The Meteor Journal of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association

Transcription

1 The Meteor Journal of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association VOLUME XL Numbers 3-4 March- April 2015 ********************************************************************************************* President Ed Magowan (850) Vice-President: Tom Riederer (920) 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 : President: Dave Cochran (850) Vice President: Adam Licko (850) Secretary-Treasurer: Amy Stewart (410) Editor and ALCOR: Dr. J. Wayne Wooten, Physical Sciences Department, Room 1751, Pensacola State College Pensacola, FL Phone (850) (voic ) ( ) pensacolastate.edu Please mail all dues to EAAA Treasurer, 4660 Shannon Circle, Pensacola, FL Chumuckla Gaze for March 7, 2015 Last night, with the moon full but rising a little before 8pm a group of us met out at the soccer complex on Chumukla Highway for a much needed gazing and astrophotography session. We really wanted to test out our new light pollution filter and see if we could increase our exposure times without washing out the background and at the same time increasing the signal to noise ratio. We were able the sneak some exposures of IC405 (The Flaming Star Nebula) in Auriga for a total of 40 min exposure. We were really surprised and happy with the preliminary single exposure as we were already able to note some faint nebulosity without stacking. We also got our guiding down with PHD. Overall it was a great night with great people and although it was a short one, none of us were complaining. --Chris Gomez Big Lagoon Gaze on March 14, 2015 Dewey, Ed, Rick, Harold Breyde, Ray Hayes, and myself arrived around 6pm and set up our scopes hoping for the best. Transparency was below average at best. For a brief 30 minutes it looked like it was going to clear up but at about 9pm we all called it quits. We had about a half dozen campers stop by and Dewey took them for a tour of the night sky. We were able to see Jupiter, Sirius, Venus and Orion in that short 30 minutes but after that everything was covered over by a layer of water vapor. Even though conditions were poor it's always a good time when you are surrounded by good people. Steve Huber March 16th gaze at the Chumukla Highway soccer complex With the cloud cover we have had these past couple of weeks, we have been deprived of dark clear skies and could not pass up Monday March 16 th for the possibility of a great night. Gina and I were joined by 5 other club members (Ed, Stephen, Jared, Charles, and David). Despite it being clear all day, a few on and off light clouds seemed to predominate the southwestern sky. David managed to test out his new 8 Dobsonian he picked up for a steal and Jared finally got his first images with his 8 astrograph (same one I have). Ed was able to show me a neat trick to get perfect focus on my scope using the live view function on my camera, I can t believe how easy and quick it was! We managed to image IC410, an emission nebula in Auriga next to our last target, the Flame Star Nebula IC405. It was great to be able to get together with other club members, learn from each other, hang out, and just have some plain old fun. As Stephen said Who needs sleep when you have clear skies. --Chris Gomez

2 The Meteor Volume XL Numbers 3-4 March April 2015 Page 2 North to Alaska and what timing! Attached is a 2 minute video composed of images taken 30 seconds apart from roughly 1030 PM to Midnight last night. The location was about 28 miles North of Fairbanks, AK. You can see some car lights from a road about.5 mile away - and the occasional satellite - but overall there was not much light pollution. There were more spectacular images after midnight - and I will work on those in the near future - but I wanted to share this preliminary video, without music, now. --Myron Almond Hurlburt Gaze on April 24th The astronomy event was held at Youth Center of Hurlburt AF Field last evening, April 24. The Center has an active on-going activities program for base youth. Last night s group was composed of about 25 teenagers who were disappointed at the thick cloud cover than arrived about 2 to 3 hours earlier. Instead I did an AV program on celestial objects that can be seen with binoculars, and showed several different types of binoculars. Response was mixed, with several fairly enthused. --Tom Sajwaj Pavilion Gaze on Saturday, May 2 nd We had a nice gaze on Saturday, May 2 nd, at the Pavilion, with perhaps 50 guests stopping by. The EAAA was well represented by Dewey Barker, Ron Fairbanks, John Arnold, Lyen McAbee, Ed Magowan, Adam Licko, Steve Huber, Jon Ellard, Dave Cochran, and Wayne Wooten. Skies were clear and calm, with great seeing, and the almost full moon did not interfere with a fine Iridium flare overhead at 8:44 PM, and an outstanding HST pass from 9-9:04 PM, with two nice flares off the space telescope s solar panels. I have included two photos of the pass attached. We spotted Mercury easily in NW twilight. Many guests used their SmartPhones and our ioptron adapters to get fine lunar photos with a variety of telescopes. --Wayne Wooten Visit to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, UT The Clark Planetarium is located in the Gateway District in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to its opening in 2003, the planetarium was previously known as the Hansen. However, a new building was erected to replace the historic Hansen under a grant from the Clark Foundation, in cooperation with Salt Lake County. Open now for 12 years, the Clark boasts several exhibits and theaters, including a state of the art IMAX theater, for visitors viewing pleasure. The Clark is also carrying on the Hansen s 37-year old tradition of producing cutting-edge material, which is distributed to planetariums across the world. The Hansen Dome Theater is a 3-D (no glasses needed) digital dome theater where viewers can experience the Universe with a resolution that far surpasses even high definition video. A new video system was recently installed in 2011 that allows the video to display an astonishing 60 frames per second! Clark Planetarium Productions works from this theater and is actually one of very few informal science education systems that is capable of creating full dome shows to distribute to other planetariums. This theater also offers cosmic light shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. These light shows are synchronized to rock and roll band music, such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

3 The Meteor Volume XL Numbers 3-4 March April 2015 Page 3 The Clark Planetarium is also home to an incredible IMAX certified big screen theater. The planetarium offers show times throughout the day in 2-D and 3-D, highlighting both science and nature documentaries. In 2010, the IMAX Theater also underwent a renovation; since then, the theater is equipped with digital projectors, new sound system, new screen, and new seats for the audience. Tickets for each show are $7 per person. The Clark is also home to several free exhibits, which are splayed across 10,000 square feet of building space. The most newly installed is called Science on a Sphere, which is a computer animation globe made by NOAA. They also house one of the very few authentic samples of moon rock, on permanent loan from NASA. The piece of rock was brought back from the Apollo 15 mission and is on special display, along with video footage from the actual mission and the astronauts collecting the sample. New exhibits are always been added, while old ones change and adapt to modern findings as well. With all that the Clark Planetarium has to offer, it s no wonder they serve over 75,000 school children per year through local school field trips and science education trip throughout the state of Utah. The Clark is also involved in community outreach programs in Salt Lake City, where children are invited to attend free educational auditorium programs. My brother and I are flying to Salt Lake City at the end of May this year. Upon further researching the Clark Planetarium and what is available within its four walls, I do believe this stop will make it on to our official itinerary. This astronomy class has captured my interest and has inspired me to want to do exactly what The Clark Planetarium s slogan commands: See what s out there. --Elizabeth Jordan, Pensacola State astronomy student Minutes of the EAAA Meeting for March 6, Room 1775 TONIGHT'S PROGRAM: 7:00pm - Dr. Wooten - Dr Wooten: Dawn was launched February 27, 2007, got a gravity assist from Mars in February 2009, arrived at Vesta July 2011, left Vesta July 2012, arrived at Ceres 3/6/2015 and will end its primary mission July We saw actual video clips, one narrated by Leonard Nemoy, taken by Dawn while visiting Vesta. Ceres may possibly contain more water than exists on planet Earth. - Chris Gomez showed a video clip he created from the astronomy photography done by he and his wife Gena. NEXT PROGRAM: April 3, 2015: PBS Nova, At the Edge of Space. Sprites are fleeting flashes that shoot upwards from thunderclouds. Only discovered in 1989, sprites have eluded capture because they exist for a mere split-second 40-times faster than an eye blink.

4 The Meteor Volume XL Numbers 3-4 March April 2015 Page 4 OPEN MEETING: 8:00pm - Ed Magowan, president, introduced several students and guests. There were about 3 students and 7 guests at the meeting. REPORTS Awards (Wayne Wooten): Chris and Gena Gomez earned their Level III award. Amateur Astronomer Education Program and Levels (Dewey Barker) Dewey covered the education program for the new individuals in attendence. Treasurer Jim Larduskey reported $ in checking, $5, in savings, $ in cash, for total for $5, in club accounts. Shirts and Hats (Dave Halupowski) Dave has completed an order for shirts costing $ The treasurer provided $ to Dave for the purchase, so an additional $ will be provided to Dave to complete the order. 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: There was no Dark Skies 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. 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. 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) Dewey Barker also sends out lists of gazes occurring in the near future. ANNOUNCEMENTS - Richard Walker sent a new to the reference library at the West Florida library system requesting the name of an individual he can work with to establish a uniform, yet simple, telescope loaner program. In particular, > what would a telescope loan period be (3 weeks? 1 month? 1 renewal?) >what materials get checked out with each telescope > who to contact when the loaner telescopes need maintenance > maintain an equipment inventory (telescopes assigned to branches) - Rick Hogue is selling a friends astronomy gear. Anyone interested in obtaining any should contact Rick. ADJOURNMENT: 8:45pm --Richard Walker, Secretary

5 The Meteor Volume XL Numbers 3-4 March April 2015 Page 5 Minutes of the EAAA Meeting of April 3, Room 1775 TONIGHT'S PROGRAM: 7:00pm - Video - PBS Nova - At the Edge of Space Sprites are fleeting flashes that shoot upwards from thunderclouds. Only discovered in 1989, sprites have eluded capture because they exist for a mere split-second - 40 times faster than an eye blink. - Rick Hogue has several of Joe Robinison's astronomy items for sale. - Dr. Wooten - Lunar eclipse and potentially poor gazing conditions - Member quick presentations (pictures and video clips) of recent activities NEXT PROGRAM: May 1, 2015: June 5, 2015: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) presentation OPEN MEETING: 8:00pm Introduce Students and Guests There were a few students and guests at the meeting. REPORTS Awards (Wayne Wooten) - No awards were presented this meeting Amateur Astronomer Education Program and Levels (Dewey Barker) Treasurer Report (Jim Larduskey) Checking Savings 5, Cash Total 5, Jim reported giving Dave Halupowski about $206 to settle our recent shirt purchases. 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 - no report this month 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.

6 The Meteor Volume XL Numbers 3-4 March April 2015 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) Dewey Barker also sends out lists of gazes occurring in the near future. ANNOUNCEMENTS - I sent a new to the reference library at the West Florida library system requesting the name of an individual I can work with to establish a uniform, yet simple, telescope loaner program. In particular, -- what would a telescope loan period be (3 weeks? 1 month? 1 renewal?) -- what materials get checked out with each telescope -- who to contact when the loaner telescopes need maintenance -- maintain an equipment inventory (telescopes assigned to branches) -- HELP - what does it take to get through to folks at that library? Do they want a loaner telescope program? - A total lunar eclipse will happen on September 27, 2015; It will be partial from 8:12-11:24 PM and total from 9:16-10:20 PM. A great one for public viewing hours! ADJOURNMENT: 8:20pm --Richard Walker, Secretary Minutes of the May 1, 2015 EAAA Meeting President Ed Magowan open the meeting at 7 PM in room 1775 and welcomed several new members and guests. Treasurer Jim Larduskey reported $ in checking, $5, in savings, and a cash balance of $408.47, for a total of $6, Ed reminded us of the pavilion gaze on Saturday evening, and in the next weeks at Big Lagoon (May 9 th ) and Fort Pickens (May 15 th ). Dr. Andy Walker will present Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: A New Perspective for our EAAA program on June 5 th at 7 PM in room For our program, Ed Magowan discussed the new Star Tools imaging software, which is available at a club discount rate (25% off!) for about $30 per copy. He really likes the simplicity and results of this processing program, and showed us a video demo from the site, demonstrating its power and utility. We then viewing a new Nova PBS video on the 25 th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, Invisible Universe Revealed, provided by Steve Stanford. After adjournment, we went outside to view a pass of the HST outside the planetarium, but the light pollution over Cordova Mall prevented us from spotting it, but Malone Calvert did capture it with his camera. --Ray Hayes, acting secretary

7 The Meteor Volume XL Numbers 3-4 March April 2015 Page 7 Calendar of Events May 9 Big Lagoon Gaze May 11 Last quarter moon May 15 Ft. Pickens Gaze, sunset at Battery Worth May 18 New Moon May 21 Waxing crescent moon passes 8 degrees south of Venus in dusk May Pavilion Gazes, sunset 11 PM, Pensacola Beach Gulfside Pavilion May 24 Waxing crescent moon passes 5 degrees south of Jupiter May 25 First quarter moon June 1 Waxing gibbous moon passes 2 degrees north of Saturn June 2 Full Moon, the Honey Moon June 5 EAAA meets at 7 PM, room 1775, program by Andy Walker on SETI June 6 Big Lagoon Gaze, Venus at Greatest Eastern Elongation, 47 degrees from sun June 9 Last quarter moon June 12 Fort Pickens Gaze, sunset at Battery Worth June 16 New Moon June Pavilion Gaze, sunset 11 PM, Pensacola Beach Gulfside Pavilion Note the fine grouping of the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter now June 21 Summer solstice at 11:38 AM CDT June 24 First quarter moon June 29 Waxing gibbous moon passes 2 degrees north of Saturn Asteroid Ceres at opposition; check out Dawn s latest discoveries July 1 Venus passes.3 degrees south of Jupiter; can you spot both in daylight? July 2 Full Moon, the Thunder Moon July 3 EAAA meets at 7 PM, room 1775, latest news from Pluto, Ceres, and Rosetta July 8 Last quarter moon July 11 Big Lagoon Gaze; Venus at brightest, mag July 16 New Moon July 17 Fort Pickens Gaze, sunset at Battery Worth July 18 Fine grouping of Venus, Jupiter, and crescent moon in SW July 24 First quarter moon July Pavilion Gazes, sunset 11 PM, Pensacola Beach Gulfside Pavilion July 26 Moon passes 2.4 degrees north of Saturn in SE twilight July 31 Full Moon, the Hay Moon; also a Blue Moon, second of July August 8 Big lagoon Gaze (No EAAA business meeting in August) August 13 Peak for Perseid Meteor Shower, new moon will not interfere this year! August 14 Fort Pickens Gaze, sunset at Battery Worth, EAAA club picnic August Pavilion Gaze, sunset 11 PM, Pensacola Beach Gulfside Pavilion Sept. 5 Big Lagoon Gaze Sept. 11 Fort Pickens Gaze, sunset at Battery Worth Sept Pavilion Gazes, sunset 11 PM, Pensacola Beach Gulfside Pavilion Oct. 2 EAAA meets at 7 PM, room 1775 Oct. 3 Dr. Clay Sherrod s talk, 7 PM, WSRE Oct. 9 Final Fort Pickens gaze of season, sunset at Battery Worth Oct. 10 Final Big Lagoon Gaze Oct Pavilion Gazes, sunset 11 PM, Pensacola Beach Gulfside Pavilion

8 The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway By Ethan Siegel For those of us in the northern hemisphere, winter brings long, cold nights, which are often excellent for sky watchers (so long as there's a way to keep warm!) But there's often an added bonus that comes along when conditions are just right: the polar lights, or the Aurora Borealis around the North Pole. Here on our world, a brilliant green light often appears for observers at high northern latitudes, with occasional, dimmer reds and even blues lighting up a clear night. We had always assumed that there was some connection between particles emitted from the Sun and the aurorae, as particularly intense displays were observed around three days after a solar storm occurred in the direction of Earth. Presumably, particles originating from the Sun ionized electrons and atomic nuclei like protons and alpha particles make up the vast majority of the solar wind and get funneled by the Earth's magnetic field into a circle around its magnetic poles. They're energetic enough to knock electrons off atoms and molecules at various layers in the upper atmosphere particles like molecular nitrogen, oxygen and atomic hydrogen. And when the electrons fall back either onto the atoms or to lower energy levels, they emit light of varying but particular wavelengths oxygen producing the most common green signature, with less common states of oxygen and hydrogen producing red and the occasional blue from nitrogen. But it wasn't until the 2000s that this picture was directly confirmed! NASA's Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite (which ceased operations in December 2005) was able to find out how the magnetosphere responded to solar wind changes, how the plasmas were energized, transported and (in some cases) lost, and many more properties of our magnetosphere. Planets without significant magnetic fields such as Venus and Mars have much smaller, weaker aurorae than we do, and gas giant planets like Saturn have aurorae that primarily shine in the ultraviolet rather than the visible. Nevertheless, the aurorae are a spectacular sight in the evening, particularly for observers in Alaska, Canada and the Scandinavian countries. But when a solar storm comes our way, keep your eyes towards the north at night; the views will be well worth braving the cold!

9 Auroral overlays from the IMAGE spacecraft. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory (Goddard Space Flight Center) / Blue Marble team. Editors: Download this image from _12_NASA_IMAGE_Earth_Obs.jpg.

10 Is the Most Massive Star Still Alive? By Ethan Siegel The brilliant specks of light twinkling in the night sky, with more and more visible under darker skies and with larger telescope apertures, each have their own story to tell. In general, a star's color correlates very well with its mass and its total lifetime, with the bluest stars representing the hottest, most massive and shortestlived stars in the universe. Even though they contain the most fuel overall, their cores achieve incredibly high temperatures, meaning they burn through their fuel the fastest, in only a few million years instead of roughly ten billion like our sun. Because of this, it's only the youngest of all star clusters that contain the hottest, bluest stars, and so if we want to find the most massive stars in the universe, we have to look to the largest regions of space that are actively forming them right now. In our local group of galaxies, that region doesn't belong to the giants, the Milky Way or Andromeda, but to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small, satellite galaxy (and fourthlargest in the local group) located 170,000 light years distant. Despite containing only one percent of the mass of our galaxy, the LMC contains the Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus), a star-forming nebula approximately 1,000 light years in size, or roughly seven percent of the galaxy itself. You'll have to be south of the Tropic of Cancer to observe it, but if you can locate it, its center contains the super star cluster NGC 2070, holding more than 500,000 unique stars, including many hundreds of spectacular, bright blue ones. With a maximum age of two million years, the stars in this cluster are some of the youngest and most massive ever found. At the center of NGC 2070 is a very compact concentration of stars known as R136, which is responsible for most of the light illuminating the entire Tarantula Nebula. Consisting of no less than 72 O-class and Wolf- Rayet stars within just 20 arc seconds of one another, the most massive is R136a1, with 260 times the sun's mass and a luminosity that outshines us by a factor of seven million. Since the light has to travel 170,000 light years to reach us, it's quite possible that this star has already died in a spectacular supernova, and might not even exist any longer! The next time you get a good glimpse of the southern skies, look for the most massive star in the universe, and ponder that it might not even still be alive. Images credit: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/r. Gendler, C. C. Thöne, C. Féron, and J.-E. Ovaldsen (L), of the giant star-forming Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud; NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), with acknowledgment to R. O'Connell (University of Virginia) and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee (R), of the central merging star cluster NGC 2070, containing the enormous R136a1 at the center.

11 Join us for a Fun Night Under the Stars! The Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association Will Hold Free Public Star Gazes on these dates: Big Lagoon State Park Star Gazes for 2015 are scheduled for Saturdays; March 14, April 11, May 9, June 6, July 11, August 8, September 5, October 10 The gaze is free, but normal park entry fees will still apply. Participants must enter park before sunset, the gate is locked at that time. Fort Pickens Star Gazes at Battery Worth for 2015 are scheduled for Fridays; April 17, May 15, June 12, July 17, August 14, September 11, October 9 The gaze is free, but normal park entry fees of $8.00 will still apply. Gulfside Performance Pavilion Star Gazes for 2015 are scheduled for both; March 27 & 28, April 24 & 25, May 22 & 23, June 19 & 20, July 24 & 25, August 21 & 22, September 18 & 19, Oct 16 & 17 Free parking is available in the Casino Beach parking lot, near the Beach Ball Water Tower. Members Telescopes and Binoculars will be set up for views of: the Moon, Planets and other Celestial Objects. Clear skies permitting, Members will begin setting up their Telescopes for these events just before sunset. The Astronomy Club meets on the first Friday of each month at 7:00 PM, building 17, room 1775 at Pensacola State College. For more information about the Astronomy Club, or for scheduling a star gaze for a school, scouting, or other social event at your location; Contact Dewey Barker after 4:00 PM at (850) for any questions. Please be sure to visit our website at or go to: to view our calendar of events and club members Astro - Photos