A GLANCE INSIDE
From the New Editor
Club Logo Voting Results
What’s up in April
A Look Back at March
How to write for the Eyepiece
On the Horizion
Well, with my first issue gone and in the history books, its’ time to hit the road running. Most of the comments were positive and I would like to thank everyone for their input. I did get some negative comments on the Web Page version which was expected. Don and I are not happy with it either and we are exploring ways to make it better. It is much easier to read if you print it.
Last month I spared you the "Plea For Help" but the time has come to ask for your participation. Our current membership is 78 members including several families which are counted as one. If every member submitted just one article a year, the newsletter would practically put itself together. My job would be immensely easier and everyone would feel good about themselves and our club.
To help with this endeavor, I have reprinted some advice about writing articles from a friend of mine, Gary Martin. Gary sells articles to several outdoor-type magazines and is editor of PROGRESS, the newsletter of the Wisconsin Self-service Laundry Association. You will find his advice entitled "How to write for the Eyepiece" later in this issue.
Even if you feel you don’t have enough information for a full article, just jot some things down and get it to me. As the editor it’s my job to fix it up and make it readable. Tell me about your last good observing night out, your feelings on astronomy related topics, or the things you like and dislike about your scope. Anything pertaining to the hobby will be useful.
If you don’t want to write it down and mail it, then pick up the phone and give me a call. Tell me about your subject and I’ll do the writing. It can’t be any easier. Case in point: Check out the article titled "News from the North". Club member Donald Stewart sent me a short email about the good seeing they have been experiencing recently in the Iron Mountain-MI area. That’s all it takes.
My deadline for articles is the first Wednesday of the month, a week before our monthly meeting. My intention is to get the newsletter in the mail on Friday so you can receive it a day or two before the meeting.
I’m sure you took notice of the logo on the first page already. Here
is how the voting went:
19 votes for #16
5 votes for #18
1 vote for neither
So #16 is our new club logo! For those of you who voted for #18 – don’t
worry. You’ll be seeing the little guy behind the telescope on other club
literature like the Spring Observing Poster on page nine.
Nothing is written in stone. If someone wants to take the time and
design a better logo, please do. But for now let’s be proud that we have
something to represent our club.
WHATS UP IN APRIL
MONTHLY MEETING
The talk at this months monthly meeting is "Planetary Exploration"
given by Gary Baier. Please join us at the Neville Public Museum Wednesday,
April 14th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. We will follow up the meeting
with a social gathering at Happy Joes!
NEWSTAR MONTHLY MEETING
Our fellow stargazers in the valley will be having their monthly meeting
on April 21st at the UW Fox Valley Center. Call Don Dewitt at
920-405-8534 if you are interested in going.
ASTRONOMY DAY PLANNING MEETING
Our last Astronomy Day planning meeting will be Wednesday, April 28th
at the Wildlife Sanctuary starting at 7:00 PM. We will layout where each
display will be located.
Everyone is encouraged to attend. Astronomy Day is our biggest public event of the year and the more members participating the better it will be. If you haven’t been a part of it in the past, now is your chance to support the club and have a lot of fun!
PUBLIC STARGAZING WEEKEND
Because of the good response from both club members and the public
on last year’s Fall Public Observing event, we have expanded our schedule
and included one in the Spring. "Public Stargazing Weekend" will be held
April 23rd & 24th from 8:00 to 10:00 PM. The site will again
be the Wildlife Sanctuary grounds on Danz Avenue. Letting someone
look through your telescope or binoculars is one of the great joys of astronomy.
Please come out if you can.
NEW MEMBER WELCOME
MAT
We had one family and a single join the club in March. The family
is comprised of Tom and Matt Gabbard, 3908 Tall Pine Court, Green Bay,
WI 54313. To get in touch with them you can call 920-865-4055 or
email BigMTG@aol.com
Tom is helping his son Matt with his interest in astronomy. Matt is 14
and attends Sunny Side School near Pulaski. He recently received his Christmas
present, a 6" Orion Sky Deluxe Newtonian telescope. Being new to
the hobby, Matt is looking forward to learning from the other club members.
Welcome Tom and Matt!
The other new member is Roger Kaminski of 4511 Glendale, Green Bay,
WI 54313. Roger can be reached at 920-865-7659 or email roger.kaminski@fortjamesmail.com
Roger is a friend and co-worker of George McCourt at Fort James.
He has always had an interest in the sky and joined the club to help teach
his kids about it. His first move in that direction was purchasing
an 8" Dobsonian this past Christmas. Some of you will recognize this
scope as formerly belonging to our own Don Dewitt.
Roger hopes to make it to several of the observing events this year
with his two kids, Rachel (nine) and Frank (seven). Welcome to the
club Roger!
A LOOK BACK
AT MARCH
MARCH MONTHLY MEETING
The March meeting had a record turnout(since I’ve been counting) of 41 people attending! That’s over half of our total membership.
George McCourt, Gary Baier, and Steve Wicker started the meeting off with a talk on telescope building. George was first with an in-depth look at the components of his home built 4" Newtonian. This scope was perfect for the demonstration because it is held together with two thin aluminum brackets instead of a tube. Thus the components were exposed for easy viewing.
Gary was next, describing how he built his 4" Newtonian with common materials, some ingenuity, and very little money. Steve followed with show & tell of his telescope building project, a 12.5" Dobsonian.
All three discussed the price range for materials and components as well as where to get them. Other considerations mentioned included size, portability, and object viewing preference.
Regular club business was conducted in the second hour. Over a dozen members reconvened at Happy Joe’s after the meeting for food and drink.
NEWS FROM THE NORTH
I received an email from Don Stewart of Vulcan, Michigan on March 15.
He and Liz Stewart make up the NPMAS–Northern Branch(I didn’t even know
we had members up there). He reports the following:
"For the past week we've had fantastic seeing up here near Iron Mountain. I've had the 6" reflector out every night and have seen more details in more objects than ever before. The past several nights I've been concentrating on M42 and in particular the trapezium".
"Seeing is so good I can detect definition in the nebula and have been picking up some very dim stars. I'm not much good at estimating magnitude but they're pretty dim"
Don also says he is studying Lambda Orionis, a fascinating group that is "really pretty at 130x". He and Liz enjoyed the recent conjunction and positively identified Mercury for the first time. Light pollution is not a problem – Don’s brother is their closest neighbor and he’s a half a mile away! (Sounds like a possible field trip sometime!)
Don prefers deep sky objects and is considering an upgrade in aperture, possibly a Mead 16" Newtonian.
MESSIER MARATHON
The forecast for Saturday, March 20th was for a partly cloudy day with
cooler temps and more clouds moving in later in the evening. Just the sort
of weather we didn’t want for the Messier Marathon.
But as the sun left the sky over Neshota Park it started to clear for the pending observing session. About 35 hopeful people set up telescopes, grabbed their binoculars or found a friend in anticipation of looking at the most famous deepsky objects, the Messiers. Sadly, we only got in about an hour at the most before it clouded up again.
Good thing there was plenty of chili, booyah, snacks, and conversation for everybody. Wayne Kuhn brought his computer out and we all took turns blowing up Klingons and Romulans with his Star Fleet Academy game while waiting for the clouds to break.
When we realized it wasn't going to happen we decided to call it a night. And as usual just as everyone was all packed up and ready to leave the skys started to clear. But the wind was blowing hard enough to discourage anyone from setting up again so the shelter was empty by 11:00 PM. At least we got in a little observing and still had a lot of fun.
Thanks to all those that came out and made the 11th annual Messier Marathon a success. Hope to see even more of you next year!
ASTRONOMY DAY MEETING
Wayne Kuhn’s house was the setting for the latest Astronomy Day planning
meeting, held on March 24th. Those in attendance included
George McCourt, Steve & Sue Wicker, Ted Kordes, Tom Cashman, Don, Katrina,
and Jacob Dewitt, Steve Mofle, Ray Nancoz, and of course Wayne Kuhn.
The meeting flowed along at a fast pace and was finished almost an hour ahead of schedule. A little more tinkering was done, narrowing down who was going to do what. Steve Mofle volunteered to do a slide presentation, Gary Baier will handle the public service announcements, and Don Dewitt will do any interviews with the media and check into the cost of having Astronomy Day shirts made.
After the meeting Linda Kuhn’s pretzel tort was received with unanimous approval.
SPACE WEEK FAMILY NIGHT
By Wayne Kuhn
Thursday, March 25 was "Space Week Family Night" at Christa McAuliff
school in Bellevue. Events included a helicopter landing and take-off,
talks on gravity, a planetarium display, the Space Shuttle Bus, and other
various displays throughout the school. Since my 5 year old goes
to Kindergarten there and his teacher knows about my telescope, I was invited
to set up outside the front entrance.
Gary Baier was kind enough to add his 4" Newtonian (and himself) to my 10" SC. We arrived just before 6:00 PM to set up and immediately a line of interested people formed. Since the sky was still bright the only object to look at was the quarter moon, which is and always will be the number one favorite for public observing.
Unfortunately the moon was too high for comfortable viewing in Gary’s scope so he used his 4" as a display and explained how a telescope works. Later, once the sky darkened, he trained it on Saturn and Venus for the excited onlookers.
For the moon, I had a line of about 15 people deep for two solid hours. At a guesstimate of two people per minute, that comes to 240 people overall! Many "Wow’s, Gee’s, and Whoa’s" were heard from young and old alike. All in all, it was a big success and fun for everyone concerned.
By Gary Martin
So you want to write for THE EYEPIECE? That’s good. This newsletter needs member input, but maybe you’re not sure how to go about it. That’s what this article is going to attempt to do. It’s a basic writing course and your editor hopes those who lack the confidence to put their thoughts on paper will realize there’s not much to it after all.
Articles are different from letters. At the top of a letter you put the name of the person who will receive the letter. On the other hand, the top of an article gets your name, address, etc.
The editor needs this information to contact you in case there are any questions about the article and to give you credit for the piece.
Writing is communication. If you can talk you can write. Writing only takes basic skills with the English language, which you probably already have, and the problem might be getting started. The first part of learning to write is how to start out your article.
You begin an article with a "lead". It is the hardest part to write because it has to draw the reader in, or grab their attention, and make them want to read the rest of the text. This article uses the question lead. It’s one of the easiest and shortest ways to start out. But it’s not the only way.
The anecdotal lead is another good way to begin your writing. In the anecdotal lead you begin with a short story. It might be humorous, shocking or informative, but must be brief. Don’t give away all your information at the start. All you’re trying to do is catch the reader’s attention.
You can also start your piece with a quotation, direct statement, or any other way that draws the reader’s attention. After you get your reader interested, you can then move on to the body or middle of the article. Every sentence, paragraph, and article has a beginning, middle, and end.
The middle of the article is where you get down to "brass tacks" and say what you have to say. It might help if you outline your thoughts beforehand to keep them in a logical order. A good way to proceed is to imagine the questions the readers may be asking as they read the piece(who, what, where, and how?). Answer those questions as you write.
There’s a logical order to writing, just like setting up your scope or preparing a meal. Take the reader through your subject step by step. Don’t assume they know something, unless your sure everyone does know.
Every person has a personal style of speaking. Write as you speak. That means using the same words, but avoid using too many adjectives and adverbs. Modifiers have a place, yet overuse detracts from their value and is redundant. In the newspaper industry there is a saying: "Delete the adjectives and you have the facts."
Are you wondering when to begin a new paragraph? Do it whenever the subject changes. Short paragraphs are easy to read and they don’t intimidate the reader. Paragraphs allow the reader to take a mental breath and digest the material they’ve just read. If you have any doubt about whether it’s time to start a paragraph, do it.
After you’ve said all that you have to say, it’s time to write the ending. You want the reader to know that he’s at the end of the article. You might answer your opening question, pose another question or give sources for more information. The possibilities are endless.
That’s about all you need to know to get started writing for THE EYEPIECE. As with any endeavor, you will learn more as you go. However, before you mail your article to the editor, see if you have any photographs to send along. As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words". I t can really "make" the article.
ON THE HORIZON
NCRAL CONVENTION
The 1999 North Central Region Astronomical League Convention will be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on April 30 and May 1. A meeting hall has been procured at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel and the Cedar Amateur Astronomers are delighted to be your hosts.
Activities include a tour of either the North Liberty VLBA radio telescope or the Iowa City telescope manufacturing facility known as Torus Optical and a barbecue and observing session at the Palisades Dows observatory on Friday. Saturday offers vender booths, astronomy flea market, paper presentations and various speakers.
Registration fees before April 15th are $38 for adults and $15 for kids 16 and younger. After April 15th they go up by $10 each. Registration forms and information are available from Jeff Finley at 319-390-1037 (evenings) or locally from our own Don Dewitt.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
April
14 Monthly Meeting-Planetary Exploration
16-17 Parmentier Observing Weekend
23-24 Spring Public Observing Weekend
30-1st NCRAL Convention-Cedar Rapids
May
09-16 Texas Star Party
12 Monthly Meeting-The Sun
14-15 Parmentier Observing Weekend
22 Astronomy Day-Public Observing
June
09 Monthly Meeting-CCD Imaging
11-13 Wisconsin Observers Weekend (Tentative)
25-26 Come to the Moon Observing Party
July
Parmentier Weekend with NEWSTAR
A.L.CON ’99 Convention-Spokane, WA
Monthly Meeting-Guest Speaker
August
11 Monthly Meeting-Using Binoculars
13-15 Northwoods Starfest-Fall Creek, WI
21 16th Annual Club Picnic
September
08 Monthly Meeting-Eyepieces
10-11 Parmentier Observing Weekend
17-19 Astrofest XX-Kankakee , IL
October
08-10 Crivitz Observing Weekend
13 Monthly Meeting-Optical Phenomena
15-16 Fall Public Observing Weekend
November
05-06 Parmentier Observing Weekend
10 Monthly Meeting-Astrophotos
December
08 Monthly Meeting-50 Best Non-Messiers
11 Holiday Party