The NASA OSIRIS-REx mission to capture and return a sample of the surface of the asteroid Bennu is scheduled to launch on September 8, 2016 at 4:05 PM from the Kennedy Space Center. The Huachuca Astronomy Club, with the support of The NASA Museum Alliance and the University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory (LPL), is planning to host a launch viewing party at the Patterson Observatory on the campus of the University of Arizona Sierra Vista at 1140 N. Colombo Ave Sierra Vista, AZ  85635.

The Observatory will open at 2:30 PM on the 8th for the launch viewing. While plans are still being finalized, HAC is planning to show the launch from a live stream with other live and recorded presentations about the mission and the history of the LPL.

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information about OSIRIS-REx you can visit the mission’s home page.

At sunset, following the launch viewing party, the Huachuca Astronomy Club will host their monthly public night sky viewing event at the Patterson Observatory. This star party is subject to cancellation due to inclement weather, but is also free to the public.

The August 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.

The July 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.

The June 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.

The Huachuca Astronomy Club will hold their June meeting in the Library Commons Area, Cochise College Sierra Vista campus on June 17, 2016 at 7 PM.  Our speaker will be Stephanie Sallum, a fourth year astronomy graduate student at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. The meeting is FREE and open to the public.

Steph is interested in how high contrast imaging can contribute to our understanding of planet formation. Her thesis work has been using the novel imaging technique of non-redundant masking to search for and image accreting planets in transition disk clearings. Before coming to the Steward Observatory, she did undergraduate work at MIT in the Planetary Astronomy Lab studying Pluto’s atmosphere. When she is not doing astronomy she is usually out rock climbing.

Her talk will be entitled “Imaging Protoplanets: Observing Transition Disks Using Non-Redundant Masking”
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The May 2016 edition of the Huachuca Astronomy Club newsletter, Nightfall, is now available for download. Submissions for next month’s issue can be sent to , our Nightfall editor.

The next meeting of the Huachuca Astronomy Club will be held on Friday, May 20, at 7 pm in the Student Union community room of Cochise College.

Due to unforseen circumstances the scheduled speakers are unable to attend the meeting.  Instead club member, and NASA Solar System Ambassador, Ted Forte will talk about upcoming NASA missions.