Mirrored Image 0604.pub - High Desert Astronomical Society

April 2006
The Luz Observatory
High Desert Astronomical Society Newsletter
Venus Express
CLUB EVENTS
Another spacecraft goes into
orbit around a planet. This time the
European Space Agency's Venus
Express has returned the first-ever
images of the hothouse planet's south
pole from a distance of 130,000 miles,
showing surprisingly clear structures
and unexpected detail. The images
were taken April 12th during the
spacecraft's initial capture orbit after
successful arrival on April 11, 2006.
The false color image to the
right shows Venus's day side at left
and night side at right, and corresponds to a scale of 30 miles per pixel.
This was taken by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer
(VIRTIS) camera of the southern hemisphere of Venus, with the South pole at
the center.
Launched last November to
spend 500 days studying Venus with
07 Apr--Planetarium
Show at VVC, 7:00pm
08 Apr--Public Observing
at Lewis Center, 7:00pm
22 Apr--HiDAS Meeting
at Lewis Center, 6:00pm
21 Apr--Planetarium
Show at VVC, 7:00pm
28 Apr--Public Observing
at Lewis Center, 7:30pm
Image credit: European Space Agency
numerous instruments. It is the first
Venus mission in over 10 years and
hopes of learning more about the
planet have scientist excited. Doing a
search for “Venus Express” in your
browser will bring up many sites to
scour for information. There is so
much activity going on with space
exploration nowadays, take a peek!
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
Image by Kenichi Kadota (Ageo, Saitama, Japan) taken
November 28, 2000.
29 Apr--
PARTY
at Landfill South, dusk
05 May--Public Observing
at Lewis Center, 8:00pm
12 May--Planetarium
Show at VVC, 7:00pm
Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann
(Hamburg Observatory, Bergedorf, Germany) discovered
this comet on photographs exposed for a minor planet
survey on May 2, 1930. The comet was then described
as diffuse and 9.5 magnitude. Prediscovery images were
identified on photographic plates exposed on April 27 and
29 at Babelsberg Observatory (Germany). When discovered
it was within 0.06 AU of Earth. It was lost again due to
unfavorable apparitions until accidentally recovered in
1979 at its most favorable apparition since 1930. Again
observed at its 1990 return and then widely observed at its
return in 1995/96 to have split into numerous separate
fragments. At its next return in 2001, three of the fragments were seen again and designated as C, B and E.
The comet was recovered at its 2005/2006 apparition by Carl Hergenrother at Mount Hopkins on Oct 22,
2005 and this was identified as the principle component C
seen at the previous two returns. On Jan 6 2006, J. A. Farrell of Jemez Springs, NM imaged a fragment, identified as likely to be fragment B from 2001 return, some 26' W of the main comet.
continued on page three
High Desert Astronomical Society
From the President
April 2006
I am running a little late this month, but the
weather has not been cooperative of late either. I have
been overwhelmed with commitments and other tasks
recently. Hopefully I can get back on track shortly. We
have quite a few activities coming up that we need to
finalize our plans for completion of those events. It
would also be nice if we could have a very nice day or
night for those events!
Congratulations go out to Sue Alley, who recently completed the Double Star program to receive
her 5th Astronomical League award. If you need any
help with the programs, I am sure Sue would be glad
to be of assistance. I know there are a few of us working on programs that for some reason we have not
completed them. Soon Sue, soon<g>.
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www.hidasonline.com
April will be coming to a close shortly and we
need to think about our Summer activities. An event
that I have neglected is Astronomy Day, May 6th. I
should have brought this up for discussion at our
March meeting. Plans for a community outreach or
observatory open house could have been started.
Keep this in mind for next week and bring your
suggestions to the meeting.
—GFW
http://www.astroleague.org/index.html
is their website. Drop by for a look.
More to come in the future.
The Goldstone field trip to the radio telescopes out near Fort Irwin is set for the
morning of Friday, April 21st. We have two dozen people signed up to attend, but
contact Gloria Johnson (gloriajohnsonusa@dslextreme.com) for a last minute sign up.
The Third Annual Potluck Picnic is nearly upon us. It is time to call Patty Deuel or Judy Pollner and
submit your item of culinary expertise to them. The date is set for the afternoon of April 22nd. A good time
for a casual get together of HiDAS members and friends to devour some sustenance while conversing on
topics of an astronomical related nature. Following our Potluck, we will have our monthly meeting beginning
at 6:00pm, so we can put some of our topics of discussion into reality.
The HiDAS hat order has been picked up. I will bring them Saturday to the Potluck and meeting. I have
four leftover available. if more are wanted, another order can be placed for next month.
The RTMC Astronomy Expo in Big Bear is fast approaching. If you plan on attending, don’t forget to
send in your registration before May 1st to receive the early bird rate. Also, let me know if you plan on camping for possible convoy up the mountainside. Some of us will be going up around 9am on Friday of that
weekend.
Check the Forum on our website to see the PDF file of the Newsletter, in color. Let me know if
you would rather read or download from there than receive a mailed black and white photocopy.
Elsewhere in the universe…
—Gary Witt
HiDAS Notes
Reminder…...HiDAS Meeting….April 22nd…...6:00pm
April Astronomical Updates
Morning planets are Mercury, Venus, Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto. Mercury is poor this month, but
Venus still shines brightly, although rapidly shrinking 6" in apparent size during April. Venus and Uranus have a close encounter of the planetary kind just
before daybreak on April 18. Mars is positioned between beta and zeta Tauri, the stars at the ends of
the horns of Taurus, on April 1. The Red Planet is
only some 5" in size as it travels eastward along the
ecliptic. By April 17, it will be within 1 degree of
M35 in Gemini and on April 30 it will be even closer
to third magnitude epsilon Geminorum. Jupiter, in
Libra, rises just after sunset by month's end. The
Great Red Spot (GRS) has a new red companion, or
perhaps more accurately pale pink, and transits
about an hour after the GRS. Saturn is near zenith at
sunset this month and watch for a large shadow on
the rings on the April 25th.
Asteroid 4 Vesta (mag 8.1) tracks between
Pollux and epsilon Geminorum on its way to within a
degree of kappa Geminorium in early May.
The tenth magnitude Comet C/2005 E2
(McNaught) is low in the west (20°) at sunset and
dimming. Comet C/2006 A1 (Pojmanski) at 8.6 magnitude is fading, but should be visible in the morning
sky until June. Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
3 news is within the story on page one.
Algol minima’s are 4/19 @ 03:26 4/22 @
00:15; 4/24 @ 21:04.
Jupiter GRS transits about every 10 hours
(9:56) with “Junior” about an hour behind it. Saturday,
April 14th, 21:53 is the next nighttime transit. A little
calculating will give you times for the remainder of
the month.
High Desert Astronomical Society
April
17th,
18th, 19th Venus and Uranus
are going to have a close
encounter in the dawn sky.
Simply look east before sunrise.
As a guidepost, Venus can't be
beat. It is so bright, people
often think it's a landing airplane. Simply scan Venus with a
pair of binoculars (or a small
telescope) and you'll see Uranus
right beside it. If the sky is very
dark, you may be able to lift
your eyes from the optics and
see Uranus directly. On April
17th the pair will be separated
by about one degree, the width
of your pinky finger held at
arm's length. On the 18th they
will be even closer together, 0.3
degrees. On the 19th the
distance increases again to one
degree.
Did you know?
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www.hidasonline.com
Some of you may remember a
unique telescope, handcrafted
by Mike Simpson, from a few years ago, aptly
named the Gourdescope. Yes, the body of the
scope is a gourd. Mike is taking his wares to the
San Bernardino County Fair, May 5-12. He has told
me that this scope will be for sale. I believe he
might be taking inquiries. Now, that is interesting!
On our star party night, April 29th, another not so unique event will
present itself. An asteroid occultation will occur at about a half hour after
midnight with a 9.7mag star and a 14.6mag asteroid. Most of our scopes
will show the star, even
though the asteroid may
be difficult. The key is to
watch the star as the asteroid passes over it. The star
will dim by nearly 5 magnitudes for a few seconds.
If you catch it, then you
have seen an occultation!
Dave has seen one, I have
yet to witness one. Anyone
interested! Check with
Dave or myself.
—GFW
Interesting?
Reminder….Star Party...April 29th, Landfill South...dusk
73P/SW
continued
Roy Tucker, Tucson, AZ picked up a third component
(designated G) on February 20, 2006 further west.
The main component of comet 73P/ SchwassmannWachmann will approach
the Earth to within 0.07 AU
on May 12, 2006; but the
small, trailing fragments
will pass slightly closer in
the few days following. At
that time (if they survive
that long) they could be
anywhere up to 6 magnitudes brighter than their
brightness was in late
March. Although numerous
other fragments have been
found ( 19 total at this
time), the C, B and G fragments will probably be the
only ones that would be
visible in modest sized
amateur telescopes; however, other fragments may
be easily accessible with
digital or CCD cameras.
References have
been made that the comet is dying due to the
extensive break up. Future unfavorable returns might
mystify observers as to whether or not it will survive.
This may be the last time to observe a comet that has
split into many pieces trailing across the sky? —GFW
www.yp-connect.net/~mmatti/_private/comet_73p.htm
High Desert Astronomical Society
4
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Update
As the planet Mars fades in size
from its close encounter last October,
the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at Mars on March 10th of
this year. In last month’s newsletter
I briefly mentioned its mission and
the website address at
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro Since
that time we have had the MRO’s first
image, on March 24th, and its first
color rendition (at left) released on
April 7th. At the center portion of the
High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) cameras array
of detectors are extra detectors to
image in green and near-infrared
color bandpasses. These images are
combined with the black-and-white
images (from red-bandpass detectors)
to create the color images. This is not
natural color as seen by human eyes,
but infrared color, shifted to longer
wavelengths. This image also has
been processed to enhance subtle
color variations. The southern half of
the scene is brighter and bluer than
the northern half, perhaps due to
www.hidasonline.com
early-morning fog in the atmosphere.
Large-scale streaks in the northern half
are due to the action of wind on surface
materials. The blankets of material ejected
from the many small fresh craters are
generally brighter and redder than the
surrounding surface, but a few are darker
and less red. Two greenish spots in the
middle right of the scene may have an
unusual composition, and are good future
targets for the Compact Reconnaissance
Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, a mineralidentifying instrument on the MRO. In
the bottom half of the image we see a
redder color in the rough areas, where
wind and sublimation of water or carbon
dioxide ice have partially eroded patches
of smooth-textured deposits.
Over the next six months, the
spacecraft will gradually adjust the shape
of its orbit around the red planet. Images
will be able to show martian landscape
features as small as a kitchen table from
the spacecraft's low orbital altitude.
Images from the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment and additional
information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro
Image Credit: NASA/JPLCaltech/University of Arizona
Our "April Fool" Messier Marathon, which was rescheduled from a week earlier,
truly made fools of those wishing to log Messier Objects! There was no way that
anybody could log many Messier objects, due to overcast conditions that worsened with time. I am sure the
upcoming Daylight Savings Time shift was responsible for the poor "seeing" (sic). Surely the heavens were
confused. The blusterous breeze blowing from the southwest was another deterrent for the participation of
HiDAS members in the hunt for the Messier’s, with the exception of the following stalwarts. Gary Witt, being
optimistic of clearing skies brought both his 16" Starmaster truss and 10" Discovery tube Dobsonian telescopes; however, the 10” was the only one to see action. Sue Alley was first to Rabbit Dry Lake, but retired
early with weather induced illness. Other attendees, sans telescopes, that came for the astronomical support
were Dave Meyer, Hal & Judy Pollner, Larry Deuel, Brandy Tidball and daughters, Makayla and Olivia.
Some of the objects viewed through Gary's 10" Discovery Dob, when cloud cover permitted, were a
crescent Moon, Saturn, the Great Orion Nebula M42 and a few large open clusters. Attempts at other objects
were made, however the cloud cover obscured most everything and would not dissipate enough to catch a
glimpse. The colorful Open Cluster MCP (Mitsubishi Cement Plant) was ideally situated for viewing. Green,
yellow, blue, and red hues of numerous imbedded “stars” were so stunning the thought of adding it to the
Messier Catalogue as M111 was bantered about. Ok, maybe the atmosphere was playing tricks on our senses
and our euphoria was getting the better of us. It was still an interesting couple of hours conversing with each
other and waiting for a sucker hole to pierce the clouds. Better viewing on April 29th? We hope so! It has
been many a day since we have had a night worthy of extended viewing.
HAL
Star Party Report
High Desert Astronomical Society
www.hidasonline.com
5
HIGH DESERT ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY at
THE LEWIS CENTER
HiDAS Star Party Site
N
HiDAS Star Party Site
Alternate Yucca Loma entrance is a little rough, but shorter.
HiDAS 2005 Board Members
Contact List
OFFICERS
CHAIRPERSONS
Gary Witt
President
240-4422
Harold Johnson
Vice President
868-2001
Judy Pollner
Secretary
247-4785
Larry Deuel
Treasurer
949-6644
Dave Meyer
Lewis Center Liaison/Publicity
Gloria Johnson
Gary Witt
Patty Deuel
Hal Pollner
Sue Alley
Steve Carey
Bob Schuette
Tim Baggerly
Anthony Rogers
Speaker Programs/Events Coordinator
Newsletter
Historian
Star Party Coordinator
Astronomical League Coordinator
Member at Large
Member at Large
Member at Large
Member at Large
868-2001
240-4422
949-6644
247-4785
221-2939
741-9312
949-2199
242-2321
885-2807
245-8020
JUST A REMINDER . . . . . .
The month and year (ex: 04/06) your HiDAS membership expires is shown in the upper right corner of your address label.
-------------------------------------------HIGH DESERT ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
MEMBERSHIP/RENEWAL APPLICATION
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PHONE:____________________________
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EMAIL:____________________________
CITY:_____________________________ STATE:______ ZIP:____________
NEW MEMBER
RENEWAL
MEMBERSHIP TYPE:
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INDIVIDUAL $15
FAMILY $20
(Does NOT include magazine subscriptions)
MAGAZINE REQUEST:
SKY & TELESCOPE $32.95
ASTRONOMY $34.00
NIGHT SKY (Bi-monthly) $17.99
(Magazine requests are optional)
DONATION TO HiDAS ENDOWMENT:
_________________ Note: If you wish to claim your contribution to the endowment
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MAY HiDAS USE YOUR APPLICATION INFORMATION FOR THE HiDAS ROSTER?
YES
Please clip and mail this form, along with your payment (make checks payable to HiDAS), to:
High Desert Astronomical Society, 17500 Mana Road, Apple Valley, California 92307
NO
www.hidasonline.com
May 2006
17500 MANA RD.
HIGH DESERT ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
April 2006
6
APPLE VALLEY, CA 92307
High Desert Astronomical Society