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Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York February 2008 Volume 56 Number 2, ISSN 0146-7662

EYEPIECE

Will Dark Energy Become Less Mysterious?
By Lynn Darsh
Although cosmologists know little a b ou t d a r k energy, even though it takes up 70% of the expanding universe, that may change in the next 10 years.
That was a central point in a December 11 Hayden lecture by Dr. Adam Riess, professor of astronomy and physics at Johns Hopkins and a scientist at the Space Telescope and Science Institute, who actively uses the Hubble Space Telescope. He noted that dark energy has excited the interest of NASA, the Department of Energy and the European Space Agency because it lies at the crossroads of quantum mechanics and general relativity. The National Academy of Sciences has endorsed further evaluation of three concepts for Joint Dark Energy Missions for a possible new "Hubble-class" space telescope, Riess observed. The goal, he said, would be "to measure if dark energy is evolving and changing its strength...and if general relativity remains a valid description of the universe on the largest scales." Riess said the two great pillars of m od er n p h ysics are quantum mechanics, the rule book for the small scale, and general relativity, the rule book for the large scale. Until now, these sets of rules haven't been linked. He believes exploration of dark energy is central to a study of quantum mechanics, general relativity and string theory, and is likely to lead to "something interesting." "Understanding dark energy lies in the critical path to understanding gravity, and the fate and the origin of the universe." Meanwhile, Riess stated, "we still have the Hubble and the astronauts are due to visit Hubble during August where they will install two new instruments, repair two other ones, and add a complement of batteries and gyro-

scopes to bringing it to tip-top shape, the best it's ever been...and if this happens successfully this will allow us to continue our studies of dark energy with Hubble."
Riess noted that future research in t o d a r k en er gy will be carried out using not only ground-based telescopes and the refurbished Hubble, but possibly a new "Hubble-class" space telescope, planned for multinational Joint Dark Energy Missions. Discussing "Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe," Riess said discovery of the accelerating universe will be viewed as the beginning of a new search for answers to fundamental questions about the fate, history and composition of the universe and the rules that shape its development. As principal investigator of the "High-z Team" formed to "measure the cosmic deceleration of the universe with Type Ia supernovae," Riess was the first person to use observational data to calculate a non-zero value for Einstein's cosmological constant. The results showed that something was causing the expansion of the universe to speed up during the last 7 billion years. This was the first evidence for the existence of dark energy. Riess described how, using the Hubble t o st u d y an additional 25 supernovae with redshifts greater than 1, scientists checked that Type Ia supernovae didn't appear fainter than expected due to factors such as the presence of dust or an intrinsic difference in brightness of supernovae formed in the early universe. Since the original Type Ia supernovae study was made public in 1998, a number of research findings have confirmed the existence of dark energy. Consensus

Dark Energy continued on page 14


What's Up
By Tony Hoffman The Sky for February 2008
Lunar Eclipse, I d on 't know if there's a perfect lunar eclipse, but the one that occurs on the night of February 20 will do until a real one comes along. Unlike last March's total lunar eclipse, which was already in progress as the sky darkened, and last August's, which was interrupted by dawn, this one happens in mid-evening for observers in the East. The Moon is also 10 degrees north of the celestial equator, so it's relatively high in the sky. It will be more than 30 degrees high in the East when the partial phase begins at 8:43 p.m. Totality starts at 10:01 p.m., reaches midpoint at 10:30 and ends at 10:52. This eclipse has a treat: The Moon lies between two bright orbs: Regulus, 3 degrees above the Moon, and Saturn, 4 degrees to the Moon's lower left. Annular Solar Eclipse. O n F eb r u a r y 7, t h er e will be an annular solar eclipse. The Earth is near its closest to the Sun, and the Moon, ranging outward in its orbit around Earth, is far enough away from us that the Moon's disk doesn't completely cover the Sun. Because of this, a little bit of sunlight shows as a bright ring around the dark disk of the Moon. This phenomenon, however, happens in Antarctica. Observers in Australia and New Zealand will see a partial eclipse. Planetary Fun. J u st t h r ee n igh t s a ft er it h elp s frame the Moon during the eclipse, Saturn reaches opposition. It's closest to Earth, at its brightest, and visible all night. Its rings are beginning to close, but they will give a nice view, revealing more of the planet's disk as they become thinner. Saturn's rings can be easily seen in even the smallest telescope. Meanwhile, Mars starts the month shining at magnitude -0.6, poised between the tips of the horns of Taurus. Observe it while you can; by month's end its disk will have shrunk to less than 10 arc-seconds in diameter, the minimum size for getting good views of its elusive surface in a small telescope. Mars will cross into Gemini late in the month. Morning skywatchers will h a ve a gr a n d view of the close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter February 1. Before dawn these worlds will stand barely half a degree apart, a bit greater than the diameter of the Full Moon.
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The Moon undergoes a total eclipse on February 20, when it's sandwiched between Saturn and Regulus. February 1 Venus lies half a degree from Jupiter; Moon lies near Antares. February 4 Moon passes Jupiter and Venus. February 6 New Moon at 10:44 p.m. February 7 Annular solar eclipse. February 13 Moon at perigee, 230,043 miles from Earth, 7:56 p.m.; first-quarter Moon at 10:33 p.m. February 16 Moon passes Mars and Beta Tauri. February 20 Moon passes Regulus; Full Moon at 10:30 p.m.; total lunar eclipse. February 21 Moon passes Saturn. February 24 Saturn at opposition, 5 a.m. February 28 Last-quarter Moon at 9:18 p.m.; Moon passes Antares.

Mars: A Challenge to Observe
By Joseph A. Fedrick
Frequently cloudy skies continued to hamper viewing of Mars this year. Even when skies were clear, poor turbulent viewing hindered viewing, and smeared out and distorted views of Mars. Others, including Tony Hoffman and Tom Haeberle, have found viewing Mars difficult this year. Apparently the proximity of the jet stream has produced constant storms and turbulent air. I managed to view a large dusky triangular area on Mars, Syrtis Major, on December 17 around 7 p. m. and on December 24 around 11 p. m, as it crossed Mars' meridian. I was using my 60mm, f/15 refractor at 100x. A view of Mars on December 15 around 9 p. m. revealed Fedrick continued on page 13


A Message from AAA President Richard Rosenberg
Hello, members: February begins with a special planetary event. At dawn on February 1 Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, will be less than a degree apart! Look for them blazing in the southeast. Naked eyes are all you will need, although binoculars will improve the view. However, the big event this month is a lunar eclipse the evening of February 20. Like last year, we 'll gather at Carl Schurz Park in Manhattan. Head east on 86th Street as far as you can go. The Moon will be in Leo as it was last March, but will be picturesquely placed between the bright star Regulus and the ringed planet Saturn. Watch the Moon move away from Regulus and toward Saturn during the evening. The action begins with a partial eclipse starting at 8:43 p. m. Total eclipse starts at 10 and lasts for 52 minutes, followed by another partial eclipse which ends at 12:09 a. m. Join us for one of the fun events of the year. We'll return to Riverside Park on Saturday, May 10. In conjunction with the Riverside Park Fund, we 'll meet at West 96th Street and the Hudson River. The location right at the river's edge is gorgeous and dark (by NYC standards). A crescent Moon, Mars, Saturn and even Mercury will be available for viewing. As of mid-January, two-thirds of for your support. Soon we'll send you us a donation, additional thanks; we'll n't renewed yet, we hope to hear from our membership have already renewed. If you're among that group, thank you (and new club members) our brochure and a membership card. If you've given include a letter allowing you to deduct the amount from your taxes. If you haveyou soon.

Rich Rosenberg, AAA President, pr esident @a a a .or g, (718) 522-5014

MIT Prof Will Address AAA Feb. 1 on Gravitational Waves
Nergis Mavalvala, a ssocia t e p r ofessor of p h ysics, and Cecil and Ida Green career development professor at MIT, will address the AAA Friday, February 1 on "Detecting Gravitational Waves: LIGO and the Search for the Elusive Wave." The free public lecture is at 6:15 p. m. in the Kaufmann Theater of the AMNH. Mavalvala will begin with an introduction to gravitational waves: what they are, what kinds of sources emit them and how we might measure them. She will then take a virtual tour of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and describe key ingredients to make a sensitive gravitational-wave detector. Then she'll take a look at what we can learn about the universe using recent results from operational gravitational wave detectors. "Gravitational waves a r e b elieved t o b e em it t ed by massive objects in space, and can carry very different information about their source than light waves," Mavalvala notes. "In some cases, gravitational waves may be the only `messenger' to reach us from the source. Studying gravitational waves and light from an object such as a neutron star or black hole is analogous to learning about it using both sight and sound; we form a much richer picture than with sight only." A graduate of Wellesley College with a degree in physics and astronomy and holder of a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, Mavalvala did her doctoral work with Prof. Rainer Weiss, one of the founding fathers of LIGO and the worldwide effort to detect gravitational waves using laser interferometers. She has worked on gravitational Lecture continued on page 7
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Amateurs Play Increased Role in Astrophotography
By Katherine Avakian
Amateur astronomers have become so a d ep t a t astrophotography that about half of the images on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website last year were from amateurs, Dr. Jerry T. Bonnell, co-founder of the site, told an AAA lecture audience January 4. Bonnell's talk, viewing of some of Bonnell, a scientist also noted that digit increased quality of "Skyscapes in 2007," accompanied a last year's best images from the site. at the Goddard Space Flight Center, al astrophotography has underpinned astronomy photos. A 20-frame mosaic measuring 12 degrees across showed the northern part of Cygnus. Bright red emission clouds could be seen throughout this "very complex image" as well as the dark Northern Coal Sack Nebula and numerous other nebulae and star clusters. The brilliant supergiant Deneb, Cygnus' alpha star, forms the top of the Northern Cross and is also a part of the Summer Triangle. Bonnell noted dark matter in the constellation is not detectable on any wavelength. Saturn's moon Iapetus wa s a p ict u r e in con trasts: "one really bright side and one really dark side." It looks as if some dark material was thrown onto its surface and scattered. Website information on this material says, "Infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains some dark form of carbon...."Whether Iapetus' colors are the result of unusual episodes of internal volcanism or external splattering remains unknown." The moon also shows a 450-kilometer impact crater on top of an older crater. A picture showing space shuttle Atlantis docked at the ISS was taken by two amateur astronomers. The shuttle had delivered a set of 250-foot solar arrays which were installed on the space station. Subsequently, as Atlantis pulled away to return to Earth, its crew took a picture of the space station with its array of solar panels in place. The ISS can be viewed as it streaks across the sky if you know its transit time, Bonnell noted. After two years exploring M a r s' surface, the Opportunity rover arrived at Victoria Crater. The 750-meter impact crater is the largest yet visited. Bonnell showed an orbital view of the crater. Another image showed Victoria's expansive terrain with Opportunity perched on its rim, waiting for instructions on taking a safe path down its steep 70-meter slope. APOD began in 1995 and has been run since by Bonnell and Robert Nemiroff, a professor at Michigan Technological University. Its archive contains the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the Internet. The website receives half a million hits a day and is translated into 16 languages. APOD is at http://

A magnitude -2 image of Comet McNaught arcing across the Australian sky just after sunset was taken by its discoverer, Robert McNaught. The brilliant comet's 150-million kilometer tail showed striations throughout, and Bonnell noted its three-dimensional aspect projected against the darkening sky. Visible in 2006, the comet reached perihelion in early 2007, coming within the orbit of Mercury. Thereafter it dimmed as it moved into the solar system. Bonnell explained the structure of the tail by saying, "Solar radiant pressure, the pressure of sunlight, actually drives the dust away from the nucleus... Particles of different sizes coming off the nucleus account for the structure of the tail." A wide-angle image of C a lifor n ia 's Death Valley at night showed a sky filled with stars. Bonnell said it's "one of the darkest skies in the continental United States." Another nightscape pictured the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran illuminated by a first-quarter moon. Overhead, Orion and Canis Major stood out among a multitude of stars. This picture was taken by a member of The World at Night, an organization of astronomers around the world who specialize in landscapes. Their goal is to "share and enjoy the world's sky at night." Two views of the Pleiades revealed different aspects of dust in its system. The image in visible light showed dust reflecting the starlight of its hot blue stars. The infrared image, by Spitzer, shows the dust to be glowing in the cluster. "Dust scatters blue light very efficiently and transmits red light," Bonnell said. These very fine dust particles are what's left over from formation of the stars.
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The Largest Binoculars in the World!
By Edward J. Fox
At 10,500 feet a t t h e M ou n t G r a h a m I n t er n a tional Observatory in southeastern Arizona, the largest binoculars in the world are nearing completion. The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), built for $120 million by an international consortium, is the first of a new generation of extremely large telescopes. It will be the world's most powerful telescope until a bigger, better telescope is built somewhere else. lar to a gun turret on a battleship. Weighing 600 tons, the instrument floats on a film of oil pumped to a pressure of 1,800 psi and uses four 3-horsepower motors on each axis and a balance system which shifts water in and out of counter-weight ballast tanks to balance the telescope. When one of the two p r im a r y m ir r or s is t ilt ed , there are slight but measurable changes in its shape. Various controls are programmed to restore the shape. Likewise, the effects of temperature are monitored to keep the mirror as close to ambient temperature as possible, by ventilating a honeycomb pattern on the back. Temperature specifications require a gradient of less than 0.1 degree C. across the entire surface of the mirror. The adaptive-optics system relies on a central element, a very thin deformable mirror, which can modify the incoming light pattern to remove variations in the waves caused by the atmosphere. The corrective mirror changes shape about 1,000 times a second through the control of 672 magnets glued to its back. The resultant light waves are restored to near-perfect focus. The LBT is designed with real-time computing technology to maximize pointing precision and image stability. Dr. John Little, LBT lead engineer, states, "With digital feeding, the mirrors can be positioned to resolve one-thousandth of an arc-second, or roughly a BB at 32 and one-half miles." The LBT will have two pairs of wide-field spectrographs, one for optical, the other for the near infrared. A key use of the LBT will b e wit h in t er fer om et er s that combine the signals from the two telescopes, almost as if they were coming from a single telescope. Using this principle, waves with the same phase of the same amplitudes can be combined or those with opposite phase can cancel each other. In the former case, light beams can be combined to coherence for a genuine field of view, giving the LBT a resolution 10 times greater than the Hubble. It's thought the LBT will image remnant disks of gas and dust in the vicinity of newly formed solar systems and detect gaps
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The LBT relies on two 27.6-foot primary mirrors and will have a light-collecting area equivalent to a 39foot circular aperture. Combined light beams from the two primary mirrors will give the resolution of a 75-foot telescope. The completed telescope will have a resolution unmatched anywhere, even by the Hubble.
The complete complement of instrumentation won't be operational until 2009. But the first of the two telescopes, the left, achieved "first light" in October 2005. Each mirror was built in a fa cilit y u n d er t h e University of Arizona football stadium, where a furnace heated 20 tons of glass, spinning them into a parabolic shape at 2,130 degrees. It was then annealed by gradually reducing the heat of the furnace The process took three months. Each mirror was then polished to an accuracy of 3,000 times thinner than a human hair. No point across the surface of the mirror varies from the desired shape by more than 25 nanometers--a millionth of an inch. The mirrors are designed be used in tandem or individually. For example, optical images can be captured by both, or an optical image by one at precisely the same time an infrared image is collected by the other. The observatory building's t op 10 st or ies a r e rotated independently of the telescope, but in synchronization with it, to within +/- 1.5 degrees. To achieve the required stiffness, in wind conditions up to 50 mph, the base of the structure is a massive concrete pier 66 feet or 11 stories high and 46 feet in diameter, on mountain bedrock. The telescope is of an altitude-azimuth design, simi-


Alien Life Forms May Not Fit Into Our Way of Thinking
By Katherine Avakian
"We are alone in the universe or we a r e n ot . Bot h possibilities are equally profound and equally exciting," said Chris Impey, distinguished professor and deputy head of the astronomy department at the University of Arizona, in his December 3 AMNH lecture and book, "The Living Cosmos" (Random House, $27.95). He said its subject, astrobiology, was speculative due to its "almost complete absence of data." Yet his talk was mind-opening about life on Earth and its possibilities elsewhere, perhaps in form and function so unusual as to be unrecognizable. Biology may be common to the universe because organic molecules form easily and naturally, Impey noted. There's evidence life formed early in Earth's history, and organisms can survive in such extreme environments as pure acid or deep on the ocean floor at temperatures of 700 degrees and pressures of 700 atmospheres. He said the cosmic cycle is tied to recycling of elements "forged in the cauldrons in the centers of massive stars" and flung into interstellar space upon their violent deaths. "If stars were selfish and hoarded their cauldrons, there would be no life in the universe. Every star would be a tomb, keeping its heavy elements inside." Life on Earth has existed wit h in cer t a in p a r a m eters. For 85% of its history, life was microscopic, and Earth remains "overwhelmingly microbial. It is a microbial planet." Although life formed easily, it was selective and developed into diverse evolutionary niches. Impey said most species become extinct, and intelligence on Earth is rare. "Evolution is not deterministic, and many random influences will play out differently," Impey said. He noted that 25 million years ago, whales and dolphins experienced a surge in brain growth, which then stabilized and was overtaken by the brain mass of humans and apes. But if whales and dolphins should undergo another evolutionary surge, they'd probably surpass humans. Impey pointed out different forms intelligence can take. He said the brain of an octopus is a descriptive one,
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and its architecture completely different from ours. Its skin is its brain, built like a network computer with several billion receptors which can change color and texture 10 times a second, providing camouflage and protection from predators. More than 250 extrasolar planets a r e k n own , and the Milky Way is thought to harbor 1 billion habitable worlds. Criteria for habitability are the presence of elements including the carbon atom, which is the basis for life as we know it, water and the amount of warmth from the parent star. Impey acknowledged the difficulty of detecting life on extrasolar planets, but said in 10-20 years, the Terrestrial Planet Finder and other NASA missions will detect the atmospheres of exoplanets and look for modifications by temperature, oxygen and ozone, water vapor and other molecules which might reveal traces of life. But he warned that alien life forms and intelligence may not fit neatly into our anthropomorphic way of thinking. Life elsewhere might manifest itself as noncellular, without a containing membrane for genetic material. There could also be gene swapping, or organism swapping, "exchanging genetic material at a much higher level." Or the genetic material can operate on a planetwide scale, "essentially using geo-engineering as its way of making use of energy." Impey said all this may sound like science fiction, but its rudiments lie in the biology we know. However, Impey spelled out a st a r t lin g scen a r io. While noting our technological advances in computer capabilities, which can create video games and increasingly sophisticated artificial realities, he spoke about an idea from philosophers called "simulation hypothesis." It claims a highly advanced civilization could easily create simulated creatures like us on a planet-wide scale, and could "create the entire history of the thought processes of human civilization, and we wouldn't know the difference." It's certainly unsettling to think you might exist only within the computerized reality of an alien entity.


Our Intrepid Member's100 SOHO Comets--and Counting
By Tony Hoffman
On December 10, a ft er m or e t h a n six yea r s of searching images taken by the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft, I found my 100th SOHO comet. It was faint yet distinct as seen by SOHO's wide-field LASCO C3 camera, and brighter in the narrow-field C2 images. (LASCO instruments create an artificial solar eclipse to reveal the Sun's corona, as well as any stars, planets or comets in the vicinity.) It quickly faded as it approached the Sun and was vaporized, the fate of all Kreutz sungrazing comets found in SOHO's images. I first heard about SOHO comets with the finding of 1998 J1 (SOHO), the only comet discovered in LASCO images be easily visible in the night sky. When in 1999 Terry Lovejoy, an amateur, found two comets in SOHO's online images, I was intrigued. I'd been fascinated by sungrazing comets since reading a N ational Geographic a r ticle a bout 1965's Comet Ikeya-Seki, which was easily seen without optical aid in broad daylight when near the Sun. The computer I had in 1999 wasn't up to the task of hunting for SOHO comets. I'd make do by hiding the Sun behind a building on clear days and looking in its vicinity in the insane hope that a sungrazer would be visible to my unaided eyes. In June 2001, a r m ed wit h a n ew com p u t er , I b egan my search for Ikeya-Seki's tiny brethren in SOHO's images. Based on the prodigious totals some SOHO hunters were racking up (Michael Oates had found more than 130) and my experience as an observer, I figured I could find one in short order, and 100 wouldn't be out of reach. I soon found it was harder than it seemed. The tricky thing is to learn to spot the comets quickly enough to report them before other hunters. Competition is intense, and includes many skilled observers, three of whom have discovered comets in the night sky that bear their names. (SOHO comets are named for the spacecraft rather than the people who find them, who get their names on the discovery bulletin instead.). It took me seven months to find my first. By the end of 2002, I'd found two more, and by late 2003, after 2-1/2 years of hunting, my count was up to 10. In 2004, all my practice and hard work really bore fruit, as I led all SOHO hunters with 33 finds. Since then, I've averaged about 20 comets a year. I figured when I reached 100, I'd greatly curtail my efforts. Two days later, though, I was lucky to find one of the year's brightest comets. With no pressure to reach a milestone, I can monitor the Sun's vicinity at leisure. As Forrest Gump would say, "You never know what you're gonna get."

SOHO has revealed a n u n seen r ea lm of m a ssive solar storms releasing high-energy plasmas through which comets move, subjected to intense heat and tidal forces. Three new comet groups have been found in SOHO images, and SOHO's trove of tiny comets has helped scientists understand cometary fragmentation and the evolution of the Kreutz comet group (to which the great daylight sungrazers such as Ikeya-Seki, as well as more than 1,000 comets found in SOHO, belong).
I'm grateful that I could participate in this hunt, and that SOHO makes its images available online. I still find it amazing that I can sit in my Queens apartment and peruse near-real-time images of the Sun's vicinity taken from a spacecraft, even when it's night on the East Coast. To add to that surreal touch, I found my most recent SOHO comet (No. 103) during an ice storm. Lecture continued from page 3 waves ever since. After receiving her doctorate, Mavalvala was a post-doc at Caltech, during which she worked directly on LIGO detectors as they were being constructed and made to work with high sensitivity. She joined the physics faculty at MIT in 2002. The 2007-08 AAA lecture series fea t u r es t h ese other speakers: March 7: E r ic G ot t h elf, C olu m b ia Un iver sit y, "Juvenile Neutron Stars and their Outbursts"; April 11: Eric Myers, LIGO Hanford Observatory, "Searching for Ripples in Space-Time with your Home Computer"; May 2: Ar lin C r ot t s, C olu m b ia Un iver sit y, "Liquid Mirror Telescopes Are Looking Up."
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Review:
By Terrell Kent Holmes
Michael J. Neufeld, chairman of the space history division at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum, has written an excellent and engrossing biography of Wernher von Braun, one of the most important, controversial and divisive men in the history of science. "Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" (Alfred A. Knopf, $35) explores what sacrifices are acceptable, moral or otherwise, for the greater good of scientific and human advancement. Von Braun (1912-1977) grew up at the dawn of the space age in Germany. As an engineering student, he cultivated the single-minded drive, intelligence and charisma that would serve him throughout his life. Von Braun worked for the German Army to build liquid-fuel rockets that would become the dreaded V-2. His work in rocket engineering helped him rise within the Nazi military hierarchy, where he attained the rank of captain. Hitler made development of the V-2 rocket a top priority for the war, thus rushing von Braun and his team into unrealistic production quotas. This led to construction of the V-2 by POWs in concentration camps. Prisoners performing slave labor in the tunnels at Mittelwark were tortured and literally worked to death because of Hitler's production demands. The V-2 was finally fired at London and other European cities in September, 1944, wreaking havoc in the final months of World War II. Soon thereafter, von Braun was detained for allegedly making treasonous remarks. He narrowly escaped the concentration camps and eventually surrendered to the U.S. Army. He sought to fulfill his dream of space exploration in America, and tried to downplay the influence or reach the Nazi Party had on him and his project, denying any direct complicity in atrocities in Mittlewerk. Initially the move to America wasn't as fruitful as von Braun had hoped. That changed in 1952, von Braun's watershed year. Through speeches, magazine articles and television appearances, he inflamed the American public's imagination about space exploration. Von Braun became a celebrity overnight due to his charm, intelligence, enthusiasm and handsomeness. This burst of popularity brought his war history to light, and
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although questions about his Nazi past always faded away, he wasn't spared from other forms of harsh scrutiny. Comedian Mort Sahl remarked that the fawning 1960 von Braun biopic "I Aim at the Stars" should have been subtitled "But I Sometimes Hit London." The launch of Sputnik in 1957 alarmed America into accelerating its participation in the arms and space races. With the Kennedy Administration, von Braun's lifelong dream of putting a man on the Moon became a priority, and he and others raced to meet JFK's end-ofdecade deadline. Ironically, the 1969 Moon landing marked the end of von Braun's influence. Once the Moon was conquered, the space program became a decreasing priority. Von Braun eventually left the space program for the private sector, after helping lead NASA to a summit that seemed unreachable a few years before. Neufeld's dissatisfaction with previous biographies of von Braun inspired him to want to write the definitive work. His research is impressive, and while the many technical explanations of rocket technology are sometimes overwhelming, they don't hinder the book's readability; anything less would have been a disservice to both subject and reader. Moreover, Neufeld's thoroughness allows for reasonable speculation on events where evidence is scant or nonexistent. Neufeld weaves the Faust legend throughout the book to the point where it's almost a secondary subject, from the perfect opening epigram on a castle on a hill, a framed quotation on a wall, an article in L ook magazine. But the moral dilemma von Braun faced is the central theme. The moments where Neufeld tries to u