-Reviewers Wanted -Leonids: Storm of the Century Part 2 · -Reviewers Wanted -Leonids: Storm of the Century -Zodiacal Light From Africa -Part 2 ofj iflie RoX~I;

- Reviewers Wanted - Leonids: Storm of the Century

- Zodiacal Light From Africa - Part 2

ofj iflie RoX~I ;<Astronomical Society of Canada Centt e\<'< December 2001

, ,~

December 2001 Editor - Sherry MacLeod Distribution - Forest Littke CONTENTS President's Message - by Richard Vanderberg ... .... .... .. ...... .. ........ ... .. .... .................. ... .. ......... ...... 3 Registration for the 2002 George Moores' Astronomy Workshop ........ ... .... .... ...... ... ......... .... 3 Reviewers Wanted - by Harris Christian ..... .... ... ... ....... .... .... ..... ... .... .. ....... ..... ... ....... .... ..... ...... .... 4 Zodiacal Light From Africa - Part 2 - by Alister Ling .... .... ..... .. ... ....... .. ..... ... ........... ... .. ..... ...... 5 National October Council Meeting - by Franklin Loehde .. .. .... ....... .... .. .. .. .. .. ..... .... .. ... ..... ..... . 6-7 Map To The Edmonton Dark Sky Observing Site .......... ... .. .... .... ... ........ ... ....... ..... ..... ....... .. .. .. 7 Blackfoot Lions - by Bruce McCurdy ..... ... ....... ... .... ............ .......... .... .. ..... ..... .......... .. .... ... ..... 8-10 Live Leonids - by Leonid Watchers ... ...... ... ..... ...... .... .. ... .... .. ... .... ......... .... ...... ..... .. ..... ... .... ...... .. 11 Sky & Telescope and Astronomy Magazine Subscriptions .... .. ....... ... ......... ........ .. .. ... .... ... ... ... 12 Casino Volunteers Needed - by Franklin Loehde ..... ...... ..... .... ... .. ... ....... .......... ........ ... ... .. .... .. .. 12 RASC Council Nominations for 2002 ... .... ..... .. .. .. ... .. ........ ....... ........ .. ... ... ........ ... .... .. ..... ... .... .. 13 Planet Report - by Murray Paulson ...... ... .. .. ...... .. ....... ............ ...... ... ...... ... ..... ... ...... .. ... .. ....... 14-15

Address for Stardust Articles may be submjtted prior to the deadline

bye-mail to: [email protected] or by mail to: 333 Southridge N.W.,

Edmonton, Alberta, T6H 4M9. The phone number is: (780) 433-1516.

On the

JAl\JUARY submit your articles for the

January issue of Stardust by the due date of December 30, 2001.

Thank you.

Stardust Page 2 ~L\ "

Presloent's By Richard Vanderberg

Nexl monlh, our January meeling, i our annual general meeting. That means that it is elec tion time. Any member i eligible to hold an ofli ce in

our Centre. A s has been the custom, our Nominating Com­millee has mel and prepared it recommendation . The members of the commillee are dictated in part by our Con titution. They arc: Pres ident, Vice-Pre ident and the Pa I Pre. idenl. The committee also had one vo lunteer member Sherry M acLeod. The resull are printed on page I ~ of Ihi i 'sue of Stardllst. II is important to note that Ihe uggeslions of the Nominaling Commillee arc purely recommendations. Nominalion may be made from the fl oor during the eleclion proces .

Generally peaking. the work of the Nominaling Com­millee went without 100 much dilTiculty. A lllhe indi vidu­al nominated have been contacted and have agreed to erve. There was one difficulty however. That difTiculty

deal wilh the Chairperson of Ihe ELPAC, the Light Pol­IUlion A batement Commillee. The current chairman i unable 10 allend any meeling because of other commit-

Registratiol1 for the 2002

George Moores' Astr0110m~ workshop

We are proud to announce Ihal Ihe George M oores' Astronomy Workshop

will be held

April 5th to 7th, 2002 at St. John's School

of Alberta. Our Guest Speaker

will be Ivan Semeniuk.

menl . T his issue was di cussed allength al the la t Coun­cil meeling. It was dec idedlhallhe i. sue of light pollu­lion is an important issue and that we need the commil­Icc and an aC li ve chairperson. Therefore, that posilion currenll y remain unfilled. If you w ish 10 lake on Ihal responsibility, please conlact me.

Al so, don' t forget to sign up 10 be a vo lunteer for our nex t casino. We slill need vo lunteers and thi is the la I month to get the required names. It · ea. y and il' fun . Al so it provides us with Ihe money to buy alllhe goodie Ihal member seem 10 want.

Lastl y, nex t month is a member ' meeting. If you have pictures to show. a new tele cope 10 demon trate, or any­Ihing that mighl be of interest to us, here is you chance. Simply ca ll me and 1"1 1 put you on the program, it 's your organisation too.

Have a pleasant holiday season with lots of good food and clear kie.

Registration form arc available aL every meeting from now unlil M arch. 2002. If you arc inlere Ling in allend­ing bu t cannot make il 10 a meel ing, regislralion forms can be mai led oul to you. Phone eilher Donna-Lee May al (780) 9 1 ~-278S or Sherry M acLeod al (780) 4~~- I S I 6 .

Fees arc $SS.OO/person youlh rale, 6S.00/person (adull ) if regislralion is compleled before February 28 , 2002, $7S .00/person (adult ) from M arch I - IS, 2002. Completed

Reviewers WanteD ...

By Harris Christian

He llo thrill seekers. Tired of the humdrum ? Look ing for Mr. Goodbook? Then SlOp. JUSI look no darn farther. Have we got a deal for you. II 's ...

The Latest Donated Books from Cambridge Univers ity Pres:

REVIEWS REQUI RED!

Astroll OI1l Y alld Earth Sciellce - Tho mpson - 200 I -aperbac k - 237 pages - [SBN 0-52 1-80537-6

Cambridge Dictiollarv of Space TecllllOlogv- Wi lliam on - 200 I - hardcover - 464 pages - ISBN 0-52 1-66077-7

Color and Light in Nature (Second Editioll) - Lynch and Livingston - 200 I - paperbac k 277 pages - ISBN 0-52 1-77504-3

Extreme Stars: At the Edge of Creation - Kaler - 200 I -hardcover 236 pages - ISBN 0-52 1-40262-X

New Cosmic HoriZOll s: Space Astrollomv from the V2 to the Hubble Space Telescope - Leverington - 2000 - pa­perbac k - 505 page - ISBN 0-521-65833 - 0

Our Un iverse: Th e Thrill of Extragalactic Exploration As Told bv Leadillg Experts - Stern - 200 I - paperbac k -152 pages - ISB N 0-52 1-78907-9

Supem ovae alld Camma-Rav Bursts: The greatest explo­siolls sillce the Big Bang - Ed ited by Livio, Panag ia & Sahu - 2000 - hardcover - 376 pages - ISBN 0-52 1-7914 1-3

rf you are in terested in contributing some of your time by completing a book rev iew, kind ly contact:

Harris Christian at (780) 461-4933 or bye-mail harrihkarri @home.com

rf you would pre fer to rev iew a differe nt book, we still havc approx imately fif'l een ( 15) othcr book requiring a rev iew to sali s fy Ihe donalion requirme nl by Cambridge

Univers ity Press. \ I ~ 'i Thank you.

RAse Observers 2002 Calendars The sale price is $1 0.00

This is a beautiful calendar with high quality photographs, and plenty of information

to help you plan your observing sessions.

(Retails @ $15.95 members $17.95 non-members).

Get yours before they are all gone!

For your copy of this upcoming rs calendar see:

Stardust Page 4 "~!4r

ZODiacal Ligbt From A/rica - Part 2.

By Alister Ling

The dust-laden sky cast · its co lours upon us. Oeep­orange to red sun 'ets are foll owed by equall y glo ri ou unri es with each very spin of our wonder­

ful blue planet. High above our lillie island in Z imbabwe's lake Kariba, interplanetary dust light up the sky the way the low angle sun sprays its rays onto a smooth table cov­ered in million of tiny du t parti cles.

The only star crazed amateur astronomers in our eclipse group, John Leppert and I et our alarm. for 3:45 am. We meet on camp Mu ango' promontory to bathe in the light of the M agellanic Cloud . A s if the eclipse and the maj ­e ty of the outhern sky wa n' t enough, comet LINEAR A2 sprout a hort tail vi ible to the naked eye, high up in Cetu s.

Most amateurs rate kie by transparency and ee ing, but there ' more to itthan that. A n Australian amateur, Gregg Thompson, enlightened me about darkness, the third qual­ity of sky conditi on . You could have a rea ll y tran 'parent sky, washed clean by the rain , but be ob erving from the cit y. Conversely, the sky might be fill ed with haze. but you could be in a remote wilderness area in complete dark­ne .

This particular morning in Africa is striking. Venus stands high above the water ' of lake Kariba, showering a huge

pillar of sparkling glint off the wave top . But our morn­ing star i . ye llow. Really yellow. T he great concentra tion of dust in the sub- aharan atmosphere has rohhed her of her radiance. Yet. poetica lly echoing the pill ar of Venu­sian li ght on the water, there arise a tall and lender pyramid of interplanetary light, the glow from dust mote. filling the plane of our so lar system.

Perhap was most striking i how bright the zodiacal glow i. despite all thi s dust. We are so far removed from city li ghts that the sky is amazingly dark. There is simply nothing to light up our atmospheri c du t and ve il the back­ground kyo

Back home. because of the preponderance of scallered li ght from cities, towns, hi ghway light and homesteads, we need both transparency and darkness to get a decent view of the zodiacal light. I had no trouble see ing it the mornin g we watched the recent magnifi ce nt Leonid shower,. but il wa far cry from the obvious heen cro s­ing the African sky.

The zodiacal light can teach us a lot about contra ' I. Each morning we followed the tail o f comet LINEAR A2 a. far as poss ible in binocular . When it moved from the sparse tarfield of the southern sky towards the ec liptic, the tail began to horten, but not from rea l fad ing. II sim­pl y could not compete with the glow of the zodiacal light. Ironica lly, the very ame du t ejected olT cometary nuclei will one day contribute in a small way to masking the tails of other cometary brethren.

t8~;lW ," Stardust Page 5

National October

By Franklin Loehde

The R.A .S.C. continues to grow with member hip likely to reach an unheardof 5000 within a few years. A s was reported beforc this cx pansion has

put increa ed pre ure on our publication costs, which include the excellent Sky News as part of our member­ship in the Society.

The biggest is ue to face us at this point is the decoupling of national fee from Centre one . M ore of this item later.

The voluntary leadership or the Society is healthy with mo t commillees reporting uccess ful work enhancing our allempts to bring astronomy to people inside and outside our Soc iety.

David Lane, Production M anager of the Journal, ha erved notice that he plans to be involved in the produc­

tion of only 4 more issues and that a replacement must be found. His formidable work coordinates all aspects or our Journal production and is much appreciated.

Many of the rererence resources in the Observers' Hand­book are now ava il abl e on thc RASC website www.rasc.ca with appropriate URLs lo r direct access.

A s many of you know the National Counci l has provided financial support for the Centre , especially the smaller ones, with the Special Projects Fund avail able for Cen­tre initiati ves. When our Centre embarked on a major grazing occultation expedition up the A laska Highway near Fort Nelson the National Society ass isted us. Past Pres ident Randy Attwood i examining thc guidelines for the fund with the intention of providing a more equitable

distribution of thc funds amongst the Centres such a a poss ible $5000 max imum and limiting eligibility once every 5 year .

The General Assembly for 2002 has been awarded to the Montreal Centre ( first hosting since 1967!) and will be held during the Victoria Day long weekend. Look like an exc iting agenda.

The 'cxplo 'ion' of ob 'ervi ng certificates sugge ts that our Centre should formali ze it proce of considering pros­pec ts.

Significant gains are being made in rai sing I ublic aware­ness of the harm of light pollution in obliterating our night skies.

The issue of "decoupling of fees" has been contentious with many wary of implications both linancial and philo­sophica l. [n summary the financing of the SocielY i as

follows with implica ti on. : Basic Membership fees are split 60-40 % with 60% to National and 40% toCentres with to cover operati ons such as publicatiuons etc .

Implication: Whe n fees are raised Centre revenues are automatically raised whether they were neede I or nol. At pre e nt many Centre have "surcharges" but recent Iy the ir fi nanc ial hea lth have allowed them to e l i mi nate them or at least reduce them as uring that new potenti al mem­ber are not scared away by high costs to jo in .

T he Constitution Committee recomme ndati ons are ad­dressing the problem by hav ing nati onal Society Mem­bership fees re fl ect onl y the costs o f nati onal operati on like publi cati ons etc. The Centres then, with varying de­grees of resources and programs, are free to se t a Centre fee re ll ecting thi s s ituati on. You can not become a Cen­tre member only! You must be a full member of the Na­ti ona l body first. At present a Centre might have Associ­ate Membership (takin g care of spousa l partners who

are ac ti ve) but o nly one 'c t o f publi cati on are prov ided. Many other issues like Unattached or Life Members must be con idered be fore a fin al vote is take n in May.

Thi fin al vote on thi s constitutional issue depends upon every Centre member asked to stud y the i ue carefull y and direct the Nati onal Counc il through your reps ie. Pat Abbott and myse lf or vote by proxy when notice is g iven in the Spring.

Our Co ns tituti o n Co mmittee C ha irm a n, Trea ure r Michae l Wat on, ha prov ided a ummary o f the propo al and id eas to ha ndl e th e iss ues rai ed. In preparati on for our eventua l vo te copie o f the changes have been g iven to all Co un c il mc mbe r a nd a re ava il able from the author.

MAP TO THE EDMONTON CENTRE OBIERVING IITE

E D M o N T o N

ELK ISlAND MT'L PAR~ ~

Highway 16 East

SHERWOOD PARK

Wye Road

North Cooking Lake Road

#524

I~e ~

UKKANIAN VILlAGE

BLACKFOOT STAGING AREA

. :I'i~~ Stardust Page 7

B[ackfoot Lions

By Bruce McCurdy

The harbinger of the Great Meteor Shower of 200 I wasn' t an earl y outlying meteoro id , such a the fir t Per eid I usuall y pot around August I. In ­

stead it eame in the form of a message on my vo ice mail : Ed Struzik of the Edmonton Journal, wish-ing to do a story abo ut nex t weekend" Le­onid .

Contrasting the ax iomatic "Good news is no news" mantra that normall y preva ils in the med ia, I can allestthey rea ll y did their home­work on the Leonids, as I was ealled to do at least a half dozen interviews for the various broadcast and print media. As the week went on thc req uests came more frequently: CBC Radio One on Fri day, both Global TV and A-Channel on Saturday. My advice was con­sistent : get out of town if you can, but by all means, get out of doors. There should be lots to see from the bac k yard or the park.

Besides my own small contributions it eemcd to me that the mcdia was full of talk about the shower, in new casts, weather forecas ts, and general on-air chit-chat. At first I wa rcluctant to all ow mysclf to get too exc itt:d about all thi . In my previous experi­ence the Leonid repre ented a lot of effort for limitcd return . November is stati sticall y the cloudiest month of

the year, and I can personall y vouch for that after a num­ber of car chases and other misadventures. Chas ing li­ons is not for the faint of heart, more for the faint of mind . (Refer my article "'Wandering Where the Lion Are" in the December 1999 Stardust.)

But as the day approached, the meteorological forecasts started to look as promising as the mcteoric ones. Now the pressure was rea ll y on. Would the storm materi alise? I did not want to be the public face on the reason people set their alarms or tayed up half the night to ee, well , not much.

After an afternoon 01' interviews at the Observatory, rested fitfull y, half-li stening to the frenetic action of the Oilers game in the dark but not watching it on TV. I wanted the t:yes to rest, even if the mind would not. (Un­beknownst to me, our Centre Pres ident was not resting at all , singlehandedl y taking on 250 visitor and the glare of Shaw Cable' lights at the Observatory in what had to be a much more difticult interview than any that I under­took. Kudos, Richard! )

Photo courlesy of Mu rray Pau/soll

My on Kevin and l rolled into a crowded Blackfoot park­ing lot at precisely midnight, hav ing already seen a bril ­li ant fireball dropping straight down from Polari s into the aurora along the northern hori zon a fcw minutes ear-

li er. It wa n' t a Leonid, but it seemed to be a promising sign. We arri ved to near perfec t condition , likely the best sky of the entire month: cloudless, transparent, the aurora contained near the northern hori zon all night. Bundled as we were the cold was not a problem. We took a whi le to queeze our lawn chair among Frank lin , Alexei , the Ling family, and many other vo ices in the dark, but by 12:30 we were counting in our tradit ional 10-minute interval , or "bins". Limiting magnitude was e timated to be around 6.5, although dark adap-tation took the occasional hit as brake and back­up light were applied by the inexperienced in unusually tight quarters.

At fir t, there were relative ly few meteors, but what we saw were low creamers as the Sickle of Leo was till near the hori zon. The e meteors were typica ll y quite bright and le ft long trains that lasted a second or more. As we waited, I enjoyed the fabul ous ights of the Winter Hexa­gon, with guest luminari es Jupiter and Saturn providing co nve ni ent sub-zero "compari so n stars" . Our counts steadily rose as time went on, Kev in 's young eye consi tently outperforming mine. By 2:00 Kev in had a count of 32, 0 ]

decided to switch to five-minute bins.

This in tinctive change turned out to be exactly the right thing to do. According to Observing Comet , A teroids, Meteors, and the Zodiacal Light by

tephen Edberg and Dav id Levy (Cambridge Un iversity Press, 1994): "(H)ow accurately the appearance of a me­teor should be timed is the subject of hot debate, and the range of desired acc uracy is large ... Perhaps Canada's Visual Meteor Program of the International Geophy ical Year [1957] olTered a fair compromise, asking that you record times no less frequently than every ten minutes, or fi ve during heavy shower ." No doubt this i where the Edmonton Centre's tradition of ten-minute bins came from. Franklin , were you in vo lved in that Canadian ini­ti ati ve way back when'?

At 2: 13 a.m. we were treated to the best fireball of the night , a spectacularly bright fl ash that ex ploded directly between Ca tor and Pollux, as suddenly as if it had hit an

invisible wal l between the two. Best estimates put it around magnitude -8 to - 10, "brighter than the brightest Iridium fl are " according to Alister Ling. The train of thi explos ion was visible to the naked eye for more than ten minutes, a suming an oval shape lhat encircled Pol­lu x for a time. Several people commented that the train expanded and faded in a manner remini cent of a super­nova remnant or planetary nebul a; to me it resembled the Crescent, aka Van Gogh 's Ear.

Photo courtesy of Murray Pau/soll

Soon we were into the heart of the hower, so I simply left my hand-held recorder on "Record' for long stretches. With the immediacy of the show captured li ve on audio­tape, I have simply selected a fcw tran cripts in the sidebar to convey some of the exc itement of a full-fledged meteor torm .

The best hour of ac tivity came between 3 and 4 MST, when 1 personall y recorded 655 meteor , from which I ca lculate a zenith hourly rate (ZHR) in exce of 1,000 (see graphs). In the fi ve-minute bin between 3:35 and 3:40, I counted 88 meteors for a peak ZHR of> I ,700. In the same interval , Kev in aw 102 (ZHR - 2,000). All wi thin earshot commented on the c lumping e ffec t as

COlltillued lI ext page

. :;:"~.'" . Stardust Page 9

(shorl) peri ods of inacl i vity would he puncluated hy sev­eral meleors arpearing to fl ash almost simull aneously.

By 4:00 the most inten e period had pa ed and [ felt ohliged to take a break. The meteors were falling fast and furi ou , but it felt a bit anticlimactic, like watching the parti al phases after a total solar ec lip e. Fortunately, [ soon recovered, and was treated to an ex tremely good how averaging 20 meteor per 5 minute, ri ght through

until quilling time at 6:30 a. m.

Photo courtesy of Lallce Taylor

We finally arri ved home at 7:30, pulling in to the strains of " Falling tar" ' (by Charli e Chaplin of all people) on CKUA , which was followed by the host talking up the shower yet again . [ fell into bed, the adrenaline still cours­ing.

No rest for the wicked, as the media continued to cover the story. The highli ght for me wa a spot on CBC' national news program Sunday Report, which featured an exten ive story with great NASA footage and pot cov­erage from Toronto (two students watching the hower), Halifax (Dav id L ane), Calgary (Al an Dye r), and Edmonton (me, feeling pri vileged to be in such company). M y parent who routinely ee my hrother Earle on the National, for a change had a brief li ving room vi it from their No.3 son .

That [ arp ared rather dazed in my 15 seconds of fame wa at least in r art due to the fact the producer of Sunday

Report phoned me from Toronto at II a.m. MST that Sunday morning! (I had linall y gOllen to sleep around 8:30.) Coffee, breakfast and a lillie research later, [ stag­gered into the deck to do a spot with a rov ing rhotogra­pher, who had me open and close the roof four times to get the ri ght camera angle, then never used any of them. But I digress.

Word-o f-mouth news wa of the best poss ible kind. Nu­merous report tri ck led in that wherever people went out-

ide of the city, the secondary road were prinkled with parked cars. And [ heard many anecdotes from unexpected people who watched the shower from home. None expressed disappointment. All in all , the 200 I Leonids were a hit from the die­hard meteor watcher to the naturall y curious. [ will personally remember these a the Blackfoot Leonid , as for a change they came to us, no wan­dering required.

The final word goes to my occasionally observant son, Kevin, who was interviewed in a follow-up story hy the Edmonton Journal. How did the Le­onid shower compare to the Perseid ? he was a ked. Kevin invoked a word which was introduced into

the popular lex icon by the great 1960s ocial ac ti vist and occasional pugilist Muhammad Ali : " [t whupped!"

Peak ZHR 2000 .,-----------,-----,

. / ". 1500

~ 1000 N

500

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ;/-•••••••••• .,I. ... ~, ••• --.-. . ... . . ........... ....... __ ................ ....... -... ..-. • ..... _-_ ... .... • -

.,--- :--.~:' . • ....-::' - a

......... _-- ·t·· ·····································----·········_· f' ~'

915 935 955 1015 1035 1055 UT

• ZHR Bruce -. ZHR Kevin -- Lyytinen Forecast

Stardust Page 10 . :!~:.

L lve Leo111os

Overheard in a parking lot a the Leonid meteor squa ll blew through. Unle s otherwi e noted , all slanderous - now libe llou - remarks can be

attributed to He Who Holds The Tape Recorder.

2: 10 a. m. " Hey Franklin , did you ever noti ce how the con te ll a tion fi gure o f The Hunter has a rea ll y dim bulb for a head?"

2:35: " Everywhere I turn my head there's another one!"

2:40: ""The sky is a li ve! "

2:50 : "Whatever direc ti on you look, you mi them in all the o the r direction , bas ica ll y, and you still see a bunch. '

2:55: "AI sa id 6 in the sky at the same time... People looking in differe nt direc ti ons all ye lling at once there for a ec."'

3: 10 : " Whoa ! Whoa ! Whoa ! Whoa ! Four!!!! 4 at once almo t, within less than a second , one in the Dipper, one down by Sirius one up by Saturn and Aldebaran, and the fourth one was ome where up overhead near Auriga. It wa kind of hard to keep track of where they all were, they went bingbingbingbing ... J m convinced these thing are c lumping. Ali ste r and I are doomed to perennially d isagree I think . Fast and furi ou , and now we have a littl e lap e agai n."

3: 18: ""Alister, how many meteor in the last minute. 20?"

3:20 : "Look at the e things come! The sky is falling !" 3:22: "Each one of these Ii ve- minute bin is typica l o f an hour of a good Perse id di splay."

3:25: [My on Kevin , a fter he and Ali ster both observed

a pa ir of meteor appear to almost collide with each other] : " It looks like the Star Wars system might be ac tuall y working !"

3:35: "53 in that bin and I'm already up to 4 in ... 6! 7! 8 ! 9 ! Oh my goodness ! Did you see that? ! Now te ll me where the radi ant is, now isn' t that a tough call ? Poom, poom, poom, poom - all direc ti ons ri ght outta Leo."

3:37: " Ali s te r, if these rea ll y we re fa lling s tars the re wouldn ' t be any stars le ft! "

3:38: "Oh look at that! Wow! Holy cow ! That was like 5 s imultaneously west o f Ori on. That was like a fl ock of bird .:"

3:38: [Bruce, repl y ing to a v i ito r who e question is garbled on the tape]: "' I' m at 60. I'm running a total and concentrating quite hard. " [Franklin] '" If you' d ju t take yo ur hoes o fT to co unl. " [Brucel " Yo u know w hat, Franklin , be fore too long I'm gonna run out o f inches!" (And I did , reaching 88 in that bin . I'm onl y 6 ' I.)

3:42: "My tape is runn ing constantl y. I wanna try to kcep a record o f a much o f this a I can. But iI's impo sible; I can' t desc ribe it fas t e nough."

3:43: "Wow! Kaboom! ! Did you ee that thing ex plode? That tra il 's go nna be there for a whil e, there in the han lle o f the Dipper. "

3:44 rVoice in the dark which for lega l purposes mayor may not have been Ali ster sl: ''I'm ju t wa iting for Larry to say, I just bagged Kohoutek 5 dash 8 !'"

3:45 " It 's s lowing down. Kevin o nl y got 74 in that bin , and I onl y got 62."

3:50 [After seeing the e ntire sky fl ash] "Oh! What was that? Did that thing ex pl ode? Like tw ice? I was looking elsewhere and I just felt it almos\."

4: 15: " I wish I had been counting in that bin , but I' m not sure I would have been able to. Without counting w ith­out looking up for more than half the bin I'm sure I saw like about 40."

;~'~ , Stardust Page 11

SKY & TELESCOPE AnD ASTRONOMY Magazine

Subscriptions

Subscriptions to SKY & TELESCOPE is $37.95 (US Funds) and for ASTRONOMY (Kal mbach

Publi shing Co. ) i $40.00 (US Funds).

If you wish to participate in the Club rate di scounted subscriptions you must have your

US money orders to the Treasurer. Money orders MUST BE payable to Sky &

Telescope or Astronomy - Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Credit Card renewal is also accepted.

Please contact Donna-Lee May for further information.

may@ planet.eon.net

Mail to: R.A.S.C. - Edmonton Centre

Treasurer Donna-Lee May

RR # 2 - Site 208 - Box 57 St! ~lllert; Alberta

itt ~

fE8:~r: lM9 ~«'

1780) ~13·2785

CASINO volunteers N eeoeo

On February 10&11, 2002 the Edmonton Centre win run

its latest casino at the Argyll facilities of Casino ABS.

Volunteers are needed both for the evening

and daytime time slots.

The money raised can go to any of the Centre's outreach

programs and any project that will see direct

benefit to the general public.

Volunteer Forms and Time Preference Forms are

available at the meetings or other times from Franklin Loehde.

RASC council Nominations for .2002

RASC Council

Past Pre ident Pre ident Vice-Pres ident Secretary Treasurer National Council Rep. Co-Nati onal Council Rep. Observing Co-ordinator Stardllst Editor

Portfolio Positions

Stardus t Distribution New Member Advisor Observi ng Site and

Equipment Director Public Education Director Librari an

Social Di rector WEBsite Admini strator Light Pollution Abatement

Commillee (ELPAC) Membership Secretary

Councillors

Presently In Position

Paul Campbell Richard Vanderberg Dav id Prud ' homme Dave Cleary Donna-Lee May Pall Abboll Franklin Loehde Vacant Sherry MacLeod

Forest Lillke Shelly Sodergren Sherril ynn & Bob Jahri g

Vacant Harri s Christi an Bill Kunze Terry & Daphne Samuels Denis Boucher Howard Gibbin

Terry Nonay

Terry Samuels Arnold Ri vera John Payzant Wendy Routhier Mike Ho kin on

Nominated for Position for 2002

Paul Campbell Richard Vanderberg Dav id Prud ' homme Dave Cleary Donna-Lee May Pall Abboll Bruce McCurdy John Payzant Sherry MacLeod

Stephanie May Shell y Sodergren Bob Jahrig

Sherril yn Jahrig Harri s Christi an Bill Kunze Terry & Daphne Samuels Denis Boucher Vacant

Terry Nonay

Terry Samuels Arnold Ri vera Helen Steinke Wendy Routhier Franklin Loehde

Anyone with plenty of time on their hands and has an interest in fi ghting light pollution, plea e contac t the Pres ident or Vice- Pres ident , as we are looking for someone to fill the vacany of ELPAC.

planet Report

M ercury wa in superior conjunction with the sun on December :lrd , and will make its excursion into lhe evening sky in the month of Decem­

ber. It will become visible in the evening twilight in early to mid January around dichotomy, which occurs on Janu­ary 12th. At thi s time it will sit 18 1/2 degrees from the sun and shine at magnitude -.5. We may be lucky and have a good line on it like we did la t year. I watched it over a one-week period basking in an unusually warm late January. This year you hould be able to see Mercury in the evening twilight after 5:30 p.m. when it will sit 6 degree above the hori zon in the Southwest.

Venu start out the month showing a 10." very gibbous disk and shines at magnitude -:1.9 from it 's 1.67 au dis­tance. At the beginning of December Venus lies 10 de­grees from the un . Over the month, Venus will close the distance on the un and di appear into its glare. It will lie in Superior conjunction with the sun on January 14th, at which time you might be able to find it' 9.75" disk .5 degrees below the sun! (Ha!)

Mars was beautiful in the month of November, ri si ng higher into the evening sky. I didn ' t get to watch it tele-copica lly, but its co lour added to the spectacle of a cres­

cent moon on one particular evening. Take a good look at Mars thi month. This is where it will lie for its 20m oppos ition when it will show a 25" disk. Still not at a great position for us northern folk, but it will be the best view in 15 year!

In early December Jupiter shows a 46.:1" disk and shine at magnitude -2.7. It will sit at oppositi on on New Years day and its disk will have expanded to all of 47.0"! Look at Jupiter 's po iti on on the ec liptic. Thi . is about a high as it gets, and you won't see it this high for another 12 years! This altitude means that Jupiter sits above the ho­ri zon for about 17 hours, 15 of which are in the darkness.

I 1 __ . _ :. ......... .-1 r ~· o -; I I / 1 I anymede Ganymede Shudqw

;

Edmonton, Alberta

10

So if you are inclined to see a complete rota­tion of the giant planet, there is lots of time to do it. On top of thi s, New Year Eve also ring s in with a Ganymede Bulls-eye shad ow tran sit. Shadow transits on the eve of opposition are relatively rare, and a Ganymede transit i

all the more so. This even t is handily placed at :I: 16 am and goe till 6:20 am, somewhat like the Leonids. What you will see during the transit i Ganymede"s dusky disk in bas-re l ief with its shadow behind it. I have followed up this article with a li st of Galilean high lights over the nex t month. The outer moon events are relatively rare and with the complicating elrec t of weather y u may be lucky to see just one uch even t. All times an:: universal times. Just subtract 7 hours to get our local time and note it will be the evening of the previous ca lendar day.

Saturn was at oppo ition on December 3. Did you see the

Date Time Moon Event shadow of the pl anet on the rings change sides? Our weather hasn' t been too co-operati ve since the Leonids

12 Dec 0:22 IV Tr end but 1 hope it co-operates with December big event. There

18 Dec 2:18 111 Sh start i a grazing occultati0ro,0f Saturn by a 12.6 day old moon

18 Dec 3:44 III Tr start on the night of the 27t (morning of Dec 28) at 1:46:3 1

18 Dec 5:19 III Sh end am for first contact and I :52:30 am for second contact

18 Dec 6:47 111 Tr end (ex it). These times are for observers located at 11 3.5 west

20 Dec 0:09 IV Ec start and 53.6 north (roughly the ESSC). The farther west or

20 Dec 2:43 IV Ec end north you go, the later it occurs. The graze line crosses Edmonton. Saturn contact the non-illuminated edge of

20 Dec 3:02 IV Oc start the moon, so it will start to di appear before you ex pect 20 Dec 5:44 IV Oc end it! A graze event of these proportions is well worth stay-25 Dec 6:17 III Sh start ing up for. I think I will be trave lling to get a good pot 25 Dec 7:01 III Tr start for the graze near the southern limit. 25 Dec 9:20 III Sh end 25 Dec 10:03 III Tr end 28 Dec 10:58 IV Sh start 28 Dec 11:51 rv Tr start 28 Dec 13:39 IV Sh end 1 Jan 10:16 III Tr start 1 Jan 10:17 III Sh start 1 Jan 13:18 III Tr end 1 Jan 13:20 III Sh end 14 Jan 1:56 IV Tr start 14 Jan 4:38 IV Tr end 14 Jan 4:58 IV Sh start 14 Jan 7:50 IV Sh end

RAse Meetin&: Dates for 2002

January 14 February 11 March 11 AprilS May 13

June 10 September 9 October 21 November 11 December 9

RAse Observin&: Dates for 2002

::11-' Stardust Page 15

rIo. Edmonton RASC CQuncii 2001

President. .......................... Richard Vanderberg (484-2213) Vice President ................... David Prud ' homme (487-9067) Pa t President.. .... ....... ........ Paul Campbcll Sccrctary ........... ... .... .... .......... D,:.<"a_v_c_C..,I ;;...ca~.'"" __ ...,......, .. Treasurer ...................... , ••••. ,vl'nlllil·JLA:.::

Observing Coordinator ..... Vacant Nati onal Council Rep ......... Franklin Loehde Co-National Council Rep ..... Patt Abbott Stardust Editor .................. Sherry MacJ;.,eod

Portfolio Positions: Stardust Dislributi on ... ....... Fore t Littke New Member Advisor ....... Shelly Sodergren Ob erving ite and

(435-2593) (476-6460)

Equipment Director .. .. ... ... Sherrilyn & Bob Jahri g Public Ed. Director ........... Vacant Librari an .. ..... ... .. .... ... .. ..... Bill Kunze & Harri s Christi an Li brari an/Soft ware ... .... ...... A li ster Li ng Social Direc tor. ......... ...... ... Terry & Daphne Samuels WEBsite Admini trator .. .... Denis Boucher Light Pollution Abatement Committee Chair (ELPAC). Howard Gibbins Membership Secretary ..... Terry Nonay

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