July Picnic .....
In lieu of a July meeting, a picnic was held at Blackbird State Forest
on Saturday, July 5, with 23 members and guests attending.
New Members
Colin McLaughlin, Seaford DE
Michael Stephano, Onancock VA
Outreach:
Astronomy Camp 2003 by Joe Morris
A Youth Astronomy Camp was held at The Mountain Institute near Spruce Knob,
West Virginia, the highest peak in the state, at 4860 feet, during the week
of June 22-28.
Eight campers participated, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years, and coming
from Delaware, California, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
Three Delmarva Stargazers, Lyle Jones, Keith Lohmeyer, and Joe Morris acted
as the instructors along with Mike Surbaugh, a Webster County,
West Virginia High School science teacher. Nathan Hayes, a TMI staff
member, stayed with us all week and his assistance was very important as
he kept the campers on time, attended to their problems, planned and participated
in the afternoon outdoor activities, and stayed up with us at night using
TMI's 8" telescope. Shall I say he was sleep deprived? A StarLab
Planetarium, large enough to accommodate all of us was available, thanks
to Mike
For the first four days the format was similar: breakfast at 10 AM, astronomy
lectures and projects lead by Mike, planetarium shows, lunch at 2 PM, hiking
or caving or hitting a swimming hole during the afternoon, dinner at 8 PM,
campfires, and nighttime telescope instruction using a 20" Dob, 14.5" Dob,
two 10" Dobs, 8" Dob, and a 5" refractor on an equatorial go-to mount.
Laser pointers were popular at night to trace out summer constellation and
bright, named stars. The summer Milky Way stood out in all it's splendor
at the high altitude and extremely dark skies found in that part of West
Virginia. Plenty of oohing and awing was heard over the summer deep
sky objects such as M 13, the Whirlpool and Black Eyed Galaxy, the Smoke
Ring nebula, the ET and Wild Duck cluster.
Brilliant double stars like Albireo and deep red carbon stars were beautiful
in the refractor. The first night through the fourth was clear with medium
to excellent transparency. Campers were taught the beacons of the summer
sky so that they would learn to drive the telescopes and find objects on
their own. There was plenty of time to lie out under the stars and just observe
naked eye or with binoculars. Discussions regarding SETI (search for
extraterrestrial intelligence), star
formation and death, and cosmology were common all during the week. Usually
we headed for bed about 1 AM but stayed up a little late one night to watch
Mars, with it's polar ice cap visible, rise over Spruce Mountain about 1:30
AM.
The fifth day, about noon, we headed for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
in Greenbank, WV, about an hour drive. We met, Sue Ann Heatherly, the staff
person who was to give us a tour much better than the public normally sees,
including a visit to the laser lab and control room of the new GBT (Greenbank
Telescope) the world's largest steerable radio telescope and largest land
structure (aircraft carriers on the seas are larger).
Pup tents were pitched around the 40-foot telescope that has been refurbished
for sciences groups and teachers to use. After dinner at the cafeteria,
the campers were divided into two groups and given their nighttime project.
They were taught to move and point the telescope and to calibrate the radio
wave data recording equipment, in other words, how to "catch the wave." Each
group was given a "know" and "mystery" object with it's co-ordinates and
station passage time. By recording and analyzing the data and using the library,
internet, star charts, and whatever else they could, the students were to
present their report on their "mystery" objects to Sue Ann at 8 AM the next
morning. I'm proud to report that both groups received an "A" for their
efforts. It turns out one group “discovered” the black hole at the
center of our Milky Way Galaxy and the other group “discovered” the supernova
remnant Cassiopeia A.
The sixth day was a sleep in, late breakfast and a chance to check out, during
the afternoon, some reference material on the new high speed Internet connection
at the Earth Shelter at the Mountain Institute. The campers were given
a large list of neat astronomy related websites to take home. The last night
was cloudy (thank goodness) and we watched the movie "Contact" loosely based
on radio astronomy.
I know the instructors and Mountain Institute staff enjoyed the week.
I believe this group of campers now have a better understanding of our Universe
and galaxy. They know the summer night sky and have resources to discover
the fall, winter and spring time skies. They can operate an amateur sized
telescope and they understand the motion of our Solar System. I know
they especially enjoyed the "normal" outdoor adventures at The Mountain Institute.
We hope to do this again next year. Joe Morris
From the President’s Desk....
July 16, 2003
How is your summer so far? I hope the weather continues to improve
as it has in the past few days. There have been several folks who have
actually seen the sun and a few others who may have seen some stars at night.
We have reports from West Virginia (Mountain Institute and Star Cruise) of
multiple back-to-back nights of clear skies. Here on Delmarva
we have
not been that lucky yet, but our nighttime skies will clear eventually and
match some of the recent beautiful daytime weather. Personally, I have
enjoyed watching Mars grow in size and detail. And I can’t wait for
its opposition in August & September. The Sun has also been interesting.
Sunspots have been large and plentiful and the prom scope shows prominences
every time I look at the sun. Let’s hope the solar activity
continues into the Fall and produces auroras.
Jim Acker, Keith Lohmeyer, and I went to Trap Pond State Park in southern
Delaware July 12 for a show and tell to the Park’s campers. The moon
was full so that was the night’s main show. Most people enjoyed the
views through the smaller and shorter focal length scopes more than the
C-8 F-10 systems. There were just enough clouds to make the view interesting.
We had approx 35-50 people show up throughout the night. We
wound up the show at 11:00 PM and headed for home. Surprise!
A few miles north of the Park there was plenty of evidence a summer thunder
and rain
storm had made an allowance for us and decided to halt it’s progress. Smyrna
had a frog-strangler and we are still wet!
Our Fourth of July Picnic was held July 5th at Blackbird State Forest.
First the good things: good people, good food and drink, nice pavilion, easily
accessible,
our Nation’s birthday, no rain, etc… Next the bad things: HUMIDITY,
HEAT, & MOSQUITOES. We did have a great time and enjoyed
celebrating our Nation’s birthday. The camaraderie was excellent; we
do have a great group of folks in our Star Gazers organization. So,
regardless of the ferocity of the BBSF mosquito suicide squads we managed
to have a nice 4th of July Picnic and we did cut it short because of the
BBSF mosquito.
This is a wonderful time of year for stargazing. By midnight, the Summer
Milky Way is beginning to show it wonders; the “cloud” rising in the east
is not a cloud
but will reveal it’s identity as the Milky Way while we rotate underneath
and it reaches a north-south direction. Be sure to check out
the “steam” coming from the
Teapot’s spout; follow the steam through Scutum, Aquila, and Cygnus.
Take a Sunday night cruise among the star clouds; you don’t have to be “hunting
down”
anything in particular – just go for a drive through the neighborhood and
enjoy the stars. Look for patterns of stars; you may find a few stars
that remind you
of an earthly object. If you do, share it with your fellow stargazers.
It can be your personal “asterism”. Coming events are the Perseid Meteor
Shower (peaks
under a full moon on August 13 – but look for them in the days leading up
to the peak); Neptune opposition on August 4, Uranus is at opposition August
24, and of
course August 27 is Mars’ closest approach to Earth in man’s recorded history
(some say 100,000 years!). Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus are poorly situated
for
viewing. On August 18, Venus is at “Superior Conjunction” – I’ll let
you look that one up.
East Coast Amateur Astronomy Product of the Month: Telescope Mold,
Mildew, Fungus, and Moss Remover. Also know as “Sun-light”.
Continue enjoying your vacation and bring back those wonderful stories of
summer observing!
See you at Tuckahoe or in September at the Church.
Don....
Bob Bunge’s Mars Drawings
Bob Bunge has been observing Mars and has rendered a series of superb
pencil drawings which he exhibits on the DMSG Yahoo pages.
Below are some samples of his work:
Bob uses a 17 inch Reflector and keeps detailed observing notes such
as the sample below:
2003/07/06, 09:15 UT, Bowie MD, 17-inch f/7.8 reflector 260 & 480x Seeing
7 out of 10. Light dew, warm, humid. Mostly clear, but very hazy;
3 out of 10 for transparency.
The Hellas region dust cloud was pretty much on the limb and even seemed
to stick just above the limb a tiny bit. Preceding areas of the cloud were
brighter in the w47 (blue) filter, so perhaps some moisture activity is also
involved. Other possible cloud activity across area, with one being in Mare
Tyrrhenum. Very much detail - too much to draw - in the South Polar Cap.
At least one notch in the SCP rim. North Polar Hood was most noted in white
light.
For the complete ongoing series of Bob’s rawings visit Bob’s
website at
http://ladyandtramp.com/mars/