STAR DUST April 2008 Volume 66, Issue 8

NATIONAL CAPITAL ASTRONOMERS, INC. STAR DUST April 2008 Volume 66, Issue 8

APRIL 2008: DR. ALYCIA WEINBERGER, CIW-DTM WHAT ARE PLANETS MADE OF? EXPLORING THE COMPOSITION OF PROTO- PLANETARY DISKS The Earth probably formed hot and dry ble Space Telescope near-infrared cam- and therefore had to get its volatiles, era (NICMOS) science team and then as including water and carbon, in a "late a NASA Astrobiology Institute postdoc- SPECIAL POINTS veneer" delivered by comets or asteroids. toral fellow. In 2000, she was awarded OF INTEREST: Similarly, the planetesimals and smaller the Annie Jump Cannon prize by the bodies in exosolar disks provide the raw American Association of University > Tracking animals doesn’t sound like it has anything material for delivery of volatiles to any Women and American Astronomical to do with astronomy or terrestrial planets also encircling those Society for significant research by a fe- space… Or does it? p1 stars. I will talk about how we measure male postdoctoral scholar. In 2002, she the composition of these exosolar disks. was awarded the Vainu Bappu Gold > Have ideas on how to run Observations with the Spitzer and Hub- Medal by the Astronomical Society of the club? Become an offi- ble Space Telescopes suggest that com- India for her work. cer! p2 plex organics may be common on the > Want to know how to get surfaces of planetesimals and that form- Alycia specializes in observations of rid of light pollution? Find ing planets may be rich in carbon. circumstellar disks. She is a regular user out on p4. of space telescopes and Carnegie’s Las Alycia Weinberger has been a staff re- Campanas Observatory in Chile. She > What’s going on at the searcher at the Carnegie Institution of admits that she has never met a big tele- telescope-making work- shops? p6 Washington's Department of Terrestrial scope that she doesn't Magnetism since 2001. She earned her like. However, she > Want to help promote Bachelor's degree in physics from the plans to use her trusty NCA? p7 University of Pennsylvania in Philadel- 4-inch Astroscan, phia and her Ph.D. in physics from the now about 25 years California Institute of Technology in old, to introduce her Contents: Pasadena. She was a postdoctoral scholar two young sons to the at UCLA, first as a member of the Hub- joys of astronomy. April Speaker 1

Tracking Wildlife from 1 TRACKING WILDLIFE FROM SPACE Space BY PATRICK BARRY Elections are Coming! 2 It's 10 o'clock, and do you growing number of scientists aboard these satellites pick Calendar of Events 2 know where your Oriental are leveraging the bird's-eye up signals beamed from Honey Buzzard is? view of orbiting satellites to portable transmitters on the easily monitor animals' Earth's surface, 850 kilome- Officers 4 Tracking the whereabouts of movements anywhere in the ters below. NOAA began the birds and other migrating world. project—called Argos—in Vern Joins the Cause 4 wildlife across thousands of cooperation with NASA and miles of land, air, and sea is The system piggybacks on Occultations the French space agency 5 no easy feat. Yet to protect weather satellites called (CNES) in 1974. At that the habitats of endangered Polar Operational Environ- Telescope-Making News 6 time, scientists placed these species, scientists need to mental Satellites, which are transmitters primarily on know where these roving operated by the National Outreach Requests 7 buoys and balloons to study animals go during their sea- Oceanic and Atmospheric the oceans and atmosphere. An Engine for Mind- sonal travels. Administration (NOAA), as 7 As electronics shrank and Boggling Blasts well as a European satellite Rather than chasing these new satellites' sensors called MetOp. Sensors Membership Form animals around the globe, a 7 ... continued on p3

ELECTIONS ARE COM- ING! AND IT'S NOT CALENDAR OF EVENTS OBAMA VS CLINTON! NCA Mirror- and Telescope-making Upcoming NCA Meetings at the 2007-2008 NCA President Walt Classes: Fridays, April 4, 11, 18 and University of Maryland Observatory Faust has appointed Harold Wil- 25, 6:30 to 9:30pm at the Chevy Chase Saturdays liams, Wayne Warren, Jay Miller, Community Center, at the northeast April 12, 2008, and Jeffrey Norman (chair, jef- corner of the intersection of McKinley Street and Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Dr. Alycia J. Weinberger, CIW-DTM, [email protected], 202-966- Contact instructor Guy Brandenburg at “What are planets made of? Explor- 0739) to serve as a Nominating 202-635-1860 or email him at gfbran- ing the composition of proto- Committee. This Committee is denburg @yahoo.com. In case there is planetary disks” charged with finding potential can- snow, call (202) 282-2204 to see if the didates to serve as officers of NCA CCCC is open. May 10, 2008, for 2008-2009. Members in good tbd Open house talks and observing at the standing (dues paid!) are invited to University of Maryland Observatory in June 14, 2008, contact the Committee if interested College Park on the 5th and 20th of Dr. Harold Williams, Montgomery in serving (and if you have ideas every month at 8:00pm. (Nov.-Apr.) or College, tbd about what should be happening in 9:00pm (May-Oct.). There is telescope July & August, our organization, you should con- viewing afterward if the sky is clear. Summer Hiatus sider being an officer!). The Com- Dinner with NCA members and See You in September! mittee will also be in touch with speaker: Saturday, April 12 at (but hopefully not twisting arms!) 5:30 P.M., preceding the meeting, at many members. The expectation is the Garden Restaurant in the University that, in accordance with the by- of Maryland University College Inn and laws, the new Slate of Officers will Conference Center. be announced in the May issue of StarDust and at the May 10 meet- PLEASE GET ing. There will also be an opportu- STAR DUST ELECTRONICALLY nity for nominations from the floor. NCA members able to receive Star Dust, the newsletter of the NCA via e-mail Elections will then be held at the as a PDF file attachment, instead of hardcopy via U.S. Mail, can save NCA a June 14 meeting, and those se- considerable amount of money on the printing and postage in the production lected will take office July 1. of Star Dust (the NCA’s single largest expense) and also save some trees. If you can switch from paper to digital, please contact Michael L. Brabanski, May Newsletter the NCA Sec-Treasurer, at [email protected] or 301-649-4328 (h). We are looking for observing re- Thank you! ports, astronomy equip- ment/book/product reviews, How I MEETING VIDEOS Got Into Astronomy stories, photo Those who attend the meetings have probably noticed that Jay Miller records submissions (like above!), astropo- the talks. While the main purpose is to produce a DVD to assist the reviewer ems, and anything else astro- re- of the talk, he also makes several extra copies. While he claims not to be lated. Spielberg, if there is a lecture you've missed or one you want to look at again, members can contact Jay to borrow a copy. Please send submissions to [email protected] [email protected]

...continued from p1 Tracking Wildlife from Space LOCAL ASTRONOMY became more sensitive, the transmitters became small and light enough by the 1990s that EVENTS scientists could mount them safely on animals. Yes, even on birds like the Oriental Honey Buzzard. 5 Apr, 8pm UM Obs Open House

“Scientists just never had the capability of doing this before,” says Christopher O'Connors, 9 Apr, 7:30pm Program Manager for Argos at NOAA. Westminster Astro Soc Mtg Today, transmitters weigh as little as 1/20th of a pound and require a fraction of a watt of Bear Branch Nature Center power. The satellites can detect these feeble signals in part because the transmitters broad- cast at frequencies between 401 and 403 MHz, a part of the spectrum reserved for environ- Sat 12 Apr,10am-3pm Celebrating 400 mental uses. That way there's very little interference from other sources of radio noise. Years of the Telescope Family Day Udvar-Hazy Center “Argos is being used more and more for animal tracking,” O’Connors says. More than 17,000 transmitters are currently being tracked by Argos, and almost 4,000 of them are on wildlife. “The animal research has been the most interesting area in terms of innovative science.” 12 Apr, 7:30pm NCA Mtg For example, researchers UM Observatory in Japan used Argos to track endangered Grey- 13 Apr, 7pm NOVAC Mtg Enterprise Hall, GMU faced Buzzards and Orien- tal Honey Buzzards for 16 Apr, 7:30pm TriState Astro Mtg thousands of kilometers William Brish Planetarium along the birds' migrations through Japan and South- 17 Apr, 7:30pm east Asia. Scientists have Howard Aatro League Mtg also mapped the move- Howard County Dept. of Rec- ments of loggerhead sea reation and Parks turtles off the west coast of Africa. Other studies Sat 19 Apr, 10am-3pm Explore the have documented migra- Universe Family Day tions of wood storks, Ma- laysian elephants, porcu- National Mall pine caribou, right whales, 19 April, 7pm Space-time Invariance and walruses, to name a and Quantum Gravity: or how c, G, and few. h create the fabric of time-space Argos data is available (reality)! online at www.argos- Montgomery College Planetarium system.org, so every evening, scientists can check 20 Apr, 8pm UM Obs Open House the whereabouts of all 24 Apr, 7:30pm their herds, schools, and Astro Soc Greenbelt Mtg flocks. Kids can learn The ARGOS program tracks the whereabouts of endangered mi- H.B. Owens Science Center about some of these en- grating animals via miniature transmitters on the animals and the dangered species and play POES satellites in orbit. 26 Apr, 10am-4pm MD DAY a memory game with them UMCP campus at spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/poes_tracking/. The UM Observatory website maintains a This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Ad- more complete list of ministration. links to local astronomy clubs and space places.

2007-2008 The Adventures of Vern: VERN JOINS THE CAUSE OFFICERS Written by Ron Smith for the Midlands Astronomy Club, Inc (Jan 2001) President Reprinted with permission Dr. Walter L. Faust, The other evening I a long explanation of asked what happened [email protected] was setting up the ole what light pollution when he confronted 301-217-0771 refractor in the front was, and how it the store manager. yard for some plane- greatly affected us “Never made it inside Vice-President tary viewing when my sky watchers. After the store,” Vern re- Dr. John D. Gaffey, Jr neighbor, Vern, comes finishing, I looked plied. Evidently, Vern [email protected] walking over. You may over at Vern to see if had found too many 301-949-7667 have heard of Vern, his any of my explanation good buys after en- claim to fame was be- had sunk in. Vern had countering the gauntlet Asst. V.P. ing Mr. June in the this strange, deter- of “vendors” at the John Hornstein, “Men of Redbank” Cal- mined look on his front door of the store. [email protected] endar in 1985. You face. He turned and “By the time I got all 301-593-1095 (h) know the guy who started moving to- this stuff, I had forgot- posed beside his favor- wards his house. Ask- ten why I had gone Secretary-Treasurer ite wrecker. He was, at ing where he was go- there in the first place,” Michael L. Brabanski that time, the proud ing, Vern yelled back, Vern dejectedly sighed. [email protected] owner of Red Bank “I’m going to do Then, a strange grin 301-649-4328 (h) Towing. He gave a new something about it.” came across his face. meaning to the phrase And off Vern went, With a cookie in his “Smash and Grab.” fully intent on giving hand, Vern proudly an- Asst. Secretary-Treasurer Anyway, Vern is a regu- the manager of the nounced that he had Jeffrey B. Norman lar visitor over at my offending mega-store come up with a better [email protected] house. He tends to a piece of his mind! way of turning out the drop by unexpectedly, After what seemed to offending lights. Eager Trustees: with the usual greeting be an eternity, Vern’s to hear his new plan, I • Guy Brandenburg “What ya doing?” After pickup returned from leaned forward in my • Jeffrey Norman explaining that I was his mission. Turning chair. Vern pointed to • Benson Simon setting up to look at into my driveway, his prize squirrel rifle • Dr. Wayne Warren some planets, Vern Vern’s high beam laid across his front decided that he would headlights nicely illu- seat, “What’s good Appointed Officers and stick around. minated my observing enough for a squirrel is Committee Heads: As darkness set in, the site. Pulling up, Vern good enough for a light Exploring the Sky viewing conditions re- slowly began to bulb” he replied with a Joseph C. Morris vealed a slight haze unload a strange as- knowing wink. Telescope Making that really pronounced sortment of goods the light pollution com- from his front seat. Guy Brandenburg ing from the direction Out came four boxes NCA Webmaster of the nearby “mega- of Girl Scout cookies, Dr. Harold Williams [email protected] store.” I proceeded to two new brooms, sev- 240-567-1463 (w) explain to Vern that the eral discount coupon 301-565-3709 (h) viewing conditions that books, a handful of Meeting Facilities night would be less informational bro- than perfect due to the chures, and a fresh Jay H. Miller haze and light pollu- baked pie. Ex- 240-401-8693 tion. “Light pollution?” hausted, Vern col- Star Dust Editor exclaimed Vern “is that lapsed in one of my Elizabeth Warner anything like the stuff lawn chairs. [email protected] they found in my well Eager to know how Drawing © Jim Hunt 301-405-6555 (w) water?” I launched into his encounter went, I

Mid-Atlantic Occultations and Expeditions DO YOU NEED A by Dr. David Dunham RIDE? Please contact Jay Miller, 240-401- Asteroidal Occultations 8693, if you need a ride from the 2008 Planet or dur. Ap. Date Day EDT Star Mag Asteroid dmag s in. Location metro to dinner or to the meeting at Apr 15 Tue 4:32 TYC04080399 10.2 1999 VN24 8.0 1 4 eNC,eVA,MD,PA the observatory. Please try to let Apr 17 Thu 1:55 22 Scorpii 4.8 1988 EB 12.3 2 0 NJ,PA,MD?,nVA? Apr 18 Fri 21:17 2UC28554207 13.6 2001 FL194 9.3 4 12 TNO e.N.Amer? him know in advance by e-mail at Apr 21 Mon 23:37 SAO 77521 9.7 2001 YJ140 12.3 5 5 TNO e.N.Amer? Apr 23 Wed 4:56 TYC57850675 11.0 2000 PJ30 13.7 9 7 TNO N.America? [email protected]. Apr 27 Sun 0:42 2UC33230431 13.2 2002 GZ32 6.5 9 11 TNO N.America? ——————————————————————————————————————————————- Lunar Grazing Occultations

DATE Day EDT Star Mag % alt CA Location DIRECTIONS TO Apr 11 Fri 22:10 39 Gem 6.2 41+ 46 15N Richmond & Chesapeake, VA DINNER/MEETING Apr 12 Sat 1:22 SAO 79052 8.8 43+ 11 12N Verona & Bass Lake, VA May 8 Thu 22:32 SAO 78579 9.3 18+ 17 14N Chantilly&DaleC,VA;LaPlata,MD Members and guests are invited to May 9 Fri 22:43 SAO 79618 7.7 27+ 24 14N Allentown, PA; Fostertown, NJ join us for dinner at the Garden May 10 Sat 23:12 ZC 1297 6.8 38+ 28 14N Natural Bridge,VA, Witaker,NC ——————————————————————————————————————————————- Restaurant located in the UMUC Inn Total Lunar Occultations & Conference Center, 3501 Univer- DATE Day EDT Ph Star Mag % alt CA Sp. Notes sity Blvd E. Apr 13 Sun 0:37 D 7 Cancri 6.8 54+ 26 75S K0 ZC 1215 Apr 13 Sun 2:25 D mu Cancri 5.3 55+ 6 57S G2 ZC 1224; Azimuth 293 dg Apr 14 Mon 20:38 D SAO 98730 7.1 74+ 63 65S K0 Sun -11 The meeting is held at the UM As- Apr 15 Tue 23:48 D 48 Leonis 5.1 83+ 50 25S G8 ZC 1549; close double? Apr 16 Wed 20:22 D 75 Leonis 5.2 89+ 41 72S M0 ZC 1635;Sun-8;close dbl tronomy Observatory on Metzerott Apr 19 Sat 0:20 D ZC 1845 6.5 98+ 41 84S G8 Watts angle 80 Rd about halfway between Adelphi Apr 22 Tue 1:52 R ZC 2174 6.5 97- 27 56S B8 WA 252; close double? Apr 23 Wed 5:48 R ZC 2318 6.6 92- 15 78S B9 Sun -6; Az 216; WA 266 and University Blvd. Apr 25 Fri 4:16 R SAO 187318 7.7 71- 21 58N A3 Apr 25 Fri 5:40 R SAO 187363 7.2 71- 24 88N K0 Sun alt. -7 deg. Apr 26 Sat 4:10 R ZC 2879 6.7 62- 19 90N A3 Apr 28 Mon 3:09 R iota Cap 4.3 42- 2 77N G8 Azimuth 114 deg. May 1 Thu 5:22 R ZC 3385 6.7 22- 18 52N F8 Sun alt. -9 deg. OBSERVING AFTER May 6 Tue 21:31 D X05643 8.5 4+ 5 2S F8 Az 299; 20" to chi Tau May 6 Tue 21:32 D chi Tauri 5.4 4+ 5 -1S B9 ZC 647; Azimuth 299 THE MEETING May 7 Wed 22:09 D ZC 833 7.1 10+ 10 78S B5 Az 296 Following the meeting, members May 9 Fri 22:33 D SAO 79618 7.7 28+ 26 37N F5 Graze in PA & NJ May 9 Fri 22:35 D SAO 79616 8.2 28+ 26 42S A0 and guests are welcome to tour May 9 Fri 23:07 D SAO 79621 7.4 28+ 20 2S K0 May 9 Fri 23:48 D SAO 79663 7.5 28+ 13 87N K0 Azimuth 289 deg. through the Observatory. Weather May 10 Sat 20:13 D 35 Cancri 6.6 37+ 60 54S G0 ZC 1282; Sun -2 deg. permitting, several of the tele- May 10 Sat 21:40 D ZC 1287 6.7 38+ 44 59S A5 rest Praesepe stars May 10 Sat 22:35 D SAO 98009 7.6 38+ 34 67N A7 scopes will also be set up for view- May 10 Sat 23:07 D SAO 98027 7.8 38+ 28 47N A8 May 10 Sat 23:47 D BY Cancri 7.9 39+ 20 74N A7 SAO 98054 ing. ______

Explanations & more information is at iota.jhuapl.edu/exped.htm. David Dunham, [email protected], phone 301-474-4722

Drawing © Jim Hunt

Star Dust is published ten times yearly, NEWS FROM THE NCA TELESCOPE- September through June, by the Na- MAKING WORKSHOP APRIL 2008 tional Capital Astronomers, Inc. (NCA). BY GUY BRANDENBURG

Editor: Elizabeth Warner Several of us who like playing modifications, Bill Blackmore have seen so far. I tried using with machinery have been work- used the machine to do almost the same machine to hog out a Editorial Advisors: ing on upgrading a mirror- all of the work on a 6 inch mir- large, thin blank (16.5 inch Walt Faust grinding machine that was do- ror blank that was sitting diameter. 7/8 inch thickness) nated to us a few years ago by around. He was unable to get and got exactly nowhere after John D. Gaffey, Jr. someone who thought that the machine to do the figuring many weeks of trying. By con- hand-grinding was too slow. So of the mirror, and found that trast, doing the hogging by hand Jeffrey Norman he decided to build his own this had to be done by hand. with a heavy weight went quite Wayne Warren machine instead, but got frus- Major work on the machine was well. trated anyway and never fin- done by Bill Blackmore, Guy Non-member Francis O’Reilly, Harold Williams ished the job. We have changed Brandenburg, Alan Bromborsky, who is an amateur telescope- some of the gears and modified Ian Carmack, Michael Chesnes, PDF distributor: Jay Miller maker from the New York area, the design to resemble a Hindle- and David Gordon. (I apologize visited our workshop a while Draper machine, in advance to anybody whom I ago to have a mirror coated. He named after two well- may have forgotten.) has posted some videos on known astronomical Web Videos on Amateur Tele- hand-grinding mirrors and flats pioneers. The ma- scope Making on YouTube as well. chine is less like a www.youtube.com/user/foreilly Waineo machine or a If you would like to see a You- 1958 . Mirror-o-Matic (if Tube video of the machine in those terms mean action, point your browser to As usual, the NCA-sponsored anything to you), but www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps telescope-making class runs even though the bLr6mr800 . every Friday night, at the Chevy design represents Chase Community Center on the NCA member Jim McPherson something of a step northeast corner of McKinley also made some interesting backwards in time, Street and Connecticut Avenue, YouTube videos on telescope- the strokes seem to NW, in Washington, DC, unless making. He has two videos on be more controllable canceled by the DC Department making a Mirror-o-Matic grind- than they used to be. of Recreation for inclement ing and polishing machine, one We have been experi- weather or some such event. on making a magnetic stirrer for menting with an 8-inch f/6 You can just come in to ask polishing slurries to feed into Pyrex mirror blank originally questions and observe what said machine, and one on using started by Patricia Metzger, and people or doing, or else you can a wii to point a telescope where are at the 25-micron stage of begin a project of your own. We you want it to go. (A wii is a fine grinding. We’ll see how have just about all of the materi- hand-held universal video game polishing and figuring goes. als on hand that you need for controller.) You can find his (Figuring is the trickiest part of any Pyrex-type reflecting mirror videos if you go to YouTube and mirror-making, because it in- in sizes from 4.25 inches to search for his nickname, king- volves taking off exceedingly 12.5 inches. We have a fair jamez80. tiny layers of glass – amount of wood-working and only molecules thick - in NCA member Ben McIlwain metal-working tools, both hand- specific locations in recently finished a mirror in our operated and electrical, that order to transform a workshop and is nearly done can be used to saw up the near-sphere into a near- with the mount. He has an inter- pieces of wood or metal that paraboloid.) esting website where he details you might need to construct the rest of your telescope. We have The most recent modifi- many of the steps involved from active telescope-makers ranging cations involve putting start to finish. You can read the in age from about 9 to over 90 in two cranks for fine details at and from all ethnic groups and control on both ends of www.cydeweys.com/blog/categ nationalities, though there is a the overarm crank, and ory/atm/ . notable predominance of the XY putting in a total of three Despite all of this talk about chromosome. If you are lucky, switches so that the machine is machine-aided mirror-making, it you may even witness a practice easy to stop from nearly any remains the case (so far) that session on the musical instru- corner of it, as well as trying hand-grinding, hand-polishing, ments (mostly drums and pi- numerous different gears and and hand-figuring a small mirror anos) that are installed in the pulley ratios. (in the 6 to 10 inch range) seem same workshop! Photos courtesy of Guy Brandenburg Before our most recent round of to go faster, and better, than using any of the machines I

HELP WITH OUT- AN ENGINE FOR MIND-BOGGLING BLASTS REACH EVENTS From Phil Berardelli tion. At least, that has been dust far from the black hole, There are two NASM events coming up ScienceNOW: Daily News the prevailing thinking. the team reports. A similar 14 February 2007 that have requested help from the lo- process takes place on a Now, astrophysicist Pawan cal amateur community. NCA has been much smaller scale on the Stellar explosions known as Kumar of the University of sun, Kumar says. "Some frac- invited to setup a table for both events. gamma ray bursts (GRBs) Texas in Austin and col- tion of the magnetic field en- crank out in just a few sec- leagues argue that the jets It is not clear to me who would be orga- ergy of sunspots is deposited onds as much energy as the giving rise to GRBs are not nizing our participation, but if you are in charged particles and con- sun will generate over its en- made of matter but actually verted to [gamma] radiation," interested, I can put you in touch with tire 10-billion-year lifetime. are powerful magnetic fields which also produces solar the NASM organizers. transporting energy away from Scientists generally believe flares. the collapsing stars. The re- Sat 12 Apr,10am-3pm Celebrating 400 that the titanic blasts are generated when extremely searchers analyzed data from Some researchers had specu- Years of the Telescope Family Day large stars collapse into black 10 GRBs collected by NASA's lated that the bursts might be Udvar-Hazy Center holes. As a mammoth star Swift satellite and found that generated magnetically, but contracts under its own im- the sources of the bursts were until now there have been Sat 19 Apr, 10am-3pm Explore the mense gravity, it heats up, located about 10 billion kilo- only hints in one or two obser- Universe Family Day causing runaway nuclear reac- meters from the sites of the vations of the phenomena. So stellar collapses--about 100 if the current finding is con- National Mall tions that send jets of matter streaming out at millions of times farther than expected. firmed, Peter Meszaros of By the time jets of ordinary Pennsylvania State University In addition, astrophotgraphers are in- kilometers per hour. Not all of the matter travels at the same matter would have reached in State College says, "it could vited to submit images to First Light, a speed, and faster matter that distance, they could not represent a major turning special feature in their Explore the Uni- catches up to slower-moving have retained enough energy point in our understanding of verse gallery displaying the wonders of stuff, causing violent colli- to generate gamma rays. GRBs." our Universe as captured by amateur sions. These shock waves Instead, extremely high-energy [NGR] heat the matter so that it astrophotographers. Details magnetic outflows produce glows in gamma rays, the GRBs when they interact with most energetic form of radia- surrounding atoms of gas and

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FIRST CLASS DATED MATERIAL

Inside this issue: April Speaker 1 Tracking Wildlife from Space 1 Next NCA Mtg: Elections are Coming! 2 Calendar of Events 2 Officers 4 April 12 Vern Joins the Cause 4 7:30pm Occultations 5 Telescope-Making News 6 @ UM Obs Outreach Requests 7 Dr. Alycia Weinberger An Engine for Mind-Boggling Blasts 7 Membership Form 7