Fall Messier Marathon planned for November. See Page 9 for details!
Got an idea for a new club logo? Send a sketch to Harry Bearman
FWAS August Meeting is Beautiful at Botanic Center Welcome New Our first meeting at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden Center was a great success! A Members! large turnout of 60 members was there to see Celebrity Astronomer Death Match-- Star Hoppers vs GoTo's. We met in the "Redbud" room, which has a nice window, kitchen Raude Woods with counter, white board/screen, and room enough for meeting essentials. Don Welch Andy & Diane Lovejoy We were treated to a number of reports on Perseid observations, sunspot tracking, and asteroid watching. Preston Starr had been able to video asteroid 2002NY40, and the Eric & Sandra Milfeld video was broadcast on CNN! Steve Richer also brought a set of NASA mission pins from the Mercury and Gemini missions. Inside this issue: The remainder of the meeting was a rousing match between Becky Nordeen (representing the star hopper crowd) and Doug Christianson (representing the
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Observing Reports Between 930pm CDT and 1000pm the asteroid was passing thru Lyra almost straight overhead. Dobs and alt az mounted SCT's are very difficult to aim straight Saturday was a partial victory up, but since I was polar aligned it was a much easier for the GOTO guy and a task. minor concession to the starhoppers. Using the sky and telescope chart (see At the FWAS site, Harry, our SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/asteroids/) I exalted leader, on the big Dob began tracking the mag 6 star shown between the Los and me on the polar aligned Angeles and Boston tracks at the position where the Meade LX200 8" SCT. (Continued on page 2) Observing Reports (continued) FWAS August (continued)
(Continued from page 1) (Continued from page 1) asteroid was scheduled for 10pm. I had a FOV of goto guys). The audience really got into the discussion, slightly over 1 degree so I could easily cover both tracks running the meeting into overtime. Noted FWAS on the S&T chart. . In the concession to star hopping I philosopher and sage Bob Newman summed it up with a used my goto function to get to M57 then did a few hops metaphor: "It's like taking a vacation to Seattle--some people south and west to find the 1000pm target star. I could drive to see the country along the way, and others fly to get not automatically find and track the asteroid using my there and spend more time in the city." scope computer alone.
Right on time the asteroid appeared and we tracked it westward thru Lyra and into Hercules for about 20 minutes. It was dimmer than any of the stars on the S&T mag 9 chart but substantially brighter that the limiting magnitude of my 8" on the bright gibbous moon night. Harry and I called it a magnitude 10. . The asteroid was moving against the background at 8 arc minutes per minute so I would have to make tracking adjustments at least that often to keep it in view.
Doug Christianson
Little League Star Party.. Doug Christianson
Five members of FWAS turned out on Saturday evening at the Optimist Club ball fields north of Fort Worth under that able leadership of Becky Nordeen . Bob Newman with Harry's green laser pointer, Barry Lieb with his gorgeous tripod and binocular mount for his 11x70's, Danny Arthur with his dob hunting down Uranus, Sandra Milfeld with her new dob, and Doug Christianson with his goto SCT. Several hundred young ballplayers attended a kickoff event at the ball fields and our star party was squeezed in after the hot dogs and the big screen movie and before bed check for all the campers.
Probably a hundred kids and parents came to look through our scopes at Uranus, M13, Albierio, the Moon, and various other relatively bright objects prior to the clouds coming in and bed check. The star hoppers not only outnumbered the goto'ers Saturday, but proved one of their points as well. My Meade LX200 really objected to the lack of power from a 12v battery instead of its 18v power supply. I managed to complete a polar alignment before it quit, but after that I couldn't goto anything. I was almost in the dob mode, except that I was still tracking. So wouldn't you know, Becky's big dob advantage is true, any scope (hers was borrowed), anyplace (the optimist ballpark), and anytime (between the movie and lights out) actually rings true. However, there will be another day and a longer extension cord and the mighty goto will win at the star parties.
BTW, if you haven't seen Sandra's new 10 inch DOB, you haven't seen anything. She said it was her "art piece" and that it had to be pretty enough to be stored in her living room. In the true sense of the sidewalk astronomers, her scope uses almost nothing from the store except the mirrors. So until she succumbs to the fever and adds a regulation focuser, Sandra won't be borrowing any eyepieces or filter cause they don't fit. Sandra reports that her scope has so many coats of special paint that she changed the balance several times in the process. The Planets: Mercury: Visible low in the western sky until mid-September, look for Mercury during the first half hour after sunset.
Venus: September opens with Venus in the dusky southwestern sky only 1 degree from the bright star, Spica (in the constellation Virgo)! You can watch this planet brighten all month! Viewing time, however, narrows from almost two hours at the first of the month to an hour by month's end.
Mars: Mars is spinning its way to aphelion, the farthest point in its orbit from us. The light from Mars is very dim this month, making it difficult to locate during the first two weeks of September. It rises a mere 30 minutes before the Sun in the eastern sky. This interval grows to 90 minutes by the end of September.
Saturn: Rising in the east after 1 AM, Saturn remains visible for the remainder of the night. Technically, Saturn resides at the very edge of the constellation Orion, right above the tip of his club. Early risers will get a spectacular view of this planet high in the southern sky.
Jupiter: The view provided by this giant planet is another good reason to get up in the predawn hours. Rising in the eastern sky, about 3 hours after Saturn, Jupiter passes within 1 degree of the Beehive Cluster for the first 10 days of the month. That distance stretches to 5 degrees by month's end. The Beehive Cluster (in Cancer the Crab) is an open cluster of stars 500 light years from Earth. The light from this cluster took 500 years just to get to your eyes! Use your binoculars to view this area of the sky to see why they call it a "beehive"!
AUTUMN IS HERE! "Equinox" means equal hours of daylight and darkness. Because of the tilt of the earth in its orbit around the Sun, the Sun will cross the celestial equator on the evening of September 23rd at 11:55 PM CDT, as it heads south for the remainder of this year. This event is called the "autumnal equinox".
Constellations: Aquila, Capricornus, Cygnus, Delphinus, Equuleus, Indus, Microscopium, Pavo, Sagitta, Vulpecula
Looking for a Little More? If this Skyline whets your appetite, try this website: skymaps.com/downloads.html . It offers a two page pdf brochure that you can print out for free. It has a basic skymap and short lists of visual, binocular, and small telescope objects. It is really good--check it out!
REMEMBER that the Sidewalk Astronomers will hold FREE public telescope viewing (weather permitting) on the north lawn of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History on Saturday September 14 beginning at dusk. Come join in the fun and bring the family! For more information about the night sky, contact the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's Noble Planetarium at (817) 255-9300 or E-mail at [email protected] . Compiled by FWAS members Don Garland and Linda Krouse of the Noble Planetarium, with selected editor's additions. Larry Smith's Palo Duro Canyon Astronomy Summer
Larry Smith had the opportunity of spreading the good word about the Fort Worth Astronomy Society to visitors at Palo Duro State Park and The Badlands National Park this summer.
Approximately 250 adults and children attended "Star Talks" at Palo Duro State Park in June. On one occasion Dr. Fred Koch brought several telescopes from Quanah, TX, to the park so that everyone could enjoy the stars. Along with Fred's visit came a FLASH FLOOD that marooned many visitors in their campgrounds until the highway department could clear out the low water crossings. Fred and Larry had to spend the night in the Assistant Park Superintendent's motor home!
After spending a month at Palo Duro State Park, Larry had the opportunity to work as an Interpreter at The Badlands National Park in South Dakota. During July and early August he gave daily "Fossil Talks", "Geology Walks" and evening "Ranger Talks." The evening programs centered on constellations and other current topics of the day. The park has a natural amphitheater where slideshows were presented along with naked - eye star hopping for the hundreds of park visitors. Larry said: "You haven't seen dark skies until you visit Southwestern South Dakota! I could read by the illumination of the Milky Way!" Gene Dawson's New Scope!
Last weekend I drove to Arcadia, Kansas to pick up my new Starmaster 14.5 inch telescope. This is a hand crafted instrument built to order. It took almost eleven months from the time I ordered it until it was ready. Has a Carl Zambuto mirror and a computerized go- to and track system. It is down right incredible to watch this monster move around on it's own. The go-to system is really simple to align and operate, the motor drive is very quiet and it tracks like a champ. While the telescope can be used in the fully automated mode, you can also "de-clutch" the drive system and use the telescope manually without loosing the computer alignment. Then, if you want to, you just re -engage the drive clutches and go right back to automatic mode.
In spite of the size, it is pretty easy to move. Rick Singmaster, the owner of Starmaster Telescopes, had done an excellent job of making the disassembly and re-assembly as easy and fool proof as possible. The heaviest component is 37 pounds. It is obvious from the design that he has spent a lot of time using these telescopes.
So far I have only had it out one night and that was with a full moon. Even so, I got really good views of lots of stuff including M13, M17, the Blue Snowball Nebula, the Blinking Planetary Nebula, Uranus, Neptune and the Moon. Gene with his new-telescope-grin! Looking at the Moon with this puppy really hurts (Duh!!). Tried some galaxies, but they are just out of reach in the Fort Worth light pollution.
If you go to the Starmaster Owners web page http://starmastertelescopes.com/html/photos.htm and scroll down the Ken Schmidt there is a link (click here) that will bring up a photo of Jupiter Nasa Notes ... Jim Timmons that he took with his Starmaster 14.5 and an Olympus digital camera very similar to the one I have. Perhaps I'll try that some time. Can't CRAWL NOW, FLY LATER - Shuttle. Work to repair the cracks in wait to get a look a Jupiter and Saturn. the Main Propulsion system flow liner slots has been completed on Atlantis. Its three main engines have been installed and leak Gene checks along with heat shield installation continue. Welding is scheduled to begin on similar cracks found on Endeavor. Speaking of cracks, evaluation continues on the cracks which were discovered in the bearings on the Crawler Transporter. These bearings were in the jacking, equalization, and leveling (JEL) cylinders. 25 of the 32 bearings were found to be "good to go". The rest are to be replaced and installed in time for the October launch of Atlantis. August Copper Breaks Report... David Ryle
This was one FUN, FUN, FUN time! As usual for the area, the weather was cooperative and despite a bit of upper atmosphere haze, the skies were clear from horizon to horizon. The daytime skies were populated by puffy cumulus clouds that occasionally obscured the daystar Sol. Otherwise the Starguides showed up around noon to set up the numerous solar observation tools. The Starguides included the director Richard Brown , several from Texas Astronomical Society, Ft. Worth Astronomical Society , and South Plains Astronomy Club. Fred Koch was kind enough to attend and let us use the equipment he has acquired for the events. The SUNFUN equipment included a couple of Televue refractors (TV-101 and TV- 102), on a Gibraltar and Losmandy GM-8 base. The filters were Baader white-light and a Coronado H-Alpha. A Sunspotter and several members telescopes were also presented. September 7 at Copper The Sun revealed a couple of very active regions at the western and eastern limbs. The large sunspot group 50 was moving off the western limb and is now gone. Many Breaks ... Fred Koch prominences were visible including a huge extra-solar emission extending above the eastern horizon. Several darker prominences at the face of the disk were seeable, and a very dark spot was observed in H-Alpha at the southwest region about where group 50 was placed. Copper Breaks State Park near Quanah, The edges of the disk were covered in a peach-fuzz layer of lower activity flares. After a Texas will have its next public Sun Fun/Star couple of hours of observing, the starguides dismantled the equipment and took a break before the next program. Walk on Saturday, September 7th.
Setup of the STARWALK program began at 5:00 at Big Pond area. This high plateau has Solar observation through white light and become the prime observation point for the park and is maintained by the fine staff of the park for our use. A few windbreaks at the southern edge kept the hot southern wind from hydrogen alpha filters will take place at the being a nuisance, and the recently cut grass kept the insects at bay. The flat, circular area is Park Headquarters from 1 to 3 PM. For anyone surrounded by a drive and bounded on the northeast by 50 or so chairs set up for the who has not yet had the opportunity to see attendees. After the setup, Larry Smith and Richard Brown cooked up a great meal of hamburgers and we all ate and chatted about the nights' event. Each starguide participated flares and prominences this is an opportunity to in the setup of the various Obsession telescopes that ranged in size from 15" to 25". Giant do so through a 4" refractor. The evening Fujinon 25x150 binoculars were mounted to a parallelogram tripod and a Star Window was program will be the same as described for set up for easy observation with Fujinon 16x70mm binoculars. Another pair of 16x70 Fujinons were mounted to the Starchair. This was a very popular observing tool for the August at the left. public and the guides as well. Everyone waited to take their turn scanning the heavens on this carnival ride attraction. A starguide pointed a green laser at a target for each to observe If you are interested in participating as a and the operator would find the laser and see the target object. Great fun! Starguide please contact Richard Brown at The 60-70 attendees were first introduced to the night sky by Jeri Turner . She started with a [email protected] to sign up and request an great dissertation on the differences between the types of twilight phases and went through instrument if desired. Also, please be sure to the topic of finding your way through the night sky. Very informative and complete for beginners as well as veteran observers. After the talk, the public was released to wander contact Copper Breaks State Park separately among the instruments and gaze upon the night sky. Each starguide had a special object for a campsite for tent or RV. Use picked out on suggestion by Ewell Schirmer . The observing program lasted for over an [email protected] or (940)839-4331. Both hour with a very enthusiastic crowd asking many questions and politely taking their turns at each instrument. Afterwards the guides were allowed free rein over the equipment and many parties must be contacted in order to favorite object were seen in great fashion. The incredible dark skies and calm winds made a participate as a Starguide. perfect environment for observing. Several highlights for me included finding comet C/2002 O4 (Hoenig), the Veil Nebulae with an OIII through a 31mm Nagler in the 25" f/4.5 Obsession, and Stevens Quintet. The Helix Nebulae (NGC 7293) was another great view in Individuals are most welcome to bring their the 25" Dob as well as the central star of M57. Several spectacular meteors kept everyone own instruments if preferred and, of course, looking up, and many satellites were spotted by both the guides and the attendees. are always welcome to visit and enjoy the
The Moon welcomed us at 2:32 AM with a beautiful crescent display over the eastern ridge observing without being a Starguide. of the lower valley. The Pleiades showed their reflected nebulosity just prior to the brightening moonrise, and the double cluster of Perseus was glowing with stellar detail, Those individuals participating as Starguides naked-eye. At 3:45 AM, I laid down in my tent with the King Cepheus and his Queen Cassiopeia riding high overhead, the moonbeams glowing through the tent netting and many are entitled to free Park admission and two free happily slumbering starguides encamped all around thinking about the breakfast the next nights of camping. There will also be combined morning at Dutch's Restaurant. social/planning events for their pleasure and benefit. The success of this program depends greatly on participation by club members and is greatly appreciated. We seek to make the event enjoyable both for observing and as a social affair. Third Annual Lake Whitney Summer Star Party & CTAS Star BB----QQQQ Thomas and I arrived at the state park Friday afternoon. BW and friends Patricia Haley had already set-up BW's equipment for his flat presentation. They had left a sign on a paper plate that stated "Meet us at Area 51" - The ranger had given them RV site #51! Harry Bearman and Paul Derrick soon arrived and we all met at BW's trailer. Note! we didn't see any aliens or flying saucers! BW and Patricia treated all of us to a magnificent Steak dinner! The sky was a little hazy early evening. However, it cleared later that night. Ivickza Saturday's "Summer Star Party" went very well! Patricia Sanchez greeted guest and had them sign-in. She had 99 sign-in's! was the They were treated to videos, "EINSTEIN'S RELATIVITY", grand courtesy of The Teaching Company and "Runaway prize Universe", courtesy of WGBH. We also had a number of winner of ATM activities. I showed guests how to grind a telescope a Dob mirror with ceramic tile. Mike Robinson poured a pitch lap door prize and Mike Green demonstrated grinding with a glass tool. BW gave a presentation on testing flats. He set up a sodium light and a black light with a green filter. He then placed a binocular prism and a flat, on top of a 1/20 wave master flat. This produced fringes that revealed the surface quality of each test piece.
The CTAS provided us with a excellent Star B-Q! There is Teaching one thing I have learned over the last few weeks, Texas kids to Astronomers really know their Bar B-Q! FWAS President grind Harry Bearman and star party volunteer Jessica Lovejoy glass passed out door prizes. Our grand prize was a home brew 6" dob that BW and myself finished assembling at the event. Ivickza Sanchez was the grand prize winner! We also had a good number of ATM,s. Harry Bearman and John Dowell were this year's Judges. Sandra Milfeld won the ATM "Grand Honors Award". Paul Derrick gave a presentation that covered a variety of cosmic wonders. His presentation was absolutely stellar! Ed Flaspoehler gave a New presentation on how and where to find some of summer's FWAS most spectacular objects. He also informed guest about member how they could earn observing awards by joining any Sandra astronomy club that is a member of the Astronomical Milfeld League. Skies were overcast Saturday. However, they with her began to clear after the indoor program. At 11:00 PM we award- used the parks 16" f6 scope with a 12mm Nagler to view winning M13. It was described by a guest as fireworks! We used the home-built park's 16" f6 scope with a 12mm Nagler and a OIII Filter to dob. view M17. A guest said it looked as good as his CCD image! This Dob has an art- Skies were clear and stable when I turned in at 2:30 AM. quality finish! Clear Skies! Thomas Thomas Williamson http://whitney -astro.com/ [email protected] Sobieski's Shield
The original name for this was Scutum Sobiescianum, which means "Sobieski's Shield". This is a so called "modern" constellation, created by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1690, to honor King John III Sobieski's defeat of the Turks a few years earlier. (Author's note: I'm glad that when the name was shortened, they kept the first part of the name, and tossed the second.)
It may be small, it might not have any bright stars, but it's fairly rich in star clusters and other objects. There are at least 6 open clusters, 1 globular cluster, two planetary nebulas and numerous dark nebulas all within range of 8" to 10" telescopes.
The most famous object in Scutum is certainly M11, the "Wild Duck" cluster, discovered in 1681 by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch. It's estimated to have nearly 3000 stars, more than 500 of which are brighter that 14th magnitude. This is one of the most compact and uniform open clusters in our sky. And it's a baby too! Estimates of its age range from 150 to 250 million years.
In addition to the numerous open clusters, Scutum is also home to the globular cluster NGC 6712. This should be an easy target even in a 6". Also, less than half a degree to the ESE of it is the planetary nebula IC 1295. It's probably only discernable in 10" scopes or larger. Scopes in this class should also reveal another planetary known as K4-8 only 5' NW of it. A nebula filter should help considerably.
A degree south of Beta Scuti lies the pulsating yellow supergiant star, R Scuti. It's an "RV Tauri" class star that varies from about 5th to 6th magnitude over a 140 day period. Occasionally, though it dims to past 8th.
The two easiest dark nebulas in Scutum are Barnard 312 and Barnard 104. The first is located 1.5 degrees SE of Gamma Scuti, and is a large black cloud visible in binoculars. Barnard 104 is located 20' N of Beta Scuti, and is hook shaped. Set against a profusion of stars, this guy is about 20' x 5' in size, and should be visible in 4" to 6" scopes.
M11 -- the Wild Duck Cluster
Planetary Nebula IC1295 FWAS Membership Info Fall Messier Marathon
FWAS Officers: President - Harry Bearman Due to obscuring phenomena (clouds) for [email protected] the last 3 years of spring Messier Vice President - Gene Dawson [email protected] Marathons, Tres Ross has decided to Sec/Treas - Tres Ross have a Fall Messier Marathon. We have a [email protected] Chairman, Bd of Trustees - Becky Nordeen much better chance of favorable weather. [email protected] Vice Chairman - Ron DiIulio The fall viewing opportunity gives us a [email protected] chance to see 105 of the 109 Messier objects. The format is the same. The date FWAS Meetings - FWAS meets at 7:00 PM on the third Tuesday of the month at the Ft. Worth Botanic Garden on University Drive. Guests and visitors are always is Saturday, November 2 at the FWAS welcome! Observatory. Start your training for a fun
FWAS Observing Site - The observing site in Wise County is open to members of observing night in cooler weather. FWAS at all times. Guests of members are always welcome. Six great telescopes are available for members' use: two 12" Dobs and four 10" Dobs. Dark Sky etiquette is strictly enforced, except on guest observing nights!
FWAS WebSite - www. fortworthastro.com : - Membership Info - Officers - Astrophotos - Observing - Links - Local weather, etc! - Message Board
FWAS E-Group - send a blank e-mail to fwas [email protected] to subscribe. Post messages to the group by sending e-mail to [email protected] . Any message sent to [email protected] will be automatically sent to all members of the list.
Prime Focus - The FWAS newsletter is published monthly. Letters to the editor, articles for publication, photos, or just about anything you would like to have included should be sent to Steve Gray at [email protected] . Deadline is the Saturday after the Indoor meeting.
FWAS Annual Dues - $30 for adults, $15 for students. Send dues C/O Tres Ross at the FWAS PO Box return address.
Discount Subscriptions Available: Sky & Telescope ($30), Astronomy ( $30). Send subscription renewals C/O Tres Ross at the FWAS PO Box return address. For magazine subscription renewals, please include the magazine's renewal slip. Note that a Sky & Telescope subscription through the club entitles you to 10% off purchases at the Sky & Telescope on-line store! Observing Site Reminders:
Astronomical League Membership - Your FWAS membership also enrolls you in - Sign the logbook in the clubhouse. the Astronomical League. This makes you eligible for various observing certificates - Put equipment back neatly when you're and you get their quarterly magazine, The Reflector . through. - Leave a log note if there is a club equipment problem and please call a club officer to let them know! - Turn out the bathroom light and close the door tightly! - Last person out, please ... - Check all doors and lights, - Make sure nobody left anything out, - And chain the gate . - Maintain Dark Sky etiquette - Turn out those headlights at the gate!! Editor's Note: The star banners indicate star parties. Be sure to check with the sponsor for details.
Ft Worth Astronomical Society PO Box PO Box 471162 Fort Worth, TX 76147-1162