Stary Party at the KOA
The August 7, 2010 KOA star party was a success even though there were only 4 telescopes. Dave was there with his 12” Intelliscope, Kent with his 20” Starsplitter and Reed with his and Chris’s homebuilt 22”. A 6” Newt on a German equatorial arrived after dark and was set up at the north end of Star Hill.
Guests began arriving well before dark and David got the show off and running with the Sun. He had brought his 4.5 “ off-axis solar filter and lo and behold-there was actually solar activity to be seen. Three large , well defined and separated sunspot groups were visible.
Even before the Sun set Kent spotted Venus. Still appearing as a half moon – Venus is just past Eastern Elongation and is beginning to move between the Earth and Sun on its inferior orbit. There was enough atmospheric turbulence that the planets could not take much magnification but it was nice to see Venus in a bright sky minus the usual glare.
Saturn followed as soon as it started to get dark and there were a lot of requests to see Mars despite the lack of detail on the Red planet. We got some “Wow”s when people realized that the little speck to the side of Saturn was Titan with it’s methane lakes.
There was a large public turnout. At one point during the evening there were at least 12 cars parked at the base of Star Hill and the overflow parking area. Quite a few visitors were staying at the campground including Julio from the SJAA. At any given time there was a group of 6 or so people at each of the telescopes with all the astronomers showing their showpiece objects as well as the usual constellation tours and explanations.
There were a lot of requests for individual stars such as Mizar/Alcor, Polaris, and Albireo. And one for Herschel’s Garnet Star. This is of course Mu Cep which is a supergiant star that would reach out to the orbit of Jupiter. It did not appear quite so red last night.
Once again M51 was a highlight of the evening. Even through Dave’s 12” there were a number of “OH!”s. And Reed pulled out the 17mm Ethos eyepiece for “The Scope”. The Whirlpool filled the eyepiece field of view with individual knots visible.
Kent and Reed were also able to do some reviews of some of the coming fall attractions such as M 31 and the Owl Cluster.
The evening finished off with Jupiter rising in the east. Although in the mud it was apparent that the South Equatorial Belt is still missing. Io was in transit across the face of Jupiter although it was too low in the sky to see it or the shadow transit. As the party was finishing up Reed detected Io just popping into view after exiting the giant planet’s disk.
The guests appeared happy and pleased as they left. Thanks to the astronomers for a successful party.
The next KOA Star Hill Party is scheduled for Sat Sep 4 2010. Sunset at 7:25 PM PDT
Dark skies and good hunting,
Dave Majors
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From Reed Estrada:
Saturdays star party (Aug 7, 2010) was well attended thanks to Wednesday Tribune article on the CCAS Santa Margarita Lake star parties. We had three CCAS member telescopes in attendance and one new comer. David Majors added a “Solar Filter” to his new 12 inch Orion dob. We had some fine views of solar sun spots appearing on the surface of the sun, following a long sun spot hiatus. Kent Wallace and Reed Estrada’s large 20 inch and 22 inch dobsonian telescopes dominated the hill again offering the large public gathering excellent views of Venus, mars and Saturn in the early evening. Later as the sky’s darkened, the crowds lined up to see a host of galaxies and nebulas and double stars while listening to brief descriptions of the significance of the night sky observations. We noticed the absence of monthly regular CCAS members due to the Pine Mountain Oregon research event and the Oregon Star Party scheduled for this week and the next. This was a relaxed enjoyable week end event with good weather and friendly folks.
Thunder at a Star Party!
From VP Chris Estrada:
The last Star Party on July 10, 2010 at the Santa Margarita KOA had mixed results… Only 4 scopes turned up… Reed Estrada and I, Tom Frey, Pete Roebbers and David Majors… There was a modest public turn out… The afternoon started out iffy but then just after sun set it cleared out for a bit and we where able to do allot of viewing, including show the crowd the ISS as it passed overhead and a really nice Iridium Flare… However around 10:30 or so it began to close in and flashes of lighting where actually seen off to the south east… so we began to clear off our selves… Dad (Reed) and I where the last to leave and not a moment to soon there was one last big flash and where heard thunder… then it began to rain on the hill, HARD… needless to say we beat a hasty retreat… LOL it all worked out in the end though…
Click here to read more CCAS events.
Large Alt-Az Telescope at Big Bear
One Meter Photometric Telescope at RTMC (Riverside Telescope Maker’s Conference) on May 15, Big Bear Lake, California
Report from: Russ Genet, Reed Estrada, and VP Chris Estrada
The one meter wooden prototype photometric telescope made it to RTMC this year. First “sawdust” was this past October, so construction has been underway for about seven months. The mirror for the telescope, a 1 meter f/4.0 spherical meniscus ¾ inch thick, weights about 70 lbs. It was kindly donated to the project by DOTI Optical. The telescope is a prime focus system (no eyepiece) just intended for photometry. We consider it a science “light bucket” telescope. An aluminum prototype is nearing completion at Inca Corp. by George Roberts and his associates.
The telescope is still a work in progress with much remaining to be done. The basic construction has been completed, and the drive components have been installed. We did not operate the drive system at RTMC due to a short in the altitude cable connection we didn’t have the facilities to repair on the spot. The instrument rotator/focuser is being built by Andy Saulietis and should be installed next week. The control system is the new Sidereal Technology brushed servomotor control system that should be ready in a couple of weeks (we are temporarily using the older SiTech control system for checkout). With the OTA trusses and top altitude trunion sections disassembled, the entire telescope fits in the back of a Jeep Cherokee SUV, although it was brought to RTMC in the back of Reed’s pickup truck (he was doing some last minute work on the telescope while Russ was giving a talk at SAS). What follows are some photographs of the telescope at RTMC.
Reed checks the 18 point mirror support system while Russ fastens one of the two removable upper trunion sections. Tom Smith provides moral support.
Chris Estrada fastens down the brace between the two removable upper sections of the altitude trunions.
Chris and Reed Estrada finish fastening the aluminum tubing brace between the upper trunion sections. Richard Berry, far right, helps hold the brace in place, while Gary Cole (blue jacket and tan hat) looks on. Dave Rowe (between Chris and Reed) sees something down on the ground. What could it be?
Russ and Reed move the 1 meter mirror from a transport box to the telescope. Normally the mirror will ride installed in the telescope, but the transport safety/cushioning arrangements have not yet been completed.
Reed and Russ lower the mirror into the mirror box. The two yellow items on the side of the rocker box hold wheels that keep the altitude trunions centered on their drive/idler wheels. The aluminum “disk” near Russ’ foot is the toothed altitude drive pulley. An AT-5 steel reinforced belt can be seen going down to a smaller pulley on the end of the altitude motor. One of the two main wheels can be seen on the left.
With the mirror in place, Russ looks at the reflection of the clouds.
Reed, Russ, and Chris move the assembled truss structure into place. The two-bay truss is being redesigned to make its assembly easier. Cross bracing cables tightened by turnbuckles are being added to stiffen the structure.
Reed and Russ hold the truss in place while Chris fastens down one of the corners. Note that the mirror cover is in place during assembly.
With the telescope assembled, Reed, Russ, and Chris pose for the camera.
Although not operational yet, Dave Rowe was impressed that after only seven months of work, the telescope had been physically assembled at RTMC, and he gave the telescope a quick kiss.
Chris, Reed, and Russ tilt the 1 meter photometric telescope (aka Packman or Big Blue) down beside the Jeep that it fits inside. Celebration at the Third Annual Large Alt-Az Telescope Dinner. There were toasts to PlaneWave Instruments CDK 700 telescope, the portable 42-inch CDK wooden telescope (13 years in the making), and the 1 meter photometric telescope. Seen round the table is Russ Genet, Tom Smith, Rick Hedrick, Floyd Fietchner, Dave Rose, and Deborah Ceravolo. Peter Ceravolo, Joe Haberman, and a few others were there but did not appear in this photograph.
The 1 meter photometric telescope was just part of the special program at RTMC. The announcement for the program is below:
Large Alt-Az Telescope Developments
Special Presentation Session and Workshop
Riverside Telescope Maker’s Conference
May 15, Big Bear Lake, California
The Riverside Telescope Maker’s Conference has scheduled a special Saturday morning session that will feature six short talks on large (for amateurs) alt-az telescope developments. A complimentary two hour workshop follows in the afternoon.
9:15-10:30 Large Alt-Az Telescope Developments
A Brief History of Alt-Az Telescopes (Richard Berry)
The Alt-Az Initiative (Russ Genet)
CDK Direct Drive Telescopes (Rick Hedrick, Joe Haberman, Dan Gray, Dave Rowe, & Allan Keller)
Lightweight Aluminum Telescopes (Tom Osypowski & Howard Banich)
A Portable 1-Meter Photometric Telescope, (George Roberts, Reed & Chris Estrada, & Russ Genet)
A Portable 42″ Broken-focus Corrected Dall-Kirkham Telescope (Dave Rowe & Rick Hedrick)
2:00-4:00 Large Alt-Az Telescope Workshop
Chair: Dave Rowe. Participants: Howard Banich, David Davis, Russ Genet, Dan Gray, & Rick Hedrick.
Topics: primary mirror substrates, spherical and parabolic correctors, the corrected Dall Kirkham optical design, direct drive motors, encoders, bearings, fundamentals of servo control, field de-rotators, material properties and material selection, truss structures, and transportation of large alt-az telescopes.
Talk at Cambria Rotary Club
The CCAS was invited to be the guest speaker for the Cambria Rotary Club on Friday, June 18th, 2010, who meets weekly at the Cambria Pines Lodge. Member Joseph Carro was the presenter:
“The meeting of the Cambria Rotary went very well. I had a presentation ready, but as soon as the introduction ended the group started to ask questions, and all of the time (only 25 minutes!) was spent answering them. The high level of interaction made for an interesting meeting. After the meeting, several people approached me to ask more questions, and I spent an additional 30 minutes talking with them.” (Report from Joseph Carro)
Star Gazing and Wine!
The CCAS was invited to co-host a wine-tasting event under the stars on June 19, 2010 at sunset. This is the fifth year in a row that we’ve had this wonderful opportunity to share with the public, and we hope to continue this event in the future.
“Cass Winery star party was an unqualified success! Gus, Chris, Reed, Patti and I attended to about 30 people during a clear, but somewhat chilly, summer night. With clear skies, we were able to conduct a top rate show, and a good time was had by all.” (Reported by Joseph Carro)
Star Party Success!
The June 12th, 2010 public star party at the KOA campground was a HUGE success. It was well attended by both astronomers and the general public. The Night started off a little breezy but it rapidly calmed at dusk. The conditions where clear and cool, which made for a very pleasant evening.
Also not to toot our own horn, but I think the night was truly made when we Re-unveiled our 22inch Dobsonian Homebuilt Telescope with its brand new Swayze Optical Mirror.
It was great with our eye pieces, but it truly became a work of art and function when Mr. Pete introduced us the the Ethos line of eyepieces. We where COUNTING arms on the whirlpool galaxy. We could SEE the streamers on the Dumbbell, and many MANY other things had details the like of which we have never seen before.
All who looked through the scope had exclamations of aw on thier lips. The greatest compliment of the night was when our resident Planetary Expert Mr. Kent Wallace looked at the Dumbbell and said, wow. It was truly a great night with many great memories. Mr. David Majors and Dr. Tom Frey where especially helpful, as always, and all the other astronomers did a great job showing people the night sky… A great event all around!
Cheers,
Chris Estrada, CCAS VP
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Report from Tom Frey:
Reid and Chris had their 22″ with the new Swazey mirror for the first time. Pete Roebber lent his TeleVue 17mm Ethos (FOV 100 degrees) and I lent my OIII filter and hood to see some of the greatest views of Ms 5, 13, 51, 27, 11, 20, 8, 17, the Veil, et.al on this fantastic new, home constructed Dobsonian. there were a lot of ohhs and ahhs all night long.
We had 9 scopes on the hill and many visitors. The wind was a threat early on but settled down after sunset. The seeing was “very good”. Kent Wallace had his 20″ Starsplitter firing on all fronts with a long que at his scope. Mark was calibrating his Celestron for double star studies in Oregon in August. Tom was measuring a triple star in Draco with his Celestron astrometric eyepiece. Pete Roebber got his 18″ Obsession going after a visitor, Gordon, determined that Pete’s telescope had a bad cable; once replaced, it operated fine. Dave Majors was there with his scope as well as several other members. (I apologize for not including all of your names here.) But the 22″ took center stage. We all enjoyed looking through one another’s telescopes and enjoyed sharing the June skies with all in attendance. Tom left about 3AM, Reid, Chris, and Mark Brewer (new CCAS member) left after that.
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From Kent Wallace:
The star party went well. We had quite a few people attend. It started out windy and cold. Later the wind dropped off and it got colder. The big hit for the night was Reed and Chris’ 22″ scope with it’s brand new 22″ mirror. Got a wonderful view of M 51 in it.
People enjoyed seeing M 5 and the Cat’s Eye Nebula in my scope. Later I swung the scope to the Network Nebula which is the eastern part of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant. I used a 32mm 2″ eyepiece with a 2″ O-III filter screwed into the back of the eyepiece. People really liked how the all the filaments lit up and the large size of this object.
Tom and Pete were there with their 18″ scopes. Also there was a new member there with a 16″ Lightbridge scope. So we had plenty of large scopes on top of the hill. The green laser pointers seemed to impress visitors as we pointed out various constellations and were various deep sky objects could be found. Also as usual, the Stargate asterism was a hit with people, just because it look neat.
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From Dave Majors:
Chris and Reed’s 22″ was the star performer. When we saw M51 everyones first utterance seemed to be “OH!!!” As Chris said we were counting arms and we could follow the arms through almost their entire arcs. We didn’t get out until about 2:30 AM Just after Jupiter had risen. We did take a peek at Jupiter but it was still in the mud and all we could really tell was that one of the equatorial belts was missing. A great evening!!
Star Party for the American Cancer Society
The CCAS was invited to host a star-gazing event on Saturday, June 5, 2010 with the American Cancer Society. The event was called Camp Reach for the Stars “Creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays…”
According to one of the organizers there where approximately 15 children, cancer survivors, and their families attending the camp. The camp was basically a typical summer camp with lots of activities for the children and families to do. Saturday evening we arrived and set up our 22inch Dob and Bino-Chair. It turned out to be a pleasant evening and we where able to show those who where interested Venus, Mars and Saturn along with M-13 and the Ring Nebula. Dad and I also did our usual “Greek TV” pointing out the constellations that where up with the green laser pointers. As quiet time was 10PM and Bed time was 11PM the festivities and our activities ended around 10:30PM. Everyone who looked through the scope and played with the chair was VERY impressed and very grateful that we where able to attend and share the night sky with them.
Report from Vice president Chris Estrada
Omega Centauri Visible at Dancing Deer!
We were at the new star site, Dancing Deer Ranch in Templeton on Saturday, June 5th, 2010. Although we weren’t sure what to expect to see with the scopes (it was really our first time out there), we were quite impressed! Here’s the scoop on the scopes:
From Tom Frey:
“Omega Centauri (NGC 5239) is the largest and brightest globular cluster around the Milky Way Galaxy. It is located in the southern constellation of Centaurus, is 15,800 light years away, and is about 12 billion years old. Estimates are that it contain over 1 million stars. The stars in the core are estimated to be only 0.1 light years apart, where as the closest star to us is about 4 light years away. It’s big. The cluster appears to be as large as the full moon.
“Kent Wallace was scanning the horizon with this binoculars when he said “I wonder if we can see Omega Centauti from here.” Usually the cluster is too far south to be seen from most observation sites at our latitude. Kent then said, “there it is.” Wow! Tom plugged the coordinates into his Argo Navis and slewed to the massive globular. Tom was worried as his scope got lower and lower as it approached the horizon. When it stopped moving at about 5 degrees above the horizon, we literally got down on our knees to view the Big Sheriff of globular clusters. With a 17mm eyepiece at 120x, the spheroid almost filled the eyepiece. The Dave, Kent and Andy followed suit to see it. Considering that we were looking through the “soup” at the horizon, Omega Centauri was remarkably resolved and it was the highlight of the evening.”
From Dave Majors:
“Tom and I were out until about 2:30 AM. The waning crescent moon was rising over the trees to the east just as we were leaving. The seeing improved steadily throughout the night. Tom was working through some of his double star lists and I was working through some of the neglected Miras. We had one final observation of what we thought might be the brightest member of Stephen’s Quintet. If that observation holds up then the limiting magnitude for my 12″ was 14.1 for stars and 13.9 for deep sky objects.
Report from June 5th Star Gazing…
On June 5, CCAS members were finally able to give the Dancing Deer Ranch site a good workout.
Attending with their scopes were the dobs:
Aurora’s 8 year old son Benji with his 3” scope.
Kent with his 20”
Tom with his 17”
Dave and Andy with their 12” scopes
The skies were clear, the evening warm, the company good and the stage set for a fine evening.
Seeing conditions were unsteady from some breezes early on but improved throughout the evening
Eagle -eyed Kent got the evening started off by being the first to spot Venus. Venus is still showing a waning gibbous phase. A variable polarizer filter gave better views of the gibbous phase by reducing glare.
As the sky darkened Kent was consistently the first to spot objects – this time Saturn and the Regulus-Mars pair. Saturn was a fine view with at least three moons as well as the rings . Titan was visible of course but there were at least two others. Rhea was on the other side of the disk from Titan. There was a third moon visible on the same side of the disk with Titan which from the S&T wiggle-gram could have been either Dionne or Tethys- possibly both as the seeing was still a bit unsteady. Mars showed a small disk with little detail.
All during the early evening there were guests staying at the ranch dropping by and looking through all the scopes. Dave was delayed when his Intelliscope Finder stopped seeing signals from the altitude encoder midway through the alignment but got back into the act a little later.
Once it was fully dark Kent noticed that the ridge defining the southern horizon was very low and that stars of Centaurus were visible. Out came his binocs and there it was- Omega Centauri from San Luis Obispo County!!! Several of the observers had never before seen this magnificent globular visually and were very impressed. Tom had to go to a lower magnification as it filled the entire field of view through his 17mm eyepiece. Individual stars were visible all across the cluster in all the scopes despite the low altitude.
Also visible was the colliding galaxy pair NGC 5128. Through all the scopes the dark lane was visible with direct vision.
A couple of other highlights from the evening were the Stargate asterism and the colliding galaxy pair NGC 4038/4039.
The Stargate is an asterism with a triangle of stars nested inside another triangle near M104. Designated STF 1659 this is a nice attractive set of stars . Here are links to a couple of sites with more information.
http://platformx.sourceforge.net/Name/index.html
for information on the stars and a finder chart
http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus/archives/000807.html
for PA and Sep measurements if anyone would like to compare.
NGC 4038/4039 is a colliding pair of galaxies in Corvus called the Antennae or Ring-Tail galaxies. Through Tom’s and Kent’s scopes the U-shape was readily apparent. Through Dave and Andy’s 12” scopes the dark area appeared more of an indentation and the u-shape not readily apparent.
By midnight Just Tom and Dave were left. They spent the next two hours working through their lists-Tom with his doubles and Dave with his Miras.
Just before finishing off they took a quick tour through the summer attractions and some of the fall attractions. The last item was galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus . There appeared to be a faint galaxy about a half degree from NGC 7331. It was only seen with averted vision and very faint at that. From the location this may have been the brightest member of Stephen’s Quintet at 13 mag.
The waning crescent moon was rising through the trees just as Dave and Tom were driving off
Here some links to some APOD images of the night’s observing
Omega Centauri
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100331.html
NGC 5128 or Centaurus A
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100313.html
The Antennae (NGC4038/4039)
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100507.html
Stephan’s Quintet
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090911.html
NGC 7331 with Stephen’s Quintet at lower left
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090806.html
Good Hunting!!
Dave M.
New Star Site for CCAS Members
Saturday, June 5, 2010 at Sunset
CCAS Members are invited to a private star party just for CCAS members at an 80-acre ranch in Templeton, owned by retired professor Peter Huber (who is also an amateur astronomer).
The ranch is an eco-friendly retreat center available to CCAS free of charge on select nights. The site is very dark, has 360-degree visibility and no annoying lights (like at KOA). There are two possible observing sites on the property that have already been previewed by Lee Coombs, Tom Frey, and Jim Carlisle this month (who all gave the thumbs-up!), so bring your scope and drive right up!
What you need to do: Bring a snack to share and arrive early so you can meet Peter and look around before it gets too dark. Just send us an email if you plan to attend so we know to look for you.