Astronomy Day. Saturday, April 21st. Stennis Infinity Space Center. Next PAS General Meeting Friday, May 4th,2018 at 7:30pm

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1 PAS-Times The newsletter of the Pontchartrain Astronomy Society May 2018 visit us online Volume 59, Issue 5 Next PAS General Meeting Friday, May 4th,2018 at 7:30pm UNO Science Bldg. Room 1001 Astronomy Day Stennis Infinity Space Center Saturday, April 21st

2 Page 2 PAS Officers for 2018 President: Bill Johnson paspres@astronola.org 1st Vice-President: David Williams Program Chairman pas1vp@astronola.org 2nd Vice-President: Kent Birkle PAS-Times Editor pas2vp@astronola.org Treasurer: John Scholl pastreas@astronola.org President s Message By: Bill Johnson As we move into May, I look back at the beginning of the year and reflect on how far we have come in a short period of time. With events like the SPMOS Bunkhouse Rededication in February, and the Outreach events at Jean Lafitte in March, and the recent Astronomy Day event at Infinity Space Center, we have had a lot going on. Quite a few members also attended the Deep South Spring Scrimmage at Feliciana. We have had some prime observing conditions in the last few weeks, and hope that you have been taking advantage of it. Have you been out to the SPMOS Dark Site for personal observing recently, or just in your own back yard? Tell us what you re looking at. PAS Times Volume 59, Issue 5 bands. A good pair of binoculars should allow you to see Jupiter's four largest moons, appearing as bright dots on either side of the planet. Mars is rising earlier and earlier each evening, and will be at opposition in July. We hope to dedicate the July meeting to observing Mars, weather permitting. We have no lack of events coming up. The May Outreach at Bogue Chitto State Park is scheduled for May 19th, and we have the LIGO Field Trip in Livingston lined up for June 16th. Are you making plans to attend either or both of these events? Are we serving you, the member, with these events, or do you want to see other types of events. Please let the officers know, either personally or through or on the website, AstroNola.org. Secretary: Nanette Johnson Archivist passec@astronola.org SPMOS: Ron Marella passpmos@astronola.org Community Outreach: Jerry LaBauve pasoutreach@astronola.org ALCOR (Astronomy League): Jerry LaBauve pasalcor@astronola.org Deep South Star Gaze Spring Scrimmage Our Astronomical calendar is ripe with coming special celestial events as well. Venus is putting on a spectacular show each evening just after sunset in the western sky. On May 9th Jupiter will be at opposition, closer to the Earth, visible all night long, and bigger and brighter than any other time of the year. This is the best time to view and photograph Jupiter and its moons. A medium-sized telescope should be able to show you some of the details in Jupiter's cloud Photo by PAS member Mike Danielson The PAS website has the monthly photography contest. We currently have 16 photos vying for Photo of the Month. Look at the submissions and vote for your favorite picture. Submit your own for next month s contest. Our May meeting will be held Friday May 4th, at 7:30PM at UNO. I hope to see all of you at the meeting. Bring a guest! Bill Johnson - PAS President 2018

3 Page 3 Secretary s Report April 6th 2018 General Meeting By: Nanette Johnson In attendance 20 President Bill Johnson called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. OLD BUSINESS. President: Bill Johnson - Bill spoke about upcoming events for the PAS, and of the great success of the Barataria Starry Night outreach. There were over 150 attendees including both children and adults. 1st Vice president: David Williams - Speaker for the May meeting will be PAS member Barry Simon, who will give a presentation entitled "in Search of Dark Skies". David also spoke to Hot Ticket, a program for people interested in going to Mars. 2nd Vice President: Kent Birkle - Kent suggested ending paper newsletters. There are a total of 18 paper newsletters that go out each month. It was brought to the attention of the club that the newsletter is distributed to area libraries and discontinuing the printed version of the newsletter would also discontinue the distribution to the libraries. Kent announced we would continue the paper newsletters. Treasurer: John Scholl - Some members still have not paid. An went out to non-paying members resulting in only one person who notified John of not wanting to rejoin PAS. Secretary: Nanette Johnson - Nanette spoke of the rule change for the PAS website monthly photo contest. A complete listing of the new rules can be found on the Photo Contest tab on the PAS Website. NEW BUSINESS: Bill took the floor again and spoke about the Spring Scrimmage at the Feliciana Retreat, which is coming up in mid-april. Anyone interested should contact Barry Simon. The PAS will set up at the Infinity Space Center for Astronomy Day on April 21. We are scheduled to be there from 9:30 am until 3:00 pm. Bill encouraged everyone who can to please come out. We will promote astronomy as well as the PAS at this fun event. Bill continued with information on the Bouge Chitto outreach scheduled for May 23, We will set up at 4:30 and end at 10:00 pm. The LIGO field trip is planned for June 16, This field trip includes a free tour and members are encouraged to bring a guest. We will meet at LIGO for 1:30 pm. The LIGO tour will begin at 2:00pm. It is a 2 hour tour. The club picnic is planned for Walter Sarrat's place in Covington again this year. We have no date as of yet for the picnic, but are trying for October. Bill then asked the members for any suggestions for events. It was brought up that the PAS mostly does other people/organization's events and perhaps we should do PAS star parties for the public like we used to do. There was a suggestion to do a star party in July for the Mars opposition. 8:10 Break 8:20 Raffle Ask the Club question: Refractor or reflector preference and why? Members answered that the decision would depend on the use. A new user might do best with a reflector. For someone who is city bound, a refractor would be best. It was suggested that the mount is more important than the telescope being either a reflector or refractor. 8:35 Presentation on Building a Home Observatory by Byron Landry begins. 9:24 Presentation ends. 9:25 Motion to adjourn, second, meeting ended. Astronomy Day at the Infinity Space Center. PAS Members present: John Martinez, Gabe Dickinson, Laurie Coniglio, Ed Matthews, Nanette and Bill Johnson. Visitors: 50 outside 100 inside.

4 Page 4 What Is a Nebula? A nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. Some nebulae (more than one nebula) come from the gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova. Other nebulae are regions where new stars are beginning to form. For this reason, some nebulae are called "star nurseries." In this image of the Carina Nebula, you can spot tiny yellow and white dots inside pink dust clouds. Those tiny dots are newly-formed stars! Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Colorado How do stars form in a nebula? Nebulae are made of dust and gases mostly hydrogen and helium. The dust and gases in a nebula are very spread out, but gravity can slowly begin to pull together clumps of dust and gas. As these clumps get bigger and bigger, their gravity gets stronger and stronger. Eventually, the clump of dust and gas gets so big that it collapses from its own gravity. The collapse causes the material at the center of the cloud to heat up-and this hot core is the beginning of a star. These towers of cosmic dust and gas make up part of the Eagle Nebula. These so-called Pillars of Creation are part of an active star-forming region within the nebula. Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

5 Page 5 Nebulae exist in the space between the stars also known as interstellar space. The closest known nebula to Earth is called the Helix Nebula. It is the remnant of a dying star possibly one like the Sun. It is approximately 700 light years away from Earth. That means even if you could travel at the speed of light, it would still take you 700 years to get there! This image might look like a creepy eyeball, but it's actually a nebula! NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured this image of the Helix Nebula, which is located in the constellation Aquarius-about 700 light-years away from Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona How do we know what nebulae look like? Astronomers use very powerful telescopes to take pictures o f faraway nebulae. Space telescopes such as NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have captured many images of faraway nebulae. This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

6 Page 6 What's It Like Inside Mars? By Jessica Stoller-Conrad Mars is Earth's neighbor in the solar system. NASA's robotic explorers have visited our neighbor quite a few times. By orbiting, landing and roving on the Red Planet, we've learned so much about Martian canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil. However, we still don't know exactly what Mars is like on the inside. This information could give scientists some really important clues about how Mars and the rest of our solar system formed. This spring, NASA is launching a new mission to study the inside of Mars. It's called Mars InSight. InSight-short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport-is a lander. When InSight lands on Mars later this year, it won't drive around on the surface of Mars like a rover does. Instead, InSight will land, place instruments on the ground nearby and begin collecting information. Just like a doctor uses instruments to understand what's going on inside your body, InSight will use three science instruments to figure out what's going on inside Mars. One of these instruments is called a seismometer. On Earth, scientists use seismometers to study the vibrations that happen during earthquakes. InSight's seismometer will measure the vibrations of earthquakes on Mars-known as marsquakes. We know that on Earth, different materials vibrate in different ways. By studying the vibrations from marsquakes, scientists hope to figure out what materials are found inside Mars. InSight will also carry a heat probe that will take the temperature on Mars. The heat probe will dig almost 16 feet below Mars' surface. After it burrows into the ground, the heat probe will measure the heat coming from the interior of Mars. These measurements can also help us understand where Mars' heat comes from in the first place. This information will help scientists figure out how Mars formed and if it's made from the same stuff as Earth and the Moon. Scientists know that the very center of Mars, called the core, is made of iron. But what else is in there? InSight has an instrument called the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment, or RISE, that will hopefully help us to find out. Although the InSight lander stays in one spot on Mars, Mars wobbles around as it orbits the Sun. RISE will keep track of InSight's location so that scientists will have a way to measure these wobbles. This information will help determine what materials are in Mars' core and whether the core is liquid or solid. InSight will collect tons of information about what Mars is like under the surface. One day, these new details from InSight will help us understand more about how planets like Mars-and our home, Earth-came to be. For more information about earthquakes and marsquakes, visit: This image to the right... An artist's illustration showing a possible inner structure of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

7 Page 7 Upcoming Events PAS General Meeting - Friday, May 4th,2018 at 7:30pm UNO Science Bldg. Room 1001 Northshore Observers Group Meeting - Third Wednesday of every month, see website PAS Outreach - Saturday, May 19th - Bouge Chitto State Park - 4:30-10:00 Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory Field Trip - June 16th Livingston Go To On the Cover Astronomy Day Outreach photo and report by PAS Seretary, Nanette Johnson On the Back Cover A star chart of Delphinus from Urania's Mirror - A View of the Heaven 2018 PAS Meeting Dates May 4 June 29 July 27 August 24 September 21 October 19 November 16 December 14 Holiday Party June 2018 PAS-Times Deadline Sunday, June 17th Please submit all things astronomical to be included in the next edition of PAS-Times to the editor at the following address: pas2vp@astronola.or Astronomy Day at the Infinity Space Center PAS Members present: John Martinez, Gabe Dickinson, Laurie Coniglio, Ed Matthews, Nanette and Bill Johnson Visitors: approx. 50 outside, approx. 100 viewing Exo Planets presentation given by John Martinez. Our telescopes were set up in hopes of viewing the sun, but Mother Nature had her own ideas. The sky was cloudy when we arrived and stayed that way for all but about 15 minutes total of our stay. But in those brief minutes, several visitors were able to see the sun through one of the telescopes outfitted with a sun filter. While we were outside, John Martinez was inside the Space center giving several presentations on Exo Planets to a crowd total of about 100 visitors. We did have the opportunity to speak to many interested visitors about the telescopes, how they worked and the fact that you don't need a super expensive telescope to begin viewing the stars. Gabe brought his self-constructed viewing chair and had the chance to demonstrate it several times to visitors. We had a group of exchange students from Panama that made our day interesting and fun. This group is studying the English language through immersion at Southeastern University in Hammond for the next couple of months, and just happened to have a visit to the Infinity Space Center scheduled for the day. Most of them were quite knowledgeable about the solar system, constellations, and current events with NASA, and excited to be here and have the opportunity to learn even more. It was truly enjoyable to talk with these students and share our knowledge of astronomy and NASA with them. Mother Nature shut us down at about 2:00 with a big gust of wind and a rain shower. We then toured the Space Center and chatted with John Martinez. Astronomy Day Spring 2018 was enjoyable, and we are looking forward to the possibility of more astronomy events with the Infinity Space Center. Photo of the Sombrerro Galaxy M104 by PAS member Mike Danielson

8 Pontchartrain Astronomy Society, Inc Kent Birkle, PAS-Times Editor Lowe Davis Rd. Covington, La The Pontchartrain Astronomy Society, Inc. is an organization of amateur astronomers representing the greater New Orleans area, southeastern Louisiana and adjacent parts of Mississippi. Our members come from many walks of life, and have a common interest in astronomy and observing the sky. The PAS aims to enhance the study and enjoyment of astronomy among our members, and to promote an understanding of astronomy in our local community. The constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin, culminates around September 15th and has two bright stars known as Sualocin and Rotanev. These names spelled backwards are Nicolaus Venator, an assistant and sucessor to Piazzi.