The Objective View November 1998 Newsletter of the Northern Colorado Astronomical Society Randy Moench, President 493-7613 [email protected] Doug Moench, Treasurer 221-9455 [email protected] Tom Teters, Secretary 482-5702 [email protected] Randy Moenctu Web Site Editor WWW Page: http:/ /lamar.colostate.edu/-rmoench/ncasrdm.htrnl David Chamness, A L correspondent 482-1794 Dan Laszlo, Newsletter Editor 498-9226 [email protected] Meetings first Thursday of each Month

Next Meeting: November 5 7:30 pm Discovery Center Fort Collins " Next Generation SpaceTelescope " by Dennis Ebbetts, Ball Aerospace ** Club Business will precede the program, 7-7:30pm *n

November 5 NCAS Meeting Directions night. Dee Wanger announced her trip to present Starlab Discovery Center, 703 E PrcspectR4 Fort Collins instructions to students in Italy learning English. Jan Kok From Loveland go North on US 287 to ProspectRd in Fort gave a summary of the Iridium satellite show in the sky, Collins, go East about 0.5 miles. Look for the Discovery and resources for anticipating the best view. Henry Center sign on the South side of the street. Kalman has been photographing the with his 4" From I-25, take Exit 268, head West into Fort Collins. refractor recently, and there have been many sunspots to Continue past Lemay Ave about 0.5 miles and see the capture. He also showed eclipse photos from past . Discovery Center on the left. Jamey MacArthur brought a framed mission patch from the Apollo-Soyrz mission. He got to see the launch as a NCAS Party, November 14 or 21, Pawnee child. Phil McCallum brought photos from last Augusfs Grasslands Site aurora, and a homemade binocular mount. Nancy Cox The site is on undeveloped prairie about 8 miles west of contributed memorable cookies. Randy Cunningham Briggsdale. Take Colorado Highway 14 East from I-25. passed around a pupil gauge, so members could check At 17 miles East of Ault, just after milepost 170, take their maximum pupillary dilation. Gerry Reynolds Road 65 (dirt) North one mile. At the curve West, stop. presented a slide tour of deep sky objects. Gene Fatton Go through the gate on the right (no road), close gate and brought stacks of gleanings from the Internet, and set up. Beware of the cactus! If the weather is bad on the presented a summary on the principles of the Aerospike 14th we can try at this location on Nov 21st. Call Tom engine, on the new single-stage-to-orbitprototype space Teters with questions about the star party status, site or vehicle. Dan Laszlo had a few Schmidt camera photos dates,482-5702, or Email [email protected]. to show. Lee Youngblood concluded with a mini-roast of Thom Peck, with reminiscencesabout his many mirrors, NCAS Events, from Randy Moench, President many hours guiding new star watchers, and his always December3 Mars Society Brad Jarvis incredible tales. January7 Elections Designs Wanted Starwatch at the Discovery Center Our supply of club T-shirts is gone, and members would Next date is Wed, November 18. Let Brad Jarvis know if like to have another run made. We could use our current you can come,686-7317. Final date for 1998is Dec 16. logo, or an original design. If you are inspired with a new graphic for our T-shirt, please bring it to the November Other FRASC Events meeting. Longmont Astronomical SocietyMeetings 7:30 pm, Third Thursday, monthly Longmont Christian School,550 N Coffman St

October L Program: Show and Tell

Thom Peck gave a farewell and showed prints of a bright aurora visible on September24. Dorothy Pillmore told of her view of the Harvest Moon over Lake Sherwood, and Jupiter as a point of reference for the Moon's motion that November Observey'sGuide, by Brad jarvis The map is for November 15 at 9:00p.m.

After 1:00 a.m. on the 16th and 17th of this month the Best Looks Leonids meteor shower will be visible. It has a chanceof Moon Near AldebarantllS becoming a "meteor storm," with thousands of meteors NearJupiter 71 127 observed per hour. The conditions are excellent,with the Mercury Difficult in eve twilight, SW by Antares Moon nearly new. The meteor shower is the result of Venus Not visible Earth passing through the plane of the orbit of comet Mars ln SEbefore dawn Temple-Tuttle, which is believed to have left the debris. Jupiter In S eves Saturn In SE,eves Jupiter and Saturn dominate the evening skp with Uranus, Neptune In SW eves Uranus and Neptune also visible. At mid-month, Jupiter will shine at magnitude -2.6 in Aquarius at RA Leonid meteorspeak Nov 17-18. 23h1,8m47s,DEC -05d58m34s;Saturn will be at magnitude 0.1 in Piscesat RA 01,h49m29s,DEC +08d21m13s;IJranus, Comet Giacobini-Zinner, predicted 9th magnitude, tracks at magnitude 8.2 will be found in Capricornus at RA from Aquila to Capricornus. 2Ah47m23s,DEC -18d37mL6s; and Neptune will be at magnitude 7.9 in Sagittarius, at RA 20h07m22s,DEC Mir in November. Times are estimatesas of late October. -19d53m59s. Bestpasses are underlined.

It is useful to be able to accurately estimate magnitudes of Times are MST, Fort Collins/Loveland. Az is compass and other objects. The study of variable stars, directioru N:0, E:90, S:18O W:270. Elevation above asteroids, and meteors all profit from this abllity. This horizon, L0 degrees,about a hand-width at arm's length. month we'll devote some attention to the region around , an often overlooked which is visible Mir Complex all the time at our latitude (it is circumpolar), and Time MDT Az El Sotellite Deg Visibility conveniently has some stars which make good references IM/DD/YYHH:MM:SS Deg for magnitude determination. 7t/L2/98 5:49:43 AM 373.4 7L.4 Out of Shodow Il/12/98 5:52:11 AM ?3.5 33.3 Illuminoted Mox Alpha The star with the closest magnitude to zero is tI/tz/g8 5:57:04 AM 106.8 0.5 Illuminoted Set Centauri, in the southern hemisphere and part of the closest to us. Second closest is Vega in the L1./L4/98 5:12:35 AM 2.5 35.7 Out of Shqdow constellation Lyra. Note again that this month Saturn is t7/L4/98 5:13:13 AM 37.4 39.3 Illuminoted [4ox at magnitude 0.1,. t!/L4/98 5:17:48 AM !1O.6 0.9 Illuminoted Set

There are no stars within a tenth of a magnitude of IL/!5/98 5:39:52 AM 287.4 28.5 Out of Shodow magnitude 1.0. Fortunately, there is a star that is LL/75/98 5:4t:@6 AM 226.8 56.3 lllumi.noted Mox Set obvious, and close to magnitude 2.0: Polaris. Polaris, a LL/15/98 5:45:59 AM L37.0 O.5 Illuminoted variable star, is always within 0.1,magnitude of 2.0. 11./26/98 5:37:09 PM 2LL8 0.2 llluminoted Rise tL/26/98 5:41:45 PM 141".3 3L.4 Illuminoted Mox fourth, and In Draco, we find reference stars for third, tl/26/98 5:43:07 PM 9O.2 2L.5 Into Shodow fifth magnitudes. See the chart below, which shows the magnitudes by these stars. , also called LL/27/98 6:04:30 Pl4 238.9 0.9 Itluminoted Rise NodusSecundus, has a magnitude of 3.1,. Theta Draconis tl/27/98 6:09:@5PM 3L4.3 63.8 Illuminoted Mox is at magnitude 4.0, and 54 Draconis is at magnitude 5.0. tt/?7/98 6:09:47 PM 70.5 49.3 Into Shodow Note that on a straight line between Delta and Theta Draconis lies the Cat's Eye , NGC 6543, a LL/?9/98 5:23:42 PM 242.4 0.6 Itluminoted Rise planetary nebula (RA 17h58m34s, II/29/98 5:28:77 Pltl 312.2 52.4 Illuminoted Mox DEC +66d38m05s;mag 8.8). LL/29/98 5:30:48 PM 43.1 1-3.9 Into Shodow

As a test, take a look at the following start and see if Iridium Satellite Flares you agreewith The intensity of these flares is very sensitive to your the magnitudes listed: position, so please try to know your coordinates as accurately as possible. A position error of 10km on the Theta Ursa Minoris (th UMi): 5.0 ground can change the flare intensity by several visual BetaUrsa Minoris (b UMi): 2.1' magnitudes. Accurate time is also critical. Observer's BetaDraconis (b Dra): 2.8 Location: Near Lemay and Trilby in Fort Collins CO ( EpsilonDraconis (e Dra): 3.9 40.50'N 105.05'W). Local Time: Mountain Standard Time (GMT -7:00)

1 (Eltanin)2.'23

an) 2.7.9 (brumruml 5. / )

6 (Altais)3.07

+ 6ttr3 E (Nodusl) 3,17 ,Aldhibain) x 4.01

r.(Edasich) 3.29

NorthStar) 2.02 c ()3.65

r 3.87

Current Mir and Iridium predictions are available on the Web at: http: / / www2.gsoc.dlr.deI scripts/ satvis/ satvis.asp? Lat=40.58&Lng=- 1 65. 95 00&Loc=Fort+Collins&Tz=MST Site now gives directions for maximum Iridium flare magnitude.

Date Time Magnitude Elev. Azimuth 04 Nov 05:30:40 -5 30 163 S 07 Nov AGzZT:28 -4 24 77E 09 Nov O5:Q9:4L -6 28 L73 S A9 Nov 06:05:50 -3 19 72E 09 Nov A6:L5:Q7 -5 2t 74E 10 Nov 05: 53:41 -5 18 69E L0 Nov 06:22:45 -4 L4 L3Z SE From: LL Nov 15 67 NE 05:44:LL -4 c/o Dan laszlo LZ Nov L7:08:44 -5 69 41 NE 2001 S Shields St Building H 13 Nov 04:52:5L -3 26 t79 S 13 Nov O6:L3:03 -3 1_6 L37 SE Fort Collins CO 80526 L4 Nov A4:48:43 -3 26 181 S 15 Nov O6:09:56 -3 19 L4? SE TO: 18 Nov O4:33:52 -5 23 189 S 19 Nov 05: 54:54 -4 t9 L49 SE 22 Nov 05:45:45 -4 ZL 155 SE ZG Nov 05:30:48 -4 22 163 S 27 Nov L7:46:59 -5 59 39 NE Zg Nov L7:L?:33 -8 69 54 NE Zg Nov 18:38:12 -4 30 1_58S