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Terry W. Himes from the Jet PropulsionLaboratory (JPL/NASA) in Pasadena, California is scheduled to be our speaker for the upcoming November 7th Kern Astronomical Society meeting. Terry will speak on “Hot Topics at JPL”. What is happening with Rosetta and other high profile missions?

What is the Rosetta Mission? If all goes as planned as mentioned in the news, a 10-year journey through space will land a craft called Philae on a comet as part of the Rosetta mission. The Space probe is due to land on the comet on November 12th. This and other ongoing JPL projects will make for a very interesting talk. Terry is the Insight and Rosetta/MEX Sequence Team Lead at JPL. We are very fortunate to have him come to Bakersfield at this time with all of the ongoing projects at JPL.

FIRST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTHNovember 7th, 2014 @ Round Table Pizza

4200 Gosford Rd Bakersfield 93313Dinner & Fellowship: 6:30 pm Meeting & Speaker: 7:30 pm

Speaker

“Hot Topics at JPL”Terry W. Himes, (JPL / NASA)

As an added bonus, Terry Himes will have many give-a-ways including post-ers, bookmarks, NASA stickers and 3D glasses. First come, first served.

He will also have spacecraft models to share. Mark those calendar and hope to see you at the upcoming KAS meeting on Friday night. It should be fun and very informative.

-Mike Ponek

Terry W. Himes, jpl / nasa, 11.7.14 @ KAS

TheSyzygyNo. 490 November 2014The Newsletter of The Kern Astronomical Society

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KAS Open General Meeting

Everyone is Welcome to Our Family-Friendly Meetings

The Kern Astronomical Society www.KernAstro.orgThe Syzygy No. 490 August page 2/4

facebook.com/groups/syzygy/President Joey Sharette 661-431-4917 jsharett@gmail.com

661-477-4306 mponek@bak.rr.comVice President Mike Ponek

Secretary Heather Ponek 661-203-4662 heatronn@bak.rr.com Treasurer Andrea Drake 661-321-6178 kpowers@bak.rr.com

Star Parties Darren Bly 661-832-0712 dcbly@bak.rr.com

661-833 8175 astronomer@inorbit.comBoard Member Charlie Brown661-487-2519 galxygrl@gmail.comBoard Member Diane Franco

The Syzygy Florencio A. Ortiz 661-549-6984 piezzo88@gmail.com

Since 1956, The Kern Astronomical Society has promoted community awareness of current events in astronomy, and provides a forum for sharing of knowledge and experiences among amateur astronomers. Annual membership is $20.00 which also pro-vides “Sky and Telescope” and / or Astronomy magazines at reduced rates. More information on our web site.The KAS will e-mail The Syzygy free of charge to any educator; just contact the editor.

The Kern Astronomical Society usually has 2 Club-Star Parties per month depending on the weather. We also host public Star parties upon request. Our Star Parties are held on Saturdays. The primary date is the weekend of new moon with the secondary date being beforeor after new moon. You may get current Star Party information from our coordinator, Darren Bly.

Who We Are

The Kern Astronomical Society InfoShare

The KAS holds their Monthly meeting the 1st Friday of every month.

Round Table Pizza in the “Meeting Room”Diner & Fellowship: 6:30 pm; Meeting: 7:30 pm4200 Gosford Rd. #101, Bakersfield 93313, (661) 397-1111

Next Meeting

Kern Astronomical Society on Facebook

KAS Club Telescopes

The Kern Astronomical Society has telescopes and accessories (listed below) available for loan to Club members in good standing. Members are encouraged to borrow the different types of scopes in stock (especially if you are considering purchasing one- checking out and trying different types will help you make an informed purchase decision). If you have a Club scope in your possession, the KAS expects you to use it by participating in at least one Star party.

KAS Contacts

6” f/6, 8”f/6, 10” f/5.6, 13” f/4.5 Dobsonian scopesParks Jovian 90, 3-1/2" F-13Maksukov-Cassegrain4" f/15 Unitron Refractor8” solar filterEyepieces up to 2” wide

White Lane

Mc Nair LaneG

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Club Star Parties

The Kern Astronomical Society www.KernAstro.orgThe Syzygy No. 490 August page 3/4

7:49 pm

4:27 amabove

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9:00 ammoon 7:33 pmmoon 4:54sun

12:55 ammoon 1:33 pmmoon 4:49sun

7:40 ammoon 6:13 pmmoon 4:46sun

12:35 ammoon 1:04 pmmoon 4:44sun

Leonids Meteor Shower

KAS Star Party

KAS Star Party

KAS Open Meeting and Speaker

KAS Potluck 6:30 pm

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November 2014

Star Party Coordinator dcbly@bak.rr.comDarren Bly

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat

Rosetta's Rendezvous[ via apod ] Rosetta's “Selfie”

[ via apod ]

Kas Telescopes currently Available for Check-out: 6” f/6 dobsonian 10” f/5.6 dobsonian

The Kern Astronomical Society

Holiday Raffle Telescope

NEXstar 5 i5-inch diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain optical system

Multicoated 25mm (50x) 1.25-inch Plossl eyepiece

Multicoated 13mm (96x) 1.25-inch Plossl eyepiece

Tripod and a f itted case; extremely por table

Focal length: 1250mm Focal ratio: f/10

Tickets $5 Ticket Special: 5 for just $20Drawing Held December 5th

Contact : Star Par ty Coordinator Darren Bly dcbly@bak.rr.com

ConvectiveZone

Sunspots

Photosphere

Chromosphere

That Heat...

Nuclear Fusion

EnergySub-atomicparticles

The energy travels outward through a large area called the convective zone. Then it travels onward to the photosphere, where it emits heat, charged particles, and light.

This process—called nuclear fusion—releases energy while creating a chain reaction that allows it to occur over and over and over again. That energy builds up. It gets as hot as 15 million degrees Fahrenheit in the sun’s core.

Powers the chemical reactions that make life possible on Earth.

Allows gases and liquids to exist on many planets and moons, and causes icy comets to form fiery halos.

Create a ‘solar wind’ that pushes against the fabric of interstellar space billions of miles away.

And that light travels far out into the cosmos—just one star among billions and billions.

Every 1.5 millionths of a second, the sun releases more energy than all humans consume in an entire year. Its heat influences the environments of all the planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and comets in our solar system.

Where does the sun’s energy come from?

How does a big ball of hydrogen create all that heat? The short answer

is that it is big. If it were smaller, it would be just be a sphere of hydrogen, like Jupiter. But the sun is much bigger than Jupiter. It would take 433,333 Jupiters to fill it up!

That’s a lot of hydrogen. That means it’s held together by a whole lot of gravity. And THAT means there is a whole lot of pressure inside of it. There is so much pressure that the hydrogen atoms collide with enough force that they literally meld into a new element—helium.

National Aeronautics andSpace Administration

www.nasa.gov For more articles, games, and activities, visit spaceplace.nasa.gov