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 Scoyk 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 Machin, 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 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.

While I was not at this event, I will record what was given me regarding this night.

The weather was great and the campers were well-aware of our scopes being set up at Klondike. It was estimated that more than 75 people came thru (before the count was lost when it got darker).

About 7-8 scopes (and binos) were available. Those who brought scopes to serve the public included John Furlong, Amy White, Ryan, Brad Griffith, Mark Shea, Kirk Steinbrugge, and Cook Feldmann.

A big highlight of the evening was the passing of the International Space Station, attached to the Space Shuttle. The majority of the crowd was very early, and got to see the moon, Saturn, and Mars. Most campers cleared out by 10:30, and most scopes shut down on or before 11:30 pm.

This event was the first “fair-weather” event of the year with the county parks (not including the February eclipse!). The forecast was very iffy, and we were thankful for the very clear skies that we enjoyed.

Jim T.

As we had two events on the same night, we split forces at Klondike and Cuivre River. Marvin Stewart and I took Cuivre River, knowing that Klondike was in good hands.

The skies were great on this Saturday night, but the clearing was fairly small. We started setting up our two scopes on the paved turn-around at the end of the road in the camping site. As we did, several kids on bikes became very interested in what we were doing. Some mentioned that they had been to some of our previous events at Klondike and Brommelsiek.

The kids were anxious, and we started entertaining as soon as we got set up around 8:20, showing them the moon even before the sun had set! As it got a bit darker, we started showing them Saturn and Mars. The kids were then summoned for a talk before we “officially” began. After that, we continued showing Saturn (until it was lost in the trees) as well as M3, M13, M4, M57, M51, M27, M81/82, Albireo, and more.

We took a 3 minute “time-out” to watch the ISS flyby (with the Space Shuttle attached), which was the “big event” of this outing.

Most of the kids left for “story time” around 10:30, but a few adults spent a lot of time with us getting views of the deeper objects. After story time, a few more adults and some of the kids came back for “seconds” and got to see the galaxies and the “Boy Scout Star” (Albireo). The night was just getting perfect (the moon had set) around 12:30am, but without a campsite for us we decided to pack in it and get home. The stragglers who were camping hung in with us until we pulled the plug.

Our hosts were great to us, providing bottled water and even ice cream (from story time)! I think we all had a great time and we really enjoyed the nice clear skies that had been so rare during the past several rainy months.

Jim T.