March, 2016 (Issue No. 140)

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March 2016 First Light Newsletter

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The Closest New Stars To Earthby Ethan Siegel

Space Place Feature article

When you think about the new stars forming in the Milky Way, you probably think ofthe giant star-forming regions like the Orion Nebula, containing thousands of new starswith light so bright it's visible to the naked eye. At over 400 parsecs (1,300 light years)distant, it's one of the most spectacular sights in the night sky, and the vast majority ofthe light from galaxies originates from nebulae like this one. But its great luminosity andrelative proximity makes it easy to overlook the fact that there are a slew of much closerstarforming regions than the Orion Nebula; they're just much, much fainter.

If you get a collapsing molecular cloud many hundreds of thousands (or more) timesthe mass of our sun, you'll get a nebula like Orion. But if your cloud is only a fewthousand times the sun's mass, it's going to be much fainter. In most instances, theclumps of matter within will grow slowly, the neutral matter will block more light than itreflects or emits, and only a tiny fraction of the stars that form—the most massive,brightest ones—will be visible at all. Between just 400 and 500 light years away are theclosest such regions to Earth: the molecular clouds in the constellations of Chamaeleonand Corona Australis.

Along with the Lupus molecular clouds (about 600 light years distant), these dark,lightblocking patches are virtually unknown to most sky watchers in the northernhemisphere, as they're all southern hemisphere objects. In visible light, these cloudsappear predominantly as dark patches, obscuring and reddening the light of backgroundstars. In the infrared, though, the gas glows brilliantly as it forms new stars inside.Combined near-infrared and visible light observations, such as those taken by the HubbleSpace Telescope, can reveal the structure of the clouds as well as the young stars inside.In the Chameleon cloud, for example, there are between 200 and 300 new stars,including over 100 X-ray sources (between the Chamaeleon I and II clouds),approximately 50 T-Tauri stars and just a couple of massive, B-class stars.

There's a third dark, molecular cloud (Chamaeleon III) that has not yet formed anystars at all. While the majority of new stars form in large molecular clouds, the closestnew stars form in much smaller, more abundant ones. As we reach out to the most distantquasars and galaxies in the universe, remember that there are still star-forming mysteriesto be solved right here in our own backyard.

Image credit: NASA and ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Acknowledgements: Kevin Luhman(Pennsylvania State University), and Judy Schmidt, of the Chamaeleon cloud and a newly-forming star within it—HH 909A—emitting narrow streams of gas from its poles.

Newberry Star Parkby Andy Howell

March has no scheduled activity at Newberry Star Park.This is because the big Stargazing at Paynes Prairieoutreach event, originally scheduled for Feb 6, waspostponed until March 12. Alachua Astronomy Club isthe main draw for Stargazing at Paynes Prairie. Allhands on deck are needed! If you haven't signed up forit yet, please do so: Stargazing at Paynes Prairie

The next scheduled Star Party & Outreach at NewberryStar Park is scheduled for April 9, 2016. We'll givemore details in the April edition of First Light.

Until then, here's a cool image of the bright fireball that many AAC members witnessed atlast Saturday's (March 5) star party at Rosemary Hill Observatory. The SkySentinelmeteor camera at Newberry Star Park also saw it, capturing a 10-second exposure imagecentered on 8:00:45pm EST on March 5. The fireball had a duration at least 9 secondsand was reported by nearly 100 people throughout north Florida.

The SkySentinel camera is the only all-sky camera in north Florida, producing imagery ofbright celestial events, including meteoric fireballs. More details about this meteor can befound by visiting the web page of the American Meteor Society. http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2016/901

Star Partiesby Lisa Eager and Ivo Rabell

Newberry Star Park Star Party/PublicOutreach

February 13, 2016

Finally some really nice weather to get out and do some observing! Andy made the callfor a "GO" early Saturday morning, like about 1 am. Considering all the other eventsgoing on right now, we still had a pretty good turnout Saturday night.

Members that came out were:

Matt Mercer with dad Bill set up his 14" Celestron EdgeBill Hensler with the Celestron NexStar-11 he donated to the clubMichael Gagliardi with his 4" CelestronRichard Hennig brought out his 11" Celestron Schmidt-CassegrainCarlton & Leslie Oglesby using one of the club's scopeEd Honkus with his 10" SCTJoAnn StevenerAndy HowellAnkur Jain with friend Talha NazirLisa Eager (me) with my 10" DobAnd the most amazing IVO RABELL with sainted wife Patrice

We did get a few families coming out to visit:

Wayne Zipperer, Eliana Kampf, and daughter LuanaJim, Sue, and son Tray

We started out with the moon and moved on to other "stuff" as the night progressed. BillHensler got to mingle with some AAC members he hadn't met before and observe with usfor the first time. I don't think I'm out of line saying that he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Ivo persuaded his wife to bring him out and check up on us. Everyone was pleased to seethem, and Ivo doing so well.

Andy helped Carlton and Leslie get some equipment out and get some training on how touse a scope. Then he checked out the repair work he did on the NexStar-11 that Billdonated to the club. Seems like it was working just fine.

Along with fixing telescopes, Andy fixed the club's microwave and was making popcorn. What a multi-talented fellow he is!

Comet Catalina was on the list of objects we observed and made the night's favorite listwith Richard and Ed.

Michael said his favorite was Jupiter, especially when a meteor shot by while lookingthrough his scope.

Andy stuck with the always spectacular Orion's Nebula and Bill favored planetary nebulafor the night. He listed M 46 an open cluster in Puppis with NGC 2438 and the IC 418 akathe Spriograph Nebula.

I have to go with M35 as my favorite, an open cluster at Gemini's feet, because Tassasked me to find it. He's a bit under the weather (an understatement if ever there wasone) and wasn't able to make the star party. I think he was just testing me to see if Icould do it. Of course when I first tried it was straight overhead and that's not a goodposition if you're using a Dob. Since the sky does move throughout the evening (duh!) Ijust needed to wait a little while to get it into view, and easy peasy, GOT IT! One word,beautiful!

The families that visited had kids that were really interested and already knew quite abit. Always fun to have great kids come out and see how smart they are. We may havesome new members, yeah!

There were a few challenges from our neighbors to the north of us and their car lights. Something we'll have to keep working on. By the time they all left, and the moon set, thecold was starting to get to most of us and it was a wrap. I'm not sure how long Ed

stayed, but the cold doesn't seem to faze him. The rest of us just will have to toughenup!

Until next time, Clear Skies!!

Lisa EagerAAC Star Party Coordinator

Schools and Outreachby Mike Toomey

After a few tough breaks with the weather, we were finally able toconduct an evening star party at Glen Springs Elementary onFebruary 17. We had about 75 guests including students andfamily members. Despite the wide age range (1st through 5th

grades), this was probably the best behaved group we've had in acouple of years.

Along side his telescope, Howard Cohen displayed a map of themoon that labeled it's major features that evening: theterminator, craters, maria and so on. Howard commented, “I thinkhaving a simple Moon map at my scope encouraged viewers tolook longer and try to identify lunar features shown on the map. Many, in fact, were able to see and identify features they otherwise

would not have noticed.”

Andy Howell also focused on the moon while my assistant, Ky Manske, targeted the OrionNebula in spite of the gibbous moon's presence. Finally, Lisa Eager took on a morechallenging object – a triple star called Beta Monocerotis. More about this target later inthe article.

We still have one more outreach event in February – St. Madeleine's parish in HighSprings on Saturday, February 27. We have been visiting this parish for many years andthe hospitality is always terrific. There will be no moonlight from this relatively dark skysite; Jupiter will rise near the end of the program. Please register online for the rest ofthe details – we still need a couple more telescope operators to assist us. Andy Howellwill be serving as point man for this event.

On Tuesday, March 1, we will be setting up at an elementary school in Levy County. Again, complete details are on the website, and locations and directions are provided toyou when you register to attend (you can always un-register later, but we certainly wouldlike to know of your interest as soon as possible.) Lisa Eager will be in charge of thisevent if you have any questions. [Please note, the club's bi-monthly board meeting willbe rescheduled.]

Finally, we have an after-school activity around mid-town Gainesville on Wednesday,March 16. This is a group of 10 students from at-risk communities. For the volunteer,this is a simple show-and-tell type activity – you bring materials you would like to share,or you can get ideas from Andy Howell or myself. It's just an hour long commitment(actually less when you share the hour with other volunteers) and the students' questionsand enthusiasm make the hour go by quickly.

Now back to Beta Monocerotis . . . in city or moonlit conditions, this star is barely visible

without optical aid. This did not deter Lisa from tracking it down with her Dobsoniantelescope for the Glen Springs outreach program. Once it's in the eyepiece, it takes alittle extra power to make this star resolve into an attractive trio – about 80x to 100x willdo.

To assist the reader with the nomenclature, the Greek letter Beta is a Bayer designation,devised by Johann Bayer in 1603. Oftentimes, Bayer would designate the brightest starin a constellation Alpha, followed by Beta, and so on. When it was not obvious as towhich star was brighter than another within the same constellation, Bayer would useother “traditional” methods to assign each star a Greek letter, such as their time of rising. Beta Monocerotis, as it turns out, is actually the brightest star in this constellation, whileAlpha is, in fact, the second brightest. Nonetheless, we maintain tradition rather thancorrect the “error” – Alpha does, in fact, rise before Beta – typically Bayer's secondcriteria for designations.

Bayer star designations (and subsequent catalog designations for that matter) transmuteconstellation names from their familiar sounding names (in this case, Monoceros) to theirLatin genitive (or possessive) form. Therefore, Monoceros becomes Monocerotis owing toa list of rules I won't venture into. This simply means that Beta Monocerotis translates to“the Beta star of the constellation Monoceros.”

What's this?! You've never heard of Monoceros? You might be able to parse it out onyour own: mono means “one” or “single” and ceros means “horn”, like rhinoceros, whichliterally means “nose-horn”. In this instance, however, the constellation is a mythicalanimal. Think you know what it is? The answer lies in the following byline.

Mike Toomey has served the AAC in many capacities since 1998, including President,Secretary, FirstLight Editor, Star Party Coordinator and School Outreach Coordinator. Mike resides in Gainesville with his unicorn Poppy Fair Eyes.

Club members search for fallen meteoritesby Andy Howell

A major daytime fireball occurred on the morning of January 24. In the morning sky atabout 10:24am EST, over 100 eyewitnesses in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina saw ameteor streak through the sky. It was a fast mover and, judging by brightness, wasestimated to be about the size of a minivan. Toward the end of its flight, a terminal burstled to its dropping meteorites in northeastern Columbia County, just outside OsceolaNational Forest.

Doppler radar based in Jacksonville produced a radar footprint that showed the meteoritefall zone. The meteorites dispersed over many square miles of swampy, heavily forestedground. Despite unfavorable terrain, another group of meteorite hunters succeeded just aweek later in finding six meteorite fragments.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/hunters-find-meteorites-in-the-osceola-national-forest

Spurred by this success, AAC members Mike Toomey and Andy Howell decided to try theirluck in finding meteorites from this fall. This was the first time that either one of us hadtried to look for meteorites. The only real guidance we had was a map of the fall zone andknowledge that we were looking for rocks with a dark fusion crust. As Mike put it, it was a"needle-in-a-haystack search." Truly that proved to be the case.

After a 75 mile drive from Gainesville, including 10 miles over dirt roads, Mike and Andyarrived in the fall area. We searched for four hours along Whooping Crane Road, the main"thoroughfare" - actually, just a dirt road - through the fall zone. Unfortunately, all theside roads were gated off, probably because property owners were well aware of themeteorite fall and didn't want any more uninvited guests to come looking. There wereplenty of "no trespassing" signs posted, and we took heed.

The Osceola meteorite fall is said to be only the 6th known one in Florida, and the onlyone witnessed that has produced meteorite finds. Florida has had quite a few brightfireballs in recent months. Who knows? Maybe another daytime fireball will have us soonlooking for meteorites, preferably in friendlier territory like Newberry Star Park.

So close, yet so far.Andy looks wistfully down a gated road in the heart of the fall zone.

Meteorite "wrong"Mike holds a chunk of road asphalt that looks like it could be the real thing, but wasn't.

MeetingsAAC Public Meeting

Tuesday, March 8, 2016 from 7-9 p.m.Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida Cultural Plaza, 3215 Hull Road,

Gainesville, FL 32611-2710

Speaker

Professor Robert Ferl, Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida

Topic

Space Biology and Astrobiology – moving life around the solar system in spaceships.

Synopsis:

The human spaceflight program offers science the unique opportunity to explore the limitsof life within the solar system. After all, every living thing on the Earth knows only how tolive, well, on the Earth. Yet as our space vehicles move us around the solar system andbeyond, we are learning about the limits and opportunities for living off the earth. We willdiscuss what science has learned about life off the surface of the earth and what it wouldtake to have viable colonies on the moon or mars. We will also discuss the process of howwe learn about how living things adapt to living in space, with some surprising parallels toastronomy investigations and some wild parallels to what happened in The Martian.

New Members since December 1!

Linda AndiricJonathan Bear

Cindy DalyWilliam Hensler

Ankur JainJames KeeslingVictoria Kelly

Marianne McKenzieJessica McLeodCarlton OglesbyLeslie Oglesby

Burton PattersonWayne Zipperer

PresidentAndy Howell

First Light EditorLaura Wright

Satellite Tracking

As a veteran of the US AirForce space program, I readwith interest Laura's column(at right) about the

Astronomical League's "Earth OrbitingSatellite Program." HQ North AmericanAerospace Defense Command (NORAD),just outside Colorado Springs, is where AirForce space systems orbital analysts trackthe thousands of satellites that orbit theearth. 95% of earth-orbiting satellites aredebris; just a small fraction are functioningsatellites that serve any useful purpose.Indeed, space debris are a collision hazardto manned space flight in low earth orbit.

It is fun to watch well-known satellites likethe Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and

Please find out moreinformation about theobserving program below onthe Astronomical League's websiteis www.astroleague.org.

"Welcome to the Astronomical League'sEarth Orbiting Satellite ObservingProgram. The purpose of this observingprogram is to introduce observers, new tosatellite observing, with the terminology,and techniques of tracking satellites. Thelist of objects required for the basic awardinclude targets that can be easily trackedusing the unaided eye or binoculars,including the international space station -Alpha, several operational vehicles, andnumerous rocket bodies such as GPS(Global Positioning System) satellites,Russian Molniya spacecraft, and even

International Space Station (ISS) as theypass overhead. Just about every star partyor outreach features a satellite pass byeither the HST or ISS.

Due to atmospheric drag, the orbits ofnear-earth satellites like the HST and ISSare constantly changing and have to beperiodically adjusted to keep them on-orbit. It can be fun to look for satellites, tosee whether they are running ahead orbehind schedule. Some amateurs evenspecialize in making high-resolutionphotographs of satellites in earth orbit.

One of the best sites for gettinginformation about satellite passes isHeavens-Above:

http://www.heavens-above.com

Just your geographic location, and the website will generate a list of predicted passesduring the next week. Having a pair ofbinoculars makes it easy to find even thefainter 3rd and 4th magnitude satellites.

Moratorium on Telescope Donations

On a different note, our Club has been therecipient of many telescope donations fromkind members and outside donors.Unfortunately, we have only a limitedamount of storage space at Newberry StarPark. We simply have run out of room.Consequently, I've declared a moratoriumon telescope donations. We will strive tomake good use of the existing telescopesdonated by AAC members for educationand outreach. Thank you for yourcontributions to Alachua Astronomy Club!

geosynchronous / geostationary satellites.Some of the smaller targets may requiretelescopes and/or photographic techniquesto identify.

To obtain more information about thisobserving program, please visit the website at Colorado Spring's EOSOCIntroduction."

"The EOSOC is supported and maintainedby the membership of the Colorado SpringsAstronomical Society, of Colorado Springs,Colorado. Our club is dedicated toobserving the night sky and educating thecommunity. The EOSOC is just anextension of our club and we hope that youwill enjoy it."

Best regards, Laura

The Night Sky this Month

from seasky.orgMarch's night sky

March 8 - Jupiter at Opposition. The giant planet will be at its closest approach toEarth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It will be brighter than any othertime of the year and will be visible all night long. This is the best time to view and

photograph Jupiter and its moons. A medium-sized telescope should be able to show yousome of the details in Jupiter's cloud bands. A good pair of binoculars should allow you tosee Jupiter's four largest moons, appearing as bright dots on either side of the planet.

March 9 - New Moon. The Moon will located on the same side of the Earth as the Sunand will not be visible in the night sky. This phase occurs at 01:54 UTC. This is the besttime of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters becausethere is no moonlight to interfere.

March 9 - Total Solar Eclipse. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completelyblocks the Sun, revealing the Sun's beautiful outer atmosphere known as the corona. Thepath of totality will only be visible in parts of central Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean. Apartial eclipse will be visible in most parts of northern Australia and southeast Asia.

March 20 - March Equinox. The March equinox occurs at 04:30 UTC. The Sun will shinedirectly on the equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and nightthroughout the world. This is also the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the NorthernHemisphere and the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere.

March 23 - Full Moon. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as theSun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. This phase occurs at 12:02 UTC. This fullmoon was known by early Native American tribes as the Full Worm Moon because thiswas the time of year when the ground would begin to soften and the earthworms wouldreappear. This moon has also been known as the Full Crow Moon, the Full Crust Moon, theFull Sap Moon, and the Lenten Moon.

March 23 - Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when theMoon passes through the Earth's partial shadow, or penumbra. During this type of eclipsethe Moon will darken slightly but not completely. The eclipse will be visible throughoutmost of extreme eastern Asia, eastern Australia, the Pacific Ocean, and the west coast ofNorth America including Alaska.

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