Ozark Amateur Astronomy Club

Students - If you are interested in spending some time gazing at the night sky, please consider joining the Ozark Amateur Astronomy Club. It's an excellent opportunity to see with your own eyes what I show you in class.  The OAAC will organize a couple on-campus telescope viewings this semester. See the below email from the President of the OAAC for more information:

The first meeting of the Ozarks Amateur Astronomers Club will be held on Monday August 31 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 101 of Kemper Hall. This meeting will focus on providing information about the OAAC, including club activities for the fall semester. These activities will include observing sessions on the MSU campus to view the Moon and Saturn, and sessions at the Baker Observatory to observe a variety of astronomical objects such as star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies under much darker skies. The OAAC will also participate this fall in NASA Public Observing Night at the Baker Observatory.


Anyone interested in learning more about the OAAC is invited to attend this meeting. Refreshments will be provided.


Individuals who decide to join the OAAC will need to pay dues of only $3 for the fall 2015 or spring 2016 semester, or $5 for both the fall and spring semesters. In addition to learning more about amateur astronomy, new members will receive a complimentary copy of the book "Secrets of Stargazing" and membership in the Astronomical League, the national organization of amateur astronomy clubs in the United States. Benefits of Astronomical League membership include a subscription to its quarterly magazine, "The Reflector," and qualifying for participation in its observing programs. See https://www.astroleague.org for more information about the Astronomical League.


Please let me know if you have any questions about the OAAC or this meeting.


If you have received this message in error or wish to be removed from the OAAC mailing list, let me know and I will remove your name from it.


Henry G. Stratmann
President, Ozarks Amateur Astronomers Club  

Blog Invitations, Group Projects Update, & Next Weeks Lecture Notes

AST 113 students - I've sent out the first 100 blog author invitations. Please accept as soon as possible before you lose the email or the invitation expires.

For the thirty of you presenting on Galaxies, Modern Cosmology and Quasars, Dark Matter and Energy, or the Big Bang, you will receive a blog author invitation later in the semester.

If you would like to contribute a post or question beforehand, and you did not receive an invitation, I have a few blog author spots open so please send me an email.

I have posted the lecture notes on the Terrestrial Planets. Since we are still covering the first weeks lecture material, we will probably not get to the Terrestrial planets lecture material until the end of this coming week.

I have also posted the group projects, including your names, topics, and due dates. Note, I pushed the due dates back by one week, to give you extra time to review the material we will cover in class.

Astronomy origins of length of the week, and the names of the days of the week

Class, here's a Wikipedia page talking about the origin of the 7 days of the week from the names of the planets, moon and Sun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week#Days_named_after_planets

AST 113: Modern Astronomy Class Blog

Welcome to the Fall 2015 class blog for AST 113: Modern Astronomy at Missouri State University. Here we will post the class group projects (links from Prezi, or Google Slides, etc.) and other material. Keep the posts respectable for your classmates sake, and I'll moderate. - Prof. Plavchan