MAS will conduct the annual Moon Over Monona Terrace public star party on the roof of Madison's Monona Terrace Convention Center from 7:00 until 9:30 pm on Friday, October 3 (rain/cloud date Saturday, October 4).
MAS members bring their telescopes, and the public is invited to observe the Moon, Jupiter, and other sights of the night sky.
At the August 8 meeting, new MAS President
Don Martin
began a discussion on
the future of YRS
and on ways to increase member interest in activities.
Space Place is located in the basement of the Villager Mall in Madison, at 2300 South Park Street, on the west side of the street, between Hughes Place and Ridgewood Way, about three blocks north of the Beltline.
Park in front near the center section that says University Extension, and near the South Madison Branch of the Madison Public Library. Enter next to the Mister Money store, through a set of three doors. Walk down the hallway to the stairs and go downstairs. Space Place occupies the left-hand part of the basement just beyond the doors at the bottom of the stairs.
If you require an elevator, call Tim and Mary Ellestad (Contacts page) before the meeting to make arrangements.
The annual MAS Picnic and Elections will be held Saturday, June 14th at YRS.
If you need directions, check with any club officer
(Contacts page).
A work party is planned for 1 pm to clean up the site and trim brush. Bring saws, pruning shears, rakes, gloves, etc.
Business meeting and elections at 4 pm and the picnic at 5 pm.
Meat and buns will be provided. Everyone should bring drinks and a dish to pass.
Observing that night at YRS, weather permitting.
The speaker for the May 9 meeting will be
Sanjay Limaye,
from the UW Space Science and Engineering Center.
Sanjay will give us An Update on Current Planet Missions.
The MAS Spring Banquet will be held this year at Space Place on Friday, April 11. Social hour will start at 6:00 pm, dinner at 7:00, and program at 8:00.
More information and a reservation form can be found in the March/April Capitol Skies newsletter.
Our speaker for April 11 will be Mark Krasberg from the UW Physics Department's IceCube Neutrino Observatory group.
The IceCube Neutrino Detector is a neutrino telescope currently under construction at the South Pole. Like its predecessor, the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA), IceCube is being constructed in deep Antarctic ice by deploying thousands of spherical optical sensors (photomultiplier tubes, or PMTs) at depths between 1,450 and 2,450 meters.
The neutrinos detected could be from such astronomical sources as black holes, gamma ray bursters, or supernova remnants. The data that IceCube will collect will also contribute to our understanding of cosmic rays, supersymmetry, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS), and other aspects of nuclear and particle physics.
Mark has been to the South Pole for the last four seasons. His role there is to oversee the commissioning of the digital optical modules after they have been lowered into the ice. He also has a great collection of Antarctic photos and video.
At the Friday March 14 MAS general meeting at Space Place, Jim Lattis, UW Space Place Director, will talk about Christoph Clavius and the End of the Astrolabe.
The astrolabe was one of the most important tools of the astronomer from antiquity through the Early Modern era, but by 1600 was well on the way to obsolescence. By examining Clavius's astrolabe book, published first in 1593 and again in 1611, we can begin to see why astronomers were abandoning their venerable instrument--and the invention of the telescope had nothing to do with it.
February 20 lunar eclipse events at Space Place, Memorial High School Planetarium, and Sterling Hall.
Space Place:
Presentation on lunar eclipses at 6:30pm.
Eclipse viewing, 7 - 8:30pm.
Visit
http://spaceplace.wisc.edu/
for more information.
Memorial Planetarium: Planetarium presentations at 6:30 and 7:45 (one hour) on the moon and lunar eclipses. Admission $2 per person for the indoor planetarium presentations. Outdoors (weather permitting), telescopic viewing of the eclipse. If weather prohibits the use of telescopes outside, the planetarium presentations will go on as scheduled. Contact John Rummel at darksky25@charter.net for information.
UW Astronomy Department: Astronomy graduate students will have a public viewing at the telescope at Sterling Hall, starting at 7:30 pm. Visit http://spaceplace.wisc.edu/ for information.
MAS members are invited and encouraged to attend both the Space Place and the Memorial High School Planetarium events. Bring your telescopes to set up and show the public a good astronomical time.
At the Friday February 8 MAS general meeting at Space Place,
Dr. Andrew Sheinis,
UW Astronomy Dept, will discuss the
Southern African Large Telescope.
SALT is the worlds largest optical telescope, with an aperture of 11 meters in diameter. The UW Madison Astronomy Department is a major member of the SALT consortium, with approximately 17% ownership.
In this talk I will describe the design and the status of this novel telescope, and talk about the astronomical goals we at UW have for it.
At the Friday January 11 MAS general meeting at Space Place,
David Oesper
will discuss towns built around astronomy.
Many observational astronomers and stargazers dream of someday living in a community with little or no outdoor lighting, and it is certainly possible to make such a community work, provided it is not too large.
In fact, two such communities already exist, and they have filled up rapidly: Deerlick Astronomy Village in Central Georgia, and the Arizona Sky Village in SE Arizona. But these communities cater to the wealthy.
Is it possible to create affordable, sustainable dark-sky communities for those of more modest means? Yes! David Oesper will present his vision of dark-sky communities where any of us could live and work.
At the Friday August 10 MAS general meeting at Space Place John Rummel's talk will be
The Moon and the Capitol: My 21st Century Stonehenge.
Philip Jackson will speak at a later date.
The Friday July 13 MAS general meeting at Space Place will be a discussion of our recent observing experiences.
Jane Breun wants to share with you her Jupiter observations. Please come with your own observations to share.
John Rummel's talk is postponed.
At the Friday May 11 MAS general meeting at Space Place, Chuck Forster will discuss Radio Astronomy.
This talk is rescheduled from November's snowed-out meeting.
The Friday April 13 MAS general meeting at Space Place will feature
Jane Breun
on
What IS a "dwarf planet?": A brief overview of Solar System Nomenclature.
The Friday March 9 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place will present Equipment Expo, where members will bring in their favorite astronomy equipment. (telescopes, mounts, accessories, imaging devices, etc.) for members and guests to see, learn about, and explore.
At the Friday February 9 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place,
Sanjay Limaye,
of the UW Space Sciences and Engineering Center,
will present
Back to Venus: Venus Express and other new missions to Venus.
At the Friday November 10 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place, Chuck Forster will speak about radio astronomy.
The star party for MAS members at YRS, originally planned for
Saturday August 19, was
clouded out
and is
rescheduled for Saturday August 26,
from sunset to whenever.
As of noon on Saturday August 26, the weather is not promising. It is likely that the star party will have to be rescheduled yet again for a later date.
At the Friday August 11 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place, Wynn Wacker will moderate a discussion of our recent observations.
Did anyone watch the encounter between the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr during July? How about the meteor shower July 28 -- anyone see meteors hitting the moon? Or -- whatever else you may have observed in the past few months.
At the Friday July 14 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place, John Rummel will present a short program entitled Doing Everything but Astronomy in New Mexico, about his recent trip to New Mexico Skies with Jeff Shokler.
As the title indicates, they did not enjoy favorable weather, but they did get some bird pictures and played lots of cards.
George Urban of Kenosha has a Discovery DHQ 10 inch Dobsonian for sale.
DISCOVERY DHQ 10" 4.5 fl, Dob mount w/ metal handles, w/ telrad, w/ mirror adaptor. JMI DX 3 2", 1.25" focuser. 1.83" secondary enhanced pyrex. 1 - 25mm 1.25" abd 1 - 26mm 2" Super Plossl eyepiece. Dust covers. Excellent condition.
Details and photo are available at Astromart.
Call 262-551-0149 for more details, arrangements, and price, or email kenoshageorge@yahoo.com.
At the Friday May 12 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place, Jane Breun will present Eclipsed in Turkey: the March 29, 2006 total solar eclipse.
My husband and I, along with 15 other eclipse viewers, spent eight days on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Turkey, in order to view the March 29th eclipse.
The third contact diamond ring was the best I've seen (This was my fifth eclipse trip.), and there were several prominences visible, even though we are near sunspot minimum. The 360 degree twilight was very prominent for the four minutes of totality. All together a very successful trip!
At the Friday April 14 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place Prof. John Valley, will talk about A Cool Early Earth?
Get applications for the annual MAS Telescope Scholarship well before the April 15th deadline for submissions.
The annual MAS banquet will be held Friday, March 10 at CJ's East. Social hour starts at 6 p.m. and dinner will be served at 7 p.m. The banquet replaces the meeting for the month of March.
Dinner choices are: prime rib for $26, chicken cordon bleu for $19, broiled walleye for $23, or vegetable stir-fry for $13.
Send your check payable to MAS for your selection(s) to Mary Ellestad, 2810 Mason Street, Madison, WI 53705 by March 1, 2006.
The speaker will be from the UW Astronomy Department, on SALT - the Southern African Large Telescope.
At the Friday February 10 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place the speaker will be Dr. Gary Shiu, of the UW Madison Physics Department, on Superstring Cosmology.
He will discuss how ideas from string theory can impact the way we think about the early universe and vice versa.
Bring your D-brane.
A huge but very faint structure, containing hundreds of thousands of stars spread over an area nearly 5,000 times the size of a full moon, has been discovered and mapped by astronomers of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II).
At an estimated distance of 30,000 light years (10 kiloparsecs) from Earth, the structure lies well within the confines of the Milky Way Galaxy.
...the most likely interpretation of the new structure is a dwarf galaxy that is merging into the Milky Way.
The new dwarf galaxy is found toward the constellation Virgo.
At the Friday January 13 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place
the speaker / moderator will be
Jane Breun, on
Mars in Review.
Even though Mars did not have quite as large an angular extent as in 2003, its position so much higher in the sky made for a great observing season. Let's share our images, observing stories and general impressions at the next MAS meeting.
If you have observations to share, please let me know ahead of time, so I have some idea of how the program will go.
Email me, Jane Breun, at seniormixed@tds.net.
The UW Memorial Union Distinguished Lecture Series will present physicist Brian Greene on Tuesday, December 13, at 7:30 pm in the Memorial Union Theatre (call 262-2201 for tickets).
Brian Greene is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. His latest book, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality, spent 25 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list and inspired The Washington Post to describe him as "the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today." An expert in string theory, Greene introduces the audience to a concept that might be the key to a unified theory of the universe.
At the Friday November 11 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place
the speaker will be
Professor Ed Churchwell,
of the UW Madison Astronomy Department,
on New Results from GLIMPSE Survey.
GLIMPSE (Galactic Legacy Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire) is a survey of infrared stars made with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Professor Churchwell spoke last year about plans for the survey. Now he has more results to share with us.
UW's Washburn Observatory will host Mars viewings on:
Oct 26-28 from 7:30-10:30 pm
Oct 30 from 6:30-10:30 pm
Nov 2-4 from 6:30-10:30 pm
MAS members are encouraged to bring their scopes to Washburn (weather permitting) and are reminded that there are no power outlets.
And UW Space Place will present a Martian Halloween Oct 31:
Children's activities & replay of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds from 7-9 pm
and Mars Viewing from 9-10 pm.
The speaker at the Friday October 14 MAS general meeting at the new Space Place
will be
Jane Breun,
on Understanding the Structure of the Milky Way.
We live in a barred spiral galazy, about 2/3's of the way from the center.
How do we know this?
I will review the historical development of astonomers'
understanding of the Milky Way's structure.
The new
Capitol Skies newsletter
has an article about the winners of the 2005-2006 MAS Telescope Scholarship
Juan Rubalcava and
Ian Jarvis,
both juniors at West High School this fall.
There are also comments from last year's winners David Yu and Lena Song.
Congratulations!
Orion XT10 Dobsonian telescope for sale. All new, used twice. Stored inside; climate controlled. I'm in the service and leaving the country.
Please call if interested. Brock ---715-341-5706 Home; 715-570-1701 cell
Telescope - Orion SkyQuest XT10, original price $499
Padded carrying case - original price $90
Orion full-aperture solar filter - original price $139
Orion Variable Polarizing filter - original price $30
Orion SteadyPix Universal Digital & Film Camera Mount - original price $35
Note that the Friday July 8 general meeting will be held at YRS, starting at 7:30, with observing afterward. Space Place is still under construction.
Jim Lattis has asked MAS members for help in moving equipment to the new Space Place.
Meet at the old Space Place on Saturday, June 25, at 1:00 pm.
At the May 13 MAS general meeting Jane Breun will discuss the South Pacific total solar eclipse of April 8, 2005.
"On board the M/V Discovery, we only had 33 seconds of totality, but it was spectacular! Because the moon's apparent size matched the sun's apparent size so closely, the sun's chromosphere was visible during the entire eclipse. My husband, Bob, took his best eclipse pictures yet with his new Lumix digital camera with 12x Zoom."
There will be a star party for MAS members at YRS on Saturday May 7, from sunset to whenever.
This is the Saturday before the general meeting on May 13.
The speaker at the April 8 MAS general meeting is Jim Kotoski.
He will be discussing his concept for a Young Astronomers' Club for next fall and will then be asking for ideas from us.
Get applications for the annual MAS Telescope Scholarship well before the April 15th deadline for submissions.
The speaker at the February 11 MAS general meeting is Sanjay Limaye, senior scientist at Space Science and Engineering Center, UW Madison.
Spirit and Opportunity on Mars: Still Going.....
The two Mars rovers have now spent more than a year on Mars, far longer than originally planned or anticipated. The long survival on Mars has allowed them to explore a far greater vista and accumulate strong evidence of past liquid water on the surface of Mars through the discovery of minerals. The more they explore, the more are the questions about the past history of water on Mars.
At the same time, the European Mars Express orbiter has been observing the surface from a suite of instruments which have led to some interesting findings, e.g the discovery of atmospheric methane. The radar on Mars Express, which is expected to shed some light on sub-surface water has not yet been utilized, but it is hoped that in the near future it too will obtain some data.
The Mars findings are sure to influence the future missions and is already underway for the next missions.
MAS member Matt Mills has a telescope for sale: details here
The Madcity Paddlers have invited MAS members to join them at a group camp site at Wyalusing State Park the weekend of Aug 13- 15.
Wyalusing has an observatory run by the Star Splitters and there should be space to set up personal telescopes there.
For more details, contact Kathy at 231-1375.
The Photo Gallery page has some new images of the Transit of Venus on June 8, 2004, by MAS members Douglas and Mercedes Russell and John Rummel. (Scroll to the bottom of the page.)
One of MAS member John Rummel's photo compositions has been selected as the Astronomy Picture of the Day.
The photo is a composite of the Phases of Venus over the past six weeks.
It is the picture for May 21, 2004, and will remain posted for a long time after that. (Images go back to June 1995).
Nice work, John.
The photo shows the winners of the 2004-2005
MAS Telescope Scholarship
Lena Song and David Yu
and last year's winner
Elise Gorchels (center).
All three are students at Madison West High School.
Since there were a number of very good applicants this year, two awards are being made in 2004 and two telescopes will be available.
MAS telescope expert Tom Jacobs (right) explains the operation of the 4.5 inch equatorial reflector to Lena, Lena's dad, and David.
Congratulations!
John Rummel is this year's winner of the MAS Education Outreach Award.
Congratulations, John!
The annual MAS banquet will be held Friday, March 12 at JT Whitney's, 674 South Whitney Way, in Madison. Social hour starts at 6 p.m. and dinner will be served at 7 p.m.
Dinner choices are: chicken cordon bleu for $18, prime rib for $18, or vegetarian pasta for $13.
Send your check payable to MAS for your selection(s) to Mary Ellestad, 2810 Mason Street, Madison, WI 53705 before March 5, 2004.
The speaker will be Astronomy Professor Chris Anderson, speaking on "Renaissance Astronomy: setting the date of Easter".
A flock of migrating geese sent in this aerial view of YRS, blanketed in snow.
The photo is also linked from the YRS picture page.
On Saturday November 1st 2003 at 2:00pm the MAS will be conducting an Astronomy Merit Badge Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Space Place. For more information visit the webpage for this event.
Boy Scouts and members should periodically check this website for updates.
MAS members interested in participating in this event, please email AJ Carver. Members are needed to bring their telescopes for the observing session and to assist in the classroom portion of the event.
MAS conducted the annual Moon Over Monona Terrace public star party on the roof of Madison's Monona Terrace Convention Center from 7:30 until 9:30 pm on Saturday, October 4th (postponed from Friday October 3rd because of clouds).
Many hundreds of people enjoyed looking at the Moon and Mars through telescopes and talking with MAS members. Two video hookups displayed images on TV monitors.
MAS member Mark Hanson's image of the Witch Head nebula is given a full page in Astronomy's gallery, the very last page of the magazine.
Quite an honor!
Mark's images are available on his website.
The winner of the 2003-2004
MAS Telescope Scholarship is
Elise Gorchels, pictured here
with her parents, George and Linda.
Elise will be a senior at Madison West High School this year. Until next May, she will have use of an 8-inch Dobsonian telescope, several eyepieces, and star charts.
In her application for the scholarship, she recalled a memorable experience from the Leonid meteor shower of last year:
"I decided to wake up early to observe the peak hours. I set my alarm for 3 am, but woke at 2:30. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I went to watch TV. They were talking about the shower on one of the networks, so I grabbed three blankets, some slippers and a pair of socks and went out to my back deck. I lay on my back on the frosted picnic table to look at the sky. Fortunately, my house blocked out a good amount of moonlight, and my neighborhood is relatively dark. I counted some 300 meteors before I finally came in around 5 am, numb to the bone and ready for coffee, but still excited."
She plans to come to the July meeting to meet the group.
Congratulations!
John Rummel has posted a nice set of images of the May 15 lunar eclipse on his website.
Have a look !
A picture of Jim Kotoski, Science Teacher at Spring Harbor Middle School in Madison and recent winner of the Outreach and Education Award, is now online.
At the Yanna Research Station MAS Secretary and avid
observer Matt Mills used a Doc. Greiner 12" LX200 and
the ST-7 ccd camera (on loan from Doc. Greiner) to
estimate the magnitude of comet 2002 T7. Matt's
observation was of such quality that it has been
posted on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Comet Observation home page:
http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/RecentObs.html#02T7
Matt has also written an article describing his convenient tripod dolly that has been posted on http://www.cloudynights.com/, a website dedicated to review of astronomical equipment.
Congratulations Matt!
An image of M44 by MAS member and astrophotographer Mark Hanson has been recognized as "Best of January 2003" by Digital_Astro. His image of Jupiter was runner-up against other Jupiter images. Congratulations Mark!
And an image of M31 by Mark was recently recognized as "Best of December 2002" by Digital_Astro.
Against strong competition the nearly 3000 members of Digital_Astro voted for Mark's images to receive the honor.
The winning images can be seen at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_astro/.
Past winners and contenders for this month's best image can be seen at http://velatron.com/dca/challenge/.
Submitted by A. J. Carver.
MAS conducted the annual Moon Over Monona public star party on the roof of Madison's Monona Terrace Convention Center from dusk until 10:00 pm on Friday October 11th.
Members brought about 25 telescopes and binoculars, as well as a telescope equipped with a video camera and displaying an image of the Moon on a TV. Several hundred people enjoyed talking with members and viewing the Moon, the Andromeda Galaxy, and other celestial objects.
Mike McDowell took this picture of John Rummel and A. J. Carver setting up before dark.
The new Astrophotography Gallery will display some of the best imaging work of MAS members.
A new Observing page provides a link to the gallery from most of the other pages of the website.
Greg Sellek's recent image of comet Ikeya-Zhang has been published in the Spaceweather.com Photo Gallery
There are more comet images on Greg's website.
CNN has aired the image of the comet during several segments.
Don't miss it!
From Karolyn Beebe
The extraordinary beauty of the stars in an unpolluted sky belongs to everyone, but it's washed out in wasted light over communities worldwide. The Wisconsin Dark Sky forum is where advocates in the growing movement to stop light pollution in Wisconsin can exchange ideas and information. It's open to anyone interested in outdoor lighting designed and regulated to improve visibility, save energy, enhance the nighttime environment and preserve our precious night sky. To join, just point your web browser to:
Please direct inquiries regarding web site content to webmaster@madisonastro.org
