Upcoming Events. A look inside this issue. Location: 1198 Bandon Road, Toms River Time: TBA. 1 P a g e

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1 President Treasurer Newsletter Editors Matthew McCue Ro Spedaliere Anthony Vicidomini Megan Vicidomini Vice President-Secretary Webmaster John Endreson Donald Durett A look inside this issue Upcoming Events Upcoming Events Page 1 Recap Page 2 Dr. Zimmermann Award Page 3 NASA s Space Place Page 4 Celestial Events Page 5 NASA Highlight Page Calendar Page 6 Club Telescopes Page 6 ASTRA Library Page 6 Public Outreach Page 7 Membership Application Page 8 January 8 - Monthly Meeting Location: Robert J. Novins Planetarium (Building 13) Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm. Following the meeting there will be a Telescope Workshop January 9 - Observing Event Members Only Location: TBA Time: 6:30pm to 12:00am January 16 Jakes Branch Star Party Location: Jakes Branch County Park, Beachwood NJ Time: 6:00pm to 8:00pm January 30 - Cattus Island Administration Building Location: 1198 Bandon Road, Toms River Time: TBA A.S.T.R.A. Robert J. Novins Planetarium Ocean County College P.O. Box 2001 Toms River NJ EVENT CANCELLATIONS Two hours before the event start time please check out the ASTRA Message Board at or call the ASTRA Hotline: P a g e

2 Recap 2015 A.S.T.R.A. AWARDS 2016 Elected Officers President: Matthew McCue Vice-President Secretary: John Endreson Treasurer: Ro Spedaliere Following the Meeting and Awards, Vic Palmieri gave a presentation titled How to Collimate a Newtonian. During his presentation he discussed and demonstrated how to properly align reflecting telescopes 2 P a g e

3 Dr. R. Erik Zimmermann Award John Endreson John Endreson has dedicated himself to ASTRA s mission to explore all aspects of astronomy and space sciences and to promote knowledge of astronomy and associated equipment Over the years he has stepped up holding the positions of President, Vice President, Newsletter Editor and Webmaster. His efforts have helped institute our annual Astronomy Day, acquiring sky observing locations such as Coyle Field and Island Beach State Park. He created the ASTRA s Facebook page, the ASTRA Library and took over the club telescope loan program. John brought the ASTRA logo and website into the 21st century. From 2007 to 2009 with John s help, ASTRA became New Jersey s #1 public outreach astronomy program and made the top 10 list ( # 9th ) for public outreach in the nation. He also had our club win third place in the Astronomy Magazine s Out of this World Outreach Program Awards. (which was an international contest) The members of ASTRA presented him with the highest honor, the Dr. Erik Zimmermann Award. Thank you! 3 P a g e

4 How will we finally image the event horizon of a black hole? By Ethan Siegel One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein first put forth his theory of General Relativity, which laid out the relationship between spacetime and the matter and energy present within it. While it successfully recovered Newtonian gravity and predicted the additional precession of Mercury's orbit, the only exact solution that Einstein himself discovered was the trivial one: that for completely empty space. Less than two months after releasing his theory, however, the German scientist Karl Schwarzschild provided a true exact solution, that of a massive, infinitely dense object, a black hole. One of the curious things that popped out of Schwarzschild's solution was the existence of an event horizon, or a region of space that was so severely curved that nothing, not even light, could escape from it. The size of this event horizon would be directly proportional to the mass of the black hole. A black hole the mass of Earth would have an event horizon less than a centimeter in radius; a black hole the mass of the sun would have an event horizon just a few kilometers in radius; and a supermassive black hole would have an event horizon the size of a planetary orbit. Our galaxy has since been discovered to house a black hole about four million solar masses in size, with an event horizon about 23.6 million kilometers across, or about 40 percent the size of Mercury's orbit around the sun. At a distance of 26,000 light years, it's the largest event horizon in angular size visible from Earth, but at just 19 micro-arc-seconds, it would take a telescope the size of Earth to resolve it a practical impossibility. But all hope isn't lost! If instead of a single telescope, we built an array of telescopes located all over Earth, we could simultaneously image the galactic center, and use the technique of VLBI (very long-baseline interferometry) to resolve the black hole's event horizon. The array would only have the light-gathering power of the individual telescopes, meaning the black hole (in the radio) will appear very faint, but they can obtain the resolution of a telescope that's the distance between the farthest telescopes in the array! The planned Event Horizon Telescope, spanning four different continents (including Antarctica), should be able to resolve under 10 microarc-seconds, imaging a black hole directly for the first time and answering the question of whether or not they truly contain an event horizon. What began as a mere mathematical solution is now just a few years away from being observed and known for certain! Image credit: NASA/CXC/Amherst College/D.Haggard et al., of the galactic center in X-rays. Sagittarius A* is the supermassive black hole at our Milky Way's center, which normally emits X-ray light of a particular brightness. However, 2013 saw a flare increase its luminosity by a factor of many hundreds, as the black hole devoured matter. The event horizon has yet to be revealed. 4 P a g e

5 NASA Highlight Information from Hubble Sees the Force Awakening in a Newborn Star Just in time for the release of the movie Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, NASA s Hubble Space Telescope has photographed what looks like a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber. In the center of the image, partially obscured by a dark, Jedi-like cloak of dust, a newborn star shoots twin jets out into space as a sort of birth announcement to the universe. This celestial lightsaber does not lie in a galaxy far, far away, but rather inside our home galaxy, the Milky Way. It's inside a turbulent birthing ground for new stars known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex, located 1,350 light-years away. Credits: NASA/ESA VOLUNTEER PRESENTERS Members are invited to give presentations related to astronomy or space science at our monthly meetings in Please contact a club officer to make arrangements A.S.T.R.A. MEMBERSHIP DUES ARE DUE (MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION ON PAGE 8) CELESTIAL EVENTS Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) January 3, 4 January 10 January 24 Quadrantids Meteor Shower. New Moon. Full Moon.. Source: Readers can Google Sea and Sky if they want to get to this site. 5 P a g e

6 2016 CALENDAR (JANUARY TO MARCH) January 8 - Monthly Meeting Location: Robert J. Novins Planetarium (Building 13) Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm. Following the meeting there will be a Telescope Workshop January 9 - Observing Event Members Only Location: TBA Time: 6:00pm to 12:00am January 16 Jakes Branch Star Party Location: Jakes Branch County Park, Beachwood NJ Time: 6:00pm to 8:00pm January 30 - Cattus Island Administration Building Location: 1198 Bandon Road, Toms River Time: TBA February 6 - Observing Event Members Only Location: TBA Time: 6:00pm to 12:00am February 12 - Monthly Meeting Location: Robert J. Novins Planetarium (Building 13) Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm. February 13 Jakes Branch Star Party Location: Jakes Branch County Park, Beachwood NJ Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm February 27 Cloverdale Star Party Location: Cloverdale County Park, Barnegat, NJ Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm March 5 - Observing Event Members Only Location: TBA Time: 6:00pm to 12:00am March 11 - Monthly Meeting Location: Robert J. Novins Planetarium (Building 13) Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm March 12 Jakes Branch Star Party Location: Jakes Branch County Park, Beachwood NJ Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm March 19 - Cattus Island Administration Building Location: 1198 Bandon Road, Toms River Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm ASTRA LIBRARY OF BOOKS AND DVDS: Many books and DVDs are available for loan from the ASTRA Library for a one month period. A list of these items is available on the ASTRA website. Request for these items must be made prior to our regular meeting and returned by the following meeting. Please your request for these items to our Librarian John Endreson at Library-Loan@astra-nj.org or call him at CLUB TELESCOPES ASTRA has several different types of telescopes, telescope mounts, along with binoculars, eyepieces, and eyepiece filters for members to borrow. If any member is interested please checkout the website and contact John Endreson at telescope-loan@astra-nj.org or FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER DEADLINE: JANUARY 22, P a g e

7 Public Outreach Astronomy Day for the Scouts On November 21, 2015 the members of ASTRA helped local Boy Scouts earn their Astronomy badges. The scouts learned about the sun, planets, moon, stars, constellations and deep sky objects. They watched a planetarium show and looked at the sun through an H-Alpha scope. Overall it was a very good turn out with lots of inquisitive people. Star Party at Jakes Branch Members of ASTRA attended the December 12th star party at Jakes Branch County Park. Bill, Ro, John, Vic, and Bob brought their scopes and volunteered their time at this event. The star party was well attended with approximately 30 or more visitors. Sky conditions were not optimal. Clouds would roll in and obscure the sky only to later fade away yielding a clear sky. Then, clouds would again roll in only to later again fade away yielding a clear sky. The seeing was steady but transparency poor. During periods of overcast members of ASTRA answered questions about their telescopes and astronomy in general. Despite the roller coaster conditions everyone considered the evening a success. (by Vic Palmieri) Winter Star Watch The Winter Star Watch was a lot of fun. With cooler temperatures and clear skies, the 40 or so guests got into the holiday spirit while seeing the planetarium shows and learning what astronomical objects would be visible that night and then going outside the planetarium to view those objects through a Telescope. Nice job by the planetarium staff and ASTRA volunteers who gave the guests young and old, a great experience that hopefully they soon won't forget. (by John Endreson) ASTRA IBSP SPECIAL USE PERMIT ASTRA has acquired a special use permit for 2016 that allows its members to use Island Beach State Park from dusk until dawn for astronomical observations. The New 2016 IBSP Observing Permit will be available upon request for ASTRA members who are in good standing "2016 paid dues". This Special Use Permit is to be used for Astronomical Observing only! It is not to be used to enter the park for any other reason. If you're interested in obtaining a copy of this permit along with the rules of use information, please contact John Endreson at VP@astra-nj.org for more information. 7 P a g e

8 ASTRA Membership Application Form Thank you for your interest in the Astronomical Society of the Toms River Area. Please read carefully and fill in the appropriate information below. New membership Annual dues are $ (January to December): Telescope Fund Assessment required for all new members Optional for returning members ($ ) ($ 5.00 ) Returning members Annual dues are $ from (January to December): ($ ) Prorated membership dues are $ from (July to December): Astronomical League Membership dues are $7:50 per year: Ask about the benefits of becoming an AL member TOTAL AMOUNT PAID (as determined by the above schedule): ($ ) ($ ) ($ ) PLEASE MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO ASTRA. NAME PHONE ( ) ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP Please provide your address so you can receive a copy of the Astral Projections Newsletter. If unable to provide an address, a paper copy of the newsletter will be mailed to you ADDRESS I declare that to the best of my knowledge all particulars supplied by me are correct and complete. APPLICANT SIGNATUURE Send this application form with your dues payment to: A.S.T.R.A. Robert J. Novins Planetarium Ocean County College P.O. Box 2001 Toms River NJ P a g e