SKYWATCHERS NEWSLETTER Volume 40 No. 11 November 1, 2003 NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, November 3, 2003 Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest, California NOVEMBER 3 MEETING At our October meeting we previewed the autumn sky and there was interest expressed in planetary nebula. Let's discuss planetary nebula in more detail this month. If you have observing tips or especially pictures bring them along to share. DATES TO KEEP IN MIND Monday, November3, 2003: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 19. 2003: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter Friday, November 21, 2003: Star Party, see below. (This will be the last public star party until March 2004) Monday, December 1, 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, November 21--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m. BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR FOR NOVEMBER 2003 (David Hollingsworth) Nov 8 Full Moon (Frosty Moon or Beaver Moon); total lunar eclipse (5:06 to 5:31 p.m. PST). Nov 16 Last quarter Moon. Nov 18 Leonid Meteor Shower; predicted best time for west coast USA is around midnight. Nov 22 Alpha Monocerotid Meteor Shower. Nov 23 New Moon; total solar eclipse (not visible from N. America). Nov 30 First quarter Moon. OBSERVING IN NOVEMBER 2003 (David Hollingsworth) With the new Moon on the 23rd, the best evening observing will be from the 16th through the 27th. On the 21st, the night of the CLAS public star party, the following are some key early evening events: 16:41 Sun sets. 17:27 Mercury (located about 9< west of Venus) sets. 18:08 Venus sets. 18:10 End of astronomical twilight; comet 2P Enke located 50! high in the west. 19:01 Mars transits the meridian. 19:31 Saturn rises in Gemini. Planets: Mars is still bright and large enough to warrant early evening viewing, when it's at its highest in the south. Saturn rises at 19:31 on the night of the star party, so it should be high enough for good viewing by 21:30. Observing Saturn should be rewarding, since its rings are currently open very wide. The best views of Jupiter will still be obtained in the early morning hours, as Jupiter doesn't rise until after midnight. Binocular and Telescope Highlights: For the Messiers, the planetary nebulae M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) and M57 (Ring Nebula) are the highlights in the west; globular clusters M30, M15, and M2 are the highlights in the south; open cluster M45 (the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters), and spiral galaxies M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) and M33 (Triangulum/Pinwheel Galaxy) are the highlights in the east; and open clusters M52 and M103 are the highlights in the north. Non-Messier highlights for November include NGC 6960/6995 (Veil Nebula, SNR in Cyg), Cr 399 (Brocchi's Cluster, or Coathanger Cluster, OC in Vul), NGC 7293 (Helix Nebula, PN in Aqr), NGC 253 (Sculptor Galaxy, about 7< south of beta Cet), gamma And (nice yellow and blue double, 9.58' separation), NGC 869/884 (Double Cluster, in Per), Stock 2 (aka the Muscleman Cluster, just a little over 2< NW of the Double Cluster), NGC 457 (the Owl Cluster, in Cas), NGC 7789 (OC in Cas, 3< SE of beta Cas), NGC 7662 (the Blue Snowball Nebula, PN in And), and NGC 6543 (the Cat's Eye Nebula, PN in Draco). Comets: 2P Enke is predicted to be at mag. 8.1 on 21 Nov and located a little less than 7< south of Albireo, in Vulpecula. 2P Enke sets at about 22:30 on the 21st, so be sure and view early in the evening while it's still relatively high (50< at the end of astronomical twilight). Meteors Showers: The Leonid meteor shower occurs on the night of the 18th and morning of the 19th. The predicted best time for the west coast USA is around midnight. Unfortunately, light from the Last Quarter Moon will interfere with faint meteors after midnight. Visit the following web site for additional information on the Leonid meteor shower: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/10oct_doubleleonids.htm. Consult your star charts, computer programs, magazines, and observer's handbooks for other observing suggestions. STAR PARTY REPORT Bruce Churchill Our September star party was held on Friday the 26th. This put us near the transition from the summer to the autumn sky. Weather conditions were near perfect. Although Mars was nearly a month past its closest approach it was still very prominent. Seasonal objects included the M13 cluster in Hercules, the M57 (Ring Nebula) in Lyra, and the M27 Dumbbell Nebular in Vulpecula overheard early in the evening. To the south, the M4, M6 (Butterfly), and M7 cluster were observed in Scorpius. The M8 (Lagoon),M17 (Swan/Omega), M20 (Trifid), ad M23 Nebulae were seen in Sagittarius. Later in the evening, the Veil Nebula in Cygnus was interesting. Some objects that promise t6o get better in the coming months included the M31, M32, and M110 galaxies and the NBC 7662 (Blue Snowball) Nebula in Andromeda. The M76 (Little Dumbbell Nebula) was seen in Perseus. Aquarius boasts the unique NGC 7009 (Saturn nebula) and NGC 7923 (Helix Nebula). HANDBOOKS AND CALENDARS TO BE ORDERED SOON. The Royal Canadian Astronomical Society of Canada published both the Observer's Handbook and the Observer's Calendar. They will be ordered soon, and we will hold the price at $15.00 and $10.00 GREEN LASER POINTERS AVAILABLE A limited number of green laser pointers is available, at the low price of $66.00 each. Contact Carroll Evans at 760-375-5681 if you want one. ASTRONOMY NEWS FROM EARL TOWSON DEEP SPACE & COSMOLOGY: A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY EYED BY HAWAIIAN TELESCOPES: A galaxy far beyond our own Milky Way, with a monstrous, churning black hole in its center, has been observed by two optical telescopes working in unison as an interferometer. These observations reveal the finest level of detail in a galaxy ever produced at infrared wavelengths. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0310/01galaxy/ CLUSTER'S GAIN IS GALAXY'S LOSS, CHANDRA SHOWS: This image of the M86 galaxy shows gas being swept out of the galaxy to form a long tail more than 200,000 light years in length. Located in the Virgo galaxy cluster, this enormous elliptical galaxy is moving at about 3 million miles per hour through diffuse hot gas that pervades the cluster. The supersonic motion of M86 produces pressure that is stripping gas from the galaxy and forming the spectacular tail. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0310/05chandra/ IS THE UNIVERSE A DODECAHEDRON? The standard model of cosmology predicts that the universe is infinite and flat. However, cosmologists in France and the US are now suggesting that space could be finite and shaped like a dodecahedron instead. They claim that a universe with the same shape as the twelve-sided polygon can explain measurements of the cosmic microwave background - the radiation left over from the big bang - that spaces with more mundane shapes cannot (J-P Luminet et al. 2003 Nature 425 593). http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/10/5 SOCCER BALL UNIVERSE? Jeffrey Weeks, a MacArthur Fellow based in Canton, New York, and researchers from the University of Paris and Observatory of Paris studied astronomical data which suggests the universe is finite and made of curved pentagons joined together into a sphere. In research reported in the Thursday edition of the science journal Nature, the scientists said data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, which maps background radiation left over from the Big Bang, is not consistent with an infinite universe. "Since antiquity, humans have wondered whether our universe is finite or infinite. Now, after more than two millennia of speculation, observational data might finally settle the ancient question," Weeks said. In a commentary on the research, George Ellis of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said if Weeks and his colleagues are correct we might indeed live is a small, closed universe. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/10/09/universe.soccer.ball.reut/index.html CONTRIBUTORS NEEDED FOR SKYWATCHERS As always, there is room for your contribution to this newsletter. Email submissions are especially welcome. ANNUAL ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD AT THE DECEMBER MEETING Again, as always, we need officers. Please consider trying it. 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 $53.00 per year Membership with both S & T and Astronomy $77.00 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 http://www.waa.av.org/ 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, November 3, 2003 -"Planetary Nebula" AT THE MATURANGO MUSEUM, 100 EAST LAS FLORES AVE. CLAS WEB PAGE INDEX OF CLAS NEWSLETTERS