The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association

Transcription

1 The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association VOLUME XXXIX Numbers 9-10 September-October 2014 ********************************************************************************************* The President s Year in Review Was reviewing my photos for the last year and thought you might enjoy seeing just how many locations my passion for astronomy has brought me. It is my privilege to enjoy and learn from the company of others that share my passion. Learning from such seasoned individuals provides more advantages than can be mentioned. It is my overall goal to be unbiased and remember that the only real thing we all have in common is the common sense to simply " Go out and look up". --Regards Jon Ellard At ALCON 2014 Here is Jon in San Antonio at ALCON 2014 with AL President John Goss. Jon is also the chairman of the South East Region of the Astronomical League. Thanks for your service, energy, and youthful vigor so many of us older EAAA members need an infusion of.

2 At the Golden Corral Here is Jon, Wayne Wooten, David Cochran (student chapter president), Jacque Falzone (historian), Jim Larduskey (treasurer) and Mr. and Mrs. Rod Mollise (S&T associate editor from the Mobile AS) at last year s birthday dinner for Dr. Clay Sherrod, our guest speaker on Oct. 4 th Jon is using a 4 dob that Pat Rochford of the MAS built at this public gaze. He has pioneered the use of such scopes in our new library loaner scope program, and also working with Dr. Chris Varney at UWF to establish a new student chapter of the EAAA on campus.

3 Marveling at the Moon Using Wayne Wooten s ioptron mounted C-8 (Thanks, Jon Ellard!) and Eon 72 on the moon at the Pavilion gaze on September 14, Suzanne Rogers brother and sister find the view memorable. This unique mounting system allows GPS tracking and using two scopes set on the same object at once. It was acquired by UWF for Dr. Wooten to use at club gazes where portability was an issue, and he is looking forward to using it with PSC and UWF students for years to come!

4 John Arnold and Suzanne Rogers observe Saturn with his C-8 Astronomy student Suzanne Rogers was one of about twenty Pensacola State Students and student chapter members who turned out of a fine gaze at the Pavilion September 14 th. John Arnold s C-8 was a loaner scope the club has presented to John for his fine service at many stargazes over the past several years; can t think of a better use for it, John!

5 Robert Burnham and Coin Collecting Enclosed are photographs of a coin used as an in illustration in BURNHAM'S CELESTIAL HANDBOOK. The obverse shows Athena while the reverse shows her wise old owl with the crescent moon shown over the owl's shoulder. This is said to be the phase of the moon when the battle of Salamis resulted in the defeat of the Persians---who fielded such a large force, partially naval and partially an army that it was said to drink rivers dry in passage. This was not only among the greatest upsets in history---but, had the first mention in history of a woman commander, an Ionian island queen, Artemisia, taking part in war---ramming and sinking a Persian naval ship. Bob Burnham collected ancient coins. If that was not so---i would not have gotten to know him beyond a nodding acquaintance. He was an overgrown child---very shy about getting to know fellow adults. But, I was hired as a masters student to give the public tours at Lowell Observatory and had a desk in the office also shared by Norm Thomas and Bob Burnham who were the asteroid search program. The one time I tried to engage Bob in conversation beyond just saying, "Hi!"---he acted hostile. But, one day I was asking Norm about adding some ancient coin photos to my program, such as Mars advancing in Roman armor, carrying a spear and shield, Neptune holding a dolphin, Janus, two faced, etc., Bob came right across the room asking, "You collect ancient coins?" I got to know him after that and could bring friends over to meet him to see his home museum---of which he was proud. Years later, Bob was laid off from Lowell Observatory and was crashing financially in slow motion. I bought several of his coins---and told him that he could buy them back any time at the same price. The rest of his coins went to professional dealers at about 25c on the dollar. Bob never was able to buy back any of the coins. Here is the Athenian tetradrachm. Drachm is ancient/classical Greek. In modern Greek it is drachma with ch pronounced as "k". --Robert Blake, EAAA Founder

6 Starter Solar Binoculars at WalMart As we look ahead to two partial solar eclipses, the first on October 23, 2014, and the next the astronomical event of many of our lives, the total solar eclipse on the afternoon of August 21, 2017, one thing everyone will need is a safe way to observe the partial phases. WalMart has two nice Tasco binocs in their sporting goods section, both easily adapted to safe sunspotting and eclipse viewing for under $10 with Draco Baader solar filters. Here is a review of them. The Tasco Essentials 10x25 roof prism binocs were just $10 at WalMart, but think they have gone up to $13 now. I paid that for the rare yellow version shown here; most are black. If you want to order from Amazon, I found black ones for just $7.50 from Adaroma. To put the new Draco solar filters (made with 1.5 Baader filters, and Kodak 35mm film cannisters very neat fit!), just take off the front lens cover, and slip the film canister in place. These filters are $5 with $5 S&H for priority mailing; specify filters for Tasco 10x25 binocs in the order. These are ideal of all use, as they fit nicely into your pocket or purse, do surprisingly well as night binocs (will go down to 8th mag. under good skies) and at 10X can be stably held by most folks; they have a 6 degree field of view. I have one pair of the yellow binocs, the prototype, for sale for $15. Let me know you want them, and will bring them to next club gaze.

7 For more power and aperture, consider the 16X32 Tasco Essentials for $20 at WalMart. I found them on Amazon for about $22. I have adapted the 1 pair of Baader filters to custom fit over the front for $5 + $5 S&H priority mailing. These do have a case, while the 10x25 ones don t, and the complete filters do fit in this case. Order the pair of filters for the 16X32 binocs and they will fit nicely in the case on the binocs. I like the sun in these binocs; it is more detailed than with the 10X25 ones, but will warn that some of us may have more trouble holding them steady for observing all objects; the extra aperture and magnification do help with deep sky objects, but the field of view is only about 4 degrees, much less than at 10X. Alas, they do not have a tripod mount; neither do the 10x25. --Wayne Wooten

8 Telescopes at Toys RUs Since the Discover Center store in Cordova Mall closed, I had not thought much about local sources of telescopes, mainly noting ones showing up around Christmas at Target, Sam s Club, or WalMart (all of which have improved greatly in the past years, with better mounts, 1.25 eyepiece, etc). But since I don t have little kids anymore, been a while since I shopped at ToysRUs, and I recently their EduScience scope line proved to have very impressive values! For $25, the Land and Sky 360 is an impressive 50mm refractor on a very functional table-top tripod. It comes with a star diagonal and 20mm and 12.5mm Huygens eyepieces for 18X and 29X; the eyepieces were fair quality and parfocal, and a good choice for such a starter scope. It has no finder, but I used the Daisy Electronic Point Sight off Amazon ($10) with a large clip to sight easily at 18X. I also used a Draco Productions 1.5 Baader filter ($4 + $1 S&H) for great views of sunspots down to the size of our moon. It is easy to use, transport, and with a terrestrial erector eyepiece, and carry for birding and backpacking. I have views of it used for solar observing, and a photo with the solar filter, my Olympus D- 595, a 26mm Plossl eyepiece, and a yellow filter showing sunspots attached; I just used the camera s auto exposure setting. --Wayne Wooten

9 For $90, the 70mm refractor is another impressive value. It has a 700mm focal length, and excellent quality Plossl eypieces in 1.25 standard barrels and a 1.25 mirror star diagonal; to my delight, the eyepieces are parfocal. With the 700mm focal length of the f/10 objective, they give 27X for the 26mm Plossl, and 72X for the 9.7mm Plossl. The latter nicely framed the gibbous moon last night, and great detail with only a hint of chromatic aberration noted; the photo shows a slight blue fringe if you look closely. I like the altitude and azimuth slow motions on the very light but sturdy tripod, the creative eyepiece tray attachment, the easily aligned red dot finder (2 brightness settings, unlike my $10 Daisy sight), and the nice pearly finish on the tube. This might be a good choice for our library loaner scopes in the future. I will share both these scopes with students in our loaner scope program, and have them at future stargazes for members to check out as well. I shot the moon through the same setup as the sun shot with the 50mm refractor. I just installed a 2.5 Baader filter from Draco Productions ($ $1.50 S&H, access link at ) In my next installment, I plan to check out the 4.5 Newtonian reflector they sell for $130. Hope these reviews will give you some good hints to pass along to kids in the neighborhood who want to get started in astronomy. --Wayne Wooten

10 Waxing Gibbous Moon through Toys RUs 70/700 Yes, there is a little bit of chromatic aberration visible here, but the images were comparable to the 70mm Celestron that Dave Cochran used at the Pavilion Gazes. Certainly a fine value for only $90, especially with the high quality 26mm and 9.7 mm Plossl eyepieces in standard 1.25 barrels.

11 Dave Cochran compares the 70mm refractors Student chapter president Dave Cochran is contrasting his Celestron 70 (presented by the club to him for his leadership in the student activities) with the Toys RUs 70/700 refractor. The longer focal length (f/13) Celestron sells for about $100, but the $90 scope held its own optically and mechanically with the Celestron. Also, the Celestron comes with a 20mm (45X) and 10mm (90X) Kellner eyepieces, while the 26mm Plossl of the 70/700 is lower in power (27X), has a wider field of view, and is optically a better quality eyepiece. In addition to his work with gazes, Dave also helped the physical sciences department a great deal with the Pegasus workshops over the summer, and serves with the Pensacola State College Geology Club as their president as well.

12 The ISS and Jacque LeMaitre in formation by Lance Hoffman RODP astronomy student Lance Hoffman in Tennessee took this photo of the International Space Station and its ESA supply ship, Jacque LeMaitre, flying in formation hours before they docked on the morning of August 8, The bonus points he got for his observations and photo were just enough to pull his B+ up to an A for the final grade!

13 The Eagle Nebula by Bill Martinec "The Eagle Nebula is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in Its name derives from its shape that is thought to resemble an eagle. It contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the famous "Pillars of Creation", photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This is my morning photo cropped of the Pillars from within the central region of the Nebula Images witht27 "from Australia itelescope. A composite image of 3 luminancex300 sec exposures and 1 Ha x300second exposure Total 20 minutes... Still working on precessing the color files, but even in graytone, a mystical composition of star forming gasses 7000 light years away! Wayne Wooten, we never were quite able to see this in Glendale were we"? Editor: No, Bill, but much of the B&W detail does show up with the StellaCam II and a C-8 at f/3.3 from Fort Pickens.

14 X-Class Solar Flare by Wayne Wooten I used the Coronado 60, my Olympus D-595, 1/1000 th second exposure at ISO 400 to capture the most intense earth-directed flare of the current sunspot cycle at 3 PM on Wednesday, September 10 th. While we did not get aurorae this far south the next weekend, as I had hoped, nor did the Carrington Effect cause all our transformers to blow worldwide, it did give northern tier viewers fine displays of the northern lights!

15 Robert Dean s iphone captures a flare and prominences The new iphone 5 is ideal with capturing both solar and lunar images, using the new adapter from Orion Telescope Center. Here is a less intense flare, along with many prominences along to left limb of the sun, that Pensacola State Astronomy student Robert Dean captured with the Coronado 60, 17mm Plossl, and his camera on the iphone. He took this photo as the class got out about 11 AM on Friday, August 22, It too created nice aurorae later that weekend. Below are two more shots where Robert zoomed in on the prominence activity, and increased the contrast with the controls on his iphone. He did all this enhancement on the fly with just his iphone. I need one of these!!!

16 Closeup of Prominences on August 22nd

17 Enhanced view of filaments on the disk by Robert Dean

18 Derek Poston images the Sun with his iphone 5 PSC astronomy student Derek Poston uses his iphone and the Orion adapter on the Coronado 60 to make photos of solar activity on July 30, 2014 about 9:45 AM. Several students in the class also took photos which in turn were posted to NASA s Spaceweather.com site. Here are more examples of that day s work.

19 Derek Poston Captures a Solar Flare

20 Jillian Bradley and Kipp Jennings compare sun shots While Derek is taking his shots, two other class members compare their own images for later submission to NASA s website. The new Orion adapter costs $45 and will be a great asset for club gazes in the future, for many of our guests will have phones with similar or even better (let s see what the new iphone 6 can do!) resolution. If you want one on sale for $45, link to: SteadyPix-Universal-Smartphone-Telescope-Photo-Mount/pc/-1/c/4/sc/62/p/ uts

21 Jillian Bradley s Flare with Prominences and Filaments While Jillian s phone did not have the resolution of Derek s, it did a better job of bringing out the contrast between the flare, the darker filaments on the disk, and the bright red prominences hanging over the lower left limb.

22 Ginger Mears Galaxy S-4 shows granulation and prominences Note how the filament on the lower right limb transforms into a prominence off the disk. Also note some granualation. Most any new phone with camera is worth trying at the eyepiece!

23 Michael Posey captures an Iridescent Cloud Ice Crystals at just the right orientation can produce this beautiful effect, well captured by EAAA Student member Mike Posey.

24 Journalist Lauren Tjaden our guest at Fort Pickens on August 22, 2014 Here are Lauren and her husband Paul with Dewey Barker, who made the initial contact which led to great publicity for the club and college. We welcomed our special guest, Lauren Tjaden, and her husband Paul, who is reporting on our gazes for the Beaches and Adventure Insider at VisitFlorida.com; many thanks to gaze coordinator Dewey Barker for setting up the session with her. She met and interviewed many members and students and other guests during the long, clear evening under the best Milky Way I have seen in August since I left DeFuniak Springs! Note from Lauren Tjaden Thanks so much for the newsletter, the great pictures-- and an unforgettable experience. I love that you all are not only passionate about astronomy but that you are passionate about sharing it. What the club members are doing is remarkable. I cannot imagine a more effective way to get the masses excited about science. Bravo! With huge thanks! --Lauren Tjaden VISIT FLORIDA Beaches and Adventure Insider ( ) has Lauren s report on this at:

25 Canadian Family Enjoys our Pavilion Gaze on August 8, 2014 We were especially pleased to welcome to the EAAA our Canadian guests, Benoit Tourangeau and his family. He was delighted to see southern skies, like the tail of Scorpius at last! PS: Here are Ben s observations of southern skies so far. The sky last night was quite nice. I did not even look for a real dark place. Just in a remote corner of our resort using a small 8x50 finder scope, I found, M11, M16, M17, M20/M8 and M7 in a matter of a few minutes. I just wish I had my 8 incher with me! It is quite nice to look at Sagitarius and Scopio that high in the sky. If I recall, I think it was the second time I could see the whole Scorpion from the claws, then Antares up to the tip of the tail. At home, the tip of the tail is always hidden by something. I just hope my daughters (5 & 7) will be strong enough to stay up long enough (Friday?) night. Those hours under the sun take their toll. At night, they can be little pest and need to go to bed. I will try to rest them good. It was quite nice to meet with you and your group Friday night. I wish we could have stayed longer but my daughters were getting quite tired and we had a long drive to do. I did not see enough of the very nice Florida sky. Like i said in my previous , the sky I saw Wednesday was just amazing. I did not have a real scope to explore it but the seeing, from what I could tell, looked perfect. Last night, the moon at 300x on your C8 was quite something. And you did not even try to push it further and I am sure there was room for more magnification! At home, with my Dobson 8 inches, I do not own eyepieces allowing me for more than 273x. There is no need. The seeing is never good enough to allow it! And I am not talking about the extra 15 or 20 degrees you have to the south compared to where I live which is needless to say, a great bonus!

26 I was hoping to see Omega Centauri and the other jewels of the southern sky and did not. The late delivery of my brand new grab & go telescope and the cloud cover last night did not allow for it. But so what? I am young and I have plenty of time ahead of me. But Friday night, I saw stars that do not show in star atlas. Those stars are rare and I was not expecting to see that many on a single night. And I am talking about the stars in your eyes and those of your colleagues when talking about astronomy. You guys form a very nice group of people. You all have a passion for the great science that is astronomy and you want to share it with layman people. I did enjoy the enthusiasm of your group. It is special. I also have that same desire to share my passion. I have done my share of public outreaches with my local astronomy club but my first public is obviously my two daughters. My oldest is a scientific type. I spent many many nights outside with her telling her the stories of the constalations of the sky. Last night, minutes after after saying goodbye to you and your group, Juliette saw two lights infront of a store, one yellow and one blue. She showed me and said only one word: "Alibiero?" That made me laugh quite a bit. I then told her that I have to show her Almach in Andromeda who looks quite a bit like Albiero. She asked who was Andromeda? I told her it is a constalation for the princesse Andromeda near Pegasus. She said the big W? No, Juliette, that is Cassiopea, the mother of Andromeda... You get the idea. I share this passion with my daughter Juliette and that makes me happy like you can not believe. Quality time with my girls. Your offer for your nice little telescope is very generous. I have to say it would make both Juliette and Léa quite happy. We already have a big scope home and will have a second one next Tuesday. But those are equipment my daughters can not manipulate. The Dobson is just too big. But your telescope on a nice little tripod would allow them to look at the moon by themselves. That will fill them with joy and pride! After that, i am sure they will take pleasure looking and naming the 4 big moons of Jupiter or the Pleiades.

27 PSS: We made it home. The journey back to Canada has been quite a bit more complex than it should have been since we had some problems with our connecting flights. We ended up spending a whole day in Atlanta which we found very nice.we truly enjoyed the time we spent in your company. It was nice meeting you and your group of astronomers on Friday night at Pensacola beach as well as you and your colleagues at the College, on Monday. Thanks again for the astro equipment. We will put it to good use! Once back home, I took delivery of the new SCT 6 inches, I wanted so much to bring along with me in Florida. It arrived a day too late. Having a full goto telescope will be a very nice addition. Star hoping in heavy light pollution is quite difficult in some sections of the sky due to lack of bright stars. Also, since I like to explore the sky with my daughters, they often show impatience If I do not locate the targets immediately with the Dobson. All targets are not as easy as M57, M42, M45 and M35! The goto will fix that. And when I will add a Mallincam, it will be an amazing set-up! But I now see the difference between a 8 inches f6 and a 6 inches f10. First, I see a less stars. And second, the field of view is quite smaller. I knew all that before buying but it is never as clean as when you test it yourself. I know it was a cruel test for the SCT but the double cluster show so much better in the Dobson! But I would not be surprised if it was the other way around when we will look at planets. We will see. I discovered a while ago that in astronomy, telescope, eyepieces, everything, is always a question of compromise. I wanted a grab & go telescope to go along the Dobson and I have it. I could have gone for a 8 inches SCT but it would have been more $, a bit more encumbrance, and my Dobson would have most likely lost its purpose. Now, I have a reason to use the Dobson (extra aperture) and other reasons for the SCT. Mid September we will go camping (in a big camper), upstate New York, green zone. I will find room at the back of the car for the telescope. It will be the first real test for our new toy! Thanks a lot! --Benoit Tourangeau LL.B., MBA

28 Milky Way by Kenny Alexander Thanks for permission to use this fine shot, Kenny. Many of you now have Digital SLR s that can capture fine shots of our galaxy in the fall sky, so as the clear skies of autumn give us our best chance to view our home galaxy, get out the cameras and capture the spectacle of the Milky Way arching overhead and sinking into the Gulf.

29 The Super Moon by Ron Fairbanks The Full Moon near perigee, about 221,000 miles from Earth, has been called the super moon by the press lately, since it is then closest to us and larger than normal in our sky. Of course, the moon passes through both its perigee and apogee points every month, but usually they do not fall at full moon. Ron Fairbanks took this shot of the Green Corn Moon on August 10, 2014, when it was very close to perigee. One Million Earths: The life-force between creation and evolution

30 Imagine as you peer into the inky darkness of a moonless night, sitting in the moist grass of nighttime on a world that the human race calls "home." As recently as 25 years in our past the human race was fascinated with the onslaught of UFO's, yet content to believe that life on our Earth was, somehow, unique. The star-filled sky seemed so vast, yet so empty. Were we alone on Earth throughout the cosmos? Today, thousands of planets, or "Exoplanets" as they are termed, are known to orbit stars throughout our own Milky Way Galaxy. Of those, more than 800 are deemed "earthlike" in that they reside in the "Goldilocks Zone" - a distance from the parent star so far as to not annihilate life with the star's energy, but close enough to release the life-forming sciences of geology, meteorology and biology. With this sudden realization, and nearly daily new discoveries, of so many worlds in our own Milky Way galaxy, it begs the question: "Are there other Earths throughout space?" Our Milky Way galaxy is comprised of perhaps 200 billion suns and scientists today believe that on average nearly every star should have nearly two planets. That, considering that there are at least 200 million other galaxies throughout the entire Universe, means that not only are there plenty of planets habiting in the "Goldilocks Zone" - not too hot and not too cold - but the chances of planets having life are now considered probably rather than possible. So what are the factors that could create such a planet away from our Mother Earth that could actually eventually have human beings with logical thinking skills to even contemplate this? Join Dr. P. Clay Sherrod, of the Arkansas Sky Observatories, in his annual Science for the People lecture series as he hosts "One Million Earths: The life-force between creation and evolution", sponsored by Pensacola State College, Saturday, October 4, 2014 at 7 p.m. at Amos Auditorium on campus. This audience-interactive and visually stimulating presentation will bring the audience up to date on the divergence of the many sciences necessary to even consider planets capable of harboring and supporting life. Virtually every scientific discipline - astronomy, biology, climatology, cosmology, geology, meteorology, paleontology and physics - are required to come together in perfect concert to produce what we have here on the only known life-bearing planet. Life is not a simple process. Life that can "understand how it got here" is exponentially more difficult. Come and ponder this question with the members of the EAAA.