San DiegoAstronomy AssociationCelebrating Over 50 Years of Astronomical Outreach

http://www.sdaa.orgA Non-Profit Educational Association

P.O. Box 23215, San Diego, CA 92193-3215

March 2016

Next SDAA Business MeetingMarch 8th at 7:00pm

7270 Trade StreetSan Diego, CA 92121

Next Program Meeting March 16, 2016 at 7:00pm

Mission Trails Regional ParkVisitor and Interpretive Center1 Father Junipero Serra Trail

CONTENTSMarch 2016, Vol LIV, Issue 3Published Monthly by the San Diego Astronomy AssociationIncorporated in California in 1963March P rog r am Mee t i ng. . . . . . . . . 1Abstract on Program Meeting Topic...2Fe b r u a r y M i n u t e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3J u l i a n S t a r F e s t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5M a r c h C a l e n d a r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6S DA A C o n t a c t s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 0 1 6 T D S S ch e d u l e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Space Place Par tners Ar t ic le. . . . .9As t ronomy Ca r toons. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1

Newsletter DeadlineThe deadline to submit articles

for publication is the15th of each month.

March Program MeetingDate: March 16, 2016Speaker: Dr. Russell GenetTopic: Small Telescope Research Communities of Practice

Dr. Russell Genet’s astronomical career, which now extends over half a century, has included automation of telescopes and observatories, photometry of variable stars, astrometry of binary stars, and the development of cosmic evolution, the synthesis of physical, biological, and cultural evolution. Throughout his career, Russ has taught classes at various institu-tions, worked with numerous students on their senior projects, masters theses, and doctoral dissertations, organized dozens of conferences and workshops, written or edited some two dozen books, and authored or co-authored well over 100 scientific papers. He has given dozens of public talks and appeared on a number of television programs, including The Perfect Stargazer, a PBS one-hour special that featured his development, with Louis Boyd, of automated telescopes and robotic observatories. Russ has actively served in national and international organizations, including the International Astronomical Union and a term as the 52nd President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. His degrees are in Electrical Engineering (BS) and Astronomy (PhD). Russ is currently a Research Scholar in Residence at California Polytechnic State University, an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at Cuesta College, a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Astronomy at Concordia University Irvine, and an Adjunct Professor of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota. He is also the Director of the Orion Observatory which is devoted to both student scientific research and astronomical instrument engineering development.

San Diego Astronomy Association (SDAA) sponsors speakers on a wide range of astronomy topics on the third Wednesday of every month at the Mission Trails Regional Park Visitors Center. The program meeting begins at 7pm. Each attendee receives one free door prize ticket. After announcements and a small amount of business, the audience is treated to the featured presentation. At the close of the meeting the door prizes are presented. The event is open to the public. The Mission Trails Regional Park Visitors Center is at One Fr. Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego CA 92119. Call the park at 619-668-3281 for more information or visit http://www.mtrp.org.

See page 5 for a special JSF announcement.

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Small Telescope Research Communities of Practice

Dr. Russell Genet, California Polytechnic State University

Communities of practice are natural groups of people that work together. Experienced members teach new members the “ropes.” This vital human activity has been studied in depth by social learning theorists such as Etienne Wenger, whose 1998 book, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, defined the field. As Wenger suggested in his classic book, “Learning is a matter of engagement: it depends on opportunities to contribute actively to the practices of communities that we value and that value us, to integrate their enterprises into our understanding of the world, and to make creative use of their respective repertoires.” There are, in astronomy, many communities of practice. Some communities are centered on observing faint objects with large tele-scopes and analyzing the results. Other astronomical communities of practice are centered on observing brighter objects with smaller telescopes. These communities often stress professional-amateur (pro-am) cooperative research. They take advantage of the large number of smaller telescopes and amateur observers required for some research. Examples of such pro-am communities of practice include variable star observers (ably organized by the American Association of Variable Star Observers), and a wide range of pro-am research fostered by the Society for Astronomical Sciences which meets for a two-day symposium every June in Ontario, California.

For students who would like to become scientists, joining a community of practice early in their educational career is very beneficial. A good example of engaging high school and community college students in research is the now decade-long Astronomy Research Seminar offered by Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. Well over 100 students, composed primarily of high school juniors and seniors, have been coauthors of several dozen published papers. Being published researchers has frequently boosted these students’ educational careers with admissions to choice schools, often with scholarships. This seminar was recently expanded to serve multiple schools with a volunteer assistant instructor at each school. One of these schools is the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, with Pat and Grady Boyce as the local instructors. They have produced almost a dozen papers! The seminar stu-dents meet regularly with their local instructors and also meet online with other teams and the seminar’s overall Cuesta College instruc-tor (Genet). This seminar features a textbook, self-paced learning units, and a website. Each team plans a project, obtains observations (either locally or via a remote robotic telescope), analyzes their data, writes a paper, and submits it for external review and publication. Critical to the success of these student seminars is the active support of local amateur astronomers.

Advances in low cost but increasingly powerful instrumentation, computers, and software have greatly increased the research capabilities of smaller telescopes. Close visual binary star astronomy provides a good example of how such advances have allowed observers, at very low cost, to obtain outstanding results. Visual double stars with separations below the seeing limit typically requires speckle interferometry observations with high-speed, low-noise, electron-multiplying emCCD cameras costing $14,000. Recently, however, low-noise CMOS cameras (such as the ZWO ASI290MM) have become available which cost less than $500 and perform just as well. Advances in very capable and affordable, “regular” CCD cameras, have benefited time series photometry of eclipsing bina-ries, variable stars, exoplanet transits, and asteroids, not to mention asteroid and lunar occultations.

Amateur astronomers—together with their telescopes, instruments, and local clubs—form the foundation of local area small telescope research communities of practice. Not only can amateurs make highly significant contributions to the advance-ment of scientific knowledge, but they can mentor and inspire local students, helping to place them on a path of academic achievement and, perhaps, a career in science, engineering, or some other technical field.

At Kitt Peak Telescope.

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San Diego Astronomy Association Board of Directors Meeting February 9, 2016 Unapproved and subject to revision

1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 7pm with the following board members in attendance: Mike Chasin, President; Greg Farrell, Vice President; Gene Burch, Treasurer; Brian McFarland, Recording Secretary; Dave Decker, Director; Dave Wood, Director; and SDAA member Pat Boyce.

2. Approval of Last Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the January meeting were approved. 3. Priority / Member Business

The current Roboscope is working but it isn’t practical – the scope and mount are inadequate. Pat Boyce presented a plan for upgrade which included a roll-off roof observatory to house a 20” CDK on a Paramount plus a 2nd scope. He would like to use the existing Roboscope dome controller for the roll-off controls. Since the existing Roboscope pad is 10’X12’ (which exceeds the club limit of 10’X10’), Pat is proposing a 10’X12’ observatory – exceeding the club size limit for an observatory. Pat is hoping for a waiver since it’s for outreach and a school. The Board, having just gone through a similar observatory design process with TARO, informed Pat that it is very unlikely that a 2nd scope would fit inside. Pat will do some modelling to see if that’s true, and if so will come back to the Board with a proposal for a smaller observatory that hopefully meets the SDAA rules for pad development.

4. Treasurer’s & Membership Report

a. The treasurer’s report was approved. b. The club is at 510 members. c. We need Lou to extend the server for a while longer. d. Gene will contact Jerry about the migration to Wild Apricot. e. We received a $1,600 state tax refund. f. The club made approximately $1,700 at the banquet. g. Need to start planning for the budget. h. We need to complete a banquet survey – Michael V should do this. i. We need acknowledgement letters for banquet donations provided by Cunningham and Etzel.

5. Standard Reports

a. Site Maintenance – Noted the progress on the TARO. b. Observatory Report – Had four visitors last public night, but weather has been terrible. c. Private Pad Report – We are up to 10 free pads and have one person looking at pads. d. Program Report – Dr. Tepley in February and Dr. Genet in March. e. AISIG Report

• Ken Crawford gave a great presentation at the last meeting. • Google hangouts is not ideal for this venue – Dave W is looking at another alternative that he’ll try for next

month’s presentation about noise reduction in Pix Insight. • Hoping to schedule Adam Block for a future presentation.

f. Newsletter Report – Impressive work by Andrea K as always. g. Website Report – Nothing to report.

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h. Outreach Report • The Scripps Ranch Civic Association and Mission Trails ranger have invited SDAA to participate in a public star

party at West Sycamore Park on 4 March. Will all be evaluating this as a monthly star party site for SDAA. The first visit will be 4 March.

• The initial meeting of the Outreach SIG will be on 17 February before the program meeting. Topic will be group communications and scheduling.

• NO Sycamore Canyon star party in February. There will be one in March. • Outreach summary for 2015:

o 55 public star parties for approximately 7,000 people. o 70 star parties for private groups (this includes schools) for approximately 10,500 people. IMPRESSIVE!

i. Merchandise Report – Things are chugging along regularly in the Merchandise Department. • In January, we sold a total of $289.92 in CafePress merchandise, which, at roughly $5 per sale, has netted SDAA

approximately $36. Again, this is $36 that nobody had to lift a finger for... It's all handled online, by CafePress. • The good news is, this $36 now pushes us over the $100 window for a minimum payment, so after 30-45 days (the

hold time for CafePress payments), there should be a PayPal payment of approximately $100 made to the SDAA PayPal account. I "should" get a notice of that from CafePress when it happens, so if I haven't heard anything by mid-March, I'll be asking for an update from the club to make sure that payment was made.

• Other than that, not much to report. I'd sure like to get feedback from anyone who has purchased stuff, to make sure this is the avenue we want to continue to pursue for our merchandising. It's certainly not as profitable as making/storing/packaging/shipping our own T-Shirts and Hoodies, but it sure is less work!

j. New Member Mentor Report – No report. k. Rising Stars Report – No report. j. TARO/Observatory C

• The roof has been installed. • It needs the electrical installation; Dave is looking at dates. Expect a call for volunteers in a couple weeks. • Dave (or Mike C) will provide a brief description of the progress on all three observatories to the membership at

the June Program Meeting. k. Cruzen Observatory – Dennis is working with the structural engineer to get through the permitting process.

6. Old Business

a. Determine whether or not Nick sent letters to the pad holders who didn’t meet the yearly minimum usage requirements. b. Unknown at this time when we’ll switch from Quicken to Quick Books accounting software. c. Action for the February meeting (left over from last month) – Nick to provide a tour of the SDAA Google Drive; who has

access, folder/directory structure, etc., etc.

7. New Business a. Spring Cleanup to occur on 7 May 2016. b. JSF – We need a solid commitment from a volunteer to lead JSF for 2016 and 2017. Hillary will provide mentorship to this

individual for the 2016 JSF event. Mike C will talk to Hillary about the date we need the volunteer by. If we don’t get one by the date needed, we will cancel JSF.

8. Adjournment – Adjourned at 8:25pm.

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Julian StarFest

Since 2008, the Julian StarFest (JSF) has hosted thousands of guests, been sponsored by dozens of vendors, sponsored raffles, live music and observatory tours. This event is SDAA’s largest public outreach activity . This all happens as a result of a small team of dedicated volunteers. Everyone's’ work is significant, but none more so than the Event Coordinator. Hillary Griffith has served as the Event Coordinator and she has built a solid plan to manage the event that reflects the many lessons learned. We are looking for a new Event Coordinator and Hillary is looking forward to a well-deserved respite. We hope to find a volunteer to work closely with her this year and coordinate future JSF events. No special skills are needed. Here is a brief description of the skills needed:

o Facilitation of JSF Committee Meetings o Submission of Permit Application to the county o Tracking of activities and tasks of committee o Collaboration with Treasurer on event budget

Running an event like JSF takes planning and assistance. Hillary has already begun to assemble a team, and more help is always appreciated. Please consider volunteering. All the SDAA programs depend on people like yourself, whose greatest attribute is a love of the night sky. In order to keep JSF running smoothly, please let Hillary or me know if you are willing to be the JSF Event coordinator or JSF Committee member. She can be reached at hillary@julianstarfest.com or 619-890-5267; but, don’t wait too long. Please let her know by March 9th as the 2016 JSF Kick-Off meeting will be scheduled shortly. Keep in mind that if we are unable to find a new Event Coordinator to be mentored by Hillary by March 9th, future JSF events will be cancelled. Please help us. Thank you for your consideration, Mike Chasin SDAA President

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March 2016 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1

Fuerte Elementary

2

Stars in the Park

3

4

West Sycamore

5

Member Night TDS

6

7

8 SDAA Business

Meeting

New Moon

9 Allen School

10 Army Navy Academy

11 Stars at Mission

Trails

12 Public Star Party

TDS

13

14

15

16

SDAA Program Meeting

17 Tierra Del Sol Middle School

18

Stars at Sycamore

Canyon

19

20

21

22

23 AISIG Meeting

Full Moon

24

25

Benito Juarez

26

27

28

29

30

31

1

2

Member Night

TDS

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SDAA ContactsClub Officers and Directors

President Mike Chasin President@sdaa.org (858) 210-1454Vice President Greg Farrell VicePresident@sdaa.org (858) 705-0065Recording Secretary Brian McFarland Recording@sdaa.org (619) 462-4483Treasurer Gene Burch Treasurer@sdaa.org (858) 926-9610 Corresponding Secretary Nick Andrews Corresponding@sdaa.org (858) 215-0479Director Alpha Dave Decker DirectorDelta@sdaa.org (619) 972-1003Director Beta Dennis Ritz DirectorBeta@sdaa.org (619) 890-7480Director Gamma Michael Vander Vorst DirectorGamma@sdaa.org (858) 755-5846Director Delta Dave Wood DirectorAlpha@sdaa.org (858) 735-8808

CommitteesSite Maintenance Bill Quackenbush TDS@sdaa.org (858) 395-1007Observatory Director Jim Traweek Observatory@sdaa.org (619) 207-7542Private Pads Mark Smith Pads@sdaa.org (858) 484-0540Outreach Kin Searcy Outreach@sdaa.org (858) 586-0974N. County Star Parties Jerry Hilburn NorthStarParty@sdaa.org (858) 877-3103S. County Star Parties -Vacant- SouthStarParty@sdaa.org E. County Star Parties Dave Decker EastStarParty@sdaa.org (619) 972-1003Central County Star Parties Kin Searcy CentralStarParty@sdaa.org (858) 586-0974Camp with the Stars Jerry Hilburn CampWiththeStars@sdaa.org (858) 877-3103K.Q. Ranch Coordinator Michael Vander Vorst KQ@sdaa.org (858) 755-5846Newsletter Andrea Kuhl Newsletter@sdaa.org (858) 547-9887New Member Mentor Dan Kiser Mentor @sdaa.org (858) 922-0592Webmaster Jeff Stevens Webmaster@sdaa.org (858) 566-2261AISIG Dave Wood AISIG@sdaa.org (858) 735-8808Site Acquisition -Vacant- SecondSite@sdaa.org Field Trips -Vacant- FieldTrips@sdaa.org Grants/Fund Raising Jerry Hilburn Grants@sdaa.org (858) 877-3103Julian StarFest Hillary Griffith info@julianstarfest.com (619) 890-5267Merchandising Rich Wilkinson Merchandising@sdaa.org (858) 357-7404Publicity -Vacant- Publicity@sdaa.org Loaner Scopes Ed Rumsey (858) 722-3846 Governing Documents TBDTDS Network Dave Wood TDSNet@sdaa.org (858) 735-8808Amateur Telescope Making -Vacant-

Have a great new piece of gear? Read an astronomy-related book that you think others should know about? How about a photograph of an SDAA Member in action? Or are you simply tired of seeing these Boxes in the Newsletter rather than something, well, interesting?

Join the campaign to rid the Newsletter of little boxes by sharing them with the membership. In return for your efforts, you will get your very own byline or pho-tograph credit in addition to the undying gratitude of the Newsletter Editor. Just send your article or picture to Newsletter@SDAA.Org.

SDAA Editorial StaffEditor - Andrea Kuhlnewsletter@sdaa.org

Assistant Editor: Craig Ewing

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2016 TDS SCHEDULE

DATE MOON DATA SUNSET ASTRO TWILIGHT

Mar. 5 R- 4:16a 16% 5:46p 7:08p

12 S-10:15p 17% 5:51p 7:13p PUBLIC

Apr. 2 R- 3:51a 21% 7:06p 8:31p DST

30 R- 2:28a 35% 7:26p 8:57p PUBLIC

May 7 S- 8:47p 1% 7:32p 9:04p

28 R- 1:08a 50% 7:46p 9:25p PUBLIC

Jun. 4 S- 7:31p 1% 7:50p 9:30p

25 R-11:49p 74% 7:57p 9:38p PUBLIC

Jul. 2 S- 7:17p 5% 7:57p 9:37p

9 S-11:33p 26% 7:55p 9:35p PUBLIC

30 S- 5:06p 14% 7:44p 9:17p

Aug. 27 R- 2:42a 16% 7:14p 8:20p PUBLIC

Sep. 3 S- 8:37p 4% 7:06p 8:30p

24 R- 1:39a 28% 6:37p 7:59p PUBLIC

Oct. 1 S- 7:10p 0% 6:28p 7:50p

22 R-12:28p 43% 6:03p 7:25p PUBLIC

29 S- 5:45p 1% 5:56p 7:19p

Nov. 19 R-10:17p 69% 4:41p 6:07p PUBLIC PST

26 R- 4:41a 3% 4:39p 6:06p

Dec. 17 R- 9:02p 84% 4:42p 6:10p PUBLIC

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NASA  Space  Place  Astronomy  Club  Article      

This article is provided by NASA Space Place. With articles, activities, crafts, games, and lesson plans, NASA Space Place encourages everyone to get excited about science and technology. Visit spaceplace.nasa.gov to explore space and Earth science!

The Closest New Stars To Earth By Ethan Siegel

When you think about the new stars forming in the Milky Way, you probably think of the giant star-forming regions like the Orion Nebula, containing thousands of new stars with light so bright it's visible to the naked eye. At over 400 parsecs (1,300 light years) distant, it's one of the most spectacular sights in the night sky, and the vast majority of the light from galaxies originates from nebulae like this one. But its great luminosity and relative proximity makes it easy to overlook the fact that there are a slew of much closer star-forming regions than the Orion Nebula; they're just much, much fainter. If you get a collapsing molecular cloud many hundreds of thousands (or more) times the mass of our sun, you'll get a nebula like Orion. But if your cloud is only a few thousand times the sun's mass, it's going to be much fainter. In most instances, the clumps of matter within will grow slowly, the neutral matter will block more light than it reflects or emits, and only a tiny fraction of the stars that form—the most massive, brightest ones—will be visible at all. Between just 400 and 500 light years away are the closest such regions to Earth: the molecular clouds in the constellations of Chamaeleon and Corona Australis. Along with the Lupus molecular clouds (about 600 light years distant), these dark, light-blocking patches are virtually unknown to most sky watchers in the northern hemisphere, as they're all southern hemisphere objects. In visible light, these clouds appear predominantly as dark patches, obscuring and reddening the light of background stars. In the infrared, though, the gas glows brilliantly as it forms new stars inside. Combined near-infrared and visible light observations, such as those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, can reveal the structure of the clouds as well as the young stars inside. In the Chameleon cloud, for example, there are between 200 and 300 new stars, including over 100 X-ray sources (between the Chamaeleon I and II clouds), approximately 50 T-Tauri stars and just a couple of massive, B-class stars. There's a third dark, molecular cloud (Chamaeleon III) that has not yet formed any stars at all. While the majority of new stars form in large molecular clouds, the closest new stars form in much smaller, more abundant ones. As we reach out to the most distant quasars and galaxies in the universe, remember that there are still star-forming mysteries to be solved right here in our own backyard.

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NASA  Space  Place  Astronomy  Club  Article      

Image credit: NASA and ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Acknowledgements: Kevin Luhman (Pennsylvania State University), and Judy Schmidt, of the Chamaeleon cloud and a newly-forming star within it—HH 909A—emitting narrow streams of gas from its poles.

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MEMBERSHIP INFORMATIONSend dues and renewals to P.O. Box 23215, San Diego, CA 92193-3215. Include any renewal cards from Sky & Telescope or Astronomy magazine in which you wish to continue your subscription. The expiration date shown on your newsletter’s mailing label is the only notice that your membership in SDAA will expire. Dues are $60 for Contributing Memberships; $35 for Basic Membership; $60.00 for Private Pads; $5 for each Family membership. In addition to the club dues the annual rates for magazines available at the club discount are: Sky & Telescope $32.95 and Astronomy $34. Make checks payable to S.D. Astronomy Assn. PLEASE DO NOT send renewals directly to Sky Publishing. They return them to us for processing.