Spring 2009 Newsletter
Click here for a PDF version of this newsletter best for printing.
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| Greg Scheckler, an artist and amateur astronomer, assembled this Messier Marathon collage March 8–9, 2008. Picture is in order from upper left (M1) to lower right (M110). He managed to view and snap 105 out of the total 110 objects using online access to SLOOH telescopes on the Canary Islands. More on SLOOH here. More on the Messier Marathon here. Greg blogs on astronomy, art, and other interests at http://gregscheckler.wordpress.com/blog/ Click on the photo for a larger view |
March
- March 1 - John Rudolph Memorial Planetarium Fund Kiwanis Brunch, Wing Point
- March 4 - First-quarter Moon - BPAA Board Meeting 7 p.m.
- March 8 - Daylight Saving Time begins
- March 10 - Full Moon
- March 13 - Members Meeting 7 p.m., "Be a Master of the Universe: Intro to Operating the Planetarium" talk by Steve Ruhl, Education Officer
- March 15 - "The Weather of the Pacific Northwest" talk by UW Professor Cliff Mass at Eagle Harbor Book Store, 3 p.m.
- March 18 - Third-quarter Moon
- March 20 - Vernal Equinox, 11:44 UT
- March 21 - 7 p.m. Planetarium Show "The Orion Nebula" and Star Party
- March 26 - New Moon
- March 28-29 - 2009 Messier Marathon
April
- April 1 - BPAA Board Meeting 7 p.m.
- April 2 - First-quarter Moon
- April 5 - John Rudolph Memorial Planetarium Fund Kiwanis Brunch, Wing Point
- April 9 - Full Moon
- April 10 - Members Meeting 7 p.m. "Arctic Ice. It Comes. It Goes. Why? What Is Special About Today?" talk by Paul Middents
- April 17 - Third-quarter
- April 18 - 8 p.m. Planetarium Show "The Planets" and Star Party
- April 22 - Lyrid Meteor Shower Peak
- April 24 - New Moon
May
- May 1 - First-quarter Moon
- May 2 - Astronomy Day
- May 3 - John Rudolph Memorial Planetarium Fund Kiwanis Brunch, Wing Point
- May 5 - Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower Peak
- May 6 - BPAA Board Meeting 7 p.m.
- May 8 - Full Moon - Members Meeting 7 p.m., "Dark Matter, Understanding the History of the Universe through Weak Lensing" talk by Jake VanderPlas, UW Graduate Student
- May 10 - Deadline for summer issue of BPAA Quarterly
- May 16 - 8 p.m. Planetarium Show "Astronomical Biology" and Star Party
- May 17 - Third-quarter Moon
- May 24 - New Moon
Any member who is planning to observe can invite others to join in by sending an email to bpaa@yahoogroups.com. To join our email group, send an email with your name to bpaa-owner@yahoogroups.com and we can enroll you. If you want to have web access to the messages and files, you can join the Yahoogroups by clicking the register link for new users on http://groups.yahoo.com/:request to join at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bpaa/. The system will send us a message, and we’ll approve your request after we verify your membership.
By Diane Colvin, BPAA Events Manager
Time for the Spring edition of the newsletter? Seems a bit incongruous, what with snow on the ground as I write. Spring will be arriving, at least officially, on March 20. The vernal equinox happens each year when day and night are nearly the same length and when the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically above the Earth's equator. Perhaps, after over three months of weak meteor activity, spring skies will allow us to view the Lyrid meteor shower on April 22 and the Eta Aquarid meteor shower at their peaks on May 5, or to view Venus at its eight-year best. For the glorious details, see Sky and Telescope, March 2009, p. 58. The night sky of late March presents a chance to locate all 110 Messier objects in a dusk-to-dawn viewing session. March 28-29 is the optimal weekend. It's rather a long shot in the Pacific Northwest: I'd recommend Arizona if you're serious about this quest.
There are a number of interesting ground-based activities coming up as well. We have speakers for each of our members meetings.
- On March 13, Steve Ruhl, BPAA's Education Officer, will present a tutorial on how to use the planetarium to present planetarium shows. Steve will demonstrate how you too can be a Master of the Universe.
- On April 10, Paul Middents, BPAA's favorite Renaissance man, will present a lecture intriguingly entitled "Arctic Ice. It Comes. It Goes. Why? What is Special About Today?" Paul has developed a new interest in paleoclimatology and the connection of glacial cycles with orbital dynamics and solar variations.
- On May 8, UW graduate student Jake VanderPlas will present a talk on dark matter, one of the more mysterious components of our universe. Jake will give us an overview of the theory of weak lensing (slight distortions in light rays caused by gravitational fields), and how it enables astronomers to statistically determine the global structure of dark matter in the universe.
- In addition, UW professor of Atmospheric Science Cliff Mass will present a talk about his book "The Weather of the Pacific Northwest" at the Eagle Harbor Bookstore on March 15. (See article page 4)
The Arctic Ice Cap. Credit: NASA - And don't miss our planetarium shows, on March 21, April 18, and May 16. In March, Steve Ruhl will present an Orion program, focusing on the circle of life of stars in the constellation Orion, which range from 2 million year old supernovae to newbie stars. For the April program, Nels Johansen will be showcasing the planets. And in May, Jeanelle Miller will link astronomical events to biological ones such as circadian rhythms.
- As usual, these shows will be accompanied by star parties if the skies are clear, now featuring our new computer-guided portable telescope that displays the view on a screen. Note that the starting times are 7:00 p.m. in March and 8:00 p.m. in April and May.
Astronomy Day is May 2. Perhaps, if the skies are clear, we'll be doing a little sidewalk astronomy in downtown Winslow. Check out www.bpastro.org, for details.
Good news on the light pollution campaign front - once again, there is a bill before the Washington State Legislature aimed at restricting light pollution: SHB 1069. It declares an intent to require the best technology available in exterior light to reduce energy consumption and protect the nighttime environment. It would, if passed, require the State Building Code Council to work with interested parties to develop recommendations to address light pollution and present findings to the legislature. While falling far short of a mandate, this is a start and deserves our support. Let your local representatives know you support SHB 1069, and while you're at it, join the International Dark-Sky Association, www.darksky.org. BPAA as an organization belongs to IDA, but the support of individuals is important as well. IDA is an effective advocate for light pollution legislation nationwide.
by Harry Colvin, BPAA President
As I prepare this message it is one day after a peaceful transfer of power in our country. And as we all know the inauguration of Barack Obama has come at a time of increasing economic peril both on a national and international scale. This is affecting many of our BPAA members, with job loss, reduced retirement income or assets, and general feelings of insecurity that many of us have never before experienced. It is likely that BPAA private donations, membership dues, and One Call For All funding will decrease over the next few years. But as I have reported, the BPAA has a two-year cash reserve sufficient to support the Ritchie Observatory and BPAA programs for the foreseeable future. My concern is not with our funding but with BPAA’s human reserves, including the volunteers who run our programs, board members, and program managers. Can we continue to provide to our community the expertise and time that we have in the past?
In President Obama’s inaugural speech there are several quotes that I see as relating to BPAA members and the programs that we provide. "For everywhere we look there is work to be done." The Obama administration has issued a call to community service. And this concept is one of the core elements of BPAA’s mission, an unselfish donation of one’s time and effort to the community in the hope that it will improve and enrich the community at large.
Another quote, "We will restore science to its rightful place." This concept is again one of the core missions of the BPAA. We provide to our community programs related to astronomy and associated scientific disciplines in a variety of formats that are understandable to all. This is a difficult task for those BPAA members who present these programs for they must do so in an unselfish manner in the spirit of community service and not to feed their own egos with a demonstration of their superior knowledge. Many in our public community already have sufficient "science phobia" and we try not to increase it.
"Now there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans." Although President Obama is here referring to economic recovery plans, I will apply it in a slightly different way. Take a look at our Capital Project Initiative. It is ambitious. But remember what the BPAA has done from its inception, starting with the inspiration and ingenuity provided by our founders. Then look into the future and imagine what we can do if we work as a team to accomplish a common task.
In conjuction with Galileo's birthday, on February 15, and to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy. NASA released images from its Great Observatories to institutions across the country, including Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
The selected sites are displaying 9-square-foot images of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 that combine the optical view of Hubble, the infrared view of Spitzer, and the X-ray view of Chandra into one multiwavelength picture.
Messier 101 is a spiral galaxy about 22 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Hubble’s visible-light view shows off the swirls of bright stars and glowing gas that give Messier 101 its nickname “the Pinwheel Galaxy.” In contrast, Spitzer’s infrared-light image sees into the spiral arms and reveals the glow of dust lanes where dense clouds can collapse to form new stars. Chandra’s X-ray uncovers the high-energy features in the galaxy, such as remnants of exploded stars or matter zooming around black holes. The juxtaposition of observations from these three telescopes provides an in-depth view of the galaxy for both astronomers and the public.
by Malcolm Saunders, Chief Astronomer
BPAA is co-sponsoring University of Washington atmospheric scientist and popular radio commentator Cliff Mass's appearance on March 15 at 3:00 p.m at Eagle Harbor Book Company. He'll be discussing his recent book, The Weather of the Pacific Northwest. Why should astronomers be interested?
This is a two part question. First, why a weather guy? Second, if a weather guy, then why Cliff Mass?
Why a weather guy?
As astronomers we always want to know about weather. Most obviously we ask 'is it raining?' and 'will it be raining soon?'. Even if rain isn't in the cards we want to know whether the sky is overcast. Nearly as important, we want to know how much humidity is in the air, and whether it's high altitude humidity or low. We are also concerned about local wind conditions because wind gusts shake the telescope, as well as making a cold night harder to bear. High altitude wind (read turbulence) is what make the stars twinkle. It also causes the image in the telescope to dance around in the eyepiece—if we take pictures, they come out blurry.
The jet stream often flows over our region, though not always. If this high, fast moving, and turbulent air is overhead we can expect worse performance from our telescopes. We might change plans—for example, a smaller aperture telescope suffers less from air turbulence effects than a large aperture telescope. So why does the jet stream cross over the Northwest, when, how consistently, and how can we find out if a given night will suffer from it?
Sometimes we, as amateur astronomers, travel to other, darker, drier locations for star gazing. But where should we go? How do we locate a good dark site with clear skies and still air? Dark we understand. Whatever is far from cities is darker. But what are the factors that control winds and cloud cover? Where can we find this information in a form that is convenient for an amateur astronomer to use?
Why Cliff Mass?
Not only is Cliff Mass an expert in the weather of the Pacific Northwest, but he has an interest in astronomy. In fact it turns out that his first publication was with Carl Sagan. He did some computer modeling of weather patterns on Mars. We might also hope to hear some insights about weather on other planets.
by Russell M. Heglund, BPAA Secretary
The Battle Point Astronomical Association has a large selection of books on astronomy and related subjects at the Observatory, upstairs in the Gardiner Library. BPAA members can check them out for one to two months--just fill out the handy 3x5 card in the card file on top of the Library shelf against the North Wall. Fill in your name, phone number, email address (optional), the date the book was checked out, and the book title and author. That’s it!
Some of the categories are History of Astronomy, Optics, Telescope Construction (for amateurs), Archeoastronomy, and Guides for Observing. Some are classics, others obscure. For example: Earth & Sky by Ray A. Williamson is a collection of seventeen tales from Native American cultures. Blind Watchers of the Sky by Rocky Kolb is a light- hearted and sometimes humorous history of astronomy, Worlds Unnumbered (the search for extrasolar planets) by Donald Goldsmith, Theories of Everything by John D. Barrow, A Friendly Guide to the Universe by Nancy Hathaway, and Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel. For a tour, contact me (the Librarian) through the website at www.bpastro.org, or show up at the next Star Party.
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| Portrait by Leoni |
by Anna Edmonds
This year, 2009, has been designated the International Year of Astronomy by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It recognizes, in part, Galileo Galilei's first use of a telescope to magnify the heavens 400 years ago. About 140 countries around the world are celebrating.
Galileo didn't start out intending to be an astronomer. First he wanted to be a monk, then a doctor, then a mathematician. All along he was an inventor, starting as a child with toy machines. Although he dropped out of school twice, his reputation for brilliance helped him get an appointment as lecturer at the Academy in Florence. An early lecture was on the site and dimensions of Dante's Inferno. Later he held positions at both the University of Pisa and the University of Padua.
He may not have actually climbed up the Leaning Tower of Pisa to show that two different balls would fall at the same speed, but he did state the proposition of uniform acceleration in a vacuum. This was contrary to Aristotle's dictum that the rate of falling objects depended on their weight.
The sciences of mechanical engineering and experimental physics got their starts when Galileo the mathematician recognized and applied the relation of force to motion, one example of which is the speed of falling objects. Combining mathematics with experiment and observation helped him understand that the earth went round the sun. He didn't go on to the concept of gravity (that was left to Newton and others), but he did have the idea of inertia.
Realizing that a pendulum keeps good time, he developed the principle into an instrument that measured pulse rate. Fifty years on, he turned that principle into an astronomical clock. He took Archimede's hydrostatic balance—a scale that measures the density of objects —a step farther.
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| Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the perfect circles of the highest Heaven (Te Empyrean); from Gustave Doré’s illustrations to the Divine Comedy, Paradiso Canto 31 |
However, along with his brilliance, he was well-known to be opinionated, full of himself, and completely lacking in modesty. With impolitic candor he criticized a Medici son who had made mistakes with machinery for cleaning out the harbor of Leghorn, and so lost the support of that family. Without the Medicis behind him, the students who were offended by his new ideas hissed him out of class and he had to give up his professorship in Pisa.
Galileo also scoffed at Johannes Kepler's idea that the tides were related to the phases of the Moon, and decided that they happened because the surface of the Earth rotates at a different speed at the equator than it does at the poles. He also ridiculed a fellow scholar, Orazio Grassi, who claimed that the ancient Babylonians knew that friction produced heat because they cooked their eggs by slinging them around their heads. Galileo wore out his arms and those of several of his students in the University of Padua proving that Grassi was wrong. While Grassi's idea is accepted now, Galileo's idea was to deride another scholar. (Science being on Grassi's side, one has to wonder if Galileo's horse never went fast enough to give him a wind burn.)
Having heard about a Dutchman's invention of a "tube" that helped people see things at a distance, in 1609 he made his own, improved tube. Then he turned it on the Venetian shipping lane and showed the local businessmen that they could use it to catch sight of distant ships approaching the harbor and thus beat their competition by an hour. They also realized that that tube (it wouldn't be called a telescope for three more years) could be a strategic bit of military equipment. Galileo went one step farther by offering the Venetian government the right to manufacture his tube, even though it wasn't his invention.
The enormity of Galileo's claims when he published his conclusions about what he saw with his telescope is related to standard attitudes in early 17th century European thinking. Then the Earth, being the home of fallible people, was seen as faulty, but whatever was in the heavens was perfect and never-changing. The Moon, the Sun, and the planets were perfect spheres, and everything moved around the Earth (and only the Earth) in a perfect circle. Those ideas took a bit of explaining, but with some circuitous reasoning scholars showed how planets could stay in a circular orbit around the Earth and still wander around in the sky. The Copernican idea that the Earth might revolve around the Sun was heresy in the eyes of the Catholic Church because it contradicted the biblical statement that the Earth was immovable.
Galileo used his telescope to look up rather than just out. He saw what no one before him ever had seen. He saw that the Milky Way was not a hazy cloud, but thousands of discrete points of light. That wasn't all. When he looked at the planets he saw things that didn't follow the rules. There were four points of light (the Galilean satellites) that circled around Jupiter, not the Earth. He calculated their orbital periods remarkably accurately, and suggested that they could be used as a universal clock to determine longitude.
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| Galileo’ s diagrams and notes explaining the position of Jupiter and its moons on several nights (courtesy NASA) |
(As for Saturn, that planet had "ears" that came and went. If only he could have seen the rings! And even after he had used his telescope for some years, he still insisted that comets were nothing more than reflected light similar to rainbows.)
He saw realities that hadn't been figured into the established explanations of how things worked. These and others of his discoveries went against the doctrines of the Catholic Church at that time. As remarkable as his seeing these new details, it is more remarkable that Galileo understood what they meant. Nor was he intimidated at first by the authorities' ban on discussing these ideas.
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| One of the engravings presented in Galileo’s Saggiatore showing the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus (with its various phases), as they appeared to Galileo through the telescope. Credit: Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence |
Most of Galileo's publications were in Latin, so they were not read by many people. But in 1632 his most famous book, A Dialog on the Two Chief World Systems, appeared, written in conversational Italian. The dialog involved three men, Sagredo who asked the right questions, the wise and witty Salviati who answered them, and the stupid Simplicio. Salviati's intent was to educate Simplicio on the laws of physics and mathematics with the intent of invalidating the Aristotelian theory of an earth-centered universe. Galileo pictured Simplicio as a contemporary of Aristotle, but Galileo's enemies made sure that the Pope understood whose ideas were the butt of the satiric inferences. Galileo was called before the inquisition, tried for heresy, and found guilty. Galileo was ordered to deny that the Earth moves; his books were banned, he was compelled never to publish again, and he was put under house arrest for the rest of his life.
The story is that as he recanted he added under his breath, "Eppur si muove." (And yet it moves.)That would be in keeping with his pride, stubbornness, propensity for sarcasm, and lack of humility. Probably the story is apocryphal; what is more important is that Galileo's published discoveries about the changing and imperfect Solar System established fundamental principles of science. Because he proved his ideas through experimentation, he is one of the founding fathers of the scientific revolution.
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| NASA’s Galileo orbiter as it arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995. Image Credit: NASA |
Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 11, "Galileo," pp. 406-411
Rocky Kolb, Blind Watchers of the Sky, "The Galileo Equation," pp 73-112
Middents, Paul, lecture notes from Astronomy 101, 1994 ff
Proclamation of 2009 as International Year of Astronomy (UNESCO Executive Board)
www.Wikipedia.com, "Galileo Galilei"
by Anna Edmonds and Vicki Saunders
If you’ve been to a Star Party or Planetarium Show, chances are you’ve met Cathy and Paul. We don’t have room enough to mention all of their contributions to BPAA.
Paul started volunteering at BPAA in fall 1995.By July 1997 he’d set up the first BPAA Web site, awarded Internet Guide Award by Britannica in spring 2000. In fall 1997 he was agitating for dark skies; that was rewarded in 2000 by the Bainbridge Island Council passing ordinance no. 2002–15, a regulation intended to preserve and enhance the view of the dark sky.
Cathy (who is married to Paul) began to volunteer at BPAA by 2000, showing people around the Observatory, particularly on Star Party nights. She went on to give school presentations, and was part of the Second Planetarium Committee, which established the Planetarium.
Cathy single-handedly salvaged the BPAA membership database after it was lost in cyberspace. She became our first Data-base Manager. Both Cathy and Paul have written for the Newsletter, were active in Astronomy Day, and the 4th of July parades and booth.
Paul was involved with Project ASTRO (a partnership between educators and astronomers that offers hands-on, inquiry-based activities for school kids, beginning in the spring of 1998; he was particularly good connecting with kids and sparking their interest in astronomy.(Anna vividly remembers eager kids on Astronomy Day watching his dry ice demo of comets.)
When Mac Gardiner retired in 2002, Paul took over as president of the club. He was a steadying influence. And he was good at keeping his word that BPAA would not go into debt for taking on projects it couldn’t pay for. Paul resigned from the Board in 2007.
Since then he and Cathy (Cathy having become our first Planetarium Manager, and then our Adult Education Manager) have given most of the planetarium shows. They’ve done a remarkable job crafting programs such as “Precession of the Equinoxes,” “Constellations and Cultures” and “Best of the Southern Hemisphere.” They gave their last planetarium show “The Gems of the Winter Necklace” on January 17. It was a clear night, the stars of the necklace were sparkling, and astronomers and visitors were out in force. As usual with their presentations, there were overflow crowds, and two planetarium showings. There was a bouquet of tulips, and then Cathy and Paul were gone. We will miss them.
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| "The largest telescope I had ever seen." Photo from a hobby display at the Regina Exhibition in the early 50’s. |
by Verne Wade
Almost everyone deeply involved in amateur astronomy has, at some time or other, been confronted with disparaging questions from those outside the field: "What good does all that time and expense do?" or "Have amateurs ever discovered anything that matters to professional astronomers?" Of course the satisfactions an amateur experiences require no more explanation than the root of the word "amateur," but sometimes it is nice to be able to answer belittlers with a case story. The following citation from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada notes the recent naming of asteroid Majden by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union:
(142368) Majden 2002 RH233 (Discovered) 2002-09-14 by R. Matson on NEAT images taken at Palomar. (Named for) Edward (Ed) Majden (b. 1939. in Regina Saskatchewan), co-discoverer of two near- earth asteroids. (Majden) is an amateur astronomer best known for his 35+years’ work recording meteor spectra. (He) was a member of the Regina Astronomical Society in the 1950’s. During International Geophysical Year 1957-1958, Majden acted as the visual meteor reporter to the National Research Council of Canada for the Regina Astronomical Society. At that time, he was introduced to meteor spectroscopy by John V. Hodges, the late director of the Regina Astronomical Society’s Observatory. After high school, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in June, 1958, and served for 27 years and 8 months as a radar systems technician. He started his own program of meteor spectroscopy in 1972, reporting his observations to Peter M. Millman at the National Research Council of Canada. After the termination of meteor work at the National Research Council of Canada, he reported his observations to Dr. Jiri Borovicka in the Czech Republic and other professionals that could make use of his spectra. He was appointed as the Meteor Spectroscopy Project Coordinator of the American Meteor Society. This work continued from his backyard observatory in Courtenay B.C. He is also the unofficial coordinator of the Sandia Bolide Detection Network for British Columbia. An associate member of Canada’s Meteorites and Impacts Advisory Committee, Majden was awarded the 2006 Chant Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Ed’s work can be seen on the excellent web site he maintains: http://members.shaw.ca/epmajden/index.htm.
As the citation indicates, Ed’s interest in astronomy began early. Here is his own account of those early years from a recent e-mail: "As I recall, I was introduced to astronomy while still in public school (elementary school) in Regina. A young friend of mine that lived near me said there was a small observatory in Regina. I did not believe him at first but he offered to take me there. On the weekend we jumped on our bikes and peddled across town to a home on Elphinstone street near the Regina Exhibition grounds. Sure enough there was a small shed with a dome on top. We got our nerve up and knocked on the door of the home owner. We were met by John Hodges and he took us on a tour of his observatory and his basement workshop. We were very impressed, as the observatory housed a 12-inch compound reflecting telescope. The largest telescope I had ever seen.
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| Young Ed sometime in the 1950’s with a four-inch Brashear refractor purchased in 1910 specifcally to observe Halley’s Comet. The telescope went astray for some time and was later found again and restored. It was donated to the Regina group by Chief Justice J.T. Brown, and is now housed in a museum in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. |
"John Hodges, an executive member of the Regina Astronomical Society, invited us to attend one of their monthly meetings held at Regina College. I attended and was very impressed and became a student member in 1953 for the outrageous sum of 50 cents! John insisted that fees be kept low so anyone could join. An adult membership fee was $3.00 and for a family $5.00. The Regina Group was building a very nice observatory behind Regina College. This included a small club house that the group had scrounged from somewhere, the City I think. The first exciting observation was that of the transit of Mercury on the 14 November 1953. At this time we were also introduced to visual meteor observing which the Society was very active in. During my early high school years I was elected a member of the executive of the Club, later serving as secretary and in 1958 President. I did not complete my term in office as after high school I enlisted in the R.C.A.F. in June 1958. My astronomical activities came to a halt at this time because of airforce commitments and later a tour in Europe with NATO. I certainly did not lose my interest and became active again on my return from Europe."
Ed’s extensive education in astronomy has been entirely on his own and from his many contacts with amateurs and professionals in the field. His years in the Royal Canadian Air Force provided him with valuable training in electronic systems.
Another note from an internet posting by Ed gives some details of the asteroid that now bears his name:
"At H (absolute magnitude)=16.5, the asteroid’s size is probably somewhere between 1.6 and 2.7 km depending on its reflectivity. Assuming a bulk density of 2.7 g/cm3, that would put the mass somewhere in the range of 6 to 28 trillion metric tons. (That’s a lot of meteorites!) Of course, this asteroid is in no danger of hitting the earth with a perihelion distance nearly twice earth’s distance from the sun. But Flora-like orbits are near a resonance that ultimately puts them on Mars- and Earth-crossing orbits after millions of years."
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Simulated placement of the Sundial courtesy Bill Baran-Mickle) Click image for larger version. |
Russell M. Heglund, BPAA Secretary
The installation of a large bowstring Sundial on the berm to the north of the Ritchie Observatory in Battle Point Park, has been a BPAA goal for over a year. At the February Board Meeting the BPAA Board accepted a design proposed by Bainbridge Artist Bill Baran-Mickle. It will be approximately 10 feet high, set on a stone base, built of metal, and resemble a crescent moon. We plan to include a built-in analemma* feature and explanatory plaques on or near the base. Later, after installation, we hope to add a plaza around the Sundial, displaying solar and solar system information.
Now that we’ve approved the Sundial design, we need to raise the money to build and install it. We plan to apply for grants and look for individual contributions. Interested parties can contact BPAA through our web site (www.bpastro.org) or contact me directly at rmheglund@yahoo.com.
*A record of the sun’s position at the same time and place, as it changes throughout the year.
COLUMNS
- CALENDAR & NOTES: Marathons, Masters, and Ice
- SEEING STARS: Galileo
- PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE: Call to Service
IN BRIEF
- Messier Marathon Collage
- Government Work
- Weather Report
- BPAA Library
- Goodbye to Cathy and Paul
- Sundial
FEATURES
- Asteroid Majden
BATTLE POINT ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION
P.O. Box 10914, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
http://www.bpastro.org/
Ritchie Observatory, Battle Point Park
(206)842-9152
Officers
Harry Colvin, President
(206)842-6617, hcolvin1@comcast.net
Mike Browning, Vice President
(206)861-1630, bjjm@qwest.net
Russell M. Heglund, Secretary
(206)842-8758, rmheglund@yahoo.com
Frank Schroer, Treasurer
(206)842-1974, frank@schroer.net
Nels Johansen, Facilities Officer
(206)842-7968
Stephen Ruhl, Education Officer
(206)855-7883, education@bpastro.org
Malcolm Saunders, Chief Astronomer
(206)780-1905, astronomer@bpastro.org
Founders
Edward M. (Mac) Gardiner
President Emeritus/Founder
(206)842-3717, macg@bainbridge.net
Ed Ritchie, Chief Astronomer/Founder 1993-1997
John H. Rudolph, Facility Director/Founder 1993-2003
Newsletter Editor Vicki Saunders. BPAA Newsletter is a quarterly publication. Submissions due on the 10th of the month before the quarter begins. Query: newsletter@bpastro.org. Send photos and other graphics as separate files.