SKYWATCHERS
Newsletter of the China Lake Astronomical Society
Volume 37 No. 10 September 20, 2000 NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, October 2, 2000 Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest PROGRAM FOR THE OCTOBER 2 MEETING CLAS member and professional artist, Joe Bergeron, will give a slide show of his astronomical artwork in "A Quick Survey of the Universe." Joe is an artist, an amateur astronomer, a writer, and a science fiction fan. Joe worked in planetariums for years and has had a lot of space art publications. He has produced artwork for publications such as Time-Life Books (Voyage Through the Universe), Astronomy Magazine, Tor Books, and Sky & Telescope Magazine, to name just a few. Much more information about Joe and his artwork can be found on his web site www.joebergeron.com DATES TO KEEP IN MIND Friday, September 29, 2000: Star Party, see schedule below. Saturday, September 30, 2000: KRP Vulture Festival Astronomy Program, see write-up below. Monday, October 2, 2000: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 25, 2000: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter Friday, October 27, 2000: Star Party, see schedule below. Monday, November 6, 2000: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 17, 2000: Star Party. STAR PARTY SCHEDULE FOR THE 2000 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 29--Signs out at 7:00 p.m., Star viewing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 27--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m. Friday, November 17--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m. STAR PARTY REPORT FOR AUGUST 2000 (by Bruce Churchill) Our August star party was held on Friday the 25th. We had an enthusiastic turnout of observers, including members of Ken Pringle's Astronomy class at Cerro Coso College. Alas, the skies were not cooperative. Patches of clouds blocked out portions of the sky and the areas where stars were visible were not very clear. Still, it was a good opportunity for newcomers to learn the constellations and bright stars. There were also a few artificial satellites flying over and some meteors left over from the Perseids. Cal Clayson brought the club 12.5" telescope and found some deep sky objects for us. These included M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) in Canes Venatici, the M13 Cluster in Hercules, M57 (Ring Nebula) in Lyra, and M4 in Scorpius. The images were far from their best however, and we are hoping for better skies in September. TELESCOPES NEEDED FOR SEPTEMBER 30th VULTURE FESTIVAL STARGAZING The next scheduled outreach program is at the Kern Valley Turkey Vulture Festival on Saturday, September 30, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the South Fork School in Weldon. See the following web page address to view the Official Program for the Sep 29-Oct 2 Kern Valley Turkey Vulture Festival, Kern River Preserve, Weldon, California. We expect about 50 to 75 people. David Hollingsworth will present a slide show between 7:30 and 8:15 p.m. Stargazing through members' telescopes will follow. David will also try to set up his telescope for solar observing at the Kern River Preserve headquarters Saturday afternoon between 1 and 5 p.m. Anyone else with a solar-filter-equipped telescope is welcome to participate in the afternoon solar observing. Please contact David Hollingsworth (446-1005) if you would like to bring a telescope for the Saturday evening stargazing. BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR FOR OCTOBER Oct 5 First quarter moon; Mercury reaches greatest elongation this evening, 26 deg east of the Sun Oct 13 Full moon Oct 15 The still nearly full moon lies just 2 deg south of Saturn, while Jupiter and Saturn bracket the Pleiades and the Hyades in Taurus around 9:00 p.m. Oct 20 Last quarter moon Oct 21 Orionids peak this morning, but may be easier to spot on the 23rd through 25th (less glare from moonlight) Oct 27 New moon Oct 29 Thin crescent moon hangs one binocular field to the upper right of Venus just after sunset WHAT'S UP FOR CLAS STAR PARTY ON OCTOBER 27 18:00 Sun sets 18:06 Mercury sets 18:40 Moon sets 19:18 Saturn rises 19:26 End of astronomical twilight 19:50 Venus sets 19:50 Jupiter rises Look for Venus above the western horizon soon after sunset. Early in the evening, Lyra will be high in the west, so good views of the Ring Nebula may be had. Cygnus will be nearly directly overhead. Time to get out the O-III or UHC filter and spend some time studying the Veil Nebula. The North American Nebula should be visible through binoculars. Capricorn and Aquarius will be at their highest in the south, making available good views of globular clusters M2 and M30 and the planetary nebulae NGC 7293 (the Helix N.) and NGC 7009 (the Saturn N.). You might even try to find the two dim Messiers, M72 and M73, in southwestern Aquarius, just 2 deg southwest of the Saturn Nebula. The Great Square of Pegasus passes through the meridian high in the south 10:00 p.m. Look for globular cluster M15 and, if ambitious, Stephan's Quintet, near galaxy NGC 7331). High in the southeast are M74 in Pisces and M77 in Cetus. This is a also a good time to view Jupiter, Saturn, the Pleiades, and the Hyades, which will all be about 30 deg high in the east. Don't forget to look at the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), which will 2 deg to 30 deg above the Jupiter/Saturn group. FIRST LIGHT OBSERVATORY Jim Leonard will hold monthly public lectures and viewing at his home observatory. These events will be held on the Saturday evenings following the CLAS Friday evening Brown Road Star Parties. Call Jim at 760-377-3474 to check on the date and to get directions. Jim has an observatory building with a roll off roof. CONSIDER BECOMING A CLAS OFFICER (A Plea from CLAS Pres., David Hollingsworth) Have a little extra time and energy? Interested in making things happen? Have an interest in helping to promote astronomy? It's time to consider becoming a CLAS officer. Elections are held each year in December. That's only a little over 2 months away. And I've noticed that we always seem to have a shortage of nominees. So the same tireless folks agree to hold these positions yet another year. It's time to give them a break and see some new faces and new ideas! Start thinking about it now. By December it would be nice to have several people interested in each position (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Newsletter Editor). That way we can actually have a vote instead of a reluctant nod to serve yet again. Please consider it. COST OF NEWSLETTER MAILINGS EXCEEDS DUES REVENUES NON-DUES-PAYING RECIPIENTS' RESPONSE REQUESTED (Another Plea from CLAS Pres., David Hollingsworth) The cost of mailing out the monthly Skywatchers newsletter exceeds the CLAS membership dues revenues. Increasing the dues is being considered. However, in order to reduce these monthly costs immediately, we would like to cut down on the number of newsletters mailed out, both to dues-paying members and to non-dues-paying recipients. If you would like to help CLAS save the cost of printing out and mailing the newsletter to you each month, and you would instead like to have the newsletter e-mailed to you, please let our Newsletter Editor, Carroll Evans, know by e-mail (so he will have your correct e-mail address). Carroll's e-mail address is clevans@ridgenet.net. Meanwhile, in particular, we would like to hear from the non-dues paying newsletter recipients. Do you still want to receive the CLAS monthly newsletter? Are you willing to pay our current low annual membership dues to cover the cost of receiving the hard copy mailings? (We intend to try to continue the club-to-club newsletter exchange program, whereby we exchange newsletters with other astronomy clubs at no charge to either club.) Are you willing to receive it by e-mail instead of hard copy mail? Or would you rather just check it out when the spirit moves you by visiting the CLAS web site and reading it on-line? (Please be aware that the current newsletter, as well as several years' back issues, is available on the CLAS web site, http://www1.iwvisp.com/brower/clas.html). Please let us know, by standard mail or by e-mail. You could save us quite a bit of money, and allow us to stay with a low annual membership dues. Thank you. MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION! Basic CLAS dues are $8.00 per year, which includes the Skywatchers Newsletter. As a benefit of membership you may receive Astronomy Magazine and/or Sky and Telescope Magazine. The fee schedule is as follows: Basic membership $8.00 per year Membership with Astronomy magazine $32.00 per year Membership with Sky and Telescope magazine $38.00 per year Membership with both S & T and Astronomy $62.00 per year Send your check to: Carroll Evans, Treasurer, China Lake Astronomical Society, P.O. Box 1783, Ridgecrest, CA 93556. PRESIDENT - David Hollingsworth - 760-446-1005 (email dhollings@email.msn.com) VICE-PRESIDENT - Roger Brower - 760-375-1181 (email brower@iwvisp.com) SECRETARY - Bruce Churchill - 760-375-7247 TREASURER - Carroll Evans (email clevans@ridgenet.net) NEWSLETTER EDITOR - Carroll Evans Jr. - 760-375-5681 (email clevans@ridgenet.net) CLAS home page http://www1.iwvisp.com/brower/clas.html 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 OCTOBER MEETING: 7:30 p.m. MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2000 GUEST SPEAKER: JOE BERGERON, ARTIST & ILLUSTRATOR AT THE MATURANGO MUSEUM, 100 EAST LAS FLORES AVE.