Vol. 28 No. 2 November 1998 http://physics.weber.edu/oas/oas.html
[Web editor's note: We are still having some problems, please bear with us.]
THE NOVEMBER MEETING
The members of the Ogden Astronomical Society will come together for this month's meeting in the Layton P. Ott Planetarium, on the Weber State University campus, Thursday November 12, 1998 at 7:30 p.m.
A guest speaker, Mr. Lowell Lyon, will recap and complete a slide presentation he began
earlier this year but was forced to cut short because of a campus emergency. Lowell will
also discuss a conference sponsored by The Astronomical League recently held at Copper
Mountain. Questions about membership benefits in the League will be discussed.
THE PRESIDENT'S PARSEC
Greetings Earthlings. How did your Halloween go? The sky was looking pretty bleak right up until dark when the moon and Jupiter popped out of the clouds. By the time I had my wife's 10-inch scope setup in the front yard and a bowl of goodies on the porch, the sky was almost cloudless.
The sky proved very steady seeing so I was able to team up a Park's 30mm plossel with a
Televue 2.5x Barrow which gave good magnification and great eye relief. Jupiter and
Saturn, both showed a great amount of detail. And early on in the night, the hordes of
walking dead were treated to a very distinct shadow transit on Jupiter. One man that had a
group of kids with him remarked after looking at Saturn in the scope, that with his naked
eye he could barely make out the rings of Saturn!! I told you the sky was steady.
MIRRORS
Now, for those wanting to grind a mirror in somewhat of a group fashion, the following is a summary of what is involved to get us started:
We will get 8-inch blanks from AMS that will be pre-generated to F/5, but F/4 to F/7 will be easy to get to from there. The price with shipping will be about $60. We will make our own grinding tool with Plaster of Paris and one inch squares of ceramic tile from Home Depot; very cheap. We will all share the cost of the grinding compounds, polish, and pitch.
There also could be a shared cost of something to test the mirrors with, but that remains open at the moment. The whole project is contingent on having a place we can all meet periodically to monitor our progress, do some of the work, and testing. We can also do a lot on our own at home.
Could someone in Ogden or Roy perhaps, with a heated garage or shop or large basement, please step forward and we'll get the show going?
Any members interested in this project please contact me @ (801) 544-9458 or E-mail:
Hopefully by Spring several of us will have new homemade scopes to showoff.
The rest will be History.
The Prez, Ron V
WALL CALENDARS
- Members who ordered the Astronomy Wall Calendar last month can pick them up at this Thursday's meeting. With S&H and OAS Carrying Charges they are $6.50 ea. A 50% savings.
THE SKY PLANNER
The 1999 edition of The Sky Planner and fillers are available to OAS members at a 10% discount. Plan for sky events and organize your observations with the 1999 Sky Planner. To order, see Bob or Todd. www.skyplanner.com
Jim Seargeant's - "Images"
This is an image of M74, a 10th magnitude spiral galaxy in the eastern part of the constellation Pisces.
This is a result of three 6 minute exposures taken on 11 Oct 98 at about 1:30 in the morning. They were taken with an SBIG ST-7 through a 12" Meade LX200 operating at f/6.3. The AO-7 adaptive optics system helped keep the image steady, but some flaw in my system caused slightly elongated stars - it's not easy to keep everything working just right all the time.
This image is a result of removing dark frames from three separate 6 min exposures, stacking them into one, and applying an unsharp mask to bring out the clumps in the galaxy's spiral arms.
Jim
MINUTES
OGDEN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
October 8, 1998
Our newly elected club President, Ron Vanderhule, opened the meeting at 7:35 p.m. with greetings and welcomes. Upcoming events were discussed; Lomond View Elementary School star party scheduled for October 21, and the last Antelope Island event is set for October 17. The weather did not cooperate with the September Antelope party. There were lots of people and few skies to view. Members should phone the Island gate to verify if the star party has been canceled. Otherwise, please show up. Cliff's cell phone can be reached at 725-0066.
There is a lot of interest in mirror grinding. Prez. Ron will host. He will look into kits. A "Buy - Sell" corner for the newsletter is being considered.
The evening's Show and Tell discussion began.
Steve P., Ron, Deloy and Karen, Bob Neil and Bob T. all contributed to the discussion.
The meeting adjourned for informal discussion at 9:00 p.m.
Bob Tillotson, Secretary
- FOR SALE -
Wayne Sumner has a 6-inch f/5 complete tube assembly with a 2-inch helical focuser. It has a commercially made mirror cell and secondary mount in a fiberglass tube, (with several extra holes in it). The mirror is partially parabolized but still somewhat spherical. A good Rich-Field starter 'scope, easy for traveling; $250.00. sumner@iomega.com or call
(801) 479-1046.
Jeff Kwoka ran across the following nifty web site: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html