AEA
Astronomy Club Newsletter September
2020
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 10
General Calendar p. 12
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 12
Observing p. 14
Useful
Links p. 15
About the Club p.
16
Club News &
Calendar.
Club Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
--
|
3 Sept |
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting |
TBD -- Great Courses video |
(Teams) |
||||
| AEA Astronomy Club Meeting |
TBD -- Great Courses video |
Teams |
AEA
Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st Thursdays at 11:45 am. For 2020:
March 5 & April 2 in A1/2906 and for the rest of 2020 (Jan., Feb., May-Dec),
the meeting room is A1/1735.
Club News:
Our new selection of Great Courses (DVD lectures) on astronomy for the club library and for club meetings (links describe the lecture topics within each course):
|
Description |
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A Field Guide to the Planets https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/science/a-field-guide-to-the-planets.html |
|
Experiencing Hubble: Exploring the Milky
Way https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/science/experiencing-hubble-exploring-the-milky-way.html |
|
How the Earth Works https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/how-the-earth-works.html |
|
Introduction to Astrophysics https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/science/introduction-to-astrophysics.html |
|
Life in Our Universe https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/science/life-in-our-universe.html |
|
Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible
Universe https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/science/radio-astronomy-observing-the-invisible-universe.html |
|
The Theory of Everything: The Quest to
Explain All Reality https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/science/the-theory-of-everything-the-quest-to-explain-all-reality.html |
We need volunteers to help with:
·
Assembling
our new 16-inch Hubble Optics Dobs
·
Installing
our new software on our tablet & laptop
·
Populating
our club Sharepoint site with material & links to the club’s Aerowiki
& Aerolink materials – Kaly Rangarajan has volunteered to help with this
·
Arranging
future club programs
·
Managing
club equipment & library (Kelly Gov volunteered to help with the
library)
Astronomy Video(s)
& Picture(s) of the Month
(generally from
Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html)
VIDEO:
SS 433: Binary Star
Micro-Quasar https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200831.html
Animation Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab
Explanation: SS
433 is one of the most exotic star systems known. Its unremarkable name stems
from its inclusion in a catalog of Milky Way stars which emit radiation
characteristic of atomic hydrogen. Its remarkable behavior stems from a
compact object, a black hole or neutron
star, which has produced an accretion
disk with jets. Because the disk and jets from SS 433 resemble
those surrounding supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies,
SS 433 is considered a micro-quasar. As illustrated in the
animated featured video based on observational data,
a massive, hot, normal star is locked in orbit with the compact object. As the
video starts, material is shown being gravitationally ripped from the
normal star and falling onto an accretion
disk. The central star also blasts out jets
of ionized gas in opposite directions – each at about 1/4 the speed
of light. The video then pans out to show a top view of the
precessing jets producing an expanding spiral.
From even greater distances, the dissipating jets are then visualized near the
heart of supernova remnant W50.
Two years ago, SS 433 was unexpectedly found by the HAWC detector
array in Mexico to emit unusually high energy (TeV-range)
gamma-rays. Surprises continue, as a recent
analysis of archival data taken by NASA's Fermi satellite find
a gamma-ray source -- separated from the central stars as shown -- that pulses
in gamma-rays with a period of 162 days – the
same as SS 433's jet precession period – for reasons yet unknown.
VIDEO: The Sun Rotating https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200819.html
Video Credit: SDO, NASA; Digital
Composition: Kevin
M. Gill
Explanation: Does the Sun change as it rotates? Yes,
and the changes can vary from subtle to dramatic. In the featured time-lapse
sequences, our Sun -- as imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics
Observatory -- is shown rotating though an entire month in
2014. In the large image on the left, the solar chromosphere is
depicted in ultraviolet light,
while the smaller and lighter image to its upper right simultaneously shows the
more familiar solar photosphere in visible light.
The rest of the inset six Sun images highlight X-ray emission by
relatively rare iron atoms located at different heights of the corona,
all false-colored to
accentuate differences. The Sun takes just under a month to rotate completely
-- rotating fastest at the equator. A large and active sunspot region rotates
into view soon after the video starts. Subtle effects include changes in surface texture and
the shapes of active regions. Dramatic effects include numerous flashes in
active regions, and fluttering and erupting prominences
visible all around the Sun's edge. Presently, our
Sun is passing an unusually low Solar minimum in
activity of its 11-year
magnetic cycle. As the video ends, the same large and active sunspot region previously
mentioned rotates back into view, this time looking different.
VIDEO: Visualization:
A Black Hole Accretion Disk https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200825.html
Visualization Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center, Jeremy
Schnittman
Explanation: What would it look like to circle a black hole? If
the black
hole was surrounded by a swirling disk of
glowing and accreting gas, then the great gravity of the black hole
would deflect
light emitted by the disk to make it look very unusual.
The featured animated video gives
a visualization. The video starts with you, the observer, looking toward
the black
hole from just above the plane of the accretion disk.
Surrounding the central black
hole is a thin circular image of the orbiting disk that marks
the position of the photon
sphere -- inside of which lies the black hole's event horizon.
Toward the left, parts of the large main image of the disk appear
brighter as they move toward you. As the video continues,
you loop over the black
hole, soon looking down from the top, then passing through the disk
plane on the far side, then returning to your original
vantage point. The accretion disk does some interesting image inversions --
but never appears flat. Visualizations such as this are particularly relevant
today as black
holes are being imaged in unprecedented detail by the Event Horizon Telescope.
NGC 6357: Cathedral to Massive Stars
Image Credit: NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz
Apellániz (IAA,
Spain); Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)
Explanation: How massive can a normal star be? Estimates made from
distance, brightness and standard solar
models had given one star in the open cluster Pismis
24 over 200 times the mass of our Sun,
making it one of the most massive stars known. This star is
the brightest object located just
above the gas front in the featured
image. Close inspection of images taken
with the Hubble
Space Telescope, however, have shown that Pismis 24-1 derives its
brilliant luminosity not from a single star but
from three at
least. Component
stars would still remain near 100 solar masses, making them
among the more massive
stars currently on record. Toward the bottom of the
image, stars are
still forming in the associated emission nebula NGC 6357.
Appearing perhaps like a Gothic
cathedral, energetic stars near the center appear to be breaking
out and illuminating a spectacular cocoon.
Two Worlds, One Sun
Left Image Credit & Copyright: Damia Bouic;
Right Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS; Digital
processing: Damia
Bouic
Explanation: How different does sunset appear from Mars than from Earth? For comparison, two images of our common star were taken at sunset, one from Earth and one from Mars. These images were scaled to have same angular width and featured here side-by-side. A quick inspection will reveal that the Sun appears slightly smaller from Mars than from Earth. This makes sense since Mars is 50% further from the Sun than Earth. More striking, perhaps, is that the Martian sunset is noticeably bluer near the Sun than the typically orange colors near the setting Sun from Earth. The reason for the blue hues from Mars is not fully understood, but thought to be related to forward scattering properties of Martian dust. The terrestrial sunset was taken in 2012 March from Marseille, France, while the Martian sunset was captured in 2015 by NASA's robotic Curiosity rover from Gale crater on Mars. Last week a new rover and a helicopter -- onboard Mars 2020 -- launched for Mars.
The Valley of Orion
Visualization Credit: NASA, ESA, F.
Summers, G. Bacon,
Z. Levay, J. DePasquale, L. Frattare, M. Robberto, M. Gennaro (STScI) and R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)
Explanation: This
exciting and unfamiliar view of the Orion Nebula is a
visualization based on astronomical
data and movie rendering techniques. Up close and personal with
a famous stellar nursery normally
seen from 1,500 light-years away, the digitally modeled frame
transitions from a visible light representation based on Hubble data on the
left to infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope on the right. The
perspective at the center looks along a valley over a light-year wide, in the
wall of the region's giant molecular cloud. Orion's valley ends in a cavity
carved by the energetic winds and radiation of the massive central stars of
the Trapezium
star cluster. The single frame is part of a multiwavelength,
three-dimensional video that lets the viewer experience an immersive, three
minute flight through the Great Nebula of Orion.
Crescent Moon HDR
Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)
Explanation: How come the crescent Moon doesn't look like this? For one
reason, because your eyes can't simultaneously discern
bright and dark regions like this. Called earthshine or
the da Vinci glow, the unlit part of a crescent
Moon is visible but usually hard to see because it is much
dimmer than the sunlit arc. In our digital age, however, the differences in
brightness can be artificially reduced. The featured
image is actually a digital composite of 15 short exposures of
the bright crescent, and 14 longer exposures of the dim remainder. The origin of
the da
Vinci glow, as explained by Leonardo da Vinci about
510 years ago, is sunlight reflected first by the Earth to
the Moon, and then back from the Moon to
the Earth.
Seeing Titan
Image Credit: VIMS
Team, U.
Arizona, U.
Nantes, ESA, NASA
Explanation: Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, Saturn's
largest moon Titan really is hard to see. Small particles
suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly
scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding Titan's surface features
from prying eyes. But Titan's surface is
better imaged at infrared wavelengths where scattering is weaker and
atmospheric absorption is reduced. Arrayed around this visible light image
(center) of Titan are some of the clearest global infrared views of the tantalizing moon
so far. In false color, the
six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of
infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on
board the
Cassini spacecraft. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's
visible light view.
Perseids Around the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Jingyi
Zhang
Explanation: Why would meteor trails appear curved? The arcing effect
arises only because the image artificially
compresses (nearly) the whole sky into
a rectangle. The meteors are from the Perseid Meteor Shower that
peaked last week. The featured multi-frame image combines not only different
directions from the 360 projection, but different times when bright Perseid meteors momentarily
streaked across the sky. All Perseid
meteors can be traced back to the constellation
Perseus toward the lower left, even the seemingly curved (but
really straight) meteor
trails. Although Perseids always point back to their Perseus radiant,
they can appear almost anywhere on the sky. The image was taken from Inner Mongolia, China,
where grasslands meet sand dunes.
Many treasures also visible in the busy night sky including the central arch of
our Milky
Way Galaxy, the planets Saturn and Jupiter toward
the right, colorful
airglow on the central left, and some relatively nearby Earthly
clouds. The Perseid Meteor
Shower peaks every August.
The Origin of Elements
Image Credit & License: Wikipedia: Cmglee; Data: Jennifer Johnson (OSU)
Explanation: The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of
water, came from the Big
Bang. There are no other appreciable sources
of hydrogen in
the universe. The carbon in
your body was made by nuclear fusion in
the interior of stars, as was the oxygen.
Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas
of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in
your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have
been visible as short-duration gamma-ray
bursts or gravitational wave
events. Elements like phosphorus and copper are present
in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential
to the functioning of all known life.
The featured
periodic table is color
coded to indicate humanity's
best guess as to the nuclear origin of
all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of
some elements,
such as copper,
are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and
computational research.
Astronomy
News:
New search methods are ramping up the hunt for alien
intelligence
Six decades of radio silence hasn’t stopped scientists from seeking E.T.
Astronomers are enlisting new technologies in the quest to answer one of the most intriguing research questions of all: Are we alone in the universe?
ZHENGZAISHURU/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS
For about a week in 1960,
radio astronomer Frank Drake thought he might have discovered aliens.
He had pointed the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s new 26-meter telescope at the star
Epsilon Eridani on April 8 of that year, and within minutes, the instruments
went wild. The telescope’s readout device, a chart recorder that used a pen to
scratch out signatures of incoming signals on paper, scribbled erratically. A
speaker connected to the telescope blared a train of strong pulses — just the
kind of transmission expected from an intelligent sender. Drake was stunned.
Could finding E.T. really be this easy?
It wasn’t. When the
telescope found the signal again several days later, a radio antenna pointed in
different direction also picked up the noise. The signal wasn’t otherworldly at
all; it was coming from an earthly source, like an airplane.
Drake never picked up any
interstellar broadcasts during his two months observing Epsilon
Eridani and another sunlike star, Tau Ceti, with the radio telescope in West
Virginia (SN: 4/30/60). But
that first foray into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI,
sparked a growing field of efforts to scout out fellow intelligent creatures
among the stars. And now, with recent discoveries in astronomy, new
technologies and a flush of new money, SETI is in renaissance.
In April 1960, radio astronomer Frank Drake used a 26-meter
telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia
(pictured) to observe two nearby, sunlike stars for alien radio broadcasts. The
observing campaign, which he dubbed Project Ozma, was the world’s first modern
search for extraterrestrial intelligence.NSF, AUI, NRAO
“It’s really difficult to
overstate how much the field has been transformed” in the last few years, says
Andrew Siemion, director of the University of California, Berkeley’s SETI
Research Center.
Bigger and better
telescopes are probing deeper into the night sky. Sophisticated computational
tools are poring over massive datasets on increasing numbers of stars and at a
wider variety of frequencies. Observatories around the world are performing
regular observations as part of Breakthrough Listen — a $100 million effort
funded by Israeli-Russian billionaires Yuri and Julia Milner to conduct
the most comprehensive search for
extraterrestrials yet (SN:
7/20/15).
So far, SETI scientists
have found nothing but radio silence. Still, they are undeterred. They’ve
scoured only a tiny fraction of
the places E.T. could be (SN:
9/30/18). And SETI’s collective observing power will make
scientists 1,000 times more likely to find E.T. during this decade than they
were in the 2010s, Siemion says.
This is, he says, “a boom time for SETI.
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/
|
3 Sept |
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting |
TBD -- Great Courses video |
(Teams) |
|
||
|
Cancelled
for now |
|
Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS Monthly General Meeting in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw
Bl. In Torrance) |
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Sept.
17 The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2020
Visualizing
Space Exploration: AR, VR & Emerging Tech
Time: 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT; 0200 UTC)
We will explore how Augmented Reality, Virtual reality, and other forms of
Mission Ops visualization can influence our Public Outreach and vice versa. As
we delve deeper into the synergy of this work, we will see how it affects the
way we design our spacecraft and the way we look at the world.
Host:
Brian White
Speaker(s):
Sasha Samochina, Deputy Manager of the Ops Lab, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jason Craig, Visualization Producer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Webcast:
›
Click here to watch the event live on YouTube
›
Click here to watch the event live on Ustream
Past shows are archived on YouTube.
› Click here for the YouTube playlist of past shows
|
14 Sept? |
LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory
(private) |
|
Sep 20 2020 |
DR. ANDREW DAVIS
ROCKS AND MINERALS FROM STARS
Location: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqduyupj0vGd3S0_52FsbHTbPjYr0sZQUj
One of the most remarkable discoveries of the twentieth
century is that some meteorites contain dust grains made around other stars
that lived and died more than 4.5 billion years ago, before our Solar System
formed. Stars only twice the mass of our Sun eventually turned into red giant
stars and lost much of their mass as gas and dust. More massive stars ended
with spectacular explosions called supernovae, and throw off much of their
mass. Both kinds of stars return copious amounts of dust to the interstellar
medium (the stuff between the stars), a portion of which formed new stars
like our own, and we have recognized dust grains from both red giants and
supernovae in meteorites. Each dust grain retains a chemical and isotopic
record of the star around which it formed and by analyzing individual dust
grains in the laboratory, we can study the interiors of stars in ways not
possible by astronomy with telescopes. The study of stardust in the
laboratory has led to new understanding of how the chemical elements are made
in stars. Stardust was also not uniformly mixed into the solar nebula, the
disk of gas and dust from which the Sun and planets formed. This caused small
differences in isotopic composition among Solar System materials that have
proven to be powerful tracers of the relationships between planets and
different kinds of meteorites. s  |
|
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting |
TBD -- Great Courses video |
Teams |
Observing:
The
following data are from the 2020 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s
2020 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 September:
Moon: Sept 2 Full, Sept 10 last quarter, Sept 17 new, Sept 24 1st
quarter
Planets:
Venus
is a brilliant morning star all month. Mars
rises in the evening, culminates before dawn. Jupiter transits at dusk and sets after midnight, Saturn roughly 8 degrees east of
Jupiter, Mercury
is hidden in the Sun’s glare all month.
Other
Events:
|
Cancelled |
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. Time: 7:30
PM - 10:00 PM Location: Garvey
Ranch Obs. , 781 Orange Ave., Monterey Park, CA 91755 |
6 Sept Mars 0.03 deg S
of Moon
|
? |
SBAS In-town
observing session – In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at
Ridgecrest Middle School– 28915 NortbBay Rd. RPV, Weather Permitting: Please
contact Ken Rossi or Ken Munson to confirm that the gate will be opened. http://www.sbastro.net/. Only if we get
permission to use the school grounds again and CDC guidelines are reduced |
11 Sept Neptune at opposition
14 Sept Venus 4deg S of Moon
|
19 Sept |
LAAS Private dark
sky Star Party |
|
? |
SBAS
out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Greg Benecke to coordinate a
location. http://www.sbastro.net/. |
22 Sept Equinox
|
Cancelled |
LAAS Public
Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm See http://www.griffithobservatory.org/programs/publictelescopes.html#starparties for more information. |
25 Sept Jupiter 1.6deg N of Moon, Saturn 2deg N of Moon
Internet
Links:
Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying
Guides
Sky & Telescope Magazine -- Choosing Your Equipment
Orion Telescopes & Binoculars -- Buying
Guides
Telescopes.com -- Telescopes 101
General
Getting Started in Astronomy & Observing
e! Science News Astronomy & Space
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (educational, amateur &
professional)
Amateur Online Tools, Journals, Vendors, Societies, Databases
The Astronomy White Pages (U.S. & International
Amateur Clubs & Societies)
American Astronomical Society
(professional)
Regional
(Southern California, Washington, D.C. & Colorado)
Southern California & Beyond
Amateur Astronomy Organizations, Observatories & Planetaria
Mt. Wilson Observatory description, history, visiting
Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS)
South Bay Astronomical Society
(SBAS)
The Local Group Astronomy Club
(Santa Clarita)
Ventura County Astronomical
Society
The
Astronomical Society of Greenbelt
Northern
Virginia Astronomy Club
Colorado
Springs Astronomical Society
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, Kelly Gov club Secretary (& librarian), or Alan Olson,
Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment, and club Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President
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