OCA CLUB MEETING STAR PARTIES COMING up the Free and Open Club the Black Star Canyon Site Will Be Open on the Next Session of the Meeting Will Be Held April 26Th
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April 2008 Free to members, subscriptions $12 for 12 issues Volume 35, Number 4 The Kuhn observatory at OCA’s Anza dark-sky site is seen after a late winter storm, March 16. (photo credit: Dave Radosevich) OCA CLUB MEETING STAR PARTIES COMING UP The free and open club The Black Star Canyon site will be open on The next session of the meeting will be held April 26th. The Anza site will be open on Beginners Class will be held on Friday, April 11th at 7:30 April 5th. Members are encouraged to check Friday, April 4th at the PM in the Irvine Lecture the website calendar, for the latest updates Centennial Heritage Museum at Hall of the Hashinger on star parties and other events. 3101 West Harvard Street in Science Center at Santa Ana. Chapman University in Please check the website calendar for the GOTO SIG: TBA (contact Orange. This month, outreach events this month! Volunteers coordinator for details) Robert Quimby of Caltech are always welcome! Astro-Imagers SIG: Apr. 15th, will discuss important You are also reminded to check the web May 20th findings from the Texas site frequently for updates to the calendar EOA SIG: Apr. 23rd, May 28th Supernova Search of events and other club news. Astrophysics SIG: Apr. 18th, May 16th Dark Sky Group: TBA (contact NEXT MEETING: May 9th coordinator for details) President’s Message By Barbara Toy As I write this in mid-March, wildflowers have burst out all over the hills around Elsinore and along the route to Anza, and the rains have apparently not quite ended for the season – Dave Radosevich sent a picture of Anza taken on March 16, covered with snow (he said it was cold). It’s nice to see the hills turn green, even if that means potential fuel for wildfires when everything dries out in the heat of summer, and even if it means more weed clearance at Anza… Our Messier Marathon in March featured a period of clouds that stopped most observing activities for an hour or so, but then they cleared and a few hardy souls made it through the night and were still working on the last objects when the sun rose. I’m sorry to say I wasn’t among them – but we had a busy night in the club observatory until around 2:00, and our visitors included several people who were seeing the Kuhn in operation for the first time. It was a fun night, and a few participants have already given me their Messier Marathon sheets. If you haven’t turned yours in yet, please do, so we can get you your official OCA Messier Marathon Certificate. Anza Site Update We are finally at the point in what has turned out to be an extremely lengthy process to develop the northwest portion of our Anza site where we are submitting a grading plan for the first phase of the development to Riverside County for approval. This phase is located above Mars Hill and to the left of the Lower Pad area as you look up the site from Anza House. We haven’t determined the final mix of observatories and pads in this area yet, as this will partly depend on who’s prepared to build at this point. Once the County approves the grading plan, with any amendments that the officials feel are necessary, the next step is to get an estimate for the cost of grading this first section. The area is small enough that we don’t need to get a full soils report (which would be very expensive), but we will need compaction tests. Once we have the estimate, we plan to contact the people on the Pad Interest List and Observatory Interest List to see who is prepared to move ahead with plans to build in this new area. This grading is to allow construction of member observatories and pads rather than for the benefit of the general membership, and it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the membership to use general club funds for this, especially now when our funds have been depleted by the recent work on Anza House and the club observatory. If the club “fronted” the costs for grading this section, it would drop our reserves to unacceptably low levels – we can’t afford that, even if the payment is made in the expectation that the club would be reimbursed later as licensees built pads and observatories in that area. Grading is a real part of the cost of constructing pads and observatories at Anza, and the Board decided a while back that the fairest approach to all concerned is to have it borne proportionately by the pad and observatory holders on the level that is being graded. For the grading of this new section to go forward, the costs will have to be paid up front by those members who are prepared to build their observatories or pads at this point. If we don’t get enough initial participants to fill the area to be graded, and the initial participants end by paying more than their proportionate share to get the grading done, they would be reimbursed by those who obtain licenses to build later – those who wait won’t get out of paying their fair shares of the grading costs. The club, by the way, has already paid a substantial amount for drafting the master plan for the site, getting it approved, getting the aerial survey that was needed for an accurate grading plan, and then for the grading plan itself and getting that plan approved. If you are interested in building a pad or observatory in the new area and are not yet on the Pad or Observatory Interest List, please contact me to be put on the either or both of the lists. Being on the lists doesn’t mean that you are making a commitment to build at this point, but it does indicate that you are interested and establishes your priority if we have too many people seeking licenses for the number of sites available. Of course, the final plans for the pad areas and for each individual observatory will have to be approved by the Board before construction on them can begin once the grading is completed. This has been a much longer process than anyone on the planning committee expected and it’s exciting to finally be reaching the point that we can move some dirt and see the beginning of actual construction! Explore The Stars With spring comes the start of the 2008 season of the “Explore the Stars” (ETS) program at Observatory Campground on Palomar Mountain. This is a monthly event that has been held from April or May through October for at least the last 10 years, 2 and is a joint outreach project of several local astronomy clubs and the Forest Service, with support from Scott Kardel at Palomar Observatory. These sessions are for anyone on Palomar Mountain, and they start off with a presentation on an astronomical topic at the campground amphitheater, followed by a viewing session through telescopes brought by volunteers. The people who come are a diverse lot – some come as visitors to the Observatory and learn about the ETS session there, many are people who happen to be camping on the mountain, often there are Scouts and other groups, and some people drive up specifically for the program and drive back home afterward. Camping in Observatory Campground in the area where the astronomers set up is free for ETS volunteers, which makes this a really excellent bargain. The Saturday night program usually starts with a potluck for the volunteers at six o’clock – ideally, people arrive early enough that they can set up before the potluck, but sometimes set-up continues as the potluck is going on, interspersed with eating. The volunteers usually go to the presentation in the amphitheater (some stay behind as security for the equipment). This is around 7:00 or 7:30, and then everyone heads back to the telescopes for the public viewing session. Most of the visitors leave after a couple of hours, and then the volunteers have their own star party, which can last all night if they choose. One of the reasons this such a good event is that the Rangers turn off all the lights in the campground for Explore the Stars Program begins ETS nights, so the sky is very dark and steady. Observatory Campground is not far from Palomar April 5th! Observatory, and shares the same skies that caused the observatory to be built there in the first place, so it’s a great place for viewing. There isn’t any power available at the campground for telescopes, so you need to bring batteries if you need power for your equipment, but that’s a small inconvenience. For the volunteers who can make it out there Friday night, there is a smaller public viewing session, followed by whatever viewing (or imaging) you want to do for yourself. I’ve never been fortunate enough to be there on a Friday, but I understand that it’s a lot of fun for those who make it – more laid-back than on Saturday, and with more private viewing time as there aren’t as many members of the public to attend the viewing session. Camping is free for ETS volunteers on Friday night as well as Saturday. Bob Nanz is the current coordinator for the program, and can be reached at [email protected] or 760-751-3992.