50th Anniversary Edition STARDUST

InBuilding this the issue: QE II Observing Celestial Bodies Hopping Your Way Through the Sky Observing with CATs The best of Starbust ...and so much more STARDUST C O N T E N T S

FEATURES

9 Building the QE II 28 Star Hopping The humble beginnings of the by Harris Christian Queen Elizabeth Planetarium Reading the cosmic map

12 Reflections 30 The History of the Edmonton Stories from our members... Centre’s 17.5” Newtonian by Bob Drew 16 This Cloud’s For You Building a telescopic legacy by Mark Zalcik Noctilucent clouds over Edmonton MURRAY PAULSON MURRAY

18 Cosmic Debris From Space 32 Motion Sickness A look back at some of the by Denis Boucher meteor strikes in our province Introduction to Poncet Platforms

20 How to Not be a Solar Astronomer 33 Observing with CAT’s CAMPBELL SHERRY by Paul Campbell by Terry Nonay Whatever you do, do not read this The joy of owning a computer aided telescope

22 Observing the Planets 35 The Joys of Owning a Newtonian by Murray Paulson by Alister Ling Everything you needed to know about Observing with a Newt our celestial neighbours

24 Colour Filters for Lunar and Planetary Observing by Denis Fell Now that you know everything about our celestial neighbours, here is how best to see them SHERRY CAMPBELL SHERRY

Stardust Page 2 STARDUST C O N T E N T S

FEATURES

37 Deep Sky Observing, 46 ‘Twas a Cold Winter’s Night Then and Now by Warren Finlay by Larry Wood Observing for Sumo wrestlers Where the faint fuzzies are

38 How to Observe and Report 47 The Life List Variable Stars by Bruce McCurdy by Patrick Abbott Memorable observing experiences Now you see it, now you don’t

40 50 Years of Shooting the Sky by Alan Dyer Fifty Years of Progress ALAN DYER

42 StarBUST 50 Star Parties and by many people who would rather Astronomy Workshops not be named by Sharon Tansey Come out and have some fun ASP - SHERRY CAMPBELL ASP - SHERRY

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE On the Cover: 7 Stardust’s Premier Issue M42 8 An Unusual Daylight Phenomena by Murray Paulson by Russ Sampson 17 That thin cloud? Will it go away? Shot at prime focus with an by Alister Ling AP 130, f/6, 20-minute ex- 17 Cherry Pie Anyone? posure on Kodak Supra 19 Jupiter - 32 inches in diamter? ISO 400 at Blackfoot Stag- by Cary Smialek ing Area, Alberta, in 2000 25 Astronomical Impact by Kelly Christian

Stardust Page 3 PrPresident’sesident’s Dave Cleary MessageMessage

n the occasion of the 50th anniver- While our public education efforts write the achieve the best in amateur astronomy. It is sary of the Edmonton Centre’s au- story of astronomy on the hearts and minds wholly dependent on volunteers. Let’s make gust monthly voice, Stardust, I want of those we are privileged to respond to, Star- the next 50 years something to write about! Oto reflect on the contribution it makes each dust is the most visible record of all that we year. do to pursue our personal interests in as- Dave Cleary has been a member of the RASC tronomy, and to share it with others. Con- since 1998, and active as a member of Coun- I have been a member of the RASC since sidering that, in this 50th year of production, cil as Secretary, Vice-President and currently 1997, all of those years in the Edmonton Cen- Edmonton Centre has over 250 members, as President. He is one of the initiators of tre, and all of those years experiencing the there is much of what we do that misses that the SkyScan Science Awareness Project that monthly enjoyment of reading Stardust. It’s record. Yet it is the best instrument we have works with Grade 9 Science classes to use humour, information, pictures, news, and no- for creating the annals of our time together. radio astronomy to detect meteors. tices have helped inform all of us. The technology used over the years to pro- duce Stardust has changed a great deal. From Stardust plays an essential role in the life of Gestetner, to photocopiers, laser printers, and Edmonton Centre. From the perspective of computers, and with digital layout software one responsible in this anniversary year for the tools of the Editor have changed consid- facilitating the administrative life of the Cen- erably to the point where, with this com- tre, Stardust is a backbone for information memorative issue, our Editor has been able sharing. In praise of the printed word over to produce this full colour, glossy tribute and Stardust the electronic, Stardust forms a more or less record of achievement as a Centre. permanent record of our activities. In the mo- A publication of the Royal Astronomical ment of its issue, it communicates the essen- Our Editor, Sherry Campbell, is to be con- Society of Canada, Edmonton Centre. Star- tials of our life together as a Centre – pro- gratulated for having conceived and executed dust is published monthly from September viding information on meeting times, such a marvellous production. It is a fitting to June and is a publication received with upcoming observing events, etc. And as it tribute to previous Editors, and to the Cen- membership in the R.A.S.C., Edmonton moves to the record shelf after the moment tre itself. Thank you is also, and always due Centre. This publication is a commemora- of immediate relevance passes, it becomes a tive issue celebrating 50 years in print of our handy record for everything from money “Stardust plays an newsletter. Material in this publication may motions, to humorous anecdotes to share essential role in the life not be reproduced, copied or duplicated with- with interested (or uninterested) relatives. out express permission from the author. of Edmonton Centre.” Printed in Canada by Douglas Printing. The role of the Stardust Editor is an impor- to those who have taken the time to contrib- tant one because of Stardust’s place in our ute articles. Without these people Stardust Editor Sherry Campbell life and has its own unique challenges. is impossible, and so is the job of Editor. We Associate Roped-In Editor Paul Campbell Monthly deadlines and the production proc- should also recognise the contribution of the Distribution Merv Gorrie ess itself are demanding. It involves finding Casino Fund in making the production of willing writers, converting that willingness this information piece possible in such an Contributing Editors into words on the written page handed in on attractive format. Not only will this special Pat Abbott, Don Brown, Denis Boucher, Paul time, making judgement calls regarding ap- issue recount our past, but also provides Campbell, Harris Christian, Kelly Christian, propriateness and relevance. Demanding as members and prospective members with use- Dave Cleary, Bob Drew, Alan Dyer, Denis it may be, there is, or rightly should be, a ful information on observing and our Cen- Fell, Warren Finlay, David Goldingay, Doug sense of accomplishment at performing this tre for future use. and Joan Hube, Alister Ling, Franklin essential Centre function. The creation of a Loehde, Bruce McCurdy, Terry Nonay, monthly record and the public notice of fu- As Stardust heads into its next 50 years, in Murray Paulson, Mel Rankin, Russ ture events are surely something that can be whatever forms it takes, let’s remember that Sampson, Cary Smialek, Sharon Tansey, said to go down in history. Stardust records our efforts as a Centre to Larry Wood, Mark Zalcik

Stardust Page 4 Editor’sEditor’s Sherry Campbell MessageMessage

ifty years of print. A milestone in to fascinating read. Several times I would be have found in previous issues so that you too day’s electronic age, all the more so reading through old Stardust’s and find my- can enjoy what so many great people wrote. for a small, local newsletter. When one self engrossed in the whole process, and But for now, here is a sampling of the very Fconsiders that this was achieved entirely with would read several articles before I would best astronomy has to offer you. Enjoy! the efforts of strictly volunteers, this mile- remember that I was supposed to be scan- stone is all that more impressive. Despite the ning the publications, looking for material Sherry Campbell has been a member of the attraction of the Internet and instant com- to reproduce for this issue. In fact, I found RASC since 1999 when she finally joined up munication, everyone still enjoys reading a so much material that this issue could have in order to hold the position of Editor. Be- well-written magazine. This publication is easily encompassed 100 pages. If only I had fore that, she was the cookie lady and lurked no exception. Fifty years ago, the concept of this problem while compiling regular issues around the edges as an Associate Member. doing a commemorative issue entirely on a of Stardust! She is the proud owner of “Teddy Bear”, an home computer was inconceivable, yet to- 8-inch f/6 telescope built by Martin and day you are reading such an achievement. From now until June of 2005, I will be try- ShirLee Adamson, and is pictured on page What does the future hold for Stardust? I’m ing to reprint in the regular monthly editions 35. sure it is an inconceivable to us now as it of Stardust all those fascinating articles I was to the members of the Edmonton Centre fifty years ago.

In celebration of Stardust’s milestone, I have gathered together some of the best articles on a variety of topics, and with the generous help of several of our Centre members, have put together an issue we can all be proud of. This space does not give me the room to thank all those personally who have contrib- uted, but it does give me the chance to offer my gratitude to everyone who responded to the call to make this issue shine. Their names Moon Halo are proudly displayed on every page of this Murray Paulson issue. Taken on December 28, This magazine serves a two-fold purpose. On 2003, Nikon 24mm, f/ one hand, it is full of informative articles on 2.8, 10-second exposure an extensive variety of subjects in astronomy. on Kodak 400 ISO High Many articles in this issue offer an introduc- Definition film. tion to one subject while others explain in great depth an aspect of observing that you may have been thinking of exploring but did not know where to begin. Here is your chance to learn something new about our great hobby.

Its second purpose was to reprint articles about some historical events, which unless you are a long-standing member, probably were not aware of. I found this to be the most

Stardust Page 5 Roped-In Associate Paul Campbell Editor’s Message Oh Yes! I got roped into typing lots of this stuff.

eing married to the editor has its printing process to make the distribution of Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. benefits and pitfalls. The benefits Stardust easier. This article is included in They were noted near the bright crater include laying next to the editor late this magazine and I won’t spoil it for you but Aristarchus, in the northwestern Bat night and asking “So when is your they are asking for women who can type quadrant of the moon’s disc. This is absolute last deadline?” and not getting instead of making cherry pies. Now women good news to Doctor Jack Green - a yelled at too much. have a little more respect in the R.A.S.C. dedicated member of the volcanic Women have even stood as president. Mrs. school on the question of the origin of Pitfalls include being roped in to type much ShirLee Adamson and Mrs. Sylvia Smith lunar features.” Reprinted from Star- of the material in this magazine and writing come to mind. dust, November 1963, Volume 9, Issue articles when I really, really, really do not 3. - ed. want to. I remember once reading an “With this issue it seems editorial in Stardust, I do not know who to Also of interest are some of the projects that attribute the quote to nor may I have it totally that a lot of blood letting the society were involved in. Included in this correct, but it went something like this. “It’s has gone on.” magazine are some of the records of the very easy to write well. All one has to do is open real involvement the society had in building up a vein and start.” There are also some snippets about how the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium. The astronomy was done in those older days. Edmonton Centre of the R.A.S.C. has had With this issue it seems that a lot of blood There was one article about observing the some very proud moments. letting has gone on. Yet as I type, it’s also Moon. It was suggested that observing the very interesting as I learn a lot about the Moon would be a good way to go about doing Anyway, I hope that many of you find the R.A.S.C., especially typing in articles from science, instead of just doing “timing history of the R.A.S.C. as fascinating as I the older issues. It’s fascinating to see some occultations”. Nowadays, I don’t know did. As a member I’m very proud of the of the cultural changes that have taken place anyone who does timing occultations. Most accomplishments of the R.A.S.C. and am in our country and in our society. I note that of us are deepsky or planetary observers. I’m very happy that Stardust was there to members were very formal in the earlier not even sure what the occultations were document it all. Let’s hope Stardust is days. Whenever a name is mentioned in the meant to time but I suspect that, back then, around another fifty years. § older Stardust’s people were always given a that was one of the premium observing title. In each case it was always Mr. Franklin programmes going. Nowadays, with better Paul Campbell Loehde, Prof. E.S. Keeping, Dr. H.W. telescopes and larger apertures, we’re more Turn ons: NGC 4565, really large and Taylor. It some sense it seems that we had into deepsky and planetary. eruptive Sun spots, clear nights with no dew. more respect for people back then, well at Turn offs: Aurora least in some cases. Don’t take the science of some of the Moon articles too literally. There are some obvious Paul Campbell has been a member since mistakes made in the article that I refer to 1987, and has served in many capacities on above. Additionally, there was also another Council. He helped Bob Drew for over a Stardust notice about the discovery of three year build the Club 18” telescope, and is an volcanoes on the Moon made by the Lowell avid Solar astronomer. Paul can be found Observatory. Please remember this was most Sunday’s at the Observatory photo- before we went there. It’s amazing how graphing the Sun in Calcium K. bringing back some actual samples from the Moon has totally changed our ideas as to how it was formed. The notice is reprinted here:

I do note that women were treated “Three possible volcanic eruptions differently. In an older Stardust it was were observed on the moon several printed that a change was happening in the days ago by astronomers at the Lowell

Stardust Page 6 Stardust’sStardust’s PremierPremier IssueIssue October 1954, Volume 1, Issue 1

he beginning of a new era for the Ed plagued by bad luck as monton Center begins with the first only two minutes before issue of “STARDUST”. The purpose totality the sun was ob- ofT this publication is to enlighten all inter- scured by clouds, al- ested in astronomy of the activities of our though most of the rest of center. It is hoped that any news regarding the eclipse was visable. astronomy, or suggestions regarding our pub- Prof. Gads, at Mattice, lication will be submitted to Dr. Gowan, who was greeted by totally can be contacted by phoneing 31924. overcast skies.

Solar Eclipse: On June 30, 1954 a group of Lunar Occultations: In observers from the center met to observe the an attempt to expand our partial phase of the eclipse in Edmonton. The observational fields, the weatherman, for once, gave the group a break observational committee and afforded us an excellent view of the has endeavoured to par- eclipse. Despite brisk winds a spirit of en- take in the timing of lu- thusiasm prevailed throughout the entire nar occultations. During morning. the summer the new branch was hampered by At 4:04 a.m. the sun rose with the moon ob- foul weather conditions, scuring 30% of the solar disc. Twenty-five but a few times were se- minutes later maximum coverage was at- cured despite the handi- tained. At this time 65% of the sun was cap. Thanks must be tendered to Prof. Gads them 45 minutes of observation commenc- eclipsed. The moon left the sun’s disc at 5:16 who graciously loaned the group his stop- ing at 10:00, nevertheless 11 meteors were a.m. Movies and still photographs were taken watch, without which the group could not plotted. Of these 8 were Persieds. Present by the group during the entire eclipse pe- have operated. were: Arthur Dalton, Albert Dalton, and riod. The group used a 6" reflector, owned Franklin Loehde. by Franklin Loehde; a small refractor, owned Persieds: Due to inclement weather an at- by Earl Milton; an 8mm movie camera, tempt to observe the Persied meteor shower The observers were indebted to Dr. Gowan owned by Ian McLennan; and other small was prevented on the evening of August 9- and Prof. Gads, who loaned the group the photographic and optical equipment. 10. On the next evening the skies were also Short-Wave Radio and stopwatch, without cloudy, so again no observations could be which observations could not have been The group consisted of H. Montgomery, L.V. made. On the first observable night, August made. Smith and sons, M. Dalton, A. Dalton, F. 11-12, a small group of six was on hand at Loehde, I. McLennan, E. Milton, and a the observatory. The sky was clear when ob- Aurora Borealis: So far the year 1954 has number of interested employees of the servations began at 10:40, but low clouds been a good year for our aurora observers. MacDonald Hotel, who so graciously con- moved in from the south forcing observations This fact can be borne out by the results of sented to let us use the roof of the hotel. to cease at 12:15. During the period of ob- our summer observations. The activity of the servation 53 meteors were plotted with all equinoxes continued throughout the summer Dr. Campbell, Dr. Grayson-Smith, and Prof. but one belonging to the Persied shower. months without a letdown, and despite the Gads ventured east to view the total phase of Those present were: H. Montgomery, I. long summer twilight period (usually a great the eclipse. Of the three only Dr. Grayson- McLennan, M. Dalton, A. Dalton, F. Loehde, hinderance) the monthly totals are all quite Smith was fortunate enough to witness na- and E. Milton. close to 20. During the period from May 1 tures most spectacular phenomena. He was to August 31 the group observed a total of amoung the group of scientists who were Friday night, August 13-14, another group 72 displays of aurora. The individual gathered in Minneapolis for a convention at met at the observatory in an attempt to add monthly totals are as follows: May (17), June the time of the event. Dr. Campbell was again to the previous totals. Clouds only permitted (20), July (18), and August (17). If this au-

Stardust Page 7 roral activity continues through the fall equi- Sun Spots: Although we are now in a period We are also making a detailed study of Solar nox period, the center should record close to of sunspot minima the center was fortunate faculae in order to obtain a better understand- 200 displays for the year 1954. The mem- enough to observe and record 52 spots, dur- ing of the relationship between the Sun and bers submitting auroral reports during the ing the period commencing May 1, 1954. the aurorae. summer were: H. Montgomery (1), I. There were no spots recorded here during McLennan (29), H. Loehde (1), E. Manning May and June, however, July afforded us a The above was the very first issue of Star- (2), A. Dalton (52), D. Loehde (2), M. Dalton total of five groups consisting of seven spots; dust ever printed. I have recreated it here in (3), E. Milton (53), John Gandrusiak (1), and August: 9 groups with 45 spots were re- its entirety, complete with spelling errors and F. Loehde (44). corded. diction of the time. It was one page, double sided typed and stenographed for the mem- At Wanham, Alberta 6 displays were reported F. Loehde using a 6 inch reflector submitted bers, and totaled 924 words. Earl Milton was by Noel Boisvert, who reports that the bad reports covering a total of 14 groups and 32 the first editor and a 2nd year chemistry stu- twilight makes auroral recording almost im- spots. The SOLAR DIVISION plans to dent and Franklin Loehde took over later in possible during summer months. Monthly incorperate two new members into its ranks the 2nd year of Stardust. The publication was summaries were received regularly from E. very shortly one being from Calgary and the a collaborative effort with many members Milton, F. Loehde, A. Dalton, and N. other in Edmonton. of the Club (mostly students) involved. -ed Boisvert.

AnAn UnusualUnusual DaylightDaylight PhenomenaPhenomena

Stardust, September 1988 With the building acting as a stationary ref- setting up my telescope I zeroed in on the By Russ Sampson erence point I could tell the object was slowly target and slowly brought it into focus. At drifting from west to east. 30 power its shape became more defined yet n rare occasions an observer will its identity was still unclear. It needed more come across something truly out of From past reports I knew that around 5 p.m. power. the ordinary. A few years ago it may each day the Wabamun Meteorological Sta- Ohave been the fashion to call these strange tion launches and tracks a single weather bal- Doubling the magnification made the image objects UFO’s loon. These balloons often pass over Edmon- more shaky and difficult to follow. I had to ton as they are carried along in the prevail- wait for the image to calm down. The tel- On the evening of April 25, 1988 while set- ing westerlies. Since it was 6:15 I concluded escope’s oscillations settled down and the ting the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium for the that this was the most likely candidate. strange red and black markings now stood weekly Telescope Users course I took a mo- out in perfect clarity. With each somersault I ment to look for Venus in the still brilliant I still had a few minutes until the class started would catch a single letter or shape. daylight sky. Using the building as a sun- so I thought it would be interesting to exam- S U P E R S T O R E shade I scanned the area of sky I suspected ine the balloon with a pair on binoculars. the planet to be in. After a few seconds a Yet once in the field of view the object took Epilogue bright point of light entered the field of my on some very unballoon-like qualities. Even Using the nearby Moon for comparison I vision. though it was still virtually a speck of yel- could make a rough estimate of the angular low light I could just make out its approxi- size of the object. Knowing its approximate It appeared to be in the right place but there mate shape. It resembled a somewhat dis- linear dimensions and using some rather el- was something definitely wrong. Instead of torted Space Shuttle with indistinct red and ementary trigonometry, I calculated the alti- the more familiar speck of colourless light black markings and the flight path consisted tude of the object to be about 600 metres this object was yellow, considerably brighter, of a strange series of loops and spirals. (2000 feet). What a plastic grocery bag was and to top it off it was pulsating. I moved doing at a height of 600 metres may remain towards the planetarium until the object To settle this airborne enigma once and for one of the true mysteries of nature. § could be seen next to the edge of the roof. all I brought out the heavy artillery. After

Stardust Page 8 BuildingBuildingBuilding thethethe QEQEQE IIIIII

The humble beginnings of the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium

any people know of the Queen nomical objects by city light diffused in the Thanks must go to Mr. Page for first sug- Elizabeth Planetarium, affection- atmosphere, whereas a closed-in planetarium gesting the planetarium project as an alter- ately called the QE II. What may will be unaffected, and will have the added native to Alderman Mitchell’s original idea Mnot be common knowledge is how the QE II merit of being a great drawing-card to thou- of erecting an observatory; also for his ex- was conceived and how the R.A.S.C., Ed- sands who have perhaps not so far been in- cellent letter to the editors of the Edmonton monton Centre played a huge role in its even- terested in astronomy. Think over the possi- Journal. tual construction. Below follows a series of bilities. articles reprinted from various issues of Star- Update to the above story, dust, detailing the birth of the QE II all the Planetarium Proposal Submitted printed in Stardust, way to the realisation of the dream. -ed to City Council January 1959

The Humble Beginnings of the Stardust, December 1958 Nearer home, we are glad to report that the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium By Earl Milton, President army is on our side - and perhaps not merely the army but the other fighting forces. On Stardust, November 1958, During the past month, a movement has been December 21 the Montgomery Branch of the under foot to convince the City Council that Canadian Legion passed a motion unani- By S. Frank Page, Assistant Secretary a small planetarium would be a suitable me- mously supporting in principle the construc- (Stardust Editor) morial for the visit of Her Majesty the Queen tion of a planetarium in Coronation Park. to Edmonton next July. The site of this me- Mr. H. J. McKim Ross, who made the mo- A report in the November 11 issue of the morial is in the centre of Coronation Park, tion included in it instructions to the presi- Edmonton Journal should be of more than a which is located west of the Ross Sheppard dent, Mr. S. H. Campbell, to confer with the passing interest to astronomers. The City Composite High School on 111th Avenue. city on its feasibility. For such substantial Council is at the moment considering sev- Other suggestions for the Royal Visit com- support of our proposed project we are truly eral suggestions for a memorial to be erected memoration are too numerous to list. How- grateful. in Coronation Park to mark the visit of Queen ever, in this space age, an astronomical build- Elizabeth to Edmonton next year. Among ing should have general public significance. Edmonton this year may become the suggestions made were: 1 94-foot tower A committee, headed by Professor fourth Canadian city to have a “symbolic of the three levels of government”, Keeping and consisting of Professor Gads, planetarium, Edmonton Journal, a fountain, the park itself, and - note well F. Loehde, F. Jersen, D. Rosenfield and Earl February 4, 1959 this suggestion of Alderman Mitchell - “an Milton, has been organizing the work of the observatory”. Well, here’s a chance for our Centre in this regard. At the moment our Stardust, February 1959 members to give support to an excellent idea. proposal is awaiting cost estimates to arrive By S. Frank Page, Assistant Secretary Personally (and we confess this is only one for presentation to the city’s Finance Com- (Stardust Editor) man’s opinion), we think that in the heart of mittee. A second programme is being the city a planetarium might be more practi- planned rapidly with the object of securing It is just three months since the Society took cal than an observatory; for reasons we have support from other large organizations who its first step in sponsoring the planetarium experienced at the site of our present small might use the planetarium facilities if one proposal by appointing a committee to observatory - the obscuring of faint astro- were erected. present its case to the City’s Finance Com-

Stardust Page 9 mittee. Whatever the final decision of the of a planetarium to the city, the committee A new observatory and a planetarium Council may be - and we may note that at by a majority vote recommended its construc- in one year! That gives a pretty good boost the moment the matter is still not decided - tion, and it seems likely therefore that the to Edmonton astronomers, especially when the Observatory Committee, under the able full Council will agree. interest in the heavens is getting such excel- leadership of Professor Keeping, is to be con- The mayor has expressed some anxi- lent publicity through Sputniks, Luniks, and gratulated on its able presentation of the case ety over the question of staffing the plan- other space vehicles. Concerning the plan- before the civic authorities. In addition to etarium. Whenever it is open to the public, etarium, by the way, we noticed on our last this, there is apparent a steadily increasing someone will have to operate the console of visit to the site that the foundations and per- support of the project among the general the instrument and give the appropriate talk. haps the floor had now been completed. We public. Large planetaria have a full-time staff, but understand that our committee has decided Should the project be approved, it is obviously this would not be practicable here. upon a Spitz instrument. quite likely that the University will turn for Members of the Edmonton Centre have a re- advice and assistance to the Astronomical sponsibility, since we have been the chief pro- Planetarium News Society. There will be many problems to be moters of the project, and we hope that it considered, involving not only the mainte- may be possible to work out a system by Stardust, January 1960 nance and operation of the physical equip- which a fair-sized group of our members will ment, but also the training of demonstrators, take turns at giving demonstrations. The sug- A recent chat with Gary Marliss revealed that consideration of the type of lectures feasible gestion has been offered to the mayor that a he and Franklin Loehde had been accorded with the proposed projector, film showings, charge should be made for admission to the a two–hour interview with the City Archi- schedule of demonstrations, appointment for planetarium (to keep out hordes of small tect just before Christmas. The instrument visits by school and other groups, considera- boys), and that the city should give a small [Spitz], now in town for a month or more, tion (in consultation with city authorities) of honorarium to the lecturers. Perhaps some has been checked and re-packed by profes- possible admission fees, use of kitchen and sors Keeping and Gads, who lecture rooms, etc. If there is still a vacant (we were informed later) felt spot on our schedule for the current year we very well satisfied with the suggest an open forum on “How a Plan- quality of the apparatus as well etarium is Run”, led by someone who has as the apparent scope of its visited and studied their operation, would be performance. In a subsequent very much worth while. visit to the planetarium site, We understand that next Monday, Gary and Frank took movies February 16, President Earl Milton will be of progress made. The outer addressing a meeting of the Edmonton West walls are still being worked Civil Service Association on “Trip to the on, under canvas. The inner Moon”. Your editor learned today (Feb. 9) wall of the planetarium proper that there is a possibility of enlisting the sup- is complete, and a light lock port of this association for the planetarium between this and the outer project, and that there may be a television area prevents outside light camera at the meeting. Keep an eye on your from interfering with demon- screen. We may yet make the headlines! members may know of qualified people out- strations. It is now expected that the plan- Meantime, Earl informs us that he is side the Centre (such as high school science etarium will be completed sometime between by no means forgetting the unfinished busi- teachers) who would be willing to give an mid-April and mid-May. That will be the day ness of finding a new site for the Observa- occasional planetarium talk for a fee. Un- of the astronomical tenderfoot, when, from tory and its later removal to that site. So far, less some feasible plan is worked out, Al- the comfort of his armchair, he may be able the only serious proposal made has been for derman Roy’s attitude may turn out to be jus- to see the diurnal motion of the heavens, a site in Elk Island Park. If anyone who tified after all! planets, moon and even Sputniks included thinks this is too far away knows of any suit- Various groups of citizens, including in all their glory. able site closer to town, it would be well to the Chamber of Commerce, the Alberta make it known to the Executive. Teachers’ Association and the Rotary Club, Edmonton’s New Planetarium have expressed their support of the plan- The Planetarium etarium scheme. We now have to make sure Stardust, October 1960 that the scheme will work, on a continuing By S.F. Page Stardust, March 1959 basis. By E.S. Keeping Monday, March 9, 1959 - The pro- The official ceremonies marking the open- posal to construct a planetarium to Corona- ing of the new Queen Elizabeth Planetarium Members of the Centre will probably have tion Park was finally approved by the City in Coronation Park took place on the evening noticed with satisfaction that our planetarium Council. The vote was 7-4 in favor of the of September 22, and it was a warmly en- project has surmounted one hurdle - the fi- project. thusiastic audience which applauded the nance committee of the City Council. In spite young director, Ian McLennan, at the con- of the opposition of Alderman Roy, who re- An update of the Planetarium was clusion of his inaugural lecture. When he ex- mains completely unconvinced of the value published in Stardust, October 1959. pressed the hope that his guest would come

Stardust Page 10 again, we heard a voice on our right - and Milton and others, who spared no efforts to meetings, in exchange for help from the we are pretty sure it was that of the Queen’s ensure technical perfection. From Earl we members in putting on the programmes. This representative himself, Chief Justice Ford – have this appreciation of Ian, with which we means that the Centre would have, in effect, saying most emphatically, “I certainly will!” most fully concur: “Ian is well-qualified for a sort of “headquarters” at the planetarium, Brigadier A. Simester, President of his position. Besides the excellent back- with the use of the “phone, library space, lec- the Edmonton & District Council of ground he has acquired in the various disci- ture room with time unlimited, use of Churches,gave the invocation with the very plines of astronomy, he has first-hand expe- kitchen, etc. Most Thursday evenings, when appropriate reading of Psalm 8: “When I sur- rience in the mechanics of show-production the planetarium would be closed to the pub- vey Thy heavens, the work of Thy hands, from his stay at CFRN-TV, where he has lic, there would be opportunity for practice the sun and the moon, which Thou hast or- worked since leaving school four years ago. at the control board of the machine and for dained, what is man, that thou art mindful In addition, Ian has been effective for the the rehearsal of future lectures. Ian also felt of him?” Alderman Mitchell took the chair, past year in the field of public relations it would be possible to provide the Centre and mayor Elmer Roper declared the plan- work.” with reading room facilities, so that the vari- etarium open. A message conveying the Queen’s good wishes was read by Chief Jus- tice Ford. Greetings were brought from the Edmonton Centre of the Royal Astronomi- cal Society of Canada by its president, James Harrington, who presented the City with a set of large astronomical murals for display in the planetarium. Professor Keeping, on behalf of the University, presented the city with a 67 – lb. fragment of the great Bruderheim meteorite. The “Star Show” un- der Ian’s direction, followed the official open- ing. Refreshments were afterwards served in the lecture room. The building itself is an architectural gem, a credit to the city architects who so capably surmounted all the problems aris- ing in the construction of a circular edifice. Made from hewn field stone, with windows of glass set in gold-anodized aluminum, all QE II - DECEMBER 1965 surmounted by a brilliant orange dome, the structure makes an impressive appearance in its lovely setting in Coronation Park. The ous astronomical magazines and exchanges interior is beautiful beyond words. Variegated The Society and the Planetarium we receive may be readily available to mem- hardwood, terrazzo and tiled floors, walls The Edmonton Centre may be justly proud bers. and ceilings in various types of décor, verti- of the part it has played in advancing the So there is the proposal: Possibly Ian cal Venetian blinds in the foyer, lovely drapes planetarium idea. We are personally happy will present it more fully at our annual meet- in the lecture room enhanced by a choice se- to recall that it was a Stardust editorial (see ing, but he has permitted us to give you this lection of potted plants contributed by the Nov. 1958 issue) that initiated the idea of preview so that you will be prepared to con- Parks Department, combine to give the visi- suggesting a planetarium to the city council, sider it seriously in advance. Personally, we tor an impression of almost drawing-room and as a result a planetarium committee was haven’t too much doubt as to what the ulti- luxuriousness, and somehow, of more spa- appointed to make representations to the mate decision will be. § ciousness than one anticipates. council. We owe a great deal to Professor It is confidently expected that Keeping for the excellent job he did in completion of the Queen Elizabeth II Tribute to Ian McLennan “putting the idea across”. There were also Observatory will mark the opening Few people would have guessed, from the many individuals and organizations that did of a new era of achievement for Ca- smoothness with which the initial lecture was their part in swinging support in favor of the nadian astronomers and will ensure carried off, the strain under which the new planetarium. Canada a place in the van of nations director had been working during the days Now the Society reaps its reward. during the period of great advance preceding then opening. The late arrival of Even the opening lecture revealed what a in the physical sciences. essential equipment gave practically no time powerful effect the planetarium could have for more than a most hurried practice with in arousing interest in astronomical matters, the controls, and, as Ian reminds his guests, an interest which should lead to many new they were actually invited to see “a re- applicants for membership. But that is not hearsal”. It proved a most successful one. We quite all. Ian informs us that the city has con- must not forget the weeks of careful plan- sented to allow the Astronomical Society to OTTAWA ning and hard work put in by Ian and Earl use the facilities of the auditorium for its 1964

Stardust Page 11

RReflectionseflections Reflections Reflectionseflections

RReflectionseflections Stories from our members...

RASC Edmonton – 35 Years Later of you but who died much too early in life; and Crosby, and Clint Constant. During the only a few current members of the Edmon- past thirty-five years we have had the pleas- By Doug and Joan Hube ton Centre had the pleasure of knowing An- ure of seeing some of our local, young ama- gus Smith personally. His name is still at- teur astronomers become professionals. Paul e arrived in Edmonton in August, tached to our annual telescope making Deans, who was in the first or second As- 1969, one of us having accepted award, and his homemade 12-inch telescope tronomy class that I taught at the Univer- an academic position in the De- – nobody aspired to build anything larger sity, is now an Associate Editor with Sky and Wpartment of Physics at the University, and than that – eventually became the property Telescope. Gary Finley, also one of my early both looking forward to settling in one place of the Edmonton Centre. Angus intended students, received a MSc in Astronomy and for the indefinite future and raising our then mounting that telescope in an observatory worked for a few years at the QEP. Another 5-months-old daughter. on the roof of his garage in Malmo. The early student and long-time member of our southern sky from the area around 51st Av- Centre, Tony Whyte, wrote what at the time A member of the Society (Toronto Centre) enue was still dark enough that Angus did (1980) was the definitive book on Pluto. since 1960, Doug wanted to contact local not see a need for making the telescope port- David Holmgren earned a MSc here and a members of the RASC. able so that he could take it out of the City. PhD in Astronomy from the University of Victoria. Andrew Lowe, who joined the Ed- The Executive Secretary at National Office, For many years the social event of the year monton Centre years before he was old Marie Fidler, gave us the information as to was a family picnic, occasionally at the enough to drive, has spent decades doing when and where the Edmonton Centre held Devon Observatory site where a bit of ob- original, professional-level work computing its monthly meetings. Quietly, we began to serving was done following the wiener roast, definitive orbits for asteroids. attend meetings. Apparently we were not but more often in Laurier Park where the ‘quiet’ enough because I served as the Ed- main activities were friendly chit-chat The Edmonton Centre is fortunate in hav- monton Centre President in 1972 and in amongst the adults and supervising the play ing a coterie of keen observers and people 1982. During the years up to 1984 and the of our small children. willing to share their love of Astronomy with opening of the Odyssium (then known as The new members and with the general public. Edmonton Space Sciences Centre), the lo- Although we had fewer resources available While the names have changed with the pass- cation of the meetings shuffled between the to us then than we have now, the Edmonton ing of time, the Edmonton Centre has al- Queen Elizabeth Planetarium, the Univer- Centre has always accepted more than its ways had members willing and able to sup- sity and the Main library downtown. share of responsibility for hosting General port a strong local centre as well as contrib- Assemblies. The GA’s that we hosted often ute to the Society and the Science at the na- Back then there were far fewer members in had special features or reasons for being here. tional and international levels. Stardust has the Centre than there are now and life was Edmonton’s first GA was held in 1962 and been the means whereby we have recorded very different for the amateur astronomer. celebrated the opening, less than 2 years ear- our activities and interests for posterity; long The vast choice in commercial amateur tel- lier, of the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium. An- may it continue to do so. § escopes, eyepieces and accessories that we nual Meetings have not always been a fea- My experiences with the enjoy now did not exist. Unitron, Criterion ture of GA’s; the GA that we hosted in 1970 Edmonton R.A.S.C. and Jaegers were the big advertisers in Sky was the first at which an Annual Meeting Or and Telescope; Celestron was offering 10-, was held outside Toronto. In 1978, the GA How I’ve been harassed by editors 16- and 22-inch aperture telescopes; but banquet was held at Fort Edmonton Park. over the years. Meade had not yet appeared. Homemade re- The 1985 GA was our opportunity to show- By Paul Campbell flectors were the rule rather than the excep- case the Edmonton Space Sciences Centre – tion, and the Dobsonian mount still lay in remember when it bore that name? – for our ’ve been harassed by our local editor to the future. Orthoscopics and Kellners were friends from across the Country. Our most write yet another story. This time I’m to the eyepieces of choice. Among the hot top- recent GA was in 1996. Soon it will be time, chronicle my life times observing expe- ics of the day were the first scientific results if we are to retain our good record, to host Irience and I am required to write oodles and from Apollo 11 and the first images from another! oodles of words. I ask you can anything be the Mariner 6 and 7 flyby missions to Mars. more boring? I’m thinking of just writing In 1969 many of those associated with the the word oodles 3,200 times but I’m sure our One of the local leaders in telescope making founding of the Edmonton Centre were still editor will just edit it out leaving only this was a fellow whose name is known to many with us. They included Professors Keeping paragraph. Oh well, here goes.

Stardust Page 12 Fifteen billion years ago there was a Big Bang the Edmonton Space Science Centre and grin I too have made this mistake with Mars out of which was formed hydrogen, some he- would listen to a recording about the Edmon- only to hear “Phone it in, Mars has gone lium, a touch of lithium and Franklin ton Chapter of the R.A.S.C. but would never Nova!” Loehde. A lot of stuff happened between then attend a meeting. You see I felt I didn’t know and 1987, most of which we like to call his- anything and would just be in the way of all Not all of my memories involve funny situ- tory. All that history led up to me taking an the PhD’s and other more educated people ations. I do remember a night at Blackfoot interest in astronomy. You see I had been in the R.A.S.C. At that time I didn’t believe with Larry Wood and I. It was one of the reading books on astronomy, and in those the R.A.S.C. would be of any help to a poor best nights I’ve experienced in my life. The books I learned some terms like The Big uneducated schlock like me. sky was dark, very transparent and the see- Bang, Galaxies, Planetary Nebulas, etc. I ing was excellent. I remember sharing views found that I had a deep desire to actually see Finally on one of my many trips to the Ed- with Larry of several galaxies in one field some of those things of which I had read. monton Space Science Centre, I picked up a during that night. It was memorable. Coincidentally Comet Halley was due and brochure from the observatory about the Al- this was the best chance for those in North berta Star Party. This turned out to be the I think my latest best memory has got to be America to see it. first ever Alberta Star Party and it was held the Great Canadian Venus Transit Expedi- in Chain Lakes and hosted by the Calgary tion. This was a case where what I was ex- As luck would have it, the Edmonton Space Centre. I hummed and hawed for quite a pecting to happen didn’t happen. Nature Science Centre, as the Odyssium was called while about going but finally I decided I just managed to turn in a few surprises for me as then, put on a seminar on how to find had to, so I gritted my teeth and headed off. I watched the Sun rise. The flattening of the Halley’s comet in the sky. The event was in It was not at all what I expected, it was a lot Sun and the colours during sunrise and Ve- the Margaret Zeidler Star theatre and was of fun and boy, did I learn a lot. Not only did nus rise as well were totally unexpected by hosted by Alan Dyer and Russ Sampson, two I learn that I could use my 4” telescope, but me and made the whole event even more spe- people I’m proud now to call as friends. Any- I also learned that the R.A.S.C. is just made cial. I think that all who were there with me way Alan was concise and very definitive as up of people and many are ordinary, every- at Fort McMurray were totally awed by the he described an easy way to find comet day, fun loving kind of people as well. The spectacle. Halley. I left the theatre knowing that I would next month I was a member of the R.A.S.C. see it. and have been one ever since. Well I think it’s now time to end this long winded personal expose. I hope that the And see it I did. It was in the back alley just I’ve made a lot of friends over the years and theme of this article, especially for the be- off my yard. All I owned were some really those friends have taught me a lot about as- ginners, is not to be afraid to join the terrible and cheap binoculars. I followed tronomy. Going for my Messier Certificate R.A.S.C. There are lots of normal people just Alan’s method and there it was. It was just a was one of the best things I have ever done. like you willing to help you out to get you tiny fuzz ball in the sky but it was the first I had an 8” Dobsonian then and I’ve cer- started. Don’t be afraid of not knowing the time I’d ever seen a comet of any sort. I was tainly learned how to star hop. I may be an night sky, but go out and study it, for then ecstatic. Then something happened that old fuddle duddle but because I’ve learned you will know the night sky. Don’t be afraid changed my life. how to star hop I have no fear of finding any to make a mistake, that is just another way thing in the sky. Seeing it, well that’s an- to learn. Most importantly, don’t be afraid I turned around and looked up. What I saw other matter. to look at the Pleiades or a Venus transit or was a fuzzy patch in the sky. I had my cheap whatever it is that makes your personal dis- binoculars and I thought. “What would that Over the years I have many fond memories. covery. They are the great moments that help look like in binoculars?” So I had a look. It Lots of them involve funny situations such define your astronomical experience. § turned out to be the Pleiades. What was so as when ShirLee Adamson spent a long time marvellous about looking at the Pleiades? It trying to find the North Galactic Pole. When was because that night, in my back alley, I I discovered that I must have spent five min- How I Got Into Astronomy (And What had made a personal discovery. This was utes on the ground laughing my guts out. Happened Afterwards) something totally unexpected and truly beau- Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but great Stardust, February 1988 tiful and breathtaking. It was something that admiration for ShirLee. I spent 8 months By David Goldingay I alone that night had discovered and I left with her helping to build her telescope. You feeling truly euphoric. I also knew I had to don’t do something like that without build- ow do people get into astronomy? own a telescope. ing mutual respect for each other. Yet that Some people say it is just because was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. they like it, some want to think about I won’t bore you with all my stories about Hthe vast mysteries of the Universe, while getting a telescope other than to just say that I think I’ve seen pretty much every planet some just want to see the ghostly panorama like many, I too started out with a little 2” go Nova as well. Invariably, even after many of galaxies, nebulae and double stars. telescope. I then bought a 4” from the sci- observing sessions, an experienced observer ence centre with a cheap equatorial mount. will get up and point at a planet such as Sat- However, I got into astronomy through a Both of these telescopes were frustrating and urn and yell what’s that! We would then ex- mixture of different things, including books, I hardly found anything in them except the plain to that person what the planet was and school, and also a few things in the sky I moon. I was in desperate need of help. Sev- then tease them about phoning it in, explain- wanted to find out about. This came slowly, eral times I picked up the phone and called ing it as “Saturn has gone Nova.” To my cha- however. In late 1985, I was in the field near

Stardust Page 13 my house, when at dusk I noticed that one of Edmonton! When we reached the farms, we I realised early on that I had to get used to the stars in the Big Dipper seemed double. It got out and I looked up. I couldn’t believe it. going out alone if I was ever to succeed in was then low in the northwest. I was slightly Stretching from horizon to horizon was the my observing objectives. In 1979 I began to interested, but as I went home, it passed from Milky Way. Later on in the night, a strong observe at Elk Island Park. Anyone using my mind. But later on, in December, I green Aurora Borealis came out under the the Hayburger site will remember the buf- thought to take a look to see where the Dip- brilliant stars, but of course my friends didn’t falo. I got to know the wardens and they per was. I was astounded! The Dipper was know what I was so excited about! warned me to be careful, particularly in the low in the northeast, and in the southeast rutting season, late August and September, stood Orion, where nothing much had been And finally, I had seen all I could with my as I recall. They told me of an incident when months before! binoculars (you’d be surprised! ed), even they had to scramble onto the roof of their when I did get a tripod. So, I began to crave truck for safety from an angry bull. I would Now I was definitely interested! In the weeks for a telescope. I couldn’t do everything at tell myself that there was no grass on the to follow, I snapped up every astronomy book once, but it still seemed that something would parking lot but when they got real close it that I could possibly find, and began to learn. have to be done. was a bit unnerving. This was so one dark Quickly after that I was identifying constel- night when I heard a noisy snorting and lations and stars, but as yet I had barely be- Then I discovered the R.A.S.C. I was torn wheezing animal coming directly towards gun. between joining or not, because I didn’t have me. My flashlight showed a red-eyed bull a telescope. But with the information in my too close for comfort. He veered slightly and By April I had obtained a pair of binoculars, mind running at full blast I finally said “that passed quietly by. He had warned me of his but to my disappointment Orion had all but does it!”, and joined; things are going to be presence. disappeared below the horizon. But I had quite different from now on! other sights to see. By May I had discovered Buck Mountain remained the Centre’s dark astronomy magazines and then found out Throughout my nearly two years of as- observing site but Elk Island Park was also where all the planets were. That evening I tronomy, I have seen many memorable well used. By 1985, we sometimes filled the found Venus low in the west after sunset, and things, like the Perseids through the clouds parking lot. Members often out were Alan later on in the year Mars and Jupiter. Yes, in 1986, the Jupiter-Mars conjunction of De- Dyer, Russ Sampson, Peter Ceravolo, Bob those were exciting times! cember 18, 1986, and other things to numer- Carson, Craig Makarowski, Howard Gibbins, ous to count. But the best has to be views of Bob Drew, ShirLee Adamson, Claude Eventually, observing as often as I could, I objects I’ve seen through the area’s tel- Gardner, Alf Connelly and others. There saw many objects through the binoculars, and escopes. But I’m sure that there are other were always a wide variety of telescopes. In I occasionally visited the Edmonton Space objects coming, and if I wait long enough, the autumn of 1985, Alan Dyer showed us Sciences Centre, and though I didn’t know I’ll be sure to see them! § Comet Giacobini-Zinner in Perseus and also all about it then, it was interesting in differ- treated us to Stephen’s Quintet in Pegasus, ent ways, some of which appealed to my as- A Few Remembered Things and NGC 891 in Andromeda with the Cen- tronomy side. tre’s 17.5" Dobson. Peter treated us to our By Mel Rankin first view of Halley’s Comet. Even though I was not as yet interested in telescopes, I was still seeing many things I y first Stardust is dated May 1977. Astronomy can be a lot of fun. In the Sep- didn’t even now about from the city using That year we had 85 members, tember 1985 issue of Sky & Telescope, Walter my (hand held) 10x50 binoculars. Further- quite a few of whom are still with Scott Houston asked observers to look at more, I was beginning to draw objects and Mthe Centre. In August I bought an 8-inch NGC 6811 in Cygnus and report what they was also keeping records of what I saw. (This Celestron from Alan Dyer at the Queen saw. He was highly amused at what seven of is highly recommended, as it not only gives Elizabeth Planetarium and retired a 3-inch us reported from Elk Island, namely - No. you something to look back on or make com- refractor. The Centre’s observing sites were 32, No. 52, a bow knot, Mickey Mouse, a parisons, but also record keeping accelerates on two private acreage’s, one east and the stop sign, an elk, Nefertiti’s Headpiece. We one’s progress toward becoming a very other south of the city but both close to it. made a later issue of Sky & Tel with skilled observer. - ed [who was Alister Ling Nefertiti’s Headpiece being the most whim- at the time-ed]). In 1979 a search began to locate a suitable sical. Centre observing site. Buck Mountain was But then it happened! By a pure stroke of chosen and a lease signed in 1980. It was a I had a list of 18 items to check every time I luck I was introduced to dark skies. It hap- magnificent site but rather remote and ac- went observing. I was rushing to be first out pened in late November 1986, when some of cessible about seven months per year. An en- to get my spot. When I got there I opened up my friends and I went outside the city one thusiastic crew spent considerable time clear- my car trunk and lo and behold - I had for- evening. It was expected to be cloudy, but ing the lower site of trees and brush and even gotten my telescope. It was a very enjoyable was the clearest night I have ever seen. As planting grass. The site was popular with night nevertheless and good for a laugh. soon as we left the city, you could see Perseus, many members. It was on top of Buck that Auriga, and Taurus high in the east, and low Alan Dyer advised me to get my Messier ob- As enjoyable the many sessions were at the over the horizon were Orion and Gemini, jects by star hopping and learn the sky. It Park we suffered from light pollution from a with M42 glowing softly near the trees. I was was good advice, which I strictly followed growing city to the west. Bob Carson, Presi- amazed! I had never seen it that low from for all 110 objects. dent of our Centre, and I had become ob-

Stardust Page 14 serving buddies. We often found better skies Observing a rich Galaxy Cluster Boucher who successfully saw it for them- south west of Calmar, and at Black Nugget First was the Coma Berenices galaxy clus- selves. Lake from which I observed my last two ter, Abell 1656, almost 400 million light Messier objects, M69 and M70. The Prov- years away. Centred on the 13-mag. NGC Gravitationally lensed into a mirage pair by ince had wisely created a large wilderness 4889 and 4874 galaxies. This was a dim but a massive, trillion solar mass galaxy 3 bil- area south of Elk Island called Blackfoot very rich cluster with, according to Burnham, lion light years away, the source, a single Grazing Reserve. In the autumn of 1985, the over 800 galaxies brighter than 16.5 within quasar is 5 billion light years distant. Just Centre’s group observing sessions migrated 160’ which is still pretty faint. think – You were seeing light that is older to the west staging area which had darker than the earth you’re standing on and our skies and no buffalo. This site served us well Blackfoot’s conditions normally leave us like solar system itself! until the present east staging area opened up. Tantalus, with these clusters always just be- This is a dark site at a convenient distance, yond reach. But that April 2 morning we You were seeing first hand an object demon- accessible year round. It has become very were allowed a feast I’ll never forget. It was strating some of the most esoteric modern popular and well suited to the Centre’s needs. about 2:30 a.m. DST and the conditions were concepts. May it continue to be so. § fantastic – darkness 8/10 and transparency at 9/10! Through a 9mm Nagler/Paracorr Albert Einstein predicted gravitational The Appeal of Deep Sky Observing at 260 power, the galaxies just hung there, lensing back in 1914. A 1919 experiment suspended like clusters of grapes in the black during a solar eclipse saw that the Sun’s grav- By Bob Drew sky. ity would bend light from a star. Identified as a radio source, this 0957+561 was first Getting Started Observing slowly, with averted vision, other photographed and seen optically by profes- s a junior high student, I eagerly read small galaxies would pop in to fill the spaces sional astronomers in Arizona only as re- everything I could about astronomy between the direct vision 14th mag. galaxies. cently as 1979, prompting a stampede of hun- and the first steps in the Space Race, You could just continue panning in virtually dreds of published papers. Aand saw the profound dismay the West felt every direction to other galaxy asterisms. In when Sputnik launched first. a short time I saw at least 40 galaxies, be- Deepsky still holds it appeal because, after fore turning over the eyepiece to Larry Wood. an observing session you can study and con- Years later, in 1979 and 1980, it would be He then swept up 200 in 10 minutes! Still template the marvellous and varied objects two public star parties on the lawn just south invigorated when I got home I opened or processes you had just witnessed. § of the Queen Elizabeth Planetarium that lead MegaStar and was able to confirm that many me to become active in the Edmonton Cen- galaxy asterisms, cores and field stars I had The Hazards Of Astrophotography tre. I remember approaching the telescope sketched were in the right place. What a line with my wife Lois at the very successful satisfying evening! By Don Brown event on the April 26 1980 weekend. There was a lot of activity and you could feel a col- Observing a Gravitationally Lensed Qua- bout twenty years ago, I was attempt- lective excitement in the air. With 800 peo- sar ing to take a few pictures out at ple that Sat. and 1,200 for the weekend, Mel My most intriguing deepsky observation was Waskehegan. It was cold, about -20 Rankin recalls that it was then a club record. the double quasar 0957+561A,B in Ursa Adeg.F. This was not a problem because I had Major, which I was able to observe on two a brand new parka. The only thing was I Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn were all in nights that April. It wasn’t difficult to find could not hear well because the material prime viewing areas that night, something I the field. You star hop from the 10.7-mag. made noise in my ears with every little move- hadn’t realised was a big deal. I remember edge on Galaxy NGC 3079 north to a key- ment. I was all set up and guiding my shot, meeting Dave Belcher with his fine 7” stone-like asterism. Then zero in on the field when I heard a loud noise behind me. Rocks Questar, and especially an enthusiastic Mel from a Megastar chart and photos with the were clattering. I whirled, something big was Rankin, who quickly took us through a article “Seeing Gravity’s lens” in the Octo- coming toward me at high speed. plethora of red stars with his trusty C-8. ber, 1991 issue of S&T. That part was easy, After meeting the dedicated Alan Dyer and the trick would be to detect the dim object. I shone my red light at it. Red light is good Stew Kryskow, joining the club was a no- for three feet. This conjured up visions of brainer. I knew I had to get into this fasci- But see it we did, a few times and on two moose, buffalo, bear or possibly a cougar. I nating pursuit. different nights! The two quasar images are ran to my truck and got my white light. By 6” apart, very dim with averted vision. this time the animal had stopped. I was shak- Although starting with a Meade 10” SCT, Viewed at 334 and 489 power, I saw a defi- ing a little but was able to see what it was. A my interests drifted to deepsky objects, which nite elongated oval shape, in the right place stupid horse. Since that time I have not been needed aperture. This lead to involvement and in the right orientation, when checked a horse lover. Since I did not have a change in our rebuilding of the Centre’s new 17.5" against the photo images. The twin quasar of shorts with me, I decided it would be pru- followed by my own 20” f/4 aluminium truss pair would individually be about 17th mag- dent to pack up and leave. Dobsonian. Let me share my two most nitude but merged, appeared as 16th magni- memorable observations, both from April tude. At 18 mag, the lensing galaxy was I write this as a warning to others. Never go 1996, both from Blackfoot and both through well beyond the 20”. I called over a few club out taking pictures by yourself. Take some- my 20”. members including Larry Wood and Denis one (preferably armed) to cover your back. §

Stardust Page 15 ThisThis Cloud’sCloud’s FForor YYouou

By Mark Zalcik

Stardust, June 1988 MARK ZALCIK

omewhere at these latitudes, on a sum- visible only in twilight when properly situ- astronomical twilight), the clouds are no mer’s night, a conversation like this ated with respect to the observer. For rea- longer illuminated and are thus invisible. takes place: sons that are not yet clear, they can be no- The times noted above will be earlier for the S ticed only in the summer months, and only evening apparition and later for the morn- “Finally pretty dark.” from latitudes of 45 to 75 degrees on either ing one as we move further from summer “Yeah, I’m surprised how dark it gets this side of the equator. solstice. close to the solstice.” As noctilucent clouds are composed A typical all-night display will start “Really! Except for that cirrus over in the of ice crystals, due to the very low tempera- rather high and faint in the north-west, north, it’s not bad.” ture at the mesopause where they form, it is “move” along the northern horizon as it “Funny looking clouds, aren’t they? Kinda not surprising that they look like cirrus brightens and lowers, climbing and fading bluish.” clouds. In structure there is little to differen- once again as it approaches the north-east. “Mmm, but mostly white. Brilliant white. tiate the two, except that often the NLC will The apparent movement is only the effect of Nice against the dark sky, eh?” have a delicate wavy appearance which looks the Sun reflecting off progressively easterly “Wait a minute what’s going on here, white like the mackerel sky manifestations of masses of cloud as the earth rotates and is clouds, dark sky?” cirrocumuli. Like cirrus, long parallel bands not indicative of actual movement within the “You’re right! What is it?” and featureless sheets are prevalent in NLC, cloud structure. Actual motions in NLC sys- Another, smiling in the memory of his simi- as are the contorted whirls sometimes re- tems are difficult to follow; they tend to be lar discover, quietly says: “Noctilucent ported. Whatever the form, its visibility is westerly or south-westerly. clouds, that is clouds of the enhanced by the higher contrast brought The average number of displays per twilight NLC.” about by the darkened background sky. year visible from this locale seems to be eight It is during the very dead of night that to ten, with no doubt a few more occurring One may be inclined to lament the increas- the contrast is most striking, though at these during nights when it is too cloudy to ob- ingly cloudy skies encountered as one trav- times the display is usually rather low in the serve them. A pronounced peak of activity els from the tropics to each of the poles. In north. The highest points of the NLC shows happens a few days after summer solstice, North America, areas of the Southern U.S. occur when the Sun has just passed the 6 the longest day of the year. These displays enjoy skies of intrinsic clarity, whereas the degree below the horizon mark, civil twilight. are also the brightest to be seen. Near the poor skies north of 40 degrees north are In Edmonton, this is around 11 p.m. and 4 limits of visibility the clouds are rather faint plagued by numerous cloudy nights. Yet it a.m. MDT in the summer. They are then not and hard to discern. seems that each identifiable region has the too bright, as twi- In the July 1987 upper hand for certain fields of study. Though light is still quite issue of Astronomy Canadian astronomers suffer under a scourge prominent, and David McConnel of of tropospheric obscurity, they can also claim also for a brief England provided a to have the observational advantage of the while the highest comprehensive over- goings on of the atmosphere’s higher regions cirrus clouds are view of the observa- such as the mesopause with its mysterious still sunlit, mak- tional, physical, and summer-time tenants, the noctilucent clouds. ing for a difficult theoretical aspects of At a mean height of 82 kilometres designation. Be- noctilucent clouds. above the earth’s surface, NLC, as they are yond a solar de- The address of the informally labelled, are the loftiest of clouds. pression of 16 British Astronomical Too tenuous to be seen in daylight, they are degrees (almost Association’s (B.A.A.) MURRAY PAULSON

Stardust Page 16 Aurora Section’s Assistant Director, Dr. upon catching the wispy forms each sum- season of noctilucent cloud observations, and David Gavine, was enclosed for those inter- mer. participation in our programme is still ested in contributing observations. The re- C’mon Albertans! Let’s bask in the strong, especially due to the diligent moni- sponse was so positive that a network en- privilege of being in prime noctilucent cloud toring by RASC members in western Canada, compassing North America was rightfully territory. We get lots of lower clouds, but we notably Edmonton. Suffice to say that very envisioned. I was surprised to receive from can also see clouds that people further south few, if any, NLC displays are missed each Dr. Gavine a request that I head such an en- can only dream of witnessing. With NLC, summer from Edmonton as it seems some- deavour, but eagerly agreed to take on the now there is something to look for during one is always checking the twilight sky. project. So now I am happy to introduce NLC our summer twilight’s. For all they Bravo RASC members! Observations can CAN-AM, the fledgling group of noctilucent woo these clouds are for you. still be sent to me at: Mark Zalcik, #7 - 14130 cloud observers from the continent, intent We have just completed our 17th - 80 Street Edmonton, AB T5C 1L6 § That thin cloud? Will it go away? Stardust, March 1993 exception to this is in summer, when cirrus cloud shows up. If it is dark, the stars still By Alister Ling formed by thunderstorms has a tendency to shine through, but the Milky Way would lose evaporate gradually through the night. much of its impact. The situation is no dif- n short, no. Most observers have recog- ferent with haze during summer. nised this pattern: thin high clouds, or The illusion can be explained by an analogy cirrus, lie along the horizon but disap- to M57, the Ring Nebula. Once can think of Numerous times I’ve overheard observers pearI as night falls. Frequently, this is an il- the nebula as a uniform spherical shell of saying how lucky we are to be free to haze lusion. gas that is mostly transparent. Looking overhead but are surrounded on all sides. If through the centre, we can see that there is you are willing to admit it to yourself, you As a meteorologist, I have watched thin cir- little absorption. However, as we look along will easily notice that extended objects like rus on satellite imagery march across report- an edge, our line of sight encounters suffi- M31 just don’t have the detail you are used ing stations with nary a change overnight; cient material to produce a noticeable veil. to seeing. The best advice I can give for you yet the observer reports clear, or very scat- is to accept what you’ve got and observe high tered high cloud. This phenomenon has now The same thing happens when we look at surface brightness objects like planets, clus- been confirmed by a 4-year study of satellite the sky. Overheard, the cirrus is so thin it is ters and planetary nebulae. You have ven- imagery. There is no diurnal, or day to night in effect transparent, but as we look slant- tured into the night to relax, so don’t fret. § change in semitransparent cirrus. The only wise through it towards the horizon, the

Some time ago, Garry Marliss was kind enough to offer us the use of his Dad’s CherCherrryy PiePie Anyone?Anyone? Gestetner for the publication of Stardust, and came across this little gem reprinted be used the resources of Leduc to turn out a very we agreed then that it might be a proposi- low and felt that it had to make the hon creditable job. We feel that here we should tion worthy of consideration in the future. ourable mention, or should that be dis- pass on our thanks to the unknown Mrs. X We feel now that the time has come for this honourable?I It all depends on your point of who did such excellent work in making the further step. As we see it, the job falls natu- view. -ed stencils and running the Gestetner. It has rally into a few major stages: been a pleasure to receive our own copy with 1. The receiving and editing of reports and The Future of Stardust drawings as well as text so faithfully repro- news items, writing editorials, and organiz- duced. ing the material into its page format; Stardust, April 1960 But Jim can 2. Typing and drawing the necessary sten- hardly be ex- cils; Our newsletter has seen a number of pected to put so 3. Running the duplicating machine; changes since its inauguration by the Ob- much time - and 4. Stapling, addressing and mailing the server’s Group in 1954, but we have been considerable ex- newsletter. fortunate all the way through in having will- pense too - in- Although we could still manage fairly well ing workers to undertake the various tasks definitely into with our present personnel, we believe it essential to its production. There were first this work, and al- would lighten the work generally if we could the modest gelatine prints which might or though he has announced his intention of enlist from among our members the services might not prove legible, but little by little continuing until the October issue, we feel of one or two capable stenographers who the technique improved until eventually we should now be looking ahead to the cen- would be prepared to help out with the sten- every member was assured of having a read- tralization of the editorial and printing work, cils. So, when you are looking for new mem- able copy. Some very busy men have given in a geographical sense, that is. As you know, bers among the ladies, bear in mind that the us of their time to assist in the printing. Last Jim lives in Leduc, and this necessitates the important thing is not so much whether she year Professor Gads was the man on the spot, mailing and re-mailing of material from and can make a cherry pie as whether she can this year our President, Jim Harrington, has to Edmonton, which takes considerable time. type. Please look around. §

Stardust Page 17 CosmicCosmic DebrisDebris FFromrom SpaceSpace

The Bruderheim Meteorite

Stardust, April 1960 By Earl Milton

arly on the morning of March 4 - at out to various Alberta institutions and to enon at the planetarium; however it was not 1:06, to be exact - residents of Ed leading Centres throughout the world. Such realised how extensively it had been observed monton and district were startled by a recovery is a “one-in-a-million” occur- until a Vernon telephone operator called the Ea brilliant fireball which exploded yielding rence, and both the University and the Cen- planetarium for information. The fireball had a blinding -20 magnitude flash and a thun- tre owe a hearty vote of thanks to those peo- been seen there in the Northeast, and was der-like rumbling which lasted close to 20 ple who found fragments and so readily accompanied in the Okanagan area by an ex- seconds. By mid-afternoon of the same day turned them over to the proper authorities. plosive sound indicating a probable landing reports reached the Centre telling of the find- To the members of the press, radio, and T.V., there. Within two hours, reports were com- ing of a six-pound fragment of the meteorite we owe another vote of thanks for their ing in from as far Northwest as the Queen six miles north of Bruderheim. Within “tasteful” handling of the publicity concern- Charlotte Islands, Southwest from Seattle, twenty-four hours, another 150 pounds of the ing the fall and recovered fragments. A spe- Southeast from Missoula (and later, object had been located, mainly due to the cial vote of thanks to Ab Douglas, Julian Saskatoon) and Northeast from Red Water. effort of Stan Walker and Ty Balacko of Fort Kinisku, and Ian McLennan of CFRN for A telephone survey by Rodger and Saskatchewan. The fragments were located their special help, and to Stan Walker and McLennan around 2:00 am revealed that over a four-section area. Walker and Balacko Ty Balacko for their excellent cooperation houses were shaken and windows rattled and did an admirable job of photographing the in the recovery of this fall. § even broken in the Golden Revelstoke re- fragments in situ and in making a scale draw- gion. ing of the particle distribution over the area Fireball Observed of the fall. In the ensuing negotiations the Centre acted as a coordinating group between Stardust, April 1965 the University and the Canadian Government Surveys. Because of the excellent coopera- t 10:46 p.m., M.S.T., Wednesday tion achieved, the Geology Department of March 31st, a spectacular fireball de the University of Alberta is now in posses- scended towards the Southwest over sion of close to 300 pounds of the meteorite. AEdmonton, lighting up an area of more than 350,000 square miles and starling thousands The meteorite pieces are stony, with a black of people, who in every imaginable situation, oxidation crust over all exposed surfaces. Pre- happened to be looking at the right place at liminary analysis shows the fragments to the right time. Within minutes of its appear- contain considerable quantities of magnetic ance over Edmonton reports from excited substances. Complete analysis of the object citizens began to deluge the planetarium, and its trajectory through the atmosphere will police and radio stations and the meteoro- be made at the University. logical office.

At the request of Walker and Balacko, who Although descriptions varied, it was appar- On Thursday morning, we spoke with Dr. sold their fragments to the University, one ent the fireball was very large, slow moving K.O. Wright at the Dominion Astrophysical of the larger and finer pieces, weighing 67 had a short tail, and turned orange-red be- Observatory, Victoria, who had received a pounds, is slated for permanent exhibition fore fading out near the Southwest horizon. report that a classified American satellite in the new Queen Elizabeth Planetarium. After midnight, Dave Rodger and Ian 1964 48 (a) was due to re-enter near the time Other pieces of the meteorite will be loaned McLennan collected reports of the phenom- of the fireball phenomenon. Eldon Rogers

Stardust Page 18 of the Edmonton Centre later estimated that Meteorite Search Continues The photograph, below, was considered a 48 (a) should theoretically have passed over Stardust, May 1965 possible area of impact: If the meteorite had Edmonton at 10:41 p.m. from the Northeast struck the side of the mountain, it might have to the Southwest. It appeared reasonable to The photographs, below, taken from colour set free tons of snow in an avalanche. Since assume the object had, in fact, been the death- transparencies, record a small part of the in- these pictures were taken, however, scien- plunge of the satellite. On Friday, however, tensive search for fragments of a gigantic me- the NORAD space tracking station at Colo- teorite which fell in south central British Co- rado Springs announced the fireball had ten- lumbia March 31st. (Stardust, April, P.2). As tatively been identified as on or more mete- of this date, nearly all of the important visual ors, possibly a shower. There was confusion sightings have been plotted, and these, along because of the abnormally large area of with seismic recordings of the impact, have sightings, and (as yet) unconfirmed reports led Dr. Folinsbee and others to two search of a N.W.-S.E. object areas of several square miles each. Were the impact area on relatively flat terrain, it would In a special report to the planetarium from have been located several weeks ago: how- NORAD Saturday afternoon, it was deter- mined that 48 (a) was due to re-enter March tists have shifted the search area eastward 31st near the coast of Antarctica. This was from the location of the preliminary investi- based on more up-to-date orbital data than gations. Dr. Folinsbee reported progress on that which Mr. Rogers was using in his cal- the Shuswap search to a recent Ottawa meet- culations. It would appear almost certain now ing of the NRC Associate Committee on that the fireball was a meteoric body which Meteorites before leaving for southern France landed in mountainous terrain in B.C. On on vacation. Drs. John Galt and Ed Argyle Sunday evening, April 4th, Dr. J.A. Galt of of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Ob- the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory re- servatory, Penticton, are now co-ordinating ported to the planetarium that a likely land- the search. The seismic stations near Leduc, ing site was Lake Shuswap. (See map). He, ever, the rugged mountainous region sur- British Columbia and across the northern along with Drs. R.E. Folinsbee (U of A), L.A. rounding Lake Shuswap has complicated the United States all reported recordings of both Bayrock, (Research Council of Alberta) and search as helicopters must be used at more the impact of the object and the atmospheric Julian Kiniski (Meteorological office, Ed- than $100.00 per hour. During one of the shock wave before landing. It would appear monton) at the time of this writing are in the preliminary aerial surveys of the area, Dr. the meteorite will be the largest to land in area in the hope of locating one or more frag- Folinsbee posed for the photograph, above, North America in the memory of the white ments. on an ice field adjacent to the search area. man. § Jupiter - 32 inches in diameter? Stardust, March 1996 By Cary Smialek

thoroughly enjoy Deborah Byrd’s arti- sents inches (leading to our interesting edi-

cles each month in Astronomy. Her writ- torial error). PAULSON MURRAY ing is both informative and interesting. I Seconds of arc, or arc seconds, are used as a Each degree is divided into 60' (that’s min- In January’s issue Deborah’s description of measure of angular dimension or position, utes, not feet!) of arc. Each minute, in turn, Jupiter caused me to do a double take: “on as in the determination of the size or posi- is comprised of 60" (seconds) of arc. January 18 (Jupiter) reveals to telescopic tion of an object seen in the sky. observers a 32-inch diameter disk, along with Jupiter’s January measure of 32 arc seconds orbiting moons.” (Deborah Byrd, “Sky Al- To understand the application of arc seconds, seems small in comparison to the angular manac,” Astronomy, Jan. 1996, p. 67, last imagine the sky as a celestial vault that com- size of the Moon or the Sun. As the king of paragraph) pletely surrounds the Earth, a full circle com- the planets, however, Jupiter has the largest prising 360 degrees. An angular measure of angular measure of all the planets save Ve- This I gotta see, a 32-inch diameter world the visible sky from horizon to horizon (a nus (Jupiter’s maximum angular size is with accompanying moons! half circle) would thus present 180 degrees. nearly 50 arc seconds at its closest approach A point overhead (the zenith) subtends 90 oppositions, while Venus can display a thin Alas, this amazing claim is, of course, a mis- degrees with the horizon. The full Moon and crescent covering almost one arc minute). print. The error seems to have resulted from Sun amazingly only measure half a degree a mistranslation of the symbol ". In astro- each. We’ll obviously need a smaller unit of P.S. - Kudos to Alister Ling for his well-pre- nomical terms " commonly denotes seconds scale to capture the apparent size of the plan- sented highlight boxes in the same Sky Al- of arc, whereas in linear measure ” repre- ets. manac! §

Stardust Page 19 HowHow toto NotNot bebe aa SolarSolar AstronomerAstronomer

By Paul Campbell

find that my methods of not being a so think. You cannot but help to think about 2. Do not use those eyepieces you didn’t lar astronomer are very close to those for the incredible distances involved nor how buy. not becoming an astronomer at all. Sure, everything was made nor how objects in the 3. Don’t bother with star charts or dark- youI may find yourself wanting to do a hobby. heavens work. In short reading causes curi- adapting. You’re young, you may have a small amount osity, curiosity breeds a desire to know and 4. Most importantly DO NOT READ! of money left after rent each month and you before you know it you really want to get out seem to have the time and the energy so you and start doing some astronomy. Objects such Reading about the Sun causes the same prob- consider astronomy. That was your first mis- as books and magazines must be avoided at lem as reading about astronomy. In short take. all costs. Remember there is no cure for cu- you’ll get curious. Getting you not to read is riosity. probably a hopeless cause since you’ve read Let’s face it. If you do get into astronomy into my article this far in spite of previous you’ll probably spend countless hours at the Being an observer will also teach some other warnings. eyepiece with almost nothing to show for it less useful habits. You’ll learn about dark except for maybe a few drawings or photos. adaptation, about averted vision and grab- So now you’ve got that solar filter what to Big deal, you could have spent the night bing as much detail as possible from the eye- do with it? First of all, and I’m sure you’ve warm in bed. Whether you’re observing or piece. At the time I’m sure you’ll believe that read about this, but NEVER look at the Sun not the Stars, Moon, Planets and the Sun will these are useful tools to have but what good without a filter. Even naked eye views can go about their nightly cycles without any in- are they really. As life goes on things in your be dangerous. Use a #14 welder’s glass in- put from you. life will change as well. Maybe you won’t stead. Make sure it’s a #14 welder’s glass, have the same time you could devote to as- this is the darkest welder’s glass you can get So here’s what to not do. tronomy as before. This is what happened to and is available at most welding shops. The 1. Do not buy binoculars. If you already me and the depression almost ruined my life. cost is on the order of a few dollars. This own a set go ahead and use them for birding, cheap purchase can save your eyesight and horse races, scenery etc. Do not use them to I found one day that I was starting up my give several years of fun solar observing. look up. own business. Usually this meant getting up Never use material that is not designed to 2. Do not buy or build that first telescope. at ungodly hours for business meetings, work observe the sun with. Examples are exposed This can cause endless hours of frustration etc. Since I had to get up early it meant that film; smoked glass; sunglasses and I’ve even as new telescopes are cursed with cloudy I was too tired to go to a dark site. Sadly seen people use pop tart wrappers. In short weather. there was less deep sky observing being done if it’s not specifically made for observing the 3. Do not buy accessories such as eye- on my part. I did notice that my lunch hours Sun, don’t use it. pieces or star charts. were free however, so in desperation I turned 4. Do not join an astronomy club. Mem- to Solar Observing. The same is true for solar filters. If it’s not bers of such organisations are only there for specifically made for use on the telescope to one reason. It’s because they love astronomy look at the Sun with I don’t recommend us- and would like nothing better than to get you ing it. Solar filter manufacturers provide as- involved as well. In order to not be a Solar Observer I suggest surances during the construction process that the following: ensure you won’t cause damage to your eye. And most important of all, DO NOT READ! 1. Do not buy a solar filter for that tel- Some manufacturers supply the Solar filter Reading about astronomy causes you to escope you didn’t buy. as a Mylar film and some as heavily

Stardust Page 20 aluminised optical glass. Whichever you use pheric distortions but you will know all about serving that they will take sunspot counts it must completely cover the light input end that as you study the Sun waiting for the see- from you. This can be easily done by using of the telescope. Some cheap telescope manu- ing to settle down so you can grab that extra the Internet at www.aavso.org and going to facturers provide a solar filter that attaches little sunspot. the solar section. While you are there look to the eyepiece. Do not use this type as the into the software and tools they have for mak- heat from the Sun can actually crack them You will quickly notice that allowing full sunlight to reach your eye. the spots seem to form into Whatever solar filter you purchase must groups. These are called Ac- cover the entire telescope where the light tive Regions. The larger active enters the telescope. regions have many spots. The spots are caused by magnetic To be sure you’ve got the correct filter turn activity on the Sun. Therefore on a 100 watt light and have a look at it active regions that are both through the solar filter. You should be able large and contain lots of spots to see the glowing filament of the bulb and also have a lot of magnetic ac- nothing else. I also like to attach the filter to tivity associated with them. my telescope and look anyplace in the sky Large active areas are the but at the Sun. It should appear completely source of many flares seen on dark. This is a good way to look for pinholes. the Sun.

If you observe the Sun ing your observations easier. Take the time long enough you might to look it over as they really do have a lot of even notice that in some data and experienced observers only to ea- years there appear lots of ger to help you. big active spots and other years there are fewer and Finally I would just like to say that there is smaller spots. This is be- so much more about the Sun than I can’t cause the Sun follows an write about in the small space and time that eleven-year cycle. Solar I have. If you want to learn more I would maximum is when the suggest that you read a book about the Sun most spots appear on the and solar observing. But I caution you, only Sun and solar minimum do so if you’re really curious. § is when there are few spots on the Sun. So now you’ve got the proper solar filter. The How do we know this? It’s be- first thing you realise is that you don’t have cause amateur astronomers got to worry about dark-adapting. Even vehicle curious and began counting headlights won’t bother you and you don’t sunspots. Counting sunspots is have to drive to a dark site. You can do it in not like regular counting. A your backyard, your front yard or wherever group of sunspots or active re- it’s sunny. Star charts are not needed. To find gion is a collection of magnetic the Sun just use the shadow of your telescope activity and as such is on the ground. Never use a finder scope un- weighted more that individual less it’s filtered. If your finder scope is not spots. You still have to count filtered then make sure that the objective is the individual spots but then covered. You’ll find that with a little prac- you add ten just for the group. tice you’ll find the Sun easily just using the In this way a group with 30 shadow of the scope. spots would be equal to 40. A single spot would be 11. One Now that you’ve looked safely at the Sun, for the spot and ten for the what will you see? Usually its dark areas on group. The sun showing two the Sun called sunspots. A lot of the tricks groups as above would have a you have learned in the dark are useful when count of 51. I know it’s a little complicated observing the sunspots. You’ll find that you’ll but that’s how it works. The photo on the above left if a view of the end up using the skills you gained when look- Sun using the Calcium K-Line filter recently ing at planets as you probe the different re- As mentioned before, one of the astronomy purchased. The photo at top is a view in H- gions for as much detail as you can. You will clubs not to join is the American Associa- Alpha, both courtesy of Paul Campbell. The find out that seeing is worse in the daytime tion of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). photo above is a full disk image of the Sun due to heating. Seeing is basically atmos- These people are so interested in solar ob- in White Light, courtesy of Denis Fell.

Stardust Page 21 ing at a bright star with a high power eye- piece. In the extended image of the star you can see lazy ripples, eddies moving around or a plume of light like a candle flame ex- tending off the edge of the defocused disk of light. This is a clear sign that hot telescope ObserObservingving optics is your problem. The solution to this is to let the scope cool down for an hour or so. The down side of this is you either have to plan your session and let the scope cool thethe PlanetsPlanets down ahead of time, or you have to be con- tent enough to wait it out. If you do not have a secure place to leave your scope to cool, the second option is all that is open to you. Plan to do some low power observing while ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR COURTESY ALL PHOTOS the scope cools. How long does it take to cool a telescope down? Well, it depends entirely By Murray D. Paulson on the scope. Small scopes usually cool down in less than half an hour. Refractors in the 3 have been writing my column about ob- • Eyepieces • Observer experience to 5” range cool down in under an hour, but serving the planets for more than a dec- my 12.5” Newtonian is still showing signs ade and this 50th anniversary edition gives Seeing of being warm after an hour and a half. Some Ime the opportunity to elaborate on the topic Seeing is the door through our atmosphere closed optical system scopes take quite some of observing the planets. The planets are that filters out details in an image. If the at- time to cool down. If you are handy, you can what got me into astronomy. As a kid, I read mosphere is turbulent and the air inhomo- add a fan to help cool the telescope down about space and looked at space art that geneous, the view of a planet becomes a fea- and purge the warm air from the tube. In showed views of the planets as only a space tureless fuzz ball. Think of seeing as the rip- any event, do the defocused star test on your farer or an artist could. Saturn rising over a ples in the air that distort the image you see telescope some night and find out how much rugged airless moonscape, immense and over a campfire or over a road on a hot sum- time it takes to cool down. Then you will breathtaking, Jupiter majestic and immense mers day. The physics of this phenomenon know and you will be able to plan your ses- in the sky over Europa. I have lost the plates are simply that air of different temperatures sions. of the artist’s impressions long ago, but the has different indices of refraction. These dif- views of the planets in the eyepiece are sat- Cause 2: Local seeing. isfying in another way. Distant worlds, in- “A perfect image of a star Local seeing is caused by something hot in triguing and alluring. Some of the planets is not a point of light, but is your vicinity that is putting a plume of warm are constantly changing like Jupiter. It’s in fact something called air into the path between you and the planet. Great Red Spot, quartet of moons; an ever- A chimney from a house, a warm car, hot changing set of cloud belts and spots keep the Airy pattern.” asphalt, even a friend standing directly be- me coming back. Mars at opposition shows ferences distort the wave front of the image low your telescope can be responsible. Again, a myriad of fine details, and like a puzzle, as it comes to your telescope and the result rack out the focuser while looking at a bright you seek out to place names on those dark is a scrambled image. Twinkling of stars is a star and you will see slow to medium speed spots and smudges like Syrtus Major, Solus version of this happening in your eye and if shadows passing through the image like a Lacus, Olympus Mons... Even though the the stars are twinkly, the seeing is usually slow moving river. Identify the source and shots from the Hubble and satellites show bad. It may be ok if you can point the scope then you need to move to a different location more detail, the image I see in the eyepiece high up in the sky, but down low the air mass that doesn’t have the offending heat source, is happening now and is a very personal ex- turns the details into mush. Don’t bother with and the problem will be cured. perience. The challenging observations, like high resolution seeing on nights like this. a Martian volcano or moon, a string of little There are a number of root causes of Cause 3: Atmospheric turbulence. ovals trailing the Great Red Spot or a poor seeing and some of them can be fixed Atmospheric turbulence and inhomogeneity Neptunian moon are all the more satisfying. and others can not. are large-scale phenomena and you can’t get How do you get the most of this experience? away from them and probably can’t out wait If you step up to the eyepiece and don’t see Cause 1: Telescope seeing. them either. If you rack out the eyepiece on much detail, where does the fault lie? I have If you bring a warm telescope out into the a bright star, you will see a river of fast mov- found that there are number of important cold night air, the optics are going to be hot ing shadows that is moving in one direction components in getting the most out of the and they will create a plume of warm air in in the disk of defocused light. The image in planets and we will discuss them in detail. the telescope tube. This will really mess up the eyepiece is a bloated star or a featureless There is a quartet of things that af- the image and you may think the atmosphere fuzzy ball of a planet. The solution is to fect how we see the planets. is bad or your optics are bad. To diagnose change your observing program to other • Seeing • Optics this, you can rack the focuser out while look- things that don’t require high power.

Stardust Page 22 There are a number of scales of the qual- the diameter of its input aperture. He deter- due to the secondary is offset by the reduc- ity of seeing, one is Pickerings. mined the relationship based on how close a tion of the size of the airy disk. The scale was devised by William H. double star you could separate and the aper- Pickering (1858-1938) using a 5" (13cm) ture of the telescope. The formula is... Eyepieces refractor. A reference to the Pickering Table The eyepiece is the last element in your op- can be found on the Internet at http:// resolution in seconds of arc = 120/ diameter tical system before the light comes into your uk.geocities.com/dpeach_78/pickering.htm of objective in mm (for an unobstructed eye. It alters the scale of the image and may aperture) help correct issues dealing with curved focal Optics So we can interpret this to mean that planes of the optical system. It is also an- Undeniably the most important component the smallest features that we can see with other place where light can become scattered between you and the planets are the optics our telescope will be on the order of this de- and can limit the view of what you can see. that collect the light and focus it down to an fining resolution. Think of pixels defining It is the popular conception among planetary image. Refractors, Newtonians and the object. The physical geometry of the ob- observers that eyepieces with fewer elements Cassegrains are the major groups of tel- ject that you are looking at will alter the limit are desirable. The benchmark eyepiece for escopes that you can choose from. What is somewhat, but Dawes limit is a general the planets is the Orthoscopics. Every time the best? There is a lot to be said for the com- guideline. For example, I have resolved .7" light passes from a lens into air we get light pact Apochromatic refractors that are all the separation double stars with a 130 mm scope. reflected from the interface. This is why al- rage these days. They do produce a high con- They looked like a double yoked egg with most all optics you see have antireflection trast diffraction limited image with no spi- the yolks in contact and I was using a lot of coatings on them. The antireflection coat- der vane spikes and no contrast robbing sec- magnification. Cassini’s division can be seen ing gives the lens that blue of green charac- ondary. I can’t say enough praise for these in scopes smaller that this equation would teristic look, which means that it is reflect- instruments. Look through the club’s 7” define as possible, so you can see that the ing a bit more green or blue light than the Starfire and if you need to be convinced of geometry of the feature affects how we will other colours of the spectrum. Normally an their optical quality! Just great, but you are resolve it. Airy’s formula was derived for air-glass interface reflects 4% of the light looking at spending roughly $1000 to $1500 double stars after all. that strikes it. You can imagine what your 8- per inch of aperture for the high-end mod- An obstructed aperture will produce element Nagler eyepiece would do if it didn’t els. To top it off, a big refractor is in the 6 to some loss of contrast and potentially a re- have these coatings. My quick calculation 7” range. Some of these scopes have waiting duction in the overall resolution by divert- shows that only 52% of the light entering lists that will put your dream scope in your ing light out of the centre of the airy disk the eyepiece would actually come out in the hands in 4 to 5 year’s time. Not good if you into the rings around it. If the central ob- image, the other 48% would become scat- have patience like me! struction is kept small, under 20% the di- tered light that would become light pollu- Lets step back and look at the impor- ameter of the primary, the scope will per- tion that would mess up your view. The coat- tant variables in the telescope. A perfect im- form almost as well as a similar unobstructed ings become quite important. I have seen age of a star is not a point of light, but is in aperture with the same optical quality. The eyepieces that have poor coatings that pro- fact something called the Airy pattern. It is spider vanes do throw light into streaks that duce extra stars in the image field. This be- a central disk and a set of faint rings that rob you of contrast on the planets; it is just a comes a problem when you are looking for dim out rapidly as they get farther from the fact of life. Some telescope makers build a that faint moon around Saturn or Mars. The central disk. (See figure -airy disk) Aperture circular secondary holder that diverts the diffuse scattered light becomes a smoke is very important as it defines how much light light into all directions so that you do not screen that hides the subtle details from view. is gathered and more importantly defines the get diffraction spikes, but there still is some Now don’t get me wrong here, Naglers do diffraction limit for resolution as this cen- loss of contrast, but only slight. Schmidt have good antireflection coatings on them, tral disk and rings gets smaller as the aper- Cassegrains and Maksutovs mount their di- but how good are those coatings when you ture gets bigger. A physicist from the 18th agonals on their corrector plate, so these have so many surfaces. The manufacturers century, William Dawes, discovered that the scopes do not produce diffraction spikes. cement some pairs of lenses together in the resolution limit of a telescope is defined by Lastly on the subject of refractors vs. re- eyepiece, which causes the pair of air-glass flectors, it is a widely held belief that if you interfaces to effectively disappear. I have a subtract the size of the secondary from the Plossl eyepiece from a very reputable manu- diameter of the primary of an obstructed tel- facturer that has a reflection in it that looks escope, you get the equivalent aperture of an like an extra moon when I look at Saturn. unobstructed telescope that has the same Plossels only have two cemented doublet resolution performance. The catch here is lenses, so only 3 air-glass interfaces, but this that the obstructed aperture will provide the eyepiece does have a problem. It would be brighter image, so my recommendation is to nice to try before you buy, so you really need go for the best quality obstructed aperture to read up reviews on the eyepieces or bor- that you can buy with the smallest diagonal row one at the dark site to test drive in ad- within reason. It will be further improved by vance. A final note, the Abbe orthoscopic the use of a curved spider. A last bit of food eyepieces made by Zeiss are worth about for thought is that with large enough aper- $500 US. There are a lot of good eyepiece ture, the obstruction becomes less important makers out there so do your homework. Example of an Airy Disk because the swelling of the diffraction rings Continued on Page 36

Stardust Page 23 Moon: Neutral Density filters, or a #15 deep yellow filter will cut glare from the very bright lunar image allowing details especially small craters, rills, and domes to be seen more easily. Stacking 2 polarising filters to- Colour Filters for gether allows the user to vary the amount of light transmitted according to the orienta- Lunar and Planetary tion of the two filters resulting in a neutral grey coloured image that can be adjusted ac- cording to the telescope aperture and the lu- Observing nar phase.

Mercury: This is a devilishly hard planet to observe being that it never gets very high from our latitude and is generally close to MURRAY PAULSON MURRAY the horizon so that we have to look through By Denis Fell a thick layer of atmosphere. The filters rec- ommended are a #21 orange or a #23 or #25 Stardust, November 2002 deep red filter that darkens the background sky, is least affected by atmosphere, allow- have, over the last several years of ob- flection and absorption properties of the bod- ing the planet’s phases to be more clearly serving the Moon and planets through ies you wish to observe. seen. the telescope, come to appreciate the ad- vantagesI of using eyepiece filters of differ- Coloured filters for astronomical use are sup- Venus: Polariser with smaller scopes to re- ent colours to enhance the detail seen. The plied in 2 sizes with a universal thread that duce glare and darken background sky, #25 principle behind using a filter that passes will fit most popular brands of eyepieces of deep red has been used by some to glimpse only certain wavelengths of light is to en- both 1 1/4” and 2” sizes except for the variable shades in the clouds. #47 deep vio- hance planetary surface or cloud features that Brandon/Questar eyepieces that have their let can be used when Venus is higher in the absorb or reflect light in specific wave- own thread size for their eyepieces. These sky, there are those that have reported see- lengths. The human eye is most sensitive to filters can be stacked together to produce a ing some cloud detail through these filters. colour in the green-yellow wavelengths when cumulative effect. It is recommended that Bear in mind that these are very dark filters there is sufficient light to stimulate the col- with telescopes below at least 8” (200mm) and the light transmission can be as low as our sensitive cones in the retina. The eye is aperture, the lighter colours be used as the 14%. less sensitive to the red and blue ends of the transmission of light through these filters can visible spectrum therefore the image of a be reduced as much as 85% resulting in a Mars: Mars is very bright for its small size planet through a telescope often appears yel- dark image that shows less detail than the and as such tends to drown much of its sur- lowish-white along with secondary colour unfiltered view. The colour numbers are face detail in glare when viewed through an that is added by the optical system. “Mars is very bright for its unfiltered telescope. One can appreciate the difficulties facing early observers of this Secondary colour from the optical system can small size and as such tends planet in seeing fine detail. Best choice for be added by the objective in a refractor or all scopes is the #21 orange as it reduces glare occasionally in catadioptrics such as Schmidt to drown much of its surface from the lighter areas and enhances defini- and Maksutov Cassegrain systems or can be detail in glare when viewed tion of the darker albedo features with good added by a Barlow or inferior quality eye- through an unfiltered atmospheric penetration, use #23A or #25 piece. If the telescope is of larger aperture red for larger scopes. (over 10” or 250mm) or the object is very telescope.” bright then irradiation the effect of seeing a adapted from the old Eastman-Kodak Blue filters like the #80A will enhance the bright object against a dark background, de- Wratten series for photographic applications Martian atmosphere, especially the white stroys the ability to see detail in the image. and is an industry standard to refer to a fil- clouds, the polar hazes and the Syrtis Major In a poorly baffled optical system, glare and ter’s precise colour. The best are cut from “blue cloud”. A deep yellow #15 will give light reflected from internal parts of the op- “dyed in the mass” flat optical glass and are almost as good a view of the albedo features tical system will degrade the image. Atmos- anti-reflection coated to allow maximum and will in addition, enhance or brighten the pheric transparency and turbulence will also transmission with the fewest aberrations. yellow dust storms. affect the image and filters of longer wave- Popular brands are Meade, Celestron, lengths will assist in countering some of this Antares, and Orion. I good starter set should Jupiter: With Jupiter, two effects can be ob- problem, as light in the red end of the vis- cover both ends and the middle of the vis- tained with coloured filters, the first is sup- ible spectrum tends to be less affected by see- ible light spectrum and can number as few pression of glare from the bright zones and ing difficulties. as four filters. second, the enhancement of the low contrast cloud features such as ovals, festoons, Choosing filters for lunar and planetary work I will list filter type and best application be- streaks, barges, etc. The darker bands and requires some information on the light re- low by object observed.

Stardust Page 24 the Great Red Spot reflect light in the red 4” or smaller This filter is designed to be used with all end of the spectrum, so those filters that will #21 orange types of telescopes and is based on the coat- block these wavelengths will darken these #82A very light blue ing technologies used to produce the Minus features. A #80A blue filter or a #11 green #8 light yellow Violet filters for reducing chromatic aberra- filter are both very effective at enhancing #56 light green tion in refractors. Information on these fil- these features. A #82A very light blue filter Variable Polarizer ters is available on their website. can be used on smaller telescopes (<4”). www.siriusoptics.com § 4” to 8” Saturn: Saturn being a higher contrast ob- #21 orange ject than Jupiter but composed of similar #23A red chemical compounds, will respond to the #80A light blue References: same colour filters as Jupiter, with the ex- #15 yellow Star Ware, Phillip S. Harrington, 1994, John ception being some of the low contrast plan- #11 green Wiley & Sons etary belts and polar region that respond to Variable Polarizer The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide, Terrance yellow or light orange filters. Dickinson, Alan Dyer, 1991, Camden House 8” or larger Publishing The table below contains recommendations #23A red, #25 red for the size of telescope and appropriate fil- #80A light blue, #38A deep blue The Amateur Astronomer’s Handbook, ters for a basic set. #15 yellow James Muirden, 1974, Thomas Y. Crowell #11 green Company, New York Something new: Sirius optics has just re- #47 deep violet Observer’s Handbook 2003, Editor Rajiv leased a Planetary Contrast filter (PC-1) that Variable Polarizer Gupta, 2002, the Royal Astronomical Soci- is said to greatly enhance planetary features. ety of Canada

Astronomical Impact By Kelly Christian

remember it was nearly ten years ago, how much he must love it, to bear the cold. when my Mom was driving me to a dance Even on nights when I’d go out to Blackfoot lesson. She was telling me about how to observe with him, I couldn’t handle the myI Dad had joined the RASC. I remember cold- even for the spectacular views forbid- being rather surprised. Who knew my Dad den to light-cursed, city folk. I attended a had an interest in astronomy? I sure didn’t. few of the comet watches, and actually ran a It was hard to keep up with my father’s hob- scope at Hyakutake. People were asking me bies enough as it was; this seemed to be just questions, and incredibly enough, I knew the another lark. Boy, was I wrong. answers! It was an epiphany to realise the impact my Dad’s hobby had upon me. I reflector is my favourite), and a homemade When he bought his first telescope, I was looked down at the plastic nametag I was observatory to boot. Any time I tell people pretty excited. “Do you want to see Saturn?” wearing to identify me as an “astronomy per- my Dad is an astronomer, they think it is He asked me casually. son”, and smiled. It was the same smile my just the coolest thing in the world. Dad had given me that first night when I “What? Whatcha mean? The planet? The saw Saturn, and at that moment I understood “So he can, like, see planets and stars and actual planet Saturn?” I was floored. He his love for his hobby. stuff?” They fumble in their excitement. simply smiled, and gestured to the 6” Omcon “Yeah.” I respond nonchalantly now. I’m reflector pointed skyward. I’ll never forget It’s been quite a few years since my Dad used to his crazy, all-hours-of-the-night, deep that first glimpse into the world my Dad had joined the RASC and I don’t think he’s real- freeze conditions hobby. begun to explore. The rings of Saturn were ised the lives he’s touched with his hobby. only the beginning. I asked question after As he shows dozens of kids the planets on I will never forget the difference the RASC question, urging my brain to absorb all the Halloween night, I can see in their faces that has had indirectly on our family, friends, and constellations. he’s opened up an entirely new world for me. It has truly enriched our lives, by in- them. Even my fiancé’s little brother treats spiring my father to expand his horizons and Years later there were nights when I would his tiny refractor like gold, just so its perfect share his love of the skies. I certainly hope peer outside at my Dad, watch him scribble for the nights we take him over to my par- all other members take a moment to reflect in an observing log, then look through the ents’ house to view. upon the lives their interests have touched – scope and scribble some more. I’d check the and perhaps the effect the RASC has had on temperature and see it well below minus By now my Dad has amassed quite the col- theirs. § twenty-five and I’d just shake my head at lection of telescopes (his 12.5” Dobsonian

Stardust Page 25 First Quarter Moon Luca Vanzella September 3, 2003, 10:10 p.m., MDT, Edmonton, AB Sky had haze from forest fire smoke in Western Alberta Canon S230 afocal on Celestron NexStar 114GT with Scopetronix 25mm

Lagoon Nebula Murray Paulson Shot in 2003 at the MKSP. AP 130, f/6, prime focus on a Losmandy G11, 20-minutes on Kodak Supra 400. Comet Hale-Bopp Murray Paulson Shot in 1997 at the Blackfoot Staging Area, Alberta. Nikon 300 mm at f/4.5, 15-minutes on PPF 400 Professional. Camera mounted on Byers 812. Plossl Sagittarius and Prancing Horse Murray Paulson

Shot in 2003 at the Mt. Kobau Star Party. Nikon 50 mm at f/2.8, 20-minutes on Kodak Supra 400. Camera was piggybacked on a Losmandy G11.

Aurora Alan Dyer A 20-second exposure with a 20 mm lens set to f/2.8 captured the pastel colours of a display of northern lights over Alberta on July 24, 2004.

Moon and Mercury Murray Paulson Nikon 135 at f/2.8, 5-second exposure on Royal Gold 400. January 25, 2001 near Big Lake.

Lunar Eclipse Murray Paulson Shot with a Brandon 94 mm, f/6.7 with Nikon 2X telextender and Kodak Royal Gold 400, 4- second exposure. Shot in St. Albert, Alberta. hopping to be still alive and well, but there are now other choices that were formerly within the sole realm of professional astrono- mers only a little more than a decade ago. GOTO technology enables the observer to input celestial targets either by name or co- ordinates and the telescope will point to that object. A recent, significant refinement to GOTO telescopes added the ability of GPS- StarStar HoppingHopping based co-ordination for spotting, enabling

O THE NIGHT SKY - BY TOM TRUSOCK O THE NIGHT SKY - BY TOM amateurs to globe trot to dark sites all over the planet, confident that their telescopes will be able to perform as accurately as if they were snug at home in the own backyards. By Harris Christian Star Hopping – Basic Technique As previously described, “Star hopping is a Y BEGINNERS GUIDE T process used to locate stars as landmarks and establish a path to an observational target in the night sky. The observer typically uses A MONTHL Overview familiar constellations and bright, well hat is star hopping? Star hopping without taking an appropriate amount of time known stars to plot a course toward the tar- is a process used to locate stars as to observe the very object you’ve found. An get object.” Typically, an observer plans each landmarks to establish a path to analogy might be “one doesn’t have to per- observing session with the inclusion of spe- Wan observational target in the night sky. The form a Messier Marathon every single night” cific star hops. Each star hop should have a observer typically uses familiar constellations – we find them all but don’t really look at chart or charts displaying a predetermined and bright, familiar stars to plot a course to- any of them. A navigational knowledge of path of bright stars leading to the respective ward the target object. Having moved that the night sky shouldn’t be regarded as an object or objects contained within the charts. definition out of the way, I must confess I obsolete or unnecessary skill with a database The featured example for this article will be found this topic to be a tough one to handle that’s been superseded by technology. The a star hop to Andromeda or M31 on the compared to my usual approach toward writ- matter is more complex and perhaps deserves Messier list. ing astronomy articles. I found there’s a huge an editorial treatment by someone else who difference in writing the articles I choose ver- isn’t supposed to be addressing the matter of Star Hopping – Elements of sus those I am asked to write. star hopping! My own experience tells me the Technique that the practice, practice, practice (!) of star Prepare: the planning of an observing ses- Nonetheless, I do star hop with various tel- hopping, constantly asking questions, read- sion. Decide where you want to go and com- escopes and even have similar opinions to ing, studying and learning: NOT the acqui- pile a celestial roadmap – just what is it that many observers regarding the GOTO ap- sition of a new scope, have helped me to be- you want to locate? Some version of a star proach to observing. I’m certainly not come a better observer. But you know I atlas is a requirement – either a hard copy against this technology, yet I have the same still might invest in a GOTO telescope some- like Sky Atlas 2000.0 or an automated ver- reservations as many - that this could possi- day! sion like Sky Tools 2 – but the observer will bly be the bane of some amateur astronomers be rewarded with less frustration and non- – that they are unable to effectively navigate Traditional Approach – productive time under the real sky, after plot- the night sky without this technological as- Star Hopping ting a sequential series of leaps or “hops” on sistance. So I remain sitting on the celestial In the not-too-distant past, amateur astrono- night sky maps toward that observing goal. opinion fence on the matter: GOTO is hyped mers had the option of either learning to ef- as accessible technology that attracts new fectively star hop, or use manual setting cir- “After finding Cassiopeia hobbyists & justifies its existence often on cles. In the case of the latter, the quality of the popular premise of “spend your time ob- some setting circles was often less-than-pre- naked eye, isolate the right serving, not hunting the object”. This com- cise resulting in wasted time and added frus- hand side of the “W” so that it puterised premise is an irksome proposition tration for the observer. Once learned and will now look remarkably like, to many individuals who do not subscribe to practised, star hopping proved to be a trans- an approach bordering on “conquest-adorial ferable skill with any telescope. And with wait for it, yes it’s a triangle! astronomy”: that the time spent on locating star hopping practice came the acquired fa- Gosh, how unique!” the object MUST be minimised at all costs, miliarity of celestial landmarks, and an en- even that of knowledge, and the honing of hanced knowledge of the night sky. A real world analogy that quickly comes to observing skills. To many, it is NOT a good mind for me is the Alberta Motor Associa- thing merely to locate an object through tech- Modern Approach – GOTO tion’s “road hop”. They approach a road trip nology, & then quickly move onward to lo- Stepping out of our literary time machine by presenting their members with a road map cate or conquest another object, perhaps and back into the year 2004, we find star for your trip toward the destination in little

Stardust Page 28 pieces or map portions, a bit at a time. They “Let’s Go To The Hop”: The Andromeda hopped to M31 or Andromeda! The knowl- call this excellent service a “triptik”. I’ve Galaxy or M31. Much like that old 50’s tune edge of the location of Cassiopeia and found my way across both Canada and the by Danny and the Juniors, there are a cou- Andromeda will always be of assistance in USA several times quite easily, thanks to ple of different versions of this star hop. The getting your navigational bearings, especially their similar approach. essential one I learned began with the loca- under a star filled night sky at a dark loca- tion of the circumpolar-from-Edmonton con- tion. Happy star hopping! § Field of View (F.O.V.): Once a target is se- stellation, Cassiopeia the Queen. Some ob- lected, the observer chooses the closest, fa- miliar bright object and begins the hunt from that point. The preferable method is to se- lect a sequential series of fields of view, jump- ing from star to star, using familiar-size fields of view as aids such as one’s finder scope (I recommend at least an 8 X 50mm finder), a Telrad or illuminated finder, or the field of view offered by familiar eyepieces. One fa- vourite starting eyepiece of mine is a Tele Vue 32mm Plossl. It offers a low power, wide field of view for starting a star hop. When I select that eyepiece with my 12.5”

Newtonian, I already have a good sense of ASTRONOMER’S GUIDE THE BACKYARD (Second Edition) what the view will be like before I actually look in the eyepiece. And the same can be said for the respective views of my Telrad and 11 X 80mm finder scope: I know what to expect because of my experience in using them to star hop. Another helpful addition to planning and illustrating the field of view for star hopping is to use clear plastic, scale servers also identify Cassiopeia as simply that simulations of a Telrad field of view, or one’s large letter “W” that can quickly be found finder, or a favourite eyepiece field while up near Polaris. plotting your path or “hops” on the star charts. Look at some of the accompanying After finding Cassiopeia naked eye, isolate graphics for a better illustration of fields of the right hand side of the “W” so that it will view upon star charts. now look remarkably like, wait for it, yes it’s a triangle! Gosh, how unique! Field Objects: Once in the planning proc- Looking at the centre star of that triangle, it ess, the term “bright stars” take on a more points downward toward another bright star precise meaning as the observer develops an in the sky about 25 degrees away, and you’ve enhanced appreciation and recognition of re- now star hopped to the constellation spective stellar magnitudes. When one sees Andromeda. Looking back at our starting bright stars, we also recognise those not-as- point triangle consisting of the stars Alpha, bright stars within the comparison process. Beta, & Gamma Cassiopeiae, we simply In the final approach or “hop” to certain ob- pointed down toward Beta Andromedae, and jects, we often begin to discern among more hopped to it. faint stars and accompanying objects within a field. From Edmonton or likely any light polluted city, the constellation Cassiopeia and the But sometimes a “faint fuzzy” or non-stellar bright star Beta Andromeda are easy to lo- object within the field of view is definitely cate. Under a wonderfully dark, clear sky as useful as a bright star in acquiring the the matter becomes a less easy choice with target object. Consider that as you pursue the visible addition of hundreds of stars in various objects, you may also be using addi- the target area that are not even possibly vis- tional celestial objects as landmarks, and may ible under city skies. likely switch eyepieces to increase magnifi- Orion’s Belt cation. While you will use that approach to From that bright star, look up to locate the Murray Paulson track down fainter objects such as Stephan’s next brightest star and then the next bright Shot in 2001 at Blackfoot. Nikon 300mm, f/ Quintet, locating Andromeda can be easily star, finding a faint fuzzy blob just a little 4.5, 25-minutes on Kodak Supra 400. Cam- done with a low power eyepiece as I’ve pre- above and off to one side of that star. Con- era piggybacked on a Losmandy G11, viously described. gratulations, you have successfully star guided with AP 130.

Stardust Page 29 The History of Edmonton Centre’s 17.5" Newtonian

By Bob Drew

he Club’s 18” Newtonian telescope Stardust, March 1988 being housed by Sherrilyn and Bob Jahrig started out its life as a 17.5", All the plywood has been cut to final dimen- Stardust, January 1989 Twith a Coulter mirror. Below are a series of sions and the aluminium tubing for the articles detailing the construction of the tel- trusses has been received. Thanks go the The Edmonton Centre’s first Dobsonian, escope by several members of our Club. Their Centre member Howard Taylor who did an completed n 1982, did yeoman service in hard work and dedication built an excellent excellent job in cutting the upper tube rings bringing “large” aperture observing to local telescope that is still in use today. -ed by router. amateurs. However, it could only be hauled in a full-sized van, which turned out to be a Edmonton Centre Telescope Rebuilding Special thanks to non-member Stuart Evans limitation. Project who helped cut the plywood on a cabinet maker’s table saw for three afternoons. Made A year ago the Centre authorised the build- Stardust, January 1988 it through with all fingers intact at last count. ing of a new scope. Not aware that I’d never made a scope, they “selected” me. Our general plan is to cut all required wood Time to start epoxying about now. Mid-April in December with assembly being done in appears a more likely completion date. It’s My design goals and objectives were to make Jan-Feb ’88, including aluminium fabrica- now become a race to finish the scope before it lighter and more transportable, to lower tion. First light (re-born) will be at the dark an anonymous (Peter Ceravolo) optical tech- the eyepiece to ground height at zenith and of the moon in March and no later than April nician damages any more club optics. to try for reliable, speedy re-assembly. ’88. Stardust, May 1988 I was particularly influenced by the break- 1 3/4 sheets of 9-ply marine plywood (spe- down design of Ivar Hamburg of Sweden, cially ordered earlier) was picked up Novem- The pace for this volunteer project has slowed reported in the Telescope Making Magazine ber 28. Thanks go to Craig Makarowski. I’m down, so we’ll miss dark of the Moon this #17, Fall 1982. From my past experience in waiting for the cast aluminium trunion bear- month. But we must finish and field test the racing sailboats, I thought we might try and ings, ordered from Novak in Wisconsin. scope this summer, prior to the major star apply marine gaboon mahogany, fibreglass, Once this is received the wood can be marked parties. aluminium and stainless steel. All wood was and cut (work party). Detailed plans except epoxy-saturated with West System Epoxy and for the final aluminium fittings are com- The ground board, rocker box, rings and fo- over-coated with Varathane for ultraviolet pleted. cusing mount, and fibreglass reinforced cell screening. All joints were gusseted and fi- board are all made and epoxied. Other parts breglass reinforced. Thanks for the suggestion received from are in various stages of completion. I must Mark Leenders, Tom Hughes, and Rob thank a small group for their generous tan- The scope is now much more transportable Hughes. Kind offers of assistance were also gible contributions including: Bill Polomark, and can also be hauled in a small enclosed received from Bob Breckenridge, Bryce Paul Campbell, Bryce Heartwell and Bob truck or mid-sized station-wagon. Its total Heartwell, Paul Campbell, Dan Brown, and “eighty-grit” Breckenridge (for the rough weight of 169 pounds is 66 pounds lighter Peter Ceralovo (the latter named having sel- sanding). than its predecessor. The eyepiece height at dom actually completed an entire instrument zenith was lowered more than 5.5 inches. ready for field use). The project lends itself to completion of many small steps. If you can give a hand, even for The breakdown system incorporates a supe- Please phone me with any leads for light alu- only 2 hours, we can use the help and can fit rior truss design with a difference. Instead minium welding at cost or better. you in at your convenience. of loose individual tubes, we used fixed A-

Stardust Page 30 frame pairs, resulting in easy and accurate known for the telescopes made at his well- Thanks to all members for your patience. We re-assembly (7 minutes). Stainless steel pins equipped shop - Arnold Optics of Sherwood hope you’ll enjoy the scope. locate the trusses while 3/8” stainless bolts Park, Alberta. Barry, at no cost to the club, seat into custom stainless captive nuts. The milled an impressive new secondary holder Update on the scope since it’s completion 4 trusses weight 14.4 pounds in total. and did some custom work for the other truss fittings. This is an update as to what the Edmonton To get it to fit smaller vehicles, the rocker Centre’s 18” scope has been up to since it box/mirror base had to be built low. The I am particularly indebted to the next three saw first light on December, 1988. rocker box is only 22” high while together, volunteers. Bill Wells, without complaint, did nested for transport, they are 26” high. This many hours of tedious epoxy sanding in his In May, 1989, the Centre’s 18” scope was design requirement carries with it the com- home workshop as well as helping in the fi- hauled down to Big Bear, California, for the promise of having to use built-in counter- nal assembly. He’s a new member, so if you Riverside Telescope Makers’ Conference, weights, but that’s the price of portability. see him at a star party, I’m sure he’d accept one of the Meccas of amateur telescope mak- Because the mirror box, primary, and coun- an invitation for a peek. ing. On behalf of the Edmonton Centre, I terweights weigh a total of 102.5 pounds, we was thrilled to accept an ATM award there. consider it a 2-man scope. Randy Pakan, an active observer, did every- You can see the plaque on the mirror box. thing from 60 grit belt-sanding (eat your The ball bearing azimuth bearing turns on a heart out Bob) to very fine work and finish- It’s a well-travelled scope: it has been to the custom steel pin mounted to the ground ing. His was fast and did quality workman- Mount Kobau Star party near Osoyoos sev- board. The cast aluminium trunion bearings ship, and when he came on board, the project eral times, the Saskatchewan SP at Cypress were purchased from Novak. speeded up. Hills twice, many Alberta Star Parties at Caroline, numerous special events and a few The project took a year to complete. Three Paul Campbell has given the club an enor- workshops. Members were also allowed to factors contributed: sporadic initial availabil- mous amount of time through all phases of sign the scope out for private projects. ity of some volunteers last spring, a surpris- the project. Many work parties at his shop at ing difficulty in procuring what I thought Chubb Security or at my place went late into Since its construction, there have been a few was pretty basic material; and the realisa- the night. Paul is now bagging objects in his notable upgrades. The first, in October 1994, tion of how tedious working with slow cur- 8” that he shouldn’t be able to see. With the was a custom replacement 18” f/4.33 primary ing epoxy could be. 17.5”, he’ll be formidable - look out Dave mirror from Barry Arnold of Arnold Optics. and Bryce. This was followed by a mint worth of Nagler This was a labour intensive project, and I’d eyepieces and a larger finder. For better star like you to know of those who pitched in. One of the positive experiences I’ve had was party use, the club purchased a Poncet mount meeting and working with all these volun- from Denis Boucher. All of this was paid The immediately following contributed ear- teers. I must also thank my monumentally for with Casino funds. lier on in small ways (but every bit helped): Craig Makarowski, Alister Ling, Bill We’re grateful that the Palomark and Peter Ceravolo. Howard Taylor scope is currently routed the 2 upper tube rings. stored under the care and custody of the In the next group, Stuart Evans, a non-mem- dedicated and respon- ber, assisted in cutting out the 27 plywood sible team of Bob and parts on a cabinet maker’s circular saw. Bob Sherrilyn Jahrig. “80 Grit” Breckenridge made a number of They haul it out to steel parts and demonstrated some enthusi- many special events astic sanding. Bryce Heartwell assisted with and the usual club light path design and a number of other tasks. nights at Blackfoot. Thanks to you both for Bob Wright, a manager engineer at N.A.I.T. your dedication. and a non-member, assisted by arranging for a critical, high tech step - the aluminium I designed this scope welding of the thin-walled trusses, upper tube in the hopes it would tabs, and the stainless steel captive nut sys- hold up to portable tem. club use. Fellow- builder Paul Campbell RIVERSIDE TELESCOPE MAKERS’ CONFERENCE Some club members are uncomfortable if a merchant or supplier who personally stands patient wife, Lois, for putting up with com- and I are pleased that, with the good care it to gain, even indirectly, assumes too high a ponents strewn throughout the house, and has received, your scope is still going strong profile in the club’s amateur activities. I must my mysterious absences at odd hours this past more than 15 years later! It has just been single out one exception - Barry Arnold of year. aluminised again. The scope is ready; the the University of Alberta. He is also well galaxies are willing and “Abell.”§

Stardust Page 31 MotionMotion SicknessSickness Introduction to Poncet Platforms

By Denis Boucher

y first impression of the universe tracking table, the height of the eyepiece is drive mechanism similar to a worm gear, through a pair of binoculars increased slightly but does introduce an in- which in fact forms somewhat of a tangent burned an unforgettable image in convenience. Ease of motion is not ham- arm. This design is commonly known as a myM mind. I remembered thinking how mo- pered. Poncet table. Tracking tables do not have tionless everything appeared. I soon discov- the ability to be adjusted to any latitudes ered it was not so. Often referred to as Poncet or D’Autum; therefore the design must closely match the these tracking tables are not readily commer- observer’s most common latitude location. Every object in our universe is in motion. cially made or available. The cost and time Fine adjustments of up to +/- 10 degrees are More obvious to our senses of motion are to support large telescopes are prohibitive in achieved by raising the South or North part the Earth and the Moon. Compensation of some cases. Depending on design, photo- of the table. This adjustment is limited to the drifting view in a telescope can only be graphic operations are very limited and of- the maximum tilt the telescope can take be- achieved with a tracking device matching ten good results are difficult to achieve. The fore becoming unstable. The construction closely this apparent movement. main reasons might be the individual cus- of such a table raises more issues, which I tomised construction requirement and the have no intentions to cover in this article. Going through the numerous types of track- limited tracking time. The need to manually The construction details are not insurmount- ing devices available would increase this ar- reset the tracking system is required. These able but require refined explanations too ticle by ten fold. The point of this article is design limitations deter mass production. lengthy to cover in this article. to introduce the quality and shortfall of a tel- escope-tracking table. With a plethora of pos- Every tracking device has peculiar disad- sibilities, limited time and newsletter space vantages, which on evaluation must outweigh requires that I limit my scope to a Newtonian advantages. Tracking tables are foremost application. Once you observe with a known for ability to retain the Newtonian’s Newtonian telescope, also known as a comfortable and easy operation. Users often Dobsonian, one quickly appreciates the easy describes their first tracking table experi- and comfortable operation of this type of tel- ences as having purchased a new telescope. escope. This advantage stems from its alti- The abilities to observe any part of the sky tude and azimuth motions. Any telescope can comfortably at very high power combined be operated in this manner but some types with the view retention while searching introduce awkward positions of the eyepiece charts or sky maps easily counters the dis- often destroying observing comfort, provid- advantages. ing training at becoming a contortionist, and The final remedy to reduce the motion sick- in addition to increasing fatigue, which in The principle driving the design of a track- ness at high power is to buy or build. I have fact reduces an observing session. These fac- ing table is simple. The design may vary but constructed 18 Poncet’s in the past 8 years. tors may after a while detriment the astro- the principle remains the same. A shaft has Others members have build one or more and nomical passion. to parallel the North/South Earth’s axis with are never observing without. Talk to the a complete rotation once per day. To achieve owner and listen to their comments. In the The best solution to retain a Newtonian tel- the horizontal position of the table, one part end, the advantages of a tracking table will escope’s best advantages appears in the form of the table is attached to the rotating axle or always surpass the minor inconveniences. of a tracking table. With it installed on a main shaft and the opposite is coupled to the Don’t get dizzy, get tracking. §

Stardust Page 32 Alignment Both of my CATs have different “home” po- sitions for start-up. The home position pro- vides information to the computer needed to keep the CAT cables from being wound around the fork mount. The LX200 starts with the optical tube pointed south and level, and the control panel on the north side. The ETX home points the optical tube to the north and level, with the control panel on the east side. One side effect of the cable protection is the CAT will slew the long way around to protect the cables when you move from a object in the NNW to an object in the NNE, and vice versa. Not a big deal, but something you should be aware of. ObserObservingving withwith There is a short time in the early twi- light when the alignment stars are not yet By Terry Nonay visible, and you are unable to start the com- puter alignment process. Without the com- CCAATTss puter running, the CAT can be clumsy to use. aving observed with a Computer In the beginning it used to be unusual The newer GPS telescopes may allow you to Aided Telescope (CAT) for ten years to need a lot of power in the field for a tel- get a jump on the alignment, but with my now, I have some experience with escope and accessories. Later on, when the CATs, you have to wait till the alignment Hthese beasts that I would like to share with Poncet equipped Dobsonian telescopes com- stars are visible. This wait can be frustrating you. plete with cooling fans became more com- if you are trying to spot those early targets For your information, my experience mon, the large power supplies increased in like Jupiter in the twilight. with CATs has been limited to the Meade popularity. Using a deep cycle lead acid bat- I suppose that when there are only brand (10” LX200 and ETX-105). My ex- tery is becoming more common. “sucker holes” available, then alignment is perience has been a good one. Today, the best also a problem. Fortunately there are a fairly part about CATs is the many other supplier “So far, the CAT has been evenly distributed array of these stars that options that are available. It is no longer rare inspected at every security are nearly always available for the alignment. to see (or hear – more on this later) a CAT at If not, then it is time to go do something the observing field, like it was a decade ago. station encountered to date.” else. Using a CAT telescope does mean that Initially I used the wire extension to the ciga- An accurate time and the co-ordinates it will take much longer to learn the night rette lighter socket on the car, but with the of your observing site are necessary for the sky by memory (a good thing to do) unless wire running through the standing area best quality CAT alignments. So you must you make a concerted effort to learn to do around the telescope, this is not a good idea. prepare ahead of time to have your watch set so. Knowing the constellations and how to Someone (like me) will trip on the wire in as accurately as possible, and note the co- star hop will go a long way to helping you the dark, and the telescope will become un- ordinates for the observing site. A GPS re- find objects on your own. To this end I al- plugged. Another concern was drawing too ceiver can provide both of these inputs, and ways make a point of finding all the constel- much power from the car battery and not likely should be part of your observing equip- lations and star hopping to a few favourite being able to start the car for the trip home ment. binocular sights during each observing ses- in the morning. sion. Placing the battery directly under the tel- Planning an observing session On the other hand, with a well-behaved escope tripod works the best. This keeps the Your planning for an observing session is CAT, you are well equipped to spend more battery and cables out of the way. likely to be a bit different when you have a time observing and less time searching. But For the longer star parties, the addition CAT. Star charts for star hopping is not re- you still need to spend time at the eyepiece of a solar panel is useful. During the day ally necessary in most cases. Instead, what and study in order to learn what to look for when you are sleeping, the solar panel can is needed is the database reference (M, NGC, and how to recognise the various faint fuzzies pump a little energy back into the deep cycle IC) or RA and Dec co-ordinates. A useful when you observe them. (Averted vision takes battery and add a day or two to the battery addition is one of those fine photographic practice.) life. atlases that can be used to confirm that you Having the battery there is useful for are looking at the right object. Power other duties as well. It is a source of power A few years ago, I used Deep Sky Plan- You will find your equipment list for a night for the heat tape system (essential on most ner, but this software doesn’t work on the of observing grows a bit heavier when using nights for Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes). newest PC operating systems any more. a CAT. In addition to the weight of the CAT Most recently it became a power supply for Lately it has been Sky Tools 2.2 that has been itself, you also need to contend with the port- an afocal digital camera equipment. the software of choice for planning an ob- able power supply required. serving session.

Stardust Page 33 One thing I do use a star chart for is con- ning while I took a break. When I headed the tripod will fit inside a 29” suitcase di- firming certain kinds of stellar objects that back to the observing field, a thick fog set- agonally. don’t have other clues, such as colour. A tled in, such that I couldn’t see the person You will have to be careful on how much prime example using a computer generated standing beside me. But the LX200 was fully the carry-on portion weighs. Some airlines star chart to confirm which star like object operational and provided an excellent view restrict this to 9.0 kg or less, which means in the field of view is in fact Pluto. of Jupiter in the still air above the fog. stripping as much as possible out of the hard case. Observing Sessions Rookie Mistakes So far, the CAT has been inspected at The LX200 has a high precision mode. When Don’t go counting on the computer too much. every security station encountered to date. If this is turned on (I use it nearly all the time) I remember getting excited about finding a you get the chance to see the monitor on the the telescope moves to a bright star near the spectacular NGC object at Mt. Kobau. The x-ray equipment, take a look - it is interest- target object to check the alignment before experienced observers were amused at my ing. moving onto the target itself. This accom- re-discovery of a Messier object and refer- The computer used in the ETX has been de- plishes two important things for me – it is ring to it by the NGC code. (It really was veloped with the capability of being pro- easier to check the focus of the telescope on funny!) grammed to work on a wide range of tel- a bright star than a faint fuzzy and I can be escope mounts. This also means that the be- confident that the target object is in the cen- haviour of the little CAT is different from tre of the field of view. the LX200. Not every object is in the computer da- Learning to use the little CAT has taken tabase. Lots of objects are transitory in na- more effort than I expected. It certainly slews ture. In this case, I just enter the co-ordi- at its own pace, a pace that is much slower nates directly if known, or resort to the star than the LX200. The drive motors must be hopping technique. calibrated prior to use in the field in order to It is useful to add a flap of dark fabric compensate for backlash of the gearboxes. with Velcro to cover the led display on the Certainly there are many new features, control panel. While it is nice to know the such as the ability to download program up- computer is on and the power level is OK, dates and to add new objects to the compu- these LED indicators are bright enough to ter database without resorting to swapping detract from your night vision. Later on I out memory chips. added a hood to the LX200, much like those Also, the ETX needs extra time after the used by the old cameras, to cut off any stray ‘beep’ before you start adjusting the posi- light from others at the dark site. It has been tion. I have found that the telescope contin- a useful addition when others are not being ues to adjust the positioning for a few sec- cautious with their lights. onds after the “all done” beep. You need to wait another 30 seconds before trying to ad- Observing certificates just the position after the goto step. Fortunately there is useful information

If you wish to earn the RASC observing cer- ARNOLD RIVERA tificates, then you will need to find and ob- and advice from ETX enthusiasts on the web. serve the list objects without using the com- The little CAT The Weasner web site is one of the best with puter to locate them. When the computer is The ETX-105 was added to my CAT collec- useful information submitted by enthusiasts off, so is the tracking, making the CAT tel- tion this past spring. This telescope was se- around the world who are trying to make escopes in manual operation of limited use lected as the largest CAT that would fit into their CATs work as well as possible. Hope for astronomical observations. You are prob- the luggage for an overseas flight. The hard you have fun observing with CATs too. § ably better off using one of the non-compu- case for the computer and optics will fit into ter-aided telescopes for this purpose. the carry on luggage test rack exactly and http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html

The Coffee Grinder The noise generated by the motors when M31 slewing rapidly and the beep when an object Murray has been reached has earned the LX200 the nickname of the “coffee grinder”. If the drive Paulson noise is objectionable, then slowing down the slew rate will help keep the CAT quieter. Shot at prime focus with an AP 130, f/6, Foggy nights 20 minutes on Kodak Supra 400 at Technology can really work for you at times. Blackfoot Staging I recall one of the astronomy workshops Area, Alberta, in where the aligned LX200 complete with heat 2000. tapes (on the highest setting), was left run-

Stardust Page 34 - you can build a Newtonian to have a large chunk of the theoretical maximum. Install baffle rings, use a low profile focuser to re- duce the size of the secondary, flock-line the tube, use a long baffle at the sky end, and take pains to keep your mirror as dust free as possible. There is nothing inherently weak The Joys of about the Newtonian design, other than it is easy for a manufacturing company to do a bad job implementing it in order to sell it Owning a Newtonian cheap. Into the distance By Alister Ling Do you want to see some quasars, dozens of galaxies in one field of view, fine strands of SHERRY CAMPBELL SHERRY the Veil nebula, a globular cluster pouring n many ways, telescopes are like vehi- thoscopic eyepiece delivers a very satisfying out of the field with uncountable hundreds cles. They transport you away from daily view that easily pulls in the Pleiades or the of thousands of stars? The only scope that life to a piece of earthbound heaven. If a whole North America nebula. A Ducati can deliver those views and remain within NewtonianI is in the four-wheel category, a owner will legitimately boast that their high- financial reach of typical club members is a refractor could be considered to be a motor- end refractor has sharper, more pinpoint large Newtonian. The vast majority of deep cycle. Our Newtonian vehicle to the stars images and greater contrast, but at 1/10th space objects are faint. To detect them, let comes in a wide range of design options. the price, a “richest field” Newtonian for a alone pick out some of their structural de- While some journeys are unquestionably best second scope is a solution almost anyone can tails, brute aperture is the only solution. If when riding an Astrophysics Harley or afford. you are handy with tools you can even de- Takahashi Ducati, the Newtonian can be used fray a decent chunk of the cost of the tel- for a wider variety of recreational activities Separating the festoons from escope by making the support structure and has a farther range. the belts (mount) yourself. When’s the last time you When you’re looking at a planet like Jupi- saw a refractor or Schmidt-Cassegrain with What is a Newtonian? ter, much of your excitement comes from a home made tube? They exist, but are very Invented by Sir Isaac Newton, this telescope seeing fine details like small ovals, barges, rare indeed. uses a concave primary mirror to collect the and festoons during periods of good seeing. light and focus it into an image. There is an The laws of physics limit the resolution of Messing with the kid intervening, smaller flat mirror, called the any telescope, and simply put, twice the ap- Newtonians make kid scopes possible. secondary, to deflect the light path to a more erture means you can theoretically see detail They’re rugged, very capable of withstand- convenient viewing position on the side. A twice as small. A nice refractor will always ing a lot of deliberate as well as accidental tube with some cells and support vanes is outperform a Newtonian of equal or some- abuse (the scopes, not the kids). The primary required to hold it all in place. what greater aperture. But place a 4-inch mirror is well shielded from poking fingers. apochromat beside a Newtonian like Bruce You won’t see many ETX scopes for use in The price-aperture advantage McCurdy’s long focus 8-inch, and the line the classroom. Even if the main mirror A primary mirror has one surface compared will be longer at Bruce’s scope because it will breaks, the replacement cost is low. to the four (or six!) in a refractor’s lens. This reveal more neat stuff on Jupiter’s cloud tops. makes it inexpensive to make/buy a relatively You are the creator large telescope. Dollar for aperture, you sim- A Newtonian needs to be bigger because the There’s something special about looking ply can’t beat a Newtonian. Aperture is the secondary mirror introduces distortions into through a mirror that was born of your own fundamental characteristic of a telescope: the the image. If your space requirements have hands. Mass production of Newtonian pri- bigger the optics, the more light it collects a limit by diameter, then a refractor is your maries has pushed the price of store bought to make objects appear brighter. Equally answer. But if detail is my criterion, I’ll take optics below the cost of raw materials these important, aperture drives resolution: how a Barry Arnold 10-inch Newtonian over a days. That said, you could swell with pride much small detail is visible. 5-inch apochromat in the blink of an eye. in making a mirror that far exceeds the qual- Look at all the images of Mars taken during ity of the ones you can buy off the shelf. Fur- A wide purview the recent close approach. The best ones, with thermore, it’s just cool to have figured a piece If you’re looking for a portable scope that the tiniest specks of detail, were all done with of glass to a tolerance well below that of the takes in a large chunk of sky, a short focus Newtonians, the choice of fanatic imagers. finest German machining. It certainly is pos- Newtonian fits the bill. A 4-inch f/5 is 20- sible to grind and polish your own refractor inches long, that’s 10-cm diameter, 50 cm Where are you damned spot? optics, and to some extent it’s easier because in length. I’ve seen these made from Pyrex Refractors are touted as delivering the high- all the surfaces can be a simpler spherical caster plates, the things people put under a est contrast images, and rightfully they do, shape. But if you want aperture, Sir Isaac’s sofa’s feet or casters to spread out the indent as their simple design makes it easy. As long design is the most practical one. that gets put into a carpet! Even an old or- as you care about contrast - and you should!

Stardust Page 35 A word on quality The joy of parenting only takes 5 minutes to do. It’s a lot more It can be tempting to compare an average Without question there is more ongoing pleasant than changing diapers! This should Newtonian to an average refractor of the maintenance with a Newtonian. With each never be a factor in choosing which design same aperture, especially when the quality visit to the dark site, an experienced observer best suits your observing needs. It’s about as of the refractor is typically higher than the can be found collimating their scope. Align- much a drawback as humans having to take Newtonian’s. Remember that there are mo- ing the optics is crucial for a telescope to a shower. peds out there too! Whether you go with a deliver sharp high contrast views. A poorly And in the end, it matters not how Harley or a Mercedes, you’re sure to have a collimated Newtonian is a common problem big or what design your telescope is. The joy great telescope. among beginners, and why most people are you make with your telescope under the stars so impressed with a refractor’s images. Once is equal to the time you take. § you get used to the collimation process, it

Planets, continued from page 23

Gary Seronik did a review of some spe- ers is a need to track the planets. Plossls and you are seeing. I did drawings of the planets cialised planetary eyepieces in Sky and Tel- Orthoscopic eyepieces may produce great for many years and I feel that this helps hone escope earlier this year and summarised with contrast on the planets, but their 40 to 50 your observing skills. In making the draw- the comment that they were only slightly degree apparent field of view only allows you ing, you have to be analytical and really think better than the available eyepieces that you precious few seconds to watch the planet about what you are seeing. A second effect would tend to use for planetary observing, speed by. When I observe the planets in my is that you spend lots of time doing the ob- and he felt that you might have a hard time 12.5” in Dobson mount, I used the ultra wide servation, and this allows you to see those seeing any improvement with them. field of view eyepieces. The Nagler style eye- moments of good seeing that would be missed Now that I have gotten the technical stuff pieces have sharp field of view from edge to if you didn’t spend the time at the eyepiece. out of the way, on to the salient details. Plan- edge with no refocusing, and at 330 power The time at the eyepiece also allows you to ets offer fairly small disks and so you need they give you about a minute to look and try be immersed in the view long enough that high powers to get a decent image scale to and soak up the details. You can put a track- the subtle details will catch your eye. Start see the details on them. I recommend from ing platform like a Poncet under your off with a circle about 50mm diameter, 42 150 to 500 power, depending on the quality Dobson, and then you are in business. Alter- mm for Mars. Draw in the major features of the telescope optics and the quality of the natively you can get an equatorial mount and lightly and then using them as your refer- seeing. The aperture of your telescope limits scope combination. Decisions, decisions! ence point, add in the other details. Adjust you to around 50 to 100 power per inch of When you are using high powers, the the drawing as necessary because it is hard the diameter of the objective. For example a eyepieces tend to not give you much eye re- to get the proportions right, and don’t feel very good 3” could use as much as 300 power, lief and the humidity from your eye will fog bad if it isn’t perfect. Repeated drawing will but I don’t imagine that the atmosphere the eye lens up. Since planets occupy only a improve your skill and the drawings make a would allow my 12.5” to effectively use 1250 small portion of the field of view in any eye- nice log of your observing activity. Remem- power! Yes, I am sorry to say those claims of piece, just back away from the eyepiece and ber to put down the details of the observa- 625 power in your department store 2” re- you can reduce or eliminate the problem. If tion, scope, eyepiece and magnification, fil- fractor are probably a bit much. the eyepiece does get fogged, don’t be ter if any, time and date, quality of seeing Each planet has a range of power that tempted to clean it with a corner of your shirt and any comments in general. It is a good works well with it. I find that because Jupi- or a cloth. You can scratch the coatings on idea to make up a sheet for your observa- ter is low on contrast, when I use my 5” re- the eye lens or worse yet scratch the eye lens tions on the computer and print up as many fractor, 200 power seems optimal but more itself! Just put the eyepiece back into it’s con- as you need. than 300 power and it washes out. Just not tainer and if the container is air tight, put it Well, now you have my two bits worth. enough contrast. Saturn or Mars on the other in an inside pocket to warm up. There’s a lot more on the net and in print. I hand can take a lot of magnification. I regu- have included a bibliography of several good larly use 300 to 400 power on these planets Observer experience Planet observing books and there always is with my 5” and I have used more than 600 The final element in getting the most out of the ALPO on the net. Enjoy the planets, there power with my 12.5” Newtonian. The planet the planets is the observer’s experience. The is a lot to see on these neighbouring worlds. Mercury is never larger than 7” when it can features on the planets are generally low in show details, and so you need 300 to 500 contrast and don’t look anything like the References: power just to make the disk large enough to photos you see in magazines or on the net. The Planet Observers Handbook by Fred see anything. I have had a few sessions on Those images have been processed to bring Price Mercury when the planetary details were ob- up the details and the contrast has been Observing and Photographing the Solar Sys- vious, and I was using my 5” at 330 to 500 boosted dramatically. The amount of experi- tem by Dobbins, Parker and Capen power. The bottom line is try a range of pow- ence the observer has improves the ability to The planets section of the Observers Hand- ers on the planets and you will discover the see these subtle details, and the only way to book range that works for your scope. get the experience is to spend the time at the The Backyard Astronomers Guide by An immediate corollary of the high pow- eyepiece looking and thinking about what Terrance Dickenson and Alan Dyer

Stardust Page 36 able to access better data files, and were much more accurate. Today observers have the abil- ity to easily plan and carry out some fairly advanced observing projects using these pro- Deep Sky Observing, grams. One other aspect of deep sky observ- ing that has changed is the size of the op- Then and Now tics. When I first became involved in the RASC the telescopes most observers were us- ing were reflectors in the 8-inch range – sure there was the club’s 17.5-inch Newtonian but it was usually only out on club observing nights, or during special events (thanks to Dave Clyburn, Ben Gendre, and lately Bob By Larry Wood Jahrig). Those 8-inch scopes were somewhat limiting and were just being replaced with

NORTH AMERICAN NEBULA - MURRAY PAULSON AMERICAN NEBULA - MURRAY NORTH scopes of larger aperture. Alister Ling had ground his own 12.5-inch mirror and then built the scope before moving west in 1987. eep sky observing has seen some sig- along with the companion Deep Sky Field A couple of years later Paul Campbell, Randy nificant changes over the past cou- Guide had the charts and data that were Pakan, Dave Clyburn, Brad Richens, and ple of decades and this has certainly needed sources of information for the emerg- Murray Paulson built 12.5-inch scopes in Daffected the way we view the night sky. ing proliferation of larger aperture telescopes. quick succession and Bob Drew went even The most notable change that I see One big drawback to the atlas was a pagina- further to build his 20-inch. Most of the 12.5- today is the ease with which we can locate tion problem that had the charts placed in inch mirrors were made by Barry Arnold. or exchange information using the online ca- reverse order, which lead to some confusion Two exceptions I know of were Murray’s pabilities of the Internet. One project I started when observing. But we learned to flip the 12.5-inch and Bryce Hartwell’s 14-inch, in the early nineties was trying to observe charts back to the previous page to get the which were both made by Peter Ceravolo. the Palomar Globulars. I spent over 6 hours next field of interest to the right side of the Not to be outdone were two members who at the U of A physics library trying to find as page we were looking at. Confused – so were did some high quality astrophotography with much information as I could on the 15 ob- we. In the late nineties the Millennium At- outstanding results. They were Ben Gendre jects – with only moderate success. Being las came out, followed shortly thereafter by -- who used an 8-inch Meade SCT, and online now allows access to most of the sci- an upgraded edition of Uranometria, which Murray -- who used an array of smaller high- entific journals, almost instant access to the corrected the pagination problem. All of end refractors. By the mid nineties the trend latest comet or asteroid data, as well as news these improvements in charting went a long was toward even larger glass with several about the latest Nova or Supernova sightings. way in making it easier and less frustrating 16-inch mirrors being produced by Barry Remember, prior to the late eighties snail- when out observing. Arnold. This extended the depth to which mail, magazine articles, books, or doing li- Another thing that eased the hunt for observers had to dig to find fainter and fainter braries searches were the only practical viewing information came about as a result objects to view with their new scopes thus means for the average amateur to acquire any of the increase in computer capacity, which the need for better data. of this data. enabled the writing of new and more effi- Another major change that affected I first got into astronomy when my cient planetarium programs. The old Dos those with larger telescopes was the devel- interest was piqued by the return of Comet programs used a crude database to search for opment of the Poncet equatorial table. This Halley, which I was able to locate only be- the objects you wanted to observe. I seem to innovation allowed visual observers to cause the chart was published in The Ed- remember spending an inordinate amount of change eyepieces, to view at much higher monton Journal. My first sky charts were time feeding data into, or selecting criteria magnifications, and to study the field and photocopies of two or three pages of to produce the field I wanted to view. Was do a detailed drawing without the need to Nightwatch. I then purchased Sky Atlas 2000 the output correct – perhaps. I remember with constantly keep centering the object in the and its companion Sky Catalogue 2000, “Dance of the Planets” you had to offset your eyepiece. While affording many benefits the which were first published in the early eight- time by an hour because it didn’t have the Poncet is compact and adds little to the set ies. The atlas plots 43,000 stars to magni- ability to identify that Edmonton was located up time when you arrive at your observing tude 8.1 along with 2,500 deep-sky objects. more than 30 minutes west of the “Moun- site. A couple of other good sources were Skalnate tain Time” meridian thus putting us 8 hours These are just a few of the important Pleso and Norton’s. These publications are west of UTC. All of this was quite intimi- developments in deep sky observing that have still used by observers to this day as they are dating to this not very computer savvy ob- affected me. Other topics I could mention easy to use and are still adequate for those server. Even using “Earth Centered Uni- are the availability of new eyepieces and other who are not trying for the extra faint objects. verse” was a bit onerous but a vast improve- equipment, CCD imaging, the proliferation Toward the end of the eighties Uranometria ment over some of the alternatives. During of light pollution, and increased auroral ac- 2000 was published and quickly became the the nineties the programs quickly improved, tivity but I will leave them to another time. atlas of choice. At last, the two atlas volumes they became much more user friendly, were

Stardust Page 37 How to Observe and Report Variable Stars

By Patrick Abbott (AAP) PAULSON M35 - MURRAY

hat are variable stars? They are have to enter Right Ascension and Declina- FIELD of the variable first. What you need basically stars whose brightness in tion, as the go-to menu may not list the vari- to find are star patterns. the visual waveband changes. able. WMany stars vary in other wavebands e.g. in- Let us consider Delta Cephei as an example. frared but this is not obviously measured by A special plea to users of equatorial tel- This is the star type for the Cepheids-pulsat- amateurs. There are many classes of vari- escopes with setting circles; time spent po- ing stars. This is a naked eye star, but in the able stars; lar aligning the telescope and learning how light polluted city a pair of low power bin- to use the circles will pay off in ease of find- oculars is preferable. First find the bright star Pulsating Variables - cepheids, ing variables. alpha Cephei starting from Cassiopeia us- long period variables, semi-regu- ing your star atlas. Then go to the AAVSO lars. You will need variable star charts. These can ‘a’ chart (reproduced here by kind permis- Eruptive Variables - novae, R be obtained from the American Association sion of the AAVSO) Coronae Borealis, dwarf novae. of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). They Eclipsing binaries. can be downloaded from their website Then hop southeast to mu Cephei (actually www.aavso.org or ordered by mail. a semi-regular variable star) which is an un- I will not go into the various types here as mistakable orange colour. East of mu Cephei my goal is to get you started on observing “By sending in some is a triangle of stars made up of lambda and variables. If you become really keen on vari- zeta Cephei at the base and delta Cephei at ables, there is a mass of information avail- observations to AAVSO, the apex. You are home! able. a wealth of wonderful information will flow to you.” Making the Estimate Visual estimates are still of great value to Now we have found the variable (plus a bo- the professional astronomer and have led to nus variable in mu Cephei) how do we esti- light curves of numerous stars covering over They come in various formats; “a” charts mate its brightness. The AAVSO charts have a century. with north at the top for binoculars, more magnitudes marked on certain comparison magnified “b”, “c” and “d” charts with south stars. Be aware that the magnitudes have the Before you Start at the top for Newtonians and straight decimal point omitted (to prevent confusion Before you start even looking for a variable through Schmidt-Cassegrains and refractors. between the decimal point and a star image); star, a few preliminary prerequisites and An increasing number of ‘reversed’ charts hence, zeta Cephei is labelled 36 for magni- words of advice; b, c, d are available for SC and refractors tude 3.6. using a star diagonal. Start looking for variables with a pair of bin- Now look at delta Cephei and find a star oculars or a small telescope with a wide field. Be aware that, if you are a city observer, light brighter and another one fainter than it. Let A wide field makes the finding of the vari- pollution will lower your faintest star seen us say, as example, that it is fainter than 3.6 able so much easier. Get to know the size of by some two to three magnitudes. (zeta Cephei) but brighter than 4.2 (epsilon your field, perhaps by remembering that the Cephei). Zeta is 0.6 magnitudes brighter than moon is approximately half a degree in di- Locating the Variable epsilon, so there are 6 steps of 0.1 magni- ameter. Get to know the constellations and When Mrs. Beaton wrote her classic cook- tude between them. Do not stare at the stars learn how to find your way around the sky ery book, her advice on preparing rabbit pie but use a series of short glances. using a star atlas. All this will aid in star started “First catch your rabbit!” hopping to the variable. Do all this before Now let the brighter star be called “A”, the you even think of searching for variables. If So, first catch your variable. Remember variable “V” and the fainter star “B”. you are using a go-to telescope you may still though, the object of the search is to find the

Stardust Page 38 As delta Cephei varies in fuzzies, the planets will lose their appeal and a short space of time, a you will focus more and more on amassing new estimate can be made data on your beloved variables. every clear night. Now you will consider the various classes of The above procedure can variables. By sending in some observations be repeated for mu to AAVSO, a wealth of wonderful informa- Cephei, but only once a tion will flow to you. Do you choose a varied week as this semi-regular (pun intended) program with nightly obser- variable varies more vations of Cepheids and Eruptive stars and slowly. weekly estimates of long-term variables and semi-regulars? Do you join a Nova hunt with Your estimate may not be the AAVSO Nova Search Group (using 7x50 the same as other observ- binoculars)? ers, but remember that each observer’s vision dif- Do you graduate to a large light bucket of a fers slightly in such telescope and monitor the fainter stars from things as colour sensitiv- a dark site, or do you abandon the eyeball ity. With increasing expe- entirely and monitor 16 to 18 magnitude stars rience one should be able with a CCD? to exhibit personal con- sistency of 0.1 to 0.2 I will end on a tribute to the AAVSO. magnitudes! Founded in 1911, the AAVSO has collected data from amateur observers and made this Reporting your available to the professional community. Estimates Long term lightcurves, alerting the profes- Now you have your esti- sional to outbursts of the eruptive variables mate, what do you do with and providing coincidental visual data for One can write “A6B” to indicate that the it? Argelander who first enlisted amateurs the orbiting telescopes studying variables in brightest star is 0.6 magnitudes (6x0.1) in the study of variable stars wrote in 1844 the non-visible wavelengths are some of the brighter than the fainter. “observations buried in a desk are no obser- ways that AAVSO has promoted amateur/ vations”. professional co-operation. These services are If you judge delta Cephei to be exactly half available to the astronomical community way between these two, this means that the Send your observations in to AAVSO. This throughout the world. This organisation has variable (delta Cephei) is 3 steps fainter than can be done directly on the web through a so much to offer the variable star observer; “A” and three steps brighter than “B”. This system called WebObs (accessible via the charts, software, light curves of your vari- can be recorded as; AAVSO website), via email using a special ables. When you submit observations you will A3V3B program, or by mail using forms obtained be issued your AAVSO identifier (mine is This gives an estimate of magnitude 3.9 from AAVSO. Report the name of the vari- “AAP”) and you will not only see the light able, the official designation printed on the curves of the variables on the website but your At other times the magnitude may be A1V5B chart (in this example of delta Cephei observations will be highlighted in a differ- (3.7magnitude), A6V0B (4.2) etc. Note there 2225+57 in the top left corner of the chart. ent colour. But, with all these technological are always six steps using these particular This is the Right Ascension and Declination wonders the older values of the AAVSO re- comparison stars. (Other comparison se- for Jan 1, 1900), the time and the chart size main. The staff is still there to answer any quences will have a different number of 0.1 and date of issue (A12/97) as the chart above questions and give advice. magnitude steps, but, just make sure the to- is the “a” chart issued 12/97. tal number of steps adds up to the difference What more could a variable star observer de- in magnitude between the comparison stars). You will need to know the Julian Date if you sire -perhaps only a clear sky! § Having done the estimate, record it with the mail in your estimates. AAVSO will provide time to the nearest minute (I record all my a table for calculating this. The electronic Resources observations in Universal Time - MST + 7hrs methods calculate this from the Universal AAVSO address: 25 Birch Street, Cam- or MDT + 6hrs). Time as you enter the data. bridge, MA 02138,USA AAVSO website: www.aavso.org I find a portable dictating machine very What to Do Now That You RASC Variable Star Section website: http:/ /www.rasc.ca/observing/variablestars/ handy. Much better than trying to write in Are Hooked winter gloves, but remember to keep it in an index.html First a word of warning. If you should be- Author’s email: [email protected] inside pocket of your parka in cold weather. come hooked on variable stars, your observ- If you write your estimate and time use a ing will never be the same again. Gone will pencil. be the nights when you will hunt down faint

Stardust Page 39 mat. The results set new standards of qual- ity and inspired a new generation of astrophotographers. A stubborn contingent of die-hards, holed up safely away from the 50 Years of digital barrage, still shoots this way. In the early 1990s, the first digital cameras for astrophotography appeared on Shooting the Sky the market. Boasting charge-coupled device (CCD) chips barely 200 pixels wide, they could pick up deep-sky objects in exposures well under 5 minutes. Film shooters scoffed at the crude results but the new cameras were like the innocuous little mammals scurrying at the feet of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous. One day their descendants would take over the world. Through the 1990s the old and new By Alan Dyer forms of life (film and digital CCD cameras) co-existed, not always peacefully. Wars of words would break out between followers of ifty years of progress, most in the last Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and its host of each camp, usually on the then new “soap- 10, has made taking pictures of the camera adapters and guiding accessories. At box” forum of the Internet, as each side ar- night sky easier than ever, with results last, you could buy an astrophoto system “off- gued vociferously about its better way of Fthat make astrophotos from the past look pale the-shelf,” enabling anyone, not just those shooting the sky. and fuzzy by comparison. What might the with machine shops, to get into Now well into the 21st century the dig- next 50 years hold? astrophotography. Better films, such as the amazing High Speed Ektachrome (ISO 160!) ital camp has won. The results on deep-sky targets with the top-end CCD cameras, when Let’s look back to the dark ages of made it possible to shoot colour portraits of in the hands of experienced skyshooters, far astrophotography. No, not the 1880s when the sky with exposures under 30 minutes. exceed in colour fidelity and detail any shots astronomers were fumbling with wet The 1970s saw the democratisation of the taken with film. The last of the film holdouts, collodian plates. I’m talking about 1954, hobby. like ageing Japanese infantrymen still fight- when Stardust was first published. If you took Those who participated back then, ing on remote jungle islands, soldier on with pictures of the night sky back then, you were and I was one, soon ran up against the limits their dwindling stock of Fuji print film. How- one of only a handful of hobbyists in the of the day. Despite advances in film, only ever, most veteran astrophotographers have world who did. You loaded up individual the brightest deep-sky objects were within converted to digital. sheets of grainy film into your homemade easy reach when shooting through a tel- Still, a nagging problem remains. large-format camera built around a war sur- escope. The adventuresome turned to exotica Even 15 years after their introduction, as- plus aerial surveillance camera lens. If you such as cold-cameras (these devices froze the tronomical CCD cameras require an effort, were lucky, your two-hour exposures revealed film using packets of dry ice) and Kodak’s and array of support gear, that harkens back marvels like the North America Nebula. All 103a-series of black-and-white films. A wet to the home-brew days of the 1950s. Much in black-and-white; colour films fast enough darkroom was an essential accessory. of the required set-up remains an experimen- to record stars were unheard of. In the 1980s astrophotographers at tal and unwieldy affair, best suited to those Today, a digital camera on a tripod the cutting edge experimented with gas-hy- with permanent observatories where the can do the same thing in 30 seconds, in full- persensitizing the growing array of 400- maze of outboard computers, cameras, filter colour, without any tracking system. Track speed colour films. The goal was eliminat- wheels and guiders can remain hooked up the camera to follow the stars and the in- ing film’s nagging tendency to lose speed and powered off a generous supply of AC. stant results blow away anything our prehis- during a long exposure. Baking film in an Those who can make it all work and pro- toric ancestors of the 1950s could do. The atmosphere of nitrogen and hydrogen mys- duce results number in the minority. The true hobby has come a long way in fifty years. teriously did the job, though the requisite gas democratisation of digital astrophotography Where will we be in 2054? tanks and heated vacuum chambers turned the astrophotographer’s basement into a never happened. Until now. A Brief History of Astrophotography Frankenstein lab. The state of the art didn’t change The next innovation, in a throw back The State of the Art much through the 1960s. The main advance to the 1950s and 60s, was the re-discovery Today, in late 2004, if I were to rec- was the popularity of the 35mm film format that larger format film did a better job than ommend one camera and technology to any- and classic 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) 35mm. The Pentax 6x7 (shooting film frames one entering the field of astrophotography, cameras such as the Pentax, Nikon, Miranda 60mm by 70mm) became the required cam- it would be one of the Canon digital SLR and Exacta brands. era of all serious astrophotographers. Entire cameras. Canon has taken the lead in pro- The real revolution in product lines of telescopes, such as the new ducing digital cameras with low electronic astrophotography came in the 1970s with apochromatic refractors, were optimised for noise, an essential requirement for exposures Celestron Pacific’s introduction of the 8-inch shooting with just this camera and film for- lasting minutes. Even two or three years ago,

Stardust Page 40 using a digital SLR to take exposures longer A digital SLR is not the only route to But will we even need our own cam- than a minute would have been foolish. The go. Most of the better point-and-shoot dig- eras? Today, you can log onto an internet- latest Canon SLR cameras (the 8 megapixel ital cameras, the compact models with non- controlled telescope and, for a fee, take your Canon 20D has just been introduced) can removable lenses selling for $1,000 or less, own image of a target of your choosing. handily do 20 minute exposures with little can do a remarkable job on all astro subjects Eventually, there may be imaging systems apparent noise, all without special cooling, requiring exposures under 30 seconds to a operating on Earth or in space that record outboard computers, and external power sup- minute. Detailed shots of the Moon through the entire sky at arc-second resolution every plies. You might use film now only for night- any telescope are literally a snap with these night. Want a picture? — just grab a piece long star trails. cameras. of the database. Can I proclaim film dead? No, not ex- At the same time, inexpensive ($200) However, remote imaging with some- tinct — it will live on for some time and still webcams feeding into a computer have be- one else’s gear has yet to catch on and I sus- has its place for wide-field shooting. But for come the preferred means of shooting plan- pect never will. Except for a handful of peo- almost all applications in our hobby, film is etary images so good they make all film im- ple with special projects in mind, most now redundant, a fact you will understand ages of planets look like fuzzballs by com- astrophotographers, even in 2054, will still as soon as you see your first digital image parison. Webcams work by recording hun- want to take the images themselves. The joy pop up on the preview screen with more de- dreds of frames in short movies, allowing of the hobby is not just getting an image, it’s tail and colour than any film shot can software to sort out and combine only the having taken it, with your own carefully cho- achieve, and in a shorter exposure time. sharpest frames, beating the poor “seeing” sen equipment, put to use by your own care- This has been the benefit that the that plagued all previous efforts to record the fully hewn skills. That’s not likely to change, CCD pioneers have touted for a decade — planets. Newer webcams promise enough no matter what technology the coming 50 instant, gratifying and better results. But like sensitivity to record deep-sky objects at price- years might bring. all pioneers, they took the arrows so we don’t breakthrough levels. have to. What the new generation of digital Alan Dyer was editor of Stardust in the early SLRs do for the rest of us is make the job The Next 50 Years? 1980s when the state-of-the-art in publish- much easier. They operate as self-contained When the first CCD cameras ap- ing was a typesetting machine that output to cameras, as easy to use as a 35mm film cam- peared in the early 1990s everyone knew it photosensitive paper developed like film and era, allowing you to focus, frame, operate, would be only a matter of time before film pasted down on layouts sheets with hot wax. and store one-shot full-colour images with a was obsolete. Arguably, that time is here, minimum of added and expensive parapher- probably sooner than anyone expected. Film © 2004 Alan Dyer nalia. can still produce great results — I still use [email protected] The rate of improvement of these medium-format film for wide-field shots with Reprinting or reproduction requires permis- cameras has been stunning. In three years a resolution that digital cameras cannot yet sion from the author. they went from $10,000 luxury items of use achieve. For now. only to photojournalists, and offering little of value to astrophotographers, to $1,500 Facing page: cameras that should now be the prime choice Moonlight and of anyone wanting to shoot the sky. Are off- Lightning the-shelf Canon cameras as good as dedi- Lightning and cated CCD imagers with cooled chips and moonlight colour filter wheels? No. But they are pretty streaming out darned good, producing results with more from behind a re- than enough quality to please 95 percent of ceding storm backyard astrophotographers. cloud created a What’s more, the quality comes at an unique nightscape attractive price: $1,500 to $2,000. While that in this 2-minute may seem like a lot to spend, compare it to exposure at ISO the $6,000 to $10,000 for a dedicated CCD 100 with a 20mm camera with a similar chip size and lens set to f/2.8 megapixel rating, and you see why CCD imaging has up to now remained the pursuit of a well-heeled few. And you can use your Above: Veil Nebula digital SLR for all types of astrophotography, In 2054, readers of the 100th anniver- Digital SLR cameras do a great job record- including wide-field shots, twilight photos, sary issue of Stardust will laugh at our ex- ing the subtle colours of nebulas. This is a aurora portraits (try setting up your compu- citement over puny 8 megapixel cameras! stack of four 8-minute exposures at ISO 400 ter and CCD camera to grab a shot of an Well before even the 60th anniversary issue of the east components, labeled NGC 6992- aurora!), as well as snapshots of the family we’ll have affordable digital cameras with 5, of the Veil Nebula, taken with an auto- vacation. As another point of comparison, enough gigapixels to equal or surpass any guided 4-inch apo refractor at f/4.5. Stack- $1,500 to $2,000 is what we used to spend film format for resolution. Dial in any sensi- ing exposures helps reduce the background in the old days for a good SLR film camera tivity you want and voilá: stunning deep-sky noise inherent in any digital image. like a Nikon F3 or Canon F-1. images in seconds. Photos courtesy of the author.

Stardust Page 41 tarBUST, the brainchild of Randy “At this rate, I can finish the Uranometria bottle of Bordeaux and waited for the object Pakan and Karen Gray. Probably the objects in 40 minutes!” to rise, we monitored the site for possible most anticipated and widely read is- observing infractions. We didn’t wait long. sueS of the year. The one issue Editors look Russ’s giant refractor was now in operation, “I see it! Plain as day!” a voice bellowed. It forward to creating, the only month when but he was concerned that a brilliant auroral was the silent giant - Larry Wood. “What is laughter can be heard from the Editor when display would interfere with his very deep, it Larry?” putting the issue together. When all others deep-sky program. Fortunately, the sky dark- in the household glance strangely your way ened and Russ set to work on his favourite “Simeis 147, a supernova remnant near and ask “What’s so funny?” Over the next pastime - ferreting out 18th magnitude gal- Auriga.” several pages are some of the best submis- axies. “You’re never going to see these suck- sions over the years. Enjoy! -ed ers with a louse pair of 8x50’s! None of that “But Larry, that’s never been seen visually naked eye stuff for me. Anything brighter even in the world’s largest telescopes.” than 15th magnitude makes my eyes hurt!” “You’re not going to wait!” Observer’s The mentioning of binoculars made us won- der what had become of Mike Nobel, who “Afraid so Larry. Observing invisible objects was testing his new 256x1600 mm’s. “Holy - that’s two hours in the penalty box.” Korner atmospheric extinction!” Howie Spragins ex- claimed. “He’s dead!” we ran over to inves- After locking Larry in the outhouse, Randy tigate. Our dim red flashlights revealed the and I noticed that the sky was beginning to StarBUST, April 1990 body pinned beneath the monstrous binocu- brighten. Was it the first rosy hint of dawn? By Dave Clyburnt lars. “Looks like he didn’t have them prop- “Holy light pollution filter!” Randy ex- erly counter-weighted - he was trying to ob- claimed, “The cook shack’s on fire!” We n Sunday April 1st, a group of us, serve at the zenith and the tripod fell over rushed over, the cook shack engulfed in including very deep, deep-sky ob- on top of him. Weight was the one factor he flames. “Look’s like those weenies are go- server, Russ Sampson, and Observ- didn’t take into consideration!” We were ing to be burnt to a crisp,” George said, ingO Chef Co-ordinator, George Moores, ven- about to try to free the body when George “Lucky that I brought along a bison! We’ll tured out to Blackfoot2. We found Bob yelled, “Pork chops are done!” roast it up and have buffalo steaks for break- Breckenridge and Paul Campbell already fast! Just thinking about nebulosity must there, Bob assembling his equatorially- “Ah, what the heck,” we decided, “He isn’t make you guys hungry!” mounted 12.5" and Paul star-hopping to Ju- going anywhere. Let’s eat!” piter. George immediately began firing up As George removed the bison from the hood the stoves in the camp kitchen and setting During the meal, Russ entertained us with a of his car, Randy and I decided to check on up an array of microwave ovens powered by lively and delightful talk. “The Distribution Drew. Approaching Bob’s Taurus, Randy an electric generator. Several barbecues stood of Hydrogen clouds in 20th Magnitude Gal- suddenly suffered a violent collision and by in reserve. “Just thinking about galaxies axies in Serpens Caput”. We then went back crashed to the ground. He’d banged head- must make you guys hungry,” George said, to observing, while George prepared the long into the Stealth scope and was knocked “I’m going to get started on some apple pies evening’s second course, a yin-yang health out cold! and pork chops.” food snack - roasted weenies and donuts. “Holy Blinking Planetaries!” Drew ex- Randy, meanwhile, had arrived and was at Murray and I settled back in our lawn chairs claimed. “Who banged my tube? I was just last about to test his new telescope driving waiting for the Dumbbell Nebula to reach ready to ask you guys for a confirmation of system. Suddenly a loud KA-THUNKA - the meridian so we could settle a long-stand- M85 - now it’ll take me two weeks to find it KA-THUNKA - KA-THUNKA shattered the ing observer’s group dispute. Murray claimed again.” silence. Randy’s new Poncet mount had mal- to have seen it with his 12.5" using an OIII functioned and was gyrating his scope at high filter after having drunk 7 bottles of wine, Not anxious to wait, I began dragging Randy speed. Like a two-bit cowboy, Randy rode while I was sure that it would be invisible back to his van, past Bob Breckenridge, who the celestial bull, hollering with great delight, after drinking 5. As we knocked back a fine continued to assemble his 12.5" and Paul,

Stardust Page 42 who was still star-hopping to Jupiter. Clouds in 20th Magnitude Galaxies in ken out of the penalty box? Was Randy about Serpens Caput”. Bob Breckenridge, hoping to issue me with a summons for Failing to Russ, oblivious to the chaos around him, that he’d have his scope set up by mid after- Observe Anything At All? Was Al Dyer go- asked from under his dark cloth, “Did George noon the next day, decided to stay. Paul, who ing to interview us for a big article in As- set the cook shack on fire again? I’m down had at last found Jupiter, discovered that the tronomy? Was George passing out recipes to a limiting magnitude of 15.” firestorm was playing havoc with the see- again? ing. “I’ve had better views with Schmidt- It did seem to be getting brighter. Was the Cassegrains,” he lamented. “Holy Ghost of Jupiter!” we exclaimed in aurora kicking up? “Holy observer’s hood!” unison - “It’s Mike Noble!” Murray exclaimed, “The fire’s spreading!” “Anyone for waffles?” George asked. “Got any pork chops, George? I’m always Sure enough, the flames had jumped from Randy, conscious again, though not fully re- hungry after a nap.” the cook shack to neighbouring trees. We covered from his celestial bull ride and the were surrounded by sheets of flame. Murray blow to his head, stared at the fire in amaze- Having observed far too much for one night, and Alan, annoyed by the sudden and exces- ment and began sketching wildly, “Holy dew I drove home, tired but happy. sive increase in light pollution, began pack- zapper! I’ve never seen an aurora like this!” ing up to move to a dark site, while Russ The Alberta Forest Service has cancelled the entertained them with a lively and delight- Just then, a dark form loomed toward us, sil- next observing session. § ful talk, “The Distribution of Hydrogen houetted against the flame. Had Larry bro-

TheThe Ecliptic?Ecliptic?

StarBUST, April 1991 By Paul Campbell with thanks to B.B. for the inspiration

fter observing the highly elusive The Ecliptic: 23:30 L.S.T. NGP, I took it upon myself to ob serve the ecliptic in its entirety. This My first impression of this was pure won- Aobserving program took me to all parts of der! The ecliptic is upside down. Instead of North America and even into the Southern going dot dash dot as I normally see it, this Hemisphere. As the ecliptic encircles the en- time it went dash dot dash. AMAZING! tire Earth, the project takes about a year to Note: to see this effect, hold the drawings complete. upside down.

While it is not necessary, I did keep my scope Also if you refer to the drawing of 54 de- 37 º N well collimated (most of the time). Large ap- grees north you will see an arrow pointing by the ecliptic. This is a unique observation erture and good baffling of the telescope are to part of the ecliptic. This is at right ascen and you should count yourself lucky if you also not required, as no extra detail is vis- made a similar observation. ible. A dark site is also not necessary, much of my ecliptic observations were done in light This is due to precession, which because of polluted skies. The Moon also does not the movement of the ecliptic makes this event hinder observations of the ecliptic, except for a very fleeting one indeed. In fact, even those times when the Moon happens to lie though this observation was recently made, right on it, thereby eclipsing portions of the I would be willing to bet that if one looked ecliptic. for this star now, you could actually see it.

As you travel further south the ecliptic does Finally, I would like to say that actually see- rise higher in the sky (see drawings). ing the ecliptic is very tough indeed. While I do recommend that beginners do learn Finally as you travel to the Southern Hemi- about the ecliptic, I do not suggest they ac- 54 º N sphere an amazing thing happens; the eclip- tually try to see it. (No matter what the size tic flips over! To show my amazement at this, sion 05:45.3 and declination +23 24' of their optics). It takes an experienced ob- I include a copy of notes of the observations (Uranometria chart #136). This represents a server, with an unusual mindset to even see I made on the evening of September 11, 1990. 9th magnitude star presently being occulted it at all. To those who wish to try Good Luck!

Stardust Page 43 should look like a star - with nice spikes flar- ing outwards! Our product will help you de- Revolutionary Advances in Optical termine if the object in your eyepiece is a star, a planet, or a stellar planetary nebula. Equipment Available Soon The stars will have spikes. Our Diffraction Addition Accessory easily slips onto any re- StarBUST, April 1992 We are introducing an observing aid, which fractor and is rotatable, to impress your By Bob Breckenridge is sure to become an essential accessory for friends. the deep-sky enthusiast - the astounding Mi- nus Planet Filter. Our competitors have de- The latest addition to our list of observing rno Discount Optics is pleased to an veloped nothing like it! Are you tired of ugly aids is the “Budgie-Cor” Coma-Inverter. Are nounce its latest line of accessories planetary images interfering with your deep- you stuck with an old-style long focal length for the discriminating, but cheap, sky observing? Our incredible filter will Newtonian? Do you want to give it the up- Adeep sky observer. eliminate that problem forever. Pop this baby to-date images of a short focal length light in your favourite eyepiece and the offending bucket? Our Coma-Inverter will add just the First in our dazzling new line of optical prod- planet just disappears. It also will remove right amount of coma to any scope. Now your ucts is the Nova/Supernova Filter. Have you annoying asteroids and pesky comets from images can be just as good as those produced ever searched for that elusive supernova and your field of view. This product carries the by the latest masterpiece from Coolter. The spotted one, only to find later that it was an personal endorsement of Pole Campbell, of Coma-Inverter can be combined with our unreported quasar or imploding black hole? Campbell’s Halon Star fame. Diffraction Addition Accessory to give your Our amazing filter will remove the guess- refractor Palomar-like images. work from your discoveries. Not only that, Our third new product is the Diffraction but a quick flip of the filter will tell you if it Addition Accessory. Are you fed up with All these fine optical products will be avail- is a super or a regular nova - an invaluable looking through your refractor and not see- able soon, under the counter, at several Brit- item! ing the aesthetically pleasing star images that ish pubs in Sherwood Park. Just wink at the Newtonian owners get? After all, a star bartender and say sotto voice “Bob’s yer un- cle.” § There Is One Discovered Every Minute StarBUST, April 1997

was jealous. I was really, really jealous! Deep Sky Line (DSL)). So that makes a mil- name on your own Deep Sky Triangle. You Really. With the proliferation of deep-sky lion stars times half a million pairs of stars will also receive, at no additional expense, edifice catalogues, it was obvious that I or 100 billion DST’s. Now that’s just for one the Deep Sky Triangle Discoverer’s Kit (a wasI incomplete as an observer. I felt like one star. Each one of the million other stars is super cool “ruler” of the Universe, to join of those little brats at the supermarket, sniv- going to have 100 billion triangles of its own. the stars). elling and whining at their parents, So there should be a total of about 100 000 “Mommy, Mommy, I wanna deep-sky object 000 000 000 000 Deep Sky Triangles. Plenty So don’t delay, join today. § named after me too!” to go around.

Have I struck a chord? Are you green with I shall start the avalanche with the first Deep Triangle envy too? Well, whine no longer. I’ve got Sky Triangle: Russ 1. Okay, if you take Po- the ultimate answer for those observers seek- laris, Sirius and Betelgeuse and join them ing every-lasting celestial notoriety. It’s Deep with a bunch of lines hey! It makes a tri- Sky Triangles (DST’s). They’re everywhere; angle! Wow, way cool! So now, run, don’t there’s enough of them to satisfy the vanity walk, to your nearest star atlas and start join- of every observer on the face of the Earth ing those stars. It’s easy and it’s fun. and. To top it off, they’re ‘butt’ easy to dis- cover. You don’t even have to look at the When you have found a triangle send your Not a night sky to find them. claim to me: the President and Supremely Triangle Great Guy of the International Deep Sky Tri- Okay, let’s say there are about a million stars angle Thingy (I’ll come up with a better visible in a small telescope. Each star can be name later). With a registration fee of Here’s a handy joined to half a million pairs of other stars $1000.00 (hey, fall off your wallet, you want (any three stars could form a triangle or on to have your name in the sky or not?) You Observer’s Guide to rare occasions the subset deep sky object: The will receive a piece of paper claiming your Deep Sky Triangles

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Stardust Page 45 ‘Twas a Cold

hour deep cycle gel battery (available at e.g. Winter’s Night Interstate Batteries) designed for my equip- ment’s low current use also helps gain pre- cious battery life.

In these temperatures, eyepieces frost up at the slightest exposure to water vapour that humans are continually giving off. Even the mere act of placing my eye up to the eye- piece is cause enough to have an immedi- ately nebulous look to every star in the field. I combat this with a Box Heater from MURRAY PAULSON MURRAY Kendrick’s Astro Instruments powered By Warren Finlay straight off my battery pack and placed stra- tegically in my foam filled eyepiece case to s dusk deepens into night, I scrape present, since I usually sweat a little while heat the eye end of all my eyepieces at once. a porthole in a frost-painted window unloading and setting up, during which time to peek at the thermometer: –160 C cotton would get wet and stay wet. The hard- The final weapon in my arsenal is a set of itA taunts, daring me to brave a deep sky ob- est to keep warm when observing in frigid encoders connecting my telescope to a laptop serving session in what promises to be a conditions are my hands, since I continually running electronic star atlas software. Given deathly cold night. Peering out, the amaz- change eyepieces/filters to find the best com- that I will likely only be able to last a few ingly clear sky throws down the gauntlet with bination for viewing each object (some dim hours in the cold weather tonight, this al- a still serenity that belies a night of good objects or their details can only be seen in a lows me to observe a decent number of ob- seeing. I sigh, knowing that I can’t resist, relatively narrow range of magnifications). jects on my prepared list in the short time I but also knowing it will take at least half an Mitts or loose gloves are thus out of the ques- will have before I turn into a human Popsicle. hour for me to gather and don the massive tion, except for periods when I’m warming Some would argue that such technology is battle gear needed to observe in such tem- my hands up. Instead, I put on two pairs of blasphemy. Call me a sinner, but I reserve peratures. But first I check the forecast and stretchy polyester (Polartec®) Outdoor Re- saintly star hopping for warm summer nights the clear sky clock to see what’s in store: search® gloves from Mountain Equipment when frostbite isn’t the first thing on my clear skies and a low of –240 C. Knowing it mind. will be several degrees colder outside the city “On the way out the door I do at the dark sky site where I’m headed, I will a Sumo wrestler knee bend to Fully armed and loaded, I arrive and set up have to put on all my armour to survive this at the dark sky site. After the exertion of set- skirmish. pick up the battery pack for ting up, I feel like I’m in Sam McGee’s oven, powering my gear.” but as I listen to the gunshot sound of trees I lay out my layers: Columbia® polyester/ cracking in the cold, I know my overheating lycra long underwear from Totem Outfitters; Co-op, with large, loose ski-doo mitts placed will be short lived. I gaze upward, my eyes a polyester sweater and a looser fitting pair over top only every couple of hours when greedily gobbling ancient photons from dis- of polyester long-johns; lined lightweight ski my hands start to cool down. Although I tant winter stars. Snug in my cocoon of lay- pants and a loose-fitting fleece pullover; se- bring along battery-heated mitts and socks, ers, I’m soon well dark adapted and I bring riously thick bib overall ski pants and an- they only get used when I’m desperately cold into my field of view the stars in the neigh- other fleece pullover; hooded fleece pullo- since the batteries die too quickly. By now bourhood of an exceedingly distant, quadru- ver, a full-length ski jacket, a very thick win- I’m roasting inside the house. I can’t wait to ply gravitationally-lensed quasar whose light ter jacket, plus two hooded-lined anoraks, get out into the cold, a complete reversal of has been travelling 10 billion years before all relatively loose fitting and making for a my reluctant state 30 minutes ago. As I head reaching my eyes. It takes me half an hour total of nine layers on my top half. On the out, my family has a friendly laugh at my of trying before I see it briefly, an elusive feet go a pair of Columbia® polyester socks, Nutty Professor transformation. point of light in averted vision that requires followed by two pairs of thick synthetic socks, me to use a dark cloth over my head to shield all inside thick winter boots that would be On the way out the door I do a Sumo wres- my eyes from the light reflecting off the snow way too big for me without the socks, but tler knee bend to pick up the battery pack for around me. I lean back in my observing chair have room to spare even with all my socks powering my gear. Nights like tonight are a and breath the cold air in, thinking that more on (tight fitting boots make for cold feet). Darwinian test of any battery. A small edge people have probably climbed Everest than On the head goes a fleece balaclava, fleece is gained by protecting my battery in an in- have seen this object. Such is the reward of toque plus the hoods from the three jackets I sulated, soft food cooler to keep it warm as my seemingly quixotic efforts to observe to- already have on. Not a stitch of cotton is long as possible outside. Using a 70 Amp- night. It was worth it. §

Stardust Page 46 monton, but the data for other stations sug- gest that under good conditions we should see the reappearance event a couple of de- grees above the northeastern horizon. Con- ditions are far from good, however. We wan- The Life List der eastward down a cart path to find a clear horizon view, and are rewarded with a bin- ocular glimpse of the slender waning cres- cent Moon rising through clouds. Suddenly By Bruce McCurdy a bright spot appears on the lower right of the unlit limb and rapidly intensifies. Suc- cess! The sands of time were eroded by May 1, 1987: A bare week later, I am work- the river of constant change ing a Friday evening shift at my new volun- VEIL EAST - MURRAY PAULSON VEIL EAST - MURRAY teer gig and have a last look at the now four- -- Peter Gabriel (with Genesis), Firth of Fifth day-old crescent Moon before closing. To my surprise, I see it is bearing down on a hat’s another one for the Life List!” July 1985: At a cottage retreat in France, I brightish star, so Richard and I stick around is the sort of comment one hears point out a rising planet to my sister for the inevitable occultation. In the Zeiss during a memorable observing ex- Margaret, not entirely sure if it’s Jupiter or refractor, the earthlit limb of the Moon in- Tperience. Of course, such a list is completely Saturn. I bring up my 7x50 binoculars for a exorably advances toward the star as I, a subjective. In my own case, it’s not so much look, and to my unabashed surprise, am freshly minted “expert”, speak confidently a “to do” list of objectives to be checked off thrilled to immediately resolve a string of about how instantaneous its disappearance one-by-one, as a “been there” retrospective Galilean pearls. I never again mistake Jupi- should be. I am shocked that the star blurs of actual observations which have earned ter for anything but the King of Planets. and fades briefly before winking out. Only their place in the memory bank. By that I later do I read about step occultations involv- mean chiselled into the stone tablets of brain January, 1986: The combination of dark ing double stars, and later still that this par- stem memory; I don’t keep an observing log skies, a rural location, a trusty pair of 7x50 ticular object, 136 Tauri, is suspected to be so forgettable doesn’t cut it. binoculars, my Dad’s company, and Halley’s double from a lone observation made dec- Comet is a winner. ades before. I submit my observation to the For some a Life List might include particu- International Occultation Timing Associa- lar observing sessions, star parties, or favour- August 1986: The summer after joining tion. ite deep-sky objects. My own bias is towards RASC, I discover the Edmonton Space Sci- dynamic events, mostly close to home in our ences Centre’s Observatory, and find myself August 27, 1988: Partial eclipse of the Moon own solar system, where one can observe in returning frequently. I watch Richard Reid at 3 a.m. Alan Dyer, Russ Sampson, Alister real time the subtle workings of the con- effortlessly sweep up M13 and M57 in the and I open the Observatory for the occasion, stantly changing cosmos. Because these C-14. It appears like magic, but Richard pa- but public interest is, shall we say, limited. events occur at a specific moment in time, tiently explains: “See that little parallelogram We have a great time anyway, as an array of my memories tend to organise themselves of stars near the bright one ” Although I solar system objects span the sky at roughly chronologically: am scared spitless by the hardware, I begin 30 degree intervals: Saturn, the eclipsed to think, “I could do that!” By the following Moon, Mars a month before its perihelic December 25, 1984: After dropping my par- spring, I am a volunteer. opposition, Jupiter, finally Venus. A double ents at the airport around midnight for an “Leonid meteor storm puts on shadow transit on Jupiter mimics the hap- overnight flight, Anna and I continue on for penings within the Earth-Moon system. Just our traditional Christmas visit to Red Deer a once-in-a-lifetime show. I before we close the roof, a bright object ap- at an untraditional time. Driving due south see over 1,500 meteors over- pears unannounced in the southeast. Sweep- on a deserted Highway 2, my attention is ing it up in the C-14, we are delighted to grabbed, and held, by the unmistakable fig- night, including 655 during resolve a research balloon, an iridescent gos- ure of Orion the Hunter, framed by the spar- the peak hour.” samer teardrop with its payload hanging at kling Winter Hexagon. It is a pleasure mak- April 25, 1987: All-night observing session a comical angle in the eyepiece. ing his acquaintance, even at the embarrass- at Waskehegan, which includes a stunning ingly advanced age of 29. view of the Whirlpool Galaxy in the club April 30-May 1, 1989: I go to Waskehegan scope, a 17.5-inch Coulter. Deep into the on consecutive nights to observe, and then January 24, 1985: Walking to an Oiler morning hours, three of us remain, includ- confirm, Pluto during the year of its perihe- game, I see a spectacular conjunction of Ve- ing Mike Noble and a newcomer I have just lion. On the second night, it has moved ever nus with the crescent Moon. The ice fog, met, Alister Ling, hoping to see an occulted so slightly against the background star field. which has obscured everything else in the Venus emerge from behind a late-rising Unexpectedly, it has also dimmed a couple sky, frames these two brilliant objects with Moon. The Observer’s Handbook’s occulta- tenths of a magnitude. After the fact, I read I gorgeous haloes. tion tables give an invisibility code for Ed- have observed an event of the rare occulta-

Stardust Page 47 tion series involving Pluto’s moon Charon. be because there’s so much to see: brilliant the other expedition in Baja California I am awarded a Pluto certificate by the ob- pink prominences; extensive coronal stream- records a null result, so our scientific efforts serving group. Later that year, Edmonton ers, the bright star delta Geminorum hiding are ultimately in vain. The kind people of Centre hosts a talk by the planet’s discov- in their veils; four planets strung out to the Fort Nelson treat us like visiting royalty. erer, Clyde Tombaugh. Clyde graciously east. In the rainforest toward the eastern agrees (after I have purchased his book) to horizon, a lightning storm is underway. 11 July 16-22, 1994: Planetary bombardment sign my certificate. out of 10. in real-time. The fragmented Kamikaze Comet, Shoemaker-Levy 9, is obliterated by July 2, 1989: Occultation of a sixth-magni- July 1991: The ash of the Mount Pinatubo mighty Jupiter like mosquitoes on a tude star, 28 Sagittarii, by Saturn. The ringed volcanic eruption girdles the tropics, largely windshield. Unforgettable. 10 out of 10. wonder is at opposition that very night, low obscuring our view of the deep southern sky in the summer sky but with rings at maxi- theoretically accessible from the Tropic of August 12, 1994: Kobau again. Watching mum tilt. Seven of us share six telescopes at Cancer. In return we are rewarded with a meteors on the sweetest nights of the year. A the Observatory for unforgettable views of series of spectacularly vivid sunsets, featur- circle of Edmonton Centre members observes the star disappearing behind the A ring, re- ing the four planets and the now-waxing the peak nights of the Perseids under ideal appearing in Cassini’s Division, then under- Moon undergoing weird colour transitions conditions, shortly after the passage of the going a spectacular series of fluctuations as as each prepares to splash down in the Pa- parent Comet Swift-Tuttle. I personally count it passes through the Crêpe Ring before cific. over 700 Perseids in 15 hours over four briefly being “captured” between the ring and nights. ball of the planet. An unforgettable sight, per- March 8, 1993: Extreme close perigee of haps the first on the list that warrants a per- Moon with exceptional northern libration March 26, 1996: Comet Hyakutake passes fect score of 10 out of 10. leads to all-night observing session August 24, 1989: Voyager 2 encounters the which ultimately then-outermost planet. A largish crowd gath- kick-starts a new ers in the Science Centre to watch spectacu- project: to observe lar images of Neptune and Triton material- every named fea- ise from the depths of space as if by magic. ture on the lunar The crisply focused photos show a veritable nearside. First Murray’s pic of Hyakutake wealth of detail never before imagined, let phase of project is alone imaged. After we’ve had our fill, I in- completed nine vite the stragglers outside to see Neptune with years later. their own eyes. Even in our largest scope, the C-14, this gorgeous world is reduced to August 23, 1993: a pale blue dot, mute testimony to the im- As the last strag- mensity of the void that humankind has navi- glers from Mount gated. Kobau Star Party, PAULSON MURRAY Alister and I awaken after overnight rains to Polaris. From a dark site, seven freezing April 1, 1990: April Fool’s Day Graze Ex- transparent skies. Limiting magnitude is near amateurs observe its spectacular 60+ degree pedition. Weeks of planning and a midnight 7.5; I feel like I’m in space. Without any op- tail. excursion are foiled by a single cigar-shaped tical aid, we count dozens of unrecognised cloud at the most inopportune moment. In stars within the usually-vacant Great Square April 3, 1996: Two of my favourite binocu- the middle of the line, Larry Wood sees the of Pegasus, easily sight the Pinwheel Gal- lar starfields are simultaneously adorned with star when all around him see nothing. Larry axy, and spot dark lanes and rifts through bright visitors. Venus passes by the Pleiades is credited with discovering the first known the Milky Way including the rarely-seen “Su- while Hyakutake cruises through the alpha hole in the Moon. per Polaris Highway”. 10 out of 10. Persei stellar association.

January, 1991: I put my newly-acquired 8- November 29, 1993: The Fort Nelson Graze April 9, 1997: An amazing naked-eye inch f/8 Cave mirror Newtonian to the test Expedition. I am one of 15 Edmonton Cen- tripleheader. Yellow and blue Comet Hale- observing an all-night series of mutual events tre members who are conducting Actual Sci- Bopp continues to grace the skies from dusk involving all four moons of Jupiter. At -33 entific Research, trying to measure the polar onwards; the crescent Moon occults ruddy C., the winter air is crisp, but so are the op- diameter of the Moon. This involves two Aldebaran; minutes later, a dazzling aurora tics. teams of observers simultaneously measur- explodes onto the scene, displaying a vari- ing the opposing poles of the Moon grazing ety of saturated greens, violets, reds and more July 11, 1991: Total eclipse of the Sun, seen the same star; for sufficiently accurate ob- colours than I can name. 30 out of 10? from Goat Beach near Mazatlan, Mexico. servations both limbs must be dark, so this Circumstances are perfect, as Sun and Moon is only possible during a total lunar eclipse. October 20, 1997: Grazing occultation of come together at the zenith in the sky’s ulti- Despite heavy cloud, which almost totally Aldebaran, observed by 30 amateurs near mate centrepiece. It’s an exceptionally long ruins the eclipse itself, our group miracu- Morningside, AB. Harris Christian and I eclipse at nearly 7 minutes, and it needs to lously makes successful measurements. Alas, draw the lucky seventh station in the middle

Stardust Page 48 of the graze line, and are rewarded with six The sky is alive with a spectacular aurora, a the shower is successfully observed by car disappearance/reappearance pairs in under handful of bright Perseids, a minimum of radio, and by four radio telescopes in the a minute, plus an unforgettable seventh Algol, and my first sighting of the “Millen- fledgling Sky Scan Array. Our results are event: a fade where Aldebaran diminishes nium Diamond”, a temporary asterism of the later used by a leading international meteor to a tiny, faint dot but never goes out. In- Hyades, Pleiades, Jupiter and Saturn. The scientist. credibly, we have resolved the disc of this most dynamic night sky I’ve ever seen. nearby orange giant. 10 out of 10. August 28, 2003: Closest approach of Mars in almost 60,000 years. On the actual night August 24-26, 1998: Cause and itself, clouds have driven away the madding effect. Observe a Class X-3 so- crowds and the hardworking volunteers. lar flare from beginning to end Only Kevin Jeske and I remain at the Ob- through the hydrogen-alpha servatory, stubbornly holding out for a look scope at the Observatory. Two at Mars at its closest. Mere minutes before nights later, observe the result- closest approach at 3:52 a.m., the clouds ant all-night, all-sky aurora. magically part in the narrowest of sucker holes. The view isn’t great, but it is a view at November 22, 1998: Inde- just the right moment. The hole closes even pendently predict and observe more rapidly than it opened. Kevin and I a partial eclipse of Jupiter’s out- shake hands, glad of the company and of the ermost satellite, Callisto. The corroborating witness that we have indeed giant moon fades by several CAMPBELL SHERRY experienced a minor miracle, or at least a magnitudes but is faintly visible throughout. November 20, 2000: An exciting day for an moral victory. occultation enthusiast. David Dunham, prob- February 26, 1999: Bittersweet. A vanful ably the world’s leading expert on the sub- June 8, 2004: An expedition of Edmonton of bereaved local astronomers makes its way ject, flies to Edmonton specifically because astronomers gathers on Wood Bison Look- to Calgary to join a huge throng of admirers he feels we have the best chance to see a rare out north of Fort McMurray to see the rarest paying last respects to Father Lucian Kemble. occultation of a bright star (mu Geminorum) of astronomical spectacles: a transit of Ve- Appropriately, the planets are massing also. by an asteroid (752 Sulamitis). Not only that, nus. We need clear skies down to the hori- Venus and Jupiter are in a spectacular close he’s plotted exactly where we should go zon to catch the very end of the event. At the conjunction, Saturn hovers a short distance how can we go wrong? My first expedition appointed time (4:35 a.m.!) the Sun rises, away. The fourth member of the planetary to Fort McMurray yields reasonably good sky wobbles unsteadily for a time, and grudg- quartet, shy Mercury, eludes our gaze until conditions, preparation, anticipation, and ingly reveals the black planet captured just we make our final turn westward towards the nothing. Nothing but crushing disappoint- within its limb. The silhouetted Venus moves church. Suddenly the Winged Messenger ment. Sharing a prime station, Murray slowly but inexorably toward the nearest exit appears in the deepening twilight, low on Paulson and I need each other to corrobo- in a surreal undulating spectacle of light, the due west horizon and directly outside the rate that we didn’t blink and miss it. My life- colour, and absence thereof. This is much open doors of the sanctuary Later we are time batting average for asteroid occultations more interesting than the black dot on white drawn almost magnetically to the falls to 1 for 7. Even the expert calculations disc I had anticipated; to my surprise I give Lamplighter’s old observatory in Cochrane, of Dr. Dunham are not always a match for it 10 out of 10. where we take a lingering look at Kemble’s the extremely slippery science of asteroid Cascade. astrometry. As Venus disappears off the Sun’s lower right limb just a couple of degrees above the north- January 18, 2000: Thanks to a timely heads- November 18, 2001: Leonid meteor storm eastern horizon, I suddenly realise I’m see- up from Mike Hoskinson, spot a bizarre cloud puts on a once-in-a-lifetime show. I see over ing what amounts to a photonegative of my in the early evening twilight in the general 1,500 meteors overnight, including 655 dur- first significant observation, the lunar occul- direction of Banff. Experts later argue ing the peak hour. These numbers are con- tation of Venus that Alister, Mike and I wit- whether it should be called a noctilucent or servative, the meteors are simply too plenti- nessed 17 years previously. What goes around a nacreous cloud, but all agree it is the after- ful to accurately count. 10 out of 10. comes around. math of the Tagish Lake fireball, ten hours after the meteorite fall and a thousand kilo- January 1, 2002: Observe a shadowless tran- Autumn 2004: Mining the motherlode of metres downrange. sit of Ganymede in front of Jupiter. During memories has again sparked the thrill of dis- this time, an imaginary observer on covery and innate joy in nature’s beauty. July 30, 31, August 1, 2000: On consecu- Ganymede or Jupiter could see a transit of Luckily, my passion is astronomy, where the tive days at the Observatory, see the Moon Earth against the Sun. To me, looking the sky’s the limit and it is impossible to have occult the three innermost bodies of the so- opposite way from inside the light cone, “seen it all”. If I remain fortunate and alert lar system, Mercury, the Sun (a partial Ganymede covers its own shadow. to opportunity, the upcoming decades will eclipse), then Venus. yield many more wonderful celestial mo- November 19, 2002: Another Leonid storm, ments to add to the Life List. § August 12, 2000: Rain clouds clear off very this time all but beyond our visual reach due late, but in time for an unforgettable hour. to clouds, snow, bright moonlight. However,

Stardust Page 49 Star Parties and Astronomy Workshops

By Sharon Tansey MT. KOBAU - SHERRY CAMPBELL KOBAU - SHERRY MT. hen I first came to the Edmon escope. The more experienced are willing warm by a heater donated by Kirby Eccles. ton Centre at the end of 1990, to answer questions and often help with col- Because the site is not shared with the pub- Cathy Breckenridge advised me limation, minor repairs and adjustments. lic, observatory domes and piers to accom- Wthat the best way to get to know other mem- During the night, under the influence of sleep modate astrophotographers have been built. bers was to attend a “star party”. deprivation, break-time conversation may Ben Gendre’s pier awaits his telescope. include anything. Just steer clear of Bruce The early muddy days at Caroline So what’s a “star party”? McCurdy who tends to get into mathemati- were attended by only the (fool)hardiest: cal concepts that tax the brain even when Paulson’s, Randy Pakan, Paul and Sherry, A star party is time. It’s time to im- it’s not sleep-deprived. Alister, Larry, Denis, Bob Drew, Don Brown, merse oneself in the night sky. The “par- George Graham. In the field’s improved ties” are held far from city lights. They usu- Alberta Star Party state, you will find many Edmontonians ally involve camping beside your telescope, Edmonton centre members regularly attend there, lots of Calgary members, a few from if you have one, or commuting from the lo- a number of summer star parties. The clos- Saskatoon, and Dave Millar from cal place-with-a-shower. Several nights of est to home is the Alberta Star Party, hosted Whitehorse. Unlike in the past, you will no observing are combined with a day or two of by the Calgary centre. First held in1987, its longer find cows. Early arrivers Wally and talks by guest speakers. Wonderful slides of early days saw a variety of locations, a July Rob Anhorn once awakened to cattle bump- the night sky are inevitable. You need nei- or August time slot, and WEATHER. At ing and tripping over the ropes that held their ther telescope nor expertise to attend. Kinbrook Island, during the obligatory shade canopy in place. Star parties usually include a “swap storm, you could watch the wind whip across table”. Bring what you no longer need or the site flattening one tent after another and, Mt. Kobau Star Party pick up something someone else no longer for a climax, blow Gord Sarty’s (Saskatoon) Another long-running star party attended by needs. There is frequently an RV into the lake. At Eagle Lake, we nerv- Edmonton members is the Mt. Kobau Star astrophotography contest, telescope judging ously watched a cloud circle over head as Party. Held during July or August on top of and door prizes. Alister Ling explained how it was a precur- the mountain outside Osoyoos, B.C., this “In 1966, Mt. Kobau was sor to a tornado. During this trying weather, event is hosted by the Mount Kobau Astro- ShirLee and Martin Adamson’s trailer served nomical Society. Although light from the selected as the site to build as hospitality central. development in the valley below becomes Canada’s new National The Alberta Star Party is now held more apparent every year, several Edmon- after violent storm season, in September. In ton centre members are enticed back on a Observatory because it is the 1994, it found a home at a former Chevron regular basis by the 1750 metre elevation and clearest, driest place in oil field, on Eccles Ranch near Caroline the dry desert night. In 1966, Mt. Kobau southern Canada.” (home of Kurt Browning). The Calgary was selected as the site to build Canada’s new RASC centre is the grantee of the environ- National Observatory because it is the clear- One of the best parts of the star party mental easement on the site, a right it holds est, driest place in southern Canada. The is contact with other RASC members, from in perpetuity. The centre and the farmer have observatory project was cancelled as a result the local and distant centres. Discussion top- joint control over access. Over the years, of dissension among Canadian astronomers, ics during the day will range from the latest members of the Calgary centre, with a little but amateurs have made good use of the site. equipment and modifications through how help from a few Edmontonians, - mainly Access to the site is by a 20k-long to stay warm. It’s not unusual to hear Larry Larry Wood, Denis Boucher, and Murray “gravel” road. (Gravel is smaller and not as Wood bellow “Does anyone have a 5/8” lock- Paulson - have steadily improved it. The field sharp.) 15 – 20 kph is recommended unless nut!?” Eventually someone will wander is now well grassed, gravelled, and level, one really enjoys changing tires and replac- across the field with the necessary “thing” home to a biffy and building for presenta- ing mufflers. Sometimes caution isn’t even so Larry can finish fixing someone’s tel- tions. The presentation building is kept enough: ask Harris Christian why a section

Stardust Page 50 the thirdnight tousehisnew16.5”.Of Cypress Hills,JohnPayzant had towait‘til fear ofthe“cursenew telescope”. At twice abouttryingoutanew telescope,for along. the Jahrig’s withguitarleadingthesing- find a“hootenanny”atDonna-Lee’s site,and Whitehorse. Onacloudynight,youmay nipeg, andtheU.S.,Davefrom Regina crowds,peoplefromCalgary, Win- event, youcanbefriendtheSaskatoonand Talks areinanair-conditionedhall.Atthis There isevenaSaturdayeveningbanquet. campground set-asideforthestarparty. tivities andfacilities,inadditiontoa Attendees haveaccesstotheentireparkac- was plannedwithfamiliesinmind. tween LabradorandtheRockies.TheSSSP is thehighestpointinmainlandCanadabe- katchewan border. At1200metres, thepark Interprovincial ParkontheAlberta/Sas- it hasbeenheldannuallyinCypressHills Saskatoon andReginacentres.Since1997, ewan SummerStarParty, Somewhat closertohomeisthe Saskatchewan SummerStarParty the telescopes. fire wardenoutofhistowertoviewthrough fire ban).HaroldJacobsenoncebroughtthe wineglasses, andcandles(notlitduetoopen tablecloth, clothnapkins,homemadewine, treated metoapastadinner, completewith A fewyearsagoTerry andTina Nonay a stranger, tousehistelescope 36” wasbusy, soheallowedDaveClyburn, harp, orvoice.Oneyeartheownerof concert fromaclassicaloracousticguitar, them. It’s notunusualtohearanimpromptu derie foundtherecouldmakeyouforget ties canbechallenging,theskyandcamara- tain. Althoughthewindandlackofameni- lugged theclub’s 7”refractorupthemoun- the mountain.In1994,BobBreckenridge Smith polishedoff herlastfewMessier’s on and stilltobefoundonthemountain).Sylvia a fewweeksold(he’s inhighschoolnow ily havevisitedMt.KobausinceDanielwas be foundonalllevels. few peoplefromCalgaryandtheU.S.,can the spectacularview. TheB.C.crowd,anda hardy whoarewillingtorisktheWINDfor the verytopyouwillfindbraveorfool- and motorhomes,tent-trailers,tents.At find, believeitornot,humungoustrailers year. was named“HarrisFlats”(noteplural)one At anystarparty, onemightthink Murray andJoannePaulsonfam- On thevarioustoplevels,youwill hostedbythe for anhour Saskatch- . the otherorganisations hebelonged to,par- teering; notonlyfortheRASC butalsofor was abletogetpeopleexcited aboutvolun- went onatthosefirstthreeworkshops. He food, hadahandinalmosteverything that ising events,especiallythose thatinvolved George, whohadagreatpassionfororgan- who startedthewholethingatPigeonLake. shop the winter. Itlastsaweekend. have alongernightbutnottheCOLDof it’s heldinAprilorOctoberwhenlocalskies from homeandnodishestodo.Normally, ers, foodyoudon’t havetoprepareorbring in aheatedroom,indoorwashrooms,show- school orscoutcamp,soitcomeswithabed mally heldinsomethinglikeaboarding party aredissimilar. Theworkshopisnor- ble anddoorprizes. thusiasts. Therewillprobablybeaswapta- fects ofsleepdeprivationonyourfellowen- ers. You havetheopportunitytoseeef- escopes topeekthrough,andguestspeak- have accesstoexperiencedobservers,tel- drive homeaftertheobservingsession;you common withastarparty:youdon’t haveto tronomy workshop about observingthenightskyisatan lent placetogetknowpeopleandlearn In additiontothestarparties,anotherexcel- Astronomy Workshop from Whitehorsemadeit,too. around whichmanytalesweretold.Dave of lowflyinggeese,andagreatbonfire were alsoinformativetalks,manysquadrons or soofobservingonSaturdaynight.There during thedayonSaturday, andahalfhour (with rain)rolledin,somesolarobserving serving onFridaybeforemidnightclouds inces andterritorieshadseveralhoursofob- the weather, but28ofusfromthreeprov- for theinauguralyearwerecompromisedby observing weekendnearhome.Theskies an excellentbirdinglocation,withaleisurely combined theamenitiesofacampgroundin about anhourSEofEdmonton.TheStarfest at BlackNuggetLakecampground,located by Warren Finlay. ItwasheldinSeptember Starfest, viewing pleasure:the This year, aneweventwasaddedforour Northern PrairieStarfest attendees. course, thecursemakesitcloudyforall George Moores’ Astronomy Work- , namedafterthelatecentremember The Edmontoncentreregularlyhosts In otherwaysaworkshopandstar An astronomyworkshophasmuchin conceived, planned,andexecuted . Northern Prairie as- vice. Thanks,Cathy. had reasontothankCathyforhergoodad- briefly inthedark. of clothingyoumayhavespokentoonly And a chancetogetknowthosemounds experienced membersandguestspeaker. ment inthedaylight,topickbrainofmore to trythemoutatnight;timelookequip- serving ideasandtipswiththeopportunity weekend istimesetasidetoexchangeob- ShirLee’s infamoussearchforthe NGP. on encounterswithplanets,andofcourse, all inthesameBlackfootsnowbank,Paul Murray onface-plantsbyseveralmembers of Oriontoagiggle-agedschoolgroup, Russ Sampsononexplainingtheanatomy B’s wasanimpromptutellingofbloopers: of cloud.OnethemostentertainingPlan urday nightisobserving-orPlanBincase keynote addressandsharetheweekend.Sat- well-known speakerisbroughtintogivethe astrophotography andatelescopeclinic.A sion. Thereisalwayssomethingon Prud’homme onplanninganobservingses- Arnold onopticcleaning,orDavid Rivera ontelescopeimprovement,Barry separate forsmallersessionssuchasArnold ising andobserving.OnSaturday, attendees mally devotedtofindingyourroom,social- various workshopstogether. I andourcommitteemembersbroughtthe MacLeod, Donna-LeeMay, HarrisChristian, Campbell, CathyMacKinnon,Sherry(then) again atStJohn.RussSampson,Paul Skeleton LakeScoutCampnearBoyleand near Hinton,StJohnSchoolGenesee, shops havebeenheldatBlueLakeLodge the guestspeaker, tomakedevilledeggs. the kitchenwithhim.HegotJohnDobson, brought inacrewofBoyScoutstowork ticularly theScouts.AtPigeonLake,he Over theyears,I’veagainand As withastarparty, theworkshop At theworkshop,Fridaynightisnor- Subsequent Edmontoncentrework- Stardust P Stardust P Stardust P Stardust P Stardust P age 51 age 51 age 51 age 51 age 51

LARRY WOOD AT KOBAU North American Nebula Close-Up Alan Dyer Despite advances in digital technology, closeup views of deep-sky objects still require a good telescope, a solid equatorial mount and some means of guiding the mount to ensure accurate tracking and pinpoint stars. Here, a 4-inch apochromatic refractor at f/6 zooms in on the North American Nebula in this stack of two 8-minute exposures at ISO 400.