eu News from the Society for Astronomical Sciences Vol. 14 No.3 (November, 2016) Getting Ready for SAS- 2017 The 2017 SAS Symposium will be held on June 15-16-17, 2017, at the Ontario Airport Hotel. There will be Work- shops on topics of interest to the small-telescope research community, Technical Papers on research results and project plans, and our Sponsors will have new products on display. The SAS Program Committee is pre- paring the details of the Symposium and looking into some new features. Here’s what you can start doing now: Block the dates (June 15-16-17, 2017) on your calendar. Make travel reservations. Keep working on your projects, and decide which one you would like to present. Start preparing your Abstract Invite your colleagues who are interested in small-telescope re- Reminders ... search activities. Membership Renewal: Even if you Workshop Videos: Video recordings of can’t attend the annual Symposium, most of the Workshops from recent years are available from SAS. If you Kudos or Criticisms? we value your support of the Society for Astronomical Sciences, and your were registered for the Workshop, then the recording is free. If you were not a We are looking forward to seeing re- interest in small-telescope science. registered attendee, then the price is sults on a wide diversity of projects You can renew your membership on $50 per workshop. Contact Bob and objects at SAS-2017! If you have the SAS website (SocAstroSci.org), by Buchheim ([email protected]) for any questions or ideas for the Sympo- going to the MEMBERSHIP/REGISTRATION the details. sium, or comments related to the 2016 tab. Symposium, please share them with Symposium Proceedings: Published Contact Information: If you haven’t the Program Committee at pro- proceedings from all recent Symposia been receiving e-mail messages about [email protected]. are freely available in PDF format at the Newsletter or the SAS Symposium, perhaps it’s because you’ve changed We will appreciate your input about the the PUBLICATIONS tab of the SAS web- your e-mail address. You can update technical sessions, the workshops, the site (www.SocAstroSci.org). your contact information on the hotel, the banquet, the lunchtime dis- Symposium Videos: If you missed a MEMBERSHIP/REGISTRATION tab of the cussions, and anything else that might recent Symposium, you can still watch SAS website. SAS never sells or help us improve the future SAS Sym- the presentations. Videos of most of shares your name or contact infor- posia. the technical presentations have been mation without your explicit permis- posted on the SAS website at the sion. PUBLICATIONS tab. Society for Astronomical Sciences Newsletter Vol 14 Number 3 Links to Videos of 2016 SAS Symposium Presentations Title Author Link to Video The Role of Amateur Astronomers in Ex- Dennis M Conti https://youtu.be/PIpzUZFv598 oplanet Research An Automated System for Citizen Searches Stephen J Edberg https://youtu.be/vRpQmKbsXQg for Exoplanets A Bespoke Spectropolarimetrist John L Menke https://youtu.be/5Tukpb6GbVY Measuring Stellar Radial Velocities with a David Boyd https://youtu.be/yxXK_w2-o_E LISA Spectrograph Crowd-Sourced Spectroscopy of Long Period John C Martin https://youtu.be/GZo0pWufUyg Mira-Type Variables Small telescope Spectropolarimetry: Instru- Gary M Cole https://youtu.be/DylEipi9a9o mentation and Observations Repeating the Experiment that made Einstein Donald G Bruns https://youtu.be/ADON2mIBysY Famous Small Telescope Research Communities of Russell M Genet https://youtu.be/SXQzHzdY32w Practice Empirical Measurements of Filtered Light Eric R Craine https://youtu.be/m8P24VXvZVw Emitting Diode (FLED) Replacements Clues to the Evolution of W Ursae Majoris Robert M Gill https://youtu.be/rYb98C2V2c8 Contact Binary Star Systems Follow Up Photometry on MOTESS-GNAT John E Hoot https://youtu.be/Z-SsxPjjPrM Variable Star Candidates New Observations of the Variable Star NGC Jerry D Horne https://youtu.be/ZNiymaTwVz0 6779 V6 Mixed-model Regression for Variable-star Eric V Dose https://youtu.be/mc0ym-NBYVU Photometry Predicting a Luminous Red Novae Daniel M Van Noord https://youtu.be/YKR3Ev4w5jA White Dwarf WD-1145 Thomas G Kaye https://youtu.be/I38sdKCUd7g Astronomical Instrumentation System Markup Jesse M Goldbaum https://youtu.be/FRs9Bqwtsb8 Language (AISML) M-Dwarf discovery and variability from seren- Wayne L Green https://youtu.be/XJ6uQmmVK3A dipitous field star observations. Early Images of Sodium in the Tail of Comet Tom Buchanan https://youtu.be/g8F5AOKahSA Hale-Bopp What color is PG1302-102? Robert K Buchheim https://youtu.be/VDFv9aYDXQw 2 Society for Astronomical Sciences Newsletter Vol 14 Number 3 Symposium Sponsors The Society for Astronomical Sciences thanks the following companies for their participation and financial support. Without them, our Symposium would not be possible. We encourage you to consider their fine products for your astronomical needs. Sky & Telescope Magazine The Essential Magazine of Astronomy http://www.skyandtelescope.com/ DC3 Dreams Software Developers of ACP Observatory Con- trol Software http://www.dc3.com/ PlaneWave Instruments Makers of the CDK line of telescopes http://www.planewaveinstruments.com/ Woodland Hills Camera & Telescopes Providing the best prices in astronomical products for more than 50 years http://www.telescopes.net/ Sierra Remote Observatories Hosting telescopes for remote imaging and data acquisition http://www.sierra-remote.com/ 3 Society for Astronomical Sciences Newsletter Vol 14 Number 3 Targets that need your at- www.spectro-aras.com/forum/. Double Stars: Alan Whitman’s article in Sky & Tel (November 2015, p. 53) tention WD-1145+17: As Tom Kaye de- mentioned two visual double stars that scribed in his presentation at SAS- Quite a few objects and projects were are not in the WDS, and for which no 2016, something odd is going on at accurate relative astrometry (ρ, θ) has identified at SAS-2016 that are in need this “zombie star”. The truth is out of monitoring and/or follow-up. been reported. These are both in Ar- there, but further time-series photome- ies, well-placed for this season. To refresh your memory – and your try is needed, to find it. The star is in observing list – here are the ones that Virgo (RA 11h 48m 33.63s, Dec +01° GSC 1212-0409 is reported to be a are well-placed for this observing sea- 28′ 59.4″), so the observing season for pair of nearly-equal mag 12.5 stars, son: mid-northern latitudes begins in De- with separation of about ρ≈ 6 arc-sec. cember (really early in the morning). BRITE target: The following northern- Beware, it’s about mag 17. GSC 1212-0301 is reported to be a hemisphere stars have been identified pair consisting of a mag 10.3 and mag as BRITE targets for which ground- Pi-03 Ori (π-3 Ori) (F6V, V 3.2) is one 10.6 stars, with separation of about based observations are requested: of the chromospheric activity stars that ρ≈7 arc-seconds. Dr. Kafka mentioned. This should be eps Per (ε Per) Vmag ≈ 2.9 displays an interesting target for long-term Could one or two of you measure (ρ, beta Cephei-type pulsations. Time- monitoring with medium-resolution θ) for these, and report them via resolved spectroscopy, with time reso- spectroscopy. JDSO? lution better than 15 minutes is re- Transients: Obviously, these are quested. The BRITE contacts are: HD 2421 is a challenging spectroscop- ic binary (single-lined) with delta V of targets of opportunity. Use your slit- Elzbieta Zoclonska ([email protected]) less spectrograph (e.g. and Gerald Handler (ger- about 35 km/sec. It is nicely placed for evening observation in Andromeda. SA-100 grating) to classify faint transi- [email protected]) . The star’s coordi- ents reported on the ATel, ASASSN, nates are RA= 03:57:51.2, Dec= and CBAT transients web pages. 40:00:36.77. Several projects should be triggered AAVSO Alert: when a bright-enough nova or SN ap- CI Cam is the B[e] optical counterpart pears: confirmation of the transient, Targets mentioned at SAS-2016: of a HMXB system. and was reported photometric monitoring, and spectro- VV Cep: This target is still observable, in outburst in early October. AAVSO scopic examination. promptly after dark. A long run of pre- Alert Notice 559 requests BVRI pho- The best way to start is to try your eclipse photometry and spectroscopy tometry in support of high-res spec- hand when the next reasonably-bright is needed to characterize the system troscopy being done at La Palma. transient appears. before the eclipse begins. Based on This appears to also be a fruitful target prior eclipses, first contact is expected for amateur-scale spectroscopy (see Refer to Dr. Martin’s presentation at in August 2017, so now is the time to the ARAS website for recent amateur the SAS-2016 “Small Telescope Spec- start if you haven’t already. The emis- spectra). It is nicely placed for evening troscopic Research” workshop for sion features seem to change from observations, at R.A. 04 19 42.14 practical tips about observations and night-to-night (at R≈ 5000 or higher), Dec. +55 59 57.7. Photometric and data analysis. out-of-eclipse. Refer to the ARAS spectroscopic observations should be discussion forum for more about this continued through January, 2017. system. See ACP Expert at the Great Basin The Great Basin Observatory, a research-class astronomical observatory, is the first of its kind in any national park. The Observatory Great Basin Observatory opens up the darkest night skies in by Bob & Stephanie Denny, DC3 Dreams the United States to scientists, and future scientists, by con- Culminating a 4 year process of securing funding, operating ducting world-class research and education, thanks to budgets, National Park Service permissions, and only 5 the Great Basin National Park Foundation and their donors.