SKYWATCHERS
NEWSLETTER OF THE CHINA LAKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 40 No. 5 May 1, 2003
NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, May 5, 2003
Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest, California
MAY 5 MEETING - QUASARS
Our May program will be about QUASARS. We will talk about what these
strange objects are, or may, be. We'll also talk about the difficult
task of locating them with a telescope. This will be an interactive
discussion, so if you have some information to share, bring it along.
DATES TO KEEP IN MIND
Monday, May 5, 2003: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in
Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter
Friday, May 30, 2003 - Star Party, see below.
Monday, June 2, 2003: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in
Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.
STAR PARTY SCHEDULE FOR THE 2003 SEASON:
Star Parties will be held on the dates listed below. Star Parties
are an activity where members and guests join together to share views
of the skies. If you have a telescope, bring it. If not, come and
look through someone else's. Star parties are held at a site in the
open desert south of Ridgecrest. To reach the star party site from
Ridgecrest, go south on China Lake Boulevard 6.5 miles from its
intersection with Ridgecrest Boulevard. Continue straight across
Highway 395 and you will be on Brown Road (Old Highway 395). Follow
Brown Road as it curves to the right and goes west. After 2.3 miles
there will be a 30-inch orange cone on the left. Turn left and
follow the dirt road marked by 12-inch cones. The CLAS Star party is
0.5 miles along this road. Watch for signs and cones, which will be
put out about a half-hour before viewing starts. Call Carroll Evans
760-375-5681, or Bruce Churchill 760-375-7247, for more information.
Friday, May 30--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m.
Friday, June 27--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m.
Friday, July 25--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m.
Friday, August 29--Signs out at 8:00 p.m., Star viewing at 8:30 p.m.
Friday, September 26--Signs out at 7:00 p.m., Star viewing at 8:00 p.m.
Friday, October 24--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m.
Friday, November 21--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m.
OUTREACH PROGRAM SCHEDULED MAY 1, 2003
Once again we are scheduled to present an astronomical program to
Mary Ann Morgan's Kern River Valley middle school students as part of
their week long campout on the Kern River. Call Carroll Evans for
details.
BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR FOR MAY (David Hollingsworth)
May 1 New Moon.
May 6 Eta Aquarid meteor shower, before dawn the 3rd
through the 10th, peaking on the 6th.
May 7 Mercury transits the Sun, but not visible from Ridgecrest.
May 9 First quarter Moon.
May 15 Full Moon (the Planting Moon or Milk Moon), total lunar
eclipse from 20:14 to 21:06 PDT.
May 22 Last quarter Moon.
May 31 New Moon.
OBSERVING IN MAY 2003 (David Hollingsworth)
On Friday, the 30th, the night of the CLAS star party, the Sun sets
at 20:02 PST and astronomical twilight ends at 21:50. Unless
otherwise stated, descriptions that follow are for observing on the
30th from Ridgecrest.
Planets: Saturn becomes difficult to view this month. Views of
Jupiter are still very good. Daytime planetary observing: Jupiter
should be detectable naked eye on the afternoon of the 8th, since it
will be located near the First Quarter Moon, about 90: east of the
Sun. Jupiter can be found about 4: (8 Moon diameters) south of the
Moon when Jupiter rises in the East at 11:35, 5: (about 1 binocular
field) southwest of the Moon when it crosses the Meridian at 18:35
(at which time the Great Red Spot is visible near the western limb;
so observing a couple of hours later should put the GRS near mid
Jupiter), and 5.25: southwest of the Moon at sunset. Once Jupiter is
located, telescopes may be used and the GRS should be detectable. Be
careful not to allow the Sun to enter the telescope while observing
while the Sun is up. A good practice is to locate one's telescope
well inside the Sun's shadow on the east side of a building, so that
as the Sun moves further westward, one is assured of staying in the
shadow.
Mercury transits the Sun on the 7th, but this event will not be
visible from Ridgecrest, since the transit ends before the Sun and
Mercury rise on the morning of the 7th. Mars is getting bigger and
brighter, visible in morning hours, but best views to come this
summer.
On the 15th, the Full Moon rises at 19:43 in partial lunar eclipse.
The Moon enters total eclipse at 20:14, and exits total eclipse at
21:06. At maximum eclipse, the Moon will be less than 10deg above the
eastern horizon. Remember how dramatically rusty red the Moon was
during the last total lunar eclipse visible from Ridgecrest on 20
January 2000! Hopefully, this will be just as impressive!
Binocular and Telescope Highlights: Early or late May is a good time
to try and spot Omega Centauri (NGC 5139, huge globular, in Cen) and
Centaurus A (NGC 5128, unusual elliptical shaped galaxy with dark
dust lane, in Cen) low on the southern horizon as they transit the
Meridian (hint, they transit the Meridian at the same time as Spica).
Other May highlights-there are plenty of them--include the Beehive
Cluster (M 44, OC, in Cnc) and the galaxies in Leo (M 95, M 96, and M
105) in the west and the Virgo Cluster, the Sombrero Galaxy (M 104,
in Vir), the Blackeye Galaxy (M 64, in Com), and globular clusters M
3 (in CVn), M 53 (in Com), and M 5 (in Ser) in the south. The Great
Hercules Cluster (M 13) is now well placed in the eastern sky. In
the north are found the Whirlpool Galaxy (M 51, in CVn) and the Ursa
Major galaxies M 101, M 81, and M 82.
Comets: No comets brighter than 11.5 magnitude predicted.
GREEN LASER POINTER
The club's green laser pointer is great for pointing out anything
visible naked eye--stars, clusters, planets, constellations, etc.
It's visible through binoculars and telescopes also-everyone can
track along with your guiding. David Hollingsworth is the current
custodian (446-1005, dhollings@msn.com). Let him know if you want to
borrow it for an outreach star party program.
LASER COLLIMATOR
The club's laser collimator is ideal for collimating the optics of
Newtonian telescopes (Dobsonian or equatorial mounts), especially in
the dark at star parties. David Hollingsworth is the current
custodian (446-1005, dhollings@msn.com). Let him know if you want to
borrow it.
REPORT ON THE MARCH STAR PARTY (Bruce Churchill)
Our March star party (the first for 2003) was held on Friday the
28th. Viewing conditions were good, but not exceptional. Jupiter
was the highlight of the evening. Seasonal object include M81 and
M82 (Exploding Galaxy) in Ursa Major; M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) and M63
(Sunflower Galaxy) in nearby Canes Venatici. The M61 double armed
spiral was seen in Virgo. M66 and M95 were located in Leo. Remnants
of the winter sky included M42 and M43 in Orion, M41 in Canis Major,
and NGC 2438 in Puppis.
ASTRONOMY NEWS BY EARL TOWSON
METEORITES RAIN DOWN ON CHICAGO: Sky watchers in several US states
were startled around midnight on March 27th when a brilliant fireball
streaked across the sky and exploded. It was a small (perhaps less
than a few meters wide) rocky asteroid with a mass of about 10 metric
tons. Some 500 fragments scattered over a 10-km wide zone in the
suburbs south of Chicago. Meteorites struck houses, cars, roads--but
no people. Such fireballs are surprisingly common: Researchers expect
an asteroidal object one meter in diameter or larger to strike
Earth's atmosphere about 40 times per year. Few are seen, however,
because they usually appear over unpopulated areas.
http://www.spaceweather.com
SOME MARTIAN CRATERS ARE FORMED BY OTHER CRATER DEBRIS:
Mars is a pockmarked planet, cratered in all regions with great holes
in a myriad of sizes and patterns that overlap and merge to create a
landscape of abuse. Clusters of craters 500 to 700 meters in diameter
and spreading over regions 5 to 20 kilometers wide have been observed
in high resolution images obtained duringthe Viking and Mars Global
Surveyor missions. These structures are unique and cannot be
explained with asteroid impact models. New work by a team headed by
William Hartmann of the Planetary Science Institute suggests that
these craters are created by Martian rocks launched from the planet's
surface during impacts. It has long been known that chunks of Martian
rock can get flung off the planet during massive impact events. The
evidence for this comes from rocks with Martian chemical composition
that are found in Antarctic meteor fields and elsewhere on Earth. The
basic story is simple: A large impactor, most likely an asteroid,
crashes into the Martian surface and splashes ejecta upward at such
large velocities that these pieces of Mars escape the planet's
gravity and fly away to visit Earth or other places in the solar
system. Impact events that launch Martian soil into space are very
large and rare. If the impact has less force, ejecta won't have the
energy to escape into space. Most often, ejecta simply fall back into
the area that surrounds the resulting crater. In intermediate cases,
however, kilometer-sized chunks of rock can be launched into a low,
temporary Martian orbit. While in flight, one large chunk can
fragment into a number of pieces, some of which exceed 100 meters in
diameter. After some tens of minutes these fragments fall back to
Mars, creating clusters of craters as they collide back onto the
world from which they came. This explanation for clustered crater
formation helps fill in our understanding of ejected material. Not
quite ready to leave the nest, the rocks that formed clustered
craters briefly tasted space
flight before leaving their unique mark on the Martian surface.
http://www.astronomy.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/001/264ymrye
.asp
STUNNING HUBBLE IMAGES OF MYSTERIOUS ERUPTING STAR: In January 2002,
a dull star in an obscure constellation suddenly became 600,000 times
more luminous than our Sun, temporarily making it the brightest star
in our Milky Way galaxy. The mysterious star has long since faded
back to obscurity, but observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
of a phenomenon called a "light echo" have uncovered remarkable new
features. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0303/26hubble/
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, May 5, 2003 - "QUASARS"
AT THE MATURANGO MUSEUM, 100 EAST LAS FLORES AVE.
CLAS WEB PAGE