The New Pacific Stargazer Newsletter of the Western Amateur Astronomers Founded 1949 www.waa.av.org/

Issue No. 4 April, 2014

2014 G. Bruce Blair Award

Richard Ozer

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or his long and diverse record of contribution to the amateur astronomy community, this year’s G. Bruce Blair recipient is Richard Ozer of Oakland, CA. Born 1961 in the San Fernando Valley, Rich lived half his life in the Los Angeles basin. He owes his love of astronomy to his 7th grade science teacher, who was an LAAS member who built an observatory on-campus for weekly public observing. That's also when Rich built his first telescope (which he still has) out of a sewer pipe and Edmunds optics, placed on a pipemount equatorial. While studying Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at UC Davis, with graduate work at UCLA in Architecture and Urban Planning, Rich started his own database consulting company. He then moved to Northern California to start his current company, Office Information Systems, in the mid 90's. He’s been married 24 years and has a daughter who also lives in Oakland. Rich says his biggest contributions to the hobby have been organizational; keeping things going so that the amateur astronomer community can continue to pursue its interests with the necessary resources in as many dark sky sites as possible. At The Chabot Space & Science Center, Rich has codirected the Telescope Makers' Workshop with Dave

Barosso for nearly a decade (since Paul Zurakowski retired). When he was President of the Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society in the early 2000's, it was during a time when they needed to increase membership, create a more active observing program on the mountain, and improve their relationship with the state parks, all of which were achieved. For the last three years, Rich has been the Treasurer of the Mt. Diablo Observatory Association and, along with a handful of others such as Jon Wilson, Jack Borde and Bob Minor, responsible for the technical maintenance of the observatory and promotion of its programs. For over a decade, Rich has been Treasurer of the Astronomical Association of Northern California, providing grants to astronomy Continued Page 2

 Inside this issue: 

Article: DST Pg 2 Club Spotlight: Orange County Astronomers Pg 3 Major Upcomings Pg 4

Daylight Saving Time By Jon Wilson

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t’s astonishing that one man could do so much. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and participated in observing the Transit of Venus on June 3, 1769. These observations occurred along the East Coast of the British Colonies. He studied Electricity and it’s characteristics. In 1770, he mapped an area of the Atlantic Ocean where currents permitted ships to travel faster when sailing East, and labeled it the “gulf stream.” In addition to witnessing early manned balloon flights in 1783, during his stint as the U.S. Minister to France, he’s also credited with the creation of bifocal glasses. This astonishing man is also known for creating the lending library, the lightning rod, a new type of cast iron stove, and the glass harmonica. But, Benjamin Franklin, for all his inventiveness, his scientific investigations, his publications, is least known for inventing Daylight Saving Time. One of our most beloved Founding Fathers conceived the idea of the “saving daylight” as early as 1784, during his time in France. The idea was to conserve the use of candle wax (tallow) a common element in candles used to illuminate the interiors of homes, taverns, and major structures of the time. Yet, some sources vary on this tale, stating that the concept of Daylight Saving Time was initially conceived in or around 1895 by New Zealander George Vernon Hudson. However, there’s little doubt that the modern Daylight Saving Time (DST) began to take off in the early 20th Century. The idea of the modern DST began in Great Britain with a builder from Chelsea, named William Willett, in 1907. He proposed that clocks be set 80 minutes ahead during the Spring and Summer months. The following year, this proposal was championed by Sir Robert Pearce with a bill in the House of Commons. After a lengthy study, the measure to advance clocks by one hour was adopted on May 17, 1916. After the outbreak of World War I., the United States began looking at Daylight Saving Time. This resulted in a national campaign in 1916. By 1917, Congress approved DST, which would run from March 31 to October 27, 1918, and again on March 30th, of 1919. However, by the summer of 1919 there were so many objections from farmers that Congress repealed the act. Then, in 1966, Congress re-established DST under the Uniform

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Time Act of 1966. Ever since then, Congress has amended this act at least five times! Is it really necessary? As amateur astronomers, we all know how it affects our hobby. Here in the U.S., if we have celestial objects with coordinates in Universal Time (UT) then we have a loss of 1 hour from our relative observing longitude with respect to the Prime Meridian. What many forget is DST is still practiced in Great Britain. They advance their clocks one hour, and they call it British Summer Time (BST). So, how do we adjust? Let’s use the West Coast as an example. With respect to the Prime Meridian, the DST difference is minus 7 hours, and not eight. With Great Britain practicing British Summer Time (their version of DST), their clocks are set one hour ahead; we’re back to an 8-hour difference between the West Coast and the Prime Meridian. As inconvenient as DST is, the effect on our hobby of astronomy is minimal. Yet, the question remains: do we still need Daylight Saving Time? Probably not, but until it’s repealed, we’ll all have to wrestle with my least favorite of Benjamin Franklin’s inventions.  Blair Award—cont’d from front page oriented programs throughout Northern California. Also, along with Ken Frank and Mark Wagner, Rich managed the transition to a more modern mission for our association. For eight years, Rich has been Director of the Golden State Star Party held annually in Lassen County, the largest West Coast event of its kind after RTMC (and he also runs the judging of RTMC’s Telescope Merit Awards). Prior to that, for three years he was director of the Shingletown Star Party in Shasta County. For four years, Rich has been Treasurer for the East Bay Astronomical Society and involved in many of its special projects including prepping Carter Roberts' home after his passing (which sold for over a million dollars, the proceeds going to the Chabot Space & Science Center), the EAS/CSSC library, restoration of Chabot’s Compass Rose, and resurrecting a working machine shop at the CSSC. Most recently, Rich has been involved in resurrecting the Group70 large aperture telescope project; primarily with regard to reviving its organizational structure and assisting Dave Barosso, its President, in managing its assets. 

Orange County Astronomers By Shelia Cassidy

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he Orange County astronomers started life as just a few amateurs getting together in 1967. I can still remember in the early 70s going to meetings of the OCA when there were maybe 30 people, maximum. At one time the fledgling club met in an upper room at the Santa Ana library. Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest amateur astronomy clubs in the United States, if not the world. Present membership is approaching 800 members, many outside of the United States. Like so many organizations, it's the newsletter that keeps us together, along with the Internet, of course. The newsletter is also available on the Internet on the OCAstronomers.org website. OCA has some fantastic benefits, like our 20-acre astronomical site at Anza, or the Silverado site at Black Star Canyon for those who don't want to make the trip to Anza. The club holds monthly meetings on the second Friday of the month at Chapman University, in Orange, California. Its meeting site, Hashinger Hall, holds 250 persons. Most of the meetings actually have an overflow capacity which is a testimony to the quality of our speakers. Speakers have included scientists from JPL, Caltech, NASA, UCLA, and UC Irvine, and other scientific institutions as well. One of our speakers, Linda Morabito Meyer, discovered the volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io at Jet Propulsion Laboratory on 9 March, 1979. Another speaker, Peter Swan, an AIAA and TBIS Fellow and member of the International Academy of Astronautics, brought over 42 years of experience in both government and commercial space systems ex-

perience to his talk on " Space Elevator Survivability Space Debris Threat." He was a former faculty member at the US Air Force Academy. Dr. Aaron Barth, a member of the UC Irvine faculty, brought OCA meeting attendees the latest information on "Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galaxies: The View from Lick Observatory." And Dr. Richard Ellis, the Steele Professor of Astronomy at Caltech, filled the hall to overflowing for his presentation on "Let There Be Light: Finding the Earliest Galaxies." It's the quality of speakers like these that make our meetings a must attend. And best of all, everyone is invited, and the meetings are free of charge. As if the high quality of speakers was not enough to bring out the membership in the immediate area, the OCA librarian runs a lending library that has the latest astronomical texts, DVDs, and other media. The library remains open as long as the meeting is running. A range of activities defines the club as it exists today. One of the most important of these is the beginners class which is taught in two sessions: September to February for Course One, and March to August for Course Two. The handouts for these sessions, which consist of six different topics covered in six months are online at the OCAstronomers.org website. There are actually five sessions and one hands-on session consisting of "What's Up There," Instruments Part One, Instruments Part Two, Finding Astronomical Objects, and Astrophotography. The sixth session is a practical "hands-on session." People can also bring their own scopes and get help in setting them up as well as how to use them. The payoff comes when the members attend a star party and begin to use their telescopes to discover the night sky for themselves. OCA has two sites, one at Anza, and the other one closer to Orange County at Black Star Canyon. The Black Star Canyon star parties are excellent places for new members to get acquainted with other new members, compare scopes and gain knowledge. The dark sky site at Anza contains the 22-inch Kuhn telescope that was built by the late Bill Kuhn, an engineer with incredibly high standards. I remember attending some of the early meetings at Bill Kuhn's house when the design of the telescope was being discussed. It took organization, effort, and masterful fundraising to bring about the building of this telescope. It dominates the 20acre site in its roll-off roof building. The Kuhn telescope Continued next page

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Cont’d from page 3

OCA also has special interest groups, called SIGs. Two of the most active of these groups is the astrophysics can still be used for research, and in fact, was used to dis- group, and the astrophotography group. The astrophysics cover six new supernovae by group meets to discuss how the uniformer OCA president Wayne verse really works. Some of the lecJohnson. It was also used to tures on DVD have been by promidiscover new asteroids. When nent astronomers recorded by the the telescope was first built it Teaching Company. Although had to be manually moved, but these are available for private use, has since been computerized the fun of sharing information and to be controlled by off-thediscussions with other interested shelf commercially available amateurs makes this a very enterproducts. It periodically goes taining group. through refurbishing to keep it The astrophotography group current and useful. meets to discuss all facets of capThe Anza site is a complete turing the sky on film and elecexperience with a large mobile tronic media. This is a great place home that functions as an to learn from those who are more overnight facility with bathexperienced, and to share images rooms, a kitchen, and three that you may have produced. bedrooms. There are a large For members and non-members number of public viewing aralike, Yahoo! Groups is home to Kuhn 22” Modified Cassigrain Reflector eas where a member can set up the online OCAstronomers, for anyhis telescope and tap into electricity. It's an excellent way thing from a telescope for sale, to questions on how to fix to share your love of astronomy with fellow enthusiasts. a drive, photograph the night sky, or just to ask what the Anza also features private member pads and private mem- weather's like at Anza for those who are planning a trip ber observatories for the more serious amateur. These also there. It's also a great way to get to know something more have electricity and even Wi-Fi. The best part of Anza is about the club and the people in the club, and to share exthat it has some of the darkest skies in the area, just two periences. hours from our County. Star parties are scheduled to coinFor those members who are not sure what kind telecide with the least amount of moon visible, on the darkest scope might be best for them, there is also a telescope nights. rental/lending program. Instead of wondering if you Black Star Canyon is a site that OCA uses with the per- should get a Cassegrain, a Newtonian, a Dobson, or remission of The Nature Conservancy, in what we hope is a fractor, you can check one out and see which type is best long-term agreement. Skies are relatively dark and it's for you. much closer to urban Orange County then the 2-hour Finally, for those who have joined the club, there is drive to Anza. Black Star is also a wonderful place for also a chance to serve on the Board of Directors every new telescope users to gain practice in finding objects, year. Elections are held at the end of the year for the new and enjoying seeing them through their very own teleterm of office to begin in January. Board members start scopes. out as trustees, and as they gain experience, they can One of the most rewarding things that a member can do move into other areas such as president, vice president is to bring his telescope to one of the outreach events. The and secretary. Our treasurer, Charlie Oostdyk, has been look of amazement when you show a young child the functioning in that capacity for many years. Charlie also rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter is more than handles the distribution of the newsletter, and acts as a enough payback. Our outreach program is one of our bulwark of the club. busiest and is run by Jim Benet, who was awarded the G. We hope you will come and visit us at our website, Bruce Blair award for his popularization of astronomy www.OCAstronomers.org or join us at one of our meetthrough the outreach program. Outreach events are held at ing nights. OCA welcomes everyone as it continues to areas ranging from public schools, parks, and other public educate the public on astronomical matters. venues to bring the night sky to those who otherwise  might not be able to appreciate it.

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Upcoming Events May 22 - 26: The 46th annual Riverside Telescope Makers Conference Astronomy Expo will be held at YMCA Camp Oakes, Lat/Lon 34° 13.833'N 116° 45.250'W (copy/paste into Google Maps to see this site). It’s about 50 miles ENE of Riverside in the San Bernardino mountains, and 7,253’ ASL. Guest speakers, awards, vendors, dark skies, and lots and lots of telescopes! For more info: http://www.rtmcastronomyexpo.org/general.html

June 25 - 29: The Golden State Star Party is a 4 night dark sky event held each summer at Frosty Acres Ranch in north-eastern California, near Mt Lassen, alongside rural Adin, California (Lat/Lon 41° 8.065'N, 120° 58.693'W). At an elevation of 4,311’ ASL, GSSP has dark skies from horizon to horizon, and room for 100s of astronomers! http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org/ Overlapping RTMC is the Big Bear Starlight Festival (http:// starlightfestival.com/), taking place the Saturday and Sunday of RTMC weekend. Competitive with RTMC, but we will have to see how it goes. An impressive schedule of professional speakers, entertainment and their own list of exhibitors, all in the town of Big Bear Lake, a relative stone's throw from RTMC.

Eastbay Astronomical Society and Tri-Valley Stargazers: Barcroft (really) High-Altitude Star Party September 2014 (exact dates to be determined): The Barcroft High-Altitude Star Party is a weeklong event where the insanely over-achieving astrophotographers go to ply their hobby at a site once considered for the Twin Keck Telescopes which now reside on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Located just south of White Mountain in California’s Owens Valley (Lat/Lon 37° 35.026'N, 118° 14.205'W), 12,457’ ASL, the BHASP may well be the highest regularly held star party in the world. For more info contact [email protected]. July 12 - The ninth annual Southern California Astronomy Exposition (SCAE) http:// www.optscae.com/ three dozen vendors displaying wares, lots of door prizes, speakers throughout the day, and a star party at night. All except the star party are at Oceanside Photo and Telescope's store in, you guessed it, beautiful downtown Oceanside. If you would like more specifics, contact the sponsor, OPT (http://www.optcorp.com/). The Society for Astronomical Sciences will hold its 33rd annual Symposium on Telescope Science, a Pro-Am collaboration event June 12-14 at the Ontario Airport Hotel, Ontario, CA. This will be a joint meeting among SAS, the AAVSO, and Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA). http://www.socastrosci.org/symposium.html for details. 

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