Prime Focus (06-19).Pub

Highlights of the June Sky

- - - 1st - - - DAWN: A razor thin waning crescent Moon is 6° to the right of Venus.

- - - 3rd - - - New Moon   6:02 am EDT

- - - 4th - - - DUSK: Mercury and an ultra thin waxing crescent Moon KAS are separated by 5½°.

- - - 5th - - - General Meeting: Friday, June 7 @ 7:00 pm PM: The Moon, Mars, and Mercury form a line nearly Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center - See Page 8 for Details 17° long.

- - - 6th - - - Observing Session: Saturday, June 8 @ 9:30 pm PM: The Moon is 4° to the lower right of the Beehive Moon & Jupiter - Kalamazoo Nature Center Cluster (M44) in Cancer.

- - - 10th - - - Observing Session: Saturday, June 22 @ 9:30 pm Jupiter is at opposion Jupiter & Saturn - Kalamazoo Nature Center First Quarter Moon 1:59 am EDT

- - - 15th - - - Board Meeting: Sunday, June 23 @ 5:00 pm PM: The Moon, Jupiter, and Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome Antares form a triangle.

- - - 16th - - - PM: The Moon and Jupiter are 4° apart.

- - - 17th - - - Inside the Newsletter. . . Full Moon 4:31 am EDT May Meeng Minutes...... p. 2

- - - 17th & 18th - - - Board Meeng Minutes...... p. 3 PM: Mercury and Mars are a mere ½° apart. Observaons...... p. 3

- - - 18th - - - NASA Night Sky Notes...... p. 4 PM: The Moon and Saturn Is the Great Red Spot Unraveling...... p. 4 are 1° apart. Help Curb Light Polluon...... p. 5 - - - 25th - - - Last Quarter Moon June Night Sky...... p. 6 5:46 am EDT KAS Board & Announcements...... p. 7 th - - - 30 - - - General Meeng Preview...... p. 8 DAWN: A waning crescent Moon is 2½° above Aldebaran in Taurus.   May Meeting Minutes

The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society sky. They departed from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul was brought to order by President Richard Bell on Friday, International Airport and flew to Santiago, Chile where they May 3, 2019 at 7:05 pm EDT. Approximately 47 members spent the first half of their trip. Dave described Santiago as a and guests were in attendance at the Kalamazoo Area Math very modern city and said he always felt safe there. & Science Center (KAMSC). The astronomical part of this trip included a visit to the Richard gave a relatively brief President’s Report, beginning Manuel Foster Observatory on the summit of Cerro San with a Remote Telescope update. Thirty-one people attended Cristóbal. The observatory was established in 1903 and the first ever training session on April 26th with twenty-four became a National Monument in 2010. Dave mentioned that members paying the user fee. Once a minor problem has fellow Muskegon native, Heber Curtis (of the famed Shapely been corrected those members will be allowed to schedule -Curtis debate just discussed at the March meeting), worked time on the telescope. After a recent Windows and ACP at the observatory from 1906 to 1909. Curtis used the update, only the Takahashi telescope can be used. Richard observatory’s 93cm (37-inch) reflecting telescope to measure said he planned to have the first version of the User’s Guide the radial velocities of stars only visible from the Southern ready soon. Hemisphere.

The next step in the Owl Observatory Upgrade Project is to Dave and his group then traveled north to San Pedro de raise money for the new pier and build it. A pier height has Atacama and stayed at the North Terra Hotel. Two major been determined, but needs to be confirmed. To pay for the observatories, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Atacama pier (and other expenses), we plan to sell a handful of Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), are in this telescopes. One of these is the Meade 12-inch LX200 region, but they did not make arrangements in advance to currently in the observatory. Two others are 8-inch Schmidt- tour them. The VLT consists of four 8.2-meter telescopes Cassegrains. Finally, Richard reviewed plans for our and twenty-three auxiliary 1-meter telescopes. ALMA, the appearance at the Rock & Mineral Show on May 4th and 5th. most advanced telescope array ever constructed, consists of In addition to passing out KAS literature and NASA freebies, fifty-five 12-meter and twelve 7-meter radio telescopes. we will hold comet making demonstrations throughout the day. Volunteers include Richard Bell, Dave Garten, Tony Dave and company spent their nights exploring the southern Gurczynski, Jim Kurtz, Rich Mather, Aaron Roman, Frank sky from San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations Severance, Mike Sinclair, Don Stilwell, and Karen (SPACE), an astronomy lodge operated by Alain Maury. Woodworth. Thank you! The lodge is at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet, and absent of any serious urban light pollution. Dave began this portion Dave DeBruyn, Chief Curator Emeritus of the Roger B. of his talk describing his experience of observing the Chaffee Planetarium and long-time member of the Grand southern sky for the first time and seeing notable sights like Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association, was the guest the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, Crux (the Southern speaker for the evening. Dave’s latest presentation for the Cross), the Coal Sack, Canopus (the second brightest star in KAS was entitled The Atacama Skies of Chile - Darkest on the night sky), and Alpha and Beta Centauri. Several Earth. Dave recently returned from a "bucket list" trip that telescopes are available for rent and they chose a 22-inch he has been anticipating for decades. With three longtime Dobsonian. The remainder of his presentation was spent friends, he traveled to the Atacama Desert of northern Chile describing their observations of southern sky highlights like and spent four nights exploring the splendors of the southern Omega Centauri, the Carina Nebula, 47 Tucanae, Centaurus A (NGC 5128), and the Tarantula Nebula (in the LMC).

Thanks to cloudy spring skies, no one had any observing reports to share so we launched right into astronomical news. NASA’s InSight lander has likely detected its first ever “marsquake” on April 6th. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship was due to launch at Cape Canaveral on May 4th. This is SpaceX’s seventeenth resupply mission to the International Space Station. In more SpaceX news, a Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during an engine test on April 20th. The cause is currently under investigation. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have released the Hubble Legacy Field, a mosaic of images obtained over 16 years containing roughly 265,000 galaxies. You can explore this remarkable image in a zoomable interactive webpage. The LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories began their third run on st Dave DeBruyn (third from the left) and his group are April 1 and may have detected the collision of a neutron star ready for another night under the southern sky with the with a black hole for the first time. After discussing 22-inch Dobsonian they rented at Atacama Lodge. upcoming events, the meeting concluded at 9:22 pm.

Prime Focus Page 2 June 2019 August 31st. A final topic in the Follow-Up category was the “Quintuple Conjunction” meeting of area astronomy clubs to be hosted at KAS on September 14th. Richard requested that the board be thinking about this event, but he deferred discussion of the program until the next meeting.

In Other Business, it was noted that we owe dues for Astronomical League (AL). The cost for this year was $695. The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Board met on May 19, It was moved by Joe and seconded by Rich that we renew for 2019 at Panera Bread (5627 Gull Road). President Richard another year, and the motion passed 5-1. During the Bell brought the meeting to order at 5:09 p.m. Other board discussion, Jean suggested organizing small groups to members present were Joe Comiskey, Jean DeMott, Rich encourage more members to take part in the AL observing Mather, Don Stilwell, and Roger Williams. clubs, which is one of the reasons to maintain membership in AL. Jean also reported that Bill Davis, who has presented a The first item of business was the state of treasury records. KAS program on light and photography, is doing another Don reported that he and Rich had not yet succeeded in area presentation. She expressed her intention to maintain meeting the mandate passed last month to generate a contact with Bill to use his work in pressing the issue of complete treasurer’s report for the period June 2018 to April preventing light pollution. 2019. The needed files were still not accessible. Don and Rich planned to visit the Advia branch on Sprinkle Road and With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:40 to get copies of the records needed to reconstruct the files. pm. The next meeting was set for June 23rd at Sunnyside. Don also reported that the inaccessible hard drive in Rich’s computer had been removed. After some discussion of Respectfully submitted by Roger Williams possible technical support options, Don recommended that he should consult a group that he had used in the past to get an estimate of the feasibility of reading the compromised drive. Richard moved that we allocate up to $150 to have the hard drive evaluated. After second by Jean, the motion passed unanimously.

A summary of June events included a general meeting on June 7th and a Public Observing Session on June 8th. Richard noted that this has been one of the worst years ever for getting sky conditions that allow the observing sessions. In the Follow-Up category, Richard gave an update on the Thus far, 2019 has not been a great year for observing - at Remote Telescope. After correcting a problem with updated least for the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. Our first software, he now had the MaxIm software working with the scheduled observing activity of the year was the Total Lunar PlaneWave telescope again. He had finished a draft of the Eclipse Watch on January 20th. Skies were actually crystal User’s Manual, and he invited use of the remote facility by clear that night, but we decided to cancel due to the brutally those who have been trained. He reported that the first logon low temperatures. On the bright side, we did receive some and use of the ‘scope by a member has occurred. A nice publicity in the local media and especially on social suggestion was advanced to prepare a FAQ file for the media. One of lunar eclipse images I shared on Twitter went convenience of users. There has also been a request for an viral thanks to posting by Elon Musk (people are still inexpensive webcam to stream video of the inside of the retweeting and liking Elon’s tweet). observatory. There is already a webcam in place, but it cannot stream to the internet. Both the February Freeze Out on February 2nd and the Messier Marathon on March 9th were canceled, but that’s not On the Owl Observatory Upgrade Project, Richard said that too unusual. Those are often clouded out, so it’s actually the the priority now is the new pier. There is not currently exception to successfully hold those rather than the rule. enough money in this account to pay for the pier, but it can What is unusual is four cancellations in-a-row - thus far - of be generated by sale of some of the donated telescopes our Public Observing Sessions at the Kalamazoo Nature detailed last month. Richard planned to push the sale of Center. We almost always pull off at least one session in these instruments forward. April and May. I probably shouldn’t have canceled the last scheduled session on May 25th. The forecast looked terrible On the Outreach topic, Richard reported that two tables in the morning, when I canceled, but improved later in the would be available at Miller Auditorium for the KAS display afternoon. Another factor in my decision to cancel was that I at the Neil deGrasse Tyson lecture, and several members was pretty sick at the time and would have needed to find expressed an interest in attending. Other events on the someone to open/close the gates for me. I did peak outside schedule include Family Science Night at Pierce Cedar around 11pm and saw a sky half covered in clouds though. Creek on June 19th, Summer Party Kickoff at Richland Community Library on June 21st, Ransom District Library Let’s hope our sessions on June 8th and 22nd (and beyond) Summer Program on June 24th, Kindleberger Summer have better luck. From here on out, I think I’ll wait as late in Festival on July 13th, solar observing at the Air Zoo on July the day as possible to make the call on cancellations. 29th or 30th, and WMU Youth Day at Seelye Center on Michigan weather is just so flighty!

Prime Focus Page 3 June 2019 NASA Night Sky Notes... Is the Great Red Spot Unraveling? Jupiter Shines in June by Dr. Tony Phillips by David Prosper Spaceweather.com

Jupiter stakes its claim as the king of the planets in June, Around the world, amateur astronomers are monitoring a shining bright all night. Saturn trails behind Jupiter, and the strange phenomenon on the verge of Jupiter’s Great Red Moon passes by both planets mid-month. Mercury puts on its Spot (GRS). The giant storm appears to be unraveling. “I best evening appearance in 2019 late in the month, outshin- haven’t seen this before in my 17-or-so years of imaging ing nearby Mars at sunset. Jupiter,” reports veteran observer Anthony Wesley of Aus- tralia, who photographed a streamer of gas detaching itself Jupiter is visible almost the entire evening this month. Earth from the GRS on May 19th: will be between Jupiter and the Sun on June 10th, meaning Jupiter is at opposition. On that date, Jupiter rises in the east as the Sun sets in the west, remaining visible the entire night. Jupiter will be one of the brightest objects in the night sky, shining at magnitude -2.6. Its four largest moons and cloud bands are easily spotted with even a small telescope.

What if your sky is cloudy or you don’t have a telescope? See far more of Jupiter than we can observe from Earth with NASA’s Juno mission! Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, swooping mere thousands of miles above its cloud tops in its extremely elliptical polar orbits, which take the probe over 5 million miles away at its furthest point! These ex- treme orbits minimize Juno’s exposure to Jupiter’s powerful radiation as it studies the gas giant’s internal structure, espe- cially its intense magnetic fields. Juno’s hardy JunoCam in- strument takes incredible photos of Jupiter’s raging storms during its flybys. All of the images are available to the pub- lic, and citizen scientists are doing amazing things with them. You can too! Find out more at bit.ly/JunoCam The plume of gas is enormous, stretching more than 10,000 Saturn rises about two hours after Jupiter and is visible be- km from the central storm to a nearby jet stream that appears fore midnight. The ringed planet rises earlier each evening as to be carrying it away. Wesley says that such a streamer is its own opposition approaches in July. The Moon appears peeling off every week or so. near both gas giants mid-month. The Moon’s tour begins on June 16th as it approaches Jupiter, and its visit ends on June The Great Red Spot is the biggest storm in the solar system– 19th after swinging past Saturn. an anticyclone wider than Earth with winds blowing 350 mph. Astronomers have been observing it for hundreds of Mercury is back in evening skies and will be highest after years. In recent decades, the Great Red Spot has been shrink- sunset on June 23rd, just two days after the summer solstice! ing. Once it was wide enough to swallow three Earths; now Spot it low in the western horizon, close to the much dimmer only one of our planet could fit inside the maelstrom. This and redder Mars. This is your best chance this year to spot has led some researchers to wonder if the GRS could break Mercury in the evening, and nearly your last chance to see up or disappear within our lifetimes. Perhaps the streamers Mars, too! The two smallest planets of our solar system pass are part of this process. close to each other the evenings of June 17th - 18th, coming within just ¼-degree, or half the width of a full Moon, mak- Wesley describes how the streamers are behaving now: ing for a potentially great landscape photo at twilight. “Each streamer appears to disconnect from the Great Red Spot and dissipate. Then, after about a week, a new streamer forms and the process repeats. You have to be lucky to catch it happening. Jupiter spins on its axis every 10 hours and the GRS is not always visible. A joint effort between many ama- teurs is underway to get clear images of the process.”

Indeed, now is a great time to monitor the action. Jupiter is approaching Earth for a close encounter in June 2019. Dur- ing the weeks around opposition on June 10th, Jupiter will shine 4 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and even small telescopes will reveal its storms, moons, and cloud belts.

Prime Focus Page 4 June 2019 How Can You Help Curb Light Pollution?

Light pollution has long troubled astronomers, who generally Night Sky Network members joined a telecon with Connie shy away from deep sky observing under full Moon skies. Walker of Globe at Night in 2014 and had a lively discussion The natural light from a bright Moon floods the sky and about the history of the program and how they can partici- hides views of the Milky Way, dim galaxies, nebulae, and pate. The audio of the telecon, transcript, and links to addi- shooting stars. In recent years human-made light pollution tional resources can be found on their dedicated resource has dramatically surpassed the interference of even a bright page. Globe at Night dates for 2019 are now available and full Moon, and its effects are now noticeable to a great many you can find out much more information on their official people outside of the astronomical community. Harsh, bright webpage at https://www.globeatnight.org/ white LED streetlights, while often more efficient and long- lasting, often creates unexpected problems for communities The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) has long been replacing their old street lamps. Increased glare and light a champion in the fight against light pollution and a propo- trespass, less restful sleep, and disturbed nocturnal wildlife nent of smart lighting design and policy. Their website (at patterns are some notable concerns. There is increasing darksky.org) provides many resources for amateur astrono- awareness of just how much light is too much light at night. mers and other like minded people to help communities un- You don't need to give in to despair over encroaching light derstand the negative impacts of light pollution and how pollution; you can join efforts to measure it, educate others, smart lighting policies can not only help bring the stars back and even help stop or reduce the effects of light pollution in to their night skies but make their streets safer by using your community. smarter lighting with less glare. Communities and individu- als find that their nighttime lighting choices can help save Amateur astronomers and potential citizen scientists around considerable sums of money when they decide to light their the globe are invited to participate in the Globe at Night streets and homes "smarter, not brighter" with shielded, di- (GaN) program to measure light pollution. Measurements are rectional lighting, motion detectors, timers, and even choos- taken by volunteers on a few scheduled days every month ing the proper "temperature" of new LED light replacements and submitted to their database to help create a comprehen- to avoid the harsh "pure white" glare that many new street- sive map of light pollution and its change over time. GaN lamps possess. Their pages on community advocacy and on volunteers can take and submit measurements using multiple how to choose dark-sky friendly lighting are extremely help- methods ranging from low-tech naked-eye observations to ful and full of great information. There are even local chap- high-tech sensors and smartphone apps. ters of the IDA in many communities made up of passionate advocates of dark skies. Globe at Night citizen scientists can use the following meth- ods to measure light pollution and submit their results: The IDA has notably helped usher in "Dark Sky Places",

• areas around the world that are protected from light pollu- Their own smartphone camera and dedicated app tion. "Dark Sky Parks", in particular, provide visitors with • Manually measure light pollution using their own eyes incredible views of the Milky Way and are perfect places to and detailed charts of the constellations spot the wonders of a meteor shower. These parks also per- • The free GaN webapp from any internet connected form a very important function, showing the public the won- device (which can also be used to submit their meas- ders of a truly dark sky to many people who may have never urements from a SQM or printed out star charts) before even seen a handful of stars in the sky, let alone the full glorious spread of the Milky Way.

More research into the negative effects of light pollution on the health of humans and the environment is being conducted than ever before. Watching the night time light slowly in- crease in your neighborhood combined with reading so much bad news can indeed be disheartening! However, as aware- ness of light pollution and its negative effects increase, more people are becoming aware of the problem and want to be part of the solution. There is even an episode of PBS Kid's SciGirls where the main characters help mitigate light pollu- tion in their neighborhood!

Astronomy clubs are uniquely situated to help spread aware- ness of good lighting practices in their local communities in Before and after pictures of replacement lighting at the 6th order to help mitigate light pollution. Take inspiration from Street Bridge over the Los Angeles River. The second picture shows improvements in some aspects of light pollution, as Tucson, Arizona and other dark sky friendly communities light is not directed to the sides and upwards from the up- that have adopted good lighting practices. Tucson even re- graded fixtures, reducing skyglow. However, it also shows duced their skyglow by 7% after their own citywide lighting the use of brighter, whiter LEDs which is not generally not conversion, proof that communities can bring the stars back ideal, along with increased light bounce back from the road. with smart lighting choices.

Prime Focus Page 5 June 2019 — June Night Sky —

This star map is property of the This map represents the sky at the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. NORTH following local mes: However, you may make as many • Late May 12 am copies as you wish free-of- • Early June 11 pm charge, so long as it is for non- profit educaonal purposes and • L a t e J u n e D u s k full credit is given to the KAS. www.kasonline.org EAST WEST

SOUTH

super slender Moon visits the the evening of June 6th and turn them Mercury and Mars will be less than 2° two innermost planets in early toward the crescent Moon. It is 4° to the apart in the west-northwestern sky from June. At dawn on June 1st, a lower right of the Beehive Cluster (M44) June 15th - 21st. However, only ½° will A th th waning crescent Moon is about 6° right of in Cancer, the Crab. separate them on June 17 and 18 ! brilliant Venus. The Moon, now one day past new, appears 6° to Mercury’s right A waxing gibbous Moon, Jupiter, and After Mercury and Mars have set on June on the evening of June 4th. Antares form a triangle in the southeast 18th, turn your gaze toward the southeast after sunset on June 15th. The Moon and watch the nearly full Moon and Grab your 7×50 or 10×50 binoculars on moves to with 4° of Jupiter on the 16th. Saturn rise in tandem 1° apart. June 2019 Page 7 PRESIDENT Richard S. Bell Share the Sky! Volunteers Needed For... VICE PRESIDENT Jack Price Family Science Night Wednesday, June 19th @ 6:00 - 8:00 pm TREASURER Pierce Cedar Creek Instute Rich Mather Summer Party Kick-Off Friday, June 21st @ 1:30 - 4:30 pm SECRETARY/ALCOR Richland Community Library Roger Williams Summer Program Monday, June 24th @ 2:00 - 3:00 pm PUBLICITY MANAGER Ransom District Library (Plainwell) Joe Comiskey Please contact us for more informaon and/or to volunteer. We need you! MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Jean De Mo

Sco Macfarlane

Don Slwell Our Celestron 8˝ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope is E-MAIL a BOARD MEMBER quick and easy to setup. A dew cap, 3 eyepieces, Tel-Rad finder, and more are included. This is a serious amateur telescope that will provide dazzling views of the Moon and planets, and is capable of showing you thousands of deep sky objects. Visit the Telescopes for Loan webpage for more information and contact KAS Equipment Manager Arya Jayatilaka today if you’d like borrow it.

Public Observing Sessions Saturday, June 8th

Saturday, June 22nd

Kalamazoo Nature Center ─ 7000 N. Westnedge Ave. ─ General Meeting Preview

Re-envisioning the Invisible: A New Perspective on the Dark-Matter Puzzle

presented via Skype by Professor Brooks Thomas, Lafayette College

Overwhelming evidence now suggests that the majority of the matter in our universe consists of some exotic "dark matter" that neither emits nor absorbs light, yet makes its presence felt via its gravitational pull on normal matter. In this talk, Professor Thomas will review what we know about dark matter, explain why traditional ideas about dark matter are being called into question, and describe an alternative perspective on the dark-matter puzzle -- one which in some sense represents the most general approach to that puzzle which can possibly be imagined. This new perspective brings to light a variety of new possibilities for dark matter whose unusual and distinctive experimental consequences are only beginning to be explored.

Friday, June 7 @ 7:00 pm Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center

600 West Vine, Suite 400 • Use Dutton St. Entrance ─ Dutton Entrance Locked by 7:10 pm ─

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

© June 2019, Stargazer Productions