Happenings this Week

The Top 10 Reasons to Join the MAS:

10. Your inner critic hasn’t shut up since you bought that telescope…still in the box.

9. You finally want to understand what collimation actually means.

8. Your current social circle consists entirely of the phases of the Moon.

7. You’d get to play with lasers in public and not get arrested.

6. It’s the only club where showing up in your fleece pants makes you popular.

5. You feel sure that your backyard observatory-in-progress is a home improvement project (your partner should be thanking you).

4. Where else can you casually say, “I was observing Uranus last night,” and get nods of respect?

3. You’ll get to meet people who can’t wait to tell you how astrology forgot Ophiuchus.

2. It’s free therapy for your existential dread: pick any celestial observing target on any night, and whisper, “I am so small…”

And the number one reason to join…

1. Because space is awesome. And let’s be honest–you already own three headlamps with red light. It’s time.

Steve Emert, our Membership Coordinator, is planning a group purchase of the observing reference book, “Objects in the Heavens” by Peter Birren.  This book is normally sold direct for $29.95 plus $7.50 postage, or $37.45.  The individual price is $25.00 shipping included, in the group purchase.

This book is in its 7^th edition (Steve has the v5.2 version).  It’s a spiral bound field book that with illustrated constellations depicting objects down to 10^th magnitude.

In addition to general reference material (major stars, double stars, red supergiant stars and carbon stars lists, Messier catalog including suggested Messier Marathon search order, NGC catalog with cross reference to other catalogs, a Moon map and viewing guide by day, etc.), the major attraction is it shows an illustration of each constellation in alphabetical order together with a listing of the objects within it.  Brighter “eye candy” objects are bolded for ease of selection, and each object has a short description as well as its RA/Dec coordinates.

It’s excellent if you want to just go out, pick out a constellation and quickly find the DSOs within it.  Each constellation also has a cross reference to the corresponding Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas page.  It works both as a standalone reference and as a selection guide to objects to use with your smartphone planetarium program.

For a closer look, the web site is:  www.birrendesign.com/astro.html

The group purchase is being advertised on the MAS Discussion Forums under the “MAS Electronic Media & Book Group” topic.  Reply to the message thread to reserve a copy.  Steve plans a deadline for signing up around the end of September or possibly into the first week of October.   

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