August 2012 Volume 19 Number 02 Page 1

Star Gazer News

Newsletter of the Delmarva Stargazers www.delmarvastargazers.org

Prez comments… Hello Friends, It was great to see you all at the Stargazer's July picnic. The fam-ily and I had a great time and enjoyed seeing friends both old and new. I'd consider myself a fairly "rabid" observer, however over the last 4 weeks both work and weather have kept me indoors, but as August ap-proaches I'm looking forward to a break in both, and hope to take advan-tage of what the late summer sky has to offer. The Milky Way rises early and by August 1st should be due south around 10PM. Objects like the Tri-fid Nebula, Lagoon Nebula, and various star clusters should keep you busy for hours. Later in the evening the great square of Pegasus rises bring-ing us objects like the Andromeda galaxy, Triangulum Galaxy, among others. I hope to be at Blackbird and/or Tuckahoe on the clear moonless nights in August and hope you all can find the time to join me. Also, be sure to mark your calendars, as we will be holding an August meeting on the 7th of the month. Since the club typically does not meet in July and August, I thought it would be a nice change to host a movie night at the church. We'll be showing "The Journey to Palomar", which documents both the life of George Hale, as well as how the Yerkes, 100" and 200" tele-scopes came to be. It's a phenomenal story that you won't want to miss. See you all at the next meeting, and clear skies...

Upcoming Events: Meeting ! Aug 7th 7PM Smyrna Church Observing ! Aug 17, 18th Dusk Eq. Cntr & BBF

are pleased to announce the No Frills XVII Star Party.

When: Thurs., Oct. 11th through Sun., Oct. 14 2012. Where: Tuckahoe State Park's Equestrian Center near Queen Anne, MD. The registration fee includes the following: Camping fee for the observing area (campers are permitted to

park by their telescopes) — Star Gazer Coffee continuously —- Soup or chili on Thursday and Friday nights — Fish fry on Saturday afternoon —- Sodas and hot dogs will be available at minimal cost. For more info check the website for updates,

August 2012 Volume 19 Number 02 Page 2

Your 2011-2012 Officers Office Officer Phone email President Chuck Jennings 302-449-3330 chuckjennings33@yahoo.com President-elect Don Surles 302-653-9445 don.surles@verizon.net Secretary Doug Towner wpwoodworking@comcast.net Treasurer Kathy Sheldon 302-422-4695 Past President Lyle Jones 302-736-9842 worm1647@comcast.net

An excerpt from ASTRONOMICAL CURIOSITIES

FACTS AND FALLACIES

BY J. ELLARD GORE

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA ETC.

AUTHOR OF “ASTRONOMICAL ESSAYS,” “STUDIES IN ASTRONOMY,” “THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE,” ETC.

LONDON

CHATTO & WINDUS 1909

The Zodiacal Light and Gegenschein

ACCORDING to Gruson and Brugsch, the Zodiacal Light was known in ancient times, and was even worshipped by the Egyptians. Strabo does not mention it; but Diodorus Siculus seems to refer to it (B.C. 373), and he probably obtained his information from some Greek writers before his time, possibly from Zenophon, who lived in the sixth century B.C. Com-ing to the Christian era, it was noticed by Nicephorus, about 410 B.C. In the Koran, it is called the “false Aurora”; and it is supposed to be referred to in the “Rubáiyát” of Omar Khayyam, the Persian astronomical poet, in the second stanza of that poem (Edward Fitzgerald’s translation)—

“Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky, I heard a voice within the Tavern cry,

Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup, Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.”

It was observed by Cassini in 1668, and by Hooke in 1705. A short description of its appearance will be found in Childrey’s Britannia Baconica (1661). The finest displays of this curious light seem to occur between the middle of Janu-ary and the middle of February. In February, 1856, Secchi found it brighter than he had ever seen it before. It was yellowish towards the axis of the cone, and it seemed to be brighter than the Milky Way in Cygnus. He described it as “un grande spectacle.” In the middle of February, 1866, Mr. Lassell, during his last residence in Malta, saw a remark-able display of the Zodiacal Light. He found it at least twice as bright as the brightest part of the Milky Way, and much brighter than he had previously seen it. He found that the character of its light differed considerably from that of the Milky Way. It was of a much redder hue than the Galaxy. In 1874 very remarkable displays were seen in the neighbourhood of London in January and February of that year; and in 1875 on January 24, 25, and 30. On January 24 it was noticed that the “light” was distinctly reddish and much excelled in brightness any portion of the Milky Way. Humboldt, who observed it from Andes (at a height of 13,000 to 15,000 feet), from Venezuela and from Cumana, tells us that he has seen the Zodiacal Light equal in bright-ness to the Milky Way in Sagittarius.

(See Light on page 6)

August 2012 Volume 19 Number 02 Page 3

Fifth Moon Discovered Around Pluto July 13, 2012: A team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has dis-covered another moon orbiting the dwarf planet Pluto. They say the new moon, Pluto's 5th, is likely irregular in shape and 6 to 15 miles across. Provisionally designated S/2012 (134340) 1, it was detected in nine separate sets of images taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 on June 26, 27, 29, and July 7 and 9. The moon circles Pluto in a 58,000 mile-diameter orbit. “The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls,” notes team leader Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. The Pluto team is intrigued that such a small planet can have such a complex col-lection of satellites. The new discovery provides additional clues for unraveling how the Pluto system formed and evolved. The favored theory is that all the moons are relics of a collision between Pluto and another large Kuiper Belt object billions of years ago. (The Kuiper Belt is a broad zone of icy Pluto-like bodies orbiting beyond Neptune. Pluto it-self is considered to be a Kuiper Belt object.) The new detection will help scientists navigate NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft through the Pluto system in 2015, when it makes an historic and long-awaited high-speed flyby of the distant world. The team is using Hubble to scour the Pluto system to uncover potential hazards to New Horizons. Moving past the dwarf planet at a speed of 30,000 miles per hour, the spacecraft could be destroyed in a collision with even a BB-shot-size piece of orbital debris. “The discovery of so many small moons indirectly tells us that there must be lots of small particles lurking unseen in the Pluto system,” says Harold Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. “The inventory of the Pluto system we're taking now with Hubble will help the New Horizons team design a safer trajectory for the spacecraft,” adds Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., the mission’s principal investigator. Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, was discovered in 1978 in observations made at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Hubble observations in 2006 uncovered two additional small moons, Nix and Hydra. In 2011 another moon, P4, was found in Hubble

data. In the years following the New Hori-zons Pluto flyby, astronomers plan to use Hubble’s planned successor, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, for follow-up observa-tions. The Webb telescope's infrared vision will be able to measure the surface chemis-try of Pluto, its moons, and many other bod-ies that lie in the distant Kuiper Belt along with Pluto. For more information about New Hori-zons and its mission to Pluto visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips |

Credit: http://science.nasa.gov/

This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Tele-scope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. The green circle marks the newly discovered moon, designated P5, as photographed by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on July 7. The observations will help scien-tists in their planning for the July 2015 flyby of Pluto by NASA's New Horizons space-craft. P4 was uncovered in Hubble imagery in 2011. (Credit: NASA; ESA; M. Showalter, SETI Institute)

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How Many Discoveries Can You Make in a Month? By Dr. Tony Phillips

This year NASA has announced the discovery of 11 planetary systems hosting 26 planets; a gigantic cluster of galaxies known as “El Gordo;” a star exploding 9 billion light years away; alien matter stealing into the solar system; massive bullets of plasma racing out of the galactic center; and hundreds of unknown objects emitting high-energy photons at the edge of the electro-magnetic spectrum. That was just January. Within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, the Astrophysics Division produces such a list nearly every month. Indeed, at this very moment, data is pouring in from dozens of spacecraft and orbiting observatories. “The Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra, and Fermi space telescopes continue to make groundbreaking dis-coveries on an almost daily basis,” says NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. NASA astrophysicists and their colleagues conduct an ambitious research program stretching from the edge of the solar system to the edge of the observable Universe. Their work is guided in large part by the National Research Council’s Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics, which iden-tified the following priorities:

Finding new planets—and possibly new life—around other stars. Discovering the nature of dark energy and dark matter. Understanding how stars and galaxies have evolved since the Big Bang. Studying exotic physics in extreme places like black holes.

Observing time on Hubble and the other “Great Observatories” is allocated accordingly. Smaller missions are important, too: The Kepler spacecraft, which is only “medium-sized” by NASA standards, has single-handedly identified more than 2300 planet candidates. Recent finds in-clude planets with double suns, massive “super-Earths” and “hot Jupiters,” and a miniature solar system. It seems to be only a matter of time before Kepler locates an Earth-sized world in the Goldilocks zone of its parent star, just right for life. A future astrophysics mission, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be able to study the atmospheres of many of the worlds Kepler is discovering now. The telescope’s spectrometers can re-veal the chemistry of distant exoplanets, offering clues to their climate, cloud cover, and possi-bilities for life. That’s not the telescope’s prime mission, though. With a primary mirror almost 3 times as wide as Hubble’s, and a special sensitivity to penetrating infrared radiation, Webb is designed to look into the most distant recesses of the universe to see how the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang. It is, in short, a Genesis Machine. Says Bolden, “We’re on track in the construction of the James Webb Space Telescope, the most so-phisticated science telescope ever constructed to help us reveal the mysteries of the cosmos in ways never before possible.” Liftoff is currently scheduled for 2018. How long will the list of discoveries be in January of that year? Stay tuned for Astrophys-ics. For more on NASA’s astrophysics missions, check out http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/. Kids can get some of their mind-boggling astrophysics questions answered by resident Space Place astrophysicist “Dr. Marc” at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/dr-marc-space. This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technol-

ogy, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Bolden made these statements in an April 20th editorial he co-authored with John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy: http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/bolden/posts/post_1334967201693.html

Artist’s concepts such as this one are based on infrared spectrome-ter data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. This rendering de-picts a quadruple-star system called HD 98800. The system is ap-proximately 10 million years old and is located 150 light-years away in the constellation Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

August 2012 Volume 19 Number 02 Page 5

An Excerpt from The Book of the Dammed Charle Forte (1874-1932)

Halley's comet. Astronomy—"the perfect science, as we astronomers like to call it." (Jacoby.) It's my own notion that if, in a real existence, an astronomer could not tell one longitude from another, he'd be sent back to this purgatory of ours until he could meet that simple requirement. Halley was sent to the Cape of Good Hope to determine its longitude. He got it de-grees wrong. He gave to Africa's noble Roman promontory a retroussé twist that would take the pride out of any Kaffir. We hear everlastingly of Halley's comet. It came back—maybe. But, unless we look the matter up in contemporaneous records, we hear nothing of—the Leonids, for instance. By the same methods as those by which Halley's comet was predicted, the Leonids were pre-dicted. November, 1898—no Leonids. It was explained. They had been perturbed. They would appear in November, 1899. November, 1899—November, 1900—no Leonids. My notion of astronomic accuracy: Who could not be a prize marksman, if only his hits be recorded? As to Halley's comet, of 1910—everybody now swears he saw it. He has to perjure himself: otherwise he'd be accused of having no interest in great, inspiring things that he's never given any attention to. Regard this: That there never is a moment when there is not some comet in the sky. Virtually there is no year in which several new comets are not discovered, so plentiful are they. Luminous fleas on a vast black dog—in popular impressions, there is no realization of the extent to which this solar system is flea-bitten. If a comet have not the orbit that astronomers have predicted—perturbed. If—like Halley's comet—it be late—even a year late—perturbed. When a train is an hour late, we have small opinion of the predictions of timetables. When a comet's a year late, all we ask is—that it be explained. We hear of the inflation and arrogance of astronomers. My own acceptance is not that they are imposing upon us: that they are requiting us. For many of us priests no longer function to give us seeming rapport with Perfection, Infal-libility—the Positive Absolute. Astronomers have stepped forward to fill a vacancy—with quasi-phantomosity—but, in our acceptance, with a higher approximation to substantiality than had the attenuations that preceded them. I should say, myself, that all that we call progress is not so much response to "urge" as it is response to a hiatus—or if you want something to grow somewhere, dig out everything else in its area. So I have to accept that the positive assurances of astronomers are necessary to us, or the blunderings, eva-sions and disguises of astronomers would never be tolerated: that, given such latitude as they are permitted to take, they could not be very disastrously mistaken. Suppose the comet called Halley's had not appeared— Early in 1910, a far more important comet than the anæmic luminosity said to be Halley's, appeared. It was so brilliant that it was visible in daylight. The astronomers would have been saved anyway. If this other comet did not have the predicted orbit—perturbation. If you're going to Coney Island, and predict there'll be a special kind of a pebble on the beach, I don't see how you can disgrace yourself, if some other pebble will do just as well—because the feeble thing said to have been seen in 1910 was no more in accord with the sensational descriptions given out by astronomers in advance than is a pale pebble with a brick-red boulder. I predict that next Wednesday, a large Chinaman, in evening clothes, will cross Broadway, at 42nd Street, at 9 P.M. He doesn't, but a tubercular Jap in a sailor's uni-form does cross Broadway, at 35th Street, Friday, at noon. Well, a Jap is a perturbed Chinaman, and clothes are clothes. I remember the terrifying predictions made by the honest and credulous astronomers, who must have been themselves hypnotized, or they could not have hypnotized the rest of us, in 1909. Wills were made. Human life might be swept from this planet. In quasi-existence, which is essentially Hibernian, that would be no reason why wills should not be made. The less excitable of us did expect at least some pretty good fireworks. I have to admit that it is said that, in New York, a light was seen in the sky. It was about as terrifying as the scratch of a match on the seat of some breeches half a

August 2012 Volume 19 Number 02 Page 6

mile away. It was not on time. Though I have heard that a faint nebulosity, which I did not see, myself, though I looked when I was told to look, was seen in the sky, it appeared several days after the time predicted. A hypnotized host of imbeciles of us: told to look up at the sky: we did—like a lot of pointers hypnotized by a partridge. The effect: Almost everybody now swears that he saw Halley's comet, and that it was a glorious spectacle. An interesting circumstance here is that seemingly we are trying to discredit as-tronomers because astronomers oppose us—that's not my impression. We shall be in the Brahmin caste of the hell of the Baptists. Almost all our data, in some regiments of this procession, are observations by astronomers, few of them mere amateur astronomers. It is the System that opposes us. It is the System that is suppressing astronomers. I think we pity them in their captivity. Ours is not malice—in a positive sense. It's chivalry—somewhat. Unhappy astronomers looking out from high towers in which they are imprisoned—we appear upon the horizon.

As probably many people have never seen the “light,” a caution may be given to those who care to look for it. It is defined by the Rev. George Jones, Chaplain to the “United States’ Japan Expedition” (1853-55), as “a brightness that appears in the western sky after sunset, and in the east before sunrise; following nearly or quite the line of the ecliptic in the heavens, and stretching upwards to various elevations according to the season of the year.” From the description some might suppose that the light is visi-ble immediately after sunset. But this is not so; it never appears until twilight is over and “the night has fully set in.” The “light” is usually seen after sunset or before sunrise. But attempts have re-cently been made by Prof. Simon Newcomb to observe it north of the sun. To avoid the ef-fects of twilight the sun must be only slightly more than 18° below the horizon (that is, a little before or after the longest day). This condition limits the place of observation to latitudes not much south of 46°; and to reduce atmospheric absorption the observing station should be as high as possible above the level of the sea. Prof. Newcomb, observ-ing from the Brienzer Rothorn in Switzerland (latitude 46° 47' N., longitude 8° 3' E.), succeeded in tracing the “light” to a distance of 35° north of the sun. It would seem, therefore, that the Zodiacal Light envelops the sun on all sides, but has a greater ex-tension in the direction of the ecliptic. From observations at the Lick Observatory, Mr. E. A. Fath found an extension of 46° north of the sun. From observations of the “light” made by Prof. Barnard at the Yerkes Observatory during the summer of 1906, he finds that it extends to at least 65° north of the sun, a considerably higher value than that found by Prof. Newcomb. The difference may perhaps be explained by actual variation of the meteoric matter producing the light. Prof. J. H. Poynting thinks that possibly the Zodiacal Light is due to the “dust of long dead com-ets.” From careful observations of the “light,” Mr. Gavin J. Burns finds that its lumi-nosity is “some 40 or 50 per cent. brighter than the background of the sky. Prof. Newcomb has made a precisely similar remark about the luminosity of the Milky Way, viz. that it is surprisingly small.” This agrees with my own observations during many years. It is only on the finest and clearest nights that the Milky Way forms a conspicuous object in the night sky. And this only in the country. The lights of a city almost entirely oblit-erate it. Mr. Burns finds that the Zodiacal Light appears “to be of a yellowish tint; or if we call it white, then the Milky Way is comparatively of a bluish tint.” During my residence in the Punjab the Zodiacal Light seemed to me constantly visible in the evening sky in the spring months. In the west of Ireland I have seen it nearly as bright as the brightest portions of the Milky Way visible in this country (February 20, 1890). The “meteoric theory” of the “light” seems to be the one now generally accepted by astrono-mers, and in this opinion I fully concur.

(Light from page 2)

(More Light on page 7)

August 2012 Volume 19 Number 02 Page 7

From observations made in Jamaica in the years 1899 and 1901, Mr. Maxwell Hall ar-rived at the conclusion that “the Zodiacal Light is caused by reflection of sunlight from masses of meteoric matter still contained in the invariable plane, which may be consid-ered the original plane of the solar system.” According to Humboldt, Cassini believed that the Zodiacal Light “consisted of innumerably small planetary bodies revolving round the sun.” THE GEGENSCHEIN, or COUNTER-GLOW.—This is a faint patch of light seen opposite the sun’s place in the sky, that is on the meridian at midnight. It is usually elliptical in shape, with its longer axis lying nearly in the plane of the ecliptic. It seems to have been first detected by Brorsen (the discoverer of the short-period comet of 1846) about the middle of the nineteenth century. But it is not easy to see, for the famous Heis of Münster, who had very keen eyesight, did not succeed in seeing it for several years after Brorsen’s announcement. It was afterwards independently discovered by Backhouse, and Bar-nard. Prof. Barnard’s earlier observations seemed to show that the Gegenschein does not lie exactly opposite to the sun, but very nearly so. He found its longitude is within one degree of 180°, and its latitude about 1°·3 north of the ecliptic. But from subsequent observations he came to the conclusion that the differences in longitude and apparent latitude are due to atmospheric absorption, and that the object really lies in the eclip-tic and exactly opposite to the sun. Barnard finds that the Gegenschein is not so faint as is generally supposed. He says “it is best seen by averted vision, the face being turned 60° or 70° to the right or left, and the eyes alone turned towards it.” It is invisible in June and December, while in September it is round, with a diameter of 20°, and very distinct. No satisfactory the-ory has yet been advanced to account for this curious phenomenon. Prof. Arthur Searle of Harvard attributes it to a number of asteroids too small to be seen individually. When in “opposition” to the sun these would be fully illuminated and nearest to the earth. Its distance from the earth probably exceeds that of the moon. Dr. Johnson Stoney thinks that the Gegenschein may possibly be due to a “tail” of hydrogen and helium gases repelled from the earth by solar action; this “tail” being visible to us by reflected sunlight. It was observed under favourable circumstances in January and February, 1903, by the French astronomer, M. F. Quénisset. He found that it was better seen when the atmos-phere was less clear, contrary to his experience of the Zodiacal Light. Prof. Barnard’s experience confirms this. M. Quénisset notes that—as in the case of the Zodiacal Light—the southern border of the Gegenschein is sharper than the northern. He found that its brightness is less than that of the Milky Way between Betelgeuse and ? Geminorum; and thinks that it is merely a strengthening of the Zodiacal Light. A meteoritic theory of the Gegenschein has been advanced by Prof. F. R. Moulton, which explains it by light reflected from a swarm of meteorites revolving round the sun at a distance of 930,240 miles outside the earth’s orbit. Both the Zodiacal Light and Gegenschein were observed by Herr Leo Brenner on the evening of March 4, 1896. He found the Zodiacal Light on this evening to be “perhaps eight times brighter than the Milky Way in Perseus.” The “Gegenschein distinctly visible as a round, bright, cloud-like nebula below Leo (Virgo), and about twice the brightness of the Milky Way in Monoceros between Canis Major and Canis Minor.” Humboldt thought that the fluctuations in the brilliancy of the Zodiacal Light were probably due to a real variation in the intensity of the phenomenon rather than to the elevated position of the observer. He says that he was “astonished in the tropical cli-mates of South America, to observe the variable intensity of the light.”

(More Light from page 6)

August 2012 Volume 19 Number 02 Page 8

Send your articles and photos to: dmsg_pjr@yahoo.com ).

How to Join the Delmarva Stargazers: Anyone with an interest in any aspect of astronomy is welcome NAME______________________________________________________________New________Renew__________ ADDRESS_____________________________________________________________________________________ CITY, STATE & ZIP______________________________________________________________________________ E-MAIL ADDRESS (If any)_________________________________________________________________________ Do you need the newsletter snail mailed to you (Y/N)?___________________________________________________ Please attach a check for $15 made payable to Delmarva Stargazers and mail to Kathy Sheldon, 20985 Fleatown Rd, Lincoln, DE 19960. Call club President Chuck Jennings at 302-449-3330 for more information.

Astrophotos by Members and Friends

I just got around to processing some im-ages of M 101 that I took last March while at Arizona Sky Village. They were shot with my AP 130 refractor and QSI 583wsg CCD camera. From Wikipedia, "The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years away in the con-stellation Ursa Major, first discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, and com-municated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final en-tries. M101 is a relatively large galaxy compared to the Milky Way. With a diameter of 170,000 light-years it is seventy per-cent larger than the Milky Way." Joe Morris

I took this picture Sunday morning around 5am from Do-ver. used a canon T1i. Gary Brown