From the President

From the President June/July 2005

I have been on travel for the past several weeks, so this input will serve for both the months of June and July. I hope you have been able to get in some great viewing over the spring months. From the CFAS_Fl yahoo group it appears that many of our members are staying active with some entering into the realm of CCD imaging. I wish them all good luck with this fascinating part of astronomy.

The summer viewing season has arrived! It is great to see the summer milky way in all its grandeur grace our sky. If only the clouds are forgiving this summer and provide us with more opportunities to enjoy the superb views present at this time of year. I had the priveldge to see the milky way from the southern Caribbean sea this June. Altough I had just my binoculars on the trip, I was able to enjoy great sights provided by the dark skies while we were at sea. The contast between the brillant star fields and the dark dust lanes was the best I have seen. Star fields, nebulas and star clusters were easily seen. The lower lattitude brought Scorpio high in the sky with Omega Centari clear of the horizon’s distortions.

There are many things happening in the world of astronomy. It seems hardly a day goes by without a new discovery being made. This July a new chapter in our knowledge of the composition of comets, and hence the early solar system, will be written. After a voyage of 173 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles), NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft will get up-close and personal with comet Tempel 1 on July 4 (EDT). Deep Impact is a NASA Discovery mission that launched 12 January 2005 and will crash into comet 9P/Tempel 1. Mission scientists and engineers are relying on observations made before and after the impact and taken by professional observatories, students and amateurs to provide context for the data taken by the flyby spacecraft. Remember as an amateur with a CCD camera you can officially participate in this program by taking before and after images. Check out the Deep Impact web site: http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html. Even though that we will not be able to see the actual impact here in Florida, there should be a lot of media coverage.

I hope you have enjoyed the programs presented at this year’s meetings. Hats off to David Furrow for providing such an interesting and varied series of programs. The rest of the year should be just as good, so plan on attending our general meetings. We will continue to try and minimize the business portion of these meeting in order to provide the most time to our presentations. If you have suggestions for future meetings, please contact David direct.

For those of you who get frustrated with the cloudy summer skies, and still want to get some observing in, I recommend becoming a member of SLOOH.COM. Slooh has live viewing every night from about 2PM to 2 AM EST. Slooh's observatories are on Mount Teide in the Canary Islands, and presently has two telescopes in service: A 14-inch diameter Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope, with a focal length of 3910mm, and an 85mm diameter APO refractor telescope, with a focal length of 480mm. Each telescope is fitted with a special CCD camera that develop images of each objects as light is captured by the CCD. A new object is selected about every 15 minutes. I use the site in conjunction with my SKY program. This way I can locate the object on a sky chart while viewing the object on slooh.com. This is a good way to learn the sky while observing a CCD image of the object.

As a reminder, the public viewing sessions at the Robinson observatory are suspended during the summer months, and will resume next fall in September. If you are not yet qualified as an operator at Robinson the summer is a good time to get this training. If you have not seen Jupiter or Saturn on a good seeing night through the Tinsley you have missed out on a special visual treat. Viewing the moon is also excellent with the Tinsley. With its long focal length the Tinsley is a high magnification instrument that requires steady seeing conditions to produce good visual images. Robinson has a new addition: UCF has purchased a Hydrogen Alpha filter for viewing the sun with the TEC 140. This filter allows the viewing of detailed surface features and prominences. This is available for CFAS use on the weekends at the observatory. You must get a special training to use this equipment.

That said, at the time of this posting the Robinson observatory is out of commission because the dome is binding, preventing rotation of the dome. Hopefully this can be resolved through alignment of the dome roller system. This is not an easy operation, but should be completed by the end of the month. Updates will be posted on the CFAS website.

Paul Kronenwetter, our leading Robinson trainer is in need of a few assistants to help with Robinson training. If you are interested, please contact Paul through his web- master web site. Robinson training is held monthly on the first Friday of each month.

CFAS has a terrific inventory of telescopes that may be checked out by the membership. This membership benefit is especially valuable to those new to astronomy, and gives you a good opportunity to try different instruments before purchasing one of your own. The TEC 140mm APO refractor on a Gemini mount and a 12 inch Meade LX200 can be reserved for use at monthly observing sessions at the Harmony site. So far few have requested these 2 top of the line telescopes. You will be given instruction on how to use these telescopes, so don’t be afraid to sign up for them. Also available for thirty day check outs are 3 dobsonians and several refractors. Check with Walt Hamler, the chairman of the observing committee to reserve these telescopes.

If you are not a member of the CFAS-FL Yahoo group I encourage you to join. The site is a great source of information about CFAS activities, but also a good place to get your basic astronomy questions answered. The site is the only place where you can get the latest information on whether members are going to Harmony for our viewing sessions. This is especially important during the summer when storms and cloud conditions can cancel viewing sessions. You do not have to join the site to review messages, but you must be a member to be able to post messages.

Clear skies to all. Ray Jones, President