Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri

          It was an experience! What a wonderful afternoon Friday in Quail Ridge Park with fellow amateur astronomers from around the mid-west. This was my first convention, and I enjoyed talking with everyone I met.  Given a weather menu to chose from no one could have topped the day we had either, for sure something would have been left out.

         From the recesses of my mind a poem popped up as my wife and I were headed for the St. Charles Community College. " Now I lay me down to sleep, the speaker is dull the subject deep…" This was not the case. The speakers had done their home work, knew their topics well ,and they were well presented.

        Gregg Ruppel was clear and candid about taking pictures of an eclipse. Everyone appreciated Gregg telling us what he did wrong and what he did right. From the responses to his one man show "Astronomy as Art" at St. Peter’s Arts Center, he has a lot of credibility. If you haven’t seen this art show, it is well worth you time.  It is on display until July 13th.

       Wayne Clark’s talk on volunteering at the ASP / AAS convention was interesting, Wayne, I envy you getting to hear Dava Sobel. I hear Wayne is preparing a manual for first time Metro Link riders.

      Jim Small presented information about the Year of Astronomy 2009. Next Doug Kniffen had us all wanting to root through our old 35 mm camera filters.  The effect didymian filters have on light pollution is amazing.  Clark Van Scoyh held my attention.  He is doing out reach with the Star lab.  I did that for several years and found it very enjoyable, too.

       After lunch Mary Masterman gave her presentation about her making a spectograph.  In my notes I only had one word "WOW!"  Our wish for her is that the promise of greatness remains with her!

     Our own Mark Shea had the crowd’s attention as he spoke about building a binocular telescope.  It was an intrigued group that followed Mark into the lobby to examine his home built binocular scope.  Another member of our group, Jim Melka, our go to guy on Mars, proved again what a difference there is between looking through a telescope and observing through one.  Jim can find details!

     Gil, good guys do win!  Congratulations to Gil Mechin, Amateur Astronomer of the Year for Outreach!

    If Mary Masterman is a breath of fresh air, Dr. Pamela Gay is a Tornado!!  We all enjoyed her after dinner talk on what amateurs can do to help the Science of Astronomy.  Her pointed remarks laced with good humor were on the mark.

    Our ASEM members can be satisfied on a job well done!!  There was a lot of work done behind the scenes that make everything to smoothly.  Jim and Yvonne Roe can be proud of the work they accomplished.  A special "thank you" to Dr. Stacy Thater for letting us use the St. Charles Community College.  Thank you to Annette Rolls and Wayne Clark for getting all the attendance prizes.  Thank you to Nancy Clark and Barb Stewart for helping with registration. A thank you to all others who pulled through when help was needed.

            Things to look for this month:

            02   New Moon.

            04   Earth is at aphelion, 94,500,000 miles from the Sun.

            09   Jupiter reaches opposition, 3 a.m. CDT.

            10   First quarter Moon.

                   Mars 0.64 deg ssw of Saturn

             14  The Moon,at apogee, passes south of Antares.

             18   Full Moon

             25  Last quarter Moon

             27  Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks. Look low in the southwestern sky  around 2 am.

             31  The Moon passes 0.9 deg south of Ceres Midnight.

                In 1879, the prominent British astronomer, George Darwin ( 07/09/1845 - 12/07/1912 ) published his theory on the Moon’s origin. Others had speculated and written notes but no one had approached the subject, with research and thousands pages of formula the way the son of Charles Darwin had.

         The fifth child of Charles and Emma Darwin was professor of astronomy at the University of Cambridge in 1883. He studied tidal forces between the Sun, Earth and Moon. His work showed that the ocean tides on opposite sides of the Earth caused by the Moon and Sun acted like the brakes on a turning wheel and over a long period of time were slowing the Earths’ rotation.

       Darwin then realized this meant back in time the Earth was turning faster. This would have put the Moon much closer, and as the Moon moves further away the tidal brakes become less effective. Darwin became the first person to run the movie backwards, as we now say. He then speculated that tidal forces between the Earth and Moon would have distorted the shapes of the two bodies, and they would have been more ovalur than round, and so close that they touched.

      Here the Fusion Theory was born. The Earth at one time, in its beginning,  spun at a very high rate. Because of its high speed of rotation, it was more oval and threw off a piece of its bulge which became the Moon. This pleased scientist of the time and also agreed with the myth of Mother Earth and its daughter the Moon Godess.  The alternate name for the theory is the daughter theory.

     Three years later a geologist, Osmond Fisher, made an addition to the theory: that the pacific basin was the scar of this event, the Moon breaking off from Earth had created the Pacific Ocean.

     This Theory was still standing, but on shaky ground, when the Apollo astronauts were headed for the Moon. By now it had been determined that the pacific basin was a lot younger than the Moon. Also, the Earth’s gravity would have pulled any big bulges back into a sphere, or nearly so. However, it was Darwin that made us think in scientific terms  about the origin of the Moon, and he was the first to look at the Moon as a separate creation from the planets.

    Enjoy the skies of June:

    07   Mercury reaches inferior conjunction.

           The Moon passes a degree south of Mars.

    08   Venus reaches superior conjunction at 11p.m. CDT

    10   First quarter Moon.

    17  The Moon passes just south of Antares Midnight CDT.

    18   Full Moon

    20   Summer solstice occurs at 6:59 p.m. CDT.

    23   The Moon passes less than a degree nort of Neptune. 4 a.m. CDT.

    26    Last quarter Moon.

            Bootid meteor shower peaks 9:30 p.m. CDT. Conditions are very favorable.

    27    Uranus is stationary and will begin retrograde, western, motion.

    30    Mars passes less than a degree north of Regulus.

            Today is the one hundreth anniversary of the Tunguska explosion. In 1908 a small asteroid, or comet burst in the air over the Tunguska river in Russia, felling 80 million trees.  

          Our astronomy group is only three years old. Clubs are founded for one of two reasons.  One reason is to act for the good of its members, it functions as a co-op. The second reason, as our founder, Jim Roe, envisioned is to serve the community. We have all worked hard to spread astronomy awareness and we have achieved a lot in just three years.

         Last night, April twenty-sixth, the new astronomy site at Broemmelsick Park opened for the first time. Thank you St. Charles County Parks Department. For urban astronomy, it would be hard to find anything nicer. Thank you, Jim, for showing them the need.

         Jim was raised on a farm in Oklahoma.  There the  night the sky was dark enough to see the Milky Way. While in college, Jim heard of an older student that was grinding his own mirror to make a telescope. Jim had found a way to look at those stars, he saw growing up on the farm. He proceeded to grind a six inch mirror himself to make a telescope.

         Working for Mc Donnell Aircraft, Jim joined the astronomy club and served as president.  In 1968 he ran the astronomy convention held in Fayette, Mo.

         Jim has traveled to view four eclipses. Nova Scotia in ‘72 where his pictures through his 8 inch were published because his scope was in the only spot where the sky was clear.  Next was an African cruise in ‘73.  February ‘79 Jim was in Winnipeg for the eclipse, which he remembers as very cold. Last was a cruise off Greece in ‘06.

         Jim spent nine years in Mexico where seven months of the year, especially the winter months, the sky is clear. Here he did serious astronomy and is credited with discovering 102 asteroids.

         Even non profit organizations, like ours, need money, On May seventeenth, we will hold a Trivia night at the Elks Lodge on Tom Ginnever in O’Fallon. Bob Judd is working hard to make this a success. Bob is striving to do digital photography and has been generous to the club in many ways. We can make it a success by showing up. 

        June 13-14 we will host an art show, featuring the outstanding photographs of Gregg Ruppel. Gregg has generously donated a portion of his digital photos to us. This event will be held at the St. Peter’s Community and Arts Center. It will be a chance to own some beautiful autographed deep sky art produced by a local amateur astronomer. Again, a portion of the proceeds go to our club.

        Saturday, June twenty-first we will host the Mid-States Region Astronomical League Convention. This event will kick off with a Star-B-Q at Bob Judd’s, Friday night the twentieth. The center piece for this event will be our 32 inch scope. Saturday the convention will be held at the St. Charles Community College.

        All these events get us publicity, locally and regionally.

        Our Outreach program is going well. Jim Twellman has given us the opportunity to make our club known to thousands of adults and kids. Participating in this program has been a pleasure. The folks that come to these events may not know much about astronomy, but they leave knowing St. Charles County has an astronomy club.

       There was an elderly lady who passed through my life. Her name was Elsie. Elsie had a saying, "Prayers get answered when you put some feet under them."  We can achieve our club’s goals by putting some feet under them too.  Marv

        May 1-3   Mercury passes less than 3deg. from the Pleiades.

                   5   New Moon.

                   6   The crescent Moon is close to Mercury.

                8-9   Asteroid 5 Astraea is just south of 37 Virginis.

                 10   The Moon passes just below M44, the Beehive Cluster.

                 11    First quarter Moon.

                 12    Saturn and Regulus are a few degrees north of the Moon.

                 19     Full Moon.

            22-23     Mars passes through the Beehive Cluster.

                 24     The Moon passes just below Jupiter in the south at dawn.

                 27     Last quarter Moon.

          On April 26, 1957, at 10:30 PM the BBC aired a new show which was to become the longest running television program in TV history, "THE SKY AT NIGHT".  Described as "a programme for astronomy enthusist", with it’s monocoled host Patrick Moore, " THE SKY AT NIGHT’s" fifty year run put it and it’s presenter in the Guinness Book of Records. The monthly program is now in it’s fifty- first year.

         Patrick Caldwell-Moore was born on March fourth 1923. At age six he became interested in astronomy, and by age eleven he was elected to the British Astronomical Association. During World War II he served in the RAF Bomber Command as a navigator. 

         After the war, Moore set up a 12.5 inch home made reflecting telescope in the front garden of his home at Selsey in Sussex. ( The British don’t have yards, they have gardens.) He was interested in the Moon, especially the parts seen only during libration.  Libration was Galileo’s last important discovery, the Moon  appears to wobble as it flies. Galileo announced his discovery in 1632, and it was viewed as a verification of Kepler’s laws.  He is also given credit for noticing in 1637 that the Moon appears to nod, this information he wrote in a letter to a colleague. Because it always keeps one face to us we should only see fifty percent of the Moon, because of libration we see fifty- nine percent. This extra nine percent view of the Moon would become Patrick Moore’s domain. 

     Seven days after apogee the Moon slows slightly in it’s orbit allowing us to see past the western limb just a bit. Here Moore discovered Mare Orientale, the Eastern Sea.  Shouldn’t it be the Oxidental Sea? Or Western Sea?  No, until 1961 lunar east and west were the same as east and west directions on Earth. With the possibility of men standing on the Moon  lunar east and west were flipped. Otherwise to an astronaut standing on the Moon the sun would rise in the west.

         In 1959 Patrick Moore was paid a visit by the Russians. They needed accurate information on those seldom seen parts of the Moon to correlate the first pictures taken of the far side of the Moon by Lunik 3. Patrick Moore’s sketch books had the most accurate drawings available of  those areas.  Later Moore would do the same for NASA of features on the near side.  Again this was the best information available until orbital mapping of the lunar surface.

         Moore can say he has met the first man to fly, Orville Wright, and the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.  As a Lieutenant in navigation school, he played the piano accompanying Albert Einstein on the violin. This chosen piece was " The Swan" by Saint Saens. Moore is described as a self taught, accomplished muscian whose favorite insturment is the xylophone.

        Patrick Moore’s web site credits him with writing over one hundred books. He shuns technology, and all were written on his 1908 vintage Woodstock typewriter.

        Sky watch for April:

        01-07   Watch for the Zodical light, visible in dark skys our lattitude.

             04    Waning crescent Moon near Venus at sunrise.  Venus extremely low on the horizon.

             05    New Moon

             08    The crescent Moon is located in the Pleiades in the west at dusk.

        11-12    The Moon passes close to Mars, closest  at midnight.

        14-15    The Moon is to the right of Saturn and Regulus, to the lower left on the 15th.

              19    The Moon is near the bright star Spica at dusk.

               20    Full Moon

               21    The Moon is below Antares before dawn

         26-28        Look for Mars below and left of Pollux, its twin in color and brightness.

               27    Jupiter shines above the Moon before dawn

               28     Last quarter Moon

        February is  one of my favorite months.  the weather can be miserable but it is this month forty- seven years ago that my journey into astronomy began.

       Valentines Day 1961, here in St Louis at Union Station I boarded Missouri Pacific’s Texas Eagle bound for San Antonio,Texas and Lackland Air Force Base for basic training. I had had a course in Astronomy but honestly I didn’t get much out of it. Part of the problem for a beginner is scale. How big is the object I’m looking for? Moving a constellations star pattern from a sky map in a book to stars in the sky can be daunting. East and west are reversed, on a desk a sky chart in a book is a mirror image of the sky so even after the course the Big Dipper was the only thing I could find with any certainty.

      A few days into our training around five in the morning there was a surprise fire drill. Responding as we had been trained,dressed in our skivies we jumped out of bed, grabbed the top blanket off of our cot, slipped our feet into a pair of brogans and clopped out the closest door. There it was, beautiful, big, unmistakable right in front of me, Scorpius. I was excited, now I had found something in the sky besides the Big Dipper, I had found Scorpius! I couldn’t have missed it, there it was right in front of me in the early morning sky as I  went out the door. Wow! Now I began to understand the size of of a constellation and what I should be  looking for.  Wrapped in my blanket I absorbed every detail of my new find.  Then calmly, with great authority I spoke out casually to no one in praticular, " Oh look. you can see Scorpius."

     This Febuary will be an exciting month:

     01   Watch as Venus  passes Jupiter in the early morning sky.

     04    the Moon will pass 4 deg south of Jupiter Midnight our time. then at 6am passes south of Venus.

     06/07    New Moon  9:44 CST. Annular solar eclipse occurs 18 hours after New Moon. About half the Moon’s shadow will skirt the southern half of the Earth.

     09   The Moon passes 3 deg north of Uranus. 4AM CST.

     10   Neptune at conjunction with the Sun 8 PM CST.

     13   The Moon is now crossing Earths orbit behind us producing a First Quarter Moon, at 9:33 CST.

     16   The Moon passes 1.6 deg north of Mars, 2 AM CST.

     20/21  Full Moon 9:33 PM CST. Total lunar eclipse begins 7:43 PM CST. Total eclipse begins 9:01 PM CST., ends 9:52 PM CST.  Also look for Saturn, near opposition and near the Moon during the eclipse. Visible through out North America.

     24   Saturn at opposition. 4AM CST.

     28   Last Quarter Moon. The Moon is now crossing the Earth’s orbit ahead of us.  The Moon passes south of Antares 9 PM CST.