Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar
Picture(s) of the Month
Astronomy News
General Calendar
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs.
Observing
Useful Links
About the Club
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar.
News:
Election. Below is the slate of candidates on the ballot for our election.
President: Mark Clayson (incumbent)
Vice President: Michelle Darrah (astrophysics, U. Hawaii)
Secretary: David Wright (incumbent)
Treasurer: Vic Christensen (incumbent)
Ballots are being distributed separately by our secretary to members, and are due back Dec. 14. Voting will be tallied and results announced at the Dec. 16 club mtg. Officer terms begin Jan. 1.
Appointments. Joe Nemanick and David Naiditch have been appointed members of the Programs Committee. We are still seeking committee members for the Resources and Activities committees.
Equipment. The 10" Meade LX-200ACF Telescope has been delivered, and may be on display at both the Dec. 13 AEA general mtg. (open to all), and the Dec. 16 club mtg. The paperwork for the Coronado Solarmax 40 H-alpha Telescope is being submitted this week, and it should arrive in 12-14 weeks (early March). For detailed information on the new scopes and accessories, see the Equipment page.
Discounts & Dues. Our Treasurer (Vic Christensen) will hopefully shortly be getting out emails with more information, but a heads-up: discount group orders for the Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope (new subscribers) will shortly be placed. Also, renewals of club membership dues should be made around the first of the year for 2011. And we will need your dues to support club operations (& telescope case), as we spent nearly all of our AEA allotment on the new telescopes.
Calendar
16 Dec 2010 Monthly Meeting The Christmas Star, Ray Russell, Aerospace
A9/2906 is the Thor Conference Room (left off the 2nd floor elevator to the end of the hall, and another left -- overlooks El Segundo Blvd.).
Other upcoming AEA Astronomy Club meeting programs (3rd Thursdays) at 11:45am in A9/2906) & activities:
20 Jan 2011 Monthly Meeting USC Astronautics Concept Creation Studio, Madhu Thangavelu, USC
17 Feb 2011 Monthly Meeting An Overview of JPL Programs, Matt Hart, Aerospace
17 Mar 2011 Monthly Meeting A Beginner's Guide To Selecting and Using Optical Telescopes for Amateur Astronomy, Les DeLong, Aerospace
Astronomy Picture(s) of the Month – More “WISE-guys” & Martian Hot Springs
This image composite shows two views of a puffy, dying star, or planetary nebula, known as NGC 1514. The view on the left is from a ground-based, visible-light telescope; the view on the right shows the object in infrared light, as seen by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
› Full image and caption
November 17, 2010
PASADENA, Calif.-- A new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer shows what looks like a glowing jellyfish floating at the bottom of a dark, speckled sea. In reality, this critter belongs to the cosmos -- it's a dying star surrounded by fluorescing gas and two very unusual rings.
"I am reminded of the jellyfish exhibition at the Monterey Bay Aquarium -- beautiful things floating in water, except this one is in space," said Edward (Ned) Wright, the principal investigator of the WISE mission at UCLA, and a co-author of a paper on the findings, reported in the Astronomical Journal.
The object, known as NGC 1514 and sometimes the "Crystal Ball" nebula, belongs to a class of objects called planetary nebulae, which form when dying stars toss off their outer layers of material. Ultraviolet light from a central star, or in this case a pair of stars, causes the gas to fluoresce with colorful light. The result is often beautiful -- these objects have been referred to as the butterflies of space.
NGC 1514 was discovered in 1790 by Sir William Herschel, who noted that its "shining fluid" meant that it could not be a faint cluster of stars, as originally suspected. Herschel had previously coined the term planetary nebulae to describe similar objects with circular, planet-like shapes.
Planetary nebulae with asymmetrical wings of nebulosity are common. But nothing like the newfound rings around NGC 1514 had been seen before. Astronomers say the rings are made of dust ejected by the dying pair of stars at the center of NGC 1514. This burst of dust collided with the walls of a cavity that was already cleared out by stellar winds, forming the rings.
"I just happened to look up one of my favorite objects in our WISE catalogue and was shocked to see these odd rings," said Michael Ressler, a member of the WISE science team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and lead author of the Astronomical Journal paper. Ressler first became acquainted with the object years ago while playing around with his amateur telescope on a desert camping trip. "It's funny how things come around full circle like this."
WISE was able to spot the rings for the first time because their dust is being heated and glows with the infrared light that WISE can detect. In visible-light images, the rings are hidden from view, overwhelmed by the brightly fluorescing clouds of gas.
"This object has been studied for more than 200 years, but WISE shows us it still has surprises," said Ressler.
Infrared light has been color-coded in the new WISE picture, such that blue represents light with a wavelength of 3.4 microns; turquoise is 4.6-micron light; green is 12-micron light; and red is 22-micron light. The dust rings stand out in orange. The greenish glow at the center is an inner shell of material, blown out more recently than an outer shell that is too faint to be seen in WISE's infrared view. The white dot in the middle is the central pair of stars, which are too close together for WISE to see separately.
Ressler says NGC 1514's structure, though it looks unique, is probably similar in overall geometry to other hour-glass nebulae, such as the Engraved Hourglass Nebula (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1996/07). The structure looks different in WISE's view because the rings are detectable only by their heat; they do not fluoresce at visible wavelengths, as do the rings in the other objects.
Serendipitous findings like this one are common in survey missions like WISE, which comb through the whole sky. WISE has been surveying the sky in infrared light since January 2010, cataloguing hundreds of millions of asteroids, stars and galaxies. In late September, after covering the sky about one-and-a-half times, it ran out of the frozen coolant needed to chill its longest-wavelength detectors. The mission, now called NEOWISE, is still scanning the skies with two of its infrared detectors, focusing primarily on comets and asteroids, including near-Earth objects, which are bodies whose orbits pass relatively close to Earth's orbit around the sun.
The WISE science team says that more oddballs like NGC 1514 are sure to turn up in the plethora of WISE data -- the first batch of which will be released to the astronomical community in spring 2011.
Silica on a Mars Volcano Tells of Wet and Cozy Past
This volcanic cone in the Nili Patera caldera on Mars has hydrothermal mineral deposits on the southern flanks and nearby terrains. Two of the largest deposits are marked by arrows, and the entire field of light-toned material on the left of the cone is hydrothermal deposits. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Brown Univ.
› Full image and caption
October 31, 2010
PASADENA, Calif. -- Light-colored mounds of a mineral deposited on a volcanic cone more than three billion years ago may preserve evidence of one of the most recent habitable microenvironments on Mars.
Observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enabled researchers to identify the mineral as hydrated silica and to see its volcanic context. The mounds' composition and their location on the flanks of a volcanic cone provide the best evidence yet found on Mars for an intact deposit from a hydrothermal environment -- a steam fumarole, or hot spring. Such environments may have provided habitats for some of Earth's earliest life forms.
"The heat and water required to create this deposit probably made this a habitable zone," said J.R. Skok of Brown University, Providence, R.I., lead author of a paper about these findings published online today by Nature Geoscience. "If life did exist there, this would be a promising type of deposit to entomb evidence of it -- a microbial mortuary."
No studies have yet determined whether Mars has ever supported life. The new results add to accumulating evidence that, at some times and in some places, Mars has had favorable environments for microbial life. This specific place would have been habitable when most of Mars was already dry and cold. Concentrations of hydrated silica have been identified on Mars previously, including a nearly pure patch found by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in 2007. However, none of those earlier findings were in such an intact setting as this one, and the setting adds evidence about the origin.
Astronomy News:
“Coreshine” from Young Star Cocoons. Most interstellar dust is about 0.1 micron diameter, but the Spitzer space telescope has found significant reflection & scatter of 3-5 micron light deep inside about half of 110 dense cocoons surrounding infant stars. This indicates that dust grains are aggregating or growing to about the same size in the cores – a new insight into earliest stages of planetary formation.
A New Twist on Dark Energy. A JPL & Yale collaboration has used the gravitational lensing of a galaxy cluster to analyze multiple images of 34 distant background galaxies – both the bending & redshifting. This allowed estimation of the mass of the cluster, but “…also the way in which dark energy altered the geometry of spacetime all along the route by affecting the cosmic expansion rate.”
“The result is a new check on dark energy’s “equation of state” – how its strength changes in a given volume of space (one cubic meter, say) as space expands. The answer: it doesn’t change at all, to a newly refined uncertainty of just +/- 7% when combined with other studies. This is consistent with the idea that dark energy, whatever it is, is a property of space-time itself, as Einstein proposed with his “cosmological constant” in 1917, rather than something that exists in space, such as particles or fields (or galaxies). Physical things in space spread out as space expands [hence their density decreases].”
[The above news bites are from the January 2011 issue of Sky & Telescope Magazine. Below is a recap of email news releases forwarded to club members by Vic Christensen, not including the Scientific American articles.]
Date Description URL
29 Oct 10 Study Links Fresh Mars Gullies to Carbon Dioxide http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-359&cid=release_2010-359
29 Oct 10 New Project Manager as Voyager Explores New Territory http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-360&cid=release_2010-360
31 Oct 10 Silica on a Mars Volcano Tells of Wet and Cozy Past http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-361&cid=release_2010-361
1 Nov 10 Cassini Sees Saturn Rings Oscillate Like Mini-Galaxy http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-363&cid=release_2010-363
1 Nov 10 Major Surgery Complete for Deep Space Network Antenna http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-364&cid=release_2010-364
1 Nov 10 NASA to Host Live Events for November 4 Comet Encounter http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-362A&cid=release_2010-362A
2 Nov 10 Mars Rovers Mission Using Cloud Computing http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-366&cid=release_2010-366
2 Nov 10 The Man Behind Comet Hartley 2 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-368&cid=release_2010-368
4 Nov 10 NASA Mission Successfully Flies by Comet Hartley 2 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-371&cid=release_2010-371
4 Nov 10 Herschel's Hidden Talent: Digging Up Magnified Galaxies http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-372&cid=release_2010-372
4 Nov 10 NASA EPOXI Flyby Reveals New Insights Into Comet Features http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-373&cid=release_2010-373
5 Nov 10 Flight of the Comet http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-375&cid=release_2010-375
9 Nov 10 Sensor on Mars Rover to Measure Radiation Environment http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-376&cid=release_2010-376
9 Nov 10 Cool Star is a Gem of a Find http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-377&cid=release_2010-377
9 Nov 10 NASA Study Shows Role of Melt in Arctic Sea Ice Loss http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-379&cid=release_2010-379
10 Nov 10 Cassini Sees Saturn on a Cosmic Dimmer Switch http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-380&cid=release_2010-380
11 Nov 10 Saturn Then and Now: 30 Years Since Voyager Visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-381&cid=release_2010-381
16 Nov 10 Camera on Curiosity's Arm will Magnify Clues in Rocks http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-384&cid=release_2010-384
17 Nov 10 WISE Image Reveals Strange Specimen in Starry Sea http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-386&cid=release_2010-386
18 Nov 10 NASA Mars Rover Images Honor Apollo 12 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-388&cid=release_2010-388
18 Nov 10 NASA Spacecraft Sees Cosmic Snow Storm During Comet Encounter http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-387&cid=release_2010-387
23 Nov 10 NASA Study Finds Earth's Lakes are Warming http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-393&cid=release_2010-393
23 Nov 10 Tuning an 'Ear' to the Music of Gravitational Waves http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-394&cid=release_2010-394
24 Nov 10 Astronomers Probe 'Sandbar' Between Islands of Galaxies http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-396&cid=release_2010-396
24 Nov 10 Stripes Are Back in Season on Jupiter http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-397&cid=release_2010-397
29 Nov 10 Thin Air: Cassini Finds Ethereal Atmosphere at Rhea http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-399&cid=release_2010-399
30 Nov 10 Spain Supplies Weather Station for Next Mars Rover http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-400&cid=release_2010-400
30 Nov 10 Mars Rover Construction Webcam Tops Million Viewers http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-401&cid=release_2010-401
30 Nov 10 Cassini Finds Warm Cracks on Enceladus http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-402&cid=release_2010-402
General Calendar:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia: Carnegie (Tues. 4pm), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena (daily 12-4pm): http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/
Carnegie astronomy lectures – only 4 per year in the Spring www.obs.carnegiescience.edu. Visit www.huntington.org for directions.
3 Dec. SBAS monthly general mtg. at El Camino College. Guest speaker: Jim Wertz
Topic: “Looking Back & Looking Forward – the Origin of the SBAS and Large Scale Colonies on the Moon.” 7:30pm, El Camino College Planetarium, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
13 Dec. (Mon) LAAS General Meeting Nomination night for officers and board members Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
7:45 PM to 9:45 PM
Dec. 8 & 9 The von Kármán Lecture Series – 2012 and the End of Days Phenomena
Much has been written about the impending end of the world on December 21, 2012. It has been asserted that on that date, the Maya calendar ends. It is further asserted that in 2012, the planets align, an unseen rogue planet will closely approach the Earth, the Earth's pole will shift and the sun's pathway through the Milky Way will contribute to our woes. None of this is true but an extraordinary number of people are concerned nevertheless. The preoccupation with the "end of days" concept is as old as history itself and even in our civilized society, it is seriously discussed and has received a good deal of unjustified media and public attention. We'll try to separate myth from reality.
Speaker: Dr. Don Yeomans, Manager, NASA Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL
Location: Thursday, Dec. 8, 2010, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
Friday, Dec. 9, 2010, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
16 Dec - Club mtg. (Thurs. 11:45am) -- "The Christmas Star,” Ray Russell, Aerospace.
None in Dec -- MWOA Free Public Lecture -- in the Community Room of the Altadena Public Library. Refreshments are at 2:00pm, the program begins at 2:30pm. See the Lectures page for more details. See the Directions page for how to get to the Altadena Public Library. Note: from now on we will be meeting on the 4th SATURDAY, not Sunday (budget cuts have forced the Library to be closed on Sundays).
Observing:
5 Dec New moon.
7 Dec Earliest sunset
4 Dec SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke www.sbastro.org.
4 Dec 2010 LAAS Dark Sky Night: Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)
11 Dec 2010 LAAS Public Star Party at Griffith Observatory, 2:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.
11 Dec 2010 SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
13 Dec Mercury is 1 deg. Upper right of Mars low in SW shortly after sunset
13-14 Dec Geminid Meteor Shower The most reliable meteor shower of the year, the Geminids are characterized by their multi-colored display – 65% being white, 26% yellow and the remaining 9% blue, red and green.
20-21 Dec. Total lunar eclipse – visible almost directly overhead around midnight from California. PST times: partial begins 10:33pm, total begins 11:41pm, mid-eclipse 12:17am, total ends 12:53am, partial ends 2:01am.
21 Dec. Full moon & winter solstice.
Internet Links:
General
NASA Gallery
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (educational, amateur & professional)
Amateur Online Tools, Journals, Vendors, Societies, Databases
The Astronomy White Pages (U.S. & International Amateur Clubs & Societies)
American Astronomical Society (professional)
More...
Regional (esp. Southern California)
Western Amateur Astronomers (consortium of various regional societies)
Southern California Amateur Astronomy Organizations, Observatories & Planetaria
MWOA (Mt. Wilson Observatory Assn.), including status for visits & roads
Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS)
South Bay Astronomical Society (SBAS)
Orange County Astronomers
The Local Group Astronomy Club (Santa Clarita)
Ventura County Astronomical Society
About the Club
Club Website: https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club It is updated to reflect this newsletter, in addition to a listing of past club mtg. presentations, astronomy news, photos & events from prior newsletters, club equipment, membership & constitution. In the future, we may link some presentation materials from past mtgs.
Membership. For information, current dues & application, contact Vic Christensen (x63021, M1-167). Benefits will include use of club telescope(s) & library/software, discounts on Sky & Telescope magazine and Observer’s Handbook, field trips, great programs, having a say in club activities, acquisitions & elections, etc.
Committee Suggestions & Volunteers. Feel free to contact: Leslie Wickman, Program Committee Chairwoman (& club VP), David Wright, the Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Vic Christensen, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President
============================================================
2010 November Newsletter
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar
Picture(s) of the Month
Astronomy News
General Calendar
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs.
Observing
Useful Links
About the Club
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar.
News:
Club Booth at AEA October Fair. Our booth showed off our 8-inch Dobsonian, mtg. presentations & software on a large screen, sunspot-viewing, literature, etc. And we found our 28th & 29th members whom we welcome to the constellation – Michelle Darrah & Diana Johnson.
Election. A message from the Nominating Committee:
Dear Astronomy Club Membership,
We, Phil [Martzen], Can [Nguyen] and Nahum [Melamed], constituting the Club's nomination committee, are soliciting nominations for the 2011 Club's Officer positions. The available positions are: President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Job descriptions are posted on the Club's website:
https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club
You can nominate any club members, including yourself. Please submit your nomination(s) via email to the nomination committee, or at the Nov 18 meeting.
With best regards, ACNC
Note that with the exception of our vice president, current officers have placed their names in nomination, so we need to at least fill the VP position. Nominations may be submitted to any committee member by email, phone or at our Nov. 18 club mtg., where the slate of candidates will be presented, and candidates for contested offices may be given a minute to speak. The ballot will be sent out to members within 2 weeks of that mtg., and the voting tallied and results announced at the Dec. club mtg. Officer terms begin Jan. 1.
Equipment. The 10" Meade LX-200ACF Telescope was ordered on October 21, and the estimated delivery date is 15-17 November. Hopefully we'll have it time for the club to see it at the November meeting. Upon receipt, we will submit the included voucher for the Coronado Solarmax 40 H-alpha Telescope. For detailed information on the new scopes and accessories, see the Equipment page.
Discounts & Dues. Our Treasurer (Vic Christensen) will no doubt shortly be getting out emails with more information, but a heads-up: discount group orders for the Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope (new subscribers) will shortly be placed. Also, renewals of club membership dues should be made around the first of the year for 2011. And we will need your dues to support club operations (& telescope case), as we spent nearly all of our AEA allotment on the new telescopes.
Our club website (https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club)
has risen in less than a year to the 2nd most number of hits of any website on Aeropedia – over 1,000! Thanks for your interest, and David Wright’s recent remodeling job. Suggestions and submissions to it and this newsletter are always welcome.
Calendar
Nov 18 - Club mtg. -- "Advanced Propulsion Concepts for Interstellar Travel," Greg Meholic, Aerospace.
A9/2906 is the Thor Conference Room (left off the 2nd floor elevator to the end of the hall, and another left -- overlooks El Segundo Blvd.).
Other upcoming AEA Astronomy Club meeting programs (3rd Thursdays beginning in July) at 11:45am in A9/2906) & activities:
16 Dec 2010 Monthly Meeting The Christmas Star, Ray Russell, Aerospace
20 Jan 2011 Monthly Meeting USC Astronautics Concept Creation Studio, Madhu Thangavelu, USC
17 Feb 2011 Monthly Meeting An Overview of JPL Programs, Matt Hart, Aerospace
17 Mar 2011 Monthly Meeting A Beginner's Guide To Selecting and Using Optical Telescopes for Amateur Astronomy, Les DeLong, Aerospace
Astronomy Picture(s) of the Month – Buckyballs & Paintballs
Space Buckyballs Thrive, Finds NASA Spitzer Telescope
An infrared photo of the Small Magellanic Cloud taken by Spitzer is shown here in this artist's illustration, with two callouts. The middle callout shows a magnified view of an example of a planetary nebula, and the right callout shows an even further magnified depiction of buckyballs, which consist of 60 carbon atoms arranged like soccer balls. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption
October 27, 2010
PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers have discovered bucket loads of buckyballs in space. They used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to find the little carbon spheres throughout our Milky Way galaxy -- in the space between stars and around three dying stars. What's more, Spitzer detected buckyballs around a fourth dying star in a nearby galaxy in staggering quantities -- the equivalent in mass to about 15 of our moons.
Buckyballs, also known as fullerenes, are soccer-ball-shaped molecules consisting of 60 linked carbon atoms. They are named for their resemblance to the architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, an example of which is found at the entrance to Disney's Epcot theme park in Orlando, Fla. The miniature spheres were first discovered in a lab on Earth 25 years ago, but it wasn't until this past July that Spitzer was able to provide the first confirmed proof of their existence in space. At that time, scientists weren't sure if they had been lucky to find a rare supply, or if perhaps the cosmic balls were all around.
"It turns out that buckyballs are much more common and abundant in the universe than initially thought," said astronomer Letizia Stanghellini of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. "Spitzer had recently found them in one specific location, but now we see them in other environments. This has implications for the chemistry of life. It's possible that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth."
The García-Hernández team found the buckyballs around three dying sun-like stars, called planetary nebulae, in our own Milky Way galaxy. These cloudy objects, made up of material shed from the dying stars, are similar to the one where Spitzer found the first evidence for their existence.
The new research shows that all the planetary nebulae in which buckyballs have been detected are rich in hydrogen. This goes against what researchers thought for decades -- they had assumed that, as is the case with making buckyballs in the lab, hydrogen could not be present. The hydrogen, they theorized, would contaminate the carbon, causing it to form chains and other structures rather than the spheres, which contain no hydrogen at all. "We now know that fullerenes and hydrogen coexist in planetary nebulae, which is really important for telling us how they form in space," said García-Hernández.
Cassini Catches Saturn Moons in Paintball Fight
Tinted Rhea
These three views of Saturn’s moon Rhea were made from data obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, enhanced to show colorful splotches and bands on the icy moon’s surface. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/LPI
› Full image and caption
October 07, 2010
PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have learned that distinctive, colorful bands and splotches embellish the surfaces of Saturn's inner, mid-size moons. The reddish and bluish hues on the icy surfaces of Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea appear to be the aftermath of bombardments large and small.
A paper based on the findings was recently published online in the journal Icarus. In it, scientists describe prominent global patterns that trace the trade routes for material exchange between the moons themselves, an outer ring of Saturn known as the E ring and the planet's magnetic environment. The finding may explain the mysterious Pac-Man thermal pattern on Mimas, found earlier this year by Cassini scientists, said lead author Paul Schenk, who was funded by a Cassini data analysis program grant and is based at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
"The beauty of it all is how the satellites behave as a family, recording similar processes and events on their surfaces, each in its own unique way," Schenk said. "I don't think anyone expected that electrons would leave such obvious fingerprints on planetary surfaces, but we see it on several moons, including Mimas, which was once thought to be rather bland."
Schenk and colleagues processed raw images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras from 2004 to 2009 to produce new, high-resolution global color maps of these five moons. The new maps used camera frames shot through visible-light, ultraviolet and infrared filters which were processed to enhance our views of these moons beyond what could be seen by the human eye.
The new images are available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .
Astronomy News:
Big Bear’s Big New Eye. California’s Big Bear Lake has been home to a uniquely situated solar observatory since 1969, when Caltech astronomer Harold Zirin realized his dream of building a solar telescope surrounded by water to reduce the notoriously poor atmospheric seeing caused by daytime heating of the land. Since then, Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) has hosted scopes from 8 to 25 inches (20 to 64 cm) aperture. Then last summer it took a great leap forward, becoming home to the largest operating solar telescope in the world.
Big Bear’s state-of-the-art New Solar Telescope (NST) has an aperture of 63 inches (1.6 meters), an off-axis f/52 design that provides an unobstructed aperture, and adaptive-optics actuators that contort the primary mirror at high speed to cancel out the shimmering seeing. [See the Dec. S&T article for its spectacular first-light sunspot image, and a photo of the observatory. We’ll look into arranging a tour (& star party? Maybe in conjunction w. the nearby RTMC (Riverside Telescope Maker’s Conference) Astronomy Expo May 25-30, 2011).]
Exoplanetary News. See the Dec. S&T for short articles on the first potentially habitable exoplanet, Gliese 581g 20 light years away in Libra, a comparison of several multi-planet systems, and a 2-planet system in orbital resonance (outer planet spiraling inward & speeding up, inner planet spiraling outward & slowing, and they periodically reverse).
[The above news bites are from the December 2010 issue of Sky & Telescope Magazine. Below is a recap of email news releases forwarded to club members by Vic Christensen, not including the Scientific American articles.]
Date Description URL
4 Oct 10 Europa's Hidden Ice Chemistry http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-319&cid=release_2010-319http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=egLGIQNBLgIQKcJ&s=qwI5IgMZJpI7JnOcF&m=7oKHKNMoGfLML1L
4 Oct 10 NASA's WISE Mission Warms up but Keeps Chugging Along http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-320&cid=release_2010-320
5 Oct 10 WISE Captures Key Images of Comet Mission's Destination
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-324&cid=release_2010-324
6 Oct 10 NASA Partnership Sends Earth Science Data to Africa http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-325&cid=release_2010-325
7 Oct 10 Cassini Catches Saturn Moons in Paintball Fight http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-328&cid=release_2010-328
8 Oct 10 NASA Mission to Asteroid Gets Help From Hubble http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-330&cid=release_2010-330
19 Oct 10 Astronomers Find Weird, Warm Spot on an Exoplanet http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-340&cid=release_2010-340
26 Oct 10 Countdown to Comet Flyby Down to Nine Days http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-349&cid=release_2010-349
27 Oct 10 Space Buckyballs Thrive, Finds NASA Spitzer Telescope http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-351&cid=release_2010-351
28 Oct 10 NASA Trapped Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Subsurface Water http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-355&cid=release_2010-355
28 Oct 10 NASA Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets are Common http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-357&cid=release_2010-357
28 Oct 10 NASA Work Helps Better Predict World's Smoggiest Days http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-356&cid=release_2010-356
General Calendar:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia: Carnegie (Tues. 4pm), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena (daily 12-4pm): http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/
Carnegie astronomy lectures – only 4 per year in the Spring www.obs.carnegiescience.edu. Visit www.huntington.org for directions.
5 Nov. SBAS monthly general mtg. at El Camino College. Guest speaker: Dr. Robert Piccioni
Topic: Einstein for Everyone. 7:30pm, El Camino College Planetarium, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
8 Nov (Mon) LAAS General Meeting Dave Nakamoto presenting highlights of his eclipse viewing trip to Easter Island Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
7:45 PM to 9:45 PM
Nov. 11 & 12 The von Kármán Lecture Series – “The JUNO Mission to Jupiter.” Peering down through the clouds and deep into Jupiter's atmosphere, Juno reveals fundamental processes of the formation and early evolution of our solar system. Using a solar powered, spinning spacecraft in a highly elliptical polar orbit skimming within 3000 miles of the cloud tops, Juno avoids Jupiter's highest radiation regions. Juno's scientific payload includes a dual frequency gravity/radio science system, a six wavelength microwave radiometer for atmospheric sounding and composition, a dual-technique magnetometer, plasma detectors, energetic particle detectors, a radio/plasma wave experiment, an ultraviolet imager/spectrometer, and a color camera to provide the public with their first glimpse of Jupiter's poles. Juno launches in August, 2011, arrives at Jupiter in July, 2016, and finishes the science measurements and deorbits into Jupiter in October, 2017.
Speaker: Mr. Steve Matousek
JPL Advanced Concepts Development Manager, formerly Juno Mission Manager
Location: Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
Friday, Nov. 12, 2010, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
Nov 18 - Club mtg. (Thurs. 11:45am) -- "Advanced Propulsion Concepts for Interstellar Travel," Greg Meholic, Aerospace.
27 November (Saturday) -- MWOA Free Public Lecture -- in the Community Room of the Altadena Public Library. Speaker TBD. Refreshments are at 2:00pm, the program begins at 2:30pm. See the Lectures page for more details. See the Directions page for how to get to the Altadena Public Library. Note: from now on we will be meeting on the 4th SATURDAY, not Sunday (budget cuts have forced the Library to be closed on Sundays).
Observing:
6 Nov. New moon.
6 Nov SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke www.sbastro.org.
6 Nov 2010 LAAS Dark Sky Night: Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)
13 Nov 2010 LAAS Public Star Party at Griffith Observatory, 2:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.
17-18 Nov Leonid Meteor Shower The nearly full moon will likely be a tough competitor for visual meteor observers.
20 Nov Mars is 1.6 deg. to the upper right of Mercury.
22 Nov. Full moon.
27 Nov 2010 SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
Internet Links:
NASA Gallery: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/
AEA Astronomy Club Intranet site: https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club
So. Calif. astronomy organizations, observatories & planetaria: http://www.mwoa.org/local.html
MWOA (Mt. Wilson Observatory Assn.), including status for visits & roads: www.mwoa.org
Western Amateur Astronomers (consortium of various regional societies): www.waa.av.org/Club_members.html
LAAS list of links (incl. Tools, Journals, Vendors, Other Societies, Databases, Members) http://www.laas.org/Links.htm
LAAS (L.A. Astronomical Society -- www.laas.org)
SBAS (South Bay Astronomical Soc. . -- www.sbastro.org)
About the Club
Club Website: https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club It is updated to reflect this newsletter, in addition to a listing of past club mtg. presentations, astronomy news, photos & events from prior newsletters, club equipment, membership & constitution. In the future, we may link some presentation materials from past mtgs.
Membership. For information, current dues & application, contact Vic Christensen (x63021, M1-167). Benefits will include use of club telescope(s) & library/software, discounts on Sky & Telescope magazine and Observer’s Handbook, field trips, great programs, having a say in club activities, acquisitions & elections, etc.
Committee Suggestions & Volunteers. Feel free to contact: Leslie Wickman, Program Committee Chairwoman (& club VP), David Wright, the Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Vic Christensen, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President
=========================================================
2010 October Newsletter
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar
Picture(s) of the Month
Astronomy News
General Calendar
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs.
Observing
Useful Links
About the Club
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar.
News:
The AEA has generously granted our young club $4,000 for our FY11 budget. This will allow us to purchase our priority item, which is tentatively either an 11-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) or 10-inch Meade Ritchey-Chretien Telescope (RCT) ACF (Advanced Coma-Free), both GoTo’s. There’s a special offer until Oct 31 on the Meade – they’re throwing in a Solarmax 40 H-alpha telescope free ($1,699 US retail)! We will shortly share more information to solicit your input, including some other research & options Les DeLong has shared.
See the report on the Sept. 18 club field trip to Griffith Park Observatory & star party in the photos section below.
Calendar
Oct. 13 (11:00-1:00) Club booth at the AEA October fair in the AGO mall – bring a friend & see the new club scope, event photos, observe the sun, etc.
Oct 21 - (Thurs. 11:45am) – Club mtg. -- "Dark Matter Searches," Dr. Jeff Zweerink, UCLA. He’s also written on the multiverse.
A9/2906 is the Thor Conference Room (left off the 2nd floor elevator to the end of the hall, and another left -- overlooks El Segundo Blvd.).
Other upcoming AEA Astronomy Club meeting programs (3rd Thursdays beginning in July) at 11:45am in A9/2906) & activities:
Nov 18 - Club mtg. -- "Advanced Propulsion Concepts for Interstellar Travel," Greg Meholic, Aerospace.
Dec 16 - Club mtg. -- "The Christmas Star," Ray Russell, Aerospace.
Astronomy Picture(s) of the Month –
Shining Starlight on the Dark Cocoons of Star Birth
This series of images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a dark mass of gas and dust, called a core, where new stars and planets will likely spring up.
The image on the far right shows the core as seen at longer wavelengths of infrared light (8 microns); when viewed at this wavelength, the core appears dark. The middle image shows the core as seen at a shorter infrared wavelength (3.6 microns). In this view, the core lights up because it is deflecting starlight from nearby stars. This unexpected light, called coreshine, tells astronomers that the dust making up the core must be bigger than previously thought -- smaller particles would not have been big enough to scatter the light. The image on the left is a combination of the other two images.
This particular core lies deep within a larger dark cloud called L183. Spitzer's infrared vision allows it to peer into the dark cloud to see the even darker cores buried inside.
The observations were made with Spitzer's infrared array camera.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Observatoire de Paris/CNRS
Club field trip to Griffith Observatory Sept. 18
From Paul Rousseau: “We had fun at the Griffith Observatory Star Party on Saturday. Here is a rather poor photo of our Aerospace Astronomy Club telescope (on the left side of the photo). A few more photos are here: http://flickr.com/gp/15354333@N05/9P11mt”
David Wright’s Report: “Thanks to all who showed up to the Griffith Park Observatory Star Party on Saturday 9/18. Our new telescope works great, and we were able to share it with other star party attendees. Since it's only an 8", we did not attract a huge line like some of the other scopes. It was certainly well attended, with lots of other (and much bigger) telescopes to check out. It was also not too cold, still about 71 degrees when we left at 10:30 pm. The only thing missing were dark skies, but you can't have everything.”
Observation List:
• Venus
• Mars
• Jupiter + 4 Galilean moons
• Uranus
• The Moon
• M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules
• M31 Andromeda Galaxy
• Alberio (double-star yellow/blue)
• Double Double (Epsilon Lyrae)
• M15 Globular cluster in Pegasus
• Double Cluster in Perseus (NGC 884 & NGC 869)
Here's Mark Clayson trying to find Mars before it sets (navigating the horizon haze as well as the heads of people waiting in line). One benefit to not having dark skies: flash photography!
And here's my son checking out Jupiter and Uranus in the same field, less than a degree apart!
Here's a screenshot from Starry Night, so you can see what you missed:
Thanks again, and stay tuned for our next activity!
Astronomy News:
A Runaway Star Tells a Long Story [aka, CSI LMC]
Just 5 years ago the first hypervelocity star was confirmed. Now about 18 of them are known. These are stars moving so fast, upwards of several hundred kilometers per second, that they will escape the Milky Way’s gravity to forever roam the inter-galactic void. Their discovery had to wait for very efficient surveys; only about one in 100 million Milky Way stars is going at such a clip.
Several possible mechanisms could fling a star so fast. But the most productive of them seems to be happening at a single, very special place. If a binary star falls close enough to the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center, the binary can be disrupted in such a way that one star is trapped around (or in) the hole and the other is slung away with extraordinary speed. This is thought to account for most of the escaping 18.
One, known as HE 0437-5439, is already 200,000 light-years out, near the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Some astronomers had argued that it probably came from the LMC itself rather than from the Milky Way, based on the star’s chemical makeup. But a group led by Warren Brown (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) has now laid that scenario to rest, by measuring the star’s proper motion on the sky. Two high-resolution Hubble images taken 3.5 years apart show that it’s moving away not from the LMC, but from the Milky Way’s center in Sagittarius.
The star is receding at 723 km per second with respect to the Sun. Even so, it must have taken 100 million years to get where it is now. And that’s the problem. Its spectrum shows it to be a young, main-sequence star of type B with about 9 solar masses. Such a star can’t be more than about 20 million years old.
Brown’s group proposes an answer: the star was born near the Milky Way’s center as a triple consisting of a tight binary and a more distant third star. The black hole captured the third one and the tight binary was flung off. After it raced out of the Milky Way, one or both of the binary’s stars evolved to swell and engulf the other. The result was a merged, “newborn” single star known as a blue straggler, a type of object familiar in globular clusters.
The team is now trying to determine the origins of four other hypervelocity stars that are receding on the Milky Way’s outskirts.
Home Computers Dredge Up Weird Pulsar
First came SETI@home, which enabled millions of people to sign up their computers to sift through radio-telescope data for alien transmissions (page 27). Now 11 years old and running stronger than ever, SETI@home has opened the way for about 50 other distributed-computing projects for the public – in molecular biology, climate modeling, quantum chemistry, chess problems, and other number-crunching endeavors. Most of these efforts run through BOINC, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, where you can choose projects for your computer to join.
One, called Einstein@Home, is on a pulsar hunt. A quarter-million people have installed Einstein@Home on their computers. On June 11th it made its first discovery: a pulsar drifting alone about 17,000 light-years away in Vulpecula. Designated PSR J2007_2722, it’s a neutron star spinning 40.8 times per second. It seems to be a rare case of an old pulsar that was spun up by accreting mass from a companion that either blew up long ago or was eaten completely.
The discovery took place on a computer running in the basement of Chris and Helen Colvin of Ames, Iowa. Three days later it was confirmed by a computer owned by Daniel Gebhardt in Mainz, Germany. It then brought itself to human attention.
About 2,000 pulsars are currently known. The project’s “holy grail,” says Cornell radio astronomer Jim Cordes, would be a pulsar orbiting some other object with a period of less than an hour. That’s what the Einstein@Home software is tuned to be most sensitive to. Such a find would allow new tests of Einstein’s general relativity, the project’s long-term goal.
[The above 2 news bites are from the November 2010 issue of Sky & Telescope Magazine. Below is a recap of email news releases forwarded to club members by Vic Christensen, not including the Scientific American articles.]
Date Description URL
2 Sep 10 Spitzer Finds a Flavorful Mix of Asteroids http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-283&cid=release_2010-283
2 Sep 10 NASA Selects Investigations for First Mission to Encounter the Sun http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-284&cid=release_2010-284
2 Sep 10 NASA Hurricane Researchers Eye Earl's Eye http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-285&cid=release_2010-285
3 Sep 10 Missing Piece Inspires New Look at Mars Puzzle http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-286&cid=release_2010-286
9 Sep 10 Amateur Astronomers are First to Detect Objects Impacting Jupiter http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-293&cid=release_2010-293
9 Sep 10 NASA Data Shed New Light About Water and Volcanoes on Mars http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-294&cid=release_2010-294
20 Sep 10 NASA Study Shows Desert Dust Cuts Colorado River Flow http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-306&cid=release_2010-306
21 Sep 10 Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-309&cid=release_2010-309
21 Sep 10 Spring on Titan Brings Sunshine and Patchy Clouds http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-308&cid=release_2010-308
23 Sep 10 Shining Starlight on the Dark Cocoons of Star Birth http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-311&cid=release_2010-311
23 Sep 10 New Views of Saturn's Aurora, Captured by Cassini http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-313&cid=release_2010-313
29 Sep 10 Atmosphere Checked, One Mars Year Before a Landing http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-316&cid=release_2010-316
General Calendar:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia: Carnegie (Tues. 4pm), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena (daily 12-4pm): http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/
Carnegie astronomy lectures – only 4 per year in the Spring www.obs.carnegiescience.edu. Visit www.huntington.org for directions.
1 Oct SBAS monthly general mtg. at El Camino College. Guest speaker: Tim Thompson, LAAS. Topic: The Milky Way. 7:30pm, El Camino College Planetarium, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
Oct. 9 (6;15pm) The AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics, “The Cosmic Distance Ladder,” Dr. Terence Tao, UCLA. Schoenberg Hall at UCLA. To RSVP, please visit http://www.math.ucla.edu/events/publicevents.shtml. Parking is $10 in Structure 2 (map: http://maps.ucla.edu/campus)
Oct. 13 (11:00-1:00) Club booth at the AEA October fair in the AGO mall – bring a friend & see the new club scope, event photos, etc.
Oct. 14 & 15 The von Kármán Lecture Series – “From Near Earth Asteroids to the Most Distant Galaxies: Scientific Results from the Spitzer Space Telescope”
The Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003 as the infrared member of NASA's family of Great Observatories, completed the first phase of its scientific journey with the exhaustion of its liquid helium cryogen in May, 2009. Spitzer has been managed during both development and operations phases by JPL, and the scientific operations are carried out at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Following the loss of the liquid helium, Spitzer has been reborn as a warm mission devoted to observations in its shortest wavelength bands at 3.6 and 4.5um. The performance of warm Spitzer is essentially identical to that of the cryogenic mission, so that Spitzer continues to provide unparalleled sensitivity and areal coverage for photometry and imaging at these wavelengths.
This talk will show a selection of Spitzer's breathtaking images and review the astounding scientific bounty of the mission, ranging from studies of near Earth objects to determining the masses of the most distant galaxies known. Results from both the cryogenic and the warm missions will be described. The richness of Spitzer's scientific return is indicated by a list of the areas to be touched on in this review: exoplanets, the physical and chemical properties of protoplanetary disks, comparison of exoplanetary systems with the solar system, star formation, galactic structure and nearby galaxies, clusters of galaxies, galaxies in the early Universe, and the infrared background.
Speaker: Dr. Michael Werner
Chief Scientist, Astronomy and Physics Directorate, JPL
Project Scientist, Spitzer Space Telescope
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
Location: Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
Friday, Oct. 15, 2010, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
18 Oct (Mon) LAAS General Meeting Dave Nakamoto presenting highlights of his eclipse viewing trip to Easter Island Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
7:45 PM to 9:45 PM
Oct 21 - (Thurs. 11:45am) – Club mtg. -- "Dark Matter Searches," Dr. Jeff Zweerink, UCLA.
23 October (Saturday) -- MWOA Free Public Lecture -- in the Community Room of the Altadena Public Library. We have a special meeting and public lecture on the 4th Saturday in October at the Altadena Public Library. It is our Annual Membership Meeting where, in addition to the lecture, the President gives his "State of MWOA" report, an annual Treasurer's report is given, and members are elected to the Board of Directors. Refreshments are at 2:00pm, the program begins at 2:30pm. See the Lectures page for more details. See the Directions page for how to get to the Altadena Public Library. Note: from now on we will be meeting on the 4th SATURDAY, not Sunday (budget cuts have forced the Library to be closed on Sundays).
Observing:
2 Oct SBAS star party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
8-9 Oct Draconid Meteor Shower Peak (~10 per hour)
9 Oct SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke www.sbastro.org.
9 Oct (Sat) LAAS Dark Sky Night Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical site)
16 Oct (Sat) LAAS Public Star Party Griffith Observatory
2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
20 Oct Comet Hartley 2 Closest approach to earth. Naked-eye visible in a dark, pre-dawn sky. In Nov., NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft will observe it from a distance of about 600 miles.
21-22 Oct Orionid Meteor Shower Peak (~ 20 yellow & green per hour, some fireballs)
Internet Links:
NASA Gallery: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/
AEA Astronomy Club Intranet site: https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club
So. Calif. astronomy organizations, observatories & planetaria: http://www.mwoa.org/local.html
MWOA (Mt. Wilson Observatory Assn.), including status for visits & roads: www.mwoa.org
Western Amateur Astronomers (consortium of various regional societies): www.waa.av.org/Club_members.html
LAAS list of links (incl. Tools, Journals, Vendors, Other Societies, Databases, Members) http://www.laas.org/Links.htm
LAAS (L.A. Astronomical Society -- www.laas.org)
SBAS (South Bay Astronomical Soc. . -- www.sbastro.org)
About the Club
Club Website: https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club It is updated to reflect this newsletter, in addition to a listing of past club mtg. presentations, astronomy news, photos & events from prior newsletters, club equipment, membership & constitution. In the future, we may link some presentation materials from past mtgs., as well as past astronomy news & photos from the newsletters. AEA clubs may be compelled before long to migrate from AeroWiki to a non-intranet site.
Membership. For information, current dues & application, contact Vic Christensen (x63021, M1-167). Benefits will include use of club telescope(s) & library/software, discounts on Sky & Telescope magazine and Observer’s Handbook, field trips, great programs, having a say in club activities, acquisitions & elections, etc.
Committee Suggestions & Volunteers. Feel free to contact: Leslie Wickman, Program Committee Chairwoman (& club VP), David Wright, the Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Vic Christensen, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President
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