Gallatin Valley Forum to feature Dr. Joe Shaw

Club member and Montana State University professor, Dr. Joe Shaw, will present at the next Gallatin Valley Forum. Shaw’s presentation will discuss Preserving the Big Sky at Night and Montana Optical Technology. Within his presentation, Dr. Shaw will cover how he develops optical sensors and uses them to explore the natural Earth’s environment. This program will take place on Wednesday, April 29, 7pm at the Bozeman Public Library, and is free and open to the public.

For more information, please call Paula Beswick at 582-2426.

Upcoming meeting: April 24th, 2009

Ryan Hannahoe, director of client support services with the Fair Dinkum Skies Observatory and an MSU student, will discuss “Astronomical Imaging: The Point When Art Breaks Through Science” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 24, in the Museum of the Rockies’ Hager Auditorium.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Participants are invited to join Hannahoe as he discusses the art of digital astronomical photography. Hannahoe is expected to share some of his works and process an image ‘on-the-fly’ for the audience to see how processing techniques can be applied.

The Museum’s winter lecture series is sponsored by the Montana Space Grant Consortium, Museum of the Rockies and the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society.

Exit Gallery exhibition (April 20th – May 1st)

SMAS member and MSU undergraduate, Ryan Hannahoe, will be having his astronomical work featured in a solo art exhibit appearing in Montana State University’s  Exit Gallery. This exhibition will occur from April 20th through May 1st, and the hours of operation for the gallery are Monday through Friday from 9 to 5PM.

On April 22nd a catered artist reception will be held in room 212 of the Student Union Building from 5 to 7PM. Come out to support Ryan and his work!

Astronomy Day 2009 at the Museum of the Rockies

Four-hundred years ago Galileo Galilei began using telescopes to examine objects that were located in the sky. Immediately he made important discoveries: the Moon’s craters and mountains, moons revolving around Jupiter, dark spots on the Sun, phases of Venus, etc. The year 2009 has been named the International Year of Astronomy and commemorates the beginning of a new science ushered in by Galileo himself. The public is invited to join the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society, the Museum of the Rockies, the Montana Space Grant Consortium, the Solar Physics Research Group of Montana State University, and the SPIE Student Chapter of Montana State University, during Astronomy Day on April 4^th to participate in the celebration.

Planned activities include: planetarium shows, a number of presentations that will cover exciting subjects ranging from ‘Astronauts and Aliens’ to ‘Crow Indian Perspectives on the Night Sky’. A telescope exhibit will showcase many astronomical types of equipment and the Sun can be observed from the plaza entrance to the Museum (weather permitting). A fun children’s program will be offered and also a live demo on Internet astronomy will occur.

Astronomy Day will take place at the Museum of the Rockies from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on Saturday, April 4, 2009. The day’s events and Museum admission will be FREE to the public. For more information please view the ‘Astronomy Day 2009‘ section of this website for a more detailed agenda.

Comet Lulin

Great job Robert, and thanks for your hard work on the web site!

I may temporarily be without big glass, but that hasn’t stifled by my interest in comets.  I took my Nikon D70 out tonight and with a 300mm zoom lens was able to capture Comet Lulin. . . at least I think. . . maybe this picture is M100!   I expected it  to be significantly brighter.  But then, I was not very far outside of Butte, so the skys were not real dark.\I’ll post a heavily processed image when I figure out how!  (exposure details:  f4.6, ~2min, 300mm (maybe a bit less), from a spot about 2 miles SE of Butte, MT, about 11:30PM. 21FEB09)  It looks like I have created a new gallery named Comet Lulin into which I have stuffed a snap shot from tonight’s session.

Pasley Telescope Update

Work on the Laura D. Pasley Telescope continues and is nearing completion.  Today I spent a few hours with SMAS President Dr. Richard Sabo installing digital setting circles in his workshop.  Aside from some cable routing and other small details, work on the telescope structure is complete.

The last major task is the resurfacing of the mirror.  After a careful cleaning it is clear that this will be required.  Dr. Sabo is working with various SMAS members to make a determination as to who we will choose to resurface the mirror.  Once resurfacing is completed, this wonderful instrument will once again provide awesome views of the cosmos for all to see.

I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this effort but particularly our President and Vice President for restoring and this beautiful instrument to better than new condition.  I am really looking forward to putting my eye to the eyepiece.  Cheers…

Gravitational Waves

Dr. Neil Cornish presented the second in our winter lectures series, Gravitational Waves: A new way of seeing the Universe, to a nearly packed house in the Hager Auditorium at the Museum of the Rockies this evening.  It is clear that his work, along with his colleagues in this new branch of astronomy, will bring a deep new understanding about our Universe in the very near future.

Dr. Neil Cornish

His explanation of how observations of gravitational waves will complement electromagnetic observations and how this will help to resolve uncertainties and gaps in our current understanding of the cosmos was both comprehensive and understandable.  This lecture was enlightening on many levels and definitely helped me to understand what gravitational waves are and what we will learn from them.

I want to thank Dr. Cornish, SMAS, The Museum of the Rockies, the Montana Space Grant Consortium, and everyone who came out this evening for making this event possible.  We wish him success in his work and hope that he will come back again soon and keep us all up to date on the progress in the new and exciting field.  Cheers…

Bozeman Meets Haleakala

I have just returned from Maui Hawaii today and wanted to post here about one of my adventures while there.  I had only found out I was going to Hawaii a few weeks before I left. While talking to a friend who had been to Maui a few times, he mentioned that Haleakala (The highest point on Maui) had some observatories on it.  This got me to thinking maybe I could go see one of these observatories in action.  When I Googled “Haleakala Observatories” , however, I couldn’t seem to come up with anything that was open to the public.

Not to be deterred, I thought I’d get on the phone with a Local who might know something.  So wouldn’t ya know it, there was a Google hit for the “Haleakala Amateur Astronomers” (HAA), and when I looked up the President of the organization Rob Ratkowski, a phone number came up.  So I dialed the number, really only with the intention of getting some local dirt on what was up on top that I could see, and maybe some information about where I could go and observe using my 20X80 binoculars.

Little did I know how well this could possibly go. Rob was incredibly gracious with his time on the phone telling me about Haleakala and the viewing site which the HAA uses located up in the space observatory campus at top of the mountain.  He asked that we stay in touch so he could help me do some observing when I got to Maui. When I did some research, it turned out to be a full moon on the day I arrived in Maui, February 10th, booooooo. So my flexibility came down to a 1 night go or no-go on Sunday night the 15th,  before my Tuesday departure. Moon rise was at 0030 on that night. 

As is so rarely the case in these situations, the Star Gazing Gods smiled upon me and provided a clear, although breezy, forecast for Sunday. When I called Rob the day before, he thought it would be a good idea if I stopped by his place on the way up the  mountain and took him along….who was I to argue? Dress warm was Robs warning.

With my binoculars in tow, I made it to Robs house at 4:30 to head up the volcano.  We drove up, and up, and up, it turns out the road holds the record for being the greatest elevation gain in the shortest distance, 10,000 feet in 38 miles. At the top we arrived at the observatory area which is dominated by a US Airforce facility.  Around the one side and across from the 2 meter Faulkes scope is the site used by the HAA. 

2 Meter Faulkes Scope

Sunset & Venus over Faulkes 2 meter

Looking east with Mauna Kea in the distance

Looking west over Airforce Space Surveillance Center

After the tour we set up Robs 9.5 inch scope at the site to get ready for the nights viewing and also got out a 12 inch mead dobsonian to play with as well.  If you go to visit the site, HAA only asks that you bring along a state flag to put on the wall of the kitchen.  So after the scopes were set we tacked a Montana state flag to the wall which I had brought and ate a snack in the main room of the observing site.  HAA has a great set-up using buildings which were  left behind when various scientific programs were either moved or abandoned.  They have a heated building with a kitchen, main room, and bathroom. In neighboring small buildings they have set up cots for overnight stays and have a lot of storage.

Charlie in the HAA Kitchen with State Flags

It gets down to 35 degrees or so this time of year at 10,000 feet, even in a tropical paradise, so we bundled up. Winds were forecast to be 15-20 mph with gusts to 30.  The meteorologists in Hawaii must have gone to the same school as those in Montana cause the winds were a gentle 5 mph with 10 mph gusts once in a great while.

Rob Ratkowski setting up the .24 Meter Scope

After our snack, it was completely dark outside.  Wow.  This is what a night sky should look like.  Venus was very bright to the point of being an annoyance.  The Zodiacal light was glowing strong in the west, I never imagined it to be so prominent in the sky, it looked like the Milky Way does here in Montana. We looked at Venus first through Robs 9.5 inch scope and it was a great view, just a perfect moon shape hanging there.  Then we looked at the Orion Nebula with the 9.5 & 12 inch, the details were amazing, in the 12 inch with a 50mm eyepiece, it looked 3D.  Andromeda was great to see as well, I was looking for the small satellite galaxy which hangs just below Andromeda itself and was having a tough time, until I realized I had the wide field 50mm eyepiece in….Andromeda was filling the eyepiece brightly from edge to edge, and the satellite was reduced to a small speck of a smudge right at the edge of the disc.  M81, a personal favorite of mine, looked  incredible, far brighter than I have ever seen, it looked great with the 25mm eyepiece.  When Saturn rose, we put the 9.5 on it and again it took on a new life for me.  It was so steady to look at, and in it’s current edge-on aspect, was a neat sight, it just makes you have to smile.  In the scope you could see a bit of banding, and the shadow cast by the very narrow ring was visible as well giving it a real 3d effect. I spent a few hours looking at everything I could think of, the Crab Nebula, Owl Nebula, and a slew of galaxies.  I spent time looking at the southern part of the Milky Way with my binoculars, Eta Carinae and NGC3532 were fun to see.  I have to say, I think I’m going to give up on the Crab Nebula.  Even with the great viewing conditions, it was completely underwhelming, a dim smudge epitomized.

So at 12:15, after 5 solid hours of viewing, with a moonrise eminent, and me starting to feel the “You’ve seen one dim fuzzy, you’ve seen them all”  attitude creep into my psyche, we decided to wrap up.  The grand finale was seeing the Southern Cross (Crux) rising above the horizon as we drove out of the complex, that was a highlight for me since I hadn’t ever seen it before and have always heard of it.  Another fun thing, Rob told me to open the empty water bottles in my car, then cap them tightly.  As we drove down the mountain, the barometric pressure rise crushed the bottles to half flat.

Much thanks to Rob for all his generosity and the photo’s he took. The experience is one I certainly will not forget.  My only apprehension is that having seen how terrific viewing conditions make such a huge difference, I may now be jaded against our local conditions.  All told however, this is something I’m willing to live with.

Yellowstone Club Winter Lecture

SMAS gets contacted several times throughout the year for outreach programs with various local groups.   We love these opportunities to share our passion and hobby of astronomy with the public.  As usual, I jumped at the chance when I got a call from the Yellowstone Club asking if I could bring my scope and do a talk for their Winter Lecture Series.   The site was the Timberline Cafe at 9,375 feet, accessible by snocat.  Our outreach events are more rewarding when we connect with the people, and the group that I had was great.  Even though there was a bit of snow falling, the clouds parted and I was able to give sky tours for a brief moment.  I brought along some of the Night Sky Network tool kits and was able to fill in the time with several activities.  With Comet Lulin coming into view in the next few weeks, I talked about comets and passed out star maps to show the audience how to find Comet Lulin when they are at home.

Irving School ’09

Despite the cloudy weather, there was a pretty good turnout for the event at the Irving School last night.  We had more telescopes than we knew what to do with and many club members showed up to help out.  Even though there where early hopes of seeing the Great Nebula in Orion and maybe even the Pleiades, all we got to see was Venus which was bright enough to power through the high clouds in the southwest.

But then there was the portable planetarium, hosted by Fred’s daughter Brigitte and Lynn Powers.  There were gaggles of kids, young and old, that enjoyed the planetarium show along with lots of cookies and brownies and hot chocolate and occasional views of Venus.

Thanks to all of the club members who turned out and helped with things and thanks to all of the parents, children, and staff at Irving School for inviting us to share this evening with them.  Cheers…