THE EVENT HORIZON - St. Louis Astronomical Society

THE EVENT HORIZON ST. LOUIS ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY Devoted to the Interest and Advancement of the Science of Astronomy

VOLUME 23, Issue 9 September, 2013

The Cosmos and the Quark by Professor Mark Alford Washington University

Inside This Issue

Dr. Mark Alford will be featured at the September meeting of the Saint Louis Astronomical Society. The meeting will begin at 7:30 pm Friday, September 20, in McDonnell Hall, Room 162, on the Washington University campus, Saint Louis, MO 63130. McDonne`ll Hall is accessible from Forsyth Boulevard via Tolman Way. We live in an expanding universe, where mysterious "dark matter" shapes the galaxies and even more enigmatic "dark energy" is driving the expansion rate faster. Meanwhile, particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider in Europe have probed the building blocks of matter at the smallest distances ever explored. One of its discoveries is the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is the sub-atomic particle thought to impart mass, somehow, to the matter – including humans - that makes up the universe. How does our knowledge of the smallest particles relate to our understanding the structure and history of our universe? That is the topic of this lecture. Dr. Alford is a Professor of Physics, Chairman of the Department of Physics, and a Fellow of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University. His teaching and research center on the study of quarks and their properties, Quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons, which, in turn, are the building blocks of all atoms. He is currently investigating the properties of quark matter – the extremely high density state of matter inside neutron stars.

President’s Corner

2

SLAS Bar B Q

2

A Bright Nova

4

Friday, November 15, 2013: Eclipse 2017 - Larry Koehn

Greetings from the Islands

4

- All meetings begin at 7:30pm

Sumerian Notes

5

Financials

8

Mission Updates

Board Minutes

9

Voyager reaches the edge of the Solar System,

Events

10

LADEE is launched

Upcoming SLAS Meetings: Friday, October 18, 2013: Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) - Gary Kronk

Space Station crew change

VOLUME 23, ISSUE 9 SEPTEMBER, 2013

President’s Corner by Jim Small

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It was a good month for SLAS in August. The Star-B-Q was a particularly good time! Great food, good company, a fun quiz, FRISBEE!, badminton and some nice observing at night. Grant had his decked out van there, complete with red rope lighting (as well as a disco option in case he takes up being a DJ I suppose). He got to break it in while we were observing the Nova in Delphinius. After a lot of careful observation, the best we could do visually with binoculars was to estimate a 4.5 for the magnitude, which seemed in line with observations taken elsewhere. Grant suggested a magnitude of 4.439, but I would tend to question the validity of the number of significant figures in that reading ;-) Of course it might not matter since we figured he was + - 0.5 magnitudes for error… A good night overall. MSRAL 2014 is coming along nicely! The committee has decided to go with the Knight Center for the banquet, Ray Arvidson is confirmed as the keynote speaker, the Star-B-Q will be at the Planetarium and we have several vendors in line. The two we have confirmed at this point are Ricks Astronomy Jewelry and the Astronomical League sales. InfiniTees is also on board, and Point Grey, Celestron, Explore Scientific, OPT, and several other vendors have been contacted. At the next meeting, we will solidify the working budget for the conference and work on some of the volunteer positions and begin the process of working on marketing the conference. We are well ahead of the game and will have notices of the event in the next Reflector. Thanks to all who have worked on various aspects so far, including Mark Jones, Jim and Ann Trull, John Beaury, Rhonda Whelan, Rich Heuermann, and Cook Feldman. Extra thanks to Cook for going over the contract with the Knight Center to correct any issues. It’s great to have a trained eye for these things! If you would like to join us, our next meeting will be at Young’s Restaurant this coming Sunday, Septermber 22nd at 6 pm. We’d love to have you there! The more people step up to volunteer, the easier it will be on everyone! The grant that SLAS received was the topic of discussion at the second meeting convened by Tom Nickelson September 4th. We selected most of the equipment and set some priorities for the grant money. The first priority is to make sure we have a structure like the Easy View Arm carried by Universal Astronomics. That will be coupled with a small refractor and an appropriate tripod to provide easy roll-up viewing for folks confined to a wheelchair. We are also looking at video eyepieces such as the Orion Video Eyepiece II for creating a live display that may be viewed by someone who has trouble holding an eye steady enough to view through a scope. The next meeting will be determine some finalities for the equipment and some orders will be placed at that time. Tom Nickleson will announce the date of the next meeting at the SLAS regular meeting on Friday, September 20th. If you would like to help, please be sure to be at the meeting! THERE ARE LOTS OF STAR PARTIES THIS MONTH AND A COMPLETE LIST IS IN THE EVENTS SECTION. IF YOU CAN HELP, PLEASE LOG INTO NIGHT SKY NETWORK AND RSVP SO WE KNOW YOU’RE COMING. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ALL YOU DO!

11th Annual SLAS Star-B-Q by Mark Jones The 11th annual SLAS Star-B-Q was held Saturday August 17 at Babler State Park. My thanks to everyone who came out to the Star-B-Q and who helped with the setup and cleanup. SLAS provided beef brisket, BBQ chicken and pork and hotdogs. SLAS members provided the snacks side dishes and deserts. After dinner some played badminton and others Frisbee. Later John Beaury hosted the annual trivia quiz. After darkness fell we looked at the Moon with a 4" refractor. and Jim Small showed everyone how to take photos of the Moon with their smartphones. Then we looked at the new Nova in Delphinus. It was not visible to the naked-eye due to the bright Moon but easy to see in binoculars. Grant Martin used his star charts to find it, then estimate the brightness (Continued on page 3)

THE EVENT HORIZON

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relative to nearby stars. I think we all agreed that the nova was around 4.5 magnitude. Special Thank You: Cyndie Jones for helping with setup and cleanup Grant Martin for bringing all the paper goods John Beaury for the wonderful trivia quiz and prizes. Jim Small and Jim Roe for donating prizes Everyone who helped with cleanup, we left the shelter in great shape!

RIGHT: Members dig into the extensive buffet of offerings brought by SLAS members. SLAS provided the BBQ meats for the picnic. Thanks to Mark Jones for organizing!!

LEFT: Members taking the trivia quiz! BELOW: Tom Nickleson, Rhonda Whelan and Thane Bopp select prizes

LEFT: Winners from the trivia quiz. Thanks to John Beaury for creating this year’s quiz! A great job by all that took the quiz! We will see everyone next year!


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A Bright Nova

by Mark Jones

A bright nova was discovered by Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan, on August 14th. The nova peaked a little brighter than magnitude 4.5 on August 16th. On Saturday August 17th members of SLAS observed the nova at the annual Star-B-Q, when the nova was still estimated a brightness of 4.5 magnitude. Bright moonlight prevent naked-eye viewing but the nova was easy with binoculars. The nova then faded slowly and in the last two weeks the fading nearly stopped. The nova was holding at about magnitude 7.4 on September 12th. The nova can still be seen with binoculars. I took photos of the nova from August 18 th through September 7th to document it change in brightness. The two photos below are from Aug 23rd (mag=5.5) (left) and September 7th (mag=7.4). (right)

See Sky & Telescope website for more details http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/Bright-Nova-in-Delphinus-219631281.html

Greetings From the Islands. by Grant Martin (editors note: Article was for last month. Still like the photograph!

I had to drag along my Short tube 90mm Refractor and I needed a little help from an iOptron Cube goto mount but the airborne moisture is so low that even though I'm looking over half the city below with a moon above that is three days past first quarter, the transparency is still about mag three to my "light adapted" eye, the seeing is very stable at about 4 out of five (It's hard to believe the skies can be so clear and steady above an ocean) but Omega Centauri was still pretty easy to find as it looked about as bright as M13 in this scope at Broemmelseik park in the hot, humid days of July (Half again as bright as the background in the eyepiece). Centaurus A was a bust - got too low before I started looking for it. Maybe tomorrow night. My aunt seems to be doing ok but I can tell she's declining. I'm certainly not enjoying the scenery much and it certainly isn't a vacation grade stay but I'm making the most of it. I suppose the good news is it's 88 degrees, low humidity, no chiggers, no ticks and no mosquitos. Perfect if you can get out under dark skies. Not so much if you can't. I've made arrangements to attend the local astronomy clubs monthly public star party out here so perhaps I'll get a chance to see this thing under dark skies in big aperture scopes. All things considered, I'd rather have saved the money and seen this thing from Danville ;) MAYBE I'll make it back for the August meeting...all depends upon how my aunt is doing. Regards and enjoy the warm summer nights under the stars ;)

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Background to Sumerian notes: planets, various by Carl Masthay This Sumerian selection I chose for various personal reasons, but my primary stimulus was to find and understand the original word and original meaning of the constellation name “Orion” (half successful, half failed) and secondarily to secure a list of the planet names with Sun and Moon and the numerals and metals. This is very dense linguistic material requiring one to slow down and patiently piece out the strange phonetic practices a Sumerologist must follow to transfer it to our time and for our understanding. There was a slippery path taken over a century and a half that sometimes went easily into false phonetic readings, and some readings are still iffy. Anna Jenson, who lives in Derbyshire in the UK, has helped me over some of these jagged script crags. You may wonder why we have to have those bothersome little subscript numerals. Well, they represent a different cuneiform word each with the same homophonic reading, perhaps a huge redundancy with a differing script arising from original ideographic shapes that provided no hint to their actual sounds. After all, the early script wasn’t meant to reproduce actual speech. Before my compilation was accepted for presentation in The Event Horizon, the organ of the St. Louis Astronomical Society, I was asked to provide this perhaps helpful descriptive introduction and to expect that it would be, unfortunately, split into two parts, one published in one month and the second part in the successive month. My hope was for this to be one entity, and so I ask that you please save the first part either electronically or on paper to again reunite it with its second part and THEN study it as a whole if you have the faint patience to do so. My purpose in compilation differs from you the reader’s purpose in a quick, light-hearted comprehensive overview, but I present this material for you to get a deep unique feel for how the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia saw their Sun, Moon, and planets—those people alive at an extremely remote time of about 6000 years ago, with first inscriptions at 5100 BP and written to right up to almost the Christian era, speaking a language unrelated to anything ever recorded and spoken and not even a language some fervent Hungarians would adopt as their ancient relative, an unsupportable and vanishingly provable concept. Sumerian consists of two dialects: eme-KU, the official ‘people’s’ dialect including eme-GIR [‘tongue/speech/languagemen’] and the separate eme-SAL, the ‘women’s’ dialect, a conservative and early stage used in hymns and incantations. Sumerian is not at all related to its later displacement language of the third millennium BCE called Akkadian (later developing into Assyro-Babylonian), which is a Semitic language, but Sumerian’s coeval language Elamite, neighboring to the east, is also unrelated to Sumerian. Elamite might even be a Dravidian language, tantalizingly hard to prove. Semitic Akkadian priest-scribes kept the ideographic cuneiform concept of their predecessor Sumerian priest-scribes by using the Sumerian determinative word unpronounced beside the more-phonetic Akkadian reading, and so you see, for example, Sumerian DINGIR ‘God’ written now for us as a superscript (also d) or in small capitals with the Akkadian equivalent, which is pronounced: ’ilu (compare that with Hebrew ’ēl, Biblical Aramaic expanded ’ĕlāhā, later Syriac ’alaha, ‘God’, and Arabic ’ilāh ‘god, deity’ and ’allāh ‘the [single] God’). In some cases Akkadians probably did continue pronouncing the Sumerian loanword. Later in Assyro-Babylonian those determinatives were dropped, for example, the use of just ’ilu. What may look like a visual jumble of spellings with lots of hyphens is our best attempt to transcribe the sounds and their functions. Some transcribers drop the hyphens. Please see each word as a conceptual entity in its entirety, for it is the best we can do. Some ancient words, such as the metals, are still used in several living Semitic languages. The Sumerians of course affected how we now see our constellations.

Sumerian notes: planets, various René Labat: Manuel d’épigraphie akkadienne, ed. 6, Paris, 1994 (2002), Librairie orientaliste Paul Geunthner, PJ3193 23 1995 [ j = y] Konrad Volk: A Sumerian reader, ed. 2, revised, Rome, 1999, Editrice Pontifico Istituto Biblico, ISBN 88-7653-610-8 ~ = ğ or ŋ (ng)?; ḫ = velar /kh/ (not k + h as in ‘10’); š = /sh/; q = back (uvular) k g Sumer ki-en-gi(-ra2); ki-en-gir15/gi7(-r) ‘place-lords-civilized (genitive)’ Sumerians sa-i6(-ga) ‘head/person’ + ‘black’ + nominative; prefix: ‘people’ = u3Sumerian language eme-gir15/gi7 ‘tongue’ + ‘native’; kalama ‘excellent speech’ word(s) inim, enim ‘one per son’ + eme ‘speech’ man, servant, soldier er in 2, erim, eren2 eagle (lammergeier) ḫu-ri2-in (mušen), u11-ri2-in mušen (mušen ‘reptile-sky’); the Akkadian loan is urinnu I, but, in contrast, urinnu II ‘standard, totem’ is from Sumerian. (Continued on page 6)


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(Continued from page 5)

‘be healthy, perfect’ silim (NOT Semitic salaam or its r oot); silim-še3 gu3…de2 ‘to greet, say hello’ (‘health’ + ‘regarding’ + ‘to call, say’) …sum ‘greeting’ + ‘to give’ ‘welcome’ silim-ma ḫe2-me-en (‘May you be healthy’) iron barzil bar 6-zil ‘to shine’ + ‘to cut, peel’ copper, metal uruda bronze Akk. siparrum < Sum. zabar ‘to pare, cut’ + bar 6 ‘bright, white’ silver ku 3-babbar ‘noble metal’ + ‘white’, also kug ‘silver, money, noble’ (ku ‘bed’ + aga3 ‘crown’) gold ku 3-sig17 ‘noble metal’ + ‘yellow’ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

diš (vertical), aš (horizontal), dili min5,6 eš limmu (variant lammu) ia aš (sign different from aš as 1) imin (variant umun) ussu ilimmu u (variant kha)

Orion possibilities Attic Greek Ōriōn /oh-ryohn/, a title “from the Euphrates.” Cf. Richard Hinckley Allen 1899, p. 304: Brown: Akkadian Uru-Anna ‘Light of Heaven’, thus for the Sun; Uru-ki ‘light of the Earth’, thus for the Moon. This etymology is deemed doubtful despite fitting Akkadian with the root words being certainly Sumerian, yet this Uru-Anna has no basis in actual attested Sumerian. See below. uru3 ‘light (visible light); to guard’ uru ki, eri, iri, ri2, uru2, iri11 ‘city, town, village, district’; Akk. ūru unug(2), unu(2) ‘dwelling, fortress, jewelry, Uruk (from ua3/un ‘people’ + ig ‘door’) badger ur-ki ‘dog’ + ‘earth’ dragon, viper ušu(m), ušumgal (uš11 ‘snake venom’ + am ‘wild ox’ + gal ‘great’) English Orion

Akkadian šitādālu, šitaddaru(m)

Sumerian MUL SIPA-ZI-AN-NA, SIPA-ZID -AN -NA STAR shepherd-right/true/good/faithful-(night) sky-of p. 235 (SIPA ‘shepher, herder, keeper’: SI ‘to keep in order’ + BAD ‘to let out’, or PAD3 ‘to find’; ZI = ZID ‘fullness of light’ = [‘strength, power’] ‘life’?; ‘true, right’) The constellation Orion, the faithful shepherd of heaven Compare with uraš-an-na ‘earth of An (with genitive)’; Akk. qaqqara aniDINGIR = ‘the earth of Anu’ = ú-ru-uk ‘Uruk’ (see unug(2) above) Planets mul udu (stars sheep [because they move as a flock]/planet) (see Anna Jenson’s note below) Volk’s set Mercury bibbu DAH Venus qaštu BAN Earth KI [not necessarily as our globe or world] Mars s albatānu UL, UDU-IDIM -SA5 Jupiter dapinu AL-TAR, U4-AL-TAR Saturn kajjamānu GENNA, LU-LIM, SAG-UŠ Uranus Neptune Pluto Halloran’s set (d = dingir ‘god’) Mercury gu4-ud ‘bull’ + ‘sun’ (because it’s early); udu-IDIM ‘sheep, wild sheep, planet’ + ‘heaven’ (IDIM/BAD ‘heaven’) mul d Venus or Mercury nin-piri(3)(-a2) ‘mistress of the lion’, that is, ‘vizier of the sun’; mul d nin-piri(3)-tur/banda3 ‘mistress of the lion cub’ Venus dili-bad ‘alone, singular’ + ‘to go away, be at a distance’; mul d nin-si4-an-na ‘lady of the evening sky’ (si 4 ‘red’ + an ‘sky’) Earth ki-gal ‘earth-great’; zag-ki-a ‘the entire earth’ (‘boundaries’ + ‘earth’ + genitive’) Mars mul-sa5 ‘star’ + ‘red, brown’ mul d Jupiter šul-pa-e3-a ‘the resplendent young man (šul also iš); al-tar ‘hoe’ + ‘to cut, break’ (Continued on page 7)

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Saturn

genna, gena, ginna, gina (also means ‘child, baby; son, daughter; constant’)

Moon light of the heavens

d

suena, dsuen [EN.ZU] < (su2 ‘knowledge’ + en2,3 ‘time’ + /ak/ ‘of’ [because it measures time]) u4(d)-an-na ‘daylight’ + ‘heaven’ + ‘genitive’, p. 289 ud, u4 ‘sun, light, day, time, weather, storm (demon)’

John Alan Halloran: Sumerian lexicon, Los Angeles, 2006, Logogram Publishing. ++++++++++++++++++

From Anna Jenson, 17 Dec. 2012: Some comments: Labat' s is my own lexicon of choice because he uses the or iginal cuneifor m script, though he has now gone the way of all mor tals, and the updated editions are by other hands. Halloran' s lexicon is of cour se in tr anscr iption for m only. He must have spent many many hour s going thr ough tr anslations of published texts in order to compile this. But I dare say he would be first to acknowledge there are still differing views about the actual sounds represented in Sumerian cuneiform, and then again the extent of geographical and time spans covered by texts suggests the language incorporates regional variations of vocabulary and spelling, which, combined with the lost cultural setting, makes it difficult to be exact about the semantic spread of some words. One of the methods used by cuneiform specialists to resolve problematic words is to extend the homophonic principle; so we continue to see more homophones such as X1, X2, X3 being expanded to X10, X11, X12 and more. There is moreover a lack of standardisation of terms used to describe elements in Sumerian word formation. Halloran uses a set which seem to me unnecessarily complicated: almost a new language of its own. (See D’iakonov on this matter of varied terminology used for Sumerian grammar.) So I take H's lexicon as a guide rather than a definitive work. As for astronomical vocabulary, many Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian astronomical texts use Sumerian terms, and there can be more than one Sumerian term for a particular astral body. Sumerian, Akk/Ass/Bab astronomy has a common phrase for the main astral bodies recognised way back: dingir imin (Sum.) = il sibitti (Akk/Ass/Bab), literally ' seven gods/counsellors' [‘gods/counsellors 7’], who are Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The concept of Earth as an astral body in a sun-centric system had not of course then developed; so you come across phrases such as ubda tattab (Sum.) and kibrat erbetti (Akk/Ass/Bab), referring to four areas of the cosmos. Expressions coupling ki and an (earth and sky) are common, but ki is a word deserving of some discussion and should not be equated with our concept of the “Earth = world = globe.” ++++ Carl Masthay, 838 Larkin Ave., Creve Coeur (St. Louis), MO 63141, [email protected], 314-432-4231 20 August 2013

Preview!

Next Month: Follow the Adventures of Bill and Rita Breeden to Kitt Peak and Mt. Lemmon! Don’t Miss It! Left: Kitt Peak rises in the distance, with the Mayall 4-Meter Telescope Observatory easily visible just right of center. Photo by Rita Breeden. Below: Rita and I arrive at the gate to the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter. Photo by Bill Breeden.


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SAINT LOUIS ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY MINUTES OF EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING: August 8, 2013

1. Opening Activities Meeting called to order at 7:12pm Attendees: Mark Jones, Brad Waller, Grant Martin, Tom Nickelson, Rhonda Whelan July minutes read and approved 2. External Business SLSC September 6 Public Telescope Viewing. The Sky Tonight at 7:00pm. Telescope viewing until 10:00 MSRAL 2014 Cr ow Hall confir med for meeting space, banquet will likely be at Knight Center on campus as well as hotel rooms, Starlight is Catering (SLSC) working with us for the StarBQ, Dr. Ray Arvidson confirmed as banquet keynote speaker. Rhonda and Jim set up the account for MSRAL and deposited $2000 from SLAS savings for seed money. It will be returned after the conference. Mark signed bank forms to get his name on the account. Last 2014 MSRAL committee meeting was held on July 21. Next meeting will be the Sunday, August 18 at 6:00 pm at Youngs. 3. Director Reports: President – Jim Small ALCON report and MSRAL 2014 update for Astro 101 this month if the board wishes. Ther e wer e about 110 attendees at the Atlanta conference. Wayne and Nancy Clark and Thane and Marlene Bopp also attended from SLAS. Vice President – Bill Biermann Speakers: August Cosmic Rays - Martin Israel September Cosmology - Mark Alford October Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) - Gary Kronk Secretary – Mark Jones SLAS Star-B-Q has been scheduled for Aug 17th at Babler State Park. See Night Sky Network for details Jim Small has received a Meade ETX 90 scope with goto capability as a donation to SLAS Next Dark Event is this Saturday August 10th Teasurer/ALCor – Rhonda W Monthly financial repor ts submitted. $1200 under budget for the year. Compose letter for $100 donation to Clark Refractor restoration at Lowell at the next general meeting. Jim Small can help with the letter, will just need the check made out and letter sent. Letter will be sent out Friday. Rhonda needs info for telescope donations from Jim Small and Greg Gaines. Mark needs to send receipts for July Hospitality Greg Gaines needs to submit receipts for shed repairs Survey form received from Camp Cedarledge Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. Also received a $50 gift card as a thank you. Board approved use of gift card for purchasing postage stamps Hospitality – Grant M Gr ant will bring plates, napkins, cups, silver ware to Star -B-Q Board member at large reports Greg Gaines – No Report Tom Nickelson - Space Grant Approval Fir st committee meeting for the Viewing for the disabled gr ant held Tuesday night August 6. Attendees were Tom Nicholson, Jim Small, Cook Feldman, Paul Baldwin and Rick Menendez. Next meeting August 28 th 7pm at Young’s Restaurant, equipment identified and need to get quotes. Brad Waller – Volunteered to do A101 “What’s New in Space” 4. Committee Reports: If needed Membership – Don Ficken, report filed. Membership as of July 31, 2103 is 163, up 3 members from start of year. Night Sky Network – Jim Small. Persons changed to contacts will have their volunteer hours restored should they be reactivated as members. Send Jim Small questions if you have more information needed. Still not working. Star Parties: Mike Malolepszy. August 12 – Gateway, August 14 – Francis Park, August 17 - StarBQ 5. Old Business No old business 6. New Business Any new business to bring before the board. 7. Closing Activities Motion to close the meeting by Rhonda and seconded Grant by Meeting adjourned at 8:45pm

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SLAS EVENTS

Upcoming Star Parties

and Other Events For details on these and other upcoming events, check out the Night Sky Network Calendar linked on the Home Page for SLAS at http://www.slasonline.org SLAS Executive Board Meetings Location will be at the Edward Jones YMCA. Thursday, October 10, 2013 Thursday, November 7, 2013 Thursday, December 12, 2013

Dark Sky Observing Dates Saturday, October 5 Saturday, November 2. Francis Park Events: These events are on Wednesdays the week nearest the first quarter Moon October 9, 2013 (4 day old Moon) November 6, 2013 (3 day old Moon) December 11, 2013 (8 day old Moon)

SLSC Public Telescope Viewing Events: These events are held the first Friday of the month*Planetarium shows start at 7pm for the summer months October 4 November 1 December 6 January 3, 2014 February 7 March 7 April May June Stargazing at the Gateway Arch Dates: Friday, October 11

September 20 (FRI) 21 (SAT) 24 (TUE) 28 (SAT)

SLAS Regular Meeting Camp Wyman Edward Jones Family YMCA Evening Under the Stars (SLSC)

October 4 (FRI) SLSC Public Telescope Viewing 4/5 (FRI/SAT) Girl Scouts at Audubon Center at Riverlands 5 (SAT) SLAS Dark Sky Event 10 (THUR) SLAS Board Meeting 10 (THUR) Kirkwood Park 11 (FRI) Faith Academy Montessori Webster Groves 11 (FRI) Gateway Arch Stargazing AND Faith Academy 12 (SAT) International Observe the Moon Night 15 (TUE) Bristol Elementary 18 (FRI) SLAS regular meeting AND Drewell Park, Eureka 19 (SAT) Solar Observing at Grand Center/ Pulitzer Foundation AND Babler 75th Anniversary AND Night Skies Over Babler 26 (SAT) WOW in Forest Park November 1 (FRI) 2 (SAT) 7 (THUR) 8 (FRI) 9 (SAT) 15 (FRI) 16 (SAT) December 6 (FRI) 12 (THUR) 20 (FRI)

SLSC Public Telescope Viewing SLAS Dark Sky Observing SLAS Board Meeting Wildwood Middle Kirkwood Park SLAS Regular Meeting Challenger Center SLSC PTV SLAS Board Meeting SLAS Reg Meeting

LET US KNOW YOU ARE COMING! To RSVP for any of these events log in to the Night Sky Network and submit your RSVP. If the event is canceled, you will be notified immediately according to the preferences you have selected. For more information about events, such as Moon phase, clear sky clock, weather report or a map of what’s up, see the calendar online.

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SLAS MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION Name: Last

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Publications with discount available with your SLAS membership: Sky and Telescope @ $32.95 / 1 year

Please send completed form with check (no cash please) made payable to St Louis Astronomical Society Rhonda Whelan, Treasurer P.O. Box 256 Waterloo, IL 62298 e-mail: treasurer at slasonline.org

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(S&T may also be renewed at their website: http://www.skyandtelescope.com) Astronomy @ $34.00 / 1 year TOTAL ENCLOSED

Check all that apply: ___ Renewal $________________ ___ Address Change Only ___ Please send my newsletter by regular mail $_________________ ___ New Member!

SLAS OFFICERS President Jim Small president at slasonline.org

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Vice President Bill Biermann vicepresident at slasonline.org

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Secretary Mark Jones secretary at slasonline.org

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Membership Don Ficken membership at slasonline.org Publicity Rich Heuermann publicity at slasonline.org

Treasurer Rhonda Whelan treasurer at slasonline.org

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‘SLASdialogs’ Moderator Mark Jones, Rhonda Whelan dialogsmoderator at yahoo.com

Hospitality Grant Martin hospitality at slasonline.org Board Members at Large: Tom NIckelson board14 at slasonline.org Greg Gaines board15 at slasonline.org

COMMITTEE CHAIRS 636-225-0269 314-962-9231

Webmaster Jim Small webmaster at slasonline.org

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Newsletter Ed. Jim Small newsletter at slasonline.org

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Loaner Equip. Greg Gaines loaner at slasonine.org

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Merchandise Grant Martin merchandise at slasonline.org

Bradley Waller board16 at slasonline.org

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Librarian Jim Small librarian at slasonline.org

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Star Party Coord Mike Malolepszy starparty at slasonline.org

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ALCOR Rhonda Whelan (Astronomical League Correspondent ) treasurer at slasonline.org

314-750-0262 Dark Site Coord. Mark Jones darksite at slasonline.org

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MSRAL Rep. Jim Small msral_rep at astroleague.org

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Observing Programs Mark Jones 636-394-2342 observing at slasonline.org Telescope Making Bill Davis, Jim Melka 314-469-3061

Devoted to the Interest and Advancement of the Science of Astronomy

ST. LOUIS ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

We’re on the Web! http://www.slasonline.org Who We Are and What We Do St. Louis Astronomical Society is a not-for-profit organization established in 1936. SLAS is devoted to the interest and advancement of the science of astronomy. Our mission is to promote an understanding of the science of astronomy to our members and to the public. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in astronomy. For more information contact any SLAS officer or visit our website listed above. SLAS is affiliated with the Astronomical League, Night Sky Network and the Mid-States Region of the Astronomical League. Meetings are held the 3rd Friday of each month at McDonnell Hall at Washington University. See the map to the right for directions.

St. Louis Astronomical Society Jim Small 13128 Cozyhill Drive St. Louis, MO 63122

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