The Spectrum

The News Letter of the Buffalo Astronomical Association

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Editors Desk Mike Benz

As you may know this is my last edition as editor of the Spectrum. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has submitted articles in support of the Spectrum over the last 2 years. Without Continued on page 2

From the President: BAA Winter meetings In this Issue... Alan Friedman

Editors Desk Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were happy and Look right and then up peaceful. I’ve come to enjoy the winter break from observing. When the Words from the Prez clouds close the sky, time opens up for completing unfinished Right there => projects and thinking up new ones. Maybe I will get my website up to date with new pictures. I might even get some time to Darwin Christy work on those lunar images I captured in the fall of 2008 and Page 2 2009. I plan to schlep down to the Winter Star Party in Florida at the end of February and to attend NEAF in April. The year is Astronomy young, the possibilities endless, and I’m not behind on Page 3 anything yet. I love January! Our first meeting of 2011 (Friday, January 14th) will be held College of Fellows again this year at Williamsville North Planetarium. Mark Percy, Annals planetarium director and BAA member, will have a program Page 9 planned especially for us. You won’t want to miss this special show. On February 11th we will be back at our regular meeting space at Buffalo State College. I will give a talk titled Windows to the Universe – an astronomy travelogue on two recent adventures – journeys to Astro­Physics and Mount Wilson Observatory.. So clean your eyepieces, read some good books, get a little extra sleep… and catch up with your astronomy friends at our winter BAA meetings. Spring and clear skies will be here before you know it. DARWIN CHRISTY Editor Continued... Rowland A. Rupp your donation of time to write Darwin Christy died on October 15th, after being ill such interesting and since spring. Until then, he commented, he had always entertaining articles the enjoyed good health, could do anything he wanted to Spectrum would not exist. The do, go anywhere he pleased, and rejoiced in turning Spectrum is not only a 90. Darwin joined the BAA in the early 1960s, served newsletter but is YOU the a President from 1972 to 1976, was elected to the members as it would not exist College of Fellows in 1985, and edited The Spectrum without the contributions of YOU from 1979 to 1995, a record sixteen years for which he the members. received a commemorative plaque for his service. Darwin’s presidency saw the establishment of Beaver After a nation wide search and Meadow Observatory. The project was started in 1973 combing through many and completed in 1976. Wisely, he delegated club resumes' a successor has been members to negotiate with the Audubon Society, to found. I would like to take this raise funds, to design the facility, to build it and, finally, opportunity to welcome Cheri to align the mount for the 12.5 inch telescope. Harper as the new editor of the Darwin’s contribution was to coordinate all these Spectrum. Cheri is a new activities, and to keep the membership informed of member of the BAA and since progress at our monthly meetings and through The joining earlier this year, has Spectrum. He made many other contributions to the volunteered at many public BAA; he was an active supporter when the club hosted events. She brings a fresh and the Northeast Regional Conference of the Astronomical enthusiastic perspective to the League in 1967, was a member of the Study Section job of editor. and, when hosting star parties, served up his renowned chowder. Please welcome her and support Perhaps next to overseeing the building of the her in her new role as the observatory, his greatest contribution was in editing Spectrum Editor! and supplying material for The Spectrum. As editor, he handled the editing, typing, publishing and distribution. He also frequently contributed articles; some were feature technical articles, others were brief notes. He kept track of year­long seeing conditions at his backyard Honey House Observatory that he built to house his home­constructed 12.5 inch reflector, one of many telescopes he made. Some nights he could see fourth magnitude or better, other nights only first or second magnitude, many nights ­ nothing at all. His on­going notes seen in each Spectrum spanned decades and included meteor showers, astronomers of the past, and constellations of the ancients. Darwin had technical talent as well. For years he collected tiny grains of micro meteoric dust on glass slides, which he then viewed with a microscope to separate the space­borne material that drifted down Continued on page 4

Page 2 Astronomy’s Little­Known Facts and nebula” Lowell was referring to what we Misconceptions today call a spiral galaxy. At the time, Randy Boswell however, many astronomers assumed that these were nearby planetary systems There is an ancient maxim, which says that under construction. (Bartusiak, 2009, The if something is repeated long enough it will cosmologist left behind, p. 31). Specifically, assume an aura of truth. Take the movie Lowell wanted Slipher to obtain the Casablanca, for example. In one of the spectrum of its edges. Lowell was most memorable scenes of the movie, interested in knowing if its spectrum Humphrey Bogart is typically quoted as revealed a chemical composition that saying, “Play it again, Sam.” In actuality he matched that of the Jovian planets in our said, “Play it, Sam.” The world of non­ outer solar system. A connection would fiction has experienced misconceptions as mean the spirals could indeed be baby well. It has been widely said, for example, solar systems under way. (Bartusiak, 2009, that Christopher Columbus was the first to The day we found the universe, p. 77). In discover America. The reality is that the 1912 Slipher turned the 24­inch Alvan Vikings discovered the new continent Clark refractor (i.e., the same telescope before Columbus. The field of astronomy is that Lowell saw the illusionary canals on no different. For example, did astronomer Mars) on the Andromeda Nebula and Edwin Hubble discover the expanding obtained surprising results. Its spectrum universe? Is it a modern paradigm that the did not match that of known gases. universe started as a very small entity and Instead, it correlated to the spectrum outwardly expanded? And finally, was emitted by starlight. Moreover, Slipher Galileo the father of the telescope and discovered that its spectrum was blue Isaac Newton the inventor of the reflecting shifted, indicating that it was moving telescope? The answers may be interesting towards the earth. He subsequently and surprising. calculated that the Andromeda Nebula was A widely held view is that the astronomer approaching us at velocity of approximately Edwin Hubble discovered the expanding half a million miles per hour. Upon learning universe. However, Hubble was not the first of Slipher’s findings Lowell instructed him to observe that expansion of the universe. to study more spiral nebulae. The next The first astronomer to observe red shifts spiral nebula that Slipher studied was M81, from distant objects – the telltale signs of which is today known as the Sombrero an expanding universe – was Vesto Melvin Galaxy. However, unlike the Andromeda Slipher (1875­1969). In 1901 Slipher was Nebula, Slipher found that its spectrum was hired by the then famous astronomer red shifted, meaning that it was receding Percival Lowell to operate a custom­built away from us. Slipher calculated its speed spectrograph that Lowell had installed at of recession to be approximately 1,000 his private observatory in Flagstaff, kilometers per second. By 1914 Slipher had Arizona; today known as the Lowell calculated the velocities of 14 other spiral Observatory. One of Slipher’s tasks was to nebulae. The data indicated a pattern: photograph and study the spectra of larges although a few nebulae such as patches of dusk and gas, which were then Andromeda were approaching us, the known as nebulae and considered to be majority of them were receding away from within the Milky Way galaxy. In 1909 Lowell us. Furthermore, these nebulae were instructed Slipher to concentrate on the moving at remarkable speeds of up to 2.5 spectrum of a white nebula. By “white Continued on page 4

Page 3 Astronomy continued... Darwin Continued... through the atmosphere from million miles per hour (1,1000 kilometers per everyday soot and dust. He second). (Liu, 2008, p.43). He concluded that these rigged a photographic system to objects were not nebulae at all, but entire systems of take close up enlargements of millions or billions of stars, so distant that they had these sub­millimeter particles, to be galaxies. (p. 43). [Slipher] detected the very which he could identify by their first hint – the earliest glimmer of data – that the glassy texture. His expertise on universe is expanding. (Bartusiak, 2009, The micro meteoric dust became cosmologist left behind, p. 31). But it took more than known in Japan, and he and his a decade for astronomers to fully recognize what he Japanese colleague corresponded had done. (p. 31). Slipher remained at the Lowell for years. Darwin received the Observatory for the remainder of his career, serving College of Fellows Award in 1987 as its director from 1916 until his retirement in 1954. for his “Micrometeorite Studies.” Working at Niagara Mohawk as a Although Edwin Hubble is synonymous in the minds test specialist, Darwin had access of many with an expanding universe, it was Vesto to light sensing and electrical Slipher who provided the observational basis from recording equipment that he used which Hubble was to later expand upon in his study to monitor light intensity during of the universe. Hubble (1889­1953) in fact used lunar and solar eclipses. These some of Slipher’s data to aid in his determination of changes in light were recorded on the velocity­distance relationships of galaxies, which a chart recorder, and Darwin he later acknowledged in a lecture he gave many reported these results in The years later in 1953. Hubble stated that his findings: Spectrum. “emerged from a combination of radial velocities Astronomy was just one facet of measured by Slipher at Flagstaff with distances this versatile man. Having served derived at Mount Wilson.”(p. 35). in the Army Air Corps during In 1924, using the 100­inch Hooker reflecting World War II, he was active in telescope atop the Mount Wilson Observatory in veterans’ organizations and California, Hubble isolated Cepheid variable stars in served as chaplain of Tonawanda’s the Andromeda galaxy and using them as standard American Legion post. He was candles determined its distance from us. Hubble also a volunteer fireman and a deduced that it was approximately a million light­ Mason. He loved giving lectures years away. It turned out that Hubble’s measurement on a variety a subjects to these was too small. During the Second World War when organizations and to various other Los Angeles was blacked out, another Mount Wilson groups. He annually attended astronomer, Walter Baade was able to determine that reunions of his WWII White there were two types of Cepheids and using the Knights P­38 squadron members, brighter ones between the two types (the type not though lately he lamented their unlike the ones Henrietta Leavitt discovered in 1912) diminished numbers. He had a arrived at the more modern figure of two million light hobby of photographing the years. Hubble subsequently calculated the distances memorials at Gettysburg, to other galaxies. By 1929 Hubble had determined claiming he recorded all of them. the distance to twenty­four galaxies (including the The loss of Darwin’s presence at Small and Large Megellanic Clouds), the most remote BAA functions will be sorely then judged to reside some 6 million light­years missed by his many friends and Continued on page 5 colleagues.

Page 4 Astronomy continued... Sitter (1872­1934) in 1917, concluded that it led to an expansion of the universe. He away. (Bartusiak, 2009, The day we found further deduced that if the universe were the universe, p. 229). He then matched the expanding that, conversely, it would distances of the galaxies to that of their become progressively smaller as one velocities. What Hubble discovered was a turned back the cosmic clock. And that linear relationship between a galaxy’s meant that at some point, very long ago, distance and it recessional velocity. That is, the universe would have been at its with the exception of a few galaxies that smallest possible size. (Filkin, 1997, p. 84). are approaching us, the farther away a Lemaitre postulated that the universe galaxy is, the greater is its recessional emerged from a singular state of extreme velocity. This became known as Hubble’s density, which he dubbed a “primeval Law. The expansion rate is known as the atom.” On account of this, he has been Hubble Constant and is expressed as a ratio called the father of the Big Bang. of velocity to distance. Edwin Hubble’s Lemaitre’s theory ironically received its original estimate was approximately 500 popular name from a radio program in kilometers per second per megaparsec. 1950 in which Fred Hoyle, a physicist and Later, Hubble himself and other opponent of Lemaitre’s idea derisively astronomers further refined its value. referred to it as “the Big Bang.” The name Currently the best measured value of the remained. Hoyle, along with Herman Bondi Hubble Constant is about 73 kilometers per and Thomas Gold developed an alternative second per megaparsec. (Liu, 2008, pps. theory in 1949 known as the Steady State 41­42). Theory. It postulated that the universe was What Hubble did was quantify the in a “steady state” with no beginning or expansion of the universe, thereby end, with matter continuously being empirically demonstrating its reality. created out of a vacuum. Curiously, Hubble never seemed to fully Then, in 1964, strong evidence for the Big accept that the linear increase in [red shift] Bang came with the discovery of what is with distance was evidence for the known as cosmic microwave background expansion of the universe. (Silk, 1994, p. radiation. Two radio astronomers, Arno 52). Nevertheless, Hubble’s findings forever Penzias and Robert Wilson of Bell changed the way mankind viewed the Laboratories in New Jersey were testing an universe. Again, it was through the ultra sensitive radio telescope designed to pioneering efforts of Vesto Slipher that receive microwave transmissions from paved the way for Hubble’s achievement. communications satellites. They detected a The idea of an expanding universe source of radio noise that was coming from inevitably led to the view that the universe all directions equally. Their measurements had its origin at a point in time commonly revealed the noise to be radiation at a referred to as the Big Bang. wavelength of 7 centimeters, in the One such early proponent of this idea was microwave region of the radio spectrum. the Belgian astronomer and Jesuit priest, (Silk, 1994, p. 53). Georges­Henri Lemaitre (1894­1966). In It was later determined that the the late 1920’s Lemaitre studied the temperature of the cosmic microwave original equations of Einstein’s general background radiation was 2.73 degrees theory of relativity and echoing a like Kelvin. This confirmed the theory of finding by Dutch astronomer Willem de Continued on page 6

Page 5 Astronomy continued... mustard. The matter at this time was so thin, so intangible, that it did not have real physicist George Gamow (1904­1968) who substance. It did have, however, a potential predicted in 1948 that if the Big Bang to gain substance and form and to become happened the universe would have been tangible matter. From the initial incredibly hot soon after it occurred in concentration of this intangible substance order to generate the hydrogen needed to in its minute location, the substance form the first stars. Gamow said that after expanded, expanding the universe as it did about 15 billion years (i.e., the then so. As the expansion progressed, a change estimated age of the universe) the heat in the substance occurred. This initially thin would appear as low­level background noncorporeal substance took on the radiation and would have cooled to a few tangible aspects of matter as we know it. degrees above absolute zero. From this initial act of creation, from the Penzias and Wilson discovered the ethereally thin pseudosubstance, afterglow of the Big Bang. They were later everything that has existed, or will ever awarded the Nobel Prize in 1978 for their exist, was, is, and will be formed. (p. 65 accidental discovery. qtd. in Nahmanides, Commentary on the The afore mentioned brief historical account Torah, Genesis 1:1). of the development of Big Bang cosmology This is remarkably similar to today’s Big has left many with the notion that the idea Bang cosmology and one can hear the echo of the universe originating with Lemaitre’s of Nahmanides’s words in the modern day primeval atom and evolving from it is solely description of the origin of the universe. a modern paradigm. However, few are According to the Standard Model of the aware that a strikingly similar idea was put formation of the universe, the universe forth centuries earlier. began in an infinitely small space with an A proponent of this was Nahmanides, a infinite density known to physicists as a Medieval Jewish Rabbinical scholar and singularity. The conditions at this point are philosopher. Nahmanides (1194­1270), also unknown to physicists on account of the known by his followers as Ramban (based fact that conventional mathematics cannot on an acronym for one of his names, Rabbi treat such singularities. However, what is Moshe Ben Nachmon), was best known for known is the conditions from 10­43 writing a commentary on the Torah, seconds after the genesis instant. The appropriately entitled, Commentary on the universe was then the size of a speck of Torah. Nahmanides claims to have derived dust. (p. 65). (Nahmanides’s reference to a his insights on the origin of the universe on grain of mustard.). Much of the present perceived subtleties in the text of the mass was then in the form of energy, or Torah. Nahmanides, [for example], taught radiation, whose equivalent to mass is that the subtleties found in the Torah go known through Einstein’s famous equation: even beyond those of a poem, reaching to E=mc2. (Hartmann, 1987, p. 141). ( the very shapes of the letters. (Schroeder, Nahmanides’s noncorporeal or 1990, p. 21). pseudosubstance). The temperature at this Nahmanides’s account of the first seconds point was 1032 degrees Kelvin. Then, 10­ of the universe reads like this: At the 35 to 10­32 seconds after its initial briefest instant following creation all the appearance the universe expanded by a matter of the universe was concentrated in factor of 1050 its initial size. At the end of a very small place, no larger than a grain of Continued on page 7

Page 6 Astronomy continued... mystery. The world would have to wait another 37 years before such a device re­ this brief inflationary epoch the universe is emerged. said to have reached the size of a Hans Lippershey (1570­1619), a spectacle grapefruit. After this, the universe maker from Middlebury Holland is credited continued to expand to its’ present size but with developing what we would call today a at a much slower rate. As the universe refractor telescope. It is said that he came continued to expand the pressures and upon his invention quite by accident. The temperatures decreased allow for the story is that in Lippershey’s absence, his formation of matter to occur. After apprentice experimented with his boss’s approximately 100,000 years the universe spectacle lenses by looking through various cooled to a few thousand degrees Kelvin ones. Eventually, he took two lenses and and atoms began to form. As the universe held them both before his eyes, one nearby continued to expand for millions of years and one far off, and found, to his tangible matter was formed. The material astonishment, that a distant weathervane universe as we understand it came into appeared to be much larger and closer. being. (Schroeder, 1990, p. 67). (Asimov, 1975, p. 16). The apprentice (Nahmanides’s reference to the expansion demonstrated this to his boos, who devised effecting a change in substance from a metal tube to house the two lenses at noncorporeal to tangible aspects of their proper positions. matter). As soon as Lippershey’s invention became It goes without saying that our knowledge widely known others laid claim to the new of the nature and structure of the universe invention. One of these was Zacharias would not have possible without the Janssen (1580­1638), a neighbor of invention of the telescope. But who really Lippershey and a fellow spectacle maker. invented the telescope? Most people He claimed to have constructed a telescope erroneously attribute the invention of the in 1604 and it is possible he may have; telescope to Galileo Galilei. (Andersen, Lippershey may have borrowed the idea 2006, p. 26). However, the earliest known and made up the story of his apprentice to reference to a crude telescope is in cover the theft. (p. 16). connection with Leonard Digges (1510­ Whether or not Lippershey was the first to 1571), an English mathematician who invent such an instrument, what is known experimented with spectacle lenses. His son is that he greatly promoted its importance Thomas Diggins wrote in 1571 that his and in particular espoused its value as a father: … was able, and sundrie times hath, military instrument by enabling one to view by proportional glasses duely situate in enemy ships approaching at a far­off convenient angles, not onely discovered distance. things fare off, read letters, numbered The news of the new invention came to the peeces of money with the very coyne and attention of Galileo Galilei (1564­1642), a superscription thereof, cast by some of his mathematics professor at the University of friends of purpose upon Downes in the Padua in Italy. Word soon reached him open fields, but also seven myles off 1609 that a Dutchman had arrived in declared what hath been done at that Venice with the intent to sell this instant in private places. (p.25). instrument to the Doge (the city­state The fact that nothing further came of this in ruler). Sensing a financial opportunity, the immediately ensuing years remains a Continued on page 8

Page 7 Astronomy continued... (158­1648). In 1636 he conceived the idea of using two paraboloidal mirrors instead of Galileo sought second­hand reports on the lenses. However, Mersenne never instrument in an effort to build one of his succeeded in constructing his telescope due own. In the meantime, a good friend of the to being persuaded by the French Doge delayed evaluation of the Dutch mathematician Renee’ Descartes that it [instrument] to buy Galileo some time. would never work. This endeavor continued (Andersen, 2006, p. 27). Galileo soon to be pursued by others. Among the most began the work of devising a telescope of notable of these was the Scottish his own. In perhaps the single most mathematician, James Gregory (1638­ impressive feat of reverse engineering in 1675). In 1663, Gregory designed and tried history, he took just one day to work out to build the first reflecting telescope. the design and improve on it to produce a Gregory’s design called for a concave device far superior to anything in existence primary mirror (slightly hyperboloid) and a at the time. (p. 27). A significant concave ellipsoidal secondary mirror. improvement that Galileo made was to According to the design, light entered the increase the magnifying power up to 33 telescope tube from one end and struck the times as compared to a magnification of 3 primary mirror, which reflected it back to to 5 times in previous telescopes. the secondary mirror, which was situated in The next big step in the development of the the center of the tube at the front. The telescope came with the invention of the secondary mirror then reflected the light reflecting telescope. Regarding this, English back to the primary mirror where the light physicist and mathematician, Sir Isaac converged into a hole in the center of the Newton (1642­1727) is credited with the primary mirror. The light then entered idea of using a curved mirror in telescopic through a magnifying eyepiece to produce design and producing the first reflecting the image. telescope in 1668. Gregory’s objective was to have a telescope However, knowledge of the optical that was free of spherical aberration as well properties of curved mirrors pre­dates as chromatic aberration. His solution was to Newton and goes back to ancient times. make use of a non­spherical mirror (i.e., The ancients, for example, knew that a slightly curved) instead of spherical mirror, curved or concave mirror could focus light, which produced spherical aberrations as is the case with a lens. Moreover, it was thereby resulting in a less­than perfectly later learned that, unlike lenses, mirrors sharp image. However, Gregory’s telescope reflected all the colors of light equally and proved unfeasible. The trouble was that were therefore free of chromatic aberration. there was no optician capable of grinding Newton was aware of this and sought to such surfaces accurately, so that Gregory construct a telescope using a primary could not get mirrors that did him any good curved mirror to focus the image, thus at all and never managed to build a eliminating the problem of chromatic working reflector. (p. 62). Later advances aberration that was common to refracting in telescope making ultimately telescopes at the time. [However], he was demonstrated the success of Gregory’s not really first in the field. (Asimov, 1975, design. Named after him, the Gregorian p. 61). Others were putting forth like ideas. design is used in a number of large Among these was the French professional telescopes. Among these are mathematician and monk, Marin Mersenne Continued on page 9

Page 8 Astronomy continued... ­­­, (2009). The day we found the universe. New York: Pantheon Books. the Vatican Advanced Technology Filkin, D. (1997). Stephen hawking’s Telescope, the Magellan telescopes, the universe: the cosmos explained. New York, Large Binocular Telescope, and the planned NY: BasicBooks. 24.5 meter Giant Magellan Telescope. Hartmann, W.K., (1987). Cycles of fire. Five years after Gregory’s design for a Stars, galaxies, and the wonders of deep reflecting telescope, Sir Isaac Newton space. produced the first successful prototype. New York, New York: Workman Publishing Newton, like Galileo before him took an Company, Inc. existing idea and improved on it. Newton Liu, C., (2008). The handy astronomy succeeded where Gregory failed by using a answer book. Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press. spherical primary mirror, thereby Schroeder, G., Ph.D., (1990). Genesis and eliminating chromatic aberration, while at the big bang. The discovery of harmony the same time foregoing the more difficult between modern sicence and the bible New task of trying to solve the problem of York:Bantam Books. spherical aberration; a practical Silk, J., (1994). A short history of the compromise. Only later was the use of a universe. New York, NY: Scientific American non­spherical mirror incorporated into its Library. design, thus eliminating spherical aberration. ANNUAL COLLEGE OF FELLOWS Newton’s telescope worked on the same MEETING principle as Gregory’s design. The Rowland A. Rupp difference being that instead of the light being reflected back through a hole in the The annual College of Fellows meeting will primary mirror, a flat secondary mirror be held at 7:30 PM, Thursday, January 27th situated at a 45 degree angle at the front at my home at 132 Burroughs Drive, center of the telescope tube reflected the Amherst. Please give me a telephone call light through a hole in the side of the tube to let me know if you can or cannot come. where it passed through a magnifying lens. My telephone number is 839­1842. Known as the Newtonian Telescope or BAA ANNALS Reflector this design has remained Rowland A. Rupp unchanged and is the basis for much of the 5 YEARS AGO ­ Our meeting for January amateur telescopes produced today. End. 2006 was at the Williamsville North High School planetarium where Mark Percy put SOURCES on a show especially for BAA members. Mark and his planetarium have become a Andersen, G., (2006). The telescope. Its January tradition. Mike O’Connor told us at history, technology, and future. Princeton, the February meeting how he analyzed New Jersey:Princeton University Press. images taken by Tim Puckett to discover a Asimov, I., (1975). Eyes on the universe. A supernova. There was an article from the history of the telescope. Boston: Houghton BAA archives on Caroline Herschel by Irene Mifflin Company. Rupp. That was about it for this four page Bartusiak, M., (September 2009). “The Spectrum. cosmologist left behind.”Sky & Telescope, 10 YEARS AGO ­ Jack Mack hosted our 118(3), 30­35. January 2001 program in which several

Page 9 members presented “segments of their fair warning for the astonishing favorite astronomical videos.” For speculations that followed. Bill Smith February, “How’s the Weather Up There” reviewed Gerry Descoteaux’s The was a joint presentation by Bob Hughes Lawnchair Astronomer and didn’t like it and Carl Klingenschmitt ­ a commentary on much better than Rowland liked Piret’s the causes and effects of geomagnetic book. Bill summarized his opinion with storms. President Dan Marcus promoted “NOT RECOMMENDED.” Finally, Bruce the 2001 BAA calendar designed by Alan Newman reviewed the star charts in Friedman. It featured excellent SkyMap Version 2.2 (GSC) and heartily astrophotos by many members. Dan also approved of it. Individual membership reported on his traveling around the mid­ dues in 1996 were $15.00. west countryside looking for a clear spot 25 YEARS AGO ­ “Telescope Making” was where he, Tom Bakowski, and Frank the topic for the January 1986 meeting. Chalupka could observe the occultation of Our expert speakers were Bob Mayer, Ed Mu Geminorum. The museum’s Kellogg Lindberg, Miro Catipovic, Matt Kanter and observatory was scheduled to close its Carl Milazzo. Dr. Zoran Pazameta from Friday night public observation program UB’s astronomy department spoke in due to monetary and safety issues. Bob February on the skies he observed as he Titran announced that Astronomy Day 2001 was growing up in New Zealand. There would be held at BMO on May 5th. was a list of the “navigational stars” ­ 57 of Spectrum editor Tim McIntyre highlighted them ­ the dimmest was Theta Eridani at some of the accomplishments of the BAA in 2.92 magnitude. Carl Milazzo reported on the past year. These included the telescopes being built by BAA members observation of a Gamma Ray Burster, our Larry Carlino, Mike Idem and Miro outreach program to schools, using grant Catipovic. Darwin Christy and Michael money to enhance the observatory, and the Idem wrote observation reports. Both $4000 collected from our members in commented on Halley’s Comet, a support of the Buffalo Audubon Society’s dominating topic throughout its ongoing program to expand their nature center. We apparition. Fred Price reviewed the book had 148 members. Comet! The Story Behind Halley’s Comet 15 YEARS AGO ­ At our January 1996 by Greg Walz­Chojnacki. Fred generally meeting Gene Witkowski explained how he approved, but noted much of the material used inexpensive video cameras to record was available in magazines and text books. outstanding pictures of the moon and 35 YEARS AGO ­ January 1976, Ernst planets. “Stump the Roundtable” was the Both, the museum’s Curator of Astronomy, title of the February feature in which spoke on the “Grand Tour of the Universe.” several BAA members answered questions “The Infinite Worlds of Giordano Bruno” from the audience. Darwin Christy’s was Dr. Antoinette Paterson’s February “Astronomer from the Past” was August presentation. Dr. Paterson was Professor of Ferdinand Moebius, a theoretical Philosophy at Buffalo State. Tom Dessert mathematician of the first half of the summarized the history of how BMO came nineteenth century. Lots of reviews were into existence. (Perhaps we can re­print featured in this Spectrum. Rowland Rupp this article in a future Spectrum.) Ernst reviewed a book sent specifically to the concluded his article, started in the last BAA library by its author, John A. Piret. It Spectrum, on “The Largest Telescope on was entitled How the Universe Was Born, a This Side of the Atlantic.”

Page 10 BAA Officers and General Information

President: Alan Friedman Spectrum Editor: Cheri Harper [email protected] [email protected]

Vice Pres: Janice Gardner BAA Yahoo E Group: Mike O’Connor Dennis Hohman Secretary: Mike O’Connor BAA Website: Mike O’Connor Treasure: Mike Israel www.buffaloastronomy.com

At Large Directors: Jack Mack BAA Voice Mail Box: (716) 629­3098 Mike Anzalone Location/Time of Meetings: Membership: Alan Friedman BAA meetings are held on the 2nd Friday of the (716) 881­4310 month from September to June starting at 7:30 P.M. Due to construction, our normal meeting Observatory Directors: Pat Lannon room in the Science Building at Buffalo State Derek Bill College will not be available during the fall semester. Beginning September 2009, our Star Parties: Dan Marcus meetings will be held in Classroom Building (716) 773­5015 C122 located just to the north of the Science Building. Follow directions (#35) on the Buffalo College of Fellows: Rowland Rupp State College map. (716) 839­1842