Newsletter of the Big Bend Astronomical Society, Inc. November, 1999 Jim Walker, Editor

        The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by President Bill Baker.  There were 15 people present.  The minutes of the October meeting were accepted as printed in the previous Newsletter.
        Andy Anderson, Judy Brueske-Plimmer, and Barbara Walker tallied the votes in our election of officers.  The candidates, all unopposed, received from 23 to 25 votes each.  Our officers for the year 2000 are Bernie Zelazny, President; John Bell, Vice President; Jim Walker, Secretary; Betty Grimm, Treasurer; and Terry Eakens and Parks Goodwin, Board Members at Large.  Our thanks to these folks who are willing to serve our Society in the new millennium.
        Jim Walker, as Outdoor Lighting Chair, reported that the Alpine Planning and Zoning Board has not yet acted on the lighting ordinance presented in June.  City Manager Doug Lively has designated David Busey, Director of Development, as the person who will be responsible for moving the ordinance through the P & Z Board and the City Council.  We can hope for, and perhaps expect, action in the near future.  In the meantime, Barbara Walker suggested that anyone willing to speak with local businesses about their lights please do so, coordinating with Jim's efforts.
        Betty Grimm presented the treasurer's report below.  Jim Walker presented a short program on the August 11 solar eclipse, see program below.

        On November 15, Mercury moved between us and the sun.  Several members and friends joined us to watch the transit in our observatory. Transits of Mercury occur about a dozen times each century.
        We projected an image of the sun about a foot in diameter on a white screen mounted on a photographic tripod.  The transit began about 3:11 PM and ended about 4:11 PM.  Mercury first appeared as a tiny indentation in the NNE edge of the sun, eventually detaching itself from the edge and appearing as a well defined round black dot about 1/16 inch in diameter.
        Throughout the transit, Mercury remained close to the edge of the sun.  At the midpoint of the transit, Mercury was only about 2/3 of its own diameter inside the sun.
        Transits of Mercury and Venus were of great historical interest in making the best early measurements of the distance to the sun, and thus the size of the solar system.  In 1679, Edmund Halley, the comet guy, first proposed that observing a transit from two widely separated points on the earth would make it possible to determine the distance to the sun by triangulation.  Today, we have more precise distance measurements by radar, so transits are only of historic interest  (however, see the report below of an extrasolar planet transiting its parent star).
        Besides observing the transit, we were able to see several sunspots.  A major sunspot complex was about 80,000 miles long, about ten times the earth's diameter.  The sun's diameter is about 800,000 miles, so it's easy to determine the size of sunspots and other features on the sun.  We are approaching the peak of the 11-year cycle of solar activity, so we expect to see a maximum number of sunspots and a maximum of other solar activity next year.
        It's easy to observe sunspots visually with a PROPER SOLAR FILTER on a telescope, or by eyepiece projection with a scope or binoculars.  NEVER attempt to view the sun with your naked eye, or through a scope or binoculars.  It will FRY an unprotected eyeball!

        Eleven members and guests joined Barbara and me for our Leonid watch on November 17-18.  We did a lot of watching, but very little seeing.  Most of us saw a handful of Leonids and almost as many Taurids.  A few Leonids left short-lived glowing trails.  The brightest meteors were perhaps about mag 2.  The show was much better last year.
        Some hardy souls stayed until 3:00 AM.  I mounted a camera with a wide-angle 28mm lens on my scope and took continuous 12-minute time exposures until about 6:00 AM.  I was tracking the sky, so the stars will be points and the meteors - if any - will be streaks.  The slides are not back from processing, but will be by our next meeting.  Let's all try again in 2032!

        The 1999 Leonid meteor storm was spectacular over Europe and parts of the Middle East where as many as 70 meteors per minute were seen by sky watchers.  But the storm was over by the time of morning twilight in the United States; only 20 to 40 meteors per hour were seen in most areas.
        Nevertheless, the most exciting Leonid observation may have occurred right here in the United States.  Brian Cudnik, a research technician at Rice University and Prairie View A&M University, was watching the Moon for signs of flashes caused by Leonids striking the lunar surface. At about 4h 46m 20s UT on November 18 he saw a brief flash near the center of the Moon's dark side, close to the edge of the lunar disk.  Observing with a 36cm telescope, he estimated that the flash, taking a fraction of a second, was at least as bright as a nearby 4th-magnitude star.  Cudnik is an experienced observer of occultations, and he immediately contacted David Dunham, president of the International Occultation Timing Association for possible confirmation.  Fortunately, Dunham was video taping the dark side of the moon at the same time that Cudnik saw the flash.
        "I confirmed the observation in a video recording that I made using a 13cm telescope in Mount Airy, Maryland," says Dunham, who is also the chief of the mission design team for NASA's NEAR mission. "The flash, timed from the videotape at 4h 46m 15s UT, is visible in only two video frames, the first at about 3rd magnitude and the second at about 8th magnitude. The images can be viewed at my web site."
        "The object was probably a Leonid since the peak of this year's display was at 2h UT as seen from the Earth," continued Dunham. "The trailing Moon would arrive at the same solar longitude about 3h later, near the time of the observed impact."  Dunham has issued a call for other lunar observers to report data that might confirm his observation. Several groups have already reported in, he says, but so far everyone was looking at the wrong time or at the wrong spot.  If you have video or visual observations of the Moon bearing evidence of possible Leonid meteorite impacts, please contact David Dunham at david.dunham@jhuapl.edu.

        Jack Mollard has two scopes for sale:  a Parks 8" Newtonian on a very sturdy German equatorial mount, and a Celestron C90 on a photographic tripod.  Call Jack at 364-2453.