JDCP ITD-DCDmiT A L A C H U A A I 1 I O N O M Y C L U t

AUGUST T ? ? 3 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^

THE ALACHUA ASTRONOMY CLUB MEETS THE 2ND TUESDAY OF EACH MONTH AT 7:30 PM. AT THE DOYLE CONNER BUILDING ON S. I .MTH ST. AND 20 Til AVE. EVERYONE IS INVITED TO ATTEND MEETINGS. STARPARTIES. AND OTHER CLUB ACTIVITIES. NO EQUIPMENT j NEEDED. CALL A CLUB OFFICER FOR INFO.

President: Gilbert Bernardo 190+9350340 BRANFORD, FL i Vk« President/Alcon Mark Cowan 375-2564 GAINESVILLE, FL

Treasurer Doug Richards 332-431? GAINESVILLE, FL PubBcly: Pamela Mydock 495-9166 GAINESVILLE, FL

FlmMght Editor Chuck Broward 475-1014 MELROSE, FL Hi dag 38 mbi North 12 dug 21 mbi SY «it (more or k i t )

AUGUST PROGRAM I MEETING—WEDNESDAY NOT TUESDAY! Because of the possibility of a major meteor shower the AAC

will meet at Dale Niederriter's house a bit after SUNSET. Bring lawn chairs, bug repellent, snacks, your favorite astronomy goodies, and perhaps even a friend! If you get lost, call Dale at 495-9677.

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PLEASE WELCOME NEWCOMERS AND VISITORS' The Club may have several visitors this Wednesday. Please take

them In tow and make them comfortable.

rHQTPGRAPHINCTHEPERSElps What you need : (1) Camera with either T or "B" setting. (2) Tripod (3) Cable release with a locking screw. (4) Film ISO 200 to 400

Set your camera on a tripod pointed toward the area of the sky where you expect to see meteors.

Set the focus a t Infinity and set the Ids fully open. Set the shutter on T or B and open the shutter with the cable

release and lock. Then wait. If you think a meteor has crossed your field of

view, you might wnat to close the shutter and take another frame. At any rate, consider the fogging of your film which will occur

in our North Florida skies in 10 to 30 minutes (in a dark sky location, city lights will cause fogging sooner. Ed). Have Funlll

Gilbert Bernardo, President NOTEl when taking astrophotos, take a daylight picture or a flash picture first, so that the photo processor can use that frame to line the film up in the processing machine.

REVIEW-THE EARTH CENTERED UNIVERSE—A WINDOWS SKY PROGRAM The EARTH CENTERED UNIVERSE b a shareware planltarium

program that runs in the WINDOWS user interface. I downloaded it from Socrates. As free shareware it is fully usable although "blipping" on a object provides just computed d a t a on the object because the related d a t a base is not present. You get that for a reasonable $35. Another $20 gets you a SAO cata log (mag 9.5). Elsewhere In the Firstiight is a demo starmap .

The display is not as pretty as SKYGLOBE 3.0. But you have more options with ECU . The ability to use the mouse to select portions of the sky is a delight. The program provides lots of Information reasonably quickly. I would like to see a bit more flexibility in setting up the display...if you evoke grids, labels, and deepsky objects the screen gets awfully cluttered.

If the program is accurate (visually it seems to be) it is well worth sending the author his money. You will be seing ECU star maps In FIRSTLIGHT until something better for the low price comes along. Chuck, Editor. LOWCOST FILTERS FOR VISUAL WORK

Several years ago SKY and TELE magazine described filter swatches available from two companies for next to nothing. I wrote them and promptly received A LOT of filters. I will demo them at a upcoming meeting. Write: The Great American Market Jacksonville Stage Lighting 826 N.Cole Ave 640 North Lane Ave Hollywood Ca 90038 Jacksonville, Fl 32205 (GAMcolor filters $2.00) (Lee Filters free)

ph 904 781-6416

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STARS Limi t: 4.

• -2 to 0.4 • 0.5 to 1.4 • 1.5 to 2.4 • 2.5 to 3.4 . 3.5 to 4.4

EEP SKY Limit: 12.0 Galaxy Globular CI Open CI Bright Neb Planetary Other

"The Earth Centered Universe" from Melrose Fl UTC: 1993/08/04003:53 RA=20hl4.um Dec=-2£.O0' Local Time: 1993/08/03023:59 Field = 115.b. Aznn = I 65.47' Alt= + 33."4'

CELESTRON C-8, Orange tube, many accys, tripod, trunk, more Asking $800. Call Etel Castillo, High Springs 454-1801

CELESTAR 6 Telescope by Fecker. Tripod, Electric drive. A most unusual telescope. (Editor has a foto and cover letter will bnng to the meeting). Call Henry A. Setlak. Ocala, Fl 904-629-5884.

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8QQK REVIEWS ANP THINQS,.. A recent trip to a relative's in Georgia who happen's to be a

foster parent of a dozen or so kids prompted us to stop at a cut-rate bookstore in Valdosta, Georgia (one of those manufacturers outlet places). Some of the kids were interested in the sky, so we were gonna provide them with books.

365 STARRY NIGHTS, An Introduction to Astronomy for Every Night of the Year, by Chet Raymo proved to be quite a bargain at $3,951 (I told you It was a cut rate bookstore).

Raymo blends drawings, hints and tips on observing techniques, historical tidbits old and new in page after page of interesting reading that should lead all but the dullest reader into the backyard for a peak at what they have been seeing In the book.

Consistant reading of this book should turn the reader into someone who can find their way around the night sky with respectable ease. Raymo even includes correct pronounciations for various sky objects.

This is a fun book, not only for the newcomer, but for those of us who like to share the sky with others. It is a great gift book, not because of slick imagery, but because it most probably will be used, not just tucked away on the book shelf.

Buy it even if it costs mor e than $3,951

NIGHTWATCH An Equinox Guide to Viewing the Universe, by Terence Dickinson, was recommended to me by Dale Niederriter because I have problems using the colored-print-on -blue-or-black-background-star-charts that seem so prevelant today.

Dickinson has put together a nicely done if somewhat overpriced general astronomy book that has one feature worth paying for...uncluttered, wide open, mostly black letters on white background chartslll Hip Hip Hooray, I can see them at night, under a red light.

Dickinson includes a number of deep sky objects in each chart, double stars, and includes many useful tidbits of information. Object names are in black. Descriptions in blue ink, and data you probably would use only to hopellessly bore someone Is In red Ink. The black and blue ink show up nicely under my red lights.

The twenty-one charts in the book seem designed to entice one to head outdoors and look up. I paid $24 for this book, and if I divide the cost by the number of charts I don't wince very muchl

DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT BOOKS OR MATERIALS you have seen or enjoy. Please write It up and send It to your FIRSTLIGHT.

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ALACHUA ASTROMONY CLUB PERSONAL DATA SHEET

NAME ASTRONOMY RELATED INTERESTS ADRESS (RANK IN ORDER OF INTEREST)

(FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE OPTIONAL) PHONE OCCUPATION MARITAL STATUS KIDS?

ASTRONOMY OR SCIENCE RELATED SKILLS/EXPERTISE THAT YOU MAY HAVE

ASTRONOMY OR SCIENCE RELATED RESOURCES/TOOLS/EQUIPMENT/MATERIALS

ANY OTHER NON-ASTRONOMY RELATED CASUAL OR PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS OR SKILLS

PLEASE RETURN THIS AT THE NEXT MEETING OR MAIL TO: JOHN BRANDORFF 5610 NW 29TH TERRACE GAINESVILLE, FL 32606

DON'T DELAY RETURNING THIS. WE HOPE TO FINISH COMPILING THIS INFORMATION FOR THE "ALACHUA ASTRONOMY CLUB RESOURCE GUIDE" BY THE SECOND OR THIRD WEEK IN SEPTEMBER. A FREE COPY WILL BE AVAILABE TO ALL THOSE WHO RESPONDED TO THIS FORM.

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Chart by George Lovi

Late June 11p.m. Early August 8 p m Early July 10 p.m. Late August 7 p m Late July 9 p.m. Early September 6 p.m."

STANDARD TIME

STARPARTIES AND THINGS AUGUST 11 PERSIED WATCH AT DALES, CALL 495-9677 AUGUST 13-14 STELLAFANE CONVENTION AT SPRINGFIELD VERMONI OCTOBER-CHIEFLAND AND GEORGIA STARPARTIES INFO COMING NOVEMBER 12-14 LAKE KISSIMMEE STATE PARK CALL GEORGE AYCRIGG AT 813-696-1812

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The 6"-F10. It was determined that a sufficient time had passed tc

fully evaluate the usefulness of my Beral coated mirror. / though the coating looked great, the figure of the mirror 1 to be reworked. Gilbert had suggested that he would help n perform the necessary "operations" to get the mirror in goc shape and we agreed to do this on Saturday, July 17th, and to spend the day to get it right.

Before we could get started with the actual grinding and polishing , I had to do three things: Remove the mirro from it's mounting, remove the Beral coating, and to remove the pitch from the tool used for final polishing. While th tool was in the freezer I made an attempt to remove the mir ror from it's mounting.

It took at least a half an hour to carefully cut into the hardened caulk that held the mirror in it's mounting. Qie to the nature of the way the mirror was secured, I had t actually use a hacksaw as a practical way to cut through th caulk and the mirror finally broke free without damage to i surface.

To remove the Beral coating from tha mirror, I obtainec a 10"-diameter glass pie dish which was used to contain a small amount of Lye solution: 1-6 oz., glass of water and 1-tablespoon of Red Devil lye carefully sprinkled over the surface of the water and then thoroughly mixed. The mirroi was placed upside down, that is, coated surface down into t lye solution. One could see the action of of the lye on tt coating right away. Within five minutes most of the coatii was removed. I let the mirror stay in the lye solution foi at least a half an hour before removal and thoroughly rins-ing it with cold water.

With regard to the tool and after several hours in the freezer, I took a screwdriver and carefully chipped the pit away from the tool and gathering the bits and pieces on a newspaper so that they could be easily put into the pitch j. The process also took a half an hour. I was now ready for work before Gilbert arrived to rework the mirror.

We spent the entire morning using 5 micron abrasive tc remove several scratches and to generally get the mirror ready for fine polishing. We took advantage of looking at the reflection of the filament of a light bulb and could ea ily see that the edges of the mirror were not thoroughly polished. As you looked at the reflected filament, it was quite bright in the central portion but not so on the edges

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of the mirror. Grinding continued until the brightness was equally so across the entire diameter of the mirror.

After a break for lunch, we returned to the task of reworking the mirror and this time to polish it with Cerium Oxide. A pitch lap was prepared in accordance with estab-lished procedures and at the proper moment the mirror was placed over the lap to make sure that the lap conformed to the surface of the mirror. A weight of about 10 pounds was used to allow the mirror to sink into the lap a bit. A grid of approximately l"-squares was placed between the lap and the mirror before the weight was applied.

Thin watery solutions of Cerium Oxide were used during the polishing process and the entire afternoon was used to make sure that the surface of the mirror was properly pol-ished.

Towards the end of the afternoon, Foucault tests were performed to see where we were. Our first test revealed that we had an oblate spheroid and additional polishing would be required to remove the apparent hill that could be seen in the mirror.

Continued Foucault tests, interspersed with selective polishing techniques, finally produced a surface on the mirror that would be ready for it's reflective coating,

Many, many thanks to Gilbert, I think I now have a mirror that when coated should produce very fine images in the 6"-Fl0. And we shall see! /j^c^ta^

EDITOR'S CORNER... Enclosed In the FIRSTLIGHT Is a d a t a sheet for you to till out

and mail to John. Just pop the sheet loose from your newsletter and tri-fold It, stick a stamp on It and mall. Or bring It to next meeting. A club d a t a base could be very handy.

MEMBERS HELPING MEMBERS. I sometimes think that astronomy skills are passed from one to another; not learned from just reading. Read George's commentary re the final figuring of his mirror. Lots of us can benlflt and learn by sharing sky-related activities. Come to meetings, starparties, and workshops. My Gosh, volunteer your skills and talents. It could be fun.

HELPI FIRSTLIGHT needs articles, drawings, notes. Ideas, e tc . By print, by fax, by modem, by disk. Thanks In advance .

SEPTEMBERS PROGRAM Is scheduled to be a roundtable. Be thinking about It.

Good skies. Chuck yr Editor

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ALACHUA ASTRONOMY CLUB FIRSTLIGHT EDITOR C. S. BROWARD, HI

RT2 BOX 2915 MELROSE. FLORIDA 32666

phone 904-475-1014

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