Newsletter of RAS (Richmond Astronomical Society)
October, 2002

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Next meeting--Monday, Oct. 14

VAAS report
by Terry Barker

We had a great day last Saturday, as representatives of clubs all over Virginia attended the annual VAAS convention in Ashland. Fifty eight people attended (55 paid, 3 speakers), which is short of RAS’s 1997 convention (75), but hey, no one’s complaining. Jim Blowers, president of the hosting club (RAS), gave us a quick overview of an Indian legend of how the Milky Way was named, and then listed some of the highlights of RAS’s history—this club has met continuously since 1949!

Two of the talks focused on radio astronomy—even complemented each other, through a wild coincidence. Dr. George Spagna of Randolph-Macon had a student who built a working radio telescope using a satellite dish for the collector. With only one year of effort, he got the same primitive result that Jansky, the discoverer of radio emission from space, got--the spike in radio noise over a 24 hours period caused by the Milky Way passing overhead. Dr. Spagna playfully named the project C.U.R.T. (Center of the Universe Radio Telescope) because Ashland advertises itself as the center of the universe.

Dr. Robert Rood of the University of Virginia then followed up with his story of the last years of the 140 ft. radio telescope at the Green Bank, WV, National Radio Observatory. This telescope, decommissioned in 1999, concentrated on Helium-3 emissions at 21 cm. wavelengths, the same area studied by C.U.R.T. Dr. Rood titled his talk, "An Old Dog’s Last Hunt," since the 140 ft. telescope, just like the story of his boyhood dog’s last great pheasant hunt, did its best work just before it was retired. One amazing fact about this instrument was the photograph of one of the bearings used to turn it—14 feet in diameter!

Eric Douglass, in his talk on the geology of the moon, gave us all a new appreciation of the seemingly random mix of craters, seas, and mountains on the moon. He illustrated how some of these structures were created, with nice explanations and drawings of, for example, why and how a simple crater forms instead of a complex one.

After lunch, we had multiple workshops—one of the more interesting ones was given by Dr. Robert Hicks, who dressed in period costume and described the instruments sailors used on board a sailing ship in the 16^th century. He even showed us how to make a latitude sighting with reproduced wooden instruments actually used in that time period. Dr. Hicks brought home the reality of using hourglasses instead of clocks and trying to make a latitude sighting by looking directly at the sun!

Another time traveler visited us, Charles Messier (RAS member Norm Guenther). Also dressed in period costume, Charles described the general state of astronomy at the time, how he got involved with astronomy, and the reason he created his famous catalog of 110 celestial objects. Norm got a big kick at the end from bowing and at the same time removing his wig instead of a hat!

Other RAS members, and even an RVAS (Roanoke) member gave other workshops on amateur telescope making (Joe Hetmanski), CCD photography (Gary Cowardin), and "Hunting for Herschels" (John Goss of RVAS).

Door prizes are of course, always a big hit at the convention, and this crowd got into the spirit of things right away. One of the items was an aluminum accessory box, and there were many interesting conjectures as to what was inside! Anyway, we had some awfully good prizes, including a three volume set of Uranometra 2000, given to us by Willmann-Bell Books, two carrying cases from Orion, and a 14 mm ultra-wide eyepiece, donated by Meade Instruments.

I was pleasantly surprised to see representatives from 8 of the 12 clubs that I know of in Virginia, including a new one, just formed about two weeks ago, in Lynchburg, called the Blue Ridge Astronomical Society (or Astronomy Club). And we had a couple of people who belonged to more than one club (every club’s dream member)!

And what better way to end the day than with a grilled hamburger and some actual star gazing? We reserved a couple of picnic pavilions at nearby Poor Farm Park, complete with a barbecue grill, so we moved the party about four miles down the road and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, as attendees set up telescopes and binoculars in the grassy area next to the picnic area. We had a beautiful cloudless sky, with temperatures in the mid-70’s, so I have to say it was a perfect end to a perfect day. Chalk up another successful VAAS convention!

Last meeting
by Gary Cowardin

Share table:

• Photos of last month's picnic.
• Ken brought in star maps & announcements for 2 classes:
   "How to buy a Telescope" 11/16/02, 11am, $7, SMV, 864-1411
   "How to Use a Telescope" 1/4/03, 8am-noon, $20, SMV, 864-1411

Reports:

• The last SMV Skywatch was rained out.
• Malvern Hill had 5 people out and was washed out for about 45 minutes due
  to 2 beautiful auroras, of 30 min and 15 minute durations. Super clear skies! (Joe Hetmanski)
• Powatan had an aurora so bright it casts a shadow! (Ken Wilson)
• John Raymond went to the Fredericksburg club's skywatch up at Big Meadows the same night. They also saw an aurora with rippling curtains.  He said it was very good until the dew hit, then they just talked the rest of the night (they were allowed to camp in the meadow that night).
• Ray Moody went to Stellafane for the week - 82-47 degrees, good skies.

Observatory:

• Good picnic... (John wants to have it next year in September so it won't be so hot).

Skywatches:

• Jim Petty did a skywatch 8/13 for 38 people by himself. One guy brought a brand new 4 1/2" go-to that Jim helped get working. 
• Saturday night Jim had 10 scouts at Powatan along with Ken. They had a great time with the aurora, Milky Way, fire works from the county fair, and a great sky.

Visitors:

• Joey Thurston - John Raymond will be his helper 

The SMV has laid off 5-6 people and may have to close on Monday again. Ken mentioned possibly moving to another day.

:A reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Lindsay Castner, attended the meeting She talked to a lot of people during the break. She's researching an article about amateur sky watching.

Cindy had some more Astronomy calendars for $6 and is accepting money for Astronomy Magazine for $29 (due by the end of Sept.). She was also collecting $8 for VAAS and $30 for 2003 RAS memberships (+ $10 for observatory membership). She still has some name tags to give out.

A nominating committee has been formed for 2003 officers, made up of: Chris McCann, Norm Guenther, and Cindy Bowers. Cindy will head it up. 

John Barnett gave a "Short Talk", titled "The Equinoxes".

Grace Suttle gave the main presentation, a video, about modern telescopes.

Coming events
by Terry Barker

We have several skywatches and star parties coming up.

• 9/12 -- Dutch Gap, with 16 people registered. (Jim Petty).

• 9/14 -- The Chinese-American skywatch at Iron Gate Park with 75 people interested. (Jim Petty, John Raymond, Jim Blowers).

• 9/14 -- Wyndham - don't know who will take this one yet.

• 10/4-5 -- Malvern Hill

• 10/12 -- NOVAC Star Gaze, http://www.novac.com/gaze

• 10/13 -- Lakewood Manor (Jim  Petty & John Barnett)

• 10/18 -- SMV skywatch

• 11/1 -- Mid-Atlantic Star Party, http://www.masp.org/home.htm 

• 11/7 -- Science Teachers at the SMV open house (Ken Wilson).

Powhatan report
by Tom Kunsitis, 9/28

I arrived on-site around 2015.  Conditions were fair with a limiting
magnitude of about 5.0 with all Little Dipper bowl stars being
visible.  There was a relentless dew already in progress.  Seeing, however,
was unusually good for the Powhatan site.  I was among five astronomers who
were there at various times throughout the evening.

I began the evening by finding IC 1747 which is a planetary nebula in
Cassiopeia.  This 12th magnitude nebula was not difficult in my 13"
scope.  The nebula has a 13 arc second diameter which is easy to see.  It
also got a big boost in apparent brightness with a Lumicon (sadly defunct)
ultra high contrast (UHC) filter.

I saw the open cluster NGC 7086 in Cygnus.  This star cluster has a lot of
10th magnitude and fainter stars in a 9' diameter circle.  It was best seen
using at low power (47x) using a 32 mm Erfle eyepiece.

The most challenging object of the evening was NGC 7171 in Aquarius.  This
12th magnitude galaxy would not be so difficult under ordinary
conditions.  It was made challenging by the increasing fogging brought on
dewing.

Near NGC 7171 was the planet Uranus.  Its 3.7" disc was easily seen at
250x.  It had a slight bluish green color.

The final thing I saw was a quartet of galaxies in Pegasus.  This group was
made up of NGC 7448, 7454, 7463, and 7465.  All four of these galaxies are
in a single 40' eyepiece field which is at 60x on my telescope.  Of these
only NGC 7448 was easy to see at 60x.  The others required 150x to be
seen.  These galaxies are in the 12-13 magnitude range.  They are near
Alpha Pegasus and were mentioned in the November 2002 issue of Sky and
Telescope.  I did not see the 14th magnitude NGC 7464 which is in the same
field.

At 2230 I packed up and headed home.

Jansky lecture
by Ken Wilson

This year's Jansky lecture will be on October 18, 2002 at 8 p.m. in Gilmer Hall Auditorium on McCormick Road at the University of Virginia. Dr. Shrinivas "Shri" Kulkarni from Cal Tech will be speaking on "The Brightest Explosions in the Universe". Additional information is available on the NRAO website:  www.nrao.edu

Spread the word.

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