April 2020 President’s message
by Steve Hubbard
Dear fellow members of Skyscrapers. I’ve struggled to write a message to you all this month. It’s hard to see much further than a few days and sometimes even hours out from the middle of this pandemic.
This is usually the beginning of the time when we can all start to enjoy some warmer nights and the many, many galaxies and other deep sky treats that the spring skies have to bring us.
This year sadly things have come to a very abrupt halt.
We don’t know how long this will affect us all and what the future brings, but we still can always have our love of the night sky.
Ours is a somewhat solitary pleasure and social distancing shouldn’t keep you from going out there with your telescope, binoculars or just your eyeballs. Going out to see the night sky is something that isn’t quarantined and is a way for all of us to still try and share the wonders of the universe together.
For now, our elections and meetings are on hold. We don’t know what the future will bring and when we can start to get back to normal.
I’m sure you all join me in hoping that that happens soon and that we can get back together as a group to enjoy time and interest together.
Oh…and by the way…whenever it’s clear be sure to start checking out comet Atlas. It’s a binocular object now and has prospects to brighten up over the next couple of months. I’ve seen some projections that it could brighten to between magnitude +1 to even -5! Lets hope that it gets to the brighter end of the range and doesn’t disintegrate as it gets closer to the Sun in a couple of months.
To help you find it, here is a web site: https://theskylive.com/where-is-c2019y4
