Newsletter of RAS (Richmond Astronomical Society)
May, 2004

Visit our web site at www.richastro.org

Next meeting--Monday, May 10

Change to meeting location
by Ken Wilson

Would you like to be a board member?
by Terry Barker

Last meeting
by Terry Barker

Share table:

• Ken Wilson brought in monthly sky charts, ISS timings, and Iridium flare timings. Ken also had a signup sheet for an upcoming Stargazing 101 class starting April 27. Ken also brought in an Air & Space Museum Calendar, and a copy of a new magazine for beginning star gazers, Night Sky.
• Norm Guenther presented David Credicott with the Astronomical League's Messier Certificate. To qualify, David had to observe over 100 objects listed in the Messier Catalog.
• Mary Dickinson, winner of one of the Wilbur T. Stone awards that RAS presented at the Metro Richmond Science Fair, brought in her science fair display, "Where Have All the Stars Gone?" Mary analyzed the skies over a period of time at 10 different locations, comparing her observations to a Clear Sky Clock. She took photos of the night sky, and created a gray scale comparison map. Mary goes to Short Pump Middle School, and is the daughter of RAS member Bill Dickinson.

Reports and observing:

• Gary Cowardin had about 150 people at the last, very cold, SMV skywatch. 
• Eric Shelton saw 108 Messier objects in one night, using his new digital setting circles.
• Susan Brubaker, our librarian, brought in three books from the library for checkout.
• Charlotte Talley greeted our visitors, Roger Hawes, Priscilla Tudor, and Lewis Cason. Welcome, and we hope you'll come back next month!
• Terry Barker and Jim Petty had a good crowd at the Chesterfield County skywatch last week, with about 30-40 kids and parents. Terry and Jim also have a skywatch scheduled at Moore Middle School in Prince George County on April 22.

Observatory:

• Gary Cowardin will be scheduling a cleanup day at the observatory, possibly this weekend.

Skywatches and other events:

• The 24th Annual Central Pennsylvania Consortium will be held May 1 at Gettysburg College, in Gettysburg, PA. One of the speakers will be famed astronomer Robert Kirsner, from the "Mysteries of Space" video and the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University.
• The SMV skywatch will be Friday, May 21.
• The Mason-Dixon star party, near Hanover, PA, will be held May 20-24.
• The Malvern Hill skywatch dates are May 21 and 22.

Jim Blowers gave the main presentation, "Why Are We Here--An Introduction to Gamma Ray Bursts." Jim started off by asking the question "What are the sun and stars?" We can triangulate to find the distance to some of the nearer stars. The stars shine because gravity pulls on the hydrogen molecules until fusion starts. He gave an example, using the star Mira, with an artist's concept of its life. It started with a sun-like appearance, then progressively became a red giant, super giant, and long period dwarf variable, which is what it is today.

Astronomers eventually theorized that gamma ray bursts are supernovae that eventually become black holes. Detection depends on the direction of the two jets that are typically emitted. One of these jets hitting our atmosphere would form vast quantities of nitrogen oxide, which would probably produce an ice age. It may have already happened once to the earth. 

Astronomy Day
by Terry Barker

RAS celebrated Astronomy Day with a bang--literally. In addition to exhibits on meteors, sundials, video photography, telescope making, and club photography inside the SMV, we had volunteers showing off the Kugel sculptures of the earth and moon, solar observing, and launching water bottle rockets, outside the museum.

The weather cooperated beautifully with clear skies and warm weather. At least on Saturday. The skywatch we had scheduled for the night before, Friday night, was hampered by cloudy skies. Anyway, we had a good crowd, and we got lots of activity at the rocket launching, which we were doing for the first time this year.

Thanks to everyone who helped out--John Raymond, Gene Dick, Randy Tatum, Dave Medici, Jack Fox, Ray Moody, Gary Cowardin, Joe Hetmanski, Richard Bagwell, Frank Carney, Norm Guenther, Ken and Betty Wilson, Ruth Petrov, Dave Thomas, Jerry Vaughn, Sue Brubaker, Scott Milstead, and Jim Petty. If I've left anyone out, let me know, and I'll add your name.

Program at Mt. Wilson
by Bob Eklund, Programs/Publications Chairman, Mount Wilson Observatory Association (MWOA)

The attached release describes our 2004 CUREA (Consortium for
Undergraduate Research and Education in Astronomy) educational
program at Mt. Wilson Observatory, which will be held this August.  I
would appreciate it if you could forward this to your various member
clubs.

In past years, we've had several fine attendees from the Astronomical
League in these 2-week in-residence sessions.  Most of the
participants are usually college-age physics students, but it makes
for a nice balance if we have an adult amateur astronomer or two
in the class as well.

The stated deadline for applications is May 1, but CUREA has usually
been willing to bend that deadline a bit.  I would encourage anyone
who is interested in spending two spectacular weeks learning
astrophysics at Mt. Wilson to apply.
 
Thanks for your help in getting the word out!

(310) 216-5947
beklund@sprynet.com

Perfect night for a skywatch
by Jim Blowers

I was at the Science Museum tonight for the Third Friday Skywatch. This
was a night when everything came out right - the exact opposite of a
perfect storm. There were four planets visible, the most that we can
usually get for a skywatch, as Mercury is hard to observe. There was not
a cloud in the sky anytime tonight, and the seeing was unusually good,
so much so that the viewing was easy tonight despite the light
pollution. The "H" of the weather map for the high pressure over us must
have been right on top of us. The wind was light.  Saturn was unusually
good and sharp; one person said it was like someone painted it on the
sky. I saw all kinds of detail on Jupiter when I put it in the scope.
Mars was an orange dot, a far cry from last August but still stirred
interest among the people there. The usual students with notebooks were
there, as well as some families with kids that want to disturb the
telescopes. The highlight of the night for me was when I decided Venus
was too bright in the telescope and I wanted to really dim its image. So
I magnified it as much as possible - a 9.7 inch Plössl eyepiece with a
Barlow lens on top of that, about 420 power! Venus looked like a fat
crescent moon occupying a large part of the view at that magnification.
One edge was red and the other green and blue - probably chromatic
aberration, and even with the lovely night we had tonight, the
turbulence in the air became all too visible in this image. But the
people still liked seeing Venus at so high a power. I tried it on
Jupiter, and although I could see the huge ball of Jupiter (like the
Moon at low power), the surface brightness was so low that I could not
make out any detail. Take the Barlow off and the detail returns. So such
a high power has limited usefulness, but it was interesting to try it
out to see what would happen, and what happened pleased the crowd. There
were about 200 there tonight, and there were huge throngs that came
around you at the beginning. I had to tell them how to set up a go-to
telescope because I did not have it ready yet. But it was one of the
best Science Museum skywatches that I have been to. Hope the Clover Hill
skywatch turned out just as good.

Powhatan report
by Tom Kunsitis

Last night was good for astronomy at Powhatan.  The low pressure system,
which has been over Richmond for the past several days, sucked a lot of
water vapor out of the air.  I would rate the transparency as having a
limiting magnitude of 5.5 - 6.0 based on the Little Dipper. The air was
fairly steady also.  I arrived on-site at about 2100 EDT.  I and my 13-inch
scope were out there along with Bill and his 8 inch SCT.  With this being
spring, there were many galaxies to look at.

I began my observing program in Leo with NGC 3384 and 3389.  These two
galaxies are in the same field with M105.  NGC 3384 is only slightly
smaller and fainter than M105 so it makes one wonder how it missed being in
the Messier catalog.  NGC 3389 was much smaller and fainter but not a
difficult object, especially at 150x.

I took a whack at finding the new supernova in Ursa Major.  This supernova
is designated at SN2004bd and is in galaxy NGC 3786.  The 14th magnitude
brightness of the supernova put it right at the limit of my telescope at
Powhatan.  I convinced myself I could see it about 50% of the time using
averted vision at 250x.  It would pop in and out near the nucleus of the
galaxy at about where the chart said it should be.  It is not something I
would of seen if I were not looking for it.  The galaxy forms a pair with
NGC 3788.  These two galaxies are small ovals which are perpendicular to
each other.  Both are roughly 12.5 magnitude.  They are an easy star hop
from Nu and Xi Ursa Major.

I moved on to Virgo to pick up on Markarian's chain which I started last
week.  With the better conditions, the fainter galaxies I saw last week
were easier last night.  I followed the chain northeastward to pick up
galaxies NGC 4425, 4458, and 4461 in Virgo and NGC 4394, 4473, and 4477 in
Coma Berenices.  None of these galaxies is particularly difficult.  They
are part of a group which includes several others which are visible in just
a few consecutive low-power (60x) eyepiece fields.  The group includes M84
and M86.

I went over to  NGC 4725 in Bootes.  This 10th magnitude galaxy is large
and bright.  It would be a more popular object if it were not off the
beaten path.

The last galaxies of the night were in Canes Venatici with the trio of  NGC
4111, 4109, and 4117.  These galaxies are in the same eyepiece field around
an 8th magnitude star.  NGC 4111 is a bright edge-on galaxy.  The other two
are much fainter.  NGC 4109 is 13.9 magnitude and was the most difficult
galaxy of the evening.

Looking at some familiar objects, the spiral arms of M51 were visible and
the dust lane in M104 was also easily seen.  The Great Red Spot of Jupiter
was also visible last night and the cloud belts showed a lot of
detail.  The Red Spot is not actually red any more but more of a very pale
pink.  Old-time astronomers can remember when it was brick red in the 1970's.

At about 2400 EDT we packed up and headed home.

Venus2004.org
by Olivier POCH, Vénus2004.org, Coordinateur Univers

Hello astronomers!

I would like to inform you that we recently created a website about
the transit of Venus : www.venus2004.org.
This website is a part of www.futura-sciences.com (website created
by volontary, who received many awards. Futura-Sciences is visited
by 15,000 people per day and is supported by many scientists).

Venus2004 has been created to inform people using news, files,
security advises.... But we are also doing a very important action
to gather observers to calculate the astronomical unit. A contact
section  http://www.venus2004.org/en/calculs.php is already open!

Register for this international adventure!
We would be happy if you would help us promoting our action to
calculate the astronomical unit!

We are open to any partnership proposal.

VAAS 2004
by John Raymond

VAAS 2004 is coming!  Mark your Calendars!

Preliminary Announcement

The 28th annual convention of the Virginia Association of
Astronomical Societies (VAAS) will be held Saturday, October 16,
2004 in the Charlottesville, Virginia area.  Guest speakers, day and
night observing, and door prizes are planned.  Host for 2004 is the
Charlottesville Astronomical Society (CAS) 
<http://www.cvilleastro.org>

VAAS was founded in 1975 as a result of a joint meeting between
Richmond and original Norfolk Astronomical Society. The annual
even is open to societies and the interested public across Virginia
and surrounding states.

To date, two guest speakers have been selected, with more expected.

• First is Dr. Steven J. Dick, who has recently been appointed as the new
  Director, History Office, and Chief Historian for NASA. He is a well
  known expert in the field of astrobiology and its cultural implications, and
  served on the panel to examine the societal implications of possible life
  in the Mars rock.

• Dr. Edward Murphy, University of Virginia Department of Astronomy,
  will also give a presentation on the history of astronomy at UVA, as well
  as the history of the McCormick Observatory, together with a visit to the
  observatory and observing from the 26" McCormick refractor.

The chief coordinator for this year's VAAS event is Mark Klosinski
klosinski@adelphia.net. Work on a VAAS web site is under development
and further announcements will be forthcoming.

Calendar