Southern Stars THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND P

VolumeVolume 55, No 2 2016 JunJunee ISSN Page0049-1640 1 Royal Astronomical Society Southern Stars of New Zealand (Inc.) Journal of the RASNZ Founded in 1920 as the New Zealand Astronomical Volume 55, Number 2 Society and assumed its present title on receiving the 2016 June Royal Charter in 1946. In 1967 it became a member body of the R oyal Society of New Zealand. CONTENTS P O Box 3181, Wellington 6140, New Zealand Quasars - The Brightest Objects in the Universe [email protected] http://www.rasnz.org.nz Anushka Kharbanda ...... 3 Subscriptions (NZ$) for 2016: Norman Dickie ...... 5 Ordinary member: $40.00 Student member: $20.00 Astronomy and Me! Affi liated society: $3.75 per member. Joshua Daglish ...... 6 Minimum $75.00, Maximum $375.00 Corporate member: $200.00 SN 2015lh: Printed copies of Southern Stars (NZ$): The Most Luminous Supernova Discovered $35.00 (NZ) Brent Nicholls ...... 7 $45.00 (Australia & South Pacifi c) $50.00 (Rest of World) The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto Brian Loader ...... 10 Council & Offi cers 2016 to 2018 President: Murray Geddes Prize - Dave Cochrane ...... 17 John Drummond P O Box 113, Patutahi 4045. [email protected] Jennie McCormick - FRASNZ, MNZM ...... 18 Immediate Past President: John Hearnshaw Dep’t Physics & Astronomy, Book Review University of Canterbury, John Drummond ...... 22 Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140. [email protected] Vice President: Nicholas Rattenbury The Department of Physics, FRONT COVER The University of Auckland, Brian Loader’s light curve of the Pluto occultation of a th th 38 Princes St, Auckland. 12 magnitude star on 2015 June 29 superimposed on [email protected] a New Horizon’s image of Pluto. Pluto is scaled to fi t that Secretary: part of the light curve that endured the total occultation. Nichola Van der Aa 32A Louvain St, Whakatane 3120. The fact that light was still getting through is explained in [email protected] Brian’s paper within. Treasurer: Simon Lowther 19 Cape Vista Crescent, Pukekohe 2120. Light curve courtesy of Brian Loader, [email protected] Members’ Councillors: Pluto image courtesy of Steve Butler 30 Hoffman Court, Invercargill 9810. NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, [email protected] JHO-APL: John Hopkins University Applied Physics Bob Evans 15 Taiepa Rd, Otatara RD9, Invercargill 9879. Laboratory, [email protected] SWRI: Southwest Research Institute. Sergei Gulyaev 120 Mayoral Drive, Auckland, 1010. [email protected] Orlon Petterson Dep’t Physics & Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140. [email protected] Glen Rowe 23 Stanhope Grove, Korokoro, Lower Hutt 5012. [email protected] Affi liated Societies’ Councillors: Peter Jaquiery 31 Wright St, Dunedin 9010 [email protected] Gary Sparks 67 Meeanee Road, Taradale, Napier 4112. [email protected] Fellows’ Councillor: Karen Pollard Dep’t Physics & Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140. [email protected] Page 2 Southern Stars Quasars - The Brightest Objects in the Universe:- Anushka Kharbanda

Quasars - The Brightest Objects in the Universe

Anushka Kharbanda SWAPA

This is one of the papers presented at the 2016 Conference in Napier by Students With A Passion for Astronomy - SWAPA. Introduction We constantly search the skies, in the hopes of fi nding more about our universe. And, most of the time what we fi nd, renders us speechless about the grand expanse of our universe and it’s majestic components. One of such components that astonished many astronomers due to their incomprehensible brightness are quasars.

These are the topics we will look at: ● The backstory of quasars and how they were found ● What gives birth to them ● We will also look at their unique spectra ● Their different types ● And moreover, we will also look at some examples of quasars and will try to compare their brightness to other celestial objects so that we are able to truly appreciate their immense brightness Anushka Kharbanda Photo supplied. How were they found? However, what they actually saw was this : Back in 1936, when Grote Reber built the very fi rst radio telescope in his backyard, he had detected strong radio sources by just 1944. Those radio emissions seemed to originate from the constellation of Cassiopeia, Sagittarius and Cygnus.

Two of those sources, Cassiopeia A and Sagittarius A, seemed to originate from our own galaxy, and were later found out to be just supernova remnants. However, the characteristics of Cygnus A seemed to be very puzzling. When further investigation was done on this object, it seemed to be embedded in a faint looking galaxy. But, when the source’s spectra was taken, the results that were produced were not at all expected. When we take an object’s spectra we analyse the electromagnetic radiation it emits. Each object interacts This showed emission lines which was the opposite of what differently with the electromagnetic spectrum. they expected. So, astronomers could deduce that whatever the source of brightness was, it wasn’t starlight from the galaxy. So, when the spectra of Cygnus A’s galaxy was taken, Moreover, these peaks or emission lines were redshifted. We astronomers expected absorption lines or dips in the radiation can actually calculate how far an object is from us from its intensity like this: Because that is the kind of spectra galaxies redshift, by using the Hubble Law. Cygnus A, was found to have. be 740 million light years away. This was a staggering fact, because objects hundreds of millions of light years away are not usually able to be picked up by simple backyard astronomy tools. And this signal wasn’t a faint fuzz, it was bold and it stood out.

This implied that this object had to be the most luminous one ever observed. Later, there was a very heated debate about the topic, because this object was so incomprehensibly bright, astronomers thought that there must be a problem by which we calculated its distance from the Earth. But, that was not true and later, these objects came to be known as the part of the brightest objects in the Universe called Quasars.

55, 2, 2016 June Page 3 Quasars - The Brightest Objects in the Universe:- Anushka Kharbanda

Their Progenitors inward motion of the matter stops abruptly. This abrupt stop To know what gives birth to the brightest objects in the causes the inner edge of the accretion to be very well defi ned Universe, we fi rst have to look at the darkest- Black Holes. as we can see in this diagram. The faster the spin, however, the closer to the black hole, that abrupt stop occurs. Quasars are powered by Active Galactic Nuclei or AGNs which are basically, Supermassive Black Holes at the centre So, only a small proportion of the matter in the accretion of galaxies, that have matter around them they can “eat” up. disc falls into the black hole. Because of that, a lot of matter When matter falls towards a supermassive black hole due to bulges and accumulates in the inner accretion disc and pressure its immense gravity, it doesn’t just fall straight in, but forms increases rapidly. This pressure is then relieved by expelling an accretion disc around it, due to a law called conservation of matter at high speeds away from the accretion disc in the form angular momentum. The particles are moving at relativistic or of Dipolar Jets. near light speeds in this accretion disc. Closer to the black hole, matter is swirling faster than at the edges of the accretion disc.

This causes the particles to rub against each other and radiation is emitted due to friction, as we can see in this diagram. Moreover, the swirling hot and charged plasma in the accretion disc, creates an intense, twisted magnetic fi eld which is at right angles to the accretion disc. This also facilitates the expulsion of matter. The radiation expelled is called synchrotron radiation and has no emission or absorption lines.

Different Types of Active Galactic Nuclei It is commonly believed that the different types of active Keeping in mind that these particles are moving at near light galactic nuclei observed are just due to the angular view we speeds, the amount of friction and hence the radiation emitted get of the AGN. is enormous.

At fi rst, matter accelerates at near light speeds near the black hole. However, at a certain distance away from the black hole, the matter stops falling in. This phenomena occurs due to the conservation of angular momentum. We have all seen it’s effect in our lives. For example, when a ball of pizza dough is spinning the dough tends to expand outwards and become fl at. It turns out that not only pizza dough but all spinning objects, including the matter in accretion discs, has a tendency to spread out and fl atten. When this tendency to expand outwards balances the gravitational pull of the black hole, the

When the jet of the quasar is pointing directly at us, we receive tons of synchrotron radiation, with no emission or absorption lines and we see a blazar. However, when we see a quasar at a more oblique angle, we observe both the synchrotron radiation and the intense thermal radiation from the accretion disc. In this case, we would report seeing a radio loud quasar.

Slow spinning accretion disc Fast spinning accretion disc

Page 4 Southern Stars Quasars - The Brightest Objects in the Universe:- Anushka Kharbanda

However, when we are getting a nearly edge on view of the accretion disc, we cannot get much of the thermal radiation from the accretion disc but the synchrotron radiation is still visible. In this case, we will see a radio galaxy. However, it is possible that there are no jets because there is not enough matter in the accretion disc which builds up causing a jet to form. In that case, we will not get any synchrotron radiation and will receive minimal thermal radiation from the accretion disc. In that case, we will observe a radio quiet quasar or a Seyfert Galaxy.

How bright actually are they? When we say that quasars are bright, we might guess that they are hundreds or thousands of times brighter than the brightest stars. That would seem pretty bright. However, quasars are This is a picture snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope. The actually hundreds of times brighter than entire galaxies which star we can see and the quasar look like they have about the contain billions of stars. same apparent brightness. The star we can see in the picture is a few hundred light years away. However, the quasar in the picture is nine billion light years away.

We are living in such a fortunate time that allows us to discover more and more about the complexity and beauty of our universe. And the fact that the universe’s darkest objects, black holes are responsible for giving birth to the universe’s brightest objects, quasars, is just one of the examples of our universe’s endless complexity that continues to bewilder and amaze us at the same time.

Above left is an image of a quasar 3C 273, and right is its References galaxy revealed after the quasar’s light was blocked out. We Freedman, R.., Universe. (Book) can clearly see that quasars overpower the brightness of entire Vsauce, What is the brightest thing in the Universe? (Video) galaxies like the Sun overpowers the brightness of other stars in the day. Westlake Girls’ High School, Auckland.

Norman Dickie At the Saturday Banquet in Napier, during the RASNZ Conference, John Hearnshaw spoke about Norman Dickie’s long membership of 71 years and his upcoming 100th birthday. A certifi cate recognising this was displayed. It was later presented to him at his home in Gore.

Norman Dickie just after receiving his certifi cate at home in Gore with his sons Grant (left) and Ross (who is also an RASNZ member). Photo: Bob Evans

55, 2, 2016 June Page 5 Astronomy and Me!:- Joshua Daglish

Astronomy and Me!

Joshua Daglish SWAPA

This is another of the papers presented at the 2016 Conference in Napier by Students With A Passion for Astronomy - SWAPA.

I am not the best at talking in front of an audience, to be honest it’s one of my many fears and I should be used to it; I do take Drama as a subject. I have literally just fi nished a speech in English and I thought if I do another one that I have a passion for and love, it might help me in the future. So here I am talking in front of you on a subject that is a big part in my life. When I received the email saying I am one of the lucky ten students that were chosen to join this conference, I was so overwhelmed that I almost fell of my seat. In all seriousness Astronomy means the universe to me: from the unknowns to our galactic backyard. Ever since I was three years old I could recite all the planets in our solar system in order. I remember sitting in my room, just started primary school, pushing the buttons on my space educational map. I learnt quite a lot, that I even started reciting the diameters around each planet. When Joshua Daglish other people my age begged their parents for sweets or the new Photo: Graham Palmer action fi gure, I was their begging my parents for new space books or the New Year’s stargazing maps. Then there was high there. “Well folks this will be the only time you get to see a school and last year I had an amazing opportunity come up to moa up close”. Ha! cheeky astronomer jokes. After that the attend an astronomy workshop at the University Of Canterbury clouds just disappeared and I saw the best night sky I had ever called Star Quest. I was very fortunate to get nominated for seen. If you were wondering, that’s me on the right on the this and believe me it was an eye opener to everyone who end there. Looking through the telescopes and seeing those attended. We leant about black holes, supernova and what they meteors fl y pass you made me feel very small compared to do up in the observatories in Hawaii. We even built our own what’s out there. At around midnight we came back down in Galileoscopes, which I still use to this day. Just after New the bus and to end a perfect night they played David Bowie’s Year’s I took a trip with my family to Tekapo. My parents Space Odyssey. Now every time I hear that song I will think allowed me to take the twilight tour up at Mt. John observatory of that moment. Astronomy was and still is my childhood but that day was quite cloudy and a lot of people postponed and it just fascinates me, I’m sure you think so too? It’s just the tour. That didn’t stop me, I went up Mt. John and started mind blowing what’s out there and to think we haven’t even viewing the observatory with the other people in my tour group. scratched the surface of it yet. Here is a quote that I think is We went inside and viewed fi rsthand the MOA telescope which very powerful and can get anyone to just look up. It’s from stands for Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics. It was this guy Stephen Hawking; one of the most brilliant minds in the biggest telescope I had ever seen (because size matters). I human history. He said “Look up at the stars and not at your won’t forget what one of the astronomers said when we were feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be courageous.” When I fi rst heard this quote I could relate it to myself because every time I look up I do wonder what is out there and it is a very courageous thing to do to think beyond what you see. I would like to say my fi nal words by thanking the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand for the opportunity to attend this conference. I would also like to thank the Students With A Passion for Astronomy scheme because without them I wouldn’t be here speaking to you about my life towards astronomy. I would like to thank Riccarton High School too for helping me with travel to get to this conference. And fi nally I thank you all for listening and remember to look up. Thankyou.

Riccarton High School, Atop Mt John. Credit: Earth & Sky Christchurch.

Page 6 Southern Stars SN 2015lh: The Most Luminous Supernova Discovered:- Brent Nicholls

SN 2015lh: The Most Luminous Supernova Discovered

Brent Nicholls Observation

A recently discovered supernova is described and possible models to explain its high luminosity discussed. Introduction On 2015 June 14th the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernova(i) (ASAS-SN) found a possible new transient in the southern constellation Vela (J2000 RA 22h02m15s, -61°39’35”). I obtained the fi rst confi rmation image at 09:07 UT on June 16th with the 30cm Meade LX200 at Mount Vernon Observatory in Nelson. The supernova was at magnutude 17.

Around 100 minutes later we obtained a second confi rmation image with the 1-metre LCOGT telescope at Cerro Tololo in Chile. We then put out an astronomers telegram (Atel 7642)(1).

Analysing previous data shows that the transient was fi rst Figure 2: Comparisons between the ASAS-SN reference detected on May 8th and peaked on June 5th at magnitude 16.9. image from camera 5 (top left), camera 6 (top middle), We don’t know why our systems didn’t alert us earlier. Spectra the ASAS-SN stacked subtraction image from camera 5 obtained by several large telescopes including the SALT (bottom left), camera 6 (bottom middle) post maximum, 10 metre and Clay 6.5 metre show a redshift of 0.2326 which the archival DECam false colour image 38 (top right), indicates a distance of 3.8 billion(ii) light years. This yields and stacked false colour follow up image from LCOGT an absolute magnitude of -23.5 and bolometric luminosity of 1 m network (bottom right). All images are on the same 2.2 × 1038 W or 5.7 × 1011 times the Sun’s energy output. angular scale and the position of ASAS-SN 2015lh is marked. Credit: The Dark Energy Survey, B.Shappee and the The spectra show a mostly featureless blue continuum peaking ASAS-SN team in the UV indicating high temperature. No hydrogen or The energy output of this event is hard to explain with known helium lines are visible indicating a type I supernova. Type II mechanisms. At 200 times normal supernova outputs and supernovae have hydrogen in their specta. SN2015lh has since 570 billion times our Sun’s output, this object was emitting been classifi ed as Type Ic. The extreme luminousity of this 20 times the luminosity of our entire Milky Way galaxy and object puts it in the super luminous supernova (SLSN) class. not only for a brief period of time. After six months it was still A broad oxygen line at 410 nm is consistent with other SLSN around 100 billion times solar luminosity.(4) type I and indicates supernova ejecta velocities of around -1 (2) (3) 10 000 km s . There has been only a handful of SLSNe found so far. SN 2015lh is twice as bright as the next brightest (Figure 3). The spectra did show some broad lines which may indicate an old evolved star undergoing core collapse although other mechanisms could explain this.

Unusual Host Galaxy The host galaxy, APMUSS (BJ) B215839.70 -615403.9 is around twice as luminous as our galaxy but appears to be old and evolved with little gas available for star formation. The early spectra don’t show sharp hydrogen and helium lines

(i) ASAS-SN is a collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers. Run from Ohio State University the professionals run the survey telescopes and alerts while amateurs take the followup images. Figure 1: Mt Vernon Observatory in Nelson. The telescope is on loan from The David Victor Trust. (ii) 1 billion = 109

55, 2, 2016 June Page 7 SN 2015lh: The Most Luminous Supernova Discovered:- Brent Nicholls

researchers have calculated up to an incredible 1500 solar masses of nickel(6). Stars just don’t come big enough to contain these amounts of nickel. Also the decline rates seen in the light curve don’t match the 6 day half life of 56Ni or more, the 77 day half life of 56Co.

(2) Interaction with the circumstellar material and previously ejected hydrogen-poor shells. The eta Carinae outburst in the 1840’s is estimated to have expelled 12 solar masses(10). If eta Carinae had exploded shortly after a shell ejection, the resulting supernova ejecta would have slammed into the newly created circumstellar shell creating a supernova even brighter than has been estimated for this giant stellar neighbour of ours. While capable of large luminosities this senerio cannot be the sole source of energy because of the extreme power output of 2015lh (7). Figure 3: Comparisons of some bright supernovae. (3) The most likely scenario involves a rapidly rotating highly iPTF13ajg was the previous record holder and is a more magnetic neutron star; a magnetar. In this model a massive star typical SLSN. Note the famous SN 1987a (Type II); collapses when its energy production can no longer support around 5000 times less powerful than SN 2015lh. the star’s gravity. As the star collapses a neutron star forms Credit: The ASAS-SN team in its core. The infalling material can ricochet off the newly which would be seen if the supernova’s light shines through formed neutron star or be repelled by outgoing radiation, hence a young active star-forming host galaxy’s interstellar medium. a black hole isn’t formed. Meanwhile the neutron star largely All the other SLSNe have been in dwarf galaxies with high preserves the angular momentum of the progenitor star and star formation rates(5). This is to be expected as these objects could be rotating up to 1000 times per second. The magnetic are most likely massive stars which would have short lifetimes fi eld is also preserved and can be enhanced by hydromagneto hence should form in young hydrogen-rich galaxies with high effects in the rapidly rotating neutron star. The magnetic stellar formation rates. How does a massive star form in evolved fi eld strength would be around 109 to 1010 T which is about systems with little free hydrogen and helium(2)? It is possible a quadrillion(iii) times Earth’s magnetic fi eld strength. The that this supernova could reside in a dwarf galaxy which is a neutron star slows down, shedding its rotational energy to the companion to the galaxy we see in the reference images. This magnetic fi eld via vacuum dipole emission. The fi eld will would be consistent with the redshift measurements and our decay emitting gamma and x-rays. These can heat the stellar understanding of stellar formation rates. remnant and circumstellar material lost by the star before the collapse began.(8)

Possible progenitor star types There are several problems with the magnetar model; mainly We know that this is a core collapse event and therefore type Ib that we have not detected gamma rays and that it still cannot or Ic, different from type Ia SNe (thermal runaway involving account for the enormous energy output. The object would a white dwarf) which have well defi ned luminosities, well have to be converting rotational energy to thermal energy at below the luminosity of SN 2015lh. Recent publications have nearly 100% effi ciency and spinning at 1000 times per second settled on Type Ic. It is highly likely that the progenitor star for which is at the Kepler limit. Any faster and the object would SN 2015lh was extremely massive as we have to account for the fl y apart (the surface speed of the neutron star is around 20% huge energy output. A Wolf Rayet star could be a contender as speed of light). they are generally massive and lack hydrogen, they also often exhibit rapid rotation which would aid in the formation of a (4) Another possible model would involve colliding shells magnetar. Like SN 2015lh Wolf Rayet stars that go supernova which can explain large energy events(9). A luminous blue are usually classifi ed as Type Ib or Ic (no hydrogen). variable or massive star will sometimes eject a shell of material from its outer layers. A later ejection of material at higher Possible Models for the luminosity of SN 2015lh: the main velocity will collide with the earlier shell creating a bright ways to power a core collapse supernova’s luminosity are: event. These shells can be massive meaning a lot of energy can be liberated over an extended period of time and mimic a (1) Decay of 56Ni to 56Co to stable 56Fe. supernova explosion. (2) Supernova ejecta interaction with circumstellar material or shell. Again, the colliding shell model alone cannot explain the (3) Energy injection from a magnetar. energy of SN 2015lh due to the energy needed. (4) Colliding shells. Maybe a combination of these scenarios could work if the star (1) The usual supernova power model of 56Ni to 56Co to 56Fe is expels a hydrogen poor outer layer fi rst (no hydrogen in 2015lh very unlikely due to the high stellar mass needed. Estimates of at least 30 solar masses(3) of nickel is needed and other (iii) 1 quadrillion = 1015

Page 8 Southern Stars SN 2015lh: The Most Luminous Supernova Discovered:- Brent Nicholls spectra) then the core collapses and the resulting explosion The Hubble Telescope will continue to follow this event and smashes into the recently ejected layer heating it creating a combined with ground based observations, we will hopefully very bright event. However the supernova would have to occur solve the mysteries of SN 2015lh and other superluminous very shortly after the shell ejection which may be possible in supernovae. cerain types of theoretical events (photo-disintegration and pair instability supernovae). Of course we may detect hydrogen in coming years as the event evolves. Acknowledgements ASAS-SN is run from Ohio State University. The ASAS-SN Quark stars team thanks LCOGT for their continued support and the SALT Although only theoretical, Quark stars have been suggested(11) staff for assistance in SN 2015lh observations. as an intermediate step between neutron stars and black holes. ASAS-SN is supported in part by Mt. Cuba Astronomical When gravity overcomes neutron degeneracy pressure the Foundation. For more information about the ASAS-SN neutrons can be converted into their constituent particles; project, see the ASAS-SN Homepage and the list of all ASAS- one up and two down quarks. These would most likely be SN transients. converted to the more massive strange quarks which could be stable in the extreme environment of the stellar remnant. A huge amount of energy would be released if a neutron star References collapsed into a quark star. It may be more likely a neutron star 1 Nicholls, B., Atel 7642, 31/5/2015. could have a quark core. Quark matter acts like a fl uid in that it can stabilise the star allowing greater rotational velocity and 2 Subo Dong et al., Kalvi institute. Atel 7774. hence more available spin down energy(11). 3 Chatzopoulos, E. et al, (2016) Extreme Supernova If this is the correct model it is probable that the original star Models for the Superluminous Transient ASASSN-15lh, went supernova forming a neutron star which then collapsed arXiv:1603.06926v1. further into the quark star. This second explosion would have released large amounts of energy which would heat up the 4 ASAS-SN data. material ejected during the fi rst explosion and any previously ejected circumstellar shells causing a very bright long lived 5 J.L Prieto et al. Uni Diego Portales. Atel 7776. event. Combined with the possible increase in spin down energy, quark matter may help to explain the energy output of 6 Kozyreva, A. et al (2016), How much radioactive nickel SN 2015lh. It should be remembered that quark stars are only does ASASSN–15lh require?, theoretical but like blackholes may one day be accepted as fact. MNRAS 000, 1–5, arXiv:1603.00335.

All these scenarios still struggle to account for the observed 7 Sukhbolod, T. & Woosley, S E, (2016), The Most energy output of SN 2015lh. Also, the lack of hydrogen in the Luminous Supernovae, arXiv:1602.04865v2 spectra still causes problems. 8 Subo Dong et al, (2016), ASASSN-15lh: A highly super- luminous supernova, Science magazine, January. Conclusion It seems most likely a hybrid scenario is needed to explain the 9 Kiewe, M. et al, (2012), Caltech Core-Collapse Project extraordinary energy output of SN 2015lh. The most plausible (CCCP) observations of type IIn super-novae: typical one is where a star of at least 50 solar masses has expelled an properties and implications for their progenitor stars, approximately 20 solar mass shell of hydrogen-poor material Astrophys.J. 744 (2012) 10, arXiv:1010.2689. shortly before it has exploded as a core collapse supernova possibly due to a pair instability event. The resulting supernova 10 Smith, N. (2008), A Blast Wave from the 1843 Eruption of has formed a magnetar which has provided the initial energy Eta Carinae, arXiv:0809.1678. into circumstellar material through the spin down energy of the millisecond magnetar and magnetic fi eld decay. The 11 Dai, Z. G. et al, (2015), The Most Luminous Supernova supernova would also be powered to a lesser extent by the 56Ni ASASSN-15LH: Signature of a New-born Rapidly- to 56Co to 56Fe reaction. As time goes on, around 36 solar Rotating Strange Quark Star, arXiv:1508.07745v3. mass of material ejected by the supernova has caught up with the dense shell of material ejected pre-supernova and energises 12 Peter J Brown Mitchell Institute, Texas A&M University it(6). This can explain the long lived event including the ATEL8086. ultraviolet rebrightening which was seen by the Swift satellite in late September 2015(12). This model can explain (just) the extreme output, longevity and lack of hydrogen and helium. 6 Mt Vernon Place, Nelson, As more all sky surveys come online we will fi nd more of New Zealand. these objects which will give us more information on SLSNe. [email protected]

55, 2, 2016 June Page 9 The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto:- Brian Loader

The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto

Brian Loader 2016 Fellow’s lecture

By chance, two week before the arrival of New Horizons at Pluto, observers in New Zealand and the south of Australia had the opportunity to assist in an Earth bound investigation of Pluto’s atmosphere when the dwarf planet occulted a 12th magnitude star. New Zealand was the best place on the surface of the Earth to observe the occultation. I was fortunate enough to have clear skies for the event. This paper includes a personal account of the observation together with a summary of some of the results obtained on combining a number of observations.

Introduction and the Kuiper Airborne Observatory fl ying over the Pacifi c This century has seen the introduction of sensitive, integrating Ocean south of Samoa. The report states “Given that the video cameras for recording occultation events and enabling occultation occurred gradually it was immediately evident that fainter stars to be observed. GPS originated times and their Pluto has an atmosphere”. insertion onto video records have increased timing accuracy by an order of magnitude or more and saving the video to a NZ sites were Auckland (S Walker, B Marino and D Dix), suitable fi le allows the “replay” of events by reviewing the Carter outstation on Black Birch (G Blow and J Priestly) video record. Software to analyse the changes in light intensity and Mt John (three telescopes used. Alan Gilmore and Pam of imaged stars gives the ability to construct light curves. It Kilmartin) is information contained in these latter which is becoming as important as are the times. The Pluto event is a prime The 2015 June 29 occultation example of what can be done in this way with relatively simple The original predictions for this occultation favoured Australia equipment. (Figure 1, grey band) with NZ south of the path, the 1-sigma error line (heavy black) crossing the lower North Island. Occultations occurs when a solar system object moves in front Subsequent updates of the position of Pluto and the star of a star so cutting off its light. They are best seen when the gradually moved the path south, until at one stage it appeared star is brighter than the occulting object. On 2015 June 29th the mid path would be south of NZ. One of the problems in Pluto, with a magnitude 14.4 briefl y hid a 12th magnitude star getting good astrometry on Pluto is the presence of its satellite from view. Charon, it is necessary to separate the images of the two bodies. However the fi nal updates defi nitely favoured NZ.

Pluto in Sagittarius In the event the centre of the path crossed the south of the Pluto has been in Sagittarius since December 2006 and will be South Island of New Zealand. until 2023. More signifi cantly Pluto has been moving through one of the denser parts of the Milky Way for much of that time. This has resulted in numerous occultations, mostly of stars considerably fainter than Pluto itself, so diffi cult to detect due to the small light change at occultation. The occultation of June 29th was an exception with the occulted star more than two magnitudes brighter than Pluto thus was quite easy to detect as the dwarf planet covered the star.

What made the occultation far more interesting is the thin atmosphere of Pluto. The possibility of there being an atmosphere had been suggested in 1985. Its existence was confi rmed in 1988 when the Kuiper Flying Observatory observed an occultation by Pluto of a 13th magnitude star in Virgo on June 9th. (Ref Icarus 105, Pp 282-297 (1993))

Pluto occultation of 1988 A prediction by the USNO Flagstaff observatory was for Pluto Figure 1: Prediction of the Occultation path by Dave Herald’s to occult a 12.8 magnitude star on 1988 June 9th with the path Occult before updates. The shaded band shows the expect- crossing the South Pacifi c, NZ and Australia. The event was ed band from which the occultation would be visible and gives observed photometrically by three NZ stations, four Australian some idea of the diameter of Pluto compared to Australia.

Page 10 Southern Stars The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto:- Brian Loader

Prediction for Darfi eld, Canterbury The occulted star, known as UCAC4 347-165728 but referred to as the target star in this paper, has a magnitude 12.1. With Pluto at 14.4 this gave a combined magnitude around 12.0 and an expected magnitude change near 2.4 when the star was occulted by Pluto. This is about an 89% drop in light, so readily detectable by video

For my observing site at Darfi eld the event was predicted for just before 16:53 UT, that is 4.53 am on the morning of June 30th. The maximum duration was given as 102 seconds, far longer than the majority of asteroidal occultations. The target was at a reasonably good altitude, 38° and azimuth 277° so close to due west. The predicted probability of an event occurring at Darfi eld was 89%.

Equipment and Observation Figure 3: Stars visible in the video frame, GUIDE. The telescope used was a 25cm Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain. The image was recorded by a Watec 910 BD integrating video camera. For this event an integration of 8 frames was used, giving just over 3 frames per second on the PAL system. With this camera an 8 frame integration results in a 16 fold increase in light fl ux. The camera CCD is quite small so a focal reducer was used to increase the size of the fi eld of view.

The output from the camera was fed through a KIWI-OSD time inserter, times sourced from GPS. The time in milliseconds was added to each fi eld.

Output was then taken through a frame grabber to a laptop for display and to save the images in a video fi le. The software used for this purpose, OccuRec by Hristo Pavlov, saves the video in a specialised, aav, format.

Figure 4: A frame from the video close to the start of the star Pluto Field dimming. Figure 2 is a GUIDE chart showing the brighter stars near Pluto, video fi eld, stars to magnitude 14.5 Pluto. The box represents the fi eld of the video camera, Figure 3 is an enlargement showing a GUIDE representation approximately 18’ x 13.5’. The pair of bright stars, χ1 and χ2 of the video fi eld. Stars as faint as magnitude 14.5, similar in Sagittarii magnitudes 5.1 and 3.5, only 50 arc-minutes to the brightness to Pluto, are shown. Most of the stars are labelled west of Pluto, made the task of locating the target star fairly with magnitude, lacking a decimal point. The seven brightest straight forward. stars are re-labelled with larger fi gures. These stars are quite easily visible on a screen capture of the actual video.

Compare this with Figure 4, captured at a time just before the start of the occultation. The target star, merged with Pluto, is slightly below mid screen. Time information inserted onto the video frame is at the bottom. It shows the universal time as hours, minutes, seconds, followed by the milli-seconds for the start and end of a single fi eld. The last set of fi gures shows the number of video fi elds since the time inserter was reset.

1 th At a fi eld exposure of /50 of a second, that is 25 frames per second the 12th magnitude star would have been detectable when used with my 25cm telescope but Pluto by itself would not have been visible on the video. To make Pluto faintly visible an 8 frame integration was used so giving about 3 integrated frames per second. The 8 frame integration gives a Figure 2: The brighter stars near Pluto on June 29th as shown 16 fold light gain on the BD 910 camera. This was suffi cient by GUIDE. to make stars as faint Pluto visible as faint images.

55, 2, 2016 June Page 11 The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto:- Brian Loader

After integrating the 8 frames, the video camera outputs 8 copies of the block of nominally identical frames, so keeping the 25 frame per second output. The KIWI-OSD time inserter adds the current time to each of the frames. It knows nothing about the integration, so the set of frames have advancing times on each frame.

The program I use to save the video output is “OccuRec”, developed by Hristo Pavlov which can, given a suitable image, detect the integration being used and the start of, in this case, each set of 8 similar frames. Moreover it can separate the times stamps for each fi eld. Yet more usefully it can ensure that instead of 8 copies of the same frame, only one copy is saved to the video fi le leading to a corresponding reduction of fi le size. This feature enabled a longer recording to be made without overfl owing the 2 GB limit. At the same time Figure 5: Video frame at the mid occultation, the time of the the video is displayed on the laptop screen so one can monitor central fl ash. Pluto is just visible. what is going on.

The combined image of Pluto and the star was picked up well before the predicted time of the event. The video fi le was saved brightening of the star as it reappeared from behind Pluto. This from 16:36:10 to 17:03:39, that is about 15 minutes before the is due to Pluto’s atmosphere, despite its pressure being only predicted time to 12 minutes after. This was to allow for any one hundred-thousandth of the Earth’s atmosphere. Without error in the predicted time and for the remote possibility of an atmosphere the occultation would have been sharp. there being another undiscovered satellite orbiting Pluto which th also occulted that star. There was no evidence of one. Figure 6 shows the same fi eld on July 4 when Pluto had moved about 7 arc-minutes to the left. At the time it was at the th Sseeing was fair so that stars in the fi eld a little fainter than same altitude as on June 29 . Pluto were scintillating on and off. The 93% lit moon was 37° away from Pluto in a clear sky, the resulting sky glow produced some background noise giving a screen which was Analysis using Tangra not completely dark. This latter is in fact an advantage with An analysis of the saved occultation video was carried out OccuRec as the automatic integration detection works better using Tangra, another of Hristo Pavlov’s programs. The with a somewhat noisy screen. program measures and saves to fi le the light intensity of up to four selected star images in each frame. Apart from the occulted star, two of the brighter stars in the frame were used Changes during the event as guide stars to ensure the software could follow the position The event was monitored visually on the laptop screen in real of the target even when it virtually disappeared. A star a little time so any dimming of the star as Pluto moved across the star fainter than the target was also measured as a comparison star. was easily visible. The data was then graphed against time to obtain a light curve.

Very shortly after the frame shown in Figure 4, the combined image of Pluto and star started to fade. It took about 35 seconds for the intensity to reach a minimum. By then the image, now largely the light of Pluto only, was very faint and only just detectable by eye.

After another 30 seconds, at the time of the mid event, it seemed that the image briefl y became slightly brighter. At the time I suspected I had been fortunate enough to see the central fl ash. This was later confi rmed. Figure 5 shows the same fi eld as Figure 4 but at the mid time of the occultation. The star is now occulted with Pluto on its own barely visible.

After a further 30 seconds and the end of the spell of minimum light, the image started to slowly brighten again reaching its original brightness just over 2 minutes after the initial start.

Visually, the most noticeable feature of the occultation was the fade in brightness of the star image over a period of about Figure 6: The same fi eld on 2015 July 4 when Pluto had half a minute before disappearing and the corresponding slow moved about 7 arc-minutes to the left.

Page 12 Southern Stars The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto:- Brian Loader

Figure 7: Light curves produced by Tangra of the occulted star, two guide stars and a comparison star. Light curves; Pluto, Guide and Comparison stars Figure 8 covers the same period but graphs the occulted star plus Pluto only. Apart from the drop in light intensity at Figure 7 shows the light curves covering about 7 minutes occultation, the most obvious feature of the curve is that the round the time of occultation. Time is along the horizontal occultation was not instantaneous as normally occurs when an axis, measured light intensity on the vertical axis. The star airless asteroid occults a star. Compare Figure 9 which is for a occulted by Pluto is shown in blue. The dip in the brightness 2014 occultation of a magnitude 10.6 star by the asteroid (334) of the occulted star plus Pluto is obvious. Chicago. In this case the change in light intensity is essentially

Figure 8: Light curve of Pluto and the Occulted star only.

55, 2, 2016 June Page 13 The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto:- Brian Loader

effect of the atmosphere of Pluto and occurs when the star is centrally behind the planet.

Other observations Occultation work gets much more interesting and scientifi cally much more useful when there are multiple observations of an occultation event with observers spread across the width of the occultation path. For this to be really effective one needs an accurate prediction of the position of the path on the Earth’s surface and a suffi cient number of observers willing to observe, sometimes at an inconvenient hour, as was the case with Pluto. Figure 9: Light curve showing the near instantaneous With a low population density New Zealand is not well placed occultation of an asteroid with no atmosphere. for this to occur frequently. instantaneous. Also the event lasts for less than 12 seconds, in fact quite long for an asteroidal event, but a lot less than the In the case of the Pluto event there was considerable Pluto occultation. international interest and a number of teams came to NZ able to set up to observe the event. Gordon Hudson gives some By contrast the occultation by Pluto lasted just over 2 minutes account of a number of these in Southern Stars for September with the drop from full to minimum brightness taking over 30 2015, located at Maugatapere and Whangarei in Northland, at seconds as did the rise. Gisborne with John Drummond, at Kaikoura with Larry Field and at Timaru. When I fi rst looked at the Pluto light curve I was struck by a couple of features. As the star image fades there is a small change in the slope just over half way down and an equivalent Predicted Path and Planned Observers change on the rise, also the noise looks to increase at the break The map, Figure 10 taken from an Occult Watcher screen, in slope. Then there is possibly a very slight rise in brightness shows the position of planned observers as small telescopes of the remaining image of Pluto at the mid occultation, an and the effective path each observer was on as a black line. example of the central fl ash. This rise was just detectable on There are over 30 sites in all. At the time this was produced the video display in real time. the predicted mid path for the event was south of New Zealand, shown by the green line in the bottom right, the telescope on it It is tempting to assume that the near horizontal lower section of is for SOFIA. There are a number of potential observers who the light curve represents the time the star was behind the body did not register with Occult Watcher: John Talbot has a list of of Pluto. In fact this is not correct. The lowest light lasts for about 50 intending observers, one in Japan, 26 in Australia and approximately 60 seconds. The predicted maximum duration 23 in New Zealand. of the occultation of the star by the body of Pluto was about 102 seconds. Darfi eld was suffi ciently close to the mid line for On this chart the centre line is to the south of New Zealand the occultation to be very close to the 102 seconds. It would with the northern limit just south of Tasmania. In the event require observing from a position more like one thousand km the midline proved to be further north over southern NZ with from the mid line to reduce the duration to 60 seconds. the northern limit shifting across Tasmania to lie just south of Melbourne. Fortunately this shift was predicted suffi ciently The explanation is, of course, that Pluto’s very thin atmosphere long before the event for SOFIA to fl y along the mid line. is still suffi cient to refract star light passing through it towards the centre of the planet, just as sun light is refracted near sunset on Earth. So some light from the star was still being received while the star was geometrically behind Pluto.

The time separating the slope breaks is approximately 100 seconds. This is close to the occultation duration expected from the diameter of Pluto. They may mark the change in light drop from the star when it fi nally went behind Pluto to the falling light refracted by the atmosphere.

The apparent small central fl ash is almost certainly real. The slight rise was just detectable on the video display in real time. I was suffi ciently close to the centre line of the occultation for a slight effect to occur.

Observers nearer the centre line at Lauder and Dunedin saw a more distinct brightening, as did the observers on SOFIA Figure 10: Intended observing sites registered with fl ying on the mid line. The central fl ash arises from the lensing Occult Watcher just prior to the date of occultation.

Page 14 Southern Stars The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto:- Brian Loader

Figure 11: Mid line of the occultation across the South Island of NZ with successful sites known to the writer. Figure 11 shows the determined centre line of occultation midway between Lauder and Dunedin with the direction Pluto’s apparent movement shown by the arrow. The successful sites in New Zealand are labelled. There were three groups at Mount John with Alan Gilmore and Pam Kilmartin observing at various wavelengths and two sites close to Blenheim. And of course SOFIA fl ew from Christchurch to be on mid path. Two other observers saw an event, Stu Parker at Oxford through broken cloud and R. Glassey at Christchurch but these have not been analysed. An event was also observed at Gisborne by Figure 12: Eight light curves for observations used by Bruno John Drummond. Sicardy in his study of Pluto’s atmosphere. (B. Sicardy) Light Curves from eight stations In addition there was a successful observation from Tasmania Figure 12 is an amalgamation of the light curves obtained from and an atmospheric clip observed by Jackie Milner in 8 stations where an event was recorded and reported to Bruno Melbourne. Several observers further north in Australia Sicardy. The bar below each place name indicates the local observed a miss. The most northerly observation was by Steve time interval 16:52 to 16:53 UT. Kerr in Rockhampton, Queensland. In all, including those who saw a miss, there were about 20 successful observers. Others The two taller curves, obtained at Lauder and Dunedin are were either clouded out or had technical problems preventing enlarged emphasising the centre fl ash. A theoretical caustic observation. curve has been overlaid on the plots, that for Dunedin has been raised for better viewing. The faint graph below each curve Paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2016 shows the residuals from the smoothed curves. A small fl ux March 10th defi cit relative to the theoretical curve is indicated by a * under the Lauder Bootes-3 curve. Sicardy indicates that it is possible Bruno Sicardy of the Paris Observatory has published a paper that part of the stellar fl ux was partially blocked by mountains summarising results of a number of observers in New Zealand so causing this small drop. and Australia. His paper appears in the Astrophysical Journal Letters of March 10th. It lists 68 authors, 22 of whom are The horizontal lines immediately under the curves for the members of the RASNZ Occultation Section. The list includes Bootes-3 telescope and for Dunedin are the fi tted values of all observers whose results were used and the intending Pluto’s contribution to the fl ux. That is the residual light from observers who failed to observe the event for one reason or the star is represented by the distance between the horizontal another. The results which follow in the rest of this paper have lines and the light curves. been summarised from Sicardy’s paper. Figure 13 shows the orientation of Pluto at the time of the event and the effective paths of the star behind Pluto for the eight observers. The light curve for each position should be

55, 2, 2016 June Page 15 The 2015 June 29 Occultation by Pluto:- Brian Loader

Pluto’s atmospheric pressure and temperature Figure 15 graphs some of the results determined by Bruno Sicardy and his students. The observations and light curves allow properties of Pluto’s atmosphere to be determined. The information below is abstracted from the paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letter of 2016 March 10th.

On the left is a diagram showing the pressure at a height about 28 km above the surface. Plots are shown from earlier occultations as well as 2015 as determined by from the occultations. The pressure has risen by a factor of about three since 1988. The postulated atmospheric collapse as Pluto recedes from the Sun following its perihelion in September 1989 has not, so far, eventuated. Figure 13 Paths of the star behind Pluto for the eight observers. The Blenheim line represents two observers. The central fl ash was observed from several sites in New (B. Sicardy) Zealand. Its shape and amplitude are compatible with a spherical and transparent atmospheric layer about 3 km thick viewed with reference to this diagram. Thus for instance having a base some 4 km above Pluto’s surface. An average Jacqueline Milner at Melbourne recorded a small dip as the star passed behind Pluto’s atmosphere but not the solid planet. At Greenhill, Tasmania the star was behind the body of Pluto for about 66 seconds.

The region from which the central fl ash was observable is indicated by the ventral grey spot with Lauder and Dunedin near the centre and Darfi eld near the edge..

The observers were: J. Milner at Melbourne; A. A. Cole et al, from the University of Tasmania at Greenhill; W. Allen at Blenheim2 (Renwick); G. McKay at Blenheim1; P. Graeme at Martinborough; B. Loader at Darfi eld; M. Jelínek, using the Bootes-3 telescope at Lauder; A. Pennell et al at Beverley- Begg observatory, Dunedin.

Figure 14 shows light curve obtained by the fl ying observatory, SOFIA, on the centre line and has a correspondingly higher Figure 15: central fl ash. Alan Gilmore reports that the fl ash was observed Left: The pressure increase of Pluto’s atmosphere since 1988. at Mt John. The observatory was on a path very close to the Right: Pluto’s lower atmosphere, fl ash zone, blind zone one for Darfi eld. temperature and pressure extrapolation to the planet’s surface thermal gradient of about 5 Kelvin per km prevails through the fl ash zone. No light was received from the “blind zone”, the 4 km layer below the fl ash layer.

Attempts have been made to extrapolate the observed pressure down through the blind zone to the surface. Taking the pressure to be 11.0 ± 0.2 microbar at the bottom of the fl ash layer, 4 km above Pluto’s surface, the surface pressure is estimated to be about 13 micro-bar. The Earth’s atmospheric pressure is just over 1 bar, that is nearly 10 000 times that of Pluto.

On the right hand side of the same plot are estimates of atmospheric temperatures extrapolated through the blind zone using two possible models One assumes the temperature gradient is linear below the fl ash zone at 8.5 K per km, the other that the temperature gradient becomes zero at the surface. The Figure 14: Light curve obtained by SOFIA fl ying along the resulting estimates of surface temperature are 40 to 50 Kelvin, occultation path with a very distinct fl ash. (-233 to -223 Celsius). Pressures on the left hand graph are (Provided by J. Talbot) extrapolated using these two models. The resulting estimate of surface pressure are 12.4 to 13.2 micro-bar. Page 16 Southern Stars Murray Geddes Prize - Dave Cochrane

Murray Geddes Prize - Dave Cochrane

At the Saturday evening Banquet on the 21st May 2016 during the RASNZ conference in Napier, Dave Cochrane was awarded the 2016 Murray Geddes Prize for his contribution to astronomical optics fabrication. He is the Optical Workshop Manager for Kiwistar Optics at Callaghan Innovation. • 1981 – 1-m McLellan Telescope – assistant for Garry Nankivell in fi guring primary mirror. • 2000 - Manufacture of a large cross-dispersion prism for the HERCULES spectrograph at Mt John Observatory (23 kg of BK7). • 2003 - Fabrication of a pair of fast convex paraboloid mirrors for EOS Space Systems, Canberra. • 2004 - Manufacture of the 540-mm aperture, 4-element Prime Focus Corrector for the 1.8-metre MOA Telescope at Mt John Observatory. • 2004 - Manufacture of the optical elements for a novel image slicer for the WIFES Spectrograph, installed on the ANU 2.3-m telescope at Siding Spring observatory. • 2005 - Manufacture of the optical elements and the design, Immediate Past President John Hearnshaw (left) presents manufacture and integration of the housing for the 580-mm the 2016 Murray Geddes prize to Dave Cochrane at the aperture, 3-element Wide Field Corrector for the FMOS RASNZ Banquet. Photo: Bob Evans spectrograph installed on the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Spectrograph (HESP) for the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. • 2007 - Manufacture of optical and mechanical components The spectrograph is installed on the Himalayan Chandra and precision assembly of a 3-element corrector for the Telescope (HCT) at Hanle. Dave also contributed to aspects of SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory in the spectrograph design. Australia. • 2015 - Optics fabrication and contribution to the design • 2008 - Manufacture of the optical elements and design, and construction of a KiwiSpec-based High Resolution manufacture and integration of the housing for a focal reducer Spectrograph for the MINERVA project, led by the Harvard- for the SALT telescope, South Africa. Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The instrument is • 2011 - Fabrication of the collimator mirrors and other optics installed at the Whipple Observatory on Mt Hopkins, Arizona. for the SALT telescope High Resolution Spectrograph (SALT- • 2015 - Manufacture of a set of three mirrors and a fi eld lens HRS). for the Instituto de Astrofi sca de Canarias. These components • 2012 - The optical fabrication, mechanical design and will be part of the collimator optics for ESO’s ESPRESSO manufacture, and assembly and test of the collimator optics and spectrograph, to be installed on the VLT at Cerro Paranal. four large aperture cameras for the Australian Astronomical • 2015-16 Ongoing - Manufacture of the optical components Observatory’s HERMES Spectrograph. for a 6-element Prime Focus Corrector for the WEAVE • 2014 -Manufacture of a 3-element set of corrector optics for Spectrograph, to be installed on the WHT at La Palma. The the 1.27-m (50-inch) telescope at the University of Tasmania’s fi rst lens element is 1100 mm in diameter. The remaining Greenhill Observatory. lenses range from 660 to 580mm in diameter and include 4 • 2015 - Responsibility for the fabrication, assembly and wedged lenses comprising the ADC module. (This is a current testing of the optical components for a high resolution Echelle project, not yet completed.)

References and Acknowledgments Updates to the occultation prediction were provided by Bruno Bruno Sicardy et al: “Pluto’s Atmosphere from the 2015 Sicardy and Felip Braga Ribas (RIO TNO). June 29 Ground-based Stellar Occultation at the time of the New Horizon’s Flyby.” Astrophysical Journal All observers who contributed results, positive and negative. Letters, 2016 March 10. https://iopscience.iop.org/ Many of the positive observations were obtained by amateurs, article/10.3847/2041-8205/819/2/L38. including six out of the eight results used by Sicardy. Amateurs provided a net of observers from Rockhampton SOFIA data: https://www.sofi a.usra.edu/public/news-updates/ in tropical Queensland south to Dunedin. The results are, I sofi a-hipo-fdc-observations-stellar-occultation-pluto. feel, an excellent example of what can be achieved from the Gordon Hudson: “Events leading up to the Pluto Occultation” cooperation of amateurs and professionals. It is likely to Southern Stars 54 (3) 2015 September. continue. Hristo Pavlov, software OccuRec, Tangra and Occult Watcher.

Dave Herald Occult4, predictions of occultations. [email protected]

55, 2, 2016 June Page 17 Jennie McCormick - FRASNZ, MNZM

Jennie McCormick - FRASNZ, MNZM

At the Annual General Meeting of the RASNZ held on 21st May 2016, during the annual conference at Napier, Jennie McCormick was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. Jennie is a long-time member and has served, and again is serving, in various positions in the society. The citation accompanying her appointment as Fellow is below. In the 16 years since Jennie McCormick initiated her systematic observing programmes, she has repeatedly demonstrated herself to be a skilled and dedicated observational astronomer. In spite of the handicaps of small telescope aperture and an urban observing site within Auckland City, her observations have contributed to our understanding of planetary systems in the Milky Way and the astrophysics of cataclysmic binary star systems.

Jennie joined RASNZ in 2006 and served six years as Affi liated Societies Representative on Council. She has also served nine years on the Council of the Auckland Astronomical Society.

Astronomical Observations and Research Farm Cove Observatory The Farm Cove Observatory was founded in 2000 and today houses the 35cm Meade LX200/ACF telescope supplied by the Astronomy Dept (Ohio State University) in 2007. The SBIG ST8ME CCD camera was provided by the Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA, Columbia University, NY). A new KiwiDome was funded by Prof Han Cheongho and Chungbuk National University (Korea) in 2013. Jennie McCormick Photo: Graham Palmer Centre for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA) Jennie McCormick started observing cataclysmic binary stars In 2007 MicroFUN provided Jennie with a new 35-cm Meade for the CBA in 2000. LX200/ACF telescope and the CBA provided an SBIG-ST8 CCD camera. With the bigger aperture and a larger format To date Jennie has submitted 1,822 hours of time-series camera Jennie was able to observe fainter events and her photometry on 128 different cataclysmic binaries. Her observational output increased accordingly. observations for the CBA have been published in 16 major papers, representing a signifi cant contribution to the physical As of November 2015, Jennie has observed 207 different understanding of these systems. gravitational microlensing events contributing 862 hours of photometry. She has contributed data to 29 peer-reviewed Microlensing Follow-up Network (MicroFUN) microlensing papers reporting the discovery of 19 exoplanets, Responding to a general request for observations by Professor two of which were published in “Science”. Collectively, these Andrew Gould (Ohio State University), Jennie began making papers have forced a revision of the theories of planetary observations of a gravitational microlensing event in September formation as low mass stars were not expected to form massive 2004. She soon became the fi rst amateur member of the new planets. MicroFUN collaboration based at Ohio State University. Her CCD images often proved better than those obtained Astrometry on much bigger telescopes. In 2005 her observations of the In 2008 Jennie began making astrometric observations of gravitational lensing event OGLE-2005-BLG-071 contributed comets and asteroids (IAU Code E85). She has since submitted to the discovery of a massive planet 4.4 times the mass of thousands of observations of small solar system bodies and Jupiter orbiting a red dwarf star with only 40% of the Sun’s these have been published in 138 minor planet electronic mass. At that time only about 185 exoplanets were confi rmed circulars (MPEC). discoveries. In September 2009 Jennie’s diligence was rewarded with The next major milestone was the event OGLE-2006-BLG-109 the discovery of a new main belt asteroid (2009 SA1) which in 2006. This event detected two gas giant planets orbiting a only reaches magnitude 19.5 when it comes closest to Earth red dwarf star. It has proved to be the closest analogue yet every seven years. It has now been issued with a number discovered to our solar system, effectively being a 50% scale (386622) and will be observable again in 2016 from Farm model of it. This paper was published in 2008 in the prestigious Cove Observatory. journal “Science” and importance of Jennie’s observations was recognised by her inclusion in the lead author list - a very rare Public Outreach distinction for an amateur astronomer, still using only a 10- Always very willing to share her passion for astronomy, Jennie inch telescope. has contributed signifi cantly to many public outreach events

Page 18 Southern Stars Jennie McCormick - FRASNZ, MNZM in New Zealand. This has done a lot to raise the profi le of Sumi, T.; Bennett, D. P.; Bond, I. A.; Udalski, A.;Batista, V.; astronomy with the wider public. Dominik, M.; Fouqué, P.; Kubas, D.; Gould, A.; Macintosh, B. and 96 coauthors, (2010), A Cold Neptune- In the International Year of Astronomy IYA (2009) Jennie was Mass Planet OGLE-2007-BLG-368Lb: Cold Neptunes Are appointed as the administrator for the international event “100 Common, ApJ.,710.1641S Hours of Astronomy” that became the largest science outreach event in history. It was an outstanding success with several Dong, S.; Gould, A.; Udalski, A.; Anderson, J.; Christie, million people taking part in 1,500 events held in 130 countries G. W. Gaudi, B. S.;OGLE Collaboration; Jaroszyński, M.; over four just days. Kubiak, M.; Szymański, M. K.; and 77 coauthors, (2009), OGLE-2005-BLG-071Lb, the Most Massive M Dwarf Honours Planetary Companion?, ApJ., 695.970D In 2006 Jennie McCormick was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to astronomy. In Dong, S.; Bond, I. A.; Gould, A.; Kozłowski, S.; Miyake, the same year she was awarded the Murray Geddes Prize by N.; Gaudi, B. S.; Bennett, D. P.; Abe, F.; Gilmore, A. C.; the RASNZ. Fukui, A. and 50 coauthors, (2009), Microlensing Event MOA-2007-BLG-400: Exhuming the Buried Signature of a Cool, Jovian-Mass Planet, ApJ.,698.1826D We believe Jennie McCormick be a very worthy candidate for being admitted to the Fellowship of RASNZ. Bennett, D. P.; Rhie, S. H.; Nikolaev, S.; Gaudi, B. S.; Dr Grant Christie, FRASNZ: Auckland Astronomical Society Udalski, A.; Gould, A.; Christie, G. W.; Maoz, D.; Dong, S.; Professor John Hearnshaw, FRASNZ: President, RASNZ McCormick, J. and 68 coauthors, (2010), Masses and Orbital Associate Professor Karen Pollard, FRASNZ, University of Constraints for the OGLE-2006-BLG-109Lb,c Jupiter/Saturn Canterbury Analog Planetary System, ApJ.,713..837B Patterson, J.; Thorstensen, J. R.; Kemp, J.; Skillman, D. R.; Vanmunster, T.; Harvey, D. A.; Fried, R. A.; Jensen, L.; Cook, L. M.; Rea, R. and 15 coauthors, (2003), Superhumps Major Publications as of 3 Nov 2015 in Cataclysmic Binaries. XXIV. Twenty More Dwarf Novae, (ordered by citations) PASP., 115.1308P 52 publications in peer-reviewed journals, plus 138 Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (MPEC), reporting Batista, V.; Gould, A.; Dieters, S.; Dong, S.; Bond, I.; observations of comets and minor planets. Beaulieu, J. P.;Maoz, D.; Monard, B.; Christie, G. W.; McCormick, J. and 129 coauthors, (2011), MOA-2009- Total citations: 1,891 BLG-387Lb: a massive planet orbiting an M dwarf, Gravitational Microlensing 9 papers (1,535 citations) A&A.,529A.102B Cataclysmic variable stars 16 papers (356 citations) Other 7 papers Gould, A.; Udalski, A.; Monard, B.; Horne, K.; Dong, S.; Miyake, N.; Sahu, K.; Bennett, D. P.; Wyrzykowski, Ł.; Gould, A.; Udalski, A.; An, D.; Bennett, D. P.; Zhou, A.; Soszyński, I. and 67 coauthors, (2009), The Extreme Dong, S.; Rattenbury, N. J.; Gaudi, B. S.; Yock, P. C. M.; Microlensing Event OGLE-2007-BLG-224: Terrestrial Bond, I. A.; and 26 coauthors, (2006), Microlens OGLE- Parallax Observation of a Thick-Disk Brown Dwarf, 2005-BLG-169 Implies That Cool Neptune-like Planets Are ApJ.,698L.147G Common, ApJ., 644L, 37G Muraki, Y.; Han, C.; Bennett, D. P.; Suzuki, D.; Monard, L. A. Gaudi, B. S.; Bennett, D. P.; Udalski, A.; Gould, A.; G.; Street, R.; Jorgensen, U. G.; Kundurthy, P.; Skowron, J.; Christie, G. W.; Maoz, D.;Dong, S.; McCormick, J.; Becker, A. C. and 125 coauthors, (2011), Discovery and Mass Szymański, M. K.;Tristram, P. J.;and 63 coauthors, (2008), Measurements of a Cold 10 Earth Mass Planet and Its Host Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn Analog with Gravitational Star, ApJ.,741.22M Microlensing, Sci., 319, 927G Retter, A.; Hellier, C.; Augusteijn, T.; Naylor, T.; Udalski, A.; Jaroszyński, M.; Paczyński, B.; Kubiak, M.; Bedding, T. R.; Bembrick, C.; McCormick, J.; Velthuis, F., Szymański, M. K.; Soszyński, I.; Pietrzyński, G.; Ulaczyk, (2003), A 6.3-h superhump in the cataclysmic variable TV K.; Szewczyk, O.; Wyrzykowski, Ł.;and 26 coauthors; (2005), Columbae: the longest yet seen, MNRAS.340..679R A Jovian-Mass Planet in Microlensing Event OGLE-2005- BLG-071, ApJ., 628L, 109U Skowron, J.; Udalski, A.; Gould, A.; Dong, S.; Monard, L. A. G.; Han, C.; Nelson, C. R.; McCormick, J.; Patterson, J.; Kemp, J.; Harvey, D. A.; Fried, R. E.; Rea, R.; Moorhouse, D.; Thornley, G. and 96 coauthors, (2011), Monard, B.; Cook, L. M.; Skillman, D. R.; Vanmunster, T.; Binary Microlensing Event OGLE-2009-BLG-020 Bolt, G.; and 9 coauthors, (2005), Superhumps in Cataclysmic Gives Verifi able Mass, Distance, and Orbit Predictions, Binaries. XXV. q , ɛ(q), and Mass-Radius, PASP,117.1204P crit ApJ.,738.87S

Gould, A.; Dong, S.; Gaudi, B. S.; Udalski, A.; Bond, I. A.; Yee, J. C.; Shvartzvald, Y.; Gal-Yam, A.; Bond, I. A.; Greenhill, J.; Street, R. A.; Dominik, M.; Sumi, T.; Udalski, A.; Kozłowski, S.;Han, C.; Gould, A.;Skowron, Szymański, M. K. and 143 coauthors, (2010), Frequency of J.; Suzuki, D. and 69 coauthors, (2012), MOA-2011-BLG- Solar-like Systems and of Ice and Gas Giants Beyond the 293Lb: A Test of Pure Survey Microlensing Planet Detections Snow Line from High-magnifi cation Microlensing Events in ApJ., 755.102Y 2005-2008, ApJ., 720.1073G

55, 2, 2016 June Page 19 Jennie McCormick - FRASNZ, MNZM

Han, C.; Udalski, A.; Choi, J.; Yee, J. C.; Gould, Gould, A.; Yee, J. C.; Bond, I. A.; Udalski, A.; Han, A.;Christie, G.; Tan, T.; Szymański, M. K.; Kubiak, M.; C.; Jørgensen, U. G.; Greenhill, J.; Tsapras, Y.; Soszyński, I. and 27 coauthors, (2013), The Second Multiple- Pinsonneault, M. H.; Bensby, T. and 115 coauthors, (2013), planet System Discovered by Microlensing: OGLE-2012- MOA-2010-BLG-523: “Failed Planet” = RS CVn Star, BLG-0026Lb, APair of Jovian Planets beyond the Snow Line, ApJ., 763.141G ApJ., 762L.28H Ryu, Y.; Han, C.; Hwang, K.; Street, R.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, Patterson, J.; Fried, R. E.; Rea, R.; Kemp, J.; Espaillat, C.; T.; Fukui, A.; Beaulieu, J.; Gould, A.; Dominik, M. and Skillman, D. R.; Harvey, D. A.; O’Donoghue, D.; 104 coauthors, (2010), OGLE-2009-BLG-092/MOA-2009- McCormick, J.; Velthuis, F. and 5 coauthors, (2002), BLG-137: A Dramatic Repeating Event with the Second Superhumps in Cataclysmic Binaries. XXI. HP Librae (=EC Perturbation Predicted by Real-time Analysis, ApJ., 723.81R 15330-1403), PASP., 114.65P Patterson, J.; Oksanen, A.; Monard, B.; Rea, R.; Hambsch, F.; McCormick, J.; Nelson, P.; Kemp, J.; Allen, W.; Krajci, T. and Yee, J. C.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, T.; Dong, S.; Kozłowski, 4 coauthors, (2014), The Death Spiral of T Pyxidis, S.; Bird, J. C.; Cole, A.; Higgins, D.; McCormick, J.; ASPC., 490.35P Monard, L. A. G. and 78 coauthors, (2009), Extreme Magnifi cation Microlensing Event OGLE-2008-BLG-279: Schaefer, B. E.; Pagnotta, A.; Reichart, D. E.; Ivarsen, K. M.; Strong Limits on Planetary Companions to the Lens Star, Haislip, J. B.; Nysewander, M. C.; Moore, J. P.; Oksanen, ApJ., 703.2082Y A.; Worters, H. L.; LaCluyze, A. P. and 26 coauthors, (2011), Bachelet, E.; Shin, I.; Han, C.; Fouqué, P.; Gould, A.; Eclipses during the 2010 Eruption of the Recurrent Nova U Menzies, J. W.; Beaulieu, J.; Bennett, D. P.; Bond, I. A.; Scorpii, ApJ., 742.113S Dong, S.; and 137 coauthors, (2012), MOA 2010-BLG- 477Lb: Constraining the Mass of a Microlensing Planet from Vanmunster, T.; Velthuis, F.; McCormick, J.; Shin, I.; Han, Microlensing Parallax, Orbital Motion, and Detection of C.; Choi, J.; Dominik, M.; Fouqué, P.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, T.; Blended Light, ApJ., 754.73B Gould, A.; Bozza, V.; Horne, K. and 117 coauthors, (2000), 1432-0033: a New Eclipsing SU UMa-type Dwarf Nova, Miyake, N.; Sumi, T.; Dong, S.; Street, R.; Mancini, IBVS.4955.1V L.; Gould, A.; Bennett, D. P.; Tsapras, Y.; Yee, J. C.; Albrow, M. D.;and 112 coauthors, (2011), A Sub-Saturn Mass Shin, I.; Han, C.; Choi, J.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, T.; Gould, Planet, MOA-2009-BLG-319Lb, ApJ., 728.120M A.; Bozza, V.; Dominik, M.; Fouqué, P.; Horne, K. and 117 coauthors, (2012), Characterizing Low-mass Binaries from Zub, M.; Cassan, A.; Heyrovský, D.; Fouqué, P.; Observation of Long-timescale Caustic-crossing Stempels, H. C.; Albrow, M. D.; Beaulieu, J.; Brillant, S.; Gravitational Microlensing Events, ApJ., 755.91S Christie, G. W.; Kains, N. and 40 coauthors, (2011), Limb- darkening measurements for a cool red giant in microlensing Uthas, H.; Patterson, J.; Kemp, J.; Knigge, C.; Monard, B.; event OGLE 2004-BLG-482, A&A.525A.15Z Rea, R.; Bolt, G.; McCormick, J.; Christie, G.; Retter, A.; Liu, A., (2012), Two new accreting, pulsating white dwarfs: Batista, V.; Dong, S.; Gould, A.; Beaulieu, J. P.; Cassan, A.; SDSS J1457+51 and BW Sculptoris, MNRAS.420.379U Christie, G. W.; Han, C.; Udalski, A.; Allen, W.; Depoy, D. L. and 89 coauthors, (2009), Mass measurement of a single Yee, J. C.; Hung, L.; Bond, I. A.; Allen, W.; Monard, L. A. unseen star and planetary detection effi ciency for OGLE G.: Albrow, M. D.; Fouqué, P.; Dominik, M.; Tsapras, Y.; 2007-BLG-050, A&A., 508.467B Udalski, A. and 121 coauthors, (2013), MOA-2010-BLG-311: A Planetary Candidate below the Threshold of Reliable Kains, N.; Street, R. A.; Choi, J.; Han, C.; Udalski, A.; Detection, ApJ., 769.77Y Almeida, L. A.; Jablonski, F.; Tristram, P. J.; Jørgensen, U. G.; Szymański, M. K.;and 120 coauthors, (2013), A giant planet Shin, I.; Han, C.; Gould, A.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, T.; beyond the snow line in microlensing event OGLE-2011- Dominik, M.; Beaulieu, J.;Tsapras, Y.; Bozza, V.; BLG-0251, A&A., 552A.70K Szymański, M. K.and 147 coauthors, (2012), Microlensing Binaries with Candidate Brown Dwarf Companions, Gould, A.; Udalski, A.; Shin, I.; Porritt, I.; Skowron, J.; ApJ., 760.116S Han, C.;Yee, J. C.; Kozłowski, S.;Choi, J.; Poleski, R.and 53 coauthors, (2014), A terrestrial planet in a ~1AU orbit around Bachelet, E.; Fouqué, P.; Han, C.; Gould, A.; Albrow, M. one member of a ~15AU binary, Sci., 345.46G D.; Beaulieu, J.; Bertin, E.; Bond, I. A.; Christie, G. W.; Heyrovský, D. and 112 coauthors, (2012), A brown dwarf Street, R. A.; Choi, J.; Tsapras, Y.; Han, C.; Furusawa, orbiting an M-dwarf: MOA 2009-BLG-411L, K.; Hundertmark, M.; Gould, A.; Sumi, T.; Bond, I. A.; A&A., 547A..55B Wouters, D. and 127 coauthors, (2013), MOA-2010-BLG- 073L: An M-dwarf with a Substellar Companion at the Planet/ Shin, I.; Choi, J.; Park, S.; Han, C.; Gould, A.; Sumi, T.; BrownDwarf Boundary, ApJ., 63.67S Udalski, A.; Beaulieu, J.; Dominik, M.; Allen, W. and 147 coauthors, (2012), Microlensing Binaries Discovered through Choi, J.; Shin, I.; Park, S.; Han, C.; Gould, A.; Sumi, T.; High-magnifi cation Channel, ApJ., 746.127S Udalski, A.; Beaulieu, J.;Street, R.; Dominik, M. and 146 coauthors, (2012), Characterizing Lenses and Lensed Stars of Vican, L.; Patterson, J.; Allen, W.; Goff, B.; Krajci, T.; High-magnifi cation Single-lens Gravitational Microlensing McCormick, J.; Monard, B.; Rea, R.; Nelson, P.; Bolt, G. and Events with Lenses Passing over Source Stars, ApJ., 751.41C 3 coauthors, (2011), A Thousand Hours of GW Librae: The Eruption and Aftermath, PASP., 123.1156V

Page 20 Southern Stars Jennie McCormick - FRASNZ, MNZM

Schwieterman, E. W.; Wood, M. A.; Piwowar, D.; Patterson, Pagnotta, A. S.; Schaefer, B. E.; Landolt, A. U.; Clem, J. L.; J.; Rea, R.; Monard, B.; Krajci, T.; Bolt, G.; Roberts, G.; Schlegel, E. M.; Page, K. L.;Osborne, J. P.; Handler, G.; Foote, J.; McCormick, J., (2010), Time-Series Photometry of Walter, F. M.; Allen, B. and 15 coauthors, (2011), The 2010 GW Librae One Year After Outburst, JSARA., 3.6S Eruption of the Recurrent Nova U Scorpii, AAS., 21733814P

Patterson, J.; Halpern, J.; Mirabal, N.; Christie, G.; Fukui, A.; Gould, A.; Sumi, T.; Bennett, D. P.; Bond, I. A.; McCormick, J.; Rea, R.; Messier, D., (2006), Periodic Optical Han, C.; Suzuki, D.; Beaulieu, J.; Batista, V.; Udalski, A.. and Signal(s) from Swift J0732.5-1331, ATel., 757.1P 56 coauthors, (2015), OGLE-2012-BLG-0563Lb: A Saturn- mass Planet around an M Dwarf with the Mass Constrained Furusawa, K.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, T.; Bennett, D. P.; by Subaru AO Imaging, ApJ., 809.74F Bond, I. A.; Gould, A.;Jørgensen, U. G.;Snodgrass, C.; Dominis Prester, D.; Albrow, M. D.and 115 coauthors, (2013), Jeong, J.; Park, H.; Han, C.; Gould, A.; Udalski, A.; MOA-2010-BLG-328Lb: A Sub-Neptune Orbiting very Late Szymański, M. K.; Pietrzyński, G.; Soszyński, I.; Poleski, M Dwarf?, ApJ., 779.91F R.; Ulaczyk, K. and 91 coauthors, (2015), Reanalyses of Anomalous Gravitational Microlensing Events in the OGLE- Choi, J.; Shin, I.; Han, C.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, T.; Gould, III Early Warning System Database with Combined Data, A.; Bozza, V.; Dominik, M.; Fouqué, P.; Horne, K. and 116 ApJ., 804.38J coauthors, (2012), A New Type of Ambiguity in the Planet and Binary Interpretations of Central Perturbations of High- Freeman, M.; Philpott, L. C.; Abe, F.; Albrow, M. D.; magnifi cation Gravitational Microlensing Events, Bennett, D. P.; Bond, I. A.; Botzler, C. S.; Bray, J. C.; ApJ., 756.48C Cherrie, J. M.; Christie, G. W. and 14 coauthors, (2015), Can the Masses of Isolated Planetary-mass Gravitational Lenses Miyake, N.; Udalski, A.; Sumi, T.; Bennett, D. P.; Dong, S.; be Measured by Terrestrial Parallax?, ApJ., 799.181F Street, R. A.; Greenhill, J.; Bond, I. A.; Gould, A.; Kubiak, M. and 75 coauthors, (2012), A Possible Binary System of Mhlahlo, N.; Buckley, D. A. H.; Dhillon, V. S.; Potter, S. a Stellar Remnant in the High-magnifi cation Gravitational B.; Warner, B.; Woudt, P.; Bolt, G.; McCormick, J.; Rea, Microlensing Event OGLE-2007-BLG-514, ApJ., 752.82M R.; Sullivan, D. J.; Velhuis, F., (2007), The discovery of a persistent quasi- periodic oscillation in the intermediate polar Henderson, C. B.; Park, H.; Sumi, T.; Udalski, A.; Gould, TX Col, MNRAS., 380.133M A.; Tsapras, Y.; Han, C.; Gaudi, B. S.; Bozza, V.; Abe, F.and 72 coauthors, (2014), Candidate Gravitational Microlensing McCormick, J., (2002), In the dark - an amateur’s Events for Future Direct Lens Imaging, ApJ., 794.71H contribution, Southern Stars 41 (3)

Bos, M.; Retter, A.; McCormick, J.; Velthuis, F., (2001), V382 Patterson, J.; Bos, M.; Cook, L.; Fried, R.;Garradd, G.; Velorum, IAUC.7610.2B Gunn, J.; Harvey, D.; Jensen, L.; Kemp, J.; Martin, B. and 8 coauthors, (2000), Cataclysmic Variables with the CBA, Yee, J. C.; Han, C.; Gould, A.; Skowron, J.; Bond, I. A.; AAS., 196 Udalski, A.; Hundertmark, M.; Monard, L. A. G.; Porritt, I.; Nelson, P. and 67 coauthors, (2014), MOA-2013-BLG- Schwieterman, E.; Wood, M. A.; Piwowar, D.; Patterson, J.; 220Lb: Massive Planetary Companion to Galactic-disk Host, Rea, R.; Monard, B.; Krajci, T.; Bolt, G.; Roberts, G.; Foote, ApJ., 790.14Y J.;McCormick, J., (2009), Time-Series Photometry of GW Librae One Year After Outburst, AAS. Skowron, J.; Shin, I.; Udalski, A.; Han, C.; Sumi, T.; Shvartzvald, Y.; Gould, A.; Dominis Prester, D.; Street, R. McCormick, J. (2006), The Taranaki daylight fi reball, 1999 A.; Jørgensen, U. G. and 120 coauthors, (2015), OGLE-2011- July 7, JIMO., 34.35M BLG-0265Lb: A Jovian Microlensing Planet Orbiting an M Dwarf, ApJ., 804.33S McCormick, J., (2006), CCD Photometry from a Small Observatory in a Large City, SASS., 25.57M Pagnotta, A.; Schaefer, B. E.; Handler, G.; Allen, B.; Campbell, T.; Krajci, T.; Monard, B.; Rea, R. D.; Richards, McCormick, J.; Christie, G. W., (2005), Reports on New T.; Roberts, G. and 9 coauthors, (2010), An Apparent Second Discoveries, IBVS., 5700.31M Plateau in the UBVRIJHK Eruption Light Curve of the Recurrent Nova U Sco, ATel., 2507.1P Christie, G. W.; McCormick, J., Natusch, T., (2005), Reports on New Discoveries, IBVS., 5600.0C Shears, J.; Brady, S.; Bolt, G.; Campbell, T.; Collins, D. F.; Cook, L. M.; Crawford, T. R.; Koff, R..; Krajci, T.; McCormick, J. and 8 coauthors, (2009), VSX J074727.6+065050: a new WZ Sagittae star in Canis Minor, JBAA., 119.340S

Han, C.; Hwang, K.; Kim, D.; Udalski, A.; Abe, F.; Monard, L. A. B.; McCormick, J.; Szymański, M. K.; Kubiak, M.; Pietrzyński, G. and 83 coauthors, (2009), Interpretation of Strong Short-Term Central Perturbations in the Light Curves of Moderate-Magnifi cation Microlensing Events, ApJ., 705.1116H

55, 2, 2016 June Page 21 Book Review:- John Dunlop

Book Review

John Drummond Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy: Trials, Tribulations, Telescopes and Transits, by Wayne Orchiston

2016 688pages Hardback, 242 × 159mm US$179.00 ISBN: 978-3-319-22565-4, HB New York: Springer.

The main problem that I found The blurb on the rear cover with Wayne Orchiston’s book, states, Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy: Trials, ‘Professor Orchiston is a Tribulations, Telescopes and foremost authority on the Transits, was that I had a subject of New Zealand deadline - but I was enjoying astronomy, and here are the the book way too much! This collected papers of his fruitful book is a wonderful meander studies in this area, including down memory lane as the both those published many author carefully leads the reader years ago and new material. on a historic adventure through The papers herein review Aotearoa/New Zealand’s rich traditional Maori astronomy, astronomical history from pre- examine the appearance of European times through to the nautical astronomy practiced late 20th Century. by Cook and his astronomers on their various stopovers in In typical Orchiston fashion, the New Zealand during their three background and circumstances voyagers to the South Seas, and enveloping each fact of New also explore notable nineteenth Zealand’s rich astronomical century New Zealand history is well researched. This observatories historically, from book certainly isn’t a takeaway signifi cant telescopes now snack to be consumed quickly located in New Zealand to local - it’s more of a Sunday roast and international observations upon which to relish the made during the 1874 and eclectic history presented by a 1882 transits of Venus and world authority on this topic. the nineteenth and twentieth century preoccupation of New The book is divided into seven Zealand amateur astronomers main parts – Part I deals with with comets and meteors. pre-European history when Maori walked the land, fi shed New Zealand astronomy has the seas and gazed at the stars. a truly rich history, extending Part II weaves the history from the Maori civilization in of Captain Cook spearheading the merger of the Maori and pre-European times through to the years when explorers and European cultures – from an astronomical perspective. Part III navigators discovered the region, up to pioneering research delves into the lives of selected New Zealand astronomers, on the newly emerging fi eld of radio astronomy during WWII both amateur and professional, as they forged a name for and in the immediate post-war years. A complete survey of a themselves and their nation on the international arena. Part V neglected but rich national astronomical history, this does the hones in on the importance of the 1874 and 1882 transits of subject full and comprehensive justice.’ Venus which New Zealand was privy to witness – in an attempt to better ascertain the length of the Astronomical Unit. Part V Part 1 – ‘Pre-European Astronomy in the Pacifi c’ deals with delves into the involvement of New Zealand amateur and the history of Aotearoa prior to Cook’s arrival. It explores the professional astronomers in the observation of eclipses, comets arrival of Maori in Aotearoa and the astronomical knowledge and meteor showers. Part VI explores other notable New they brought and used as they settled this new southern land. Zealand astronomers and their activities. Finally, Part VII The verbal transmission of said knowledge is explored and the investigates the role of early New Zealand radio astronomy. problems of fi nding written sources in such an oral climate is

Page 22 Southern Stars Book Review:- John Dunlop mentioned. The beliefs and lore of these Maori astronomers Part IV - ‘Transits of Venus: The Quest for the Astronomical and their people are visited. Of particular interest is the Unit’ highlights the importance New Zealand had as a prime range of astronomical phenomena that the tohunga kokorangi location for observing the two transits of Venus of 1874 and (watchmen of the sky) would have witnessed from AD 1200 1882. Numerous international observational and research to 1768 (prior to Cook’s 1769 arrival at Poverty Bay) as they groups descended on Aotearoa in order to get accurate timings trolled the skies out of curiosity and also to determine seasons of the transit and thus improve the accuracy of the solar parallax for horticultural plantings, fi shing and bird-hunting ventures. and the astronomical unit.

Orchiston delves intensely into the range of astronomical Part V - ‘Stunning Spectacles: Eclipses, Comets and Meteor spectacles possibly witnessed from Aotearoa by the locals such Showers’ talks about the role New Zealand amateur and as activity on the Sun – sunspots, solar halos, solar eclipses, professional astronomers had in the observations of the the corona and prominences; the Moon – including phases aforementioned celestial bodies. The 1880s would have and what they mythically represented, lunar eclipses and lunar been a golden decade for observational astronomy as four occultations; the planets – their nightly wanderings, magnitude ‘Great Comets’ graced our skies – as did a total solar eclipse variation and conjunctions; comets – bright ones, tails, etc.; and the previously mentioned transits of Venus. During this meteors and more such as stars and asterisms, supernovae, time a number of astronomy-minded individuals tried to variable stars, nebulae, the Milky Way and the Magellanic popularise astronomy through lectures and books – possibly Clouds. Additionally everyday Maori life such as meeting the most notable being the British visitor Richard Proctor, houses and time as it relates to astronomy is discussed. I loved who is likened to ‘the Patrick Moore of the 1880s’. Other reading about these legendary night watchmen and would love important key players such as John Grigg, C.J Westland and to teleport back to pre-European times to converse with them Ronald McIntosh are explored – as is their contribution to the about their years of star gazing and what they knew! international astronomy stage.

Part II – ‘Cook Voyage Astronomy and New Zealand’ brings Part VI - ‘Other Notable Astronomers and Their Activities’ Captain James Cook into the Aotearoa connection. Orchiston is self-explanatory in that a number of other New Zealanders goes to great pains to thoroughly investigate Captain Cook the who played important roles in astronomy and the fl edging astronomer and the men who accompanied him on his three developing role of astrophotography are discussed. voyages to New Zealand. Cook’s precision as a cartographer and the ability to determine a location’s latitude and longitude Part VII - ‘Opening a New Window in the Universe: Early were legendary. One interesting fact is that Queen Charlotte New Zealand Radio Astronomy’ delves into the work of such Sounds, Cook’s ‘home-away-from-home’, was one of the most talented people in this fi eld as Dr Elizabeth Alexander, John well-determined locations on Earth – almost as well-known as Bolton, Gordon Stanley, Dr Bruce Slee and others. Having Greenwich! worked with the Parkes Radio Telescope, Orchiston is comfortable explaining this ‘dark science’. Orchiston’s knack of fi nding the smallest tit-bit of information about the equipment that Cook used on his voyages is uncanny. I couldn’t fault this 688-page hard-covered book in its These instruments were pivotal in helping the international presentation or layout apart from a few small typographical astronomical community gain an approximate determination mistakes. It is richly furnished with relevant illustrations and of the astronomical unit (AU), that distance ruler between has detailed references for the reader to delve deeper into aspects Earth and Sun that, thanks to the Titius-Bode Law, would of our astronomical history if they so desire. This book is an enable the approximate distance to the then known planets to absolute treasure-trove for anyone possessing even the most be determined. The producers of these instruments are also fl eeting interest in Aotearoa/New Zealand astronomical history delved into. – or even just history or astronomy. One avenue that this book has personally opened for me is to try and locate the many The three expeditions are discussed in great detail – as is the detailed latitude and longitude positions of key happenings background of Cook prior to his fi rst voyage. The astronomers and locales within New Zealand and to do my own exploration on each of the vessels during these voyages are richly explored of the rich astronomical history our nation possesses – using – such as Charles Green, William Bayly, William Wales, and Wayne’s ‘Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy: James King. Of particular interest is the use of chronometers Trials, Tribulations, Telescopes and Transits’ as a guide … and other time pieces that were used to help determine longitude.

Part III – ‘Fundamental Astronomy: Of Telescopes and [email protected] Observatories’ looks at the rapid rise of astronomy in the new colony as a necessity for a time service for ships to maintain longitude. This paved the way for the creation of Carter Observatory and the various other observatories located at Wellington’s Botanic Gardens. People and telescopes further afi eld are discussed such as John Grigg of Thames, the Wanganui Refractor, Joseph Ward and his telescope making antics, and the historic Cooke Refractor at Carter Observatory.

55, 2, 2016 June Page 23 outhern Stars is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. It is sent to all members and affi liated societies. Institutions and libraries may subscribe. SIndividuals may purchase single copies. Contact the Executive Secretary for information. Contributions The editor welcomes; RESEARCH PAPERS theoretical, observational, technical, historical, etc.; NEWS ARTICLES regarding recent events in NZ astronomy, discoveries, gatherings, awards, etc.; ANNUAL REPORTS from NZ astronomical institutions; REVIEWS of astronomical activities, sections, local/regional groups, personal, etc.; OBSERVERS’ FORUM particularly interesting photographs and/or descriptions. All contributions should be original; not (at least widely) having been published elsewhere. All correspondence regarding Southern Stars should be addressed to the editor: 15 Taiepa Road, Otatara R D 9, Invercargill 9879, New Zealand or [email protected].

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Sections Astrobiology Director Ms H Mogoşanu, 31E Patanga Crescent, Thorndon, Wellington, NZ http://astrobiology.kiwi Astrophotography Director Mr J Drummond, P O Box 113, Patutahi 4045, NZ http://www.rasnzaps.co.nz Aurora and Solar Director Mr R W Evans, 15 Taiepa Rd, Otatara R D 9, Invercargill 9879, NZ http://www.rasnz.org.nz/groups-and-sections/aurora-and-solar-section Comet and Meteor Director Mr J Drummond, P O Box 113, Patutahi 4045, NZ http://www.cometeor.co.nz Dark Skies Group Convenor Mr S C Butler, 30 Hoffman Court, Invercargill 9810, NZ http://www.rasnz.org.nz/groups-and-sections/dark-skies-group Education Section Convenor Mr R A Fisher, 39 Wilton St, Levin 5510, NZ. http://www.rasnz.org.nz/wiki/doku.php?id=education:start Occultation Director Mr S R Kerr, 22 Green Ave, Glenlee, Queensland 4711, Australia http://www.occultations.org.nz Professional Astronomers’ Group Ass. Prof. K R Pollard, Dep’t of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, NZ http://www.rasnz.org.nz/groups-and-sections/professional-astronomers-group Variable Stars South Director Mr W S G Walker, P O Box 173, Awanui 0451, Far North, NZ http://www.variablestarssouth.org

Fellows Mr W H Allen Prof E Budding Dr G W Christie Mr R W Evans Mr A C Gilmore Prof. J B Hearnshaw Ms P M Kilmartin Mr B R Loader Ms J M McCormick Ass. Prof. K R Pollard Dr D J Sullivan Mr W S G Walker Prof. P C M Yock

Honorary Members Gerry Gilmore, FInstP, ScD, MAE, FRS Thomas Richards MA(Hons VUW), DPhil(Oxon)

Brian Warner BSc(Hons), PhD, DSc(London), MA, DSc(Oxon), Assoc RAS, FRSSAf, MASSAf

© Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand 2016. Individual articles, illustrations, etc. remain the copyright of the author or photographer, whose permission must be obtained before reproduction. Page 24 Southern Stars