Lowell Observatory with Michael Beckage

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1 NEWSLETTER OF THE SONOMA COUNTY ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY July Volume XXXVI no. 7 Lowell Observatory with Michael Beckage In the 1890 s a Boston family brahmin named Percival Lowell dedicated his attention, wealth and equally considerable imagination to his interest in astronomy. Most specifically, he had been excited by the drawings of Mars by Giovanni Schiaparelli which featured canali on the surface of the red planet. Canali in Italian can mean either channels or canals, but Lowell believed they were canals and set about to study these in detail. To that end he tapped some of his fortune to having 24 inch Alvan Clark refractor built and shipped to Flagstaff, Arizona to build his observatory on a dark, dry high desert with many clear nights away from the pollution and lights of civilization. His discoveries and speculations that the canals he thought he saw were made by a dying civilization fueled a lot of public interest in astronomy, and his observatory continues to inspire the public s imagination and keep us looking up at the night sky. Our next meeting will feature Michael Beckage, who will talk to us about what is going on at Lowell Observatory. Many historical discoveries have been made by some great names in astronomy. Of course Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto there, but also Vesto Slipher started to realize nebulae were receeding from us, leading to Hubble s realization that CONTENTS the universe is expanding. (And that these nebulae were galaxies like our own.) These days the observatory on Mars Hill in Flagstaff is still a lovely spot, but has been surrounded by the growing town of Flagstaff. The observatory continues to be on the (Continued on Page?) President s Message...2 The Semi-Sirius Astronomer...2 Young Astronomers...4 Nasa Space Place...5 Club News...6 Secretary s Report...9 Searching For Distant Galaxies...10 Events for June April Skychart...15 SCAS Membership, Info...16

2 FROM THE PRESIDENT July July time to pledge your support to SCAS. Time to pay your (tax deductable) dues and support the club for another year. SCAS was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, social and education club. For those of you who itemize your tax deductions, your dues and any other donations made to SCAS are deductable. So, where does that $25 go? I ve been on the board of directors for about 8 years now, and to the best of my knowledge, the balance in the treasury has remained fairly constant. The money we take in tends to balance the annual expenditures. The big items are the rent to the Santa Rosa School District and our memberships in the Astronomical League and AANC (Astronomy Associations of Northern California.) Coffee for the meetings costs $25.00, and as long as everyone who takes a cup kicks in fifty cents or a buck per cup that expense usually breaks even. Occasionally, our Refreshments Wrangler will spend more and then submits the receipts for reimbursement, which then come out of the club s treasury. I don t recall how much we contribute to the AANC, but we do pay $5.00 per member to the Astronomy League. The Astronomical League is the entity that sends you the REFLECTOR magazine. Besides the REFLECTOR the Astronomical league is our source of affordable group insurance. I hope that you don t merely toss the REFLEC- TOR into the recycle, but take some time to at least skim through the articles. If you take time to look at the pages near the back of the magazine, you will see that the Astronomical League offers a plethora of awards and recognitions for members who like to challenge themselves. The most obvious of the challenges is the Messier Award for those of us who have observed all of the objects in the Messier Catalog. But there are also challenges and awards for Binocular Messier observing, Lunar Observing, Globular Cluster Observing and more than a dozen other challenges. Individual membership to the Astronomical League costs $30.00, and we get all the privileges as part of our SCAS membership. Why, you may ask, am I making a push for you to re-join (or join for the first time) SCAS? We need a count of dues paying members to accurately pay the Astronomical League. While our annual membership is usually around 100, the count at the June 19th board meeting there were still 49 members who had not yet renewed. Please submit your (tax deductable) dues to PO Box 183, Santa Rosa, CA Lynn Anderson SCAS President 2

3 (Continued from Page 1) forefront for many research programs, but the original site has been added to a few other locations outside of Flagstaff. And in keeping with the excitement Percy generated with his canals on Mars, Lowell Observatory has been especially devoted to fostering public outreach and education in astronomy. One especially exciting new developments is the new Discovery Channel telescope, nearly 170 inches in diameter! It s primary focus will be to foster and continue that excitement about astronomy that Percy started. Michael Beckage has been kind enough to come visit us and talk about the exciting and interesting things going on at Lowell. SCAS is on Facebook! Read about interesting astronomy news. See what club members are up to and what they re observing. View and post your latest astro images. Check it out! Michael Beckage has been an active amateur astronomer for over 40 years. He caught the astronomy bug at age 10 after seeing craters on the moon through a neighbor s 20 power spotting telescope. Michael built his first telescope (an 8 f8 Newtonian) at the age of 12 with help from his family and fellow members of the Riverside Astronomical Society where he was an active member for many years. At the age of fourteen, Michael was pictured in Sky & Telescope magazine after winning a merit award for telescope design at the 1974 Riverside Telescope Makers Conference in Big Bear, California. His favorite telescope is a mid-seventies vintage Celestron C-14 which he uses for public outreach, astro-imaging and occasional scientific research endeavors. Mike is very active in teaching astronomy and forming star parties from his home in Seal Beach. Michael says that his greatest joy is sharing the excitement of visitors when they view celestial sights through a telescope. He also enjoys solar system and wide field astro-imaging after everyone goes to sleep. He sounds just like one of our very own kind! Come join us at our next SCAS meeting and meet Michael Beckage to get inspired by Lowell Observatory, and maybe plan to make a visit to that lovely spot in Arizona. As usual, we meet at Proctor Terrace School, Wednesday July 10th at 7:30 p.m. 3

4 Young Astronomers Attention! YOUNG ASTRONOMERS This section of the SCAS s Sonoma Skies newsletter is intended to be about and / or for Young Astronomers and the intent is that it be populated by material provided by Young Astronomers. Sadly, that has not happened in one instance yet in the last few years. Now, if no Young Astronomers read or care about this section, the reasonable solution is to simply not have it in the newsletter. If you are reading this...is that what you want? You can possibly understand that it is not my wish to be writing material for a section that is of little of no interest to the intended audience. So, if you wish this section to remain, you need to support it beginning with the next issue. Let me hear from you. No supporting communications from you will be my signal that no one cares and I will cease efforts to find material to place here. Star Parties The school star parties are over until school resumes. However, the RFO is a BIG exception and I will be sending out notifications concerning events you may wish to attend. Yosemite As you may know, the SCAS goes there each year and does public astronomy at Glacier Point. Park entry and camping are free to those that volunteer. This year the dates are Friday and Saturday, July You must be there both evenings. YA s coming so far are Ky Heon, Hunter Ward, Harry Prasetya and Devon Bolt. We are now fully booked and have no room for anyone else to join us. However, if you have the urge, you can contact me and ask to be placed on a wait list in case anyone currently on my list decides not to come. -Len Nelson COOL SPACE FACT: Why the hottest part of the summer is called the Dog Days. The earliest reference to some aspect of this expression goes all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians. They noted that the heliacal rising of the star Sirius heralded the hottest part of the summer. However, it isn t exactly known why the ancient Egyptians associated this star with a dog (the star s hieroglyph is a dog). Sirius would appear in Egypt, after about a 70 day absence, just before the season where the Nile typically floods. So it is thought the star s hieroglyphic symbol being a dog symbolized a watchdog. The Roman s expression for Dog Days was diēs caniculārēs (Latin for Dog Days ). The Greeks also had a similar expression that literally translated to Dog Days. They both believed that, when Sirius rose around the same time as the Sun, this contributed to that time of year becoming hotter. As such, they would often make sacrifices to Sirius, including sacrificing dogs, to appease Sirius with the hope that this would result in a mild summer and would protect their crops from scorching. 4

5 High-energy Spy By Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf The idea for the Chandra X-Ray Observatory was born only one year after Riccardo Giacconi discovered the first celestial X-ray source other than the Sun. In 1962, he used a sounding rocket to place the experiment above the atmosphere for a few minutes. The sounding rocket was necessary because the atmosphere blocks X-rays. If you want to look at X-ray emissions from objects like stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies, your instrument must get above the atmosphere. Composite image of DEM L50, a so-called superbubble found in the Large Magellanic Cloud. X- ray data from Chandra is pink, while optical data is red, green, and blue. Superbubbles are created by winds from massive stars and the shock waves produced when the stars explode as supernovas. Giacconi s idea was to launch a large diameter (about 1 meter) telescope to bring X-rays to a focus. He wanted to investigate the hazy glow of X-rays that could be seen from all directions throughout the sounding rocket flight. He wanted to find out whether this glow was, in fact, made up of many point-like objects. That is, was the glow actually from millions of X-ray sources in the Universe. Except for the brightest sources from nearby neighbors, the rocket instrument could not distinguish objects within the glow. NASA SPACE PLACE Giacconi s vision and the promise and importance of X- ray astronomy was borne out by many sounding rocket flights and, later satellite experiments, all of which provided years-, as opposed to minutes-, worth of data. By 1980, we knew that X-ray sources exist within all classes of astronomical objects. In many cases, this discovery was completely unexpected. For example, that first source turned out to be a very small star in a binary system with a more normal star. The vast amount of energy needed to produce the X-rays was provided by gravity, which, because of the small star s mass (about equal to the Sun s) and compactness (about 10 km in diameter) would accelerate particles transferred from the normal star to X-ray emitting energies. In 1962, who knew such compact stars (in this case a neutron star) even existed, much less this energy transfer mechanism? X-ray astronomy grew in importance to the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. The National Academy of Sciences, as part of its Decadal Survey released in 1981, recommended as its number one priority for large missions an X-ray observatory along the lines that Giacconi outlined in This observatory was eventually realized as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which launched in The Chandra Project is built around a high-resolution X- ray telescope capable of sharply focusing X-rays onto two different X-ray-sensitive cameras. The focusing ability is of the caliber such that one could resolve an X-ray emitting dime at a distance of about 5 kilometers! The building of this major scientific observatory has many stories. Learn more about Chandra at missions/chandra. Take kids on a Trip to the Land of the Magic Windows and see the universe in X-rays and other invisible wavelengths of light at spaceplace.nasa. gov/magic-windows. Dr. Weisskopf is project scientist for NASA s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 5

6 CLUB NEWS ISS Passes Through Big Dipper at RFO By Len Nelson At the Robert Ferguson Observatory s Night Sky class of June 3rd, I knew the ISS was going to go through the handle of the Big Dipper and planned to image the event. I piggy-backed my Nikon D4 on my powered and polar aligned refractor mount with a zoom lens set at 18mm and imaged for 31 seconds at f7.5 at asa 800. I waited for the ISS to enter the field of view in my camera and tripped the remote cable control to begin the exposure. It took 31 seconds for the ISS topass sufficiently though the Big Dipper s handle where I stopped the exposure. That just happened to take 31 seconds. While the ISS went through Ursa Major, another satellite appeared just above the handle too. I thought that I had not correctly framed Ursa Major (since I really could not see the stars too well though the camera s finder) and only after I looked at my image later saw that I had nevertheless actually framed it quite well. During the ISS s transit through the constellation, I recall only being able to readily see the major stars of the constellation. The camera, however, absorbed the photons of far more stars during the exposure, as you may be able to see, so I outlined the Big Dipper in green in Photshop. 6

7 CLUB NEWS Project ASTRO needs your help! If you have found some personal reward in helping young budding astronomers find their way among the stars, either through school star parties or our Striking Sparks program, you may want to consider participating in Project Astro. Project Astro is an educational outreach arm of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Its aims are to have local teachers team up with volunteer astronomers to incorporate astronomy into their curriculum. Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University with her departments educational and public outreach arm has been actively promoting this program. If you help out, consider contacting Brian Kruse, Lead Formal Educator of ASP at and check out their website. Or feel free to contact Dr. Cominsky at: lynnc(at)universe.sonoma.edu. Let s keep these young minds active and looking up! Yosemite We are now 100% at our limit for attendees to this event and can accept no more. As we have for many years, the SCAS will provide public astronomy at Glacier Point on Friday - Saturday, July 26 and 27. We will camp at the Bridal Veil group campground, which is about 8.5 miles from Glacier Point. If coming, you must bring with you an astronomy grade telescope and be at Glacier Point both Friday and Saturday evenings to provide public astronomy. Park entry and campground fees are a gift from the National Park service in return for our services. - Len Nelson (lennelsn(at)comcast.net) 7 Tolay Fall Festival It s Just Around The Corner After a very successful 2012 Tolay Fall Festival we can t resist the opportunity to be there again this year. Sonoma County Regional Parks welcomes us back with open arms. This year we are working on a radio telescope addition similar to the setup at the Robert Ferguson Observatory. Dates, times, location and description are shown below. Also shown are the positions we need to fill. Mark your calendar and plan to volunteer and show up with a smile and your imagination. Don t worry if your knowledge of the sun is (Continued on Page?)

8 CLUB NEWS minimal. Plenty of information will be available to bring you up to speed. To signup send me an me at: deep6(a)sonic.net. Dates: Thursday through Sunday, October 10th to 13th, and Wednesday through Sunday, October 16 to 20. Hours: 9am to 3pm Weekdays and 11am to 5pm Weekends. - If setting up a scope arrive early enough to be set up 15 minutes before start time. Tolay Lake Regional Park is Located at 5869 Cannon Lane, a left turn off Lakeville Hwy south of Petaluma. - Radio Telescope - Volunteers providing information about the Sun and Astronomy - Greeters to promote RFO & SCAS and point out information on the picture boards - Volunteers to relieve the above positions - More Telescopes and volunteers welcome. Contact: Dickson Yeager Address: deep6@sonic.net Phone #: Description: The nine day Tolay Fall Festival is a seasonal celebration that connects visitors with the beauty and history of Tolay Lake Regional Park in the hills east of Petaluma. The Fall Festival s activities and displays are low-key, hands-on and educational by design. Over 18,000 attended the 2012 Festival. Weekdays are for elementary school children and some middle school children. Most will arrive by School Bus. Weekends are for the general public Tolay Fall Festival should be on the Regional Parks website by mid summer. Go to The following Positions need to be filled each of the nine days of the Festival: - Solar Equipped Telescope - white light filters - Solar Equipped Telescope - white light filters - Solar Equipped Telescope - white light filters - Solar Equipped Telescope - H-Alpha - Solar Equipped Telescope - H-Alpha - Solar Equipped Telescope - H-Alpha 8

9 Robert Ferguson Observatory Star Parties Saturday, July 13 Solar Observing: Noon-4pm Public Star Party Begins 9PM The Observatory features four telescopes: A 14-inch SCT with CCD camera in the East wing, an 8-inch refractor under the dome, a radio telescope for observing Sun activity, and a 24-inch reflector in the West wing. SCAS members may set up telescopes in the observatory parking lot to assist with public viewing. Auto access closes at dusk; late arrivals must carry equipment from the horse stable parking area. Fees: No admission fee for solar viewing; donations are appreciated. Observatory night viewing fee: $3 for adults; children 17 and under admitted free. The Park charges $8 per vehicle for entry at all times. Info: RFO JULY 2013 Rent the Ferguson observatory! Groups of up to 50 can be accommodated. Astronomer docents provide sky interpretation and operate telescopes, and you can stay up as late as you want! Make your reservation at least two weeks prior to your event. Best times for optimal sky gazing are around a week away from a Full Moon. For information or to make a reservation, visit or George Loyer: gloyer(at)rfo.org. SECRETARY S REPORT As of June 6 there was a balance of $4,711 in checking and a May 15 balance of $2,483 in the CD. We are hoping members will donate used eyepieces and Barlows for the Young Astronomers. SRJC Petaluma Campus will have an astronomy display in the library from August through October. Jill Quigley is forming committees and asking for SCAS and RFO volunteers. Next year s Striking Sparks program already has two sponsors. Larry McCune wrote an article about Striking Sparks for the current Reflector. Planning is underway for a radio telescope at Tolay this coming October. Those interested in participating should contact Dickson Yeager at deep6(at)sonic.net Night Sky Classes Summer Series Jul. 8, Jul. 29, Aug. 5 Mondays at 8:00 PM: Series of six sessions. Each class includes a lecture on the constellations of the season, their history and mythology, and how to find stars and deep sky objects within them. Includes observing. Fees: $75 for the series. (Single session fee is $23). 10% discount for VMOA members. Classes are held at the Observatory. For information or to register: (707) , nightsky(at)rfo.org The 8-inch refractor at the Robert Ferguson Observatory. Unfortunately, there was limited interest in forming the astrophotography group. The Yosemite astronomy event is scheduled for July 26 and 27. Although the list is full, Len has the details and will add your name in case of a member cancellation. You can contact him at lennelsn(at)comcast.net -Eric Swanson 9

10 Dr. Bradford Holden [1], who is affiliated with UCO/Lick Observatory, spends his working life as a research astronomer and a self-proclaimed software person seeking to disseminate astronomical data for study. He began his March 19, 2012 talk highlighting the search for the most distant galaxies, those featuring red-shifts between z = 7 and z = 8. He revealed an image produced by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), an ultra-deep field image capture by its WFC3 camera at about 450 nm. It took 11 days to construct this image. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz) and the HUDF09 Team Hubble is pushed to the limit to find these distant galaxies. Use of an infrared image, around 1000 nm, makes them easier to find, taking on the order of hours instead of days to locate. This is one of the impetuses to continue funding the 10 Searching for (and occasionally nding) the Most Distant Galaxies James Webb Space Telescope [2], which is optimized for observations in the infrared spectrum. However, today, distant galaxies are sought using the HST, the two Keck telescopes in Hawaii, and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Looking for Boring We exist in a world of matter with a density of about 1 gram per centimeter. Outer space is a whole other world, where there is something like 1 to 100 atoms per cubic centimeter. This is a 24-order of magnitude difference, indeed, a whole other environment. Today, our cosmos is interesting because of this diversity while the early universe, which was very uniform, was quite boring. The challenge for astronomers and cosmologists is to find out when the universe stopped being boring. Holden outlined three main concepts: Young galaxies are blue because they are full of massive stars. An expanding universe causes galaxies to be red-shifted. The universe is full of hydrogen, which is opaque at certain wavelengths. Feeling Blue The Pleiades appear blue, suggesting that they are massive and hot young stars. They emit much more ultraviolet light than they do visible light. Image courtesy of NASA Very hot stars emit light in the ultraviolet band. Some radiate with wavelengths as short as 120 to 150 nm. For example, in May 2008, NASA s Swift satellite took a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, and snapped the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet band. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. Swift s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) acquired 330 images of M31 at the three wavelengths of 192.8, 224.6, and 260 nm. The synthesis of these images, shown below, represents a total exposure time of 24 hours [3]. According to investigators, Swift revealed about 20,000 ultraviolet sources in M31, especially hot, young stars and dense star clusters.

11 Image courtesy of NASA Below is an image of Galaxy NGC 4214, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope s WFC3 camera. It s an ideal spot to study star formation and evolution. Image courtesy of NASA and ESA Dominating much of the galaxy is a huge glowing cloud of hydrogen gas in which new stars form. Inside the heart-shaped cavity lies a large cluster of massive, young stars (blue) ranging in temperature from 10,000 to 50,000 degrees C. Astronomers look at the spectrum of such galaxies, since the spectra at each wavelength reveals a measure of the energy present. Below is the ultraviolet spectrum of NGC Image courtesy of Caltech Dips in the spectrum indicate where gas in the galaxy is being absorbed. Around the 1200-Angstrom range, the hydrogen emission line spikes because the gas is being heated by the stars in the galaxy. From Blue to Redshift A redshift comprises half of the complete Doppler shift, a phenomenon where the frequency and wavelength shifts as two objects pass each other. An object accelerating away from the observer tends to have its light appear to be elongated in wavelength. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Mathematically, the redshift can be expressed as lambdaobserved = lambdaoriginal (1 + redshift). With this knowledge, combined with the expansion of the universe, astronomers can map a spectrum measurement into a distance. Furthermore, the most distant objects are observed to be red, as they accelerate away at ever-increasing speed. Astronomers search for galaxies that are intrinsically blue because of their youth and the presence of a huge number of massive stars. Hydrogen gas absorbs light, which creates a cut-off point when observing a galaxy. As shown above, different filters, such as red, green, and blue, are used to examine the spectrum and display only those galaxies with large redshifts. The result of the process produces redder and redder images of wavelengths, as shown by the red I in the image above. As the spectral analysis approaches 1,100 nm, the hydrogen gas has absorbed all of the light to this point, and the resulting redshift is revealed, such as a z = 8.4 result. Such spectral analysis procedures identify candidates for further study. Looking for the Most Distant Galaxies Searches for the most distant galaxies, those with very-high-redshift, over the past decade have yielded a large sample of more than 6,000 galaxies existing just 900 to some 2,000 million years after the Big Bang [4]. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field has yielded the first reliable detections of z 8 galaxies that, together with reports of a gammaray burst at z 8.2, constitute the earliest objects reliably reported to date. Observations of galaxies with z 7 to 8 suggest substantial star formation at distances on the order of z > 9 to 10. Researches continue to mine the full two-year HUDF09 data and conduct ultra-deep searches for z 10 galaxies for light 500 million years after the Big Bang. One possible z 10 galaxy candidate was detected (see the table below), as well as the observation that the star formation rate density

12 was much smaller at this time than it was just 200 million years later at z 8.This demonstrates how rapid galaxy build-up was at z 10, as galaxies increased in both luminosity density and volume density during the evolution from the time of z 10 to the time of z 8. Researchers believe that the 100 to 200-million year era before z 10 was a crucial phase in the assembly of the earliest galaxies in the Universe. Hubble is No Longer Useful for Searching Deep Astronomers are almost done with the Hubble Space Telescope [4], at least for the search for galaxies in the distant past. It can t see any further, owing to the limitations of its optics and camera technology. It will take the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with its larger light-collecting mirror structure and infrared imaging to peer further than anyone has before. Existing z 7 to 9 galaxies can be confirmed and many more z = 10 candidates can be found and then confirmed. So, what have we learned with the Hubble Ultra Deep Field to date? We ve learned that most distant galaxies are rare. We are close to the point where there are no galaxies to be seen: we ve reached the start of everything. We ve also learned that the most distant galaxies are much more different than those of today. The table below compares and contrasts two galaxies. New Galaxy Old Galaxy Andromeda, M31 UDFj ,000 light-years across (huge) Star formation rate of x 12 1,500 light-years across (tiny) Star formation rate of 5x The old galaxy, with the largest redshift to date, is literally in a very distant place: It s churning out the stars, as Holden says. Once the JWST begins its science work, likely before the end of this decade, many more of these distant places, these faraway galaxies, will be explored. - Submitted by R.K. Koslowsky, SCAS Member com/astronomy.html Notes: [1] Dr. Bradford Holden researchers, the formation and evolution of cluster galaxies, massive galaxies at z = 2, the build up of clusters of galaxies as a whole and searches for the progenitors of massive galaxies at high redshift. He shared elements of his research interests during the Sonoma State University s series, What Physicists Do. Holden s research focuses on the properties of early-type cluster galaxies. These objects are passively evolving - there is little or no evidence for ongoing star-formation - and they are generally massive systems. He studies these systems to understand how old the stars in them are, and to see if the population of these objects is changing with time. As these galaxies live in massive clusters, they are constantly undergoing dynamic interactions, and new galaxies are being added to the cluster all of the time. Holden has also participated in the effort to study massive galaxies at a redshift of 2, roughly 10 to 11 billion years ago. These galaxies look like the progenitors of the cluster early-type galaxies, having little or no star-formation. They are smooth and regular and they are massive. However, these objects are young, with inferred ages of only 500 million years. Another way to understand how the galaxies in clusters change with time is to find the galaxies that will become part of the cluster in the future. Holden and his colleagues are surveying the regions around two massive clusters to find the future cluster galaxies, and study what happens to them before they fall into the cluster itself. Massive cluster galaxies generally have old stars in them, with ages of 12 or so billion years. By finding the galaxies vigorously forming stars 12 billion years ago, cosmologists should be finding the progenitors of these massive galaxies. [2] The James Webb Space Telescope is billed as the successor to the prolific Hubble Space Telescope, but cost overruns have plagued the project, particularly in recent years. The observatory, which is slated to launch in 2018, is now expected to cost $8.8 billion. NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is managing the overall development effort for the Webb telescope. [3] For more on the M31 ultraviolet images: mission_pages/swift/bursts/uv_andromeda.html [4] Holden indicates that there are two more last hurrahs for the HST. One is an even deeper image than the HUDF09 image, being obtained by a group at CalTech lead by Richard Ellis. The second is something called CANDELS being developed at a number of places, with the deep galaxy search led by a group at The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Scotland.

13 [5] An article in Nature: v469/n7331/abs/nature09717.html Acknowledgement: Thank you to Dr. Holden for providing critical feedback and comments during the editing of this article. Reference: [1] SCAS is on Facebook! Read about interesting astronomy news. See what club members are up to and what they re observing. View and post your latest astro images. Check it out! 13

14 EVENTS: JUNE 2013 July 3rd Wednesday 9pm - Venus Near M44 8th Monday 12:30am - New Moon 8th Monday 8pm - Saturn stationary, ending retrograde motion 8th Monday 8pm - Night Sky Summer Series at Robert ferguson Observatory 10th Wednesday 9pm - SCAS General Meeting, Proctor Terrace School 10th Wednesday 9pm - Crescent Moon near Venus 13th Saturday Noon - Public Solar Observing at Robert Ferguson Observatory 13th Saturday 9pm - Public Star Party at Robert Ferguson Observatory 15th Monday 8:30pm - First Quarter Moon very near Spica 16th Tuesday 10pm - The moon is near Saturn 17th Wednesday 5pm - Uranus stationary, begins retrograde motion. 20th Saturday 20:17:40 UTC - 44th Anniversary of Manned Moon Landing 21st Sunday 9pm - Venus near Regulus 22nd Monday 5am - Mars is very near Jupiter 22nd Monday 11:30am - Full Buck Moon 24th Wednesday 5:30am Mercury in the East through August 10 25th Thursday 4am - Occultation. Mag 5.0 Situla (kappa Aquarii) reappears from dark limb of moon. 29th Monday 10:30am - Last Quarter Moon 29th Monday 8pm - Night Sky Summer Series at Robert ferguson Observatory 14

15 JULY 2013 SKY CHART 15 Special thanks to:

16 Sonoma County Astronomical Society (SCAS) Membership Information 16 SCAS Membership Application/Renewal Annual Membership dues are $25 due June 1. (New members joining after Nov. 30 pay $12.50) Please complete this form and give to the Membership Director or a Board member with your check, payable to SCAS, at the next meeting, or mail your dues to: SCAS, P.O. Box 183, Santa Rosa, CA ( ) New ( ) Renewal ( ) Family (no extra charge) Name(s): (Required for Sonoma Skies) Address: City/State/Zip: Telephone: I am interested in serving in one or more of these areas: ( ) School Star Parties ( ) SCAS Board ( ) Newsletter ( ) Striking Sparks ( ) Mentoring Young Astronomers ( ) Yosemite Star Party ( ) Other New Members please note interests and hobbies you would like us to know about: New Members please share your reason(s) for joining SCAS, and how you heard about the club: Your dues include our monthly newsletter Sonoma Skies, membership in the Astronomical League and its Reflector magazine, discounted subscriptions for Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines, great guest speakers at our monthly meetings, the annual Star-B-Que, and opportunities to meet new and interesting people who share your passion for the night sky and many aspects of astronomy and science. Welcome to the SCAS! Meetings: 7:30 PM on the second Wednesday of each month, in the Multipurpose Room of Proctor Terrace Elementary School, 1711 Bryden Lane at Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, unless otherwise announced in this publication. The public is invited. Dues: $25, renewable June 1 of each year. New members joining between December 1 and May 31 pay partial-year dues of $ Star Parties: See the Events section for dates and times. Rental Telescope: Members are eligible to borrow the club s 80mm refractor with tripod. Contact any Board member listed below. Egroup URL: Connect with other members about going observing, observing reports and chat about astronomy and news items from AANC and Sky & Telescope. Hosted by Keith Payea at kpayea(at)bryantlabs.net. Any SCAS member is welcome to join. Visit and click the Join button, or send an to scas-subscribe(at)yahoogroups.com Discount Subscriptions: For Sky & Telescope, new subscribers may send a check for $32.95 payable to SCAS, with your complete mailing address, directly to: Larry McCune, 544 Thyme Place, San Rafael, CA Once you have received the discount rate, you may renew your subscription by sending your personal check with the renewal notice directly to Sky Publishing. Discount subscriptions to Astronomy Magazine occur annually in October. Check Sonoma Skies for details. Library: We have a library of astronomy books that may be checked out by members at SCAS meetings, to be returned at the next meeting. Videotaped lectures on astronomy may be rented for $3 per month. Sonoma Skies is the monthly newsletter of the Sonoma County Astronomical Society (SCAS). Subscription is included as part of membership. Submissions are welcome and are published on a first come, first served basis, space permitting, and may be edited. The deadline for submissions is 7 days prior to the end of each month. Mail to: Editor, SCAS, P.O. Box 183, Santa Rosa, CA 95402, or publicatio ns(at)sonomaskies.org SCAS Elected Board President: Lynn Anderson scas_prez(at)sonic.net Vice-President & Program Director: John Whitehouse jmw(at)sonic.net Treasurer: Larry McCune, (415) llmccune(at)comcast.net Secretary: Eric Swanson, emswanson(at)comcast.net Membership Director: Mike Dranginis mike880(at)comcast.net Director of Community Activities: Lynn Anderson astroman(at)sonic.net Newsletter Editor: Ted Judah tedjudah4sonomaskies(at)gmail.com Cartoonist: Herb Larson hlarsenii(at)yahoo.com SCAS Appointed Positions Striking Sparks Program Coordinator: Larry McCune (415) llmccune(at)comcast.net YA Adult Advisor: Len Nelson lennelsn(at)comcast.net Amateur Telescope Making: Steve Follett sfollett(at)sonic.net Librarian: David Simons davidsimons(at)planetatm.com Visit us on the web at: Sonoma County Astronomical Society is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt social and education organization.