Wright State University Astronomy Club

A Bad Experience with Orion Telescopes (Pat Craig)

2011-03-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

It gives me no pleasure to focus excessively on the negative, so I'll try to make this brief.

As followers of our club may be aware, WSUAC owns an 8" Orion Telescopes reflector. Back in September I made two personal purchases from Orion, a SkyView Pro 120mm refractor and one of the Trutrack RA/Dec drives. The drive was completely inoperative in the declination axis, and the objective lens showed such severe chromatic aberration that visitors to club events who looked through the SkyView Pro 120 commented on the amazing blue color exhibited by sky objects. This led to wasted time in explaining the idea of chromatic aberration. Correspondence with the company and a subsequent return of the telescope resulted in only the repair of the Trutrack drive. The company's position is that the chromatic aberration is "normal" for that type of telescope. I, of course, do not agree with that assessment and will no longer be purchasing any of Orion's products. I will also be recommending that our club - and the public - steer clear of them.

Caveat emptor. If you should purchase a product from Orion, please be aware of their 30-day return policy (most unfair in my humble opinion). Test your purhase thoroughly, and if you find the slightest thing wrong pack it up and return it immediately. Do consider getting a full refund and looking into a more reputable vendor of astronomical equipment, such as Celestron Corporation.

The saddest thing is that I cannot just run out and purchase another $700.00 telescope. When I share views of the sky through this telescope with the public, I will constantly have to corrrect their misperception of sky objects as having an intrinsic bluish hue. That Orion does not seem to care about this is reprehensible.

Sidewalk Astronomy in Fairborn October 16th, 2010 (Pat Craig)

2010-10-17T03:47:00.000-07:00

On October 16th we took astronomy to the people of Fairborn.

Our local communities deserve people and organizations that are willing to give of their time and resources to bring science awareness and literacy to the public. The Wright State Astronomy Club is doing that work, and though we wish others here would join us, we do not hold our breath.

If it is true that the city of Dayton is somehow "dying" as claimed in recent years by Forbes magazine, it is not due simply to some minor problem with our economy. I believe that when we abandon both our capacity for higher intellect and much needed critical habits of thought, we become 1) helplessly dependent on those who possess money and power and 2) more nationalistic and violent in our ignorance of our surroundings. If one reads the daily local newspaper, one can see abundant evidence of both of these conditions here, and it is getting much worse with each passing day.

We who love science, I think, have an obligation to make the effort to bring our local communities and our nation back to the use of the mind to peacefully explore our world and resolve conflict. We need to make fists, knives, guns, and missiles obsolete. Our club's resources and time may be very limited, but we are doing what we can.

Nichole and Kennedy, thank you for your help this weekend. You are now part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

In the new Star Trek movie, Captain Christopher Pike says to the young James Kirk, "Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother's - and yours. I dare you to do better." The Wright State University Astronomy Club has brought astronomy directly to the lives of a significant percentage of Dayton's populace. Today I dare another local organization with the word "astronomical" in its name to do better.

The Flag of Earth - our new Youtube video (Pat Craig)

2010-08-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

Our latest video on Youtube, detailing our club's involvement with the Flag of Earth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiFjlQk6yQA

The year so far, with deepest thanks (Pat Craig)

2010-05-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

We've been hard at work in 2010, bringing astronomy both to the students of Wright State and to the public. Not every event has been necessarily related to astronomy, but we remain proud to demonstrate that ours is an organization dedicated to diversity, peace, and collaboration.

In February we attended WSU Org Fair, the Trebuchet competition (we were the sole representative of the College of Science and Mathematics at this year's event, by the way), and the campus Peace Rally. In March we invited astronomical artist Mr. Ken Bandaruk to display his "Nebula Art" in our Student Union art gallery. In April we and the Flag of Earth were invited to exhibit at the International Friendship Affair, and we gave astronomical presentations at the Ohio Mathematics Contest and at the Fairborn Community Library. On our web site we started up a new section, "Beyond the Science," in which we renewed a collaborative effort with the WSU Pagan Student Association and discussed the more spiritual aspects of the Equinox celebration. Just yesterday, May 7th, we attended our third May Daze celebration on campus.

We couldn't have done any of these things without the dedication of members and friends who stayed with us after the attack against our organization last year. President Quinn Barton and new members Nichole Nace and Kyrie Harris have generously given of their time and resources to help out at events and plan new ones. Member Kimberly Elahab and Mr. Kurtz Miller have both donated media to our library, and Kimberly made a cash donation to our treasury. Dr. Joseph Slater is the tireless and dedicated organizer of Trebuchet, a science and engineering outreach effort aimed at local high schools. The Fairborn Library's Karen Tracy kindly arranged for us to give presentations there (with an honorarium!). The University Center for International Education invited us to IFA 2010, and Ehud Borovoy of the WSU Intercultural Exchange paved the way for us to attend the campus peace rally. Dr. Munsup Seoh of the WSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics organized the Ohio Mathematics Contest and welcomed our participation with open arms. PSA's Adam Kilgore lent his expertise and guidance on the first "Beyond the Science" effort. I want to give a big THANK YOU to all of these people and to everyone else who made our recent events go smoothly and successfully. Every one of you is a hero in my book.

Upcoming: Mr. Jerry Black of the Mars Society will be presenting at our May 13th meeting, and the Dayton Mars Society convention will be held from August 5th to 8th. We have several stargaze events coming up a Glen Helen during the summer, and another library presentation is in the works for August.

Clear skies!

Happy Earth Day (Pat Craig)

2010-04-21T23:31:00.001-07:00

In celebration of Earth Day, April 22nd, 2010.

Kenny Loggins - "Conviction Of The Heart"

On which the earth raise the sky
On which every thing in life

Where are the dreams that we once had?
This is the time to bring them back
What were the promises
Caught on the tips of our tongues?

Do we forget or forgive?
There's a whole other life
Waiting to live when
One day we're brave enough
To talk with conviction of the heart

And down your streets I've walked alone
As if my feet were not my own
Such is the path I chose
Doors I have opened and closed

I'm tired of living this life
Fooling myself, believing we're right when
I've never given love
With any conviction of the heart

One with the earth, with the sky
One with everything in life
I believe we'll survive
If we only try

How long must we all wait to change?
This world bound in chains that we live in
To know what it is to forgive
And be forgiven

Too many years of taking now
Isn't it time to stop somehow?
Air that's too angry to breathe
Water our children can't drink

You've heard it hundreds of times
Say you're aware, believe and you care
But do you care enough?
Where's your conviction of the heart?

One with the earth, with the sky
One with everything in life
I believe it will start
With conviction of the heart

With the earth, with the sky
One with everything in life
I believe it will start
With conviction of the heart

One earth, one sky
Only one world

Only one chance, for one life
When will we live?
(With conviction of the heart)

One child, one dream, the only one life
(One with the earth, with the sky)
You got one chance for one life
(I believe it will start)
When will we live?
(With conviction of the heart)
Only one earth, only one sky
(One with the earth, with the sky)
Only one world
(One with everything in life)
We've only got one chance to live in one life
I believe
(I believe)
It's all we got to start when we begin with some conviction of the heart
(It will start with conviction of the heart)

Earth Hour (Pat Craig)

2010-03-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

I arrive back at the apartment after the stargaze, intent on getting the pics and info up on the web site immediately. I turn on the front hall light and start putting stuff away. Then, for some reason I can't quite fathom, I look down at my watch.

It's 8:35pm.

Instantly I flick off all the lights I had just turned on. This is Earth Hour, damnit, and if every other light in the neighborhood is still on around me, I will keep to our club's commitment to keep its lights off for one hour. Around my feet, silent, gliding forms swirl, fur and paws and claws, seemingly confused that all the lights just went back off. "It's Earth Hour, you big dummies," I admonish. "Aren't cats supposed to be nocturnal predators anyway?" The swirling forms vanish into the darkness, scattering to various parts of the dining room and living room. I activate the backlight on my cell phone and use it to keep from tripping over the apartment clutter.

I wait.

Over the next hour I exchange text messages with a fellow Astronomy Club member and another friend. I remind them both about Earth Hour. My friend can't control her lights because she's staying with her family, and the member informs me that she is in strict compliance with the lights-out mandate since, as she puts it, "she's not there" (at her darkened vacation domicile in Kentucky).

9:30pm finally arrives after what seems like an eternity. We did it - we kept our commitment. We need to make it a goal in the future, however, to know about the date earlier and get the word out.

Dark skies rule!

Updates from the trenches (Pat Craig)

2010-02-08T11:19:00.001-08:00

Finally managed to grab a few minutes to update club stuff. We actually have a lot going on, it's just not very visible at the moment because I'm pinned down in my grad program. Our (now) monthly meeting is coming up on the 11th, and I am going to Glen Helen to give astronomy training to the naturalists on the 15th. On the 19th we are participating in both the Trebuchet Competition and the second annual Wright State Peace Rally (in the Student Union atrium). TechFest on the 13th/14th is a possibility, but we'll need more help than we got last year.

If there's anyone out there who'd like to give us a hand, we'd really appreciate it. wsuastronomy@gmail.com

A first look at Mars (Pat Craig)

2009-11-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

11:20pm EST, November 27, 2009: it was a rather cruddy view, but I saw Mars tonight.

I’d just returned home from celebrating a friend’s 21st birthday at the local pub and eatery when I looked up and noticed the waxing gibbous Moon high in the clear southwestern sky. The club telescope was just upstairs, so I quickly convinced myself to take a peek. Seems like my observing nights have gotten fewer and farther between since the insanity last quarter, and that’s not right.

Checking out the Moon at 48x with the 13% transmission filter, I immediately became reacquainted with that never-ending conflict that manifests between cold and warm air currents when one brings a reflector telescope from a warm apartment out into near freezing night air. No amount of focusing could improve the image, I knew, but I tried anyway. Tycho’s rays were beginning to become prominent once again in the southern hemisphere, and seeing Kepler just east of the terminator reminded me of a curious paradox about the sizes of some craters vs. the notoriety of the astronomers after which they’re named. Kepler is a small, circular crater about 32 km in diameter that shows up about three days after First Quarter. It exhibits a good ray system as the full phase nears, but when it is near the terminator a casual observer might not even notice it. Tycho, on the other hand, has a diameter nearly three times as large as Kepler and possesses a ray system that becomes highly noticeable not long after it sees the first light of its lunar day. Now, how many average citizens have heard of the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe? Perhaps some know that apocryphal tale about Tycho’s bladder rupturing at a party because he was too etiquette-conscious to abandon his guests (debunked, by the way, by astronomer Owen Gingerich at this year’s Scope Out in Cincinnati), but are they aware of the key role he played in breaking planetary astronomy out of the iron grip of the perfectly circular orbit concept? That one even stymied Copernicus. Had it not been for Tycho’s very meticulous observations of the planet Mars made over the span of many years, his assistant Johannes Kepler (after whom that smaller crater is named) would have had a much harder time formulating his first law, which states that planets travel their orbits in ellipses instead of circles. Wait, did you say Kepler? Oh, we’ve heard of him – he’s the guy with the three laws, the dude that makes us use our scientific calculators in astronomy lab to figure out the “P squared equals r (or a) cubed” thing. We know about Kepler! And yet, Kepler gets the smaller crater. Makes ya wonder, don’t it?

Anyway, I digress. After a few minutes of Moon-gazing I looked over to the east, into bright streetlamps. Discerning Orion and Gemini through the glare, I figured that Leo and Cancer weren’t far behind, and so I began to seek out Mars. My first "wild guess" was eliminated because it was scintillating too much – that was Procyon. Duh. Looking lower into the east, I caught a ruddy red object (not scintillating) just above a building across the street. That’s it, I thought, and turned the telescope toward it. The telescope’s fighting air currents hadn’t improved much, Mars was only at about 10° altitude, and the building was likely contributing some warm air as well, so the planet appeared as mostly an orange-ish blob. I could, however, definitely make out the disk. In spite of the lousy view, I was pleased as punch at my first glimpse for this apparition. Looking forward to seeing more of Mars as the New Year approaches!

We're still standin', and here's proof (Pat Craig)

2009-11-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

We certainly took some kicks in the teeth this past quarter, but Astronomy Club is anything but down for the count. Note yonder Youtube video, a bit rough around the edges to be sure, but still living proof that our commitment to the mission of astronomy outreach continues unabated:

I would like to add that I was pleasantly surprised to come across some videos of WSU Chemistry Department "Chem Demos" while frolicking about on Youtube today. Contrary to anyone else's opinion, it is not fun for me to say that we are the only science outreach going on at Wright State. I'd rather say that we are but one of many. Sadly, such is not the case. Kudos to the Chem Department.

President Obama acknowledges astronomy (Pat Craig)

2009-10-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's no surprise I missed this, with all the garbage going on with the club right now.

I can't convey with words how wonderful it is to see something like this, but I am not very optimistic that it will have more than a novelty effect on the country as a whole. We're all too wrapped up in "the economy" and "problems here on Earth" and we don't think much about the stars any more. It's a shame. If we did think more about such grander things, we'd perhaps be less preoccupied with the petty things, like money or alcohol or fashion or video games.

Or hatred.

Slowly recovering... (Pat Craig)

2009-10-11T07:55:00.001-07:00

Progress is slow, but we're doing it. We've replaced the President and Treasurer, who have resigned. We are working on a new academic adviser now. More updates to follow.

WSU Astronomy Club Needs Your Help (Pat Craig)

2009-10-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

From the Wright State University Astronomy Club web site, October 8th, 2009:

To our members...

The Wright State University Astronomy Club has recently endured the sudden and unexplained resignations of two of its essential positions, President and Academic Adviser. Without these positions being filled, the organization cannot remain registered at Wright State. At this time the Second Saturdays IV and StarPeace events will go on as scheduled, but it is only a matter of time before our organization loses its recognition by the university. If you are faculty, staff, or a student and would like to see this organization continue, please consider getting involved as an officer or committee member. I can be contacted at craig.7@wright.edu if you would like to help out.

Since its founding in 2007 this organization has always belonged to its members, and your help is needed now more than ever before.
Sincerely,

Patrick Craig
Chair, Education & Outreach
Webmaster
WSUAC

I will say no more, but instead will simply hope that someone gets involved before it's too late.

Superb vistas from reborn Hubble (BBC News)

2009-09-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8246556.stm

Astronomers are celebrating the release of remarkable new images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

They prove the mission carried out by astronauts in May to service the observatory was an outstanding success.

The latest pictures include trademark Hubble visions - from colliding galaxies to dying stars.

Nasa says the orbiting telescope, regarded as one of the most important scientific tools ever built, should keep working until at least 2014.

The Atlantis shuttle mission in May was the fifth and final Hubble makeover.

The US space agency and its international partners plan now to concentrate their efforts on preparing a bigger and more capable observatory known as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Wednesday's release of pictures was the usual tour de force that astronomers have come to expect following a Hubble servicing.

It included dazzling pictures of galaxies headed for a pile-up, a star throwing off its outer layers, dense clouds of gas and dust, and a new pin-sharp look at the planet Jupiter.

"Hubble is back in action," declared Dr Heidi Hammel, a senior research scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, from where Hubble's mission is overseen.

"Together, Nasa and Hubble are opening new vistas on the Universe," she told a reporters.

The British astronomer Dr Paul Murdin, from the University of Cambridge, said the new images were breathtaking.

"My first reaction is 'my god, it all worked, it's fantastic'," he told BBC News.

"Refurbishment missions are always a little bit iffy because things can go wrong; astronauts can muck it up, maybe we didn't think about this or that when we redesigned the equipment, reinstalled it and refurbished it.

"But these images definitely show that Hubble is in good shape for what will be - unfortunately - its last few years.

"It's going to go out with a real bang."

The Atlantis astronauts conducted five spacewalks, to install new instruments and thermal blankets, to repair two existing instruments, and replace the telescope's gyroscopes and batteries.

Hubble is now more sensitive to light than ever before which should significantly improve its observing efficiency.

A key addition was the new Wide Field Camera 3. This is the instrument that many astronomers suspect will deliver the really big discoveries in the remaining operational years.

It will enable astronomers to carry out new studies of dark energy and dark matter, the "mysterious stuff" that makes up most of the Universe.

WFC3 will also allow Hubble to look deeper into space than ever before, to search for the very first stars to shine in the Universe more than 13 billion years ago.

One of the simpler tasks undertaken during the repair mission was to fit a docking ring that will serve as a point of contact with the defunct Hubble sometime after 2020.

A robotic mission will be sent to push the telescope back towards Earth and a fiery destruction in the atmosphere.

"Most of us humans will never travel to some of the exotic places physically that we see in these images," reflected Nasa's chief scientist, Ed Weiler

"What Hubble has done: it's enabled our hearts, our minds, our spirits to travel throughout the Solar System, even billions of light-years to the very beginning of time almost. And I think its ability to inspire at least some of our school kids to consider careers in engineering, science and math - that will be its most important legacy, not just keeping us astronomers happy."

"Quickie" observing session 8-23-09 (Pat Craig)

2009-08-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

Last night's WSUAC public stargaze was a bust due to clouds. And, of course, as luck would have it, tonight was clear. We've gotten into the habit of checking out the club telescope on Friday and bringing it back to the university on Monday, so I decided to make some impromptu use of it. I contacted a WSUAC member, who invited me to her apartment in East Dayton to do some observing. We set up in the darkest spot we could find between her building and another to the east. First target, of course, was Jupiter. I am happy to report that, in addition to the words you read here, we got some shots from my point-n-shoot digital camera (lens to eyepiece). Here they are:

We found the Great Red Spot at the planet's eastern limb, and we made a moderately successful attempt to discern which of the Galilean moons were which.

Wanting to make the evening's observing a bit more productive, I suggested that we go on a whirlwind tour of a currently visible constellation. I made WSUAC member pick. :) She picked Lyra (the Harp), and I made use of a small guide I have owned for several years entitled The Night Sky: Collins Gem Guide (Ridpath & Tirion, ©1985, Collins) to guide us on the tour. We observed doubles Beta (β) Lyrae, Delta (δ), Epsilon (ε; the individual doubles were still a bit difficult to split at 120x), and Zeta (ζ). We then turned to M57, the Ring Nebula, and observed it at both low and higher powers. Tammy remarked that it looked like someone had made an impression in the center of the nebula with their thumb.

After taking quick peeks at Albireo (β Cygni) and M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy), we packed up and ended the session. My deepest regret is that the rest of the members couldn't be with us on such short notice.

My Gallon-Leo guy tastes funny... (Pat Craig)

2009-08-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

From a conversation overheard in the elementary classroom of one Mrs. Crabapple (pronounced “Cruh-bopple”):

Mrs. C.: Ralph, are you okay?

Ralph: Yummy!

Mrs. C.: What's yummy?

Ralph: The clear Skittles. They taste soooo good!

Mrs. C.: Ralph Wiggam! You didn't eat the Galileoscope lenses, did you???

Ralph: They make my gums bleed.

Bart: Hey Ralph, what's your favorite color?

Ralph: Clear.

Nelson: Ha ha!

Mrs. C. (sighing and rolling her eyes): Why did they make so many small parts for this thing?

Lisa: Mrs. Crabapple, as you well know I'm an uberGenius at just about everything, but even I can't decipher these odd instructions! Where do the O-rings go?

Ralph (clutching his stomach in agony): I think Mr. Gallon-Leo guy hates me.

WSUAC got hold of a Galileoscope at the recent Indiana Family Star Party, and we put it together at our last meeting on August 6^th. The gist of this good-natured Simpsons ribbing: I wonder how public school students - particularly younger ones - who are putting these things together in their classrooms are faring. Our attempt resembled, at points, a Seinfeld episode - a train wreck from which we could not look away. So many small parts! Yours Truly botched the assembly of one of the eyepieces (or at least I think I did), and initially we ended up with a few parts left over where none should have been. If anyone out there is having a similar problem, go here. This is what ended up saving our butts, for the most part. The instructions in the box are horrible!

We did get one eyepiece working fine (the 25x), and it gave excellent low-power images. If I can figure out the other eyepiece, I'd like to encourage our members to have a go at the Astronomical League's Galileo Observing Club.

If you have a Galileoscope story, please let us know in the comments!

Possible Perseid Meteor Outburst (Spaceweather.com)

2009-08-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

Space Weather News for Aug. 4, 2009

POSSIBLE PERSEID METEOR OUTBURST: This year's Perseid meteor shower could be even better than usual. According to NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, a filament of comet dust has drifted across Earth's path and when Earth passes through it, sometime between 0800 and 0900 UT (1 - 2 am PDT) on August 12th, the Perseid meteor rate could surge to twice its normal value. Check http://spaceweather.com for details and observing tips.

PERSEIDS ON YOUR iPHONE: Spaceweather.com is pleased to announce a new iPhone/iPod application dedicated to the upcoming Perseid meteor shower. It features a Perseid countdown clock, news alerts, an easy-to-use sky map, and a live gallery of photos from around the world. Sky watchers of all types will find it a valuable companion when the shower peaks later this month.

Learn more: http://spaceweather.com/perseids

Experts puzzled by spot on Venus (BBC News)

2009-08-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

From BBC News:

Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.

The spot was first identified by an amateur astronomer on 19 July and was later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft.

Data from the European probe suggests the spot appeared at least four days before it was spotted from Earth.

The bright spot has since started to expand, being spread by winds in Venus's thick atmosphere.

Scientists are unsure as to what caused the bright spot tens of kilometres up. However, a volcanic eruption is a possibility.

Much of the planet is thought to have been resurfaced by volcanism. Though no firm evidence for present-day volcanism has been discovered, scientists suspect it could still be happening on Venus.

But an eruption would have needed to be extremely powerful to penetrate this far through the planet's dense, mainly carbon dioxide, atmosphere.

Another potential source for the bright spot are charged particles from the Sun interacting with Venus's atmosphere.

Alternatively, atmospheric turbulence may have caused bright material to become concentrated in one area.

This is not the first time bright areas have been spotted on Venus. But this feature is unusual because it is confined to a relatively small region.

The spot was first identified by US amateur astronomer Frank Melillo, from Holtsville, New York.

Astronomers have recently been studying a "scar" on Jupiter, thought to have been caused by a comet or asteroid impact.

Stealing my idea - almost! (Pat Craig)

2009-06-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

Check this out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm

Now tell me it wouldn't be the coolest thing in the world to do a week-long swap out of some kid's TI-83 Plus graphing calculator for a slide rule and then have him or her report on it. Or better yet - a table of logarithms!

Sure, the poor youth would be traumatized for several years at the least, but it'd be cool anyway... ;)

A brief tour of tonight's Moon (Pat Craig)

2009-06-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

So it's Sunday night, I've got the club telescope (last night was our monthly stargaze in Yellow Springs), and the sky is clear. The Moon is about six days past new and just begging to be observed. At around 10:30pm EDT (0230 UT) I set up the 'scope in the parking lot in front of my apartment and take a gander at our natural satellite. My companion for tonight's brief sojourn, Ernest H. Cherrington Jr.'s Exploring the Moon Through Binoculars and Small Telescopes, is an AMAZING guide for the lunar observer who is just getting to know features visible on the Moon's surface through a telescope. Cherrington's 1969 book is still quite available through Dover Publications and is worth every single cent of its $19.95 cost. The text divides itself into sections according to how many days past new the Moon is, so if you know this information in advance then you can just turn to the appropriate pages and take a tour that is tailored to precisely what is visible that evening.

One of the things Exploring the Moon... does extraordinarily well is take you through the Moon's heavily-cratered southern highlands without getting you very, very lost. Cherrington describes the relative locations of lunar features in terms of distances between features already described or widths of well-known craters and maria (lunar seas, the Moon's darker lowland areas). For instance, from page 94, under “Six-Day Moon:”

An outstanding feature of tonight's moon is the huge crater MAUROLYCUS at the terminator two Crisium lengths southwest of Theophilus (Fig. 51) [bold emphasis mine].

Fig. 51 (from Cherrington)

I have a great deal of fun engaging in such guided crater hopping, and I learn many more feature names than I would just poring over a static lunar atlas. Another bonus of this work is Cherrington's mention of areas where lunar probes and manned missions have landed or crashed, as demonstrated on page 93:

Scattered 130 miles southwest of Pliny near the west edge of Mare Tranquillitatis are perhaps a few pulverized remains of the space probe Ranger 6 which crashed February 2, 1964, its six television eyes open but seeing nothing because of some failure of its electronic nervous system.

If you want to get to know the Moon, I don't think I could recommend any better book than Exploring the Moon Through Binoculars and Small Telescopes. Some of the sections can be a bit long due to the overwhelming number of features visible at the terminator on a given night, but trust me – the return far outweighs the investment. Tonight I learned about a fascinating crater called Julius Caesar, described by Cherrington as lying [n]ear the terminator, ½ [Mare] Crisium length south of Menelaus and the Haemus Mountains, and just west of Mare Tranquillitatis' shore. The 55-mile long by 45-mile wide crater is ruined, having a low western wall and practically nonexistent east and south walls. A very noticeable shadowed gash lies northeast of Julius Caesar, and an impressive rille called Ariadaeus (visible in our 'scope at 120x) can be seen immediately to the southwest.

Figure 10 (from Cherrington)

As I was observing, a female resident of my complex who lives on the first floor came outside and immediately noticed my Rayovac_® 3-in-1 headlamp (possessing the only red LED that can nuke your visual purple more efficiently than a white light can). After asking me about my “night vision” light, she inquired as to what I was looking at. I quickly snapped up the opportunity to give her what turned out to be her very first look at the Moon ever. Her parting comment: Thank you – this is the best thing anyone in this town has ever shown me. That's what I like to hear. Roughly translated, it means mission accomplished. :)

The Moon – she is teh awesome!

Summer Stargazing (Tammy Martin)

2009-06-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Last night's stargaze was nothing short of a raging success. There were lots of people, at one point four telescopes and a couple of sets of binoculars- and oh- yeah- Andy's radio telescope built by himself and his friend Shae. They were both very instrumental in helping us find several messier objects, 81 and 82 included. Pat, as usual was spot on with finding things, even with the cloud cover that kept threatening to rout our heroes. Eleven people may be a record attendance for one of our monthly stargazes- and I'm proud to have been a part of it.

I myself helped locate Jupiter in the telescope, and we definitely got a good look, including three of his moons. Saturn as well was highly visible, and it's even more obvious that the rings are nearly edge on at this point. I'm enjoying watching the ring plane change from gaze to gaze. There was a lot of discussion about astronomy topics, an as always cookies and soda, and good friends.

I'm sure Pat or our newest president, Ben, will post an official observing report... but this non-student participant in the club wanted to post a non-official stargaze report- and all I can say is WOOHOOOOOOOOOO! We had a great time, and hope to see anyone who's reading at the next one. We're doing a second saturdays event in Spring Valley on the 11th at Walton Park after dark. Come and join us- we might double the population of this tiny Greene County town for an evening- and see some neat stuff!

Passing the torch… (Tammy Martin)

2009-06-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

This year has been an amazing journey that didn’t stop with this planet. Thanks to the Astronomy Club, I’ve seen the stars, too. And the galaxies and nebulae, and even possibly a comet! I’ve been reminded how much I can accomplish if I try hard and stay on task, and I’ve learned organization skills I thought were beyond me. Through programs we’ve thrown together I have explored science in a way I wouldn’t have been exposed to in my degree program. I’ve been able to expand on a love of the night sky instilled in me by my mother as a small child when she would point out “the big dipper” or the full moon. I’ve been awakened late at night to a request to “Look at the moon”, and I’ve stayed up late out at the park for stargazes learning about Messier objects and radio telescopes. I learned teamwork, and how to make a family out of a team. As a leader in this organization I’ve been able to learn a lot about organizing my own life, and how to prioritize, how to ask for help, and how to put together the pieces the other members have started and make our goals happen. I hope that our new secretary will have as fulfilling an experience. Lean on these guys Dan, you’ll learn a lot, and make friends that will last a lifetime, as I have. Graduation only changes my participation- it doesn’t take me out. I’ll still be there as much as the “law” allows.

Special thanks to Pat for introducing me to the club, and sharing his vast knowledge of student organization politics and of course, his love of science. Best of luck to you in your program starting this fall. I know you can do it!

Ben, Andy and Zach… you guys are amazing, and I hope you all reach higher than you think you can, because you’re the kind of guys who have what it takes to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Quinn and Dan- new E-board members- GOOD LUCK. You guys are unique, both of you. That will bring something very special to this club, and I know that your contribution will help us grow and learn even more.

To everyone else I have happily shared my time with through this organization- THANK YOU! I hope we’ll continue to laugh and learn together.

To anyone considering becoming a member of this club, I can only tell you that my experience was stellar! I have learned so much, and felt so welcomed by the Wright State Astronomy Club. I encourage you to look to the skies… and when you want to know what you just saw- come find us.

Tammy Martin, former Secretary (and temporary treasurer)

Trust issues (Pat Craig)

2009-06-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

So perhaps you had heard that our first Second Saturdays outreach event was last Saturday in Yellow Springs. The plan was to take out our 8" reflector telescope, plop it down on a sidewalk in downtown, and invite the public to have a look at the sky. Pretty simple plan, eh? We had signs and publicity and everything.

Well, it didn't quite work out as planned. In fact, it bombed rather badly.

What happened? To start with, we began late. The clouds over the Miami Valley kept coming and going, and we couldn't make a good judgment call about stargazing prior to sunset. By the time we saw that it was going to be mostly clear, it was mostly dark. That in itself would have been trivial, but it was the second issue that killed us.

Ben Withman, our President-elect, called the cell phone of one of the admins of Wright State University Student Union Events and Services at around 9pm to get someone to meet us at our telescope's storage space. A couple of months back when we were told we had to keep the telescope on campus when we weren't using it, The representative gave us his word that, whenever the Student Union was open, we would have full access to the closet where our telescope was being kept. He never called us back, and so we were unable to get the telescope for the evening. Now, we weren't fully clear that the Union was even open that day – bad planning on our part, admittedly. Saturday was Spring Commencement for Wright State, so it wouldn't have been a surprise if the Union had been shut down entirely. However, on a whim I checked at the Union Events office today, and I confirmed that the Union WAS open on Saturday. So far we've received one complaint about our failed event, and I expect that there will be more. This was really humiliating. The only good thing to come out of it was that we scouted out a good spot for our next attempt at an event in Yellow Springs. We're looking at August.

To make a long story short: this blog entry is dedicated to expressing my own personal outrage at this breach of our organization's trust by the administrative elements of the university that are supposed to be supporting us. We could say that this is strike three for these people, strike one being the recent unannounced demotion of our organization's status from Academic to Special Interest and strike two being the censorship of one of our ITunes U podcasts during Spring Quarter 2009, allegedly over the issue of me being a non-student.

We will move forward in spite of such needless complications, and we will adapt as necessary. I certainly hope that our administration eventually realizes our usefulness and importance and stops putting obstacles in our way.

Make your own planisphere (Pat Craig)

2009-06-10T18:22:00.001-07:00

At the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Luncheon back in April, Astronomy Club gave a presentation to the young people about how to make one's own planisphere or star finder. Together with Valita Wilhoite of the Office of Student Activities, we furnished the supplies and helped the participants put the planispheres together. I found an excellent template online from the National Research Council of Canada at http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/education/astronomy/constellations/planisphere-2.html. The link to download the template from that page is broken as of now, but the same one can also be downloaded here.

The original design is a very simple cut, fold, and assemble job. We printed the two components on heavy cardstock at Wright State's Wright Copy facility. Being concerned that the constellation wheel and the horizon window would fly apart and lose each other very quickly in the hands of an energetic youth, I enhanced the template by first adding a 12mm x 15mm clear plastic sheet to the back of the horizon window with scotch tape. You can use either heavy-weight sheet protectors or clear plastic report covers. After putting together the window and wheel, I then punched a hole through both the clear plastic and the wheel and inserted a brass paper fastener. Now the whole assembly stays together, and the wheel can still rotate freely inside the window sleeve.

Planisphere templates that can be downloaded from the Internet are a very economical alternative to the ones you buy in most novelty stores, and they are just as useful if you pick a quality template that doesn't show either too much detail or not enough. The other thing to remember is that planispheres are latitude sensitive, so don't download one for 32° latitude if you live at 45° latitude. (FYI, for Dayton we live at 40° latitude.)

Happy planisphere making!

Vindication (Pat Craig)

2009-06-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

Remember that very first blog entry we did back in February about the Astronomy/Astrology event we did at Metro Nights with the Pagan Student Association? In that entry I quoted from a skeptical book on astrology that had been published by Prometheus Books. That publishing arm's founder, Paul Kurtz, was also the founder of the Committee for Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal, today renamed the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. CSICOP was on the forefront of efforts to declare war on pseudoscience in general and astrology in particular, and Prometheus launched several anti-astrology books including Culver and Ianna's 1988 Astrology: True or False, Jerome's 1977 Astrology Disproved, and the J.V. Stewart book I mentioned in our first blog post.

Today I found out via a blog that I still visit occasionally (for entertainment only) that 84-year old Kurtz was recently ousted from CSI by its board. A very eloquent living obituary of Kurtz was penned by former CFI leader R. Joseph Hoffman in his blog, and I was most intrigued by the following line:

It [the life of Paul Kurtz] reminds us that just as we smirk at a Ted Haggard for his hypocritical views on gay sex, we also have no right to expect a higher standard from the humanist.

This just happens to be very much in line with my own view of Kurtz following a critical response I wrote to a Center for Inquiry letter (allegedly from Kurtz himself) decrying religion and begging for a donation to the Center earlier this year. I never received any reply to my letter, which was not a surprise then and is certainly not now. Hoffman uses words such as reticent, often inarticulate, artless, and rude to describe Kurtz, and I can definitely confirm that with my own personal experience. In point of fact, Kurtz is useless, his centers are useless, and this whole war on pseudoscience and religion continues to be a pointless waste of time.

If you'd like to see Kurtz's whining responses to his predicament, they can be found here, on that entertaining blog I visit every now and then:

A Comment from Paul Kurtz
An Open Letter from Paul Kurtz to R. Joseph Hoffman

Why am I writing about this in one of Astronomy Club's blog entries? Well, aside from its connection to our very first blog entry, this subject of scientific skepticism definitely bleeds over into astronomy. For proof of this, just visit the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's page Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic's Resource List (Version 3.0; August 2003). Look at all the references to Prometheus Books publications and articles in the CSI journal Skeptical Inquirer Andrew Fraknoi (BTW, another rational skeptic who won't respond to letters from me) has listed. How embarrassing to astronomy. Everyone who loves and appreciates astronomy is apparently expected to be on the skeptical side of this so-called fight against the darkness of irrationality, but I for one am not enlisting. My contention continues to be that we as scientists will not bring people to reason and rationality by insulting or testing the claims of the purveyors of irrationality; CSI has been doing this for years but we've still got daily astrology columns in newspapers, Ghost Hunters on the SciFi channel, and its hilarious youth counterpart The Othersiders coming this summer on Cartoon Network. The skeptical extremist movement as a whole is a pervasive and continuing failure about which no one cares. In my humble opinion, we who love and do science will make our world more rational and science-appreciating simply by coming out of the isolation of our ivory tower meeting places and sharing our craft with the rest of humanity in creative ways and with the same passion we have for it. This is what Astronomy Club's trying to do now with its outreach efforts. We may not be having the greatest success so far, but at least we're trying.

To skeptics like Paul Kurtz: you're making us look bad. Cut it out and go home.

Our first Night Sky Network teleconference – and a personal revelation (Pat Craig)

2009-05-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight WSU Astronomy Club participated in its first Night Sky Network teleconference. The subject was The Birth of Star Clusters. Members present were myself, Tammy Martin (Secretary, 2008-2009), and Andy Riddle (Treasurer, 2009-2010). We experimented successfully with a cheap sound mixer, a couple of microphones, my Linux-equipped laptop, and the Skype application – we were able to broadcast the telecon over the speakers installed in our meeting room while interacting live via the microphones. I ran the accompanying PowerPoint presentation simultaneously through the classroom projector.

My old nemesis, the Miami Valley Astronomical Society, had a member present at the telecon: Cheri Adams, who is also Director of Astronomy for the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery here in Dayton. My announcement of our club's presence followed hers. When I began to speak, I announced myself as “Patrick Craig, Miami Val-” and then caught myself. I had begun to commit a faux pas of epic proportions – or, more appropriately, a Freudian slip. The web site Dictionary.com defines “Freudian slip” as

–noun

(in Freudian psychology) an inadvertent mistake in speech or writing that is thought to reveal a person's unconscious motives, wishes, or attitudes.

I will not go into a diatribe about my past with the MVAS except to say that, overall, it was an intensely negative experience. WSUAC owes its existence in very large part to my deep disappointment with the MVAS as an outreach organization for astronomy in the Dayton area. (The only positive I can recall was an engineering professor from the University of Dayton named Dr. Richard Harmer, advisor for the MVAS Junior group [now defunct] when I first joined the MVAS in 1983 and the man who helped me build a better mount for my first telescope, a cheesy Tasco 60mm refractor. Dr. Harmer is now deceased, and though my relationship with him did not continue much after 1986 or so, I will always remember him very fondly.)

As I sat there stewing over my immense error in announcing my club affiliation, I began to realize that I had taken my separation from the MVAS in 2007 much, much too hard. It had become the subject of many conversations with my fellow WSUAC members, and I guess I never realized just how incredibly preoccupied with it I had been. My new resolve became, over the course of the remaining hour in which the telecon took place, to just move the hell on from that dreadful experience. It is truly time for me to face the fact that I cannot change the useless and violent organization that I was once part of. All of the energy I continue to devote to obsessing over the past is energy that is not being productively directed toward taking astronomy to the people, which is what WSUAC – and amateur astronomy itself - is supposed to be about. So, Mr. Craig, let's get to it. Nobody else is taking care of astronomy in this town. This playing field is wide open.

Now, about getting involved in this Night Sky Network thing. I think we can do that. Time to find out more...

A Morning Observation May 20, 2009 (Pat Craig)

2009-05-20T03:33:00.000-07:00

My sleep cycle has been somewhat off lately, and I found myself up just before 5:30am EDT (0930 UT) watching the early morning news on TV. Getting up, I glanced out my apartment window and noticed it was clear outside, so I got dressed, grabbed my Nikon sport 8x40 binoculars, and went out to the parking lot.

Mornings like these always afford a wonderful opportunity for astronomy - or at least for just taking in the quiet beauty of dawn. Light pollution is no longer an issue, as the sky is too bright for it to be noticeable. I wasn't sure what I'd see, since I hadn't kept good track of what was going on in the morning sky lately. The first thing that met my eyes was a pairing of the Moon and Venus (about 10° from each other) low in the east. I trained the binoculars on both. When steadied, the binoculars got a very nice view of some lunar features. Dark Grimaldi (5.2° South, 68.6° West) jumped out almost immediately, leading me to think that longitudinal libration likely favored the western limb this morning. To Grimaldi's south I noticed a bright spot that must have been the 90 km diameter rater Byrgius (24.7° South, 65.3° West). The western part of Mare Humorum was just barely peeking out from beyond the terminator. I suspected that Aristarchus and Herodotus might be near the terminator also, and I'm fairly certain I glimpsed them, but it's tougher when both features are near sunset. Aristarchus shines its grandest under a higher Sun.

The binoculars couldn't pick up the phase of Venus, which was no surprise. At 12° altitude it was just a bright, boiling dot (magnitude -3.1) hovering in the eastern sky. Jupiter was near the meridian in the south, and I was able to make out a couple of the Galilean satellites through the binocs, which I had steadied on the back of my car. I slewed the binocs around the sky looking for Mars – it's a morning planet right now as well – but to no avail. It turns out that Mars was a little below and to the left of Venus, which was the one place I hadn't thought to look.

A wildly scintillating star shone in the western sky. In the glow of early morning I couldn't make out the constellation, but upon checking with Cartes du Ciel later I found that this was Arcturus (α Bootis). I was impressed with how rapidly it changed colors as it twinkled.

Wrapup for this session occurred at 5:50am EDT (0950 UT). I really need to get up more often on mornings like this. In fact, we all do.

Some updates (Pat Craig)

2009-05-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

Due to numerous administrative and technical difficulties with our electronic outreach efforts through Wright State, we have temporarily relocated our web site and podcasts. Visitors to the OrgSync site will see a message that they will be automatically redirected to the new site, http://wsuastronomy.hobby-site.org, in five seconds. Pictures load a bit slow on the new server, but otherwise everything seems to be running smoothly. I am in the process of making final adjustments so that everything is uniform across the site.

A new link on the site is to our weekly podcasts, which were being distributed through the university's ITunes U division. The latest one can be listened to straight off the page, and older podcasts are archived. Information about this week's planets, our constellation of the week, and updates on our activities can be found in each week's exciting episode. We'd like to encourage everyone to listen to these!

As of tonight we are still waiting to hear back from the Windsor Centre of the RASC. We're looking at a late summer or early fall date for our StarPeace event, and a lot of us still need passports to get back into the U.S.

Clear skies!

Finally - our first stargaze of the year! (Tammy Martin)

2009-04-28T03:59:00.001-07:00

FINALLY! We get a clear night, and we're not freezing to death! Saturday night's stargaze was a raging success, in my opinion. Quinn, Nick, and I arrived at a little after 8, just behind Ben. Pat wasn't too far behind us, and the sun set shortly after that. We were trying to get a glimpse of Mercury, which we most certainly did- and it was beautiful... but it was upstaged by a very young crescent moon that was so perfect and lovely it had Pat giggling like an eight year old girl and doing his silly little happy dance.(almost as much fun to watch as the stars) We got a good look at Saturn, and several Messier objects, and pointed out and enjoyed several constellations.I'm sure Pat will post our official observing report on the web site. Matt and Gracie joined us a little later, with Matt's telescope- which was really cool! Later still we were surprised by Brad. All in all a great time! I'll leave the technical info for someone who is better at such things... but I had to say- it finally worked out for the WSU Astronomy club, and we had a wondrous time looking up...

Those mysterious figures in the IYA 2009 logo (Pat Craig)

2009-04-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

While working on our International Year of Astronomy 2009 banner today I began to reflect on a recent conversation with a friend of mine regarding the logo's artwork. She had admitted to me with some embarrassment that, having seen the larger human figure (adult) holding the smaller human figure's (child's) hand, she had made an initial assumption that the adult figure was female. She had quickly corrected herself, but it made me stop to think: just what is the nature of those two ephemeral figures looking up into the Great Cosmic Dark? Can we know? Let's see if this is possible.

Male or female?

We are commonly led to understand that if no silhouette of a dress or long hair is attached to a symbolic figure depicting a human being, then that figure represents a male. The hair idea is quickly dismissed upon first sight of a woman with either very short hair or none at all. We all know such women are out there, and whether their lack of hair is due to some fashion statement or to a brave battle against the ravages of cancer, they remind us that we can make no judgment about our figures based upon the appearance of the top of their heads. And what happens when we throw pre-op members of the transgender community into the mix? So, one down.

Skin color?

Well, it's dark out. We cannot tell while out in the night if these people are of one race or two, or what skin color they have. Perhaps we might listen to their voices to get some clue, but they are both standing out here gazing up in silent awe of the universe. All we can imagine hearing are perhaps the gently blowing wind and some nocturnal creatures, such as crickets. Two down.

Religious affiliation?

In the United States, we might presume Christian. In the Middle East, we might take for granted the Muslim faith. In Israel, Jewish would be a popular guess. And every one of these generalized assumptions would be completely wrong. They do not, by any means, describe each and every resident of these countries. We'd simply have to ask our stargazers what their declared religion (or lack thereof) is, but who would want to disturb their silent stargazing to ask a question like that? Let them peer into the face of the Divine, or the Glorious Accident, or whatever, without interruption. Three down.

Straight or gay?

This one's easy, you might reply. Gay relationships are incapable of producing biological children, so if the figures were gay, they would be two male or female adult figures holding hands and looking at the sky together. Their heights would be similar. Ah, you've not heard of adoption? It is legal in some parts of the world, including some states here in the U.S. It is utterly ridiculous to believe that an alternate sexual orientation precludes one from being able to love and care for a child – it happens every day. So here's four down, and calling upon the scientific principle of induction (reasoning to the general using specific examples) I will halt the attempt to identify our figures here and declare failure.

So who are our figures? Truth be told, even the assumption of adult and child goes down in flames if we think about a tenet of Chaos Theory known as self-similarity. Without knowing the scale at which we're watching these two, we have no idea if we might be observing an older brother with a younger brother, an older sister with a younger sister, an older brother with a younger sister, or an older sister with a younger brother. We have no clue. At best we can draw the line at the following: they certainly appear to be human beings.

And isn't that what it's all about, out here in the night? We look up at the cloudless night sky, basking in its ultimate beauty and in the great questions that it brings to our minds. Tonight our two figures are at peace with the Universe, with themselves, and with each other. We don't find war between them, nor hatred, nor greed, nor lust for power. No petty analysis of who they are or what they believe is necessary - or significant. And so we simply note their presence and join them in gazing upward.

Upward, in perfect peace, to the most meaningful things that ever were or ever shall be.

Another e-mail from CA (Andy Riddle)

2009-03-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

How is the club doing? I have been very busy here at NASA, but I finally have some free time tonight so I will give you all an update about my adventures at NASA.

My project at work is currently going very well. I have a lot to do before I am done, but I have completed most of the hard parts of my project. Here is a link to a video of the Kepler launch. During the last 20 seconds they show the launch telemetry center. The computer displays in that center are very similar to the displays I am working on for the Ares 1-X rocket. A couple weekends ago I headed up to Berkeley for a free public lecture series given by the Astronomy department in celebration of the IYA. It was a very cool experience. They are monthly talks and the talk in March is being given by the chief scientist from SETI@home, I can't wait to hear to him speak. Then the week after that we were given a tour of the Vertical Motion Simulator here at Ames. They use it to test new aircraft and aircraft systems and they also use it to train pilots and astronauts. Just last month they had astronauts here using it to practice landing the new lunar lander on the moon! Then that same week there was an MIT professor here at Ames and he gave a talk to Ames employees about "The Transits of Extra-Solar Planets". I was able to follow him through his entire lecture. It was much more technical than the black hole talk because the audience was much more scientifically inclined. The Berkeley talk was geared more towards the general public. I think Pat would've loved to participate in the conversation afterward about planets in other solar systems. Then the next weekend I went up to Stanford University to do some stargazing on the evening of February 27th. The astronomy club at Stanford has monthly stargazes at the student observatory on campus. Yes, they have an observatory on their campus! It is located on the top of a hill on the west edge of campus. They have a 16 inch and a 24 inch scope. Using the 16 inch we got to see the Orion nebula, the beehive cluster, M35 and Saturn. We looked for comet Lulin with the graduate student who was operating the telescope but we couldn't find it. This week on Wednesday I am going with a group of interns from Ames to NASA's Dryden Flight Research facility at Edwards Air Force Base. We are going to spend the day touring their facilities and their airplanes. Then on Thursday of this week the interns in my program are being given a tour of the 40ft by 80ft wind tunnel here at Ames. I can't wait! It should be an awesome week! I'll be sure to post pictures to my blog.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Andy

A "quickie" observing session 3-7-2009 (Pat Craig)

2009-03-07T17:28:00.001-08:00

A text arrives on my phone from Tammy at 7:29pm EST: "Venus is out! Take a look for me?"

Several minutes later I am outside with our club telescope, the 8" Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic. As I walk toward the west side of our apartment complex, I look up and see...nothing. Venus has disappeared behind some patchy cloud cover. I wait for a moment, guessing it will be back out within a minute, and my wait is rewarded several seconds later. I finish assembling the telescope, load in the 25mm eyepiece, and aim for Venus. Our finder scope very badly needs a re-alignment after being subjected to the "hands-on" curiosity of the young visitors to TechFest on February 14th and 15th. I finally get Venus centered in the eyepiece, and I am amazed.

Several years ago I showed Venus (it was around the time of nearest approach to the Earth back then also) to a friend who hadn't had much experience looking through a telescope. He looked at the image, looked at me, and said "That's not Venus - that's the Moon!" I don't remember exactly how I convinced him that he was actually seeing Venus; my guess is that I simply invited him to look with his eyes in the same direction the telescope was pointing. Had we been observing the Moon, its crescent phase would have been highly obvious to the naked eye. He had a hard time believing that he was looking at another planet in the solar system, and tonight I almost feel the same way again. Such a sleek, beautiful crescent! I wondered how Galileo must have felt seeing this for the very first time through his crude little instrument.

The wind buffets me and the telescope, making the image dance a bit in the eyepiece. I switch to the 10mm eyepiece and take in the view, putting up with the magnified jostling of the image for as long as I can. I am impressed with the sharpness and stability of Venus tonight - likely due to the thin haze that is covering the whole sky. I study our "sister" world for several more seconds, then turn my attention to the Moon, which is fairly high up in Cancer. I find that my estimate of Venus' sharpness was no illusion; the view of the Moon's surface is rock-steady, high definition insofar as seeing goes. Aristarchus, that mysterious crater of high albedo and occasional anomalous luminescence, is just peeking out from the terminator. The combination of the scope's good collimation and the hazy sky are making the Moon quite a treat to observe! I could sit and observe it all night if it weren't for this blasted wind.

The whole session lasts about 15 minutes. Annoyed with the wind, I finally pack up and head back inside. A tip of my hat to Tammy - I wouldn't have thought to go out at all if it weren't for her text. We as a club (and as individuals) really need to observe more on what clear nights we can get from here in Dayton.

(images courtesy Cartes du Ciel)

Desperately Seeking Lulin (Tammy Martin)

2009-02-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night we all got home a little late in the evening and I got into my pajamas thinking I’d go to bed. I had noticed the stars were out, and enjoyed a few minutes of staring at the constellations, so I wasn’t all that surprised when Pat came over and asked if I wanted to come out and look to see if we could find Comet Lulin. Pajamas or not, I said yes, and we went out outside. In the parking lot, the light pollution and the position of the building made it impossible, so we went around back between our building and the next, where, with binoculars, we were able to get a glimpse of a fuzzy object that somewhat resembled a McDonald’s “Fry Guy”. It was located near the constellation Leo. I am not absolutely sure it was indeed the comet, but I think so… and hope to get a better look at the Stargaze Saturday night! Come see it with us!

Astronomy Picture of the day has some GREAT pictures!

Astronomy is not an outdoor adventure (Pat Craig)

2009-02-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

What do you mean, "astronomy is not an outdoor adventure?" Are you mad?

Let me explain. As I write this, just outside of the Student Union Org Complex where I'm sitting, the Adventure Summit is just about to get underway. A vast sea of vendors of outdoor activity equipment, the Summit is a yearly venture sponsored by Wright State and the Five Rivers Metro Parks. I first encountered it last year as I was traveling through the Union on other business. My first thought at the time was, "Gotta go see the telescope vendors!" How very naive of me, I soon found. There were no telescope vendors.

But...but...doesn't astronomy count as an outdoor activity? Certainly yes, according to the Metro Parks official I cornered that day, just not the same kind of outdoor activity as kayaking, hiking, canoeing, mountain climbing, spelunking, bungee jumping, swimming, or fishing. These latter activities are "active" activities, whereas astronomy is not very intense in the physical way. Knowhutimean? The cynic in me sighs, I guess exercising the mind doesn't count for much of anything anymore.

Okay, so I start thinking about loopholes. I ask the administrative official: if I can get a telescope company to the next Summit with, say, some pictures of people climbing mountains with telescopes strapped to their backs, would the Summit let them in to hawk their warez? "Of course!" comes the reply. Yay. So, next step is to write the telescope companies. Letters go out to Meade Instruments and Celestron Corp. a short time later asking them if they'd like to send representatives to advertise themselves at the Summit. I anxiously await replies. Meade sends the proverbial chirping of crickets, an (in)action that, looking back in retrospect, I can actually appreciate. Celestron actually sends me a letter. I still have it; here's what it says:

Patrick Craig,

We are writing in response to the Adventure Summit. Sounds like a wonderful event but unfortunately, we will not be able to donate at this time.

Every month we receive a large number of requests for donations and/or sponsorships to worthy causes. We wish we could help all of them, but there is a limit on what we can do. Our decision to decline your request does not imply that your program is not needed or worthy. In this case, we have donated to your organization in prior years. We try to diversify our donations to help as many organizations as possible.

Thank you for thinking of us, and we wish you much success with your sourcing efforts. Perhaps we will be able to again make a contribution in the future.

Best Regards,

Yasmine Rios
Marketing/Design Coordinator

Numerous people I've since talked to about this have pointed out that it is very likely an automatically-generated form letter, and I can certainly believe this since "Ms. Rios" never even signed her name. Also, the original letter I had sent (regrettably I have no remaining copy of it) never asked for money. I found the response rather rude nonetheless. At the time I received this letter I was considering two companies for the purchase of my next personal telescope; Celestron was one of them. Now they are not. Nice work with the form letter, Celestron. Very efficient - if you want to lose customers, that is.

And that's the story. Alas, this year's Adventure Summit will again see no input from an astronomical perspective. Of course, in astronomy's defense, I should say that any chimpanzee, any cat, or any cockroach could potentially pilot a kayak or climb a hill. Not a single one of those creatures could ever peer through a telescope, appreciate the vast awesomeness of the ancient light that hits their eyes, and collect data of scientific significance. QED.

A.W.O.L. (Pat Craig)

2009-02-16T08:27:00.000-08:00

Darwin Day yesterday (February 12^th) was an absolutely fun time. For the great scientist's 200^th birthday, we set up in the Student Union lower atrium with a table and celebrated all the way from 9am to 4pm. Freethought WSU provided help with staffing and held a game night later in the evening in the Union Market. We thank them most whole-heartedly for their support and assistance with the activity.

Darwin, for those who don't know, was a champion of biological evolution. Biological evolution. One visitor to our table got that point clearly when he asked, "Why is Astronomy Club doing a Darwin Day celebration table?" Gosh, wouldn't there be a much more appropriate choice for a student org to head up the festivities?

Well, yeah, there would be. And instead of going on a massive rant, I'll just say this: yes, Wright State University does have a biology club.

Science and the loss of integrity (Pat Craig)

2009-02-16T08:24:00.000-08:00

I heard a most interesting statement from an old friend yesterday (February 7^th):

"I kinda retired after I left [my job location]..."

At first sight this doesn't seem to have much to do with astronomy at all, but this strange statement came from a person who professes to know and love science. As we scientific types are known for applying critical thinking skills, it becomes an exercise to find out just what is meant by someone who says that they "kinda retired" after "leaving [their job]." If the person means that he or she officially retired from their job, why not simply say that? I retired from [my job]. Fewer words, and it gets the point across without ambiguity.

Could it be that my old friend was trying to get the words "retire" and "[my job location]" very close to each other (making me think that he actually did officially retire) without misrepresenting the facts of his separation from his employment? It's not a bad trick, really, but for me - who happens to be a little more "in the know" about my old friend's circumstances - it begs the question: are scientists, amateur or professional, exempt from possessing integrity? Can they lie, cheat, steal, or kill simply because they have access to the secret, cryptic tomes and concepts of science and mathematics? Are they above the law, better than the common man, pardoned by nature or divinity when they intentionally deceive the "dullard" public?

My vote is no. What's yours?

A neat time doing real science (Tammy Martin)

2009-02-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Last night, the 6th of February, was kind of a quiet night… and a clear night. So we (Pat Craig and I) decided it was time for me to try a science challenge. I got everything ready- and went out to do the "Orion Science Challenge #4" as designed by Pat Craig for WSUAC. I was a little apprehensive because this was my first time doing anything like this. I got my pencil and my clipboard and the challenge, as well as the home-made cross staff. Pat added a flashlight, and put the silly thing on my head- some form of Astronomy Club E-board hazing, I think. :) All part of the fun.

I began with the angular measurement of distances between stars in the constellation Orion, starting with my hand, and then comparing the distances with the cross staff. I was surprised at the accuracy of my hand measurements as compared to the cross staff. I learned a lot, and really enjoyed it- even the math!

Afterwards, we got out the telescope. It was still in need of some collimation, and I learned how to help with the adjustments. We took it out after that and had a look at the Moon. We discussed and looked at several different craters, including Tycho and Aristarchus. I also got a lesson in how to find objects in the sky, and how to focus the telescope. It was an informative and fun experience.

Hope to see you all at the stargaze!

An e-mail (Andy Riddle)

2009-02-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

Heya! So NASA is definitely amazing! The time is going by so fast, I looked at what day it was and shocked that it was already Wednesday and that I had wanted to write something for you all before this weeks meeting. As for my project, I am working on developing the user interface for a prototype ground diagnostic system which will be demonstrated during the launch of the Ares 1-X rocket this summer. I must really enjoy working on it because the time just flies by at work. One thing I have noticed is that NASA wears me out. By 9pm I am ready to go to bed. Next week I get to go on a tour of the 80ft x 120ft wind tunnel they have here at Ames. It is the largest wind tunnel in the world. My office building is pretty close to the intake for the tunnel. It is massive, it dwarfs everything else around it. Oh, and the San Francisco area is incredibly astronomy friendly. All of their lights are full cut off. I know the city of San Jose uses low pressure sodium lamps so that astronomers can use filters to filter out the light that is given off by the lamps. In downtown San Francisco I was easily able to make out the constellation Orion. I hope you all are doing well. How are things with the club? Well I had better be off to bed, it is past 9pm here. :)

Traitors to astronomy? (Pat Craig)

2009-02-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

For the past few days I've been tabling with L.I.V.E. (Lift Individual Voices for Equality) for the Relay for Life, so I haven't had much time to concentrate on other matters. In this first entry I wanted to touch briefly on the recent "Metro Nights" event on January 23^rd. As you may know already, we were doing a collaborative event with the WSU Pagan Student Association on "Astrology vs. Astronomy." Those who showed up at our table in the Mariner Room that night noticed almost immediately that there was no "versus" at all, rather just two orgs hanging out and having fun.

Why did we do this particular collaboration? For many who love science, astrology is some kind of dirty word, a "pseudoscience" to be both condemned and avoided at all costs. Astronomers often get totally bent out of shape when they hear members of the public confusing the concepts of astronomy and astrology. A prominent organization of skeptics, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, dedicates itself entirely to speaking out against the proliferation in modern society of paranormal and pseudoscientific ideas. My question is, where does all of this animosity get us in terms of spreading interest in science?

On the back cover of his book Astrology: What's Really in the Stars (Prometheus Books, 1996), J. V. Stewart writes the following:

We are all victims of mythology in one way or another, the inheritors of what man wishes to believe, regardless of whether it is true. Although much nonsense has been dispelled over the past century...astrology is still flourishing, a four-thousand-year-old monument to human credulity.

Did Stewart actually write this? Did he read it after he wrote it? Does he not realize that, in this very passage, he holds the key to why astrology continues to "flourish?" Perhaps he might consider the words of famous explorer Sir Walter Raleigh:

A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.

Ridiculing something that someone else holds dear just because one doesn't agree with it doesn't get anyone anywhere. We spent the evening with PSA to get the point across that 1) we don't need to despise astrology or astrologers even if we don't believe the concept works for us, and 2) people who practice astrology are still human beings and are worthy of respect. For anyone who thinks science is so much better than pseudoscience, I would suggest a far more productive strategy: promote science. Teach it to the people in ways that they will understand. Make it interesting. Stop dragging down others' beliefs and advocate for your own instead. That's the positive response, IMHO.