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Journal of the Amateur Astrono mers Association of New York September 2011 Volume 59 Number 9 ISSN 0146-7662

EYEPIECE
A Note From the Editor
Dear Eyepiece Reader : This is my last issue as editor of Eyepiece. After 11 years, 134 issues and around 2,000 pages, Ive decided to train my lens on some new horizons, giving me time to focus on personal goals previously kept in check due to my responsibilities as editor. I leave with sincer e thanks to a number of people. First are those members who have volunteer ed their valuable time to write for Eyepiece. The quality of the writing during my editorship has been excellent, which has made my job much easier than it might ha ve been. I want to specifica lly highlight the efforts of four dedicated individuals. First is former president Lynn Darsh, who has been a consistent source of good counsel when I felt I needed two mor e eyes and one mor e brain, and who has been a superb production ma nager. Second is Ed Fox, the spear carrier for Eyepieces electronic edition. Third is Marcelo Cabrera, who integrated the paper with the clubs website. Fourth is Jocelyn Wilkes, the stalwart of the monthly mailings. The mundane nature of the mailings has always been lessened by her great wit and mostly British refr eshments. Eyepieces new editor is my friend Evan Schneider. Evans energy level as a club member and faithful Eyepiece contributor for the past two years has been as infectious as its been palpable. He is alrea dy brimming with innovative ideas for the paper. I know I can count on my tea m to be his tea m, and carry the paper to even gr eater heights. As they say in astronomy, "Clear skies." Or as an unknown writer once said, "May the wind always be at your back." Dan Harrison David Saving almost outcry

How Hubble Was Saved: AAA Member's New Film
By Dan Harrison
New York filmmaker and AAA member Gaynes is readying his one-hour documentary, " Hubble," a look at how the iconic telescope was killed but was then kept going thanks to a major from the public.

In 2004, NASA decided to cancel a mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble, which needed new batteries, a gyroscope and a range of scientific equipment to continue functioning. The agency, in the person of administrator Sean OKeefe, said it would be too risky to fly to the Hubble. A year earlier, the space program had been rocked by the Columbia disaster, in which seven crew members were killed. The film observes that in the wake of Columbia, the Hubble, arguably the most significant telescope since Galileo, was in danger of being left to die. "If Hubble wer ent repair ed, it would freeze in orbit. By some estimates, it only had a year left." The film somewhat dryly observes that while OKeefe gave safety as the r eason for cancelling the servicing mission, "he was regarded as a bean counter." A writer also obser ves that "NASA thought the public would only believe in space if astronauts wer e ther e." This, in turn, was the impetus for the Space Shuttle and the Internationa l Space Station. In any event, the proposed cancellation "was a minor event swept up in the news cycle. But the public protest wasnt long in coming. People didnt want to jettison an instrument that not only produced spectacular photos, but also focused strongly on science and engineer ing, and Hubble continued on page 7


What's Up
The Sky in September 2011 By Richard Rosenberg
September's Evening Planets. Saturn has been our ma in target the last few months, but now is getting very low. By mid-month, it will be lost in twilight. Fortunately, coming into view at this time is Jupiter, with its retinue of four moons easily visible in a telescope. On the beginning of the month, Jupiter rises at 10 PM; by months end it will appear at 8 PM. Meanwhile, Venus slowly escapes from the Sun and can be seen the last week of September, the beginning of a long apparition. September's Evening Stars. For an unusual event, check September 3 below. From a dark location, the Milky Way will appear as a long belt of faint light extending fr om Sagittarius and Scorpius north to the Summer Triangle. Even if youre city-bound, check out the beautiful double stars Albir eo in Cygnus and Epsilon Lyrae in Lyra. Its even possible from NYC to detect the Lagoon Nebula with binoculars. September's Morning Planets. Jupiter in Aries is high a nd brilliant. Also visible and slowly brightening is Mars. Watch it move rapidly through Gemini. In the last few days of the month, hunt for Mercury befor e sunrise. September's Morning Stars. Befor e sunrise, look for brilliant Orion rising in the southeast. Follow his belt to the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull. All the bright winter stars in Auriga, Taurus, Orion, Gemini, and Canis Minor and Canis Major can be seen. September 3 The bright star Delta Scorpii will be occulted by the Moon at 10:32 p. m. The event is visible in NYC, but Moon and star will be low. September 3 Mercury is at greatest western inclination from the Sun. September 4 First Quarter Moon at 1:39 PM. September 9 Mercury passes less than 1° left of Regulus. Use binoculars. September 12 Full Moon at 5:27 AM. September 16 Jupiter is near the Moon tonight. September 16 Ceres, the largest asteroid, is at opposition. September 20 Last Quarter Moon at 9:39 AM. September 23 Mars is upper left of the Moon. September 23 Autumn begins at 5:05 AM.
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September 25 Uranus is at opposition tonight. September 26 Look for a ver y thin crescent Moon just above the eastern horizon a half hour befor e sunrise. September 27 New Moon at 7:09 AM. September 28 Mercury is at superior conjunction. September 28 Last chance to spot Saturn less than 2° above Venus 15 minutes after sunset. For more information on the Internet, go to http://www.aaa.org/month1109.

Orion Reappears in August
By Joseph A. Fedrick
This summer has been a bit frustrating with its hazy skies, resulting in little good observing. On August 8, I arose at 5 and saw Orion rising in the east. Mars was only a tiny coral pink dot in my 60mm refractor at 50x and 100x. Jupiter displayed four moons, two dark brown equatorial belts and other faint gray belts in my refractor at 100x. Mars was east of the Hyades that mor ning. Jupiter was high up in Ares the Ram. I saw five members of the P leaides naked eye that mor ning, but that was fewer than the eight I could see in unusually clear skies late last winter and early spring. I tried looking for the peak of the Perseid meteor shower August 13 at 4:30 a. m., but the full Moon was still out and a thin cirrus haze sprea d across the sky at my location in the Bronx. Although I saw no meteors, I could observe Orion rising in the east and Jupiter high above in Ar es.

Freeman Dyson Kicks Off AAA Lectures October 21
Dr. Freema n J. Dyson, one of the nations most renowned physicists and professor emer itus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N. J., will open the AAAs 2011-12 lecture series Friday, October 21 when Dyson continued on page 3


A Message from AAA President Richard Rosenberg
Hello members: I mentioned Camp Simcha last month. If you reca ll, this is a ca mp near Port Jervis wher e seriously ill childr en ca n get a taste of the outdoors. Unfortunately, weather foiled our star party ther e a few weeks ago, but as you read this, we hopefully ha d a successful trip the last week of August. We ma y have the opportunity to host several of these summertime events in the future, introducing childr en to the sky in the evening, followed by our own deep -sky pursuits after the kids have gone to bed. A win-win situation. Although it wont compare with Port Jervis, Fort Tilden in the Rockawa ys rivals Great Kills and Floyd Bennett Field for the darkest location in the city. On Saturday, September 3, well be at our newest observing site from 8 to 11 p. m. (rain date the next evening). Ther es a toll of $3.25 each way. Artist Jon Morris left Kentucky four years ago to come to New York. He misses the starry sky and recr eated the night sky with la mps on the decaying posts of Pier 49 in the Hudson River. To see his wor k and get mor e information, go to http://www.thewindmillfactory.com/r eflecting_the_stars.html. Weve been watching Saturn for quite a while, but its about to be lost in the Suns glare. Fortunately, a replacement has arrived: Jupiter will be visible in the evening sky for several months. Drop by one of our observing sessions and check out its belts and watch its moons change their position nightly. On Saturday, September 17, the Friends of Hudson River Park will host an Equinox F estival on Pier 84 at West 44th Street. There will be music, and at the end of the pier well have pr operly-filtered scopes to view the Sun in daytime and the stars at night. We should have a very inter esting class this autumn. Details will appear in next months Eyepiece. As you know by now, this is Dan Harrison's last issue as editor of Eyepiece. Theres no comparison between the newspaper he inherited 11 years ago and todays publication n. Thanks, Dan, for making Eyepiece what it is. Rich Rosenberg, president@aaa.org, (718) 522-5014 Dyson continued from page 2 he spea ks on "Other Ways of Looking for Life in the Sky." The fr ee public lecture begins at 6:15 p. m. in the Kaufma nn Theater of the AMNH. Dysons talk will be the clubs annual John Marshall Memor ial Lecture, honoring a past president and executive director who was instrumental in the AAAs growth. Marshall died in 1997. Noting search for tells Eyepi search for that he's always had a strong interest in the extraterrestrial life, the 87-year-old Dyson ece hell talk about neglected opportunities to life in the universe. "All the media hype is concentrated on pla nets as the places to look for life. Planets are certainly worth exploring, but Ive made a $100 bet that the first discover y of extraterrestrial life will not be on a planet. "Most of the real estate, measured by surface are a and not by mass, isnt on pla nets. This is true for the solar system and for the universe. Most of the real estate is on small objects: comets, asteroids, moons and dust grains. Most of the r eal estate is cold and icy rather than warm and wet. The basic characteristic of life is to be adaptable to harsh conditions. If life is loose in the universe, it will probably have spread to the small cold objects wher e most of the r eal estate and most of the accesDyson continued on page 10
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Binoviewers Can Improve Your Views of Many Objects
By George Hripcsak
Binoviewers promise a more comfortable, improved view of astronomical objects. A binoviewer looks like a small pair of binoculars, wher e one end fits into a telescopes focuser, and two identical eyepieces fit in its other end. The binoviewer splits the light bea m from the telescope into parallel bea ms, each about half as bright as the original, one for each eyepiece. The binoviewer has several effects. It allows you to relax your eyes, because you dont need to hold one shut. It uses both your eyes, which averages out ocular defects like floaters. It seems to improve the minds perception of details. And it sometimes gives a pleasing thr eedimensional feel to the view, although the view isnt actually thr ee-dimensional. The prism-based bea m splitter isnt perfect, however, so ther es some loss of light and some degradation of the ima ge. There are two main challenges to binoviewers: Theyr e expensive, a nd its difficult to bring them to focus in most telescopes. The expense is due to the need for precision prisms and the need to buy a pair of identical eyepieces. A binoviewer costs around $250 for a cheap one, mor e than $500 for a solid one (Denkmeier I, EarthWin, etc.), mor e tha n $1,000 for a better one (Denkmeier II, Televue) and $2,000 for the best (Baader Mark V). Add $200 to $600 for the eyepieces. Because of the binoviewers prisms, the light has to travel farther than usual to get from the telescopes objective lens or mirror to the eyepieces. In most cases, you need to a dd special lenses that accommodate the focus, but they also raise the magnification and reduce the field of view. I purchased a Denkmeier II binoviewer "Super System" (it includes the special lenses), which was on sale at a reduced price at the Northeast Astronomy Forum in April. In a 70mm r efractor with a hydrogen-a lpha solar filter, the view was amazing. Low-contrast solar-surface details jumped out far more than with the monocular view. It felt as if the telescope suddenly got bigger or the filter suddenly got better. In a 5-inch refractor with a white-light solar filter, the effect was similarly impressive. Granulation of the Suns surface stood out in the binoviewers but was washed out even in my best eyepiece without it. If I closed one eye while looking
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t t t t i

hrough the binoviewer, the view immediately r everted o single-eyepiece view. When I opened the eye again, he expansive granulation took about two seconds to reurn. This delay ma kes me suspect its a perceptual issue n the way the brain mer ges the ima ges from the eyes.

In the 70mm refractor, the binoviewer improved a view of the Moon only a little, but in a 10-inch r eflector, the Moon was stunning. Ive viewed the Moon for decades, but this was probably as impr essive as my fir st ever view of the Moon in a telescope. First, I noticed that the edge of the Moon is not at all round, but highly irregular due to surface features. Second, there are numerous crisscrossing rays due to mater ial ejected from meteor impacts. Third, some features felt strikingly bright or dark. These are all things that I can see with one eye, but they just didnt ha ve the sa me visual impact. Ive seen low-power views of the Moon in r egular binoculars and high-power monocular views of the Moon in large telescopes countless times, but none matched this view. I tried the binoviewer out on a number of nighttime objects in a n 18-inch reflector. Globular clusters looked nice in the binoviewer and took on a 3-D effect, although the monocular view was slightly brighter and sharper. The bright planetary nebula M27 ha d a similar effect, as did the Veil Nebula and the dim galaxy M101. In each case, the binoviewer view felt more relaxed, but the monocular view was slightly brighter with slightly more detail. When I got tir ed at the end of the evening, I stayed with the monocular view. I didn't get much chance with the planets. Saturn was about the same with or without the binoviewer in the 70mm r efractor. I wonder if Jupiter in the 18-inch would be as impressive as the Moon in the 10-inch. The binoviewer was easy to use in all the telescopes except the 10-inch r eflector. I got the lunar view only by hand holding the binoviewer away from the focuser, not a practical solution. In sum, large, bright objects with interesting, subtle detail can benefit enor mously from binoviewers, but objects that are dim or small dont benefit as much.


A System for Amateurs to Seek Out Exoplanets
By Edward J. Fox
"It really is the wisdom of the crowd," says Meg Schwa mb, a Yale University postdoctoral fellow who serves as lea d project scientist hunting planets in Kepler data with the Planet Hunters Project. Shes commenting on the contribution a mateurs are ma king in analyzing vast amounts of data collected by the Kepler mission in its hunt for exopla nets. The Kepler satellite stares at 150,000 stars around the clock, looking for tiny dips of light. That change in luminescence ma y indicate a planet is passing in front of its star. No human could possibly sort through all that data, so the Kepler tea m has created a kind of sifter software that looks for light patterns, hinting at planets. But while computers are terrific at high-volume da ta processing, nothing beats the huma n eye for pattern recognition. Thats why Yale astronomer Debra Fischer, a veteran planet hunter and Kepler project scientist, has developed another progra m to let huma ns check the da ta for patterns. Its turned out to be extraordinarily useful. Called Planethunters.org, it lets ordinary folks, with no scientific training, help find planets Kepler software has missed. Its very simple and instruction nor mally just requir es viewing a brief, ha nds -on demonstration. The online progra m presents a graph of dots of light readings from a single star, along with--just for interest-the type of star, apparent visual ma gnitude, temperature and radius compared to the size of the Sun (e. g., 0.8 Sol). The analysis is comprised of simply looking at the graph to identify any apparent repeating dips in the pattern of dots, which indicate a drop in luminescence. Then the observer just clicks to add a box and drags it to enclose each regular dip identified. If four regular dips are observed, four boxes are added. When all are marked, the observer simple presses "Finish" and goes on to the next star. Most amateurs only do a few charts, but others do thousands. Observers can elect to log in and be identified. This allows them to be notified of results after further review. Potentia l planets identified by the citizen program are sent to Kepler hea dquarters at the NASA Ames Research Center in California for follow-up evaluation. We have people doing 100 [stars], 5,000--some users created their own 5,000 club-- and even 20,000," Fischer says. "No one sighting qualifies as a likely detection, but if enough users identify the same star, the scientists take notice. When users prove unusually good at spotting potentia l planets, we upgrade them, and weigh their opinions mor e hea vily." Scientists at Kepler headquarters by no means resent contributions from a mateurs. "It's absolutely no surprise to me that theyd find planet candidates we missed," says Natalie Batalha, deputy principal investigator for the Kepler mission. Software can pick up signals the human eye and brain cant, she says, but it has to account for the fa ct that stars vary in brightness even when they dont have planets. You dont want to mistake a pulsating star for a star that dims because of a planets shadow. The AAAs Tony Hoffma n will give a presentation on the planet-hunting software at the Custer Institute Jamboree October 9. He observes: "On February 2, the Kepler project published a list of mor e tha n 1,200 exoplanet candidates. Two days earlier, the Pla net Hunters project announced its own list of planet candidates found in publicly available Kepler da ta by the projects citizen-scientist volunteers. Nearly half of the P lanet Hunters candidates, 47 in all, proved to be unique finds absent from Keplers own list. "The Planet Hunters science tea m is hard at work trying to confir m these prospective planets, and has submitted its first papers, while its volunteers continue to comb through new Kepler data in search of longer -period planets; they have detected ma ny additional, unannounced candidates." Hoffmans Custer presentation will cover the history and progr ess of the project, as well as his own experience as a participant.
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Review: Kaku Peers into the 21st Century's Crystal Ball
By Katherine Avakian
In his new book, "Physics of the Future" (Doubleday, $28.95), Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, states that by the end of this century, science will advance in ways we can only ima gine. The book, based on interviews with mor e tha n 300 scientists in space exploration, ener gy, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, medicine and computers, presents a breathtaking array of expected innovations and changes in our ways of living and interacting. One of these fields, space exploration, has been prominent in the news as the shuttle program ca me to a close. Budgetary constraints have alter ed the space program, and less costly possibilities present themselves. Kaku believes a mission to the asteroid Apophis would be valuable. The asteroid, measuring about 1,000 feet across, will pass close to Earth in 2029, and could be on a collision course in 2036. A manned mission that would test the consistency of an asteroid--whether its solid or made of loosely held rock in a wea k gravity field --would be essential to know in dea ling with near Earth objects such as Apophis. Kaku also believes manned missions to the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos would be mor e valuable than a return to the Moon. They could be used as space stations, a cheap way to obser ve and analyze the planet. Eventually, getting to Mars would be easy since Phobos is less than 6,000 miles from the planet, a journey of a few hours. Importantly, Kaku conjectur es the moons have caves, which would provide protection for manned bases against meteors and radiation. He gives a graphic exa mple of the lethal dangers of micrometeorites from his exa mination of Moon rocks. They looked like ordinary Earth rocks, but under a microscope he sa w "tiny meteor craters in the rock, and inside them I saw even tinier craters. Craters inside craters inside craters...." He realized that on an airless world, "even the tiniest microscopic pieces of dirt, hitting you at 40,000 miles per hour, could easily kill you...."
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Space travel for the average person is quickly developing. Burt Rutans SpaceShip Two (SpaceShip One won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004) is ready for testing. It will ride atop an airplane to a height of 10 miles, then separate and turn on its rocket engines, reaching Mach 3, and climb to about 70 miles, taking those on board "to the edge of the atmospher e and the thr eshold of outer space." A space elevator reaching the heavens would be a spectacular achievement, but is still far off, Kaku believes. Such an elevator would take passengers up a carbon na notube fiber thousands of miles long to a geostationary satellite 22,000 miles above Earth. The nanotube would rise another 40,000 miles into space and be topped by a counterweight, keeping the whole structure from falling back to Earth. The gr eatest problem is to make a cable strong enough to withstand tensions of an elevator thousands of miles long. Kaku points out that carbon nanotubes, 180 times harder than steel, "have some of the greatest tensile strengths of any material." The problem centers on making a pure nanotube cable 50,000 miles long. In tracking the progress of civilizations, Kaku explains that physicists rank them accor ding to the ener gy they consume. Thus, a Type I civilization would be planetary, using sunlight that falls on its world. A Type II civilization would be stellar, using all the energy of its sun. This could be accomplished by surrounding its sun with a huge sphere, called a Dyson spher e, which would absorb all its sunlight. A Type III civilization would be galactic, using the energy of the billions of stars in its galaxy. According to this classification, our civilization is Type 0, since we get almost all our ener gy from fossil fuels. However, Kaku believes our biggest problem is in making the transition to a Type I civilization. "This transition is extremely danger ous because we still ha ve all the barbaric savagery that typified our painful rise from the swa mp....Human nature has not cha nged much in the past 100,000 years...."


Hubble continued from page 1 provided an unprecedented window to look at the early universe. Hayden Planetarium director Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, in the opening of "Saving Hubble, " puts it succinctly: "I dont know a culture that didnt spend some part of its life looking up and wonder ing, ,,What is our place in the universe? Wher e did it all come from? Wher e is it going? We live in a time wher e real answers to those questions are possible. I like going home and looking up at night and saying, ,,Wow, we ha ve a telescope peer ing out to the edge of the universe." AAA dir ector Bruce Kamiat provides an articulate context for the Hubble, and for astronomy in general: "Most people figure reality is just this, right her e. And thats up ther e and remote, out there somewher e, not what they nor mally think of as reality. But once you start to really get an appreciation for astronomy, you realize that you are moving thr ough that, that that surrounds you and is you, and you are that. Far from feeling insignificant in the face of this awesome cosmic reality, one feels we are a part of it." Later in the film, Tyson returns to say that "What ma de [Hubble] special is its a visible-light telescope getting the best views of the universe weve ever gotten. While weve had telescopes that specialize in radio waves, ultraviolet and infrared, this one comes closest to being an extension of ourselves." Sentiments like Tysons and Ka miats drove ordinary folks, scientists and public coalesce in favor of ser vicing Hubble. Even knows the outcome, Gaynes film succeeds up suspense. wer e what officials to though one in building

dime on the top of the Washington Monument. Hubble, the film notes, had overcome a major problem in the past. Soon after its April 1990 launch, it was discover ed that the main mirror had been ground incorrectly, creating fuzzy ima ges. The telescopes first servicing mission corrected the problem in December 1993. Three subsequent missions followed. Over time, the Hubble, in the films wor ds, "touched the public." But "OKeefe wasnt going to ha ve another disaster on his watch after Columbia." NAS As responsiveness to public opinion was quickly made apparent when OKeefes successor, Micha el Griffin, announced in October 2006 that Hubble would have one mor e servicing mission befor e it was retir ed. That mission, completed in 2009, mea ns the Hubble is expected to function until at least 2014, when its due to be replaced by the Ja mes Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Gaynes has a multifaceted marketing plan for "Saving Hubble," including film festivals and theaters, community events, sale of DVDs and mercha ndise, and mor e. He thinks the film could provide an impetus for guaranteeing launch of the Webb, which was recently targeted for elimination due to budget cutting. Key to promoting the film is what Gaynes calls the Hubble Road Show. On his kickstarter.com website, he discusses his vision: "The plan for distributing the film [is] much larger than just screening the film. The idea...is to pla n a series of unique events. When we screen the film, we would interview scientists and create a community dialog. It could be an amateur-astronomy group in Des Moines or a kids science club in Harlem. "The Hubble Road S how is about points of connection between people, using wonder to create community. Space leads us to the essential questions of life, Its what inspir ed me to become inter ested in the universe, what inspir ed me to ma ke the film and whats inspir ed me to share this with other people." Hubble continued on page 11
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Gaynes is clear in discussing Hubble's value, noting it was designed to look at black holes and the intergalactic medium, and it was crucial in discover ing dark ener gy. It also had an impact on fields it wasnt designed for. Metaphorically, its power was akin to standing on top of the Empir e State Building and photographing a


Briefs: Components of DNA In Extraterrestrial Meteorites
The co mponents of DNA have now been confirme d to exist in extraterrestrial meteorites. Scientists also discover ed a number of molecules linked with a vital ancient biological process, supporting the idea that the earliest for ms of life on Earth ma y have been made up in part of materials from space. Past research had revealed a range of building blocks of life in meteorites, such as amino acids. So space rocks may have been a vital source of organic compounds that gave rise to life on Earth. Investigators had found nucleobases, key ingr edients of DNA, in meteor ites befor e. However, its been difficult to prove these molecules arent contamination from sources on Earth. To help confir m cosmic origin, scientists used the latest analysis techniques on meteor ite samples, most organic-rich carbonaceous chondrites. The techniques probed properties of the molecules to identify the presence of extraterrestrial nucleobases. In a differ ent study, researchers discover ed molecules that make up key parts of a vital biological pathway, the citric-acid cycle, in a number of carbonaceous chondrites. The citric -acid cycle is thought to be a mong the most ancient of biological processes. One function of this cycle is respiration, when or ganisms give off carbon dioxide. A team of scientists has discovered the first oxyge n molecules in deep space, capping a long search. The molecules wer e detected in a star-for ming region of the Orion Nebula, roughly 1,500 light-years away. Scientists used a telescope and infrared detectors to hone in on the species, thought to be common in the cosmos. Individual atoms of oxygen are common in space, mostly around massive stars. But molecular oxygen, for med of two bonded oxygen atoms and making up about 20% of the air we breathe, has eluded astronomers. Scientists suggest oxygen is actually locked up in water ice that coats tiny dust grains. They think the oxygen detected was for med after starlight warmed the icy grains, releasing water, which was converted into oxygen molecules. Astronomers have discovered the largest and oldest mass of water ever detected--a giga ntic, 12-billionyear-old cloud harboring 140 trillion times mor e water than Earths oceans combined. The cloud of water vapor surrounds a quasar 12 billion light-years away. The discover y pushes detection of water 1 billion years closer to the Big Bang. The quasar harbors a black hole 20 billion
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times mor e massive than the Sun and produces as much ener gy as one quadrillion Suns. It contains 4,000 times mor e water vapor than the Milky Way, possibly because much of the Milky Ways water is locked up in ice. The cloud has a temperature of minus 63 degr ees and is 300 trillion times less dense than Earths atmospher e. That mea ns the cloud is five times hotter and 10-100 times denser than whats typical in galaxies such as the Milky Way. Although ther es probably enough gas to feed the black hole until it grows to about six times its size, some gas ma y end up condensing into stars or ejected from the quasar. A tiny second moon may have orbited Earth befor e sla mming into the other, which could explain why the two sides of the Moon are so differ ent from each other, a new study suggests. The second moon would ha ve been about 750 miles wide and could have for med from the same collision between Earth and a Mars-sized object that scientists suspect helped create the Moon. Computer simulations hint the second moon pa ncaked itself against its larger companion, explaining the differ ences between the near and far sides. The smaller moons orbit would have destabilized once our Moons orbit expanded far enough away from Earth. Fewer than 10% of terrestrial planets may have a moon large enough to provide the stability life needs to develop, research reveals. The Moon has long been r ecognized as a significant stabilizer of Earths orbital axis. Without it, astronomers predict Earths tilt could vary as much as 85 degrees. In such a scenario, the Sun would swing from being dir ectly over the equator to dir ectly over the poles over a few million years, which could produce dramatic climatic shifts. Earths Moon is unique in the solar system. The planet-to-Moon mass is around 100 times larger for Earth than to the moons of Venus and Mars. The differ ence stems from how the moons for med. Other solar-system planets used gravity to capture free floating bodies. But, Earths moon was created when a Mars-sized body sla mmed into the young planet. A horde of 96 previously unseen star clusters has been discover ed by astronomers using a telescope that Briefs continued on page 9


Briefs continued from page 8 pierced through thick curtains of dust in the Milky Way. This is the first time so ma ny faint and sma ll clusters wer e found at once. The objects wer e invisible to previous surveys, but sensitive infrared detectors peered through the dust. Estimates say that as many as 30,000 clusters could be hidden behind dust and gas. Astronomers have discovered a galaxy harboring more dark matter than any seen before. The galaxy is a sma ll group of about 1,000 small, dim stars just outside the Milky Way called Segue 1. While most of those stars appear to have roughly the mass of the Sun, the gala xy weighs 600,000 times the mass of the Sun. That mea ns nor mal-matter stars are vastly outweighed by dark matter. The galaxy appears to have 3,400 times mor e ma ss than can be accounted for by its visible stars, so Segue 1 is mostly an enor mous cloud of dark matter decorated with a sprinkling of stars. The death of a comet that plunged into the Sun was captured on ca mera in July for the first time in history. The Sun-grazing comet met its demise when it zoomed from behind the Sun and melted into oblivion. Disintegration lasted 15 minutes. Because of the angle of the comets orbit, it passed across the front half of the Sun and appeared to brighten as it struck hotter particles above the solar surface. Saturn's Great White Spot has been imaged in unprecedented detail and is yielding clues to how a titanic thunderstor m may have for med far earlier than scientists expected. The stor m, 6,200 miles wide, has a tail of white clouds that encircles Saturn. The stor m began for ming in the norther n hemisphere in December. This is 10 years early for gr eat white spots, which usually recur about ever y 30 years, when Saturns norther n hemispher e tilts most toward the Sun. Only five similar great white spots ha ve been observed in the past 135 years. Radio waves emitted by electrical discharges reveal nearly continuous lightning that, at the stor ms peak, can flash 10 times or more per second. The largest solar flare in more than four years rocked the Sun August 9 but is unlikely to wrea k serious havoc on Earth. We lucked out because the site of the eruption wasnt facing Earth. The flare is the largest in the Suns current cycle, which began in 2008 and is ex-

pected to last until around 2020. Its mor e than three times larger than the pr evious largest flare of this cycle February 15. Russia's long-delayed Spektr-R radio telescope successfully launched July 18. The obser vatory is in an elliptical orbit that peaks 207,000 miles above Earth and reaches a low of 621 miles. The observator y will conduct interferometer obser vations in conjunction with a global ground radio-telescope networ k to obtain ima ges, coor dinates, motions and evolution of angular structure of radio -emitting objects in the universe. Scientists also expect mor e infor mation about pulsars and interstellar plasma, black holes and neutron stars in the Milky Way. Supernovae have long been thought to disperse heavy elements into the surrounding universe. But observations of supernovae ha vent revealed the large quantities of dust needed to support this theory--until now. Scientists have detected enough cold dust to make up about half of the Sun, mor e than 100,000 times the amounts previously seen. Astronomers have discovered three small, icy worlds orbiting the Sun near Pluto. Theyr e likely big enough to be rounded by their own gravity, which mea ns they may be dwarf planets like Pluto. Scientists discover ed them and 11 other objects while performing a Kuiper Belt survey. A tea m focused its search on the souther n skies and the galactic plane, areas that hadnt been cover ed completely in previous Kuiper Belt surveys. The three possible dwarf planets seem to be mor e than 250 miles wide. Meanwhile, a tiny moon has been discovered around Pluto, its fourth and sma llest. The moon was spotted in a Hubble survey searching for rings around Pluto. P4 is an estimated 8-21 miles wide. Plutos largest moon Charon is 648 miles across, Nix and Hydra 20-70 miles. P4 is between the orbits of Nix and Hydra. A bustling nebula full of bright young stars is dominated by a cosmic superbubble in a remarkable new ima ge of a star cluster in a neighboring galaxy. The superbubble is carved by winds of newborn stars and shockwaves from stellar explosions. The nebula is around star cluster NGC 1929, within the Large Magellanic Cloud, which contains many r egions wher e clouds of gas and dust form stars. NGC 1929 contains hot young stars that are emitting intense ultraviolet light, Briefs continued on page 10
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Briefs continued from page 9 causing the gas to glow. The nebula around the cluster contains the superbubble. The massive shell of material extends 325 by 250 light-years across. The superbubble is primarily shaped by two stellar processes. First, streams of charged particles in the for m of stellar winds released from the ver y hot and massive stars in the central cluster clear out the nebulas central region. Massive cluster stars then end their lives as supernova e, creating shockwaves that push the gas out further to for m the glowing bubble. But, even though the superbubble is shaped by destructive cosmic forces, new stars are forming around the edges wher e the gas is being compr essed. NASA's Mars rover Opportunity arrived at the giant Endeavour crater August 9 after nearly thr ee years of driving across the surface. The golf cart-sized rover pulled up to Spirit Point on the rim of the 14-mile-wide crater. The seven-year-old Opportunity left a smaller crater called Victoria after a two-year pit stop. Its expected to spend years at Endeavour, if it lasts that long, to study rocks never seen before. At Endea vour, scientists hope to find much older rocks than those exa mined by Opportunity during its first seven years on Mars. Opportunity will likely not enter Endeavour, although it has explored inter iors of other big craters. Endeavours interior seems to contain rocks ma de of the same mater ial the rover has seen befor e. The craters rim is another story. Rocks ther e are older than any Mars terrain studied by Opportunity. NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, to launch in November, will land at a giant crater called Gale. The crater, 96 miles wide, has a mountain at its center that rises higher than Mount Rainer. Gale could fit Connecticut and Rhode Island inside the crater. The crater is thought to harbor clues of ancient water activity on the surface. One of Curiositys primary tasks will be to seek evidence that Mars is, or was, capable of supporting microbial life. At the base of the mountain are signatures of clays and sulfate salts, both known to form in water. Theyr e key classes of minerals that will revea l clues about the Martian environment. Crater and mountain layering will help scientists understand how the environment cha nged.

The far side of the Moon is home to a set of dormant volcanoes that changed the face of the surface, a new study finds. Data and photos reveal the pr esence of now-dea d silicate volcanoes, not the mor e common basaltic volcanoes. A number of domelike features have steeply sloping sides, signs of lunar volca noes. Most volcanoes, on Earth and off, are near other volcanoes. But this grouping is far from the part of the Moon where most volcanic activity was concentrated, and where other silicic volcanism occurred. Similarly, theyr e surprisingly free from impact craters, which reveals a great deal about their age. The early life of the solar system was violent. Features that lack this scarring for med after things had calmed down. Scientists estimate the age of the Moons rare far-side silicate volcanoes at about 800 million years. This would extend the Moons volca nic activity by 200 million years. Dyson continued from page 3 sible food is to be found. I will discuss ways of looking for life in new wa ys and in unlikely places." There are two reasons why the search for life in unlikely places is important, Dyson asserts. "First, ther es alwa ys a small cha nce well find an alien life for m which will cause a revolution in our understanding of biology. Second, even if we find no aliens, the search will give us abundant new infor mation and understanding of the non-living universe." A native of England, Dyson graduated from the University of Cambridge and ca me to the U. S. as a Commonwea lth Fellow at Cornell. He settled in the U. S. perma nently in 1951, beca me a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1953 and retired as professor emer itus in 1994. Dyson began his career as a mathematician but then turned to new developments in physics in the 1940s, particularly the theory of quantized fields. He wrote two papers on the foundations of quantum electrodyna mics which have had a lasting influence on many branches of moder n physics. He went on to wor k in condensedmatter physics, statistical mechanics, nuclear engineering, climate studies, astrophysics and biology.

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Events on the Horizon September 2011
M: me mbers; P: open to the public; T: bring your telescopes, binoculars, etc.; C: cancelled if cloudy; AMNH: For ticket information, call (212) 769 -5200 HQ: at AAA headquarters, Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St. For directions to AAA observing events, check the club's website, www.aaa.org.
Thursdays, September 1, 8, 15, 21, 29, sunset-10 p.m. Observing and movie, Pier 1, Brooklyn, P, T, C Contact Rich Rosenberg at president@aaa.org or 718-5225014 to check whether observing is on. Info: http://www.aaa.org/movieswithaview. Next dates: Thursdays in October. Saturday, September 3, 8-11 p.m. Observing, Gateway Park, Q ueens, P, T, C Rain date: September 4. Next date: October 1. Tuesdays, September 6, 13, 20, 27, dusk-11 p. m. Observing on the High Line, Manhattan, P, T, C Enter at 14th Street. Next dates: Tuesdays in October. Wednesday, September 7, 8-10 p.m. Observing at Brooklyn Heights Promenade, P, T, C At end of Montague Street. Next date: October 5. Friday, September 9, 8:30-11 p.m. Observing at Carl Schurz Park, Manhattan, P, T, C Next date: October 14. Fridays, September 9 and 23, 8-11 p.m. Observing at Inwood Hill Park, Manhattan, P, T, C Next dates: October 7 and 21. Friday, September 16, 8-10 p.m. Observing at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, P, T, C Next date: October 7. Saturday, September 17, 7:30-11 p.m. Observing at Great Kills Gateway National Park, Staten Island, P, T, C Next date: October 29. Wednesday, September 21, dusk-11 p.m. Observing at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, P, T, C Next date: October 19. Saturday, September 24, beginning at dusk Observing at North-South Lake in the Catskills, M, T, C Next date: October 22. Saturday, September 24, 10 a.m.-noon Solar observing in Central Park, P, T, C At the Conservatory Water. Next date: October 29. Saturday, September 24, 2-10 p.m. Equinox Festival, Manhattan, P, T, C Pier 84 (West 44th Street) Day and night observing. ALSO IN OCTOBER: AAA's annual John Marshall Lecture, Dr. Freeman Dyson discussing "Other Ways of Looking for Life in the Sky", October 21. Urban Starfest, Central Park Sheep Meadow, October 22.

Hubble continued from page 7

The Hubble is all about looking at the universe and "Saving Hubble" is all about looking at the people who have looked at the universe and have been profoundly moved by it, Gaynes says. "A lot of films ha ve been ma de about what Hubble has taught us about the universe. This is really the first time Hubble has been explored through the lens of what it teaches us about ourselves."

Contacting the AAA
General club matters: president@aaa.org. Membership business, such as dues and change of addr ess: members@aaa.org. Eyepiece: editor@aaa.org. Lectures: lectures@aaa.org. Classes: classes@aaa.org. Seminar: seminar@aaa.org. Observing: president@aaa.org. Please visit us on the web at www.aaa.org.
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Amateur Makes Planetary Nebula Discovery
A soccer-ball-shaped planetary nebula discover ed by an amateur astronomer ma y help scientists better understand these odd structures, which are created by the last gasps of dying stars. The puffy nebula--Kronberger 61, or Kn 61--is in a sma ll patch of sky being monitor ed by NASAs planethunting Kepler Space Telescope. Follow-up Kepler observations ma y help answer key questions about planetary nebulas, such as how their for mation may be shaped by companions, be they other stars or alien planets. Planetary nebulas form when stars like our Sun exhaust their hydr ogen fuel. The stars outer layers expand and cool, creating a huge envelope of dust and gas. Radiation flowing from the dying star ionizes this envelope, causing it to glow. Contrary to their na me, planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets. Rather, they have superficial resemblance to giant planets, when observed through early telescopes. Kn 61 is na med after Austrian amateur astronomer Matthias Kronberger, who found the object after poring over Amateur Astronomers Association PO Box 150253 Brooklyn, NY 11215. ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

data from by the Digital Sky Survey. Kronber ger and other amateurs wer e encouraged by professionals to look specifica lly in the Kepler star field. "Without this close collaboration with amateurs, this discover y would probably not have been ma de befor e the end of the Kepler mission," said George Jacoby of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization and the Carnegie Observatories. "Professionals, using precious telescope time, aren't as flexible as amateurs, who did this using existing data and in their spare time. This was a fantastic pro-am collaboration of discovery." Planetary nebula e are mysterious. Some recent theories suggest they for m only in close binary or even planetary systems. On the other hand, the conventional textbook explanation is that most stars, even solo stars like our Sun, will meet this fate. Astronomers have discover ed mor e than 3,000 planetary nebulas in our part of the Milky Way. Only about 20% have been found with companions. The professional-a mateur partnership, using Keplers instruments, ma y help astronomers get to the bottom of things. So far, six planetary nebulas have been found in the Kepler field.

First Class
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