ContentsAEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 3
Astronomy News p. 5
General Calendar p. 6
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 6
Observing p. 8
Useful Links p. 10
About the Club p. 10
Club News & Calendar.
Calendar15 March Monthly Meeting “Planetary Defense,” Bill Ailor, Aerospace. A1/ 2143
24 March Star Party (Messier Marathon) LAAS Dark Sky Night: Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only) – Messier Marathon (a few of us are going – contact David Wright if interested)
19 April Monthly Meeting “Human Exploration of Mars,” Mark Benton, Boeing. A1/ 1026
17 May Monthly Meeting “IR Airglow Images,” Lynette Gelinas, Aerospace. A1/ 1026
20 May Annular Solar Eclipse Central line thru Reno & Albuquerque – closest ~ Zion NP, Utah – max eclipse ~ 6:40pm (elevation ~10 deg), begins ~5:30pm, ends at sunset (~ 8pm)
5 June Venus Transit of the Sun In L.A. 3:06pm (58 deg. elevation) to sunset (8:07pm) – greatest transit 6:25pm (18 deg elevation).
AEA Astronomy Club meetings are on 3rd Thursdays at 11:45am. For 2012, in March we meet in A1/2143; in Jan. & April-May in A1/1026; in Feb., June-Aug. & Oct.-Dec. in A1/1029A/B; and Sept. in A3/1607A/B.
News:Musical Meeting Rooms. For 2012, in March we meet in A1/2143; in Jan. & April-May in A1/1026; in Feb., June-Aug. & Oct.-Dec. in A1/1029A/B; and Sept. in A3/1607A/B. Hopefully next year we’ll get a stable room again.
March 24th Saturday is Messier Marathon night at the LAAS Lockwood Valley site. This is a long-standing amateur astronomy event, where observers try and view all 110 Messier objects in one night (average 5 minutes per object in 9 hrs). It is possible only around the New Moon in March.
Those interested in participating and wanting materials and guidance as to how to do the marathon can contact David Wright.
New gear just acquired:
Meade #507 LX200 Interface Cable
Meade Ultra-Wedge (equatorial for LX-200)
1.25" Orion SkyGlow Astrophotography Filter
1.25" Orion H-Alpha Extra-Narrowband Filter
Orion Multiple 5-Filter Wheel and LRGB Filter Set
Orion Dew Zapper for 254mm (10") Cassegrains
1.25" Orion Astrophotography Flip Mirror
We’re still deciding on an astronomical video camera. They’d basically triple or quadruple our effective aperture for real-time imaging (e.g., group viewing), image capture & live video internet streaming (for armchair observers). Finalists include the downscale (~$500-700) Orion StarShoot, Mallincam Jr. & GSTAR-EX2; the more upscale (~$900-1200) StellaCam 3 basic & Mallincam Hyper; or the top scale ($1500+) StellaCam 3 Peltier cooled & Mallincam VSS or Extreme. For anyone interested, I can send my few pages of research & links.
New Videos in the Club Library (now shown on the club’s Aeropedia library page. These are college-level courses from the best lecturers in the country – The Great Courses from The Teaching Company. Note that these are my personal copies, but I’m willing to loan them to members. They come with lifetime replacement warranties in case of damage. I may at some point permanently donate them. If you have any videos, books, etc. that may be of general interest, and that you may be willing to temporarily or permanently make available, let David Wright, our librarian/secretary, know. Specify any conditions on checkout (maximum duration, replacement if damaged, etc.).
Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition, Professor Alex Filippenko 96 30-minute lectures
Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe, Professor Mark Whittle 36 30-minute lectures
Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe, Professor Sean Carroll 24 30-minute lectures
The Yosemite star party (w. Leslie Wickman & her class Feb. 19) was great success -- after clear nights on Thursday and Friday (with no observing, too tired!), we were clouded out on Saturday for the star party, but it cleared up on Sunday afternoon and we rescheduled it for Sunday night. The only problem we had was mistaking Mars for Saturn. :)
School Star Party Report from David WrightOn Tuesday, February 28, 2012, I took the day off to host a daytime astronomy activity at Buttercup Preschool / Yerba Buena Elementary. It was originally scheduled for Monday, but we were clouded out and had to reschedule.
I brought along the club's Solar telescope and the LX200, as well as my own 100mm dobsonian and 20x80 binoculars. The sky was clear in the morning but we did have to dodge and wait out some clouds in the early afternoon.
I was able to do a successful daytime alignment of the LX200, with which we then observed the 6 day old waxing crescent Moon and the clearly gibbous Venus. The Moon was barely visible and Jupiter wasn't bright enough to find at all.
The sun had several prominences, including a loop, as well as visible surface texture and at least one faint sunspot. We tried various eyepieces on the solar telescope to vary the magnification; our Meade 12.4 and 15mm eyepieces gave a much better view than the supplied 25mm, and our Meade 26mm seemed to have better eye relief.
With the binoculars we observed the Moon, as well as the hillside when clouds were blocking other targets.
About 30-40 kids got to participate (all preschool and kindergarten age), and all were pretty excited an impressed. One of the classes came out later to present me with a thank you sign they had made.
Better advance coordination with school leadership would have helped, because more classes could have participated if it had been more "official".
David
Astronomy Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month(from Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html)
Video(s)
Shocked by Supernova 1987A (blast moves thru ring): http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120227.html
Nice Norwegian aurorae video to music! http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120209.html
Lunation: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120205.html
A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night sky: www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.
2012 February 12
Orion in Gas, Dust, and StarsImage Credit & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (Deep Sky Colors)
Explanation: The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row. A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebula to star clusters, all embedded in an extended patch of gaseous wisps in the greater Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The brightest three stars on the far left are indeed the famous three stars that make up the belt of Orion. Just below Alnitak, the lowest of the three belt stars, is the Flame Nebula, glowing with excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust. Below the frame center and just to the right of Alnitak lies the Horsehead Nebula, a dark indentation of dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky. On the upper right lies M42, the Orion Nebula, an energetic caldron of tumultuous gas, visible to the unaided eye, that is giving birth to a new open cluster of stars. Immediately to the left of M42 is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man that houses many bright blue stars. The above image, a digitally stitched composite taken over several nights, covers an area with objects that are roughly 1,500 light years away and spans about 75 light years.
2012 February 25
Stephan's QuintetImage Data: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing: Al Kelly
Explanation: The first identified compact galaxy group, Stephan's Quintet is featured in this eye-catching image constructed with data drawn from the extensive Hubble Legacy Archive. About 300 million light-years away, only four of these five galaxies are actually locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters. The odd man out is easy to spot, though. The interacting galaxies, NGC 7319, 7318A, 7318B, and 7317 have an overall yellowish cast. They also tend to have distorted loops and tails, grown under the influence of disruptive gravitational tides. But the predominantly bluish galaxy, NGC 7320, is closer, just 40 million light-years distant, and isn't part of the interacting group. Stephan's Quintet lies within the boundaries of the high flying constellation Pegasus. At the estimated distance of the quartet of interacting galaxies, this field of view spans about 500,000 light-years. However, moving just beyond this field, above and to the left, astronomers can identify another galaxy, NGC 7320C, that is also 300 million light-years distant. Of course, including it would bring the interacting quartet back up to quintet status.
Astronomy News:Dark matter core defies explanation in NASA Hubble image
Published: Friday, March 2, 2012 - 16:34 in Astronomy & Space (full article at http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/03/02/dark.matter.core.defies.explanation.nasa.hubble.image)
This composite image shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters. The natural-color image of the galaxies was taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. Superimposed on the image are "false-colored" maps showing the concentration of starlight, hot gas, and dark matter in the cluster. Starlight from galaxies, derived from observations by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, is colored orange. The green-tinted regions show hot gas, as detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The gas is evidence that a collision took place. The blue-colored areas pinpoint the location of most of the mass in the cluster, which is dominated by dark matter. Dark matter is an invisible substance that makes up most of the universe's mass. The dark-matter map was derived from the Hubble Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations, by detecting how light from distant objects is distorted by the cluster galaxies, an effect called gravitational lensing. The blend of blue and green in the center of the image reveals that a clump of dark matter resides near most of the hot gas, where very few galaxies are found. This finding confirms previous observations of a dark-matter core in the cluster. The result could present a challenge to basic theories of dark matter, which predict that galaxies should be anchored to dark matter, even during the shock of a collision. Abell 520 resides 2.4 billion light-years away.
General Calendar:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Note: The South Bay Astronomical Society website (www.sbastro.org.) is temporarily not functional (due to recent death of the webmaster). Nor have I received the usual hardcopy mailing recently. So I have no dates for their current observing events.
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. March 12, March 26, April 16, and April 30, 2012
Friend's Hall, Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
All lectures are free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please arrive early. Lectures start at 7:30pm, with light refreshments in advance. Parking is free. To access the parking lot, please enter The Huntington via the Allen Avenue gate. For more information about the Carnegie Observatories or this lecture series, please contact Reed Haynie.
2 March SBAS Monthly General Meeting at El Camino College planetarium. 7:30 PM
Topic: TBD Guest Speaker:. www.sbastro.org.
Mar 12 Carnegie Lecture (see general info above)
Size Does Matter! Massive Clusters of Galaxies and the Structure of the UniverseDr. Lori Lubin
Professor, University of California, Davis
Clusters of galaxies are the largest, most massive structures in existence, anchoring the beautiful web of filaments that forms the large-scale structure of the Universe. Come explore with me these colossi of our Universe and see how their hefty size and harsh environment make them a unique probe of cosmology and the powerful forces that effect galaxy evolution.
12 March LAAS LAAS General Mtg..
Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM
15 March AEA Astronomy Club Monthly Meeting “Planetary Defense,” Bill Ailor, Aerospace. A1/ 1026
Mar. 15 & 16 -- The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2012 -- Mysterious TitanTitan, Saturn's largest moon and the only moon in the solar system enshrouded in a thick atmosphere, has fascinated observers since its discovery in 1655. We'll begin with the discovery of Titan by Christiaan Huygens and quickly cover all the major scientific discoveries about this intriguing moon right up to the amazing results that are flowing back now from the Cassini-Huygens Mission. The Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn, a joint NASA-ESA-ASI mission, was launched in 1997 and reached Saturn in July of 2004. The Huygens probe, released from the Cassini orbiter on Christmas day of that same year, drifted down to the surface of Titan on January 14th of 2005, returning spectacular images and data to a world-wide audience. The Cassini orbiter has gone on to complete almost 80 close flybys of Titan and has revealed the surface, which is normally hidden by a thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere filled with aerosols, to be a complex, exciting, and remarkably earth-like place. There are miles and miles of dunes, lakes of methane and ethane, and exotic features that might possibly be ice volcanoes. The atmosphere itself is more dense than Earth's and is a soup of complex hydrocarbons. Humanity has been fascinated by the solar system’s second largest moon for hundreds of years; and we're sitting at a ring-side seat as Titan reveals its mysteries to us.
Speaker: Trina Ray
Astronomer working on the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and the Co-chair of the Titan Orbiter Science Team.
Locations: Thursday, March 15, 2012, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
Friday, March 16, 2012, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
Webcast: For the webcast on Thursday at 7 p.m. PST, click here
If you don't have RealPlayer, you can download the free RealPlayer 8 Basic.
Mar 26 Carnegie Lecture (see general info above)
Bright Galaxies, Dark Universe, Part I: The Dawn of GalaxiesDr. Guillermo Blanc
Carnegie Fellow, Carnegie Observatories
We live in an exciting era, when human beings are close to observing the universe back in time throughout the entirety of its history. In Part 1 of this lecture I discuss our effort to observe the most distant, and at the same time the earliest, galaxies in the universe, and I will expose our current understanding of how galaxies form and evolve during the universe’s childhood.
Observing:
The following data are from the 2012 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s 2012 Skygazer’s Almanac & monthly Sky at a Glance.
A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night sky: www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.
Sun, Moon & Planets for March:
Planets: Jupiter sets between 11 & 12pm. Mars rises between 6 & 8:30pm. Saturn rises between 10 & 11:30pm. Mercury sets between 5 & 7pm. Venus sets 3 hrs after sunset. Uranus sets 7:30-9:30pm.
Other Events:
4 March – Mercury at greatest eastern elongation (18 deg.)
20 March – Vernal Equinox
24 March LAAS Dark Sky Night: Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only) – Messier Marathon (a few of us are going – contact David Wright if interested)
? SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
26 March – Venus at greatest eastern elongation (46 deg.)
31 March LAAS Public Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm
? SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke www.sbastro.org.
20 May Annular Solar Eclipse Center line thru Reno & Albuquerque – closest ~ Zion NP, Utah – max eclipse ~ 6:40pm (elevation ~10 deg), begins ~5:30pm, ends at sunset (~ 8pm)
5 June Venus Transit of the Sun In L.A. 3:06pm (58 deg elevation) to sunset (8:07pm) – greatest transit 6:25pm, 18 deg elevation
Internet Links: Link(s) of the MonthA weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night sky: www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.
Generale! Science News Astronomy & Space
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)
Mt. Wilson Institute (www.mtwilson.edu/), including status for visits & roadsLos 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 ClubClub Websites: Internal (Aerospace): 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. We expect to link some presentation materials from past mtgs. Our club newsletters are also being posted to an external blog, “An Astronomical View” http://astronomicalview.blogspot.com/.
Membership. For information, current dues & application, contact Jim Edwards (x66545, 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: Paul Rousseau, Program Committee Chairman (& club VP), David Wright, Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Jim Edwards, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President
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