"Stellafane Then & Now", a talk by Ken Slater about The Springfield Telescope Makers and Stellafane, will cover both history and current events, and provide some insight into what the club is involved in besides presenting the well known Stellafane Convention every year.

Gerry Dyck provides a whimsical verse in honor of Stellafane, which he could not attend this year

While some of my colleagues have been observing and imaging Jupiter since January, until recently they had to do so during the early morning hours. I know many of you too need to wait for Jupiter to show itself at a more reasonable hour of the evening. Well, now’s the time to drag your telescopes out of the closet/garage/basement (or visit one of the local observatories) and focus in on the largest planet in our solar system.

I’ve written about this subject in past issues, but it occurs to me now that it might be of interest to mention just the few bright stars that lie way down near the southern border of Sagittarius, only a few degrees above our local horizon limit of -48° in declination. The small constellation of Corona Australis, known as the Southern Crown, lies just west of these stars and is a worthwhile section of sky for those who might wish to become better acquainted with the more southerly parts of the summer Milky Way as presented to our view in August.

One reason for IC 4665’s relative anonymity is its large size, allowing it to elude the narrow fields of large-aperture telescopes. Charles Messier and William Herschel missed it, and it wasn’t included in the New General Catalogue. This often-overlooked cluster is definitely a must-see object for binoculars and rich-field telescopes.

We all every so often find a book we either love or hate. It might be nice to let each other know about them. For example, I was recently loaned a book by my friend John, from the Providence Athenaeum, who assured me that I’d love it, because it included, among others, man-bats. OK. It also has a very, almost nothing title, The Sun and the Moon.