Volume 42 No. 11 November 1, 2005
NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, November 7, 2005
Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest
PROGRAM FOR THE NOVEMBER 7 MEETING
At our November meeting Peter Eiserloh will present the third and final
installment of his orbital element discussions. This istallment will
focus on how to take your observations and calculate your orbital
elements.
DATES TO KEEP IN MIND
Monday, November 7, 2005: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in
Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter
Monday, December 5, 2005: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in
Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.
SPECIAL NOTICE: The annual election of officers for the China Lake
Astronomical Society will be held at the Society's December 5, 2005
meeting.
ATTENTION! The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Observer's Handbooks
for 2006 are now on hand, along with their superb Astronomical Calendar.
As a benefit of membership we have held the price to last year's amounts.
The handbook will cost you $15.00, and the calendar will be $10.00. Thus,
$25.00 for the set.
STAR PARTIES WILL RESUME IN MARCH 2006
THE SKY IN NOVEMBER (Roger Brower)
1. Venus is well placed in the southwest at sunset and shows a nice
quarter phase for most of the month.
2. Jupiter is moving to the morning sky and so will not be well placed for
observing this month.
3. Saturn remains in the morning sky rising about midnight at the
beginning of the month and so is best viewed just before dawn.
4. Uranus is in Aquarius and Neptune is is Capricornus.
5. Mars remains the show piece for November. It rises around sunset so
will be well placed all month.
6. The Leonid meteor shower peaks on November 17th but will largely be
washed out by the nearly full moon.
VIEWING THROUGH THE 60-inch TELESCOPE AT MOUNT WILSON (Alex Shlanta)
Wow! 19 of us had a really wonderful 6-hour experience looking
through the 60-inch telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory the evening of
24/25 September 2005. The trip very ably coordinated by Bruce Churchill
Vice-President of the China Lake Astronomical Society and it exceeded our
expectations. We went in caravan in three rental vans to and from the
observatory.
We were hosted at the telescope by Docent Sean Hoss and telescope
technicians Dave Jurasevich and William Doffer. These three gentlemen
were very capable and they bent over backwards to make our experience a
meaningful one. The name Evans remains magical at the Observatory and it
was great having Carroll along with our group. In addition to the 60-inch
telescope, a classic 16-inch Meade LX200 was available in the adjacent
dome for people to look through while they were waiting for their turn on
the 60-inch telescope. We were fortunate to be at the observatory during
weather conditions that were good for celestial viewing. The temperature
was in the mid 50's with only a light wind. The sky was mostly clear with
peripheral clouds during the viewing. The sky was just starting to cloud
over as we were leaving the observatory at 1:52 pm to drive back home.
The only limitation we had with viewing was light pollution from the LA
basin, but it was possible to work around that.
The 60-inch telescope at Mount Wilson was the largest in the world
from 1908-1917. George Willis Ritchey built the telescope. A great deal
was learned building the 60-inch telescope and it served as a forerunner
for the 100-inch Hooker telescope that went on-line in 1918 at the Mount
Wilson Observatory.
We noted that the telescope on its mount inside the dome is capable of
seeing only above a 30o elevation angle with respect to the horizontal in
all directions. That means it can see a 120o cone in the sky. Because of
its limited field-of view due to size, the telescope is not good for
viewing galaxies, which are too large. When viewing globular clusters
only the central portions are seen. The specifications for the telescope
are listed below:
Configurations for Operation Newtonian Focus, Bent Cassegrain
Focus, &
Coude Focus. The Bent Cassegrain
Focus was
used for our viewing.
Weight 30 tons
Primary Mirror 60-inch diameter parabolic mirror
Secondary Mirror 20-inch diameter
Focal Length 25,000mm = 82 ft.
f/ratio f/16
Eyepiece Kellner 100mm focal length
eyepiece. Note
A 50 mm focal length eyepiece was
use briefly
when viewing Mars.
Exit Pupil of eyepiece 6.1mm, equivalent to that of the
eye's pupil
Eye Relief Great: I could put a filter over
the eyepiece
and still view comfortably with
glasses on.
Light Gathering Power 65,000 X more light received than
the unaided
human eye.
Actual Field-of-View 12 arc minutes
Angular Resolution 0.09 arc sec
Aberrations The telescope had some coma around
the edges.
During our 6-hour viewing period we managed to view 11 celestial
objects. The Docent and Telescope Technicians tried to accommodate us
with those objects from the wish list put together by CLAS member before
the viewing. We were able to view the following objects:
Object Description Comments
1. Albireo Double Blue & Gold The focus on these stars
didn't appear to be
Stars, 3.1 & 5.1 mag. real sharp. On the
60-inch the two stars
410 LY distance appeared far apart after
being used to seeing
Albireo on smaller scopes.
2. M10 Globular Cluster in This globular cluster has
a large bright core
Ophiuchus. that we were able to see
quite well. We
15K LY distance were also able to see
individual stars
leading to and within the
core. One of the
youngest globular clusters
in our galaxy.
3. M13 Considered the finest Again we saw the core of
this globular
Globular Cluster in cluster. Hundreds of
stars appeared
the No. Hemisphere. resolved right into the
core.
21K LY distance
4. M92 Also in Hercules Fainter than M13.
One of oldest
25K LY distance globular clusters in our
galaxy. 13
Billion years old.
5. M57 Ring Nebula in Lyra The smoke ring was very
distinct. I
A Planetary Nebula could see the 12th
magnitude star in the
1.5K LY center with averted vision
as a "blink"
that came in and out of
view.
6. Campbell's 9.6 magnitude The central star
illuminated a red planetary
Hydrogen Wolf-Rayet Star nebula. Using a yellow
filter the white
Star In Cygnus central
star could be seen to be distinct from
PK64+5.1 31K LY distance its small red
envelope.
7. M15 Globular Cluster in One of few globular
clusters to have an
Pegasus. imbedded planetary
nebula (Pease 1).
39K LY distance A faint planetary nebula
was found using an
OIII filter looking at the
three stars just off
the top of the core. I may not have seen it.
8. Neptune Blue Disk with Moon Neptune's largest moon
Triton was to be
seen at 3 disks out from Neptune at 2
o'clock. Dave said he also saw Nereid.
9. Uranus Blue-Green disk with I was able to see three
moons
5 moons 11:30 o'clock - Titania 5
disks out
2:00 o'clock - Oberon 2
disks out
5:00 o'clock - Umbriel
2 disks out
Dave said that Miranda
was at 11:30 ½ disk
out and Ariel was at
ll:30 2 disks out. But, I
wasn't able to see them.
Earl Wilson took a
Uranus photograph through
the telescope.
10. Saturn Planetary Nebula There were
extensions projecting from the
Nebula in Aquarius disk. Within the disk I
believe I saw some
NGC 7009 2.9k LY distance individual stars.
11. Mars A large bright disk Mars was really
bright so we tried all kinds
with features. of filters and
combinations of filters so we
could pick out more
details on Mars. I
looked at Mars through a
Salmon colored
filter and a stacked
polarizer/yellow filter. I
was able to see the
Southern Polar Cap and
scratch marks like canals
across the disk.
Earl took another
photograph through the
Telescope.
COMMENTS FROM THE EDITOR (Carroll Evans)
My personal thanks to all who organized this trip, and participated in the
planning. My thanks also to Alex for his excellent response to my
"assignment" to him on the mountain top. And thanks to the Mount Wilson
staff for making the experience so great. Those of you who were at the
C.L.A.S. meetings in advance of the trip know how much we agonized over
what objects should be viewed, yet my own opinion was that it was not the
objects that were important, the importance was in the instrument we were
using. What a privelege to use such a historic instrument. We used a
nearly 100-year old instrument, coupled with some aspects of modern
technology. And to think that the observatory components were brought up
the mountain on a narrow steep dirt road, not the present paved road.
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, NOVEMBER 7, 2005: "ORBITAL ELEMENTS"
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/