First Quarter 2009 Meeting Summaries
By Mark Lang
Jan. 9 – Regular meeting with Ian Hewitt in charge. Tonight’s meeting was a member slide show. To start off, Ian showed us some of his Mars and Saturn images taken recently. Mark Lang followed by showing his astrophotography which consisted many times of objects which move like comets, asteroids, and Barnard’s star’s motion over the last three years. He also showed some lunar eclipse shots and shots taken with his “barn door” mount. Mike Malaska was up next and showed an interesting animated GIF from the Opportunity rover on Mars. Mike also showed some of his Titan images he processes from Cassini data. He even gave out a door prize to the person who guessed where one of his images came from. Ken Westall showed some of the nice images he and his son John have been taking. He showed: M51, NGC 7380 (Hubble pallet), IC 1805, and even photos of how they constructed the pier on their back porch. Finally Joe Pedit showed his work. This included the Horsehead nebula, planets, eclipses, star trails, the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae, the Pelican nebula, and more.
In the business part of the meeting it was announced that the imaging subgroup would start meeting at Blinco’s in Raleigh. Jim DellaPenna gave a treasurer’s report. He reported a number of transactions from the past month and a balance of $3419 in checking and $8474 in savings. He reminded the membership that dues were due. Ian reminded the group that Astronomy Days were only two weeks away and there was a special meeting on RACOBS night. The telescope tune-up clinics were announced as well as the Messier Marathon on March 28. RAC patches have been ordered and will be about 3.5″ in the shape of the RAC logo. The new RAC website was online thanks to Chuck Jaynes. A discussion was held about Vonnie Hicks’ astronomy class at Enloe HS. The group suggested it might be a good idea to buy some basic telescopes and loan them to the class. Some further discussions with a few key members was to happen.
Jan. 23 – There was a special meeting in the main Museum auditorium in conjunction with Astronomy Days. Ian ran the meeting and about 50 people attended. The usual outdoor RACOBS meeting was cancelled. About 50 people were present to hear Dr. Frank Summers from the Space Telescope Science Institute talk about “Accuracy and Aesthetics – Scientific Visualizations using Hollywood Tools”. Dr. Summers showed us how he took images from the Hubble Space telescope and turned them into an IMAX movie called “Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time”. He did show us the 3 minute long movie but we did not get the IMAX view! Dr. Summers discussed in great detail how he uses Hollywood techniques to make his animations. We learned of terms such as “2D Cinematics”, pans and zooms, rendering, visualizations, shading, texturing, as well as n-body and smooth particle hydrodynamics simulations. He showed us the importance of the camera position in his movies and how the movies are choreographed. He showed us some really cool colliding galaxy simulations he worked on and how closely they match some Hubble photographs of colliding galaxies. He showed us photos of the array of high powered computers he used to create this simulations. He also writes his own software finding commercial software inadequate for his purposes. We also found out that Dr. Summers authored the video learning course called “Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe”. See www.teach12.com.
Feb. 13 – Regular meeting – Bill Webster in charge. Tonight’s speaker was Johnny Horne who presented his slide show called “Earth & Sky”. Johnny lives in Stedman NC and works for the Fayetteville Observer newspaper. Johnny showed us how he incorporates Earth based foreground objects into his astronomical photos. He showed some of his solar eclipse photos where bed sheets were on the ground to show shadow bands, and one photo where a great dead tree was centered in the eclipse photo. One very striking photo showed his backyard observatory with releases of colorful barium in the sky above. Johnny showed us how he made his spectacular shots of the rising sun coming through the market house at the center of Fayetteville. Another very cool shot showed the sun on the winter solstice transiting the statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in Fayetteville. Johnny showed us a number of beautiful aurora shots, some from Iceland and some from Aurora St. in Stedman. A couple of very neat shots came from Grandfather Mountain in NC, where Comet Hale-Bopp was hanging behind Johnny’s son. The other neat shot was the Leonid meteor shower over the Hanging Bridge. Johnny showed us how he plans his shots using the free Stellarium planetarium program on his pc. He also uses software called Screen Protractor to measure the angles of celestial events on a map which is on screen.
The business part of the meeting was held in two parts. Before the main talk, Robert Fitzgerald gave us an update on the BSA event to be held at Camp Durant for the IYA. It is scheduled for April 25. Bob Flook and Carey Walk from the Museum spoke briefly about the just completed Astronomy Days at the Museum. They read a letter of appreciation from the director of the Museum, Dr. Betsy Bennett. After the talk, Dick Ossowski gave us an education update. He is getting lots of school requests. Jim DellaPenna gave a treasurer’s report and Michael Keefe gave a report on the upcoming telescope tune-up clinics. Bill Webster announced the requests from two state parks – Pettigrew and Medoc Mtn. – wanting members with telescopes to come out. The bad thing about the timing is that it conflicts with this year’s Messier Marathon on March 28. Brian Reasor talked about the marathon.
Feb. 27 – RACOBS was clouded out. A brief meeting was held at the museum. Mark Lang showed a Southern Star slide show from the Charlotte Amateur Astronomers. Dick Ossowski gave a demo of the free planetarium program Stellarium. Bill Webster gave a recap of the most recent telescope tune-up clinic which was a great success.
Mar. 13 – Regular meeting, Doug Lively ran the meeting. Tonight’s speaker was Alan Rich. His topic was “Modern Technologies for an Unmanned Moon Mission”. Alan is the director of spaceflight systems development for Team Stellar headquartered in Raleigh. He is also a NASA Solar System Ambassador
and works for IBM. Alan told us about the Google Lunar X prize which is a contest for privately funded groups to land a vehicle on the Moon, travel at least 500 meters and transmit images and data back to Earth. The winner of the X prize will win $20 million, but Alan pointed out that it will cost about twice that much to fund the mission.
Alan talked about the basic parts of the mission. First, the launch will use the Space X corporation to get the vehicle into Earth orbit. He talked about the cruise phase and some of the trajectory possibilities to get the vehicle to the Moon. It was particularly interesting hearing about the LGARO trajectory to make a high angle approach for a safer landing on the Moon. This is much different than what NASA did to get astronauts onto the Moon. The lunar rover will be done by the NCSU robotics team. Our friends at PARI in the western part of NC will be receiving the data and telemetry. Alan talked about the types of people needed for the quality control, test, and anomalous operations team. The landing site has already been selected. It will be near the equator on the near side of the Moon. Finally he briefly spoke about science and mission control. The launch vehicle will be built around an ESPA ring, which is a stock item from the launch contractor. This will allow two rovers to be sent to the Moon.
In the business meeting, Doug Lively reported on the results of the telescope tune-up clinics since Michael Keefe could not be present. So far this has been a great success. One more clinic is scheduled for the Morehead Planetarium. Doug also reported that the Boy Scout event in April at Camp Durant has been scaled back. There will probably only be a limited number of nighttime volunteers needed and there will be no camping. Brian Reasor gave a brief report about the upcoming Messier Marathon to be held the weekend of March 27-28. The event will be held at the BigWoods site. There will be a public observing session held at North Cary Park on April 4. This will coincide with the IYA 100 hours of Astronomy event. Doug also reported on the first “First Friday” telescope observing session held on the mall in front of the Museum of Natural Sciences. There were around 130 people present viewing the Moon, Saturn, and the Orion Nebula. The next event is scheduled for April 3 and it will probably be the last one until the fall due to daylight savings time.
Jim DellaPenna gave a treasurers report. He announced that the Club had in excess of $10,000 in the bank in all accounts. A motion by Bob Wolk was made and seconded that the officers should reduce dues because of the amount of money on hand. It was pointed out that the Club no longer has newsletter expenses and the Morris Observatory expenses. The executive committee will make a proposal at the next meeting about the dues. Ian Hewitt reported that the Morris Observatory is now officially done. The building now belongs to the property owner that bought Carl Moreschi’s house. Due to the state budget situation, funding for Astronomy Days next year will be very low. If anyone knows of sponsors, please let Ian know. Ian also announced that Jerry Watson has agreed to become the Club’s compliance coordinator for ethics violations. This is now a new requirement for non-profit organizations. Any anonymous ethics issues can be reported to Jerry. Mark Lang gave a secretary’s report about the last two meetings. Richard Ossowski gave a recap of all the outreach events that happened during the first quarter of 2009. There had been 13 events between 1/24 and 3/12. Ian Hewitt had some of the new RAC patches on hand for sale.
Mar. 27 – Due to rainy weather, the RACOBS session was cancelled and a short meeting was held at the Museum. About 13 people attended. A video called “Saturn: Lord of the Rings” was shown. There were brief reports on the BSA and telescope tune-up events. The group retired to Fosters for an after meeting meal.
