Newsletter of RAS (Richmond Astronomical Society)
December, 2002

Visit our web site at www.richastro.org

Next meeting--Monday, Dec. 9

Change in meeting location
from Ken Wilson

Due to the last minute addition of the Star Wars IMAX movie to our museum schedule on Monday nights we're going to have to move the RAS meetings for November and December from the planetarium to the Eureka Theater (a space on the 3rd floor where we've met before). 

Holiday food
by Terry Barker

We'll be having our holiday extravaganza at the December meeting. Contact Terry Barker with the food items that you'd like to bring. That way we can spread it out and not miss the necessities (like dessert). You can call Terry at work 261-9416 or email tbarker@i2020.net.

Last meeting
by Terry Barker

• Ken Wilson brought in star charts and ISS reports for the month.

Reports:

• Malvern Hill -- Joe Hetmanski had a small group. 
• SMV Skywatch - Gary Cowardin had a good crowd, around 150 people.
• Powhatan - John Barnett bought a pair of 10 x 80 Zeiss binoculars from a person who was moving, and John tried them out with excellent results. See his comments under Powhatan report.
• Teacher's convention skywatch, held Nov. 7, at the SMV --  Several members brought telescopes for the viewing pleasure of about 20 teachers: Gary Cowardin, David Hagen, Joe Hetmanski and his wife, and Jim Blowers.

Observatory:

• John Raymond is in the process of setting up the next observatory training session. Let him know if you're interested. 

Skywatches:

• Terry Barker and Jerry Kaiser held a small skywatch for a group at a new location for us--Lavender Fields, a small farm just off Woodman Road, in north Richmond. Not only is it easy to get to, but the owners went all out by setting up a bonfire, complete with hot dog roasting, marshmallows, and hot chocolate. They also said they'd be willing to host a similar event for our club. I think it would be a great family event, with the bonfire on one side of a barn, and observing on the other side. The sky isn't the greatest in the world, but you can't beat the ambience. I'll be talking this up further, so let me know if you also think it's a good idea.

Visitors:

• Introduced by Jim Blowers:  
  Rob Buchanan, Jonathan Moon, Ruth Marly, Jerry Kaiser, Fabio Guerinoni, and Marie Marley. 
  

Joe Hetmanski gave the main presentation, titled "A slide presentation on the CCD Cookbook Camera." Joe has been working for a couple of years on restoring a CCD camera that the board bought to use with the club's refractor. Joe has finally got it working, and he showed why it took so long, as well as how he came up with several innovations.

2003 Board and officers
from The Board of Directors

The following board members were elected (unanimously).

• Terry Barker

• Jim Blowers 

• Cindy Bowers 

• Gary Cowardin 

• Joe Hetmanski 

• Jim Petty 

• John Raymond 

• Eric Shelton 

• Charlotte Talley 

• Dave Thomas 

• Chris McCann 

• Norm Guenther 

The board also met in December, and elected (appointed where appropriate) the following officers:

• President -- John Raymond

• Vice President -- Jim Blowers

• Secretary -- Terry Barker

• Treasurer -- Cindy Bowers

• Observatory Director -- Gary Cowardin

• Asst. to Observatory Director -- Jim Petty

• Librarian -- Susan Brubaker

• Skywatch Coordinators -- Gary Cowardin and Joe Hetmanski

• Visitors -- Charlotte Talley

• Education -- Terry Barker

• Historian -- Gary Cowardin

Coming events
by Terry Barker

We have several skywatches and star parties coming up.

• 12/6 -- Sayler's Creek, 6:30 pm

• 12/7 -- Malvern Hill 

• 12/7 -- James River Park

• 12/10 -- Godwin High School public skywatch

• 12/20 -- SMV skywatch

Powhatan report
by Tom Kunsitis

I arrived on-site at about 2045 EST.  I had the site to myself, using my
13" Dobsonian.  Conditions were fair with a limiting magnitude of 5.0 using
the Little Dipper method.  There was relentless dew and frost last
night.  I used my dew zapper early and often throughout the night.  It was
also the first truly cold night of fall/winter observing this
season.  However, with insulated coveralls and boots I was able to stay
comfortable throughout the session.

I started off with NGC 7027 in Cygnus.  This planetary is bright,
relatively easy to find and has a large enough disk to be noticed at
60x.  It gave the impression of a star out of focus.  It also has an
intense "planetary blue" color making it very easy to pick out of the
background.  Higher powers showed an oval disk.

I then moved over to Pegasus to pick up galaxies NGC 7385 and 7386 which
are in the same eyepiece field.  These 12th magnitude galaxies would have
been easier under better conditions.  However, under the fair conditions
last night I had to use 150x to see them at all.  I saw no sign of the
fainter NGC 7389 and 7383 which should have been in the same field.  This
group of galaxies was mentioned in the November issue of Sky and Telescope.

I next went to the triple cluster of NGC 133, 146, and King 14 in
Cassiopeia.  This cluster is right next to the 4th magnitude Kappa Cass.
making it easy to find.  All three clusters were visible in the same
eyepiece field at 60x.  None of the clusters was particularly impressive
alone, but they made a good grouping together.  These clusters were
mentioned in the December issue of Sky and Telescope.

The big prize of the night was NGC 896.  This is a diffuse nebula in
Cassiopeia.  I had not know that it existed until it happened to come up in
a discussion in AMASTRO.  The nebula was a challenging star hop from
Epsilon Cass.  Under normal light I could tell that a nebula was
there.  With a UHC filter I could see that it was in two parts separated by
a lane.  There was a larger, brighter part with a star on one edge and a
smaller, fainter part nearby.

By 2330 a fog was starting to roll in off of the lake near the site.  At
that point I packed up and headed home.

Powhatan report #2
by John Barnett

We arrived at 8:00 pm Friday night and set up the mounted binoculars in a
dark sky, with the moon having set shortly before. Jim Lehman, a former RAS
member, had his "goto" 8" SCT already operating well, so I didn't put out my
8" dob. He found Uranus easily with his scope's computer. It was not the
best seeing since the planet was low in the southwest, but a definite
blue-green disc was observable. The evening was fairly mild - in the 40's,
and the high clouds flew by quickly leaving swathes of nice dark sky.  We
all saw a number of  meteors during the evening.
     The 10X80 FLAK binocs were a joy to use; the alt - az motions of the
mount were smooth as silk, and the view of the Andromeda galaxy was maybe
the most pleasing I've had of it in 40 yrs of amateur observing. We could
see over 3 degrees of the spiral disc in the 7 degree field of the binocs.
The Milky Way was filled with stars. This instrument now had its first real
use in nearly 60 yrs; It had been stored in a basement ever since an
American GI brought it home as a war trophy from Berlin in 1945. My
understanding is that he never got around to uncrating it! I suppose the
last person to really use it was some german soldier trying to target the
allied bomber armadas.
    Left at 10:15pm. - John B.

16" telescope for sale
by John Raymond

An astronomer in North Carolina asked me to post this ad:

For Sale:
Meade DS 16" Newtonian, Blue Tube, on Meade Equatorial mount. 6+ years old. All metal 2" R&P focuser. Will drive some distance to meet buyer.

reason for sale: wife wants it out of house

Roy Brinkley 704 481 9472
brinkley@cetlink.net

ATM group
by John Raymond

I'm planning on having another telescope party on either Sat Dec 14 or Sun Dec 15th. The moon will be 3-4 days past 1st quarter. Party is from 3-6 pm. If the weather is clear we will be outside so please dress appropriately. If you're reading this you're invited.

On Sat Nov. 16th I had a telescope party in my living room. Despite the rain there were 9 people in attendance: John S., David, Joe, Mrs Joe, Jim, Dale, Richard, Lori, and John R.(me). There was little room due to all the scopes. We had a good time and some interesting discussion. The plan for next month is actual observing starting at 4:45pm as the moon should be up high enough at sunset.

I missed the meteors.

I did see something interesting tonight. While  was walking to my car I checked out the sky and moon. There were thin clouds in front of the moon. I saw an airplane (leaving a thick contrail) headed straight for the moon. It just missed crossing the moon, but then the shadow of the contrail was cast onto the clouds by the moonlight. I've never seen the shadow of an airplane contrail before.

In the January 2003 issue of Sky and Telescope(page 121) there's an article by Nils Olof Carlin about "Collimation with a Barlowed Laser". I tried it last night and it works. The hardest part is making the paper screen perfectly circular so it will fit in front of the barlow.


You can contact John at 323-8822 or raymondj@prodigy.net.

Interesting star
by John Raymond

At the Mid Atlantic Star party I was looking thru a home built 9" f10 reflector at the Cygnus Milky Way when I noticed a very unusual red star. You see a lot of red stars in Cygnus but this one really stood out. It looks just like a copper BB. I found it in my own scope and then looked it up on the star chart. Its RW Cygni, a variable of about 8-9th mag. Its located about 1.25 degrees due west of Gamma Cygni, the central star of the Northern Cross.

I found a little info and a finder chart for this star at

http://freespace.virgin.net/m.poxon/rwcyg.htm

The Leonids meteor shower
by Terry Barker and others

Several members saw a good show on the morning of Nov. 19, but others didn't! I personally saw about one meteor a minute, between 4:00 am and 6:00 am, with a modest increase around 5:45. Who can explain these varying accounts?

Chris McCann -- I just got home and saw the many e-mails about this morning's shower. Quite a good show!!  Between 4:30 and 6:00, I saw at least 350-400 meteors.  There were several leaving green trails - I even noticed one in a reflection on the car window. Just imagine what it would have been like without the almost-full moon.

Did anyone notice the ISS pass over just after 5:00 this morning? hat a front row seat!!!  I wonder what it looked like to them!!

Bill Dickinson -- I arrived very early at Powhatan at about 8p.m. for some pre-shower
bino viewing. I saw one meteor as soon as I arrived, but no more until 11:30. from then until 3:30 I counted 59... three of which were not Leonids, about 5 fireballs and 1 bolide that split into 4 fragments. I missed the big second peak because I had to be at work
at 7 and needed a nap. I will have to agree that last years shower was better... I counted 75 in the same time frame... missed the peak then also.... next time I'll just not go to work!

Ken Wilson -- We went to Powhattan from 11:30 until dawn. We didn't see many at the first peak, but the second peak, which seemed to be about 15 minutes later than predicted, produced rates between 400 and 800 per hour (i.e., 1 every half second to 1 every second) for a brief time at the peak. It wasn't quite as good as last year, but still better (at the 2nd maximum) than any annual shower (including the Perseids and Geminids) that I've ever seen.

Sam Whitby -- I agree with Terry Barker that the shower seemed to peak at around 5:45. That was also when the Moon was dipping out of sight and when twilight had
not begun. Although not as spectacular as last year's, the shower seemed quite respectable and worth the trouble of bundling up against the cold.

I've got to be going blind - I've got three other people calling me about the shower that "never" happened. I watched the Leonids for the past four years.  I'll be honest and say I didn't see a freakin one this year, not a one. 

JX Langley -- Granted at 0130 - I packed it in, but I did gander out at around 0445.  But I have been called by two others who were up earlier this morning and didn't see a thing. 
I must be going blind.

David Thomas -- I lucked out and after being almost completely clouded out the sky became cloudless by 4. We stopped counting around 100 but that was before the peak so i know we saw hundreds. during the peak we saw them coming in 2, 3, 4, and a most remarkable group of 5 that burst from the radiant in every direction. in typical Leonid fashion the meteors came little out burst. Even through the moon light we saw some nice persistent trains and a number of terminal burst.

At 4 I became aware of a rustling in the leaves by the corner of the house about 20 feet in front of me. I sat up and in the moon light could see a small dog size animal. In my dismay i realized it was a skunk! Fortunately after a little shake of his tail that was very alarming he decided to retreat around the house. I kept my eye open for him the rest of the night. Yes, I was very fortunate that the meteor shower didn't stink and this
morning neither do I.

Bill Dickinson -- My family and I went out to western Hanover County. With the four of us watching the same part of the sky we counted 471 meteors from 4:30 am until
5:45 am EST. That works out to be a little more than 6 meteors per minute. The shower really seemed to intensify after 5:30 am with burst of 3, 4, and at times 5 meteors visible at almost the same time. 

The colors of the brighter meteors seemed a little more vivid than usual,
perhaps due to the moonlit sky? A few orange but most were green or silver
blue.

Jeff Reynolds -- My neighbor and I observed from about 4:45am until about 5:45am, and
we had a lot more luck, it seems.  We observed from our cul-de-sac in Wyndham (far west end, Nuckols Road area), with the moon obscured behind one of the houses.  The activity really picked up about 5:10 or so, and for the next half-hour, we averaged about 10 meteors per minute, with a peak around 5:20 - 5:25 of perhaps double that.  It seemed to me that there were a larger number of spectacular tails, especially in the east, and I was wondering if the low angle of the near-full moon might have contributed to this effect?  We were also treated to a pass of the ISS at 5:11.  All in all, I'm estimating we
saw about 500 meteors in the hour of observing.  Not the rate of last year, but given the fog we had last year, for us this year was better.

Jim Blowers -- I went outside from 0457 to 0504 and saw only two meteors, although
one of them was as bright as Venus. That's a rate of 17 an hour compared to over 300 last year. There were things hampering the shower, such as impending dawn, a full moon, thin cirrus clouds, and neighbor's lights. But I think in addition that the anticipated storm
did not appear as it did last year. 2001 was the glory year for these Leonids. I suppose we will have to wait until the 2030s for another good shower. But they were good while it lasted.

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