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Our Interests
Our Membership
Community Activities
August Newsletter
Upcoming ORION Events
Interesting Sites
ORIONite Astro Images
Articles
E-Mail-Request More Information
|
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ORION GENERAL MEETING MINUTES 06 February 2008 MEETING ATTENDANCE Sixteen people attended the meeting: 11 members and 5 non-members. BUSINESS ISSUES Non-Profit Status Bob Edwards said that he may need to hand this task off to someone else because of lack of time to work on it. Brochure Larry Robinson has put together an ORION brochure and has made 50 2-sided color copies. Copying was done at Staples but was expensive at $.98 per copy. Heather Fries took some brochures to pass out at sidewalk astronomy events. PRESENTATION Juan Carbajo, Ph.D. Eclipses Juan gave a very comprehensive overview of lunar and solar eclipses, including some of his experiences traveling to view solar eclipses. Minutes prepared by Linda Fippin ORION Secretary “Friend of the Milky Way Award”Save Roane Starry Skies presented the first of the coveted "Friend of the Milky Way Award" today to Tennessee Eye Care. President Liz Singley made the presentation as the head opthalmologist, her colleagues, the building architect, the facility manager, and members of SRSS looked on and answered questions from the honored recipients and the press. Four NSN people were heavily involved. Linda Fippin conceived and organized the award. Christine Graham designed the Logo. John Mannone and David Fields discussed Light ConservationNSN Event Log: Orionids Lots of interest tonight. Thanks to DR for deploying his scope (the Dragon) and showing nice views of the moon and Saturn. During our little break in the clouds, everyone learned to find ORION and it's stars and nebula. Thanks also to Larry and Christine (with cameras)and John and all the ORION and NSN people who helped. The evening was almost totally cloudy except for 30 minutes of relatively clear sky. Lots of observing and measurements with the sky quality meter. Globe at Night ties in well with our other initiatives. Fun evening. And what a nice moon! This little photo, a piece of a larger photo taken for lunar position reference, stores in only 1600 bytes on my hard drive. 1.6 KB amazing. I can buy a 2 GB USB memory stick for $20, or a penny per Megabyte. So the cost to store this pretty photo is less than .002 cents and it's really pretty, isn't it? This eclipse was compliments of the earth's shadow while another eclipse, compliments of the clouds, occupied all but 30 minutes of our evening. Photos: (click to enlarge) 
(Credit: Eclipsed moon, Saturn and dim Regulus 22:24h from TAO, by David)
(Credit: Sequence from TAO through DR's Dragon Dobsonian by Christine)
Sidewalk Astronomy in Oak Ridge and KnoxvilleI know of no other means of public outreach more effective than engaging in Sidewalk Astronomy. The idea was instilled in me as the result of John Dobson's 2004 visit and my involvement with volunteer night sky programs in the national parks. The idea is simple. Set up star gazing equipment someplace where people have gathered and invite them to look up and ask questions. While they are looking through the telescope or astronomical binoculars, engage in discussions about better viewings from dark sky locations, including coming to TAO on public nights. Pass out literature on TAO and the need to protect the night from encroaching light pollution. The choice of location is critical. At first I tried the Oak Ridge Civic Center, with limited success. Most people visiting the Civic Center are on a personal time schedule and the set up of telescopes is not readily visible from the Oak Ridge Turnpike. Furthermore, the Civic Center is not always open on weekend evenings, so it's not an ideal location for public viewings without first publicizing the event. I found much more success conducting sidewalk astronomy in front of the Oak Ridge Starbucks (making sure to inform the store manager in advance of set up, which sometimes has resulted in an offer of complimentary coffee). There, people sit to have their coffee and engage in conversation, and they are usually curious enough to have a look through telescopes highlighting the moon, Saturn, or Jupiter. The light pollution at Starbucks is sufficiently severe that not much else is visible but the brightest of night sky objects, but on the positive side the equipment and the viewers are readily visible from the Turnpike. I have had young onlookers at Starbucks calling up their parents and friends to come out to see the views of the moon craters and rings of Saturn. I have had teachers request visits to their classrooms. I have had the local manager of Starbucks invite me to visit his new store in Powell. The best location for sidewalk astronomy has been near the trail and playground at the Oak Ridge Marina. Most everyone visiting the playground and walking the trail has been interested in, if not exhibiting outright excitement about, looking through a telescope. For some reason, I have found the degree of intellectual curiosity expressed by onlookers at that location to be far superior to what I have experienced elsewhere. The degree of light pollution is not as severe as at Starbucks, so double stars and bright clusters and even brighter nebula can be useful targets as well as the moon and bright planets. In all locations, I make it a point to hand out literature about TAO and invite onlookers to come to our observatory. I usually set up around 8:30 PM and am finished at 10:00 PM. What's in it for anyone choosing to engage in Sidewalk Astronomy? A lot! It's the natural progression in a sequence of personal rewards from taking up a hobby as an amateur astronomer. As an amateur astronomer, perhaps the very first decision one makes is to learn the night sky by purchasing some equipment that will allow observations from one's backyard. As all of you know, this is no easy task. The next decision is how far to go in upgrading equipment and whether or not to engage in astrophotography. Astrophotography can be infinitely rewarding and a way to share visual experiences with many others. I personally have chosen to remain a visual amateur astronomer. Finally, after spending a few years mastering knowledge of the locations of constellations and pulling many series of all-nighters at dark sky locations to view the denizens of the night using high quality eye pieces, a premium focuser, and a good reflecting telescope equipped with a computerized finder, I have found myself in need of adventures that involve more than personal time with my equipment in the privacy of my backyard. I thus have discovered a new source of positive energy in Sidewalk Astronomy that is associated with helping others without equipment to be introduced to the wonders of the night from locations where people choose to gather, and introducing them to the better viewing possibilities at TAO. It's a thrill to listen to their exclamations of joy upon viewing the craters of the moon or seeing the equatorial banding and moons of Jupiter. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a few more months until Saturn becomes visible again after sunset. The numerous questions I get also becomes an incentive to look up the answers and to master basic facts about the formation of craters and distances to celestial objects, etc. The next step is to encourage other local astronomers to give it a try and make Sidewalk Astronomy a regular series of events in the area. The ideal thing would be to advertise an event like we did with John Dobson at Roane State in 2004. But, what do we do when the weather is lousy? Nothing. Perhaps we can advertise that we are going to be doing Sidewalk Astronomy at various places, and simply mention that the public be on the lookout for us when the weather is good and when the moon is nearly half full. Then we simply call or e-mail each other saying that we will be setting up at a given location that evening and inviting anyone with equipment to join in the fun. I'd like to suggest that our first outing be the Marina where we might highlight Jupiter and perhaps Albireo and the Double Double of epsilon Lyra. The best times to view the moon are about three days either side of first quarter. We can try many other observing locations and share notes as to what works well and what works less well. It is important that what ever we do involves a minimum of fuss, that the weather is good, and that the sidewalk astronomers enjoy the experience of sharing equipment and knowledge with a curious public. Some of our observing locations might coincide with publicity to support the light conservation ordinance to protect the night sky above TAO. Looking forward to talking more about Sidewalk Astronomy in Oak Ridge at the upcoming ORION meeting on weds. Owen Hoffman One of the speakers on Sept. 1 was Aaron Haun. He and his father, Jeff Haun are new ORION members and Jeff is a board member. In the attached photos, Aaron is shown at TAO with the Gobi desktop robot antenna simulator that is now successfully operating under computer control.
Aaron's talk on Sept. 1 was about the computer server, the TAOSN server that he has configured and is operating to store radio astronomy data on Jupiter and the sun from TAOSN (TAO Solar Network). This presentation included a PowerPoint presentation with excellent graphics.
Hi Everyone; This morning from 12 a.m. until daybreak there were seven brave ones observing the Perseids. As meteor showers go at TAO, this one was above average with clear skies until ~5 a.m. and moderately good transparency. Besides we enjoyed a special treat; bananas fried in olive oil and 80 proof rum (from David) along with some very good Ethiopian coffee (from Heather). There were a few bright meteors that left trails and numerous smaller ones... We did not count, but I suspect at the peak there were 20-30/hr???My intent was to make time exposures hoping to capture a meteor trail... Well that did not work so well as all I got were star trails... The bright skies toward Perseus limited exposures to about 5-6 min without total constrast destruction. Most interesting was the ability of my super red-sensitive Canon camera to record terrestrial shots with only reflected sky light supplemented by my red observing light with exposures of ~5 min. Unfortunately, this does demonstrate the light polluted TAO skies...I used some image processing for further enhancement..The star trail image shows the Milky way with the camera pointed toward Cassiopeia. One can see the smudge from the double cluster.. Each of the 5 appended images are ~ 0.8 -1.0 Mb. Anyway here they are:  Star Trails over dome  Observatory/Classroom  Observatory/Meteors/POD  Observatory/meteors/Glow-Pod DR's POD is indeed blue green and DR is the same color in the dark! The effect of the bright sky is quite apparent and indeed appears as a sunset-rise image; but it is not. These pics were made from 1-4 this morning (8-12). Roy the Starman Additionally, Dr. Fields had this additional note: We saw a lot of meteors from TAO, some of them violating the speed limit. Skies were great, as was coffee cake, fried bananas, etc. Here's one of the photos, with an alien barely detectable in the background, running past the TAO safety fence:  Alien/Speed Limit |