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SBAU EVENTS CALENDAR The Telescope Workshop (sometimes posted later on the SBAU SB AstroUnit Youtube channel) meets on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 PM via Zoom Meetings. Email the President at sbau.org so he can add you to our email contacts. Members will attempt to answer your burning questions about telescopes, astrophotography, etc. or just hang out with us discussing those topics!Also, our VP Ronnie Herron is hosting a LIVE "Astro Hour", Mondays at 11am, at the Youtube SB AstroUnit channel . If you watch, share your comments and questions in its Chat area. GENERAL OUTREACHING INFORMATION To get the latest information on schedules, or event directions, just contact Chuck at 964-8201 or E-mail - Remember Events are subject to cancellation due to rain, pandemic, or other disaster.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums/ Solar Sundays 1-3pm at the Museum Observatory with other SBAU vetted volunteers. Schools are ramping way up! Come out and help if you can. Tuesday, March 3, 00:44 to 6:23 Total Lunar Eclipse In the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 3, there will be a total lunar eclipse visible from Santa Barbara. The penumbral phase will start at 00:44 AM PST. The Moon will enter the darker umbra at 01:50 AM, and be entirely eclipsed by 03:03 AM. Max eclipse is at 03:34 AM, and the Moon will begin leaving the umbra at 04:03 AM. The umbral phase will end at 05:17 AM, and the penumbral phase will end at 06:23 AM. Westmont has decided to open up their observatory for the total lunar eclipse on Tuesday morning, starting at 3 AM until sunrise. Tuesday, March 3, setup 5 PM PST Telescopes for Science Night at Monte Vista School, 730 N Hope Ave. We set up on the blacktop at the north end of campus. Food for volunteers. Thursday, March 5, setup 4 PM PST Telescopes for Science Night at Hollister Elementary School, 4950 Anita Lane. We set up on the blacktop, with access through a gate at the end of Ashton Street. Food for volunteers. "First Friday", March 6, 6 PM PST SBAU monthly meeting in Fleischmann Hall at SBMNH. SBAU merchandise sales at 6 PM. Quick planetarium show at 6:30, AU business meeting at 7, then at 7:30, our speaker will be NASA/JPL Senior Research Scientist Dr. Rosaly M.C. Lopes, and the topic is "Where the Hot Stuff Is: Volcanoes Beyond Earth". We end promptly at 9 PM. Sunday, March 8 - Daylight Saving Time starts. Spring ahead to PDT. "Second Sunday", March 8, 4:30 PM PDT SBAU Monthly Planning Meeting on Zoom. Watch your email for the link. Wednesday, March 11, setup 5 PM PDT Science Night at Monroe School, 431 Flora Vista Drive. Food for volunteers. We set up on a lawn next to the library. Thursday, March 12, setup 5 PM PDT Telescopes for Science Night at SB Charter School, 6100 Stow Canyon Rd, on the east side of the Goleta Valley Junior High campus. "Second Saturday", March 14, setup 6:30 PM PDT Monthly Public Star Party at SBMNH, next to Palmer Observatory, from 7:30 PM to 10 PM. Tuesday, March 17, setup 7 PM PDT "Telescope Tuesday" in the plaza by the theater at Camino Real Marketplace. Show the stars with a green filter! Friday, March 20, 06:46 AM PDT, Spring begins in the northern hemisphere. "Third Friday", March 20, setup 6 PM PDT Monthly Public Telescope Night at Westmont's Keck Observatory, next to the athletic fields. Tuesday, March 24, setup 7 PM PDT Telescopes for a Moon Night for 5th graders at Monte Vista School, 730 N Hope Ave. We set up on the blacktop at the north end of campus. Hasta nebula - Chuck McPartlin, Outreach Coordinator — International Space Station (ISS) and other satellites may make a few visible passes through Santa Barbara’s skies. Orbits change, so to get the latest and most complete predictions, visit Heavens Above at https://tinyurl.com/y5yt22ch !!! GREEN LASER USE RULES !!! Starting in 2015, the club has decided that we will not allow the use of green laser pointers at outreaches that are above the legal limit of 5 milliwatts. If you see someone operating a laser which is brighter than this level, please ask that person to stop using it. Night Sky Network.  Using the NSN you can find activities in other areas that you may be traveling to! Try seeing or adding a copy of the events to your Google Calendars:  Google Public Calendar Shareable Link (use to add to your other Google Calendars...let me know if it works or not!) December 2025 Holiday Party - photos was Thursday, December 11, 2925 starting at 5 PM SBAU Holiday Party at the Hilton Garden Inn, Goleta Annual SBAU Campout 2025 review and photos: Free Mohawk Shores group campsite, Thanks to the efforts of our Outreach Coordinator, Chuck McPartlin, who gives several talks at the Fireside Theater! Review of the Campout by Events Coordinator, Diane Welcenbach https://photos.app.goo.gl/B2PAmoXzz3fwRorWA Annual SBAU Campout 2025 Notice October 24-26 Annual Potluck, June 2025 Summary and photos Dining at the Museum in the Dinosaur Forest by Events Coordinator, Diane Welcenbach https://photos.app.goo.gl/LAccw1621tHUJxxf8 Annual SBAU Campout 2024 photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1u7dsb9efJycnst5 Annual SBAU Campout 2023 photos Good Times! https://photos.app.goo.gl/dL8ip7riX2CWK8ze6 Partial Eclipse event & SBMNH Star Party October 14, 2023 great photos from Owen Duncan, the museum media guru: Owen Duncan Eclipse-2023 Owen Duncan Museum Star-Party-October-2023 -click the right side “Gallery password” tab, pw access = sbnature International Astronomy Day, was Saturday, April 29, 2023 We were at the Camino Real Marketplace to celebrate International Astronomy Day by bringing astronomy to the public (see below). There was safely filtered solar viewing, astro gift giveaways, and activities during the day, and a star party that evening. See some photos in an album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums Thanks to all those who participated in that successful event! The SBAU campout was at the Mohawk Shores group site at Cachuma Lake, October 21-23, 2022. See some photos of the group at the SBAU Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums The annual SBAU campout, with not so great dark skies due to a smoky California, took place at the Mohawk Shores group campsite at Cachuma Lake from Friday, September 24 (afternoon) through Sunday, September 26 (morning). Photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums /72157719916414171 Dear Astronomers, We are writing to invite you to participate in Exoplanet Watch, a new exoplanet citizen science project funded by NASA’s Universe of Learning and led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Exoplanet Watch relies on amateur astronomers and university astronomy students using ground-based telescopes to make observations of transiting exoplanets. This will help keep mid-transit times fresh. With more accurate timing, large observatories and space-based telescopes can make efficient use of valuable telescope time. The Exoplanet Watch website lists nightly observation targets, but any exoplanet transit observations will work. Light curves generated by Exoplanet Watch are shared with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Observers and data analysts are given credit for their work in any scientific papers resulting from their contributions. We look forward to studying exoplanets with you! Sincerely, Dr. Rob Zellem and Rachel Zimmerman Brachman On behalf of the Exoplanet Watch team exoplanetwatch@jpl.nasa.gov https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-watch Hasta nebula! - Chuck McPartlin, SBAU Outreach Coordinator |
Donations Do you have telescope equipment that your not using? Donate it to our club and we will find a new user for it. We are a Non-Profit Organization, with a receipt for a possible tax deduction. Please contact Tom Totton at equipment@sbau.org. Thank You! So many Thank yous...especially to: -October, 2025: Gail Massey for his custom made 8 and 10 inch Dobsonian telescopes with a high quality Equatorial Platform for tracking -May, 2024: Arielle Shankaramart, Celestron 6" refractor on AVX mount; & 12" Parks Newtonian (restored by Chuck Watson) on a clock mount -May, 2024: John West for a f6.3 Meade 8" SCT on a Celestron CG5 mount, eyepieces, accessories, books, and excellent TeleVue eyepieces -April, 2024: Mike Shinn, a Celestron 6" Newtonian and mount; he runs the local yearly Science Fair put on at UCSB -January, 2024: Roger Holcombe gave us a Meade 12" fork mount LX-200 SCT telescope -May, 2023: Dr. Charles Nardo for a specially tuned 5" Maksutov telescope and many wonderful accessories -May, 2023: Javier Rivera Meade 5" LS in a quality case with accessories and a Televue Gilbratar tripod mount -February, 2023: Charles Schuler for a 14" Dobsonian telescope (he bought a 20"!) -January, 20223: the Klein family for a Celestron CPC1100 with a rolling case, eyepieces, and accessories -November, 2022: Hansen family Celestron C5 -September, 2022: Penny Arntz Orion 8 inch Dobsonian telescope and many untold others! ________________________________________________________ Archived Newsletters  More Local links:  Las Cumbres Obseratory https://lco.global/ staff member and UCSB Professor Dr. Andy Howell has released his latest installment of Science vs Cinema | Star Trek PICARD Also, see this Montecito Journal interview with Andy: Andy Howell interview Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/ Talks from the KITP Online Talks archive https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6S-TJHOZnwXRhvBd8Ol_1A including Public Lectures, Friends of KITP Chalk Talks and deeply technical Blackboard Talks, and more. Chuck McPartlin Social distancing is a powerful way to combat the worst effects of the pandemic. We're lucky as amateur astronomers, because we can still go out and look at the sky. But what about those cloudy nights, or days at home? The internet provides many sources of astronomy education and entertainment, plus a host of citizen science opportunities. Here are a few: SB Museum of Natural History - SBNature from Home https://www.sbnature.org/visit/sbnature-from-home Las Cumbres Observatory - based in Goleta https://lco.global/everyone/ Lowell Observatory has a collection of videos: https://lowell.edu/media/video-library/ IOTA - International Occultation Timing Association http://www.occultations.org/ CosmoQuest - work on NASA science projects + podcasts http://cosmoquest.org/ Astronomy Homeschool Resources https://skyandtelescope.org/homeschool-resources/ Astronomy in Isolation by BBC Sky at Night Magazine https://tinyurl.com/ydbrkz52 NASA at Home - ebooks, podcasts, videos, etc. https://tinyurl.com/u4rxmud Gravity Spy - Help scientists at LIGO search for gravitational waves https://tinyurl.com/j6srh4z LIGO E-lab - opportunity for students to do research https://www.i2u2.org/elab/ligo/home/project.jsp Einstein@Home - uses computer idle time to search for neutron stars https://einsteinathome.org/ Space Warps - spot outer space being warped https://tinyurl.com/y8ne6ud2 Planet Hunters - help TESS find exo-planets! https://tinyurl.com/yacorz8t AstroQuest -identify the boundary of every galaxy https://astroquest.net.au/ Planet Four -Terrains - help characterize surfaces on Mars http://terrains.planetfour.org/ SCOPE - Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration http://scope.pari.edu/ Globe at Night - measure & submit night sky brightness https://www.globeatnight.org NASA Citizen Science projects https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience Galaxy Cruise - classify galaxies with higher quality images https://galaxycruise.mtk.nao.ac.jp/en/index.html A number of online resources can help you refresh or extend your astronomy knowledge. Here are some that could be of use: “Astronomy” http://openstax.org/details/astronomy Free textbook aimed for introductory college-level astronomy. Senior authors include Andrew Fraknoi, and David Morrison. Made in collaboration with the OpenStax Project at Rice University Cambridge University Press https://tinyurl.com/w2z953p Various higher education textbooks Astronomy courses https://bit.ly/39ezF9a Most courses are free college-level courses online Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures https://tinyurl.com/yd5fdegk Well-known scientists discuss astronomy in everyday language December 18, 2025, Bruce Murdock unexpectedly returned to the universe which he so wonderfully astro-imaged. We willl miss his 11" telescope at star party outreaches. He was a long time participant on the streaming SB Astro Hour on the club Youtube channel where his genius was appreciated. Also, it will be difficult to replace him as President and chief engineer for the Santa Barbara Theater Organ Society. We will try to assemble some memorial photos of him in an album soon. August, 2025 we lost John West to ALS. His obituary is posted on the Santa Barbara Independent website: Independent.com/obits/2025/08/18/john-burton-west/ An outreacher at his local school science nights, and he passed on some great equipment to the SBAU. June, 2025 we were told that longtime SBAU Outreach volunteer, Max Neufeldt, passed away. Great humor and a unique artist: https://www.independent.com/2010/05/19/max-neufeldt-new-works-ucsb-faculty-club/ June, 2024 Long time member, club speaker, and astrophotographer Dr. Bob Richard passed. He was living in Scottsdale, AZ at the Westminister Village, where he had built a ten-foot diameter observatory to share with residents there. Here is a note from Bruce Murdock: 250721-Bob-Richard-memoria-written-by-Bruce-Murdock.docx see a photo album of some of his equipment, astrophotography, and talks (more links in the album description): https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCrVQH Jim Williams of Lompoc, CA long term member of the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit SBAU or AU since 1984 passed on July 14, 2023 from medical issues. Jim created the SBAU Logo and also made a Facebook page for the Wheelchair Accessible Telescope he designed, called the UC2: www.facebook.com/people/Wheelchair-Accessible-Telescope Amateur Radio Astronomy - Jiri will be missed For its 75th anniversary, the Astronomical League produced a series of videos highlighting various aspects of amateur astronomy. Past SBAU member Jiri Polivka, who recently entered a parallel universe, was an avid amateur radio astronomer, and produced kits using readily available materials to construct small radio telescopes. He was featured in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c-4jVLnRDo We will miss his enthusiasm for advancing amateur astronomy in our universe. Another Member also passed into the Great Unknown February 2022, Don French. He was very attentive to the night sky and even donated his equipment to the club in his last year. SBAU member Dick Tracey left this world August, 2020. He had a 14" Celestron in his own observatory and lived a full life. https://www.starbucklind.com/obituary/richard-dick-tracey Here is an article on his Solvang astronomy: starry-nights-captured-in-solvang another on the 2017 solar eclipse: solar-eclipse-won-t-be-total-but-still-impressive-on-central-coast We also remember Paul Winn in 2019 as our wonderful Webmaster and Equipment seller, who now exists in our fond memories. |