March 2003 The Sidereal Times - TAAS Home Page1993 co-discovery of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which...

The Sidereal TimesMarch 2003

The Official Newsletter of The Albuquerque Astronomical Society

P.O. Box 50581, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87181-0581 www.taas.org

505/254-TAAS(8227)

The Official Newsletter of The Albuquerque Astronomical SocietyThe Sidereal Times

March 2003

___________________________________________I N S I D E__________________________________________1....Carolyn Shoemaker/Star Party2....President’s Message3....TAAS General Meeting News4....Calendars

6....Minutes of the Board Mtg.7....NASA’s Space Place/STS-1078....GNTO News & Views9...TAAS Reports & Notices

10...Observer’s Page11...Special Interest Groups14...Chaco Canyon Threatened15...Classified Ads

Carolyn Shoemaker Speaks February 12

TAAS members have an opportunity to spend quality timewith a true astronomical legend this month, as Carolyn

Shoemaker comes toAlbuquerque onFebruary 12 to speakat Monte VistaElementary. A specialreception will be heldat the school for TAASmembers at 5:30 P.M.,before Carolyn’s 6:30P.M. presentation.TAAS will host a starparty at Monte Vistaafter Mrs.

Shoemaker’s talk. This event isfree and open to the public. AllTAAS members are encouragedto participate in this very specialastronomical evening, which issponsored by the YoungAstronauts.

Born in Gallup NM, Carolynonce thought that astronomywas “relegated to only old menin white beards, smoking pipes,and staring at the sky.” But afterher three children were grown,she grew increasingly interestedin her husband Gene’s field.Gene and Carolyn Shoemakerwere co-recipients of theRittenhouse Medal in 1988 andthe Scientists of the Year Awardin 1995. She received anhonorary doctorate of sciencefrom Northern ArizonaUniversity of Flagstaff in 1990 and the NASA ExceptionalScientific Achievement Medal in 1996.

In 1997, Gene and Carolynwere working in Australiawhen they were involvedin a car crash near AliceSprings. Gene Shoemakerwas killed instantly, whileCarolyn sustained severeinjuries. Carolyneventually recovered andcontinues her observationwork in Arizona withDavid Levy and his wifeWendee. On July 31, 1999,

Gene Shoemaker’s ashes were laid to rest on the lunarsurface by NASA’s Lunar Prospector.

Although Carolyn didn’tbegin her astronomicalcareer until she was 51, shehas discovered more than300 asteroids and 32 comets,and is best known for her1993 co-discovery of cometShoemaker-Levy 9, whichcollided with Jupiter in1994. The collision gaveplanetary scientiststhe most spectacular andmost widely studied solarsystem event in history, aseach of the comet’s 23individual fragmentscollided with the giant planet over a number of days.

Maps and directions to this special evening of astronomywith Carolyn Shoemaker are available at www.taas.orgContact Sammy Lockwood [email protected] formore details.

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President’s MessageRay Collins

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BANG! KER-BOOM! An immensely powerful blastflung the steel door from its hinges. For the GNTOdefenders, the night went from red to black, and thesudden silence was deafening. Then they were uponus.

But let me back up a little and tell the story from itsproper beginning. TAAS is about to enter a mostpromising partnership.

Since last spring, the Board of Directors has beenconsidering the possibility of leasing several acres ofstate land south of the airport for possible future useas a public astronomy center. The opportunity to getin “on the ground floor” was brought to our attentionby TAAS member Dave Simon, then working at theState Land Office. La Semilla was the inspiration ofpast Commissioner Ray Powell, as “a unique site thatwill be a 2,800-acre nature refuge and environmentaleducation campus on the eastern border of the Mesadel Sol Master Planned Community”. A study panelincluding Judy Stanley, Pete Eschman, Mark Kroska,David Blair, and Larry Cash visited the area a numberof times, including a night of telescope viewing. Therewas no doubt that there was incredible potential forTAAS, some time down the road.

Ultimately, the site we were most interested in wasincluded in a large parcel leased to The Allan SavoryCenter for Holistic Management (http://www.holisticmanagement .org/). Their onlineannouncement includes: “In late 2002, the Savory Center negotiated a 75-yearlease of 1,667 acres of land owned by the State of NewMexico just south of the Albuquerque InternationalAirport. The land will be used to develop aCooperative Field Station for agricultural education,research and hands-on experience in rangerehabilitation, ranching, dry land farming, native treecultivation, native grasses and other vegetationcultivation, wildlife habitat enhancement and wildliferehabilitation. The Savory Center plans to buildfacilities on the property that are designed tomaximize learning about living and working in asustainable way.”

While we were initially disappointed, David Simonsuggested that TAAS and the Savory Center seemedlike natural partners. A Board delegation agreedwholeheartedly after a meeting with Savory’sExecutive Director, Shannon Horst. Under what is fornow an informal agreement, we have begun a one totwo year period of exploring how TAAS and the

Savory Center can work together, along with severalother stakeholders, to create an environmentaleducation center. TAAS will provide the appropriate,greatest framework for our environment: the cosmos.David Blair will be our representative in monthlyplanning meetings with Shannon and a handful ofothers.

We don’t know where we are headed in this venture,but the Board believes that it is the right time toexplore this opportunity for TAAS’ growth inpursuing its mission of public education. GNTO willremain the place where TAAS members can pursuetheir own observing goals, but this nearby, permanentobserving site represents a wonderful opportunity forus set new goals, and then go forward.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *Okay, the door wasn’t really blown off of GNTO. Myaim was to shed the dreadful misconception thatevery “President’s Message” was esoteric, ramblingand, too often, downright confusing. Perhaps thesnappy opening lines provided the incentive for a fewmore than the usual half-dozen loyal readers toventure into this quagmire. I am very excited aboutworking with Shannon Horst and the Allan SavoryCenter: I believe these are truly TAAS’ sort of people.

I am completely delighted to have the opportunityto be a member of the new Board – which is not muchchange. Elizabeth Burki, Dale Murray and BeckyPurvis bring with them a wonderful new energy andvision, and I predict that this Board of Directors isgoing to accomplish a great deal to increase the valueof TAAS membership for us all.

Finally, something esoteric for the loyal ones!

To see a World in a Grain of SandAnd a Heaven in a Wild Flower,Hold Infinity in the palm of your handAnd Eternity in an hour.

-William Blake (1709-1784)

What is it all but a trouble of antsIn the gleam of a millionmillion of suns?

-Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)



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TAAS General Meeting NewsDale Murray

February 15,2003 GeneralMeeting

Time; we never seem to haveenough of it these days. Whateveryou have to do, be sure to makesome time in your busy scheduleon Saturday the 15th of February tocome listen to Dr. Stephen Gregoryof the University of New Mexico.Dr. Gregory will discuss time in hispresentation titled: “Time — ItMight Not Be What You Think It Is”.He will review some of the moreinteresting details about howhumans keep time. In his talk, heposes the question “Do you knowwhat the term ‘AstronomicalTwilight’ means?” In addition toanswering this question he willdiscuss some of the morephilosophical aspects of time andhow it relates to four-dimensionalspacetime.Dr. Gregory received his Ph.D.from the University of Arizona in1974. Along with W.G. Tifft andL.A. Thompson, he discovered theexistence of cosmic voids andproved the existence ofsuperclusters in galaxies. He hasbeen at the University of NewMexico since 1984. Dr. Gregory haslong been a supporter of TAAS, soplease come and give him a warmTAAS welcome.General Meetings start at 7:00 P.M.at Regener Hall on the Universityof New Mexico Main Campus(look for map on the last page ofthis issue of the Sidereal Times. Asalways we follow the guest lecturewith snacks and goodies duringthe social hour. For moreinformation contact Karen Keese [email protected] (261-0040) or DaleMurray at [email protected] (296-2479).

Highlights of the January18th General Meeting

Karen Keese

We kicked off our 2003 generalmeeting season with a perfect blendof the serious and the recreational: anelection and a game show.The chairperson of the NominatingCommittee, Karen Keese, called for amotion to accept the proposed slate ofofficers for 2003. It was so moved andseconded by TAAS members in theaudience. Karen then called for thevote, instructing only full members tovote. The Election Officer, GordonPegue, counted the affirmative votesof the members in attendance. Therewere no nays. With 228 full membersin TAAS, and a required 20% inaffirmative votes to ratify the election,the target number was 46. With 32 in-person affirmative votes and 19 proxyvotes received, the motion carriedwith a total of 51 votes. The new slateof officers for 2003 is:

Ray Collins, President Dale Murray, Vice President

Liz Burki, Secretary

Dave Brown,Treasurer

Congratulations to the 2003 officers,and special thanks to Judy Stanley andBarry Spletzer for their fine work onthe Nomination Committee, and toGordon Pegue for acting as ourElection Officer.We then turned our attention to theentertainment portion of the meeting,and welcomed a very special guest.He was dashing, he was dapper, hehad all the answers, he was…AlexTrebek, a.k.a. Mark Kroska?! Yes, thestar ofJ e o p a r d yd e s c e n d e dupon us topresent avery specialedition of theg a m e —AstronomyJeopardy. Wec o e r c e di n n o c e n ta u d i e n c emembers to“come ondown” andtry their luck(or embarrass themselves in front oftheir peers). We then launched intotwo very entertaining rounds of thegame, with contestants and hosttrying to outdo one another in the(unofficial) Wisecracks category. Forthe first round, contestants wereMickey Bock, Katherine Gauntt, and

R i c kH u d s o n ,with Ricktaking topprize. In thes e c o n dround, ourtwo newofficers, Liz

Con’t on Page 13



• TAAS General Mtg 7P.M.

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STARDATEJ.D. Palmer

Albuquerque, NM-KUNM 89.9 FMairs STARDATE nightly @ 7 P.M.(weekends @ 6 P.M.). It is a 2 or 3minute short radio piece aboutastronomy. Subjects include: thatnight’s sky; cosmology; astro-history;new astro discoveries.Produced by the folks @ McDonaldObservatory.

See: http://www.stardate.org

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March 2003

1

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

SUN MON WED THU FRI SAT

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

TUE

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31

• School Star Party Collet Park Elementary

• ATM Workshop 7 P.M. Valley HS


• Board Meeting (7 P.M. @ PandA

Bldg.)

• GNTO

• GNTO Committee Mtg

• UNM

• UNM

• UNM

• UNM

• GNTOEquinox Picnic

& Training

• GNTO Messier Marathon

Planet Rise / Set (3/15/2003)Mercury 06:08/17:37 Saturn 10:52/01:11Venus 04:29/14:57 Uranus 05:19/16:15Mars 02:12/11:53 Neptune 04:19/14:41Jupiter 14:20/04:19 Pluto 00:31/11:16

3/1 06:37/18:043/15 06:18/18:163/31 05:55/18:29

Sunrise/Sunset

•New Moon @ 09:35

• First Quarter @ 14:15

• Last Quarter @ 08:51

• Full Moon @17:34

• Vernal Equinox

Telescope Loan Program

Gets New AdditionBarry Spletzer

Thanks to a generous donation to TAAS,the telescope loaner program has receiveda Celestron C-5 Schmidt-Cassegraintelescope. This telescope is quite adeparture from the other loaner scopes.It has a five inch aperture but is only 15inches long and complete with tripodweighs only 22 pounds. It is very portableand easy to set up and is an excellent smalltelescope for planetary observation. Inaddition, it comes with a full aperture Sunfilter for solar viewing and has a battery-powered clock drive and setting circles on

an equatorial mount.The telescope loaner program is availableto all members and provides a variety oftelescopes ranging from a 13 inchDobsonian to our new 5-inchaddition. Telescopes are available for loanfree of charge. Please contact BarrySpletzer at 294-4601 [email protected] to borrow ascope or learn more about the program.



NotesTAAS = The Albuquerque AstronomicalSociety. Hotline 254-TAAS (8227).GNTO = General Nathan Twining.Observatory - premium observing night.GNTO Training = GNTO observing andtraining .UNM = University of New MexicoObservatory. Call the TAAS hotline @254-8227, or the UNM hotline @ 277-1446 toconfirm, or [email protected] = Albuquerque Coffee ShopAstronomers. Contact Sammy Lockwoodfor information or visit www.taas.org andselect sidewalk astronomy.ATM = Amateur Telescope Making. CallMichael Pendley for information @ 296-0549, or [email protected] = UNM Physics and Astronomy.Corner of Lomas and Yale.

February 15, 2003TAAS General Meeting

Regener Hall, UNM7:00P.M.

Subject:Time - It Might Not Be What

You Think It Is!

Speaker:Dr. Stephen Gregory

2ATM WorkshopRay Collins/Mike Pendley

[email protected]

The Amateur Telescope MakingWorkshop meets the first and thirdWednesdays of each month at ValleyHigh School, 1505 Candelaria—thenorth side of Candelaria, just west of12th street. The meetings begin at 7P.M. and are in Building E, Room #3.

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Amateur Telescope

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April 2003

1 2 3 4 5

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

SUN MON WED THU FRI SAT

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

TUE

27 28 29 30

• School Star Party Bandelier Elementary

• GNTO Committee Mtg

• UNM

• UNM

• UNM

• UNM • GNTO

• The Sidereal Times

Deadline (May)



• Board Meeting (7 P.M. @ PandA

Bldg.)

• GNTO

• TAAS General Mtg 7P.M. At LodeStar Astronomy Center

Planet Rise / Set (4/15/2003)Mercury 06:19/20:14 Saturn 08:57/23:19Venus 04:15/15:53 Uranus 03:21/14:20Mars 01:28/11:20 Neptune 02:19/12:43Jupiter 12:16/02:15 Pluto 22:28/09:14

4/1 05:54/18:304/15 05:35/18:414/31 05:18/18:53

Sunrise/Sunset

• Last Quarter @ 19:18

•New Moon @ 02:19

• School Star Party Truman Middle

• Full Moon @02:36

• First Quarter @06:40



Minutes of the Board of Directors MeetingElizabeth Burki

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Minutes of The AlbuquerqueAstronomical Society Board ofDirectors meeting, 23 January 2003,Physics and Astronomy Building, TheUniversity of New Mexico

Call to order, present at the meeting:Meeting was called to order at 7:15 P.M.Attending members present: Ray Collins(Pres), David Brown (Treasurer),Elizabeth Burki (Secretary), BarrySpletzer, Pete Eshman, Becky Purvis, JudyStanley & Eric Buscheit. Observers:Gordon Pegue, Barry Gordon, SammyLockwood and Dan Richey

Correction to Minutes: No Corrections

Annual Report: Treasurer: David Brownpresented a detailed breakdown of the2002 annual report. We have a totalof 292 members (up 10 from last year),paying a total of $5,223.00 in dues.Total expenses: $7,061. TotalDonations: $10,114.00. Of special noteis the total cost of the monthlynewsletter of $4,549.00 or 64.42% ofthe total budget.

Correspondence: Member John Sefickpromoted TAAS to the AstronomicalSociety of New South Wales. MonteWilson responded with an invitationto host, to guide and to tour theSouthern Hemisphere sky, sharingmembership and research. SeveralASNSW members have been to ChacoCanyon for Northern Hemispherenight-sky viewing. Discussion onworking with other astronomygroups, such as the one in Socorrotabled for now. Future may includeinvitations to other local groups tocome for the Messier Marathon.

Retrospect: Annual dinner discussion:Accommodations in the gym-likeatmosphere are less than festive andcost $150.00 to rent. Theaccommodations and the late date ofthe 2002 dinner may have accountedfor the small turnout. Barry Spletzersuggested that his wife help us to finda more celebratory spot for December13, 2003. Pete Eshman reported onGNTO refurbishments including newwiring put in by licensed electricians

Dave Wilson and Joe C de Baca. JimCox will be providing another customlock box so that more equipment canbe left on-site. We will send a thank-you note to these special volunteers.Sammy Lockwood reported that 300people turned out for the HooverMiddle School Star Party.

Committee Reports:Membership: There was no

report. Judy Stanley volunteered tofill the vacancy.

GNTO: Sub-committee willcontinue to meet at JB’s Restaurant.GNTO key holders will be asked tosign up for certain dates. There is$180.00 left from the Intel grant toeffect repairs on the Eisengard unit. Anew sign will be made and postedrequesting visitors to turn off theirmain headlights when approachingGNTO. More light reflectors will beinstalled to guide cars around thebends. In February and March newdecking and repairs to the roof will bemade. Screen-saver project close tocompletion and will be in productionsoon.

Education: Participants atManzano School were taught how torun their own star labs. We have goodhandouts from LodeStar. Suggestionmade to have visual aids that matchthe Solar System presentation’s script.On February 12, 2003, CarolynShoemaker will be a Monte VisaSchool. TAAS members are invited tocome at 5:30 P.M. to meet her beforeher presentation at 6:30 P.M. We willhave a comet-making demonstrationat 7:30 P.M.

Grants: Request was made toobtain a video projector that can pluginto a lap-top or VCR.

Old Business:La Semilla: This is a new

development on a strip of land southof the airport and north of Isletadeveloped by Alan Savory’s landrecovery/stewardship foundation.They are willing to let us have a plotfor a public observatory as theyconsider the sky to be part of ourenvironment. David Blair is part of the6 member planning group and will be

part of our link to the Foundation.Donation of C-5 telescope:

Discussion as to the possibility ofusing this scope for solar viewing andwhether or not it should go into thescope loaner program as most of ourlending scopes have bases too heavyfor most members to haul around. Itwill need a special box.

Explorer Post 10: This affiliationis moribund. The last Explorermeeting was 2 yrs ago. Questionraised as to how we can create moreof a interest in astronomy for Scouts.Judy Stanley mentioned that the localGirl Scout director was interested indeveloping an astronomy componentfor their “Gold” award.

New Business:Funding for projects: Funds for

new GNTO roof were approved.There is a problem with installingsolar panels so that they will not beobvious to passer-by to steal. Solarpanels will not be sufficient to poweran alarm system. Motion to purchaseand ship 2 new panels ($750) passed.

Astronomy Day: Originally setfor May 10th, National Astronomy Day.Use of the mall on that day was co-opted by another event and CoronadoMall requested that we come on May17th. Eric Bucheit was volunteered tobe the owner of the event.

Newsletter: Sammy Lockwoodbrought up the issue of givingmembers the option of receiving eithera paper newsletter by mail ordownloading it from our WEB site.Since the Newsletter takes 64% of ourtotal budget, this could realize TAASa significant savings. An article willbe placed in the Sidereal Timesrequesting members to indicate theirpreference.

Voting: Gordon proposed anew amendment regarding voting forthe Board as there was such a smallturn-out for the early January election.

Adjournment: Meeting was adjournedat 9:30 P.M. with apologies from Rayfor not utilizing his “iron fist” to keepthe meeting shorter.



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This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CaliforniaInstitute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration.

Invisible TornadoesTony Phillips

The biggest problem with tornados-next to the swirling300-mph winds-is that it’s hard to see them coming.

But soon scientists will be able to foresee, not merelytornados, but the severe storms that spawn them, hoursbefore there’s even a cloud in the sky! Mind you, this isn’ta vague “30 percent chance of rain today” type forecast.Thanks to a new satellite technology being co-developedby NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Navy, emergency personnelwill actually watch the invisible beginnings of a stormunfold.

“They’re going to know where the storm centers areforming before the storms are there,” says James Miller,project manager for Earth Observing 3 (EO3), a satellitethat will test out this new technology in 2005 or 2006.

Unlike the tiny water droplets that make up clouds, thewater vapor that feeds storms is invisible to the humaneye. Water vapor is easy to detect, however, at infrared(IR) wavelengths. EO3 will use an IR-sensitive devicecalled GIFTS-short for Geosynchronous Imaging FourierTransform Spectrometer-to make 3D movies oftemperature, pressure, and water vapor in Earth’satmosphere.

Three or four hours before the storm clouds are visible,meteorologists will notice water vapor converging towardan area. This water vapor, which provides the “fuel” forthe coming storm, is too close to the ground for today’sweather satellites to see. Then meteorologists will checkprecisely how the air temperature over that area variesvertically (something else ordinary satellites can’t do). Thistemperature variation determines whether the humid airwill rise to form storm clouds. And when these conditionslook ominous, the meteorologists can alert the public.

The goal of EO3 is to “test drive” this new technology andprove that it works. If successful, NOAA plans toincorporate GIFTS-style sensors into its next generationof weather satellites.These future satellites will give meteorologists exactlywhat they need in order to give the people exactly whatthey need: an earlier warning that tornados may be on theway.

GIFTS and EO3 are managed by NASA’s New MillenniumProgram. NASA and NOAA will operate EO3 during itsfirst year in geosynchronous orbit above the United States.If the technology works as planned, the U.S. Navy willassume control of EO3, move the satellite to a point abovethe Indian Ocean, and use it to monitor weather inshipping lanes there.

For adults, the EO3 web site at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/eo3 has more about the mission and the GIFTS instrument.For children, The Space Place web site atspaceplace.nasa.gov/eo3_compression.htm has a jazzy,interactive “squishy ball” demo of the data compressionmethods that will be used on EO3.

This severe tornado hit south of Dimmitt, Texas, on June 2, 1995.

The members of TAAS wish to express our deepest sympathiesto the families, loved ones and co-workers of the crew of theSpace Shuttle Columbia. We would like you to know how muchwe appreciate this crew’s dedication to their profession and howmuch their work has furthered the advancement of science forthe betterment of mankind.



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GNTO News & ViewsPeter Eschman

We had an excellent turn out for theJanuary 4th GNTO observing session, ourfirst of the New Year. Around 40 peopleattended and I counted 11 telescopes inoperation, plus the Society ownedIsengard and C-11/CCD scopes. Weenjoyed excellent conditions throughoutmost of the evening, and all had a greattime.

Although the crowd showed up justbefore sundown, we actually started theday around noon, when several GNTOcommittee members joined two TAASelectricians for some electrical work. JoelC’. de Baca and David Wilson donatedtheir expertise, parts, and supplies tobegin improvements to the electricalwiring that supplies the 10-foot domefrom our main dome building. Workfocused on upgrades to the 110 and 12-volt supply wiring, so that we can have amore reliable power source for imaging,scope control, and lighting in the smallerdome. Joel owns Madador Electric, whileDavid’s company is called ZepherElectric, and we really appreciate theirhelp and generosity.

During the same work session we alsoinstalled a new lock box to secure the C-11 optical tube and Losmandy mount.This new lock box is very nice and wasbuilt and donated by another generousTAAS member, Jim Cox. Jim and his wifeAnn, own and operate Artistry of Iron andwe thank them for all their help. A fewyears ago, Jim also built and donated thethree lock boxes that we use for othersecure equipment storage and constructedthe main dome door that we use today.I’m sure other long-term TAAS memberswill remember many other contributionsthat are also thanks to Jim and Ann.

I would also like to thank René Gorlich,who owns Gemini Systems of Berlin,Germany for his continued support of ourobservatory. René recently donated a level3 EPROM control software to upgrade ourLosmandy mount. He had donated a level2 EPROM earlier, and when I told himabout TAAS, and he checked out our website, he replied that “I take pride insupporting your work by donating oursoftware EPROM to the GNTO”

So our thanks go to Joel, David, René, Jimand Ann. With such generous andinternational help, it is truly a joy to makeimprovements to GNTO.

On January 9th we had our GNTOcommittee meeting at JB’s Restaurant,with Larry Cash, Ray Collins, Karen

Keese, Mark Kroska, Gordon Pegue, andme attending. We discussed assignmentsfor upcoming events, and maintenanceneeds at GNTO. We discussed recentpower system limitations and ways tomake improvements. We decided to askthe TAAS Board of Directors for fundingto purchase two more solar modules, toadd to the 6 existing modules, so that wecan recover battery charge more quickly,and perhaps sustain a small continuouselectrical draw. The Board later approvedthe funding, and the modules have beenordered. The Screen Saver subcommitteereported encouraging progress, and therevenue-generating product should beavailable soon.

The day after our meeting, Larry and Imade a quick trip to GNTO to close upthe air space under the internal door tothe lower room of the main dome. Wechecked the insulation that had beenadded to keep the electrical inverter atcorrect operating temperatures, and madesome measurements to prepare for roofmaintenance and relocation of the solarmodules.

On January 16th a small planning sessionmeeting was held at Ray’s house so thatwe could consider roof maintenance thatis scheduled over the next few months.Those who attended included Ray, Mark,Gordon, Dale Murray, and David NelsonBlair and myself. We made good progresson planing a new roof layout toaccommodate better placement for thesolar modules, and reviewed constructionsteps needed to replace rotten roofdecking on the main dome roof. As theplans are firmed up, I will send out a callfor volunteers to assist in the constructionand renovation work that is currentlyslated for February to March.Our GNTO training session on January25th was successful, with around 15 peopleattending. We later had five scopes set up,plus the Isengard and C-11. The CCDtraining went very well, and Mark stayedthrough the night to continue to refine ourCCD setup and operating procedures. I’dlike to thank the committee members whohelped with the training, including Ray,Mark, Dale and Gordon. Our nexttraining session is scheduled for March22nd, which will coincide with our springequinox picnic at GNTO. Be sure to markyour calendars now for this opportunityto learn about your observatory and enjoythe relaxed company of fellow observers.

February 1st was a pretty good viewingchance at GNTO, with 10 scopes set upand around 20 people attending. Joel and

David joined me around noon that daywith Larry, Gordon and Mark arrivingsomewhat later. While I tried to keep upwith Joel and David who completed theelectrical upgrades, Larry and Gordonworked toward plans for our roofmaintenance and modifications. Markhelped with equipment setup for someobservers who had just purchased newgear. We managed to install a higherefficiency charge controller to optimizeour battery charging circuitry. Viewingconditions were fair at times, butsomewhat spotty in places. Things gotsomewhat murky toward midnight, andmost folks soon packed up and headedhome. I ended up staying the night so Icould be sure the new charge controllerwas operating correctly by dawn’s light.

We had learned earlier in the day of theloss of the space shuttle Columbia, and itwas hard to view the wonders of the nightsky without thinking of the sacrifice of thecrew who worked so hard on that difficultscience mission. Until that event, it hadbecome increasingly easy to take the spaceprogram somewhat for granted. We noware reminded of how hard it really is toget to space, live there, and return safelyto Earth. I hope that we, as amateurastronomers, can help to get the mannedspace program back on track byencouraging the public to support thisdifficult program. The advances in sciencefrom manned space flight, such as theservice missions to the Hubble SpaceTelescope, have greatly benefited ourknowledge of the universe and shown usit’s wonders.

In closing, I’d like to remind you that ournext events are scheduled for February22nd and March 1st at GNTO. March 1st

promises to be a good night since it fallson the evening of the new moon, and wehave some great equipment on hand foryou to use, so I hope you can join us. The16-inch Meade dob is seeing frequent usethese days, and it’s just waiting for YOU.

GNTO committee meetings are open to allinterested TAAS members and our nextscheduled meeting is March 6th. As usual,this meeting is on Thursday, 9 days beforethe TAAS general meeting. Our newmeeting location is JB’s Restaurant on thesoutheast corner of San Mateo andMontgomery and the meeting starts at6:30 P.M. If you have questions aboutaccess and availability of GNTO, pleasecontact me (Peter Eschman,[email protected], home phone: 873-1517,work phone: 277-0020.) I hope to see yousoon at our observatory.

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Location, Location, Location

• Chaco Canyon• 6185' elevation Latitude Longitude 36˚ 01' 50"N 107˚ 54' 36"W

36.03˚ -107.91˚ 36˚ 1.83' -107˚ 54.60'

• Oak Flat• 7680' elevation Latitude Longitude 34˚ 59' 48"N 106˚ 19' 17"W

34.99˚ -106.32˚ 34˚ 59.80' -106˚ 19.28'

• UNM Campus Observatory• 5180' elevaton Latitude Longitude 35˚ 5' 29"N 106˚ 37' 17"W

35.09˚ -106.62˚ 35˚ 5.48' -106˚ 37.29'

To convert from Degrees, Minutes,Seconds:Divide seconds by 60, then add minutes,then divide by 60 again.For security reasons, GNTO location isavailable by request only, so pleasecontact Pete Eschman for GNTOinformation.

UNM ReportJay Harden, UNM Campus

Observatory [email protected]

TAAS Reports/Notices❖

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Donations to TAASTAAS General Fund: Rick Hudson,Alison Schuler, Robert Williams,George Pellegrino & Noel RogersGNTO: Paul Lin, Rick Hudson,Alison Schuler & Harris HartzEducation: Rick HudsonDark Sky: Rick Hudson

Membership Services

• Membership Inquiries• Events Information• Volunteer Opportunities

PO Box 50581 Albuquerque, NM87181-0581

Contact Judy Stanley at

• Membership Dues•Magazine Subscriptions•Address/E-mail Changes

Contact Dave Brown at

[email protected]/896-0040

for:

for:

[email protected]/254-8227

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Courtesy Pete Eschman

Definition of the Month

Dial 254-TAASfor Updates

The TAAS hotline is now bigger andbetter! The hotline now offers updateson TAAS monthly meetings (press 1),TAAS special events (press 2), andTAAS school star parties (press 3). Ifyou have a special TAAS event thatyou would like to announce on thehotline, e-mail your announcement [email protected]

For Info - Dial

254 - TAAS

Dave Brown,

[email protected]

Monthly Membership Report(December, 2002)

Membership Current Past Change Month Month

Regular 228 222 6Family 67 64 3Student 17 17 0Total Paid 312 303 9Honorary 4 4 0Complimentary 11 11 0Total Members 327 318 9

3 Jan: We had 6 viewers on a coldnight. Docents: Becky, Brock, Mark &Jay.

10 Jan: Good viewing night. We had30 viewers. Docents: Ray, Gordon,Becky, Brock & Jay.

17 Jan: Good viewing night but quitecool. We had 16 viewers. Docents: Ray,Becky, Brock & Jay.

24 Jan: On and off night. Was cloudyand then partial clear, cloudy andpartial clear. We did have 20 viewers.Docents: Dale, Becky, Brock, Mark &Jay. Brock set up his 30 incher. Quite ashow.

Solar Year - The amount of timebetween successive returns to theVernal equinox. For precision we referto tropical year 1900 as the standardbecause the solar year is lengthening byabout 1 millisecond per century.

Desert Sunset Star Party -May 1-4, 2003

Registration is now online for theDesert Sunset Star Party. Please checkour website (http://chartmarker.tripod.com/sunset.htm)for details about this new star partyand to get your registration forms. Wehave speakers who will talk on avariety of subjects such as identifyingstars, supernovae, Mars and theweather in the Southwest. We willhave vendors present and door prizes,and a contest for the best SimpleAstronomy Tool (SAT). We also havelots to do during the day and havescheduled tours to Mt. Hopkins(Whipple Observatory), BioSphere 2,and the Univ of AZ Mirror Lab.Catered meals will also be available.

Chart Markers and MorePat and Arleen Heimannhttp://chartmarker.tripod.com



Observer’s Page

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From the Ivory Basement6. Culminating in Collimating

Barry Spletzer

I have been writing monthly installments on optics and lightfor several issues now. Originally I had intended to write a singlearticle on telescope collimation. As I started looking into thevarious aspects that I thought were important to cover, I foundthat some interesting and useful background articles might behelpful before discussing collimation. That realizationeventually grew into this series of articles. Although I do notintend to quit writing after this article, this is a culmination ofthe series in that it took all of the previous installments to get tothe issue of collimation.

I had originally chosen collimation as a subject because fewthings in amateur astronomy are surrounded by more mysteryand magic and are so poorly understood. We peer down tubesand into film cans with pinholes, use expensive laser devicesand even laser pattern generators all to achieve that mysticalelusive goal of “perfect collimation.” Surprisingly what we arereally trying to achieve is quite simple. In this installment I willdiscuss the whats and whys of collimation. Specifically, I willexplain what we are trying to do, why we are doing it, and howto get it done.

The purpose of collimation is to align you telescope so itproduces the best possible images. A poorly collimatedtelescope, even with good optics, makes stars appear as bigsmudges rather than sharp, brilliant points. Proper collimationwill make stars appear as small as possible for the given optics.

Throughout this series I have shown numerous drawings ofmirrors and lenses with traces of light rays going through them.A typical example of this is in Figure 1. In the figure for both the

mirror and the lens,the light rays arecoming straight in,that is they aresymmetric with themirror or lens. Inthe middle of eachdrawing there is asingle light ray thatcomes right downthe center and isperpendicular toeach surface. Thiscenter ray definesthe optical axis ofthe lens or mirror.All typical lenses

and mirrors have an optical axis where the surfaces aresymmetric about the axis. Normally, this is just the centerline.I explained last time that the image formed by a mirror or lensis smallest along the optical axis. Last time I showed somediagrams of blur spots formed by a primary mirror. The bottomline was that the nice crisp images along the optical axis quicklydegrade and become large comet shaped blobs as we move awayfrom the axis.

The goal of collimation is to produce the smallest, sharp as

images. This is precisely the same thing as making the opticalaxis of the primary mirror (or objective lens in a refractor) lineup with the optical axis of the eyepiece. Figure 2 shows a poorly

and a properlyc o l l i m a t e dreflector. In thepoorly collimatedone, the axis of themirror and theaxis of theeyepiece (bothreflected throughthe secondary) gotheir separateways. In thep r o p e r l yc o l l i m a t e dtelescope, bothaxes lie along thesame line.

A typical reflecting telescope has adjustments to tilt the primarymirror. Tilting the primary mirror moves the optical axis of themirror. The goal is to make the mirror’s axis pass through thecenter of the eyepiece. This alignment can be achieved by otheradjustments. My homemade truss tube scope has a fixed mirror.I align the primary mirror by means of adjustable sockets at theends of the truss. In my case, the mirror stays still and the restof the telescope moves. It does not matter what moves as longas there is a way to align the mirror axis with the eyepiece.

It would be very convenient to tilt the eyepiece so the axis of theeyepiece passes through the center of the mirror. This is notusually done. Instead, adjustments are included to tilt thesecondary mirror. Figure 3 shows what happens when you tiltthe secondary.Both the axis ofthe mirror andthe axis theeyepiece movewhen thesecondary isadjusted. Thismeans that youshould alwaysadjust thes e c o n d a r ymirror first untilthe eyepiece axispasses to thecenter of themirror. Thenyou can adjust the primary to complete collimation.

I have been considering designing a collimating system wherethe entire collimation procedure is done at the eyepiece. Thisrequires an eyepiece that can slide around so it can be moved tocoincide with the mirror axis. The eyepiece also needs to tilt afew degrees so its axis can point to the mirror. I have not builtone of these yet. It is just an example of another way to collimatea telescope.

One of the most common tools for collimating a telescope is a

Figure 1: The optical axis of a mirrorand a lens

Figure 2: Optical axes in a poorlycollimated reflector

Figure 3: Effect on the axes of tilting thesecondary mirror

Con’t on Page 12



Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Sammy Lockwood

EducationalOutreach

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TAAS Educational Outreach Lineup

As 2002-2003 Season Closes

• On Wednesday, February 12,TAAS joins Carolyn Shoemaker fora special evening at Monte VistaElementary, 3211 Monte Vista Blvd.NE, near UNM.• On Tuesday, February 25, TAAStravels to Manzano Day School,1801 Central NW, for our firstschool star party at this downtownprivate school.•Then on March 11, TAAS returnsto Collet Park Elementary, onMorris NE between Menual andIndian School, for our first visitthere in many years.• On April 1, TAAS visitsBandelier Elementary School, 3309Pershing SE near Coal and Carlisle.• And finally, our yearly programends at Truman Middle School onApril 8th.

As usual, maps and details forthese parties are listed atwww.taas.org, as well asphotographic journals and wrap-up reports from previous schoolparties.

Indoor demonstration docents arealways in short supply. Ourclassroom demos currently includea slide show, a spectral analysisdemonstration, and comet making.The shows are easy to learn and funto give. If you have an idea for anastronomical demo of your own,please let me know. That’s whatMark Kroska has done, who nowgives his Astronomy Jeopardygames at every party.

Although TAAS has a great team

of school party veterans, a few newfaces have been coming to recentTAAS school parties. It was goodto see long time member BobHufnadel at Sierra Vista lastmonth, as well as the Sloops. Nodoubt they will find the TAASschool parties to be as rewardingand addictive as many of us have.Join Us! Contact SammyLockwood at 275-0258, or [email protected]

January School Wrap-up Reports

•Hoover Middle School 1/14/03 -A few high clouds early on, but afairly warm night for January,marked this very successful starparty. Jupiter made it’s star partydebut for the year, which wasviewed by most of the 300+parents, teachers, and kids thatattended. The school provided lot’sof volunteers, and food/drink forthe docents. John Laning, BrockParker, Jay Harding, Larry Cash,

B a r r ySpletzer,a n dSam &SammyLockwoodmannedt h etelescopef i e l d .N a n c y

Davis, Mark Kroska, Dale Murray,Chris Wilson, and Eric Bucheittackled the indoor demonstrations.

•Sierra Vista Elementary 1/24/03- Mark Kroska and SammyLockwood provided a 2-man starparty to the kids at Sierra VistaElementary during the schoolday, as apreviewof whatTAAS isall about.S a m m ygave 12,t h i r ym i n u t e

Mark Kroskaran a solarscope all dayat Sierra Vista

Sammy wore the Starlab outon 1/24, with 400+kids

John Laning works the crowdat Hoover MS

The kids atSierraVistaloved theSungunon 1/24

s t a r l a bshows tog r o u p sof 40+k i d se a c h ,w h i l eM a r kg a v e

solar views all day on theplayground.

•Sierra Vista Elementary 1/28/03- Clear dark skies, a dark viewingfield, and a terrific turnout of 250-300 viewers marked our trip to thiswest side school. In addition,Mark spoke with a group of

parentsb e f o r ethe starp a r t y,a b o u tt h e i rupcomingsciencef a i r .Telescope

docents included Bob Hufnadel,Mr. & Mrs. Conrad Sloop, BrockParker, Jay Harding, BarryGordon, John Laning, Steve Snider,Chris Wilson, and Barry Spletzer.Indoor docents includeddemonstrations were MarkKroska, Eric Bucheit, Dale Murray,Nancy Davis, Ray Collins, andSammy Lockwood.

Pictures at www.taas.org/education

Photos by Mark Kroska & Sammy Lockwood

Hundreds gathered at Sierra Vista on 1/28for the show.



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February 2003Barry Gordon

Jupiter and its four impressive satellitespresent various interesting phenoma —observable with virtually any telescope ordecent well-supported binoculars.

Date Begin Time End Time Event (all times are PM MST)

•Feb 10 7:28 7:40 Europa transitsGanymede — For about two-and-a-halfminutes, at the middle of the event, all ofEuropa will be between us andGanymede. •Feb 11 11:12 11:14 Europa partiallyoccults Io — Io will not be hiddencompletely. •Feb 16 7:48 7:52 Io partially occultsEuropa — Europa will not be hiddencompletely. •Feb 17 10:29 10:40 Europa transitsGanymede — For almost three minutesat the middle of the event,all of Europawill be between us and Ganymede. •Feb 23 9:47 9:50 Io partially occultsEuropa — Europa will not be hiddencompletely.Most heavenly happenings move soslowly as to defy perception. Eventslike the above offer a splendid, albeit rare,opportunity to actually see “TheClockwork of the Universe” in action.Enjoy!

This article is part of a series published byBarry Gordon entitled Placitas AreaResidents Who Appreciate the Night Skies.

laser collimator. The laser goes in theeyepiece so its beam is along theeyepiece axis. When you adjust thesecondary mirror until the laser beam hitsthe center of the primary, you align theeyepiece axis properly. When you adjustthe primary mirror so the reflected beamcoincides with the incoming beam, youhave adjusted the axis of the mirror topoint to the center of the eyepiece. Thistwo-step process completes thecollimation.

Perhaps of greater interest is a how goodis good when comes to collimation. If theprimary mirror axis does not exactly meetthe center of the eyepiece, the sharpestimages formed by the mirror are off centerfrom the middle of the field. This doesnot necessarily mean that your images areinherently bad. It just means that thesharpest images are a little off center. Forlong focal length eyepieces, say 15-20 mmor longer, a misalignment of 1/4 inch orso is not too much of a problem. Most ofthe field will look fine and the sharpeststars will be a little off center. For high-power viewing, things are more criticalsince the blur spots are more magnifiedand the field of view is small.

Another perhaps surprising aspect ofcollimation is that some level ofmisalignment is tolerable because theaberrations (blur spot sizes) of mosteyepieces are much greater than those ofthe primary mirror. In some futureinstallment (when I get a chance to do allthe necessary calculations) I will discusssomething about the blur spot sizes ofeyepieces. It turns out that, for all but themost sophisticated eyepieces, theaberrations of the eyepiece overwhelmthose of the primary mirror.

You may have noticed by now that placingthe optical axis of the mirror in the centerof the eyepiece is much more importantthan placing the optical axis of theeyepiece in the center of the mirror. If theeyepiece axis is off, the eyepiece is slightlytilted relative to the image causing thefocus to shift from one side of the field tothe other. For a small tilt, this is not amajor problem. For example, in a 48 inchfocal length telescope (a 6" f/8 or a 10" f/5) your laser spot could be off by half aninch and it would only throw the focusoff by 1/200 inch at the edge of the fieldof a 1-1/4" eyepiece. This is not usuallyan issue since most collimationprocedures require that both axes bealigned together.

Recently, I developed a collimationmethod that properly aligns the primarymirror and requires no additionalequipment beyond your telescope. If youput a good quality, wide-field eyepiece inyour telescope and look closely at a fieldof stars, you will see something like thatshown in Figure 4. All the stars near theedge of the field look like little comets (the

blur spots I talked about last time) and allthe comet point to the same place. Notsurprisingly, the spot that they point to isthe optical axis of your mirror. This meansthat, simply by looking in the eyepieceyou can “see” where your optical axis isand you can adjust your mirror to bringthe axis to the center of the field. Oncethis is done, your telescope is suitablycollimated. If you have a long focal ratiotelescope you may find it difficult to seethe comets. This is because long focal ratiotelescopes have much smaller blur spotsand are much less sensitive tomiscollimation. On the other hand, if youhave low quality eyepieces, you may findthat no matter what you do, all yourcomets point to the center of the field. Thisis because the eyepiece is making thecomets rather than the mirror. In whichcase, precise collimation will notsignificantly improve your images.

In summary, the reason for collimation isto make your images as sharp as possible.This is achieved by aligning the opticalaxis of the mirror with that of the eyepiece.There are several ways this can be done.For most viewing, perfect collimation willnot give noticeably better images thanmediocre collimation.

Next time, barring my finding theambition needed to do some in depthanalysis of eyepieces, I intend to delve intosome more astronomical subjects like thedaily majesty of a galaxy rise that mightbe witnessed on some far off planet or theidea of never ending daylight if you livedin a globular cluster.

Figure 4: Blur spots in a wide field view

Ivory Basement con’t from Page 10

Other Total Solar EclipsesBarry Gordon

At the TAAS General Meeting of 2003January 18, it was asserted that Earthis the only planet that has Total SolarEclipses. I do not know the source ofthat assertion — I am fairly sure thatit is not correct.

Various astronomy publications hereon Earth, in discussing Jupiter, referto “Satellite Shadow Transits” — andthat, of course, is what they look likeas seen from here. On Jupiter,however, these events are (very!) TotalSolar Eclipses.

What is true — according to quick andCon’t on Page 13



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dirty calculations I’ve made — is thatour Total Solar Eclipses are in allprobability the most spectacular ofany that can occur in our Solar System— as a result of the gloriouscoincidence that the Sun and Moonhave very nearly equal apparent sizesin our sky (which was not always thecase in the past, and will not alwaysbe the case in the future). Thismarvelous size coincidence allows theMoon to completely block the Sun’sbright photosphere while allowingvirtually everything else to remainvisible, frequently displayingexquisite prominence activity at manypoints around the solar limb.

Not so on Jupiter.

Only Jupiter’s “Big Four” Galileansatellites are big enough to cover theSun’s photosphere completely — andthey over-do it rather badly. Close-inIo is the worst offender, with anapparent size almost five times theSun’s. Europa and Ganymede are notvery much better, each being morethan two-and-a-half times the Sun’sapparent size. Only Callisto comesclose, at a bit less than one-and-a-halftimes the Sun, but that’s still no matchfor the Sun/Moon parity enjoyed hereon Earth.

A similar situation exists on Saturn: abunch of shrimps that are way toosmall, and a quartet of over-achievers.Tethys, Dione, and Rhea all run aboutthree to four times the Sun’s apparentsize, while huge Titan gets back to wellover four-and-a-half times.

So we don’t have the only Total SolarEclipses, but we apparently do havethe best ones.

Conceivably, there might be anothersimilar good fit somewhere fartherout, with one of the moons of Uranusor Neptune. I don’t know, and I don’tcare enough to find out. I’ve done afair amount of travelling chasing TotalSolar Eclipses, but there are limits.

Eclipses con’t from Page 12Burki andD a l eM u r r a y,along withR o b e r tWilliams,battled itout andD a l e

triumphed. Not too bad for a guy whodidn’t raise his hand to volunteer, butwas just scratching his head.The categories were astronomical, theanswers were challenging, thecontestantsw e r esporting, andevery playerwalked awaywith a neatprize. Butwhat is trulyamazing isthat gameshow hosts never have a hair out ofplace and never seem to age, and ourMr. Trebek is no exception. Specialthanks go to the brains behind thebeauty, Elaine Kroska, who workedhard and smart behind the scenes to

make sure the show did go on. I’d sayit was a ratings success. There’s talkof a sequel, but it may take some timeto reach an agreement. I hear that nowTrebek wants a trailer.

General Meeting con’t from Page 3

Photos by Eric Bucheit

Ray awards Nancy& Larry certificates for observing

excellence

Sammy reviews theschool star partycurriculum

Gordon & Karen supervise theelection of officers

Pete & Ray talk about upcoming events

Ray acknowledges service by Karen, Dan& David



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Chaco Culture National Historical Park(San Juan County)

Located in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico.

Ray Collins

Significance: Chaco Culture National Historical Park isnot only one of the most outstanding cultural resources ofthe United States, but is recognized globally as a WorldHeritage Site. Long recognized for extraordinaryarchitecture, a rich archeological record, and a series ofmagnificent roads that demonstrate its role as a center ofimportant activity eight to twelve centuries ago, Chaco inrecent years has come to be understood for its value inArcheo-astronomy. Many major Chacoan structures insidethe park and throughout a wide surrounding area are nowknown to have been built in specific relationship to thesun, moon, planets, and stars. More than mere solsticemarkers, these relationships have much to tell us aboutthe knowledge and beliefs of the Chacoan people. At fewplaces is our custodial responsibility as great, not only toourselves as New Mexicans and to all Americans, but tothe family of humankind. At few places on earth is thecrystal clear Night-and Daytime-Sky as important forunderstanding our past.

Threat: The clear sky over Chaco Culture NationalHistorical Park is in danger. A coal-fired power plant isproposed for construction on private land only twentymiles to the southeast of Chaco and five miles to the westof its outlier Pueblo Pintado. The best available technologyfor limiting pollution is not required to be utilized in theproposed power plant because of its location on privateland and its use of privately owned coal. The owners arenot held to federal environmental law. If such a plant wereconstructed, the plume of pollution issuing from the stacks

could blot the horizon, screen the sunrise from view anddiminish the clear night sky, severing the ancientconnection between Chaco and the universe its peoplestruggled to understand.

Response: In November, TAAS member John Sefickappealed to the New Mexico Heritage Alliance to havethe Chaco Culture National Historical Park and itsviewshed considered as a candidate for New Mexico’sMost Endangered Places List. The TAAS Board wrote aletter in support of John’s application. We have nowlearned the Alliance has listed Chaco in its 2003 list. Thehope is that this recognition will lend support to thestruggle that lies ahead, a struggle that may ultimatelydepend on action by the New Mexico Legislature. As thisstory unfolds, and as opportunities arise for the TAASmembership to become involved, you will be informed.



Classified Ads

❖❖ SOCIETY STAFF ❖❖

Board of Directors - [email protected] Telephone E-mail Address

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Please note that the deadline for the April 2003 issue of TheSidereal Times will be Friday, February 28th, as the finishedmanuscript must be at the printers on Monday, March 3rd sothat you will receive it by the following Saturday. My e-mailaddress is [email protected].

Editor’s Note

Free Telescope Offer

Some restrictions apply. Offer valid for current TAAS members. Offer is first

come first served. Late comers will be put on a waiting list. Neither TAAS nor

the telescope curators will be held liable for any lost sleep or other problems

arising from the use of TAAS scopes.

Borrowers are required to enjoy the telescopes.

What’s that? Did you say Free? That’s right FREE!

Any TAAS member can use this coupon to borrow a TAAS telescope.

Contact Barry Spletzer at [email protected] or 294-4601 and

receive a loaner telescope absolutely free. You can choose from scopes with

apertures ranging from 6” to 13”.

•President/ATM Coordinator Ray Collins 344-9686 (H) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]•Vice President/Gen Mtg Coord Dale Murray 296-2479 (H) [email protected] [email protected]•Secretary Elizabeth Burki 254-0674 (H) [email protected] [email protected]•Treasurer/Membership Services Dave Brown 275-9126 (O) [email protected] [email protected]/Observatory Director Pete Eschman 873-1517 (H) [email protected] [email protected]/Membership Director Judy Stanley 896-0040 (H) [email protected] [email protected]/Telescope Curator Barry Spletzer 294-4601 (H) [email protected] [email protected] Eric Bucheit 771-9060 (H) [email protected] Larry Cash 299-4686 (H) [email protected] Rebecca Purvis 877-2517 (H) [email protected]

Events Coordinator Vacant [email protected] Relations Officer Karen Keese 261-0040 (C) [email protected] /TAAS Web Master Sammy Lockwood 275-0258 (H) [email protected] [email protected] Editor Dan Richey 293-3983 (H) [email protected] Archivist Pat Appel 292-0463 (H) [email protected] Librarian Dawn Gray 856-2054 (H) [email protected] Coordinator Michael Pendley 296-0549 (H) [email protected] Observatory Coordinator Jay Harden 296-0537 (H) [email protected] Post 110 Advisor Mark Kroska 884-9108 (H) [email protected] Astronomy Ryan Gray 856-2054 (H) [email protected]

Telephone E-mail AddressTAAS Positions



MEMBERSHIP: You may request amembership application by sendinge-mail to [email protected] or calling(505) 254-TAAS(8227). Applications mayalso be downloaded from the Web site.Annual dues to The AlbuquerqueAstronomical Society are $30/year for afull membership and $15/year for a fulltime student (high school or less)membership. Additional family membersmay join for $5/each (student and familymemberships are not eligible to vote onsociety matters). New memberinformation packets can be downloadedfrom the website or requested from theTAAS Membership Services Director [email protected] You may sendyour dues by mail to our newsletter returnaddress with your check written out toThe Albuquerque Astronomical Societyor give your check to the Treasurer at thenext meeting.MAGAZINES: Discount magazinesubscriptions to Sky and Telescope andAstronomy as well as discounts on booksfrom Sky Publishing Corporation areavailable when purchased by TAASmembers through our society. Include anyof the above magazine renewal mailersand subscription payments as part of your

renewal check. Make checks out to TAAS(we will combine and send one check tothe publisher). Warning: publishers takeseveral months to process magazinesubscriptions.ARTICLES/ADVERTISEMENTS:Articles, personal astronomical classifiedadvertisements and business card sizeadvertisements for businesses related toastronomy must be submitted by thedeadline shown on the Society calendar(generally the Saturday near the newMoon) Rates for commercial ads (perissue) are $120 per page, $60 per half page,$30 per quarter page, $7 for business cardsize. The newsletter editor reserves theright to include and/or edit any article oradvertisement. E-mail attachments inMicrosoft Word, 10 point Palatino,justified, no indent at paragraphbeginning, one space betweenparagraphs is preferred. ASCII and RTFare acceptable. One column isapproximately 350 words. Contact theNewsletter Editor at [email protected] formore information.CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Note that TheSidereal Times is mailed at a nonprofitorganization bulk mail rate. As a result,the newsletter will NOT be forwarded toyour new address should you move!!

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

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Please provide the Treasurer([email protected]) with your newmailing address to ensure that youreceive your newsletter.TAAS LIBRARY: Please contact theLibrarian at [email protected] or 856-2054to check out a book or make acontribution.

TAAS on the World Wide Web:http://[email protected]

Map to Regener Hall(not to scale)

MLK Dr.

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P. O. Box 50581Albuquerque, NM 87181-0581

March 2003 The Sidereal Times - TAAS Home Page1993 co-discovery of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which...

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