Highlights of the April Sky. -- -- -- 2nd -- -- -- The Moon below Neptune at dawn. PPrime Focuss -- -- -- 4th -- -- -- A Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Venus near a very thin Moon, look east about 20 minutes before sunrise. April 2008 -- -- -- 5th -- -- -- New Moon 11:55 pm EDT ThisThis MonthsMonths KAS EventsEvents -- -- -- 8th -- -- -- The Moon occults the Pleiades, 10 pm. General Meeting: Friday, April 4 @ 7:00 pm -- -- -- 12thth -- -- -- Kalamazoo Math & Science Center - See Page 10 for Details The Moon less than 2º ofof Mars after midnight. Observing Session: Saturday, April 5 @ 8:00 pm First Quarter Moon Saturn & Orion Nebula - Kalamazoo Nature Center 2:32 pm EDT thth Astronomy Day: Saturday, April 19 @ 10:00 am -- -- -- 14 -- -- -- Moon is right of Saturn Kalamazoo Nature Center - See Page 3 for Details and Regulus after dusk. -- -- -- 19th -- -- -- Observing Session: Saturday, April 19 @ 8:00 pm The Moon is 4º oror 55º belowbelow Saturn & Full Moon - Kalamazoo Nature Center Spica at dusk. -- -- -- 20th -- -- -- Full Moon 6:25 am EDT Inside the Newsletter. Inside the Newsletter. -- -- -- 22nd -- -- -- Lyrid meteor shower peaks March Meeting Minutes.........................p. 2 (10--20 meteors per hour). Board Meeting Minutes......................... p. 3 -- -- -- 23rd -- -- -- Astronomy Day 2008............................ p. 3 The Moon south of Antares before dawn. KAS Online Redesign Underway........ p. 4 Turtles and the Speed of Light............ p. 4 -- -- -- 27th -- -- -- The Moon passes 4º southsouth Rhea Also May Have Rings................... p. 5 of Jupiter, 4 am. NASA Space Place.................................. p. 6 -- -- -- 28thth -- -- -- Membership of the KAS........................p. 7 Last Quarter Moon 10:12 am EDT April Night Sky........................................ p. 8 Mars passes 5º southsouth ofof KAS Officers & Announcements........ p. 9 Pollux, 11 pm. General Meeting Preview..................... p. 10 www.kasonline.org March Meeting Minutes The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society buted in 1878. Mark showed a historical photo of this im- was brought to order by President Jack Price on Friday, March pressive looking scope, which had an aperture of 1.22 meters 7th at 7:15 pm EST. Approximately 40 members and guests (the Leviathan had since fallen under disrepair). This was were in attendance at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science the last major telescope to use a speculum metal mirror (an Center (KAMSC). alloy of tin and copper) and never performed well. It was regulated to observing only the Moon. The last refracting Mark Miller, former President of the KAS, gave the feature telescope to hold the record was the Yerkes Observatory 1- presentation of evening, which he called BIG: The History of meter (40-inch) instrument that debuted in 1897. It’s still the the World’s Largest Telescopes. Mark mentioned that much world’s largest refractor today. of the material for his talk came from the book The History of the Telescope by Henry C. King. The first telescope was the The next two record holders were located on Mt. Wilson. human eye and the one used through most of human history The first was a 60-inch reflector in 1908. The second was (still used today by amateur astronomers). Hans Lippershey is the 100-inch Hooker telescope that debuted in 1917. Edwin credited by many as the inventor of the first telescope - likely Hubble used this telescope to discover the expansion of the sometime in 1608 (400 years ago). Mark said this invention universe. This telescope was finally toppled in 1947 when was inevitable no matter who built the first one. the 200-inch Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar came along. Mark mentioned this telescope made too many discoveries to Thomas Harriot (not Galileo Galilei) is thought to be the first mention with the time remaining in his presentation. person to use a telescope to observe the night sky. He made a sketch of the Moon in July 1609. However, Harriot never The Russians attempted to capture the record holder with published any of his findings. Galileo was the first person to their 6-meter, f/4 Bolshoi Teleskop Azimutalnyi (BTA). observe the night sky in a systematic way and publish his Built in 1976, this telescope never performed as hoped. work. Galileo went on to build a series of the world’s largest telescopes - all refractors. John Hevelius was the first person The twin 9.8-meter Keck Telescopes made their debut on to create an accurate atlas of the Moon (published in 1647) Mauna Kea in Hawaii in 1992 and 1996. This was followed using long focal length refractors (60 and 140 feet). by the Very Large Telescope (VLT); which consists of four 8.2-meter telescopes in Cerro Paranal, Chile. Mark stated Christiaan Huygens built a large “air telescope” in 1686. It that judging the world’s largest telescope today can be very had a focal length of 125 feet and an aperture of only 0.19 confusing since modern instruments like Keck and the VLT meter, which made its focal ratio a whopping f/197! Mark are interferometers; where smaller telescopes are combined said the refractors of this era had long focal lengths so that to mimic the resolution of a larger one. Do you measure they could reduce the effects of chromatic aberration; caused their combined aperture or the individual telescope? by the poor lenses of the time. James Gregory invented the first reflecting telescope in 1663 (the Gregorian reflector), but Mark gave the current title of “World’s Largest Telescope” never actually built one. Sir Isaac Newton built a reflector in to the Large Binocular Telescope on Mt. Graham in Arizona. 1672, which had a mirror 0.1 meter in diameter. James Short This telescope uses two 8.4-meter mirrors side-by-side and constructed a 0.5-meter aperture Gregorian reflector in 1758. has the light gathering capacity of an 11.8-meter telescope. Depending on how you look at it, this will be replaced by the William Herschel built two record breaking telescopes. The 10.4-meter Gran Telescopio Canarias in the Canary Islands. first had an aperture of 0.47-meter and a focal length of 20 This monster is due to come online in May 2008. Many feet. This instrument was in use between 1783 and 1838. The Godzilla-like telescopes are on the horizon. These include second had an aperture of 1.22 meters and a focal length of 40 the Giant Magellan Telescope (seven 8.4-meter telescopes), feet. This telescope was in use between 1789 ad 1815. It was the Thirty Meter Telescope, and the European Extremely destroyed during a storm and never rebuilt - likely because it Large Telescope (or E-ELT - an 42-meter goliath). never performed very well in the first place. In all, Herschel built over 400 telescopes in his day! After the snack break, Jack gave a brief president’s report. Several members reported observing the Total Lunar Eclipse The next large telescope came along in 1845. This was the on February 20th despite the bitter cold temperature. News “Leviathan of Parsonstown” - a 1.22-meter reflector built by events mentioned included an avalanche caught-in-the-act on William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse on his estate, Birr Mars and possible rings around Rhea. It was also mentioned Castle, in Ireland. This was the first telescope to show struc- that KAS member Paul Asmus first joined the KAS exactly ture in “spiral nebulae” (galaxies). The next world’s largest 28 years ago to the day. Happy anniversary Paul and thanks telescope was “The Great Melbourne Telescope,” which de- for the support! The meeting concluded at 9:18 pm. Prime Focus Page 2 April 2008 Astronomy Day 2008 Board Meeting Minutes nomy Day 2008 Saturday, April 19 th The KAS Board met on March 9 at Sunnyside Church. Presi- The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society will once again bring dent Jack Price brought the meeting to order at 5:10 pm. Also astronomy to the people by hosting a day of exciting and present were Richard Bell, Jean DeMott, Dick Gillespie, Rich informative activities in conjunction with Open House Day Mather, Mike Sinclair, and Roger Williams. at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Jack summarized briefly the events planned for March/April. th th Below is the tentative schedule of activities on April 19 . If The Messier Marathon of March 8 had only three intrepid you would like to volunteer your services and/or have any attendees (Richard, Jack Roach, and Dave Woolf), and the ideas, questions, or comments please contact Richard Bell wind chill index was brutal. The Harlow Shapley lecture on (373-8942) or Jean DeMott (381-1406). March 25th and Full Moon Theater on March 29th were also discussed. Plans were also in order for set-up of tables at the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s production of Holst’s “The MAIN PROGRAMMING 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Planets” on April 18th. Finally, Astronomy Day was con- firmed for Earth Day (April 19th) at the Kalamazoo Nature Our main activities will take place in the Glen Vista Room, Center. The focus will be Mercury and the Sun, and planned which is located in the main building at the Nature Center. activities (besides solar viewing) included the usual coloring Elevator access is available through the lower level entrance. pages for small children, sun dial construction, and a demon- stration of crater formation. Hands-on Make a crater, an actual working sundial, or color a Rich gave a treasurer’s report showing current total assets of picture to display at home. $14,684.76. He had purchased two certificates of deposit as instructed at the last board meeting, one of $5,000 for general Displays revenues and one of $5,810.97 for the land acquisition fund.