MEETING NOTICE :

The regular meeting of the BARNARD ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY will be held Thursday, August 9th at Jones Observatory on Brainerd Rd. Refreshments and social hour begin at 7:00 p.m. The business meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. followed by the program at 8:30.

PROGRAM:

“Astronomy in Science Fiction” Presented by BAS Member David Witt.

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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

JULY REGULAR MEETING PROGRAM

What better person to review a selection of recent astronomy books that an amateur astronomer who is also a book dealer? BAS member Tom Adkins brought book samples with him and gave a very informative presentation. Tom began the program by commenting that, in the last 20 years, astronomy books have become more comprehensive, with more enclosed photographs, thereby tending to amplify both the good and bad aspects of a given book

Examples of some of the fascinating texts discussed:
Making and Enjoying Telescopes; The Glass Giant of Palomar (the 200 inch telescope was probably second only to the making of the atomic bomb as the greatest technological achievement of the first half of the 20th century.); Robotic Observatories; Space Songs (Children’s Book on Astronomy); Analysis of Starlight (150 years of spectroscopy after Fraunhofer discovered spectral lines); End in Fire (A Study of The 1978 Supernova, the first to be visible to the naked eye for 440 years); Beyond Jupiter (Illustrations by the famous space artist, Chesley Bonestell and text by Arthur Clarke); Living the Sky; (the cosmos of the American Indian); Sky Watchers Handbook (a wealth of interesting information); Rings; Postcards from Mars; Magnificent Mars; (visions of the interplanetary probes); The Moons of Jupiter (Galileo was in orbit for years around Jupiter); Hubble (a side comment from the BAS audience and not in the book illustrates the great audience participation at recent programs—Have Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity now surpassed the Hubble Space Telescope in terms of technological achievement beyond the original design of the machine?

With these and other fascinating astronomy books available, all BAS members should always be broadening their knowledge by continual reading in an area of interest.

AUGUST REGULAR MEETING PROGRAM

On Thursday, August 9th, BAS member David Witt will give a program titled, “Astronomy in Science Fiction.” Refreshments will be served.

Note that in August a new meeting format will be used on a trial basis;
7:00 P.M. Observatory opens for refreshments and social.
7:30 P.M. Begin business meeting.
8:10 P.M Break.
8:30 P.M. Program Begins.

LOOKING AHEAD

Thursday, September 13th; “Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Titan”, Presented by UTC Senior Emily Hassler

October; Joint Meeting with Chattanooga Section, American Chemical Society (Professional Organization for Chemists and Chemical Engineers); Date and Speaker to be Announced.

BAS MEMBERS ATTEND PROMINENT INTERNATIONAL STAR PARTY

On July 1-7, Dr. John Mannone and Bill Seymour along with four other persons from East Tennessee attended STAR QUEST (which is advertised as “America’s largest combined optical and radio star party”) at Green Bank, West Virginia. Held on the grounds of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the annual Star Party draws hundreds of attendees from all over America and many foreign countries. In addition to providing some of the nations best dark skies for optical astronomers, STAR QUEST also hosts the annual international meeting of The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA), to which Mannone and Seymour belong. This year, Dr. Mannone gave a presentation, “Gamma Ray Bursts and Amateur Radio Astronomy.”

Situated in a remote valley surrounded by tall mountains (a national radio quiet zone) , NRAO has ten large radio telescope dishes ranging in size from a 40 ft. diameter teaching instrument to the 300 ft. GBT (the world’s largest steerable dish antenna). NRAO is one of four enormous radio astronomy research facilities (including Arecibo, PR; the Very Large Array-VLA- in New Mexico; and the Very Large Baseline Array-VLBA- in California) funded with a $150 million annual appropriation from the National Science Foundation.

STAR QUEST is very friendly for attendees. Bunkhouses, a campground, a cafeteria, and a large fascinating visitor center are at the site. Amateur astronomers are able to get actual hands-on experience using a large radio telescope. After some instruction, Mannone and Seymour operated an underground control room filled with instruments under the 40 ft. Dish to measure the Doppler Shift of Neutral Hydrogen (HI) Clouds in the plane of The Milky Way during early morning hours across the meridian. In addition to auditorium programs and classroom presentations, a large sky viewing site with adjacent camping facilities is used for optical telescopes each night.
For a week of sheer astronomy fun, it would be difficult to find a better event!

BAS ACQUIRES RADIO TELESCOPE

BAS is now expanding on its traditional base of optical astronomy to incorporate new ideas and grow as an astronomy club.

Within the past year, a solar telescope was obtained. Now, a small fully functional IBT Radio Telescope, complete with electronics package has been loaned to BAS by the NRAO for educational purposes. Bill Seymour, who will be responsible for the IBT, was awarded the instrument based on his qualifications as a SARA member, being ham radio operator KM4YL, and the reputation BAS has earned for educational outreach in astronomy (recently recognized by NASA Night Sky Network as one of the top ten outreach clubs in America).
The plan is to establish a radio astronomy group within BAS. Seymour, along with Bill and Melinda Lord are purchasing two top-caliber HP 3586C radio receivers.

The Lords will set up one or more large dishes at their rural home observatory outside of Cleveland, TN. Another dish antenna will be utilized by BAS at the Tamke-Allen Observatory (TAO) near Harriman, TN. Dr. David Fields, Director of TAO with long experience in radio astronomy, has agreed to be the mentor for the BAS group.

Although the planet Jupiter, our sun, and the Milky Way Galaxy all generate strong radio signals, the hobby of radio astronomy is so much more than listening for radio signals emanating from outer space. So many fascinating but misunderstood things can be learned about the entire electromagnetic spectrum (“a radio telescope is really an electronic thermometer”; “the photon is the basic unit of transmission of energy across the entire spectrum, no matter what the wavelength”). This and other information will be incorporated into the BAS educational outreach program.

BAS ENTERS ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE OUTREACH CONTEST

By the deadline of July 16th, BAS had mailed the official entry form for the ASTRONOMY “Out-of this world Award 2007” for excellence in astronomy outreach programming. Included in the entry were details of BAS presentations over the last year for such varied groups as schools, boy scouts, churches, hiking club, UTC astronomy classes, neighborhood association, poetry group, chemical society, and the general public.

The award winner will be announced in September. Although BAS may not have a chance to be in first place, our outreach has been significant, and this opportunity to compete for a prize with the top clubs in the U.S. is a recognition of the hard work of so many BAS members in conducting and recording these events. THANK YOU!

The LHC Magnet Cool Down Tests

For the last three and a half years, the testing team has been working 24 hours a day for ten and a half months out of every year. 'It's really a big job just to test one magnet,' said Louis Walckiers, leader of the Magnet Tests and Measurement group. 'It takes 24 hours just to cool the magnet down to 1.9 K.' The process of checking the magnet for electrical and
magnetic performance at the temperature of super-fluid helium (1.9 Kelvin) could take anything between 15 hours and a week or more. Now, the 1,232 dipoles and 474 quadrupoles that have passed the test are in the final stages of installation in the LHC.

Before the cryogenic testing, the magnets had never been tested at the temperature of 1.9 K at which they will perform in the tunnel, since none of the production sites had the necessary facilities. 'This is the first and last functional test before the magnets are installed in the machine,' said Philippe Lebrun, head of the Accelerator Technology Department. Faulty magnets must be rejected or repaired before installation, since it is difficult to extricate them from the LHC once they have been integrated into the machine. A badly manufactured superconducting magnet can literally burn a hole in itself and would have to be replaced entirely. 'If that happened here, the magnet would just be lost,' Walckiers said. 'If that happened in the machine, it would mean one to two months downtime just to change it. That would be a real nightmare.

Once the magnets are all installed in the tunnel in April, there will be one final cooling and powering test in the tunnel itself. If a magnet has to be repaired, it will subsequently be retested. 'We should feel relieved but we still have a lot of similarly difficult activities to perform,' said Lebrun. 'So actually we don't have time to feel relieved. 'Half of the benches in SM18 will still be active over the next couple of years as further measurements are made on the magnets to prepare for beam acceleration. For Vittorio Parma, leader of the Cryostats Section in the Magnets, Cryostats and Superconductors group, it feels as though he has finished a long race. 'I'm exhausted, but happy,' he says.

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

July Minutes

The July meeting of The Barnard Astronomical Society was called to order by President Tom Adkins at 7:40 P.M. There were nine members and one visitor present.

The minutes of the June meeting were read and accepted as read.

Tickets were sold for an astronomy book raffle to raise money for the treasury.

Treasurer’s Report

David Witt reported $790.37 in the checking account. Outstanding debt is to the Astronomical League for several hundred dollars.

Old Business

None

New Business

It was decided to try a new meeting format which might be more appealing for BAS members and guests: Open the Observatory at 7 P.M. for social and refreshments; conduct business from 7:30 until 8:10 P.M. and take a break; begin the program at 8:30 P.M.

Use of name tags was suggested to help visitors meet members. Temporary tags will be handed out until Gary Caldwell resurrects the permanent ones.

Victor Rogers is donating an overhead projector and TV set to the club. THANKS, VICTOR!

David Witt passed out Tracy Knauss DVDs to participants in the June 16 Orion Acres Star Party. THANK YOU, TRACY, FOR YOUR WORK ON BEHALF OF BAS!

Tom Adkins will invite his long-time friend, Dr. Harold McAlister (CEO Mount Wilson Institute, Director of CHARA) to be the speaker at the joint BAS/ACS meeting at UTC in October.

Upcoming Star Parties: Starfest at Bays Mountain, TN, Oct 6-7. Mid-Atlantic Star Party in Robbinsville, NC (dates not available). Orion Acres will limit attendance to only BAS members and guests until legal waivers are set up by the owner for outside groups; also, a portable toilet will now be available as a convenience for outside attendees.

The NASA Night Sky Network (NSN) is due to release a new kit to BAS soon. An important part of the club charter is education—we need to make these presentations to as many outside groups as possible and document the outreach with NSN.

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, September 5th. 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