Volume 12 Issue 10, October 2000
A GLANCE INSIDE
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A GLANCE OUTSIDE
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WHATS UP IN OBTOBER
OCTOBER 6TH - 7TH
FALL PUBLIC OBSERVING WEEKEND
Our last public observing event of the
year will be held at the Wildlife Sanctuary grounds on Danz Avenue. We
could use as many club members and telescopes as possible for this event.
Set-up will start at 6:00 PM. The event will last from 7:00 to 10:00 PM.
A poster can be found at the club web site
– please make copies and put them up where they can be seen. The more people
we get to come out, the more fun we will have!
OCTOBER 11TH
MONTHLY MEETING
Please join us from 7:00 PM to 9:00PM
at the Neville Public Museum. This months talk is "Astro Photos"
given by club member Steve Wicker. Steve would like to extend an
invitation to all club members to bring in their own photographs for the
talk. If you have any questions you can call Steve at 496-0288.
So come on out – everyone loves looking at good pictures.
FREE messier foldouts with pictures
of all 110 messier objects will be available at the meeting courtesy of
Kalmbach Publishing. We will also be trying out a new spot for our
post-meeting gathering – Frank & Pats Pizza. Hope to see you there!
OCTOBER 27TH – 29TH
CRIVITZ OBSERVING WEEKEND #2
If you didn’t make the first one, here’s
your last chance this year to enjoy the darkest skies Wisconsin has to
offer. Dave Jorgenson is inviting all NPMAS members to camp out at
the observing site on his 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.
Dave has cleared out an area for observing complete with parking and an
electrical outlet for the telescopes!
A map to Dave Jorgenson's home is on Page
5 of June’s The Eyepiece. Extra maps will be available at
the October meeting. If you need additional directions or would like
to let Dave know your coming, give him a call at 715-757-3296.
A LOOK BACK AT SEPTEMBER
MONTHLY MEETING
Thirty-seven people were in attendance
at the September meeting. Alan Wentworth gave his talk on Celestial
Navigation in the first hour complete with diagrams on an overhead projector
and actual sextants to pass around. Alan conveyed the basic principals
of "navigating by the stars" very well – good job Alan and thank you!
Club business filled the second hour of the
meeting. Katrina DeWitt was presented with a certificate for completing
the Astronomical League’s "Universe Sampler" observing program. This was
only the 15th certificate given out for this new program.
Congratulations Katrina!
ASTROFEST 2000
By Wayne Kuhn
A caravan of seven vehicles struck out for Illinois early Friday morning. Braving toll booths and a torrential down pour did not deter our group from arriving at Astrofest with high hopes of good observing.
But alas, once again the weather did not want to cooperate as rain fell
on both nights at Astrofest. But that did not deter the attendees
from having a great time. Many items were purchased at the vendor
booths and flea market. The food was exceptional with tacos on Friday
night and beef, pork, turkey, corn on the cob, and mash potatoes and stuffing
on Saturday night. And the days were dry enough to get out and look
at the many scopes that were set up.
As night fell on Saturday and it became apparent
that we were going to be clouded out, plans were started for next year’s
meals at Astrofest. It is more than just observing the sky at night,
it is an event that is shared with each other.
FROM THE MEMBERSHIP
THE OREGON STAR PARTY
By Steve Wicker
My wife Sue and I set out for the long journey
to the Oregon star party, on the 26th of August. The star
party was over the Labor Day weekend starting on the Thursday before. We
took a two-week vacation so we could take our time and do some sight seeing.
As we have never been that far west before.
Getting to the star party was the first challenge.
We stopped in a small town to gas up and asked one of the locals a good
way to get there. She said "well you take the first gravel road to
the right off the highway and it will take you right to the star party".
Well, we drove and we drove and we drove some more way back in the woods
and up a mountain back where I was almost sure there has never been human
beings before! Then there was a "Y" in the road - OK now, which way?
We had been driving for what seemed like forever
and my co-pilot said wellll . . . lets go left! Well it was a good choice.
Before we knew it we were on a blacktop road and there was a sign pointing
to OSP! Geesh! I almost got out and hugged that sign!
After driving over 50 miles we finally arrived
at OSP. Wheww! As we pulled up to register, we were told to
wait there. A helicopter was coming in to pick up an injured person.
A dust devil (small tornado) had picked up a tent with water jugs and all
and sent it 40 feet or so in the air and struck a woman in the head knocking
her unconscious. later we found out that she had to have emergency
surgery but was going to be OK.
The terrain was very rocky and you had to
watch your step, and there was sage brush all over. The dirt was
powdery and reddish. I told my wife it felt like we were on Mars.
We found a spot to park our van and set up our telescope. The clouds
were starting to thicken a little but I thought "nawww, it will clear up
later". Not!!
Well we met a few people and talked about
astronomy stuff, then we decided to try to shoot between the clouds and
see what we could get. Later that night it rained, and it was cloudy
the rest of the weekend.
But the trip certainly wasn’t a total loss,
Sue won a solar filter, I got a good deal on a 4.8 Nagler (can’t wait to
use it on the planets!) and we had made a few new friends along the way.
We got to see Yellowstone National Park, Crater Lake (wish ya could have
been their Tony!) Devils Tower, giant redwoods in northern California,
and up the Oregon coast along the Pacific ocean.
We stopped at a telescope store in Bandon,
Oregon - boy, I was like a kid in a candy store there! The people
at the store were very nice they thought it was really neat we came all
the way from WI. We met the owner of the store and he even gave us
an unofficial tour of the mirror making shop. It was pretty impressive.
They even took a picture of us and said they wanted to put it on their
web page.
The great thing about the hobby of astronomy
is, if you venture out, you can travel all over the country, meet people,
share ideas, and gaze at the night sky. I hope more of you get a
chance to go out and try going to different star parties - it’s a great
way to spend a vacation!
OBSERVING NIGHT-WOLF RIVER SKYDIVERS
By Anthony J. Kroes
We had a pretty good turnout at the Shiocton
airfield early in September. It was a public demo for the parachuters
gathered there for a weekend of jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.
The evening started out with a wild ride as we got there before dark and
were asked if we wanted to fly along as observers on the jump planes.
Katrina Dewitt and I both got separate rides while the "land-lubbers" (Don
Dewitt, George McCourt, and Gerry Kocken) stayed firmly planted on the
ground. The ride up was fast and I got to talk to the jumpers (13
on my ride) as we ascended.
At 14,700 feet the pilot yells to get ready!
My crew was going to attempt to form a star or circle as they fell, so
four of them climbed out of the door and hung on for dear life while the
rest hung on to them and each other so that they would all exit the plane
together. The pilot yelled jump, and within 3 seconds I was sitting
in an empty plane with an open door at almost 3 miles up! The pilot
cranks the wheel and in a second we are on our side in a banking power
dive! The 10 minute ride up to jump altitude is only a 2 minute ride
back down, and half of that is the line up for landing! What a roller
coaster! We actually tried to beat the skydivers down, and we came
pretty close. Katrina got to ride hers a couple of planes later,
and had a great time also.
The rest of the night was fairly static by
those standards but all had a good time. The jumpers put out a great
buffet/potluck diner and invited us over for some really good food. Katrina
had her scope out, and George set up his 8". Gerry and I had our Lx200's
out also. The moon was fairly large and bright so it was the main target
of the evening, but scopes were jumping to and fro to some of the brighter
Messiers also. I had my video setup to show the moon on the computer
monitor and people seemed to get a kick out of it. The mosquitoes
were fairly thick, but a good dose of modern chemistry took care of that
fairly fast.
We spent quite a while just talking about
different astronomy topics with the folks as they meandered by in small
groups. Haze and clouds moved in later in the evening, shutting things
down fairly early, but all seemed to enjoy and appreciate the show as much
as we appreciated the rides, and it was a pleasant evening for everyone.
We now have a standing invitation at the airport, so if you are interested
in jumping, riding, or just hanging out (so to speak), just let them know
who you are with! They are a great bunch of people.
CHRISTMAS WISH LIST
By Wayne Kuhn
Mark Klosinski of the Roper Mountain Astronomers in Greenville, SC has offered to sell members of Astro-officers (which I am a member) and their respective club members the following products at EXTREMELY LOW PRICES!!!
Starry Nights Pro software list is $149.00 - to the group $118.00
Starry Nights Backyard software list is $64.00 - to the group
$50.50
Astronomical Calendar 2001 by Guy Ottewell List is $24.00 -
to the group $17.50
Turn Left at Orion by Guy Consolmagno and D. Davis List is $24.95
- to the group $16.50
Observing the Moon by Gerald North List is $39.95 - to the group
$26.50
A Walk through the Heavens by Heifetz and Wil Tirion List is
$9.95 - to the group $6.50
The Cambridge Star Atlas by Wil Tirion List is $21.95 - to the
group $14.50
Star Atlas 2000.0 Spiral Bound Edition by Wil Tirion List is
$49.95 - to the group $33.00
Sky Atlas 2000.0 Field Edition by Will Tirion List is $29.95
- to the group $20.00
Sky Atlas 2000.0 Field Edition (Laminated) by Tirion List is
$79.95 - to the group $53.00
The New Solar System by J. Kelly Beatty, et al., Editors List
is $39.95 - to the group $26.50
Deep Sky Companions: The Messier Objects by Stephen James O'Meara
List is $34.95 - to the group $23.00
Planisphere (David Chandler) List is $9.95 - to the group $6.00
Add $1.00 to the total of your order for shipping. All orders (with payment) need to be in to me by October 25th. You can mail your order to:
Wayne Kuhn
2142 Spring Creek Circle
Green Bay, WI 54311
Or you can give it to me at the October meeting.
The entire order should ship by December 4th so I would expect
to have them on hand at the December 13th meeting for delivery.
If you have any questions please call me at 468-0765 or see Mark’s web
page at:
http://members.trivergent.net/~klosinski/
Mark has a complete description
and picture of each item on his web page. These items are great for
beginners in astronomy. My personal favorite is Turn Left at Orion
which shows you how to find 100 of the best objects for small scopes.
Merry Christmas!
FROM THE INTERNET
ONCE IN A MILLION YEARS
In a galaxy floating between
the Milky Way galaxy and NGC 6207, on a line not far in angular extent
from the great Globular Cluster M-13, lies the solitary inter galactic
wandering star known as Nocar. On a planet called Nocaris, in the
zone of habitability just one Nocarian astronomical unit (A.U.) from this
grand star, developed a civilized race of beings who were dually proud
of their civilization. They called themselves the Nocarians.
This race of beings had developed
technologically in every way just as had another race of intelligent beings
known as Earthlings. These Earthlings lived on a planet known as
Earth located in the Milky Way galaxy some one million light years away
from Nocar. You see the Nocarians had no stars in their night sky.
As a race they had not developed any detailed astronomy like the civilization
from Earth had, so they didn't know there were other galaxies, other stars,
possibly other civilizations in the cosmos.
To be sure the Nocarians had
a few outer planets in their night sky, a few inner planets in their evening
and morning skies, and a moon with a orbital period around their planet
of one Nocarian month. There were also a few faint fuzzy objects
in their sky. In fact the Nocarians had no nighttime sky. With
no stars and no real awe-inspiring aesthetic beauty in their night skies,
they used outdoor lighting without any real concern about protecting the
darkness. Everywhere on planet Nocaris, where you found cities, the
night sky was so bright you could hardly see the faint fuzzies.
The Nocarians had developed
radio astronomy used primarily to study their star and their planets. Some
of their more curious scientists had studied these inner and outer planets
and investigated the workings of their one and only life sustaining sun.
They had noted some strange radio emissions from these fuzzy objects in
their sky but none of their scientists knew what to make of them.
Then one day, a million years after a radio message was sent from the Arecibo
Radio Telescope on Earth, the Nocarians received and recorded a strange
radio transmission from intelligent beings in the general direction of
this faint fuzzy object in their sky known as FF-30.
Of course, during that million
years, M-13 had evolved along in its orbit around the Milky Way Galaxy
and the Earth had also moved. The Nocarians, not having the concept
of a rotating galaxy, could not pinpoint exactly the source of the message.
But they suspected this message had probably emanated from FF-30.
Their scientists had investigated these faint fuzzies before but they really
could not find out anything about them. They had some telescopes
but never had any reasons to build big ones. Besides, the outdoor lighting
had taken over and for the majority of Nocarians the night sky was just
a blank expanse of scattered light from outdoor lights with a few planets
in it that moved around. Few paid attention to these things and why should
they when there were engaged in more practical matters such as making money
and playing with their adult toys.
It didn't really matter because
the Earthling civilization had disappeared in a human based hubris and
folly called global warming. The Earthlings had let their population
grow out of control and had allowed energy use to expand per capita until
the planet earth experienced a runaway greenhouse effect just as their
sister planet Venus had. The Earthlings had not developed a space
faring capability so none of their race could be seeded to their outer
planet Mars to save the race from extinction. The Nocarians were
unaware they were on a similar track to extinction themselves. They
were not controlling their population and CO2 energy use-related patterns
as well.
There were a few strange Nocarians
who ground their own telescope mirrors, who generally lived in remote places
away from city lights, and who liked to observe, photograph, and speculate
about these faint fuzzy objects that could only be seen in dark skies.
But the rest of the population, the majority said why bother, what is the
point? After all, Nocaris is the center of all there is, and these
strange fuzzy clouds in the sky could not amount to much. What need
could there be to control the use of outdoor lighting so a few eccentric
citizens could still see these faint fuzzy objects. No way, they
were after all a practical race if they were nothing else.
At first, only a few of the
radio technical types knew about these radio signals from FF-30.
They told no one and quietly begin to collect all the variously related
disciplines from their scientists to study the message. It took a
few years of intensive study and debate but some of the meaning of the
message became abundantly clear to a consensus of the group.
There were other suns in the
cosmos. In fact there were tens, even hundreds of billions of suns collected
together in these objects they called faint fuzzies. This message
had come from a civilization orbiting a star in this FF-30. It was
very far away, in fact it was so far away that their scientists had not
known that these faint objects were composed of suns.
This was a total revelation
to their scientists. This matter was going to have to be studied and it
was going to take time to build new and bigger telescopes, and specialized
spectrographs, photometers, etc to attach to these telescopes to investigate
the new knowledge this message implied. They didn't want to look
foolish placing speculations like this before the general public, besides
it could cause a panic.
But their scientists could not
keep the message and its implications a total secret. Some of them
talked to spouses and close friends who in turn talked to others.
A lot of misinformation leaked into the general populace but it all sounded
so strange and esoteric. To those few who had a ear for these things
it turned their world on end, for the rest of the population it was a workplace
joke, a few minutes of laughter in passing.
The eccentrics picked up on
the problem right away and the lines of communications begin to hum with
official denials and private secret acknowledgments with speculations.
The eccentric knew what it had to mean if 1 + 2 really did always = 3 then
if there were tens of thousands of these faint fuzzy objects in the sky
and each of these objects were composed of billions of suns then the scale
of the cosmos was beyond imagining.
The remote eccentrics speculated
about a civilization on a planet so far away that had sent this message
so long ago. Although the exact distances to these remote objects
had not yet been determined the theory went something like this.
These objects were probably so far away that even though the larger ones
could be composed of up to a trillion suns like their sun the average distance
between these stars could be on the order of 200,000 Nocarian Astronomical
Units.
They were thinking about the
planet FF-30 that had sent this message and speculating about how it would
be to live there. Some of the more imaginative eccentrics who actually
looked at there own night sky from dark locations begin to ponder the implications
of this new information. What would this mean to the inhabitants
of a planet in a faint fuzzy as far as to how their night sky would look?
Would these other suns appear just like the planets do in our sky?
To be sure they would appear at varying levels of brightness right up to
the limit of visibility. This must mean there are thousands of suns
in their night sky. And in the plane of their faint fuzzy the suns
must appear to stack up one behind the other so that there is a virtual
river of fuzziness completely encircling their sky.
The more they thought about
this and speculated the more fantastic it seemed to these eccentrics who
enjoyed observing the mostly blank expanses of their night sky. Some
of these eccentrics were artists and would paint or draw renditions of
what these sky must look like. Oh, how beautiful it would
be they would think and the emotions would well up in
their voices. Surely the inhabitants of such a world would go to
great lengths to protect this beauty and not allow outdoor lighting to
light up the atmosphere and spoil the views of so many scintillating suns
in their night skies.
Some of the more bold eccentrics
would further speculate why some of these stars that appear brighter to
them are probably pieced together into patterns just like we make out of
our brighter faint fuzzies. They assumed that the school children
of these message-senders would know the names of their brightest stars
and constellations so they could find their way around the sky. This
beautiful sky filled with the scintillating light of distant suns must
be such a beautiful sight that it is enjoyed and protected by all the inhabitants
of these faint fuzzy civilizations. The eccentrics just knew that
these people endowed with such beautiful night skies would strictly control
the use of all outdoor lighting to protect such a wonderful natural heritage
for all their citizens. That was a given, they speculated.
Even the boldest among the eccentrics
could not have imagined a civilization living with such beauty to be so
indifferent, so busy making money, watching their television, and playing
with their adult toys like their own people as to not care at all about
the loss of such a treasure.
Once the carefully released
word of this discovery got out the whole Nocarian society was completely
turned upside down. It took a few generations for the new ideas to
take hold and for the old ones to die off but almost everyone came to except
that their society had to change. First of all, their scientists
had to build really big telescopes so they could study the rest of the
cosmos. The Nocarians had to do something about their outdoor lighting
so their scientists could investigate these faint fuzzy objects in detail.
They passed national laws limiting lighting to being aimed at the ground
only where it was needed and controlling the amount of light being used
to what was really needed.
As more and more information
and revelations poured in actually looking at the night sky grew to a national
pastime. As the outdoor lighting came to be controlled more and more
Nocarians came to notice that they could see a few of these faint fuzzy
clouds in their night skies with their unaided eyes. Some could see dozens
of them with binoculars. It became a matter of pride and self worth
for almost every Nocarian to be able to say he or she had identified and
looked at many of the major faint fuzzies. So many wanted to acquired telescopes
of their own that major industries grew up around the need to provide quality
telescopes.
From their privileged position
between the faint fuzzies the Nocarian race began to appreciate the grandeur
of their Cosmos. They actually had a better view of the cosmos than
beings who lived inside these objects. After all, their night sky
was not cluttered with all these distant suns so close that they interfered
with the fainter details of the more distant sun conglomerations.
Living in such an object means your view of the Cosmos would be obscured
by the long axis of the object as well as all the obscuring dust and gas
in the object itself.
This is how astronomy became
a high art on the planet Nocaris. Although they had no stars in their
night sky they came to know and appreciate the cosmos just the same all
because of a one-time radio message sent from a distant extinct civilization.
The Nocarians began to carefully control their outdoor lighting.
Many people who used to watch sports on television and play with their
adult toys every weekend to the exclusion of all else began to observe
the night sky.
At work they would ask one another
" Have you seen the emission nebula in such and such a faint fuzzy?
Did you see the super nova in FF-21 last week?". The whole race would
follow very carefully all the latest discoveries on television every week
and read about them in their magazines. So it came to pass that the
Nocarians came to care very much indeed about having a dark night time
sky. All because a distant unknown planet called Earth had sent them
a radio message one day in the last century of Earth civilization.
But still they wondered and
speculated what it must be like to have a night sky studded with distant
suns as this message-sending civilization must have had. It would
not have occurred to the most imaginative thinkers on Nocaris that such
a blessed race of people could be as indifferent to their night sky as
they themselves had been. After all, they did not know the rest of
the Cosmos existed before they received this strange and enchanting message
from FF-30.
Printed with permission
Copyright 2000
John Gilkison
President, National Public Observatory
jgilkiso@zianet.com
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The Monthly Publication of the Neville Public Museum Astronomical Society The Eyepiece is mailed directly to each member who requests it as a benefit of membership. Please submit comments, articles, and other material to: Editor
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NPMAS OFFICERS AND BOARD MEMBERS
PRESIDENT: Katrina DeWitt, kdewitt@venomtech.com VICE PRESIDENT: Gary Baier, gbaier@netnet.net SECRETARY: Steve Wicker, wickster@gbonline.com TREASURER: Ron Parmentier BOARD MEMBER: Ted Kordes, tkordes@gbonline.com BOARD MEMBER: Tony Kroes, akroes@venomtech.com BOARD MEMBER: Wayne Kuhn: waylin98@gbonline.com BOARD MEMBER: Jill Last, jill.last@noaa.gov BOARD MEMBER: George McCourt, mccourtga@prodigy.net |