Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Ju Ev ne 2002 ent Horizon Volume 9 Issue 8 2002 Star Party Guide by Stewart Attlesey Summer is here which means it`s time for star par- ous methods that are available for observing the night ties. There are a number of events held each summer in sky and recording what we see. Visual, photographic, southern Ontario. Most offer astronomy related talks CCD, video, digital still cameras, web cams and hybrid as well as the opportunity to experience dark skies and techniques will be explored. There is a swimming pool the chance to talk to other amateur astronomers. All on site. Pay showers and flush toilets are available as events have dark enough skies that the Milky Way is well as portable toilets. The conference attendees camp very obvious, unlike observing close to home. Since I in a bare field which is great for observing but there don`t have limiting magnitude information for each site is no shade during the day. Saturday night dinner is I have used a subjective comparison of each star party available. Plenty of nearby restaurants. Door prizes relative to Starfest. on Saturday night. This star party is great even if the July 12-14 weather is bad. Gateway to the Universe River Place Campground, near Mount Forest, On- This is a casual gathering of less than 100 people. tario. Organizer: North York Astronomical Associ- Talks are offered on Friday and Saturday nights. There ation. Cost: Registration $50 single & $65 family, is a `regular' camping area in the trees but people set Camping $12/person/night, Saturday Dinner $15, Elec- up at the periphery or in an adjoining field. Pay show- trical Hookup $1/night. Contact: Andreas Gada, 26 ers and flush toilets are available. There is swimming Chryessa Ave., Toronto, ON M6N 4T5. Tel: 416- in a river running past the campground. I should warn 221-7375 E-mail: tonyward@rogers.com Website: www. you, mosquitoes have been vicious in some years at this nyaa-starfest.com/ location. The night sky is darker than at Starfest. August 12-18 Munro Family Campground, Powassan, Ontario (20 Great Manitou Star Party km south of North Bay). Organizer: North Bay Astron- This star party offers the best night skies being lo- omy Club. Contact: Tom Ouellette Tel: 705-474-7666 cated away from any significant source of light pollu- or Merlin Clayton, 50 Van Horne Cres., North Bay, ON tion. They offer much darker skies than Starfest. There P1A 3L3. Tel: 705-472-1182 E-mail: galaxy@efni.com is an amazing beach within a 20 minute drive that Website: www.gateway-to-the-universe.org (This looks like it belongs in the Caribbean but the water didn't work the last time I tried it.) is COLD. They're planning a `Faces and Phases' lunar August 8-11 photography contest, "Lunar Lore" campfire talk and Starfest 2002 a moonlight beach party. There is a Saturday after- Starfest is Canada's largest annual observing con- noon keynote speaker who will make a presentation on vention and star party. It attracts over nine hundred astrophotography. Earth and Sky astronomy shop will astronomy enthusiasts from Ontario, and neighbouring be selling binoculars, telescopes, telescope accessories, provinces and states. It has been ranked among the books et cetera. Gordon's Park has a store, bar, restau- top seven star parties in North America by Sky and rant, hiking trails, a children's playground and mini- Telescope magazine. Activities include observing ses- putt. It also has a couple of bed-and-breakfast rooms. sions, formal and informal presentations, workshops, The observing site is set back in the woods. commercial exhibits, and a children's program. This year's theme, Capturing Photons, examines the vari- cont'd on page 3 ... Chair's report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 2 For Sale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 8 Fun with IRAF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 4 3D Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 8 SID City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5 Messier collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 9 Web Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 8 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 10 Page 2 Chair's Report At long last, summer is actually our meetings at the Steam Mu- here - well, maybe not officially, seum when we start up again in Event Horizon is a publica- but close enough. Sadly, this also the Fall. The Spectator has been tion of the Hamilton Amateur signals the last of our regular meet- graciously allowed us the (free) Astronomers (HAA). ings until September. Happily, it use of their auditorium for years The HAA is an amateur astron- also means the opportunity to get now, but recent policy changes omy club dedicated to the promo- together with folks at star parties have prevented us from booking tion and enjoyment of astronomy and to have some holidays! more than two months in a row for people of all ages and experi- In September, we hope to resurrect without substantial hassles. Since ence levels. the HAA's Silent Lake Star Party. we are a volunteer organization, The cost of the subscription is in- Many years ago, we had a wonder- keeping hassles to a minimum is cluded in the $25 individual or ful, well-attended get-together at important!! In any case, please $30 family membership fee for the this provincial park near Bancroft, keep an eye on the HAA web- year. Event Horizon is published Ontario. It is far enough away page (www.amateurastronomy.org a minimum of 10 times a year. from Toronto and Ottawa that the - thanks again, Rick!) and/or skies are REALLY dark. By hold- your summer issue of Event Hori- HAA Council ing it on the New Moon weekend zon for updates on the venue for Hon. Chair . . . . . . . . . . Jim Winger after Labour Day, we avoid the the September meeting. Chair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Doug Welch summer crowds (and most of the Sheila Overall has informed me Second Chair . . . . . . . Grant Dixon mosquitoes!) and we have the sum- that she will be stepping down as Secretary . . . . . . . Margaret Walton mer Milky Way high in the sky for the Council member in charge of Treasurer . . . . . . . . . Barbara Wight the early part of the night. What's publicity in September. Sheila - Observing Dir. . . Stewart Attlesey not to like?! many thanks for your efforts and Publicity . . . . . . . . . . Sheila Overall We are hoping to attract some ad- your time! Editor/Web . . . . Anthony Tekatch ditional BIG scopes from folks in I also want to thank all of the Membership Dir.. . . .Ann Tekatch the Ottawa area, so there should Council members who have, as Councillor. . . . . . . . .Ray Badgerow be plenty of photons to go around! usual, made it such a pleasure to I believe that there are more details be part of the HAA. Web: amateurastronomy.org elsewhere in this issue. Circle the Have a great summer and see you dates of September 6/7/8 on your at one or more star parties!! Mailing Address: calendar! Doug Welch PO Box 65578 It looks probable that we will hold Dundas, ON L9H 6Y6 Doug Welch is the current chair of the HAA and also a founding member. You can find out more about Doug at: http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/people/faculty/ Welch_DL_h.html Domain Name and Web hosting for the Hamilton Amatuer Astronomy club supplied by Axess Communications Corporate and Residential DSL and Web Hosting http://www.axess.com support@axess.com Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org Page 3 ... cont'd from page 1 at Silent Lake are not your typical star party quality. You can set up your camp in the open fields with They are well shaded, level and quite large. Depending other attendees or find yourself a nice, private sanctu- on the campsite, they allow up to three tents and six ary among the trees. Bathroom facilities consist of out- people! The drawback to these nice sites is that you houses and port-a-potties. There is an ingenious "bush have to set up and take down your scope at the main shower" - warm water and the open sky. parking lot each night. It's worth the effort though. We Gordon's Park & Carter Bay Resort, Manitoulin Is- should try to stay in the same area but make your reser- land, Ontario. Cost: Registration $20.00/night/vehicle, vations soon since campsites are already being reserved Saturday Dinner $12.00. Contact: Mark Oldfield, 1687 for that weekend. We are expecting some people to join Carol St., Val Caron, ON P3N 1H1. Tel: 705-897-4518 us from the Ottawa and Peterborough astronomy clubs. Fax: 705-673-0730 E-mail: greatmanitou@hotmail. com Website: www.manitoulin-link.com/starparty Cost: Camping $21.50/site/night. Silent Lake (613) August 12 339-2807 http://www.ontarioparks.com/sile.html Charleston Lake Astronomy Night and Perseid Meteor Watch I have never attended this event so I can't comment Silent Lake area map: on the facilities or the night sky. Charleston Lake Provincial Park, near Brockville, Ontario. Talk by Terence Dickinson at 8:30 p.m., fol- lowed by telescope viewing. Organizer: Park staff. Tel: 613-659-2065 September 5-8 Huronia Star Party A gathering of 100 - 150 people held in an open field. They have Friday and Saturday night talks. The featured Saturday night speaker at 7pm will be Paul Delaney and his talk is "Cosmology: Twists, turns, and all the changes in-between". Vendors will be set up to purchase anything from books to telescopes. They of- fer a Saturday night dinner and EftonScience has been known to provide a free breakfast to the first 50 people who wake up in time. All other activities are off site. The night sky is not as dark as at Starfest and has been getting brighter over time. Private campground on Kueper farm, 15 min. Main campground map: northwest of Alliston, Ontario. Organizer: South Sim- coe Amateur Astronomers. Cost: $39 single, $49 cou- ple, $10 ages 13-19, Saturday Dinner $15 Contact: Christopher Trace, 43 Tecumseth N, Beeton, ON L0G 1A0. Tel: 905-729-4982 E-mail: ssaaclub@yahoo.ca or: ssaa@cois.on.ca Website: www.geocities.com/ CapeCanaveral/Lab/3681/index.html September 6-8 HAA Star Party This is the one that you shouldn't miss. Our very own HAA Star Party doesn't offer any talks but the lo- cation is great. The night sky is darker than Starfest but not quite as dark as at Manitoulin Island. There are lots of daytime activities such as fishing , canoeing , I recommend that you make reservations in the 40- wildlife viewing , swimming and cycling. The campsites 58 group of sites in the Pincer Bay campground: Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org Page 4 optical surface. 5) Avoid loud and boisterous behaviour. Star-gazing is a quiet, peaceful activity. 6) Don't litter. 7) Drive slowly so as to avoid kicking up dust. 8) Watch your step (but don't use a flashlight). Be especially care- ful of wires on the ground. Some scopes require power and some folks use their car's battery. If your scope requires power try to make the wires as safe as possible. 9) Don't set up too close to another observer. When in doubt, it's always a good idea to ask, "Is it OK if I set up here?" 10) Be careful when astrophotographers are doing their thing. 11) Some places ban pets and some allow them. If you bring your pet make sure it is firmly under control. No barking dogs early in the morning! 12) Some places ban music altogether, some are less strict. Just remember that music that you love may be extremely irritating to others. When in doubt use a headset. 13) Smokers should stay downwind of non-smokers and their telescopes. Just because you're outdoors doesn't mean your smoke isn't annoying. 14) Be aware that alcohol may adversely affect your night vision, body temperature and ability to drive. 15) Own- Some simple star party rules: ers of LX-200s must offer coffee to passers-by who mis- (Mostly stolen from the web but I've lost the source.) take the noise of their slewing motors for that of an 1) Avoid using white lights. Use red lights spar- espresso machine. 16) Refrain from pointing out the ingly. If for some reason you must use a white light, failings of your neighbor's telescope until your own op- shout out a warning. 2) Hopefully you car doesn't vio- tics are safely covered. late the above but some newer cars can't turn off their headlights. In that case, try to arrive before dark and by Stewart Attlesey warn people when you are leaving. Backup lights and Stewart Attlesey is a founding member of even interior lights can ruin someone's night vision. 3) the HAA. He has held the positions of If you come to a star party without a telescope please Chair, Editor, Secretary, Recorder and is park some distance away from the main observing area currently the Observing Director. He has to save room for those with heavy equipment to carry. also held the positions of Recorder and Ob- 4) Never touch anyone else's equipment without permis- servatory Curator for the RASC Hamilton sion. But don't be afraid to ask. Never touch any glass Centre. stewart.attlesey@cogeco.ca Fun with IRAF by Anthony Tekatch I've been trying my hand at CCD (charged coupled images. device) image manipulation. I was lucky enough to be The raw images from the special astronomy CCD invited to an observing session by Bob Botts at the camera are not suitable for direct viewing since the lit- RASC site in Flamborough a few weeks ago. Bob has a tle cells pick up varying amounts of light that produce 4" Genesis telescope and SBIG ST-6a CCD unit. an uncorrected image. Modern consumer CCD cam- Bob took about an hour to properly set up the scope, eras provide filtering to reduce background noise which electronically chilled CCD and computer interface. We makes them unsuitable for deep sky astronomy. The spent the next four hours taking shots of M51 through astronomy CCDs provide raw data so that you can ma- the clouds. The sky was slightly overcast and didn't nipulate and filter the image as you please, unfortu- clear up until 5 minutes after we had packed up for the nately that filtering (or image reduction) can be quite evening. Regardless of the poor viewing conditions, the a detailed process requiring special software. telescope/CCD combination still picked up many nice Faint objects require either long or multiple expo- Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org Page 5 sures. The long exposure would be the best since their IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility)http: would only be one image to manipulate for viewing, //iraf.noao.edu/ . however the telescope must track the object accurately The IRAF project is funded by the US government and hopefully no satellites pass by while exposing. The and is still being maintained today. It took about 24 multiple exposure method allows you to remove bad hours for me to install and learn the unusual interface shots. When taking pictures of faint objects with a of IRAF. I was also given an excellent hands-on tutorial general consumer camera the CCD imperfections are by Doug Welch in the final hours of my initial jour- filtered out automatically, but so are any potentially ney. Also a "must-have" graphical user interface (ds9) interesting dark objects. is made by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/ . The adjacent image shows the ds9 software with four image frames at various stages of processing. The top left is one of the original 36 CCD images that was taken at the observatory. The top right image is the "flat" im- age which is used for correcting the CCD images. The bottom left is the "flat corrected image". The bottom right is the composite stacked and aligned result of 18 selected images. The process involves selecting the im- ages of value (with no smearing or satellite streaks), "flat processing", image alignment, then image stack- ing. Maxim DL is more user friendly than IRAF, but I wanted to try something available for Linux and totally free. IRAF is very powerful and can be customized with user-written FORTRAN programs. IRAF is very ma- ture and has a many Internet newsgroups where you can get help. The Internet is also full of FITS (Flexi- ble Image Transport System) files from other telescopes There are programs for DOS that come with the that you can use to find new or interesting sky objects, CCD and MAXIM-DL for Windows ( http://www. one such site is http://adil.ncsa.uiuc.edu/. cyanogen.com/ ) that perform image stacking. Bob by Anthony Tekatch gave me the raw images to try and put together my- self. I only use Linux on my system and had to hunt Anthony is interested in electron- down something that would manipulate the images. I ics, astronomy and music. He has was in luck since Linux is capable of running many pro- been a member of HAA for one year. grams that were written for Unix which is widely used anthony@unihedron.com for astronomy in universities. I found something called SID City by Doug Welch Last month I described "Sudden Ionospheric Distur- that it can select a narrow range of frequency - and bances" (a.k.a. SID's) and how I wound my receiving hence reject noise - it is important to be able to set loop. It has now been operating for a full month and, the capacitance with some precision. About 1% pre- believe it or not, is still working! This month I will de- cision is necessary for optimum performance. For my scribe the electronics and show you some typical traces. loop, the capacitance was about 18000 pF (=0.018 uF). The two ends of the loop need the appropriate ca- You don't normally find cheap variable capacitors with pacitance across them if they are to resonate at the this value. It is possible to find a single-purpose piece frequency of the transmitting station - in this case, 24.0 of test equipment to do this, but even used they cost kHz. Since one of the advantages of this antenna is over $300. Fortunately, you can make one for under Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org Page 6 $10 which is perfect for the job. The basic idea is to The next item is the dual opamp. While one side pick a group of capacitors which are different from the of the loop goes to ground, the other feeds the non- next smallest by a factor of two. Then you wire them in inverting input of an opamp. That stage produces a parallel, each with a DIP switch switch in line with it. gain of 30x in my system (by using a pair of resistors) For a 8-position DIP switch, you can select 255 differ- and feeds a second stage with a gain of 10x. (I will prob- ent (non-zero) capacitances! (The photo below shows ably alter this to 20x in the future to increase the output my 10-pin DIP switch and the capacitors.) signal level.) A four-conductor cable of some descrip- tion brings positive and negative voltage to the opamp, a ground, and takes the signal back to the rectifier end. One important physical issue is where the opamp sits. It can't be on the periphery of the loop or feed- back will occur (because it is sensing its only amplified signal)! The loop antenna has zero response at right angles along the axis of the loop, so that is where the opamp goes. In my system, the four-conductor cable is about 10 current one fills up. I now take 24 hours per file at one feet long. At the other end, I rectify the signal using a sample per second. (The DI-194RS can take data from pair of diodes, a capacitor and a resistor as shown in the four different sources with voltages between -10 and +10 circuit diagram above. (The 5V Zener diode is optional volts). - it protects the data acquisition module from overvolt- age.) The voltage across the resistor is measured with Finally - take a look at my traces. They lowest one an analog-to-digital converter unit called a DI-194RS is for May 10, 2002 and each day is a fixed increment from DataQ (www.dataq.com). It costs US$24.95 and in signal strength higher. NAA has scheduled mainte- comes with a serial cable, software for Windows comput- nance days which are typically Mondays. However, the ers, and a screwdriver - surely the deal of the century!!! Friday before the Memorial Day long weekend in the US (Be sure to ask them to send it by regular mail instead was used for this purpose instead of the holiday Mon- of United Parcel Service - if you don't, it will cost an day. No traces are shown for May 18th or June 1st. additional CAD$35 for brokerage fees!) The DI-194RS The occasional large (positive) vertical step (not due to sits on the 9-pin serial port of a castoff computer which NAA coming back on the air) is due to the dining room does this one thing - taking SID data! The software light dimmer being turned on - I have since replaced it is even smart enough to start up another file when the with a regular switch! Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org Page 7 Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org Page 8 Several features of the graph are striking. One is the occasional X-ray transient or GRB. I am happy to that the signal is "ratty" at night when the ionosphere help anyone else interested in putting together such a is not illuminated by the sun. Second, there is a very system - just talk to me at a meeting or send me e-mail. distinctive "sunrise pattern". Third, there are some so- lar flares which leap off the normal daytime trace! There are also interruptions of the traces due to unusually fre- by Doug Welch quent power outages in May. (I have since put a UPS Doug Welch is the current chair of the on the data-taking computer to deal with the relatively HAA and also a founding member. You short dropouts!) Also, lone high points due to lightning can find out more about Doug at: in the area are visible at times. http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/ All in all, it has been good fun and I plan to keep people/faculty/Welch_DL_h.html it going in hopes of detecting more flares and possibly WebWatch For Sale Submitted by Stewart Attlesey Meade LX200 8" with field tripod and travel case, In http://www.cbc.ca/one/light/index.html pristine condition. Asking $2000 but am somewhat Flash is required for these CBC stories on light flexible. Shipping is negotiable. I live in Central Ore- pollution. gon and the easiest way to contact me is at this E-mail gnball@hotmail.com http://www.astronomydaily.com/preview.html Gary Ball Find out what is astronomically happening in your neck of the woods. 3D Moon by Bob Botts At various times throughout the year we can see the moon from different angles which gives us a partial view onto the seldom seen "far side of the moon". We can see the librations of the moon by photographing at these different times. Look cross-eyed at the two images which make up this composite 3D image taken in February and April 2002. When crossing your eyes the center of the three moons will be the 3D one. Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org Page 9 Bob Botts and Steve Barnes have been very busy in the last month compiling their own Messier collection of photographs. The amount of work involved in this effort is enormous considering how many images must be taken to make up one final photograph. The processing of these images is also very time consuming. Check out their latest efforts and full size images on the club web website http://amateurastronomy.org Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers amateurastronomy.org 3 10 17 24 31 2 9 16 23 30 1 8 15 22 29 Universe the Powassan 7 14 21 28 to Saturday 6 13 20 27 party August 2002 5 12 19 26 Star Gateway 4 11 18 25 1 8 15 22 29 7 14 21 28 6 13 20 27 Universe the Powassan 5 12 19 26 Friday to 4 11 18 25 5 12 partyStarGateway 19 26 June 2002 3 10 17 24 2 9 16 23 30 Thursday 4 11 18 25 call Roy Tekatch info, Rob Ann Attlesey Wednesday 3 10 17 24 31 observing Stewart 827-9105, 692-3245, 575-5433 For July 2002 Tuesday 2 9 16 23 30 Monday 1 8 15 22 29 Universe the Powassan Sunday to party Star Gateway