NoCoAstro

The Northern Colorado Astronomical Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the science of astronomy and to encourage and coordinate activities of amateur astronomers.
The September 7th, 2023 meeting will be held IN PERSON at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 408 Mason Ct, Fort Collins at 6:15 PM. For anyone uncomfortable with in-person meetings or otherwise unable to attend in person, the meeting will be simultaneously broadcast on Zoom via Webinar.
The September 7th, 2023 meeting will be held in Lory State Park's Soldier Canyon Event Center at 6:15 pm. Because of the location, this month's meeting will not be simultaneously broadcast on Zoom. Park admission required (unless you paid the CO State Park fee on your 2023 auto registration)

Download the Current Issue of the “Objective View” Newsletter: June 2018

September 7th, 2023 6:15 pm Speaker - Dr. Fran Bagenal

Juno update at Jupiter: What's happening to the Great Red Spot?

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Speaker: Dr. Fran Bagenal is a research scientist at the University of Colorado. She is co-investigator and team leader of the plasma investigations on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. Her main area of expertise is the study of charged particles trapped in planetary magnetic fields and the interaction of plasmas with the atmospheres of planetary objects, particularly in the outer solar system. Born and raised in the UK, Dr. Bagenal received her bachelor degree in Physics and Geophysics from the University of Lancaster, England, and her doctorate degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from MIT (Cambridge, Mass) in 1981. She spent five years as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College, London, before returning to the United States for research and faculty positions in Boulder, Colorado. She has participated in several of NASA's planetary exploration missions, including Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Deep Space 1, New Horizons and Juno.

Talk Abstract: The giant planet Jupiter is recognized by it’s orange and white stripes – and its Great Red Spot. A large red storm has been observed by modest telescopes in Jupiter’s atmosphere for centuries. In 1979 the Voyager spacecraft made movies of the GRS that was about the size of two Earths with hurricane-scale winds that circulated in 6 days. NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since 4th July 2016 and made over 30 orbits over Jupiter’s poles. In the past year Juno made some passes close to the GRS, measuring the depth of the storm and observing the turbulent atmospheric structures.

In this talk, LASP scientist Fran Bagenal will show how Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has been observed by telescopes on Earth as well as from spacecraft near Jupiter. The storm has noticeably shrunk in size over the past 40 years – will it disappear? Grow back to its size at the Voyager epoch?

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Monthly Meetings

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Regular club meetings have resumed at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery in the Otterbox Digital Dome Theater. They are scheduled for the 1st Thursday of every month. Please verify the meeting date and location on the club website. The business portion of the meeting is scheduled for 15 minutes starting at 6:15pm.

Regular topics include:
  • Announcements on upcoming NCAS events: speakers, stargazing, outreaching, etc.
  • Brief updates from the club treasurer and secretary
  • Items of general interest as shared by members and visitors

After the business meeting, invited speakers present an astronomy-related program beginning at 6:30pm. It is free of charge and the public is welcome. Talks are typically geared towards people with a high-school science background, but the level does vary. Feel free to contact a club officer for guidance if the target level is not apparent from the talk description. Talks typically last for 60 minutes. Questions are usually welcome both during and after the talk.

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