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Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 23:24:42 -0500
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From: rwhigham@mindspring.com (Russell Whigham)
Subject: ASTROFILES, November '97
ASTROFILES
Auburn Astronomical Society E-Newsletter
November, 1997
November Meeting
----------------
The November meeting of the Auburn Astronomical Society will be on Friday,
November 7, at 8:00 PM. Please note the one-time change of location (see
AAS president, Rhon Jenkins' message below). As usual, Montgomery area car
poolers, meet at my house (518 Seminole Drive). We'll head for Auburn at
7:00 PM. You can get a map to my house from our web site: Select "Members
and Friends" from the main menu, find my name, and click on [Map to my
house]. Here's Rhon's message:
>I'm delighted to report that we've been given permission to use ROOM 304B,
RAMSEY HALL
>for our November meeting site. Ramsey Hall is right next to the Aerospace
Building, so that people should park where they usually park . It is the
older building directly across the street from MacDonalds.
>
> This is probably the nicest meeting room available to us in the entire
College of Engineering. It is used primarily for video outreach. It has 52
very plush theater type seats, raised above a podium/stage. You'll love it,
I promise.
>
>Rhon
Thanks for making these arrangements, Rhon. Let's see if we can fill up the
room!
Wetumpka Meteor Crater Program
------------------------------
We have a very special program this month. Dr. David King Jr. will be
giving a two-part program detailing the Wetumpka Meteor Crater. Part I
will be the lecture at our November meeting (see the above paragraphs for
the meeting location). The second part will be a field trip of the site on
the following Saturday, with Sunday as a rain date. Here is Dr. King's
suggestion for the Saturday field trip:
>I suggest that we leave from behind Petrie Hall at 0900 on Sat Nov 8. That
should put us at Hardees in Wetumpka, out "staging area" at about 1030AM.
People coming from Montgomery could meet us there. I have the departmental
van for Nov 8, and also Nov 9 as a "rain date." The trip will last into the
early afternoon, therefore, I suggest that we return to Hardees at about
noon to regroup. Then there are some stops that could be made in the early
afternoon. We should be done by 200 or 230PM.
>
>DAVID
November Star Party
-------------------
The new Moon weekend for November falls on the Saturday (29) following
Thanksgiving. If you survive the turkey & dressing and football games,
we'll see you at Holley's Field.
Telescope For Sale
------------------
>My name is Kenneth Bryant and I am selling a 10" Meade telescope (SC model
2010B). I am including several eyepieces, a telrad, and Astronomy issues
etc. with the scope. I am asking $1200 but it is negotiable. If you know
anyone who is interested please e-mail me at bryankw@mail.auburn.edu or call
me at 821-4966. I live in Auburn, Al and would like to sell it locally.
>Thank you,
>Ken
Ron Hatherley's New ETX
-----------------------
Ron Hatherley was having packing his Coulter Odyssey II into his pop-up
camper on his frequent road trips. Now he has choice between light-grasp and
portability. Ron writes:
>Hi Russell, I did get a Meade ETX. The more I checked on the different
ones the ETX seemed to be better than the rest???. I like it just fine even
though a 90mm is no match for the 10.5in dob for brightness it is sure
compact and easy to haul around and set up. I can mount it on my camera
tripod and polar align and it will track good for visual use. Jupiter and
its moons looked real good and Saturn too. If I could just get rid of the 7
'spotlights' I see from my backyard . I guess backyard lights are the thing
to have. I am looking forward to going to a dark site. I took a few
pictures of my dog and a sign with a T adapter and it does good as a
telephoto lens, 1250mm. It can focus within 30feet. I enjoy it.
Welcome
-------
New to the Astrofiles mail list this month are: Jason Schein, Auburn;
scheijp@mail.auburn.edu, Kenneth Bryant, Auburn ; bryankw@mail.auburn.edu,
Rick Fanning, RickSki@Juno.com, and stepson; Skot McCullough
gizzmo474@juno.com, both of Montgomery; and Jim Stierle
jstierle@mindspring.com., and Gary Whiteside white@wrldnet.net also of
Montgomery. We look forward to meeting our new list members very soon.
Here's our standard online interview with Rick:
1. Are you a seasoned amateur astronomer or just getting into the hobby?
We've been into it now really good for a year and a half. I am going to try
and accomplish the Astronomical League certificates in Messier Club,
Binocular Messier, Deep Sky Binocular, and Lunar Club. I need to have
goals. Scott and I own a Meade 8" LX-200. We got a paper route last
April/May and saved up our money to buy it. We enjoy camping as well, so
bring on the star parties.
2. What was your first experience that attracted you to astronomy?
I remember seeing Halley's Comet back in the summer of 85 then my kid Scott
got us really going with it two summers ago.
3. How about your family members; spouse? kids? siblings? significant other?
Spouse Judy, kid Scott.
4. Do you have a .JPG or .GIF image of yourself, or you and your telescope
for us to post on the web page?
No.
5. Can you tell us a little about your formal education?
College degree, Calif State Univ, Chico, BS MIS 88. Working on Masters at Troy
State in Comp Sci.
6. Do you have any pets?
3 dogs - 1 Yellow Lab, 2 Golden Retrievers, 1 of the Golden's is about to
have puppies.
7. Where do you work? If you're retired, what was your occupation?
Computer Programmer - Looking for a job also in the Air Force Reserves.
8. What are your other hobbies?
Snow skiing, kayaking
9. What was your first car?
International Mail Delivery Van, including the Right Hand side drive and the
sliding doors that you could leave open as you were tooling down the road.
10. What was your first "real" job?
United States Air Force - C-130 Loadmaster.
11. Tell us about your favorite vacation.
Last April 1-3 we (Judy, Scott, and me) went to South Lake Tahoe for our
3rd anniversary. It was a Monday and it had snowed all weekend. Well,
usually we have to go back to work on Monday and are not able to take
advantage of the nice new snowfall. But this time we were on vacation. We
had reservations and we were set. Early Monday morning Scott and I headed
out with our BigFeet in hand (Bigfeet are ski's no bigger than 24 inches
long) We went to Heavenly Valley and made numerous sets of 'first tracks'
untouched powder runs!! It was great!
12. Have you ever lived in some other part of the country or another country?
Yes, just moved from California, but lived in Louisiana, Nevada, Colorado,
Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Italy, Belgium, and Japan.
(father was in the Air Force)
And here's Scott's
1. Are you a seasoned amateur astronomer or just getting into the hobby?
Well, I've been a "true" amature astro-boy for a little over a year now.
2. What was your first experience that attracted you to astronomy?
My first experience was the very first time I looked up at night when I
was little, but I never got way into it until my stepdad took me to a
public veiwing at U.C.Berkley
3. How about your family members; spouse? kids? siblings? significant other?
My stepdad is really into it too!
4. Do you have a .JPG or .GIF image of yourself, or you and your telescope
for us to post on the web page?
SORRY!!! Not yet!
5. Can you tell us a little about your formal education?
I'm in 10th grade and that's about all.
6. Do you have any pets?
2 Golden Retrievers (1's pregnant!) And a Yellow Lab.
7. Where do you work? If you're retired, what was your occupation?
I'm about to have a job at Schlotski's Deli.
8. What are your other hobbies?
I'm into Air Force JROTC, and do a lot of Tech stuff(lighting, stages,
etc.) for my church youth group.
9. What was your first car?
Don't know yet!!!!
10. What was your first "real" job?
Schlotski's will be my first"real" job!
11. Tell us about your favorite vacation.
I went to Tuscon AZ for a 10 day long astronomy camp. It was too awesome to
describe!
12. Have you ever lived in some other part of the country or another country?
I've lived in California for the past three years.
13. Would you mind if this information were shared with our members?
I'd be pleased if it was!!!!
Sign of the Times
-----------------
While making a periodic check to see if the links from the AAS web page are
still valid, I came across this at the "Star Hustler's" page:
http://www.starhustler.com
>Last week we asked you about changing the name of the show and most people
said they would prefer to keep Star Hustler as the name.
>
>We must change the name of the show because it has come to our attention on
several occasions that if you enter the name Star Hustler into some popular
search engines you are led to sexually oriented material. In view of the
fact that Star Hustler is being used more and more frequently in classrooms
and that Star Hustler is also telecast by the US information Agency
worldwide we feel that the title can generate negative aspects. When we
began our show in 1976 the word Hustler had several different meanings,
today however the word Hustler seems to have become almost exclusively
associated with sexual topics and although we too prefer to keep the name
Star Hustler, we do not want to become the instrument of young children
accidentally clicking on to adult oriented material. So please let us know
which title you like best.
>
Kiesel Park Observatory Update
------------------------------
Auburn Astronomical Society president, Dr. Rhonald Jenkins, was invited to
make a presentation to a class of architecture students, detailing the
unique requirements of the observatory. Here is Rhon's report:
>Joe Perez and I met this afternoon with a group of architecture students to
discuss the design of the Kiesel Park observatory. There are 17 students in
this class. They are in the third year of a five-year curriculum. They and
their instructor, Prof. Cook, were very interested in the project and asked
a lot of good questions. Joe began the proceedings by explaining the
background of the project and what he hopes to accomplish with it. I then
showed some slides of our Moore's Meadow Observatory and gave them hardcopy
handouts of our suggestions and sketches.
>
>They hope to have a design by the end of the quarter. What's more, they
should be able to scan their layouts onto their website so that all our
members can take a look and offer feedback! I'll keep everyone posted on
this!! Joe hopes to be able to begin his money raising campaign in the Spring.
>
>I've asked that they keep in close touch with us, and they've promised to
do so.
>
Deep South Regional Star Gaze '97
---------------------------------
1997 will be remembered as the first year of the five-day DSRSG. It may
also be remembered as one of the cloudiest. After languishing under leaden
and sometimes rainy skies from Wednesday through early Saturday evening, the
clouds finally parted to reward those who had waited with perfect skies.
Representing the Auburn Astronomical Society at DSRSG this year were, Robert
Rock, Mike Fulmer, Scott Thompson, Ricky Wood, John Howard, and your editor.
Waiting for clear skies gave us time to renew old acquaintances with our
friends from the Mobile, Pensacola, Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and
Huntsville clubs. Next year's DSRSG will be October 14-18.
Hope to see everyone at the meeting,
Russell
Russell Whigham
Montgomery AL
rwhigham@mont.mindspring.com
Auburn Astronomical Society
http://www.mindspring.com/~rwhigham/