Highlights of the July Sky. . .

------1st ------Dawn: Mars to upper right and Pleiades to upper left PPrime Focuss of Venus. Continues until the 9th. A Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society

------3rdrd ------PM: Antares 1º to 4º left July 2009 of Waxing Gibbous Moon.

------7th ------Full Moon

------9th ------ThisThis MonthsMonths KAS EventsEvents AM: 5th magnitude Mu Capricorni 19′′ NNWNNW ofof Jupiter; 7.8 magnitude General Meeting: Friday, July 10 @ 7:00 pm

Neptune 17′′ NNWNNW ofof MuMu WMU Rood Hall - Room 1110 - See Page 8 for Details Capricorni.

------15th ------Observing Session: Saturday, July 11 @ 9:00 pm Last Quarter Moon Delightful Double - Kalamazoo Nature Center ------18th ------Dawn: Pleiades, Mars, Board Meeting: Sunday, July 12 @ 5:00 pm Aldebaran, and Venus form reverse L in eastern sky an Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome hour before sunrise. Observing Session: Saturday, July 25 @ 9:00 pm ------19th ------Dawn: Waning Crescent Pleasant Planetary Nebulae - Kalamazoo Nature Center Moon to left of Venus.

------20th ------Dawn: Pleiades are a few degrees to lower left of Waning Crescent Moon -- lowlow inin ENE.ENE. InsideInside thethe Newsletter.Newsletter. .. ..

------21st ------June Meeting Minutes...... p. 2 New Moon Board Meeting Minutes...... p. 2 ------23rd ------Dusk: Waxing Crescent Shedding Light on Black Holes...... p. 3 Moon below Regulus. What’s Next for Hubble?...... p. 4 ------28th ------First Quarter Moon NASA Space Place...... p. 5

PM: Southern Delta July Night Sky...... p. 6 Aquarid meteor shower peaks (ZHR = 20). KAS Officers & Announcements...... p. 7 General Meeting Preview...... p. 8 ------30th ------PM: Antares to left of the Waxing Gibbous Moon. www.kasonline.org June Meeting Minutes Board Meeting Minutes

The general meeting of the KAS was brought to order by The KAS Board met on June 14th at Sunnyside Church. President Jack Price on Friday, June 5, 2009 at 7:12 pm. President Jack Price called the meeting to order at 5:10 pm. Approximately 125 members and guests were in attendance Present were Richard Bell, Jean DeMott, Dave Woolf, and at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center. Much of the Roger Williams. credit for the above average attendance goes to an article in the Kalamazoo Gazette and a link on the Astronomy Picture The meeting began with a review of Astronomy Day. All of the Day (APoD) web site during the week of the meeting. agreed that the event had been very successful, and thanks The link on APoD also resulted in unprecedented numbers of were especially extended to Richard, without whose vision visitors to KAS Online. the event would never have happened on this scale. Jean cited a few lessons learned that would suggest future Our very special guest speaker was Dr. Robert Nemiroff, improvements, such as assigning a member to each speaker Professor of Physics at Michigan Technological University for the day to see that all of the guest’s needs were met. in Houghton, Michigan and co-editor of the world-famous Astronomy Picture of the Day web site. The title of Dr. In other Old Business, Jack is still planning to do some Nemiroff’s presentation was The Best Astronomy Images of electrical work and to add some air vents to Owl Observatory 2009 and (as the title suggests) featured some of the favorite as soon as time permits. It is also time for another cleaning images of the editor’s of APoD. Dr. Nemiroff began by event, which will need to be scheduled. Plans are also being giving a brief history of APoD. The site was launched on made to erect shelving in the rented storage unit on July 18th. June 16, 1995 thanks to a grant from NASA and additional funding by the National Science Foundation. APoD features In the area of public events, the next general meeting is th a new image of the universe each day with a brief caption scheduled for July 10 . Jack confirmed that Bill Nigg is written by either Dr. Nemiroff or Dr. Jerry Bonnell from willing to do a short demonstration of the proper cleaning of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Baltimore. APoD eyepieces, followed by an opportunity for members to give it now boasts the largest collection of annotated astronomical a try. Dave is also planning to bring some singers from his images on the internet. There are now dozens of mirror sites; school program, who will present astronomy-themed vocal many of which translate APoD into most major languages music. Jack made a note to contact Kirk Korista daily. The site now receives over 750,000 hits daily. immediately about whether Rood Hall would be available for this meeting, given the construction underway at KAMSC. Dr. Nemiroff then shared his top five favorite NASA images Other July events include Kindleberger Festival in of all time. These include an image of the Space Shuttle Parchment on July 11th and public observing sessions on July Columbia before its first launch, a twisted solar prominence 11th and 25th. Looking further ahead, the Perseid Potluck taken by SOHO, Apollo 17 on the Moon, Hubble’s famous Picnic will have the added attraction of Eric Schreur doing a portrait of the Eagle Nebula (M16), and Earthrise as presentation on his solar eclipse cruise. The question was photographed by Apollo 8. Dr. Nemiroff then shared his top raised as to whether Jim Kurtz would be willing to run the five favorite non-NASA images of all time. grill again, and if so, could he be given assistance in the transportation. Continuing his theme, Dr. Nemiroff then shared some “wow” images and the top images of 2008. Dr. Nemiroff Richard said that the belated Galileoscopes are still on order, then spent the remainder of the talk of going through his and we will need a plan for their use. One possibility choices for the best images (thus far) of 2009. KAS suggested was to use them in conjunction with the Members: Please contact Richard Bell if you’d like a copy of Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s inauguration of the new Dr. Nemiroff’s PowerPoint Presentation to see all the Digistar planetarium projector, to occur some time in the fall. wonderful images. There was also discussion of Mike Patton’s offer to provide space for a remotely-operated club telescope in his The June meeting was declared “Astronomy Day Volunteer observatory being constructed in Arizona. The Board agreed Appreciation Night.” Jean DeMott passed out cake and ice that more information would be helpful, and it was decided cream to all in attendance (not just AD2K9 volunteers). A that Mike should be invited to attend the next board meeting slide show of pictures taken on Astronomy Day was also to discuss his offer. shown during the snack break and throughout the business portion of the meeting. Jack Price presented Jim Kurtz with The date for the next meeting was set at July 12th, 5:00 pm at a certificate and pin for completing the Astronomical Sunnyside Church. The meeting was adjourned at 6:37 pm. League’s Double Star Club. Congratulations Jim! The meeting adjourned at about 9:35 pm. Respectfully submitted by Roger Williams

Prime Focus Page 2 July 2009 SheddingShedding LightLight onon BlackBlack HolesHoles

by Tom Koonce

Black Holes... Just their name sounds like something out of would I go?” The straight-forward blunt answer? “To your science fiction. Maybe this is one reason why they have been death!” You literally would be torn to pieces by the gravita- the focus of misconceptions and misguided theories. This tional tidal forces during your approach to the event horizon month, the theme of the International of Astronomy is and then, with unerring certainty, what gelatinous mess re- centered on the objects that weigh heavily (pun intended) on mained would be squashed much, much flatter than a pancake the minds of theoretical physicists and leading astronomers… as your remains fell deeper into the gravity well. Black holes Black Holes. are not a mode of transportation to another universe, but they are efficient "matter compactors," sweeping up all mass that First a bit of background on the subject. passes too near. Of course they can’t draw in matter from light away, but as matter falls into a black hole it be- The gravitational force exhibited by a celestial body is directly comes (perhaps) infinitely compressed by its overwhelming related to its mass and inversely proportional to the square of gravitational force. the distance which the object is away from that mass. So how does a black hole generate its enormous gravity even though Imagine what a black hole looks like and you probably pic- its mass is reduced to an infinitesimal point? ture the graphic popularized by the media; a two dimensional plane with a funnel-shaped hole descending towards the black Consider a star with the mass and radius of the red supergiant hole’s singularity (as pictured below). This stylized percep- Betelgeuse. Under normal circumstances, an object could tion of the three dimensional nature of the object has misled orbit the star at a distance outside of Betelgeuse’s stellar at- many people to think of a black hole as a hole in space, like a mosphere. But if the entire mass of Betelgeuse was com- hole in the backyard, or perhaps a tunnel in space-time lead- pressed down to become a black hole and in the absence of ing to other parts of our own universe. The event horizon is a Betelgeuse’s stellar atmosphere, the object could pass much spherical region around the black hole, inside of which the closer to the black hole’s center of mass… so close, in fact, black hole’s gravity is so strong that nothing can achieve es- that the gravitational force it could experience would be in- cape velocity - nothing, not even light. Because light can’t credibly high. escape, space artists have envisioned the object as a black blob against a field of distant stars. This black blob is sur- Another concept to realize is that if the were to suddenly rounded by a fairly bright disk of material caught in the gravi- be replaced with a black hole of equal mass, the Earth would tational field. Why is it bright? As all of the dust and matter continue to orbit it in the exact same manner as it does today, spirals in closer to the black hole it is rubbing against other except that the lack of sunlight would render the Earth incapa- matter, heating it up by friction until it gets to millions of ble of sustaining life. degrees. It is this dust outside of the event horizon that is radiating light. A common question that comes up during casual conversation about this subject is, “If I went through a black hole, where What would a glimpse below the event horizon look like? How important would it be to you to find out? It would be a one-way trip to find out. Nothing, not even light, can escape from below the event horizon… but photons of light could orbit the black hole. Since there is an equivalent mass for the energy of a photon (E = mc2), light is affected by gravita- tional forces. Photons can orbit a black hole if conditions are right. Since there are photons continuously falling into black holes, many must get trapped in this manner. We can’t see the photons because they are orbiting and not radiating out- ward and striking our retinas. If we were somehow able to glimpse just below the event horizon, on that one way trip into gravitational flatness, I believe you would see bright light surrounding you; you would see photons instead of blackness. Your final view would be of all of the light shed upon the black hole.

Tom Koonce is a member of the Antelope Valley Astronomy Club in Lancaster, California.

Prime Focus Page 3 July 2009 What’sWhat’s NextNext forfor Hubble?Hubble?

When the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis released the Hub- The new instruments — weightless for the first time, and now ble Space Telescope to return to orbit, concluding the final in the vacuum of space — will be out of alignment. But that's astronaut mission to upgrade and repair Hubble, astronomy expected, so the instruments are built with mechanisms that fans around the world rejoiced. Hubble, renewed and equipped allow engineers to adjust them from the ground, often by with new cameras, would now return to its work of revealing moving small mirrors within the instrument itself. Each in- the universe. strument needs a few weeks to go through the alignment process. But after the furor and high-profile feats of a servicing mis- sion, Hubble sinks into silence. This time, a three-month hia- Finally, engineers take the instruments through a calibration tus will take place between the mission and any new images. process. Calibration is the process of identifying and dealing with data that belongs to the instrument, versus data that be- The quiet belies the intense activity going on behind the longs to the sky. scenes. Engineers and scientists are conducting a slow, pains- taking process of Servicing Mission Observatory Verification Engineers observe a familiar astronomical object and com- (SMOV) -- bringing the telescope to full functionality, making pare the data they receive with the data they know should be the adjustments and gathering the information that will allow there. They can then adjust the instruments to remove the data them to provide the best, clearest, cleanest images. Once that's that comes from the instrument itself, or, more frequently, accomplished, Hubble will begin taking its Early Release Ob- arrange to have it removed on the ground. Finding and identi- servations (EROs), images intended to demonstrate the tele- fying this erroneous data is a major part of the SMOV proc- scope's new technology. ess.

At the Space Telescope Sci- Once all these tasks, have ence Institute in Baltimore, reached a particular point in Md., and Goddard Space Flight the plan, Hubble starts taking Center in Greenbelt, Md., its Early Release Observations teams work together to make (EROs), the first high-quality sure the telescope is pointing images from the telescope. correctly and that its instru- The targets have been chosen ments are working with their in advance by a team that se- intended precision. lects them for their ability to showcase Hubble's new capa- Hubble's pointing is adjusted bilities. with the help of six gyro- scopes, all of which were re- The targets are kept a mystery placed during Servicing Mission 4. To ensure that the tele- until their release, but the goal is to provide the most impres- scope is pointing accurately, engineers change the direction of sive views of a good mix of astronomical objects — some the telescope in a measured way, and then examine the data within the , some far beyond. generated from the gyroscopes. The data is then used to cali- brate the gyroscopes to ensure precise pointing. To those who know what to look for, the new images will be the first true display of the power of Hubble's new technol- Next, engineers and scientists look at Hubble's instruments. ogy, dazzling amateur and professional astronomers with a The instruments are in the natural process of "outgassing" — wealth of new information. Scientists will immediately have the extra, unwanted molecules within them from their time on access to the images for use in their research. These compel- Earth are floating away due to the lack of atmospheric pres- ling images are expected to be released in September. sure. As the ERO images are completed, Hubble will go back to Outgassing is important for a couple of reasons: the molecules the day-to-day task of observing the universe. Equipped with can interfere with the instrument when high voltages are pre- new eyes and fresh technology, it will work ceaselessly, min- sent, possibly damaging it; and they can absorb wavelengths ute by minute, to answer the pressing questions of modern of light, preventing the instrument from collecting all the in- astronomy. Though the servicing missions may be over, Hub- formation it could. To avoid these dangers, engineers wait ble's revelations will continue far into the future. until the outgassing is complete before bringing the instru- ments to full power.

Prime Focus Page 4 July 2009 TheThe CoolCool ChemistryChemistry ofof AlienAlien LifeLife

Alien life on distant worlds. What would it be like? For mil- lennia people could only wonder, but now NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope is producing some hard data. It turns out that life around certain kinds of stars would likely be very different from life as we know it.

Using Spitzer, astronomers have discovered the organic chemical acetylene in the planet-forming discs surrounding 17 M-dwarf stars. It’s the first time any chemical has been de- tected around one of these small, cool stars. However, scien- tists are more intrigued by what was not there: a chemical called hydrogen cyanide (HCN), an important building block for life as we know it.

“The fact that we do not detect hydrogen cyanide around cool stars suggests that that prebiotic chemistry may unfold differ- into individual nitrogen atoms. But the triple bond holding ently on planets orbiting cool stars,” says Ilaria Pascucci, lead molecular nitrogen together is very strong. High-energy ultra- scientist for the Spitzer observations and an astrophysicist at violet photons can break this bond, but the lower-energy pho- Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. tons from M-dwarf stars cannot.

That’s because HCN is the basic component for making ade- “Other nitrogen-bearing molecules are going to be affected by nine, one of the four information-carrying chemicals in DNA. this same chemistry,” Pascucci says, possibly including the All known life on Earth is based on DNA, but without adenine precursors to amino acids and thus proteins. available, life in a dwarf-star solar system would have to make do without it. “You cannot make adenine in another way,” To search for HCN, Pascucci’s team looked at data from Pascucci explains. “You need hydrogen cyanide.” Spitzer, which observes the universe at infrared wavelengths. Planet-forming discs around M-dwarf stars have very faint M-dwarf and brown dwarf stars emit far less ultraviolet light infrared emissions, but Spitzer is sensitive enough to detect than larger, hotter stars such as our sun. Pascucci thinks this them. difference could explain the lack of HCN around dwarf stars. For HCN to form, molecules of nitrogen must first be split HCN’s distinctive 14-micron emission band was absent in the infrared spectra of the M-dwarf stars, but Spitzer did detect HCN in the spectra of 44 hotter, sun-like stars.

Infrared astronomy will be a powerful tool for studying other prebiotic chemicals in planet-forming discs, says Pascucci, and the Spitzer Space Telescope is at the forefront of the field. Spitzer can’t yet draw us a picture of alien life forms, but it’s beginning to tell us what they could — and could not — be made of. “That’s pretty wonderful, too,” says Pascucci.

For news of other discoveries based on Spitzer data, visit:

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/

Kids can learn Spitzer astronomy words and concepts by playing the Spitzer “Sign Here!” game at:

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spitzer/signs/

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Do alien planets around other stars have the right California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the ingredients for a pre-biotic soup? National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Prime Focus Page 5 July 2009 JulyJuly NightNight Sky...... Sky......

This star map is property of the This map represents the sky at the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. NORTH following local standard times: However you may make as many y Late June 12 am copies as you wish free-of-charge, so long as it is for non-profit y Early July 11 pm educational purposes and full y Late July Dusk credit is given to the KAS.

www.kasonline.org EAST WEST

SOUTH

arly morning risers have all the of faint Mars on the 18th and about 6º to The Southern Delta Aquarid Meteor luck in July. The Pleiades, Mars, the left of brilliant Venus on the 19th. Shower takes place from about July 25th E Aldebaran, and Venus form an to August 1st. The peak of the shower is E th inverted celestial L at dawn on July 18 Evening observer’s can observe Saturn predicted to occur during the late night and 19th. Look due east about an hour pass less than 20 arcminutes north of the and early morning hours of July 28th and before sunrise. The Waning Crescent 4th-magnitude star Sigma (σ) Leonis 29th, respectfully. Observers can only Moon will be about 4º to the upper right from July 25th - 27th. expect 20 meteors per hour. KAS OFFICERS July 2009 Page 7 PRESIDENT Jack Price 343-3193 [email protected] Follow the VICE PRESIDENT Mike Sinclair 373-7003 [email protected] on

TREASURER Rich Mather Read about the latest news and activities of the Kalamazoo 629-5312 Astronomical Society. Stay informed about upcoming events in the [email protected] night sky.

SECRETARY/ALCOR All this and more in 140 characters or less! Roger Williams 375-4867 [email protected] http://twitter.com/kzooastro/

MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Richard S. Bell 373-8942 [email protected]

Jean DeMott 381-1406 Space Bus [email protected] Saturdays, 11:00 am; Sundays, 1:30 pm

Dick Gillespie Treasures of the Milky Way 966-9653 [email protected] Wednesdays 3:00 pm; Saturdays, 2:00 pm

The Endless Horizon Dave Woolf The Endless Horizon 762-8268 Saturdays & Sundays, 3:00 pm [email protected] Planetarium admission is $3.00 per person. The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is located at 230 North Rose Street in downtown Kalamazoo. For more information please call (269) 373-7990 or visit us on the web at www.kalamazoomuseum.org

GETGET OUTOUT & OBSERVEOBSERVE JULY STARGAZING DATES Kalamazoo Nature Center ● 7000 N. Westnedge Ave.

Saturday, July 11 @ 9:00 pm Delightful Double Stars

Saturday, July 25 @ 9:00 pm Pleasant Planetary Nebulae

with the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society General Meeting Preview

Today the astronomical marketplace is flooded with telescopes and accessories of all shapes, sizes, and price ranges. However, even with the wealth of goods now available, there are some gadgets that can only be hand crafted. Don Stilwell’s custom-made solar filter (seen at your left) is an excellent example. It just goes to show that necessity really is the mother of invention and thankfully amateur astronomers are an ingenious lot.

For our next meeting we invite KAS members to trot out the results of their latest brainstorming. Please feel free to bring any previously seen doodads, doohickeys, and devices from past Gadget Nights as well - odds are they’ll be all-new to someone in attendance. You won't want to miss this fun and entertaining evening.

Friday, July 10 @ 7:00 pm Western Michigan University - Main Campus Rood Hall - Room 1110 - FREE PARKING!

Kalamazoo Astronomical Society c/o KAMSC STAMP 600 West Vine, Suite 400 Kalamazoo, MI 49008

© July 2009, Stargazer Productions