AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter October 2013
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 6
General Calendar p.8
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 8
Observing p. 10
Useful Links p. 10
About the Club p. 11
Club News & Calendar.
Calendar
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 6
General Calendar p.8
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 8
Observing p. 10
Useful Links p. 10
About the Club p. 11
Club News & Calendar.
Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
17 Oct 2013
|
Club Meeting
|
Professional
Astrophotography
|
Wally
Pacholka
|
A1/1735
|
23 Oct 2013
|
Club Booth at the AEA
October Festival
|
Display esp. our small
scopes (Celestron NexStar, Meade backpack observatory, Orion Starblast,
Coronado H-Alpha, giant binocs)
|
Mark
Clayson, Alan Olson, ...
|
A8 Mall (11am-1pm)
|
21 Nov 2013
|
Club Meeting
|
A Tour of the new
Aerospace E POD (A6) Telescope & Facility
|
Richard
Rudy
|
A1/1735
|
19 Dec 2013
|
Club Meeting
|
Mars Exploration
Concept
|
Matthew
Eby
|
A1/1735
|
AEA Astronomy Club meetings are on 3rd Thursdays at 11:45am. For all of 2013 except September, the meeting room is A1/1735.
News:
We’ve
been busy spending the rest of our AEA budget allotment! Here is a list of what we’ve just ordered and received from our wish list,
with links for more info.
- Celestron NexStar 4se 102mm Maksutov & GoTo mount/tripod (we cancelled our Meade ETX90 6 month backorder and got this for the same price)
- iOptron
Cube Pro portable computerized mount (for our H-alpha
- Orion StarBlast 114mm AutoTracker Reflector Telescope (& tracking mount for other small scopes, cameras, cell phones)
- Orion Scope Cloak - 12"-16" Dobsonians (for our 16” or 8” Dobsonians)
- 11.63" ID Orion Full Aperture Solar Filter (glass, for our Meade LX200)
- Orion Safety Film Solar Filter for 4.5" Reflector Telescopes (e.g., for the Orion StarBlast)
- Orion StarShoot 3MP Planetary Imager & AutoGuider
- Orion StarShoot USB Eyepiece Camera II
- 1.25" Orion Variable Polarizing Filter (for lunar observation)
- 24mm Tele Vue Panoptic Telescope Eyepiece
We had
last-minute changes of not only rooms for our September 19 mtg., but also
speakers. John Hoot of SSC (among many other things
developed the Meade telescope control system) spoke on radio astronomy. It was an excellent historical &
scientific update, and his charts are in the club archive on Aerolink, . We’ll re-schedule Jason Fields’ presentation
on observing with the 16-inch maybe January?
Oct.
17: Wally Pacholka is a local (Long Beach
For our Nov. 21 mtg., Rick Rudy of the Remote
Sensing Dept. will give us a tour of the
new in-house-built telescope in the A6 E Pod. See the Orbiter story on the new telescope
here: http://pages.aero.org/orbiter/2013/08/12/in-house-telescope-provides-new-capabilities/
On Dec. 19, Matthew Eby will share his work on "... the exploration of Mars and a research project
underway to develop and demonstrate an architecture for landing a small microprobe on Mars using a derivative of
Aerospace’s small reentry spacecraft. "
See a story on his IRAD & balloon drop test at http://pages.aero.org/orbiter/pdf-archival-view-month/?d=2
Astronomy
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month
(not from the usual Astronomy Picture of
the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html, because NASA sites are inoperational due to the government shutdown. These are from AstroPics.com) 
Astronomy News:
NASA Space Telescopes Find Patchy Clouds
on Exotic World
Kepler-7b (left), which is 1.5
times the radius of Jupiter (right), is the first exoplanet to have its clouds
mapped. The cloud map was produced using data from NASA's Kepler and Spitzer
space telescopes. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT
› Full image and caption
› Full image and caption
September 30, 2013
PASADENA,
Calif. -- Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space
telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar
system, a sizzling, Jupiter-like world known as Kepler-7b.
The planet is marked by high clouds in the west and clear skies in the east. Previous studies from Spitzer have resulted in temperature maps of planets orbiting other stars, but this is the first look at cloud structures on a distant world.
"By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution 'map' of this giant, gaseous planet," said Brice-Olivier Demory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology inCambridge
Kepler has discovered more than 150 exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, and Kepler-7b was one of the first. The telescope's problematic reaction wheels prevent it from hunting planets any more, but astronomers continue to pore over almost four years' worth of collected data.
Kepler's visible-light observations of Kepler-7b's moon-like phases led to a rough map of the planet that showed a bright spot on its western hemisphere. But these data were not enough on their own to decipher whether the bright spot was coming from clouds or heat. The Spitzer Space Telescope played a crucial role in answering this question.
Like Kepler, Spitzer can fix its gaze at a star system as a planet orbits around the star, gathering clues about the planet's atmosphere. Spitzer's ability to detect infrared light means it was able to measure Kepler-7b's temperature, estimating it to be between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 and 1,300 Kelvin). This is relatively cool for a planet that orbits so close to its star -- within 0.06 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth and the sun) -- and, according to astronomers, too cool to be the source of light Kepler observed. Instead, they determined, light from the planet's star is bouncing off cloud tops located on the west side of the planet.
"Kepler-7b reflects much more light than most giant planets we've found, which we attribute to clouds in the upper atmosphere," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Unlike those on Earth, the cloud patterns on this planet do not seem to change much over time -- it has a remarkably stable climate."
The findings are an early step toward using similar techniques to study the atmospheres of planets more like Earth in composition and size.
"With Spitzer and Kepler together, we have a multi-wavelength tool for getting a good look at planets that are trillions of miles away," said Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division inWashington
Kepler identified planets by watching for dips in starlight that occur as the planets transit, or pass in front of their stars, blocking the light. This technique and other observations of Kepler-7b previously revealed that it is one of the puffiest planets known: if it could somehow be placed in a tub of water, it would float. The planet was also found to whip around its star in just less than five days.
Explore all 900-plus exoplanet discoveries with NASA's "Eyes on Exoplanets," a fully rendered 3D visualization tool, available for download at http://eyes.nasa.gov/exoplanets. The program is updated daily with the latest findings from NASA's Kepler mission and ground-based observatories around the world as they search for planets like our own.
Other authors include: Julien de Wit, Nikole Lewis, Andras Zsom and Sara Seager of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jonathan Fortney of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Heather Knutson and Jean-Michel Desert of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Kevin Heng of the University of Bern, Switzerland; Nikku Madhusudhan of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; Michael Gillon of the University of Liège, Belgium; Vivien Parmentier of the French National Center for Scientific Research, France; and Nicolas Cowan of Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Lewis is also a NASA Sagan Fellow.
The technical paper is online at http://www.mit.edu/~demory/preprints/kepler-7b_clouds.pdf .
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,Pasadena ,
Calif. Spitzer Science Center Analysis
Center
Ames Boulder , Colo. , developed the Kepler flight system and supports
mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the
University of Colorado
in Boulder Baltimore
The planet is marked by high clouds in the west and clear skies in the east. Previous studies from Spitzer have resulted in temperature maps of planets orbiting other stars, but this is the first look at cloud structures on a distant world.
"By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution 'map' of this giant, gaseous planet," said Brice-Olivier Demory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Kepler has discovered more than 150 exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, and Kepler-7b was one of the first. The telescope's problematic reaction wheels prevent it from hunting planets any more, but astronomers continue to pore over almost four years' worth of collected data.
Kepler's visible-light observations of Kepler-7b's moon-like phases led to a rough map of the planet that showed a bright spot on its western hemisphere. But these data were not enough on their own to decipher whether the bright spot was coming from clouds or heat. The Spitzer Space Telescope played a crucial role in answering this question.
Like Kepler, Spitzer can fix its gaze at a star system as a planet orbits around the star, gathering clues about the planet's atmosphere. Spitzer's ability to detect infrared light means it was able to measure Kepler-7b's temperature, estimating it to be between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 and 1,300 Kelvin). This is relatively cool for a planet that orbits so close to its star -- within 0.06 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth and the sun) -- and, according to astronomers, too cool to be the source of light Kepler observed. Instead, they determined, light from the planet's star is bouncing off cloud tops located on the west side of the planet.
"Kepler-7b reflects much more light than most giant planets we've found, which we attribute to clouds in the upper atmosphere," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Unlike those on Earth, the cloud patterns on this planet do not seem to change much over time -- it has a remarkably stable climate."
The findings are an early step toward using similar techniques to study the atmospheres of planets more like Earth in composition and size.
"With Spitzer and Kepler together, we have a multi-wavelength tool for getting a good look at planets that are trillions of miles away," said Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division in
Kepler identified planets by watching for dips in starlight that occur as the planets transit, or pass in front of their stars, blocking the light. This technique and other observations of Kepler-7b previously revealed that it is one of the puffiest planets known: if it could somehow be placed in a tub of water, it would float. The planet was also found to whip around its star in just less than five days.
Explore all 900-plus exoplanet discoveries with NASA's "Eyes on Exoplanets," a fully rendered 3D visualization tool, available for download at http://eyes.nasa.gov/exoplanets. The program is updated daily with the latest findings from NASA's Kepler mission and ground-based observatories around the world as they search for planets like our own.
Other authors include: Julien de Wit, Nikole Lewis, Andras Zsom and Sara Seager of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jonathan Fortney of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Heather Knutson and Jean-Michel Desert of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Kevin Heng of the University of Bern, Switzerland; Nikku Madhusudhan of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; Michael Gillon of the University of Liège, Belgium; Vivien Parmentier of the French National Center for Scientific Research, France; and Nicolas Cowan of Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Lewis is also a NASA Sagan Fellow.
The technical paper is online at http://www.mit.edu/~demory/preprints/kepler-7b_clouds.pdf .
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
General Calendar:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia: Carnegie (Tues. 4pm), UCLA,
Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena
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.
|
4 Oct
|
SBAS Monthly General Meeting at El Camino
College planetarium. 7:30 PM
Topic: “SBAS Members Astrophoto Competition”
|
7 Oct
|
LAAS LAAS General Meeting.
|
Griffith
Observatory
Event Horizon Theater 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM |
Theodore Von Karman and the Creation of JPL
The
year 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Theodore Von Karman’s death. Born in Budapest , Austria-Hungary
in 1881, Von Karman emigrated to the United States
Speaker:
|
Dr. Erik Conway,
JPL Historian
|
Locations:
|
Thursday, Oct 10,
2013, 7pm The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA › Directions Friday, Oct 11, 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. |
|
17 Oct 2013
|
Club Meeting
|
Professional
Astrophotography
|
Wally
Pacholka
|
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 October:
Moon: Oct 5 new, Oct 11 1st
quarter, Oct 18 full, Oct 26 last quarter
Planets: Mercury, Venus &
Saturn are visible briefly after sunset in the West. Mars & Jupiter are in the pre-dawn sky in the East.
Other
Events:
5 Oct
|
SBAS
out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke http://www.sbastro.net/.
|
5 Oct
|
LAAS Dark Sky Night :
|
9 October
Draconids Meteor
Shower Peak
The duration of this meteor shower covers the period of October 6-10.
Maximum currently occurs
on October 9/10 (λ=159.40°), from an average radiant of α=262°, δ=+54°. The
maximum rate
typically reaches 1-2 per hour, but outbursts of hundreds or thousands per
hour occurred several
times during the 20th century.
21 October Orionids Meteor Shower Peak
The Orionid meteor shower is the second of two showers that occur each year
as a result of Earth
passing through dust released by Halley's Comet, with the first being the
Eta Aquarids. The point
from where the Orionid meteors appear to radiate is located within the
constellation Orion.
The Orionids generally begin on October 15 and end on October 29, with
maximum generally
occurring during the morning hours of October 20-22. The Orionids are
barely detectable on the
beginning and ending dates, but observers in the Northern Hemisphere will
see around 20 meteors
per hour at maximum, while observers in the Southern Hemisphere will see
around 40 meteors per
hour. The maximum can last two or three nights, although there is evidence
of some fluctuation
from year to year.
26 Oct
|
Public Star Party:
|
26 Oct
|
SBAS Star Party (weather permitting): RPV at
Ridgecrest Middle School 28915 North Bay Rd.
|
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, President & 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
