The next episode of our Friday Night Show airs on May 10th at 9pm Pacific time!
Lance has been an amateur astronomer most of his life, starting out with a 60mm refractor and a copy of “A Field Guide To The Stars And Planets.”
Whilst learning the constellations, he came across a curiosity in that star omicron ceti was not in the position shown in the charts from the Field Guide. Whereupon, he surmised that the chart was incorrect and wrote Professor Menzel, the author of the Guide, telling him as much.
Professor Menzel wrote back with humour, that the chart was indeed correct and that Lance had discovered, by observation, a variable star.
This star, also known as Mira, ‘…will begin to be visible to unaided eye in a few months…’ he told me. Sure enough it did.
Lance maintained a correspondence with Professor Menzel until the professor passed away in the mid-70’s. Lance would not revisit the observation of variable stars for another 20+ years.
“I’ve engaged most aspects of observing from lunar to planetary to deep sky and comets, yet, one common thread continued to occupy my interest: Bringing the Night Sky to Everybody. I took great pleasure introducing the heavens to everyone and anyone in earshot at meetings of the Hercules Public Stargazer. I would use a slew of what I call, “Fast Food Astronomy”* objects. You obviously can’t recreate a multicolour special on telly, but you could show them what the actual sky looks like and what you can expect with modest equipment. Inviting others to bring out their instruments and showing them how to use them. Yes, even the ‘hobby killer’ telescopes. With my lopsided work schedule, I cannot get out to do this as much as I would like, but my career is nearing the end and I hope to perform this more once I retire.” ~Lance Shaw
It was about 1996 when Lance was invited by the Astronomical Association of Northern California to give a brief lecture on Deep Sky with a Small Telescope for their Deep Sky Symposium.
It was then Lance realized that he had very little experience in the observation of variable stars.
Lance reached out to the AAVSO, American Association of Variable Star Observers, and subsequently became a member. He was matched with a prolific observer and mentor, Gene Hanson. Mr. Hanson formed the basis for Lance’s, to this day, interest in variable stars.
“I’ve now been involved, off and on, in the observation of variable stars for some 28 years and I have also joined the AAVSO Solar Section with daily sunspot counts. I have seen some absolutely AWESOME stars! I am particularly interested in Recurrent Novae (T Pyx, T CrB, RS Oph, U Sco); Dwarf Novae of U Gem, SS Cyg, SU UMa, and Z Cam classes, and binocular observations of bright Mira’s and Semi-Regular stars.
“The total solar eclipse of 2024 was the first time I witnessed an eclipse that was not a public event…” ~Ibid
*”Fast Food Astronomy” = the WOW! objects; Saturn, Jupiter, the Double Cluster, M13, M27, M31, the Lagoon, the omega etc…
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