San Diego Astronomy Association Celebrating Over 40 Years of Astronomical Outreach

Office (619) 645-8940 December 2004 Observatory (619) 766-9118 http://www.sdaa.org A Non-Profit Educational Association Banquet News! P.O. Box 23215, San Diego, CA 92193-3215 By Scott Baker Mark your calendars, the annual SDAA Banquet and New Officer Installation is SDAA Business Meeting coming soon! The Banquet will be held at the Town and Country Resort in Mission Next meeting will be held at: Valley on the 22nd of January. That’s a near full moon weekend, so there’s no reason SKF Condition Monitoring not to attend. Our guest speaker this year will be Tim Castellano, an astronomer at 5271 Viewridge Court NASA’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California. This year it will be a sit- San Diego, CA 92123 down dinner (no buffet lines, yeah!) with two choices of main course, either Chicken February 10th at 7:00pm Floresco or California Tri-Tip. Of course there will be the usual raffle and live auction with an added silent auction on some special items. Invitations will be mailed the first week in December, so watch your mailbox! You’ll also have the ability to order tickets on-line using PayPal, just like last year. Ticket prices are still being negotiated but will be in the invitations and next month’s newsletter. The club has ANNUAL BOARD ELECTIONS decided to pick up the parking so that will be free to members. Mark you calendars Must be postmarked by now and I hope to see all of you there! December 31, 2004 See page 5 for details

Treasurer’s Report by Michael Finch

With the addition of our new members we now have a total of 590 SDAA mem- bers. We have several new members last month. Please welcome Cathryn CONTENTS Campbell, Marcee Chipman, William Hultman, Jeff Redwine, Scott Speights, and December 2004 Vol XL, Issue 12 Mark Stewart. Welcome to SDAA and may you enjoy clear dark skies! Published Monthly by the San Diego Astronomy Association Observatory Owners: It’s that time of year. By now you should have received 75¢ /$8.00 year your property tax letter in the mail. Please ensure your payment is received by Incorporated in California in 1963 January 10, 2005. Payment can be made by PayPal or by mailing to the SDAA PO box. Banquet News...... 1 Treasurer’s Report...... 1 Do you have questions about SDAA membership? Has your address changed? Astronomy 101...... 3 Please contact me at [email protected]. Thank you. Sky Watch...... 4 SDAA Director Bio’s...... 6 Second Site Fund balance: $6,705.79 Galactic Surprise...... 7 The Back Page...... 8 SanSan DiegoDiego AstronomyAstronomy AssociationAssociation

For the double devotees, take a Object name: peek at omega Aur. It can be viewed Magnitude: 0.08 with small telescopes, consisting of a Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 16m 41.395s 5th magnitude primary and a 8th Dec: +45°59’50.677" By Scott Baker magnituded secondary. For a little Alternate names: HIP 24608 SAO more challenge, scope of 4" or more 40186 GSC 3358:3141 - The Charioteer (with high magnification) should try Flamsteed-Bayer: 13-Alpha Aurigae This month’s is Auriga, theta Auriga. Theta, with a 2.6 primary Object type: Star The Charioteer or Wagoneer. The name and a 7th magnitude secondary can be a Spectral: G0 Auriga is Latin for “charioteer.” The challenge if the conditions aren’t right. early civilizations of Greeks, Arabs, Object name: Menkalinan Chinese and Babylonians all associated For the open cluster folks, Sir Messier Magnitude: 1.90 this part of the sky with a charioteer. made a stop here, while cataloging Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 59m 31.697s The Greeks had one myth that told that objects. Here you’ll find M36, M37 Dec: +44°56’50.754" the charioteer was Hephaestus, the son and M38. M36, a nice open cluster of Alternate names: HIP 28360 SAO of Helios and Hera. Hephaestus was about 100 , is rather concentrated 40750 GSC 2924:2742 born severely crippled, yet he managed for an open cluster. M37, another open Flamsteed-Bayer: 34- to learn to be a blacksmith, making cluster of about 150 stars, is very Object type: Star wonderful armor for the gods. His impressive. It is about 25 minutes of Spectral: A2V fame as the “lame smith” grew through- arc in diameter and contains a bright out the land. When King Oenopion, orange tinted star at it’s center. M38, Object name: Theta AUR blinded Orion for kidnapping his Easily spotted in binoculars, is also Magnitude: 2.6 daughter Merope, Hephaestus came to about 25' in diameter and composed of Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 59m 43s his aide, earning his position in the about 100 stars. In the same field of Dec: +37°12’45" heavens by Zeus. Hephaestus, it was view, using a low power eyepiece, look Object type: Double Star said, became the first “charioteer”, for a companion cluster just South of Common name: Theta AUR when he invented the chariot to help M38, NGC1907. NGC1907 only Notes: 3.6" separation at PA 313(A-B); him get about. contains about 10 to 12 stars. 2.6-7.1M; blue/yellow; C = 10.6M, 50" distant at PA 297 Auriga, a winter constellation, rises in For the deep sky enthusiast, Auriga is Hour angle: -06h 58m 57s the Northeast, shortly after sunset and lacking, in a way, anything to look at offers many fine objects for the amateur that can be reached with amateur Object name: Omega AUR astronomer. One of Auriga’s most equipment. Loaded with , all Magnitude: 5.0 outstanding objects is it’s primary star, 15th magnitude or dimmer, I could only Equatorial 2000: RA: 04h 59m 15s Capella. Capella, at sixth brightest, a find two objects worthy of a hunt. The Dec: +37°53’24" winter landmark, or should I say first is PGC18078, a barred spiral Object type: Double Star skymark, is a spectroscopic double with at 13.5 magnitude. The other is Common name: Omega AUR a period of only 104 days. The a planetary , IC 2149. At lower Notes: 5.4" separation at PA 000; 5- second brightest star, powers, IC 2149 is stellar in appear- 8M; both blue-white; just S of AUR’s Menkalinen(beta Auriga), is also a ance, but you may notice something “Kids” spectroscopic binary. With a period of about it’s color, being “off”. As you Hour angle: -05h 53m 28s only four days, the stars complete their crank up the magnification, it starts to revolution much faster than those of show an egg shape. At very high Object name: M 36 Capella. Since they are eclipsing each magnification, you can pick up the Magnitude: 6.0 other the brightness of beta Aur seems central star and the nebula will blink in Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 36m 18s to vary. and out as you avert your vision. Dec: +34°08’27" Size: 10.0 x 10.0 Get out an enjoy Auriga when you get a Object type: Open Cluster chance. Other ID: NGC1960

Page 2 SAN DIEGO ASTRONOMY ASSOCIATION NEWS AND NOTES, OCTOBER 2004 San Diego Astronomy Association

Object name: M 37 Dec: +46°26’22" Magnitude: 5.6 Size: 2.3 x 1.8 Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 52m 18s Alternate names: MCG8-11-11, Dec: +32°33’11" CGCG232-3, IRAS05511+4625 Address Change? Size: 15.0 x 15.0 Object type: Spiral Galaxy Submit your new information to: Object type: Open Cluster Type: SBbc Other ID: NGC2099 Bar: B [email protected] to ensure you don’t miss out on SDAA news. If Object name: M 38 Object name: IC 2149 you ordered a magazine subscrip- Magnitude: 6.4 Magnitude: 11.0 tion through the club, you will still Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 28m 42s Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 56m 24s need to notify the magazine as Dec: +35°51’18" Dec: +46°06’19" Size: 15.0 x 15.0 Notes: 10M; 10" diameter; very small! well Object type: Open Cluster requires high-+; diffuse at edges with (see each magazine for change of central condensation; 11.5M; central address instructions). Object name: PGC 18078 star not easily visible against interior Magnitude: 13.5 glow; NEAT! find it 40' WNW of Pi (p) Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 54m 54s AUR, the 4.5M star 1 degs N of 2M Beta (b) AUR

SAN DIEGO ASTRONOMY ASSOCIATION NEWS AND NOTES, OCTOBER 2004 Page 3 San Diego Astronomy Association

SkyWatch for December, 2004 John Mood [ Times PST] [ * = 1 star = EZ ] [ ** = 2 stars = Moderate ] [ *** = 3 stars = Difficult ] Sat., 4 Dec. —— PUBLIC STAR PARTY @ Tierra del Sol. Tues., 7 Dec. —— MOON occults JUPITER before dawn for those who live well east of the Rockies; here in San Diego the Moon will be a very close 0.3 degrees from Jupiter @ 1:30 a.m. {See below.} Sat., 11 Dec. —— NEW MOON, 5:29 p.m. —— “New Moon Night” @ Tierra del Sol. Tues., 14 Dec. —— GEMINID METEOR SHOWER (the best of the year) peaks this morning. Sat., 18 Dec. —— PUBLIC STAR PARTY @ Tierra del Sol; explore the Moon’s “terminator” (where dark turns to light) for spectacular views of mountains, craters & rills. Tues., 21 Dec. —— WINTER SOLSTICE, 4:42 a.m. Brrrrrr! ., 26 Dec. —— FULL MOON, 7:06 p.m. Mon., 29 Dec. —— MERCURY passes just 1.2 degrees from VENUS this morning. {See below.} Sat., 1 Jan. 2005 —— 12:00 a.m. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

EVENING PLANETS: Pale bluish NEPTUNE [ ** ] in Capricornus the Goat & pale greenish URANUS [ * 1/2 ] in Aquarius the Water Carrier are now visible fairly high in the sky. They require telescopes to resolve their discs, but you sharp-eyed younger viewers can spot Uranus naked eye if you have a good finder chart. {I used to be able to myself!} Spectacular SATURN [ * ] in Gemini the Twins rises in the east at sunset but isn’t really good for telescopes ‘til later. BONUS!!! – COMET C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) is predicted to become naked eye this month as it passes from Lepus the Rabbit up into Taurus the Bull; but be warned that such predictions are notoriously unreliable. Occasionally the comet is much brighter than predicted, more often much dimmer. Both the astronomy magazines & sites online will have finder charts for the comet each night.

MORNING PLANETS: Gigantic JUPITER [ * ] is in Virgo the Virgin, waiting for the Moon {see above}. VENUS [ * ] hightails it from Libra the Scales into Scorpius the Scorpion, where it passes MARS [ * ] {see above}. MERCURY [ * 1/2 ] pops up in Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer the last 10 days of the month. EXTRA!!! EXTRA!!! READ ALL ABOUT IT! What this means is that ALL 5 NAKED EYE PLANETS WILL BE SDAA Editorial Staff VISIBLE SIMULTANEOUSLY as soon in the month as you can spot Mercury. Editor What is more, for a few extraordinary days, ALL 5 NAKED EYE PLANETS Douglas Searles WILL BE VISIBLE IN THEIR “CORRECT” ORDER FROM THE SUN! [email protected] (Thanks to Jean Meeus, Belgium astronomical computational genius, for Contributing Writers this info, who wrote me that this is the only time between 1979 & 2020 that this Scott Baker “correct order” thing occurs at our latitude. He also calculated that all 5 planets Mike Finch will not be visible again at the same time ‘til 2016, so catch it now! I saw it once John Mood in Jan. ’84 from Mulege, BCS, & again in Dec. ‘97 from my front porch in OB.) Patrick Barry Dr. Tony Phillips { N.B. Because of the recent discovery of 2 relatively large trans-Neptunian objects, many professional astronomers no long consider Pluto a planet. I’ll go along with them! }

Page 4 SAN DIEGO ASTRONOMY ASSOCIATION NEWS AND NOTES, OCTOBER 2004 San Diego Astronomy Association

2005 PUBLIC STAR PARTIES AT Board Elections TDS Nominating Committee Jan. 1st R-10:31pm SDAA annual elections to the board: 29th R--9:24pm Feb. Not Opposed: 26th R--8:17pm Mar. President - Brian Staples 26th S--7:09pm Vice President - Bob Austin Apr. 9th S--8:26pm Corresponding Secretary - Jerry Hilburn Jun. 11th S-11:51pm A run off election is being held for the following directors positions Jul. on the board: 9th S-10:23pm Aug. Bret Akers 13th S-12:18am Scott Baker Sep. 10th S-11:02pm Bill Griffith Oct. Mark Lane 22nd R-10:01pm Brian McFarland Nov. Douglas Searles 19th R--7:46pm

The enclosed Ballot must be postmarked by December 31, 2004. Daylight Savings Time is in effect from April. 3rd thru October 30th. Only current member votes will be counted. Only mail in ballots will be counted, email ballots will not be accepted. Jim Traweek will hold a Host Training Class in the observatory @3:30pm on December 11th. It will take about an hour. See the website for details on training and hosting.

BEGINNING OBSERVERS: In the almost decade & a half that I’ve been doing this column, I’ve occasionally had various series, some of which, taken together, constituted an essay. One of the most useful was a series for beginning observers. I’m going to reprint it starting next month, as an aid to those of you new to our hobby. I call it “How to Become an Experienced Observer.” Check it out.

TIERRA DEL SOL LAT = 32º 36' 48" N ( ± 0.l” ), LONG = 116º 19' 55" W ( ± 0.1" ), ELEV = 3710' ( ± 5' ), at the bathroom, as determined from USGS 7.5 min 1/24000 map. (See my essay on GPS at www.sdaa.org.)

Send comments & questions to me by phone (619/225-9639), USPS (4538 Long Branch Av., San Diego, CA 92107) or my e-mail address ([email protected]).

¡HAPPY VIEWING!

SAN DIEGO ASTRONOMY ASSOCIATION NEWS AND NOTES, OCTOBER 2004 Page 5 San Diego Astronomy Association

SDAA DIRECTOR ELECTIONS BIO’S Bret Akers About 5 years ago I first made the trek out to Tierra Del Sol. After that first night, I knew that I’d be in this club for a long time. In January 2002 I volunteered to take over the editing of the club’s newsletter and served in that capacity until March 2004 and I’ve helped out at several of the TDS work parties while I’ve been a member. My interests in astronomy have been primarily visual and I’m sure many of you have seen me at Tierra Del Sol on the public star party nights with the mid-sized Dobsonian that I usually bring. I’m also a bit of an equipment junkie, as some of you may know from reading the various eyepiece reviews that I’ve written in Yahoo Groups or in the SDAA Newsletter. I’m always after that last bit of detail that I can squeeze out of my optics.

Scott Baker Member since 1980. Native San Diegan. Private Pad owner for 20 years. Observatory owner for 2 years. SDAA Vice President from 2002 - 2004. New Member Mentor for three years. Founder and Yahoo Group Moderator for three years. All-around great guy and modest too.

Bill Griffith I have been a member since 1988/1989 , a private pad owner for about 9yrs. I use a home-made telescope and do both visual and astronomy and astrophotography. I've served on the board on and off for the duration of my membership, and am currently the site maintenance director. I worked with Carl Cunningham and Dominique Farina to make the Lipp observatory operational, raise the roof to add 1 course of block to make the necessary clearance, and complete the final machining of parts for the telescope. The Lipp Observatory has been operational since. I was fortunate to get to work on this project and others over the years because that is my best way of saying thanks to the other volunteers in our club. I'm not as smart as Scott or Brian but I try to be a nice guy!

Mark Lane As a professor of astronomy and Planetarium Director at Palomar College, astronomy is my life. I have been a SDAA member since 2002 and have enjoyed co-hosting at the Lipp on many occasions. I began to dabble in CCD astrophotography in 2003 but still have much to learn. If chosen as a Director, I pledge to use my expertise and resources to help keep the SDAA the awesome organization that it is. The organization has some stellar folks working to serve you and it would be my privilege to join the team.

Brian McFarland I've been a member since 1988/89, a private pad owner for about ten years, and an observatory owner for about one year. I use a home-made telescope and do both visual astronomy and astrophotography. I've served on the board on and off for the duration of my membership, and am currently responsible for the private pads. In addition to this official duty, some of my collateral duties include acting as the de-facto electrician at the site for the past couple of years and rebuilding and/or modifying some of the club's telescopes. With Jim Traweek (observatory director), refurbished a Cave mount for the club's eight-inch refractor and am currently restoring a 14.25-inch Cave equatorially-mounted Newtonian for member use (it was donated to the club a little over a year ago). Not as great a guy as Scott, but I'm a better beer brewer!

Douglas Searles Born and raised in Portland Oregon, moved to San Diego in September of 2002. My son and I joined SDAA in 2003 and have loved contributing to the club when ever we can. I started my journey into the wonderful world of astronomy as a child. Started to become serious with my quest for knowledge 3 1/2 years ago and was instantly bitten by the need for bigger better scopes. I love to dabble with electronics and building my own accessories. I have many, many, many hobbies (a point of which my wife eagerly reminds me). Currently serving as the Newsletter Editor.

Page 6 SAN DIEGO ASTRONOMY ASSOCIATION NEWS AND NOTES, OCTOBER 2004 San Diego Astronomy Association

ing and colliding—and somehow that galaxies are close by (at least by astro- Galactic Surprise interplay leads to the galaxies we see nomical standards of “close”), while by Patrick L. Barry and Dr. Tony Phillips today. No wonder it’s such a hard others are as much as 10 billion light- problem to solve! years away. Because light takes time to Open an old astronomy textbook. The travel through space, we see these distant basic sketch you’ll find there of galaxy Just over one year into its three-year galaxies as they appeared billions of formation is fairly simple: a vast cloud of mission, GALEX is already shedding years ago. Comparing young galaxies diffuse hydrogen and helium gas some new light on the problem. from the distant past with older, modern condenses under gravity, and dense spots galaxies will teach scientists about how in the cloud collapse to form stars. Voila! “Some of the discoveries GALEX has galaxies change over time. A galaxy. made will change our understanding of how galaxies develop and when, where, Looking at these pictures, scientists were But real galaxies are much more complex and why stars form in galaxies,” says surprised to find many newborn stars in than that. A galaxy is a swirling “soup” Peter Friedman, a researcher at Caltech the outer parts of old, mature galaxies. of billions of stars and roaming black and Project Scientist for GALEX. Scientists had assumed that as a galaxy holes, scattered clouds of gas and dust, ages, the clouds of gas needed to form random flashes of star birth and This small space telescope, called the new stars in these outer reaches either exploding supernovas, and an unseen Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX for got used up or blown away. Finding so and mysterious substance called “dark short), makes its discoveries by taking many new stars in these regions of old matter.” Over time, all these ingredients pictures of millions of galaxies scattered galaxies (such as Centaurus A, Messier mix and interact—pulling and compress- over the whole sky. Some of these 101, and Messier 81) shows that, apparently, they were wrong.

Friedman says that astronomers don’t know yet how to explain these new findings. Rethinking and improving theories to explain unexpected discover- ies has always been the way science makes progress—and GALEX is certainly making progress.

One thing is certain: It’s time to re-write some old textbooks.

For more information, see http:// www.galex.caltech.edu/ . Kids can do a galaxy art project and learn more about galaxies and GALEX at http:// spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/galex/ art.shtml .

M81 is 10 million light years away. The image on the left was made from GALEX data and shows UV light from hot, new stars. These star forming This article was provided by the Jet regions are not detectable in the visible light image on the right (McGraw- Propulsion Laboratory, California Hill Observatory, Kitt Peak, Arizona, Greg Bothum, Univ. of Oregon.) Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

SAN DIEGO ASTRONOMY ASSOCIATION NEWS AND NOTES, OCTOBER 2004 Page 7 THE BACK PAGE

Classifieds

Meade 12"SCT for sale. I am the original owner. The scope is about 3 years old and has been mounted in an observatory since new. Giant tri- pod is new in original box. Meade Aluminum dew shield, Meade Superwedge and standard acces- sories. Bob's Knobs on secondary. Scope is in very good condition. OTA has never been opened. $4845 invested will sell for $3250. Will deliver within 500 miles of San Diego. Ron 619

583 9173. [email protected]

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