CIAS Newsletter January 2016

A Happy New Year (Gregorian calendar) to all!  I understand the December meeting was very successful with clear skies and much seen – the weather in Cayman has, I can tell you from first-hand experience, been considerably better than in the UK and Ireland – where the rain storms now have names; “Frank” in particular caused major flooding and has been attributed to global warming or the El Nino depending on which paper you read. 

Over the Christmas period Richard also fitted in two fund raising outreach trips to the Marriott Hotel – thanks very much Richard! 

The next General Public meeting will be at St Pedro’s Castle on Wednesday Jan 13^th – starting at around 6:30 PM. Usual rules apply with regard to the weather- if more than 50 percent cloudy then the meeting will be cancelled – you may phone me (not text) – 925 7657  at around 6 PM for  an update if there is any uncertainty. Non-members are asked to park outside and walk in.

This coming year is an important one, with events both Earth-based and in the sky. I have listed below a list of events planned for this year with the intention to call what will be a very important AGM in May.

Meanwhile we can have a lot of fun before we get there - so let’s do it!  

Calendar so far for 2016

Jan 13^th                 General Meeting (Confirmed) – Pedro’s Castle

Feb 13^th                 General Meeting (Provisional) – Pedro’s Castle

Feb 27^th                 Red Sky at Night (4^th year on Astronomical Avenue- almost Confirmed)

March                    Campaign to start Astronomy Societies in Schools and Clubs in Grand Cayman

April                     Campaign to start Astronomy Societies in Schools and Clubs in Sister Islands

May 5/6^th             The Eta Aquarids meteor shower (fast and 20-60 per hr.)

May 9^th                 Transit of Mercury (Monday- daytime)

May 22^nd              Mars Opposition: Brightest and nearest since 2005!

May (EOM)          AGM to be announced- CIAS the way onwards

Oct                        Next UCCI STEM Conference.

As of next month there will be a new email account for the Society- cayman.astronomy@yahoo.com

All correspondences should be directed to that email account. I am only human and mistakes will be made so let me know if you think you have fallen off the distribution list. Of course, you may wish to take this opportunity to remove your name too.

Morning Skies January 

We start this month by looking in the morning sky. There is so much going on at that time at the moment. Sunrise is still quite late (7 AM) so there are good opportunities to see Venus and Saturn, for example, especially on Jan 9^th when they can be seen in the South Eastern sky less than ½ a degree apart.  Both planets are in Scorpius and the red star Antares can be seen approx. 10 degrees further south. Overhead and to the West is bright Jupiter in Leo and midway between Jupiter and Venus – is Mars.  Towards the end of the month Mercury will also be just visible, low in the morning sky before dawn. Jan 4th was the maximum of the Quadrantids meteor shower- I have seen two already since my return.

Comet Catalina never made the grade although it now has two tails and is around magnitude 6.5 not far from Arcturus – almost directly overhead in the morning sky – see the finder chart above.

Evening Skies January

Now we turn to the evening sky. Sunset on the 13^th is around 6:00 PM – the chart below is for 7:30PM and is taken from the excellent site Heavens-Above.com. This is a great site for satellite predictions too- unfortunately there are not any obvious crossings of the International Space Station this month.

Note Orion and the twins (Gemini) in South-East and East – and Canis Major (one of Orion’s hunting dogs) in the South-East. The great river Eridanus runs from Orion’s feet way into the Southern Hemisphere skies in the South – finishing at the star Achernar- a blue white star (mag 0.5). The name means “the rivers end” and is not seen North of Miami. The constellation has many mythical stories based on Roman, Greek and Egyptian rivers and involving souls, scorched trails of runway chariots etc. – Interestingly in our “new” popular culture the planet Vulcan, as in Star Trek, is shown to be located at 40 Eridani - and in the popular game Halo the planet Reach orbits Epsilon Eridani

Let’s Hope for Clear Skies Everyone!!  Don’t forget our Website and Facebook page too.

Chris Cooke 925 7657 

December Newsletter 2015

Greetings star watchers.

Thanks to all who stepped forward to help put at The Marriot last week especially our newest member Janet Rush, the bad news is she is a migratory visitor to the Islands and not back until April.

Meanwhile recently in Jamaica I was lucky enough to meet up with Errol and Martin Rickman of the Jamaican Astronomical Association of Jamaica – this Compass article appeared as a result of the meeting. http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2015/11/27/Jamaican-stargazers-to-help-Cayman-students-see-in-the-dark/. 

We were given a number of small telescopes which will be used to get our local schools to be inspired enough to start their own Astronomy Society. I intend to have a meeting in the New Year on how we do this, what schools should be involved etc. Ideally we want the schools to approach us as these schools have the best chance to do this. . We know already the schools that have done that – and better it’s a mixture of private and Government Schools – but it does bother me some schools appear to have no interest in Astronomy at all .

So lets move on to Decembers Skies.

Firstly there’s a comet in the morning sky – and as its Christmas its one of the candidates for the Star of Bethlehem of course. Comet Catalina seems to have two tails and to find it look at the chart to the left. Two mornings in particular will help you find the comet, On Dec 8 ^th the Moon and Venus will form a triangle, but on January 1^st the comet will be very close to the star Arcturus!  As I type this newsletter the comet is only magnitude 5.5. As we know comets are notoriously fickle and mostly end as a damp squib. However sometimes they are utterly stunning. Fingers crossed.

December also brings a rare event in the afternoon of December the 7^th when the planet Venus will disappear behind the disk of a slim 1 percent illuminated phase of the Moon –In Cayman (see chart below) the Start is 12:40 and a reappear 14:40 PM.  Its not very well known but it is possible – with the right pointers - to see planets during the day time. So this event should be possible to see with binoculars BUT Please keep your vision well away from the Sun!

It will also be worth catching Venus and the Moon in the early morning sky on that day too.

The New Moon is on the 11^th so the meeting to be confirmed will be around the 13^th which is lucky because this year is particularly good for the Geminid meteor shower with a maximum on December 13^th to the 14^th. There’s no moon to interfere with the peak hour (just after midnight) and a maximum of 120 per hour is predicted this year.

The following star chart for Grand Cayman is for the evening of the 13^th at around 8 PM. In the West Cygnus is now setting – The Great Square of Pegasus is almost overhead and Orion and the two twins (Gemini) are in the East.  Planet wise Jupiter is rising late in the evening. It will be possible to get a glimpse of Mercury right at the end of the Month just after sunset. Again take care with binoculars

December the 22^nd is the Winter Solstice and a day length of 10 hours 58m – not bad at all

So that leaves me to say a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year- one I feel will have lots of changes for me at least.