July 17th Oak Flat

We had another successful Oak Flat Star Party with more than 36 telescopes and binoculars available for the more than 200 people we estimated in attendance. It was a great day and despite quite a few clouds throughout the evening we had some great views of the Moon, Saturn, Mars and many deep sky objects. The constellation tour happened later than expected due to clouds at the normal time, but for those who stuck around we were able to present a very nice constellation tour and the clouds cooperated during the tour.


TAAS took advantage of the use of Oak Flat prior to the star party and enjoyed a very successful picnic and very short General Meeting prior to the star party. The food as well as the company was excellent and I would like to thank all those who participated and making this such a huge success.

Where is the Sid Times...

To all TAAS members,


Some of you may have noticed that the June issue of the Sidereal Times is a little behind schedule, I would like to take a moment to explain the reason for this and make sure everyone is aware of some upcoming events and meetings.

As you all know this organization is run entirely by volunteers who work hard to make things happen and because of this we may run into some glitches due to things that are not within our control (for the most part). A few weeks ago I was notified that Gary Cooper's, our newsletter editor, home was broken into and the computer used to create our newsletter was stolen, it is being replaced as I write this email. Unfortunately I was also just informed that Gary has had to leave town to tend to an ailing relative and may be gone for a little while. I regret that the newsletter may be delayed but I would like Gary to understand that he should deal with the issue at hand and not worry about TAAS we will manage until his return. I ask that everyone please be patient regarding the newsletter and if you have questions or comments please contact me directly, if the meantime I will work to make sure everyone is notified about upcoming events and meetings via the listserve and the official Board Email list (for those not on the listserve).

Our next General Meeting will take place on Saturday, June 26th at Regener Hall beginning at 7:00pm. We will also be offering another Astronomy 101 session prior to the June meeting, the 101 will begin at 6:00pm also at Regener Hall.

Astronomy 101 will go over Star Hopping (more information will be coming), Dave Pitonzo will discuss how to use stars to find your way around the night sky.

The June General Meeting will be turned over to the young astronomers among us. TAAS again this year presented several awards to astronomy related projects at the recent NM Regional Science Fair and while in years past the astronomy related projects were few, this year proved to have an exceptional amount of astronomy projects. Because of the abundance of projects TAAS presented a total of 8 awards so we have requested that the students bring their projects to this meeting and present them to us giving our members an opportunity to discuss their research with them. We will be presenting their awards to them we hope you will join us in celebrating their interest in astronomy.

The July General Meeting has been moved to July 17th and will be held at Oak Flat prior to the Oak Flat Star Party. TAAS will provide the main dish and we will be asking everyone else to provide a side or desert to be shared by all. More information will come regarding this event but please mark your calendars and make sure that you plan on attending.

Again, I thank you all for your patience and understanding regarding the newsletter and if you have any questions or comments please contact me directly.

Robert Williams
TAAS President
president@taas.org

Lost in Space for a Time...

Sorry that I have not posted much in some time, I have sort of been lost in space for a few weeks. It has been a busy couple of weeks for me but things are starting to calm down slightly now so I should be able to post a little more often again.


We began our Summer Star Party Season last week with the first of the Oak Flat Star Parties; it was a big success (I think) despite it being a little cold (downright chilly). I was so excited about the evening being clear and there being such a large crowd for our first event that I completely forgot to walk around and count all the telescopes that were set up, I would guess that we had somewhere around 20 or so telescopes. We had 2 groups of Boy Scouts and one group of Girl Scouts come out for this star party and learn a little about telescopes and some of the things you can see in the night sky. Overall we had more than 100 visitors, making it a very successful star party.

Due to some scheduling misunderstandings we did not have our usual enchilada dinner provided by the Jaclyn, a forest service volunteer, but I did talk to her and she is aware of the date for next month and is looking forward to providing the enchiladas then (I can hardly wait). The Girl Scouts did not disappoint however, they came out early and had a cookout then made smores (using Girl Scout cookies) and provided a very nice sweet treat to those setting up telescopes (we should invite them more often).

As the sun began to go down we gathered all the kids and their adults up and had a nice conversation prior to observing, we talked about TAAS and what we do, we discussed how telescopes work and what to do and what not to do when observing through them, we then talked about some of the things you would be able to see this evening and then covered flashlights with red cellophane to protect or night vision and then waited for the sky to darken enough for us to enjoy the wonders of the night sky. Observing began and we enjoyed terrific views of Venus, Mars, Saturn and many more deep sky objects through the evening.

At about 9:30pm we gathered at the center of the observing field and I did a constellation tour, showing people some of the constellations visible and telling some of the stories that go along with them. There were lots of questions and I think everyone had a good time and enjoyed the stories, and as they always are they loved the green laser allowing them to see the stars I was talking about. When I pointed out Leo the lion in the sky, one kid asked what his story was, “Why was the lion in the sky?” I did not know, I told him this and said I would have to find out why so next time I could tell them. I did find out why and if you read the Presidents Message in the May newsletter I explain the story behind Leo and next time I do a constellation tour and someone asks why the lion is there I can tell them.

We have another star party coming up on May 22nd, the Albuquerque Open Space Visitor Center Star Party, I am attaching the poster for this one here so please let all your friends know about it and I hope to see you there. Now go out and look up and enjoy the wonders of the New Mexico sky.

Messier Sketch Project, Your Help Wanted...

You may have seen the Messier Poster that was created some time ago, the one that has nice photos of all 110 of the Messier objects. I will be working over the year to re-create this poster (sort of) with hand sketches done by myself and I am hoping others in TAAS. I am in need of any and all sketches that you have done or will do of any of the 110 Messier objects.


If you are like me and enjoy doing sketches at the eyepiece or if you do not currently sketch but have wanted to do more I hope you will take this opportunity to do some more sketching. I am hoping to get a few sketches of each of the objects by different people so that I have a variety of views to choose from, we all see things just a little different than others. Over the next several months I will use the President’s Remarks portion of the newsletter to feature a different constellation and I am hoping to have some sketches of the Messier objects that reside within that constellation to feature in the article. I am beginning this month with a constellation that will soon be lost until next fall, Auriga – the Charioteer.

This time of the year Auriga sits high in the western sky just after sunset, moving below the horizon and setting at about midnight. Look for a fairly bright grouping of stars forming a pentagon shape, the brightest five stars is Capella and sitting directly below Capella is a small grouping of three stars that form a triangle. The star opposite the pentagon from Capella is Elnath and this star is actually one of the horns of Taurus.

There are a couple of stories that go with Auriga, but all the stories describe it as a Charioteer holding the reigns of the chariot in his left hand and cradling a goat and her kids in his right arm, Capella is the right shoulder of the charioteer and means “she goat.” The Charioteer in some stories is believed to be Erechtheus, son of the Roman God Vulcan, who was the first man to harness four horses to a chariot.

Other stories claim that the Charioteer represents the ill fated Myrtilus who was thrown from the chariot by the daughter of King Oenomaus, Hippodamia after a quarrel with one of her suitors, Pelops. Myrtilus was the in charge of the Kings chariot; he rigged the chariot so the wheels would come off during a chariot race with Pelops eventually killing the King. When Myrtilus tried to claim Hippodamia as his bride she refused and pushed him from the chariot and ran off with Pelops.

There are three very nice Open Clusters within Auriga M36, M37 and M38 all three are not too difficult to find and can be seen from Albuquerque so they are nice objects for public star parties. M37 is a very dense grouping of stars with a few bright stars and lots of dimmer stars; it is easily identifiable as a cluster but not quite dense enough to look like a globular cluster. M38 is not quite as dense as M37 but there are far brighter stars within the view, again easily identifiable as cluster but a fairly loose cluster of stars. M36 is the least dense of the three but again there are quite a few bright stars and it is fairly easy to identify it as a cluster within the field.

Now that I have shared some of my sketches of a few of the Messier objects please consider sharing some of your sketches and email them to me at president@taas.org, I would like to feature them in some of my upcoming articles and would really like your help in creating sketches of all 110 of the Messier objects.

Ummm, what am I going to say?

Ok, the newsletter deadline is coming up and I have to try and figure out what I am going to say to all those wonderful TAAS people who read the newsletter when it comes out. Dee always told me how much he disliked this portion of his job as President, although I think he did an excellent job with it, I only hope I am half as good as he was.


I am going to try really hard to make the deadline this month and get my article in on Friday and not at the last minute on Sunday, as usual (I said try). But now I have to try and figure out what to say and how to say it, more to come…

So What On Your Mind...

Sunny, 70 degrees one day, snowy 40 degrees the next, then the wind and dust, snow, sun, wind, sun, clouds, rain, sun, sun and rain at the same time... Ahhh, springtime in New Mexico.


I am so ready for the spring and summer, maybe it is just me but this seems like a very long winter and I want the nice cool (but not cold) evenings with no wind and nice dark skies that make this such a great place to live and to be an back yard astronomer. I think I am having some telescope withdrawals; I need a nice evening of observing with a good list of objects both seen and unseen, globular clusters, nebula, galaxies, planets, open clusters and even some double stars.

My eyes have been bothering me a little the last few weeks, dry and itchy (from allergies, I think) I think they are in need of some medicine, I put in some eye drops, I rub, I wash I try different things and none of it is working. The medicine I need will not come in a little bottle that dispenses a drop at a time, it will come in a telescope with a nice eyepiece that focuses that magnificent light from distant wonders directly into my retina, stirring up the excitement, imagination and amazement of the universe again, I miss it.

The medicine I am prescribing for my tired eyes, is photons, lots of photons from distant far off places traveling years, decades, centuries and even millennia, passing through our atmosphere down a dark tube, bouncing off a mirror then off another mirror through an eyepiece and "SMACK" (oops I blinked) then looked again and there it is the medicine I have been waiting for, far better and more soothing than those few drops I picked up at Walgreens.

Think about it, what those photons have been through on their way to curing my soar deprived eyes. All the other stars they passed, all the galaxies they may have seen, planets, clusters, nebula, comets, asteroids and I am sure even several pairs of alien eyes looking through alien telescopes up into their known universe. Did they blink, where their eyes tired and soar waiting for the photons, are they sitting somewhere wondering if we exist and where we exist...?

So what is on your mind?

Predictably, Unpredictable…

Well, if you have lived in NM for any amount of time you have heard the saying “If you do not like the weather, wait a few moments.”


If spring time in New Mexico is anything it is unpredictable, it changes not only daily but, I have seen it change by the minute (ok maybe 10 minutes) but suddenly. I was very much looking forward to the Spring Equinox Open House and Picnic yesterday and was not too worried about the weather reports, because it is New Mexico and things change fast, so I was hoping it would all just blow by. Imagine how surprised I was to wake up and see a post on Becky R. blog welcoming spring with several inches of new snow and then hearing posts of up to 10 inches of the white stuff in the surrounding communities.

I continued to monitor the emails and was not surprised when I heard that the Open House and Picnic was going to be cancelled and rescheduled, I was a little disappointed but it was good to know early so I could figure out what to do with the rest of my day. It was a little more disappointing to watch the skies clear as the day went on knowing that we would not be gathering at GNTO later under the nice clear skies that developed as dark approached.

I want to thank the GNTO committee for their efforts in preparing for this event and I know they will do just fine in rescheduling it and we will all be able to gather to chat, eat, observe and just have fun soon. I want to thank them for their decision to cancel the event early and to see that the word got out to folks; I know it was not an easy decision but it was the smart decision and we will make it up soon. We are fairly sure there was snow on the ground at GNTO, it may have melted by the time the picnic started but it leaves behind lots of potential problems once it melts so it is better that we are all safe and warm and we will be all the more ready for our the re-scheduled picnic coming soon.

So until next time, observe and enjoy when you can and keep in mind we will have many more opportunities to get together over the remainder of the year.