million light years. Ten degrees northeast of Mars is the galaxy NGC 514.... Supernova SN2020uxz was discovered by Koichi Itagaki on Oct 5 in the outer spiral arm of galaxy NGC 514. At discovery the supernova was magnitude 16.5. Spectra taken Oct.15 by the British Astronomical Association at the Three Hills Observatory confirmed it had grown ten times brighter and was a young type 1a supernova. So it should continue to brighten for a few more days. I took the image below at midnight last night, Oct 16. Comparing to nearby stars, SN2020uxz seems to have reached magnitude 13.8. As supernova type 1a often do it is now brighter than its entire host galaxy.

Join Our Zoom Webinar, October 16th @ 8:30pm for Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, Navigation Engineer for JPL She'll talk about the Mars 2020 Rover Live If you want to watch and be part of the Q&A after... Click on this link from 8:20 to 8:25 to download the Zoom App << https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85937763204 >> If you want to watch without Downloading the ZOOM App Click on this link from 8:25 to 8:30, but don't be late << https://us02web.zoom.us/wc/join/85937763204 >>

Mars is in Opposition to Earth Meaning the It's exactly opposite the Earth from the Sun not that the "Angry Red Planet" has decalred war upon us (once again). Check out this recent Photo by former VCAS President Mike Chibnick

The Andromeda Galaxy is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. For good reason, it is the nearest and therefor brightest and largest visible spiral galaxy. Also it is beautiful! Near is relative. This galaxy is still 2.5 million light years away.... It was 97 years ago this week that Edwin Hubble using the, then largest Mt. Wilson 100 inch telescope, realized that a star he'd been photographing in the Andromeda Nebula was a special type. This type of Cepheid variable star had been discovered by Henrietta Leavitt in 1908 to vary over a period of time depending on it’s intrinsic brightness. Ms. Levitt’s careful work made it possible to use Cepheids as a ruler or a standard candle. So if Hubble could measure how bright the star appeared and how long it took to oscillate he could calculate how far away the galaxy was from us. Hubble showed this hazy spiral was not just gas inside our galaxy but was itself another galaxy much, much farther away and probably bigger than our own galaxy. The human concept of the size of the universe had to grow by several orders of magnitude. Whenever you see images of the Andromeda galaxy you may notice two other hazy patches M32 and M101. These are small satellite galaxies that orbit Andromeda. It is now known to have over 20 small satellites. Most of these are very faint but two more, just six degrees north of the Andromeda galaxy can be found with amateur scopes. NGC 147 and NGC 185 form a binary pair and orbit about their center of mass as they orbit the much larger Andromeda galaxy. From a dark sky location the Andromeda galaxy is visible to the un-aided eye. If you do find it, remember how long those weary photons have been traveling just to land on your retina and stimulate your brain. Dennis Willett VCAS Equipment Chairperson

Harvest Moon October 1st 2020 Courtesy of Hal Jandorf

Clash of the Titans No its not another candidate debate but a pre-Christmas gift. Perhaps a bit too early a warning but not to early to mark your calendar and plan a trip to a spot with a very clear and low southwestern horizon. Our south facing beaches, if clear, would be excellent places to observe the event.... It will be a conjunction (close approach) of Jupiter and Saturn. Two heavy weights of the solar system vie for space. The two planets have been in the same neighborhood for weeks. Now Jupiter will start catching up to Saturn and slide-by very, very close in December. The absolute closest they'll get is 6 arc minutes (one tenth of a degree) at 6 am Dec 21 Southern California local time but the planets will not be visible then. However the evenings before and after, Dec. 20 & 21, will have the best shows, immediately after sunset. The simulated views below provide a naked eye view at 7 pm Dec 20 and high power (222x) telescopic views on Dec 20 and 21. The human eye can see two equally bright objects apart as small as one arc minute, however Saturn will be only 1/11 the brightness of Jupiter so some folks will see them as one. You will only have about one hour each evening before the planets set. Your next opportunity to see a Jupiter & Saturn conjunction will be in the pre-dawn hour around Oct 28 2040! That conjunction will NOT be as good. The planets will only approach to about one degree separation and will appear even closer in the sun’s glare. Its best to try for this coming December. Dennis Willett VCAS Equipment Chairperson

Thse images were taken by former VCAS President Mike Chibnik on Sept 19th at 4am

Tonight is International Observe the Moon Night. At 9:30 pm the moon will be directly south at it’s highest point in the sky tonight. To the Moons right will be Saturn and Jupiter.... If you look at the Moon with Binoculars or a small telescope look for the Apollo 11 landing site. That is marked by a red X on the lower left photo I took on Aug 30. The Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins each have small craters near the landing site name after them. Humans are planning to go back to the Moon in 2024 ! With a higher power telescope you can feel as if you’re flying over the rough Lunar landscape. The lower right photo I took a few nights ago shows the mountains that form the "eastern shore of Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Showers and a valley that cuts through. The Imbrium Basin is the largest Impact feature on the Moon. Imagine the asteroid that caused that 1300 km diameter ring of mountains. Safe observing Dennis Willett

Two Extra-Galactic SuperNovae are accessible to amateur telescopes now. SN 2020ssf in the host galaxy NGC 7722 (204 Million light years away) Located in the square of Pegasus. Discovered Sept. 6 at about 17.5 magnitude. Now upto about 14.3 magnitude. Type Ia, useful as a "standard candle.... These types are thought to be caused by material falling onto a white dwarf star until it’s mass exceeds what the white dwarf can support. The star collapses and explodes. The mass limit is very narrow (~ 1.4 times the sun’s mass) and the explosions are constantly the same size. and SN 2020tlf in the host galaxy NGC 5731 (134 Million light years away). Located in the northern part of the constellation Bootes (134 Million light years away) Discovered Sept 16 at about 16 magnitude. This is a type IIn supernova, not a standard candle. IIn supernova ejecta are crashing into previously ejected shells of material. This type IIn are believed to be caused by massive stars (greater than 8 times the sun’s mass). These large stars puff out a lot of gas before their fatal collapse.