Contact information: Inside this issue: InfoInfo OfficerOfficer (General(General Info)Info) – [email protected]@fortworthastro.com Website Administrator – [email protected] Postal Address: Page Fort Worth Astronomical Society Club Event Calendar 3 3812 Fenton Avenue Fort Worth, TX 76133 This Month’s Celestial Events 4 Web Site: http://www.fortworthastro.org Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3eutb22 Lunar Ephemeris 4 Twitter:http://twitter.com/ftwastro Yahoo! eGroup (members only):: http://tinyurl.com/7qu5vkn New Members 5 Officers (2013-2014): Young Astronomers 5 President – Jim Murray, [email protected] Vice President – Matt Reed,[email protected] Article “What I saw of OZ” 6 Sec/Tres – Lewis Westerfield, [email protected] Board Members: Article “How to Hunt for your 7 2012-2014 very own supernova!” Phil Stage Bruce Cowles Cloudy Night Library 8 2013-2015 Bill Nichols Constellation of the Month 9 Jim Craft Mythology of... 10 Cover Photo: The Andromeda Galaxy October’s Full Moon Name 12 Photo by: Jerry Keith Stellarvue SVR105 triplet with a canon 1000D modified DSLR ISO 1600. About Did You Know 13 2.5 hours taken at Bucksnort Observa- tory on August 3rd, 2013 General Club Information 14 Observing Site Reminders: Prior Club Meeting Minutes 15 Be careful with fire, mind all local burn bans! Dark Site Usage Requirements (ALL MEMBERS): FWAS Foto Files 16 Maintain Dark-Sky Etiquette (http://tinyurl.com/75hjajy) Turn out your headlights at the gate! Cred it s Sign the logbook (in camo-painted storage shed. Inside the door on the left- hand side) Ed it o r: Log club equipment problems (please contact a FWAS board member to in- form them of any problems) Shawn Kirchdorfer Put equipment back neatly when finished Contributors: Last person out: FWMatt McCullar Check all doors – secured, but NOT locked Jerry Keith Make sure nothing is left out Brian Wortham Ben Hudgens The Fort Worth Astronomical Society (FWAS) was founded in 1949 and is a non-profit scientific educational organization incorporated in the state of Texas. This publication may be copied and Russ Boatright distributed for free only. This publication cannot be uploaded or distributed into any media unless it is in its original, full, unaltered, published form. All rights reserved by FWAS. AS PAGE 2 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OCTOBER 2013 OctoberOctober 20132013 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 FWMSH Star Party Bob Eden Park, Euless Sunset-11pm Born: Avery Brooks, (1948) Born: Robert Goddard actor Commander Sisko, (1882) father of the Space Star Trek Deep Space 9 NM Age (modern rocketry) 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1958 - US manned 1984 - Kathy Sullivan space-flight project becomes 1st US woman renamed Project to walk in space Mercury Born: Frank Herbert (1920) author, "Dune" FQ 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Young FWAS General Astronomers Meeting Meeting Meeting 7-8pm @ The Noble Planetarium 1994 - Space probe Starts 7-9pm Magellan burns up in atmosphere of Venus FM 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ORIONIDS METEOR SHOWER PEAK Born: Carrie Fisher (1956) actress, "Princess Leia" in Star Wars LQ 27 28 29 30 31 1998 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest Born: Michael Collins person to go into space. (1930) astronaut, Apollo 11 command module pilot OCTOBER 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 3 CELESTIAL EVENTS THIS MONTH Oct 01 - 01hr, Mars 7° N. of Moon Oct 14 - 17hr, Mars 1° N. Regulus Oct 03 - 09hr, Uranus at Opposition Oct 15 - 01hr, Neptune 6° S. of Moon Oct 04 - 20hr, New Moon Oct 16 - 11hr, Venus 1.6° N. of Antares Oct 06 - 17hr, Mercury 3° S. of Moon Oct 17 - 16hr, Uranus 3° S. Moon Oct 06 - 23hr, Saturn 1.9° N. of Moon Oct 18 - 19hr, Full Moon Oct 08 - 07hr, Venus 5° S. of Moon Oct 21 - 10hr, Mercury stationary Oct 09 - 05hr, Mercury greatest elong. E. (25°) Oct 25 - 09hr, Moon at Apogee Oct 10 - 14hr, Mercury 5° S. of Saturn Oct 25 - 17hr, Jupiter 5° N. of Moon Oct 10 - 18hr, Moon at Perigee Oct 26 - 19hr, Last Quarter Moon Oct 11 - 18hr, First Quarter Moon Oct 29 - 20hr, Mars 6° N. of Moon Oct 12 - 21hr, Juno 0.9° N. Moon, Occn. INTERESTING OBJECTS Deep Sky* - (C4) Iris Nebula, (C20) North America Nebula, (C63) Helix Nebula, (C65) Sculptor Galaxy, (M8) Lagoon Nebula, (M13) Great Globular in Hercules, (M20) Trifid Nebula, (M27) Dumbell Nebula, (M31) Andromeda Galaxy, (M57) Ring Nebula Stars - Albireo (Cygnus), Algol (Perseus), Arcturus (Boötes), Nu Draconis (Draco), Epsilon Lyrae "double-double" (Lyra) Constellations - Andromeda, Aquila, Capricorn, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Draco, Lyra, Pegasus, Ursa Minor Asterisms** - Frederick's Glory (Andromeda), Swoosh (Aquila), Kemble's Kite (Cassiopeia), Job's Coffin (Delphinus) Lunar Features** - Taruntius (R37), Arago Alpha & Beta (R35), Serpentine Ridge (R24), Lacus Mortis (R14), Triesnecker Rilles (R33) *C = Caldwell Catalog / M=Messier Catalog ***Asterisms ***R = Rükl Index Moon Map Data Sources: HistoryOrb.com (Today in History), Distant Suns (max), Lunar 100 Sky & Telescope Magazine & The Astronomical A lmanac (US Navy) Key to Geocentric Ephemeris of the Moon: http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/moon/moonkey.html PAGE 4 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OCTOBER 2013 WELCOMEWELCOME NEWNEW MEMBERSMEMBERS NewNew STARSSTARS ININ THETHE FWASFWAS UNIVERSE!UNIVERSE! Elaine & Brandon* Preston Jennifer, Juliet*, Ian,* Chloe*, Caeleb*, Ethan*, Han- nah*, & Lauren* Cox Bob & Lana Blackstock Kurt & Lynne Calender James & Zane Cart Lisa Pierce * = Young Astronomer Young Astronomers ctober’s YA! Meeting is about observing Locate and describe 3 galaxies (dark Galaxies. Elliptical, Spiral and Irregular site may be required to complete). Rec- O they are many and varied. These huge ord their locations and general shapes islands of stars and gas and dust are where al- on the YA! observing log sheets. Sketch most everything resides in our universe. Billions of if possible. galaxies are out there and many are visible with binoculars and small telescopes, and one is even Congratulations to the following YA! Member(s): visible with the naked eye! N/A To earn the YA! Badge for Nebula Observing, you must: OCTOBER 2013 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 5 What I saw of Oz by Russ Boatright athy and I were fortunate to visit Australia last February to attend the C 2012 edition of the Oz Sky Safari. This is something I’ve wanted to do ever since becoming friends with several Aus- sie astronomers visiting the 3RF campus out in Crowell, Texas. After several delightful days in Sydney, we traveled inland to Coonabarabran, the as- tronomy capital of Australia. The event is held a few miles outside of town at a country Inn called Warrumbungles Mountain Lodge, a Cathy and myownself by the city limits sign. neat place with the Castlereagh River flowing behind the star field behind the lodge. The location is just a stone’s throw from Siding Spring Observa- tory, the national observatory of Australia. 3RF Australia rents out the place for a week each year to ensure light restrictions are enforced. Plus, they stock the place with a number of telescopes; a 30”, a couple of 20s and 25s, and a 14”, all dobsonian reflectors equipped with go to technology. Upon finishing our first ever meal of barbequed kangaroo, we were confronted with the terror of every traveling stargazer; a bad weather forecast. There would be a threat of showers every night until week’s end, starting tonight. As things turned out, it would only be a problem for the first couple of nights, and only a shut out on the second night. But 3RF folks offered a ray of hope on that first night; there was a good chance of a clearing in the wee hours, so who wants a wake up knock should that happen? Count me in, I did- n’t travel half way around the world to sleep. When that loud knock woke me from my slumbers around 3:30 am, I felt the kind of excitement that a kid does on Christmas morning. I threw on some clothes and grabbed my binos and hurried out onto the field. I was confronted all at once by the splendor of it all; the famous Emu of the Milky Way, an aster- ism formed of dark nebula. It’s said to resemble the flightless bird, and it was dominant, stretching across the sky. My eye was then quickly drawn to an area of galaxy that seemed to be glowing. This was Eta Carina, nebula and star. There is nothing comparable in the northern hemisphere skies. Curious Roo checking us out coming down the mountain from Siding Springs Observatory. (Continued on page 11) PAGE 6 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OCTOBER 2013 How to hunt for your very own supernova! By Dr. Ethan Siegel n our day-to-day lives, stars seem like the most fixed and unchanging of all the night sky objects. Shining I relentlessly and constantly for billions of years, it's only the long-term motion of these individual nuclear fur- naces and our own motion through the cosmos that re- sults in the most minute, barely-perceptible changes. Unless, that is, you're talking about a star reaching the end of its life. A star like our Sun will burn through all the hydrogen in its core after approximately 10 billion years, after which the core contracts and heats up, and the heavier element helium begins to fuse. About a quarter of all stars are massive enough that they'll reach this giant stage, but the most massive ones -- only about 0.1% of all stars -- will continue to fuse leaner elements past carbon, oxygen, neon, magnesium, silicon, sulphur and all the way SN 2013ai, via its discoverer, Emmanuel Conseil, taken with the up to iron, cobalt, and, nickel in their core.