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Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York June 2012 Venus: Past, Present and Future
By Sandra Wayne
magine a world covered in a perpetual fog of sulfuric acid rain, where the average temperature is 457°C (855°F). It would be safe to call this a harsh environment. This world is Venus, its surface speckled with hundreds of volcanoes, mountains and wide lava plains, its ambient temperature able to melt iron and lead. The "sister planet" to our Earth, it is similar in size, mass, and density - but that is where all similarities end. How did such a hostile world acquire a name that has for centuries been associated with beauty and love? Histor y does not record when the planet was first observed, but it does tell us that ancient civilizations were gazing up at the heavens and observing this bright object - so bright that when the Sun was above the horizon, it could be seen with the naked eye. The Babylonian "Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa" refers to the record of astronomical observations of the planet as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets dating from the first millennium BCE. Mayan astronomers in 650 A.D. devel oped a calendar based on their detailed observations. Even the ancient Greek poet, Homer, noted that Venus "was the most beautiful star in the sky." At one time the ancient Greeks believed that the y were viewing two distinct stars, because Venus is nearer to the Sun than the Earth. When the Sun sets, Venus is in the western sky and when the Sun rises, Venus is in the eastern sky. In time, the bright planet earned its name in honor of beaut y and love, as it shone brighter than all of the five planets that were known to the ancient stargazers. For centuries, Venus has been the subject of study for astronomers. In the 17th century, a young English astronomer named Jeremiah Horrocks predicted and observed the Venus transit of 1639. In the 18th century, the Age of the Enlightenment prepared astronomers from Britain, Germany, France, Austria, The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Italy and Spain to observe the transit on June 6, 1761 and again in 1769. Andrea Wulf's new book "Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens," (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012, $26.95), recounts the extraordinary expeditions that set off to observe these transits. Overcoming enormous obstacles to make their
Venus: Past, Present and Future continues on page 4 Volume 61 Number 6 ISSN 0146-7662

EYEPIECE
By Alan Rude

Dark Matter Transiting Pulsars The major part of the universe consists of nonluminous and non-baryonic energy and matter. It cannot be detected except by its gravitational affect. This is true for dark energy (which is an entire discussion itself) and dark matter. It is estimated that 70 percent of the universe is dark energy and 25 percent is dark matter. The remaining five percent is ordinary baryonic, luminous matter/energy which is constructed of the particles we have identified in the Standard Model of Particle physics. Put another wa y, dark matter appears to have five times the universal mass as normal (baryonic) matter We don't know what constitutes dark matter. We do know that it does not interact with ordinary matter or energy, that it must be "cold." Particles of dark matter should be neutral (or it would not be dark); stable (or it would deca y into something else); and slow m oving ("cold"). Theories have been devel oped t o explain dark matter to include dark stars and black holes and neutrinos. All theories to date are deficient in one wa y or another. There do not seem to be sufficient dark stars/black holes, (even though there are lots of them) to make up the mass of dark matter. Neutrinos have a ver y small mass and are difficult to detect but they are rapidly moving i.e. "hot" instead of "cold." It appears that a particle or particles outside the Standard Model could be the building blocks of dark matter. Currently, the leading candidates are particles based on super symmetry. The problem here is that no such particles (photinos, selectrons, squarks, axions, WIMPs ) have yet been observed. The hope is that the CERN Hadron Super -Collider can produce one or more of these.
Dark Matter Transiting Pulsars continues on page 6

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________________________ Rik Davis, a Longtime Bulwark of the Club, Is Dead at 67 By Dan Harrison Richard H. (Rik) Davis, whose roles as urban observing chair, vice president and member of the board of directors made him a bulwark of the Amateur Astronomers Association for more than two decades, died May 26 at Beth Israel Hospital. He was 67. Davis' career, photography, combined with his from childhood fascination with astronomy (he assembled his own scope as a kid), produced many brilliant astrophotographs. A
Rik Davis continues on page 2

2004 Venus Transit From Carl Schurz Park (Rik Davis, 2004)


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Rik Davis continued from page 1

June 2012

number of these graced Enjoy the Stars, the club's annual brochure, which he co-produced. But he will probabl y be best remembered by his legion of admirers as someone who was always willing to take extra time to help at observing sessions and star p arties, and in general to educate people who wanted to learn more about astronomy. He did this at many star parties, Carl Schur z Park, solar observing in Central Park, High Line observing and other venues. Outgoing AAA president Richard Rosenberg recalls "While Rik's photographic talent was awesome, he was a modest man. If a sudden observing session came up and someone was needed to represent the club, Rik was there. If someone expressed an interest in the AAA, he always had a copy of Enjoy the Stars to hand out. If we had to go to the supermarket to get soda for our a nnual meeting, there was Rik." Apart from astronomy and a successful career in fashion and design photography, Davis will be recalled for his superb nature photographs, many of which were taken in Central Park, and his years-long documentation of the life, times and family of Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who nested on a 12th story cornice of an apartment building at 927 Fifth Avenue. Among the cutting-edge innovations in photography that Davis became immersed in is digiscoping. A hot topic in the birding world, it's a method of photographing birds using a digital camera attached to a spotting scope, telescope or binoculars. Usi ng a digiscope, a photographer can achieve dramatic close-ups that would otherwise be impossible. Davis used this and other knowledge to teach a course in bird photography. "One of his favorite astronomical objects to view and photograph was the Moon," notes longtime AAA board member Bruce Kamiat, who worked closel y with Davis at the AAA's Carl Schurz Park observing sessions. "He also was very into comets. He took many spectacular photos of Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp. He took fantastic photos of wildlife in Central Park. Everyone knows his shots of Pale Male and the other red-tailed hawks, but he also photographed robins, herons, egrets, owls and every other kin d of bird. He took many photos of the park's mammals, including wonderful shots of raccoons. He even photographed insects and slugs. His shots of mating slugs are mind-blowing. And he loved to photograph flowers." Richard Hansen Davis was born in Chicago and at an early age opened his first studio there, shooting fashion for Marshall Field and Carson Pirie Scott. As the result of an Army stint in West Germany, he decided to stay in Europe. He lived in Londo n, but was told Milan was where it was happening in fashion. Davis so fell in love with Italy that he set up a studio in Milan, where he concentrated on advertising photography and still life. Davis became friends with Ugo Mulas, known for his photographs of New York artists. Encouraged by Mulas, Rik began photographing performing artists at work, including Rudolf Nureyev during a performance at La Scala, as well as opera stars on and off stage. While in Milan, he also worked in fabric and furniture design. Several years later, after deciding to pursue his work in this country, Davis established a studio in Manhattan. He shot for such leading companies as Cinzano, Estee Lauder, Faberge, Glaxo, Givenchy, Halston, Royal Doulton, Royal Worcest er, Sulka, Tiffany, Waterford and Wedgwood. His photographs appeared in many publications, including American Photo, Beauty Digest, Birder's World, Bridal Guide, Elle DИcor, Fortune, Gourmet, Modern Bride, New York, Southern Accents, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Wild Bird, as well as European publications. Davis' work received awards from the Art Directors Club of New York and the Art Directors Club of Milan. His work wa s exhibited in several galleries and is found in private collections in the United States, Canada and Europe. Years ago, frequent trips to Alberta and Nova Scotia, and to central Virginia, allowed Davis to explore nature photography and his personal vision. Using large-format cameras and other photo-optical devices, he began shooting barns, wildlife, landscapes, seascapes and what he called "country still lifes." At his death, Davis was working on a book of photographs on how birds have adapted to urban environments. Newl y elect ed AAA president Marcelo Cabrera remembers that "The first contact I ever had with the AAA was through Rik. He was doing solar observing on a Saturday morning and after showing me the Sun, he gave me a copy of the AAA brochure." Davis is survived by his wife of 43 years, the former Anna Mae Barnes; a sister, Marilyn Blacksmith; and a cousin, to whom he was extremely close, Jane Trask Smith.

R I K
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June 2012

Remembering Rik Davis
Michael O'Gara May 29, 2012 Lynn Darsh Rik Davis was our sweet-natured friend, an indefatigable observer and trusted tour guide to the cosmos. As the chair of Urban Observing, Rik organized innumerable star parties and enthusiastically recruited us to turn out. His calm presence, helpfulness and willingness to share his expertise at monthl y observing sessions at Carl Schurz Park for nighttime and Central Park for solar, and at star parties from the Rose Center to the Sheep Meadow and on down to the High Line, made him a bel oved, well-known and much appreciated amateur. He carried his many telescopes using a backpack on public transportation for more than 20 years. I have happy memories of shared star parties and coffee-shop cheese omelets afterwards. Rik was fascinated by astronomy since childhood, and he would have been a professional but for the mathematics. He became a photographer instead, a specialist in highly reflecti ve surfaces such as glass and porcelain, and a superb astrophotographer. His images of comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, sunsets, the lunar highlands and Venus' transit of the Sun, among many others, graced Enjoy the Stars for years. Rik had been a fashion photographer in Milan and became a nature photographer and birder in Manhattan. His photograph of New York's cel ebrated red-tailed hawks appeared in The New York Times. He had a great sense of humor, even photographically, and he loved showing his wildlife photographs from Central Park. How can we ever forget the nighttime picture of slug sex? Rik was also interested also in American history and proud of an ancestor whose home was a st op on the Underground Railroad. Rik was alwa ys ready t o help the AAA and his friends. At the annual meeting last month, just as we had for more than 20 years, we smiled and chatted, talking about the next time we'd be out observing. Rik kept living his life, so rich with interests and friends and family and skills, right up until his untimely passing. I remember him with enormous affection and respect, and with gratitude for his friendship. Lynn Darsh was AAA president from 1992 to 2002
At his favorite bench in Central Park

Rik would always laugh. He would often start the beginning of a sentence: .."Oh...ha ha ha...Did you hear about..." or at the end, he would say "Yeah.. ha ha ha..". I don't remember when I first met Rik. Maybe it was at Carl Schurz Park observing. Maybe it was at a meeting of the AAA. What I do remember is that Rik was genuinely a nice person. And he really enjoyed bringing astronomy to the public. He was an accomplished professional photographer, spoke Italian from his days in Milan, loved telling stories about La Scala, and was alwa ys t o be counted on when we needed telescopes for observing sessions all over the city. Rik was vice president at AAA when Lynn Darsh was president, and continued when I became president. He was always a pleasure to work with. We'd get together annually at his studio to produce "Enjoy the Stars," and he'd always have something interesting to show me on his computer. Several times a year, we'd have dinner at my apartment, then head up to Fahnestock Park for observing. The shot I took of Comet Hyakutake used Rik's homemade tracking platform (see photograph below). I remember telling him that a lady named Marie Wynn had asked me to look at some hawks on Fifth Avenue, and how that had become a summer -long odyssey for me. When Rik came by the Central Park model boat pond to take a look, he essentially never left. Rik established daily observing sessions of those hawks, taking pictures that were published in The New York Times and elsewhere. At the AAA annual meeting last month, I asked Rik if he'd like to come t o Edward R. Murrow High School with me for solar observing, and of course the answer was: "Sure, ha ha ha.. Just tell me when". We got clouded out, but quickly rescheduled. I was about t o call Rik with the new date when I heard of his passing. I will miss this man very much. Our city will miss him, too. He was a great ambassador for what's possible in New York. So today, I'll go out to the model boat pond, and show people red-tailed hawks, I'll bring my solar filter and show them some sunspots. When I go to the High Line, I'll show various objects in the sky to surprised viewers. That's what Rik would be doing. I don't think I have the heart to laugh like Rik. Not today. Michael O'Gara was AAA president from 2002 to 2006
Comet Hyakutake as photographed by Michael O'Gara , March 27, 1996, with his Mi nolta with 50 mm l ens, guided on the comet's head for approximatel y 1 minut e, using Kodak 800 film.

At his scope observing the stars

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June 2012

WHAT'S UP IN THE SKY
AAA Observer's Guide for June 2012 By Richard Rosenberg

Venus: Past, Present and Future (continued from page 1)

June's Evening Planets: The biggest event of June is the
rare transit of Venus across the face of the Sun. Details are described in our page 1 article. This leaves the evening sky to Mercury, Mars and Saturn. Mercury, setting in the northwest, becomes easy to spot after the middle of June. Mars is fading but still bright in Leo. Saturn is in Virgo, the following zodiac constellation. June's Evening Stars: The Big Dipper, nearly overhead, is easiest to see this time of year. Follow the arc formed by i ts handle to the brilliant star Arcturus in the constellation BoЖtes, then continue to spot Spica in Virgo (close to Saturn). As the sky darkens locate the Summer Triangle rising in the east. Near the southern horizon, see if you can spot Scorpius. June's Morning Planets: Jupiter moved into the morning sky last month, and is now being followed by a rapidly-movi ng Venus. The two planets are closest on June 18th, only two degrees apart, and will remain close together for some time. They are joined by the star Aldebaran. June's Morning Stars: The Summer Triangle (Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila), overhead last month, has moved slightly to t he west. Further west is Hercules. Most of the sky now belongs to the constellations of autumn, including Pegasus, Andromeda and Perseus as well as fainter Capricornus and Aquarius.

June's "Skylights"
June 1 June 4 June 5 June June June June June June June June June June 7 11 15 17 18 19 20 21 25 26 Spica is 1.5° and Saturn 7° north of the Moon Full Moon at 7:12 a.m. (EDT) Transit of Venus (see aaa.org/transitofvenus2012) Neptune is stationary, beginning retrograde motion Jupiter is 5° south of the Pleiades star cluster Last Quarter Moon at 6:41 a.m. (EDT) Venus is 4° north of Aldebaran Jupiter is 1.1° south of the Moon Venus is 2° south of the Moon New Moon at 11:02 a.m. (EDT) Summer begins at 7:09 p.m. (EDT) Mercury is 5° south of Pollux, 6° north of the Moon Mars is 6° north of the Moon Saturn stationary, resuming direct motion First Quarter Moon at 11:30 p.m. (EDT) Spica 1.4° north of the Moon Saturn 6° north of the Moon Pluto is at opposition

observations, these astronomers were pioneers shaping humanity's quest to understand the universe. The first spacecraft to transmit information from another planet was launched in 1962. NASA's Mariner -2 data revealed the extreme surface temperatures during its close fl y-by. Four years later, Venera-3, one of a series of Russian probes, crash landed on Venus to become the first manmade object to impact another planet's surface. The data probe syst ems failed and the surface remained a myster y. Russia tried again in 1970, this time crash landing Venera-7 and transmitting 23 minutes of temperature data. There are many challenges in navigating a small craft millions of miles away from Earth, but again, in 1975, a Russian Venera-9 orbiter became the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while its lander was the first to return images from the surface of another planet. Time passes, and other tempting planetary targets are pursued until the 2010 launch of Japan's Atkatsuki (Planet -C). This spacecraft was developed to study atmospheric conditions but failed to insert into orbit successfully. The scientists at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are working to improve the propulsion system and thrusters, preparing for a second attempt sometime between 2015 and 2017. Future fly-bys en route to other destinations include the BepiCol ombo mission to Mercury, and NASA's Solar Probe + mission to probe the outer corona of the Sun. NASA is also preparing the Venus In-Situ Explorer (VISE), to be launched in 2013. It will land and perform experiments on the surface of Venus, including taking a core sample and measuring its composition. ESA has proposed the Venus Entry Probe t o be launched around the same time. The Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, continues its series of missions with the 2016 launch of the Venera-D spacecraft. Its prime purpose is to map Venus's surface using more powerful radar than Magellan. The mission would also include a lander capable of surviving for a long duration on the surface. As space programs continue to develop and refine technology, we are bound to learn even more about the harsh, yet intriguing world of Venus, our still illusive beaut y.

June 27 June 29

For additio nal information visit: www.aaa.org/mo nth1206

ATTENTION ALL AAA MEMBERS
JOIN US TO OBSERVE THE VENUS TRANSIT JUNE 5 4 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Riverside Park South Pier 1 and The High Line aaa.org/transitofvenus2012
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1882 Venus Transit US Naval Observatory Team


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June 2012

A Message from AAA President Marcelo Cabrera
Hello Me mbers: It is with great pleasure that I write to you for the first time as president. Many thanks to my fellow board me mbers for entrusting me with the leadership of the association for the coming year and especially to Rich Rosenberg for all his many years of dedicated service as president and for leading the club in the path of growth. It is also sad to announce that long time board member and for mer vice president Rik Davis passed away last month. We will miss you, Rik. June is charged with excitement, as we have the last opportunity in our lifetimes to witness the transit of Venus on June 5. We will have a strong presence in Riverside Park at 70th St and at the High Line, make sure you visit our website for more details and bring your friends and neighbors to our observing locations. We also have our Spring/Summer astronomy classes starting in June and we resume our dark sky observing sessions in North-South Lake. Check our website for more details. We now accept membership payments and donations online and we have new logo merchandise available online. Sincerely, Contacting AAA Marcelo Cabrera President, AAA president@aaa.org
Membership: members@aaa.org Eyepiece: editor@aaa.org General Club Matters and Observing: president@aaa.org

Telephone: 212-535-2922

Website: www.aaa.org


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Dark Matter Transiting Pulsars (continued from page 1)

June 2012

Enter Pulsars. These are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation can only be observed when the beam is pointed directly at us and is responsible for the appearance of pulsed radiation. Pulsars have a very precise interval between pulses, ranging from roughly milliseconds to seconds for an individual pulsar. They are the most perfect, stable, natural clocks in the known universe. Any deviation of light travel-time (l.t.t) of the pulse of light as it heads toward Earth can be detected. When dark matter crosses the line of sight of a pulsar, the transit should cause a delay in the l.t.t. of photons. Light slows in a gravitational field. Dark matter, because it interacts with gravity (and we believe nothing else) has formed clumps which are more elegantly known as "dark matter substructures." Successful detection of such a substructure using pulsar l.t.t. would be the first detection of dark matter within the Milky Wa y galaxy. Pulsar timing, based upon the slowing of light due to dark matter gravity, offers the prospect of gaining further information in addition to the detection of dark matter substructures themselves. We ma y have insights into dark matter properties such the types: for example, WIMPs (Weakly Interactive Massive Particles-non Baryonic) and MACHOS (Massive Compact Halo Objects-Baryonic). Coming on-stream in 2016 is the Square Kilometer Array, a radio telescope having a collecting area of approximately one square kilometer. It will be 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument and will have sensitivit y to significantly improve the measurement of pulsar timing. The nature of dark matter is one of most important mysteries being explored by cosmol ogists toda y. Changes in the light travel time of pulses, although extremely small, can be used to identify dark matter and discern its density profile. Pulsar timing measurement may give us insights into the existence, properties creation and evolution of dark matter. We are just beginning an exciting journey.

Nebula of the Month: Eta Carinae

Eta Carinae is a supermassive star on the brink of destruction. Situated 9,000 light years from Earth in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, the central region of this nebula is bright enough to see with the naked eye (although onl y from equatorial and southern latitudes). It may actually be two supermassive stars, very close to each other, with a mass of about sixty or seventy Suns each. The nebula lies at the center of two expanding globules of dust and gas which were ejected during its 1848 eruption. The dust makes the star look dimmer than it's actual luminosity. If we could put Eta Carinae 93 million miles from Earth (1 AU), it would be about five million times brighter than the Sun.

Photo: NA SA Hubble Space Telescope

What is your favorite nebula?
Ema il e ditor@aaa.org to have your ans wer publis hed!

________________________ Year of the Dragon--SpaceX Visits ISS
By Evan Schneider Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has successfull y completed the historic mission that made Dragon the first commercial spacecraft in history to visit the International Space Station. Landing safel y in the Pacific Ocean on May 31, Dragon breathed new life into NASA's space program by meeting the rigorous design and safet y speci fications required to dock with the ISS. Previousl y, only four governments - the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency had achieved this challenging technical feat. Just nine days earlier on May 22, the Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifted off in the early morning from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to begin a demonstration test flight as the first private spacecraft to dock at the orbiting laboratory complex. With this launch, human exploration of the cosmos em barked on a radical new course that will never be the same again. In addition to its 1,000 lb cargo, also on -board were the ashes of "Star Trek" legend James 'Scotty' Doohan , fulfilling his final wish to spend 6

eternity resting in space. "Ever y bit of adrenaline in my body released at that moment," said Elon Musk to reporters at the post launch media briefing about the moment the rocket lifted off the pad. Musk is the founder, CEO and chief designer of SpaceX. "People were really giving it their all. For us, it was like winning the Super Bowl." After conducting a complicated series of rendezvous tests, NASA astronaut Don Pettit of the ISS's Expedition 31 crew successfull y captured the SpaceX Dragon capsule with the station's robotic arm on May 25 at 2:56 PM (EDT), precisel y three days, six hours, 11 minutes and 23 seconds after the mission's launch. The station was 251 miles over northwest Australia at the time. NASA is investing in SpaceX, as well as four other companies, to fl y cargo and eventually astronauts to the station following the retirement of the space shuttles last summer. The company behind the venture SpaceX will now collect the remaining payments on the $396 million contract it has with NASA and then enter into a $1.6 billion agreement for 11 more flights to the ISS. The first step in the commercialization of space to non governmental firms, SpaceX is hoping one day to deliver up to seven passengers to the ISS and other destinations in lowEarth orbit.

SpaceX Dragon docked at the ISS Harmony module (Photo: Ken Kr emer)


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June 2012

WHAT IF??? A

Antimatter: The Key to Space Travel
travel from an extremely difficult and dangerous endeavor to a routine commuter flight. How much fuel do we need? That depends on the mass of the spacecraft. Increased mass requires greater amounts of antimatter fuel. But with antimatter's efficiency, a spacecraft weighing several thousand kilograms would require only a few grams of antimatter fuel to travel interplanetary distances. If the craft can achieve thrust for hours or days, its environment can support gravity-based humans. Floating around in zero gravity may seem like fun, but ask any astronaut and zero g becomes unpleasant at mealtime or bio-breaks. If the craft accelerates at a constant one gravity pace (9.8 meters/second/second), it could breeze through the solar system while passengers experienced the equivalent of Earth's gravity. When the craft gets halfway to its destination, it would turn around and slow down at the same deceleration rate, still providing Earth gravity and arriving at its space destination at zero velocity, ready to orbit, dock or land. This is the great advantage of finally having enough energy to make space travel comfortable. How long would our commuter trips take? A trip from Earth to Mars with 1 gravity acceleration could take as little as 1.17 days or as much as 3.7 days if Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun. That is about as long as a Caribbean cruise to an island destination and could be just as much fun. Science minded travelers could enjoy the Venus-Sun transit from many different vantage points in the solar system and not wait decades for the experience. When space travel is a commuter or vacation experience, we will have truly become a space-based species. Science and exploration would also advance by leaps and bounds, sending unmanned probes to the far corners of the solar sys tem, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud and beyond in less time than ever imagined. We will also need antimatter -powered spacecraft for mining resources and for trade vessels as we harness the vast mineral resources of the solar system to support future colonization. Unfortunately, there is a negative impact to this new power source. Antimatter would make the easiest and most effective weapons of mass destruction. It could redefine terrorism. Only a few grams of the volatile substance could destroy a city (or space colony). To release the energy, one only needs to turn off the magnetic containment field. This has the potential to be the most dangerous weapon ever built, so let's keep it out of the wrong hands. I suppose we have to take risks if we want the rewards. Let's hope Mankind will be mature enough to use this for good. I can't wait to book my vacation cruise to Venus.
Richard Brounstein's m onthly colum n, "WHAT I F," explores what today seem s im probable or impossible. Stay tuned for m ore fascinating concepts.

s a civilization advances, its need for energy increases.

Civilization made its first technological leap when it harnessed energy from fire, allowing humans to construct metal tools and control their environment. In the 19th century, Mankind advanced again when the power of coal was discovered. No longer using beasts of burden to do work, new machines harvested crops, mined materials, and moved people across the globe. Finally, through the exploitation of oil, machines were developed to fly around the Earth and beyond our atmosphere. The 21st century promises the production of cleaner energy sources such as photovoltaic solar panels, solar heating, wind energy, clean coal, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells and fuels from biotechnology. We are headed in the right direction. But while these sources will make energy supplies more sustainable, they do not provide increased efficiency. Nuclear fission, Mankind's most recent energy leap, provides an increased efficiency thousands of times greater than fossil fuel power plants. That still falls short if we want to become a space -based civilization. Our next great leap must be to harness antimatter. Antimatter consists of subatomic particles just like normal matter, but with an opposite electric charge. Each subatomic particle in nature has an anti-particle. An electron with a negative electric charge has a corresponding antiparticle called a positron. The positron has a positive electric charge. A proton has its opposite particle called an antiproton. Energy is emitted when normal particles encounter their antiparticles. They annihilate each other, releasing enormous amounts of energy with 100% efficiency. Over one million times more efficient than nuclear fission, this can provide a game changing permanent increase of power for civilizations, allowing Mankind to move more rapidly into space. Finding antimatter is not easy. There are no deposits in Earth's crust. We should be grateful for this since antimatter ore would explode the moment it came into contact with normal matter. Once antimatter is found or produced, it does not need to be processed into an explosive substance. It onl y needs to come into contact with any normal matter to release its energy. The only way to safely contain antimatter is in a magnetic energy field. Can we manufacture antimatter? Even the Large Hadron Collider can only produce a few hundred atoms at a time. It would take millions of years to produce a few kilograms. But one thing we know about science it is that the future always holds change. Someday, humans may discover how to manufacture large quantities of antimatter, or harness it right in our own solar system. A single solar flare produces approximately one pound of antimatter. Someday, humans might build the technology to capture this material right out of these solar eruptions. This would change the course of history as did the discover y of fire. It would not just provide enormous energy to power cities, but could move Mankind off planet Earth and deep into the solar system. One of the best applications of antimatter is as fuel for spacecraft. Today, interplanetary space travel depends upon planetar y alignment, gravity boosts, atmospheric braking, and strategic bursts of energy with rockets. This is comparable to the days when sailing ships depended on ocean currents and wind to travel between continents. Today, ocean vessels powered by diesel fuel and nuclear power go anywhere on the planet quickly, with little regard to weather or currents. What if we could do the same with spacecraft travelling around our Solar System? With the energy efficiency from an antimatter engine, a few grams of fuel could propel a spacecraft with a consistent thrust for hours or days. We could attain speeds well beyond the fastest spacecraft to date, New Horizon, as it races toward Pluto at over 57,000 kph. Consider accelerating a spacecraft up to 500,000 kph or more by leveraging the new antimatter fuel. This could turn manned space

M ars M ission: NA SA concept design vehicle power ed by Positr onics Resear ch LLC positron react or

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June 2012

AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY
Does Dark Matter Matter?

The most accurate study of Milky Way star motions found no trace of dark matter in large volume around the Sun. Theory sa ys the Sun's neighborhood should be filled with dark matter. Scientists used telescopes to map motions of more than 400 red giants up to 13,000 light-years from the Sun. This helped calculate the mass of material in its vicinity. The amount of mass derived matched with what we see--stars, dust and gas--but left no room for dark matter that scientists expected. Models predicted 0.9-2.2 pounds of dark matter in a volume the size of Earth in the Sun's region, but new findings suggest 0.15 pounds at most. The Milky Wa y rotates much faster than visible matter can account for, so if dark matter isn't present, a solution for the missing mass problem must be found. Scientists will reconstruct movement of millions of stars, so they can test the presence of dark matter in a wide region.
Ring Around Iapetus

Quasars With Gravity Glasses

The accelerating expansion of the universe has been further confirmed. Scientists used gravitational lenses to observe super-bright distant galaxies, giving a measure of how quickly the universe is expanding. As the universe expands, distance to quasars increases, and so do chances a quasar's light will pass by a massive object and be gravitationall y lensed. So the frequency of gravitationally lensed quasars can indicate the universe's expansion speed. In some 100,000 quasars, researchers identified 50 being gravitationally lensed, significantly increasing the known sample of these objects.
Fall Into the Gap

The giant ridge around the middle of Saturn's moon Iapetus could be the remains of a dead moon. The mountain range, like no other in the solar system, wraps along its equator, reaching up to 12.4 miles high and 124 miles wide, and encircles more than 75% of the moon. Scientists assert a giant impact blasted chunks of debris off Iapetus at the tail end of the planetary growth period some 4.5 billion years ago. The rubble could have coalesced around Iapetus, creating a moon of a moon. Under this scenario, the pull exerted on this subsatellite eventually t ore it back into pieces, forming an orbiting ring of debris which then rained down, building the giant ridge. Researchers term Iapetus unique in the solar system with this kind of ridge because its orbit is so far from Saturn. If Iapetus was closer, Saturn might have tugged Iapetus' moon awa y.
Too Damn Hot

For the first time, giant pillars of gas that light up and flame out have been spotted on the Sun. Scientists discovered the features, called coronal cells, by studying the Sun's ultraviolet emissions at temperatures around 1.8 million degrees. The pattern of cells is bright centers and dark boundaries. Scientists were surprised to find these features higher up in the corona. Coronal holes are gaps in the Sun's magnetic field that punch holes in the corona, allowing gas and solar material to escape. Researchers examined June 2011 time-lapse images of the Sun and followed the coronal cells as they were carried across the solar disk in a 27-day rotation. Coronal cells are found between coronal holes and so-called filament channels that separate sections of upward-pointing magnetic fields and their downward-pointing counterparts. Scientists found magnetic-field bundles lay centered inside the cells. They al so found coronal cells were consistently located in regions dominated by magnetic-field lines pointing up or down, and when magnetic fields of nearby coronal holes and coronal cells were intricately tied. When fields of the coronal hole were open, extending far into space without returning to the Sun, the field lines in the cells were cl osed. It is possi ble coronal -cell structure is the same structure as inside coronal holes, but they're visible to us when magnetic fields are closed, not open.
Bursting Black Holes

Planets form more commonly in star systems with relatively high concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, a new study suggests. Such elements are necessary t o form dust grains and planetesimals that build planetary cores, according to the study. Additionally, evidence suggests disks of dust that surround young stars don't survive as long when the stars have lower concentrations of heavy elements. The most likely reason for this shorter lifespan: Light from the star causes clouds of dust to evaporate. A team concluded that some of the earliest planets may have formed at just 0.03 AUs from their star. (Mercury orbits at just under 0.4 AU.) Given high temperatures likely at 0.03 AU, estimated at roughly 2,370 degrees, a number of the first planets probabl y were too hot to host life as we know it. Results also suggest the first Earth-like planets may have formed in the habitable zones of stars slightly more massive than the Sun. Because more massive stars burn out faster, it's possible any life t hat evol ved on these planets may have already perished with the death of their host stars, which may have lived four billion years compared to 10 billion expected for the Sun.
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Gamma-ray bursts are probably not the sources of the most powerful cosmic rays. There have basically been two ideas on cosmic rays' origin: gravitationally driven particle flows near the supermassive black holes at the centers of active galaxies, and in the collapse of stars to a black hole, seen by astronomers as gamma-ray bursts. Some gamma-ray bursts are thought to be collapses of supermassive stars--hyperrnovas --while others are thought to be collisions of black holes with other black holes or neutron stars. Researchers focused on neutrinos whose energy levels suggest they're linked with gamma ray bursts. They discovered levels of these neutrinos were at least 3.7 times lower than expected. After observing gamma ray bursts for two years, they haven't detected telltale neutrinos for cosmic-ray acceleration. Black holes at the centers or nuclei of active galaxies may be responsible for ultra -highenergy cosmic rays, sucking in matter and spitting out enormous particle jets as they gorge.


EYEPIECE

June 2012

AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY
Here, Rover!

Death Valley isn't a perfect stand-in for Mars--for starters, it's too hot--but it's a great place to learn what NASA's new Curiosity rover will be doing, once it arrives August 5. Curiosity is basically a 1-ton robot geol ogist, and Death Valley is a geologist's dream landscape. Curiosity, the centerpiece of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, launched in November and is due to touch down at Gale Crater. The rover's main task is to assess whether the crater area is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life. Curiosit y will take geological and geochemical measurements with its 10 instruments. The info will be analyzed to try and understand the evolution of Gale and Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-high mound rising from the crater's center.

Go In and Out the F Ring

Mysterious objects appear to be doing damage to Saturn's "weirdest ring." In Cassini photos, researchers spotted strange objects about a half-mile wide tearing through Saturn's F ring, the planet's thin outermost discrete ring. As they pass through the ring, these interlopers drag glittering ice particles out with them, creating trails of debris scientists call mini jets. The F ring is held in check by t wo tiny moons, Prometheus and Pandora, which weave inside and outside the ring. Sometimes these moons perturb the ring, creating channels and snowballs. Now scientists think some snowballs survive to become the objects punching holes in the ring. The objects appear to collide with the ring at only about 4 mph, but can leave trails extending 20 to 110 miles. The complexity of the ring has fascinated scientists: isolated bright clumps, individual strands, braided regions, kinky segments.
Planets Gone Rogue

NA SA Engineer s pr epared Cur iosity for its flight to M ars

Peekaboo, Mars

Beneath their rugged exterior, some Martian rocks could be hiding life, scientists suspect. Examination of data gathered by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity reveals deposits that, on Earth, are only created by water moving through the rock. "There are plenty of places on Earth where organisms live in places where water is flowing through fractures in rock," lead scientist Steve Squyres told SPACE.com. "That's definitely a possibility at this location." Opportunity also turned up evidence of hot, moving water within the rocks, likely caused by the impact that scooped out the Odyssey Crater. In August 2011, it completed a three-year journey to Endeavour, a 14-mile crater formed in Mars' early history. One outcropping, Homestake, boasts evidence of watery environments in cracks within the rocks. A flat ridge only a third of an inch tall and 20 inches long, Homestake contains deposits of gypsum. Water, slowl y leaking from the ground into the rock, carried sulfate with it. As fractures in the rock opened, gypsum was deposited inside. There's no evidence of life in Homestake, but watery conditions that would have been necessa ry were present. Scientists examined rocky outcroppings sent fl ying when a second impact formed the smaller Odyssey crater. Only 62 by 75 feet, the elliptical crater rests on Endeavour's rim. Opportunity studied an outcropping, Tisdale, and found zinc, an element associated with hydrothermal activity. When the large body gashed Mars' surface, it likely heated water contained within the crust or at the surface. Such water would have been moving temporarily, however, and would be unlikely to create long-term habitats for life.

Billions of stars in the Milky Way have captured rogue alien planets that once cruised freel y through interstellar space, a new study suggests. Many worlds, ejected from the solar systems in which they formed, likely find new homes with different stars. The finding could explain why some exoplanets orbit extremely far from their stars. Scientists simulated the evolution of young star clusters containing as many freefloating planets as stars. They found 3%-6% of the stars would grab a rogue over time. Young star clusters were studied because capture is more likely when stars and rogue planets are crowded together. Over time, close interactions bet ween stars cause clusters to disperse, so any planet-star encounters have to happen early in the cluster's history. Scientists think roamers are common throughout the Milky Wa y. One study last year, for example, estimated rogues outnumber normal alien planets with obvious parent stars by at least 50%, and that they're nearly twice as common as main -sequence stars such as our Sun. Captured planets generally end up hundreds or thousands of times farther from their new stars than Earth is from the Sun.
Don't Fly Too Close to That Red Giant

A massive alien planet that may have been ripped into Earth-size chunks by its dying parent star is offering a unique glimpse into the evolution of other worlds and their stars, just 3,851 light-years away. The planet's two remaining pieces, tentatively identified as planet-sized objects slightl y smaller than Earth, were possibl y created when their parent body spiraled inward too cl ose to a bloated red giant. Extreme tidal forces then tore the parent planet into pieces, some of which have stabilized in orbit around the star, revealing a planet's life doesn't alwa ys start and end neatly. Once a common star like the Sun, KIC05807616 swelled into a red giant as it reached the end of its life. The gas surrounding it ballooned outward, engulfing any alien planets that lay too close. But one gas giant may have escaped complete destruction. At the same time, tidal forces would have ripped the giant planet to shreds, creating at least two rocks a little smaller than Earth.
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EYEPIECE

June 2012

AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY
Minivan or Asteroid? Smile, Uranus - You're on Candid Camera

Tiny meteorites found in the Sierra foothills of northern California were part of a giant fireball that exploded April 22 with one-third the explosive force of Hiroshima. The rocks each weighed about 10 grams. The flaming meteor, dating to the early solar system, was probabl y the size of a minivan when it entered the atmosphere with a loud boom. It was seen from parts of California and Nevada. An event that size might happen once a year, but most occur over an ocean or uninhabited area. The meteor probabl y weighed about 154,300 pounds. At the time of disintegration, it apparently released energy equivalent to a 5-kiloton explosion.
Stand Back, Nikon!

Astronomers have caught the first views of auroras on Uranus from the Hubble, the first time they have been seen by an observatory near Earth. Until now, the only views were from Voyager 2 in 1986. Snapping the photos wasn't easy. Hubble recorded auroras on the day side of Uranus only t wice, while the planet was 2.5 billion miles from Earth. The auroras lasted only a few minutes and were just faint glowing dots above the planet's atmosphere.
Earth SmackDown

Plans for an enormous telescope, equipped with a 3.2 billion-pixel camera, are ready for detailed designs. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will take photos of every inch of visible night sky ever y week for 10 years in a kind of time-lapse picture that will provide unparalleled views of the universe. The LSST will gather 6 million gigabytes of data annually. All data will be publicl y available, so anyone with a computer will be abl e to fl y by objects 100 million times fainter than can be observed with the unaided eye. Construction will start in 2014. Researchers have started work on the 8.4-meter mirror and on preparing its construction site atop a Chilean mountain.
Yummy, Yummy - Got Stars?
upermassive black holes thought to lurk at the heart of most galaxies attained their sizes by eating stars, a new study suggests. Some theories hold these black holes, which seem to contain millions to billions of solar masses, get so heft y by consuming huge quantities of gas or merging with other black holes. Others suggest they were simply born large. The new study reports they likel y get supermassive mainly by ripping apart double-star systems and devouring one of the stars. Hypervelocit y stars are thought to originate in binary systems that wander too close t o the Milky Wa y's central black hole, which appears to weigh up to 4.3 million Suns. Tidal forces eject one star, the theory goes, and captures the other. As many as half of all stars are in binaries. Our galaxy's black hole has likely doubled to quadrupled in mass during the past 5 billion-10 billion years by eating stars.

Earth may have seeded life on other planets if an asteroid smacking into Earth sprayed DNA into space. Researchers are searching for stars born from the same star cluster as the Sun whose planets could have been impregnated with Earth life. Some scientists believe if debris is big enough, like one meter across, it can shield life inside from radiation, and life can survive for millions of years until the debris lands. If it lands on a planet with suitable conditions, they assert, life can start there. Research suggests it is possi ble Earth was seeded with life in this manner, although considered unlikely. Picking stars with radial velocities similar to the Sun's, scientists identified two stars that have the same metal content and are at the same evolutionary stage. It's conceivable these two, 100 light years awa y, were born in the same cluster as our Sun. The next step will be to see if these stars have planets.
A Star is Born
A new study of one of the most fundamental molecules in the universe has given scientists clues into how the first stars were formed. For the first time, researchers calculated vibration patterns of a compound called H3+ (also known as a triatomic hydrogen ion), which consists of three hydrogen atoms sharing two electrons. Knowing how the molecule can vibrate allows scientists to predict which wavelengths of light it will emit, providing a wa y to identify its signature in observations. H3+ is important because it's thought to have been prevalent just after the Big Bang.

S

Lake Ontario on Saturn's Titan

Einstein is Still With Us

If a pulsing star exists near the center of the Milky Wa y where a giant black hole is thought to lurk, it could shed light on the workings of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Flashes of light from such a star could be used to determine how much the black hole distorts space-time around it. Unlike a standard star, pulsars emit steady pulses of light that allow their motion to be tracked. By measuring how separations between the pulses change over time, astronomers can study how the pulsar has been affected by the space-time it plows through. As the pulsar's orbit evolves, scientists can use its new position to calculate gravity around the black hole and mass of the giant itself.
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An enormous lake on Saturn's moon Titan apparently behaves like mudflats on our planet, draining and refilling over time, according to a new study. Scientists have long thought the lake, Ontario Lacus, is a relativel y stable body filled with liquid hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. However, new analysis of Cassini data finds evidence for long -standing channels etched into the southern end of the lake bed. This suggests Ontario Lacus is a depression that periodically dries out and refills from below. Titan is the only world beyond Earth known to harbor stable liquids on its surface.
Cassini Probe Flyby T38 captures Titan's Ontario Lacus

Photo: NA SA/JPL/Univer sity of Arizona/LPG Nantes


EYEPIECE

June 2012

FOCUS ON THE UNIVERSE Shooting the Venus Transit
By Stan Honda

For astronomers and other scientists who viewed the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 and again in 1874 and 1882, enormous expeditions to the ends of the globe were required in order to see the phenomenon. Tons of equipment, food and cases of wine were transported thousands of miles to support the observers. In 2004 I was spared the months of travel by boat, sledge or carriage by walking from my apartment to Carl Schurz Park. The AAA had gathered before sunrise on June 8 in the park overlooking the East River to view the first transit of Venus in 122 years. Initially I remember the weather not cooperating; a layer of cl ouds obscured the horizon. Club members were out in large numbers. Telescopes and binoculars fitted with solar filters were in place. I had a Nikon D1H with a 300mm f2.8 lens and a 2x teleconverter, making it a 600mm f5.6. With the 1.5 conversion factor of the Nikon image sensor, I had the equivalent of a 900mm lens. So we waited, hoping for the clouds to lift. The designated time of sunrise, 5:24 a.m., came and went with no sun in sight. Looking back at my photos, I saw that I took a few of club members gathering on the walkway along the river about 5:30 a.m., the horizon still gray. Then the clouds parted at 5:46 a.m. My first photo of the Sun shows a yellow orb partly obscured by clouds rising behind the Triboro Bridge and the railroad bridge that span the river. A small dot on the lower right side of the Sun, perfectl y placed a wa y from the clouds, was Venus ­ the transit was already in progress! It was quite a sight, seeing the event that Edmund Halley had predicted in 1716. The sun rose above the clouds, and it appeared to be clear skies from then on. I shot a few pictures with a 70-200mm zoom to take in more of the scene, AAA members, and the public watching the transit. A few more shots of the sol o sun taken with the long telephoto and by 6:13 a.m., according to the camera data, I was finished. I was in a hurry to edit and send the pictures to Agence France-Presse, the wire service I work for, then catch a train to Washington, D.C. for a previousl y scheduled assignment. For safe viewing of the transit I used a black polymer solar filter I had ordered from Thousand Oaks Optical in California. It is a 12-by-12-inch sheet of ver y dark material and transmits 1/1000 of 1 percent of the sun's light. I cut a square about 6-by-6 inches and taped it to the front of the lens hood of the 300mm. The black pol ymer decreases the exposure significantly ­ at ISO 400 I was shooting 1/100 second at f5.6. With today's digital cameras you could go to ISO 800 and it will look fine. I would recommend a tripod to keep the camera steady. You won't need as large a lens as I had. A 200mm to 300mm would work fine. That will give you a fairl y large image of the Sun if you use a digital SLR. Having an interesting foreground feature will make your photos better. The bridges in my photos worked out ver y well ­ they gave the view a recognizable feature and added per-

spective to the image. There is a lot of soft ware that will calculate the setting sun's altitude and azimuth. The ingress exterior is scheduled at 6:03 p.m. (EDT), and the Sun will be at an altitude of 23 degrees, azimuth of 280 degrees east as seen from the west side of Manhattan (online, the US Naval Observator y has a nice chart for the Sun and Moon at any location). At 7:20 p.m. the altitude will be 10 degrees and the Sun will set at 8:24 p.m. with the transit still in progress. Using this information you can approximate where the Sun will be at a given time and see what buildings or structures could be put to the left, right or below to frame your image. Because of its brightness, any foreground objects will be in silhouette. You can practice a few days before the transit; go out with your camera, lens and solar filter and take a series of shots from around 6 p.m. to sunset. Try various buildings or skylines as the foreground to see what looks best. Focus on the Sun ­ the depth of field should keep ever ything sharp. You'll then be able to project the descent for Venus transit day. Hope for clear skies and good shooting!

Above Photos: "Tr ansit 2004" series (by Stan Honda,

2011)

Stan Honda is an accom plished professional photographer and contributing writer for Eyepiece. In this continuing series of articles, he s hares his extensive knowledge of photographic equipm ent and techniques. Visit www.stanhonda.com or subm it your questions to stanhonda@gm ail.com .

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EYEPIECE

June 2012

Chandra Reveals Speeding Black Holes

Astronomers have found strong evidence that a massive black hole is being ejected from its host galaxy at a speed of several million miles per hour. New observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest that the black hole collided and merged with another black hole and received a powerful recoil kick from gravitational wave radiation. "It's hard to believe that a supermassive black hole weighing millions of times the mass of the sun could be moved at all, let alone kicked out of a galaxy at enormous speed," said Francesca Civano of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who led the new study. "But these new data support the idea that gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space first predicted by Albert Einstein but never detected directly, can exert an extremely powerful force." Although the ejection of a supermassive black hole from a galaxy by recoil because more gravitational waves are being emitted in one direction than another is likely to be rare, it nevertheless could mean that there are many giant black holes roaming undetected out in the vast spaces bet ween galaxies. "These black holes would be invisible to us," said coauthor Laura Blecha, also of CfA, "because they have consumed all of the gas surrounding them after being thrown out of their home galaxy." Civano and her group have been studying a system known as CID-42, located in the middle of a galaxy about 4 billion light years awa y. They had previousl y spotted two distinct, compact sources of optical light in CID-42, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. More optical data from the ground-based Magellan and Very Large Telescopes in Chile supplied a spectrum that suggested the two sources in CID-42 are moving apart at a speed of at least 3 million miles per hour. Previous Chandra observations detected a bright X-ray source likely caused by super -heated material around one or more supermassive black holes. However, they could not distinguish whether the X-rays came from one or both of the optical sources because Chandra was not pointed directly at CID42, giving an X-ray source that was less sharp than usual. "The previous data told us that there was something special going on, but we couldn't tell if there were two black holes or just one," said another co-author Martin Elvis, also of CfA. "We needed new X-ray data to separate the sources." When Chandra's sharp High Resolution Camera was pointed directly at CID-42, the resulting data showed that Xrays were coming only from one of the sources. The team thinks that when two galaxies collided, the supermassive black holes in the center of each galaxy also collided. The two black holes then merged to form a single black hole that recoiled from gravitational waves produced by the collision, which gave the newl y merged black hole a sufficiently large kick for it to eventually escape from the galaxy. The other optical source is thought to be the bright star cluster that was left behind. This picture is consistent with recent computer simulations of merging black holes, which show that merged black holes can receive powerful kicks from the emission of gravitational waves. There are two other possible explanations for what is
12

happening in CID-42. One would involve an encounter between three supermassive black holes, resulting in the lightest one being ejected. Another idea is that CID-42 contains two supermassive black holes spiraling toward one another, rather than one moving quickly awa y. Both of these alternate explanations would require at least one of the supermassive black holes to be very obscured, since only one bright X-ray source is observed. Thus the Chandra data support the idea of a black hole recoiling because of gravitational waves.
Article courtesy of NA SA M edia Ser vices

Chandra Spacecraft Design Diagram (NASA)
The Chandra telescope system consists of four pairs of mirrors and their suppor t str ucture. X-ray telescopes must be very diff erent from optical telescopes. Because of their high - ener gy, X -r ay photons penetrate into a mirror much as bullets slam into a wall.

________________________ Where in the World is Chandra?

Chandra's elliptical orbit takes the spacecraft to an altitude of approximately 139,000 km (86,500 mi), more than a third of the distance to the Moon, before approaching Earth again at 9,942 miles awa y. It takes approximately 64 hours and 18 minutes to complete an orbit. The Chandra spacecraft spends approximately 85% of its orbit above the Van Allen belts, charged particles that surround the Earth. This makes uninterrupted observations of as long as 55 hours possible, making the overall percentage of useful observing time much greater than the low Earth orbit of a few hundred kilometers used by most satellites.

Artist concept of Chandra's orbit (CXC/M.Weiss)


EYEPIECE

June 2012

Powerhouse of Talent Inaugurates Planetary Resources
By Evan Schneider
ining can no longer be relegated to the seven dwarfs. There are now giants of industry and science in the field, and they have come together under the new banner of Planetary Resources, Inc. in Bellevue, Washington, to become the first commercial enterprise to seek out water and precious metals such as platinum and palladium by mining near Earth asteroids. The metals have multiple commercial applications including catalytic converters and fuel cells. There are near -limitless numbers of asteroids and more being discovered every year. More than 1,500 are as easy to reach as the Moon and are in similar orbits as Earth. Harnessing valuable minerals from a practically infinite source will provide stability on Earth, increase humanity's prosperity, and help establish and maintain human presence in space. Planetary Resources' mission is clearly stated on their website: "Appl y commercial, innovative techniques to explore space. Devel op low-cost robotic spacecraft to explore the thousands of resource-rich asteroids within our reach. Learn everything we can about them, and then devel op the most efficient capabilities to deliver these resources directly to both spacebased and terrestrial customers. Asteroid mining may sound like fiction, but it's just science." There are nearly 9,000 NEOs and almost 1,000 discovered each year, so the number of available targets is growing at a fast rate. PRI's robotic spacecraft will explore asteroids, determine their composition, and select and mine the most viable candidates. The current expectation is to "capture" an NEO, mine its available resources, and release it back into space. In the future, mined materials will be delivered back to Earth and even to the Moon. To make a concept this challenging work, Planetary Resources needed to form a team of professionals and specialists with proven abilities. They all needed to share a common vision of the future. Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Eric Anderson is an entrepreneur and aerospace engineer who has pioneered the creation of the commercial human spaceflight industry since its inception. Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Dr. Peter Diamandis holds degrees from Harvard and MIT in aerospace and molecular genetics. Both men have received numerous achievement awards in multiple fields for innovation. Both strive to open the space frontier to humanity. From an engineering perspective, PRI's resources begin with Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer. He was Flight Director for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the Surface Mission Manager for Phoenix. The recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, Lewicki has an asteroid named in his honor: 13609 Lewicki. PRI's VP of Spacecraft Devel opment, Chris Voorhees, served as Chief Engineer for mechanical assembl y, integration and testing for NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). He was also responsible for the integrated system design of the MSL rover's mechanical and structural subsystems. Chris received NASA's Exceptional Achievement Medal for the design and devel opment of the Mars Exploration Rover's mobility system.

M

Further supported by an impressive invest or and advisor group, including Google's Larry Page & Eric Schmidt, Ph.D.; film maker & explorer James Cameron; Chairman of Intentional Soft ware Corporation and Microsoft's former Chief Soft ware Architect Charles Simonyi, Ph.D.; Founder of Sherpalo and Google Board of Directors founding member K. Ram Shriram; and Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr., the company will overlay two critical sectors ­ space exploration and natural resources ­ to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP.

Artist C oncept: Planetary R esour ces' LEO Telescope Seeks NEOs

So, here we now stand, on the doorstep of the commercialization of space. This month, SpaceX's Dragon capsule lifted off the Cape Canaveral launch pad atop its falcon rocket to successfull y dock with the ISS, deliver materials, and return to Earth. The achievement triggered a multi-billion dollar contract with NASA to continue delivering materials and at some point, astronauts to the facility. Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic is constructing its Spaceport America in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic, the world's first commercial spaceline, announced in May that its vehicle devel oper, Scaled Composites (Scaled), has been granted an experimental launch permit from the FAA for its suborbital spacecraft, SpaceshipTwo, and the carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo. "This important milestone enables our team to progress to the rocket-powered phase of test flight, bringing us a major step closer to bringing our customers to space," said George Whitesides, president and CEO of Virgin Galactic. Mining asteroids, shuttling to the ISS and suborbital flights by commercial passengers - all new and innovative wa ys to expand our reach to the stars. Can teleportation be far behind? Beam me up, Scotty!

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EYEPIECE

June 2012

AAA Events on the Horizon June 2012
Tuesdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26, 8:30-10:30 p.m., P, T, C
Observing on the High Line, Manhattan (Enter at 14th Street) Next dates: Tuesdays in July

Last Mars Observation Sun Becomes More Active
By JOE FEDRICK

Tuesday, June 5, 4:00 - 10:30 p.m., P, T, C
VENUS TRANSIT OBSERVING SESSION Riverside Park Pier 1 (enter at West 70th Street ) The High Line (enter at West 14th Street) Next date: 105 years from now (December, 2117)

Friday, June 8, 8-10 p.m., P, T, C
Observing at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn Next date: Check AAA listing online

Monday, June 18, 7:30 p.m., P
Frontiers in Astrophysics Lecture Series Dr. Alex Filippenko, "Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe" AMNH Hayden Planetarium Space Theater

Saturday, June 20, Dusk-11 p.m., P, T, C
Observing at Prospect Park, Brookl yn Next date: July 21

Saturday, June 23, 8:30-11 p.m., P, T, C
Observing at Great Kills Gateway Nat'l Park, Staten Island At end of Montague Street Next date: July 21

Wednesday, June 27, Dusk-11 p.m., P, T, C
Observing at Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Brooklyn At the end of Montague Street Next date: July 25

Friday, June 29, Dusk-11 p.m., P, T, C
Observing at Carl Schurz Park, Manhattan Next date: July 27

Saturday, June 30, 10 a.m. - Noon, P,TC
Solar Observing in Central Park At the Conservatory Water Next date: July 28
Legend for Events M: Members P: Ope n to t he public

T: Bring telescopes, binoculars, etc. C: Cancelled if cloudy

NEXT MONTH IN EYEPIECE
Our Look Ahead to July: Stan Honda continues his "Focus on the Universe series; Richard Brounstein ma kes us think with his "What If" perspective; Michael O'Gara's "Venus Transit 2004 and 2012;" Maya Kushner reviews AAA lecture: "The Astronomical Future of Huma nkind;" Tony Hoffma n reports on the annular eclipse (with photos by Stan Honda); Dr. David Weinflash continues his series: "Re-introducing the Black Hole;" Eyepiece booklist previews; Amateur astronomers hunt for NEOs; "Kleegor's Universe" explores the funny side of astronomy; AAA Briefs in Astronomy continue to infor m us; Rich Rosenberg's "What's Up in the Sky" points our scopes in the right direction....and mor e!
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I used my 60mm f/15 achromatic refractor one last time to observe Mars on the evening of April 10 (April 11 universal time). My eyepiece of choice yielded 100x, and around 10 p.m., observed Mars' Syrtis Major region for the last time. The Hellas Impact Crater, the depressed area just south of the dark gray triangular shaped Martian highlands, was rather bright with what was apparently a layer of cl ouds that filled the depression. Later, I searched the internet and found that observers with larger scopes, apertures of 10 inches or more and supporting digital cameras, photographed these clouds around the same time period. I was pleased that I could observe the clouds with only 2.4 inches of aperture. Subsequent to this, Mars rapidly receded as the Earth pulled awa y from it and I could no longer observe distinct features across the Martian disk. On May 11 at 5:30 p.m. (EDT), the Sun displayed a ver y large prominent area of sunspots in the projected image of its disk (with the use of the same 60mm scope, but a rather old inferior 20 mm eyepiece, as I don't use my best eyepieces to project the Sun's image). The sunspot group was large enough to be barely visible with use of onl y eclipse glasses and no magnification or other optical aid - a "naked eye" sunspot group. Solar activity so far this sunspot cycle has been characterized by brief spurts of intense activity on an otherwise rather bland, quiescent Sun. Venus then appeared in the west, barely visible without optical aid about a half hour before sunset on May 11, and displayed a large crescent in my 60mm scope. Venus was closing in on its transit of the Sun on June 5, less than one month away at the time. Saturn then appeared as the sky darkened, and I observed the faint brownish belts on the pale tan-yellow disk and its ring system, again with my 60mm scope at 100x. The brownish outer ring, a barely visible Cassini division and a brighter white inner ring and a barely visi ble inner crepe ring were clearly visible. Recently, I have not done as much observing as I had hoped because, after the dry weather of March and April, the rain clouds appeared in May, and April flowers brought Ma y showers (a bit backward this year!). "Whan that aprill, with his shoures soote. The droghte of March hath pierced to the roote..." My apol ogies to Chaucer, but similarities exist even toda y!
AAA Presents: A new and exciting wide selection of logo merchandise for our members to purchase online

AAA ONLINE STORE IS NOW OPEN

"Shop the Stars" www.aaa.org/store


EYEPIECE

June 2012

Join Us For the AAA Spring/Summer Class - Starts June 13
Wednesday, June 13 AAA Premiere Class - Dr. Denton S. Ebel Meteorites, Solar System Chemistry, and MESSENGER at Mercury: An Extended Discussion
Join Dr. D enton S. Ebel, Curator of Meteorites from the AMNH D epartment of Earth and Pla netary Sciences, a s he takes u s throu gh a fascinating inside look at how his r esear ch r eveals new infor mation a bout the countless meteorites that travel around the universe a nd strik e Earth on a daily b a sis. This presentation will give us fir sthand insight into the composition of our universe. We are all made of these elements, so feel right at home!

Wednesday, June 20 Class 2 - Peter Tagatac Tales and Techniques of an Urban Astronomer
Sidewalk a str onomy is a challenging endea vor. Stargazing from N ew York City is a wonderful recreational a ctivity, guarantee d to enchant anyone with a curiosity to experience the night sky. Peter Tagatac ha s ma stered this process, developing skills to ma ximize visibility while sharing h is love of a stronomy with others. Learn how to become an urba n a str onomer a nd hear a bout Peter's unique experiences.

Monday, June 25 Class 3 - An Evening with Marc Horowitz Edward R. Murrow Hubble Planetarium
Our univer se in just over the Brooklyn Bridge. Travel with u s to the Edwin P. Hubble Planetariu m in Brooklyn to visit the cos mos with EP Hubble Pla netarium Dir ector Mar c H or owitz. Explore the night sky through the digital universe on our first class "awa y mission."

Wednesday, July 11 Class 4 - Stan Honda Foc us on Night Sky Photography
From the launch pa d of 13 N ASA shuttle missions to the remote area s of the G rand Ca nyon and the Petrified Forest, professi onal photogra pher Stan Honda ha s per fected his skills shooting the night sky. I n this session, bring your ca mera if you would lik e some pointers a s Sta n discusses his a dventures a nd challenges in the dark, capturing exquisite photogra phs of the star s a bove u s. Sta n will join u s on Augu st 1 to guide class members during our Ward Pound Ri dge Reservation observing session in Westchester .

Wednesday, July 18 Author of "Martian Summer"

Class 5 - Andrew Kessler

"Martia n Summer" is an up close a nd persona l non -fiction a ccou nt of author Andrew Kessler's time spent a s the inside observ er for the N ASA Phoenix Mars mission. J oin u s a s we r elive his thr ee months of u nfettered access to mission control - a journalistic first and often N ASA " no -no." Capturing the story of 130 of the world's best pla netary scientists exploring the north pole of Mars wa s a trip in itself.

Wednesday, July 25 Class 6 - Jason Kendall The Universe Is 13.67 Billion Years Old
H ow do we know how old the univer se is? What wa s it like a t the beginning? Wha t wa s before the Big Ba ng? N ASA/J PL Solar Sy stem Ambassa dor Jason Kendall will show u s how to under sta nd these concepts u sing images from the Hubble Spa ce Telescope, WMAP, COBE, BLAST, ALMA a nd other major spa ce telescopes. We'll also lear n how the future James Webb Space Telescope will bring scientists new k nowledge of our va st universe.

Wednesday, August 1 Class 7 - Michael O'Gara and Stan Honda Observing Session at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation
Amateur a str onomy is still all about observing. Join vetera n observer Mike O'Gara, professional photogra pher Sta n H onda a nd other volu nteer AAA observer s a s we travel to Westchester for dark er skies a nd an evening of pure observing fun to complete our Spring/Summer session.

Class Locations: Cicatelli Training Center - 505 Eighth Avenue (35th/36th Street), 20th Floor (except Classes 3 and 7) Class Times: All classes gather at 6 p.m. Presentations begin at 6:30 p.m. and finish at 9 p.m. Class Tuition For Seven Sessions: AAA Members: $60; Non-Members: $75 (Includes one year of AAA membership) Registration: Class size is limited and preregistration is required To register online, please visit http://www.aaa.org/currentclasses 15