MAY 2016 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 5 What's Inside?

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1 ASTRAL PROJECTIONS MAY 2016 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 5 What's Inside? Page 1: Page 2 4: Page 4: Page 5: Page 6: Page 7: Event Calendar Recap Observing Calendar Space Place Club Benefits Astronomy Day flyer EVENT CALENDAR May 6th Cloverdale Star Party Location: Cloverdale Farms, Barnegat Township, NJ Time: 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. May 9th Mercury Transit of the Sun Location: Ocean County College, Robert J. Novins Planetarium (Building 13) Time: 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. May 13th Monthly Meeting Location: Ocean County College, Robert J. Novins Planetarium (Building 13) Time: 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Following the meeting, John Enderson will educate the club on the ins and outs of computerized telescopes. May 14th Astronomy Day / Jakes Branch Star Party Location: Jakes Branch County Park, Beachwood, NJ Times: 2:00 p.m. 5 p.m. then 8:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m. A.S.T.R.A. Robert J. Novins Planetarium Ocean County College P.O. Box 2001 Toms River, NJ May 14th Jakes Branch Star Party Location: Jakes Branch County Park, Beachwood, NJ Time: 9:00 p.m. 11:00 p.m. EVENT CANCELLATIONS Two hours before the event start time please check out the ASTRA Message Board at nj.org/viewforum.php?f=4 or call the ASTRA Hotline: President: Matthew McCue President@astra nj.org Treasurer: Ro Spedaliere Treasurer@astra nj.org Vice President Secretary: John Endreson VP@astra nj.org Webmaster: Donald Durett Webmaster@astra nj.org Newsletter Editor: Chris Savia newsletter@astra nj.org Page 1

2 RECAP Double Rainbow, What Does It Mean? Our newest member Howard Williams witnessed a gorgeous double rainbow out on a drive on the 7th of April, We are fortunate Harold shared his images with the club! Image credits: Howard Williams SUBMISSIONS WELCOME Members are invited to submit articles, news, or stories for inclusion in Astral Projections. Please contact Chris Savia at newsletter@astra nj.org. JUNE NEWSLETTER DEADLINE: MAY 30, 2016 Page 2

3 RECAP 2016 Vatican Observatory Faith and Astronomy Workshop by Rosemarie Spedaliere Image credit: John Endreson Last September I was accepted to attend the 2016 Vatican Observatory Faith and Astronomy Workshop, an opportunity of a lifetime! A chance to mingle my love of astronomy and my religious beliefs. On January 11th I arrived in Tuscon to a beautiful crystal blue sky. My room was at the Redemptorist's Retreat Center, and after checking in I walked the grounds to familiarize myself with the lay of the land. There was a labryinth, some meditation rooms, the chapel, a classroom, and the nightly observing area. Our first trip to the University of Arizona Lunar Planetary Imaging Lab included their amazing meteorite collection photos from various space missions. After mass at the Retreat House, two of the Vatican staff priests approached me asking for my help with a 10" LX200! I was in Heaven! I set it up and ran into a few kinks with some of the 'scope's settings. Turns out I had to call our vice president John Endreson back for help puzzling it out. My claim to fame: I taught Vatican astronomers how to use a telescope! The next morning, I saw Omega Centauri through my binoculars... WOW! After class and My first evening I was honored to be asked to read at mass with the Bishop. After dinner, there lunch, we visited the Mirror Lab in Tucson to was an informal meet and greet before heading learn how mirrors are made. Our tour included a visit to the oven. Outside the building was a out to look at the stars. I brought my 15x70 'Moon Trees', grown from a seed brought back binoculars, and the retreat house's 6" by Apollo 14. How did I never hear about these Dobsonian and their 8" Schmidt Cassegrain trees? were at our disposal. I secretly vowed if I ever went out again, I'd ship out my telescope. With After mass and dinner, we hurried outside for my trusty green laser in hand, I immediately more observing! We were joined by the local went into star party mode. Our days were astronomy club and a yoga group staying at the rounded with stargazing, early in the morning center. Topping off my night, I was lucky enough and late at night. Page 3

4 RECAP Image credit: John Endreson to use the LX200 again! In just a few hours, we'd be up again at 5 in the morning. What was really fun was spotting Comet Catalina in the Catalina Valley of the Catalina Mountains, nice! Later we went on a field trip to Kitt Peak. I got all choked up heading up the mountain, unable to believe I was really there. Our first stop was the 2598 feet above sea level to see the Steward Observatory's 2.3 meter Bok telescope. One of the Vatican priests was gracious enough to give us a behind the scenes tour, showing me the control room after mentioning my friend, Dr. Hal, was Bok's nephew. Next stop was the Mayall 4 metere reflector. Our next stop was higher up, at 6960 feet, at the Mayall 4m reflector. They ran the telescope for us, letting us look at the mirror! That night mass was held under the desert stars. Again they asked me to read, and it was a dream come true. The next morning we woke for a final stargazing session, but the clouds had other plans, reminding us it was time to go home. OBSERVING CALENDAR May 5th, 6th The Eta Aquarids coincide with the new moon, making excellent observing at midnight as they fall from the constellation Aquarius. Northern hemisphere viewers can expect about 30 meteors an hour. May 9th Planet Mercury will transit the sun starting at 7:12 a.m.until 2:52 p.m. EDT. We are fortunate living on the east coast, bearing witness to the entire event. The next Mercury transit happens on November 11th, May 14th International Astronomy Day is an annual event to educate the public about astronomy. ASTRA will be celebrating Astronomy Day at Jakes Branch from 2 p.m. 'til 11 p.m.. May 21st May's full moon is the third of four full moons in 2016, making it a blue moon. Its nicknames are the Full Flower Moon, Full Corn Planting Moon, and the Milk Moon. May 22nd Mars will be at opposition this night, shining at 2 magnitude in Scorpius. Being only.51 AU from Earth, its disk will measure 18.4 arcseconds in diameter. Page 4

5 SPACE PLACE Hubble Shatters Cosmic Record For Most Distant Galaxy By Ethan Siegel The farther away you look in the distant universe, the harder it is to see what's out there. This isn't simply because more distant objects appear fainter, although that's true. It isn't because the universe is expanding, and so the light has farther to go before it reaches you, although that's true, too. The reality is that if you built the largest optical telescope you could imagine even one that was the size of an entire planet you still wouldn't see the new cosmic record holder that Hubble just discovered: galaxy GN z11, whose light traveled for 13.4 billion years, or 97% the age of the universe, before finally reaching our eyes. discovered galaxy, GN z11, its whopping redshift of 11.1 pushed that line all the way out to 1471 nanometers, more than double the limit of visible light! Hubble itself did the follow up spectroscopic observations to confirm the existence of this galaxy, but it also got lucky: the only reason this light was visible is because the region of space between this galaxy and our eyes is mostly ionized, which isn't true of most locations in the universe at this early time! A redshift of 11.1 corresponds to just 400 million years after the Big Bang, and the hot radiation from young stars doesn't ionize the majority of the universe until There were two special coincidences that had to 550 million years have passed. In most line up for Hubble to find this: one was a directions, this galaxy would be invisible, as the remarkable technical achievement, while the neutral gas would block this light, the same way other was pure luck. By extending Hubble's the light from the center of our galaxy is blocked vision away from the ultraviolet and optical and by the dust lanes in the galactic plane. To see into the infrared, past 800 nanometers all the way farther back, to the universe's first true galaxies, out to 1.6 microns, Hubble became sensitive to it will take the James Webb Space Telescope. light that was severely stretched and redshifted Webb's infrared eyes are much less sensitive to by the expansion of the universe. The most the light extinction caused by neutral gas than energetic light that hot, young, newly forming instruments like Hubble. Webb may reach back stars produce is the Lyman α line, which is to a redshift of 15 or even 20 or more, and produced at an ultraviolet wavelength of just discover the true answer to one of the universe's nanometers. But at high redshifts, that greatest mysteries: when the first galaxies came line passed not just into the visible but all the way into existence! through to the infrared, and for the newly Image credit: NASA, ESA, P. Oesch, P. van Dokkum, G. Brammer, and G. Illingworth. Page 5

6 CLUB BENEFITS WHY JOIN? For $25.00 a year, you can enjoy many benefits with the Astronomical Society of the Toms River Area. Members can take advantage of A.S.T.R.A.'s lending library, borrow telescopes for observations, access to private star parties, in addition to comraderie with local amateur astronomers. Contact one of our club officers today to join the fun. ASTRA'S TELESCOPES ASTRA has several different types of telescopes, telescope mounts, along with binoculars, eyepieces, and eyepiece filters available for members to borrow. If any member is interested, please check out ASTRA's website and contact John Endreson at telescope loan@astra nj.org, or ASTRA'S LIBRARY Many books and DVDs are available for loan to ASTRA members from our library for a one month period. A list of these items is available on the ASTRA website. Requests for these items must be made prior to our regular meeting, and returned by the following meeting. Please e mail our librarian John Endreson at Library Loan@astra nj.org, or call him at with your request for materials. VOLUNTEER PRESENTERS Members are invited to give presentations related to astronomy or space science at our monthly meetings. Please contact a club officer to make arrangements. Please print and share our Astronomy Day flyer Page 6

7 Astronomy Day Saturday May 14, 2016 A.S.T.R.A., the Astronomical Society of the Toms River Area, will be hosting a fun filled day of space education and activities, followed by an awesome night of stargazing and planet spotting! Our event begins at 2:00 p.m. with exhibits, activities and demonstrations. Learn to make a comet, discover how telescopes work, or try your hand at making "craters on the moon". Weather permitting, special telescopes will be set up for some amazing views of the Sun. For the evening, beginning at 8 p.m., many different telescopes will be made available by A.S.T.R.A. club members to discover the secerts of the night sky. All activities, exhibits, and observing are FREE. Where: Jakes Branch County Park, Double Trouble Road, Beachwood When: 2:00 PM 5:00 PM, Daytime Program 8 11:00 PM, Evening Program Please call the ASTRA Hotline at for full details and directions. Also, visit ASTRA online at nj.org for the latest information on this event.