SKYWATCHERS
The Newsletter of the China Lake Astronomical Society
Volume 40 No. 1 January 1, 2003
NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, January 6, 2003
Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest, California
JANUARY 6 MEETING-WHAT DID SANTA CLAUS BRING YOU?
It is again time for "Gadget Night." Bring any hardware or software
or procedure that you want to share. We do this every so often, it
is great chance to keep up with technology and ideas. Even if you
have brought something before, bring it again, as there will be
people there who were not there before.
Also, those newer to amateur astronomy can bring their questions.
DATES TO KEEP IN MIND
Monday, January 6, 2003: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango
Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, January 22, 2003: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter
Monday, February 3, 2003: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango
Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.
The next star party will be in March 2003.
BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR FOR JANUARY 2003 (David Hollingsworth)
Jan 2 New Moon 12:23 p.m. PST.
Jan 3 Quadrantids meteor shower peaks at midnight.
Jan 4-5 Saturn transits the Crab Nebula.
Jan 10 First-quarter Moon 5:15 a.m. PST.
Jan 11 Venus at greatest western elongation (47).
Jan 18 Full Moon 2:48 a.m. PST.
Jan 25 Last-quarter Moon 0:33 a.m. PST.
Jan 27-30 The waning crescent Moon passes Mars, then Venus, and
then Mercury in predawn sky.
OBSERVING IN JANUARY 2003 (David Hollingsworth)
With the New Moon on Thursday, the 2nd and the last-quarter Moon on
Saturday, the 25th, the best Friday and Saturday early-evening
observing nights in January will be the 3rd and 4th and the 24th and
25th. The Sun sets a little before 5 p.m. in early January and a
little after 5 p.m. in late January. The end of astronomical
twilight occurs at about 6:20 p.m. early in the month and 6:40 p.m.
at the end of the month, so observers will not need to stay up late
to get in a few good hours of dark sky observing. Though there is no
scheduled public star party this month, dress warmly and take
advantage of the often clear dry winter skies.
Meteor Showers: The Quadrantids peak around midnight on Friday,
January 3. Unfortunately, the radiant, which is located in northern
Bootes, doesn't rise until after midnight for West Coast viewers. So
the expected 100 meteors per hour will be reduced. On the positive
side, there will be no interference from the Moon.
Planets: Mercury may be detected low in the west-southwest soon after
sunset in early January and low in the southeast at the end of the
month. Venus (at mag. -4.4, seen in a last-quarter-moon-like phase)
can be viewed in the southeast after 4 a.m. Mars is located within a
few degrees to the upper right of Venus all month. This morning sky
duo is joined by Mercury and the waning crescent Moon for nice
groupings on the 27th through the 30th. Saturn continues to be well
placed for excellent mid-evening viewing. Saturn's rings are as wide
open as they get right now, so views on clear nights should be
spectacular. Saturn transits the Crab Nebula (M1) on January 4-5.
It will be difficult to see the mag. 8.4 nebula in the same field of
view as the mag. -0.4 planet. However, monitoring the event from
night to night starting a few days early may prove interesting.
Seven of Saturn's moons may be visible (mag. 8.0 to 12.6) within
about 2' of the planet during this event. On the evening of the 3rd,
the moons are bunched in a NW to SE grouping around Saturn. Try
200-300X powers. Jupiter rises much later than Saturn, so it will be
best viewed after 10 p.m.
Binocular highlights: M 31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) in the west; M 42
(The Great Orion Nebula), the Hyades, and M 45 (The Pleiades) in the
southeast; and NGC 869/884 (The Double Cluster) in the north. Time
spent scanning the star fields of the Milky Way from Cassiopeia,
through Perseus, Auriga, and Gemini will reveal numerous open
clusters (including M's 103, 52, 34, 38, 36, 37, and 35) and
interesting asterisms.
Telescope highlights: In the west, M 31 (look for the dark dust lanes
on the M 110 side) and M 33 (The Pinwheel, or Triangulum Galaxy, in
Triangulum-look for NGC 604, a 2' sized emission neb in NE arm of M
33, the largest H II region known), and NGC 7662 (The Blue Snowball
Nebula, a mag. 8.6 PN in Andromeda); in the east, M 1 (The Crab
Nebula supernova remnant, in Taurus), M 42 (try to see 6 stars in the
Trapezium instead of just 4), and-if the seeing is particularly good
and you have a larger scope-the Horsehead Nebula (B 33, located about
30' south of Orion's easternmost belt star, Alnitak; a UHC or H-beta
filter will help).
Comets: None this month.
ELECTION RESULTS
The China Lake Astronomical Society elections were held at the
December 2 meeting. The previous officers have been re-elected,
except that for the moment, the offices of Secretary and Treasurer
will both be filled by Carroll Evans.
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
We will again host Harvey and Leatrice Sololoff and their "Adventures
in Learning" group on Saturday evening December 28. Interested
members can bring their telescopes to the Maturango Museum that
evening.
BINOCULARS FOR SALE
One pair of 11 x 80mm giant binoculars with case for sale. Seling
for $150, the original cost was $400.00 three years ago. Contact Jim
Leonard 760-377-3474.
OBSERVER'S HANDBOOKS AND CALENDARS ARE HERE-There are still plenty of
them.
The Royal Canadian Astronomical Society Observer's Handbooks and
Observer's Calendars for 2003 have arrived. You can arrange for your
copy by calling Carroll Evans at 760-375-5681 or sending an email to
clevans@ridgenet.net. We are selling the handbooks for $15.00 and
the calendars for $10.00. These items together make an excellent way
to plan your astronomical activities for the coming year.
LEONID REPORTS
This from Steve Edberg:
In Lockwood Valley, about 20 miles west of Gorman and just south of
Mt. Pinos, my maximum count was 76 meteors during 02:33 - 02:53, for
an hourly rate of 228. With a limiting magnitude of 4.5, radiant
altitude 37 deg, and 60% of the sky visible to me, I get a ZHR of
3946 (but the last two digits are probably not significant). This is
double the maximum ZHR on the International Meteor Organization web
site, but so was my count period's duration, so the IMO value and
mine are in agreement.
2001's shower seemed biased towards bright meteors, but this year's
didn't. I'm not sure how to adjust the population index (I used 2.5,
the usual for the Leonids).
In any case, it was a nice shower but I wouldn't call it a storm as
seen by a casual observer, even though it meets the formal definition.
And, this from David Rosenthal:
As for the Leonids, my wife, Donna, and I went out to our
favorite spot on Laurel Mountain along the access road to the radar
site. We arrived at about 2 AM and stayed until 4 when cirriform and
altocumulus clouds finally obscured about 70% of the observable sky.
The moon WAS its bright self but we saw perhaps 80 Leonids
during our observing interval, including several brighter than
magnitude -2. But the combination of the moonlight and what appeared
to be a leaner stream resulted in a far less exciting experience than
last year's event.
The nicest aspect of the trip was the ability to experiment
with my new high-end digital camera, a Canon PowerShot S40 which,
despite being a cigarette package-sized compact model without
interchangeable lenses,
possesses a whole gamut of manual features. Throughout our visit to
the mountain, I shot time-exposures of the sky, managing to capture
one good Leonid.
The camera can be set to be totally manual and can produce a
time-exposure of up to 15 seconds. Combine this with the imager's
effective speed of ISO 50 (it can also be set for ISOs of 100, 200,
and 400 with an accompanying increase in video noise) and the
camera's maximum aperture of f/2.8 and you can easily capture
excellent naked-eye star fields. (See the accompanying photos in the
electronic version of this newsletter.)
DESERT SUNSET STAR PARTY, MAY 1-4, 2003
The Desert Sunset Star Party (DSSP) is one of the newest amateur
astronomer star parties in the US, scheduled for May 1-4, 2003 at the
Kartchner Caverns State Park in Benson, AZ. Additional information
and registration forms are now on our website. http://chartmarker.tripod.com/sunset.htm.
We invite you all to come and enjoy the dark southern Arizona skies and the
many attractions in this area.
In the late afternoons as we wait for dinner, we will have a few of
the seasoned amateurs and professionals demonstrating specialized
techniques. We will have a swap meet on Saturday afternoon followed
by a contest for your homemade innovative astronomy gadget.
During the days, we are encouraging attendees to visit places like
Kitt Peak, the UA Mirror Lab and Flandrau Planetarium, the Pima Air
and Space Museum and Titan Missile Silo, and of course the many
non-astronomy related sites such as the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Old
Tombstone and much more. Check our Day Trip links for details. (If you plan to
tour Kartchner Caverns (advanced registration is required for this very
popular tour) you can access the Cavern tours through our Day Trip links.)
Chart Markers and More
Pat and Arleen Heimann http://chartmarker.tripod.com
MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION!
Basic CLAS dues are $20.00 per year, which includes the Skywatchers
Newsletter. As a benefit of membership you may also receive
Astronomy Magazine and/or Sky and Telescope Magazine. The fee
schedule is as follows:
Basic membership $20.00 per year
Membership with Astronomy magazine $44.00 per year
Membership with Sky and Telescope magazine $50.00 per year
Membership with both S & T and Astronomy $74.00 per year
Send your check to: Carroll Evans, Treasurer, China Lake Astronomical
Society, P.O. Box 1783, Ridgecrest, CA 93556.
PRESIDENT - Roger Brower - 760-375-1181 (email brower@iwvisp.com)
VICE-PRESIDENT - Bruce Churchill - 760-375-7247 (email
bchurchill@atsecure.net)
SECRETARY--TREASURER - Carroll Evans (email clevans@ridgenet.net)
NEWSLETTER EDITOR - Carroll Evans Jr. - 760-375-5681 (email
clevans@ridgenet.net)
WESTERN AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS WEB SITE
Meetings of the China Lake Astronomical Society are held at the
Maturango Museum at 7:30 p.m. on the first Monday evening of each
month, except when the first Monday is a holiday.
SKYWATCHERS
Newsletter of the
CHINA LAKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
POST OFFICE BOX 1783
RIDGECREST, CA 93556-1783
NEXT MEETING: 7:30 p.m., MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2003 - "GADGET NIGHT"
THE OBSERVER'S HANDBOOKS AND CALENDARS ARE HERE, SEE INSIDE
AT THE MATURANGO MUSEUM, 100 EAST LAS FLORES AVE.
CLAS WEB PAGE