ASTRONOMY CLUB OF TULSA

OBSERVER

May 2002

http://AstroTulsa.com

ACT, Inc. has been meeting continuously since 1937 and was incorporated in 1986. It is a nonprofit; tax deductible organization dedicated to promoting, to the public, the art of viewing and the scientific aspect of astronomy.

What

The Astronomy Club of Tulsa Club
with

Professor David Lien

Professor of Astronomy and Physics

Oklahoma State University

When

Friday, May 24, 2002 at 7:30 PM

Where

Room M1 inside Keplinger Hall, the Science & Engineering Building at TU. Enter the parking lot on the East Side of Keplinger Hall from Harvard and 5th Street. This will take you directly toward the staircase to enter the building. Room M1 is the first room on the left.

President’s Message

Denny Mishler

Professor David Lien, visiting Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Oklahoma State University will be our featured speaker at May's meeting. Professor Lien's research interests are Comets, Interstellar medium, Archeoastronomy and Meteorological optics. His topic at our meeting will be COMETS; a very timely subject since one of the best comets in the past decade, Ikeya-Zhang, is still a naked eye comet gracing our late night skies. Several other comets are increasing in brightness. If the solid nucleuses of all comets are thought to be essentially the same, then why does the appearance of every comet seem to be different? Can we model comets here on Earth to explain the variations that we see? Can Asteroids have tails? These and other questions will be explored and answered by Professor Lien during his presentation and since he has a wide range of research and interests in Astronomy, club members should feel free to ask questions in all aspects of Astronomy.

Professor Lien will be our final speaker until September, as we will be going to our monthly star party meetings at the observatory during the summer months. Our attendance has been 56 to 77 people during the past four months. This is historically good attendance, but it can still increase some more. If you haven't been to a meeting in recent months visit us during our May meeting when we will have an excellent speaker. I like to conduct fast moving meetings with announcements and only essential business. Within a half hour of our meeting's start we present our speaker, and at the end of the meeting we come forward to enjoy refreshments and socialize. I hope to see you there.

 

New Members

by John Land

The astronomy club would like to welcome our new members through April this year. We hope to learn more about you during our summer observing activities. Most are new to the club but a few are welcomed past members returning to the club. (The list does not contain regular renewals)

Jan 2002 Joseph Gagliardi, James Kerr, Patricia Lyons, Don Sanders, Darrell Swank

Feb 2002 Ed Fillinger, Jeannie Reyckert, Jay Rickerts, Cesilie & Erica Torneo

Mar 2002 Don Kimberling, Carl Getman, David McGill

Apr 2002 Tomoyo Muraki, Stella Caughell, Ruth Simmons, Kent Allingham, Blake Champlin, Rich Chillingworth, Dave Muret, Michelle Lawmaster, Jacob Shirley, Donald L. Cole, Randy Northcutt

 

Ad Astra International Astronomy Convention

June 27-30, 2002
Contact Brenda Culbertson
4021 SW 10th St., #232
Topeka, KS 66604
Email: zzbculbe@washburn.edu
Phone 785-231-1010 Ext 2264

Speakers include Chris Ray, Antique Telescope Society (celestial mechanic) Will Gilliland, State of Kansas (planetary geology) Bruce Twarog, University of Kansas (astrophysicist) Graham Bell, Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers' League (comet co-discoverer)

More Information at:

www.washburn.edu/cas/physics/crane/index.html

Mid-States Regional Astronomical League Convention

Time is running out to register for the Mid-States convention in June. Since Siloam Springs is so close to Tulsa, It may be possible to drive over for the main day on Saturday. Let us know if you are going and perhaps some of you can get together and carpool there. We'd like to get all of us together there and get a picture.

The 2002 Mid-States Regional Convention will be hosted by the Christian Association of Stellar Explorers and will be held June 7-9, 2002 in Siloam Springs, Arkansas on the campus of John Brown University. The club's observing site at New Life Ranch will be open for evening observing sessions at the convention.

MSRAL 2002 is proud to welcome Dr. Derek Sears of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences as our keynote speaker at dinner on Saturday. Dr. Sears will be speaking on "Hera and Andromeda: New Insights Into the Formation and Evolution of the Solar System." Dr. Sears is also a professor in the Cosmochemistry Group at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Their web site is http://www.msral.org/ It contains more details on the convention and registration forms. Several of our members went to the MidStates convention in 2001. Our club is hosting the convention for 2003 and this will be a great opportunity to get ideas to make our convention a success.

You can also find a link to the national Astronomical League convention in Salt Lake City on July 31 to Aug 3.

See details at National Convention of the Astronomical League, University of Utah

ALCon 2002
P.O. Box 9574
Salt Lake City, UT 84109-9574
http://www.alcon2002.org/index1.html

 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

EVENTS AT RMCC OBSERVATORY:

MAY
05-11-02 Sat 01:00 RMCC Cleanup and repair day
05-11-02 Sat 08:00 Club Members Star Party
05-13-02 Mon 07:45 Skiatook Gifted and Talented (25)

JUN
06-14-02 Fri 07:30 Club Members Star Party and Picnic Meeting (50)

JUL
07-12-02 Fri 07:30 Club Members Star Party and Picnic Meeting (50)
07-16-02 Tue 08:00 Tulsa Math Academy sponsored by TU (30)

AUG
08-08-02 Thu 07:45 Sheridan Rd Baptist Ch (20)
08-09-02 Fri 07:30 Club Members Star Party and Picnic Meeting (50)
08-16-02 Fri 07:45 Tulsa Bicycle Club (will camp)
08-17-02 Sat ??:?? Tulsa Bicycle Club (will camp)

EVENTS AWAY FROM RMCC:

MAY
05-24-02 Fri 07:30 Regular Meeting (at Keplinger Hall)


2002 Calendar of events

When Where Who
24 May Meeting at TU Open
14 June Star Party - RMCC Members & Guest
12 July Star Party - RMCC Members & Guest
9 August Star Party - RMCC Members & Guest
6 September Star Party - RMCC Members & Guest
20 September Meeting at TU Open
4 October Star Party - RMCC Members & Guest
18 October Meeting at TU Open
1 November Star Party - RMCC Members & Guest
15 November Business Meeting
Dinner
Open
6 December Star Party - RMCC Members & Guest
13 December Meeting at TU Open

   

DEEP DEEP SKY OBSERVER

You know you are a DEEP DEEP SKY OBSERVER when............

1. You believe that M13 ruins your dark adaptation.

2. Your ideal site requires oxygen.

3. You dilate your eyes to pupil openings of 10mm before observing.

4. Your principal finder scope is a C-8.

5. You wear red sunglasses all day in preparation for viewing that night.

6. You paint the dome light in your car red.

7. You have elective surgery to replace your eye's natural lenses with f/.8 apochromatic triplet objectives.

8. You can be understood talking with a red flashlight in your mouth.

9. You can understand someone talking with a red flashlight in their mouth.

10. You believe that anyone that leaks white light during your observing should be quartered.

11. You refer to your Cheerios breakfast as "a bowl full of M57's".

12. You start searching for the central star in one of your Cheerios.

13. ...........and you find it!

These quips are donated by the Hawaiian Astronomical Society and Denny Mishler

 

Spectacular Sunset Solar Eclipse

By John Land

June 10, 2002
Starts 7:27 PM
Maximum 8:18 PM About 50% coverage
Sunset 8:37 PM

If the skies are clear, this years eclipse promises to be spectacular. As always you must not look at the sun directly during a solar eclipse.

The safest method is to project the sun's image onto a white card using a small pinhole in a sheet of aluminum foil taped to a larger card. Try several sizes of pinholes spaced an inch or so apart. As sunset approaches you will be able to see the moon's silhouette covering about half the sun. You can look at the sun during the last few minutes before sunset with dark glasses.

BUT DO NOT STARE AT IT FOR A PROLONGED TIME. NEVER use binoculars or telescopes on to look at the sun without using fully tested Full Spectrum Front Surface solar filters.

Full coverage of the eclipse story and safety tips can be found at http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/observing/objects/eclipses/article_583.asp If its cloudy on eclipse day you'll be able to see lots of images the next day on www.spaceweather.com Check out this site a few days ahead of time for more tips on observing the eclipse.

The show doesn't stop at sunset. Jupiter and Venus are still close together in the evening sky. Venus is the brighter of the two. They have their closest approach on the evenings of June 3rd and 4th.

You can keep up with the summer astronomy events and maybe even join local astronomy enthusiasts from the Astronomy Club of Tulsa. Check out our website: www.AstroTulsa.com

 

Comet Iyeka-Zhang

By Gerald R. Miller

While trying out my new SBIG ST10XME for the first time, I had just finished imaging the Sunflower Galaxy (M63) and noticed that Comet Iyeka-Zhang was in a good position to image. So I took 120 unguided exposures of 30 seconds each using my 10" LX200 F. 6.3 scope in Clear, Red, Green and Blue. I then combined them in MaximDL, and processed them in Photoshop to bring out the core. This shot is a mono version of the color shot, that can be found at http://www.tuvaclub.org . It took about an hour to capture the images.

 


Club Memberships

 

Astronomy Club of Tulsa Membership Application / Renewal Form

Name: ________________________ Phone: ( ) ____ _______

Address: ___________________________________________________

City / State / Zip____________________/____________/_____________

________________________________________________________

E-mail address - print clearly 

Check Lines below for YES

____ I would prefer to receive E-mail notification when club newsletter is posted to the web.

____ I choose to receive my newsletter by E-mail ONLY instead of postal mail. (Usually 3 or 4 days earlier * Must have web access )

____ Notify me by E-mail of late breaking Astronomy Events

Please check all that apply:

___ New Membership ($25) ___ Student Membership ($15)

___ Membership Renewal ($25) ___ Student Member Renewal ($15)

___ Sky & Telescope Subscription ($30) / year

also includes 10% discount on most Sky & Tel products

___ Astronomy Subscription ($29) / year ($55) / two years

* Magazine rates may change / prices available with membership only.

Please bring this application along with a check for the total amount made out to the Astronomy Club of Tulsa to the next meeting or mail the payment and application to:

Astronomy Club of Tulsa / 25209 E. 62nd St / Broken Arrow, OK 74014

For questions contact John Land

How did you hear of the Astronomy Club of Tulsa? ___________________________________________________________

How long have you been interested or active in astronomy? ___________

Do you have a telescope? _______ Type __________________________

Have you been a member of other astronomy clubs? ____

Where / when ________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

What astronomy club activities would you like to participate in?

____________________________________________________________

 

Astronomy Club of Tulsa, 918.688.MARS

President: Dennis Mishler

Vice President: Teresa Kincannon

Treasurer: Nick Pottorf

Assistant Treasurer: John Land

Secretary:Aaron Coyner

RMCC Observatory Manager: Gerry Andries

Observing Chairman: David Stine

Web Master: Tom McDonough

New Membership: Dennis Mishler