Bluegrass Amateur Astronomy Club (Lexington, KY)

Due to weather, Raven run observing is cancelled tonight.

Our May observing is at Raven Run is this Saturday night, the 7th. The sun sets around 8:35, so the gates should be open around 8:05 This with telescopes should enter the unpaved road by the black barn about .15 of a mile before the main gate on Jacks Creek Rd. and drive to Prather Field beyond the old house to park and set up. Those without 'scopes should park in the lot beyond the main gate and walk to the field. Park personnel will be there to direct you. If the weather is "iffy", call the park at 272-6105 an hour or so before sunset to see whether observing will take place.

The club's remaining monthly observing meetings this year are: June 4, July 2, August 6, Sept. 3, Oct.1, and Oct. 29.

BGAAC has observing at the darker skies at Shaker Village.The dates are May 28 at 9:30, July 9 at 9:45, and Oct. 22 at 7:45. Back up date for July is Aug. 27 at 9:15. There isn't a back up for Oct. and the May date is a back up for the April rain out.

The Physics and Astronomy Dept.'s May "Sky Talk" is Thursday, the 12th, in Room 155 of UK's Chemistry-Physics Bldg. It will feature Observatory Director Tim Knauer talking about "Fundamental Astronomy: Where is that Star in the Sky? And Will It Stay There?"

The Shaker Village observing session is cancelled for tonight.

The make-up date is May 28th. Hopefully, there will be clear skies then and with no threat of severe T-storms.

The Club will hold an observing session at Shaker Village this Sat., April 30. Sunset is about 8:30. You can find a map here.The site is the amphitheater (No. 28). There is a road from the parking lot to the amphitheater that goes by the washhouse (No. 23). Follow it. There is a break in the fence wide enough to drive a vehicle through. BGAAC members can stay until the wee hours.

There is a $5 fee to enter Shaker Village. If the weather does not cooperate an email will be sent to members no later than 7:00 p.m. to let you know if the observing is a go, and the website will be updated as well.

April has been a good month for observing! The weather is finally starting to warm up, and there were several clear days mid month that were good for observing and astrophotography! Below are some pictures taken by our members. Please click on the images to see the full size versions.

The first set of pictures come from Rick Schrantz, our club President. He took some quite amazing pictures of Jupiter. Here are his notes:

"Here is Jupiter from 4-17-16. The red spot is showing (or should I say very red spot). The seeing was better than the last time I imaged Jupiter (3/26)....but still not what I would call great. I also attached another file comparing the blue images from both dates to illustrate the somewhat better seeing."

Here is another image of Jupiter taken by Rick on 4/23 within an 8 minute window of "very good" seeing:

The next image is from BGAAC member Nick Miles. It is of M81 / M82, a galaxy pair in Ursa Major (some of you may know it by its asterism - the big dipper). This was taken on 4/19/2016 in Georgetown KY, with an 8" SCT telescope.