October meeting notes

Jerry Truitt

Lyle Jones opened the October meeting at 7:03. We had several new people attending tonight's meeting so we took the time to go around the room and introduce ourselves along with telling if we went to the No Frills star gaze. If we did go we were to tell our thoughts and if we didn't why.
I went to No Frills and made soup the first night. It was a great time and everyone who went responded about how much they enjoyed it and what great clear skies we had the whole time. The only complain was lights from incoming cars. We'll address that in the spring stargaze with both signs at the gate and greeters during the peak traffic hours.
We all gave Keith an ovation for the great job he did with organizing the No Frills and to Joe Cain for again handling registration of the event. Lyle gave all those who help a very cool certificate of appreciation.
Don Surles reminded everyone that Monograms by Trish (838-0600) near Fox Run shopping center in Bear DE would put our logo on your shirt for $5. We also agreed to pool our resources with DAS for calendars and guide books this year. DAS orders enough that they get a much better price. DAS President Billy Westergard is going to get us 10 of each to sell to members.
I gave a report on the one outreach I did in September. It was cloudy that night but I brought my 10" Meade into the Cecilton Library and went over how the optics work. I also showed them the eyepieces and various filters we use and explained what each item was used for and how it works to help us see better. I also gave them a presentation from the Night Sky Network.
I have two outreaches scheduled for October; the first is on Friday the 21st at the Northeast Maryland Library. I also have a private Halloween party I'm doing Saturday the 22nd. This is for United Way where I auctioned off my services as a donation. This person has donated $125 to United Way for this service. 
Our first presentation of the evening was Doug Miller explaining how he took the images he showed us last month. He also demonstrated the processing to make the final image. He uses a freeware program called IRIS. Doug takes several images without a tracking mount. The program finds and marks the stars. It next stacks the images aligning the stars as it stacks them. Objects that are still like trees look a little blurred but the stars and sky match up great.
Greg Lee gave us show of the transit of Venus and how William Herschel used this to calculate the size of the Sun and planets. Bob Mentzer from DAS had originally set this up before the event took place to demonstrate to the public the historical significance of the transit. It's presented in an easy to understand way that anyone could gasp the mathematics used to do the calculation. Greg did a great job of explain the tools and techniques used for this show.

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Normally I present a NASA update but I gave the members an update on what I had learned at CERT. I also passed along some information that about the Vial of Life and ICE. Check my note on our Yahoo group for details.
The last show of the meeting was the constellation Aquarius. Aquarius is a dim constellation known as the water carrier or bearer. The Babylonians, Egyptians and Chinese all associated it with water and related it to rains and floods. It is in a part of the sky with other constellations that are watery in nature, Pisces the fish and Capricornus the sea goat.
idea but with a little different twist. I just completed a 4.25 Schiefspiegler. It is a super planetary 'scope but it's only 4.25". I wanted something with better resolution. Nothing beats aperture ! What is the best planetary 'scope ? I did a bunch of calculations and used the fact that we live on East Coast which doesn't have the greatest seeing.  My conclusion is a 10" F/7 dob, with a small diagonal, curved spider and on a  poncet platform. So what I'm building now,  a 9" Schupmann !  Kent asked "What to do" ? The answer is simple, come to the mirror making class, make a 10" f/7 which will be pretty easy to figure and build a great 'scope,  plus you'll have great time with great people. 
Don Surles- Dave, maybe it's coincidental that you mention the 10" f-7...I have owned or currently own refractors from 3" f-15 to 8" f-15 and in many combinations of aperture and F-ratios.  All share one characteristic...they are expensive.  Mars viewing is the acid test for most any scope.  During the last Mars apparition I owned a 6" f-15 Tinsley and the 4" Nikon refractors.  Neither of them could approach the resolution of my homemade $175 10" F-7.5 dob.  And I might add that the best view of Mars produced by the 25" Obsession is accomplished by stopping it down to a 10" clear aperture. 
David M Groski- As we both know nothing beats aperture when the seeing allows. The seeing around here is such that your going to get the best resolution from around a 10" scope.  A f/7 focal ratio gives one a well corrected field of view ( little coma ) and allows one to use a small diagonal to keep the obstruction  down.  It also doesn't require fancy and expensive eyepieces. Those Naglers are great for low power imaging but for high power/ high resolution one wants the least amount of glass.  Also at f/7 you can get up over 200X without one those  "pin hole" eyepieces.  A curved spider smears out the diffraction spike so one doesn't see them. Stars when the seeing is good, are tiny disks with diffraction rings. A planetary image in a 10" is bright . That allows you use filters to bring out the details. I knew that there was treasure in that old 10" mirror you gave back to me.  Keith, there is a pretty good article about  curved spiders in Sky and Tel in the early 90's. Basically a single curved spider, where the ends attach to the tube about 90 degrees apart is a very good design. I like to use the shiny black metal banding that is used to wrap lumber. One of the secrets is NOT to paint the vanes flat black. Flat black cools very quickly and can cool to slightly colder then the air. This causes a layer of air next to the vanes to be colder then the rest. This colder air has a different refractive index and actually with increase the amount of diffraction. 
Kent Blackwell- Guru Dave mentions long f.l. telescopes. Years ago when I assisted at the Chespeake Planetarium (still do) an old man (he was 50, I considered him an old man when I was 20) used to bring his homemade 10" f/10 Newtonian telescope for us to look through. Oh my, I'll never forget seeing Saturn in that instrument. Times have changed. In the old days amateurs didn't have to consider transporting their telescopes as often as they do today so the tubes could be as long as needed.  What Dave says about chromatic abberation is so true. I think an acromat would have be be no faster than f/15 for false-free color.
Don Surles- Thanks for the input on Flat Black paint - I am going

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Interested in getting a scope ?  The following has been gleaned from our yahoo groups message board...

Don Surles- Interested in a 6" refractor, my suggestion is to buy a sooper-dooper huge mount for the 6" f-8 refractor scope first...then find an OTA.  A better bet is a good 10" dob for a fraction of the refractor/mount $$$; you get almost 3X the light gathering of the 6"  ...and use the difference to buy some Nagler eyepieces! 
Tim Milligan- What are your interests?  If you want to do Deep-Sky ( ie, galaxies, clusters, nebs) than a Dob might be a better choice.  If you want to do high power planetary work and maybe astro-photos, then a refractor is a good choice.  If you want to do Deep-Sky and also casual planet viewing than a Dob is still a good choice.  Just try and get a good quality mirror.  I get great views of Saturn and Jupiter in my 17.5 mirror.
Kent Blackwell- I have a couple of 4" Unitrons, which are very nice as well. Unitron made a 6" back in the 1950's but there are probably only a handfull of them out there. I'll say this, to sort of back up what Don says, my 4" f/15 Unitron exhibits exquisite images of planets but cannot begin to compare with the detail seen on those planets with my 10" Orion IntelliScope Dobsonian. Still, having just bought an 80mm refractor costing more than even the 12.5" Orion IntelliScope Dobsonian reflector I can understand some people attraction to fine refractors. It's a beauty to look at, and a delight to look through. What to do????
David M Groski- There is another thing to consider with some of the refractors being offered today vs the Unitrons, Nikons etc that were made back in the 60's. The older doublets were at least F/15 to keep the color down but the tube is  long. I've looked thru a number of the newer 6" refractor which are around F/8. They have a good amount of color. Unless you're going to pay a lot of money you're going to have color and if you look at a spot diagram for these less expensive lens you'll find that some have over 1/4 wave of residue color. 
  Many years ago Don and I puzzled over what was the best all around 'scope.  We concluded that is a good 10" Dob. You get the most for money in terms of resolution, cost and portability.    As a telescope making nut, I just revisited this
How to Join the Delmarva Stargazers: Anyone with an interest in any aspect of astronomy is welcome
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Please attach a check for $15 made payable to Delmarva Stargazers and mail to Kathy Sheldon, 20985
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The November Full Moon


November's full moon arrives at 7:58PM on the 17th.  There are many names for this full moon.  In North America the most popular names are Beaver or Frost Moon.  Probably the reason for the Beaver label is this was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. 
References to it as the Frosty Moon are probably due to our North American climate that pretty much assures most of the continent will have experienced at least one frost by the time of the November full moon.

Here are some names for the November full moon from other parts of our world:
Civilization  Names
Colonial America  Beaver or Frost Moon
Chinese    White Moon
Cherokee  Trading Moon
Choctaw  Sassafras Moon
Dakota Sioux  Moon when horns are broken    off
Celtic  Dark Moon
English Medieval  Snow Moon
Neo Pagan  Tree Moon

Here is a simple experiment that will verify the apparently very large full moon on the horizon is actually no larger than when it is overhead.  Hold your finger out at arm's length (try each one to find the little stubby one that barely covers the moon's surface) and sight the full moon with one eye open/one shut.  Do this when the moon is overhead and when it is on the horizon.  The same finger should cover the moon in both positions; which proves the arc is the same.
Thanksgiving

At the end of this month we celebrate Thanksgiving.  It's a time of reflection.  I thought I would tell you of some of the things I'm thankful for.  I'm thankful for health, family and friends (old and new).  I'm thankful for clear, or even semi clear, night skies, so I can see the wonderous sites in the night sky.  I'm thankful for the group of people who call themselves The Delmarva Stargazers, an enjoyable bunch of folks.  I'm also thankful for friction and gravity, because without them, we would fall off this rock we call home.
What are you thankful for?  Think 'bout it, but don't strain anything.

Pj

Our rotational speed on Earth at 40 deg. N is ~ 600 mph.  The Moon revolves around the Earth at ~ 2200 mph.  The Earth revolves around the Sun at ~67,000 mph.  The Sun revolves around the Milky Way at ~504,000 mph.  (The Sun has only made 18 laps in the last 4.5 billion years).  The Milky Way is heading in the direction of Leo at 'bout 1.3 million mph.
But you can get a speeding ticket for going 35 mph in a 25 mph zone.
Your 2005-2006 Officers

Office  Officer  Phone  e-mail
President  Lyle Jone  302-736-9842 lyjones@state.de.us
Vice President Jerry Truitt  410-885-3327 truittjs@netscape.com
Sec. & Editor Pj Riley  302-738-5366 pjr127@yahoo.com
Treasurer  Kathy Sheldon 302-422-4695 f.a.sheldon@att.net
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No Frills X Pictures
photos by Frank Sheldon, Kent Blackwell, Pj Riley, Richard Hitt
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Moondark for November: 24 Hours at the No Frills Star Party
9 refractors - 3 reflectors - 16 Schmidt-Cassegrains - 3 binocular mounts - 20 Dobsonians
0 Sunspots - 1 Summer Triangle - 3 planets - billions of stars in the Milky Way
17 tents - 2 RV's - 7 scope trailers - 1 Old West Town - 1 red outhouse - 1 white barn
2 tall ladders - dozens of airplanes - 10 pounds of fish to fry
19 Maryland - 10 Delaware - 1 New Jersey - 6 Virginia - 1 Illinois - 1 Rhode Island license plates
All seen at the No Frills Star Party 30 September - 1 October 2005 at the Equestrian Center in Tuckahoe State Park, near Queen Anne, Maryland. Moondark is written by Doug Miller, published at the Moondark web site, and printed in the Delmarva Star Gazers' Star Gazer News. This document was last revised on 21 October 2005. Text and images copyright © 2005 by Douglas C. Miller, All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission.
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