A L A C H U A A S T R O N O M Y C L U B

—JANUARY 1990 ALACHUA ASTRONOMY CLUB MEETS THE SECOND TUESDAY OF EACH MONTH AT THE DOYLE

CONNER BUILDING, S.W. 34th STREET & 20th AVENUE AT 7:30 PM. EVERYONE INTERESTED IN ASTRONOMY IS INVITED TO ATTEND. CALL ANDI1 VANN-JENSEN AT 475-1014, FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MEETINGS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES.

JANUARY'S PROGRAM

!

CELESTIAL NAVIGATION

by

LT. ROBERT MALOUIN. USN

WELCOME NEW (AND CONTINUING) CLUB OFFICERS!!! PRESIDENT Mark Cowan VICE PRESIDENT Jeff Majewski

SECRETARY Doris Andrew TREASURER Doug Richards

FIRSTLIGHT EDITOR is Chuck Broward, Andi Vann-Jensen is PROGRAM and PUBLICITY DIRECTOR, and GEORGE RUSSELL continues as KEEPER of the COFFEE POT, a most esteemed and honored position.

DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES

Yes, it is that time again....Club dues are a mere $12.00 a year...for this you receive twelve exciting club programs, numerous star parties, help and guidance with purchasing telescopes and astro-accoutrements, training and help with construction of optics, computer programs, and mounts, and the friendship of other Club members! In addition you become a member of the Astro-nomical League, a national organization of astronomers. SO, PAY NOW!!!!!!!! BRING YOUR DUES TO THE JANUARY MEETING, OR MAIL TO FIRSTLIGHT EDITOR, RT. 2, BOX 2915, MELROSE, FL. 32666. For additional information on the Club call Chuck or Andi at 475-1014.

ADOPT A SKY OBJECT...SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND! Find.the Pleiades and move North and West to Triangulum, then a bit more

vest to M33. Here lies a face-on galaxy as. big as the Moon! A naked-eye blur, a binocular fuzzball, a 8 inch intrigue...FIND A OBJECT AND SHARE IT! CALL A FRIEND..PICK JUST ONE OBJECT AND OBSERVE IT..AND LEARN SOMETHING UNIQUE!

HELP...LABELS NEEDED! Your Editor needs mailing labels...3 1/2 X 15/16 continuous feed, self stickum.

f

OPPS!t EDITORIAL GOOF!! Last month's basic program by Jan Sugalski "For Optimizing the Parabola of

a Telescope Mirror" contained a few errors...to wit, substitute the word "radius" for "diameter" in several of the print statements.

SOME EVENTS OF INTEREST...

January 20th. The Carolina Skygazers will host the Great Christmas Gift Show-off at the Museum of York County in Rock Hill, South Carolina. There will be an equipment display, swap table, and mirror-making demonstrations. Write to Leon Knott, 4621 Mt. Gallant Rd., Rock Hill, S. C. 29732, or call 803-329-2125.

January 25-28. The Southern Cross Astronomical Society will host its sixth annual Winter Star Party on Big Pine Key in the Florida Keys, the southern-most dark-sky site in the continental United States. Observe and photograph

the Southern Cross with its Coal Sack, the Eta Carinae region, and the globular cluster Omega Centauri. Registration is limited to 350 people. Send a self-addressed stamped long envelope to Tippy D'Auria, 1051 NW. 145th St., Miami, Fla. 33168, or call 305-685-6001.

March 22-25. The Tampa Area As-tronomy Society will hold its third an-nual Chiefland, Florida, Star ^arty in north-central Florida, one of the darkest areas in the Southeast. On-site camping1

is available. Write to John Novak, 9890 82nd St. N., Largo, Fla. 34647, or call 813-392-4669 or 904-493-9036.

May 20-28. The 12th annual Texas Star Party will be held at the Prude Ranch in Fort Davis, Texas, near the McDonald Observatory. This year's guest speakers will be Brian Marsden and Walter Scott Houston. Due to capac-ity crowds the past several years, registra-tion at the door will be discouraged by a $75 fee. Mail registration costs about $20. Write TSP Registrar, Dept. S, P. O. Box 386, Wylie, Tex. 75098.

May 25-28. The annual Riverside Tele-scope Makers Conference will happen as usual at Camp Oakes in Big Bear, Cali-fornia. Gates open at 1 p.m. on Friday the 25th. For reservations write to Cliff Holmes, 8642 Wells Ave., Riverside, Calif. 92503, or call 714-689-6893.

July 27-28. The Stellafane convention will take place on Breezy Hill in Spring-field, Vermont. Send a self-addressed stamped long envelope to Stellafane, 60 Victoria Rd., Sudbury, Mass. 01776.

ADDRESSES OF INTEREST... JERRYC0 INC

601 Linden Place Evanston, 111. 60202

ph 312 475-8440

Jerryco's catalog is fun! Lots of astro related goodies...well worth the postage!

KODAK "TECH BITS" (ISSUE #3, 1989) EASTMAN KODAK CO.

343 STATE ST. ROCHESTER N Y 14650-1123

Write "Editor, Techbits"...this issue is of special interest to amateur astronomers. Ask for subscription.

EDITOR'S NOTES Welcome to the new officers...Let us all help them make the Club something

special in North Florida! A special thanks to Charlie Tarjan...who pushed and shoved this organization through some shaky times!

DECEMBER'S MEETING was a festive gathering of Christmas Cooking and hot spiced cider...and numerous discussions concerning personal and group astro-activities. PLEASE COME to the January Meeting on the ninth! The Club has lots of activities planned for the coming year, and we want you to take part! Be prepared, by the way, to pay your dues for the coming year (only $12, and if you can't handle that, \ e can arrange special rates—e.g., student, retiree, etc.).

BET YOU ARE TIRED OF HEARING THIS... AND I AM TIRED OF SAYING IT! Everyone wants the FIRSTLITE but few either

comment on it or submit material for it!!! FIRSTLITE IS YOURS!!!! So share your talents, skills and knowledge with the rest of us. Mail, modem, or dictate material to your Editor...THANX! AND, WANT A STARPARTY!?! TAKE CONTROL AND START" ONE!! CALL CHUCK OR ANDI FOR DETAILS! (475-1014).

"First Light - The search for the End of the Universe" George Russell That's the title of a very interesting non-fictional book recently received as

a Christmas gift. The author is Richard Preston, a Princeton graduate with a Ph.D. in English and it is published by Penquin Books. This was a nice change from the number of books I've received over the years just dealing with telescope making. Non-fictional, inexpensive, 263 pages and is easily read. It deals with a group of men and women at work at "The Big Eye", a most amazing scientific instrument, the Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California.

It's the story of the intensive effort of trying to solve the riddle of the cre-ation of the universe by probing ever deeper into the vastness of space. All of us are aware of the vastness of space and have seen it expressed in various ways. Here's Preston's version: "Consider a sun the size of the dot over this "i". On that scale, the earth would bethe size of a one-celled organism,located about 2-inches away from the sun. On that same scale, the nearby star Proxima Centauri would be about 9 miles away and the center of the Milky Way would be about fifty thousand miles distant. If something were to happen to the earth, it would not be missed. Man is dispensable. "

Although I haven't finished reading it, I am particularly pleased at the kind of detail and thoroughness of Preston's approach to identifying those individuals that made the Hale Telescope possible and to those who developed the necessary instrumen-tation to make it do the things that great astronomers want to do. The book is writ-ten as if you were looking over the shoulders of key individuals and watching them do their stuff. I hope you get a chance to get your hands on a copy of this book and to enjoy it as much as I have.

Building Your Own Telescope - Rough Grinding George Russell As'-mentioned last time, the business of just getting started to build •:

your own telescope can be disturbing but once when one gets going things seem to move pretty fast. One of my delaying tactics was to set up a notebook specifically for telescope making. The intent was to set up a working schedule so that I could r always determine where I was in the grinding cycle. Before I got to writing down the simple schedule, I had written down quite a number of ideas suggested by different writers that could help me finish the project. These ideas were gleanings from the better known authors and an attempt was made to "distill" the best they had to offer.

Setting the disc (chosen to be the tool) on the base or grinding tool and lock-ing it into place with the wedge was no problem. A few light sprinkles of #80 grit from a salt shaker on the perimeter of the tool helped to indicate that the initial grinding was to take place on the outer edges to hasten the hollowing out of the mir-ror. A light sprinkling of water from the squeeze bottle and we were ready to grind.

The noise was not too great as the mirror moved back and forth over the edges of the tool but quite helpful in determining that grinding was actually taking place. Some of the books say that the water should go on first but I could not see any dif-ference. Besides, now that we were started we were not looking for any excuses to quit. The mirror blank was gripped with both hands and pressure applied, pushing the blank forward an inch or two and then pulling it back an inch or two past center.

After 6 to 8 strokes, I took a step to the left so that the mirror would move back and forth along a new chord of the tool and with each step to the left, I moved (turned) the mirror in the opposite direction (counter clockwise).

It's amazing how quickly #80 grit cuts. Although my hearing isn't all that great, you can easily tell when it's ready to recharge the tool with #80 grit. Replenishing the tool with more grit is called a "wet" when it is combined with the actual grinding process.

After about a half a dozen wets, I washed the tool and mirror in a bucket of wat-er handy at the working area. One of the books suggested placing the water bucket on a stack of newspapers an inch thick. A wet blank can easily slip out of your hands

^ and drop but can be cushioned if dropped in the bucket! You can readily check to see if things are going according to plan by the use of a straight edge of template.

After a couple of hours of grinding and checking with the template, I still did not have an acceptable curve; it's much too shallow. Perhaps I'm a bit too timid in attacking the glass. But of course, I now know what to do. I'm started and that for me means that 95 % of the job has been completed. See you next month and at the meet-ings.