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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer Astronomy Club

New Horizons Mission Discussion

07 July 2015

I recently received a nice big box of printed materials from NASA/JPL on the current New Horizon mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt...






Included are Stickers, data sheets, bookmarks and a nice mission pin...






Also, bubble wrapped was a 3-D printed model of the Hew Horizons Space probe...

A very nice surprise...

These materials will be great for the IHSCA Astro crew...and that's just what we discussed at our club meeting...

Distributing the materials to the club members and using the tablet, we discussed the mission, objectives and current images coming from the space craft...

The mysterious four shadowed areas are of great speculation and the talk of possible nitrogen ice creatures was fun to explore. 

Passing around the 3-D model of the space craft,  I made mention that Clyde Tombaugh's ashes are within a small canister on-board the craft, heading to the planet that he worked to discover.

Very cool.

A great time to be alive, exploring Pluto, which was once just a dot in telescopes...now unfolding as a new world.

The New Horizons materials will be great to pass out at Chicago Astronomer Star Parties and events, as this will be on the minds of our fans and visitors for discussion when the mission starts to deliver sharp images of sights never before seen.

Cool stuff.

[Paulie pchris00]

Almost there. Less than 14 hours until closest approach. This is exciting.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomer Astro Club discusses the
New Horizons Fly-by data and images

14 July 2015

At last week's club meeting, we examined the New Horizons Pluto Fly-by event in 7 days, prepping on key highlights of the mission and expected images.  I viewed the live NASA feed at 6:30 am Chicago time and caught the last images the spacecraft send back before communications pause and closest approach to Pluto.  As our club meeting was that very afternoon, it provided good material for discussion with the crew...

With material and models handed out via Alan Sterns, (Principal Investigator on the New Horizons project), we were well equipped with mission data and background.  With the most recent images available, we examined sights never before seen and took the opportunity to identify various features on Pluto and satellite Charon...

Nitrogen snow, young craterless surfaces, canyons, ice mountain peaks, heart shaped features...the time just shot by as we discussed these new worlds, which lead to a discussion on Terraforming and related subjects.

We will continue to re-visit this mission as the data keeps pouring in over the next 15 months during our club activities
and meetings...

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