Second Quarter 2010 Meeting Summaries
April 9, 2010 – RACOBS. A good sized crowd made it out to BigWoods under conditions that turned out quite good in spite of the pollen. There were about 20 people present, quite a few of whom were first time visitors.
April 23, 2010 – Regular Meeting. The meeting tonight was entitled “The Birth and Death of Stars” by Dr. Fabian Heitsch. Dr. Heitsch is an assistant professor in the Physics and Astronomy department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Heitsch started off his talk with a review of the electromagnetic spectrum. He talked of the classic problem of star formation – if all the galactic gas collapsed, star formation would be about 20 times higher than observed. In the traditional solution, molecular clouds collapse as a result of turbulence and/or magnetic fields. This type of star formation is called slow equilibrium. Then he elaborated, explaining that a molecular cloud, which has 1000 molecules per cubic centimeter and a size greater than or equal to 10 light years, is collapsed by gravity into around 1000 solar mass stars. This star formation would take around a million years.
Dr. Heitsch also talked about how stellar burning works. He also discussed how the size of the star determines its fate. He showed the H-R diagram then told how different mass stars evolve: low mass to white dwarfs, high mass to supernovae, and even black holes. At the end of the talk, there were a lot of questions from the audience.
In the business meeting: Tonight was election night. Nominated for co-chairs were: Doug Lively, Ian Hewitt, and Mike Keefe. Nominated for treasurer was Jim DellaPenna. Mark Lang was nominated for secretary. Since there was only one person for each office, the new slate of officers was elected by a show of hands, with a quorum being present.
Dick Ossowski talked about the needs of various groups wanting the Club’s help.
John Nigro announced an upcoming observing session for Howell Woods. It was also mentioned that the Museum First Friday observing sessions will start in two weeks. Someone also mentioned the East Coast Star Party at the coast of NC.
May 14, 2010 – RACOBS was clouded out so a brief meeting was held at the Museum. The very small turnout of four people had some brief discussions and the meeting was adjourned. There was no after meeting meal.
May 28, 2010 – Regular meeting. Tonight was a members’ image show. To start off, Jim Pressley and Pat Moore showed slides from the Winter Star Party and the CAAC’s Southern Star. Their talk featured lots of images of people and images of objects usually observed at these events. Next up was Mike Malaska. He showed his processed images of Enceladus, Venus, and Earth all taken from various spacecraft. Mike Fulbright followed with images he took with a 200mm lens on an FLI CCD camera. He had some nice hydrogen alpha shots of objects like the Cone Nebula, B33, and the Flaming Star nebula. Next was Ken Westall. He showed images taken with his ST-8 and Celestron 9.25 scope. He showed the Leo group, the Whale, NGC 5985 and M106. Joe Pedit showed objects “near and far”. He imaged M97 and M108, M42 NGC 1977 plus satellites, and photos of the International Space Station transiting the Sun. Next up was Chris Cole. He showed shots made with his C 9.25 and Canon XT camera. His objects were M-105, M-100, Comet Wild and some shots of his equipment. Frank Westmoreland showed a photo of the Moon he took through the large Roper Mtn. refractor. Finally, Mark Lang showed an animation he made of supernova in NGC 7479.
In the business meeting, Jim DellaPenna reported the Club now has 137 members. He also discussed the OPT discount noting that some information online is out of date. The Club’s ID number is 70469. He discussed the discounts we get. Mark Lang asked the membership to complete the online survey sent out by email as soon as possible. It was also noted that the imaging meetings have now moved to the third Friday of the month, but will still meet at Blinco’s.
June 11, 2010 – RACOBS. Summer weather cooperated and an observing session was held at BigWoods. The skies were “pretty decent” as reported by Doug Lively. There were 18 people in attendance, 7 of which were visitors.
June 25, 2010 Regular meeting. Tonight’s meeting was a panel discussion about planning observing sessions. Doug Lively was the moderator. The panel consisted of Steve Izzo, Pat Moore, Michael Keefe, and Phyllis Lang.
Question 1: Describe your astronomy experiences and short term goals.
The members described how they got started in astronomy. Most reported that they started with a 60 mm refractor.
Question 2: How do you figure out what you want to observe/image? What do you use to build up a library of objects?
Pat likes mostly bright objects. He uses a lot of books to build his list.
Michael uses catalogs, Sky & Telescope magazine – especially Sue French’s column and podcasts. He organizes the things he finds into an Excel spreadsheet and add photos.
Phyllis built a list of planetary nebulae about 15 years ago she still uses. She uses Astronomical League publications like the Caldwell list. She organizes what she will observe by deciding if she will use binoculars, a medium sized scope, or a large scope.
Question 3: How do you determine what objects you will be observing/imaging on a specific night? How to you determine weather conditions?
Mike uses Stellarium to show star charts. For the weather he uses the Clear Sky Chart, Skippy Sky, Cal Sky, and satellite images.
Phyllis gets weather mostly from the Clear Sky Chart and her husband Mark. She uses the Sky Quality Meter to evaluate sky conditions. She also pays attention to the amount of aerosols in the sky to determine transparency. Based on conditions, she might observe galaxies and nebulae first. Double stars can be used to evaluate seeing conditions.
Steve uses the Unisys weather site. He pays particular attention to the water vapor data to decide if conditions will warrant a photography session. He wants to photograph objects when they are near to the meridian.
Pat uses tonightsky.com to produce a n
ice ordered object list, deep sky browser, and the Aladin site. He uses Unisys for weather.
Question 4: What is your observing session like? Is there anything you use to make your session more comfortable? How do you locate objects?
Phyllis says use a laptop with a red screen and brings a small table and chair. She brings the correct clothing and bug spray.
Steve wants a night with no surprises. He likes to visit others while his exposures are going automatically. He uses a laptop and a goto scope. He gets ideas from other observers.
Pat likes free form observing and socializing. He advises bringing plenty of clothes. For mosquitoes he says the Off! Belt-loop devices works well. The creature comforts make for a more pleasant session.
Mike likes the use of digital setting circles. He also finds objects in his binoculars before looking in the larger scope. He also advises to layer clothes and bring plastic sheets to keep papers dry from dew.
Question 5: Do you log your observations and how? Do you review them later?
Steve: Yes, he archives everything to CD/DVD and reviews later.
Pat: No. He does check off objects on a chart or in a book.
Mike: Yes. He built an access database to log everything. Objects have a Wow rating. He reviews things later.
There were questions and answers after the structured part of the panel was over.
Business meeting – Ian Hewitt mentioned that a new software version of Joomla is almost ready for the RAC website. A “Web Summit” is being organized over our email list. Participants are encouraged to participate by telling what they want on the web site.
A public observing session will be held at Harris Lake County Park on July 17. Be sure to come out with your scope or binoculars.
Mike Keefe mentioned to the group that he appreciated the responses to the recent survey. He promised to release the results to the group soon. He solicited input from the group on the survey process – how long, how often, etc. It was announced that 70% of the respondents were in favor of eliminating the indoor meeting when an outdoor RACOBS is cancelled due to weather. After a lot of discussion, it was determined that the impromptu meetings lacked structure, better advertizing, and member interaction. If those areas can be addressed most people would be in favor of the impromptu meetings.
