October 2013
President's Message October 2013
By Ed HaskellMembers may recall that I mentioned in a previous President's Letter the importance to Skyscrapers, Inc., of our outreach programs (aka star parties). These activities not only fulfill our statutory obligation as an educational corporation, but they are a major source of income to the Society. They are also a major drain on volunteer efforts.
Recently we suffered a very visible embarrassment at canceling a major star party for lack of available volunteers and telescopes. While this alone might stimulate this month's Letter it is just the most recent evidence of a growing problem that needs to be addressed.
The only thing we are all shorter of than money is time. For any of us to participate in a star party incurs one or both of these shortages. While we have been very fortunate in almost always finding a way to accommodate all requests from the public I have sensed that we are approaching the breaking point in our ability to continue as usual. Accordingly, the Board will take up the subject of how and when we provide access to the heavens to non-members. I put it that way because the subject is not limited to just star parties away from Seagrave but also Open Nights at the Observatory.
Let me raise some possible approaches to the solution of this problem and then I am going to ask for your help.
Bearing in mind that Members have finite resources to devote to this important activity perhaps we should do one or more of the following:
- Ration the number of public events we can “fund” and steer groups into combined star parties instead of private events.
- Set a lower limit on the size of attendance we will service.
- Insist that school districts combine requests to a single date involving multiple schools in one of their locations.
- Set a price on events rather than asking for a per capita donation.
- Formalize the process to include a set of guidelines which include timelines and expectations.
- Insist that smaller groups come to an Open Night at Seagrave rather than going to them.
- Devise ways to use technology to lower the “cost” (in time, effort, and number of Members) of putting on a Star Party.
I warned you that I was going to ask for your help. In the aggregate the Society must have several hundred years experience in interfacing with the public. Some of that experience certainly resides in the Board but surely more is in the readers of this Letter. Please take the time to write me with suggestions on how we can continue to meet all requests for outreach within the bounds of what we can manage to do. No idea is out of order. Even if what you suggest doesn't gain traction it might well stimulate another idea that would be a winner. My email address is haskell.ed@gmail.com. Please help.
Thanks for all you do for Skyscrapers.
Pomfret's Olmsted Observatory: From Manual to Robotic in Five Years
Josh LakeRelated Links
Imaging the ISS - It's easier than you think!
Bob HortonRecent Upgrades at Margaret M. Jacoby Observatory
Brendan BrittonRelated Links
The Amateur Astronomer's Equipment of the 1960s
Ed TurcoJoin Ed Turco, long-time Skyscraper member and master telescope maker, to remember the ‘good old days’ of amateur astronomy. Ed will have his telescopes and all sorts of goodies to show how astronomy was done in the 1960s, before the advent of electronic assistance.
Astrophotography on The Cheap
Scott MacNeillRecent advances in image processing and photographic technologies have made astrophotography readily available to the everyday backyard astronomer if they have the cash to throw down on the expensive equipment required, or so the myth goes. I will attempt to debunk this myth by introducing simple, low cost devices while discussing image capturing techniques and post-processing methodologies that will help make your astro/night photographs captivate the attention of your peers and the night photography community.
MEarth Project: Super-Earths Transiting Nearby Low Mass Stars as Laboratories for Exoplanetary Science
Zachory Berta-ThompsonExtrasolar planets that orbit and transit the closest, smallest, least massive stars in the Galaxy offer us a unique opportunity. These systems' favorable geometry allows us to observe the masses, radii, and atmospheres of super-Earth exoplanets using currently existing facilities. I will describe the MEarth Project, an ongoing survey to find these planets with a robotic array of moderate-aperture telescopes. MEarth has found one planet so far, the toasty super-Earth GJ1214b. I will present Hubble Space Telescope observations of GJ1214b's atmosphere that reveal interesting clues into this planet's enigmatically low density.
Related Links
The Best of all Worlds: Creating Unique Astronomical Images from Professional and Amateur Data Sources (with emphasis on the Hubble Legacy Archive)
Robert GendlerRobert Gendler will be signing copies of his new book: Lessons from the Masters: Current Concepts in Astronomical Image Processing during AstroAssembly.
MicroObservatory: Approaching Two Decades of Observing with a Network of Online Robotic Telescopes for Education and Outreach
Frank SienkiewiczMicroObservatory is a network of automated telescopes that can be controlled over the internet. The telescopes were developed by scientists and educators at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and were designed to enable youth nationwide to investigate the wonders of the deep sky from their classrooms or after-school centers. They are located and maintained at observatories affiliated with the Center for Astrophysics, including the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Smithsonian's Whipple Observatory in Amado, Arizona.
Related Links
Reception, Hors d'oeuvres served
Evening Banquet (pre-registration required)
Words of Welcome, Awards, and Raffle Prizes
A Preview of Seagrave Observatory's Centennial, 1914 to 2014
Dave HuestisThe Design, Construction and Use of a Large Private Research Observatory
Mario MottaDr. Mario Motta has been an amateur astronomer and friend of Skyscrapers for many decades. When he and his wife decided to build a house on the North Shore of Massachusetts, Mario decided an integral observatory was essential. In this talk he will describe the design and construction of the telescope and observatory. For years Mario has used the instrument to obtain spectacular deep sky images which he will share with us. However as President of the AAVSO he also uses the observatory for variable star research. Mario will describe the current variable star images he takes and will share ways amateurs can use AAVSOnet for their own variable star research. AAVSOnet is a network of remotely operated instruments which is used to obtain images used to determine brightnesses of variables and which can be used to report brightnesses to headquarters.
Related Links
Honorary Awards
Members' Night
10/26/2013
Samhain
: By Francine Jackson
Fly Me to the Moon
: By Mark Sweberg
