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Mike Wirths wrote: The sky is looking great at the moment, and forecast is still sounding good, so I think it is fair to consider it a firm plan now. See you there. Posting it to the whole Ottawa Centre might be a bit of overkill, but I have sent a separate note to Hilderic and Pat (who live just outside Almonte) inviting them to join the party. Cheers - Al

Mike, I have a confirmed 12 cadets and 4 adults who will attend on Saturday night. The final call is , of course, yours to make...but should the weather be iffy, could you let me know via cell ( 265-2355) by 4:30 or so, so that I may in turn inform the people on my list....?? The plan is to leave Ottawa around 6:30pm and leave your place around 10:00~11:00 or so.... Let me know, Jean

Just sorting out the information... I was just stepping through the next couple of months with my SkyMap Pro software, to see when Mars would be largest. It looks like on the evenings around June 21st, Mars would be widest at 20.79". That happens to be the night of a new moon, so some dark sky observing would be extra rewarding at that time, with Mars being so big. Dates of the first quarter Moon, on either side of that June 21st date, are May 27th and June 28th. These times might offer a potential for Moon-Mars sidewalk or other public sessions. Red Photons Rising... Rol

Nice report, Roland. Given that some of us are addicted to hearing those "wow"s, we should think about how we might do public astronomy this summer in the absence of bright planets. I'm not sure that Mars will be a good public astronomy target. It's awfully small and has no cool features like visible moons or rings. The surface features are very low contrast. Consider how exciting a view of saturn would be without the rings. I suppose we could have lunar observing nights were we set up four telescopes showing different high-power portions of the moon. We could make that entertaining if we could find four different sections of the moon that we could hold a converstaion about for more than 30 seconds. I think I could yak for 15 seconds on each of plato, tycho, mare tranquilatus, Messier crater and the straight wall. But given that not all of those will be visible on one night, I'd probably have to do a lot more reading on the moon to make a moon-only observing session interesting. The other thing we could do is seek out observing sites with a mag 5.5 sky or better. There we could show clusters and planetary nebulae. The problem is getting people to come to them. Sidewalk astronomy is unique in that one can get passerby traffic to look through scopes. That wont happen for darker sky sites. Ingrid thinks we should be approaching scout camps. The tend to have their own dark sky sites sometimes under very good skies. Plus there are already people there. In my searches for dark- sky lands, I came across at least one camp under what is very likely to be better than mag 6.5. But I dont recall which denomination they were. I myself was never a member of cubs, scouts, beavers, guides, brownies, timbits or whatever. So I have no contacts with any of those orgs. Are any oafs leaders in such orgs or know leaders? Another thing that might work is to try to get contact with highschool science teachers -- especially if the scouting groups feel like inviting highschool groups out to their camps. I have no idea how to do any of this. Organizing people is not one of my skills. However, if one of you feel like setting setting public astronomy seesion this summer, I'd be happy to bring a scope. Any takers? attilla "need more wows" danko

Janice and I are going to be looking into this over the next few days. We certainly had a wonderful time there last year... My first general impression is that, assuming we decide to go, we might look into the availability of the same kind of arrangements she and I had last year, renting a one-bedroom cabin by the lakeside for the week, thereby piggybacking one of our "vacations together", with the Manitoulin Star Party. That way, if things turned out to be very cloudy or rainy, we'd still end up with a week reading, writing, relaxing, etc., at the cabin for our efforts. Also that way, we could invite you guys to come over for supper, and on cloudy nights maybe share a campfire and your good company. We'll keep you posted, Janice & Roland

--- In OAFs@y..., r.prevost@h... wrote: > I'd like to compile a collection of "favourite quotes", one from each > session That's an excellent idea. Here are my two favorites: "You mean to get to do this every night!" "F**K!" I'm not making this up. They're both from 1999 Carp Library session. Looking forward to pinhey's point, -ad

http://jwisn.topcities.com/ngclist.htm Very nice images of the RASC's finest NGC list by Jan Wisniewski. I particularly like Jan's planetary nebula images. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010411.html Nice animation of that big naked eye sunspot (9393) http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/hst/97-09a.html Comming soon to a morning near you. -ad

Enter your vote today! A new poll has been created for the OAFs group: Are you interested in participating in sidewalk/scout/school observing sessions and if so, on average, how many times per month? o Not interested or rarely o 1/month o 2/month o 3/month o 4 or 5+/month (Bring 'em on!) To vote, please visit the following web page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/polls Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups web site listed above. Thanks!

--- In OAFs@y..., attilla.danko@s... wrote: > I have no idea how to do any of this. Organizing people is not one > of my skills. However, if one of you feel like setting setting > public astronomy seesion this summer, I'd be happy to bring a scope. > > Any takers? > > attilla "need more wows" danko Before we lure hoardes of scouts and students to come stampeding into the night... Jan and I put together a quick poll just to get a feel for the potential level of interest in doing public sessions together, over the next few months. This is just an informal poll and not a vote. Here's a link to it... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/polls Your Fellow WOWsers, Janice & Roland Spealing of poles... "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK..."

Sess.#287 7:30-10:00pm Almonte Public Library s=7/10 lm=4.5 A very satisfying sidewalk observing session. Al Seaman set things up for this session by checking out the site for viewing angles for the gas planets, and posting notices at various places in Almonte. Richard Harding, Mike Wirths, Attilla Danko, Janice and myself joined Al and set up our scopes in the public library's parking lot just after sunset. The scopes were, in ascending order of apeture/complexity: a Traveller refractor( 4" ?), an 8" Dob, a SCT 8", a SCT 10", and a 18" truss-tube (with GoTo and tracking). A good cross-section of scopes of different types, apetures, prices, capabilities, etc. Somewhere between 30 - 35 persons of all ages looked through these scopes. The average stay of each individual was about 30 minutes, with some staying much less, but many staying with us for most of the evening, trying out all the different scopes in turn and asking many interesting questions. One feature that made this session more fun than the usual sidewalk session in an Ottawa shopping mall was that the sky showed stars down to magnitude 4.5, even from the parking lot. This permitted us to find and show more targets than usual. Also, the seeing wasn't too bad, coming in at around 7/10. We showed: Jupiter, Saturn, M42, M3, the Pleiades, the Beehive, Eskimo Neb., M82, as well as the following binary stars Castor, Gamma Leonis, and Polaris (very popular target!). I may have missed some, because I wasn't at each scope, but you get the general idea. The people who came to catch a peek were friendly and on average much more informed about astronomy than a typical mall crowd. At one point, Attilla suggested I make use of his laser pointer to "point out" a few things in the sky. A very useful tool, that. Richard even assisted one woman, who had stayed for maybe an hour, to find Jupiter for herself using his 8" dob. With a bit of coaching by him, she was able to find it repeatedly, much to her delight. Mike's scope was a big hit with the GOTO capability. It made finding things alot easier. Janice answered questions, showed photos and maps, and ran the scopes when we were busy. All of us had a good, quality time. My favourite quote of the night? One young girl got her first look at the rings of Saturn. Whilst still keeping her eye on the target, she stood on the tips of her toes, raised her arms to either side (like Saturn's anses, I guess), and then performed a little hopping dance of pure excitement while saying: "That is so-o-o-o COOL!" I think maybe we should call it the Saturn dance!... So thanks, Almonte, for having us over! and thanks Al for setting it up! Roland

NIce poll. ONe thought....I think that sidewalk astronomy is seasonal. Short of going "out with the Scouts", the late nightfall makes summer sidewalking difficult. The winter, on the other hand, is perfect. A few hours with the planets, a few ohmygods!!! Does it for me. Richard

Public Astronomy sessions are a great way to introduce new people to our hobby - to this I agree with all my heart. Personally my hobby is astronomy (astro photography) not sidewalk astronomy. Anything and everything in moderation, not following this motto is what I think caused the greatest amount of stress with the other Ottawa group. I hope this does not happen with us. Mike Z

It looks like it will clear. Also the moon rises at 1AM tonight leaveing us 3.75 hours of darkness. -ad

--- In OAFs@y..., attilla.danko@s... wrote: > It looks like it will clear. Also the moon rises at 1AM > tonight leaveing us 3.75 hours of darkness. It is now 100% cloud cover here in Orleans at 6:38pm. I need someone who can tell me if it looks clear or like clearing out in the West End. How's Kanata? ONLY IF IT DOES GET CLEAR ;-) I would certainly consider a drive out to FLO - though it would probably be a good idea not to go alone, as the last 500 ft of the small entrance Road might be fairly muddy. I would want to leave my home no later than 7:30pm. If anyone hasn't been there yet, I could post directions as I did last time, and I could meet up with people at the Petro-Can in Almonte. Let me know ASAP if the weather's looking clear out there and/or if you are interested. I will decide if I am going or not at 7:30pm, though I gotta say, it don't look too good at this very moment. The Optimistic Photon Rol

--- In OAFs@y..., mcglashanb2@h... wrote: > Ack. See you at 20:30-20:45. I think my Jan agrees with your Jan, > BTW. > > Bruce McGlashan > Ministry of Silly Walks (in rubber boots tonight) OK leaving now. 8pm takes about 45 - 50 min to FLO - depends on traffic a bit too. Any other, read thread to get more info if you want to join us. See you soon Amigo Leaving now... Over and OUT! Roland

Hi all! I spoke with someone I know at the Perth newspaper today and mentioned that at some point we would like to do a public astronomy night for the town of Perth so he said since no company was involved they would be willing to do a free public announcement in the paper to let people know! I thought a good spot would be in Conlon park which is just west of Perth in a collection of soccer fields and a clear unpolluted view to the west and south, also its close enought that people could easily drive there from anywhere in Perth. I think the owners of the park would be willing to turn off all lights for the occasion! This type of event would also do a lot to raise awareness of light pollution issues, I'll keep you all posted on this as I get more details, I'm sure we could get several 100 people to come out for this! --clear skies Mike W

Thanks Al! Rol

Hello there Matt! If it does clear, I would very much like to go observing with you this evening. Would you like to try for FLO, or whould you prefer the Carp airport? If anyone else has other potential observing plans/sites for this evening and would like some company, maybe let us know? Keep checking as the day progresses for updates. Matt when would you be willing to post a "go" or "no-go" for this evening? Photons are Waiting... ;-) Roland

Sess#288 9:15-12:00pm FLO lm=6.1 s=3/10 var clouds+fog It was 100% cloudy in Orleans when Attilla posted what I thought was the rhetorical question: "is anyone observing tonight?" Anyway, in spite of appearances, Bruce, Attilla and myself had an observing session at the Fred Lossing Observatory. We were the only three there that evening. Sky cleared overhead as we got to Almonte. Bruce set up his still fairly new (1 month) SCT-8" on his excellent Losmandy mount. Attilla suggested we maybe use the observatory's 16" scope, so I focused on that instead of setting up my own. There was some ground fog to look through, a seeing of 3/10 max. and bouts of cloud cover, so conditions were not ideal. Here are some of the targets we looked at (in no order): NGC4565 - beautiful spindle galaxy showing just a hint of dark lane M3 - Bruce's view was good and quite bright M101 - large and relatively non-structured M51 - hints of spiral Sombrero - hints of lane only. Nucleus bright. Castor - ( sep 3.9" binary ) barely split in the 8"- very poor seeing Gamma Leonis - same as Castor Jupiter - much churning, low in the sky by the time we'd started. Mizar - in 8" Then, all in the same field of view, these eight galaxies: M84, M86, & NGCs 4388, 4387, 4402, 4425, 4435, 4438 Things got covered over at 12pm, and Bruce's corrector plate got dewed up completely, in spite of my lending him a dewcap and Kendrick heaters set for 6/10 heat. Very rare indeed to have this happen. The cause was that his scope was aimed nearly at Zenith and left there for 30 minutes while it stood practically in ground fog. Also notable was Attilla's green laser which was much more "Skywalker" than usual. ;-) We tore down at midnight and Attilla made an entry in the FLO logbook. We stopped at Denny's in Kanata on the way home and chatted over "breakfast" for about an hour. It was fun, amigos. PS - Hwy#44 is also called Hwy#49 and this can lead to confusion.

Hello All, I missed the posts yesterday abpout going to FLO. I would have loved that! Oh well, next time. That will teach me to check the list more often! Well it has been about a month since my last observation session and I am chomping at the bit (...er, or should that be eyepiece?......). The forcast seems to show a clearing trend, so I am planning on observing tonight. I will probably head out to Carp, but I am open to other sites if anyone wants to join me. The galaxies are waiting!! Matt