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)

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

2013 July

AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter  July 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.7
    Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 7
    Observing p. 8
Useful Links p. 9
About the Club p. 10

Club News & Calendar.

Calendar

Club Meeting Schedule:

18 July 2013
Club Meeting
A Video lecture sample (TBD) from the club library (see https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club/Library)

A1/1735

AEA Astronomy Club meetings are on 3rd Thursdays at 11:45am.  For all of 2013, the meeting room is A1/1735.

News:  

The annual AEA budget request is due July 15.  If you have any specific suggestions for equipment, lunches, field trip expenses, etc. to purchase in FY14, please send them to Mark Clayson by this Fri., July 12.  We will probably keep our request amount comparable with past years -- $4,200, but we need to itemize how we would spend it.

Equipment.  The Meade ETX-90 is still backordered.  I’m told if it doesn’t ship July 16, it wouldn’t until Sept. – in which case we may cancel the order & order from someone else.  It was ordered March 29.

Here’s an article on the status of Meade Instruments, Inc. & amateur observing in general:
 http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76563067/
And here’s an update as of today:  http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/07/meade-instruments-board-reject-mit-capital-offer/

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)




Milky Way Over Crater Lake with Airglow 
Image Credit & Copyright: John H. Moore; Annotation: Judy Schmidt
Explanation: How many different astronomical phenomena have come together to create the above vista? Several. First, in the foreground, is Crater Lake -- a caldera created by volcanism on planet Earth about 7,700 years ago. Next, inside the lake, is water. Although the origin of the water in the crater is melted snowfall, the origin of water on Earth more generally is unclear, but possibly related to ancient Earthly-impacts of icy bodies. Next, the green glow in the sky is airglow, light emitted by atoms high in the Earth's atmosphere as they recombine at night after being separated during the day by energetic sunlight. The many points of light in the sky are stars, glowing by nuclear fusion. They are far above the atmosphere but nearby to our Sun in the Milky Way Galaxy. Finally, the bright arch across the image is the central band of the Milky Way, much further away, on the average, than the nearby stars, and shaped mostly by gravity. Contrary to appearances, the Milky Way band glows by itself and is not illuminated by the airglow. The above image is a six-frame panorama taken during about two weeks ago in Oregon, USA.
Video:  All of Mercury http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130612.html
Image Credit: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington
Explanation: For the first time, the entire surface of planet Mercury has been mapped. Detailed observations of the innermost planet's surprising crust have been ongoing since the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft first passed Mercury in 2008 and began orbiting in 2011. Previously, much of the Mercury's surface was unknown as it is too far for Earth-bound telescopes to see clearly, while the Mariner 10flybys in the 1970s observed only about half. The above video is a compilation of thousands of images of Mercury rendered in exaggerated colors to better contrast different surface features. Visible on therotating world are rays emanating from a northern impact that stretch across much of the planet, while about half-way through the video the light colored Caloris Basin rotates into view, a northern ancient impact feature that filled with lava. MESSENGER has now successfully completed its primary and first extended missions.
Video:  Flowing Auroras Over Norway  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130609.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Tor Even Mathisen; Music: Per Wollen; Vocals: Silje Beate Nilssen
Explanation: Have you ever seen an aurora? Auroras are occurring again with increasing frequency. With the Sun peaking at its eleven year maximum in aurora-triggering activity, it is exhibiting a greater abundance of sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections. Solar activity like this typically expels charged particles into the Solar System, some of which impact Earth's magnetosphere and trigger Earthly auroras. In late 2010, the above timelapse displays of picturesque auroras were captured above Tromsø, Norway. Curtains of auroral light, usually green, flow, shimmer and dance as energetic particles fall toward the Earth and excite atoms of air high up in the Earth's atmosphere. There may even be opportunities to see auroras tonight, as recent solar explosions have triggered numerous aurora sightings over the past few days.
Video:  Circling a Black Hole at its Photon Sphere http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130702.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Nemiroff (MTU)
Explanation: What would it look like to go right up to a black hole? One particularly interesting place near a black hole is its photon sphere, where photons can orbit in circles, a sphere 50 percent further out than the event horizon. Were you to look out from the photon sphere of a black hole, half of the sky would appear completely black, half of the sky would appear unusually bright, and the back of your head would appear across the middle. The above computer-animated video depicts this view from the photon sphere. The reason that the lower region, as shown, appears black is because all light paths from this dark region comes up from the black hole -- which classically emits no light. The upper half of the sky now appears unusually bright, blueshifted, and shows increasingly many complete sky images increasingly close to the dark-light divide across the middle. That dark-light divide is the photon sphere -- your location -- and since photons can do circles there, light from the back of your head can circle the black hole and come to your eye. No place on the sky is hidden from you -- stars that would normally pass behind the black hole now appear to zip quickly around an Einstein ring, a ring that appears above as a horizontal line about a quarter of the way down from the video top. The above video is part of a sequence of videos visually exploring the space near a black hole's event horizon. (Disclosure: Video creator Robert Nemiroff is an editor for APOD.)
Video:  Orbiting a Black Hole  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130701.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Nemiroff (MTU)
Explanation: What would it look like to orbit a black hole? Since the strong gravity of the black hole can significantly alter light paths, conditions would indeed look strange. For one thing, the entire sky would be visible, since even stars behind the black hole would have their light bent to the observer's eye. For another, the sky near the black hole would appear significantly distorted, with more and more images of the entire sky visible increasingly near the black hole. Most visually striking, perhaps, is the outermost sky image completely contained inside an easily discernible circle known as the Einstein ring. Orbiting a black hole, as shown in the above scientifically-accurate computer-created illustrative video, will show stars that pass nearly directly behind the black hole as zipping around rapidly near the Einstein ring. Although star images near the Einstein ring may appear to move faster than light, no star is actually moving that quickly. The above video is part of a sequence of videos visually exploring the space near a black hole's event horizon. (Disclosure: Video creator Robert Nemiroff is an editor for APOD.)
Video:  Star Size Comparisons http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130606.html
Video Credit & Copyright: morn1415 (YouTube)
Explanation: How big is our Sun compared to other stars? In a dramatic and popular video featured on YouTube, the relative sizes of planets and stars are shown from smallest to largest. The above video starts with Earth's Moon and progresses through increasingly larger planets in our Solar System. Next, the Sun is shown along as compared to many of the brighter stars in our neighborhood of theMilky Way Galaxy. Finally, some of the largest stars known spin into view. Note that the true sizes of most stars outside of the Sun and Betelgeuse are not known by direct observation, but rather inferred by measurements of their perceived brightness, temperature, and distance. Although an inspiring learning tool that is mostly accurate, APOD readers are encouraged to complete the learning experience -- and possibly help make future versions more accurate -- by pointing out slight inaccuracies in the video.
Video:  A Supercell Thunderstorm Over Texas http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130618.html
Video Credit & Copyright: Mike Olbinski; Music: Impact Lento (Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech)
Explanation: Is that a cloud or an alien spaceship? It's an unusual and sometimes dangerous type of thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Supercells may spawn damaging tornados, hail, downbursts of air, or drenching rain. Or they may just look impressive. A supercell harbors a mesocyclone -- a rising column of air surrounded by drafts of falling air. Supercells could occur over many places on Earth but are particularly common in Tornado Alley of the USA. Pictured above are four time lapse sequences of a supercell rotating above and moving across Booker, Texas. Captured in the video are new clouds forming near the storm center, dust swirling on the ground, lightning flashing in the upper clouds, all while the impressively sculptured complex rotates ominously. Finally, after a few hours, as shown in the final sequence, dense rain falls as the storm begins to die out.
2013 June 11 

Star Forming Region NGC 3582 
Image Credit & Copyright: Desert Hollow Observatory
Explanation: What's happening in the NGC 3582 nebula? Bright stars and interesting molecules are forming. The complex nebula resides in the star forming region called RCW 57. Visible in this imageare dense knots of dark interstellar dust, bright stars that have formed in the past few million years, fields of glowing hydrogen gas ionized by these stars, and great loops of gas expelled by dying stars. Adetailed study of NGC 3582, also known as NGC 3584 and NGC 3576, uncovered at least 33 massive stars in the end stages of formation, and the clear presence of the complex carbon molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are thought to be created in the cooling gas of star forming regions, and their development in the Sun's formation nebula five billion years ago may have been an important step in the development of life on Earth. The above image was taken at the Desert Hollow Observatory north of Phoenix, Arizona, USA.


Dry Ice Sled Streaks on Mars 
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA
Explanation: What creates these long and nearly straight grooves on Mars? Dubbed linear gullies, they appear on the sides of some sandy slopes during Martian spring, have nearly constant width, extend for as long as two kilometers, and have raised banks along their sides. Unlike most water flows, they do not appear to have areas of dried debris at the downhill end. A leading hypothesis -- actually being tested here on Earth -- is that these linear gullies are caused by chunks of carbon dioxide ice (dry ice) breaking off and sliding down hills while sublimating into gas, eventually completely evaporating into thin air. If true, these natural dry-ice sleds may well provide future adventurers a smooth ride on cushions of escaping carbon dioxide. The above recently-released image was taken in 2006 by the HiRISEcamera on board the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently orbiting Mars.
Astronomy News:

NASA Chandra, Spitzer study suggests black holes abundant among the earliest stars

Published: Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - 20:03 in Astronomy & Space
Karen Teramura, UHIfA

By comparing infrared and X-ray background signals across the same stretch of sky, an international team of astronomers has discovered evidence of a significant number of black holes that accompanied the first stars in the universe. Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which observes in the infrared, researchers have concluded one of every five sources contributing to the infrared signal is a black hole.
"Our results indicate black holes are responsible for at least 20 percent of the cosmic infrared background, which indicates intense activity from black holes feeding on gas during the epoch of the first stars," said Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The cosmic infrared background (CIB) is the collective light from an epoch when structure first emerged in the universe. Astronomers think it arose from clusters of massive suns in the universe's first stellar generations, as well as black holes, which produce vast amounts of energy as they accumulate gas.
Even the most powerful telescopes cannot see the most distant stars and black holes as individual sources. But their combined glow, traveling across billions of light-years, allows astronomers to begin deciphering the relative contributions of the first generation of stars and black holes in the young cosmos. This was at a time when dwarf galaxies assembled, merged and grew into majestic objects like our own Milky Way galaxy.
"We wanted to understand the nature of the sources in this era in more detail, so I suggested examining Chandra data to explore the possibility of X-ray emission associated with the lumpy glow of the CIB," said Guenther Hasinger, director of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and a member of the study team.
Hasinger discussed the findings Tuesday at the 222nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Indianapolis. A paper describing the study was published in the May 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
The work began in 2005, when Kashlinsky and his colleagues studying Spitzer observations first saw hints of a remnant glow. The glow became more obvious in further Spitzer studies by the same team in 2007 and 2012. The 2012 investigation examined a region known as the Extended Groth Strip, a single well-studied slice of sky in the constellation Bootes. In all cases, when the scientists carefully subtracted all known stars and galaxies from the data, what remained was a faint, irregular glow. There is no direct evidence this glow is extremely distant, but telltale characteristics lead researchers to conclude it represents the CIB.
In 2007, Chandra took especially deep exposures of the Extended Groth Strip as part of a multiwavelength survey. Along a strip of sky slightly larger than the full moon, the deepest Chandra observations overlap with the deepest Spitzer observations. Using Chandra observations, lead researcher Nico Cappelluti, an astronomer with the National Institute of Astrophysics in Bologna, Italy, produced X-ray maps with all of the known sources removed in three wavelength bands. The result, paralleling the Spitzer studies, was a faint, diffuse X-ray glow that constitutes the cosmic X-ray background (CXB).
Comparing these maps allowed the team to determine whether the irregularities of both backgrounds fluctuated independently or in concert. Their detailed study indicates fluctuations at the lowest X-ray energies are consistent with those in the infrared maps.
"This measurement took us some five years to complete and the results came as a great surprise to us," said Cappelluti, who also is affiliated with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in Baltimore.
The process is similar to standing in Los Angeles while looking for signs of fireworks in New York. The individual pyrotechnics would be too faint to see, but removing all intervening light sources would allow the detection of some unresolved light. Detecting smoke would strengthen the conclusion at least part of this signal came from fireworks.
In the case of the CIB and CXB maps, portions of both infrared and X-ray light seem to come from the same regions of the sky. The team reports black holes are the only plausible sources that can produce both energies at the intensities required. Regular star-forming galaxies, even those that vigorously form stars, cannot do this.
By teasing out additional information from this background light, the astronomers are providing the first census of sources at the dawn of structure in the universe.
"This is an exciting and surprising result that may provide a first look into the era of initial galaxy formation in the universe," said another contributor to the study, Harvey Moseley, a senior astrophysicist at Goddard. "It is essential that we continue this work and confirm it."

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center



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.

8 July
LAAS LAAS General Meeting.
Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM

12 July
SBAS Monthly General Meeting at El Camino College planetarium. 7:30 PM
Topic: “Sounds of the Universe: Acoustic Astronomy”
Speaker: Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, Florida International University
http://www.sbastro.net/.  
Jul. 18 & 19  The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2013

Exploring the Extreme Universe with NuSTAR

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, launched on June 13, 2012, and is the first telescope to focus high energy X-ray light. Compared to the previous generation of non-focusing observatories working in this energy band, this change in technology provides NuSTAR with 10x sharper images and 100x improved sensitivity. High energy X-ray light provides a unique probe of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, from flares on the surface of the Sun, to the explosions of stars, to the extreme environments around neutron stars and black holes. This talk will present some of the highlights from the first year of NuSTAR observations and describe how they are changing our picture of the extreme universe.
Speaker:
Dr. Daniel Stern, NuSTAR Project Scientist
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Locations:
 Thursday, July 18, 2013, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions

Friday, July 19, 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.


18 July 2013
Club Meeting


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 July:

Moon: July 8 new, July 16 1st quarter, July 22 full, July 29 last quarter                   
Planets:  Mercury is near greatest western elongation, visible before dawn after July 20.  Venus is in the West evening sky. Jupiter reappears low in the ENE dawn twilight early in the month. Saturn is in the western evening sky, setting after midnight.  Mars is low in the ENE dawn twilight. 
Other Events:

6 July
SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke http://www.sbastro.net/.  

6 July
LAAS Dark Sky Night : Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)

13 July
Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm

21 July  Moon at perigee, large tides.

22 July  Mars 0.8 deg. North of Jupiter

27 July
SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.

28/29 July Southern Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak
The duration of the southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower covers the period of July 14 to
August 18. Maximum currently occurs on July 29/30 (λ=125°), from an average radiant of
RA=339°, DEC=-17°. The maximum hourly rate typically reaches 15-20.

30 July Mercury greatest elongation West (20 deg.)

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)
Southern California & Beyond Amateur Astronomy Organizations, Observatories & Planetaria
Mt. Wilson Observatory description, history, visiting


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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