From bhavner at ricochet.net Wed Aug 1 18:26:12 2001 From: bhavner at ricochet.net (Bob & Brenda Havner) Date: Fri Jul 29 03:57:03 2005 Subject: [SJAA-announce] Aug. 4th meeting Message-ID: <001201c11af2$28e3a560$3606703f@havner> Elinor Gates of UCO Lick Observatory Lick Observatory Then and Now August 4th General meeting 8:00 p.m. Houge Park meeting hall Elinor Gates will be speaking about the Lick Observatory, Its history, early discoveries, and research being conducted today. Elinor is a staff astronomer at Lick Observatory and her research interests include Adaptive Optics observation, Extragalactic Distance Scale, Infrared and Optical Instrumentation, Supernovae, and Quasars. Come hear about some very local astronomy. Bob Havner Vice President San Jose Astronomical Association bhavner@ricochet.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.sjaa.net/pipermail/sjaa-announce/attachments/20010801/eebfd5ef/attachment.html From bhavner at earthlink.net Fri Aug 10 09:21:38 2001 From: bhavner at earthlink.net (Bob & Brenda Havner) Date: Fri Jul 29 03:57:03 2005 Subject: [SJAA-announce] Fw: NASA planet search proposal Message-ID: <000f01c121b8$8fbcd1e0$5cd6f7a5@havner> Bob Havner Vice President San Jose Astronomical Association bhavner@earthlink.net SJAA Members, I am forwarding this message I recieved about the planet search project. If you are interested in participating in this program please contact Tim Castellano directly. His contact information is included in the proposal. > The following proposal was sent to the HVAG and the Lick Observatory > Volunteers in the hope that some of our members might be interested > in participating. We are forwarding it to all the members of both > groups. > > We feel that this program represents a unique and exciting > opportunity for amateurs to make a significant contribution to a new > and rapidly developing area of astronomical research. > > > > Feel free to forward this proposal to anyone who you think may be interested. > > > > ABSTRACT > > The discovery since 1995 of more than 60 planets around nearby > solar-like stars and the photometric measurement of a transit of the > planet orbiting HD 209458 has heralded a new era in astronomy. It is > now possible for small telescopes equipped with sensitive and stable > electronic detectors to produce fundamental scientific discoveries > regarding the frequency and nature of planets outside the solar > system. The modest equipment requirements for the measurement of > extrasolar planetary transits are achieved by commercial small > aperture telescopes and CCD imagers common among amateur astronomers. > With equipment already in hand and armed with observing techniques > and software procedures developed by scientists at NASA's Ames > Research Center amateurs can contribute significantly to the study of > planets around others stars. > > OBJECTIVE > > The objective of the work is to develop a collaboration between NASA > Ames scientists and amateur astronomers to facilitate the efficient > detection and characterization of extrasolar planets that transit > their host stars by increasing the numbers of objects under > surveillance. The short orbital periods and size of the transit > signal of "hot jupiters" recently discovered around solar type stars > brings transit photometry into the realm of the achievable via > commonly available amateur telescopes and imagers. The public > outreach potential of this effort is enormous based on the response > elicited by exploratory discussions with amateur and educational > groups conducted to date. A prototype telescope system shows promise. > The resources requested will be used to enable the widest possible > audience of potential contributors, refine the technique and > facilitate coordination of a large distributed team. > > NASA Ames scientists have identified several dozen stars likely to > possess short period planets. These planet candidates come from two > independent search projects being conducted at NASA Ames. > Confirmation of transits via photometry is inefficient in terms of > observing time because of the small duty cycle of transit events > (Castellano, 2001). Randomly-phased observations of HD 209458 have > about a 1 in 30 chance of catching the 3 hour long transit during the > 85 hour orbital period. The complete phase coverage monitoring of > dozens of stars requires a dedicated telescope and observing staff or > a network of telescopes and observers available part time. Our > intent is develop this network via collaboration with amateurs. > > Metal Rich Stars > One of the major discoveries to emerge from the detection of > extrasolar planets is the fact that stars which contain a high > proportion of heavy elements in their spectrum have up to a ten times > increased probability of harboring a detectable short-period > companion. Statistical analyses of the population of parent stars of > the known extrasolar planets indicate that approximately one in ten > metal-rich stars should harbor a short-period planet. Given the ten > percent chance that a given short-period planet displays transits, we > therefore expect that approximately 1% of the most metal rich stars > will have a planetary companion detectable by this project. A catalog > of highly metal rich stars has been compiled, and these stars will be > one target focus of the project. > > Hipparcos Satellite Photometry Identified Candidates > A search of the Hipparcos Satellite photometry conducted by one of us > revealed several dozen main sequence stars with photometric features > consistent with a planetary transit (Castellano, 2001). Although some > of these are likely due to previously unknown stellar companions, > stellar variability or noise, a few may be newly discovered > extrasolar planets that transit. Because the Hipparcos photometry > did not provide an adequate number of measurements or sufficient > precision to determine an orbital period and phase at which a transit > is expected (Perryman, 1997, van Leeuwen 1997), many observations are > required for each star to confirm or refute the planet hypothesis. Of > course, the stars that are found to have previously unknown > companions or are variable (but don't have planets) are interesting > in their own right and these will be a publishable findings. > > ROLE OF THE AMATEURS > > NASA scientists have obtained a telescope/CCD/software system > representative of what a dedicated amateur might own and have begun > experiments to develop the necessary procedures to achieve the > required photometric precision. These procedures will be > communicated to the amateur community along with candidate lists, > finding charts showing suitable comparison stars and sample images. > Of the thousands of amateurs who own the necessary telescope/CCD > systems it is hoped that a few percent will take up the challenge and > make the necessary observations. Results will be communicated to Ames > in electronic form, where they will be further analyzed and their > quality checked and placed in an online database along with the > contributor's identity. A night's worth of data will consist of a few > dozen images of the specified field of stars. To reduce the data each > observer will download the images to a computer and use commercially > available software to calibrate the images and extract the > photometric brightness of each star in each frame via aperture > photometry. These tables of individual brightness measurements along > with their time tags and estimated errors can then be imported into a > spreadsheet program resulting in differential photometry and a graph > of the results. It is these tables of stellar brightness and times > that will be the end result of the amateurs efforts to be transmitted > to the Ames data center. > > STATUS OF PROTOTYPE SYSTEM The proposed amateur > telescope/CCD/computer/software system is a Meade LX-200 telescope, a > Santa Barbara Instruments Group ST7E CCD, a laptop computer running > Microsoft Windows and MIRA image processing and photometry software > from Axiom Research. All items are commonly available and within the > budgets of serious amateur astronomers. The telescope, CCD, and > reduction software have been received and checked out. The CCD noise > was measured, telescope tracking and autoguiding tested. Sample > images were taken and reduction to epoch photometry indicates that > the error estimates given above are realistic and achievable. The > next step is high precision measurements of HD 209458 on the nights > of August, 13, 20 and 27, 2001 during times of predicted transit. > Tim Castellano > Astronomer > Astrophysics Branch > Space Science Division > NASA Ames Research Center > MS 245-6 > Room 312 > Moffet Field, CA 94035 > Phone: (650) 604-4716 > FAX: (650) 604-6779 > email: tcastellano@mail.arc.nasa.gov > "Sic transit gloria mundi" > > From mojo at whiteoaks.com Mon Aug 13 20:06:15 2001 From: mojo at whiteoaks.com (Morris Jones) Date: Fri Jul 29 03:57:03 2005 Subject: [SJAA-announce] Last call for Sept. Ephemeris Message-ID: If you have something you'd like to see in the September Ephemeris, get it to me ASAP. I'm working on it tonight and tomorrow. But please -- don't reply to this email. Send your submission to ephemeris@sjaa.net. Mojo -- Morris Jones <*> San Rafael, CA mojo@whiteoaks.com http://www.whiteoaks.com From jvn at svpal.org Wed Aug 22 14:24:42 2001 From: jvn at svpal.org (Jim Van Nuland) Date: Fri Jul 29 03:57:03 2005 Subject: [SJAA-announce] Obit, Dr Fred Hoyle] Message-ID: <3B84231A.1473@svpal.org> Originally posted to TAC list by Richard Crisp. Sir Fred was one of the greats. AUG 22, 2001 Fred Hoyle Dies at 86; Opposed 'Big Bang' but Named It By WALTER SULLIVAN New York Times Sir Fred Hoyle, one of the most creative and provocative astrophysicists of the last half century, who helped explain how the heavier elements were formed and gave the name Big Bang, meant to be derisive, to the theory of cosmic origin he vehemently opposed, died on Monday in Bournemouth, England. He was 86 and lived in Bournemouth. He suffered a severe stroke last month and never recovered, said Dr. Geoffrey Burbidge, an astrophysicist at the University of California at San Diego who had collaborated with Dr. Hoyle on many research projects. "Fred was probably the most creative and original person in astrophysics after World War II," Dr. Burbidge said. Dr. Virginia Trimble, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Irvine, said that Dr. Hoyle's opposition to the Big Bang, while considered a mistake, "was significant in that it went a long way toward making cosmology a true science" in which competing theories were tested by observations. A versatile scientist brimming with ideas and a lifelong rebel eager for intellectual combat, Dr. Hoyle was most widely known as an author of the cosmological theory, which now has few adherents, that the universe exists in a steady state. The theory, published in 1948, contends that matter is constantly being created, so the expanding universe remains roughly the same at all times and has no beginning or end. In a series of popular radio talks in Britain in the 1940's, he coined "big bang" to ridicule the rival concept of an explosive origin of the universe, but the term is now widely used and the explosion theory is generally accepted. In recent years Sir Fred joined those arguing for a universe that ? while eternal ? expands and contracts. The astronomer was instrumental in establishing the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in England and became its first director. From 1958 to 1972 he was also Plumian professor of astronomy at the university, a post previously held by such leading scientists as Sir Arthur Eddington, whose groundbreaking experiments confirmed the general theory of relativity. A historic development in astrophysics was explaining how the elements came to be synthesized step by step in the stars, starting from hydrogen and helium. In the 1930's, Dr. Hans Bethe and others showed how stars could derive their energy from the fusion of hydrogen nuclei (protons) to form helium. The problem Dr. Hoyle and colleagues faced was how slightly larger elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen were formed by stars. An element called beryllium-8, which was an intermediate stage in the process of element formation, stood in the way. It did not survive long enough for the fusion process to reach carbon-12, the next stage in the element building process. Dr. Hoyle solved the problem: he pressed nuclear physicists to look for a special state of carbon-12, that was stable enough for the fusion of heavier elements to occur. Then, working with three other scientists, Dr. Hoyle figured out how all the heavier elements could have been formed. Their historic paper was published in 1957 in Reviews of Modern Physics. In addition to Dr. Hoyle, the scientists were Dr. William A. Fowler, of California Institute of Technology; Dr. Burbidge and Dr. Margaret Burbidge, his wife. While the formation of the lighter elements, up to iron, could be explained by processes inside stars, extremely high temperatures and violent events were needed. The answer proposed by the four was the supernova, in which a giant star collapses to extreme density, then cataclysmically rebounds. For this and his subsequent work in astrophysics, Dr. Fowler was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The other three were omitted, probably in part because the prize is rarely, if ever, awarded to more than two people. Fred Hoyle's nonconformity manifested itself at an early age. Born in Bingley, Yorkshire, he found school boring, preferring to remain at home studying a textbook in elementary chemistry and doing chemistry experiments with equipment he found in his home. As recounted in his 1994 autobiography, "Home Is Where the Wind Blows," in his parents' absence he enjoyed making gunpowder and creating explosions. As school was compulsory, his absence led to difficulties with the local authorities. The family did not have the funds to send him to a private school, but he finally won scholarships, including one from the West Riding of Yorkshire, and started on the path that eventually led him to Cambridge. As soon as he reached Cambridge he came under the tutelage of such top physicists as Rudolph Peierls, Eddington, P. A. M. Dirac and R. H. Fowler, whose calculations set the stage for the concept of black holes, stars whose collapse has yielded such density that the gravity prevents even light from escaping. During World War II he led a radar development group at an Admiralty Signal Establishment center in West Sussex, near the south coast. Working under him were two refugees from Vienna: Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi. During the day the trio worked on radar. At night they discussed astrophysics, developing the steady-state cosmology. They accepted the evidence for its constant expansion, but proposed that matter is constantly formed to fill the gaps. In 1995 Dr. Bondi and Dr. Gold credited Dr. Hoyle with first proposing such continuous creation of new matter. Dr. John Faulkner, of the Lick Observatory in California, said that during the "magical six years" after establishment of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Cambridge in 1966, it became "an obligatory mecca" for young American astronomers, many of whom felt the institute "fostered their best work." But by his own account Sir Fred never shrank from controversy, and in 1972, after a falling out with Cambridge officialdom and rancorous debate on the future of British astronomy, he resigned as director of the institute. Sir Fred's work on interstellar organic molecules led him to propose that life originated in space. Working with a student, Chandra Wickramasinghe, he championed the unorthodox theory that the seeds of life, including disease viruses, periodically fall from space. They attributed the onset of various epidemics to such viruses, attempting to document this in the simultaneous appearance of influenza at schools in remote parts of England and Wales. These theories are reflected in titles of the books he did with Dr. Wickramasinghe: "Lifecloud" (1958), "Diseases from Space" (1979), "Space Travelers: The Origins of Life" (1980) and "Cosmic Life Force" (1988). His more conventional writing produced "Frontiers of Astronomy," a widely used text. Dr. Hoyle, along with Dr. Geoffrey Burbidge and Dr. Jayant V. Narliker, renewed their fight against Big Bang orthodoxy with the book "A Different Approach to Cosmology" (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Dr. Hoyle was also a prolific author of science fiction, producing almost one book a year between 1950 and 1990, some written with his son, Geoffrey. Among the best known were "The Black Cloud" (1957) and "Ossian's Ride" (1958). In 1957 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and in the early 1970's he was president of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was knighted in 1972. In recent years he lived in Bournemouth. In addition to his son, also of Bournemouth, he is survived by his wife, the former Barbara Clark, whom he married in 1939, and a daughter Elizabeth Butler, a London stockbroker. "Home for Hoyle," Stephen G. Brush, a science historian, wrote in 1995, "is not a cozy cottage with an overstuffed chair in front of the fireplace. Not for him the comforts of academic tenure and the polite respect of colleagues. He is at home on the tops of mountains, at the cusps of controversies, where the winds blow fiercely and even God is not omnipotent but, as Hoyle says, just `doing his best' to make an adequate universe." -- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association JVN's home page From jvn at svpal.org Thu Aug 30 22:25:40 2001 From: jvn at svpal.org (Jim Van Nuland) Date: Fri Jul 29 03:57:03 2005 Subject: [SJAA-announce] NASA Images bring Planets, Weather, & Geology to Classroom. Message-ID: <3B8F1FD4.EB3@svpal.org> This from NASA, forwarded by Nicholas Morrone. Not many of us are teachers, but most are interested in Jupiter. -- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association JVN's home page NASA IMAGES BRING PLANETS, WEATHER, GEOLOGY TO CLASSROOMS Fit the giant planet Jupiter and its moons into your classroom. Explore the peaks and valleys of the ocean's floor without getting all wet. Travel to distance galaxies and back in one class period. Experience the excitement of a gravity-free environment by watching an astronaut eat floating M&Ms. Nearly 100 images -- from Buzz Aldrin taking a walk on the moon to colliding galaxies to the volcano of Mt. Etna, Italy -- are available through NASA's educational Web site The Space Place (http://spaceplace.nasa.gov) for classroom use. The pictures featured help bring a number of topics alive, including the Solar System, weather, geology and geography. Educators can access "Goodies for Teachers" by simply clicking on the schoolhouse icon on The Space Place home page. There, teachers can choose Earth- and space-related printable pictures in the following categories: Solar System; Earth (Geography and Mapping, Oceans, Volcanoes, Weather); Astronauts; Stars, Galaxies and Nebulae; and Rockets, Space Shuttles, International Space Station, Rovers. Within each category are several images from which to choose. Teachers can click on the small image to view it in a larger format. To print a clean copy (without browser information on the page), save the .jpg file (File/Save As) to the hard drive or a disk, and open and print it using any paint program (Photoshop, Windows Paint, PowerPoint, Macpaint, etc.) The image file can also be placed into a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, document for printing. The Space Place includes images and curriculum for use in the classroom, as well as discovery-based learning activities for students to do on their own. For more information about The Space Place and "Goodies for Teachers," contact Nancy Leon at nancy.j.leon@jpl.nasa.gov . -- ***************************************** Nancy Leon Education and Public Outreach Lead NASA New Millennium Program NASA/JPL 4800 Oak Grove Drive Mailstop 301-235 Pasadena, CA 91109 (818) 354-1067 nancy.j.leon@jpl.nasa.gov