The Celestial Observer

 

Newsletter of the North Shore Amateur Astronomy Club

 

 

February, 2004

 

 

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From the President

I wrote last month about the upcoming elections, and we now need to get moving on this exercise in earnest. At the March business meeting we will hold elections for the club’s officers, whether we’re ready or not, and while some of our current volunteers will no doubt be willing to continue in their roles, there will be several open positions that will need to be filled.

 

Once again, let me describe the process for everyone: we need someone to volunteer to gather the names of nominees for the available positions, and deliver this slate of candidates to the board in February. Elections are held at the March Business meeting. The available positions are President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Director, and two members-at-large.

 

If you’re reading this, then you are most likely one of our 100+ dues-paying members, and I encourage you to strongly consider volunteering to serve as a club officer in 2004. The vitality of a club like NSAAC depends on new people contributing their time and enthusiasm; we can no doubt continue on as a club with the same half-dozen people serving as club officers, but if that’s what happens in March then the club will be the poorer for it. If you’ve usually got an hour or two to spare each month, write me at president@nsaac.org or contact another board member so we can talk to you about serving the club in one capacity or another.

 

Recurring VMP note: As we’ve announced at the last few business meetings, if you think you will want to observe at VMP during the week any time in the coming months, you should contact a board member as soon as possible for instructions.

 

Mike Deneen

President

 

NSAAC Welcomes Our New Members:

John Hayes of Salem
Ronald Gruner of Boxford

 

Minutes of the NSAAC Business Meeting,
January 2nd, 2004

President Deneen called the January Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:00PM. President Deneen called for introduction of new guests: there were no guests.  There were 7 members in attendance plus 3 board members.  Because of a lack of a quorum the meeting was an informational meeting only.

 

Committee Reports

 

Secretary:  The minutes of the November and December Business Meetings will be approved at the next business meeting.

 

Treasurer:  No treasurer’s report.

 

Merrimack College:  No report

 

Salem State:   No report

 

Star Parties:  There will be a Star party January 28, 2004 at the Cohen Hillel Academy, Marblehead, MA at 7:00PM.

 

Old Business:  Board of directors voted to change the Web hosting along with the list server.

If someone wants to use Veasey weeknights they must call a board member a day before so that the board can notify Veasey that someone will be observing on a weeknight.  No observing unless these rules are followed.   Veasey is going to be having more outside events on Saturday night and therefore we should start using IRWS on Saturday night.

 

New Business:

Elections are coming up in March. Tonight is the night that we nominate the chairman of the nominating committee.  The chairman will pick two other members to be on the committee. The committee will poll existing board members to ascertain if current members want to run again.  The committee must propose a slate of candidates at the March business meeting.

Next Board meeting was set for Tuesday the 20th January 8:00PM at Veasey.

 

The program for this evening was a discussion of the LXD AR5 5” Meade refractor on a Universal Astronomics surveyor’s tripod with a Unistar mount and a TeleVue Bino Vue given by Michael Deneen.

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM

 

Respectfully submitted,
John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC

 

Talk for February

Due to the busy holiday season, we don’t have a scheduled speaker this month. Therefore, we have decided to do things a little differently for the February meeting. We are going to have a “show and tell” meeting. We invite members to bring something of interest to the meeting. It could be something that you received for Christmas, or something that you just wish to share with the group. We won’t expect you to talk more than a few minutes. It can even be a matter of seconds, if you want. The important thing is to share your experiences with others and enjoy yourself.

We are still looking for more volunteers to speak at future general meetings about their scopes and other astronomical subjects. The scope talks don’t have to be positive reviews. You can talk about a scope you really hate. The purpose of these talks will be to acquaint other members of the club with different scopes, binoculars, or scope projects, so that they can make an informed decision as to whether they wish to acquire, or make, one for themselves. We also accept volunteers to speak on other topics, such as mounts, CCDs, photographic techniques, astronomy trips, the ten things that got them interested in astronomy, etc. Giving a talk can be a lot of fun. In addition, I’m looking for non-members willing to do a talk on astronomy related subjects. If you know of anyone, please contact me at (781) 438-7375, or at dgudzevich@comcast.net, or at the general business meetings.

Dennis Gudzevich

Program Coordinator

 

Star Party News

Our first star party is Wednesday, February 11, 2004 at Rupert A. Nock Middle School, 70 Low Street, Newburyport, MA.  Set-up time is 6:30 PM and the program (not yet defined) starts at 7:00PM.  Telescope observations will start about 7:30 PM and last until 9:00PM.  About 150-200 people are expected.  The group will be fifth graders and parents.  This event will not be cancelled for weather.

 

Directions to Nock Middle School From Route 95:


Rt. 95 North, take EXIT 57, go right off exit (Rt. 113 E). At 2nd set of traffic lights (.3 mi.) turn right at Shell gas station onto Low Street.  The Nock Middle School is about 1 mile on the left.

 

The second star party this month is Tuesday, February 24, 2004 at the Proctor School, 600 Main St, Topsfield, MA.  Set-up time is 6:30 PM.  Program Starts at 7:00 PM and lasts for 30 minutes.  Observations will start for 150 to 200 people at 7:30PM.  This event will not be cancelled for weather.

 

Star parties at Topsfield and Nock Middle Schools generally have good attendance and participation.  Please help support these events.

 

Directions to Proctor School from SOUTH of Topsfield:

 

From I-95 Northbound, take Exit 50 to Route 1 North / Topsfield

      -or-

From Route 1 Northbound, cross over the I-95 interchange in Danvers, staying on Route 1 North / Topsfield.

 

Then:

Go through a traffic light and past 2 gas stations.  Continue for about 2 miles.  After the Topsfield Fairgrounds, at the intersection of Route 97 (traffic light and FleetBankBoston), turn LEFT onto Route 97 North.

 

Continue for 1 mile to first STOP SIGN.  Turn LEFT onto Main Street.

 

Go about 50 yards on Main Street.  Proctor School will be on your right.  Turn RIGHT into the parking lot (which is on the left side of the school).

 

Enter the school through the double doors facing the parking lot, directly under the roof-mounted satellite dish.  Office is to your left.

 

Directions to Proctor School from NORTH of Topsfield:

 

Take Route I-95 Southbound to Exit 53.  At the top of the exit, turn LEFT onto Route 97 South.

Stay on Route 97 for about 2½ - 3 miles.  Once you pass the large, old, hilly cemetery on your right, you are near the center of town:

You will pass the town common (on the left, flagpole) and large white church (on the right).  CONTINUE STRAIGHT.

Go past the gray Victorian Town Hall on your right.

Go about 30 yards past the Town Hall.  Proctor School will be on your right.  Turn RIGHT into the parking lot (which is on the left side of the school).



GO-ON Event for February

 

After digging out from the ice & snow (and Holidays!), we are holding another "Get Out and Observe Night", Friday 13 February, at the Club’s observing site in the parking lot of Veasey Memorial Park. Setup will begin around 7:30, and we'll start the talk portion by 8pm.


February’s GO-ON topic will be "Observing with ‘Just’ Binoculars". Members Eric Margolies and Lew Gramer will be leading this event: we'll start off with a very brief talk on equipment - inexpensive binoculars, higher end binocs, mounting options, etc. Then we'll start looking at the sky! (There are some gorgeous objects in the Winter Milky Way that show up well in binoculars!)

If you have binoculars - or especially if you DON'T have them yet - plan to Get Out for some astrofun with us!

NOTE: Cloud Date is Saturday 14 Feb. IF we choose to go with the Cloud Date, we will be observing at the dark, beautiful Halibut Point State Park, on Cape Ann. Directions at http://www.halibutpointstatepark.com . 

 

Lew Gramer
GO-ON Committee
go-on@nsaac.org

 

[Editor’s note: The bad news is that this GO-ON event  is scheduled for Friday the 13th… The good news is that not a whole lot can go wrong with a pair of binoculars!

            -lz]

 

Web Notes: Mars and Aurora Resources

NASA has done a pretty decent job of covering the Mars program on their web site (www.nasa.gov). If you have high-speed internet service especially, check out the spiffy flash-enhanced page accessible via the Enhanced for Broadband link on the main page.

 

Interested in seeing auroras (it’s kinda like seeing auras, but relies more on good intel, perseverance and clear skies)? The “AuroralObserving” Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/auroralobserving/) keeps you posted on Solar activity and aurora sightings around the globe. It helped me catch the awesome Boston area aurora triggered during the recent reign of sunspot groups 484 and 486 (the first, and so far only, aurora I’ve ever seen).

 

The web site http://spaceweather.com offers a low-volume email notification service on solar-related news, and has great info on all sorts of solar and auroral topics.

 

While waiting for the elusive light show to visit your town, check out the “Aurora Webcam” at http://www.aurorawebcam.com/ (broadcasting approximately between 11pm and 10:30am EST from Fairbanks, Alaska.)

 

Be sure not to miss this account of an astronaut’s auroral observing experiences while aboard the ISS: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ISSAurora/.

And finally, need a quick peek at the sun without having to set up the scope and filter? You’ll find it just a click away at http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/latest_mdi_igram.gif

 

Leor Zolman

Newsletter Editor (and Astro-Newbie)

 

Getting to Veasey Memorial Park

From Interstate 95 north, take the Route 133 west (54B) exit, and follow it into Georgetown Center.  Go straight through the light, now on Route 97N.  Go about 1.5 miles and take a left onto Salem Street (Tea Garden Restaurant at this intersection).  Stay on Salem Street and turn left onto Washington Street. VMP is down a bit on the right.

 

Contact Information

For more information about the club and its activities, contact Barrie Sawyer,  Membership Director, email: membership@nsaac.org or contact Mike Deneen, President, e-mail at president@nsaac.org.  If you have no email access, you may phone Richard Bickerton, Vice President at 978-887-8533.

Our club web site is: http://www.nsaac.org.

 

E-Mail Listserve

If you have email access and are an NSAAC member in good standing, you may want to subscribe to the email notification system that Lew Gramer established for the Club in 1996. This is a "members only" system that places you in contact with other members for late breaking news concerning spontaneous observing activities, outings, tech talk, etc. You can subscribe by emailing your request to the address below.  Your message should look like this:

 

To: majordomo@nsaac.org

Subject: Email list (you can put anything here)

Body: subscribe NSAAC Full-Name <email-address>

 

Note to all Listserve participants: For now, please  post messages to the list using the address nsaac@atmob.org (rather than nsaac@nsaac.org as the confirmation email instructs). 

 

To remove yourself from the email list send the same message but replace subscribe with "unsubscribe" in the message body.

 

Star.net is our Internet service provider. Please look them up if you need Internet service!