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OAKLAND ASTRONOMY CLUB

NEWSLETTER

                                                      JUNE 2008                                                        

Gort
Bill  MacIntosh,  Editor



CLUB PRESIDENT:     Jim Saoud  (248-652-1496)                                                             WEBSITES:   www.oaklandastronomy.org   Link                  
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LAST MEETING
Minutes from June 8, 2008
M. Jeffery, Secretary                                                                                                                                            
                                                             
Opening
President Jim Saoud called the meeting to order at 7:35 PM.     
8 members present, 0 visitors 

This was an abbreviated meeting as some members had to leave and rescue family members from the power outage.

Past Events:
Approximately a dozen folks attended the OAC Swap Meet held on Saturday,  May 24 in conjunction with the Warren and Seven Ponds clubs.    An assortment of items included a large truss-dob, homemade reflectors, binoculars, laser pointers, and accessories such as eyepieces, filters, diagonals, extenders/adaptors and even a vintage DayStar solar viewer.  

Bill Barsuhn reported he and Walt Garon went to the NEAF exhibit in New York, a two day event attended by over 1,000 people with most equipment and support companies offering their products.    Walt sold 9 of his home-made observing chairs, more than expected.  

Observation Reports:
Not much so far this month due to weather.    

Sky-at-a-Glance

Bill Girardin, distributed SkyMaps for June and gave the presentation.  ( See Below)
 
Club Activities

Past

The Star Party at Independence Oaks on May 10th was clouded out.    So far this year, we are batting 0 for 2 on these events.

Future

                  Aug 23rd  9-11pm
                   Nov 22nd  8-10pm

General Discussion:

     Bill MacIntosh and Bob Berta talked about the MallinCam and Astrovid StellaCam3 CCD video systems.    These devices produce a dramatic image on a TV screen, offering sensitivities up to 4 times aperture gain.    It has been reported in reviews that many "older" amateurs (50+) are acquiring these because their vision has become less acute for optical viewing with ordinary eyepieces.

      Plus, such systems are ideal for public Star Parties where many guests can view an object on the screen simultaneously without having to line-up for individual scope peeks.

      Both offer built-in cooling to reduce noise and are available in B/W or Color models.    The degree of color displayed is largely related to aperture----i.e. the bigger the scope the more color is captured.

      Bob pointed out that the color models are somewhat less sensitive than the B/W which have more faint-reach ability.

      The downside is that both systems require 110 volt power for the TV/Monitor, making them more difficult to use in the field without an inverter or independent power supply.


Observing Night Contacts

Contact for:      
                        June 27 & 28    Jim Saoud         248-652-1496
                        July 5               Dave Holt          248-674-1950
                       

Business Meeting:

·   Treasurers's Report,  Bill Girardin:   Major expenses have been for insurance.    Dues payments have been the only               income so far this year.


Adjournment:   8:30 PM
Next Meeting:    Sunday, July 13, 7:30 pm


The Sky-at-a-Glance
 Bill Girardin
  Telescope blink
MOON     
                  FQ     Tues,  June 10        
                  FM    Wed,  June 18
                  LQ     Thur,  June 26
                  NM    Wed,  July 2     

PLANETS
                  MERCURY   Dawn, ESE
                  VENUS          Not visible since it's in the Sun's glare all month        
                  MARS           Dusk,  W     Mag 1.5 W of Regulus
                  JUPITER       Evening, SE     E of Teapot in retrograde westward
                  SATURN       Evening, SW    Mag .7, E of Regulus      

METEORS -  The Bootid meteor shower peaks on June 26 at 10:30 p.m. EDT.

SUMMER SOLSTICE is on June 20, 7:59 p.m. EDT

RISING CRESCENT MOON PASSES THRU PLEIADES----June 30,  2 TO 4 a.m.
             
CONSTELLATION PICKS:

URSA MINOR:    The Little Bear.   The poet Milton called it Cynosure from the Greek word for dog tail.

BOOTES:   The Herdsman.    
   Brightest Star:  Arcturus, a Red Giant and the 3rd brightest star after Sirius and Canopus.      Mag −0.05            Distance =  36.5 LY
   NGC 5466 GC 47,000 LY,  Mag 8.5
   Epsilon Bootes is a nice yellow-blue double, similar to Albireo but tighter separation
 
HERCULES - Strongman
   Alpha (Ras Algethi) is a double red/green at 630 LY
   M13 is everyone's favorite Glob containing some 300 thousand stars, discovered by Halley in 1714
   M92  is another fine Glob often overlooked because of more popular neighbor M13

CORONA BOREALIS - The Northern Crown.   Native Americans called it "circle of dancing star maidens."
    There are an estimated 400 galaxies in the SW corner,  but at over a billion LY and Mag 16 they are out of range for amateur scopes.

SERPENS CAPUT - Head of the Snake
     M5 is a nice Glob, distance 26,000 LY

LIBRA - Scales of Balance, separated from Scorpius by the Romans,  home of the Autumnal Equinox

SCORPIUS - Scorpion--killed Orion with its sting.
     Big brignt Antares rivals Mars in appearance and is a red supergiant,  distance 135 LY
     M4 and M80 Globs are popular targets.   


DSO PICK:    M80 Globular Cluster, a very compact glob in Scorpius  ( See feature below)
                               

 

                                                                                                                                                             


DSO OF THE MONTH
 From Sky-at-a-Glance

                      

   M  80   Globular Cluster  (NGC 6093)                                                            Distance = 32,600 LY                                          
M 80
Difficult to spot in finders due to its compact size, M80 is considered the most dense Globular known, comprised of several hundred thousand stars.    Although numbers of Red Giants are seen, the cluster is also loaded with Blue Stragglers and some Supernovae have been noted perhaps from collisions.

It  can be  partially resolved in the Club's  17.5" Dob.

Logged by Messier on January 4, 1781, it was first resolved by William Herschel who called it one of the richest and most compressed clusters he'd ever observed.

RA      16 : 17.0 (h:m)
DEC   -22 : 59 (deg:m)
Visual Brightness:   Mag  7.3
Apparent Dimension:  10.0 arc min


More details:  http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m080.html



 
Image Credit:  http://www.waid-observatory.com/m080-2004-06-14.html
   Date: 6/14/2004 - Location: Waurika, OK - Telescope: LX200 10 in.
Camera: ST-8XE/AO7 - Exposure: L = 40 min. R G & B = 10 min. each		            Constellation:  SCORPIUS

 
 

SWAP MEET PICS----Saturday May 24


Warren Astro
truss dob homemade scopes



     Seven Ponds Astro

7 ponds table 7 ponds scope

Great variety of interesting stuff and some good bargains too !!
Thanks to everyone  !!



                                               MEMORIAM                                                                                     


                                                                                   JOHN  WHEELER   (1911 - 2008)                                                                           
        Before his death in April, John Archibald Wheeler was one of the few remaining living legends of physics, from the generation born before the development of quantum mechanics.    Wheeler collaborated with Niels Bohr, conversed often with Albert Einstein and was the doctoral professor of Richard Feynman.     He coined the term BLACK HOLE, and pondered some of reality's deepest mysteries.
            (Excerpt from SCIENCE NEWS,  May 24, 2008)


"Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful,
 that when we grasp it - in a decade, a century, or a millennium - we
 will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise?
 How could we have been so stupid for so long?"
---John Archibald Wheeler

COOL LINKS THIS MONTH:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080519.html

 Fly over the Columbia Hills on MARS.   Not an animation, but actual image sequences captured from orbit.
If you haven't taken this trip, try it.


http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080525.html

 This animation shows the arrival of the Phoenix probe at Mars.
Note the complex sequences required for success.


http://www.sciam. com/article. cfm?id=were- meteorites- the-origi&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend

Of special interest to DAVE HOLT, this article suggests DNA building blocks
can be found in meteorites from deep space.   Thanks to Richard Lipke of the
Warren Club for sharing the info.


                                                ADVERTORIAL
                                          (CLUB PROMOTION)

Woven patches with the Club logo are available for only $3 bucks in two styles, button loop and stitch/iron on.
   		  SEE DAVE HOLT TO GET 'EM.                               







ASTRO-FACTOID OF THE MONTH


DID YOU KNOW?  


tau boo
                                                                             Photo Credit:  Philippe Durville    

  Tau Bootis  is the only other star besides the Sun known to flip its magnetic field.  Researchers have documented for the first time that the star, just 51 LY from Earth, reversed its magnetic field between the summers of 2006 and 2007.   This observation entailed recording the polarization of light from the star and the magnetic splitting of spectral lines.

Differential rotation between the poles and the equatorial convection zone boosts magnetic activity.    One of the causes may be a large, close-in planet some 6.5 times heavier than Jupiter causing the star's surface to rotate in sync with the planet's rapid 3.3 day orbit, in effect spinning up the star's magnetic engine.   



l tau boo mag  
Art Credit:  Karen Teramura, University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy

                                                More details:  http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6618

 
 
 
 
   

PERSPECTIVES


Beautiful..............uh...........what is it  ?




what is it ?
  • Nope, it doesn't have a Messier number                                          
  • Or an NGC number                                                                         
  • If you can identify the bright star in the middle, you've got a clue   
  • Click HERE for the answer                                                             






 

FUNZIES


Astounding new photo from MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR  !!!!



MarsMart


  

   
     
                                                                 
 
 
 
     
CLUB MEMBER ASTR OPHOTO OF THE MONTH
 
Jupiter with Io in transit
 
 Note moon shadow on cloud tops and over  
  the Great Red Spot which was very faint at this time.
jupiter io transit

Color CCD image taken by Dave O'Toole from Lake Orion, Michigan.
  The telescope used was a Celestron 8" SCT operating at f/20; the CCD camera used was an SBIG ST-237.
 Post-processing was done with Adobe Photoshop





 


  
launch

CLUB DUES FOR 2008

Membership is $35 annually
If you are unable to make the next meeting and wish to support OAC
with your 2008 dues, you can mail your check payable to

OAKLAND ASTRONOMY CLUB
600 Shelley Dr
Rochester Hills, MI  48307-4237


NEXT MEETING:   July 13th,  2008       7:30 PM
           
                                                                        
.

 Links to other club sites:

Warren Astronomical Society (WAS)
Seven Ponds Astronomy Club
Ford Astronomy Club
GLAAC


Editor's Note:   Newsletters can be saved locally by right-clicking, then select Save Webpage Complete



2008 NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

http://www.oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0108.html    OAC Newsletter Jan 2008
http://www.oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0208.html     OAC Newsletter Feb 2008
 http://www.oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0308.html     OAC Newsletter Mar 2008
 http://www.oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0408.html      OAC Newsletter Apr 2008
   http://www.oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0508.html    OAC Newsletter May 2008





2007 NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

 http://oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0607.html    OAC Newsletter June 2007
http://oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0707.html    OAC Newsletter July 2007
http://oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0807.html    OAC Newsletter Aug 2007
http://oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews0907.html    OAC Newsletter Sep 2007
http://oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews1007.html    OAC Newsletter Oct 2007
 http://oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews1107.html    OAC Newsletter Nov 2007
 http://oaklandastronomy.ulmb.com/oacnews1207.html    OAC Newsletter Dec 2007




Oakland Astronomy Club Newsletters are on the Web as Public Domain and may be freely accessed, linked-to or referenced by anyone.
However, certain images and articles are copyrighted material and such acknowledgements and credits are are given whenever known.
Opinions in signed articles are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the Editor or the OAC.


Orbiting



Submit Club news, astro-photos, equipment sale/trades to the editor:

Bill MacIntosh
nightwinger2004@yahoo.com