Astral Projections Online July 2023
Check our Website for updated content at www.astra-nj.com
Club Presentations Wanted:
Does anyone have any astronomy items of interest to share with the membership?
Please let us know at Club Contacts.
Club dues and membership. If you renew after March 31 you will be renewed as a new member.
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS ONLINE (APO for short) is an email-linked publication for members only. If you exit APO to the club website or other resources you will need to use the emailed link again to get back to it. If you wish to retain a copy please bookmark or refer back to the email. We will make all efforts to post by the first week of the month.
Submissions Welcome: Members are invited to submit articles, photos, news, or stories for inclusion with Astral Projections Online. Please contact the ASTRA Webmaster.
Event Calendar
ASTRA’s next meeting will be Friday, July 14, 2023, at 7 PM EST. This will be an in-person meeting at Island Beach State Park in Parking Lot 13. This will be an observation meeting. We will do club business early and give everyone enough time to set up before it gets dark.
EVENT Cancellations: Members will receive email notifications of an event cancellation.
Upcoming July ASTRA Meeting
This will be an observing meeting, see above.
Observing meeting July 14 at 7 PM - Island Beach State Park - Parking Lot 13.
Upcoming Star Parties
Public - Cloverdale Farms Star Party - July 15 - 9 PM
Public - Jakes Branch Star Party - July 22 - 9 PM
Public - Jakes Branch Star Party - August 19 - 9 PM
Public - Jakes Branch Star Party - September 16 - 8 PM
Public - South Seaside Park Environmental Society Star Party - TBA
Public - Island Beach State Park Moonlight Hike - Every Friday at 7 PM (Parking Lot 13)
July 7, July 14, July 21, July 28
August 4, August 11, August 18, August 25
Upcoming County & State Park Presentations 2023
Public Outreach Presentations, if any member wishes to support ASTRA outreach efforts with the public, please let Vinny, Ro, or Jim know of any interest.
County & State Park presentations require a registration fee, call the hosting park to reserve.
Cloverdale Farm County Park
Constellation Mythology Join us as Rosemarie Spedaliere, of the Astronomical Society of Toms River, teaches us the mythology behind some of the constellations that grace our nighttime sky in the Northern Hemisphere. After this program, feel free to join the rest of the members of the Astronomical Society of Toms River who will have their telescopes set up in the field for a nighttime stargazing event! LOCATION: Program Room, Cloverdale Farm County Park, Barnegat DATE: Saturday, July 15 … TIME: 7:30 – 8:30 pm FEE: $5.00 per person AGE: 12 years – Adult
Website Updates …
Please visit our club website. We continue to have additional updates, if there is some content that would be useful to members please let us know.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit”
- Steven Hawking, Astrophysicist
Event Reports
June 10 - The weather broke for a short time and we were finally able to have a bit of a star party at Jakes Branch. It was also the first light for Jim Webster’s telescope and everyone was involved with it as a group effort. Greatly appreciated.
June ASTRA Meeting Summary
For our June ASTRA meeting, we had Sam Granovsky's presentation on "Spectroscopic Categorization of Bright Stars"
What is Spectroscopy? Spectroscopy is a fundamental tool of scientific study, with applications ranging from materials characterization to astronomy and medicine. Spectroscopy techniques are commonly categorized according to the wavelength region used, the nature of the interaction involved, or the type of material studied.
In relation to the study of star spectra, a spectrum is simply a chart or graph of the intensity of light of a source as a function of the energy of that light. Each spectrum holds a wide variety of information. For instance, there are many different mechanisms by which an object, like a star, can produce light. Each of these mechanisms has a characteristic spectrum.
Stars vary in color – because they vary in temperature. Hotter stars appear blue or white, while cooler stars look orange or red. Astronomers use these characteristics to classify main sequence stars into categories by color and temperature: O (blue), B (blue-white), A (white), F (yellow-white), G (yellow), K (orange), and M (red), from hottest and biggest to coolest and smallest. Stars at the ends of their lives are out of the main sequence. These include supergiants, red giants, and white dwarfs.
Our Sun is categorized as a G-type yellow-dwarf main sequence star. It is predicted that our Sun will remain in the main sequence phase for a few billion more years.
Our Nearest Neighbor
Let’s explore some interesting features, facts, or myths about our nearest neighbor, the Moon. Without it, life on Earth would be totally different, if not at all.
Water on the Moon?
In 2020, NASA announced the discovery of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. Data from the Strategic Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), revealed that in Clavius crater, water exists in concentrations roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water within a cubic meter of soil across the lunar surface. You won’t find pools of liquid H2O on the lunar surface — water on the Moon is mostly in the form of ice.
Permashadow regions on the moon’s south pole as seen by NASA’s LRO. Source: NASA
In 2023, a new map of water distribution on the Moon provided hints about how water may be moving across the Moon’s surface. The map, made using SOFIA data, extends to the Moon’s South Pole – the intended region of study for NASA’s Artemis missions, including the water-hunting rover, VIPER.
Harvesting this water is a critical component of future human deep space exploration, which is why our golf cart-sized VIPER, or the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will be traveling to the Moon’s South Pole to search for ice and other potential resources to determine where they came from. Explore more about this first-of-its-kind rover: https://www.nasa.gov/viper
Outreach material below is distributed free for public outreach.
Around The Web
Batteries
Many telescope setups for observing and defiantly for astrophotography will need a battery for power if house power is not an option.
Linked is some information from Celestron.
Article from Trevor Jones of Astrobackyard.
Six TOOLS that make ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY so much easier … YOUTUBE
On the lighter side of astronomy …
Red and Rover
Red and Rover
Members Submitted Articles & Items
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Nothing for this month.
What’s Up:
Sky Watching Tips from NASA
Provided by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Is usually updated anywhere from the first day of the month to the fifth day of the month. Check back to this linked image if it hasn’t been updated yet.
For more go to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory webpage: What’s Up: Skywatching Tips From NASA
This article and images are distributed by NASA Night Sky Network
The Night Sky Network program supports astronomy clubs across the USA dedicated to astronomy outreach.
Visit nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov to find local clubs, events, and more!
Find A Ball of Stars - M55
By Linda Shore, Ed.D
French astronomer Charles Messier cataloged over 100 fuzzy spots in the night sky in the 18th century while searching for comets – smudges that didn’t move past the background stars so couldn’t be comets. Too faint to be clearly seen using telescopes of the era, these objects were later identified as nebulas, distant galaxies, and star clusters as optics improved. Messier traveled the world to make his observations, assembling the descriptions and locations of all the objects he found in his Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters. Messier’s work was critical to astronomers who came after him who relied on his catalog to study these little mysteries in the night sky, and not mistake them for comets.
Most easily spotted from the Southern Hemisphere, this “faint fuzzy” was first cataloged by another French astronomer, Nicholas Louis de Lacaille in 1752 from Southern Africa. After searching for many years in vain through the atmospheric haze and light pollution of Paris, Charles Messier finally added it to his catalog in July of 1778. Identified as Messier 55 (M55), this large, diffuse object can be hard to distinguish unless it’s well above the horizon and viewed far from city lights.
The large image shows just the central portion of M55 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Above Earth’s atmosphere, this magnificent view resolves many individual stars in this cluster. How many can you count through binoculars or a backyard telescope?
Original Image and Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Sarajedini (Florida Atlantic University), and M. Libralato (STScI, ESA, JWST); Smaller image: Digital Sky Survey; Image Processing: Gladys Kober
But July is a great month for getting your own glimpse of M55 – especially if you live in the southern half of the US (or south of 39°N latitude). Also known as the “Summer Rose Star,” M55 will reach its highest point in northern hemisphere skies in mid-July. Looking towards the south with a pair of binoculars well after sunset, search for a dim (mag 6.3) cluster of stars below the handle of the “teapot” of the constellation Sagittarius. This loose collection of stars appears about 2/3 as large as the full Moon. A small telescope may resolve the individual stars, but M55 lacks the dense core of stars found in most globular clusters. With binoculars, let your eyes wander the “steam” coming from the teapot-shaped Sagittarius (actually the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy) to find many more nebulas and clusters.
As optics improved, this fuzzy patch was discovered to be a globular cluster of over 100,000 stars that formed more than 12 billion years ago, early in the history of the Universe. Located 20,000 light years from Earth, this ball of ancient stars has a diameter of 100 light years. Recently, NASA released a magnificent image of M55 from the Hubble Space Telescope, revealing just a small portion of the larger cluster. This is an image that Charles Messier could only dream of and would have marveled at! By observing high above the Earth’s atmosphere, Hubble reveals stars inside the cluster impossible to resolve from ground-based telescopes. The spectacular colors in this image correspond to the surface temperatures of the stars; red stars are cooler than the white ones; white stars are cooler than the blue ones. These stars help us learn more about the early Universe.
Look to the south in July and August to see the teapot asterism of Sagittarius. Below the handle, you’ll see a faint smudge of M55 through binoculars. More “faint fuzzies” can be found in the steam of the Milky Way, appearing to rise up from the kettle. Image created with assistance from Stellarium: stellarium.org
Discover even more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/hubble-messier-55
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured magnificent images of most of Messier’s objects. Explore them all: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog
Let’s Explore Space - What’s in the Sky July 2023.
Sagittarius Cluster - M22
Messier 22 or M22, also known as NGC 6656, is an elliptical globular cluster of stars in the constellation Sagittarius, near the Galactic bulge region. It is one of the brightest globulars visible in the night sky.
M22 was one of the first globulars to be discovered, in 1665[a] by Abraham Ihle[3] and it was included in Charles Messier's catalog of comet-like objects in 1764.
Wikipedia
Radius: 50 light-years
Distance to Earth: 9,785 lightyears
Apparent magnitude (V): 5.1
Constellation: Sagittarius
Other designations: NGC 6656, GCl 99
Number of Stars: 80,000+
M22 is a cluster for all types of optical instruments. Through 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars, it appears as a diffuse halo of light that's obviously non-stellar but no discernible details are visible. A small 80mm (3.1-inch) telescope displays a mottled fuzzy ball that hints at resolution. At high magnifications a 150mm (6-inch) scope will easily resolve many outer stars, the brightest of which shine at mag. +11. The cluster's core appears slightly brighter with subtle changes visible across the surface. M22 is noticeably elliptical in shape when viewed through large scopes, such as a 300mm (12-inch) instrument.
M22 is just one of many deep-sky objects that can be seen in the summer months in the Milkyway region. https://freestarcharts.com/images/Articles/Messier/M16_M17_M18_M23_M24_M25_Finder_Chart.pdf
Tonight’s Sky: July
Find the Scorpius constellation to identify the reddish supergiant Antares, which will lead you to discover a trio of globular star clusters, as well as three nebulas: the Swan Nebula, the Lagoon Nebula, and the Trifid Nebula.
Visit the STScI which produces Hubblesite.org video overviews for Tonight’s Sky.
They can be found both on Facebook and stsci.edu.
Submissions Welcome
Members are invited to submit articles, photos, news, or stories for inclusion with Astral Projections Online. Please contact the ASTRA Webmaster.