Page 1 of 12

The Home Planet Stellar Views Calendar

January Meeting Notes John Martin State Park report by Michael Hotka

Cactus Flats report by Bill Possel Four Essential Lunar Atlases Become Affordable by Lee Gregory

Event update from the Boulder Book Store Dr. John Mather at the University of Denver

Announcing the 3rd High-Energy Astrophysics workshop Classified

The LAS Warehouse March Sky Map

Page 2 of 12

Image on the front page: Well here is the latest image. This will be the last image through this camera. It's been sold and the money will go for an upgrade to my other camera. The ST2000XM will be upgraded to an ST8XME. Another big learning curve. This is a LRGB = 90:30:20:0 minutes. The clouds came in during my second green exposure. Which left me with no blue images. I used a synthetic blue from averaging the red and green channels. The Home Planet Stellar Views Hello All, LAS is going strong these days! We have lots in the planning for upcoming months. LAS Star Party in Sterling in April, hopefully on the 8th new moon weekend. I will confirm it with Bob Loomis Park Ranger there. Ray Warren is working on some more door prizes or give-aways for the Sterling Star Party. Andrew Plank star party for kids in Calwood by Jamestown in June 3rd ?? We will keep all updated before then. I plan to bring the 30 inch for two nights if weather is good. New moon weekend I think it is, would rather be in Fox Park but we will see if we can get a group up there in June from LAS. Astronomy day in March at the Longmont Mall again. Philippe will keep us all posted on dates in future newsletters. The Home Planet Stellar views have been awesome again this past month. Saturn is still the queen of the Universe and maybe the night sky for now. It's past its closest approach, opposition, but will still be good for another month at least. When we went to Cactus flats north on Saturday Feb. 5th, Comet Machholz was best yet. It is now high in northern skies past Cassiopeia towards Polaris now. Very long tail at Cactus flats, 10 to 15 degrees maybe, one of best views that night. Easily found with binoculars. Vern new LAS member with 11.5 inch Celestron scope and Mike Roos,16 inch dobsonian, Mark Wiley 8 inch Meade and myself had pretty awesome night until clouds moved in around 11 pm. NGC 891 favorite edge on galaxy in dark skies was great, along with M 33 spiral, M 51 late in evening,M81, 82 and many smaller ones. We missed some of the die-hards who always show up, they went on Friday night, Dave D, Steve Lynch, Bill Possel, Bill Travis, Dave B and Dave S. also I would guess. It's always easier to endure the cold with friends it seems somehow, it is tough being an astronomer in winter sometimes?? Heat in Motor home sure helps. Brian Kimball and others may form a class on astro-photography and I would like to get a list of those who might want to join us. Now all I have to do is get Brian to agree. We are all having fun trying to get shots of Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. I plan to video moon for a lunar presentation to show at LAS meeting in June. Pictures are great but video is even more alive, like traveling there almost. Philippe is the most traveling guy I know, because of his work, and despite that, he is doing great job of getting newsletter out every month. I would also like to start an Astro-photography picture page. I would like to post club member's astro-photography shots every month, even the not so good ones from new people too. Lets get some of Brian sent into Magazines maybe?? So much to do….. so little time always. I have been working lots which gets in the way of my hobby. Not much time for sleep some weekends it seems. See you in the dark, Gary

Page 3 of 12

December meeting notes LAS Meeting January 2005 Attendance: 37 members Meeting called to order by President Gary Garzone. Vice President report by Dick Mallott: No report! Just kidding! Astronomy day is coming in April. Please get Mark all your email and other information updates so we can keep records current. Secretary report by Mark Propp: Reiterated what Dick said, send me your updates. Sorry my email box has been overflowing, corrected now. ALCOR report by Bob Spohn: Formed the club in 1987 as an observing club. Talked about the Astronomical League and observing programs. Dedicated to helping club doing Messier certificate, all 110 objects! Will present on Messier object every month, and dedicate Flanders star parties to helping you find your Messier objects! Dedicated to club members getting their certificate. Train your eye how to do good observations, manual observations, star hopping using your charts. Another program, Double star program a hoot! 100 double-stars, two types: line of sight or "real" gravitationally bound double stars. Incredible range of sizes, colors, distance of separation. Some that are hard because they are so close. With this one, you draw the double stars. How hard is that? A few dots! Piece of cake, put your description down. Telescope report by Lee Pierson: Back working with Don, ordering focusers from Astro Systems, 10 of those. That is everything except for focuser and coating of the mirrors. Real busy at work, next couple of weeks won't be able to do too much. Treasurer report by Julie Carmen: presented bank balance report, 70 people attended banquet. Fiske spring schedule available. Astronomy day, LAS is listed at Fiske. Distributed to some 3000 people every quarter. Flyer on Feb. 24 presentation at DU, up at front. BASS meeting at Fiske on 29th, Dr. Ellington will be giving her talk on invisible universe. Consider coming by to support that too. Publicity and Fundraising report by Ray Warren: Things went very well at the banquet, far surpassed my expectation of what we could do. Drawing went through November until Banquet, like 50 items to give away, good donations. $351 pulled in banquet night! Proceeds were given to Julie. A few prizes yet to give out, doing it now. Some of the cool prizes I held for later drawings. One book is dated material 2005, Canadian Royal Astronomical Society, $23.95 retail, $16.45 our price, auctioning off now. We have to fulfill an order of 60 planispheres, 2/3 done with that, and another 90 planispheres we need help with. David Levy Backyard Astronomy book matched with David Levy video from last year banquet, paired together for 6 prize bundles! Some new products, stickers: "Ursa Bears All." "Bored? Try staring off into space!" "Ahh, Capella, needs no accompaniment!" And more..! Some other ideas in the works, Harry Albert had prototype LED flashlight, pretty cool! 7 resistors, 2 transistors, and a FET, and an up down switch, brightens up and dims down. LAS CD, Brian Kimball offering astro-photos to make a screen saver, other images also. Night Vision offered from Brian Simpson, put on CD.

Page 4 of 12

Randy Cunningham images and ideas, slide rule calculator gimmicks for calculating mortgage payments, etc. More ideas?? Pete Peterson had a stroke last month, we are circulating a card for signatures tonight, Gary will hand deliver it. Old business: observing reports? Comet Machholz next to Pleiades, Brian got some great shots. Send your images to club secretary Mark to get them on the web site if you want. Tim Brown got some observations in. Saturn has been great too! Saturn's closest approach just passed. Don Cerow talked about aurora display, now past the peak. Don Cerow will be doing a show at Fiske, February 7 Monday evening 8 pm. Should be great, cultural influences of the dragon mythos, from Draco constellations. Suggestion box, and basic astronomy education, for new folks, is upcoming. New business: Sterling star party coming up soon. Date not yet set, first big dark sky star party, probably April this year. New moon is April 9th, good target if it can be done. Sterling opens up early just for us. Great time! Weather is iffy that time of year, but great if it all works out. 2.5 hours drive. Fees waived. Andrew star party in June coming up also. Flanders is coming up on February 12th. Mike Hotka did a presentation on coordinate systems. Two systems most common: RA and declination, and Azimuth and Altitude. Right Ascension-Declination. Declination: ecliptic of sun is 0 degrees dec, to 90 and minus 90, degree measure on sky. Right Ascension divides the sky into 24 hours, starting in Aries at 0. RA is tilted toward our latitude. Vernal Equinox is the 0 hour RA. Showed Mercator projection of sky, and an example using M20: RA 18h 2.6m Dec -23 02'. Talked about sidereal time, and showed online web calculator for it. Equatorial mounts use RA-Declination automatically. Azimuth-Altitude used by Dobsonian mounts. Azimuth is compass setting, Altitude is how far above the horizon the object currently is. It is a much simpler system. Alt-Az is relative to the observer. Satellite observers, web site heavensabove.com shows the Alt-Az for satellite observations. BREAK Ray Warren described his $4 project, $2 web cam and homemade tube. Lunar photographs Mike Hotka, multi year time lapse of stars orbiting massive object. After the break, Mike did a great presentation on Cassini at Saturn. Great pictures! Great talk! John Martin State Park report by Michael Hotka Last Thursday and Friday nights, I ventured to SE Colorado to do some star gazing at John Martin State Park. During the winter months, only the Hasty Campground is open. The facilities were open and the water hot in the showers.

Page 5 of 12

The dam for the park is to the west of this campground which takes about 10 degrees of the western sky away. Also, there were yellow street lights that shined onto this campground. Maybe the northern end of the campground would be better, for it would be farther away from the lights. Lamar is about 30 miles to the east, yet no light dome was seen from this city. Lamar must be doing a good job on street lighting. Thursday night the sky was incredible. I looked at 13th magnitude galaxies. I have never seen the Orion Nebula as spectacular as it was Thursday night. The 6 stars of the Trapezium were little points of light and ALL were easily seen. The temperature dropped to only 27 degrees. Friday night was a contrast of nights. No 13th magnitude anythings. The sky was steady, but the seeing was soft. The temperature fluctuated between 32 degrees to 40 degrees. First you are getting cold, so you bundled up, and then you started sweating, so you loosen up. Very uncomfortable! I did see NGC 3201, a fine globular in Vela at declination -46 degrees 25 minutes. It was just above the horizon, but it was easy to see and this needs another look in more southern skies, for it looks huge and bright. So, for more southern views of the sky from Colorado, John Martin State Park receives a B for a winter observing site. If you don't want southern views, then I would give a rating of C for this observing site. Next month, I'm going to try Bonnie Lake State Park, just north of Burlington, CO, on the Kansas border. Cactus Flats report by Garry Garzone Hey Marines, I took the chance for clear weather for at least part of the night and we did get almost total clear skies until about 11pm when haze and clouds had things pretty soft for viewing. Mike Roos, Mark Wiley, Vern from LAS club with 11.5 inch Celestron and I and my 30 scope with clean mirror. I did not attempt to test drive tracking system yet. I wanted to spend time viewing. We can do tracking drive testing in yard next clear night here instead. Mike Roos the Saturn pictures all turned out just so, so. I will forward my best shots of night. Saturn is always a treat, I took pictures, but seeing was not so good. NGC 891 and M 33 whirlpool galaxy several other faint galaxies were the treats. The Comet Machholtz is really nice now, very long tail, double or triple what I could see from yard, Wow!! Best comet view yet for this one! Brian you need to do another picture. It is found straight up past Cassiopeia toward Polaris now almost at 10 pm. I missed my Marine buddies of Friday night who were out there. Well it's pretty quiet and dry out on the Flats, I thought it would be muddy but just the opposite, very dusty. I laid out rug on ground around scope to help keep mirror clean. David D I brought the dobsonian driver two with me for you, will catch up to you next time, next weekend maybe?? see you in the dark ,Gary Cactus Flats report by Bill Possel “What a beautiful night!” That was repeated over and over again on Friday night, February 4th, at Cactus Flats North, Pawnee Grasslands. I monitored the weather reports during the day which predicted clear skies and very good seeing. Well, this time the forecasters were spot on!

Page 6 of 12

Getting Ready! David Dunn’s AstroSystems Dob and Ken O’Toole setting up TeleVue

Soon after I arrived, Dick Laatt pulled up with his 18-inch Obsession, followed by David Dunn (17.5-inch AstroSystems), Ken O’Toole (4-inch TeleVue refractor), Jacob Warman (10-inch Hardin dob) and Bill Travis (9.25-inch Celestron SCT). As the sun set, the sky on the horizon to the east was banded by blue and a bit higher was a band of pink. David said they were called the “belts of Venus.” The band of darker blue is Earth's shadow being projected onto the dust and haze in Earth's atmosphere. The blue band was bordered by a strikingly vivid pink.

Starmaster 20 with “Belts of Venus” in the background sky

Page 7 of 12

The temperature quickly dropped but as it became colder, the stars and Saturn popped out and eventually we had so many stars that it was hard to tell the constellations. We looked at Comet Machholz which is still very bright and has a distinct greenish hue. The seeing was very steady - David had Saturn with a binoviewer in high power and it was rock solid. It was one of the best views of Saturn I ever saw! The Cassini division was finely etched in the rings, while the southern pole had a shade of green. The shadow the planet was visible on the rings before they disappeared behind it. We had terrific views of the Orion nebula, open cluster M46 along with its planetary nebula NGC 2438, M51 with its detailed spiral arms, Thor’s Helmet (NGC 2359) and many more. In David’s scope we could even see the pink hue along on the edges of the Orion nebula!

The telescope field awaiting the night

The Zodiacal light was very prominent and extended from the western horizon to almost the meridian. Around 9PM, Bill Travis noticed a faint, almost haze-like, feature near Leo. Bill doubled checked this with a few of us who confirmed that we saw the same dim light. At home he did a few calculations and determined it was the Gegenshein. This is a faint spot of light in the sky, diametrically opposite Sun and is sunlight reflected from dust grains in the plane of the solar system. The sky has to be very dark to see this! I really enjoy observing dim galaxies and pushing the limit of my seeing. So I pulled out the list of galaxies I’ve never seen and tried my luck. Bill and David are always game to test their skills also and more often than not, pick out dim ones that I missed or some aspect of the galaxy itself that is unique. We looked at IC 10, a very dim dwarf galaxy in Cassiopeia, which is partly hidden by our Milky Way’s dust. We also looked at the large, dim galaxy NGC 3628 near M65 and M66. This one can be tough to see but tonight in the 20-inch we easily saw the galaxy and the dark lane running through it - very impressive. An easy galaxy cluster is Hickson 44, a group of four galaxies (NGC 3185, 3187, 3190, 3193). All four were visible in the same field of view. As the evening’s grand finale, we tracked down Abell 1367, a large galaxy cluster in Leo. I counted over 20 galaxies around NGC 3842, many of them just tiny, diffuse spots. Around 1AM we started packing up for home. We had 7 hours of wonderful night sky. Bill helped me pack the scope and by 1:30 we were on the road home. Jacob, with a van that included all the essentials to fight the cold temperature, spent the night. Overall, it was another fine night at CFN! Clear Skies Bill Possel Four Essential Lunar Atlases Become Affordable by Lee Gregory Four lunar atlases that are essential for the serious lunar observer have recently become affordable. Perhaps the most popular of these is The Atlas of the Moon by Antonin Rukl. This detailed atlas has been out of print for a decade and copies go for about $300.00 on the used book market. A "revised, updated, and improved with expanded text and maps" edition (red ink replaced by blue ink) has recently been printed by Sky

Page 8 of 12

Publishing (Sky & Telescope magazine) at a price of $44.95 plus shipping http://skyandtelescope.com/shopatsky/detail.asp?catalog%5Fname=Skypub&product%5Fid=59074 The Consolidated Lunar Atlas by Gerald P. Kuiper, Ewen A. Whitaker, Robert G. Strom, John W. Fountain, and Stephen M. Larson was published in 1967 through necessity of the US space program. It consisted of a blue box of photographic prints and a booklet guide. It's strength is that features on the Moon are shown at several different illuminations, with particular attention paid to the terminator. The imagery is the best ground-based whole-Moon collection ever assembled and allows the discernment of relief features only a meter high at the terminator. This is great for Earth-bound observers. Only 250 copies were produced. Today, a complete set is rare and ultra-expensive, selling for many thousands of dollars. Fortunately, it is now available online for free http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/cla/ or can be ordered as a two CD-ROM set for $10.00 plus shipping from the Lunar and Planetary Institute https://www.lpi.usra.edu/store/products.cfm?prod=41 The Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon, SP-206 (LOPAM) by David E. Bowker and J. Kenrick Hughes, prepared by NASA's Langley Research Center, was published in 1971. This atlas contains 675 photographic plates compiled from images taken by the Lunar Orbiter missions in the 1960s. Today, it is still the definitive reference to the global photographic coverage of the Moon. The high-resolution images are excellent for studying lunar morphology because they were obtained at low to moderate Sun angles (about 20%). This atlas, of course, shows the most detail. Selling for $19.95 when published, it now goes for about $300.00 a copy. It also is available online for free http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/ or can be ordered as a DVD-R for $10.00 plus shipping from the Lunar and Planetary Institute https://www.lpi.usra.edu/store/products.cfm?prod=49 Also, publisher Springer-Verlag has announced that it will publish in 2005 the Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon by Charles J. Byrne. "Using 21st century techniques, Charles Byrne---previously System Engineer of the Apollo Program for Lunar Orbiter Photography---has removed the artifacts and imperfections to produce the most comprehensive and beautifully detailed set of images of the lunar surface. The book has been organized to make it easy for astronomers to use, enabling ground-based images and views to be compared with the Orbiter photographs. The photographs are striking for their consistent Sun angles (for uniform appearance). All features have been identified with their current IAU-approved names, and each photograph has been located in terms of latitude and longitude. To help practical astronomers, all the photographs are systematically related to an Earth-based view. A CD is included with the book, providing the enhanced and cleaned photographs for screen viewing, lectures, etc." The projected price is $79.95. The Lunar Aeronautical Charts (LAC), 44 charts at a scale of 1:1,000,000 (22 by 29 inches), were produced by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s. These charts were made for astronaut navigation in lunar orbit and landing approach, mission planning, and such. Photographic data and visual observations made at Lowell Observatory were combined to produce the charts. The perspective is from above the middle of the chart, not from Earth. These beautiful shaded-relief charts were published in book form in 1969 as the Times Atlas of the Moon. This out of print book now goes for $150.00 to $300.00 a copy. A complete set of the original charts, if it could be found, would cost thousands. The LAC shows more detail and nomenclature than Rukl's Atlas of the Moon. Fortunately, the charts are now available online for free http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LAC/ or can be ordered as a CD-ROM (JPEG2000 viewer required) for $10.00 plus shipping from the Lunar and Planetary Institute https://www.lpi.usra.edu/store/products.cfm?prod=50&cat=5 Another source of the scanned charts is a CD-ROM (no special viewer required) for about $11.00 (includes shipping) from Peter Grego, Lunar Section Director, Society for Popular Astronomy (UK), author of the books Collision Earth! and the Moon Observer's Guide (Firefly), in England http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Moon-Maps-andMemorabilia_W0QQssPageNameZVIStoreHeaderLinksQQtZkm (an eBay Store).

Page 9 of 12

Event update from Boulder Book Store Thursday, February 24, 7:30 p.m http://www.boulderbookstore.com SIR ROGER PENROSE will speak & sign "The Road to Reality." http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0224044478/026-5491357-1022806 Synopsis : The Road to Reality, some 1000 pages long, aims to provide a comprehensive account of our present understanding of the physical universe, and the essentials of its underlying mathematical theory. No particular mathematical knowledge on the part of the reader is assumed - the early chapters providing the essential mathematical background for the physical theories described in the remainder of the book. The aim is to convey something of an overall understanding - a feeling for the deep beauty and philosophical connotations of the subject, as well as of its intricate logical interconnections. Clearly, a work of this nature is challenging, but there is enough descriptive material to carry the less mathematically inclined reader through, as well as some 450-500, mostly hand-drawn, figures. The book provides a feeling for all the key issues and deep current controversies, and counters the common complaint that cutting-edge science is fundamentally inaccessible. The topics covered in this book include:

the roles of different kinds of numbers and of geometry in physics the ideas - and magic - of calculus and of modern geometry notions of infinity; the physics and mathematics of relativity theory the foundations and controversies of quantum mechanics the standard model of particle physics; cosmology; the big bang black holes the profound challenge of the second law of thermodynamics; string and M theory; loop quantum gravity twisters fashions in science and new directions

From the Publisher Nothing less than a comprehensive guide to the universe, this is arguably the most important work of science, aimed at the general reader, to be published in living memory. Dr. John Mather at the University of Denver, February 24th In honor of the World Year of Physics 2005, Dr. John Mather, from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is visiting the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Denver as a Marsico Scholar. He is an internationally known cosmologist and is currently Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. He will be giving the departmental colloquium at 4:00 p.m. Feb 23 in Olin 105. See the Department's web site and the attachment for details. Dr. Mather's bio can also be reached from: http://www.physics.du.edu/ Dr. Mather will also give a lecture to which the general public is invited. John communicates science well to interested laypeople and there is no charge. 7:00 pm, February 24th, 2005 University of Denver, Boettcher Auditorium Title: James Webb Space Telescope and the future of Space Astronomy Abstract: Astronomers are planning an extraordinarily ambitious program of new telescopes, visits to other planets, robotic servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope. I will describe the telescope concepts and the scientific results that are possible, and illustrate them with images from ground-based telescopes, space telescopes, and Mars rovers. The James Webb Space Telescope is the planned successor for the Hubble Space Telescope, with a planned launch in 2011. I will describe the telescope concept, and show how it leads on to

Page 10 of 12

bigger, better, and colder telescopes that could discover Earth-like planets around other stars, and find out whether they can support life. Background: John Mather was the Project Scientist and inspiration behind the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). This mission and the recent Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) showed that we have entered a new era in which cosmological models of the origin of the Universe, including the inflation that is part of the big bang model and multidimensional oscillating universe models, can be tested with precision measurements and validated or falsified. His next mission is the James Webb Space Telescope. He will be telling us his story and plans for the new telescope when he visits DU on February 23rd. The James Webb Space Telescope is the planned successor for the Hubble Space Telescope, with a planned launch in 2011. He will describe the telescope concept, and show how it leads on to bigger, better, and colder telescopes that could discover Earth-like planets around other stars, and find out whether they can support life. Announcing the 3rd High-Energy Astrophysics Workshop for Amateur Astronomers March 21-23, 2005 at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM The goal of this meaning is to educate the public on topics in high energy astrophysics. The focus will be on GRBs, magnetars, magnetic cataclysmic variables ("polars") and blazars. This is a great meeting for amateur astronomers, teachers, students and grad students. A lineup of high energy all stars is speaking such as Jerry Fishman, Lynn Cominsky, Arne Henden and Phil Plait (author of www.badastronomy.com). Workshops will be held on high precision CCD photometry, education and public outreach and an introduction to data analysis using free Windows software tools. A day-long field trip to the VLA is also planned (with a special tour for us, not the regular public tour!). Travel grants of $450 and $800 are available to residents of the U.S. and an application form is already online at http://www.aavso.org/aavso/meetings/hea-app.shtml Recipients of the travel grants are expected to share what they've learned with their local community upon return. How this is done can be creative (including online methods). If you have any questions feel free to contact meetings@aavso.org Information is here at http://www.aavso.org/aavso/meetings/hea3.shtml Clear skies! Aaron Price North Sterling Star Party on April 7th, 8th and 9th Hello dark sky Astronomers, We have all agreed on new moon weekend of April 7, 8 , 9th as the official dates for the North Sterling Reservoir Star Party. North Sterling park ranger, Bob Loomis has done us good deal again with Free camping, just state park pass, 5 dollars is asked of us. I like this place for a star party, as it can handle lots of people. It is early in the year but we will take the chance for good weather. This is the first of the summer months star parties. I hope lots of people can make it out once again. The last of the dark sky places left in America await those who do the drive. It is a very nice setting on top of bluff overlooking 3000 acre lake and trails around place. Bath house with hot showers will be open also. I plan to do all three nights if at all possible,. My old motto." have scope will travel", see you in the dark. later, Gary Classified To buy: Wanted: Large dob, say 14-15 inches, in good working order, preferably with digital settings circles. Thanks! Bill Travis, 303-530-5010, wtravis@colorado.edu To sell:

Page 11 of 12

I am trying to sell 10” Sears Craftsman table saw Price: $200 sends email to Brian bnimball@msn.com or calls him at 303-678-0525 I am trying to sell a Celestron Ultima 9.25. If the deal were local I would expect closer to $1,600 or so and accept credit cards. http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=233874 Jared Workman Wil Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000.0, Deluxe Edition. Stars are black while deep sky objects are colored by type. Spiral bound. Pages unfold to 21 by 16 inches. $40.00. Contact Mike Hotka. A complete set of the 1st Edition Uranometria star chart books plus the field guide. A $160 value if you purchased them today through Willman-Bell, plus their shipping and handling. I will sell all 3 for $100. I will only sell them as a set. Contact Mike Hotka. JMI NGF-DX1 focuser. Has 2 inch to 1 ½ inch adapter. $150.00. Contact Mike Hotka.at mhotka@yahoo.com All... I got a new (800mHz) computer & wish to sell my 3rd computer. It's a 433mHz, 64meg RAM, 9 Gig HD space, 33.6K modem, SoundBlaster sound card, with a 15" monitor, programmable keyboard & MS mouse, with Windows 98 SE for sale. $180. No problems with it what-so-ever. Will deliver & setup within 30 miles of Ft. Collins. It would be great for a stand-alone application or a kid’s computer. Contact Tom Teters tomt@starmon.com If you have astronomy stuff to buy or to sell, send an email to your newsletter editor philippe_bridenne@yahoo.com The LAS warehouse LAS logo T-Shirts: Crewneck, navy blue, 8" white LAS logon on front $10 - S, M, L, XL $12 - 2XL $13 - 3XL $14 - 4XL $2 - 5" LAS vinyl sticker, black or white $5 - 4" LAS embroidered patch $5 - VHS tape, "An Evening With David H. Levy", 3 January 2004 $1 - LAS Planisphere 2/$1 - LAS un-bumper sticker

Page 12 of 12

March Sky Map

A comprehensive listing, by month and state, of all the major U.S. Star Parties All of the major US Star Parties for amateur astronomers can be located at http://www.chartmarker.com/ Please contact us at chartmarker@cox.net if we missed any. If you sponsor a Star Party, send us your dates and URL so we can update our list. We will also list and link to selected special events in the Southwest area on our homepage. Send information about your event and URL for a listing.