Phil - Could you announce this or pass out copies at the January meeting? Also,
Can Mike put it in the next Newsletter?


Bob



Mr. Allen

I found your address on an astronomy clubs  in Wisconsin web site.  I have two
telescopes, lens kit, and portable observatory that need a new home due to our
moving.

1. Celestron C4.5 reflector.  This telescope is mounted on a very stable german
equatorial mount.  ASKING $100.00

2. Celestron CR-150 HD 6" Refractor.  This telescope is mounted on a C6-R
Equatorial mount.  I have added a clock drive to this telescope. ASKING $375.00

3. I have a Celestron lens kit which includes a number of different eye pieces
and filters. ASKING $50.00

4. Six panel portable observatory.  ASKING $75.00

These telescopes have had very little use and due to a back problem, the CR-150
has only been used twice since it was purchased new

If anyone in your group would be interested, please let me know.

  Thank you.

James Ramsey
608-847-6554
W5587 Alice lane
New Lisbon, WI 53950

jlramsey1204@....

- - - IDSSP News Alert - - -

Illinois Dark Skies Star Party Sept. 9 – 12, 2010


Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish & Wildlife Area


Observer oriented – Dark skies – Great facilities – Fantastic food



Mark your calendar – Save the dates !



Online registration coming soon!



   http://www.sas-sky.org

The public outreach portion of the February Meeting of the La Crosse Area
Astronomical
Society (www.lcaas.org) will open with a brief presentation of the current night
sky and will
follow that with a presentation explaining the objective and methods of NASA's
Keppler
mission.
Kepler is NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets
around other
stars.
The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by
the intense
excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of hundreds of planets
orbiting other
stars.
There is now clear evidence for substantial numbers of three types of
exoplanets; gas giants, hotsuper-
Earths in short period orbits, and ice giants.
The next challenge is to find terrestrial planets (i.e., those one half to twice
the size of the Earth),
especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water and
possibly life might
exist.
The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky
Way galaxy to
discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable
zone and determine
how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets.
Join others sharing interest in astronomy and astronomical exploration to learn
about the night
sky and the Keppler mission. The public presentation will begin at 8:00 PM at
the Myrick Hixon
EcoCenter, north side of La Crosse Street, east of UWL. Turn into the park and
drive to the end.
Park and enter.

Hi all,

I'll be teaching a short, five-hour course at WTC this spring, based, more or
less, on my book, 'Stargazing Basics: Getting Started in Recreational
Astronomy'. It will take place on two Thursday nights, March 25th and April 1st,
from 7:00-9:30 pm.

We'll cover naked eye observing, binocular astronomy, and telescopes and what
might go with them (star charts, eyepieces, mounts, finder scopes,
astro-photography). On one of the nights, we'll learn about how the night sky
'works' in my Starlab portable planetarium.  I hope the weather will also let us
get outside and look at the real night sky through several of my telescopes and
binoculars.

There are currently six people signed up, with room for eight more. If you know
of anyone who might be interested, or of others who might be able to pass the
word on, please point them to this link for more information, and/or to sign up:

http://www.westerntc.edu/lifelonglearning/classdetail.aspx?CATALOG_NBR=60806617

I'll be glad to answer any questions, and if there's enough interest, the course
might be offered again during the summer.

Thanks!

Paul Kinzer

The La Crosse Area Astronomical Society (LCAAS) and Myrick Hixon EcoPark invite
you to UW-L for "Saturday at the Planetarium". Come join us for the show
"Starship Earth" followed by a dusk till dawn tour of the nighttime stars,
planets and constellations. All in the comfort of the warm planetarium.

The one hour show is Saturday, February 20th at 1:00 PM in the UW-L planetarium
which is located in the basement of Cowley Hall. This program is appropriate for
children 6 years and up. Attendance is limited to 60 children and adults. Cost
is $3 for adults and $2 for children. Please call the EcoPark at 784-0303 to
preregister or email them at info@... to reserve a spot. Otherwise,
just show and take your chances.

We will need at least 3 volunteers to take money, direct people and answer any
general questions. Contact me at rustyzip@... if you can help or call
me.

Phil

http://www.astrocast.tv/

Might want to check this out. It starts Sunday night on NatGeo.
I think that's 61 on Charter Cable

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/travelers-guide-to-the-planets?sico\
ntent=0&sicreative=4477005232&siclientid=804&sitrackingid=130268739&source=banne\
r_semgngc_123

From Mike R

Ask people to bring in their laser collimators if they want to have them checked
and possibly aligned.  I'll bring my small newtonian and go through a laser
collimation with and without a barlow.  Can maybe also cover visual tools if
there is interest.

Mike R

http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/index.php/projects/global-astronomy-mon\
th/gam-360/project-live-blog/213-welcome-to-gam-2010.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080416.html

I'd like to report that Gorden's program was a great success.He generously
agreed to run a second one as we so many who did not register. I believe we had
in the neighborhood of 105 customers and made a tidy little sum for both us and
the EcoPark. Promoting through them gets us into their large membership base as
well as into other outdoors-oriented groups in the La Crosse area. I think this
makes for a good partnership.

I would also like to thank Mike A and Mike R for manning the sign up table. We
ended up with around 40+ people who did not register and they did a great job of
setting them up for a second show that we were not really prepared for.
Thanks to Harry N. for putting a number of poster boards together to put around
the campus to direct people to the event. He also mad e a donation box for us
that we can continue to use at future events we hold He did a very nice job.
Harry has also generously volunteered to look into obtaining grant funding and
donations for our observatory project.
John B was also there with a little DVDplayer/Tv to show astronomy oriented
movies while people were waiting. Excellent idea. John also helped Mike and Mike
out with crowd control.

We had a lot of fun and made many in the community aware of our organization.

If you didn't get a chance to help out at this event, we are having Astronomy
Day down at the EcoPark on April 24. That will require even more membership help
to make it successful. I hope we can count on you.
One last plug. Don't forget your 2010 membership dues. And feel free to also
make a tax deductible donation.

Phil

Greetings,

The Sidewalk Astronomers Organization sends this invitation to your club, to
help generate enthusiasm and continue the momentum of a 42 year legacy of
bringing the cosmos closer to everyone through Sidewalk Astronomy.   Sidewalk
Astronomy was done back in 1968 on the streets of San Francisco by a gentleman
named John Dobson.  It has taken off ever since and has traveled the world many
times over.  Just take your scope on a busy sidewalk or street corner and make
sure you have a moon to swoon and you are set.

If you currently conduct regular sidewalk events, and are not a member of the
Sidewalk Astronomers, please join us and post your events at: 
http://sidewalkastronomers.us If you have photos and a summary or recap of your
event, we will post it on the site for everyone to enjoy and it may make it into
the newsletter.  There are fliers to help get the word out for your event at
this same link.  Get the fliers to the local schools, colleges,  boy and girl
scout groups, Boys & Girls Clubs/Salvation Army and any other youth or civic
groups.

We have a newsletter that is dependant upon activity reports from all over the
world.  It is here where Sidewalkers network, share ideas, pictures, videos and
reports on their successes and new ideas they have tried.

Sidewalk Astronomers also is partnering with Astronomers Without Borders this
year, both of which are recognized on every continent on the globe.  We
encourage you, our fellow-astronomers to "Take it to the Streets" for ISAN – 4,
International Sidewalk Astronomy, on Saturday, March 20th.  While you are at it,
join our Global Star Party, hosted by Astronomers Without Borders on Saturday,
April 24th  for Global Astronomy Month.

If you would like to help coordinate events in your neck-of-the-woods, please
let me know, and we will help get you started with the Sidewalk Astronomers. 
Feel free to contact me at the email listed below.

If you no longer manage your clubs email, please forward to the appropriate
person.  I will be happy to update my file with the new club email.

For information on the Sidewalk Astronomers, go to:

http://sidewalkastronomers.us

Thank you for your outreach of astronomy,

Sincerely,

Peggy Walker
Broken Arrow Sidewalk Astronomers
Sidewalk Astronomers - USA Central Regional Coordinator
basidewalkastro@...
Astronomers Without Borders – Planning Team
Global Astronomy Night – Planning Team

Hi,
Just joined, and the e-mail I got said the meeting started at 7:00,
the website says 8:00

next questions:
what can I expect for tonight?
will there be any scopes to look at?

Thanks,
Darrin

Great, 7:30 for the collimation demonstration. I plan on being there.

--- In laxastro@yahoogroups.com, Mike Rowlands <fastsedan@...> wrote:
>
> Welcome Darrin,
>
> At 7:00 pm we do club business, which can be pretty boring, but everyone is
welcome.  Our (public) presentations begin at 8:00 pm (usually a brief
description of this month's night sky).  Tonight there is also a presentation on
Black Holes.
>
> Tonight, I think Phil's intent is to do a laser alignment check and
collimation demonstration between the business meeting and the presentation, so
you should plan to get there by 7:30 pm if you want to see this.
>
> I will have a 4.5 inch newtonian scope for the demo and club members are
supposed to bring scopes if the sky is clear, but keep in mind that you can't
see a lot from the lit parking lot.
>
> Also, you'll be able to ask any questions you might have after the meeting and
just shoot the breeze with club members.
>
> Mike R.
>
>
> --- On Wed, 3/3/10, mrdlg2u <dlg@...> wrote:
>
> From: mrdlg2u <dlg@...>
> Subject: [laxastro] What time is the meeting tonight? 3/3/10
> To: laxastro@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 8:31 AM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>       Hi,
>
> Just joined, and the e-mail I got said the meeting started at 7:00,
>
> the website says 8:00
>
>
>
> next questions:
>
> what can I expect for tonight?
>
> will there be any scopes to look at?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Darrin
>

Jon - That's one "heck" of a nice refractor!! How big? Brand?


Bob

--- In laxastro@yahoogroups.com, jondannehy@... wrote:
>
>
> This is the new observatory and telescope that the Minnesota club has. If you
scroll to the bottom of the page there are some links to the construction of the
observatory. Hint- try not to look at the telescope, it is a sure road to a
varient of  that dreaded astronomers disease- Aperture Fever , this one is
called "Big Refractor Aperture Envy"
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben J. Huset <benhuset@...>
> To: astronews@...
> Sent: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 2:26 am
> Subject: [astronews] Another MAS observatory comes on-line.
>
>
> Joseph J. Casby Observatory Keyholder Training
> http://freemars.org/mnfan/MAS/2010-03-Casby-Training/
> a 254mm f/9  APO   TMB
> --Ben
>

The Original Rolling Ball Clock
Idle Tyme
Idle-Tyme.com
http://www.idle-tyme.com

This is very interesting finding out that Apollo 13 would have returned if they missed the Earth the first time.

 

Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Reid <reid@...>
To: images cvastro <images@...>
Sent: Fri, Mar 26, 2010 3:36 pm
Subject: [images] YouTube - AGI - Apollo 13 Revisited - 40th anniversary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUAo_T__J2A&feature=player_embedded 

Hey all,

I just finished upgrading a Dob mount that I got on eBay (very cheaply; the free
shipping probably took well over half what I paid for it, and the price was no
more than I would have paid for the raw materials).  I got it for use with a 4.5
inch Meade reflector, and it works quite well.  I want to use it to show
beginners the pros and cons of different mounts (all my others I currently owned
had been EQ).

The thing is, the mount could hold a tube up to eight inches in diameter, so now
I'm wondering if anyone has knowledge of a 6" OTA, or just a primary mirror or
other parts to help me upgrade the upgrade.  I could pay something, but not
much.

Paul

Paul Kinzer will  be on WPR from 11:45am -12:30pm on Wednesday, April 14; to
talk about amateur astronomy in general, and about Astronomy Day,
specifically.Tune him in.