The Celestial Observer

Newsletter of the North Shore

Amateur Astronomy Club

July, 2004

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From the President

The 2004 Texas Star Party is history, as is the Venus Transit. Smarty What’s-his-name lost his bid for the Triple Crown, and the Red Sox are in second place behind the !@#$%^ Yankees. Yesterday I took my first swim in the pool. Summertime is definitely and finally upon us here on the North Shore.

It’s time to get out the bug repellant and enjoy the wonders of Sagittarius, Scorpios, and the Summer Milky Way. The Summer solstice is at 8:57 pm on Sunday, June 20. In the pre-dawn hours of that day there will be a nice alignment of Saturn, Jupiter, and a crescent Moon. Barrie Sawyer has invited members to Starport for that that Friday and Saturday. It is also the New Moon weekend.

The New Moon in July also falls on a weekend, and the August New Moon is also on a weekend along with the Perseid meteors. I’ll be vacationing in NH at that time and will most likely be observing with Godzilla at Starport on, or around that weekend. Members wishing to do some dark sky observing with me at that time are welcome to join me. Please feel free to contact me.

I will be attempting to arrange a Moose Dodge trip again this year to Rangeley Maine for the dates of September 10 and 11. Backup dates will be the following weekend, September 17 and 18. Look for more on this later via email. Members who are not on the list server who are interested in this event should attend the August meeting or contact me by phone.

A reminder; there is no business meeting in the month of July.

As discussed at the June meeting, the Veasey Memorial Park committee wants us to sign an agreement and start paying rent for our use of the facility. I’ve learned that in the beginning of our relationship with VMP, we had a fixed amount of yearly rent which was paid down by our members doing labor. Number of hours worked were tracked and credited against the rent due. Over the years this system gradually faded to the point it is at now.

In lieu of our paying rent (which I and many members don’t feel is a good value) I am attempting to negotiate a deal with VMP to reinstate the old barter system mentioned above. We have a big work day planned for September 25 with a rain date of October 2. The work will be stripping roofing shingles off the cottage and placing them in a dumpster. A show of hands at the meeting indicated that members are in favor of doing work instead of paying rent. Please email me if you are able to attend the September work day. Those who do not want to get on the roof can help clean them off the ground. There will be more on this and other work projects later.

Kevin Ackert

President

NSAAC Welcomes Our New Members:

Chung-Mok Yoo of Salem, MA

Abby DeAngelis of Haverhill

Gary Chambers of Haverhill

Minutes of the NSAAC Business Meeting,
June 4^th, 2004

President Ackert called the June Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:05PM. President Ackert called for introduction of new guests: there were no guests. There were 20 members in attendance plus 5 board members

Committee Reports:

Membership director Barrie Sawyer gave the names of 5 new members of the NSAAC.

Secretary: The minutes of the May Business Meetings were approved.

Treasurer: Treasurer’s report was approved.

Merrimack College: No report. Weather was bad all week.

Go-On Committee: The committee is going to meet to discuss future go-on events.

Salem State: Observatory will be closed until next fall.

Star Parties: Two star parties coming this summer:

July 10^th IRWS, camping event with observing if weather ok

Amesbury Library August 3^rd.

Site Selection Committee: Committee met earlier this evening. Discussed how to put information into the newsletter and what to put on the website. The committee plans to send letters to schools, town selectmen, state parks and forests, and other astronomy clubs to find how they might have gone about to find sites.

High Tower Rock Observatory: Mark O’Connor met with the officials from Lynn who were very eager to get something done at the facility. There are several safety issues to be fixed. The City of Lynn wants to have star parties on Tuesdays and Mark would like to be the coordinator, but would like to have someone help on other nights.

Upcoming Events: Star Con is June 6^th in Conn. The club will have an event for the transit of Venus at Veasey on June 8^th. Barrie Sawyer has invited club members to Starport June 18-21.

Old Business: Several club officers had a meeting with the board of directors of VMP. VMP wants the club to sign a three-month agreement and pay rent for the office space. If we keep the office and storage, we will have to pay rent. However, we can probably use the parking lot and hold meetings with out paying rent. There is a possibility that if we do enough “sweat equity” then the rent might be forgiven. Other efforts to find storage for the club assets will be pursued. They club may not need “office space” per se as hardly any work is done in the present facility.

Art Schniderman and Kevin Ackert have held off putting up the new full cutoff light fixtures until the VMP rent issue is resolved.

New Business: Nashua, NH is building a new high school with a planetarium and are having an opening event in October and wondered if there were people in the club who would be interested in giving a presentation. See Kevin Ackert if interested.

Next Board meeting was set for Tuesday the 15^th June 8:00PM at Veasey.

The program for this evening was a discussion of the club member’s trip to the Texas Star Party given by Kevin Ackert and Lew Gramer.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05 PM

Respectively submitted,
John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC

GO-ON News

The GO-ON committee would like to kick off NSAAC's summer observing schedule with a naked-eye GO-ON on Friday, July 9th. Lew Gramer has offered to lead us on a tour of the early-summer sky. Highlights will include information about the constellations, bright star names, and naked-eye deep-sky objects. It should be a combination of sky lore and practical observing targets. Lew intends this to be an interactive session, and welcomes other people bringing any legends/myths/information to share with the group.

Setup will be at 9pm, and we will probably begin the program in earnest about 9:30pm (due to the late sunset at that time of year). You should bring whatever you'll need in order to be comfortable, and should consider such items as:

Lounge/lawn chairs, ground cushion, blanket, or something else to lay on the ground beneath you
Widefield star chart (such as S&Ts monthly all-sky pullout chart)
Warm clothes - yes, it's July, but it gets cold sitting still at night, even in July. Pack more than you think you'll need!
Bug spray

It would be great if we could have goodies to pass around - cookies/brownies, or something. If anybody is inclined to help out in this way, please contact the GO-ON committee.

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.

The new site should be within a reasonable distance of our current location.
A site where we could both meet and observe would be preferable.
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, Jim Cooper, public program audience

Your skills: Intermediate (some years)

Date/time of observation: 22:00 Local, 16/17 Aug 2001

Location of site: Pigeon Key FL USA (Lat 25N, Elev 1m)

Site classification: Exurban

Sky darkness: 6.8 <Limiting magnitude>

Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>

Moon presence: None - moon not in sky

Instrument: 70mm f/6.8 Pronto altaz refractor

Magnification: 15x

Filter(s): None.

Object(s): 61 Cyg (Struve2759, Piazzi's Flying Star)

Category: Multiple star. Variable star.

Class: K5, K7

Constellation: CYG

Data: mag 5.22 6.03; sep 29.7"; pa 148o

Position: 210654.572 +384444.83

Description:

I rarely observe objects for their historical significance, not because I'm uninterested but only due to a lack of detailed knowledge about astronomical history! But tonight I had the benefit of a fellow observer's extensive reading and memorizing, to be able to view the first star ever to have a proper motion measured; also a star whose proper motion is among the largest known, at a breathtaking 5.2" per year; and what's yet more, a binary whose wobble indicates the probable presence of a planetary system around the pair! (61 Cygni may also be the DOUBLE with the largest known proper motion - but don't quote me on that one. :>)

This most "abstractly" fascinating binary stars was none other than 61 Cygni. And add to all of that the fact that 61 Cyg is actually quite a stunning little pair of REDDISH orange stars (almost like a "doubled garnet star") in the Pronto, and it makes for a very intriguing small-telescope star party target indeed!

Jim found 61 very quickly in the W "wingflap" of Cyg, just over a degree NE of mag 3.5 multiple Tau Cygni.

My thanks to Jim Cooper and his magisterial observing lists (and his encyclopedic memory), for giving me my first glimpse of this most historical of nearby stars.

IAAC Deep-Sky Observing Log Entry

Name of observer: L. Gramer, Barrie Sawyer, Kevin Ackert

Your observing skills then: Advanced (many years)

Date/time of observation: 20/21 June 2003, 0500 UT

Site type: Rural. Location: Starport, Rumney NH USA (Lat 44N, Elev 400m)

Sky darkness: 6.8 (Limiting magnitude), Some cirrus

Seeing: 7 (1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best))

Moon presence: None - moon not in sky

Instrument: 100mm binoculars on tripod

Powers: 12x

Filters: None

Deep Sky Object: B112, B318

Object category: Dark nebula.

Object class: 4 Ir, 2

Constellation: Sct

Position: 18:50 -06:30

Object data: Sizes 20'x20', 90'x2'

Description:

Found by sweeping S and W less than a full field

width, from stunning little big-binocular gem M11.

This Mutt and Jeff of dark nebulae were extremely noticeable against the starry Milky Way background tonight, despite (or because of?) the fact cirrus or haze was evident around much of the sky. B112 was by far the more noticeable of the two "blank spots", at least in the wide field of Barrie's modified 12x100 Border Hawk binoculars. In fact, this squashed oval of darkness really had a distinctly 3-dimensional feeling about it - almost as though I could perceive that it really was a vast body of cool, dark material in space. It had a sharper edge to the W, with the narrower E edge trailing off in to the surrounding stars of the Milky Way.

B318 was noted as a very long extension, diving in to an extensive "estuary" of narrow, meandering dark lanes, deep into the clotted stars of the Milky Way. With the Wild Duck cluster nearby, the sprinkling of resolved and semi-resolved stars all around, and the pleasant distraction of the many small (and probably undesignated?) dark streamers in the field, this was certainly one of the most fascinating bino fields I have gazed on in a long, long time...

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.

Members who are not on the list server and who wish to receive instructions for turning out the parking lot light at VMP should contact Kevin Ackert at president@nsaac.org, or any other board member.

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 email list send the same message but replace subscribe with "unsubscribe" in the message body.

Venus at the Edge (and the Veasey crowd observing it!)
Top Photo Credit: D. Kiselman, et al. (Inst. for Solar Physics), Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.