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Southern Cross - December 2000

• Constellation of the Month - Taurus
• Galaxy Groups in Cetus and Eridanus
• History of the CAS: 1995-2000

Constellation of the Month - Taurus

Ross Gould

Early Summer brings Taurus into view, though from the latitude of Canberra it rises only to a moderate height. This Summer Taurus is less recognisable than usual though even easier to find, due to the presence of Jupiter and Saturn within its borders.

Taurus is one of the oldest constellations. Some 6,000 years ago it was the first of the zodiacal constellations, containing the equinoctial point ("the first point of Aries") which has since passed through Aries into Pisces. Taurus reflects the ancient cults of the bull of the Mediterranean region, and some of this mythic and religious material may be found in Burnham's Celestial Handbook - space precludes relating it here.

The brightest part of the constellation is unmistakable, dominated by the 'A' ('V' in the northern hemisphere) of bright stars, led by the bright orange-red Aldebaran. This marks the region of the Hyades star cluster, the nearest star cluster to Earth at 150 ly. Aldebaran is nearer, at 65 ly, so it is not a member. The Hyades include the fine naked-eye double star Theta-1 and Theta-2 Tauri. The group is best seen naked-eye, or with binoculars, because of its large expanse.

The Pleiades or "seven sisters" (M45) are also a genuine star cluster, distant some 375 ly (all distances from Hipparcos measures). Naked eye, the number of stars depends on one's eyesight as well as sky conditions - most people see 6 stars fairly readily. More are possible in dark skies. The best I've managed is 11, when I was twelve years old (that takes us to magnitude 6.0). The January 2001 Sky & Telescope has a useful article on the Pleiades by Sue French, who mentions she has also seen 11 Pleiads naked-eye, and that the late Scotty Houston claimed to see 18. Northern hemisphere observers have the advantage here - for them, the Pleiades rise higher in the sky during long dark Winter nights. Binoculars provide a wonderful view of the Pleiades - 10x50s are very good, and 15x80s even better. The group is immersed in patches of faint nebulosity, easily photographed, but requiring very dark skies and wide-field 'scopes to see.

The Crab Nebula, M1, the brightest supernova remnant, is rather disappointing as viewed in modest telescopes. When I first observed M1, with a 6-inch telescope long ago, my impression was of a faint elongated haze. Larger amateur scopes, and the use of filters, can improve what is visible, but the full impressiveness of the Crab is only seen in photographs. The Crab can easily be found by off-setting the scope northwest from Zeta Tauri.

East of the Crab is the easy double star Struve 742 (0536.4, +2200. It is a fairly bright easy pair (m6.9 and 7.8 at 4.0", pa 273, 1997), one of many in Taurus that are effective in moderate scopes.

Other doubles worth finding include STF 422 (0336.8, +0035) mags 6.2 and 8.4 at 6.6", sometimes described as yellow and blue (the yellow is obvious); STF 450 (0347.4, +2354) near Alcyone (the brightest Pleiad), mags 7.3 and 9.3 at 6.1". Chi Tauri (0422.6, +2538) is very easy, mags 5.5 and 7.6 at 20". STF 559 (0433.6, +1800) is elegant, near even (m7.0), separated some 3.0" - fine at 100x with 18cm. The pale yellow pair STF 572 (0438.5, +2659) is of similar style, even, mag 7.3 and 7.3, at 4.0". For those who want something tighter, STF 749 (0537.1, +2655) is of mags 6.5 and 6.6 at 1.2" pa 325 in 1996 - it required 180x on the 18cm refractor for a neat easy split, though it was obviously not single at 100x. To conclude, another object needing good seeing: the pale yellow 80 Tau (0430.1, +1538) is in the Hyades: it is a mag 5.7 star, and has a much fainter companion (m8.0) at only 2.0" in pa 018. The brightness difference adds to the attractive effect, well seen with 18cm at 180x.

Taurus has one accessible planetary nebula, NGC 1514 (0409.2, +3047), seen as a featureless small glow about 1' across with 15cm.

The best open clusters in Taurus are the Hyades and Pleiades. Among the other clusters is NGC 1647 (0446.0, +1904) - a broad grouping some 40' across, with a number of wide pairs. And NGC 1746 (0503.6, +2349) is worth a visit, some of the stars fairly bright, and with more concentration than the loose 1647.

The galaxies of Taurus may delight the eager pursuer of the faint and fuzzy, but for the casual observer there are not many that reward the chase: best is the little grouping of three galaxies, NGC 1587-88-89 (1587: 0430.7, +0040). 1587 is visible with 20cm, and 1588 is adjacent and very faint: 1589 is about 12'N of them, a small glow.

There are many other objects in Taurus for the amateur observer - some of them easy (various double stars), some faint and needing larger scopes (galaxies, and some nebulae).

Galaxy Groups in Cetus and Eridanus

Jenni Kay FRAS

Searching for small groups of galaxies is a good way for me to make the most of telescope time, especially when you know the fog is going to roll in, or clouds are expected; and doesn't that happen a lot in springtime??? In studying galaxy groups I can spend more time looking at the galaxies, and less time crossing the sky star-hopping to the next single galaxy. So here in this article is a short excursion along the border of Cetus and Eridanus observing four small galaxy groups. Included in this group of four, is Arp 309, and Hickson 21. For those unfamiliar with these designations, in brief, Arp compiled a list of interacting galaxies, and Hickson catalogued small galaxy groups. For more information on Hickson's catalogue, please see the July 2000 issue of Southern Cross for my article on "Hickson's Compact Galaxy Groups."

The following observations were made from my semi-rural home site at Lobethal, SA, with a 12.5" f/5 Newtonian. Typically, the skies here have a limiting naked eye magnitude of 6.1, with the seeing rated at ANT II-III.

Group one : NGC 942-943-945-950.

The overall size of this small group is almost one degree.

Group 1, 10' x 32' © DSS

NGC 942/ 943. (Arp 309) Interacting galaxies

02 29.2 -10 50 (11.4v; 3.4' x 1.5'; sb 13.0v; pa 35d.

105X: Obvious enough, relatively faint, relatively large, oval in shape, smooth hazy glow. Only one glow detected, and this cannot be divided into the two galaxy components. 150X: Improved view, but still only one glow seen, however, there is an obvious double nucleus within. Overall, the galaxy glow is relatively bright, long and broad, with a size of 1.5' x 30", major axis lies nearly N-S, and there are two very small, brighter knots that lie N-S. IC 230 lies 5.5' WNW, but this is too faint for me to detect.

NGC 945 : 02 28.6 -10 32 (12.1v; 2.2' x 2.2'; sb 13.6c.)

20.0' NNW of N942. 105X: Obvious enough, caught in averted vision, relatively faint, relatively large, round - oval in shape, hazy glow. 150X: Much improved - relatively faint, round, 50" in size, smooth glow throughout, high surface brightness, with a gradual brightening towards the centre.

NGC 948 : 02 28.8 -10 31 (13.4v; 1.7' x 1.3'; sb 14.1v; pa 170d.)

3.0' NE of N945. 150X: Too faint for me to detect.

NGC 950 : 02 29.2 -11 01 (13.2v; 1.3' x 0.6'; sb 12.8v; pa 40d.)

32.0' SSE of N948. 105X : too faint. 150X: Bit of a struggle, but with care, averted vision detects and holds with confidence. Overall, the galaxy is very faint, round, soft dim glow, 30" in size, with a low surface brightness.

Group two : NGC 1010-1011-1013-1017-1045, and IC 247.

This group of galaxies is a little over one degree in size.

NGC 1010 : 02 37.5 -11 02 (14.4v; 0.9' x 0.9'; sb 14.0v.)

First of three in a tight group with NGC 1011, and NGC 1017. 150X: obvious enough, with care and averted vision - faint, relatively small, round to a little oval, 30" in size, low surface brightness, with a smooth and even glow throughout.

NGC 1011 : 02 37.6 -11 01 ( 14.3v; 0.6' x 0.6'; sb 13.0'.)

1.8' NE of NGC 1010. 150X: Needs care - extremely faint, very small, round to a little oval, 25" in size, with a very slight brightening towards the centre to an almost stellar nucleus.

NGC 1013 : 02 37.8 -11 31 ( 13.5v; 0.9' x 0.7'; sb 12.8v.)

30.0' S of N1011. 150X: Obvious enough with care and averted - very faint, small, round, hazy glow, 25" in size, low surface brightness, with a smooth and even glow throughout.

NGC 1017 : 02 37.8 -11 01 ( 13.9v; 0.7' x 0.6'; sb 12.8v.)

29.7' N of N1013 ( and 2.5' E of N1011). 150X: Difficult, 85% confidence - exceedingly faint, very weak glow at limit of detection, very small, round, and 25" in size. Seen on several attempts, sometimes as a round spot, other times as a hazy smudge.

NGC 1045 : 02 40.4 -11 18 (12.1v; 2.2' x 1.1'; sb 12.9v; pa55d.)

42.0' SE of N1017. 105X: Obvious enough, relatively bright, very small, round, hazy spot, almost like a fat, fuzzy star. 150X: Much improved - bright, round, 30" in size, high surface brightness, smooth glow throughout, with a brighter stellar nucleus equal to a 13 mag star for brightness.

IC 247 : 02 40.1 -11 44 (12.8v; 1.3' x 1.0'; sb 12.9v; pa 45d.)

27.0' S of N1045. 150X: Obvious enough, with care and averted vision - very faint, small, round, hazy glow, 25" in size, with a low surface brightness. Strangely enough, I found this IC galaxy more obvious than some of the other nearby NGC galaxies.

Group three : NGC 1033-1035-1042-1047-1048-1052-1069-1082-1084-1108-1110.

A sparse group stretching nearly three degrees in size.

NGC 1033 : 02 40.1 -08 48 ( 13.2v; 1.3' x 1.1'; sb 13.4' pa0d.)

150X: Difficult, 90% confident - exceedingly faint, very small, round, hazy glow, 25" in size.

NGC 1035 : 02 39.5 -08 08 (12.2v; 2.2' x 0.7'; sb 12.5'; pa 37d.)

41.0' NNW of N1033. 150X: Nice - relatively bright, long and broad, little mottling across the surface, 2.0' x 30" in size, major axis lies SSE - NNW, and there is a 13.5 mag. field star at the southern tip. In general, a very attractive sight!

NGC 1042 : 02 40.4 -08 26 ( 11.0v; 4.2' x 3.3'; sb 13.7v; pa 15d.)

22.7' SE of N1035. 150X: Caught in averted vision - very large, very faint, round-oval, 3.0' x 1.5' in size, major axis SE - NW, with a 13 mag. field star at the SE tip.

NGC 1047 : 02 40.5 -08 09 (14.3v; 1.3' x 1.0'; sb 14.4v; pa 95d.)

17.5' NNE of N1042. 150X: Needs care and averted vision - very faint, small, round, 25" in size, very low surface brightness, and a smooth, soft glow throughout.

NGC 1048 : 02 40.6 -08 33 (14.5v; 0.7' x 0.4'; sb 13.0v.)

23.0' S of N1047. 150X: Briefly caught on several occasions, as an extremely faint, very small, round, 25" in size, hazy spot. In moments of steady seeing the galaxy pops into view rather strongly. Close pair with N1048B, separation 0.9', but I cannot detect anything of N1048B.

NGC 1052 : 02 41.1 -08 15 (10.5v; 2.5'x 2.0'; sb 12.1v; pa 120d.)

18.0" NE of N1048. 105X: This is the most prominent galaxy in the entire group - bright, relatively small, round, with a brighter, fuzzy, central core. 150X: Much improved - bright, large, round, with a brighter core. Overall, the galaxy is 50" in size, gradually fading out towards the edges. The bright core is 25" in size.

NGC 1069 : 02 42.8 -08 18 (13.7v; 1.5' x 1.0'; sb 14.0'; pa 145d.)

28.4' E of N1052. 150X: Requires care and averted vision - very faint, small, round hazy spot, 30" in size, with a low surface brightness.

NGC 1082 : 02 45.7 -08 13 (14.7v; 0.9' x 0.6'; sb 13.9'.)

40.7' ENE of N1069. 150X: Obvious enough with care and averted vision - very faint, relatively small, round, hazy spot, 30" in size, with a smooth glow throughout, and a low surface brightness.

NGC 1084 : 02 46.0 -07 35 (10.7v; 3.2' x 1.9'; sb 12.5v; pa 115d.)

36.7' N of N1082. 105X: Stunning - bright, large, elongated SW - NE, very smooth hazy glow. 150X: Improved view - bright even glow from edge to edge, 2.0' x 40", with a slightly brighter stellar nucleus.

NGC 1108 : 02 48.6 -07 58 ( 15.1v; 0.8' x 0.4'; sb 13.7v.)

46.7' SE of N1084. 150X: Requires much care and averted vision - extremely faint, very small, round, hazy spot, 25" in size, low surface brightness, and slightly brightens to an almost stellar nucleus.

NGC 1110 : 02 49.3 -07 51 ( 14.2v; 2.6' x 0.6'; sb 14.5v; pa 18d.)

9.5' NE of N1108. 150X: Too faint for me to detect.

Group four : Hickson 21 - NGC 1091-1092-1098-1099-1100.

The group is less than one degree in size.

Group 4, 11.5' x 13' © DSS

NGC 1091 : 02 45.4 -17 33 ( 13.9v; 0.9' x 0.6'; sb 13.1v; pa 87d.)

150X: Needs care - faint, small, round, 30" in size, with a low surface brightness. The galaxy is briefly seen, on several attempts, as a very dim glow.

NGC 1092 : 02 45.7 -17 32 ( 13.4v; 0.9' x 0.8'; sb 12.9v; pa 126d.)

2.0' SE of N1091. 150X: Obvious enough, especially with averted vision - relatively faint, relatively small, round, 30" in size, with a high surface brightness.

NGC 1098 : 02 44.9 -17 38 ( 12.6v; 1.5' x 1.2'; sb 13.1v; pa 93d.)

10.8' SW of N1092. 150X: very obvious - bright, small, round, 30" in size, gradually brightening to an almost stellar nucleus. The galaxy has a high surface brightness.

NGC 1099 : 02 45.3 -17 43 (13.1v; 1.9' x 0.9'; sb 13.5v; pa 12d.)

6.6' SE of N1098. 150X: obvious enough - relatively bright, small, round to a little oval, 35" x 30" in size, major axis NNE - SSW, with a high surface brightness.

NGC 1100 : 02 45.6 -17 41 (13.1v; 1.7' x 0.8'; sb 13.3v; pa 58d.)

4.0' ENE of N1099. 150X: Obvious enough, especially with averted vision - relatively faint, small, round, hazy spot, 30" in size, high surface brightness, with a smooth glow throughout.

History of the CAS: 1995-2000

Michael Nelmes

The big move

By the mid-90s a couple of problems were emerging with our meeting room at the ANU's Jaeger building. Firstly, it was no longer as centrally located as it had been; for a growing number of members living in Tuggeranong, it was a long drive across two thirds of Canberra. Also, in 1993 the ANU had instituted a swipe-card entry system, whereby a card holder acted as gate-keeper until starting time, and any latecomers were forced to make themselves heard upstairs by violent banging on the door or tossing rocks at the room windows.

So it was timely that at the February 1996 meeting it was announced that Vince Ford, on behalf of Jeremy Mould, had offered us the use of Stromlo's Duffield building for general meetings. Stromlo believed that we could we could both benefit from an ongoing CAS presence on the mountain. The idea was tossed about for several months by the membership. Initial reaction was that it represented an exciting opportunity (especially in the wake of the success of the 1994 NACAA) and would undoubtedly lead to bigger and better things for the Society; but also that it was a bit out of the way, although when the southsiders had their say, it became apparent that Stromlo was now closer to the geographical centre of Canberra than the ANU was. Around this time another choice was available, when Peter Williamson offered the Canberra Planetarium (on which more later) as a meeting venue. This latter offer was declined with thanks on the basis of its northern location and more limited seating, although with the chance of occasional informal get-togethers under the planetarium's starry skies.

Soon there were few objections to Stromlo as a venue. Most members were at least familiar with it, through Oddie observing, lectures (such as Don Faulkner's Astronomy for Fun courses and Vince's Halley's Comet course) and CAS participation in regular public viewing nights there. Vince was offering a minibus for those without transport. Headlights, it was confirmed, could be used all the way to the turnoff to the building. But was there a catch? Would we get into strife with the professionals for shining our car lights into the domes, and as penance do forced labour for Stromlo's growing public programs? We responded with thanks: we'll start with special meetings and informal get-togethers and see how it goes from there. The membership then voted for a trial general meeting on the mountain.

Accordingly the first general meeting at the Duffield building, chaired by new President Steve Johnston, was held on 17 October 1996. A voting slip was included in the following journal, and at what proved to be the final Jaeger Building meeting on 20 February 1997, the vote count was revealed: 75 percent in favour of Stromlo. The significance of the occasion escaped most when at 10:05pm the meeting, and a twenty-three year chapter in the history of the Canberra Astronomical Society, came to a close.

It was also goodbye to pre-meeting dinners at the ANU Cellar Bar, the replacement venue soon settling on the Irish Club. Committee meetings also changed from committee members' homes to a single venue, the tea room at Stromlo's administration building.

A few problems with the swipecard-operated boom gate (introduced in June 1998 as Exploratory traffic increased) initially brought back memories of access to the Jaeger Building, but these have by and large been ironed out.

Don's Dome

With the move came a special bonus, an opportunity which had been sought since the 1970s. During the 1996 Australian Science Festival / Stromlo open day, Vince mentioned that if we were to make representation to Jeremy a desire to use Stromlo's old Uppsala Schmidt telescope dome, it would be ours. The dome was sitting empty, its telescope having gone to Siding Spring ten years previously and its office now being only occasionally used by retired Stromlo Director and CAS Patron Don Mathewson, Emeritus Professor of Astronomy. A letter was written, and we soon had the use of the dome and even a room to store our library ('Don's Party Room'), which since 1995 Steve Johnston, Darren McDowell and particularly now Lucy Merlino have ably organised, catalogued and tended. The only restriction was that Stromlo was to retain use of the dome on Tuesday nights.

Steve Johnston organised maintenance sessions to get the dome operational. On one occasion the task resembled a mountain ascent, as Steve's expert climbers abseiled to the top to grease the shutter rollers (hence Keith Ward's 'no climbing' sign on the pier). Over several evenings Steve and Keith took to the dome with paint. In the meantime, Peter and Judy Bobroff kindly agreed to part with their home-made 14-inch Dobsonian for a very reasonable price, and before long it and the 6-inch Takahashi donated by Peter Williamson were installed. Mark Lewis donated a computer, and Jack Child set up his photographic dark room equipment downstairs. A very attractively illustrated user-friendly dome manual featuring John Howard added the finishing touch. The dome was officially opened for its new use on 18 January 1997, at a function that also inaugurated January monthly meetings.

The CAS Empire on Mount Stromlo now seemed to be complete; but for Steve it wasn't enough. At the 1997 annual dinner he arranged with Jeremy for the Society to be designated caretaker of the Oddie. We now had the realisation of a dream: not only the use of the finest refractor in the region (with access recently upgraded from weekend only to any other night on a booking basis), but also an excellent visual deep-sky telescope as well as a photographic scope in a dome for our own use in an accessible location and, what's more, under what is still a reasonably dark sky (despite, since March 1997, Uppsala / Oddie nights being referred to as 'shallow sky nights'). We even had on loan the original 6-inch finder from the Great Melbourne Telescope.

But, according to 'keeper' of Don's Dome Peter Ogilvie, many a night he is up there on his own, free to hunt galaxies uninterrupted. As the Americans say, go figure! But at least on meeting nights since 1999, when at Patrick's suggestion the tea & coffee venue was split between the Duffield building and Don's Dome, it has been a focal point for socialising or perusing the Society's library.

Steve also had private telescope housing projects underway. After building his own roll-off roofed shed, his attention focussed on Steve Crouch's C11 telescope which was now surplus to requirements with the acquisition of a C14. Steve C wanted a shed for the C14, and who better to build it than Steve J for the price of a C11? With a supply of timber from a shop cleanout, Crouchy's new observatory took shape and was completed by mid-1998. In it he continued to produce stunning CCD images of everything from planets to galaxies to globular clusters - one of the latter making it into Sky & Telescope magazine.

Zane Hammond established a public observatory at Lake Bathurst equipped with some very impressive telescopes. Another member who should be mentioned for his CCD work is Jack Child, whose backyard activities including asteroid discoveries and astrometric measurements are on par with professional work in science value. In 1996 Jack provided the Society with a CCD camera to hire out to members with the Purcells' laptop computer.

The Exploratory

In March 1995 Vince announced that a visitors' centre was to be built at Stromlo - a popular idea as the only existing visitor access was a small viewing gallery in the 74-inch dome. A year later ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell turned the first sod on the site between the 74-inch and Yale domes.

Manager Tony Oldfield explained the aims of the centre at the June 1996 committee meeting at the Purcells', and enlisted CAS support for the project. It was a not unforeseen, but fair (and rewarding) price to pay for our newfound home.

A competition to name it was won by Steven Ring with a rather good title which was announced in the Canberra Times, but in the end not used. Instead it was to be the Stromlo Exploratory. The CAS-staffed inaugural viewing nights in January 1997 were a great success, and after the June meeting Vince gave us a sneak preview of the exhibits. The centre was officially opened on 25 July. By then Vince was well into the job of recruiting Explainers from CAS ranks and elsewhere. Later in the year an agreement was drawn up between the Society and the Exploratory, maintaining CAS identity as a co-operative, but separate, organisation with respect to Exploratory public activities.

Exploratory and, from May 1998, Saturday night Red Belly Black Café viewing nights, giving members an opportunity to earn some pocket money (perhaps helping to justify absences in the minds of spouses, kids etc) have to some extent sapped member resources available for CAS school and public nights. Perhaps this led to the monthly incentive of a port raffle prize for attendees. However when it comes down to it, the three complement each other with the net result that more people get to see the night sky close-up. One memorable public night, not so much for the view but for the novelty of it, involved the temporary conversion of the 74-inch telescope for visual use in September 1999. For a better view, the crowds queued up at Don's Dome.

The Exploratory celebrated its first birthday in style. There were table top fires (all the more spectacular in being unintentional), a travelling comedian, fun with helium balloons, and to top it off, Steve Johnston's presentation to Jeremy Mould of a working toy chainsaw (see 'That Tree' in Part 2) - which, we are reliably informed, takes pride of place in his office.

And finally a Planetarium

In mid-1996 the Canberra Observatory celebrated its 10th anniversary (a little late) with a dinner attended by a number of members. As a birthday present, its Director Peter Williamson had convinced the Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club to build a planetarium adjacent to the observatory at its Downer Club site. Following trips to Japan and Europe, Peter recommended a Zeiss projector, and the choice of this cutting-edge piece of technology was well justified in our first viewings at the end of 1997: the sky simulations were second to none.

Former CAS Senior Vice President and Assistant Director of what was now known as Canberra Space Dome, Clare Williams, offered members a discounted entry fee. In 1999, continuing the recent practice of a January meeting, about thirty members took up Clare's offer of a 'northern hemisphere shootout' under clear northern skies. It reinforced the view that we are indeed privileged to have this facility in Canberra.

The meetings

Starting off a run of memorable meeting presentations was MSSSO's Matthew Colless on the Anglo Australian Telescope's 2-Degree Field instrument for galaxy surveying, in November 1995 and again in March 1997; in 2000 Matthew returned nearer the end of the project with a spectacular computer-generated video of a flight through the local universe.

With the sorry state of journalistic treatment of astronomy, especially around comet times, Steve Johnston invited Canberra Times science editor Simon Gross to talk in March 1996 about his approach to astronomy, and many of our suspicions were confirmed. Highlight of the 1996 program was MSSSO Director Professor Jeremy Mould's presentation in June on the Hubble Constant. Jeremy was a leading figure in the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project - to determine the Hubble Constant and the age of the universe. He returned to discuss the project results in October 1998. At Questacon, David Malin returned to Canberra to present a slide show of his images. Patron Don Mathewson spoke to us in March 1998 of his proposal for a wholly Australian 'Federation Telescope' interferometric array of 4m-class instruments, following which a letter in Southern Cross from Jeremy Mould pointed out his somewhat different views of where the astronomical dollar should be going. A few months later we were equally privileged to have as our guests Professor Mike Bessell, showing the stunning wide-field hydrogen emission images on CCD which he and Ralph Sutherland have been producing; and Dr Brian Schmidt, speaking on his world-renowned (despite the efforts of a certain Canberra Times journalist) work in refining the cosmlogical distance scale using supernova observations. In March 1999 Dr Paul Francis gave a lively introduction to the history of quasar observations.

On the less scientific side, 16 October 1997 marked the liftoff of the Jupiter 2 in our favourite (!) sci-fi series of the 1960s, 'Lost in Space', and the event was shown live at the meeting courtesy of Peter Ogilvie. The departure of the Moon from Earth orbit on 16 September 1999 (a la 'Space 1999') apparently went unnoticed (What were you doing, Byron?)

To kick off 2000 Dr Brian Boyle, Director of the Anglo Australian Observatory, gave an entertaining talk titled 'Gamma ray bursts and the end of the dinosaurs', using PowerPoint and a LightPro computer projector which was starting to come into use for CAS presentations. Member Peter Churchill, appointed Director at Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station in 1994, gave us a taste of things to come with details for the many interplanetary missions either underway or on the drawing board.

An issue to emerge in June 1999 during the presidency of John Howard was the length of meetings, which had occasionally been closing well after 10pm. It was determined that meetings should finish by 10 to allow for more socialising and / or observing after the meeting.

Steve Johnston's and Patrick Purcell's beginners group continued to meet. Starting 1995, it was now in the meeting room - Jaeger building, then Duffield, half an hour before the general meeting. It was gratifying that a 1996 raffle prize, a pair of high quality binoculars bought by Clare Williams, was won by a new member. Patrick now takes beginners into Don's Dome for some hands-on experience in the art of observing.

The madding crowds

Following on from the success of Science Festival viewing nights, Steve "Dynamite" Johnston came up with the idea of quarterly public nights. The committee inspected a field off Pescott Lane at Weston Park; it was accessible and provided a large, flat set-up area with a reasonable horizon. After some enquiries with ACT Parks & Gardens, we had our public site. While the Science Festival went from strength to strength (discounting 1998 which was mostly clouded out) the quarterly public nights were shortlived, as in mid-1997 it was decided that telescope owners were busy enough with school nights.

The February 1996 viewing was disappointing in terms of numbers, although the dulcet tones of Vanessa Herald's string quartet made up for it with atmosphere. Advertising is a major ingredient for success at any public event, and for the Science Festival two months later, although generating its own publicity, Steve, Susan and Grant Murphy weren't taking any chances and organised a carpet-bombing approach. Leaflets and posters advertising 'Astronomy in the Park' were strewn everywhere: to all 230 Canberra schools, motels, Telstra Tower, convention centres, shops, retirement villages... Radio interviews and TV promotion were also arranged. The result was three night and one daytime (at Stromlo) viewing sessions of unprecedented crowds, with some 700 people at the night sessions alone - not to mention over $1000 collected by helpers Di Purcell (on her birthday too), Trent Rawlings, Kate Ward et al. The string quartet, the hot soup tent (April's starting to get chilly in Canberra), Steve Johnston's digitally projected real-time views of the Moon... it was all too much for some. "One woman threw herself wantonly on the ground clutching Keith's binoculars" reported Steve in Southern Cross. Letters of thanks and congratulations came from the Science Festival organisers and Stromlo, voting the CAS events as among the most popular of the festival. The 1999 festival broke the attendance record with $1400 being collected over four nights; many were return visits. In 2000 we even had sponsorship, from LJ Hooker Real Estate in the form of a loaned tent.

Throughout all this the schools / scouts / guides / cubs / Double Helix program continued under the organisational expertise of Keith Ward, who had taken over in mid-1994. 1995 and '97 were especially busy, with visits averaging two per month. A few unusual tales came out of these nights. May 1996 saw a visit to the remarkably well-behaved Bowning Public School and a sleep-over in the hall, with plans to view an asteroid occultation early next morning - unfortunately foiled by fog. A few days later, closer to home at the Evatt cub hall enclosure, the intrepid amateurs were whiling away the time under cloud while the cubs packed up and went home early - locking the gate behind them. A good security measure, except that the band of astronomers were still inside. John Howard wrote: "An escape plan was hatched and executed: Jim Fenner scaled the 9-foot barbed wire fence and arranged a rescue. About an hour later, the Cub leaders returned with a key, claiming to be even more embarrassed than us." (John, despite dubbing the incident the Escape from Cold Itz, was nice and cozy in his newly acquired freezer suit.)

On several visits to Guide groups on Majura Road, CAS members became examiners for their Astronomy Badge. For a short time Steve Johnston borrowed a wonderful novelty: a printer directly connected to his low-light video camera, giving students a real-time printed photo of the Moon for a paltry 20 cents (to cover the cost of the thermal paper). When in April 1997 visitors from Canberra's 'sister city' Nara, Japan announced a visit to Stromlo, Vince requested just a few scopes; no one expected the three busloads of people who turned up.

John Morland, who had been doing many of the presentations with the CAS slide projector (which incidentally was replaced with a donated one in early 1997), took over the chief organisational role from Keith, and continues the schools program to this day, from Belconnen to Banks and further afield, as successfully as ever. Publicity seems now to be self-generating (word on mouth) with little lobbying needed, however since 1997 we have had a listing under Astronomical Society in the Canberra phone book as well as in 'What's On in Canberra'.

A few other public outreach activities by members deserve mention. University of Canberra student Darren McDowell formed a short-lived astronomical society on campus around 1994, which was assisted by our members with talks and advice. Darren was soon also an active member of the CAS. In October 1998 Steve Johnston organised the first of two CAS exhibits at Woden Shopping Square with telescopes, posters, handouts and real live amateurs to answer questions. One of the more memorable acquaintances made was with a gentleman who mentioned his interest in lunar agriculture. "Oh, planting crops by the phase of the Moon?" I innocently enquired. "No. Planting crops on the Moon." Oh.

In 1999 Michael McDonald, 50-inch and 74-inch telescope operator extraordinaire, and Leonie Cheetham started up their 'Starclass' Web-based astronomy education program, offering news, chat sessions, quizzes and a range of other activities. Also along public outreach lines Paul Floyd began the website 'ACT Skywatch' this year, with current sky information such as planetary and satellite apparitions.

The Net

Although it now seems much longer ago, Web surfing only really became fashionable in Australia around 1995. Among the first fruit of the Internet for CAS was a 'sister society' arrangement. Clare Williams found the home page of the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society (CSAS) and, noting several similarities in membership number, aims and interests, put forward a motion that we form ties, at least at a communication level and newsletter exchange. The arrangement also included 'visitor privileges' should members be travelling overseas. Then, following the April 1997 Japanese visit to Stromlo, the Mayor of Nara invited the CAS and its Nara counterpart for a 'twin' relationship. Again, the membership voted in August to do so.

Early in 1996 Byron Soulsby was the first CAS member with an astronomical Internet homepage. Its focus is naturally the Moon and, in particular, lunar eclipses. Between 1978 and the final one of the millennium on 16 July 2000, Byron has observed a grand total of 38 lunar eclipses and produced five live eclipse webcasts. Since then a number of members have created homepages. Steve Crouch's is one regularly perused for his latest C14 images.

Clare Williams was one of the few at the time with the nous to put a website together and so was enlisted to launch the CAS homepage, one of our potentially most powerful means of dissemination. It was up and running on the ANU server by October 1996. It was taken over by Darren McDowell in 1997, and is now being expanded by Peter Enzerink. But the two-way information tool, email, caused its share of problems as we will see shortly.

Matters of controversy

For this section I plagiarise Ross Gould's heading for an item appearing in the December 1997 Southern Cross. President Steve Johnston, in a piece the previous month mentioning a government science education grant for which he had submitted a commendable proposal to equip a CAS 'travelling astronomer' outfit to upgrade our school presentations, had been somewhat forthright in his description of the choice of winners, and of where governments and people in general decide to throw their money. The subsequent letter of criticism led to the disclaimer ("All opinions expressed in the Journal...") which has been included in most subsequent issues.

In this same issue appeared the news that the CAS email list was up and running. The issue of moderation of the list (or 'bounce site') was perhaps an extension of the earlier concerns about journal editorship. Some members felt that there was too much non-astronomy material being emailed, and were also concerned that, particularly as its receivership was potentially limitless, some of this could offend or alienate others, with the possibility of 'unfortunate legal consequences' for the committee. Dave Herald and Michael McDonald aired their respective views in the June 1999 Southern Cross. 'To protect the Society's good name and the interests of the committee and members', the minutes report, and following a 'spirited discussion' among the committee, in June 1999 the email list was closed down while a set of rules (published in the August Southern Cross) and the legalities of the hitherto unencountered issues of this new medium were to be examined. In its place came the unofficial email list CADG (Canberra Astro Discussion Group) begun by Keith Ward. The 'moderated' CAS list was up and running again in August, leading to the present situation of many messages being sent to both sites to ensure receipt by members on 'both sides of the camp'. In the first 5 months since its restart, the number of CAS List messages was down to 42, most of them announcements that were duplicated on CADG, while CADG received 114 messages in the same period. Recently traffic on the CAS List has started to pick up again.

Both of these affairs had a significant downside in terms of a certain amount of ill-feeling, and the fact that the Society lost two particularly hard-working committee members who resigned over the issues. To remove any perceptions of bias over the latter issue the committee executive agreed not to stand for re-election. Not much more to be said, except that it is human nature that differences are not always reconcilable.

Celestial happenings

Under the co-ordination of John Howard and Patrick Purcell, deep sky viewing nights alternated between the Baines Ranch (Gundaroo) and Bobroff Acres (Michelago) properties, a scheme arrived at to give north- and south-siders equal opportunities. Dinner at the Michelago Inn was an occasional bonus. The March 1996 Messier Marathon was won by Denver Baines, who managed to glimpse M42 through a break in otherwise 10/10 cloud to notch up a grand total of one object. Meanwhile, regular Oddie nights and certificate courses continued, and 1995 saw a roster of attendees from the committee introduced to ensure access for members. Three years later a new concern arose when several members, claiming to be in a state of sobriety, reported a large white bubble having appeared next to the Oddie which was occasionally seen to fire beams of green light skyward. It was soon found to be AUSLIG's satellite ranging station. The concern remained until Stromlo assured us that the laser could not fry our heads, as it wouldn't fire that low. Another CAS activity in the vicinity of the Oddie (in the new Society role as Oddie caretaker), in June 1999, was the digging of a trench - not a defensive measure should the laser malfunction, but a drainage ditch.

Albert Brakel continued his search for the elusive asteroid occultation. By May 1996 he and his C8 had monitored 38 close approaches (a 39th was attempted with the 30-inch Reynolds) without success; a March 1999 event involving 444 Gyptis would have been successful had the ubiquitous cloud not got in the way. Success was finally achieved after 111 monitorings at 3:53 am on 23 May 2000, when 5 Astraea was observed in a 6.4 second occultation. Two other observers, in Victoria and South Africa, also obtained chords of this event, showing that Astraea is a highly elongated body.

Other solar system events of the seldom seen variety included a grazing transit of Mercury on the morning of 16 November 1999, which was seen by a dozen members on John Morland's front lawn through a variety of filtered telescopes and binoculars, and which, were it not for cloud, Vince and Kim would have observed on their wedding day at Lord Howe Island; and a solar maximum in 2000 with large groupings of sun spots (including filtered naked-eye views) erupting. Len Williamson continued his variable star work in his backyard in the original CAS dome, which in August 1999 was announced as available for use by any member who can organise its removal. An interesting and, as it turns out, short-lived phenomenon to appear during this period was the 'Iridium flare', the sunlight-glinting of Iridium mobile phone satellites to magnitude -8 or brighter, which a number of members enjoyed watching using Internet predictions.

November's Leonid meteors have made the press in recent years. Most of these events since 1996 were clouded out for most of Canberra, including Stromlo where CAS members on the Exploratory staff shepherded hundreds of pre-dawn risers between the visitors' centre and a sumptuous breakfast in the Yale dome. There were some particularly bright fireballs in 1998, with members driving west as far as Wagga in search of the edge of the cloud. Albert and Vello ventured westward again in 2000 as far as a town called Galore ("the name seemed propitious", wrote Albert) but only a few were seen. More predictably unspectacular was the 'planetary alignment' of May 2000, not surprising as the supposedly aligned planets were spread over 20º either side of the Sun.

As mentioned last issue, Comet Hyakutake was, for the Southern Hemisphere at least, the comet of the decade (and a pretty good decade at that); as usual, the media got it all wrong but perhaps any publicity is good. Other notables on the naked-eye comet front were of course Hale-Bopp (namesake Dr Alan Hale lecturing in Canberra in June 1997), still around in late 1997, Schwassmann-Wachmann 2 and Soho (1998). But two somewhat fainter comets got equal attention from CAS members.

Comets Tabur

The March 1994 Southern Cross article 'How visible is a comet?' by new member Vello Tabur proved to be prophetic. Following his work on the Reynolds telescope at Mount Stromlo (on which more later), Vello swapped the 30-inch for his 8-inch Newtonian and began comet hunting. At the September 1996 meeting he was proclaimed to be the first CAS member (and Canberran) to discover a comet: in the early hours of Tuesday 20 August, clad in freezer suit, Moon boots, gloves and two balaclavas at his dark-sky site, ten months and 100 hours of searching had finally paid off in the form of a 10th magnitude fuzzball, confirmed by Steve Johnston next night. Comet Tabur (1996Q1) later reached magnitude 4.8 (after moving into far northern skies), and a number of members saw it during its brief southern apparition.

For many it would have been tempting to put an end to the regular trips into the wilderness in the early hours when comets are best sought, but as Vello wrote in the September Southern Cross "you never know what interesting object awaits in the next field of view". So after a short break he persevered, and his efforts paid off on 3 July 1997 with a second Comet Tabur (1997N1), confirmed next morning by Albert and imaged by fellow member Jack Child and Gordon Garrad which enabled a preliminary orbit to be calculated. Unlike 1996Q1, 1997N1 never got to naked eye visibility. To put these discoveries into perspective, it's revealing to note that in the first 200 years of white occupation, less than two dozen Australians discovered comets. Vello has now turned to CCD imaging in his searches, and despite the diminishing chances of amateurs finding comets these days because satellites and professional search programs generally find them earlier, he has had at least one more near-discovery recently.

NB - Any similarity between the name Vello and Nova Velorum (ie, in Vela - in June 1999 the first naked-eye nova to be seen for many years) is purely coincidental.

The Journal

The beginning of 1996 saw some mid-term committee changes. Clare Williams handed over editorship of the Journal to a triumvirate consisting of old-hand Susan Ring, Albert Brakel, and Igor Lukaszyk. Partly as a result, Susan handed the secretarial duties to Dianne Purcell. The idea behind a 3-member Editorial Committee was to enable the work load to be spread around, and to ensure that if an editor was out of town for some reason, there would be another available to do the job. Compilation of issues was done in rotation, with the other editors helping out behind the scenes. Igor only managed one issue - he discovered that the laptop he borrowed from work for the weekend had brain hemorrhage when confronted with the demands of the software. He finished off the issue working long lunch times and after work in the office, but couldn't continue that way. Susan also only did one issue, before handing over to Ross Gould. Albert and Ross have been doing the job ever since.

From 1995 articles could be submitted by email, thereby eliminating one excuse (that of being too poor to pay for a stamp) from the list of reasons not to contribute to the journal. We tend to forget now how primitive the early email system was, and how many frustrating teething problems there were with lack of compatibility between users. But thanks to the efficiencies of the digital age, and access to the Internet, the Journal grew from 6 pages of text in September 1995 to a record 21 pages in December 2000.

Stocks of the black journal cover began to run out, and the April 1996 journal sported a revamped cover. Peter Ogilvie re-printed the original mid-80s Horvath/Sidonio photograph of the Crux/Centaurus region, enhancing the Cross and Pointers with some darkroom wizardry (adding diffraction spikes). The familiar logo was retained. The next change in appearance was in August 1999 with another first. Following a competition won by Brad Wilson, a colour photo and logo appeared to celebrate the Society's 30th anniversary, with Crux featured vertically this time. Other anniversary activities included the 30th anniversary dinner and the sale of champagne glasses featuring the Society logo.

Thanks to a 4-year plan to highlight previously neglected areas of the sky, in October 2000 the last of the constellations visible from Canberra (Lacerta) was written up in the Constellation of the Month column, and it was then open to anyone to write up their favourite.

Nebulous and other awards

Last issue the tale of the John Morland Nebulous Award was told (delete 'Memorial' from last month, as John pointed out he's still with us), and its first winner in 1995, Peter Bobroff, was recalled. Subsequent holders of the coveted shield with the Horsehead, now displayed in Don's Dome, are:

1996 - John Morland himself for seeing the California Nebula (who judged that one?)

1997 - Albert Brakel for seeing the most Eta Aquarid meteors

1998 - Grant Murphy for recording the most Leonid meteors (by radio - the rest of us were clouded out)

1999 - Jenni Kay for her regular and commendable Southern Cross articles on (very) faint fuzzies. A cheque in lieu of White Horse whisky was mailed to her in South Australia.

2000 - Peter Ogilvie (visually) and Steve Crouch (on CCD) for detecting the Waterfall Nebula using amateur equipment. The challenge came following a presentation by Dr Ralph Sutherland on Herbig-Haro objects and the interstellar medium, in which among his spectacular images was this faint nebula. John had soon reported seeing the 'pool' above the waterfall.

As can be seen, it is evolving into an award for broader achievements than solely detecting visually something faint and nebulous. An alternative target for 1996 was to be the elusive white dwarf Sirius B, for which John persuaded Keith Ward to accompany him to the Oddie one excellent night (with the help of an occulting bar they both saw it: John easily, Keith eventually). The caveat for 2000, "using amateur equipment", has become necessary as a number of CAS members have access to not-so-amateur equipment such as 74-inch telescopes.

In 1996 the Committee decided to award honorary life membership to two members who had made particularly significant contributions to the Society over many years: Peter Williamson, longest serving President during a period of much change in the CAS as well as being the force behind the establishment of the Canberra Observatory and the (at the time) soon-to-be-opened Canberra Planetarium; and technical wiz Peter Bobroff, who had introduced thousands to astronomy at school & public nights with his goliath telescopes, instituted a monthly technical meeting at his workshop, and hosted regular viewing nights at the property he and Judy own (not to mention his dedication to tea & coffee services after taking over from John Newman, and before passing the job on to Les Bobruk in 1996). Other members to hold the honorary membership title over the years have included Dr H. Gollnow, Joe Cahill, G. Pudelka (who died in 1991 several years after leaving Canberra), Ed Simmonds, Mike Sealy and, from 1994, Vince Ford and Dave Herald.

Vince was also nominated in 1996 for the prestigious Eureka prize for science education. He had to wait until 1999 before he and Kim finally made their way to Sydney for the award ceremony, and was able to show the trophy (but not the prize money, which we understand had already been spent) at the May meeting.

Not so much an award as an eternal form of recognition was the naming by Jack Child of asteroid 7779 'Susanring' (1993 KL) in Minor Planet Circular 31027 in December 1997. Jack, its discoverer, had made follow-up observations from his Macquarie observatory. The citation read "Named in honor of Susan Ivanka Ring, inspired and dedicated member of the Canberra Astronomical Society. Susan's love of astronomy has expressed itself through committed support of school observing programs and leadership in the Society, as well as through her devoted managing editorship of the magazine 'Southern Sky'. Citation enthusiastically endorsed by J. Mould and the Canberra Astronomical Society."

The Bogong & the Photon

You might recognise this phrase - it headed a March 1996 Southern Cross article by Keith Lockwood. In a way the title, referring in particular to a 1969 light-induced moth plague in (aptly enough) Canberra's Electricity House, summarises Keith's approach to Governmental lighting reform: dangle the cost-cutting carrot in front of the government bureaucrats and things just might improve.

It was just five years ago, but few still thought that much could be done about light pollution. As mentioned in Part 2, Halley's Comet in 1986 had been the incentive for some efforts in this area, and then at a 1991 CAS meeting Nick Williams from Queensland spoke of the light pollution problems and efforts there. That August, Patrick Purcell suggested "moves by the Society to limit light pollution in Canberra", but it was another five years before the move was made.

Almost a lone voice in Canberra, then, was Keith. After presenting some of his lobbying ideas at the June 1996 CAS committee meeting and convincing the committee that the Society should have a light-pollution officer, he co-founded OLRAG - the Outdoor Lighting Reform Action Group which, importantly, included among its few members a lighting engineer. Steve Johnston soon joined the ranks. Around this time Keith submitted, with Society endorsement, a document entitled "Outdoor lighting reform in the ACT" to the Metropolitan Canberra Growth Strategy Review. Also helpful was the July visit and lecture by Executive Director of the International Darksky Association, Dr Dave Crawford. Then, on a crisp June night in 1997, a bus was hired to take members of the ACT Legislative Assembly and others - some two dozen in all - on a night-time tour of Canberra's most illuminated spots, and including a visit to the Canberra Observatory and a CAS-hosted viewing at Stromlo. Their opinion after the tour: that outdoor lighting in Canberra was brighter than it needs to be, and that measures to restrict upward light spill were desirable.

CAS members' views on the problems of excessive and poorly designed outdoor lighting, submitted by the CAS as a whole, OLRAG and half a dozen individual members, were published in the Assembly's Report No.38 of the Standing Committee on Planning & Environment, November 1997: 'The provision of quality outdoor lighting in the ACT'. Instigated by Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker and chaired by Michael Moore MLA, the committee recommended that a range of Government steps be taken which would reduce skyglow in Canberra, including cost-benefit analyses of directionally efficient street lighting, the development of a full-cutoff lighting strategy and a lighting master plan. It made specific reference to Mount Stromlo and the Canberra Planetarium & Observatory.

The reaction of the Government (Member for Brindabella) was predictably short-sighted: that the report was 'futuristic... the community would have higher priorities for the expenditure of revenue'. But the Assembly had agreed to implement a number of the committee's recommendations; and when not much seemed to be happening, this non-action was challenged by the Society in 1999. Nevertheless, for the first time the problems of excessive lighting in Canberra had been thrown into the public arena for discussion; and, with our public nights location at Weston Park declared a designated observation site, we got those annoying Telstra Tower lights turned off for CAS public nights.

Keith Lockwood, the man who started it all, retired and moved to the coast with his wife Leslie. In his place as CAS dark sky activist, Steve Johnston stood down as President in September 1998 after a second term to continue to 'fight feral photons'. Twelve submissions were made against 'overkill' billboard lighting. Steve met with Urban Services minister Brendan Smyth, and wrote to an assortment of Canberra politicians on street lighting issues.

Sadly, in August 2000, Keith passed away. His legacy lives on in these efforts.

'Wild spending spree', and a new workshop

The May 1996 Southern Cross announced that after years of disuse, the Society's hire telescopes had been refurbished by Peter Bobroff and John Morland. John and Steve Johnston bought a set of eyepieces to be kept in the CAS room at the Oddie. But that was just the beginning. For just $450 Steve bought a total of nine mirrors from WA, ranging from 4-inch to 10-inch. Later, Ross Gould purchased new eyepieces for the Society's hire telescopes. The Society didn't go bankrupt as some may have predicted.

The influx of mirrors implied a need for someone to put them to use. Bobroff Telescope Works (BTW) was busy enough, so after moving to Duffy in mid-1995, Keith and Kate Ward made their workshop - WTW - available. Each Tuesday night, under the guidance of Steve and Keith, the new CAS workshop churned out several mirrors and telescopes (including the refurbished 8-inch CAS hire scope), eyepiece and filter adaptors, and mountings.

RAPTors

With the Oddie out of action it was timely that the prospect of observing time on a telescope with more aperture was looming. In 1992 at the instigation of Steven Ring, Stromlo indicated that the 30-inch Reynolds telescope, earlier used by CAS members Dave Herald and Len Williamson for photometric work, might see further CAS use if we provided a CCD photometer.

In similar fashion to Project Jupiter with the Yale Columbia, a study subject presented itself. Steven and Patrick Purcell using Steven's C8 and ST6 CCD camera imaged an X-ray nova - a probable black hole system - in Scorpius, labelled GRO J 1655-40, discovered in August 1994. (Among other Australians observing the object were radio astronomers David Jauncy, one-time guest speaker for CAS, and J. Reynolds, not to be confused with the late J. Reynolds who had donated the 30-inch to Stromlo in the 1920s). Dr Jauncy and Duncan Campbell-Wilson of the nearby Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope recommended further amateur monitoring.

Steven showed the image - the first of its kind by CAS members - at the March 1995 meeting. By this time David Jauncy had convinced Jeremy Mould that a CAS team could provide optical data to complement X-ray and radio observations, thereby testing the underlying physics of the system. The Reynolds had been refurbished after some time sitting idle, and the CAS Reynolds Amateur Photometry Team (RAPT) - pioneered by Steven and Patrick Purcell and soon joined by Vello Tabur, Brian Crook, Keith Ward, Denver Baines, Tim Leach and Igor Lukaszyk - was trained by Vince on the 30-inch which was now fitted with the ST6 CCD camera at the Cassegrain focus. Over six months the team, working in shifts throughout every clear night, made 900 images of the 15th magnitude GRO object, which were then reduced using software written by Vello. Through the winter (when Scorpius was at its highest) of 1995 - some encapsulated in freezer suits as there was no heating in the open dome - they braved temperatures down to -7ºC.

In August 1996 an equipment failure and an ANU industrial dispute interrupted the project. However the project results not only confirmed that the light curve represented an eclipsing binary, but produced a period for the system 100 times more accurate than had been obtained by professionals in Chile. In concluding his informative article in the February 1996 Southern Cross, Patrick commented that "Hopefully, further projects of this type, involving amateurs collaborating with professionals, will be forthcoming."

Patrick's words were prophetic, for this was only the beginning of RAPT. The Reynolds was later back on line with the team, now led by Brian Crook, expanded to include as additional members Eric Pozza, John Howard, Gavin Wyper, Albert Brakel, Darren McDowell, John Morland, Christoph Leach, Michael McDonald, Shirley McKeown, Alan Salmon, Geoff Mitchell, Alex Gutierrez, Gavin Veitch, Laeli Hogan, Heather Crawford, Tony Hill, and Gilbert Hughes. With MSSSO's Dr Mike Bessel and Dr Brian Schmidt as mentors, they performed follow-up imaging of a range of objects: long-distance supernovae, MACHO (Massive Compact Halo Object - ie, large chunks of dark matter) project events following detection by the 50-inch Great Melbourne Telescope, detections by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite, Cepheid variable stars in the LMC, asteroid occultations, and variable stars.

International Astronomical Union (IAU) circulars were soon featuring RAPT work in support the Global Microlensing Alert Network (GMAN) program of follow-up studies of microlensed stars, in particular discoveries by the 50-inch made in the course of the MACHO project. Brian Schmidt reported that Eric Pozza had imaged an unusually blue object near the galactic centre. Pre-discovery images of Supernova SN1997by were taken in April 1997, and post-discovery images of SN1997cy in July by Denver Baines and John Howard. In August two 'blazars' (highly variable quasars) were monitored as part of an international multi-wavelength program.

RAPT's next tastes of fame came in the form of articles in no less than The Bulletin and the journal Nature. On 17 March 1998 The Bulletin carried an article announcing that "amateur astronomers in Canberra may have found a planet orbiting a distant star, adding to the possibility that life exists outside Earth." A month later on 25 April, Brian Crook got a call in the dome with the co-ordinates of GRB980425 - a Gamma Ray Burst. Images were taken and, for the first time, an elusive optical counterpart (Supernova SN1998bw) to a GRB was captured by an amateur. A Dutch team wrote an article in Nature for which some of the data originated from Stromlo, including Brian's image. GRB980425 was the subject of intensive RAPT monitoring over the next few months and turned out to have a very different light curve to previous GRB optical afterglows. This work bolstered two theories: firstly, that different mechanisms can give rise to GRBs; and secondly that SN1998bw possessed relativistically expanding gas.

The January 1999 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas presented 22 light curves deduced partly from RAPT images and concluded that they were likely examples of lensing by binary systems.

Another of the images in the Nature article was taken by Michael McDonald, working on the 50-inch at the time - one of the few among CAS ranks to move into professional astronomy. In 1999 Michael started on Stromlo's 74-inch as part of the GMAN project. Jeremy Mould allowed a number of other CAS members to be trained up on this, once the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. Together with Brian and the RAPT team, following some final 'dummy -spits' by the aging Reynolds and its temporary retirement on 12 November 1999, throughout the galactic bulge observing season of 2000 we had the rare opportunity to work on a paid roster basis imaging candidate micro-lensing events.

Thus the work of CAS members led to estimates of the masses and distances of MACHO objects - quite a claim for a bunch of amateurs, which got a prominent mention by Jeremy Mould in his talk on the expansion of the universe at the 1998 National Australian Convention of Amateur Astronomers (NACAA). It was mostly work, but a bit of play as well, such as when John Morland and Keith Ward decided to point the 30-inch at Saturn and Jupiter during opposition. Says Keith, "The seeing must have been sub arc-second - I have never seen so much detail on Jupiter, before or since."

Travellers' tales

1996 saw a few members make their way to Coonabarabran for the Astronomy & Space Communicators Convention (ASCA) Convention, and seven more represented CAS at the 17th NACAA in Brisbane where Steven Ring presented a paper on the RAPT black hole work. The 1998 Convention in Sydney was hosted by the Sutherland Astronomical Society, and featured Vello Tabur on computer-aided comet hunting (awarded the Astral Press award for the best presented paper), Byron Soulsby on his live lunar eclipse Webcasts, and Brian Crook on the RAPT photometry work. The 2000 event was held in Perth, with another paper by Byron Soulsby, on his University of the 3rd Age work. Albert Brakel delegated for the Society at both 1998 and 2000 events. The NSW Society's annual Pacific Star Party got bigger and better, with Vince a guest speaker and a radio link-up with the Texas Star party in 1998, and in 1999 despite being rained out, the minutes record, "The Purcells' ever increasing tent was a popular meeting venue for humans and one very persistent arachnid..."

Steve Johnston returned from the USA with the inevitable armloads of wares from Scope City but also a cap that was completely unforeseen. He reported his astronomical sightings: three stars and the Moon.

The March 1997 total solar eclipse expedition was to Mongolia, with Russell Zweck the sole CAS member there; frozen in his tent under cloud, he didn't see it. 1998 saw a somewhat warmer trip to the Caribbean and a 10-day seaborne excursion on board a 'floating palace', the MS Veendam; in February 1999 a trip to north-west WA for an annular eclipse where high winds interrupted Steve Crouch's imaging of an otherwise successful event; followed by CAS representation in Turkey during August 1999 for fine views of the present millennium's final total solar eclipse, with solar maximum causing spectacular coronal streamers.

On the social side of things:

Annual dinners

1996 - Phoenix Garden Restaurant, Phillip

1998 - Yamba Sports Club. Our Patron Professor Don Mathewson retired from the position after twenty years. He was succeeded by Professor Jeremy Mould.

1999 - Our 30th Anniversary Dinner, Stromlo Exploratory on 15 July. Special guests included Fred Satrapa and Angela Hume, who got up the front and reminisced with Dave Herald and Mark Taylor. On the more bizarre side, Vince raffled off a lifesize inflatable alien.

2000 - Southern Cross Yacht Club, an assortment of lunatic activities on the Apollo 11 anniversary night

Christmas Barbecues>

1996 - Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (viewing outside the gates after closing)

1997-2000 - Stromlo administrative building grounds (Tidbinbilla - and increasingly its emu population - had begun charging). At the 1999 barbecue we welcomed four visitors from the Shoalhaven society.

* * *

So this is how far we've come since a young Michael Sealey put his ad in the Canberra Times in mid-1969, and a gathering of a couple of dozen astronomy enthusiasts in Queanbeyan decided to form a Society.

This history, as most are, has been biased towards recording the deeds of those who have made a visible contribution. But we should also acknowledge the dedication of those who did, and continue to do, the things that are equally important but less recognised: the work of the treasurers, the membership officers, the event organisers, the money collectors at public nights, the librarians, the ephemeris producers, the schools program providers, the Webmasters, auditor Geoff Hine; and perhaps most of all from the point of view of this history, the secretaries and the Journal editors, writers and folders, without whose work it would be nothing more than a few vaguely remembered anecdotes. This cast of hundreds over thirty years have formed the backbone of the Society.

What will the next CAS historian have to say thirty years from now? There are many promising ideas in the pipeline. Recently returned ex-President Grant Murphy's informal discussion sessions at meetings, a forum in which all the membership should feel they can contribute new ideas, will hopefully prosper. We have also seen that there is much to be learned from branching out a little from the traditional CAS activities: Grant and Steve J beat the clouds by listening for meteors on his radio, and Les Bobruk in 1998 reminded us with his spectacular but low-tech nocturnal tripod photographs that there is as much art in the sky as science. A number of members' computers are this very minute grinding through radio signal data for the SETI@home project, in search of an intelligent message. And will Ross Gould's stated aim to finish his book on double stars by decade's end be fulfilled? (Just a couple of weeks to go now Ross...) Seriously, like the Herald-Bobroff Astroatlas and Southern Sky it will undoubtedly be worth the investment. As for the Journal, there are plans to publish it in full colour, and no doubt the day will come when it is delivered online instead of in hard copy.

Postscript: In order to complete this history before the third millennium, this article has not had time to be perused by as many other members as the previous parts were. If you spot any inaccuracies please let the editors know so that corrections can be published in the next issue.