Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society

by Liam McDaid

January 2010 had the largest gathering of astronomers ever. The American Astronomical Society had its 215th winter session in Washington DC. I saw many old comrades of my graduate student days along with local heroes like Ken Crawford. I haven’t been to a AAS meeting in twenty years and I felt I was due. Many of us were expecting major new announcements about discoveries in astronomy. Kepler has been flying for six months and some of its data was reduced. Sadly, much of the data remains to be analyzed at this time by its overworked team.

Still, some planet discoveries were confirmed and announced. Several of them are yellow hot, and one of them has the density of styrofoam… that’s a record. I can only imagine such a planet as a disintegrating diffuse gas giant breaking up from the heat and tidal forces so close to its star. No planets within the habitable zone of their star were announced. Remember that the habitable zone (or habzone) of a star is the area around the star where liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet or moon. Note that this isn’t guaranteed, the Moon is well within the habzone of the Sun, and yet no liquid water exists there. For a planet that orbits within the habzone of its star, many odd yet awesome scenarios can exist for habitable worlds. Imagine an Earth sized world orbiting a world like Saturn. Possible? Yes. If the giant moon were well outside the rings it would be relatively safe and perhaps even insulated from major asteroid impacts. Imagine a warm Titan, with a transparent atmosphere. Chesley Bonestell lives again!

A styrofoam planet is still a little freaky. I’m waiting for the opposite extreme – a planet with the density of iron or silver. So far, such planets only exist in the realm of science fiction yet they are possible. Kepler will return information on over 100,000 stars during its run. How many of them have Earth-sized planets? How many of them have planets at all? These are vital questions that we must have the answers to before we can gain any idea about how many places may have life. Or intelligence. Or technology.

We are near a new spring. As it continues, we have three planets to view: Mars, Venus and (later) Saturn. Think of the diversity of just these three then compare that to the almost unimaginable differences between the millions of planets we have yet to find. If they’re there.

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by Forrest Lockhart

Welcome to Meridian, a new column highlighting one or two celestial objects found on or near the meridian line during the month. Merriam-Webster defines the meridian as “a great circle of the celestial sphere passing through its poles and the zenith of a given place”. So each month the object we’ll be observing may be located by pointing your scope somewhere along that invisible north-to-south line. For instance, February might find us scanning the constellation Auriga (aw-RYE-gah) for one of three beautiful open clusters, M36, M37, and M38, located within or just outside of that well-known stellar pentagon.

Observations of the featured objects will be made primarily with my trusty 4” F/5.4 refractor, with some occasional peeks through my 12” Dob for verification of faint detail. But the main objective will be to find, observe, and describe some of the truly beautiful and interesting objects to be found with lightweight, easily transported telescopes. The 4” refractor might be used on either an alt-azimuth or a German equatorial mount, neither of which has GoTo capability. So if you are similarly equipped, being able to locate the objects by star-hopping will be part of the challenge. If you are blessed with GoTo, join the party anyway!

To successfully star-hop you will need a good set of star charts. After trying, and buying, a wide variety of charts over the years, I urge you to purchase Sky & Telescope’s Pocket Sky Atlas, by Roger W. Sinnott. This is a neat 6 ½” x 9” spiral-bound gem with over 80 pages of easy-to-read charts printed on dewproof paper that promises to last a good many years of outdoor use. Most of the deep sky objects I’m able to observe are found within the Sky Atlas. S&T sells it for about $20.00, plus shipping, but I suggest that you obtain it on Amazon.com. I purchased mine there for about $15.00, plus shipping.

I hope that you will E-mail your favorite or most challenging objects to me a month or so before publication. I will select an object with the most interest shown by your input, grab my refractor, and go out in search of the faint fuzzy. The next issue will record what I was able to observe and some interesting facts about the object. By the time you read this, March will be the featured month.

I’m looking forward to writing Meridian and hope you will take an active part in selecting the featured celestial objects for each month. So send your suggestions to me at forrest.lockhart@sbcglobal.net and let’s find some fuzzies!

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by Liam McDaid, SVAS President

When I consider all the things that have happened in the past year, I am both distressed and pleased. I’m distressed because our volunteer base has eroded away to a small number of focused energetic people. I’m pleased in that the situation seems to be changing. Perry Preston Porter (or P^3) has taken point in organizing a party to refurbish Blue Canyon as resources permit. As the new Observatory Director I would like to commend his involvement, energy, and enthusiasm to this vast undertaking. Chris Hulbe has stepped down as Newsletter editor for personal reasons and our very capable former Director of Outreach, Lynda Hall, is taking over as editor. We are all fortunate for her continuing efforts and energy.

2010 is a year that may well be a turnaround for the SVAS (for the better). We have more newbies than I have seen in some time. The Board is well aware that our efforts to focus on inreach have not been as strong as they should. Our hope is that we can restart some programs dedicated to SVAS’ers just starting out. I will remind the membership again that if you don’t step up, then prepare to be disappointed. We are a volunteer organization – no one  gets paid for what they do here. Watch for the return of the Messier Group and First Light activities. Better yet, volunteer to help out or mentor such resurgences (not that I will mention any names, Forrest).

We are also trying to finally get the newsletter out to our entire membership by emailing them. Although the newsletter will always be available on our website, many folks don’t know when a new one has come out. We hope to have this service soon at a reasonable rate for our budget.

We also have a new focuser for the infamous RC at Blue Canyon. Once the snow has dropped to the point that the survivors of the last expedition there are recovered (joke), we hope to install this fine piece of equipment. Blue Canyon may very well undergo a revitalization this year, or at least that is my hope.

I will not be running for re-election as President of the SVAS, as promised. We may likely have a contested election for the Board, so be sure to show up in March and vote. It really matters. I will stay on the Board as Past President and expect to work with the incoming officers whom you will vote on this March. I have no plans to be an absentee Past President.

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Help Wanted!

     Got a little time on your hands?  The SVAS could use your help. SVAS President Liam McDaid has not only succeeded in keeping the boat afloat during difficult times, he’s also working on getting the SVAS revved up for the upcoming year. The board is poised to bring a fresh round of new and renewed programs and services to its members. The Messier Group is being reformed and revamped as an expanded forum, the observatory dome has been repaired for our viewing pleasure and the First Light Team has already started helping those who need it.

     Great things are happening and they’re happening because a few people stepped up to help out. Imagine what the SVAS would be like if quite a few more people stepped up. We need you to do just that. All of these programs are member-driven. They are for and created by SVAS members. This is a hands-on amateur astronomy club, we learn by doing. Sometimes, in order to do, we have to work to get something- a repaired dome, for example. There is much more to do up at HGO to get it in shape to truly enjoy it. Hopefully, the repairs will be made before Star-B-Q. The Star-B-Q committee will also need help to make this a really fun event for everyone. We need help with Community Star Parties and Astronomy Day. The Astro-Challenge Group (formerly the Messier Group) and the First Light Team (which helps newbies and other people who have a problem with their scopes) could use more member support.

We could use some technical help, newsletter help, financial planning help, Astronomy Boot Camp planning help, Resources (the stuff we sell to raise funds) help. You name it- we could use your help with it!

 As our President said when he ran for that office, the SVAS is only as good as its members make it. So let’s make this a great year and get involved! It’s fun and the people are cool (ok, Forrest is questionable).

Here’s some contact info to get you started, if you don’t see anything you’re interested in, just tell us what you’d like to do:

Observatory Director          Perry Preston Porter                perryprestonporter@yahoo.com

Community Star Parties

First Light Team

Astro-Challenge Group        Tom Silver                               tandbsilver@aol.com

                                           Forrest Lockhart                      forrest.lockhart@sbcglobal.net

Star-B-Q                              Molly Gallagher                        mollyg2006@yahoo.com

Membership                        Ross Gorman                            rossgorman@aol.com

                                           Tom Silver                                tandbsilver@aol.com

Resources                           Ross Gorman                            rossgorman@aol.com

                                           Walt Heiges                             weheiges@aol.com

Outreach/Astro. Day          Lynda Hall                                 lyndahall@surewest.net

Newsletter

First Light

Financial Planning w/ Ross and Kirk

Astronomy Boot Camp

Everything else                  Anybody on the board

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E-Observer by lynda

Welcome to the 2010 Community **Star*Party** season. We held our first school **star*party** on the 30th of January, at Edward Harris Middle School in North Elk Grove. Besides myself, Pierre was the only other volunteer that was able to make it that night. I did hear from many of the other regular volunteers, but for various reasons they could not come that night.

Things still worked out ok. Pierre brought two telescopes, an 8inch SCT, and his C11. I had my Meade LX90, 12” SCT setup for the viewing pleasure of the students and other visitors. I estimate about 150 students and guests showed up for the event. The weather was on our side for a change, it rained for almost the whole week leading up to Saturday’s **star*party**, then we had a break for the 30th, and then back to the inclement weather on Sunday, so we need to thank the weather gods for such a wonderful night.

With only three scopes being set up the lines were at times somewhat longer then usual. The people took it in stride and it appears everyone had a great time. Pierre trained his 8” SCT on the edge of the moon and left it tracking all night long. The moon was very bright because 97% of the surface was illuminated that night. A bit of trivia for you, the Full Moon on Friday the 29th, was the brightest Moon for the entire year of 2010, did you miss it???

With his C11, Pierre showed many different targets during the night. Say what you want about GoTo scopes, but they do work well in the city where you can’t see that many stars to help you navigate the sky and find that DSO you’re looking for. A big hit that night was when Pierre trained his C11 on the Andromeda Galaxy; people were wowed with the thought of looking out of our own Milky Way Galaxy and seeing our sister Galaxy that is 2.2 million light years away. To really bring an understanding of how far away Andromeda is, I told them that the light from our Sun takes about roughly six minutes to get to Earth, since it’s about only 93 million miles away, compared to 2,200,000 years for Andromeda’s light to reach us. With the Moon being almost full and Oh So Bright, only the Galactic Core was visible, but no one seemed to mind.

I had my Meade pointed at the Great Nebula in Orion, it was showing up well considering how bright the night was. What really surprised lots of people is when I asked about the four stars that form the small square (ok, it’s close to a square if you squint a bit) in the center of the nebula- they were so taken by the nebula, that’s all they were seeing!

Turns out the **star*party** was also a “First Light” night, too. Some of the guests had brought the telescopes they got for X-mas; want a challenge, try putting together a telescope you have never seen before. Oh, and do it in the dark with a dim red light- what could be more fun?

Let me invite any of you that have never attended a school star party before to give it a try, I can guarantee you a good time. But, I must warn you, it can be additive, and I’m the only **star*party** pusher in town. Here are the dates and places that are on the calendar as of now:

Edward Harris Middle School, January 30th; completed successfully.
Kohler Elementary School, February 11th, CANCELLED
Phoebe Hearst Elementary School, February 18th
Heritage Oak Elementary School, February 23rd
Cub Scouts, Troop #57, March 9th
Robert J. Fite Elementary School, March 18th
Irene B. West Elementary School, April 22nd
Deer Creek, August 14th
Stay tuned, I am sure more dates will be added as the year progresses.

If you would like to VOLUNTEER for one, some, or all of the dates let me know at perryprestonporter@yahoo.com

ppp

Perry Preston Porter
Community Star Party Coordinator

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