The Celestial Observer
Newsletter of the
Amateur Astronomy Club
May,
2006
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From the President
To
me, this is the most exciting time of year for astronomy! The only use my
telescope received during the Winter was at some of
the NSAAC and ATMoB star parties. Showing planets and other bright objects to
kids is fun and rewarding, but does little to relieve an extended period of “Photon Fever”.
I’m really looking forward to the steady seeing, muggy nights, and the odor of
DEET in the air!
Being
a deep sky aficionado, nature has provided me with the best means for curing
Winter Photon Fever; Spring galaxy season! When Leo is climbing high, that
great hole in space containing the Virgo Cluster is right behind, as is Coma
Berenices with its many wonderful galaxies. It’s time to dust off the light
buckets and head outdoors! With that said, NSAAC will be co-hosting with GAAC
(Gloucester Area Astronomy Club) a Spring Galaxy Hunt GO-ON to be held at
The
Young Astronomer Program (YAP) is scheduled for May 13th. There is
still much work to be done in preparation including the advertisement for the
newspapers, radio announcements, and a registration page for our website.
Anyone wishing to help with this program should request being placed on the
mailing list by writing to youngastro@nsaac.org.
Hopefully all the preparations will be completed in the next few weeks.
Astronomy
Day is May 6th. We have a venue (
Last
year the Board had a goal to improve our website. Thanks to many good ideas,
and the skills of Michael Deneen, we were able to accomplish that goal. This
year I will challenge the Board with three goals: improve the newsletter,
improve the entertainment following the business meetings, and reduce the
number of people who do not renew their memberships each year. I’m hoping that
the first two improvements will affect the third.
An
email group has been set up for planning and coordinating entertainment both
for business meetings and for special events like road trips and GO-ONs. This
mail group will discuss and plan these events in a timely manner so that
announcements will make it to the newsletter by deadline. Being on this mail
group does not mean you are committing yourself to anything, just that you will
be receiving the emails discussing the plans. All members are highly encouraged
to submit any entertainment suggestions they have to entertainment@nsaac.org. Also, let me
know if you would like to be on the receiving list.
We
are looking for a person to be “Astro Editor” for the newsletter. This person
will be responsible for submitting astronomy related articles/items each month.
The type of article will be up to the Astro Editor, but can be anything from a
simple list of events in the next month, to a detailed article on a particular
object. Often, our newsletter contains only club news, and I believe we really
need to include astronomy news every month. The Astro Editor will provide us
with this content without making additional work for Board members and Leor,
the General Editor.
Clear
skies,
Kevin Ackert
President
NSAAC Welcomes Our New Members:
Paul Roy of
Ray Ferland of
Bill Leary of
Jim Koerth
Membership Director
Minutes of the NSAAC Business
Meeting,
President Ackert
called the April Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at
Treasurer:
Treasurer gave an abbreviated report
Membership:
There are 6 new members in the club since the last business meeting.
Committee Reports:
The observatory reopened the past Wednesday. The mount works very well. They saw 41 Messier Objects in one hour.
The observatory has been open for a couple weeks. There were no guests other than club members.
GO-ON Committee:
A Spring Galaxy Hunt GO-ON will
be held at
Star Parties:
There was a star party this evening at the school in Amesbury. No programs scheduled.
Young Astronomers Program:
The day for the program is May 13th at
Site Selection Committee:
Committee has not met yet.
Options for the committee will be discussed at the Board Meeting in the
coming months.
Upcoming Events:
Barrie Sawyer and Kevin Ackert will host a star party for members of
the club and their families
The date is April 28th to the 30th. There are accommodations for people to stay
overnight in campers, tents, etc.
Contact
Astronomy Day is May 6th.
The club plans to do an event at
There has been some interest expressed in possibly attending the Black
Forest Star Party in PA August 25th to 27th. See Barrie Sawyer or Kevin Ackert if
interested and want information.
There is a new comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachtman 3 that will be naked eye
in May.
There was an announcement of free programs of speakers at the
Old Business:
President Ackert thanked out going board members Barrie Sawyer, Art Schneiderman,
and Tony Costanzo for their service in the past and those board members who
returned to the board.
Positions are still available for members to fill. See the newsletter for particulars.
New Business:
The President announced the Astronomy Magazine contest for the Astronomy Club that has the best Outreach program to the public. We will discuss this at the next board meeting.
Need a club picnic coordinator for upcoming club picnic. We will post something on the list server.
Art Schneiderman brought up the problem of the quorum for the business meeting and suggested that we look into changing this definition.
Entertainment for the evening was a presentation by club members of their favorite astronomy books.
Board Meeting will
be
Meeting adjourned at
Respectively submitted,
John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC
Spring Galaxy Hunt GO-ON
NSAAC
will combine optics with GAAC (Gloucester Area Astronomy Club) for a Spring
Galaxy Hunt GO-ON to be held at Halibut Point State Park (HPSP) on Friday, May
19th. The cloud date for this event will be the following day,
Saturday, May 20th. HPSP will be a bit farther for some members to
reach than VMP, but the darker skies of this venue should greatly enhance our
ability to find these faint deep sky objects.
Kevin
Ackert from NSAAC, and Michael Deneen from GAAC will
be your hosts at what promises to be a memorable evening of deep sky observing.
They will be providing participants with two “hit lists” of galaxies to hunt
for. One list will be of brighter, easy galaxies; the other will be a more
challenging list. This is not a contest or a marathon, just an evening of fun
finding faint fuzzies, and comparing the views of them through different
instruments.
This
is the weekend of the last quarter moon. The waning crescent will be rising
around
Directions:
128 North into
At
Grant traffic circle where 127 (
Follow
127 North for about 7.5 miles, until you see signs for
Make
a left onto
Follow
the gravel road that says "no vehicles" up the hill to the observing location.
Star Party for NSAAC
Members April 28 & 29
Barrie
Sawyer and Kevin Ackert will be hosting a Star Party at Starport for NSAAC
members and their friends and family on the last weekend of April. Starport
(for those who don’t know) is
Accommodations include a
house with several bedrooms and beds, a couch, lots of floor space, a garage
with floor space, a pop-up camper that sleeps four, and plenty of room to pitch
a tent. There are also some motels a few miles away. The house will be
available all night for bathrooms and breaks from observing. Accommodations
will be on a first come, first serve basis. At this time we have about ten
people who are expected.
Godzilla,
the monster 36 inch Dobsonian, will be there seeking out galaxy clusters
millions of light years away. You are welcome to bring any instrument of your
own, or just come along and mooch views from someone else! Please contact Kevin
Ackert at president@nsaac.org for more
information.
Star Party News
Our next star party is
Directions to
From
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
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 possible that the
gate will be closed. 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. This dirt parking lot is where you'll want to set up the
`scope.
Jim Foy
Star Party Coordinator
Entertainment for May
The
Board has two goals in 2006 regarding entertainment following the Business
Meetings. First, we will have the entertainment planned well enough in advance
to announce it in the newsletter. Second, we will strive to improve the
entertainment and to add variety. The List Server GO-ON@nsaac.org has been eliminated. Members
who were not on the GO-ON Committee were not able to post to this address as it
was a members only list. It (along with mailbox activities@nsaac.org) has been combined
into a new mailbox, entertainment@nsaac.org.
This address currently contains all the Board members, plus members who are
interested in receiving and being involved with planning entertainment.
The
new address will be used to discuss and plan ALL entertainment including
Business Meetings, road trips, and GO-ON events. Being a recipient on this
mailbox does NOT mean you are committing yourself to anything. It simply means
you will receive emails pertaining to the planning of NSAAC entertainment
events. Anybody can post messages to the
new address, so, even if you do not wish to receive the planning emails we
encourage all members to post any entertainment ideas they may have.
At
the April meeting we did the Book Reviews and Book Fair. Members brought in
books to loan, and books owned by the club were made available to read. This
seemed to be well accepted and we will probably do it again sometime.
May
Entertainment: We will begin a new
series to be held occasionally throughout the year called “Constellation Conversations”. These informative talks by members will be on a specific constellation
and will include history, mythology, brightest stars, and objects within. The
presentations will also include projections from astronomy software. Members
who have images of objects in a planned constellation are encouraged to bring
them in and share them. For May, the Constellation Conversation will be
presented by John Hobbs and will be given on Leo. Members wishing to do a
future Constellation Conversation should write to entertainment@nsaac.org.
Help Wanted
Below is a list of positions which need to be filled in
our club. Please consider volunteering for one of these positions if you have
the means. Please contact any Board member with questions about these positions
at board@nsaac.org.
Long Term
Positions:
Collins Observatory -
Astro Editor: This person will provide astronomy related information
on a monthly basis for the newsletter. The information can be anything from a
simple list of events for the month, or an article on a specific object or
constellation. The Astro Editor will have complete control over the choice of
content and it can vary from month to month or be in the form of an ongoing
series, or both!
Short Term
Positions:
Young Astronomer Program Volunteers: Volunteers are needed to help with the Young
Astronomer Program which is scheduled to be held on May 13th at
Astronomy Day Helpers: We need at least three volunteers to help with a
proposed Astronomy Day event on May 6th at
Annual Picnic Coordinator: A volunteer is needed to plan and coordinate the Annual
NSAAC Picnic. The picnic has been held in August or September in past years,
but the date for this year will be totally up to the coordinator. The coordinator’s
responsibilities include: Choosing a date for the picnic and clearing it through
Getting to Veasey Memorial Park
From Interstate 95 north, take the Route 133 west (54B)
exit, and follow it into
Contact Information
For more information about the club and its activities, contact Jim Koerth, 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 Kevin Ackert at (978) 663-5305
Our club web site is: http://www.nsaac.org.