20120413-15 ACA's Most Excellent
Adventure: Caravan trip to Roper
Mountain
Any course of action involves risks
and concerns. Lalit had health concerns and upcoming
tests at school. Gary and Kenneth were facing solo stays at the motel. Eddie and Michelle, having recently purchased
a house, had questions about expense. Vinay did not
know if he would have time to be away from his job. Cassel was initially a yes for someday taking
a road trip, but he and his dad, Wes, had to decide if this day was the
"someday". Stan and Tedda worried about having enough members to properly
represent the Astronomy Club of Augusta.
They worried about the weather and had travel concerns for our
safety. But once underway, we forgot our
worries, and Stan anointed our trip:
ACA’s Most Excellent Adventure!
Our caravan of 10 members in 4
vehicles met at Subway and left on time on Friday at 2PM. We reached Greenville without mishap and
checked in to our reserved motel rooms.
Since it was Friday, we decided that the place to eat a good meal was
TGI Fridays, sorry Ruby Tuesday! Then we
headed up the Roper Mountain to see the famous 23" Refractor telescope,
open to the public every Friday evening. Apparently, the US Naval Observatory
built the telescope, but never really used it.
In imagination we traveled back in time, meeting with the historical
figure of Einstein who was at Princeton at the same time as the telescope,
which is known locally as the War of the Worlds telescope. It seems that in the
original story of the 1930s, scientists at Princeton looked through a telescope
to observe the Martian invaders. Had they done so at that time, it would have
been the scope now housed at Roper. With good weather, we were duly impressed
by our view of Mars and its barely visible polar cap. They had video set up on 2 smaller scopes set
up on the USNO scope, but they were solar flare replays rather than current.
Venus was the bright beauty of the skies that night, and the CAVE telescope
outside gave us a truly large, impressive, crisp view of it at close to its
maximum. This scope was made in CA with
refined optics, but the company is no longer in business.
Day 2, after waffle breakfast at the
motel, we part-teed on up to the Roper Mountain Science Center. We marveled at
the generosity of some benefactor to provide them with such a wonderful
facility with so many interesting ecology and strange animal and plant exhibits. It is open to the public
every second Saturday morning, ~$5 admission. Inside, acorns for planting oaks
were given away free, and outside seed packets were given away at The Butterfly
Garden. There were adult and student volunteers everywhere. Saving the planet
and energy was the underlying topic, and we were pleased to hear that they
would include more about responsible lighting soon. Tedda and Cassel
had an excellent lesson on the future of electric cars by Joachim. At the observatory, the 5" guide scope
was covered with a filter, and we saw little black active sun spots, which
actually were large enough to swallow our planet.
Some of us ate Chick-fil-a there, some had to tank up with gas. After a few wrong turns, Wes took over and
got us to Clemson University Planetarium, where we met with Ram, family, and
friends. A grad student gave us a private
showing of the Planetarium programs and tried to answer our questions. It was a
nice room with about 30 lay-back, cushioned seats in all directions, but even
so, an individual could not see much more than half the dome. Tedda was
disappointed with the content of the information presented. Some consoled her, saying it is just
eye-candy. It would be nice if they
could present programs similar to the
caliber of the NOVA TV programs by Neil DeGrasse
Tyson or "Through the Wormhole" by Morgan Freeman. They are eye-appealing, informational, and
motivational. It would be nice if they
could write up the information from Stellarium or
Virtual Moon to put on an audio and provide more in depth
information/review/comparison while looking at the night sky on the globe
screen. A professor might conduct a
contest among the astronomy students, even English students or the public, for
a grade or prize.
We got out of Clemson OK, but got lost
several times on the way to a delightful seafood dinner at Tiki-Hut,
with a spectacular view of the
lake. We eventually had to take a video
of us all saying: "It's just down
the road. You can't miss it!" Still, our caravan stayed together! Lalit and his GPS
got us safely through the countryside to our hidden astronomy observing site
near Walhalla. Ram and family were there
to greet us, and introduce us to his astronomy friend, Horace, our hosts,
Martha and Joey, and their all-age extended family of enthusiastic observers. They have a beautiful horse farm with slopes
in every direction. They provided us
with electrical power, extra blankets, and other items. They provided a bathroom in the shed, but it
is the first time some of us filled the toilet tank with a hose - and high
pressure at that! We pitched the blue
and white tent on the lush grass twice, and got it up quickly the second time
with big help from Vinay. We blew up the air mattresses, and put on our
coats as the cool night air approached. We set up our club refractor. As usual, Vinay and
Lalit were great at finding and pointing out Messier
objects. We studied nebulas in Orion,
Gemini, the Whirlpool Galaxy near the Big Dipper, and others. We observed planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and
Saturn. We put the children up on chairs
to see through the scopes. Ram set up his new Televue
Refractor, strikingly similar to our scope, but with more accoutrements. Stan
and Ram had a good time talking about the scopes, including the possibility of
getting a tracking mechanism for ours.
We said goodbye to Lalit and Vinay, who left before bed in order to get back to the job
and prepare for tests.
We were pleasantly exhausted from the
day well lived. Early in the morning we
put on a concert of snoring interspersed with bird chirping, which Michelle and
Eddie captured on their cell phones when they were not snoring themselves. (I
know because I heard them!)
Day 3, we walked out to the barn,
petting the horses on the way. We said
goodbye to our good hosts who asked us to return, and we in turn invited them
to visit us. We packed up our gear.
Eight year old Justice helped us sweep up, fold the tent, and turn off
the pump. Down the road we stopped at
Waffle House for Sunday brunch. Gary,
Michelle, and Eddie pealed off to Augusta. Five of us stopped at Winn Dixie for
congratulatory chocolate-coke floats.
We had a good time and laughed a lot!
Check out the video coming soon
(Apr.28), to a DVD player near you (RPSEC). Ask Stan. You can’t miss it!
Respectfully submitted,
Kenneth Beard
Recent Correspondence
Dear Martha and Joey, April
16, 2012
Thank you so much for a lovely visit
to your home in the SC mountains. You
have a beautiful place with a beautiful view - day and night!
There were 10 of us, and we appreciate
all the effort you made to make our visit special, from mowing to facilities,
chairs, blankets, and more. We were so
pleased to share the night sky with you and yours, and hope it encourages you
all to keep "looking up"!
We appreciate Ram arranging and
encouraging us to come, and were pleased to meet your friend, Horace. You
ordered great weather, and we enjoyed our refreshing mountain morning walk to
the barn, petting the horses on the way.
Please let us know when you plan to
come to the Aiken-Augusta area. We would
be glad to have you visit with us.
Sincerely,
Tedda Howard
ACA President
https://www.angelfire.com/ga/astronomyclubaugusta
Tedda, April
18, 2012
Thank you for the kind words and we
are very happy you had such a fine trip.
We sure hope it all was well worth your time and effort. I only wish our participation could have
matched yours, but Horace and I along with my family members sure enjoyed
ourselves.
Martha and Joey – Many thanks again
for all the super hospitality you provided and we as always, we enjoy
socializing with all your extended family who show so much sincere interest in
our astronomy endeavors.
BTW side note to Stan – If really
interested in putting a drive motor on your Genesis Mount you may want to send an email to: To:
faworski@mc.net, Subject: Motor Drive with Handbox
for the TeleVue Systems Mount The Gentleman's name is
Sheldon Faworski, and he used to be a telescope
importer. He has/had new drive unit kits
which come complete with motor, handbox, cable,
mounting bracket, hardware and installation instructions. I got this information from the guy who sold
me my mount and bought one for $50.00 + S&H as a backup in February.
Thx, Ram
Ram White
(Clemson Area Astronomy Club)
20120428ACAKBMin
The Astronomy Club of Augusta hosted Telescopes
and Challenge on the Lawn for National Astronomy Night (NAN) on April 28 at RPSEC. Member attendance totaled
20, and others also volunteered to help.
The warm evening began with a light
breeze and a scattering of clouds around the evening sun about 6:30. Charles and Jennifer helped us pound in stakes to hold up our panels of astronomy
information. We put station numbers on
our chests.
Our questions and help on answering basic
astronomy facts at15 challenge stations were designed to open up the heavens with
8 themes: cardinal points orientation, planets, moons, asteroids, stars, constellations,
telescopes, and responsible lighting.
Gloria got everyone off to a great
start, getting them signed in, explaining the challenge sheets and directing
them into the crowd. Quinn and Amon took the challenge and also helped Brenden teach
people the planets in order. Mark showed people the 11 large lunar maria and how to name them. Kenneth was kept rather busy at his table
explaining the 8 phases of the moon. Cassel,
Mike, and Pat, helped people learn the names of our solar system's largest
moons. Sheri brought them back to earth
with practical figuring of NESW directions.
John and Jesse did hands-gently-on telescope parts. Gary and Tedda laser
pointed to bright stars and constellations and taught them their names. Stan impressed them with Venus at half
phase. Most people thought he was
pointing at the moon at first, but most finally realized that Venus also has
phases, at least from Earth! Tim and
Kolbe took the challenge, and also helped Dave teach people the problems of
light pollution and the importance of Responsible lighting. Gary S. provided
tables, chairs, etc, and then cold soft drinks just when we needed them later
in the evening. Kay did a great job
congratulating completion of challenges, and passing out prizes. We were missing a few challengers, but the
crowd seemed to feel that it was just the right amount of challenge!
Every time I have participated, I have been
impressed by two things. The young minds
were either quick or had to call up the virtue of fortitude. When Stan and I talked about it afterwards, he
said you have to give the nod to those who show determination. I agree. Intelligence helps, but experience teaches
that most often our best behavior is persistence until we understand it better.
The second impression is our deep
sense of satisfaction after the Challenge at having encouraged a developing
mind to grasp something new, at least temporarily. Despite a few clouds, both youth and adults enjoyed
a busy and successful astronomical evening.
The club and community are grateful to all participants.
The club was also pleased to receive
donations of practically new Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars, and a solar filter for our
Genesis telescope.
Our next meeting will be May 4, next
Friday at 7:00PM at RPSEC. Please come
and hear all about Galaxies.
Respectfully submitted,
Kenneth Beard
