PHOENIX ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY — ESTABLISHED 1948 Suzanne ... · my Book Observing Comets, Pocket Sky Atlas (2 copies), Burnham’s Celestial Handbook (Volumes I – 3), Sky & Tele-scope

timesPhoenix Astronomical Society

www.pasaz.orgDecember 2016

Volume 68 Issue 4P H O E N I X A S T R O N O M I C A L S O C I E T Y — E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 4 8

Suzanne Morrison will be the PASguest speaker for the December Meeting.Suzanne will share her experiences withmeteorites and be bringing some specimensfor sale. Bring cash if you are thinking ofpurchasing any meteorites at this meeting.Here’s some additional info about Suzanneon the internet:http://www.scienceandastronomy.com/suzanne-morrison/

More about her: “Suzanne Morrison,CEO of the company Raining Rocks, willbe presenting on the topic of meteorites.

She is a meteorite specialist, field geologist,award-winning photographer and a premiermeteorite and mineral dealer. She hasworked extensively with meteorites sinceshe found her first one 20 years ago. Shewas a guest, as well as the behind the sceneslocation photographer on the televisionshow Meteorite Men. Her photos have ap-peared in numerous science and education-related books, magazines and televisionshows.

For her PAS presentation, she will

Suzanne Morrison to Speakat December Meeting

“Rocks from Space”By Terri, Event Manager

We are having dinner with SuzanneMorrison at Chili’s at 7th Street and Bell(513 East Bell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85022)at 4:30-5pm arrival time. The reservationwill be under Finch. RSVP is requiredthrough the PAS Calendar:

http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=2189&day=2016-121&c=1. PAS Members are invited to join usther to meet the guest speaker ahead oftime. It’s a BYO (Buy your Own) dinner. Iwill be putting the reservation in for this on

Thursday around 12:30pm, Dec 1 so thedeadline to RSVP will be 11am Thursdaymorning. Come join us for a fun dinnerprior to the meeting. Would love to see youthere. ***

Dinner prior to December PAS MeetingBy Terri, Event Manager

Nov 3 started with a group of PASMembers going to Chili’s at 4:30 to meetup and have dinner with guest speaker Dr.David Williams. Present were Alex andDiane Vrenios, Sam Insana, William andTerri Finch, Don Boyd, Kevin Harcey, PeteTurner and Paul Facuna.

Later, Sam opened the meeting with afew items of interest, an introduction of theguest speaker, and then gave the floor to

David whose presentation was about 1.25hours long. There were, including David,25 in attendance. David raffled off a specialposter which Pete Turner won. BruceWurst provided the bottled water thismonth.

Many thanks to David for a fine pre-sentation. We hope to see everyone at theDecember 1 PAS Meeting!

November 3 Meeting ReviewBy Terri, Event Manager

Suzanne Morrison is our December GuestSpeake who will knock your socks off with her

enthusiasm for Meteorites. Come enjoy her pre-sentation!

David Williams

See December Meeting on page 4

PAStimes 2 December 2016

Phoenix Astronomical Society Contact InfoPresident Sam Insana 602-315-4750 [email protected]

Vice President Alex Vrenios 602 789-6556 [email protected] Kevin Witts [email protected]

Event Manager Terri Finch 602-561-5398 [email protected] Eric Steinberg [email protected]

Newsletter Editor Don K. Boyd [email protected] Host Rodney FongLibrarian Rod Sutter [email protected]

Member at Large Jenny Weitz 602-787-6818 [email protected] at Large/Equipment Manager Bruce Wurst 602-971-3555 [email protected]

Webmaster Chris Johnson [email protected] Astronomical Society 3039 W Peoria Ave #102-188 Phoenix AZ 85029

Check out these and other events onthe PAS Calendar:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php. RSVP where requested [email protected].

Dec 1: PAS Meeting at PVCC in RoomLS 205. Come enjoy a presentation by Su-zanne Morrison. Bring a snack to share.Bottled water provided by PAS snack fund.Everyone welcome. Doors open 7pm.Meeting begins 7:30pm. Here’s the link formore details about this event:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=2005&day=2016-121&c=1

Dec 2, 3, 4: PAS will be at the DesertBotanical Garden showing the night skythrough our telescopes from 5:30 to9:30pm for the 21 nights of the DBG Lumi-

naria.Dec 9, 10, 11: PAS will be at the Des-

ert Botanical Garden showing the night skythrough our telescopes from 5:30 to9:30pm for the 21 nights of the DBG Lumi-naria.

Dec 15: Free Telescope Workshop atPVCC main campus, 32nd Street andUnion Hills Rd - 7pm to 10pm. RSVP isrequired with Terri [email protected] is limited. When you RSVP, pleaseleave your first name, and the make andmodel of your telescope and bring it withyour accessories to this event. We meet inG-147 near the telescope dome on campus.We have no telescopes for sale at this event.This event is weather permitting. More de-tails:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php

?do=getinfo&e=2013&day=2016-1215&c=1

Dec 16, 17, 18: PAS will be at theDesert Botanical Garden showing the nightsky through our telescopes from 5:30 to9:30pm for the 21 nights of the DBG Lumi-naria.

Dec 20, 21, 22, 23: PAS will be at theDesert Botanical Garden showing the nightsky through our telescopes from 5:30 to9:30pm for the 21 nights of the DBG Lumi-naria.

Dec 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31: PAS will beat the Desert Botanical Garden showing thenight sky through our telescopes from 5:30to 9:30pm for the 21 nights of the DBGLuminaria.

December 2016 Upcoming PAS EventsBy Terri Finch, Event Manager

The PAS membership year is from Jan1 to Dec 31. PAS starts collecting for thefollowing year in September. If you haven’trenewed your membership for 2017, youmight want to get that done because afterDec 31 your membership will be terminat-

ed. An email will be going out to those whohaven’t renewed with the membership formattached. If you receive an email, pleaseupdate your membership so you can contin-ue to participate in our events including thePAS Social on Jan 21, the PAS Music Jam

on Mar 4, the PAS Binocular Star Party, thenext Night Sky Training Session, and thePAS Messier Marathon, along with otherfun, private events. Thank you so much forcontinuing to be a wonderful PAS Member.

Membership Dues for 2017are Due by End of Year

By Terri, Event Manager

I have placed an order for Year inSpace calendars which should be deliveredat the December 1st PAS Meeting. If youordered one this year, please see me for

your calendar at the December meeting. Ihope to deliver all of the ordered calendarsprior to the holidays in case you purchasedthem as gifts. Confirm with me where we

will meet to get your calendar to you.Thank you all for your orders.

Year in Space CalendarsBy Terri Finch, Event Manager

December 2016 PAStimes 3

PAS President Sam Insana. Photo by Terri

Determining when to have a star partyor cancel one based on weather conditionsis not an easy matter. We look at 8 or 9weather reports to see what the percentageof cloud cover, percent chance of rain and

what the wind will be like during the hoursof the event. The reports we study are fromNOAA, Accuweather, The Weather Chan-nel, Weather Underground, Skippy Sky,Clear Sky, Weather Bug, “yr.no”, and ClearOutside. If 6 out of 8 or 7 out of 9 reportsshow wind no more than 10 miles per hour,and no more than 10% chance of rain withclouds less than 30% we usually go ahead.If things are a little iffy we then look atradar and satellite photos, barometer read-ings, and wind direction to see if clouds arebeing blown in or out of the viewing area.Also, if there are a lot of high thin clouds,but we are showing bright objects like themoon, planets, double stars or open clus-ters, we would probably go ahead with theviewing, but not if we are only after nebu-lae, galaxies, or globular clusters that

would be washed out. If we have otheractivities like meteorite displays, rocketdisplays, or a lecture on astronomy, wemight risk having the star party with mar-ginal weather, but not if we are only usingtelescopes.

Sometimes it would be easier to justuse the alleged Native American tool of theweather stone, tied with a string to a treebranch. If it is moving, we know there is alot of wind, if it is wet it is raining, if it iswhite it is snowing, if it is hard to see in thedaytime it is cloudy, if it is too hot to touchthe temperature is very high, etc…. Thereis a lot of work analyzing the weather forstar parties. Luckily we get it right at least9 times out of 10.

PRESIDENT’S CORNERBy President Sam Insana

Every December, PAS holds the Year-ly Swap Meet at the December PAS Meet-ing. Setup of your items is at 6:30 when thedoors open. When you walk in, to your leftwill be the Items that are being sold garage-sale style. What that means is that you areputting a price on the items, for which thosewho wish to buy them can make you anoffer. It also generally means that you arewilling to be flexible on the pricing, soprice your items on that side of the room,accordingly.

To your Right will be the items for theswap meet. For this side, we do the pricingas bidding items in a silent-auction style.Bring a piece of paper per item. Put yourfirst name at the top along with your start-ing or minimum bid. Also please include alist of everything that comes with that item.The attendees can then bid on your item.

Attention Bidders: If you are biddingon a swap meet item, put your first name orinitials next to your bid. Highest bid winsthe item. Bidding starts at 6:30pm and goes

to the conclusion of the meeting. Once themeeting has ended, please purchase theitems you have won the bid on.

Attention Buyers: The garage sale sideof the room is first come, first served so youdon’t want to be late to this event.

Please bring plenty of cash for yourpurchases. All sales are paid to the seller.

Below is a list of items that may beseen at the PAS Swap Meet. If you areseeking these items, make sure you attendthis year’s swap meet. This is not an allinclusive list. Prices are not listed in thisarticle. You will have to discover the pricesand sellers when you arrive: Olympus T-Adapter, Meade Autostar Suite (LunarPlanetary Imager and Software), CelestronHandbox, Patrick Moore Practical Astrono-my Book Observing Comets, Pocket SkyAtlas (2 copies), Burnham’s CelestialHandbook (Volumes I – 3), Sky & Tele-scope DVD Hubble – 15 Years of Discov-ery, Sky at Night CDs ,Map the SkySoftware, Classic Episode – 1977, Classic

Episode – 2004, Moon Impact, Apollo 13,September 2005, 5 Essential AstronomyTools, Apollo 10 Special, Apollo 9 Special,Fly the Shuttle, Explore the Galaxy, ClassicEpisode – 1982, X-15, Venus Then andNow, Telescopes, Classic Episode – 1970,Photoplus 8, Galileo: Seeing is Believing,The Ringed Planet, Firefly Moon Observ-er’s Guide, 4.5 in. telescope and caps foryour eyepieces. Some additional items mayalso be available such as astrophotos (pro-ceeds go to PAS).

PAS Yearly December AstronomyEquipment Swap Meet

By Terri, Event Manager

These items were seen at a previous PAS SwapMeet. Come see what Treasure you might findat this years' sale! Photo taken by Terri at Dec

5, 2013 PAS Meeting.

Orion Starblast 6, newtonian reflector on a dobsonian base. It’s new $250.00 firm. Pick up location will be in Scottsdale- 60th Street andThomas Rd. Contact Chris: [email protected].

Scope for Sale:

PAStimes 4 December 2016

Spectroscopy Opportunity: How would you like to contribute to science and learn more about the universe? Well, you can, in one waythat is both simple and not very expensive. A couple meetings ago I tested the waters to see if members might be interested in forming aspecial interest group to investigate spectroscopy but only three individuals expressed an interest. I would like to try again to see if we canget a few more members involved. As a teaser I have included a couple images I recently took from my backyard with a DSLR camera andthe grating I described at the meeting, Star Analyzer 100. The images are straight from the camera with no processing. The only thing doneto the images was cropping. They are not great images for further processing, but they could be easily used for analysis with software, eitherRSpec or VSpec (freeware).

You definitely can see some absorption lines in the Vega shot. The Polaris spectrum is a little too narrow to see without using thesoftware. If you are interested, please send Bill Powell an email ([email protected]). Thank you to those who have already responded.

Spectroscopy SIGBy Bill Powell, PAS Member

Polaris: (ISO 4000, 25 second exposure, f/5/6, 300mm telephoto)

Vega: (ISO 4000, 25 second exposure, f/5.6, 300mm telephoto)

I attended laser light shows at the StarBarn on August 20, 2016 and at Christmasin December 2015. Music for that showwas by Mannheim Steamroller while theAugust one featured Pink Floyd’s “DarkSide of the Moon” which was also themusic played at the first laser light showperformed at the Griffith Planetarium inL.A. in November of 1993. The last twolaser shows I had before the Christmas

show were at the Flandreau Planetariummany years ago. The Christmas music wasslower, so the motion and patterns of thelaser lights were different for each. Thisshow began with a faint dark blue back-ground. As the music started, green dotsslowly moved on the background, followedby fast-moving red and green dots. As themusic picked up the laser lights began toconstantly change colors and form many

different fast and slow moving patternssynchronized to the music. The multitudeof colors are formed by combining, inmany different ways, the primary colorsfrom one blue, ten red and ten green laserlights. I enjoyed the beautiful light andmusic show. If you have never seen a laserlight show this is an excellent one to seeand might be the only laser show left to seein the area.

My first time out to the site was good.A long way, but all highway so it’s not toobad. The site was very dark and I think theseeing was about 3.5 out of 5. When thewind died down I was able to crank up to545x a few times.

Highlights for me last night includingsplitting some challenging uneven magni-tude tight doubles as part of a researchproject (and failing to split some others -

will record that too).Saturn was great, the North America

nebula was clear in binocs, M31, M32 and101 were bright and filled the whole fieldon my lowest power, M27, M11, HelixNebula, M57, and the Veil were spectacu-lar. I verified that planetary nebula areindeed sharper in an O3 filter than a UHC,but for supernova remnants the UHC isbetter. I also had some pleasing views of

galaxies (Sculptor, Pinwheel) that had acomplete waste of time attempting in Phoe-nix. Looking forward to next Antennasouting.

Sam Insana writes: The 3 of us (How-ard Moneta, Mark and I) observed from 7pm until midnight. No clouds, no rain, nowind most of the time, good seeing, greattransparency.

Observing at Antennas Site Sept 4By Mark Johnston

bring several types of meteorites for exam-ination, as well as some for sale. She willdiscuss a myriad of meteorite related top-ics, from the basics regarding types of me-teorites, to how to recognize a meteorite, to

where they originate from and more.”Terri adds: Bring a friend and a snack

to share while you enjoy this marvelousGuest Speaker. Doors open 7:00 pm withsocializing to 7:30 when the meeting will

begin. We are in room LS-205 at PVCCMain Campus. Bottled water will be pro-vided by the PAS Snack Fund for which,your small donation is very helpful in sup-porting. See you there!

Star Barn Laser Light ShowsBy Paul Facuna

December MeetingContinued from Page 1

December 2016 PAStimes 5

Attending this private event were: Wil-liam and Terri Finch, Don Boyd, Sam Insa-na, George Sabo, Alex Vrenios, PeterTurner, Paul Facuna, Earl DeLong, RodneyFong, Eric Steinberg, Howard Moneta,Mike Marron, host of the party and RonWalker our newest PAS Member. Ora Kur-land also stopped in briefly.

We started the evening with a goodpotluck at 5:00 pm, followed by telescopesetup at 6:30. The event went to about11:00 pm when many of the observerspacked it in for the night and left. A few ofus stuck around around until 1:30 am afterhaving a nice visit with Mike.

We had a nice collection of attendingscopes. There were two 8” scopes, a 5”,9.25”, 10”, 12”, Eric’s 22” and Howard’s14”. That made for a great event both forlearning and viewing.

The night started with everyone gettingtheir scopes aligned after which we collec-tively found Venus, Saturn, Mars beforemoving on to other night sky objects.

This event was Eric’s first event sincehis back surgery. We were all so glad hecould attend and bring his scope. I wasimpressed at how well he managed thescope. It was a great evening for viewingwith comfortable temperatures and clearskies for most of the night.

I wish to thank Eric for a most Fantas-tic Night Sky Tour! That was really impres-sive. Everytime he does his Night SkyTour, I learn more from him. I also wish toalso thank Alex for doing an indoor demo /

discussion on filters for telescopes includ-ing how they work, what they do, howmuch they may cost and where to get them.Because even more people were interested,Alex went through it a second time (Istayed around for both presentations). Alexdid a great job.

Thanks everyone who brought foodand to Mike for hosting the event. The nextNSTS is scheduled to be on Saturday, Mar18, 2017. If you missed this event, sign upfor the next one. We learned so much at thisevent and we have more to share!

Night Sky Training Session Oct 1By Terri, Event Manager

It was a wonderful potluck and it was enjoyedby all. At this dinner table is Sam with his back

to us, William to the left, Rodney and Donaround the back, and Sam on the right of the

table. Photo by Terri Finch.

After dinner, the attending telescope ownerswent out to the observing area behind Mike'shouse and set up their scopes. Pete, Earl andDon are seen setting up their scopes in this

photo. Photo by Terri.

Terri writes: Attending this lecture atPVCC were Kevin Harcey, Kevin Gray,Rodney Fong, Sam Insana, Mary Raseley,Mary Serpa, Ron Walker, Paul Facuna,William and Terri Finch (recording thelecture), a few astronomy students and ofcourse, Mike Marron.

The lecture began at 7:30pm and con-cluded around 9pm. In his lecture, Mikecovered the various possibilities of the de-mise of the Earth from objects in deepspace or near Earth flybys. This was one of

my favorite lectures. Many thanks to Mikefor presenting it and allowing us to recordit. I wish to thank everyone who providedsnacks and donated to the snack fund(which provided the water). Thanks also toSam for the popcorn, it must have been“Ninja” popcorn, as it ‘disappeared quicklywithout a trace.’

We hope to see everyone at the nextmeeting.

Ron Walker writes: Mike’s lecturewas Astounding!

Upcoming Astronomical Disasters Oct 6By Terri, Event Manager & Various Attendees

Mike Marron was the guest speaker for the eve-ning and he did a fantastic presentation of“Upcoming Astronomical Disasters” He hadthe audience on the edge of their chairs listen-

ing to his every word. Photo by Don.

Alex Vrenios did a fantastic presenation twiceon using filters on eyepieces. Photo by Sam In-

sana.

Eric Steinberg was at the NSTS and did a won-derful Night Sky Tour. We were all fascinated

and interested. Photo by Sam.

PAStimes 6 December 2016

On September 8, PAS held a telescopeworkshop at PVCC room G147 at PVCCMain Campus. Kevin Witts and Don Boydhelped new customers Kayla Anderson andher mother Liza Childers with a brand new5 inch newtonian reflector with an equato-rial mount. Kevin and Don took it out of thebox, assembled it and then went outside toshow our customers how to use their newtelescope. I also handed out PAS docu-ments on objects to view with differentsized telescopes, a document highlightingPAS activities and a membership applica-tion. I also showed them how to use aplanisphere and sky atlas.

Howard Moneta showed Hugh andTerri Clark how to use their new 8 inchDobsonian telescope and highlighted theadvantages of getting a Telrad finder scope.Another customer, Emily Yazzie was inter-ested in buying a new telescope. I wentthrough the different types of telescopes asshown on our PAS document entitled Se-lecting a Telescope- the Basics. I answeredher questions and gave her our telescopeobjects list along with a PAS documentshowing our club activities and a member-ship form. She will try to attend our big starparty at PVCC Blk Mtn to look through avariety of scopes. Alex Vrenios also helpedeveryone with his sage advice and sense ofhumor. Rodney Fong helped carry equip-ment to and from the observation deck andhelped guard the equipment when peoplewere going in and out of the building.

When we went outside, Hugh and Terriobserved the Moon and Saturn, as did Lizaand Kayla.

I also showed the Moon and Saturnwith my 8 inch newtonian reflector andthen showed Albireo, the blue and golddouble star. It was a cloudless night andeveryone had a great time.

Terri and William Finch couldn't make

this event due to caring for their very sickcat.

Alex writes: Hugh and his wife, newmembers, brought their 8" Dob along tothis workshop because they were havingtrouble aiming at an object and then stayingon it long enough to observe it to theirsatisfaction. Their Dob was new and itcame with two eyepieces, neither of whichwas of very high quality. The mountseemed to have sticking points, making itdifficult to adjust without losing sight of anobject. We made some adjustments to themount and suggested a higher quality, low-er power eyepiece to initially sight an ob-ject, and maybe a Telrad viewfinder tomake the whole process easier.

A high school student and her motherbrought along a new telescope, a 5" Newto-nian gift from her uncle. She was interestedin space science and wanted to pursue acareer with an organization like NASA. Allof these visitors seemed quite pleased, andwere grateful that we took the time to helpout people like them.

PVCC Telescope Workshop Sept 8By President Sam Insana

PVCC Telescope Workshop of Sept 8, 2016. (Lto R) We see Kevin, Alex, 2 lovely ladies & Sam

having a great time at this event. This phototaken by Don Boyd.

(L to R) Alex, Don & Kevin assist the two galswith their telescope at this workshop. Photo by

Sam Insana.

2 attendees enjoy a view through a telescope onthe Observing Deck at PVCC Main Campusduring this Telescope Workshop. Photo by

Sam.

(L to R) Kevin, Rodney & Don aligning the galstelescope Photo by Sam.

Alex looking through Sam's scope which is setup on the Observing Deck at PVCC Main Cam-pus during the Telescope Workshop. Photo by

Sam.

MEADE 12” 10/200 and Accessories,eyepieces and filters. MEADE 12 “ 10/200(L x 200 f/ 10) Excellent condition inoriginal shipping box. And followingitems: Astro Pier – LeSueur Mfg, Mead#1812 DC Adaptor, Outdoor cover for tele-scope., Meade Pictor CCD Autoguider,Meade Pictor 201XT Autoguider, Case foreyepieces and filters., And following items:Meade Super Plossl 25 mm multicoated,

Meade Super Plossl 9.7 mm multicoated,Meade Super Plossl 40 mm multicoated,Meade Ultrawide Angle 6.7 multicoated,Meade Super Plossl 5.5 mm multicoated,Celestron Reducer/Corrector-f/6.3, MeadeIlluminated Reticle MA 12 mm, TeleVue2x Barlow, Filters:, Meade Series 4000Filter ND96 (0.9), Meade Series 4000 Filter# 80A, Meade Series 4000 Filter # 23A,Meade Series 4000 Filter #12, Meade Se-

ries 4000 Filter #58, Lumicon UHC filterSeller prefers to sell all items as one.

Selling price is negotiable. Have manualsand original shipping box for telescope.Have original purchase receipt for tele-scope $4,584.94. Seller lives in Sun CityWest, AZ. Contact Cindy at 920-737-7018or Email [email protected].

Telescope For Sale:

December 2016 PAStimes 7

Mike Marron and I had about 80 cubscouts and parents at tonight's event. Afterthey covered some administrative details,Mike took the stage and gave an introducto-ry astronomy presentation. While he wasdoing that, I set up in the back playgroundwith my 140mm refractor. The venue wasin downtown Phoenix and there were someobstructions, but I was able to show Saturn,Mars, Uranus (a special request) and Albir-eo. The kids were very impressed withSaturn, as usual. I also pointed out constel-lations and sky info with my green laserwhich the kids enjoyed. Mike kept a steadygroup entertained with his meteorites at atable nearby. We ended just after 8PM andour hosts were very happy with the supportPAS provided.

Amy Bowles writes: The presentationwas nice, but the kids really enjoyed thehands-on stuff - seeing the planets in thetelescope and looking at the meteorites withthe microscopes. It was so cool and bothparents and kids learned A LOT!

Terri, Event Manager writes: Manythanks to Amy for having PAS at her Scoutevent!

Scout Star Party at St. Thomas the Apostle Oct 3By Mark Johnston

Mike Marron, entertaining the scouts with hismeteorites & stories. Photo by Mark Johnston.

A young scout looking through Mark's scope atthis Scout star party in Phoenix. Photo by

Mark.The Scout Meeting on Oct 3. Photo by Mark.

The Asteroid 451 Patientia occultedthe star TYC 6978-00853-1 just after 11 pmon the night of Oct 4, 2016. Paul Maley ledthe group of Don Boyd, Paul Facuna andSam Insana who timed and recorded theevent.

Each PAS member was given an 80mm Orion refractor telescope, a small plas-tic tripod, a telescope camera, a video cam-corder, GPS, and a battery pack. We all metin the desert just West of Buckeye at 6 pm.After a 30 minute training session, the oc-cultation squad spread out to various loca-tions about 20 miles apart heading southalong Highway 85. Each member was tomake sure the equipment remained set upfacing the exact direction needed to thesouth, then use a timer and alarm to start theprocedure at 11:05 pm: carefully plug inthe battery pack, turn on the camcorder andthen at 11:09 hit the stop button. It seemedsimple enough, but as tired observers in thedark, we had to be careful to do everythingjust right and not disturb the aiming of thetelescope which rested on a less than sturdysmall plastic tripod.

Two days after the event, Paul Maleyreviewed Sam's recording and while it didrecord stars at the correct time, it just wasn'tthe correct star. The tripod must havemoved slightly during the night. Since therewas no finder scope, there was no way totell it had moved until the recording wasreviewed after the fact. Paul Maley said hehas had this happen a few times because ofthe cheap tripod. Don had a mess of wires

covering his camcorder start button so hehad to be extra careful not to move theequipment while turning everything on. Hedid well, and his recording was good.

Shortly after the equipment was set upat Paul Facuna’s site and Paul Maley left,Paul heard some faint noises like someonewalking on gravel. He checked around hissite and saw nothing. Later after he foundout what happened at Paul M.’s first site herealized that he had scared away some ani-mal that might have tipped over the tele-scope. Paul brought his planisphere andbinoculars so he could observe and learn tonavigate the night sky while waiting. Thenight sky at his site was darker than theNSTS sky at Mike’s, so he found and iden-tified Polaris, Deneb, Vega, Altair, possiblyM55, maybe Alnair alpha and beta, thelegs, head and great square of Pegasus andmore of the Milky Way. Paul also hadsome wires covering his camcorder, but hisrecording was good.

Paul Maley was stopped by MilitaryPolice and delayed an hour because he wastrying to set up near the Goldwater Gun-nery Range. Imagine explaining that theweird looking equipment was totally inno-cent. Paul was also stopped and his vehiclesearched by Immigration Border Patrol.Finally, a wild animal knocked over hissetup and chewed up the wires. Paul there-fore had to rush through setting up anothersite, but his recording was good. Therefore3 of the 4 recordings went well. Otherpeople in North America did similar occul-

tation timings of this event. Ted Blanktimed the occultation in Acworth Georgiaand Rick Hill, who gave a presentation toPAS on near earth objects, and DoloresHill, who gave a presentation to PAS on theOSIRIS-Rex project, did a visual timing inTucson.

The data, when put together and ana-lyzed, should help determine the size andshape of the asteroid, it's rotation, it's speed,if it has moons, and if the star has a binarycompanion, a citizen science project wellworth the effort.

The Camelopardalis meteor showerwas in progress that night so we had anextra treat. I am very proud of Don Boydand Paul Facuna and Paul Maley for theirdedication and I hope other PAS memberswill participate in occultation timing eventsin the future.

PAS Occultation Citizen Project Oct 4By President Sam Insana

The Citizen Occultation Project of Oct 4th had(L to R) Paul Facuna, Don Boyd, Paul Maley,and Sam Insana (not in this photo) attendingand doing the project. Photo provided by Sam.

PAStimes 8 December 2016

Archway North School is one of myfavorite school star parties. The kids, adultsand teachers at that school, all want to learnmore about astronomy. They ask reallyawesome questions, pay attention when wetell them what’s in the telescope, and reallyseem to enjoy the event, every time we doit.

On Oct 4, I changed how I normally doQ&A with the kids. What I did was I had 2ways they could get a prize from me. I cameup with a 3rd way and then I got swampedwith more kids doing it, so I stopped offer-ing that option. The option that I gotswamped with was that I asked one of thekids to go over and get me a red glowingbracelet in trade for a prize. They did that,passed the word around and before I knewit had a bunch of kids coming over to giveme red bracelets. I only meant for one childto do it, but word spread. So I awarded allwho brought me a red bracelet and then toldthem no more, after I had 3 bracelets inhand.

These ideas were very successful. I had2 other ways I gave prizes at this event: 1)answer a question. I started with, did youlook through all the telescopes. If they saidNO, I sent them to look through the tele-scopes first and asked them to come back.And I sent them on a mission to find outwhat the name of the object was and 1interesting fact they learned about it, thatthey didn't already know. 2) If they lookedthrough the telescope, we had a conversa-tion about what they saw, maybe they de-scribed what they saw in the telescope ifthey were younger... and if they were older,they needed to tell me a fact about theobject that they learned that night... thatthey didn't already know. The idea behindwhat I do for Q&A is to make them think. Ionly had that one girl who said she didn'tknow anything and I convinced her she did,and asked her to tell me anything she knewabout any of the objects she viewed in thetelescopes that night, and it didn't have tobe a new fact, but it had to do with what wewere viewing: Moon, Venus, Mars, Saturn.She finally did and I gave her a prize.

The kids wiped me out of red light keychains, binoculars, and Saturn pictures. Iwill have to replenish my supply for thenext school I attend. I think I gave away atleast 100 prizes that night.

It was so much fun!Attending this event from the PAS-

times Star Tours team was Kevin Wittswith his 8” scope, Roger Anzini with his16” scope, Bruce Wurst with his 14” scopeand Mike Marron with his meteorites. Dueto one scope dropping from this event lastminute, William Finch filled in with his 10”scope and I did Q&A & handouts with thekids all night. I wish to thank my awesometelescope Team!

I would estimate 200+ in attendance atthis school. The attendees definitely kept usbusy the whole time we were there.

Kevin writes: At archway last night, Iwas able to show Saturn, Mars, closeups ofthe Moon, M-31 and NGC 457. The stu-dents were very polite and interested inwhat I was showing. Many parents werealso excited to see views of Saturn and theMoon. There were a few kids who asked forsome unique things about each object sothat they could report back to Terri on whatthey saw. It was a very well organizedevent and well attended.

Roger writes: Archway School StarShow on October 4: Just after Sundownstudents and their parents began settingchairs and blankets down on the South lawnobserving area. Still daylight, anxious stu-dents went from scope to scope asking whatcould be seen. Kevin was first to presenteveryone with a telescopic view, he showeda fine look at Saturn shortly after the Sunhad slipped past the western hills.

The first object to tease the unaidedeye was the slender waxing Moon, so Wil-liam and I trained our scopes in that direc-tion. No sooner had I pointed my DOB onLuna's craters, parents and students werequick to gather, rewarding me with Woo's,Ahaa's and thank you smiles. As darknessbegan to gather Saturn became another in-teresting target. Even in city skies Casinidivided the rings sharp and clear, and toeveryone's delight, three of Saturn's moonsclustered close to the rings with a fourthmoon above. The line of folks seekingSaturn seemingly refreshed moment bymoment, keeping the scope transfixed forover an hour on the ringed planet.

Around about eight o'clock a younglady requested a look at Mars in the eye-piece, so I hand guided the 16 inch in thatdirection. The orange ball was interesting

for most but no match for the jewel of thesolar system we had been eyeing for thebetter part of the evening. My hopes ofshowing M13 were dashed, as the greatsquare of Hercules was too elusive to locatein the city sky.

I hope the hundreds who gatheredaround our scopes enjoyed the evening asmuch as I did. I showed these items atarchway. Venus, mars, Saturn, m103, m57,m31, Caldwell13, moon. I think that wasall.

Bruce writes: I was able to show Sat-urn, M103 and M57 on this evening. Theline was so long, I didn’t have a chance tochange objects that many times in the night.

William writes: I was showing Saturnwhen the street light got in the way, so Imoved my scope to Mars for a little while.Then, the street light got in the way again.E.T was the other object I was able to showin my telescope. The evening was so busy,I didn’t have time to hunt for any otherobjects.

Archway North School Star Party Oct 4By Terri Finch, Event Manager

In this photo, we start at William's scope andwe go to the PAS Table and to Bruce's scope.

There was a food truck at this event. And Mikewas set up across the field from us under a

light. Photo by Terri.

Archway North school star party is a very wellattended event. Looking out over William's

scope, we have Roger's scope and then Kevin'sscope. Photo by Terri Finch

December 2016 PAStimes 9

This is a fun event William Finch,Bruce Wurst, Mike Marron and I do on aregular basis for the Desert Botanical Gar-dens. Because DBG wants specific thingsat this event, we have devised a great pre-sentation and plan for the attendees of thisclass.

This time around, the class had 22DBG Patrons in attendance. The telescopeteam, listed above, arrived for set up about6pm, however, the electric carts didn’t getto pick us up until closer to 6:30, whichlimited set up time. But, we got set up andthen 3 of us ran indoors to do our presenta-tions, which is the opening of the eveningfor the class. Mike, William and I go in-doors while Bruce makes sure the threetelescopes are set up on an object, or sever-al objects. For this event, I had asked Bruceto put all three telescopes on Saturn, whichdidn’t work as planned, but he did that forme.

Indoors, at 7pm, at the start of thisclass, Our DBG class liaison, Joan wasthere to open the night and welcome theattendees to the Adult Education Class.Then she turned it over to me… I thenintroduced myself and the telescope teamfor the night. I then gave the floor to Wil-liam who went over How TelescopesWork. After about 8 minutes, William in-troduced me and I showed everyone how touse a Star Chart, and we talked about whatobjects are in the night sky, plus I went overwhat telescopes the class would be viewingthrough that night. We also talked about

eyes becoming dark adapted. Then, afterabout 10 minutes, I introduced Mike to doa brief presentation on Astronomy 101.

While Mike did his presentation, Wil-liam stayed indoors with him so that hecould help with the A/V and make sureMike took his USB drive after the talk, andI went outdoors to help Bruce be ready forthe crowd to arrive.

The plan was to have all 3 scopes onSaturn, but a tree got in the way of onescope, so we had 2 scopes on Saturn and theidea was to have the attendees compare theview of Saturn between the scopes, to showwhy size matters. After we showed Saturn,we moved to various other objects likeVenus before it set, the Ring Nebula, ETOpen Cluster, Andromeda, Alcor and Miz-ar, Perseus Double Cluster and a few more.

This time at DBG, for this class, we setup behind the Classroom building and itwas darker, nicer, closer for the patrons toget to, plus the bathrooms were near by,and the view was much better. Plus, DBGwas able to turn off some of the outdoorlighting, which was very nice for this event.

The evening continued with great tem-peratures, a slight breeze now and then, andvery intrigued attendees. The class ended at9pm and by then, only one couple was lefttalking to Mike at his meteorite table. Thethree scopes started to pack up and thecouple left. Joan stuck around for a bitwhile we packed up and talked about howmuch better this location was and how we

want to do this event again at this location.Then she left us and the carts came to takeus to our vehicles. This was definitely a fun,successful event. We had great commentsfrom the attending class members. I wish tothank Angelica and Joan for having us atthis fun event and we look forward to beingyour telescope team again. Thanks to ourDBG volunteer helper, Wendy. And thanksto Michael, the electric cart driver who isvery patient when we are loading and un-loading his electric cart with our equip-ment. Michael was at DBG as our electriccart driver for the 2015 DBG Luminariaevents, too.

Bruce writes: The objects I showedthis night were Saturn, M103 and M57.

William writes: I was able to show theMoon, Mars, Saturn and ET this night.

Here are some of the class participants’evaluations of this night’s event:

Angelica Elliott, DBG Program De-velopment Manager writes: I wanted toshare with you the student evaluation forthe Astronomy at the Garden in October.Kudos to a job well done – thank you to youand your staff for providing a great pro-gram. The students provide feedback:

The 3 telescopes were amazing! I ap-preciated the time and effort that everyoneput into this class. Very good job done byall!

All instructors were friendly andknowledgeable. The actual stargazing wasgreat fun.

DBG Adult Education Class Oct 7By Terri, Event Manager

Q1: December 7

New: November 29

Sunrise: 07:52Sunset: 17:22

December 15 2015

Full: December 13

Q3: December 20

PAS is Incorporated in the state of Arizona as a 501( c)3 organization. Our newsletter PAStimes ispublished monthly from September to May, and is distributed via the Internet. All issues are availableon our Website www.pasaz.org . Ads for astronomy equipment are provided as a courtesy to buyers andsellers and do not constitute any endorsement by PAS or PAStimes. All photos by Don Boyd unlessotherwise noted. All articles and photos are copyright their respective authors or PAStimes.

What’s Up For December?By Rod Sutter,

PlanetsName Date Rise SetMercury 12-15-16 08:56 18:54Venus 12-15-16 10:31 19:44Mars 12-15-16 11:22 22:13Jupiter 12-15-16 02:17 14:47Saturn 12-15-16 07:02 17:04Uranus 12-15-15 13:43 02:30Neptune 12-15-16 11:55 11:11Pluto 12-15-16 08:57 19:02

All Times Arizona TimeBolded dates and times are nighttime objects

PAStimes 10 December 2016

Oct 8 was International Observe theMoon Night and National Astronomy Dayfor which PAS held an event at RoadrunnerPark in Phoenix. Though we had nineRSVP’s from PAS, four were unable toattend. Sam Insana and Earl DeLong set uptheir telescopes while William and TerriFinch managed the PAS Table with hand-outs. Mike Marron set up next to the PAStable with his meteorites, drawing a goodcrowd right to the end of the event. Alsoattending and helping at this event wereRodney Fong, Paul Facula, and Frank Insa-na.

Radna Kairav attended this event - shehad come to previous Roadrunner Parkevents we had and this time she became anew PAS Member. Welcome Radna! Shealso brought five other people with her tothis event. I had quite a few public RSVP’swho either didn’t check in with me at thetable or who didn’t come to the event.Earlier in the day there were clouds andstrong breezes, so this may have convincedpeople not to attend.

A special attendee, our chiropractor,Dr. Peter Darvas attended with his family.His daughter, Tova took some amazingphotos through Sam’s telescope and I askedhim to send them over so we could includethem in the newsletter. Thank you Dr. Peterand Tova!!!

Earl writes: PAS was at RoadrunnerPark for Observe the Moon night. It was anice but very light polluted evening. Lightsfrom the sand volleyball court were a realnuisance but I was still able to show Albir-eo, Almach, M31, M15, M13 and M57. Ialso met many nice interested people,though the crowd was small.

President Sam writes: At RoadrunnerPark, Oct 8th, PAS celebrated InternationalObserve the Moon, and Astronomy Day.Earl and Sam had their telescopes availablefor viewing and over 50 people showed upto view the Moon, Saturn, Venus, An-dromeda Galaxy, Alberio, M57 (Ring Neb-ula) and many other delights. One younggirl, Tova, used her iPad to take beautifulphotos of the Moon and Alberio. She hadthe steadiest hands I have ever witnessed. Itwas too bad, but 4 PAS members bailed outof the star party. Afterwards, 5 PAS mem-bers went to the nearest IHOP. The foodwas great and we had a lot of laughs.

Roadrunner Park Public Star Party Oct 8By Terri Finch, Event Manager

William Finch took this photo with his nightcamera for Howard to post to Meetup. In thisphoto, we can see Mike at his table with his

meteorites and on the right is the PAS Table litup by flashing triangle lights.

Frank, Mike and Rodney (in black & white shirt) look at and talk about meteorites with the 2 gen-tlement from the public. This photos was taken at the Astronomy Day event at Roadrunner Park

on Oct 8 by Sam Insana.

At Sam's scope, we have Janet and her daugh-ter Tova viewing and Tova taking photos

through the scope on her Ipad. Photo providedby Sam Insana.

This photo was taken by Tova Darvas throughher Ipad and through Sam's scope. Photo wasprovided to me by her dad, Dr. Peter Darvas.

This event was awesome. Here's a 2nd beauti-ful image of the moon taken by Tova and pro-

vided to me by her dad, Dr. Peter Darvas.

December 2016 PAStimes 11

Boasting intricate patterns and translu-cent colors, planetary nebulae are amongthe most beautiful sights in the universe.How they got their shapes is complicated,but astronomers think they've solved part ofthe mystery—with giant blobs of plasmashooting through space at half a millionmiles per hour.

Planetary nebulae are shells of gas anddust blown off from a dying, giant star.Most nebulae aren't spherical, but can havemultiple lobes extending from oppositesides—possibly generated by powerful jetserupting from the star.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope,astronomers discovered blobs of plasmathat could form some of these lobes. "We'requite excited about this," says RaghvendraSahai, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propul-sion Laboratory. "Nobody has really beenable to come up with a good argument forwhy we have multipolar nebulae."

Sahai and his team discovered blobslaunching from a red giant star 1,200 light

years away, called V Hydrae. The plasma is17,000 degrees Fahrenheit and spans 40astronomical units—roughly the distancebetween the sun and Pluto. The blobs don'terupt continuously, but once every 8.5years.

The launching pad of these blobs, theresearchers propose, is a smaller, unseenstar orbiting V Hydrae. The highly ellipti-cal orbit brings the companion star throughthe outer layers of the red giant at closestapproach. The companion's gravity pullsplasma from the red giant. The materialsettles into a disk as it spirals into the com-panion star, whose magnetic field channelsthe plasma out from its poles, hurling it intospace. This happens once per orbit—every8.5 years—at closest approach.

When the red giant exhausts its fuel, itwill shrink and get very hot, producingultraviolet radiation that will excite theshell of gas blown off from it in the past.This shell, with cavities carved in it by thecannon-balls that continue to be launched

every 8.5 years, will thus become visible asa beautiful bipolar or multipolar planetarynebula.

The astronomers also discovered thatthe companion's disk appears to wobble,flinging the cannonballs in one directionduring one orbit, and a slightly differentone in the next. As a result, every otherorbit, the flying blobs block starlight fromthe red giant, which explains why V Hydraedims every 17 years. For decades, amateurastronomers have been monitoring thisvariability, making V Hydrae one of themost well-studied stars.

Because the star fires plasma in thesame few directions repeatedly, the blobswould create multiple lobes in the nebula—and a pretty sight for future astronomers.

If you’d like to teach kids about howour sun compares to other stars, please visitthe NASA Space Place:http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/suncompare/en/

Dimming stars, erupting plasma,and beautiful nebulae

By Marcus Woo

his four-panel graphic illustrates how the binary-star system V Hydrae is launching balls of plasma intospace. Image credit: NASA/ESA/STScI

PAStimes 12 December 2016

Map of PVCC Main Location18401 N. 32nd Street | Phoenix, AZ 85032

Map of PVCC Black Mountain34250 N. 60th Street | Scottsdale, AZ 85266

December 2016

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1PAS Meeting

2DBG Lumi

3DBG Lumi

4DBG Lumi

5 6 7 8School Star Party(Private)

9DBG Lumi

10DBG Lumi

11DBG Lumi

12 13 14Geminids MeteorShower Peak

15Free TelescopeWorkshop

16DBG Lumi

17DBG Lumi

18DBG Lumi

19 20DBG Lumi

21DBG Lumi

22DBG Lumi

23DBG Lumi

24

25Christmas Day

26DBG LumiBoxing Day

27DBG Lumi

28DBG Lumi

29DBG Lumi

30DBG Lumi

31DBG Lumi

2017 PAS GUEST SPEAKERLINE-UP

By Terri Finch, Event Manager, [email protected] Meetings are held on Thursdays in Room LS-205 unlessotherwise noted. Do you have an idea for a guest speaker? EmailTerri the details. Here are the scheduled guest speakers at PAS:http://www.pasaz.org/index.php?pageid=meetingsJan 19: Lauren Edgar PhD “Recent Results from the Mars Sci-ence Laboratory Curiosity Rover Mission”Feb 2: Alex Vrenios “Radio Astronomy”Mar 2: Andy Odell “Stellar Evolution”