Highlights of the March Sky

- - - 1st - - -

DAWN: A waning crescent Moon is 3° right of Saturn.

- - - 2nd - - - DAWN: The crescent Moon is 4½° right of Venus.

- - - 6th - - - New Moon 11:04 am EST

- - - 11th - - - PM: A waxing crescent Moon is 7° le of Mars.

- - - 12th - - - PM: The crescent Moon is near the Hyades cluster in Taurus.

- - - 13th - - - PM: The Moon is between Aldebaran and Zeta Tauri.

- - - 14th - - - First Quarter Moon 6:27 am EDT

- - - 18th → 19th - - - PM: A waxing gibbous Moon and Regulus start the night 2° apart and widen to 5½° by dawn.

- - - 20th - - - Full Moon 9:43 pm EDT

- - - 24th - - - DAWN: The Moon is between Zubeneschamali (le ) and Zubenelgenubi in Libra.

- - - 27th - - - DAWN: A waning gibbous Moon is 4½° le of Jupiter.

- - - 28th - - - Last Quarter Moon 12:10 am EDT

- - - 29th - - - DAWN: A waning crescent Moon is 3½° le of Saturn.

KAS

General Meeting: Friday, March 1 @ 7:00 pm Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center - See Page 12 for Details

Observing Session: Saturday, March 9 @ 7:00 pm

Messier Marathon - Richland Township Park - See Page 11 for Details

Board Meeting: Sunday, March 10 @ 5:00 pm

Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome

Inside the Newsletter. . .

February Mee ng Minutes................ p. 2

Board Mee ng Minutes..................... p. 4

Observa ons...................................... p. 5

NASA Night Sky Notes........................ p. 6

From the KAS Library......................... p. 6

Opportunity’s Mission Ends............... p. 7

March Night Sky................................. p. 10

KAS Board & Announcements............ p. 11

General Mee ng Preview.................. p. 12

March 2019

The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society was brought to order by President Richard Bell on Friday, February 8, 2019 at 7:15 pm EST. Approximately 31 members and guests were in attendance at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center (KAMSC). The meeting was postponed one week due to Kalamazoo Public Schools closing all their facilities because of the Polar Vortex bringing double digit sub zero temperatures across the region. They even vowed to terminate any staff or faculty member (i.e. Mike Sinclair) that accessed a KPS building during the closing! Snow and still rather frigid temps also no doubt affected attendance for the postponed meeting. Richard gave the feature presentation of the evening, which was entitled Infinite Worlds: Searching for Extrasolar Planets. Overall, this was Richard’s fourteenth solo presentation for the KAS. He explained that he originally had no plan to give another solo talk so soon, but he failed to find a member of the New Horizons team to give a Skype presentation on the Ultima Thule encounter and thought a video presentation wouldn’t attract many members to the meeting. Richard gave the first version of this talk in March 2002! He said it was the last talk he ever gave using slides and overheads. According to Richard, the discovery of planets around other stars is the “biggest foregone conclusion in the history of science.” Philosophers like Lucretius of Rome and Giordano Bruno speculated about planets orbiting distant suns. In more recent times, we’ve been “exploring strange new worlds” in science fiction literature and television shows like Star Trek for decades. To understand the first observational evidence for extrasolar planets (or exoplanets for short), we have to review the formation of the solar system. Known as the Solar Nebula Theory (or the Nebular Hypothesis), it says that our solar system began as a dense collection of gas and dust in a larger

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emission nebula. Ultraviolet radiation from hot stars, a shockwave from a supernova, or colliding gas clouds triggered that dense concentration of material into motion. It began to rotate and flatten out. Most of the matter fell toward the center, forming our Sun, while some of the remaining material coalesced to form the planets. Evidence for this hypothesis first came in 1983 with the launch of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), which gave us our first infrared view of the entire sky. It discovered dusty disks around stars like Beta Pictoris. In 2008, astronomers using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) discovered a planet orbiting Beta Pictoris. The Hubble Space Telescope revealed protoplanetary disks (known as Proplyds) in the Orion Nebula in 1995. In more recent times, the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revealed numerous disks around young stars and in 2015 the VLT has even captured a planet in the process of forming around the protostar PDS 70. The first exoplanet may have been discovered in 1989 by a team led by David Latham. It orbits HD 114762, a type F9V star located 126 light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. However, the possible planet, known at HD 114762 b, has a minimum mass of 11.069 times that of Jupiter and may be as massive as 63.2 Jupiters. This puts it in the realm of brown dwarfs, substellar objects ranging in mass from 13 to 75 or 80 Jupiters. These are “failed stars” that lacked sufficient mass to undergo hydrogen fusion in their cores. Two planets were discovered around the pulsar PSR B1257+12 in 1992, with a third added in 1994. We currently have confirmed the discovery of nearly 4,000 exoplanets in almost 3,000 planetary systems. This confirms that planet formation is a very common byproduct of star formation. With 200 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and at least 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe there are approximately 25,000 billion billion star systems in the universe! Richard then went into the five main detection methods that made these discoveries possible. The Astrometric Method takes advantage of astrometry, precise measurements of a star’s position. A star’s position will slightly change due to a planet’s minute gravitational tug on its parent star (like a small dog tugging on its owner’s leash). This method is very difficult to use from Earth’s surface due to the effects of the atmosphere. However, approximately 3,000 planets may await discovery in data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia probe. Gaia has measured the precise position of 1.7 billion stars since being launched in 2013. One of the more successful methods is the Radial Velocity Method (a.k.a. Doppler Spectroscopy). As with astrometry, radial velocity measures slight changes in a star’s position as the star and planet move about their common center of mass. In this case, however, the motion detected is toward and away from observer and measured via Doppler shifts in the star’s spectrum. This method led to the discovery of the planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi in 1995. This discovery is

February Meeting Minutes

Richard used a hula hoop to demonstrate that an extrasolar planet’s precise mass can only be known if we can view the inclination of the system as viewed from Earth. Typically not possible, since we never actually see the planet. Photo courtesy of Arya Jayatilaka.

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widely considered the first exoplanet found around a solar type star. The planet, 51 Pegasi b, recently given the official name of Dimidium (Latin for half), has a minimum mass of 0.472 Jupiters. However, its average distance from 51 Pegasi is only 0.0527 Astronomical Unit (AU) and completes one orbit every 4.23 days. Planets like this, now referred to as “Hot Jupiters” must migrate closer to their parent star as they pull in material during their formation. The most successful method to date is the Transit Method. If a planet passes directly between a star and an observer’s line of sight, it blocks out a tiny portion of the star’s light, thus reducing its apparent brightness. The first exoplanet found to transit its star is HD 209458 b (Osiris). This is another Hot Jupiter that orbits its star every 3.52 days at a distance of 0.045 AU. Since its orbit is nearly edge-on (86.1°), we know its mass is precisely 0.71 Jupiters. The Gravitational Lens Method is derived from one of the insights of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity; gravity bends space. We normally think of light as traveling in a straight line, but light rays become bent when passing through space that is warped by the presence of a massive object such as a star. This method has only led to a handful of discoveries. Lastly, is Direct Detection. This method is very difficult in visible light due to the star’s overwhelming glare. Several observations have been made in the infrared in young systems still warm from their formation. The VLT captured an image of a 4 Jupiter mass planet around the brown dwarf 2M1207 in 2004. It is the first direct image of a planetary companion, and the first discovered to be orbiting a brown dwarf. Should we call it a planet since it orbits a brown dwarf and not a full fledged star? The VLT also imaged a planet around the T Tauri star GQ Lupi in 2004. The Hubble Space Telescope discovered a distant planet around Fomalhaut in 2008. The planet takes about 1,700 years to orbit the A-type star. The Gemini Planet Imager (a special camera with a coronagraph attached to the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile) has imaged gas giant planets around many neighboring stars. The first spacecraft dedicated to detecting transiting exoplanets was CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits), launched by ESA on December 27, 2006. It only discovered 32 planets during its nearly 8-year mission. Much more successful was NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, launched on March 7, 2009. For over four years, Kepler constantly observed the brightness of approximately 150,000 stars in an area of the sky between the constellations Cygnus

and Lyra. Kepler’s current total of confirmed discoveries during this phase of the mission stands at 2,335 with 2,424 awaiting confirmation. Kepler’s original mission ended with the failure of most of its gyroscopes in 2013. The “K2” mission began later that year and observed multiple locations across the

sky. The K2 mission currently has 359 confirmed discoveries, with 473 awaiting confirmation. Kepler’s

mission ended on November 15, 2018 after exhausting its maneuvering fuel. The Kepler data determined that the most common type of planet has a mass between that of Earth and Neptune. This makes our solar system seem odd, since it lacks a planet in this mass range. Astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Michael Brown proposed the existence of “Planet Nine” in 2016 to explain the unlikely clustering of orbits for a group of extreme trans-Neptunian objects. This planet would have to be approximately 10 times Earth’s mass, which falls in the mass gap between Earth and Neptune. About 360 of the planets discovered by Kepler lie in their star’s habitable zone, the region around a star where a planet with sufficient atmospheric pressure can maintain liquid water on its surface. A fraction of these planets have masses similar to Earth. NASA launched its latest exoplanet mission, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), on April 18, 2018. TESS uses an array of wide-field cameras to survey 85% of the sky, an area 400 times larger than Kepler covered! During its 2-year primary mission it is expected to find more than 20,000 exoplanets! Both future missions are from ESA. The CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) will examine known transiting exoplanets orbiting bright and nearby stars and measure radii of exoplanets for which we

The Gemini Planet Imager on the Gemini South telescope. In the photo, GPI comprises the three box-like components attached to the telescope and hanging closest to the observatory floor. Other box-like components on the telescope are other instruments.

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public event. Moving on to March events, Richard mentioned the general meeting on March 1st and the Messier Marathon on March 9th. In the Follow-Up category, Richard updated progress in the Remote Telescope Project. Except for one unexplained failure to guide, the system was now operating well under internet control. The previous guiding problem turned out to be caused by failure to instruct the program to save a calibration file. The work group can now turn to procedures for training users. Richard also showed a schedule for 2019 general meetings, which happily showed great progress since our last meeting. After a frustrating period of failure to get any kind of response from potential speakers, Richard had now filled out the schedule. Some of the speakers had been suggested by members, for which thanks are due. The question of brochures for our public viewing sessions was considered next. Don had obtained a sample brochure from the Kellogg Community College Print Shop for comparison with those from our current supplier (Allegra). Both looked acceptable, and an order can be made following a price clarification, verification of a schedule to complete the job, and provision of a final draft of the printer file. In an update of outreach events, Jean and Don were scheduled for Science Night at Hastings Public Library (February 20th, 6 - 8 pm), while a number of members were expected to attend the usual Vicksburg Middle School Science Night on March 13th, 6 - 8 pm. A request from the Watervliet District Library Summer Program (July 24th, 11am - 12pm) still requires workers. In New Business, possible 2019 star parties were discussed. At least 4 members were planning to attend the Northeast Astronomy Forum and Telescope Show (NEAF) on April 6-7, and others were encouraged. The Rocky Mountain Star Stare near Gardner, CO (June 26th - 30th) is also under consideration. On another topic, Richard reported that the Meade 16” optical tube assembly which we need for the Owl Observatory upgrade is on sale at $1,000 savings, and we have sufficient money designated to buy it now. After a motion by Richard and second by Jack, the Board voted to make the purchase before the end of February. Don brought up the subject of what to do with the 12” telescope from Owl Observatory, and he moved to list it for sale immediately. After a second by Jack, the motion passed unanimously. In the Other category, there was a brief discussion of methods to contact the membership for an urgent message, as for example a last-minute weather cancellation. Richard’s job does not allow this kind of activity during working hours. No action was taken at this time. With the conclusion of business, the next meeting was set for Sunnyside on March 10, 2019, at 5pm. The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 pm, and it was followed by a period of envelope stuffing for the Owl Observatory fundraising effort. Respectfully submitted by Roger Williams

The KAS Board met on February 10, 2019 at Sunnyside Church. President Richard Bell called the meeting to order at 5:10 pm. Board members present were Scott Macfarlane, Jack Price, Don Stilwell, and Roger Williams, with Rich Mather connected by cell phone. The Treasurer’s Report had been e-mailed from Rich to Don, but it arrived only as Don was en route to the meeting. The Sunnyside facility did not offer a way to print the file, so Rich read out the highlights. Since this didn’t allow a thorough examination of the report, Richard agreed to e-mail it to board members after the meeting. He also requested that the reports be sent out earlier in the future, to allow ample time for examination. One specific item mentioned by Don was $120 to be deposited for payment for a KAS cap and for return of cash that had been withdrawn to make change at a

already have mass estimates. It is due to launch this October or November and its primary mission is expected to last 3.5 years. The PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) satellite is planned for launch in 2026. It will use a set of 24 cameras, plus 2 fast cameras. Mission goals include searching for planetary transits for up to one million stars and discovering and characterizing rocky extrasolar planets around yellow dwarf stars, subgiant stars, and red dwarf stars. PLATO will have an emphasis on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars. Richard gave his President’s Report after the snack break. Jean DeMott and Don Stilwell plan to volunteer at Family Science Night at Hastings Public Library on February 20th. Several volunteers will be needed for Science Night at Vicksburg Middle School on March 13th. Since last month, great progress has been made in finding general meeting guest speakers. A listing can be viewed on the general meeting web page, with more details on the schedule page. Richard said he plans to attend the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) in Rockland County, New York on April 6th and 7th. Plans to attend the Texas Star Party fell through, so he now hopes to go to the Rocky Mountain Star Stare in Colorado from June 26th - 30th. He hopes several members will join him. The KAS Remote Telescope is ready for use. We only need to finish the User’s Manual and schedule the first training session. The new telescope we plan to get for Owl Observatory, a Meade 16-inch SCT, is currently $1,000 off until the end of February. After observing reports from members, discussing current astronomical events, and reviewing upcoming events the meeting concluded at 9:27 pm. (Sorry for the lack of details, but Richard’s digital recorder is apparently broken and failed to record the business portion of the meeting. He could really use a volunteer to take notes during this part of the meeting for later use in writing the meeting minutes.)

March 2019

The vernal equinox occurs at precisely 5:58 pm EDT on March 20th, bringing an end to another seemingly endless winter. KAS activities will gradually increase as we transition from cold and gray skies to more moderate temperatures and clearer skies. However, we do have a few more events that occur before the official start of spring. The first Friday of the month occurs on March 1st and I hope a large contingent of KAS members gather at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center for our general meeting. Mike Sinclair will give his fourteenth solo presentation and it sounds like a good one. The lengthy title, The Great Debate: Harlow Shapley, Heber Curtis, and the Size of the Universe, sums up the talks fairly well! Mike will outline the “state of the known” universe prior to the famous Shapley-Curtis debate in 1920, present evidence cited by both astronomers, and discuss the dramatic change in understanding of the nature of our universe after this intellectual battle between two giants. Our annual Messier Marathon falls on March 9th this year. We enjoyed clear skies last year, but it was mighty frigid. It would be unprecedented to have clear skies two years-in-a-row, but we can always hope! If it is clear, I just hope it’s a tad warmer than it was in 2018. Most people that attend don’t attempt to observe all 110 Messier objects in a single night, but we’ll give you some space if that is your plan. Richland Township Park is a great spot to pull off a Marathon, so feel free to give it a try. Two community outreach events are scheduled for March. The first, Vicksburg Middle School’s 15th annual Science Night, is on March 13th from 6 - 8pm (with setup beginning at 5pm). Several volunteers are needed to staff greeting,

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hands-on, and freebie tables along with displays and demonstrations. We’ll be seeking volunteers at the March 1st meeting and by e-mail, so please step forward! Remember, you don’t need any special training our knowledge to volunteer. Next up is the Barry County Science Festival at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute on March 23rd from 10am - 3pm. Like last year, we’ll do a single hands-on activity and solar observing if clear. Now that spring is approaching, I’m ready to take a road trip! How about you? Five KAS members are currently planning to attend the 2019 Northeast Astronomy Forum and Telescope Show (NEAF) from April 6th - 7th at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York. These five members include Jean DeMott, Scott Macfarlane, Rich Mather, Don Stilwell, and myself. I last attended NEAF in 2012, which is where I took the panorama used as the header image above. I affectionately refer to NEAF as “Candyland.” Over the past two decades, it has become a mecca for amateur astronomers. It features booths from over 120 vendors and organizations. If you’re thinking about buying a pricey piece of astronomical equipment or just like to look at thousands of neat gadgets, then NEAF is THE place to go and see it and maybe even purchase it for a nice discount. NEAF also features a top array of keynote speakers. This year’s list includes Jim Green (NASA Chief Scientist), James Hansen (author of First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong), Don Pettit (NASA Astronaut), Alan Stern (Principal Investigator on the New Horizons mission), and Al Worden (Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot). As you can see, this year’s theme is in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. There’s much more, so check out the NEAF website and join us! Those of us currently attending NEAF will be staying at the Courtyard Montvale (100 Chestnut Ridge Road) in Montvale, New Jersey. One of my goals at NEAF is to gather information for the Owl Observatory Upgrade Project. Every current member should have received a letter in the mail about our overdue plan to upgrade Owl Observatory. I won’t rehash what I wrote in the letter, but there is one thing I wanted to add. Unlike the Remote Telescope Project, the goal is to install the new telescope and mount very quickly. Ideally, I’d like to have the First Light ceremony at the Perseid Potluck Picnic on August 10th. This will be a challenge since we need to upgrade the pier to accommodate a larger telescope and mount, plus motorize the roll-off roof. We shouldn’t have any problem getting the desired telescope in time, but the mount may be on backorder depending on when we can place our order. So, the sooner we can raise the necessary funds the better. Donations received by check, money order or even cash are preferred so the full amount can go toward our goal. However, you can also make your donation via PayPal. Use the form on the Owl Project web page. Please contribute to the Owl Observatory Upgrade Project today!

Richard took this image of an Astro-Physics 1600GTO German Equatorial Mount on display at the 2012 Northeast Astronomy Forum and Telescope Show (NEAF). It is the mount we plan to get for the much-needed upgrade of Owl Observatory.

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March brings longer days for Northern Hemisphere observers, especially by the time of the equinox. Early risers are treated to the majority of the bright planets dancing in the morning skies, with the Moon passing between them at the beginning and end of the month. The vernal equinox occurs on March 20th, marking the official beginning of spring for the Northern Hemisphere. Our Sun shines equally on the Northern and Southern Hemispheres during the moment of equinox, which is why the March and September equinoxes are the only times of the year when Earth’s north and south poles are simultaneously lit by sunlight. Exacting astronomers will note that the length of day and night on the equinox are not precisely equal; the date when they are closest to equal depends on your latitude, and may occur a few days earlier or later than the equinox itself. One complicating factor is that the Sun isn’t a point light source, but a disc. Its edge is refracted by our atmosphere as it rises and sets, which adds several minutes of light to every day. The Sun doesn’t neatly wink on and off at sunrise and sunset like a light bulb, and so there isn’t a perfect split of day and night on the equinox - but it is very close! Ruddy Mars still shines in the west after sunset. Mars scoots across the early evening skies from Aries towards Taurus and meets the sparkling Pleiades star cluster by month’s end.

Attention, beginning astronomers! The KAS library has many resources that will help you. One of our helpful observing guides is The Beginner's Observing Guide: An Introduction to the Night Sky for the Novice Stargazer by Leo Enright, published by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 1993. This smallish spiral-bound book has a wealth of information geared toward people with no previous background in astronomy. You can find it filed under "E" in our library, since the books are filed alphabetically by the primary author's last name. Look inside the book for the checkout card. Write your name and date on the back of the card and place it in the card box. The book will be due at the next meeting. You must be a member of KAS to check materials out of the KAS library. Submitted by Karen M. Woodworth, Ph.D. KAS Librarian

Earth from orbit on the March equinox, as viewed by EUMETSAT. Notice how the terminator – the line between day and night - touches both the north and south poles. Learn more on NASA’s Visible Earth website.

March opens with the morning planets of Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus spread out over the southeastern horizon before sunrise. A crescent Moon comes very close to Saturn on the 1st and occults the ringed planet during the daytime. Lucky observers may be able to spot Mercury by the end of the month. March 31st opens with a beautiful set of planets and a crescent Moon strung diagonally across the early morning sky. Start with bright Jupiter, almost due south shortly before dawn. Then slide down and east towards Saturn, prominent but not nearly as bright as Jupiter. Continue east to the Moon, and then towards the beacon that is Venus, its gleam piercing through the early morning light. End with a challenge: can you find elusive Mercury above the eastern horizon? Binoculars may be needed to spot the closest planet to the Sun as it will be low and obscured by dawn’s encroaching glow. What a way to close out March!

Springtime Planet Party by David Prosper

NASA Night Sky Notes...

This article is distributed by NASA Night Sky Network. The Night Sky Network program supports astronomy clubs across the USA dedicated to astronomy outreach. Visit nightsky.jpl.nasa.org to find local clubs, events, and more!

From the KAS Library: Novice Stargazers Get an

Introduction to the Night Sky

March 2019

One of the most successful and enduring feats of interplanetary exploration, NASA's Opportunity rover mission is at an end after almost 15 years exploring the surface of Mars and helping lay the groundwork for NASA's return to the Red Planet. The Opportunity rover stopped communicating with Earth when a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location in June 2018. After more than a thousand commands to restore contact, engineers in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt to revive Opportunity on February 12th, to no avail. The solar-powered rover's final communication was received June 10, 2018. "It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine." And when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity, and a little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration." Designed to last just 90 Martian days and travel 1,100 yards (1,000 meters), Opportunity vastly surpassed all expectations in its endurance, scientific value and longevity. In addition to exceeding its life expectancy by 60 times, the rover traveled more than 28 miles (45 kilometers) by the time it reached its

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most appropriate final resting spot on Mars — Perseverance Valley. "For more than a decade, Opportunity has been an icon in the field of planetary exploration, teaching us about Mars' ancient past as a wet, potentially habitable planet, and revealing uncharted Martian landscapes," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Whatever loss we feel now must be tempered with the knowledge that the legacy of Opportunity continues — both on the surface of Mars with the Curiosity rover and InSight lander — and in the clean rooms of JPL, where the upcoming Mars 2020 rover is taking shape." The final transmission, sent via the 70-meter Mars Station antenna at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Complex in California, ended a multifaceted, eight-month recovery strategy in an attempt to compel the rover to communicate. “We have made every reasonable engineering effort to try to recover Opportunity and have determined that the likelihood

The small spherules on the Martian surface in this close-up image are near Fram Crater, visited by Opportunity in April 2004. The area shown is 1.2 inches across. These are examples of the mineral concretions nicknamed "blueberries." Opportunity's investigation of the hematite-rich concretions during the rover's three-month prime mission in early 2004 provided evidence of a watery ancient environment.

This infographic highlights NASA’s twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity. The rovers landed on the Red Planet in 2004, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. Spirit concluded its mission in 2010. Opportunity last communicated with Earth on June 10, 2018, as a planet-wide dust storm blanketed the solar-powered rover's location on Mars.

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of receiving a signal is far too low to continue recovery efforts," said John Callas, manager of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project at JPL. Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on January 24, 2004, seven months after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its twin rover, Spirit, landed 20 days earlier in the 103-mile-wide (166-kilometer-wide) Gusev Crater on the other side of Mars. Spirit logged almost 5 miles (8 kilometers) before its mission wrapped up in May 2011. From the day Opportunity landed, a team of mission engineers, rover drivers and scientists on Earth collaborated to overcome challenges and get the rover from one geologic site on Mars to the next. They plotted workable avenues over rugged terrain so that the 384-pound (174-kilogram) Martian explorer could maneuver around and, at times, over rocks and boulders, climb gravel-strewn slopes as steep as 32-degrees (an off-Earth record), probe crater floors, summit hills and traverse possible dry riverbeds. Its final venture brought it to the western limb of Perseverance Valley. "I cannot think of a more appropriate place for Opportunity to endure on the surface of Mars than one called Perseverance Valley," said Michael Watkins, director of JPL. "The records, discoveries and sheer tenacity of this intrepid little rover is testament to the ingenuity, dedication, and perseverance of the people who built and guided her." More Opportunity Achievements:

• Set a one-day Mars driving record March 20, 2005, when it traveled 721 feet (220 meters).

• Returned more than 217,000 images, including 15

360-degree color panoramas.

• Exposed the surfaces of 52 rocks to reveal fresh mineral surfaces for analysis and cleared 72 additional targets with a brush to prepare them for inspection with spectrometers and a microscopic imager.

• Found hematite, a mineral that forms in water, at its landing site.

• Discovered strong indications at Endeavour Crater of the action of ancient water similar to the drinkable water of a pond or lake on Earth.

All of the off-roading and on-location scientific analyses were in service of the Mars Exploration Rovers' primary objective: To seek out historical evidence of the Red Planet's climate and water at sites where conditions may once have been favorable for life. Because liquid water is required for life, as we know it, Opportunity's discoveries implied that conditions at Meridiani Planum may have been habitable for some period of time in Martian history. "From the get-go, Opportunity delivered on our search for evidence regarding water," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator of the rovers' science payload at Cornell University. "And when you combine the discoveries of Opportunity and Spirit, they showed us that ancient Mars was a very different place from Mars today, which is a cold, dry, desolate world. But if you look to its ancient past, you find compelling evidence for

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liquid water below the surface and liquid water at the surface." All those accomplishments were not without the occasional extraterrestrial impediment. In 2005 alone, Opportunity lost steering to one of its front wheels, a stuck heater threatened to severely limit the rover's available power, and a Martian sand ripple almost trapped it for good. Two years later, a two-month dust storm imperiled the rover before relenting. In 2015, Opportunity lost use of its 256-megabyte flash memory and, in 2017, it lost steering to its other front wheel. Each time the rover faced an obstacle, Opportunity's team on Earth found and implemented a solution that enabled the rover to bounce back. However, the massive dust storm that took shape in the summer of 2018 proved too much for history's most senior Mars explorer. "When I think of Opportunity, I will recall that place on Mars where our intrepid rover far exceeded everyone's expectations," Callas said. "But what I suppose I'll cherish most is the impact Opportunity had on us here on Earth. It's the accomplished exploration and phenomenal discoveries. It's the generation of young scientists and engineers who became space explorers with this mission. It's the public that followed along with our every step. And it's the technical legacy of the Mars Exploration Rovers, which is carried

aboard Curiosity and the upcoming Mars 2020 mission. Farewell, Opportunity, and well done." Mars exploration continues unabated. NASA's InSight lander, which touched down on November 26th, is just beginning its scientific investigations. The Curiosity rover has been exploring Gale Crater for more than six years. And, NASA's Mars 2020 rover and the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover both will launch in July 2020, becoming the first rover missions designed to seek signs of past microbial life on the Red Planet. JPL managed the Mars Exploration Rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about the agency's Mars Exploration program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mars

Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the component images for this view from a position outside Endeavor Crater during the span of June 7 to June 19, 2017. Toward the right side of this scene is a broad notch in the crest of the western rim of crater.

This self-portrait of Opportunity at right comes courtesy of the Sun and the rover's front hazard-avoidance camera. The dramatic snapshot of Opportunity's shadow was taken as the rover continues to move farther into "Endurance Crater." The image was taken on sol 180 (July 26, 2004), a date that marks achievement of fully double the rover's primary 90-sol mission.

— March Night Sky —

NORTH

EAST W

EST

V enus, Saturn, and Jupiter arc across the southeastern sky with a waning crescent Moon

3° right of Saturn shortly before dawn on March 1st. Follow the thinning Moon over the next two mornings as it first moves to 4½° to Venus’ right on March 2nd (fitting within the field-of-view of a pair of 7×50 binoculars) and then 7° to the lower left

of the brilliant morning star on March 3rd. A waxing crescent Moon lies on the outskirts of the Hyades star cluster in Taurus on the evening of March 12th. Both Moon and cluster will also fit within the field of 7×50 binoculars. The Moon will be perfectly balanced

between the stars Zubeneschamali (on the left) and Zubenelgenubi in Libra, the Scales, on the evening of March 24th. A waning gibbous Moon will be 4½° to the left of Jupiter before dawn on March 27th. It will then move within 3½° of Saturn, now as a wide waning crescent, on March 29th.

SOUTH

This star map is property of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. However, you may make as many copies as you wish free-of-charge, so long as it is for non-profit educa onal purposes and full credit is given to the KAS. www.kasonline.org

• Late February 10 pm

• Early March 9 pm

• Late March 8 pm

• Early April 7 pm

This map represents the sky at the following local standard mes:

PRESIDENT

Richard S. Bell

VICE PRESIDENT

Jack Price

TREASURER

Rich Mather

SECRETARY/ALCOR

Roger Williams

PUBLICITY MANAGER

Joe Comiskey

MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Jean De Mo

Sco Macfarlane

Don S lwell

E-MAIL a BOARD MEMBER

March 2019 Page 11

Volunteers Needed @

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Saturday, March 9th @ 7:00 pm | Richland Township Park - 6996 N. 32nd St.

Messier Marathon The work of comet-hunter and nebulae cataloger Charles Messier comes alive in March of each year as amateur astronomers participate in a one night search for all of the objects in his catalog of nebulae, star clusters and

galaxies. By a quirk of fate, we are fortunate that most of the objects Messier and Méchain took 24 years to discover can be

observed in one night around the time of the vernal equinox. Members are encouraged to bring a good pair of

binoculars or a telescope and participate in this one night race across the sky.

The KAS has been asked to par cipate in the fi eenth annual Science Night at Vicksburg Middle School (located at 348 East Prairie St.). Members are needed to help setup and take down classroom displays, hand out KAS literature, and answer ques ons from students and parents. Members are also needed to setup telescopes outside if skies are clear. Please contact us if you’d like to lend a helping hand.

Our Celestron 8˝ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope is mounted on a very stable Super Polaris Equatorial mount. It’s quick and easy to setup. A dew cap, 4 eyepieces, and a Tel-Rad finder are included.

This is a serious amateur telescope that will provide dazzling views of the Moon and planets, and is capable of showing you thousands of deep sky objects.

Visit the Telescopes for Loan webpage for more information and contact KAS Equipment Manager Arya Jayatilaka today if you’d like borrow it.

© March 2019, Stargazer Productions

Kalamazoo Astronomical Society c/o KAMSC 600 West Vine, Suite 400 Kalamazoo, MI 49008

STAMP

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