New England Fall Astronomy Festival 2016

8 09 2016

NEFAFNEFAF is back! The New England Fall Astronomy Festival is this weekend, September 9 & 10 (Friday and Saturday) at the Durham campus of University of New Hampshire. This year’s special guest and keynote speaker is Dr. Seth Shostak (SETI). He’ll be talking to students and faculty on Friday, September 9th at 1:00 PM in the Strafford Room on the UNH-Durham campus and also giving the Keynote Address from 7:00-8:15 p.m. at the Main Tent at UNH Observatory.

There are tons of activities on the schedule for kids (building rockets!) this weekend, in addition to lectures from notable amateur and professional astronomers aimed at the adults in the crowd. Don’t miss the Saturday afternoon discussion panel with John Gianforte (The Sky Guy), Dr. David Kipping, Dr. Seth Shostak, Dr. Suzanne Young, and Dr. Harlan Spence. And stick around: S&T‘s Kelly Beatty will be talking about the 2017 total solar eclipse. 

On Friday night, Joel Harris will give a tour of the night sky for novice observers. Marc Stowbridge will be giving the Saturday night sky tour. I’ve been looking at the sky my entire life, and I still haven’t gotten tired of listening to/watching sky tours. The UNH Observatory will be open, so this is your chance to look through a 14-inch telescope.

I’m reprinting the full NEFAF schedule here, but you should check out the NEFAF facebook page for more details.

NEFAF Program Listing for Friday, September 9

1:00-2:15 PM: Dr. Seth Shostak Lecture (Strafford Room MUB-UNH)
4:00-6:00 PM: Special Reception for Dr. Shostak (tickets required) (Three Chimneys Inn)
7:00-8:15 PM: Keynote Address NEFAF Kick-Off (Main Tent UNH Observatory)
8:15 PM- ?: General Night Sky Observing (UNH Observatory & Surrounding Fields)
8:15-8:45 PM: Joel Harris (NHAS) Beginners’ Laser Pointer Sky Tour (UNH Observatory & Surrounding Fields)
9:00-9:30 PM: Joel Harris (NHAS) Beginners’ Laser Pointer Sky Tour (UNH Observatory & Surrounding Fields)

NEFAF Program Listing for Saturday, Sept 10, 2016

10:00 AM: NEFAF Gates Open
*Ramon’s Food & Coffee Cart Open Morning, Noon and Night
10:00-4:30 PM: Kids’ Hands On Science Activity Center (Main Tent)
10:00-6:30 PM: Search the NEFAF Universe for Clues! NEFAF AstroScavenger Hunt! Start your hunt in the Main Tent.
10:00-4:30 PM: Kids’ AstroGames Outside Game Venue (East of Observatory)
11:00-12:00 PM: NHAS Telescope Clinic – Care for neglected or uncooperative telescopes (NHAS Booth in the Main Tent)
10:00 AM: Raffle Ticket Sales Open – Front Gate, Main Tent near microphone and roving sales throughout the day!
10:00-6:30 PM: A Walk Through the Solar System (North Field)
11:00 AM: Safe Solar Observing (Observatory & just outside the NHAS Booth – Main Tent)
11:00-12:15 PM: Want to be a Rocketeer? Join a class to build and launch your own rocket! (Main Tent) (each of three classes is limited to 15; sign-up is required on site)
12:30-1:45 PM: Want to be a Rocketeer? Join a class to build and launch your own rocket! (Main Tent) (each of three classes is limited to 15; sign-up is required on site)
2:00-3:15 PM: Want to be a Rocketeer? Join a class to build and launch your own rocket! (Main Tent) (each of three classes is limited to 15; sign-up is required on site)
3:00 PM: Solar Oven Cook-Off! Whose solar oven design is best at cooking a snack? (Outside of Main Tent)

11-5:30 PM INFORMAL SCIENCE TALKS BEGIN – Speaker’s Tent

11:00 AM: Bob Villeux NHAS Rocks From Space!
12:00 PM: Jeff Baumgardner Boston University Everything you Wanted to Know About Telescopes
1:00 PM: Rich DeMidio NHAS About the New Hampshire Astronomical Society
1:30 PM: ASTRO PANEL Dr. David Kipping, Dr. Seth Shostak, Dr. Suzanne Young, Dr. Harlan Spence and John Gianforte
2:45 PM: J. Kelly Beatty Sky & Telescope Magazine Where and How to View the August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
3:45 PM: Dr. David Mattingly UNH, Physics Gravity Waves – What They Tell us About the Universe
4:35 PM: John Blackwell Phillips Exeter Academy A Look at LARGE Telescopes in Chile!
5:15 PM: RAFFLE DRAWINGS! (Outside Main Tent)
6:00 PM -?: Night Sky Observing (UNH Observatory and Surrounding Observing Areas)
7:30-8:00 PM: Marc Stowbridge (NHAS) Laser Pointer Sky Tour (Beginners’ Observatory Area)
9:00-9:30 PM: Marc Stowbridge (NHAS) Laser Pointer Sky Tour (Advanced Observatory Area)

EXHIBITORS IN THE MAIN TENT 10:00AM – 4:00 PM

  • New Hampshire Astronomical Society (NHAS)
  • University of New Hampshire Physics Department
  • Mount Washington Observatory (MWO)
  • McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (M-SDC)
  • UNH Society of Black Engineers
  • University of New Hampshire Techcamp
  • Gloucester Area Astronomy Club (GAAC)




New England Fall Astronomy Festival

1 10 2014
NH Observatory Manager Ian Cohen safely shows a young observer the Sun through the Observatory’s main telescope, a 14-inch reflector. Credit: Loni Anderson/NEFAF

NH Observatory Manager Ian Cohen safely shows a young observer the Sun through the Observatory’s main telescope, a 14-inch reflector. Credit: Loni Anderson/NEFAF

Here’s hoping clear skies will come our way this month. First, there’s the total lunar eclipse to watch in the early a.m. hours of October 8 (evening hours of October 8 if you’re reading this from Australia). That’s super exciting, so it’s probably destined to coincide with cloudy weather.

But I’m also looking forward to the New England Fall Astronomy Festival later this month. Events will take place on the west end of the University of New Hampshire Campus (Durham) at the UNH Observatory. The weekend kicks off on Friday, October 17, with a 6 p.m. lecture by Carolyn Porco, Imaging Science Team Leader for the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn. After the lecture and a Q&A session, clear skies will bring a chance to look through some great telescopes and listen to some star talks. The festival continues on Saturday (10 a.m. to midnight), with more observing sessions, activities for the kids (model rockets rumored!), talks, and clinics. I admit I’m pretty excited by the idea of a weather balloon launch.

Here’s a write up about a previous year’s NEFAF, in case you’re wondering what an “astronomy festival” looks like. Full disclosure: John Gianforte and I work together at S&T. Therefore, I know that it’s going to be a top-notch event.

Hope to see you there!





The Science of the Solar System

28 03 2014
Pluto System, Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JPL/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), HST Pluto Companion Search Team

Pluto System, Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JPL/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), HST Pluto Companion Search Team

I’m the first to admit I don’t understand the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) model of education. I can’t figure out how companies like Coursera make money by offering free courses and I can’t see how anyone thinks they MOOCs can replace a four-year university education. I’m an advocate of online education for some courses, in some forms, but not for an entire college education. But no one asked me, and as long as the instructor gets paid and the student gets some intellectual benefit, I have no complaints. I’ve taken one MOOC (on Thomas Jefferson, because hey, UVa), learned a lot, and found it a pretty good use of my spare time.

The preceding paragraph was just a warm-up for the real purpose of this post: to remind you that you’re running out of time to register for Mike Brown‘s free online course, The Science of the Solar System. Judging only from the intro video, it looks like it’s going to be a fun class. I saw Mike give a talk at NEAF last year and enjoyed it. His material was pitched at a good level, assuming his audience had enough knowledge to follow him, but was not made up of astrophysicists.

Plus, he was nice enough to autograph a copy of his book for my wife.

Also coming up is a MOOC on the technology of astronomy (AstroTech: The Science and Technology behind Discovery). I think I’ll be enrolled in this one. My research deals with Early Modern “astrotech” and it might be fun to look at a more contemporary perspective.





Cristina de Middel – ‘The Afronauts’

10 09 2013
Man at instrument panel

Excerpt from ‘The Afronauts’, Cristina de Middel

I came across this exhibit review in a section of the New York Times that had been abandoned in the local coffee shop last week. Cristina de Middel, freelance photographer and photojournalist, has imagined a project—created a world, really—out of the traces left by Zambia’s space program. Initiated by Edward Makuka Nkoloso in 1964, the program foundered and failed in a matter of months. The Internet is a good source for mockery of Nkoloso’s ambitions (see this “forgotten space program” video, for instance), but de Middel appears to be doing something else. I can see the potential for laughter in some of her photographs, but she also manages to capture some of the intellectual brutality of the post-colonial experience. Who has the right to aspire to a new nation? To mobility? To colonize space?

Maybe we can laugh at Zambia’s misguided efforts in training astronauts, perhaps we can shake our heads over Nkoloso’s antics, but we’d only be making fun of ourselves. The instrument panel in the above photograph doesn’t look much different from those used to support the Apollo mission. The United States sent humans to the Moon with memos typed on manual typewriters and spacecraft operated with yes-no toggle switches. I mean, you can fly a Space Shuttle with a 386 microprocessor. Starting a space program with whatever resources are available…I don’t see the problem.

I don’t know what de Middel’s intent was, and I’m sure she was headed somewhere else creatively, but she’s left the viewer an opening to critique the hoarding of space exploration by a few privileged nations, always at the expense of others.

I’d like to link directly to de Middels’ ‘The Afronauts’ portfolio, but the design of her website makes that impossible. I’ll give these directions: after you arrive on her home page, click on the PROJECTS link at the bottom of the page. Currently, THE AFRONAUTS is at the top of the projects list.





Upcoming LADEE Launch

2 09 2013
NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft sits in the nose-cone at the top of the full Minotaur V launch vehicle stack.

LADEE in the Fully-Stacked Minotaur V Fairing. Image credit: NASA Ames/ Zion Young

If you’ve been missing your lunar reconnaissance instruments since the GRAIL impact, you might find some relief through the upcoming launch of  the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE). Don’t get too attached to LADEE’s instruments, though—this mission will only last about 160 days. The mission team has allowed thirty days travel time (from Earth to lunar orbit), thirty days for positioning and shake-down, and 100 days for science.

My first reaction to the LADEE project was, “Whoa. You mean we don’t know that already?” Many people feel that the Moon is old hat, a been-there-done-that kind of place. But it turns out we don’t really know much about out closest neighbor, despite the success of the Apollo missions. Did you know that the Moon has an atmosphere? Three of LADEE’s science projects (the Ultraviolet and Visible Light Spectrometer; the Neutral Mass Spectrometer; and the Lunar Dust Experiment) will be studying it through spectral and particle analysis. The fourth component of the payload, the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration, revolves around a search for a faster means of communicating in space.

If conditions are right, I should be able to see the LADEE launch Friday, September 6, 2013. More correctly, I should be able to watch the launch vehicle (a Minotaur V) streak across the tree tops at T+90 seconds, give or take a few seconds. The launch window opens at 11:27 p.m. EDT and LADEE will be leaving Earth from the Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. If you’re on the east coast between North Carolina and the Maritimes, with an open view to the east-north, you might be able to see the rocket. If you fancy a trip out to Wallops, you can find a list of public viewing sites here.

Maximum Elevation Map.  Image courtesty: Orbital

Maximum Elevation Map. Image courtesy: Orbital

From the Orbital Minotaur V website: “This map shows the maximum elevation (degrees above the horizon) that the Minotaur V rocket will reach depending on your location along the east coast. The further away you are from the launch site, the closer to the horizon the rocket will be. As a reference, when you look at your fist with your arm fully outstretched, it spans approximately 10 degrees. Thus if you are in Washington, DC the highest point the Minotaur V will reach is approximately 13 degrees above the horizon, or just slightly more than a fist’s width. The contours shown stop below 5 degrees. It is unlikely that you’ll be able to view the rocket when it is below 5 degrees due to buildings, vegetation, and other terrain features.”

First Site Map. Image courtesy Orbital.

First Site Map. Image courtesy: Orbital

From the Orbital Minotaur V website: “This map shows the rough time at which you can first expect to see the Minotaur V rocket after it is launched. It represents the time at which the rocket will reach 5 degrees above the horizon and varies depending on your location along the east coast. We have selected 5 degrees as it is unlikely that you’ll be able to view the rocket when it is below 5 degrees due to buildings, vegetation, and other terrain features. As a reference, when you look at your fist with your arm fully outstretched, it spans approximately 10 degrees. As an example, using this map when observing from Washington, DC shows that the Minotaur V rocket will reach 5 degrees above the horizon approximately 54 seconds after launch (L + 54 sec).”

Happy LADEE Launch!

ETA: I forgot to tell you that you can follow LADEE on twitter at https://twitter.com/NASALADEE!





MUST BE AN ALIEN.

10 04 2013

Green Meteorite Could Be First To Come from Mercury.





Wallpaper Wednesday (Aristarchos, Helmos Observatory)

27 02 2013
Snow on Mount Helmos. Photo credit: Helmos Observatory/National Observatory Athens

Snow on Mount Helmos. Photo credit: Helmos Observatory/National Observatory of Athens

This astonishing image of Helmos Observatory (look closely) introduces the news item posted by the Royal Astronomical Society. Panos Boumis of the National Observatory Athens and John Meaburn of the University of Manchester have published the results of their research based on observations made with Aristarchos, the 2.3 m telescope at Helmos Observatory. Aristarchos only saw first light in 2005, so that Boumis and Meaburn are revealing their conclusions so soon is pretty exciting. In order to measure the distance and age of three lobes of the nebula KjPn8 (in other words, three parts of the gaseous shell that was ejected by a star as it collapsed into a white dwarf), they attached a narrowband camera to the telescope. By comparing the imaging results over the course of several months (years?), they were able to track the velocity and expansion of the lobes; from there, they calculated the distance and age of the nebula.

It’s interesting enough to learn that KjPn8 is some 8000 light years away from Earth. Even more interesting, however, is the conclusion that the lobes were created at different times: 3200, 7200 and *50,000* years ago. That’s…what…the Paleolithic? Homo neandrathalensis has another 10-20,000 years to go extinct and Homo sapiens has just arrived in Europe. That’s seriously cool stuff.

Click on the image to go to the original, posted by the Helmos Observatory.





Wallpaper Wednesday (Ice Cube South Pole Neutrino Observatory)

20 02 2013
IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory

IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory

The IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory is seeking candidates for its “Winterover” positions. If you’ve got wicked UNIX skillz, don’t mind living in isolation, and aren’t particularly attached to sunrise, take a look at the advertisement. If you’d rather just fantasize about working at the South Pole, click on the image above to download various sizes of wallpaper for your computer.





While You Were Away…

17 02 2013
Zarina Hashmi, Stars (from Home is a Foreign Place, 1999)

Zarina, Stars (from Home is a Foreign Place, 1999)

I know, I know. One of the most exciting (and potentially tragic) earth-meteorite encounters in living history and I did nothing to keep you informed. In my defense, I was on the go all day, trying to coax just a few more minutes out that sorry excuse for a battery that powers my iPhone. I just didn’t have the time, mental space, or energy (phone energy) to connect you to videos and analysis. On the other hand, everyone else seems to have had plenty to say about it, so I doubt you missed my commentary.

While I was running around this weekend, supposedly ignoring science, I stopped in at the Guggenheim with a friend. We went for the Gutai exhibition, but I was more taken with the Zarina retrospective. Not only are her prints beautiful and striking as objects, she works on some of my favorite themes—location, memory, space, identity, architecture, environment, mobility, nation. Her personal geography coincided with mine in many places and I was captivated by her ability to pin a spatial memory to paper with ink. And you can see from the image above that her locative work isn’t just about house or city or continent, it’s about the sky and the universe as well.

Zarina, Santa Cruz

Zarina, Santa Cruz, 1996

Zarina: Paper Like Skin is on view at the Guggenheim (New York) through April 21, after which time it moves to the Art Institute of Chicago. In the meantime, you can view some of her work in the online gallery at Luhring Augustine.





Wallpaper Wednesday (Soyuz Launch)

19 12 2012
Rollout Soyuz TMA-13 Expedition 18, 10 October 2008

Rollout Soyuz TMA-13 Expedition 18, 10 October 2008

This morning at 07:12:36 EST, the Russian Soyuz TMA-07M Expedition 24 lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The astronauts on board the spacecraft represent three nations and their space programs. From the Russian Space Agency comes the Commander, Roman Romanenko. Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield represents the Canadian Space Agency and Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn works for NASA. The Soyuz capsule is on schedule to dock with the ISS on 21 December 2012.

I couldn’t decide what photo to feature today, one that shows this morning’s action or one that represents the longevity of the Soyuz program. I chose the image at the head of this post because it was the most striking in terms of content and the quality of the photography. Soyuz rollouts are so different from the ones we’re used to watching at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral. With a Soyuz, whether it will be launched from Kazakhstan or French Guiana, the body of the rocket is moved along a horizontal by train and tilted into place on the pad.

soyuz-expedition-31-rollout-1600

Soyuz TMA-04M Expedition 31 Rollout, 15 May 2012. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

In contrast, Ariane 5, Atlas V, and Delta IV rockets rollout in the vertical position. Admittedly, the Atlas Vs and Delta IVs tend to be stacked close to the pads, so the rollout doesn’t require a long-distance move. But it seems NASA has always preferred to move a vertical stack—the Space Shuttles and Saturn V rockets were moved along the crawlerway from the VAB to the launch complexes in the upright position, for example.

The First Saturn V Rollout, From the VAB, 25 May 1966. Photo credit: NASA

The First Saturn V Rollout, From the VAB, 25 May 1966. Photo credit: NASA

As you know from my earlier posts, moving things around the planet is almost as interesting to me as putting things in space, so I enjoy photos of Soyuz rollouts almost as much as I do photos of launches. I’ll close this post with the runner up photo, which shows the Soyuz TMA-06M rollout from earlier this year. The side of the train says, “Space Center South.”

Soyuz Rocket Rollout, 21 October 2012. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Soyuz TMA-06M Expedition 33 Rollout, 21 October 2012. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

 








Observatories and Instruments