Upcoming Events. A look inside this issue

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1 President Treasurer Newsletter Editors Matthew McCue Ro Spedaliere Anthony Vicidomini Megan Vicidomini Vice President-Secretary Webmaster Sarah Waters Donald Durett A look inside this issue Upcoming Events Upcoming Events Page 1 Recap Page 2 NASA s Space Place Page 3 NASA Highlight Page Calendar Page 5 Celestial Events Page 6 ASTRA Wear Page 6 Club Telescopes Page 6 ASTRA Library Page 6 Monthly Meeting on Friday, September 11th The next meeting will be held at the Robert J. Novins Planetarium located on the Ocean County College campus (Bldg. 13 next to parking lot 2) from 7pm to 10pm. Presentation by Sam Micovic Star Party on Saturday, September 12th Join us as we set up our telescopes and observe the universe from 7:30pm to 9:30pm at Jakes Branch County Park, 1054 Sunset Road, Beachwood NJ Fall Star Party on Saturday, September 19th Join us as we set up our telescopes and observe the universe from 7:30pm to 10:30pm at the Robert J. Novins Planetarium located on the Ocean County College campus, Building 13 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 ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK MOONLIGHT HIKE STAR PARTY ASTRA volunteers set up their telescopes at the Nature Center on Island Beach State Park on Friday, August 1st. It was a great night sharing views of the night sky with visitors. Photos courtesy of John Endreson / ASTRA s Facebook page 2015 PERSEID PICNIC 2015 A.S.T.R.A. members celebrate the annual Perseids meteor shower with a picnic and star party on the Saturday closest to the peak of the shower, which occurs around August 12 th each year. This year, as always, a good time was had by all! There was plenty of good conversation and plenty of good food! Thank you, John and Pam! We all had a great time! Photos courtesy of ASTRA s Facebook page 2 P a g e

3 Solar Wind Creates and Whips a Magnetic Tail Around Earth By Ethan Siegel As Earth spins on its axis, our planet's interior spins as well. Deep inside our world, Earth's metal-rich core produces a magnetic field that spans the entire globe, with the magnetic poles offset only slightly from our rotational axis. If you fly up to great distances, well above Earth's surface, you'll find that this magnetic web, called the magnetosphere, is no longer spherical. It not only bends away from the direction of the sun at high altitudes, but it exhibits some very strange features, all thanks to the effects of our parent star. The sun isn't just the primary source of light and heat for our world; it also emits an intense stream of charged particles, the solar wind, and has its own intense magnetic field that extends much farther into space than our own planet's does. The solar wind travels fast, making the 150 million km (93 million mile) journey to our world in around three days, and is greatly affected by Earth. Under normal circumstances, our world's magnetic field acts like a shield for these particles, bending them out of the way of our planet and protecting plant and animal life from this harmful radiation. But for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction: as our magnetosphere bends the solar wind's ions, these particles also distort our magnetosphere, creating a long magnetotail that not only flattens and narrows, but whips back-and-forth in the onrushing solar wind. The particles are so diffuse that collisions between them practically never occur, but the electromagnetic interactions create waves in Earth's magnetosphere, which grow in magnitude and then transfer energy to other particles. The charged particles travel within the magnetic field toward both poles, and when they hit the ionosphere region of Earth s upper atmosphere, they collide with ions of oxygen and nitrogen causing aurora. Missions such as the European Space Agency and NASA Cluster mission have just led to the first accurate model and understanding of equatorial magnetosonic waves, one such example of the interactions that cause Earth's magnetotail to whip around in the wind like so. The shape of Earth's magnetic field not only affects aurorae, but can also impact satellite electronics. Understanding its shape and how the magnetosphere interacts with the solar wind can also lead to more accurate predictions of energetic electrons in near-earth space that can disrupt our technological infrastructure. As our knowledge increases, we may someday be able to reach one of the holy grails of connecting heliophysics to Earth: forecasting and accurately predicting space weather and its effects. Thanks to the Cluster Inner Magnetosphere Campaign, Van Allen Probes, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System, Magnetospheric Multiscale, and Heliophysics System Observatory missions, we're closer to this than ever before. Image credit: ESA / C. T. Russell (L), of Earth's magnetic tail and its cause: the solar wind; Southwest Research Institute / IBEX Science Team (R), of the first image of the plasma sheet and plasmasphere created around Earth by the solar wind. 3 P a g e

4 NASA Highlight Information from Rosetta Comet Outburst Captured The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has been witnessing growing activity from comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko as the comet approaches perihelion (its closest point to the sun during its orbit). On July 29, while the spacecraft orbited at a distance of 116 miles (186 kilometers) from the comet, it observed the most dramatic outburst to date. When the outburst occurred, the spectrometer recorded dramatic changes in the composition of outpouring gases from the comet when compared to measurements made two days earlier. As a result of the outburst, the amount of carbon dioxide increased by a factor of two, methane by four, and hydrogen sulfide by seven, while the amount of water stayed almost constant. A short-lived outburst from comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko was captured by Rosetta s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on July 29, The images were taken from a distance of 116 miles (186 kilometers) from the center of the comet. The jet is estimated to have a minimum speed of 33 feet per second (10 meters per second) and originates from a location on the comet s neck. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS 4 P a g e

5 BUILD YOUR OWN MODEL OF THE HUBBLE SPACE TELECSCOPE by Anthony Vicidomini In 2014 I was browsing through the HubbleSite, which is operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute's Office of Public Outreach. I came across a project called Make Your Own Hand-Held Hubble". If you are interested in building models this is a great project. The skill level ranges from average to very difficult. You can also be creative and build your own unique model. Once the project is finished you can submit a picture to the HubbleSite, and if approved, they will add it to their photo album for the world to see. To find out more information about this project please visit Below is a picture of the model I created and currently on the Hand-Held Hubble s Photo Album. It was donated and on display in the Robert J Novins Planetarium. Photo by Megan Vicidomini 2015 CALENDAR Sep 11 Presentation by Sam Micovic Nov 13 Presentation by Phil Zollner titled Earth and Sky Photography Sep 12 Star Party (7:30pm 9:30pm) Nov 14 Star Party (6:30pm 8:30pm) Sep 19 Oct 09 Fall Star Party (7:30pm to 10:30pm) Public Star Party at OCC Planetarium Planetarium Show Dec 11 Awards, Election Presentation by Vic Palmieri titled How to Collimate a Newtonian Oct 17 Star Party (6:30pm 8:30pm) Dec 12 Star Party (6:30pm 8:30pm) Dec 19 Winter Star Party (7pm to 10pm) Public Star Party at OCC Planetarium 5 P a g e

6 CELESTIAL EVENTS Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) Sept 01 Sept 04 Sept 13 Sept 23 Neptune at Opposition. Mercury at Greatest Eastern Elongation. New Moon. This phase occurs at 06:41 UTC. Partial Solar Eclipse. The partial eclipse will only be visible in southern Africa, Madagascar, and Antarctica. September Equinox. The September equinox occurs at 08:21 UTC. Sept 28 Full Moon. This phase occurs at 02:50 UTC. (SUPERMOON) Total Lunar Eclipse. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of North and South America, Europe, Africa, and western Asia. Source: Readers can Google Sea and Sky if they want to get to this site. ASTRONOMICAL LEAGUE MEMBER SOCIETY Astronomical League National Headquarters, 9201 Ward Parkway; Suite 100, Kansas City, MO or The REFLECTOR is published in March, June, September and December. If you do not receive your copy of the REFLECTOR magazine, contact Astronomical League Coordinator (Alcor) Ro Spedaliere ASTRA-WEAR Embroidered and / or Printed items with the ASTRA Logo You can see some samples at ASTRA meetings. To order by mail: Shelter Cove Embroidery Co Bay Ave Toms River, NJ call or astrawear@estitches.com. Order form is on the ASTRA website. SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 25, 2015 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 After suitable training, club members may borrow these instruments for a month at a time. Please contact John Endreson to make arrangements. Telescope-Loan@astra-nj.org. Available Equipment Dobsonian 8 inch, f/4 telescope with a 1.25 Helical Focuser Celestron SP-C80 Japanese-made 80mm, f/11 achromatic refractor Orion 'AstroView' 120mm, f/8.3 refractor telescope Celestron 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with Nexstar Lunt 35mm Hydrogen Alpha Solar Scope Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 binocular 6 P a g e