AEA Astronomy Club
Newsletter August
2016
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 4
Astronomy News p. 9
General Calendar p. 11
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 4
Astronomy News p. 9
General Calendar p. 11
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 11
Observing p. 13
Observing p. 13
Useful
Links p. 15
About the Club p. 15
Club News & Calendar.
Club Calendar
About the Club p. 15
Club News & Calendar.
Club Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
4 Aug
|
AEA Astronomy
Club Meeting
|
|
(A1/1735)
|
AEA
Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st Thursdays at 11:45am. For all of 2016, the meeting room is A1/1735.
Club
News:
2017 (Aug. 21) Solar Eclipse
Expedition. A kickoff
mtg. was held for those interested, with the following agenda. Charts will be posted to the club’s website
(see the 2017 Eclipse link at the top of the home page). A link to the video of the 1991 Eclipse
Corporate Colloquium will also be posted there.
•
Committee Introductions (site selection, travel,
photo)
•
2017 Eclipse site selection, circumstances,
climatology – Mark Clayson
•
Lodging
•
Rexburg, Idaho Falls – Marilee Wheaton
•
Jackson, Pocatello – Bob Frueholz
•
RV’s/camping – Judy Kerner
•
West Yellowstone – Bob Frueholz
•
Travel (flights & rentals,
carpooling/shuttles) – Marilee Wheaton
•
Photo Pool
•
Eclipse phenomenology & night observing –
Mark Clayson
•
Preliminary equipment & plans, incl. star
party -- David Taylor
•
Invitation to Eclipse 1991 corporate colloquium
video showing at astronomy club mtg. Thurs. Aug. 4, 11:45am, A1/1735
We have reserved viewing sites in & near Rexburg, Idaho, within a
few miles of eclipse centerline (losing only 1 second of totality). Rexburg is 25 miles north of Idaho Falls, and
about an hour and a half from both West Yellowstone & Jackson Hole,
Wyoming. The in-town site is on the
campus of BYU-Idaho, and the other a gun club 9 miles west of town. Additionally, in case of local cloud cover
that morning, state road 33 running thru & east & west of Rexburg
provides over 50 miles of flexibility in each direction, following closely the
eclipse centerline and losing no more than several seconds of totality.
Sept. 1 Mt. Wilson Night preparations are on track for the tours of the Aerospace facility &
Mt. Wilson, and observing on the 60-inch telescope as well as the club’s
10-inch Meade SCT. There is a waiting
list for those not in the group limit of 25.
From: Leslie
Wickman [mailto:leslie.wickman@gmail.com]
I wonder if this might be of interest to *your* members:
~Leslie
From Jim Edwards: Hey Mark, I
wanted to let you know that I used the new Etalon in a 2x stacked configuration
on the Coronado last week. As expected, it really cut
down the brightness of the image... almost to the point of uselessness from a
visual point of view. I expect it would work better (visually) if I had
employed a dark cloth to cover my head etc when viewing... the bright
daylight that leaks in around the eyepiece really shrinks one's pupil to
be insensitive to dim images. I'm going to try that next.
I was successful in capturing a number
of images using the clubs ATIK imager. My computer's software is screwed
up right now, however, such that I can't view the resultant FITS files to send
the best of these to you yet. I thought computers were supposed to make
our jobs easier?! I'm still trying to fix this frustrating problem, its
surprisingly onerous in its resistance to being corrected, grrrr. So
stand by for those...
Imaged
today [7/25/16]. Single stack on the H-alpha Coronado solar scope.
Tried to use the 5x PowerMate but couldn't get it to focus. Will work on
that again tomorrow (?).
If there
were sunspots to be seen, Sam, this scope would most certainly see them beautifully.
However, the sun has been feakishly tame for the past many years, far beyond
anything expected due to anticipated, historical calm/active solar cycles.
There have been exceedingly few sunspots for the past 5-10 years,
"nobody" knows why nor what it means with regard to future
behavior. A real mystery!
Eureka!
Pop the champagne bottles! After several hours each day for the better
part of the past two weeks, I've finally gotten my EQ6
telescope mount to "talk" with my laptop such that I am, once again,
back in business to do astronomical work.
Its a
complicated system with several drivers, cables, converters, programs, and
configuration combinations, new computers, new operating systems, etc but I
finally got things to work again... oy vey!
Of course,
in hindsight, the solution should have been more obvious... despite what I
ordered, the RS-232 DB9 extension cable I received is apparently NOT a straight
thru wiring but the standard "mirror" wiring... grrrr! For most
applications, the hardware is supposed to be able to figure this out
automatically and compensate "on the fly" but the hardware and
software of my observatory system is old and of very limited distribution such
that it is apparently not capable of this.
I
will, of course, be documenting what I learned such that, next time, I
hopefully won't have to go thru the terrible ordeal again. But,
naturally, by then something else will be the culprit...
So, of
course, now that I have this figured out, the clouds are starting to come back
in at night, this after it being largely clear for the past week or more.
This is more typical "Edwards luck".
At
least now I'm able to proceed once things do clear up again. I've
reconfigured my scope for high magnification so as to do some planetary work while
Mars and Saturn are well placed... unfortunately, because it is summer, the
planetary ecliptic is low on the horizon at night such that they never get
above about 40-45 degrees altitude but, hey, I'll have to deal with the
undesireably large air mass and the turbulence it induces. Hopefully I'll
be able to include the new 5x Power Mate into the image train and get some real
magnification... using "lucky imaging" techniques and stacking, I'm
hoping to generate some good images with improved detail visible.
Challenges
relating to re-collimation and alignment of the imager with the eyepiece, as
well as the guide scope and its own imager, is yet to be done and frought with
its own hazards. So, I'm still not entirely out of the woods yet.
Wheeeeeee!
Quite the journey. Remind me... this is fun, right? Good times
all. :-\
Astronomy Video(s)
& Picture(s) of the Month
(from Astronomy
Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 
Image Credit: NASA, ESA - Acknowledgment: J. Hester (ASU), M. Weisskopf (NASA / MSFC)
Falcon 9: Launch and Landing
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley
Explanation: Shortly
after midnight on July 18 a SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket launched from
Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, planet
Earth. About 9 minutes later, the rocket's first stage returned to the
spaceport. This single time exposure captures the rocket's launch arc and landing streak from Jetty Park
only a few miles away. Along a climbing, curving trajectory the launch is
traced by the initial burn of the first stage, ending near the top of the
bright arc before stage separation. Due to perspective the next bright burn
appears above the top of the launch arc in the
photo, the returning first stage descending closer to the Cape. The final
landing burn creates a long streak as the first stage slows and comes to rest
at Landing Zone 1. Yesterday the Dragon cargo spacecraft delivered to orbit by
the rocket's second stage was attached to the International
Space Station.Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley
M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula
Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA - Processing: Judy Schmidt
Explanation: Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die?
Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die. In the case of low-mass
stars like our Sun and M2-9
pictured above, the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous
envelopes. The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousands of
years. M2-9, a
butterfly planetary nebula 2100light-years away shown in representative colors,
has wings that tell a strange but incomplete
tale. In the center, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times
the orbit of Pluto. The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk creating the bipolar appearance. Much
remains unknown about the physical processes that cause planetary nebulae.Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA - Processing: Judy Schmidt
Deep Magellanic Clouds Image Indicates
Collisions
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN) & David Martinez-Delgado (U. Heidelberg)
Explanation: Did the two most famous satellite galaxies of our Milky Way
Galaxy once collide? No one knows for sure, but a detailed
inspection of deep images
like that featured here give an indication that they have.
Pictured, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is on the top left and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is on the bottom right. The surrounding field is monochrome color-inverted to
highlight faint filaments, shown in gray. Perhaps surprisingly, the featured research-grade
image was compiled with small telescopes to cover the large angular field --
nearly 40 degrees across. Much of the faint nebulosity is Galactic Cirrus clouds of thin dust in our own Galaxy,
but a faint stream of stars does appear to be extending from the SMC toward the LMC.
Also, stars surrounding the LMC appear asymmetrically distributed,
indicating in simulations that they could well have been pulled
off gravitationally in one or
more collisions. Both the LMC and the SMC are visible to the unaided eye in
southern skies. Future telescopic observations and computer simulations are sure to
continue in a continuing effort to better understand the history of our
Milky Way and its
surroundings.Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN) & David Martinez-Delgado (U. Heidelberg)
Dark Dunes on Mars (Horizontally
Compressed)
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS
Explanation: How does wind affect sand on Mars? To help find out if it
differs significantly from Earth, the robotic Curiosity rover on Mars was
directed to investigate the dark Namib Dune in the Bagnold Dune Field in Gale Crater. Namib is
the first active sand dune investigated up close outside of planet Earth.
Wind-created ripples on Earth-bound sand dunes appear similar to ripples on
Mars, with one exception. The larger peaks visible on dark Namib dune, averaging about
3 meters apart, are of a type seen only underwater on Earth. They appear to
arise on Mars because of the way the thin Martian wind drags dark sand
particles. The featured image was taken last December and is horizontally
compressed to show context.
In the distance, a normal dusty Martian landscape slopes up in light orange,
while a rock-strewn landscape is visible on the far right. Curiosity unexpectedly went into safe mode in
early July, but it was brought
out last week and has now
resumed exploring the once lake-filled interior of Gale Crater for further
signs that it was once habitable by microbial life.Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS
Astronomy
News:
Black hole makes
material wobble around it
This
artist's impression depicts the accretion disc surrounding a black hole, in
which the inner region of the disc precesses.
Credit:
ESA/ATG medialab
The European Space Agency's orbiting
X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has proved the existence of a
"gravitational vortex" around a black hole. The discovery, aided by
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission, solves a mystery
that has eluded astronomers for more than 30 years, and will allow them to map
the behavior of matter very close to black holes. It could also open the door
to future investigations of Albert Einstein's general relativity.
Matter
falling into a black hole heats up as it plunges to its doom. Before it passes
into the black hole and is lost from view forever, it can reach millions of
degrees. At that temperature it shines X-rays into space.
In
the 1980s, pioneering astronomers using early X-ray telescopes discovered that
the X-rays coming from stellar-mass black holes in our galaxy flicker. The
changes follow a set pattern. When the flickering begins, the dimming and
re-brightening can take 10 seconds to complete. As the days, weeks and then
months progress, the period shortens until the oscillation takes place 10 times
every second. Then, the flickering suddenly stops altogether.
The
phenomenon was dubbed the Quasi Periodic Oscillation (QPO). "It was
immediately recognized to be something fascinating because it is coming from
something very close to a black hole," said Adam Ingram, University of
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, who began working to understand QPOs for his
doctoral thesis in 2009.
During
the 1990s, astronomers had begun to suspect that the QPOs were associated with
a gravitational effect predicted by Einstein's general relativity: that a
spinning object will create a kind of gravitational vortex.
"It
is a bit like twisting a spoon in honey. Imagine that the honey is space and
anything embedded in the honey will be "dragged" around by the
twisting spoon," explained Ingram. "In reality, this means that
anything orbiting a spinning object will have its motion affected." In the
case of an inclined orbit, it will "precess." This means that the
whole orbit will change orientation around the central object. The time for the
orbit to return to its initial condition is known as a precession cycle.
In
2004, NASA launched Gravity Probe B to measure this so-called Lense-Thirring
effect around Earth. After painstaking analysis, scientists confirmed that the
spacecraft would turn through a complete precession cycle once every 33 million
years.
Around
a black hole, however, the effect would be much more noticeable because of the
stronger gravitational field. The precession cycle would take just a matter of
seconds or less to complete. This is so close to the periods of the QPOs that
astronomers began to suspect a link.
Ingram
began working on the problem by looking at what happened in the flat disc of
matter surrounding a black hole. Known as an accretion disc, it is the place
where material gradually spirals inwards towards the black hole. Scientists had
already suggested that, close to the black hole, the flat accretion disc puffs
up into a hot plasma, in which electrons are stripped from their host atoms.
Termed the hot inner flow, it shrinks in size over weeks and months as it is
eaten by the black hole. Together with colleagues, Ingram published a paper in
2009 suggesting that the QPO is driven by the Lense-Thirring precession of this
hot flow. This is because the smaller the inner flow becomes, the closer to the
black hole it would approach and so the faster its Lense-Thirring precession
cycle would be. The question was: how to prove it?
"We
have spent a lot of time trying to find smoking gun evidence for this
behavior," said Ingram.
The
answer is that the inner flow is releasing high-energy radiation that strikes
the matter in the surrounding accretion disc, making the iron atoms in the disc
shine like a fluorescent light tube. The iron releases X-rays of a single
wavelength -- referred to as "a spectral line."
Because
the accretion disc is rotating, the iron line has its wavelength distorted by
the Doppler effect. Line emission from the approaching side of the disc is
squashed -- blue shifted -- and line emission from the receding disc material
is stretched -- red shifted. If the inner flow really is precessing, it will
sometimes shine on the approaching disc material and sometimes on the receding
material, making the line wobble back and forth over the course of a precession
cycle.
Seeing
this wobbling is where XMM-Newton came in. Ingram and colleagues from
Amsterdam, Cambridge, Southampton and Tokyo applied for a long-duration
observation that would allow them to watch the QPO repeatedly. They chose black
hole H 1743-322, which was exhibiting a four-second QPO at the time. They
watched it for 260,000 seconds with XMM-Newton. They also observed it for
70,000 seconds with NASA's NuSTAR X-ray observatory.
"The
high-energy capability of NuSTAR was very important," Ingram said.
"NuSTAR confirmed the wobbling of the iron line, and additionally saw a
feature in the spectrum called a 'reflection hump' that added evidence for
precession."
After
a rigorous analysis process of adding all the observational data together, they
saw that the iron line was wobbling in accordance with the predictions of
general relativity. "We are directly measuring the motion of matter in a
strong gravitational field near to a black hole," says Ingram.
This
is the first time that the Lense-Thirring effect has been measured in a strong
gravitational field. The technique will allow astronomers to map matter in the
inner regions of accretion discs around black holes. It also hints at a
powerful new tool with which to test general relativity.
Einstein's
theory is largely untested in such strong gravitational fields. So if
astronomers can understand the physics of the matter that is flowing into the
black hole, they can use it to test the predictions of general relativity as
never before -- but only if the movement of the matter in the accretion disc
can be completely understood.
"If
you can get to the bottom of the astrophysics, then you can really test the
general relativity," says Ingram. A deviation from the predictions of
general relativity would be welcomed by a lot of astronomers and physicists. It
would be a concrete signal that a deeper theory of gravity exists.
Larger
X-ray telescopes in the future could help in the search because they are more
powerful and could more efficiently collect X-rays. This would allow astronomers
to investigate the QPO phenomenon in more detail. But for now, astronomers can
be content with having seen Einstein's gravity at play around a black hole.
"This
is a major breakthrough since the study combines information about the timing
and energy of X-ray photons to settle the 30-year debate around the origin of
QPOs. The photon-collecting capability of XMM-Newton was instrumental in this
work," said Norbert Schartel, ESA Project Scientist for XMM-Newton.
More
information
The
results reported in this article are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society.
The
European Space Agency's X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, XMM-Newton, was launched in
December 1999. The largest scientific satellite to have been built in Europe,
it is also one of the most sensitive X-ray observatories ever flown. More than
170 wafer-thin, cylindrical mirrors direct incoming radiation into three
high-throughput X-ray telescopes. XMM-Newton's orbit takes it almost a third of
the way to the moon, allowing for long, uninterrupted views of celestial
objects.
NuSTAR
is a Small Explorer mission led by Caltech in Pasadena and managed by NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington.
For
more information about NuSTAR, visit
General
Calendar:
Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
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. . Click
here for more information.
4 Aug
|
AEA Astronomy
Club Meeting
|
|
(A1/1735)
|
||||||
5
Aug
|
Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS Monthly General Meeting
in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw
Bl. In Torrance)
Friday
Night 7:30PM Monthly General Meeting
Topic: Astronomy Update: The AAS Meeting of June
2016
Speaker: Dr. Steven Morris, Harbor College
|
||||||||
LAAS
LAAS General Meeting.
|
Griffith
Observatory
Event Horizon Theater 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM |
||||||||
August 11 & 12 The von Kármán Lecture
Series: 2016
The Rosetta Mission:
Comet C-G up Close
Rosetta
has been one of the most difficult space missions ever attempted. After 10
years of flight it caught up with a comet speeding at 55,000 km/h and dropped a
lander on its surface. Then the mother craft orbited the comet for another year
and a half coming as close as 6 km from the surface. In September of 2016 this
very mother ship, not designed for landing, will touch down onto the comet to
end the mission. The lecture will not only describe this upcoming landing but
will tell you what we have learned from Rosetta about comets and the formation
of the solar system.
Speaker:
Dr. Bonnie Buratti, US Rosetta Project Scientist, JPL
Mr. Artur Chmielewski, US Rosetta Project Manager, JPL
Dr. Bonnie Buratti, US Rosetta Project Scientist, JPL
Mr. Artur Chmielewski, US Rosetta Project Manager, JPL
Webcast:
Click here to watch the event live on Ustream (or archived after the event)
Click here to watch the event live on Ustream (or archived after the event)
Locations:
|
Thursday, Aug 11, 2016, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA › Directions Friday, Aug 12, 2016, 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. |
|
28 August
|
2:30 PM
UCLA Meteorite Gallery Lecture Series “Comets –
Icy Visitors from the Outer Solar System and Their Possible Role in the
Origin of Life” Alan Rubin, Researcher at the Earth, Planetary and Space
Sciences Department, UCLA 4863 Slichter Hall, 595 Charles E. Young Drive
East, Los Angeles
|
Observing:
The
following data are from the 2016 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s
2016 Skygazer’s Almanac & monthly Sky at a Glance.
Current
sun & moon rise/set/phase data for L.A.:
http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/usa/los-angeles
Sun,
Moon & Planets for August:
Moon: Aug 2 new, Aug 10 1st
quarter, Aug 18 full, Aug 24 last quarter
Planets:
Saturn
& Mars are up from sunset until about
midnight. Jupiter,
Mercury & Venus are visible briefly after sunset in the west.
Other
Events:
3,10,17,24,31 Aug
|
LAAS
The Garvey Ranch Observatory is open to the public every
Wednesday evening from 7:30 PM to 10 PM. Go into the dome to use the 8 Inch
Refractor or observe through one of our telescopes on the lawn. Visit our
workshop to learn how you can build your own telescope, grind your own
mirror, or sign up for our free seasonal astronomy classes.
Call 213-673-7355 for further information.
Time: 7:30
PM - 10:00 PM
Location: Garvey
Ranch Obs. , 781 Orange Ave., Monterey Park, CA 91755
|
6 Aug
|
LAAS
Public Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm
|
12/13 August Perseid
Meteor Shower Peak Expect
to see 50-80 meteors per hour, although the moon will interfere with observing
during the first half of the night.
20 Aug
|
SBAS
Saturday Night In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at Ridgecrest Middle School– 28915 North Bay Rd. RPV, Weather
Permitting: Please contact Greg Benecke to confirm that the gate will be
opened! http://www.sbastro.net/
|
27 Aug
|
SBAS
out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Greg Benecke to coordinate a
location. http://www.sbastro.net/.
|
26 Aug
|
LAAS Private dark sky
Star Party
|
Internet
Links:
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, membership in The Astronomical League, 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
No comments:
Post a Comment