Club website: Club Contact Phone:

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1 Alamogordo Astronomy Club June 2006 Newsletter Club website: Club Contact Phone: Club meetings are held on the third Friday of each month (except December). Business meeting at 7 p.m. with evening program beginning at 7:30 p.m. Meetings are held at the Hubbard Space Science Education Building at the New Mexico Museum of Space History. Club Meeting: June 16 Pre-meeting dinner will be at the Margo s Mexican Restaurant (located next to Walmart) 5:30 p.m. (Dutch treat). Program/Speaker: Chris Jones and Jack Dembicky Satellite Tracking Software. Constellation of the Month: Libra by Phil Simpson. Observing after the meeting observing if weather permits. President s Message: by Bob Unger This month I d like for all of you to think about spending some of your time volunteering to help out at some of the outreach functions. We have a core group of about 6-8 people that do all of this and we are tired! We need some of you to step up and help. This month starts our shuttle camp star parties. These events help us to fulfill our MOU requirements. The MOU is an agreement the club has with NMMSH that allows us to meet at the Hubbard every month, store our stuff in the DIMM Dome on Museum property and gives us some services that we would otherwise have to pay for. Without this in place it would cost us more than $250 to use the meeting room for one meeting! We also need people to do Night Sky Network activities at these star parties as well as other events happening throughout southern New Mexico. The network gives us access to outreach and instructional materials on a variety of Astronomical topics geared for the public and beginning astronomers. Our access depends on our utilizing the materials 5 times per year. So far this year no events have been posted.

2 I know we all have busy lives and sometimes can t find the time to do the things we want to do, but your club really needs your help. Remember some of these events may increase our membership as more of the public discovers Astronomy. The events committee calendar is in the files section on the Yahoo group. Look it over and see if there is anything you might be able to help with. Ballot results from the May 19 meeting: 1. Should the club buy a PST, Personal Solar Telescope? * Yes 23 No 6 2. The PST bought should be a; * Single Stack Telescope $ Double Stack Telescope $ Abstain 5 3. Should the club restore to the Bylaws the following sentence A member may be dropped from the club s membership roster by a 2/3 vote of the membership after a show of due cause.? * Yes 19 No 4 Abstain 2 Desert Starlight Astronomy Weekend at Brantley Lake State Park Brantley Lake State Park is hosting its third annual Desert Starlight Astronomy Weekend on Friday, June 16th through Sunday, June 18th. Brantley Lake State Park offers dark desert skies and wonderful camping facilities along the shores of Brantley Lake in southeastern New Mexico. All astronomers are welcome and the management at Brantley Lake State Park is offering to waive camping fees for Friday and Saturday nights for the first seven astronomers who register to participate. Participating astronomers must bring their own telescopes and be willing to set them up for Public viewing on Friday and Saturday night. To register, call Shane Phipps or Susan Hager at Brantley Lake State Park at beginning May 15th, Contact persons: Kathryn Jones (505) or Shane Phipps (505) This event is sponsored by the Roswell Astronomy Club. Upcoming Events June 15 Star Party for NSO Solar Physics School. Sunspot Astronomy and Visitors Center. Pizza provided for those who bring scopes. Dinner at 6 p.m. Set-up at the Sunspot Astronomy and Visitors Center 7 p.m. Observations at dusk. Limited power available for drives. (Bring your own extension cord.) Contact Jackie Diehl at jdiehl@nso.edu for information/rsvp. June 16 June Club Meeting HSSEB, NMMSH. 7 p.m. business meeting/program begins at 7:30 p.m. June 20 June 23 (FRIDAY) Club Member Star Party: Jackie Diehl s House Coronal Loop, Sunspot, NM Potluck BBQ at 6 p.m. (Bring your own meat and a dish to pass.) Observing at 8 p.m. June 27 July 19 July 21 June Club Meeting HSSEB, NMMSH. 7 p.m. business meeting/program begins at 7:30 p.m. July 26

3 Alamogordo Astronomy Club speaker presents at American Astronomical Society Annual meeting Ancient rock art may depict exploding star: By Ker Than SPACE.com Tuesday, June 6, 2006; (SPACE.com) -- A rock carving discovered in Arizona might depict an ancient star explosion seen by Native Americans a thousand years ago, scientists announced today. If confirmed, the rock carving, or "petroglyph" would be the only known record in the Americas of the well-known supernova of the year The carving was discovered in White Tanks Regional Park just outside Phoenix, in an area believed to have been occupied by a group of Native Americans called the Hohokam from about 500 to 1100 A.D. The finding is being announced today at the 208th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Calgary, Canada. Night light In the spring of 1006, stargazers in Asia, the Middle East and Europe recorded the birth of a "new star" above the southern horizon of the night sky, in the constellation Lupus, just south of Scorpio. Unknown to them, what those ancient astronomers were actually witnessing was the swan song of a star as it blew itself apart in a violent explosion called a supernova. Although nearly invisible today, the supernova of 1006, or SN 1006, was perhaps the brightest stellar event ever to occur in recorded human history. At its peak, the supernova was about the quarter the brightness of the moon, so radiant that people could have read by its light at midnight, scientists say. The Hohokam petroglyph depicts symbols of a scorpion and stars that match a model showing the relative positions of the supernova with respect to the constellation Scorpius. The model was created by John Barentine, an astronomer at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico and Gilbert Esquerdo, a research assistant at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona. "If confirmed, this discovery supports the idea that ancient Native Americans were aware of changes in the night sky and moved to commemorate them in their cultural record," said Barentine, who studies Southwest archeology as a hobby. Astronomer by day Barentine thinks the finding could also help archeologists date other petroglyphs in the Southwest and elsewhere in the world. Dating art made by prehistoric Native Americans has traditionally been difficult because many did not have a written language and shared little in common with the culture and folklore of tribes that came later. "Quantitative methods such as carbon-14 dating are alternative means to assign ages to works of prehistoric art, but they lack precision of more than a few decades, so any depiction in art that can be fixed to a specific year is extremely valuable," Barentine said. A similar petroglyph discovered near Penasco Blanco in Chaco Canyon National Monument, New Mexico is also believed to represent a supernova, but one that occurred later, on July 4, (Editor s Note: Barentine (a former Alamogordo Astronomy Club member) presented the November 2005 program for the Alamogordo Astronomy Club. In early August, he will begin a PhD program in Astronomy at the University of Texas/Austin. Esquerdo is currently working as an observational specialist at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Both are avid amateur astronomers besides being employed in the industry.)

4 Pictures from the May Backyard Star Party By Jack Dembicky Logitech Quickcam 4000 Software used to capture: K3CCDTools Processing software: Registax 3.0

5 Greg s Sky Corner by Greg Crinklaw Jupiter is a great target this month, shining brightly high in the southern sky as twilight ends (just before 10 PM). Observing satellite events is great fun! Events visible this month include occultations (where the satellite passes behind the planet) s (where the satellite passes into Jupiter s shadow), transits (where the satellite passes in front of Jupiter) and best of all, shadow transits (where the shadow of the satellite can be seen on Jupiter). I ve listed the dates and times when these events will be visible below. This is also a good time for Deep Sky observing before the summer monsoon season gets into full swing. New moon is June 24, with good dark evening viewing from June 14 June 26. Great objects for any telescope at this time of year are the galaxies M101 and M51, the globular cluster M3, and the nice double stars 29 Boo and 44 Boo. For those who wish to go a little deeper, I suggest the high-surface-brightness planetary nebula NGC Be sure to use high magnification to make out its small disk and look for a blue or green color. Faint Satellite Challenge Report In late May I met Bill Galther at his home and we observed with his 20 Obsession. Even though Jupiter s faint moon Himalia was very poorly situated close to the glare of the planet we had a try for it. For a while we thought we had spotted the 15 th magnitude moon, but we had been fooled by a very similar grouping of stars farther from the planet. We tried again the next night with my 18 but as expected Himalia proved to be too close to Jupiter for observation. We learned quite a bit in the process, and obtained an estimate of the distance from Jupiter that is required to spot such a faint satellite. We are very encouraged that Himalia will be observable soon, perhaps even in June. Himalia will continue to move away from Jupiter until late this summer, at which time it should be observable in a 10 telescope. We are still working on ways to dim Jupiter so we might spot Amalthea, which is always hidden in the glare of the great planet. If you are interested in joining our project, please contact me at greg@skyhound.com. Newsletter seeks submissions: With the ability to include as much text/art as we want, I encourage all of you to submit your club photos, astrophotography, tidbits, etc. for publication in the newsletter. I m thinking of adding a section for recommended links to helpful astronomical and educational sites. I m also considering a section for a Trading Post for equipment and swaps. This skies the limit! Sky Events June July q Jun 10 11:49p Europa Transit q Jun 11 01:29a Europa Shadow Transit q Jun 11 12:04p Full Moon q Jun 12 01:52a Ganymede Occulted by Jupiter q Jun 12 08:35p Europa Eclipsed by Jupiter q Jun 12 09:53p Europa Reappears q Jun 13 03:24a Io Shadow Transit q Jun 13 10:35p Io Occulted by Jupiter q Jun 14 01:38a Io Reappears from Eclipse q Jun 14 09:52p Io Shadow Transit q Jun 15 01:24p Mars and Beehive 14' apart q Jun 15 08:09p Ganymede Shadow Transit q Jun 16 02:51a June Lyrids peak q Jun 16 08:54a Pluto Opposition q Jun 18 02:11a Europa Transit q Jun 18 04:05a Europa Shadow Transit q Jun 18 08:09a Third Quarter Moon q Jun 20 12:28a Europa Reappears from q Jun 20 02:11p Mercury Greatest Eastern Elongation q Jun 21 12:23a Io Occulted by Jupiter q Jun 21 11:47p Io Shadow Transit q Jun 22 08:03p Ganymede Transit q Jun 22 10:01p Io Reappears from q Jun 23 12:09a Ganymede Shadow Transit q Jun 25 10:06a New Moon q Jun 26 10:21p Europa Occulted by Jupiter q Jun 27 07:55a June Bootids peak q Jun 28 08:01p Europa Shadow Transit q Jun 29 01:42a Io Shadow Transit q Jun 29 08:40a (2) Pallas Opposition q Jun 29 08:40p Io Occulted by Jupiter q Jun 29 11:41p Ganymede Transit q Jun 29 11:56p Io Reappears from q Jun 30 08:10p Io Shadow Transit q Jul 3 10:38a First Quarter Moon q Jul 4 12:46a Europa Occulted by Jupiter q Jul 5 08:17p Europa Transit q Jul 5 10:38p Europa Shadow Transit q Jul 6 10:31p Io Occulted by Jupiter q Jul 7 10:05p Io Shadow Transit q Jul 10 09:03p Full Moon q Jul 10 09:10p Ganymede Eclipsed by Jupiter q Jul 10 11:16p Ganymede Reappears from q Jul 12 10:47p Europa Transit q Jul 13 01:15a Europa Shadow Transit q Jul 14 12:22a Io Occulted by Jupiter q Jul 14 02:46a (10) Hygiea Opposition q Jul 14 09:30p Europa Reappears from q Jul 14 09:36p (29) Amphitrite Opposition q Jul 14 11:59p Io Shadow Transit Let me know your thoughts and we ll see how to include them! - Jackie