Apollo Rendezvous 2013

Posted Sun, 07/01/2012 - 23:04 by rconnell
Apollo Rendezvous 2013

The Miami Valley Astronomical Society


Presents

The 43rd Annual Apollo Rendezvous

at
The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery
June 8, 2013 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
and
John Bryan Observatory
June 7, 2013, 6:00 PM to Midnight
June 8, 2013, 5:00 PM to Midnight

Apollo Rendezvous is one of the noted annual gatherings of amateur astronomers in the Midwest. Each year, amateur astronomers join with friends and colleagues from around the world at the birthplace of aviation, Dayton, Ohio.

Once again, Apollo Rendezvous is being held at two locations: Friday night, June 7th is at our dark sky location, John Bryan State Park Observatory in Yellow Springs, OH and Saturday, June 8th at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery.

Friday's activities at John Bryan Observatory feature noted astrophotographer, author and amateur astronomer, Doug Zubenel presenting "Leslie C. Peltier: A Personal Retrospective." Doug will share his experiences of working with Mr. Peltier, considered "the world's greatest non-professional astronomer" and how he motivated him to persue his love of the night sky. Since the Observatory is home of the Leslie C Petltier, Merry-Go-Round, what better location for this talk?

Club Member Lori Cutright will also be giving a talk and doing an Astronomy Quiz.

Door prizes and a raffle prize, delicious food provided for the cook out, a swap meet and facility tours including Peltier's Merry-Go-Round observatory round out Friday's activities ,capped off by an evening of star gazing--weather permitting of course.

Saturday kicks off at 9:00 AM, at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, with presentations scheduled throughout the day on astrophotography and radio astronomy by Doug Zubenel, and William Dean respectively. Vendors, planetarium shows, door prizes, raffle, and ending the evening again at our dark sky site, John Bryan State Park Observatory with a BBQ and an evening of star gazing.

Late addition

Doug Zubenel is bringing his "PlanetCatcher," a 12.5" f/10 GEM Newtonian. This instrument won 2nd place for optics and mechanics (optics for me, mechanics for my long-time friend Mike Larkin) at the 2006 Stellafane. The telescope was featured in Gary Seronik's Telescope Workshop in the June 2011 issue of S&T, p. 66-67.

Rick Hunter from the Cincinnati Observatory is presenting a talk on various Mars mission's science payloads and instruments. More info and his bio to follow!

Vendors
This year's vendors, committed to fill your astronomy needs.

Swap Meet
We will once again have an area set up on Friday night at John Bryan State Park Observatory, for our Swap Meet. Have any items your not using? Bring them to the swap meet to sell. Please mark the registration if you plan to participate.

Food and Drink
A box lunch will be available for purchase in advance. Please see the Box Lunch Order Form for choices.

Door Prizes
Apollo Rendezvous once again offers cool door prizes. Many vendors have supplied us with great astronomical items to be given away. Door prizes will be drawn at the conclusion of the event at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. You must be present to win.

Raffle
Raffle prizes always generate interest and robust ticket sales. Watch the website for a list of raffle items and as always, you must be present to win.

Check out the complete list of door and raffle prizes, the donors and the days they'll be given away.

Door prize & Raffle prize Donors
Big Binoculars www.bigbinoculars.com Oberwerk 25x100IF binocular
Optics Planet www.OpticsPlanet.com Celestron Ultima 80 Spotting Scope
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc.ca 2013 Observer's Handbook & Beginner's Observing Guide
JMI Telescopes www.jimsmobile.com (2) $50.00 gift certificates
MVAS www.mvas.org" Meade 20-60 x 60 Spotting Scope
Software Bisque www.bisque.com/sc/ Gift Certificate
Sky & Telescope www.skyandtelescope.com Pocket Sky Atlas
Bob's Knobs www.bobsknobs.com/ Gift Certificate & Key chains
Orion Telescopes www.telescope.com/ Binocular Harness
Epic II Ed 15 mm EP 1.25"
Long Eye Relief EP 18mm 1.25"
Binocular Stargazing Kit
Skyline Deluxe Green Laser
AstroGoggles
Orion Star Target Planisphere
Moon Map
More to come!

Stargaze and BBQ
Apollo Rendezvous is capped off by a star gaze and BBQ on Saturday night for all who attend. Both activities are held at our dark sky site, John Bryan Observatory, inside John Bryan State Park. Bring your scope or check out the views from the many club scopes on display--weather permitting of course.

Camping at John Bryan Observatory
There will be NO camping at John Bryan Observatory on Friday night. If you wish to camp, you may do so at the park's campground located on the right as you enter the park. Check with the Park Office upon arrival. Reservations can be made online at http://www.ohio.reserveworld.com/SearchCriteria.aspx?PropertyType=R&pk_id=63


Friday's Presentations

"Leslie C. Peltier: A Personal Retrospective"
Speaker: Doug Zubenel

Doug Zubenel was born Doug Brown in March of 1957 in Lima, Ohio, not far from his home town of Delphos, Ohio. When Doug remarried in 1994, he and his wife Nancy decided to pick a family name new to both of them, and they chose Zubenel as a shortened form of Zubenelgenubi- a naked eye double star in Libra. They live with their two children outside DeSoto, Kansas, in a rural neighborhood that has NO streetlights.
While living in Woodland Hills, Calif., in November of 1968, Doug saw a bright meteor which, of course, was the Leonids, and started his path in amateur astronomy. Doug joined the Polaris Astronomical Society of Canoga Park, Calif., in early 1971. After reading the book by Lloyd Malan entitled "Exploring Space With Astronomy," he became challenged by the chapters on astrophotography and comet hunting. He read a quote by Leslie C. Peltier and found to his amazement that he lived in his hometown of Delphos, OH.
His family moved back to Delphos in early August, 1971. Doug worked for Leslie Peltier all though high school and presented him with his honorary diploma when the class of 1975 adopted him as one of their own.
In 1978, Doug began comet hunting with a home-made, 6"f/4 RFT (optics by Coulter) and on February 20, 1984, independently recovered periodic Comet Crommelin: then with a 10.1" f/4.5 (again Coulter) made a belated independent discovery of Comet Sorrels in May of 1987.
Doug has numerous images published in ASTRONOMY, SKY & TELESCOPE, and various other magazines, as well as contributing to the internet on OPOD, EPOD,APOD, WPOD, and regular work on Spaceweather. Many of his images employ a technique he created in 1982 called the focus and aperture shift, allowing the sharp recording of foreground and infinity objects during a single exposure. Doug is one of the pioneers of what has become known as "skyscape," or more recently, "TWAN-style" photography. He has been using landscapes and other foreground objects in his images since 1971. Doug was invited into membership with TWAN in April of 2008.
In 1986, he wrote the presentation he will be giving Friday night at Apollo Rendezvous 2013 entitled "Leslie C. Peltier: A Personal Retrospective." He has given it at most of the major US star parties over the years.
Doug has hand-ground three Newtonian mirrors. While grinding a mirror for a 12.5" in December of 1998, Doug independently invented the type of single-tube Newtonian binocular that places the eye pieces at a 45 degree angle to the parallel optical axes of the two primary mirrors. He will bring one of these to Apollo Rendezvous 2013.
These days, Doug continues shooting the sky whenever he can, and continues sharing the heavens with the public-work he began in the late 1970's, and in great earnest since 2004-facilitating the Kansas City Streetside Astronomers.
Doug's day job is as an electronics assembly subcontractor.



Speaker: Lori Cutright

I am from northwestern Indiana. I grew up in the country under dark skies, where I learned at an early age to enjoy looking at the stars. I also enjoy math and science. I attended Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, IN, and received my Bachelors of Science in a combination of math and Physics in 1983. I received my Masters of Science in Physics from Indiana University in 1987. I took my first astronomy class as a graduate student, and decided to transfer to the Astronomy Department. I took all of the course work and passed the exams for a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, but I never finished my dissertation so I do not have a doctorate degree. I have been at Sinclair Community College since 1992, where I teach physics and astronomy. I am divorced, with one son, Jimmy, who is also a physicist. I enjoy reading, gardening, playing with my cats, and observing.


Saturday's Presentations

"Radio Astronomy--The Amateur View"
Speaker: William Dean

About 1960 when Bill Dean was a high school student in Westerville, Ohio he became interested in radio-astronomy. Articles in Scientific American and the work of John D. Krause at Ohio State University encouraged him to do a school science project on the subject. After building his own helical antenna out of hardware cloth and aluminum clothes line with a receiver (“sort of”) made from old TV sets and a clock driven coffee can recorder, he then turned to other interests. Even while pursuing a BS in Physics from OSU, a 5-year stint as a communications intelligence officer in the army, a MSc. in Forensic Science, and a 40 year career as a forensic scientist, he maintained an interest in the field. He visited the National Radio Observatories at Green Bank, WV and Socorro, NM. He first joined the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) in 1995, but it was not until 2012 that he was able to actually attend a meeting at Green Bank and now is a Life Member. As a recent retiree, he currently has time to return in earnest to radio-astronomy. His primary interest is the design of radio telescope receiving systems. That is why he is excited about the Radio Astronomy Software Defined Receiver (RASDR) that several SARA members are developing.


"Astrophotography"
Speaker: Doug Zubenel

Doug has numerous images published in ASTRONOMY, SKY & TELESCOPE, and various other magazines, as well as contributing to the internet on OPOD, EPOD,APOD, WPOD, and regular work on Spaceweather. Many of his images employ a technique he created in 1982 called the focus and aperture shift, allowing the sharp recording of foreground and infinity objects during a single exposure. Doug is one of the pioneers of what has become known as "skyscape," or more recently, "TWAN-style" photography. He has been using landscapes and other foreground objects in his images since 1971. Doug was invited into membership with TWAN in April of 2008.

Doug will have several prints as well as a few ready-to-hang pieces of astrophotographic artwork for sale.


"Mars Instrument Packages"
Speaker: Rick Hunter

Rick Hunter graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering.
He was commissioned a 2Lt in the US Army and served 2 years active duty at Ft. Riley, Kansas. In 1977 he started
work as an Electronic Engineer. Mr. Hunter has over 36 years experience in designing electronic equipment utilized in
Television and Radio spanning the frequency range of 10MHz through 36 GHz. He has worked in Consumer, Commercial,
Military, and Space Electronics. For 15 years he has worked in Space Electronics designing Radio and Microwave Frequency
electronics for Space Craft varying from the Mars Rovers and Orbiters through low Earth orbit Environmental Observation
Space Craft, World View and Geoeye mapping Space Craft utilized by Google Maps and other mapping software. He has also
designed transmitter electronics for the WISE and FERMI Space telescope.

Locations
Boonshoft Museum of Discovery
2600 DeWeese Pkwy.
Dayton, OH 45405		 John Bryan State Park
3790 State Route 370
Yellow Springs, OH 45387

For Information on Apollo Rendezvous contact Linda Weiss at ar@mvas.org