The Celestial Observer
Newsletter of the North Shore
Amateur Astronomy Club
October, 2004
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From the President
I write this as the remains of Hurricane Frances
overtake the region and I try to decide on the Moose Dodge road trip. The
weather during my fourteen day vacation in NH last month permitted only one
five hour observing session before fog rolled in. Lew Gramer traveled to
Florida for the Perseids and had to evacuate the state ahead of Hurricane
Charlie. When I first got involved in astronomy I thought the most challenging
aspect would be learning the stars and constellations, not finding clear nights
to observe.
On a more pleasant note, the Fall equinox arrives
September 22 along with drier, clearer nights. We have an exciting GO-ON event
planned for October 15. Our annual club picnic is at 2 PM on September 25.
There will be a total lunar eclipse on October 27. Our relationship with VMP
has improved and they are willing to return to the old system of sweat equity
in lieu of rent.
We’re working with member Russ Pinizzotto, Dean of
Science and Technology at Merrimack College, on some exciting plans to enhance
the astronomy programs at Merrimack College. One plan is to begin having our
club meetings at the college on nights when we have a keynote speaker and to
invite the students to attend. Our hope is that having Merrimack as a venue
will help to attract good speakers. Several board members are researching
methods to attract speakers. We’ll be contacting companies and organizations
regarding this. Members who know someone that could be a speaker, or have a
suggestion on how to find them, should contact any board member with your
ideas.
The VMP workday is still planned for September 25.
Plan to arrive around 10 am and bring work gloves, straight edged shovels,
and/or pitch forks. The club picnic will be in the afternoon. Showing up for
the picnic and not the work party is totally acceptable, as is working but not
picnicking.
Kevin Ackert
President
Merrimack College Program Expanding
Our once a month public observing sessions at Merrimack College in Andover will soon be expanded to twice a month. The expanded program is part of member Russ Pinizzotto's (Dean of Science and Technology at Merrimack) proactive ideas to work closer with our club, and to enhance the astronomy programs at the college. Other plans include facility upgrades to the dome and computer controller on the scope, NSAAC meetings held at the college with keynote speakers, and star parties on campus for the students.
We currently have two members handling the public observing on the third Thursday of each month. We are hoping to get at least one or two more interested members trained on using the telescope and dome so that there are enough of us to cover on public observing nights. This would not require a monthly commitment from any one person, but would be a shared responsibility were we help and cover for each other as needed. Arrangements will be made for interested members to have private training sessions. Please contact Fred Sammartino or Kevin Ackert at vicepresident@nsaac.org or president@nsaac.org.
NSAAC Welcomes Our New Members:
Barry Keith of Rowley
Tommy Sanders of Haverhill.
Minutes of the NSAAC Business Meeting,
September 3rd , 2004
President Ackert called the September Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:07PM. President Ackert called for introduction of new guests: there were no guests. There were 17 members in attendance plus 6 board members.
Committee Reports:
Secretary: The minutes of the June Business Meetings were approved.
Treasurer: There was no Treasurer’s report.
Merrimack College: Observatory was open on Wed.
Go-On Committee: Very successful go-on with Lew Gramer doing a great job with the July 9th naked eye observing session. Thanks Lew! There is a go-on scheduled for Friday October 15th with a program to be determined. Topic will be determined and listed in this month’s newsletter.
Salem State: Observatory will be opening later this month.
Star Parties: Star party for Plaistow Public Library Monday September 27th. Need scopes and people. There will be a star parties Oct 2nd at Maudslay State Park and October 13th at IRWS.
Site Selection Committee: No report
High-Tower Rock Observatory. No report
Upcoming Events: Moose Dodge road trip is planned for Sept 10-12 with a rain date of Sept 17-19.
Club picnic will coincide with the VMP roof stripping party on September 25 with a rain date of October 2nd. Picnic will start at 2PM. There will be three presentations Sept 12 at the MOS by Dr. Neil Tyson entitled “Origins”. The program will be shown on Sept 28 and 29on WGBH’s NOVA program. For additional information call 617-589-0419.
Old Business: The VMP management are open to bartering with work in lieu of rent.
New Business: Russ Pinizzoto has offered the club the use of a room at Merrimack for our meetings, star parties on the football field, and up dates to the telescope and dome.
Dennis Gudzevich announced that there are new calendars for sale, price to be determined by the board.
Tony Costanzo showed some new products his company is carrying.
Next Board meeting will be set via e-mail between board members.
Meeting adjourned at 9:04 PM
Respectively submitted,
John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC
Talk for October
We have rescheduled last month’s planned presentations of “Member’s Summer Astro-Experiences” for the October general meeting.
If you have any astro-related travel, photos or experiences that you'd like to share with other club members, please plan to do that at the October general meeting. We'll have an "open microphone" format, but if you'd like to present something, please send Fred Sammartino an email, if possible, at sammartino@lucent.com to give us a heads up. If you'd like any audio-visual assistance (i.e., laptop projector, slide projector, overhead) we'll be sure that we're set up for that.
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 dgudzevich@comcast.net, or at the general business meetings.
Dennis Gudzevich
Program Coordinator
Call for Site Coordinators
We will now have a site coordinator at VMP on clear Friday nights except near the full moon. The coordinator will greet new members and visitors and help them feel welcomed. The name of the coordinator will be announced via the email list the day before. The idea of this program is have a person on hand that people, particularly new members, can connect with, so they don't feel like outsiders. If you are interested in volunteering to be site coordinator, contact me at barrie_sawyer@yahoo.com.
Barrie Sawyer,
Membership Coordinator
NSAAC Star Parties for October
We have a new request from the Plaistow, New Hampshire Public Library to help with a star party Monday, September 27, 2004. Location/time/directions are not available at this time. Please contact me for further information. I will send out detailed information on the list server.
The first star party for October is Saturday, October 2, 2004 at Maudslay State Park, Curzon Mill Road, Newburyport, MA. Set-up time is 6:30 PM. A program on constellations will run from 7:00PM to 7:30PM. Telescope observations start 7:30PM. The event will not be cancelled for weather. About 25 people are expected for the evening
The second October star party is Wednesday October 13, 2004 at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. Set-up time is 6:30PM. A program on “Digital Lunar Photography” by Gary Meehan will run from 7:00PM to 8:00PM. Telescope observations start 8:00PM. The event will not be cancelled for weather. About 25 to 50 people have registered for the IRWS fund raising program
Our third star party will be during the lunar eclipse on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at Merrimack College, 315 Turnpike Street, North Andover, MA. Final details are pending. First contact starts at 8:00PM, so telescope set-up is 7:30PM. The moon should be red about 10:00PM. Last contact is 2:00AM. When we had a lunar eclipse star party at the IRWS, most people left once the moon was completely red. This event should be well attended by many students. The plan is to set-up on the campus, which will be an excellent opportunity to support the school astronomy program/future NSAAC and Merrimack College programs. Full details will be posted on the list server.
Maudslay State Park Driving
Directions
Maudslay State
Park is located in north-eastern Massachusetts, on the North Shore.
From north
and south: Take Rte. 95, exit 57
to Rte. 113 east. Follow 113 east for half a mile and turn left on Noble St. At
stop sign turn left onto Ferry Rd., bear left at fork and follow signs.
From west: Take I-495 exit 55 to Rte. 110 east. Continue 1 mile
to Merrill St., turn right at second light. Continue on Merrill St./Spofford
St. for 1.5 miles. Turn right before stop sign onto Ferry Rd., follow signs.
Merrimack College Driving Directions
From Boston and Logan Airport:
Route 93 North to exit 41, Route
125 to Andover/North Andover. Campus is on the left at intersection of Routes
125 and 114. Approximately 25 minutes to campus
From Points North:
Route 95 South to 495 South (traveling from Maine) or Route 93 South or 3 South to 495 North (traveling from New Hampshire) exit 42A. Follow Route 114 toward Middleton, one mile to Merrimack campus.
Jim Foy
Star Party Coordinator
October 9th Deep Sky GO-ON
Dark skies, no mosquitoes, good company and plenty of enjoyable targets! That_s what we promise for the next GO-ON event to be held Saturday, October 9th (cloud date Saturday, October 16th).
We are planning a tour of some of fall_s deep sky gems, with a group of enthusiastic club-members leading the session. Multiple telescopes will be present to view through, or you can bring your own telescope and follow along. There will be plenty of star-hopping veterans there to help out if needed. We’ll be selecting a list ahead of time - and will try to publish it on the Listserv a few days in advance. We’ll also be providing the list at the GO-ON event, together with some finder charts.
Because of the faint nature of some of these objects, we'll be holding this event under the dark skies at Halibut Point on Cape Ann in Gloucester. Directions will be posted to the Listserv prior to the event (those without internet can call Chris Nicholl at 978/873-0146). For those of you who are unfamiliar with this site, it's about 45 minutes from Veasey, and has beautifully dark skies - significantly darker than what we enjoy at Veasey.
So, come out and join your club members for a nearby dark-sky getaway with a guided tour of some of fall's deep sky treasures. Setup will be at 6:30pm, and the program will begin at 7:30pm.
The GO-ON Committee:
Lew Gramer
Chris Nicholl
Fred Sammartino
Art Schneiderman
Ilane Walberg
2005 Calendars
The new 2005 Astronomy and Tide-Mark calendars have arrived. The price of the calendars is set at $8.00 each again this year. I have already sold about a half dozen of each at the September meeting. As in the past, I would like to clear all the calendars out at the December business meeting. We only have about a dozen of each left. They make excellent Christmas presents, and what self-respecting amateur astronomer would want to be without one? Please remember that purchasing these calendars is one of the ways that you help support this club. A portion of each sale goes back into our general fund to help support other club ventures. You may purchase one or more of the calendars at the general meeting, or contact me at dgudzevich@comcast.net and I will put your calendar order aside for you. Please note that I will not mail any calendars out to members, and that I will only hold them until I sell all of the remaining calendars, which usually means the December business meeting. After that it’s first come first serve, so don't let it go too long.
Dennis Gudzevich
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 Objects of the Month
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate
Date and UT of Observation: Early morning, Fall
Location: Medford, MA, USA (42N)
Site classification: urban
Limiting magnitude: 5.0
Seeing: 3+ - medium good
Moon up: no
Instrument: 35mm binos
Magnification: 7x
Filters used: None
Object: M36
Category: Open cluster
Constellation: Aur
Data: mag 6 size 15' (published: 12')
RA/DE: 05h36m +34o08m
Description:
This open cluster under these skies showed as a mere 15' irregular fuzzy patch NE of a pretty grouping of seven mag 5-8 stars, all lined up along a 2 degree path roughly North/South.
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate
Date and UT of Observation: Early morning, Fall
Location: Medford, MA, USA (42N)
Site classification: urban
Limiting magnitude: 4.8
Seeing: 3+ - medium good
Moon up: no
Instrument: Reflector 4.5" f/4.25
Magnification: 20x, 40x
Filters used: None
Object: M45 (Pleiades)
Category: Open Cluster
Constellation: Tau
Data: mag 1.2 size 100'
RA/DE: 03h47m +24o07m
Description:
Under these skies with this scope, much of the stunning beauty of the seven sisters is lost! But at 20x, I could still count some 74 stars, and saw them scattered out to 3 degrees from the center of the cluster, using averted vision at 40x. A pretty blue/red double (the red color's probably due to a contrast effect) were seen at 40x, but this pretty pair blended together at 20x. Still glorious, and still a very great improvement over the view in a 60mm finder or binoculars!
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate
Date and UT of Observation: 1997-11-03/04, 02:50 UT
Location: Medford, MA, USA (42N)
Site classification: urban
Limiting magnitude: 5.1 (zenith), 4.4 (in S)
Seeing: 5 of 10 - mediocre
Moon up: no
Instrument: 8" f/10 SCT, 8x50mm finder
Magnification: 80x, 170x, 340x
Filters used: None
Object: M34
Category: Open cluster
Constellation: Per
Data: mag 5.2 size 35'
RA/DE: 02h42m +42o47m
Description:
The "Spiral Cluster" (from Jeff Bondono, for its shape) was a quick find at the W apex of an equilateral triangle with kappa and beta Per (Algol). This open cluster was readily visible as a brightish, irregular haze in the 8x50 finder, with two medium-bright stars immediately resolved to SE and NNW of center, and 2 or 3 more of various brightnesses then becoming visible with concentration. In the 8" SCT, the OC easily fills the 25mm (80x, 35') field of view, with outliers spilling out as much as a 40' radius to the W and NW, and a few stragglers to SE. At the core are perhaps 40 members in a 20' diameter, with many brighter members (mag 7-9) and perhaps 20 members on the edge of visibility (mag 13-14), but few stars of intermediate brightness. Out to 60' diameter, perhaps 90 total members can be counted, with a much more even magnitude distribution and fewer bright stars than the core. Interestingly, many stars near the center of this cluster have a strange tendency to form into similar-magnitude pairs, including pairs of magnitudes 7, 7, 8, 8, and 9. Finally at PA 60o, 25' from center is a pretty contrasting double (mag 7, 9.5; PA 310o; gold and pale violet).
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate
Date and UT of Observation: Midnight, mid-October
Location: Savoy, MA, USA (42N, elev 700m)
Site classification: rural
Limiting magnitude: 7.2 (zenith)
Seeing: 7 of 10 - pretty good, intermittent haze
Moon up: no
Instrument: 20" f/5 Tectron truss-tube dob Newtonian reflector
Magnification: 70x, 210x, 420x
Object: ngc7635 (Bubble Nebula)
Filters tried: None, UHC
Category: Emission nebula (with planetary features)
Constellation: Cas
Data: mag 8.5 (star 6.9) size 15'x8'
RA/DE: 23h21m +61o11m
Description:
This famous but faint enigma was easily found 30' or so SW of M52, just NE of mag. 7 star HD 220057. The brightest region surrounds a pretty double of mags 10 and 11, with a third star mag 14 involved to the NW. Diffusely visible to direct vision, with some mottling apparent, especially to W and SW. To averted vision, a distinct long arc of nebulosity stretches N, curving gracefully around to the E, toward a mag. 11 star 15' away. Three distinct hazes were also visible to the S and SW of the main nebulosity, all needing averted vision (and usually field motion), and all showing little detail other than an irregular outline. Yet another "hook" of nebulosity was faintly visible to averted vision, arcing S and then SW of the main nebula. Quite a sight, when viewed with patience!
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.
Directions to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary
[Note: The following
directions have now been
included on the NSAAC web site’s
“About” page. They appear in full here for this month’s newsletter, but future
issues may contain an abbreviated version. –Ed.]
1) From Boston and the south: Take Rt. 95 north to exit 50 and follow Rt. 1 North into Topsfield. At the junction of Rt. 1 and Rt. 97, turn right onto Rt. 97 South (towards Beverly and Danvers).
From the north: Take Rt. 95 south to exit 53 and follow Rt. 97 south. At the junction of Rt. 1 and Rt. 97 in Topsfield, stay on Rt. 97 south.
2) Once you have reached the junction of routes 1 and 97, and have traveled about 0.5 miles along route 97 South towards Beverly and Danvers, you will encounter a rather well lit intersection. On the left-hand side of this intersection you will see the sign of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a bird within a triangle. Turn left onto the road marked by this sign. It is called Perkins Row.
3) Perkins Row is a long, windy road. After about a mile, you'll encounter another, identical, Audubon sign. Shortly thereafter, you'll come across yet another. This last one marks the entrance to the Sanctuary. Note that at this entrance is a wooden gate. It is very unlikely that the gate will be closed. However, if the gate is closed simply get out of your car and swing it open. It won't be locked.
4) As you drive through the gate, you'll find yourself proceeding up the sanctuary driveway. As soon as you catch sight of sanctuary signs posted along the driveway, look for an opening for the entrance to a dirt parking lot on the left-hand side.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you encounter the buildings at the end of the driveway, then you've gone past the dirt parking lot. Immediately turn around and go back down the driveway a short distance, carefully looking for what will now be a right-hand turn into the parking lot.
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.
Suggestions regarding the content of the NSAAC web site are also welcome, as I (Leor) am also acting as de-facto webmaster for the site. Do you have a web site you’d like to see listed on the members’ web site page? Suggestions for the Resources (or any other) page? Just email webmaster@nsaac.org with your ideas.
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.