The Obiective View July 1999 David Chamness,President 482-1794 [email protected] Bob Carlson, VicePresident 669-9218 [email protected] Dee Wanger, Treasurer 493-3995 [email protected] Mike McCarthy, Secetary 493-5428 [email protected] Randy Moench, Web Site Editor WWW Page: http:/ /lamar.colostate.edu/ -rmoench/ncasrdm.html Dan Laszlo, Newsletter Editor 498-9226 [email protected] Next Meeting: luly 1, 7:00pm Lee Martinez Park, Fort Collins Picnic in the Park july Meeting Directions: The simple lenses of the day were not corrected for Lee MartinezPark is at 600 N SherwoodSt in Fort chromatic abberation. To avoid rainbow fringes around Collins. From N CollegeAve take Cherry St west 4 objects, aerial telescopes were constructed. An 8 inch blocks to Sherwood St, then north 2 blocks to the park. objective used by Huygens had a 210 foot focal length. Bring your own edibles,drinks, scopes. Too long for a supporting structure between the objective and eyepiece, optical alignment was achieved with difficulty, aided by wires, and assistants holding lamps Upcoming Events to find the light path. In the 18th century, reflectors were the instrument of choice. Willam Herschel and CSAS Star Stare July 8-11 Maraldi described major feafures and polar caps on Mars. with Astronomical League MARS regional meeting Schroeter documented markings on Marg but thought http: / / members.aol.com / by grensI CSAS.html they were clouds, as on Jupiter. Some similarities between Mars and Earth were noted. In the 19th cenfury Nebraska Star Party AugT-14 Fraunhofer designed doublet lens objectives with better image definition- than Herschel's mirrors. Beer and Weekend Under the Stars Madler used a 95mm Fraunhofer objective to map the Foxpark, Wyoming August 12-14 Moory then turned to Mars during the perihelic For more information, Marty Curran at307 635 5944 opposition of September, 1830. They described a "small htbp:/ / users.sisna.com/ mcurran round patch hanging from a undulating ribbon" now known as Sinus Meridiani. They concluded that features Mars Society Convention Aug 12-15 were constant, not cloud tops. They noted shrinkage of a Call Brad Jarvis for info,686-73\7, or on the web: polar cap, which they attributed to ice or snow. A dark www.marssociety.org area around the polar cap was explained as wet soil from melting. They measured Mars'rotation period. Mars was NCAS Star Parties, Pawnee site July 1.0and 17 also scrutinizedby John Herschel, Francois Arago, The site is on undeveloped prairie about 8 miles west of Mitchel, Father Secchi. Lockyer was acclaimed for the Briggsdale. Take Colorado Highway 14 East from I-25. "first really truthful representation of the planet." At 17 miles East of AulN just after milepost 170, take Dawes in 1862 brought "new precision to sfudies of Mars." Road 65 (dirt) North one mile. At the curve West, stop. The importance of seeing conditions on Earth became Co through the gate on the right (no road), close gate and clear. Observers were hobbled by Mars tiny disc most of set up. Beware of the cactus! Call Tom Teters for info, the time, and oppositions with Mars at its perihelion 482-5702,or email [email protected]. provided the best opportunity to glimpse details. Studies were advanced by the superior performance of Starwatch at Rocky Mountain National Park larger and larger refractors by Alvan Clark and Sons. At Site is the end of the Upper Beaver Meadows Road. the perihelion of 1877, Asaph Hall used the US Naval Contact Dan Laszlo if you wish to volunteer, 282-8692. Observatory 26 inch to find Mars' 2 satellites. British Dates are Friday nights: luly 16, July 23, August 6, August artist Nathaniel Green used a 13 inch reflector on the 20, September 3 island of Madeira to produce a markedly improved map, and documented clouds on the limb and terminator. 1877 May 5 Program: Lowell Observatory, by Dan Laszlo was the year of landmark studies by Giovanni Mars has been a challenging target of observers since the Schiaparelli. He had trained with Encke and Struve, invention of the telescope. In the 17th century, Cassini then took a post at Milan. He found asteroid 69 and Hooke recorded observations, and Huygens sketched Hesperia, and determined that Comet Swift-Tuttle (1862 a dark feature which is recognized today as Syrtis Major. III) was associated with the meteor shower in August. A new 8.6 inch Merz refractor was installe d in 1g74. In Ig77, document canals by photography, and water vapor by Schiaparelli had planned to use Martian nomenclature spectroscopy. Lowell died a believer in1916, but not proposed by Proctor. Since many feafures appeared before he had launched the search for planet X. Neptune substantially different, he performed micrometric appeared to deviate from its predicted path, and the measurements of latitude and longitud e of 62points on deviation was supposed to be-due to the gravitational the planef and produced the best documented map of influence of an unknown planet. Lawrence Mars Lowell to date. He also drew on his knowledge of classical provided funds for a 13 inch photographic telescope. It literature to assign new names to Martian feafures, with imaged 50,000stars with L hour on 1&17 inch dark areas water forms, light areas land forms. The "*po",r.", glass plates in typical parts of the sky, but in Gemini French astronomer Flammarion commented, the names where Planet X was suspected to lie, the plates had were "euphonic and charming,,, and they prevailed. But 300,000stars. A blink comparator was used for the hunt. the map was the first to show linear features called After a year of hunting, Clyde Tombaugh found a 15th canali, a term Father Secchi first used. Though he object on plates exposed interpreted January 23 and 29. It these elusive traces as natural, fngtisfr was-ugTT9" dubbed ,'pLu, ,,canals.,, Pluto, with initial letters amemorial to translations dubbed the features In 7ggl, Percival Lowell. Lowell astronomer V.M. Slipher was Camille Flammarion promoted the view that the canals the among the first to measure evidence of the expanding were the product of Mars, inhabitants, in his universe, the redshift, planete in 1972 - 1917. Lowell comprehensive book l"a Mars . percival Lowell Observatory continues to promote astronomy, with both received the book as a Christmas gift in 1g93. He was professional and amateur activities. The Visitor Center inspired to use his proceeds from the familv textile houses an auditorium equipped for multimedia programq business to locate a world-class observatory on the best and hands-on optics displays. The Clark 24 inch und u tO mountaintop site he could find, by Ftagstaff Arizona. inch reflecting telescope are used for public viewing. Lowell secured use of a 12 inch refractor from Harvard, Tours are offered of the grounds and iiU.ury. profeJsional and a new 18 inch Brashear refractor, and transported programs are based at the Anderson Mesa site outside them to the southwest with W.H. pickering anj A.E. Flagstaff. Research studies focus on comets and asteroids, Douglass. Their instruments suffered rain in June, Pluto, Jovian moon Io, and stellar evolution. The website through their unfinished observatory dome. Initially no has resources for asteroid observers, including an asteroid Martian canals were seen, and a disappointed Loweil finder chart plotter. Memberships start at $55, and returned to Boston. Douglass viewed cinals in his include a subscription to the quarterly newsletter, the absence,and when he refurned in August 1g94,Lowell was Lowell Observer. Visitors to Grand iunyon countrv will "sketciring proiificaiiy" (Wiiiiam Sheehan). He find Loweli Observatory well worth a stop. returned to Boston and with great fanfare promoted his view that Mars was laced with irrigation canals, a Lowell Observatory on the web: desperate attempt to distribute meltwater from the polar www.lowell.edu/ cap.sover the planet. Lowell was embraced by the piess and the public, and he deflected criticism by iismissing Contact information: (520)774 2096 competing views as the product of inferior instruments Lowell Observatory and conditions. Lowell published his book Mars in 1g95. 1400W Mars Hill Rd He secured a 24 inch Clark refractor for $20,000and it FlagstaffAZ 86001-4499 was installed in 1896. It was moved to Tacubaya Mexico in the hope of finding even better conditions, but came Further reading: back to Flagstaff. Lowell reported finding linear Lowell and Mars. William Graves Hovt. 1976. features on Venus. This and his other views met University of Arizona press. continuing challenges from the academic community, he www.uapress.arizona.edu / suffered a "breakdown of nerves,, and withdrew from astronomy for 4 years. A.E. Douglass experimented with Mars. Percival Lowell. 1895. Available online at artificial planetary disks and questionei Lowell,s www.wanderer.org / references/ lowell.Mars / methods, but was fired. Lick Observatory,s E.E. Barnard provided competing views, and W.W. Cimpbell failed to The Planet Mars. William Sheehan. spectroscopically 1996. Universitv detect water vapor. Alfred Russel of Arizona Press. Wallace refuted Lowell's assertion that Mars is often warm enough for liquid water. Antoniadi sketched Alvan Clark and Sons: Artists in Optics. Deborah canals with his mentor Flammarion Jean in the 1g90,s,but bv Warner. 1968. Smithsonian Institution press. the turn of the century was "agnostic', on canals. In 1909 at Meudon ,,I Observatory he reported have seen Mars NCAS Business more detailed than ever, and I pronounce the general From Tom Teters, a new NCAS Web home? configuration of the planet to be very irregular, and voted to accept Tom Teters, shaded lhe 11mlership proposal with markings of every degree of darkness. Mars that NCAS ,,ncastro.org,,.