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TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS, INC. IN THIS ISSUE: The OBSERVER A NOTE FROM 1 PRESIDENT TOM VOLUME 38, NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2013 WEILAND PRAIRIE SKY 1 A NOTE FROM PRESIDENT TOM WEILAND OBSERVATORY COMPELTED!! Last evening (7/29) I participated in a teleconference sponsored by The Night Sky Network. The teleconference presenter was Dr. Thomas Guatier, Kepler Deputy Science Director. Dr Guatier shared a wealth of information re- PSO GALLERY 3 garding the Kepler Space Telescope’s mission, its scientific results and the condition of the telescope after the recent TCAA ANNUAL 4 failure of the second of its four reaction wheels. PICNIC—ALL THE Kepler is now in what they call Point Rest State. In this mode thrusters must be utilized to maintain attitude. The DETAILS! good news is that this mode is very fuel efficient and as such there is enough fuel for two or three years. This means the Kepler team has time to consider options since Kepler cannot point with precision with less than three reaction MEO UPDATE 4 wheels. SIXTH 2013 POS 4 As a planet hunter seeking smaller planets around stars in a patch of sky inside the Summer Triangle, Kepler is AUGUST 10TH unequaled in performance. Kepler maintains a constant vigil, continuously monitoring the light output of about SPACE CAMP 5 150,000 stars for any change in brightness that might indicate a planetary transit. Even if the reaction wheel issue is not resolved there is still an enormous amount of information to be gleaned EDUCATION/PUBLIC 5 from the data acquired by Kepler. And that’s really what I am writing about today………information. There is a huge OUTREACH REPORT amount of information available at your fingertips at the Night Sky Network site including astronomy activities, a FOR JULY night sky planner, and amateur resources. TCAA is a member of the network and as such information about our ac- tivities is also included on this site. I recommend you take a look at: nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov. MINUTES OF THE JULY 6 9TH BOARD MEETING Clear Skies! P.S. Make sure you put the Annual TCAA Picnic on your calendar. The date is August 24th. More information PROFILES IN AMATEUR 7 about this event is located elsewhere in this month’s Observer. ASTRONOMY: TIM STONE TCAA 5-YEAR PLAN IN 8 REVIEW PRAIRIE SKY OBSERVATORY COMPLETED!! CONSTELLATION OF 9 THE MONTH: Following construction contract and lease agreement signings and an informal ground breaking ceremony on June LYRA—THE LYRE 8th, construction of the new Prairie Sky Observatory began with foundation work on June 21st with the removal of the existing concrete corn crib foundation and trenching and pouring of footers to a depth of 40”. Two 36” diameter piers ASTROBITS 10 were poured to a depth of 5’ on June 23rd and telescope pier anchors embedded in their surfaces. After a period of rain, the floor slab – consisting of 4,000psi fiber-reinforced concrete – was poured on June 27th. Bob Finnigan, Tom TREASURER’S REPORT 11 Weiland, and Tim Stone supervised the work and oversaw the installation of the anchors for the telescope mounts and east and west walls. Backfill was completed on July 3rd. John Stewart’s K&G Excavating Company completed the HOW TIME FLIES 11 concrete work. BackYard Observatory’s Scott Horstman and Don Cilibraise arrived at SGNC during the afternoon of Friday, July 19th, to being construction of the observatory building. At about the same time, a truckload of construction material arrived from RP Lumber in Bloomington. Construction of Prairie Sky Observatory – BYO’s 177th roll-off-roof observa- tory – began on July 20th. Tom Weiland, Larry Leetzow, Bob Finnigan, Carl Wenning, and Tim Stone “supervised” the earliest stage of construction. At the end of the first day all four walls were up, as well as the partition between the observing room and the telescope room. Work continued on Sunday with the completion of the roof extension to the north. Completion of the roller wheel frame for the roof, installation of the roof trusses, and partial completion of the roof followed this. On Monday, the roof was finished, including the gables at each end. Zack Prochnow, an electrician from Emmett- Scharf Electric Co., arrived on site at 10:20 a.m. and began work. By 3:00 p.m., the breaker box with 100-ampere service, and the observatory’s outlets and switch receptacles were installed and wires pulled thanks to the able assis- tance of Tom. By the end of the day, the remaining roof panels and roof siding had been installed, insulation fitted in the observing room, and doors installed. At approximately 5:15 p.m. Scott handed over one of the keys to the building to Carl making it the end of yet another busy day at SGNC. Once again Tom and Bob were on site all day answering (Continued on page 2) PAGE 2 The OBSERVER is a monthly publi- cation of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit educational organi- PRAIRIE SKY OBSERVATORY COMPLETED!! (CONT.) zation of amateur astronomers inter- ested in studying astronomy and (Continued from page 1) sharing their hobby with the public. questions and assisting where needed. TCAA OFFICERS The observatory construction was completed (with the exception of finishing touches on the electrical work and President Tom Weiland siding) on Tuesday, April 23rd. Don and Scott bid us a fond farewell and departed late that afternoon with thanks 309-830-0167 from Bob, Carl, Larry, and Tony. Even before Don and Scott departed the site, the 10” Takahashi telescope was [email protected] mounted on the pier on the south end of the telescope room. Bob, Tony, and Larry continued work on installation Vice- Dave Osenga afterward with Tim joining them later. It was too cloudy to begin alignment procedures. President 309-287-0789 The first four days of the construction process were documented with a time-lapse movie created by Tony Cellini. [email protected] Some 6,500 individual shots – one taken every 30 seconds over four days – were used to create a movie of about 4.5 minutes running at 24 frames per second. The movie can be found at the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/ Secretary Lee Green watch?v=K76JlEuIBOI&feature=youtu.be 309-454-7349 th [email protected] On Wednesday, July 24 , Zack from Emmett-Scharf returned by 8:30 a.m. to complete the electrical work and install the data cable conduit near the front door. By that evening the Takahashi 5” refractor was placed on the As- Treasurer/ Duane Yockey tro-Physics mount to the north joining the Takahashi 10” astrograph located on the Paramount ME to the south. ALCor/RA 309-452-3936 “First light” for the observatory occurred on this evening. Bob Finnigan and Tim Stone photographed M27 with the [email protected] 10” an SLR camera, while Carl Wenning and Troy Berg viewed Messier objects with the 5”. 3rd Paul Pouliot On Thursday, July 25th, the new 20” PlaneWave Dall-Kirkham telescope arrived from California at around Director 815-844-7065 12:30pm. It was hoisted atop the new Astro-Physics 1600 mount around 6:15 p.m. that evening with the able assis- [email protected] tance of Bob, Tom, Tony, Troy Berg, and Dave Osenga. 4th Tony Cellini Saturday, July 27th, saw the Prairie Sky Observatory ¾ way sided by three members of the Bow Hunters’ club led Director 309-829-9269 by Tom Huffington. They installed stained “rough sawn” hardwood siding – provided by SGNC – on the sides of the [email protected] observatory. 2 by 4 and 2 by 6 pressure treated lumber was attached at the top of the walls to provide a level trim Historian Carl Wenning piece for the rough sawn oak siding to butt up to. This was done to minimize any potential interference with the tight 309-830-4085 tolerances necessary for free movement of the roll of roof. The bow hunters worked from early morning to late after- [email protected] noon. Tom supervised the work assisted them with their efforts. They did a great job ensuring the minimum toler- ance between the siding and the sliding roof. Once this work is completed and the window installed between the Webmaster Lee Green telescope and observing rooms, the facility will be complete. The Bow Hunters’ club commits to work at SGNC in 309-454-7349 exchange for privileges to hunt at SGNC. [email protected] Also on the evening of July 27th, Howard Hedlund, President of Astro-Physics, arrived from Rockford, IL, to con- Property Tim Stone duct final set-up operations on the 20” telescope mount, and run those present through the regular operation of the Manager mount with the hand paddle. He was able to show such things a daytime polar alignment, and how to reset the park position if/when the mount clutches are loosened for balancing or other reasons. According to Tim, “He was very informative and great to work with, very interested in our program, and an active astronomer himself. After he left, we did experiment with using the Canon EOS MII for unguided photography, and produced a photograph of Messier The Observer Editor 20.” Erin Estabrook The observing room window arrived on July 29th, and Carl picked it up for installation. While dropping off the 314 Covey Court window (and Bob continued working on networking the observatory computers), Carl installed the weather stripping Normal, IL 61761 along the southern bottom edge of the roll off roof as directed by Scott.

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