Was hoping to catch a glimpse of the NEOWISE comet at dawn this morning but clouds in the background blocked it.  One more attempt tomorrow morning before it moves to the northwestern skies at dusk.  See attached shots from Tellico Lake, the ISS and the French Alps.

Comet NEOWISE was closest to the sun on July 3, 2020, passing at about 26.7 million miles from the sun, or a bit closer than the average distance from the sun to Mercury. Observers are still reporting seeing it, and so it appears to have survived the close encounter with our star.

There's still time for some great viewings!  The comet has been up at dawn, but in the coming week it will become visible at dusk low in the northwest horizon.

HOW AND WHEN TO SEE IT

• July 5:  The comet was first seen at dawn in the northeastern sky, appearing very low on the horizon, only one or two degrees above the horizon line.
• July 11:  The comet will reach its highest point on the horizon, about 10 degrees above the horizon line, at dawn.
• After July 11:  The comet can be seen at dusk in the northwestern sky, initially appearing low on the horizon, but climbing higher in the sky as the month continues.
• On July 22:  The comet will reach its closest approach to Earth, which is expected to be prime time for viewing.
• On July 25:  The comet will reach an altitude of 30 degrees above the horizon line at dusk.

The comet is expected to be visible through the end of the month. However, as is the nature of giant icebergs shooting through space, NEOWISE could break apart or burn away at any time, so get out there early for a sure spotting!

How to See Comet NEOWISE ... https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-comet-c2020-f3-neowise

73, George N2APB

TLARC Chief Astro Observer

Here is some incredibly positive news on the upcoming Solar Cycle 25 is deduced in a fascinating paper at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.15263.pdf 

Abstract and an amazing graphic is copied below showing some analysis using Hilbert Transform DSP processing of the 11-yer minima and maxima of the solar cycles. 

// Look at the purple dot at the right side of the graph below … This is what they are forecasting sunspot activity (and HF propagation) to be in several years!

73, George N2APB

TLARC CPO  (Chief Propagation Officer)

ABSTRACT … The Sun exhibits a well-observed modulation in the number of sunspots over a period of about 11 years. From the dawn of modern observational astronomy sunspots have presented a challenge to understanding – their quasi-periodic variation in number, first noted 160 years ago, stimulates communitywide interest to this day. A large number of techniques are able to explain the temporal landmarks, (geometric) shape, and amplitude of sunspot “cycles,” however forecasting these features accurately in advance remains elusive. Recent observationally-motivated studies have illustrated a relationship between the Sun’s 22-year (Hale) magnetic cycle and the production of the sunspot cycle landmarks and patterns, but not the amplitude of the cycle. Using (discrete) Hilbert transforms on 270 years of (monthly) sunspot numbers to robustly identify the so-called “termination” events, landmarks marking the start and end of sunspot and magnetic activity cycles, we extract a relationship between the temporal spacing of terminators and the magnitude of sunspot cycles. Given this relationship and our prediction of a terminator event in 2020, we deduce that sunspot cycle 25 will have a magnitude that rivals the top few since records began. This outcome would be in stark contrast to the community consensus estimate of sunspot cycle 25 magnitude

FURTHER DETAILS … in the PDF at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.15263.pdf

GRAPHIC FROM THE PAPER …

Hello all, please find the attached preamble and net schedule for NCS and Logger.

I encourage any other volunteers to contact me by replay e mail to be placed on the schedule. All volunteers shall not proceed alone, we are all here to assist and shall happily do so. All help is greatly apricated.

It is a necessary skill as a Ham Radio Operator to be familiar with structured communications for that one time you may be out of cell range and have to call on first responders, call for a phone patch/phone assist, weather alert or a special need or event.

The TLARC net is conducted every Wednesday at 1900 hours local on the 442.100 repeater. Following the net is the Zoom meeting. Hope to c ya there.

Thank you

Mike

KK6OKU

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David Andrews is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 830 0614 6324

Password: 099892

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Dial by your location

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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbJYC2Q4s7

Hi everyone. Just reminding you that tomorrow is Wednesday. Yes, it’s Prince spaghetti day. Yes, it’s hump day. But it’s also TLARC radio net day followed by another chance to see everyone’s beautiful smiles on Zoom. Show and Tell, so bring something along to hold up and explain. The fun starts at 7:00; see you then.

David, N1ESK

Roving reporter KF4DKW and family note big event for this Wednesday…

TLARC Space Cadets:  SpaceX rocket launch on Wednesday

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch the ninth batch of approximately 60 operational satellites for the company's Starlink broadband network, along with two Earth-observing satellites for BlackSky Global, in a mission designated Starlink 9. It will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT). 

73, George N2APB

‘Always Looking Up’

https://www.tlarc.org/

Dear TLARC members:

Filed Day 2020 is now in the history books. It was a great event for those that operated. Many operated from their QTH and many opted for portable operations somewhere in their own back yard, mobile or nearby location. Social distancing has definitely changed things but one thing that didn’t change is the great participation during field day.  In an effort to collect statistics for this year, please enter your field day activity in www.3830scores.com no later than July 10 midnight. I will pull our stats from this web site to complete a year over year analysis. If you earned bonus points from some of the available ARRL Field Day Options, please include them in the 3830scores.com free text area so I can take that into account. Submitting your score through 3830scores.com does not count as submitting your score to ARRL. It is just a method I will use to collect your information for analysis. Any questions or if you need assistance, don’t hesitate to ask. We can do a zoom session if needed.

For those that are interested, below are my contributions for Field Day. I operated for 21 hours. I participated in a Distributed M/M with the Tennessee Contest Group http://k4tcg.org/ and the Deep Dixie Contest Club http://www.john-mcvey.com/ddcc1/ in preparation for the HF IARU Radio Championship https://www.iaru.org/on-the-air/iaru-contests/rules/ July 11-12, 2020. We are representing the U.S. IARU HQ Society and will be using the callsign W1AW/4.

Club: Hardin and McNairy Amateur Radio Club

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