The Celestial Observer

 

Newsletter of the North Shore

 Amateur Astronomy Club

 

 

Summer, 2006

 

 

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From the President

The Young Astronomer Program (YAP) was a  huge success for all those who participated in it, and for our club. We succeed in placing two telescopes and a pair of binoculars into the hands of some kids who really wanted them. The young astronomer from Lynn who won the beautiful Stargazer Steve 6 inch F-8 DOB was very excited, and is planning to bring it one night this summer to Veasey Park. The young astronomer from North Andover who won the vintage 1992 Pirate Optics 6 inch F-8 DOB was very knowledgeable in astronomy and will be taking astrophysics in school. Pictures of these kids can be seen on the YAP page of our website.

 

The torrential downpours which led to historic flooding in the Merrimack Valley kept some people away, and participation was not what I had hoped for. We had a great write up in the press, but the best response came from emails to the schools. Early on I said it would be a learning experience and it certainly was. My grand-daughter attended and provided me with feedback from a kid’s perspective.

 

The board, and members attending the June meeting, agree with me that YAP should be expanded for next year’s program in March/April 2007. We will begin working with schools in the Merrimack Valley this fall to bring together a larger program with more participation and equipment awards. Funding for the expanded program will come from winning the Astronomy magazine Out-of-this-world Award 2006, grants from local corporations, NSAAC donations and assets, and other possible sources.

 

We will be submitting our entry in Astronomy magazine’s Out-of-this-world Award 2006 in the weeks ahead. The award for “sustained efforts to involve its local community in the science and hobby of astronomy…” is a realistic goal for our club. Our public observing programs with two colleges, many star parties, scout merit badge programs, YAP, and Telescope Clinic adds up to a fair amount of sustained public efforts for a club our size. Thank you to everyone who works to make these programs happen!

 

This will be the last newsletter until the September issue hits the press in mid-August. I hope to see many of you under a dark sky this summer! Please see the article “Summer Observing” for a schedule of when your NSAAC friends will be getting together in addition to our regular observing nights at Veasey.

 

Clear skies,

Kevin Ackert

President

 

 

Comments By Young Astronomers

I (Kevin) thought people might enjoy comments from some of our Young Astronomer kids. The bottom of the registration form said, “In a few words, what is the most interesting thing about astronomy to you?”

 

“If you are interested in astronomy, you progressively learn new stuff that can end up being useful. For example, someone interested in stargazing is always learning new things that will make his or her next stargazing experience better. There are also so many fun things involving astronomy such as waking up in the middle of the night to watch meteor showers. Also, anyone that has ever seen the night sky from a dark site in the mountains falls in love with it instantaneously.”

             -The second telescope winner, a 15-year-old girl

  from N. Andover

 

“The most interesting thing about astronomy is the planets.”   

             -Age 13

 

“I like astronomy because I like learning about the planets. I would like to go to Neptune because it is far and I could find out why it rotates with Pluto.”

-Boy age 13 from Lawrence

 

“It’s easy to do astronomy, it’s right overhead.”

-Boy age 14 from Haverhill.

 

“Guessing whether live exists on other planets”

-Boy age 12 from Lawrence.

 

“Astronomy is interesting because it is still so undiscovered. It is like what the early explorers must have felt. “

-Boy age 12 form Andover.

 

 

NSAAC Welcomes Our New Member:

Roger Manwaring of Sudury, MA

 

Jim Koerth,

Membership Director

 

 

Minutes of the NSAAC Business Meeting,
June 2nd, 2006

President Ackert called the June Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:22 PM. President Ackert called for introduction of new members: There was one new member: Bob Peters. There were 10 members in attendance plus 4 Board members.  There was an official quorum. 

 

Secretary: Minutes of the May Business meeting were accepted by acclamation.

 

Treasurer:

No report.

 

Membership:

There was 1 new member in the club since the last business meeting.

 

Committee Reports:

 

Merrimack College:

Kevin had about 25 people pass through the observatory on May 31; none of them Russ’s students. 

 

Salem State:

The observatory will be closed for the summer and will reopen after Labor Day.

 

GO-ON Committee:

There will be a galaxy hunt GO-ON at Halibut point has been rescheduled for June 16th with a cloud night of the 17th.  It will be hosted by Kevin Ackert and Michael Deneen.  Russ Pinizzotto will host a naked eye GO-ON in July.

 

Star Parties:

None.       

 

Young Astronomers Program:

The program was May 13th at Merrimack College.  There were only seven attendees. There were six club members present and four scopes set up. The program was well presented with talks by Russ Pinizzotto, Kevin Ackert, and Jim Foy and his “what’s up tonight” program.  All in all, the entire event was very successful in spite of the down pouring rain.  Kevin plans to improve on it for the future and to award more scopes and binoculars at future events..

 

Upcoming Events:

There has been some interest expressed in attending the Black Forest Star Party in PA August 25th to 27th.  Final day for registration is August 4th.  See Barrie Sawyer or Kevin Ackert if interested and want information.

 

IRWS has sent a list of black out dates for no observing on Saturday nights.  They are June 17th, July 29th, and October 28th.

 

The Constitution and Bylaws are one the website and will no longer be sent out to new members.

 

There are going to be two star parties at Starport June 23rd -25th and July 21st-23rd.  All are invited.  Contact Kevin Ackert or Barrie Sawyer for information.

 

The East Coast Conference on Astronomical Imaging will be held in Philadelphia on August 11th-13th.

 

Old Business:

Salem State observatory volunteers have been working for a number of years and are growing tired and are looking for someone to receive training and perhaps to take over the program.  See Dennis Gudzevich if interested.

We need a volunteer to plan and coordinate the annual club picnic.  Without a volunteer there will be no club picnic.

 

The Board has decided to apply for the Astronomy Magazine $2500 award.

 

New Business:

The club would like to have another telescope clinic. It could be either another one or an ongoing clinic.  With an ongoing clinic, people would either make an appointment or come with their telescope to a business meeting. The club can have a few scheduled clinics and have members available at the monthly business meeting.  We could put something in the website about making an appointment and notifying the club in advance with the type of scope and the types of problems encountered.

 

The question was raised about whether or not we want to have the Moose Dodge or go to Starport instead.  We will poll the members at the August business meeting on which they prefer.

 

Entertainment for the evening was a presentation by members of their favorite astronomy toy.

 

Board Meeting will be Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 8:00 PM at VMP.

 

Meeting adjourned at 9:35 PM.

 

Respectively submitted,
John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC

 

Newsletter Anti-Spam Measures

We are currently engaged in a battle against email spam. Several email addresses the club uses have been changed. Robots called SpamBots examine the Celestial Observer every month and pick out the email addresses and then send spam to them. They recognize email addresses by the presence of the “@” character in either the viewable text or a link encoded into the HTML (to go with a piece of viewable text.)

 

What we are going to try is to replace the @ symbol of all email addresses appearing in the newsletter by the word “at” surrounded by spaces. For example, instead of someone@nsaac.org, you’ll see someone at nsaac.org.    If you are viewing the newsletters online and you click on one of these “obfuscated” email address links, it will bring up your email program (as it did before) with the “someone” part filled in, but neither the “@” symbol or the domain name filled in. You’ll need to add the “@nsaac.org” to the email address manually.

 

Try sending us an email at either president at nsaac.org or newsletter at nsaac.org. and tell us what you think. Remember to add the “@nsaac.org” to the recipient name or the email will bounce  back to you! By the way, the new email address to send mail to the Board is bod at nsaac.org.

 

Kevin Ackert

Leor Zolman

 

 

Star Party News

Our next star party is Saturday, July 8 at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary.  The event is part of a camping program.  Telescope observations will start about 9:30 PM.  Set-up is 9:00 PM to 9:30PM.  The event will be cancelled if cloudy or raining. 

 

The number of people attending is usually lees than 25, so no additional help is needed at this time.

 

Additional star party dates will be announced on the club list server.

 

Jim Foy

Star Party Coordinator

 

 

Telescope Clinic 

As was discussed at the last business meeting, we will be re-opening our Telescope Clinic to the public. The clinics will be run one hour prior to our monthly Business Meetings. Please visit the new Telescope Clinic web page at http://www.nsaac.org/clinic.shtml to read more about it. I would appreciated peoples comments made to the list server. The biggest problem I see with implementing this is having a person who can help them on hand. That is why we are asking for advance notice. Comments please…

 

Kevin Ackert

 

 

Summer Observing 

In addition to our regular scheduled observing nights at Veasey Memorial Park, and Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, these summer events are being planned by NSAAC members.. For more information on any of these events post a question to the list server or write to president at nsaac.org.

 

  • June 16. Galaxy Hunt with GAAC at Halibut Point State Park in Gloucester.
  • June 17 Cloud date for Galaxy Hunt
  • June 23 & 24 Star Party at Starport, NH
  • July (date to be announced) Naked Eye Observing with Russ Pinizzotto at Veasey Park
  • July 21 & 22 Star Party at Starport, NH
  • August 25 & 26 Black Forest Star Party, PA
  • Sept 22 & 23 Moose Dodge Star Party, Rangeley ME (tentative)

 

 

Special Feature: Learning to See by Kevin Ackert

It often surprises newcomers to the hobby when we use the term “learning to see” when talking about observing objects in a telescope. What could there be to learn, about seeing? All you have to do is look at something and you can see it, right? Ah yes, you may see it, but have you “observed” it? There is a big difference between seeing something and observing it, and once you learn how to observe you will begin to enjoy the hobby of astronomy more.

 

The best observer I know is NSAAC member Lew Gramer who recently moved to Florida. Having had the opportunity to observe with Lew on many occasions accelerated my observing skills to the point where I was seeing more in the eyepiece and enjoying the views better than I ever had. One can look at an object and see a fuzzy glob; Lew can look at the same object and describe it to you with such great detail that his description will be no less than a long paragraph containing a dozen or more adjectives!

 

You may not have the benefit of observing with someone like Lew to advance your observing skills, but you can still take advantage of his knowledge and that of others by reading observing logs. Lew has a website called the Internet Amateur Astronomer’s Catalog (IAAC) http://www.visualdeepsky.org/index.html in which amateurs can enter observing logs. You can also search a database for observations done on a particular object with a particular instrument. There is a very easy to use template for entering one’s observations, and you’ll see that many of the entries were done by beginners to the hobby. Pull up an object in the database such as NGC 7009 (Saturn Nebula) and compare the notes from different observers.

 

Here is an exercise you can do to prove how easy it is to improve your observing skills. This summer, pick an object which you have never observed before and observe it with your telescope. Then, go to IAAC and find log entries others have written on the object. Read entries from logs which used instruments similar to yours, then read entries with instruments more powerful than yours. Then, go back out one night and observe the same object a second time. Can you see more than you did the first time? Have the subtle features of the object become more noticeable now? Did you enjoy the object more the second time? You are learning to see! As a culmination of your learning experience go back to IAAC and enter your own first  observing log.

 

Clear Skies,

Kevin Ackert

 
August Entertainment

Kevin Ackert will do a Constellation Conversation on Cygnus. These talks by members are on specific constellations and include history, mythology, brightest stars, and objects within. Members wishing to do a future Constellation Conversation please write to president at 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 bod at nsaac.org.

 

Long Term Positions

 

Collins Observatory -  Salem State: The same two people have been doing this job for years and are looking for someone to train to take over the observatory.

 

Short Term Positions

 

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 Veasey Memorial Park, planning activities and refreshments, and posting announcements to the list server and newsletter. Unless we can find a volunteer for this position I’m afraid there may be no picnic this year. I’ve asked all the board members and none of them want to take on this additional responsibility

 

 
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 Jim Koerth,  Membership Director, email: membership at nsaac.org or contact Kevin Ackert, President, e-mail at president at 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.

 

The Celestial Observer is edited by Leor Zolman. Feedback, and member contributions are welcome. Contact: newsletter at nsaac.org.

 

New development on the NSAAC web site is currently being coordinated and implemented by Mike Deneen. Suggestions regarding the content of the NSAAC web site are always welcome; Please email webmaster at 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 Your message should look like this:

 

To: majordomo at nsaac.org

Subject: Email list (you can put anything here)

Body: subscribe NSAAC Full-Name <email-address>