theastronews - hawastsoc.org · page 3 observer’s notebook—june 2017 by jay wrathall planets in...
TRANSCRIPT
June 2017
Club Information 2
President’s Message 2
Observer’s Notebook 3
Meeting Minutes 4
Event Calendar 5
Space Place 7
Meteor Log 8
Treasurer’s Report 9
Inside this issue:
Upcoming Events:
The next meeting is on Tuesday, June 6th at the Bishop Museum 7:30 PM.
• Bishop Museum’s planetarium shows
are every Saturday of the month at 8:00
PM www.bishopmuseum.org/calendar
• The next Board meeting is Sun., June 4th
at 3:30 PM in POST building at UH.
The
Astronews www.hawastsoc.org
Please see Meteor Log on page 8 for discussion
Meteor Showers pictures By Ort Vanapruks
President’s Message June 2017
In music, notes are very important. However, musicians sometimes speak about the importance of the spaces be-tween the notes. Something similar some-times applies to astronomy.
When we observe, we are usually trying to gather as many photons as we can. Sometimes, though, it’s the lack of photons that’s important. A solar eclipse is a good example of this. Only when the Moon blocks the face of the Sun can we see the much fainter features that appear to us then.
The New Horizons team will use another lack of photons to learn more about their post-Pluto encounter target, Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69. On June 3rd, MU69 will block the light from a star. The path of this occultation will cross southern South America and Africa. Tele-scopes will be deployed along the path to check for rings or satellites of MU69 and to possibly refine knowledge of its size and shape.
MU69 will occult other stars on July 10th and 17th, so any information gained from the first occultation can be used to guide telescope placements for the following events. Sometimes it’s the space between the photons that’s most interest-ing.
Meanwhile, at Jupiter, the Juno spacecraft is reminding us why it’s im-portant to explore as it discovers phenome-na that were unexpected. The views it is returning of Jupiter’s south polar region show no sign of a hexagonal jet stream of the kind Cassini has imaged at the north pole of Saturn. Instead, there are many large cyclones. Both planets are large, mostly gas, and rotate rapidly. Why do they look so different? We explore, in
(Continued on page 4)
Hawaiian Astronomical Society P.O. Box 17671
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
The Astronews Page 2
President Chris Peterson
956-3131 [email protected]
Vice President
Peter Besenbruch
Secretary Gretchen West
282-1892
Treasurer
April Lew
734-2705
Board Members-at-Large
Calvin Oliveria
j Andy Stroble
Astronews Editor Charles Rykken
HAS Webmasters Peter Besenbruch
School Star Party Coordinators
Mark Watanabe
Calvin Oliveria
The Astronews is the monthly newsletter
of the Hawaiian Astronomical Society. Some of the contents may be copyrighted. We request that authors and artists be given credit for their work. Contributions are welcome. Send them to the Editor via e-mail. The deadline is the 15th of each month. We are not responsible for unsolic-ited artwork.
Page 3
Observer’s Notebook—June 2017 by Jay Wrathall
Planets in June
Neptune
Mercury
Venus Mars
Jupiter Saturn Uranus
)
reaches opposition on July 1, but is only magni-tude +9.9.
is above Venus in the early morning sky.
# $
& (
% shines brightly in the morning sky before dawn at magnitude -4.5.
is lost in the evening twilight only 10° from the sun by the end of the month.
reached opposition on April 7 and is still well placed for viewing in the evening sky.
will be at opposition on June 15, so is in the sky all night. best observed near
midnight.
is near the meridian at sunrise.
Planets Close To the Moon Times are Hawaii Standard
Time .Jun 3, 15h, M 2.2° NNE of Jupiter (119° from sun in evening sky) Jun 9, 16h, M 3.1° N of Saturn (173° from sun in midnight sky) Jun 16, 03h, M 0.70° SSE of Neptune (101° from sun in morning sky) June 19, 08h, M 3.9° SSE of Uranus
(61° from sun in morning sky) June 20, 12h, M 2.3° SSE of Venus
(45° from sun in morning sky) Mercury and Mars are closer than 15° from the sun when near the moon in June.
'
is too close to the sun for easy viewing during June.
Other Events of Interest Times are Hawaii Standard Time
Jun 2, 19h, Venus 1.7° SSE of Uranus (46° from the sun in morning sky) Jun 9, 03:10h, Full Moon Jun 15, 00h, Saturn at opposition Jun 20, 18:24h, Summer Solstice. Jun 24, 04h, Mercury at Superior conj. with sun (Passes into evening sky.) Jun 23, 16:32h, New Moon (Very high and low tides with moon at perigee 16 hours before the new moon )
may be observed in the morning sky, but will be better placed for viewing later in the year.
Pluto (Dwarf
Planet) + 3 Juno
(Asteroid)
Meeting Minutes H.A.S. Secretary
HAWAIIAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY May 2, 2017
The Astronews Page 4
part, to make observations that generate such questions. They are drivers of research that may, in answering them, advance our knowledge and deepen our understanding of our universe.
Juno is also returning data that suggest that Jupiter’s magnetic field is stronger and more irregularly distributed than had been expected. This may indicate that it is generated closer to the surface that has been thought. Also, some of the zones and belts seem to extend deeper below the surface than oth-ers. All of this should become clearer as Juno continues to orbit Jupiter.
Chris Peterson
(Continued from page 2) President’s Report
President Chris Peterson called the May 2, 2017 meeting of the Ha-waiian Astronomical Society to order at 7:25 p.m. The meeting was held in
Planetarium, on the grounds of the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii.
President’s Report
Equipment Demonstration Star Party- H.A.S. President Chris Peter-son will be setting a date for an “Equipment Comparison Star Party” at Dil-lingham Airfield on a club star party night during the month of June or July of 2017. Mark Watanabe passed a sign up board around for those members will-ing to bring equipment for demonstration. A star party of this kind will be designed so that club members can bring their useful and interesting equipment and give a demonstration of their abilities in a working environment. Mem-bers can get hands-on experience with equipment they may have been curious about. If you are interested sign-up and share. Call Chris Peterson.
Science Fair – The 60th Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair took place on April 10-12, 2017 at the Hawaii State Convention Center: Ground Floor, Exhibit I. Charlie Rykken and Chris Peterson acted as H.A.S. agency judges on that day. Judges viewed Junior and Senior Research pro-jects and together rewarded a young enthusiast with an award from our club
IFA Open House – This year’s Institute for Astronomy Open House took place on Sunday, April 23, 2017 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Andy and Hiroko Stroble did a great job of manning our table again this year along with help from Gretchen West and Paul Lawler.
Star Party Report – Mark Watanabe reported that the Kamehameha School Star Party was called off as a result of poor weather. The school may
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Page 5
Hawaiian Astronomical Society Event Calendar
<<Upcoming Star Parties<< Public Party-Dillingham June 24 (Peter Besenbruch) Public Party Geiger June 3 Public Party Kahala June 3
Upcoming School Star Parties
No school parties this June
sunset 19:08Memoria l Day
7:11 PM Publ ic Star
Party(G)
7:11 PM Publ ic Star
Party(K)
3:30 PM Board Meeting
sunset 19:117:30 PM Club Meeting
sunset 19:13 Globe at Night7:16 PM Club Star
Party(D) Globe at Night
sunset 19:16
Globe at NightGlobe at Night Globe at Night Globe at Night Globe at Night Globe at Night
7:18 PM Publ ic Star
Party(D)
Globe at Night
sunset 19:17
Globe at Night
7:17 PM Publ ic Star
Party(G)
7:17 PM Publ ic Star
Party(K)
June 2017SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY
9 10
328 29 30 31 1 2
4 5 6 7 8
23 24
1711 12 13 14 15 16
18 19 20 21 22
125 26 27 28 29 30
The Astronews Page 6
reschedule for a later date. We do have some upcoming outreach to schools.
Hanahauole School will be joining the fun at our Saturday, May 5th suburban Star Party at the Kahala Community Center.
Island Pacific School will join astronomers at Geiger Park in Ewa. Shared Materials – The Astronomy Society of the Pacific sent us some wonderful materials with which to view the upcoming August 21, 2017 solar eclipse should anyone be making their way to the mainland. There was discus-sion of “SunOculars,” binoculars with solar filters that are being sold in a variety of places. Be wise and check things out before buying!
Mission Updates – It has been reported that the Dawn spacecraft has experienced further difficulties and appears to be coming to its end. Cassini has made one pass through Saturn’s rings without apparent damage. It’s remaining passes will be made so that the cameras will be rolling and recording the events as they happen.
Visitors- H.A.S. had four visitors at this month’s meeting. .
Lyrid Meteor Shower – The Meteor shower took place and some mem-bers were able to observe some meteors.
Rental Scope – Peter Besenbruch updated the club and the refurbish-ment of one of the clubs rental scopes. Peter also warned members, that when looking for a company to re-silver their mirrors, no to use Clausing of Chicago.
Tom Giguere – Tom warned all members who are thinking of going to the mainland for the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, that price gouging has already raised it’s ugly head. Research carefully, plan well and book now.
Guest Speaker – Tom Giguere was also our featured speaker this month. He presented two exhibits that he had seen at this year’s Lunar Planetary Confer-ence. The presentation was interesting and helped us understand the pitfalls of scientific presentation; good scientific presentations and poor ones.
Peter B’s Presentation
Vice President Peter Besenbruch presented another thrilling slideshow.
Sunbow, photographed by G. West on her iPhone 7. Omega Centauri Cassini – the Bodies in the ring gaps and Kiefer Gap photos of the
Inky’s Division. Cloud features of Saturn’s surface. Huygens Mission on Titan Peggy Whitson – recent ISS commander who holds a number of
impressive personal achievements. Oldest female commander of the ISS, oldest female space walker and female with the greatest number of space walks and time on space walks, first female to command the ISS twice and had reached the distinction of
(Continued from page 4) Meeting Minutes
(Continued on page 10)
Page 7
With clouds, rain, seas, lakes and a nitrogen-filled atmosphere, Saturn's moon Titan appears to be one of the worlds most similar to Earth in the solar system. But it's still alien; its seas and lakes are full not of water but liquid methane and ethane. At the temperatures and pressures found on Titan’s surface, methane can evaporate and fall back down as rain, just like water on Earth. The methane rain flows into rivers and channels, filling lakes and seas. Nitrogen makes up a larger portion of the atmosphere on Titan than on Earth. The gas also dissolves in methane, just like carbon dioxide in soda. And similar to when you shake an open soda bottle, disturbing a Titan lake can make the nitrogen bubble out. But now it turns out the seas and lakes might be fizzier than previously thought. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently experi-mented with dissolved nitrogen in mixtures of liquid methane and ethane under a variety of temperatures and pressures that would exist on Titan. They meas-ured how different conditions would trigger nitrogen bubbles. A fizzy lake, they found, would be a common sight. On Titan, the liquid methane always contains dissolved nitrogen. So when it rains, a methane-nitrogen solution pours into the seas and lakes, either directly from rain or via stream runoff. But if the lake also contains some ethane—which doesn't dissolve nitrogen as well as methane does—mixing the liquids will force some of the nitrogen out of solution, and the lake will effervesce. "It will be a big frothy mess," says Michael Malaska of JPL. "It's neat because it makes Earth look really boring by comparison." Bubbles could also arise from a lake that contains more ethane than me-thane. The two will normally mix, but a less-dense layer of methane with dissolved nitrogen—from a gentle rain, for example--could settle on top of an ethane layer. In this case, any disturbance—even a breeze—could mix the methane with dissolved nitrogen and the ethane below. The nitrogen would become less soluble and bubbles of gas would fizz out. Heat, the researchers found, can also cause nitrogen to bubble out of solu-tion while cold will coax more nitrogen to dissolve. As the seasons and climate change on Titan, the seas and lakes will inhale and exhale nitrogen. But such warmth-induced bubbles could pose a challenge for future sea-faring spacecraft, which will have an energy source, and thus heat. "You may have this spacecraft sitting there, and it's just going to be fizzing the whole time," Malaska says. "That may actually be a problem for stability control or sam-pling." Bubbles might also explain the so-called magic islands discovered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in the last few years. Radar images revealed island-like features that appear and disappear over time. Scientists still aren't sure what the islands are, but nitrogen bubbles seem increasingly likely. To know for sure, though, there will have to be a new mission. Cassini is entering its final phase, having finished its last flyby of Titan on April 21.
(Continued on page 10)
The Fizzy Seas of Titan
By Marcus Woo
The Astronews Page 8
Meteor Log—June 2017 by Tom Giguere
Try your luck with a minor shower, you might see something that no one else sees… Tom Giguere, 808-782-1408, [email protected]; Mike Mor-
This month we have a meteor observing report from Ort for the month of May. Field reports are always appreciated! It’s great encouragement for all of us to spend more time under the stars…
May 5-6, 2017 Meteor Shower Observation On the night of our May meeting, I discovered that there would be two small meteor shower peaks around the coming weekend (May 6, 2017). The meteor showers are Eta-Aquarids (30/hr.) and Eta-Lyrids (8/hr.). Moon was at late 1st quarter and set at 02:48 on May 5 and 3:28 on May 6. Weather was also clear on both days. I went to observe and to take photos of those showers at Barber’s Point Beach Park both Friday & Saturday morning since it is close to my home. It was dark enough to see the Milky Way, but there was a lot of sky glow from the north (industrial) and light house to the west of the park. On Friday morning observation starting at 4:13 A and ended at 5:10 A, I saw 8 Eta-Aquarids and 1 sporadic meteors. I took 85 photos on my Canon T3i, but I did not catch any meteors. On Saturday morning observing began at 3:45 A and ended at 5:00 A, Tom & I saw 11 Eta-Aquarids, 2 Eta-Lyrids, and 3 spo-radic meteors. I took 76 photos on my Canon T2i, I caught 2 meteors in a photo. With my Canon 3Ti, I took 102 photos and
(Continued on page 11)
Shower Activi-ty
Maximum Radiant V∞ r ZHR
Date λ⊙ α δ km/s
June Bootids (JBO)
06/22→ 07/02
Jun 27 95.7° 224° +48° 18 2.2 Var
First Quarter Full Moon Last Quarter New Moon
June 24 June 1 June 9 June 17
Page 9
Many thanks to those renewing their membership (Jane Houston & Morris Jones and Celeste Jongeneelen - Science Fair winner ) We welcome five new members this month. They are Edmar Castillo, Ian Kam –
Science Fair winner, Eirik, Ruth, and Kaeleea Lohr.
.
As a reminder, please check your membership anniversary date listed on the As-tronews address label. Clear skies to all!
Treasurer’s Report by April Lew
HAS Financial Report April 16 – May 15 2017
Balance Beginning $ 1,212.85
Income: Dues Received 124.00
Total Income: $ 124.00
Expenses: Astronews printing & mailing 98.06
Sky & Telescope subscription 65.90
Total Expenses $ 163.96
Ending Balance $ 1,172.89
NOTICE!
HAS will publish a complete listing of Club members in the July 2017 issue of the Astronews. This publication is required by Club by-laws, Article III, Section 2 Para C(e) and Article VIII, Section 1B. Unless no-tified otherwise, this list will include all member’s names, addresses, and phone numbers. If you wish to have some or all of your data exclud-ed, please notify the Club Treasurer, April Lew at [email protected], before June 20, 2017. Please be advised that this listing is intended for Club members’ personal use only in contact-ing one another. It is not to be used for any commercial or solicitation purposes. With the exception of membership in the Astronomical League, HAS does not make this list available to, nor do we sell its con-tents to anyone for any purpose. Please respect our member’s right to privacy. Notice: Member information is not to be republished, redistributed, or
used for any commercial or solicitation purposes.
The Astronews Page 10
Scientists are already sketching out potential spacecraft—maybe a buoy or even a submarine—to explore Titan's seas, bubbles and all. To teach kids about the extreme conditions on Titan and other planets and moons, visit the NASA Space Place: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/planet-weather/
(Continued from page 7) Space Place
spending 534 continuous days in space. March For Science – Chris Peterson encouraged everyone to stand up for science, as people did in the recent March for Science, here in Honolulu and around the world.
Joanne and The Planetarium Tour – The evening would not be complete without a whirl around the cosmos with Joanne Bogan and the Bishop Museum Planetarium. We are so blessed to be able to enjoy Joanne’s humor and tours. Ma-halo, Joanne.
Mahalo – As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Post meeting goodies were available in the rotunda.
Respectfully Submitted & Notes Transcribed by , Gretchen West
(Continued from page 6) Meeting Minutes
Radar images from Cassini showed a strange island-like feature in one of Titan's hy-
drocarbon seas that appeared to change over time. One possible explanation for this
"magic island" is bubbles. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornel
Page 11
Above is context picture from Ort Vanapruks. His “real” pictures are on page 1
caught 1 meteor in one of the photos. I cropped a Stellarium Software map with the Eta-Aquarids, Eta-Lyrids, and the Milky Way in the picture. I then imposed the 2 meteor photos from my T2i & T3i. The meteors from T2i were an Eta-Lyrids meteor and a sporadic meteor. The one from T3i is an Eta-Aquarids. So overall, I had two decent sessions at a pretty bright observing site. We saw total of 19 Eta-Aquarids, 2 Eta-Lyrids, and 4 sporad-ic meteors. Hopefully, I will catch more meteors during the Ori-onids (20/hr) in October with a new moon, Leonids (15/hr) in No-vember with a new moon, and Geminids (120/hr) in December with a waning crescent moon. Clear Nights, Ort
The June Bootids (JBO) are considered a shower with a moderate level of activity by the American Meteor Society. The shower produces blue and white meteors at a maximum hourly rate of about 8. This meteor shower was discovered on the evening of June 15, 1966, by S. Dvorak (California, USA) while camping out in the San Bernardino mountains. His attention had been drawn to the region of Lyra by a very bright meteor that moved swiftly to the northeast through that constellation. Another meteor was not-ed a short time later and Dvorak began plotting additional meteors. After 1 1/2 hours he had managed to plot 16 meteors, of which 13 appeared to origi-nate from a hitherto unknown radiant located at RA=278°, DECL=+30°. Just a few hours later, F. W. Talbot (Cheshire, England) independently dis-covered the radiant at RA=275.5°, DECL=+30°, and noted an hourly rate near 9. The last quarter Moon will interfere in the morning hours when observing this shower.
(Continued from page 8) Meteor Log Tom Giguere
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