Contact information: Inside this issue: Info Officer (General Info) – [email protected]@fortworthastro.com Website Administrator – [email protected] Postal Address: Fort Worth Astronomical Society Club Event Calendar 3 3812 Fenton Avenue Fort Worth, TX 76133 This Month’s Celestial Events 3 Web Site: http://www.fortworthastro.org Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3eutb22 APOD Your Daily Dose of - 4 Twitter: http://twitter.com/ftwastro ishment Yahoo! eGroup (members only): http://tinyurl.com/7qu5vkn 4 Officers (2012-2013): Young Astronomers President – Shawn Kirchdorfer, [email protected] Vice President – John Dowell, [email protected] Cloudy Night Library 5 Sec/Tres – Lewis Westerfield, [email protected] Board Members: Constellation of the Month 6 2010-2012  Phil Stage  Cowles Rukl Lunar Index Map 6 2011-2013  Matt Reed General Information 8  Ronnie Newman

March Meeting Minutes 9 Cover Photo: The Leo “Triplets”. Three galaxies (M65, M66 and NGC 3628) situated “close” to one another visually. Image taken on 1/21/2013 by FWAS member Jerry Keith using a Canon 1000D (mod) camera. Scope LUNAR 100—MAP 10 is a Stellarvue SVR90T refractor. 90mm EP at F7 prime focus. ISO 1600. 15 frames stacked and compiled with Deep Sky Stacker application, Processed in Nebulosity. 11 LUNAR 100—LIST #1

Observing Site Reminders: LUNAR 100—LIST #2 12 Be careful with fire, mind all local burn bans! Dark Site Usage Requirements (ALL MEMBERS): FWAS Foto Files 14  Maintain Dark-Sky Etiquette (http://tinyurl.com/75hjajy)  Turn out your headlights at the gate! C r edi t s  Sign the logbook (in camo-painted storage shed. Inside the door on the left- hand side) E di t or s :  Log club equipment problems (please contact a FWAS Trustee to inform them of the problem) Dean Crabtree  Put equipment neatly when finished Shawn Kirchdorfer  Last person out: FWContributors:  Check all doors – secured, but NOT locked Matt McCullar  Make sure nothing is left out Keith Ben Hudgens The Fort Worth Astronomical Society (FWAS) was founded in 1949 and is a non-profit scientific educational organization incorporated in the state of Texas. This publication may be copied and D an Sm it h distributed for free only. This publication cannot be uploaded or distributed into any media unless it is in its original, full, unaltered, published form. All rights reserved by FWAS. AS PAGE 2 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MAY 2013

May 2013

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4

Eta Aquarids LQ Peak 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

1961 - Alan Shepard be- 1992 - US space shuttle STS- comes 1st American in space 49 launched (maiden voyage (aboard Freedom 7) of Endeavour)

CINCO DE MAYO NM 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Young Astronomers 1973 - Skylab launched, 1st Meeting 8-9pm Space Station FQ 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2012 - A SpaceX Dragon 1990 - Hubble Space FWAS Telescope sends 1st General becomes the first commer- Meeting 7-9pm photograph's from space cial spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station FM

FWAS Annual 26 27 28 29 30 31 Membership Dues 1975 - European Space Deadline Agency (ESA) forms

Born: Colm Meaney (1953) Miles O’Brien—Chief Engineer (Star Trek: TNG/DS9) LQ Deep Sky* - (C74) The Eight Burst Nebula, (C77 ) Centaurus A, (C80) Omega Centuri, M3, M5, M13 , M44, M81 Double Stars - Alberio, Cor Coroli, Mizar, Regulus Constellations- Boötes, Gemini, Hydra, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Virgo Asterisms - The Lozenge, The Big Dipper Lunar Features** - Theophilus, , (R46/R57), (R72), Mare Crisium (R26/27/37/38), (R18) * C=Caldwell Catalog / M=Messier Catalog **R=Rükl Index Map

Data Sources: HistoryOrb.com (Today in History), Distant Suns (max), Lunar 100 Sky & Telescope Magazine & The Astronomical A lmanac (US Navy) CELESTIAL EVENTS THIS MONTH

 May 02 - 06h, Last Quarter Moon  May 20 - 20h, Mercury 7° N. Aldebaran  May 04 - 02h, Neptune 6° S. of Moon  May 22 - 06h, Spica 0.005° S. of Moon, Occn.  May 06 - 19h, Uranus 4° S. of Moon  May 23 - 05h, Saturn 4° N. of Moon  May 09 - 19h, New Moon  May 24 - 23h, Full Moon  May 10 - 16h, Pallas in conjunction with Sun  May 24 - 23h, Mercury 1.4° N. Venus  May 11 - 16h, Mercury in superior conjunction  May 25 - 21h, Moon at perigee  May 12 - 08h, Jupiter 3° N. of Moon  May 27 - 05h, Mercury 2° N. of Jupiter  May 13 - 09h, Moon at apogee  May 28 - 16h, Venus 1° N. of Jupiter  May 18 - 05h, Venus 6° N. Aldebaran  May 31 - 09h, Neptune 6° S. of Moon  May 18 - 12h, First Quarter Moon  May 31 - 14h, Last Quarter Moon

MAY 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 3

APOD Your Daily Dose of Astonishment By: Diane K. Fisher (Used with permission from the JPL, California Institute of Technology in association with NASA’s Space Place)

s a person vitally interested in astronomy, you probably have the Astronomy Picture of A the Day website at apod..gov set as favorite link. APOD has been around since practically the beginning of the web. The first APOD appeared unannounced on June 16, 1995. It got 15 hits. The next picture appeared June 20, 1995, and the site has not taken a day off since. Now daily traffic is more like one million hits. Obviously, someone is responsible for picking, First APOD picture posted, June 16, 1995: Earth compressed to the ultra density of a neutron star. posting, and writing the detailed descriptions for http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950616.html these images. Is it a whole team of people? No. Surprisingly, it is only two men, the same ones who links). An archive of every APOD ever published is started it and have been doing it ever since. at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html. Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell shared an office at Dr. Nemiroff also maintains a discussion website NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the early-90s, at http://asterisk.apod.com/. when the term “World Wide Web” was unknown, but a software program called Mosaic could connect But how does it get done? Do these guys even to and display specially coded content on other have day jobs? computers. The office mates thought “we should do Dr. Nemiroff has since moved to Michigan something with this.” Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, Thus was conceived the Astronomy Picture of the where he is professor of astrophysics, both Day. Now, in addition to the wildly popular English teaching and doing research. Dr. Bonnell is still version, over 25 mirror websites in other languages with NASA, an astrophysicist with the are maintained independently by volunteers. (See Gamma Ray Observatory Science Support Center http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html for (Continued on page 8) Young Astronomers

ay’s YA! Meeting will be focusing on using the Big ked eye from any Northern Hemisphere location (i.e. so they are Dipper in Ursa Major. It’s high in the sky at night not using ground queues such as buildings or trees as a crutch M this time of the year, and it can be used as a “road in locating true North). sign” for finding lots of other constellations. The requirements to earn the Telescope Knowledge Badge are Congratulations YA! Member(s): as follows:  Christian Liles– Comet Badge (Mar 2013) Find Polaris using the Big Dipper Pointers (or Cassiopeia), with- out help(!) consistently from 3 different vantage points. This  Kylee Liles—Comet Badge (Mar 2013) after having been shown by an adult or a YA! leader on how to find it.  Ava Backus—Comet Badge (Mar 2013) This is to demonstrate that they can locate Polaris with the na-

PAGE 4 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MAY 2013

Book/Video Reviews “Caltech is one of the best places in the world to By: Matt McCullar, FWAS be an astronomer,” writes. “The university How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had owns an inordinate number of the largest and best It Coming telescopes in the world, so Caltech astronomers are always expected to be – and often are – the leaders by Mike Brown in their fields.” ne of the most enjoyable astronomy Why did Brown start looking for trans-Plutonian books I’ve read in a long while, How I objects? Because circumstances almost dictated it. O Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming was By the tail end of the 20th century, other astrono- written by Mike Brown, a professor of astronomy at mers had already found almost 500 small bodies be- the California Institute of Technology. He, more yond Neptune, in what was dubbed the “Kuiper than perhaps any other single belt.” It had become the hottest person, is most responsible for new field of study. Subsequent the demotion of Pluto from its discoveries were growing in size. official status as “planet” down “The largest known at the time to “dwarf planet.” He discov- was somewhere around a third ered several large objects far- the size of Pluto. By now it ther away from the Sun than seemed to me inevitable that, Pluto, and this book reveals how whether anyone realized it or he did it. I’m glad he wrote it. not, astronomers were on an This can perhaps also be de- unstoppable march that would scribed as Brown’s autobiog- eventually lead to a tenth plan- raphy, because while he was in et.” the middle of searching for Brown’s fascinating story relates trans-Plutonian objects, he also the history of previous planet married and started a family. How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming searches. Much of his own work His wife and baby daughter fig- by Mike Brown began at the Mt. Palomar Obser- ure prominently in this story, Published in 2010 by Spiegel & Grau 267 pages vatory, using one of the smaller and it’s a difficult book to put ISBN 978-0-385-53108-5 eBook ISBN 978-0-385-53109-2 telescopes to photograph a good down. The story of planetary part of the sky and then use discovery and demotion is filled computers to examine the re- with academic intrigue, human foibles, public rela- sults. “My generation was the first entirely digital tions, dealing with critics, and more. We learn what generation of astronomers. The ease and speed the working life of a modern professional astrono- with which images can be obtained and examined mer is like. and manipulated and shared has transformed the (Continued on page 7) MAY 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 5

ConstellationConstellation ofof TheThe MonthMonth LEO eo is a large constellation, some 30° across, and well- L placed for observation at this time of year, high above the southern horizon.

The first of Hercules' fabled twelve tasks was to bring King Eurystheus the skin of a terrible lion whose hide was known to be invulnerable to spears and arrows. Hercules didn't have much bother with the lion: he cornered the beast in its lair and strangled it to death by ramming his fist down its throat. When he returned with the lion's body, the King was so terrified he ran from the sight of it. Hercules wasn't fazed: he skinned the lion and took its hide as armor.

The Leo "Triplets" (M65, M66 and NGC 3628) are a nice grouping. The two Messier objects are brighter but the third tri- plet is visible too and, if you use averted vision, surprisingly large; it looks elongated and edge-on-ish. In the same field of view, the whole grouping looks like eyes and a mouth. M95, M96 and M105 are not so bright, but make an interesting group for comparison.

Regulus, the brightest star in Leo and the 21st brightest star in the sky, has a faint double sometimes visible in binoculars. Algieba is one of the best doubles in the sky, with two yellow components that orbit one another every 620 years. De- nebola, a blue-orange pair, is an optical double: the stars are far apart in space, not connected in any way, but lie along the same line of sight. e

Sean O'Dwyer, Starry Night® Times Editor http://www.starrynighteducation.com/resources_newsletter.html

Rükl Index Moon Chart

ach month the Prime Focus calendar has a list of “Interesting Objects” visible for that month listed E below the main calendar. Lunar objects have a (R#) beside them. This refers to the grid location on the Rukl Index Map of the Moon as shown to the right. A larger and clickable version of this map can be found here: http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/Rukl+Index+Map

This Chart is also referenced in the Sky & Telescope article “The Lunar 100” from April 2004 here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/ moon/3308811.html

These links are provided to help an interest in lunar astronomy for those FWAS members interested in getting more out of viewing our closest celestial neighbor. e

PAGE 6 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MAY 2013

(Continued from page 5) many similar objects in that distant part of the solar way that astronomy is done today… For someone system – some of which are even larger than Pluto. looking for planets, I spent an awful lot of my time If they can’t be called planets, then Pluto can’t be, looking at computer code and numeric outputs in- either. You can have either only eight planets, or stead.” hundreds of them. Brown describes the convolut- Once Brown found a good suspect, he needed ed manner the I.A.U. tried to define exactly what a more data. For that he needed a better telescope. planet is. At what point does an object finally be- But it can take as long as a year to get a request come a planet instead of a distant asteroid? After approved for the Hubble Space Telescope, and in Pluto’s demotion, Brown found himself the target that time the secret would get out. “It is under- of a great deal of discussion and criticism. Every- stood that sometimes discoveries will be made that one, it seemed, loved Pluto. “What did Pluto ever need pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope do to you?” people asked him. faster than the process will allow, so there is an Brown reminds us that this is not the first time official route by which you can ap- that astronomers have faced such a peal for data immediately.” Brown “...they “hijacked” his quandary. When the asteroid Ceres named the new object “Quaoar,” was discovered in 1801, it was because International Astronomical telescopic search thought to be a planet – though a Union (I.A.U.) rules said that the information from an small one. Subsequent discoveries name had to be a creation deity observatory database of similar objects in the same re- from a mythology, and Quaoar gion eventually caused Ceres to be came from the mythology of a Na- on the Internet and officially reclassified as an asteroid, tive American tribe from the Mt. released the results to but for a long time there were Palomar region. (Brown said later the public before he books and other writings which that in the future, though, he would listed Ceres as a planet. “How opt for names that would be far eas- did. “ many is too many? But the pro- ier to pronounce. That’s one reason spect of a never-ending parade of why he chose “Sedna” for another smaller and smaller planets all in discovery.) essentially the same orbit around the sun was too Perhaps the biggest drama in this entire epi- much. There was no official vote or pronounce- sode came when Brown learned that astronomers ment, but by the early 1900s it became convention- in Spain tried to claim credit for one of his discover- ally agreed that the solar system had only eight ies. He maintains that they “hijacked” his telescop- planets. Planet Ceres, which had held on for a cen- ic search information from an observatory data- tury, along with all of its smaller neighbors, was de- base on the Internet and released the results to the moted, with no outcry from the citizens of planet public before he did. Brown writes about the scien- Earth.” tific method, explaining why it is important to col- I’ve had to leave out a great deal from this lect more data on such an object before publicly book review due to space limitations. But please announcing results. read “How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming”. e In a nutshell, Brown maintains that Pluto is not You’ll love it! Five stars out of five. a planet. It can’t be, he says, because there are so

MAY 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 7

Newsletter: That’s a Fact! The FWAS newsletter, Prime Focus,, isis publishedpublished monthly.monthly. LettersLetters toto Even on the clearest night, the human eye can only see about the editor, articles for publication, photos you’ve taken, personal 3,000 stars. There are an estimated 200,000,000,000 in our gal- equipment reviews, or just about anything you would like to have includedincluded inin thethe newsletternewsletter thatthat isis astronomyastronomy relatedrelated shouldshould bebe sentsent axy alone! Hipparcos 5926 (V762) in Cassiopeia is 14,818 light- to: [email protected] years away but is magnitude 5.87 and is regarded as probably the "furthest" star we can see with the naked eye under average Meetings: -good conditions. (RA 01h 16m 11.90s / DEC +71° 44' 37.8") FWAS meets at 7:00 PM on the third Tuesday of the month at the UNT Health Science Center – Research & Education Building, Room 100; 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd; Ft. Worth. Guests and visitors are always (Continued from page 4) welcome. at Goddard. APOD is only a very small part of Outreach: their responsibilities. They do not collaborate, but ItemsItems regarding regarding FWAS FWAS Outreach Outreach activities, activities, or or requests requests for for FWAS FWAS to to rather divide up the calendar, and each picks the attend an event, should be sent to: [email protected] image, writes the description, and includes the Young Astronomers: links for the days on his own list. The files are FWAS’ youth activities (known as YA!) meet on the 3rd Saturday of every month between 7pm and 9pm (check our calendar for time queued up for posting by a “robot” each day. changes throughout the year - determined by seasonal sunset times). - They use the same tools they used at the This group meets for one hour at the Parkwood Hill HOA Club House - 5573 Eastwedge Dr., Fort Worth, TX 76137. YA! Coordinators: beginning: Raw HTML code written using the vi [email protected] text editor in Linux. This simple format has now FWAS Annual Dues: become such a part of the brand that they would $40 for adults / families & households upset all the people and websites and mobile $20.00 for students (half-price Dec 1 thru May 31); Membership runs apps that link to their feed if they were to change June 1stst through May 31stst.. PleasePlease makemake checkschecks payablepayable to:to: Fort Worth Astronomical Society anything at this point. See our Secretary/Treasurer for more info: Where do they find the images? Candidates are [email protected] volunteered from large and small observatories, Cash and checks should be paid in-person at the next indoor meeting, space telescopes (like the Hubble and Spitzer), or checks can be mailed in the traditional way. Members should and independent astronomers and astro- check the eGroup for the latest postal mailing address listed by the photographers. The good doctors receive ten Secretary/Treasurer. images for every one they publish on APOD. But, Credit card payments (for existing membership renewals only) can be as Dr. Nemiroff emphasizes, being picked or not made through our PayPal link (private link is on the club’s Yahoo picked is no reflection on the value of the image. eGroup – no PayPal account required). Some of the selections are picked for their

Discount Magazine Subscriptions: quirkiness. Some are videos instead of images. Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and StarDate (McDonald Observatory) Some have nothing to do with astronomy at all, magazines are available for discounted subscription rates through our like the astonishing August 21, 2012, video of a association with the NASA Night Sky Network and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The link can be found on the club’s Yahoo replicating DNA molecule. eGroup. (Members Only) Among the many mobile apps taking advantage Astronomical League Membership: of the APOD feed is Space Place Prime, a NASA Your FWAS membership gives you associate membership in the As- magazine that updates daily with the best of tronomical League. This gives you access to earn various observing certificates through the AL observing clubs. You also receive their NASA. It’s available free (in iOS only at this time) quarterly magazine, Reflector.. AL AL Observing Observing clubs: clubs: http:// at the Apple Store. e tinyurl.com/7pyr8qg This article was provided by the Space Place and Jet Fort Worth Museum of Science & History Monthly Star Parties: FWAS, as part of our historical relationship with the Noble Planetari- Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of um,, participatesparticipates inin thethe monthlymonthly museummuseum starstar partiesparties byby supplyingsupplying thethe Technology, under a contract telescopes and manning to expose the public to amateur astronomy with the National Aeronautics as a hobby, and to possibly spark interest in joining our club. This is and Space Administration. an excellent opportunity to socialize with and to get advice or help with your own equipment from other FWAS members. FWMSH star http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/ party schedule: http://tinyurl.com/bosbwqa

PAGE 8 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MAY 2013

Club Meeting Minutes— April 16th 2013 Lewis Westerfield, Secretary-Treasurer CALL TO ORDER this and it should happen soon.

MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES Jerry Keith announced that he will be attending the Okie-Tex Star Party this year being held 9/28 to 10/6/2013, and has President Shawn Kirchdorfer called the meeting to order rented a nearby house for lodging. He invited anyone who is and welcomed guests and members. He then gave a brief interested in staying at the house to contact him to work history of the club, gave membership numbers, and talked out the details. Contact info: 817-312-9583, about club member interests. Finally, he talked about mem- [email protected]. bership benefits and club activities. OLD BUSINESS PRESENTATION The next YA! meeting will be 4/20/2013 @ 2000 in Keller. Jerry Turner gave a presentation The Aurora of Norway: After that, the next YA! meeting will be 5/18/2013 @ 2000 Voyage of the Northern Lights. He and his wife took a cruise in Keller. in Norway from March 6-19/2013 to view aurorae. Using a Canon Rebel T41 DSLR camera with a f3.5 18mm lens set at The next FWMSH Star Party will be 4/20/2013 at dusk in the iso 3200, Jerry took several images of the aurorae that they south parking lot. observed while on the cruise. He gave a very pleasant Lots of cool FWAS stuff is available at Café Press. The special slideshow of these images and followed with a slideshow link to the site can be found on the eGroup. Impressions from Norway, scenic views of the country. Final- ly, he gave information about the travel agency he used and The Astronomical League has many observing clubs availa- will post this information on the eGroup. Thank you, Jerry. ble to club members. Information can be found on the AL website. NEW BUSINESS Matt Reed gave an update on the Palo Pinto Mountains Nominations for club officers and two board positions are State Park. It will be a number of years before the park is being accepted. Anyone who has been a member for greater fully functional. than one year can run for these positions. If you have any interest, you are encouraged to become involved. Elections Lewis gave the treasurer’s report. There has been no further will be held at the June meeting. contact from the IRS regarding the 501(c)3 application. He gave the checking and savings balances. Finally, Lewis re- Membership renewal is due by the end of next month, May ported that the South-West Region of the Astronomical 31, 2013. Dues can be paid by PayPal which can be accessed League (SWRAL) gave a donation of $100.00 to the club to through the eGroup. Dues can also be paid by cash or check be used as the club desires. The funds were provided by the at the meeting, or by mailing a check (no cash please) to the Texas Star Party through a grant to the SWRAL. The amount treasurer at: FWAS, c/o Lewis Westerfield, 719 Westview donated reflects how much help the club’s members provid- Ave, Fort Worth, TX 76107. ed to the TSP last year. The donation is intended to encour- Shawn gave a brief listing of upcoming sky events. These age helping at upcoming TSP’s in the future. If anyone is in- events will be included in the next Prime Focus. terested in helping out at the upcoming TSP, contact infor- mation is as follows: Dave , 1000 Cloudview Cove, Ce- Heather Post, from the Tandy Hills Natural Center, invited dar Park, TX 78613, 512-260-1475. club members to become involved in an event being help at the center on 4/27/2013. This will give the club an oppor- ADJOURN tunity to provide outreach for the club. Heather also would The meeting was adjourned. like the club to attend a planned star party at the center on 5/4/2013.

The FWAS website ISP is being changed, hopefully to have a more user friendly service. Shawn and Lewis are working on

MAY 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 9

L U N A R 1 0 0

Finding Messier objects is something that telescope users do quite often. However, one object that is easily visible at night throughout the year is the Moon.

Many amateurs are able to find the most conspicuous features on the Moon but to really appreciate our nearest neighbor it would help to have a guide that identifies many of the smaller and less well-known fea- tures as well. The Lunar 100 is a list compiled by Charles Wood writing in the Sky and Telescope magazine (August 2004) that attempts to provide a selection of 100 of the most interesting telescopic sights. The lists on the two fol- lowing pages will hopefully awaken interest in, and enhance the understanding of, these various lunar fea- tures.

PAGE 10 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MAY 2013

No. Feature Name Significance 1 Moon Large satellite 2 Earthshine Twice reflected sunlight 3 Mare/highland dichotomy Two materials with distinct compositions 4 Apennines Imbrium basin rim 5 Copernicus Archetypal large complex crater 6 Tycho Large rayed crater with impact melts 7 Altai Scarp Nectaris basin rim 8 Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina Crater sequence illustrating stages of degradation 9 Clavius Lacks basin features in spite of its size 10 Mare Crisium Mare contained in large circular basin 11 Aristarchus Very bright crater with dark bands on its walls 12 Proclus Oblique-impactimpact raysrays 13 Gassendi Floor-fractured crater 14 Sinus Iriuum Very large crater with missing rim 15 Straight Wall Best example of a lunar fault 16 Petavius Crater with domed and fractured floor 17 Schroter’s Valley Giant sinuous rille 18 Mare Serenitatis dark edges Distinct mare areas with different compositions 19 Alpine Valley Lunar graben 20 Posidonius Floor-fractured crater 21 Crater with subsided and fractured floor 22 Aristarchus Plateau Mysterious uplifted region mantled with pyroclastics 23 Pico Isolated Imbrium basin-ring fragment 24 Hyginus Rille Rille containing rimless collapse pits 25 Messier and Messier A Oblique ricochet-impactimpact pairpair 26 Mare Frigoris Arcuate mare of uncertain origin 27 Large crater lacking central peak 28 Hipparchus Subject of first drawing of a single crater 29 Aridaeus Rille Long, linear graben 30 Schiller Possible oblique impact 31 Taruntius Young floor-fractured crater 32 Alpha and Beta Volcanic domes 33 Serpentine Ridge Basin inner-ring segment 34 Lacus Mortis Triesnecker Rilles Strange crater with rille and ridge 35 Triesnecker Rilles Rille family 36 Grimaldi basin A small two-ring basin 37 Barely discernible basin 38 Sabine and Ritter Possible twin impacts 39 Schickard Crater floor with Orientale basin ejecta stripe 40 Janssen Rille Rare example of a highland rille 41 ray Ray of uncertain origin near Bessel 42 Marius Hills Complex of volcanic domes and hills 43 Wargentin A crater filled to the rim with or ejecta 44 Domed floor cut by secondary craters 45 Maurolycus Region of saturation cratering 46 Regiomontanus central peak Possible volcanic peak 47 dark spots Dark-halo eruptions on crater floor 48 region Fault, rilles and domes 49 Gruithuisen Delta and Gamma Volcanic domes formed with viscous 50 Plains Light, smooth plains of uncertain origin

MAY 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 11 No. Feature Name Significance 51 Result of comet-fragment impacts 52 Cruger Possible volcanic caldera 53 Lamont Possible buried basin 54 Hippalus Rilles Rilles concentric to Humorum basin 55 Unusually smooth crater floor and surrounding plains 56 Mare Australe A partially flooded ancient basin 57 Reiner Gamma Conspicuous swirl and magnetic anomaly 58 Rheita Valley Basin secondary-crater chain 59 Schiller-Zucchius basin Badly degraded overlooked basin 60 Kies Pi Volcanic dome 61 Mosting A Simple crater close to centre of lunar near side 62 Rumker Hills Large volcanic dome 63 Imbrium sculpture Basin ejecta near and overlying and Julius Caesar 64 16 landing site; putative region of highland volcanism 65 Hortensius domes Dome field north of Hortensius 66 Hadley Rille Lava channel near Apollo 15 landing site 67 formation Apollo 14 landing site on Imbrium ejecta 68 P Proposed young volcanic crater; Surveyor 1 landing site 69 Copernicus secondary craters Rays and craterlets near Pytheas 70 Humboldtianum basin Multi-ring impact basin 71 Sulpicius Gallus dark mantle Ash eruptions northwest of crater 72 dark-halo craters Explosive pits on the floor of Atlas 73 Smythii basin Difficult-to-observe basin scarp and mare 74 Copernicus H Dark-halo 75 Ptolemaeus B Saucerlike depression on the floor of Ptolemaeus 76 W. Bond Large crater degraded by Imbrium ejecta 77 Sirsalis Rille Procellarum basin radial rilles 78 Lambert R A buried “ghost” crater 79 Sinus Aestuum Eastern dark-mantle volcanic deposit 80 Orientale basin Youngest large impact basin 81 Hesiodus A Concentric crater 82 Linne Small crater once thought to have disappeared 83 Plato craterlets Crater pits at limits of detection 84 Pitatus Crater with concentric rilles 85 Langrenus rays Aged ray system 86 Prinz Rilles Rille system near the Prinz 87 Humboldt Crater with central peaks and dark spots 88 Peary Difficult-to-observe polar crater 89 Valentine Dome Volcanic dome 90 , and Small craters near the Apollo 11 landing site 91 Rilles Area with many rilles 92 Gylden Valley Part of Imbrium radial sculpture 93 rays Unusual and rare dark rays 94 Large south-pole region crater 95 Procellarum basin The Moon’s biggest basin? 96 Leibnitz Mountains Rim of South Pole- basin 97 Inghirami Valley Orientale basin ejecta 98 Imbrium lava flows Mare lave-flow boundaries 99 Ina caldera D-shaped young volcanic caldera 100 Mare Marginis swirls Possible magnetic-field deposits

PAGE 12 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MAY 2013

MAY 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 13

Saturn—Keith Frost, April 22, 2012, Orion 10" Dobsonian (no drive or tracking), Venus CCD/Webcam, manually centered frames with gimp prior to stacking, Registax 6.

Image of NGC 4565 (aka the Needle Galaxy) taken by Ben Hudgens on April 30, 2013 in Stephenville, Tx. There are three unlabeled 17-18th mag dim galaxies showing inside the circle to lower left of the galaxy. TV 100mm refractor f/5 prime focus using ST-7 CCD camera on CGEM mount. 600 sec autoguided exposure and touched up with Paint Shop Pro. (Hi-res APOD image of NGC 4565 for comparison — http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0904/ngc4565_ritter_big.jpg

Have an interesting photo you’ve taken of the sky? Discovered a technique and want to show the results to fellow FWAS mem- bers? Submit your photos to [email protected] or send them in the Yahoo! eGroup to the attention of the news- letter editor. Your participation in showing off your personal astrophotography is greatly appreciated by all FWAS members.

PAGE 14 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MAY 2013