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Roanoke Valley Astronomical
Society Amateur Astronomy News and Views
In Southwestern Virginia
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 1 of 12
Volume 33—Number 10 October 2016
A robust attendance of 30 members greeted Pres-
ident Dan Chrisman as he opened the monthly
meeting at 7:32 P.M. Acknowledging new member
Keith Wimmer and returning member Fred Davis
during “Who’s Here?”.
Dan moved right along to Observing reports. Dan
reported his recent observation ofM9 and M7
(Ptolemy’s Cluster), and that in spite of not yet
finishing the Messier 110 (only M34 remains), he
has begun observing the Herschel 400. Rand
Bowden said that he had observed about a dozen
more Messier objects, but he has not yet complet-
ed his Messier 110. They encouraged members to
join their observing sessions.
John Goss reported on his quest to observe about
100 Carbon Stars. Being cool and therefore dim,
Carbon Stars are tough to detect, but with only
three or four to go, successful completion of this
AL observing program is within sight.
Moving on to announcements of upcoming events,
Dan reminded the attendees of the upcoming Club
picnic on Saturday, October 1st at the Claytor
Nature Study Center. While we won’t have access
to the Belk Observatory, we’ll be set up at the
CNSC picnic area and should have plenty of room to
set up telescopes for night observing, (fingers
crossed), weather permitting.
Vice President Clem Elechi mentioned that a picnic
sign-up sheet was being passed around and folks
were asked to bring a salad, side dish or dessert to
(Meeting Continued on page 2)
RVAS September Meeting Notes
Anticipating Cool, Dark Autumn Nights By Bill Dillon, Secretary
RVAS Vice President Clem Elechi discusses the prepa-rations for our upcoming Annual Picnic and Star Party on Saturday, October 1st.
Photo by Carolyn Baratta
The Roanoke Valley Astronomical Society is a membership organization of amateur astronomers dedicated to the pursuit of observational
and photographic astronomical activities. Meetings are held at 7:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month. See calendar on last page
of newsletter for location. Meetings are open to the public. Observing sessions are held one or two weekends a month at a dark-sky site.
Yearly dues are: Individual, $20.00; Senior Individual, $18.00; Family, $25.00; Senior Family, $22.00; Student, $10.00. Articles, quotes,
etc. published in the newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the RVAS or its editor.
Officers/Executive Committee/Editor/Webmaster Dan Chrisman, President ([email protected] )
Clement Elechi, Vice President ([email protected])
Bill Dillon, Secretary ([email protected])
Larry Hill, Treasurer ([email protected])
Ray Bradley, Member at Large ([email protected])
Michael Good, Immediate Past President ([email protected])
Frank Baratta, Past President ([email protected])
David E. Thomas, RVAS Newsletter Editor ([email protected])
David E. Thomas, Webmaster ([email protected])
RVAS web page: http://rvasclub.org
share. The Club will be providing burgers, hotdogs,
buns, condiments and soft drinks. Door Prizes will
be provided. An email will be forthcoming with di-
rections to the Center.
Ray Bradley then reported on several outreach
opportunities available to members:
1. The Virginia Tech Science Festival in Blacks-
burg, in association with the Science Museum of
Western Virginia, will take place on Saturday, Oc-
tober 8th from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. The RVAS will
have an activity table at the event. Members are
encouraged to contact Ray Bradley for information
and to volunteer to assist with the event.
2. On Saturday, September 24thfrom 7 P.M. until
midnight, Blue Ridge Vineyards will sponsor a wine
tasting with star gazing. Attendees were encour-
aged to contact John Goss if they plan to attend
this event, which includes music by the Stone Can-
yon Band and free entry if you bring your scope.
3. The Virginia Mountain Vineyards will be holding
their annual “Wine, Moon and Stars” event on Fri-
day, October 7thfrom 7 P.M. to midnight and has
invited RVASers to bring telescopes for free entry.
Again, contact John Goss for this event.
4. The last outreach event mentioned by Ray was
the Mountain View Elementary PTA STEM night
on Tuesday, October 11thfrom 6 to 8 P.M. Ray wel-
comed assistance with this outreach event.
Dan then moved the meeting to an update of VAAS
2016 to be hosted by RVAS and taking place on
Saturday, October 29th at Roanoke College. He
reported to be working with the College on conven-
ient parking and plentiful morning and afternoon
snacks.
(Meeting Continued from page 1)
(Meeting Continued on page 3)
RVAS Executive Committee Member-at-Large Ray Bradley shares information on upcoming outreach activi-ties
Photo by Carolyn Baratta
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 2 of 12
The Marketing Team led by Frank Baratta has
added a solar observing session during the confer-
ence with the assistance of Mark Hodges. Mem-
bers are encouraged to assist with this activity
which will take place, weather permitting, during
the lunch break. Dan encouraged members to pre-
register online, and to let him know of any registra-
tion problems.
Secretary Bill Dillon acknowledged having received
a donation from Celestron of Skymaster 15x70
binoculars as a door prize. He reports that he con-
tinues to work on obtaining more door prizes. Dan
thanked Dave Thomas for his extraordinary work
in setting up the conference pre-registration web-
site.
Dan then introduced Genevieve Goss to speak to
the Club about the Night Sky Network, of which
she is a coordinator for our club. The Night Sky
Network, sponsored by NASA in conjunction with
JPL and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific,
provides assistance, information and presentation
kits for speakers and outreach activities.
Genevieve displayed and explained the contents of
two of the kits, and encouraged members to take
advantage of them, especially for astronomy out-
reach activities. The website is http://
www.nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov .
A lookback to ALCON 2016 was next on the agenda
with slides presented by both Dan and member
Karen Moses. Dan focused primarily on slides of
conference speakers including Astronomical League
President and RVAS member, our own John Goss,
former astronaut Dr. Thomas David Jones, and
the conference keynote speaker, NASA Director
Major General Charles Bolden (USMC-retired).
Dan also shared pictures he took of the U.S. Na-
val Observatory’s 26-inch Clark refractor.
Karen, attending ALCON 2016 with her son and
member Nathanael, had the opportunity to tour
the Goddard Space Flight Center and shared her
experience and pictures with the Club. One of the
first pictures Karen showed was of the under-
construction James Webb Space Telescope, the
planned successor to Hubble. The slide clearly
demonstrated both the enormous size and complex-
ity of the JWST. Another slide pictured the
“largest clean-room in the U.S.”
Scheduled for launch in October of 2018, the $8
billion JWST had better work right the first time
as it will be placed near the L2 (Lagrange) point,
approximately 1.9 million Km from Earth, too far
for any possible servicing mission. There will be
many fingers crossed in the 20 participating coun-
tries as the Ariane 5 ECA rocket carrying the
JWST lifts off from the European Space Port
near Kourou, French Guiana in October of 2018.
[Post-meeting addendum: As a complement to Karen
Moses’ presentation, Ray Bradley suggests a
James Webb Space Telescope Book from NASA
at http://hubblesite.org/ebooks/. This resource is
99 illustrated pages (100MB) that explains the tel-
escope’s capability, construction, mission, and much
more. It just went to the top of Ray’s reading list!]
(Meeting Continued from page 2)
(Meeting Continued on page 4)
Member Genevieve Goss describes two of the outreach kits the RVAS has received from the Night Sky Net-work for use at public activities.
Photo by Carolyn Baratta
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 3 of 12
Dan next introduced Frank Baratta for his
“What’s Up”, highlighting the near and deep sky
for October, 2016. In Frank’s words, “Darkness
descends on the cooling nights of October with the
Milky Way and the constellation Cygnus, the
Swan, passing high overhead, followed later by the
Great Square of Pegasus, fall’s signature asterism.
Planet-wise Venus, Saturn, Mars, Uranus and
Neptune are all in the evening sky, though the first
two set early. It’s also a time of minor and weak,
but sometimes surprising, meteor showers.”
Full darkness in our viewing area comes at 8:29 p.m.
on October 1st and 7:51 p.m. on October 31st, with
the sky dark enough for observing about a half
hour before this.
October’s New Moon comes on October 30th of-
fering potentially good viewing for our 2016 VAAS
conference observing at Cahas Knob Overlook
(weather permitting) on October 29th.
October’s celestial events include both the Draco-
nid and Orionid meteor showers. The Draconids,
appearing Friday October 7th, while usually weak
are highly variable (0 to storm), and the Orionids
expected to make their appearance on Friday the
21st appear best in the pre-dawn hours, but a wan-
ing gibbous Moon will interfere this year.
Looking at the overall night sky, by the 16th of the
month at 7:45 p.m. the Milky Way will appear not
much moved from a month before tracing a line
from northeast to southwest. With Deneb nearly
directly overhead and Mars low in the southern sky,
the Great Square of Pegasus rises in the east fol-
lowed by Uranus, while Arcturus, Venus, Saturn
and Antares begin to set in the west. With cool
nights and earlier dark skies October certainly of-
fers pleasant observing opportunities.
As always, Frank’s “What’s Up” presentations can
be found on the RVAS website under “Tips and
Topics” or at http://www.rvasclub.org/page23.htm.
Next on the agenda was “Where’s That” where
John Goss presented his “Deep Sky Object of the
Month”. His observing challenge this month is the
Patriotic Star-30, 31 and C Cygni. These three
stars though not directly adjacent in space to each
other, appear to be so by line of sight. John’s di-
rections for finding this patriotic grouping, so
named due to their coloring (in the eyepiece 31
Cygni appears orange-red, 30 Cygni appears white
and C Cygni appears blue), can be found elsewhere
in the October Newsletter.
The last presentation of the evening was made by
Immediate Past President Michael Good. When
the Club met in August, Michael spoke of “walking
in space” with his 100 mm APM Binocular Tele-
scope. At the time he was awaiting delivery of some
very special (read “expensive”) eyepieces for this
scope. Promising to bring his binoculars and eye-
pieces to the next meeting, Michael did so at this
meeting. The binoculars themselves are massive
(about 15 pounds) and impressive. The somewhat
globular shaped eyepieces were equally as impres-
(Meeting Continued from page 3)
(Meeting Continued on page 5)
Astronomical League President and RVAS Member John Goss talks about this month’s deep sky object, the Patri-otic Star.
Photo by Carolyn Baratta
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 4 of 12
Get Connected!
Want to be more in touch with other RVAS members? Join the RVAS Yahoo Group! Share last-minute
observing plans, articles, ideas, astrophotos—you name it. You’ll need to have or create a Yahoo email ad-
dress. Click the link below. Once logged in, provide the information requested, including your real name
since the group is only for members and those invited. You’ll receive an acknowledgement from the moder-
ator.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RVAS_Club/info
For assistance, call the RVAS Message Line (540-774-5651). We’ll have you connected in no time!
sive. With this equipment at hand, Michael is work-
ing on achieving that “walk in space”.
Dan then began to bring the meeting to a close
with “And What’s More…”, showing slides taken at
a recent Richmond Astronomy Society meeting
where they discussed the question of a flat or a
curved Universe. He continued with the slides
showing a few of the local fauna (bears!) at one of
the typical observing sites near his house; the LiTel
workshop #2; and RVAS outreach at the Banff
Radical Reels , with Ray Bradley, John and Gene-
vieve Goss, and himself.
Dan concluded the meeting with “What’s Next”,
reminding everyone of our upcoming activities and
outreach events previously mentioned in this report
including our Club picnic on October 1st(which
takes the place of our October monthly meeting)
and VAAS 2016 on October 29th. Our next regu-
lar meeting is scheduled for November 21st with
our Winter Solstice Social on December 19th.
With no further business to bring before the mem-
bership, Dan closed the meeting at 8:58 p.m.
(Meeting Continued from page 4)
RVAS Immediate Past President Michael Good offers part two of his talk on pursuing the “walk in space” view with giant binoculars.
Photo by Carolyn Baratta
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 5 of 12
Are You Receiving Your Newsletters
and Other Club Emails? To save having to download newsletters from our website, these and other items of interest are emailed
to members. If you have not been receiving these items by email, please let us know by calling the RVAS
Message Line at 540-774-5651. Please also check whether your spam blocker is intercepting our emails.
WELCOME MAT
The Society bids a warm and cordial welcome (back!) to Keith Wimmer, of Copper Hill. Keith rejoined at the
August meeting after what likely will stand forever as the record for a previous member’s hiatus: 37 years!
A Danville native, he was a Radford University graduate who remained in that area when first an RVAS mem-
ber from 1984 to 1989. He was teaching in the Pulaski County Schools around this time and taking people to
the schools’ observatory in Dublin for views through its 12-inch reflector, the building and instrument a be-
quest from a local amateur telescope maker. Two more decades as a Library Media Specialist followed—
which, he confides, was “more teaching than library work”—in Virginia and Tennessee. Now retired, Keith
recalls how as a child in 1965 the TV program “Lost in Space” first drew his and some of his friends’ atten-
tion to the stars, and getting his first telescope, a 2-1/4” Sears refractor. By the time he’d graduated from
high school he’d also “graduated” to an 8” Newtonian, and was trekking from Danville to rural areas for bet-
ter observing. These days, Keith relies on his 12” Dobsonian for his stargazing, as he enjoys the rural skies
of Floyd County.
Keith, it’s good to have you back in the area and in the club! You’ll have ample opportunities to participate in
our activities, and we’re glad to hear about your interest in our school and other public outreach. And, who
knows, connecting with members in our Yahoo Group might even help you with that 1974 8” SCT you’re trying
to resurrect!
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 6 of 12
Member Activities
Outreach at the Get Outside Expo An Adventure with the Four STEMateers
By Ray Bradley and Dan Chrisman
Like an apple falling from a tree, outreach opportu-
nities sometimes come unexpectedly. Astronomer
Isaac Newton did not ignore the apple. Neither did
Ray Bradley, Genevieve and John Goss and Dan
Chrisman ignore a Sunday, September 11th outreach
opportunity. Out of the blue, “a little birdy told us”
about this opportunity (actually a pair of local ama-
teur ornithologists told us). Maxine Fraade and
her husband (retired physicist and RVAS member
George Blanar) are members of the Roanoke Valley
Bird Club. An RVBC board member, she organized
her club’s participation in the Get Outside Exposi-
tion which preceded the Banff Radical Reels movies
shown at the Jefferson Center. Not only an excel-
lent event for birders, they thought that this
event might be a good opportunity for us as well.
Reminiscent of Tinkers to Evers to Chance, their
idea was passed along: Maxine to George to Frank
to Dan to Ray. Increasingly outreach-focused Ray
assessed the event, learning of the unique potential
audience. That is, how often does our audience in-
clude “Muddy Squirrel” and “Girls on the Run”?
After an email and phone call to Julia Boas of the
host organization, the Roanoke Outside Foundation,
RVAS was registered to participate in this two-
hour exposition alongside local groups such as Prim-
itive Trails, Girls on the Run, Clean Valley Council,
Roanoke County Parks and Recreation, Muddy
Squirrel, Roanoke Mountain Adventures, Roanoke
Ski Club, Wingman Outfitter, Deschutes Brewery
and the Roanoke Chapter of the International
Mountain Bicycling Association.
The real challenge came next. The focus of the
three hours of Banff Radical Reels movies was EX-
TREME mountain sports. Knowing that the audi-
ence would very different from the elementary
school students of past outreach programs, what
could we do with only an 8-foot-long space to cap-
ture the attention of outdoor adrenaline junkies?
Two winning strategies immediately come to mind:
One: Get them excited about the night sky while
showing off some cool gear.
Two: Expand into any vacated contiguous table
space to give the audience even more!
(Expo Continued on page 8)
Maxine Fraade describes birding opportunities while George Blanar looks on.
Photo by author.
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 7 of 12
Out went the call to members for volunteers,
props, and activities.
Our pitch to these outdoor adventurers was rela-
tively easy. “What better opportunity is there to
look up at the night sky than after a hard day in
the mountains away from city lights?”
At one end of our exhibit, Genevieve and John gen-
erated astronomical “awe factor” by using compo-
nents of Night Sky Network kits. The hands-on
demonstration of the scaled distance between the
earth and moon consistently surprised the partici-
pants. From her black bag of magic, Genevieve
withdrew meteorites and meteor-wrongs, then
highlighted the optical and tactile characteristics
that distinguish them. A large photograph of the
moon provided a third focus for the astronomically
curious.
At the other end of our exhibit, Ray enticed the
crowd with portable astronomy gear. A Burgess
70mm Maksutov spotting scope was mounted on a
small tripod with a pair of 16x50 binoculars nearby,
both which would fit nicely in a backpack. He also
demonstrated the astronomical laptop software
Stellarium to show how one can learn to navigate
the night sky. A VAAS 2016 poster and associated
flyers, a map for our Blue Ridge Parks and Recrea-
tion observing program, and a RVAS membership
signup sheet completed his footprint.
Sandwiched in between was our illustrious presi-
dent Dan, complementing Ray’s astronomy gear
portability theme with two iPads and an iPhone 6, all
executing the Sky Safari app. He also touted the
region’s Library Telescope loaner program.
(Expo Continued from page 7)
(Expo Continued on page 9)
Genevieve and John Goss utilize a moon photo during outreach.
Photo by author.
Ray uses his hands to describe Field of View to a visitor.
Photo by author.
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 8 of 12
Use Our Message Line!
Want to check whether anyone is getting out on a scheduled observing session night or share that you’re
planning to do so? Have questions about the club or need its assistance? Call the RVAS Message Line,
540-774-5651, and leave a message or listen for any information available.
Thirty minutes into the event and following the
precedent set by Rand Bowden, John comman-
deered an adjacent table, it’s exhibitor a “no show”.
Having successfully implemented both strategies,
our two-hour outreach proceeded STEMingly.
The highlight of the outreach for Dan was listening
to a fellow share a story:
“I went up to a Parkway overlook to see the Perseid
meteor shower and there happened to be a guy al-
ready up there, telling folks about the shower.” Dan
suggested the guy’s name and the fellow replied
“Yes, that was his name”. So “Good job! Mark
Hodges, thanks for representing our club!”
In all, we had several dozen visitors of all ages
through our exhibit; some from as far away as Ja-
pan and Canada, making the Expo a truly interna-
tional, multigenerational event. Many flyers were
distributed and we all but exhausted our pile of
Baratta-inspired RVAS Outreach business cards.
Perhaps the most productive aspect of the after-
noon, though, was making another network connec-
tion in the community. The Roanoke Outside Foun-
dation which hosted this event also runs the much
larger mid-October Roanoke GO Fest which draws
about 25,000 attendees over a three-day event.
Though too late for this year, RVAS is on the list
of participants for next year. It is never too early
to start preparing for an upcoming event.
(Continued from page 8)
With John having commandeered an adjacent table, Genevieve displays a map of cumulative meteorite strikes to an amazed young family.
Photo by author.
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 9 of 12
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 10 of 12
RVAS 25 Years Ago
In October 1991 our members were looking for-
ward to the appearance of the Draconids and Ori-
onids meteor showers expected to peak on October
8th and October 22nd respectively. Prospects for an
excellent display from either were limited, so some
were already looking forward to the November Leo-
nids.
Beginning observers were offered several night-sky
navigation aids in our Newsletter article, “Finding
Your Way Around The Sky”, including Edmund Sci-
entific’s “Mag 6 Star Atlas”, Peterson’s “Field
Guide to the Stars and Planets”, and Wil Tirion’s
“Sky Atlas 2000.0” published by Sky Publishing
Corporation. The article’s consensus was that,
“Except for absolute beginners, the Mag 6 Star
Atlas, or one comparable, will help develop skills
without confusing the sky.”
At the September monthly meeting members
shared highlights of summer activities. The June
picnic was reported to be a success in spite of the
triple planetary conjunction being “clouded out” (no
kidding!). In July Mark Hodges, Vince Talley and
Reed Thompson traveled to Hawaii and Gary Close
to Mexico for a total solar eclipse. Sadly, all were
clouded-out during totality. But all was not lost as,
“Mark noted that Hawaii was beautiful.
RVAS 10 Years Ago
An intriguing and insightful article authored by
John Goss headlines the Newsletter for October
2006. In the article titled, “Postmodernism Meets
Modern Astronomy” John describes the often false
impressions of a small and colorful universe made
by most Space artist renderings, whereas those of
us having spent hours at the eyepiece know, “We
live in a dark universe.” What we can see of deep
space with the naked eye in our viewing area, such
as M31 the Andromeda Galaxy is often nothing
more than specks or smudges of light of varying
intensity. Enhancing that view with 10x50 binocu-
lars improves the apparent angular size and bright-
ness and therefore the view of M31 by magnifying
it so that it “appears” only 290,000 light years
away rather than its actual 2.9 million light years
distance. Unfortunately, even with the aid of binoc-
ulars, and even moderately large telescopes, from
our view M31, indeed most deep sky objects will not
likely become impressive candidates for Space Art.
RVAS from the Past
By Bill Dillon
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 11 of 12
Monthly Calendar
MONTHLY MEETING: Annual Picnic and Star Party for RVAS Members and Their Families, Saturday,
October 1st, 3:00 p.m. until ???, Claytor Nature Study Center, Bedford, VA. It’s our annual Society
bash for our members and their families, which takes the place of our regular monthly meeting. (Monthly
meetings resume Monday, November 21st.) The Society is providing the burgers and hot dogs and the fixin’s,
along with beverages and the tableware. Members are asked to bring a salad, side dish or dessert, and serv-
ing utensils. We’ll have door prizes, maybe a game or program, and solar and night sky observing, weather
permitting. It’s an afternoon and evening of food, fun and friends. Don’t miss it!
RVAS WEEKEND OBSERVING OPPORTUNITIES: RVAS members observe from various sites. Cahas Knob
Overlook, at milepost 139 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, is the traditional location most frequented. For updates
on members’ observing plans, log onto the RVAS Yahoo Group (RVAS members only) and/or call the RVAS
Message Line, 540-774-5651, about an hour before sunset on the indicated dates.
-- Friday and Saturday, October 21st and 22nd. Sunset is at 6:34 p.m. Astronomical twilight ends at 8:01
p.m. The Moon rises at 11:48 p.m. and 12:48 a.m., respectively.
-- Friday and Saturday, October 28th and 29th. Sunset is at 6:26 p.m. Astronomical twilight ends at 7:54
p.m. The Moon sets at 5:41 and 6:12 p.m., respectively. (Note: October 29th is the 2016 VAAS Conference,
hosted by the RVAS and Roanoke College, with evening observing at Cahas Knob Overlook, weather per-
mitting.)
-- Future Sessions: November 18th and 19th; November 25th and 26th.
ROANOKE CITY PARKS and RECREATION PUBLIC STARGAZE: Saturday, October 22nd, 7:15 p.m.,
Cahas Knob Overlook, milepost 139, Blue Ridge Parkway. Nonmembers must register with Parks & Rec. at
540-853-2236. Members can call 540-774-5651 for information. (Next session: November 19th, 5:45 p.m.,
Cahas Knob Overlook, milepost 139, Blue Ridge Parkway.)
Astro-Quiz
Straddling the 18th and 19th centuries, this French physicist is most commonly remembered for his lens used
in lighthouses and projectors. But his work on diffraction helped explain why telescopes cannot capture a
perfect pinpoint star image. Who was this French physicist?
Answer to Last Month’s Quiz: It’s well known that of the 88 recognized constellations, Crux, the Southern
Cross, covers the least amount of the sky within its borders. Last month we asked which constellation is
most nearly the average size. The 88 constellations fill the imaginary surface of the imaginary Celestial
Sphere surrounding Earth. That surface is equal to 41,253 square degrees. (A sphere’s surface is given by
the formula 4πr2, where r is 360/2π. I’ll leave it you to reason out why r equals that!) So, the average con-
stellation is 41,253/88 or a tad more than 469 square degrees, which is almost exactly the amount of sky
within the borders of the constellation Phoenix. Have an answer to this month’s quiz (or a future question
and answer to suggest)? E-mail it to [email protected]!
RVAS NL— October 2016— Pg 12 of 12