by Ludovico D’Angelo, Director AAAP

I hope you are all noticing that there is no snow on the ground, and the weather has been very mild for November and so far in December. Enjoy it. Get outside. Breathe the fresh night air. Look at Orion rising, Jupiter high in the sky and Venus with the setting Sun.

StarQuest, for those who attended, was a great success.

Hope Center, Starquest site. Photo credit: Michael Wright

The night of Friday, November 18th was very clear, and many deep sky objects were seen. Bill Murray had his large Dob there and was picking objects out of the sky for all to see. Newcomer, Chandra, struggled with his first-time set up in the dark, but we got him on track. Gene Ramsey set up his homemade personal observing tent and was very comfortable. Michael Wright and his wife Lynn enjoyed the night sky through his modified ETX 90. John Masters, Henry Kugel, John Giles, Saul Moroz were also in attendance.

It was cold (down to the mid 20’s), but the lodge kept us warm. The coffee and hot chocolate was flowing. The Milky Way was present; not bad for New Jersey. Unfortunately, the next night was not so good and everyone left after dinner since there was no sky to see, unless you could see through the clouds. But before everyone left Saturday evening, there was the day. During the day there was Solar observing, a trip to Jenny Jump, a great astrophotography talk given by Robert Vanderbei, and great food and conversation.

I read today that the Voyager spacecraft are still going strong, which is a huge human achievement when you think about it. Launched in the late 1970’s, they continue their journey into interstellar space. See http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html for more information. It is fascinating.

Our next meeting is December 13th at 8 p.m. The speaker will be Dr. Gaspar Bakos. He will present a talk entitled ‘Hunting for Transiting Extrasolar Planets’

See you all on the 13th at 8PM in Peyton Hall!