The Celestial Observer
November, 2003
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From the President
As are many of you, I’m really pleased at the success of
the Get-Out-and-Observe-Nights program (“GO-ON”), and I want to thank the
committee members and the participants for their efforts. It’s great to see so
many people involved in teaching and learning about the sky. This is the kind
of activity I’ve always thought a club like ours was in business for.
There’s another go-on event announced elsewhere in
this newsletter, and there’s a whole lot else to look forward to this month
besides. As I write this we’re still looking forward to the November 1st
birdseed day at IRWS, and if you’re seeing this newsletter before 11/1, I
encourage you to Get-Out-and sling some birdseed on Saturday morning or early
afternoon.
More celestial sorts of events are cropping up this
month as well: there’s a total lunar eclipse the night of Saturday November 8,
visible in its entirety from
And an old friend is back this month – Saturn will
be rising at
I close with a word about this newsletter. As a club
we’re having to come to grips with the problem of getting out a regular
publication using only volunteer labor. We’ve been pretty successful so far,
but only because of the exceptional efforts of a very few, very public-spirited
people. The time has come to make more regular arrangements – we’ve got over
100 members, and the job is now just too much to ask of any one person. We’re
drawing up long-term plans, but the single most important step in this
labor-reduction process is to reduce the number of mailed hard copies. So when
you’re contacted about switching from paper to an electronic copy, please
consider it. We’ll do all we can to make it easy for you, and soon there will
be color content and other features available only in the electronic format.
The next business meeting is Friday November 7; I
hope to see you there.
Mike Deneen, President
New Members
Ted
Byron of
Bill
Jim Merullo of
Star
Party News
Our first November star party is
Directions to
the
1)
From
a. 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 unlikely that the gate will be closed, as several
people from my astronomy club will already be observing there. 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. This dirt parking lot is where you'll want to set up the `scope.
Our second
star party is
Location:
Goudreault's Farm in
Astronomer contact is: Peter Bealo, Sweet Hill Observatory, in Plaistow.
His phone number is 603-382-7039 and e-mail address is PBEALO@COMCAST.NET . Peter's
answering machine will announce any cancellation due to clouds.
Set up is
Directions: From Rt 110 in
Go North past Winikenni Castle on right. Bear left onto Rt 108 N adjacent to
reservoir. Take Rt 108 under Rt495, cross NH border Go approximately 2 miles
north, Goudreault's farm is the first house past Forrest Street. Look for farm
sign
If you get lost, call Peter's cell phone: 603-475-5531 for directions Please
let Peter know if you can help at: PBEALO@COMCAST.NET
This event is at Castle Hill and is sponsored by
Gary Meehan. Set-up time is
Jim Foy
Business Meeting Minutes for the October, 2003
Meeting of the NSAAC
President Deneen called
the September Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:05PM.President Deneen
called for introduction of new guests: there were three new guests: Donna
Soltys, Rainer Crosett, and Marie and Dave Norton. There were 17 members in attendance plus 4
board members.
Committee Reports:
Secretary: The minutes of the September Business Meeting
were approved as written.
Treasurer: No treasurer’s report. We presently have 105
members.
Upcoming Events:
A Go-on program is
scheduled for the 17th of October at Veasey. The topic will be double stars and will be
assisted by Mike Townsend of the New Hampshire Astronomy Club which is well
known as double star experts. Rain date
is Saturday the 18th. Annual
birdseed day at IRWS is scheduled for Saturday November 1, from
Star Parties:
Unfinished Business:
New Business: A member raised a question whether there was
a member’s roster available for use by members.
The board has discussed this in the past and because of privacy issues
at this time it was decided not to make such a list available. It was suggested that maybe members who were
willing to be listed could start a roster on the list server. The board will revisit this issue at a future
board meeting.
The club newsletter has
been coming out late and some people have not gotten it on time. This is a very time consuming effort and we
need someone to take over this effort to be sure that is done on time. We could farm out the expense of folding and
mailing the newsletter or we can have a “newsletter evening” were members sign
up to spend an evening folding, addressing, and mailing the newsletter. The Board will discuss the options and come
to the business meeting in November with suggestions for the club’s
consideration.
Rich Shanahan presented
Barrie Sawyer with a plaque commemorating his continued service as past
president of the NSAAC. The plaque
states his name will be entered onto a plaque that will be carried by one of
the two new Mars landers.
The program for the
evening was “Mapping the Galaxy with Star Clusters” presented by Michael
Deneen.
Respectively
submitted,
GO-ON Take a Look
NSAAC holds monthly "Get Out and Observe
Nights" (GO-ON)for members: these are mostly) outdoor observing sessions,
lead by our members and other local amateurs, to give newcomers and others a
chance to learn about some particular
aspect of our hobby.
The GO-ON event for November is scheduled or
Our theme for this session will be Observing the
Deep-Sky Objects of Fall: Or, Why You
should Sell your House and Spend Your
Savings on a Big Dob!"
We will have various larger dobsonian telescopes set
up in the VMP parking lot by our member volunteers: they will use these Light
Buckets to lead us on a guided tour of some of the most beautiful galaxies,
globular clusters, and other "deep-sky" objects we can observe in
mid-Autumn.
Cloud Gods Willing, we hope to see you at this event!
Lew Grammer
Book Faire for December
We are planning to have a book faire at the December
general meeting. If you have a favorite astronomy book or observing guide that
you’d like to show off, please bring it to the meeting with you. We’ll set up
whatever tables we need to show them off. You can even sell your books, if you
desire. I’ll insert a reminder with any additional details in the December
newsletter.
Dennis Gudzevich
Program Coordinator
Talk for November
As a final reminder, we are changing the way that we
are scheduling talks to end some of the conflictions that we’ve had lately with
outdoor events and clear skies. Speakers from within our club are now only
required to give their talks if there are no events scheduled outside or if the
night sky isn’t drawing members outside on an irresistibly clear night. They
may, of course, still give their talks if they wish. Any speakers from outside
the club will continue to give their talks on their scheduled nights. We can’t
ask them to forego their talks for an observing session.
Our speaker this month will be Barrie Sawyer. The
title of his talk is “Star Charts and Guides”.
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, the ten things that got them
interested in astronomy, etc. Giving a talk can be a lot of fun. In addition,
I’m looking for non-members willing to do a talk on astronomy related subjects.
If you know of anyone, please contact me at (781) 438-7375, or at
dgudzevich@comcast.net, or at the general business meetings.
Dennis Gudzevich
Program Coordinator
Going to Mars
In
Spirit and
personal
way. You can follow the Mars expedition
on the NASA website;
www.nasa.gov.
Clear skies,
2004 Calendars
The new 2004 Astronomy and Tide-Mark calendars
arrived in September. We have lowered the price of the calendars this year to
$8.00 each. 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 its first come first serve, so don't let
it go too long.
Dennis Gudzevich, NSAAC Club Hawker
Please
support those who support us.
Star.net is our Internet service provider, please look them up
if you need Internet service.