AboutTom Whiting Expertise Astronomy has been my hobby/pasttime for over 50 years. Currently own 3 telescopes, the largest of which is a 30 inch Newtonian truss Dob that is portable.I taught Astronomy/Meteorology at the University Level for 13 years before retiring in 1995. Being retired and home most of the time, I am able to answer all questions relatively quickly, unless it's a new moon weekend with good observing conditions. No astrology questions please, or questions about alleged UFO picture identifications.
Experience Experience: Astronomy has been my hobby and study for over 50 years. We currently now own a 30 inch portable telescope (Updated - Pennsylvania`s largest portable telescope). It can be seen on our website at:http://www.velocity.net/~bwhiting and also attend several regional starparties during the year, and have been on 5 total solar eclipse expeditions.
Organizations: President, Erie County Mobile Observers Group for over 15 years.
Publications: Wrote the "Over Erie Skies" newspaper article in our local newspaper for 11 years (1975-86).
Education: Masters Degree- Taught at the University level for 13 years. Retired 20 years -USAF Pilot - KC-135 with 180 combat missions; Also Eagle Scout, Philmont staff 2 Yrs, Order of Arrow Lodge Chief, Ham Radio (inactive).
Awards: two discoveries: The mini-coathanger asterism in Ursa Minor (the little dipper) And the mini-ladle- another asterism in the bowl of Ursa Minor. Clients: Currently President of the ECMOG as mentioned above.
Education/Credentials BS Metallurgical Engineering Grove City College, PAMaster's Degree, Gannon University, Erie, PA
Also retired USAF pilot, 20 years.
Question I am interested in the star SIPS 1259-4336. Does anyone know any details about this star yet and has its distance been accurately measured yet? The only distance I have been able to find on it is 11.8 LY with a completely unacceptable margin of error of +/- 1.8 LY! Also, is this star going to be investigated (or has it been already) by the RECONS mission?
That first site, near the bottom, states that new parallax
measurements are in progress, but it will take a year to
gather the data. So perhaps we are still in that period of
time where they are still gathering more accurate parallax
measurements. Sorry, I have no connections with the
major observatories, so I, like you, can only standby for
some professional report on that star. And I'm sure,
at the proper time, the updated information will be released
to either Astronomy or Sky & Telescope Magazine.
Until then, we just have to wait.
Hope this helps,
Clear skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA
FOLLOW UP:
As an after thought, perhaps a "Letter to the Editor"
from you, to either of those 2 magazines, might move things
along faster with the information. Also, I would think that the
editors and writers at Sky & Telescope magazine would
have some better 'connections' with the large, professional
observatories. Just a thought....and I think it, a letter, can be done now by E-mail on their respective websites.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
FOLLOW UP
Hi Kurt,
I just E-mailed Todd Henry today at Georgia State Univ
(When in doubt, go right to the horse's mouth, that's
what I always say....) and here is his reply for us, ....
cut and pasted......
Hello Tom,
Our unpublished trigonometric parallax places SIPS 1259-4336 at 7.79 +/-
0.05 parsecs, which corresponds to 25.4 +/- 0.2 light years. So, it's
rather further than estimated by the original authors.
Todd J. Henry, PhD www.chara.gsu.edu/~thenry
Director, RECONS www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS
Professor of Astronomy Georgia State University
email: thenry@chara.gsu.edu phone: 404-413-6054
_________________________________________________________________________
So now we both know....the rest of the story.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA
