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The Sidereal Times May 2017 The Sidereal Times MINUTES APRIL 21, 2017 President John Toney called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. Pre- sent were David and Vicki Philabaum, Jim and Judy Hilkin, Jim Wilt, Carl and Libby Snipes, and Darren Wagenbach. Jim Hilkin made a motion to approve the minutes as published in the newsletter; John 2nd. INSIDE THIS ISSUE David presented the Treasurer’s report. Jim Hilkin motioned to ac- Minutes (cont.) 2, 3 cept; John 2nd. Treasurer’s Report 2 Looking Back 3 Groups: Libby's students visited the observatory Tuesday the 18th. Space Place Article 4-5 BHS students are scheduled for April 25 and 26. Harlan Elementary Observer’s Report 6-7 School is scheduled to visit Friday the 28th at 8:30 PM. A group Calendar 8 from the Mediapolis Care Facility is scheduled to visit May 16 at 8:30 Sky Maps 9-10 PM. Boy Scouts are planning an outing in June on the weekend of the 23rd and will plan to visit the observatory. The Youth Jamboree will be held May 13 from 8 AM to 2 PM. CLUB OFFICERS Maintenance: Jim and Judy Hilkin cleaned and organized in the Executive Committee President John Toney classroom. Vice President Jim Hilkin Treasurer David Philabaum Secretary Vicki Philabaum Old/New Business: The Rand Foundation is sponsoring Dr. James Chief Observer David Philabaum Green from NASA to give presentations on August 24. It is hoped he Members-at-Large Paul Sly can visit the observatory while he is here. Judy is arranging the Carl Snipes Jim Wilt schedule and securing lodging while he is here. She needs $250 from Board of Directors Chair Jim Wilt Vice Chair Judy Hilkin (Continued on page 2) Secretary Libby Snipes Members-at-Large Duane Gerling UPCOMING DATES Ray Reineke Bill Stewart ~ The next meeting will be Friday, May 19, 2017 at the John H. Witte, Jr. Audit Committee Observatory at 7 pm. Election of club officers. John Toney (2014) Bill Stewart (2015) Karen Johnson (2016) ~ The deadline for the June newsletter is Friday, June 9, 2017. Newsletter Karen Johnson ~ The June meeting will be Friday, June 16, 2017 at the John H. Witte Ob- servatory at 7 pm. TREASURER’S REPORT “Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.” Nicolaus Copernicus MINUTES (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1) Partners in Conservation for this purpose. Jim Wilt made a motion to get the funding; Libby 2nd. The motion passed. Judy also needs DID YOU KNOW? help from club members with this project. Copernicus had a Nominations for Officers: The following nominations were made to fill the doctorate in officers positions for the next year. The election will be held at the May meeting. canon law. He was Executive Committee Board of Directors also a physician, President - Judy Hilkin Chair - Jim Hilkin governor, diplo- Vice President - Libby Snipes Vice Chair - Carl Snipes mat, economist, Treasurer - Vicki Philabaum Secretary - David Philabaum and a translator, Secretary - David Philabaum Members- at-Large: speaking Latin, Members-at-Large: Ray Reineke German, Polish, Carl Snipes Darren Wagenbach Jim Wilt Vicki Philabaum Greek, and Italian. John Toney Audit Committee: And of course Bill Stewart he was an Karen Johnson Jim Hilkin astronomer and mathematician. Jim Hilkin motioned to end nominations; John 2nd. (Continued on page 3) 2 LOOKING BACK 30 YEARS—MAY 1987 "Standing in the parking lot of John H. Witte Observatory savor- ing the quiet and the breeze, it seems hard to believe that three weeks ago there were at least 400 people milling about this spot. Everyone who attended the dedication weekend at the observa- tory I'm sure must have felt somewhat awed by the fact that the event was so well attended by the general public. Eighty-five people were at the actual dedication. There was a constant line of traffic in and out all evening on Friday. Many people stood waiting to view through the Alvan Clark and others chose to view through the many different types of personal telescopes set up in the area. People milled in and out of the classroom to sign in, grab a bite of cake and To Celebrate the 30th Year look at the construction display. of the Saturday's rain cleared out just before the days program began. "Cosmos" Witte Observatory was playing all afternoon along with other videos and many visitors came by We have invited just to look at the building. The daytime Moon was centered in the 12" Alvan Clark and the observing began. The clouds Saturday afternoon and evening Dr. James Green (BHS Class of 1969) never totally obscured the Moon, but some of the deep sky observing was eliminated because of them. A predominately younger group of people were on hand Saturday night and a lot of children got a good look at the universe." Director of Planetary Science Division TO SPEAK August 24, 2017 @ 7:00 pm Edward Stone Middle School Burlington, IA 52601 Free to the Public Sponsored by the Rand Lecture Series and Southeastern Iowa Astronomy Club More details at the John H. Witte Jr. Observatory Facebook page LOOKING BACK 10 YEARS—MAY 2007 Further information about Dr. James From the Observer's Report: "The Comet discovered by Terry Lovejoy of Green on the NASA website Queensland, Australia is now visible before dawn as it moves from Aquila through Lyra and Hercules toward the head of Draco, fading from its present SAVE THIS DATE mg. 7 to mg. 8 along the way." ( Comet C/2007 E2 was discovered by Australi- an Terry Lovejoy on March 15, 2007. His latest comet discovery was made on March 13, 2017, almost 10 years to the day as his one in 2007. It was designat- ed comet C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) and was visible in the Clark this spring. Accord- ing to several web sites, the comet's nucleus disintegrated before it reached per- ihelion). MINUTES (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2) David presented the Observer's report. Jim Hilkin presented the Constellation Corner featuring Canes Venatici. The meeting adjourned at 8:21 PM. The next meeting will be May 19. Respectfully Submitted, Vicki Philabaum, Secretary 3 THE FIZZY SEAS OF TITAN BY MARCUS WOO With clouds, rain, seas, lakes and a nitrogen-filled atmosphere, Saturn's moon Titan appears to be one of the worlds most similar to Earth in the solar system. But it's still alien; its seas and lakes are full not of water but liquid methane and ethane. At the temperatures and pressures found on Titan’s surface, methane can evap- orate and fall back down as rain, just like water on Earth. The methane rain flows into rivers and channels, filling lakes and seas. Nitrogen makes up a larger portion of the atmosphere on Titan than on Earth. The gas also dissolves in methane, just like carbon dioxide in soda. And simi- lar to when you shake an open soda bottle, disturbing a Titan lake can make the nitrogen bubble out. But now it turns out the seas and lakes might be fizzier than previously thought. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently experi- mented with dissolved nitrogen in mixtures of liquid methane and ethane un- der a variety of temperatures and pressures that would exist on Titan. They “Scientists are measured how different conditions would trigger nitrogen bubbles. A fizzy already sketching lake, they found, would be a common sight. out potential On Titan, the liquid methane always contains dissolved nitrogen. So when it rains, a methane-nitrogen solution pours into the seas and lakes, either directly spacecraft—maybe from rain or via stream runoff. But if the lake also contains some ethane— a buoy or even a which doesn't dissolve nitrogen as well as methane does—mixing the liquids will force some of the nitrogen out of solution, and the lake will effervesce. submarine—to ex- "It will be a big frothy mess," says Michael Malaska of JPL. "It's neat because plore Titan’s seas, it makes Earth look really boring by comparison." bubbles and all.” Bubbles could also arise from a lake that contains more ethane than methane. The two will normally mix, but a less-dense layer of methane with dissolved nitrogen—from a gentle rain, for example--could settle on top of an ethane layer. In this case, any disturbance—even a breeze—could mix the methane with dissolved nitrogen and the ethane below. The nitrogen would become less sol- uble and bubbles of gas would fizz out. Heat, the researchers found, can also cause nitrogen to bubble out of solution while cold will coax more nitrogen to dissolve. As the seasons and climate change on Titan, the seas and lakes will inhale and exhale nitrogen. But such warmth-induced bubbles could pose a challenge for future sea-faring spacecraft, which will have an energy source, and thus heat. "You may have this spacecraft sitting there, and it's just going to be fizzing the whole time," Malaska says. "That may actually be a problem for stability control or sam- pling." Bubbles might also explain the so-called magic islands discovered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in the last few years. Radar images revealed island-like fea- tures that appear and disappear over time. Scientists still aren't sure what the islands are, but nitrogen bubbles seem increasingly likely. (Continued on page 5) 4 THE FIZZY SEAS ... (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4) To know for sure, though, there will have to be a new mission. Cassini is enter- ing its final phase, having finished its last flyby of Titan on April 21.
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