LVAS is a proud member of the NASA/JPL Night Sky Network. LVAS events will be posted on the Night Sky Network website at

Night Sky Network:Las Vegas Astronomical Society:Event Calendar.

Super Moon Photo Op

Full Moon

There may be some nice photo opportunities this Sunday evening with the Full Moon being at Perigee. Some refer to this Moon as a Super Moon. Send your best photo to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We'll set up a Super Moon photo albumn and recognize the three best photos at our July meetiing.

We now have LVAS accounts with:

facebook logo meetup logo

Links will be on the right side of the LVAS website.

Did you see the "Dancing Planets" last week? If not, you missed a rare treat.

See photos below for what you missed.

3-Planet Conjunction over Las Vegas

Conjunction Conjunction 5-28 Portrait Conjunction 5-30

Notice how their positions changed over five nights.

(Click here for larger images)

Sunday, May 26 Tuesday, May 28 Thursday, May 30

(T to B) Mercury, Jupiter, Venus (T to B) Mercury, Venus, Jupiter)

Astronomy in the Park

The next Astronomy in the Park public star party will be June 15 at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort up at Mt. Charleston. Join us for an evening under the stars, out of the Las Vegas heat, and observe Saturn and the Wonders of the Milky Way.

Click here for map and additional info.

LVAS Members assist Red Rock Guests

LVAS Secretary Bunny Nua assists visitors

in viewing Saturn

Planets above Red Rock

The Moon, Saturn, Mars, and Venus over Red Rock

"Astronomy in the Park" Star Parties are free and open to the public; however, some of the Parks charge an entrance fee of $7.00 per vehicle until the Park closes. If an attendant is in the Fee Station, LVAS members should tell the Attendant that you are there for the Star Party. Click here or see the Events Calendar for future Public Star Party dates in 2013.

Note: Because we use special video cameras in some of our telescopes, viewing the night sky at our public star parties is accessible by those that may have difficulty viewing through the eyepiece of a telescope (ADA friendly). We invite you to join us in viewing the wonders of the night sky.

Mt. Potosi Observatory Status - Click Here

The Next LVAS Monthly Meeting is:

Thursday, 11 July

Because of the 4th of July Holiday, we have moved our monthly meeting to the 11th.

Presentation TBD

Online LVAS and AL Membership Dues Payment is now available!

Other Notable Events

International Space Station in the Las Vegas Skies

There are several bright passes of the ISS during the week of 18 through 25 June. Don't miss the especially bright long passes on 23 and 25 June.

We normally try to post the brighter and longer duration passes of the ISS over the Las Vegas Valley in the table below. For additional passes over your specific area, see the link to Heavens-Above.com below.

Date

Magnitude

Duration

Begin

End

Altitude

Start

Direction

June 19 *

-2.7

2m 47s

22:21:00

22:23:47

10°

NW (318°) to N (356°)

June 20 * **

-2.1

4m 22s

21:32:00

21:36:22

10°

NNW (328°) to E (81°)

June 21 **

-1.3

5m 11s

20:43:09

20:48:20

10°

NNW (339°) to E (89°)

June 21 *

-2.0

2m 25s

22:19:26

22:21:51

10°

WNW (296°) to WSW (257°)

June 22 * **

-3.4

4m 24s

21:30:08

21:34:32

10°

NW (309°) to SE(142°)

June 23 * **

-2.8

6m 15s

20:41:01

20:47:16

10°

NW (320°) to ESE (116°)

June 25 * **

-2.5

6m 18s

20:39:20

20:45:38

10°

WNW (300°) to SSE (150°)

Yellow Highlight = brighter than -2.4 magnitude and greater than 5 min duration

* = Magnitude greater than 2.0

** = Durations greater than 4 minutes

Be sure to check for the most current prediction information. The information above is updated at least weekly, but predictions may change slightly as the date for the pass approaches, so checking the Heavens Above website will ensure you have the most accurate and up to date information about upcoming passes. A magnitude of -2.8 is between the brightness of the planets Jupiter (-2.1) and Venus (-3.9), with Venus being the brighter planet. Both planets are in our evening sky right now, so you can use them to determine how bright the ISS will be.

Iridium Flares - an interesting phenomenon where sunlight is reflected from the large aluminum antennae on Iridium communication satellites to your observing location on the ground. Heavens-Above.com can predict Iridium Flares for almost any location. Below are links to Heavens-Above.com predictions for selected sites of interest to LVAS members:

Cathedral Gorge

Furnace Creek

RedStone

Red Rock Visitor Center

Desert Wildlife Refuge

Spring Mt Ranch

Telecopes For Sale - Click here to see!

SW (224°) to NE (52°)

Note from the President - June

Jim Gianoulakis

Hard to believe we are half way through 2013 but here we are. The last few months have had some high profile events occurring but let’s not lose track of those wonderful objects that are highlighted in our summer skies. Spring and summer provide us a myriad of choices. If galaxies are your thing, take a look at one of these galaxy pairs, colliding

galaxies NGC 4567 / NGC 4568, NGC 3718 / NGC 3729, or NGC 4485 / NGC 4490. All of these will present very well in modest aperture scopes. Go out and see if you can find them.

A little closer to home we don’t want to forget one of my favorite targets, the ringed wonder of Saturn. I still say WOW whenever I see this object. Saturn is in Virgo this time of year and is transiting (crossing the meridian) at about 10pm PST.

Additionally we have asteroid 1998 QE2 making a flyby at its closest approach for several hundred years. The close approach is actually May 31 but views of this object will persist through June. Click on this link for a chart that indicates the asteroids position May 31, 2013 at 10pm.

The close approach of 3.6 million miles out is plenty close for me, considering this asteroid is approximately 1.7 miles across.

We have several events planned for June with a new venue on tap, that being the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard resort in Lee Canyon. We have events planned for June 8 and 15^th. More information is available in the events section of the website. What a great way to get out of the Las Vegas heat.

The observatory project is progressing with the area at Mt Potosi being cleared of trees and the initial work to ready the site for the electrical and data infrastructure construction close behind. A successful golf tourniment was held in May hosted by the Association of Information Technology Professionals with proceeds being donated to the LVAS observatory project. AITP will present that check at their next event on June 26^th.

Our next meeting will be held on June 6^th at 7:30 in the planetarium at the CSN Cheyenne campus. We will have Dark Sky Ranger Dan Duriscoe joining us. Hope to see you all there.

Clear Skies to all,

Jim

Need Some Help With Your Scope?

Do you have a new telescope or one that hasn't been dusted off in quite a while and need some help using it? If you can't make it to our next "Astronomy in the Park", give me a call and let's arrange a time to get you a little help. I'm typically available before and after our monthly meetings on the 1st Thursday of each month and before each of our "Astronomy in the Park" outings, but I'm willing to come to you to get you up and operating. I just need some prior notice to arrange a time to meet you. Give me a call at 702-461-1390 or send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Last Updated on Monday, 03 June 2013 06:09

Society Meetings

Monthly LVAS meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the Planetarium at the College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne Campus - 3200 East Cheyenne (See Map). Following a short welcome and business session, a presentation on an Astronomy topic of interest is normally presented by an LVAS member or special guest. Occasionally, the program is the Planetarium presentation of the month.

CSN Planetarium

Provides Family Acitivity

Needing an alternative weekend family activity? The CSN Planetarium provides three shows suitable for families:

3 May thru 29 June 2013

8:00 PM Frid and Sat evenings		Astronaut
7:00 PM Fri and Sat evenings		Origins of Life
6:00 PM Fri and Sat, 3:30 PM Sat		Molecularium

Seasaonl Stargazing follows each feature show.

Coming in July

Experience the Aurora

Bridge to the Beginning

Perfect Little Planet

Check out the new DigiStar 5 Projectors with 4 times the brightness and resolution of the previous projector system. Come see the interesting shows and the life-like presentation of the night sky. Immediately following the 8:00PM shows, guests are invited to view the planets and other celestial objects through the Planetarium's telescopes in the Observatory compound. See the rings of Saturn through the CSN 16-inch compound and 6-inch refractor telescopes. All tickets are $6.00 for adults and $4.00 for Seniors, Students, and children. Discounts are also available for multiple shows and groups. For more information about the CSN Planetarium, click on the Planetarium banner below.

Green Laser Safety Reminder!

This is a reminder to LVAS members that own and use green lasers to be extremely safety conscious when the lasers are being used. In the light of recent incidents of pranksters painting aircraft and other moving vehicles with green lasers, it is imperative for members of the Astronomical Community to exercise extreme caution and good judgement when using green lasers to point out celestial objects. Users should always be conscious of aircraft activity and when possible, use a spotter (another watching person) so that an aircraft is not accidently painted by a green laser. Anytime an aircraft, regardless of the distance from the observing location, is spotted moving toward an area of the sky where a laser is being used, the laser must be turned off or moved away from the aircraft until the aircraft departs that area of the sky. Astronomers using green lasers to guide their scopes to celestial objects should be especially careful to not leave the laser turned on while obsserving. At no time should an Astronomer surrender control of a green laser to anyone other than another Astronomer, especially not to children who may not understand the consequences of improperly using a laser. Remember - it is now a Federal Offense to paint an aircraft, any moving vehicle, or a person with a laser of any type - punishable by up to 5 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.