ilntt . nt t Astron o m {fre (Focafeolni Years of Vol. X No. 7 December, 1997 December12th Meeting of the Atlante a new,modern 5060 s€t planetariutrLThis spacewould be AstroDomyClub et the Fernbank usedfor clasroom teachingand OpenHouse wents. We Planeterium. also have proposedthe p:rcbase of two 16' Meade This month's meetingwill be held on Decenber telescopes,orE of which would be located at the l2th at the Fen$ankScierpe Center's Planetarium at 8:00. Observatory,ard theoth€r at a dark site, rcmotetyoperated. Dueto thBWinter Holidays,tlrc meting is scheduledftr This plan would allow us to haveone modemtelescolE at thes€cond not thethird weekin December.Fernbank will the Observatoryfor pedagogicalpurposes, ard anotbr be tEating us io a Christmaspla:rtarium so pleasecorre modemtelescope in dark skies for student and facdty outand enjoy youself. rEs€archFojects. olr proposalis pan of the College's MasterPla4 and ny bope is rhAt the addition can!e Bredley Notes . dedicatedat lbe 50th Amivenary of tb€ Brddlery by CbrisDe Pree Observatoryin Jure,2000. BradleyObservatory, Agnes Scott College Firully, we arcplanning to usethe Beck telescope in It's beena busy monthat the BradleyObsewatory. thedorp for OpenHouse events, student observing, ard an The semesteris wirding down,ard we only haveamther atrnosphericsensing project with GeorgiaTech Research fewdays of classat AgrresScon College. Helerc Diclcel d Institute.This type of res€archis caled LIDAR (a fte theUniversity of Illinois at UftartaChampagrc was our fir$ BradleyT-shirt to the fr$ en!.il I get conecdyexplaining guestOpen House lecuer at the Obsewatorylast month. wbat LIDAR standsfor!), ard can be used to Fobe IIer visit went extetrEly well; shcwas able to speakwith temperahrc,oensity, and compositionof the aunospherE. studentsin the rryperlevel GalacticAstommy couse as We will be movingalrcad with this plan in the spring. well as with sone seniorhigh schoolgds who carneto I wishyou all a HappyHoliday SeasonIf you have visit from SL PiusX school.Though the weatlrcr was poor, ary questions or comments, ple€se email rne at wehad good atrendance for hertalk on November?th [email protected] call meat (404)6386266. This monthwe will haveour Holidry OpenHouse on December5th, ad I will lecirG on the topic of "What Something to Consider was the Star of Betl etpm?' Phinp Saccowill be in by Philip Sacco dtendarEewith his Dobsonianto belp our gu€stslook d In firy readingsI lave comeacKrss many inreEsting thelovely anargement of plarFtsin the southwestemsky at itemsof considention Orc of theseis caled frojfadqtal sunsetSpecial thanks to Philip for providingnp with some lctsitg AlbenEinst€in purpofis that spaceis "curved"by geal softwarcto showthe plaEtaty positionsin ttp spring gEvity ad tlE neasurcof the qln/dur€ is the anount d of 7 B.C. TlErc t,as a triple conjurction of Jupiterard gravityan objecthas. This irrylies tbat light itsef conldb€ Sahrm thet occu[ed on W 29, Sepember29 ad bent arourdvery stlong gravitationalfrelds. Becaused December4 whichis perh4s tlF originof th€'staf story. that,some lheorized that €xg€mely dislant and fainr objects I pomisedto dcscribcsomc of thechanges that uG hopewill occurh tb E fifrrt€ at lhe Obs€watory.In theshort tem\ we havcordct€d two rEw lvtreadeLX50 8' telescopesfor theAstrcrDmy l2l course(secord setrEster inuoductoryastlonory) in the spring.The Astommy 120 cou$e in the spring will contirnr to use our C8 telescopes.We aI€also having the physical plant build an enclosureso 0|atthe Celestron Cl4 rhatwas in the dome will havea penrurEnthonrc on thc observationdeck Finally we have ordereda radio telescopesetup iom Jeft€y Lichtman'scompary, ald lope to have that operationalin thespring. We also havesome larger plans. The Depaffiiem of Physicsard Astronomyhas poposed the building d anaddition on the mrth sideof therObsewatory to hous6 might beconrc visible if" their liglt is b€nt ard acnrally The coune's home page is located at focusedarourd a large masssuch as a gala! . This wasfi$t http://hubcap.clernson.edu/-rickeym/asironom].. statedin 1937but was provedin 1979when t$o idemical html. Included on the home page arc descriptions d quasa$where spottedvery close togeth€r. lt was exuemety asfonomy laboratoryexercises, which Mr. McDaniel cals unlikely that there would be idemical twin quasa$, so it "Skylabs", examplesof past exams, and links to additioml mustbe the light from a single qusar being warpedamurd rcsouces, inctuding tlrc course's text book. The course an imisible galaxy. IrnagitE ttelt Vhat we have in efect corce nttes on Solar System asuoft)my, ard its exercis€s is a telescopemade o of an entire galary! and topics help understandthe planets, moons, and other Since thert' many otlrr lens objects have b€en solar systembodies. A couple of the labsconcenlrate on the discovercd. In some casestlr galary is bright enough!o be movenent of the eartl and otlFr planets, puning somc seen. In one casethe quasarimages arc slighrly differcft due perspectiveon our placein the solar systern to the frt that the path of the liglt from one side is a bit The Inrernet, and particularly the World Wide Web longer then ftom the other by se\-elal ligbt yean. Think have becometlrc home gouod for marry experim€ntsin aboutthis for a minute..... that meanswe have two images electonic delivery ard electrnic educatiol The LAP'TAG of the same object......................................butat Virtual School (Los Angeles Plrysics Teachers AlliarEe dillercnt times! Group) is orc such experinent. The home page, locatedar htF ://coke.physics.ucla"eduflaptag/ The Web Astronomer Astro.dir/asto.html presentsa "Virtual School Astommy by cil shillcutt Course", which foeses on th€ scierce of astronomy - s!€ctr4 light curvesand data analysis. Asroweb l0l The labs are prEsentedas MS Word files for downloading, and explor€ Writing a colurnntends to foc s vadous topics zuch as the amount d yoqr thoughs. when I starteddoing the enersr releasedin a celestial impoct "Web Astmmmei' I wonderedlpw and tri+olor imagery. This site is marrytopics I'd be able to write about. text-intensive. and thercfoe loads To my chagdn,not only arcth€rc erDugh quickly. Therc arEeven pointe$ to a topics to write about, I ftd tbat ther€ arc too many! couple of neat shaEwarcapplicatioN; Narrowing your focus is tougl\ but listening to what others Skyglob€, a placurium prognm, and have questions about ard wherc their interess lie helps. GeoCloclqa program lhat superimposesimages of clock One of the club membersasked during the last neeting over arEisof tle globe, showing the time at each of ODse whether or not dErc werc any rcsourc€savailable on the locations. lnternet. What a geal topic - pef€ct for the "Web Taking a sornewhatditreFnt appmactr Jack Troeger Asuomrnef'. of lowa Stab Univeisiiyi'as creaicda 1r€'opage desigEd to As with marrydisciplircs, asEonomy encompasscs a tate the beginner though basic steps to understanding greilt vadety of sp€cializedfields, ard varying levels d astronomy better. Entitled "An Astronomy Course br commitmenttom its practitioners.Knowing that you'rE Middle'High School Students", this site is located at interestedin astonomywithout krowing whatspecific areas http://wlr.w.cnde.iastate.edu of endeavoryou're intercstedin is like krnwingyou wantO /stafr/jEoegEr/astronomy.htsnl. paint something, but not kmowing arything about In the cous€, studentsare taken tbrough a seriesd techniquesor subjects. You might achlallyget something anicles,each with a seriesof links to otlEr astFnomy w€b on thecarvas, but you probablywon't be pleasedwith the pagesand to olher articles. Mr. Tmeger prcsenls sxch Fsults,ard won't careto try agai!. topics as "Light Pollution'', "Obsewing the Night Sky", Somebasics can get you srarteddown tbe riglrt pao. "Binoculars and Telescopes","Galaxies ard Quasa$" and The AAC is a g€at resourcefor th€ basics,and nothing Cosmolog5r.Along the way, he prcsentsinfomration on tlE beatsoneon{ne instructionad guidance.But lef s fu it mooq planets, sta$ anl nebulae. An article of particular folk - if you wantto catchsotrF d interestto AACers is the section on light pollutioq which the nnrc experiencedclub menbe$ showsphotographs of the Big in a seningappmpriate for leamirg Dipper with and without liE}lt asllosrmy, you've got to travel to pollution The photographd Villa Rica or someother observing a sectionof th€ rural Midwest site, purchasebooks at whal€vercost, or go about it on your (with Chicago in one conrr) own Another option would be to tate im asttonomy cDrlse shows how Fevalenr ttE ftom a local community college, but that costs a lot, and problernis. There's sven a you've got to be able to stick to a r€gular schedule. light pollution map of the = Severalcolleg€s have recognizedthis fe! aflt hfle elfire US that's pointed to dweloped w${ased cours€s. Not or y does this allow viaa link. Atlanta is all too peopleto take cours€stlut OK,yotherwise would mt be able easy to pick out of this map. to attend, it allows the anateur a glimpse of the course But not to despak, links arc materials. Rick McDaniel of tbe &eeNille Technical provided to show the student College in Greerville, South Carolina has made available what can be done to combat 'AST suppl€mentarymaterials for the College's lof' light pollution and to become involved. I fourd that sonE @ulse. of the links were sersitive to lhe version of browser that I 2 wils using, ard sonp did not allow permissionsto e€ss Roxborobecomes Wieuca on the other side of petrhfte the page. These were most litely due to the secrurity Stay in right larrc when crossing Perhtee The toad fircwal tllat I must traverse to get !o the IntenEt. will fo* again at traffic light/stop sign. Stay to tlE Nonetheless,most articles ar€ well written and to the poilt, riglrt to tlr€ stop sign ard provide information imponant to urdertanding o Take Wieuca to Whittin8on asEonomy.