FROM THE PRESIDENT Bill Hanagan

Vol. 55, No. 3, March, 2010

Each issue of FOCUS is full of useful hyperlinks. Just clickon any graphic or telltale blue web address and your browsershould take you to additional linked web resources.

An ABSTRACT for this Month’s Meeting Topic:“Optical Problems in, and How toTest, Your Telescope” appears on page 7of this issue of FOCUS.

(A Seminar in Two Parts--Part 2 Will Be Presented in Next Month’s Meeting)Speaker: William D. Hanagan, Jr., Ph.D

DAS President and Mt. Cuba Technical Associateat the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Observatory

Next Meeting – March 16, 2010 at 8:00 PM~ Optical Problems in, and How to Test, Your Telescope ~

While I appreciate the beauty of a fresh snowfall asmuch as anyone else (that is, when I don’t have to drive init), the unusually heavy and frequent snowfalls this winterhave certainly cut back my observing and astrophotographytime. For me, observing is like a mini-vacation: relaxing,reassuring, and rejuvenating. I miss that. Sooner or later,though, cloudy skies will have to give way to clear skies andwe will once again enjoy a starry night.

In February, snow-narrowed roads around MountCuba along with threatening weather forced the cancellationof the monthly meeting. The programs previously scheduledfor February and March have been pushed back to Marchand April. And, the mini-talks originally planned for April willnow be the main feature of the June meeting. We’re still inneed of a couple of mini-talks for June, so if you have one inmind, let me know.

March’s talk is (now) the first of a 2 part series by yourstruly entitled “Optical Problems in Telescopes and How to TestYour Telescope”. A detailed description appears on page 7.

The May dinner meeting will be held on Tuesday,May 18 at the Hilton Wilmington/Christiana with social hourbeginning at 6:00 P.M., dinner at 7:00 P.M., and the awardpresentations at 8:00 P.M. University of Delaware ProfessorDermot Mullan will follow as the featured speaker and he’ll betalking about our daytime star, THE sun. Entrée choices andother dinner meeting details appear on page 9 of the FOCUS.

I’d like to take a moment to thank new memberDiana Metzger, who reviewed a large number of banquetfacilities and discovered several practical options that wehave not considered in the past. Thanks to Diana, the DASwill be able to keep the cost of attending the dinner meetingfrom rising significantly over last year. Indeed, this year’scost is lower!

I’d also like to thank Sarah Baird for volunteering tocreate and maintain a DAS Facebook Page. It should bevery interesting to see how this develops over time.

I’d like to remind all of you to keep thinking aboutwhat YOU can do to make the DAS a better astronomy club.While we’ve had some volunteers step forward, more areneeded. We still need MSP supervisors for 2010 and thereare a number of projects such as searching out dark skysites, organizing special events, bringing snacks to themonthly meetings, and other projects that could all usesome extra help. Further, a good idea of your own is alwayswelcome, provided you’re willing to lead the charge!

Finally, I’ll note that a club works best when essen-tially all of its able-bodied members pitch in and help out inwhatever way they can. If you would like to lend a hand, callme at 302-239-0949. I’m sure we can come up with some-thing interesting that you can do to help the DAS.

Clear Skies! Bill

Annual Dinner MeetingMay 18th--BE THERE!

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NEW

UPCOMING “PUBLIC NIGHTS” at the Mt. CUBA OBSERVATORY...

Date Host Title of Presentation

March 22 Scott Jackson “The rising and settingtimes of our sun (and why the shortest day of the year isthe same day as the latest sunrise or earliest sunset)”

Date Host Title of Presentation

May 3 Scott Jackson “Evolution of Galaxies”May 17 TBA “TBA”June 14 Don Wilson “Solar System”June 28 Judi Provencal “TBA”

The Mt. Cuba Observatory Public Nights continue year round! In addition tolearning about many aspects of the heavens, you’ll have a chance to visit and view our all-digital full-dome planetarium. You can pick up a schedule when you next come to ameeting or get the latest updated version off the website at: http://MountCuba.org.Programs are presented on Monday nights at 8pm. Please check the website for pro-grams planned for full details and updates.

The most recent schedule at the time of FOCUS’ publication appears below.

MCAO PUBLIC NIGHTS Hank Bouchelle

Member Star Party (MSP) Program for 2010 Bill Hanagan

February’s MSP dates were all given a No-Go dueto bad weather.

David “Gus” Swartout is the MSP supervisor for thethird lunar cycle of the year (March). The plan for the MarchMSP is to hold a Messier “Half-Marathon” (Part A) at Gus’sElk River site south of Elkton. Unfortunately, the grounditself has been too soft for observing due to the meltingsnowpack, so the first two potential dates, March 5 and 6,have already been designated No-Go dates. March 19 and20 are still open. If neither of these dates work, all of theMSP dates in May become backups for the Messier Half-Marathon (Part A). The second Messier Half-Marathon (PartB) is planned for the MSP cycle occurring in late October /early November.

Bill McKibben has created an Excel spreadsheetwith a recommended observing sequence for the two HalfMarathons (Parts A and B) as well as some suggestions ofMessier Objects to check out each month of the year. Thatspreadsheet should be accessible in the DAS Yahoo Groupfile area by the time you read this.

Mars is shrinking quickly but will still be worth a lookduring March. Saturn will reach opposition on March 22 andwill be well positioned for observing in both March and April.

April’s MSP supervisor is Bill McKibben and thepotential MSP dates are April 9, 10, 16, and 17. If theweather is good for April 9 or 10, we’ll hold the MSP atMCAO or another nearby site of Bill’s choosing. However, ifthe weather delays the MSP until April 16 or 17, we’ll move itto Tuckahoe State Park and hold it in conjunction with theDelmarva Stargazers’ Stargaze Star Party. That way, ourmembers won’t have to choose between attending a DASfunction and attending the Stargaze. Also, this is a goodopportunity for DAS members who have never been to aregional star party to attend one nearby. See the story onpage 6 for more on the Delmarva Star Gaze.

Finally, you need to be signed up for the DAS YahooGroup to receive the scheduling announcements for theMSPs. A full description of the MSP program appears on theDAS website at http://DelAstro.org/ and in the December2009 issue of the FOCUS.

The Chart of MSP Potential Dates, Topics & Locations Appears on Pg. 6

April 12 Jack Fisher “The Sun”April 26 Rob Lancaster “Mysterious Records of

Ancient Astronomers”

Jupiter and Moons-- .Credit: Photo by DAS Member Ron Worden

Observing with the

Delaware Astronomical Society...

The DAS astrophotography special interest group (DASAP SIG) meets on Friday nights at 7:30pm every other month at Mt.Cuba regardless of weather. The SIG also meets for photo shootsscheduled on 1-2 day notice to synchronize with the weather.

The monthly meetings are informal and typicallyinclude the presentation of astrophotos taken by the membersalong with an extended question and answer period. Objectscommonly photographed include constellations, auroras, lunareclipses, and planetary photos, as well as a wide variety of deep-sky objects such as nebulae, galaxies, star clusters, etc. Thetopics discussed cover the entire gamut of astrophotography,from how to get started with a minimum of equipment, to polaraligning your telescope, all of the way to the fine points of usingauto-guiders and post-processing digital images.

You can get started in astrophotography with justyour current camera mounted on a tripod or a motorizedtelescope by taking wide field photographs of meteor showers,conjunctions, constellations, and star trails. As you move toprogressively fainter and smaller subjects, you’ll need betterequipment. Joining the AP SIG is a great way to learn whatequipment you’ll need and what works well before you spendyour money.

If you are interested in joining the AP SIG, just emailyour name, address, and phone number to me athanaganw?comcast?net (using “@” and “.” in place of ? and ?).

The DAS Amateur Telescope Making (ATM) SpecialInterest Group (SIG ) meets on evenings and weekends ac-cording to the availability of the members and the particularprojects that are underway. Currently the ATM SIG has a me-dium Dob building program under way. The general range ofactivities of the ATM SIG includes all manner of telescope mak-ing, mirror making, and the making of accessories for

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DAS Special Interest Groups for Photography and Telescope Construction...

DAS ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP Bill Hanagan

DAS AMATEUR TELESCOPE MAKING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP Bill Hanagan

telescopes and observing.Anyone interested in joining the ATM SIG should email

their name, address, and phone number to me athanaganw?comcast?net (using “@” and “.” in place of ? and?). Meeting dates are announced primarily by email, so if youare interested in telescope making, be sure to let me know!

The DAS also maintains a club observatory on the groundsof the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Observatory. The Sawin Observa-tory houses the club’s permanently mounted 12.5" reflecting tele-scope and a 17.5" Coulter Odyssey 2 Dobsonian telescope. Theyare for the use of club members once they are trained and checked-out in a simple operating procedure. Members who are interestedin becoming key holders of the Sawin Observatory should contactme at 239-1844 to arrange for training in the use of the facility.

One of the best advantages of being a member of theDelaware Astronomical Society is that all members have theprivilege of being trained to use and then borrow equipmentowned by the club for personal use. Currently, we havetwo scopes available for loan: a Celestron 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain, and a 6" Orion Sky-Quest XT6 Dobsonian reflec-tor. The loan is for at least a month. If you’re interested inchecking out either of these scopes, contact Tom Sidowskiat 239-1844.

LOANER TELESCOPES and SAWIN OBSERVATORY REMINDER Tom Sidowski

The next meeting of the AP SIG is scheduled forFriday, March 26 at 7:30 P.M. at Mt. Cuba. Please markyour calendars!

I don’t have a special topic planned for this meeting,so if anyone has a technical presentation they would like tomake on a topic related to astrophotography, this meetingwould be a good opportunity to do so.

As always, please consider submitting one or moreof your favorite astrophotos for publication in the FOCUS. Arecent photo is not required. You can email your photo(s) as.jpg files to our Focus editor, Joe Neuberger (jrneuberger@gmail.com).Please include a text file briefly describing how you madeeach photo (in Microsoft Word format) along with any by-linesor captions you would like Joe to use. If you would like, youcan write a more in-depth discussion to go with your photos.Joe can make a masterful layout, but if you would like tosuggest a layout of your own you can insert copies of yourphotos into the Word document to give him an idea what youwould like to see. Either way, don’t forget to attach a highresolution .jpg file to your email for each photo. Joe hasdone a great job improving the look of the FOCUS and addingrelevant links to take advantage of the fact that the FOCUS isnow on-line, but like all newsletter editors, he needs as muchmaterial as he can get from club members.

NEW

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DAS FORUM / E-MAIL SITE ON YAHOO Don Shedrick

This is a restricted e-mail service for use byDAS members for DAS purposes. To use this site,go to http://groups.yahoo.com; search for DelawareAstronomical Society; and click on the link that comesup. To join, you must have a Yahoo ID and password;if you don’t, you can register at this time by followingYahoo’s instructions. You will then be allowed to “Jointhe group” upon clicking in that box. You must thenregister for the DAS group and add your profile byclicking on “add new profile” and completing the form. When adding or editing your profile, you will needto enter your actual name in the “Real Name” box so youcan be identified as a DAS member so Don Shedrickcan approve your application to join the DAS group, andeveryone will know to whom they are communicating.Finally, specify your desired email address for delivery ofmessages. Note: you may choose to not have yourname and email address displayed to anyone other thanDAS members who are members of the Yahoo DASemail group.

For more detailed instructions, go to the DASwebsite under DAS Resource Links.

LIBRARY NEWS Glenn Bentley

MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS Bill McKibbonSKY & TELESCOPE will be processed by the

club for the first subscription year only. The publishershould then send renewal notices directly to thesubscriber at the club rate of $32.95. The subscribercan then pay the publisher directly.NOTE…if you receive a renewal notice for an amountother than $32.95, check to see if there are anyspecial offers included in the rate. Also check therenewal date printed on the magazine address label.These ‘special offers’ are likely to occur severalmonths prior to the renewal date. However, if you areapproaching your renewal date and have not receivedthe correct renewal notice, contact me and I willprocess the renewal through the club.

ASTRONOMY will continue to be processedby the club for all subscription years.

Please see the renewal form at the end of theFOCUS for additional renewal information.

MEMBERSHIP EXPIRATION NOTICES Bill McKibben

If you receive the FOCUS by email, you will benotified of your membership renewal by email. If youreceive the FOCUS in the mail and the mailing labelon the envelope containing your FOCUS is markedwith red marker, your membership is expiring or hasexpired. Please see the renewal form at the end ofthe FOCUS for additional renewal information. Alsosee the “Magazine Subscriptions” section in theFOCUS for information about subscription renewal.

For all those now using the Mt. Cuba LendingLibrary a hardy thanks. Please remember that thelending period is two months. If you’d like to keep thebook longer, please re-sign the log sheet.

MT. CUBA LENDING LIBRARY Paul Stratton

The PRESIDENT’SDAS BOARD MEETING AGENDA

7:00 p.m., March 16, 2010 In the Library at the Mt. Cuba Observatory

Board Votes to Honor Emil VolcheckThe Board of the Delaware Astronomical

Society has voted to rename the DAS Library in honorof Emil Volcheck.

I invite the membership to drop by the libraryafter the March meeting to review our astronomicalofferings.

Beyond the routine items, the following topics arealso up for discussion.

1) Finding new opportunities for doing sidewalk astronomy

2) Structured dues and other fundraising ideas

NEW

Observer’s Handbooks Bill McKibbonWe are now offering the Royal Astronomical

Society of Canada Observer’s Handbooks at the incred-ibly low price of $14.00. These handbooks offer anamazing level of scientific and astronomical knowledgefor an unbelievably low price. Contact your DAS Trea-surer today to reserve your copy before they are gone.

NEW

Earth’s Moon--Credit: Photo by DAS Member Ron Worden

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Messier 64 - “Black Eye Galaxy”Photo by DAS Member Rick Davis

· Can NASA help scientists answer all their questions?

· Do clouds make Earth warmer or cooler?

· Do aerosols make Earth warmer or cooler?

· Do the Sun’s natural cycles affect our climate?

· How much of the CO2 that humans produce can Earth clean out of the air?

· How will melting ice sheets affect massive ocean currents?

· How will climate change affect distribution of rain and snow fall?

· How high and how fast will sea level rise?

http://climate.nasa.gov

WEBSITE of the

MONTH

What is the bigdeal with carbon?

What can we doto help?

What is thegreenhouse effect?

What else do weneed to find out?

How do we know theclimate is changing?

What is happeningin the oceans?

Climate Kids has the Information!

ASTRO-PHOTO of the

MONTH

Spiral GalaxyM64 (NGC4826), in ComaBerenices--Messier 64 isthe famousBlack EyeGalaxy,sometimesalso called the“SleepingBeauty Gal-axy.” Theconspicuousdark structureis a prominentdust featureobscuring thestars behind.

NASA’s new Website helps young peopleunderstand climate change at http://climate.nasa.gov/kids/.

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DAS Member Star Party Potential Dates--Print, Clip, & Hang in a Prominant Place!--Then JOIN US!Look for updates to the MSP program on the DAS website at http://www.DelAstro.org.

2010 DAS Member Star Party Potential Dates, Topics & LocationsPotential

MSP Dates Special Topics and Notes Tentative Location

The Delmarva Star Gaze, officially known as the “Star Gaze XVI Star Party”, is a multi-night regional star partyrunning from April 15 to April 18, 2010. If you’ve never been to a regional star party, I highly recommend that you make theeffort to attend this one.

Overnight attendance for walk-in non-members is $15 per night. The cost goes down if you pre-register before March15. If you don’t like camping, the Holiday Inn Express in Easton is about 20 minutes away and the Best Western in Dentonis about 15 minutes away. DAS members and other amateur astronomers who don’t stay overnight may attend at nocharge. If you’re interested in driving down and back in one night, send an email to the DAS Yahoo Group a few days aheadof the Star Gaze and you may find others willing to ride along or even do the driving. I live in the Pike Creek area and thedrive time for me is about 90 minutes each way.

Please recognize that this is not an outreach event; you and your guests are expected to know and follow good starparty etiquette. In particular, arrive well before dark and park near the exit with your headlights facing out so you won’tdisturb observers on the field when you leave later that night. Also, be sure to bring a red flashlight. If at all possible, disablethe inside lights on your car before attending the Stargaze or tape over those lights with translucent red tape. Be sure tokick in a donation at the concession stand if you should have something to eat or drink. Finally, don’t forget to look up theDAS contingent, who normally camp near the north end of the observing field.

The Spring Delmarva Star Gaze for 2010 Bill Hanagan

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FOCUS uses plenty of photosin banners & elsewhere each issue, and

we want to use YOURS...not Hubble’s!!Photos need NOT be current.

Optical Problems in Telescopes & How to Test Your Telescope Bill Hanagan

ABSTRACT for this Month’s Meeting Topic:

So how about you?? HAVE ANY OLD or NEW ASTROPHOTOS?? PLEASE email to FOCUS editor (or tell us where they can be found on the web if your photos reside there)

Whether you use your telescope visually or acquireimages with a camera, the image obtained is always blurredto an extent that becomes obvious when you use enoughmagnification. Refer to the two photos at right. The sharpimage of Jupiter illustrates the very best view you can hopeto see through an 8” telescope with a 20% central obstruc-tion and perfect optics, while the blurred image shows thevery best view you can hope to see when the optics aredegraded by 1 wave of spherical aberration on the wavefront.Sadly, many telescopes that are advertised with glowingmarketing phrases actually suffer from a similar level ofoptical aberration.

Telescope users often blame poor image quality onthe atmospheric “seeing” or on the limited aperture of theirtelescope, without doing enough to rule out optical errorsinside the telescope. A wide assortment of optical errorssuch as spherical aberration (aka correction error), astigma-tism, pinching, misalignment, turned down edge, roughness,and thermal effects are frequently the real culprit and oftengo undetected.

Luckily, several types of optical errors can bereduced or eliminated without sending a telescope back tothe manufacturer. And, in Newtonian telescopes, astigma-tism and other defects introduced by the secondary mirrorcan be eliminated by replacing it at a relatively modest cost.

The first step to correcting an optical problem in yourtelescope is to test your telescope in order to identify andquantify the principal errors. Even if you can’t fix an opticalerror yourself and you don’t want to send the telescope backto the manufacturer to have the optics reworked, testing yourtelescope will still provide information that will enable you topredict the improvement in image quality that you mightexpect from a replacement telescope that is free of the opticaldefect in question.

Thus, to get the best possible images out of yourtelescope, you should know something about the optical errorsthat can affect it, how to test your telescope for the presence ofthose errors, and what you can do to correct the errors.

In this two part series, I’ll introduce some key opticalconcepts and review the various types of optical errors thatcan affect telescopes. I’ll also describe two dirt cheap teststhat can be used to identify and measure the optical errorsaffecting a telescope—the Ronchi eyepiece test and the startest. Both parts 1 and 2 will discuss a variety of measuresyou can take to correct the various optical defects you mightfind in your telescope

These photos are computer convoluted Hubble imagesintended to illustrate the effect of an 8" aperture and 1wave of spherical aberration.

0 Wave of Spherical Aberration

1 Wave of Spherical Aberration

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The awards committee is looking for nominations for both the Amateur Astronomer Award and theLuther Porter Educator Award.

The Amateur Astronomer Award is open to all DAS members. If you have identified a candidate from ourmonthly meetings or star parties please do not hesitate to nominate them.

The Luther J. Porter Educator Award honors an individual who has made a substantial contribution toastronomy education and/or awareness, as either a professional or as a dedicated amateur. Luther J. Porterwas a long-time member and devoted supporter of the DAS and served for many years as its Treasurer.

The awards are presented at the annual dinner meeting held in May. Nominations can be submitted toany of the Award Committee members; Bob Karcha, Bill McKibben and Gus Swartout.

Nominations Closing Soon for this Year’s“Porter Educator” & “Amateur Astronomer” Awards

COMMITTEE SEEKING FINAL NOMINATIONS FOR MAY PRESENTATIONS Gus Swartout

The DAS annual Messier Marathon will be held March 19th,with the back-up date on the 20th. We are trying somethingdifferent this year and holding two mini-marathons. Instead of anall-night event to find all 110 objects, we will have two scheduleddates; one in March, and the other in September. This way all theobjects in the night sky can be viewed without having to stay upinto the early morning hours.

The March event will take place at our dark-sky site on thebank of the Elk River in St. John’s Manor, just south of Elkton. Wewill have access to the cabin for hot/cold beverages, snacks, andrestrooms. All are welcome to this friendly event. Bring your scopeor binoculars. If you have neither, join me and we’ll work as a team.

Please don’t become intimidated if you have trouble findingthe objects. Everyone will be eager to lend a helping hand. Ihighly recommend Harvard Pennington’s book, The Year RoundMessier Marathon, published by Willmann-Bell. Harvard explainsin detail how to use the book’s charts along with your telescope’sfinder or telrad to locate all 110 objects. The DAS library has acopy you can sign out, and don’t forget, as a member of the DASyou can also use a loaner telescope.

As with all DAS star parties, the GO/ NO-GO is based onweather conditions and will be posted on the YAHOO user group.Sign up today!

Annual DAS Messier Mini-Marathon Gus Swartout

Directions to the DAS Dark Sky Site at 321 Casparus Way, St John’s Manor, Elkton, MD 21921:Traveling west on Route 40 toward Elkton, continue past the intersection with Route 213 for ½ miles, turn left onto

Landing Lane. Continue ½ mile and turn right onto Old Field Point Road. Follow Old Field Point Road for 5-¾ mile to theentrance to St. John’s Manor on the left-hand side of the road. Turn left onto Casparus Way. Follow for ¾ of a mile. 321 willbe on your left. Look for the signs.

Table of all Messier objects

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

May Dinner Meeting Entree Order & Reservation FormNAME: __________________________________________________________________________________

1. Chicken Entree $26.00 x__________ (number) = Amount $____________

2. Salmon Entree $26.00 x __________ (number) = Amount $ ____________

3. Vegetarian Entree $26.00 x __________(number) = Amount $____________ Total $_____________

Mail along with your check made out to DAS to: Bill McKibben, 27 Mary Jane Lane, Elkton, MD 21921

Due to a sizable increase in the cost per person at last year’s venue, the DAS Annual Awards Dinner will again see a new venue when the Tuesday, May 18th event is held at the Hilton Wilmington/Chris- tiana at 100 Continen- tal Drive in Newark.

This new location was found through the tireless of efforts of new

DAS member Diana Metzger. Through her efforts the cost ofthis year’s event is considerably less than last year’s andthe club thanks her. She made a thorough presentation forBoard action at theFebruary Directors’meeting and theHilton site waschosen over threeothers for its creativemenu, inclusions, lo-cation, ambiance andcost. The Board isconfident the members will find the new location fresh and exciting,as an extraordinary event is planned with cocktails andfellowship begining at 6:00pm with dinner to be served at7:00 and the awards ceremony at 8:00pm.

Directions to the facility appear below.The highlight of the evening will be the presentation

of our Porter Educator and Amateur Astronomer Awards

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New Location Announced for May Dinner Meeting~Speaker: Dermott Mullan of “DE Space Grant Consortium”~ Make Your Reservations NOW!

followed by our special guest speaker.We are excited to announce that

the speaker for this year’s Dinner Meeting is Dr. Dermott Mullan. Dr. Mullan is currently a professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bartol Re-

search Institute. He is also the Director ofthe Delaware Space Grant Consortium, and the Director ofthe NASA/EPSCoR program in Delaware. He has hadnumerous papers published, including his most recent book,Physics of the Sun: A First Course. The topic of Dr.Mullan’s talk will be the recent activity of our closest star,the Sun. This will be of interest to everyone because itdirectly affects everything in our daily lives, from climate tocommunications. Please make sure to contact Bill McKibbenand reserve your ticket today for this year’s exciting event.

There is a choice of two entrees plus a vegatarianselection and all entrees come with a Tossed Salad withchoice of dressings. Entrees are served with the Chef’’sChoice of Vegetables with either Chicken Cordon Bleu orSalmon with Champagne Dill Sauce and Tiramisu for des-sert. Cost to attend is $26.00, down from last year’s $33 to$36.50 prices. A pleasant surprise in today’s economy!

To register for the event, please fill out the reserva-tion form at the bottom of page 8 with your dinner choice(s)and send it along with a check to the Club’s Treasurer at theaddress listed on the form. You may also give your form andcheck to Treasurer McKibben at the next DAS meeting.

Please join fellow members of DAS for this annualevening of fellowship and the presentation of our PorterEducator and Amateur Astronomer awards.

Dr. Dermott Mullan

Directions to May Dinner Meeting at Hilton Wilmington/Christiana

From the North: Follow I-95 South. TakeDelaware exit #4B (Churchman’s Road/Route 58). Bear right at the top of the exitramp and proceed on Churchman’s Roadto the fourth traffic light. Make a left ontoContinental Drive. The Hotel will be the firstdriveway on the left.

From the South: Follow I-95 North. TakeDelaware exit #4B (Route 7 North). Stay inthe right-hand lane and proceed to exit #166(Churchman’s Road/Churchman’s Crossing/Route 58). Turn right at the bottom of the exitramp, yielding onto Churchman’s Road.Follow to the second traffic light, and make aleft onto Continental Drive. The Hotel is thefirst driveway on the left.

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3D Sun for the iPhoneFebruary 17, 2010:

Imagine holdingthe entire sun in the palmof your hand. Now you can. A new iPhone app devel-oped by NASA-supportedprogrammers delivers alive global view of the sundirectly to your cell phone.Users can fly around thestar, zoom in on activeregions, and monitor solaractivity.

“This is more thancool,” says Dick Fisher,director of NASA’s Helio-physics Division in Wash-ington DC. “It’s transforma-tive. For the first time ever,we can monitor the sun asa living,breathing 3-dimen-sional sphere.”

The name of theapp is “3D Sun” and itmay be downloaded free of charge at Apple’s app store. Justenter “3D Sun” in the Store’s search box or visithttp://3dsun.org for a direct link.

Realtime images used to construct the 3-dimen-sional sphere are beamed to Earth by the Solar-TerrestrialRelations Observatory (STEREO), a pair of spacecraft with acombined view of 87% of the solar surface. STEREO-A isstationed over the western side of the sun, while STEREO-Bis stationed over the east. Together, they rarely miss a thing.Telescopes onboard the two spacecraft monitor the sun inthe extreme ultraviolet (EUV) portion of the electromagneticspectrum. “That’s why the 3D sun looks false-color green,”explains Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO program scientist atNASA Headquarters.

“These are not white-light images.”That’s okay because EUV is where the

action is. Solar flares and new sunspots shine brightly atthese wavelengths. EUV images also reveal “coronal holes,”vast dark openings in the sun’s atmosphere that spewstreams of solar wind into the solar system. Solar windstreams that hit Earth can spark intense displays ofNorthern Lights.

“Using this app, you can spin the sun, zoom in onsunspots, inspect coronal holes—and when a solar flareerupts, your phone plays a little jingle to alert you!”says Guhathakurta.

Indeed, many users say that’s their favorite part—thealerts. The app comes alive on its own when the sun growsactive or when interesting events are afoot. For example, arecent alert notified users that a comet just discovered bySTEREO-A was approaching the sun. When the comet wasdestroyed by solar heating, the app played a movie of CometSTEREO’s last hours.

Another remarkable aspect of the app is that itshows the far side of the sun—the side invisible from Earth.“This means sunspots cannot take us by surprise,”Guhathakurta points out.Recently, STEREO-B was monitoring a far side sunspot(AR1041) when the sunspot’s magnetic field erupted. For thefirst time in almost two years, an active region on the sunproduced a strong M-class1 solar flare. The unexpectedinterruption of the sun’s deep solar minimum was invisiblefrom Earth, but anyone with the 3D Sun had a ringside seatfor the blast.

3D Sun was created by a team of programmers ledby Dr. Tony Phillips, editor of Science@NASA. He says thatversion 1 of the app is just the beginning. Soon-to-be re-leased 3D Sun 2.0 will offer higher-resolution images andmultiple extreme ultraviolet wavelengths (preview). Theseadditions will reveal even more solar activity than before.

Stay tuned for updates.

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

3D Sun on the iPhone. You can spinthe sphere by flicking it and zoom in

by pinching the screen.

Representativescreenshots fromthe app—from leftto right, a promi-nence caught inmid-eruption bySTEREO-B, asample of the dailynews screen, and asungrazing cometmovie recorded bySTEREO-A.

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Cool Movie: SDO Destroys a Sundog

February 18, 2010: Last week, on Feb. 11th, the SolarDynamics Observatory (SDO) lifted off from Cape Canaveralon a five-year mission to study the sun. Researchers havecalled the advanced spacecraft the “crown jewel” of NASA’sheliophysics fleet. SDO will beam back IMAX-quality imagesof solar explosions and peer beneath the stellar surface tosee the sun’s magnetic dynamo in action.

SDO is designed to amaze—and it got off to a good start.“The observatory did something amazing before it

even left the atmosphere,” says SDO project scientist DeanPesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Moments after launch, SDO’s Atlas V rocket flewpast a sundog hanging suspended in the blue Florida sky

Above: SDO has a close encounter with a sundog. CLICK for MovieCredit: Anna Herbst of Bishop, California.

Sundogs areformed by therefractingaction ofplate-shapedice crystals.Image credit:Les Cowley/AtmosphericOptics.

and, with a rippling flurry ofshock waves, destroyed it.Click on the image at left tolaunch a video recorded by 13-year-old Anna Herbst atNASA’s Banana River viewingsite—and don’t forget to turn upthe volume to hear the reactionof the crowd.

“I couldn’t believe myeyes,” says Anna. “The shockwaves were so cool.” Annatraveled with classmate AmeliaPhillips three thousand milesfrom Bishop, California, towitness the launch. “I’m soglad we came,” says Amelia.“I’ve never seen anything like it!”

Sundogs are formedby plate-shaped ice crystals inhigh, cold cirrus clouds. As thecrystals drift down from the

sky like leaves fluttering from trees, aerodynamic forces tendto align their broad faces parallel to the ground. Whensunlight hits a patch of well-aligned crystals at just the rightdistance from the sun, voila!—a sundog.

“When the Atlas V rocket penetrated the cirrus,shock waves rippled through the cloud and destroyed thealignment of the crystals,” explains atmospheric opticsexpert Les Cowley. “This extinguished the sundog.

In the past, says Cowley, there have been anecdotalreports of atmospheric disturbances destroying sundogs—forinstance, “gunfire and meteor shock waves have beeninvoked to explain their disruption. But this is the first video Iknow of that shows the effect in action.”

The effect on the crowd was electric.“When the sundog disappeared, we started scream-

ing and jumping up and down,” says Pesnell. “SDO hit ahome run: Perfect launch, rippling waves, and a disappearingsundog. You couldn’t ask for a better start for a mission.”

SDO is now in orbit. “The observatory is doing greatas the post-launch checkout continues,” he reports. “We’llspend much of the first month moving into our final orbit andthen we’ll turn on the instruments. The first jaw-droppingimages should be available sometime in April.”

Believe it or not, Pesnell says, the best is yet to come.Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

KeepIYA 2009

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For those tuned-in to the Super Bowl, Bud Lightwas presented as the fuel of the party you’d have as theend of the world approaches, in “Asteroid”, a commercialshown during the game. At the Asteroid Alert Observatorya grim scientist announces that the approaching rock willdestroy the earth.

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“Asteroid Doomsday” Bud Light Super Bowl Ad 2010