vol. 42, no. 3 march 2011 beginners looking at orion · vol. 42, no. 3 march 2011 beginners looking...

Vol. 42, No. 3 March 2011

Beginners Looking at Orion

About 25-30 people at the Beginner’s Astronomy Night on February 24 looked at Orion through the slotof the University of Saskatchewan campus observatory. Photo by Jeff Swick with a little help fromPhotoshop filters, and a red flashlight held by Rick Huziak.

Saskatoon CentreThe Royal Astronomical Socie ty of Canada

P.O. Box 317, RPO UniversitySaskatoon, SK S7N 4J8

WEBSITE:http://www.rasc.ca/saskatoonE MAIL: [email protected]

TELEPHONE: (306) 373-3902

In This Issue:Membership Information / Bottle Drive / Officers of the Centre 2U of S Observatory Hours / Light Pollution Abatement Website 2Calendar of Events / Meeting Announcement 3Minutes of the Executive & General Meetings, January 17 4Two DSP Grasslands Star Parties – Rick Huziak 5President’s Message – Jeff Swick 6Events Coordinator Report – Patricia Gakis 7Coming Up In April! Free Public Lecture 7General Assembly Coming – July 1-4 8The Planets This Month – Murray Paulson 9The Messier, H-400 & H-400-II, FNGC, Bino, Lunar & EtU Club 10Observers Group Notes – Larry Scott 10

To view Saskatoon Skies in colour, see our Website:http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/rasc/newsletters.html

SASKATOON SKIES MARCH 2011 2

Regular: $80.00 /year Youth: $41.00 /year Associate: $33 /year

The Saskatoon Centre operates on a one-year revolving membership. You will be a member for the next 12 months no matterwhen in the year you join. If you do not want to join at this time, ask to get onto our FREE 3-month Temporary Membership list.You will receive regular mailings of our Saskatoon Skies newsletter and will be invited to participate in Centre activities.Members are encouraged to renew early to avoid disruption in publications. Renew through the membership coordinator, Markde Jong, or renew through the National Office and let Mark know that you did!

Benefits of Membership in the Saskatoon Centre

• knowledgeable & friendly amateur astronomers• use of the Sleaford Observatory• use of the U of S Observatory (after training)• Saskatoon Skies Newsletter• Observer ’s Handbook• The Journal of the RASC (electronic format)• SkyNews Magazine (bimonthly)• use of the Centre library

• rent the Centre's Telescopeshttp://homepage.usask.ca/ges125/rasc/telescopes.html

• discounts to Sky &Telescope Magazine*• free, no-cost, no-obligation, 3-month temporary

membership if you don ’t want to join right now!

*New subscription or renewal of Sky &Telescope? Send new info orrenewal notice, plus credit card # to Norma Jensen, 128 – 4th Street East,Saskatoon, SK S7H 1H8, or email her at [email protected] .

SASKATOON CENTRE’SMAIN OFFICERS:

President – Jeff Swick, 373-3902Secretary – Ron Waldron, 382-9428

Vice-President – James Gorkoff, 644-1343Treasurer – Norma Jensen, 244-7360

Bottle Drive &Canadian Tire $

By Colin Chatfield

If you cannot make it to a meeting butwould like to contribute your Canadian Tiremoney please call me at 934-7046.

Newsletter Editor – Tenho TuomiCopy & Collate – Les & Ellen DicksonLabels & Temps – Mark de JongWeb Posting – Gord SartySaskatoon Skies is published monthly by the Saskatoon Centre of the RASC. Distribution isapproximately 100 copies per issue. Saskatoon Skies welcomes unsolicited articles, sketches,photographs, cartoons, and other astronomy or space science material. Articles can be sent by mail inany format to the Centre’s mailbox. Submitted materials can be returned upon request. Submissionsmay also be sent by e-mail to the editor at [email protected] – any format, but preferred as plainunformatted ASCII text files without line breaks. Images sent by e-mail should be attached files.

A separate by-mail subscription to Saskatoon Skies is available for $15.00 per year. Saskatoon Skies isalso posted on our Saskatoon Centre homepage as a .pdf file and can be downloaded free-of-charge.Members may choose to receive the newsletter by regular mail or via the Internet. Articles may bereprinted from Saskatoon Skies without expressed permission (unless otherwise indicated), provided thatproper source credit is given. DEADLINE for submissions for each month’s issue is the 20th of thepreceding month. Saskatoon Skies accepts Commercial advertising. Please call the editor 306-858-2453for rates. Members can advertise non-commercial items free of charge.

MEMBERSHIP? IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO JOIN!


Mar 21 RASC Executive Meeting - 6:30 pm, 175 Physics, U of S Jeff Swick 373-3902Mar 21 RASC General Meeting - 7:30 pm, 175 Physics, U of S Jeff Swick 373-3902Mar 25 Observers Group – Dusk, Sleaford Observatory Larry Scott 934-5801Mar 26 Earth Hour – 8:30 pm, Mall on Circle and 8th Patricia Gakis 249-1345Apr 2 Messier Marathon – Dusk, Sleaford Observatory Larry Scott 934-5801Apr 18 RASC General Meeting - 7:00 pm, Frances Morrison Library Jeff Swick 373-3902Apr 18 Free Public Lecture, "High Energy Astronomy" by Professor

Kinwah Wu of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, 7:00 pm,Frances Morrison Library

Gordon Sarty 966-2321

May 7 International Astronomy Day – Look for announcementsMay 16 RASC Executive Meeting - 6:30 pm, 175 Physics, U of S Jeff Swick 373-3902May 16 RASC General Meeting - 7:30 pm, 175 Physics, U of S Jeff Swick 373-3902May 28 Grasslands NP DSP - East Block Star Party Rick Huziak 665-3392Jul 1-4 RASC General Assembly -- WinnipegJuly 30 Grasslands NP DSP - West Block Star Party Rick Huziak 665-3392Aug. 25 Saskatchewan Summer Star Party Rick Huziak 665-3392

Aurora and Saskatoon Glow, March 10

“At 4:00 this morning -- they were a lot better than thepicture -- a lot of movement. I think I missed the best partaround 3:00”

Photo by Garry Stone

RASC CALENDAR OF EVENTS

RASC SASKATOON CENTREMONDAY, March 21, 7:30 PM

Room 175, Physics Bldg., U of S

“An Update on My Observations with Space Telescopes - Will I get Hubble Time?”

by Gordon Sarty

“I have been granted observing time on MOST and Spitzer, used data from RXTE and have beeninvolved with a cool Kepler observation. I'll review what we've learned from all that and tell you ofthe proposal I submitted for future observations with the Hubble Space Telescope”

Note: There will be an Executive Meeting at 6:30 pm.


by Kris Ohnander

1. Call to order at 6:37pm§ Members Present: Jeff Swick, Tenho Tuomi,

Richard Huziak, Kris Ohnander, Jim Gorkoff,Larry Scott

2. Motion to approve minutes as presented, by RickHuziak, second Tenho Tuomi. Carried.

3. Reports:a) Fundraising, No reportb) Event Co-ordinator:§ Report of Beginners Night given by Jeff.

Discussion of how successful the night was. Jeffnoted on how the large attendance magnified hisunpreparedness, Rick countered this with ‘You’rea wiener.’

§ Discussion of Astronomy Day§ Discussion of speakers and how talks should be

presented.§ Short discussion of Earth day and the Messier

Marathonc) Discussion of the forum set up by Kris. Kris

recommended that the group stick with the Yahoogroup as the increased functionality of the forumis not worth the extra cost and work as the forumwould not get used enough.

§ Discussion of the Website and updating it, makingit more modern.

4. Meeting Adjourned at 7:03pm

by Kris Ohnander

1. Minutes for 28/02/11 RASC General Meeting2. Call to order at 7:34pm3. Motion to approve minutes of last meeting by

Darrel Chatfield, second by Gordon Sarty.4. Reports:a) National Representative§ Report given by Rick Huziak§ Discussion of the proposed increase of membership

fees by $3. We need to decide whether we aregoing to vote for or against this.

b) Event Report:§ Messier marathon report by Larry Scott

April 2 is the Messier marathon, but March 26 isthe observers group, so we could use that day as anattempt for the marathon as well.

§ Earth Day report by Jeff SwickDiscussion of the impressive number of people thatshowed up last year

§ Astronomy Day by Jeff Swick§ Discussion of the places that we are going to meet

at and what events we are going to hold on thecertain days.

§ Contact will be made with Patricia to get the datessolidified

c) Observing group report given by Larry Scott

§ We hope to get out this weekend. Larry hopes toget out to Sleaford to blow out the yard.

d) Fundraising Report by Colin Chatfield§ Request for an address.§ Discussion of putting an info table up within the

Arts Tunnel to increase knowledge about theSaskatoon Center.

e) Site report by Darrel Chatfield§ Recently worked on the addition. Insulated the

walls, finished the wiring, everything is working.The last thing to do, is put the panels back up onthe walls. Request for help when this is going on.

f) News Letter Report by Tenho Toumi§ Request for Articles, he is always looking for

articles.§ Deadline is March 7.5. Other Business:§ Discussion of tables for Astronomy Day. Darrel

bought 2 tables.§ Discussion by Colin Chatfield, about doing an

Astrophotography workshop.6. Presentation by Richard Huziak7. Movies on the various astronomical subjects by

Jeff Swick8. Adjourned at 9:40pm

Minutes of the Executive Meeting, Feb 28, 2011

Minutes of the General Meeting, Feb 28, 2011


by Rick Huziak

Mark May 28th and July 30th on your calendar! Theseare the dates for two star parties that will be happeningat the Grasslands National Party Dark-Sky Preserve(DSP). The Regina and Saskatoon Centres willcombine their efforts to put these on.

The Grasslands DSP was declared on October 2, 2009at a ceremony in the West Block near Val Marie.Coupled with the declaration was the reintroduction ofBlack-footed Ferrets, a nocturnal hunter, to the Park.So the marriage of dark skies and ferrets increasedawareness for the preservation of pristine skies. As amatter of fact, virtually all of Grasslands is very dark,rated as a Bortle 1 site! Last year, seven Regina andSaskatoon members put on the first annual DSP starparty. We had about 75 people attending to see amagnificent sky, despite one of the largest wedding inrecent history being our competition in town! In eachof two star parties that pre-date the DSP, we hadupwards of 150 people in attendance.

The May 28 star party will be held at the campgroundat the east entrance to the East Block about 50 kmsouthwest of Assiniboia. This is a rustic campground

with basic facilities and no power, but hardy souls cancamp, or there are small-town motels in the fewneighbouring towns. We are hoping that we caninclude a hike into dino bone deposits as part of theSaturday entertainment for the astronomers, before thestar party.

The July 30 star party will be held at the Two Treestrail staging area, a 10-minute drive south of ValMarie in the West Block. This will be a more“civilized” event with better camping available at TheResort campground and within Val Marie. Val Mariealso has a rustic, but good, small hotel. We are alsoplanning a talk at the Val Marie movie theatre in theearly evening just before the star night. We will alsodo a casual hike into the badlands either Saturdayafternoon or Sunday for the astronomers.

Right now, we are working on details, including iftravel money will be available for participants, so Iwill let you know later. Stay tuned. If you might beinterested in participating in this adventure, email orcall me (665-3392).

Two Grasslands DSP Star Parties


by Jeff Swick

Hopefully by the time your read this the weather willbe a little warmer. I’ve just checked my observing logand see I haven’t had the scope out since Novemberdue to cloud or cold.

Speaking of cold it was nice to see so many folks outto our new members night in Feb. The outsidetemperature was minus 43c with the wind chill so itwas nice to sit in the warm classroom at theobservatory on campus. It was also nice to browsethrough our local center library that is located in thebasement of the facility.

It was good to put a face to some of our new members.The nature of our hobby means that sometimes youspend a lot of time with people bundled up and in thedark and yet the next day you may walk by them onthe street and not know who they are.

Thanks Rick Huziak and Mike Clancy for providinginformative presentations.

We have a couple of events lined up that shouldhappen in more bearable conditions.

Earthday is at the Mall on Circle and 8th on March 26th.Our center has been invited to attend the celebrationby Bob Johnson. This event has always been a successfor us as well as for the Mall. Patricia will be postingmore details in her report. Let me thank Bob forinviting us to this event.

The annual Messier Marathon has twotentative dates and our observing co-ordinator Larry Scott will provide exactdates via the center’s Yahoo Group.

May also brings Astromony Day events andagain Patricia will have more in her reportand she will also be looking for site captainsto assist.

One of my favorite things about our hobbyand local center is that we organize andpresent family friendly events. If during oneof our events you can’t volunteer becauseyou are entertaining friends or family, by allmeans bring them along just to say hello

and show them what it is we do.

On the subject of family friendly, those of you whoattended our Christmas Potluck had the chance to hearone of our members Bernice Friesen do a reading fromher upcoming book. Bernice is going to be giving afiction writing workshop through The SaskatchewanWriters Guild on April 16th. Those wanting moreinformation should email Bernice [email protected] or visit the websitehttp://skwriter.com/?s=home&id=188<http://skwriter.com/?s=home&id=188>

As for general meetings, we have kind of a doubleheader coming up. In March, Gord Sarty will beupdating on his project with Canada’s MOST spacetelescope and possible upcoming time on the Hubble.

In April, Gord’s collaborator Dr. Kinwah Wu will betraveling from London to visit us and speak on The X-Ray Universe. Dr. Wu is Professor of TheoreticalAstrophysics at UCL Mullard Space Laboratory.

Aprils meeting will be held at the Francis MorrisonLibrary. Note there will be no executive meeting heldin April.

All in all a busy set of events shaping up for generalastronomy with a double dose of astrophysics thrownin to boot.

President’s Message

Patricia Gakis at the Beginners Astronomy NightPhoto by Jeff Swick


by Patricia Gakis

Perhaps I’m alone with this but for me, it doesn’t feellike a new year has begun until we’ve had our firstevent and if the rest of our events are a successful asthis first one, we’re going to have a great year!February 24th was our Beginner’s Astronomy Night atthe University of Saskatchewan Observatory. We hada full house come out to listen to our wonderful threespeakers. Mike Clancy gave us some background onthe moon, Rick Huziak taught us the importance ofsketching planets, and Jeff Swick listed some greatresources for astronomy as well as answeringquestions. Mother Nature partially cooperated with usthat night. Yes, the windchill factor that night wascold enough to freeze off body parts but the sky wasclear and nestled in the dome of the observatory, webarely felt any of that cold wind. Thank you toeveryone who came out. I know I had a great timeand I hope everyone else did too!

Next up is Earth Hour. Thanks to Bob Johnson, wewill be back at Centre Mall on Saturday March 26th at8:30pm when the lights in the parking lot will beturned off for an hour to show support for the effortsto combat climate change. However, this provides uswith an excellent opportunity to not only show off thewonders of the night sky but to also educate the publicon the effects of light pollution. We had a lot ofpeople last year come and talk to us so we need asmany volunteers as possible to help out.

I would like to try a registration system for volunteersfor this event. This would help me to know how manypeople will be there and provide me with a contact listof people to call in case there are any problems likebad weather. So if you are interested in helping out,or even if you’re just sitting on the fence not sure ifyou can make it or not, please email me [email protected] or phone me at 717-4476 and letme know if you’re coming out.

The April meeting of the RASC Saskatoon Centre willbe held at a special location, the Francis MorrisonLibrary. At 7:00 pm on Monday, April 18, ProfessorKinwah Wu, an astrophysicist from the UniversityCollege London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory,will present a free public lecture at the FrancisMorrison Library entitled “Studying the X-rayUniverse From Space: From the Solar System to Starsand Galaxies.”

Professor Wu writes:"X-rays are useful probes to the violent phenomena inthe universe, ranging from giant flares ejected fromthe Sun to relativistic jets launched by supermassiveblack holes in the quasar cores. While we can carry

out observations of stars and galaxies in the optical/IRwavelengths using big telescopes on high mountaintops, observing the violent universe in the X-raywavelengths on Earth is impossible because X-raysare heavily absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere. X-rayastronomy is a space-based physical science. It wasdeveloped in the late 60', when we were able to sendinstruments to above the Earth's atmosphere usingrockets. In this talk I will show the development of X-ray astronomy from the early rocket experiments tothe latest state-of-the-art satellite observatories. I willpresent some of my research in X-ray astronomy, inparticular, concerning black holes and certain exoticobjects. I will also discuss briefly some future aspectsof space-base astronomy beyond X-ray observations."

This lecture is made possible by funding from the University of Saskatchewan’s Role Model Speaker Fund, theGuest Lecturer Fund, and the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics.

Events Coordinator Report

Coming Up in April!Free Public Lecture at the Francis Morrison Library


by Jay Anderson, GA Planning Committee

Speakers• Dr. Christine Wilson, McMaster

University, Ruth Northcott Lecture• Dr. Samar Safi-Harb, University of

Manitoba, Banquet speaker• Alan Dyer, author and

astrophotographer, keynote speaker• Dr. Paul Delaney, York University,

keynote speaker

FinancesElectronic payments will be arrangedthrough PayPal.

AccommodationEighty beds have been reserved at the University ofManitoba’s Arthur Mauro residence. The HospitalitySuite at the residence has been reserved for theduration of the GA. First-come, first-servedaccommodation at a lower price is also available inother University residences.

FoodDegrees Restaurant, operated by the Student Union,will provide a substantial breakfast and lunch menu.

Three dinners are planned as a part ofthe GA events – a National Rep BBQ(hopefully at our observatory) onJune 30, the National BBQ on July 2at the University, and the AwardsBanquet on July 3, also at the U ofM.

Presentations and PostersThe science sessions will take placein the Engineering and InformationTechnology Complex. Posters will be

displayed in the Atrium outside the session theatre.

We are planning on opening the imaging contests toelectronic submissions; these will be displayed duringsession breaks and at the Wine & Cheese festivities.

ToursTours are being offered to:• The Hudson Bay Company fort at Lower Fort Garry• Assiniboine Park and the Winnipeg Zoo• A ride on the Prairie Dog Central steam train• A visit to the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centremuseum in Morden, coupled with a fossil dig in thenearby quarries. This tour may be expanded to asecond day (July 4) if demand is high.

General Assembly Coming – July 1-4


The Planets This Month, March 2011by Murray D. Paulson, RASC Edmonton Centre

The month of March starts off with Mercury risinginto the evening sky from its late February conjunctionwith the sun. It is coming around from the far side ofthe sun and will dim dramatically as it pulls into theGreatest Eastern Elongation on March 22nd. On March12th, Mercury will be 14 degrees from the sun andshines at magnitude -1.1. Five days later on the 17th, itwill be at -0.8 magnitude and 17 degrees from the sunand by the 22nd, it will dim to -0.1 magnitude as itreaches an elongation of 18.6 degrees. Five days henceMercury will dim to magnitude 0.9 and the elongationis 17 degrees. This apparition despite the small valueof the elongation is actually a fairly decent one to seehow long you can catch Mercury in the twilight overthe week before and afterwards. Binoculars will helpto catch it in the twilight. On the date of the GreatestElongation Mercury will show a 7” 43% illuminateddisk. A little earlier in the month on the night ofMarch 15th, Mercury passes 2 degrees north of theplanet Jupiter. This should be a good view inbinoculars. The last days of the month will seeMercury picking up speed to drop back toward thesun, headed for the April 9th inferior conjunction withthe sun.

If you have been watching Venus in the morning sky,you will notice how much it has dropped into thesouthern sky. It is down in the horizon murk anddoesn’t dazzle with its usual magnitude -4.0 blaze.The month starts off with Venus shining at magnitude-4.1 and if you looked through an eyepiece you wouldsee a 15.4 gibbous disc. By the beginning of nextmonth it has just got a bit closer to the horizon and thedisc is now 13” and it shines at magnitude 4.0 from its34 degree elongation. Venus is slipping away aroundthe sun and is receding from us.

Mars enters the morning sky this month, butdisadvantaged by the spring ecliptic will remainhidden in the twilight throughout the spring. Theplanet shows a tiny 4” disk and shines at magnitude1.1.

Over the month of March we will watch Jupiter slipaway into the sun. It is still fairly prominent at thebeginning of the month shining at magnitude -2.0. Ifyou look at it in an eyepiece you will see the 33.7”disc. On April 6th, Jupiter will pass 48 minutes belowthe sun and will move into the morning sky.

At the beginning of March Saturn’s opposition isabout one month off. The ringed planet shines atmagnitude 0.4 and in an eyepiece you will see the 19”disc surrounded by those amazing rings. It rises justafter 9 pm and will take a few hours to get into adecent observing position. In one month’s time onApril 3rd Saturn arrives at Opposition. The planet willbrighten to magnitude 0.3 and the disc will haveexpanded imperceptibly to 19.3”. It now rises justbefore 8 pm Daylight Savings Time in Alberta (7pmin Saskatchewan). Saturn will cross the meridian justbefore 2pm (1pm) and will be the star of Astronomydays : ) The tilt of the rings will be 8.7 degrees whichwill make viewing Cassini’s division much easier insmaller scopes.

This month we find Uranus in conjunction with theSun on March 21, one day after the vernal equinox. Itwill then slip into the morning sky and hide in thetwilight until after the summer solstice. Short ofMercury, we are at a dearth of planetary activity in ournight skies. Neptune preceded Uranus in its sojourninto the morning sky followed shortly thereafter by

Jupiter. Fortunately I never get tiredof watching Saturn.

Conjunction of the Moon andJupiter

Photo by Garry Stone with a Konicacamera at 7:33 PM March 7.


Join the Club! Observe all 110 Messier, 110 Finest NGC, 400 Herschel I or II, 140 Lunar, or 35Binocular objects, or Explore the Universe and earn great OBSERVING CERTIFICATES!

MESSIER CLUBCertified at 110 Objects:R. Huziak, G. Sarty, S. Alexander, S.Ferguson, D. Jeffrey, D. Chatfield, B.Christie, K. Noesgaard, M. Stephens,B. Hydomako, T. Tuomi, L. Scott, G.Charpentier, B. Johnson, M. Clancy, L.Dickson, B. Burlingham

Ken Maher Done! 110Norma Jensen 108Ron Waldron 105Kathleen Houston 90Margo Millar 77Wade Selvig 75Garry Stone 57Barb Wright 40Wayne Schlapkohl 36Ellen Dickson 34Jeff Swick 24

FINEST NGC CLUBCertified at 110 Objects:R. Huziak, D. Jeffrey, G. Sarty, D.Chatfield, T. Tuomi

Larry Scott Done! 110Scott Alexander 97Sandy Ferguson 23George Charpentier 13Ken Maher 10Mike Clancy 7

Chatfield BINOCULARCERTIFICATECertified at 35 to 40 Objects:M. Stephens, T. Tuomi, M. Clancy, R.Huziak, K. Maher

Isabel Williamson LunarObserving Certificate / 140Tenho Tuomi 136Norma Jensen 108Jeff Swick 25

EXPLORE the UNIVERSECertified at 55 to 110 Objects:M. Clancy, T. Tuomi, K. Maher, B.Gratias

Wayne Schlapkohl Done 55Sharon Dice 31

HERSCHEL 400 CLUBCertified at 400 Objects:D. Jeffrey, R. Huziak, D. Chatfield

Tenho Tuomi Done! 400Gordon Sarty 251Scott Alexander 117Sandy Ferguson 18

HERSCHEL 400-II CLUB

Darrell Chatfield 346Rick Huziak 225

The Messier & Finest NGC lists can be found in the Observer's Handbook .The Explore the Universe list is available on the National website.

On-line Messier and Finest NGC lists, charts and logbooks – check out:http://www.rasc.ca/observing

On-line Herschel 400 List – check out the official site at:http://www.astroloeague.org/al/obsclubs/herschel/hers400.html

The Binocular List will be available at each general meeting or can be mailed out on request to distant members.Copies of the Isabel Williamson Lunar Observing Program Guide can be purchased at meetings. Program details can be found at: http://www.rasc.ca/williamson/index.shtml

by Larry Scott

I have high hopes that somedaysoon we’ll have a regularlyscheduled Observers Group toreport on.

Due to my recent discovery of Earth Hour beingon March 26th, I’ve moved the Observers Groupfor March to the 25th. These two events will befollowed closely by our Messier Marathon onApril 2nd. Anyone interested in doing the

Marathon can contact me for more info. TheMarathon is an attempt to observe all 110 Messierobjects in one night. Or just come out to Sleafordand pursue your own observing activities. Thishas been a very well attended event in the pastwhen the weather cooperates.

We’ll have glorious moon-free evenings fromabout March 22nd till April 6th for deep skyobserving.

Observers Group

vol. 42, no. 3 march 2011 beginners looking at orion · vol. 42, no. 3 march 2011 beginners looking...

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