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052011 COVER 2C.Pub THE OBSERVER The Astronomy Club of Tulsa’s Newsleer Published Since 1937 RON WOOD BRAD YOUNG ANN BRUUN JOHN LAND K.C. LOBRECHT STEVE CHAPMAN ROD GALLAGHER JERRY MULLENNIX SPECIAL EDITION www.astrotulsa.com All Rights Reserved Copyright 2011 Astronomy Club of Tulsa. MAY 2011 CONTENTS THE COVER The cover: If your We added several new secons last month wondering and will test some others over the summer. If what's wrong you have an idea or a suggeson for the Ob‐ with the moon server by all means shoot me an email. jer‐ then you have a [email protected] good eye, that’s the back side of our moon over a distorted view from Mt. Everest. The lunar farside as never seen before! LROC WAC orthographic projecon centered at 180° longitude, 0° latude. Credit: NASA/ ACT New Members Goddard/Arizona State University. Read more RECENT NEW MEMBERS in this issue: The Far Side of the Moon— And All The Way Around. 1. Kevin Pargeter Weather is warming up and spring summer 2. Kenneth Weikel star party’s are about to fire up in the Tulsa 3. Cody Lawson area. Many of you have telescopes that have been in the dark of the closet biding there 4. Jefferson Davis me unl this moment. Well its me to aach 5. Paul hailes all of the gizmos you have purchased through the long winter months and head up. 6. Eric Kingery Weather your interest in astronomy is person‐ WELCOME BACK MEMBERS al, casual or you are trying to achieve cerfi‐ 1. Rick and Peggy Walker cates or contribute to the science. My goal as the editor of the Observer is to provide as 2. Damon Green much useful informaon about astronomy in Tulsa as I possible can. 1 1 THE OBSERVER THE OBSERVER IS EDITED & PUBLISHED BY: JERRY MULLENNIX By: Jerry Mullennix I would like to carve out a lile space in this months news‐ to Tulsa with a neat lile arcle about his me down under. leer to say a few things. It wasn’t easy to find space because we had more contribuons to this months newsleer than John and Ann connue to make sacrifices of their me and we have had in a long, long me. WOW 40 pages this month have contributed much of what you read in the Observer and and I cut 8 pages including my own four page arcle As The if you see any of these people on the observing field please Dome Turns, (look for it in June) sorry John best I could do. I join me in giving them a special thank you. hope this is an indicaon of things to come for our club. Others like K.C. Lobrecht and Steve Chapman have been in‐ As 2011 rolled in our lile newsleer had ceased to be pub‐ strumental with their contribuons as well several others lished and things looked a lile grim when I came back as the you will see in this issue. Editor with no schedules being met and interest in the Ob‐ server seemed like it had seen its best day. John Land was With that said you should know there is sll plenty of room passing info on with a well thought out email but it was not a for improvement and more contribuons from you. Remem‐ good substute for a monthly newsleer. ber, the Observer is about you and by you so its only as good as those who contribute make it. I did a quick re‐design and replaced the standard info we were publishing with what I hoped was things of interest to As the summer observing months creep in and you get a our club. In the beginning it was mostly John Land, Ann Brunn great night of viewing take a lile me the next morning to and myself trying to fill an enre newsleer because we be‐ write about your experience and shoot it to me in email lieved even with all of the informaon on the internet our form. [email protected] club needed a publicaon specific to our group. Just like that you will find yourself in print. Don’t be sur‐ Last Month Ron Wood from TUVA jumped on board as a reg‐ prised at the next Star Party if people don’t crowd around ular with a style of wring only someone with Ron’s years of and ask you to elaborate and tell you how much they enjoyed astronomy could add. This month Brad Young brings Australia your arcle. When you point something out in the sky folks will listen to what you say. Aer all you’re a published astron‐ omy writer, you must be right. Since the Message From the President has tradionally been on this page I want to bring your aenon to our meeng this month as it’s the last for the summer season. If your looking for the Message From the President it has been moved to the back of the Newsleer with the rest of the club business informaon. May 20th Meeng at TCC Metro Campus Astronomy club meeng Seismologist Ausn Holland from OU will speak on "Past and Present Earthquakes in Oklahoma: recent observed increases in the number of earthquakes". He will be talking about new observaons of seismicity paerns within the state and discussing the implicaons of the recently observed increase in the number of earthquakes within Oklahoma. " hp://www.okgeosurvey1.gov/pages/home.php 1 THE OBSERVER 2 MAY FEATURES CONTENTS 5 NGC 3972 Jerry Mullennix 6 Adventures In OZ Brad Young 10 Musings On Astronomical Catalogs Ron Wood Adventures in OZ By Brad Young Tulsa 12 Hopping Around Berenice’s Hair Ann Bruun goes to Australia Page 6 15 Moon Sun Moons John Land 19 Best Laid Plans Ann Bruun 21 The Far Side of The Moon and All [email protected] the Way Around Musings On Astronomical Catalogs By 23 Astronomy Calendar SeaSky.org Ron Wood Page 10 25 Toy Box 28 Vesta Update NASA 29 Astronomy Frequently Asked Ques‐ SeaSky.org ons 35 Observatory Report John Land John Land explains the moons of the Moon and the Sun Page 15 36 ACT Meeng Minutes Tamra Green 37 Message From the President Owen Green 38 Land Tidbits John Land Ann Bruun bales with Sue French in Sextan Page 19 To make room for others I cut As The Dome Turns this month but look for my arcle in June when I give my interpretaon of Eyepiec- es in As The Dome Turns 3 THE OBSERVER EVENTS EVENT PROGRAM WHERE DATE TIME May Meeng Seismologist Ausn Holland TCC Metro Campus‐ 5‐20‐2011 7:00 PM from OU will speak on "Past Philips Auditorium and Present Earthquakes in Oklahoma SideWalk Astronomy Public RiverWalk Crossing 5‐21‐2011 8:30 PM May Star Party Public ACT Observatory 5‐27‐2011 8:30 PM June Star Party Members Only ACT Observatory 6‐3‐2011 8:30 PM SideWalk Astronomy Public RiverWalk Crossing 6‐18‐2011 8:30 PM TCC Metro Campus ‐ Philips Auditorium Located in Building 2 at the corner of 9th and Cincinna. Park in Lot 5 to the north on Boston Ave. 1 THE OBSERVER 4 By: Jerry Mullennix On 4‐29‐2011 a report of a super nova was filed: PSN J11554556+5519338, a possible Type Ia supernova, has been detected in NGC 3972, a 12th‐magnitude galaxy in Ursa Major. It's cur‐ rently magnitude 14.2 and brightening. (inial report) Over the following week a flurry of emails went around several members of ACT (actually info went around the world on this one) and sever‐ 5‐03‐2011 al of our group made aempts at seeing the super nova. K.C. Lobrecht made several gallant aempts from her house south of Tulsa as well as many others. GALLAGHER The problem for most was Mag 12 in Ursa Ma‐ jor was a near impossibility for visual through ROD the Tulsa sky glow. For me it was living in Tulsa BY itself and most acvity taking place during the work week. However, I followed K.C and Rod PHOTO with great ancipaon of any kind of report. ROD GALLAGHER TO THE RESCUE Rod Gallagher was able to photograph the SN and submied these photos. 5‐06‐2011 These were taken 3 days apart and without a doubt Rod captured the Super Nova PSN J11554556+5519338 These are great images with the Super Nova just above the galaxy Rod clearly caught these GALLAGHER aer it had brightened from the inial report of Mag 14 because in both photos the SN is ROD BY brighter than the galaxy core itself. NGC 3972 is a Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major with a Visual Magnitude of +12.31 and Apparent PHOTO Size of 3.6 X 1.0 at RA 11.939252h and Dec +55.255871 0 5 THE OBSERVER BY: BRAD YOUNG I’ve been asked a few mes about my get in to a full tour and despite losing and comfortable, the people are won‐ trips to Australia. The short version I my passport a week before the trip derful, and the skies are spectacular. have given so far is that there is no way (found, incidentally, preparing for this They do talk a bit funny, and they drive to describe the beauty of the skies, the year’s trip), I was able to go and had the on the wrong side, but otherwise, it is a friendliness of the hosts, the seamless me of my life.
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