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 8 May 2001 http://physics.weber.edu/oas/oas.html
The May Meeting
A Different Location for May Meeting
Our meeting this month will be held in room 121 (first floor below the planetarium), next Thursday May 10, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. Renovations are taking place in the planetarium which should be finished soon.
At this month's meeting, the program will be a viewing of a video recording titled Frontiers of Science, which is a lecture given by Professor Kip Thorne last February 2 at the University of Utah. Dr. Thorne is a Utah native, born in Logan, and is presently the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech. The video lasts about 90 minutes.
May Star Parties
Three star parties are scheduled this month:
Minutes
Ogden Astronomical Society
April 12, 2001
President Dave Dunn called the monthly meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society to order at 7:30 p.m. He started the meeting with announcements of upcoming events.
Saturday April 14th Swap meet and Sun Party scheduled for Harmon's in Roy. The swap meet starts at 10:00 a.m. and the Public Sun Party is from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., this is a joint activity between the Ogden Astronomical Society, (OAS) and the Salt Lake Astronomical Society (SLAS).
Thursday May 3rd will be a public Star Party in recognition of Science Week, to be held at the WSU Observatory.
Due to construction in the Ott Planetarium, the May 10th meeting will be held in room 121 of the Planetarium Building.
There are two, private Star Parties planned, that OAS will receive $100.00 each.
May 11th for the Valley View Stake Father and Son Outing at Antelope Island, and Sept. 20th at the Roy Branch of the Weber County Library.
Dave reported that the Star Party at Bates Elementary School was a big success.
The Messier Marathon was successful, there were clear skies most of the two nights.
Dr. John Sohl talked about Project Starshine, he thanked members of OAS that helped with the mirrors at Grand View Elementary School. Dr. Sohl was describing the program when a discussion started about donating the grinding compound currently owned by OAS, to Project Starshine. The discussion ended with a motion from Dave Dunn and second by Mark Durrwachter, to send a sample of each of the grinding compounds to see if it will meet their needs, there were no dissenting votes.
Steve Richer announced that Thiokol would be testing a Shuttle Engine on May 24th.
Deloy Pierce announced the Grand Canyon Star Party scheduled for June 16th - 23rd; anyone interested in attending should make arrangements with Deloy.
Dave Dunn started the show-and-tell with the secondary mount he has made for the 10" telescope he is working on. He also had a Ronchi tester he made out of a 35mm film canister.
Aaron Barson showed his Microscope Binocular viewer that was modified to fit the 2" focuser on his telescope.
Dr. Sohl showed a downloaded video clip of the Mars, Odyssey launch.
Jim Seargeant showed digital pitchers of the recent sunspots with different filtered images.
Gary Liptrot showed an Aluminum binocular mount made by Chuck Hards.
Jeremy Mathews showed a 2" focuser he has modified.
Andrew Pratt showed a photograph of the Rosette Nebula, and a drawing of the recent sunspots.
Jason Mathews showed a mount that holds 5,
1 ¼" filters and a focuser mounted slide frame for the filters.
Wayne Sumner showed his just completed 12 ½" F-6 telescope, a long handle adapter to paint the inside of a telescope tube, and a stand he constructed to hold a tube to paint the outside.
Ron Vanderhule showed a CCD camera adapter and elastic bowl covers that make good telescope dust covers.
The meeting at adjourned at 9:35 p.m.
Lee Priest, V.P.
March's Messier Marathon
Reported by Dave Dunn
The 2001 Messier Marathon turned out to be an enjoyable two nights of telescope viewing. Friday night looked like it was going to be clouded out, however right at dusk the clouds went away. The 5 of us that came that night were able to view until early in the morning. There were a few clouds that passed over occasionally but they really didn't cause too much of a problem.
The hungry boy scouts added a little noise to the party when their scout master brought them by to visit us while the Bishop had gone back to Brigham to buy a part for the stove. I called it a night a little early because I was tired and I thought that the forecast was better for Saturday night.
On Saturday night the clouds went away a little before dark again. There were 8 members there. We started searching for M74 and M77. I was quite surprised when I found M77. I couldn't find M74 but I didn't miss any of the rest until the mist and dew rolled in a little after midnight. I ended out getting 70 Messier objects. I also got a lot more sleep then last year. The best part of the Saturday night was the sky was real calm and dark in the early evening. M42 was so bright that it had horns coming off it that I had never seen before. There were also other nebulas near by that were visible. I was able to see the nebula that the Horsehead is in. I couldn't make out the Horsehead. Jupiter and Saturn were both real nice as well.
The Head Ranger Rick spent an hour or so with us. On Friday night, he had come over and turned off all the lights on the outside of the visitor center so that it was real dark. He enjoyed viewing the different objects that we were looking at and was interested in the different telescopes. Maybe he will have one when we return in November.
This was a real fun event and even though none
of us got anywhere near the 110 Messier objects, I think
that we had a great time.
CELESTIAL COMPASS
By Jeremy Mathews
Ophiuchus plays host to a splendid array of summer star clusters all of which deserve more than a passing gaze. This month we take a look at four of these clusters - M10, M12, M14, and I.4665.
The globular cluster M10 at 16h 57m R.A., -04d 06m dec, is at least 8 degrees from any bright stars and is best found by first finding a 6th magnitude red double star near the constellation's center and then sweeping west. M10 reveals a slight north - south elongation that is apparent in even small instruments. Just 3 degrees NW of M10 is M12 is an impressive globular cluster that very readily shows its grainy texture. Even at very low magnifications, the diversity of magnitudes in the core allows individual stars to easily be identified. This cluster is one of few globulars in which one can actually count individual stars. Opposite to M12 is M14 which is extremely difficult to identify as a globular because of its muddy texture. Even with large aperture telescopes, the stars in M14 are hard to distinguish. M14 can be found at the 1/3 mark on a line joining Gamma and Eta Ophiuchus I.4665 is an open cluster in the same low-power field as Beta Ophiuchus. It is made up of about 35 bright stars shaped into an asterism that looks similar to the Greek letter Upsilon. Slightly east of the cluster is a dim arc-shaped trail of stars running NW - SE.
Interesting double stars in Ophiuchus include Yed Prior and Rasalhague. Yed Prior is a widely separated pair with gold and bluish-white primary and secondary stars respectively. A nice pair in small telescopes. Rasalhague is another widely separated pair of stars whose primary and secondary stars are in opposite to those of Yed Prior. The primary shines with a brilliant blue-white color while it's secondary gives a complimenting chalky-yellow color.
June Trip to Lowell Observatory is rapidly approaching
We need a head count from those who plan to travel to Flagstaff, Arizona this June 23 and 24 to experience the 24-inch Clark refractor at the Lowell Observatory. This is a joint activity with the Salt Lake Astronomical Society. Cost to use the telescope is $15.00 per person. This fee is required before we leave for the observatory. At this Thursday's meeting, we will collect money (we will also collect money at the June 13 meeting) and will take a count of those planning to go. If you cannot attend this meeting but plan to go, please e-mail or call Dave Dunn of Bob Tillotson.
And another thing, since time on the telescope will be limited and we anticipate quite a crowd, we want to create a list of favorite objects. At the May meeting we will ask members to list their 10 favorite objects they would like to view through the 24-inch. These lists will be evaluated and the most often asked for objects will be selected and numerated according to popularity. While in Flagstaff, a trip to the Berringer meteor crater will also be planned.
This trip will require you to arrange for your own transportation and some members have discussed arranging car pools. Also, lodging must be arranged on your own. At this Thursday's meeting, printouts of hotels and motels in the Flagstaff area will be available to take with you.
Anderson Mesa:
This is the dark sky site for the Lowell Observatory. I is about 12 miles south west of Flagstaff. It houses the Lowell
Observatory Near Earth Object Search (LONEOS) telescope which is a 24- inch Schmidt camera. There is also the
72-inch Perkins telescope, the 42-inch John S. Hall telescope, and a 31-inch telescope. Then, there is the Navy
Prototype Interferometer. If there is any interest we can try to arrange a group tour.
United States Navy Observatory Flagstaff Station: This is the Navy's Dark sky site for optical and near-infrared astronomy. They don't do regular tours but it is possible to arrange for one.
Other Astronomical research areas are the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Arizona and the Science and Space Department of the US Geological Survey. If there is any interest in visiting any of these sites, I'll try to make arrangements.
Lee Priest