Newsletter of the Big Bend Astronomical Society, Inc. October, 1998 Jim Walker, Editor

Tom Montemayor from McDonald Observatory gave a presentation on the Search for Low and Intermediate Redshift Supernova Sources with the 30” f3 telescope.  The search covers Abell Galaxies to a distance of about 1.5 billion light years perpendicular to the plane of our galaxy.  In its two years, the search has found two supernovas.

One of the objects of this program is to compare the rate of expansion of the universe based on photometric measurements of the brightness of supernovae with the rate inferred from their Doppler shifts.  So far, this work confirms a value of 67 kilometers/second/megaparsec for the Hubble constant, giving the rate of expansion as a function of distance.

The 30” scope has a large field of view, 46 arcminutes, which is larger than the full moon.  Tom brought a number of beautiful color photos taken with the CCD camera on this scope.  The Whirlpool Galaxy, the Dumbell Nebula, and the Bubble Nebula were particularly striking.

Fran Sage, Chair of the Newman Committee, offered a correction to the minutes of the last meeting.  Her second motion, at the bottom of Page 4, should read as follows:

Fran moved that the BBAS form a financial management program with the following charge: Consider how best to invest the fund to earn a good return while insuring its safety; consider whether to put a floor under the amount transferred each year to the recipient of the fund; and consider whether the fund should be managed to protect it from inflation.
 

Treasurer Betty Grimm gave the following report:  Bank balance 08/31/98      $2,059.12 September Activity  Receipts                                  74.00 Disbursements                     1,425.00 Balance 09/30/98                  708.12 Less Newman Fund                  110.00 Less Lighting Fund                   100.00 Working balance 09/30/98     498.12

First National Bank in Alpine Savings Account Opened 09/95/98 09/25/98 Deposit               1,200.00 09/30/98 Interest Earned           .46 Balance 09/30/98               1,200.46

Murray Newman Fund CD     2,904.57

As I reported last month, Roland Peña, manager of West Texas Utilities, in cooperation with the Alpine Main Street rejuvenation and beautification program, plans to install 45 acorn globe lights in downtown Alpine.  Roland has ordered two of these lights and will install them at the WTU office, one on side of the building and one on the other.  They will be mounted on 12-foot poles like the Main Street lights are to be mounted.  The lights will have 70 watt high pressure sodium bulbs, like the lights on the County Jail.

I will be away from October 15 through about November 6.  If the lights are installed during this period, it would be good to look at them and let Bill Baker know what you think.

Bernie Zelazny, BBAS Vice President and Webmaster, continues maintaining and improving our Society web site. Bill Brooks of Brooks Data has donated the site.
Besides the current Newsletter, there are numerous links to other web sites with astronomical content.

As of September, 1998 all Newsletters and Sky Watch web pages are being archived. Click on the Archive Directory links on either the current Newsletter web page (at the bottom) or Sky Watch web page (above the current star chart) to go to the appropriate Archive Directory.

The Newsletter, and many other things, is now available online.  If you have Internet access, Bernie will let you know when the Newsletter is available.  You can then read it online.  You can also follow any of the many links to other web sites of astronomical interest.

PLEASE LET BERNIE ZELAZNY OR JIM WALKER KNOW if you no longer wish to receive a paper copy of the Newsletter.  Several members have already done so, saving our society postage, printing costs, and paper - none of which are trivial expenses.   However, if you want to continue receiving a paper copy, that's OK too.  None of us members of the cyber elite will consider you a second-class citizen!

ELECTION OF OFFICERS will take place in the November meeting.  You will receive your ballot in the mail with instructions for voting.

NOTA BENE! (Look at this real good!)  For the remainder of the Sul Ross Fall Semester, that is, NOVEMBER, AND DECEMBER, we will hold our regular meetings in our old location:

at our usual time, 7:30 PM, on the SECOND WEDNESDAY of EACH MONTH

The room in the ACR Building has a center aisle, which we think makes it a little more comfortable than the room in Lawrence Hall where we have been meeting most recently.

If you're new to the area and don't know where the ACR building is located on the Sul Ross State University campus, you can click here to go to an SRSU campus map or here to see a photo of the ACR building.

Please call or e-mail Jim Walker at 364-2467, or Bernie Zelazny at 837-1717 if you need further information.

NEXT MEETING:  7:30 PM, Wednesday,  November 11, 204 ACR Building
Grant Hill, a Resident Astronomer with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, will give a program
entitled Determining the Chemical Abundance of the Stars. (Dr. Hill’s program was originally scheduled for October, but will be given in November instead.) Through the magic of
spectroscopy, we can learn the chemical composition of the stars – knowledge we are most
unlikely to acquire in any other way.

NEXT STAR PARTY:  8:00 PM Central Daylight Time, Saturday, October 24,  Double Diamond Pavilion. The sun sets at 7:10 PM, moon sets at 10:22 PM.  New moon is October 20.

ALTERNATE DATE: There will be no alternative date this month.

As Bill Baker emphasized at our August meeting, there is a good chance of having a Leonid meteor storm this year (or possibly next).

Plan on meeting at the Walker’s about 9:00 PM, and watching as long as anyone wishes, even till dawn.  NOTE THAT this is a TUESDAY evening.

This is also the night of a Sierra Club meeting, so if you’re a Sierra person, please feel free to come and watch the Leonids any time after your meeting.

The sun sets at 7:53 PM, and the moon sets at 7:22 PM, so it should be a good night for meteor watching.  The radiant, in the Sickle of Leo, rises at 12:17 AM on Nov 18.  It is also possible to see meteors before the radiant rises, but we are likely to see more after the radiant is up.

There is an excellent article on the Leonids in the November Sky & Telescope.