Category: Club News

by Wade Van Arsdale

IDA-Arkansas Section officers, along with members of the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society hosted staff from the Arkansas Times Magazine at the C.A.A.S. facility northwest of Little Rock, AR. on Saturday, November 1^st, 2008.  The Times staff is working on a cover story for their magazine regarding light-pollution and its impact on the environment and the economy.

The Arkansas Times is a widely distributed and read magazine based in Little Rock, AR.

The Times covers a wide range of topics and has proven to be one of the most popular

magazines in the state, with one of the largest readership bases.

An interview session and facility tour was conducted with the Times writer and his photographer.  After dark, the light-pollution domes of nearby Little Rock and Conway and their effects on the night sky were demonstrated to the Times writer and his photographer by the hosts.  A written cost analysis specific to local power companies and

overview of the various types of lighting hardware and their respective operating costs

and advantages was given to the Times staff.  A compact disk full of economic and

general information regarding the benefits of shielded lighting with sodium-based bulbs

was also given to the Times writer for use in his article which is expected to be the cover

story for the magazine’s November 27^th edition.

Hopefully the benefits of shielded lighting in terms of lower operating costs, energy savings, and reduced pollution to the ecosystem will be emphasized in the Times article.  This was the primary focus of the information given to the Times staff which utilized many useful fact sheets from the IDA website.

Thanks to C.A.A.S. members Don and Carolaina Ferren, Carl Freyaldenhoven (and friend Sharon), Jim Dixon, Alan Stroman, Jason Wallawine and Wade Van Arsdale for

their enthusiastic turnout and help for this very successful and educational event.

Respectfully submitted by:

Wade Van Arsdale, C.A.A.S. member

Gerard and Brian, a report and photographer, respectively for the Arkansas Times visited CAAS this evening.  They are working on a story on light pollution and wanted to get our take on it.  They had contacted Wade van Arsdale earlier in the week so Wade was the point man on this event.  Several members were there this evening setting up scopes to see what we could while there.  A heavy dew settled in around 8 and many of us, including me headed home after that.

by Don Lewis

This falls RRAC "Burger Burn turned out very well.
I did get there after dark Thursday evening.
I walked around and enjoyed others. That night something made the sky
thick about horizon to 40 degrees up. Thursday night Roy walks up
to a group of us and started out with "did someone read the post by that
guy that claims he saw the Veil with binoculars?". I chose to speak up
at that point before it got nasty (humor intended) and said I was
the guy.
Well that started it. Any one with bino's got to looking for the Veil
to see if I was a raving idiot or what. As it turned out the Veil was
confirmed by everyone that chose to look. Lots of "never would have
thought it's". Needless to say I felt better about my post. Friday
night the newcomers were reminded by someone about that posted message
and they too had to see for themselves.
I set up my scope Friday. We had smoked pork and baked potatoes, rolls
and dutch oven made cobbler for dinner, YUM! As dusk rolled in we all
began prepping our scopes and equipment. It was mostly the local members
and myself until Jason Wallawine, Danny and John Reed came in Friday
afternoon. The nights sky was incredible. So much that I forgot all about
Okie-Tex for the most part. I stayed up as late Friday as my aching body
would allow.
Through out the day Saturday more folks slowly arrived. The Sorrows
family,  Chris and Thomas, Jim Fisher and others. Three or four from
AOAS arrived.
There were over a dozen scopes of all flavors by Saturday evening. Once
again we had a perfect night of superb skies. The evenings / nights did
get very cool but not unbearable. I was prepared for wide temperature
swings anyway.
Before dinner Jim Fisher presented his IDA inaugural to a
large group of attendees. I think he received favorable results.
I should mention that RRAC out did themselves again for the dinner
Saturday afternoon. Smoked burgers with all the fixins, potatoe salad,
some outrageously delicious bean chili with dutch oven cornbread
prepared by Dick Waldrep who also made the two dutch oven cobblers for
desert. Dick is a real keeper. He is just now getting into astronomy and
is a fine person to share with.
That night was again excellent for viewing. Objects practically jumped
right out at you. My personal all time favorite object was Orion's
M42. It was BANG! out there in my 18". It offered beautiful detail of
nebulosity in Wess's 6" TEC refractor with a bino attachment. For me
in the 18" I could clearly see the neighbors M43 and the details of the
running man in M78. But still my highest moment was after easily splitting
the illusive doubles in the Trapezium region to six stars with my 7mm
T6 Nagler I then placed my 24mm Panoptic in the eyepiece for a wider view.
After careful study there appeared streams of tiny pinpoint stars almost
hidden from view by the nebulous cloud next to the Trap... They were
beautiful, something I have never seen before in person or in images. I
had the few remaining viewers have a look and they too had ooh ahh
reactions to these tiny beautiful stars. Checking today I can't find those
stars even in Hubble's Trapezium images.
Packed up Sunday morning and got home about 2:30pm. It is about
a 2 or more  hour drive from Little Rock.