Astral Projections Online October 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
EVENT Cancellations: Members will receive email notifications of an event cancellation.
Upcoming September ASTRA Meeting
ASTRA's next meeting will be Friday, October 13, 2023, at 7 PM EST. This will be an in-person meeting at Novins Planetarium - Building 13.
For October, ASTRA member Lou Casella is providing his presentation, “Natural and Celestial Navigation.”
Upcoming Star Parties
Public - Jakes Branch Partial Solar Eclipse Viewing - October 14 - 11:30 AM to 2:45 PM
Public - Jakes Branch Star Party - October 21 - 7 PM - International Observe the Moon Night.
Public - Jakes Branch Star Party - November 18 - 6 PM
Public - Jakes Branch Star Party - December 2 - 6 PM
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.
Cattus Island - October 7 - Solar Astronomy - 10 AM
Cloverdale - October 28 - SciStarter Earth Science - 10 AM
Cattus Island - November 16 - Beginner Astronomy: What to See in the Night Sky - 6 PM
These are presentations. Registration with Cattus Island County Park is required.
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.
"The Sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the Universe to do.”
- Galileo Galilei, Astronomer
Event Reports
September 16 - Jake Branch Star Party - With two of our three events being canceled it was great that we were still able to have our Star Party. The weather was in our favor and we had an excellent member turnout. Thirteen members with fourteen telescopes and one binocular. All telescope models were on hand including some DIY telescopes. I want to thank everyone who participated.
August ASTRA Meeting Summary
Our September presentation was from ASTRA member Rich Brady on the “Formation of the Solar System” As always, a very informative presentation. Below are some highlights and images from this event.
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.
Since October 21 is our International Moon night at Jakes Branch, the information from the last APO has been repeated this month.
Some Moon Facts for Kids
International Observe the Moon Night will be on October 21 at Jake’s Branch County Park. Below you will find some moon facts linked and shared from National Geographics for Kids. As the date gets closer we can review something special we can do for that night.
Calling all budding young space cadets! Join us as we head into the universe to discover ten fascinating facts about the Moon at Natgeokids.com
More can be found at NASA Space Place, “All about the moon.”
Weather on the Moon
On the Moon, snow does not fall. Thunder never rolls. No clouds form in the pitch-black sky. “Weather” on the Moon means something completely different than it does on Earth. For more, go to moon.nasa.gov.
What it does have is Micrometeoroids, and sometimes larger space objects, pelt the lunar surface. This dry shower of debris shuffles the materials in the Moon’s exterior layers, exposing fresh material in the process known as impact gardening.
For more on this see How is the Moon Changing.
Outreach material below is distributed free for public outreach.
Around The Web
The end is here …
As reported by Universetoday.com on September 27, the Arecibo Radio Dish Telescope, which collapsed in 2020 will not be rebuilt. In fact, they are moving away from Astronomy at the location in favor of more earth-bound science.
The National Science Foundation announced they are transitioning the site to STEM educational outreach with a focus on biology, a biomedical laboratory, and computer science.
Further impact to the site is the remaining 12-meter radio telescope that was recently upgraded will no longer be funded by the NSF.
For more on this, go to the original article.
More can be found at Nature.com.
APO Editor: I have to ask why this departure from astronomy research as it is a science. I can’t help but think there is more to this story.
NASA’s First Asteroid Sample Has Landed, Now Secure in Clean Room
On September 24, After years of anticipation and hard work by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) team, a capsule of rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu finally is on Earth. It landed at 8:52 a.m. MDT (10:52 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, in a targeted area of the Department of Defense’s Utah.
The sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credits: NASA/Keegan Barber
After years of anticipation and hard work by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) team, a capsule of rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu finally is on Earth. It landed at 8:52 a.m. MDT (10:52 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, in a targeted area of the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City.
Within an hour and a half, the capsule was transported by helicopter to a temporary clean room set up in a hangar on the training range, where it now is connected to a continuous flow of nitrogen.
For more go to nasa.gov
The full video coverage is available on YouTube.
OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid-sample canister is now open.
OSIRIS-REx's asteroid-sample canister just creaked open for the first time in more than seven years. Scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston lifted the canister's outer lid on Tuesday (Sept. 26), two days after OSIRIS-REx's return capsule landed in the desert of northern Utah.
"Scientists gasped as the lid was lifted," NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) division, which is based at JSC, wrote Tuesday in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The operation revealed "dark powder and sand-sized particles on the inside of the lid and base," they added.
OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid sample canister, with its outer lid, lifted, at a new curation facility at Johnson Space Center in Houston. (Image credit: NASA)
For more go to Space.com.
On the lighter side of astronomy …
On September 24, 2023, after years of anticipation and hard work by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) team, a capsule of rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu finally is on Earth. … They just didn’t expect to find this hitchhiker.
Members Submitted Articles & Items
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
No submissions 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!
From Galileo to Clipper, Exploring Jupiter’s Moons
By Vivian White
“…We, too, are made of wonders, of great
and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds,
of a need to call out through the dark.”
From In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa by Ada Limon
As autumn begins, if you’re up late, you may notice a bright point of light rising in the east. Look a bit closer, with a pair of binoculars, and you’ll notice it’s not a star at all. While stars look point-like no matter how big your backyard telescope, this light appears as a circle under closer examination. Even more curious, you will likely see a line of smaller dots on one or both sides. Congratulations! You’ve rediscovered the king of the planets - majestic Jupiter - and its four largest moons.
Galileo famously chronicled the four moving dots near Jupiter and surmised that they were orbiting the distant world. While Jupiter has well over 80 discovered moons as of September 2023, the brightest four are called the “Galilean Moons” - Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. (Great mnemonics exist to remember these in order of distance from Jupiter, such as “I Eat Green Caterpillars”) You can follow these like Galileo did, using stargazing apps or the handy image below. A favorite beginning observing challenge is to track the movement of the Galilean Moons over the course of many nights. Even within a few hours, you will notice them moving in relation to Jupiter, just as Galileo did.
Galileo's drawings of Jupiter and its Medicean Stars from Sidereus Nuncius. Image courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries.
Fast forward 414 years and NASA will be sending a robotic mission to investigate the surface of one of these distant worlds. The Europa Clipper Mission is launching to the cold, icy moon in 2024, to begin orbiting in 2030. With its salty oceans covered by ice, Europa was chosen as an excellent location to continue the search for life outside of Earth. Clipper will be the largest spacecraft ever sent to another planet, designed to withstand Jupiter’s punishing radiation. Once it arrives at Jupiter in 2030, NASA plans to do about 50 flybys of Europa, mapping almost the entire surface of this watery world.
The position of the Galilean Moons of Jupiter in October 2023: https://in-the-sky.org/jupiter.php
What was once only dreamed of in the small telescope of Galileo, or in great works of fiction, NASA is turning our wildest imagination into reality. One of the celebrated quotes from the classic 2010: Odyssey Two warns, “All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.” Science fiction fans can feel relieved knowing that writer Arthur C. Clarke gave his blessing for the Europa Clipper mission.
Join the Europa Message in a Bottle Campaign to send your name with the spacecraft, hear the rest of the poem by the US Poet Laureate, and learn more about the wonders of space travel with the Clipper Mission: https://europa.nasa.gov/participate
Watch a wonderful Clipper webinar with Dr. Cynthia Phillips, planetary geologist with the mission: https://www.youtube.com/live/RnnLJBLRBCA?feature=shared&t=269
Let’s Explore Space - What’s in the Sky October 2023.
It’s that Halloween time of year.
Orion is making its appearance in the early morning hours, slowly making its way to Halloween, it will be fully visible after midnight on October 31. So what better object to review for such an occasion than the Witch Head Nebula?
The Witch Head Nebula got its name because it looks like the profile of a witch. Thankfully the actual nebula bears no resemblance to the Looney Tunes Character, Witch Hazel.
Witch Head Nebula
IC 2118 / NGC 1909 is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in the constellation of Orion. The nebula lies in the Eridanus Constellation, about 900 light-years from Earth. Wikipedia
Magnitude: 13
Distance to Earth: 1,000 light-years
Coordinates: RA 5h 2m 0s | Dec -7° 54′ 0″
Constellation: Eridanus
Apparent magnitude (V): 13
Types: faint reflection nebula astrobackyard.com
Distance: 1,000 ly
Image: NASA/STScI Digitized Sky Survey/Noel Carboni
The Witch Head Nebula is facing the bright blue supergiant star, Rigel. The nebula is so faint at magnitude 13, that you will not be able to observe it in most telescopes, so this is more for the astrophotographers to find.
Formally known as IC 2118 in the constellation Orion, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from the star. The color of this very blue nebula is caused not only by the blue color of its star but also because the dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red. A similar physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue.
Astronomers are still learning about this molecular cloud, but research indicates that the wind-swept appearance may have formed from the stellar wind of nearby, highly luminous stars.
Observations in the infrared wavelengths led astronomers to discover a half dozen new stars within the nebula. The Witch Head Nebula emits infrared because its newly formed stars heat the surrounding gas and dust. The stars can’t be seen in visible light because the light is absorbed by the dust. One of these newly discovered stars is believed to have an orbiting disk of dust and gas in which planets may be in the process of forming.
Tonight’s Sky: October
October nights are full of celestial showpieces. Find Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek myth, to pinpoint dense globular star clusters and galaxies, and keep watching for space-based views of M15, NGC 7331, and the Andromeda Galaxy.
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.