Vol. 29 Number 7 April 2000 http://physics.weber.edu/oas/oas.html
THE APRIL MEETING
The regular monthly meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society will convene at 7:30 p.m. in the Ott Planetarium on the Weber State University campus this Thursday April 13, 2000.
At this month's meeting, members will have the opportunity to discuss, exhibit and
describe their latest efforts in astronomy projects or accomplishments. The meeting will
be another in the series of popular Show and Tell programs. Everyone is welcome to
participate.
THE PRESIDENT'S PARSEC
A dark grassy knoll, a launching pad
under heavens stoic stellar stare;
At each the seekers gather
expectations draw them there.
The knoll has tubes with glass
the pad has tubes with fire;
Either tube will send our visions skyward
and kindle anew the desire.
The desire to answer heavens call
to respond the best we can;
Oft better done in dark solitude,
than thru the might of men
For ages we've sought the truths
in a universe with stars that glisten;
But our eyes and hands reveal but two dimensions,
perhaps we need to listen.
For the universe is a kaleidoscope
that can tell us many a story;
And it sets free our earthbound hearts
to reveal unfathomed glory;
The glory of a realm so fierce and vast,
unforgiving on every side;
Yet unseen hands prepared this place for us
and in it we abide.
From the sanctuary of this pale blue mote,
we reach, we seek, we dare;
A dark grassy knoll ,a launching pad,
under heavens stoic stellar stare
the Prez
THE FIRST Y-2000 ANTELOPE ISLAND EVENT IS THIS SATURDAY
This Saturday, April 8, 2000, is the first in this year's series of public star party events to be held at White Rock Bay on Antelope Island State Park. These meets will be conducted pretty much the same as in years past. Please try to have your equipment assembled before the crowds arrive and the slide show begins. Remember, the entrance gate closes at 8:00 p.m. so it is wise to arrive early. Tell your friends and family to join the fun. As before, entrance to the park is $8.00 but the star parties are free. Follow the yellow arrows to White Rock Bay. For additional information about Antelope Island, check the OAS web site.
* * *
MINUTES
OGDEN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
March 9, 2000
The regular March meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society was called to order by club president Ron Vanderhule at 7:30 p.m. Welcomes and introductions were extended.
The Prez. had planned to amuse the membership with a tidbit of humor but (probably due to his pressing schedule) he forgot the joke. The assembly offered it's vocal disappointment.
The first Northern Utah Astronomical Swap Meet (NUASM) which was held on February 19th was favorably discussed. Many expressed their interest in this and others to follow. Another swap meet will be this month; the annual Salt Lake Camera Meet. This is a good place to find that mechanical camera needed for Astrophotography.
Deloy Pierce described the planned Astronomical League Conference (ALCON) which is planned for 2002. The Salt Lake Astronomical Society is hosting the event. Interested astronomers are invited to participate. The conference is planned to be held on the U of U campus.
The evening's speaker, Dr. John Sohl, took the floor. He described the recently held State Science Olympiad for highschoolers. A sharp group of young people who have interests in science and show promise in scientific fields participated. A type of open-book group test on astronomy, that the students carry out, was administered to the assembly. Following the test, the results were discussed.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Bob Tillotson, Secretary
* * *
GRAND CANYON STAR PARTY 2000
June 3 - 10
South and North Rims
It is time once again to make plans for that perfect summer getaway - the Grand Canyon
Star Party! Where else can you go to keep the family happy and occupied all day, and the
dark skies will keep even the most jaded of astronomers smiling all night long. We have
plans to continue for the 5th year the successful North Rim version.
Elevation at the South Rim is about 7,000 feet with the North is about 8,000 feet. Seeing conditions are usually very good. Early June is Arizona's clearest time of year. We have lost only a few nights to clouds in the years of observing!
We set up the scopes where the people are, where they will have easy access to the scopes and where the scopes can attract a crowd, and after all, this is a public event. The North Rim Star Party is set up on the Patio of the Lodge with a few scopes down the trail to a view area. Some dim lights are left on for safety reasons, and there is no northern sky viewing (we can just barely get Polaris above the roof of the Lodge) but the southern skies have no obstacles (Omega Centauri is naked-eye visible).
Power is available in the nearby lodge, but long extension cords are required and can be a hazard so running your scope off batteries is preferred. This is designed to be a public event, and if you want perfectly dark skies and seeing conditions this may not be the event for you.
As part of our program, a twilight slide show is offered each evening to get the folks familiar as to what they might be seeing through the telescopes. If you would like to help with one of these slide presentations, contact Deloy Pierce. We also set up a Solar Program for a couple of hours each day which includes various displays concerning many different aspects of astronomy and publicize the evening programs. The public is usually gone well before midnight. After that the time is yours to do as you wish. The first year of the North Rim version (1996), we estimate more than 2500 people were exposed to Astronomy. (Many of them more than once and some of them for several days.) The numbers for 1998 increased to more than 4,000 with 36 astronomers through the 8 days. Last year the numbers were about 4500 and a "Junior Astronomer Program" was available and a certificate of award was presented to about 12 young astronomers. We have great support and advertising provided by all park personnel who wants to see this program to continue.
The South Rim has bigger numbers, astronomers and public and seems busier. The North
Rim has between 6 to 12 scopes per night and is more laid back and relaxing. On the South
Rim, a few individual sites are reserved for the astronomers, on the North Rim, we have
one group site only. We have participated at both rims and if you like the slower pace and
relaxing atmosphere, then the north rim is preferred. The South Rim Star Party has become
too successful with more telescopes than they have room for. The traffic problem on the
South Rim has greatly increased in the past few years with grid lock in many areas much of
the day. This year the Park will not be allowing most cars to enter and requiring visitors
to use shuttles. If you would like to help us on the North Rim please contact Deloy or
Karen Pierce.
For more information or to become a participant on the North Rim, write to:
Deloy Pierce
P.O. Box 674
Farmington, UT. 84025
801-451-8215
grndcnynstarsnr@utah-inter.net
North Rim Lodging:
Grand Canyon Lodge and Cabins (AMFAC) 303-297-2757.
This number is often very busy, FAX them at 303-297-3175
Campsites (Destinet - no more than 8 weeks in advance) 800-365-2267
Kaibab Lodge - Motel just outside park boundaries - 800-525-0924
* * *
OAS MEMBERS PARTICIPATED IN A SUCCESSFUL MESSIER MARATHON
On Saturday evening and Sunday morning April 1st and 2nd,
the second Messier Marathon, hosted by Les Wright in Penrose, Utah, was held. We had clear
skies and it turned out to be a lot of fun for all. Les has a really nice site for
observing and he was a gracious host. Some of the members observed on Friday night, and
some on Saturday night, which was when Lee & Carol Priest, Mark Durrwachter, Dale
Hooper and I held our marathon. I was able to get 98 of the 110 objects. We used the Sky
and Telescope list with substitutes NGC5866 for the duplicate M102. I learned in short
time that the first and last of the list objects are very hard to find. I will need to
practice finding them when they are higher in the sky.
Les served us some great Beef Stew about midnight. Then, around 2 a.m., I started hearing deep discussions going on, that were way over my head. I am convinced that everyone had a great time. Dale probably got most of the objects, as he was using his LX200. What a break; technology. Make your plans, check your charts and join us all next year.
Dave Dunn, VP
* * * * * * * * *
Jim Seargeant's - Images
NGC 2419
The Intergalactic Wanderer
This image of NGC 2419, the Intergalactic Wanderer, was taken on 26 March, 2000 at about 9:00 PM. The 12" Meade LX-200 was operating at f/6.3 using a Celestron focal reducer and the SBIG ST-7 was binned 2x2. This image is the result of combining 5, 8 minute exposures to improve the signal to noise ratio in the final image. Calibrations were performed using Mira, two iterations of the Lucy-Richardson algorithm, using SBIG's CCDSHARP tightened up the stars a bit, and Stellaimage's digital data processing profiled the contrast to avoid washing out the center of the cluster.
This is not the best that I can do on this object. My telescope is bolted to the deck behind my house. With the temperature warming, the deck is moving around and the polar alignment of the wedge is not very good. I believe this is the cause of the persistent tracking problems I've been having lately and which, in turn, causes the elongated stars seen in this image. Once the tracking is improved, I can increase the exposure by one or two minutes to improve the signal to noise ratio of the individual images. I really do need to get in a pier that is isolated from the deck; perhaps this year.
NGC 2419 is a 10.4 magnitude globular cluster in the constellation Lynx. It is Caldwell 25 in Patrick Moore's list. The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) web site at http://www.seds.org/ gives the following information for NGC 2419:
"This globular cluster is one of the most remote globulars of our Milky Way galaxy , both from our solar system and from the galactic center, nearly 300,000 light years from each. It is thus nearly twice as far out as the Large Magellanic Cloud . As it is intrinsically luminous (with Mag -9.48 according to Harris' database, it ranks on place four after Omega Centauri , southern NGC 6388 in Scorpius, and M54 in absolute brightness), it is however in the range of medium-sized amateur telescopes, and the most remote Milky Way object visible in moderately-sized scopes. From the galactic center, it is lying "beyond us", so that we see it in the scarcely populated hemisphere of the galactic anticenter (as one of the 13 globulars there). NGC 2419 is approaching us at about 20 km/sec."
SEDS also provides the following on globular clusters:
"Globular clusters are gravitationally bound concentrations of approximately ten thousand to one million stars. They populate the halo or bulge of the Milky Way and other galaxies with a significant concentration toward the Galactic Center. Spectroscopic study of globular clusters shows that they are much lower in heavy element abundance than stars such as the Sun that form in the disks of galaxies. Thus, globular clusters are believed to be very old and formed from an earlier generation of stars (Population II). More recent estimates yield an age of 12 to 20 billion years; the best value for observation is perhaps 14 to 16 billion (see e.g. the discussion at M92). As their age is crucial as a lower limit for the age of our universe, it was subject to vivid and continuous discussion since decades. The age of globular clusters is determined by investigating their H-R diagrams, as discussed in our globular cluster page. The disk stars, by contrast, have evolved through many cycles of star birth and supernovae, which enrich the heavy element concentration in star forming clouds and may also trigger their collapse."
"Our galaxy has about 200 globular clusters, most in highly eccentric orbits that take them far outside the Milky Way. Most other galaxies have globular cluster systems as well, in some cases (e.g., for M87) containing several thousands of globulars!" The SEDS web site contains a vast amount of images and data on astronomical objects and is well worth a visit.
Jim Seargeant