Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar
Picture(s) of the Month
Astronomy News
General Calendar
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs.
Observing
Useful Links
About the Club
Club News & Calendar.
News:
STEM Support -- Club member & scope at school star party. Club member Mark Barrera volunteered on Feb. 3 to show students at Space Night at Meadows Elementary School (his daughter’s) in Manhattan Beach the night sky with our 8-inch Dobsonian. Apparently some very excited students viewing Jupiter, etc. Here are some photos as evidence we’re doing our part for the corporate STEM outreach initiative.
Equipment. We have received the new heavy-duty tripod ordered from Orion for the H-alpha telescope (& other future small telescopes or giant binoculars). The rest of the order – a case for the 8-inch Dobsonian telescope – is due any day. See the updated equipment web page https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club/Equipment for more information.
Observer’s Handbook & Beginner’s Guide have arrived – contact Vic if you haven’t yet received your order.
Club Mtg. Room change for 2011. Another reminder that our club meeting room has changed to A9 1026 (Atlas III) for the upcoming year (beginning with our Jan. 20 mtg.). Same bldg. but ground floor.
Dues are Due (or Overdue). Renewals of club membership should be made now for 2011, including submission of the form Victor distributed (also available on AeroLink, or linked at the club website https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club). Again, we will need your dues to support club operations (& purchase telescope cases), as we spent nearly all of our AEA allotment on the new telescopes.
Appointments. We are still seeking committee members for the Resources and Activities committees. Outreach events like school star parties probably fall under the activities committee, and it would be good if we had a coordinator there.
Calendar
17 Mar Monthly Meeting A Beginner's Guide To Selecting and Using Optical Telescopes for Amateur Astronomy, Les DeLong, Aerospace
Other upcoming AEA Astronomy Club meeting programs (3rd Thursdays) at 11:45am in A9/1026) & activities:
21 April Monthly Meeting Space Weather, Leslie Belsma, Aerospace
19 May Monthly Meeting [I believe Michelle has scheduled something, but she’s out at press time]
27/28 May Field Trip RTMC Astronomy Expo (near Big Bear) & club star party (& Symposium on [amateur] Telescope Science May 24-26 same location?)
16 June Monthly Meeting The Large Hadron Collider; a New Window on the Universe, David Naiditch, Aerospace
Astronomy Picture(s) of the Month
Milky Way Over Switzerland
Credit: Stephane Vetter (Nuits sacrees)
Explanation: What's visible in the night sky during this time of year? To help illustrate the answer, a beautiful land, cloud, and skyscape was captured earlier this month over Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Visible in the foreground were the snow covered cliffs of the amphitheater shaped Creux du Van, as well as distant trees, and town-lit clouds. Visible in the night sky (at midnight) were galaxies including the long arch of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), and the Triangulum galaxy (M33). Star clusters visible included NGC 752, M34, M35, M41, the double cluster, and the Beehive (M44). Nebulas visible included the Orion Nebula (M42), NGC 7822, IC 1396, the Rosette Nebula, the Flaming Star Nebula, the California Nebula, the Heart and Soul Nebulas, and the Pacman Nebula. Rolling your cursor over the above image will bring up labels for all of these [no, you’ll need to go to http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html and click on the Feb. 21 link]. But the above wide angle sky image captured even more sky wonders. What other nebulas can you find in the above image?
Ice Fishing for Cosmic Neutrinos
Credit: NSF / B. Gudbjartsson, IceCube Collaboration
Explanation: Scientists are melting holes in the bottom of the world. In fact, almost 100 holes melted near the South Pole are now being used as astronomical observatories. Astronomers with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory lowered into each vertical lake a long string knotted with basketball-sized light detectors. The water in each hole soon refreezes. The detectors attached to the strings are sensitive to blue light emitted in the surrounding clear ice. Such light is expected from ice collisions with high-energy neutrinos emitted by objects or explosions out in the universe. Late last year, the last of IceCube's 86 strings was lowered into the freezing abyss, pictured above, making IceCube the largest neutrino detector yet created. Data from a preliminary experiment, AMANDA, has already been used to create the first detailed map of the high-energy neutrino sky. Experimental goals of the newer IceCube include a search for cosmic sources of neutrinos, a search for neutrinos coincident with nearby supernova and distant gamma-ray bursts, and, if lucky, a probe of exotic physical concepts such as unseen spatial dimensions and faster-than-light travel.
Zeta Oph: Runaway Star
Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, WISE Team
Explanation: Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait from the WISE spacecraft. In the false-color view, bluish Zeta Oph, a star about 20 times more massive than the Sun, lies near the center of the frame, moving toward the top at 24 kilometers per second. Its strong stellar wind precedes it, compressing and heating the dusty interstellar material and shaping the curved shock front. Around it are clouds of relatively undisturbed material. What set this star in motion? Zeta Oph was likely once a member of a binary star system, its companion star was more massive and hence shorter lived. When the companion exploded as a supernova catastrophically losing mass, Zeta Oph was flung out of the system. About 460 light-years away, Zeta Oph is 65,000 times more luminous than the Sun and would be one of the brighter stars in the sky if it weren't surrounded by obscuring dust. The WISE image spans about 1.5 degrees or 12 light-years at the estimated distance of Zeta Ophiuchi.
Astronomy News:
Really Extreme Weather -- Antimatter & Gamma Rays from Thunderstorms. In “one of the most exciting discoveries in geosciences in quite a long time,” the NASA Fermi telescope has been unexpectedly struck from below by terrestrially produced antimatter beams. Apparently the narrow beams of positrons (anti-electrons) were produced when terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGF’s, discovered in 1994) created by thunderstorms decay into particle-anti-particle pairs. About 500 TGF’s occur worldwide daily, and are upward sprays lasting a thousandth of a second. The gamma rays presumably arise when electrons driven by lightning are accelerated to nearly the speed of light before they strike atoms of air. This “...has very important implications for understanding lightning itself”.
[Editor note: It has long been known that lightning bolt plasma temperatures rival those on the sun. And that thunderhead energies rival nuclear bombs. And now with relativistic electrons, gamma rays and antimatter beams – quite a death ray -- even more to fear from thunderstorms and lightning! At least flying over them – you might want to share this with your pilot as another reason to avoid them.]
A Black Hole Too Big for Its Galaxy. As we’ve discovered in the last couple decades, nearly all galaxies have a supermassive black hole (SBH) in their center, and the hole’s mass “...is closely tied to the size of the galaxy’s central bulge of old, yellow stars,” and their range of velocities. But “...the hole has only about a thousandth the mass, and roughly a billionth the diameter” of the bulge.
The current theory is that the holes are so active in the early galactic history as to clear out the star-forming gas, halting star formation. But one newly discovered SBH goes against that, with half the mass of the Milky Way’s hole, but its dwarf galaxy (Henize 2-10) has only a few percent of the Milky Way’s mass, and lacks any central bulge at all. We may be seeing a rare early galaxy formation, and this may answer the question of which came first, the SBH or the galaxy [at least central bulge] – it would indicate the SBH grows fully first.
Pushing the Redshift Limit. A group at Caltech has found a group of “gravitationally bound mini-galaxies at redshift 5.3, when the universe was only 1.1 bilion years old” – a record for galactic clusters. All are much smaller than our galaxy, though one has a SBH of 30 million solar masses [over 7 times ours – another oversized, young one]. But even later-breaking news is of a galaxy at redshift 10.3, or 500 million years after the Big Bang – the highest redshift yet found.
[The above news bites are from the March 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
1 Feb 11 NASA's NEOWISE Completes Scan for Asteroids and Comets http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-031&cid=release_2011-031
3 Feb 11 Northern Mars Landscape Actively Changing http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-039&cid=release_2011-039
3 Feb 11 Surprise Hidden in Titan's Smog: Cirrus-Like Clouds http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-040&cid=release_2011-040
4 Feb 11 Proposed Mission to Jupiter System Achieves Milestone http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-041&cid=release_2011-041
9 Feb 11 NASA Announces Candidates for Cubesat Space Missions http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-045&cid=release_2011-045
10 Feb 11 New View of Family Life in the North American Nebula http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-047&cid=release_2011-047
10 Feb 11 JPL Airborne Sensor to Study 'Rivers in the Sky' http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-048&cid=release_2011-048
14 Feb 11 NASA Spacecraft Hours From Comet Encounter http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-050&cid=release_2011-050
14 Feb 11 NASA's Stardust Spacecraft Completes Comet Flyby http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-053&cid=release_2011-053
15 Feb 11 Comet Hunter's First Images on the Ground http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-054&cid=release_2011-054
15 Feb 11 NASA Releases Images of Man-Made Crater on Comet http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-056&cid=release_2011-056
16 Feb 11 Herschel Measures Dark Matter for Star-Forming Galaxies http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-057&cid=release_2011-057
18 Feb 11 Advanced NASA Instrument Gets Close-up on Mars Rocks http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-059&cid=release_2011-059
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/
March 2 -- “An Optical SETI for Amateur Astronomers,” A brown-bag encore presentation, from noon to 1 p.m., in A3-2226 (multi-media room). The talk will be given by Jim Edwards and will focus on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI.
Carnegie astronomy lectures – only 4 per year in the Spring www.obs.carnegiescience.edu. Visit www.huntington.org for directions.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Life in the Universe: Just Add Water? Dr. Christopher Burns, Research Associate, Carnegie Observatories
Are we alone in the universe? Like all the other Big Questions about the cosmos, the answer to this one has far-reaching implications for science, philosophy, and theology. To date, we have no conclusive evidence of extra-terrestrial life in our Solar System. But it's a big universe. To predict how much life, if any, could be out there, we need to understand how life got started here on Earth. Dr. Burns will discuss our current understanding of how life began on Earth and how likely it could begin elsewhere in our Solar System and beyond.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Mysteries of the Dark Universe Dr. Rocky Kolb, Professor, The University of Chicago
Ninety-five percent of the universe is missing. Astronomical observations suggest that most of the mass of the universe is in a mysterious form called dark matter and most of the energy in the universe is in an even more mysterious form called dark energy. We have no understanding of the natures of the stuff that makes up our universe. Dr. Kolb will discuss the evidence for the dark matter and dark energy, and propose that unlocking the secrets of dark matter and dark energy will illuminate the nature of space and time and connect the quantum with the cosmos.
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Lights of Cosmic Dawn Dr. Alan Dressler, Staff Astronomer, Carnegie Observatories
The "modern universe" began when the first stars and quasars - ravenous black holes - began to flood the darkness. This 'first light' appeared a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, but some of it arrives at Earth every day - 14 billion years later. Amazingly, the largest telescopes and most sensitive instruments allow astronomers to see back to this beginning, but the view is dim and difficult. Dr. Dressler will describe what we have seen, and what the prospects are for the future, with more ambitious telescopes and new techniques.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Our Universe in a Supercomputer Dr. Thomas J. Cox, Carnegie-Rubin Fellow, Carnegie Observatories
How did galaxies such as our Milky Way come to be? Astronomers now have a well formed and highly accurate picture for how our universe began - with a "big bang" roughly 14 billion years ago. However, physically mapping the initial conditions of galaxies we see through modern telescope has proven to be a complex and elusive task. In this talk Dr. Cox will talk about how the combination of supercomputers and today's most powerful telescopes are working together to address outstanding questions about the origin and evolution of galaxies.
4 March SBAS monthly general mtg. at El Camino College. Guest speaker: Dr. Luisa Rebull
Topic: Baby Stars with the Spitzer Space Telescope. 7:30pm, El Camino College Planetarium, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
? LAAS General Meeting.
Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
7:45 PM to 9:45 PM
17 March AEA Astronomy Club 11:45am A Beginner's Guide To Selecting and Using Optical Telescopes for Amateur Astronomy, Les DeLong, Aerospace
March 17 & 18 --The von Kármán Lecture Series – WISE: The Infrared Full Sky Survey, Dr. Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE Principal Investigator, JPL
In early January, 2010, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) began imaging the entire sky with sensitivities in the mid-Infrared hundreds of times greater than previous surveys. WISE recently completed its first full survey of the sky. Although WISE itself is an astrophysics mission, NASA's Planetary Science Mission Directorate has funded an enhancement to the WISE project, called "NEOWISE", which is dedicated to discovering and archiving moving objects. Infrared observations are sensitive to the low albedo objects that are usually missed by optical surveys, and by the end of the mission, NEOWISE is expected to observe ~500 Near-Earth Objects, over 150,000 Main Belt Asteroids, ~100 comets, and ~1500 Trojan asteroids - a vast catalog of information on small bodies in our Solar System that will leave a legacy for decades to come.
Location: Thursday, March 17, 2010, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA
› Directions
Friday, March 18, 2010, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA
› Directions
March 26, 2011 -- MWOA Free Public Lecture -- Tim Thompson, MWOA President, will speak on Exoplanet Discoveries by the Kepler Orbiting Telescope. 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:
The following data are from the 2011 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s Skygazer’s Almanac.
Sun, Moon & Planets for March:
Other Events:
1 March -- Venus 1.6 deg S. (right) of crescent moon ~40 minutes before sunrise
5 March SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke www.sbastro.org.
5 March? LAAS Dark Sky Night: Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)
6 March -- Jupiter left of crescent moon ~20 minutes after sunset
13 March -- Daylight Savings Time begins
13-16 March -- Mercury <2 deg. north (right) of Jupiter ~ 40 minutes after sunset ? LAAS Public Star Party at Griffith Observatory, 2:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. 20 March -- Vernal equinox & zodiacal light visible in N. latitudes after evening twilight for next 2 wks.
26 March SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
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), or see the club website where a form is also available. 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: Michelle Darrah, 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
===========================================
AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter, February 2011
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar
Picture(s) of the Month
Astronomy News
General Calendar
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs.
Observing
Useful Links
About the Club
Club News & Calendar.
News:
STEM Support -- Club members & scope at school star party. Some of our club members (Mark Barrera, Michelle Darrah, Vic Christensen) have volunteered on Feb. 3 to show students at Space Night at Meadows Elementary School in Manhattan Beach the night sky with our 8-inch Dobsonian. We’re doing our part for the corporate STEM initiative.
Dues are Due (or Overdue). Renewals of club membership should be made now for 2011, including submission of the form Victor distributed (also available on AeroLink, or linked at the club website https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club). Again, we will need your dues to support club operations (& purchase telescope cases), as we spent nearly all of our AEA allotment on the new telescopes.
Club Mtg. Room change for 2011. Another reminder that our club meeting room has changed to A9 1026 (Atlas III) for the upcoming year (beginning with our Jan. 20 mtg.). Same bldg. but ground floor.
Appointments. We are still seeking committee members for the Resources and Activities committees. Outreach events like school star parties probably fall under the activities committee, and it would be good if we had a coordinator there.
Observer’s Handbook & Beginner’s Guide deliveries are overdue – we apologize & will order earlier next year.
Calendar
Note the potentially broader interest of our Feb. mtg., and spread the word.
17 Feb 2011 Monthly Meeting An Overview of JPL Programs, Matt Hart, Aerospace
Other upcoming AEA Astronomy Club meeting programs (3rd Thursdays) at 11:45am in A9/1026) & activities:
17 Mar 2011 Monthly Meeting A Beginner's Guide To Selecting and Using Optical Telescopes for Amateur Astronomy, Les DeLong, Aerospace
27/28 May Field Trip? RTMC Astronomy Expo (near Big Bear) & club star party? (& Symposium on [amateur] Telescope Science May 24-26 same location?)
Astronomy Picture(s) of the Month –
The Antikythera Mechanism
Credit & Copyright: Wikipedia
Explanation: What is it? It was found at the bottom of the sea aboard an ancient Greek ship. Its seeming complexity has prompted decades of study, although some of its functions remained unknown. Recent X-rays of the device have now confirmed the nature of the Antikythera mechanism, and discovered several surprising functions. The Antikythera mechanism has been discovered to be a mechanical computer of an accuracy thought impossible in 80 BC, when the ship that carried it sank. Such sophisticated technology was not thought to be developed by humanity for another 1,000 years. Its wheels and gears create a portable orrery of the sky that predicted star and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses. The Antikythera mechanism, shown above, is 33 centimeters high and similar in size to a large book.
The Rippled Red Ribbons of SNR 0509
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: J. Hughes (Rutgers U.)
Explanation: What is causing the picturesque ripples of supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5? The ripples, as well as the greater nebula, were imaged in unprecedented detail by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006 and again late last year. The red color was recoded by a Hubble filter that left only the light emitted by energetic hydrogen. The precise reason for the ripples remains unknown, with two considered origin hypotheses relating them to relatively dense portions of either ejected or impacted gas. The reason for the broader red glowing ring is more clear, with expansion speed and light echos relating it to a classic Type Ia supernova explosion that must have occurred about 400 years earlier. SNR 0509 currently spans about 23 light years and lies about 160,000 light years away toward the constellation of the dolphinfish (Dorado) in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The expanding ring carries with it another great mystery, however: why wasn't this supernova seen 400 years ago when light from the initial blast should have passed the Earth?
Opportunity at Santa Maria Crater
Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, NASA, JPL, Cornell; Image Processing: Marco Di Lorenzo, Kenneth Kremer
Explanation: Celebrating 7 years on the surface of the Red Planet, Mars exploration rover Opportunity now stands near the rim of 90 meter wide Santa Maria crater. Remarkably, Opportunity and its fellow rover Spirit were initially intended for a 3 month long primary mission. Still exploring, the golf cart-sized robot and shadow (far right) appear in the foreground of this panoramic view of its current location. The mosaic was constructed using images from the rover's navigation camera. On its 7 year anniversary, Opportunity can boast traversing a total of 26.7 kilometers along the martian surface. After investigating Santa Maria crater, controllers plan to have Opportunity resume a long-term trek toward Endeavour crater, a large, 22 kilometer diameter crater about 6 kilometers from Santa Maria. The rim of Endeavour is visible in the mosaic on the horizon at the right, just above the shadow of the rover's mast. During coming days, communication with the rover will be more difficult as Mars moves close to alignment with the Sun as seen from planet Earth's perspective.
Astronomy News:
Cosmic Star Count Triples. Astronomers recently realized they’ve overlooked two-thirds of the stars in the observable universe. These are dim red dwarfs in elliptical galaxies, which previously had been assumed to be as numerous there as in the disk of our spiral Milky Way. Extremely high quality Keck spectra of 8 massive ellipticals in the Virgo & Coma clusters showed distinctive signatures of red dwarfs, which have masses less than a third of the Sun’s. To be observable at all, they must be 20 times as abundant as in the Milky Way.
Saturn’s Rings Explained? One of the greatest mysteries of the solar system may now be explained by Robin Canup at SRI. Previous theories entailed rocky matter from a tidally shred moon, or a primordial disk that never aggregated into moons due to tidal forces. But Cassini has recently found that the rings are almost entirely water ice. Canup’s theory is that a typically composed moon (half ice, half rock) of Titan size spiraled inward, tidal heating melted the ice and the rocky matter sank to the core. The Roche limit (where an object is tidally pulled apart) for ice is farther out than rock, so the ice/water was dispersed into a ring before the core spiraled into Saturn. This could have produced 1,000 times more ice than the rings now have, but a lot spiraled into Saturn, and a lot outward beyond the Roche limit. There it could clump into ice satellites like Tethys, with 1,066 km diameter and density of pure ice.
More Amateur Research. Humans still beat computers at some visual recognition tasks, and hundreds of thousands of home volunteers have been recruited in various astronomical image tasks. Like NASA’s search of Mars landscapes for key geologic features. Or locating specks of comet dust in the aerogel from the Stardust Mission. The Galaxy Zoo project finds faint supernovae and classifies galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Other “Zooniverse” projects are Moon Zoo, Solar Stormwatch, etc. The Milky Way Zoo project has 354,000 registrants searching Spitzer images for bubble-shaped features indicating star birth or death. Planet Hunter Zoo looks for patterns in Kepler’s light curves possibly missed by computers. Go to www.zooniverse.org, or www.planethunters.org.
Then there is the serious scientific research amateurs can do with their own equipment. The Symposium on Telescope Science will host some 100 amateur and professional astronomers at Big Bear May 24-26, in conjunction with the RTMC Astronomy Expo. Last year included talks on light curves of asteroids & variable stars, spectroscopy of eclipsing & variable stars, etc. Pros say more amateur attention is needed on asteroid light curves & fast-cadence photometry of old novae & other cataclysmic variable stars.
[The above news bites are from the March 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
11 Jan 11 Planck Mission Peels Back Layers of the Universe http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-010&cid=release_2011-010
13 Jan 11 Partner Galaxies Wildly Different in New WISE Image http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-016&cid=release_2011-016
18 Jan 11 NASA Mars Rover Will Check for Ingredients of Life http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-018&cid=release_2011-018
19 Jan 11 NASA Spacecraft Prepares for Valentine's Day Comet Rendezvous http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-019&cid=release_2011-019
20 Jan 11 Mars Sliding Behind Sun After Rover Anniversary http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-022&cid=release_2011-022
21 Jan 11 Voyager Celebrates 25 Years Since Uranus Visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-023&cid=release_2011-023
26 Jan 11 An Astronomer's Field of Dreams http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-027&cid=release_2011-027
26 Jan 11 Asteroids Ahoy! Jupiter Scar Likely from Rocky Body http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-028&cid=release_2011-028
26 Jan 11 NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-029&cid=release_2011-029
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.
4 Feb. SBAS monthly general mtg. at El Camino College. Guest speaker: Linda Morabito Meyer
Topic: One Astronomer’s Journey Through Space and Time. 7:30pm, El Camino College Planetarium, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
14 Feb. LAAS General Meeting.
Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
7:45 PM to 9:45 PM
17 Feb.. – AEA Astronomy Club mtg. (Thurs. 11:45am) -- An Overview of JPL Programs, Matt Hart, Aerospace
Feb. 17 & 18 --The von Kármán Lecture Series – From Crust to Core, GRAIL Reveals the Lunar Interior
The Moon is the most accessible and best studied rocky, or "terrestrial", body beyond Earth. Unlike Earth, however, the Moon's surface has preserved the record of nearly the entire 4.5 billion years of solar system history. Orbital observations and samples of surface rocks returned to Earth show that no other body preserves the record of geological history as clearly as the Moon. And yet, there is still a great deal we do not yet understand. Questions about the origin of the maria and the asymmetry in crustal thickness require more advanced studies to understand. By carefully studying the gravity of the moon, its interior structure and thermal evolution can be learned. This information can then be extended beyond the moon to help us further understand the history and evolution of the other terrestrial planets in our solar system. NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, will use a technique pioneered by a highly successfully Earth mission, called GRACE, and will place two spacecraft in a low-altitude, nearly circular orbit around the moon to help reveal the answers to these intriguing questions.
Speaker: Dr. Sami Asmar, GRAIL Deputy Project Scientist, JPL (And, perhaps, Mike Watkins, GRAIL Project Scientist, JPL)
Location: Thursday, Feb. 17, 2010, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
Friday, Feb. 18, 2010, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
(Cancelled for Feb.) -- 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:
Planets: Jupiter is visible from dusk to 9:30pm Feb.1, until 8:00pm Feb. 28. This is the last month until July when Jupiter is high enough for good telescopic observing. Saturn rises in the east around 10:30pm Feb.1, 8:30pm Feb. 28. Venus & Mercury are visible in the pre-dawn sky. Mars is near conjunction, so unobservable.
2 Feb. New Moon.
3 Feb. Europa transits Jupiter’s face from 5:28pm to 8:12 pm PST, and its shadow follows almost exactly 2 hours behind.
5 Feb. SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke www.sbastro.org.
5 Feb. LAAS Dark Sky Night: Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)
6 Feb. Jupiter ~6 deg. Left of the crescent moon in the SW.
11 Feb. First quarter moon.
12 Feb. LAAS Public Star Party at Griffith Observatory, 2:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.
18 Feb. Full moon.
20-21 Feb. Saturn, Spica & the moon form an equilateral triangle.
24 Feb. Last quarter moon.
26 Feb. SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
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), or see the club website where a form is also available. 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: Michelle Darrah, 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
=============================================================
AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter, January 2011
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar
Picture(s) of the Month
Astronomy News
General Calendar
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs.
Observing
Useful Links
About the Club
Club News & Calendar.
News:
Club Mtg. Room change for 2011. Our club meeting room has changed to A9 1026 (Atlas III) for the upcoming year (beginning with our Jan. 20 mtg.). Same bldg. but ground floor. It accommodates 4 more people than our previous room (2906) – nearly a full turnout of our membership (forever optimistic).
Election. Below is our official list of officers for 2011, after votes were announced in the Dec. mtg.:
President: Mark Clayson
Vice President: Michelle Darrah
Secretary: David Wright
Treasurer: Vic Christensen
Appointments. We are still seeking committee members for the Resources and Activities committees.
Equipment. David Wright took the 10" Meade LX-200ACF Telescope on vacation to Oregon over the holidays, but was clouded out at night. He did get to use the Coronado Solarmax 40 H-alpha Telescope during the day, which was it’s 2nd light (1st being right after our Dec. mtg., as reported by David). For detailed information on the new scopes and accessories, see the Equipment page.
Discounts & Dues. Orders for the Observer’s Handbook & Beginner’s Guide have been placed, and delivery is expected about Jan. 18. Also, renewals of club membership dues should be made now for 2011, including submission of the form Victor distributed. Again, 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
Note the potentially broader interest of our Jan. & Feb. mtgs., and spread the word.
20 Jan 2011 Monthly Meeting USC Astronautics Concept Creation Studio, Madhu Thangavelu, USC
Other upcoming AEA Astronomy Club meeting programs (3rd Thursdays) at 11:45am in A9/1026) & activities:
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 –
2011 January 5
Eclipsing the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Thierry Legault
Explanation: Skywatchers throughout much of Europe, North Africa, and Central Asia, were treated to the first eclipse of the new year on January 4, a partial eclipse of the Sun. But traveling to the area around Muscat, capital city of Oman, photographer Thierry Legault planned to simultaneously record two eclipses on that date, calculating from that position, for a brief moment, both the Moon and the International Space Station could be seen in silhouette, crossing the Sun. His sharp, 1/5000th second exposure is shown here, capturing planet Earth's two largest satellites against the bright solar disk. As the partial solar eclipse unfolded, the space station (above and left of center) zipped across the scene in less than 1 second, about 500 kilometers from the photographer's telescope and camera. Of course, the Moon was 400 thousand kilometers away. Complete with sunspots, the Sun was 150 million kilometers distant.
Astronomy News:
JWST Late and Over Budget. An independent review shows JWST facing at least $1.5 billion in cost overruns (already spent $3 billion), and launch delay from June 2014 to at least Sept. 2015. The overrun will likely need to be taken from other, future space-based projects. On the technical side, although relying on “many new and difficult technologies, it is on track to work as planned.”
Pluto Regains Crown (king of the dwarfs)? In Nov., astronomers in Chile determined from a stellar occultation that Eris’ diameter is “almost certainly” smaller than 2340 km, possibly another 100km lower. Pluto’s is 2344 +/- 20 km. Initial Hubble discovery images of Eris had implied a size 5% larger than Pluto, and Spitzer & IRAM IR & mm measurements implied even larger. But Eris’s spin axis is now known to point sunward, keeping that hemisphere warmer than average and skewing the IR & mm measurements. It’s mass, found from it’s moon’s orbit, is 25% greater than Pluto’s, hence density higher, at 2.5 gm/cc. And it’s albedo is “at least 90%, as white as new-fallen snow.”
The Milky Way’s Giant Gamma-Ray Bubbles. NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray observatory has shown a pair of 25,000 light-years tall gamma-ray-emitting bubbles extending north & south of the Milky Way’s center. They were hinted at by earlier Rosat X-ray & WMAP microwave observations. They are much broader and more symmetric than bipolar jets from supermassive black holes, and their energy much higher, which also defies a starburst source explanation.
[The above news bites are from the February 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
1 Dec 10 NASA Aids in Characterizing Super-Earth Atmosphere http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-404&cid=release_2010-404
6 Dec 10 So You Think You Can Solve a Cosmology Puzzle? http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-407&cid=release_2010-407
6 Dec 10 Double Vision: New Instrument Casts Its Eyes to the Sky http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-406&cid=release_2010-406
6 Dec 10 New JPL Workers Shed Training Wheels for Rocket Launch http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-408&cid=release_2010-408
9 Dec 10 Odyssey Orbiter Nears Martian Longevity Record http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-411&cid=release_2010-411
13 Dec 10 NASA Probe Sees Solar Wind Decline http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-415&cid=release_2010-415
14 Dec 10 Cassini Spots Potential Ice Volcano on Saturn Moon http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-416&cid=release_2010-416
14 Dec 10 Hot Plasma Explosions Inflate Saturn’s Magnetic Field http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-417&cid=release_2010-417
15 Dec 10 NASA's Odyssey Spacecraft Sets Exploration Record on Mars http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-418&cid=release_2010-418
16 Dec 10 NASA Spacecraft Provides Travel Tips for Mars Rover http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-420&cid=release_2010-420
16 Dec 10 Mexico Quake Studies Uncover Surprises for California http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-421&cid=release_2010-421
22 Dec 10 Mars Movie: I'm Dreaming of a Blue Sunset http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-427&cid=release_2010-427
22 Dec 10 NASA's Next Mars Rover to Zap Rocks With Laser http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-428&cid=release_2010-428
29 Dec 10 Cassini Celebrates 10 Years Since Jupiter Encounter http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-431&cid=release_2010-431
6 Jan 11 Extreme Planet Makeover http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-005&cid=release_2011-005
10 Jan 11 NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Its First Rocky Planet http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-007&cid=release_2011-007
[An updated version of this newsletter will be sent shortly containing last month’s news releases]
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.
7 Jan. SBAS monthly general mtg. at El Camino College. Guest speaker: Prof. Perry Hacking
Topic: Planetarium show. 7:30pm, El Camino College Planetarium, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
23 Jan. LAAS General Meeting Annual banquet.
Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
7:45 PM to 9:45 PM
20 Jan. - Club mtg. (Thurs. 11:45am) -- USC Astronautics Concept Creation Studio, Madhu Thangavelu, USC
Jan. 20 & 21 The von Kármán Lecture Series – UAVSAR: An Airborne Window on Earth Surface Deformation
The Earth's surface is constantly undergoing surface deformation at the millimeter to meter scale both from natural forces such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and glacier motion and from anthropogenic causes such as oil and ground water pumping. Monitoring these types of deformation both spatially and temporally is integral to developing a better understanding of the underlying physical processes involved. Spaceborne differential radar interferometry has become a central tool over the last two decades for such monitoring, however the time between observations and the geometry of observations is not ideal for a number of scientific applications. Airborne systems can tailor both the flight geometry and time between observations for optimal science return, however airborne differential radar interferometry is more challenging than spaceborne interferometry due to the irregular flight path of an aircraft compared to a spacecraft. This talk will address how these challenges were overcome and some examples of Earth deformation measured by the UAVSAR system.
Speaker: Dr. Scott Hensley, Assistant Section Manager, Radar Science & Engineering, JPL
Location: Thursday, Jan. 20, 2010, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
Friday, Jan. 21, 2010, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions
22 Jan. -- 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:
2 Jan. New Moon.
3 Jan. Earth at perihelion. Uranus is 0.5 deg north of Jupiter.
3-4 Jan. Quadrantid Meteor Showeer. Typically 40 or so bright, blue and fast (25.5 miles per second) meteors will radiate from the constellation Bootes, some blazing more than halfway across the sky. A small percentage of them leave persistent dust trains. This shower usually has a very sharp peak, usually lasting only about an hour.
4 Jan. Partial solar eclipse for Europe, N. Africa, W. Asia.
8 Jan. Venus at greatest western elongation (47 deg), latest onset of twilight.
9 Jan. Mercury at greatest (23 deg.) western elongation.
19 Jan. Full moon.
8 Jan. SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke www.sbastro.org.
1 Jan.,
5 Feb. LAAS Dark Sky Night: Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)
15 Jan. LAAS Public Star Party at Griffith Observatory, 2:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.
29 Jan. SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
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: Michelle Darrah, 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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