AEA Astronomy Club
Newsletter April
2017
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 10
General Calendar p. 18
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 10
General Calendar p. 18
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 18
Observing p. 22
Observing p. 22
Useful
Links p. 23
About the Club p. 24
Club News & Calendar.
Club Calendar
About the Club p. 24
Club News & Calendar.
Club Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
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6 April
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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Pizza & Online
Astronomy Video
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(A1/1735)
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4 May
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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Gemini
(Exo-)Planet Imager, Sloane Wiktorowicz, Aerospace
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(A1/1735)
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AEA
Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st Thursdays at 11:45 am (except
Feb. 2 which will start at 12:00).
For all of 2017, the meeting room is A1/1735.
Club
News:
Eclipse 2017. A survey has been sent to those on the eclipse
roster (let me know if you’d like to be added).
It is primarily for those planning to observe the eclipse in Rexburg,
Idaho, although others may be interested in the eclipse glasses, memorabilia
and photo pool.
This will help us to choose
locations/arrangements for a group meeting the evening before the eclipse, a
star party the evening of the eclipse, and possible meal(s). And some
other local eclipse-related activities.
Please complete the survey and return it to me
at your earliest convenience. We will probably have another group meeting
sometime after we have compiled the results and made arrangements, to update
everyone on preparations & plans.
If you have not made travel arrangements, it is
probably a good idea to do so before long. If anyone has recent
experience or insights into making lodging arrangements, feel free to
share. I have heard of homeowners on the eclipse path now renting their
homes for thousand(s) of dollars per night (at least near Casper, WY, site of
the Astronomical League convention). I have a cousin in Ogden, UT who’s
planning to camp out on his Idaho farm. I checked, and there are no car
rentals available in Pocatello.
Astronomy Video(s)
& Picture(s) of the Month
(from Astronomy
Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
VIDEO: Equinox on a Spinning Earth https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170319.html
Image Credit: NASA, Meteosat, Robert Simmon
Explanation: When does the line between day and night become vertical?
Tomorrow. Tomorrow is an equinox on planet Earth, a time of year when day and night are most
nearly equal. At an equinox, the Earth's terminator -- the dividing line between day and night -- becomes
vertical and connects the north and south poles. The featured time-lapse
video demonstrates this by displaying an entire year on planet
Earth in twelve seconds. From geosynchronous orbit, the Meteosat satellite recorded these
infrared images of the Earth
every day at the same local time. The video started at the September 2010 equinox with the terminator line being vertical. As the Earth revolved around the Sun, the terminator was seen to tilt in a way that provides less daily sunlight
to the northern hemisphere, causing
winter in the north. As the year progressed, the March 2011 equinox arrived halfway through the video, followed by the
terminator tilting the other way, causing
winter in the southern hemisphere -- and summer in the north. The
captured year ends again with the September equinox, concluding another of billions of trips the Earth has
taken -- and will take -- around the Sun.Image Credit: NASA, Meteosat, Robert Simmon
JWST: Ghosts and Mirrors
Image Credit: Chris Gunn, NASA
Explanation: Ghosts
aren't actually hovering over the James Webb Space
Telescope. But the lights are out as it
stands with gold tinted mirror segments and support structures folded in
Goddard Space Flight Center's Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration
Facility clean room. Following vibration and acoustic testing, bright
flashlights and ultraviolet lights are played over the stationary telescope
looking for contamination, easier to spot in a darkened room. In the dimness
the camera's long exposure creates the ghostly apparitions, blurring the moving
lights and engineers. A scientific successor to Hubble, the James
Webb Space Telescope is optimized
for the infrared exploration of the early Universe. Its planned launch is in
2018 from French Guiana on a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket.Image Credit: Chris Gunn, NASA
King of Wings Hoodoo under the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Wayne Pinkston (LightCrafter Photography)
Explanation: This rock structure is not only surreal -- it's real. The
reason it's not more famous is that it is, perhaps, smaller than one might
guess: the capstone rock overhangs only a few
meters. Even so, the King
of Wings outcrop, located in New Mexico, USA, is a fascinating example of an unusual type of rock
structure called a hoodoo. Hoodoos may form when a layer of hard rock overlays a layer of eroding softer rock. Figuring out the details of incorporating this hoodoo into a night-sky photoshoot took over a year. Besides waiting
for a suitably picturesque night behind a sky
with few clouds, the foreground had to be artificially lit just right relative to the natural glow of the background.
After much planning and waiting, the final shot, featured
here, was taken in May 2016. Mimicking the
horizontal bar, the background sky features the band of our Milky Way Galaxystretching overhead.Image Credit & Copyright: Wayne Pinkston (LightCrafter Photography)
Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal
Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth
region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical
nebulas. Here, filaments of dark dust and
glowing gas surround hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the featured deep image shown in assigned colors,
part of the nebula's center is shown as taken by the Hubble
Space Telescope. The Great
Nebula in Orion can be found
with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar
nurseries. These nurseries contain much hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42 and M43, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal
The Aurora Tree
Image Credit & Copyright: Alyn Wallace Photography
Explanation: Yes, but can your tree do this? Pictured is a visual coincidence between the dark branches of a
nearby tree and bright glow of a distant aurora. The beauty of the aurora -- combined with how it seemed to mimic a tree right nearby -- mesmerized the photographer to such a
degree that he momentarily forgot to take pictures. When viewed at the right
angle, it seemed that this tree had aurora for leaves! Fortunately, before the
aurora morphed into a different overall shape, he came to his senses and capture the awe-inspiring momentary
coincidence. Typically triggered bysolar explosions, aurora are caused by high energy electrons impacting the Earth's
atmosphere around 150 kilometers up. The unusual Earth-sky
collaboration was witnessed earlier this month in Iceland.Image Credit & Copyright: Alyn Wallace Photography
A Dark Winter Sky over Monfragüe National Park in Spain
Image Credit & Copyright: José Luis Quiñones (Entre Encinas y Estrellas)
Explanation: You, too, can see a night sky like this. That is because Monfragüe National Park in Spain, where this composite image was created, has recently had
its night
sky officially protected from
potential future light pollution. Icons of the night
sky that should continue to stand out during northern winter --
and are visible on the featured image -- include very bright stars like Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon, bright star clusters like the Pleiades, and, photographically, faint nebulas like the California and Rosette Nebulas. Even 100 years ago, many people were more familiar
with adarker
night sky than people today, primarily because of the modern light
pollution. Other parks that have been similarly protected as dark-sky preserves include Death Valley National
Park (USA) and Grasslands National
Park (Canada). Areas such as the city of Flagstaff, Arizona and much of the Big Island of Hawaii also have their night skies protected.Image Credit & Copyright: José Luis Quiñones (Entre Encinas y Estrellas)
Colorful Aurora over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Sigurdur William Brynjarsson; Annotation Advice: Sævar Helgi Bragason
Explanation: You don't always see a scene this beautiful when you hike
to an ancient volcano -- you have to be lucky. When the astrophotographer realized that auroras were visible two-weeks ago, he made a night-time run for
the top of the caldera to see if he could capture them also reflected in the
central lake. When he arrived, he found that ... the northern lights were even
brighter and more impressive than before! And his
image of them is the featured 13-frame panoramic mosaic. The crater lake in the
center is called Kerid (Icelandic:
Kerið) and is about 3,000 years old. The aurora overhead shows impressive colors and banding, with the red colors occurring higher in the Earth's
atmosphere than the green. The background sky is filled with icons of the northern
night including Polaris, the Pleiades star cluster, and the stars that compose the handle of the Big Dipper.Image Credit & Copyright: Sigurdur William Brynjarsson; Annotation Advice: Sævar Helgi Bragason
Astronomy
News:
No, Dark Energy
Isn't An Illusion
NASA / Swift
Supernovae
observed in nearby and distant galaxies provide some of the best evidence for
dark energy. But alternative theories attempt to explain the same phenomenon
without it.
In
1998, two teams of scientists announced a shocking discovery: the expansion of
the Universe was accelerating. Distant galaxies weren't just receding from us,
but their recession speed was increasing over time. Over the next few years,
precision measurements of three independent quantities -- distant galaxies
containing type Ia supernovae, the fluctuation pattern in the cosmic microwave
background, and large-scale correlations between galaxies at a variety of
distances -- all supported and confirmed this picture. The
leading explanation? That there's a new form of energy inherent to space
itself: dark energy. The case is so strong that no one reasonably doubts the
evidence, but many teams have made alternative cases for the explanation, claiming
that dark energy itself could be an illusion.
NASA / WMAP science team
The expansion
(or contraction) of space is a necessary consequence in a Universe that
contains masses. But the rate of expansion and how it behaves over time is
quantitatively dependent on what's in your Universe.
To understand whether this could be
the case, we need to walk through four straightforward steps:
1. What a
Universe without dark energy would look like,
2. What our
Universe actually looks like,
3. What
alternative explanations have been offered up,
4. And to
evaluate whether any of them could legitimately work?
In science, as in all things, it's
pretty easy to offer a "what if..." alternative scenario to the
leading idea. But can it stand up to scientific rigor? That's the crucial test.
NASA / WMAP science team
A closed
(overdense), open (underdense), and critical (flat) Universe would either
recollapse, expand forever, or have the expansion asymptote to zero,
respectively, in a Universe without dark energy.
Well before we conceived of dark
energy, all the way back in the 1920s and 1930s, scientists derived how the
entire Universe could have evolved within General Relativity. If you assumed
that space, on the largest scales, was uniform -- with the same density and
temperature everywhere -- there were only three viable scenarios to describe a
Universe that was expanding today. If you fill a Universe with matter and
radiation, like ours appears to be, gravity will fight the expansion, and the
Universe can:
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expand up to a point, reach a maximum size, and then begin
contracting, eventually leading to a total recollapse.
·
expand and slow down somewhat, but gravitation is insufficient to
ever stop or reverse it, and so it will eternally expand into the great cosmic
abyss.
·
expand, with gravitation and the expansion balancing each other
perfectly, so the expansion rate and the recession speed of everything asymptotes
to zero, but never reverses.
Those were the three classic fates of
the Universe: big crunch, big freeze, or a critical Universe, which was right
on the border between the two.
NASA & ESA, of possible models of the expanding Universe
Without dark
energy, the Universe wouldn't be accelerating.
But
then the crucial observations came in, and it turns out the Universe did none of those three things. For the first six billion
years or so after the Big Bang, it appeared we lived in a critical Universe,
with the initial expansion and the effects of gravitational attraction
balancing one another almost perfectly. But when the density of the Universe
dropped below a certain amount, a surprise emerged: distant galaxies began
speeding up, away from us and one another. This cosmic acceleration was
unexpected, but robust, and has continued at the same rate ever since, for the
past 7.8 billion years.
Saul Perlmutter of Berkeley
Measuring back
in time and distance (to the left of "today") can inform how the Universe
will evolve and accelerate/decelerate far into the future. We can learn that
acceleration turned on about 7.8 billion years ago.
Why
was this happening? The current, known forms of energy in the Universe --
particles, radiation and fields -- can't account for it. So scientists
hypothesized a new form of energy, dark energy, that could
cause the Universe's expansion to accelerate. There could be a new field that
permeates all of space causing it; it could be the zero-point energy of the
quantum vacuum; it could be Einstein's cosmological constant from General
Relativity. Current and planned observatories and experiments are looking for
possible signatures that would distinguish or search for departures from any of
these potential explanations, but so far all are consistent with being the true
nature of dark energy.
Ned Wright, based on the latest data from Betoule et al.
The
distance/redshift relation, including the most distant objects of all, seen
from their type Ia supernovae. The data strongly favors cosmic acceleration,
even though other data pieces now exist.
But alternatives have been proposed as
well. Adding a new type of energy to the Universe should be a last resort to
explain a new observation, or even a new suite of observations. A lot of people
were skeptical of its existence, so scientists began asking the question of
what else could be occurring? What could mimic these effects? A number of
possibilities immediately emerged:
·
Perhaps the distant supernovae weren't the same as nearby ones,
and were inherently fainter?
·
Perhaps there was something about the environments in which the
supernovae occurred that changed?
·
Perhaps the distant light, en-route, was undergoing an interaction
that caused it to fail to reach our eyes?
·
Perhaps a new type of dust existed, making these distant objects
appear systematically fainter?
·
Or could it be that the assumption on which these models are
founded -- that the Universe is, on the largest scales, perfectly uniform -- is
flawed enough that what appears to be dark energy is simply the
"correct" prediction of Einstein's theory?
The light-blocking, light-losing, or
systematic light-differences scenarios have all been ruled out by multiple
approaches, as even if supernovae were removed from the equation entirely, the
evidence for dark energy would still be overwhelming. With precision
measurements of the cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations,
and the large-scale structures that form and fail-to-form in our Universe, the
case that the Universe's expansion rate is changing in the fashion we've
measured is beyond reproach.
Supernova Cosmology Project, Amanullah, et al., Ap.J. (2010)
Constraints on
dark energy from three independent sources: supernovae, the CMB and BAO. Note
that even without supernovae, we’d need dark energy.
But
what about that last possibility? The Universe, after all, isn't perfectly uniform. It has huge overdense regions:
cosmic filaments, giant galaxy clusters, individually bound galaxies, stars,
planets, dust clouds, and even black holes, not to mention dark matter. It has
underdense regions: cosmic voids that have practically no stars or galaxies
inside, stretching for up to tens of millions of light years. And if the
Universe is non-uniform -- and in particular, if it went from a more uniform
state to a more non-uniform state over time -- perhaps what we're seeing as
dark energy is a mere misinterpretation of the energy in these imperfections?
Gábor Rácz et al., 2017
A Universe
with dark energy (red), a Universe with large inhomogeneity energy (blue), and
a critical, dark-energy-free Universe (green). Note that the blue line behaves
differently from dark energy.
That
was the idea of a new paper, published just a few weeks ago, by Gábor Rácz
and collaborators. Or, more accurately, that's an old idea that comes up every
few years, that gets publicized, and that is still ruled out. Why is it ruled
out? Because the effects of these inhomogeneities
on cosmic expansion has been quantified, and the results have been known for
many years. The big conclusions one can draw are:
·
Cosmic imperfections contribute like spatial curvature, which
leaves them unable to cause an accelerated-expansion-like effect.
·
They contribute less than 0.01% to the expansion rate at all
times, even extrapolating billions of years into the future.
·
And that gravitational potential energy is the largest contributor
from these cosmic imperfections, but play no important role on any scales in
the Universe: from singularities to beyond the observable Universe.
E.R. Siegel and J.N. Fry, 2005
The
contributions of inhomogeneity energy to cosmic expansion (top line), up to
today (1 on the x-axis), and the fractional contribution to the expansion rate.
Note that even into the far future, the contribution never approaches 1. The
straight lines are linear approximations; the curves are the full calculation.
Although I
myself wrote one of the important papers that quantified this effect, this result has been
known since at least 1995, when Uros Seljak and Lam Hui presented their treatment at a
symposium.
The Universe is indeed imperfect, but we know exactly how (and
by how much) it's imperfect. It was an interesting idea, but the effects of
these imperfections is well-understood, and can't explain the observed
acceleration. Dark energy is here to stay.
If you're going to resurrect an old
idea, you'd better have a new reason why the old objections that ruled it out
no longer apply. Until that day comes, you can rest assured that dark energy is
no illusion!
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.
Update: All tickets have
been reserved, however you can still join our live webcast at the following
link: Huntington Live Webcast.
The 2017 Astronomy Lecture Series
is organized by Dr. John
Mulchaey, Director of the Observatories.
Monday, April 3rd 2017
Unraveling the Mysteries of Exploding Stars
Dr. Tony Piro
George Ellery Hale Distinguished Scholar in Theoretical Astrophysics
Carnegie Institution for Science
Dr. Tony Piro
George Ellery Hale Distinguished Scholar in Theoretical Astrophysics
Carnegie Institution for Science
Supernovae are cosmic explosions where a single star can become
as bright as a billion stars combined. Even though supernovae are crucial to
the Universe, including producing the elements necessary for life, many
mysteries remain. What powers them? Which stars are exploding? How do stars
die? Astrophysicists are combining clues from observations with theoretical
modeling to finally address these issues. And just like with any good mystery,
often the answers lead to even more questions.
Simulating the Universe, One Galaxy at a Time
Dr. Andrew Wetzel
Caltech-Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellow
Carnegie Institution for Science
The formation of galaxies like our Milky Way involves gravity,
dark matter, gases, star formation, and stellar explosions. Theoretical
astrophysics is now revealing this complex process by using the world’s most
powerful supercomputers to simulate galaxy formation. Dr. Wetzel will describe
dramatic new advances in understanding how galaxies form within the cosmic web
of the Universe.
Exoplanet Genetics
Dr. Johanna Teske
Carnegie Origins Postdoctoral Fellow
Carnegie Institution for Science
How do we find planets orbiting stars other than our Sun? How do
we know what they’re made of, or if they’re Earth-like? Dr. Teske will discuss
how exoplanets’ composition is “inherited” from their host star ‘’genes,” and
will highlight new exoplanet discoveries and the Carnegie Institution’s pivotal
role in understanding exoplanet formation and composition.
You can watch a recording of this talk by following this link.
Monday, May 15th 2017
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Now I See You as You Are: How We See Inside a Star With Sound
Dr. Jennifer van Saders
Carnegie-Princeton Fellow,
Carnegie Institution for Science
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Now I See You as You Are: How We See Inside a Star With Sound
Dr. Jennifer van Saders
Carnegie-Princeton Fellow,
Carnegie Institution for Science
We have sought to understand the internal workings of stars for
as long as we have done astronomy, with the Sun as our first and best-studied
star. Today, the technique of “asteroseismology” has revolutionized our view:
just as seismology here on Earth reveals the interior of our own planet,
asteroseismology of the stars allows us to view their central engines and
structures.
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6 April
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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Pizza & Online
Astronomy Video
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(A1/1735)
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3
April
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Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS Monthly General Meeting
in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw
Bl. In Torrance)
Topic: “The Solar System in a Galactic
Context: Upside-down stars and inside-out orbits” Christopher Spalding, Cal
Tech
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April 6 & 7 The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2017
Harnessing
the Sun’s Light to Explore Our Planet and the Universe
Earth science is a key to
understanding our universe. Planetary science relies on ideas and technologies
developed and tested here on Earth. Like a Star Trek "sensor sweep,"
a technique of remote sensing called spectral mapping is used to learn about
celestial bodies. These types of instruments use reflected sunlight to produce
imagery of the chemical composition of planetary surfaces. The information
captured in these data is useful to many fields of Earth environmental, as well
as planetary, research. In this talk, research systems engineer Mark Helmlinger
will share photos and videos of spectral mapping field deployments to various
regions of California, the United States, and India, both in the air and on the
ground. He will discuss the science behind measuring spectra of reflected
sunlight, and perform physical demonstrations to illuminate a few of the
phenomena that make spectral remote sensing possible.
Speaker:
Mark Helmlinger
Mark Helmlinger
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)
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Locations:
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Thursday, April 6, 2017, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA › Directions Friday, April 7, 2017, 7pm The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College 1570 East Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA › Directions |
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Webcast:
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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. |
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13 Feb
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LAAS
LAAS General Meeting.
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Griffith
Observatory
Event Horizon Theater 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM |
23 April 2:30 PM UCLA
Meteorite Gallery Lecture “The Osiris Rex sample-return mission to the asteroid
Bennu, a probable source of carbonaceous chondrites” Dr. Steve Chesley, JPL
The Osiris Rex mission was launched in September 2016. It will rendezvous with
Asteroid Bennu in 2018 and spend 1.5 years mapping the surface. It will then
sample the surface and return 60-2000 g to the Earth in 2023. It is the first
US asteroid sampling mission. UCLA Slichter Hall, Room 3853 595 Charles E.
Young Drive East, Los Angeles
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4 May
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
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Gemini
(Exo-)Planet Imager, Sloane Wiktorowicz, Aerospace
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(A1/1735)
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Observing:
The
following data are from the 2017 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s
2017 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 April:
Moon: April 3 1st
quarter, April 11 full, April 19 last quarter, April 26 new
Planets:
Venus
at dawn all April ENE. Mars visible after dusk in the west all April. Mercury visible March
16-April 9 dusk WNW. Saturn early morning in the southeast
all April. Jupiter all April all
night east to west.
Other
Events:
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1 April
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LAAS
Public Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm
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5,12,19,26 April
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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
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12 April Yuri’s Night
World Space Party Celebrate the dawn of human space exploration. See
https://yurisnight.net/ for more information.
22 April Lyrids
Meteor Shower Peak Counts typically range from 5 to 20 meteors per hour,
averaging around 10
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22 April
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LAAS Private dark sky Star Party
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22 April
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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/
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29 April Astronomy
Day. Astronomy Day is a world-wide event observed each spring and fall. The
next Astronomy Day this year is April 29, 2017; Astronomy Day next fall will be
September 30, 2017. Local astronomical societies, planetariums, museums, and
observatories will be sponsoring public viewing sessions, presentations,
workshops, and other activities to increase public awareness about astronomy
and our wonderful universe.
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29 April
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SBAS
out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Greg Benecke to coordinate a
location. http://www.sbastro.net/.
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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
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