AEA Astronomy Club
Newsletter
December 2022
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 7
General Calendar p. 11
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 11
Observing p. 12
Useful
Links p. 14
About the Club p.
15
Club News &
Calendar.
Club Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
--
1 Dec AEA Astronomy Club Meeting TBD – Great Courses video Teams
5 Jan AEA Astronomy Club Meeting TBD – Great Courses video Teams
AEA
Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st Thursdays at 11:30 am. Virtual meetings on Teams until further
notice. When live meetings resume, our
preferred room has been A1/1735, when we can reserve it.
Club
News:
Nominations for club V.P. & Treasurer being taken.
2024
Eclipse -- An update from the
2024 solar eclipse committee (Mark Clayson, Mai Lee, Melissa Jolliff, Nahum
Melamed, Judy Kerner, Marilee Wheaton):
We’ve heard from 2 Kerrville (on centerline, 1 hour
from San Antonio) hotels that think they can accommodate us (50 rooms for about
100 people anticipated) between them – Days Inn & Hampton Inn. We’re waiting for their contractual details,
and will continue to keep you informed.
But typical group contracts allow individual group members to make their
individual reservations and deposits directly with the hotel. And deposits may not be required until
month(s) before the stay. Still checking
other options just in case – some say they’ll require 3 or 4 day minimum stay –
we’ve been saying most of us will likely want 2 days (day before and of the
eclipse).
We have also made tentative arrangements for an
observing site at a local church in Kerrville 3 miles from the hotel. With adequate parking & restrooms. I believe they’ll also let us have our
pre-eclipse mtg. there the night before.
As courtesy, we’ll invite members of their congregation to join us.
Contact Jason Fields if interested in joining him for an observing
night with his 20” Dobs – per recent emails.
We need volunteers to help with:
·
Serving
as club Astronomical League representative
·
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, Sam has a fair chunk of the equipment)
Astronomy Video(s)
& Picture(s) of the Month
(generally from
Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html)
VIDEO: A Total Lunar Eclipse Over Tajikistan https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221107.html
Video Credit & Copyright: Jean-Luc Dauvergne (Ciel
et Espace); Music: Valère Leroy & Sophie Huet (Space-Music)
Explanation: If the full Moon suddenly faded, what would you see? The
answer was recorded in a dramatic time lapse video taken during the total lunar eclipse in 2011 from Tajikistan. During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the Moon and the Sun, causing the
moon to fade dramatically. The Moon never gets completely dark, though, since the Earth's atmosphere refracts some light. As the featured video begins, the scene may appear to be daytime and
sunlit, but actually it is a nighttime and lit by the glow of the full Moon. As
the Moon becomes eclipsed and fades, background stars become
visible and here can be seen reflected in a lake. Most spectacularly, the sky surrounding the eclipsed moon suddenly appears to be full
of stars and highlighted by
the busy plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. The sequence repeats with a closer view, and the final
image shows the placement of the eclipsed Moon near the Eagle, Swan, Trifid, and Lagoon nebulas. Nearly two hours after the eclipse started,
the moon emerged from the Earth's shadow and its bright full glare again dominated the sky. Later today or tomorrow,
depending on your location relative to the International Date
Line, a new total lunar
eclipse will take place --
with totality being primarily visible over northeastern Asia and northwestern North America.
VIDEO:
A Partial Eclipse of an Active Sun https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221102.html
Video Credit: Ralf Burkart; h/t Maciej Libert (AG)
Explanation: Watch for three things in this unusual eclipse video.
First, watch for a big dark circle to approach from the right to block out more and more of the Sun. This dark circle is
the Moon, and the video was made primarily to capture this partial
solar eclipse last week. Next,
watch a large solar prominence hover and shimmer over the Sun's edge. A close look will show that part of it is actually falling back to the Sun. The prominence is made of hot plasma that is temporarily held aloft by the Sun's
changing magnetic field. Finally,
watch the Sun's edge waver. What is wavering is a dynamic carpet of hot gas tubes rising and falling through the Sun's chromosphere -- tubes known as spicules. The entire 4-second time-lapse video covers a time of about ten minutes, although the Sun
itself is expected to last another 5 billion years.
Earthset from Orion
Image Credit: NASA, Artemis
1
Explanation: Eight billion people are about to disappear in this snapshot
from space. Taken on November
21, the sixth
day of the Artemis 1 mission, their
home world is setting behind the Moon's bright edge as viewed by an external
camera on the outbound Orion
spacecraft. The Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130
kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver will be
used to reach a distant
retrograde orbit around the
Moon. That orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers
beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft will orbit in the
opposite direction of the Moon's orbit around planet Earth. Orion will enter
its distant retrograde orbit on Friday, November 25. Swinging around the Moon, Orion will reach a maximum distance (just over 400,000
kilometers) from Earth on Monday November 28 exceeding a record set by Apollo 13 for most distant spacecraft designed for human
space exploration.
Planet Earth from Orion
Image Credit: NASA, Artemis
1
Explanation: A
Space Launch System rocket left planet Earth on Wednesday, November 16 at 1:47am EST carrying the
Orion spacecraft on the Artemis 1 mission, the first integrated test of NASA’s
deep space exploration systems. Over an hour after liftoff
from Kennedy Space
Center's historic Launch Complex 39B, one of Orion's external
video cameras captured this
view of its new perspective from space. In the foreground are Orion's Orbital Maneuvering System
engine and auxillary engines, at the bottom of the European Service Module.
Beyond one of the module's 7-meter long extended solar array wings lies the
spacecraft's beautiful home world. The Artemis 1 mission will last almost four weeks, testing capabilities to
enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. The uncrewed Orion spacecraft
is expected to fly by the
Moon on November 21,
performing a close approach to the lunar surface on its way to a retrograde
orbit 70,000 kilometers beyond the Moon.
The Protostar within L1527
Image Credit: Science - NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam
Processing - Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI),
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Explanation: The
protostar within dark
cloud L1527 is a mere 100,000 years old, still embedded in the
cloud of gas and dust that feeds its growth. In this NIRCam image from the
James Webb Space Telescope, the dark band at the neck of the infrared nebula is
a thick disk that surrounds the young stellar object. Viewed nearly edge-on and a little larger than our Solar
System, the disk ultimately supplies material to the protostar while
hiding it from Webb's direct infrared view. The nebula itself is seen in
stunning detail though. Illuminated by infrared light from the protostar, the
hourglass-shaped nebula's cavities are created as material ejected in the star-forming process plows through the
surrounding medium. As the protostar gains mass it will eventually become a
full-fledged star, collapsing and igniting nuclear fusion in its core. A likely
analog to our own Sun and Solar System in their early infancy, the protostar
within dark cloud L1527 lies some 460 light-years distant in the Taurus star-forming region. Webb's
NIRCam image spans about 0.3
light-years.
Supernumerary Rainbows over New Jersey
Image 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 in 2018, 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:
ScienceNews.org
“‘Just Make Your Head Explode’: Scientists Awed As Webb Finds Farthest Light Seen
By Man
Galaxy found was also formed closer to time of
Big Bang than anything ever seen
By Hank Berrien
•
Nov 18, 2022 DailyWire.com
•
The remarkable James Webb Telescope has now offered mankind a
possible glimpse of the farthest starlight from Earth anyone has ever seen, and
a galaxy that was formed closer to the original Big Bang than any galaxy seen
before.
Two galaxies billions of light-years farther behind the giant
galaxy cluster Abell 2744 were discovered by the Webb. One is estimated as
having come into existence 450 million years after the Big Bang — which has
been estimated to have occurred 13.8 billion years ago — while the second,
titled GLASS-z12, emerged only 350 million years after the explosion. Both
galaxies are estimated to be tiny compared to the Milky Way galaxy of which
Earth is a part.
“These observations just make your head explode. This is a whole
new chapter in astronomy. It’s like an archaeological dig, and suddenly you
find a lost city or something you didn’t know about. It’s just staggering,”
said Paola Santini, one the authors of a research paper led by Marco Castellano
of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome, Italy.
Another research paper outlining the discovery was led by Rohan
Naidu of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both papers were published
in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“With Webb, we were amazed to find the most distant starlight
that anyone had ever seen, just days after Webb released its first data,”
Naidu said of the second galaxy.
“Everything we see is new. Webb is showing us that there’s a
very rich universe beyond what we imagined,” Tommaso Treu of the University of
California at Los Angeles echoed. “Once again the universe has surprised us.
These early galaxies are very unusual in many ways.”
The first galaxy reportedly has a redshift of 10.5 while
GLASS-z12 has one of 12.5. Redshift and blueshift describe how a light wave
moves, whether toward us or away from us. As a light is stretched, it is
“shifted” toward the red end of the light spectrum. Thus the greater the
redshift, the farther the light is from us.
GLASS-z12 is thus even farther away from us than the first
galaxy found with it.
“At least three types of redshift occur in the universe — from
the universe’s expansion, from the movement of galaxies relative to each other
and from ‘ redshift,’ which happens when light is shifted due to the massive
amount of matter inside of a galaxy,” Space.com explains.
Up until the discovery of GLASS-z12, the farthest known galaxy
that was discovered was GN-z11, found in 2016 by the Hubble Space telescope;
its redshift was 11.1.
“We’ve nailed something that is incredibly fascinating. These
galaxies would have had to have started coming together maybe just 100 million
years after the big bang. Nobody expected that the dark ages would have ended
so early,” Garth Illingworth a member of Naidu’s team, enthused. “The primal
universe would have been just one hundredth its current age. It’s a sliver of
time in the 13.8 billion-year-old evolving cosmos.”
JWST finds a planet with an atmosphere like no other
The JWST is
becoming an exoplanet researcher's dream.
The James Webb Space Telescope just won’t stop finding new stuff. This
time, it was a detailed chemical and molecular picture of the atmosphere of a
faraway world that is unlike anything we’ve seen so far.
The telescope’s array of
highly sensitive instruments was trained on WASP-39 b‘s atmosphere, a planet with roughly the same mass as Saturn but
much hotter (it is referred to as a “hot Saturn”). The planet, which lies some
700 light-years away, has an atmosphere at a toasty 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit
(871 degrees Celsius). While the JWST, along with Hubble and Spitzer, have previously revealed isolated components of this planet’s atmosphere, the new
readings provide a comprehensive menu of atoms, molecules, and even
indications of active chemistry and fragmented clouds.
“The clarity of the signals from a number of
different molecules in the data is remarkable,” says Mercedes
López-Morales, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard &
Smithsonian and one of the scientists who contributed to the new results. “We
had predicted that we were going to see many of those signals, but still, when
I first saw the data, I was in awe.”
The new findings continue
to make JWST a great go-to source for conducting a variety of
investigations on exoplanets, as this study indicates that figuring out various
bits of information about planets’ atmospheres will be possible. This includes
investigating the atmospheres of smaller, rocky planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
The telescope that keeps on giving
The discoveries are
described in five recently submitted scientific
papers, available on the preprint
website arXiv. One of the most groundbreaking discoveries is the first
detection of sulfur dioxide in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. This molecule is
produced by chemical reactions triggered by high-energy light from the planet’s
parent star. A similar process creates the protective ozone layer in the upper
atmosphere on Earth.
“The surprising detection of sulfur dioxide
finally confirms that photochemistry shapes the climate of ‘hot Saturns,’” says
Diana Powell, a NASA Hubble fellow, astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics
and core member of the team that made the sulfur dioxide discovery. “Earth’s
climate is also shaped by photochemistry, so our planet has more in common with
‘hot Saturns’ than we previously knew!”
Sodium, potassium, and water vapor are some of the other atmospheric components that JWST detected. These observations have been confirmed by ground- and space-based telescopes and JWST has also discovered new water features at longer wavelengths.
The JWST also observed carbon dioxide with
greater clarity, with the spacecraft providing twice as much data as has been
previously reported. While CO2 was found, neither methane nor hydrogen sulfide
showed up in the data. If they are actually present, these molecules occur at
very low levels. However, if they are in WASP 39 b’s atmosphere, it would be a
significant finding for scientists making inventories of exoplanet chemistry in
order to better understand the formation and development of these distant worlds.
To find these chemicals, JWST tracked WASP-39 b
as it passed in front of its host star, allowing some of the star’s light to
pass through the planet’s atmosphere and allowing observers to detect light
from the object. Astronomers can identify the molecules by looking at the
colors that are and aren’t present because different kinds of chemicals in the
atmosphere absorb different colors of the starlight spectrum.
Eight times closer to its star than Mercury is
to our Sun, WASP-39 b serves as an excellent testing ground for the effects of
radiation from host stars on exoplanets. A deeper comprehension of the
star-planet relationship should result in a better understanding of how these
processes produce the variety of planets seen in the galaxy.
“We observed the exoplanet with multiple
instruments that, together, provide a broad swath of the infrared spectrum and
a panoply of chemical fingerprints inaccessible until JWST,” said Natalie
Batalha, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who
contributed to and helped coordinate the new research. “Data like these are a
game changer.”
Tags: harvardjwstsmithsonianWASP-39
b
We recommend
World Scientific Book
Bentham Science Books
Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2020
World Scientific Book
Jordan
Strickler
General Calendar:
Colloquia,
Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia: Carnegie (Tues.
11am), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena
(daily
12-4pm): http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/
https://carnegiescience.edu/events/carnegie-digital-series
Carnegie Zoom Digital Series
Zoom Webinar Platform
Night Sky Network Clubs
& Events
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs-and-events.cfm
1 Dec AEA Astronomy Club Meeting TBD – Great Courses video Teams
2 Dec Friday Night 7:30 PM SBAS Monthly General
Meeting Topic: “El Camino College Planetarium Show” in the Planetarium at El Camino
College (16007 Crenshaw Bl. In Torrance)
[none
listed for Dec.] The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2022
DR. PAUL WARREN; UCLA
LUNAR METEORITES: FINALLY, A FEW ANORTHOSITES
Location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY4q8H9MbHA
Time: 12PM
By some estimates, most of the Moon’s outsized crust consists of anorthosite, an igneous rock with more than 90% of the calcium-aluminum silicate mineral plagioclase. Plagioclase has an unusually low density, and the lunar crust is believed to have formed in a unique way by buoyant flotation of plagioclase over a global magma ocean. Some authors have even claimed the lunar-crustal plagioclase abundance is generally greater than 98%. Yet only within the past year were the first three anorthosite lunar meteorites discovered. I will discuss these new anorthosite meteorites and some other aspects of lunar rock studies that constrain the magma ocean hypothesis.
This is a pre-recorded video that will be uploaded to Youtube. There will be no Zoom lecture in December.
5 Jan AEA Astronomy Club Meeting TBD – Great Courses video Teams
Observing:
The
following data are from the 2022 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s
2022 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 December:
Moon Dec 8 Full, Dec 16 last quarter, Dec 23 new, Dec 30 1st
quarter
Planets:
Venus
is visible at dusk all month. Mars rises at sunset and
is visible until dawn. Jupiter transits in the early evening
and sets after midnight. Saturn is visible at dusk and sets in
the evening. Mercury
is lost in the Sun’s glare all month.
Other
Events:
LAAS Event Calendar (incl.
various other virtual events):
https://www.laas.org/laas-bulletin/#calendar
7 December Moon
Occults Mars Watch as Mars disappears behind the moon! Occultation begins
at 6:29 PM and ends at 7:28 PM when Mars comes out from behind the Moon.
8 December Mars at
Opposition
13 December Geminids
Meteor Shower Peak This shower is fairly prolific with upwards of 120
meteors per hour in good dark-sky conditions.
|
Dec. 7,14,21,28 |
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 |
|
17 Dec |
SBAS In-town
observing session – In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at Ridgecrest
Middle School– 28915 North Bay Rd. RPV, Weather Permitting: Please contact
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 |
21 Dec Solstice
21 December Mercury
at Greatest Western Elongation
22 December Ursids
Meteor Shower Peak This minor shower radiates from the Little Dipper near
Kochab and typically has about 10 meteors/hour.
|
23 Dec |
SBAS
out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Ken Munson to coordinate a location.
http://www.sbastro.net/. |
|
24 Dec |
LAAS Private dark
sky Star Party |
24 Dec Venus 3deg N of Moon
|
Cancelled |
LAAS Public
Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm See http://www.griffithobservatory.org/programs/publictelescopes.html#starparties for more information. |
29 Dec Mercury 1.4deg N of Venus, Jupiter 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 Kaly Rengarajan, 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: Jason Fields, President & Program Committee Chairman, Sam
Andrews, VP, Kelly Gov club Secretary (& librarian), or Kaly Rangarajan,
(Treasurer).
Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter Editor
