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San DiegoAstronomy AssociationCelebrating Over 40 Years of Astronomical Outreach

Observatory (619) 766-9118http://www.sdaa.org

A Non-Profit Educational AssociationP.O. Box 23215, San Diego, CA 92193-3215

April 2012

SDAA Business MeetingNext meeting will be held at:3838 Camino del Rio North

Suite 300San Diego, CA 92108

April 10th at 7pmNext Program Meeting

April 18, 2012 at 7pmMission Trails Regional Park

Visitor and Interpretive Center1 Father Junipero Serra Trail

CONTENTS

Date: 18 April 2012Speaker: International Dark Sky Association

Topic:

IDA is the recognized authority on light pollution. Founded in 1988, IDA is the first organization to call attention to the hazards of light pollution, and in 22 years of operation our accomplishments have been tremendous.

We promote one simple idea: light what you need, when you need it. We know some light at night is necessary for safety and recreation. We work with manu-facturers, planners, legislators, and citizens to provide energy efficient options that direct the light where you want it to go, not uselessly up into the sky.

April 2012, Vol XLX, Issue 4Published Monthly by the San Diego Astronomy Association$2.50 an issue/$30.00 yearIncorporated in California in 1963April Program Meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1March Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Apri l Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4SDAA Contac t s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5J u l i a n S t a r f e s t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6ASIG Galler y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7We b O n l y - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -The Hills of San Diego County.....9The P lanet in the Mach ine. . . . 11

Newsletter DeadlineThe deadline to submit articles

for publication is the15th of each month.

TDS Combination Change Reminder

On the morning of February 12th, the combination padlocks were changed. This will not affect the warming room. Contributing members should refer to their newsletter notification email for both combinations (existing & future).

April Program Meeting

San Diego Astronomy Association

SAN DIEGO ASTRONOMY ASSOCIATION NEWS AND NOTES, APRIL 2012

SDAA Board of Directors Monthly Business Meeting Minutes13 March 2012-Unapproved and Subject to Revision

1. Call to order. The meeting was called to order at 7 pm with the following board members in attendance: Michael Vander Vorst, President; Bill Carlson, Vice President; Ed Rumsey, Treasurer; Jeff Herman, Corresponding Secretary; Kin Searcy, Director; Direc-tor; Kin Searcy, Director; Bob Austin, Director. Member in attendance was Greg Farrel.

2. Approval of Last Meeting Minutes. Approved

3. Priority / Member Business. Greg Farrell presented photos of some minor brush he wished to remove at his pad. Board ap-proved the removal.

4. Standard Reports.

Treasurer’s Report Approved.

Membership Report The membership total is now 529, gain of 5.

Site Maintenance Report Nothing to report.

Observatory Report. Nothing to report.

Private Pad Report • Mark Smith provided a two-year pad usage analysis for the Board to use in determining compliance with SDAA pad usage requirements. • Waiting list is small. Notices of under-usage will be sent over President’s signature.

Outreach Committee Report. All is well. With arrival of DST, school star parties will taper off in a month. Summer camping events will start soon.

Program Report. The draft schedule for 2012 is as follows: March – Paul Etzel April – Philip Blanco May – Jerry Hilburn June – International Darksky Association July – TBD Aug – Jerry Hilburn September – Justin Rennilson - Surveyor 1 October – TBD November – New Board nominees. Needs to be moved to Nov 15 or other November date. Kin checking room availability.

NASA Robotic Observatory. Weather page stopped updating 2/14. Replaced modem – worked. Page stopped again 2/28. Hard drive damaged an in need of replacement. Bob will find a replacement. Wireless router system also needs significant upgrades. Thought to be about $500. Bill will price complete upgrade. Perform the work no later than the May work party.



AISIG Report. Next meeting at Scott Dixon’s – tour observatory. Year’s schedule is posted on the website.

Governing Documents Report. Nothing to report.

Newsletter Report. Nothing to report.

Website Report. Program meeting information was posted. Looking for timely submissions. An e-mail is best format. We had an incident with PayPal and failure to return to the SDAA site. Ed will get details.

Site Master Plan Committee. Nothing to report.

Merchandise Report. Nothing to report.

5. Old Business. None

6. New Business. • Lightning Brewery Event presented and is on. • Certificate of Deposit – extend for 12 months and add $5,000. Open passbook for remainder. • Insurance – purchase 2 years of D&O. Continue with liability insurance. • 2013 Banquet – Same venue. 10% reduction desired.

7. Adjournment. Meeting adjourned at 7:58 pm.

Dates set for KQ Ranch and Wm Heise County Park. They are as follows:

Heise KQ Ranch 5/19 5/26 6/23 6/9 7/14 7/28 8/11 8/25 9/8 9/22 10/6 10/20



April 2012 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1

2

3

4 Stars in the Park

5

6

Pazaaz Star Party

Full Moon

7

8

9

10

SDAA Business Meeting

11 Pack 295

12

Alpine Academy Julian Charter

13

Stars at Mission Trails

14

Girl Scouts Jamul

15

16

17

18

SDAA Program Meeting

19

20

Stars at Sycamore

Canyon

21

Scout Fair

New Moon

22

23

24

25

AISIG Meeting

26 Pacific View Charter School

27

Del Mar Heights Elementary

28 Astronomy Day

29

30

1 North University Branch Library

2 Stars in the Park

3

4 Fletcher Elementary



SDAA ContactsClub Officers and Directors

President Michael Vander Vorst [email protected] (858) 755-5846Vice-President Bill Carlson [email protected] (425) 736-8485Recording Secretary Brian McFarland [email protected] (619) 462-4483Treasurer Ed Rumsey [email protected] (858) 722-3846Corresponding Secretary Jeff Herman [email protected] (619) 846-4898Director Alpha Bob Austin [email protected] (760) 787-1174Director Beta Scott Baker [email protected] (858) 442-7513Director Gamma Michael Finch [email protected] (760) 440-9650Director Delta Kin Searcy [email protected] (858) 586-0974

CommitteesSite Maintenance Bill Quackenbush [email protected] (858) 395-1007Observatory Director Jim Traweek [email protected] (619) 207-7542Private Pads Mark Smith [email protected] (858) 484-0540Outreach Kin Searcy [email protected] (858) 586-0974N. County Star Parties Doug McFarland [email protected] (760) 583-5436S. County Star Parties -Vacant- [email protected] E. County Star Parties -Vacant- [email protected] Central County Star Parties Kin Searcy [email protected] (858) 586-0974Camp with the Stars Doug McFarland [email protected] (760) 583-5436K.Q. Ranch Coordinator Michael Vander Vorst [email protected] (858) 755-5846Newsletter Andrea Kuhl [email protected] (858) 547-9887New Member Mentor Jerry Hilburn [email protected] (858) 565-4059Webmaster Bob Austin [email protected] (760) 787-1174AISIG Kin Searcy [email protected] (858) 586-0974Site Acquisition Jerry Hilburn [email protected] (858) 565-4059Field Trips Bill Carlson [email protected] (425) 736-8485Grants/Fund Raising Jerry Hilburn [email protected] (858) 565-4059Merchandising Paul “Moose” Pountney [email protected] (619) 465-7014Publicity Jerry Hilburn [email protected] (858) 565-4059Roboscope Director Jerry Hilburn [email protected] (858) 565-4059Governing Documents Scott Baker [email protected] (858) 442-7513TDS Network Bill Carlson [email protected] (425) 736-8485Amateur Telescope Making Peter De Baan [email protected] (760) 745-0925

Have a great new piece of gear? Read an astronomy-related book that you think others should know about? How about a photograph of an SDAA Member in action? Or are you simply tired of seeing these Boxes in the Newsletter rather than something, well, interesting?

Join the campaign to rid the Newsletter of little boxes by sharing them with the membership. In return for your efforts, you will get your very own by line or pho-tograph credit in addition to the undying gratitude of the Newsletter Editor. Just send your article or picture to [email protected].

SDAA Editorial StaffEditor - Andrea [email protected]

Assistant Editor: Rick ImbraContributing Writers

Darrell Abrahams Diane K. Fisher and Tony Phillips



Jim Thommes posted a large scale view of Markarian’s chain, that is a series of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. It was taken with an SBIG ST8300M CCD camera through a Takahashi FAQ-106N refractor mounted on a Losmandy G-11 mount. There is a total of 2.8 hours of data in this image. This image would be a nice one to show in a school science class with the question, “How many galaxies do you see?”

AISIG Gallery



How about a nice wide field galaxy image taken with a DSLR? Robert Miller captured NGC 3521 from TDS with a modified Canon 350D mounted on an Astro-Tech 8-inch Ritchey Cretien on an Atlas mount. He combined 38 7-minute images taken at ISO 1600. NCG 3521 is a spiral galaxy in Leo only 35 million light years away.

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATIONSend dues and renewals to P.O. Box 23215, San Diego, CA 92193-3215. Include any renewal cards from Sky & Telescope or Astronomy magazine in which you wish to continue your subscription. The expiration date shown on your newsletter’s mailing label is the only notice that your membership in SDAA will expire. Dues are $60 for Contributing Memberships; $35 for Basic Membership; $60.00 for Private Pads; $5 for each Family membership. In addition to the club dues the annual rates for magazines available at the club discount are: Sky & Telescope $32.95 and Astronomy $34. Make checks payable to S.D. Astronomy Assn. PLEASE DO NOT send renewals directly to Sky Publishing. They return them to us for processing.



The Hills of San Diego County by Darrell Abrahams

Darrell Abrahams is a member of SDAA and resides in Abbotsford, British Columbia (49° 04’ N. 122° 20’ W.) He is also a member of the Fraser Valley Astronomers Society and this article first appeared in their April 2009 Newsletter. Darrell can be contacted at [email protected]

San Diego County is a place of rolling hills and smaller mountains, one of which is Palomar Mountain at 5566 feet. Some of these hills are strange affairs with massive granite boulders sitting on them seemingly defying gravity, ready to roll off with the next heavy rain or earthquake. Unlike many of our isolated Canadian boulders that were carried and dropped by the glaciers of the last ice age, these giant boulders weren't placed there but were "formed in place by spheroidal weathering, where joints in igne-ous rocks allow weathering to proceed, thus transforming angular blocks into rounded boulders." Much of the county's highways outside of the city, if they're not freeways, are narrow, winding, roller coaster affairs, with the usual posted speed limit of 50 miles per hour (90 km/hr). How this speed can be ac-complished is another gravity defying mystery to me but the locals keep trying. As soon as I've ventured out onto one of these winding highways I quickly become the head of a snake of traffic and soon look for a pull out to keep the natives happy. Our daughter, Heidi, lives there and has learned to handle the Wild Ride through these hills. Alas, it was just a few days before we were to leave for a visit there this March that she missed a centre line and ran head on into an F 350 pickup truck. News arrived quickly via cell phones, so group emails were sent, and prayer chains in two countries were immediately contacted. We hurriedly advanced our plans to leave earlier for a San Diego hospital. Amazingly she only suffered a broken leg and her baby, due in early June, was not lost. We are so thankful. A shocking account of her miraculous experience can be found in her blog archive at http://nothingbutbluesky.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html under her Friday March 20, 2009 posting "The Accident". In our previous visits my Dear Wife didn't want to become a burden and would only stay for five days. But this time we had work to do and we stayed nearly two weeks. With my limited skill set I became the chief dishwasher, stroller pusher, toddler entertainer, wheelchair handler, grocery shopper, and all around handy man /errand boy. I did manage one luxury --- for the first time I had my 16 inch f 5.5 dobsonian along.



A month earlier I became a ‘contributing member’ of the San Diego Astronomy Association. ($50 US) This gave me the combination to the gate of their dark sky property, Tierra Del Sol, in the south-eastern hills of the county. My planned, small window of nights there would fall in mid week and I’d need access independent of others. But with the accident I had some more evenings to choose from. Our complete visit was moonless and my planning really paid off. I managed to sneak away four nights and had an excellent time. Tierra Del Sol is a 113 km (70 mile) drive from my daughter’s place in Ramona. Leaving after an early supper I could get there at sunset. The 10 acre site has eight roll off roof observatories, a 22 inch Lipp Ritchey-Chretien club scope, 70 private pads, and for group viewing, two long observing pads 10 feet by 210 feet running east to west. One just backs his vehicle against the north side of the concrete and sets up on the slab. I’d been there (scopeless) five years earlier during a Messier Marathon and the place had been full. This time I was mostly alone. The southern horizon is slightly restricted 6° by the local flora: chapar-ral and creosote bushes. With a latitude of 32° 37’ my south view was good to -51° declination, giving me 10 to 15 degrees of southern sky we can’t see from home. With no planetarium software along and no planisphere, my planned observing lists went from page to page of my Urano-metria Star Atlas. This time for each object I copied down its Right Ascension and grouped the objects by the hour. It just happened that this time of year, at close to 9:00 in the evening, 08h 00’ was on the meridian. That was very handy. By keeping an eye on my watch I knew when I was falling behind the meridian and when it was time to turn that page on the atlas and start on another set of brand new objects. The first night, the seeing was quite good, the transparency was good and the temperature only went down to +5°C. (41°F). My Sky Quality Meter rated the darkness of the site at 21.45, almost as good as my Chilliwack Lake Site back home. From the start the race was on, chasing open clusters in the southern winter Milky Way in Puppis, Pyxis and Vela and learning constel-lations I'd never seen before. Soon they were gone and it was galaxy time. The Sombrero was the best I'd ever seen it. Then came a hurried tour through the Centaurus Galaxy Cluster centered at -41°decl. I managed to identify five of its members ranging in magnitude from 10.4 to 13.1 Finally it was time for Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) at -47°decl. ---> very large, and full but almost flat and two dimensional. Next Centaurus A (NGC 5128) the big galaxy with the gaping dust lane. Strange, it looked smaller, I'd read warnings that it took an enhanced photo to get the whole thing in. With two brighter stars involved, to me it looked like the head of the Cookie Monster. I scribbled a sketch and later compared it to a humble photo in Sanner and Kepple's Night Sky Observer's Guide, it was bang on. As the night wore on I was happy to add more new globulars to my col-lection. Then the Moon came up. 8:40 to 03:00 ---> 23 new objects and a bunch of old favorites, not too bad. The second night was four nights later after a rain system had come through. The transparency wasn't quite as good, the Sky Quality Meter said 21.10, and the seeing was pretty good. This time the temperature went down to 0°C. (32°F) and there was a stiff breeze the whole night so that was a bit uncomfortable. I had to quit by 01:20 but had a nice collection of 24 new globs, planetaries, galaxies and clusters. The third night, two nights later, had great seeing but lousy clouds were moving in and I was only active less than two hours. I did manage a nice pair of planetaries in the south, including the Eight Burst Nebula on the Antlia / Vela border. With clouds taking over the south I was forced to finally use my ladder and chase open sucker holes in the clouds. M 78 and one of its neighbors NGC 2071 were very nice. The last night was another two nights later. It had worked very well to slip into bed as the sun was rising, have an evening off to get my energy back plus do a lot of chores, and then get back at it the second night. By now the pressure was off for bagging extreme southerly objects and I could wander in more leisurely fashion, gazing at things that were low in our home sky but much higher in this sky. Also our Spring sky is a fleeting thing with rapidly lengthening twilight bearing down on us and therefore not often viewed at home. The Rosette Nebula was fantastic with a UHC filter. I managed to find a dozen members in the Hydra I Galaxy Cluster. The RASC Observer's Handbook has a newer list of "Southern Hemisphere Splendors" and I managed several in that collection. That night I bagged 39 new objects. By 03:30 Scorpius had climbed into the south-eastern sky, complete with full tail, something else we can't completely see from home. But I was pooped. Perhaps I should save that part of the Milky Way for another month. After all, my new grand-son, Samuel, is due to be born in early June. My Dear Wife intends to fly down as soon as he's born, but maybe I could tag along. I could drive down ... with the scope ... and help with the dishes and errands ....... and such.



The Planet in the MachineBy Diane K. Fisher and Tony Phillips

The story goes that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can, over time, cause a tornado in Kansas. The “butterfly effect” is a com-mon term to evoke the complexity of interdependent variables affecting weather around the globe. It alludes to the notion that small changes in initial conditions can cause wildly varying outcomes. Now imagine millions of butterflies flapping their wings. And flies and crickets and birds. Now you understand why weather is so complex. All kidding aside, insects are not in control. The real “butterfly effect” is driven by, for example, global winds and ocean currents, polar ice (melting and freezing), clouds and rain, and blowing desert dust. All these things interact with one another in bewilderingly complicated ways. And then there’s the human race. If a butterfly can cause a tornado, what can humans cause with their boundlessly reckless distur-bances of initial conditions? Understanding how it all fits together is a relatively new field called Earth system science. Earth system scientists work on building and fine-tuning mathematical models (computer programs) that describe the complex inter-relationships of Earth’s carbon, water, en-ergy, and trace gases as they are exchanged between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere. Ultimately, they hope to understand Earth as an integrated system, and model changes in climate over the next 50-100 years. The better the models, the more accurate and detailed will be the image in the crystal ball. NASA’s Earth System Science program provides real-world data for these models via a swarm of Earth-observing satellites. The satellites, which go by names like Terra and Aqua, keep an eye on Earth’s land, biosphere, atmosphere, clouds, ice, and oceans. The data they collect are crucial to the modeling efforts. Some models aim to predict short-term effects—in other words, weather. They may become part of severe weather warning systems and actually save lives. Other models aim to predict long-term effects—or climate. But, long-term predictions are much more difficult and much less likely to be believed by the general population, since only time can actually prove or disprove their validity. After all, small errors become large errors as the model is left to run into the future. However, as the models are further validated with near- and longer-term data, and as different models converge on a common scenario, they become more and more trustworthy to show us the future while we can still do something about it—we hope. For a listing and more information on each of NASA’s (and their partners’) Earth data-gathering missions, visit http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/missions/. Kids can get an easy introduction to Earth system science and play Earthy word games at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/ecosphere/ . This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

CloudSat is one of the Earth-observing satellites collecting data that will help develop and refine atmo-spheric circulation models and other types of weather and climate models. CloudSat’s unique radar system reads the vertical structure of clouds, including liq-uid water and ice content, and how clouds affect the distribution of the Sun’s energy in the atmosphere. See animation of this data simulation at

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/calipso/multimedia/cloud_calip_mm.html.