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Alamogordo
Astronomy
Club
August 2005
Newsletter
President: Bob Unger [email protected]
Vice Present: Jack Dembicky
[email protected]
Treasurer: Bill Galther [email protected]
(505) 687-2333
Secretary: Myra Galther [email protected]
(505) 687-2333
Membership benefits
• Regular monthly club meetings with speakers and
workshops
• Observing sessions, campouts, field trips and parties
• Online discussion forum
• Membership in the Astronomical League, including a
subscription to The Reflector
• Discounted subscriptions to Sky and Telescope and
Astronomy magazines
• This monthly newsletter
Our club meetings are held on the third Friday of each
month (except December) at 7:30 PM at the Hubbard
Building of the New Mexico Museum of Space History.
For more information Our web site:
http://www.zianet.com/aacwp/
Alamogordo Astronomy Club
P.O. Box 4151
Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310
August Meeting
Our regular club meeting will be held on Friday, August 19th, 2005 at 7:30 PM in the
Hubbard Building at the Space Center. Our pre-meeting dinner will be at the Fair.
Program: Go to the Fair!
Constellation of the Month
Corona Australis & Telescopium
The President’s Message
Well we are almost at the end of another year. It's already August and
time for the Fair! It's also time to nominate for next year's officers. If you know of
someone who would like to play a more active part in the business of the club,
see if they would like to run for office.
I was asked to write about where our club is heading in the future. Maybe
it would be better to say where I envision our club in the future. One thing I see is
the club taking a more active role in public outreach. For those of you who
weren't at the meeting this past month, we picked up three new members! One of
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them had seen a member at the Valley of Fires Star Party give a presentation
from the Night Sky Network materials and got so excited with what she saw and
heard her husband bought her a telescope. Remember when you were that
excited about Astronomy? I see us resurrecting our observatory program so that
everyone in the club has access to an observing place and a telescope.
White Sands Star Party Sept. 30-Oct. 1
White Sands Star Party is a major event in New Mexico and is hosted by the NM
Museum of Space History, White Sands National Monument, and the
Alamogordo Astronomy Club. Activities include workshops, Museum visits and
IMAX movies, visits to the National Solar Observatory and Apache Point
Observatory, a pizza party and camping in White Sands Monument. The guest
Speaker will be Tom Polakis, contributing editor for Sky & Telescope magazine.
Questions? Call the Space Center at 1-505-437-2840
The White Sands Star Party is moving along well. We still need volunteers
for gate assignment and various jobs during the party. Remember as a club,
we can volunteer at WSSP, in return, we receive a 50% refund of our
registration fee. Four (4) hours is the necessary time. It goes by very quickly,
and can be quite fun.
Myra Galther
Featured Astronomers of the
Month – Bill and Myra
Galther
Bill and Myra Galther are amateur astronomers. For me, Bill, it all started just
over eleven years ago when my counselor made a mistake. He let me take
astronomy as an elective. He should have made me take something in
humanities since I was full up on math and science. But astronomy sounded
interesting and I had always wondered about it but didn’t know how to go about
it. At any rate, class was interesting and I came from class one day mumbling
something to Myra about how it might be fun to have a modest scope. This was
early on in our relationship. I hadn’t known she had started college as an
astrophysics major and was interested in astronomy too. Her father worked on
the early US missile projects. Myra became interested in astronomy during
Junior High School. She would lie on the grass and watch the stars, and a few
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years later looked for satellites. After I mentioned a scope, the next thing I know,
we were members of TAAS and we have a 7inch Refractor on a go-to mount.
Our interest grew as did our scopes both in size and number. We now have
several scopes including a 20” Obsession push-to. At first we tried viewing from
the back of the Sandia Mountains behind Albuquerque where Myra had a couple
of acres suitable for viewing and building a home. But when we tried viewing
from there we knew it wouldn’t do.
Waaay too much sky glow. So we fixed
that. We moved to the darkest place we could find within reason, and now live
five miles past Cloudcroft where you can see your shadow from the Milky Way
and even from Mars. It should be great this summer. Keep looking up! Bill and
Myra Galther
Upcoming ’s Events
8/5 Brantley Lake State Park star Party 8:30
8/12 Carlsbad Star Party & Bat Breakfast 8/13
8/19 Club Meeting at 7:30 and dinner at 5:30
8/18-20 Otero County Fair booth
8/27 Caballo Lake State Park Star Party 7:30
9/30-10/1 White Sands Star Party
Night Sky Network
Our Alamogordo Astronomy Club is in a nationwide coalition of amateur
astronomy clubs bringing the science, technology and inspiration of NASA's
missions to the general public. We share our time and telescopes to provide you
with unique astronomy experiences at science museums, observatories,
classrooms, and under the real night sky. Our Goal is to Inspire, astound and
amaze! For more information
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/
logon
at
http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/
or
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Carl Kohler and Shuttle Camp Class 7-20-05
Mike Smith setting up two scopes! 7-20-05
Night Sky Network Class 7-20-05
Chris Jones and Rochelle Williams setting
up. 7-20-05
Two logged events were given in August.
8/20 Shuttle Camp Night Sky Network Presentations.
Gene Mangold presented HOW DO WE FIND PLANETS AROUND OTHER
STARS?
Carl Kohler gave three activities HOW DO STARS AND PLANETS FORM?,
WHERE ARE THE DISTANT WORLDS? AND WHY DO WE PUT
TELESCOPES IN SPACE? There were 19 students and 5 others in attendance.
Club Members were Mike Smith, Chris Jones, Mike Moiser, Rochelle Williams.
8/27 Shuttle Camp Night Sky Network Presentations.
Chris Jones presented WHY DO WE PUT TELESCOPES IN SPACE?
Carl Kohler presented HOW DO WE FIND PLANETS AROUND OTHER
STARS? WHERE ARE THE DISTANT WORLDS?
There were 35 students and 5 others in attendance. Club members were Mike
Smith, Chris Jones and Mark Simpson.
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Otero County Fair Booth fund raiser Aug. 18-20
A sign up sheet is on the Yahoo Web site or call Bill Galther. The work segments
will be in 2 hour pairs, on the even hours. Hours are 4-12 on Thursday and
Friday evenings and 10am to 12 midnight on Saturday.
From the Treasurer
Last chance to get a 2006 Astronomy Calendars: We only have a few
Astronomy calendars left. They cost only $12.99 each. Please remember about
your magazine subscription renewals and club membership renewals as they are
due in September. Nominations for officers and board members will occur at the
August meeting with elections during the September meeting.
Magazine Subscriptions: Discounted magazine subscriptions to Astronomy
($29.95) and Sky and Telescope($32.95) are renewable at any time of the year.
However, for folks whose magazines expire near the end of the year, renewals
should happen in August to ensure continuous issues. Forms are available on
the club site and also at club meetings. Last year we were playing catch-up and
fix-up with multiple mailings and corrections to five folks with missed
subscriptions. This year it should be smoother. If anyone has unresolved
magazine subscription problems, let me know so we can get them fixed. Please
know that both magazines have a disconnect between the subscription and
advertising departments. Even though the renewals are processed, the warning
notices of expirations are still sent out. Everyone, please fill out a form, tape the
mailing label(s) from your magazine(s) to it, make a check out to the
"Alamogordo Astronomy Club" and get your magazine subscriptions and
renewals to me. Thank You, by Bill Galther, Treasurer
Alamogordo Astonomy Club
Certificate Program
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The club has a certificate award program designed to encourage observing
accomplishments.
It has four divisions: Unaided Eye, Binocular, Small
Telescope 4”” max, and large Telescope. There are three levels: Basic,
Intermediate and Advanced. There will be log entry forms available at the next
meeting or find them in the Yahoo File web page.
Bill Galther received Unadided Eye Intermediate and Large Telescope
Basic. Eric Shalita received Basic, Intermediate and Advanced for Bin
Members in the News
Eric Shalita Visits and Receives Observation Certificates
Eric, Caryn, Jesse and Heather Shalita came for a brief visit on Saturday July23.
Bill and Myra Galther hosted a potluck dinner at 5:30 pm for them. Bob Unger
presented Eric with long overdue awards for his outstanding observations prior to
being transferred to New Jersey. He is now on his way to Las Vegas to another
tour of duty. He said there was no opportunity in Jersey to do any observations
so he is looking forward to darker skies away from the Las Vegas strip.
John Pijawka at Bottomless Lakes State Park-East of Roswell 7-9-2005
Really cool sinkholes! BLSP scheduled a Star Party at Lea Lake Recreation
Area. Park Manager Steve Patterson, and Interpretative Naturalist Kathryn Jones
attended, as well as 2 members of the Roswell Astronomy Club. There were a
total of 35 people. So-so cloudy night- telescopes were not set up because of
passing clouds. I volunteered to give a 45 minute program:
1. Update on Deep Impact/Comet Tempel 1
2. Native American Archeoastronomy- "Chaco Canyon".
Presentation went OK.... by John Pijawka
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Articles Need for the Newsletter
Please send your articles to Gene at [email protected] for the
newsletter. If you attend a star party, do a Night sky Network presentation, buy a
new piece of astronomy hardware or discover a new comet, We want to know so
we can share it with your fellow members. Thanks to John, Bill, Myra and Bob
for contributing to the newsletter.
Sky Events
August 4, 2005 /// New Moon
11:05 P.M. EDT
August 4, 2005 /// Moon at apogee
The point in the Moon's orbit when it is farthest from Earth.
August 5, 2005 /// Mercury in inferior conjunction
Mercury passes between the Sun and Earth.
August 7, 2005 /// Venus 1.2° south of Moon, occultation
An occultation occurs when one object passes in front of a smaller one, temporarily obscuring all or part of the
background object from view.
August 8, 2005 /// Neptune at opposition
Opposition occurs when a planet farther from the Sun than Earth appears opposite the Sun in the sky. It is the best time to
observe a planet.
August 10, 2005 /// Jupiter 1.3° north of Moon, occultation
An occultation occurs when one object passes in front of a smaller one, temporarily obscuring all or part of the
background object from view.
August 11, 2005 /// Perseid meteors
The Perseid shower is created by the dust trail of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.
August 12, 2005 /// First Quarter Moon
10:38 P.M. EDT
August 14, 2005 /// Antares 0.4° south of Moon, occultation
An occultation occurs when one object passes in front of a smaller one, temporarily obscuring all or part of the
background object from view.
August 15, 2005 /// Mercury stationary
The body appears motionless in the sky due to the turning point between its direct and retrograde motion.
August 18, 2005 /// Neptune 5° north of Moon
August 19, 2005 /// Full Moon
1:53 P.M. EDT
August 19, 2005 /// Moon at perigee
The point in the Moon's orbit when it is nearest to Earth.
August 20, 2005 /// Uranus 2° north of Moon
August 23, 2005 /// Mercury at greatest western elongation (18°)
Elongation is the apparent angular separation of an object from the Sun.
August 25, 2005 /// Mars 6° south of Moon
August 26, 2005 /// Last Quarter Moon
11:18 A.M. EDT
August 31, 2005 /// Saturn 5° south of Moon
August 31, 2005 /// Moon at apogee
The point in the Moon's orbit when it is farthest from Earth.
August 31, 2005 /// Uranus at opposition
Opposition occurs when a planet farther from the Sun than Earth appears opposite the Sun in the sky. It is the best time to
observe a planet.
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