SKYWATCHERS Volume 42 No. 09 September 1, 2005 NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, September 12, 2005 Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest PROGRAM FOR THE SEPTEMBER 12 MEETING Our September program will be a discussion of the evening sky at the autumnal equinox. Let's discuss the best objects to see at this time of year, and the best times and order in which to view them. In addition to the discussion, we will have a short astronomically related audio-visual treat on the Museum's big screen. Details to be revealed at the meeting. DATES TO KEEP IN MIND Monday, September 12, 2005: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 30, 2005: Public Star Party. See below. Wednesday, September 21, 2005: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter Monday, October 3, 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, September 2--Signs out at 7:00 p.m., Star viewing at 7:30 p.m. (most will not receive notice in time) 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 The visit to Mt Wilson for viewing through the 60-inch telescope is now scheduled for Saturday September 24. Transportation details will be provided later. If you have objects for suggested viewing, you must name the object and provide the Right Ascension and Declination in Epoch 2000. THE SKY IN SEPTEMBER (Roger Brower) 1. Venus and Jupiter will continue their pairing in the evening sky for the rest of the month. On September 6th, they will be joined by Spica and the crescent moon. Look for them all in the west-southwest after dark. 2. Saturn and Mercury will also present a nice pair at the beginning of the month in the morning sky. Mercury soon fades into the sun, leaving Saturn alone. 3. Uranus and Neptune both just past opposition in August and so will be will placed for viewing throughout the night. Uranus is in Aquarius and Neptune is in Capricornus. 4. Mars is in the late evening sky this month and will be a late evening early morning object all month. CLAS OUTREACH (Carroll Evans) Progress report: The June 11 program was presented by Rich Burdge, of Kernville, and the July 9th program was presented jointly by Carroll Evans and Rich Burdge. Both evenings were full houses. The August 13th program was presented by Carroll Evans, with assistance from Rich Burdge. There was a good audience, with only a few empty seats. My thanks to all the Kern Valley and Ridgecrest amateur astronomers who brought their telescopes to all three events.. ALEX'S ACTIVITIES (Alex Shlanta) Here comes the Sun! On Saturday morning 13 August 2005 Roger Brower and I traveled to the Audubon Society Kern River Preserve. Sandra Weiser was giving a program on the Sun there and she requested CLAS support with a solar telescope demonstration. Sandra had set up a nice model of the Earth revolving around the Sun with balls mounted on poles stuck in the ground that showed four significant positions in the process of the Earth revolving around the Sun. She had the four balls for the Earth orientated around a central sun so they showed the 23.5 deg tilt for the Winter and Summer Solstices and the Autumnal and Vernal Equinoxes. She presented some basic facts on the Sun and had some literature on display describing Solar processes. Roger and I set up our Coronado Personal Solar Telescopes (PSTs) for the people attending the program to look at the Sun. The Sun is at solar minimum right now so we didn't expect to see too much. There were no sunspots evident on the face of the Sun. We were pleased that the 656.3 nm H-alpha telescopes showed a nice good-sized prominence emanating in the Chromosphere from the 6:00 o'clock position of the Sun. There were smaller prominences to be seen at 1:30 and 7:00 positions. There was also a dark thin line filament on the disk of the Sun at the 2:30 position. Filaments are prominences projected on the face of the Sun. Finally Sandra showed the group a video of events before, during, and after the 11 July 1991 eclipse of the Sun. She had been on an eclipse cruise ship in the vicinity of Hawaii when this 7-minute duration total eclipse was viewed. The video was produced by Griffith Observatory and showed the experience to view an eclipse as a real fun experience. There were 10 people attending the Kern River Preserve program. They were a great group of people, were really interested in the subject, and had many good questions for Roger and me. Star Party for Girl Scouts at College Observatory A star party was coordinated through Lisa Fuller for Brownie age Girl Scouts and held at the Cerro Coso Community College Observatory on Friday 12 August 2005. There were about 40 Brownies and parents attending the event and they were a real enthusiastic group. The star party commenced with passing out star charts for the August evening sky. Then everyone was walked through a model of the solar system with stakes in the ground spaced to represent the relative distances between planets. The scale for the model was 8 ft/AU (AU = Astronomical Unit = 93,000,000 miles). When we stopped at each stake they were told some of the characteristics for that planet. The principal constellations in the night sky were pointed out also to the scouts using a laser pointer. After that everyone was free to wander between the telescope stations to see the celestial sights on the telescopes. Assisting me with this star party and manning the telescope stations were China Lake Astronomical Society (CLAS) members Neal Barry, Roger Brower, Peter Eisenloh, Kiran Mehra, Chuck Morgan, and Ken Pringle. The people attending the star party were able to see the Moon, Jupiter, double stars Albireo, Mizar, & Polaris, Globular Clusters M13 & M22, the Wild Duck Open Cluster M11, Planetary Nebula M57 (Ring Nebula) & M27 (Dumbbell Nebula), and the China Lake fire. A particular hit for the participants was being able to view real time, on a TV screen, an image of the quarter phase waxing Moon. To generate the image an Orion Electronic Imaging Eyepiece was used in a f/5.0 120mm diameter refracting telescope. The Brownies enjoyed particularly being able to identify "their crater" on the TV screen image. FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT Attn: Beloved One My name is Mr. Faith Dubem. I hail from the COTONOU Republic of BENIN, married with two children. I am the Inspection Officer of Galaxy Security & Finance Services Limited, COTONOU. I got the information concerning you from Astronomy Clubs in California, West African Region Since I am a Member so we are brother and after due consideration, I decided to contact you believing that by the Grace of God, that you will not disappoint me over this deal. Thus begins spam that your (hopefully) non-gullible Editor received recently. The email goes on: I have finalized every arrangement for you to claim consignment No. 1401, 1402 containing $35.7 Million. I will supply you with all the information and documents that will facilitate your easy claim of the consignment. Upon your positive reply of this letter, I will furnish you with further details and information regarding the modus operandi for the execution of the transaction. This business is risk free as I have taken necessary preventive measures. I am afraid that Mr. Dubem will have to wait a while, as I am much too busy to enter into discussions with him over such a paltry sum. However, in his favour, I will admit that he is offering a 50/50 split, which is more generous than usually offered by his Nigerian counterparts. MARS IS COMING CLOSE! BUT WHEN? (Carroll Evans) How many of you have been approached by friends about the upcoming closest approach of Mars? Somehow the publicity from two years ago has been recycled. So we are asked, what are we, the China Lake Astronomical Society, doing about our chance to see Mars closer than in a very long time? I have to tell them that we are waiting until Halloween. As most of you know, Mars will be relatively close, and higher off of the horizon than it was in 2003, so we may get better actual viewing. SPECIAL NOTE Astronomy magazine has raised its rate for group subscriptions, An appropriate increase has been made to the charge to CLAS members. 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 $51.00 per year Membership with Sky and Telescope magazine $53.00 per year Membership with both S & T and Astronomy $84.00 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 ghodkinson@sbcglobal.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, SEPTEMBER 12, 2005: "AUTUMN SKIES" 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/