august 2019 a publication of the minnesota astronomical...
TRANSCRIPT
Stories Wanted: Gemini is written entirely by our members, for our members! Gemini needs your stories… how you first be-came interested in astronomy, how your inter-est has evolved over the years, equipment you use, star parties and events you’ve attended here and elsewhere, how you’ve encouraged others — especially young people — to get in-volved in this fascinating hobby. Submit your stories to: [email protected]
E-mail Update: If your e-mail address has recently changed, chances are your address used for MAS email distribution lists is not current. Please inform Bob Brose of your new e-mail address at [email protected]
August 2019Volume 45 Number 4a publication of the Minnesota Astronomical Society
In the pages of the Gemini
The 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing: An Old Man’s Reminiscences
By Dave FalknerAs I’m sure all of you know, July 20 marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo
11 Moon landing. My fascination with astronomy and space exploration was heavily influenced by the breathtaking missions of the manned space program in the 1960s and 1970s. As this historic date approached I began to reminisce …
A number of years ago, my family and I went on a vacation to Orlando, FL. The guys decided to take a day trip to the Kennedy Space Center and tour the facility. Despite the fact that I was once stationed with the U.S. Navy in Jacksonville and had since visited Florida on several occasions, I had never been to the KSC. The tour was awesome. We saw the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building standing 526 feet tall, where all the major spacecraft were assembled and then transported to the Launch Complexes on the huge Mobile Launcher Platform, using the Crawler-Transporter. We were unable to tour the famous Launch Complexes 39A and 39B because one of the final Space Shuttle missions was already in place for launch, but we toured the KSC museum and its main exhibit of the massive Saturn V rocket that propelled the Apollo missions to the Moon.
Looking back at the impact of the U.S. manned space program, I think it’s difficult to convey to younger generations the thrill, sense of determination and, yes, even fear that accompanied the space program of the ’60s and ’70s. Post-World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as world powers. Each was vying to become the dominant power, and this was reflected in the Cold War that emerged. The competition between the two powers was evident in many aspects of life, from propaganda to sports to military might. Both had developed enough nuclear weapons to effectively wipe the other off the map.
It was under this tense stand-off that the space race emerged. The ability to control outer space was seen as acquiring a distinct advantage. The United States was slow getting out of the gate, as the Soviet Union successfully launched
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory — Nursery for Planetary Exploration
By Jere Gwin-Lenth…Page 4
NCRAL 2019 Meeting • Astronomical Voyages of Discovery: Past,
Present and FutureBy Mary A. Williams…Page 5
MAS Board Minutes for May & JuneBy Trena Johnson, secretary…Page 7
MAS Patron Members…Page 8
ELO Special Project to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of
the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing.... or How To Build a Lunar Module
Mockup in Two Weeks or Less.By Merle Hiltner Page 8
MAS 2019 Star Party Schedule…Page 11
Buzz Aldrin salutes the flag.
Minnesota Astronomical Society
GEMINI INFOEditorsBrian Litecky and Eugene Brown
WebmasterMAS Web Committee, chair Merle Hiltner, [email protected]
Forums AdministratorRuss Durkee
E-mail List AdministratorBob Brose
Monthly Meeting Presenter CoordinatorLauren Nelson
Gemini is published 6 times annually by the Minnesota Astronomical Society.
Electronic submissions for Gemini may be sent to:[email protected]
Hardcopy items should be sent to:Minnesota Astronomical Society
Attn: Gemini P.O. Box 14931
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Send MAS membership dues, changes of address and S&T subscriptions to the MAS Membership Coordinator. Astronomy magazine subscriptions are available by contacting the MAS Treasurer.
MAS Board Members
President: Dave Falkner E-Mail: [email protected] Phone: 763-785-0539
Vice President: Andrew Fraser E-Mail: [email protected] Phone: 651-436-6511
Treasurer: Heather Birch
Secretary: Trena Johnson E-Mail: [email protected] Phone: 612-719-0737Board-Member at Large: Suresh Sreenivasan E-Mail: [email protected] Phone: 952-933-0426Board-Member at Large: Matt Dunham E-Mail: [email protected] Phone: 651-263-7425
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Sputnik into orbit on October 4, 1957. This was very unnerving to the citizens of the United States. To add insult to injury, the Soviet Union had another first—launching cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin into orbit on April 12, 1961, to become the first man in space.
On September 12, 1962, some months after American astronaut Alan Shepard made a 15-minute sub-orbital flight and astronaut John Glenn made three orbits of the Earth, President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to have a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
The race to the Moon was on. Congress was on board and allocated a substantial amount of the federal budget (peaking at over 4% in 1966, compared to about 0.5% today) to ensure the resources were available to make this happen. Little by little, through the Mercury and Gemini programs, the U.S. developed its expertise in manned space flight.
The Apollo 11 lunar lander on the Moon
I offer an aside to illustrate how our skills in space flight, or more accurately spacecraft recovery, improved over time. While attending naval postgraduate school in the early 1980s, I had a math professor who had previously worked at NASA. He was on the team that developed the mathematic Fourier Transforms, the computer used to calculate re-entry trajectories for returning spacecraft. The Mercury spacecraft generally were lucky to splash down within 50 miles of the recovery ship, but Mercury 7 overshot her recovery ship by over 250 miles. With each subsequent mission we learned more about small variations in the Earth’s gravitational field around the world, and the Fourier Transforms were improved. By the time of the Apollo program, splashdowns were routinely within five miles of the recovery ship, often less than two miles.
The tragedy of Apollo 1 in January of 1967, where we lost astronauts Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, caused a hiccup in the space program, but NASA charged ahead. In December of 1968, Apollo 8 successfully went to Moon orbit and back. In March and May of 1969, two more launches served to prepare the astronauts for the main event.
In July of 1969 I was 15 years old and a counselor at a youth camp in the rolling hills of southern Indiana. We were between groups of campers the night of July 20. All the counselors gathered around a small black-and-white TV as Walter Cronkite narrated the Moon landing. We watched in fascination as the camera switched to show Neil Armstrong as he descended the ladder. We knew we were watching an historic moment as his foot touched the surface of the Moon and he uttered those now famous words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
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Editor’s note: That same week, six of us were on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I had my portable radio along, and we listened by the campfire as Neil Armstrong spoke those famous words. We also listened to reports that the astronauts had returned safely to Earth. On our way back to Ely, we were resting after a portage when another group came by. They had started on the Gunflint Trail, at the east side of the BWCA, had been out two weeks and did not have a radio. They asked us if the astronauts had made it to the Moon, and we assured them that they had made it there and were back on Earth. One of us remarked, “I thought everybody on Earth knew that!” “Everybody but us,” they said.
The Apollo 11 official emblem
Americans breathed a sigh of relief that day as the United States had established its dominance in space by being the first nation to land a man on the Moon. NASA sent six more missions to the Moon, five of which resulted in successful landings. The infamous Apollo 13 highlighted the genius and innovation of NASA engineers, as well as the courage and ingenuity of its astronauts. James Lowell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise were kept alive in the crippled ship and returned safely to Earth. Each Moon landing brought back samples from the lunar surface for analysis on Earth. By the end of the Apollo program, 842 pounds of rocks had been collected!
NASA continued manned spaceflight with the Space Shuttle program until 2011. NASA robotic spacecraft have explored the far reaches of our solar system (and beyond, with Voyager 1 and 2) with increasing sophistication. Although these space probes have provided us with a treasure trove of information, we long to reach beyond the International Space Station and travel once again into interplanetary space. The U.S. partnership with private industry has provided a new source of innovation and continuity; sporadic funding with changing administrations has long frustrated NASA. I have no doubt that together we will one day return to the Moon and venture on to Mars and beyond. As I reminisce today, I know I may not be around to see these achievements, but I have confidence that the generations after me will reach beyond the confines of Earth and grasp the Moon, the planets and beyond.
Apollo 11 on launch pad preparing for liftoff Apollo 11 after splashdown
Crescent Earth as seen from the Moon The liftoff of Apollo 11Gibbous Earth as seen from the Moon
Replica of Moon on display at Bell Museum. Photograph by Father Brown
Footprint on the Moon. Courtesy of Bell MuseumBuzz Aldrin on the Moon
All photographs courtesy of NASA except where otherwise indicated.
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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory — Nursery for Planetary Exploration
By Jere Gwin-LenthThis is not about astronomy so much as exploration of
our solar system by machines conceived, built, and sent into interplanetary space by men and women. We have all seen the tense scenes from the control- and mission-monitoring rooms of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena as the scientists and controllers await word that a robotic craft has successfully flown by, entered orbit around, or landed on, an alien world.
Control Center: The JPL guide darkens the control room at the Space Flight Operations Facility. Visitors are seated at the computer stations as they listen
to explanations of mission management responsibilities.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was born in the 1930s as part of the California Institute of Technology, although not officially named JPL until 1944. The JPL website (JPL.nasa.gov) declares “The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a unique national research facility that carries out robotic space and Earth science missions. JPL helped open the Space Age by developing America’s first Earth-orbiting science satellite, creating the first successful interplanetary spacecraft, and sending robotic missions to study all the planets in the solar system as well as asteroids, comets and Earth’s moon. In addition to its missions, JPL developed and manages NASA’s Deep-Space Network, a worldwide system of antennas that communicates with interplanetary spacecraft.”
From the JPL website: “For individuals and families of 10 people or less. These tours run approximately once per week on Monday or Wednesday on an alternating basis. Visitor Day Tours are generally held at 1:00 p.m. The tour lasts between 2-2.5 hours. The walking distance for the tour is approximately 0.8 miles with multiple flights of stairs. A finalized roster of attendees will need to be submitted online three weeks prior to the date of your tour. Any guest not on the finalized roster will not be allowed entry to the facility.” Visit the website for more details, or e-mail JPL at [email protected].
Radio Antennas: At the side of the control room there is a large, active display of Deep-Space Network communications. The screen shows transmitting/
receiving stations around the world, and the brighter icons show waves going up or down, depending on whether the station is transmitting or receiving
from various satellites and deep-space missions. One of these is still receiving data from a Voyager probe which had already exited the solar system.
Our family was privileged to tour the facilities of JPL in July 2017. We were surprised to learn of the amount of spacecraft assembly and testing that occurs onsite. Construction of the Mars 2020 rover, with its seven-foot robotic arm and rock-zapping laser, was already well under way, although the vehicle had not yet been named. A Name the Rover contest will open for U.S. schoolchildren in the fall of 2019. The mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in July 2020 and land on Mars in February 2021.
Because no mission-critical event was occurring at the time, we could seat ourselves at the computer stations in the control room at the Space Flight Operations Facility and grab a handful of peanuts as we exited. The peanut ritual is something that the mission managers and staff enjoy at the conclusion of a successful mission event.
The facility offers free public tours, with reservations made at least three weeks in advance. U.S. citizens 18 years of age or over need to present a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport. Non-US citizens 18 years of age or over need to present a passport or resident visa. Even parking is free, but we found that the expansive parking lot was very crowded due to the large number of staff and students working and studying at the site. I suggest arriving early and being prepared, if necessary, for a walk from the far reaches of the parking lot to the visitor center entrance. The tours include a multimedia presentation on JPL entitled “Journey to the Planets and Beyond,” which provides an overview of the Laboratory’s activities and accomplishments. In addition to the von Karman Visitor Center, we visited the Space Flight Operations Facility and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.
I enthusiastically recommend that anyone interested in space stuff who is able to spend a day or two in the Los Angeles area
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should plan on a visit to the JPL facility in Pasadena. You will not regret it. The headquarters of the Planetary Society is located close by at 60 South Los Robles Ave. in Pasadena.
There are plenty of other attractions in the LA area, of course. The same day we visited JPL, we were able to catch the Minnesota Twins almost beat the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. And this year the new Star Wars attraction has opened at Disneyland. Science fact and science fantasy can be enjoyed in the same trip!
The Visitor Center at JPL includes full-scale models of spacecraft and rovers large and small, as well as detailed but easy-to-understand explanations of
the planets, asteroids and comets, and the missions sent to explore our corner of the cosmos.
NCRAL 2019 Meeting • Astronomical Voyages of Discovery: Past, Present and Future
By Mary A. WilliamsThe 2019 North Central Region of the Astronomical League
was held in Moline, IL, May 3-May 5. I attended the first two days of the meeting and provide a summary here.
“We are having record floods. Do not try to drive through the floodwaters.” This warning came in one of the last emails from the 2019 NCRAL planning committee before the start of the conference. A bit daunted by the unknown conditions that the Mighty Mississippi might unfurl, I nevertheless drove to Moline and managed to find a high and dry spot to park near the conference hotel.
Arriving a few hours before the kick-off talk at 4:00 p.m., I was able to attend an astrophotography 101 session presented by Dino Milani, Rusty Case and Terry Dufek, members of the Popular Astronomy Club1. While I haven’t even yet mastered the use of my t-adapter for my DSLR, hope springs eternal, so I attended this beginner presentation and was glad I did. These guys do a nice job of presenting basic astrophotography information about such things as cameras, mounts, lenses, telescopes, filters and software.
As an addition to the conference events, the hosting club, Popular Astronomy Club, brought their portable outreach telescope for attendees to see and use for solar and night-sky observing. They call this the PACMO for Popular Astronomy Club Mobile Observatory. I learned from their members that they do a tremendous amount of outreach with this mobile observatory. Many attendees were able to do observing in the PACMO, and during the day on Saturday we even observed a solar sunspot.
The Popular Astronomy Club mobile observatory
Following these two activities, the conference chairperson, Mike Gacioch, delivered a nice kick-off speech followed by a brief history of the local Popular Astronomy Club. Dinner provided a nice networking opportunity where I was able to meet a couple of amateur astronomers from Rochester, MN.
Following dinner, in the first conference presentation, Lee Carkner (Augustana College) presented an overview of Einstein’s theory of relativity and Arthur Eddington’s subsequent work to prove Einstein’s theory in the 1919 solar eclipse. Carl Wenning followed with an overview of various astronomical activities that he has experienced in his life. He ended by encouraging everyone to get out, travel, experience a variety of astronomical events, and enjoy the journey.
The next day, continuing to reflect the conference theme, two speakers spoke on a variety of topics related to astronomical history, as well as some astronomy projects currently being
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developed with great promise for future astronomical wonderment. Robert Mutel (University of Iowa) gave an overview of Albert Einstein’s life, including his younger years, his journey through his discoveries, and the individuals that he collaborated with on his journeys.
Paul Sipiera (Planetary Studies Foundation2) discussed
meteorites as messengers from space and time. He talked about his experience hunting meteorites in the Antarctic and some of the projects that he worked on there. In addition to some cool (hee, hee) stories, he shared some information about the Planetary Studies Foundation, an organization founded to promote the study of planetary science and astronomy with emphasis on meteorites. He set up an exhibit of meteorites in a corner of the conference room for attendees to visit during the day.
Esteban Araya (Western Illinois University) gave an overview of the development of radio astronomy and talked about some of his research in that area. Robert Mitchell (Saint Ambrose University) followed with a talk about the development of research in the detection of gravitational waves. He spoke about the LIGO observatories and talked about new gravitational detectors being built with increasing gravitational wave detection abilities3.
Rusty Case from the Popular Astronomy Club talked about astrophotography.
In-between speakers, Al Sheidler, president of the local astronomy club, would periodically offer astronomy jokes, which added a nice comedic flair to the meeting.
In addition to the more established regional astronomer presenters, the NCRAL organizers invited several college astronomy students who were former student members of the local Popular Astronomy Club. Katie Melbourne, now an astronomy senior student at Yale, talked about some of her undergraduate work in searching for M dwarf stars—stars that are a fraction of the size of our own Sun’s mass and luminosity but are more than 10 times as luminous. Planets around these stars are thought to be warm and in the right Goldilocks location to harbor life.
Tiffany Fields, now an astrophysics graduate student at St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, gave an overview of her work at the Burke-Gaffney Observatory4. She is writing computer code to simulate, and then try to learn more about, galaxy evolution. Tiffany gave an overview of some of the science, education and public outreach being done at the BGO. Then she shared that the BGO is one of only two observatories that can be controlled from Twitter, cell phone text messaging, or via a dedicated app in a fully-automatic way. Once a person has established an authorized connection via one of these methods (free and open to the public), that person can tweet, text or use the app to instruct the BGO telescope to take a certain image on a certain night. The telescope’s computer system will return your image via the same route after it has been taken.
Steven Spangler’s talk: “Different Views of the Sky"
A third student had to cancel her talk, but fortunately the planning committee was able to substitute Mike Solontoil (Monmouth College), who talked about the Sloan Digital Sky Survey5, which has created the largest three-dimensional map of the universe ever made. Then he talked about the construction of an updated version of the SDSS, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope6 in north-central Chile. This 8.4-meter telescope uses a special three-mirror design, creating an exceptionally wide field of view with the ability to survey the entire sky in only three nights.
Paul Sipiera talked about meteoroids.
From the LSST website and as presented by Mike, this telescope will produce the deepest and widest image of the universe: 27-ft (8.4-meter) mirror, the width of a singles tennis court
3200 megapixel camera Each image the size of 40 full moons 37 billion stars and galaxies 10-year survey of the sky 10 million alerts, 1,000 pairs of exposures, 15 terabytes of data every night
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All data will be made available to the publicMike stated that this new telescope will do what the SDSS
did over a ten-year period but will do it once every week. He predicts that if Planet 9 exists and has not been found by the time this telescope is online, it will be found in less than a year of the operation of this new telescope.
Tiffany Fields from the Burke-Gaffney Observatory spoke about the universe around us.
Following this interesting presentation, a delicious banquet was served, and Steven Spangler (University of Iowa) gave a presentation about American Indian historical views of astronomy. He had some interesting photos of cave art which
some historians believe are representations of various asterisms. He also talked about ancient sites with known alignments to the solstice and equinox.
After closing remarks from the conference planners, about 20 of us headed to Menke Observatory and spent some two hours observing through the observatory’s 14'' reflector, doing some binocular observing and looking through other observers’ scopes. Clouds rolled in around midnight and we headed back to town.
The next morning, after an interesting conference adventure and happy to have thwarted any shenanigans by the Mighty Mississippi, I enjoyed a nice drive home (there’s no place like it).
Established in 1947, the goals of the NCRAL7 are to promote: amateur astronomy, fellowship among its members, and astronomy public outreach. Members consist of over 40 astronomy groups scattered across North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and the upper peninsula of Michigan.
References1 Popular Astronomy Club http://www.popularastronomyclub.org2 Planetary Studies Foundation http://www.planets.org3 Castelvecchi, D. 2019. Gravitational-Wave Observatory LIGO set to
double its detecting power. Nature International Journal of Research. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00573-4
4 Burke-Gaffney Observatory http://www.ap.smu.ca/pr/bgo 5 Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) https://www.sdss.org6 Large Synoptic Survey Telescope https://www.lsst.org 7 North Central Region of the Astronomical League (NCRAL) https://
www.astroleague.org/societies/10000400/info
MAS Board Minutes for May & June
By Trena Johnson, secretaryMayIn attendance: Dave Falkner, Trena Johnson, Matt Dunham,
Andy Fraser, Mark Job, Suresh Sreenivasan and Mark Boyd. Site Reports: JJC: The Belwin agreement has been completed
and sent to them for signature. LLCC: Recommendations to remove trees have been submitted to the site. A checklist was provided for updates to be done before the Northern Nights Star Fest. Metcalf Field: Recommendation was made to break up existing concrete pads. ELO and CGO: No updates. Artwork: Dave Venne is working on artwork for banners and posters. Surplus Items: A discussion was held about surplus items that are up for sale. These will need to be advertised in the market place: 12.5'' NGT; 14'' Meade SCT OTA & mount (no tripod); 12'' Meade SCT LX200. Storage: Matt Dunham will check into small storage that Fairview Community Center offers; it is your basic school locker, with larger storage at Eisenhower Community Center. Open Volunteer Positions: communication coordinator; IT administrator; observing coordinator; student board liaison; monthly program director; constitution update sub-committee. Library Telescope Program: The board was given a short presentation by Mark Boyd about the library telescope program and how MAS could participate. Any questions may be directed to Mark Job, with forum listing requests for volunteers from time to time. Lunar Sample: The board gave permission to proceed with the lunar sample inquiry for Fall Astronomy Day. Sherburne Wildlife Refuge: The board had a short introductory discussion regarding Sherburne Wildlife Refuge via written notice from Doug Neverman. The area would be primarily for
astrophotography and general astronomy. MAS Historian Position: This was tabled until next meeting.
JuneIn attendance: Dave Falkner, Trena Johnson (via conference
call), Matt Dunham and Suresh Sreenivasan.Site Reports: ELO: Ash Dome recommended a resealing
caulk, which may be done by the end of July. JJC: The dome is leaking on the east side due to a seal in the shutter track. Ash Dome recommended a resealing caulk, which may be done by print. An outside outlet box was replaced on the south side. Several circuit breakers will be upgraded from 15amp to 20amp. MAS board is to check with insurance to verify if work must be completed by licensed persons vs. someone who isn’t. LLCC: Trees are to be harvested and wood sold via auction. No ETA on completion. CGO: The imaging platform is nearing completion. The tripod has been moved east several inches and balanced and cabling has been addressed. Instructions have been completed. The filter intake for dust control is working well, although it is noisy and must be shut off during star parties. Planning stages for more concrete pads continue. SimpliSafe will be the security system and will be implemented shortly. Metcalf: Suggestions for breaking up concrete pads are welcome. MAS Historian: This position would provide a central person for members to send MAS photos, news articles, videos, etc., to keep track of MAS member/organizational activities and achievements for posterity/future memberships. Given the active nature and growth of MAS, having this position will serve to centralize, organize and document not only historical MAS activities but also on-going activities. More information can be obtained by emailing the secretary or president of MAS.
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MAS Patron Members
Patron memberships are available to those who wish to contribute a little extra to support MAS activities. Patron memberships are established by constitution at 2-1/2 times the Regular membership rate—currently $65 annually for a patron membership. The $39 additional contribution is tax deductible. Patron memberships help fund equipment acquisitions, facility improvements, outreach activities and more. We would like to thank the following patron members as of July 8:
Tom and Arlene AlmScott AndersonStephen AnthonyJack AtkinsSteve BaranskiGreg BarilBradley BeiselScott BilleadeauKatie BloomeWayne BolineNatalie BrosharRev. Eugene BrownJay BrueschJonathan BurkhardtJeff BurrowsEarl ByeBill BynumKen CarlsonKurt CasbyJames CeglaArvind ChakravarthiCara ClarkDeane Clark, Jr.Bruce ColemanMark ConnollyRon CooperMichael DanielsGary DavisPaul and Jolie DavisRichard DavisMary Beth Smith & Ted DeMattiesThomas DillonTony DuBoisMolly DuffinMatt DunhamDave Eckblad
William EggersDavid EisenlordSteven EmertDennis FaithDavid FalknerRobert FarrellJoseph FisherPatricia FlugaurRobert FoucaultJeff FranksonAndrew FraserPaul GadeMark GarnerJim GerrityErik GisselquistWilliam GlassMartin GodfreyBradley GordonMartin GormansonSteven GrabarkiewiczAntone GregoryJere Gwin-LenthDale HagertJake HairrellBrandon HamilRyan HansonCarl HasbargenGreg HaubrichThomas HawkinsonMichael HaydockJonathan HaymanJennifer HaysVictor HeinerAngela Heins FamilyJohn HillMerle HiltnerGary Hoaglund
Michael HobbsLauren HoenGreg HokansonMichael HopfenspirgerGeorge HulmeJason IngebretsonCarole IsaksonAnton Jachim, PhDDick JacobsonGale JallenLen JannuschJeffrey JaroskiStephen JensenMark JobChelen JohnsonJulie A. Y. JohnsonKurt JohnsonJerry JonesMichael KauperKenneth KerrickMichael KibatMichael KnowlenJim KnudsenBill KockenDavid KockenParke KunkleMary LahrJonathan LarsonChristine LaughlinKevin LeeLouis LeichterClayton LindseyShawn LovettWalid MaalouliEdward MalinkaDavid MaloneJohn Marchetti
Bruce McDonaldDuane McDonnellRon McLaughlinJavier MedranoRebecca MesserDan MeyerMatt & Jessica MeyerBeverly MillerGerald MillerScott MorganDouglas NelsonDoug NevermanJim NewtonKenneth NichollsSteve NieckarzAlan NootDouglas OinesThor OlsonChristopher PaolaMark PetchenikBecky PollackMardon QuandtAhmed RedaMichael RegouskiKirby RichterStephen RiendlEric & Rebecca RobinsonGerald RoehlDaniel RuhTheodore SadlerJack SandbergRoy Cameron SarverDean SchantzenJames SchenzRonald SchmitLoren SchoenzeitPaul Schroeder
David SchultzKristopher SetnesMike ShawJeff ShlosbergBernie SimmonsDavid SiskindDavid SjogrenDennis SjogrenEric SmestadAndrew SmithLeonard SolarzKatherine SprollMcLanahan StevensBernie StingerJack StormsKent SwensonDavid SwymelerDavid TostesonDavid TruchotSteve UlrichJohn Van HoomissenBob VangenLawrence WaitePaul WalkerFred WallSarah WeaverDavid WetzelMary WilliamsNeil WorthinghamGene YatesKaren ZiemekJohn ZimitschMark ZimitschNeal Zimmerman
ELO Special Project to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing.... or How To Build a Lunar Module Mockup in Two Weeks or Less.
By Merle Hiltner, Eagle Lake Observatory Facility Manager
On June 23, 12:06 PM, I wrote this email: Subject: July 20 public star party display. OK, call me crazy, but I would like to do something special for our public star party at ELO on July 20. I would like to use the Baylor Park ballfield to set up a mockup of the Apollo 11 landing site…
That’s the start of the email I sent to the observatory committee to get a feel for any interest in pursuing an Apollo 11 landing site display. I quickly received positive responses from Dave Johnson, “I think this is a great idea. I would love to help pull this off ” and Lilah “Very cool idea!” I contacted Baylor Park to see if they had any objections, and both Marty and Sam were fine with the idea. So was our MAS president, David Falkner: “What a great idea!!” Since no one who responded said not to do it, I took that as a sign to proceed.
Several times I have been asked where the idea came from. Well, last Thanksgiving I was visiting my sister Mary in North
Carolina to help her fix a few things on her house. She asked if there was anything I wanted to see in the week I would be there. I told her I would like to visit Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers’ first flight happened. So I did. Being at the site where they first flew and seeing the museum and stone markers where the flights were commemorated was incredible. I mentioned to Mary that in a hundred years there could be something similar to this on the Moon, a monument to the Apollo 11 site.
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While the entire museum and memorial was impressive, with displays of the tools they used, plans, design challenges and full-scale Wright Flyer replica, the one feature that was really cool was the sculpture of the first moment of flight. On the opposite side of the Wright monument is a sculpture of the scene as Orville was making his first flight. You can move around the site and view from different vantage points what it would have been like being there and witnessing it for yourself.
Jump ahead another month or so, and I am in the process of making the ELO public star party schedule for 2019. It just so happens that one of the Saturday-night public events fell on July 20, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. At first I was treating this as just another public star party, but the closer it came to the event, I began wanting to do something more to commemorate it. I had seen an overlay of the Apollo 11 site superimposed on a baseball field, and I thought: We have a ballfield, the space below the observatory, where we can make a layout of the landing site. Thinking back to the sculpture at Kitty Hawk and how that gave one a feeling and perspective of the event, I though we could do the same for the Apollo site here.
This was in my head for a little while. At first I wanted to keep it simple by just having a cutout to display the Lunar Module (LM) footprint, and boxes to represent the locations of the instruments, but that seemed underwhelming. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to show a true representation of the landing site, which would require a more complete LM mockup.
The entire module is too big to build as a single unit, so it was designed in smaller sections that would fit through the door of the HotSpot, then moved to the field and assembled on site. I drew plans based on images and plans of the Lunar Module I could find online, and over the course of 12 working days, approximately 400 man-hours with almost two-dozen MAS volunteers, we completed the nearly full-scale LM mockup by July 20 (“nearly” because the descent stage is about 20 inches shorter than the real LM).
On July 4th I started to bring materials to ELO and began working on the landing struts. The landing struts are quite complicated in their design, with several articulating arms and diagonal bracing. I decided that in the time we had to build this we needed to simplify the design but maintain the overall scope of the module. We were building a mockup, not a replica. So I granted us a bit of artistic license. On the weekend of July 6 we began building and laying out the landing site on the field. We built each section of the ascent stage in the HotSpot and carried the completed sections to Mama Bear, where some sections
were “skinned” in plywood. Throughout the week we completed additional sections. The ascent stage began taking shape.
While we were proceeding with the LM construction, I asked Bob Ker, who had put the picture display together five years ago for the lunar sample event we had at ELO, to help get photo enlargements to be placed around the site. He was able to do that as well as provide a description of each of the stations to use as a handout and as a guide for our mockup. We also needed to build representative displays for each of the experiments left on the lunar surface. I had a suitable flag, Deane made the reflector, and Steve Emert took on the project of furnishing just about everything else we needed: the solar wind collector, the close up camera, the seismic detector and TV camera, not to mention building the ladder, the thrusters and antennae for the LM ascent stage. I am so glad Steve is retired. Without the extra time Steve had to help, we may have had only cardboard cutouts.
One the weekend of July 13 we began constructing the descent stage of the LM on the ballfield. This was the structural element that would hold each of the ascent stage sections we had been building in the HotSpot. By the end of the day we had the descent stage nearly complete and were ready for the ascent sections to be assembled. With less than a week to go, we worked throughout the week, completing the plywood skins and painting the ascent-stage sections. The ascent sections were put in place on July 18 and our LM mockup began taking shape. On July 19 the landing struts were built and the photos and photo display stands were ready to be placed around the site.
On the morning of the 20th the struts were installed and wrapped with gold foil, the descent stage wrapped and the ladder installed. We even had a perfect-size plywood piece for the “front porch” and the handrails by Steve to finish off the details of our LM. The final touch was the lunar footprint, made by Mark, Bob Kerr’s son-in-law, for the lunar rock display, the plaque attached to the landing strut, and even the discarded “jettison bag” as seen in the first photo Armstrong took from the lunar surface.
Due to a morning thunderstorm that caused a delay in final preparations, at 4:00 p.m., when our event was to start, we were still setting up and wrapping the LM landing struts. I noticed a number of people sitting on picnic tables around the field as we were working to finish. They were patient and seemed mesmerized by what we had done to represent the Apollo site. They began coming on the field and talking with each of our members, who were happy to show them around the site. Most of the picture stations were numbered to correspond with the informational handout Bob Kerr had made.
But wait, there’s more. For this special event we had two
10GEMINI • www.mnastro.org
scheduled presentations that would give details about the lunar landing and the Apollo program. The first was by Steve Emert, who talked about the Apollo 11 mission. After supper, Brad Nasset gave his presentation on the Apollo program. Ben Huset had brought his huge Moon globe for display, and the lunar backdrop with the astronaut cut-out for a photo-op was set up on the ballfield as well.
As the afternoon and evening progressed, the morning thunderstorm and clouds yielded to clear skies for our evening star party. Prominent were Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the summer globular clusters, galaxies and nebulae.
I can’t thank enough everyone who rallied together in a short amount of time to make this a reality. We had the exact number of volunteers at the right time to get nearly everything accomplished. We scavenged and found all the parts we needed, from the cardboard tubes I got at Menards to the four “Flexible Flyer” sleds Don Gazdik had for the foot pads to Ben having just enough gold foil for the landing struts.
Everyone listed here helped build the LM or get the observatory ready for the public star party. Thank you to Bob Benson, Steve Emert, Don Gazdik, Don’s wife Ann and son, David, Lilah & Chris Blinkman, Aislinn and Temperance Hanner,
John Zimitsch, Dave Johnson, Dave Falkner, Aaron Hauger, Deane Clark, Brad Nasset, Don Windseth, Bernie Stinger, Mark Connolly, Ben Huset, Ahmed Reda and Bob Kerr.
Finally, I want to say that MAS has incredible people. For so many members to come together and get this crazy project done was amazing to be a part of. Thank you.
11 August 2019
Minnesota Astronomical Society 2019 Star Party Schedule Twilight Completely dark Moon % ELO Public Cherry LLCC B-SIG @ Friday Date Sunset ends: from: to: Illuminated Night (Saturday) Grove Weekend Metcalf (Sat.) Notes Aug 02 08:37 PM 10:36 PM 10:36 PM 04:00 AM 4% x x ELO: Camping with the stars
Aug 09 08:28 PM 10:21 PM 01:45 AM 0 4:13 AM 71% x
Aug 16 08:17 PM 10:06 PM 99% x
Aug 23 08:06 PM 09:51 PM 09:51 PM 12:12 AM 50% x
Aug 30 07:54 PM 09:36 PM 09:36 PM 04:49 AM 0% x x Northern Nights Star Fest: 8/27-9/2
Sep 06 07:41 PM 09:20 PM 12:26 AM 05:00 AM 53% x x
Sep 13 07:28 PM 09:05 PM 100% x
Sep 20 07:15 PM 08:51 PM 08:51 PM 10:48 PM 60% x
Sep 27 07:02 PM 08:37 PM 08:37 PM 05:29 AM 1% x x MAS Mini Messier Marathon (4M)
Oct 04 06:50 PM 08:23 PM 11:07 PM 05:37 AM 45% x x ELO: Fall Astronomy Day (Saturday)
Oct 11 06:37 PM 08:11 PM 97% x
Oct 18 06:25 PM 07:59 PM 07:59 PM 09:29 PM 74% x
Oct 25 06:13 PM 07:47 PM 07:47 PM 06:04 AM 6% x x
Nov 01 06:04 PM 07:39 PM 09:47 PM 06:11 AM 29% x x
Nov 11 x Transit of Mercury (cancelled if cloudy)
Nov 15 04:48 PM 06:25 PM 06:25 PM 07:15 PM 86% x
Nov 22 04:42 PM 06:21 PM 06:21 PM 03:23 AM 15% x x
Nov 29 04:38 PM 06:18 PM 07:29 PM 05:42 AM 14% x
Dec 20 04:38 PM 06:20 PM 06:20 PM 02:23 AM 28%
Dec 27 04:42 PM 06:24 PM 06:24 PM 06:01 AM 4%
CGO (Latitude: 44.1971 Longitude: -92.8623): star party dates are for Friday nights with the alternate (if cloudy) for Saturday night.
LLCC star party dates for the entire weekend w/ housing provided by LLCC
REMINDER: Go/No Go decision is posted on the MAS website ONLY for the Messier Marathon, Virgo Venture & Mini-Messier Marathon.
B-SIG star party dates are for Saturday night, with the alternate being on Friday if the Saturday date is forecast cloudy.
B-SIG, Go / No-Go decission will be posted on the MAS Discussion Forums.
http://forums.mnastro.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=5
*** need to check the B-SIG policy with Suresh ***
ELO Public Star Parties (Latitude: 44.8103 Longitude: -93.9397): are All-Weather events for Saturday nights unless otherwise noted.
All times are from Skytools 3 and specifically for CGO; approximated for all else.
This schedule is subject to change. Please check the MAS online calendar at www.mnastro.org for a complete schedule of all MAS events.
Cherry Grove Star Parties are held on Friday nights, with Saturday reserved as the backup night if Friday is cloudy.
LLCC (Latitude: 46.6470 Longitude: -93.4650): Star parties are held on both Friday and Saturday night.
Eagle Lake Public nights are held on Saturday nights only.
J.J. Casby: Latitude: 44.9245 Longitude: -92.7924)Metcalf: Latitude: 44.93734 Longitude: -92.82157
How to pay your dues August 2019 Volume 45 Number 4Your MAS membership expires at the beginning of the month shown on your membership card. You will be notified of your renewal
by e-mail two months prior to expiration and by USPS mail the month of your expiration. You may renew by mail or online using PayPal. By mail: Send your payment to the MAS membership coordinator at: Minnesota Astronomical Society, Attn. Membership coordinator, P.O. Box 14931, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Make checks payable to MAS. Current annual membership rates when paying by check are: $26 regular, $13 student, and $65 for patron memberships. You may renew for one year or for two years at a time. Online using PayPal: PayPal charges a fee, so MAS includes a voluntary contribution in the PayPal membership rates to offset that fee. Membership rates us-ing PayPal are $27.50 regular, $13.75 student and $67.25 patron. The membership form and the procedure for joining or renewing using PayPal may be found at www.mnastro.org/members/join/. The bimonthly Gemini newsletter is included with your membership online as a downloadable.pdf file. You will be notified by email when each issue becomes available online for you to download and print.
Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazine Subscriptions
MAS members are offered subscriptions to these magazines at a club discount. The S&T discount subscription is $32.95 per year ($34.25 when using PayPal). New subscriptions to S&T at the member discount must be sent to MAS for processing. Send new subscrip-tions or renewals with your MAS membership to the MAS P.O. box or online using the PayPal process, or you may make subsequent subscription renewals directly with S&T on their web site, by mail or by phone with Sky Publishing at 1-800-253-0245.
Astronomy Magazine member discount subscriptions are available for one-, two- or three-year subscriptions. You may subscribe or renew your existing subscription by check or by using the MAS online renewal process and paying via PayPal when entering or renewing your MAS membership, or you can subscribe or renew your Astronomy Magazine subscription directly online using a credit card. When renewing using a credit card, you can renew for one year at $34 per year, two years at $60 ($30 per year), or $83 for three years ($27.66 per year). To subscribe online, go to Astronomy.com/offer and locate the Promo Code box. Then type in the MAS unique promo code of ANTZ055 and click the Update button. The offer at the top of the page will change automatically. Scroll to the top of the page and select the order term (1 year, 2 years, or 3 years). Enter your name, address and email information. Click on the Submit button. You will receive a confirmation page, which we suggest you print for your records.
How to Subscribe to MAS e-mail Distribution Lists
MAS uses Web discussion forums and e-mail distribution lists for timely communications. We highly recommend that you subscribe to both the Web forums and the MAS general distribution e-mail list.
To subscribe to the MAS e-mail list visit: lists.mnastro.org/mnastro/listinfo, click on the MAS list link and follow the subscription instructions. There is a general list (MAS), an outreach list and lists for other special purposes.
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