Stockton Astronomical Society
A monthly star party is usually held on a Saturday near a new moon.
|
Coming Up [view SAS Sky Calendar (117.9KB PDF file) May 2012]
Saturday, May 5 -- Full Moon
Thursday, May 10 at 7:30 pm -- Regular Meeting of SAS
in Olson Hall, Room 120, at UOP
Saturday, May 12 at sunset -- Highway 4 Star Party
Saturday, May 19 at sunset -- High Altitude Star Party
Sunday, May 20 -- New Moon
Sunday, May 20 at 5:20 pm -- Annular Solar Eclipse (partial in Stockton)
Friday, May 25 at 9:00 pm -- Sky Tours at Delta College -- (Shima (S2) parking lot)
Saturday, May 26 at 10:00 am -- ATM Workshop
Saturday, May 26 at sunset -- Public Star Party at Oak Grove Regional Park
See the SAS Eclipse Page for information regarding the May 20, 2012 annular eclipse.
SAS News
SAS May 10th Meeting
Stockton Astronomical Society presents:
Gordon Myers:
"The Fascinating Universe of Variable Stars"
Historians debate whether the first confirmed variable star was Mira (a.k.a. Omicron Ceti, with observations recorded in 1596), or Algol (a.k.a. the Demon star, with observations recorded in 1667 - but which may have been known in antiquity). Since then, thousands of variable stars have been identified. Over the past century astrophysicists have begun to understand why these "stars" rapidly change brightness. Yesterday’s "variable stars" are now realized to be a menagerie of strange celestial objects – including stars in birth throes, eclipsing binaries, stars in death agonies, and the bizarre world of cataclysmic variables.
After briefly reviewing the intriguing history of mankind's discovery of variable stars, different causes of variability will be discussed with special focus on cataclysmic variables. The stars in these binary systems are so close their orbit would fit inside our Sun! They revolve around each other in a matter of hours; matter flowing between the stars creates a disk which can change in brightness by a factor of over a hundred in just a few minutes. Cataclysmic variables are one of the most studied areas in astronomy today. Amateurs are playing a key role in the measurement and analysis of these systems working through the AAVSO and the Center for Backyard Astrophysics. Opportunities to get personally involved will be discussed.
...Dennis LeClert, Program Director
|
What's to See Tonight
Astronomy in the News
Thinking of Buying a Star? California's First Astronomical Observatory |
Picture of the Day Weather Information
From the US Naval Observatory |
NASA Released Photo and Info Sheet |
News Items
The following individual articles are maintained on other sites that have various archival or retention dates and therefore, the link to these articles cannot be guaranteed.
![]() |
The Stockton Astronomical Society (SAS) was founded as a non-profit California corporation to foster interest in and promote the general knowledge of astronomy and related sciences. Member: International Dark-Sky Association
|
This site is best viewed with the latest version of Microsoft's
Internet Explorer (version 9.0).
Designed for screen resolution: 1024x768
Email
Webmaster regarding this site.
Copyright © 2000 - 2012 by Stockton Astronomical Society
Last Updated: 5/2/2012
http://www.stocktonastro.org/index.html