AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter June 2013
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 5
General Calendar p.6
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 6
Observing p. 8
Useful Links p. 9
About the Club p. 10
Club News & Calendar.
Calendar
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 5
General Calendar p.6
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 6
Observing p. 8
Useful Links p. 9
About the Club p. 10
Club News & Calendar.
Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
20 June 2013
|
Club Meeting & Pizza
Party
|
The Chemical Makeup of Exosolar Planets
|
Dr.
Steven Naftilan,
|
A1/1735
|
AEA Astronomy Club meetings are on 3rd Thursdays at 11:45am. For all of 2013, the meeting room is A1/1735.
June 20 Pizza
Party! Place your order by Mon., June 17 – free for
members, $5 for others. Must RSVP with
preferences -- give 1st & 2nd choices when you RSVP
by June 17 (see below). We’ll have to
share pizzas so you may not get your first choice – hopefully at least your 2nd.
Menu options for June 20 lunch:
Pizzas:
Three Cheese Pizza
Margherita Pizza with Fresh
Basil, Tomato and Mozzarella
The
Works Pizza (sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, peppers, olives,
mozzarella, oregano)
Grilled
Vegetable Pizza (spinach, artichokes, zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, cheeses)
Barbecued Chicken Pizza
Custom
Pizza (choose topping(s) from: sausage,
pepperoni, ham, black olives, pineapple, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, eggplant, peppers, jalapenos, garlic; ideas:
Aloha Pizza (ham & pineapple), Pepperoni Pizza, Fresh Tomato and
Pesto Pizza, Sausage and Onion Pizza
Drinks:
Bottled Juice
Bottled Water
Bottled Soda
Carton of Milk
Canned Soda
Icewater
News:
Equipment. The current Meade ETX-90 delivery date is
June 24.
The RTMC Astronomy Expo. Alan Olson & David Wright & their
families attended. They took the
10-inch,16-inch & giant binoculars.
I did hear that David won a door prize – a 10-inch Dobsonian, so there
are various benefits in attending.
Alan
Olson’s report:
“I
was at the RTMC for both Saturday and Sunday nights. I had the club's 16-inch Dobsonian with
me. To be blunt, conditions were
poor. The most obvious problem was a
near-full moon that came up within a few hours of sunset. On top of that was just poor atmospheric
conditions. As moonrise drew near, light
streaks began to appear in the sky, becoming steadily more numerous and
brighter as the moon neared the horizon.
When the moon finally rose it brightly lit up these high clouds like
some crazy spiderweb, very pretty in its own right, but not what I came to see.
“One of the coolest things I saw was Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury making a nice triangle above the western horizon just after sunset on Sunday. But as one of those present noted, the fact that Venus was obviously twinkling was a harbinger of poor viewing conditions. Other things I saw:
- Saturn, extremely bright (a "retina burner" in the words of one viewer) in the 16-inch. Easily able to pick out 4 moons without averted vision.
- Comet PANSTARRS (i.e., C/2011 L4), beautiful, with a tail that stretched the width of the eyepiece field of view (1.5 degrees) and beyond. I saw this through several other scopes and the 16-inch had the best view by far. Apparently, aperture matters. See the fun story about this comet below.
- M51, spiral galaxy, arms clearly visible
- M13, cluster, stars resolvable almost to core
- M81 and M82 (in same field of view), galaxies, spiral structure of M81 clearly visible
- M104, Sombrero galaxy, the famous dust lane clearly visible. When switching to a smaller eyepiece (from 38mm to 26mm) one person reported being able to see detail in the dust lane. I couldn't, but the person reporting this also claimed to be able to see PANSTARRS (magnitude 8+) unaided, so make of that what you will.
“So how did I like the 16-inch? Again, to be blunt, I found it a little frustrating. Most of the time I used my 2-inch 38mm Orion Q70 eyepiece, which on my telescope at home would have a 2.3 degree field of view, but on the 16-inch had only 1.5 degrees. Also at home I have a finder scope with a 5 degree field of view, whereas the 16-inch has only a red dot finder. This reduced field of view made star-hopping a little more challenging, and because the 16-inch sees far more stars than my 8-inch and they are far brighter (dark skies are also to "blame" here) I had a hard time recognizing the stars I was looking for.
“As an example, my son wanted to see his favorite object, M57. M57 is normally easy to find even in LA - start at Vega, trace through the stars of Lyra, and M57 lies between Sulafat and Sheilak on the side of Lyra opposite Vega. On Sunday night M57 was just above the horizon in the northeast shortly after sunset. Vega was easy to find, and I soon found the double-double, and I worked out Zeta1/2 Lyrae largely on the basis of it being a double star in the correct spot in relation to Vega and the double-double. Delta2 Lyrae was recognizable by the nearby open cluster. The separation between these stars is only slightly larger than the field of view of my eyepiece, but Sulafat and Sheilak are at least two eyepiece widths away, and while at home I'm used to there being no bright stars in this area to distract me, I found with the 16-inch the eyepiece was constantly full of stars and the magnitude 3ish stars I was looking for didn't stand out the way I expected. I managed to find Sheilak, but was never sure about Sulafat (which, to be fair, was just above the trees), nor did I locate M57 until it got dark enough and Lyra got high enough that I was able to locate Sulafat and Sheilak visually and could then put the red dot right where I knew M57 should be. Later, when an experienced individual asked to try out the scope he was able to find many of the above objects on his first try by simply placing the red dot in the spot where he knew they must be in relation to the visible stars.
“A final, (perhaps) interesting anecdote. At the general meeting on Sunday the speakers pointed out PANSTARRS was visible in the sky near Polaris and urged those present to take a look. Later, around sunset, I was standing with a group of graybeards (literally!) and the topic of PANSTARRS came up. Several of those present said that they were planning on looking for it, but "near Polaris" was pretty vague. I pulled out my iPad, fired up SkySafari, and quickly had a list of PANSTARRS comets (there are 20 or so) and soon found one in Draco that had the right magnitude. I showed several people the location, and got some polite nods in reply. I was struck by the fact that nobody else had any such device. One guy was trying to look it up on the web with his phone, but given the poor service at the camp, wasn't having much luck. I wandered off, and came back later after I had found PANSTARRS to see if they had had any luck and to compare views. Nobody had found it. "Near Polaris" wasn't good enough. I pulled out my iPad again and showed them that at that time, it was about 5 degrees to the right of Polaris (one guy argued with me that no, in fact it was only 3 fingers to the right of Polaris and proceeded to give me a detailed formula for converting fingers to degrees). With that, everyone was able to quickly locate the comet. Again, nobody had any tools to help them find the comet. Of course, any of these guys could locate just about any other object in the sky in the time it would take me to look it up on the iPad, but I found the lack of interest in new tools interesting.”
“One of the coolest things I saw was Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury making a nice triangle above the western horizon just after sunset on Sunday. But as one of those present noted, the fact that Venus was obviously twinkling was a harbinger of poor viewing conditions. Other things I saw:
- Saturn, extremely bright (a "retina burner" in the words of one viewer) in the 16-inch. Easily able to pick out 4 moons without averted vision.
- Comet PANSTARRS (i.e., C/2011 L4), beautiful, with a tail that stretched the width of the eyepiece field of view (1.5 degrees) and beyond. I saw this through several other scopes and the 16-inch had the best view by far. Apparently, aperture matters. See the fun story about this comet below.
- M51, spiral galaxy, arms clearly visible
- M13, cluster, stars resolvable almost to core
- M81 and M82 (in same field of view), galaxies, spiral structure of M81 clearly visible
- M104, Sombrero galaxy, the famous dust lane clearly visible. When switching to a smaller eyepiece (from 38mm to 26mm) one person reported being able to see detail in the dust lane. I couldn't, but the person reporting this also claimed to be able to see PANSTARRS (magnitude 8+) unaided, so make of that what you will.
“So how did I like the 16-inch? Again, to be blunt, I found it a little frustrating. Most of the time I used my 2-inch 38mm Orion Q70 eyepiece, which on my telescope at home would have a 2.3 degree field of view, but on the 16-inch had only 1.5 degrees. Also at home I have a finder scope with a 5 degree field of view, whereas the 16-inch has only a red dot finder. This reduced field of view made star-hopping a little more challenging, and because the 16-inch sees far more stars than my 8-inch and they are far brighter (dark skies are also to "blame" here) I had a hard time recognizing the stars I was looking for.
“As an example, my son wanted to see his favorite object, M57. M57 is normally easy to find even in LA - start at Vega, trace through the stars of Lyra, and M57 lies between Sulafat and Sheilak on the side of Lyra opposite Vega. On Sunday night M57 was just above the horizon in the northeast shortly after sunset. Vega was easy to find, and I soon found the double-double, and I worked out Zeta1/2 Lyrae largely on the basis of it being a double star in the correct spot in relation to Vega and the double-double. Delta2 Lyrae was recognizable by the nearby open cluster. The separation between these stars is only slightly larger than the field of view of my eyepiece, but Sulafat and Sheilak are at least two eyepiece widths away, and while at home I'm used to there being no bright stars in this area to distract me, I found with the 16-inch the eyepiece was constantly full of stars and the magnitude 3ish stars I was looking for didn't stand out the way I expected. I managed to find Sheilak, but was never sure about Sulafat (which, to be fair, was just above the trees), nor did I locate M57 until it got dark enough and Lyra got high enough that I was able to locate Sulafat and Sheilak visually and could then put the red dot right where I knew M57 should be. Later, when an experienced individual asked to try out the scope he was able to find many of the above objects on his first try by simply placing the red dot in the spot where he knew they must be in relation to the visible stars.
“A final, (perhaps) interesting anecdote. At the general meeting on Sunday the speakers pointed out PANSTARRS was visible in the sky near Polaris and urged those present to take a look. Later, around sunset, I was standing with a group of graybeards (literally!) and the topic of PANSTARRS came up. Several of those present said that they were planning on looking for it, but "near Polaris" was pretty vague. I pulled out my iPad, fired up SkySafari, and quickly had a list of PANSTARRS comets (there are 20 or so) and soon found one in Draco that had the right magnitude. I showed several people the location, and got some polite nods in reply. I was struck by the fact that nobody else had any such device. One guy was trying to look it up on the web with his phone, but given the poor service at the camp, wasn't having much luck. I wandered off, and came back later after I had found PANSTARRS to see if they had had any luck and to compare views. Nobody had found it. "Near Polaris" wasn't good enough. I pulled out my iPad again and showed them that at that time, it was about 5 degrees to the right of Polaris (one guy argued with me that no, in fact it was only 3 fingers to the right of Polaris and proceeded to give me a detailed formula for converting fingers to degrees). With that, everyone was able to quickly locate the comet. Again, nobody had any tools to help them find the comet. Of course, any of these guys could locate just about any other object in the sky in the time it would take me to look it up on the iPad, but I found the lack of interest in new tools interesting.”
[Yes,
many older “purist” graybeards have not yet adopted the newer finder apps. I note that we have a smartphone adapter for
the new giant binoculars to facilitate use of sky apps in pointing and
identifying. Of course their FOV is even
greater (4.4 deg), and star-hopping is even easier w. smaller limiting
magnitude. A great tool for novices, or
for extended Milky Way regions. And of
course the 3 Meade instruments (10-inch, 80 and 90 mm) are GoTo, and the 8-inch
Dobs is computer-guided, making finding easier.
So the 16-inch seems to be an instrument for the serious observer
looking for faint, deep-sky objects.
Another observation: don’t expect
better observing than the moon and weather forecast will allow.]
Field Trip.
There have been few responses so far on the survey of interests in
candidate club field trips for the year.
Unless additional responses come in, we will probably table it for now.
Ideas include: Mt.
Palomar tour & star party/camping,
JPL tour (or open house in June), Griffith Observatory, Calif.
Science Museum
(incl. Endeavor, IMAX,...), the Columbia
Memorial Space
Center in Downey
Membership Renewals.
Some still need to renew their club membership. See the club website for the many benefits of
membership. Please submit the renewal
form (available on Aerolink at https://aerolink.aero.org/cs/llisapi.dll?func=ll&objId=13659520&objAction=browse&viewType=1, or attached) with your payment ($12
check made out to AEA Astronomy Club) to Alan Olson at M1-107.
Astronomy
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month
(from Astronomy Picture of
the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html) 2013 International Earth & Sky Photo Contest winners video: http://vimeo.com/65960743
Video: Galaxy Collisions: Simulation vs Observations
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130514.html
Images Credit: NASA, ESA; Visualization: Frank Summers (STScI); Simulation: Chris Mihos (CWRU) & Lars Hernquist (Harvard).
Explanation: What happens when two galaxies
collide? Although it may take over a billion years, such titanic clashes are quite common. Since galaxies are mostly empty space, no
internal stars are likely to themselves collide. Rather the gravitation of each galaxy will distort or destroy the other galaxy, and the galaxies may eventually merge to form a single larger galaxy. Expansive gas and dust clouds collide and trigger waves of
star formation that complete even during the interaction process. Pictured above is a computer simulation of two large spiral galaxies colliding, interspersed with real still images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Our own Milky Way Galaxy has absorbed several smaller galaxies during its existence and is even projected to merge with the larger neighboring Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years. Images Credit: NASA, ESA; Visualization: Frank Summers (STScI); Simulation: Chris Mihos (CWRU) & Lars Hernquist (Harvard).
Kepler's Supernova Remnant in X-Rays
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M. Burkey et al. Optical: DSS
Explanation: What caused this mess? Some type of
star exploded to create the unusually shaped nebula known as Kepler's supernova remnant, but which type? Light from the stellar explosion that created this energized cosmic cloud was first seen on
planet Earth in October 1604, a mere four hundred years ago. The supernova produced a bright new star in early 17th century skies within the
constellation Ophiuchus. It was studied by astronomer Johannes Kepler and his contemporaries, without the benefit of a telescope,
as they searched for an explanation of the heavenly apparition. Armed with a modern
understanding of stellar evolution, early 21st century astronomers
continue to explore the expanding debris cloud, but can now use orbiting space
telescopes to survey Kepler's supernova remnant (SNR) across the spectrum. Recent X-ray data
and images of Kepler's supernova remnant taken
by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory has shown relative elemental
abundances typical of a Type Ia supernova, and further indicated that the
progenitor was a white dwarf star that exploded when it accreted
too much material from a companion Red Giant star and went over Chandrasekhar's limit. About 13,000 light years away, Kepler's supernova represents the most recent stellar
explosion seen to occur within our Milky Way galaxy. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M. Burkey et al. Optical: DSS
Red Sprite Lightning with Aurora
Image Credit & Copyright: Walter Lyons (FMA Research), WeatherVideoHD.TV
Explanation: What's that in the sky? It is a
rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 25 years ago: a red sprite. Recent research has shown that following a powerful
positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the
speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The above
image, taken a few days ago above central South Dakota, USA, captured a bright red sprite, and
is a candidate for the first color image ever recorded of a sprite and aurora
together. Distant storm clouds cross the bottom of the image,
while streaks of colorful aurora are visible in the background. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to
occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side. Image Credit & Copyright: Walter Lyons (FMA Research), WeatherVideoHD.TV
Astronomy News:
Fragile mega-galaxy is missing link in
history of cosmos
Two hungry young galaxies
that collided 11 billion years ago are rapidly forming a massive galaxy about
10 times the size of the Milky Way, according to UC Irvine-led research
published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Capturing the creation of this type of large, short-lived star body is
extremely rare -- the equivalent of discovering a missing link between winged
dinosaurs and early birds, said the scientists, who relied on the once-powerful
Herschel space telescope and observatories around the world. The new
mega-galaxy, dubbed HXMM01, "is the brightest, most luminous and most
gas-rich submillimeter-bright galaxy merger known," the authors write.HXMM01 is fading away as fast as it forms, a victim of its own cataclysmic birth. As the two parent galaxies smashed together, they gobbled up huge amounts of hydrogen, emptying that corner of the universe of the star-making gas.
"These galaxies entered a feeding frenzy that would quickly exhaust the food supply in the following hundreds of million years and lead to the new galaxy's slow starvation for the rest of its life," said lead author Hai Fu, a UC Irvine postdoctoral scholar.
The discovery solves a riddle in understanding how giant elliptical galaxies developed quickly in the early universe and why they stopped producing stars soon after. Other astronomers have theorized that giant black holes in the heart of the galaxies blew strong winds that expelled the gas. But cosmologist Asantha Cooray, the UC Irvine team's leader, said that they and colleagues across the globe found definitive proof that cosmic mergers and the resulting highly efficient consumption of gas for stars are causing the quick burnout.
"Finding this type of galaxy is as important as the discovery of the archaeopteryx was in understanding dinosaurs' evolution into birds, because they were both caught at a critical transitional phase," Fu said.
The new galaxy was initially spotted by UC Irvine postdoctoral scholar Julie Wardlow, also with Cooray's group. She noticed "an amazing, bright blob" in images of the so-called cold cosmos -- areas where gas and dust come together to form stars -- recorded by the European Space Agency's Herschel telescope with important contributions from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "Herschel captured carpets of galaxies, and this one really stood out."
Follow-up views at a variety of wavelengths were obtained at more than a dozen ground-based observatories, particularly the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
Source: University
of California - Irvine
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. For more information about the Carnegie
Observatories or this lecture series, please contact Reed Haynie.
|
7 June
|
SBAS Monthly General Meeting at El Camino
College planetarium. 7:30 PM
Topic: “The Sun,” Speaker: Dr. Steven Morris, SBAS
and Los Angeles Harbor College
|
10 June
|
LAAS LAAS General Meeting.
|
Griffith
Observatory
Event Horizon Theater 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM |
Jun. 20 & 21 The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2013
Forecasting Quakes: Facts, Myths and Possibilities
The recent news of Italian scientists convicted in a criminal court of failing to provide adequate warning of an impending earthquake has starkly highlighted some of the limitations and misunderstandings of the science behind earthquake forecasts and predictions. Are predictions even possible? What difference is there between a prediction and a forecast? What scientific principles allow (or rule out) useful earthquake forecasts? This talk will review the past history and basic principles behind efforts to anticipate the location, size and timing of seismic events. New techniques in data collection and improved understanding of how the Earth works is leading to ever-improving forecast capability, but will the "holy grail" of routine specific earthquake predictions ever be a reality? These questions will be explored and some thoughts about impending southern California quakes will be discussed.
Speaker:
|
Dr. Greg Lyzenga,
Technical Staff, Solid Earth Group, Earth Sciences Section Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Locations:
|
Thursday, June
20, 2013, 7pm The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA › Directions Friday, June 21, 2013, 7pm The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College 1570 East Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA › Directions |
Webcast:
|
We offer two options to
view the live streaming of our webcast on Thursday: › 1) Ustream with real-time web chat to take public questions. › 2) Flash Player with open captioning If you don't have Flash Player, you can download for free here. |
20 June 2013
|
Club Meeting & Pizza
Party
|
The Chemical Makeup of Exosolar Planets
|
Dr.
Steven Naftilan, Claremont College
|
A1/1735
|
Observing:
The following
data are from the 2013 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s 2013 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:
Moon: June 8 new, June 16 1st
quarter, June 23 full, June 30 last quarter
Planets: Mercury is near greatest eastern elongation, visible after sunset. Venus remains near Mercury, visible in
the West for about an hour after sunset. Jupiter
sets with the sun mid-month. Saturn transits
near sunset, and is visible all night. Mars rises an hour before sunrise.
Other
Events:
1
& 29 June
|
SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at
Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
|
12 June Mercury greatest elongation
E (24 deg)
15 June Lyrid Meteor Shower
Peak This shower is active
during June 10 to 21, producing predominantly blue and white meteors at a maximum
hourly rate of 8 per hour on June 15. At maximum the radiant is located at
α=278°, δ=+35°. The average observed magnitude of this shower is near 3, while
about 32% of the meteors leave trains.
8 June
|
SBAS
out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke http://www.sbastro.net/.
|
8 June
|
LAAS Dark Sky Night : Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests
only)
|
15
June
|
Public Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds
2-10pm
|
20 June
Mercury 1.9 deg S of Venus
21 June Summer Solstice
Internet Links:
Link(s) of the Month
Link(s) of the Month
A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night sky: www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.
Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying Guides
General
About the Club
Club 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 have linked some presentation materials from past mtgs. Our club newsletters are also being posted to an external blog, “An Astronomical View” http://astronomicalview.blogspot.com/.
Club 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 have linked 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 Alan Olson, or see the club website (or Aerolink folder) where a form is also available (go to the membership link/folder & look at the bottom). 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: Mark Clayson, Program Committee Chairman (& acting club VP), TBD, Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Alan Olson, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President
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