Mary Masterman 1st place
Mary is a junior at Westmoore High School, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Mary is a junior at Westmoore High School, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She has won an all-expenses-paid trip to ALConExpo 2006, the Astronomical League's annual convention, which will be held this summer in Dallas. In addition, Meade Instruments Corp. has graciously donated one of their fine LX-200R telescopes, valued at over $3,000, to the first-place winner. Also McDonald Observatory has donated life-time passes to the first- and second-place NYAA winners. And finally, all NYAA winners will receive a complimentary membership in the International Dark Sky Association. A League plaque will be presented to Mary at the Saturday night banquet at AlconExpo 2006.

Mary has diverse experience in the science of astronomy. She is always willing to share her knowledge of astronomy with her club members as well as with the public. She has shared her research findings at monthly club meetings of her local astronomy group, the Oklahoma City Astronomy Club. In addition, she has attended the Okie-Tex Star Party in Kenton, Oklahoma for the past three years, helping visiting high school with their class observing list. She also helped with the 2005 Mars opposition public viewing.

Mary received first place in the student division at her club's 2005 Messier marathon for locating 87 objects. Mary was a member of one of the teams during the summer science program at Socorro, New Mexico that successfully calculated the orbit for asteroid 233 Asterope.

She has presented her research at both the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the Mid-America Regional Astrophysics Conference. The AAS awarded her scholarships. Her outstanding research project was entitled "Investigating Stars and Nebulae Through the Construction of an Astronomical Spectrograph." The purpose of the experiment was to find the elemental composition of stars, nebulae and galaxies and the spectral classes of stars. At first, a simple cardboard visual spectroscope was built. She then assembled an improved spectrograph, replacing the digital camera used in the first instrument with a SBIG ST-7e CCD camera.

Mary found that by taking spectra of stars and nebulae with a spectrograph, 30 cm f/10 telescope and a CCD camera, the elemental composition (and spectral classes) of celestial objects usually could be determined. By completing this project, she discovered two ways of determining the spectral class of stars. "By finding the ratio of the intensity of the elemental lines in the star spectra and comparing it to an elemental line intensity versus star type diagram, the spectral type of the stars could be concluded within an accuracy of two star classes." The other method Mary used to make this determination was flux calibration. By analyzing the Planck curves of a star's spectra, she could also determine its approximate spectral class and temperature.

Daniel Handlin -2nd place

Our second-place NYAA winner, Daniel Handlin, will also receive an all-expenses paid trip to ALConExpo 2006. In addition, he will receive a Meade ETX 125 telescope with computer controls and field tripod valued at more than $1,000, compliments of Meade Instruments. A plaque recognizing this achievement will be presented to Daniel in Dallas.

Daniel is a junior at High Technology High School in Lincroft, New Jersey. Much of his astronomical knowledge has been self taught. In early 2004, Daniel joined his local astronomy club, the Society for Telescopy, Astronomy and Radio (STAR), to gain more experience in actual astronomical observations. He is an active member of the club, and helped conduct several of their public solar observing events held at local outdoor fairs and expositions. In addition, he has written several articles for the club's newsletter and spoken to the monthly club meeting on the topic of his research paper submitted for the NYAA competition.

Daniel's research project is entitled "An Empirical Determination of the Effect of Atmospheric Drag on Orbital Decay." The purpose of the project was to demonstrate that meaningful measurements and analysis of the orbits of artificial satellites can be made using optical equipment and digital electronics that are easily available to the amateur astronomer.

His study attempted to demonstrate that meaningful and accurate optical measurements of the positions of artificial satellites can be made at low cost by amateur astronomers and used as accurate input data for the improvement of these upper atmospheric models. In turn, these models can better protect our valuable space assets in orbit from collisions with space debris.

Daniel's research showed that for a fraction of a percent of the cost of phased array radars that are currently used to track satellites, amateurs can achieve a tracking accuracy that is only about an order of magnitude lower than these radars. With a network of amateur tracking stations built, a tracking accuracy that meets or exceeds the more expensive radar precisions at a far lower cost is possible.

This project has won many awards at science competitions. Daniel has also been invited to present at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in San Diego and the American Association for the Advancement of Science scheduled for St. Louis.

Among his many astronomical projects and writings, Daniel authored an article for the March 2005 Reflector entitled "Pale orange dot - Uncovering the secrets of Titan, a report on the Huygens mission to Saturn's largest moon."

He plans to continue his astronomy studies in college and earn a degree in either astronomy or astrophysics.

 

Benjamin Jones-3rd place
Benjamin is a junior at O'Connor High School in Helotes, TX

This year's 3rd place finisher, Benjamin Jones, is a senior at Sandra Day O'Connor High School in Helotes, Texas. He is an avid observer, having earned many Astronomical League awards including the Messier certificate, Lunar Observing Program, Double Star Observing Program, Meteor Observing Program, Silver Caldwell Observing program and one of the newest awards, the Globular Observing program. He is over half way done with the Herschel 400 list. All of these awards were earned using his eight-inch Dobsonian telescope.

His favorite objects are galaxies and galaxy clusters. For the past several years, he has attended the Texas Star Party, viewing all of the objects on the star party's observing lists. He currently serves as president of the astronomy club he founded at his high school. He designed several observing programs for the club, taught students how to observe through the telescopes and set up star parties for them at the school. He has also received several awards from his participation in his high school band. This year he is serving as vice-president of his high school debate team. Benjamin also volunteers during the summers at George Observatory, including its Challenger Learning Center.

He has been most active in his own town as well as in the city of San Antonio dealing with the various governmental agencies to try to help foster better lighting. A new outdoor lighting ordinance for his home town was passed recently.

His project was entitled "Achieving Equal Light Distribution: Creating Effective Outdoor Lighting Modifications: A Second Year Project." His hypothesis was that "A highly reflective cone shaped casing around the mercury vapor lamp will yield equal light distribution over a large area. This reflective casing will allow for more light to travel over a large area almost like there was no shielding around the light." Research in this field seems to be limited because shielding for the mercury vapor lamp is almost non-existent. Three types of shielding were used in the study as well as an unshielded Mercury Vapor lamp. The "radiant shield" made from Mylar and the radiant heat shield barrier was found to be the most efficient as far as achieving equal light distribution. This shield was found to be even more effective than one of the other shields that closely resembled one of the more popular shields on the market today.

Benjamin will receive a special Astronomical League plaque in recognition of his achievement.

 

 

 

Other top finishers in the 2006 NYAA competition are:
Andie Cumbie, Macomb, IL, "The Application of the Titius-Bode Law to Various Orbiting Bodies of the Galaxy"

Moyang Li, Ballwin, MO, "Determining 60NI/58Ni Ratios in Stars: Extension of Heimer's Numbers"

Jennifer Marsh, Manchester MA, "Investigation of Pulsars at Low Frequencies"

Adam Solomon, Bellmore, NY, "The Effects of Age on Brown Dwarf Spectral Features in the Near-Infrared"