Welcome to our newest members

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Welcome to our newest members Rick Clow Loren Larson Cliff Rushing David Wakely Scott Keese Bruce Miller Scott Sheppard Neil Wallace Christopher Kokoski Theresa Moehrle Steve & Kim Smith Jim Zinn

1 Welcome to our newest members Rick Clow Loren Larson Cliff Rushing David Wakely Scott Keese Bruce Miller Scott Sheppard Neil Wallace Christopher Kokoski Theresa Moehrle Steve & Kim Smith Jim Zinn Wally Lafferty Wesley Pierson Randall Spencer FWAS Elections in September Elections for three officers will be held during the September meeting; they are: The President The Vice-President, and The Secretary-Treasurer. Their term will be October 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006; the next elections will be in the June 2006 meeting. Responsibilities of these positions were discussed in the August 2005 Newsletter; nominations (seconded and accepted) were: for President: Trista Oppermann (incumbent) for Vice-President: John Dowell for Secretary-Treasurer: Tres Ross (incumbent) Each candidate gave a brief description of their plans for FWAS in the August meeting. Nominations will open briefly in the September meeting; elections by written ballot will occur afterward. Non-Elected Positions Should a member not wish to be an officer, but wish to help with Club activities, there are a number of non-elected positions within the Club Publications Coordinator assists the Secretary- Treasurer with sales and processing subscriptions Outreach Coordinator is the point-contact for Outreach activities. Incumbent: Dave Titus (fwasoutreach@yahoo.com) Star Party Coordinator liaises between FWAS and other organizations wishing Star Parties. Incumbent: Louise Greve (louisegreve@swbell.net) Editor for the Newsletter solicits input for the Newsletter and assembles it. Incumbents: Lowell Martin & Jerré Ellis (primefocus@fortworthastro.com Web Site Coordinator maintains the Web Site ( Annual Dues are Now Due Access codes will change after September s meeting don t be caught on a dirt road near the observatory wondering why the gate does not work! October Meeting October s meeting of FWAS will be October 18, 2005 in the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History. Page #1 of 8

2 Star Parties Sep 29 Oct 2: Lowell Star Party o Flagstaff, AZ, about 4 miles west of Lowell s Campus (7,500 ft elevation) o Hosted by the Coconino Astronomical Society. o For details, see: Oct 1 Oct 9: Okie-Tex Star Party o Near Kenton, OK (the extreme western end of the OK panhandle, near the NM border) o Hosted by the Oklahoma City Astronomy Club. o See for details Oct 4 Oct 8: Enchanted Skies Star Party o Near Socorro, New Mexico (10,000 ft elevation) o Sponsored by, amongst many others, New Mexico Tech Astronomy Club, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the City of Socorro. o For details, see Oct 8: Fort Worth Museum of Science and History Oct 22: Copper Breaks State Park... Sun Fun and Star Walk Oct 29: Mars Day! at Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (see item at upper right) Nov 2 Nov 5: Eldorado Star Party o Vicinity Sonora / Ozona / Eldorado, TX (~ 175 miles west of San Antonio, or ~65 miles south of San Angelo) o Sponsored by the Austin Astronomical Society, Texas Star Party, and volunteers from clubs in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. o For details, see: html Nov 5: 9th Annual North Texas Skywatch Star Party o Lake Mineral Wells State Park o Hosted by the State Park, Tarleton State University, and Tarrant County College o For details, see: r/display.asp?id=1546&type=news Nov 12: Fort Worth Museum of Science and History Mars Day! Saturday, October 29, 2005 The Noble Planetarium will offer special programming in partnership with FWAS. At 6:45, 7:30 and 8:15 p.m., the Noble Planetarium will present Mars at Its Best, a live discussion about the planet s approach. Visitors will learn about ongoing missions studying Mars, feel some simulated Mars soil obtained from NASA, and see what Mars geology is all about. Ticket cost is $3.50. The Fort Worth Astronomical Society will set up their telescopes and video monitor on the Museum s north lawn beginning at dusk. Star Parties are free and open to the public. Please contact Linda Krouse (planet@fwmsh.org) or Karen Massey (karenmassey@fwmsh.org) for additional information. August Presentation The Night Sky Network The August Meeting s presentation was given by Dave Titus, FWAS Public Outreach Coordinator, who highlighted the selection of FWAS by NASA to be a member of the Night Sky Network. With this selection, FWAS joins a nation-wide coalition of: amateur astronomy societies NASA the Astronomical Society of the Pacific the Astronomical League This coalition is committed to sharing its time, telescopes, and enthusiasm for astronomy with their local communities. Typical venues are public astronomy nights, classroom visits, youth group events, and any other public events catering to students of all ages. By joining the Night Sky Network (NSN), FWAS has committed to performing five (5) Outreach events per year using materials from the NSN. The NSN is sponsored and supported by JPL s PlanetQuest public engagement program. For more information on the NSN, please see: Inquiries about FWAS participation in Outreach events should be directed to Dave Titus at: fwasoutreach@yahoo.com. Page #2 of 8

3 Sep 23: Sep 28: Sep 29: Oct 1: Oct 4: Oct 11: Oct 12: Oct 14: Oct 17: On This Day 1846: Neptune is discovered by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, based on calculations of calculations by the French astronomer, Urbain Le Verrier. 1953: died: Edwin Hubble in San Marino, CA 1971: Launch of Luna 19 (USSR); the orbiter continues in lunar orbit. 1988: Launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery; it was the first space shuttle launch since the loss of the space shuttle Challenger. 1958: creation of NASA from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies. 1959: Luna 3 (USSR) launched; it returned the first image of the Moon's Far Side. The probe is now in a decayed earth-moon orbit. 1957: Sputnik 1 launched. "Sputnik," meaning "fellow traveler," was the name assigned to the first ten satellites launched by the former-ussr. 1980: The Salyut 6 returns to Earth after a record 185 days in space. 1964: Voskhod 1 (USSR) launched; it was the first spacecraft to carry a multiperson crew. 1951: born: Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. 1968: The first live telecast from space from Apollo : Chuck Yeager flies faster than the speed of sound in the experimental X-1 aircraft. 1933: German-born physicist Albert Einstein immigrates to the United States. (cont d... P. 7) Brain Teaser It s been reported that escape velocity from the earth is 7 miles/sec. If you are given: gravity is 32.2 ft/sec/sec the earth is 25,000 miles around its equator, and a few basic physics equations, can you validate this escape velocity? August s Brain Teaser In the discussion below... m o = mass of the satellite m e = mass of the earth r = distance to satellite from earth s c.g. r e = radius of the earth v = velocity of the satellite ω = rotational frequency It was given that... acceleration due to gravity is 32.2 ft/sec/sec the earth is 25,000 miles around its equator In order to appear stationary, the satellite must be at some altitude over the equator. On the equator, an object has two forces acting on it: Gravitational, described by γ m e m o /r 2 (note the inverse r-squared relationship), and Centrifugal, described by m o v 2 /r (note that as v=rω, the force increases linearly with increasing r) As altitude increases, gravitational force decreases and centrifugal force increases; when they are equal, the satellite will be in orbit. F=ma gravitational = ma centrifugal 32.2 (r e /r) 2 = v 2 /r, where... r e = 25,000 / 2π = 3,980 miles v = 2πr miles/day Substituting, adding some values to keep dimensions consistent, and rearranging gives: r 3 = [32.2 (25,000) 2 (86,400) 2 ] / [(2π) 4 5,280] r = 26,330 miles But this is from the earth s c.g.... Altitude = 26, = 22,350 miles. The initial report indicated 22,300 miles, the Astronomy Encyclopedia quotes 22,380 miles... this approach is consistent. Page #3 of 8

Scope For Sale Classic Celestron orange tube C-8 package, serial number 804705. It is approx 20-25 years old and well maintained; the optics are in excellent condition.

5mm guiding eyepiece homemade 12v heated 'Formica type' dew cap Additional accessories: full-aperture Tuthill SolarScreen filter mounted on a friction fit ring.

4 Scope For Sale Classic Celestron orange tube C-8 package, serial number It is approx years old and well maintained; the optics are in excellent condition. Included are: the scope, wedge, and tripod (w/ 2 bubble levels) AstroPhysics drive corrector AstroPhysics off-axis guider Celestron illum. 12.5mm guiding eyepiece homemade 12v heated 'Formica type' dew cap Additional accessories: full-aperture Tuthill SolarScreen filter mounted on a friction fit ring. counterweights piggyback camera bracket Lumicon 48mm DeepSky Filter threaded extension tube, what appears to be a threaded Barlow that attaches to the back of the scope. the original black 'foot locker' case (in like-new condition) Reason for selling: owner now has a 15" truss Dob. Asking price is $700 for the package, or $600 without the drive corrector and Additional accessories. Additional photos of the items and detailed history available to serious inquiries. If interested, contact Ben Hudgens directly at bhudgens@our-town.com or at Save Yerkes!! Gallery the Double Cluster Visitors to the metropolitan Chicagoland area are no-doubt familiar with Adler Planetarium; however, an approximately 2-hr drive north to Lake Geneva, WI will take you to another Point of Interest... Yerkes Observatory, home of the world s largest refractor (40-inch f/20). Yerkes has been operated by the University of Chicago's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics since 1897; unfortunately, a 40-inch 1000 ft-above-sea-level instrument is at a competitive disadvantage to mountain-top instruments with apertures in the hundreds of inches. The sale of Yerkes has been under review for quite some time, and pressure to sell the Observatory and its 77 acres of lakefront property has been increasing. For additional information, please see (at the end of this web page are 10 links which give a thorough review of Yerkes situation) Astrophotographer: Matt Reed For a description of scope and other equipment, please see P. 7 Page #4 of 8

5 In the Sky (mid-september thru end-october) Mercury Venus Mars Oct 5: conjunction with Jupiter; 1 19 apart; as the Mercury-Jupiter pairing sets approximately 35 minutes after sunset, observing will be difficult continues as an evening star Oct 29 (evening): closest approach; Mars diameter and brightness will steadily increase between 15.8 & -1.3 on September 15 th, to 20.2 & -2.3 on October 30 th. Mars diameter and Magnitude are shown graphically between thru in Sky & Telescope / September 2005 / P. 68 Deimos & Phobos: visible for a few weeks around time of closest approach. Assistance in finding the Martian moons can be found in Sky & Telescope / October 2005 / P and Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Oct 5: conjunction with Mercury; 1 19 apart; as the Jupiter-Mercury pairing sets approximately 35 minutes after sunset, observing will be difficult best telescopic views still in pre-dawn hours well-positioned in the evening sky; near Lambda-Aquarii at mag +5.7 & 3.7 diameter. Assistance in finding Uranus can be found in Sky & Telescope / June 2005 / P also well-positioned in the evening sky; near Theta-Capricorni at mag+7.9 & 2.3 diameter. Assistance in finding Neptune can be found in Sky & Telescope / June 2005 / P most likely too low to be observed... altitudes at sunset + 1½hrs decrease from ~34.9 on 9/15 to ~16.5 on 10/ UB 313 an ambitious project for CCD imagers with setups & locales capable of 19 th magnitude... 9/30/2005 coord (RA / Dec): 1 h 37.6 m / /30/2005 coord (RA / Dec): 1 h 36.5 m / Moon Sun Oct 3: new moon at 5:28am CDT. Oct 17: partial lunar eclipse (only 7% umbral coverage) at 7:03am CDT; as sunrise is 7:37am, moonset is 7:41am, and the small umbral coverage, viewing may be limited to the penumbral darkening (start approx 5:43am CDT). Sept 22: Autumnal Equinox at 5:23pm (CDT), marking the start of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Oct 3: annular solar eclipse (unfortunately, not visible in North America) Other Oct 20-21: Peak of Orionids (produced by Halley s Comet); duration covers October 15 th thru October 29 th. Typical maximum hourly rate reaches 20 in the Northern Hemisphere. Various dates: nine minor meteors showers ( minor meaning less than 10 meteors per hour at maximum rate); please see for a complete listing. Page #5 of 8

Gallery M103 E-Group Sending Attachments ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fwas ) From harry.bearman@swbell.

6 Gallery M103 E-Group Sending Attachments ( ) From harry.bearman@swbell.net, if you rely on the web interface to the egroup to read the messages, you'll never see any attachments. A couple of years ago Yahoo! decided to stop processing multiple copies of the same attachment... the disk space they cleared out was probably incredible, since they went thru every egroup s archive removing attachments. Astrophotographer: Matt Reed For a description of scope and other equipment, please see P Publications Royal Canadian Handbook: ordered; awaiting printing and shipping. ETA late-september. The Handbook is US$24.95 retail (+ taxes + S&H); a bulk order can reduce that to about US$ US$19.00 (+ taxes + S&H) Guy Otwell Astronomical Calendar: not published to date; prices not available. Last year s calendar was $24.95 (+ taxes) Deep Space Mysteries Calendars: received; $6.00 to members ($12.95 retail). Please see Tres Ross if interested in these publications. Conversion to Tax-Free Status The process to convert FWAS to a non-profit corporation (specifically, a 501-(c)(3) corporation ) continues. The first step in this process was recognition by the State of Texas, which has been completed. The next step is recognition by the IRS this is in progress. The objective is to make FWAS an attractive candidate for charitable gifts. Louise Greve (louisegreve@swbell.net) is FWAS official contact for items relating to this conversion. Yahoo! recommended that egroup members "post" what would have been an attachment in the "Files" or "Photos" sections to bypass this restriction. Astronomical League Observing Club Certifications Congratulations to Doug Brown, who received his certificate and pin for the Binocular Messier Club. Doug, commenting on his achievement, notes... If you re looking for something specific or just surfing the Milky Way you just can t beat binoculars. I have come to know that there are lots of things that look better with a wide field of view like you get with binoculars. M44, M45, Mel 111, and the Hyades all just don t seam as grand with my scope. I think it will always be a staple of my viewing to keep my binos handy. Members of FWAS are automatically enrolled as members of the Astronomical League, and as such, are eligible to participate in their Observing Clubs. These Clubs are designed to assist the observer in developing a certain level of skill in finding and observing objects in the night sky. FWAS members are encouraged to participate in these programs. For additional information, see: Leap Second A leap second will be added to December 31, 2005 to keep UTC (defined by atomic clocks) in sync with earth s rotation. As measured by radio interferometry, the earth s spin rate is slowing by approximately 2 milliseconds per day due to, primarily, tidal drag and shifts in the earth s crust. Page #6 of 8

FWAS MEMBERSHIP INFO FWAS Officers: Trista Oppermann President Harry Bearman Vice President Tres Ross Secretary / Treasurer president@fortworthastro.com vicepresident@fortworthastro.

7 FWAS MEMBERSHIP INFO FWAS Officers: Trista Oppermann President Harry Bearman Vice President Tres Ross Secretary / Treasurer president@fortworthastro.com vicepresident@fortworthastro.com secretary@fortworthastro.com FWAS Meetings FWAS meets at 7:00 PM on the third Tuesday of the month at the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History on Montgomery Street. Guests and visitors are always welcome. FWAS Web Site FWAS E-Group send a blank to fwas-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to subscribe. Post messages to the group by sending to fwas@yahoogroups.com. Any message sent to fwas@yahoogroups.com will be automatically sent to all members of the list. Outreach items concerning FWAS Outreach activities should be addressed to FWAS Public Outreach Coordinator at fwasoutreach@yahoo.com Prime Focus The FWAS newsletter is published monthly. Letters to the editor, articles for publication, photos, or just about anything you would like to have included should be sent to: primefocus@fortworthastro.com. FWAS Annual Dues - $40 for adults / families, $20.00 for students; checks payable to Ft. Worth Astronomical Society; payments can be mailed to P.O. Box , Ft. Worth, TX or in-person at the next indoor meeting. Membership runs for 12 calendar months. Discount Subscriptions Available Sky & Telescope ($32.95), and Astronomy (1 year for $34.00; 2 years for $60.00). A Sky & Telescope subscription through FWAS entitles you to 10% off purchases at Sky & Telescope s on-line store Astronomical League Membership Your FWAS membership also enrolls you in the Astronomical League. This makes you eligible for various observing certificates and you get their quarterly magazine, The Reflector. On This Day (cont d) Gallery M27 Oct 19: Oct 21: Oct 29: Oct 30: 1910: born: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, American astrophysicist; he studied a wide range of stellar structure & dynamics, and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in The orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory is named in his honor. 1897: dedication of Yerkes Observatory, home of the world s largest refractor (40-inch) 1991: The space probe Galileo (US) takes the first close-up photograph of an asteroid. 1925: first televised transmission of a moving image... a grainy image of a ventriloquist s dummy s head... by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird; the phenomenon would come to be known as television. Astrophotographer: Matt Reed... taken with Orion 80ED telescope mounted on Celestron CG5-GT mount with a SBIG 7E camera; Camera control was done with CCDSoft V.5 and cleaned up in Photoshop elements. M27 and the Double Cluster in Perseus were two images each and the M103 was 1 one minute image binned 2x2. Page #7 of 8

Observing Site Reminders All members Be careful with fire Sign the logbook in the clubhouse Put equipment back neatly when finished Leave a log note if there is a club equipment problem; in addition,

8 Observing Site Reminders All members Be careful with fire Sign the logbook in the clubhouse Put equipment back neatly when finished Leave a log note if there is a club equipment problem; in addition, please contact an FWAS officer to let them know. Turn out the bathroom light and close the door tightly do NOT lock; leave the thermostat alone. Maintain Dark-Sky etiquette Turn out your headlights at the gate!! Last person out, please Turn off lights Check all doors closed, but not locked Make sure nothing is left out Chain the gate when departing site. Ft. Worth Astronomical Society P.O. Box Ft. Worth, TX Place Stamp Here Page #8 of 8

Binocular Outing. On-going Fire Hazards. Star Parties. March & April Meetings - Topics. Coordination of FWAS Events.

Binocular Outing. On-going Fire Hazards. Star Parties. March & April Meetings - Topics. Coordination of FWAS Events. Binocular Outing Ron DiIulio is putting together an outing oriented toward binocular observing... how to pick binoculars, how to view with binoculars, and what to view with binoculars. This outing will