IN THIS ISSUE
The night of November 18th-19th will be the
time to be out.
Observing Reports and Articles
Lake Norman 10/12/02
By: Mark Smith
We had a real good
gaze at Lake Norman Saturday night. There were probably 30 to 40 people over
the 2 hours we were there. We had several kids and lots of "Wows". I
love hearing "WOW" from little kids. It reminds me of when I was a
kid with my first telescope. The Moon
was the main attraction and kids loved it when I would use the high power 7mm
ortho. One even said it looked like he was staring out the window of the Lunar
Module. The Ring Nebula and Andromeda got some attention when clouds started
moving in. It was really a "less than perfect night" for observing.
We had a great turnout of club members. Gail Ellerbe and Dean Archie showed up
and were immediately followed by Chuck Dessert and Peter and Martina Guercio.
Gail and I ran our scopes and Chuck ran the club refractor. The Guercios had
their binoculars. Everyone had a good time until those clouds came rolling in.
It was a good ending to our gazes at Lake Norman for the year.
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Mid-Atlantic Star Party (28 October to 04 November 2002)
By:
Charles and Diane Tilley
As Diane very reluctantly
drove off to work Tuesday morning I very happily finished loading the car with
a few items and set off down the road.
I was on my way to the 8th annual Mid-Atlantic Star
Party. I really did hate to leave
Diane, as I know she enjoys this event as much or more than I. But I still just had to go. You understand don’t you?
It’s like Elaine Osborn told
me as it was explained to her.
“It is the duty of every
retired amateur astronomer to attend every event he or she can in order to
represent all the working people who cannot attend “.
Oh well, back to the story.
The rain came down heavy and
continuously as I drove down Tuesday. I
was sure the ground would be soaked and a mess but this was the Mid-Atlantic
Star Party. Rain or Shine!
I arrived around 1:15 and as
I drove up to my campsite I saw Steve Davis setting up his camper. He had arrived a few minutes earlier.
The first night there were
only 10 or 12 people camping but as tired as I was I hit the sack around 8:30
and let the rain lull me to sleep. It
rained off and on most of that night.
I awoke the next morning to
clouds and some more rain. Why does
coffee taste so good when you are camping in the rain? Brian Hissom arrived around 3:00 PM and
still the clouds drifted by. Sometime
after midnight the clouds broke up and the sky cleared.
Everyone rose Thursday
morning to Sunshine and cool temperatures.
It looked like it would be a beautiful day and indeed that is just what
it turned out to be.
Solar viewing in portable observatory at Mid-Atlantic
Star Party. While still observing Jupiter during daylight, Bob Hunt
clears dew from secondary mirror. Diane playing ET. HOME, PHONE HOME
More and more people arrived
during the morning. There were only
four H-Alpha filters in the entire field and Steve Davis and I had two of
them. I had been watching a prominence
in the North West limb of the Sun and finally noticed a small jet moving. It looked like something was about to
blow. I left the observatory to find
Steve and returned about ten minutes later to find the prominence had already
shot out about 30,000 miles. I called
Elaine Osborn over and soon there was a crowd around both telescopes. At the same time another prominence on the
other side of the Sun erupted. Blasting
out to well over 60,000 miles it resembled a huge tree with limbs shooting out
in all directions. Smaller shoots were
separated and flying out into the outer reaches of the Corona. We watched these two for the rest of the
morning and well into the early afternoon.
This truly made my day.
Diane arrived around 6:30 PM
and the sky was clear and the Milky Way could be seen almost to the
horizon. Clouds did move in and out
most of the night but there were plenty of clear times for some good viewing.
Friday was clear and was
just one of those fun days with some programs going on in the big tent. But most of the day was just chilling out
and relaxing.
Saturday opened with a few clouds then it cleared. The day was filled with programs; swap tables, solar viewing, and the photo contest. Diane and I walked away with two-second place awards.
Clouds met us once more
Sunday morning so we packed up and headed home. We were about as tired of having fun as I have been in a long
time. I wish everyone could have made
it. We can only imagine the fun waiting
for us next year.
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Doughton Park
(12 October 2002)
By: Charles and Diane Tilley
.
As usual there were two
events scheduled at the same time, as was the case for The 12th of
October. Public night at Lake Norman
and the new event that is replacing the old BRPRS hosted by Catawba Valley
Astronomy Club. For reasons I will not
go into we felt we needed to support the Doughton Park event this year.
Anyway, Diane and I arrived early at Doughton, as we wanted to get in some solar observing. A little later Steve Davis drove up. We set up both scopes with H-Alpha filters and the people began to gather. As everyone was enjoying several nice size prominences we told them to come back later to look at the Moon as this was the clubs first annual Moon Gaze. And come they did. We had over 100 plus people show up later that night. Luckily Jeff Whisenant and Don Brooks from Cleveland County came with their scopes. It was looking like SCT Alley as we all had Meade SCT set up in a row.
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People began to stop for a look at the Sun as soon as we
set up the scopes. Finally we turned all scopes toward the Moon and took a
short breather. Jeff Whisenant explaining the sky to some of the crowd.
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“Arc” WHAT?
Everywhere you turn at star parties you seem to hear the expression “Arc-this and Arc-that”. So what does all this mean?
It is a means of measuring the diameters of deep sky
objects.
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Arc minute |
An arc minute is a fraction of a degree. There are
60 arc minutes in a degree. The apparent size of many deep-sky objects
is measured in arc minutes. For example, the globular cluster M13 is 17 arc minutes in diameter. The
abbreviation for arc minute is a single hash mark: 17 arc minutes =
17’. |
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Arc second |
An arc second is a fraction of an arc minute. There
are 60 arc seconds in an arc minute, or 3600 arc seconds in a degree.
The apparent size of small deep-sky objects, double
stars, and planets are
usually measured in arc seconds. For example Jupiter is about 45 arc
seconds in diameter. The abbreviation for arc second is two hash
marks: 45 arc seconds = 45”. |
All
this confusion could be why Noah called his boat the ARK (with a K)
instead of with a (C).
Where are the Apollo landing sites?
Apollo
11 Apollo
17
Apollo 16
Can I see the Flag? Can we
see the footprints or the Luna Lander?
How many times have you been ask these questions while
showing the Moon? Most likely more times than you can remember. As we know it is impossible to see these items with
Earth bound telescopes but we can show people the area where the Apollo
craft landed. The first quarter Moon will be visible on the 12 of
November and three Apollo landing sites will be visible. Apollo 11, 16 and 17. There are lots of detailed maps available that will
show these sites. Learn to recognize these areas and listen to the Wow’s
when you show them to viewers.
Drift Method of Polar Alignment
Here
is an easy way to field align your telescope.
It takes a little time but if you plan on doing some photography it sure
helps while guiding the telescope.
1) Set up your scope as normal. Use
one of the many methods to roughly align using Polaris. This can be as rough as
just getting Polaris in the center of your sighter scope. The closer you get here, the shorter time you will
spend drifting. (Hint: Level your tripod - it makes life easier).
2) Put a diagonal and illuminated
guiding eyepiece in your scope. About 200 power is the minimum needed for
adequate sensitivity during drifting. Rotate the eyepiece so
that
a star moves parallel to the crosshairs in Dec and RA when using the slow
motion controls. Align it so that Dec is up and down (North & South) and RA
is right and left (East & West).
3) Find a star very near the
meridian and about +20 degrees declination and align it to the center of the
guiding eyepiece. Let your scope
track (you may guide in RA only if you wish) and watch for Dec drift (up or
down). Unless your alignment is very close, you will see drift in 5 to 30
seconds.
4) If the star drifts up, turn the
azimuth knob that makes the star move right in the field. If the star drifts
down, turn the azimuth knob that makes the star move left in the field (These adjustments are reversed for a
Newtonian). After adjustment, use the slow motion controls to re-center the
star. Repeat this until there is no
drift for at least 5 minutes. Note: If you see drift in less than 5 seconds at
200X, you are probably 10 or more eyepiece fields off in azimuth. Give the knob
a good crank. This may have to be repeated 3 or 4 times to notice the drift
slowing. If you don't see any drift for 30 seconds or so, you may only be 1 or
2 eyepiece fields off. Make your azimuth adjustment accordingly. If after
adjustment the star drifts in the opposite direction, you went too far.
5) Find a star on the equator and within 15 degrees of
the Eastern horizon. Repeat (2) and use the guidelines from (3) and (4). If the
star drifts up, adjust the elevation to move the star down. If the star drifts
down, adjust the elevation to move the star up. Repeat until there is no drift
for at least 5 minutes.
6) If you made a large correction in
elevation (several degrees or more), go back and check the azimuth, otherwise
you are done. With a little practice, it ought to be possible to complete the
procedure before the end of twilight. Try it in your back yard until you are
confident. I have found this method to be accurate enough for astrophotography
of up to 3 hours for small fields
(less than 1 degree) and up to 2 hours for larger fields (up to 5 degrees) for
declinations between +70 and -70 degrees. For exposures longer than these and
closer to the poles, a photographic method of polar alignment that is
applicable only to permanent installations may be required.
7) It must be emphasized that the star cannot drift at all for 5 minutes to achieve the
exposure times stated above. If you judge the drift by bisecting a star with a line in an illuminated eyepiece the star must stay bisected for the full 5 minutes. Experience has shown that if the star has drifted as little as half its diameter then field rotation will begin to creep into long exposures.
Planets in November 2002?
Sun: The Sun is
still very active. Take any opportunity
to observe our nearest star.
*** Be aware of the danger in using any optical aid while observing
objects close to the Sun. It takes but
a split second of exposure to lose your eyesight. ***
Mercury: Cannot be observed this month.
Venus: Rising in the east-southeast early in the month
Venus stands 15 degrees above the horizon by months end.
Mars: Rising two hours before the Sun in the
east-southeast Mars remains low at the beginning of morning twilight.
Jupiter: Rises in late evening and
remains visible all night. Moves from
Gemini into Leo on November 23rd.
Saturn: Rises in the east-northeast during evening twilight and remains
visible all night.
Uranus
and Neptune: These two planets are still in the
constellation.
See
last month’s newsletter for location map.
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UPCOMING Club EVENTS For November 2002 7
November = PAA meeting 9
November = Allison’s Woods 12 November = Backup night for the 9th. Also observing at Stony Point Elementary
School. (There will be lots of kids and parents) 18 November = Leonid Meteor shower. 30 November = Allison’s Woods.
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Penumbral Luna Eclipse
This
will be the last Penumbral eclipse for 2002.
So just what is a Penumbral Luna Eclipse?
This
is when the Earth does not move into the deep shadow of the Moon but passes
through the outer less dense shadow called the Penumbral. The deep red color associated with total a
Luna eclipse will not be present during this eclipse.
Look
for a subtle yet distinct shading access the northern portion of the Moons
disk.
Beginning
at 23:32 hrs UT (18:32 EST) on the 19th and ending at 04:01 hrs UT
(23:01 EST) on the 20th.
The
next total eclipse will not happen until nest year, 2003.
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Where and when do we meet? We meet on the first Thursday of each month in the
conference room of the Iredell County Rescue Squad Building. Our meetings start at 19:30 hrs (7:30
PM) and last up to two hours. Each
meeting covers club business, observing reports and upcoming observing
events. We also have an educational
or entertaining presentation from a club member or guest speaker with observing
afterwards (weather permitting).
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Thanks to all who
contributed material to this month’s newsletter.
Send newsletter articles/correspondence/photos
to:
Charles Tilley
ctvideo@yadtel.net
PH: (704) 546-2686