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Group eMail Etiquette
I would like to make sure you are all aware of two particularly useful links at the bottom of our group eMails. One is Reply To Sender, which is useful for private conversations that should not be sent to the entire group. Conversations not meant for the entire club should be done with private emails. We don't want to cause members to unsubscribe from our group due to a flood of emails they don't need to see. The other is Mute This Topic, which is useful if you don't want to continue to receive eMails in a particular conversation. Glenn D. Faini Chemical and Environmental Engineer, Retired President, Rappahannock Astronomy Club www.raclub.org View my photos here, on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/163018675@N05/albums
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Handling a bouncing RAC eMail account
You should be receiving RAC emails nearly every day. If you ever stop getting them, this might help you resolve the problem. Handling a bouncing account When you are receiving group messages by email but group messages cannot be delivered to you for some reason, the nondelivery events are called bounces. Such events put your Groups.io account into a bouncing state that affects all the groups you belong to with that account¡¯s email address. Groups.io tries to notify a bouncing member by sending an email message that has the subject line ¡°Your Groups.io Account is Bouncing.¡± Also, when a bouncing member logs in to the Groups.io website, a red banner at the top of the page informs them that their account is bouncing. Note: Even if your Groups.io account is bouncing, you can still log in to group websites and read and post messages there. Bouncing affects only email delivery; it does not affect your ability to use group websites. If you have not received an email notification that your account is bouncing but you realize that you have not received any group email messages for a while, you can check your account to see whether group messages are bouncing. For instructions, go to Setting account preferences and viewing account information and scroll down to Checking recent email bounces. When your Groups.io account is bouncing, you can try to ¡°unbounce¡± your account using either of these methods: If you received a ¡°Your Groups.io Account is Bouncing¡± email notification, click the link in the email to unbounce your account. Go to the Groups.io website (and log in if necessary). In the red banner at the top of the page, click the link to unbounce your account. ! Important: Group owners and moderators cannot do anything to unbounce accounts of their group members. When your account is bouncing, you must address the underlying problem yourself, which might involve contacting your email service provider for assistance or investigation. Glenn D. Faini GDF Photography Private and UAS Pilot Chemical and Environmental Engineer, Retired View my photos here, on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/163018675@N05/albums
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NOTICE: Are You Getting Duplicate Copies of Your Own Posts?
If you are receiving duplicate messages for your own posts, do the following: Log into your account. Then look for the drop down in the top right corner of the page, which will be either your name or email address. Click that and then click Account. From your Account page, click the Preferences sidebar tab. Look for the "I always want copies of my own messages" check box and Uncheck it. Then click the Update Preferences button.
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Good Morning- My 23- year old daughter Autumn is on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz which is currently on a long underway in the Pacific Ocean. She works on the flight deck and recently during a lull in aircraft launches she captured some beautiful star portraits. I wanted to share these as I was interested in how many constellations I could identify not knowing the ships position and at least if I could estimate its latitude. I came up with an answer that turned out to be pretty close. She works 10pm - 6am ship time so she gets to see some spectacular dark skies. If anyone would like to try estimating the latitude the Nimitz was at when these were taken - just reply to this thread. Otherwise I thought it would be cool just to share her pictures. The stars are short trails due to the motion of the ship. Myron
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Not the best target for a 550 mm focal length scope, but couldn¡¯t pass up a clear night. NGC5195 is to the left. A few more smaller galaxies in the background. Used my Esprit 100mm and ASI2600MM with RGB filters. 3 min * 15 exposure on each filter. Mike Parker
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Dear RAC, And now the final MSRO Station 3 test image from last night. Full frame 12 5-minute guided subs. Myron
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Asteroid Harvard in MSRO S 3 image
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Dear Marshall, You were correct in noting we captured an asteroid in the M 95/M96 image I sent out. Here is a highly cropped section of two images that were taken 75 minutes apart showing the orbital motion of the asteroid Harvard. Im sure there are probably more in the image awaiting identification! Myron
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Dear RAC, Here is our latest color image from MSRO Station 2 (10" R-C and QHY 294 M Pro with filter wheel containing UBVRI and spectroscopy filters) taken over two nights. Its 60 minutes in each B,V,R filters and 90 minutes in the open position (no filter). This was a project requested by CAS member Marshall Faintich who is an accomplished ( and published!) wildlife photographer. He wanted a "bird" themed astro image to use as his profile picture capturing his two avocational interests. Pete and I worked together on this project gathering the data-but this color rendition is based on my eye so any flaws noted are mine alone. Our Station 3 telescope continues to provide spectacular results as well and should be ready for fit testing into its roll-off roof enclosure soon. I will keep RAC membership up to date on this as well. Myron
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-------- Original Message -------- Subject: May sky maps from the Astronomical League Date: 2025-04-25 20:32 From: BarbDon Knabb <barbdon12@...> To: Greetings MERAL Presidents, ALCors, editors, officers, and others, Attached are JPG versions of the sky maps that are provided by John Goss of the Astronomical League. I also have PDF versions so please let me know if you need those versions of the sky maps. I am hoping the JPG files will suffice because it reduces the number of attachments and therefore the chance that the internet email bots will think my email is spam. Please share these maps with your club members. Use them in your newsletters or post them to your websites and social media accounts. Clear skies, Don Knabb MERAL Chair
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May NASA Night Sky Network article and What's Up with the AL
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: May NASA Night Sky Network article and What's Up with the AL Date: 2025-04-26 10:33 From: BarbDon Knabb <barbdon12@...> To: Greetings MERAL Presidents, ALCors, editors, officers and others, Attached is the May article from the NASA Night Sky Network. Feel free to use this article in your club newsletters, send it to your club members, post it to your website and your social media sites. Also attached is the latest What's Up with the Astronomical League. Clear skies, Don Knabb MERAL Chair
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Dear RAC, Here is an image of the open galactic star clusters M35 and NGC 2158 in Gemini. This is a stack of 4 5-minute guided subs using the MSRO/RAC Station 3 telescope (StellarVue SVX 102T-Raptor with ASI 2600MC duo_). This is another test image as I am working on adjusting the spacing between the focal reducer and camera. i am also testing all the sub systems of the station to make sure everything works before it goes live online.I have one more test image from the session last night of M81 and M82 that I will send out soon. Myron
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Dear RAC, These galaxy images were cropped from the wide field image I sent out earlier. Even though this telescope has a very wide field of view- it can still be used to get nice portraits of individual galaxies by cropping into the galaxy. The telescope has such high precision optics and the camera such small pixels that this is possible. In essence many pictures can be captured at the same time. It¡¯s just a matter of zooming in and framing the galaxies how you want. Here are a few quick examples. As mentioned this telescope should be available for club members to either use directly or request objects to be imaged by MDRO staff very soon. Myron
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Dear RAC, Here is a resized version of the image I sent out. It won¡¯t give the ability to zoom in to see all the fine detail but gives a good idea of the field of view the Station 3 telescope has. I¡¯m going to get it operational very soon. Stay tuned¡ Myron
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Dear RAC, Pete and Marshall, We have decided to go with a new camera on our Station 3 telescope. This is the StellarVue SVX 102T-Raptor with a Field Flattner/Focal Reducer giving f/5. The new camera is an ASI 2600MC duo. This is a full frame shot showing the nice field of view. In addition the field correction is much better than it was possible to get with the larger chi in the QHY 367 Pro we were using. This image is a stack of 24 5-minute guided subs using the on camera guiding chip. This worked very well with guiding well below local seeing! I know this is a large file and will compress in the future-but wanted Pete and Marshall to see the near full resolution capabilities. Hope to have this scope operational for club use son! I also have a test image of M 35 and the M81 group Ill send out later. Myron
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Congrats to the Chapel Hill Club!
Posted by Virginia State Parks - well-deserved recognition for the Chapel Hill Astronomical and Observational Society! Congratulations to the Chapel Hill Astronomical Observation Society for winning the Virginia State Parks Group of the Year Award for 2024. For over 13 years CHAOS has been volunteering at Staunton River State Park. CHAOS not only volunteers their time with astronomy programs but also donates financial resources as well. We are so thankful for their time and their dedication. Read more about their contributions to the park here: https://vasp.fun/VolAwards24 2024 Volunteer of the Year Awards Virginia State Parks received 221,132 hours of time from more than 8,000 volunteers in 2024. Every year parks ha...
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Zoom link for Rappahannock Astronomy Club April 2025 Meeting
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Dear RAC and prospective members, Please find enclosed the zoom meeting link for our April 2025 meeting held last Wednesday. Myron https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/H64pv3_HQGqciecs-1umd-EksEJZoKhp2r1j1IFLkeXYjt7fRSqZ5zju8IePfSz0.7a19zRQ9ThKa8YZ7 Passcode: #0YPDh!v
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Latest RAC Equipment Status
Scott Busby Belmont Observatory Spotsylvania, Virginia (540)273-0063
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Dear RAC, Here¡¯s what the C14 on the ASKO mount looks like as it is being tested in my driveway. I was imaging NGC 2903 and several members of the Hickson 44 compact group when thirst pictures were taken. Myron
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Dear RAC and Pete, Here are "first light" images from the C14 on the ASKO using a QHY 174 camera. these were obtained by using sharpcap live-stacking mode. They are a stack of short sub exposures-about 7 seconds as the mount is not tracking well-its slightly slower than sidereal. It can be fixed by updating the firmware which will be done soon. The images are nearly full frame at the f/11 focus of the C14 (3910mm).The goto was close but not perfect as I was not perfectly polar aligned. I used NGC 2903 as my first target, found it visually in the 80mm finder, and then moved the scope manually onto the target.. Once it was in the camera frame-I synched using Cartes du Ceil. From then on the objects were in the FOV as long as the slew wasnt too large. The large galaxy in NGC 2903, while the two smaller ones are members of the compact group of galaxies Hickson 44 (NGC 3190 group). These images are just test images and were obtained to determine if the tracking rate on the ASKO needed adjustment (it does). They are way underexposed from an astrophotography standpoint. Nonetheless-they hint at what will be possible with this scope once we get tracking rate set and autoguiding working. Myron
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These were taken with the SVX-102T Raptor when objects were low in southwestern sky from my driveway with high clouds and a nearly full moon in the sky. The Horsehead is full frame. The other two were cropped from full frame. Myron
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Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am