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LAST CALL for the DAS Dinner Meeting Tuesday, May17th

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LAST CALL for the DAS Dinner Meeting Tuesday, May17th Vol. 56, No. 5, May, 2011 Next Meeting – May 17th, 2011 at 6:00 PM ~ Annual Dinner Meeting at the Hilton Wilmington/Christiana ~ See Pages 4 & 5 for full Details on this Event Celebrating the DAS Amateur Astronomer of the Year FROM THE PRESIDENT ! Bill Hanagan To start off, I’d like to thank Bill McKibben for his LAST CALL for the presentation at the April meeting on the Ancient Astronomy of Machu Picchu and Greg Lee for his presentation on DAS Dinner Meeting “What’s Up in the Sky”. If you missed the April meeting, you also missed my presentation on the sizing, positioning, and th surface quality of Newtonian secondary mirrors. Tuesday, May 17 Our May meeting is the annual “dinner” meeting of the DAS and it will be held on Tuesday, May 17 at the Christiana You’ll need to call Treasurer McKibben Hilton, the same location as last year. Social hour begins at at this late hour for Reservations. 6:00 P.M. followed by dinner at 7:00 P.M. After dinner, we’ll view a short video of time lapse astrophotos followed by the Andrew K. Johnston presentation of the Amateur Astronomer of the Year Award. We’ll conclude the evening with a talk titled “Navigating across from the the Solar System” by Mr. Andrew K. Johnston from the National Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Mr. Johnston is the co-author of the “Smithsonian Atlas of Space Exploration” and his talk will give National Air & us a look at the history and technology of solar system explora- tion. This is sure to be an evening you won’t want to miss. Space Museum’s By the time you read this, it may be too late to send Center for Earth in a reservation via U.S. post. However, you can send any last minute reservations up to 5pm Saturday, May 14 to & Planetary Studies will speak on Bill McKibben by phoning 410-392-3444. Be sure to relate the number of people in your party and their entrée selec- “The History and Technology tions and bring a check to the dinner made out to “DAS” in the appropriate amount. of Solar System Exploration” Finally, I’d like to remind you that a club works best when all of its able-bodied members pitch in and help out in The full story on this great speaker, whatever way they can. A good idea of your own is always contact phone number for reservations, the welcome, provided it doesn’t cost the club a lot and you’re variety of dinner selections, along with direc- willing to lead the charge! If you would like to help out but tions to the Hilton Wilmington/Christiana you aren’t sure how, give me a call at 302-239-0949 and we appear once again on pages 4 and 5. can talk about how you can contribute to the DAS. Each issue of FOCUS is full of useful hyperlinks. Just click on any graphic or telltale blue web address and your browser should take you to additional linked web resources. Rings & Moons Circling Uranus - Credit: NASA and Erich Karkoschka, University of Arizona Observing with the Delaware Astronomical Society... DAS Member Star Parties (MSP’s) ! Bill Hanagan favorable for both nights. When the weather forecast onlylooks good for one night, the MSP will often be redirected NEW In April, DAS observers met for an MSP on April 29 to a closer site such as the Elk River site or the Sawin observatory. and 30 in conjunction with the Delmarva Stargaze. The Delmar- The DAS has a core group of visual observers and va Star Gaze itself actually started on Thursday, April 28. astro-imagers who travel to Tuckahoe State Park in Mary- While the overall weather pattern this spring has land, Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania, the Moun- been mostly cloudy and rainy, clouds gave way to clear tain Institute and Greenbank in West Virginia, and other dark skies for several hours on all three nights of the Stargaze, sky sites as opportunities and the weather allow. If you’re giving us our first “GO” for a Member Star Party (MSP) this interested in going along or meeting up on any of the road year. See the report on the Spring Stargaze / DAS MSP on trips mentioned in the MSP schedule, let me know and I’ll try page 8 for more details and photos of the event. to include you in the early planning stage. The next lunar cycle gives us potential MSP dates While DAS members who go on road trips are often of May 27 and 28 as well as June 3 and 4. I’ll be the MSP involved in both observing and imaging, these road trips are supervisor for this cycle. There are two different destina- particularly valuable for visual observers because they offer tions being considered for two-night road trips on these the best opportunity to see deep sky objects through large dates: Tuckahoe State Park in Maryland for May 27 and 28, aperture telescopes under dark skies. If you are truly inter- and Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania for June 3 ested in visual observing, you owe it to yourself to see first- and 4. As always, a “Possible Go” announcement with hand what dark skies and a large aperture will allow you to see. details on the plan will be issued on the Wednesday prior to Note that the June 3 & 4 trip to Cherry Springs is each potential MSP. Ideally, you should respond to a scheduled for the weekend after the Astronomical Society of “Possible Go” announcement if you can make it to the star Harrisburg hosts the official “Cherry Springs Star Party”. This party because it encourages others to attend and lets the allows us to delay registering until after the weather proves to MSP supervisor know how many members are interested. be favorable. That way, no one pays a non-refundable pre- Road trips require that several DAS members registration fee far ahead of the event and then risks “losing” it commit to going in advance should the weather prove if the weather turns out to be unfavorable. May 17: Dinner Meeting: Andrew K. Johnston from DAS Main Meeting Topics Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Center for Earth & and Speakers Through June Planetary Studies on Navigating Across the Solar System Regular Feature: Greg Lee will once again give June 21: Mini-talks: 1) Eyepieces Inside and Out by Dave us regular briefings on “What’s Up in the Sky.” Sewell and Terry Lisansky and 2) Scheduling Next Year’s Talks, by Bill Hanagan “PUBLIC NIGHTS” at the Mt. CUBA OBSERVATORY... MCAO PUBLIC NIGHTS Greg Weaver nights at 8pm. Please check the website for programs The Mt. Cuba planned, full details and updates. Observatory Public The schedule for Spring 2011 follows: Nights continue year round! In addition to Date Speaker Topic learning about many aspects of the heavens, May 16 S. Jackson/M. Cox How Galaxies Came to Be you’ll have a chance to Jun 6 J. Provencal/G.Weaver The Latest Frontiers in Modern Astronomy visit and view our all-digital full-dome planetarium. You can Jun 20 D.Wilson/D. Groski The Planets of Our pick up a schedule when you next come to a meeting or get Solar System the latest updated version off the website at: http:// MountCuba.org. Programs are presented on Monday -2- DAS Special Interest Groups for Photography and Telescope Construction... DAS ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY NEW The next AP SIG meeting will be flex-scheduled for either Friday, May 20, or Saturday May 21 at 7:30 P.M. at SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ! Bill Hanagan Mount Cuba. Saturn will be in a good position for imaging and The DAS astrophotography special interest group (DAS if the weather and the seeing allow we will move the meeting to AP SIG) meets on Friday nights at 7:30pm every other month at Mt. the Sawin observatory to image Saturn. As usual, the specific Cuba regardless of weather. The SIG also meets for photo shoots date of the meeting will be announced via email to the AP-SIG scheduled on 1-2 day notice to synchronize with the weather. group members and via the DAS Yahoo group email list. If you The monthly meetings are informal and typically are interested in attending but can only make it on one of include the presentation of astrophotos taken by the members these dates, let me know. I’ll factor in the potential attendance along with an extended question and answer period. Objects and the weather when deciding which night to use. commonly photographed include constellations, auroras, lunar eclipses, and planetary photos, as well as a wide variety of deep- As always, please consider submitting one or more of sky objects such as nebulae, galaxies, star clusters, etc. The your favorite astrophotos for publication in the FOCUS. A topics discussed cover the entire gamut of astrophotography, recent photo is not required. You can email your photo(s) as from how to get started with a minimum of equipment, to polar .jpg files to our FOCUS editor, Joe Neuberger at his address at aligning your telescope, all of the way to the fine points of using [email protected]. Please include a text file briefly auto-guiders and post-processing digital images. describing how you made each photo (in Microsoft Word You can get started in astrophotography with just format) along with any by-lines or captions you would like Joe your current camera mounted on a tripod or a motorized to use.
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