The Celestial Observer November, 1999

Lew Gramer reminds us at the end of this newsletter that November is the month for the Leonid meteor shower, and that this year might be of special significance. Pay heed to Lew's suggestions for optimal observing.

Now, I especially like his reminder that it is a good idea to travel to a special site for this event, given the vagaries of New England's weather . Lew, for example, is headed to Florida. Some road trip, eh ? Well some one has to do it.

And not to be outdone, reports have it that Ralph Pass is headed of to California for the Mercury transit of the Sun on November 15th. Just another sacrifice, I suppose. For the rest of us, we can journey to Stinson Lake, NH on the weekend of November 12 through 14th for dark sky observing and early Leonid spotting. If interested, come to the November meeting and speak with Barrie Sawyer.

No November would be complete without the club begging you to show up to help the Audubon Society on Bird Seed Day. Come early and help unload an 18-wheeler full of thistle, sunflower seeds and other bird favorites. Or, a little later in the day, and help distribute the seed to those that have purchased it. Bird Seed Day this year is November 6th. Mark your calendars.

Can't make Bird Seed Day ? No problem - assuage your guilt by helping at a VMP workday on November 20th, or come to one of the Star Parties - November 9th at the Newbury Middle School in Newbury, or on the 17th at the Spofford Pond School in Boxford.

One last note to those of you with Star Party scheduling needs - Rob Nelson is now taking over those duties. All requests must be run through Rob to facilitate coordination.

John Gall
President

Items for Sale

This column works well, as I can attest !

Electric Focus for Meade LX200 telescopes. This was originally part of the SHARE System and has only been used once. Works great, just not suitable for use with video camera. $90.00 Proceeds go to SHARE System. See Rob Nelson.

Also, Barrie Sawyer has stuff for sale. He sent an email saying he had two eyepieces, but actually, he'll sell most anything for the right price.

SHARE

As reported last month, we were informed that the Lynn G.E. Employees Good Neighbor Fund, Lucent Technologies, and General Mills were prepared to make contributions to our SHARE Program. I am very pleased to announce that their respective contributions have been received and together total $4,250.00! This is in addition to an appropriation of $350.00 from the Osram/Sylvania general grant that Barrie Sawyer applies for each year, which gives us a year to date total of $4,600.00 towards equipment purchases for SHARE.

The I3 Image Intensifier was ordered immediately and is already in our possession. You can't believe how incredible this unit is! The Frame Grabber for the I3 is on back order, we expect to have it in by mid-November. This unit will virtually eliminate all scintillation noise derived from the I3.

We now plan to assemble an indoor multi-media presentation road case. This unit will eventually contain all of the necessary equipment for handling the presentation aspects of a SHARE Program including a slide projector, laptop computer, video projector, SVHS deck, and various other supplies. The beauty of this case will be that if a SHARE Program date has inclement weather it is the only piece of gear we will need to take to the event.

Weather permitting, the SHARE System will be set up at VMP on the night of the November Business Meeting.

Rob Nelson
SHARE Coordinator

College Observatories

A simple reminder that support staff for the public observing sessions at Salem State and Merrimack College is always in demand. From time to time, our observing stalwarts have other commitments that prevent them from keeping their scheduled sessions. Please stop by one of these places to see what these sessions are like, and to lend a hand.

Business Meeting Minutes for the October, 1999 Meeting of the NSAAC

Meeting was called to order by acting chair Barrie Sawyer at 8:12 PM. Twenty one people attended. Joining us were guests Steve and Elaine Kolaczkowski and John Ryan, a friend and neighbor of Rob Nelson. The previous meeting minutes and the treasurer's were read and accepted.

Ric Shanahan reported the repairs to the Salem State Collage were successful. The scope is tracking much better. Ric noted that the Monday night observing program is up and running, but is suffering from fickle clouds.

Greg Pearce thanked fellow Merrimack Collage site coordinator, Ralph Pass, for coming back from England in time the scheduled observing night -- and bringing a hurricane with him!

SHARE system coordinator, Rob Nelson, reported bringing the system to VMP and being able to image both Uranus and Neptune even though the Moon was close to full. He said the trip to Crotched Mountain was a great success. He also reported some success in receiving corporate funding. The GE Good Neighbor Fund, Lucent Technologies and General Mills have all pledged financial support to the program.

He thanked Ric Shanahan for pitching the grant proposal to GE Good Neighbor Fund selection committee.

Rob has already ordered an I3 image intensifier that will boost the sensitivity of the system from magnitude 6 to magnitude 16. Future SHARE outings include Salem State Collage and the Children's Floating Hospital. Rob and Ric received a round of applause from the members in appreciation for their efforts.

Mary Ann Pitrowicz presented Barrie Sawyer his Binocular Messier Certificate and gave Rob Nelson his Honorary Messier Certificate. This proves that you don't need a 36" scope or an image intensifier to do good stargazing!

The upcoming moose dodge and frozen toes star parties were discussed. This year the frozen toes star party will be at Stinson Lake on the weekend of November 12 - 14.

The chair publicly thanked Bob Siebel for donating the equatorial from his 10"reflector. Bob converted his scope to a Dobsonian mount proving once again: "Dobs Rule!".

The club voted to purchase astronomy calendars from two suppliers. Two dozen will be ordered from both companies and offered to members at a significant discount.

Barrie Sawyer proposed that IRWS be made the only official observing site on Saturday nights. The motion was passed unanimously. Barrie noted that members may still use the VMP site on Saturday as well as Friday nights. Designating IRWS as the official site is for publication purposes only to avoid confusing new members and guests.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:42 PM followed by a video on the search for life on Mars.

A vote was taken after the meeting to amend the informal by-laws to state that you become a "real member" of the club when you buy anything from Barrie. The vote was a result of Barrie selling the Genesis tube to John Lennerton, the Gibraltar mount to John Cogan, and the Panorama mount Lew Gramer. Anyone interested in a 24MM wide field or 26 plossl eyepiece??

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 a short distance down on the right

For more information about the club and its activities, call Dave Thomas, Membership Director at 978-388-2341 or contact John Gall, President, e-mail at M104@aol.com. Better yet, visit our Web Site at : http://www.nsaac.org.

Please support those who support us.

Star.net is our internet service provider, please look them up if you need internet service. Also, Brewster LaMacchia's company Jovian Systems is now hosting our internet e-mail service. We're not sure what Jovian system does, but Brewster says if you send him money, that's ok.

Additionally, the Phoenix Press in Groveland provides printing services for our monthly newsletter. Please consider them for any printing needs you may have.

Lastly, we'd like to make special note of those people who have made generous contributions in support of the SHARE program, including General Mills, Lucent Technologies and that inestimable gentleman, Harry Chase at F. C. Meichsner Co, in Boston. If you need to equip a telephone company see Lucent. If you need a telescope, see Harry.

Highlights of the Sky for November
From Astronomy Magazine
3 	6 p.m.	 The moon passes 3 degrees north of Venus 
6 	9 a.m. 	Saturn is at opposition 
13 	11 a.m. 	The moon passes 3 degrees north of Mars 
14 	10 a.m. 	The moon passes 0.2 degree north of Neptune 
15 	8 a.m. 	The moon passes 0.1 degree north of Uranus 
 	5 p.m. 	Mercury is in inferior conjunction, transits the sun 
17  		Leonid meteor shower peaks 
20 	5 p.m. 	The moon passes 4 degrees south of Jupiter 
21 	8 p.m. 	The moon passes 3 degrees south of Saturn 
23 	5 p.m. 	The moon passes 1.3 degrees north of Aldebaran 
28 		Mars passes 1.7 degrees south of Neptune (evening) 
		Venus passes 4 degrees north of Spica (morning) 

This just in from Lew Gramer, your roving meteor reporter: Expectations are high this year for an exciting celestial show from the Leonid meteor shower! This annual shower always puts on a display worth watching on its peak nights, with (REAL) rates of from 10 to 30 meteors per hour, depending on conditions. (The peak nights are actually November 16-19, though the MORNING of November 18 is predicted to be particularly favored this year.)

In 1999 though, there is an added thrill with the Leonids, that they MAY produce something far more spectacular for a certain NARROW range of longitudes on our planet: a meteor storm! This is a wondrous, once-in-a-lifetime event where the meteors appear to fall "like rain", the heavens may seem to glow, and for those struggling to count the falling stars, numbers may pass 1 a second!

However, no one this reporter has corresponded with is *predicting* that we New Englanders will see such a display this year! Instead, those of us watching the skies around the time of "radiant-rise" for the Leonids on November 16, 17, and 18 (see below for times), may have a shot at seeing as many as several hundred per hour - or maybe FEWER than 20/hour according to some predictions!

POINTERS ON SEEING MORE METEORS:

For those who choose to take a chance and watch, don't forget that the meteoroid streams which cause meteor showers (and even the tiny strand which MIGHT cause a storm) are much wider than the Earth: this means that no matter WHICH direction you face in the sky - so long as the radiant is above or juuuuuust below the horizon, you will see the SAME NUMBER OF METEORS. (N.B.: RIGHT BEFORE radiant rise, for a brief 15 minutes or so, you may see a few breath-takingly looooong "earth grazing" meteors if you face East - or you may see none. :>)

Also, remember that the majority of Leonids are faint - ESPECIALLY those in the more numerous "storm" components of the shower stream. Thus the darker the skies you can get to, the more meteors you will see: for each magnitude (level of brightness) fainter you can see among the stars on those nights, you will be able to see two to THREE TIMES as many meteors!

Finally, keep in mind that meteors aren't like "T" trains: they come at random intervals, and even in the most active shower, you may not see one for ten or more minutes at a time! And of course, *IF* there were a "storm" this year, no one is truly CERTAIN what time it might occur. Thus just as you might expect, the longer you watch, the better your chances of seeing a fine show!

So go to a place where you'll be most comfortable and can watch the LONGEST in a dark sky: then face whichever direction is darkest and most comfortable! Note that since the moon will be setting around midnight during Leonid peak nights this year, and the radiant rises here by 10:15pm, you may want to find a dark Eastern horizon! But the NORTHeast is not particularly favored for the Leonids, so the dark Southeastern horizons of Myles Standish State Forest, the Stackyard in Rowley, NHAS's YFOS site, or similar spots will be just fine.

And if you're REALLY committed to seeing whatever the Leonids have to offer this year, be prepared to hop in your car and TRAVEL - West, North or South! As we all know, New England weather is notoriously unpredictable in mid-November.

For more information on meteors, showers and storms and how YOU can contribute to our knowledge about them in important ways, check out the following URLs:

http://www.tiac.net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs
http://www.imo.net
http://www.amsmeteors.org

Clear skies, and many meteors to all!
Lew Gramer