San Diego Astronomy Association Celebrating Over 50 Years of Astronomical Outreach January 2018 http://www.sdaa.org A Non-Profit Educational Association P.O. Box 23215, San Diego, CA 92193-3215 Annual Banquet Date: January 27, 2018 Speaker: David Reitze Topic: LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Next SDAA Business Meeting Gravitational-Wave Observatory January 14th at 7:00pm 7270 Trade Street San Diego, CA 92121 Next Program Meeting January 27, 2018 at 7:00pm Handlery Hotel & Resort 950 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, CA 92108 David Reitze, Professor of physics at the University of Florida, will be our guest speaker. Professor Reitze is currently at Caltech as the Executive Director of LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The 2017 CONTENTS Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three scientists working on the LIGO January 2018, Vol LVI, Issue 1 project. Published Monthly by the San Diego Astronomy Association Einstein predicted that massive accelerating objects such as colliding black holes or Incorporated in California in 1963 neutron stars would cause the very fabric of space-time to ripple, sending waves across Annual Banquet.......1 space. However, he thought they would be so tiny as to be undetectable. December Minutes...........3 2018 TDS Schedule...........5 But in February last year, Professor Reitze announced that LIGO had detected the January Calendar.................6 undetectable, and a new branch of astronomy was born. SDAA Contacts................7 According to Professor Reitze - "It was a technological tour de force and proved Meet the Members.......8 Einstein right, but that's not why it was important," he said. For Sale............................9 Space Place Partners Article.10 "It's important because it opens a whole new window on the universe. We are now Astronomy Cartoons............13 going to be able to look at the universe in gravitational-wave emissions, a completely different kind of information carrier." Most astronomy up to now – from X-rays through visual light to radio waves – has been in the electromagnetic spectrum. Gravitational waves are a new kind of source and its great promise is to unlock some of the deepest secrets of the universe. "One of the holy grails of this field would be to see the gravitational-wave residue of the Big Bang," Professor Reitze said. Newsletter Deadline The deadline to submit articles After Professor Reitze’s presentation, we will hold an auction of astronomy for publication is the related gear donated by our members. We will also raffle off the many great items that have been donated by our corporate sponsors - watch www.sdaa.org for an 15th of each month. up-to-date list. Our Master of Ceremonies will be SDAA’s very own Jerry Hilburn. San Diego Astronomy Association You are cordially invited to The San Diego Astronomy Association’s Annual Banquet Saturday, January 27, 2018, 6:00 – 11:00pm Handlery Hotel & Resort - 950 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, CA 92108 ____________________________________________________________ Speaker: David Reitze, Professor of physics at the University of Florida. Professor Reitze is currently at Caltech as the Executive Director of LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Topic: LIGO Cocktail hour is from 6:00 to 7:00 and dinner from 7:00 to 8:00. SDAA Banquet Order Form Use this form or order online at http://sdaa.org/banquet.htm Name______________________________________________________ Address____________________________________________________ City, State, Zip______________________________________________ Telephone__________________________________________________ Email______________________________________________________ Dinner Selections (Enter number of each) Beef____ Fowl ____ Vegetarian ____ Check here if requiring sugar-free dessert____ Number Attending ____ @ $50 each Total Payment included $ _________ Mail to: San Diego Astronomy Association *Make checks payable to SDAA P.O. Box 23215 Orders must be received no later than 01/22/2018 San Diego, CA 92193-3215 NO TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT THE DOOR 2 San Diego Astronomy Association San Diego Astronomy Association Board of Directors Meeting December 12, 2017- Unapproved and subject to revision 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 7pm with the following board members in attendance: Mike Chasin, President; Kin Searcy, Vice President; Gene Burch, Treasurer; Scott Dixon, Corresponding Secretary; Brian McFarland, Recording Secretary; Pat Boyce, Director; Dave Wood, Director; Jeff Herman, Director. Members in attendance: Jim Traweek, John and Mary Todd, Tom Webb, and Laird Stiegler. 2. Approval of Last Meeting Minutes The November meeting minutes were approved. 3. Priority / Member Business Laird Stiegler’s new design plan was approved by the Board and a motion was passed to allow him to proceed. When complete, the Board will approve the final construction to ensure it is in accordance with the approved plan. 4. Treasurer’s & Membership Report a. The treasurer’s report was approved. b. A $1,000 donation was received by a generous member. c. One of the bank CDs rolled over. d. We still owe the electrician for the balance due for the electrical panel upgrade. 5. Standard Reports a. Site Maintenance 1. Bill Q is planning a trip to TDS for Dec 16th to catch up. b. Observatory Report – we received the new focuser from OPT. Brian will do the retrofit. c. Private Pad Report 1. We have 2 unleased pads and 3 people on the waiting list. a. One of the people on the waiting list is the current holder of Pad 1. The light trespass is so bad that he wants to swap pads. b. We are in the process of reclaiming another pad for non-payment. We should be through the 90-day contact effort in late January. 2. We are having questions about maintenance on recently leased pads again. As per the last time, we are telling them that routine maintenance such as painting, sanding, sealing, replacement of a rotted board on a bench or cabinet, etc. do not require BOD approval. The exception is any electrical work where the BOD needs to be notified. We’ve also told them that replacement of existing improvements with substantially similar ones DOES require BOD approval but will most likely be approved with minimal effort. The exception to this is piers. If they are simply unbolting an existing pier and replacing it with a new one, they don't need approval. Likewise, no approval is needed to simply add appropriate adapters to an existing pier to mount their telescope. 3. It is becoming harder and harder to lease certain pads. Pad 1 suffers badly from light trespass and there are several pads along the south fence that suffer from significant light trespass. Suspect that some of these pads will become unleasable in the future. We may want to consider club funded improvements to mitigate some of the light trespass issues in those areas, a discount to the lease of some pads, or repurposing some of the pads. Other than Pad 1, this isn't a critical issue yet. d. Program Report 1. February meeting: Citizen Scientist. 2. Kin is accumulating raffle money from the program meetings, as well as some Televue eyepieces which will be raffled at the banquet. e. AISIG Report – Off until Feb. f. Newsletter Report – Andrea continues to do stellar work. 3 San Diego Astronomy Association g. Website Report – Banquet information is on the website with a link to the reservation page on Wild Apricot. I will be maintaining A list of door prizes and sponsors will be maintained on the website. h. Outreach Report – For the last 3 months outreach activity, both attendance and support, has been split with about 30% of our activity at the public events, and 70% at school events. This trend is a reversal from the first 6 months of this year. What is not reflected in these numbers is that the member support for school events involves a smaller number of more active members than the public events. I hope to complete a more thorough trend analysis once our 2017 schedule is completed. We did suffer a serious breakdown of communication for a full week from November 17 through November 24, due to our Yahoo Group going “off line”. No explanation or reason has been offered or discovered at this point. During that time frame our outreach staff were not able to effectively communicate “real time” updates regarding our events. We are in the process of developing an email list of outreach participants to mitigate this issue in the future. November activity Totals for Month: Events Completed 10.0 Events Cancelled 2.0 Attendance: 760.0 Mem Support: 45.0 Averages: Mem/Event: 4.5 Attendees/Scope 16.9 Year to Date since January 1 Completed Events since January 1: 121 Attendees since January 1: 15245 i. Merchandise Report – Working on the T-shirt order; we have $500 in the budget for shirts and hats. j. TARO 1. It will be back on its own breaker on Thursday. 2. Installed a new laptop to run things and it works great. k. Cruzen Observatory – The roof is now operating correctly, although we still have to purchase some minor piece parts to complete the building. l. Social Media – Nothing major to report for social media. We are slowly adding members to the Facebook group (we are at 61 people) and our engagement and interactions are steady and consistent. I imagine that they will taper off as we close in on the holidays. m. JSF 1. Will take place the weekend of August 11, 2018. 2. Doug Sollosy spoke with Hillary G and Jim T and volunteered to take over management if Hillary wants to back out. 3. OPT would like to grow the event, but there is limited space at the venue. 4. Wavelength is interested in setting up a beer garden, but that may be complicated since the event is hosted by a private winery.