Friday April 13, 2012
Time 7:30 pm
Agenda:
1. “Position of the Planets in the Solar System” by Wilf Meyer.
2. "An overview of Stellarium functionalities and its use on the field" by Julien
Dompierre.
3. To be Announced at the meeting.
Reminders
The Loaner Scope is available to any member of the club.
Venus Transit: On June 5th for those interested in viewing the Transit of Venus we
will be gathering on Sunset Ridge near the Kingsway. I will update with a map for location as more information comes in. This Transit will be the last one until the next
one occurs in 2125 Dec 08 so don’t miss this one.
Planet Positions; calculated for 11th April 2012
Sun: In Pisces. – Solar activity is much in the news and fears of possible technological disruptions, particularly during the upcoming sunspot maximum in or about 2013. Is this Y2K all over? We’ll see.
Mercury: In the morning sky until next superior conjunction on 27th May. 23 degrees
from Sun; 0.75 AU from Earth; low angle of the morning ecliptic makes observations
difficult but not impossible.
Venus: In Taurus, to the left of the Pleiades and above the head of Taurus
(Aldabaran) and the Hyades; high in the western evening sky; 44 degrees from the
Sun; 0.60 AU from Earth; visible for several hours after sunset.
Mars: In Leo; visible in the southern evening sky; 0.80 AU from Earth; receding from
Earth and dimming after opposition in early March.
Jupiter: In Aries; 23 degrees from the Sun. 5.9 AU from Earth; visible in the western
evening sky, but later in the month vanishes into the twilight; conjunction with the Sun
is one month from now on 13th May.
Saturn: In Virgo, 5 degrees from Spica; 174 degrees from the Sun; 8.72 AU from
Earth; at opposition on 15th April; visible most of the night.
Moon: Next New Moon: 21st April. - Next Full Moon: 5th May; “largest” Full Moon of
2012; known to different people by various names: Full Flower Moon, Full Corn Planting Moon; Milk Moon - Full Moon and Perigee coincide - High-tide.
Looking Ahead:
On 22nd April, Mercury will be 2 degrees south of Uranus.
At the end of the month, Venus is at its most brilliant (-4.7), even though Sun illuminates only 27% of the crescent planet.
On June 5th, Venus is in inferior conjunction and transit. Transits of Venus occur in
pairs, 8 years apart. The last transit was in 2004, the next pair will be 2117 and 2125.
Titanic: Astronomical explanation for the higher than normal amounts of ice in the
North Atlantic shipping lanes of April 1912 (to be discussed at the SAC April meeting).
Wilf Meyer; 12th April 2012
Photos by Club Members
Steve and Patrick Dodson
Superstack with Moon and Venus
Aurora Borealis
Presentation
In 1982 a team of volunteers from the Sudbury Astronomy Club undertook with me to build a major
Solar Observatory at the new Science Centre (the one which became Science North). I helped the
architects modify the plans for the building to allow a focused beam of sunlight to enter the indoor
observatory and create a large solar
image with sunspots as big as your fist!
Club members Fred Boyer, Greg
Beach, Ken Odaisky, Alan Ward, Carl
Hoeg, Bob O’Daiskey, and others fabricated a pair of 17 ½-inch telescope mirrors to do the job. One of these mirrors
was housed in a short, polar-aligned
tube, that faced upwards towards a hole
in the main Snowflake Building’s 4th
floor.
The Solar Observatory opened within
months of Canada’s first Manned Space
Mission. After his historic flight, astronaut Marc Garneau visited the Science
North Solar Observatory. The 1985 photograph, taken by Sudbury Astronomy
Club president Fred Boyer, shows Marc
with Steve, Ken, and Alan.
This newsletter picture shows Steve giving Bob an enlargement of Fred’s photo in honour of the contributions made by this father/son pair.
(Photo by Alan Ward, text by Steve Dodson)
March Break Star Party
In the midst of the March Break Steve Dodson, Bob O'Daiskey and Linda Pulliah had a great evening
out touring the night sky at a home along McCharles Lake Road. The group consisted of folks from Trinity
United Church, grandparents and children , 20 people in all. We started with explanations of how a reflector
works, progressed to viewing Jupiter, Venus and Mars, and then the whole night sky provided the
show. Steve lead the group with his amazing skills touring the sky and answering questions. Bob quietly
shared his knowledge with young and old, sharing views through his portable Dob. Linda made a point of
proving there's plenty to see with binoculars, that one does not need a telescope to enjoy the wonders of the
night sky. We had about 2 hours of clear sky, plenty of time for everyone to ask their questions, and see
much more than they had anticipated. The evening was topped off with coffee 'n chocolate in Donna's Linville's friendly kitchen.
Two nights later Steve and Patrick, Linda, Eldon and Ian, and Julien met out on the Burwash
road. The sky was pristine until just after midnight. Two of the guys were taking photos, while others were
busy searching out more detailed items.
As the sky was darkening we were treated to a distinct auroral arch, eventually intermittent subtle curtains,
and occasional strong spires of light. Steve and Patrick captured some photos which were alive with the colours not visible to the naked eye. Julien logged numerous (15?) Messier items. Will he be the first complete
the certificate program in as little as 6 months?
Article by: Linda Pulliah
Aposaurus-Max
“Aposaurus-Max” – The Design & Construction of a 6” f/15 three-element Apochromatic Refractor.
In 1984, I built my first 4” f/15 achromatic refractor. Back then I was still a novice at
telescope making, having built a couple of Newtonian telescopes (8” f/7 & 6” f/4) previously. The thought of tackling a refractor lens was daunting to say the least! If it hadn’t
been for my mentor – the late Ken Odaisky – who encouraged me forward, I probably
wouldn’t be here writing this article today.
But I knew I was in good hands, for Ken
had built a 5.5” f/15 in 1958! (A feat unheard of back then in ATM circles!)
However, it wasn’t until the summer of
2009 that Denis Maheu and I first really
contemplated the idea of building a big refractor. We both had considerable experience in building large mirrors (29.5” dia.)
for Newtonians. Although Newtonians satisfied our deep sky appetites, they fell
short in revealing intricate planetary details.
So the quest was on to build a large refractor!
Our design goal called for a superb instrument (an apochromat) optimized for visual
use – that is, one that would produce the most perfect possible images (better than
the diffraction limit) within a one-degree field-of-view, and offer excellent color correction and a large “depth of focus” range. All this under challenging seeing conditions!
The result is not having to constantly tweak the focuser hunting for the sweet spot.
With this instrument, the image is always “sweet” over a wide range of focus travel (+/0.25mm)!
In its size-class, our apo is practically the best visual design possible. A perfect, unobstructed circular aperture focuses 84% of the star’s light energy into a diffraction spot
called the “Airy disk.” The rest of the energy goes into a number of diffraction rings of
decreasing intensity which surround the Airy disk. Our apochromat achieves this level
of performance across a full one-degree field-of-view! To make this possible we were
fortunate in collaborating with Roger Ceragioli – an accomplished optician and optical
designer – who optimized our refractor using exotic low dispersion (“ED”) glass.
The three lenses in our objective are oil-spaced using silicone oil @ ~$1,000.00/L.
The oil’s refractive index is so close to the glass that the lenses virtually disappear
when sandwiched between films of this oil.
The “Observing Platform” is
a unique Alt-AZ mounting design by Denis. This is what
you get when you team up a
spiral staircase builder
(Denis) with a locomotive
machinist (Moe Chaput). The
mount weighs close to
450lbs.! Needless to say, it
manoeuvres fluidly with super rigidity and with the eyepiece always pointing skyward! Very nice!
What did we see?
At the time of writing, the best views we ever had were of the Moon, Jupiter, the Double Cluster, Castor, and the Trapezium between 2:00 am to 6:00 am on Thanksgiving
Day 2011 near downtown St. Catharines.
Our cruising powers ranged over 172x-300x, and went all the way up to 1200x on the
moon when looking at staircase features inside the walls of craters! The telescope just
ate up all the magnification we could throw at it, despite an almost full moon and looking over roof tops.
We enjoyed countless bands, festoons and thread-like black markings on the disk of
Jupiter – including the sight of incredible details encompassing the Great Red Spot.
Jupiter’s moons were, of course, perfectly resolved into disks.
Castor was split in two – so wide that it seemed like Eldon could drive his truck
through the 2.1 arcsecond separation!
But what was really apparent was how tight the star images were at high powers! The
Double Cluster was unlike anything we had ever seen before: virtually every star had
its own distinctive color and they looked like diamonds, rubies, and emeralds sprinkled
onto black velvet. We saw all of this and yet we had a hard time seeing the Double
Cluster naked eye through the sky-muck. It remains the best view we have ever had
of the Double Cluster! No more B&W telescopes for this guy!
Not only did we see 5 stars in the Trapezium – each star had its own color hue as well
– but M35 was remarkable too in revealing its true stellar colours.
This goes to show that in order to see stellar colours vividly, the mirrors of reflecting
telescopes need silver coatings. Aluminum attenuates or suppresses the full spectrum response and tends to wash out colours making them look bluish white. But even
though silver significantly improves the visual appeal of stars by revealing their true
colours, a refractor does even a better job – provided the design is fully color corrected across the field of view.
I can honestly say that this instrument has rejuvenated my passion for visual observing. It surpassed our expectations in every way! We didn’t expect to see such wonderful sights, especially given the conditions prevailing during “first light.”
By Alan Ward
Our Lady of Sorrows
Star Party
Sturgeon Falls April 5, 2012
On Thursday April 5 the Sudbury Astronomy Club was invited by Our Lady of
Sorrows school to present a Star Party to the students, parents and teachers. This is
the 3rd time that we have been invited to this school and again it has been a complete
success with 68 in attendance to observe. The skies were clear with many planets
and the moon for observing.
Robert Pothier presented a slide show on Astronomy and the Sudbury Astronomy Club to the Star Party attendees. The school also provided refreshments for all
that attended.
SAC Members in attendance:
Robert Pothier and daughter Ashley
Pete Marshall
Steve Dodson
Patrick Dodson
Alan Ward
Eldon Phillips
Julien Dompierre
Dan Madden
Bob O’Daiskey
For sale: OMCON MC90 Maksutov telescope
Price: 150.00$
Contact: Julien.Dompierre@gmail.com
This is a Maksutov-Casegrain telescope and telephoto lens. The diameter is
90mm (3.5in) with a focal length of 500mm and a focal ratio of 5.6. 76
pictures are available at the following address:
https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/15198763/1/2012_04_12_OMCON_MC90?
h=be8a3f
A nice review of this telescope is available at
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=752
The package also include
o a 1.25in generic 45 degree erecting prism with one dust cap and box;
o a 1.25in Celestron 90 degree star diagonal (#94115-A)
o a Celestron f/4 focal reducer (#93570) made in Japan with 2 dust caps and
box;
o a 1.25in OMCON 2x Barlow lens made in Japan with two dust caps;
o a 1.25in OMCON 40mm fully coated Plössl eyepiece;
o a 1.25in OMCON 12.5mm fully coated Plössl eyepiece;
o a 1.25in OMCON 7.5mm fully coated Plössl eyepiece;
o a Celestron red laser star pointer;
o a Synta padded case with movable dividers.
Eagle Nebula
The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier
16 or M16, and as NGC 6611) is a young
open cluster of stars in the constellation
Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de
Cheseaux in 1745-46. Its name derives from
its shape which is resemblant of an eagle. It
is the subject of the famous "Pillars of Creation" photograph by the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows pillars of star-forming
gas and dust within the nebula .
Characteristics
The Eagle Nebula is part of a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is catalogued as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 6,500 light-years
distant. The tower of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula is approximately 100
trillion km (60 trillion miles, or 4 light-days) high.
The brightest star in the nebula has an apparent magnitude of +8.24, easily visible
with good binoculars.
'Pillars of Creation' region
On previous page images made using the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, by Jeff
Hester and Paul Scowen, greatly improved scientific understanding of processes inside the nebula. One of these, a famous photograph known as the "Pillars of Creation", depicts a large region of star formation. Its small, dark areas are believed to be
protostars. The pillar structure of the region resembles that of a much larger star formation region, imaged with the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005, in Cassiopeia, which
is designated W5 and has been dubbed the "Pillars of Creation".[2] These columns––
which resemble stalagmites protruding from the floor of a cavern––are composed of
interstellar hydrogen gas and dust, which act as incubators for new stars. Inside and
on their surface astronomers have found knots or globules of denser gas, called
EGGs ("Evaporating Gaseous Globules"). Stars are being formed inside a portion of
these EGGs.
Combinations of X-ray images from the Chandra observatory with Hubble's "Pillars"
image have shown that X-ray sources (from young stars) do not coincide with the pillars, but instead randomly dot the area.[1] Any protostars in the pillar's EGGs are not
yet hot enough to emit X-rays.[citation needed]
The longest of the 'Pillars' is seven light years long, and because of their massive
density interior gasses contract gravitationally to form stars. At each 'pillars' end, the
intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. Due to the huge distance between us,
the Pillars of Creation may already be gone, and instead a stellar star nursery could
have taken its place. In early 2007, scientists using the Spitzer discovered evidence
that potentially indicates that the Pillars were destroyed by a nearby supernova explosion about 6,000 years ago, but the light showing the new shape of the nebula will not
reach Earth for another millennium.[3]
WHO IS STARGAZER STEVE!!
and What does he do?
Steve Dodson is a fellow amateur astronomer, who as a 2nd grader saved his allowance for a Telescope, and made his first 6-inch scope in grade 8.
As Stargazer Steve, he makes Telescopes that are designed to give more observing satisfaction to
beginners and experts alike, by focusing on design for performance.
In 1981, already an amateur astronomer with decades of observing experience, Steve built the largest mobile Telescope in Canada, and brought it to the Star Party that launched the Sudbury Astronomy Club.
In the 1990's Steve pioneered high-performance low-cost Reflecting Telescope Kits.
Steve has participated in the building of
over 4000 Telescopes, including solo
projects and activities with children, Astronomy Clubs and people of all ages.
The International Astronomical Union has
named Asteroid #13822
“Stevedodson”.
Over 2000 Stargazer Steve Telescopes
have been shipped throughout Canada,
the US, and around the World.
More Info at http://stargazer.isys.ca
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/ (Put
13822 in the blue box)
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