The planet Mercury makes an appearance in our evening sky this month, though it’s not the best of the year. The planet makes a slow ascent above the west-southwestern sky. Though Mercury was officially above the horizon in late October, you probably won’t get a good look at it until after the middle of November. …
Author: jimw
We pretty much got clouded out for the partial solar eclipse on October 14th (though we did get to see it for about 30 seconds through a hole in the clouds. My thanks to Jim Wehmer, Erik Johnson, Jeff Kouzmanoff and I apologize if I missed someone. Special thanks to Jeff for taking the tent …
We have had quite a few club events since the last meeting and I truly appreciate everyone’s time. The cookout was a blast and I probably ate too much. Go figure! We all agreed it would be cool to bring a portable fire pit out there for our next one. Maybe even a guitar! I …
I suppose it’s cliché to say “where did the summer go?” Autumn begins this month which means shorter days but also longer nights for skywatching. There’s a lot going on this fall! I hope you can participate! If I’m being honest, I was a bit disappointed in the Perseid Meteor Shower. We saw 91 meteors …
Happy August, everyone. As I write this the heat indices are near triple digits. Welcome to the “Dog Days of August.” At least we’re not in Phoenix, eh? There’s quite a few sky events happening this month from the opposition of Saturn, an occultation of the bright star Antares and of course the Perseid Meteor …
Ah, the month of July is upon us! It wasn’t that long ago that I got back from the Rocky Mountain Star Stare. This is the star party that is scheduled during a New Moon weekend near the summer solstice. It is run by the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society on their “starry meadow” where Gardiner, …
Happy summer, everyone! Hard to believe it’s June already. We have a lot going on in CUAS and we appreciate you being along for the ride. I’ll try to summarize a few things for you here. First, I appreciate your patience during the May meeting. Lets face it – reviewing any group’s by-laws will cure …
Happy May everyone. We have several items on our to-do list. As you’ll read in the news section, the quote from SK Exteriors was voted down at the April meeting. True, the amount of money was pretty substantial but the job would be done. Several indicated we could either do some of the work ourselves …
PRAIRIE WINDS OBSERVATORY IS SOLAR POWERED! We have never been connected to the grid. We removed the single solar panel which was used only for opening and closing the roll-off-roof. In the past, we had to start the generator. The switch was thrown on January 23rd to allow the installed solar panels on the south …
Happy spring, everyone! Though I’m anxious to see spring come, lets face it . . . the winter was pretty mild. Though, in saying that, I guess there was a tornado touch down just west of my house this morning (Monday). Crazy. You can thank me for the minimal amount of snow we’ve received. Why? …