OAS Executive Committee 

President- Dave Dunn (801) 544-7705

Vice Pres- Lee Priest (801) 479-5803

Secretary- Bob Tillotson (801) 773-8106

Treasurer- Doug Say (801) 731-7324

DECEMBER'S MEETING

The regular meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society will be held at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday December 13, 2001 in the Layton P. Ott Planetarium on the Weber State University campus.

The meeting for December will be a Show and Tell. Please bring your pictures, books, new toys and current projects to share with us.

GOLDEN SPIKE

LEONID METEOR WATCH

The star party and Leonid meteor watch at Golden Spike was a great success. Thank you to everyone that came out and enjoyed the show

On Friday night we had an enjoyable star party. We did have a little problem with moisture on the mirrors and eyepieces. The viewing was steady. Doug and I worked through most of the Astronomy magazines tour of Andromeda, Aries and Triangulum. It included several small, dim edge on galaxies. The 18.5" mirror and a Sky Wizard were a big help in finding the dim galaxies. Around midnight we got some real steady viewing. I looked at Saturn through my 10" f/10 that I built last winter and could easily see the inner "C" ring. There were also some cloud bands on the planet.

Looking at Jupiter was a highlight for me that night. At 250X it looked like something that the Galileo space probe had taken. The Great Red Spot was plainly visible. The detail in the cloud bands was very crisp. I cranked the power up to 404X and Jupiter was still bright and clear. The moons even appeared as disks that flicked in and out of focus. We really enjoyed the view for an hour or so then the primary mirror finally fogged up so we went to bed.

On Saturday night we did a little telescope viewing. It was much colder and we ended out with frost on everything pretty quickly. At about 10:00 it started to rain, so we covered everything up. I set my alarm for 2:00 a.m. and figured that we would miss the Leonids. At about 1:55 a.m. Lee came by and said that the shower was starting. Before I went to bed there were only a few astronomers in the parking lot.

When I got back out at 2:00 a.m. a bunch of people were there waiting for the Leonids and looking through the few telescopes that were still out. The meteors were coming at a rate of about 10 in 5 seconds and then a delay of a minute or so and then another burst would come. At about 2:45 a.m. the sky by Leo and Orion clouded up so we turned and looked north and west. At 3:15 a.m. the meteors were coming at a rate that I could no longer count and enjoy the show. I counted 30 to 40 a minute the couple of minutes that I tried. I know I was missing some because I would see a little flare just out of my field of vision.

One of the things that I noticed is that we had a lot of bursts of meteors. Looking up at the Big Dipper, you would see a burst of 10 meteors the all entered at the same time. Some of them appeared to cascade across the sky. I also noticed that the western horizon was real active at times. I saw up to 20 meteors at a time down by the horizon. We saw several of the bright green fireballs as well. They were neat because they left "smoke" trails. At about 4:30 it was still active but the sky clouded up again. I estimate that we had about 50 visitors that night.

Dave Dunn

MINUTES

OGDEN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

November 8, 2001

The regular meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society was brought to order by club president Dave Dunn at 7:35 p.m. in the Ott Planetarium.

Members were asked to update their e-mail addresses if they have changed in the last 6 months.

Next weekend is the Leonid meteor shower. There are high hopes for the long awaited "storm" that has been predicted for several years. Members are invited to enjoy free overnight camping at the Golden Spike Monument. The star party is scheduled for both Friday and Saturday nights.

AstroCamp is scheduled for Saturday the 8^th. Sign up for a free simulated Space Shuttle trip.

Alan Jensen is taking orders for the 2002 desk Space Calendar. Dave Dunn is also ordering a Daily Calendar for anyone interested.

Deloy and Karen Pierce are looking into the possibility of a field trip to the Parowan Gap. More information will be forthcoming.

Dr. John Sohl described a new Christmas program that is planned for the planetarium. He then discussed some of the latest improvements and innovations to the Ott. John also described the university's acquisition of a new 8-inch LX-200 for the observatory. OAS members are always welcome and encouraged to attend the Wednesday star parties.

The evenings program was introduced. The current planetarium program Hubble - Images of the Infinite was presented.

Following the program the meeting adjourned to conversations at 8:45 p.m.

Bob Tillotson, Secretary

Alan Jensen has received the shipment of the desk Space Calendar 2002. They will be available to pick up at the December 13 meeting.