July 2014

Treasurer’s Report—fiscal year July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014:

July 1 2013: Balance $1381.07

Income:

Membership renewals $545.00 (29 memberships with 30 members)

Cash donations $100.26

Total income: $645.26

Expenses:

Seabury and Smith Insurance Co. liability 9/5/13 $320.00

OK SOS Charitable Organization Registration 3/1/14 $15.00

Sunfest booth 4/22/14 $30.00

Astronomical League dues 6/15/14 $150.00

Total yearly expenses $515.00

Ending balance June 30, 2014 $1511.33

Proposed 2015 budget passed by acclamation of all board members present:

Beginning balance $1511.33

Renewals: $570

Donations: $25

Total income: $595

Expenses:

Liability insurance—September $350

Sunfest booth—March $30

OK SOS Charitable Org Registration—March $16

Newsletter/postage costs $25

Astronomical League Dues—June $150

Program/Education Costs $50

Total expenses $620

Sunfest report from Steve:

Estimated 60/65 people signed up for the mailing list

We discussed playing “games” like a “zodiac” quiz to generate more interest next year.

Daryl’s report:

Sunspots: May 15, June 6, July 5

Full moon (larger than normal) June 12

Moon close to Saturn July 7

Pluto is in opposition now but probably won’t be able to see.

Rosette probe launched 2004, has been orbiting since. Will have comet rendezvous early August in order to get samples with a lander. This will take place 30-40 light minutes from earth and will be controlled by on-board computers.

Next meeting: August 4, program TBD

Daryl’s program—Astrophotography: Cameras, telescopes and techniques

A lot of the presentation is in the “seeing” but here are tips that he shared:

Curvature of field of view in camera lens can cause aberration in photographs, such as elongated stars.

Use a cable so you don’t manually have to handle a camera as much when photographing from telescope.

Use a timer, motorized mount, good tripod, and a good sun filter if take solar pictures

Slide the camera into the telescope focus tube and focus by looking into the camera. Practice on the moon first, then go to smaller objects.

Stack pictures to reduce noise rate

An f3.0 lens will give good pictures with a 30-second exposure

Using a 55 mm lens at 5/10/20/30 second exposures will give noticeable star tracking

Using a 135 mm lens at 5/10/20/30 seconds will give lots of star trails

With a point-and-shoot camera you can still take pictures using a tripod. With those, the shutter won’t open if there isn’t enough light.

You could get pretty good pictures also using a video camera if use stacked images

Afocal photography: Set camera at infinity. Can buy an adapter to mount camera behind eyepiece. If using a point and shoot camera this won’t work, though, when trying to do deep sky photography as there won’t be enough light. It will work with moon and sun photos with a filter.

A digital astroflex model camera will correct field curvature and coma, but this is not much good with a reflecting telescope

There are some free programs that can be used to stack star images

Photoshop CS2 release J016 costs around $300-400 but with it you can pick a star to stack around

Types of cameras he has used: Canon circa 1970’s single lens refelex with 135 mm lens from eBay.

Canon 3-line consumer