Important Announcements

	Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, September 1, at 8 PM at the Poricy Park Nature Center. The guest speaker will be, Al Witzgall, who will tell us all about "NASA's Return to the Red Planet Mars". The meeting will include 3D viewing of the latest Mars photos, as well as some actual martian meteorites!
	Dues for the '99-2000 year are due in September. Dues are $20 and may be mailed in or given to treasurer John Gasparini at the September meeting.

News & Events

	Want to share a story about an interesting observing session or other experience relating to astronomy? Let Mike Lindner ( mikel@att.net) know, and we'll put it in The Spectrogram. You don't need to be a Hemmingway, thanks to your friendly neighborhood editor. Give it a whirl!
	Remember to check the club's discussion board on the Internet at /cgi-bin/starbbs.pl , or the club's phone messages at 732-888-4378 to find out about club observing sessions.
	9/4-5, Blue Mountain, PA. MEGAMEET VIII , an observing weekend of the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society, Pulpit Rock on Blue Mountain, 30 miles west of Allentown. Rain date September 11. For details contact Tom Smith at tsmith5230@aol.com, or visit http://www.lvaas.org/ .
	9/10-12, Colebrook, CT. Connecticut Star Party , sponsored by the Astronomical Society of New Haven (ASNH), Camp Bobriwka. Write to the ASNH, P.O. Box 3005, New Haven, CT 06515, or call Linda Marks at 203-874-4816, or send e-mail to sunandmoon@freewwweb.com .
	9/10-12, Queen Anne, MD. No Frills Star Party , by the Delmarva Stargazers, Tuckahoe State Park. Call Lyle Jones at 302-736-9842, or visit http://www.delmarvastargazers.org/ .
	9/10-12, Cherry Springs, PA. The first Black Forest Star Party, by the Central Pennsylvania Observers, Cherry Springs State Park. Write to the CPO, P.O. Box 947, State College, PA 16801, or email black_forest@xoommail.com

Message from the President

By Penny Fischer

It's hard to believe that we are entering into another season already, but here we are and summer is almost over. I hope it's been a great summer for you; the weather was good for observing with many clear (but hazy) nights.

I am looking forward to this new season with S*T*A*R Astronomy. We have put together what I think is a good mix of speakers for the fall, and we'll travel from globular clusters (did you ever wonder what it's like to live just outside a globular? Okay, okay don't answer that!) to bits of rocks from space, to the future of our sun. We'll also share some of our summer star party experiences, and talk about future plans and events for the club.

As usual, I welcome any and all suggestions. Volunteers are especially appreciated. I have a few jobs that are up for grabs, so if you have just a few spare hours a month...

We have several new members who joined over the summer. I hope you find our newsletter helpful and fun, and I hope S*T*A*R is everything you wanted it to be. Don't forget to join us on the web for up-to-date information on the club and it's activities. (http://wwww.starastronomy.org ). Our discussion board is very active with several dozen posts a day and your comments, questions, and thoughts are always received with the grace and good humor that our club is known for. If you don't have a computer, we have a S*T*A*R member phone line with up to date information. Just dial : 732-888-4378.

The next meeting will feature a "new/old" scope for our Scope and Tell segment. Our club scope has been refurbished and we plan to have Mike Lindner show off the improvements.

As usual, clear skies to all and hope to see you at the meeting!

Penny Fischer, President,
S*T*A*R Astronomy

Notes from June

By Penny Fischer

The annual business meeting was held under cloudy skies at the Poricy Park Nature Center in Middletown. Dan started the meeting by building a comet for us. This demonstration is something that he has done dozens of times for school children, and he decided to share his secrets with us.

Then we watched a videotape "Comet Odyssey" about the Comet Hyakutake. The business meeting followed. Among the topics discussed:

IDA (International Dark Sky Association) We voted to stay with this organization for the next year.

UACNJ (United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey) - We voted to remain with this organization. Club membership allows you to observe with the club up at Jenny Jump once during the year; an individual membership can be obtained for $20 that will allow you to observe there unlimited times.

Poricy Park- We voted in an increase of $5.00 a person, making membership $20.00 per year, and specifically designated this increase towards a donation for Poricy Park. We have been lucky and utilized the facility all year without having them require payment, but at this point, they are going to charge us a fee. Please make sure that your September membership payment includes the $5.00 increase.

Poricy Park display- we were given a whole display case, prominently set in the main room of the Nature Center, for a S*T*A*R Astronomy display. We need volunteers to help design and set up the display, and also possibly donations of materials. (We will revolve the display and the materials equipment will only be on temporary loan for our display). Anyone interested, please talk to me, Dan Pontone or David Britz. Thanks.

Elections- Elections were held and the new board members elect are:

Observatory Proposal- Joe Cascella went over the results of the survey he recently sent out. The figures reflected a small percentage of the club that replied to the survey. The highest percentage of people with interest in this project appeared to be people who were new to the club (about a year or so).

A Shady Pines Diary

By David Segelstein

Arrive Friday, 8/6. After leaving wife & son at Holiday Inn in North Adams, drive to campsite. Get there by 7 PM Set up scope first, of course. Clouds look dark so put Rain's-a-Comin^TM system over scope. Sprinkles by time it's set up. Start on tent. By the time it's up, I'm drenched, and lots of my stuff is wet. This seems to be my own special part of Shady Pines. This time, I didn't ruin any Panoptics, though. 9 PM still raining, drive to Holiday Inn to stay with family, where they had a blackout. Lights come on just as I arrive. Comfortable night's sleep. R-S&C (Ralph, Saul, & company) claim I missed a spectacular night. Yeah, and the other one that got away was 27 lbs. It did stop raining, and cleared up between the clouds, but there was to be no photography that night. Clouds drifting across the sky all night (I saw them through the window at the Holiday Inn).

Saturday, 8/7, breakfast and swim at hotel, drive to campsite by noon, family in tow. Beautiful day, cool, mostly clear, everyone was hopeful. Pizza party at the ``Kitchen'' and my son finds himself a 6-year-old girl named Jennifer. My boy likes older women. They play into the night. Band starts playing 50's & 60's music. I was obligated to dance, and my wife was happy. As I walk to the observing field, notice clouds starting to drift in. Oh, well, maybe more dancing is in store for the night. Sky deteriorates to a steady, but thickening, haze. Everyone has covered up, myself included. Then it occurs to me that I can see 1^st mag stars even through the haze. So, why not spend the time polar aligning? Yeah, that's the ticket. I uncover my scope, and start. Before I know it, Ron M. is out there & wants to see how I do it. He plans on doing some photography, too, so he tries polar aligning using my cheat sheet (I never can remember which way to adjust). He's done within 45 minutes, and I'm still tweaking. In fact, everyone was asleep by the time I stopped (not finished, exactly, just stopped), around midnight. Couldn't see much, but enough to center a bright star in a reticle eyepiece. Covered up, went to bed, listened as the rain started.

Sunday, 8/8, wake up to clouds & mist. Went to breakfast with family, Miss Adams Diner (great pancakes), & who walks in but Dan P. and Morgan (Dan's valet). They had been at Arunah Hill the night before. Word is that it is a nice site, and will be a good destination, but not quite ready for prime time. Could use some development of the site. Dan will clarify (cue the King). Came back to Shady Pines, family left to visit friends & stay in hotel for the night. Sky still looks bad. Had a Polish lunch at the ``Kitchen'' and BSed with people. Then, Dan, Morgan, & I went to see The Blair Witch Project. We figured it would help us stay awake all night. Yuck. Not even scary. Back to site, weather report promises ``clearing'' tonight, clear tomorrow night. We wait. And wait. I decide to take a nap. Around 12:30 AM, Dan slaps my tent & says ``Get your ass out here!'' I wake up, dress, step out to 2/3 of a clear sky. Beautiful! This is what we come here for. Incredible. The stars in Ursa Major seem like lanterns hanging above the campsite. Get out to scope, and start to uncover just as the clouds roll in again. Dan has his digital circles rolling & is looking for stuff, but the clouds cover up what just a minute ago was clear. It's sucker hole tag. The sky wins. Dan says, ``What we need is for someone to go to bed. Then it will clear.'' I volunteer. Dan promises to wake me if it really clears. It doesn't. Zero for three.

Monday, 8/9, Dan leaves to do some work in Jersey, to return tomorrow. This, of course, means the gods can clear up the sky for the night. They do. It can't be that simple, of course, so there are clouds right up until sunset. Then it's clear. Just before sunset, a nice guy named Jerry from AAAP is struggling with his 10" Meade Dob, trying to collimate it with a Cheshire eyepiece, though he has no idea how to use it. I take time out from my busy schedule of pacing, and bring my laser over. We spend about 45 minutes trying to set this thing up. The collimation is made very difficult by the secondary holder that has 3 screws for adjustment. Fine, but you need to tighten the other two whenever you loosen one or the thing starts flapping in the breeze. Why can't Meade put decent hardware on these scopes? The secondary took 44.5 minutes, and the primary took 30 seconds. Jerry says the instructions refer to "factory collimation" that is supposed to be just fine. Oh, right, and that's why they glued the secondary on off-center. I tell Jerry to see the Pocono man on Wednesday about a new secondary holder. Done fussing, then it's getting dark. Oh, man. Let me tell you. M8 & M20 naked eye. M13 naked eye. The Veil without a filter. This is amazing. I spend the time between sunset and dark touching up the polar alignment. This only takes another hour & a half. Then it's perfect (I think). Get set up to take M8. Run off 4 shots (over the course of 1.25 hours), clouds appearing at the horizon. A few move across overhead. Oh, well, I've got lots of film. Move over to the Veil, frame, get the guide star set up, take two shots as the mist moves in. Quit the second shot early around 12:30 AM because the autoguider cannot quite see through the cloud cover. Go to bed a happy man. Please, gods, I just want two more nights like this.

Tuesday, 8/10, up at 8 to go swimming with my son at the Holiday Inn. Say good-bye to family by 2 PM as they head for home in the wrong direction down the road. They finally turn back & go the right way. I'm back to the campsite & ready for tonight's version of cloud cover. I'm happy, though. Got my shutter open at least for one session so far. There are not as many people here as last year. Don Urban says lots of people will be arriving on Wednesday or Thursday. I know Mike & Jim will be here then. I've noticed that there is a large number of SCT's here, and refractors 6" and under Astrophysics, one 4" Takahashi, several TeleVue refractors (one a ``Renaissance'' brass beauty). Maybe if I can scrounge up the dough, I'd get one. Well, maybe next year. Maybe not. Not as many big Dobs as I would have expected. Dan's is one of two or three 18''-ers, one 20''-er, nothing bigger. A couple of LX-200's, one near where I set up that sounded last night like someone's making coffee every few minutes. I guess the quiet motors are extra. Oh, well, live and let live, I've heard people say. One very nice man from Montreal brought a new 5" Meade ETX (auto everything). One leg of the tripod fell off, the thing toppled, and it ended up in 3 pieces - tube and one fork arm, second fork arm, base. What a bummer. He later talks to the Canadian distributer for Meade, who hints he may get a new one for free. Clouds, clouds, more clouds. Go to sleep at 10:30.

Wednesday, 8/11, up at 8:30, shower with cold water (this is camping, right?), dress, go to Miss Adams again, this time with Dan and Ralph. Good pancakes, again. Back to campsite. Hang out for 15 minutes, then Dan & I go out to North Adams to the Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), which is a fine place. Dan, a previously unknown (to me, anyway) maven of fine culture, then leads me to the Williams College art gallery, where there is a nice, if small, collection of contemporary and other art. Then it's off to the Clark Institute of Art gallery. (Is the King cultured, or what?) Wow! What a collection. This heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune collected an incredible assembly of art. There is an exhibit of Millet that is amazing. The permanent collection has Renoir's that will knock your socks off. There are more Winslow Homer's than stars in Scutum. Nice place this Berkshire hangout. If only they had clear skies. Dan & I joke about the brightening we (pretend to) see on the western horizon. Finally, when leaving the Clark, I mutter "It's over, we might as well go home." Dan yells "Skunked!!!" and I sink into my shoulders in despair. Expletive deleted. We stop at a pseudo-diner (This is not Jersey) for late lunch/dinner, then return to Shady Pines. Fog, clouds, yuck. Dave from Pocono arrives with his 24" Tectron (but no 22mm Nagler IV's). A few others arrive, somebody leaves. We imbibe, and wait. Nothing. 3:30 AM, stars are out, but mist & fog out, too. My estimate is this is a 3rd magnitude sky. Back to sleep.

Thursday, 8/12, Dan leaves for NJ again, so this is the cue to the gods. Are they listening? We'll see. Looks very nice right now (10 AM), and forecast is for "partly cloudy" which as we know can mean anything at all. So I do some campsite tidying, set towels out to dry, take garbage to dumpster, uncover scope so any dew on or in it can evaporate. Dave from Pocono comes over & we talk about the Takahashi 4" that is designed for astrophotography. Ron M asks me how I would slip that one by at home. I don't know. Just dreaming anyway. Expect Mike L. and Jim G., and maybe Rob & John T. to arrive today. Settle down to some reading & waiting. Phone call from Mike L., he's not coming, neither are Rob & John T. No word about Jim G. yet. I'm sitting here all alone (the only S*T*A*R guy, that is), feeling like a jerk. I guess I could have gotten 2 hours of clear sky by staying at home. Forecast for the rest of the weekend is not good either, and Mike says the forecast for home is just fine. Yup, a jerk, that's me. 2:15 & still looking good, though. We astronomers are eternal optimists. Polished the brass on my mount. Had lunch. Then told the guy with the Renaissance (Bill from AAAP) we had to polish his scope. You just can't have a refractor that looks dull. I did half & he did half. Very shiny. He says to me "How come you are in that S*T*A*R club?" I ask what he means. He says "I've heard they are all a bunch of a** h***s in that club." I don't ask where he heard that. I tell him "There are two sides to every story." He and the Steve, the guy whose 10" Meade I helped collimate, ask when and where our meetings are. +2 for S*T*A*R, -2 for AAAP. 3:45 and the clouds seem to be darkening - the usual story. 5 PM sees the arrival of Steve W. and Frank L., Hooray for S*T*A*R! They set up their tent on my site (at my invitation), to stay the night on their way up to Stellafane. No scopes except an ETX and a barn-door, though I offer my C5. 6 PM and things are looking better. Steve tells me "Shhhhh!" when I say that. He doesn't want to jinx the night. I say, "It doesn't matter. No matter what I've said over the past week, things have turned out just the way they wanted to." They head off to dinner, and I start taking my stuff out to my scope. I'm very optimistic. If I have a good night tonight, I'll be happy with the whole trip (I think). OK, sun, now set! It does, and there is a ring of clouds around the sky, but straight overhead is just fine. I've seen better nights than this at Shady Pines, but this will do. Just so happens, anyway, that my targets for the night start out with the Veil, in Cygnus, which is straight overhead. Cool. Get all my shots in without interference from the clouds. While I'm in the neighborhood, I go to the Network Nebula (the other side of the Veil) and shoot that. Then, off to NGC 7331, my first galaxy for this trip. Pegasus, however, is now awash in mist. So I wait. This is now around 1:45 AM. Soon the clouds move off, and the sky is perfect. Find 7331 and shoot. While my ST-4 is tracking, I wander over to George W. (AAAP, a nice guy) and his 150mm Fujinon binocs. This is some instrument. Imagine two 6" refractors of the finest quality that provide a 2.5 degree field. Imagine feeling like you're sitting in space looking at the view from nearby these objects. Pleiades with nebulosity, Double Cluster 3D, North American Nebula and Pelican Nebula hanging in space, Network Nebula looking like a slice of bacon on a breakfast plate. Wander over to Steve (the guy with the 10" Meade Dob), and look at the Cassini division in Saturn's rings, wide enough and crisp enough to drive a truck through (a well-worn cliche, but apt in this case). He's using a 7mm Nagler (mine) with a 2X Barlow, and if he could move the scope fast and smoothly enough, he'd add more. I refer him to Don O's description of his equatorial table on our equipment page. Then, I'm over at a new 6" Orion Mak-Newt on an equatorial mount, viewing Saturn. Another excellent image. Don't know about deep sky stuff, but for planets, with its closed tube and tiny secondary, it is very nice. This scope is actually made by Intes (Russian). Finish my exposure of NGC 7331 by 3 AM, by which time the final assault of clouds moves in for good. Oh, well, it will be light soon anyway. This was a good night. Now if I could just get one more night.

Friday, 8/13, Dan is the unluckiest guy in town (or not in town). The two nights he's not here are the only two nights that are observable. I'm sticking around to see if he & I can get another night out of this thing. Many others have left. Frank L. & Steve W. are gone to Stellafane, R-S&C are gone, Bill & Steve (the guy with the Renaissance and the guy with the 10" Meade Dob) are gone. I'm quietly enjoying the solitude, waiting for Dan to re-arrive. If only I can get just one more night. Miss Adams' pancakes again, then back for more peace & solitude. Fall asleep at around 2 PM. About 6:30, I'm awakened by a grizzly bear at my tent door. Wait, no, it's Don O. What are you doing here, Don? I thought you were not coming! He came along with Dan just for the ride, and to go to Stellafane the next morning. They tag along with me as I go to the Kitchen for another fine serving of cheeseburger and fries. We discuss the situation. Clouds, mist, fog at the moment. Forecast and my bones say it'll be another yucky night. D & D say the forecast for the rest of the weekend is worse if anything. We decide to surrender to Mother Nature. Pack up everything, and wait for early morning to go to Stellafane. Plan is to drive home from there (unless the weather clears). We take three chairs out to the middle of the field (9 PM) and sit looking at the sky & consoling ourselves with liquid refreshment. Watch the clouds & threatening skies. Around 10:30 or so, it occurs to Don that maybe it's not a good idea for us to be out in the middle of a field sitting on aluminum chairs while there is lightening and thunder all around us. Bed time, anyway.

Saturday, 8/14, I get up at 4:30 to shower & start packing my tent. Wake the others at 5. By 6, we're outta there. Drive up to Vermont, stopping at a fine establishment for an elegant breakfast (McD's) on the way. If only they served white wine with their egg McMuffins. Arrive at Stellafane around 7:30. Lots of activity already. Swap tables are busy. Telescope competition starts at 10 AM. I especially liked the Lego telescope (it really worked). Inside a container were lots more Legos, and a sticker saying ``Equatorial Mount - some assembly required''. Very cute. Some interesting woodwork, not many scopes, really, though. Speculation is that not many people wanted to set their scopes up at the top of a big hill with rain threatening any minute. Walk around some more. Leave by around 11 to go to the Porter Museum. I'm following Dan. I watch as he disappears into the distance while I'm waiting at a red light. I've now lost him. I probably could ask for directions to the museum, but I decide I'd really rather get something to eat and head home. I drive off, thinking about the 11 frames I've taken. Let's see, that's just over one frame per night. This year at Shady Pines not one of the best, I'd say.

[and, for an opposing viewpoint... -- Ed.]

Sea of Stars

By Penny Fischer

It was near perfect night, except of course, for the thunderstorm approaching, and the light pollution, the perfect orangey crescent moon about to descend...

As I acclimated, I watched a green light near the house and realized it was a firefly.. but why was it not blinking? Later, to my chargrin , I realized it was caught in a spider's web, and probably dead or on its way. Ugh. But the night was young! It was hot, as I set up, I felt damp. I realized that my Telrad needs to have its reticle adjusted, again, and tried my best, although the bull's-eye was a near double image. Will have to work on that, keep reminding myself.

Add to all this the fact that in the summer, it never gets dark. Never inky black. But yet there I was, determined to start my Bright S*T*A*R 100 list. I passed a sea of stars, including a Albireo imposter. (Same colors and orientation, but about four magnitudes dimmer). I searched in vain for M3, and M11, but the sky was still semi light. After being out there for a while, I finally got dark-adapted and realized this is why I love astronomy. It forces you to relax. It takes time. You cannot go and ``shoot a few nebulae'' or stop after work to ``have a few galaxies''. It's forced relaxation, because without your eyes being adapted, you ain't seeing anything. So while you wait for the darkness to descend, you think, you look, you think some more, if friends are around, you have conversation, laughing, comparing of equipment, chit-chat, or scouring over charts with red flashlights. It's a totally relaxing hobby!

Although I didn't get many fuzzies in, I did get some beautiful starfield views in Cygnus before the heat and an incoming thunderstorm drove me in. Although conditions appeared hazy, the seeing was absolutely perfect and sharp, and the stars hung like diamonds, each one distinct and brilliant.

I left my back deck with renewed determination. Now that its getting dark a teensy bit earlier, I am really going to try to work on that list. Today is, after all, another night.

Constellations for September

By Michael Lindner

Autumn is approaching, the time when a young astronomer's thoughts turn to... water! No, not the drought, although that is on a lot of peoples' minds. I'm referring to those wonderful watery creatures in the autumn sky. The origin of all of these constellations is attributed to the ancient Euphrateans, who called this region of the sky ``the sea.'' Naturally, all of the constellations in ``the sea'' have something to do with the sea, or at least water.

Perhaps the oddest of these creatures is Capricornus , the sea-going goat. The Greek version of this constellation is that after the gods on Olympus destroyed the Titans, Typhon, son of Earth and Tartarus, set forth to avenge the Titans. When the gods saw Typhon coming, they fled into Egypt, and eventually disguised themselves as various animals. Bacchus (some versions say Pan instead) became a goat and hid in the Nile, where he grew a fish's tail. Zeus was so amused by this disguise he placed it in the heavens as a joke.

Long before the Greeks, the Babylonians saw this constellation as a sacred goat, and called it the ``Father of Light.'' The ancient Chinese saw it as an ox, but later changed the name to ``goat-fish.'' The Egyptians saw it as either a goat-horned water god or an ibis-headed man on a goat. The Greek followers of Plato believed that at death the soul rose through its stars, and called it the ``Gate of the Gods.''

The following diagrams show where Capricornus is located in the sky this month (September 9, the night of the new moon, at 10 PM), and give a more detailed view of the constellation. There are relatively few bright deep sky objects in Capricornus, and only one messier object, M30, which is close to the orange giant 41 capricorni. Algiedi (a), from the Arabic Al Jady meaning ``the goat'', is an interesting multiple star. It is an optical double (the stars happen to appear close from earth, but are actually 400 light years apart in distance). One of its components (a-1) is a triple star system. The other component (a-2) is also a double, having a close, blue companion. That companion is a binary star system, with a separation of only 1.2 arc seconds.

At the opposite end of Capricornus is Deneb Algiedi (d), from the Arabic Al Dhanab al Jady, ``The Tail of the Goat.'' This is an eclipsing binary. This star and g, 2 degrees west-southwest, were referred to collectively as Al Muhibbain ``The Two Friends'' by the Arabs.

I hope you found this column interesting. I plan to cover a different currently visible constellation each month.