Share table and member observing

Observatory

Skywatches and other events:

Norm Guenther gave the main presentation--he showed us the relative scale of the solar system by laying out some objects to represent the sun and planets. The sun was represented by a Nerf ball, and the earth by the head of a pin The earth was laid out about 36 feet away. Pluto would be about 1/4 mile away. The next nearest star in the model would be the Alpha Centauri System in Salt Lake City, and Andromeda and the Milky Way are separated by 22 diameters. It's hard to believe any of the planets get ANY heat from the sun!

The Sky Watch in Chesterfield was, IMHO, a tremendous success. Mark, the sponsoring rep from the county, was a few minutes late, but we got into the site by 6:45pm. RAS members that participated included Sue Brubaker, Jim Petty, Terry Barker, and myself.

Folks started arriving at 7:00pm. We had at least one group of girl scouts, and both the kids and their parents were very interested in both the sky and our instruments. Mark gathered the folks around and gave a *very* good introduction to the sky, including Greek mythology of the constellations. When Sue loaned Mark her green laser pointer, the kids were really impressed. By the end of his 15 minute talk, we had three scopes setup for the 40-50 attendees.

It was a very decent observing nite at the athletic complex. The sky glow from Richmond was not very objectionable, and the sky was crystal clear. Between the three scopes, the girls got a good cross section of astronomical targets, including the moon, Saturn, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Machholz comet.

The girl scouts were treated to hot chocolate (and I was offered some, too), but the cold finally got to the crowd and folks started heading for home. The girls, parents, and Mark were very appreciative to the RAS, and some may attend future SMV Sky Watch events.

I thought it was a very rewarding evening. Sky Watches are one of my favorite astronomy activities, because of the excitement in the kids as they discover the awesome universe in which we live... the very thing that brought me to this hobby years ago.

The RTP was held on Feb 20. There were 10 astronomers in attendance. Scopes in display included:

Accessories present and discussed:

Some wonderful photos of Comet Macholtz were on display, with explanations of the photographic technique.

Magazines and star charts were available for perusal:

Coffee Tea and sodas were consumed. Thanks to everyone who attended, it was a delightful way to spend an afternoon.

I went to Powhatan Fri night. The road has been smoothed somewhat and is dry. Bill B was there with his 8" SCT on a very smooth equatorial mount, and Tom K. had his large homemade Dobsonian.

I was able to see 3 components of Zeta Cancri. The A-C comps. are visible in a small telescope as two golden suns 6" apart. At 381x the A-B components can be seen once every ten seconds or so due to the poor seeing. Otherwise they are just an elongated blob. The A-B are separated by 0.9". At the moments of clarity, the three suns are bright nuclei in a golden haze. The diffraction rings of the A-B components form a figure 8 around the two stars.

Zeta Cancri is the brightest star in Cancer that's closest to Pollux in Gemini.

I arrived at Powhatan around 1840 EST. I was setup by moonset which occurred at 1911. The road to the site was rutted by in better shape than on previous Saturday with no real mud problems. It was cold enough that some of the permanent puddles out there were starting to ice over. There was no dew or frost to speak of. The limiting magnitude was in the 5.0 range and not quite as good as last Saturday. Also the seeing was poorer with Cassini's division tough to see all the way around Saturn's rings. I and my 13" Dobsonian were at the site with two other astronomers and telescopes. The other telescopes were an 8" SCT and a 7" Maksutov. Conditions were plenty good to do some decent astronomy.

With the winter Milky Way up, it was a good night for open star clusters. These included NGC 2374 in Canis Major and NGC 2423 and 2482 in Puppis. These clusters had a lot of stars but did not stand out all that well from the background. Much better was Melotte 71 in Puppis. This cluster is 2 1/2 degrees north of M47. It has a bunch of stars packed into a small circle. The star density is almost like that of M11 except that the stars are much fainter.

I also took advantage of the good southern horizon to find NGC 2818 in Pyxis. This planetary nebula was large and bright enough to be easily seen from Powhatan, especially with a UHC filter. I am sure it is a popular target for amateurs in Australia and South Africa.

I revisited NGC 1980 which was mentioned in the January Sky and Telescope. It is just south of M42 in Orion and consists of a cluster and nebula. The cluster is bright but has less than two dozen stars spread out over a large area. I did not think it was all that impressive. The nebula is an extension of M42 and was not that hard to see especially at 47x. I could see a definite edge running approximately east - west.

The final find for the night was NGC 2163 in Orion. This planetary nebula is in "club" part of Orion. I could see it as a faint nebula surrounding an 11 magnitude star.

I packed up and headed home around 0040.

Jerry is our newest board member. We had a vacancy, and Jerry has agreed to fill out the year. Welcome, Jerry!

You may have noticed that we've had a signup sheet for Astronomy Day at the last few meetings. This is a great opportunity to interact with the public on behalf of our hobby! It's a national day of celebration of astronomy, and astronomy clubs all over the world will be participating. RAS does this every year in partnership with the SMV, and this year we're doing it on the designated day of Apr. 16.

One of the more interesting things that we do for the public every year, is judge exhibits for the Metro Richmond Science Fair. We look for projects that utilize astronomy or space science. Some years we have several contenders, sometimes none. We give out what we call the T. Wilbur Stone Award, and we do it in the form of a $50 or $100 check, that the winner can spend however they want. Last year, we gave an award to one of our members' daughter--Bill Dickinson's daughter. We normally have 2-3 people help with the selection. Interested? See any board member at the next meeting.

We've been invited to help out with some telescopes at the 2005 Girl Scouts Extravaganza this year. It will be held April 1-3, at the Chickahominy Wildlife Management Area. We'll need 8-9 telescopes, as there will be approximately 1,500 girl scouts in attendance. They will have several stations for the girls to sign up for, and we're just one of them. However, we will definitely get our share! Please consider helping out--see Terry Barker or Jim Petty at the meeting if you can help with your telescope!

Your 2005 dues can be paid to our treasurer, Jim Blowers, at any of the meetings, or by mail. Please use the form enclosed in this newsletter.