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President's Message...

STAR FIELDS
Newsletter of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston Including the Bond Astronomical Club Established in 1934 In the Interest of Telescope Making & Using Vol. 18, No. 5 May 2006

Thanks to Peter Bealo, Steve Beckwith, Bruce Berger, Bernie Kosicki, Mario Motta, and Paul Valleli for agreeing to be my six candidates for the Nominating Committee. And, a bigger thanks to Peter Bealo, Mario Motta, and Paul Valleli for serving on the Nominating Committee. I'm sure they'll announce a fine slate of officers for next year! An Executive Board meeting was held on April 20th and the highlights were: - The board approved the purchase of an observing chair for the Ed Knight observatory. - The board approved use of http://CafePress.com/atmob for club logo clothing and other items. The club will receive a small amount for each sale. Check out the site and order early and often! - The board approved a change to the newsletter - the treasurer's report will no longer be published in the monthly newsletter (it will still be reported at each meeting as required by the bylaws). - The board approved a new Web Committee. This committee will be formed after the annual meeting ­ (See last page for details.) - The board reviewed a proposal by Charlie McDonald to form an Education and Public Outreach Committee (EPO), likely incorporating the Observing Committee (which presently handles primarily Star Party coordination). However, the board felt that the proposal needed to be reworked by Bernie Volz, Charlie McDonald, with input from Virginia Renehan, and will review the revised proposal at the next board meeting. - The board reviewed a proposal from Bruce Berger to form a Telescope Committee. However, the board felt these responsibilities fall under the Clubhouse Committee and will look to rework the definition of the Clubhouse Committee to clarify this. The Clubhouse Committee was encouraged by the board to look at developing some formal structure for sub-groups. Some of the committee changes may eventually require bylaws changes, which will need membership approval as per Article XIV (Amendments [to the bylaws]). I thank the board members and Committee Chairs for their participation. I also thank Charlie McDonald for proposing the EPO Committee and for Gary Walker for suggesting the Web Committee (though Gary actually suggested a Web Officer be added to the board). Bernie Volz, President -

This Month's Meeting...
Thursday, May 11th , 2006 at 8:00 PM Phillips Auditorium Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Parking at CfA is allowed for duration of meeting

THIS MONTH'S SPEAKER will be Mario Motta and Scot Milligan. The title of their talk will be "The Wingaersheek Observatory and Telescope." After a 3 year sojourn making a "relay" telescope (should properly be called the "Milligan") Mario will recap the fabrication of the dome and the mount and Scott will talk of the optical fabrication and the reasons why this design is revolutionary. The optical design involves a 32" primary, a mangin secondary, and 4 relay lenses, delivering near perfect images. The design is optimized for near zero aberrations and very high contrast. There are some very difficult constraints, which will be shown as well. The mount and tube assembly involved fabricating over 400 individual parts, and is nearly finished. The rest of the optics are fully completed and coated. Mario hopes to have first light by the end of May!

Please join our speakers for a pre-meeting dinner at 5:45 PM (seating at 6:00 PM) at the Changsho Restaurant located at 1712 Mass Ave. in our fair city, Cambridge.


April Meeting Minutes. . .
The April Meeting of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston was focused on the experiences of our fortunate members who chose to go to Egypt, Turkey and Libya to view the total solar eclipse of March 29th, 2006. Many of the members from the Egypt expedition were dressed in very colorful clothing from the region, which they purchased for the party held in the evening after the successful viewing of the eclipse. Al Takeda started us off with some of his pictures, which included the site in Al-Salloum, the rising and setting sun and of course his shots of the sun in mid-eclipse. Mario Motta, the primary coordinator for the Egypt expedition, followed with a very nice travelogue that included sites around Egypt and the eclipse site. Mario expressed admiration for how well the Egyptian government had this event planned and how smoothly all things went. Apparently he has experienced other trips that were quite the contrary. Ken Launie followed Mario with some great pictures of the eclipse and some interesting pictures of our fellow members experiencing the Egyptian life. He also had a nice shot of the post-eclipse 30 hour old new moon. Bert Halstead followed with some good pictures of the eclipse including a very nice five-picture collage that included the sun in a partial phase, various totality shots and one of the Egyptian pyramids; A nice memento of the overall experience of this trip. Bob Naeye was in Libya with a Sky and Telescope led group and showed some great pictures of his experiences which included a ride out to a truly remote desert location that allowed for wonderful viewing and allowed members of that group to spread out quite freely and experience the expansive desert up close and personal. Many members where disappointed that the night that they spent there (in tents set up by the Libyan government) was not as dark and serene as they might have liked because the locals were having quite a party that included fireworks and very loud music. Instead of seeing stars he instead got a glimpse into the culture of the local population which in its' own right proved to be very interesting and worth the loss of sleep. Paul Valleli finished the session with some of his pictures of the eclipse that he had worked hard at with some post eclipse image processing. One aspect of this processing included something that he referred to as a radial gradient filter, which allowed him to produce an extremely detailed image of the solar corona out to about six solar radii. ( Other presentations were made after the meeting concluded by Jun Lao (Ohio), Sal LaRiccia, and Howard LeVaux.) After the eclipse pictures we had a short presentation by John Boudreau who showed us some of his planetary pictures that he has gotten quite proficient at taking over the last couple of years. Some of us have seen some of his work on the website but here was a chance to see them on the big screen so to speak as well as get some information about how he got them. He had some truly amazing shots of Mars through its latest close encounter with The Earth,

Saturn and the Moon. Jupiter is just coming into a favorable viewing window and we are sure to see some wonderful pictures from him on that. The business meeting followed which included standard reports by the committee members. Dan Winchell stated that the new membership count was up to 307. John Reed announced an upcoming work party. Virginia Renehan announced two honorary donations of $100 dollars that resulted from the star parties at Chenery School in Belmont and at the Prospect Hill Park in Waltham. She also announced that Astronomy Day on May 6th is coming up soon and any persons interested in volunteering should contact her. Bernie Volz announced the upcoming board meeting on April 20th and a meeting of the group currenly working on the website upgrade on April 18th. Bruce Berger gave an update on the status of the C14 and indicated that there would be some training classes scheduled sometime in early May for those interested in learning how to operate this instrument. Lastly, a new nominating committee was elected by the membership. Members of this committee are: Mario Motta (chair), Peter Bealo, and Paul Valleli. ­ Michael Hill -

Membership Report...
This month we have 5 new members: ROSS BARROS-SMITH from Acton JOSEPH BERGERON from Acton HERBERT HAGELE from Lynnfield ADAM PETERS from Pelham NH BOB PETERS from Pelham NH - Dan Winchell -

Clubhouse Saturday Schedule
May May May May June 6 13 20 27 3 Tom Wolf Dave Prowten Closed for Work Party Ed Boudreau Eileen Myers Brian Maerz Jim Suslowicz Bruce Gerhard Eric Johansson

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Nominating Committee
At the April meeting the President proposed Peter Bealo, Steve Beckwith, Bruce Berger, Bernie Kosicki, Mario Motta, and Paul Vallel as the 6 nominations for the nominating committee. The membership elected Mario Motta (chair; most votes), Paul Valleli, and Peter Bealo to the nominating committee. The nominating committee selects a full slate of candidates for the elected positions on the Executive Board (approval of all members of the nominating committee is required for a nomination). The nominating committee shall advise the members of its nominations at the May meeting, and those nominations shall be included in the notices sent to the members of the June meeting. Members shall have the right to offer additional nominations from the floor of the June meeting, provided only that a suitable written notice, containing the name or names of the person or persons to be nominated from the floor at the June meeting, and the signatures of at least seven members, is filed with the Secretary not less than ten (10) days prior to the date of the June meeting.

Web committee
As noted in the president's message the executive board has approved the creation of a new Web Committee which will be formed after the annual meeting The bylaws-like definition for the committee is: The Web Committee will be responsible to the Executive Board with duties and powers as follows. The Web Committee shall be responsible for all matters affecting the corporation's web site, electronic mailing lists, and any other services offered over the Internet to the corporation's members and the general public and shall have all powers necessary to the performance of their duties. In particular, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Web Committee shall have the power: A. To acquire services, equipment, and software to affect services offered over the Internet B. To plan, order and superintend all installations, changes and renovations of the web site C. To coordinate web site creation, development, and enhancements and set quality guidelines D. To keep the web site and other services offered operating and up to date

Per the Bylaws of The ATMoB
"The nominating committee shall advise the members of its nominations at the [May] regular meeting of the members, and those nominations shall be included in the notices sent to the members of the annual [June] meeting. Members shall have the right to offer additional nominations from the floor of the annual meeting, provided only that a suitable written notice, containing the name or names of the person or persons to be nominated from the floor at the annual meeting, and the signatures of at least seven members, is filed with the Secretary not less than ten (10) days prior to the date of the annual meeting."

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C14/Paramount Installation is Complete !
The installation of our newly acquired Celestron C14 atop a computer controlled Software Bisque Paramount GT1100 equatorial mount is complete. The final details of the installation and configuration were completed just last week and the scope is ready to be used! The use of this telescope does require some initial training but once you have the basics down the rest is easy. Bruce Berger and Mike Hill will hold a couple of training sessions on May 13th and May 18th. A user guide will be posted on the web site and will be available at the telescope. You must read this before using this scope.

June Star Fields deadline Saturday, May 27th Email articles to Mike Hill at noatak@aol.com
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POSTMASTER NOTE: First Class Postage Mailed May 5th, 2006

Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Inc. c/o Dan Winchell, Membership Secretary 20 Howard St. Cambridge, MA 02139-3720 FIRST CLASS

EXECUTIVE BOARD 2005-2006 PRESIDENT: Bernie Volz (603) 968-3062 president@atmob.org VICE PRES: SECRETARY: MEMBERSHIP: Virgina Renehan Michael Hill Dan Winchell (978) 283-0862 (508) 485-0230 (617) 876-0110 (978) 692-4187 (781) 862-8040 (978) 369-1596 (978) 256-9208 (978) 456-3937 (781) 275 9482 (978) 433-9215 (781) 861-8031 (781) 784-3024 (781) 861-8338 (978) 283-0862

How to Find Us... Web Page www.atmob.org
MEETINGS: Held the second Thursday of each month (September to July) at 8:00PM in the Phillips Auditorium, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge MA. For INCLEMENT WEATHER CANCELLATION listen to WBZ (1030 AM) CLUBHOUSE: Latitude 42° 36.5' N Longitude 71° 29.8' W The Tom Britton Clubhouse is open every Saturday from 7 p.m. to late evening. It is the white farmhouse on the grounds of MIT's Haystack Observatory in Westford, MA. Take Rt. 3 North from Rt. 128 or Rt. 495 to Exit 33 and proceed West on Rt. 40 for five miles. Turn right at the MIT Lincoln Lab, Haystack Observatory at the Groton town line. Proceed to the farmhouse on left side of the road. Clubhouse attendance varies with the weather. It is wise to call in advance: (978) 692-8708. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TREASURER: Gary Jacobson MEMBERS AT LARGE: Bruce Tinkler Dave Prowten PAST PRESIDENTS: 2004-05 Bruce Berger 2002-04 Eileen Myers 2001-02 Bob Collara CLUBHOUSE : COMMITTEES Paul Cicchetti John Reed Steve Clougherty Anna Hillier Virginia Renehan

Heads Up For The Month . . .
To calculate Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) from Universal Time (UT) subtract 4 from UT. May May May May May 3 Jupiter at opposition 5 First Quarter Moon 13 Full Moon 20 Last Quarter Moon 27 New Moon

HISTORIAN: OBSERVING: