Download November 2015 Eyepiece - Amateur Astronomers Association of

NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow! On Sep 28, NASA
confirmed evidence of liquid water on the Red
Planet. An imaging spectrometer on the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter detected hydrated minerals on Martian slopes where dark streaks appear to
ebb and flow with the seasons, indicating they are
formed by briny, flowing water.
Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York
November 2015
Volume 64 Number 11; ISSN 0146-7662
AAA Members Show Their Love for
the Lunar Eclipse
Video Astronomy:
An Alluring Alternative to Eyepieces
AAA AROUND TOWN
VIEWING BY VIDEO
By Stan Honda
By Alfredo Viegas
AAA Observers were out in force for the Sep 27 total
lunar eclipse, an hours-long naked-eye event seen in the
eastern U.S., wherever there was a clear sky. From acr oss
New York City and the metropolitan area, club members took
to the streets with their telescopes and cameras, and they
shared their experiences of the exciting event through the
AAA Observers Google Group:
“My how the Milky W ay came out to play, when the
moon put on its mask...” wrote Michael O’Gara, who waxed
poetic from upstate New York, where he observed the stars
emerge from a darkened sky during eclipse totality.
At Lincoln Center in Manhattan, many people stopped to
check out the eclipse. Peter Tagatac shared: “Howard Fink
and I estimated over 100 guests, maybe 150~ish. For a brief
period before first cloud out, saw a tinge of copper color
along top and bottom of eclipsed disk, moon was about 95%
in umbral eclipse. Stayed until 12:45a.m., but could have left
earlier an hour and half earlier when most of the crowd
packed it in. Fast moving stratus clouds concealed the moon
most of the time but offered some glimpses.” He added that
“The NA SA Night Sky Network moon flag came in handy to
show our guests features of the moon and the difference between the shapes of eclipse versus phases.”
Downtown in Battery
Park, Alfredo Viegas
signed in: “Sam Hahn and
I had probably 50 people
over the course of the
night. Actually the viewing
location was pretty good..
I am thinking maybe next
new moon we could do
another event down in Battery Park City.”
“I agree with A lfreSam Hahn
do!”
wrote Sam, “I think
Partial phase of the Sep 27 total
we found a sweet spot in
lunar eclipse taken by AAA’s Sam
Hahn in Battery Park with his iPhone lower Manhattan. When I
and 85 mm Televue telescope.
was packing to head in, a
Imagine being
able to see the delicate structure of the
Ring Nebula (M57)
and its faint 14.7
magnitude
central
star – and all in color
– right from New York
City.
Now what if
you could do that with Alfredo Viegas
just a push of a button, The Ring Nebula (M57) imaged by video
slew your telescope to (25s exposure on a Mallincam Extreme
and C8 at F5).
M57 and have that
image pop up in a matter of seconds? That’s the kind of thrill
you can expect with video astronomy.
Perhaps viewing a deep sky object on a screen doesn’t
seem as authentic as looking through a telescope’s eyepiece,
but the amazing images you’ll see make video well worth
considering. Video cameras today start at about $100 to
$200, about the same price as a decent eyepiece, so for not
much money, video can become a valuable addition to an
astronomer’s collection.
Video astronomy started about 20 years ago, as
webcams rapidly developed for home and security use. A few
vendors and many amateurs began to fit their webcams with
1.25” barrels, tweaking the exposure limitations and modifying these mass-produced items for use with telescopes. A tiny
cottage industry has since developed in specialized video astronomy software, and some traditional astrophotography
CCD camera manufacturers have now launched their own
lines of video cameras for astronomy.
Today, there are plenty of options for video astronomy
cameras, from DIY starters like the $70 analog LN300 PAL
with a ⅓” sensor and 976 x 572 resolution, to a $1,000 full
service name-brand like the digital ATIK Infinity with a ⅔”
sensor and 1392 x 1040 resolution. It’s an exciting time to
go video!
Viewing your video doesn’t have to be an expensive
proposition – a spare old TV, a small LCD monitor, or your
AAA Loves a Lunar Eclipse (cont’d on Page 4)
Video Astronomy (cont’d on Page 5)
THIS MONTH: AAA Lecture Series Continues on Nov 6
November 2015
WHAT’S UP IN THE SKY
Spend Early Morning November with
the Brightest 6
AAA Observers’ Guide
During November, the six brightest objects in our night sky
(not including the Moon) – planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury, and stars Sirius and Arcturus – can be viewed together in the
pre-dawn hours in New York. Five of these will be found gathered
in the east. All are visible to the naked eye. Here is some information about these bright objects. The magnitudes given for the
bright planets describe how they appear this month, but they change
throughout the year, depending their distances from the Sun and the
Earth in their orbits.
By Tony Faddoul
November’s Evening Planets: Saturn will be in Libra
the Scales for one hour after sunset during the first half of
November. Neptune will be in Aquarius the Water Bearer
until 1 AM, setting earlier every night until 11 PM by the end
of the month. Uranus can be found in Pisces the Fish all
night. Dwarf planet Pluto is situated in Sagittarius the Archer until 8 PM, setting earlier each night of the month.
November’s Evening Stars: Spot the Summer Triangle of Vega in Lyra the Harp, Deneb in Cygnus the Swan,
and Altair in Aquila the Eagle until around 11 PM, setting
earlier each night during the month. At that time, the Winter
Triangle will be on the scene: Sirius, the brightest star
viewed from Earth, in Canis Major the Great Dog, Betelgeuse in Orion the Hunter, and Procyon in Canis Minor the
Small Dog. Bright Capella in Auriga the Charioteer will be
up all night. See the stars of constellations Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Cepheus, Draco, Pegasus, Aries, Taurus,
Pisces, and Ursa Major and Ursa Minor – the Big and Little
Dippers.
Five of the six brightest objects will shine in eastern skies
above New York in the early morning hours of November.
November’s Morning Planets: Find bright Venus in
Last Quarter Moon at 7:25 AM
Mars is 2° north of the Moon, pre-dawn
Moon at apogee (252,100 miles away)
New Moon at 12:46 PM
Saturn 3° south of the Moon, after sunset
Leonid meteor shower peaks, pre-dawn
Neptune stationary at sunset
First Quarter Moon at 1:28 AM
Moon at perigee (225,440 miles away)
Full Moon at 5:45 AM
Moon 7° north of Aldebaran, pre-dawn
Venus – Earth’s nearest neighbor is the brightest object in the night
sky, after the Moon. Also known by the misnomers “Evening Star”
or “Morning Star,” the planet will shine at about -4.0 magnitude,
and you can see it in the early morning towards the east. Venus is
named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty (Aphrodite in
Greek mythology), but its atmosphere’s runaway greenhouse effect
doesn’t make for a pretty place.
Jupiter – The largest planet in our Solar System will be -1.4 magnitude amd up before dawn toward the east. This gas giant is named
for the king of the gods in Roman mythology (Zeus to the Greeks).
Mars – The Red Planet, does indeed appear red in our night sky.
You can find Mars towards the east for couple of hours before sunrise. It will be its farthest from the Sun at 1.8 magnitude, dimmer
than its average -2.0. The Roman god of war is Ares in Greece.
Mercury – Nearest the Sun, it rises in the east around 6 AM with 0.9 magnitude in the first week of November. On the 17th, it will
reach superior solar conjunction, coming its closest to the Sun to be
lost in its glare for several weeks. Mercury is named for the messenger god in Roman mythology (the Grecian god Hermes).
Sirius – At -1.4 magnitude, the brightest star in our sky is also one
of the closest at 8.6 light years away. It will be south from 11 PM
to sunrise. Ten times larger than Sun, twice as massive, and twenty
times brighter, Sirius is a binary system with a white dwarf star.
Sirius is often called the “Dog Star,” as it resides in the constellation
Canis Major, and depicted classically as Orion the Hunter’s dog.
Arcturus – This orange giant star will shine at -0.1 magnitude in
the east for a few hours before sunrise. It’s about 37 light years
from Earth. Arcturus has nearly the same mass as our Sun, but it’s
about 17,000 times larger and 150 times brighter. Part of constellation Boötes the Herdsman, it’s name in Greek roughly translates to
Bear Watcher, positioned in the sky with a view of Ursa Major.
Times given in EST (Daylight Saving Time ends on Nov 1).
Follow veteran sky watcher Tony Faddoul each month, as
he points our minds and our scopes toward the night sky.
Virgo the Virgin around 3 AM and Mars around 2 AM until
sunrise. Jupiter will be positioned between Leo the Lion and
Virgo the Virgin until sunrise. Mercury is seen in Virgo at
around 6 AM during the first week of the month.
November’s Morning Stars: The Winter Triangle of
Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon will remain in the sky until
the morning this month. See Capella in Auriga and Aldeberan in Taurus the Bull, along with the stars of constellations
Leo, Gemini, Orion, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, Perseus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor.
November “Skylights”
Nov 3
Nov 7
Nov 11
Nov 12
Nov 18
Nov 19
Nov 23
Nov 25
Nov 26
Sources: timeanddate.com; wiki; earthsky.org.
2
November 2015
I also raised the ISO to 3200, since the disk was quite dark.
When the moon began to exit the shadow, I readjusted back to
the higher shutter speeds and lower ISO.
For the most part we could see the entire eclipse, except
for a couple of small interruptions from passing clouds.
About 200 frames later, we had our sequence!
Looking over all the images, I selected 11 frames to
compose my photo. The partial phase shots were taken 10
minutes apart, according to the data encoded in each picture.
The red moon image was taken at about mid-totality. Assembling the photo wasn’t too difficult, because the exposures
looked good and the Moon was the same size in each image.
In Photoshop, I made a very wide canvas as the background
layer and then copied and pasted each image onto that layer.
Lighten mode in the Layers window allowed me to blend each
frame nicely. Using a black background made it easier to
align the frames and produce the entire eclipse in one picture.
Covering a Total Lunar Eclipse and
Capturing a Planetary Alignment
FOCUS ON THE UNIVERSE
By Stan Honda
At 9:01 PM, the left side of the moon began to darken.
Finally, it had begun! The much anticipated Sep 27 total lunar eclipse was underway. Although it was the fourth such
event in the past two years, this eclipse would be special: it
would last for hours during prime time in the Northeast U.S. I
traveled to Mamaroneck in Westchester County to find clearer
skies, as forecasters predicted clouds over New York City.
NHK television of Japan had hired me to photograph the
eclipse for Cosmic Front, its weekly hour-long science show.
NHK’s New York-based crew included Producer Nagamitsu
(Naga) Endo, a new AAA member, who asked if I could shoot
a series of still images for the show. Editors in Tokyo would
Stan Honda
Sequence of the Sep 27 Total Lunar Eclipse for almost the entire 3 hours and 20 minutes of the event. Partial phases taken 10 minutes apart.
The astronomical fun continued into October, about 10
days after the total lunar eclipse. Three planets – Jupiter,
Mars, and Venus – were lining up in the early morning sky
with a waning crescent Moon. For four mornings beginning
Oct 7, I headed to the Central Park Reservoir running track.
Arriving typically before 4:00 AM, I packed light, carrying
my Sony a7S, a Zeiss 24-70mm zoom, a Nikon 70-200mm
zoom, and the lightweight Manfrotto BeFree tripod. Faint
Mercury tried to join the aligning group, but it was too low
and too close to sunrise to view from my vantage point.
On the first morning, the crescent Moon shone through
thin clouds, and Venus could be seen low on the horizon.
Jupiter was fighting the clouds, but Mars was too faint to be
seen. At one point, the clouds dissipated slightly, and I got a
shot of the three planets together. With a wider-angle lens, I
also captured the Moon and some of the Manhattan skyline.
When I arrived the next morning, the Moon and Venus could
be seen nicely in the clear eastern sky. But at about 4:15 AM,
they entered a cloud bank that moved in from the west, and
were only visible intermittently after that. Jupiter rose right
on time, and then continued up into the clouds. For one brief
moment, the planets emerged from the clouds for just one
then assemble the stills into a time-lapse video of the entire
eclipse, which lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes.
Naga needed high-resolution images, because NHK
would be broadcasting later this year in 4K, available for very
high-definition televisions. Naga rented us a Nikon D810
camera, as well as a Nikon 500mm f4 telephoto lens and a 2x
teleconverter. Equivalent to a 1,000 mm lens, they produced a
nice-sized image for the full-frame Nikon. The crew also
brought a RED digital video camera with a Canon 200-400 f4
lens attached to take a more traditional video of the eclipse.
I brought my AstroTrac mount and attached it to a
Sachtler television tripod, a very sturdy device. On the AstroTrac, I put my Manfrotto 410 geared tripod head, which allows for fine movements on three axes. Should the moon drift
in the frame, I would be able to make small adjustments without jarring the whole setup. On the tripod head, I placed the
lens, teleconverter, and camera.
Using the camera’s spot meter mode, I took a reading off
the full moon and decided that an exposure of 1/500 sec., with
an f-stop of f13 at ISO 800 looked best. I attached a Vello
wireless trigger to the camera and set it to take a picture every
minute. As the eclipse approached totality, I adjusted the exposure a bit by slowing the shutter to 1/200 sec. and opening
the f-stop to f9. I had to go as low as 1/4 sec. during totality.
Lunar Eclipse & Planetary Alignment (cont’d on page 4)
3
November 2015
AAA Loves a Lunar Eclipse (cont’d from page 1)
raphy needs some work but I like the clouds and the star trails
along with a trailing moon. I was happy that AAA members
Surayah and Joseph White joined me.”
Tony Hoffman was stationed across the Hudson River in
Jersey City, sharing: “I had a good time tonight showing people the Moon at the Liberty Science Center, along with LSC
staffers and folks from the Amateur Astronomers Association
of New York. Although the early partial phases of the eclipse
were beautiful and dramatic, it clouded up about 25 minutes
before totality, and the totally eclipsed Moon was only visible
through two very short and small gaps in the cloud.”
Tom Haeberle took in the eclipse from Long Island’s
Jones Beach: “I showed the moon to about a dozen people...
My moon flag was displayed on my car. A nice group of
young people came by and I was teaching them iPhone astrophotography. They loved it! So glad my son got to see the full
eclipse this time around.”
Back
upstate
in
Westchester County, Joe
Martinez wrote from Harbor
Island Park in Mamaroneck:
“A l Ferrari had a Mallincam
attached to his telescope and
provided a direct feed of the
moon to a large monitor,”
enthusing,
“Outstanding
work and outreach. We had
almost 300 patrons join us Nina Shankar
and I've been receiving mes- AAA Member Nina Shankar captured this image of the lunar
sages and texts all day. It eclipse during totality outside the
was a fantastic night with Barclays Center with an iPhone 6
primarily crystal clear sky. on a Meade DS-2090MAK 90mm
Maksutov-Cassegrain scope.
I'm looking forward to our
next event together as it’s always an experience.”
Observing remarkable events like a total lunar eclipse,
can be truly rewarding – an experience worth sharing! To join
the AAA’s Observers Google Group, contact AAA President
Marcelo Cabrera at [email protected].
few people came
by
and
sky
cleared up. So
we were able to
see the end of the
eclipse.”
Elsewhere
in
Manhattan,
Arthur
Franke
checked in from
Pier i Cafe in
Riverside Park Peter Tagatac
AAA President Marcelo Cabrera and Members
South:
John and Marwah Mefta show off the NASA
“Somewhere in Night Sky Network moon flag at Lincoln Center.
the neighborhood
of 50-75 people showed up at West 70th Street, though that's
a rough estimate. I was glad that some visitors brought binoculars to even out demand for scope time. We had good
views of the full moon from 8p.m. until around 9:30p.m. when
clouds started to be on-and-off. The view was fully clouded
over at 10 minutes before totality, but folks did comment on
the red hue that was visible just before. Most of the crowd
dispersed by 11p.m., but a few hung around long enough to
see a brief peek of the very red moon starting to come off totality around 11:25p.m. A very nice lady offered me
mooncake as thanks for setting up my telescope. There must
have been a half a dozen families who were making it their
night's activity to v"isit the astronomy club, and on a school
night no less! The only loss of the night was an RA (right
ascension) clock drive motor that burned out at 8:45p.m.”
Also on the west side, Rori Baldari had her scope set up
on the High Line, where she estimated perhaps 400 visitors
viewed the eclipse: “W e never saw totality, but caught the
entire first half up until a few minutes before (it went total).”
And with the NASA Night Sky Network moon flag, Rori was
a true AAA superhero, “I wore it on my back like a cape!”
From Brooklyn’s
Prospect Park, Katherine Troche wrote:
“Irene Pease and I
clocked in a little over
120 people. We had a
great crowd, handed out
flyers and told everyone
about Starfest -- everyone was super into it.
We were pretty much
almost clouded out for
totality, but it was still a
Irene Pease fun night. Sadly it was
AAA Member Katherine Troche made a too dark to take pictures
sign to guide the public to view the
of the crowd, but after
eclipse with AAA’s Irene Pease and
the moon (more like
herself in North Prospect Park.
after the clouds) we took
a few looks at Uranus and M31.”
In Riverdale, John Benfatti reported: “I had around fifty
people in the Bronx. Everyone was very psyched. My photog-
Lunar Eclipse & Planetary Alignment (cont’d from page 3)
photo. I also managed a nice shot of the Moon, Venus, and
skyline reflecting in the reservoir.
Undeterred, I tried again on Oct 9 and shot a nice photo
of the whole planetary group with the Moon, even though
broken clouds swept across the sky. On Oct 12, I finally
awoke to a very clear sky, and the bright planets were rising in
the east – but there was no Moon. Nevertheless, the constellations of Orion, Cassiopeia, Leo, and the Big Dipper were very
clearly visible and made for great viewing. Who says you
can’t see anything in the skies over New York City?
Explore more night sky photography at
www.stanhonda.com.
Submit your photography questions to [email protected].
Stan Honda is a professional photographer. Formerly with Agence
France-Presse, Stan covered the Space Shuttle program. In his
“Focus on the Universe” column, he shares his night sky images and
explores his passions for astronomy and photography.
4
November 2015
Absent a good tracking mount, a typical alt-azimuth
mount can only track accurately for 20 seconds, maybe even a
bit less. Even the best alt-azimuth mounts will introduce field
rotation once you get over 30 seconds. So if you have a lowend mount, then it does not make sense to buy a very expensive
camera that requires much longer exposures.
But once again, technology is coming to save the day.
Very high quality and low cost CMOS chips (computer
memory) with extremely low read noise, such as the IMX224
from Sony, have brought Lucky Imaging, to the realm of realtime video astronomy. Lucky Imaging is a technique to reduce
the effects of atmospheric turbulence on resolution for groundbased telescopes. If images are taken fast enough, you can
freeze the motion from turbulence, and some frames will be
very sharp. Combining the sharpest frames can produce a better image. ASI’s new 224 camera ($359) can take many frames
of a deep sky object at low exposure ranges, perhaps 2 to 5
seconds. Free software such as AstroToaster will then let you
stack 10, 20, 30, or more frames to create very pleasing images. Using this method, amateur astronomer Rafael Perez has
produced amazing images of objects like the Dumbbell Nebula
(M27) from his rooftop in midtown Manhattan with his rather
modest C5 telescope.
Video Astronomy (cont’d from page 1)
Alfredo Viegas
The Dumbbell Nebula (M27) imaged with 2 sec. exposure
with DSO1 video camera attached to a small ETX 70mm
F5 refractor telescope.
laptop computer will do. Analog cameras connect via composite or S-video to a monitor or to a USB frame grabber, allowing the user to display the images either directly on a TV
screen or computer. You don’t have to bring something big
and heavy to the field when observing, but it’s very easy to
project the images onto very large screens, great for later at
home viewing or outreach to schools and the public. Many
analogs have very fast and highly sensitive sensors with internal signal processors, so you can acquire your images quick
and easy. Unfortunately, resolution is lower on analogs, and
the setup will have an unattractive bundle of wires.
The latest generation of astronomy video cameras uses a
direct USB connection to a computer, often with just a single
cable for both data and power. Two new entrants in this category now offer for the first time a larger ⅔” size CCD sensor,
which provides a larger field of view and greater resolution.
However, greater resolution means sacrificing sensitivity. Some estimates show that the new ICX825 CCD chips
require 3x or longer exposure than the smaller ½” size
ICX829 CCD chips – a 10 sec. exposure with the older, smaller chips becomes a 30 sec. exposure with the new chip. The
difference in exposure time will cause you to consider the
quality of your tracking mount. If you have a good solid
GEM or fork mount on a wedge, then you can take advantage
of longer exposures.
Courtesy of Raphael Perez
The Dumbbell Nebula (M27) imaged from with an ASI-244
digital video camera atop a C5 telescope.
Video and electronically assisted visual astronomy is an
exciting option for amateur astronomers. For those of us who
dwell in areas dominated by severe light pollution, video astronomy can offer a chance to witness the splendors of the
heavens, instantly and in full color, and with very little technological know-how. The next time you think about buying a
new eyepiece, consider a video camera instead. It may not be
as pure an experience as peering through an eyepiece but it’s
the next best thing!
Sources: mallincam.net; astro-video.com; sxccd.com; atik-cameras.com;
astronomy-imaging-camera.com; snake-valley-astro.websyte.com.au;
cloudynights.com.
Courtesy of Ken James, Snake Valley Astronomical Association, Australia
Diagram showing how an analog video camera connects from a
telescope to a viewing device (computer, TV, or small LCD monitor).
5
AAA Celebrates the
20th Anniversary of Urban Starfest
AAA AROUND TOWN
By Stan Honda
Stan Honda
AAA’s Juno Tano volunteered at the raffle table – prizes
included a Celestron telescope, NASA swag, and astrophotos by Michael People.
I was astonished by the beauty of the arc of telescopes in the
field, all ending at the large screen [with] a gorgeous shot of
Andromeda. I was in awe of what we were able to put together, and the sheer size of it.”
Astronomy Magazine editor David Eicher, Tele Vue
Optics founder Al Nagler, and Saving Hubble filmmaker David Gaynes, entertained the Starfest crowd with lively talks;
Tom Barry of the Intrepid Air and Space Museum gave fascinating tours of the constellations; and Rangers Ioannidis and
Corrao kept the kids entertained with a Solar System walk.
Stan Honda
AAA Member Jason Tang shares views of the night sky
from Central Park at AAA’s Autumn Urban Starfest on Oct
17. Starfest celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.
Urban Park Ranger Sunny Corrao was standing at
the exit gate to Sheep Meadow in Central Park, thanking
all of the visitors who came to AAA’s Autumn Urban
Starfest on Oct 17. Ear lier that evening, she and Ranger
Angie Ioannidis led an activity demonstrating the scale of the
Solar System with kids representing different celestial bodies:
“Two of the young ladies who participated introduced themselves to me, saying, ‘Hi, I'm Neptune, and this is my Uranus.’
Just made me smile.”
There were quite a few smiles under the stars that night,
as AAA celebrated the 20th anniversary of Urban Starfest.
Partnered with the New York City Parks Department, its autumn event attracted about 450 people, who gathered in Sheep
Meadow to view the night sky, despite the chilly temperatures. Helping out at the check-in table was Ranger Edward
"Teddy" Dennihy-Bailey. This year, a record 33 AAA Members arrived with telescopes in tow to show off the universe to
a starstruck crowd.
“I went down to the end of the line to show an observer
where to set up,” said AAA Board Member and the event’s
observing coordinator Michael O’Gara. “W hen I turned back,
Stan Honda
Urban Park Rangers Angie Loannidis and Sunny Corrao
led an activity demonstrating the Solar System’s scale.
A troop of AAA volunteers handed out NASA gift bags,
glow sticks, and of course, raffle tickets! Arabella Go of Upper Saddle River, NJ attended the event with his daughters
and won the Infinity 90 refractor telescope, which was generously donated by Mike Dzurny of Meade. Devin Duzdevich
from the Bronx won a Cosmos FirstScope Telescope, kindly
donated by Kevin Kawai of Celestron. Once again this year,
Mr. Nagler made a gift of a 13 mm Nagler 6 Tele Vue eyepiece, which was won by AAA Member Sam Hahn. Other
raffle prizes included a family membership to the Intrepid
Museum, five remarkable, large astrophoto prints taken by
Michael Peoples, two 3D moon maps created by AAA Member Howard Fink, as well as packets of “moon cheese.”
The next morning, Mr. Eicher blogged about the event
on Astronomy.com, and postings on the AAA Observers
Google Group were filled with praise. Evan Schneider want-
Stan Honda
Astronomy Magazine editor David Eicher made a presentation to the crowd at AAA’s Autumn Urban Starfest
6
AAA Around Town
ed to be “the first to say that last night was everything Starfest
should be, and it went off wonderfully! Great to be a part of a
dedicated group of observers and board members.”
Summer Observing at North- South Lake
The AAA’s dark sky
observing events for 2015
have come to a close, but
the memories will last. We
were fortunate to have good
and even great skies at times
for each of the four nights
we spent at North-South
Lake Campgrounds in the
Catskill Forest Preserve in
Haines, NY. Like graduation night, I am left with a
feeling of pensiveness, that
the best days are behind me.
It was a really great year,
one in which everyone enYee Mui
joyed themselves. I’m go- AAA Member Yee Mui submitted
ing to miss those moonless this photo of the Milky Way, taken
during the club’s overnight to
Saturdays
upstate
with
North-South Lake on Aug 15-16.
friends.
Once attended by just a few individuals, NSL events
have fortuitously grown to about two dozen participants this
year. Those who attended were generous people with a wide
range of experience and wisdom and very high spirits.
Spending time with such people, immersed in the outdoors
and beneath the canopy of stars – could one ask for more?
Stan Honda
Mike Dzurney of Meade and AAA President Marcelo
Cabrera presented the raffle prize of an Infinity 90 telescope to the Go family.
Peter Tagatac wrote, “My favorite observation was our
guests arriving, welcomed by the Urban Park Rangers and
our AAA greeters. The guests were visibly excited to be there
and delighted with the AAA gift bags and glow sticks. Standing next to a volunteer, Yolande, I felt as pleased as the visitors when she thanked them for coming and handed out the
bags. Love to see New Yorkers come together…to appreciate
the sky above.” Katherine Troche proclaimed, “ It was a
great night! I can't tell you how many people thanked us for
putting it all together.”
AAA President Marcelo Cabrera echoed: “It was truly
magical to see so many scopes, stretching all the way to the
other end of Sheep Meadow. I wish I could have personally
said `thank you’ to all of you. The public was really happy,
and this event raised the bar as to what can be done by a
group of dedicated volunteers in the field of astronomy.”
I received an email from Bonnie Webber with the subject line: “Pleiades!” AAA Member Stanley Fertig had shown
her the star cluster through his Meade 8 inch scope. She
wrote, “Thank you and your group so much for showing this
to all of us! It was well worth the effort to get there!”
Thanks to all of our honored guests and to the many
AAA volunteers who made the Autumn Starfest so special.
Stay tuned to the Eyepiece and the AAA website for details of
the Spring Starfest coming up in 2016!
Yee Mui
AAA’s overnight dark sky observing trips to North-South
Lake show it’s possible to see the Milky Way on the
east coast.
Let me give a special shout out to AAA Board Member
Tom Haeberle, who made NSL observing possible for the
club. He introduced the multiday weekend schedule and executed the plan by working with the campground’s administration to arrange the permits for us to observe.
And, an emphatic and deafening THANK YOU goes to
all the drivers! We genuinely appreciate your altruism. It’s
no small task, almost Herculean, to bring other club members
and friends up to the observing site and then back in the wee
hours of the morning, donating your time, energy, and resources. See you in North-South Lake next summer!
Tony Hoffman
Al Nagler of Tele Vue Optics speaks to the crowd at
AAA’s Urban Starfest in Central Park on Oct 17 in front of
a projection of the Andromeda galaxy.
Peter Tagatac
7
November 2015
Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect as a result of a
dense CO2-based atmosphere trapping the sun’s heat, making it
a hellish world. On Earth, we’re desperately trying, or we
should be, to avoid becoming another Venus. But Mars could
benefit from some global warming. If only we could export
our climate problems to Mars!
Maybe we can. Over the past few decades, we’ve learned
that chlorofluorocarbons, among other molecules, have the
unfortunate property of warming our atmosphere with extreme
efficiency, far exceeding even CO2. We just need a delivery
system to send our CFCs to Mars. Perhaps, Elon Musk was on
to something there. (Musk has since clarified that his idea is to
send a large fusion bomb above each Martian pole to nuke the
sky, not the surface, and create two tiny pulsing “suns.”)
Earth’s bad news is the good news: we already possess
the two key technologies needed to terraform Mars – air pollution and rocket crashes. Alas, we have mastered these all too
well. So, here’s a recipe: 1) load tanks of compressed CFCs
onto multiple spacecraft, and 2) crash those ships onto the surface of Mars. The destruction of the craft upon landing would
release their gaseous cargo into the Martian atmosphere. Calculations show that this could be accomplished by delivering
approximately 39 million metric tons of CFCs over a period of
at least 10 years. Over time, some CFCs would need to be
added on a continual basis to maintain Martian temperatures
and offset the CFC degradation by sunlight. At that point, they
might be produced locally, without help from Earth.
“But what about oxygen?” you ask, “W hat good is it to
change the Martian atmosphere if we still can’t breathe?”
Okay. So, in the short-term, there are workarounds like
portable oxygen tanks. But eventually, we would want to alter
the new CO2-rich atmosphere. We could import cyanobacteria
and algae to slowly convert some of the CO2 into oxygen, reenacting the role they played on Earth eons ago. This step would
be a slow process – thousands, if not millions of years long.
The gas mix would still be unbreathable – a problem for future
Martians to solve. In the meantime, plants could flourish in the
CO2 -rich, wet atmosphere created by global warming on Mars.
And a colony could be built. Or perhaps just vacation homes,
following Richard’s analogy: not all the comforts of home but
enough to live.
There are, however, significant ethical issues associated
with terraforming Mars. We still don’t know whether other
lifeforms currently make a home there. If there are living organisms on Mars, then we might destroy them with such a cataclysmic change to their habitat. Even for mere microbes,
there is a moral argument to observe a spacefaring code like
the “Prime Directive” on Star Trek, which forbids interfering
with the development of alien worlds. And what about already
extinct lifeforms on Mars? Terraforming could destroy evidence they ever existed, which would be a severe blow to our
ever answering the ultimate question: “A re we alone?”
So let’s wait to confirm whether life is or ever was on
Mars before launching that first terraforming rocket. Scientific
discovery is happening there at an astonishing rate, so it may
only be a few decades before we know for sure.
Two Takes on Terraforming
BOTH SIDES NOW
A Speculation: Terraforming Mars or
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
Love Global Warming
By Stanley Fertig
In the August issue of Eyepiece, Richard Brounstein’s W hat If? article “Picking up
Stakes and Seeking Another Sun” speculates
that if humans are still around, there will
come a time when they will have to vacate to
another star system to survive the Sun’s
death. Reading his article got me thinking –
long before the Sun dies, its output will increase and cook the Earth beyond habitability. So in that meantime, and without having
to conquer interstellar travel, nearby Mars
becomes an obvious candidate for us to make
our interim home.
Efforts like Mars One, credible or not,
seek to establish a colony on Mars as is, but
such an enterprise would be considerably
easier if we could first make Mars a warmer,
wetter, and kinder and gentler place. In other
words, let’s terraform Mars!
One of the biggest challenges to living
on Mars is its too thin atmosphere. About 1%
of Earth’s, it doesn’t protect against radiation
Daein Ballard (Wiki)
Artist’s concept or meteorites, and it doesn’t allow the planet
of a terraformed to maintain warm enough temperatures for
Mars.
humans. Pressure is another problem. Humans are adapted to an environmental pressure of 1 bar (about
15 pounds per square inch), but the average pressure on Mars
is 6 millibars, just 0.6% of Earth’s. Also, there’s no damn
oxygen to breathe.
Terraforming is a full-fledged sci-fi trope, but it is also a
bona fide subject of scientific discussion, first proposed seriously (and repeatedly) by Carl Sagan in the early 1970s. And
just recently on The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert, Elon
Musk speculated about using nuclear weapons to melt Mars’
polar icecaps and create a thicker atmosphere there. Well,
that’s the atmosphere problem taken care of.
Launching a nuclear assault on Mars aside, if we could
find a way to melt the Martian polar caps and subsurface ice,
the resulting atmosphere would be composed almost entirely
of carbon dioxide and some water vapor. CO2 is much heavier than our nitrogen/oxygen mixture on Earth, so Martian air
pressure would increase, comparable to that atop Mt. Everest.
Summer surface temperatures at Mars’ equator would soar to
above freezing. Not exactly balmy, but certainly survivable.
The higher pressure’s greenhouse gas-driven heating would
allow the melted water ice to exist as a liquid at least part of
the year. A thicker, heavier, and warmer atmosphere would
eliminate the need to don a space suit. Life is beautiful! Of
course, we still won’t be able to breathe. (Patience. I haven’t
forgotten about that.)
8
Sources: Carl Sagan, The Long Winter Model of Martian Biology: A Speculation and Planetary Engineering on Mars; www.planetary.org; Gerstell,
M.F. et al, K eeping Mars W arm with new super greenhouse gases, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98; The Ethics of Terraforming, Valencia Ethics Review; theverge.com.
November 2015
Living on an Unlivable Planet
96% of species 248 million years ago. Humans weren’t around
then, but I wouldn’t like our chances of surviving similar growing pains on a terraformed Mars. We would wind up having to
relocate once again.
By Richard Brounstein
In my August Eyepiece article, “Seeking Another
Sun,” I imagined scenarios where humans could establish a
presence off-Earth, in a future when our planet becomes
uninhabitable. This notion was based on the pr emise that
we will one day overcome our reliance on a planet’s ability to
sustain us by creating ways to construct controlled habitats in
otherwise hostile environments.
Humans should use technology not to terraform uninhabitable worlds, but rather to build structures to support human
life in such places, leveraging the resources that do exist there.
I feel this is a much more economical approach to creating the
most comfortable and best protected homes for our species to
survive and thrive off-Earth.
While there are some ingenious ideas out there about
how to make Mars, for instance, a warmer and wetter place,
all of these require an enormous amount of time, effort, and
expense. We also just don’t know how well they will work.
For example, Elon Musk proposes using nuclear weapons to
melt much of the water ice and carbon dioxide in Mars’ poles.
This could create greater air pressure and prompt global
warming there, but will the radiation unleashed by such an
attack linger? Will the explosions create dust in the Martian
atmosphere that would block sunlight and make the planet
even colder? These are some important questions to answer
before taking such drastic and expensive action.
Through terraforming, we might be able to thicken
Mars’ atmosphere, warm its temperature, and increase its air
pressure, or even one day solve the oxygen problem with long
term cyanobacterial reactions. But there are other planetary
systems to consider. Mars still lacks an ozone layer and a
global magnetic field to protect against cosmic radiation. Will
we ever fix that?
Maybe
we will. Humans could
one day conquer
those
very difficult
problems and
perfect
terraforming to
create a habitable
world
out of the Red
Planet, but we Wiki
would still be Biosphere 2 in Oracle, AZ was originally designed
for closed-system living and possible use in space
left with an- colonization. Two experiments in the 1990s proved
other problem unsuccessful, but the idea may be worth revisiting.
that has so far
proven insurmountable on Earth. No planet is static. The one
planet we know that can support life – Earth – has certainly
changed over time, rendering some of its once thriving ecosystems completely uninhabitable. In its 3.8 billion years as a
life-supporting planet, Earth has undergone 5 major extinction
events – with a human-induced sixth currently underway. The
Permian extinction, known as The Great Dying, wiped out
NASA
Artist’s concept of an astronaut extracting a sample from an
asteroid boulder placed in orbit around the Moon as part of
NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission in the 2020s.
We would find ourselves in the same situation we are in
now on Earth. Living on a planet with an expiration date that
could sustain us only for a limited time. The struggle to constantly keep up with or combat the challenges of a changing
global environment would never end. Terraform. Rinse. Repeat. We would have to keep terraforming Mars over and over
again.
I believe we should pursue settling on Mars, but it should
be with self-contained, artificial habitats, in the vein of a biosphere. These could even be constructed underground, protected from radiation and meteorites. While we would be carving
out a piece of Mars for ourselves, the planet itself would retain
its pristine, natural beauty, and its geologic history would be
preserved for valuable scientific study.
However, a habitat on Mars would still require enormous
energy, so we would need find sources to sustain the artificial
environment and produce all the food we need, indefinitely.
The question is, can we find the energy and raw materials necessary without constantly having to go back to Earth to stock
up? The Solar System can provide an abundance of resources,
and we are just beginning to learn how to exploit them.
NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission is in development to collect a huge chunk from an asteroid and place it in orbit around
the Moon. From there, it can be explored and samples can be
taken back home for study. A similar program could place a
resource-rich asteroid in orbit around Mars or one of its small
moons, which would eliminate the need for resupply missions
back to Earth.
Whether we build a colony on Mars, Titan, the Moon, an
asteroid, or on an orbiting space station, an artificial habitat is
the right path for permanent housing. Once we’ve established
one or more permanent colonies, humans will no longer need
Earth or even an Earth-like planet to maintain their survival.
Of course, if we really want to try terraforming a planet,
we don’t have to look any further than home. Earth is begging
for a climate upgrade to undo the damage we’ve done to our
natural habitat here.
Sources: nasa.gov; wiki.
9
November 2015
Probing the Universe
Celestial Selection of the Month
Cassini Bidding Farwell to Oceanic Enceladus
The subsurface ocean
on Enceladus is bigger than
we thought – it’s gone global.
In September, researchers
from NASA’s Cassini mission
announced that Saturn’s icy
moon has a wobble in its orbit
that can only be explained if it
isn’t frozen to the core. Analyzing features from hundreds
of photos taken over sevenNASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Cassini captured this close-up of plus years, they measured
Enceladus’s north pole on Oct 14 slight changes in the moon’s
at 1,142 mi. Its final flybys of the rotation. The only model that
moon are on Oct 28 and Dec 19.
fit the measured wobble, or
libration, was a layer of liquid between the core and the surface that spanned the globe. "This is a major step beyond
what we understood about this moon before, and it demonstrates the kind of deep-dive discoveries we can make with
long-lived orbiter missions to other planets," said co-author
Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead, "Cassini has been
exemplary in this regard." The global ocean supplies the
plume of water vapor, icy particles, and organic molecules
that jet from fractures near the moon’s south pole. This
plume was first discovered by Cassini in 2005. In October,
the probe will begin a farewell tour of Enceladus with three
final flybys, the last on Dec 19. On Oct 28, Cassini will be at
its closest, flying through the moon’s jets just 30 mi above the
surface. It will take its best measurements yet of the plume
and learn more about the global ocean beneath. Earlier this
year, scientists announced evidence of hydrothermal activity
on the subsurface ocean’s floor. On Earth, certain life forms
thrive in such extreme conditions.
AMW Source: nasa.gov.
Planetary Nebula NGC 2440
4,000 light-years away
in the southern constellation Puppis lives the hottest
white dwarf we know. It
resides in NGC 2440, "a
beautiful planetary nebula of
a considerable degree of
brightness, not very well defined," as described by discoverer William Herschel in
1790. The dust and clouds of NASA/ESA, AURA/STScI
NGC 2440 glow with ultravi- The central star of planetary nebolet light emitted by the cen- ula NGC 2440 is one of the hottral white dwarf, designated test white dwarfs at 200,000°C.
HD 62166. It is surrounded by an even larger cloud of cool
gas that is only detected in infrared. A white dwarf is the final state of a low to medium mass main-sequence star like our
Sun. After a hydrogen-fusing adolescence, the star expands
into a red giant and begins fusing helium to carbon and oxygen. If it doesn’t have enough mass to then fuse carbon, it
will shed its outer layers to form a planetary nebula, leaving
behind an inert core of carbon and oxygen – the white dwarf.
White dwarfs are very hot to begin, but with no fusion as a
source of energy, they cool (and redden), radiating away
whatever energy is left until they become a black dwarf. But
that’s just theoretical – it takes longer than the current age of
the universe for a black dwarf to form, so none exist yet.
Dense white dwarfs fight gravitational collapse by the force of
electron degeneracy pressure, which they’ll maintain as long
as they do not grow to more than 1.4 solar masses: the Chandrasekhar limit. But sometimes a companion star will transfer
mass to the white dwarf, and it can explode in a Type 1a supernova.
AMW Sources: spacetelescope.org; apod.nasa.gov; wiki.
Out of This World
Mapping the Way to Mars
In October, NASA released a report called Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in
Space Exploration, which outlined a series of increasingly difficult missions that would prepare the U.S. space agency for manned exploration of Mars in the 2030s, a goal set by President Obama in 2010. “NA SA is closer to sending A m erican astronauts to M ars than at any
point in our history,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. The report does not provide
details or a schedule for landing humans on the Red Planet, but rather it lays out the challenges NASA
that NASA intends to conquer before along the way to that goal. Its approach is incremental, The SLS, NASA’s first exploration
first performing research and testing technologies close to home on the International Space Sta- class rocket in 40 years, and the
tion (ISS), then conducting more complex operations in lunar orbit, and finally commencing ac- Orion crew capsule are crucial for
manned missions to deep space.
tivities on Mars and its moons. On the ISS, NASA will prepare for long-term, deep-space missions by studying human health and behavior and by developing EVA suits, surface habitats, 3-D printing, and in-situ resource
utilization. In cislunar space, NASA will test the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule and complete
the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARM) in 2020. ARM will travel to an asteroid, capture a boulder, and tow it to lunar orbit
for human study. The report also suggests that NASA will build a deep-space habitat between the Earth and Moon as well as a
transit habitat closer to Mars. Meanwhile, robotic missions to Mars will continue to perform science, looking for water and signs
of life, and improve communications technologies. Then, humans will one day travel to Mars, live and work there, and harvest the
resources it needs to do so. “President Obama has set us on a visionary course,” said Bolden, “It is my sincere hope that future
leaders from all sides of the political spectrum see it through. We’ve got to stay focused,” he said, “ If we change our minds at any
time in the next three or four years...my belief is that we’re doomed.”
AMW
Sources: nasa.gov; spacenews.com; techtimes.com.
10
July 2015
Seen In Space
Down to Earth
Taking Measure of an Unusual Neutron Star
This year, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory gave
astronomers the opportunity to accurately measure distance to a neutron star, which is very hard to do. And the
results were stunning. Circinus X-1, a double star system
with a neutron star, is located on the other side of the Milky
Way. A neutron star is the dense collapsed core left over
from the supernova explosion of a massive star. Chandra
revealed a set of four rings around Circinus X-1, echoes of
light from a burst of X-rays reflecting off of clouds of dust.
The light bounces off different clouds at different angles and
distances on its path to Earth, appearing as concentric circles.
"We like to call this system the 'Lord of the Rings,' but this
one has nothing to do with Sauron," said co-author Michael
Burton. Combining the Chandra data with known distances to
the clouds, determined by the Mopra radio telescope in Australia, the distance to Circinus X-1 is measured with simple
geometry, “... just as bats use sonar to triangulate their location, we can use the X-rays from Circinus X-1 to figure out
exactly where it is," said study leader Sebastian Heinz. The
neutron star turned out to be 30,700 light-years away, more
than twice previous estimates. This means it is brighter than
thought, and its output repeatedly exceeds the Eddington Limit (maximum luminosity when gravity’s pull and radiation’s
push are in balance) – a trait
of black hole systems. Its
high-energy particles also
jet at 99.9% the speed of
light, a velocity usually associated with jets from black
holes. “Circinus X -1 acts in
some ways like a neutron
star and in some like a black
hole," said co-author Catherine Braiding, "It's extremeNASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisc./S. Heinz et al; DSS
ly unusual to find an object
Rings of X-ray light echoes around that has such a blend of
the neutron star of Circinus X-1 let
these properties."
AMW
scientists measure the precise
distance to this Milky Way object.
A Look at Earth from L1
Wish you had longer
arms to take that selfie?
NASA has you covered with
a camera pointed at you
from one million miles away.
In October, the U.S. space
agency launched a website –
NOAA
http://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov – that
The EPIC camera aboard
lets you look at daily images of
DSCOVR takes daily images of
Earth, taken by the Earth PolyEarth available online.
chromatic Imaging Camera
(EPIC) aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory
(DSCOVR). Each day, a dozen pics are posted of the sunlit
side of the planet as it rotates, providing a look at the entire
globe. DSCOVR, a partnership between NASA, the U.S. Air
Force, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was designed to monitor solar wind in real-time for
space weather forecasts. DSCOVR orbits at L1, the neutral
gravity point between the Earth and the Sun. Solar wind
reaches L1 about an hour before Earth, which gives DSCOVR
time to alert us of an incoming geomagnetic storm due to a
coronal mass ejection. DSCOVR (formerly Triana) was originally proposed by Vice President Al Gore in 1998 to gather
data about global warming and raise Earth awareness with the
Earth-imaging EPIC, but then shelved by the Bush administration. Launched this year, it was redefined by President
Obama for funding purposes to be primarily for solar wind
monitoring. EPIC shoots images across 10 wavelengths and
gives scientists the opportunity to study vegetation, ozone,
aerosols, cloud height, reflectivity, and UV radiation across
the planet. NASA does have several programs dedicated to
studying climate science on Earth. Among its 24 Earthobserving missions, the Earth Observing System (EOS) is a
coordinated group of polar-orbiting satellites that monitors a
myriad of aspects of the climate system over the long-term,
focusing on things like radiation, precipitation, the oceans,
greenhouse gases, ecosystem processes, glaciers, sea ice, ice
sheets, and ozone.
AMW Sources: nasa.gov; nesdis.noaa.gov.
Source: chandra.si.edu
Telescope of the Month
Yerkes Observatory on Geneva Lake in Williams Bay, WI
For over a hundred years, the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory has
been home to the largest refracting telescope in the world. "I don't care what the cost,
send me the bill!" said businessman Charles T. Yerkes, who financed the construction of the
40-inch refractor, proposed by its young, new astronomy professor, George Ellery Hale (also
founder of the Mt. Wilson Observatory), who would direct the observatory. Yerkes was inspired to put his name on the achievement that would "lick the Lick," the California observatory that boasted a 36-inch refractor. Built by Alvan Clark & Sons, the telescope’s tube and Univ. Chicago
The 1897 Yerkes Observatory still houses
mounting were shown at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago before the ob- the
largest refracting telescope in the world.
servatory’s dedication in 1897. It is one of five research telescopes there today. Considered
to be a birthplace of modern astrophysics, the Yerkes integrated observational astronomy with physics and chemistry labs in one
facility and drew some of the most prominent astronomers in history. In 1903, Frank Shlesinger developed a technique for photographic measurement of stellar distances (parallaxes) that was used for the next 60 years. Edwin Hubble got his PhD there, and
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for defining the maximum mass of white dwarf stars, served
on its faculty for 58 years. Otto Struve attached a spectroscope to a telescope at the Yerkes and found the chemical properties of
stars, William W. Morgan determined the spiral nature of the Milky Way there, and Gerard Kuiper discovered carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere of Mars and several moons around Uranus and Neptune.
AMW
Sources: astro.chicago.edu; wiki.
11
November 2015
AAA Events on the Horizon
Other Astronomy Events in NYC
NOVEMBER 2015
SUN, Nov 1
@ 12 pm Shooting Stars with Stan Honda at Adorama– Manhattan, F
Learn the best techniques and experience the beauty of the night sky with
professional photographer and AAA Member Stan Honda. This event is free,
but registration is required. (eventbrite.com)
FRI, Nov 6 Next: Dec 4
AAA Lecture at the American Museum of Natural History, P
@ 6:15 pm – 8 pm
SAT, Nov 7
@ 7 pm Night Sky at Inwood Hill Hark – Manhattan, FT
“The Moon and Taurid Meteor Shower.” Telescopes will be set up on the
Pats Lawn to view the Taurids, which produce 5-10 meteors per hour, and
other night sky objects. (nycgovparks.org)
“Our Lonely Sun: Exploring W hy Many Stars are Born with Siblings”
presented by Stella Offner of the University of Massachusetts . Free
admission; open to the public. (In the Kaufmann Theater; Enter at 77th St)
SAT, Nov 7
AAA Observing at Brooklyn Museum Plaza – Brooklyn, PTC
SUN, Nov 8
@ 6 pm Astronomy at Pelham Bay Nature Center – Bronx, FT
NYC Parks Astronomy programs feature the use of telescopes and binoculars
to observe the night sky. (nycgovparks.org)
@ 9 pm – 11 pm
SUN, Nov 8
AAA Solar Observing in Central Park– Manhattan, PTC
@ 1 pm – 3 pm
Mon, Nov 9
@ 7:30 pm AMNH Frontiers Lecture (Kaufmann Theater) – Manhattan, X
“Spooky A ction at a Distance” with George Musser at the American Museum
of Natural History. Explore the strange physics phenomenon where one
particle can affect another instantly across the vastness of space. (amnh.org)
Fund us at the Conservatory Water. (Closest entrance Fifth Ave at 72nd St)
WED, Nov 11 & 18
AAA Fall Astronomy Class at Cicatelli Center– Manhattan, M
@ 8:30 pm – 11 pm
The final two classes of “A stronomy Basics” with David Kiefer will
explore Stars and Galaxies and Historical Figures in Astronomy.
FRI, Nov 13
@ 7 pm Columbia Stargazing/Lecture Series at Pupin Hall – Manhattan, F
“The Dark Matter of Ghost Galaxies” with Jana Grcevich. Observing will
follow, weather permitting. (outreach.astro.columbia.edu)
Registration is closed.
SAT, Nov 14
AAA Observing at Great Kills NP – Staten Island, PTC
SAT, Nov 14
@ 6 pm Astronomy at Fishing Pier in Lemon Creek Park – Staten Island, FT
NYC Parks Astronomy programs feature the use of telescopes and binoculars
to observe the night sky. (nycgovparks.org)
@ 8:30 pm – 11 pm
Subway/bus and driving directions available on the AAA website.
FRI, Nov 20 Next: Dec 18
AAA Observing at Floyd Bennett Field – Brooklyn, PTC
SAT, Nov 21
@ 6 pm The Night Sky at Rockaway Beach – Queens, F
NYC Urban Park Rangers guide naked eye observing and discuss the science,
history, and folklore of the universe. Boardwalk at 116 St. (nycgovparks.org)
@ 9 pm – 11 pm
Fund us in the Community Garden parking lot.
SAT, Nov 28
@ 6 pm Astronomy at Wolfe’s Pond Park – Staten Island, FT
NYC Parks Astronomy programs feature the use of telescopes and binoculars
to observe the night sky. (nycgovparks.org)
M: Members only; P: Public event; T: Bring telescopes, binoculars; C: Cancelled if cloudy.
For location & cancellation information visit www.aaa.org.
F: Free; X: Tickets required (contact vendor for information); T: Bring telescopes, binoculars.
A Message from the AAA President
And Coming Soon… INSIGNIFICANT
Hello AAA Members,
Insignificant tells the true stories of Cecilia Payne and
Annie Jump Cannon, the pioneering women behind the
stars, and their unheralded triumphs in astronomy.
On Stage at the Kraine Theater (85 E 4 St) Dec 3-19
This year marked the 20th anniversary of AAA’s Urban Starfest,
and we celebrated with a successful and exciting event on Oct 17 in
Central Park. It was a bit cold, but skies were clear and transparent for
observing. Special thanks to David Eicher from A stronomy Magazine,
Al Nagler from TeleVue, Tom Barry from the Intrepid Museum,
Filmmaker David Gaynes (Saving Hubble), Michael Peoples from
Adorama, and Mike Dzurny from Meade for their presentations and
raffle prize donations. Many thanks to all the sponsors and to our
wonderful AAA volunteers!
AAA’s Lecture Series continues this month on Nov 6 with Stella
Offner (UMASS) presenting “Our Lonely Sun: Exploring W hy Many
Stars are Born with Siblings.” Find the full schedule of 2015-2016
lectures at: www.aaa.org/lectures.
AAA observing sessions stretch into November at many sites
across New York City, so join us to view the fall skies. Maps and
directions can be found at www.aaa.org/observing. The calendar updates frequently, so be sure to check it often at www.aaa.org/calendar.
Marcelo Cabrera
President, AAA
$15 Discounted Tickets for AAA Members!
Use code “Leavitt” www.infinitevarietynyc.org
The Amateur Astronomers’ Association of New York
Info, Events, and Observing: [email protected] or 212-535-2922
Membership: [email protected] Eyepiece: [email protected]
Visit us online at www.aaa.org.
Eyepiece Staff
November 2015 Issue
Editor-in-Chief: Amy M. Wagner
Copy Editor: Richard Brounstein
Contributing Writers: R ichard Brounstein,
Tony Faddoul, Stanley Fertig, Stan Honda, and Alfredo Viegas
Eyepiece Logo and Graphic Design: R ori Baldari
Administrative Support: Joe Delfausse
12
Printing by McVicker & Higginbotham