What’s Up in September Page
Subscription Reminder Page
A Look Back at August Page
New Member Welcome Mat Page
From the Members Page
On The Horizon Page
WHAT'S UP IN SEPTEMBER
MONTHLY MEETING - September 8th
Please join us
at the Neville Public Museum from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. This month's topic is
"Eyepieces" given by club member Ron Parmentier.
Further nominations
for the NPMAS Board of Directors will also take place. This is one of the
more important issues we as NPMAS members have to decide on. Please join
us at the meeting and be a part of the process. Happy Joe's to follow!
POW - September 10th - 11th
Come join us at this month's Parmentier Observing Weekend, weather permitting. This will be a nice tune-up before Astrofest '99. If you need directions or a map on how to get to Parmentier Observatory, contact Wayne Kuhn at 920-468-0765
NEWSTAR MONTHLY MEETING - Sept. 15th
The Newstar monthly meeting will be at the UW Fox Valley Center. If you are interested in going please call Don DeWitt at 920-405-8534 for more details.
ASTROFEST '99 - September 17th - 19th
If you haven't
registered yet, it's going to cost you ($100 on site). But the good news
is you can still go. For those of you going to Astrofest '99 down in Kankakee
Illinois we will be discussing car-pooling and convoying at this month's
monthly meeting. If you can't make it to the meeting contact Wayne Kuhn
or Don Dewitt for more details.
SUBSCRIPTION REMINDER
by Don DeWitt
(Treasurer)
Just another reminder
that those with magazine subscriptions need to have their renewals sent
in to me by the September club meeting. You can give me your renewals at
the September meeting but if you can't make it, please mail it to me so
I receive it by the meeting on September 8th.
Here is a breakdown
of what is currently available:
Astronomy Magazine $29.00 per year
Sky and Telescope Magazine $29.95 per year
Northern Lights Newsletter $ 3.00 per year.
I mailed out
renewal notices to those getting magazine subscriptions so if you didn't
get one please let me know as soon as possible. I am also trying to "normalize"
all subscriptions to the January 2001 issue, so your bill may have an extra
amount to pay to get to January 2001. This is entirely voluntary and you
don't have to participate if you do not want to.
Standard club
dues are due by December 31st and you can mail them along with
your magazine renewals. Those that do not get any of the magazines just
need to keep in mind the December 31st date so you do not miss
any newsletters.
At this time
I am working on getting pricing on the various calendars and books that
we buy in bulk every year. This information is not quite ready yet but
I will let everyone know as soon as it is available to me. In the mean
time, we will be passing around sign up sheets at the September club meeting
for those interested. If you can't make it but know what you want, email
or call me and I will add you to the list.
Thanks!
A LOOK BACK AT AUGUST
AUGUST MONTHLY MEETING
Thirty four people
were in attendance for August's meeting at the Neville Public Museum. Club
business was carried out in the first hour including nominations for NPMAS
board members. Those nominated so far include Gary Baier, George McCourt,
Katrina DeWitt, Ron Parmentier, Wayne Kuhn, Ray Nancoz, Tom Cashman, Steve
Wicker, Tony Kroes, Ted Kordes, Rueben Lear, and Dan Sheber.
Don DeWitt presented
Tony Kroes with a certificate (#200) for observing the first 400 Hershels.
Tony made all of his observations with his CCD camera. A 10 minute video
of the recent total eclipse was also shown by Gary Baier.
The second hour
featured a talk by Wayne Kuhn and Gary Baier on "Binoculars for Astronomy".
This was an examination of the pros and cons of stargazing with binoculars,
various sizes and types available, and what to look for when purchasing.
Extra copies of the information sheet that was handed out are available
from Wayne at 920-468-0765.
NORTHWOODS STARFEST 
By Gary Baier
August 13-15
was the annual Northwoods Starfest in Fall Creek, WI. This is always a
homecoming event for me because I got my start in astronomy here. In all
130 people were in attendance with seven members of the NPMAS making the
drive over.
The voyage over
was rather interesting. I left on Thursday with my 4" scope, George's 10"
scope and part of Don's 18" scope. The people, clothes, and munchies arrived
later on Friday. In the future, we need more people to attend with larger
vehicles.
Both nights
were very full of dew but very clear. The sky was not absolutely dark but
quite steady. Most people stayed up until 3 or 4 AM both nights.
It was a wonderful
star party and all of us would like to see more people attend next year.
Next years Starfest is set for early August.
NPMAS 16th ANNUAL PICNIC
By Wayne Kuhn
The skies were
partially cloudy when we pulled into the parking lot of Perkins Park, site
of the 1999 NPMAS Annual Picnic. We were a little on the tardy side (after
4:00) but were just in time to take advantage of the hot grill graciously
provided by Steve Mofle. Everyone there (around 36 total) was either cooking
or spreading out all sorts of food and munchies inside the shelter. Oh,
except for a couple of guys throwing a football around and my kids making
good use of the playground equipment.
Everyone seemed
to enjoy the feast (I heard no complaints) and followed up with some small
talk while partaking of the many desert dishes that were brought to share.
I had loaded up my 10" scope and solar filter as well as everything I would
need for the "Come to the Moon Party" that was to follow but, alas, it
was not meant to be. The clouds persisted and we even got rained on a little.
Such is life!
But anytime friends
get together it is a success. I look forward to seeing everyone again next
year.
NEW MEMBER WELCOME MAT
We had one person join
the club this past month. His name is Richard (Dick) J. Oliver, 1024 Fox
River Drive, DePere, WI 54115, Phone 920-336-6512, Email revilojr@msn.com
Dick, who is
68, is the former owner of Smith Abstract & Title here in Green Bay.
He is now retired and spends the Winter down in Florida with his wife.
The clear night skies down there caught his eye and peaked his interest
in astronomy. Recently he found our club's web page on the internet and
decided to join.
Currently he
doesn’t own a telescope or binoculars yet but has purchased a laminated
Messier card and Astronomy subscription through the club. His goal is to
learn about the night sky and purchase a small telescope that he can take
with him to Florida.
Welcome to the
club, Dick!
FROM THE MEMBERS
FOOTBALL ON MERCURY
By Roger
Dier
At our club picnic
last month, I had the pleasure of tossing Green Bay’s favorite oblong spheroid
around with a few club members. I've always found tossing a football back
and forth good therapy, and good for conversation.
In the midst
of all that throwing and chatting, I thought about how easy (or difficult)
it would be to toss a football on some of the planets of our solar system.
I did a smidgen of research, attempted some algebra, and came up with a
few conclusions that may illustrate how the different pulls of the planets
will affect the distance we could throw a football.
For illustration's
sake, we need to suspend a few facts about the planets. Assume that the
atmospheres of the planets cited are all like the Earth's on the day we
had our picnic: a just-right atmosphere, calm winds with a sunny smear
of cirrus and cumulus clouds.
If a person
can throw a football 50 yards on Earth, that same person could chuck the
pigskin 450 yards on Mars, which has a gravitational tug about 1/9 that
of our planet. Venus, our sister planet (size-wise), has mass of .81 that
of Earth. A person throwing the ball 50 yards on Earth could throw it about
90 yards on Venus - Favre-like arm strength.
The grandpa
of the planets, Jupiter, has a gravitational mass that is 318.4 times stronger
than Earth. That means a 100-pound person weighs 31,840 pounds of Jupiter.
Although heavier, our Jovian footballer, using the same trajectory they
had on Earth and all the other planets in this exercise, will have wimpy
arm strength and could throw the football a half a foot (.47 feet, to be
precise) based on Newton's universal law of gravity.
Mercury, with
mass thought to be 1/20 of Mother Earth, would be the best planet in our
solar system for long-distance football throwing. If two people with identical
arm strength could throw a football back and forth 50 yards on Earth, our
well-insulated characters could sail it for 1,000 yards to and fro on Mercury,
or over a half-mile.
That's what
you call airing it out!
ON THE HORIZON
CRIVITZ OBSERVERS WEEKEND
C.O.W. or Crivitz
Observers Weekend is scheduled for early next month, October 8th
through the 10th. Now is the time to reserve some space on your
calendar for the darkest skies Wisconsin has to offer.
Club members
are invited to camp out at our observing site on Dave Jorgenson’s land
west of Crivitz. The site offers several nice areas for camping as well
as a couple of cabins that will house a few of those that are not quite
interested in sleeping on the ground.
If you have
not been up to Dave's in the past two years, you will be able to see the
new observing spot that we cleared out last spring, complete with parking
and an electrical outlet for the telescopes!
Now, I suppose
you are wondering how to get there. We will have a map on at the club meeting
in September with written directions for your convenience. For more information,
call Don DeWitt at 405-8534 .
FROM THE INTERNET
NASA News,
September 3, 1999: On July 31, 1999, NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft
dived into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's south pole. Scientists
hoped that the crash might liberate up to 40 lb of water vapor along with
a plume of dusty impact debris, proving once and for all that water exists
on the moon. Hundreds of amateur and professional astronomers watched for
signs of the impact using everything from home-built telescopes to the
world's most powerful observatories. The chances of seeing a cloud of dust
kicked up by the crash were slim and, true to expectations, no one saw
or photographed clear evidence of a dust plume.
Despite the
widespread interest in seeing the ejecta from Prospector's crash, scientists
say that detecting a visible plume of mainly lunar dust and spacecraft
debris was not critical to the hunt for water. Instead, the most powerful
observatories were searching for a nearly transparent haze of water vapor
and photodissociated hydroxyl (OH) that might have drifted above the lunar
limb for hours after the dusty ejecta from the crash fell back to the lunar
surface. The vaporous haze wouldn't have been visible to the naked eye
or even through the eyepiece of a large telescope. The only way to detect
water or OH was by means of sensitive spectrometers tuned to the ultraviolet
and infrared spectral lines expected from those molecules.
"There was no
huge water signal or we would have seen that easily," says Dr. David Goldstein,
who led the University of Texas team that proposed the south polar crash.
"But we weren't expecting a huge signal. In the best case scenario, there
would have been weak spectral lines from OH or water. Right now we don't
know that water ice was not observed -- it might be in the data
somewhere. We're still looking closely at spectra from the Hubble Space
telescope, the McDonald Observatory, and Keck I."
Ironically,
the absence of a visible plume just after the crash may be hopeful news.
"The only way we could have seen dust would be if it had risen above the
bright lunar surface and we might have seen it against the black of the
sky," continued Goldstein. "Since we didn't see a plume, it probably means
we landed in the hole. On the other hand, if we had seen a dust plume it
might have meant that the spacecraft hit the near rim or the far rim of
the crater."
Whether or not
water is eventually found on the moon, scientists agree that the July 31st
impact was a fittingly creative finish to a low-cost Discovery Program
mission that exceeded all expectations after more than 6,800 lunar orbits
in 18 months.