Sky & Telescope - October 2023 - 7

after reading how he did it in his community,
I have begun to pencil out
what that would take.
Edward Daugherty
Goodyear, Arizona
" An Observatory for Seniors " sums up
my experience to a T. I also moved to
a continuing-care facility (in Matthews,
North Carolina), and I have
been experiencing the same issues Dr.
Richard went through. Setting up and
taking down my equipment as well as
moving it to a site in the complex can
be off-putting to say the least.
But our facility has been supportive
of my hobby. Recently, they put a
nature trail in the back section of the
property and constructed an observing
deck. Their first plan for this deck
was an observation platform to watch
the ducks and geese on the pond, but
they're planning to install electricity
in the platform for my use. We have
also discussed having Wi-Fi available
to project images for those not mobile
enough to observe through a telescope.
Benton Kesler
Matthews, North Carolina
It Takes Two
When I wrote " It Takes a Village " (S&T:
Oct. 2020, p. 84), the Goldendale Sky
Village membership stood at 21. Now
our 30-acre community has 59 members,
and the infrastructure is complete.
In that article, I wrote: " We would
also encourage the founding of other sky
villages around the U.S. . . . " We have
been successful in this endeavor as well.
Our 92-acre sister village, Chiricahua
Sky Village, is arising under dark skies
in southeastern Arizona and currently
has 44 members from six states. Both
villages are continuing to grow - something
I attribute to the innovative
combination of private ownership and
relatively small lots positioned close
to each other. This has led to a unique
observing environment that looks and
feels like a permanent star party.
Christopher Smythies
Founder and General Manager
Goldendale and Chiricahua Sky Villages
Medina, Washington
FOR THE RECORD
* In " Visiting Ophiuchus " (S&T: June 2023,
p. 45), Aesculapius carries a rod with a
single snake wrapped around it, known as
the Staff of Aesculapius. The " caduceus "
is a staff entwined with two snakes belonging
to Hermes, the Greek messenger
god. Both staffs serve as a symbol for the
medical profession today.
* On page 27 in the August 2023 issue,
Williamina Fleming discovered Z Centauri
in December 1895 on a photographic plate
taken in July of that year.
SUBMISSIONS: Write to Sky & Telescope, 1374 Massachusetts Ave., 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA, or email:
letters@skyandtelescope.org. Please limit your comments to 250 words; letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.
75, 50 & 25 YEARS AGO by Roger W. Sinnott
Cyril V. Jackson in South Africa
1948
1973
º October 1948
Number Crunching " Extremely
rapid solution of some of the
complex and laborious numerical
problems of astronomy may soon
be available by means of EDVAC,
the Electronic Discrete VAriable
Computer [at the University of
Pennsylvania]. The new calculator
is comparatively small in size,
some seven feet high and taking
up 140 square feet of floor space.
It uses 3,300 commercially available
vacuum tubes . . .
" [To calculate] the orbit of an
asteroid or newly discovered comet
[will take] only about 75 seconds! "
1998
Fuzzy Interloper " [A new] comet
was found on August 26th, by
Dr. Joseph Ashbrook at Lowell
Observatory, of the 12th magnitude,
in the constellation Aquarius.
Comet Ashbrook will not increase
much in brightness, for its nearest
approach to the sun, late in April,
1949, is about 218 million miles. "
also discovered this comet, which is
now called 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson.
Joseph Ashbrook joined the staff of
this magazine in 1953 and was Editor
from 1964 to 1980.
º October 1973
Optical Pulsars " Most astrophysicists
believe that the pulsars are
rotating neutron stars, and that
the formation of a neutron star
is accompanied by a supernova
explosion. . . . Hence, the known
locations of supernovae are likely
sites at which to detect pulsars.
" This is the argument of C.
Papaliolios and P. Horowitz, who . . .
used the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory's 60-inch reflector
in Arizona and Harvard Observatory's
61-inch in Massachusetts
to search for optical pulsars at the
positions of 31 extragalactic supernovae.
. . . Nevertheless, no optical
pulsar could be detected at any of
the 31 sites, even though the technique
should have shown objects as
faint as magnitude 20 or 21. "
Even today, just a tiny handful
of pulsars have been observed
optically, compared to 3,000 found
with radio telescopes.
º October 1998
June Meteors " If you were out
skywatching during the final weekend
in June, you may have noticed
more bright meteors than usual. . . .
Japanese observers made the first
official report on a June 27th IAU
Circular. There, Isao Sato (National
Astronomical Observatory, Tokyo)
passed on a description of meteors
being seen at a rate of 40 to 50 per
hour through heavy cloud cover on
the previous night. . . .
" This isn't the first time meteors
have been seen streaming from
Boötes. Jürgen Rendtel (International
Meteor Organization)
notes that similar showers were
well observed in 1916, 1927, and
possibly 1921. "
The June Boötids have joined
the ranks of known meteor showers,
although their peak hourly rate varies
greatly from year to year.
sk yand tele scope .o r g * OCTOBER 2023
7

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Sky & Telescope - October 2023

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