The Meteor Journal of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association

Transcription

1 The Meteor Journal of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association VOLUME XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 ********************************************************************************************* President Jon Ellard (251) Vice President -- Ed Magowan (850) Secretary Richard Walker (850) Treasurer Jim Larduskey (850) Librarian: Jacque Falzone (850) Education Chair Dewey Barker (850) NWFAA Contact: Dennis Hausch (850) Deep Sky Committee: Dave Haluposki (850) PSC Student Chapter officers for 2014: Dave Cochran President , Sara Ingersoll-Sec.-Treas. Editor and ALCOR: Dr. J. Wayne Wooten, Physical Sciences, Room 1751, Pensacola State College, Pensacola FL Phone (850) (voic ) ( ) pensacolastate.edu Please mail all dues to EAAA Treasurer, 4660 Shannon Circle, Pensacola, FL Annual Conference of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) I joined SARA a few years ago after I found out that Karl Jansky discovered a strong radio emissions coming from the center of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. This discovery was by accident when he was working for Bell Lab in Later on in 1937 Grote Reber learned of Jansky s discovery and built a 10 m radio telescope (see Figure 1) in his backyard and produced the first radio emission map of the Milky Way. These two individual brought the dawn of radio astronomy to us as a science. I finally made up my mind to travel to the SARA Annual Conference at Green Bank WV the past spring. This conference was held the 29 th of Jun to 3 rd of Jul. Green Bank is best known for the huge 300 ft radio telescope at its facility (see Figure 2) The Annual Conference consisted of the SARA Conference and the Radio JOVE Conference. The SARA Conference was over all amateur related radio astronomy while the Radio JOVE Conference was dedicated to the Jupiter-Io magnetic storms and radio emissions. After I arrived in Green Bank on the 29 th, a group of us attended a presentation on the operation of the 40-ft radio telescope. This telescope can be used by anyone with the proper training. Next we went down to the telescope and pointed it to a section of the Milky Way in which we would find neutral hydrogen and try to measure the rest frequency of MHz. We did not observe this particular frequency, but a lower frequency. We calculated that this hydrogen was moving away from us at 160 km/sec or 576,000 km/hr, giving all respect to the Doppler Effect. Later on that evening a group of us saw a flux density increase showing that we were looking at a known Quasar. This experience was very interesting. The next two days were filled with elementary radio astronomy to software and hardware design for the amateur. Yes, there were a presentation on SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and what several members of SARA are trying to introduce in creating and uploading a message on the New Horizon spacecraft. Finally I do not want to forget that we had two Nobel Prize Laureates that spoke to the group, John Mather and Joe Taylor. John Mather spoke to us on the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared telescope, which will be launched into space in the next several years. Joe Taylor spoke to us on his discovery of binary pulsars system in which he won the Noble Prize in This discovery was made on Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. The following two days were dedicated to the Radio JOVE program which focused on the Jupiter-Io radio noise storms that amateur like you and I can detect at a frequency of ~20 MHz. These two days were also filled with elementary Jupiter-Io education as well as software and hardware design. In the evenings several attendees setup their personal amateur radio astronomy equipment for everybody to see. -- Dean Covey, KV4RL

2 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 2 Figure 1: Grote Reber s historic first radio telescope Figure 2. Byrd 300 radio scope is largest fully steerable disk in world.

3 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 3 Virginia College Gaze on June 9th The downtown gaze at Virginia College on Monday night (June 9) turned out great in spite of light pollution and intermittent clouds. This event was for the students and also for the surrounding community. We had many come as they left work in the banks and other offices. The school had free food for all and also had a number of prizes for the students. The top prize was an Orion equatorial reflector, and it was won by a Pharmacy Tech student who said she had always wanted a good telescope. Thanks to Dewey Barker and Harold Breyde who arrived early and set up scopes. Dewey had his 4 inch F/6 Astroview refractor and Harold had his 8 inch dob. He also had 20x80 binoculars on his awesome parallelogram mount. Dewey had the club PST which was a hit since we had folks coming by at 5:30 while the sun was still up. I brought my Celestron 4 inch f/10 refractor. Lots of flyers and skymaps were given out since Dewey set up the table with handouts. Linda Hoover, a new EAAA member who teaches at VC, helped answer questions which were many. Everyone wanted to see the moon, and we all complied. Even with a fairly bright sky, folks were able to see some of the detail. Later, as the sky darkened, there were oohs and ahhs as folks got great views of lunar detail. We were able to view Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars although it was through a patchy sky with openings here and there. We had lots of little kids who really enjoyed the views. A number of folks were able to get cell phone photos through scopes. Our campus president, Dr. Kim Coolidge, enjoys astronomy and made a moon photo with Dewey's help. She was responsible for the prizes and encouraging the students to take part. By 9:00 folks were still milling around. I had to leave, but Dewey and Harold stayed a while longer. Looks like a downtown gaze can be done even with awful light pollution. Everyone at school has been talking about their experiences, and they definitely want to do it again. --Ray Hayes Fort Pickens Gaze and Camelopardalid Meteor Reports on May 23rd A lot of EAAA folks turned out to Battery Worth on Friday evening, May 23, 2014 for a great Sky Interpretation sessions with Ranger Becky Mims-Breeding. We had about 200+ students, campers, and public join us for observing four planets, several nice satellites, many deep sky objects, but NO Camelopardalid meteors, alas. Representing the club were Rick Hogue, Andy Walker, Clay Mostad, Tom Reiderer, Malone Calvert, Adam Licko, Ron Fairbanks, Lyen McAbee, Harold Breyde, Dewey Barker, Jon Ellard, Don Meyer, David Cochran, Rich and Carol Sigler, and Wayne Wooten. Rick Hogue did reports spotting an early Camelopardalid at 1:30 AM Friday, which made us hope Saturday morning would indeed give us a fine shower. We caught Jupiter shortly after sunset, but never did spot Sirius in the SW, so I guess Dog Days are here now. Mercury was glimpsed through the low clouds in west, but Mars and Saturn were well placed for viewing all evening. We saw a transit of Europa across Jupiter start about 9 PM, with the black shadow notable. Omega Centauri was above the tree line by 9 PM and well resolved in our bigger scopes. I had work on Saturday, and left early with my car pool buddies Clay and Andy. Thanks to them for making the outing possible for me. After I left, others stayed out to all hours, hoping for the meteor storm that did not come. I personally was up from 1-1:30 and had broken clouds in my yard, but it was by then obvious that the peak was at most a few per hour, as was confirmed by all later reports. Adam Licko reported, So we were skunked last night for our meteor "storm". Dewey and I stayed out till 2 and the only meteors I saw were coming from the opposite direction.! Manny Galindo reported, I was almost skunked. Got to see one bright meteor all night. At about 2:30, it was slightly cloudy and could just make out Vega through the haze. A small spec of light started showing through the clouds going N to S overhead and got very bright just W of Vega then winked out. So, I am guessing that was it for Linear? For 3hrs of watching, got only one! Maybe next time? (Editor: Does sound like this was indeed a Camelopardilid, Manny). Martin Fanning reported only one sporadic, no Camelopardalids in clouds over Daphne. Ed Magowan observed from first Portofino, seeing one bright meteor, but then drove back to Beulah, but saw no more.

4 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 4 Tommy Van Pelt went to much darker Munson, and did report seeing about a dozen. The consensus was that most of the debris was smaller than expected, and there were many faint meteors, according to Spaceweather.com, which is why most of us did not do as well. Pensacola State student Alexander Gallup reported observing perhaps the best one of the new shower meteors. He was observing facing north atop dunes at the National Seashore Park east of Gulf Breeze. He saw the first about 9:30, heading west from Camelopardalis toward Polaris. About 10 PM the second one was bright, very slow (as predicted by NASA), and least behind a glowing trail visible for several seconds afterwards. But even staying up until 3 AM, he saw no more, but did get treated to Venus rising in the east. Radar indicates there were many 6-7 th magnitude faint meteors coming in as predicted, but we of course missed those. While we were all disappointed, the fact that this previously unknown shower did in fact materialize on time and at the expected radiant was a major triumph for NASA and meteor science in general. Wayne Wooten Casino Beach Gazes for June 6-7 th The Casino Beach gazes were interesting this month. We had a significant issue with high clouds obscuring the majority of the objects we usually view from this location, but the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars provided some decent views to the public that stopped by to see what we were doing. I set up my 100 mm Orion refractor and used it with the cell phone adapter and a 15 mm eyepiece so that people could take photos of the Moon as it appeared through the cloud breaks. I set up the table with the assortment of handouts I have and held a few short presentations about the information they provided. People were very enthusiastic and appreciative of our efforts. I would estimate that we had people stop by on Friday and 50+ on Saturday. The clouds on Saturday were a bit worse than on Friday and several of us sat around waiting to see if they would clear out. We had a few people stop to see if we were the astronomy club, they kinda guessed it as we were constantly looking up. One couple stopped by with a little girl that appeared disappointed that no scopes were set up, so John Arnold and I went to get the 8" Celestron he bought from the club and we began observing the Moon through the clouds and we had a small clearing around Saturn and we spent the next two hours or so showing the objects we could see. The clouds finally thinned sufficiently, so Adam set up his 6" refractor while John was showing objects with the SCT. Another young couple showed up with a 6" Newtonian and requested some assistance with operating the scope and I spent an hour or so going over the basic functions and set up procedures. Amy, Adam and I were out until 11:00 PM or so on Friday and Ed, Adam and I were out until 11:30 PM on Saturday. We had several members come out to assist at these events; Lyen McAbee, Jon Ellard, John Arnold, Stephen Huber, Don Meyer, Amy Stewart, Dave Halupowski, Tom Reiderer, Regina and Trey, David Cochran, George Oedsma, Ed Magowan, and Adam Licko, if I missed anyone I do apologize. --Dewey J. Barker,EAAA Star Gaze & Events Coordinator Lazy Crazy, HAZY Day in summer Last Friday was most frustrating for our June Sky 27 th Interpretation at Fort Pickens. The skies looked clear about sunset, but there was a high altitude haze (yes, it was predicted by Clear Skies for Pensacola site!) that prevented us from seeing anything fainter than first magnitude. We still had Dennis Hausch (sporting the new NWFAA shirt spiffy!) and Dave Halupowski (setting up the 6 for viewing Saturn, at least) as well as Dr. Andy Walker and wife Diane (thanks for the carpool and snacks!), David Cochran, and President Jon Ellard come out to join Ranger Beckie and myself in handing out star charts to about 30 campers and guests. Was a nice breezy evening, just so few stars! --Wayne Wooten Fabulous Fourth on the Beach Dewey Barker, David Cochran, and I did brave the traffic and crowds to set up at the Pavilion on July 4 th, and had about 300 folks drop by to see the solar activity (nice flare in the PST, many sunspots in Galileoscope photo), Moon (Dewey s new iphone adapter allowed stunning lunar shots by many guests was very popular must get one for our classes at PSC), and Saturn (wind prevented us from using really high power, alas, but Titan and rings, if not Cassini division, seen). Did some constellation laser tours for kids, and had a ball. Finally left about 10:30, but with heavy traffic, didn t get home until midnight. --Wayne Wooten

5 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 5 EAAA Meeting Minutes for May 09, 2014 TONIGHT'S PROGRAM: Dr. Wayne Wooten, 7:30pm - 8:00pm 1 - Observing close and bright Saturn on May 10 (a couple days before until a couple days after). You can find additional information at Multiple studies predict Comet 209P/LINEAR may cause a new significant annual meteor shower which would appear to radiate from Camelopardalis (the Giraffe) on the night of 23/24 May starting in There may be 100 to 400 meteors per hour. This year's shower is predicted to peak on the morning of May 24th between 1-3 AM locally. NEXT PROGRAM: June 13, 2014: We'll certainly summarize the May 23-24, 2014 Camelopardalis meteor shower and know whether we had a bonanza or a bust. OPEN MEETING: Jon Ellard opened the meeting at 7:00pm Introductions: There was 1 guest who introduced himself at the meeting. REPORTS Awards (Wayne Wooten) Level I award was presented at the Fort Pickens gaze to David Cochran, including a new green laser pointer. Amateur Astronomer Education Program and Levels: Dewey Barker gave a brief presentation on the EAAA education program. Treasurer Report (Jim Larduskey) Checking $1, Savings 5, Cash Total $7, There were no expenses this month. Shirts and Hats (Dave Halupowski) Dave has hats (about $15) and all sizes of shirts (about $15) for sale. He is also able to arrange to have personal items embroidered for a reasonable fee (about $12). International Dark Skies Report (Dave Halupowski) There was no new dark skies information to report this month. Last Month's Minutes: Please let secretary know of any needed corrections. OLD BUSINESS Past Star Gazes - maintained on EAAA calendar at Star Gaze reports appear in the Meteor. Dewey Barker gave brief reports on several gazes held during the previous month and these will appear in the next issue of the Meteor. Local Dark Skies Locations: If you use established or find new dark skies please let the club know about them so we can compile a list with GPS coordinates, aiding other members to find them.

6 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 6 NEW BUSINESS Future Star Gazes - maintained on EAAA calendar at Clicking on any posted star gaze should bring up additional information about that event (Point of contact, begin time, location including GPS coordinates) ANNOUNCEMENTS 1 - Need individuals to make suggestions about what to include (simple information) on any paperwork for the telescope library loaner program. a - a sheet to give the library This would be a standard sheet that could be given to each library taking part in the program. b - a sheet to give to anyone borrowing a scope This will provide simple and basic information to allow an individual borrowing a telescope to easily start viewing. Typical information might include: - how to find the north star - how to find the planets - a sky chart showing this type information for each season - URLs for the EAAA calendar and for the EAAA areas where they might be able to ask questions and get answers If anyone has any suggestions about what to include in either of these documents, please send them to me at: rlwalker@granis.net 2 - Literature for Amateur Radio Astronomy activity was made available. ADJOURNMENT: 7:30pm --Richard Walker, Secretary Update on Minutes I see no mention of the donation to the club by Joe Robinson in the minutes. This is just my opinion but the donated equipment is just far too nice/valuable to find it's way into the loaner scope room only to be trashed or to disappear, and it is Joe's wish that the club "make a profit off it". So, here's my thought, for what it's worth. The club is sitting on $7500, plus a trailer we could sell. If we sold off all of Joe's equipment it should net the club around $5K. That puts us around $ $14K. It's my thoughts (again) that this is getting close to enough to buy a piece of land out in the boonies but still with in reasonable driving distance for the club to use as a dark sky site or camping area. Being a non profit I doubt taxes would be very much. I mentioned to Jim when we were unloading the equipment that I will offer to catalog, value, photograph, list, pack and ship all the equipment on astromart and feebay for a 20% auction fee, 20% AFTER all fees and shipping cost are paid. I believe this is a fair deal considering all the work involved in liquidating the equipment plus putting my spotless reputation as a seller on the line. And I have been buying and selling off both places for over 10 years so I'm very familiar with the process. So mull this over, share with the club and LMK what you think. I'm off all summer so I have the time now. If any other member would volunteer to do it for less then by all means go that direction. Above all we need to get the stuff out of that storage locker ASAP. I forgot to add that the scope he has is a Meade 8" LX200 SCT UHTC and may be the GPS model, not sure. There is also a small PST and 14 cases of electronics, eyepieces, binoviewers, charts and countless other accessories, all top shelf stuff. --Rick Hogue

7 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 7 EAAA Meeting Minutes for June 13, 2014 TONIGHT'S PROGRAM: 7:30pm - 8:00pm - Summary: The May Camelopardalis meteor shower: bonanza or bust? A few members saw a few meteors originating from the designated area, but the number was way down from what was hoped. Still, most had fun observing. - Dr. Wooten gave a brief presentation using globes representing both planets and moons, along with discussion about recent findings on each. He will be using these globes while discussing astronomy during the week of July23 for the Phoenix Project. NEXT PROGRAM: July 11, 2014: Review of the Phoenix Project Ed McGowan - Astro-Tortilla program overview OPEN MEETING: 7:00pm - Jon Ellard Introduce Students and Guests There were no guests announced at tonight's meeting. REPORTS Awards (Wayne Wooten) - No awards were presented at this month's meeting. Amateur Astronomer Education Program and Levels (Dewey Barker) - Dewey covered the EAAA education program. He has copies of the level I study book for $7.00 each. The award for reaching level I is the green laser pointer that many of us use to point to celestial objects during gazes. Treasurer Report (Jim Larduskey) Checking $1, Savings 5, Cash Total $7, Shirts and Hats (Dave Halupowski) Dave has hats (about $15) and all sizes of shirts (about $15) for sale. He is also able to arrange to have personal items embroidered for a reasonable fee (about $12). International Dark Skies Report (Dave Halupowski) - The current copy of the "Reflector," Vol 66, No 3, June 2014, has articles that concern dark-skies on pages: 5 and 19. Many findings are opposite those we previously believed. Last Month's Minutes Please let secretary know of any needed corrections. OLD BUSINESS Past Star Gazes - maintained on EAAA calendar at Star Gaze reports appear in the Meteor. Local Dark Skies Locations: If you use established or find new dark skies please let the club know about them so we can compile a list with GPS coordinates, aiding other members to find them.

8 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 8 NEW BUSINESS Future Star Gazes - maintained on EAAA calendar at Clicking on any posted star gaze should bring up additional information about that event (Point of contact, begin time, location including GPS coordinates) ANNOUNCEMENTS 1 - Still looking for suggestions about what to include in both the library paperwork and in the paperwork to the patrons checking out the telescopes. One suggestion was to consider something like duffle bags to store telescope in while they are being loaned out. 2 - The secretary will be out of town for the July 11, 2014 meeting. Bert Black has volunteered to take notes for me. (Thank you) 3 - Is anyone able to work with Tommy Van Pelt and Molly O'Connor filling out the paperwork for a IMPACT 100 grant that could result in a STARLAB portable planetarium. She would like to have the document ed to her by Monday, June 23, This could be a HUGE benefit for the EAAA to have a portable planetarium to use for many of our projects and presentations. ADJOURNMENT: 7:30pm --Richard Walker, Secretary Minutes to EAAA Meeting July 11, 2014 Dr. Wooten opened the meeting by presenting a segment of the Pegasus program on meteorites that was used the previous week educating young ladies as part of a grant related to the STEM program. Dr. Wooten distributed the boxes containing the meteorite samples the membership. Metoritics the study of different types of meteorites were reviewed. (1.) The stony meteorite (S class) is the most abundant type found in the world and is similar to the Earth s crust in composition with the predominate element silica. (2.) The iron meteorite (M class) was the second type discussed. The composition is predominately iron and has a shiny appearance or rust is rust colored and is very dense and magnetic. (3.) The last type is the stony-iron (C class or carbonaceous condrite) meteorite and is a mixture of stone and iron and can be magnetic. Meteorites are most likely found in a desert or Antarctica because the surface of the regions is devoid of organic litter and debris and visual exposure or metal detection is readily apparent. Wrong meteorite types were reviewed and included; loadstone, marble, pumice, and river rock. These all these substances mimic features of true meteorites but are not the real thing. The program was interesting and informative, thank you Dr. Wooten for sharing your knowledge with the membership. Ed Magowan, EAAA vice president opened the business meeting on completion of the program. The guests were introduced. Dr. Wooten presented Matt Posey with the Level I Amateur Astronomer award and an astronomy text book. Dewey Barker reviewed the EAAA education program and the benefits of advancement.

9 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 9 Jim Larduskey gave a treasurers report. There is $ in savings, in checking, $ in petty cash. A license tag for the EAAA trailer was $ The Astronomical League dues will be paid this coming month. The minutes to the previous meeting were approved. Dewey Barker reported the star gazes on July 4 th and 5 th were very good but getting to the beach and the parking were difficult. There were between 200 and 300 viewers on the 4 th and the attendance on the 5th was very good. Dewey purchased an adapter from Orion for his telescope that holds an IPhone. The adapter permits excellent images to be taken with the phone camera. Several IPhone images were shone on the projection screen. Newer IPhone cameras have fine resolution are able t record excellent images. Ed Magowan reported he was at the Big Lagoon for a gaze on the 4 th of July and the traffic was no problem and the seeing was excellent. A report was given on the STEM granted Pegasus program held at Pensacola State College for middle school girls. The program was a big success and the PSC student help was excellent. Special thanks to Kathleen Shelton-Lowe for helping with the meals, geology day, and also acquisition of the meteorite specimens, which will be shared with the geology folks. Also, student chapter president David Cochran helped with the telescope construction and several other activities and stargazes for Pegasus. The membership should take note there is no meeting in August. The EAAA picnic is scheduled for Friday August 1 st with a rain date for Saturday August 2 nd. Bring goodies to eat and drink and share with other attendees. Programs are needed for September and October. Please volunteer. Photo entries and EAAA judges are needed for the Astronomical Photographs in the Pensacola Interstate Fair in October. Rick Hogue has been recommended to place a value on and catalog the astronomy equipment recently donated to EAAA. The items will be offered to EAAA members and then advertised on Craig s list. Rick will be remunerated 20% of the sales for his efforts. Manny Galindo will inventory the contents of trailer and a future decision will be made by the membership on the disposal of the trailer and equipment. The following future star gazes are scheduled; Margaretville on July 12 th, Big Lagoon on July 19 th, Fort Pickens on July 25 th, and Pensacola Beach on August 1 st and 2 nd. Dean Covey attended a Radio Astronomy Conference in Green Banks West Virginia this past month and reported it was a very interesting conference and will write a report on the conference and forward it to Dr. Wooten for the newsletter. (Editor see page 1!) The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m. --Acting secretary, Bert Black

10 The Meteor Volume XXXIX Numbers 5-8 May-August 2014 Page 10 Calendar of Events July 24 Waning crescent Moon passes 4.4 deg. South of Venus in dawn sky July 25 Fort Pickens Sky Interpretation, sunset at Battery Worth July 26 New Moon, but no eclipses this time around August 1 Pavilion Gaze and annual Club Picnic at 7 PM, Pensacola Beach August 2 Pavlion Gaze at sunset, Pensacola Beach August 3 Moon passes 2.2 degrees north of Mars in SW twilight August 4 First quarter moon passes just south of Saturn, occultation farther south Augst 10 Full Moon, the Green Corn Moon in American Indian tradition August 12 Peak for Perseid Meteors, but full moon will interfere with most August 16 Big Lagoon State Park gaze at sunset August 17 Last Quarter Moon August 18 Spectacular Conjunction of Venus passing.2 deg. North of Jupiter in dawn!! August 22 Final Fort Pickens Sky Interpretation of season, sunset at Battery Worth August 23 Waning crescent moon passes five degrees below Venus and Jupiter in dawn August 25 New Moon, Mars passes 3.4 degrees south of Saturn in SW twilight August 31 Waxing crescent moon passes just south of Saturn, occultation farther south! Sept. 1 Moon passes 4.1 degrees north of Mars Sept. 2 First Quarter Moon Sept. 4-5 Pavilion Gazes at Pensacola Beach Sept. 9 Full Moon, the Harvest Moon Sept. 12 EAAA meets at 7 PM, Room 1775 at Pensacola State College Sept. 16 Last quarter moon Sept. 20 Big Lagoon Gaze at sunset, moon passes 5 degrees south of Jupiter in dawn Sept. 22 Autumnal Equinox, fall begins at 9:29 PM CDT Sept. 24 New Moon Sept. 25 Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year 5775 AM Sept. 28 Waxing Crescent moon passes north of Saturn, occultation in Japan Sept. 29 Moon passes 5.6 degrees north of Mars Oct. 1 First Quarter Moon Oct. 3-4 Final Pavilion Gazes at Pensacola Beach for season Oct 8 Full Moon Oct. 10 PSC hosts Dr. Clay Sherrod s Talk Oct. 18 Final Big Lagoon Gaze of season

11 A Glorious Gravitational Lens By Dr. Ethan Siegel As we look at the universe on larger and larger scales, from stars to galaxies to groups to the largest galaxy clusters, we become able to perceive objects that are significantly farther away. But as we consider these larger classes of objects, they don't merely emit increased amounts of light, but they also contain increased amounts of mass. Under the best of circumstances, these gravitational clumps can open up a window to the distant universe well beyond what any astronomer could hope to see otherwise. The oldest style of telescope is the refractor, where light from an arbitrarily distant source is passed through a converging lens. The incoming light rays initially spread over a large area are brought together at a point on the opposite side of the lens, with light rays from significantly closer sources bent in characteristic ways as well. While the universe doesn't consist of large optical lenses, mass itself is capable of bending light in accord with Einstein's theory of General Relativity, and acts as a gravitational lens! The first prediction that real-life galaxy clusters would behave as such lenses came from Fritz Zwicky in These foreground masses would lead to multiple images and distorted arcs of the same lensed background object, all of which would be magnified as well. It wasn't until 1979, however, that this process was confirmed with the observation of the Twin Quasar: QSO Gravitational lensing requires a serendipitous alignment of a massive foreground galaxy cluster with a background galaxy (or cluster) in the right location to be seen by an observer at our location, but the universe is kind enough to provide us with many such examples of this good fortune, including one accessible to astrophotographers with 11" scopes and larger: Abell Located in the Constellation of Draco at position (J2000): R.A. 16h 35m 54s, Dec ' 00" (about 2 North of the star 18 Draconis), Abell 2218 is an extremely massive cluster of about 10,000 galaxies located 2 billion light years away, but it's also located quite close to the zenith for northern hemisphere observers, making it a great target for deep-sky astrophotography. Multiple images and sweeping arcs abound between magnitudes 17 and 20, and include galaxies at a variety of redshifts ranging from z=0.7 all the way up to z=2.5, with farther ones at even fainter magnitudes unveiled by Hubble. For those looking for an astronomical challenge this summer, take a shot at Abell 2218, a cluster responsible for perhaps the most glorious gravitational lens visible from Earth! Learn about current efforts to study gravitational lensing using NASA facilities: Kids can learn about gravity at NASA s Space Place:

12 Abel Image credit: NASA, ESA, and Johan Richard (Caltech). Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin & James Long (ESA/Hubble).

13 The Invisible Shield of our Sun By Dr. Ethan Siegel Whether you look at the planets within our solar system, the stars within our galaxy or the galaxies spread throughout the universe, it's striking how empty outer space truly is. Even though the largest concentrations of mass are separated by huge distances, interstellar space isn't empty: it's filled with dilute amounts of gas, dust, radiation and ionized plasma. Although we've long been able to detect these components remotely, it's only since 2012 that a manmade spacecraft -- Voyager 1 -- successfully entered and gave our first direct measurements of the interstellar medium (ISM). What we found was an amazing confirmation of the idea that our Sun creates a humongous "shield" around our solar system, the heliosphere, where the outward flux of the solar wind crashes against the ISM. Over 100 AU in radius, the heliosphere prevents the ionized plasma from the ISM from nearing the planets, asteroids and Kuiper belt objects contained within it. How? In addition to various wavelengths of light, the Sun is also a tremendous source of fast-moving, charged particles (mostly protons) that move between 300 and 800 km/s, or nearly 0.3% the speed of light. To achieve these speeds, these particles originate from the Sun's superheated corona, with temperatures in excess of 1,000,000 Kelvin! When Voyager 1 finally left the heliosphere, it found a 40-fold increase in the density of ionized plasma particles. In addition, traveling beyond the heliopause showed a tremendous rise in the flux of intermediateto-high energy cosmic ray protons, proving that our Sun shields our solar system quite effectively. Finally, it showed that the outer edges of the heliosheath consist of two zones, where the solar wind slows and then stagnates, and disappears altogether when you pass beyond the heliopause. Unprotected passage through interstellar space would be life-threatening, as young stars, nebulae, and other intense energy sources pass perilously close to our solar system on ten-to-hundred-million-year timescales. Yet those objects pose no major danger to terrestrial life, as our Sun's invisible shield protects us from all but the rarer, highest energy cosmic particles. Even if we pass through a region like the Orion Nebula, our heliosphere keeps the vast majority of those dangerous ionized particles from impacting us, shielding even the solar system's outer worlds quite effectively. NASA spacecraft like the Voyagers, IBEX and SOHO continue to teach us more about our great cosmic shield and the ISM's irregularities. We're not helpless as we hurtle through it; the heliosphere gives us all the protection we need! Want to learn more about Voyager 1 s trip into interstellar space? Check this out: Kids can test their knowledge about the Sun at NASA s Space place:

14 Image credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA / STScI), C. R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt), and NASA, of the star LL Orionis and its heliosphere interacting with interstellar gas and plasma near the edge of the Orion Nebula (M42). Unlike our star, LL Orionis displays a bow shock, something our Sun will regain when the ISM next collides with us at a sufficiently large relative velocity. Editors: Download photo here: