OAS Executive Committee 

President- Dave Dunn, Ph. (801) 544-7705

Vice Pres- Lee Priest, Ph. (801) 479-5803

Secretary- Bob Tillotson, Ph. (801) 773-8106

Treasurer- Doug Say, (801) 731-7324

NO REGULAR MEETINGS FOR JULY AND AUGUST, 2001

Due to the busy summer schedule of most of the club members and the proximity of the two Monte Cristo star parties, (July 22 - 23 and August 17 - 18), the members attending the June meeting voted, by majority, to forgo the July and August regular OAS meetings. Therefore, the next regularly scheduled meeting will be the Annual Meeting in September when officers will be elected. Watch this newsletter for updates on the nominations.

Speaking of nominations, the club is anxious to hear from members who would like to serve as an Executive Member for the upcoming year. Particularly, if someone is interested in the position of Secretary who would be able to produce the Star Diagonal each month, please contact one of the Nominating Committee members who's names will be posted in next month's newsletter.

OAS ACTIVITIES FOR JULY, 2001

The lineup for this month's activities shapes up this way:

• July 12 - Astro-Camp Star Party *
• July 19 - 21 Monte Cristo Camp Out
• July 28 - Antelope Island

* The Astro-Camp star party will be in a field behind the old deaf school on 20th and Monroe. For more information on these star parties, contact a member of your Executive Committee.

MINUTES

OGDEN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

June 14, 2001

Ogden Astronomical Society president David Dunn called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m.

Dave announced that a star party for Astro-Camp will be held on the 12^th of July. The site is the open area behind the old Ogden Deaf and Blind school at the corner of 20^th Street and Monroe.

Dave suggested that due to schedules and the nearness of the Monte Cristo star parties, the July (and August) regular OAS meetings not be held. A raise of hands by the attending members was in the majority to forgo the meetings. The suggestion carried.

Cliff Peterson needs OAS support for a star party at the Weber County Library in Huntsville. This event is set for the evening of June 21^st. A hundred people are expected to attend.

This month's Antelope Island event is scheduled for Saturday the 16^th. Dr. Brad Carroll will do this month's slide show. State Ranger John Sullivan is our club contact for Antelope Island. Also, this year's East Canyon State Park event is set for Saturday the 30^th.

Plans for the Monte Cristo events were discussed and questions were answered.

OAS members planning to attend the Grand Canyon North Rim star party must get their names in to Deloy and Karen Pierce in order to get free admission to the park.

The evening's program was introduced. Two video films were shown; Powers of 10 and 95 Worlds and Counting.

Following the programs, the trip to the Lowell Observatory on June 23 - 24 was discussed.

The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

Bob Tillotson, Secretary

LOWELL OBSERVATORY AND METEOR CRATER - A REAL TRIP

Comments by OAS club President Dave Dunn

with additions by Secretary Bob Tillotson

[Web editor's note: I wanted to get this up fast. I'll come back and put captions on the pictures shortly. Check back in a few days.]

On June 22nd I knew that I was getting close to Flagstaff when huge thunder clouds began surrounding a distant mountain and lightening was striking everywhere. It had been sunny for the entire drive until then. It was raining very hard when I drove into Flagstaff. I decided to drive around for a little while and wait for the rain to let up. I drove toward the observatory. It was pretty spectacular watching the lightening strike all around the domes. I decided I didn't really want to go up onto the hill.

The next day Lee and Carol Priest and I went up to the observatory to take the guided tour. On the tour, they took us to see the observatory constructed by Percival Lowell and which contains the 24 inch Alvin Clark refractor built and used for his observations and "canal" drawings of the planet Mars. Only yards from the dome containing the Clark refractor is the mausoleum where Percival Lowell rests, eternally, in the shadow of his beloved observatory.

We also got to see the "Pluto telescope." This is the 13 inch "camera" that Clyde Tombaugh used to take the discovery photographs of planet Pluto in 1930. We then visited the museum called the "Rotunda" which contains books, instruments, and some original drawings belonging to Mr. Lowell. In the Rotunda, we saw and looked into the Blink Comparitor device that allows you view replicas of the discovery pictures used to discover Pluto.

Later that evening, we were invited to Doug Say's sister and brother-in-law's home in the pine forest twenty miles west of Flagstaff. Bob and Janet Tillotson finally showed up and we were treated to drinks and an excellent dinner at their new home. They were wonderful hosts.

When it finally got dark we headed for the observatory were we looked at Mars through the 24 inch refractor. Mars was a little too bright but not too bright to see some of the dark areas on the surface. It was better when we held an orange filter in front of the eyepiece. We each had 3 turns at viewing Mars. It got higher in the sky for each viewing, so the image improved with time.

On Sunday, we (all of the OASers) went to the Barringer Meteor Crater. This was a fun field trip. The crater is about thirty miles east and a little south of Flagstaff. As you leave I-40 East and drive south into the desert, you begin to see what appears to be a small mountain range up ahead. As you get closer to the location of the crater you actually begin to realize that the "ridge" is the crater rim jutting 150 feet above the desert floor. This incredible feature is a 550 foot deep hole which is over 4000 feet wide. The meteor came out of the northeast and struck the Arizona desert about 50,000 years ago. The object was a 150 foot diameter nickel-iron meteorite. It was traveling 40,000 miles per hour (that's 11 miles per second) when it struck the earth. The energy released has been estimated to be equivalent t a 20 megaton bomb. You have to see this thing to believe it.

That night, we had the telescope reserved again, so we returned to the Lowell Observatory to take another look through the telescope. It clouded up on us this night, almost as soon as our observing session started. We were able to see M 27 and M 13, as well as the "blue diamond" of Arcturus. For the last hour of the session the telescope operator, Bob Mac Arthur, allowed us to move the 'scope for ourselves thus giving us a real hands-on experience with it. We were able to look through Lowell's personal eyepiece that he used to view Mars.

I (we) am looking forward to doing this activity again in a couple of years. SLAS member Siegfried Jachmann, who organized most of this trip, has already scheduled several nights for SLAS and OAS during the opposition of Mars in 2003. But, I really think that we should, and can, plan our activity so that it won't happen during the monsoon season in Arizona, even if it means that we miss opposition by a couple of weeks. They hadn't had any rain in the Flagstaff area for several months before we showed up; just our luck. It was a fantastic trip anyway.