Hamilton Amateur Astronomers September 2001 Volume 8 Issue 10 Product Review: Scopetronix Digi-T Digital Camera Adapter R adapter was mentioned in the filter threads and then the cam- emarkably clear pic- photo credits of some digital era/adapter is screwed onto the tures are possible by pictures appearing recently in eyepiece/adapter. simply hand-holding a digital the astronomy magazines and camera to the eyepiece of your we ordered one for our Nikon The unit is nicely made and favourite telescope. Ensuring Coolpix 950. everything fits together nice that the camera is square to the and snug. However, because eyepiece can be frustrating, When the Digi-T arrived, we we are somewhat paranoid, we though. It also takes a gymnast discovered that none of our also used a separate bracket to to hold the camera still while eyepieces would work with it hold the camera to the scope as accessing the shutter, aperture ­ all of them are 10 years and a precaution. This precaution and timer modes for the pic- older, so they don't feature the was quite unnecessary, but be- ture! rubber eyecup that the new cause we already had the other eyepieces have. We solved the bracket, we thought we'd use There are a number of adapters problem by buying a suitable it just to be on the safe side. new to the market that are eyepiece. (Meade Super Plossl designed to hold a digital cam- (series 4000)) After using the Digi-T, we era firmly to an eyepiece. heartily recommend it to any- Scopetronix' new adapter con- The eyepiece part of the one interested in digital pho- sists of two parts ­ one is a adapter slips into the groove in tography! It is available ring that fastens to where the the eyepiece that is left when through Scopetronix' website: rubber eyecup would normally you remove the rubber eyecup. www.scopetronix.com. be on the eyepiece; the other A set screw holds it securely in part is threaded to mate with place. Ann Tekatch the filter threads on your digi- tal camera (not all digital cam- The part of the Digi-T that eras have such threads ­ check attaches to the digital camera your camera's manual). This screws into the camera lens' inside... New Options page 2 Astrophotography page 5 25 Fun Sights page 3 Spectroscopy page 7 Product Review page 4 October Night Skies page 9 Page 2 Event Horizon - New Event Horizon - New Options for Delivery Options for Delivery what you wish to save in hard- copy - you will help to keep our EE vent Horizon is a publication of the Hamilton Amateur T T he HAA has always membership fees low Astronomers (HAA). prided itself as being "affordable". Not too surpris- - there is no hard page limit The HAA is an amateur astronomy ingly, one of the major costs in (due to mailing costs) for an club dedicated to the promotion and our yearly budget is mailing expanded EH which might be enjoyment of astronomy for people of warranted before or after all ages and experience levels issues of our newsletter, Event Horizon, to our members. In special astronomical events The cost of the subscription is very rough terms, every Event - it might even be environmen- included in the $25 individual or $30 Horizon which we put in the tally friendly! family membership fee for the year. mail costs $1. Event Horizon is published a If you have a very slow dial-up minimum of 10 times a year. Many, but not all, of our mem- connection, then you may wish to continue to receive Event HAA Council bers have access to the Inter- Hon. Chair Jim Winger net. If a fraction of our mem- Horizon's by Canada Post. Chair Marg Walton bers who currently receive pa- During the last two years, PDF Second Chair Grant Dixon per copies elects to receive versions of Event Horizon Secretary Stewart Attlesey have varied between 125 and Treasurer Barbara Wight their Event Horizon's by e-mail 480 kilobytes. We will make Obs. Dir Bret Culver as a PDF (Portable Document Publicity Doug Black Format) file, we can dramati- every effort to keep the size of Editor Rosa Assalone cally lower our mailing costs. the PDF files as small as possi- Membership Dir. Ann Tekatch The usual PDF reader, called ble, but you should judge your HAJA Coord Rosa Assalone Adobe Acrobat, is available patience with e-mail down- loads accordingly! Councillors free of charge as a standalone Ray Badgerow program and it also contains Sheila Overall free "plugins" for the most If you interested in participat- Doug Welch popular Web browsers. ing in this new trial, please send an e-mail to Ann Tekatch Web Site at: tekatch@sympatico.ca http://amateurastronomy.org/ There are a number of advan- tages to receiving the PDF ver- You can switch back to the Mailing Address "snail mail" version of the- PO Box 65578 Dundas, ON L9H 6Y6 sion: newsletter at any time. - they will arrive more quickly - they can include colour Marg Walton and Doug - you can receive them when Welch you are away from home, but still have access to your e-mail - you can elect to print only Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 3 25 Fun Sights On The Moon For New Lunatics by: Don M. Fox from a dis- some great example of ius, located to the extreme cussion on America On- rilles on the floor of the south. Try to count the line's Astronomy Forum crater. number of interior craters/ 4. Day 5 reveals Posido- OO nius, another fine crater 9. Tycho, just north of Clav- nestled up on the west ius. Observe it near the K.... Here we go. shore of Mare Sernitatis. terminator for detail of the 1. Naked eye, bi- crater itself, and then watch nos, or telescope 5. Throughout the first 7 the ray system unveil itself for the first or second day days of the lunation, closely during subsequent nights. Moon.... not much detail observe the floor of all the visible due to the low alti- Mare for signs of the 10. Aristotle's and Exodus, tude above the horizon, but ribbon-like wrinkle ridges. a pair of craters that serve catch the earthshine effect, They have their best ap- as the gateway towards the especially on Day 2. pearance when near the prominent crater Plato. terminator. 2. On day three, Mare 11. The Vales Pales ... just Crisum steals the show. It 6. Theophilus, on the NW west of Aristotle's, and per- measures appx. 280 miles shore of Mare Nectaris, is haps the best example of a N to S and 350 miles E to almost a perfect crater. It valley on the moon. W (it doesn't appear that measure 65 miles across. it way due to foreshortening, has multiple central peaks 12. Plato. Great example of however .... in fact, it looks that are very interesting, a dark floored crater. Try to just the reverse ... i.e., and good detail can be ob- observe the e very small longer from N to S). This is served inside the crater rim. craterlets on the floor (my probably the best example experience is that they are of a lunar object that will Many great objects come easiest to see under higher teach someone what the into play on days 8 - 10: lighting, not the day when effect of foreshortening is the crater is closest to the like. Most of the interesting 7. The prominent trio of terminator). detail in Mare Crisium is craters Arzachel, nestled along the western Alphonuss, and Ptole- 13. The Appenine moun- portion, where there are maeus, stretching adjacent tains, the best mountain some nice craterlets and to each other from south to range on the Moon for ob- mountains. north, respectively. it is servation. most interesting to note the 3. A nice large crater ( differences in structure and 14. Eratosthenes, which about 100 miles in diame- apparent age of the three lies directly at the west tip ter) on day 3 and 4 is craters. of the Appenines. Petavius, located south of Mare Crisium. There are 8. The mighty crater Clav- (Continued on page 6) Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 4 Cosmology Discussion Group Presents: The Analysis of Eclips- ing Binaries Containing Cepheid Variables. Graduate student Dave Lepischak will do our presentation. It has been called the "Rosetta Stone" of variable star research: a cepheid variable star which is a member of an eclipsing binary system. Such a system would allow the first direct measure- ments of a Cepheid's stellar prop- erties, such as mass and change in radius, improving both our under- standing of stars' internal struc- ture and our ability to measure distance in the universe. Dave will discuss the difficulties Here is a photograph of the summer encountered and the results ob- Milky Way taken by Bill and I from Silent tained from the first analysis of Lake Provincial Park on Aug.21/90. The several systems explifying this photo was taken using a Pentax K1000 rare coincidence of disparate camera, 50mm lens @ f/2 on Ektar 1000 types of stellar variability, film. The camera was piggybacked on The meeting will be held: an equatorial mount and the exposure Saturday, September 29th, 2001, was 3 minutes. 8pm in McMaster's Burke Sci- ence Building, Room B148. Re- Ann Tekatch freshments will be provided. We welcome our members to bring a small entree. Everyone welcome, open discussion. For further in- formation, call Larry at (905) 529-1037. Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 5 Here is a photo of the full moon that Bill and I took using a Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera on September 2/01. The image was shot through a 4" f/6 refractor using a 26 mm plossl eyepiece and Scopetronix' Digi-T digital camera adapter. Shutter speed was determined by the cam- era. Ann Tekatch Here is a photo of Mare Tranquillitatis (dark area left of centre) and Mare Sereni- tatis (dark area to the right and below centre) that Bill and I took with the Nikon Coolpix 950 using the same setup as used for the full moon, but inserting a 2.5x barlow between the 26mm plossl eyepiece and 4" f/6 refractor. Ann Tekatch Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 6 Fun Sights... (Continued from page 3) 15. The great crater Coper- 22. Crater Gassendi, on the nicus, just WSW of Eratos- north shore of Mare Humo- thenes. the classic lunar rum. One of my favorites. crater. Don't miss the multi- Study the interior closely, tude of craterlets surround- and observe the fractures Leonid news ing Copernicus. rim. 16. Sinus Iridium, encircled 23. If the seeing and trans- Analysis of 2000 Leonid by the Jura mountains. On parency is good, return to shower observations by Pe- day 10, the mountain ring Copernicus under high illu- ter Jenniskens of the SETI stands out alone past the mination to study the ray Institute at NASA Ames Re- terminator like a huge coat system. It is chock full of search Center confirm that hanger. details and rich in texture. the pattern of dust trails is slightly shifted towards the 17. Archimedes, south of 24. Throughout the luna- Sun compared to calcula- Plato. Great light and dark tion, study the lunar limb. tions by Esko Lyytinen and streaks on the floor. Note the mountains in their David Asher. This is good profile view. Also, observe news for observers in North- 18. Timocharis ... a smaller craters near the limb, as ern America, because peak crater west of Archimedes they will appear like you are rates are now predicted to be that is worth high power looking at them more from the same as during the 1999 viewing. a surface elevation. It is an Leonid storm at ZHR = 4,200 interesting effect. per hour. That is 50 times the Moving on to the final four best Perseid shower in sum- days of the waxing moon.... 25. And finally, if the libra- mer. The storm is visible in tion is favorable, try to ob- all of the continental USA, 19. Aristarchus ... brightest serve Mare Orientale on with best rates on the East crater on the Moon. Look the western limb at Full coast, on a saturday night in for the bright radial mark- Moon. moonless conditions. The ings on the interior walls. meteors are expected to be That's my top 25. Hope this slightly brighter on average 20. Schroters Valley, a helps! compared to the 1999 storm, winding complex system di- which implies that the view rectly adjacent to One of the best simple from aircraft will be the Aristarchus. Moon maps is in the Ed- equivalent of ZHR = 17,000- mund Scientific Mag 5 Star 21,000 per hour. 21. Crater Kepler, just west Atlas http://www.edsci.com/ of Copernicus. Another A more detailed, but still very bright ray source, but easy to use Moon map, is in a smaller crater. Worth high the Peterson Field Guide power examination. To The Stars And Planets. Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 7 Spectroscopy for Amateur Astronomers A A never are). Third, the violet metic defects and are way side of the spectrum gets cheaper! few weeks ago at spread out way more than the StarFest I got to say red end. This is doubly unfor- If you want to buy something a few words about about opti- tunate because the most in- ready-to-use, I recommend cal astronomy to a crowd of teresting stars to examine the "Rainbow Optics Star like-minded sky admirers. with a spectroscope are cool, Spectroscope". They have During one of my rants, I got red giants which really only both visual and photographic/ to saying that amateur as- have red light - and that gets CCD models. The visual one tronomers are largely missing all bunched up by a prism! has a high-quality grating out on the beauty of looking at which screws onto an eye- spectra on the Sun, stars, The alternative to a prism is a piece where the filter would nebulae, even streelamps. "diffraction grating". I won't go go and then also has a cylin- Judging by the number of into the background theory drical lens which goes over questions afterwards, I think I here, but they are the result of the eye end of the eyepiece to may have made a few con- finely scribing numerous par- give a finite width to the spec- verts. In this brief article, I allel, closely-spaced rulings trum - making it easier to see wanted to mention what you on a surface. The light that the spectral lines. A useful need to enjoy visual spec- goes through a transmission webpage for it is: http:// troscopy and what it is good grating (or reflects off of a www.astrovid.com/STAR- for. reflection grating!) is spread SPEC.HTM. out quite evenly with wave- The main piece of equipment length. Furthermore, you can A good starting place for all of you need (that you probably buy cheap plastic replica grat- this on the Web is the link: don't already have) is a way to ings whose performance is http://users.erols.com/njas- "disperse" light into its differ- really quite good. tro/faas/ which is the "Forum ent colours. For many, many for Amateur Astrospec- years, the only affordable way I recommend that you first troscopy". to do this was with a prism - check out the "Learning Tech- and it is still the first idea nologies" page: http:// So, what can you see with a which comes to mind. Unfor- www.starlab.com/pspl.html, spectroscope? Lots of differ- tunately, it is also the most and think about getting a "PS- ent things. In a hottish star difficult to put to good use. 09" which is a 35mm slide- like Vega, the hydrogen lines Prisms, especially equilateral mounted piece of grating are very prominent. Cooler prisms of heavy flint glass, will which they sell for US$4.00 stars like the sun have many do the job, but they have a for one, or US$35.00 for 10. lines of iron, chromium, mag- number of very annoying You can make quite a decent nesium, vanadium, as well as drawbacks. First, the total an- spectrograph or spectroscope calcium, sodium, and hydro- gle by which the prism devi- with one of those. Also, Efs- gen. Red giants show beauti- ates the light (from the direc- tonscience has sold replica fully coloured bands due to tion it enters the prism) is gratings of high quality in the titanium oxide and carbon large and consequently only a past - I haven't checked to stars show molecular carbon small area gets intercepted. see if they still do. I have bands (surprise!). Planetary Second, light is lost by reflec- bought "seconds" of these on nebula show one visible line tion unless the prism is multi- several occasions. They have due to twice ionized atomic coated (which they almost totally inconsequential cos- (Continued on page 8) Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 8 Additional HAA Membership Levels Proposed The HAA has always prided itself on its affordability relative to other clubs, which has resulted in low membership fees. We have also bene- fited from the generosity of numberous members who "give a little something extra" along with their fees each year. However, we have not Spectroscopy.. pursued a quite common practice (among non-profit groups) of having named membership levels corresponding to higher fees, for individuals and/or their families who would like to contribute routinely at a higher fee level. The increased fee membership levels described below are *in (Continued from page 7) addition* to the regular single and family memberships which we will oxygen for the most part - in continue to have. They do not confer any additional votes beyond the two fact, their images remain un- which family members have. Rather they recognize an additional degree altered by dispersing the light, of philanthropy. making this an easy way to identify small planetary nebu- If your circumstances allow, I hope that you will consider joining at one of lae which look almost stellar. the new, higher levels for 2002 (starting November 1st, 2001). Even a few members at these levels will ensure that regular membership fees stay And the sun, oh the sun, so where they are, or, dare I say it, go down! much light and so many ab- sorption lines!!! Doug Welch There is NOTHING more beautiful than the purity of I move that the following, additional classes of membership be added to colour in the Sun's or a star's the Bylaws of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers: spectrum. You must experi- ence it at least once in your Royal Membership $50/year life - and hopefully even more Friend of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers $100/year frequently! Patron of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers $250/year A Royal membership shall include the family members of a person who Doug Welch has paid the Royal membership fee. Family members are limited to the person named on the membership application form, their spouse and children. A Friend membership shall include the family members of a person who has paid the Friend membership fee. Family members are limited to the HAA Website person named on the membership application form, their spouse and children. You have probably noticed by A Patron membership shall include the family members of a person who now that Anthony Tekatch has has paid the Patron membership fee. Family members are limited to the done an amazing job on the person named on the membership application form, their spouse and HAA website. children. (www.science.mcmaster.ca/ These new classes of membership are entitled to all the rights and HAA) privileges of a Family Membership. If you have anything you would like added to the website, such The Royal, Friend and Patron memberships will be recognized for their as photos, etc., send Anthony financial support of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers in a manner to be determined by the Council of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers. an e-mail at anthony@unihedron.com Respectfully submitted by Ann Tekatch September 13, 2001 Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 9 Membership Renewal November 1, 2001 - October 31, 2002 Name: ___________________________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________ Province: __________________________ Postal code: _____________________________ Phone number: (____)__________________ E-mail: ________________________________ Type of membership: Individual $25.00/year Family $30.00/year Voluntary Donation: $_____________ (tax receipts will be issued) Total: $_____________ Please make your cheque payable to: Hamilton Amateur Astronomers P.O. Box 65578 Dundas, Ontario L9H 6Y6 Membership renewals are due November 1, 2001 CALENDAR OF EVENTS * September 15 ~ 8pm BINBROOK OBSERVING NIGHTS - For confirmation or directions call October 13, 19, 20 Ann Tekatch 575-5433, Marg Walton 627-7361, Rob Roy 692-3245 * Saturday, September 29th, 8pm COSMOLOGY DISCUSSION GROUP - The meeting will be held at McMaster Univeristy, Burke Science Building, Room B148. Dave Lepischak will speak about: The Analysis of Eclipsing Binaries Containing Cepheid Variables. Call Larry at (905) 529-1037 to confirm. * Friday, October 12, 7:30pm HAA GENERAL MEETING - The meeting will be at the Spectator Building auditorium. Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers