The Meteor Journal of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association

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1 The Meteor Journal of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association VOLUME XXXIV Number 7 July 2009 ********************************************************************************************* President Rick Hogue (850) V-P Dewey Barker (850) Secretary Sharon Bogart (850) Treasurer Jim Larduskey (850) Observing - Warren Jarvis (850) Librarian: Jacque Falzone (850) Observatory Chair - Paul Moffat (251) NWFAA Contact: Dennis Hausch (850) Editor and ALCOR: Dr. J. Wayne Wooten, Physical Sciences, Room 9704, Pensacola Junior College, Pensacola FL Phone (850) (voic ) ( ) pjc.edu Please mail all dues to EAAA Treasurer, 4660 Shannon Circle, Pensacola, FL Return to Battery Worth on June 19th Would have been hard to imagine a better night. A gentle breeze kept the skitters at bay, but not strong enough to mess up observing as long as we stayed under 200X. Somewhat humid, but still dark skies (now to mag 5 at least) as we looked south over Gulf of Mexico. No electricity yet at Battery Worth, where the EAAA set up just around sunset, but plenty of car inverters in use for our electronics. About a hundred folks, some driving over from as far as Louisiana, got star charts from our astronomy ranger Becky Mims, and talked with a fine group of club members and observed through their scopes or with our imaging setups. Club was represented by new member Manny Galido and his 10 Meade Schmidt- Newtonian, John VeDepo and Mike Davey set up the monster dob (wow, was Saturn and its moons in a row spectacular through it!), Jim Larduskey had his C-8, Rick Little his 8 Newtonian, Harold Breyde his 8 dob, and Dewey Barker his 8 SC. Jeff Krieder also came out to help. Bill Cristea had his 10 Meade SC, which I mated with the StellaCam II and a 19 LCD display for deep sky observing, with great success once we got the alignment working well. Some of our better imaging included M-104 (the dust lane showed up well), NGC 5128 (Centaurus A, with the spiral arms of the doomed galaxy sticking out in front the cannibal elliptical), M-82 (the dusty jets perpendicular to the disk came out very nice), M-57 (white dwarf central star showed up), M-13, M-22 (nice resolution), M-27 (dumbbell shape is easy), and finally, the spiral arms of the Whirlpool, M-51. All photographed well with cell phone cameras and my Olympus D-595. Naked eye observing was good as well. At 8:26, the Hubble Space Telescope flared nicely to mag. -1 for perhaps ten seconds, drawing exclamations from all as it sailed past Spica. Several fainter satellites also coasted by, and we did constellation identification for my students from PJC, about ten in attendance. --Wayne Wooten Pavilion Gazes on June 26-27th Friday, June 26 th, I arrived at the Performance Pavilion around 7:45 PM and was pleased to see that a nice crowd had already formed around the telescopes set up by Dr Wooten, Jim Lardusky, Rick Little and Manny Galido. Bill Cristea was in the process of setting up when I arrived, and we were followed by John VeDepo, Sharon Bogart, Sam Woodward and Roland McDavid after I began setting up my Orion 100 MM refractor. I would estimate that we had between people stop by for views of the Moon, Saturn, M-57, M-13, M-4, M-7 and M-8 as well as other targets during the course of the evening. There were a lot of wows, ohhs and ahhs as people stopped to look through the eyepieces or watch the objects on the video monitor Dr Wooten set up. I passed out several Orion catalogs along with some Moon maps, gaze schedule flyers and the star charts I had left over from the Pickens gaze. We had a real nice sky for viewing, considering the light pollution, and Saturn was taking magnification well.

2 THE METEOR VOLUME XXXIV Number 7 July 2009 Page 2 I believe Bill put a 5 MM eyepiece in his 10 SCT and Saturn s rings extended past the field of view, granted the image wasn t tack sharp, but there was still a decent amount of detail visible. I had a bit of an interesting hunt for M-57, couldn t see the two guide stars in Lyra, but I finally pulled it out of the glare coming off Crab s Restaurant. The Moon had sunk behind the life-guard office and the passer-bys dwindled away after 10:30 so Bill and I began wrapping up around 11:00, leaving Rick, Jim and Manny to hold down the fort. We ve had some great nights at the beach so far, I just hope the weather holds out. --Dewey J. Barker, EAAA VP The Club members at the Gaze on Saturday, June 27 th, were Carol and Rich Sigler, Austin Page and his Father, Mike Davey, Warren Jarvis and myself. I would say we all arrived between 7:30 and 7:40 PM. I was told Jackie Falzone was there for a while as well, and John VeDepo put in an appearance later in the evening. Austin Page was the Star of the Show with his 60mm Refractor and the Club's 10" Dob (donated by Ron Munion and refurbished by Warren Jarvis). He focused on the Moon and Saturn with both scopes then moved on to M13 and M7. Meanwhile, Mike and Warren were setting up Mike's drive and working on the adapter plate for his 4" Refractor. Once Mike was up and running he showed the people some nice views of the Moon and Saturn. Carol was pointing out Objects in the night sky for people with the Meade my Sky, and I handed out a few pictures and talked to some of the family groups. Four of the families stayed and talked and looked for quite a while. One of the families had been at Friday's Gaze and commented on how much they enjoyed both evenings. I'd say we had about 40 to 50 people stop by to view. Sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 Austin and his father packed their scopes up and Warren and I helped Mike breakdown his monster drive and pack it in his van. All in all, a very enjoyable evening! --Rick Johnston Barlow Bob s Personal Solar Observatory There are simple ideas that amateur solar astronomers can use to improve their solar observing. Using the K.I.S.S. Principle (Keep It Simple Stupid), I created Barlow Bob s PSO Personal Solar Observatory. This is an extremely portable low-tech solution, to reduce solar light pollution. Light pollution continues to decrease the amount of dark night sky sites, for amateur astronomers. However, amateur solar astronomers are also affected by solar light pollution. Amateur solar astronomers, who only observe one star from sunrise to sunset, may find it difficult to block out the light pollution from this one extremely bright star. To prevent the natural solar light pollution from ruining your enjoyment of solar observing, I would like to introduce Barlow Bob s Personal Solar Observatory. Audrey Salvatore, a member of the Rockland Astronomy Club in Suffern, NY, made a PSO for me. This consists of two-sided white and black pieces of cloth.purchase a yard of medium or heavy weight black cotton fabric at least 44 to 45 inches wide and a yard of medium weight white fabric 44 to 45 inches wide. The white fabric should cost from $4.95 to $7.95 per yard. The black fabric should cost from $5.95 to $8.95 per yard. Sew the two pieces with right side together, with a 1/4 inch seam around the edge leaving an opening along the side, to turn it right side out. Press before turning to set seam. Turn and press it again so the seams are all pressed out. Whip stitch the opening closed. Sew a top stitch 1/4 inch from the edge all around. This makes a cloth approximately 44 x 36 inches. This should be big enough for everyone. When observing the Sun, place this cloth over your head with the white side facing the Sun. The white side keeps the inside cooler, than if you place the black side facing the Sun. When you place this shield over your head while observing the Sun, your pupils will open in the darkness under the shield.

3 THE METEOR VOLUME XXXIV Number 7 July 2009 Page 3 You will notice much better contrast, without the interference of the glare from daylight. When you first enter a dark movie theater on a sunny day, everything is extremely dark. Then as your pupils open in the darkness, you can see the inside of the theater. This PSO makes a big difference observing the Sun. You can also use this product to block out stray light pollution, when observing the night sky. Please consider making this PSO, as a club project, at a meeting or star party. You could also sell these as a club fund raiser. --Barlow Bob ISS on the Sun Predictions This link, is the best real time calculator I have found for natural and artificial satellites that I have found. It has a lot of other good information. To find satellite crossing from the home page go to "Satellites "on the top right, then go to Sun/Moon Crossers. There are no crossings of the ISS or Hubble in the near future for Pensacola, but there is a Sun crossing of the USA/Lacrosse on Sunday, June 19. Clicking on the "Centerline" gives a map with the exact times it crosses thru Pensacola; click on the Red squares. Dennis Hausch Minutes of the EAAA Meeting for June 5th, 2009 EAAA President, Rick Hogue, called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. at PJC. There were approximately 40 members present with several students and guests attending. Billy Jackson of the PJC Planetarium was our guest speaker for the night. Billy gave us an update on the Planetarium repairs and replacement. A new system would cost around $30,000 to $50,000 (new technology & simple to use). We are on a list for a demonstration. This would be sufficient for star talks and school shows mainly. Right now the Planetarium is closed to the public for the summer and hopefully by the fall we will have it up and running. Our mission right now is to get the projector up for school groups and night shows at the moment and will need volunteers to run them. The new system is a mirror projection system, which means it will project off the mirror onto the dome and only ¾ of the dome will have an image. Any additional shows will cost anywhere from $4,000-$6,000 and will be in full color. Another thing we would like to look into is a new sound system and LED lighting. Billy will keep us posted as to a demo show. You can check it out on the website Manuel Galindo was awarded a Level I Award from Dr. Wooten. Mike Davey has ordered more Level I test books. They can be purchased for $7.00. It is a 100 question open book test which can be downloaded. Once completed and it is graded, you will receive an award from Dr. Wooten. Treasurer, Jim Larduskey provided the Treasurer report for June. The club has $2, in checking, $1, in savings, $ in cash, for a total balance of $4, Al dues to be paid next week. Star Shooting CD s are available for $ OLD BUSINESS: See Dave Halupowski for EAAA t-shirts and hats. Dark Sky Report: Nothing to report at this time. Observatory Report: Billy Jackson gave an update on the Planetarium. Stargaze Reports: Gulf Side Pensacola Beach (May 29/30) Around 250 people stopped by. It was a clear night, but a little hazy. Steady stream of people and very enthusiastic.

4 THE METEOR VOLUME XXXIV Number 7 July 2009 Page 4 NEW BUSINESS: Future Programs: 1) July 10 th Billy Jackson to do a demo in the planetarium and will show how to run the program for anyone interested. 2) October 9 th Dr. Clay Sherrod & Dinner at Golden 5p.m. Upcoming Stargazes: 1) Sky Battery Worth, Ft. Pickens: (June 19 th ) 2) Gulf Side Pensacola Beach: (June 26/27) 3) EAAA Annual Picnic (August 14) Battery Worth, Ft. Pickens 4) Green Bank Star Quest VI: (June th ) Meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. PROGRAM TONIGHT: Astro Digital Photography by Dr. Wooten A digital camera for around $150 can do some surprisingly good things right now. At Target you can purchase the Canon AS1000 at a good buy for $ It has 4x Optical Zoom, ISO 3200, will do time exposures and is good for astronomical pictures. Another good camera that is less pricey is the Samsung SL90 for $ Dr. Wooten showed us the different settings on his Olympus camera and how they work for taking astrophotography pictures. For constellation work a tripod is a good thing to have along. Dr. Wooten showed us pictures that he had taken with his Olympus such as the Alpine Valley on the Moon, various shots taken of the Moon, the Bay of Rainbow, solar activity, Hubble Space Telescope, Iridium Flares, Jupiter, constellations, Saturn and many more wonders of the Universe. --Sharon Bogart, Secretary Reminder The Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12 th, but our annual picnic will be on Friday, August 14 th, at the Battery Worth picnic area at Ft. Pickens. Plans will be made at the July 10 th meeting. This is the day Jupiter reaches opposition, and we should have a good turnout from the public as well. Come out and bring your scope to enjoy the giant planet, bid good bye to Saturn ( with Mercury close at hand in the SW), and sweep the summer Milky Way under dark skies. As is our tradition, there is no August EAAA business meeting; these will resume the first Friday in September.

5 THE METEOR VOLUME XXXIV Number 7 July 2009 Page 5 Calendar of Events July 10 EAAA meets at 7 PM, moon passes 3 degrees north of Jupiter, both rising about 9 PM July 15 Moon at Last Quarter July 17 Sky Interpretation at Ft. Pickens Battery Worth, sunset until 11 PM July 19 Waning crescent moon passes six degrees north of Venus July 22 New moon, total solar eclipse for India and China July 24 Pavilion Gazes start at sunset this weekend July 25 Waxing crescent moon passes six degrees south of Saturn in SW evening sky July 28 Peak for delta Aquarid meteor shower, first quarter moon Aug. 2 Mercury.6 deg NE of Regulus, low in western evening twilight Aug. 6 Full Moon, the Green Corn Moon, passes 3 degrees north of Jupiter in SE Aug. 12 Peak for Perseid Meteor Shower, from NE after midnight Aug. 13 Last quarter moon Aug. 14 Jupiter at opposition, EAAA picnic and August sky interpretation at Battery Worth Aug. 17 Mercury passes 3 degrees south of Saturn in SW twilight, Neptune at opposition Aug. 20 New Moon Aug. 22 Waxing crescent passes close to Saturn and Mercury in western twilight great photo op Aug. 28 First quarter moon for the Pavilion Gazes on Pensacola Beach this weekend Sept. 2 Moon passes 3 degrees north of Jupiter Sept. 4 EAAA September business meeting, 7 PM, room 1775 at PJC, Full Moon, the Harvest Moon The Gulfside Pavilion Sidewalk gazes: July 24/25, Aug. 28/29, and Sept. 25/26. Ft. Pickens Sky interpretations are: July 17, Aug. 14, Sept. 18, and Oct. 6. Please remember to pay your annual dues. Mail check or pay at the meetings to Jim Larduskey, 4660 Shannon Circle, Pensacola, FL Regular - $24, Student and Senior - $12, Meteor - $10

6 July 2009 Gallery I have had great fun with my Canon DSLR, but recently bought an SBIG ST- 10XME for a greater range of opportunities. The attached shot of M13 is my first attempt using this camera. I will freely admit that this "first shot is a thrilling experience to me. Aside from the final exam in Meta Logic in graduate school at University of Oklahoma, this is probably the most technically difficult thing I have ever attempted in my life, but it was worth it. This single, 10-second shot was taken through a TMB 130mm refractor and clear filter last night, just one step ahead of the moon. Bob Gaskin drove over from Miramar Beach to help me through this event. If he had not been here, I would have captured nothing. I know that Bob is selftaught, but I do not see how anyone can do this without close supervision and instruction. I learned more about hands-on astronomy last night than I have in all the time I have been doing observing and DSLR work. I have a very long way to go in this business, but as they say, this is something for lifetime learners --Jerry Klingaman

7 I took these pictures last night and I am extremely pleased with them. The first one is a mag -8 flare from Iridium 49 and the second one is a totally unexpected flare from USA 129 (a.k.a Keyhole 12-3). I had about 30 seconds in between each satellite pass and I was not planning to image USA 129 but when I saw that it was fairly bright I turned the camera that way. It flared about 2 seconds after I tripped the shutter and the flare was probably mag -1 or so and extremely brief. Both images were taken with a Canon 20D and 18-55mm lens. Exposure was 30 seconds at f/4.5 and ISO 800 Austin Page

8 The Cool Chemistry of Alien Life Alien life on distant worlds. What would it be like? For millennia people could only wonder, but now NASA s Spitzer Space Telescope is producing some hard data. It turns out that life around certain kinds of stars would likely be very different from life as we know it. Using Spitzer, astronomers have discovered the organic chemical acetylene in the planet-forming discs surrounding 17 M-dwarf stars. It s the first time any chemical has been detected around one of these small, cool stars. However, scientists are more intrigued by what was not there: a chemical called hydrogen cyanide (HCN), an important building block for life as we know it. The fact that we do not detect hydrogen cyanide around cool stars suggests that that prebiotic chemistry may unfold differently on planets orbiting cool stars, says Ilaria Pascucci, lead scientist for the Spitzer observations and an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. That s because HCN is the basic component for making adenine, one of the four information-carrying chemicals in DNA. All known life on Earth is based on DNA, but without adenine available, life in a dwarf-star solar system would have to make do without it. You cannot make adenine in another way, Pascucci explains. You need hydrogen cyanide. M-dwarf and brown dwarf stars emit far less ultraviolet light than larger, hotter stars such as our sun. Pascucci thinks this difference could explain the lack of HCN around dwarf stars. For HCN to form, molecules of nitrogen must first be split into individual nitrogen atoms. But the triple bond holding molecular nitrogen together is very strong. High-energy ultraviolet photons can break this bond, but the lower-energy photons from M-dwarf stars cannot. Other nitrogen-bearing molecules are going to be affected by this same chemistry, Pascucci says, possibly including the precursors to amino acids and thus proteins. To search for HCN, Pascucci s team looked at data from Spitzer, which observes the universe at infrared wavelengths. Planet-forming discs around M-dwarf stars have very faint infrared emissions, but Spitzer is sensitive enough to detect them. HCN s distinctive 14-micron emission band was absent in the infrared spectra of the M-dwarf stars, but Spitzer did detect HCN in the spectra of 44 hotter, sun-like stars. Infrared astronomy will be a powerful tool for studying other prebiotic chemicals in planet-forming discs, says Pascucci, and the Spitzer Space Telescope is at the forefront of the field. Spitzer can t yet draw us a picture of alien life forms, but it s beginning to tell us what they could and could not be made of. That s pretty wonderful, too, says Pascucci. For news of other discoveries based on Spitzer data, visit Kids can learn Spitzer astronomy words and concepts by playing the Spitzer Sign Here! game at spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spitzer/signs. This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

9 Caption: Do alien planets around other stars have the right ingredients for a pre-biotic soup? Note to editor: This image may be downloaded from