Volume XVII No. 11 August 2006 gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg One Last and Enduring Tribute to George by Vincent Henderson, President Most AAI members are aware that George Chaplenko contributed so much of his time, talent, and love to our club throughout the years. His passing was a great loss to us all, but we also know he will never be forgotten. I am happy to report that, during this summer, I became aware of some very wonderful news that is directly related to George. On Sunday, July 2, 2006, I received an email from a professional astronomer named Joe Montani who is Senior Research Specialist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. Joe used to live in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and was a member and a Qualified Observer at AAI between the years of 1968 through 1978. He became very close friends with George during this time. Starting his professional career with articles that were accepted in Sky and Telescope magazine in the 1970s, Joe was applauded and encouraged by George to reach for the stars. Joe speaks sincerely about the kindness George showed him, saying how much of an inspiration he had been. George had a gift for working with young people and guiding them in their love of astronomy. During Joe's initial contact with me after being unable to contact George, Joe told me that, in 1997 using the 36-inch Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak, working at f/5 with a nitrogen cooled CCD camera, he discovered a minor planet which he named in honor of AAI. The new name for the minor planet is (9667) Amastrinc or AmAstrInc. Although he was aware that Joe was working to get the name approved by the International Astronomical Union for several years, George was keeping it for a surprise gift to our club, The name has been posted in the IAU listing at Harvard at: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html Even though he couldn't tell George of the final approval himself, it is very important to Joe that the membership of AAI becomes aware of this designation and that George was his inspiration for it. I hope to be able to convince Joe Montani to visit Sperry Observatory one day soon so we can truly show him our appreciation. There have been many wonderful things that have happened to AAI over the years, but thanks to the inspiration and friendship George showed to a budding young scientist, the club has achieved a kind of immortality. Thank you George. You continue to enrich AAI and the lives of its members to this day! Bye, For Now by Leticia Shapp Our club is really fortunate for all the time, talent, and generosity that members devote to our mutual benefit. In the short span of time since I have been editing Asterism, Summer Edition, I have seen an amazing display of these gifts. Mr. Henderson has led off two issues with timely pieces about current hot topics. Great articles on a variety of subjects have been contributed by Mrs. Witzgall, Dr. Ashcraft, Mr. Salimbene, Dr. Thomas, Mr. Luciuk, and Mr. Rossi. Mr. Meyers has resumed his Stewart's Skybox column, and no issue would be complete without Mr. Reummler's Theater in the Sky column. This newsletter would not exist were it not for the efforts of these wonderful authors. You all have my sincere thanks. Through the efforts of Mr. Salimbene, his employer has donated not one but two laptop computers to AAI. See the article and photo below. Dr. Thomas (or Dr. Lew as he likes to be called) has been particularly helpful to me in providing materials for this publication. He has also posted several articles in the Tutorials & More section of the AAI website, and he can always be counted on to give a useful and entertaining talk in the Fridays At Sperry series. He also consented to an interview which forms the basis for my article on page 10. If I get the opportunity to edit the ASE again next year, I hope to feature a short biography of some of the many other exceptional individuals in our club. New Laptop for AAI by Ray Shapp For the second time in as many years, AAI has been the fortunate recipient of a very serviceable laptop computer courtesy of Phil Salimbene's employer, the Innovex Corporation. Innovex, is a Health Care Contract Sales Organization headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. The first donated laptop is a Toshiba Tecra 8000 running the Windows98 operating system. It may be a little slow to respond, and it may be a bit fussy about how many applications it will run simultaneously, but it has served as the platform for well over 300 presentations both at the Observatory as well as at other locations. Our latest gift from Innovex is a 1.8GHz IBM ThinkPad running WinXP Pro. This new machine can run intensive applications like GoogleMars and StarryNight Pro. These machines are available for loan to any member who will be making a presentation or for other club-related business. Our sincere thanks go to Phil and to Mr. Victor Giunta, Director of Computer Services at Innovex. Minor Planet Named For AAI by Ray Shapp Former member, Joe Montani, has named an asteroid he discovered in 1997 for AAI. The name, Amastrinc is derived from Am Astr Inc, our club's name. See the official IAU citation nearby. Although I have never met Joe Montani, we are acquainted because I responded to the greeting he posted in the guestbook on our website on August 9, 2002. Here is his message in its entirety: I was a member of AAI from 1968-1978, approximately. My friends were Les Yuill, Paul Hodge, Charlie Crane (past President of AAI), Alexander Gmelin, George Nalisnick, Dennis Lipovsky, Roger Tuthill, and many others. I was a telescope-maker since age 13 (mirror-maker, and mechanical parts all home- machined). I was a deep-sky photographer. We often went to Voorhees State Park, with Les Yuill, Paul Hodge, Dennis Lipovsky, and Henry Bolley. I went into professional astronomy and, after 25 years or more, I am still in the field. Please see the Spacewatch Home page. We invented many of the techniques since 1980 for finding minor planets with CCDs, and, presently, we still keep the Earth safe by finding Near Earth Asteroids. I am responsible for "Optics" at our dedicated asteroid telescopes located on Kitt Peak (in AZ), and have also been an observer for years with these telescopes, and have discovered many NEAs, plus, I have four comet discoveries to my name. I wish all at AAI the best!! It was truly a formative place, with many fine people there influencing me, who put me on a steady path. I was one of the very first "Qualified Observers" at AAI, on both the 12-inch reflector and the 10-inch refractor. Another AAI-er friend of mine who went "Pro-" was Danny Matlaga. Ever upwards and onwards, AAI-ers! I'll never forget the sound of the bullfrogs croaking right behind WMSO* in the riparian area. Since I moved to the desert, I only see spade-foot toads, and no frogs. All best: Om, Shanti. Clear skies!! --Joe Montani / University of Arizona / Lunar and Planetary Lab / Spacewatch Project / Optics. Note: "WMSO" is the William Miller Sperry Observatory and the "12-inch reflector" is the now- retired telescope on display in the front of the classroom. Sad to say, Roger Tuthill is the only person mentioned by Joe whom I have met. We have provided a link to the Spacewatch project on the AAI website for years. Click Other Links > Real Science Applications. See also a link to Joe's personal website. Click Other Links > Members' Astronomy Websites. If you visit Joe's website, you will learn that he earned a BA in Philosophy from Columbia University, and Master of Science in Physics in 1987 from SUNY, Stony Brook. Joe is a practicing Buddhist, and is current webmaster for the Zen Desert Sangha website. Joe has discovered four comets. The two comets discovered in 1997 are both named comet Montani. Joe's colleagues at Spacewatch have also honored him by naming a minor planet for him, (7656) JoeMontani. (9667) Amastrinc will come into opposition on Christmas morning this year, and will be well placed for about three weeks, beginning in mid-December. Undoubtedly many members will be imaging "our star". The Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) Diagram by Mike Luciuk In the nineteenth century, astronomers used stellar spectroscopy as a tool to study the characteristics of stars. They also took parallax measurements to determine the distances of nearby stars. In addition, the apparent magnitudes of stars were well catalogued. To compare stellar luminosities, apparent magnitudes were normalized to a standard distance of 10 parsecs (32.6 light years), their absolute magnitudes. Early in the twentieth century, the Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873-1967) and the American astronomer Henry Norris Russell (1877-1957) independently devised charts in which the spectral classification of stars, which is related to their temperature and color, was plotted against their luminosities. The resulting H-R scatter-plot is the most famous diagram in astronomy. The H-R diagram at right is made up of 22,000 stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue plus 1,000 low-luminosity stars from the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars. The band of stars from the top-left to the bottom-right, called The Main Sequence, is made up of hydrogen burning stars (like the Sun). Giants are on the upper-right. White Dwarfs on the lower-left are stars that have left the main sequence, and no longer get their illumination from hydrogen fusion. In examining the x-axes of the diagram, you'll notice that there are three designations, spectral class and temperature at the top, and color at the bottom. The spectral class is the familiar O, B, A, F, G, K and M which can be remembered by the infamous mnemonic "Oh Be A Fine Girl (or Guy), Kiss Me". Note that the O stars are very hot, and the M stars are much cooler. Color is determined by taking the difference of a star's magnitude through blue (B) and visible (V) filters. If you know any one of a star's spectral class, temperature, or color, you can determine the other two. There are two designations for the y-axes. Luminosity is on the left, and absolute magnitude is on the right side. Luminosity is calibrated with the Sun set at 1. Note that the most luminous stars are at the top of the diagram, and the least luminous at the bottom. As previously mentioned, absolute magnitude is calculated for a star located 10 parsecs distant. The Sun, whose apparent magnitude is -26.7 has an absolute magnitude of 4.8. That's how bright it would appear if it were 10 parsecs distant, or 2,062,648 times further. A star's mass determines its temperature and luminosity during its hydrogen burning main sequence lifetime. The greater the mass, the larger, hotter and more luminous the star. On the other hand, the greater the mass, the shorter a star's hydrogen-burning lifetime. (continued page 16 H-R Diagram) Prescience by Stewart Meyers In the July 2006 of the Asterism Summer Edition (ASE), Leticia Shapp put out a request for articles about science fiction that predicted either astronomical discoveries or space science advances. Well, this article is the response to that request. While it is known at AAI that I am fairly knowledgeable about the "Star Trek" franchise and have met a considerable number of the actors and actresses involved in it, this article will not focus on that science fiction franchise which I will leave for a possible future article from another author. What I will discuss is how very early science fiction writers and others managed to make predictions that seemed far out in their day, but turned out to be quite close to the truth. This is quite amazing, considering how little was actually known as fact about celestial objects in those days. WHEN SCIENCE FICTION WAS NOT OFFICIALLY SCIENCE FICTION What we call science fiction today had its beginnings in the mid-to-late 19th century with authors like Jules Verne. Prior to that time, there were stories with some elements of science fiction - such as trips to other planets and alien beings - but these tales were more social satires ridiculing some element of the society in which the author lived. However, as discussed below, one can find some prescience in those tales. BEFORE THEY WERE MOONS One of the greatest social commentators and satirists of the 18th century was Jonathan Swift. While he wrote a number of pieces ridiculing England's treatment of Ireland and Scotland, he is best known to modern readers for his book "Gulliver's Travels" (1726). Though most modern retellings of the story focus on his visit to Lilliput with its tiny inhabitants, he also visited other places. One of them was a flying island known as Laputa. At one point, Gulliver describes the state of Laputan astronomy. He says that the Laputans had telescopes of about three feet, though it is not clear if this refers to the length of the optical tube (how telescopes were generally measured in that era) or the aperture. If the latter, that would make the Laputan instruments larger than any real telescope of that time. The Laputans used their telescopes to make numerous discoveries about our solar system, including two moons orbiting Mars. In reality, Mars does indeed have two moons which were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall and are pictured in the NASA image below where the two moons are shown to scale and of correct relative brightness. The obvious question is how did Jonathan Swift make a correct guess at the number of moons Mars had? Turns out that the suspicion that Mars had two moons went very far back but was based on flawed logic. It was known that Earth has one Moon, and early telescopes revealed that Jupiter has four large moons. Therefore, some people reasoned, there was a numerical pattern and since Mars was between Earth and Jupiter, it must have two moons. In addition to stating that Mars had two moons, the story goes further and gives their orbital periods and distances. According the book, the inner moon orbits at a distance of three Mars diameters (20,380 kilometers or 12,638 miles) with a period of 10 hours and the outer moon orbits at five Mars diameters (33,975 kilometers or 21,064 miles) with a period of 21-1/2 hours. The actual modern values for Deimos (the outer of the two moons) are a distance of 23,460 kilometers (14,545 miles) and a period of 30 hours, 18 minutes and for Phobos (Continued page 6 Prescience) Prescience (Continued from page 5) (the inner moon) a distance of 9,380 kilometers (5,815 miles) a period of 7 hours and 39 minutes. Swift's guess wasn't too bad, probably because he was aware of Kepler's laws of orbital motion since he does mention them in passing in the book. ERASMUS DARWIN AND A CENTAUR? Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the more famous Charles Darwin, was a somewhat eccentric but likable physician and intellectual in late 18th century Britain. He was a good friend of Josiah Wedgwood (of porcelain fame) as well as Joseph Priestley (the chemist who discovered oxygen) and even came up with a theory that hinted at evolution. But that is not why he is mentioned here. In the 1780's Darwin kept what was called a "commonplace book" in which he recorded his thoughts, drawings, observations, and ideas. The book contained sketches of various devices, including a steering system which is virtually identical to that found in automobiles, a flush toilet, and something truly amazing. The sketch depicted a cylinder containing two tanks, one clearly marked as containing what we now call hydrogen and the other containing what we call oxygen today, with the hydrogen tank being larger than the oxygen tank. There was some hint of pipes from the tanks going to a chamber with a nozzle at the rear of the cylinder. Today, that description is familiar, though oversimplified. It can describe the Atlas-Centaur upper stage, as well as a number of other modern rockets that use hydrogen and oxygen as fuel. How Erasmus Darwin, in the days when the only rockets were essentially overgrown skyrockets used by the Royal Navy as incendiary devices and before anyone even thought that gases could be liqufied, could have imagined a modern rocket engine is a mystery. EUREKA In 1823, German astronomer Heinrich Olbers put forth a famous paradox: Why is the sky dark at night? (this was obviously long before the invention of streetlights and illuminated signs) If one assumes an infinite universe and that stars and galaxies are uniformly distributed throughout, any line of sight should hit a star or galaxy, therefore the sky should be glowing. In the years since, many have put forth theories to answer this, such as clouds of interstellar dust. But, the first person to come up with essentially a correct explanation was not an astronomer, but none other than Edgar Alan Poe. While Poe is best remembered as one of the first horror novelists and also the creator of the first detective story, he also had an interest in astronomy, much like horror writer H.P. Lovecraft would in the early 20th century. In fact, he even wrote a story "Hans Phaall - A Tale" where the protagonist uses a high-altitude balloon to escape after killing his creditors and winds up crash landing on the Moon. Poe was even working on a sequel when Richard Locke published his "Moon Hoax" articles in the New York Sun. After seeing the articles, Poe felt he couldn't compete in terms of lunar stories and destroyed the manuscript. Poe did publish a long prose poem called "Eureka" in 1848 where he attempted to answer the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, though he only got as far as the universe. It is here where he resolves Olber's Paradox. Poe correctly points out that, even if the universe was infinite, the speed of light is not. This sets a horizon beyond which nothing can be seen and Poe states this horizon is why the sky is dark at night. And this explanation is quite reasonable. However, the modern answer to Olbers' Paradox adds a new wrinkle. The universe we now know is about 13.7 billion years old and that it began as hot, expanding mix of particles and energy. If Olbers was around today, he might ask why the night sky isn't aglow from this source. Actually, it is. Turns out the expansion of the universe has shifted the glow from the early universe into the microwave region of the spectrum and reduced its temperature to about 2.73 degrees Kelvin. This all-sky glow is what we call the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Poe's explanation of the paradox is still pretty good, especially since he had no idea of the Big Bang. Or did he? According to a website called "COSMPOET" (http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/lartigue/), Poe's prose poem is said to have foretold relativity, the Big Bang, black holes, extrasolar planets, multiple universes, etc. You can judge (Continued page 13 Prescience) Observing in Florida by Ernie Rossi In the years before I moved to Florida, I had observed from just about every dark site in the Northeast, and had owned my own dark-sky home site, so I was worried about how I would find the skies here in Florida. I had heard all types of reports, some good and some not so good, but I needed to check the situation out for myself. I wondered how good the seeing and transparency would be in the area where I was building my home. How would it compare to my former residence, which had moderate light pollution or my dark site, which was excellent? Well, I've been here just over six weeks now, two in a rented house, and a month in my own home, and I have learned a few things about Florida skies and the area I'm living in. I live in central Florida between Orlando and Ocala, each approximately 35 miles away. I live in a 55+ active adult community; the closest town is Leesburg, six miles north. Orlando lies southeast, and south to southwest, there are farms, open land, and state forests. I found three things that make my area a good site: (1) low horizons, especially to the south and southwest, with no tall trees, high buildings, hills, or mountains to block my view; (2) the seeing is very good--no jet stream most of the time, and because we are midway between two large bodies of water, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, average seeing conditions here are equal to very good to excellent conditions in the Northeast; (3) the latitude of Leesburg is 28.8 degrees, which is approximately 12 degrees south of New Jersey. It's great to find the Moon, planets, and many of the most interesting constellations so much higher in the sky. This means fewer atmospheric problems. From June to October, the transparency conditions aren't as good as they are during the rest of the year. Even so, my 'scopes were delivered on June 10, and I couldn't wait to start observing. North to southeast, the transparency is just fair, but south to west, the sky is pretty dark including the zenith. I took out two 'scopes, the 15" and 20" Dobs, and got my first look at Saturn, which was pretty low in the western horizon. This was some sight at 300 x, and no turbulence, Cassini division was jet black, Crepe Ring was visible, 5 moons, 2 belts, ring shadow. Wow! Jupiter was very high in the sky--it didn't look too far from the zenith and the detail in the cloud bands was just amazing. Within the top equatorial belt, you could see white cloud streaks running through the reddish cloud belt, festoons between the main belts, four white ovals, a wisp and a moon transit. On this particular night, I wanted to see how much magnification I could go to before the image broke down. At around 550 x the image started to go soft, and over the month I found this to be an average night. I was hoping to get to see Omega Centauri the brightest and largest globular cluster in our galaxy. In New Jersey, it's almost impossible to see because it's so low, but here in Florida, it was easy. I was using the 15" 'scope and let my digital setting circles guide me to the cluster. Looking into the ultra wide eyepiece at 122 x, I could see pinpoint stars over the entire field; it took my breath away. (continued page 15 Observing in Florida) ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO! By Dr. Lewis Thomas Three devices have been assumed to explain what we observe in the universe. They are 1) Negative gravity 2) Dark energy 3) Dark matter Negative gravity is assumed to explain the inflationary universe. In the first 10 23 seconds after the Big Bang, it is asserted that the universe expanded rapidly until matter formed and normal gravity took over. The expansion is attributed to a strange "negative gravity" force which repels rather than attracts. Dark energy, we are told, accounts for the acceleration in the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is assumed to be constant throughout time, therefore, as the universe expands, with the resultant gravity forces diminishing, dark energy simply pulls the universe apart. Dark matter was invented to explain the rotation of galaxies. This rotation is not Keplerian throughout with the outer edges of galaxies spinning much too fast for a Keplerian explanation. Dark matter is supposed to account for this rapid spin. Mordehai Milgrom in the early 1980s disliked the assumption of dark matter just as much as I do. But he did something about it. After a long study, he redid Newton's second law which is F = ma (1) He believed that this law did not hold when accelerations were less than a billionth of a meter/sec/sec. To explain the galactic rotation, he devised a procedure called Modified Newtonian Dynamics or MOND1. The second law was revised as f = ma2/aO (2) Unfortunately, so far I have not been able to define the quantity, aO. (Ed. Note: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Newtonian_dynamics ) But with this revision, galactic rotations are explained without the need for dark matter. Dark matter, which was really an invention, is now no longer needed. It goes away as simply as the imagined "ether" of the early 20th century. There was, however, one thing lacking. The formation of galaxies in the early universe still depended upon dark matter. And the reason underlying MOND was yet to be found. At this point, Milgrom probably felt a little like Kepler. Kepler, you remember, had measured the orbit of Mars and found it to be an ellipse. So also were the orbits of the other planets. He deduced a harmonic law which states that the cube of each planet's distance from the Sun divided by the square of its annual period was the same for all of the planets. He did not know why this was so, but it worked. Later, Newton explained that it was the result of his law of gravity. So here is Milgrom, his MOND formula works, but he cannot explain why. At the same university in Israel where Milgrom worked, was Professor Bedmistein who was familiar with MOND and set out to meld it into the General Theory of Relativity. This effort resulted in the TeVeS theory2. TeVeS is an acronym for Tensor, Vector, Scalar. It contains all the field equations and properties of the General Theory and fits MOND into its fabric. Now the galaxies can form and rotate without the need for dark matter. Does dark matter even exist? I think not. Now we have to get rid of negative gravity and dark energy and the job will be finished. Full speed ahead! Curve A is the expected rotational speed of stars in a galaxy, Curve B is the observed speed, and curve C is the rotational speed of planets in the solar system shown for comparison. The illustration above is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GalacticRotation.png#file and is under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License 1 Astronomical Journal, Vol #270, 1983. 2 Physical Review, p. 3125, 2004. Stewart's Skybox By Stewart Meyers Since August is traditionally a hot month, I thought that I would discuss something quite cold - comets. I had discussed comets in the first Skybox column (September 2005) when I discussed the Deep Impact mission. Turns out that comets have been back in the news recently, hence this updating. DEEP IMPACT REVISITED Recently, there have been some new discoveries from the analysis of last summer's Deep Impact mission. No, they never found any image of the impact crater, but the new information is interesting. Using refined measurements as well as x-ray images from the Swift satellite, the estimate of water vapor released from the impact has been revised upward to 250,000 tons and the water vapor cloud lasted for 12 days, far longer than the visible light debris cloud did. Swift, a satellite designed mainly for studying gamma ray bursts outside our galaxy was able to make this measurement was because the water vapor in the debris cloud interacted with the solar wind and gave off x-rays which Swift could detect. Since the intensity of the solar wind was known, the intensity of the x-ray emission could be used to determine the amount of water vapor. In addition to finding more water vapor than expected, it was also discovered that the vapor was the mostly result of the evaporation of ice-covered grains of material, not from ice directly vaporized in the impact. And Swift is not the only space telescope that helped study the effects of the Deep Impact mission. The infrared Spitzer Space Telescope got in on the act too. Carey Lisse and a team from Johns Hopkins University used the imaging spectrometer on the Spitzer to analyze the debris cloud. They found substances never before observed in comets, such as carbonates, clays, metallic sulfides (sulfur-metal compounds), silicates, as well as the expected organic compounds including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (the gunk you see on a barbecue grill is a common Earthly example). The clays and carbonates were the biggest surprises since it has been thought that those substances required liquid water to form, something that one does not find on comets. Perhaps there is a way to form clays and carbonates using water ice. Some the silicates were also a bit of a surprise, but this will be discussed in the section on the Stardust mission, since it has the more convincing evidence. While on the subject of comet composition, it seems that the successful "dirty snowball" model of comet nuclei put forth in 1950 by the late Fred Whipple may need some revision. Prior to Deep Impact, it was thought that comet nuclei were mostly ice with an outer crust of rocks, dust, and carbon compounds. With the results of the mission as well as information from other telescopes that watched the impact, it now appears that the phrase "icy dirtball" would be more accurate since it now appears that ices and non-ice components are reasonably well mixed in a comet nucleus, even though there are areas where ice is dominant. Three of these were found on images taken by the Deep Impact flyby craft. In the NASA image below, the icy patches are blue. Finally, just as in Hollywood where a successful film prompts talk of sequels, there has been talk of sequels to the Deep Impact mission. Currently, there are two proposals. One is DeepR which involves building an exact copy of the Deep Impact spacecraft and sending it to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the same comet that the ESA's Rosetta mission is heading for. The plan calls for both the flyby craft and Rosetta probe to observe the impact. The second proposal is much simpler. Known as DIXI (Deep Impact eXtended Investigation), it only uses the flyby craft from the original Deep Impact mission and would involve a flyby of Comet Boethin in 2008. NASA will likely decide which proposal to go with this coming September. If I had to bet on the outcome, I would think that DIXI would be the likely winner. DUST IN THE SOLAR WIND In January 2006, the reentry capsule from the Stardust mission made a perfect landing in Utah. When Stardust flew past Comet Wild 2, it put a paddle-shaped device into the path of dust particles from the comet. On the device were sample collectors each equipped with a piece of aerogel. Aerogel is a sponge-like mass of silica that looks like smoke. While aerogel is normally used as insulation, on Stardust, it fulfilled the same function as the stuff police fire guns into when they want to do a ballistics test - slow a high speed object down and keep it intact. After the (continued on page 10 Stewart's Skybox) Stewart's Skybox (continued from page 9) capsule containing the sampling paddle returned to Earth, the aerogel sample collectors were removed and these were later studied by scientists and amateurs alike in a program called "Stardust-@Home" patterned after the popular SETI@Home program). And the Stardust mission did not disappoint. There were plenty of surprises. (Ed. Note: The Stardust@Home project finally launched on August 1st,) At first, mission scientists thought that they would capture only about a few thousand particles at most. After initial examination, the figure is estimated to be close to a million. While the Deep Impact mission has shown that comets can contain carbonates, clays, and hydrocarbon compounds, few of these particles have been found in the samples so far. But what has been found are particles of olivine (an iron compound), spinel, and pyroxene. What makes this odd is that those particles are considered to be made of minerals that have very high melting points and would most likely have formed in the inner parts of the solar system. Comets are generally believed, due to the amount of ice and carbon compounds they contain, to have formed in the outermost regions of the solar system. The question is how those high-temperature minerals got to the comet. Currently, there are a few theories. One states that the minerals did form in the inner solar system, but were ejected to the outer solar system where comets were forming. Studies of protostellar disks show that this is not too farfetched as stellar winds and jets have been observed that would be capable of such a feat. Another theory claims that a passing star in the early days of the solar system heated the comet formation area enough to allow for the minerals to form. However, that heat would also drive away the ices and other cold compounds that form the comet. Or possibly the minerals were already part of the molecular cloud from which the solar system would eventually form. Don't expect this to be sorted out real soon. Also, Stardust managed to collect some interstellar material with the collectors on the other side of the paddle. So far, few details about those particles have been released. THAT'S THE WAY THE COMET CRUMBLES This story starts back in 1995 when Comet 73P Schwassman-Wachman underwent a violent outburst that shattered the nucleus into four large pieces. When the comet returned to the inner solar system in 2001, two chunks survived and functioned as miniature comets. So, astronomers were quite confident that the 2006 return would feature them again. However, what actually happened was a different story. The two chunks did indeed return, but were not long for this solar system. After some initial promise, the chunks were rapidly crumbling into even smaller chunks. In fact, some of the images of these fragments taken through professional instruments look eerily like the trail of fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL-9) that hit Jupiter 12 years ago this July. However, SL-9 broke up as the result of tidal effects of Jupiter's gravity while the comet in 2006 broke up on its own from the stress of solar heating. As the spring continued, the fragments of Comet 73P Schwassman-Wachman crumbled further, got smaller, and eventually faded into dust and oblivion. The comet was no more. FROM THE DEATH OF COMETS However, the demise of comets can be quite instructive. University of Arizona astronomers Erik Aspaugh and Willy Benz modeled the breakup of comets like SL-9 on computer and found that the models only matched reality when the nucleus had a density of 0.6 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3). Less dense and the comet turns into a trail of dust. Denser than this, the chunks tend to reassemble. This shows that comets are not solid ice-dust mixtures which would have densities around 1.5 g/cm3 and confirms the density of Comet Tempel 1 that was deduced from the Deep Impact mission. Even with a good estimate of the density of comet nuclei, as well as images of several examples, there is still the question of (Continued on page 15 Stewart's Skybox) Exploring Mars, the Search for Life, and a Journey in 3-D By Dr. Ken Kremer (Ed. Note: Here's an advance peek at what's in store for us when Dr. Kremer makes his presentation at our October General Meeting.) At the AAI General Meeting on October 20, 2006, Dr. Ken Kremer, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, will present "Exploring Mars, the Search for Life, and a Journey in 3-D": A comprehensive review of the ongoing NASA Rover Mission to Mars covering the explorations and adventures of "Spirit" and "Opportunity" from launch to the latest news, as they have journeyed many miles across the surface of Mars. Ken was a member of the four-person international team credited with a "Spirit" cover on the November 14, 2005 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine. The pan (shown on page 10) was also selected as "Astronomy Picture of the Day" on November 28, 2005 and has appeared in numerous other publications. Both pictures are used with permission. (Ed note: See an interactive panorama of Spirit on Husband Hill via the AAI website at www.asterism.org, Click Other Links > Educational Sites, then select "Mars QuickTime Virtual Reality Viewer".) Reminder: If you have any astronomy-related presentation that you could give on a Friday evening, please send your title and preferred date to Ray Shapp at ray@asterism.org Please consider subscribing to the two free Yahoo discussion groups that have been established for the private use of AAI members. Send an email to Ray Shapp at ray@asterism.org for an invitation that makes joining easy. Meet Dr. Lew by Leticia Shapp This is the first of what I hope to be a continuing series of articles in which I become acquainted with some of the many talented and accomplished AAI members. Dr. Lewis Thomas is a life member of AAI who has been in this club since September 1957. Dr. Lew is married to Jean Thomas and, together, their three children, Bart, Jim, and Dwight, have presented them with six grandchildren. After high school in Kingston, Pennsylvania, Dr. Lew earned a BS in electrical engineering at Cornell University and a master's at the New Jersey Institute of Technology when it was still called Newark College of Engineering. He earned a doctorate in general physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s and a PhD in astronomy from the University of London in the 1990s. Dr. Lew's military service included a landing on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion. He was deployed off an LST into eight feet of water. Dr. Lew is not eight feet tall, therefore, he quickly sank to the bottom. He survived by pushing off the ocean floor to get a series of quick breaths as he advanced. He said the good news was that, "if they couldn't see me they couldn't shoot me". He ended his three and a half years of service with the rank of Sergeant. Dr. Lew worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill for many years during which time he helped develop the first digital phone system. It used some of the first transistor circuits which had been newly invented at Bell Labs. He also contributed to the development and initial operation of the Telstar Satellites. More recently, Dr. Lew taught on the faculty of the Physics and Engineering Department at Union County College. With Dr. Karl Hricko and George Lewycky, he was granted time on the Hubble Space Telescope in 1992-93. In addition to enjoying an avid interest in astronomy, Dr. Lew also likes camping, ping pong and chess. At the end of the interview I asked Dr. Thomas if he had any advice for young students like me. His answer was simply, "Keep studying, and don't give up!" Thank you Dr. Thomas I will! Exploring Mars (continued from page 11) The Mars Rover Spirit, high on a Martian mountaintop 50 million miles from Earth, takes a Navcam self-portrait along with mosaic of the summit terrain and the sides of Husband Hill sloping to the distant Gusev crater floor. Spirit drove for 3 miles and two years across the distant plains at rear, to reach and climb the mountain. NASA/JPL monochromatic Navcam imagery merged and color-coded by Marco Di Lorenzo, Douglas Ellison, Bernhard Braun and Kenneth Kremer using JPL/Cornell Pancam data. Reprinted by permission of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine. Prescience (Continued from page 6 ) the evidence for yourself on the website. Unfortunately for Poe, Eureka was not taken very seriously at the time. Part of the problem was Poe's lack of scientific background or credentials as well as his limited education (the closest he came to higher learning was a stint at West Point until he was expelled). Then there was Poe's attitude. During his time at a literary magazine, Poe wrote numerous scathing reviews of authors he thought were no-talents. This managed to alienate many in the literary community and gave Poe a rather bad reputation. And of course, he held a very dim view of the intelligence of the American public, sort of like H.L. Mencken had almost a century later. LIKE APOLLO BUT A CENTURY EARLY Probably one of the first authors who wrote what we could call science fiction was Jules Verne. And he also had quite a knack for predicting things in the future. Many (evidently including the U.S. Navy) believed that "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" foretold the nuclear submarine since the Nautilus was said to require a special substance mined on an island in order to run. And his most predictive story "Paris in the 20th Century" (which predicted the fax machine, among other things) was rejected by Verne's publisher as being too far-fetched, even by Verne's standard. But the story that will be discussed here is "From the Earth to the Moon" published in 1865. The vehicle used by the space travelers was the Columbiad. It was a capsule made mostly out of aluminum, an exotic wonder material of that era, like carbon nanotube composite is in our time. But Verne made the right choice since aluminum is a major component of modern spacecraft for the same reasons Verne chose it - it is an extremely light metal. However, Verne either ignored or was unaware of atmospheric friction and there was no mention of any sort of thermal protection system on the Columbiad. Even though Jules Verne never thought of rockets having sufficient power to launch a space vehicle (this was about 25 years before Konstantin Tsiolkovsky would first describe space rockets), he did mention that the Columbiad was equipped with maneuvering thrusters for use in space, like modern spacecraft. Then there is the shape of the Columbiad itself. It is always depicted as having a blunt shape like an artillery shell, not the gumdrop shape that the Apollo capsules and the recently proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) have, but it is very similar in shape to the descent modules of the Russian Soyuz and Chinese Shenzhou capsules, as illustrated by a comparison between Columbiad and Shenzhou below (not to scale). While the method Verne's astronauts used to leave the Earth, having their capsule shot out of an enormous cannon, was way off target, many other aspects in the story were extremely predictive. For instance, the launch site is located in Florida, not too far from the present-day Kennedy Space Center. While this might seem to be a lucky guess, it wasn't. Verne wrote that the organizers of the mission had a debate over the launch site between Florida and Texas, much like Congress had in the early days of spaceflight. Florida wound up being chosen for the same reason it was in reality - latitude. When a rocket is launched, it is generally sent on an easterly path. The reason for this is to take advantage of the Earth's rotation to gain a little extra velocity. And since the Earth rotates as a solid body, this velocity gain is larger the closer you get to the equator (which is why the (Continued on page 14 Prescience) Prescience (continued from page 14) European Space Agency has their launch site in South America). Verne's astronauts were Americans and Verne knew that Florida was as far south as the United States went in those days. In space, the astronauts on board the Columbiad pass the time by performing some scientific experiments - an activity that their real-life modern counterparts also do. But the resemblance to a modern flight doesn't stop there. The Columbiad flight plan called for it to fly around the Moon and then head back to Earth. In NASA jargon, this is called a free-return trajectory and those who remember Apollo 13 (the actual mission or the Ron Howard film) know that this was the trajectory the crew had to get their crippled spacecraft back on to return home. And, foreshadowing what would become standard procedure in the Apollo missions, the Columbiad crew made observations of the Moon as they flew around it, though their attempt to study the unlit portion of the far side of the Moon was less than successful. Finally, Verne ends the mission by having the Columbiad splash down in the Pacific near Hawaii, where it and the crew are recovered by a specifically designated vessel. Again this is quite similar to how the actual Apollo missions went. About the only difference was that the real- life U.S. Navy recovery teams found the Apollo capsules much quicker than Verne's recovery team found the Columbiad. THE 20TH CENTURY AND BEYOND As the 20th century began, astronomers used the then-new techniques of astrophotography and spectroscopy to learn more about the planets as well as objects far beyond the solar system. Improvements in physics, coupled with the new information, gradually built up the picture of the universe as the century wore on. Science fiction had to adapt to the changing times. Starting with writers like H.G. Wells, science fiction shifted more towards plot advancement and away from the science-explaining style of Jules Verne. Also, stories set in the solar system got fewer and either incorporated the new views of the planets or they ignored the facts and were either pulp adventure fantasies, humorous diversions, or - in the case of "War of The Worlds" - social commentary disguised as a space adventure. Authors who wanted to use exotic alien worlds and beings were soon forced to set their tales outside the solar system and come up with imaginary technologies to get their protagonists to these destinations. As a result, science fiction grew less predictive about space science. However, some authors concentrated their stories, not so much on distant worlds, but on extrapolations of the technologies and social trends of the day which examined their possible social impact. These stories have yielded a number of predictions, but are outside the scope of this article. The advent of film, radio, and later television also changed science fiction. While the demands and constraints of the media pretty much limited scientific accuracy (the British "Star Cops" series was probably the most scientifically accurate science fiction TV series in history and, at only nine episodes, one of the shortest), with many productions having at least some fantasy elements (exotic propulsion schemes, humanoid aliens, etc.), as well as running the gamut from totally ridiculous to reasonable-enough-to-overlook-the-implausible-bits. And like recent print science fiction, much of the good media science fiction focused on social issues, which excused some of the space science errors. AND BACK TO THE PAST Returning to the main topic of this article, the thinkers and authors of the 18th and 19th centuries, it is amazing to see how much those people got right considering the typical professional astronomer of those days was worse equipped than most members of AAI. Also, much of physics as well as the physical nature of the planets and the rest of the universe was not yet discovered. But, despite the obstacles, they predicted many things about space science, or maybe it was their writings that inspired later generations of space scientists and inventors to make those visions reality. Perhaps it was a bit of both. . Observing in Florida (Continued from page 7) Over the next month, I observed so many other objects, such as M13, M5. M4 was so high up, I had no need to look for it down by the horizon, M92, M 68, M6, M7, M17, M22, M28, M27, M57, M84, M86, and many more galaxies, double stars, and planetary nebulae plus Jupiter's Red Spot and Red Spot, jr. What I'm enjoying about observing in Florida are the things I mentioned previously, steady skies, great horizons, and some of my favorite objects and constellations at a higher, more favorable condition in the sky. The next thing for me is to start exploring other dark-site areas of Florida, and to check out Chiefland Astronomy Village, especially in the Fall when the transparency improves. The negative things I was warned about in Florida were alligators, large flying bugs, mosquitoes, snakes, and hot hazy humid weather. So far, I haven't seen one alligator or snake but I guess if I observe next to some lake or in high grass, I may find one. The mosquitoes haven't bothered me, not one bite since I've been here, and over the last six weeks we have had clearer skies with less humidity than many places in the Northeast. I myself find the weather to be very enjoyable. If you're thinking of moving to Florida and have questions about observing here, please email me at ERossi40@aol.com. Stewart's Skybox (continued from page 10) AAI On TV whether comet nuclei are rubble piles of boulder-sized chunks of ice, dust, and rock or are aggregates of much smaller particles. This might come closer to being resolved when the Rosetta mission and its lander arrive at their destination in 2014. GENIUS IN FRANCE? It sometimes seems that comets have a way of drawing crazy people out of the woodwork. The crumbling remnants of Comet 73P Schwassman-Wachman, as well as a crop circle, UFO books, and some religious mumbo jumbo, evidently inspired Eric Julien, a former French air-traffic controller and airport manager, to warn that the Earth was in serious danger from pieces of the comet impacting the planet on or around May 25th. The appointed date came and went with nothing happening, not surprising since the chunks were millions of miles from Earth and would soon crumble away to dust. Turns out Julien's powers of prediction did not do him much good since he could not foresee getting into trouble with the French police for faking his disappearance after the prediction failed to come to pass, which he blamed on space aliens blasting the chunks with their weapons. At least nobody killed themselves in this bit of cometary insanity. CBS-TV News interviewed members of our club in connection with a piece about the purported contribution of jet engine contrails to global warming. The piece titled, "Sky Graffiti Warming Up Earth?" aired on Saturday July 29th. It is currently viewable at http://cbstv.com Archives move, therefore, if you don't find it there, Google for it using the full title in quotes. H-R Diagram (continued from page 4) In summary, the H-R diagram has a role in the following areas: " A method of classifying stars. " A means of tracking stellar lives from birth to death. " Contributes to the study of variable stars. " A means of determining stellar distances. " In studies of Milky Way structure. " In studies of open and globular clusters. Of course, as amateur astronomers, we typically mainly concern ourselves with observing and imaging astronomical phenomena. However, for professional astronomers and astrophysicists, the H-R diagram is a veritable Rosetta Stone of stellar mysteries. MEMBERSHIP DUES Regular Membership: $21 Sustaining Membership: $31 Sponsoring Membership: $46 Family Membership: $5 Sky & Telescope: $32.95 Astronomy subscription: $34 First Time Application Fee: $3 Dues can be paid to the Club Treasurer or Membership Chairperson at the Observatory. DR. LEW'S SEMINARS Some of the topics for upcoming seminars include: " Do Kepler's Laws work for the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn? " How many years elapse between successive planetary line ups? " How far away is the horizon? FRIDAYS AT SPERRY August 4, 2006 Astronomy Through the Ages Dr. Lew Thomas August 11, 2006 Building the Perrineville Observatory Clif Ashcraft August 18, 2006 Behind The Scenes At The Palomar Observatory (includes video) Alan Midkiff August 25, 2006 The Heart of a Comet Mike Luciuk All schedules above were accurate at time of publication. Please check www.asterism.org for latest information (click on "Club Activities") CLUB EMAIL ADDRESSES editor@asterism.org Editor of The Asterism membership@asterism.org AAI Membership Chair trustees@asterism.org All three Trustees of AAI exec@asterism.org Executive Committee ray@asterism.org Ray Shapp for the website SPECIAL THANKS Logo for Asterism, Summer Edition credit: Justin Shapp Theater In The Sky by Ron Ruemmler August 2006 is a quiet month for primetime planet watchers. Jupiter, starting to fall toward the southwest horizon, is now the only major evening planet. Look for the dim binocular double star Zubenelgenubi, the brightest star in Libra, the Scales, a few degrees to the left of Jupiter. The Giant Planet moves toward this star all month heading toward a lovely conjunction in September. Jupiter starts the month 90 degrees from the Sun, making its eclipses with its satellites especially dramatic in a telescope. Be sure to look off to the left of Jupiter for Scorpius, the Scorpion. Six bright stars comprise the kite-shaped head, claws and body of the creature, with orange Antares at its heart. Only in August are these stars high enough in primetime to allow the magnificent tail to clear the southern horizon. Scorpius is one of the few constellations to truly resemble what it is meant to represent. As you might expect, with nothing going on in the evening sky, the morning sky is packed with interesting events. Mercury, Venus, and Saturn perform an amazing ballet. For the first week of the month, Mercury jumps up toward Venus. They never meet, but for the following two weeks they fly in formation with Mercury just three degrees to the lower left of much brighter Venus. Then Saturn flies past the other two planets so fast that both conjunctions are only impressively close as viewed from the eastern hemisphere. Saturn and Venus are only 0.08 degrees apart at 7:00 PM EDT on the 26th, but we can't see them in the evening since they would be below the Sun. We have to settle for a quick switch in positions on adjacent mornings. If you find yourself awake at 5:45 AM on the 22nd, be sure check the eastern horizon. To the lower left of brilliant Venus find the very thin crescent Moon. Saturn will be just to the lower right of the Moon and Mercury will be the same distance to the lower left of Saturn. Binoculars help since the sky is already getting bright. If you have never seen Mercury, this is an opportunity not to be missed. Late night planet watchers can bring out the telescopes and check out Uranus and Neptune, both of which are high in the southern sky around midnight. Mars is now deep in solar glare and will not be easily visible again until late November in the morning. AUGUST SKY CALENDAR 1 Tue 9:00 PM Moon lower right of Jupiter 2 Wed 4:45 AM First Quarter Moon 2 Wed 8:00 AM Jupiter at quadrature; 90 degrees from the sun 4 Fri 9:00 PM Moon lower left of Antares; occultation visible south of Africa 7 Mon 5:00 AM Mercury near greatest elongation from the rising Sun 7 Mon 7:00 AM Saturn passes beyond the Sun into the morning sky 9 Wed 6:55 AM Full Moon 10 Thu 5:00 AM Mercury at minimum distance, 2.2 degrees, below Venus (tie*) 11 Fri 1:00 AM Neptune at opposition from the Sun; visible (in telescopes) all night 11 Fri 5:00 AM Mercury at minimum distance, 2.2 degrees, below Venus (tie*) 12 Sat 4:00 AM Perseid Meteor Shower ruined by bright Moon 15 Tue 9:52 PM Last Quarter Moon 18 Fri 5:30 AM Mercury at maximum brightness, lower left of Venus 21 Mon 5:00 AM Venus below crescent Moon and upper right of Saturn and Mercury 22 Tue 5:45 AM Close grouping of Venus, Saturn, Mercury, and Moon (see text) 23 Wed 3:09 PM New Moon 26 Sat 5:30 AM Venus half a degree upper right of Saturn 27 Sun 5:30 AM Saturn half a degree upper right of Venus 31 Thu 6:56 PM First Quarter Moon (second one this month) *Note: the actual quasi-conjunction between Mars and Venus occurs at 5:00 PM EDT on the 10th. It is listed twice, 12 hours on each side of the true time.