Points of Light
[The Refractor welcomes items
about EAS members in the news, their published articles and images,
their conference presentations, or word of their completed astronomical
projects.]
An unconventional
method for stumbling upon close double stars is to observe occultations
by the Moon. When they disappear behind the lunar limb, doubles
don’t “wink out” abruptly; instead they fade with
a two-step decrease in brightness. In the August issue of Occultation
Newsletter, Henk Bulder’s article “New Double Stars”
tallies a few dozen heretofore unknown doubles found in just this
way. Listed among them are several discoveries, using the Chabot
Observatory telescopes, credited to Mark Gingrich and former EAS member Jim Perillat.
Dan Falla also was mentioned in that
same issue of Occultation Newsletter for his participation
in the International Occultation Timing Association’s annual
meeting in Colorado.
A photo of Rachel, taken by Conrad Jung,
includes Dave
Barroso, Denni Medlock, Kevin Medlock, Rod Post, Carter Roberts,
Don Saito, Rick Sarrica, Bob Schalck, Ken Swagerty, and Mark Vandewettering posed alongside. This image accompanies
Denni’s description of the telescope’s restoration (“A
Lady Restored”), which appears in the letters section of
the November Sky and Telescope.
Mark Gingrich will give the lecture at
the November 21 meeting of the Mount Diablo Astronomical Society.
He will speak on the subject of “Sundials for the 21st Century.”
Mike Reynolds gave a presentation at the
Antique Telescope Society get-together last month in Flagstaff,
Arizona. His talk was about the “History of California Astronomy
Exhibit at Chabot Observatory.” Carter Roberts also spoke on “Restoring Rachel,
Part II.”
“Whole-Disk Photometry of Jupiter: 1991 and 1994” and
“Galilean Satellite Eclipse Timings: The 1994/95 Apparition”
are the titles of two articles by John Westfall in the issue of ALPO’s journal, The
Strolling Astronomer, in August.