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)

Monday, November 12, 2018

2018 November


AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter November 2018

Contents

AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 11
General Calendar p. 22
    Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 22
    Observing p. 25
Useful Links p. 26
About the Club p. 27

Club News & Calendar.

Club Calendar

Club Meeting Schedule:

1 Nov
CANCELLED: AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
Cancelled due to D8 Open House
(A1/1735)




6 Dec
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
Holiday Chocolate Tasting Party & Presentation by Mark Clayson
(A1/1735)




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. 

Club News:  

The Oct. 11 JWST tour at NGC was attended by 20 of us, and the Oct. 30 tour by another 10.  The first group saw the shrouded bus readying for environmental test, and both groups saw the mirror assembly.  Very impressive.  Tour guides were young, enthusiastic engineers.

The club table in Sept. at the AEA showcase, and the booth at the Oktoberfest, were highly successful.  About 20 people signed the register expressing interest.

Still waiting to hear if we will get our  FY19 AEA budget request, including software for our new laptop (Starry Night Pro Plus 7 & Maxim DL Pro Suite), a new portable GoTo MCT (Meade ETX-90), an Android tablet & Sky Safari 5 Pro app, SkyFi III wireless scope controller, another Mt. Wilson night, quarterly pizza parties, Astronomical League group membership & Observer’s Handbook.

The Hubble Optics 16-inch ultralight/portable Dobsonian has been ordered, and should be here any day, now (long production & shipping lead time from China).  Along with a large array of accessories, including digital setting circle.  We’ve also got a new 15-inch laptop for the club, and will begin loading it up with software (Starry Night, software with our various scopes and cameras, etc.). 

We need volunteers to help with: 

·         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

The Scale of the Universe - Interactive https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181007.html
Animation Credit & Copyright: Cary & Michael Huang
Explanation: What does the universe look like on small scales? On large scales? Humanity is discovering that the universe is a very different place on every proportion that has been explored. For example, so far as we know, every tiny proton is exactly the same, but every huge galaxy is different. On more familiar scales, a small glass table top to a human is a vast plane of strange smoothness to a dust mite -- possibly speckled with cell boulders. Not all scale lengths are well explored -- what happens to the smallest mist droplets you sneeze, for example, is a topic of active research -- and possibly useful to know to help stop the spread of disease. The featured interactive flash animation, a modern version of the classic video Powers of Ten, is a new window to many of the known scales of our universe. By moving the scroll bar across the bottom, you can explore a diversity of sizes, while clicking on different items will bring up descriptive information.

VIDEO:  Sun Dance https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181010.html
Video Credit: NASA, SDO; Processing: Alan Watson via Helioviewer
Explanation: Sometimes, the surface of our Sun seems to dance. In the middle of 2012, for example, NASA's Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressive prominence that seemed to perform a running dive roll like an acrobatic dancer. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the featured time-lapse video covering about three hours. A looping magnetic field directed the flow of hot plasma on the Sun. The scale of the dancing prominence is huge -- the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing arch of hot gas. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The energy mechanism that creates a solar prominence is still a topic of research. Unlike 2012, this year the Sun's surface is significantly more serene, featuring fewer spinning prominences, as it is near the minimum in its 11-year magnetic cycle.



Hyperion: Largest Known Galaxy Proto-Supercluster 
Visualization Credit: ESO, L. Calçada & Olga Cucciati et al.
Explanation: How did galaxies form in the early universe? To help find out, astronomers surveyed a patch of dark night sky with the Very Large Telescope array in Chile to find and count galaxies that formed when our universe was very young. Analysis of the distribution of some distant galaxies (redshifts near 2.5) found an enormous conglomeration of galaxies that spanned 300 million light years and contained about 5,000 times the mass of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dubbed Hyperion, it is currently the largest and most massive proto-supercluster yet discovered in the early universe. A proto-supercluster is a group of young galaxies that is gravitationally collapsing to create a supercluster, which itself a group of several galaxy clusters, which itself is a group of hundreds of galaxies, which itself is a group of billions of stars. In the featured visualization, massive galaxies are depicted in white, while regions containing a large amount of smaller galaxies are shaded blue. Identifying and understanding such large groups of early galaxies contributes to humanity's understanding of the composition and evolution of the universe as a whole.

Apollo 12 Visits Surveyor 3 
Image Credit: Apollo 12 Crew, NASA
Explanation: Apollo 12 was the second mission to land humans on the Moon. The landing site was picked to be near the location of Surveyor 3, a robot spacecraft that had landed on the Moon three years earlier. In the featured photograph, taken by lunar module pilot Alan Bean, mission commander Pete Conrad jiggles the Surveyor spacecraft to see how firmly it is situated. The lunar module is visible in the distance. Apollo 12 brought back many photographs and moon rocks. Among the milestones achieved by Apollo 12 was the deployment of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, which carried out many experiments including one that measured the solar wind.

Cherenkov Telescope at Sunset 
Image Credit & Copyright: Sarah Brands (University of Amsterdam)
Explanation: On October 10, a new telescope reflected the light of the setting Sun. With dark horizon above and sunset colors below, its segmented mirror inverts an image of the beautiful evening sky in this snapshot from the Roque del Los Muchachos Observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma. The mirror segments cover a 23 meter diameter and are mounted in the open structure of the Large Scale Telescope 1, inaugurated as the first component of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Most ground-based telescopes are hindered by the atmosphere that blurs, scatters, and absorbs light. But cherenkov telescopes are designed to detect very high energy gamma rays and actually require the atmosphere to operate. As the gamma rays impact the upper atmosphere they produce air showers of high-energy particles. A large, fast camera at the common focus images the brief flashes of optical light, called Cherenkov light, created by the air shower particles. The flashes reveal the incoming gamma ray timing, direction, and energy. Ultimately more than 100 Cherenkov telescopes are planned for the CTA at locations in both northern and southern hemispheres on planet Earth.

The Falcon 9 Nebula 
Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Haidet
Explanation: Not the Hubble Space Telescope's latest view of a distant planetary nebula, this illuminated cloud of gas and dust dazzled even casual U.S. west coast skygazers on October 7. Taken about three miles north of Vandenberg Air Force Base, the image follows plumes and exhaust from the first and second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rising through southern California's early evening skies. In the fading twilight, the reddish smoke drifting in the foreground at the right is from the initial ascent of the rocket. The expanding blue and orange filamentary plumes are from first and second stage separation and the first stage boostback burn, still in sunlight at extreme altitudes. But the bright spot below center is the second stage itself headed almost directly away from the camera, accelerating to orbital velocity and far downrange. Pulsed thrusters form the upside down V-shape at the top as they guide the reusable Falcon 9 first stage back to the landing site.
Skygazers on the Beach 
Image Credit & Copyright: Jack Fusco
Explanation: Kona, a young boxer, is a dog who loves splashing in the waves along Solana Beach near San Diego, planet Earth. But he paused here, at least briefly, during an early evening romp on October 7. Along with two people friends he gazes skyward in this snapshot, dazzled by the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket. Their seaside view is of the sunlit exhaust plumes from the rocket's first stage thrusters as it returns to Vandenberg Air Force base, its launch site over 250 miles to the north.

West Coast Launch and Landing 
Image Credit & Copyright: John Kraus
Explanation: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch dazzled viewers along the U.S. west coast after sunset on October 7. Rising from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, planet Earth, the Falcon 9's first stage then returned to a landing zone some 400 meters from the launch site less than 8 minutes after liftoff. Both launch and first stage landing (left) are captured in the frame of this two image stack, recorded by a stationary, sound-activated camera set up on a nearby hill. This Falcon 9 rocket delivered its payload, an Earth-observing satellite developed by Argentina's national space agency, to low Earth orbit. Of course, the Falcon 9 first stage had flown before. Following a launch from Vandenberg on July 25 it was recovered after landing on the autonomous drone ship Just Read the Instructions.
Light Pillars over Whitefish Bay 
Image Credit & Copyright: Vincent Brady
Explanation: What's happening in the sky? Unusual lights appeared last week to hover above Whitefish Bay on the eastern edge of Lake Superior between the USA and Canada. Unsure of the cause, the Michigan-based astrophotographer switched camera lenses -- from fisheye totelephoto -- and soon realized he was seeing light pillars: vertical lines of light over a ground source that reflect from falling ice crystals. As the ground temperature was above freezing, the flat crystals likely melted as they approached the ground, creating a lower end to the vertical light pillars. The red ground lights originated from wind turbines on Ile Parisienne, a Canadian Island visible across the bay.

Supernumerary Rainbows over New Jersey 
Credit & Copyright: John Entwistle
Explanation: Yes, but can your rainbow do this? After the remnants of Hurricane Florence passed over the Jersey Shore, New Jersey, USA last month, the Sun came out in one direction but something quite unusual appeared in the opposite direction: a hall of rainbows. Over the course of a next half hour, to the delight of the photographer and his daughter, vibrant supernumerary rainbows faded in and out, with at least five captured in this featured single shot. Supernumerary rainbows only form when falling water droplets are all nearly the same size and typically less than a millimeter across. Then, sunlight will not only reflect from inside the raindrops, but interfere, a wave phenomenon similar to ripples on a pond when a stone is thrown in. In fact, supernumerary rainbows can only be explained with waves, and their noted existence in the early 1800s was considered early evidence of light's wave nature.


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

This Is How We Know There Are Two Trillion Galaxies In The Universe


Ethan Siegel Senior ContributorStarts With A BangSenior Contributori
ScienceThe Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it.

Artist's logarithmic s
cale conception of the observable universe. Galaxies give way to large-scale structure and the hot, dense plasma of the Big Bang at the outskirts. Trying to figure out how many galaxies exist within the Universe is one of the great cosmic quests of our time.WIKIPEDIA USER PABLO CARLOS BUDASSI

When you gaze up at the night sky, through the veil of stars and the plane of the Milky Way close by, you can't help but feel small before the grand abyss of the Universe that lies beyond. Even though nearly all of them are invisible to our eyes, our observable Universe, extending tens of billions of light years in all directions, contains a fantastically large number of galaxies within it.
Just how many galaxies are out there used to be a mystery, with estimates rising from the thousands to the millions to the billions, all as telescope technology improved. If we made the most straightforward estimate using today's best technology, we'd state there are 170 billion galaxies in our Universe. But we know more than that, and our modern estimate is even grander: two trillion galaxies. Here's how we got there.
Our deepest galaxy surveys can reveal objects tens of billions of light years away, but even with ideal technology, there will be a large distance gap between the farthest galaxy and the Big Bang. At some point, our instrumentation simply cannot reveal them all.SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY (SDSS)
In an ideal world, we'd simply count them all. We'd point our telescopes at the sky, cover the entire thing, collect every photon emitted our way, and detect every object that was out there, no matter how faint. With arbitrarily good technology and an infinite amount of resources, we'd simply measure everything in the Universe, and that would teach us how many galaxies are out there.

 But in practice, that won't work. Our telescopes are limited in size, which in turn limits how many photons they can collect and the resolutions they can achieve. There's a trade-off between how faint an object you can see and how much of the sky you can take in at once. Some of the Universe is obscured by intervening matter. And the more distant an object is, the fainter it appears; at some point, a source is far enough away that even observing for a century won't reveal such a galaxy.

The stars and galaxies we see today didn't always exist, and the farther back we go, the closer to perfectly smooth the Universe gets, but there is a limit to the smoothness it could've achieved, otherwise we wouldn't have any structure at all today. To explain it all, we need a modification to the Big Bang: cosmological inflation.NASA, ESA, AND A. FEILD (STSCI)

So what we can do, instead, is to view a clear portion of the Universe without intervening matter, stars, or galaxies as deeply as possible. The longer you stare at a single patch of sky, the more light you'll collect and the more you'll reveal about it. We first did this in the mid-1990s with the Hubble Space Telescope, pointing at a patch of sky that was known to have practically nothing in it, and to simply sit on that spot and let the Universe reveal what was present.

The blank region of sky, shown in the yellow L-shaped box, was the region chosen to be the observing location of the original Hubble Deep Field image. With no known stars or galaxies within it, in a region devoid of gas, dust, or known matter of any type, this was the ideal location to stare into the abyss of the empty Universe.NASA / DIGITAL SKY SURVEY, STSCI

It was one of the riskiest strategies of all-time. If it failed, it would have been a waste of over a week of observing time on the newly-corrected Hubble Space Telescope, the most sought-after observatory to take data with. But if it succeeded, it promised to reveal a glimpse of the Universe in a way we had never seen before.

 We collected data for hundreds of orbits, across a multitude of different wavelengths, hoping to reveal galaxies that were fainter, more distant, and harder to see than any we had detected before. We hoped to learn what the ultra-distant Universe really looked like. And when that first image finally was processed and released, we got a view unlike any other.
The original Hubble Deep Field image, for the first time, revealed some of the faintest, most distant galaxies ever seen. Only with a multiwavelength, long-exposure view of the ultra-distant Universe could we hope to reveal these never-before-seen objects.R. WILLIAMS (STSCI), THE HUBBLE DEEP FIELD TEAM AND NASA
Everywhere we looked, in all directions, there were galaxies. Not just a few, but thousands upon thousands of them. The Universe wasn't empty and it wasn't dark; it was full of light-emitting sources. As far as we were capable of seeing, stars and galaxies were clumped and clustered everywhere.

 But there were other limits. The most distant galaxies are caught up in the expansion of the Universe, causing distant galaxies to redshift past the point where our optical and near-infrared telescopes (like Hubble) could detect them. Finite sizes and observing times meant that only the galaxies above a certain brightness threshold could be seen. And very small, low-mass galaxies, like Segue 3 in our own backyard, would be far too faint and small to resolve.

Only approximately 1000 stars are present in the entirety of dwarf galaxies Segue 1 and Segue 3, which has a gravitational mass of 600,000 Suns. The stars making up the dwarf satellite Segue 1 are circled here. If new research is correct, then dark matter will obey a different distribution depending on how star formation, over the galaxy's history, has heated it.MARLA GEHA AND KECK OBSERVATORIES

So we could push past our technological limits from that mid-1990s image, but even so, we could never get all the galaxies. The best attempt we ever made was the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), which represented a composite image of ultraviolet, optical, and infrared data. By observing just a tiny patch of sky so small it would take 32 million of them to cover all the possible directions we could look, we accumulated a total of 23 days worth of data.

 Stacking everything together into a single image revealed something never-before seen: a total of approximately 5,500 galaxies. This represented the highest density of galaxies ever observed through a narrow, pencil-like beam in space.

Various long-exposure campaigns, like the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) shown here, have revealed thousands of galaxies in a volume of the Universe that represents a fraction of a millionth of the sky. But even with all the power of Hubble, and all the magnification of gravitational lensing, there are still galaxies out there beyond what we are capable of seeing.NASA, ESA, H. TEPLITZ AND M. RAFELSKI (IPAC/CALTECH), A. KOEKEMOER (STSCI), R. WINDHORST (ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY), AND Z. LEVAY (STSCI)

You might think, therefore, that we could estimate the number of galaxies in the Universe by taking the number we observed in this image and multiplying it by the number of such images it would take to cover the entire sky.

 In fact, you can get a spectacular number by doing so: 5500 multiplied by 32 million comes out to an incredible 176 billion galaxies.

 But that's not an estimate; that's a lower limit. Nowhere in that estimate do the too-faint, too-small, or too-close-to-another galaxies show up. Nowhere do the galaxies obscured by the neutral gas and dust appear, nor do the galaxies located beyond the redshift capabilities of Hubble. Yet, just as those galaxies exist nearby, they ought to exist in the young, distant Universe as well.

Galaxies comparable to the present-day Milky Way are numerous, but younger galaxies that are Milky Way-like are inherently smaller, bluer, more chaotic, and richer in gas in general than the galaxies we see today. For the first galaxies of all, this ought to be taken to the extreme, and remains valid as far back as we've ever seen.NASA AND ESA

The big ingredient that we need to come up with a true estimate, then, is how structure accurately forms in the Universe. If we can run a simulation that starts with:
·         the ingredients that make up the Universe,
·         the right initial conditions that reflect our reality,
·         and the correct laws of physics that describe nature,
we can simulate how such a Universe evolves. We can simulate when stars form, when gravity pulls matter into large enough collections to create galaxies, and to compare what our simulations predict with the Universe, both near-and-far, that we actually observe.

 Perhaps surprisingly, there are more galaxies the early Universe than there are today. But unsurprisingly, they're smaller, less massive, and are destined to merge together into the old spirals and ellipticals that dominate the Universe we inhabit at present. The simulations that match best with reality contain dark matter, dark energy, and small, seed fluctuations that will grow, over time, into stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies.

 Most remarkably, when we look at the simulations that match the observed data the best, we can extract, based on our most advanced understanding, which clumps of structure should equate to a galaxy within our Universe.

A simulation of the large-scale structure of the Universe. Identifying which regions are dense and massive enough to correspond to galaxies, including the number of galaxies that exist, is a challenge that cosmologists are only now just rising to.DR. ZARIJA LUKIC

When we do exactly that, we get a number that's not a lower-limit, but rather an estimate for the true number of galaxies contained within our observable Universe. The remarkable answer?
As of today, two trillion galaxies should exist within our observable Universe.

 Yet, that number is so remarkably different from the lower-limit estimate we came up with from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field image. Two trillion versus 176 billion means that more than 90% of the galaxies within our Universe are beyond the detection capabilities of even humanity's greatest observatory, even if we look for nearly a month at a time.

Two nearby galaxies as seen in the ultraviolet view of the GOODS-South field, one of which is actively forming new stars (blue) and the other which is just a normal galaxy. In the background, distant galaxies can be seen with their stellar populations as well. Even though they're rarer, there are still late-time galaxies actively forming massive amounts of new stars.NASA, ESA, P. OESCH (UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA), AND M. MONTES (UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES)

Over time, galaxies merged together and grew, but small, faint galaxies still remain today. Even in our own Local Group, we're still discovering galaxies that contain mere thousands of stars, and the number of galaxies we know of have increased to more than 70. The faintest, smallest, most distant galaxies of all are continuing to go undiscovered, but we know they must be there. For the first time, we can scientifically estimate how many galaxies are out there in the Universe.

 The next step in the great cosmic puzzle is to find and characterize as many of them as possible, and understand how the Universe grew up. Led by the James Webb Space Telescope and the next generation of ground-based observatories, including LSST, GMT, and the ELT, we're poised to reveal the hitherto unseen Universe as never before.
I am a Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. I have won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for my blog, Starts With A Bang, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Ph...
 MORE

Astrophysicist and author Ethan Siegel is the founder and primary writer of Starts With A Bang! His books, Treknology and Beyond The Galaxy, are available wherever books are sold.

 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.
1 Nov
CANCELLED: AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
Cancelled due to D8 Open House
(A1/1735)






2 Nov
Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS  Monthly General Meeting
in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw Bl. In Torrance)
Topic: TBA
Nov. 8 & 9 The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2018


Deep Space Network

How does NASA capture the faint whispers of spacecraft voyaging to far flung destinations across the solar system and beyond? The answer involves giant radio antennas, global cooperation, and a LOT of careful planning. NASA’s Deep Space Network is a vital lifeline between Earth and the spacecraft that extend our senses outward. This panel-style discussion will share how the network turns radio waves into science and engineering data, along with plans for the DSN’s future.
Speaker:
Les Deutsch – Deputy Director, JPL Interplanetary Network Directorate
Amy Smith – DSN Aperture Enhancement Project Manager
Michael Levesque – DSN Project Service Management & Operations Manager

Location:
Thursday, Novemeber 8, 2018, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions

Friday, November 9, 2018, 7pm
Caltech’s Ramo Auditorium
1200 E California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions

Webcast:
Thursday’s lecture will be shown live on Ustream and YouTube

19 Nov.
LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory

4 Nov.

4 Nov.

EXPLORING YOUR UNIVERSE 2018

SCIENCE OUTREACH

Location: UCLA campus - Court of Sciences
Time: 12PM
Exploring Your Universe is UCLA’s annual science festival, educating and inspiring over 7,000 visitors each year! Launch bottle rockets, make comets, do chemistry and physics experiments, touch brains, see fossils, and much more! Exploring Your Universe will also offer planetarium shows, science talks, and telescope viewings! Exploring Your Universe is free and appropriate for all ages! For more information, visit https://www.exploringyouruniverse.org/

2 DEC

2

2018

DR. AARON CELESTIAN

MINERALS, MICROBES, AND MARS

Location: UCLA, Geology 3656
Time: 2:30PM

6 Dec
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
Holiday chocolate tasting party & presentation(s)
(A1/1735)

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 November:

  

Moon: Nov 7 new, Nov 15 1st quarter, Nov 23 Full, Nov 30 last quarter,               
Planets: Venus visible at dawn all month.  Mars visible at dusk, sets near midnight.  Mercury is hidden in Sun’s glow all month.  Saturn visible at dusk, sets early evening. Jupiter visible at dusk thru Nov 7.
Other Events:

 
3 Nov
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/

3 November Northern Taurids Meteor Shower Peak The second of two meteor showers associated with Comet Encke. ZHR is 5

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

10 Nov
LAAS Private dark sky  Star Party

7,14,21,28 Nov
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

17 November Leonids Meteor Shower Peak The Leonids are associated with Comet Tempel-Tuttle and are a fast-moving stream with velocities around 72 km/s (>161,000 mph). ZHR is 15.

17 Nov
LAAS Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm

26 November Insight Mars Landing See https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7216 for more information


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, Walt Sturrock, 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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