Contact Us
You can contact the ICAC with questions by email: info at icastronomy dot org. Or you can enter a question or comment below.
Most questions are best answered in person, and anyone is welcome to Iowa City Astronomy Club monthly meetings (and star parties)! Please feel free to come and ask our very knowledgeable club officers questions you have about astronomy. Meetings are held on the second Monday of each month, at the Iowa City Public Library. Check with the information desk for room location.
Comments»
I just uploaded a few images taken during the observing session yesterday (July 10, 2010) to:
http://www.haraldstauss.com/Astronomy/index2.html
The last 7 images are all from the observing session.
Regards,
Harald Stauss
I’m a newcomer to astronomy in the sense that i very recently bought a telescope; I’m curious if anyone has advice about where i can set a scope up in the country without being harassed. At home i can only get a fix on eastern and western skies.. and haven’t had any luck with anything other than planet viewing. Any help would be great.
Any plans for an observing session for the partial lunar eclipse in the early morning on June 26?
Sorry for the late inquiry.
Has anybody had a chance to see comet McNaught yet?? How far outside of Iowa City do you need to go to view it if so?
Greetings.
I would enjoy meeting members of your group and give
those interested a brief description of the Iowa Space
Science Center initiative. Looks like I might be unable
to attend the June regular meeting due to a family committment.
So perhaps I should shoot for the 2nd monday in July?
If anyone is interested in seeing a Spitz model A4 projector
up close, you’re welcome to stop by our house (on Teg Dr,
just across from the relatively new Kiwanis Park). Just give
send a note to my work address: charles-miller@uiowa.edu
(or I’m also in the phone book).
The ISSC plan is to create something fresh and distinctive relative
to what’s usually thought of as a science museum, stressing
higher level content and building design more amenable to a learning
environment. I was one turned onto science in the 60’s and 70’s
by the richer civic environment that gave science more consideration;
I still remember planetarium presentations at Augustana College
and St Louis’s old Goto “Saturn” projector.
Thanks. I hope we can meet up some time soon.
I have what is probably a silly query. Having qualifed that I will ask anyway. The other evening I was out looking at the stars and wondered what effect if any to our planet if another one in our solar system was destroyed by a natural disaster. Say a meteor hit Mars or any other planet in our system and it was strong enough to impact the whole planet to a degree that it was vaporized. Would that in anyway change our system or have a direct impact on earth? I know probably an inane question but I was curious. Many thanks to anyone who may have an answer..
Hi. I was driving tonight and there was a HUGE, shooting-starish light. I just needed to know what it was. Did anyone see it?
This is for Howard Cox:
I would like to use your photo of Comet Holmes in a NASA mathematics problem set for teachers and students. It would be properly cited, and you can see other examples of how it would appear by visiting Space Math @ NASA
http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov
Would you be interested in granting NASA permission to use your image in a pdf file?
Dear Iowa City Astronomy Club members,
I am pursuing the possibility of developing a “space science” center for the Iowa City / Coralville area and have been laying some groundwork by contacting civic entities. The most large-scale proposal would call for a large new building that offered exhibit, lecture, and classroom space, in addition to a planetarium. The most scaled down version would simply be a planetarium.
If members are interested, I’d be happy to meet up with your group and, if desired, present a powerpoint show about the proposal.
While the economy is in terrible shape, it is an excellent time to plan. I have much to do (IRS filings for a non-profit, business-plan documents, etc.) before “going public”, so outreach to parties that might have special interest is important right now.
I should mention that I own a Spitz A4 planetarium projector and a home-built projector and have experience with making a segmented projection dome.
I hope to help forming a larger group of “grass roots” supporters (people who either enjoy astronomy and related topics and/or see a need for improving informal science education via this angle.)
Thank you,
Charlie Miller
Coordinator,
Iowa Space Science Center project
Hi.
I’m updating the list of local organizations kept by the Iowa City Public Library. Would you look over the following information and let me know what information has changed?
[club info redacted
-Webguy]
Thank you,
John Hiett
Is the October 3rd star party open to the public/people interested in joining the club?
I am building a Dobsonian 8″ reflector telescope and cannot figure out from the plans how the primary mirror is secured at the bottom? I have the furring nails in place with the four pieces of wood attached to the tube. Can anybody help me figure this out?
Hi. I was wondering if any legislature has passed in Iowa regarding light pollution or “full-cutoff” lighting. I found a proposed bill from 1999 but I cannot find any info since then.
My family is from a small town in northwest Iowa and the town is replacing all of the old streetlights with horrible globe-like lights. Now downtown at night looks almost as bright as downtown during the day. I used to be able to see the Milky Way from my backyard!
Are there any telescope dealers in Iowa? or do most people buy over the web? (Orion Mas-Cassegrain is current top pick)
Hello,
My name is Tyson Wirth, I’m a recent UI grad working in a home with individuals with disabilities.
One of the guys I work with, Kevin, enjoys weather and I am wondering if he might enjoy your club. Could you tell me when your club meets (what time on the second Monday of each month), what specifically happens at these meetings, and what any membership costs and/or fees might be? Is there a relatively new indoor observatory nearby that you folks use? Any other info would be appreciated.
Don’t hesitate to contact me at 319-530-XXXX or XXXX@gmail.com if need be. Thank you very much for your time!
Tyson
Where is a good place to view the Perseid meteor shower this year? I am getting a group of friends together to view it, but we are unsure of where to go. We are willing to drive a short distance outside of Iowa City, but don’t know where the least light pollution is, or where we could observe without trespassing after hours. Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Leslie
What are you doing to allow us to see the meteor showers , or aren’t they visible in this part of the world?
Hi. Last night, my husband and I (who live in the older part of east IC) noticed man-made lights in the sky–like one associates with Hollywood (three synchronized, moving spotlights). We wondered who would be so obnoxious to use such a thing–so we investigated.
We live on Bradley Street, which is a short side street of Muscatine, between 7th and Creekside Park (a few blocks from the east side Hy-Vee). We could see these lights all the way from their source–El Dorado Mexican restaurant in Coralville, off the strip!
The lights they used came from a machine called “Sky Searchers”–a slight insult to astronomers, no?
Anyway, I wondered if you knew if a permit must be obtained to use such a thing–and how long it could be used. Perhaps your club could write an informative but succinct piece to the owners of that restaurant, explaining how use of such lights cause light pollution?
Thanks for your time and thoughts.
Sorry, I meant October 13th, not the 8th.
Hi. I was wondering if your club will be following Mars’ closest approach to Earth? I would love to see Mars as close up as possible through a telescope? Would you be looking at Mars on your October 8th observing run at Kent Park?