The Night Sky the Newsletter of the Astronomy Club of Akron
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The Night Sky The Newsletter of The Astronomy Club of Akron www.acaoh.org Volume 35 Number 11 November 2013 Next Meeting: Friday - November 22, 2013 - 8:00 PM - Kiwanis The President’s Column By Gary Smith Hello to all fellow sky watchers and aficionados of the celestial sphere. November has always been challenged to give a special performance for residents of the northern latitudes. The temperature after sundown is a bit chilly and most of us have already searched the closets for our Winter clothes. Well, the November of 2013 will not disappoint. The very bright object in the southwest at sundown is the magnificent planet Venus. A combination of special circumstances allows Venus to reach a brightness of –4.6 magnitude. Venus has very thick clouds that are highly reflective of the sunlight. It has an average distance of The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) by ACA Member Len Marek. Meade 14” 0.723 AU’s from the Sun. At close LX850 ACF and SBIG ST8300M. 6X5min Ha, OIII, SII (Hubble Palette). approach the Earth-Venus distance is only 26 million miles (0.28 AU’s). It is common for Venus to become appreciated by amateur astronomers The Andromeda Galaxy (M 31) bright enough to cast shadows in dark and planetary scientists and are still has already been discussed. But I areas on moonless nights. being studied today. would like to say the months of November and December have The King of the Planets, Jupiter Another reason for the importance performed well by raising M31 to our will make its appearance on the of Jupiter is that NASA mission observers meridian. At this position in eastern horizon at about 11pm. The planers are looking at the system for the sky along with a clear dark importance of Jupiter has become sites to explore with both unmanned moonless sky the Andromeda Galaxy greater as time has passed. The and manned missions. The radiation is spectacular. Galileo spacecraft and mission that belt around Jupiter has eliminated Io, reached Jupiter in 1995 cost an Europa, and Ganymede from (Con’t Page 4) estimated 3 billion dollars. Its immediate consideration. This leaves instruments and cameras recorded Calisto as a promising site for a future images and data that were very much manned mission. OFFICERS 2012 – 2014 October Treasurer’s Report By Glenn Cameron President 10/1/2013 Through 10/31/2013 Gary Smith Phone: 330-633-9873 E-mail: [email protected] Checking Beginning Balance $2,861.01 Vice President Income Anthony Scarpitti E-mail: [email protected] Dues 150.00 Donations 278.00 Treasurer 50/50 Raffle 28.00 Glenn Cameron E-mail: [email protected] PreciseParts Refund 180.00 Total Income $636.00 Secretary Juan Contreras Expenses E-mail: [email protected] Observatory Expenses -429.24 Assistant Secretary/Treasurer Newsletter Expenses -31.76 Ann Ferrell Metisentry Web Hosting -45.00 E-mail: [email protected] Speakers Dinner -19.22 Observatory Director Ron Kalinoski Total Expenses -$525.22 Phone: 330-837-5848 Income Less Expenses $110.78 ACA Webmaster Checking Ending Balance $2,231.84 Dave Jessie E-mail: [email protected] Savings Beginning Balance $2,500.56 Publications Secretary - Editor, Night Sky Newsletter Jason Shinn Earned Interest 0.11 Phone: 330-685-5382 E-mail: [email protected] Savings Ending Balance $2,500.67 Trustee Lewis Snodgrass E-mail: [email protected] Petty Cash Beginning Balance $59.55 Trustee 0.00 John Shulan Phone: 330-836-0800 E-mail: [email protected] Petty Cash Ending Balance $59.55 Statutory Agent Petty Cash 59.55 Mark Kochheiser Phone: 330-882-3713 E-mail: [email protected] Savings 2,500.67 Checking 2,231.84 OTAA Representative Lou Poda Grand Total $4,792.06 Article by Glenn Cameron ACA Treasurer. 2 SWAP & SHOP For sale: 15mm Ultra-Wide Angle Eyepiece Asking: $40 Contact: Lew Snodgrass Phone: 330-819-4886 Phone: 330-867-4800 Ask for Lew. Email: [email protected] For Sale: Pentax XW 20mm Eyepiece Excellent condition. Small mark on 1.25” barrel. Always used in a compression clamp. Asking: $220 (cash) Contact: Fred Fry Email: [email protected] For Sale: Meade LXD75 mount, tripod, and one counterweight. For sale: Includes Autostar and battery box power supply. Also Teleview Radian 12 mm includes cigarette lighter power cable. Works fine. I’m Eyepiece selling because I upgraded to an LX80 mount. Excellent condition. I don’t want to ship this thing so local pickup is necessary. Asking: $180 (cash) Contact: Fred Fry Asking: $400 Email: [email protected] Contact: Glenn R. Cameron Phone: 330-737-1472 Email: [email protected] For Sale: For Sale: Teleview Radian 18 mm Eyepiece 22mm Orion Epic ED-2 ED Eyepiece Excellent condition. 25mm Orion Epic ED-2 ED Eyepiece Asking: $180 (cash) Asking: $35 each or $65 for both Contact: Fred Fry Contact: Glenn Cameron Email: [email protected] Phone: 330-737-1472 Email: [email protected] Advertize in the Swap n Shop! Send a picture of your item and relevant information to the newsletter editor: [email protected] 3 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN CON’T the nearest star clusters to us and explosion expels much or all of the many will say it is the most stars material at a velocity of up to The constellation of Triangulum is spectacular stellar cluster in the sky. 10% of the speed of light. The rather small and dim and would not be The approximate distance is 440 light explosion is the force that drives a of interest to most people except for years. The Pleiades is a prominent shockwave into the surrounding the fact that it hosts the Triangulum celestial object for the unaided eye, stellar media, sweeping up an Galaxy (M33) also known as the binoculars, small telescope, and large expanding shell of dust and gas called Pinwheel Galaxy. M33 is a telescope as well. The B-type stars are a supernova remnant. spectacular galaxy that was probably hot and are inside a reflection nebula discovered before 1654 by Italian which heavily influences their The Crab Nebula can be located by astronomer Hodierna. He lists it as a appearance. This is an example where first finding Alpha Tauri, Aldebaran cloud-like nebulosity or obscuration. wide-field and low magnification win which is the fourteenth brightest star When William Herschel compiled his the observing contest. A newer study in the sky. Many of the bright stars of catalogue of nebula, he was careful places the age at 100 million years. Taurus form a large letter “V”. Follow not to include the objects on the The fate of the Seven Sisters is that the side of the “V” in which the red Messier Catalog. However M33 is an they will separate and spread apart in giant star Aldebaran lies to the end of exception and Herschel cataloged it as response to the influences of the that line and you find the third H V-17 in 1784. The galaxy is the gravitational environment in which magnitude star Zeta Tauri. The nebula third largest member of the local they reside. Some of the Pleiades stars is located one degree to the NW of group of galaxies, of which the Milky are rapid rotators rotating at velocities Zeta Tauri and is 8.4 magnitude in Way and M31 are members. It is also of 150-300 km/sec. This rapid brightness. important because it was discovered rotation results in an equatorial to have Cepheid Variable stars much diameter that is larger than the polar The Crab Nebula is one of the the same as the Andromeda Galaxy. diameter. Alpha Aquilae (Altair) is most heavily studied objects located This was at the core of Hubble’s another rapid rotator. This rapid outside of the solar system. The core evidence that “spiral nebulae” were rotation can be detected from its of the M1 remnant is PSRB0531+21 actually galaxies that resided at great spectra because its shows broadened (the Crab Pulsar) which is a relatively distances and not part of the Milky and diffuse spectral adsorption lines. young neutron star. The diameter of Way Galaxy as proposed by The most prominent example of the the neutron star is estimated at 10 to astronomer Harlow Shapley. rapid rotation is the star Pleione. In 15 miles. Its density defies the mythology Pleione was an Oceanid imagination. A sugar cube size piece The year 1960 was important for creature of Mount Kyllene in Arkadia. of neutron star placed on the surface the constellation of Triangulum. She was one of the three thousand of the Earth would rapidly sink to the Astronomers Sandage and Matthews daughters of the Titans Oceanus and core of the planet. A soup can size of identified 3C48 as a radio source that Tethys. neutron star material equals the mass matched with a visible object. It was of our Moon. The Crab Pulsar called a quasi-stellar radio source or One of the most famous of the (neutron star) spins at approx. 30 quasar. Quasars were the top Messier objects the Crab Nebula (M1) times a second. In 1948 a researcher astronomical mystery of the 1970’s. located in the eastern part of the discovered the Crab Nebula was Quasars are point-like objects just as constellation of Taurus. It is a radiating the strongest radio waves of are stars. However the estimated supernova remnant and pulsar wind any celestial object. The work of energy output of a quasar is nebula. M1 has a history that is Jocelyn Bell in the 1960’s linked enormous, thus the astronomers of the unmatched by any other object in the rapidly rotating neutron stars that is day thought them to be something Sky.