A virtural tour of our Ragland Obsservatory Gary Cowardin Last meeting by Terry Barker

Share table and member observing

Ken Wilson had copies of Iridium satellite timings and star charts, flyers for his Tues evening May classes on Stargazing 101, and Astronomy Day flyers. Ken reminded us of the upcoming Astronomy Day date, and confirmed that the SMV will be giving away an ETX telescope, courtesy of Meade Telescopes. Eric Shelton announced the NOVAC (Northern Va. Astronomy Club) Almost Heaven Star Party, to be held June 2-5 at Spruce Knob. Details at www.novac.com/AHSP/index.php. Spruce Knob is about a four hour drive from Richmond, but Eric personally testifies that the sky is awesome. Terry Barker brought in some pictures of the Metro Richmond Science Fair, including pictures of the two exhibits that we gave award money to. John Raymond attended the Hands On Optics Swap Meet. He bought a Televideo alt-az telescope mount. It's very sturdy, but light. He also had a copy of Amateur Astronomy magazine. It is published by amateur astronomers, as opposed to a publishing house, and the articles tend to be geared more for active astronomers, as opposed to the public. Dave Credicott gave a summary of the recent skywatch he headed up for a large group of Indian Guides and parents. It was held at Pocahontas State Park, and Dave estimated that we had close to a hundred attendees. Wayne Law saw Jupiter, M44, M81, and M82 recently with his new scope. Roger Rigby assisted a local owner of a rock shop in seeing a pass of the International Space Station. One day, while visiting in the shop, the owner expressed an interest, but did not know how to go about it. Roger looked up a convenient evening for an ISS pass, and treated the man to achieving this excellent goal. Roger also greeted our guests for the evening--Kathy Fatya and Craig Johns. Welcome, Kathy and Craig! Sue Brubaker brought in several library books for the members to examine and check out of our library. Russ Hummell gave a book report, on the Astronomy Calendar (Sky Publishing) 2005. It's a nice, large, coffee table object, and always has artwork on the cover. It includes an explanation of the night sky, basic stargazing pointers, and a timetable of events. Our pre-meeting dinners at Pizza Hut are gaining momentum--we had 12 people at the last one. One of the items we discussed was the use of PDA's for astronomy. in the field. In addition to planetarium software, to let you know what's in the sky at any given time, you can see the configuration of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons, what time of day it gets dark, Iridium and ISS satellite timings, and much more. Jerry Vaughn gave a short talk on his new digital camera. It's a Canon 20D. It is capable of ISO 3200, has noise reduction capability, and image stabilization. He brought in some photos of the night sky that he had taken with the camera. He used prime focus, attaching the camera to his telescope with a T-ring.

Observatory

Gary Cowardin and his volunteers have cut a way more brush from around the observatory than has been the case there for several years. He will probably schedule a cleanup day soon.

Skywatches and other events:

May 9, pre-meeting dinner, 6:00 pm, Pizza Hut May 9, RAS meeting, 7:30 pm, SMV May 16, RAS board meeting, 7:00 pm, Extra Billy's May 20, SMV Skywatch June 2-5, Almost Heaven Star Party, Spruce Knob

Jim Blowers gave the main Presentation, Beasts In the Sky. The title in Jim's presentation refers to the fact that most of the constellations are given the name of animals. Jim has compiled a volume of past presentations that he has given at RAS meetings about the constellations. It's about a hundred pages, and includes a description of each constellation, some of the history about how the constellation got its name, and drawings of the constellations. It's obvious Jim has put a lot of time and energy into this volume, and it's a very impressive volume. Jim donated a copy to the club, and is going to make it available to club members to copy (for a small fee to cover the cost of copying). If you'd like a copy, see Jim at one of the meetings.

Indian Princess skywatch by Terry Barker

This is, in reality a testament to the observation that Kent Blackwell made in an article last month about the weather--never cancel an event just because the sky is cloudy. When we set up at Camp Thunderbird for this event, the sky was completely overcast. We couldn't even see the full moon! However, in about 10 minutes or so, the skies began to part. When the main group of girls hit our telescopes, we had almost competely clear skies. We had great views of the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn, and the girls and parents had many good things to say about their experience. My thanks to those of you who helped out with your telescopes--Dave Credicott, Sue Brubaker, and John Raymond--it was well worth the gamble!

Astronomy Day by Terry Barker

We had a good day--the weather was perfect, as opposed to last year, when it was downright hot. The SMV did us another favor this year--accidentally. They had the front doors closed, due to another event. This forced people to go past our solar scopes, rocket launches, etc. Thanks again to the volunteers--virtually all of the board--Dave Credicott, Gary Cowardin, Jim Blowers, Joe Hetmanski, Norm Guenther, Jerry Vaughn, Jerry Zaun, myself, and Roger Rigby. Some others I saw were: Jim Petty, Ruth Petrov, Keith Mottas, David Walton, Ansel Worley, Ray Moody, John Raymond, and Richard Bagwell. If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

Dues are due by Jim Blowers

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.