The meeting was held Tuesday, January 9, 2007 at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope headquarters in Waimea. The club thanks Lisa Wells of CFHT for preparing the meeting room for us. We really, really appreciate it!
The meeting was facilitated by Craig Nance. The meeting was attended by about 25 persons, most if not all were familiar faces. Craig N. began the meeting by showing various pictures taken atop Mauna Kea earlier in the day showing the snowfall.
Quickly we got to the featured program for the night -
show and tell of the various astronomy-related gifts people received for the Holidays.
- First up was Craig N. He shared a story of trying to take high-resolution solar photographs from near the summit of Mauna Kea.
One picture is on the WHAC web site. To take better pictures, he has long wanted a full-aperture 10" ND4 solar filter.
He showed his present ND5 solar filter (pictures of this are also on WHAC's web site) which is intended for
visual observing. An ND4 filter passes 10x more light, making it better suited for extremely short exposure times.
Unfortunately, "Santa" was somewhat confused as to the filter, so Craig received a sub-apertured filter instead.
However, the manufacturer, Thousand Oaks Optical, has told Craig to keep the sub-apertured filter and they will make and
send a full-aperture filter at no additional charge! Everyone was impressed!
There was some debate as to whether the sub-aperture filter would be better since it is unobstructed and a longer focal
length. After some back and forth on the matter, it was decided that a test was in order. Once the full-aperture filter arrives, a trip to the summit will be organized to take photographs with the ND4, ND5, and the ND4 sub-aperture. Photos will be compared at an upcoming meeting. Stay tuned!
- Jack Lewis shared his spectacular 80mm William Optics apo-refractor and Orion Telescopes eyepiece set. The craftsmanship of this hardware was certainly impressive to all.
- Doug Summers shared a O3 filter from Orion telescopes. The filter came with an individual spectrum analysis.
He also shared an eyepiece pack that can be worn like a "fanny pack" to hold eyepieces closely, but safely and a nice red blocking filter for his laptop. The screen for the laptop is available from Adirondack Astronomy, called a SightSaver.
- Bill Brevoort shared a binocular mount for his 100mm giant binoculars.
- One of our younger members shared a collection of astronomy books. Most impressive was a LARGE (~3' x 2') book of photographs from the various space programs.
- Steve Fischer shared a solar filter and a green laser pointer. He commented that his friends gave the laser pointer to him so that they can have Steve take them on a tour of the night sky!
- Lastly, Dan shared a DVD of astronomy images with background music. For the next meeting at Keck, we will set up the audio-visual system so that this can be played while members are arriving to the meeting.
Next, Doug Summers presented
The Sky This Month. He used the planetarium program "Where the Stars Are" to share what objects are in the sky, from sunset to sunrise, in the month of January. For a featured object of the month, Doug spoke and showed images of the best barred spiral galaxy in the night sky, NGC- 1365.
Doug showed where it is located, and what can be seen in telescopes of various apertures. There was an interesting impromptu discussion about Eta Carina.
Doug used Megastar to illustrate the position of Eta Carina near the "false southern cross".
The consensus is that the Eta Carina Nebula is visible in Hawaii, but the observer must time their observations carefully since it is not above the southern horizon for very long.
Craig Nance then gave a presentation of
astronomy events for 2007. The featured event for the year will be a total lunar eclipse in late August which will be ideally situated for Hawaii. Virtually every major meteor shower this year is free from the Moon's glare. Also, most WHAC general meetings occur within days of our monthly dark-time observing sessions.
The
club business was very brief. There is an observing session planned for Jan 20th, and possibly the weekend prior. Members should consult the
WHAC Yahoo group page for information on upcoming events.
Finally, WHAC surprised Carlton Lane with a birthday cake to celebrate his 80th birthday later this month!! It was a nice opportunity to recognize one of WHAC's most active members. Carlton said that it is his birthday wish to give a talk on special relativity at an upcoming meeting. I'm sure this can be arranged!
Happy Birthday Carlton!
The next WHAC meeting will be
Tuesday February 13, 2007 at Keck Headquarters.
Laura Kinoshita is hosting the meeting.
As always, all are invited to the pre-meeting social/dinner at the Parker Ranch food court at ~6pm.
