times Phoenix Astronomical Society www.pasaz.org September 2017 Volume 69 Issue 1 PHOENIX ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY — ESTABLISHED 1948 At the Sept 7th PAS meeting, we will have our installation of new officers with a brief word from each. We will have mini presentations on “Sharing the August 21 Solar Eclipse Experience” with photos and videos which should last about an hour. Time permitting, we may also have discus- sions on the following topics: Occultation, Spectroscopy, Astrophotography, Future events, the Flagstaff Festival of Science, and more. Bring the whole family and enjoy this meeting with PAS. Bring a snack to share. Bottled water will be provided by the PAS Snack Fund, so be sure to donate a little to the snack fund so we have water for the next meeting. See you there! *** Sharing the August 21 Solar Eclipse Experience by Sam Insana and Terri Finch, Event Manager The meeting at PVCC ran from 7 to 10 pm with about 35 people in attendance. Ron Walker gave a fine and humorous presen- tation about the building of his planetarium in Cave Creek. He had many photos show- ing all the hard work and interesting situa- tions involved. He also talked about the kinds of programs he presents such as “What's up in the night sky?”; “Hubble Space Telescope Photos”; “The Christmas Star”; “Bell Lab Programs” (like Mr Sun, Rock music with laser light shows and more_. We then held a tribute to Earl Delong. Anita, his widow who dropped by with her daughter, really appreciated all the kind words PAS members had to say. We also showed 83 photos of Earl including ten that his family had sent us and ten others we had of Earl doing PAS activities. At the annual PAS elections, Mike was elected President, Paul Facuna, Vice Presi- dent, Sonny Schug, Secretary, Eric Stein- berg, Treasurer, Don Boyd, Newsletter Editor, Jenny Weitz, Director at Large, and Rodney, Host. These officers will take over at the September 7. 2017, PAS general meeting. The rest of the evening was spent dis- cussing spectroscopy, occultations, meteor showers, the total solar eclipse and many other activities such as upcoming star par- ties, telescope workshops and Leprecon. Finally we had a raffle with Rodney win- ning a free ticket to the Arizona Science Center. Prior to the meeting, PAS had a dinner for Ron and his wife Julie at Chili's with 10 people in attendance. PAS Meeting May 11 By President Sam Insana Ron Walker was our Guest Speaker for the May 11 PAS General Meeting. He is a fantas- tic guest speaker and his topic of the evening was about how he built his Planetarium. \Photo by Don Boyd. Five PAS members, Paul Maley, Ted Blank, Sam Insana, Paul Facuna and Don Boyd were involved with occultation tim- ings of 13th magnitude asteroid 113 Amalthea on March 14, 2017 at 4 am Uni- versal Coordinated Time (UTC). We set up in different locations of Arizona in order to try to determine the size and shape along with other information about the asteroid, which occulted a 10th magnitude star, TYC 1878-01081-1 in Gemini. I had an 80 mm refractor telescope, a video camera for the scope, GPS unit, time insertion device, camcorder, battery packs, monitor, and oth- er equipment. The process involved over 2 dozen individual steps over a 2 hour period of time. I also had to study various pre- point star charts and make sure the scope, which did not track, was pointed at correct stars so that as the earth turned, the target would drift into view at the exact time of the occultation. I was located several miles south of Gila Bend on the East side of highway 85, within a few yards of the Goldwater Gun- nery Range. As I was (Continued on page 3 ) Occultation Timing Discovers Asteroid’s Moon By Sam Insana, President of PAS
Transcript
timesPhoenix Astronomical Society
www.pasaz.orgSeptember 2017
Volume 69 Issue 1P H O E N I X A S T R O N O M I C A L S O C I E T Y — E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 4 8
At the Sept 7th PAS meeting, we willhave our installation of new officers with abrief word from each. We will have minipresentations on “Sharing the August 21Solar Eclipse Experience” with photos andvideos which should last about an hour.
Time permitting, we may also have discus-sions on the following topics: Occultation,Spectroscopy, Astrophotography, Futureevents, the Flagstaff Festival of Science,and more.
Bring the whole family and enjoy this
meeting with PAS. Bring a snack to share.Bottled water will be provided by the PASSnack Fund, so be sure to donate a little tothe snack fund so we have water for thenext meeting. See you there! ***
Sharing the August 21 Solar Eclipse Experienceby Sam Insana and Terri Finch, Event Manager
The meeting at PVCC ran from 7 to 10pm with about 35 people in attendance. RonWalker gave a fine and humorous presen-tation about the building of his planetariumin Cave Creek. He had many photos show-ing all the hard work and interesting situa-tions involved. He also talked about thekinds of programs he presents such as“What's up in the night sky?”; “HubbleSpace Telescope Photos”; “The ChristmasStar”; “Bell Lab Programs” (like Mr Sun,Rock music with laser light shows andmore_.
We then held a tribute to Earl Delong.Anita, his widow who dropped by with herdaughter, really appreciated all the kindwords PAS members had to say. We alsoshowed 83 photos of Earl including ten that
his family had sent us and ten others we hadof Earl doing PAS activities.
At the annual PAS elections, Mike waselected President, Paul Facuna, Vice Presi-dent, Sonny Schug, Secretary, Eric Stein-berg, Treasurer, Don Boyd, NewsletterEditor, Jenny Weitz, Director at Large, andRodney, Host. These officers will take overat the September 7. 2017, PAS generalmeeting.
The rest of the evening was spent dis-cussing spectroscopy, occultations, meteorshowers, the total solar eclipse and manyother activities such as upcoming star par-ties, telescope workshops and Leprecon.Finally we had a raffle with Rodney win-ning a free ticket to the Arizona ScienceCenter. Prior to the meeting, PAS had a
dinner for Ron and his wife Julie at Chili'swith 10 people in attendance.
PAS Meeting May 11By President Sam Insana
Ron Walker was our Guest Speaker for theMay 11 PAS General Meeting. He is a fantas-tic guest speaker and his topic of the evening
was about how he built his Planetarium.\Photo by Don Boyd.
Five PAS members, Paul Maley, TedBlank, Sam Insana, Paul Facuna and DonBoyd were involved with occultation tim-ings of 13th magnitude asteroid 113Amalthea on March 14, 2017 at 4 am Uni-versal Coordinated Time (UTC). We set upin different locations of Arizona in order totry to determine the size and shape alongwith other information about the asteroid,
which occulted a 10th magnitude star, TYC1878-01081-1 in Gemini. I had an 80 mmrefractor telescope, a video camera for thescope, GPS unit, time insertion device,camcorder, battery packs, monitor, and oth-er equipment. The process involved over 2dozen individual steps over a 2 hour periodof time. I also had to study various pre-point star charts and make sure the scope,
which did not track, was pointed at correctstars so that as the earth turned, the targetwould drift into view at the exact time ofthe occultation.
I was located several miles south ofGila Bend on the East side of highway 85,within a few yards of the Goldwater Gun-nery Range. As I was (Continued on page 3)
Occultation Timing Discovers Asteroid’s MoonBy Sam Insana, President of PAS
PAStimes 2 September 2017Phoenix Astronomical Society Contact Info
Check out these and other fun eventson the PAS Calendar:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php. RSVP where requested [email protected]. On the PAS Calendar,“Private” means event is for PAS membersonly.
Sept 5: Spectroscopy SIG Meeting(Private). See Private Calendar for location& time.
Sept 7: PAS Meeting at PVCC inRoom LS 203. Come enjoy a presentationby Harrison Smith. Bring a snack to share.Bottled water provided by PAS snack fund.Everyone welcome. Doors open 7pm.Meeting begins 7:30pm. Here’s the link formore details about this event:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=2385&day=2017-9-7&c=1
Sept 8: Cityscape Movie Night - E.T.7pm. PAS will be at this event with onetelescope showing Saturn, Q&A with priz-es for the kids from 6pm to 9:30pm. Here’sthe details about this free event:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=2429&day=2017-9-
8&c=1Sept 10: Free Telescope Workshop at
Bookmans, 19th Ave and Northern inPhoenix - 3:30pm to 5:30pm. RSVP isrequired with Terri - [email protected] you RSVP, email the make and mod-el number of the telescope you need assis-tance with. We also assist with suggestionsand advice on what telescope to purchase tomatch your needs. We have no telescopesfor sale at this event. More details:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=2025&day=2017-9-10&c=1
Sept 14: Huge public star party atPVCC Black Mountain Campus, 60thStreet and Carefree Hwy from 7pm to10pm. Follow the signs to the star party atthe Observing Deck next to the Aquilabuilding. Set up is 6pm for telescopes. Ev-eryone welcome. RSVP is requested withTerri - [email protected]. This event isweather permitting. When you RSVP byemail, please include the number in yourparty. We usually provide 10-14 scopes foryour viewing pleasure. Please do not touchthe telescopes. Highlights: Saturn, Jupiter.More details:
Sept 16: Private Star Party in Phoenix.Sept 21: Free Telescope workshop
Free telescope workshop at PVCC maincampus, 32nd Street and Union Hills Rd -7pm to 10pm. RSVP is required with [email protected]. Seating is limited.When you RSVP, please leave your firstname and the make and model number ofyour telescope. Bring your telescope andaccessories to this event. We meet in bothG-147 and by the telescope dome on cam-pus. We have no telescopes for sale at thisevent. This event is weather permitting.More details:http://www.pasaz.org/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=2406&day=2017-9-21&c=1
Sept 28: PAS Meeting of the Minds -More details coming soon.
Sept 30: Astronomy Day - Location ofthis event is in the planning stages.
PAS Upcoming September EventsBy Terri, Event Manager
PAS and PVCC will be holding a freepublic star party at PVCC Main Campus(32nd Street & Union Hills Rd in Phoenix)from 5pm to 10pm on Nov 15. Everyone is
welcome. Come view some great objects inthe night sky through our high poweredtelescopes. More details can be found atthis link, for this event:
Free Public Star Party at PVCC on Nov 15By Terri, Event Manager
Celestron CPC 1100 XLT, an 11”SCT GOTO telescope with GPS, enhancedwith Celestron's StarSense Auto-Align forfully automated alignment. This instru-ment comes with Celestron 40mm and
25mm eyepieces, a standard spotting scopeand an image erecting diagonal. It includesa Thousand Oaks glass Type 2 front-fittedsolar filter, an installed Feather Touch fo-cuser and Starizona counterweights, origi-
nal manuals and various power and controlcables. All in excellent condition. Localpickup only. $1500 firm. Contact Alex forfurther details at [email protected]
getting ready to do the final steps necessaryto record the occultation, a Border Patrolvehicle pulled up. Looking at an AR 15made me nervous and I had to quickly talkmy way into having them let me continuemy work. It did look a little suspicious,being alone at night next to the militaryfacility, with strange looking equipment.The Border Patrol agent was actually quitenice but he stuck around for a while tomake sure I was telling the truth. I wasfortunate it wasn’t an MP, since in a previ-ous occultation episode Paul Maley wastemporarily forced to leave his equipmentby the MPs and when he returned a javelinahad destroyed his delicate equipment setupmaking timing impossible.
Besides the 5 PAS members men-tioned above, there were several other ama-teur astronomers in other states timing thesame occultation. I was lucky to be in mylocation, since my recording showed a misswhile other recordings above and below mylocation showed hits. The video tapes andtimings were studied by Paul Maley, Ted
Blank and several other occultation expertswho determined this indicated a naturalsatellite orbiting the asteroid. Only a fewhundred asteroid moons have been discov-ered over the years and they are usuallyoptical discoveries by pro-fessional astronomers. Thiswas in fact, a rare event withamateur astronomers findinga moon using their occulta-tion timings. While the IO-TA experts agree that there isa high probability that a nat-ural satellite has been discov-ered, adaptive opticstelescopic observations nextspring will be used to try toreach 100% certainty.
I encourage all PASmembers to get involvedwith Citizen Science Proj-ects. Sky and TelescopeMagazine ran an articleabout this Asteroid Moondiscovery in their online edi-
tion of S & T. Please use the following linkto learn more details:http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/amateur-observers-discover-as-teroid-moon/
Image shows the resulting data that was collected by the 5 PASMembers involved in this Citizen Science Project. This diagramwas drawn up Brad Timerson. Image provided by Paul D. Maley
with permission to put it in PAStimes.
(Continued from page 1)Occultation Timing Discovers Asteroid’s Moon
Sam Insana, President of PAS: June18, Vera Stiesmeyer, along with Frank andSam Insana were at the 27th Annual GrandCanyon Star Party at the South Rim. Wesaw Rick and Terri Cunningham, and Den-nis Young. The night we observed, SundayJune 18, the weather was perfect with noclouds, wind or rain. The Milky Way wasspectacular looking with the naked eye. Imeasured it as a Bortle 2 where the scopeswere set up at the Visitor Center. The lightswere turned off this time making it excel-lent viewing. We looked through about 40telescopes. M51, M57, M13, M8, M20,M104, M81, and M82 and many more deepsky objects were large and bright. Thescopes ranged from 8 to 28 inch reflectors,and 5 to 7 inch refractors. While the Tuc-son Astronomy Club had a lot of scopes,there were dozens more from other placesaround Arizona along with US. Park rang-ers with laser pointers teaching visitors theconstellations. We attended a presentationthe next night, June 19 in an auditoriumabout dark skies in Arizona State Parks andhow more of them are putting on star par-ties. A free beginner 3 inch scope wasraffled off for children. Dennis Youngdonated a 10 inch Meade goto SchmidtCassegrain to the GC park service so their
rangers could give star parties more oftenduring the year.
By Mark Johnston: My wife Shirleyand I attended the GCSP on the North Rimfrom June 17-22. At 8600 ft the North Rimhas astounding clear steady dark skies. Wehad one night of clouds but otherwise ex-
cellent dark skies with great seeing. Theevent was organized by SAC but had as-tronomers from California, Texas, Utah,Washington State, and all over AZ. We
Grand Canyon Star Party June 17-24By Attending PAS Members
The Grand Canyon Star Party for 2017 washeld from June 17 to 24. This photo was takenby Mark Johnston of the North Rim observing
location.
Sam, Vera and Frank attended an IndoorRanger Program on June 19. Photo provided
by Sam.
While at the GCSP, Sam took this photo of Rick,Terri and Dennis with his Pluto Hat on June 19.
Sam was treated to a view of this deer from thetelescope viewing area just before dark on June
It has been a demanding but rewarding2 years as PAS President. I enjoyed gettingto know our 100 members and I lovedseeing them attend our monthly meetings,hear our guest speakers, attend telescopeworkshops, get involved with citizen sci-ence projects, go on field trips to planetari-ums and observatories, have fun at oursocials, do public and private star partiesand our many other astronomy activities.Every PAS member did something astrono-my related, helping to make us one of themost active clubs in the nation.
I would like to acknowledge about twodozen members, however, for some thingsthat I will always remember. If I mentionedall members and all that they did for PASthis article would be 10 pages long. Thesejust stick in my rapidly fading memory.
* Mike Marron for letting us use hishouse and dark sky observing acreage, dis-playing his meteorites and giving very un-usual and enthusiastic talks aboutastrophysics theory.
* Terri Finch for her many hours ofwork as Events Manager for PAS and StarTours Director.
* Don Boyd for his devotion as PASNewsletter Editor, making it an excellentpublication documenting the history ofPAS.
* Eric Steinberg for doing an excellentjob as PAS Treasurer, sharing his monstertelescope at dark sky star parties, beingcopy editor, and playing a wild bass guitar.
* Alex Vrenios for his support as PASVice President, being our de facto liaisonwith the Astronomical League, his radioastronomy lectures and spearheading bin-ocular star parties.
* Kevin Witts for 2 great years as PASSecretary, helping PAS with publicity,planning our field trip to Kitt Peak Obser-vatories and sharing with us his lifelongspace rocket collection.
* Howard Moneta for his support asPAS Vice President, planning the MountGraham Observatory field trip and gettingPAS many new members through MeetUp.
* William Finch for always beingavailable at PAS meetings for much-need-ed technical support.
* Jenny Weitz for being on our PASBoard of Directors and always helping uswith getting rooms for our meetings, spe-cial events, and other needs at a moment’snotice.
* Bruce Wurst for being on our PASBoard of Directors and his extensiveknowledge of the workings of telescopes.
* Paul Facuna, who came to PAS as apleasant, quiet man with limited knowledgeof astronomy who over the last 2 years haslearned the constellations, helped organizea PAS field trip to ASU astronomy facili-ties, taken part in meteor studies, occulta-tion timings, spectroscopy and has stood infront of our members to make announce-ments and give short talks and lately suc-cessfully running for PAS VP.
* Leah Sapir for always being avail-able to answer the public’s questions aboutastronomy.
* Chet Schuler for his expertise with
spectroscopy and his excellent astropho-tography.
* Bill Powell for leading our Spectros-copy Group and for his willingness to sharehis expertise in upgrading our PAS website(I hope our club will be taking him up onhis offer).
* Chris Johnson for being our PASwebmaster and for his fantastic astropho-tography.
* Frank Insana for encouraging me torun for President of PAS, giving me sageadvice beyond his years, sharing his 16 inchtelescope with me and for attending about5 PAS events a year even though he livesand works at the Grand Canyon.
* Rodney Fong for being PAS Host.* Ron Walker for opening his Star
Barn Planetarium to PAS and for his senseof humor.
* Pete Turner for doing so many PASactivities: field trips, public and private starparties, socials, general meetings, meetingsof the minds, speaking on black holes….and being such a nice guy.
* Paul Maley and Ted Blank for theirexpertise and for helping PAS memberswith occultation timing citizen science.
* Rick Cunningham for working stren-uous star parties, always with a smile andwithout a complaint about his knees.
* Roger Anzini for never wanting tocancel a star party even in pouring rain.
* Mark Johnston for convincing methat a good refractor can show deep skyobjects.
* Earl Delong, John Pulis, Bob Senzer,and Jerry Belcher who left PAS too soonand will always be missed.
Gratefully to all PAS members, SamInsana President of the Phoenix Astronom-ical Society
This is the May 9 Spectroscopy meeting atPVCC. In this photo are Chet Schuler, Bill
Powell, Don Boyd, and Paul Facuna. Sam In-sana and Alex Vrenios are not pictured. Photo
provided by Sam.
squeezed 14 scopes, mostly large Dobs, onthe lodge veranda overlooking the canyon(see photo). The Milky Way was routinelymistaken by guests as clouds it was sobright. I did both HA Solar and nighttimeastronomy. On Tuesday night I gave a talkon Astronomy in the lodge auditorium to afull house (about 130 people) while Shirleymanned my scope. I was able to pick upJupiter about 45 minutes before sunset and
had a steady stream of guests interested inJupiter, then Saturn until well after 10PM.In total we had 1509 people at my twotelescopes this week! After the touristswent to bed many of us continued pastmidnight looking at special objects. It's myfavorite observing location in Arizona! Wehave reservations and look forward to the2018 event.
With Accessories: 1) 10 inch Dobso-nian 2) Meade ETX-LS8 with hard caseand built in dolly 3) Celestron NexStar 5with high quality hard case. Additionalitems: empty small hard case, never openedcover, two hard cases with lenses. I havesmall boxes for all lenses. Spreader-lensholder. Also have two cotton cloth scopecovers, not shown. The actual retail prices
are to the left of the items, in the photos ofthe lists, and the half price selling price ison the right. I have all the original salesslips, software and user manuals. I checkemail every day. I want to sell my threetelescopes and a selection of books. I amasking 1/2 of the purchase price. Equip-ment is like new. Here’s the link to the listsand photos:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o8ri3j4ba4xws0t/AADvvlqlb9jK-0sfT7pc6sska?dl=0.It’s a lot of equipment for sale, somethingfor everyone. Contact Mary to purchasethese items [email protected]. Phone is602 866-8693.. Land line, please leavemessage. Email.. much better, as I check itdaily. The location to see these scopes willbe near PVCC Main Campus.
3 Scopes for Sale
The Desert Botanical Garden holds falland spring adult education classes with fourinstructors provided by PAS. There is a feeto attend, but participants have found theclass both informative and fun. The classstarts out in the Marley Education & Vol-unteer Building with a half-hour introduc-tion, after which we head to the StardustFoundation Plaza to enjoy an hour and ahalf of observing through three PAS-pro-vided telescopes.
After some earlier meteorite demon-strations with Mike, the class began at 7 pmwith a welcome by Terri and a brief reviewby William of the various types of tele-scopes and how they work. Terri demon-strated the use of a planisphere and went
over what to expect outside at the viewingsession. Finally, Mike took about 25 min-utes to do an “Astronomy 101” class.
When Mike completed his presenta-tion, the class of 17 proceeded outside tothe telescope area. Bruce had his 12” tele-scope, William had his 10” Dob and Terrihad her 8” SCT. Skies were not very dark,but Terri was still able to do a sky tour fromOrion to the Big Dipper for those aroundher. Mars and Jupiter were highlights,though it seemed like some of the classdeparted after viewing Mars without wait-ing for Jupiter to rise.
Around 8:15 pm, Jupiter appearedthrough the trees allowing William and
Terri to realign and show it. Some otherobjects seen this night were Pleiades, OrionNebula, M103, E.T. Cluster and PerseusDouble Cluster.
Our contact at DBG was Joan whochecked in with us periodically during theevent. We also had the assistance fromRocco with transporting our equipment,along with general help from another DBGvolunteer. I would like to thank DBG, andof course the telescope team for a verysuccessful class. We look forward to thenext DBG Adult Education class scheduledfor Sept 16th, 2017. If you are interested inattending this class, check the schedule andsign up through DBG at this link:https://www.dbg.org/classes-workshops.
DBG Adult Education Class Mar 24By Terri, Event Manager
Many thanks to President Sam Insanafor putting together this members-only tripto the 3D theater for the show “To the Edgeof the Universe and Back”. Attending were:Sam Insana, William and Terri Finch, VeraStreismyer, Mike Marron, Ofelia Waters,Paul Facuna, Bill Powell, Pete Turner andJoe Aquavella.
This was an interesting and informa-tive presentation in 3D about three of theupcoming missions being done by ASU -Lucy, Osyris Rex and Psyche. The showwas about 1 hour long. Our guide throughspace was Ric and our “pilot” on the trip(running the projector program) was Shane.
Together they were a spectacular team!The theater is set up with state of the
art technology, including a Definiti Sky-Skan Planetarium and two Sony 4K projec-tors, which make the entire space comealive with stars, planets and other celestialobjects.
After the show, the group went to anearly dinner at the Student Union at PeiWei. For more info about these shows:https://sese.asu.edu/public-engagement/3-d-astronomy
Sam writes: The experience was amaz-ing from the many satellites orbiting theEarth to the cosmic radiation background at
the edge of the universe and all the galaxiesin between. Our host, Ric, lives in Sam andVera's neighborhood and their sons went toschool together. Ric provided a wealth ofknowledge on astronomy while narratingthe show and answering questions at theend. Before the show we toured the ASUmeteorite exhibits. We received a discount-ed $5 planetarium rate instead of the nor-mal $7.50 rate because we had a group of atleast 12 people. Parking was free in theRural Rd parking structure because wewent on a Saturday. In June we hope toorganize another trip to the 3D planetariumto see breathtaking photos of "25 years ofthe Hubble Space Telescope".
PAS Field Trip toMarston Exploration Theater Apr 1
By Terri Finch, PAS Event Manager
Ron Walker will be at Desert FoothillsLibrary on Saturday, September 23rd start-ing at 10:30am. This presentation is Free &Open to the Public. Everyone welcome!
Ron writes: I have been asked to give
a talk at the local library on how I built myplanetarium (this is the fourth time, stillcan't believe the interest). I'm told there aretwelve sign up's already. It will be at theDesert Foothills Library on Saturday, Sep-tember 23rd starting at 10:30 and lasting
about an hour.For more information on the library
presentation call (480) 488-2286 or visit athttp://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars...rd=dflcalendar
PAS had a free telescope workshopApril 13, 2017, at PVCC. Alex Vrenios,Howard Moneta, Sam Insana and RodneyFong attended along with a public attendee,Tom from MeetUp. He had a new Cele-stron Nextstar 8SE and was in need of help.Howard had used the same scope a fewyears ago so gave most of the aid to Tomand after an hour he was able to use the reddot viewfinder, align the scope using 3 starsand use the goto to find Jupiter and M42.He was very pleased with the help.
A PVCC student was walking near oursetup and appeared interested in astronomy.After I talked with her, she decided to joinPAS. Emily Yazzie is now a member ofPAS and wants to attend star parties, meet-ings and “buy some cool astronomy tee
shirts.” Welcome aboard Emily.
PVCC Telescope Workshop Apr 13By President Sam Insana
Howard, Rodney and telescope attendee Tomfrom Meetup at this months PVCC Telescope
Workshop. Photo by Sam Insana.
Sam, Alex and brand new PAS Member EmilyYazzie. Photo by Sam.
We had 6 scopes: Sam, Roger, Wil-liam, Terri, Storm and Roger; Mike withmeteorites and 2 helpers: Jake Von Ruhrand George Zukauckas in attendance fromPAS.
Pizza was provided by the school andour teacher contact there, Heather Rhein-felder. The event was scheduled from 6:30to 8:30 with sunset at 7:04 and dark notuntil 8pm.
While we waited for it to get darkenough to observe, we watched a beautifulsunset and I did Q&A with a few girls thatwere standing near my scope. I gave out 5Q&A prizes and also gave Jake a handful ofprizes to give out if he had the chance to doQ&A before it got dark. It was about 7:15before we saw Jupiter which was the high-light until about 7:45 when the Orion Neb-ula came into view.
During the event, Jake had the helpfulidea of using Wikipedia on his phone toprovide interesting facts about the objectsin the scope he was standing near, while theother three of us moved between the scopesto help Storm get her scope set up on some-thing.
During the evening, Roger noticed asmall dark circle on the surface of Jupiter -the shadow of one of its moons which drift-
ed across the surface until shortly before wepacked up when it came into direct view. Idrew people over to look at it first as ashadow, then as the moon itself. We startedto pack up about 8:30, but I asked Roger tostay set up a little longer to show Jupiter’smoon occultation. Thank you Roger forextending the time you were set up so thatthose attending this event could enjoy thisinteresting view.
Two other things of note were 1) abright meteor near the end of the event fromthe Lyrids Shower that a lot of people saw,and 2) a semi truck on-site with a simulatorof the space station inside. Heather had aweek long exhibit at the school: RickGutridge and his space simulator, Voyager,which was a nice complement to us whilewe waited for dark, along of course, withMike and his meteorites. It was a very
successful event with the fireball making agreat conclusion! Many thanks to Heatherfor having PAS at her event and to thetelescope team and helpers for the night. Itwas a great viewing evening, with the ex-ception of some lighting on some of thebuildings in the area.
Benchmark School Star Party Apr 21By Terri, Event Manager
Bruce & Roger are seen waiting for it to getdark enough to find the first object.
Photo by Terri.
Sam & George looking for Jupiter as the Sunleaves the sky. Photo by Terri.
William, Jake & Storm finding Jupiter so thatall the telescopes can get on the first object of
the night. Photo by Terri.
September 2017 PAStimes 7
On July 4, 1997, NASA's Mars Path-finder landed on the surface of Mars. Itlanded in an ancient flood plain that is nowdry and covered with rocks. Pathfinder’smission was to study the Martian climate,atmosphere and geology. At the same time,the mission was also testing lots of newtechnologies.
For example, the Pathfinder missiontried a brand-new way of landing on Mars.After speeding into the Martian atmo-sphere, Pathfinder used a parachute to slowdown and drift toward the surface of theRed Planet. Before landing, Pathfinder in-flated huge airbags around itself. Thespacecraft released its parachute anddropped to the ground, bouncing on itsairbags about 15 times. After Pathfindercame to a stop, the airbags deflated.
Before Pathfinder, spacecraft had touse lots of fuel to slow down for a safelanding on another planet. Pathfinder’s air-
bags allowed engineers to use and store lessfuel for the landing. This made the missionless expensive. After seeing the successfulPathfinder landing, future missions usedthis airbag technique, too!
Pathfinder had two parts: a lander thatstayed in one place, and a wheeled roverthat could move around. The Pathfinderlander had special instruments to studyMartian weather. These instruments mea-sured air temperature, pressure and winds.The measurements helped us better under-stand the climate of Mars.
The lander also had a camera for takingimages of the Martian landscape. The land-er sent back more than 16,000 pictures ofMars. Its last signal was sent to Earth onSept. 27, 1997. The Pathfinder lander wasrenamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.Carl Sagan was a well-known astronomerand science educator.
Pathfinder also carried the very firstrover to Mars. This remotely-controlledrover was about the size of a microwaveoven and was called Sojourner. It wasnamed to honor Sojourner Truth, whofought for African-American and women'srights. Two days after Pathfinder landed,Sojourner rolled onto the surface of Mars.Sojourner gathered data on Martian rocksand soil. The rover also carried cameras. Inthe three months that Sojourner operated onMars, the rover took more than 550 photos!
Pathfinder helped us learn how to bet-ter design missions to Mars. It gave usvaluable new information on the Martianclimate and surface. Together, these thingshelped lay the groundwork for future mis-sions to Mars.
Learn more about the Sojourner roverat the NASA Space Place:https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-sojourner
Twenty Years Ago on Mars…By Linda Hermans-Killiam
Caption: The Mars Pathfinder lander took this photo of its small rover, called Sojourner. Here, Sojourner is investigating a rock onMars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
PAStimes 8 September 2017
Rock a Rama takes place in BlackCanyon City and is a Gem and MineralShow event. For a couple years, PAS hasbeen volunteering to do Solar Viewing atthis event. Here is the review of the week-end in 2016.
Friday, Nov 4 at Rock A Rama wasjust after a rainstorm the night before. Thevendors at this event, had to rush to set uptheir tables for the event, due to rain andwind getting in the way on set up day,which would be Thursday.
The Telescope Team for this day wasKevin Harcey, Don Boyd, Mike Marron &Terri Finch. Terri & Kevin did the PASHandouts, while Mike showed his Meteor-ites and Don, who arrived later thanplanned, showed the Sun through his tele-scope. The clouds stayed with us right up toabout 1 hour after Don had arrived at theevent.
We met so many really nice people.DeeDee was in charge at the event andprovided the Telescope Team with Ice ColdBottled Water and lunch. Lunch was verygood. The Sun wasn’t out much, but I didget a slight sunburn on my face.
I had arrived about 8:30 with Kevin,while Mike was right on time at 9am, andDon didn’t make it to 11am, however, theclouds didn’t allow for solar viewing untilabout noon, so it worked out great. We allpacked up at 3pm and left. Many thanks tothe telescope team of this day. I wouldestimate 60 people in attendance from thepublic.
Nov 5, Saturday, the telescope team ofthis day was William & Terri Finch withour Astroscan to put on the Moon, MikeMarron with his meteorites, Don Boydbrought his scope, Paul attended to helpout, Ofelia Waters was in attendance tohelp Mike keep an eye on his meteorites. Iwould estimate about 150 people from thepublic attended on this day.
Moon rise was around noon, so ourevent was set to be from 10am to 3pm.William spent quite a while leaning back inhis chair trying to find the elusive Moon.What made it so elusive was that it was athin crescent and in the haze of the daylight,it was challenging to find. Finally, wefound it and put the Astroscan on it to showeveryone.
The weather for the day was breezy,but not enough to blow over our canopy.Lunch was again provided for the Team,
enjoyed and appreciated.Our tent drew many people to come
see what we had to show them. One youngman, Joey Fuller, stopped by on Friday tochat with the group, and hung around mostof the event with the PAS Team. He wasvery intrigued with Mike’s theories and soMike went through several of his lectureswith Joey listening to every word.
Paul Facuna writes: Saturday morn-ing when I arrived at Black Canyon City forthe Rock-A-Rama, the sky had patchyclouds. The sun had no sun spots so itlooked white and smooth through DonBoyd’s 8 inch telescope. The sun has en-tered a solar minimum so there will be veryfew sun spots visible for many years. Peo-ple looked through the scope at the sun,stopped at the PAS table to get informationabout PAS, to look at and hold Mike’smeteorites and to listen to his meteoritepresentations. A young man (Joey) listenedto Mike’s astronomy and astrophysics lec-ture on and off for over half a day. He wasvery interested and I thought captivated byMike’s lecture. In the afternoon the moonwas visible between the thicker clouds butit was not a good view through William’slow power telescope because of the lowpower and the sun’s brightness washed themoon’s features out. There were moreclouds in the sky in the afternoon so the sunwas only intermittingly visible throughDon’s telescope.
I looked at some of the vendor dis-plays. I looked at Suzanne Morrison’s (ofRaining Rocks) meteorites, minerals andfossils which are very beautiful and inter-esting. I bought a neodymium magnet anda Pakimer (a double terminated clear quartzcrystal with natural petroleum pocket andenhydro bubble) from her. I also found avery nice fossilized fish impression at onevendor and an amber encased insect at an-other vendor. Two other vendors had somebeautiful, large pyrite crystals.
Sunday Nov 6 the Telescope Teamconsisted of: Terri and William with theAstroscan, Mike and Ofelia with his mete-orites, Sam Insana had his telescope, Paulagain attended and helped out with set upand take down, and Don brought his scopeagain.
Sam writes: On November 6th, PAShelped with the Rock O Rama exhibition inBlack Canyon City. Sam and Don providedsolar telescopes. They showed a large
prominence, a solar flare that loopedaround a magnetic field. No sunspots wereseen since we are heading into a solar min-imum for the next several years. Williamshowed people the moon. Mike presentedhis meteorites and Ophelia assisted him.
Terri handed out literature about PAS.Paul Facuna was our carnival barker andhelped bring in about 50 people to our areafor six hours, from 9 am to 3:30 pm. It wasa beautiful day with blue skies and a fewclouds. We took turns looking at the dozensof booths containing meteorites and gemsand minerals. We were also provided foodand drink. Alex and Diane and their puppydropped by at the end to check things out(See photo).
Paul F.writes: Sunday morning and allday there were a few small, thin clouds inthe sky so solar viewing was good. Theview of the sun through Don’s scope wasagain the same as yesterday with no sunspots visible. A nice solar flare could beseen through Sam Insana’s PST at the 6 or7 o’clock positions and at times some smallflares could be seen at the 2 o’clock posi-tion. The moon could be seen in the after-noon and again the view of the moonthrough William’s telescope was ratherwashed out because of the brightness of thesun. Even though the view was not verygood people, especially children enjoyedlooking at it. People stopped by to lookthrough the scopes at the sun and moon,look at Mike’s meteorite collection, listento his presentations on meteorites, and getinformation on PAS. The young man againcame and listened to Mike’s astronomy andastrophysics lecture. One person whoviewed the sun through the scopes begantelling us about the nice night time view ofthe sky at their mine, about his prospectingfor precious metals using his eight metaldetectors, and about searching for andfinding his neighbor’s wife’s diamond ringshe had lost doing yard work several yearsbefore. He was the most interesting personI met during the two days I assisted. I had avery good time assisting for the two days.
Terri adds: I wish to thank my won-derful Telescope Team for braving the sun,the heat (it was a rather warm event), thechill (when the breeze came up and tickledthe back of our necks), and being there tohelp with set up, take down, and sharing thelove of our hobby with everyone who at-tended this event. Many of the vendorsstopped by to look through the various
Rock A Rama Solar Event Nov 4th WeekendBy Terri Finch, Event Manager
September 2017 PAStimes 9scopes throughout the weekend (drawnover by me - as i walked around and toldthem to come see what we have to showthem). We had a few attendees mention thatthey never knew the Moon was visibleduring the daytime. Overall, it was a verysuccessful and fun event. Thank you also toDarlynn (DeeDee) for inviting us to do thisevent, this year. DeeDee took over for Su-san, who did the managing of this event lastyear. Thank you for having PAS there!
Alex brought his camera, and everyone wasposing for photos, including the furry 4 legged
friends. Photo by Sam on Nov 6.
Mike shares some meteorites at the Rock A Ra-ma weekend on Nov 6. This photo taken by Wil-
liam Finch.
This is the grand view of the whole event. PASis in the center location of this huge parking
area. All around the outskirts are the vendorsof various gems, minerals, jewelry and more.
Photo by Terri on Nov 5.
William, Terri, Mike and Ofelia are seen at theRock A Rama event on Nov 5. Photo by Don.
The PAS Table, in this photo, has Williamlooking for the Moon so we can show it. It wasa very thin sliver and a challenge to find in the
bright sky. Don is standing up in the back-ground. Mike is chatting with Joey Fuller atthe meteorite table. Photo taken by Terri on
Nov 5.
Mike at Rock A Rama in Black Canyon City setup under the PAS Canopy at the PAS Table.
Photo by Alex Vrenios on Nov 6.
Hiding under the PAS Canopy, from the Sunand extra warmth of the day (L to R) are: Samsitting by his PST, Paul in front of Don's blackscope, Ofelia reading a magazine while seatedin front of Don who is in the red shirt standingup, Terri at the front of the image with the
white hat and Mike at his table on the far rightof this photo. This photo was taken by William
on Nov 6.
This event had five RSVP’s, four ofwhom attended. Steven brought his 10”Dob for which he wanted collimation help.Bruce Wurst brought his collimator andprovided a quick fix to get Steven on hisway. Hernando Yson attended with hiswife and son and their Celestron 6SE. DonBoyd and Alex Vrenios assisted Hernandowho stayed around for another hour listen-ing to our conversations at the PAS Table.He also joined PAS this day. Welcome toPAS New Member Hernando!!!
Charles Beaudrot who joined PASrecently, attended to find out what tele-scope he might want to purchase. He al-ready owns a Celestron Astromaster130EQ but William and I spent some timein discussion with him. Welcome newmember Charles and his wife Virginia!
Linda McDonough attended with herCelestron Astromaster 114 and was assist-
ed by Sam Insana. Also at this workshopfrom PAS was Rodney who assisted ev-eryone with carrying in their telescopeequipment. Thank you Rodney for all yourhelp, and for helping to set up and takedown the tables and chairs provided toPAS by Bookmans. After all the telescopeowners had been taken care of, the attend-ing PAS Members discussed a variety oftopics including dinner for that evening.Many thanks to Bookmans for providingthe space within your store to have thisevent, and thanks as always to the tele-scope team for assisting with this event.I’m looking forward to the next couplefree telescope workshops at Bookmans onApril 9 and May 7th. Hope to see youthere!!!
Dinner after this event was at CarlosO Briens with Don, Rod, William, Terri,Diane and Alex.
Bookmans TelescopeWorkshop Mar 12
By Terri, Event Manager
Men In Black (1997) - The little ballJ accidentally sends smashing around MIBheadquarters is said by K to be "a practicaljoke from the Great Attractor". In astrono-my the Great Attractor is an actual entity,first detected in 1973, a gravitationalanomaly some 250 million light-yearsfrom Earth that affects the motion of everygalaxy within hundreds of millions oflight-years.
Contact (1997) - William Fichtner'scharacter in the film, a blind astrophysicistwith enhanced hearing as a result of hiscondition, is named Kent Clark, a play onthe name of Superman's alter ego, ClarkKent. The character is based on a real-lifeblind SETI scientist, Kent Cullers.
Sci-Fi MovieTrivia:
PAStimes 10 September 2017
The PAS Social, which is the Party ofthe Year, has once again been a success!The party began with a potluck around5pm. We had some great ribs, more pizzathan everyone could eat, rotisserie chicken,some great sliders and a nice collection ofdesserts and more. Thank you to all whobrought food to share.
The games began about 6pm. Bruceand Ed Wurst set up the dart game outsideMike’s back door. This year we had fivedart boards, so the game went really fast.There were ten people competing in thedart game: Bruce Wurst, Ed Wurst, TerriFinch, Rodney Fong, Paul Facuna, MarkJohnston, Howard Moneta, Sam Insana,Mike Marron and Frank Insana. The gameprogressed through 3 rounds - competitionwas intense and scores were high - thanksto everyone who played.
Concurrent with the dart game was thebean bag toss, hosted by Sam Insana andVera Stiesmeyer with 15 players: Mark andShirley Johnston, Paul, William, Mike,Sam, Ed, Howard, Don Boyd, Terri, BetteWurst, Bruce, Alex Vrenios, Vera andFrank. The scores for this game were alsohigh after 3 rounds. Thank you Sam forbringing it along and providing some greatfun.
The games concluded about 7:30 andwe set up for the White Dwarf Gift Ex-change with ten players. Each player pro-vided a wrapped, disguised gift around $20in value. In this event, gifts are exchanged,but can also be “stolen” as an added wrin-kle. Gifts this year ranged from AZ ScienceCenter tickets to books and DVD’s to a skyatlas. Eric Steinberg and Ora Kurland alsoarrived around that time.
Awarding of prizes followed the giftexchange. First was the bean bag toss wonby Frank Insana receiving a Star Trek Puz-zle provided by Sam. 2nd place was Vera,
distantly followed by everyone else. Nextcame the dart game won by Bruce whoreceived a mug donated by Paul Facuna.
Finally came the door prizes (not nec-essarily astronomy-related), donated byvarious members, including a number giv-en by Alex. 15 members joined this party atthe beginning and were eligible for doorprizes. Shirley won first and chose a starmug donated by Alex. We drew one more
PAS Social of April 15By Terri, Event Manager
Terri playing Bean Bag Toss game in Mike'shome in Carefree for the 2017 PAS Social on
Apr 15 2017. Photo by Don Boyd.
As the Dart Game progresses, it is a very closegame. And this year, everyone is shooting so
well. Here we have, lined up for throwing darts(L to R) Mike, Bruce, Paul, Terri, Howard andsitting down in the back, Mark. Photo by Don.
Dinner in the living room at Mike's home inCarefree has (L to R) Mark (in yellow) & Can'tsee Shirley behind Mark and Don behind Shir-
ley, Bruce, then Ed, Bette with the baseball cap,Alex standing up, Paul, and then Vera on
the end. Dinner was very good. Photo by TerriFinch.
In the kitchen, the rest of the group was enjoy-ing food from the potluck. Photo by Terri.
Mike tosses the bean bag. In the background isBette, watching the game. Photo by William.
Ed is taking his turn stabbing the dart board.There's a dart in motion in this photo. Photo
taken by William.
Terri takes her turn at the Bean Bag Toss. Sit-ting with the red flannel shirt is Ed, and thenbehind Terri is Paul on the couch on the left
and Bette on the right. Photo by William.
The Dart Game had some stiff competition thisyear. Coming in in 2nd place we had a tie witha score of 16 of Howard and Mark. But hittingthat “20” on the Dart Board has Bruce takinghome the 2017 Dart Game Trophy. Photo by
Terri.
Paul took his shot at the 5 dart boards. It wasa quick game with only a few rounds. And we
were done before dark. Photo by Alex.
The White Dwarf Gift Exchange was fun thisyear. Paul won the items in this photo and
Sam won a new eyepiece case. It was a love-ly party. Photo by Alex Vrenios.
September 2017 PAStimes 11ticket, won by Bette who chose a Star Treknotepad donated by Paul.
The party then broke up around 9 withsome of the members leaving and otherssticking around to watch the movie “Dr,Strange” - too loud for some of us so westayed in the kitchen and socialized untillate night.
Many thanks to all who helped makethis event a success: Ed and Bruce with theDart Game, Sam and Vera with the BeanBag Toss, all who helped rearrange theliving room for the White Dwarf Gift Ex-change and those who donated door prizes;and thanks of course, to the 17 attendeeswho made the event a success.
For the Bean Bag Toss we had the top twoplaces running neck and neck. Vera took 2nd
place with 26 points and the Winner was Frankwith 1st place and 27 points. Photo by Terri.
Frank takes 1st place in the 2017 Bean BagToss competition. Photo by Sam.
This year’s fireworks event was quitehot, but otherwise nice. Attending were:William and Terri Finch, Don Boyd, Leahand Avinoam Sapir, Ron Walker, Kevin,Alex Vrenios, Sam Insana, Mike and Au-brey (Mike’s sister from Michigan) Marronand Paul Facuna. A few other membersRSVP’d but weren’t able to make it.
After dinner, we socialized and thenhad an Ice Cream Birthday Party for Wil-liam (birthday July 5th) and Don (birthdayJuly 18th). We all enjoyed one of the 6types of ice cream and popsicles brought bythe attendees of this party.
About 8:45 pm, we headed out to theend of Mike’s driveway to watch the fire-works. The air had cooled and winds werecalm with a slight breeze now and then. The
fireworks began at dark - a really excellentshow this year about 40 minutes long -notable for the absence of storms, light-ning, rain, high winds or dust storms. .
At the end of the show we set up inMike’s living room to view a movie Mikehad recently acquired: “Live, Die, Repeat.”Most of the members went home after themovie but a few of us hung around forabout an hour longer before we departed.
Many thanks to everyone who provid-ed food and frozen treats for this event.Thanks to all who participated in wishingWilliam and Don a Happy Birthday to Samfor the card and to Mike for hosting theparty. Looking forward to next year’s Fire-works and Popsicle party, July 3rd.
Fireworks in Carefree July 3By Terri, Event Manager
Don & William stand in Mike's kitchen waitingfor everyone to finish singing “Happy Birth-
day” to them.. Photo by Terri Finch.
Sam took this awesome photo of fireworks asseen from Mike's home in Carefree on July 3.
It was a very hot day in Cave Creekwhen several PAS Members met at theSesame Inn before the planetarium show atRon Walker’s Star Barn. We had a good,filling lunch there with Mike Marron, SamInsana, William and Terri Finch, Alex andDiane Vrenios and Don Boyd, heading af-terward to the planetarium to fill our mindswith Astronomy. We saw the newly createdshow “Galaxies, Nebulae and Star Clus-ters… Oh my!” The show was fun andinformation-packed, running about and
hour and 10 minutes. After the show, thegroup spent some time with Ron beforeheading back to our oven-like vehicles.Many thanks to Ron for a fun planetariumshow!
The Star Barn is open free to anyonewho is a current PAS Member. We keepRon for ourselves, so if you want to attendthese FREE events, you must be a PASMember to do so. See the Private PASCalendar for show listings.
Planetarium Show in Cave Creek July 16By Terri, Event Manager
This is PAS at The Star Barn.Photo taken by Sam.
Contact (1997) - The character of Dr.Arroway was modeled after two of thepioneering radio astronomers of the 1930s
and 1940s, Grote Reber and John Kraus;both men were ham radio operators at anearly age. Another model for the character's
work was real-life SETI researcher Jill Cor-nell Tarter.
Sci-Fi Movie Trivia:
PAStimes 12 September 2017
Map of PVCC Main Location18401 N. 32nd Street | Phoenix, AZ 85032
Map of PVCC Black Mountain34250 N. 60th Street | Scottsdale, AZ 85266
PAS Meetings are held on Thursdays in Room LS-203 unlessotherwise noted. Do you have an idea for a guest speaker? EmailTerri the details. Here are the scheduled guest speakers at PAS:http://www.pasaz.org/index.php?pageid=meetingsSept 7: Mini Presentations on “Aug 21st Solar Eclipse Experienc-es”Oct 5: Kai Staats “LIGO - Gravitational Waves”Change in room at PVCC for Oct 5 Meeting: KSC 1000ANov 2: Dr. David Williams “The Psyche Mission”Dec 7: Steven Desch "Meteorites and Jupiter's Cleaving of theSolar System" + PAS Astronomical Equipment Yearly SwapMeet - Bring your astronomy items to sell at the swap meet.
On August 21st, the sky will darken,the temperature will drop and all fifty Unit-ed States will be able to see the Moonpass—at least partially—in front of theSun. It’s a solar eclipse!
A solar eclipse happens when theMoon passes between the Sun and Earth,casting its shadow on Earth. Sometimes theMoon only covers up part of the Sun. Thatis called a partial solar eclipse. When theMoon covers up the Sun completely, it’scalled a total solar eclipse. As our planetrotates, the Moon’s shadow moves acrossEarth’s surface. The path of the inner partof this shadow, where the Moon totallycovers the Sun, is called the path of totality.The path of totality on August 21 stretchesfrom Oregon to South Carolina. If youhappen to be in that path, you will be ableto experience a total solar eclipse! If you’rein any of the 50 United States during thistime, you can see a partial solar eclipse.
No matter where you’ll be for theeclipse, remember that SAFETY is veryimportant. Never look at the Sun when anypart of it is exposed, like during a partial
eclipse! It can hurt your eyes very badly. Ifyou want to view the eclipse, you can buyspecial eclipse glasses. Go the NASA 2017Eclipse Safety website to learn more aboutwhat glasses to buy.
If you are in the path of the totaleclipse, you may look directly at the eclipseonly when the Moon has completely cov-ered the Sun. This is called totality, and itlasts a very short time. You must be sure toput your eclipse glasses back on before theSun peeks out from behind the Moon.You won’t be the only one watching thisevent! NASA scientists will use this eclipseto study our Sun. During a total solareclipse, we can see the Sun’s atmosphere,called the corona. Usually the Sun is sobright that we can’t see the corona. Howev-er, when the Moon blocks out most of theSun’s light, we can get a glimpse of thecorona.
The surface of the Sun is about 10,000degrees Fahrenheit, but the corona is muchhotter. It’s about 2 million degrees Fahren-heit! The eclipse gives NASA researchersthe chance to learn more about why the
corona is so hot. In fact, while the eclipsewill only last about two to three minutes inone place, scientists have found a way tohave more time to study it.NASA will use two research jets to chasethe eclipse as it crosses the country. Thejets will fly very high, and spend sevenminutes in the shadow of the Moon. Re-searchers are using jets to help look forsmall explosions on the Sun, called nano-flares. These nanoflares may help to ex-plain the corona’s extreme heat.
Whether you’re watching with eclipseglasses from the ground, or in a NASA jetfrom the sky, the 2017 eclipse should bequite a show! It’s a fun reminder of ourplace in the solar system, and how much westill have to learn.
To learn about what eclipse glasses tobuy and other eclipse safety guidelines,visit: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety
To learn more about solar eclipses,check out this NASA Space Place video:https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/eclipse-snap
The 2017 Solar Eclipse Across AmericaBy Teagan Wall
A map of the United States showing the path of totality for the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse. Image credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
I wish to thank all of our PAS mem-bers, Don, Peter, Paul F, Terri, William,Mike and Storm who took part along withme in National Astronomy Day at the Ari-zona Science Center. It was a long, gruelingday from 9 am to 9 pm, but well worth it.We had hundreds of children and adultscome by and look at sunspots and solarflares during the day and then Jupiter andthe Moon at night along with Mike's mete-orites which were the usual hit. Our con-tact, James Enos, gave us a high profile, sothat many ASC customers came outside toenjoy our astronomy outreach. He evenmentioned PAS to Fox news during aninterview that morning. ASC also providedus with much needed cold water, chips fora snack, and pizza for lunch.
Two days earlier, Janet Chapman hadcalled to tell me her neighbor Wes Terrywanted to donate his telescope to PAS,hoping we could give it to someone whoneeded a beginners scope.
I drove out to her apartment the sameafternoon, and picked it up. Terri Finchthen set up a free raffle at ASC outside. Thewinner had to be present at 8 pm for thedrawing. Monica, a teenager who lovesastronomy but didn't have a scope, won andher father helped carry the scope to theirvehicle. They may come to our telescopeworkshop in one week if they have ques-tions about it.
I handed out dozens of cards to peoplewanting information on our club's manyactivities and Terri signed up two newmembers. It was a good venue in southcentral Phoenix, having a lot of diversityamong the attendees.
Terri writes: Many thanks to Mike forbringing the 2 canopies for shade. For the
daytime portion of this event, I had broughtthe Solar Demo provided by Night SkyNetwork. It has a plastic half of the Sun thatuse magnets inside and pipe cleaners demothe prominences and flares. This turned outto be very popular with the public.
For the evening, I brought anotherNight Sky Network item: the Moon Demo,which uses - ready - flour, water, hot choc-olate and a styrofoam meat tray to make thesurface of the Moon. With it, I showed howthe lighting on the Moon’s surface is betterfor viewing through a telescope during anyphase of the Moon except full.
I also had over 500 copies of the WhoAre We page with a May Star Chart on theback; I was out of them by the time we leftthat night. I estimate over 1000 peoplecame to Heritage Square (including a wed-ding party) and stopped by our scopes andPAS table.
I wish to thank the telescope team andespecially James Enos, the Planetarium Di-rector at ASC for having us at this event.He took great care of all the PAS Membersand did a fantastic job of setting up andmanaging the event. James was there earlymorning until pack up time for PAS whichwas about 9:30pm. I look forward to thenext Astronomy Day event and to future
National Astronomy Day atArizona Science Center Apr 29
By President Sam Insana
In the evening time of this event, Storm joinedus with her telescope, an 8”. Photo by Terri.
And Pete attended the evening portion of thisevent with his 12” scope, and he had a crowd
for most of the evening. Photo by Terri.
Sam had his PST set up and a crowd around itmost of the day. Photo by Sam.
Paul assisted Sam by helping with which everscope Sam wasn't at. Here we see Paul assist-ing with Sam's 8” scope. Both of Sam's scopeshad lines at them all day and into the night.
Photo by Sam.
Paul is assisting the public with seeing the Sunthrough Sam's scope. We see the Arizona Sci-ence Center in the background of this photo.
Photo by Sam.
Sam stood by the Telescope we were raffling offat this event. Photo taken by Terri with Sam's
Here's the set up of this event's PAS Table.Photo by Terri. .
For the evening portion of this event, Don usedhis scope again. Photo by Terri.
PAS events at ASC.James writes: “I thought this event
was a great time! This was my first timeorganizing a big event like this on my own,but I think it really came together intosomething pretty cool. We had some hic-cups with our first guest presentation (KaiStaats and his film aboutLIGO/Gravitational Waves), but it endedup just fine and Dr. David Williams' pre-sentation was fantastic as well. I think ev-erybody enjoyed the various partners(Saguaro, Ronald Greeley Center for Plan-etary Studies, ASU's Low-Frequency Cos-mology Group, The SuperstitionSpacemodeling Group, etc), and the tele-scope support provided by PAS was a fan-tastic way to both introduce and conclude
astronomy day for all of our guests. I don'thave the exact data on the number of at-tendees; I'll try to get that info! I'd love tosee any photos you or your team may havetaken!
The temperature this day was very pleasant,not too hot and not too breezy. This is Sam's
scope with Don off to the left of the photo. Pho-to by Sam.
Here we have Sam, the Raffle Scope and theWinner of the Raffle, Monica who was so happy
to have won the telescope. Photo by Terri.
PAS is Incorporated in the state of Arizona as a 501( c)3 organization. Our newsletter PAStimes ispublished monthly from September to May, and is distributed via the Internet. All issues are availableon our Website www.pasaz.org . Ads for astronomy equipment are provided as a courtesy to buyers andsellers and do not constitute any endorsement by PAS or PAStimes. All photos by Don Boyd unlessotherwise noted. All articles and photos are copyright their respective authors or PAStimes.
It was a small party this year, but thosewho attended were appreciated. This year’stheme was different from previous awardsceremonies, being more of a member ap-preciation event honoring one person.
We started out the evening with thefollowing PAS attendees: Sam Insana,Bruce, Ed and Bette Wurst, William andTerri Finch, Howard Moneta, Mike Mar-ron, Linda and Mike Cawley, Alex andDiane Vrenios, Rick Cunningham, RodneyFong, Bill Powell, Ron and Julie Walkerand Don Boyd, joined later by Eric Stein-berg. While we enjoyed the pizza that PASprovided, we listened to music that wasrecorded by Ron Walker at the March 4thPAS Music Jam and watched a slideshowof 2016 PAS events.
We gave out 10 NSN Pins. The NightSky Network provides Pins for public out-reach, though this year they changed theircriteria to require five events rather thanthree; additionally, PAS raised that numberto ten, so fewer pins were given out thanpreviously. The event criteria also changedthis year to only include telescope work-shops, public star parties, solar events,Comicon and Leprecon. Honorable Men-tions went for 9 events by Ed Wurst, 8events by Rick Cunningham, 7 Events byHoward Moneta, and 6 Events by GeorgeSabo, Mark Johnston and Earl DeLong.Pins were given to Pete Turner for 12events, Paul Facuna for 13 events, BruceWurst for 14 events, Alex Vrenios for 17events, Rodney Fong for 18 events, MikeMarron for 21 events, Don Boyd for 27events, Sam Insana did 27 events, WilliamFinch had 33 events and Terri Finch took
top attendance with 35 events. Next werethe results of the bean bag toss at the PASSocial of Apr 15th. There were 15 players -2nd place was taken by Vera Stiesmeyerand 1st Place by Frank Insana. Sam accept-ed Frank’s award in his absence.
The dart game plaque came next. 2ndPlace went to Howard Moneta and MarkJohnston both tying at a score of 16 with 1stPlace went to Bruce Wurst with the firstever score of 20.
The next item on the agenda was theMember Appreciation Award. To make thismore interesting, President Sam Insana andVice President Alex Vrenios read the list ofcriteria polled from PAS members alongwith their votes, each taking a turn, describ-ing the member who was being appreciatedon this night. Between each reading of anitem, there was a pause to allow all presentto think about who this member might be.The answer was Don Boyd, who receivedhis member appreciation award while aslideshow about his PAS tenure played inthe background. A ten-minute break fol-lowed to enjoy a cake provided by BillPowell, followed in turn by a documentarynamed “Death of a Star”, provided by Alex.I wish to thank everyone helped make thisevent go smoothly, along with all who tookphotos. The event was enjoyed by all andunderscores how much PAS appreciates itsmembers. Maybe next year, you will be theAppreciated PAS Member. We will see youat the next awards ceremony which isscheduled for Apr 26 2018.
PAS Awards Ceremony Apr 27By Terri, Event Manager
Using Don's Camera, Bruce took a photoof Don receiving his Member AppreciationAward. Don Boyd is the Member being Appreci-ated at the 2017 Awards Ceremony.
At the Awards Ceremony, Frank Insana wasawarded 1st Place for the Bean Bag Toss, how-ever, he couldn't attend to get the award. So, on
May 4th, when Frank was in town, his dad,President Sam Insana, gave him the award.
Photo provided by Sam.
The event started just as the Sun wassetting behind the Bookmans building.Attending on this very hot muggy nightwere Sam Insana with his 8” telescope,Roger Anzini with his 16” telescope,William and Terri Finch and RodneyFong. Sam and Roger set up in the park-ing lot across the way from the front ofthe store where we had our PAS Tablewith handouts. Rodney was really help-ful with loading and unloading vehiclesand being the runner between the twolocations at Bookmans.
We also had a surprise visit fromKevin Harcey and Kevin Gray who satwith us at the PAS Table for most of theevent. An old friend of William andTerri’s named Jonathan stopped by andchatted with us for the rest of the evening.
I estimate that we had about 250people this night, not including thosewho just walked by and went into Book-mans. It was a great turnout for such amuggy and hot night.
I wish to thank my Telescope Team- It was a nice surprise that Roger joined
us with his scope. The objects visiblethis night were Jupiter, until it set, Saturnand the Moon. The Moon was mostlyfull, bright and beautiful all night longrising over the Walgreens building. Ilook forward to the next event like thisone on Apr 28, 2018. Remember, inorder to have this type of event, there hasto be a Moon plus one other bright objectin the night sky on a Saturday that isn’talready scheduled with some other PASevent. See you there!
Bookmans Sidewalk Astronomy Aug 5By Terri, Event Manager
