Jan 02

Amateur Astronomy Series Begins Jan. 15th

Taken For the KAS Web Site

The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society’s five-part Introduction to Amateur Astronomy lecture series begins in 2 weeks (January 15th at 1:00 pm EST). Over 300 people from around the world have already registered, including members from many astronomy clubs like yours. This is about 100 more than this time last year and registrations more than tripled after our last two-week reminder. We’re hoping lightning will strike twice!
Please remind your membership about this FREE online series that covers all the basics of getting started in our wonderful hobby. Hopefully, it’ll encourage your novice members to maintain their membership and stay or become active for years to come! Full details on the series and how to register can be found on the Introduction to Amateur Astronomy web page:
https://www.kasonline.org/ amastro.html

FYI: We will most likely NOT be offering the series again for the next year or two, so now is the time to participate!

Thank you to those that have already helped spread the word. We’re very grateful. We hope this series is a benefit to the amateur astronomy community.

Clear Skies,

Richard Bell
President
Kalamazoo Astronomical Society
https://www.kasonline.org/

Apr 19

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured this shot as it hovered over the Martian surface on April 19, 2021, during the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet. It used its navigation camera, which autonomously tracks the ground during flight.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Now, 117 years after the Wright brothers succeeded in making the first flight on our planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has succeeded in performing this amazing feat on another world,” Zurbuchen said. “While these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and 173 million miles of space, they now will forever be linked. As an homage to the two innovative bicycle makers from Dayton, this first of many airfields on other worlds will now be known as Wright Brothers Field, in recognition of the ingenuity and innovation that continue to propel exploration.”

Feb 18

Perseverance Rover’s First Image from Mars

February 18, 2021
This is the first image NASA’s Perseverance rover sent back after touching down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. The view, from one of Perseverance’s Hazard Cameras, is partially obscured by a dust cover.
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built and manages operations of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover for NASA.
For more information about the mission, go to: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020

Credit
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Credit
NASA/JPL-Caltech