The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image (see description on the right, below)

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image
(10,000 galaxies in an area 1% of the apparent size of the moon -- see description on the right, below)

Friday, June 7, 2013

2013 June

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

Club Meeting Schedule:

20 June 2013
Club Meeting & Pizza Party
The Chemical Makeup of Exosolar Planets
Dr. Steven Naftilan, Claremont College
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.”

[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 (Apollo & Shuttle history),.... Other suggestions?

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.

The Waterfall and the World at Night
Image Credit &
Copyright: Stéphane Vetter (Nuits sacrées)
Explanation: Above this boreal landscape, the arc of the Milky Way and shimmering aurorae flow through the night. Like an echo, below them lies Iceland's spectacular Godafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods. Shining just below the Milky Way, bright Jupiter is included in the panoramic nightscape recorded on March 9. Faint and diffuse, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) appears immersed in the auroral glow. The digital stitch of four frames is a first place winner in the 2013 International Earth and Sky Photo Contest on Dark Skies Importance organized by The World at Night. An evocative record of the beauty of planet Earth's night sky, all the contest's winning entries are featured in this video.


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.

Galaxy Cove Vista
Image Credit & Copyright:
Rogelio Bernal Andreo (Deep Sky Colors)
Explanation: To see a vista like this takes patience, hiking, and a camera. Patience was needed in searching out just the right place and waiting for just the right time. A short hike was needed to reach this rugged perch above a secluded cove in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in California, USA. And a camera was needed for the long exposure required to bring out the faint light from stars and nebulae in the background Milky Way galaxy. Moonlight and a brief artificial flash illuminated the hidden beach and inlet behind nearby trees in the above composite image taken about two weeks ago. Usually obscured McWay Falls is visible just below the image center, while the Pacific Ocean is in view to its right.


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.

Astronomy News:

Fragile mega-galaxy is missing link in history of cosmos

Published: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - 13:00 in Astronomy & Space

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
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   
            
PlanetsMercury 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

A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night sky:  www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.

Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying Guides


General
Regional (esp. Southern California)


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/

 
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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