April 5, 2011 Meeting

Due to a meeting room scheduling conflict, the meeting will be on the first Tuesday rather than the first Monday

Bartlesville Public Library Meeting Room

6:45 p.m. Setup and casual conversation

7:00 p.m. Club Business

7:15 p.m. What's News?

7:30 p.m.

DSLR Astrophotograsphy

Speaker - Daryl Doughty

Today's digital SLR cameras are ideally suited for photography by the astronomy enthusiast. They have sensitive chips with high pixel count and small pixel size that makes them useful for both deep sky photography or lunar, solar, and planetary photography. Daryl's talk will demonstrate the basic characteristics and procedures that will help get the most out of your camera and photography. He will also describe some of the free software available that will allow you to capture pictures and process them to obtain the best results and presentation.

A Guide to Eyepieces

Getting the Most Out of Your Scope

by Adrian R. Ashford

Article continued at (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/letsgo/toolsforstargazing/Guide_to_Eyepieces.html?page=2&c=y)

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos Series on the Web

For those of you over 50 or so, you may remember the Carl Sagan 13 part series of astronomy programs called “Cosmos”. At the time of production, its special effects won awards for their innovative techniques. Some of the ideas he presented such as Black Holes, Worm Holes, Solar Sails have been the topics of both science fiction and science fact. Even controversial political hot topics such as global warming and nuclear winter were first presented in the series. Like me, you may not agree with Sagan on all his ideas, some have proven scientifically credible while others were more his philosophical musings on the origins of things. A whole generation of youth and young adults may have begun their interest in astronomy watching this series. So if you can get past the 80’s attire and Sagan’s odd narrative style and accent you might enjoy a trip down memory lane.

You’ll find the whole series online for FREE. Well, almost free, you do have to watch a few introductory commercials and an odd dialogue about the evils of the Cold War. You can slide the viewing cursor forward and skip some of the promo parts. And you don’t have to download the video viewing software promoted by some of the ads.

Find all 13 episodes of Cosmos at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081846/episodes

by John Land Astronomy Club of Tulsa

• • April 3 - New Moon. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth. This phase occurs at 14:32 UTC.

  • April 3 - Saturn at Opposition. The ringed planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. This is the best time to view and photograph Saturn and its moons.

  • April 18 - Full Moon. The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This phase occurs at 02:44 UTC. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Full Pink Moon because it marked the appearance of the moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the first spring flowers. This year, it is also known as the Paschal Full Moon because it is the first full moon of the spring season.

  • April 21, 22 - Lyrids Meteor Shower. The Lyrids are an average shower, usually producing about 20 meteors per hour at their peak. These meteors can produce bright dust trails that last for several seconds. The shower usually peaks on April 21 & 22, although some meteors can be visible from April 16 - 25. This year, the gibbous moon will hide most of the fainter meteors in its glare. Look for meteors radiating from the constellation of Lyra after midnight, and be sure to find a dark viewing location far from city lights.

  • May 3 - New Moon. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth. This phase occurs at 06:51 UTC.

(Source: http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2011.html)

2011 Programs

Next Meeting

April 4, Monday. Bartlesville Public Library Meeting Room (tentative)

Newsletter Contributions Needed

Our club newsletter is reaching more people each month, and member contributions in the form of short articles, interesting news items, alerts of upcoming astronomical events or activities, descriptions of personal observations or useful equipment, and observing tips, are encouraged. Recurring columns or multipart articles are also welcome. Please submit your contributions to Mike Woods or to bvilleastro@gmail.com .

BAS Public Website: http://sites.google.com/site/bartlesvilleastronomyclub/

BAS Yahoo Group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BvilleAstro/

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