MEETING NOTICE :

TThe regular meeting of the BARNARD ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY will be held Thursday, June 14th at Jones Observatory on Brainerd Rd. The business meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. followed by the program at 8:30. Refreshments will be served.

PROGRAM:

“My Experiences While Working in The Space Shuttle Program.” Presented by BAS Member Kevin Richardson.

The Barnard STAR is the official publication of the Barnard Astronomical Society.

Planned Activities to Enjoy
The Wonders of Astronomy—

“The joy of astronomy comes from finding your way around the starry sky and understanding what you see.” –The Editors, SKY AND TELESCOPE MAGAZINE

OFFICERS

President………………………………………...…..Tom Adkins
Vice-President………………………………...…….Bill Seymour
Secretary………………………………………….Gary Caldwell
Treasurer……………………………….……………..David Witt
STAR Editor…………………………………….….Steve Ramey
Webmaster…………………………………………….Rod Ruch
Database Manager……………………..…………....Bill Seymour
Star Party Chairman………………………………..Victor Rogers

MAY REGULAR MEETING PROGRAM

On May 10th, BAS member Robert Coulter gave a very interesting program about his visit to the Great Meteor Crater in Arizona. He showed a PowerPoint video presentation which essentially followed the tour leaders through the visitor center and around the lip of the crater and recorded their comments. Not only the astronomy but much detail about the fascinating impact geology of the crater was discussed.

The crater is not a national park but is privately owned by a family which operates it as a tourist attraction.

Earlier in the 20th century, Geologist Gene Shoemaker had conducted extensive research at the crater before announcing his findings that the crater resulted from a cataclysmic meteorite impact. Since the predominant scientific opinion at the time was that crater was of volcanic origin, this step involved considerable professional risk.

It is estimated that around 50,000 years ago a freight-car sized meteorite, possibly separated into several large fragments and traveling at approximately 40,000 mph, slammed into the desert floor at an 80 degree angle in a location just north of what is now Flagstaff, Arizona. The resulting crater is more than 550 feet deep (could hold the Washington Monument) and is wide enough on its floor to accommodate numerous football fields.

A little known fact is that, in this type of large impact much of the damage is caused, not by the meteorite strike itself, but by the vast destruction from the enormous shock wave of compressed air which roars just ahead of such an object down through the earth’s atmosphere.

One dramatic contemporary human story relates to the piece of aluminum aircraft wreckage which can be seen glistening in the sun on the crater floor. Many years ago, a commercial airline pilot (who should have known better) made an ill-fated sight-seeing flight down into the crater in a small rented single engine Cessna 150. He soon got into trouble, and those of us who have been airplane pilots can immediately recognize some serious ”altitude-density” hazards for flying at low speeds near the ground in that situation (at one mile above sea level in the summer desert heat). Combining that with the underpowered little Cessna and the natural tendency of an aircraft to lose altitude during turns, he was doomed into flying in endless circles deep in the crater, unable to climb out, until his fuel was finally exhausted. The pilot survived the crash but was in a full body cast for many months.

JUNE REGULAR MEETING PROGRAM

On June 14th, BAS member Kevin Richardson will give a program titled, “My Experiences While Working in The Space Shuttle Program.” PowerPoint pictures will be shown. Refreshments will be served!

LOOKING AHEAD

Thursday, July 12th ; “A Selection of Recent Astronomy Books” ; Presented by BAS member Tom Adkins.

Thursday, August 9th; “Astronomy in Science Fiction” ; Presented by BAS member David Witt.

SPRING FIELD TRIP TO TAO A SUCCESS

On Saturday night, May 5th, BAS members traveled to Tamke-Allan Observatory (TAO) for an open house with Roane State College staff and students, along with members of ORION (Oak Ridge Isochronous Observation Network), the Oak Ridge astronomy club. This is the first of what is hoped to become an annual Spring BAS trip. A delicious pot-luck dinner was served, and radio telescope demonstrations along with an interesting inside program filled the evening.

Although early cloudiness and late ground fog prevented any optical observing, Dr. David Fields (the TAO Director) used the IBT radio antenna (about the size of a Direct TV satellite dish) to show that, in addition to extra-terrestrial radio sources from our galaxy, the sun, and Jupiter, there are radio waves continuously emanating from people, animals, and the earth around us.

Senior students from the UTK College of Engineering gave a program on their microgravity experiment—a study of hydraulics liquid/gas flow boundary phenomena known as “entrainment”-- which they carried up in the NASA “vomit-comet” jet at Houston, TX to achieve a weightless test environment.

A prominent collector of meteorites, visiting from Cincinnati, OH showed his extensive collection. He agreed to visit a BAS meeting in Chattanooga later this year for a demonstration.

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MEETING

Conceived in the late 1950s, Gravity Probe B was finally launched in 2004 to test subtle predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity (Science, 16 April 2004, Essentially a 3-ton Thermos bottle housing four precise gyroscopes, the probe was designed to measure the dragging of space-time around a spinning body--in this case, Earth. Physicists reported here on 14 April that after a year of datacollection and a year and a half of analysis, they have found "glimpses" of the frame-dragging effect. But they offered no numbers. A specific measurement was, however, reported for a second effect, caused by relativistic warping of space-time. That "geodetic" effect tilted the gyroscopes by an angle of 6638 milli-arc seconds (mas) per year (give or take 97).

If Isaac Newton's simple laws of gravity ruled the universe, each gyroscope's axis of spin would stay pointed toward a "guide star" tracked by a telescope on board the probe, which flew in a 640-kilometer-high polar orbit. Relativity's effects, however, should tilt that spin axis slightly away from the star by about 6600 mas per year, within the range of Gravity Probe
B's margin of error.

But the geodetic effect has previously been measured more precisely by other methods. Gravity Probe B's primary purpose was to measure the much smaller effect caused by frame dragging, predicted to be a mere 39 mas per year: about the width of a human hair seen from 400 meters away.

Measuring the tilt caused by frame dragging--at right angles to the geodetic drift--was complicated, however, by unanticipated wobbles and twists in the gyroscopes' motion. Eight more months of data analysis will be needed to smooth those glitches out of the data, said physicist C. W. Francis Everitt of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, Gravity Probe B's principal investigator.

"We have some glimpses of the frame-dragging effect, and I think they are probably authentic," he said. "We're on track, but we're not there yet."

Since I began this article a week ago we have all heard the news from NASA, "Einstein was Right, Again!" Indeed this has been the comment after almost ever significant experiment to test the General Theory.

Good Seeing!

BAS WEB SITE
http://bas.chattanooga.net

 

Officers

President………………………………………...….Tom Adkins
Vice-President……………………………………Gary Caldwell
Secretary…………………………………...………Bill Seymour
Treasurer…………………………………………….David Witt
STAR Editor……………………………………….Steve Ramey
Webmaster…………………………………………….Rod Ruch
Star Party Chairman……………………………...Victor Rogers

May Minutes

The May meeting of The Barnard Astronomical Society (BAS) was called to order by President Tom Adkins at 7:45 P.M. There were thirteen members and three visitors present. Tickets were sold at the start of the business meeting for a book raffle fund-raiser. The minutes of the April Meeting were read and accepted as read.

Treasurer’s Report

David Witt reported $660.02 in the checking account. The only outstanding debt is the $20 annual fee to the Tennessee Department of Revenue for the non-profit corporate charter. The yearly fee for The Astronomical League will be due in June, but many members will be paying their dues then.

Old Business

With a quorum of members present, the slate of new officers proposed by the nominating committee was approved by acclamation: President- Tom Adkins (to serve on interim basis); Vice-President- Gary Caldwell; Secretary- Bill Seymour; Treasurer- David Witt; STAR Editor- Steve Ramey; Webmaster-Rod Ruch; Star Party Chairman- Victor Rogers; (note that Database Manager function is now being merged into the Secretary position.)

Bill Seymour has monthly programs already planned through December, 2007. After that, to keep developing fresh ideas, someone else, or perhaps a committee should take over the program coordinator function.

Annual star party at Daisy Elementary will be postponed, probably until Fall, due to new principal needing to get familiar with BAS.

Bill Seymour will send revised BAS Constitution to Rod Ruch forposting on the web site and copy the club officers.

BAS needs someone to back up Rod Ruch, who sometimes is unavailable, to change data on the web site. Robert Coulter has volunteered.

New Business

The Star Party at Orion Acres proposed by Victor Rogers is uncertain because of the weather.

Tom Adkins gave a report on happenings at the Jones Observatory. There are proposals to upgrade the telescope, and Jack Pitkin is working with Mike Marcus of Robotic Telescope Systems, Ellijay, Georgia. Some telescope functions may be computerized and design a baffling system for the optics. The focusing mechanism has been sent to California for repair. Observatory events continue to have good attendance. Jack Ptikin has done a good job of recruiting UTC students to volunteer at the Observatory; 6-8 students show up at the Sunday night open house events, and 50-60 visitors are usually present.

David Witt said that SKY AND TELESCOPE (S&T) magazine is now outsourcing its subscriptions. Club member subscriptions are now mailed directly to S&T, and the BAS treasurer will verify once a year.

Dr. John Mannone inquired about a response to his article on Pulsars which was sent by e-mail to BAS members. Those persons who read this extensive compilation of material thought it was excellent, but some persons apparently had trouble downloading the file. Thanks, John, for all of the effort that you put into this document! Your work is greatly appreciated for the scientific depth that you continually bring to BAS.

New Members

Welcome to Bill and Melinda Lord; and Robert and GeorgiaMichalski.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Seymour, Secretary

REMINDER- Your annual BAS dues of are now due on the anniversary of your membership in accordance with the adopted amendment to the by-laws. The due date appears below your name on the address on the front of this newsletter. If your expiration date says “Overdue” or if you don’t agree with the date shown, contact David Witt to resolve discrepancies. The current dues rates are as follows: REGULAR $15.00, REGULAR ASSOCIATE $7.00, JUNIOR $8.00, JUNIOR ASSOCIATE $5.00. Your Sky & Telescope or Astronomy subscription will continue to be handled as in the past. When you receive your subscription reminder card, submit it to:

David Witt
4503 Cove Lane
Chattanooga, TN 37415-2306

Along with the group subscription rate of $32.95 for Sky and Telescope, or $34.00 for Astronomy. Note the increased rate for Astronomy. This was effective July 31, 2005

DEADLINE- All articles and other materials for publication in the next STAR are due no later than Wednesday, June 6th. The following media are acceptable: hard copy, disk (IBM), video tape (VHS), prints, or e-mail to bas@chattanooga.net or stramey@catt.com and attach a file or mail to:

Steve Ramey
109 Sioux Trail
Ringgold GA 30736

PHOTOGRAPHS ARE ALSO ACCEPTABLE.

DIRECTIONS TO ORION ACRES

FROM NORTH HAMILTON COUNTY:

From 27 (corridor J) take hwy. 111 to Dunlap, continue through the Sequatchie Valley up the next mountain (Cagle Mountain). When you reach the summit about 5 miles turn LEFT onto hwy. 399 (sign reads 'to Savage Gulf State Park' Stay on 399 until it ends, which will be in Grundy Co. Now make a LEFT onto hwy. 108 South. This goes thru Palmer TN. Continue on 108 up to a higher elevation. When this levels off, turn RIGHT onto Palmer Fire Tower Rd. This is a large open area with possibly trucks loaded with timber for the paper mills. Orion Acres will be on the RIGHT about 8 tenths mile.

FROM INTERSTATE 24 (to Nashville):

Go to the Dunlap/Whitwell exit (#155). This is hwy. 28. Exit right and keep on 28 for about 11 miles, passing Hardee’s on your left. Continue through the stoplight and take the next LEFT on Hwy. 108 North. Continue another 11 or so miles. You will see 'Grundy County' sign. Take the next left. This is Palmer Fire Tower Rd. Go 8 tenths of a mile and Orion Acres is on the RIGHT