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Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York April 2010 Volume 58 Number 4, ISSN 0146-7662

EYEPIECE
sory Council, posited that Constellation's design would have been the same for a future manned mission to Mars, bringing what would most likely be 70% of new technology to bear on that program. This efficiency supports a Moon-mission expenditure to provide the proving ground for future missions, he said. Spudis felt it would be a mistake to give NASA $20 billion without a destination. Tyson, who moderated the discussion, pointed out that only half a penny of each tax dollar goes to NASA. Doubling that, as many would like, would have no major effect on the budget but would have a big impact to NASA's ability to fund missions, he noted. But Zubrin asserted that the problem isn't strictly funding for NASA. While there were many technological developments by NASA from 1961 through 1973, NASA currently is not developing new technology. And Zubrin is leery about greater privatization: You can't put parts from various companies together easily. I'm concerned about fitting things together with greater privatization. JPL wouldn't have worked if it had developed parts suggested by various corporations. Steven Squyres, Cornell professor and principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Project, noted that The Soviets figured out what worked and have stuck with it for the last 35 years. The U. S. tinkers and moves on. That's NASA's culture, which is both good and bad. Each of our planetary missions is different. Our shuttle was retired after four flights and we buy rides in the Soyuz capsule. Not all panelists chastised the administration. Gen. Lester Lyles (USAF, ret.) stated firmly that NASA will Asimov continued on page 9

When a Tight Budget Brings Space Dreams Back to Earth
By Evan Schneider
When Hayden Planetarium director Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and others were planning the 10th annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate some months ago, they may not have had any idea of how topical the subject, Moon, Mars and Beyond: Where Next for the Manned Space Program? would be. Then came the February 1 submission of the Obama Administration's fiscal 2011 budget, which cancelled NASA's plan to build a new generation of space vehicles to send astronauts back to the Moon. This signaled the end of the Constellation initiative, and called for greater privatization of the space program. The new budget direction will also lead to greater prioritization of low Earth orbit missions. If there was a thread running through the Asimov debate, it was not simply that it was regrettable that the Constellation program to return to the Moon was cancelled, but that the cancellation ruptured needed continuity in NASA space programs. As Robert Zubrin, president of Pioneer Astronautics and principal of the Mars Society, put it, The shuttle program is ending, Obama has cancelled the Moon program, so are we going anywhere? We need gutsy leadership to get the space program done. A pro-Moon viewpoint was expressed by Paul Sudis, senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Calling Constellation's cancellation disappointing, he talked about the Moon as the obvious target for the next steps into space. There's [recently discovered] ice in polar shadows, energy resources and materials to convert for use in space exploration. Similarly, Ken Ford, CEO of the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition and chair of the NASA Advi-


Whats Up
By Tony Hoffman The Sky for April 2010
Evening Planet Bonanza. The evening sky features no fewer than four planets, at least for much of the month. Little Mercury makes its best evening appearance of the year. In the first week of April, Mercury and Venus appear just a few degrees apart above the sunset glow in Aries. Mercury starts the month at magnitude -1, fading to magnitude 1.2 by midmonth as it sinks back into the solar glare and is lost to view. Venus, however, climbs steadily higher, blazing at a constant magnitude -3.9 during the month. Mars fades from magnitude 0.2 to a stillbrilliant 0.7 during April. At midmonth, it skims just north of the Beehive Cluster in Cancer. Saturn, just past opposition, shines at magnitude 0.7 in Virgo. We're still seeing the rings nearly edge-on; they're inclined only 2 degrees to our line of sight. A Neptunian "Year" is Ending. At magnitude 7.9, Neptune is a tough binocular target from light-polluted areas. It shows a tiny blue-green disk in a telescope. By late April the planet, near the Capricornus/Aquarius border, will be visible in the predawn sky. Normally, this wouldn't be worth mentioning, but this year is different: Neptune is completing its first orbit of the Sun since it was discovered 164 years ago. The Neptunian year won't be over until next year, but the outer world is already back in the same part of the sky in which Johann Galle first spotted it on September 23, 1846. The eighth planet had been predicted mathematically by Urbain Le Verrier, based on observed perturbations in the orbit of Uranus; Galle found it within a degree of the predicted position. Neptune was actually first recorded by Galileo in two observations a month apart starting in late 1612, but its motion is slow enough that he never reported it. Recent evidence has come to light that he was aware of its motion, based on an ink sketch of the sky he'd made. April 6 Last-quarter Moon at 5:37 a.m. April 8 Mercury at greatest elongation in evening sky (see above) . April 11 Moon lies near Jupiter. April 14 New Moon at 8:29 a.m.
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April 15 Moon lies less than 2 degrees from Mercury as the sky darkens. April 16-17 Mars lies 1 degree north of the Beehive star cluster (see above) . April 21 First-quarter Moon at 2:20 p.m. April 22 Moon lies near Mars; Lyrid meteor shower peaks. April 24 Moon at perigee, 228,131 miles away, 5 p.m. April 25 Moon lies near Saturn. April 28 Full Moon at 8:18 a.m.

Sunspots Wax and Wane
By Joseph A. Fedrick
Sunspots reappeared in projected images of the Sun with my 60mm refractor during January and February. From January 10 to February 28, I observed the Sun on 13 days and saw spots all days. From February 7 to February 12, I watched a long, narrow, snaking complex group of at least seven sunspots that spanned approximately one-eighth of the solar disk rotate across the disk. By February 12, the group appeared foreshortened and near the solar limb. By February 28, sunspot activity had waned so I saw only one small spot that day. On March 7 and 8, I observed the Sun but saw no spots. Sunspot activity still seems less than 11 years ago. This present cycle appears delayed or weaker than the previous cycle. I used the same f/15 achromatic refractor at 50x to observe the asteroid Vesta as it just passed in front of the gap between the stars Gamma Leonis and 40 Leonis on the evenings of February 16, 17 and 18. The apparent movement of Vesta was quite dramatic at 50x from night to night. Vesta appeared somewhat yellowish in my scope while Gamma Leonis was ruddy and 40 Leonis bluish. Vesta was quite bright and was also an easy target in my 10x50 binoculars. The apparent retrograde motion of Vesta at this time was really a type of parallax effect caused by Earth's overtaking Vesta in its orbit. Mars began to fade noticeably as Earth left it behind and as Mars retrograded past the Beehive Cluster in Cancer and toward Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Saturn rose earlier each night while Venus remained below the horizon clutter from my vantage point; Rich Rosenberg had already seen Venus from the Brooklyn Promenade. Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Mercury remained hidden in the solar glare during late February and early March.


A Message from AAA President Richard Rosenberg
Hello, members: It looks as if winter has finally ended and spring is here. That means a lot of activity. Our spring class will be given at headquarters at 120 Warren St. from 6:30 to 8:30 p. m. on six consecutive Wednesdays starting April 7. There will actually be three mini­classes, each two weekly sessions. In the first two classes, I'll discuss the solar system from an historical point of view. We'll see how observation and theory work together. Then Jason Kendall will speak on cosmology one week, followed by telescopes and the sky. Finally, Shana Tribiano will discuss the blue (ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma ray) and red (infrared, microwave, radio) ends of the electromagnetic spectrum, how they're detected and their significance in understanding the universe. Early April means we'll have an opportunity to see Mercury in the evening twilight. Brilliant Venus will be nearby and will lead you to the innermost planet. Mars and Saturn will also be visible. To check out these planets and other wonders of the night sky, we resume observing at the High Line (every Tuesday starting April 13), and monthly sessions at Prospect Park, Cadman Plaza and Carl Schurz Park. They join Floyd Bennett Field, Great Kills and Inwood Hill Park, and solar observing in Central Park. See Events on the Horizon on page 11 for more info. At 7 p. m. on Thursday, April 1 (no April fool) at the Avenue U Salt Marsh Nature Center in south Brooklyn, I'll give a talk on the spring sky, with observing afterwards. We can use more people with telescopes. There's parking right in front. jI'll give a talk on the spring sky, with observing afterwards. There's parking right in front of the center. Public TV's NOVA celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with two shows on Hunting the Edge of Space. On Tuesday April 6, The Mystery of the Milky Way will be shown, and a week later The Ever Expanding Universe. Next month is the club's annual meeting, on Wednesday, May 19 at headquarters. Join your fellow members for a buffet dinner, followed by the business meeting, at which committee chairs will report on events of the past year and I'll report on the overall state of the organization. Rich Rosenberg, AAA President, president @aaa.org, (718) 522-5014

AAA Lecture April 9: Neutrino Telescope in the City
Dr. Glennys Farrar, professor of physics at New York University, will discuss High-Energy Astrophysics with a Neutrino Telescope in New York City when she delivers an AAA lecture Friday, April 9 at the Kaufmann Theater of the American Museum of Natural History. The free public lecture begins at 6:15 p. m. The ubiquitous water tanks on top of almost all NYC buildings, about six floors tall, can be used to form the world's finest telescope for detecting high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, Farrar says. I will describe how the system would work and what steps are underway to make it a reality. People in the AAA might want to become involved; it will be novel and interesting. Farrar received her Ph.D. i from Princeton University in 1971, barrier in physics there. She was a tute for Advanced Study and on the n theoretical physics breaking the gender member of the Instifaculties of Cal Tech

Lecture continued on page 4
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Traveling in the Footsteps of Galileo Galilei
By Jason Kendall
When John Gianforte, owner/director of the Blue Sky Observatory in Durham, N. H., wanted to know more about Galileo Galilei, he didn't rely on books, films or other documents: He and his wife took a trip to Italy to learn about the great man by walking on the very paths that he took 400 years ago. Before Gianforte spoke to the AAA March 5, at dees were treated to a thematically related song Donna Stearns and the Big Bangers, Up Up Up in Sky, which is about Galileo, star-crossed lovers spirituality. It was a perfect beginning to the evening. tenby the and in Padua, where he taught at the university, and noted that across the street was an archway through to a courtyard. He said the place had not changed for more than 400 years. He almost expected to see Galileo dart from one building to the next under that archway, his head down, muttering in thought. The real treat came when Gianforte described his departure from Italy. He saw an old woman who beckoned to them from across a street. They had to catch a plane, they moved on. But he wondered if the woman had a room to rent, as is customary there, or whether she had a restaurant nearby with home-grown foods. He snapped a photo of the woman in red, leaning like a much younger woman on a stone wall, never to know the mysterious and friendly intent of her beckoning. Galileo loved Italy for so many reasons, that even through his house arrest he could still see his daughters' convent, make wine in his yard and publish groundbreaking physics books. He taught the world not just about science, but about how to live a good, full life. Lecture continued from page 3 and Rutgers before moving to NYU in 1998. Among her accomplishments in particle physics, Farrar is perhaps best known for pioneering the phenomenological study of supersymmetry (SUSY). With colleagues, she developed most present search techniques for superparticles, and gave the first limits on SUSY breaking and superpartner masses from accelerator experiments and precision observables. Farrar's current work focuses mainly on problems at the intersection of astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics, including ultra-high energy cosmic rays, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and the origin of the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. The final presentation in the AAA's 2009-10 lecture series is on Friday, May 7. Ruben Kier of Advanced Radiology Consultants speaks on Best Targets for Amateur Astrophotography and What They Reveal about Our Universe.

Gianforte walked the audience through a history of Galileo, giving the classic tale of his triumphs and woes, his luck and his missteps. He described the so-called father of science as a deeply spiritual man, possessing a difficult family situation, as well as a dependent extended family, and daughters who never married. But Gianfortes greatest tale was his own travelogue. He admonished all in the lecture hall that while the glories of the night sky may be wondrous, they should take their spouses or best friends to Italy. He turned to the pictures from his travels to Venice, to show us the view from the tower that Galileo used to sell his first telescope to the Venetian Senate. The speaker showed photos of the pulpit at the University of Padua that Galileo stood on to give lectures, challenging his colleagues with aggressive and innovative thinking. Gianforte pointed out that moving back to Venice from Padua was not only for an increase in salary --Galileo had a bloodhound's nose for opportunity--but that the Venetian nightlife, culture and food were spectacular, with Galileo's well-known appetite for it all. Using the beauty of the city that Galileo called home, Gianforte seemed to be showing yet another story, that of the love between himself and his wife Doris. With photos of her beaming back at John, holding a wine glass, the trip to retrace Galileo's steps clearly became all the more wondrous. Gianforte pointed out the front door of Galileo's home
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Discussion Is Lively and Diverse at AAA Seminar
By Jason Kendall
Chair, Recent Advances Seminar
On March, 11, I led a group of about 30 people, both AAA members and students of board member Gerceida Jones' NYU astronomy class, on a roundabout exploration of many topics in current astronomy. But I didn't do all the leading. As chair of the Recent Advances in Astronomy Seminar, I had a different goal. I'd prepared much material, but wanted to see where the night went. We started off talking about a recent paper by a colleague of mine from graduate school, Dr. George Rhee, now at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, about the origin of bulgeless dwarf galaxies (http://arxiv.org/ PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0911/0911.2237v1.pdf). I played the accompanying video, showing the merger of the dwarf galaxies and how supernovae halted the development of these small galaxies. After some discussion about the nature of this research and how it was carried out, the superb video prompted a discussion of other bursting and explosive phenomena, and we veered into a discussion on the nature of solar flares. This is exactly what I'd wanted to occur. The goal of the seminar is not to be a lecture or class, but a free-form discussion on current topics. We talked about the size scales of solar flares, the history of observations, what solar flares can do, the great solar flare of 1859 (http://www.solarstorms.org/SS1859.html) and solar flares' effect on the world around us. One student started a lively discussion about how birds and animals can detect solar flares. It's important to bring such ideas up, because they highlight the club's important duty to educate and inform the public about astronomy. The ensuing discussion became quite lively. Indeed, we ranged far in our discussion. I steered the topic to a new area, Mercury, to look at pictures from the MESSENGER mission, and we quickly shifted focus to exoplanets and the Kepler Space Telescope. We talked about the exoplanets that were just reported at the American Astronomical Society meeting in January, as well as how fast they're being discovered: well more than 400 so far. I'd been on a conference call earlier in the day with NASA/JPL, where the speaker was recapping recent advances, and I shared the entire PowerPoint from that conference call with seminar attendees. This led to my requesting a student to bring in, at the next seminar, a discussion on interstellar planetary objects. This also led to a talk about dark matter, and whether such planets would contain dark matter. Maya Kushner will bring us a report this month about MACHOs and the search for large objects in the halo of our galaxy. I then pulled up The Digital Universe from the Hayden, we looked at our local solar neighborhood and I highlighted known exoplanets. We looked for nearby exoplanets, and as we cruised around the 3-D data set, I issued a challenge to all in attendance and to all AAA members. Bring a 10-minute presentation with 10 PowerPoint slides and be ready for 5-10 minutes of questions. Send me an e-mail, so I know what you want to bring and I can guide you into the process. We want everyone to come and spark a lively round of discussion like we had last month.

Report on the February Seminar by Mary Carlson, Former Seminar Chair
Participants at the February Recent Advances in Astronomy seminar were treated to some astounding new discoveries by the Hubble Space Telescope following its latest (and last) additions and repairs. The vistas were spectacular. Another member presented an in-depth analysis of the Saturnian moon Titan and the presence there of two main elements, methane and ethane. This sparked a discussion on the possibility of probiotic life. The question was posed, Could we go there? A third participant took us on an imaginary and quite visual trip to some of the 425-plus known extrasolar planets. Through the creative imaginations of astronomy artists, we were able to vicariously touch other worlds. There was an ample supply of oxygen and it was
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That Expelled Planet...That Dog...That Pluto
By Thomas Haeberle
The red curtain opens and what we used to know as the nine planets are displayed. Hayden Planetarium director Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, voice booming, explains the uniqueness of our solar system, which for 75 years hadn't changed until a controversial vote in 2005 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) demoted Pluto from planetdom and changed Tyson's life as well. A NOVA show March 2, The Pluto Files, had the same title as Tyson's recent book. He tried to explain how he wound up at the center of a firestorm which he started by demoting Pluto. As in the book, Tyson tried to find why this cold, distant rock captures so many hearts. Tyson's problems started a year after the renovated planetarium reopened and someone overheard a boy saying, I can't find Pluto. The adult contacted Kenneth Chang of The New York Times, who wrote an article, Pluto Not a Planet. Tyson was accused of being a Pluto hater by school kids and felt he had to hit the road to get answers. Stopping first at Harvard, he was greeted by colleagues with different views. Planetary scientist Mark Sykes, who fervently opposed demotion, contended roundness and physical characteristics should be the main criteria. Asteroid specialist Brian Marsden said he'd use the word world for Pluto. Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich said, The solar system is this complicated place. People need to know there's a richness out there. Tyson journeyed to the heartland Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh. American tale: A self-educated farm of becoming an astronomer. He did planet at the Lowell Observatory, t without having ever gone to college. to learn more about His story is a true boy seeks his dream so by discovering a he first in 84 years, to the IAU demotion, Since when is science decided by a vote? With no clear answer, Tyson hopes that everyone will recognize the diversity of stuff that orbits the Sun and invent a new lexicon that represents our new understanding of the solar system... In Streator, Ill., Tombaugh's birthplace, it was obvious folks adore Tombaugh, with murals and a street named after him. In a barbershop chair, after lengthy discussions on Pluto with patrons, Tyson was asked his opinion on Pluto, with the barber's razor blade to his neck. He escaped unharmed and headed to New Mexico to meet Tombaugh's children. They described him as being sort of different. It wasn't unusual for them to see dad grinding a telescope mirror in the kitchen. In California, Tyson shared a burger with two colleagues who were convinced there was something else out there. The astronomers are David Jewett, who codiscovered many far-off icy dwarfs, and Michael Brown, who discovered Eris, which is larger than Pluto. Brown called the IAU definition a rock-solid concept. He felt it just didn't seem right to call his discovery the 10th planet. He termed William Herschel's discovery of Uranus a big deal. Eris, apparently, wasn't. The journey ended at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and a visit with Alan Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizon mission to Pluto. He explained the mission and why he considers Pluto a planet. He used a dog analogy: If you see a Chihuahua, you know it's a dog. It has the same characteristics of any other dog. Same goes for Pluto. Tyson's opinions differed sharply, yet he seemed less passionate than he was in his book. The documentary was humorous, even giddy. Most scientists don't seem to take the debate too seriously. The two camps have seemed to come to some sort of closure, ending with a visit by Tombaugh's daughter to the Hayden. Relieved to see dad's planet on a wall, she conceded it might be for the best.

Tyson pinpointed the American love affair with Walt Disney's lovable dog. He spoke with Roy Disney, who stated there's no evidence Walt deliberately named the pooch for the planet, but he pointed out his fascination with space and he made science fun to learn. In an Illinois cafИ, a woman asked Tyson, in reference
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Music Merges with Astronomy for a Double Treat
By John Delaney
Classical music fans with an interest in astronomy enjoyed a double treat January 28 at Carnegie Hall: The Planets--An HD Odyssey. The Houston Symphony offered a rousing performance of Gustav Holst's signature composition with a video presentation directed by astronomer/director Duncan Copp, a kind of vistal, planetary grand tour set to orchestral music. Listeners unfamiliar with Holst's most famous work, The Planets, would probably find the work derivative somehow, largely due to the huge influence the music has had on later composers such as John Williams of Star Wars fame. Many directors have used movements from The Planets for movies and documentaries. The combination of music, space-probe images and computer-generated images (CGI) of the solar system's planetary bodies was exhilarating. Conductor Hans Graf flawlessly executed the difficult task of keeping his ensemble in synch with the visual presentation, the most important element of the performance. With the accompaniment of a world-class symphony, attendees were treated to a multimedia voyage through the solar system, featuring the best of some 40 years of images transmitted from robotic space missions. The presentation started with the most bellicose movement of the composition, Mars, the Bringer of War. The visual journey began with a slow, CGI-generated approach to Mars, the planet filling the screen as the enormous Valles Marineris came into view. The warlike staccato of Mars built to the first of several crescendos as the audience swooped into the solar system's largest canyon. The video then shifted to scrolling images of craters, ancient river patterns and other Martian features. The next movement, Venus, the Bringer of Love, was by contrast tranquil and elegant, with accompanying imagery visually complementary. The sequence of gliding through Venus' thick cloud deck and viewing the Magellan space probe's color-corrected topography worked well with the score. The melodious piece, of course, doesn't reflect the nature of its planetary namesake. In a video introduction before the sequences began, planetary scientist Andrew Ingersoll quipped he thought Holst's music for Venus was dead wrong since the planet is an inferno. Overall, the musical-visual synergy remained effective, but a few movements were less stellar for various reasons. For instance, the stark, cratered surface of Mercury--as depicted in images from the Messenger Space Mission--seemed ill-suited to the frantic, scherzo music of Mercury, the Messenger. No amount of split-screen editing could disguise the reality of Mercury's cratered and barren surface, with no rings or moons. Likewise, the marching, shifting tempo of Uranus, the Magician seemed too busy for the billiard ball blandness of the gas giant. In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's imaging team was somewhat disappointed with images from Uranus during the 1986 Voyager 2 encounter. By comparison, the somber, majestic clock-like processional of Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age was enhanced by recent images from Cassini and CGI sequences that swooped under the rings, simulating entry into a celestial cathedral. The most successful movements were Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity and Neptune, the Mystic. In the first, perhaps the best-known of the seven, the triumphant waltz of Holst's music meshes perfectly with what is arguably the most visually dynamic of the solar system's planets. Swirling psychedelic clouds and storms, volcanically active and ice-covered Moons, as depicted with images from Voyager and Galileo probes, were well-sequenced in single shots and split-screen formats. The animated sequence of the first Voyager approach to Jupiter--synchronized with the main theme of the movement--conveyed the sense of wonder that astronomers must have experienced when receiving their first close up-views of the giant planet. As for Neptune, this haunting, ethereal piece truly captured the essence of the most distant planet, still very much a mystery. The movement materializes like a weather system, echoing the dynamic cloud-pattern images captured by Voyager 2 as it left the solar system after the 1989 encounter. In a sense, the planet's eeriness is due in part to its strangely Earth-like appearance. The sonorous fade-out of a woman's choir, with all its connotations of the unknown, seemed the perfect conclusion 7 for an inspirational journey for the senses.


Review: This Book Can Truly be Said to be Very ,,Far Out
By Lynn Darsh
I loved looking at the images in Far Out: A SpaceTime Chronicle (Abrams, $55). Borrow or buy this book, find a sunny window seat, and let sunlight illuminate some of the hundreds of gorgeous full-page or foldout color photographs of deep space. The images come to life in our star's light. Wonder at the mysterious richness of our galaxy, its planetary nebulae, Orion's proplyds (protoplanetary disks), the Hubble image of the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula recreated using more accurate color data, Bok globules and the Homunculus Nebula, the result of what author Michael Benson calls the supernova imposter event of Eta Carinae. Look farther out at other galaxies with hydrogen clouds and hot O and B-type stars ionizing their gases and pushing them away. Examine what Benson calls the Antennae Galaxies' cosmic pileup, where tidal gravitational forces have compressed gases and dust of two colliding spirals into one glowing embryonic shape and formed new stars in the nebulae while two gas trails jetted away. Then think about the Milky Way's predicted collision with Andromeda: It might look like this in about 2.5 billion years. Enjoy the spectacular beauty of the universe revealed by the book's extraordinary craftsmanship. From writing explanations of the images to choosing the most illustrative photographs by amateurs and professionals, taken in driveways, on Mauna Kea and from space, Benson has created a magnificent book. It's a core visual reference book, a clearly written introduction to what astronomers have recently learned about galaxies. For example, in Chapter 2--Nested Supernova Remnants--Benson writes, The biggest and nearest supernova remnant to Earth is the Gum Nebula. The explanation of its two-page image is, Like most nebulae, Gum 17 is simply a vast semitransparent cloud of interstellar hydrogen, the most common element in the universe. Its red color is the result of ionization by nearby stars, a process comparable to the excitation of molecules by electricity within a neon sign. Although they only acquire colors like this at sunset, the clouds in Earth's atmosphere are also predominantly comprised of hydrogen. What a vivid, clear introduction to nebulae!
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Far Out is a visual galactic primer for amateurs who enjoy beautiful illustrations and good writing that at times aspires to poetry. Benson observes that telescopic images have been translated to their true colors so ionized hydrogen appears red and Hubble's Carina appears purple in places where the intense ultraviolet light of the giant blue stars powering the nebula can be seen mixing with the ionize