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, January 2, 2018

2018 January

AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter January 2018

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. 11
About the Club p. 12

Club News & Calendar.

Club Calendar

Club Meeting Schedule:
4 Jan
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
Pizza Party & Online Video(s)?
(A1/1029 A/B)

AEA Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st  Thursdays at 11:45 am.  For 2018:  Jan. 4 in A1/1029 A/B, Feb. 1 & March 1 in A1/2906  and for the rest of 2018 (April-Dec), the meeting room is A1/1735. 


Jan. 30 will be an eclipse reunion at the Manhattan Beach Library after work (around 5:30 to 8:00).  It will include a catered dinner (Pachanga or CafĂ© Rio) and a more polished photo, video & Powerpoint presentation for the broader Aerospace & eclipse group audience.  And will include some initial research into the 2024 eclipse crossing from Texas to Maine.  RSVP to Mark Clayson by Jan. 15.

We have reserved the night of Sat. Sept. 8 on the Mt. Wilson 100-inch telescope.  We do have a full manifest already – carry-overs from the 2017 night cancelled due to bad weather.  But if interested, we can still put you on the waiting list in case of cancellations, which typically do occur.

We have a speaker for June 7 from JPL – Rob Zellem, doing research on exoplanetary atmospheres.

“Exoplanets: Finding Life in the Galaxy”

Rob was born just outside the Philadelphia city limits but grew up in Hendersonville, TN. He went to Villanova University where he graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Astronomy and Astrophysics, minoring in Physics, Mathematics, and Classics, and getting an Honors Concentration. His love of travel and learning about other cultures brought him to University College London in England where he got his MSc in Space Science. He then moved out west to Tucson, AZ, where he received his PhD in Planetary Sciences from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. He is currently a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supporting ground- and space-based instruments that will measure the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.


Club News:  

Still no news on the annual AEA allotment requested.

We need volunteers to help with: 

·         Preparing a more polished eclipse photo & video show for a broader audience for the Jan. 30 eclipse reunion
·         Populating our club Sharepoint site with material & links to the club’s Aerowiki & Aerolink materials
·         Arranging future club programs
·         Managing club equipment

Astronomy Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month
(from Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html


VIDEO:  Jupiter Diving https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171214.html
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald Eichstadt, Justin Cowart
Explanation: Take this simulated plunge and dive into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant. The awesome animation is based on image data from JunoCam, and the microwave radiometer on board the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft. Your view will start about 3,000 kilometers above the southern Jovian cloud tops, but you can track your progress on the display at the left. As altitude decreases, temperature increases while you dive deeper at the location of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot. In fact, Juno data indicates the Great Red Spot, the Solar System's largest storm system, penetrates some 300 kilometers into the giant planet's atmosphere. For comparison, the deepest point for planet Earth's oceans is just under 11 kilometers down. Don't panic though, you'll fly back out again.

VIDEO: How to Wash Your Hair in Space
 https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171220.html
Video Credit: NASA, Expedition 36 Crew
Explanation: How can you wash your hair in space -- without gravity? Long a bother for space-faring astronauts, Karen Nyberg, a flight engineer on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2013, gave a tutorial. Key components are a squirt package of water, no-rinse shampoo, and vigorous use of a towel and comb. Even so, the featured video shows that the whole process should take only a few minutes. Residual water will eventuallyevaporate from your hair, be captured by the space station's air conditioning system, and be purified into drinking water. After returning from a total of 180 days in space, Nyberg has worked for NASA in several capacities including as the Chief of Robotics branch.
VIDEO: Mercury Visualized from MESSENGER                                              
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171211.html
Video Credit: NASA, JHUAPL, CIW; Processing: Roman Tkachenko; Music: Open Sea Morning by Puddle of Infinity
Explanation: What would it be like to fly over the planet Mercury? Images and data taken from NASA's robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015 have been digitally combined to envision a virtual flight that highlights much of the hot planet's surface. In general, the Solar System's innermost world appears similar to Earth's Moon as it is covered by a heavily cratered gray terrain. MESSENGER discovered muchabout Mercury including that shadows near its poles likely host water ice. The featured video opens as Mercury is viewed from the Sun-facing side and concludes with the virtual spacecraft retreating into Mercury's night. Mercury actually rotates so slowly that it only completes three rotations for every two trips around the Sun. In 2018, Europe and Japan plan to launch BepiColombo to better map Mercury's surface and probe its magnetic field.
VIDEO:  Earth and Moon https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171204.html
Images Credit: NASA, JPL, Galileo Project; Processing & License: Gordan Ugarkovic
Explanation: On rare occasions, the Earth and Moon are photographed together. One of most spectacular times this occurred was 25 years ago this month when the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft zoomed past our home planetary system. Then, robotic Galileo watched from about 15-times the Earth-Moon separation as our only natural satellite glided past our home world. The featured video combines 52 historic color-enhanced images. Although our Moon may appear small next to the Earth, no other planet in our Solar System has a satellite so comparable in size . The Sun, far off to the right, illuminated about half of each sphere, and shows the spinning Earth's white clouds, blue oceans, and tan continents. Tonight, a nearly full Oak supermoon will be visible from all of Earth from sunset to sunrise.


SpaceX Rocket Launch Plume over California 
Image Credit & Copyright: Craig Bobchin
Explanation: What's happened to the sky? On Friday, the photogenic launch plume from a SpaceX rocket launch created quite a spectacle over parts of southern California and Arizona. Looking at times like a giant space fish, the impressive rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California, was so bright because it was backlit by the setting Sun. Lifting off during a minuscule one-second launch window, the Falcon 9rocket successfully delivered to low Earth orbit ten Iridium NEXT satellites that are part of a developing global communications network. The plume from the first stage is seen on the right, while the soaring upper stage rocket is seen at the apex of the plume toward the left. Several good videos of the launch were taken. The featured image was captured from Orange County, California, in a 2.5 second duration exposure.


The Spiral North Pole of Mars 
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; NASA MGS MOLA Science Team
Explanation: Why is there a spiral around the North Pole of Mars? Each winter this pole develops a new outer layer about one meter thick composed of carbon dioxide frozen out of the thin Martian atmosphere. This fresh layer is deposited on a water-ice layer that exists year round. Strong winds blow down from above the cap's center and swirl due to the spin of the red planet -- contributing to Planum Boreum's spiral structure. The featured image is a perspective mosaic generated earlier this year from numerous images taken by ESA's Mars Express and elevations extracted from the laser altimeter aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission. New missions to Mars planned in the next few years include Insight with plans to drill into Mars, and ExoMars and the Mars 2020 Rover with plans to search for signs of microscopic Martian life -- past and present.


The Kepler-90 Planetary System 
Illustration Credit: NASA Ames, Wendy Stenzel
Explanation: Do other stars have planetary systems like our own? Yes -- one such system is Kepler-90. Cataloged by the orbiting Kepler satellite, an eighth planet has now been discovered giving Kepler-90 the same number of known planets as our Solar System. Similarities between Kepler-90 and our system include a G-type star comparable to our Sun, rocky planets comparable to our Earth, and large planets comparable in size to Jupiter andSaturn. Differences include that all of the known Kepler-90 planets orbit relatively close in -- closer than Earth's orbit around the Sun -- making them possibly too hot to harbor life. However, observations over longer time periods may discover cooler planets further out. Kepler-90 lies about 2,500 light years away, and at magnitude 14 is visible with a medium-sized telescope toward the constellation of the Dragon (Draco). Exoplanet-finding missions planned for launch in the next decade include TESS, JWST, WFIRST, and PLATO.


All the Eclipses of 2017 
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek
Explanation: As seen from planet Earth, all the lunar and solar eclipses of 2017 are represented at the same scale in these four panels. The year's celestial shadow play was followed through four different countries by one adventurous eclipse chaser. To kick off the eclipse season, at top left February's Full Moon was captured from the Czech Republic. Its subtle shading, a penumbral lunar eclipse, is due to Earth's lighter outer shadow. Later that month the New Moon at top right was surrounded by a ring of fire, recorded on film from Argentina near the midpoint of striking annular solar eclipse. The August eclipse pairing below finds the Earth's dark umbral shadowin a partial eclipse from Germany at left, and the vibrant solar corona surrounding a totally eclipsed Sun from the western USA. If you're keeping score, the Saros numbers (eclipse cycles) for all the 2017 eclipses are at bottom left in each panel.

Astronomy News:
(from https://www.sciencedaily.com )

Carbon Cycling and Habitability of Earth-size Stagnant Lid Planets
·         Press Release - Source: astro-ph.EP
·         Posted December 11, 2017 11:50 PM
©NASA
Extrasolar planet
Models of thermal evolution, crustal production, and CO2 cycling are used to constrain the prospects for habitability of rocky planets, with Earth-like size and composition, in the stagnant lid regime.
Specifically, we determine the conditions under which such planets can maintain rates of CO2 degassing large enough to prevent global surface glaciation, but small enough so as not to exceed the upper limit on weathering rates provided by the supply of fresh rock, a situation which would lead to runaway atmospheric CO2 accumulation and an inhospitably hot climate. The models show that stagnant lid planets with initial radiogenic heating rates of 100-250 TW, and with total CO$_2$ budgets ranging from $\sim 10^{-2} -1$ times Earth's estimated CO2 budget, can maintain volcanic outgassing rates suitable for habitability for $\approx 1-5 Gyrs; larger CO2 budgets result in uninhabitably hot climates, while smaller budgets result in global glaciation. High radiogenic heat production rates favor habitability by sustaining volcanism and CO2 outgassing longer. Thus, the results suggest that plate tectonics may not be required for establishing a long-term carbon cycle and maintaining a stable, habitable climate. The model is necessarily highly simplified, as the uncertainties with exoplanet thermal evolution and outgassing are large. Nevertheless, the results provide some first order guidance for future exoplanet missions, by predicting the age at which habitability becomes unlikely for a stagnant lid planet as a function of initial radiogenic heat budget. This prediction is powerful because both planet heat budget and age can potentially be constrained from stellar observations.
Bradford J. Foley, Andrew J. Smye
(Submitted on 11 Dec 2017)


 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.  . Click here for more information.
4 Jan
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
Pizza Party & Online Video(s)?
(A1/2906)


5 Jan
Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS  Monthly General Meeting
in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw Bl. In Torrance)
Topic: TBD





No Dec Event




UCLA Meteorite Gallery --
Location: UCLA Campus



None in Jan?
LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory


January 25 & 26  The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2018

Explorer 1's 60th Anniversary: A Celebration of Six Decades of Earth Science Discoveries

Explorer I marked the start of the Space Age for the U.S., and for the world it heralded the study of Earth from space. The JPL built satellite confirmed the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts, the very first space science discovery. Explorer 1's success was only the first of an array of Earth missions that have mapped and probed our planet's lands, waters and atmosphere on scales ranging from the millimeter to global views.
Join JPL's documentarian Blaine Baggett, historian Dr. Erik Conway, NASA’s planetary science division director Dr. Jim Green, and JPL Earth scientists Dr. Carmen Boening and Dr. Erika Podest and JPL visualization specialist Jason Craig for a stimulating conversation and multi-media journey that will spans from the dawn of Earth science to today's modern fleet that is providing vital information in understanding the changes taking place on the only planet humans can yet call 'home.'
Speaker:

Host:
Blaine Baggett – JPL Fellow

Panelists:
Erik Conway – JPL Historian
Jim Green – NASA Planetary Science Division Director
Carmen Boening – JPL Earth Scientist
Erika Podest – JPL Earth Scientist
Jason Craig – JPL Visualization Specialist

Location:
Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, 7pm
  Click here to add the date to your online calendar
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions 

Friday, Jan. 26, 2018, 7pm
  Click here to add the date to your online calendar
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions


Observing:

The following data are from the 2018 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s 2018 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 January:

  

Moon: Jan 2 full, Jan 8 last quarter, Jan 17 new, Jan 24 1st quarter, Jan 31 full   
             
Planets: Venus out of sight all month.  Mars visible in the SE in early morning, highest at dawn.  Mercury visible in SE at dawn until the 19th, low in SE.  Saturn visible low in SE at dawn after the 9th. Jupiter visible low in SE before dawn all month.  Jupiter visible in SE in early morning, highest at dawn.
Other Events:


3,10,17,24,31 Jan
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


 
Jan ?
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/

20 Jan
LAAS Private dark sky  Star Party

Jan ?
SBAS out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Greg Benecke to coordinate a location. http://www.sbastro.net/.  

27 Jan
LAAS Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm


Internet Links:

Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying Guides


General


Regional (Southern California, Washington, D.C. & Colorado)
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, 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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