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by Rene Gedaly

Lots of activity this month. It’s getting hard to keep up. Speaking of which, a lot of mowing goes on at the dark site in summer. I think I’ve seen every member of the Observatory Committee on one mower or another. Including yours truly. Yes, Allen Wilkerson gave me training on the finishing mower. Thanks, Allen. I think.

UH Observatory
About a year ago one of our young members, Daniel Vrolik, asked director Jessica Kingsley what happened to the observatory atop the UH Science building. Jessica promptly informed the board and got the ball rolling. Now Susan Street, the former observatory operator, a group of current UH physics majors, and Clayton Jeter are putting in all the sweat and tears to get the UH observatory operational. Dr. Pinsky, one of our advisers, has the primary and secondary mirrors out for recoating. The plan is to re-open in the fall.

Website
Ever wonder about that article you saw on the website that’s gone missing? The WebTech Team led by Mark Ferraz now has a website archive of past articles. See the Archive tab.

Outreach
What do you do about these short summer nights? Hold solar and lunar events of course. Coming up in July we have the Solar Series Art Exhibition at Silver Street Studios and an Astronomy 101 talk with lunar observing at Second Baptist for 50 or so visiting students from China. Contact outreach@astronomyhouston.org and Joe Khalaf will hook you up.

Observatory Light Rules
New to the club but afraid of breaking the light rules? Fear no more. Ana Taylor, a weekend denizen of the dark site and Women’s SIG member, has volunteered to get you started off right. During twilight she’ll be stopping by to help make sure you don’t inadvertently spill light from your vehicle.

Girl Scouts at the Observatory

The Women’s SIG hosted 30 scouts and 10 parents overnight at the HAS Observatory. What fun! Cherie Pepper, a former girl scout who’s gone through the ranks, was invaluable help as was Sherry Irby, who brought her Chi-Weenies Dewey and Libby, a big hit. Equipped with red lights, the girls toured Mike Edstrom’s private imaging observatory, stopped at Amelia Goldberg’s blinged out pink telescope, and then made their way to the Observatory where Chris Ober, Steve Goldberg, and I were on hand to show them Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Albireo, the Stargate, etc., etc. We also located objects naked eye as the girls learned to use a star map, loads of fun. As promised, I also showed the ambitious—girls and parents—how to operate a telescope. They were directed to choose a bright object, find it using the Telrad on the f/5, focus it in the eyepiece, and then tell me what they saw. There are no words to describe their faces as they discovered they had located Mars and Saturn by accident—all by themselves.

by Mike Edstrom

And the work continues!!

Thanks to all that came out on Saturday June 18th we are making headway on the outside wall coverings and the roof trusses. We will meet again soon keep an eye on the netslyder for date and time.

We have had a lot of rain in May and early June at the site so the ground is saturated please be sure to stay on the road or on the observing field as the other areas are very soft. The low water crossing has had water running in it from a few inches to all the way to the top so if you are going out right after a rain please be very careful!!!

Please watch the web site for future announcements of training sessions on the new MX and 12” RC scope in the observatory which everyone that has been trained on using the observatory must take.

Summer constellations are up and waiting for you at the Columbus Dark Site, hope to see you there soon.

If you find any issues while at the site, please be sure to e-mail me so we can take care of them.

By Bill Pellerin

Object: Three double stars
Class: Stars
Constellation: Lyra, the Lyre (musical instrument)
Magnitude: See text
R.A.: 18 h, 50 m, 24 s (constellation)
Dec: 36° 49’ 12”
Size/Spectral: See text
Distance: 150 ly
Optics needed: Unaided eye, binoculars, and a small telescope

It’s now officially summer, as of June 20. The Sun has traveled as far north as it’s going to go this year and is beginning its long trek back south toward the winter solstice (December 21). It seems so far away now. While the hours of daylight are getting fewer now, it’ll take some time before we see significantly earlier sunsets.

Daylight saving time doesn’t help (don’t get me started on this topic). Amateur astronomers are obliged to wait later into the night (clock time) to view their favorite objects and the buzzing of the mosquitoes does not facilitate a relaxing observing session. Bug spray, anyone?

Fortunately, there are several bright objects that are worthy of your time and effort, and in this article we’ll focus on some bright stars in Vega, a constellation that is up all night in July. You should be able to find these from the city on a moonlit night, so don’t wait for ideal conditions to get the telescope out.

Let’s begin with the most recognizable star in the constellation, Vega. An A class (blue) star shining at magnitude zero means it is one of the brighter stars in the sky, fifth in order of brightness. Due to the precession of the earth’s axis it was the pole star 14,000 years ago, and if you can wait another 14,000 years or so, it will be the pole star again.

Look slightly to the east and you’ll see a small triangle of stars (no telescope needed for this). The one to the northeast is Epsilon Lyr, the famous double-double. While you may be able to see the two stars without optical aid (they’re 3.5 arc-minutes apart), you can definitely see them with binoculars. You’ll need a telescope to see that each of the stars in the pair is also a double (one of these pairs is 2.2 arc-seconds and the other is 2.8 arc-seconds). High magnification (about 200x), good seeing, good optics, and attention to the focus of the telescope are needed to see the four stars.

Delta Lyr, at the northeastern corner of the parallelogram that defines Lyra is an optical double star. The stars are just over 10 arc minutes apart and easy to see. The primary star (900 ly away) is a M class star, meaning that it’s much redder than Vega. Look to see if you can detect this color difference. Much of the radiation of this star is in the infrared, not the visible, so the total energy from this star is quite high.

Looking back in the direction of Vega, we happen upon Zeta Lyr, I measure (in TheSky software) the separation of the two stars that comprise this pair as 45 arc-seconds. You’ll need binoculars or, more likely, a telescope to split this pair. A magnification of 10 to 20 should be sufficient, and 10 power binoculars are easy to come by. You’ll need a mount to hold them steady to have a good look at the double with the binocs. (I’ve long been a fan of image stabilized binoculars. They’re expensive, but a great investment if you intend to do a lot of binocular observing.)

BY: MIKE EDSTROM

AND THE WORK HAS BEGUN!!

Thanks to all that came out on Saturday May 21st the exterior walls and the one interior wall of the females and families bunkhouse are up. We will meet again soon. Keep an eye on the netslyder for date and time.

SUMMER TIME IS HERE

Well at least it feels like summer, the temperature is rising and so is the humidity. That means several things, mosquitoes, bugs and fire ants among other things.  Please be prepared and cautious when at the Dark Site and bring plenty of water or your favorite sports drink to keep hydrated!!

Summer constellations are up and waiting for you at the Columbus Dark Site, hope to see you there soon.

If you find any issues while at the site, please be sure to e-mail me so we can take care of them.

BY BILL PELLERIN

OBJECT:  Eltanin, Gamma Dra, 33 Dra
CLASS: Star
CONSTELLATION:  Draco (the dragon or serpent)
MAGNITUDE:  2.24
R.A.:     17 h, 56 m,  36 s
DEC:     51°  29’ 20”
SIZE/SPECTRAL:  K5
DISTANCE:  150 ly
OPTICS NEEDED: Unaided eye

In the rather dim constellation of Draco, this star is the brightest at magnitude 2.24. Beta Dra (Rastaban), which should be brighter is 2.9 magnitude, and Alpha Dra (Thuban), which should be brighter than either of these two shines at 3.6 magnitude. So much for Bayer designations being in order of magnitude. 

Thuban has the distinction of having been the ‘Polaris’ (pole star) around 3942 BC, so it’s likely that the designation of it as the Alpha star is because of its position, not its brightness.

The star lies about 14.5 degrees north and a little west (333 degree position angle) of the star Vega, which shines at 0.0 magnitude and is easy to find in the summer sky. Find Eltanin by drawing a line from Altair to Vega and on to Eltanin.

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BY RENE GEDALY

I often use this space to keep you informed of HAS events and the members who make them eventful. It’s a pleasure for me to write and I hope you enjoy reading it. We’re all members, all contributors, to this amazing club.

SUMMERTIME, HAStronomy TIME

It’s summertime and our personal calendars are more fluid with family vacations and impromptu doings.Hopefully we can still make time for astronomy and our friends at HAS. As usual we’ll have our monthly speakers, featured on the GuideStar front page. And like Katz’s Deli, the HAS Observatory never closes. Work continues on the new bunkhouse, and when it’s done, many of us will be able to observe late, sack out in comfort, and travel home in daylight.

On behalf of crew chief Bill Kowalczyk,the Observatory Committee, and the Women’s SIG, let me invite you to be part of its construction. Check the website calendar for the next work party.