	Sun	Moon
Rise	6:43	22:03		20.6d
Set	16:21	12:08	65.9%

September 2009

Programs
Articles

September 4: Monthly Meeting

NASA’s upcoming Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Mission

Skyscrapers' September monthly meeting will feature a talk by Brendan Hermalyn on NASA's upcoming Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Mission.

Brendan Hermalyn is a graduate student at Brown University in Planetary Sciences, and is a science team member on the LCROSS mission with Dr. Peter Schultz. His graduate work is focused on understanding the ejecta distribution resulting from hypervelocity impacts.

In 1999, the Lunar Prospector mission detected hydrogen signatures in permanently shadowed craters on the poles of the moon. These signatures may indicate the presence of water ice in some form on the surface of the moon. The goal of the LCROSS mission is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed region on the moon, and to constrain the properties of the lunar regolith in that region. On October 9th, 2009, LCROSS will use the upper stage of the launch vechicle as a kinetic impactor to form a crater and excavate of sub-surface material. The impact and resulting ejecta will be viewed and analyzed by a suite of instruments on a shepherding spacecraft as well as a comprehensive earth-based observational campaign. The ejecta curtain is expected to be viewable on earth by 10-12 inch telescopes or larger, providing a unique opportunity for amateur observation. This talk will go over the details of the mission and expected observation possibilities.

Visual Observing With The 40-Inch Yerkes Refractor

September 2009 : By Steve Hubbard

With it’s incredible 40-inch refractor, Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay Wisconsin has long been on my list of “those places that I’d love to visit, but just haven’t been able to make it to yet.” At the end of September 2009, I and Dan Lorraine, Jack Szelka, Joe Sarandrea, Jim Hendrickson, Glenn Jackson and John Briggs of The Skyscrapers Inc. amateur astronomy society of Rhode Island got the chance to not only visit Yerkes, but had the rare opportunity of a night of exclusive observing with the 40-inch.

Epsilon Pegasi: The Pendulum Star

September 2009 : By Glenn Chaple

Epsilon Pegasi (Enif) is an optical double star comprised of magnitude 2.5 and 8.7 component stars separated by 144 seconds of arc. Pairs this wide usually don’t merit much consideration, but wait! Epsilon Pegasi has a surprise for us.

Building an Equatorial Mount

September 2009 : By James Brenek

I have seen a lot of fine instruments produced by our members and thought I might want to try my hand at a couple of projects. My main reason for doing this project was to have a mount that tracks and does not have to be manually moved to follow an object.

Cygnus X-1: A Black Hole You Can Find!

September 2009 : By Craig Cortis

Unusual celestial objects having bizarre or extreme astrophysical properties often make highly desirable observing targets for amateur astronomers wishing to find things outside the scope of the usual, customary star party “menu”. So how do you find something that even the Hubble Space Telescope can’t image in visible light? The answer is surprisingly simple and is my topic for this month.

The Pleasures of Jupiter

September 2009 : By Dave Huestis

Now is a good time to focus your telescope on Jupiter. Almost 400 years ago Galileo Galilei first trained his improved 30 power telescope on this huge world and observed four moons revolving about it. These observations were helpful in settling the Copernican (Sun-centered) versus Aristotelian (Earth-centered) controversy. You too can observe Jupiter and his Galilean moons to experience first-hand the motions of these Jovian satellites which helped to change our place in the solar system and the universe.

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