February 2015 First Light Newsletter

February, 2015 (Issue No. 127)

AlachuaAstronomyClub.org

Astronomical League's pin for Meteor Observing

Program.

Astronomical League's pin for the Meteor Watcher'sClub.

North Central Florida's

Amateur Astronomy Club

Serving Alachua County since 1987

Member Member

Astronomical League

MemberNASA Night Sky Network

Minor mergers have massive consequences for black holes

NASA Space Place article of the month

By Dr. Ethan Siegel

When you think of our sun, the nearest star to our world, youthink of an isolated entity, with more than four light yearsseparating it from its next nearest neighbor. But it wasn'talways so: billions of years ago, when our sun was firstcreated, it very likely formed in concert with thousands of otherstars, when a giant molecular cloud containing perhaps amillion times the mass of our solar system collapsed. While thevast majority of stars that the universe forms—some ninety-fivepercent—are the mass of our sun or smaller, a rare butsignificant fraction are ultra-massive, containing tens or evenhundreds of times the mass our star contains. When these

stars run out of fuel in their cores, they explode in a fantastic Type II supernova, where the star'score collapses. In the most massive cases, this forms a black hole.

Over time, many generations of stars—and hence, many black holes—form, with the majorityeventually migrating towards the centers of their host galaxies and merging together. Our owngalaxy, the Milky Way, houses a supermassive black hole that weighs in at about four million solarmasses, while our big sister, Andromeda, has one nearly twenty times as massive. But evenrelatively isolated galaxies didn't simply form from the monolithic collapse of an isolated clump ofmatter, but by hierarchical mergers of smaller galaxies over tremendous timescales. If galaxieswith large amounts of stars all have black holes at their centers, then we should be able to seesome fraction of Milky Way-sized galaxies with not just one, but multiple supermassive blackholes at their center!

It was only in the early 2000s that NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was able to find the firstbinary supermassive black hole in a galaxy, and that was in an ultra-luminous galaxy with adouble core. Many other examples were discovered since, but for a decade they were all in ultra-massive, active galaxies. That all changed in 2011, with the discovery of two active, massiveblack holes at the center of the regular spiral galaxy NGC 3393, a galaxy that must haveundergone only minor mergers no less than a billion years ago, where the black hole pair isseparated by only 490 light years! It's only in the cores of active, X-ray emitting galaxies that wecan detect binary black holes like this. Examples like NGC 3393 and IC 4970 are not onlyconfirming our picture of galaxy growth and formation, but are teaching us that supermassiverelics from ancient, minor mergers might persist as standalone entities for longer than we everthought!

Check out some cool images and artist reconstructions of black holes from Chandra:http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/category/blackholes.html

Kids can learn all about Black Holes from this cool animation at NASA’s Space Place:

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/black-holes.

Ethan Siegel obtained his PhD in physics from the University of Florida in 2006. Ethan is ascience writer, professor, and theoretical astrophysicist. When not working on his day job, he is acompetitive beardsman, amateur acrobat, and halloween-costumer extraordinaire. Ethanattended school in The Bronx, New York.

Images credit: NGC 3393 in the optical (L) by M. Malkan (UCLA), HST, NASA (L); NGC 3393 in the X-rayand optical (R), composite by NASA / CXC / SAO / G. Fabbiano et al. (X-ray) and NASA/STScI (optical).

Star Parties, Schools, Outreach, & Goings-OnBy First Light Contributing Editors

Star Parties by Lisa Eager and Ivo Rabell

The Star Party at the Kelly’s wasoutstanding. The Kelly’s hosted a terrificparty and we all enjoyed each other’scompany. It was a good, fun crowd. We hada total of 17 members and guests. MarkKelly, Robert Munyer, Andy Williams,Howard Cohen, Marian Cohen, HaroldHelms, Faye Helms and yours truly stayed alittle past 11:00pm looking at all Messierobjects we could find with two binoculars.

Howard did a pretty good job imaging CometLovejoy. Hopefully he’ll email everyone the

image at some future time. Andy had a terrific Jupiter in his scope’s eyepiece at the end of thenight. The skies were clear and very dark until a little after 8pm, then intermittent clouds andmoisture in the air ruined some sky denizens, but I can’t complain.

Mark’s telescope was taking a life of its own so after a while he gave up and found a good use forit. He’s going to make it his boat anchor! Laura Wright hung around my scope for a while with

Terry Smiljanich and wife Dorothy checking out sky objects in the Milky Way. Dorothy is avolunteer at La Chua Trail in Paynes Prairie every Sunday from 1 - 5 pm. Go when Dorothy isvolunteering, and she’ll give you the grand tour of the 10 foot gators. Paul Coia enjoyed talking toeveryone but mostly to Howard and Andy about the world of telescopes. Joe and Gay Haldemanbrought along a guest who used to be an AAC member for 10 years. She now lives in Costa Ricabut will be hanging around Gainesville for the next 3 months, so she wants to become a memberfor 2015. Love to have her as a member even if it’s only for 3 months. She has a terrificpersonality.

Margarita Quintero and Lizzy Cordero showed up just in time to enjoy Mrs. Kelly’s homemadecookies. Lizzy is only 16 years old. She is one personable and smart teenager.

Party photos taken came out fuzzy. I'm blaming my Optometrist.

Cheers,Ivo Rabell and Lisa Eager, Star Party Coordinators

School Outreachby Mike Toomey

School outreach season will soon be in full swing. Our next event is at an elementary school in Alachua County: Thursday, February 5. We can expect upwards of 200 guests at this star party so your participation is greatly needed.

The club's web site list these events on the calendar. The events are generically listed as “School Star Party” along with the county in which the event is being held. We do not publish the names of the school prior to the event as a safety precaution. When you register for an event, you will receive a confirmation email with the name and address of the school. You can always un-register using the same web site tools.

If you are new to volunteering at school outreach events, the school board requires a simple background check: just your name as it appears on your driver's license and your primary phone number. Only myself and the school board volunteer coordinator keep this information on file – it is not public record. If you attended any school events last year, you do not need to reapply. However, please let me know if any of your contact information has changed, including email.

Thanks to the volunteers that participated at the High Spring Community School star party on December 9. Andy Howell, Chuck Broward, Lisa Eager and myself introduced the sky to about 45 visitors. We observed a very bright Iridium flare as well as the International Space Station. Several visitors reported seeing meteors that evening – some were likely early arrivals of the Geminid meteor shower. We also spotted Uranus, which was as expected – a smallish, pale, bluish-green dot. (As winter progresses, we'll start getting our bright planets back.) We capped off the night by treating ourselves to The Great Outdoors Restaurant.

Mike Toomey has served the AAC in many capacities since 1998, including President, Secretary, FirstLight Editor, Star Party Coordinator and School Outreach Coordinator. Mike resides in Gainesville.

Comet Lovejoyby Dr. Howard Cohen

Some people say we are overdue for a truly bright comet. But for now

earthbound observers must settle for Comet/2014 Q2 Lovejoy(discovered 2014 August 17 by Terry Lovejoy in Australia). Indeed,astronomers lament that the past hundred years or so have seen fewbright comets compared with the18th and 19th centuries. However,increasing light pollution and the shift of people to big cities is alsopart of the problem.

Although Comet Lovejoy is just visible to the naked eye from suburbia,the comet can be easily found and seen in binoculars or a smalltelescope looking like an unresolved globular cluster. Currentlyshining at approximately magnitude 4-1/2, Comet Lovejoy now rideshigh in evening skies having passed near the Pleiades star clusterseveral days ago.

Comet Lovejoy’s tail is very long (20 degrees?) but unfortunately difficult to spot unlessphotographed. Still Comet Lovejoy is all we have for now.

I intended to photograph Comet Lovejoy last Saturday night at AAC’s star party hosted by Markand Betsy Kelly. Just as I finally centered the comet in my camera and began to take photos,clouds and haze moved in halting my efforts to capture a good sequence of images. A yellowishcircle in the photo shows approximately how large the Moon (half degree wide) would look incomparison. An airplane trail is visible toward the lower right.

Interestingly, light from the airplane in the picture reached the camera lens in a fraction of asecond but the comet’s light needed 4.5 seconds to arrive from its current distance of about 0.54AUs. Meanwhile, the light coming from the Pleiades stars began their journey about 440 yearsago. (The hazy glow around some Pleiades stars is real and results from starlight scattered off adust cloud that these stars are now passing through.) This glow, often difficult to see visually, wassurprisingly obvious in my 127-mm refractor.

Photos Details: Canon EOS 5 II with 50 mm, f/1.8 lens on a tracking mount. Three exposures atf/2.8 (ISO 1600) combined (total exposure time 8 min.) and processed. Final image slightlytrimmed from original. Photos taken 2015 January 17 between 8:13 and 8:21 p.m. EST.

Dr. Cohen comments about the photo: The photo is unfortunately unremarkable. However, thepicture clearly shows the comet below and to the right of the Pleiades as was seen by people atthe star party. Unfortunately Comet Lovejoy’s tail is not exceptionally bright and difficult to discernvisually. Still the camera shows the comet’s tail stretching at least ten degrees or twenty moonwidths! (Some reports state the tail stretches twice this length!) Diatomic carbon (C2) gasfluoresces from sunlight to produce the comet’s greenish coma.

(Ed. Note - photo looks great, Dr. Cohen!)

Meetings and Events

The next AAC public meeting:Tuesday, February 10, 2015, 7-9 p.m.

Florida Museum of Natural History, UF Cultural Plaza3215 Hull Road, Gainesville, FL 32611-2710Invited speaker is Professor Vicki Sarajedini.

Next Star Party:Rosemary Hill, Saturday, February 21, 2015, 6 - 11:30 p.m.

4551 NE 110th Avenue, Bronson, FL Please arrive after 4:30 p.m.

Members Only!

New Members since December 1!

Kate AbbeyBrendan Barraclough

Alex CreagerRichard Garnsey

Paul HiersItalo Lenta

Robert MunyerJohn OHearnJackie OwensAmber RouxLiao Xiaolin

PresidentAndy Howell

First Light Newsletter EditorLaura Wright

The Hickory Ranch outreach atPaynes Prairie on January 24 wasa great success! We had twenty-six volunteers and nineteentelescopes in operation. (Both areClub records.) It was a goodthing, too, because theIndependent Alligator newspaper

reported that attendance was double that of lastyear! Guests waited in lines as long as 15minutes to get a peek through one of ourscopes. Typical reactions to views of Venus,Jupiter, the moon, and the Great Nebula ofOrion were "that is amazing"; "Wow, look at thedetail"; "this is unbelievable!"

This month my articlecontribution is written in honor ofand at the request of ourpresident Andy Howell.

The Meteor Observing Programfrom the Astronomical League requires onlyyour two eyes and the willingness to spendtime looking for "nature's fireworks".Observing meteors for 6 hours withobserving records will earn you a Certificateof Membership in the Meteor Club. "Meteorsare tiny specks of interplanetary debriscolliding with the upper reaches of theEarth's atmosphere with tremendousvelocity. The speeds of up to 45 miles persecond produces the friction to cause themeteor to emit a bright light".

For more information about meteors visitastroleague.org, the American MeteorSociety and the International MeteorOrganization websites.

To expand on the Lunar Observing Programfor ALCOR, Dr. Howard Cohen shared hiswebsite that is full of lunar maps to help findrequired lunar features. Dr. Cohen said,

Thanks, Laura, for promoting meteor observingthis month. Using video cameras, my observingpartner Barbara Harris and I have collectivelyobtained 2,585 meteoroid orbits during the pastseven months.

VISUAL METEOR OBSERVING is a great wayto learn the sky. All it takes is six hours of visualobservations to earn the Astronomical League'smeteor club pin.

If you are lucky to see a bright fireball, youshould also report it at the web page of theAmerican Meteor Society.

Report a Fireball

"These maps would probably be more usefulto members than anything else sincemembers have found them extremelybeneficial in completing the Lunar Iprogram. About a half dozen AAC membersfinished this lunar program in 2012 and I wastold my lunar maps both encouraged them todo the program and was also a great aid andresource for this project."

http://astroadventures.net/cohen

/lunar/LunarClub.html or

Lunar Club of the Astronomical League

Best regards, Laura

The Night Sky this Month

From the One-Minute AstronomerBy Brian Ventrudo

Used with permission.

Comet Lovejoy fades slightly but remains accessible tostargazers in February as it moves northward into theconstellations Andromeda and Perseus. Jupiter reachesopposition of Feb. 6 and remains in prime position fortelescopic observing over the next couple of months. AndVenus and Mars make an amazingly close approach in thewestern sky after sunset, accompanied by a thin crescentMoon. Here’s what to see in the night sky this month…

3 Feb. Full Moon, 22:09 UT

3 Feb. The bright disk of Jupiter lies with 6º of the full Moon.

5 Feb. The Moon, now just past full, wanders near the 1st magnitude star Regulus, the brighteststar in the constellation Leo. Bright Jupiter lies to the west.

5 Feb. Today, Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is less than a degree west of the 2nd magnitude starAlmaak (γ Andromedae) well above the northwestern horizon (as seen from the northernhemisphere). The comet is still about 5th magnitude at the beginning of February, and it shouldbe easy to spot in binoculars as a faint smudge as it moves north through the constellationsAndromeda and Perseus this month. Moonlight detracts from the view during the first week ofFebruary. For southern-hemisphere observers, the comet is low over the northwestern horizon atthe beginning of the month and moves below the horizon near month’s end.

Sky and Telescope has a good PDF map for Comet Lovejoy for February and March at this link…

6 Feb. Jupiter reaches opposition, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. The planet reachespeak brightness for the year at magnitude -2.6, far brighter than any star. The disk also reachesmaximum apparent size with a diameter of 45″. The planet is in prime position for telescopicviewing over the next couple of months.

11 Feb. Last Quarter Moon, 14:50 UT

13 Feb. The waning crescent Moon lies just to the east of the planet Saturn in the eastern skybefore dawn. The red supergiant star Antares, the bright star at the heart of Scorpius, theScorpion, lies slightly to the south.

The waning crescent Moon, Saturn, and red-orange Antares as seen before dawn on February 21, 2015 inthe eastern sky in the northern hemisphere. The group will lie much higher above the eastern horizon

before dawn as seen from the southern hemisphere.

18 Feb. New Moon, 22:47 UT

21 Feb. In an amazing close approach, Venus and Mars appear to be separated by less than 1/2of a degree in the western sky after sunset. They’re joined by a thin crescent Moon on the 20thand 21st. At magnitude -3.9, brilliant white Venus appears about 100x brighter than Mars. If youcan, examine the pair in a telescope. Venus is nearly 90% illuminated and has a disk about 12″wide. Mars is just 4″ across and reveals little detail because of its great distance from Earth.

Venus and Mars appear about 1/2 a degree apart near the crescent Moon on February 21, 2015 in thewestern sky after sunset. Venus is far brighter and whiter than the ochre-colored Mars.

25 Feb. First Quarter Moon, 16:14 UT

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