What's Inside?Page 1: Event CalendarPage 2: RecapPage 4: News BriefsPage 5: Space PlacePage 6: Club BenefitsPage 6: Observing

Calendar

ASTRALPROJECTIONS

JULY 2016VOLUME 27 ISSUE 7

President:

Matthew McCue

President@astra­nj.org

Vice President­Secretary:

John Enderson

VP@astra­nj.org

Treasurer:

Ro Spedaliere

Treasurer@astra­nj.org

Webmaster:

Donald Durett

Webmaster@astra­nj.org

Newsletter Editor:

Chris Savia

newsletter@astra­nj.org

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EVENT CALENDAREvery Friday in July, beginning on the 1st ­Island Beach State Park Moonlight HikesTime: 7:00 p.m. ­ 10:30 p.m.

July 8th ­ Monthly MeetingLocation: Ocean County College, Robert J. NovinsPlanetarium (Building 13)Time: 7:00 p.m. ­ 10:00 p.m.Following the meeting, ASTRA member Sam Micovic willaddress the topic of climate change.

July 9th ­ Jakes Branch Star PartyLocation: Jakes Branch County Park, BeachwoodTime: 9:00 p.m. ­ 11:00 p.m.

July 23rd ­ Star Party sponsored by SPEACLocation: Island Beach State ParkTime: 8:30 p.m. ­ 10:30 p.m.

EVENT CANCELLATIONSTwo hours before the event start time please check out theASTRA Message Board or call the ASTRA Hotline:609­971­3331

A.S.T.R.A.Robert J. Novins Planetarium

Ocean County CollegeP.O. Box 2001

Toms River, NJ 08754­2001

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RECAPShow and Tell on June 10, 2016

After addressing club business, several ASTRA members took the floor to share their favorite gadgetsand coolest things they've learned pursuing astronomy.

Bill Edelen kicked things off by sharing his hydrogen alpha filter and his unbridled enthusiasm forsolar astronomy. Phil Zollner took a few minutes to share his equatorial mount, promising to use itduring Saturday's star party. The next presenter was Chris Savia, sharing his insights for budgetastrophotography using a smartphone adapter and free, open­source software. Our final presentationwas courtesy of Robert Chamberlain, focusing on the use of a GSO Superview 40mm cameraprojection lens with astrophotography.

Our treasurer, Ro Spedaliere invited the club outside for stargazing in the Ocean County Collegefaculty parking lot. Photos from the meeting in the Novins Planetarium have vanished into the ether(Sorry!) but John Endreson has a few from our impromptu star party.

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RECAPASTRA Visits the Refurbished

Daniel S. Schanck ObservatoryThree ASTRA members went on a road trip to Rutgers University to visit the Schanck Observatory.Vic Palmieri, Matthew McCue, and Ro Spedaliere enjoyed several fascinating lectures regarding theobservatory's history and recent restoration. Our club president Matthew expressed pleasureregarding the restoration effort, but notes the light pollution from a nearby parking garage will obscurethe night sky from stargazers.

The plaque reads:

The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory, a two­story edifice which includes a revolving roof and a rearwing connected by a passageway, was designed by Willard Smith. The observatory was built toaccomodate the study of astronomy in the Rutgers Scientific School, which was was established as adepartment of Rutgers College in 1862. Named in honor of its donor Daniel S. Schanck of New YorkCity, the Observatory was dedicated on June 18, 1866.

Image credit: Ro Spedaliere

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Campout at Ocean County Park in LakewoodOn Saturday June 25, 2016 ASTRA hosted a camp out in Lakewood's Ocean County Park. BobSalvatore, Ro Spedaliere, and ASTRA president Matthew McCue set up their telescopes forapproximately fifteen registered campers. Everyone enjoyed views of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and othercelestial objects. Everyone was surprised when two gate­crashers joined the fun with theircomputerized telescope. Turns out they didn't know how to use their 'scope, and Bob and Ro did theirbest to help them puzzle out its workings.

RECAP

SUBMISSIONS WELCOMEMembers are invited to submit articles, news, or stories for inclusion in Astral Projections. Pleasecontact Chris Savia at newsletter@astra­nj.org.

AUGUST NEWSLETTER DEADLINE: JULY 25, 2016

The Search for Extraterrestrial IntelligenceAre there more mysterious stars in our universe? Since September 2015, mainstream media hasbeen buzzing over KIC 8262852, a.k.a. Tabby's Star. What makes Tabby's Star so interesting are itsaperiodic dips in brightness leading some astronomers to propose these changes are caused byaliens building a megastructure around the star. A preprint featured at arXiv illustrates a search forvanished stars. While normally impossible, without destruction by novae or supernovae, BeatrizVillarroel, et al., of Uppsala University in Sweden suggests such a phenomenon, when discovered,could be conclusive proof of aliens encasing their star in a Dyson sphere. Visit arXiv to read Our Skynow and then − searches for lost stars and impossible effects as probes of advanced extra­terrestrial civilisations [1606.08992]

Meteorite NewsThe sky is falling! June proved to be a busy month for meteorite news. Early Tuesday morning onJune 28th, a meteorite punched a hole through the roof of a home in Thailand's Phitsanulok Muangdistrict. No one was hurt, but locals reported a thunderous boom before the incident.

On the same day, 105 years earlier, a meteorite was reported to have struck and "vaporized" a dog inthe village of Nakhla, northwest of Alexandria Egypt. Based on data from the Viking Mars mission,scientists determined this meteorite came from Mars. Samples of this object are on public display atthe Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. You can even touch it!

According to the Mother Nature Network blog, scientists in Antarctica have discovered a meteoritepossessing shards of an extraterrestrial opal. Dubbed EET 83309, it is notable thanks to thepresence of opal fragments within the meteorite. Their presence shows these objects are wetter thanpreviously understood. This evidence lends credence to the hypothesis of Earth's water being ofextraterrestrial origin from ancient impactors.

Another object of interest is a 4.5 billion year old meteorite exhibiting "forbidden symmetry". Mostcrystal structures utilize one shape neatly fitting with itself, like squares or hexagons. In this case thismeteorite's similar to a soccer ball combining 5 and 10­sided crystals. Before its discovery, scientistsbelieved such an arrangement would be too unstable to form in a natural environment.

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SPACE PLACEHubble's Bubble Lights Up The Interstellar Rubble

by Ethan Siegel

When isolated stars like our Sun reach the end oftheir lives, they're expected to blow off their outerlayers in a roughly spherical configuration: aplanetary nebula. But the most spectacularbubbles don't come from gas­and­plasma gettingexpelled into otherwise empty space, but fromyoung, hot stars whose radiation pushes againstthe gaseous nebulae in which they were born.While most ofour Sun'senergy is foundin the visiblepart of thespectrum, moremassive starsburn at hottertemperatures,producing moreionizing,ultraviolet light,and also athigherluminosities. Astar some 40­45times the massof the Sun, forexample, mightemits energy ata rate hundredsof thousands oftimes as greatas our own star.

The BubbleNebula, discovered in 1787 by William Herschel,is perhaps the classic example of thisphenomenon. At a distance of 7,100 light yearsaway in the constellation of Cassiopeia, amolecular gas cloud is actively forming stars,including the massive O­class star BD+60 2522,which itself is a magnitude +8.7 star despite itsgreat distance and its presence in a dusty regionof space. Shining with a temperature of 37,500 Kand a luminosity nearly 400,000 times that of our

Sun, it ionizes and evaporates off all the molecularmaterial within a sphere 7 light years in diameter.The bubble structure itself, when viewed from adark sky location, can be seen through an amateurtelescope with an aperture as small as 8" (20 cm).

As viewed by Hubble, the thickness of the bubblewall is both apparent and spectacular. A star as

massive as theone creatingthis bubbleemits stellarwinds atapproximately1700 km/s, or0.6% the speedof light. Asthose windsslam into thematerial in theinterstellarmedium, theypush itoutwards. Thebubble itselfappears off­center from thestar due to theasymmetry ofthe surroundinginterstellarmedium with agreater densityof cold gas on

the "short" side than on the longer one. The bluecolor is due to the emission from partially ionizedoxygen atoms, while the cooler yellow colorhighlights the dual presence of hydrogen (red) andnitrogen (green).

The star itself at the core of the nebula is currentlyfusing helium at its center. It is expected to live onlyanother 10 million years or so before dying in aspectacular Type II supernova explosion.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), of the Bubble Nebula as imaged 229 years after its

discovery by William Herschel.

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CLUB BENEFITS

ASTRA'S TELESCOPESASTRA has several different types of telescopes, telescope mounts, along with binoculars,eyepieces, and eyepiece filters available for members to borrow. If any member is interested,please check out ASTRA's website and contact John Endreson at telescope­loan@astra­nj.org,or 609­971­3331.

ASTRA'S LIBRARYMany books and DVDs are available for loan to ASTRA members from our library for a one monthperiod. A list of these items is available on the ASTRA website. Requests for these items must bemade prior to our regular meeting, and returned by the following meeting. Please e­mail ourlibrarian John Endreson at Library­Loan@astra­nj.org, or call him at 609­971­3331 with yourrequest for materials.

VOLUNTEER PRESENTERSMembers are invited to give presentations related to astronomy or space science at our monthlymeetings. Please contact a club officer to make arrangements.

OBSERVING CALENDAR

July 4th ­ Independence Day fireworks won't be outshone by moonlight, but the fireworks willmake stargazing a bit tricky.

July 10th ­ Venus will be at perihelion.

July 19th ­ Also known as the Full Thunder Moon, Full Hay Moon, and the Full Buck Moon, ourlargest known satellite will be completely illuminated at 6:57 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

July 27th ­ Our moon will be at perigee at 7:25 a.m..

July 28th + 29th ­ Wake up early to catch the Delta Aquarids on these two nights. The debrisfrom the comets Kracht and Marsden should be visible around 2 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

WHY JOIN?For $25.00 a year, you can enjoy many benefits with the Astronomical Society of the Toms RiverArea. Members can take advantage of A.S.T.R.A.'s lending library, borrow telescopes forobservations, access to private star parties, in addition to comraderie with local amateurastronomers. Contact one of our club officers today to join the fun.