Volume 42 No. 06 June 1, 2005 NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, June 6, 2005 Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest PROGRAM FOR THE JUNE 6 MEETING Geologist Gary Peterson has talked to us, over the past several years, about the geological characteristics of all the inner planets. At our June meeting he will present a new talk about the Jovian satellite Europa. It is entitled "Europa, the Other Ocean." Professor Peterson's visits are always fascinating, so be sure and make it to the meeting, and bring your friends. DATES TO KEEP IN MIND Monday, June 6, 2005: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 3, 2005: Public Star Party. See below. Wednesday, June 29, 2005: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter Monday, July 11, 2005: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m. STAR PARTY SCHEDULE FOR THE 2005 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, June 3--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m. Friday, July 1--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m. Friday, August 5--Signs out at 8:00 p.m., Star viewing at 8:30 p.m. Friday, September 2--Signs out at 7:00 p.m., Star viewing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 30--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m. Friday, October 28--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m. MT. WILSON STAR PARTY Many of us were eagerly awaiting a visit to the Mount Wilson Observatory to get to use the 60-inch telescope visually. We were to get our chance Saturday evening April 30. The sky fell in, so to speak, late Wednesday afternoon, the 27th. There were two separate issues. First, the weather forecast was not at all favorable. Second, the Mt Wilson staff had realized that the aluminum coating on the mirrors had deteriorated drastically. CLAS was faced with the need to notify people of the cancellation at more or less the last minute. And indeed, the word was passed successfully. As it turned out, the weather was bad when we had planned to be there. The visit to Mt Wilson has been rescheduled for 9:00 p.m. on Saturday September 24 to 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Transportation details will be provided later. Larry Evans, Carroll's brother, spent several days helping with the aluminizing process, and he provided the following URL, which has pictures of the project: http://www.mssimmons.com/60Aluminization/ THE SKY IN JUNE (Roger Brower) 1. Venus will be visible in the west after sunset. Mercury moves to the evening sky and will join Venus and Saturn for a great clustering of planets at the end of the month. 2. Jupiter is well placed all month for evening viewing as it doesn't set until after midnight all month. 3. Mars rises about 1AM and reaches magnitude -0.1 by the end of the month. STAR PARTY REPORT (Bruce Churchill) Bruce was unable to attend the May star party, thus there is no report. CLAS OUTREACH IN THE FUTURE (Carroll Evans) We will be presenting astronomical programs and telescope viewing for the Forest Service again this year. We are scheduled for the Tillie Creek Campground amphitheater on Saturday evenings June 11, July 9, and August 13. These evenings have the Moon near first quarter. Dark Sky events are scheduled for June 4 and August 6 at the Black Rock Ranger station. REMEMBERING THE ECHO COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE (Carroll Evans) I found the following clipping from the Devils Lake Journal from March 12, 2002: Lenox, Mass. (AP) Gilmour T. Schjeldahl, a North Dakota native whose communications satellite balloon helped legitimize the young U.S. space program, died at his home Sunday evening. He was 89. Schjeldahjl's Echo I satellite created a sensation after its launch in August 1960, giving an embryonic NASA much-needed credibility. The largest object ever fired into orbit at the time, Echo I's appearances were published in newspapers across the country. (Ed. Note: The Echo satellite gained the public's interest, as it could be seen easily.) SPACE AND ASTRONOMY NEWS VIA EARL TOWSON EARTH'S ENERGY IMBALANCE CONFIRMED BY SCIENTISTS: Scientists have concluded more energy is being absorbed from the sun than is emitted back to space, throwing the Earth's energy "out of balance" and warming the globe. The amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface has been on the rise for the past decade on average, potentially accelerating the effects of global warming. Scientists had been measuring a decrease in sunlight from the 1960s to the 1990s, because of rising pollution was actually blocking sunlight. With better pollution controls in place, the planet's surface has brightened by about 4% in the last 10 years. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0505/07energy/ AND http://www.pnl.gov/news/2005/05-33.htm (Editor's note: If global warming is bad, does this mean that pollution is good?) SATURN'S MOON PHOEBE MAY HAVE ORIGINATED IN THE KUIPER BELT: Saturn's battered little moon Phoebe is an interloper to the Saturn system from the deep outer solar system, scientists have concluded. The new findings appear in the May 5 issue of the journal Nature. "Phoebe was left behind from the solar nebula, the cloud of interstellar gas and dust from which the planets formed," said Dr. Torrence Johnson, Cassini imaging team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It did not form at Saturn. It was captured by Saturn's gravitational field and has been waiting eons for Cassini to come along. Phoebe has a density consistent with that of the only Kuiper Belt objects for which densities are known. Phoebe's mass, combined with an accurate volume estimate from images, yields a density of about 1.6 grams per cubic centimeter (100 pounds per cubic foot), much lighter than most rocks but heavier than pure ice, which is about 0.93 grams per cubic centimeter (58 pounds per cubic foot). This suggests a composition of ice and rock similar to that of Pluto and Neptune's moon Triton. Whether the dark material on other moons of Saturn is the same primordial material as on Phoebe remains to be seen. For Phoebe images and more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov AND NASA Press Release: 2005-071, May 6, 2005. ASTEROID TO MISS EARTH IN 2029: Near the end of 2004, astronomers found a 320 meter (1000 feet) wide space rock that seemed to have the highest chance ever reported of actually striking the Earth - on April 13 observations have demonstrated that the asteroid will miss... phew. But when it streaks by in about 24 years, it will come so close - 30,000 km (18,600 miles) - observers on the ground will easily see it with the unaided eye. It will get as bright as a 3rd magnitude star, and be visible from Africa, Europe and Asia. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/13may_2004mn4.htm MARS' SOUTH POLE MYSTERY: NASA scientists have solved an age-old mystery by finding that Mars' southern polar cap is offset from its geographical south pole because of two different polar climates. Mars' southern polar ice cap is completely off-center. Researchers working with NASA think they have an answer to this lopsided mystery: the weather. Mars' southern hemisphere seems to be much colder and stormier than its northern hemisphere, and the southern icecap is only 1/10 the size of its northern counterpart. The researchers have discovered that Mars has two regional climates on either side of the pole, which are caused by two large craters that create a low-pressure system that sits over the southern ice cap and keeps it in one location. Weather generated by the two Martian regional climates creates conditions that cause the red planet's southern polar ice to freeze out into a cap whose center lies about 93 miles (150 kilometers) from the actual south pole, according to a scientific paper included in the May 12 issue of the journal, Nature. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0505/14marsmystery/ AND NOW A LITTLE IRRELEVANCE - IVY LEAGUE LIGHT BULB JOKES: How many Yale students does it take to change a light bulb? None - New Haven looks better in the dark. How many Harvard students does it take to change a light bulb? One - he holds the bulb and the world revolves around him. 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 $49.00 per year Membership with Sky and Telescope magazine $53.00 per year Membership with both S & T and Astronomy $82.00 per year Send your check to: Roger Brower, Treasurer, China Lake Astronomical Society, P.O. Box 1783, Ridgecrest, CA 93556. PRESIDENT - Earl Wilson - 760-876-5455 (email zearl.email@gmail.com) VICE-PRESIDENT - Bruce Churchill - 760-375-7247 (email bchurchill@atsecure.net) SECRETARY - Ted Hodgkinson - 661- 824-2738 (email longeyes@antelecom.net) TREASURER - Roger Brower - 760-375-1181 (email brower@iwvisp.com) 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, JUNE 6, 2005: "EUROPA, THE OTHER OCEAN" AT THE MATURANGO MUSEUM, 100 EAST LAS FLORES AVE. CLAS WEB PAGE http://www1.iwvisp.com/brower/clas.html INDEX OF CLAS NEWSLETTERS http://www.ridgenet.net/~jebush/clas/