PPrime Focurime Focurime Focuss A Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical SocietyA Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society

General Meeting: Friday, November 2 @ 7:00 pm

Kalamazoo Math & Science Center - See Page 12 for Details

Field Trip: Saturday, November 10 @ 6:30 am

Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum - See Page 4 for Details

Board Meeting: Sunday, November 11 @ 5:00 pm

Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome

Astrophoto Workshop: Saturday, November 17 @ 6:00 pm

Kalamazoo Nature Center - See Page 11 for Details

This Months This Months KAS EventsEvents

November 2007

Highlights of theHighlights of the November SkyNovember Sky. . .. . .

-- -- -- 11stst -- -- -- Dawn: Spica 4Dawn: Spica 4 right of right of Mercury next 4 mornings.Mercury next 4 mornings.

Last QuarterLast Quarter

-- -- -- 33rdrd -- -- -- AM: Regulus near Moon.AM: Regulus near Moon.

-- -- -- 44thth -- -- -- AM: Saturn above Moon.AM: Saturn above Moon.

-- -- -- 55thth -- -- -- Dawn: Venus left of Moon.Dawn: Venus left of Moon.

-- -- -- 66thth -- -- -- AM: Beta (AM: Beta () Virginis ) Virginis right of Venus.right of Venus.

-- -- -- 77th th -- -- -- Dawn: Spica lower left, Dawn: Spica lower left, Mercury far lower left of Mercury far lower left of Moon.Moon.

-- -- -- 88th th -- -- -- Dawn: Mercury at great-Dawn: Mercury at great-est elongation; visible low est elongation; visible low in east.in east.

-- -- -- 99th th -- -- -- New MoonNew Moon

-- -- -- 1212thth -- -- -- Dusk: Jupiter upper right Dusk: Jupiter upper right of Moon.of Moon.

-- -- -- 1717th th -- -- -- First Quarter MoonFirst Quarter Moon

-- -- -- 1818th th -- -- -- AM: Leonid meteor AM: Leonid meteor shower (10/hour).shower (10/hour).

-- -- -- 2323rd rd -- -- -- PM: Pleiades lower left of PM: Pleiades lower left of Moon.Moon.

-- -- -- 2424th th -- -- -- Full MoonFull Moon

-- -- -- 2626th th -- -- -- PM: Mars near Moon.PM: Mars near Moon.

-- -- -- 2828th th -- -- -- AM: Spica 5AM: Spica 5 lower right lower right of Venus next 4 mornings.of Venus next 4 mornings.

www.kasonline.org

Inside the Newsletter. . .Inside the Newsletter. . . October Meeting Minutes.................... p. 2

Board Meeting Minutes......................... p. 3

Nigg Notes............................................... p. 3

Observations........................................... p. 4

Field Trip to Alder Planetarium.......... p. 4

2007 Black Forest Star Party............... p. 5

NASA Space Place.................................. p. 8

Dorian Gray Galaxy........................... p. 9

November Night Sky............................. p. 10

KAS Officers & Announcements........ p. 11

General Meeting Preview..................... p. 12

November 2007

The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society was brought to order by President Richard Bell on Friday, October 5, 2007 at 7:14 pm. Approximately 30 members and guests were in attendance at the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics & Science Center (KAMSC). Long standing KAS tradition says that the October meeting shall be forever known as Astrophotography Night featuring the Thirteenth Annual Astrophotography Contest. After given instructions, everyone proceeded to the Commons Area to vote for their favorite photographs in the five main categories as well as Best First-Time Entry and Best of Show. This years contest featured only four entries, which was at least better than last years two. Most categories, with the exception of Solar System and CCD, had a single competitor. Once the ballots were handed in everyone enjoyed the tradi-tional October snack of donuts and apple cider courtesy of Jean DeMott. After voting and snack time was over everyone returned to their seats for the slide show part of the tradition. Bill Nigg began by showing some slides on a traditional projector. His first slides were of sunsets, which is perhaps the most basic (and common) form of astrophotography. A nice image of a solar halo was then shown. Bill then went a tad off topic and showed slides of past KAS members and the equipment they constructed, plus some shots from Bills eclipse chasing ad-ventures. Bill finished up by showing slides of a Lunar Eclipse, Solar Eclipse, the Coat Hanger asterism, and Comet Hale-Bopp. Dan Morgan was up next and showed many fine images he

shot with his Olympus E-300 Digital SLR camera. He began with an image of an Iridium Flare and then showed several images from the Northern Lights display on December 14, 2006. He concluded with some shots of Orion the Hunter. Everyone agreed it was a shame he didnt enter any images in the astrophotography contest. Maybe next year, eh Dan? Last up was Richard Bell, who showed images taken within the past year with his Canon 300D DSLR camera and ToU-cam web cam. First up were images of the solar system. These include Comet SWAN, last Decembers Triple Con-junction, Northern Lights (taken the same night as Dans), and the Moon. He then showed some wide-field images of the Milky Way and concluded with deep sky images shot with his equipment and the 12 SCT in Owl Observatory. As usual, Richard encouraged everyone to check out all his images on his personal web site, Stargazer Online. Richard then jumped into his presidents report. He ended by giving Don Stilwell his Lunar Club certificate from the Astro-nomical League. Congratulations! Don then discussed his trip to the Black Forest Star Party (see page 5) and Bill Nigg talked about his weekend at the Great Lakes Star Gaze. Under astronomical news, Jack Price mentioned the recent success of the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft. It was placed into Lunar orbit on October 4th (50th anniversary of the start of the Space Age). Jack Roach discussed the installation of dark-sky friendly lighting along Columbia Street in Battle Creek. Bill Nigg encouraged everyone to check out Comet LONEOS, which is predicted to brighten to magnitude 4 toward the end of October. Tim Kurtz showed off his new Tele Vue Ethos eyepiece, which sports a 100 apparent field-of-view. Mark Miller announced the 2007 Astrophotography Contest winners: Best First-Time Entry: Tim Kurtz

Waxing Gibbous Moon - March 26, 2007

Best Artistic Photo: Richard Bell Dusk at the IDSSP - September 15, 2007

Best Solar System Photo: Richard Bell Total Lunar Eclipse - August 28, 2007

Best Wide-Field Photo: Richard Bell Cygnus Star Cloud - September 13, 2007

Best Deep Sky Photo: Richard Bell North American Nebula - September 14, 2007

Best CCD Image: Jim Kurtz Andromeda Galaxy (M31) - September 1, 2007

Overall Winner of 13th Annual Astrophotography Contest: Richard Bell - North American Nebula

The meeting concluded at 9:31 pm EDT.

Prime Focus Page 2

October Meeting MinutesOctober Meeting MinutesOctober Meeting Minutes

This image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) was captured by Jim Kurtz with a SBIG ST-2000XCM Color CCD camera and Tele Vue 85 refractor on a Celestron Advanced Series CG-5 equatorial mount. At a distance of 2.5 million light-years, its the near spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. Andromedas satellite galaxy, M32, is visible left of center.

http://www.richardbell.net/http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/index_e.htm

November 2007 Prime Focus Page 3

The KAS Board met on Sunday, October 14th at Sunnyside Church. President Richard Bell brought the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. Present were Board Members Jean DeMott, Dick Gillespie, Rich Mather, Dan Morgan, Jack Price, Dave Woolf, and Roger Williams, along with observer Jackie Gillespie. After approval of the agenda, Rich Mather delivered the Treasurers Report, which showed a current balance of $6,246.02. Disbursements in the last month included $505 for Astronomical League dues, $50 honorarium for June speaker Nicolle Zellner, and $20 for an annual nonprofit filing fee. Receipts were from membership dues ($130), planisphere sales ($50), and Owl Observatory Fund donations ($70). The Land Acquisition Fund currently stood at $605.41, but a donation was delivered by Jean for $2,600 from plant sales, to be matched by Pfizer. After brief discussion, the Board agreed that Rich should look for a better interest rate via CD for all but $2,000 of current assets. Regarding coming events, Richard reminded us that the last public observing session was set for Saturday, October 20th. He was also tentatively planning another Astrophotography Workshop for Saturday, November 17th, in the event that the October 19th session was clouded out (see page 11 for more information). The next general meeting on Friday, November 2nd will feature a presentation on Mars by Richard (see page 12 for details). Details were also discussed for the field trip to Adler Planetar-ium on Saturday, November 10th. Jean had found that group rates for the Michigan City commuter train only applied on weekdays, but the weekend rates were cheaper anyway ($13 round trip). The discounted cost for entry to the Adler mu-seum and one show is $16, or $21 for two shows. The pri-mary question was just how Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois clock times will correspond on November 10th. Details will appear in the newsletter (see page 4). In new business, following a motion by Dick and second by Jean, the Board voted to buy a first aid kit for Owl Observa-tory. Richard announced plans for a work session on the observa-tory on Saturday, October 27th, to c