The Celestial Observer

 

Newsletter of the North Shore

 Amateur Astronomy Club

 

 

May, 2004

 

 

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From the President

Different aspects of astronomy evoke different emotions and feelings in me, but perhaps the most soothing to my soul comes when I can see the five naked eye planets (I know, six counting Earth) in the sky at the same time. Partially it comes from not having to use an instrument to enjoy a wondrous celestial sight. The symmetrical aspect of the workings of our solar system, our tiny local neighborhood right before our eyes, just gives me an overwhelming feeling of everything being just as it ought to be. Mercury will have passed from view by the time you read this, but the rest of them will be around through the end of May.

 

This is a great time to promote astronomy! People love to have the planets pointed out to them. Share your knowledge with your neighbors, friends, and even strangers by showing them the planets, with or without an instrument. The other night while walking my dog I pointed them out to my neighbor and we ended up pulling out an 8 inch Newtonian he had just purchased and didn’t know how to set up. After helping him for an hour he told me he wants to join our club!

 

If the planets don’t succeed in stirring people up, how about two bright comets at the same time! Comet NEAT 2001 Q4 will grace our Western sky from the beginning of May into June, climbing over 40° from the horizon. LINEAR 2002 T7 will never get above 10°, but should be visible between the last week of May and early June low in the West just after sunset.

 

It’s a great time for the littler kids to get excited about astronomy too! The very successful GO-ON committee is putting on a Kids GO-ON night on April 23 (cloud date April 24). There will be prizes, including a refractor telescope, and refreshments for kids of all ages!

 

Warmer evenings, planets, comets, galaxy season, and Astronomy Day are all upon us! So, if you’re still suffering from photon fever and Winter doldrums, there’s never been a better time to get more active with astronomy. Hope to see you in a dark parking lot sometime soon!

 

At this time we’ve only received back about 55% of the membership renewals. Of these, about forty members completed the survey. I’ve decided to wait until next month to report the survey results with hopes to better represent the majority of the members. Please mail your dues today if you have not yet done so, and please take a moment to fill in the survey. Your club needs your support and input!

 

Kevin Ackert

President

 

 

NSAAC Welcomes Our New Members:

Donna Soltys of Lawrence

Susan & David Millhouser of Gloucester

 

 

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

President Ackert called the April Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:10PM. President Ackert called for introduction of new guests: Tony Costanzo who has been at the club before.  There were 12 members in attendance plus 4 board members. 

 

Committee Reports:

 

Secretary:  The minutes of the March Business Meeting were approved.

 

Treasurer:  Treasurer’s report was accepted.

 

 

Upcoming Events:  A GO-ON event is being planned as a kid’s night or a family night so that we can get younger people involved in astronomy.  It is scheduled for Friday April 23rd with a rain date of Saturday the 24th..  There w1ll be a raffle for a small refractor scope and secondary items such as an H. A. Rey book and planispheres.

 

Since the proposed Messier Marathon was cancelled due to weather the club will hold an informal “mini dark sky night on Friday April 16th.

 

Merrimack College:  Kevin Ackert and Fred Sammartino entertained 25 boy scouts with a presentation by Fred.  They were able to observe both Saturn and Jupiter before the clouds came in.

 

Salem State:  It has been mostly cloudy, but one night 12 people visited the observatory and a double transit of Jupiter was observed..

 

Star Parties:  There will be a Star party IRWS on Saturday April 24th.  This is not a NSAAC sponsored event, but members are asked to assist Gary Meehan in his presentation if they can.

 

Old Business:  The bill for the electrician to install the new switch and cut-offs for the outside lights was submitted as $970.00. Since the motion approved at last months business meeting was to approve up to $700.00 for this installation, the club must come up with the additional $260.00.  Barrie Sawyer made a motion to fund the $260 to pay the electrician the whole $970.  The motion was approved.

 

Membership director, Barrie Sawyer indicated that there are four new members in the club.

 

 

New Business: 

Dennis Gudzevich introduced member Tony Costanzo who has opened an astronomy store that caters to beginners and intermediate astronomers.  He also carries Meade, Celestron, and Orion items.  He will offer discounts to club members on certain items.  His store is in Plaistow, NH at 3 Elm Street.  His web site is Astronomy-shop.com.

 

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

 

Next Board meeting was set for Tuesday April 13th 8:00PM at Veasey.

The program for this evening was a presentation by John Boudreau on using web cams for astrophotography.

 

Meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM

Respectively submitted, John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC

 

Respectively submitted,

John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC

 

Talk for May

First of all I’d like to thank John Boudreau for doing his “Planetary Webcam Imaging” talk last month. John was somewhat hampered by a confused projector system, but still gave us a good talk.

 

For the May meeting we will be doing something a bit different. At the request of Barrie Sawyer, we are asking club members to bring their observing chairs and accessories along with them. As an example, there are a number of different chairs out there, and not all of them are meant for everyone. Some of them aren’t as strong, and some of them won’t fold down for easy transportation in a small car. This will be your chance to show off what you like or dislike about yours. It will also show some of us full figured observers, which chairs to avoid. Accessories can be anything that helps you observe, such as a better red light, or a better red filter for your laptop, etc. The list can go on and on. In any case, bring something along. You won’t even have to do a talk on it. Most equipment will speak for itself anyway. If you have any questions, please contact Barrie Sawyer.

 

Please consider volunteering to speak at future general meetings about your 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, etc. Giving a talk can be a lot of fun. In addition, we’re looking for non-members willing to do talks 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

Thanks to Dave Fournier for helping with the star party for the sixth graders at Rupert Nock Middle School..  About one hundred people attended the program and spent time with the NSAAC volunteers talking about astronomy and using a telescope to view astronomy pictures attached to the wall (it was cloudy that evening).  They also had snacks and listened to a story about the moon and seasons.

 

Our next star party is May 13 from 6 to 8 pm at Witchcraft Heights School, Salem School District (MA).  It is located on Main Street near the Peabody line.  This is an annual district wide event where many science projects and programs are on display as a “show and tell”.  It is well attended (hundreds).  It will not be dark until after the program ends.  A Power Point presentation on our solar system will be set-up.  Help is needed with an indoor astronomy program.

Jim Foy

Star Party Coordinator

 

GO-ON News; Event for April

The April GO-ON event will be held at VMP on Friday, April 23rd starting at 7:30PM.  The cloud date is the following night.  This event has been dubbed Kid's Night, although "kids of all ages" are welcome as long as they have an NSAAC member sponsor.  Our intent is to introduce our guests to the activity that keeps us up while others sleep and hopefully pass on to them some of our astro-enthusiasm.  We'll have refreshments and the Veasey building will be open to warm our guests bodies.  The many exciting celestial views will of course warm their very souls.  We'll also be giving away a very nice beginner's scope (complete with eyepieces and mount) to the lucky drawing winner.

 

If you're planning to attend and/or bring guests please let us know as soon as you can at go-on@nsaac.org.  Tell us how many guests you plan to bring or if you'll be there with your scope and are willing to be included in the activities. 

The GO-ON Committee: Lew Gramer, Chris Nicholl, Fred Sammartino, Art Schneiderman, Ilane Walberg

go-on@nsaac.org


 

Site Search

Due to the environment at Veasey Memorial Park changing, it has been decided that a committee would be set up to explore new sites for the club’s meetings and observing. We are in no rush to leave a site that has been very good to us and anticipate the search to take quite a while. The following are the criteria for the search.

  1. The new site should be within a reasonable distance of our current location.
  2. A site where we could both meet and observe would be preferable.
  3. A site where we could meet with a nearby site for observing would be O.K.

Even if you do not wish to participate in the site search, if you know of someone affiliated with an organization, State, Non-Profit or Private, that meet these conditions and might be willing to house us, please pass the information on. If you do wish to join the committee please e-mail us at sitesearch@nsaac.org.

 

Deep-Space Object of the Month

Observer: Lew Gramer

Your skills: Intermediate (some years)

Date/time of observation: 1998-05-24/25 02:00 UT

Location of site: Stinson Lake, NH, USA (Lat 44, Elev 500m)

Site classification: Rural

Sky darkness: 7.0 [Limiting magnitude]

Seeing: 4 [1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)]

Moon presence: None - moon not in sky

Instrument: 36" f/5 Obsession dob

Magnification: 130x, 207x, 381x

Filter(s): None

Object(s): M106, NGC4248, NGC4231, NGC4232, NGC4217, NGC4226, NGC4346

Category: External galaxy.

Class: Sb+p, Ir-:, S0p, S(B)b+p, Sb, Sa:, E6

Constellation: CVn

Data: mag 8.3, 12.6, 14.5p, 14.6p, 11.9B, 12.2B, 12.2B  size (') 18x8,

3x1, 1.4x1.3, 1.

5x0.9, 5.5x2, 1.3x0.7, 3.5x1.4

Position: RA 12:19  DEC +47:18

 

Description: This weekend was my first opportunity to look through Barrie Sawyer's and Ralph Pass's recently purchased 36" dob, "Godzilla". The gigantic galaxy M106 in this aperture was nothing short of breathtaking! The first and most astounding thing I noticed was the COLOR: yellowish and orangish tinges glimpsed in the brilliant core and stretching along the inner following edge of the brighter spiral arm. This latter arm, spurting NE from and then wrapping very gracefully around the bright, complex inner halo, showed large variations in brightness throughout its length. Most prominent of these was a significant brightening some 7' NE of the core, where the orangish tinge was readily seen at low powers.

 

The lower SW arm of M106 by contrast, was less varied, more diffuse, larger, and fainter. Several faint stars or HII regions could be seen involved in and near both spiral arms. Interestingly, at the heart of the great galaxy, a very definite stellar nucleus was noted inside a slightly oblong, intensely bright inner core. About 1/2 field (15') NW of M106's nucleus, in the dark area above its bright upper arm, NGC 4248 was visible as an elongated fairly diffuse haze, with hints of dark mottling and what might have been a bar at its innermost core. Continuing NW half a low-power field I happened on two other faint, oblong hazes set amid a pretty polygon of mag 10-11 stars. The brighter and more elongated of these (n4231) showed a clear central core, with a faint, irregularly round halo all round its spindly length. The fainter and more diffuse (n4232) appeared somewhat involved with '31 to its W, but otherwise uninteresting.

 

Another galaxy, and the only loner in this group, was n4346, actually the first one I happened on while star-hopping to the area. Although quite bright and well elongated in a lonely dark field, it was otherwise mostly uninteresting: wonderful guidepost to M106 however, as it lies just two field widths (30') E of the big galaxy, sweeping past a pretty, bright orange/red star (HD107610) along the way. And last of all before leaving the area, I swung the Big Eye to a gorgeous baseball cap-shaped grouping of bright (mag. 8) stars WSW of M106's core. Just S of the E tip of the cap lies n4217, an elongated haze of low surface brightness, containing three separate diffuse "brightness steps" within a stretched, tight spindle over 6' long. Engulfed in these three zones are at least three stellarings, including a possible off-center nucleus and two stars or HII regions, SW and N. Finally, a bit further S, n4226 was barely visible to direct vision as an elongated NW-SE haze, with a possible long halo seen in AV.

 

As with all observations through friends' scopes, this one was a cursory glimpse at best - sketching or more extensive logging was impossible. But based on this first vision, I know I'll be returning to this Prince of the Messier galaxies whenever another chance presents itself at the vertiginous eyepiece of Godzilla.

 

HAS YOUR MEMBERSHIP EXPIRED?

If it has, this will be the last issue of the Celestial Observer you will receive.  To renew, you can download a membership application from our website at: www.nsaac.org and send it along with a check for $20.00 to:

 

NSAAC c/o Veasey Memorial Park

201 Washington Street

Groveland MA 01834-2007

 

Be sure to indicate if you wish to receive the Celestial Observer online, and if you would like to be on our email list. [Include payment if you want to have a new subscription or renewal to Astronomy ($29.00/year or $55.00 for two years) and/or Sky and Telescope ($32.95/year) magazines. We also accept tax deductible donations (hint, hint).   If you do not have internet access, you can send your check and information to the above address. 

 

 

Observatory Notes:

The Merrimack College Observatory

NSAAC has regular observing evenings at the Merrimack College Observatory (RT 114 at RT 125) in North Andover.  The observing evenings are the third Thursday of each month, all year ’round. The dome can also be opened for groups (e.g. Boy Scouts, etc) on other nights by special arrangement. How the weather may affects the schedule for the evening can be checked by calling 978-837-5012.

The Observatory is located in the Mendel Center. The Observatory contains a 20" Richey-Chretien telescope, an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope, and a number of electronic imaging systems.  More details about the observatory are available at:

    http://www.merrimack.edu/generator.php?id=1122

Access to the observatory is by going to the center of the building and taking the stairs or the elevator to the fourth floor.  The observatory entrance is marked.  Access to the telescopes requires visitors to climb a flight of stairs to get from the fourth floor of the building to the observing area of the observatory.


Fred Sammartino (Principal Operator)

Kevin Ackert (Backup)

Email contact address: merrimack@nsaac.org



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 Kevin Ackert, President, e-mail at president@nsaac.org.  If you have no email access, you may phone Fred Sammartino, Vice President at (978) 989-9977.

 

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

 

The Celestial Observer is edited by Leor Zolman. Feedback, and member contributions are welcome. Contact: newsletter@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>

 

To remove yourself from the list, send to the same address but replace “subscribe” with "unsubscribe" in the message body.