A S T R O N O M Y Rochester Skies First Newsletter ¨ Freezing -Party ¨ March Over Rochester ¨ Prize Rochester Astronomy Club Newsletter Issue #1 Winter ‘06 RAC Grows Up Constellation Prize Star Party The Rochester Astron- From our favorite Our coldest month omy Club has been meeting segment, turns out one of growing. As the size Randy Hemann will our best attended increases, so do the lead us by the optics Star Parties. Dean possibilities. If you are through the constel- Johnson fills us in on curious what RAC is lation Hydra, point- Eagle Bluff January. all about, take a look at ing out deep sky gems “Who We Are...” along the way. Page 1 Page 3 Page 4

ing to feel some growing pains. First Newsletter We appreciate feedback and Rochester Skies Welcome to the first newsletter of the encourage participation. If you Contents Rochester Astronomy Club. We hope have ideas, articles or images, March Over Rochester Pg 2 you find it fun and informative. You please submit them. Hunting the Hunter Pg 8 might even want to keep it around— It’s a Little Known Fact Pg 11 could be worth something someday! “Rochester Skies In the Beginning is a newsletter by the Pg 11 We hope this newsletter will be- club, for the club.” Satellite Satellbright Pg 10 come a source of anticipation for Up-Coming Events Pg 12 our members. As we ramp up If you have questions, comments or material for the Rochester Skies newsletter, our editorial process, we are go- please contact our lead editor Duane Deal at [email protected] A. Providing opportunities for Who We Are... the local community to learn The Rochester Astronomy Club about and become interested in (RAC) is an unincorporated astronomy, such as, astronomy lectures, demonstrations, and sky group promoting astronomy observing events. and science as a hobby for in- dividuals of all ages. The club B. Making astronomy accessible actively seeks new members and visible to the general public If you’d like to know more about through public outreach and me- the Rochester Astronomy Club, with all levels of experience dia. from beginners to profession- please visit us online at : als. Our primary goals are to C. Providing opportunities for its http://www.rochesterskies.org bring together people that have members to learn and improve a common interest in astrono- skills related to amateur astron- Interested in becoming a mem- omy, such as, sky observing, ama- my, promote education in this teur astrophotography, and the ber? Send in the form included field, observe the night sky, and selection, construction, and use with the newsletter. share this knowledge by: of astronomical equipment. Rochester Skies Who We Are, Cont... a using the Moon, but a March Over planet near the Moon is a beau- Anyone with an interest in Rochester tiful sight. So when does this learning, promoting, observ- happen? On the 6th Mars will ing or sharing the science of as- Cabin fever is bad enough for be just 3° south of the Moon and tronomy may become a mem- most people. Throw an astrono- almost right between the Moon ber. Individual memberships mer indoors for too long and and the Pleiades. The Pleiades, cost only $10/ and Family you’re bound to end up with also known as the seven sisters, memberships (includes any- a lunatic on your hands. Well, represent the in this open one in the household) are $15/ March is here so lets march out- cluster. If you’ve never spotted year. Members can vote on side and see what’s up. the Pleiades before, use this op- club activities and hold office. portunity to find them. On the Additionally, our members re- Let’s start “Along the Ecliptic”. 6th just after dark, half of the ceive discounts on Astronomy If you are new to astronomy, Moon’s face will show. The side and Sky & Telescope magazine the Ecliptic is the imaginary that is lit is the direction you’ll subscriptions and on a variety line which represents our solar look for a reddish star-like ob- of astronomy related merchan- system’s disk. The all ject. That’s Mars! If you look dise and events. the Sun in the same direc- farther in that direction, there’s So come join us! We meet at tion on or very near this ecliptic the Pleiades. If the Moon’s light 7pm every second Tuesday of plane. As the Moon near washes them out, you’ll have to the month at RCTC. We dis- this plane, it soars by the planets use a telescope or binoculars. cuss subjects of interest to the every month. If spotting plan- What else will the Moon help novice and experienced alike ets is new to you, the Moon will us spot? Try Saturn on the 10th and at every meeting we fea- help. Not only is it easy to spot when it will be just east of the ture a wonderful astronomi- Ecliptic Plane cal presentation. Throughout the year during weekends of the new moon we hold out- door star parties. There we bring out our telescopes and equipment to share the beauti- ful wonders of the night skies. You do not have to be a mem- ber to attend any of our meet- ings or star parties! For more information, talk to any of our members or contact one of our club officers listed below. We hope to see you soon! RAC Officers Randy Hemann 288-7763 President [email protected]

Mark Callahan 288-5660 Secretary [email protected]

Rebecca Bomgaars 288-4981 Treasurer [email protected]

Page 2 Winter ‘05-’06 Moon. On the morning of the just 2° below Venus, although ing to see Uranus in these condi- 20th, the Moon will chase Jupi- it is a tough find for beginners. tions, as it will be too light out, ter from the eastern horizon at On the 26th Neptune slips even but if you want to mentally pic- 1:30am. If you don’t have a low closer! ture where it is, it’s about a third horizon, it may be later before the distance from Mercury to the you can see them climb. Do you want to spot a planet Moon. that evaded Galileo? Look low Are you a morning viewer? Go on the horizon just before dawn, On the 29th is the new Moon, out on the 25th to see Venus rise a little before 7:00am on the 27th. that’s when it’s tired of point- just east of a slim crescent Moon Look for a very thin crescent ing out planets and it hides from just before 6:00AM. Venus is Moon, then look a little higher to view. This is a good time to go bright, allowing you to see it as the East to see Mercury, shining out and spot the planets without the sky gives in to dawn. Before at magnitude 1.06. You’ll also the Moon’s help. Give it a try that happens, you might be able still see Venus higher and to the and let us know how it goes. to spot Neptune with a telescope, South. I don’t recommend try- —DDeal Hydra By Randy Hemann

“Do you know where you’re go- miles per hour, or about 4.5 times punctuate the beginning and the ing to?” asked Diana Ross in her the distance that Pluto lies from the end of this long serpiginous con- 1975 hit single “Theme from Ma- earth (at its closest) every year. stellation. Just before dawn at this hogany”. Some of us, sadly, may time of year, Hydra slithers low in not have an answer to this ques- In Greek mythology Hydra was the the southwest skies stretching it- tion. So let me help. In this is- many headed monster that ultimate- self out over nearly two thirds of sue we are going to talk about the ly succumbed to Hercules. The length of the horizon. The “head” largest constellation of the sky, constellation contains 3 Messier of the snake consists of a tight cir- Hydra, the water snake. All of objects: star clusters M48 and M68, cular asterism of 5 stars and lies us, including our planet, our solar and a bright galaxy M83 near its tail. 15 degrees below Saturn. (Stretch system, and our Milky Way gal- A deep sky gem in Hydra is NGC out your index and pinky fingers axy, are traveling through space in 3242, the “Ghost of Jupiter”, an at arm’s length, and that’s 15 de- the direction of Hydra. It is esti- unmistakable blue-green planetary grees). The faint “tail” star lies 15 mated that relative to the observed nebula deriving its name from the degrees below the even brighter locations of our current neighbor- gas giant it emulates. And speaking planet Jupiter. Check it out, and hood galaxies, we are racing in of our solar system’s largest planets, put some direction back in your that direction at about 1.3 million both Saturn and Jupiter currently life! Page 3 Rochester Skies Lanesboro January 27th, ‘06

Rochester Astronomy Club, host to an outstanding Star Party at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center. By Dean Johnson

Nine members attended, 7:30, but needing to keep them with shouts of delight from the with seven telescopes, one on as a group was finishing off parking lot astronomy fans. pair of binoculars and a inside and wanted to see as they The star party was on! wealth of other high tech went to their cars. We took ad- gear. The members were; Presi- vantage of that to set up our Mike Currie started things off dent Randy Hemann with his gear with decent light, and walk with a great view of the Crab wonderful 18” Obsession Dobso- around to check out everybody’s Nebula (M1). I noticed that with nian, Duane Deal and Bob Mac- optics. Duane and Bob were set- two inches more aperture, the Donald with Duane’s 8” Meade ting up to do some heavy-duty filaments were easier to see than Schmidt-Cassegrain, Mike Cur- imaging. with my 8” scope. I got on track rie brought his 10” Dob- with requests to see Saturn and sonian, Kirk Severson with his ...“the sky was the Beehive Cluster (M44) in 8” LX 200 Meade and a pair of Cancer. My little 4.5” Newto- 10x50 binoculars, Don and Jan very clear with nian has a wide angle field of Schlosnagle with Don’s 10” Ori- virtually no wind view and we could see Saturn on IntelliScope, Jan’s blueberry hanging below the cluster with muffins and hot chocolate and at all”... nearly all of the cluster visible I finished out the lineup with above (see photo on opposing my 8” G8 Celestron and 4.5” Ce- We all were pleased with the page). Randy took a look at this lestron Newtonian. weather. The evening started off and then the Pleiades (M45) fol- with temps hovering close to 40 lowed by the entirety of Orion’s Most of us got there around 6:30 degrees F. and the sky was very sword. With the aid of his com- p.m. to find the parking lights clear with virtually no wind at puter he helped to figure out still on. Mark, a staff member all—unheard of weather for late that I can see a full 2 degrees of from Eagle Bluff, assured us that January. True to his word, Mark sky with my newt. I deeply ap- the lights would go off around had the lights go off before 7:30 preciate that! Page 4 Winter ‘05-’06

Duane Deal, Mike Currie, Bob McDonald and Mike’’s 10” Orion Dob

Randy Hemann, Club president Setting up his 18” Obsession

Orion was simply splendid, soaring high in the southern sky and was revisited again and again during the night. Randy used his 18” scope to give us a spectacular look at the Great Orion Nebula, especially the Trapezium with the main four stars, and also stars E, F, and G. Previously I had only seen pictures of these stars in my copy of Burnham’s Celestial Handbook. We also got to see faint hints of the , along with M78, which Duane jok- ingly dubbed “The Not So Great Orion Nebula.” But it was there to see, along with the two faint stars that give it light.

As with any really good star party, the interesting conversa- tions that sprang up are a large part of the proceedings. Mark, the Eagle Bluff staffer and sev- eral of us got into an animated discussion about the possibil- ity of human interstellar space travel. I played the devil’s advo- cate saying that it is just not pos- sible considering the distances involved, but it was pointed out that our present knowledge has come a long way in the past 100 or so, and that it might be possible for our descendants to crack that barrier. I hope so, but remain a little skeptical. ...“interesting con- versations that sprang up are a Saturn and the Beehive, Courtesy of Jimmy Westlake, (Colorado Mountain College) Nikkor 300mm tele- large part of the photo lens f/5.6 guided piggyback for 5 minutes proceedings.” Page 5 Rochester Skies

Don & Jan Schlosnagle & 10” IntelliScope Bob McDonald, Imaging with Canon 20D

Don Schlosnagle, showed his was kept pretty busy through- Something became apparent as nice 10” Orion IntelliScope. It out the night and saved the day the night wore on. We had yet to was the first time most of us had (night?) many a time. The fol- see a globular cluster. The winter seen one and how it worked. Kirk lowing is a list of many, but not sky is simply not home to a real- Severson spent most of the night all of the observed objects: ly good one. I suggested M79 in seeing and learning with his 8” Gemini Lepus, the only example avail- LX 200, and Mike and Duane M35 & Nearby able. But it was agreed that this Open Cluster NGC 2158 got into a long technical discus- wasn’t much of an object because sion about collimation and used Cassiopeia of its small size and tightly com- Mike’s laser collimator to bring “Owl Open Cluster” NGC 457 pacted stars. After another hour his scope to a crisp efficiency. “The Scorpion” Open Cluster M52 or so I noticed that Arcturus had risen and that the fine globular Bob was using his Canon 20D “Bubble Nebula” NGC 7635 M3 should now be plainly vis- piggyback with a Canon 70-200 Cepheus ible. Randy turned his scope on f/2.8 lens to image sections of Open Cluster NGC 7510 that to give us a great look at one Orion. It was all very cool, high- (nicknamed ‘the Skate’ that night) of the best globulars in the north- ly technical and looked like a lot Ursa Major ern hemisphere’s sky. Then I in- of fun. “Owl Nebula” M97 (nice hints of dulged my curiosity by asking the ‘eyes’ in Randy’s scope) Randy if he could spot the faint, Friends, family, and a Boy Scout loose globular NGC 5466 lurk- Spiral Galaxy M108 troop showed up to add to the ing nearby. It took some doing, mix of people milling about Galaxy Pair M81 & M82 but we finally spotted it, and it is the parking lot. All told, there Andromeda an extremely elusive object. must have been close to 30 dif- Andromeda Galaxy M31 ferent people there that night. I Perseus Another aspect of observing kept my Celestron G8 on Sigma Open Cluster M34 made itself evident as Ursa Ma- Orionis to give people a look at jor crawled higher into the heav- Leo a multiple , and my “The Leo Triplet” of Galaxies ens. Mike Currie wanted a look 4.5” on Saturn, the Beehive and M65, M66, NGC 3628 at M51 with its attendant com- the Pleiades or the Orion Nebula Canis Major panion galaxy NGC 5195. We for wide angle looks. Open Cluster NGC 2362 (a very found ourselves a little turned pretty object set off by the bright around by Ursa Major’s position I tried to journal most of the ob- Tau Canis Majoris at its center) in the sky. We were able to find jects we looked at, but there was galaxy M63 very easily, but had a fair amount of moisture that “The Little Beehive” M41 to check star charts to get reori- hindered both writing and my Several meteors and satellites were ented. After quite a few tries we G8’s optics. Duane’s blow-dryer also seen that night. found M51. Page 6 Winter ‘05-’06 can jump from one spot to an- other instantaneously without crossing the intervening space.) This may be the best hope for ever finding another world whose inhabitants could evolve to question their existence in the universe, grow to explore it and just maybe, enjoy a star party or two!

I hope to see all of you in the future. For the first star party of the year, it was a very good one. Saturn at Opposition, by Duane Deal We all agreed that the Rochester Unibrain Web Cam & Astro IIDC Astronomy Club was growing in interest and numbers. The The Boy Scouts and their group universe, particularly intelligent next star party will be at Eagle leaders were very interested in life and the odds of it being like Bluff Friday, Feb. 24th. The as- what we were doing and also us. Duane played the devil’s teroid Turandot will occult the provided one of the more amus- advocate in this debate with 8th magnitude. star SAO 80107 ing episodes of the night. After Bob being the more optimis- near the Beehive and the Delta showing them Mars and how tic one. Randy commented that Leonid meteor shower will be at it is diminishing in size, along interstellar travel might become peak. By sharing what we know, with several other objects, some possible if quantum principles it makes all of us better at astron- of them headed off to the dormi- could be applied to our classic omy. Clear skies! tory as the later it got the more universe. (Quantum particles —Dean Johnson it felt like January (Lots of cold feet!). But the littlest Scout in the group along with his buddy Eric, took a fancy to Randy’s big Dobsonian. Under Randy’s coaching and supervision, the diminutive Scout was handling a telescope three times his size in fine fashion. It was amusing, but you couldn’t help but ad- mire the little Scout’s infectious enthusiasm.

Finally the late hour and tem- peratures caused the group to slowly break up. Duane and Bob gave a final demonstration on imaging Saturn. Showing the graphics and spikes on good and not so good images was fas- cinating. Randy, Duane, Bob and I got into one more good debate Sword of Orion, by Bob McDonald with a Canon 20D of the possibilities of life in the Stack of 14, 30 sec Images processed in Photoshop Page 7 Rochester Skies The night win- ter sky gives us wonderful sights the and severe chal- Hunting lenges. The night Hunter sky is dominated by Dean Johnson by Orion, which is the second most recognized con- stellation in the sky, after the Big Dipper, which is known for point- ing the way to the North Star. Orion the Hunter strides across the winter sky, striking in appearance, blaz- ing with brilliant stars. It is visible from every part tense interest, because of its beauty 20th century it brightened notice- of Earth, and is mentioned in essen- and scientific importance. ably in the years 1925, 1930, 1933, tially all ancient cultural folklore. In 1942 and 1947. Since that time its Greek legend, Orion was a mighty Orion is home to Betelguese and Ri- light has been fairly steady. It could hunter whose arrogance caused gel, two first magnitude stars, three fluctuate at any time. Hera to send a scorpion to inflict a of the Messier objects, M42, M43 fatal sting on him. Zeus loved Ori- and M78, all diffuse nebula which The reason for this is that Betel- on so much he put him in the sky are interstellar dust clouds that geuse has begun the climactic end and the scorpion on the other side shine by the light of newly formed of its life cycle. Stars burn hydrogen of the celestial sphere where they stars. Orion also hosts nine of the as their man fuel for the first part of chase each other for eternity. The double or multiple star systems that their existence, converting those at- word Orion is derived from the the American Astronomical Society oms into helium. As the hydrogen Greek word ‘warrior’. The Norse- require to be observed while com- depletes and the pressure in the core men knew the constellation as Or- pleting the top 100 binary systems builds, the temperature becomes wandil, the Irish called him Caomai of the AAS Double Star Club. sufficient to ignite the helium and ‘the Armed King’, and the ancient the star fluctuates between the two. Saxons called him Ebuorung. To the , or Alpha Orinis is a Betelgeuse has reached that point. Orient, Orion was known as Uru- huge red roughly 300 light anna, ‘the Light of Heaven’. To all years away from Earth and marks Betelgeuse is a huge red giant star, cultures, Orion represents the figure the upper left portion of the constel- one of the biggest in the galaxy. If of a man making his way across the lation. It is the only 1st magnitude Betelgeuse were at the center of celestial heavens. seen from our planet. our solar system, the outer surface You cannot go outside and see it of this red giant would be at the or- Orion’s stars are so bright they cause pulsate in a single night, but over bit of Mars at its minimum, and at our heads to look up as we hurry on the course of a lifetime, it does rise maximum would reach the orbit of our way in the cold of winter, and and recede in brightness to a very Jupiter. By any stretch of the imagi- make us linger as we watch his dis- subtle degree. It is brilliant orange- nation, that’s REALLY big. appearance in the dusk of coming red, and in 1852 Sir John Herschel spring. To everyone interested in thought that it was the brightest star , or Beta Orionis is a brilliant astronomy, Orion is an object of in- in the Northern Hemisphere. In the 1st magnitude blue-white giant that

Page 8 Winter ‘05-’06 represents the lower right of this stars lying behind it only define half with telescopic aid, are evident on constellation. Its radius is 40 million of the cloud, leaving us the distinc- long exposed photographs. Regard- miles, which would put the surface tive horses head. less it is a wonderful apparition and of Rigel four million miles further routinely brings gasps and exclama- out than the orbit of Mercury. Rigel This is the most severe test of tele- tions of delight from those seeing it puts out 56,000 times the luminos- scopic viewing in astronomy. I for the first time. ity of our Sun. If Rigel were as close usually average 150-160 hours of as Alpha Centauri, our nearest stel- observing every year, and I have The diameter of the Great Orion lar neighbor in space, it would rival only seen this nebula twice. On Nebula is generally agreed to be the moon in brightness. It will only January 6th, 2005 I saw faint, but about 30 light years, or 20 thousand live a few tens of millions of years unmistakable evidence of this elu- times the diameter of our solar sys- before ending its life in a spectacu- sive object. The second time I saw tem. The great astronomers of the lar explosion known as a superno- it faintly was with Randy Hemann’s 18th and 19th century were remind- va. Luckily for us, it is roughly 750 18” Obsession at our Rochester As- ed of the biblical stories of creation, light years away from our planet, tronomy Club star party (see pg 4) and that is indeed what is happen- over twice as distant as Betelgeuse. ing in this giant star cloud. New Burnham’s Celestial Handbook lists stars are created out of the dust and Twice again as far, at 1500 light it as “one of the most difficult ob- gas present. Compressed by stellar years, lie the stars of the Orion As- jects in the sky”. E.E. Barnard could winds and gravity, this primordial sociation. This light started toward not see it with the great 40 inch re- material pulls together, eventually our eyes during the fall of the Ro- fractor at Yerkes Observatory in gathering enough pressure to ignite man Empire. They are known as Williams Bay, Wisconsin, but with nuclear fusion. This is the process the Orion association because these a really excellent sky, an 8 or 10 by which stars are born. stars share a commonality of origin inch scope and a wide angle eye- and location in space that mark them piece you’ll see a hint of it. I look At the heart of the nebula lie four as a physical group. They make up for it every time I go out, and con- stars called ‘The Trapezium’. This the belt and sword of Orion.This sider myself to be very lucky having lopsided rectangle contains blazing part of Orion is the closest place seen a faint hint of it twice. new blue-white stars of exquisite of new to our solar beauty. They are so close together system and that is why astronomers Something you’ll see every time that it is not easy to resolve the four are so interested in it. Brilliant blue- you view Orion in binoculars or a into separate entities. If you have a white stars are coming out of dense telescope is the sword, which hangs telescope that can, you possess an clouds of interstellar gas, lighting from the belt. This is the home to the excellent instrument. My little 4.5” up their surroundings and supplying Great Orion Nebula (M42-M43). To Newtonian can do it. If you’ve got a us with wondrous sights seen even the naked eye it is a tiny group of scope, try it out on the Trapezium. through the smallest telescopes or stars surrounded by a fuzzy patch of Don’t be disappointed if you can’t, binoculars. haze. In binoculars the haze is even your scope may simply need a little more pronounced and the stars more better eyepiece. If you can resolve The most striking formation to the brilliant. In a medium size tele- them, you are looking at four stars naked eye is the belt of Orion. From scope, 6 to 8 inches of aperture, the that are a million years old or less. left to right, they are named , Orion Nebula is an awesome sight. They are little newborn babes on the and . They wrap It has been described as a huge bat, cosmic scale. the waist of the Hunter, each at a but I think it looks more like a gi- bright magnitude of 2. We would ant misty spider. The cloud of in- Flanking the nebula top and bottom all do well with a waist so tight and terstellar gas is lit up brilliantly in are other smaller nebulous clouds well defined. Alnitak and Mintaka the middle, fading to huge swoops and star clusters. The whole area is are two of the double stars of Orion and swirls of darkness on the edges. rich with astronomical delights and and just south of Alnitak lies the fa- The entire area is a beautiful blue- can enable a person to while away mous ‘Horsehead Nebula’, a cloud green to the eye. Other colors that many a winter night. A little more of nebulous gas so thick that the the human eye can’t pick up, even than 2 degrees northeast of Alnitak Page 9 Rochester Skies lies the diffuse nebula designated cate dance and manages to stay to- yours to enjoy, but does not give up M78. This is not as spectacular as gether in an area of space only one its treasures easily. You must find the Great Nebula but is interesting third of a light year across. This is a dark quiet spot to truly appreci- visually and moderately difficult easily one of the neatest multiples ate it, not to mention dealing with to locate. About the same distance in space, giving the observer the winter’s chill and our planet’s fickle south of Alnitak lies the multiple distinct impression that its orbital atmosphere. If you are patient you star system of Sigma Orionis. This is plane is aligned with ours. will come to know something both a beautiful five-star system aligned challenging and beautiful while be- in a tight narrow wedge. Sigma A Orion is so much more than just a coming better in tune with the vast and B lie very close to one another pretty group of stars in the sky and universe we live in. Clear skies! and C, D, and E are farther off to there is much more to learn than the —Dean Johnson the right. This system does an intri- few things I have written here. It is Satellite, satell-bright, first satel-I-see-tonight Have you ever seen a satellite go mov- Shortly after they set at 7:52, Iridium 8:11. This is a perfect shot back to Canis ing across the night sky? If you have, 13 climbs from the north and pokes a Major who fails to return. Point goes to you probably watched it trail across hole right through the Big Dipper. Then Ursa Minor! the sky as far as your eye could track see it grow brighter as it soars un- 8:20pm Little Dipper it. If you’ve never done that, then you der Saturn, then dims as it sets in the Iridium 50 probably haven’t looked in the right south/east. Iridium satellites are a se- At 8:20 Iridium 50 will bisect the Little place at the right time. Let’s fix that. ries of communication satellites with Dipper’s handle and travel close to ze- Here’s what you need, the correct time very reflective panels. This satellite nith as it brightens and falls through and two good eyes and a relatively dark should be pretty bright, but there is a Gemini and falls in the south at 8:27. sky. chance that if the reflective panels line 8:49pm Cassiopeia up just right, you’ll see it grow amaz- Iridium 53 The best time to spot satellites is 2 ingly bright and then fade. Don’t count 8:49pm catch Iridium 53 heading hours after Sunset or before Sunrise. on it, but watch for it just in case. through Cassiopeia, under the double This is when the Sun can still reflect cluster, through Perseus and right over 8:01pm Ursa’s to Canid’s light off their shiny little bodies. We’re the Pleiades. Iridium 83 going to take this adventure on March 9:07pm Pleiades 2nd. It’s best to get out early enough to 8:07pm Canid’s to Ursa’s Iridium 911 get familiar with the sky and let your Cosmos 1484 R/B If you have binoculars, aim them at the eyes adjust to the dark. Lets start extra Pleiades at 9:07 and see Iridium 911 pass early and spot a bright one to test our 8:11pm Ursa’s to Canid’s nearly right through them. time and direction. Iridium 86 March 3rd 7:44pm N.W. I.S.S. Now we’re going to see the Ursa’s play 11:19pm I.S.S & Progress M54 the Canids in satellite ping-pong. Watch If you missed the ISS earlier, head back Situate yourself looking north and for Iridium 83 to climb out of the north out on March 3rd at about 11:19pm and watch north-west at 7:44pm. You’ll need like 13 did. Ursa’s will serve at 8:01, when look toward the NW horizon. Up will to have a low view of the north horizon it will slide up Draco’s tail, between the come the ISS, through Perseus, hitting for this one. The bright speck you are dippers and sling itself over Saturn. the bowl of the Big Dipper and arcing about to see is the International Space Both Canis Minor and Major have this around to soar through Virgo before Station or ISS, and it’s going to travel one covered, and before it passes the setting at about 10:23. right under the Little Dipper and set in super bright star Sirius, watch east- the north-east. You should also see it’s ward for Cosmos 1484 R/B being re- I hope you have as much fun watch- companion Progress M-54, a satellite turned at about 8:07. This will head un- ing these man-made moons as I do. I proceeding 2° ahead of it. der Saturn and right back over the Big only mentioned a few and there are so 7:52pm Big Dipper Dipper to get immediately vollied back many more up there. So keep your eyes Iridium 13 on Iridium 86 from the Little Dipper at skyward. —DDeal Page 10 Winter ‘05-’06 the beginning an astronomical journey Rebecca Bomgaars

Blueberries. Yup, blueberries. That Barnes and Noble and purchased Rov- nomical Society website with the Roch- is the beginning of my journey from ing Mars, by Steve Squyers. I did find ester Astronomy Club as a member. I backyard stargazer to the Rochester the answer I was looking for as well as attended my first meeting with trepi- Astronomy Club. Since it is hardly ap- a myriad of facts about the behind-the- dation, being concerned more about parent what degrees of separation ex- scenes drama of a space launch.. what I did not know than what I did ist in this story, let me explain. know. And the point is it didn’t matter. “...astronomy is about Sometimes I learn one thing. Some- While channel flipping one evening, I sharing & experiencing times I learn ten things. Sometimes I came upon an interesting show about forget three of the ten! But in the end the Mars Exploration Rover (MER). the wonders of the I am learning. And changing. And ap- “Spirit” and “Opportunity” were rovers universe...” preciating the infinite space above me. launched by NASA to explore the sur- If you had the chance to walk out your face of Mars, hoping to explain the ear- Having toted H.A. Reys, “The Stars”, on back door each evening to find the liest parts of Mars’ history beginning 4 every camping trip and vacation we mysteries at the bottom of the ocean, ½ billion years ago, about the time of took, making my children learn the you would do that. Simply looking up the origin of our planet. One of their night sky, being humbled by the vast- exponentially multiplies the mysteries geological findings was “blueberries,” ness of space, enjoying a different favor- yet it is not nearly appreciated or expe- perfectly round small objects found at ite constellation each year (O, Cygnus!), rienced enough. the feet of the rover. What were they? going to the top of a volcano in Maui What were they made of? What geo- to try to see the Southern Cross, never If you are receiving this newsletter you logical significance did they have? End- prepared me for the inadequacy of my are probably already interested, even less questions and I fell asleep without knowledge about the universe. proficient and knowledgeable, about finding out the answers. Oh my, how I the cosmos. Just remember, astrono- wanted to know what the “blueberries” This is when the light bulb came on my is about sharing and experiencing turned out to be. Since I did not know in my head to search locally for oth- the wonders of the universe by show- what show or even what channel I had ers interested in astronomy. Internet ing them to others. Come join us and been watching, the next day I headed to searches led to the Minnesota Astro- our club and we can share together.

It’s a Little Known Fact : Martian Blueberries, found by the Mars rover Opportunity are hematite concretions. Hematite is an iron oxide that precipitates from the minerals in ground-water. As water moves through the ground, this iron oxide forms layer by layer, much like calcium forms a pearl in an oyster. When the ground rock is worn away, we are left with these “blue- berries”. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell Page 11 Rochester Astronomy Club C/O R Bomgaars, Treasurer 820 101/2 St SW

Rochester, MN 55902

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