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Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York July 2010 Volume 58 Number 7, ISSN 0146-7662

EYEPIECE
every week since, except for a break during the winter months of December through March, and the inevitable cancellations due to overcast skies. Key to our success has been our partnership with the Friends of the High Line. From the start, we wanted them to be aware of what we were doing. They were a little skeptical at first, thinking we intended to bring a large group of our own people, thus interfering with foot traffic. We assured them this was not the case, that we simply wanted to reach out to visitors to the High Line. By October, they saw we were serious and could be depended upon to show up each week. They featured us on their website and began to include us in promotional material they sent to the media. It's hard to overstate the value of this promotion. We're regularly listed in online and print media. Do a Google search for High Line Stargazing and you'll get hundreds of hits. Increasingly, many people who stop to look through our telescopes say they've read about our observing sessions and have come specifically to see us. So what makes the High Line such a great spot for stargazing? It's not the dark surroundings--other AAA observing sites are much darker. It's not the elevation-30 feet hardly makes a difference. To paraphrase Willie Sutton about banks and money, it's because "that's where the people are." Continuous streams of curious people, excited and happy to be walking along one of the most beautiful parks in New York City. Because it was once a railroad line, the park is long and very narrow. New visitors tend to walk from one end to the other, so most will walk past our telescopes whereHigh Line continued on page 12

The Success of AAA Observing on the Revitalized High Line
By Joe Delfausse
Built in the 1930s as an elevated freight line on the west side of Manhattan, the High Line originally ran a mile and a half from St. John's Park Terminal in the West Village to the West Side Rail Yards at 34th Street. With the growth of interstate trucking in the 1950s, traffic on the High Line diminished, and the southernmost section was torn down. During the 1980s, the entire line was threatened, but concerned citizens and community groups successfully fought against its demolition. The Friends of the High Line was established in 1999 with the goal of turning the rail line into a public park. The group raised funds, held design competitions, spoke out in the media and worked tirelessly with city, state and federal agencies. Their efforts paid off in 2005, when New York City took ownership of the line from the railroad company. Construction of the first phase of the park, from Gansevoort to 20th Street, began in April 2006. The park opened in June 2009 and has thus far attracted more than 2 million visitors. Although the park is formally part of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the Friends of the High Line is responsible for all public programs, for continuing planning and advocacy, and for 70% of the High Line's ongoing maintenance and operations, including care of the extraordinary plantings. AAA's involvement with the High Line began in July 2009, with an informal visit by some of us following a send-off dinner for Tony Hoffman, who was about to leave for China to see the solar eclipse. We took a look around and thought it might make a good observing site. After a few preliminary visits with our telescopes, and a number of introductory e-mails to the AAA board and the general membership, we began our weekly observing sessions August 25. We've gone up to the High Line


What's Up
By Tony Hoffman The Sky for July 2010
Polynesian Solar Eclipse. On July 11, a total solar eclipse crosses the South Pacific. The Moon's shadow begins its trek to the northeast of New Zealand and ends up in the Andes near the southern tip of South America. It only makes landfall in a few places. Mangaia, in the Cook Islands, will see 3 minutes 18 seconds of totality. The path of totality will pass just south of Tahiti, from which cruises and flights will intercept the Moon's shadow. Maximum eclipse of 5 minutes 20 seconds will occur over open ocean. Easter Island, totally within the eclipse path, will experience 4 minutes 41 seconds of totality. Tourists and eclipse chasers there will see numerous images of the eclipsed Sun amid the island's renowned giant stone figures. Just before sunset, the Moon's shadow touches southern Chile and finally, the Argentine resort town of El Calafate. Although it will be in the midst of the Southern Hemisphere winter, hearty tourists will gather there to get a glimpse of the eclipsed sun, barely a degree above the horizon, across the town's lake and amid the Andean peaks beyond. No part of the United States will see even the eclipse's partial phases. Planet-Filled Dusks. Three relatively bright planets lie in the evening sky this month. Over the course of the month, Venus, Saturn and Mars approach each other near the Leo-Virgo border, and in the second half of July they're joined by Mercury. At magnitude -4.3, Venus is the most brilliant of these worlds. At mid-month Mercury shines at magnitude -0.5 and fades to magnitude 0.1 by month's end. An unobstructed horizon is necessary to see the planet, which sets before twilight ends. Saturn gleams at magnitude 1.1 near the star Beta Virginis. Its rings are only inclined 3 degrees to our line of sight. Mars glows at magnitude 1.4. When these worlds have set, another brilliant planet appears on the scene: Jupiter blazes at magnitude -2.6 in southern Pisces. Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul
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Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul

y y y y y y y

14 16 18 25 27 28 31

Moon lies near Venus. Moon lies near Mars and Saturn. First-quarter Moon at 6:11 a.m. Full Moon at 9:37 p.m. Mercury lies near Regulus. Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks. Moon lies near Jupiter.

Jupiter Rules Morning Sky, Saturn the Evening Sky
By Joseph A. Fedrick
Jupiter finally began to rise early enough to appear in a completely dark sky during May and June. It dominated the morning sky soon after, rising around 4 a. m. in late May and 3 a. m. in early June. Jupiter's Great Red Spot transited around 4 a. m. June 2 but appeared very pale and barely perceptible in my six-inch Newtonian reflector at 150x. When I looked at Jupiter with my 60mm refractor and my six-inch reflector in May and June, I observed the south equatorial belt was still faded and the north equatiorial belt was still prominent. I could see faint gray belts at higher latitudes in Jupiter as well, north and south of the main equatorial belts. I could see through my telescopes that at the higher latitudes toward the poles there are several fainter--temperate zone--belts. Saturn ruled the evening sky and made a splendid target May 25 for Michael O'Gara's small apochromatic refractor that was set up on the High Line near 14th Street and 10th Avenue. Saturn revealed nearly edge-on rings and faint brown cloud belts against its pale oblate yellow-tan disk. Another scope was pointed at Venus, which looked gibbous and dazzling bright. Coral-pink Mars showed a stunning contrast with the bluish star Regulus when viewed through a pair of opera glasses. The nearly full Moon, viewed through another scope, revealed craters along its terminator and at least one marginal mare along its limb just beyond Mare Crisium. The skies became cloudy and murky as June progressed so I was unable to see Jupiter become nearly aligned with Uranus prior to June 5, the time of this writing. Hopefully, by later on in June clearer skies will have enabled my viewing of this event.

y y y y y y

3 Moon lies near Jupiter. 4 Last-quarter Moon at 10:35 a.m. 6 Earth at aphelion, 94.5 million miles from Sun. 9 Venus lies 1.1 degrees from Regulus. 11 New Moon at 3:40 p.m.; total solar eclipse. 13 Moon at perigee, 224,386 miles away, 7:22 a.m.


A Message from AAA President Richard Rosenberg
Hello, members: Summer is here and so far the weather has been good to us. The summer sky this year features three planets: Venus, Mars and Saturn. They'll be our main targets as they approach each other for a grand conjunction in August. To see them, we've added several observing sites. Board member Gerceida Jones has arranged a special session July 17 at St. Albans Park in Queens. For information: www.aaa.org/stalbanspark or 646-302-5892. Also in Queens, Tony Hoffman is arranging stargazing July 19 at a park at 63rd Road and 98th Street in Rego Park. For details, check our website at www.aaa.org/regopark or 718-459-0598. Cloud date is Wednesday the 21st. On the last two days of July, we'll have more get-togethers, this time in Brooklyn. On July 30, I'll give a talk followed by observing at the Avenue U Salt Marsh Nature Center. The next evening we'll be at another new site, Fort Greene Park, at 9 p. m. Info at www.aaa.org/saltmarsh and www.aaa.org/fortgreene, or call me. For really dark skies, we have our monthly trips to North-South Lake in the Catskills. This month it will on July 10, with cloud date a week later. Do you think learning how to use an 8-inch telescope is hard? You're in for a surprise at "Movies with a View," at Pier 1 in Brooklyn. Not only do you get to watch a film for free, but four Dobsonian telescopes are set up for AAA members to operate. All you have to do is align the finder scope and push the scope to the proper position. We'll have a few regulars there to help out. The eight-week series on Thursday nights begins July 8 with "Annie Hall." More information is at www.aaa.org/movieswithaview, or give me a call. All these events, plus our usual ones, will be held this month with the exception of observing at Floyd Bennett Field, which is taking a summer hiatus. Fall will be here before we know it, and our Urban Starfest, our autumn gathering of scopes in Central Park, has been set for Saturday, October 16 (cloud date the next evening). Save the date. Rich Rosenberg, AAA president, president @aaa.org, (718) 522-5014

AAAers Contribute to Success of World Science Festival
With a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope in the backdrop, AAA members and other amateur astronomers equipped with scopes gathered June 5 in Battery Park for a public evening of stargazing as part of the week-long 2010 World Science Festival. "The contrast between the giant, tennis court-sized replica of the Webb telescope [to launch in 2014] and the amateur scopes...on the grass was a reminder of the strong partnership between the professional and amateur astronomical communities," SPACE.com reported. "For most things, if you put the word amateur in front of it, it would make it a lesser thing," said Hayden director Neil deGrasse Tyson. "You wouldn't feel comfortable going to see an amateur brain surgeon or an amateur lawyer. But to call yourself an amateur astronomer, that's a badge of honor." "There are so many opportunities for amateurs to get involved now that wouldn't normally be available," AAA board member Tony Hoffman told SPACE.com. "It's incredible the possibilities that are open to amateurs because of the way that telescopes have evolved in the last couple of decades." Festival continued on page 4
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British Amateur Astronomer is First to Spy Comet Breakup
By Tony Hoffman
On March 18, British amateur astronomer Nick Howes used his computer at work to train a publically accessible robotic telescope on a passing comet, and made a surprising discovery. He was the first person to catch Comet C/2007 Q3 Siding Spring in the process of fragmentation. Howes had observed and photographed the 10thmagnitude comet from his backyard observatory the previous two nights and had noticed nothing unusual, but wanted to see how it appeared in a larger scope. When he examined the six images he'd instructed the Faulkes Telescope North on Maui to take, he noticed the comet had a fainter companion: A small condensation behind the main nucleus. Realizing that Comet Siding Spring was splitting, he reported it to the International Astronomical Union, which later termed his find a "major astronomical discovery." The next day, Howes took follow-up images, which confirmed the object was moving with the comet, although receding slowly from it, and therefore a true fragment rather than a background star. This discovery bears out the fact that it's still possible for amateur astronomers to make important contributions to astronomy, finding things that professionals have overlooked. It helps to have resources like the Faulkes Telescope Project (http://faulkes-telescope.com/), which provides free access to its remote telescopes for educational purposes. Although astronomers have been aware that comets occasionally split (Biela's comet, the Great Comet of 1882, and Comet West being notable examples), the past decade has seen a spate of cometary breakups. Comet Holmes' million-fold spike in brightness is believed to have coincided with such a splitting. The nearly 2,000 Kreutz sungrazing comets found in images from SOHO and other solar observatories show the progressive breakup of a comet in a cascading series of fragmentations. Analysis of these events has greatly improved our understanding of the role of fragmentation in the life history of comets.
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Comet C2007 Q3 Siding Spring was discovered by Donna Burton of the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. It reached perihelion on October 7, 2009. It's slowly fading as it recedes from the Sun on a hyperbolic orbit that will take it into interstellar space, never to return. For news of another amateur discovery, see page 14. Festival continued from page 3 In a panel discussion, astronomer Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute noted the impact technological advancements have had on amateur astronomy. Hoffman's telescope, which he described as "very good for its size," cost about $1,000. Improvements to the power and resolution of telescopes enable amateurs to see farther into the cosmos, equipping them with tools necessary to make discoveries and track big events, SPACE. com noted. In particular, technology advancements, widespread availability of telescopes and the ubiquitous nature of the Internet have contributed to bolstering the community of amateur astronomers, said John Mather, a Nobel Prize winner and the Webb's senior project scientist, according to SPACE.com. Hammel said collisions on Jupiter last year and this year highlight the important and increasingly cohesive partnership between amateurs and professionals. "No single thing has engendered as much public interest as the Hubble Space Telescope," AAA board member Bruce Kamiat told SPACE.com. "It's become a big part of our culture." For Hoffman, the promise of the Webb telescope's possible discoveries is what excites him the most. "It has the potential to do things that Hubble couldn't do. With infrared, it has the potential to be groundbreaking in a different way."


The Arrow of Time May Not be in One Direction
By David Teich
An important doctrine of cosmology is the Copernican principle, which says Earth occupies no special place. We're neither at the center nor the edge of anything, be it solar system, galaxy, local group, galactic cluster or universe. There should be nothing special about the time we're living in either. Our "now" shouldn't be any more special than our "here." What, after all, is so special about us, or about the universe we happen to find ourselves in, either regarding time or space? But the time we live in is special, says Sean Carroll, who spoke May 10 at the AMNH on "The Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time." Our seemingly random spot in time is not random at all. It's a time in cosmic history given special privilege by the Big Bang. The Big Bang set the arrow of time in motion, but there's a problem: The directionality imparted to time is a big puzzle for physicists. This is because in the fundamental laws of physics nothing says time should go only one way. Time would be just as compatible with physics if it went backwards. Physics is about symmetry, and something that can only go one way isn't symmetrical. Why do species evolve? Why do we remember yesterday and not tomorrow, and grow old and die? The culprit is entropy, the measure of "disorderliness" of a system. More precisely, it's a measure of different ways components of a system can be arranged. Take an egg, Carroll said. Unbroken, yolk and white are separate and pristine. You can arrange the molecules of yolk or white any way you want inside the egg as long as you keep them separate. But break the egg, mix the two and make an omelet. There are a lot more ways you can arrange molecules of yolk and white together without having to arrange yolk to one side and white to the other. The Big Bang is like that unbroken egg. All the atoms and particles in the universe were once packed into a tiny, seething space at the moment of the Big Bang. How many ways could you arrange the components--or component--of that singularity? Not many, and that's the definition of a low-entropy system. So, why does time go only one way? Because things run in the direction of increasing entropy. They do so because, left to their own devices, things like particles and molecules will follow the least restrictive route. High-entropy, less orderly, more random arrangements are always more likely. When the Big Bang happened, a delicate low-entropy arrangement came apart, gravity "turned up the contrast knob," things got lumpy, galaxies formed, dark energy took over and things started to expand faster and faster. Whatever else is going on, this all means one thing: The future will look different from the past. In fact, about a googol years from now (10 to the hundredth power), Carroll said, after all the stars have been swallowed by black holes and those black holes have evaporated away due to Hawking Radiation, there will be nothing left but empty space. A crucial point, and a way through this enigma, is the realization that if our universe, or any universe, had been randomly chosen, it would more likely be a high-entropy universe, not our low-entropy Big Bang. So maybe, Carroll said, we should just think of the Big Bang not as the beginning of anything, but as part of a process in which random fluctuations of energy in old, spent universes spawn baby universes via a Big Bang. Remember, he said, empty space produces random energy. When you step back and look at the whole shebang, the Big Bang loses its uniqueness. It's just another step in a low- and high-entropy cycle. Maybe there's another universe time is going in the opposite direction. backwards. It proceeds normally. It's spective: They're in our distant past, we whose arrow of Time isn't going a matter of perin theirs.

Carroll is the author of "From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time," published early this year (Dutton, $26.95).
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Dark Matter Seen Shaping Universe on a Galactic Scale
By Gerceida Jones
Dr. Peter Fisher, division head, particle and nuclear experimental physics at MIT, speaking at the Hayden April 12, said he believes dark matter's role is to shape the universe on a galactic scale. Dark energy is just as mysterious and under Boyle's Law, at constant temperature dark energy implodes. "No one has the first clue what dark energy is," although scientists believe it causes expansion of the universe to accelerate. Fisher noted that "the most distant supernova [are] a little too dim for their distance. There's something pushing them apart faster than we would expect for the amount of matter in our universe. "The dimness of distant supernovae is best explained by a dark energy," which can be substantiated by the cosmic microwave background and the structure of large clusters of galaxies. A new generation of telescopes will study how dark energy changes with time. Fisher noted that the man credited with discovering dark matter in the Coma cluster of nebulae, Fritz Zwicky, assumed he could measure cluster masses by observing a galaxy's motion. Zwicky painstakingly measured the speeds of individual galaxies, gauged their average orbital velocity, applied Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation to estimate the cluster's mass and then compared that mass to the cluster's luminosity (mass-to-light ratio). To his surprise, Zwicky found galaxy clusters have much more mass than their luminosities suggested. "Zwicky's findings were verified and the amount of dark matter in the cluster was 50 times more mass than the combined mass of the stars in the cluster's galaxy." Today scientists have more sophisticated ways to measure dark matter in a galaxy, such as X-ray emission from hot gases between the cluster galaxies, and by observing how clusters bend light as gravitational lenses. Fisher noted another pioneer in the discovery of dark matter, Vera Rubin. She and Kent Ford constructed rotational curves of hydrogen gas in many large and small galaxies. By using the redshift of hydrogen gas, they
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found velocity continued to rise from the galactic center way past its visible light edge with a constant velocity (flat rotation curves). On what we know about dark matter in our galaxy, Fisher said, "We know dark matter is found in the halo surrounding the disk of baryonic (ordinary) matter." According to WMAP, baryonic matter is 4% of the universe's density, dark matter 23% and dark energy 73%. Density of dark matter particles is some three particles per liter volume in a room the size of the Hayden. They move at about one thousandth the speed of light, and only one will interact with a nucleus in an entire year. Fisher described dark matter as heavy particles, more than 100 times a proton's mass. They move more slowly so their mutual gravity could hold them together. These hypothetical particles, sometimes called WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles), are also known as cold dark matter. Because they're weakly interacting particles, it's easy for them to escape direct detection. "Dark matter can be detected with germanium and silicon crystals cryogenically frozen to absolute zero, by using nuclear recoil. When particles recoil...they make an electrical signature that can be...recorded...and they generate a tiny amount of heat." Fisher is engaged in new projects based on directional sensitivity detection. A new particle detector in Carlsbad, N. M., 1,600 feet underground, detects cosmic rays from outer space. Another detector, the dark matter time projection chamber, will search for dark-matter wind. Fisher is determined to find out what dark matter is composed of. To that end, an alpha magnetic spectrometer will be on the ISS scheduled to launch in November. The mission will search for unusual types of matter by measuring cosmic rays, studying the formation of the universe and searching for dark matter and antimatter. Fisher believes the Large Hadron Collider might produce dark-matter particles, but attempts to find dark energy may prove too difficult and expensive.


Review: Galileo Advanced Science, Fighting All the Way
By Anne Kiefer
When I opened David Whitehouse's biography, "Renaissance Genius: Galileo Galilei & His Legacy to Modern Science" (Sterling, $24.95), I expected a dense volume filled with complex science and dry historical anecdotes. Instead, I found an easy-to-read account of the soap opera that was Galileo's life. Galileo's story was one of great turbulence as he went from relative anonymity to fame and fortune, all the while struggling with failing health, a needy family and his constant battle with authority. Even his scientific advances were fraught with drama, as he faced stiff competition to be the first and the best. Most know the story of Galileo's discoveries, but this book sheds light on the story of his personal tragedies and ultimate betrayal. Whether you're a Galileo expert or simply have a vague idea that he's somehow related to the telescope, you can enjoy Whitehouse's account of Galileo's life. For the beginner, the book gives clear and concise descriptions of what Galileo believed in, what he discovered and how he influenced science today. For those already familiar with his work, the book puts these basics in the context of his struggle to belong in Italian universities and society as a whole. When I began this book, my understanding of Galileo didn't go beyond the basics of his many discoveries and innovations. Whitehouse explores how Galileo as a man influenced Galileo as a philosopher and scientist. Galileo's struggle with the expectations of his father early on was in line with his constant struggle with authority within universities and the Catholic Church that defined the rest of his story. In stark contrast to his tendency to play the role of the rebel, Galileo constantly struggled to be accepted by universities and the aristocracy. Much of his early career was spent trying to make enough money to keep up with the financial demands of his family's social stature. In fact, one of the few reasons he embarked on perfecting the telescope was to procure a raise to help him support his family's financial commitments. To ensure success, he needed to be accepted by universities and make as many powerful friends as he could. Unfortunately, he often made bad decisions that cost him alliances and friendships. In the end, as he faced the wrath of the Inquisition, he was abandoned by all but a few of his friends, most notably by Pope Urban VIII, who, despite their former friendship, showed him little mercy. One of the most difficult things about reading the story of Galileo was understanding the mindset of his opposition. He was obviously correct about many of the things church leaders and academics were resistant to. For someone whose understanding of the universe is based on current scientific theory, it's difficult to accept that academics could look through a telescope, disagree with what they saw and conclude that the instrument was lying. Whitehouse quotes a letter from German Lutherian Martin Horky to Johannes Kepler in 1610 that said, "Galileo Galilei...came to us in Bologna and he brought with him that spyglass through which he sees four fictitious planets. . . .On Earth it works miracles; in the heavens it deceives." However, to chalk this response up to absurdity is to understate the importance of Galileo's conclusions. In order to truly appreciate the significance of Galileo's work, I first had to understand the strength of conviction of his opposition. Whitehouse's book moves swiftly through the complicated history of Galileo's shifting alliances within Italian society, universities and the church. Although the constant stream of names and titles can be difficult to follow, Whitehouse adeptly incorporates details of Galileo's discoveries and publications into his chronology, providing a well-rounded picture of his life and work. The book is beautiful, its glossy pages adorned with paintings and drawings. They connect the reader to the art and culture of 17th century Italy, where the rebirth of thought wasn't confined to the philosophy of the universe. This book reminded me that Galileo's legacy isn't only seen in modern telescopes and our understanding of the universe, but in our ability to see beyond the boundaries of accepted thought.
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Highlights of Presentations at AAS Meeting in Miami
A bullet-shaped object can be seen rocketing out of the huge explosion from a dying star in a new longexposure Chandra X-ray image. The image shows N49, the aftermath of a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The bullet is going about 5 million mph. This source may be a soft gamma-ray repeater that emits bursts of gamma-rays and X-rays. The objects may be neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields. The bright source is more obscured by gas than expected if it lies inside the supernova remnant. The explosion's energy is estimated at about twice an average supernova's. Preliminary results suggest the original explosion was caused by collapse of a massive star. A comet plunging into the Sun has been captured in 3-D for the first time. The comet apparently survived the intense heat of the Sun's corona and disappeared in the thin layer of plasma between the Sun's visible surface and the corona. The comet eventually evaporated in heat of almost 180,000 degrees. The Sun-grazing comet made its only loop around the Sun before crashing and burning. Data were so precise scientists could chart the comet's approach two days before impact. The estimated impact zone is within a circle 620 miles in diameter. Two massive, bubbling clouds of star-making factories were captured in a photo by a NASA space telescope that's surveying the sky in infrared. The Heart and Soul nebulae were imaged by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). WISE is producing about 7,500 images a day in four infrared wavelengths. The nebulae are about 6,000 light-years away in Cassiopeia. They have giant bubbles blown into surrounding dust by radiation and winds from the stars. The image is a composite of 1,147 frames, with a three-and-a-half-hour exposure. The ability of life to thrive on alien worlds may be impacted by weird orbits of giant neighboring planets, new studies suggest. Heftier worlds could exert large forces on smaller worlds, pushing and pulling them into changing orbits. In some cases, these orbits could cause some exoplanets to fluctuate between being habitable and inhospitable to life. Findings show some violent events can disrupt planets' orbits after a system forms. Researchers used data and modeling to unearth info about the system surrounding Upsilon Andromedae, a yellow-white dwarf 44 light-years away and similar to
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our Sun. Three Jupiter-type planets orbit Upsilon Andromedae. Two orbits are at a steep angle to one another. These orbits probably resulted from ejection of an original member of the system. But it's unknown whether the star's distant companion forced the ejection, or if the system formed so that some planets were ejected. Strange behavior from two huge black holes at the center of two galaxies has been noticed. One, in Andromeda, has been mysteriously brightening in recent years. Another isn't where astronomers thought it was. In the first study, erratic behavior of Andromeda's supermassive black hole puzzled researchers. It became 100 times brighter after a 2006 outburst, then relatively dim while still averaging 10 times brighter than before. The outburst suggests a relatively high rate of matter had been falling onto the black hole, followed by a smaller but still significan