Lorain County, Ohio January 2014 Website: blackriverastro.org Newsletter submissions: Newsletter Editor

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Wednesday, January 8, 7 p.m.: Regular monthly meeting, Carlisle Visitors Center. “Galactic Collisions” by Logan Maddock * * ** ** * * * *

Thursday, January 16, 7 p.m.: Board meeting, Blue Sky Restaurant, Amherst, Ohio * * * * * **

Friday, January 24, 7-9 p.m.: Public observing, Nielsen Observatory * ** * * * * * Saturday, January 25, 7-9 p.m.: Cloud backup public observing ** * * Sunday, February 2, 6:30-8:00 p.m.: Crescent Moon Walk, Wellington Reservation * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * ** * January Meeting Dates Changes

The January 2014 regular monthly meeting will be held, contrary to the usual first Wednesday of the month, on the SECOND Wednesday, i.e., January 8, 2014, as January 1st is a holiday.

The January 2014 board meeting is rescheduled to be January 16, so that there's a bit of breathing room between it and the rescheduled regular meeting of January 8.

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Submissions for the Guidescope Sought

If you have something that would be of interest to the local amateur astronomic community--articles, photographs, wanted/for sale, etc.--please feel free to send them to your Guidescope editor for inclusion in the next issue.

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Club Dues

To ensure that you remain a member in good standing--or to become one if you currently aren't--please remember to bring cash, check or equivalent wampum to the next meeting of the club and give it to our treasurer, Dan Walker. Or, if you prefer, you can send it to Dan along with the membership form, confirming your current address, phone number, etc. The membership form, and Dan's contact info, is found here: http://www.blackriverastro.org/BRASform.pdf

Thanks for your membership and support. PRESIDENT'S BOARD SUMMARY, DECEMBER 12, 2013

The December meeting of the BRAS Board of Directors opened at 7:10 p.m., with 11 Directors present. The minutes from the November meeting were examined and approved as was the Treasurer's report. Under committee reports, the Guidescope editor reported that everything was status quo. However, more submissions are requested. Any member who would like to submit an article, a photo, or an item for sale, should contact editor Bill Ruth. The Website committee stated that the website is going well. The committee will meet in January to discuss making the home page of the website more dynamic, and to possibly include a voice message. Instrumentation committee reported that the observatory is operating well. We had a report at the last Board meeting that the Telrad finder on the orange tube C-14 needed new batteries; however, at the last star party, the Telrad was found to be working well. The OTAA committee reported that we are considering either September 20th or the 27th for our OTAA depending on when the church in Birmingham will host its big craft show. Schauer will check on the date of the craft show and report back to the Board. The MetroParks liaison reported that the Parks has fixed the light on the northeast concrete pad so it is properly placed on its post and is operating. Programming is set through May with a program being planned for either June or July. The January program will be Logan Maddock discussing “Galactic Collisions”, while February will be John Reising on the upcoming Mars opposition. Kelly Ricks will speak in March, and in April John O'Neal will give a program called “40 Comets in 40 Years”. Tim Kreja will present a program in May. Any member who wishes to present a program for one of our general meetings should contact any of the officers or Board members. Under Old Business, the Directors were reminded that Kelly Ricks is joining LCMP naturalist Becky Bode on another night walk at the Wellington Reservation. This will be on Sunday, February 2nd at 6:30 p.m. These walks end at an observing mound where members will have telescopes set up for public use. Any BRAS members who want to participate should contact Kelly Ricks. There was continued discussion about a membership drive some time in the spring. For this event, we want to make more use of social media and also center the drive around an astronomical event of some kind that will engage the public. John O'Neal, Kelly Ricks and others spoke on using more frequent posts on our Facebook page to increase awareness. John O'Neal also posted some astrophotos on the Amherst city home page and had several people contact him commenting that they had no idea that there was an astronomy club in the area. This suggests to us that we can use Facebook to get the word out about the club. Any members who have Facebook pages are asked to 'Like' our FB page and ask their friends to do the same. Lee Lumpkin also reported on progress that has been made in getting our archives back on line. He has made a test site using several hundred of the photos in our archives, and this was briefly viewed by the Directors on Schauer's iPad. Our archives consist of almost 1,000 photos taken by members and many hundreds of newspaper articles, digitized copies of the Guidescope and other documents that were on the old website. These exist on DVDs in the possession of several Board members and are waiting to be placed back online in a uniform manner that can be easily searched. This is another item the website committee will discuss when it meets in January. There was discussion about the purchase of several items to be used by the club at public star parties. It was decided to buy a 2-inch Baader Planetarium O III filter for use with the C- 14s and to also purchase two green laser pointers. The club will buy a Starfinder pointer from Scope Stuff and a Z-Bolt laser pointer as well. Both of these are Class IIIa pointers which are legal to own without filling out any forms and are less potentially dangerous that other more powerful laser pointers. Class IIIa pointers produce less that 5 mW of power. While many green lasers produce much less than 5mW, these two lasers are individually tested and guaranteed to produce between 4 and 5mW. Schauer will order the lasers and the Oxygen III filter and the club will reimburse him. There was also considerable discussion about laser safety stemming from an article in the latest issue of Air and Space Smithsonian magazine. There are hundreds of reports from pilots of commercial aircraft about green lasers being pointed at them, especially as they are coming in to land. The number of reports is growing monthly at an alarming rate and arrests, fines and visits from Homeland Security are resulting. Green lasers pointed at a digital camera can also permanently damage the sensor of the camera rendering it useless which is another potential problem. We are going to discuss laser safety further and anticipate doing a Guidescope article on the topic as well as creating guidelines for the use of laser pointers at club events. We need to use care as several of our members have very expensive cameras that we do not want damaged and we need to remember that the Nielsen Observatory is on the Cleveland Hopkins Airport glide path. A laser pointer is a valuable tool for helping the public see the objects that we display and we wish to continue using them. However, we must assure that we use them responsibly and safely. Under New Business, past President Tim Kreja provided President Schauer with a handout used by the Riverside Astronomical Society at their public events. This is a two-page document that explains why their club was doing the event and what types of things can normally be seen at a public star party. The second page lists information about the club, a calendar of every event the club has for the entire year, and a copy of the membership form people could use to join the club. Directors have copies of this handout and will peruse it so that we can discuss the advisability of doing something similar if we feel it will be beneficial. The final discussion was about the Clear Sky Clock that is part of our website and is used to predict viewing conditions at club events. It was pointed out that organizations who donate to the maintenance of the site get the Clock updated for their location much more often. The website committee will discuss this and will probably make a small donation to help maintain a valuable resource that we use often. Dates for January were read. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE JANUARY GENERAL MEETING WILL NOT BE ON THE FIRST WEDNESDAY OF JANUARY WHICH WOULD BE JAN. 1st AND IS THUS A HOLIDAY. THE JANUARY GENERAL MEETING WILL BE MOVED TO WEDNESDAY JAN. 8 th AND THE BOARD MEETING WILL BE MOVED TO THURSDAY JAN. 16 th . Members are asked to note this as the Visitors Center will be closed on January 1st. General Meeting: Wednesday January 8th 7:00 p.m. Carlisle Visitors Center Board Meeting: Thursday January 16th 7:00 p.m. Blue Sky Restaurant, Amherst Public Observing: Fri/Sat. January 24/25 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Nielsen Observatory

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

~Steve Schauer The Ten Brightest Comets of All Time

Last month, Comet ISON was supposed to have burst into dazzling brightness, possibly even becoming visible in daylight, following perihelion in late November. Problem: 'Comet of the Century' ISON disintegrated instead. If it had survived to be visible in daylight, it would have joined a very exclusive club of daylight comets, which, to date, has only had ten members. Now, in chronological order, here they are...

Great Comet of 1106 The Belgian historian Sigebertus Gemblacensis completed his Chronica in 1111. In it, he wrote that on February 2, 1106, a star appeared during the daytime, between the third and ninth hours, about a cubit from the sun. The comet was observed in other European countries as well as in the Orient. Some estimates credit the comet as having a tail spanning 100 degrees at peak.

Great Comet of 1680 Even if it weren't for its amazing show, the Great Comet of 1680 had another distinction: it was the first comet discovered by telescope. First seen on November 14, 1680, the comet rapidly brightened as it approached perihelion, which took place on December 18, 1680, at which time the comet was bright enough to be seen in broad daylight.

Great Comet of 1743-4 This comet was discovered simultaneously by several astronomers in November, 1743. By February, 1744 it was as bright as Venus and, after perihelion approach in March, 1744, it developed a spectacular, fan-like tail with six prominent streaks. This six-tailed comet was even observed before it rose, its tail was that bright. Some came to believe that the Comet of 1743-4 was the first recorded appearance of a comet featuring prominent dust striae.

Great Comet of 1843 First observed in February of 1843, the comet rapidly brightened to the point it was seen in broad daylight at perihelion. This comet was known for its extremely long tail. At over 2 astronomical units (over 180 million miles), the Comet of 1843 would have the longest measured tail until Comet Hyakutake of 1996 was found to have a tail of over twice that length.

Great Comet of September 1882 (the Super Comet) Initially spotted in late August 1882, the comet brightened rapidly as it approached perihelion, which took place on September 17. At this time, the comet was reported as being scarcely dimmer than the limb of the Sun, suggesting a magnitude as bright as -20. After perihelion, the comet quickly moved into dark skies, making it perhaps the most spectacular comet ever seen in all of recorded history. This comet was also notable in being the first great comet to have been photographed.

The Daylight Comet of January 1910 In 1910, comet mania was in high gear with the anticipated return of Halley's Comet set for April. However, in January, a surprise came about in the form of a comet that literally burst into naked eye visibility virtually overnight. Initially observed in the Southern Hemisphere, the comet reached perihelion on January 17 and moved into the Northern Hemisphere thereafter, easily outshining Venus. Thanks to appearances of Halley's Comet later that year and the passage of decades, many recollections of the two comets were confused with the Daylight Comet being falsely remembered as Halley's Comet.

Comet Skjellerup Maristany (1927) This comet became very bright in late 1927, being naked-eye visible for about a month. In mid December the comet, already notable for its yellow appearance thanks to a shedding of sodium atoms, shot into daylight visibility thanks to a forward scattering of light.

Comet Ikeya Seki (1965) Like ISON, Comet Ikeya Seki got a lot of hype at discovery. Unlike ISON, it lived up to expectations, reaching an apparent magnitude of -10 in October, 1965, becoming visible next to the Sun in daylight near perihelion. After the comet reappeared on the other side of the Sun following perihelion, it sported an extremely bright, long tail.

Comet West (1976) At perihelion, observers reported Comet West as being bright enough to be seen in broad daylight. Unfortunately, despite its spectacular appearance, Comet West was largely ignored by the non-astronomical media thanks to another comet, Kohoutek, which failed to live up to its initial billing as 'Comet of the Century' in 1973.

Comet McNaught (2006-7) For observers, it didn't take long to realize that Comet McNaught was brightening rapidly and had the potential to become a 'great comet.' Even before perihelion, the comet was bright enough to be seen in daylight. Post-perihelion and after moving into the Southern sky, the comet sprouted a gigantic fan-like tail, the end of which was even visible in the Northern hemisphere.

~Dennis Bodzash Rising and setting times for the Sun Length of day Solar noon Distance Date Sunrise Sunset This day Difference Time Altitude (million mi) Dec 1, 2013 7:35 AM 5:00 PM 9h 24m 55s − 1m 19s 12:18 PM 26.8° 91.661 Dec 2, 2013 7:36 AM 5:00 PM 9h 23m 39s − 1m 15s 12:18 PM 26.7° 91.646 Dec 3, 2013 7:37 AM 5:00 PM 9h 22m 26s − 1m 12s 12:19 PM 26.6° 91.632 Dec 4, 2013 7:38 AM 5:00 PM 9h 21m 17s − 1m 08s 12:19 PM 26.4° 91.618 Dec 5, 2013 7:39 AM 5:00 PM 9h 20m 12s − 1m 05s 12:20 PM 26.3° 91.605 Dec 6, 2013 7:40 AM 5:00 PM 9h 19m 10s − 1m 01s 12:20 PM 26.2° 91.592 Dec 7, 2013 7:41 AM 5:00 PM 9h 18m 12s − 58s 12:21 PM 26.1° 91.579 Dec 8, 2013 7:42 AM 5:00 PM 9h 17m 18s − 54s 12:21 PM 26.0° 91.566 Dec 9, 2013 7:43 AM 5:00 PM 9h 16m 28s − 50s 12:21 PM 25.9° 91.554 Dec 10, 2013 7:44 AM 5:00 PM 9h 15m 41s − 46s 12:22 PM 25.8° 91.542 Dec 11, 2013 7:45 AM 5:00 PM 9h 14m 58s − 42s 12:22 PM 25.7° 91.531 Dec 12, 2013 7:46 AM 5:00 PM 9h 14m 19s − 38s 12:23 PM 25.6° 91.520 Dec 13, 2013 7:46 AM 5:00 PM 9h 13m 45s − 34s 12:23 PM 25.6° 91.509 Dec 14, 2013 7:47 AM 5:00 PM 9h 13m 14s − 30s 12:24 PM 25.5° 91.499 Dec 15, 2013 7:48 AM 5:01 PM 9h 12m 47s − 26s 12:24 PM 25.4° 91.490 Dec 16, 2013 7:48 AM 5:01 PM 9h 12m 24s − 22s 12:25 PM 25.4° 91.481 Dec 17, 2013 7:49 AM 5:01 PM 9h 12m 06s − 18s 12:25 PM 25.4° 91.473 Dec 18, 2013 7:50 AM 5:02 PM 9h 11m 51s − 14s 12:26 PM 25.3° 91.465 Dec 19, 2013 7:50 AM 5:02 PM 9h 11m 41s − 10s 12:26 PM 25.3° 91.458 Dec 20, 2013 7:51 AM 5:02 PM 9h 11m 35s − 06s 12:27 PM 25.3° 91.452 Dec 21, 2013 7:51 AM 5:03 PM 9h 11m 33s − 02s 12:27 PM 25.3° 91.446 Dec 22, 2013 7:52 AM 5:03 PM 9h 11m 35s + 02s 12:28 PM 25.3° 91.441 Dec 23, 2013 7:52 AM 5:04 PM 9h 11m 41s + 06s 12:28 PM 25.3° 91.436 Dec 24, 2013 7:53 AM 5:05 PM 9h 11m 52s + 10s 12:29 PM 25.3° 91.432 Dec 25, 2013 7:53 AM 5:05 PM 9h 12m 06s + 14s 12:29 PM 25.4° 91.428 Dec 26, 2013 7:53 AM 5:06 PM 9h 12m 25s + 18s 12:30 PM 25.4° 91.424 Dec 27, 2013 7:54 AM 5:07 PM 9h 12m 48s + 22s 12:30 PM 25.4° 91.422 Dec 28, 2013 7:54 AM 5:07 PM 9h 13m 15s + 26s 12:31 PM 25.5° 91.419 Dec 29, 2013 7:54 AM 5:08 PM 9h 13m 46s + 31s 12:31 PM 25.6° 91.417 Dec 30, 2013 7:54 AM 5:09 PM 9h 14m 21s + 35s 12:32 PM 25.6° 91.415 Dec 31, 2013 7:55 AM 5:10 PM 9h 15m 00s + 39s 12:32 PM 25.7° 91.414 Length of day Solar noon Distance Date Sunrise Sunset This day Difference Time Altitude (million mi) Jan 1, 2014 7:55 AM 5:10 PM 9h 15m 43s + 43s 12:33 PM 25.8° 91.412 Jan 2, 2014 7:55 AM 5:11 PM 9h 16m 30s + 46s 12:33 PM 25.9° 91.412 Jan 3, 2014 7:55 AM 5:12 PM 9h 17m 21s + 50s 12:33 PM 26.0° 91.411 Jan 4, 2014 7:55 AM 5:13 PM 9h 18m 16s + 54s 12:34 PM 26.1° 91.411 Jan 5, 2014 7:55 AM 5:14 PM 9h 19m 14s + 58s 12:34 PM 26.2° 91.411 Jan 6, 2014 7:55 AM 5:15 PM 9h 20m 16s + 1m 02s 12:35 PM 26.3° 91.412 Jan 7, 2014 7:55 AM 5:16 PM 9h 21m 22s + 1m 05s 12:35 PM 26.4° 91.413 Jan 8, 2014 7:55 AM 5:17 PM 9h 22m 32s + 1m 09s 12:36 PM 26.6° 91.415 Jan 9, 2014 7:54 AM 5:18 PM 9h 23m 45s + 1m 12s 12:36 PM 26.7° 91.417 Jan 10, 2014 7:54 AM 5:19 PM 9h 25m 01s + 1m 16s 12:36 PM 26.9° 91.419 Jan 11, 2014 7:54 AM 5:20 PM 9h 26m 21s + 1m 19s 12:37 PM 27.0° 91.423 Jan 12, 2014 7:54 AM 5:21 PM 9h 27m 44s + 1m 23s 12:37 PM 27.2° 91.426 Jan 13, 2014 7:53 AM 5:22 PM 9h 29m 11s + 1m 26s 12:38 PM 27.3° 91.430 Jan 14, 2014 7:53 AM 5:23 PM 9h 30m 40s + 1m 29s 12:38 PM 27.5° 91.435 Jan 15, 2014 7:52 AM 5:25 PM 9h 32m 13s + 1m 32s 12:38 PM 27.7° 91.440 Jan 16, 2014 7:52 AM 5:26 PM 9h 33m 49s + 1m 35s 12:39 PM 27.9° 91.446 Jan 17, 2014 7:51 AM 5:27 PM 9h 35m 28s + 1m 38s 12:39 PM 28.1° 91.453 Jan 18, 2014 7:51 AM 5:28 PM 9h 37m 10s + 1m 41s 12:39 PM 28.3° 91.460 Jan 19, 2014 7:50 AM 5:29 PM 9h 38m 54s + 1m 44s 12:40 PM 28.5° 91.468 Jan 20, 2014 7:50 AM 5:30 PM 9h 40m 42s + 1m 47s 12:40 PM 28.7° 91.476 Jan 21, 2014 7:49 AM 5:32 PM 9h 42m 31s + 1m 49s 12:40 PM 28.9° 91.485 Jan 22, 2014 7:48 AM 5:33 PM 9h 44m 24s + 1m 52s 12:40 PM 29.2° 91.494 Jan 23, 2014 7:48 AM 5:34 PM 9h 46m 19s + 1m 55s 12:41 PM 29.4° 91.504 Jan 24, 2014 7:47 AM 5:35 PM 9h 48m 16s + 1m 57s 12:41 PM 29.6° 91.514 Jan 25, 2014 7:46 AM 5:37 PM 9h 50m 16s + 1m 59s 12:41 PM 29.9° 91.524 Jan 26, 2014 7:45 AM 5:38 PM 9h 52m 18s + 2m 02s 12:41 PM 30.1° 91.535 Jan 27, 2014 7:45 AM 5:39 PM 9h 54m 23s + 2m 04s 12:42 PM 30.4° 91.547 Jan 28, 2014 7:44 AM 5:40 PM 9h 56m 29s + 2m 06s 12:42 PM 30.7° 91.558 Jan 29, 2014 7:43 AM 5:42 PM 9h 58m 38s + 2m 08s 12:42 PM 30.9° 91.570 Jan 30, 2014 7:42 AM 5:43 PM 10h 00m 48s + 2m 10s 12:42 PM 31.2° 91.582 Jan 31, 2014 7:41 AM 5:44 PM 10h 03m 01s + 2m 12s 12:42 PM 31.5° 91.595

There were two more seconds of daylight on the day after winter solstice—maybe that's why it was almost 60 degrees and sunny. Spring can't be far off, right? Right? Happy winter solstice/new year, folks.