The regular meeting of The Ogden Astronomical Society will convene in the Ott Planetarium on Thursday October 8, 1998 at 7:30 p.m. Members may bring their recent creations and discussion subjects because another in the series of popular Show and Tell events is planned. Several star parties are scheduled in the near future and details on these and other club events will be discussed.
At the Annual September meeting held last month, the attending membership elected and sustained members of this new year's OAS Executive Committee. Names and contact numbers of your new committee are listed below.
The membership also wishes to thank this year's nominees who were not selected in the election but offered themselves as candidates; Gordon Heaps and Steve Richer. Their efforts and willingness to lead the Society are appreciated.
Let your club representatives hear from you. Tell them what you want and expect from your astronomy club. Your ideas and suggestions are needed.
President, Ron Vanderhule
Phone: 544-9458
nitesite@lgcy.com
Vice President, Dave Dunn
Phone: 544-7705
DunnDave@aol.com
Secretary, Bob Tillotson
Phone: 773-8106
bob@skyplanner.com
Treasurer, Doug Say
Phone: 731-7324
dougsay@konnections.com
Greetings earthlings; I wish first to express my appreciation to those who expressed their confidence in me and voted for me as president. I am honored. Second, for those who didn't vote for me, I know where you live.
As I indicated in my campaign statement, generating a new level of enthusiasm for our hobby is the goal. One way I would like to accomplish this is from within our membership. Similar to the show and tell we had last year I wish to extend subjects to other items of interest. For example maybe you have a certain observing or aligning technique we need to know about. Maybe there is a deep sky object you are really crazy about and would like to tell us why. Also there could be information you have come across that just blew your mind and you want to unload it on us.
I recently came across some information concerning 1) the Sombrero Galaxy and 2) the Great Pyramids. The astronomical implications are really fascinating and I could take up 15 minutes discussing them. That would leave time for 5 other members to share whatever they had.
Here is another idea. The members of the club that are new to astronomy can ask questions of the more "learned" of our members and get a concise and usable answer in a matter of minutes; the question of the month sorta thing. Along with the usual telescope making and equipment items I think these could be educational and lively events.
In fact I hereby decree this to be an official event to occur at least 3 times in the next year. As usual any speakers of interest for our meetings that you may know of bring them to my attention for my consideration.
I am also going to ask the other astro clubs in Northern Utah to exchange information with us monthly concerning astronomy-related items. Their members might have things to buy, sell, or trade. So be ready for that and I will get with Bob Tillotson to work out the details.
I am looking forward to the next year with you folks. I'm hoping the activities we'll be participating in will enhance our passage through the cold dark silence of space and time on Starship Earth. The rest will be history.
The Prez.
The OAS has been asked to give a star party for 100 students and parents on Wednesday October 21 at Lomond View Elementary School in Pleasant View, Utah. The star party will take place at the school located at 3644 North 900 West. Member support is requested. Details and location directions will be discussed at the October 8 meeting.
There remains one last opportunity for members and friends to attend a star party at Antelope Island this year. On Saturday October 17 telescopes and assorted equipment will be assembled at White Rock Bay on the island. Before dark is the best time to show up.
There will not be any moon to see at this last event since the moon will be only two days from New. However, Jupiter will be prominent at sunset and Saturn will be rising in the east. The fall constellations are making their presence known now so there will be a different set of objects to see from those we have been praying on the past few months.
Make this last event a good one and be there with the OAS and the interested public. Remember, members are admitted to the island free.
On Saturday September 26, in spite of threatening clouds, a tenacious handful of OAS members attended the public star party at Antelope Island. Our quest speaker, Seth Jarvis, from the Clark Foundation, delivered a fine lecture and slide show for the visitors and 200 plus Jr. High School students who were there for a special astronomy assignment.
The moon, always a major attraction in the telescope, was in a perfect phase for viewing. Jupiter was visible all night and Saturn showed itself a little later. Cliff Peterson provided the screen and power for the slide projector as he has done now for several years. As a result, the star party was a success. Many thanks to those who participated.
Members of the OAS can be of great help to Dr. Sohl and the Ott Planetarium on Wednesday evenings by helping run the university's telescopes and answering questions for the visitors after the shows. "We have several 'scopes", says John Sohl, "so OAS members that don't want to haul a 'scope around can come and operate one of ours. There are always questions from people in line and people who would like to have some constellations pointed out to them" he says. "The Autumn Semester program, More than Meets the Eye, ends at about 8:15 and that is when people will start heading up to use the telescopes. As is always true, OAS members are allowed in for free. (Free for both 6:30 and 7:30 shows and for their families too)".
There are always special blessings in heaven for those OAS members who contribute their time to the planetarium. For more information on these blessings, contact the members of your Executive Committee.
On Saturday September 19, a few OAS members, staff
from the Ott Planetarium and the Clark Foundation attended a booth and kept the crowds at
bay at this year's Utah State Fair. Adam Johnston, Cliff Peterson, Dr. Sohl and Wayne
Sumner, (who remained on call pending improving conditions), answered questions about
telescopes and astronomy for the masses who thought the telescopes on display were there
for a "hands-on" experience.
Sheri Trbovich who is with the Salt Lake based Clark Foundation was there and took her turn with the people's questions and praise for the astronomers. "There were a couple of times during the late afternoon when the Sun peeked out from behind the ever thickening clouds and we were able to see some nice sunspots", Sheri said. "But for the most part telescope viewing was restricted to various sites around the fair".
Peter Salm and Debbie Larson of Project 7, the organizing force behind the future Utah Science Adventure Center, expressed appreciation for the Ogden Astronomical Society's support at the booth. Future cooperative ventures are likely forthcoming in which the excitement of science and particularly astronomy can be presented to the people through the Utah Science Adventure Center.
A Report from Jim Seargeant
When a brochure for the Northern Arizona Star Party (NASP) showed up at one of the OAS meetings, Ann and I decided to give it a try. Northern Arizona is one place we've never visited, and there are lots of new roads to travel to and from.
We took two days each way, traveling fairly leisurely. Getting on the road by 10:00 is something of an accomplishment for us.
This was the first NASP, and was put on by the Prescott Astronomy Club. In an effort to get away from Prescott's city lights, they chose a site on part of Chino Valley's recreation area, about 15 miles north of Prescott. As we got there on Friday, the few clouds were dissipating and we had clear skies for the rest of the weekend.
The Site - At first, the site looked pretty barren. It was placed on the side of a gentle hill so that direct view of the lights of Chino Valley and Prescott were shielded form us. The site was somewhat dusty, although not as bad as RTMC. No trees - I wouldn't want to be out there in the summer.
The Seeing - The skies were quite clear. One thing few astronomers in Arizona have to worry about is dew - It's dry! There was a bit of glow from Prescott and Chino Valley; I suspect the air is too clear to scatter much light. At any rate, Sagittarius was so high in the sky it was well clear of light on the horizon - one of the benefits of going south. The first night (I'm told - more on that later) the seeing deteriorated about 1:00 P.M. The second night the seeing stayed good although a breeze picked up about 0200 and became a wind about 0500.
The Hardware - There was quite a variety of telescopes - perhaps 30 in all. They ranged from my neighbor's 17" Dob to a 3" Newtonian from Stargazer Steve. Several had homemade 12" Newtonians designed by one of the leading Arizona telescope makers, and they showed many interesting design elements. There also several big refractors - an AP and a Meade - but I was able to spend quite a bit of time with a 4" Takahashi that did a beautiful job on the
double double and clusters. There were many other interesting and beautiful telescopes, but as usual I spent too much time with my own to see many others. Of course, the first thing I did in setting up my CCD was to fry the inverter on a battery that I'd wired backwards in my haste to get everything ready for the trip. That shot the first night for my own observing. The local Radio Shack benefited from my skill and cunning, so I was OK the second night.
The Talks - The NASP featured several fine talks by Arizona astronomers. There were two tracks, so I only caught a couple of them. I was especially interested in Paul Comba's description of asteroid hunting - he is at about 460 discoveries and counting! The keynote was by Dan Britt on the Mars Rover mission. He was the planetary geologist of the mission and was on the controlling team. His descriptions were wonderful, and he projected some 3D shots (glasses were provided) that really did provide that third dimension.
All in all, it was an enjoyable Star Party - we met a lot of friendly people, saw a lot of pretty country, and did a fair amount of stargazing.
Jim Seargeant's - "Images"
I shot quite a few images, but am still having trouble learning how to process them. This is one of the few that I've been able to work to the point where it looks pretty good - I hope the tiff image looks OK - I haven't been able to view it.
This is, of course, an image of the Great Nebula in Orion - M42. It was taken with an SBIG ST-7 CCD camera, using an AO-7 and with an 8" f/5 Newtonian on a GM-8 mount. The exposure time was only 8 seconds, which was necessary to keep the brighter stars from blooming. I took six shots at this time, intending to stack them to bring out all of the beautiful detail in the nebula, but stacking is one of the things I haven't been able to make work yet. Jim