May 2002 Newsletter

Stockton Astronomical Society

Valley Skies

Valley Skies - May 2002 Issue

Editor's Corner...

People follow their interests in space and astronomy in diverse ways, from armchair discovery to active observing of deep sky wonders. Some exercise creativity through astrophotography, while others express their sense of wonderment through art.

At our May 9 program, you will have the opportunity to see the work of two local artists, Mary Lois Thompson and Kay Owen. Each has sought to capture the awesome beauty of space in her chosen medium, oils and watercolors respectively.

Mary Lois Thompson:
I have drawn and painted since childhood. For years I studied 'plein air' painting with D'Pharr (local) and Charles Movalli (Massachusetts) and in the course of these studies I painted in France and England. On my own, with museum trips to San Francisco and New York, I familiarized myself with the Modern movements.

When Delta College built its planetarium, I took astronomy with Rick Mielbrecht, and visited the planetarium often with family in tow. A few years back, ready to move on to something different from painting California scenes, and my children and grandchildren, I felt ready to begin a series on space and night skies. When John Glenn, one of the astronauts from my generation, recently journeyed on the shuttle, I followed the trip closely and was inspired to paint what I imagined he saw from shuttle windows.

Carl Sagan's book, Pale Blue Dot, among others , inspired a planet model series and the Looking Back paintings. And of course, now there is the Hubble website and the Johnson Space Center Image Collection for further and unending inspiration.

Kay Owen:
I have been hooked on watercolors since my first Delta College art class in 1990: Painting for Seniors, by Claire Oak. Over the next several years I continued classes at Delta from Claire and from James Lewis and Bill Williams. I have taken watercolor workshops locally and painted abroad with teachers in Greece and New Zealand. I have continued to explore color and design in my watercolor paintings.

My latest venture was inspired by Dr. Neil Lark in 2000, when he presented a program on Stars, Galaxies and Nebulae for the UOP program, Pacific Experience. I was enthralled by the Hubble Space Telescope photos and just had to paint them. Dr. Lark provide me with a CD entitled Astro Images, and soon I was lost in space as I experienced Hubble's findings.

The experience has been joyful and exciting.

* * *

A challenge to serious observers...
In 1995-1996, the discovery of the first planets around other stars convinced Tim Castellano, an astronomer at NASA/Ames, to return to astronomy with hopes of participating in this historic era of discovery. Tim's talk at our April 11 meeting was about how amateurs can follow up candidate stars identified by planet searches, and possibly join the ranks of planet discoverers, if relative photometry with better than 1% precision can be achieved.

Starting on page 4, and continuing in the June issue, is the text of Tim's presentation, an invitation to amateur astronomers to join him in this quest for discovery.

...Trevor Atkinson

SAS Observing Program
by Jeff Baldwin,
Observing Program Chairman

Messiers from Virgo through Ursa Major are targets for the next couple of months. It's a handful, but many are worth the hunt. Here they are:

Virgo area: M64, M53, M85, M100, M98, M99, M88, M91, M86, M84, M87, M89, M90, M58, M59, M60, M49, M81, M104.

Hydra area: M68, M83.

Ursa Major area: M81, M82, M97, M108, M109, M40, M106, M94, M51, M63, M101.

Some of you may take three months to pop all of these dudes out. It's a rich area for galaxies, pointing the telescope at any part of the sky here and you're virtually guaranteed a galaxy or two (or more).

Enjoy!

Both the club and the AANC offer certificates for observing the Messiers. Our club also offers a Herschel Certificate (as does the Astronomical League). Would you like one or more of these certificates? Ask me for details and rules.

...Jeff

Comet Ikeya-Zhang

Now flying tail-first, the comet is racing toward Earth; its head will be passing closest on the evening of April 29, when it will lie 37.6 million miles away, more than 2½ times closer than it was in early March.

After April 29, the comet will be traveling away from both the Sun and Earth so it will fade rapidly.

The waning Moon will become less of a hindrance each night and you can look for Ikeya-Zhang well up in the northeast sky as soon as darkness falls. Using a star chart, you might try and follow Ikeya-Zhang through the month of May with binoculars or a telescope as it dims from fifth magnitude at the beginning of the month, to eighth magnitude by month's end.

On the night of May 5-6, it will be moving through the lozenge-shaped head of Draco and pass just over a degree from the bright second-magnitude star Eltanin. It moves into Hercules on May 8, Corona Borealis on May 18, and finally Serpens on May 25, where it will remain into early summer, fading to eleventh magnitude, sailing back to beyond the outer reaches of the solar system.

Ref: http://www.space.com/spacewatch

Shingletown Star Party July 10-14

For the past eight years The Astronomy Connection (TAC) has been organizing star parties at Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park in north eastern California. The event grew in popularity to the point where we have nearly outgrown available space at the park's group campsite and observing areas.

This year, thanks in large part to work by amateur astronomers in the Sacramento area, we will try a new location. I am happy to announce the Shingletown Star Party. This will be a public event hosted by Shasta County at the Shingletown Airport just outside Shingletown on highway 44, 35 miles east of Redding and 17 miles west of Lassen Park. The airport is being closed in order to allow amateur astronomers to stay on site and leave our equipment set up over the nights of July 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.

A preliminary web-site is on-line where those interested in attending may sign up. More information regarding the star party and surrounding area's activities and sights will be posted on the web-page shortly.

The web-page where attendees can sign-up is at:
http://www201.pair.com/resource/resource-intl/ssp.html

If you have any question, please contact me via e-mail or at 408/356-1125.

...Mark Wagner,TAC

Check out The Astronomy Connection at: http://www.observers.org/