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The Skyscraper 2009 10.Indd The SkyscraperVol. 36 No. 10 October 2009 Amateur Astronomical Society Of Rhode Island · 47 Peeptoad Road North Scituate, RI 02857 · www.theSkyscrapers.org Seagrave Memorial AstroAssembly 2009 Observatory is open Friday, October 2nd & Saturday, October 3rd to the public at Seagrave Memorial Observatory weather permitting Saturday Evening Program at North Scituate Community Center A Skyscrapers tradition since 1952, Presentations include: AstroAssembly is our biggest and Al Hall most anticipated event of the year. The Restoration Of The Alvan Clark Friday night features refreshments Weight Drive and short talks by members. All Saturdays 8:00pm - 10:00pm Thomas Levenson See www.theSkyscrapers.org day Saturday we have talks from The (Criminal) Education of Isaac for updates. members and guest speakers from local Newton. universities, socializing with fellow members and visiting members from Mike Mattei Strange Cloud Formations on the local astronomical societies, on-site Work Session Scheduled Terminator of Venus. to get the buildings vendors, swap tables, raffle, and door prizes. The keynote program follows William Sheehan and grounds ready for A centennial observed: E. M. Antoniadi AstroAssembly the catered buffet dinner at the North Scituate Community Center and this and Mars. Saturday, September 26th year features Ronald Florence, author Ronald Florence starting at noon. We need of “The Perfect Machine, Building the The Perfect Machine, Building the your help! Palomar Telescope.” Palomar Telescope. Please contact the Trustees for more information. Special Meeting to be held at AstroAssembly, Friday, October 2nd at 7pm October 2009 We normally forgo having a monthly 2nd so that this project can finished meeting during the month of October before it gets too cold. 4 Full Moon due to AstroAssembly, but this year Another motion was also made at we have some important business the September meeting to sell the 11 ¼” 5 Mercury at greatest to be voted on. The Executive Board Maksutov telescope recently donated Western elongation (18°) decided to schedule a brief business by Allen Shepperton. It is hoped that meeting that will last no more than 30 proceeds from this sale will help pay 8 Mercury 0.3° S of Saturn minutes. for some of the expense of replacing At our September Monthly Meeting, our roof. We will vote on this motion 9 LCROSS Lunar Impact http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/ the Trustees reported that the roof of this month as well. the meeting hall is leaking. Due to the We also have some new people to 11 Last Quarter Moon age of this roof, it was decided that it introduce and vote into membership. should be replaced. Several contractors So for this meeting, under Old 13 Venus 0.6°S of Saturn supplied us with estimates for this Business, we will vote on the motions 18 New Moon work. A motion was made to spend that were made last month. We will up to $4,000 to have the old shingles then ask if there is any New Business. 25 First Quarter Moon removed and a new roof installed. We There will be no committee reports or need to vote on this motion October any other items discussed. THE SKYSCRAPER • OCTOBER 2009 President’s Message Bob Horton Over 35 years ago, our Alvan Clark’s telescope to track. original weight driven drive had been Our first views of the evening removed, and subsequently, some were of Jupiter and its moons. I had a of its parts lost - seemingly forever. wonderful time observing through the I joined Skyscrapers at age 13, soon 8¼” Alvan Clark refractor. There has after that unfortunate series of events, always been something magical about The Skyscraper is published monthly by Skyscrapers, Inc. Meetings are usually held and never had the opportunity to see using this fine old telescope, but now on the first Friday of the month. Public it in operation. In these past three plus with the drive system refurbished, it observing is usually held every Saturday decades, several electrical variants for was like stepping back in time to the night at Seagrave Memorial Observatory, the drive have been used, but none of 19th century. weather permitting. them worked all that well. However, The drive was working so well President the Alvan Clark telescope, with it’s fine we were able to use up to 380 power! Bob Horton [email protected] optics, delivered exquisite views. Many In the past, when the drive wasn’t of us have enjoyed looking through it working properly, we really couldn’t 1st Vice President on countless nights. use such magnification without having Bob Napier [email protected] Al Hall, one of our long time to constantly nudge the telescope to 2nd Vice President members, has spent the last six years keep the image centered. Now with Steve Hubbard [email protected] designing and fabricating all of the the telescope tracking perfectly, and missing parts of the original weight with good seeing conditions, we were Secretary driven drive. We had a dedication really enjoying a view that only the Jim Crawford [email protected] ceremony for the new drive back in finest optics can deliver. Treasurer July, and some of you may have seen Later that evening, quite a few Lloyd Merrill [email protected] it in operation at that time. visitors from the public had arrived, Al had contacted me recently, wanting many of them visiting our observatory Members at Large to meet up at the observatory so that for the first time. As much as they Tom Thibault [email protected] he could make the final adjustments to were thrilled with the view through Roger Forsythe [email protected] the drive system. Once everything was the telescope, they were completely Trustees fined tuned, the weights that hang from fascinated by seeing the flyball governor Jim Brenek [email protected] chains on the drive were then cranked spinning and watching us periodically Steve Siok [email protected] up to their starting p osition. Then, crank up the weights that power the Tom Barbish [email protected] a brake was released that started the drive system. I think we spent more flyball governor spinning, allowing the time answering questions about the Star Party Coordinator Bob Forgiel [email protected] drive than we did concerning what we were viewing! Librarian On behalf of Skyscrapers, I would Bruce Merrill [email protected] Spectroscopy like to again take this opportunity to thank Al Hall for all of the time, talent Historian Dave Huestis [email protected] Workshop and effort he put into reconstructing Friday, October 16 the original weight driven drive for Editor Seagrave Observatory our Alvan Clark refractor. If you have Jim Hendrickson [email protected] not used this telescope recently, please All Members Welcome come by soon during one of our open Directions Contact Bob Horton for more Directions to Seagrave Memorial Observa- nights to experience it for yourself. tory are located on the back page of this information. You can also learn more about the newsletter. project to restore the weight drive at this year’s AstroAssembly - Al Hall Submissions Submissions to The Skyscraper are al- will be one our Friday night speakers. ways welcome. Please submit items CCD Imaging And if the skies cooperate, we will be for the newsletter no later than using the telescope afterwards. October 20 to Jim Hendrickson, AstroAssembly will be held on 1 Sunflower Circle, North Providence, RI Workshops 02911 or email to [email protected]. October 2nd and 3rd. Steve Hubbard will resume on Saturdays has done a great job putting together Email subscriptions beginning October 24th this year’s program. You can read more To receive The Skyscraper by email, send about it elsewhere in this newsletter. I email with your name and address to at Seagrave Observatory [email protected]. Note that you will [email protected] hope to see you there. no longer receive the newsletter by postal mail. 2 fireballs that create persistent dust October Meteor Showers trains high in the atmosphere. Dave Huestis Let’s hope the weather cooperates for the Orionids. If it doesn’t, observing Once again most of us southern Gemini (the Twins) and above the head prospects are still favorable for the last New Englanders were clouded out of Orion the mighty Hunter (Not far two major meteor showers of the year, for the Perseid meteor shower back in from the red super giant star Betelgeuse the Leonids of November and the August. Scattered clouds blocked more which marks Orion’s right shoulder – Geminids of December. than three-quarters of the sky when I remember, Orion is facing you!) While telescopes are not used for started my observing run around 11:45 The Orionids are best observed meteor observing, they do provide pm on the 12th. Though I did observe a between midnight and dawn on the some wonderful views of the heavens. couple of Perseid meteors through small 21st when Orion will be at his highest Seagrave Memorial Observatory (http:/ fortuitous breaks in the cloud cover, point in the sky. (For reference, at www.theskyscrapers.org) on Peeptoad those windows to the heavens finally approximately 3:30 am Orion will be Road in North Scituate is open every succumbed to a much more opaque due south of your location and about clear Saturday night for public overcast. Observers further to the east, halfway up off the southern horizon.) observing. Ladd Observatory (http:// perhaps out on the Cape, were able to And this year the Moon will not pose www.brown.edu/Departments/ squeeze out a few more hours for their any problems, since it sets early in the Physics/Ladd/) on the corner of Hope observations.
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