Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Newsletter of the Peterborough Astronomical AssociationThe ReflectorVolume 15 • Issue 10
December 2016ISSN 1712-4425peterboroughastronomy.comtwitter.com/PtbAstronomical
Boasting intricate pat-terns and translucent colours, planetary nebu-
lae are among the most beautiful sights in the universe. How they got their shapes is complicated, but astronomers think they’ve solved part of the mystery — with giant blobs of plasma shooting through space at half a million miles per hour.
Planetary nebulae are shells of gas and dust blown off from a dy-ing, giant star. Most nebulae aren’t spherical, but can have multiple lobes extending from opposite sides — possibly generated by pow-erful jets erupting from the star.
Using the Hubble Space Tele-scope, astronomers discovered blobs of plasma that could form some of these lobes. “We’re quite excited about this,” says Raghven-dra Sahai, an astronomer at nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “No-body has really been able to come up with a good argument for why we have multipolar nebulae.”
Sahai and his team discovered blobs launching from a red giant star 1,200 light years away, called V Hydrae. The plasma is 17,000 degrees Fahrenheit and spans 40 astronomical units — roughly the distance between the sun and
Marcus Woo
This four-panel graphic illustrates how the binary-star system V Hydrae is launching balls of plasma into space. Image credit: NASA/ESA/STScI
Dimming stars, erupting plasma, and beautiful nebulae
See “V Hydrae” on page 16
Pluto. The blobs don’t erupt con-tinuously, but once every 8.5 years.
The launching pad of these blobs, the researchers propose, is a smaller, unseen star orbiting V Hydrae. The highly elliptical orbit brings the companion star through the outer layers of the red giant at closest approach. The companion’s gravity pulls plasma from the red giant. The material settles into a disk as it spirals into the com-
panion star, whose magnetic field channels the plasma out from its poles, hurling it into space. This happens once per orbit — every 8.5 years — at closest approach.
When the red giant exhausts its fuel, it will shrink and get very hot, producing ultraviolet radia-tion that will excite the shell of gas blown off from it in the past. This shell, with cavities carved in
2 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
President’s Message
The Reflector is a publication of the Peterborough Astronomi-cal Association (P.A.A.) Founded in 1970, the P.A.A. is your local group for astronomy in Peterborough and the Kawarthas.
The Reflector
www.peterboroughastronomy.com • [email protected] Phone: 705.748.2038Club Mailing AddressJaime Morales, PresidentPeterborough Astronomical Association1587 Redwood DrivePeterborough, ON K9K 1N9
Where Do We Go From Here?
D ecember is the end of the Gregorian calendar year. Originally, it was the tenth month (“dec” meaning tenth)
of the Julian calendar when the Romans only had ten months to keep track of, start-ing the year in March because they didn’t think the days between the end of Decem-ber and March needed to be in the calendar.
How fitting that this is the tenth issue number of the current volume as we don’t publish for two months in the summer. To start things off John Crossen reviews the highs and lows of things astronomical in 2016. He also includes binocular and holi-day gift buying guides for the astro-crowd.
Rick Stankiewicz reports on last month’s Super Moon, the closest one since 1948. If you missed this one you won’t be able to see then next Super Duper Moon until 2034. And the Meade SCT has been reduced to a sale price of $700.
Ken Sunderland decided to complement Jaime Morales’s astronomical clock article in the October 2016 issue with a brief article detailing his “real” astronomical watch.
I feel very proud and lucky to be part of the paa. This is a fantastic organization that brings to our community the joy of
astronomy. During this time, I have had the pleasure to share my passion of astronomy with very, very talented members, thank you! After my first year as a president of the paa, I see that the paa needs to have a strategic plan that speaks for the years to
And in the Photo Gallery we have a lovely image from John Chumack of the Horseh-ead Nebula, now coming into prime time viewing. Not to be outshone, Brian McGaff-ney submitted his amazing Andromeda Gal-axy image, which he says was taken during the night of the Super Moon. Brilliant.
So, I wish you all the best during Christ-mas, Hannukah, Kawanza, Diwali, and the general holiday spirit. See you in January.
Phillip Chee Editor, The Reflector
The End of Things
come. This year the club experienced a fast growth resulting from the hard work of paa members. I suggest that this coming year paa members contribute with their views of where we do we want to go from here and how are we going to achieve it. Jaime Morales PAA President
Vo l 1 5 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 16 • 3 The Reflector
The Astronomical Highs and Lows of 2016
The astronomical highs and lows of 2016.
See “2016” on page 15
John crossen
A lot of notable space-related achievements happened in 2016. The year kicked off with the nasa’s
launch of three satellites to study climate change. Dubbed Jayson 3, the launch and satellite deployment were a success.
Following its successful Pluto fly-by in 2015, New Horizons is now probing even farther into a region known as the Kuiper Belt. Roughly put, the Kuiper Belt is a mas-sive ring of comets and rocky debris left over from the creation of our solar system. New Horizons will be making a fly-by of two Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs).
Perhaps most notable of 2016’s successes was the Juno mission to Jupiter. The planet may be huge — 1 300 Earths could fit inside it. But for the most part it is just a big ball of helium and hydrogen gas. What lies be-neath these thick clouds has been a mystery.
Juno is equipped with the latest gear for seeing beneath the clouds. So far it has probed nearly 400 kilometres deep and discovered that there are changing weather systems which eventually impact the sur-face layers.
The study of Jupiter’s aurora has sparked yet another mystery because Juno has discovered that their origin has nothing in common with Earth aurora. As the mis-sion unwinds it will reveal more of Jupiter’s deepest secrets and still more mysteries.
The European Space Agency — esa, and Roscosmos — the Russian Space Agency, had a 50/50-success with their 2-stage Exo-Mars venture.
Stage one, the Schiaparelli lander’s rock-ets failed during its decent and the lander did a free fall from about 300 metres. It was destroyed. At the moment it is not known how the lander’s failure will change plans for another lander in 2020.
The good news is that stage two, the Mars Trace Gas Orbiter was successfully inserted into orbit to sniff the thin upper atmo-sphere of Mars in search of methane.
On the private enterprise front, Elon Musk’s string of successful Space X ven-tures snapped with the spectacular launch pad explosion of its Falcon 9 rocket. The problem was traced to the fuel supply sys-tem.
4 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
John crossen
Telescopes and Binoculars — Right Choices and Wrong Ones
A s I stated in my previous article, a telescope is not the right starting point for a beginning astronomer.
There are books, apps, vision-saving red flashlights and a host of astro-gear that’ll launch your space cadet or you into a life-long hobby, maybe a career.
But if it’s time to move up a bit, bin-oculars make a great next step. What you should be looking for is a pair of binoculars that aren’t too heavy to hold or so power-ful that to get a steady image you have to mount them on a tripod. My advice is to pick up a pair of 7 × 50 or 10 × 50 binoculars. The maximum is 12 × 56 for a young Olym-pic-muscled adult. I prefer 7 × 50 for fewer bouncy stars. What do the numbers mean?
The first number is the power of magni-fication. The second is the distance across the front lens, also known as the aperture. The bigger the aperture, the brighter the See “Binoculars” on page 15
target will appear. A 12 × 56 mm is max for hand-held binoculars. Go bigger and you need a tripod which cancels the freedom of “turn, look up and find a new target.”
Telescopes are a much more complex topic. Portability is a prime concern for city dwellers. You need to escape the urban cen-tre’s light-polluted skies and set up under the dark rural sky to make the most of your telescope. Therefore a telescope’s weight and size are important considerations.
Country folks will be right at home with a larger telescope. Once again larger applies to the telescope’s aperture because light gathering ability is most important. In the case of telescopes, their power is dependent on the eyepiece you put into the focuser.
Just beware of telescopes that claim to deliver 600 power of magnification. That’s way beyond reality. My observing is done at
Vo l 1 5 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 16 • 5 The Reflector
See “Gifts” on page 15
Hot Shopping Tips For the Stargazer on Santa’s Fist
John crossen
D id Santa overlook getting something for the good little (or big) stargazers on their list? Take
heart, there is still time. In fact, there are a lot of great gift ideas for stargazers that are inexpensive and don’t come from an astronomy shop.
Christmas means winter and winter means cold weather. So don’t overlook the possibilities of warm gloves or mittens. Tops on my list are a pair of mittens that allow your stargazer to pull back the mitten portion to uncover their fingers. It sounds chilling, but this allows for easier turn-ing of the pages on a book, star charts or their telescope. Once the pages have been flipped, the mitten portion can be flipped over and on to keep fingers warm.
Also, mittens provide greater warmth than gloves thanks to having less surface area exposed to the cold. Did you ever see Santa wearing gloves? It’s not very likely if you call the North Pole your stomping grounds.
A lot of body heat can be lost through the stargazer’s head. That’s why a warm hat is essential. In most cases a warm, knit toque will do the trick. But when the thermometer bottoms out, a false-fur-lined hat with fold-down ear flaps is the hot ticket. Sure, they look kind of dorky, but it’s dark out so who cares? In my mind, winter isn’t a fashion show, its survival.
Jumping from head to toe, warm socks are also a must for the winter stargazer. Plus there are heated insoles for boots.
John Cameron demonstrated how to view binoculars in the field. Photo courtesy of John Crossen.
6 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
A Super Duper Moon
continued on next page
Or should I say a Mega-Moon or maybe a Monster-Moon? Because the term, Super-Moon just didn’t do
it justice. Now that the media has come to call the closest (therefore biggest) Full Moon during the year a Super-Moon, what else can you call the closest (therefore biggest) Full Moon in 68 years?
In this case, the stars don’t have to align, but the Moon and the Earth had to and it was at 6:21 a.m. EST, on November the 14th that our planet and our Moon were just 356,509 kilometers apart. Not since January 26th, 1948, had they been this close. In fact, back then they were 48 km closer and they won’t be this close again until November 25, 2034. For some of us, this was a once in a lifetime event, but to others, it was just another lovely Full Moon.
To fully appreciate this you have to un-derstand a few basics of the Moons orbit. Firstly, the Moon’s orbit is not circular, but rather elliptical. Secondly, the difference between the point at which the Moon is
closest to Earth in its orbit (Perigee), versus when it is furthest from Earth (Apogee), can be a difference of over 50,000 km (+/-). Thirdly, the timing of when the Moon is at its full phase in conjunction with being close to Earth in its orbit can vary greatly from one year to the next.
Yes, if you took a picture of this Full Moon and most other Full Moons you would see a slight increase of about 7% in size and up to 15% in brightness, but the Moon you see on any given night is all by itself, so you have nothing to compare it to. The media hype for events like this can be over the top. The public were so stoked for this event that they actually believed they could tell “it was the biggest Moon they had ever seen!” Maybe, it is the power of suggestion? I have given up down playing these types of events a long time ago. It is not like there is no truth in what is happening and as long as the public is looking skyward it can’t be all bad. As was proven south of the border
Vo l 1 5 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 16 • 7 The Reflector
recently, “any press is good press”, it might even get you elected.
I like the attached shot where the lunar disk is in the middle of the Earth’s shadow, looking toward the eastern horizon, below the Belt of Venus (pink band above). This was right after moonrise on November 13th from Keene. (100mm)
The second shot was taken about the same time, but using a 400mm setting. Notice the oblong shape of the lunar orb. This is due to atmospheric distortion near the horizon. This also accounts for the peachy colour of the disk. The higher above the horizon the Moon ascends the whiter and brighter it gets, climbing out of the atmospheric “soup” of particulate matter. This image appeared on the Universe Today website:http://www.universetoday.com/131918/november-2016-super-moon-images-around-world/
The last image was taken just before moonset on the morning of November 14th. This was technically when the Moon was at its closest to Earth, but also when the clouds at the western horizon threatened to swal-low it up before the horizon did. This was the last fleeting glimpse of the Super Duper Moon of 2016. This image was taken with a
continued from previous page
400mm setting and 1.4× extender or 560mm equivalent.
So, in the future when your grandchil-dren ask, “Where were you the night of No-vember 13th/14th, 2016?” I know my answer will be, “Taking pictures of the Super Duper Moon.”
Your Local Lunatic,Rick Stankiewicz(All shots using a tripod mounted Canon
60D camera and Canon 100 to 400mm zoom at iso 200.)
8 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
Photo Gallery
The Horsehead Nebula
Here is another shot of the Horsehead Nebula Complex in the Constellation of Orion. The brightest star in this image is Zeta Orionis (Alnitak), the Eastern most star in Orion’s Belt.
I took this image on September 29, 2016 at the Okie-Tex Star Party (Western Oklahoma). The image is only 45 minutes’ worth of data and it was sitting pretty low in the east, but came out okay. The Horsehead Nebula Region IC434 and B33 with bright Zeta Orionis and The Maple Leaf, NGC- 2024 and 2023, along with several small blue reflection nebulae visible too. I used my smaller telescope, a modified 5.5” diameter Newtonian reflector scope and Baader modified Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR, a coma corrector, no filters.
It’s a beautiful area of the sky, but the Horsehead is often not seen with the eye through the telescope, because both the dark nebula Horsehead (B33) and the Red Gas IC434 is very faint, and you need a very dark sky like Okie-Tex, but from semi-light pol-luted areas a nebula filter really helps to see it visually. But luckily DSLR’s and CMOS/CCD digital astronomy cameras are sensitive enough that it photographs very well. The attached image is the wide field view of the nebula with a small telescope, but you can see my close-up photo with my larger homemade 16” diameter scope at the NASA link below.
Here is a link to my close-up of the Horsehead that NASA’s APOD published a few years ago: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131231.html
The close-up shot is also going to be the cover of my new 72-page coffee table book of my work containing 80 of my best im-ages over the last 30 years! It should be back from the printer’s in the spring.
Best Regards,John Chumack www.galacticimages.com
Vo l 1 5 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 16 • 9 The Reflector
M31 Andromeda Galaxy
I am re-sending the high resolution of M31 taken last week here at the observatory. I re-processed some of the data this morning so I decided to re-send it. This image was taken with a full (super moon) and is a composite of an Ha Synth L +RGB
Data acquisition was about 4 ½ hours with a Ceravolo Scope at ƒ/4.9 and using a Moravian G4 16000 on an ME mounted guided with an SOAG guider.
Brian McGaffney
10 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
Mars Is a Push-over
John crossen
E arth and Mars are very similar planets, the main difference being timing.
Mars had water a hundred million years ago. Earth has water today. Mars once had a thick atmosphere that may have even contained sufficient oxygen to sustain life. Today that luxury belongs to Earth. Mars’ thin atmosphere can support no life forms we know of, and it provides near zero protection from the constant onslaught of deadly solar radiation.
Like Earth, Mars has polar caps, though in the case of Mars the ice isfrozen carbon dioxide or what we call dry ice here on Earth. Mars even has a tilt, so the red planet has seasons. But what caused Mars to flop over – just a bit farther than Earth? It turns out that volcanoes could have been the reason.
Mars had an immense, though now inac-tive, volcano system. One of the volcanoes is so large that it would dwarf Mt. Ever-est. Called Olympus Mons, it is the highest known topographical feature in our solar system. Like all things geological, it didn’t happen overnight.
Lava bubbled up from within Mars for millions of years until it formed a massive area known as the Tharis Bulge. Olympus Mons and three other smaller volcanoes are prominent residents of the bulge.
In the opinion of a French-led team of researchers, the Tharis Bulge began to make Mars so lop-sided that it eventually tipped over about 3 billion years ago. During this process the planets crust and mantle actu-ally rotated to the point the giant volcanoes traveled 20-degrees from the polar region, south towards the equator.
Olympus Mons. If you like big mountains, you’ll love Olympus Mons. It is 22 kilometres high. That’s 2.5 times the height of Mt. Everest. In area it is just smaller than the country of Spain.
see “Mars Mons” on page 13
Vo l 1 5 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 16 • 1 1 The Reflector
In the October 2016 edition of The Reflector Jaime Morales wrote an article entitled Astronomical Clocks. I was
reminded of my own simple, yet elegant, astronomical watch (Figure 1) which gives the whole day at a glance. Its one hand rep-resenting the Sun, sweeps-out the face ev-ery 24 hours. It is an analogue for the daily orbit of the Sun around the Earth or the Earth turning on its axis in the face of the Sun, as you like it. Although this watch is of modern design, Philip Morrison tells us in his essay “Two Dials” that the single hand concept dates back to the 13th century. Talk about retro! Every 24 hours, one orbit. The great circle of the Sun’s dance is acknowl-edged. By the 15th century it had become two 12 hour periods (Morrison) — the hours of day and night. And so it remains to this
day that nearly all watches record the sec-ond harmonic. In contrast, my watch has an East-West horizon line separating day from night and a subtle date line at midnight marking the transition to a new day.
The watch can even be used as a rough compass. When held parallel to the ground with the hand pointing in the Sun’s direc-tion, the horizon line is aligned East-West.
Since each division on the face represents 10 minutes, one must be content to tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes. In a split-second world, that’s ridiculously sloppy of course. But that’s part of the charm as your relationship with exact time must relax, re-placed by a more stately daily rhythm. This watch does not abstract time into precise moments but rather offers a model of our relationship to the Sun that makes it real.References
1. Morales, J., (2016), “Astronomical Clocks”, The Reflector, 15(8), 5
2. Morrison, P. (1995). “Two Dials”. In Nothing is Too Wonderful To Be True (pp.42-46). Woodbury, NY: AIP Press
Figure. 1 : One hand watch showing the whole dayCredit: Google images
One Hand WatchKen sunderland
1 2 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
FOR SALE$700 (Bargain!)
Meade • Classic Model 2080 8” (203.2 mm) Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT)
FL = 2000 mm @ f/10This bargain deal comes complete with:• LX Drive System (RA only), in fork mounts, with power cord• Original Manual• Dust caps for both ends of optical tube assembly (OTA)• Trunk locker style case for OTA in fork mount• Equatorial Wedge• Heavy-duty, 2” diagonal legged metal field tripod• 8 × 50mm Finder-scope (upgraded from 6 ×30mm)• 1 ¼” diagonal• Celestron • 26 mm Plossl eyepiece• Tele Vue • 10.4 mm Plossl eyepiece• Illuminated (red light) RA & DEC setting circles (extra/bonus)• Dew Shield ($100 value)• “Telrad” Finder ($80 value)• “Thousand Oaks” (glass) solar filter (orange/white light) ($200 value)• Contact: Rick Stankiewicz (705) 295-6158 or [email protected]
Vo l 1 5 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 16 • 1 3 The Reflector
If the team is correct, they will have rewritten the early history of Mars. Their thinking is that the Martian rivers flowed during the time the bulge was forming. Prior to this new concept it was thought that water on Mars came after the bulge formed.
Like all new concepts, this is just a theory. It must survive the rigors of debate and deeper study, perhaps by another group to see what they can determine. If the two agree, we may see the chapters in Martian history shuffle a bit.
My question now is what keeps Mars holding steady at its 25-degree tilt? Unlike Earth which has a Moon about a quarter our size with enough gravitational tug to keep our planet on its 23.5-degree axial tilt, Mars has only two tiny moons. What’s holding it in balance? I guess it’s the bulge. I know my bulge is what keeps me in balance.
Mars Monscontinued from page 10
1 4 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
The Sky this MonthMercury is well placed in the evening twilight sky from the 1st to the 23rd, reaching greatest elongation east (21°) on the 11th. Perhelion on the 25th and inferior conjunction on the 28th.Venus continues to shine brightly high in the western sky after sunset.Mars into Aquarius on the 15th and sets in the early evening.Jupiter rises in the east after mid-night in Virgo.Saturn too close to the Sun to be vis-ible. In conjunction with the Sun on the 10th.Winter Solstice arrives at 5:44 AM on the 21st.Geminid Meteors peak at 7 PM on the 13th.Ursid Meteors peak 4 AM on the 22nd.
Moon PhasesFirst Quarter 4:03 AM December 7Full Moon 7:05 PM December 13Last Quarter 8:56 PM December 20New Moon 1:53 AM December 29
Vo l 1 5 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 16 • 1 5 The Reflector
Binoculars
continued from page 32016
Space X also achieved a number of important successes during 2016. One was the successful launch into geosynchronous orbit of the JCSAT commercial communica-tions satellite. Earlier in the year, on June 15, 2016, Falcon 9 successfully delivered two commercial communications satellites, Eutelsat 117 West B and ABS-2A, to their targeted Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits (GTO).
2016 Has been a good year for space sci-ence. A number of important missions are underway and the few failures are lessons we learn from to plan for future successes.
100 to 150 power max. Only bright objects like the Moon or planets allow me to use more magnification.
If there’s an astronomy club near you Google them up and talk to one of their members about what and where to buy a telescope. If you go online there are a number of commercial telescope makers who have advice videos. There are too many details to cover in one article, so the Inter-net is your prime source of information. Or email me!
Don’t skimp here. There’s nothing worse for stargazing than cold feet. The only trail cold feet will take is indoors to warm up.
Warm boots are also readily available. Perhaps you might like to check out the local sporting goods store. They’re sure to have warm boots in stock for the ice fish-ing folks and hunters. Again, they may not set any fashion benchmarks, but function trumps fashion in this case.
When it comes to winter jackets and pants, expensive ski wear is strictly a down-hill downer. Ski wear is designed for activ-ity. It has to ventilate perspiration. Stargaz-ers just stand still. So grandma’s old fur coat would be a better choice.
What you want is a coat that cuts out winter’s heat-robbing wind and retains body warmth. Again, the sporting goods shop may have the hot ticket. But if you want a winter coat that’ll be suitable for prancing around in the daylight, Columbia or North Face are a couple of fashionable brands that are also well designed for the freezing, frosty faction.
And there you have it. Aside from the usual scarves and long johns, it’s a goodie list of gear any stargazer will warm to. Plus, Santa doesn’t have to know diddle about astronomy. So on Dasher and Dancer, Don-ner and Vixen.
continued from page 5Gifts
continued from page 4
16 • pete rboroughas t ronomy.com
ArticlesSubmissions for The Reflector must be received by the date listed below. E-mail submissions are preferred (Microsoft Word, OpenDoc, ASCII and most common graphic formats are accept-able). If your article contains photso or graphics, please provide a separate file for each. Typed or hand-written submissions are acceptable pro-vided they are legible (and not too long.) Copy-righted materials will not be published without written permission from the copyright holder. Submissions may be edited for grammar, brev-ity, or clarity. Submissions will be published at the editor’s sole discretion. Depending on the volume of submissions, some articles may be published at a later date. Please submit any ar-ticles, thoughts, or ideas to:[email protected]
Next submission deadline:December 27 2016
Meetings The Peterborough Astronomical Association meets every first Friday of each month, except July and August, at the Peter-borough Zoo Guest Services and Rotary Educa-tion Centre (inside the main entrance at the north end of the Zoo) at 7 p.m. P.A.A. general annoucements will begin each meeting with the guest speaker starting at 7:30 p.m.
V Hydraeit by the cannon-balls that continue to be launched every 8.5 years, will thus become visible as a beautiful bipolar or multipolar planetary nebula.
The astronomers also discovered that the companion’s disk appears to wobble, fling-ing the cannonballs in one direction during one orbit, and a slightly different one in the next. As a result, every other orbit, the fly-ing blobs block starlight from the red giant, which explains why V Hydrae dims every 17 years. For decades, amateur astronomers have been monitoring this variability, mak-ing V Hydrae one of the most well-studied stars.
Because the star fires plasma in the same few directions repeatedly, the blobs would create multiple lobes in the nebula — and a pretty sight for future astronomers.
If you’d like to teach kids about how our sun compares to other stars, please visit the nasa Space Place explains stellar wobble and how this phenomenon can help scien-tists find exoplanets: http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/sun-compare/en/
This article is provided by NASA Space Place. With articles, activities, crafts, games, and lesson
plans, NASA Space Place encourages everyone to get excited about science and technology.
Visit spaceplace.nasa.gov to explore space and Earth science!
continued from page 1
