Roanoke Valley Astronomical Society · Karen, attending ALCON 2016 with her son and member...

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)


RVAS Executive Committee Member-at-Large Ray Bradley shares information on upcoming outreach activi-ties



mailto:[email protected]









http://rvasclub.org

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!]



Member Genevieve Goss describes two of the outreach kits the RVAS has received from the Night Sky Net-work for use at public activities.



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-



Astronomical League President and RVAS Member John Goss talks about this month’s deep sky object, the Patri-otic Star.



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.


RVAS Immediate Past President Michael Good offers part two of his talk on pursuing the “walk in space” view with giant binoculars.



https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RVAS_Club/info

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!


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.


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.


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 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



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]!



Roanoke Valley Astronomical Society · Karen, attending ALCON 2016 with her son and member...

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