<html><head></head><body><div class="ydpd042296cyahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div id="ydpd042296cyiv3638703930"><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" class="ydpd042296cyiv3638703930yahoo-style-wrap"><div dir="ltr">Greetings Members and Friends of the SSAS,</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><b>Tomorrow evening will be the gathering time for our October monthly meeting. On the docket is longtime club member Barry DeCristofano, who will be presenting the second installment of his Astronomy 101 course, titled The Solar System, Part 2. You don't want to miss this opportunity to pick up some new knowledge about our neighborhood in the cosmos, and that goes not only for beginners, but experienced hobbyists alike. <i>Let's fill that room and learn some things about our hobby!</i></b></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Speaking about club presentations, we have an interesting affair scheduled for our November meeting as well, when Larry McHenry from Pennsylvania will be Zooming in to talk about the Reverend T.W. Webb, often referred to as "<i>the father of amateur astronomy.</i>" Webb authored a pair of observing guides called <i>Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes</i>, the first issues of which were printed in 1859. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">As a 'warm up' so to speak for our November presentation I present to you an observing challenge from Volume Two of Webb's guides, the one which focuses on the stars. On page 145 of said volume, one can find a brief entry of less than two lines that reads <i>"Wreath of stars, attached to 8.5m +/-, XVII hr. 59.2m, N. 26° 24'." </i>That's it. Nothing more than that, just a short statement about a grouping of stars and where they are. Of course that was nearly 150 years ago, and the object now stands at 18h 03m and 26° 18m, and which today would immediately be called an asterism, the name of which might not include "wreath", because if I discovered it I'd probably reference something like "pincushion" or "gourd" based on the shape of it.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Over the years countless folks have used Webb's guides to observe the heavens, but only in the most recent ones has Webb's Wreath become a more common target. Sue French included it in her own observing guide <i>"Deep-Sky Wonders"</i>, where she wrote;</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><div><div><i>“Moving back to Omicron and dropping 2.7º south-southwest takes you to a golden 7th magnitude star. It ornaments the eastern side of Webb’s Wreath, a little-known asterism first mentioned in the 4th edition (1881) of Thomas Webb’s observing guide “Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes.”</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>My 105mm scope at 68x reveals 13 additional stars, magnitudes 11 and 12, outlining 11′ x 7′ oval leans northeast and is dented inwards at the bright star.”</i></div></div><div><i><br></i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><img title="Inline image" alt="Inline image" src="cid:14fd4f97-d8b5-3982-4a0e-add9deb444d1@yahoo.com" class="yahoo-inline-image" draggable="false" style="max-width: 800px; width: 100%;" data-id="<14fd4f97-d8b5-3982-4a0e-add9deb444d1@yahoo.com>">Above we see Sue's sketch of Webb's Wreath, which she made while looking through a 105mm refractor in 2001, and was recently shared on Cloudy Nights by Roger Ivester of Observer's Challenge fame (which BTW recently ceased operations after 15 straight years of monthly publications).<br></i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><br></i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><img title="Inline image" alt="Inline image" src="cid:dfb04000-9b19-3dee-0a49-5998cb6d7e4e@yahoo.com" class="yahoo-inline-image" draggable="false" style="max-width: 743px; width: 100%;" data-id="<dfb04000-9b19-3dee-0a49-5998cb6d7e4e@yahoo.com>"><br><span></span>Above we have an image of Webb's Wreath made by Mario Motta of the ATMoB group.</i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><br></i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><img title="Inline image" alt="Inline image" src="cid:e6746381-9447-6db9-f06f-2006bbbf199d@yahoo.com" class="yahoo-inline-image" draggable="false" style="max-width: 800px; width: 100%;" data-id="<e6746381-9447-6db9-f06f-2006bbbf199d@yahoo.com>"><br><span></span>Roger Ivester recently tackled an observation of Webb's Wreath, and this is his rendition of it.</i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><br></i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><img title="Inline image" alt="Inline image" src="cid:23cae674-f7ee-b89f-6c2d-f8978a9981de@yahoo.com" class="yahoo-inline-image" draggable="false" style="max-width: 800px; width: 100%;" data-id="<23cae674-f7ee-b89f-6c2d-f8978a9981de@yahoo.com>"><br><span></span>If you open your planetarium program and search for the star HD 164922 (or any other catalog reference for the same star) you'll get something like this, which shows a lot more stars than what shows up in the eyepiece.</i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><br></i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><img title="Inline image" alt="Inline image" src="cid:f81200fa-878f-a752-713b-84f94ccc8a41@yahoo.com" class="yahoo-inline-image" draggable="false" style="max-width: 800px; width: 100%;" data-id="<f81200fa-878f-a752-713b-84f94ccc8a41@yahoo.com>"><br><span></span>I've made a star-hop chart for Webb's Wreath, and I put it to use after my Saturn observing this past Sunday night. The hop is quite intuitive and goes very smoothly once you put Delta Her in the finder scope. Of course the go-to crowd need only enter the star designation to land right on it.</i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><i><br></i></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">My observation of Webb's Wreath was pleasantly fulfilling. The 'north ansae' of the group is very bright and stands right out at low power. Adding magnification brings the rest of the parts into view, with the most difficult to discern part being one 13.6m star that completes the 'south ansae'. (For clarification, 'ansae' is Latin for 'handles' and is commonly used to describe the outer reaches of Saturn's rings)</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">So there you have it. A little off the beaten path observing objective to whet your appetite for November's presentation, and for those who like, the star-hop charts are attached.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Sincerely,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Mike M.</div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>