Astral Projections Online November 2022
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, November 11, 2022, at 7 PM EST. This will be an in-person meeting at the Conference Room of Building 10, across from the Planetarium. For the November meeting, we have a guest speaker so we’re hoping for a good turnout.
Jakes Branch Public Star Party - Saturday, November 19, 2022, at 6 PM
EVENT Cancellations: Members will receive email notifications of an event cancellation.
Upcoming County Park Presentations 2022
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 Park presentations require a registration fee, call the hosting park to reserve.
Catus Island - November 15 - 6 PM - Beginner Astronomy
Jakes Branch - February 21 - 6 PM - Astronomy with Binoculars
Catus Island - February 28 - 6 PM - Beginner Milkyway Photography
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.
"Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.”
- Maria Mitchell - Astronomer
ASTRA Elections
It’s that time of year to start thinking about the ASTRA Board elections. If there is anyone interested in running for any of the three spots, president, vice-president, or treasurer, please let the current board members know. Elections are at the December meeting, unless there are no takers, then the current board will remain in place.
President - Jim Webster
Vice-President - Vinny Illuzzi
Treasurer - Rosemarie Spedaliere
November ASTRA Meeting Special Event
We have a guest speaker for our November 11 meeting. Dr. Eileen Meyer from the University of Maryland Baltimore County is an expert on active, supermassive black holes. As a reminder, we will be meeting in the Conference Room of Building 10, across from the Planetarium.
Event Reports
Saint Barnabas Church
We had a good turnout of ASTRA members as well as fifty church members for its youth group program. Rosemarie Spedaliere was our lead ASTRA member for the night. She provided a great showing from her telescope which was one of eight we had on hand. She had a captive audience later on in the night with views from her binoculars and with Brocchi's cluster challenge. Plenty of handouts for this event. Saint Barnabas was very grateful for us coming out and sharing the stars with them and look forward to doing this again.
October ASTRA Meeting
The History Of Telescopes
By Bob Salvatore
Our October presentation was by ASTRA member Bob Salvatore. A chronological look at historical telescopes that in their time claimed to be the biggest telescope.
The history of telescopes can be traced to before the invention of the earliest known telescope which appeared in 1608. Bob took us on a time trip back then all the way to where we are today with the James Web Space Telescope. He provided a review of each telescope type and those individuals that were important to the astronomy community. A very interesting review and as always Bob held our attention throughout the entire presentation.
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.
Clavius Crater
Clavius is one of the older formations on the lunar surface and was likely formed during the Nectarian period about four billion years ago. Despite its age, the crater is relatively well-preserved.
The Nectarian Period is from 3920 to 3850 million years ago. It is during this time period that the major basins were formed.
It is one of the largest crater formations on the Moon and the second-largest crater on the visible side of the moon.
Named after Jesuit priest Christopher Clavius, Clavius' location is south of Tycho toward the southern limb of the Moon causing it to appear oblong due to foreshortening.
Its great size makes it visible to the unaided eye as a prominent notch in the terminator about one to two days after the Moon reaches the first quarter. It is popular for both observing and imaging.
Movie history: Clavius was the location of Clavius Base in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey
The floor of Clavius forms a convex plain that is marked by some interesting crater impacts. The most notable of these is a curving chain of craters that begins with Rutherford in the south and then arcs across the floor in a counterclockwise direction forming a sequence of ever-diminishing diameters.
On October 26 of 2020, Casey Honniball of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center published the discovery of water in the crater but is still drier than the deserts of Earth. - NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, Wikipedia
Upcoming Lunar Eclipse
We have an upcoming Lunar Eclipse that will start in the early morning hours of 3 AM on November 8. In reference to Lakewood New Jersey time, it will start at 3:02 AM and will remain visible reaching full at 05:59 AM. The remaining part of the eclipse will not be visible as it will be below the horizon with it ending at 08:56 AM. - timeanddate.com
Support Scouting Opportunity
I’ve been in recent contact with one of the local boy scout groups and looking to see if anyone is interested in qualifying to become a merit badge consoler. If anyone is already qualified, please let Jim Webster know.
I am in discussions with them about doing some future presentations as well. Any interest in this let me know.
Scout Troop 36 is located at St. Andrew's Church in Toms River. Besides the typical background of participating in your typical scouting activities camping, hiking, etc., they also have a STEM / Science based aspect to their troop and reached out to us about astronomy. Of course, if you have other skill sets, that may be of help to them.
ASTRA Members we have a request …
We are looking to make our December meeting a special holiday evening for everyone. If anyone has any pictures of ASTRA past members and events, please send them to Jim Webster. Email is preferred, so if it’s an old hard copy, take a picture of it with your cell phone. A digitized copy makes it easy to transfer to a slide deck.
Outreach material below is distributed free for public outreach.
Around The Web
James Webb Space Telescope
Images of the Pillars of Creation from the James Webb Space Telescope have been amazing. If you haven’t seen them yet check out the link that will WOW you.
NASA’s InSight Lander Detects Meteoroid Impact on Mars
Linked is a news update from NASA on a meteoroid impact on Mars from December 2021. The linked article includes both audio and video.
For more check NASA.gov.
On the lighter side of astronomy …
ASTRA Telescopes for Sale
As mentioned at our October meeting we are thinning the herd of some of our club loaner telescopes. The two Meade LX90 and the Explorer Scientific ES127-D. If there is any interest please let one of the board members know. We’re looking to give club members a first come first serve chance at a reduced price before we go external. If there are no takers we’ll be posting them in early 2023 at a much higher price.
Members Submitted Articles & Items
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Nothing for November
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!
Cepheus: A House Fit for a King
By David Prosper
Sometimes constellations look like their namesake, and sometimes these starry patterns look like something else entirely. That is the case for many stargazers upon identifying the constellation of Cepheus for the first time. These stars represent Cepheus, the King of Ethiopia, sitting on his throne. However, many present-day observers see the outline of a simple house, complete with a peaked roof, instead – quite a difference! Astronomers have another association with this northern constellation; inside its borders lies the namesake of one of the most important types of stars in modern astronomy: Delta Cephei, the original Cepheid Variable.
Cepheus is a circumpolar constellation for most observers located in mid-northern latitudes and above, meaning it does not set, or dip below the horizon. This means Cepheus is visible all night long and can be observed to swing around the northern celestial pole, anchored by Polaris, the current North Star. Other circumpolar constellations include Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, and Camelopardalis. Its all-night position for many stargazers brings with it some interesting objects to observe. Among them: the “Garnet Star” Mu Cephei, a supergiant star with an especially deep red hue; several binary stars; several nebulae, including the notable reflection nebula NGC 7023; and the “Fireworks Galaxy” NGC 6946, known for a surprising number of supernovae.
The stars of Cepheus are visible all year round for many in the Northern Hemisphere, but fall months offer some of the best views of this circumpolar constellation to warmly-dressed observers. Just look northwards! Image created with assistance from Stellarium: stellarium.org.
Perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most notable object in Cepheus, is the star Delta Cephei. Its variable nature was first discovered by John Goodricke, whose observations of the star began in October 1784. Slightly more than a century later, Henrietta Leavitt studied the variable stars found in the Magellanic Clouds in 1908 and discovered that the type of variable stars represented by Delta Cephei possessed very consistent relationships between their luminosity (total amount of light emitted), and their pulsation period (generally, the length of time in which the star goes through a cycle of where it dims and then brightens). Once the period for a Cepheid Variable (or Cepheid) is known, its luminosity can be calculated by using the scale originally developed by Henrietta Leavitt, now called “Leavitt’s Law.”. So, if a star is found to be a Cepheid, its actual brightness can be calculated versus its observed brightness. From that difference, the Cepheid’s distance can then be estimated with a great deal of precision. This revolutionary discovery unlocked a key to measuring vast distances across the cosmos, and in 1924 observations of Cepheids by Edwin Hubble in what was then called the Andromeda Nebula proved that this “nebula” was actually another galaxy outside of our own Milky Way! You may now know this object as the “Andromeda Galaxy” or M31. Further observations of Cepheids in other galaxies gave rise to another astounding discovery: that our universe is not static, but expanding!
This historical diagram from Henrietta Leavitt’s revolutionary publication shows the luminosity of a selection of Cepheid Variables on the vertical axis, and the log of their periods on the horizontal axis. The line drawn through these points shows how tight that relationship is between all the stars in the series. From Henrietta Leavitt and Edward Pickering’s 1912 paper, “Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud,” a copy of which can be found at: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1912HarCi.173....1L/abstract
Because of their importance as a “standard candle” in measuring cosmic distances, astronomers continue to study the nature of Cepheids. Their studies revealed that there are two distinct types of Cepheids: Classical and Type II. Delta Cephei is the second closest Cepheid to Earth after Polaris and was even studied in detail by Edwin Hubble’s namesake telescope, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, in 2008. These studies, along with others performed by the ESA’s Hipparcos mission and other observatories, help to further refine the accuracy of distance measurements derived from observations of Cepheids. What will further observations of Delta Cephei and other Cepheids reveal about our universe? Follow NASA’s latest observations of stars and galaxies across our universe at nasa.gov.
Let’s Explore Space - What’s in the Sky November 2022 and Cepheus.
NGC 6946
Sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus.
Radius: 20,000 light-years
Magnitude: 9.6
Distance to Earth: 22.5 million light-years
Right ascension: 20h 34m 52.3s
Galaxy type: face-on spiral galaxy nasa.gov
Apparent magnitude (V): 9.6
NGC 6946 was discovered by William Herschel on September 9, 1798. It's best seen from northern locations during the months of October, November, and December. From latitudes greater than +30N the galaxy is circumpolar.
NGC 6946 is easily visible with binoculars (mag. +7.8) and contains about 80 stars in an area spanning a mere 8 arc minutes across, making it one of the richest, most stunning open clusters in the area. Quite easy to spot in small scopes. An 80mm (3.1-inch) refractor displays a bright core surrounded by a faint haze. Observers with large scopes will show some mottling in the halo, hinting at the spiral arms. At high powers through large scopes, NGC 6939 looks spectacular with dozens of stars filling the eyepiece field of view.
NGC 7023
The Iris Nebula is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus.
Magnitude: 6.8
Radius: 2.9998 light-years
Distance to Earth: 1,300 light-years
Apparent magnitude (V): 6.8
Apparent dimensions (V): 18' x 18'
The designation NGC 7023 refers to the open cluster within the larger reflection nebula designated LBN 487. The nebula, which shines at magnitude +6.8, is illuminated by a magnitude +7.4 star designated SAO 19158.
NGC 7023 shines with an apparent magnitude of +6.8 and is theoretically bright enough to be visible with binoculars, but its large apparent size and diffuse nature make this an almost impossible task. It's also difficult to spot with 80mm (3.1-inch) or 100mm (4-inch) refractors, at best appearing as a faint, misty patch of light without detail. The best views of NGC 7023 are reserved for large scopes. With a 250mm (10-inch) or larger instrument the nebulosity is fairly easy to spot.
Tonight’s Sky: November
Hunt for the fainter constellations of fall, including Pisces, Aries, and Triangulum. They will guide you to find several galaxies and a pair of white stars. Stay tuned for space-based views of spiral galaxy M74 and the Triangulum Galaxy, which are shown in visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light.
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.