The Celestial Observer
Newsletter of the North Shore
Amateur Astronomy Club
March,
2005
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From the President
The
February 4th General Meeting was followed by our Winter Naked Eye
GO-ON event which was led by Lew Gramer and Russ Pinizzotto. Lew gave us a tour
of the Winter constellations and Russ followed with an introduction to stellar
spectroscopy using the six bright stars of the Winter Hexagon. A group of
approximately twenty members and guests enjoyed the presentation under mostly
clear and transparent skies with balmy February temperatures in the upper 20s.
A Spring Naked Eye GO-ON is in the planning, as is a second Binocular GO-ON.
Rumor has it that Lew may be leaving us in the Spring for warmer, clearer
skies. If you’ve never observed with Lew and you get the opportunity to do so
soon, go for it! He is exceptionally knowledgeable about the night sky, a
pleasure to observe with, and will truly be missed should he move.
Two
Telescope Clinics are in the works; one for members and one for the public. I
was hoping to announce the dates in this letter but we’re not far enough along
with the planning. We tentatively are planning the members’ clinic for mid to
late March and the public one for April.
The
board has decided to do a two-year experiment regarding Astronomical League
(AL) achievement certificates. Members who join the AL at their own expense
will receive an honorarium of an amount equal to the current AL dues upon the
member's achievement of any Astronomical League Certificate No more than one such honorarium will be
given to any member in a single club fiscal year. If the program is successful
we’ll incorporate it into the by-laws.
In
addition to electing a Board of Directors for 2005 at the March 4 meeting,
we’ll be discussing and voting on to whom to give the SHARE system. We’re
considering two proposals; one from the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association,
and one from the Magic Valley Astronomical Society in Idaho. The board will
discuss these proposals at the next board meeting and will make a recommendation
to the membership. Copies of the two proposals will be emailed to the list
server following the BoD meeting and will also be available at the business
meeting. Members who are not on the list server and would like to receive
a copy of the proposals prior to the business meeting should contact me directly
at 978-663-5305 and I will mail them to you.
A new observing season and fiscal year for the club
is upon us. Considering the uncertainties surrounding our club a year ago, I’d
say we’ve had a good year. Our relationship with VMP is healthy once again;
membership is up about 23% over a year ago; members’ interest and participation
is up; our programs have expanded; and we’re about to resolve the SHARE system
problem. Virginia Renehan, vice-president of ATMoB, was a guest at our February
meeting. She commented to me afterwards on what a nice club we had, and how
“relaxed” we were at our meetings.
Kevin Ackert
President
NSAAC Welcomes Our New Member:
Howard Epstein of Atkinson, NH
Annual Elections for BoD
Our annual elections for the Board of Directors will be held at the next General meeting, Friday, March 4 at 8 PM at VMP. All members are encouraged to participate actively in the club, and run for a board position if you are interested. Contact either Barrie Sawyer membership@nsaac.org or Fred Sammartino, 978-989-9977 vicepresident@nsaac.org whether you are interested or just have questions. Also, you can announce your intention to run at the meeting.
The current slate for the election is:
President - Kevin Ackert
Vice-President - Russ Pinizzotto
Treasurer - Arthur Schneiderman
Secretary - John Hobbs
Membership Director - Barrie Sawyer
Members at Large - Tony Costanzo & Ron Sampson
Please
note that in order to vote, members should be present and “be of good standing”
with their dues paid for 2005. Renew
today! Membership renewals will also be
accepted before the meeting. [Editor’s note: printed renewal forms are being
distributed with the printed copies of this month’s newsletter. If you do not
receive the Observer in hard-copy form, please print out and submit the online
version:
http://www.nsaac.org/renewal-form.htm
Minutes of the NSAAC Business
Meeting,
February 4th, 2005
President Ackert called the February Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:08PM. There were 16 members in attendance plus 5 Board members. There were also two guests: Brenda Babylon and Virginia Renehan of ATMoB.
Committee Reports:
Secretary: The minutes of the January Business Meetings as printed in the newsletter were approved.
Treasurer: There was no Treasurer’s report.
Membership: The membership chairman announced one new member
Merrimack College: OGS has not picked up the 20 inch scope for refurbishing. A 4”Unitron has been placed on the mount and has been giving good views. The observatory will be open for observing using the Unitron.
Go-On Committee: The GO-ON event for February is a naked eye GO-ON after the February business meeting. Planning is underway for the next event.
Salem State: The Observatory was open twice in the last month.
Star Parties: There will be a star party Wednesday February 9th at IRWS and is being given by Russ Pinizzotto. There will be a star party Tuesday February 15th at the Proctor School in Topsfield at 7:00PM. There will be a Cranes Beech star party Saturday February 12th 2005. Salem school will hold a star party on March 24th from 6-8PM.
High-Rock Tower Observatory. Mark will send an e-mail to the Board in the next two weeks.
Nominating Committee: Vice President Sammartino announced the slate of candidates for the upcoming officers elections. The list is:
President- Kevin Ackert
Vice President- Russ Pinizzotto
Treasurer- Art Schniderman
Secretary-John Hobbs
Membership Director- Barrie Sawyer
Member at large: Tony Costanzo, and Ron Sampson.
Telescope Clinic: The Telescope Clinic will be chaired by Tony Costanzo and are planning a member’s clinic sometime in March.
Upcoming Events: IRWS sent a black out list for the year. The days are Saturday March 5th, Feb 12th, and April 9th. Four members of the club will be going to the Texas Star Party.
Old Business:
SHARE System –Proposals have been received from the following non-profit organizations: University of Southern Idaho/Magic Valley Astronomical Society and the Tucson Amateur Astronomy club. The Board will review the proposals and make a recommendation to the membership and a vote on who to award the system will be taken by the membership at the March meeting.
Astronomical League (AL) – The treasurer has proposed a two-year program in which any members who join the AL will be reimbursed for the cost of membership once an observing certificate has been awarded.
New Business:
The presentation for the evening was a naked eye GO-ON run by Russ Pinizzotto and Lew Gramer.
Next Board meeting will Tuesday, February 15th at 7PM at VMP.
Meeting adjourned at 9:05 PM
Respectively
submitted,
John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC
NSAAC Star parties for March 2005
The first star party this month is Tuesday March 15, 2005 at Portsmouth
Christian Academy, 1 Seaborne Dr., Dover, NH.
Set-up time is 6:30 PM. The
program, held in the all purpose room, will be “Stars, Constellations, and
Planets”. Telescope observations start
about 7:30 PM and last until 9:00PM.
About 25 people are expected.
This event will not be cancelled for weather.
Portsmouth Christian Academy Driving Directions
Directions (from Rt 95 in MA): take 95 North to Exit 4 (Spaulding Tpke
- left-hand exit). Take Exit 6W, which
will put you on Rt 4 West (towards Durham).
Go over the bridge, and come to a light - make a right onto Back River
Rd. Go approximately 2 miles and look
for Garrison Rd. on the right (if you get to the intersection with Rt 108, then
you've gone too far). Make a right onto
Garrison, follow it as it winds to the right, and the PCA sign will be on the
left-hand side. Make a left into PCA,
drive down the hill past the buildings on the right, and make a right into the
parking lot just before you reach the traffic circle in front of the school. The "all-purpose room", where the
inside program will be, is around the back of the building, on the ground
floor.
The second star party is Thursday March 24, 2005 at Saltonstall School,
211 Lafayette St, Salem, MA. This is an
annual science program open to all Salem Schools. The program is from 6 to 8PM.
Several hundred people will visit the various science show and tell
programs. If it is a favorable evening
sky viewing night at least four telescopes are needed. The event will not be cancelled for weather.
Saltonstall School Driving Directions (updated directions will be
posted on list server)
From I-93 South-Take I-95/Route 128 North exit. Proceed on I-95 north and then take route 128.
From route take Route 114 exit towards Peabody/Salem.
Turn right off ramp onto route 114 (Andover Street).
Follow route 114 signs to Witch Museum area. Turn right onto route 1A. School
is about half mile.
GO-ON Event for
March
Following the March Business Meeting (and elections), we plan to hold a "Binocular Observing" Get-Out and Observe Night in the parking lot of Veasey Memorial Park. If you are interested in helping us lead this event, let us know! Final organizers/leaders, and a cloud date, will be announced if necessary during the March Meeting. So bring lots of warm layers that night, and your binoculars (mounted or unmounted), and we'll look forward to "seeing" you there!
The GO-ON Committee:
Lew Gramer
Chris Nicholl
Fred Sammartino
Art Schneiderman
Ilane Walberg
Deep-Space Object of the Month
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate (some years)
Date/time of observation: 9/10 Feb 1999 04:00 UT
Location of site: Westford, MA, USA (Lat 43N, Elev 30m)
Site classification: Exurban
Sky darkness: 6.6 Limiting magnitude
Seeing: 4 on 1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)
Moon presence: None - moon not in sky
Instrument: 16x70 binoculars on tripod
Magnification: 16x
Filter(s): None.
Object(s): Stock 2
Object category: Open Cluster.
Object class: III 1 m/I 2 m
Constellation: Cas
Object data: mag 4.4 8.18m* size 60' catalog (120'x90' observed)
Position: 0215.0+5916
Description: Thanks to Steve Clougherty for the use of his fine binoculars as we were setting up the ATMs of Boston's 17.5" Club scope tonight! In such an extremely wide-field instrument, Stock 2 was strikingly and beautifully apparent to me even before I knew it was there... I was sweeping from the "lamed" E leg of the "M" asterism in Cas, over toward the fine sight of the Double Cluster in Perseus, on a hunt for any smaller NGC clusters or new, intriguing asterisms to be found there. And suddenly my field was filled by a spectacular branching river of stars, making me think at first glance I had strayed all the way over to Camelopardalis and Kemble's Cascade! But a quick check for delta and epsilon Cas to one side, and the Double Cluster to the other, confirmed that I must be looking at the fine cluster Stock 2. The backbone of St2 is a pretty line of stars trailing loosely E-W a full 2 degrees. These are variously of mags 8 and 9, with a sprinkling of fainter ones along the line. From just W of the linear center of this primary line, an arm or "tributary" of mag 8 stars are immediately apparent running due S maybe a degree. These end in a little "pool" of fainter stars that lie amid a small lagoon of intriguingly black sky. Another branch of the River veers off the E end of the center line, running up to its own pretty clustering of five or six stars mags 8 and fainter. Finally a further tributary was apparent peeling off NW, from very close to the exact middle of the E-W line, consisting of 10 stars mag 9 and fainter. My total star count in St2 using the "quadrant" technique was 60 stars down to about mag 11. And as noted, all the boundaries and structures of the cluster stood out magnificently in my field, easily covering 120' linear extent by about 90' max width.
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate (some years)
Date/time of observation: 9/10 Feb 1999 04:00 UT
Location of site: Westford, MA, USA (Lat 43N, Elev 30m)
Site classification: Exurban
Sky darkness: 6.6 Limiting magnitude
Seeing: 4 on 1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)
Moon presence: None - moon not in sky
Instrument: 17.5" f/4.5 dob reflector
Magnification: 55x, 225x
Filter(s): None, OIII
Object(s): NGC 1535
Object category: Planetary Nebula.
Object class: 4+2c
Constellation: Eri
Object data: mag 9.6 12.24m* size 18"/44" round
Position: 041415.78-124421.6
Description: After Steve Clougherty & I finished setting up the ATMs of Boston 17.5" Club scope, we had to wait out a brief threat of cloud-over. As bands of cirrus and cirrocumulus obligingly dissolved or swept off to the S, we began this evening's observing in earnest. First target was the bright n1535 in Eri, easily found by sweeping ENE of gamma Eri just about exactly 4o, stopping just a wide field E of a beautiful equilateral trio of mag 9 late spectral-type stars. At lowest power n1535 was distinctly non-stellar, with a yellowish coloring. Jumping immediately to 9mm (225x), the bright, seemingly smooth face of the nebula became more yellow-green, with a fairly obvious irregularity to the N, either the edge of a lobe of nebulosity or perhaps a dark obstruction. Also, the face showed a nonsymmetric flattening on the W, probably indicating more structure. The central star was neither strikingly obvious nor very difficult once looked for. Surprisingly, even without any filter there was a hint of a faint outer halo, or at least of much fainter nebulosity surrounding the central disk. This "second tier" of the nebula (if it was not in fact the actual halo) was only subtle, and was best seen to the ESE of the center. Finally, with the idea of enhancing this outer haze, we blinked the view at 225x with an OIII filter. Strangely, the central star was neither more nor less visible than it had been. But suddenly, the annular (ring-like) nature of n1535 became apparent, with just the suggestion of irregularities in the inner darkened area to averted vision. As expected, the outer halo could be clearly seen to SE, but now actually showed up as brighter and more elongated W of the disc, reaching out to perhaps twice the radius of the bright inner disk, roughly per cataloged sizes.
(For more observing logs online, check out Lew’s website:
http://www.visualdeepsky.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.
Directions to all of the NSAAC observing sites are available on our web site's “About” page at:
http://www.nsaac.org/about.htm
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>
The on-line archives of all list server messages since April ’04 are available via this URL:
http://lists.nsaac.org/mailman/private/nsaac/
(See the January, 2005 newsletter for information on retrieving your subscriber password, necessary in order to view the archives.)
To remove yourself from the email
list, or to temporarily suspend
delivery from the list or access your other options, please use our “Subscriber
Settings” Web page:
http://lists.nsaac.org/mailman/listinfo/nsaac#subscribers