O c t o b e r o c t o b r e 1 9 9 4

V o l u m e 4 N u m b e r 5

The Royal La Societe Astronomical Society Royale d’Astronomie of Canada BULLETIN du Canada Supplement to the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

You may recall an article published in the on I spent many hours wearing out my dialing An Amateur at the IAU b u l l e t i n (June 1993) entitled “Where are finger in an effort to find a source of funding so the Women?” It generated some interesting that I could afford the trip. I had to turn a lot of General Assembly feedback for the author (myself), including a stones but eventually found a sympathetic ear at Mary Lou Whitehorne letter from Dr. Elizabeth Griffin (Cambridge Uni­ Industry Canada. The arrangement is such that Halifax Centre versity, England) asking whether I would con­ I provide a dozen astronomy awareness pro­ sider attending and participating in the upcoming grams for young people and they will kick in "The International Astronomical Union (IAU) IAU GA where there would be a session dealing $900 retroactively towards my travel costs. To was founded in 1919 to provide a forum where with the topic of women in astronomy. my great delight, the Halifax Centre offered (I astronomers from all over the world can develop didn’t even ask!) an additional grant of $500. astronomy in all its aspects through interna­ Amateurs are not normally included in IAU Taken together, this meant a 50% subsidy of my tional cooperation. Since that time the Union GA’s and since we generally do not have the total expenses and suddenly the IAU GA was a has devoted itself to this purpose and its reputa­ qualifications for membership (i.e. a PhD and tion is such that most of the international coop­ gobs of really great post doctoral research), we reality for me. This simple procedure took a eration in astronomy is conducted through the IAU. The Union has Adhering Member Organi­ zations in 56 countries and about 7 300 indi­ vidual members. The Union is very diverse in character and its scientific activity is reflected in the work of its 40 commissions, which refers to all phenomena in outer space. General Assem­ blies are held every three years and almost 330 major scientific meetings have been sponsored by the IAU. Many other meetings are co-spon- sored with other international, scientific Unions and Committees within the structure of the Inter­ national Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).” - IAU Information Bulletin #71, October 1993.

Having read the above quote, you now know that the IAU does more than just determine have to jump through a few other hoops in order mere seven months from October to May. I just specific boundaries for the constellations, broad­ to get past the guard at the gate. So, I started barely made the registration deadline. cast IAU Circulars, and designate names for jumping just to see how far I could get. Jeremy I arrived in The Hague on the morning of features on the surface of the planet Venus! The Tatum wrote a nomination for me for “Invited August 15th after one of those delightful all- IAU is the governing international organization Participant” status. This was followed by a letter nighters on the plane. I was very glad that I had for astronomy and it holds its triennial General of endorsement from Dr. Griffin. These letters done my homework about currency and local Assemblies somewhere in the world every three went before the Canadian IAU committee which transportation, etc., so that I had at least a vague years. This year the meeting took place from approved the nomination and issued a formal August 15 to 27 in The Hague, The Netherlands. invitation for me to attend. While this was going (continued on page 7)

RASC BULLETIN S.R.A.C. - October/octobre 1994 - Page 1 Editor: Patrick M. Kelly, RR#2 Falmouth, BULLETIN Nova Scotia, Canada B0P 1L0 is a publication of the Royal Astronomical Society of E-mail Address: [email protected] Canada and is distributed together with the society’s FAX: (902) 423-6672 Journal. It contains articles on current activities of the Phone: (902) 420-7604(w), (902) 798-3329(h) RASC and its centres across Canada, as well as Editorial Staff: Diane Brooks articles from members and non-members which are Redacteur pour les centres francais: of general interest to members of the society. Inquir­ Marc Gelinas, 11 Pierre-Ricard, N-D-Ile-Perrot ies about the society should be directed to its national Quebec, Canada J7V 8M6 office at 136 Dupont Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Printing: University of Toronto Press M5R 1V2 (416) 924-7973. Printed on paper containing 50% pre-consumer Cover Picture: Middle Cove, one of the many beau­ recycled paper and at least 5% post-consumer de­ tiful inlets that can be found north of St. John’s. inked fibre. December issue deadline is November 15th.

I cannot claim any expertise in German, but it now be written in without having an impression Letters to the Editor is interesting that he used the word “Welt”, which appear on the next page. Also, a finer resolution recent dictionaries translate as “world”. How­ line screen was used for the photo halftones, ever, in his discussion he refers to “das ganze resulting in better reproduction, and times of Die Energie der Welt ist constant Weltall” which would be ’’the entire universe”, so Jupiter satellite double shadow transits visible in The recent letter from M. B. Stewart on New­ that a simple translation, differing slightly from Canada have been included. ton and entropy covered some points that I had the above, would be: Attached members may purchase copies from intended to write about. It is perhaps a small their centre, and unattached members may or­ 1) The energy of the universe is a constant. point, but this type or erroneous citation can be der copies for $8 for the first copy and $7 for 2) The entropy of the universe tends towards a bit like urban legends, which develop a life of subsequent copies. Cheques should be made a maximum. their own because people repeat them as fact, payable to ‘RASC Vancouver Centre’ and sent, without knowing that they are incorrect. Clausius referred to the results of his extrapo­ along with your mailing address to: The quotation "The total energy of the uni­ lation from the lab to the universe as laws, but he verse is constant and the total entropy is con­ also specifically noted their tentative nature. RASC Vancouver Centre tinually increasing." is familiar, in German, to Lacking any universal experimental verification Attn: National Calendar those physical chemists, who, like myself, stud­ they might, perhaps, be best described as con­ 1100 Chestnut Street ied Lewis and Randall’s text Thermodynamics. jectures. Most books on cosmology ignore Vancouver, B.C., V6J 3J9 It would also be familiar to an earlier generation Clausius and his work. There is, however, some who studied the works of J. Willard Gibbs, where current theoretical work on entropy production Please allow four weeks for delivery. references to the original sources are given. in the universe, some of which seems to involve All Canadian astrophotographers are encour­ As Stewart has pointed out, Newton could not a search for definitions of entropy that are con­ aged to submit photos for consideration in future have made this statement since the concepts of sistent with the requirements of general relativ­ editions of the calendar. Photos should be sent entropy and the conservation of energy in the ity and the various models of the universe cur­ to the address above. © broad sense had not been developed in his time. rently under consideration. Some authors even It was a century and a half later that these laws question the validity of applying the concept of were finally formulated as a result of experimen­ entropy to the entire universe. While these con­ Items of Interest tal and theoretical studies in the first half of the jectures of Clausius were bold, and perhaps nineteenth century. The quotation should be inspiring, it appears that their status is still not clear. The First Canadian Comet Allan Reddoch credited to Rudolf Clausius, German physicist, This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 548 Rivershore Crescent, Gloucester 1822-1888, who was concerned with the theo­ first Canadian comet: Comet van den Bergh Ontario K1J 7Y7 © retical formulation of thermodynamics and who 1974 XII (1974g), discovered on November introduced the concept of entropy as an impor­ 11th of that year by Sidney van den Bergh using tant term in the thermodynamic equations. He 1995 RASC Observer’s the 48-inch Schmidt telescope on Palomar Moun­ stated this idea in two parts: tain. A brief account of the discovery appeared 1) Die Energie der Welt ist constant. Calendar in JRASC Vol. 69, No. 1. 2) Die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maxi­ Rajiv Gupta mum zu. Vancouver Centre Randall Brooks is preparing a listing of all These were first published in Annalen der The 1995 edition of the RASC Observer’s society members who have electronic mail ad­ Physik und Chemie herausgegeben von Calendar is now available. Several changes dresses. Any member who wishes to have their Poggendorff 125, 400, 1865. He also repeated have been made to the 1995 version of the e-mail address placed in the listing or who it in the second part of some collected writings: RASC Calendar. All photos have been coated wishes to request a copy of the completed list Abhandlungen uber die mechanische with a clear varnish to prevent fingerprint marks should contact Randall (by electronic mail, of Warmetheorie, Abl. IX, p44, 1867. and to eliminate ink rub-off. The calendar can course!) at [email protected] © visual magnitude of 11.8, it appeared as a large, photograph. The Deep Space CCD Atlas is an Observing the Palomar soft glow filling one-third of the field at 227x. excellent reference to confirm sketches of ob­ Within the glow, several fifteenth magnitude scure objects, but unfortunately, it has only nine Clusters stars flashed in and out of sight, but they may of the fifteen Palomars. (Maybe I can persuade have been foreground stars. For Palomars 1, 2, John Vickers to photograph the other six!) When­ Randy Pakan 3, 4 and 13, I used powers of 250x and up. ever someone mentions NGC 7479 (a lovely Edmonton Centre Conversely, Palomars 6 and 7 were best seen at barred spiral in the vicinity of Palomar 13) I Albert Wilson, Edwin Hubble, Walter Baade, under 100x. For the remaining clusters 150x to chuckle and say “Oh yeah, that galaxy is easy to Robert Harrington, George Abell, Halton Arp, 180x worked well. find—just go to Palomar 13 and then swing half Sidney van den Bergh and Fritz Zwicky—a very Good transparency is needed in order to see a degree to the south-east!”. impressive list of names. Do you know what they these objects, but even on poor to average Two years ago I had a nice chat with Lucien all have in common? Together, in 1955, they co­ nights I would go through the star hops of some Kemble in regards to finding the Palomars. He discovered the fifteen Palomar globular clusters of them. The reason for this is that some of them has found all of the them with his C11. He using plates from the Palomar sky survey. are rather tricky to find and it helps if you have warned me that some of the sources list Palo­ Some of these clusters are among the largest the fields memorized in anticipation of a night of mar 11 at a declination of +8° 02'. Actually is at and most distant in our galaxy. They are heavily good transparency. This paid off big when we -8° 02' ! Had I not spoken to him I would obscured by galactic dust, which makes them probably still be looking for it! difficult to detect visually. All of them, except “Had I not spoken to him I Although Lucien used a C11, most observers Palomar 9, appear only as faint wisps of light— would need a much larger scope to see these would probably still be you would never know that they are globular faint objects. I used a 16" f/5 on a Poncet clusters by their appearance. To find these looking for it!” platform. If you decide to tackle this project, here smudges you need a very transparent night, is a tip. Palomars 6, 7, 8, 9 , 11 and 12 are the patience and perseverance. On April 29th I had a good night at Buck Mountain, our remote easiest of the bunch— 13 and 15 are extremely found Palomars 14 and 15, ending a gruelling dark site. That night I found and sketched seven hard. As a whole it is a very tough project. three-year observing quest to find and sketch all that I had not previously been able to see. The To end on a confusing note: in the second fifteen of them—they were my last two. fact that there are only fifteen makes it fairly easy printing of Volume II of the Uranometria there Palomar 9, alias NGC 6717, is the only one of to memorize the star hops. is an addenda and errata to the first and second the bunch that is an easy object. I can see it in Alister Ling asked me if I was sure that I had printings of Volume I. It states “Chart 106 change my 80 mm finderscope with no difficulty. I sus­ found Palomar 13, the toughest of them all. Pal 4 symbol to a galaxy.”; “Chart 234 change pect that it may even be visible in 10x50 binocu- Frustratingly, the answer is “no”. I have sketched Pal 3 to U5438 and the symbol to a galaxy.”; lars. The most intriguing of the group is Palo­ a suspicious candidate that is in the right place, “Chart 244 change Pal 5 to U9792 and the mar 5. With a diameter of 6.9 arc-minutes and a but I have not been able to confirm it with a symbol to a galaxy.” However, in the Deep Sky Field Guide they have an addenda to Urano­ Designation R.A. Dec. Mag. S.B. Con. Size metria and in it they state that the original Palomar 1 3h33.2m +70° 35' 13.6 12.4 Cep 1.8' information was correct after all! So, if you are game for a real challenge, then Palomar 2 4h46.1m +31° 23' 13.0 10.5 Aur 1.9' give the famous Palomar globular clusters a try. They are spread out all over the sky and there is Palomar 3 10h05.5m +0° 04' 13.9 14.2 Sex 2.8' usually one or more of them up every night. The Palomar 4 11h29.3m +28° 58' 14.2 14.4 UMa 2.1' accompanying table gives, for each object, its name, coordinates for epoch 2000.0, visual Palomar 5 15h16.1 m -0° 07' 11.8 15.7 Ser 6.9' magnitude, surface brightness, constellation and Palomar 14 16h11.1m +14° 57' 14.7 15.7 Her 2.1' size (in arc-minutes) ©

Palomar 15 16h59.9m -0° 32' 14.2 16.0 Oph 4.2' ‘The first Man I saw was of meagre Aspect, with sooty Hands and Face, and Hair and Palomar 6 17h43.7m -26° 13' 11.6 12.8 Oph 7.2' Beard long, ragged and singed in several Places. Palomar 7 18h10.7m -7° 12' 10.3 12.8 Ser 7.1' His Clothes, Shirt and Skin were all of the same Color. He had been Eight Years upon a Project Palomar 8 18h41.0m -19° 49' 11.2 10.9 Sgr 4.7' for extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers, Palomar 9 18h55.1m -22° 42' 9.2 7.3 Sgr 3.9' which were to be put into Vials heremetically sealed, and let out to warm the in raw Palomar 10 19h18.2m +18° 34' 13.2 13.1 Sge 3.5' inclement Summers. He told me, he did not doubt in Eight Years more, that he should be Palomar 11 19h45.3m -8° 02' 9.8 11.9 Aql 3.2' able to supply the Governor’s Gardens with 0

Palomar 12 21h46.5m -21 11.7 12.9 Cap 2.9' Sunshine at a reasonable rate.

Palomar 13 23h06.7m +12° 46' 13.8 13.5 Peg 1.8' Irish satirist/clergyma centre of the frame, this method is not as reliable 0.3 cos D Astrophotography— as the previous for recognizing field rotation. T = Another possible cause of elongations is dif­ P Field Rotation ferential refraction. This will be a problem only if This equals about two hours if D is 45° and P you photograph within 20° of the horizon. is 0.1°. Rajiv Gupta Quantifying Field Rotation You can use the formula yourself to deter­ Vancouver Centre mine, for your own photography, how accurate reprinted from NOVA In order to really understand field rotation, it is your own polar alignment needs to be to avoid necessary to know the parameters on which it Obtaining photos in which the stars are pin­ field rotation. You will find that unless you are depends. The amount of rotation that a photo­ points overthe entire negative is something that photographing near the pole, polar alignment graphic field undergoes depends on the follow­ every astrophotographer aspires to accomplish. accuracy of a few arc-minutes is sufficient, and ing factors. Many aberrations, both optical and mechanical, it is not difficult to achieve this accuracy. You will 1) The amount of polar misalignment. Call conspire to get in the way. In the February issue, need a super-accurate polar alignment (less this quantity, measured in degrees, P. I discussed field curvature and how bending film than one arc-minute) only if your D is close to 2) The declination of the guide star. Call this, can eliminate this particular aberration. Field 90°, for then cos D will be small. One last also measured in degrees, D. The closer D rotation is another commonly encountered prob­ warning: I derived the above formula myself and comes to 90° (i.e. the closer the field is to a lem, and one that anyone who does deep-sky have not seen it in print anywhere, so use it at celestial pole) the greater the field rotation is. photography should understand. your own risk! © 3) The length of the exposure, in hours. Call What is Field Rotation? this T. Careful guiding during a long exposure will Two exposure with the same values of P, D National Awards ensure that the guide star remains perfectly and T can have different amounts of field rota­ The RASC may, from time to time, confer stationary on the film, so it will have a good tion, depending on the direction of the polar awards on members in recognition of meritori­ image in the resulting astrophoto. Nevertheless, misalignment. I will consider only the maximum ous service or achievement. Recommendations the other stars will trace small arcs centred on amount of rotation. the guide star. This phenomenon is known as for such awards should, in most cases, be made Let R be the maximum amount that the pho­ field rotation. through the council of the local centre. Unat­ tographic field will rotate about the guide star Altitude-azimuth mounts are especially prone tached members may submit recommendations, over the course of an exposure, measured in to field rotation. Professional observatories use if they so wish, to the national council for consid­ degrees. A rough formula for R is: sophisticated methods to correct for this, but eration. Centre councils will, of course, submit T these methods are not generally available to R = P — cos D recommendations as they see fit to the national amateurs. An equatorial mount, if properly 4 council for final approval. All nominations (in­ aligned, will eliminate field rotation. However, cluding citations) should reach the national of­ An exact formula is considerably more com­ since perfect polar alignment is impossible to fice by December 31st. plicated and requires some heavy spherical achieve, there may still be some field rotation. trigonometry. For most purposes, the above CHANT MEDAL approximation is sufficient. If we know the maxi­ The Chant Medal was established in 1940 in Field rotation will cause elongation of only mum amount of field rotation that we are willing appreciation of the great work of the late profes­ those stars far away from the guide star. If you to tolerate, we can solve the equation for T to get sor C. A. Chant in furthering the interests of astrophoto has elongated images nearthe guide the maximum exposure time. Doing so yields: astronomy in Canada. This medal is awarded, star, your main problem is not field rotation, but = 4 R cos D not more often than once a year, to any amateur guiding error. astronomer resident in Canada on the basis of Other optical aberrations, such as coma and P the value of the work for which he or she has field curvature can lead to stars being accept­ carried out in astronomy and closely allied fields able in the centre of the frame but elongated at of investigation. the edges and these may be confused with field In order to use our formula, we need to rotation. One way of distinguishing these optical determine how much field rotation is accept­ SERVICE AWARD MEDAL able. This depends on the size of the negative aberrations from field rotation is to note whether The Service Award was established in 1959. and the maximum size of the stellar images that short exposures also exhibit the elongated stars. This bronze medal is presented to members we are willing to tolerate. For example, for a Since field rotation only manifests itself in long who have performed outstanding service to a 35 mm negative and 25 micron star images exposures, any aberrations apparent in short centre or to the national society. exposures are likely optical. (this is a reasonable target) we should keep R to KEN CHILTON PRIZE Another way to recognize field rotation is to less than 0.075°. (This assumes that the guide note whether the elongated stars do indeed star is near the centre of the field (and hence the The Ken Chilton Prize was established in trace arcs centred on the guide star. The amount object being photographed); if not R will have to 1977 by the national council in remembrance of of elongation in a stellar image should increase be smaller. Also, R will have to be smaller if we the late K. E. Chilton, an active member of the as the distance from that star to the guide star set a finer tolerance for stellar image size or use Hamilton Centre. The prize is awarded annually increases. Since optical aberrations increase as a bigger negative. Using the formula we con­ to an amateur astronomer resident in Canada, the distance from the centre of the frame in­ clude that for the given example, the maximum in recognition of a significant piece of astronomi- creases, and the guide star is likely to be in the length of time, in hours, we can expose is: cal work carried out or published during the year. ©

RASC BULLETIN S.R.A.C. - October/octobre 1994 - Page 4 The One That Got Away Jeremy Tatum Victoria Centre

Kesao Takamizawa discovered his fifth comet from Japan, 1994i, on a photograph on May 6.69 UT, and it turned up again the following night. Brian Marsden of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams moved fast to get inde­ pendent confirmation from other observers, logi­ cally contacting observers in Europe and east­ ern North America, since observers in western North America have to wait a little later for nightfall. However, the first independent obser­ vation to reach Brian was from David Rabinowitz with the Spacewatch Telescope in Arizona, with an observation on May 8.47. At this time, we on the west coast had still not heard of the new discovery, partly because of local disruptions in our electrical supply. By the Takamizawa- Levy, and he was sweeping be­ if he thinks he has something. This time he did time of Rabinowitz’s observation, Chris Spratt of low the globular cluster M10 in Ophiuchus, close indeed have something—after just three hours’ the Victoria Centre had independently discov­ to the meridian, when he spotted a faint comet­ observing with a new telescope—but by dawn ered the comet, on May 8.34. It was a genuine the Spacewatch confirming observation was independent discovery, and, but for a delay in like patch. Now, comet-hunters have a dread of communications, it may have shared his name. prematurely announcing a comet that turns out already in, and the comet had been named. Chris was trying out a brand new toy, a ten not to be real, and at this point Chris made his Anyway, congratulations, Chris! It was a close centimetre (four-inch) Genesis-SDF refractor, fatal mistake. He thought to himself: “Well, I thing, and since this one took you just three with a four-degree field. (For those who dislike can’t disturb Dr. Tatum by telephoning him in the hours, maybe it will not be long before you get acronyms as much as I do, I believe SDF stands middle of the night, so I’ll wait until the morning.” your next one. In the meantime, here is a CCD for Special Dispersion lenses plus Fluorite.) He Now I definitely do not want all and sundry to image of the comet, obtained by Dave Balam of had tried the telescope out briefly on two previ­ be constantly pestering me with nonexistent the University of Victoria with the 20-inch reflec­ ous nights, but this was his first night of semi- discoveries, but I know Chris to be a very expe­ tor of the university’s Climenhaga Observatory, serious observing, though his primary intent rienced observer indeed. In fact this was the on May 11. It shows no tail, though it should be was still just to become “used to” the telescope. hundredth individual comet he had observed! remembered that present-day CCDs are rela­ He had successfully found three comets that Chris is one of the few observers who is wel­ tively insensitive to blue light, so that any plasma evening—McNaught-Russell, Tempel 1 and come to telephone me at any time of day or night tail would be inconspicuous. ©

Composite Eclipse Photo Ian Grant London Centre

This photo was taken during the May annular eclipse. The camera had a 225 mm lens set at f/11 and was used with a 3x teleconverter giving an effective focal length of 675 mm at f/33. A neutral density 4.0 filter was used and the film was 35 mm Kodachrome 64. The shutter was locked open through the sequence and a make­ shift external shutter was used to make the five 0.03 second exposures. These were taken 180 seconds apart, with the fourth image timed to be exactly at third contact, as calculated for my home using the equations and data in Meeus’ Canon of Solar Eclipses. The second exposure

(continued on page 8) at magnitude 17 low down in Cetus. 3023 Heard significantly better than the darkest nights I had Endangered Asteroids is more critical, having been observed only once years ago at my site which was a 90 minute drive in the last ten years. It is magnitude 18 and deep west of Montreal. Later calculations gave the Jeremy Tatum in the densest parts of the Milky Way very low solar depression as only 14°. Victoria Centre down in Sagittarius. It will not be observable until To maximize the amount of observing time, By my last count, there are thirty-seven the summer, and then only with difficulty. If one should be ready to observe about twenty asteroid names with a Canadian connection. anyone spots either of these asteroids, be sure minutes beforehand. This ensures that the eyes These are: to let the Minor Planet Center know. © will be dark-adapting as the night deepens. In the meantime take the opportunity to appreciate 855 Newcombia the darkening sky, perhaps by scanning with 2104 Toronto Observing in Twilight binoculars or searching for naked eye novae. Alister Ling 2154 Underhill A couple of hours later in our session we Edmonton Centre 2904 Millman could see features on the ground a bit too easily, 2905 Plaskett Many astronomers take note of the end of and concluded that the sky had begun to lose its 2917 Sawyer Hogg astronomical twilight as if it were some kind of appeal. To my initial surprise, the solar depres­ 2980 Cameron starting gate: “Now we can observe.” While the sion turned out to be 16°, significantly greater 3023 Heard complete absence of skyglow may be neces­ than the 14° we found acceptable at the start. 3034 Climenhaga sary for long exposure photography, visual ob­ The discrepancy makes sense when it is real­ 3166 Klondike servers have no such limitation. Before the Sun ised that by morning twilight, the eyes have 3269 Vibert-Douglas reaches a solar depression (angle below the become truly dark adapted (apart from disrup­ 3304 Pearce horizon) of 18°, the sky is readily dark enough to tions by red flashlights). Evidently a full day’s 3307 Athabasca see detail in the dust lanes of the Milky Way. By bleaching of the visual purple requires a recov­ 3314 Beals that time, one can see all sorts of deep-sky ery of more than twenty minutes in the dark, but 3315 Chant objects, including star clusters, planetary nebu­ it is a good start. 3316 Herzberg lae, and bright emission nebulae. Naturally any By beginning your observing session at a 3497 Innanen challenge objects should be left for the middle of solar depression of 14° and ending it at 16°, you 3658 Feldman the night when one is dark adapted and the can effectively lengthen your night by almost an 3670 Northcott object is placed high in the south. Experience hour, depending on latitude and season. Except 3673 Levy shows that solar depressions of about 14° pro­ for the month or two around the summer sol­ 3748 Tatum duce an adequate darkness. stice, a half hour before the end of astronomical 3749 Balam Observing in astronomical twilight is impor­ darkness is a rough and ready value for timing 3931 Batten tant in two respects. Firstly, for those of us north the start of the night. 3944 Halliday of 50° latitude, there is no astronomical dark­ Although relatively simple formulae exist for 4021 Dancey ness for a month or more centred on the summer calculating the solar depression given the time 4058 Cecilgreen solstice, and quite simply we do not want to give and date, the easiest (laziest) method is to use 4091 Lowe up! Even in August and May, it would be nice to a planetarium type computer program and make 4113 Rascana dilate the observing window a bit. Secondly, if a few clicks of the mouse. 4230 van den Bergh you plan to be set up and ready to observe by the If you are in the same situation as me, then 4276 Clifford end of astronomical twilight, then you still need you do not want to waste observing time. Think 4340 Dence another twenty minutes to dark adapt. about it: we cherish two hours of observing in 4451 Grieve On a past night in mid-May two of us recorded early May or August. If we start observing only 4719 Burnaby the times when we agreed that the sky was very at the end of astronomical twilight then we’re 4789 Sprattia appealing, although still glowing slightly in the wasting almost 25% of those precious minutes 5272 Dickinson north. I realised that even at this point the dark adapting. Start when the Sun is 14° below 5424 Covington aurora-free and non-pitch black sky was still the horizon and enjoy more of the sky. © 5553 Chodas In the city of Tours on 31 January in the We have something more than the mere mag­ Nearly all of these have been observed eighth year of the reign of King Childebert [583 nitude of the planets to allege, in favour of the reasonably adequately, and their orbits are A .D.] this day being Sunday, the bell had just idea that they are inhabited... though this fairly secure. However, according to Minor rung for matins. Thepeople had got up and were mighty earth, with all its myriads of people, Planet Electronic Circular 1994-S04, issued on their way to church. The shy was overcast and it was raining. Suddenly a great ball of fire were to sink into thereannihilation, are some by the International Astronomical Union’s Mi­ fell from the sky and moved some considerable worlds where an event so awful to us would Be nor Planet Center, two of them, 3023 Heard distance through the air, shining so Brightly unnoticed and unkown, and others where it and 4340 Dence, have made it on to the that visibility was as clear as at high noon. Then would Be nothing more than the disappearance endangered list, and an effort should be made it disappeared once more behind a cloud and o f a little star which had ceased from its twin- to observe them. 4340 Dence is described as darkness fell again. The rivers rose much higher kling. “poorly observed”, which is the least critical of than usual. the six categories of “endangerment”. This Gregory of Tours December it should be not too difficult to spot, materials she has developed for use in French trains and trams for getting around. The IAU had An Amateur at the IAU General Assembly elementary schools. They look to be first rate organized tours running every day and since I and I plan to make use of them at the first was paying most of the bills out of my own (continued from page 1) available opportunity. pocket, I did not hesitate to take advantage of idea of where I was going in the city. Once I also had the chance to meet and chat with them. This enabled me to visit a few very unique registered and checked in to my hotel, I was free a positively delightful Indian astronomer who places like Kinderdijk, the Netherlands longest to get acquainted with the city and the confer­ develops planetarium programs and insists that line of working windmills. You can see some of ence centre where the GA was to take place. at least one astronomical concept be fully ex­ them behind me in the photograph on page one. Held in the Nederlands Congresgebouw, a plained in every planetarium show—a real de­ I also went to the Delta Works, the large system very large conference centre, the IAU GA had a parture from today’s trends. She has promised of barriers built against the North Sea in the lot to offer. The GA was officially opened with a to send me a copy of her “recipe for a star” that province of Zeeland (near the border with Bel­ ceremony attended by Queen Beatrix. The pro­ we caught a quick look at and that explained star gium). Another excursion visited the nearby gramme booklet was a scant 101 pages in formation in very comical “cookbook” terms that town of Delft, famous for its pottery, and we length, with tables and lists of all the concur­ kids and adults can easily grasp. visited one of the shops where the Delftware is rently running symposia, joint discussions, work­ Another dynamic lady astronomer that I met made and painted entirely by hand. ing group meetings, committee meetings, etc. I is Dr. Julietta Fiero from Mexico, who is the One of the highlights of my trip was a techni­ could pick and choose what I wished to attend. astronomy consultant for a science museum cal visit to ESTEC, the European Space Agen­ There were several hundred poster papers too— there. We had a wonderful conversation—she is cy’s (ESA) research and technical facility in their abstracts were published in a 300 page a real ball of fire—and she promised to send me Noordwijk. Here is where ESA assembles and book, along with a map, so that you could find (so I can forward it to Roy Bishop) one of her the section of poster papers that interested you! tests space vehicles before they are launched pinhole mirror projection kits that they have There is no way any one person can take in so on an Arianne rocket from their South America used very successfully in Mexico. She got the launch site. While there we toured the facility, much information, even if they stayed for the idea from the handbook and I know that Roy saw most of the testing set-ups, heard all about entire two week duration of the conference. (and all of the RASC) will be tickled to know that how they do what they do, and watched as they I attended the symposia on stellar popula­ his idea has had wide and successful applica­ filled ISO—the Infrared Space Observatory — tions and compact stars in binaries; the joint tion in Mexico. with liquid coolant in preparation for launch in discussions on women in astronomy and edu­ I then met a Belgian astronomer named Andre early September. We also saw ERS 2 (Euro­ cation in astronomy, and sat in on some of the Heck from the Strasbourg Observatory who is pean Remote Sensing), an Earth monitoring sessions on active galactic nuclei. There were compiling a huge international astronomy data­ satellite, undergoing final testing before being sessions on everything in the universe; there base and who would not let go of me until I sat sent to South America for a September launch. was no shortage of things to do. Admittedly, I through a long demonstration of Mosaic on the The second part of this tour was a visit to nodded off a few times during some of the first computer. Thus, I missed most of the session on Space Expo, ESA’s public space museum. On sessions I attended, but I soon realized that this active galactic nuclei... display here are models and mock-ups of nearly was from jet lag and that I was in good com­ I stole sometime and visited the Omniversum, everything that has ever gone into Earth orbit. pany—there were plenty of “nodders” for the met the director, and had the royal tour, includ­ There is even a large scale model of the busi­ first couple of days as everyone tried to reset ing a free show. They have a Digistar plan­ ness end of an Arianne rocket that you can walk their internal clocks. etarium projector and they actually use the underneath, look up and contemplate the fire­ About 1 600 people registered early enough Omnimax as a special effect in their planetarium works that would result from its launching. Sput­ to be included in the list of attendees; in all about shows. It was most impressive. These people nik, Voyager, the lunar lander, Giotto, the space 2 000 astronomers were at the IAU GA. Coffee have a very clear vision of their mission, and breaks were held in the large central foyer and, they appear to be very successful in meeting shuttle, Mir, Apollo, Soyuz, Hermes; they are all as you can well imagine, it was wall-to-wall with their objective; that is, the popularization of there. One really impressive display was called bodies and the hum of scientific conversation science. The yearly attendance figures for their “Living in Space” and it did a very credible job of was raised to a loud roar. facility range from 350 000 - 500 000 visitors. It mimicking what living quarters look like in zero I was invited to speak at the “Women in helps to have fifteen million people within a two gravity. Naturally, there was a full size, cutaway Astronomy” workshop, where my presentation hour drive of your planetarium! version of the infamous space shuttle toilet and was well received. It was quite an eye-opener to S’ Gravenhage (the correct Dutch name for it generated plenty of interest from our group. hear from women astronomers from all over the The Hague) is a beautiful city and I partook of an So now I am back from the big trip to the IAU. world, and learn of the varying degrees of diffi­ organized tour to see some of it; including all the It was fun, exciting and exhausting. I cannot culty that they work under in order to pursuetheir embassies, the Houses of Parliament, the even remember half of what I saw and did, much vocation. The playing field is most assuredly not Queen’s residence, the Royal Stables, the less repeat it all here. On my last night in the an even one! Ritterzaal, museums, canals, etc. I stayed in a Netherlands, I went to the boulevard on the I also had an opportunity to speak at the joint very nice hotel, located a three minute walk from beach, and sampled one of the local speciali­ discussion on education in astronomy. This was one of Europe’s finest beaches. For four nights ties: pancakes. Actually, it was only one pan­ chaired by our own Dr. John Percy, and again of my stay there was an international fireworks cake, but what a pancake. It was like the Milky my comments were well received. It was during festival/competition held on the beach that I Way—round and flat, with a central bulge of this session that I made contact with Dr. Lucienne could see from my hotel window. whipped cream, and seemed to be a hundred Guguenheim of Meudon Observatory, who made The Netherlands has an excellent public trans- thousand light years across. It nearly killed me sure that I received a copy of the astronomy portation system and I thoroughly enjoyed the but I managed to subdue the monster. © Special Conference T’was the Night Before Found Poem Travel Grant Christmas Jannen Werner-King Mark Chartrand I think that this poem will be of interest to At the St. John’s G.A., the national council members of the society who attended the 1994 authorized an expenditure of up to $500 in This piece was composed by assorted grad General Assembly and took part in the boat tour support of the conference Astronomy Educa­ students (myself included) at the Warner & commemorating Edmund Halley’s landing at tion: Recent Developments, Future Coordina­ Swasey Observatory, Case Western Reserve Tors Cove, Newfoundland. My husband and I tion which is being held June 24th-25th, 1995 University, way back in 1967. took part in this tour and I was inspired by the at the University of Maryland. The support will friendliness of the people at Tors Cove to write be in the form of a travel grant to a conference T’was the night before Christmas and up in the dome this poem. delegate. Preference will be given to RASC A grad was observing and wished he was home; members in good standing who are currently The Faculty was nestled all snug in their beds It was active astronomy educators. Letters of applica­ While visions of research grants dancedin theirheads. clear as water tion will be reviewed by the executive commit­ in Tors Cove tee, and must be received by the national secre­ Alone in the dome with no one around on the anniversary tary, Dr. Randall Brooks on, or before, February I'd started a spectrum and just settled down landing of Edmund Halley. 3rd, 1995. The grant recipient(s) will be ex­ When out on the catwalk there came such a clatter The rock pected to share the benefits of the conference I sprang from the ‘scope, and tripped on the ladder. constellations on the sea­ by writing a report for publication in the Journal bed gleaning universal secrets or the b u l l e t i n . Details of the conference Away to the doorway I started to fly as sun spilled off are available from: Stepped out on the catwalk and looked at the sky. faces of the town meeting us on the pier. Dr. J. R. Percy And what to my wondering eyes should appear Erindale College But a Nova Vulpecula (at this time of year?). The welcoming wave, University of Toronto Faster than corpuscles the photons they came the tangle of voices, 3359 Mississauga Road North And I whispered and shouted and called them by a net pulling us Mississauga, Ontario name: closer to the ancestral L5L 1C6 H-alpha, H-beta, forbidden OII warmth of these people in this new-found [email protected] © (And all of the spectrum was shifted to blue). land of wind rounding the point melting one voice into Composite Eclipse Photo From the lines in the blue to the lines infrared another and the sea (continued from page 5) I kept all the wavelengths arranged in my head. carrying us and history As quick as I could I turned ‘round the slit, on a collision course was thirteen seconds before second contact- And in came the photons, lickety-split. like Edmund’s expedition making it exactly at that time would have made and the rocks, the images uncomfortably close. As I opened the shutter and looked at my watch, like Jupiter and the comet. The external shutter was a long board that slid "This exposure” I said, “I’ll try not to botch.” But we did not dramatically change on a table and which was pulled by a string I said no more words but went straight to my task; our planet’s face passing over the edge of the table with a weight In the light of my nova I knew I’d soon bask. just marked a moment attached to it. The camera stood on a tripod in a coming together the shadow of the end of the board that pro­ And laying some neon aside of my star with words. © jected over the table. The projecting end had an I said in a whisper “I’m alright, so far.” 8 cm wide slot in it. By pulling the board back the I raced to the darkroom clutching my treasure, correct distance and releasing it, the leading And developed it twice, just for good measure. The next object which I have observed is the edge of the slot, accelerating with the falling essence or substance o f the M ilky Way. By the weight, would move exactly 16 cm before ex­ I fixed it and washed it and dried it with glee, aid of the telescope anyone may behold this in a posing the camera to the Sun. This resulted in a For now I could publish in PASP. manner which so distinctly appeals to the senses repeatable 0.03 second exposure, much shorter And they heard me exclaim as I passed out of sight that all the disputes which have tormented than could be achieved with the usual “hat” trick. "Happy Christmas to All, and Observe a Good Night.” © philosophers through so many ages are exploded The exposure time was probably too long, but at once by the irrefargable evidence o f our eyes, at third contact Bailey’s beads show well. I was A lessonto be learnedfrom this puzzle is that and we are freedfrom wordy disputes upon this particularly impressed by the fact that after it is not necessarily the pieces which seem to fit subject, for the Galaxy is nothing else but a taking the exposure at third contact, I walked satisfactorily that decide whethermass or noto f innumerable the stars planted together in over to a projected solar image and was able to picture is correct, it is the pieces which don't f i t clusters. watch for Bailey’s beads for what must have that really decide the issue. Galileo Galilei been several minutes as the horns of the solar Peter Warlow Italian astronomer/physicist (1564-1642) crescent drew well back. © British physicist/author (1982) RASC BULLETIN S.R.A.C. - October/octobre 1994 - Page 8