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Greetings, The Ford Amateur Astronomy Club is hosting our monthly meetings online (normally they would be in person). These meetings usually occur on the 4th Thursday of each month. The next meeting is Thursday March 25 at 7:00pm Eastern time. You do not need to be a club member to join these meetings ... they are open to the public. Our featured speaker will be Andrew Macica, an astrophotographer and staff member from the Lick Observatory. Andrew will describe how he imaged the recent conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn ... not at night, but in broad daylight (using a new technique). You can click this ‘Join Meeting’ image below when it’s time to join. Clear Skies, Tim

Greetings, The Ford Astronomy club hosts monthly meetings and presentations (currently via Zoom) every month on the 4th Thursday at 7pm Eastern Time. You do NOT need to be a club member to attend — these are open to the public. The first hour (7-8) are general club business (member observing reports, what’s-up report, etc.) The second hour (8-9) feature a speaker. Tonight’s speaker is Dr. Ed Cackett, Associate Professor — Wayne State University. The topic is: Mapping a Black Hole Strong observational evidence confirms the existence of black holes — objects whose gravity is so strong even light cannot escape. But how do we observe them? The vast majority of black holes have angular sizes that are far too small to be imaged directly, so indirect methods must be used. One way is to rely on the fact that as a black hole sucks up surrounding gas, that gas get extremely hot and emits large numbers of X- rays. X-ray observations of black holes therefore give us a glimpse of gas just before it passes the Event Horizon — the point of no return. I will discuss the different types of black holes and how using X-rays we can try and map out the region surrounding black holes. Bio: Ed Cackett grew up in the suburbs of Manchester, England and studied Physics at the University of Durham before pursuing his PhD in Astrophysics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. After that he spent 4 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan where he was a NASA Chandra Fellow, and 1.5 years as a research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. In 2012 he made the permanent move back to southeast Michigan to become a faculty member at Wayne State University, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He has published over 150 articles in peer reviewed journals. He is an expert in X-ray observations of black holes and neutron stars. The easiest way to join: Press this button (when the meeting begins at 7pm … we are typically on a few minutes early) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83111339308?pwd=SGExRVMrOUtVSzdiaklSUWdSMzJwUT09 Meeting ID: 831 1133 9308 Passcode: Messier@42 One tap mobile +13126266799,,83111339308#,,,,*8253824992# US (Chicago) +12678310333,,83111339308#,,,,*8253824992# US (Philadelphia) Dial by your location +1 267 831 0333 US (Philadelphia) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) Meeting ID: 831 1133 9308 Passcode: 8253824992 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcUwu6HlUK Clear Skies, Tim

Greetings! Clouds are expected to start breaking up -- giving way to mostly clear (partly cloudy) skies by around 8pm ... and much clearer later in the evening (e.g. 11pm). The International Space Station will make a visible pass tonight at 8:32pm ending at 8:37pm (that's when it passes into Earth's shadows and will dim out and disappear). While I don't normally tell people about ISS passes... this one happens to come directly over the Zenith for those in this part of the state. The chart below is flipped left-to-right such that the right side of the chart is West (not East as you might expect) and the left side is East. This is so if you printed it and held it overhead as you look at the sky it will appear correct. So the ISS actually rises in the NorthWest and heads toward the SouthEast. Mars will be low in the sky rising in the East. Jupiter and Saturn are in the South. The ISS will be brighter than Mars … but not as bright as Jupiter. The diagonal line on the chart below shows the predicted path and the point where the line ends before reaching the horizon is the point where it is predicted to enter Earth’s shadow… it will gradually dim and seem to vanish. It has no visible external lights… the light we see is the reflection from sunlight on its massive solar panel array. (The solar panels are stretched out over an area roughly the size of a football field — which is why it appears so bright to us.) If you've never seen the space station... it looks like a VERY bright star that moves rather slowly. Hopefully the clouds are mostly cleared away as predicted. Clear Skies, Tim