Astral Projections Online September 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, September 8, 2023, at 7 PM EST. This will be an in-person meeting at Novins Planetarium - Building 13.
For September, ASTRA member Rich Brady is providing his presentation, “The Formation of the Solar System”.
Upcoming Star Parties
Private - IBSP Girl Scouts - 8 PM - This one may not happen.
Public - Jakes Branch Star Party - September 16 - 8 PM
Public - South Seaside Park Environmental Society Star Party - September 23 - 8 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 is in the Night Sky - 6 PM
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.
"For my part, I know nothing with any certainty but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
- Vincent Van Gogh, Painter
Event Reports
August 12 - ASTRA Perseid Picnic - Astra members gathered together for our annual Perseid picnic. The weather was in our favor this day as it did threaten to storm and was a hot one. Needless to say, we all enjoyed ourselves with good friends, good conversation, good food, and a wonderful host and hostess. Thank extended to Jackie and Geoff for hosting it it again.
August 19 - Early evening prior to the start of the Jake’s Branch Star Party.
Event Report from Rosemarie Spedaliere as reported on Slack. If you don’t have Slack and want to join it, let us know.
Thank you to everyone who came out to help Saturday night at Jake's branch. We had a great showing of people and the red lights worked out well on the Bridges. The night started out with viewing the Crescent Moon and then we had a beautiful display of the Starlink satellite train the people were amazed. The usual items were shown to the public M57 M13 Saturn the double cluster and of course the summer triangle. A friend of mine came down from Red Bank with her Orion reflector and John was able to help her with it. it actually had very nice Optics. Another woman brought a little Dobsonian and another one a little reflector two friends of Phil's brought their etx telescope for help. Thank you to John Kevin and Phil for helping out these aspiring astronomers. The weather participated although the light pollution unfortunately is growing in that area. But overall it was a wonderful night. I had advertised it on quite a few social media sites and it paid off with the number of people we had there and we got 11 Facebook page requests
August ASTRA Meeting Summary
None for the month of August, as we had our Picnic in August.
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.
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.”
Moon caves, pits and lava tubes
The extreme temperatures on the moon are a challenge for humans setting up any permanent moon base. A day on the moon lasts about 15 Earth days, and a night lasts about 15 Earth days. That would mean solar power on the moon would be inaccessible about half the time. The moon caves would remedy this issue, along with others. Moon caves would also provide some protection against cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorites.
The moon has virtually no atmosphere, so daytime temperatures on the moon can hit 260 degrees Fahrenheit (126° Celsius), while nighttime temps can drop to -280 F (-173 C). But a team of scientists announced on July 26, 2022, that they’ve found pits and caves on the moon that have a permanent temperature of 63 F (17 C). It’s what the scientists are calling sweater weather.
More on this can be found at Earthsky.org.
The temperatures in the shaded area of this pit in the Mare Tranquillitatis region hold steady at around 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius). Scientists said the pit likely leads to a similarly temperate lava cave. Moon caves could be an option for future habitation for human explorers. Image via NASA/ GSFC/ Arizona State University/ UCLA.
Outreach material below is distributed free for public outreach.
Around The Web
HOW TO READ A STAR CHART
In astronomy, a planisphere (/ˈpleɪ.nɪˌsfɪər, ˈplæn.ɪ-/) is a star chart analog computing instrument in the form of two adjustable disks that rotate on a common pivot. It can be adjusted to display the visible stars at any time and date. It is an instrument to assist in learning how to recognize stars and constellations.
Highpoint Scientific provides an article on how to read this and more on one of its many how-to resources.
Did you know …
Did you know that you can still find some old astronomy tools from many years ago?
An example is the Philip’s Planisphere from the early 1900’s. It can be found at abebooks.com for several hundred dollars. It’s an item at that price that would be something for collectors.
Currently, there are two at abobooks.com, one from 1880-1890 and the other from 1925.
On the lighter side of astronomy …
Members Submitted Articles & Items
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
NASA Artemis Accords
Shared by Vic Palmieri
Are you aware that Artemis, Apollo's twin sister, is NASA's name for the manned lunar program? Interestingly, along with this mission NASA, along with other countries with space capabilities, crafted the Artemis Accords to provide guidance and agreements for lunar and other space activities.
Westport Connecticut working towards Dark Sky Regulations.
Shared by Rosemarie Spedaliere and Vic Palmieri
Linked below is an article that was recently shared with Jim Webster our Dark Sky Advocate for New Jersey, by Rosemarie Spedaliere and Vic Palmieri.
What you may not know is we are also working towards this here in New Jersey.
I have been working with members of Dark Sky International, the Sierra Club, and some New Jersey officials, meeting monthly. We are working towards earning Dark Sky Place certification for Hopewell Valley. They have one major roadway to get lighting changed before we can start the process. It is quite possible we can work towards Island Beach State Park also getting some form of certification. I still need to work with them on this. If anyone is interested in learning more about what we are doing for New Jersey, please let me know.
What also may be of interest is if we can get two more advocates for New Jersey we will be able to start a New Jersey chapter for Dark Sky International. We have one member in South Jersey and someone in the western area.
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!
Looking Beyond the Stars
By Brian Kruse
Looking up in awe at the night sky, the stars and planets pop out as bright points against a dark background. All the stars that we see are nearby, within our own Milky Way Galaxy. And while the number of stars visible from a dark sky location seems immense, the actual number is measurable only in the thousands. But what lies between the stars and why can’t we see it? Both the Hubble telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) have revealed that what appears as a dark background, even in our backyard telescopes, is populated with as many galaxies as there are stars in the Milky Way.
So, why is the night sky dark and not blazing with the light of all those distant galaxies? Much like looking into a dense forest where every line of sight has a tree, every direction we look in the sky has billions of stars with no vacant spots. Many philosophers and astronomers have considered this paradox. However, it has taken the name of Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers, an early 19th-century German astronomer. Basically, Olbers Paradox asks why the night sky is dark if the Universe is infinitely old and static – there should be stars everywhere. The observable phenomenon of a dark sky leads us directly into the debate about the very nature of the Universe – is it eternal and static, or is it dynamic and evolving?
It was not until the 1960s with the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background that the debate was finally settled, though various lines of evidence for an evolving universe had built up over the previous half century. The equations of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity suggested a dynamic universe, not eternal and unchanging as previously thought. Edwin Hubble used the cosmic distance ladder discovered by Henrietta Swan Leavitt to show that distant galaxies are moving away from us – and the greater the distance, the faster they are moving away. Along with other evidence, this led to the recognition of an evolving Universe.
The paradox has since been resolved, now that we understand that the Universe has a finite age and size, with the speed of light having a definite value. Here is what is happening – due to the expansion of the Universe, the light from the oldest, most distant galaxies is shifted toward the longer wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. So, the farther an object is from us, the redder it appears. The Webb telescope is designed to detect light from distant objects in infrared light, beyond the visible spectrum. Other telescopes detect light at still longer wavelengths, where it is stretched into the radio and microwave portions of the spectrum. The farther back we look, the more things are shifted out of the visible, past the infrared, and all the way into the microwave wavelengths. If our eyes could see microwaves, we would behold a sky blazing with the light of the hot, young Universe – the Cosmic Microwave Background.
The next time you look up at the stars at night, turn your attention to the darkness between the stars and ponder how you are seeing the result of a dynamic, evolving Universe.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. This slice of the vast universe is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. (Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI) https://bit.ly/webbdeep
The oldest light in the universe, called the cosmic microwave background, as observed by the Planck space telescope is shown in the oval sky map. An artist's concept of Planck is next to the map. The cosmic microwave background was imprinted on the sky when the universe was just 380,000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today. (Image credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration - D. Ducros) https://go.nasa.gov/3qC4G5q
Let’s Explore Space - What’s in the Sky September 2023.
Stephan’s Quintet
Pegasus is returning and that means the jewels of the night are also back, Stephan’s Quintet.
A clash among members of a famous galaxy quintet reveals an assortment of stars across a wide color range, from young, blue stars to aging, red stars.
This portrait of Stephan’s Quintet, also known as Hickson Compact Group 92, was taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Stephan’s Quintet, as the name implies, is a group of five galaxies. The name, however, is a bit of a misnomer. Studies have shown that group member NGC 7320, at upper left, is actually a foreground galaxy about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group.
Three of the galaxies have distorted shapes, elongated spiral arms, and long, gaseous tidal tails containing myriad star clusters, proof of their close encounters. These interactions have sparked a frenzy of star birth in the central pair of galaxies. This drama is being played out against a rich backdrop of faraway galaxies.
For more visit NASA.Gov
From GalaticHunter.com
Stephan's Quintet, along with the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, can be found in the constellation of the flying horse: Pegasus. The group of objects is located on the Northern edge of the horse, right by the small constellation Lacerta.
You can easily starhop to it by first locating Pegasus' Great Square. Start from the bright star Beta Pegasi (also known as Scheat), which is the upper right star in the Pegasus square. From there, slowly make your way toward the closest bright star in Lacerta. You should be able to find NGC 7331 and Stephan's Quintet about three-fourths of the way there.
Stephan's Quintet is way too small and faint to be visible with the naked eye or binoculars. A large telescope with a high aperture is needed if you plan on observing this grouping of galaxies.
Stephan's Quintet is a fun but challenging target. It is best imaged with a large telescope, and including NGC 7331 is a must! To make your life easier, attempt this target from a dark site and only go for it if you do not have an easier object in mind.
Stephan’s Quintet is a group of five galaxies—NGC 7317, NGC 7318a, NGC 7318b, NGC 7319, and NGC 7320—generally located about 270 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Credit: IAU/Sky & Telescope.
For more on Stephan’s Quintet visit Hubble Space Telescope.
Tonight’s Sky: September
In September, Pegasus becomes increasingly prominent in the southeastern sky, allowing stargazers to locate globular star clusters and a nearby double star, Alpha Capricorni. Keep watching for space-based views of densely packed, spherical collections of ancient stars in visible and X-ray 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.