Vol. 35, No. 7/8 July/August 2004 The Transit of Venus Transit of Venus June 8, 2004 10:25 UT Thunder Bay, Ontario For this historic transit of Venus across the sun the editor traveled to Thunder Bay, Ontario where the transit was visible for an hour longer than at home. Our host in this picture is Randy McAllister from the Thunder Bay RASC club. It seems that Saskatchewan was mainly clouded over for the event, but those determined to see it still found clear skies, even if they had to travel to chase holes. See the Venus reports in this issue by the presidents of our two Saskatchewan clubs, Rick Huziak from Saskatoon and Vance Petriew from Regina, who did witness the event from close to home. In this issue… Membership Information, Bottle Drive & U of S Observatory Hours 2 RASC Calendar of Events; General Meeting Notice 3 HELP WANTED – SSSP Volunteers Needed 3 The Editor’s Corner 4 The Big Fat Greek Transit 4 Adventures in Planetary & People Motions 5 Notes from a Backyard Astronomer 6 The Chatfield Binoc Challenge – Part 1 7 Saskatoon Centre Going from Messier and FNGC to Herschel 400 Club 8 The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Sky Buys & Mirror Cells 8 P.O. Box 317, RPO University Lunar Transit Phenomena Research Program 9 Saskatoon, SK S7N 4J8 The Messier, H-400 & H-400 II, FNGC, Binoc & EtU Club 10 URL: http://duke.usask.ca/~ges125/rasc Observing Group Notes 10 E-MAIL: [email protected] TELEPHONE: (306) 665-3392 Membership? It’s never too late to join! About this Newsletter… Regular: $52.00/year Youth: $27.50/year Newsletter Editor – Tenho Tuomi Production & Layout – Linda Janzen The Saskatoon Centre operates on a one-year revolving membership. You will be Copy – Brian Friesen & WBM Collate – Brian Friesen, Walter Essar, a member for the next 12 months no matter when in the year you join. If you do Jim Young, Les & Ellen Dickson, not want to join at this time, ask to get onto our FREE 3-month Temporary Yannis Pahatouroglou Labels & Temps – Mike Clancy Membership list. You will receive regular mailings of our Saskatoon Skies Web Posting – Gord Sarty newsletter and will be invited to participate in Centre activities. Members are Printing of this Newsletter is courtesy of encouraged to renew early to avoid disruption in publications. Renew through the WBM OFFICE SYSTEMS membership coordinator, Mike Clancy, or renew through the National Office and 601 2nd Avenue North let Mike know that you did! Saskatoon, SK S7K 2C7 Copying is provided on a Risograph copier Benefits of Membership in the Saskatoon Centre for a nominal fee. Saskatoon Skies is published monthly by the • knowledgeable & friendly amateur • SkyNews Magazine (bimonthly) Saskatoon Centre of the RASC. Distribution is astronomers • use of the Centre library approximately 100 copies per issue. Saskatoon Skies welcomes unsolicited articles, sketches, • use of the Sleaford Observatory • discounts to Sky & photographs, cartoons, and other astronomy or • use of the U of S Observatory (after Telescope Magazine space science articles. Articles can be sent by mail in any format to the Centre’s mailbox. Submitted training) •free, no-cost, no-obligation, materials can be returned upon request. • Saskatoon Skies Newsletter 3-month temporary membership if Submissions may also be sent by e-mail – preferred as plain unformatted ASCII text files without • Observer’s Handbook 2004 you don’t want to join right now! line breaks. Images sent by e-mail should be • The Journal of the RASC attached .JPGs (.GIFs also accepted). Send e-mail submissions to the editor at <[email protected]>. (bimonthly) Please send articles in “generic” formats with simple formatting – one tab at the beginning of paragraphs, one space after commas and periods. A separate by-mail subscription to Saskatoon Skies Saskatoon Centre’s main officers: is available for $15.00 per year. Saskatoon Skies is President – Rick Huziak also posted on our Saskatoon Centre homepage as a .pdf file and can be downloaded free-of-charge. Vice-President – Ron Waldron Members may choose to receive the newsletter by Secretary – Al Hartridge regular mail or via the Internet. Articles may be Treasurer – Barb Young reprinted from Saskatoon Skies without expressed permission (unless otherwise stated), but source credit is requested. DEADLINE for submissions is the 26th of each month. Saskatoon Skies accepts commercial advertising. Please call the editor for rates. Members can advertise non- U OF S OBSERVATORY commercial items free of charge. The U of S Observatory is open to the general public every Saturday of the year. Admission is free. The observatory is located on campus, one block north of the Wiggins Avenue and College Drive entrance. On clear nights, visitors may look through the Bottle vintage 6-inch and tour several displays. Current events are recorded on the Astronomy Drive Information Line at 966-6429. Observatory Hours: & January-February 7:30-9:30 pm Canadian Tire $ March 8:30-10:30 pm by Darrell Chatfield April 9:30-11:30 pm Canadian Tire Money collected to date is May-July 10:00-11:30 pm $50. Thank you to all who contributed to August 9:30-11:30 pm our fundraising for the Centre. Please September 8:30-10:30 pm bring your bottles and Canadian Tire Money to the General meetings. I will October-December 7:30-9:30 pm collect them after the meeting concludes. If you cannot make it to the meeting but would like to contribute, please call me at 374-9278. SASKATOON SKIES JULY/AUGUST 2004 2 2004 RASC Calendar of Events DATE EVENT CONTACT TELEPHONE Aug. 11-12 Perseid Meteor Shower Peak Rick Huziak 665-3392 Aug. 12 Noctilucent Cloud Season ends Rick Huziak 665-3392 Aug. 12-15 Saskatchewan Summer Star Party (SSSP ’04) – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park Les Dickson 249-1091 Aug. 14-22 Mt. Kobau Star Party – Osoyoos, BC Jim Failes (250) 763-6962 Sept. 9-12 Alberta Star Party, Eccles Ranch, Caroline, AB, http://www.syz.com/rasc/asp2004.htm Rick Huziak 665-3392 Sept. 17-19 Northern Prairie Starfest,East Alberta, http://edmontonrasc.com/nps.html Rick Huziak 665-3392 Sept. 20 Executive Meeting – Rm 175 Physics, U of S, 6:30 p.m. Rick Huziak 665-3392 Sept. 20 General Meeting – Your Summer Astronomy Vacation: SSSP, the AAVSO/ALPO Meeting & More – Rm 175 Physics, U of S, 7:30 p.m. Rick Huziak 665-3392 Monday, Sept 20, 7:30PM Room 175 Physics, U of S Presenting: The 2004 Cypress Hills SSSP Volunteers Needed Saskatchewan Summer by Rick Huziak This is an appeal to members who are registered for or may register Star Party for SSSP. The event is more or less organized, but we could use some by Les Dickson and others volunteers to help run the show once we are there. The SSSP relies on members of the Saskatoon and Regina clubs to provide the resources The AAVSO, ALPO, ASP & AL to pull off the best star party in Saskatchewan! But it takes people to do this. And with a committee of 7, we cannot do everything at the Annual Meeting in star party. Oakland, California So if you are coming, and would like to volunteer a few hours of your star party time, we’d really appreciate it. We need the following jobs by Rick Huziak done so if you volunteer, we can put you to work. Note: There will be an Executive meeting at 6:30 p.m. • ‘taxi’ driver • gopher • grocery shopper Sky Publishing Corporation • pop sales Pulls the Discount Plug • observing coffee gopher by Rick Huziak • Meadows security • workshops The S&T discount program I described for you a few months ago [May issue] has been cancelled in part by Sky Publishing • Wapiti Room helper (customer service [email protected]). In their • kitchen helper for coffee making/sales words: “The 10% discount for book and products order has been discontinued. We still offer the discount for club members who If you’d like to help out, give me a call, so we can add your name to subscribe to Sky & Telescope magazine through their club. Thank the volunteer listing. (Rick – 665-3392) Any materials required for You, Anna Tanner, Customer Service”. these jobs is covered by the SSSP. Thanks in advance. SASKATOON SKIES JULY/AUGUST 2004 3 The Editor’s Corner by Tenho Tuomi crew walked around the table of stacks of pages and assembled the newsletters, which they then stapled and folded and put into It looks as if everyone has envelopes. Mike provided the mailing labels. I don’t think the survived my first months as whole process took even one hour. All I could do is stand out of the editor of Saskatoon Skies way and watch, as everyone else seemed to know exactly what he after taking over from or she was doing. Rick Huziak last Then according to tradition, as Rick reported in the April December, thanks to Rick, and Saskatoon Skies, as many as were able to stay walked over to all the articles that everyone sent in. It certainly has been a learning experience. Earl’s Restaurant across the street where we talked about music, I quickly found out that as editor I am only one part of a team that good books that we had read, and a little bit about astronomy. I produces the newsletter. enjoyed Jim’s description of how beautiful the sky looks even from the city when walking to work at 4 in the morning. In the April 2002 issue of Saskatoon Skies,Rick gave a detailed description of what is entailed in putting out the newsletter each Part of the team behind the scenes is Gordon Sarty, another former month.