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

Vol. 30 Number 9 June 2001 http://physics.weber.edu/oas/oas.html

THE JUNE MEETING

The June meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society will be held this Thursday June 14, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ott Planetarium on the Weber State University campus. The meeting will include the movie 95 Worlds And Counting. It is about the research and discoveries that are being made in the Solar System.

I want to thank everyone for supporting the two star parties that were held on May 11th. I attended the Antelope Island party and it was a success. Several of you answered the e-mail call for help and we had a nice public star party. Karen and Deloy reported that the star party in Brigham, arranged by Cliff Peterson, was also successful.

In June, we have two star parties lined up. They are Antelope Island on the Saturday the 16th and East Canyon on Saturday the 30th. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we will be able to have these parties. The Antelope Island star party will be held in our usual place. The East Canyon Star Party is an event that we have had for the last two years. They usually advertise it and have quite a few people show up. It is held in the grassy area by the marina and campground. Contact one of your Executive Committee members for additional details.

Dave Dunn, President

JUNE ACTIVITIES

Here is the lineup for this month:





MINUTES

OGDEN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

May 10, 2001

The monthly meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society was called to order in room 121 in the Lind Science Center on the campus of Weber State University at 7:35 p.m. President David Dunn conducted.

Two star parties are scheduled for the same day this month. On May 11th, members and their telescopes are needed at the Young Intermediate School in Brigham City and also a Father and Son's event at Antelope Island is planned. A donation to the club's telescope fund will be offered so members support is needed.

The fee for the night at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ has been reduced to $12.50 per person. We need a head count before the conclusion of the June meeting. Lodging and transportation is by the members. A trip to the meteor crater is also planned.

John Sohl took the group to the planetarium for a demonstration of the new lighting system - most impressive.

The evening's program was presented; the lecture by Physics Professor Kip Thorne, from last February, was shown. The video lasted approximately 90 minutes. The meeting adjourned with invitations for "Advanced Astronomy Training" at 9:40 p.m.

Bob Tillotson, Secretary

GRAND CANYON STAR PARTY

NORTH RIM

This year, the North Rim Star Party will run from Saturday June 16th through the 23rd. We will 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 Centari is naked-eye visible).

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. 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 which astronomers can do their own observing.

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.) In 2001 the numbers were about 4500 and a Junior Astronomer Program was available for the 2nd year. A certificate of achievement was presented to about 86 young astronomers. We have great support and advertising provided by all park personnel who wants this program to continue. The North Rim has between 6 to 12 scopes per night and is more laid back and relaxing. We have participated at both rims and if you like the slower pace and relaxing atmosphere, then the north rim is preferred.

For astronomers, the park provides a group campsite as well as other benefits. The group site is for tents only, NO RV's, TRAILERS, CAMPERS, ETC. There should be room in the group site although not all vehicles can park at the group site. (Extra parking is about a block away.) We may have some individual sites this year instead of the group site. Let me know if

you need to make arrangements with the astronomers as to what nights you will be staying and the number in your party. We are limited to how many we can have at the campsite so first confirmation will reserve the space for you.

The following is some more information for you to make your own lodging arrangements. They are listed in order of nearest to the Grand Canyon Lodge.

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.

DeMotte (25 miles south of Jacob Lake Inn)

Forest Service Campground - Near Kaibab Lodge - NO RESERVATIONS TAKEN. Jacobs Lake is 44 miles from North Rim Lodge.

Kaibab Camper Village - Full RV hookups - Tent sites

For reservations, call 520 643-7804.

Jacob Lake Campground Camp site reservations can be made two weeks in advance Fee: There is a small fee per night per vehicle. Tents, trailers, and small motor homes are allowed, but there are no hookups available.

Other Camping Information: On National Forest lands, camping is not limited to campgrounds. Anyone may camp off any dirt road or out-of-sight of a paved

highway at no charge! Campers must be at least 1/2 mile from a developed campground or other facility. Campers are also asked to stay out of meadows due to the fragile environment. Inside the National Park, however, camping is allowed only in developed facilities.

Kanab Utah 78 miles North of Lodge has

Hitch-N-Post Rv Park 196 E 300 S Kanab, UT 84741 (435) 644-2142. Let us know as soon as possible to place your name on the list of astronomers for other benefits. We have to give the list to the Park for these special benefits.

Clear Skies and Warm Nights.

Deloy and Karen Pierce

By Jeremy Mathews

Seasonal deep-sky favorites must take a step back this June and let the magnificent Red Planet take center stage. This month we will take advantage Mars' favorable opposition, and look closer at some of these Martian characteristics.

Don't chance missing our close swing with Mars, start observing as early as possible. As earth closes the spatial gap, Mars' disk will get bigger faster. Even by late May it will be larger than 16" in diameter, and won't start to shrink back until August 7th. On June 13, Mars reaches full illumination and flaunts a whopping 20.5" diameter disk. Although it becomes 0.3" larger on June 21st, it will also suffer from a slight loss in disk illumination. So the absolute best time to view Mars this year will be around 1:30 a.m. on June 13th, when it is highest in the sky.

With a high quality refractor, or a precisely collimated reflector, Mars' surface details jump out in amazing clarity. This year the polar ice caps aren't tilted toward earth by much, which means it will take high magnification and a keen eye to detect either one. Try looking for the southern cap first though, as it is winter in Mars' Southern Hemisphere, and as it will be the larger of the two. If you are patient enough to wait for the brief window of steady seeing in our own atmosphere, you may be rewarded with a sighting of the Martian atmosphere. Although Mars' dust storms reach peak intensity in the Southern Hemisphere's summer, they may still occur at any time. If you're unsure whether it's a dust storm or not, use a blue, light-blue, or even green filter at high magnification. The surface details will fade out leaving the dust storm more obvious. If the haze is still there after putting on a filter, it's a storm.

To recognize the Martian surface features with greatest contrast, use red, orange or yellow color filters. You might want to try stacking the lighter colors together to produce a hybrid filter for viewing the atmosphere and surface simultaneously. And, unless observing with a large aperture telescope, the dark-red, dark-blue and violet filters will probably be too dark.

Most importantly, be lazy at the eyepiece. Even if at first nothing is obvious, spend at least 3 minutes staring at Mars for every filter combination. As your eye becomes more used to what it's seeing, you may realize you are looking at something not noticed before.

THE "PRES." REPORTS ON

RTMC

O.K. I admit it, I went to RTMC again this year. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it

Of course the road to RTMC goes thru hell but as I drove past Baker I noted their giant thermometer registered a tepid 108 degrees unlike the 117 of last year. Fellow OASers Steve Moog and Wayne Sumner also joined in the festivities this year.

In reality the event starts on Thursday night with 50 or so vehicles camped on the dirt road leading to Camp Oakes. That presents the opportunity to walk up and down the line and renew acquaintances from previous RTMC's. And there are always some smaller optics set up that night to wet the optical appetite.

Opening day was clear and warm with the usual flurry of activity of vendors setting up and campers vying for the ideal camping spot and digging in for the next four days. By noon money and merchandise are changing hands at warp speed and by 1 o'clock several sellers had warned me about drooling on their items.

Meade, Celestron, Stellarvue, Televue, OPT, Lumicon, Woodland Telescopes, Discovery Telescopes, Pocono West, Hands on Optics, Telescope Warehouse, Russell Optics and about a dozen more I can't remember were there with discounted stuff.

There were several talks given on thermal problems and optics, astrophotography, CCD imaging, telescope making, beginners corners, etc. They also decided to hold chapel services again after a ten or twelve year absence and yours truly had the honor of speaking to about 50 attendees that Sunday morning.

The swap-meet was the usual blend of optics and weird stuff with wires hanging out. Steve Moog and I each scored on a Pentax SMC for $125.00 and Steve bought several items with the wires hanging out which he claims will help him complete his disgronificator.

Wayne Sumner sold everything he brought and bought a nice little 5 inch Mak-Newt with the proceeds.

Vendor Russell Optics tempted me for two days with a pair of 30x90 Russian binos and finally one night I was able to test them. You could see twice as many stars compared to other big binos, in fact you could see twice as many planets, moons, whatever....they were way out of collimation.

A few things we looked through worth mentioning:

1) Steve Dodds from SLAS bought a 31 Nagler and a 4 inch f/5 refractor there and teamed them for a view that seemed to take in all the sky.

2) A 8.5 inch f/12 folded refractor was pretty nice.

3) M-13 in a 28 inch Newtonian

4) Wayne Sumners 12.5 inch gave some really nice views RTMC seems to get better every year.In fact I have taken to calling it my warm-up for heaven.

You really should attend one.

Ron Vanderhule