Volume 14, Issue 6 MARCH MEETING: A MATTER April 2007 OF GRAVITY!

Hamilton Amateur Astrono- mers met at the Spectator Auditorium to pick up their copies of this month's EVENT HORIZON, to check in on swap tables and dis- plays at the back and to hear presentations by: Chairman Glenn Muller, re- viewing our club activities of the past month, including the very well-attended Total Lunar Eclipse event, first public night at the Discovery Centre. Glenn also outlined the upcoming Messier Mara- thon (best on March 17th) and the Members Night at the McCallion Planetarium, Friday 23 March. Ann Tekatch, announcing the passing of H.A.A.'s founding member and hon- ourary Chair, Jim Winger. Ann recalled her long asso- Tim Philp Spoke on Gravity ciation with Jim, his life-long service to the astronomy From The Editor’s Desk community and his quietly effective manner. Then she Well, winter is finally on its way out and April led us in a moment of si- showers are here. It is a time for the ‘fair- lence. weather astronomers” to start dusting off those telescopes and charts for the upcoming ob- Mike Jefferson, described serving season. the radio telescope equip- ment the club has received, Even better, how about writing an article for its connection to the world- the Event Horizon? Let us know what have you wide astronomy community, have been up to. and the results he hopes to Tim Philp, Editor Continued on page 2 Inside this issue: INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY DAY

HAMILTON AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Chair Report 3 Collimation Challenges 4 Saturday April 21, 2007 1pm to 4pm & The Future of Amateur Astronomy 6 7pm to 10pm The Parks Canada Dis- covery Center 47 Discovery Drive, Har- The Sky this Month Chart 12—13 bour West in Hamilton. RAIN OR SHINE. Sky This Month 7—10 FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Solar viewing during the afternoon, observ- Member of the Month 11 ing at night. (weather permiting) Thea- HAA Marketplace 13 ter Presentation (afternoon and eve-

Event Horizon ning) January Meeting (Continued)

achieve with its increased resolu- tation (see our TOOLS web page) urement of "universal gravitation", tion. showed it's easy to do half the examined its nature, its qualities, Marathon by 11 pm. application both on Earth and in Mike Spicer, with the Sky This space and its relativistic shortcom- Month, gave an intro for begin- After the Skywatch presentation, ings... all in just under an hour. ners, described March’s visible the youth among us drew stubs After the presentations ended at 9 planets, gave the position and for over half a dozen door prizes pm, members stayed around for a brightness expectations for Comet of hot gel packs and several while, talking together, looking at Encke and a few LP variable beautiful wall posters. It pays to displays, taking the "It's Free!" .Then Mike introduced us to arrive before 7:30 at the H.A.A. items and checking the sky (some Charles Messier's life and took us monthly meetings! had telescopes for observing in through the first half of the Messier the parking lot). Unfortunately it Marathon, object by object. He Tim Philp, our main speaker of was cloudy, so we drove to East advised which instrument should the night, presented on "Gravity". Side Mario's for a few hours of fun be used on each object, where Using several animations, Tim talk and feasting... Because... and when. His 18 minute presen- covered the historical develop- HAA IS A GREAT ASTRONOMY ment of the concept and meas- CLUB ! LOFAR II Need a great set of eyepieces? An Update by Mike Jef- ferson Mike Spicer has Celestron Plossl eyepiece kits available for sale. Con- The 'knockdown' workstation tact him at furniture is built and the work- [email protected] station is being configured at present. The supporting furniture is a unit purchased at Staples and built in PQ, Canada. It went together over a period of a few days with some hand tools, no hitches and with reasonable ef- fort. Once the workstation is configured and on board, the entire unit will be pushed into place in the computer room and attached to the internet and the receiving equipment. Beyond this will be the 'winding' of the radio 'objective', connecting it, the receiving equipment and the workstation, programming the workstation, testing the whole and fine tuning it. I have a lot to learn and do. Realistically, it should be up and running by the end of April or the middle of May. I will keep you apprised of how we are doing.

PAGE 2 EVENT HORIZON Chair’s Report by Glenn Muller

I came across an interesting tidbit I images onto a film canister. In- ing the unit closer to the LEM but thought I’d share because it illus- tended to image star clusters, the this reduced the FOV and cancelled trates how, no matter who you are Large Magellenic Cloud, nebulae, out two of his planned targets. or where you are, if your astronomi- and Earth’s upper atmosphere, it The battery used to run the unit cal pursuits involve setting up and would be the first telescope used to needed to be in sunlight which using equipment, we are all one for make observations from another meant a length of cable was re- the common experience. planetary body. Before it did so, quired. Cables are the bane of as- For instance, tronomers eve- when a rywhere and neighbour’s Young tripped porch light on his more comes on you than once. might have fan- Where we have tasized for just to be careful an instant not to breathe about picking on our lenses up your tele- to avoid fog- scope and tak- ging, the astro- ing it to the nauts had to . Well, tread carefully there is a fellow so as not to named John raise dust Young who has clouds. done that and Dressed in the here is his lunar version of story. Canadian win- In 1972, John ter wear there Young was the was also the Commander of unique problem Apollo 16, the that “out- fifth mission to gassing” could successfully contaminate land on the the shots, so Moon, and he Young had to was assigned move stealthily to operate the back and forth Far Ultraviolet Cam- however; Commander John Young between frames – not easily done era/Spectrograph. This instrument would have to “pay his observer’s in Moon boots! utilized a 3” telescope to gather im- dues”. In the end, though, his persistence ages and spectra at wavelengths Gold-plated for thermal control, the and perseverance paid off and 178 between 500 and 1600 Angstroms; imager would sit on a tripod in the useful exposures were brought wavelengths which do not penetrate shadow of the lunar excursion mod- back for study. While NASA praised Earth’s atmosphere and which ule (LEM). However, the landing the results, I think we’ll tip our hat to come, primarily, from hot stars of was delayed and we all know what Commander John Young for doing spectral classes O, B, and A, with it’s like to arrive late for a star party a remarkable job on the ultimate surface temperatures of 10,000° to and get a less than ideal spot. In field trip. Something to ponder next 50,000° K. Young’s case, he wound up on a time you consider observing on the Designed by astrophysicist George slope and had to sink two of the Moon. Carruthers, the unit had a 20° field tripod’s legs into the “soil” to be Clear skies! of view (FOV), could detect stars level. The slope also meant less down to magnitude 11, and record shadow. Young countered by mov-

VOLUME 14, ISSUE 6 PAGE 3 Curious Collimation Challenges by Hal Muller

Collimation is the process of ad- tred as indicated by the crosshairs. eral 48mm empty rings provided justing the components of a tele- Mine wasn’t. Using a Phillips by the distributor. To ensure that scope so that incoming rays of screwdriver and an Allen wrench, I the Chromacorr was collimated light are parallel to the optical axis. managed to “push-pull” the objec- regardless of the orientation of the Little did I know the role that colli- tive lens so that the two circles diagonal that housed it, I applied mation would play in the past three were concentric. However, they several layers of electrical tape at . were not centred no matter how I the tail end to ensure a snug fit On 26 August of 2003, I decided to tried. It did not occur to me that the within the drawtube. At last my buy a refractor after viewing Mars. focuser housing was not parallel to refractor was ready for observing As a result of surfing the Internet the light path of the telescope. the moon and planets. Although for a week or so I decided on a 6” In December of 2003 I acquired an the Chromacorr significantly re- achromatic, which typically dis- Intes diffraction grating to deter- duced false colour it did not com- plays chromatic aberration when mine via a start-test whether my pletely eliminate it, despite my ef- viewing very bright objects. I in- refractor was “neutral”,”over-” or forts. tended to upgrade the telescope at “under-”corrected with respect to A later, I purchased a William one-third the price of apochromatic spherical aberration as this would Optics rotateable focuser to elimi- performance by obtaining an nate repositioning the diago- Aries Chromacorr, which nal when switching between theoretically was supposed to observing targets. I per- eliminate false colour. suaded the salesperson to I purchased a new Sky- laser-collimate the focuser Watcher 6” achromatic colli- on the premises, but the matable refractor in Septem- best he could do was circu- ber and an Orion collimation larize the offset traced out tool often referred to as a when the focuser was ro- Cheshire “eyepiece”. It is an tated. Unfortunately, the Wil- eyepiece without any glass liam Optics focuser showed that has three openings. The no improvement and when it Cheshire is inserted into the was rotated, the finder drawtube of the refractor via a scope was no longer 1 ¼” eyepiece adapter. While aligned. Later I found out viewing through the peephole, that the mounting rail or light preferably from the , dovetail plate and tube rings or from a strong flashlight en- that secure the telescope to ters at 90 degrees to the an equatorial mount need to Cheshire. The light is reflected 90 determine which model of Chro- be collimated to maintain finder degrees by the built-in mirror to- macorr - N, U, or O - would be scope alignment by eliminating ward the opposite end of the tele- needed and the amount to be cor- cone error. Cone error results from scope that in turn reflects off the rected. As recommended by the the optical axis of the telescope objective cell back to the peep- designer of the Chromacorr I also not being parallel to the right as- hole. Cross hairs at the bottom of acquired an Intes 96% dielectric cension axis of such mounts. Cone the Cheshire are essential for colli- diagonal. The US distributor of the error of itself is not relevant to the mating a reflector, but not for a Chromacorr field-tested two of six optical performance of a telescope refractor. However, they do serve on hand that were suitable and I whether it be a refractor or reflec- a valuable purpose in refractors. purchased a S150 model that tor. However, only a cone error- A typical achromatic refractor showed the least colour. On my free computerized equatorial GoTo when collimated should show two return to Canada, knowing that the mount that is precisely leveled and reflected circles of differing sizes Chromacorr was extremely sensi- polar aligned can accurately track and colours when observing tive to the direction and length of objects after completion of a one- through the Cheshire peephole. the light path through its special star alignment. Collimation is achieved when the optical glass, I calibrated the Chro- In September of 2005 I bought an two circles are concentric and cen- macorr by experimenting with sev- Antares collimatable diagonal in

PAGE 4 EVENT HORIZON Collimation (continued) the hope of using it to compensate alternately rotated 90 degrees four positioned 180 degrees opposite for the misaligned focuser housing. times each (sixty-four separate the thumbscrew for observational Using a fine pen, protractor, and observations in total) to verify con- consistency. Why? ruler I drew two thin crosshair lines centricity. I repeated this proce- I had noticed that this gap shifted intersecting at 90 degrees onto a dure in 1¼” mode using a TeleVue in location after compression, com- semi-opaque 4” plastic container adaptor. No offset from centre pared to its location beforehand. cover to replace the Sky-Watcher’s measured in mm, nor deflection This shift also occurred in the com- dust cover’s 4” removable cap. I from centre measured in degrees pression ring in the focuser that used a Howie Glatter dual mode was observed in either mode. housed either a 2” eyepiece or laser collimator in 1 ¼” mode. By However, when I used an Orion diagonal. I had also observed that loosening and tightening the LaserMate laser it traced an ellipse the location with respect to the screws located on the exterior of whose offset varied from 0mm and thumbscrew and the size of the the mirror side I managed to cen- no deflection to 2mm with 225 de- compression ring gap had a no- ter the laser beam onto the cross- grees of deflection at its extreme! ticeable effect on increasing de- hairs. I was encouraged by a slight At this point I decided to use only flection amount. further reduc- The next task was tion in false to rotate the diago- colour on my nals then record next lunar ob- offsets and deflec- serving ses- tions occurring at 0 sion. and 180 degrees. In early Octo- The last task was ber, I became to rotate the adap- aware of a col- tors when mated limatable fo- with the error-free cuser by TeleVue diagonal. MoonLite spe- Observations were cifically de- recorded at 0 and signed to over- 180 degrees rota- come focuser tion after applying misalignment simultaneous rota- problems of tions of both the Synta refractors made in China the Howie Glatter laser. diagonal and adaptor. whose retail names include Sky- Many nights of unfavourable MoonLite adaptor was not rotate- Watcher, Celestron, and Orion. I weather during the winter of 2005- able because its thumbscrew loca- took possession and field-tested it 2006 provided an opportunity to tion prevented insertion into diago- as is on the evening of October 28 precisely collimate the Sky- nal. in Niagara Falls NY, by observing Watcher, Chromacorr, Antares, After weeks of collimating followed Mars. Not being able to collimate and MoonLite indoors. While doing by comparisons, the TeleVue di- the MoonLite focuser on the fly, I so, I decided to quantitatively com- agonal and 1¼” adaptor (#1) were collimated the Antares to the fo- pare my collection of accessories used at the first available observ- cuser instead. No change in false with the collimated Sky-Watcher ing opportunity of the moon. A colour. horizontally positioned: trace of false colour remained at- I proceeded to collimate the William Optics #2 came with the tributed to a known difference in MoonLite focuser. rotateable focuser. MoonLite adap- the distance the light path traveled I inserted my dual Glatter laser in tor came with the collimateable to the eyepiece through the ultra- 2” mode directly into the focuser focuser. Televue #2 came with a sensitive Chromacorr-diagonal whose push pull setscrews were 2X Televue PowerMate. mating. This disappointment iteratively adjusted until the laser changed to exhilaration when it shone on the intersection indicat- Whenever a compression ring was was completely eliminated upon ing successful collimation. The used (focuser, diagonal, and adap- using the collimated Antares di- laser, dust cover, and cap were tor) the gap was symmetrically agonal.

PAGE 5 EVENT HORIZON The Future of Amateur Astronomy by Mike Jefferson

This project brings to mind some see an apparent lack of enthusiasm Poor telescope sales have resulted thoughts about the general direction for do-it-yourself astronomy among in company closures and distress. of astronomy and amateur astron- young people. Not only do they not Tasco is now a memory. Celestron omy in particular. Where are we join astronomy clubs, they do not was saved only by the invention going re: the foreseeable future? If submit astronomy research or in- and the sales of the Sky Scout we look back over the past fifteen, vestigation to science fairs. Modern handheld 'planetarium'. People who or so, years, some rather interest- science fairs see a pathetic offering do not want to get involved with the ing trends are beginning to emerge. of astronomical entries. Most young techniques of using a telescope buy One of these is the shift away from people are not interested in staying a much cheaper device which lets backyard telescopes and the move- out at night with a backyard tele- them point to night sky objects and ment of the production of these scope, observing and logging data. learn about them. It is also upgrad- from traditional places of manufac- It is cold, hard work during most of able. The giant, Meade, has had ture to mainland China. Without the year in the northern hemi- sales troubles and the venerable getting into arguments about optical sphere. Consequently, the vast ma- Questar was saved only by indus- quality (optics from China are get- jority of them move on to other trial and professional sales and its ting better), we have seen the re- fields of investigation. The tele- takeover by the National Engineer- cent closure of Tasco, the near scope that was a Christmas gift ing and Manufacturing Company. bankruptcy of Celestron, the ru- ends up in the closet and is eventu- The three divisions of Ernst Leitz mours of troubles at Meade, the ally 'moved' at the spring garage (Leica) have had their own prob- takeover of Questar by NEMCO sale. More and more it becomes lems. The cost of producing top- and the closure of the dedicated apparent that youngsters with any quality equipment is the worst. It amateur-professional and profes- astrophysical interests in late high has withdrawn all sales outlets in sional divisions at Carl Zeiss. There school and university are coming to Canada. Canadian requests for are probably others that I know not them from a computer-based and/or equipment must be processed of. a more serious research-oriented through the U.S. by Canadian retail- First, let's look at the optical offer- 'agenda'. In many cases these in- ers with connections and the wait- ings from mainland China. Although terests are very narrow and may ing period is a long one. Leica this production does not quite only be marginally related to gen- never did make dedicated astro- match the general quality of tradi- eral knowledge astronomy. Many of nomical equipment but much of tional manufacturers, it is getting these students could not navigate what it sells is highly suitable for better. It had its origins in some the night sky with any competence that activity. Instead, it makes rec- pretty 'colourful' equipment, but and have never even used a tele- ommendations on its website as to much of that is a thing of the recent scope. Even Carl Sagan had no which of its items would be most past. It is, however, much cheaper interest in telescopic observation suitable to an amateur astronomer's and this is the strongest argument it whatsoever, other than the images needs. Carl Zeiss is in a similar has going for it today. It is repre- that were produced. Much of what situation after 161 years of highly sented on our shores through part- today's potential professional as- successful existence. Until 13 years nerships and takeovers or buyouts tronomers want can be found on ago it had an amateur-professional of companies like Celestron. Two of the internet. The other interesting division for small astronomical tele- its major tradenames are Synta and thing that emerges is the actual scopes. Until 4 years ago it had a Orion. These offshore manufactur- closeness of seemingly totally unre- professional division for large tele- ers produce good equipment and lated fields. Astrophysics graduates scopes. Both of those dedicated they are doing it in economies at join the ranks of computer program- astronomical divisions are now dis- about 3rd world scale. Their 'bird in mers or get good positions with sta- mantled. They were not competitive the hand' is that they are doing it tistics companies doing research on in a free-market economy. For- VERY affordably. Why would the insurance, etc. This can happen merly, Zeiss was a foundation. To- average potential telescope buyer because the skills in highly techni- day, it is a stockholding company pay dearly for a 4” domestic or cal fields are, more often than not, and has to be competitive. Astro- European refractor when he can get very closely related. However, the nomical telescope production does a 6” optic from mainland China for plain truth is that most kids today not lend itself very well to competi- about 1/3 of the cost? have very little interest in amateur tion. The market is small and unpre- Coupled with the movement of tele- astronomy as such. So, telescope dictable and Asia can build them scopic production to the Orient, we sales are down! (Continued on Page 12)

PAGE 6 EVENT HORIZON The Sky this Month—by Mike Spicer

Mercury The speedy planet is low in the pre-dawn East and moving toward conjunction with the Sun on May 2nd, after which it moves into the evening sky. On May 10th Mercury is just 2.5° S of M45, the Pleiades.

Venus The jewel of the evening sky is moving further E away from the Sun with each passing day. Venus is unmistakable at magnitude -4; on May 9th it will be just 2° N of M35. In a telescope the disk of Venus is gradually becoming less gibbous as its diame- ter increases.

Mars Rather inconspicuous at magnitude +1 and with a disk 5" in diameter, Mars is still low in the morning sky, moving through the . On April 28-29 Mars will be less than 1° from Uranus (making Uranus easier to find).

Jupiter Still very low on the in Ophiuchus, Jupiter will move less then 3° in the sky in the next month. The planet has become brighter at magnitude -2.3 and its disk is much larger now 41" across and continuing to grow as it nears op- position in June. Jupiter rises before midnight now, but stays low in the sky. The equatorial zone has been very turbulent and dark for the past few months, making the planet appear to have one giant equatorial belt in very small telescopes or un- der low magnification. May 14-16 the planet will seem to have another moon, as it comes close to 7th magnitude star HIP83629. On May 16th the planet will be only 1/2° N of globular cluster NGC6287. Transits of the Great Red Spot and of the Jovian are always interesting events to watch for. The GRS transits early in the morning on April 18, 23, 25, 30th and on May 2, 4, 7, 9 and 14th. Io is the moon nearest the planet; its transits and eclipses are frequent. Europa is well- placed for: Eclipse April 18 at 1:40 a.m.; Transit April 19th at 3:20 (this will be a double transit with Ganymede!); Transit April 27th (again with Ganymede's shadow) and a Transit on May 4th at 5 a.m.

Saturn: in Leo, still prominent in the evening southern sky at magnitude +0.4, the planet is brighter than nearby Regulus and appears noticeably yellow. The disk of the planet is 18" in diameter and the rings are still open enough to show the Cassini Division in small telescopes. Saturn is very bright and stands magnification well if the air is steady - try to identify the separate ring systems and spot the shadow of the planet on the E side of the rings. Observers like trying to spot as many moons of Saturn as possible. Any telescope will show the rings and the bright moon Titan. Tethys, Rhea and Dione are visible in 3" telescopes as tiny specks of light just outside the rings. Enceladus and Mimas are fainter and harder to see. Dur- ing the first week of May eccentric moon Iapetus will be close to Saturn if you're wanting to get a family group photo. On May 4th it passes 7" S of the planet.

PAGE 7 EVENT HORIZON The Sky th his Month The Sky this Month (Continued)

Uranus a 6th magnitude blue-green "star" just W of 4th magnitude Phi Aquarii, Ura- nus doesn't rise until shortly before the Sun. The Moon will be less than 1/2° N of Uranus on April 14th, and Mars will be just S of Uranus on April 28th. Observers with very large telescopes (or with smaller telescopes and imaging equip- ment) would do well to try to spot the 5 moons of Uranus. The moons orbit in a plane facing us, so they move in overlapping orbits, like the moons of Jupiter, except the moons of Ura- nus move N-S rather than E-W because the planet's axis it tilted. On 18 April a rare triple eclipse of Uranian moons will see Miranda emerge from behind the planet's 3" disk at 7 a.m., followed by Umbriel at 7:45 a.m. and Ariel at 8:06 a.m. That morning, 12th magnitude star GSC5249-124 will appear to pass between the planet and more distant moons Titania and Oberon - well worth watching! On 19 April at 6:20 a.m., Titania will come within a hair of occulting Umbriel. On April 29th Miranda and Titania will be only 2" apart; On May 4th Umbriel and Oberon will be less than 1" apart (try to split them with your scope).

Neptune: is a faint blue "star" of magnitude 7.8 in Capricornus. Its 2.2" diameter disk is visible in small telescopes. If you are up just before dawn on April 15th, the 11th magnitude asteroid Urania is only 2' S of the planet. Neptune has two moons visible in larger telescopes: 13th magnitude Triton has an almost circular orbit 12" away from Neptune, while 18th magnitude Nereid (which I have never seen) orbits with ex- treme eccentricity. On May 8th the 14th magnitude star GSC5799-573 will be occulted by Neptune. The event starts at 3:30 a.m. with the planet 7° above the horizon and ends at 5:20 a.m. with Neptune 24° above the horizon. Well worth watching!

Comets! Comet Encke Last month I mentioned Comet Enke, discovered by Mess- ier's colleague Pierre Méchain over 200 years ago. The comet was then in the western sky just after sunset, quite faint at magnitude 11. It has be- come much brighter over the last month but is still difficult to see in binocu- lars.

On 15 April the comet is between 5th magnitude stars Chi and Rho Arietis (appropriate for Eastertime); on 18 April it will be very close to 6th magnitude HIP13786 and if you have a go-to scope (or good setting cir- cles), RA 2h 57m Dec +16° 18'. On April 26 the comet, now starting to de- scend towards the horizon, will be 1/2° E of 4th magnitude Mu Ceti. WE are hoping that the comet will reach 4th magnitude... but you never know, last fall Comet SWAN suddenly brightened overnight by 3 magnitudes, and that was without the US throwing a copper plate at it.

PAGE 10 EVENT HORIZON The Moon This Month by Mike Spicer

Last Quarter 10 April New Moon: 18 April First Quarter: 24 April Full Moon: 2 May Lunar Events: 15 April before sunrise, a very slim crescent Moon will be 1.2° N of Uranus 19 April after sunset, a very slim crescent Moon will be between Venus and the Pleiades - a great opportunity for a group photo. 23 April the Moon will occult 3rd magnitude Kappa Geminorum 24 April: the First Quarter Moon will spoil your chance to observe nearby Saturn May 10th the Moon will be 2.5° S of Neptune, which won't help finding Neptune at all. May 10th at 4:46 a.m. the Moon will occult mag. 2.8 Gamma Capricorni (easy to find)

Member of the Month—Alex Tekatch—by Glenn Muller

Now my choice for member of the couple more? would be overwhelmed month may still be working on her first by an astronomy club One of the highlights Solar Cycle, however; Alex Tekatch is meeting, and not many of our monthly meet- technically the only regular attendee eight-year-olds are will- ings is the door prize who has been a member of the Ham- ing to put up with a room draw. Although I refer ilton Amateur Astronomers for their full of grown-ups, but if to her as the Vanna entire life. Ann or Bill can make a White of the HAA, meeting Alex usually The daughter of HAA founding mem- Alex handles the job comes along, wearing bers, Ann & Bill Tekatch, Alex may of picking winners something pink, and al- not remember much about her first with aplomb. In a ways displaying a smile. meetings, but as I have watched this clear voice she calls young lady grow it is evident she is out the numbers and Naturally, we hope that absorbing information. manages to keep me astronomy will be a life- from getting the stubs long interest to her and The fact that whole sections of the mixed up. with her parents as role meeting are sometimes complex models, not to mention phase her not at all – she just pulls Another comment their excellent home ob- out her coloured pencils and passes visitors frequently servatory, all the ele- the time making sketches, often with make is how willing ments are there. While I an astronomical theme. I have been we are to share our certainly wouldn’t wish the lucky recipient of Alex Tekatch knowledge and equip- for a quick passage of originals in the form of a birthday ment. We each have time, I am certainly looking forward card, drawn on the spot with more our areas of expertise and Alex’s is to seeing Alex Tekatch become talent than I ever displayed at her relating to the youngsters whether it Chair of the HAA, and all her other age, and a planetary reference sheet be making cocoa craters with elastic successes. which I keep handy in my observing bands or sharing views of the Moon bag in case I forget the order of the and brighter planets with her own But don’t be growing up too fast, my Solar System – which reminds me, Edmunds Astroscan. dear. You’re a shining star just the Alex, should we erase Pluto or add a way you are! There are plenty of adults who

PAGE 11 EVENT HORIZON The future of Amateur Astronomy (Continued from page 6) more cheaply. However, Zeiss is coming from such efforts. iv) There not 'out' of astronomy. It still builds is so much astronomical information Farewell to Grant world-class planetariums and con- on the internet that high level re- figures glass elements for accesso- search projects can, in many cases, Dixon! ries that it designed (and built) and and all or in part, be completed which Baader Planetarium still from just this resource alone. v) manufactures. It's website links to Many future amateur observational “astronomie.de” and the NASA situations will be partly or fully auto- “Astronomical Picture of the Day” mated and controlled by a sky con- which connect much of the Euro- ditions sensor. The observatory will pean amateur community. It recom- open and close itself, record and mends certain of its general binocu- log observations automatically. The lar sport-optics for astronomical owner/operator will be privileged to use. It makes adapters to connect observe from a computer screen or its spotter telescope eyepieces to video monitor from a warm-room 1.25” and 2” drawtubes and to con- situation or even sleep while the nect 1.25” eyepieces to its spotter data acquisition is in progress. telescopes. It builds diffraction grat- vi) Radio astronomy, like LOFAR II, ings, lenses, sophisticated detec- will be another venue for the ama- tors and cameras for space mis- teur community. There are turn-key sions and optical benches, and con- systems and even plans for sys- structs secondary lenses, mirrors tems that will allow any dedicated, and relay systems for some of the amateur researcher to do low reso- world's largest ground-based tele- lution 'observations' on the sun's scopes. Much of this production is effects on the earth's atmosphere, The HAA is losing found- carried on in departments which environment and the nearby solar ing member Grant Dixon. have a more competitive compo- system. The LOFAR II Stanford nent to them other than pure astro- University Sudden Ionospheric Dis- nomical production. Nevertheless, turbance system is such a turn-key straight astronomical telescope fab- setup. All of this work can be done Newer members of the club rication is gone. indoors and many of the results can may not know Grant Dixon, but be transmitted and confirmed with he is a long-serving member of What does the future hold for the other researchers and satellites on the HAA who is about to leave amateur community with respect to the internet. vii) Optical backyard the foregoing? i) More people will telescopes will still sell for general our club. Grant is moving to the probably buy telescopes and equip- observational work, East coast and will make his ment based on their ability to do monitoring, photometry, planetary new home in the Maritimes. other aspects of nature-watching studies, , binaries, as- than just astronomy. The plethora trophotographic applications and Grant served on the HAA coun- of small widefield refractors, today, public star parties. cil in many positions and is attests to this trend. Binocular sales well-known as a humourous are based more on nature and bird In the final analysis, it may be that observations than on astronomical amateur astronomy is just opening speaker. Grant gave scores of applications. However, their uses in up to a wider range of interests and planetarium presentations and all three areas are equally valid. ii) applications. In just the same way, helped share his knowledge of Many astronomical projects done professional astronomy has moved the skies with a generation of by students are based almost ex- from strictly ground-based tele- clusively on work and results ob- scopes to super space satellite ven- club members. tainable from the internet. iii) In fact, tures and probes into all areas of The HAA wishes Grant the best many home computers are being the electromagnetic spectrum. Let in his new part of the country. used to analyze SETI and comet us hope that the future continues to data with the hope that new discov- look bright. Let’s hope he can find clear eries and 'contacts' will be forth- skies someplace out there.

PAGE 12 EVENT HORIZON HAA Marketplace

More great deals from Mike Spicer, the king of the astronomy deal! Contact him at: [email protected]

Need a great deal on astronomy books? Members can check the list of publications by US publisher Willmann-Bell at www.willbell.com If you wish to order something, you can save on shipping costs by ordering as a group, all at once. Check the list, the estimated cost after US$ conversion, shipping and GST is about 1.5 x the US$ price on the item. (ie: US$29.95 will likely cost C$44.90 delivered) Mike Spicer is thinking of placing a group order, please print the order page, check off the items you want, and give the order to Mike not later than the next HAA meet- ing on May 11th.

PAGE 13 EVENT HORIZON

Event Horizon— Ten Years ago Carl Wetzlar's Wedding self and the scope were an impassi- problems became immediately ob- Night ble roadblock in the front hallway. vious. One, my extensive winter A bystander, watching me carry the apparel made it impossible to by Clive Gibbons telescope out of the house, would squeeze my head in behind the Every amateur astronomer remem- no doubt have compared my egress finder eyepiece and two, the finder- bers their "first night" with a new to Neil Armstrong trying to shift a scope had suffered a serious mis- telescope; that exciting, euphoric canoe through the front hatch of the alignment upon exiting the house. evening when observer and instru- Lunar Lander. T! he noise was What I didn't know then, was that ment meld together for the first deafening as control cables, finder- on Carl Wetzler telescopes, the time to explore the heavens as one. scope, focuser, telescope tube and term "finderscope" was a euphe- It all starts with great expectations tripod legs all managed to smash mism for "carry handle". Out of of what the night will bring, but the into the screen door on the way out, desperation, I tried sighting along inevitable fumbling around with followed by parental bellowing the telescope tube to find the Moon. unfamiliar parts in the dark and the about a sudden cold draft in the liv- This exercise consisted of crouch- anxiety over achieving proper polar ing room. ing in a snowbank and looking up alignment (especially if friends are the tube by craning my neck, so that present), can ruin the whole experi- both carotid arteries were nearly ence. It's been 22 years since that With a final BANG!, the door was pinched off. Then, up to the eye- first magical evening with my long- shut and we were alone under the piece I'd spring, just in time to see a lost Wetzlar 4.5" reflector, but time starry firmament. Alone, that is, ghost image of the Moon zoom out has not dulled the vivid memories; with a foot of snow on the ground of vie! w. A fter 5 minutes of fruit- back when times were more inno- and the neighbor's porch light only less sweeping, it was back to cent, bell-bottoms were "cool", the 30 feet away. The remedy was a crouching and near unconscious- nightsky was darker and I thought long march across "Siberia" to find ness, to repeat the folly. Half an Carl Wetzlar was German... (Harp a dark, sheltered spot to view from. hour later, I was defeated. With music plays as the scene fades to a After about 50 yards of pitiful slog- cramped muscles, wrapped in 50 bygone time) ging, my telescope and self came to rest in the darkest region of our pounds of soggy clothes, I slumped townhouse complex. The vault of into the snow. I couldn't even find A cold winter evening awaited me heaven would have been spectacu- the Moon... and my freshly assembled, shiny lar, if it hadn't been obscured by the white telescope. Up until that fate- steam billowing from my over- It's been a long time since that first, ful night, I had never used an in- heated and overdressed body parts. unsatisfying evening with my 4-1/2 strument of such immense aperture At first, I was puzzled by the inch. As time went by, I gained and certainly never with a genuine strange silence of the evening; no valuable experience with a range of equatorial mount. Outside, the tem- barking dogs or traffic noises, not different telescopes, but things perature was hovering around 0 even the crunch of snow underfoot. really started to improve when I degrees F. (this was years before Perhaps it was muffled by all the discovered friends who shared my metric) and I was appropriately toques and scarves... affection for the night sky. It's dressed for a space walk. Virtually taught me that no matter how big or every piece of clothing I owned small your instrument is, it's more now wrapped, protected and en- Polar alignment was cursory at best. fun to use it with a buddy. And cased every square inch of skin sev- There was no way of leveling the nowadays, if I'm having trouble eral times over, leaving only my tripod in the snow and I could have finding a deepsky object or getting right eyeball exposed to the chill of been sighting on Gamma Draconis frustrated trying to focus the camera deep space. It was time to "Go For instead of Polaris, but who needed for a astrophoto, I just think back to It!". I could no longer resist the call polar alignment to look at the the night I couldn't even find the of the clear night sky, quite apart Moon? Soon, I was trying to spot Moon and think, "Hey, things aren't from the fact that my boots were the fat crescent through the that bad!!" starting to fill with sweat and my- 5X24mm finderscope. Several

EVENT HORIZON PAGE 14 The Early Bird Gets the Worm by Dr. Tony Phillips

We all know that birds eat worms. wheel centers, with dense swarms of The meal began about two years ago. Every day, millions of birds eat mil- stars all around. An occasional meal is After the initial blast, radiation dimin- lions of worms. It’s going on all around inevitable. ished as the black hole slowly con- you! But how often have you awakened sumed the star. GALEX has monitored in the morning, stalked out in the dewy A group of astronomers led by Suvi the process throughout. Additional data grass, and actually seen a bird having Gezari of Caltech recently surveyed from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, breakfast? Even though we know it more than 10,000 galactic cores—and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope happens all the time, a bird gulping a they caught one! In a distant, unnamed and the Keck Telescope in Hawaii worm is a rare sight. elliptical , a star fell into a cen- helped Gezari’s team chronicle the Just like a black hole gulping a star… tral black hole and “burped” a blast of event in multiple wavelengths ultraviolet radiation. Every day in the Universe, millions of Studying the process in its entirety stars fall into millions of black holes. “We detected the blast using the Gal- “helps us understand how black holes And that’s feed and bad news grow in for the their host stars. ,” Black notes Mar- holes exert tin. terrible tides, and One down, stars that millions to come too go. close are literally "Now that ripped we know apart as we can ob- they fall serve these into the events with gullet of ultraviolet the mon- light,” says ster. A Gezari, long burp “we've got a of X-rays new tool for and ultra- finding violet ra- more.” diation signals the For more on meal for this and all to see. other find- In this artist’s concept, a giant black hole is caught de- ings of Yet as- GALEX, see tronomers vouring a star that ventured too close. rarely catch a black hole in the act. “It’s like axy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), an www.galex.caltech.edu. For help ex- the problem of the bird and the worm,” ultraviolet space telescope,” explains plaining black holes to kids, visit The says astronomer Christopher Martin of Gezari. Her team reported the observa- Space Place at spaceplace.nasa.gov. Caltech. “You have to be in the right tion in the December 2006 issue of The place at the right time, looking in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “Other This article was provided by the Jet right direction and paying attention.” telescopes have seen black holes de- Propulsion Laboratory, California In- vouring stars before,” she adds, “but stitute of Technology, under a contract A great place to look is deep in the this is the first time we have been able with the National Aeronautics and cores of galaxies. Most galaxies have to watch the process from beginning to Space Administration. massive black holes sitting in their pin- end.”

EVENT HORIZON PAGE 15 The Event Horizon is a publication of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers (HAA) The HAA is an amateur astronomy club, for people of all ages and experience lev- els, dedicated to the promotion and enjoyment of astronomy . The cost of the sub-

HAMILTON AMATEUR scription is included in the $25 individual or $30 family membership fee for the ASTRONOMERS year. Event Horizon is published a minimum of 10 times a year. PO Box 65578 Dundas, Ontario L9H 6Y6 2007 HAA Council General Inquiries [email protected] Honorary Chair Jim Winger Membership [email protected] Chair Glenn Muller Meeting Inquiries Secretary Margaret Walton [email protected] Public Events Treasurer Cindy Bingham [email protected] Observing Inquiries Membership Director Stewart Attlesey [email protected] Newsletter Publicity Jackie Fulton [email protected] Observing Director Mike Spicer Postmaster/Web Support Bob Christmas We’re on the Web! www.amateurastronomy.org Event Horizon Editor Tim Philp Councillor Anthony Tekatch Councillor Greg Emery Special Notice Councillor Heather Neproszel As you may have noticed from our Councillor Ann Tekatch latest financial report, we need to curb our club’s expenses. One of our largest Councillor Cathy Tekatch expenditures is the club newsletter, Event Horizon. The cost to print and mail the newsletter is almost $1500 Next Meeting of the HAA Meeting space for the Hamilton Amateur annually! At a recent council meeting, Astronomy Club provided by it was recommended that the newsletter is May 11th, 2007 no longer be mailed to members. Any- Teamsters Local 879 one with Internet access can download 7:30 PM @ and the latest newsletter (and any previous ones) from the club’s website: The Hamilton Spectator The Hamilton Spectator www.amateurastronomy.org. Having the newsletter available online also allows us to publish it in full colour. If you do not have Internet access, you Article Submissions Domain name and web hosting for the Ham- ilton Amateur Astronomy club supplied by will still be able to pick up a paper The HAA welcomes your astronomy related copy at each meeting. Copies of the writings for the Event Horizon newsletter. Axess Communications newsletter will also be available to any Please send your articles, big or small, to: newcomers at our meetings. If you do Corporate and Residential DSL and Web not have Internet access, and cannot [email protected] Hosting attend the meetings, please call Ann The submission deadline is two weeks before Www.axess.com Tekatch at 905-575-5433 and she will each general meeting. place you on the special mailings list. [email protected]