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Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York July 2013 Brian Green Rules at WSF
By Amy Wagner
sten your quantum seatbelt ­ you are about to embark on a bumpy ride. Niels Bohr, a founding father of quantum mechanics once said, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." To which, American physicist Richard Feynman essentially replied in 1965, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." But that doesn't stop Brian Greene from trying to explain it all. Author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos ­ bestselling books adapted into NOVA television specials ­ Greene continued his crusade to explain modern physics to the masses on Mar 29, at the annual World Science Festival. Greene a co -founder of the yearly event, kicked off the festival with a remount of his popular multi-media presentation: Spooky Action: The Drama of Quantum Mechanics. Aided by actors and audio-visuals, Greene told the story of quantum mechanics, bringing to life the predilections and personalities of the physicists behind the theory ­ characters who hashed out their intellectual differences in the early 20 th century. At the center of the presentation were the Bohr­Einstein debates, a series of arguments about quantum mechanics, which Greene described as a "thirty year struggle for the soul of physics." Their debates fired up the scientific world and their mutual admiration. Lord Kelvin's comically myopic declaration in 1900, that "there is nothing new to be discovered in physics now", was almost provocative. That year, Max Planck discovered quantization of radiation and 5 years later, Einstein explained the photoelectric effect, showing that light, long understood as a wave, sometimes behaved like a particle: the photon. His photons explained the physical reality behind Planck's numbers. But, Max Born and Werner Heisenberg asserted that quantum mechanics deals not in reality, but in probability. Greene demonstrated by performing the "Double -Slit Experiment," assisted by an experimental physicist, because "it's
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EYEPIECE
Volume 61 Number 7 ISSN 0146-7662

Saying Good-bye to Herschel
PARIS - Ground controllers put Europe's Herschel Space Observatory to sleep on June 17, turning off the infrared observatory after squeezing every bit of engineering value from the spacecraft since it ceased scientific work in April. Engineers sent the final commands to Herschel at 8:25 a.m. (EDT) in an emotional ceremony at the European Space Operations Center (ESA) in Darmstadt, Germany. "It's like saying goodbye to a friend," said Micha Schmidt, ESA operations manager for Herschel. For its last act, the $1.4 billion telescope fired rocket thrusters to drain its fuel tank as controllers watched the spacecraft helplessly struggle to regain control while its antennas and power-generating solar panels drifted away from their lock on the Earth and the Sun. "It's a very curious situation in that we are intentionally seeing a spacecraft dying," Schmidt said. Herschel exhausted its supply of cryogenic helium, required to chill its science instrumentation to a temperature near absolute zero, in April after nearly four years of continuous observations of the cosmos. The telescope's frigid operating temperature allowed its sensors to detect heat from some of the coldest parts of the un i ve r s e , ve i l e d from the view of sophisticated optical cameras by interstellar dust. Herschel's p r i ma r y mi r r o r spans 11.5 feet in diameter ­ 50% larger than Hubble's. The instrument, named after 18th century German astronomer William Herschel, who discovered the infrared spectrum of light, "transformed the field of infrared astronomy," said GÆran Pilbratt, Herschel team scientist. Launched May 2009, the mission's credits include the discovery of vast reservoirs of water vapor in disks of gas and dust around infant stars. The water locked in such planetforming disks could seed oceans like those found on Earth. Herschel's infrared instruments also took images of networks of dust and gas filaments within the Milky Way, yielding a view of one of the earliest stages of star formation. The thread-like filaments could eventually coalesce into compact cores leading to the birth of new stars, scientists say. But with Herschel's helium tank empty, the telescope's utility to scientists ended. "The mission was planned for a duration of three-and-a-half years," Schmidt said. "We have been operating for four years, and the mission is a success."

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WHAT'S UP IN THE SKY
AAA Observers' May Guide By Richard Rosenberg July 21 and 22 it is passes the bright star Regulus, 1.2° apart. Saturn is higher up to the southwest, in the Virgo. July' s Evening Stars: Look early, to see Leo still visible in the west. Above Leo - the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major) and Virgo low on the horizon. High in the west is the Summer Triangle. Three of summer's brightest stars return­ Lyra in the Lyre, Deneb in Cygnus the Swan, and Aquila the Eagle. The first few stars are visible to the east ­ Cassiopeia the Queen and her daughter Andromeda. In dark skies, look low in the south for two bright constellations ­ Scorpius the Scorpion and Sagittarius the Archer are magnificent. July's Morning Planets : The morning sky gets interesting this month. Thirty minutes before sunrise, Mars rises in the east, only 8° high. During the month, it will be easier to see. Following Mars is Jupiter, moving quickly into view. On the 22nd Jupiter moves past Mars. The planets will be only 0.8° apart. Finally, Mercury will appear the last week of July. July's Morning Stars: Ursa Major is now low in the northwest, and the Summer Triangle is more prominent, occupying the region overhead. The autumn constellations now appear low in the east and southeast. These include Capricornus the Goat, Aquarius the Water Carrier, and Pisces the Fish. Brighter stars can be found in the east and northeast, including Pegasus the Winged Horse, Andromeda the Chained Lady, Cassiopeia the Queen and Perseus the Hero.

Astronomical Fact of the Month
Reading Saturn's Tea Leaves

July's Evening Planets : Venus is low in the west. On

NASA's Cassini spacecraft scientists are really detectives in white coats. In June, they reported watching meteoroids breaking into streams of rubble when approaching Saturn's rings, helping them to better understand how di erent planet systems in our solar system formed. Matt Tiscareno, a Cassini participating scientist at Cornell University explaind that "The sunlight shining edge-on to the rings at the Saturnian equinox acted like an anti-cloaking device, so these usually invisible features became plain to see." The team now thinks meteoroids of this size break up on a first encounter with the rings, creating smaller, slower pieces that then enter into orbit. The impact into the rings of these secondary meteoroid bits kicks up the clouds. Tiny particles forming these clouds have a range of orbital speeds around Saturn. The clouds they form soon are pulled into diagonal, extended bright streaks. Volcano of the Month No, it is not a Russian spacecraft circling Jupiter. It is an amazing site, however. We think of volcanoes here on Earth, mostly dormant, and forget about the large amount of molten lava in our outer core. But on the Jovian moon Io, what NASA has dubbed "the most volcanically active world in our solar system," there is lots of activity - so much, in fact, that astronomers and the New Horizons spacecraft have witnessed as much as a 16 -mile wide, 250-mile high curtain of lava fly up into space from its north pole. Io's orbit and proximity to neighboring moons cause it to deform, constantly stretching and shrinking. This creates tidal heating, and contributes to its eruptive nature. Tidal heating is also prevalent on other moons, like Europa, and Saturn's moon, Enceladus, where it is believed to create liquid water beneath their surfaces. Io's volcanism is so extensive, that it gets resurfaced every one million years. This makes studying its history difficult for scientists, since early events are constantly erased.
Tvashtar of Io

July "Skylights"
July 1 J J J J uly uly uly uly 3 5 6 8 Pluto is at opposition, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. Not visible without a powerful telescope Venus is near the Beehive Cluster Venus is 4.9° below Mercury Mars is 4° north of the Moon New Moon 3:14 a.m. (EDT) Saturn is stationary, resuming its direct motion around the Sun as seen from Earth Mercury is in inferior conjunction with the Sun, moving into the morning sky Venus is 7° north of the Moon The bright star Spica, in the constellation Virgo, is very close to the Moon tonight First Quarter Moon at 11:18 p.m. (EDT) In the morning, look for Jupiter and Mars. They are only 0.8° apart in the east Tonight, Saturn is above the Moon and to the right Leo's brightest star Regulus is 1.2° south of Venus Mars is only 0.8° north of Jupiter Full Moon 2:16 p.m. (EDT) Last Quarter Moon 1:43 p.m. (EDT) Mercury at greatest elongation (20°) from the Sun

July 9 July 10 July 15 July 16 July 22 July 29 July 30

For additional information visit: www.aaa.org/month713

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A Message from AAA President Marcelo Cabrera
Hello Members: Our Spring-Summer 2013 Cosmology Class is sold out! We are already working on dates for the Solar System class for the Fall-Winter session, and are planning a few one-day special classes and seminars, so stay tuned. All solar and night sky observing locations are now up and running. Directions and maps can be found at http:// www.aaa.org/observing. We have resumed observing at Great Kills, Staten Island, an extremely dark location, yet very close to the city. On July 6, we have our second observing trip out of town, so please let me know if you would like to be added to the special AAA Google Group, "Dark Skies", for announcements and planning of trips to North -South Lake and Ward Pound Ridge. On July 13, we have our first Astrophotography Workshop, led by veteran photographer Stan Honda. Registration is mandatory, and space is limited. Visit the AAA website for the latest information. Please note that our calendar updates very often and the best way to see our current full calendar is at http:// aaa.org/calendar, Thanks, everyone! Sincerely,

Contacting AAA Marcelo Cabrera President, AAA
Membership: members@aaa.org Eyepiece: editor@aaa.org General Club Matters and Observing: president@aaa.org

Telephone: 212-535-2922

Website: www.aaa.org

My Own Space
Email From AAA Member John Pepe - 5/8/13 Hi Evan, I had a pretty productive extended weekend preparing my house in Maine for the rental season. However, the best thing happened on the ride home. I was driving Halley races across the night sky (NASA) on I-95 at about 3:30 a.m., in Maine, and unknown to me, there was a meteor shower!!!! I saw two streaks of light shoot across the sky in about 30 minutes. The sky was lit up with stars, the Milky Way was entirely visible, and then BAM! The second one went straight across the sky from left to right, and then seemingly exploded in a burst of light. I was awestruck! I spoke to my dad later in the day, and he said he heard on the news that it was debris left over from Halley's Comet. My poor daughter was startled from her sleep when I let out a loud yell of WOW!!!!!! Best, J

Share Your Experiences in "My Own Space"
Join us at Eyepiece, just for awhile. Look inside yourself, and give us your thoughts on what space and astronomy has meant to you. Share a personal experience, and we will publish your perspective on this page. I hope that many of you take up this challenge - to relive some of your special memories, or share new ones, to remind yourselves why you still get goose bumps each time you look up at the night sky, as John did.

Evan
Evan B. Schneider, Editor
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WHAT IF??? Wha

Observing the Stars from Pluto and Beyond
By Richard Brounstein
You would enjoy a great view of Pluto's five moons, a must on this dwarf planet. Also, Pluto's rotation is 1/6th that of the Earth, so you won't need your equatorial mount for most viewing. I recommend taking advantage of this fabulous, unique location. We are, after all, in the Kuiper Belt. Let's see how many unknown Kuiper Belt objects we can find, and get our name in the history books. INTERSTELLAR SPACE ASTRONOMY A future interstellar voyage in just our part of the galaxy will undoubtedly take hundreds of years. While living a space -station lifestyle on the interstellar craft, let's turn off the lights and take advantage of the most amazing view of stars anyone has ever imagined. Even without a telescope, you'll see more stars than from anywhere in the solar system you left behind. See the Andromeda Galaxy clearly - with only binoculars. Stargazers could also watch the constellations slowly change shape as the years pass by. Let's assume you're traveling a good fraction of the speed of light. Observers would see well-known star clusters from an entirely different angle, improving the view immensely. Using your new three dimensional perspective, imagine observing the Orion constellation, or the Big Dipper, in profile. For the first time, see how these stars are not in the same plain. GLOBULAR CLUSTER CENTER ASTRONOMY Globular clusters have the largest collection of stars in a given volume of space. Talk about light pollution! Densities in the cores of these clusters are about 100 stars per cubic parsec. Compare this to our few stars within 10 parsecs of the Sun. The sky would be spectacular indeed. You can walk

t do the starry skies look like from other parts of the universe? If we could travel with our telescopes to new places in the cosmos, practicing astronomy would be wondrous and possibly very challenging at the same time. Observing conditions might be vastly improved, and our starry sky might be filled with thousands of objects absent from even the darkest viewing sites on Earth. From such locations, we might gain a vastly improved perspective, confirming many theories, or we might have a very limited view, and be unaware of what lies out in the cosmos - all possibilities as we move outward. Here on Earth, we strive to get away from the city lights to see stars of higher magnitude. Taking your telescope out in the dry, winter air at higher altitudes removes some atmospheric interference, and improves the star gazing experience. You may freeze, but are rewarded with clarity. Space telescopes like Hubble, Kepler, and Cobe have taken astronomy to new heights. From their unique vantage points, and employing advanced instrumentation, they have reached back to beginning of our universe (Hubble's ultra -high view) and discovered hundreds of planets around other stars. But what would astronomy be like from really distant locations in our universe?

Pluto's moon, Charon, from the surface (NASA concept)

DWARF PLANET PLUTO ASTRONOMY An astronomer on the surface of Pluto would have little need for a space telescope. Pluto has almost no atmosphere, about one-millionth that of Earth. The Sun would still be a bright object in the sky, even brighter than a full Moon from Earth. But, given the limited atmosphere, sunlight is not scattered. You would see lots of stars, even in daytime, and point your telescope at Earth, since I'm sure it would be a favorite object in the sky. "Where's that blue dot?" you would ask. Astronomers would enjoy the same constellations as we have on Earth, and the Go To scopes would still work, as long as you don't look for solar system objects. The challenge would be setting a longitude and latitude location, since the Go To is programmed for Earth locations. Some re -programming is required, I think. Purchase the Pluto software upgrade before making the trip. 4

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View from a globular cluster planet (Stellarium and Hubble/NASA/ESA cluster M4 photograph)


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AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY

never a good idea to let theoretical physicists touch the equipment." A cathode ray tube fires electrons through two parallel slits to land on a detector. Born claimed you can only know the probability of where a particle will land. Heisenberg added that you cannot precisely know certain features of a particle at the same time ­ for example, the more sure its position, the less sure its momentum. Probability is an intrinsic property of the particle. This did not sit well with Einstein. There had to be an answer for a particle's location and properties, whether or not you observed it. At the 1927 5th Solvay International Conference, Einstein famously remarked, "God does not play dice," to which Bohr replied, "Einstein, stop telling God what to do." In 1935, Einstein set out to show that quantum mechanics was incomplete, using entanglement. This occurs when pairs of particles created through some interaction have certain features linked, like spin. You cannot determine what a particle's spin will be before you measure it, and yet, once you measure the spin of one, the spin of its partner is fixed, no matter how far apart they are. For Einstein, this "spooky action at a distance" violated relativity, because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. There had to be hidden parameters; quantum mechanics "does not tell the whole story." But, Bohr's camp carried the day. Observation defines reality. As a famous test supporting superposition claims: Schrodinger's cat is both alive and dead until it is observed. A quantum outcome does not exist until it is seen. End of story. Dissatisfied, Einstein would spend the rest of his life trying to unify classical physics and quantum mechanics, to no avail. Even today, experiments do not back up his rational view. To show this, Greene took on Bell's inequality. In 1964, John Stewart Bell showed mathematically that, for entangled particles, a detector at one will record "spin-up" and a detector at the other, "spin-down," about 5/9 of the time. But real-life Bell experiments show the ratio to be 50%, supporting quantum mechanics' probability. Recently, German scientists proposed performing the Bell experiment across the largest distance yet, by placing one detector on Earth and the other onboard the ISS ­ spooky action at 500 kilometers. In April, Chinese scientists demonstrated that entanglement can occur faster than the speed of light, and in May, Isreali scientists showed that spooky action can happen for quantum particles that don't even exist at the same time ­ entangled through a process of photon swapping. Quantum mechanics is accepted theory today, and entanglement is its essential feature. But, physicists still struggle with its implications. The many worlds interpretation posits that Schrodinger's cat can be dead here or alive there in the separate realities of each world. "In multiple worlds, all realities become possible." But, if all possibilities can be real, then probability goes out the window. Could we use another world to achieve teleportation? Greene, grand explicator of the perplexing, finally had to admit his own limits: "I dunno."

Batten Down the Hatches - On Saturn

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's north pole. In high -resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 1,250 miles wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are traveling 330 miles per hour, the hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon."We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth," said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger North pole storm rages on Saturn scale, and it is somehow (NASA/Cassini wide angle camera) getting by on the small amounts of water vapor in Saturn's hydrogen atmosphere."
Billions and Billions of Miles Away
ronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found compelling evidence of a planet forming 7.5 billion miles away from its star, a finding that may challenge current theories about planet formation. Of the almost 900 planets outside our solar system that have been confirmed to date, this is the first to be found at such a great distance. The suspected planet is orbiting the diminutive red dwarf TW Hydrae, a popular astronomy target located 176 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Hydra the Sea Serpent. Hubble's keen vision detected a mysterious gap in a vast protoplanetary disk of gas and dust swirling around TW Hydrae. The gap is 1.9 billion miles wide and the disk is 41 billion miles wide. The gap's presence likely was caused by a growing, unseen planet that is gravitationally sweeping up material and carving out a lane in the disk, like a snow plow. The planet is estimated to be relatively small, at 6 to 28 times more massive NASA/Hubble image shows star TW Hydrae than Earth. Its wide orbit means it is moving slowly around its host star. If the suspected planet were orbiting in our solar system, it would be roughly twice Pluto's distance from the Sun. 5

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AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY
Smile, You're on Cassini Camera!
et ready. Dress in your best clothes, and stand outside. NASA's Cassini spacecraft wants to take your picture. It will occur one time only, on July 19. Earth will appear as a small, pale blue dot between the rings of Saturn. The entire system is too big for Cassini to capture in a single snapshot, so the spacecraft will create a mosaic, or multi -image portrait. Cassini will start obtaining the Earth part of the mosaic at 5:27 p.m. (EDT), and end about 15 minutes later, all while Saturn is eclipsing the Sun from Cassini's point of view. The spacecraft's unique vantage p o i nt i n S a t u r n ' s shadow will provide a special scientific opNASA superimposed images (not to scale) portunity to look at the planet's rings. At the time of the photo, North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean will be in sunlight. "While Earth will be only about a pixel in size from Cassini's vantage point 895 million miles away, the team is looking forward to giving the world a chance to see what their home looks like from Saturn," says Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA/JPL. "We hope you'll join us in waving at Saturn from Earth, so we can commemorate this special opportunity."

Pope to Visit Mercury in 2015?

G

At a meeting in Rome, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Italian Space Agency (ASI) President Enrico Saggese signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation on the ESA-led 2015 BepiColombo mission to Mercury, strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation between NASA and ASI in planetary exploration. The mission will deploy two individual orbiters: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, to map the planet, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, to investigate its magnetosphere. Together, they will study and understand the composition, geophysics, atmosphere of the planet. Bolden and Saggese also discussed NASA's plans for a new asteroid initiative, previously announced in President Obama's fiscal year BepiColumbo illustration (ESA) 2014 budget proposal. Saggese expressed the strong interest of Italy for the initiative, and welcomed the opportunity to discuss potential ASI participation in a long-term exploration strategy.
Cream Cheese on a Donut

Snow White: Burned Out Dwarfs a Good Thing

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found the building blocks for Earth-sized planets in an unlikely place - the atmospheres of a pair of burned-out stars, called white dwarfs. Situated just 150 light-years from Earth, in a relatively young star cluster, Hyades, the planets are only 625 million years old, and are being polluted by asteroid-like debris falling onto them. Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph observed silicon and low levels of carbon in their atmospheres. Silicon is a major ingredient of rocky material found on Earth and solid planets in our solar system. Carbon, which helps determine properties and origin of planetary debris, generally is depleted or absent in rocky, Earthlike material. "We have identified chemical evidence for the building blocks of rocky planets," said Jay Farihi of the University of Cambridge. Hyades cluster (Photo: Jerry Lodriguss) "When these stars were born, they built planets, and there's a good chance they currently retain some of them. The material we are seeing is evidence of this. The debris is at least as rocky as the most primitive terrestrial bodies in our solar system." 6

The Ring Nebula's distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying, Sun-like star reveal a new twist. "The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it's like a jelly doughnut, because it's filled with material in the middle," said C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He leads a research team that used Hubble and several ground-based telescopes to obtain the best view yet of the iconic nebula. The images show a more complex structure than astronomers once thought and have allowed them to construct the most precise 3-D model of the nebula. "With Hubble's detail, we see a completely different shape than what's been thought about historically for this classic nebula," O'Dell said. "The new Hubble observations show the nebula in much clearer detail, and we see things are not as simple as we previously thought. The Ring Nebula is about 2,000 light-years from Earth and measures roughly 1 light -year across. Previous observations by several telescopes had detected the gaseous material in the ring's central region, but the new view by Hubble's sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 shows the nebula's structure in more detail. O'Dell's team suggests the ring wraps around a blue, football-shaped structure. Each end of the structure protrudes out of opposite sides of the ring. The nebula is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. In the Hubble image, the blue structure is the glow of helium. Radiation from the white dwarf star, the white dot in the center of the ring, is exciting the helium to glow.


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In Search of Tycho Brahe on Ven
By John Delaney

On a recent trip to Europe, I took a delightful ferry ride with my wife, mother-in-law, and our Brussels griffon Pattycake to Ven, a bucolic island covered with brilliant yellow rapeseed fields and located in the æresund Strait between Denmark and Sweden. More than four centuries ago, Ven was the unquestioned center of astronomical research in Europe under the direction of Tycho Brahe, the age's greatest observational astronomer. Of course, he was known for his flamboyance as well. His most salient feature was a brass prosthetic nose (he lost his own in a duel). He also threw wild parties, and employed a court jester to keep the entertainment going. Brahe even purchased an elk for a friend; the animal reportedly died falling down a flight of steps after consuming too much beer. If reality is stranger than fiction, Brahe was the living embodiment of the adage.
Upon our arrival in late May, we met up with Mats Larsson - museum educaTouring the recreated Stjerneborg tor for the Tycho Brahe Museum - who gave Eyepiece a tour of the former haunts of Observatory with Mats Larsson Ven's most famous inhabitant. The standard tour for visitors begins at the All Saints Church, the new home of the museum. Brahe's story is colorfully illustrated by reproductions of portraits, quadrants, charts, and exhibit panels (printed in Swedish, Danish, and English, of course). Much of the story is wellknown to astronomy buffs: on Ven, Brahe would establish the world's first astronomical institution, possibly the first research institution of any kind. The astronomical data gathered between 1576 and 1597 would set the standard for accurate star positions and planetary tables, which would later help Johannes Kepler develop his three laws of planetary motion. And what brought Brahe to Ven in the first started with Brahe's big break in 1572, when he published work on this discovery (actually a digm of Aristotle, bringing him international Denmark and Norway. The king granted Brahe complete with considerable funding and dominAs for the actual observatories used by borg itself - a castle-like observatory - is long stands near the original site. The foundation now stone, several bricks, and ornaments from the place? That part of the story, Larsson explained, discovered a new star in Cassiopeia. Brahe's supernova), challenged the immutable sky parafame and the attention of Frederick II, king of the entire island for his astronomical research, ion over all of Ven's inhabitants. Brahe and his gone; a statue lies under a gra building, reside assistants, little remains. Uraniof Brahe gazing skyward now vel walkway, and the foundation in the museum.

John Delaney poses A short distance from the Uraniborg site is a reproduction of Brahe's second observatory, with Tycho Brahe Stjerneborg. Brahe had Stjerneborg built when he discovered that Uraniborg's above-ground observing posts were susceptible to wind. Consequently, all of Stjerneborg's concrete instrument mountings were built underground. The observation turrets, approximations based on illustrations of the original structures, offer visitors a convincing view into the past. The most rewarding part of the tour: the walk down a stairwell to observe the only remaining parts of Stjerneborg, the observatory's underground foundations. A media presentation, complete with a voice actor reScording and the sequential illumination of the armillary sphere and quadrants (reproductions), evoked the cold nights of long ago, when Brahe and his staff painstakingly recorded the motions of Mars, data that would point humanity in a new direction.

In the end, Brahe's research on Ven ended in a falling out with Frederick II's successor and son, Christian IV, in 1597. The island's farmer residents were only too happy to see Brahe leave; for more than twenty years, they were forced to toil on Brahe's observatories, gardens, and paper mills. When Christian IV authorized the destruction of the observatories after Brahe's departure, the farmers must have heartily obliged. So complete was the erasure of Brahe's presence of the island that 100 years later, according to Larsson, French astronomer Jean Picard came to Ven with Danish colleague Ole RÜmer to find Brahe's observatories, specifically to record the exact coordinates of Stjerneborg to compare Brahe's observations to others. They found nothing.
Bringing back Brahe - Underground, original foundation of Stjerneborg

"He (Picard) asked one of the people here `Where are Tycho Brahe's buildings?' said Larsson. The response was: Who is Tycho Brahe?" 7


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FOCUS ON THE UNIVERSE Charting the Universe, Shooting the Sky
By Stan Honda

A recent trip to the southwest reinforced two lessons about night sky photography for me : charts, tables, and planispheres are as essential for shooting as they are for observing and, even if the night sky is clouded, go right ahead and take those photos - you may be surprised at what you get. I spent two weeks in May, as an artist-in-residence, at Wupatki National Monument, just north of Flagstaff, Ariz. The park has preserved several 800 year old pueblo structures, and I proposed to shoot night sky landscapes of the ruins and the exceedingly clear sky above. My small apartment on the grounds allowed me convenient access for working at night. After studying a planisphere to see where, and when, the Milky Way would rise (around 11:30 p.m.), and a chart of the waxing Moon's rising and setting (progressively setting from 11:45 p.m. to around 3 a.m.), my shoot was confirmed. One of my goals in night sky photography is to use just the light of the Moon to illuminate the environment. Like late afternoon or early morning Sun that transforms landscapes during the day, the rising or setting Moon offers similar dramatic effects at night. During the day, I scouted pueblo locations, using a compass to pinpoint the evening's Milky Way and Moon. Surveying the terrain in daylight gave me an idea of what to photoSaturn and stars shine through high clouds as the graph at night. ("No big animals setting Moon lights up the to worry about - just rattle Wukoko (Nikon D4 with 14mm snakes," the head ranger said. ) lens, 30 seconds, f2.8, ISO Everything looks different in the dark. On my first two nights at pueblo Lomaki, seeing the Milky Way float on the eastern horizon was a memorable sight. The Moon also seemed to speed up as it descended toward the horizon. I could almost see the moonlight fading on the bricks of the pueblo as I shot the scene. Knowing that the Moon would set about 35 minutes later, and that the Milky Way would be a bit higher on the second night, I had a bit more time to catch some breathtaking photographs. Timing is everything. There are only a few days in the lunar cycle, on each side of the New Moon, when it is bright enough to light up the landscape, but not too bright to wash out the sky. At this time of year, the Milky Way rises high enough to be just above the pueblos I was shooting. Knowing all the celestial movements in advance allowed me to be in position at the perfect moment to capture those moments in time. Patience is really a virtue in photography. Poor conditions can change, so don't let a cloudy sky deter you. Many AAA members learned this last year, during the Venus transit. With rain over Manhattan thirty minutes before transit, we 8

experienced a sudden break in the clouds - just in time to capture the second contact. One day at Wupatki, broken cloud cover scrubbed my early evening shoot, so I drove to nearby Wukoki pueblo. The structure is three stories tall, and seemed to rise directly out of its huge stone base. The Moon shone through the high, thin clouds, making a dramatic silhouette, as I shot a few pictures looking westward. Looking south, close to the ruin, and using a 14mm wide angle lens, the scene was quite spectacular. I could see a few stars peeking through on my view screen, and thought there may be a good picture here. The next day, while editing my work, I came across the "cloudy" shots. With the stars shining through and the clouds illuminated by the weak moonlight, it looked as though the Earth was hovering in a gaseous nebula with the ancient pueblo in the foreground. It was one of the more striking pictures of the two -week stay, and I was very glad I didn't stay in that night. It's also worth noting that you don't need exotic lenses to get nice photos. The last two evenings I spent at Wupatki, the Jupiter-Venus-Mercury conjunction was improving. I found a spot where I could see the top of the Wupatki pueblo in line with the planets, as they set in the west roughly 5° apart. I used a 200mm lens on my Nikon D4, which gave me an angle of view of 10°. The ruins, planets, and some of the distant hills fit nicely into the frame. So the take-home lessons of this trip were: don't let a few clouds stop you from going out to shoot the night sky - you may find a nice surprise waiting for you out there, and, given that the universe really is predictable, take the time to consult the appropriate charts and tables. For someone still learning about astronomical observing, it's nice to see the whole celestial sphere in action.

A triangle of Jupiter, Venus ,and Mercury set ting behind the Wupatki pueblo tower (Nikon D4, 200mm lens, 1/5 second, f5.6, ISO 400)

Stan Honda is an accomplished professional photographer and contributing writer. In this continuing series of articles, he shares his extensive knowledge of photographic equipment and techniques.


EYEPIECE

July 2013

By Alan Rude Dark matter, as the name suggests, is a form of matter that appears - invisible. To date, it is undetectable, except by gravitational tugs on galaxies. This mysterious substance may be mostly yet undiscovered exotic physics particles called "WIMPS", or "Weakly Interacting Massive Particles." Scientists have calculated that dark matter outweighs normal matter the stuff of stars, planets, and people - by more than five times, throughout the universe. An international team comprised of 56 institutes from 16 countries, and organized by the US Department of Energy, Does dark matter really exist, have developed and installed the Alpha or are the observed Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) detector on the International Space Station to furgravitational effects ther the study of particle physics and dark matter. AMS collects its data by recording the number and details of the particles known not quite accurately as due to some other cause? "cosmic rays" that pass through its collectors. Each one of these pieces of data is called a particle event. Since its activation on May 19, 2011, AMS has collected detailed information on more than 31 billion particle events, and sent this data for analysis to the science team back on Earth. In its first six months of operation, AMS had accumulated more physical data on charged cosmic rays than had been previously collected in the entire history of physics. It continues to gather new data on about 1.4 billion particle events every month. Physicists on the project recently announced the confirmation of a possible dark matter signal, using the AMS. The signals were first detected with the PAMELA satellite (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) launched in 2006. The AMS has improved the precision of earlier data collection methods, detected particles, especially positrons, at far higher energies than did PAMELA, and found that these seem to arrive in equal amounts from all directions. This would be a significant indication that the particles are the result of dark matter activity. Positrons are the antimatter version of The ISS Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer hovers electrons; the ISS spectrometer records these positrons as cosabove Earth as it monitors the universe mic rays and has detected 400,000 positrons so far. It is thought by some researchers, primarily by the experiment's principal investigator, Nobel laureate Samuel Ting, that the positrons originate from dark matter collisions. If they did result from such collisions, they should be spread evenly through space, but if they were created by some normal astrophysical Cosmic rays are charged high-energy processes or objects, such as star explosions or pulsars, then they would originate from a single direction. particles (not really "rays") that permeate "But none of the new data give clues to the positrons' space. The AMS experiment is designed to source," said Katherine Freese, a theoretical astrophysicist at the study them before they have a chance to University of Michigan. "The trajectories of these charged parinteract with the Earth's atmosphere. ticles can change as they move through magnetic fields, making it difficult to determine where the particles began their journey." Her bet is that rapidly spinning stars, called pulsars, produce positrons and fling them across the galaxy, using their extremely strong magnetic fields to launch the particles. "It will take a while to sort this out," explained Freese. However, she says that the evidence collected so far supports the existence of dark matter, but cannot rule out pulsars or novae. The experiment will continue to collect some 16 billion cosmic-ray particles per year for as long as the ISS remains operational. So the message to followers is that this work is just beginning - and dark matter remains as elusive as ever.
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around on a planet and see your shadow cast in multiple directions, all from the many very bright stars. So many low magnitude stars would be visible - even in the daytime. There would be great challenges with deep space astronomy in this crowded stellar environment. The visual spectrum would be blocked by bright stars, close planetary nebulae, and dusty disks. Could a Hubble telescope parked out here still see across the universe to the first galaxies that formed? Perhaps, but the field of view would be limited. Enormous fields of deep space would be blocked. Would we know the shape of the galaxy? How many galaxies outside our own could they see? Cosmology would be very different experience. However, having 100 times as many close stars would provide significant data, and sending a probe through interstellar space would be a less daunting engineering task. We could perform detailed solar astronomy on dozens of stars the way we observe our Sun from Earth, and analyze their coronas, magnetic fields, storms, and other dynamic behaviors - so all is not lost. CENTER OF OUR GALAXY ASTRONOMY Now let's go just 27,000 light-years away, into the constellation Sagittarius. Here, in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, a supermassive black hole of over one million solar masses resides, and violent gravitational forces warp space and time. Everyone, please stand behind the event horizon. The most interesting astronomical object would be the black hole itself. It would appear as a glowing, dim, star surrounded by streams of material being sucked into its opening at nearly the speed of light. Looking outward, we would see a view of our galaxy's spiral arms all around us, a wondrous perspective from which to study ourselves. We could observe all sides, and measure and catalog many more major interesting stellar clusters, along with our own galactic structure.

There is a down side. We would not be able to view many of our neighboring galaxies. From Earth, we literally have half a galaxy of stars blocking our view of the outside universe as we struggle to understand the rest of that expanse. ARCTURUS IN 100 MILLION YEARS Our bright star Arcturus, in constellation Bootes, is just a visitor to the Milky Way galaxy. It travels perpendicular to the galaxy's disk at 273,000 mph, en route to inter -galactic space. In 100 million years, this star will be many thousands of light-years outside of our galaxy. Imagine your astronomical observations from this vantage point. We could finally see the Milky Way from the outside, and truly understand the shape of our barred spiral. The enormous cloudy sea of billions of stars would be a beautiful sight, and all of the other galaxies in our Local Group would light up the night sky. We could see them with a single glance. It would no longer be stellar astronomy, but galactic astronomy, as individual stars no longer block our view, and the galaxies are the same as we see today. How many can you count on any given night? Cosmology is now the dominant astronomical science. Of course, studying individual stars now becomes much more difficult. The nearest star would be thousands of light years away instead of just a few. We would need our most powerful professional scopes just to see small star clusters, as they would obscure in the enormous, dusty, clouds. How long would it be before our instruments could discover extra solar planets, if faced with these challenges? For now, let's not worry about the problems of living in our galaxy. Instead, let's just enjoy the show.

Kleegor 's Universe
By Joshua M. Erich, www.pixelatedparchment.com

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EYEPIECE

July 2013

AAA Events on the Horizon
July 2013
Tuesday, July 2, 9, 16, 23 7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. P,T,C Observing on the High Line - Manhattan, 10th Ave & 14th St. Next Month: Tuesdays in August Saturday, July 6, 13, 20, 27 8:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. P,T,C Summertime Stargazing at Inwood Hill Park Next Month: Saturdays in August Saturday, July 6 Dusk - 2:30 a.m. M,T,C Observing at North-South Lake, Haines Falls, NY Next Date: August 3 Wednesday, July 10, 17, 24, 31 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., M Sold Out - AAA Cosmology Class: It All Started With a Bang Cicatelli Training Center 505 Eighth Ave (35th St.) 20th Fl Next Dates: August 7, 14 Wednesday, July 10 8:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., P,T,C Observing in Prospect Park, Brooklyn Next Date: August 7 Thursday, July 11, 18, 25 8:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. P,T,C Observing at Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park Next Date: August 1 Friday, July 12 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., P,T,C Observing in the Bronx - Van Cortlandt Park Next Date: August 9 Saturday, July 13 11 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., P,T Solar Observing - Riverwalk Entrance, Bronx Zoo Next Date: August 10 Saturday, July 13 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., C Astrophotography Workshop With Stan Honda (Pre-registration required) Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx Saturday, July 13 8:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., P,T,C Observing at Great Kills, Staten Island Next Date: August 10 Friday, July 19 8:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., P,T,C Observing at Carl Schurz Park - Manhattan Next Date: August 16 Tuesday, July 23 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., P,T,C Solar Observing - High Line, Manhattan, 10th Ave & 14th St. Next Date: August 23

Conjunctions in the Evening Sky By Joe Fedrick

Venus has returned to the evening sky. I had heard reports at the annual AAA club meeting that some folks had already seen Venus from the good vantage point of the High Line, with its clean, clear view across the Hudson River looking out toward the western horizon. I was hoping to join fellow members there to observe Venus, as it neared conjunction with Jupiter and Mercury, for a spectacular planetary grouping on May 28. Ah, but the weather forecast did not look promising. So, instead, I took a pair of 10x 50 binoculars to a street in my neighborhood that faces west-northwest, in hope of seeing the planetary grouping a few days earlier and yes - success! At around 8:45 p.m., on Sunday, May 26, I saw my first brilliant Venus of the season, easily visible with my unaided eyes, and then focused the binoculars toward the planet to spot Jupiter and Mercury. All three planets fit well within my 5° field of view. The planets all appeared to be about 2° from each other, and formed a rather tight small triangle. Jupiter was to the lower left of Venus, while Mercury was above and slightly to the right. As twilight deepened, the giant planet Jupiter became barely visible to my unaided eyes, while Mercury was barely perceptible without my binoculars. Jupiter appeared as an oblate disk - pale, creamy white in appearance, while brilliant, dazzling Venus was star -like. Mercury was a much duller, and somewhat pinkish, point of light in the binoculars. Its very low albedo, dull, rocky surface, was not reflecting much of the Sun's light toward me, as did Venus's bright cloud deck, even though the sunlight that hits the Mercurian surface is perhaps nearly four times as much as Venus, with Venus being approximately twice the distance from the Sun. I had hoped to see these planets again the following night, but by the evening of May 27, a layer of high, icy, cirrus clouds was already obscuring my view to the west, and by Tuesday, cold rainy weather had set in. Alas, no view of anything of astronomical interest from the High Line would be offered that night. I now look to late July, when Jupiter, reappearing in the morning sky, will align with Mars.
Joe Fedrick is an experienced and dedicated AAA observer, always watching the night (and daytime) skies. His continued observations bring us new dimensions to viewing the cosmos and solar activity.

Please confirm all events at www.aaa.org/events before attending
Legend for Events: M: Members; T: Bring telescopes, binoculars, etc. P: Open to the public C: Cancelled if cloudy

Eyepiece Staff - July Issue
Editor: Evan B. Schneider
Writers: Richard Brounstein, John Delaney, Joseph Fedrick, Stan Honda, Alan Rude, Amy Wagner...and NASA Special Sections: Marcelo Cabrera, Joshua Erich, Edward Fox, John Pepe, Richard Rosenberg

NEXT MONTH IN EYEPIECE
More updates on NASA, ESA, and the entire astronomy community - and Kleegor, of course!

On July 19, Cassini shoots Earth from 895 million miles away. Be sure to smile!

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