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Calendar
November 1-30, 2009

11/1 Mars passes near the center of the Beehive star cluster (M44) before dawn.
11/2 Full Moon at 2:14 p.m. EST.
11/4 ORION meeting at 7:00 p.m. EDT.
11/7 TAO public viewing night.The Moon is at perigee (229,226 miles from Earth), 2:25 a.m. EST.
11/9 Third quarter Moon at 10:56 a.m. EST.
11/13 SMAS meeting.
11/16 New Moon at 2:14 p.m. EST.
11/16-17 Leonid meteor shower peaks.
11/17 KO meeting at Test America.
11/21 TAO public viewing night.
11/22 The Moon is at apogee (251,489 miles from Earth, 3:06 p.m. EST.
11/24 First quarter moon at 4:39 p.m. EST.





  • The ORION meeting is on Wednesday, December 2nd 2009, at the Oak Ridge Civic Center Craft Room at 7:00 p.m. The address for the Civic Center is "1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN 37830 This is a public lecture and everyone is invited.

    This month's presentation at ORION is:

    Title: Diamonds in the Sky
    Author: John C. Mannone
    Date: Wednesday December 2, 2009
    Abstract: This talk will be an informal discussion on various topics in nuclear and astrochemistry of carbon. Topics include (1) the nuclear synthesis of carbon in stars during the life cycle of yellow dwarfs like our sun, (2) carbon stars, (3) the nature of white dwarfs, (4) carbon in molecular clouds and around stars, (5) a review of the uniqueness of carbon and the implications for life, (6) the nature of terrestrial and extraterrestrial carbon, etc.

    About the Author: John C. Mannone is a nuclear consultant and adjunct professor of physics. John also holds an advanced degree in chemistry and was a research chemist for Martin Marietta where he worked on life detection systems on Viking and on electro-explosives for Voyager spacecraft. He serves as the Senior Editor for the Journal of Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers and is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador for the Great State of Tennessee.




  • ORION has new websites: Look at

    http://orionridge.home.att.net and http://web.utk.edu/%7Eshellnut/

    In addition, ORION has an astronomy discussion list which you can sign up for at:

    http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ORIONastronomy/join

  • Public nights at Tamke-Allan Observatory are November 7th and 21st.

    For more information about TAO plus maps go to http://www.rscc.cc.tn.us/obs/

  • Congratulations to JOHN MANNONE!John is proud to announce that he has been selected to represent the great State of Tennessee (along with several others already ordained) as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador (http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/). He received the notification by snail mail December 24. His term begins in January 2008. As soon as they receive some legal documentation and photograph from John, they will make the official announcement. This includes their contacting his local media for public announcement--this is a big deal, they only choose one for each applying state each year. The letter that Dr. Ferrari sent him was very commendable. He is excited in serving NASA/JPL. This should be good publicity for BAS. In addition, they already know about his astronomy-related poetry. He has great hopes in getting some exposure, maybe even nationally on this. Go get 'em, John! Addendum: (very late in coming) Dr. David Fields is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and has been one for 6 years. The webmaster apologizes for the oversight and hopes this inclusion will set the record straight.

  • Congratulations to ORION. ORION has become a member of the NASA Night Sky Network. Thanks to John for his presentations at TAO using NSN materials, and for pointing us in this direction. Robert and Dr. Fields are coordinators of our network and once we get the materials, ORION members may borrow them. SMAS members are welcome to borrow them also.

  • There are new links on the "Interesting Sites" page. Check them out!

    PAST ORION EVENTS WORTH REVIEWING

  • A speaker of distinction ,Ed Jones, with some pictures of the demonstrations.
    • scope




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