3rd Annual Astronomy Night
Our third annual Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Astronomy Night was a mirrored image of the last two held in 2005 and 2006. Again our host Mr. Dennis Ritz was there to welcome us and share is vast knowledge of the heavens. As I mentioned in the last two reports, Mr. Ritz is retired CEO, having owned his own drug screening company and also a pilot owning a Cirrus SR22 low wing, four seat aircraft. Retired and flying, in fact this year he flew all the way to Nome, AK making stops along the way to visit friends. He also made a ‘side trip’ to Maine! A lot of miles in the sky, what a life!
At 1500 hours the following San Diego Cadet Sq. 144 personnel reported to Capt Dennis Ammann outside the main gate of the 147th Combat Communications Squadron, CA Air National Guard. Cadet Connolly was the senior cadet in charge of this activity with Cadet Alex Ramos as his flight sergeant. The following cadets were present for transportation to Tierra del Sol:
C/2Lt Joseph Connolly
C/2Lt Peter Kler
C/2Lt Matthew Corey
C/CMSgt Douglas Saavedra
C/SMSgt Chandra Murphy
C/TSgt Alex Ramos
C/A1C Spencer Beaulieu
C/A1C Harrison Coyne
C/A1C Brent Timm
C/Amn Marshall Bryan
C/Amn Scott Lynch
C/Amn Anthony Tavan
C/AB Dan Pearce
C/AB Dominick Tavan
LtCol Benjamin Aaron
Capt David Saavedra
Capt Dennis Ammann
Lt Jeff Cable
SM Tony Ramos
Our parent volunteer drivers were: Mr. Chris Lynch, and Mr. Steve Murphy. Senior member drivers were: Lt Cable, SM Ramos, Capt Saavedra, and Capt Ammann along with C/2Lt Kler utilizing his vehicle as the squadron ‘mule’ to haul camping equipment and other gear. With cadets assigned to each vehicle, the convoy left at 1515 hours, arriving at the south end of a local casino parking lot at 1615 hours to meet with Cadet Murphy and her father. Upon utilizing the head facilities, the caravan continued on to the San Diego Astronomy Association (SDAA) site.
Arriving at the SDAA site at about 1700 hours, our sister squadron, South San Diego Sq. 201 reported in shortly after our arrival with the following personnel:
LtCol Steve Handrop
C/2Lt Andy Handrop
C/MSgt Amy Hannibal
C/MSgt Mark Hannibal
C/MSgt Jason Hannibal
C/Sgt Steven Hannibal
C/Sgt Mathew Lytle
C/AB Matthew Valdez
C/2Lts Connolly and Handrop assembled their respective squadrons into one flight and Capt Ammann welcomed everyone to the third annual CAP Astronomy Night. He spoke about the rules against noise, skylarking, white lights after sunset, and the schedule of events. Lt Cable spoke about safety, covering the altitude (3,000 feet), night hazards, environment, insects, and animals that one might encounter.
After the welcome and safety brief, all the gear was off-loaded, tents set up, and BBQs fired up for dinner. Again, Mrs. Kuei-Mei Ammann was the unofficial CAP cook, offering chicken and beef skewers, hot dogs, and hamburgers. Prior to eating dinner, Capt Ammann offered the dinner prayer for those who chose to pause before eating. Dinner also included the usual beans, potatoes chips, salad, soft drinks, and cookies. Each cadet was required to bring a food item and fortunately everyone brought enough for the entire group.
Mr. Dennis Ritz was introduced and also welcomed the two CAP squadrons and spoke about what types of telescopes were available to the cadets that night. Mr. Bob Austin, the President of the SDAA was also invited and introduced himself.
As soon as dinner was finished, all personnel assembled where Capt Ammann reviewed the safety precautions and schedule. He also quickly pointed out the following: how to find Polaris the North Star and how Vega would become the north star in 12,000 years from now; where Jupiter is located; described how large the reddish star Antares is just below Jupiter in the constellation of Scorpio; pointed out the center of our Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation of Sagittarius; and suggested that each cadet first view the crescent moon before it quickly sets in the west.
With that said, the cadets assembled at Mr. Ritz’ observatory for a quick view of his three telescopes: 16” Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, an 18” Meade Dobsonian, and a 16” Meade Dobsonian. The 16” Meade LX200 was hooked up to a laptop computer that displayed the image viewed and followed the target as it moved through the heavens. Just by inputting a star’s location, the computer would aim this telescope right on the target! No need for a small spotter to strain one’s eye.
After Mr. Ritz’ brief, the cadets affixed their flashlights with red filters to preserve their night vision and quickly dispersed throughout the site, visiting Mr. Austin’s 17” Dobsonian telescope to view the moon. Mr. Austin left this scope outside his observatory all night for the cadets to utilize. They also visited the other amateur astronomers, most of which had small scopes in the lower parking lot. There were two cement walkways that tripods could be set up along with electrical hook-ups for computers and scope drive motors for time exposure photography. Vehicles and tents were set up next to the cement walkways and the cadets were encouraged to visit each astronomer’s pad, ask questions and take a look at what they were observing.
As darkness fell, the crescent moon held back the Milky Way and most of the stars, but soon the multitude of stars won as the moon slid behind the mountains to the west and BANG, the Milky Way appeared, well about 70% of it because the light from San Diego, Orange/LA County took over where the moon left off to the west. Still it stretched clear across most of the sky, with some of the cadets seeing it for the first time. This grand view is calorie free compared to the Milky Way candy bar that rots cadets’ teeth.
The most distant object one can see with the naked eye is Andromeda (M31) our nearest neighbor in the local group of galaxies. This tiny fuzzy spot is 2.2 million light years from Earth and was almost straight up at 2345 hours. The good news is that Andromeda will collide with us and we’ll have twice as many stars in our heavens! The bad news is this won’t happened until five billion years from now when planet Earth is nothing more than a cold burnt piece of rock floating in our galaxy. In the early 1900s, Edward Hubble is credited with determining the distance to this galaxy and astounded the scientific community that it was not a part of the Milky Way, but another distant galaxy. What a sight it is to view and wonder what it would be like to fly there and visit!
Again like the last two years, one of the ground rules concerning CAP Astronomy Night is that there is NO rule about turning in. One can stay up all night and watch the continuing night view. The Pleiades Star Cluster (M45) (about 440 light years from Earth) rose about 2300 hours what a sight to view in a telescope! Mars rose about the same time in the east, shining in its reddish glow. The constellation of Orion was rose in the east about 0100 hours, lying on his side.
Many of the cadets took advantage of the SDAA club’s giant 22 inch Lipp telescope to view distant astronomical objects. What a field of view and power it provides. Ms. Alice Harvey, the SDAA secretary, set us up with the double star Albireo in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. This double star consists of a yellow star and blue star that are 385 light years from Earth and easy to find, as it is the head of the swan. One might say that this star belongs to the San Diego Chargers; go blue and gold!
Many of the cadets hung out in the SDAA STS conference room. C/2Lt Connolly brought his lap top computer and downloaded Chief Murphy’s copy of the recent Encampment 2007 ‘Week Book’ which she copied prior to leaving for Astronomy Night. Many funny stories were told about last month’s encampment as a lot of the cadets from both squadrons attended. They also watched two movies and before long, it was time to break camp and wake up the others who were sleeping.
At 0600 hours reveille was held and CAP tent city was quickly dismantled and loaded back in the vehicles by 0700 hours. Prior to departure, the traditional “FOD” walk down was held as the cadets formed a line and picked up the trash. They covered about one third of the site, leaving it clean and taking the trash with us. Just prior to departure, a group picture was taken with the two squadrons and our host, Mr. Dennis Ritz. After thanking Mr. Ritz and with everyone accounted for, we headed for home, arriving back at the 147th CBCS at 0845 hours.
As stated in last year’s report, Aerospace Education is one of the three missions of CAP and this activity is an excellent way to study astronomy rather than sit in a room and read from a book. Yes, the cadets will read about astronomy in school and as part of their CAP modular syllabus. They will have a better understanding when viewing a picture of M15, the Hercules Star Cluster and can say, “I saw that globular star cluster through a 16 inch Dobsonian telescope during CAP Astronomy Night!”
This educational opportunity would not happen without the hospitality of Mr. Dennis Ritz who offered their time, observatory, and telescopes to us. The weather was excellent, even with two local mountain fires, the winds were turning the smoke away from our site.
Also vital to any field trip’s success are parent drivers. We would like to thank Mr. Chris Lynch and Steve Murphy for offering their vehicles and driving us to the astronomy site plus helping out with the BBQ and pitching in anyway they could. Many thanks to C/2Lt Kler for letting us utilize his mother’s SUV as the squadron “mule” and to Lt Cable and SM Ramos for providing transportation too.
Mr. Ritz and Mr. Austin were very gracious hosts along with the members of the SDAA. Without their willingness to share their knowledge of the heavens and their telescopes this event would not succeed. Lastly, we would like to thank LtCol Steve Handrop and South San Diego Cadet Sq. 201 for joining us on our third astronomy night and making it such a success. Events like this offer opportunities to make new friends and bond with our closest neighbor, Sq. 201.
Keep looking up! Semper Vi !
Capt Dennis S. Ammann
Commander, San Diego Cadet Sq. 144
The Grand Design Spiral Galaxy M81 at 11.6 million light-years from Earth
