: Fort Worth Astronomical Society November 2010 Established 1949 Astronomical League Member Club Calendar – 2 Skyportunities – 3 Welcome to Moonbase – 5 Avoid Astronomy Disasters! – 6 Pisces is a fine kettle of fish – 7 Stargazers’ Diary – 8 1 November 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 Moon at Perigee Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for November: M31, M33, M103, NGC 225, NGC 288, NGC 253, S. Taurids Stars in the Park NGC 457, NGC 654, NGC 663, NGC 752 meteors Top ten deep-sky objects for November: River Legacy Park peak M31, M32, M33, M76, M103, M110, NGC 40, in Arlington NGC 253, NGC 457, NGC 752 New Moon 3RF Star Party 11:52 pm 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Algol at Minima First Qtr Moon 8:32 pm - NW 10:39 am N. Taurids meteors peak 3RF Lunar Party Veteran’s Day 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Moon at Apogee FWAS Leonid Meeting meteors peak 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Full Moon 11:27 am France becomes rd 3 nation to launch a satellite 1st photo of a Thanksgiving 45 years ago a-Monocerotids meteor shower Where did the meteors peak 125 years ago cornucopia come from? Black Friday (it’s in last month’s PF) 28 29 30 Dec. 4 Last Qtr Moon North West ISD 2:36 pm Challenge deep-sky object for November: > VERY LARGE < : IC 59 (Cassiopeia) Star Party Challenge binary star for November: 36 Andromedae Notable carbon star for November: Z Piscium Watch the e-group 2 The Sky This Month – Thomsen Foundation -- 9 pm local time, November 15th (from Heavens-Above.com) The Sky This Month Star Charts: Sky & Telescope Sky Maps http://tinyrul.com/5np8n http://www.skymaps.com Heavens Above International Space Station Transits http://www.heavens-above.com http://tinyrul.com/y8zk5c Observing and Outreach Opportunities Weather permitting (FWAS contacts in parentheses) November 6 (DSO) & November 13 (Lunar) - Three Rivers Foundation (3RF) Star Party - 3RF invites you out to Comanche Springs near Crowell, Texas for a night under the stars. The dark skies of Big Ranch Country provide a spectacular view of the universe. The party starts with solar observing followed by a break. Evening activities begin with a short educational introduction to astronomy. The observatories and Star Field are then opened to the public to enjoy the use of many different kinds of astronomy instruments. For more information the day of a scheduled star party, please call 940-655-3384. (Russ Boatright and Doug Brown) (Panhandle Plains, where Oklahoma tucks into the Texas Panhandle) November 13 — Buescher State Park — Spend the evening under the stars at Buescher State Park in the Hill Country. We’ll have guides discussing constellations and the lore behind them, and maybe even a telescope trained on one of the many wonders of the night sky. Or, just bring a blanket and see if you can spot the Leonids Meteor Shower. At the lake. 512-237-2241 3 Out & About It was great to see so many members and their family and friends at the club picnic. A BIG THANK YOU to Shawn for putting it all together. It was also a great night to be out with some telescopes, clear/dark skies and cool temperatures (a little too much wind though). We must have had about 15 or more scopes set up, it was great. – Steve Tuttle I also want to say thank you to all of the members who were able to attend the club picnic. At the last headcount, we had about 54 members and/or their family members there, so it was a great turn out. As Steve said, the skies were great (wind picked up more at the end of the evening), and we had so many telescopes set up I didn't get a chance to look through them all. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and the food. And for those who this was their first time out to the dark site, I hope you'll take further advantage of this great membership asset as often as you can. Those members who still haven't made it out there are missing out on a great dark sky. :) – Shaun Kirchdorfer Dear Fort Worth Astronomical Society, My family of four (2 sons ages 9 and 11) enjoyed very much the Stars over Euless event this past Friday. The telescopes made the event exciting! Thanks for taking the time to come to Euless, set up your fine telescopes, and share your expertise. A very special thanks goes to Mr. Ben Hutchins, one of your members. My husband Tim chatted with Mr. Hutchins at length. We learned so much about Jupiter and the moon thanks to his interesting presentation. He is a wonderful astronomer and went out of his way to get my sons eager to learn about space!!! Have a wonderful day! Beth C Tom Koonce writes: I’d like to draw your attention to the Astronomy Outreach Foundation which is trying to combat the “Graying” of our hobby by attracting Generations X and Y into the fun of amateur astronomy. This is a non-profit foundation started by a combination of amateur astronomical industry leaders “to stimulate greater public interest in astronomy and to assist everyone in becoming more engaged in activities that allow them to learn more about the universe.” For more information, please visit http://www.astronomyoutreachfoundation.org 4 Cloudy Night Library Media reviews by Matt J. McCullar, FWAS Welcome to Moonbase by Ben Bova Published in 1987 by Ballantine Books 255 pages USBN 0-345-32859-0 “No one is allowed to walk on the surface alone.” While technically this is a science-fiction book, I feel Welcome to Moonbase contains enough science fact to make it qualify for inclusion in Cloudy Night Library. Ben Bova, a well-known science-fiction writer, wrote this book with a very clever concept: It’s sort of a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file for brand-new employees of a working lunar base in the future. There are no main characters and it does not tell a story, per se. While it does cover a great many technical matters, it is written in a simple, entertaining style that really makes the reader think about all the work that will go into building and populating a future lunar colony. It is clear that Bova put a great deal of thought and research into this book. The goal of a lunar base is to actually live there, do productive work, and sustain itself. Moonbase employees must know what is expected of them, and what everything does. Residents may stay there for months at a time, or even longer. People tend to get very protective and proud about their home towns, and develop their own slang terms for certain things. A newcomer to Moonbase may be instantly identified simply by the way he or she talks, compared to the veterans. Make no mistake: astronomy remains at the heart of Welcome to Moonbase. Bova discusses libration points – stable points in lunar orbit. On this future moon, there are no lunar-orbiting communications satellites because they would interfere with the ultra-sensitive radio telescopes on the far side. “All communications with far-side bases are carried by fiber-optic cables along the ground.” Bova goes on about communications in lunar orbit: “It is interesting to note that the Moon cannot have communications satellites in synchronous orbit, as the Earth does, because the synchronous orbit for the Moon is at the distance of the Earth! The orbits of lunar- synchronous commsats would be so perturbed by Earth’s gravity that they would inevitably crash into the Earth.” How does one navigate on the lunar surface? “…Nor can you navigate by the stars, unless you know that the lunar north pole does not point to Polaris, the pole star of Earth. Instead, it points in the direction of Draco, a comparatively dim constellation of stars that sprawls between the Big and Little Dippers (Ursa Major and Minor). Because the Moon wobbles on its axis much more than the Earth does, its north pole wavers considerably and does not point toward a specific star for more than a dozen years or so at a time.” “While the soil surface is dark, you notice that the footprints you leave behind you are much brighter. This lighter color is the true tone of the soil; the surface has been darkened by eons of hard radiation from the Sun… The First Footprints Club has become an international organization, loosely organized in a manner similar to that of the Neptune’s Courts that once initiated shipboard passengers who crossed the equator for the first time.” Bova must have enjoyed theorizing on what will eventually become of the individual landing sites of the Apollo program. “By far the most popular tourist attraction is Tranquility Base, where the lower half of the Apollo 11 landing craft still stands surrounded by the flag, equipment, and footprints Armstrong and Aldrin left there. The regolith [lunar soil] has been covered with a clear plastic so that the astronauts’ historic footprints cannot be disturbed.” Also, an employee of Moonbase found Alan Shepard’s golf ball from Apollo 14! It is curious to note that since this book was written, many things on Earth have changed and have made certain ideas herein already obsolete. You will find an occasional anachronism as a result. But it shouldn’t deter you from enjoying the book as a whole. Even a lunar colony is a group of people – people who are born, age, learn, die, worship, live, have fun, and work.