This will be our last email of the public open house observing season, with some reminders of upcoming talks, viewable night sky objects, reservation status for the talks, and the upcoming
2009 International Year of Astronomy.
More information regarding programs, parking, and reservations is available at http://www.astro.washington.edu/observatory/
We've brought a 5-inch Meade refractor up from the Astronomy Dept. and even in our overly bright skies on September 3, 2008 we found:
• Ring Nebula (M 57 -- http://www.seds.org/MESSIER/m/m057.html
)
• Andromeda Galaxy (M 31 -- http://www.seds.org/MESSIER/m/m032.html
)
• M31 ʼ s companion dwarf elliptical galaxy
( http://www.seds.org/MESSIER/m/m032.html
)
Upstairs in the dome, the Seattle Astronomical Society members found:
• Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27 -- http://www.seds.org/MESSIER/m/m027.html
)
• the star Albireo, the planet Jupiter and its Galilean moons, and more.
What a difference clear skies make!
Upcoming talks:
**September 15 -- 9:10 pm -- Phil Rosenfield (graduate student) will discuss massive stars and their wild births and deaths. Free posters of eta Carinae will be available to all attendees. See http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950712.html
[Still lots of room.]
** October 1 -- 7:10 pm -- Joe Huehnerhoff (graduate student) will update us on the spectacular end result of the death of sun-like stars: planetary nebulae. The Ring and
Dumbbell nebulae are planetary nebulae, examples of how our sun will look in about 10 billion years. [Only 20 seats left for this talk.]
**October 15 -- 7:10 pm -- Thomas Vo (undergraduate) gives an overview on those mysterious black holes. Thomas gives talks at a slightly higher level, and since we have middle- and high-school students attending, hard questions are guaranteed.
[Lecture full. Taking names for wait list.]
**November 1 -- 7:10 pm -- Blake Thomas (undergraduate) will talk about space exploration from a realistic (not dreamy or fictional!) point of view. [Reservations are already being made.]
**November 19 -- We will be closed for the season. (University of Washington students only.)
REMINDER : No reservations are needed to view through the 116-year-old telescope, the various other telescopes we set up outside, nor to visit our small exhibit and activity areas.

The new year will see many more astronomy adventures involving the University of
Washington Astronomy Dept., the Jacobsen Observatory, and other schools, organizations and clubs around the State as we all take part in the "International Year of Astronomy."
Please check in regularly with the Department's homepage: http://www.astro.washington.edu/ for more information about this and other amazing astronomical news.
Featured images of celestial objects taken and processed by U of W students at the A-Wing
Observatory, Physics and Astronomy Building:
Messier 57 -- the Ring Nebula -- a composite of 5, 30second exposures, clear + Bessel RGB filters, processed using Photoshop CS2. Sara Siegfried ,
August 14, 2008, 12” Meade LX200GPS, SBIG
ST8XE, A-Wing Observatory.
Messier 20 -- the Trifid Nebula -- a composite of 4,
30-second exposures, clear + Bessel RGB filters, processed using Photoshop CS2. Yi-chin Chang ,
August 14, 2008, 12” Meade LX200GPS, SBIG
ST8XE, A-Wing Observatory
NGC 891 -- an “edge-on” spiral galaxy in Andromeda -- a composite of 8, 30-second exposures, processed using Photoshop CS2. Corey Jewett , August 14,
2008, 12” Meade LX200GPS, SBIG ST8XE, A-Wing
Observatory. Distance to galaxy is uncertain: somewhere between 10 - 40 million light years away. http://seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n0891.html
Unprocessed image of Messier 16 -- the Eagle
Nebula . 30-second exposure, research-grade clear filter, 12” Meade LX200GPS, SBIG ST8XE, A-Wing
Observatory. (The overall grainyness and large, dark donut-shaped thing in the lower right are due to noise in the detector and dust on the filter.) August 14, 2008 http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m016.html