EYEPIECE Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York

April 2013 Volume 61 Number 4 ISSN 0146-7662

Imagine finding yourself in a room with a theoretical

physicist, an experimental physicist, an astrophysicist, a cos-

mologist, a philosopher, and a science journalist. This must be

an episode of The Big Bang Theory. But it’s not - you’re actu-

ally sitting with 1,500 other riveted audience members and

thousands of online streaming viewers, as they all experience

the AMNH 2013 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate. This year’s

thought-provoking topic: “The Existence of Nothing.”

Your esteemed debate panelists:

Eva Silverstein: Professor of physics at Stanford University

and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Lawrence Krauss: Foundation Professor in the School of

Earth and Space Exploration and Director of the Origins Pro-

ject at Arizona State University

John Richard Gott, III: Cosmologist and professor of astro-

physical sciences at Princeton

Jim Holt: Philosopher, longtime contributor to the New

Yorker, and writer on string theory, time, infinity, numbers,

truth and nonsense (yes, nonsense, he says)

Charles Seife: NYU professor of journalism, author, and theo-

retical mathematician

Moderating the debate was AAA’s own Neil DeGrasse

Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium. Tyson created a

relaxed atmosphere, describing this debate more as a

“conversation that the scientists would have in a bar.” (I won-

dered if that’s the reason panelists were drinking their water

out of wine glasses).

Debate About Nothing (con’t on Page 3)

Isaac Asimov Memorial

“Debate About Nothing” By Richard Brounstein

NASA ROVER FINDS CONDITIONS ONCE SUITED FOR

ANCIENT LIFE ON MARS

WASHINGTON - An analysis of a rock sample collected

by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have

supported living microbes.

Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen,

phosphorus and carbon - some of the key chemical ingredients

for life - in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary

rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red

Planet last month.

"A fundamental

question for this mis-

sion is whether Mars

could have supported a

habitable environment,"

said Michael Meyer,

lead scientist for

NASA's Mars Explora-

tion Program at the

agency's headquarters

in Washington. "From

what we know now, the

answer is yes."

Clues to this habitable environment come from data re-

turned by the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and

Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments. The data

indicate the Yellowknife Bay area the rover is exploring was

the end of an ancient river system or an intermittently wet lake

bed that could have provided chemical energy and other favor-

able conditions for microbes. The rock is made up of a fine

grain mudstone containing clay minerals, sulfate minerals and

other chemicals. This ancient wet environment, unlike some

others on Mars, was not harshly oxidizing, acidic, or extremely

salty.

The patch of bedrock where Curiosity drilled for its first

sample lies in an ancient network of stream channels descend-

ing from the rim of Gale Crater. The bedrock also is fine-

grained mudstone and shows evidence of multiple periods of

wet conditions, including nodules and veins.

Curiosity's drill collected the sample at a site just a few

hundred yards away from where the rover earlier found an

Ancient streambed in September 2012.

NASA Rover (con’t on Page 5)

NASA’s Curiosity Drills to Test Martian Surface Materials

BREAKING NEWS: MARTIAN SPACECRAFT LANDS IN NJ

(April Fools!)

2

April’s Evening Planets : Saturn is at opposition on April 28th. On this day Saturn rises in the east when the Sun sets. Jupiter gets lower during the month but is still gloriously bright. In the last week of April, Venus appears in the western twilight.

April’ s Evening Stars: Still around are the brilliant winter constellations, now in the west, including Orion, Taurus the Bull, Auriga the Charioteer, the Dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor and Gemini the Twins. To find the stars of spring, look overhead to spot the Big Dipper. If we imagine a leak in its pot, its contents would land on Leo the Lion, containing the bright star Regulus. Returning to the Big Dipper and this time follow the arc formed by the pot’s handle, we arrive at Arctu-rus in the constellation Bootes the Herdsman. Continuing along the arc takes us to Virgo, with its bright star Spica. April’s Morning Planets : Mercury will be difficult to spot low in the east. Mars is too close to the Sun. Fortunately, Sat-urn can be seen almost the entire night.

April’s Morning Stars: The spring constellations of Bootes, Virgo and Hercules are getting ready to set in the west. The Summer Triangle (with the constellations Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila and corresponding bright stars Vega, Deneb and Altair) is near the zenith. Sagittarius is very low but if you have a dark sky the view is magnificent. The au-tumn constellations in the east include Cassiopeia, Perseus, Pegasus and Andromeda.

April 3 Last Quarter Moon at 12:37 a.m. (EDT) April 10 New Moon at 5:35 a.m. (EDT) April 14 The Moon is 2.2° from Jupiter. Nearby is the bright star Aldebaran April 17 Mars is in conjunction with the Sun and passes into the morning sky. It will not be seen for several months April 18 First Quarter Moon at 8:31 a.m. (EDT) April 20 The Moon is 5.6° south-southwest of Regulus April 22 The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this morning April 24 The Moon is extremely close to Spica April 25 Full Moon at 3:57 p.m. (EDT). The Moon is 3.5° south-southwest of Saturn April 27 Saturn is at opposition April 28 Venus is getting far enough from the Sun to be seen

For additional information visit: www.aaa.org/month413

WHAT’S UP IN THE SKY

AAA Observers’ April Guide

By Richard Rosenberg

April 2013

April “Skylights”

Nebula of the Month Eskimo Nebula NGC 2392

By Evan Schneider Winter - it’s cold outside. It’s even colder in space. But across the void, we look out onto a vast assortment of nebulae, burning at temperatures way beyond our 5,000K Sun.

The Eskimo Nebula is in one such area of space, just 5,000 light-years from us - its heated gasses reaching 30,000K. The dying star, named for the image resembling a face in a fur parka, was dis-covered in 1787 by British astronomer William Herschel. N A S A / H u b b l e ’ s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2

show us that the parka is actually a disk of stellar material with a ring of comet-like objects, their elongated tails trailing as they streak away from center of the planetary nebula. The ejected material travels at high speeds, up to 900,000 mph, on a journey outward that started about 10,000 years ago.

Astronomical Fact of the Month Asteroid Belts and Planets By Evan Schneider Similarities abound in space. The Herschel and Spitzer telescopes have tagged bright stars Vega and Fomal-haut as kindred spirits. Sitting 25 light-years away from Earth, both have warm and cool asteroid belts separated by a gap, just as we have between Mars and Jupiter, and the Kuiper Belt’s distant icy region beyond Neptune. Astronomers believe this stellar architecture suggests that multiple planets will be found between the belts in both systems. There are other simi-larities as well. Both stars are approximately twice the mass of our Sun, and burn a hotter, bluer, color in visible light. Both are around 400 million years old, but Vegas may be aging better, and actually be as much as 800 mil-lion years old. For now, Fomalhaut’s main focus is its known extrasolar planet, Fomalhaut b, in its eccentric orbit at the inner edge of the system’s cometary belt.

EYEPIECE

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope captures Vega

3

Debate About Nothing (Cont’d from Page 1)

Our contributors are all accomplished scientists and pro-

fessors. Each has published one or more books relevant to the

subject of “nothing”. Laurence Krauss, for example, published

A Universe from Nothing. Charles Seife published Zero: The

Biography of a Dangerous Idea.

Tyson asked the distinguished group to describe

“nothing” any way they wished to interpret it. Sometimes, the

conversation turned to mathematics, discussing the value “0.”

Other times, the discussion encompassed aspects of cosmol-

ogy, multi-verses, and the birth of our universe. Most interest-

ing, was listening to the panelists as they tried to imagine what

“nothing” actual is, and what it may look like.

HISTORY OF NOTHING

Seife was quick to point out that the Greek and Roman

civilizations refused to integrate a zero into their number

scheme, unless absolutely necessary for calculations. This had

more to do with a cultural desire to always have something and

not to accept that there could ever be nothing. This also goes

into the longtime be-

lief that the universe

has always existed.

Remember - the Big

Bang Theory was not

created until the 20th

century. Before then,

few accepted that

there was a time when

there was no uni-

verse…when there

was indeed nothing.

Over time, socie-

ties accepted our very

useful mathematical placeholder, zero, and accepted the fact

that there was once nothing when there was no universe. If not

for this early hypothesis, advanced mathematics, and thus all

engineering projects, would have been impossible to create

without the value “zero.”

WHAT EXACTLY IS NOTHING?

Each panelist was asked to define the term “nothing.”

Surprisingly, this is not an easy answer. Holt gave a thought-

provoking reply: “If not the universe, then what?” He would

have us imagine a sphere with a radius. Then imagine the ra-

dius shrinking to smaller and smaller sizes until it shrinks to

zero. That is his “nothing.” It was Gott, however, who gave a

humorous, but effective interpretation. He put his hands over

his eyes and said: “See that blackness. That is what nothing

looks like. It is all black.” He put his hands behind his head

where he could not see them and said “This is what the uni-

verse looked like before the Big Bang. It is impossible to see.”

THE QUANTUM WORLD AND NOTHING

After discussing the concept of nothing by eliminating all

matter, eventually we fall into the quantum world and how

even the vacuum of space is still something that is not

“nothing.” Silverstein joined the conversation, pointing out

that shrinking the radius of a sphere to nothing does not take

into account all the chaotic behavior of matter in the quantum

world. In addition, she queried, quantum mechanics and String

April 2013

Theory can provide a unique solution to the concept of

“nothing.” String Theory requires 10 spatial dimensions of

matter. As we go back in time to the Big Bang, the special

dimensions disappear and we eventually approach “nothing.”

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Holt pointed out how cause and effect are important

when determining the origins of the universe. He would ask

“What is the First Cause?” As you go back in time to the

cause of every state of matter, at some point you get to the first

cause that resulted in matter. At some point, therefore, matter

must have been created from nothing.

WHY DOES OUR UNIVERSE EXIST AT ALL

The discussions bordered on both philosophical and sci-

entific perspectives. Krauss explained that only religion needs

a creation theory of how something had to exist to create the

universe out of nothing. Science accepts the concept of a uni-

verse created from nothing. This follows the Anthropic Prin-

ciple, allowing the universe to be possible because we are here

- very comforting even if it is self-centered for humans. Holt

added that our universe is also very imperfect. He just does

not understand what the creator was thinking, telling the audi-

ence “It looks like it was made in a lab by hackers.”

FINAL THOUGHTS ON NOTHING

Most scientists did agree that “nothing” simply means

that there is not anything there. Seife provided a mathematical

description: Start with 0. Remove it and you get the null set.

That is nothing. Silverstein, taking the most technical scien-

tific posture, defined “nothing” as the “ground state of a

gapped quantum system.”

In the end, it was certainly “something” of an evening.

EYEPIECE

Neil DeGrasse Tyson focuses his audience on the concept of “Nothing”

And the Winner of the Largest-Known

Spiral Galaxy Contest Is…

NASA: The spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC

6872 has ranked among the biggest stellar systems for dec-

ades. Now, a team of astronomers from the United States,

Chile and Brazil has crowned it the largest-known spiral,

based on archival data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Ex-

plorer (GALEX) mission.

Measuring tip-to-tip across its two outsized spiral

arms, NGC 6872 spans more than 522,000 light-years,

making it

more than

five times

the size of

our Milky

Way gal-

axy. The

g a l a x y ' s

u n u s u a l

size and appearance stem from its interaction with a much

smaller disk galaxy named IC 4970, which has only about

one-fifth the mass of NGC 6872. The odd couple is located

212 million light-years from Earth, in the southern constel-

lation Pavo.

4

EYEPIECE

Our Location: Woodlawn Cemetery is a national historic

landmark that has commanding open area views, free of

glare from local lighting, where the majority of the urban

night sky can be seen. There will be telescopes of various

magnifications and design, capable of reaching out into the

Milky Way galaxy and beyond. Come have a look at the

universe from the Bronx.

Our Targets: Our astronomical targets will be both near

and far. In our solar system, the cloud bands of Jupiter, its

moons, and our Moon will be easily visible. Beyond, we will

observe distant galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae. The sky

is filled with opportunities each night.

Directions: Enter at the Jerome Ave. entrance located one

block north of the intersection of Jerome Ave. & Bainbridge

Ave. Look for a table staffed by AAA members.

Member Volunteers Needed

The AAA Spring Starfest is finally here!

Come join your fellow amateur

astronomers as we support our club

and all of NYC. Volunteer opportunities

are open to all members, their families,

and even non-members.

Wanted: Event Night Staff

1 Experienced photographer

1 Writer/Tweeter/ blogger

10 Raffle tables staff members

10 Event staff members to set-up/ break

down and distribute hand-outs

(must be able to lift 15 lbs.)

2 Runners

Our AAA Gift to You

All staff volunteers will

receive a special event

“Limited Edition” T-shirt

For more information

and to join the AAA team

Contact: Susan Andreoli at vp@aaa.org

VISIT THE AAA STORE

for

NEW STARFEST EVENT ITEMS

www.cafepress/amateurastronomersofny

April 2013

Become a AAA Spring

Starfest Team Member

5

Hello Members:

I hope you saw comet Pan-STARRS in March. I was able to see it at our Winter Astronomy Class 2013. We had a fun night,

and most students got to observe the comet from high above midtown Manhattan.

On April 13, we will have our first Spring Starfest “live” from Woodlawn Cemetery. It will kick off the AAA observing

season. For more information, visit the AAA website at: http://www.aaa.org/springstarfest. Be sure to check out more about our

observing sites at http://www.aaa.org/observing, and see our full calendar of events at http://aaa.org/calendar.

For our AAA Lecture Series at the AMNH, we have jus announced a surprise guest speaker. Al Nagler from Tele Vue Optics

and inventor of the Nagler Eyepiece will present "Giant Eyepieces That Swallow Spacecrafts" on Friday, April 5. The balance of

this season's schedule is available at http://www.aaa.org/lectures1213, or at the back of this issue of Eyepiece.

We are currently interviewing candidates for the Board of Directors of the AAA. If you would like to be considered, please

contact me at president@aaa.org.

Thanks, everyone!

Sincerely,

Marcelo Cabrera

President, AAA

A Message from AAA President Marcelo Cabrera

EYEPIECE

NASA Rover (con’t from Page 1)

"Clay minerals make up at least 20 percent of the compo-

sition of this sample," said David Blake, principal investigator

for the CheMin instrument at NASA's Ames Research Center

in Moffett Field, Calif.

These clay minerals are a prod-

uct of the reaction of relatively fresh

water with igneous minerals, such as

olivine, also present in the sediment.

The reaction could have taken place

within the sedimentary deposit, dur-

ing transport of the sediment, or in

the source region of the sediment.

The presence of calcium sulfate

along with clay suggests the soil is

neutral or mildly alkaline.

Scientists were surprised to

find a mixture of oxidized, less-

oxidized, and non-oxidized chemi-

cals providing an energy gradient of

the sort many microbes on Earth

exploit to live. This partial oxidation

was first hinted at when the drill

cuttings were revealed to be gray

rather than red.

"The range of chemical ingredients we have identified in

the sample is impressive, and it suggests pairings such as sul-

fates and sulfides that indicate a possible chemical energy

source for micro-organisms," said Paul Mahaffy, principal

investigator of the SAM suite of instruments at NASA’s God-

dard Space Flight Center.

An additional drilled sample will be used to help confirm

these results for several of the trace gases analyzed by the

SAM instrument.

"We have characterized a very ancient, but strangely new

'gray Mars' where conditions once were favorable for life,"

said John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory project scien-

tist at the California Institute of

Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

"Curiosity is on a mission of discov-

ery and exploration, and as a team

we feel there are many more excit-

ing discoveries ahead of us in the

months and years to come."

Scientists plan to work with

Curiosity in the Yellowknife Bay

area for many more weeks before

beginning a long drive to Gale Cra-

ter's central mound, Mount Sharp.

Investigating the stack of layers ex-

posed on Mount Sharp, where clay

minerals and sulfate minerals have

been identified from orbit, may add

information about the duration and

diversity of habitable conditions.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project has been using

Curiosity to investigate whether an area within Mars' Gale

Crater ever has offered an environment favorable for microbial

life. Curiosity, carrying 10 science instruments, landed seven

months ago to begin its two-year prime mission. NASA's Jet

Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the project

for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

(Article Credit: NASA/Dwayne Brown, JPL/D.C. Agle)

April 2013

Contacting AAA

Membership: members@aaa.org

Eyepiece: editor@aaa.org

General Club Matters and Observing: president@aaa.org

Telephone: 212-535-2922 Website: www.aaa.org

NASA’s Curiosity at the “John Klein” site, taken with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)

NOTICE: AAA Annual Meeting

May 15, 2013 - 6:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

505 Eighth Avenue, 20th Fl

Food, Fun, and Astronomy!

6

through mathematics and not experiments.

Our hope for the future is to someday confirm gravita-

tional theory and find experimental evidence. What if we can

do more than just understand it? Science would prefer to affect

gravity in a practical way and not just by introducing mass to

create a gravitational field. What if we could find the elusive

Graviton (particle or string) and find a way to interrupt some

or all of its effect on matter? Science fiction stories have been

doing this for years. When you see people walking on the

USS Enterprise in Star Trek, they walk in an artificial gravity

field created by “gravity plating” on the floor. No one ex-

plains exactly how this magical floor works, but it makes it

much easier to work on a spaceship (as well as much easier to

film stories).

What if we could someday

create a device that can either

interrupt gravity or enhance it

somehow? How would this

shape our world of the future? I

think the first invention people

would want are anti-gravity

devices on vehicles. We could

finally have flying cars just like

on “The Jetsons” or “Back to

the Future P2”. Parking would

still be a problem for your fly-

ing car even if no longer had to

sit in traffic. Not every problem

is gravity’s fault. We could

have everything flying much

more easily: skateboards, jet

packs, cars, and more. I want to

see someone run a marathon in anti-gravity shoes. We won’t

count their finish time. It would just be an experiment. Offi-

cial athletes must use the natural gravity field.

Getting into outer space would no longer cost $10,000 a

pound. We could get into orbit with much larger machines

using much less fuel, and land on Earth as easily as a helicop-

ter lands on a platform.

Landing on Mars would also be much less of a challenge.

The very impressive Curiosity landing was a great feat of engi-

neering. Just attach our anti-gravity device and use a small

rocket to land a 50 ton habitat on Mars, and we’re ready to let

scientists do the work. I also want regular deliveries of sup-

plies for the same price as shipping them across the oceans

here on Earth. We would have a self-sufficient Martian colony

up and running in just a few years.

Somewhere out there is the illusive Graviton (wave, par-

ticle or string). We will keep searching for it, since we know

something must exist. I think of it every time I step on the

scale and dream of losing 10 pounds. If you need me, I will be

at the gym fighting gravity.

Richard Brounstein’s monthly column, “WHAT IF,” explores what today

seems improbable or impossible. Stay tuned for more fascinating concepts.

In March, scientists at the CERN Large Hadron Col-

lider confirmed that the sub-atomic particle in the family of

Boson particles known as the Higgs exists. They were pretty

sure last year (about 99.997% sure). That wasn’t enough for

these quantum scientists. After going through several

petabytes of data, scientists are now calling the experiment a

success. This is a huge accomplishment for science. The

Higgs particle is the messenger that creates mass in our uni-

verse. It is the reason that we have stuff from atoms and peo-

ple to stars and galaxies. In the Standard Model of particle

physics, this discovery checks off the list another critical point

particle in nature that is no longer theoretical, but is factual.

While the physics world is celebrating, we still have this

big elephant in the room. The Standard Model doesn’t explain

why a baseball, football, or

spacecraft falls to the Earth. It

does not explain gravity.

To explain gravity, scien-

tists have a theoretical elemen-

tary particle called the Graviton

Boson. The Graviton communi-

cates the force of gravity just as

the Higgs Boson communicates

the mass of our existence. We

experience gravity everywhere

in the universe, so something

must exist. Yet no quantum

experiment has found it, leaving

us with just a theory.

One might think that all

we have to do is discover this

messenger particle with an ac-

celerator, the same way that scientists discovered the Higgs

Boson, right? Unfortunately, the Standard Model cannot fit

the Graviton Particle into its theory because its energy ap-

proaches infinity.

There are other more cost effective efforts under way to

better understand gravity. NASA/ESA’s Laser Interferometer

Space Antenna (LISA) consists of three spacecraft positioned

five million kilometers apart in outer space. Each probe will

maintain a constant laser beam shot at the other two detectors.

It would detect the ripple of gravity waves created by black

holes or stellar collisions. This will help confirm Einstein’s

General Theory of Relativity, and may even produce direct

measurements of the Big Bang. We haven’t seen the light at

the moment of the Big Bang yet, but gravity waves may be

detectable, bringing us closer to the single most important

event in the known history of the universe. This does not actu-

ally help us find the elusive Graviton, but it is a step in the

right direction.

Another effort to explain gravity is String Theory, where

all matter is made up of tiny one-dimensional oscillating lines

of energy that exist in 10 spatial dimensions. It can describe

the Graviton as a type of string with its unique properties.

Problem solved, except that it is only a theory expressed

EYEPIECE April 2013

WHAT IF??? Can We Really Discover Gravity?

By Richard Brounstein

NASA/ESA concept drawing for LISA Trapping gravity waves in space

7

Spin Doctors at NASA

Two X-ray space observatories, NASA's Nuclear

Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European

Space Agency's XMM-Newton, have teamed up to definitively

measure the spin rate of a black hole with a mass two million

times that of our sun. The supermassive black hole lies at the

dust and gas-filled heart of a galaxy called NGC 1365, spin-

ning almost as fast as Einstein's theory of gravity will allow.

The observations are a powerful test of the theory, which says

gravity can bend space-time, the fabric that shapes our uni-

verse, and the light that travels through it. "We can trace mat-

ter as it swirls into a black hole using X-rays emitted from

regions very close to the black hole," said NuSTAR principal

investigator Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Tech-

nology. "The radiation we see is warped and distorted by the

motions of particles and the black hole's incredibly strong

gravity." NuSTAR, an Explorer-class mission launched in

June 2012, is designed to detect the highest-energy X-ray light

in great detail. It complements telescopes that observe lower-

energy X-ray light, such as XMM-Newton and NASA's

Chandra X-ray Observatory. Scientists use these and other

telescopes to estimate the rates at which black holes spin. Until

now, these measurements were not certain, because clouds of

gas could have been obscuring the black holes and confusing

the results. With help from XMM-Newton, NuSTAR was able

to see a broader range of X-ray energies and penetrate deeper

into the region around the black hole. The new data demon-

strate that X-rays are not being warped by the clouds, but by

the tremendous gravity of the black hole. This proves that spin

rates of supermassive black holes can be determined conclu-

sively. Measuring the spin of a supermassive black hole is

fundamental to understanding its history and that of its host

galaxy. "These monsters, with masses from millions to billions

of times that of the Sun, are formed as small seeds in the early

universe and grow by swallowing stars and gas in their host

galaxies, merging with other giant black holes when galaxies

collide, or both," said Guido Risaliti of the Harvard-

Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the Italian National

Institute for Astrophysics. Supermassive black holes are sur-

rounded by pancake-like accretion disks, formed as their grav-

ity pulls matter inward. Einstein's theory predicts the faster a

black hole spins, the closer the accretion disk lies to the black

hole. The closer the accretion disk is, the more gravity from

the black hole will warp X-ray light streaming off the disk.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

A new study using observations from NASA's Fermi

Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals that expanding debris

of exploded stars produces some of the fastest-moving matter

in the universe. This discovery is a major step toward under-

standing the origin of cosmic rays, one of Fermi's primary mis-

sion goals. "Scientists have been trying to find the sources of

high-energy cosmic rays since their discovery a century ago,"

said Elizabeth Hays, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Cen-

ter. "Now we have conclusive proof supernova remnants, long

the prime suspects, really do accelerate cosmic rays to incredi-

ble speeds." Cosmic rays are subatomic particles that move

through space at almost the speed of light. About 90% of them

are protons, with the remainder consisting of electrons and

atomic nuclei. In their journey across the galaxy, the electri-

cally charged particles are deflected by magnetic fields. This

scrambles their paths and makes it impossible to trace their

origins directly. Through a variety of mechanisms, these

speedy particles can lead to the emission of gamma rays, the

most powerful form of light and a signal that travels to us di-

rectly from its sources. The Fermi results concern two particu-

lar supernova remnants, IC 443 and W44, which scientists

studied to prove supernova remnants produce cosmic rays. IC

443 and W44 are expanding into cold, dense clouds of inter-

stellar gas. These clouds emit gamma rays when struck by high

-speed particles escaping the remnants. Scientists previously

could not determine which atomic particles are responsible for

emissions from the interstellar gas clouds. After analyzing four

years of data, Fermi scientists see a distinguishable feature in

the emissions of both remnants. The feature is caused by a

short-lived particle called a neutral pion, produced when cos-

mic ray protons smash into normal protons. The pion quickly

decays into a pair of gamma rays, emission that exhibits a

swift and characteristic decline at lower energies. The low-end

cutoff acts as a fingerprint, proving that the culprits in IC 443

and W44 are protons. "The discovery is the smoking gun that

these supernova remnants are producing accelerated protons,"

said Stefan Funk, an astrophysicist with the Kavli Institute for

Particle Astrophysics. "Now we can work to better understand

how they manage this feat and determine if the process is com-

mon to all remnants where we see gamma-ray emission."

EYEPIECE April 2013

AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY

8

blocks. Calculations

show Kepler-10b’s

radius is 1.4 times that

of Earth. From radius

and orbital period, we

can measure the dis-

tance of the planet

from its star and its

temperature: the longer

the orbital distance, the

cooler the planet. Ke-

pler-10b lies extremely

close to its star, too

hot to support life.

Surface temperature on

its star-lit side is ap-

proximately a blazing

2800°F.

Kepler 10-b may

be lifeless, but it has

given life to a new

field of science,

“astrogeology.” Scientists have learned a great deal about the

exoplanet. In addition to size and temperature, we also know

its mass, density, and composition. To determine mass, scien-

tists turned to the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The

Keck measures the wobble of a star due to gravitational pull

from an orbiting planet. Wobbles are variations in the star’s

radial velocity, or the speed with which it moves towards or

away from Earth, and show up as displacements in a star’s

spectral lines due to Doppler Effect. Keck can observe ex-

tremely small radial-velocity variations to one in 1,000 pixels.

While the Doppler method cannot determine a planet’s true

mass, it can set a lower limit on it. Kepler-10b wobbles in

sync with its star, and its mass is about 4.5 times that of Earth.

Knowing mass and volume (from its radius), Kepler-10b’s

density is calculated as 8.8 g/cm3. The density of Earth is 5 g/

cm3, so surely this planet is rocky! Marcy ranks the discovery

of Kepler-10b “as among the most profound scientific discov-

eries in human history,” and predicts the planet “will go into

every textbook worldwide.”

Very few Earth-sized exoplanets have been discovered.

Kepler can’t see them all because of their small size, and be-

cause the telescope’s fixed view only sees planets that orbit

edge-on. Investigators had to correct for the limitations of

Kepler and created new software to test the efficiency of its

findings. With that efficiency factored in, Marcy reported

brand new data, yet to be published, which reveals that 23% of

Sun-like stars have planets with sizes ranging from 1-3 times

the radius of the Earth and that orbit within 0.25 astronomical

units of their host stars. Earth-sized planets are not just com-

mon in our universe, they are typical.

What about life? Can Kepler tell us if there are other

Kepler to Universe (con’t on Page 9)

“We find ourselves at a special moment in time for sci-

entific discovery – as with Christopher Columbus, the Apollo

Moon Missions, and the Human Genome Project – there is a

sense in the air that we are on the brink of a breakthrough.

The breakthrough within our grasp is the discovery of life

elsewhere in the universe. We’re very close.”

Geoff Marcy - Co-investigator/Kepler Mission

Geoff Marcy has discovered more extrasolar planets

than anyone - over 250 so far. On March 11, he presented

“Other Earths and Life in the Universe,” to a breathless audi-

ence at the AMNH Frontiers Lecture Series. Marcy, a key

planet hunter with the NASA Kepler Space Telescope Mis-

sion, works to detect exoplanets, characterize their properties,

and understand their origins. His current focus is on finding

Earth-size planets and solar systems similar to our own.

The transit method of detection measures the change in

brightness of a star when a planet has passed in front of it. It is

harder to detect small, Earth-sized planets, because their tran-

sits result in only a tiny decrease in light received. Typically,

their host star’s brightness drops by only 0.01% during a tran-

sit. That’s where Kepler comes to the rescue.

Launched on March 9, 2009, the telescope is especially

suited to detecting Earth-sized planets. It has the ability to

measure brightness to within 0.01%. Perfectly suited for this

assignment. Trailing behind Earth in a solar orbit, Kepler con-

tinuously observes the same field of stars, pointing to the con-

stellations Cygnus, Lyra, and Draco. To date, nearly 3,000

exoplanets have been found with the help of the Kepler Obser-

vatory. Of those, over 100 are Earth-like in size.

One such “Other Earth” is Kepler-10b, the first con-

firmed terrestrial planet discovered outside our solar system.

Kepler-10b’s transit dims its host star’s light by about 0.01%

every 0.84 days. The transit method can tell alot about a

planet. If we know the radius of a star, then we can find the

radius of a transiting planet based on the fraction of light it

EYEPIECE April 2013

NASA Mission: Kepler to Universe: “Is There Anybody Out There?” By Amy Wagner

WHY WE EXPLORE

Kepler’s final inspection before its 2009 launch

Brightness drops over time as an exoplanet transits its star (Illustration by Hans Deeg)

9

Earths could be 10 billion years old; perhaps their techno-

intelligent life died out long ago. Also, the lifetimes of ad-

vanced civilizations must overlap for communication between

them, and maybe, we missed the window. Or for those that

lived contemporaneously and communicated with each other,

it is possible that their contact was not amicable; they may

have destroyed each other. And of course, there is the possi-

bility that they destroyed themselves.

“The takeaway message is this,” says Marcy, “Take care

of our planet; take care of ourselves.”

It is only through the continued work of the Kepler Space

Telescope and investigators like Geoff Marcy that we can we

hope to learn how to take care of our planet or find neighbors

who will talk to us. Unfortunately, we may be running out of

time. Kepler could die on us any day now. Although NASA

added another four years to Kepler’s initial four-year mission,

one of its four reaction wheels has already failed; another is

showing signs of friction.

It is sad to think that we could lose Kepler so soon; how-

ever, this vital program has already produced so much data

that we can hardly sift through it all. More than 400 multi-

planetary systems have been discovered so far – the Kepler-11

system alone has as many as 6 planets orbiting its host star –

but there just aren’t enough astronomers around to deal with

all that information.

However powerful and prolific telescope may be, its data

is meaningless without Marcy and other dedicated astrono-

mers. So, lend a hand with the Kepler project, you amateur

astronomers - join Planet Hunters - www.planethunters.com.

Kepler to Universe (con’t from Page 8)

habitable planets out there, and if so, how many could there

be? In a breathtaking paper published in February this year,

Harvard graduate student Courtney Dressing calculated the

occurrence of habitable planets in our universe. From the Ke-

pler data, she looked at systems with red dwarf stars, the most

common type in our universe. Three out of every four stars in

the Milky Way galaxy are red dwarfs. They are small stars,

and an Earth-sized planet would block more of its light during

transit. Red dwarfs are also cooler and more likely to host

planets with habitable zones. After targeting just red dwarfs,

Dressing honed in on 95 planetary candidates, showing that at

least 60% of red dwarfs have orbiting planets smaller than

Neptune. Of this sample, three had the right conditions to sup-

port life based on size, temperature, and orbital distance. From

this, she extrapolated that 6% of the 75 billion red dwarf stars

in the Milky Way must have Earth-sized planets that orbit in a

habitable enough distance to allow liquid water to exist.

Our Sun is surrounded by a swarm of red dwarf stars, and

using Dressing’s calculations, the closest Earth-like world is

likely to be just 13 light-years away. “If the Milky Way Gal-

axy were the size of the U.S., then the nearest star with a habit-

able planet would be across Central Park,” said Marcy to the

Hayden audience.

So, what is the likelihood that habitable planets have pro-

duced not just life, but intelligent life? According to Marcy,

even the most pessimistic calculations would predict thousands

of advanced civilizations in the Milky Way. Is our own galaxy

teeming with intelligent life? If so, then why haven’t they

called? SETI is trying to change all that, but no takers yet

from intergalactic space.

Life itself may be rare. Earth

has water, but just the right amount, a

thin veneer of 0.06%. Most rocky

planets discovered are either desert

worlds with only 0.03% water, or

water worlds with 0.12%. “There

may be fish there, but no smart peo-

ple,” jokes Marcy. Life could swim,

but it wouldn’t walk around. Earth’s

perfect water ratio may just have

been a lucky delivery from asteroids

and comets.

Intelligence may also be rare.

Does evolution necessarily select for

techno-intelligent life? Dinosaurs

lived over a million years without

getting smarter. If it weren’t for the

mass extinction of those giant, bird-

brained reptiles, sly little mammals

would not have selected for evolu-

tionary advancement.

And for intelligent life out there,

what is the typical lifetime of a civili-

zation? Red dwarfs live longer than

our Sun, so it is possible that life on

their habitable planets would be

much older and much more evolved

than life on Earth. These Other

EYEPIECE April 2013

Artist's concept of the red dwarf star CHRX 73 (upper left) and its companion CHRX 73 B in the foreground (lower right) weighing in at 12 Jupiter masses. CHRX 73 B is one of the smallest

companion objects ever seen around a normal star beyond our Sun (Illustration Credit: NASA/ESA/)G. Bacon STScl)

10

was again.

T h e 1 5

brought out

the tail and

b r igh tened

the nucleus,

but it didn't

have the

striking divi-

sion that you

see in a deep

photo. I

switched to

the 17mm

Ethos eyepiece, and then it really shone. It was easy to focus

on a dim star that was right next to it, 51 Pisces, so now I knew

the focus. I could see dimming in the tail that made it look

like two tails. The wind was picking up, or else I would easily

have seen the brightening and dimming of jets and changes. It

was bright and clear enough, but the scope wagged around

under the wind. Donna peered intently at it during a calm

wind moment, and she saw changes in brightness and possible

movement. The comet had been seen, and we'd witnessed this

little miracle. Now the wind was whipping us, getting much

colder, as the comet dipped below the horizon. Though Orion

came out from the clouds and Jupiter beckoned, we were spent

and frozen. Not even five layers could keep us warm in the

dark night air.

Packing the scope always takes longer than you want,

and it always takes longest in a cold wind. But off we went,

and down through the woods, the sheltering trees now cover-

ing us as we returned to Earth. Donna was happy to get

warmer, and we put the scope away slowly, making sure that

every part was handled with care. Each part helped us see this

winged interloper, and each was valuable. Ninety minutes

after we saw PanSTARRS dip below the horizon, Donna and I

were sharing drinks at the Piper's Kilt, our traditional after-

observing location. We toasted each other, and talked about

this once in a lifetime experience. Walking home hand in

hand we remembered something my uncle said at our wed-

ding. A marriage is a story that tells the world what love is,

that as we live together, we write our book of love. Going

home, we realized that we'd just written a good chapter, thanks

to an auspicious comet named PanSTARRS.

A Date With Comet PanSTARRS By Jason Kendall

On Thursday, Mar 14, I wanted to see the comet

for the first time on my own. But more importantly, I wanted

my wife, Donna, to share it with me. She had never seen a

comet, and I have only seen a few. I'd always wanted to share

the stars with her, especially a unique, 100 million-year orbit

Oort Cloud starry messenger. So I left work early and bolted,

right on schedule. The comet, however, knew no schedule

other than its own. It was to pass over our heads just once,

returning long after every nation I knew or ever will know will

have passed away and been replaced by many, many more.

This comet was visiting us from nearly the next star, and in its

ice was held the dust of eons, the tiniest flecks of the origin of

our Sun and Earth.

So, I ran in from the subway, and we bundled up for

the cold. Hurriedly, we tromped downstairs to get our tele-

scope. The Sun was rapidly sinking lower in the sky, so I

moved with deliberate speed. We loaded our equipment, and

Donna suggested we also take the binoculars, a gift from a

grand class. The electric cart hurdled down the street and up

into the park at a breathtaking walking pace. We chatted, and

realized that it was colder than we had thought. The Sun was

only a hand above the horizon as we walked through Inwood

Hill Park, hauling 200 pounds of observing equipment in what

amounted to a race. You see, the clouds were also a factor this

evening. Donna and I looked westward with concern, tracking

several foreboding near-horizon clouds. We wondered if the

cold and the two hours prep and takedown would be spoiled by

an opaque condensation of water. As we arrived at Bear Rock

Meadow, the Sun was just about to graze the horizon. Donna

jumped on the binoculars, and started hunting. I built the 15"

scope from the box, my fingers already burning from the freez-

ing air and gusty winds. But it set up well, and it was now

show time.

Our hunt was on. The sky darkened, but the comet re-

fused to be seen. It was hiding up in those low clouds. We

had a 10° window above the horizon, holding steady. After

going back and forth between the binocs and the scope, I

found it. There it was, tail pointing away from the Sun, shim-

mering like a little fish in a reddish sea. I gave Donna the

binocs right away, and there was an immediate peal of joy:

"There it is! I see the comet!" I then found the comet in the

15" Obsession UC with a goodly 35mm Panoptic. And there it

EYEPIECE April 2013

Comets, Comets, Comets...

Kleegor’s Universe By Joshua M. Erich, www.pixelatedparchment.com

11

covered on any exoplanet, and carbon dioxide may be present

as well.

The planets also are “redder,” meaning that they emit

longer wavelengths of light, than celestial objects with similar

temperatures. This could be explained by significant but

patchy cloud cover on the planets.

With1.6 times the mass and five times the brightness, HR

8799 itself is very different from our Sun. The brightness of

the star can vary by as much as 8 percent over a period of two

days and produces about 1,000 times more ultraviolet light

than the Sun. All of these factors could impact the spectral

fingerprints of the planets, possibly inducing complex weather

and sooty hazes that could be revealed

by periodic changes in the spectra.

More data is needed to further explore

this solar system’s unusual character-

istics.

“The spectra of these four worlds

clearly show that they are far too toxic

and hot to sustain life as we know it,”

said co-author Ian Parry, a senior lec-

turer at the Institute of Astronomy,

Cambridge University.“But the really

exciting thing is that one day, the tech-

niques we’ve developed will give us

our first secure evidence of the exis-

tence of life on a planet outside our

solar system.”

Project 1640 helps scientists clear

this hurdle by sharpening and darkening a star’s light. This

technical advance involves the coordinated operation off our

major instruments: the world’s most advanced adaptive optics

system, which can make millions of tiny adjustments to the

device’s two 6-inch mirrors every second; a coronagraph that

optically dims the star but not other celestial objects in the

field of view; an imaging spectrograph that records 30 images

in a rainbow of colors simultaneously; and a specialized wave

front sensor that distinguishes between residual starlight that

sneaks through the coronagraph and the light from planets,

allowing scientists to filter out background starlight more ef-

fectively.

Altogether, the project has produced images of celestial

objects 1 million to 10 million times fainter than the star at the

center of the image, with only an hour of observations. It is

also capable of measuring orbital motion of objects.

“Astronomers are now able to monitor cloudy skies on

extrasolar planets, and for the first time, they have made such

observations for four planets at once,” said Maria Womack,

program director for the Division of Astronomical Sciences at

the National Science Foundation. “This new ability enables

astronomers to now make comparisons as they track the at-

mospheres, and maybe even weather patterns, on the planets.”

Researchers have conducted a remote reconnaissance

of a distant solar system with a new telescope imaging sys-

tem that sifts through the blinding light of stars. Using a suite

of high-tech instrumentation and software called Project 1640,

the scientists collected the first chemical fingerprints, or spec-

tra, of this system’s four red exoplanets, which orbit a star 128

light-years away from Earth. A detailed description of the

planets – showing how drastically different they are from the

known worlds in the universe - was accepted for publication in

The Astrophysical Journal.

“An image is worth a thousand words, but a spectrum is

worth a million,” said lead author Ben R. Oppenheimer,

AMNH associate curator and chair of

the Astrophysics Department. Oppen-

heimer is the principal investigator for

Project 1640, which uses the 200-inch

Hale telescope at the Palomar Obser-

vatory in California (see image at

right). The project involves researchers

from the California Institute of Tech-

nology, NASA/JPL, Cambridge Uni-

versity, NYU, and the Space Telescope

Science Institute, in addition to Oppen-

heimer’s team at the Museum.

The planets surrounding the star

of this study, HR 8799, have been im-

aged in the past. But except for a par-

tial measurement of the outermost

planet in the system, the star’s bright

light overwhelmed previous attempts to study the planets with

spectroscopy, a technique that splits the light from an object

into its component colors - as a prism spreads sunlight into a

rainbow. Because every chemical, such as carbon dioxide,

methane, or water, has a unique light signature in the spec-

trum, this technique is able to reveal the chemical composition

of a planet’s atmosphere.

With this system, the researchers are the first to deter-

mine the spectra of all four planets surrounding HR 8799. “It’s

fantastic to nab the spectra of four planets in a single observa-

tion,” said co-author Gautam Vasisht, an astronomer at JPL.

The results are “quite strange,” Oppenheimer said.

“These warm, red planets are unlike any other known object in

our universe. All four planets have different spectra, and all

four are peculiar. The theorists have a lot of work to do now.”

One of the most striking abnormalities is an apparent

chemical imbalance. Basic chemistry predicts that ammonia

and methane should naturally co-exist varying quantities

unless they are in extremely cold or hot environments. Yet the

spectra of the HR 8799 planets, all of which have “lukewarm”

temperatures of about 1340 degrees Fahrenheit, either have

methane or ammonia, with little or no signs of their chemical

partners. Other chemicals, such as acetylene, previously undis-

EYEPIECE April 2013

Project 1640 Astronomers Conduct First Remote

Reconnaissance of Another Solar System

AMNH RESEARCH

12

STARRS and the moon to be at about the same altitude and

about 5° apart on Mar 12. After spotting the thin crescent

Moon about 30 minutes after sunset, we looked to the left with

binoculars – but found emptiness. I framed the Moon in the

right side of my camera’s viewfinder while

using a 300mm lens, which has an angle of

view of around 8°. So I knew that some-

where in the picture would be the comet.

Some might wonder why we didn’t

use one of the new iPhone/smartphone as-

tronomy apps. Well, we didn’t have any

apps, and neither of us had a smartphone.

But we did have digital camera technology

to help us.

I kept shooting photos and checking

the screen on the back of the camera.

Around 7:50 p.m., over 45 minutes after

sunset, I finally spotted the comet on the

camera screen, its bright head and short,

conical-shaped tail pointing away from the

Sun. So we finally knew it was out there.

Rush tried hard to see it in the binoculars,

but was unable to resolve it in the dark New Mexico night.

It still took many long minutes for the sky to fully

darken, and for PanSTARRS to become more visible in the

photos. In pictures, the earthshine that lighted the “dark” part

of the moon was incredible. The super-thin, lit portion of the

upturned crescent seemed to hold up the rest of the moon. To-

gether with the comet it made for a breathtaking photographic

image.

Exposing for the comet and Moon was tricky. The proc-

ess involved taking a light meter reading of the sky around the

Moon, taking a

photo, looking at the

screen on the back of

the camera, and mak-

ing adjustments

based on what I saw.

To be consistent, I

used f5.6 and an ISO

800, varying the

shutter speed to get

the right exposure.

The times ranged

from 1/25 of a sec-

ond, when we first

spotted the comet, to

8 seconds as it set

beyond the horizon. I

used a cable shutter

release so I wouldn’t

jar the tripod-

mounted camera and

lens. This was help-

ful during longer exposures. Comet Chasing (con’t on Page 13)

FOCUS ON THE UNIVERSE

I wasn’t expecting to dodge cow chips while photo-

graphing Comet PanSTARRS. Running across the high desert

floor and carrying my camera, telephoto lens and tripod, I was

trying to get a better angle on the comet and a beautiful cres-

cent moon as they set behind the giant dish

antennas of the Very Large Array (VLA)

radio telescope. I had come to the clear

skies of New Mexico to shoot the celestial

pairing, which would only happen on Mar

12-13. A forecast of rain and cloudy

weather for those days in New York made

the decision easier.

Landing in Albuquerque, I met

my astronomy/photographer friend Rush,

who suggested that the VLA in central

New Mexico would make an interesting

foreground for the photos. We set off after

lunch, arriving in the late afternoon after a

two-hour drive to the south. The observa-

tory, located on the Plains of San Agustin

near the town of Magdalena, is large and

flat, and, at 6,500 feet, the perfect place for

radio astronomy. The array was featured in the 1997 movie

“Contact,” based on Carl Sagan’s novel of the same name.

Jodie Foster’s character uses the antennas to search the cosmos

for evidence of other civilizations as part of the SETI program,

and detects signals from the star Vega - indicating intelligent

life outside our solar system.

Up close, the 25-meter wide antennae are just as im-

pressive as anything Sagan or Hollywood could dream up,

especially in the waning desert light. We took a short walking

tour around one of the dishes, with the idea of trying to line up

the antennas with the

setting comet and

Moon.

The land

around the telescopes

had been used for

cattle grazing, so

memories of the

small piles of cow

manure seen while

scoping out the site

flashed through my

mind as the evening

light faded. It turned

out that avoiding the

stinky piles was the

easy part – spotting

the comet was much

harder. But the really

great thing about the

universe is that many

events happen in a

very predictable way. Articles and charts described Pan-

EYEPIECE April 2013

Comet Chasing: Photographing PanSTARRS

By Stan Honda

13

frames might show it off well.

In all, it was an extremely productive trip. Rush and

I agreed that both nights were successful. Of all the celestial

events, comets attract a great deal of attention. Maybe the po-

tential of observing a truly spectacular object in the sky stirs

their curiosity. For me, capturing the images of PanSTARRS

was a truly memorable event – to visit just for a while with this

icy ball hurling through space on its long elliptical orbit

around the Sun, and then back out into the dark void of space.

Comet Chasing (con’t from Page 12)

The lenses I relied upon were a 300mm f4 and 70-

200mm f2.8 zoom. With the 300mm it was easy to get both the

comet and the Moon in one picture. It’s a relatively small and

light lens that travels well. A longer telephoto lens would have

been better for just the comet, but I was interested in seeing it

in context with the Moon and the landscape. The zoom lens

worked for slightly wider angle shots but as the focal length

decreased, the comet got progressively smaller in the frame.

On the first evening of shooting, my attention was fo-cused on the western horizon. About 8:15 p.m., I caught a

glimpse of lights to my left. Looking up to the south, I saw a

dense field of stars against an inky black sky. Wow! I turned

east and saw even more stars. It was only over an hour after

sunset, yet we were seeing one of the darkest skies we had

ever experienced. I had an urge to shoot some wide-angle

shots of the unusually vivid sky, but the comet and Moon were

setting rapidly in the west. After the lighted portion of the cres-

cent Moon set, the camera picked up the “dark” part of the orb

lit by earthshine. So an eerily dark Moon appeared to be peek-

ing up from behind one of the distant mountains - great impact

on the photographic composition.

Our adventure continued on March 13. Rush suggested

we go west of Albuquerque to check out an area of lava flows.

The ranger at the El Malpais National Conservation Area had

heard of the comet and gave us of good viewing locations. We

hiked up a small bluff that gave us a sweeping view of the long

-dormant lava bed below us. We also could see a second bluff

with trees that had the potential to create a nice foreground

object if the comet lined up with it.

We knew the Moon was supposed to be higher in the sky

in relation to the comet, but instead it seemed to be much far-

ther away. That made spotting the comet even harder. I finally

thought I saw it through the 300mm lens, and confirmed that

with a photo. As the sky darkened, I actually could see it with

my eyes, as long as I knew exactly where to look. It was truly

faint and fuzzy, like a nebula or galaxy. It seemed to be on its

way to becoming a naked-eye object, though still quite faint.

Once again, I was able to shoot the comet all the way

to the horizon using a variety of lenses. I took a few photos

with wide-angle lenses, which resulted in great scenery, but

small images of the comet. Still, a large print of one of those

EYEPIECE April 2013

Stan Honda is an accomplished professional photographer and

contributing writer. In this continuing series of articles, he shares his

extensive knowledge of photographic equipment and techniques.

(All photo credits: Stan Honda, 2013; www.stanhonda.com )

14

Wanted: Writers for “My Own Space”

Dear Readers:

In our March issue of Eyepiece, AAA board member Jason

Kendall shared a touching story with us - his experience with the

night sky in “Counting the 107.” This unique perspective got me

thinking.

We all have memories of our first encounter with space. It

may have been through the eyepiece of a telescope - the first time

Jupiter came into focus and its four Galilean moons were seen in

an aligned orbit. Or maybe it was that first trip to the Hayden

Planetarium as a student, looking up at the projected, twinkling

stars, and flying through the universe from the comfort of your

cushioned seat in the darkness. So many of us have been there in our lifetimes.

Some of you have been fortunate enough to travel great distances to observe the aurora borealis, its

shimmering glow floating across the sky. Many have seen total eclipses of the Moon and Sun far away from

the bright lights of New York City. Eyepiece writer and night sky photographer Stan Honda has stood under

the Milky Way in the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest, pointing his camera up at the heavens to record

its beauty. His story is told through his stunning photographs and Eyepiece articles.

As an amateur astronomer, I was in awe at my first glimpse of Jupiter, of Venus, and that very first

time I stood on my front porch in NJ, viewing Saturn and its tilted rings through my refractor, some 650 mil-

lion miles away. Wow. Touching another planet with my eyes was a close encounter I will never forget. My

visit to Saturn was just three years ago, when I joined AAA and bought my first starter scope. Standing in

that same spot one cold morning after the Hurricane Sandy blackout, I looked up at thousands of stars, all

waiting there to be seen, but forever blanketed by the cold night lights of Long Branch. We are missing so

much due to light pollution.

Space is personal to each of us. Some have

goals to view as many distant targets as possible. Oth-

ers share their love of astronomy by hosting observing

sessions with both members and total strangers. For

me, I accepted stewardship of Eyepiece so that I could

touch a broad wealth of information each month and

share it with you - NASA missions, the development of

major earthbound telescope arrays, and the exciting

exoplanet research of the Kepler mission. I marvel at

the vastness of space, at the incredible distances be-

tween astronomical bodies, and at the immense power

of supernovae and quasars. We float through space on

our tiny blue planet, and the incredible universe around

us is alive with untold wonder.

So, my fellow members, I would like you to join

us at Eyepiece, just for awhile. Look inside yourselves, and give us your thoughts on what space and astron-

omy has meant to you. Share a personal experience, and we will publish your perspective on this page called

“My Own Space.”

I hope that many of you take up this challenge - to relive some of your special memories, and to re-

mind yourselves why you still get goose bumps each time you look up at the night sky.

Evan Evan B. Schneider, Editor

EYEPIECE April 2013

“Moonset “over the Petrified Forest (Photo Credit: Stan Honda, 2011)

Jupiter and Moons (Photo Credit: Mike Hankey)

15

AAA Events on the Horizon April 2013

Friday, April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Dusk - 10:00 p.m., P,T,C

Observing on the High Line - Manhattan

Next Month: May 7, 14, 21, 28

Thursday, April 11 6 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., M

Seminar on Recent Advances in Astronomy - Manhattan

4 Washington Place (NYU)

Next date: May 2

Friday, April 12 7 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., P,T,C

Observing in the Bronx - Van Cortlandt Park

Next date: May 10

Saturday, April 13 2 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., P,T,C

Solar Observing in the Bronx - Woodlawn Cemetery

Next date: May 11

Saturday, April 13 7 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., P,T,C

Spring Starfest in the Bronx - Woodlawn Cemetery

Next date: May 11

Friday, April 19 7 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., P,T,C

Observing at Floyd Bennett Field– Brooklyn (new location)

Next date: May 17

Friday, April 19 8 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., P,T,C

Observing at Carl Schurz Park - Manhattan

Next date: May 17

Sunday, April 28 1 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., P,T, C

Solar observing in Central Park, at the Conservatory Water Next date: May - To be announced on AAA website

Please confirm all events at www.aaa.org/events before attending

Legend for Events: M: Members; T: Bring telescopes, binoculars, etc.

P: Open to the public C: Cancelled if cloudy

AAA 2012/2013 Lecture Series Calendar

The AAA is proud to present an astronomy lecture

series. Members and the public are welcome to attend. Ad-

mission is free, and no reservations or tickets are required.

Lectures are held at the Kaufmann Theater,

American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West

between 77th and 81st streets (use 77th Street entrance).

Lectures begin at 6:15 p.m. and run to 8:00 p.m.

Apr 5 Al Nagler, Founder, TeleVue Optics:

“Giant Eyepieces that Swallow Spacecraft”

Apr 26 National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT -

Astrodance at CUNY Graduate Center

EYEPIECE April 2013

NEXT MONTH IN EYEPIECE

Everything you want to know about astronomy and current events in space! Stay tuned, and read Eyepiece every month.

Eyepiece Staff - March Issue

Editor: Evan B. Schneider

Writers: Richard Brounstein, Joseph Fedrick,

Stan Honda, Jason Kendall, Amy Wagner

Special Sections: Marcelo Cabrera, Joshua Erich,

Edward Fox, Richard Rosenberg

Io's Shadow Transits Jupiter

Seeking PanSTARRS

By Joe Fedrick

I watched the shadow of one of Jupiter's moons, Io,

transit the planet Jupiter on the evening of Mar 4-5.

The shadow was barely visible in my 60mm achromatic

refractor at 100x. The cloud belts of Jupiter have changed little

since January - there were two main brownish equatorial belts

and a moderately prominent, but fading, north temperate belt.

Several fainter gray, barely discernible, belts were present at

high latitudes. In sharp contrast to Io’s smaller shadow, the

shadow of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, was much easier

to detect with my 60 mm refractor on the night of Jan 10-11.

I was out observing the crescent Moon in March, a thin

curved, silver thread with beautiful earthshine above. The old

Moon was in the new Moon's arms on the evening of Mar 13,

as I attempted to locate the comet PanSTARRS in the urban

night sky. Sunset was beautiful, but I had no luck from my

viewing location in the Bronx. A hill to the west and southwest

obstructed the horizon, where the comet was streaking toward

its close encounter with the Sun. I hope to have news for you

all next month, if I am able to find higher ground for my ob-

servations.

Joe Fedrick is an experienced and dedicated AAA observer, always

watching the night (and daytime) skies. His continued observations

bring us new dimensions to viewing the cosmos and solar activity.

Focus On:

The Very Large Array - Socorro, New Mexico Meet one of the largest radio telescope arrays in the world, the

National Radio Astronomy Observatory. This compliment of 27

antennae, each 82 feet in diameter combines to produce the

equivalent of a single antenna 22 miles wide. Telescopes are

shuttled into various configurations every four months to per-

form different tasks. Look familiar? It was the facility used for

the 1997 film “Contact,” starring Jodie Foster.