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December 2017Volume 43 Number 6a publication of the Minnesota Astronomical Society

In the pages of the Gemini

The Eclipse from near Mullen, Nebraska

By Carole and Ellie IsaksonOur first totality was amazing, breathtaking, eerie, beautiful, overwhelming

and more.These days, everything is subject to being overhyped—cars, diets,

clothing, the next snowstorm. When advertisers use words like “amazing” and “breathtaking,” we barely take notice. As an attorney who spends all day writing business agreements, I like to think that I have an excellent grasp of language and know how to pick the perfect word as needed.

But describing the total solar eclipse we saw in a perfect field in Nebraska? I am almost without words. Even “amazing” and “breathtaking” just don’t do it. We laughed, we shouted, we cried. But first, the story.

On Friday, August 18, we began our eclipse road trip. Seven of us (myself, my parents, husband, niece, teenage daughter Ellie and her friend) took two cars and headed to the tiny town (population 488) of Mullen Nebraska, located in the path of totality. We had booked three rooms at the Sandhills Motel in Mullen a year ago. The drive through the Sandhills was gorgeous, and we were delighted with the folks in Mullen and the small town’s events.

After a morning of adventurous canoeing, we attended the fire department’s 100th anniversary barbeque and dance. We enjoyed a pancake breakfast and ice cream social. We listened to a presentation in the community center on the eclipse and ate at the town’s Big Red’s café. All that was, of course, just the lead up to the main event on Monday, which was constantly on our minds. I have never watched so many weather reports or studied cloud cover and wind direction.

When we woke up on Monday morning, Mullen was in fog, with a forecast of 70% cloud cover, so off we went following the trail of RVs and cars heading west on Highway 2. An hour later we were out of the cloudbank and into nice weather. We turned off the highway onto a dirt road that led to a park and found a field with a few other cars parked on the edge. We unloaded, sat on the grass, and watched the spectacle unfold for the next couple of hours. Through the safety of our eclipse glasses we saw the black Moon slowly eat into the golden Sun, an amazing sight. But nothing compared to totality.

One Minute and Thirty-four SecondsBy Ellie Isakson…Page 2

The Eclipse from near Casper, WyomingBy Dale Eason…Page 3

Touched by a ShadowBy Erik Smestad…Page 4

The Eclipse from Fairmont, NebraskaBy Charles McElveen…Page 5

MAS Board MinutesBy Clayton Lindsey, president…Page 6

The Eclipse from Ashland, MissouriBy Mike Behnke…Page 6

The Eclipse from Madisonville, TennesseeBy Earl Truss…Page 7

The Eclipse from Grand Island NebraskaBy Venkat Parameshwaran…Page 8

2018 MAS Board ElectionsBy Valts Treibergs, board member at

large and elections chairman…Page 8Fall Astronomy Day 2017

By David Falkner…Page 9The Eclipse from Gallatin, Tennessee

By Brad Beisel…Page 9Eclipse Photos

By Rob Hubbard…Page 10MAS Patron Members…Page 11

ALCON 2018 UpdateBy Dave Falkner and Valts Treibergs,

co-chairs…Page 11

Minnesota Astronomical Society

GEMINI INFOEditorsBrian Litecky and Eugene Brown

WebmasterMAS Web Committee, chair Merle Hiltner, webteam@lists.mnastro.org

Forums AdministratorRuss Durkee

E-mail List AdministratorBob Brose

Monthly Meeting Presenter CoordinatorLauren Nelson

Gemini is published 6 times annually by the Minnesota Astronomical Society.

Electronic submissions for Gemini may be sent to:blitecky@gmail.com

padrebrown1934@gmail.com

Hardcopy items should be sent to:Minnesota Astronomical Society

Attn: Gemini P.O. Box 14931

Minneapolis, MN 55414

Send MAS membership dues, changes of address and S&T subscriptions to the MAS Membership Coordinator. Astronomy magazine subscriptions are available by contacting the MAS Treasurer.

MAS Board Members

President: Clayton Lindsey E-Mail: ClaytonLindsey@comcast.net Phone: 651-231-5619

Vice President: Andrew Fraser E-Mail: skyguydrew@gmail.com Phone: 651-436-6511

Treasurer: Heather Birch

Secretary: To be chosen by the board. E-Mail: secretary@mnastro.org Phone: Board-Member at Large: Valts Treibergs E-Mail: vtreibergs@gmail.com Phone: 651-762-8285Board-Member at Large: Jay Bruesch E-Mail: jay@plunketts.net Phone: 612-799-4434

2GEMINI • www.mnastro.org

One Minute and Thirty-four Seconds

By Ellie IsaksonA navy-blue sky stretched all around you, but the horizon resembled the time of

day when the Sun has just set. It gave off the feeling that you were in a snow globe because of the way a few stripes of color flowed all the way around the horizon. Venus was shining brightly, staying true to its name, “evening star.” Crickets were chirping, birds singing their night songs. The cows in the field right next to you came together in a group, believing it was time to come into shelter.

The Sun itself was gone, replaced with a pitch-black hole in the sky, as if someone had taken a pair of scissors and cut a hole in the navy-blue afternoon. The edge of the black was decorated with spikes of silver-white light, like a giant flashlight was shining behind it. On either side of the eclipse, a stripe of light stretched out into the night, twisting at the end, closely resembling a wrapper on hard candy. The eclipse itself seemed so much bigger than the Sun on its own. The people around you were hollering and cheering, celebrating being alive to witness this fantastic event.

Then it was over. The Moon moved a bit and for

an instant you could see the diamond ring before it got too bright. People packed up their things, birds fell silent, crickets stopped chirping, and the sky returned to its normal, bright blue You’ve already started planning your next trip in seven years to see the next total solar eclipse.

All in a minute and thirty-four seconds..

Everything we had heard was true. If anything, the hype was insufficient to do the actual event justice. The air temperature dropped 15 degrees and the wind came up. The sky darkened to such a deep, navy blue that Venus brightened the noontime “night” and a ring of yellow and red—a shade I’ve never seen—surrounded us on all sides, like an oddly colored sunset. The cattle in a nearby field rushed toward shelter, clearly thinking it was night. The crickets chirped, and in the sky a white ring of flames and dancing ribbons shone down on us, eliciting whoops of joy and tears alike. For one minute and 34 seconds we spun in circles and jumped and shouted and hugged and tried to just breathe it all in—and we haven’t stopped talking about it yet.

I cannot describe the totality sufficiently to do it justice. Let’s just say we are already planning for 2024.

December 20173

The Eclipse from near Casper, Wyoming

By Dale EasonDwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Plans are worthless, but

planning is everything.” I found that true about my eclipse plans. I started planning two years ago. At that time I thought about going to Casper, Wyoming, but was discouraged by reports that the motels were two times the normal rate and you had to book for four or five days. So I started looking for a cheaper alternative. Eventually I teamed up with two friends, Dan Holmdahl and Radu Gafencu, and we settled on going to Omaha, Nebraska, with our families the night before and then picking a place based on weather. We could go east to Missouri, west through Nebraska, or simply stay close and watch just south of Lincoln.

I researched online using Google Earth for possible sites and picked five locations along the path. Then we discovered that Dan had neighbors who grew up on a farm near Adams, Nebraska, just a few miles from the centerline. We asked and would be allowed to set up on the farm. So that was Plan A. There was a plan B for sites southeast and out west. All had to be within four hours of Omaha. I had planned to leave Sunday after lunch with my adult son and his wife and meet the rest of the group that evening in Omaha. It was a great plan until the weather forecast two nights before showed all of the sites with a high percentage of cloud cover.

I was backing out of the driveway on Sunday to start the trip, a bit dejected about unlikely success because of the forecasts that all chosen sites were cloudy. I figured all hotels close to any clear place were booked solid. When I put the cell phone in its holder on the dash for navigation, I noticed a message from Radu. He was in Rapid City, which had many vacant rooms. Whoosh, all

plans went out the window.Flashback. In March I had a family reunion with relatives

I had not seen in 30 years. One of them, Ann, asked if I knew about the eclipse. She has a daughter who owns a ranch near Casper, where she is going to watch the eclipse, and invited us to watch from there. I told her I planned to go to Nebraska because I did not think I could get a room cheap enough in Casper. So we dropped it there. I did not discuss it with Dan or Radu because neither of them wanted to take the many vacation days that a trip to the Casper area would require.

Now back to Sunday. It was less than 24 hours to the eclipse. I drove back into the garage and ran inside the house, where network access was better. I found that it was an eight-hour drive to Rapid City and about four hours from there to Casper. I booked a room in Rapid City. My son called his friend Quinn, who was meeting us in Omaha, to let him know about the change. Quinn was just starting his drive from Milwaukee. I tried to call Dan and Radu to let them know about the ranch observing spot. Dan was in Omaha already and decided to stay with plan A. Radu eventually answered. He was at Devils Tower but did not have a place picked for observing. He was glad to learn about the ranch site. We would link up somehow on eclipse day.

My cousin did not know we were coming and I did not know the location of the ranch. But Facebook is a great thing. I did not know her phone number but knew she kept a close watch on Facebook. I picked one of her previous Facebook posts to add comments, asking for her phone number and giving her a heads-up that we might be coming. Within the hour she replied and said we were all welcome. She gave us the ranch address on Wigwam Way. Quinn was on his way too but had 800 miles to drive to get to Rapid City by Sunday night.

We all arrived in Rapid City before midnight and agreed to leave the next morning at 5:30 for Casper. One small problem—the ranch address did not show up on Google Maps. Ann said it was on the MapQuest app. That turned out to be only partly true. It shows up on the mobile MapQuest app but not the desktop version we tried at first. But now we had directions to the ranch. Radu (whom I called at 5:00 a.m.) and Quinn would meet us there. It turns out that Radu and I would meet when we each stopped in Gillette. It was not planned but when I called him to let him know we were in Gillette, he was about a block away getting gas. We made it from Gillete with moderately heavy traffic, all going to the eclipse but at highway speed.

The ranch was down two small dirt roads; their long driveway was actually Wigwam Way. No wonder Google could not find it. The ranch house is on a high bluff overlooking the valley floor. We got there two hours before totality.

4GEMINI • www.mnastro.org

Plan X worked great. We had a wonderful time and I met relatives I did not know I had. Totality was wonderful, even with high cirrus clouds. Radu and family took many great pictures. Quinn is a professional camera man and shot with a new 8K digital camera at 48 frames per second. Totality consumed 28 gigabytes of memory. I’m hoping to see parts of that once it is processed. I saw excerpts on site that looked very good.

It is difficult to explain the experience of an eclipse to someone who has never seen it. I decided that the difference between a partial eclipse and a total is like the difference between winning a few dollars at a local bingo game and winning thousands at Powerball. At least I think that’s what it might feel like—I have never won that much. I have now seen totality and it is number one on my astronomical observing experiences list.

My son said: “It sounds trite now, but there is nothing that will prepare you for seeing a total eclipse in real time. The ambient light drops off faster and faster until the Sun appears to collapse into nothing, like a poorly modeled lens flare in a videogame.” My son is a film colorist and knows a lot about lens flare.

We watched the light grow darker and noticed the strange effect. The light just does not look normal. We all commented on it but could not figure out what it was. We felt the air get a lot colder. We enjoyed making Moon-shaped shadows through holes in paper or between our fingers. Just before totality I saw what I think were shadow bands racing across the valley floor. They looked like splotches of light on the sagebrush that was rippling

and shimmering for a brief instance. Then in what seemed like a magical moment the Sun was

gone and was replaced by a dark disk surrounded by a large, irregular, white region of the corona. It had two streamers at the top and one long streamer at the bottom. All else is a blur after that as I was mesmerized and forgot to take any more images than just one with my cell phone. A very short two minutes went by as we saw a red sunset all around us. The ring appeared again in too short a time and it was over. We all had giddy smiles, did high fives, took pictures of one another and looked at the images captured during the eclipse.

Then I noticed that the shadow of my arm clearly showed the hairs on my arm. At first I could not figure out why it looked strange. Upon reflection I think it is because normal shadows are diffuse, due to the size of the Sun. But with a small sliver illuminating the hair, the shadows are very distinct. At home I tried shining a small LED flashlight on my arm and got the same effect. Maybe that is partly why the light on either side of totality seems so strange. The shadows are different.

Soon it was time to start the 1,000-mile trip back home. We spent the night 800 miles from Casper with thoughts of sugarplums dancing in our heads. Total eclipses and long drives do strange things to your head.

Anyway, after all that planning I ended up in Casper (well, close) after all.

Touched by a Shadow

By Erik SmestadI drove to Casper, Wyoming, to experience and photograph

the total solar eclipse. I was all by myself with my truck packed to the brim with gear. It was a long and very scenic drive. The view of the Missouri river from I-90 is breathtaking. I was concerned with the amount of smoke I could see from Western South Dakota and Northern Wyoming. Luckily smoke ended up not being an issue. While I was a little ways out I happened to tune in to a radio station out of Casper. It was fun to listen to announcements they made, such as (paraphrasing from memory) “We’re sorry for the high hotel prices. We welcome you to come back again some other time and you will probably find a better deal.” and “So much variety we just might block out the Sun. Really, just wait. You’ll see.”

When I arrived at my hotel in Casper, waiting in my room was a bag of goodies for the eclipse from the hotel. It included a bumper sticker, Moon pie, orbit gum, pitch-black mountain dew, ISO-certified eclipse glasses and a packet of information.

aAfter scouting some more scenic possibilities I ended up

setting up in a clearing near the hotel parking lot. This allowed me to avoid any driving the day of the eclipse. A good-sized group was setting up there, and I am grateful for that because it made the experience even more incredible. While I was just starting to set up, someone mentioned that the hotel made sure to disable the parking lot lights from turning on during the eclipse (something I had not even thought of).

I set up my 10” Dob for visual use with a full-aperture solar filter. I allowed anyone who wanted to take a look and many people took me up on the offer. I told people if a line formed at my telescope I would consider it a good thing. Everyone was super nice.

I also set up my 110mm f/7 ED refractor for imaging with a full-aperture solar filter. I managed to capture nearly the entire duration of the eclipse, including a wide range of exposures during totality with no filter. I used a deep-cycle marine battery to power the telescope mount. I used Backyard EOS image-

December 20175

acquisition software on my laptop in order to automate the various exposures I wanted to take during totality so that I was free to experience totality rather than fiddling with my camera. The moments leading up to totality were incredible. It became noticeably cooler. A breeze started. The lighting became soft and unusual as it faded until totality started.

Experiencing totality was unforgettable. The reactions from the people were awesome. I could not help but exclaim “Wow” in amazement. I was not prepared for how emotional the experience is. As I looked around I could see Venus, and there was a glow along the horizon in all directions that looked like a nice sunset while we stood in the dark.

I did only naked-eye observing of totality and I have no regrets. The corona looked amazing and I was surprised how vivid and red the prominences looked to the naked eye. The only effect on nature I noticed was that as totality finished and it became light again there were crickets around the area that came out, thinking it was nighttime. As I was almost finished putting everything away, as I lifted up the mount to my Dob I heard the call of a raptor. I looked up to see an osprey fly right overhead.

People who have experienced a total solar eclipse often say that words cannot fully describe the experience. I have to agree.

The Eclipse from Fairmont, Nebraska

By Charles McElveenMy wife Donna and I took a road trip to totality. We arrived in

Omaha on Sunday afternoon after an uneventful drive down I-35. We checked in and began watching the weather. Reports came in over the course of the next several hours, and with each passing hour our hearts sank a little deeper. We had planned to commute into Fairmont for the event, but the reports forecasted heavy cloud cover for that part of Nebraska. We kicked around the idea of packing up and heading west to fairer skies. The drawback we faced was a very long drive there and back. Nebraska is a wide state, and “guaranteed” clear skies would have been an eight-hour trip each way. That alternative was out of reach for us. We decided to proceed as planned and head to Fairmont in the morning.

Having satisfied our coffee urge at McDonald’s, we headed west in the early morning hours. The rest stops were filling with those fortunate enough to be able to leave work and troubles behind. Watchers were laying down blankets, setting up chairs, erecting telescopes and aiming cameras. As my wife said, “It’s in the sky; there is no best place from which to see it.” We connected with Mark and Sherrie Job the night before, and they arrived at the Fairmont State Airport an hour and a half before us (he promised to save us a great spot). When we got there at 7:00 a.m. the skies were mostly overcast and conditions didn’t improve much as the 11:32 first contact time came and went. Mark had all his scopes and cameras going and we continued to hope for the best, even as we were steeling ourselves against the disappointment of a cloudy sky and an occluded eclipse. We kept our eyes on the clock as 1:06 loomed closer.

Well, miracle of miracles, a big blue hole appeared in the clouds to our southwest and it looked like the wind was blowing it our way. We hoped and hoped, and then the sky cleared around 12:50 as the hole slid over the Sun. I could sense the excitement of the 2,000+ people who were there with us. The hole was only so big, and we were making the mental calculations to determine if it would remain long enough for an unimpeded view of totality. As the clock moved closer to 1:06, second contact brought a temperature drop, and twilight began to descend. The excitement rose in proportion to the diminishing light; it was like feeling the inverse square law: for each drop in illumination I experienced a fourfold increase in excitement. A few clouds had moved in to the west just in time to reflect the

supersonic approach of the Moon’s shadow. It was like a curtain being pulled across the sky.

When totality arrived it was greeted by the contagious and collective gasp, sigh, clapping, outburst of the crowd. It was not like I had imagined at all. It was not like night as I had heard it would be; it was more like a 360-degree sunset, like being in a cosmic bowl where the zenith is occupied by the occluded Sun and the horizon all around is twilight. Here is where words fail me, as it has for many others who have seen this spectacle. I could only look up, mesmerized as our Moon slid over and covered the Sun. The Sun’s white-hot corona seemed to pulsate and undulate, dancing and waving this way and that until a couple scant minutes later it gave way to the diamond ring. The onset of totality was remarkable, and the crowd’s response to third contact’s diamond ring was even more so. This time there were shouts and clapping, as if we were seeing the eruption of our Sun for the first time. I wonder if there was a collective sense of relief that in fact the Sun had not been extinguished after all.

The Moon’s transit from totality to fourth contact followed the same inverse square law effect. As the Moon moved further from totality (with its corresponding increase in illumination), my excitement seemed to drop as well. People began packing up and driving out just minutes after totality. We heard the coughing and sputtering of airplane engines, and soon afterward they began to fly out, one after another. The McElveens and the Jobs? We camped out. We stayed. We reminisced and talked about “the next one.” We shared what we felt and saw as if the other had not been there. I felt glued to the spot, as if I could hold on to the experience longer by staying.

Our journey back to the hotel was uneventful, except that a one-and-one-half hour drive turned into a three-hour drive. It was okay. We were experiencing the event with millions of other people who had been attracted and now repulsed by totality. And we were all on the highway at the same time. We returned to our hotel and started watching the news specials; we were now fellow pilgrims and not spectators. This event became the grist for deep discussions on life, the cosmos, and our place and purpose in it. It helped me realize how small and insignificant our issues are on our little planet, drifting through limitless space. It gave me a sense of perspective that life is fleeting, and I need to seize every moment and hold on to it.

So where do I from here? That’s easy: Mazatlán in 2024. Clear skies!

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The Eclipse from Ashland, Missouri

By Mike BehnkeMy wife and I decided to turn the eclipse trip into a weekend

getaway in Kansas City, so we headed out Friday morning and had light traffic most of the way. We had planned to head up to St. Joseph on Monday, but the forecast there didn’t look too promising. Instead, it looked like the area halfway between KC and St. Louis had the best chance of being clear, so we headed east on Monday morning.

When we got to Columbia there were still cloudy skies to the north, some to the west and some above, moving east-northeast. It looked better to the south, so we drove toward Jefferson City. About 10 miles down the road there were only high, thin clouds above, so we found a little park in the town of Ashland where there was a nice crowd. We picked a great location with low cumulus clouds forming along an east-west line right in front of us, while the Sun was just to the south of that line.

It was interesting how as the sky got darker the cloud-forming stopped. I guessed we were close to the eclipse path; it turned out we were less than three miles to the south of the centerline. We had two minutes and 39 seconds of totality where we were, with only a thin layer of high cirrus clouds.

Neither my wife nor I had ever seen a total eclipse, and it was amazing! I’d thought about bringing my mount, scope and camera, but I’m glad we didn’t and instead mostly enjoyed the view. The accompanying photos were taken with my point-and-shoot camera while holding an eclipse-viewing card in front of it. I might have brought my tripod and DSLR and gotten better photos, but I am happy with how these turned out.

All in all, it was a fun trip.

MAS Board Minutes

By Clayton Lindsey, presidentSeptemberSite Reports: None. Board Discussion: Charles McElveen

resigned from the office of secretary due to increased time demands with his business and other non-profit board commitments. Charlie will continue to assist with the BSIG and the occasional volunteer task as his schedule allows. The board would like to thank Charlie for his service. The position will be filled by appointment by the board. MAS Library: An initiative was passed to discard and prune the MAS library holdings of unused and/or obsolete material. Surplus Equipment: An initiative was passed to gather a list of obsolete or surplus equipment for future disposal or sale. Clayton will facilitate the tasks.

OctoberSite Reports: None. Board Discussion: An initiative

passed to accept a designated donation for creating an imaging platform for CGO, with a provision that the increased insurance cost will not exceed $200.00 per year. Updated quotes will be requested. If the quotes exceed the larger expense, it will need to be reviewed by the board again. Wireless Security System: The board recommended a wireless security system to be investigated for CGO, to be included in the 2018 budget. An initiative passed to purchase for ELO a replacement security unit capable of more user capacity and increased functions, with the assumption that programming and installation will be donated. If more professional services or expenses are needed for the installation, the increased amount is to be included in the 2018 budget.

December 20177

The Eclipse from Madisonville, Tennessee

By Earl TrussThis is my story of our trip to Tennessee to see the total

solar eclipse. We went to Tennessee because Caron’s mother and sisters live in Morristown and we visited them before the eclipse. While planning the trip, since plane tickets to Knoxville are too expensive, I looked at flying to Atlanta, picking up a rental car and driving to Tennessee. But I found out that the plane we wanted stopped in Cincinnati, so we just got off there and drove down. We also took our seven-year-old granddaughter Ally with us.

We spent a couple of days at Cathy and Tom’s house, mostly in the pool. The weather was hot and humid with very clear skies. On the day of the eclipse, Cindy decided to go with us so we picked her up and left about 9:30 a.m. to drive to Madisonville, where we planned to see the eclipse. There was what I thought was pretty light traffic on the way, but Cindy said there were a lot of cars on the road. We arrived in Madisonville around 1:00 p.m., parked near a city park and arrived at our viewing site in the shade of a tree just as first contact started.

Since this was our first total eclipse, I brought only a DSLR camera with a solar filter, binoculars with solar filters, a tripod (which I forgot at Cathy’s house) and solar glasses for all of us so we could watch the eclipse instead of trying to take pictures. I took a few hand-held photos, which turned out to be way over-exposed, and Caron took a few with her phone.

We waited for totality while checking the partial phases every now and then. As the Sun shrank down to a smaller and smaller arc, the sky began to get darker and the night critters started to chirp. I heard a few birds calling. Then we watched as the Sun disappeared as seen in our glasses and we took them off. The sky was very clear and dark at this point in spite of spotty clouds earlier. The solar corona was clearly visible and I could see what looked like a broken ring of prominences appearing red and pink. I saw Venus quite far ahead of the Sun but did not look for other planets. Looking around the horizon, there seemed to be a 360-degree sunset—very pink sky and a few clouds. After a totality of 2:35, which seemed much shorter, a bright diamond ring appeared. As the Sun appeared I looked around the area and everything had an odd, silvery coloring. Overall, it was a wonderful experience.

Then the hell of trying to get home started. We left town around 3:00 p.m. It took us four hours to go twenty miles in a solid stream of cars. Then many cars turned north toward Knoxville and the drive was much more normal after that. We stopped for dinner and arrived back at Cathy’s house about 10:00 p.m. While we were passing over I-81 shortly before getting to Cathy’s house, eastbound cars were still packed with brake lights on. I wonder when those people got home.

8GEMINI • www.mnastro.org

2018 MAS Board Elections

B y Valts Treibergs, board member at large and elections chairman

Candidate for Treasurer: Heather BirchHeather has been a member of

MAS for four years but has been interested in astronomy her entire life, thanks to her Dad. She has an 8” Celestron that she is just learning to use and is working on some Astronomical League programs. During the day she is an accountant at a manufacturing company. For the last two years she has been the on the board as MAS treasurer and has made tremendous progress organizing the club’s books. Heather wishes to continue her efforts and keep contributing to MAS.

Candidate for Board Member at Large: Suresh Sreenivasan

Suresh grew up outside Chicago and has been an amateur astronomer for over 30 years. In college his school didn’t have an astronomy club, so he decided to start one. This became his first foray into public outreach. Although it was an urban campus, he held public viewing parties and monthly meetings that attracted over 100 students. Their newsletter was fittingly called Skyglow. Suresh built a 16” Dobsonian and helped his university’s physics department procure a 12.5” f/5 full-tube reflector, which was turned into a highly portable truss design for students to use.

Suresh joined MAS in 2004 and has been an ELO keyholder for many years. He attends MAS events such as Northern Nights Star Fest and Camping with the Stars. His portable 12” reflector helps him get out observing often. As he is been re-kindling his love of astronomy, he has been seeking ways to help MAS more.

Suresh was on the MAS Board from 2015 to 2016 and now is the Beginners Special Interest Group coordinator, a role in which he has revitalized the use of the Metcalf observing field. He volunteers for the MAS loaner team as well. He is the proud owner of 18 telescopes, many of them vintage scopes and rather rare.

Candidate for Vice President: Andrew FraserAndy is a long-time MAS member, being part of the early

founding of the Twin Cities Astronomy Club (TCAC). He stepped into the MAS vice-president role in 2016 when the previous vice-president left for a new job opportunity outstate. Andy has served previously on the board as president and as treasurer. He was the first editor of Gemini and is currently co-chair of the Belwin/Metcalf Committee. He is active in the loaner program and is helping with fundraising activities for ALCON 2018.Candidate For Board Member at Large: Robert Palmer

I am a recent MAS member but have been interested in astronomy for as long as I can remember. Growing up in rural Minnesota, I had dark skies on our horse farm. I earned a BS in Earth/Space Science Education in 1992 and a MS in Biology Education in 1996. I taught high school science for over 20 years. During that time I had the privilege of working with CalTech and JPL astronomers on a NITARP research project and founded a youth astronomy group at my school. I am now a PhD student in STEM education at the University of Minnesota. I am highly motivated to work with MAS to help advance astronomy and astronomy education, and I am currently collaborating with Sarah Komperud at the Bell Museum to develop a youth astronomy research group. My research is focused on using astronomy as a means to interest youth in STEM. These are the reasons why I am interested in becoming a MAS board member.

The Eclipse from Grand Island, Nebraska

By Venkat ParameshwaranA group of us (three adults, three kids and one puppy) went

to Grand Island, Nebraska. We left the southwest suburbs of the Twin Cities on Friday afternoon, stayed overnight in Sioux City, and got to Grand Island on Saturday around noon.

We spent the rest of Saturday at the Crane Trust Nature Center in Wood River and noticed that they had plans to host the eclipse on Monday. From there we went to Hastings and spent a few hours in the museum. They also had plans to host the eclipse.

We spent most of Sunday at Stuhr’s Museum in Grand Island, checking the exhibits. Mostly we hung around near the stage where they had music, brief talks and frequent announcements.

Our original plan was to be back at the museum by 6:30 a.m. and wait in the queue from eastbound highway 34 (this is what the museum recommended). When we showed up at 7:00 a.m. we had to go to southbound 281, where there were probably 500 cars (just a wild guess) ahead of us. They started letting cars in

at 8:00 a.m., and we had parked our car by around 8:40. Most people followed the queue, but there were the usual ones who cut into the queue on highway 281 and 34 east, trying to get in. Originally Stuhr’s announced that they would not let anybody in from westbound highway 34, but they changed the policy, probably to accommodate the huge backup.

Overall we were very pleased with the museum’s opening their facility. We went low tech. Besides eclipse glasses, all I had were binoculars with mylar film. I also had mylar film for my camera but did not take any pictures with it. Whatever pictures I took of the Sun was during totality using just my phone.

Our group had an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old and an eight-year-old, and it was a great experience for them. I am glad we made the trip. The side activities, both at the museums and around Grand Island, allowed us to have a wonderful weekend. We were late in planning and ended up renting via Airbnb. Our host was very friendly, and we will probably stay with her if we visit the city again..

December 20179

Fall Astronomy Day 2017

By David FalknerFall Astronomy Day opened at 1:00 p.m. on September 30. It

began with generally cloudy weather and even a sprinkle or two from time to time. As the afternoon progressed there were some significant breaks in the clouds that afforded nice views of the Sun through our H-Alpha and filtered telescopes.

Grand Prize Winner - Babe Snell

The talks during the afternoon distracted participants from chasing the holes in the clouds. They began around 3:00 with Parke Kunkle giving a two-part talk. The first part celebrated the Cassini mission by showing some of the most impressive images returned by the spacecraft and talking about their importance, followed by an update on the construction of the Bell Museum of Natural History and Planetarium. Parke gave a brief history of the Bell Museum and the Minneapolis Planetarium and showed how the new museum will tie the two together. He reviewed the layout of the new museum, the various areas with displays, how the huge dioramas were removed from the old Bell Museum and carefully transported to the new museum in order to preserve the wonderful background paintings. He also talked about the state-of-the-art planetarium being installed. Based on the progress so far, Parke thought the planetarium would be operational by January, although the museum is not slated to open until early summer 2018, just in time for ALCON 2018!

Bob Kerr followed Parke with an interesting talk about some of the exciting discoveries being made in our solar system. Bob went through history talking about the progression of astronomers making discoveries of planets and moons and gradually working toward the space age. He continued by listing some of the amazing discoveries made by the various space missions over the last four decades. He concluded his talk with a segment about

the search for Planet 9 or Planet X and the evidence that a large, Earth-like planet is lurking in the space beyond Pluto and how astronomers are conducting detailed searches in specific areas of the sky in the effort to find this planet.

After a supper break we returned to ELO and to skies that were more cloudy than clear. At 6:30 I gave an encore presentation from Camping with the Stars. I spoke about the Cassini-Huygens Mission, highlighting some of the impressive discoveries. I talked about the descent of the Huygens probe onto the surface of Titan and about some of the other moons orbiting Saturn, including Iapetus and Enceladus. I also talked about Saturn’s impressive rings and its atmospheric storms. I concluded the presentation by talking about the end of the Cassini mission and the demise of the spacecraft in Saturn’s atmosphere.

During my presentation the clouds parted somewhat and the Moon, Saturn and several deep-sky objects became visible. The public went to view through the telescopes while the door-prize drawing was set up.

2nd Place Winner - Richard Rapatt

Around 8:15 we started the door-prize drawing. There were numerous prizes available for both young and old. Richard Rapatt was the second-place winner of the Celestron 12x60 binoculars and a book on binocular stargazing. Babe Snell was the grand-prize winner of a Meade 4.5” Newtonian telescope.

The skies continued to provide some large holes in the clouds for viewing some of our favorite objects, like the Hercules Globular Cluster, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Ring Nebula. The temperature was cool enough to keep the bugs down but still comfortable for viewing. By 10:00 p.m. the clouds moved in for good. We wrapped up a successful Astronomy Day despite the fickle weather.

The Eclipse from Gallatin, Tennessee

By Brad BeiselMusic City USA, aka Nashville, Tennessee, was the biggest

city in the path of totality, but it wasn’t my first choice to view the eclipse. With accommodations at Casper, Wyoming, booked ten months out, and not wanting to go with a group this time, and with plenty of direct flights to Nashville, we decided to go there. After all, if we got clouded out I could drown my sorrows in bourbon and county music. But my partner and I found a great viewing site, got lucky with the weather, and had a honky-tonk good time.

Nashville was in full-blown eclipse fever when Mary Jo and

I arrived on Saturday the 19th. It was obvious all around that the city had been planning. Souvenir posters, hats and t-shirts were everywhere, and there were more eclipse-related music events than you could shake a fiddle bow at. You could even watch it from the grounds of the Grand Ole Opry while listening to Wynona Judd if you were so inclined, but we were not. Instead, Jo and I kept our music adventure and eclipse viewing separate, and we think we got the best of both worlds. We took in the music bar mob scene on Broadway and ended up at the late show of the Grand Ole Opry.

We spent the next day exploring possible sites just north of Nashville where totality would be longer and clouds might be

10GEMINI • www.mnastro.org

fewer. The town of Gallatin checked out well—almost perfectly centered in the umbral path with two minutes 40 seconds of totality. We made tentative plans to attend the “Eclipse Experience” at nearby Triple Creek Park. They had over ten-thousand sign-ups from around the world and were having (of course) a music festival of their own. It was a big place and they appeared to be well organized, so we thought it looked great. Then Jo chatted up a local and learned that at the big house on the top of yonder hill Kenny Brown, the head of the local Lion’s Club, was opening his estate for an eclipse-viewing fundraiser, and several folks with fancy equipment were going to be there. For a suitable donation we could join them and help ourselves to a homemade barbecue with all the fixing. We looked at the site and were convinced: a grassy knoll at least 200 feet above the surrounding area with a huge panorama looking south and west. By my map, the theoretical center of the eclipse path practically went through Kenny’s house!

We woke up next morning to our third hot day in a row, but it looked like it would be mainly cloud-free. The local news predicted huge traffic jams for eclipse day, so Jo and I left our Nashville motel around 8:00 a.m., thinking it might take us two hours to make the 35-mile drive to Gallatin. But it was a piece of cake and we arrived so early we decided to kill some time in town before getting to Kenny’s around 10:00. Once there it was true southern hospitality, with around 100 locals and out-of-towners who ranged from experienced eclipse chasers with computer-assisted astrophotography setups to first-timers who had to be told when you did and didn’t need to wear the cardboard glasses.

By the time the Moon had taken a sizable bite out of the Sun, everyone was well fed and ready for the big show. The temperature was in the mid 90s and the sky was mostly clear, with some cumulus clouds and a bit of haze. As the sky slowly darkened I was amazed at how even a quarter of the Sun gives off so much light and heat. But by 15 minutes to go you could feel the temperature was dropping and it seemed like a breeze had come out of nowhere. By 10 minutes to go we could tell that the clouds would miss us during totality and we let out a

sigh of relief. At about eight minutes to totality, Venus popped out and birds were singing. I wanted to watch the 180-degree sunset and see if I could catch the umbra sweep in from the west. The south and west glowed beautifully in the final minutes and it started getting darker by the second. People gasped and cried out. I looked up unprotected and there it was—a black hole in the sky where the Sun had just been. Through binoculars the corona was bright and beautiful but without any visible flairs. I could see what I assumed were Mars and bright stars that I should have been able to identify if I had my wits about me, but I didn’t and just took it in blissfully. Totality ended with a brilliant burst of Bailey’s Beads and then reality reasserted itself.

Comparing this eclipse with the 1991 eclipse I saw in La Paz, Mexico, I would say the 1991 eclipse was more visually dramatic, with multiple flairs starkly visible in the bone-dry, crystal-clear air. The sunset effect was more pronounced at Gallatin, presumably because of the difference in air quality. The emotional effect was different for me as well. In 1991 I was a first-timer with a group of dedicated Minnesota astro-geeks like me, but this time I was with my non-astronomer partner and a mix of good-hearted folks from all over. And sure, 27 years of life does change a person. In any case, where the 1991 eclipse was a heart-stopping mind trip, 2017 was more of an emotional and aesthetic journey.

We packed up and had a quiet ride back to the hotel. Then there was more sightseeing, more music and another great meal. It was lucky that we chose to get away from Nashville for the eclipse, as the city got mainly clouded out. But I’m glad of my choice of the Nashville area and wouldn’t mind going back. The city’s economy is booming, the music scene is fantastic and there are lots of interesting things to do and see. Of particular interest to me was the world’s only full-sized replica of the Parthenon in Centennial Park, next to the Vanderbilt University campus. Seeing that made me think of old Pythagoras, who thought that the movement of celestial objects created a sort of perfect harmony—the “music of the spheres.” Exactly right. I’ll remember this as the Music City Eclipse. .

Eclipse Photos

By Rob HubbardAll photos were taken with a Lumia 850 phone sitting at the

eyepiece of a 26mm Plossl looking through a Celestron 4SE with an Astrozap solar filter, except during totality.

All photos are reversed left to right.The blue tinge is from a thin layer of high clouds. The early

photos, prior to the cloud arrivals, are nice and white. I couldn’t adjust the blue out after they arrived. The clouds were thin enough that I couldn’t see them when using just eclipse glasses but thick enough that only Venus could be seen during totality.

December 201711

MAS Patron Members

Patron memberships are available to those who wish to contribute a little extra to support MAS activities. Patron memberships are established by constitution at 2-1/2 times the Regular membership rate—currently $65 annually for a patron membership. The $39 additional contribution is tax deductible. Patron memberships help fund equipment acquisitions, facility improvements, outreach activities and more. We would like to thank the following patron members as of October 28.

Hytham Abu-SafiehTom and Arlene AlmScott AndersonStephen AnthonyJack AtkinsSteve BaranskiGreg BarilMichael BeeMichael BehnkeBradley BeiselJamie BergstromScott BilleadeauWayne BolineDavid BrandtNatalie BrosharRev. Eugene BrownCharles BruenJay BrueschJonathan BurkhardtBill BynumKen CarlsonJoshua CarlyleKurt CasbyJames CeglaJesse ChaseStuart ChastainCara ClarkDeane ClarkMark ConnollyMark CooksonKelda Cutler

Mike DanielsGary DavisPaul and Jolie DavisMary Beth Smith & Ted DeMattiesAdam & Katherine DuckwallRussell DurkeeWilliam EggersJim ElmquistSteve EmertDennis FaithDavid FalknerRobert FarrellJohn FisherJoseph FisherPatricia FlugaurRobert FoucaultAndrew FraserPaul GadeMark GarnerJoseph GarrickJim GerrityErik GisselquistWilliam GlassMartin GodfreyMartin GormansonSteven GrabarkiewiczZdenko GrajcarLawrence GrayJere Gwin-Lenth

Dale HagertJake HairrellBrandon HamilGreg HaubrichThomas HawkinsonMichael HaydockJonathan HaymanVictor HeinerAngela Heins FamilyBryan HelmerJohn HillMerle HiltnerGary HoaglundLauren HoenMichael HopfenspirgerRobert HubbardKen HugillGeorge HulmeAnton JachimDick JacobsonGale JallenLen JannuschMark JobChelen JohnsonJulie A. Y. JohnsonKurt JohnsonMichael JohnsonJerry JonesMichael KauperKenneth KerrickJim Knudsen

David KockenWilliam KockenKristoffer KopitzkeParke KunkleMary LahrJonathan LarsonThomas LarsonChristine LaughlinBob LeaLouis LeichterRodney LiebegPamela LiggettClayton LindseyBrad LinzieWalid MaalouliDavid MaloneJohn MarchettiBruce McDonaldRon McLaughlinJavier MedranoMatt & Jessica MeyerGerald MillerScott MorganBrian NelsonJeff NiblackAlan NootDouglas OinesThor OlsonChristopher PaolaMark PetchenikKirby Richter

Stephen RiendlEric & Rebecca RobinsonRoy Cameron SarverPaul SchalegerDean SchantzenJames SchenzLoren SchoenzeitDavid SchultzKristopher SetnesDan Siers, Sr.David SiskindDavid SjogrenDennis SjogrenAl SmithDavid TostesonValts TreibergsDavid TruchotSteve UlrichBob VangenDavid VenneArthur Von EschenLawrence WaiteMark WaldofPaul WalkerFred WallGreg WelchLee WolfsonBrian WrayJohn ZimitschNeal Zimmerman

ALCON 2018 Update

By Dave Falkner and Valts Treibergs, co-chairsWe’ve made a lot of progress since our last update.Our venue for the convention is the Hilton Hotel and

Convention Center, conveniently located near the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport and the world-famous Mall of America. Rooms are now available in the block reserved for ALCON 2018 for only $139 per night.

In addition we will be showcasing our world-class outreach facility, Eagle Lake Observatory, with its two observatories and classroom facilities.

We have started gathering a great line-up of speakers. Notable speakers who have already accepted our invitation include:

• Dr. Pamela Gay—co-host of the “Astronomy Cast” podcast and the director of technology and citizen science for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

• Bob Berman—astronomer, author and “Strange Universe” columnist for Astronomy Magazine

• Dr. Phil Plait—a.k.a. the “Bad Astronomer”—is an astronomer, writer and blogger

• Bob King—known as AstroBob—is an amateur astronomer, writer, educator and photographer

We will be having nightly field trips to Eagle Lake Observatory. There will also be field trips and guided tours to the

newly opened Bell Museum of Natural History and Planetarium, the Tate Laboratory of Physics at the University of Minnesota with it’s 10” Warner & Swasey Telescope built in 1896, and the Science Museum of Minnesota. We are also putting together field trips for the non-astronomer, which will include the arts, shopping and family events.

For a limited number of attendees we will be providing field trips to our Joseph J. Casby Observatory for viewing through our 10” TMB refractor.

We have a logo for the pin design and as a graphic for T-shirts. Thanks to Dave Venne for helping with the design.

In the near future we’ll be looking for additional volunteers to commit to helping with the convention. Look for additional updates in Gemini and the forums.

How to pay your dues December 2017 Volume 42 Number 6Your MAS membership expires at the beginning of the month shown on your membership card. You will be notified of your renewal

by e-mail two months prior to expiration and by USPS mail the month of your expiration. You may renew by mail or online using PayPal. By mail: Send your payment to the MAS membership coordinator at: Minnesota Astronomical Society, Attn. Membership coordinator, P.O. Box 14931, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Make checks payable to MAS. Current annual membership rates when paying by check are: $26 regular, $13 student, and $65 for patron memberships. You may renew for one year or for two years at a time. Online using PayPal: PayPal charges a fee, so MAS includes a voluntary contribution in the PayPal membership rates to offset that fee. Membership rates us-ing PayPal are $27.50 regular, $13.75 student and $67.25 patron. The membership form and the procedure for joining or renewing using PayPal may be found at www.mnastro.org/members/join/. The bimonthly Gemini newsletter is included with your membership online as a downloadable .pdf file. Printed copies of Gemini are available as an optional subscription, priced at $9 per year ($9.50 when using PayPal).

To Renew Your Sky and Telescope Subscription

MAS members are offered subscriptions to these magazines at a club discount. The S&T discount subscription is $32.95 per year ($34.25 when using PayPal). Astronomy magazine discount subscriptions are $34 for one year or $60 for two years ($35.50 and $62.25 when using PayPal). New subscriptions to S&T at the member discount must be sent to MAS for processing. Send new subscriptions or renewals with your MAS membership to the P.O. box listed above. You may if you wish perform subsequent subscription renewals di-rectly with S&T by mail or by phone with Sky Publishing at 1-800-253-0245. This method is especially beneficial if you wait until your subscription is about to expire to avoid missing any issues. Astronomy magazine renewals at the club discount must go through MAS. Renewal information may be found at the same membership links listed above.

How to Subscribe to MAS e-mail Distribution Lists

MAS uses Web discussion forums and e-mail distribution lists for timely communications. We highly recommend that you subscribe to both the Web forums and the MAS general distribution e-mail list.

To subscribe to the MAS e-mail list visit: lists.mnastro.org/mnastro/listinfo, click on the MAS list link and follow the subscription instructions. There is a general list (MAS), an outreach list and lists for other special purposes.

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