SKYWATCHER Newsletter of the China Lake Astronomical Society Volume 36 No. 12 November 29, 1999 NEXT GENERAL MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, December 6, 1999 BUSINESS MEETING STARTS AT 7:00 p.m. Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest PROGRAM FOR DECEMBER 6: "Pieces of other Worlds" Bill Mercer, of Randsburg, will give a slide show talk on meteorites at the December 6th meeting. Bill will bring some actual meteorite samples for the audience to view. He will bring a piece of an iron meteorite that fell in Siberia in 1947, the largest iron meteorite fallen in history. Bill will also display a piece of lunar meteorite, a chunk of Moon rock that was blasted off the Moon's surface and later fell to Earth in the Mid-East. His presentation will include information on how to identify the different varieties of meteorites and examples of the kinds of damage created by meteorite impacts. SPECIAL NOTICE The China Lake Astronomical Society's annual election will be held at our December 6 meeting. Please consider being an officer. DATES TO KEEP IN MIND Monday, December 6, 1999: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum, 7:30 p.m. (Business meeting at 7:00 p.m.) Saturday, December 11, 1999: Possible star party at Jim Leonard's First Light Observatory, call 377-3474 to see. Monday, December 22, 1999: Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter Monday, January 3, 2000: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT It is again the time of the year to place your order for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Observer's Handbook for the year 2000. Same price, $12.00 (plus S&H if needed). Call Carroll Evans, 760-375-5681, or e-mail clevans@ridgenet.net to order a copy. An absolute must for both casual and serious observing. PUBLIC STAR PARTIES RESUME IN MARCH 2000: LEONID METEOR SHOWER REPORTS I N T E R N A T I O N A L M E T E O R O R G A N I Z A T I O N Experienced visual observers watching near Malaga and at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain and near the Gorges du Verdon in the French Provence report that Leonid meteor activity peaked at up to 30 meteors per minute shortly after 2 am Greenwich Mean Time. This activity was characterized by a lot of faint meteors and almost no fireballs. Meteor astronomers reduce the actual numbers of meteors seen to a standard value, called the Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR), which takes into account the quality of the sky as well as the direction from which meteoroids enter the atmosphere. The peak activity reported by the above mentioned groups of observers corresponds with a ZHR around 5000, which is considerably more than what most meteor observers had hoped for (around 1000). Preliminary reports of other observing groups at Tenerife, Canary Islands, near Valencia in Spain, and in Jordan confirm the picture sketched above. Radio observations from Japan and the Czech Republic also indicate a peak time between 2:00 and 2:10 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time. The observed peak time coincides almost perfectly with the peak time of 2:08 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time predicted by Asher and McNaught, indicating that the activity was due to the dust trail created the Leonids' parent comet, Tempel-Tuttle, about 100 years ago (i.e., three revolutions ago of the Comet around the Sun). Marc Gyssens International Meteor Organization Robert Fratello reports on the Leonids over Inyokern: No increase over average numbers detected on any clear night; observed in both visual and radio spectrums Nov 15-20 PST. This is consistent with other reports. We were not in the right place at the right time. David Dunham is reporting visual and video taped observations of flashes on the Moon consistent with Leonid meteor impacts on the lunar surface. STAR PARTY REPORTS Bruce Churchill Our October star party was held on Friday the 8th, and it may have been our best of the year. The skies were clear and the wind was minimal. Pleasant temperatures were also appreciated. There was a good crowd including many first timers. Several members of Ken Pringle's astronomy class at Cerro Coso College were in attendance. There were several telescopes and binoculars. While experienced observers like the challenge of difficult-to-find objects, first timers like to view objects that present a spectacular appearance. This month we had Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and the Andromeda galaxy, the most spectacular object in the sky. The Andromeda galaxy is particularly impressive in Dave Hollingsworth's 20-inch telescope. We also saw Albireo, the orange and blue double star at the head of Cygnus, and an Albireo "look-alike" in Andromeda. Although the spacing between the pair is somewhat greater in the "look-alike," the colors of the stars were remarkably similar. Other deep sky object included the M52 and M103 open clusters in Cassiopeia, the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) in Canes Venatici, the NGC891 and M32 galaxies in Andromeda, and the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) in Triangulum, the Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra, the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, the Saturn and Helix Nebulae in Aquarius, and the M22 globular cluster and Lagoon Nebula (M8) in Sagittarius. Our final star party of the 1999 season was held on Friday November 5th. Weather conditions were very good for viewing. There were at least seven telescopes, including our 12.5" club telescope operated by President Roger Brower, and a large, eager gathering of viewers. Dave Hollingsworth focused on Jupiter with his 20-inch telescope much of the evening. The red spot was visible after sundown until it rotated out of view a few hours later. There was also a double transit of Io and Ganymede across the Jovian surface. Saturn and its rings were well-received by all, and Mars is still visible in the west after sunset. There was a spectacular meteor shooting eastward in the northern sky about 8:00 p.m. Deep sky objects included the Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) in Triangulum, the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) in Vulpecula, the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, the Little Dumbbell Nebula (M76) in Perseus, the Hercules Cluster (M13), and the Saturn Nebula (NGC7009) in Aquarius. ASTRONOMY ON THE INTERNET The following site has daily listings of transits, occultations, oppositions, closest approaches, anniversaries, launches, landings, impacts, crashes, meetings, conferences, etc. ad infinitum; plenty of grist for your monthly SKYWATCHER mill all in one place: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ Dear Friends, Dear Astronomers, Dear Amateur Astronomers and Telescope Makers, The first professional telescope design program for amateur astronomers and telescope makers is now completed. This is the MODAS - Modern Optical Design and Analysis Software for MS Windows 95, 98 and NT written by Ivan Krastev, with the power of Borland Delphi programming language (Inprise Inc.), the best platform for development of Windows applications. Much more, the MODAS Freeware release is now available for downloading from my home page: URL: http://www.myfreeoffice.com/ivankra/modas.html Here's an ATM blurb, via CLAS member John Veazey: Got A Telescope Technical Question? Search the ATM (Amateur Telescope Makers) archives for various opinions and related issues. Go to: http://www.system.missouri.edu/ics/staff/andy/ATM/search.html and type in key words. The archives are hosted at the University of Missouri and are updated monthly. If you are interested in the daily chat as it occurs or would like to discuss a topic not in the archives, you can sign up for the chat by emailing a message to atm-request@shore.net with the word "subscribe" (not the quotes) as the message. Don't have internet access? Call John Veazey, 371-9495, and he will research the question for you. Hey! I will be learning too! Robert Richards, our Philadelphia correspondent, provides us with the following URL: http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/ which is for the Royal Greenwich Observatory in the United Kingdom. ITEMS OF INTEREST 1. Jim Leonard had arranged for some very good CLAS name badges. Cost will be $6.50 each, if we order 20 at once. Contact Jim at 760-377-3474 to arrange for one. 2. Video tapes for the video lecture series "Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy," by Dr. Alex Filippenko, are available for loan to CLAS members. There are ten video tapes with four 45-minute lectures on each video tape, making 40 lectures total. The first lecture was the program at last month's meeting. See David Hollingsworth (446-1005) if you want to check them out. Additional astronomy videos including "PBS The Astronomers" series are also available from David. 3. Video tapes of John Dobson's Cosmology lecture series, here in Ridgecrest, can be made available to CLAS members. There are seven two-hour tapes, which we will provide at cost, $15.00 per set (plus S & H for out of town shipment). Remember, you must be a member of CLAS. Call Carroll Evans at 760-375-5681 to request a set. 4. David Hollingsworth has the club's laser collimator. Anyone who needs to borrow it to collimate their telescope, see David (446-1005) WORDS FROM JOHN VEAZEY: Dick Stone has given the club a 12-in. mirror to make into a telescope for Star Parties. The mirror is ready to go. So we now have two telescopes under construction. I obtained two 14-in. Sonotubes in LA last week. I am getting the polishing lap ready for mirror #1. We need help making the spiders and with other stages of the construction? It's a lot of fun. Please research the focusers and eyepieces available and make a recommendation to the club? We will also need to buy the secondaries. Do you have any good ideas for removing the wax from the inside of the tube so it can be painted? Working on your own scope? I bought a large roll of Ebony Star laminate that's available at my cost. I also have some bondable teflon. OUTREACH PROGRAMS Monday evening, November 15, Carroll Evans presented a slide show about astronomy at the Trona Public Library, under the auspices of the Maturango Museum Docents. On Friday evening November 19, Neal Barry presented a program to students and parents from the Ridgecrest Christian School. 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 - Roger Brower - 760-375-1181 (email brower@iwvisp.com) VICE-PRESIDENT - David Hollingsworth - 446-1005 (email hollings@ridgenet.net) SECRETARY - Don Bell - 760-371-7739 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 normally 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 DEC MEETING: 7:30 p.m. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1999 "PIECES OF OTHER WORLDS" by Bill Mercer AT THE MATURANGO MUSEUM, 100 EAST LAS FLORES. JAN MEETING: 7:30 p.m. MONDAY, JAN 3, 2000