July 3rd Picnic Meeting (below)
Meeting of Delmarva Star Gazers July 3, 2004
Purpose: To Prepare an Agenda for 2004-2005 Go-
Do's
(1) Establish an Observing Program for New Members with award certificates
To be monitored on a monthly basis - Minimum of 50 objects - arranged for
north-south meridian viewing at 9-12PM
Advanced to Messier & 400 finest NGC objects- need volunteers
(2) Use of and understanding star charts
Interpreting data from charts to finding the object in the sky - Plotting
comet's path against the background of stars -
SIG meeting once per quarter for a couple of hours
(3) Solar observing program
Sunspot count - Elevation of Sun per hour/day for a given period
of time
Sunrise and sunset position on the horizon for a period of time -
camera activity?
(4) Lunar observation program
Observe, list, and describe the terminator for a period of one cycle
(5) Photography SIG
Digital - Film
(6) Telescope Making SIG
(7) Community Outreach
(8) Comets
(9) Looking into the the Future of Amateur Astronomy
(10) NASA Programs
Outreach
The following letter was received by DMSG officers from JPL/ Nasa, inviting
our club to take advantage of free assistance in our Outreach efforts.
TO: Delmarva Stargazers,
As an amateur astronomy club dedicated to sharing astronomy with the public,
you are invited to apply for membership in the NASA Night Sky
Network, a
free program specifically designed for amateur astronomy clubs that puts
great resources right into
your hands.
The Night Sky Network opened in March of this year with over 175 astronomy
clubs nationwide as members. By the end of June, these clubs had
used the resources they received in more than 300 astronomy events reaching
over 30,000 people.
Clubs selected for membership will join this national coalition of amateur
astronomy clubs bringing astronomy and the excitement of NASA missions to
their communities. This is an opportunity for your club to:
* Enhance the public outreach you already do
* Encourage more of your members to participate in outreach
* Earn national recognition for your outreach efforts.
Members of the Night Sky Network receive free Outreach ToolKits of
materials to convey a variety of astronomy and space-related topics.
The program is supported by NASA and administered by the Astronomical Society
of the Pacific (ASP).
The program includes:
* Training in the use of Outreach ToolKit materials
* Opportunities to talk to real NASA scientists and engineers about the
latest research
* Access to a dedicated website for communicating with other Night Sky Network
members
The Outreach ToolKits, designed and tested y amateur astronomers, make it
easy for any interested amateur, of any experience level, to
enrich and expand their role in public star parties, club meeting presentations,
school visits, and youth or community group events.
Go to http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/ to get
more information and to find out how to apply. Your club must submit its
application before September 30, 2004
to be considered for this round of memberships. Membership is limited and
you are encouraged to apply as early as possible.
Help get the word out by distributing this to your other club members, to
club officers, and as an item for your next club meeting. Your webmaster
and newsletter editor may post this announcement as well.
We hope your club will become the first NASA Night Sky Network representative
in Delaware!
Clear skies,
Marni Berendsen Education Projects Coordinator
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
nightskyinfo@astrosociety.org
The Night Sky Network is sponsored and supported by JPL's PlanetQuest public
engagement program,
Propositions for Calendar Reform By Beth Hartung
Originally presented at Stargazers June Meeting
Every year, our calendar changes, so that June 1st, for example,
goes from Sunday to Tuesday to Wednesday.
Also, our calendar gains a day on the sun about every three thousand years.
Several suggestions for calendar reform have been made to solve these problems,
varying from rearranging month lengths to adding a
thirteenth month to changing the number of days per week.
Most of these suggestions involve fixing dates to days of the week and having
one or two days per year not in the week, and most change the
leap year system.
Our year is precisely 365.242 198 781 25 days or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes
45.9747 seconds long. To deal with the extra nearly six hours,
the Romans added leap months in the middle of February whenever the priests
felt it was necessary, which mutated into whenever the priests
liked the guy in office.
Julius Caesar stopped that and instituted the simplest of the leap-year
rules, to add one day every four years without fail.
Sixteen hundred years later, Pope Gregory XIII dropped the ten excess days
that had built up, then added the second of our current leap-year rules.
This rule dropped three days every four hundred years.
My first suggestion is an alteration of the leap year pattern. One rule
I’m adding is to drop one day every four thousand years, and another
is to drop one every twenty thousand. Come the time when another
day would be lost if the solar year stayed its current length, the solar year
will be
shorter, so further rules are unnecessary. However, the precession of the
equinoxes must be accounted for, so one day must be added or dropped every
seventy or seventy-one years alternately. I have two different suggestions
for correcting our rather awkward system of weeks and months.
Both involve changing the first day of the year to the Northern Hemisphere’s
winter solstice. The first of these two has twelve months to the year,
thirty or
thirty-one days alternately to the month, and ten or eleven days to the
week. The twelve month names are those of the gods and goddesses of the
Greek pantheon, in alphabetical order. The ten weekdays are *sday, where
* stands for Sun, Moon, or a planet, in order outward from the Sun with the
Moon where the Earth should be. Earthsday is the eleventh day of the week
in the even-numbered months, except for the twelfth month. The month named
Zeus only has a thirty-first day in leap years. Rest days would be Moonsday,
Neptunesday, Plutosday, and Earthsday.
My second suggestion involving the weeks and months has twenty-four “months”,
renamed “solaria”, fifteen or sixteen days to the solarium, and five
or six days to the week. The solaria are given the names of the letters
of the Greek alphabet. The days of the week are *sday, where * stands for
a
continent’s name, in descending order by area beginning with Eurasia. Antarcticasday
is the sixth day of the week in every fourth solarium, except for the twenty-fourth.
The solarium named Omega has a sixteenth day only in leap years. Rest days
would be Australiasday and Antarcticasday, and Africasday
would be half work half play.
From the President’s Desk...
Good morning! I hope you are enjoying this summer. So far, it
has been very interesting in our household and for Delmarva Star Gazers.
All we need to really ice the cake is a nice right comet. From my
memory, we have had success on Mars, a transit of Venus, and success in the
Saturn neighborhood. On the amateur home front we have established
our program for the coming year and we will roll out the plan at our September
meeting. This coming year should be the best year we have had.
How are your tomatoes? I certainly hope you have plenty of fresh
garden vegetables. Delawareans are very fortunate to have abundant truck
farming operations and the accompanying ‘Fresh Fruits & Vegetables’
fruit stands next door. Do something good for your health and partake
of
the Peninsula’s bounty often. The fresh, plentiful, and cheap corn,
lima beans, melons, squash, peppers, cukes, etc, that we take for granted
are
either non existent, very expensive or in limited quantities in many parts
of our country and the world. We are very fortunate!
Our weather has been very newsworthy; the 11.2 inches of rain Smyrna
received July 13 was ‘interesting’. For information, the first 11 inches
fell in less than 3.5 hours. Some one should calculate the increased
weight on the land created by an additional foot of water over each square
foot of
surface. I hope your neighborhood does not experience rain falling
that fast anytime soon.
We are soliciting your input for a potential ‘project’ for the mirror-making
weekend. Some of the ideas so far include a lensless schmidt camera,
a white-light solar scope, a tri-shiefspiegler, and various solar prominence
viewing scopes. If you have a suggestion please email or call
so we can discuss the details. Just remember we will have to complete
the project in one weekend and that the cost should be held to the $300-$400
range.
The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks August 12. The moon should not
be much of a problem since we will be in the last quarter of the lunar cycle.
You may
want to observe from the 11th thru the 13th to ensure you get at least one
night of viewing.
I am looking forward to some of those Canadian high pressure cold
weather fronts that usually come in early August. It is always refreshing
when
Mother Nature turns on her continental sized air conditioner removes the
Hazzey Hott and Hummid from thousands of square miles in just a matter of
hours. The resulting clear and transparent skies that follow make
stargazing a pleasure. Have you ever contemplated where all that HHH
and accompanying mosquitoes go? Is there a land in the East that suffers
from all the nasties Mother Nature removes from Delmarva when an
Alberta Clipper blows thru?
Enough for this month. Please continue to enjoy the summer.
Stay safe and
we will see you in September.
Don...
The Solar system in August -
P.J. Riley Venus rises about
3 ½ hours before the sun - great view, so get up early, get some coffee,
and go outside (work can wait).
Venus will reach it's greatest elongation on Aug 17th (46 deg. W).
The Perseid meteor shower peaks on early morning hours of Aug 12. This shower
is predicted to produce 90/hr, but may be higher due to meteors deflected
into
Earth's orbit by Jupiter (neat trick, huh?). This is a must see. The best
way to view is lay down and look up (easier on the neck).
If you miss this, the next BIG show won't be until Dec. 13th, The Geminids
(120/hr).
On Aug 28th Neptune is 5 deg. N of the Moon, thenext night, Uranus is 4
deg. N of the Moon. They might be hard to see, since the Moon
is full on the 30th. If you try to find these - be careful of the moonshine,
it can be bad for you.
July 3rd Picnic Meeting (below)
Sun and Moon Data for August 2004 Tuckahoe MD
38.98°N 75.93°W 5hrW Daylight Time Astronomical Twilight
Sun Moon
Date Twi. Rise Transit Set Twi. Rise Transit Set %
8/1/2004 4:19a 6:05a 1:10p 8:15p 10:00p 9:24p 1:43a 6:47a 99
8/2/2004 4:20a 6:06a 1:10p 8:14p 9:58p 9:54p 2:39a 8:03a 95
8/3/2004 4:22a 6:07a 1:10p 8:13p 9:57p 10:19p 3:29a 9:15a 89
8/4/2004 4:23a 6:08a 1:10p 8:11p 9:55p 10:43p 4:16a 10:23a 81
8/5/2004 4:24a 6:08a 1:10p 8:10p 9:54p 11:06p 5:01a 11:29a 72
8/6/2004 4:26a 6:09a 1:10p 8:09p 9:52p 11:31p 5:44a 12:32p 62
8/7/2004 4:27a 6:10a 1:09p 8:08p 9:51p 11:57p 6:28a 1:36p 52
8/8/2004 4:28a 6:11a 1:09p 8:07p 9:49p ***** 7:13a 2:38p 43
8/9/2004 4:30a 6:12a 1:09p 8:06p 9:47p 12:27a 7:59a 3:40p 34
8/10/2004 4:31a 6:13a 1:09p 8:04p 9:46p 1:03a 8:48a 4:39p 25
8/11/2004 4:33a 6:14a 1:09p 8:03p 9:44p 1:45a 9:38a 5:35p 17
8/12/2004 4:34a 6:15a 1:09p 8:02p 9:42p 2:34a 10:30a 6:24p 11
8/13/2004 4:35a 6:16a 1:08p 8:01p 9:41p 3:29a 11:21a 7:07p 6
8/14/2004 4:37a 6:17a 1:08p 7:59p 9:39p 4:30a 12:11p 7:43p 2
8/15/2004 4:38a 6:17a 1:08p 7:58p 9:37p 5:33a 12:59p 8:14p 0
8/16/2004 4:39a 6:18a 1:08p 7:57p 9:35p 6:37a 1:45p 8:41p 1
8/17/2004 4:40a 6:19a 1:08p 7:55p 9:34p 7:42a 2:29p 9:06p 3
8/18/2004 4:42a 6:20a 1:07p 7:54p 9:32p 8:46a 3:13p 9:29p 7
8/19/2004 4:43a 6:21a 1:07p 7:53p 9:30p 9:51a 3:56p 9:52p 13
8/20/2004 4:44a 6:22a 1:07p 7:51p 9:28p 10:57a 4:42p 10:17p 21
8/21/2004 4:46a 6:23a 1:07p 7:50p 9:27p 12:06p 5:29p 10:44p 31
8/22/2004 4:47a 6:24a 1:06p 7:48p 9:25p 1:17p 6:21p 11:18p 41
8/23/2004 4:48a 6:25a 1:06p 7:47p 9:23p 2:31p 7:18p 11:58p 53
8/24/2004 4:49a 6:26a 1:06p 7:46p 9:21p 3:44p 8:18p ***** 64
8/25/2004 4:51a 6:27a 1:06p 7:44p 9:20p 4:52p 9:22p 12:50a 75
8/26/2004 4:52a 6:27a 1:05p 7:43p 9:18p 5:52p 10:26p 1:52a 84
8/27/2004 4:53a 6:28a 1:05p 7:41p 9:16p 6:40p 11:27p 3:04a 92
8/28/2004 4:54a 6:29a 1:05p 7:40p 9:14p 7:19p ***** 4:21a 97
8/29/2004 4:56a 6:30a 1:04p 7:38p 9:12p 7:51p 12:24a 5:38a 100
8/30/2004 4:57a 6:31a 1:04p 7:37p 9:10p 8:19p 1:17a 6:52a 99
8/31/2004 4:58a 6:32a 1:04p 7:35p 9:09p 8:43p 2:05a 8:03a 97
