Kate Otto, Program Chair
AAAP member Bill Murray will once again host the Club’s last program the second Tuesday, June 11th at the New Jersey State Museum Planetarium. The Club will gather at 7:30 for a brief business meeting followed by a live Star Talk by Bill and the new Planetarium Exhibit “To Space and Back” at 8:00pm. Free parking and easy access to the Planetarium is available. Please check the AAAP website for details.
Surabhi Agarwal, Co-editor
In a week, on May 11th we will have a star-studded party with Prof. Freeman Dyson, Astronaut Greg Olsen, Author Michael Lemonick among others attending our 50th anniversary festivities. David Spergel, J. Richard Gott, Lisa Kaltenegger and Bob Vanderbei will ponder over ways to meet an alien, any alien in faraway galaxies.
Meanwhile, Renée Hlozek, Michael Lemonick and our own David Letcher are poring over a hundred and twenty five poems submitted by students from elementary to high school. They will soon declare the best poets. The winners will be invited to attend the function.
Over 90 guests have already registered for what will be an astronomically educational and enjoyable night. We still have until Wednesday, May 8th for the procrastinator to send in their money. Get excited!!
If you have registered and prefer vegetarian then please email us at editors@princetonastronomy.org
If you have missed the earlier editions of this monthly, here is the information. We will meet at 5:00 P.M. in the dining hall of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Cannot join us for dinner at 5:00P.M.! Don’t worry, join us later at 7:30 for the panel discussion at the Wolfensohn Hall. Some of our members are setting up their telescopes on the lawns of the institute to watch the sky after the discussion. Bring your family and friends to watch Jupiter and its moons.
We need a couple of volunteers to help with the parking and watch over the telescopes. High school students are welcome to volunteer. They will receive volunteer hours from the club. Email me if your high schooler wants to volunteer.
See you on May 11th!
Submitted by Michael Wright, Secretary
Attendees:
Ludy D’Angelo, Director
Michael Mitrano, Treasurer
Mike Wright, Secretary
Kate Otto, Program Chair
Surabhi Agarwal, Co-Chair 50th Anniversary Celebration Committee
This meeting was held via conference call to discuss the budget for the 50th Anniversary Celebration planned for May 11, 2013.
Kate opened the meeting by suggesting that the Board consider sponsoring the event by providing funds to cover some of the cost. Michael M. said that this should not be considered a sponsorship because a sponsorship is a fixed contribution with no risk. The club is at risk because it is required to cover any contractual costs such as the catering cost. Mike W. suggested that the Board consider this a contingency plan to allow the planning committee to make arrangements while sponsorships are collected. April 9 would be the last opportunity to obtain membership approval.
Kate and Surabhi explained the catering plans. No contracts have been signed. Quotes were solicited from several caterers acceptable to IAS. The best value was Main Streets in Princeton. They will provide a three course meal (salad, dinner and dessert with coffee service). Soft drink and alcoholic beverages are not included, but they will serve them if provided by the club. The cost is $80 per person. Michael M. questioned the minimum head count. The quote is based upon 100 attendees, but the minimum count and the impact if fewer members sign up needs to be discussed with Main Streets.
Ludy felt that the advertised registration fees are too low. Kate said that some members of the planning committee wanted to keep the event affordable for all members.
Kate said the plan is for registrations and sponsorships to cover all costs for the event so the club does not have to pay anything. As of April 1, $5,000 has been promised, including one member who has agreed to cover the cost of the Lifetime Achievement Award. The opportunities to get more sponsors are very good, but future donations cannot be guaranteed. Kate recommended that the club allocate $2500.
The following motion by Ludy and seconded by Michael M. passed unanimously:
The Board of Trustees recommends that an amount not to exceed $2,500 of the AAAP’s general funds be used for the 50th Anniversary Celebration to be held on May 11, 2013.
Michael M. noted that the AAAP outlay would be less than $2,500 if more than $5,000 in sponsorships are received. He noted the importance of actually receiving the sponsorship payments prior to signing contracts based on them.
The requirement and logistics of putting the recommendation to the membership’s vote at the April 9, 2013 meeting were reviewed. Mike W. will place a notice in the April Sidereal Times, send email reminders to members and bring a current roster to the business meeting. The vote will be the first item on the business meeting agenda.
by Michael Wright, Secretary
Director Ludy D’Angelo called the meeting to order. He welcomed everyone to the meeting and encouraged members to stay for the business meeting after the lecture to discuss and vote on a Board recommendation to approve funds for the 50th anniversary celebration.
Ken Kremer announced that members could witness a rocket launch within driving distance from central New Jersey. The Antares rocket, contender for supply ship to the ISS, is scheduled for launch on April 17 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which on Virginia’s eastern shore near Chincoteague Island. An observing area is available about 10 miles from the launch pad.
Ludy asked for volunteers to take club materials that he had been storing at home. He encouraged more members to become keyholders because the public night teams are shorthanded this season.
Kate Otto, Program Chair, introduced the speaker, author Michael Lemonick, who presented an entertaining lecture and answered many questions about his career as a science journalist, the search for extrasolar planets and how he researched his new book “Mirror Earths.” Following the lecture, Mr. Lemonick signed books in the lobby.
After a brief break, Ludy convened the business portion of the meeting.
50th Anniversary Celebration: Ludy explained the proposal before the membership tonight is to partially fund the celebration. Secretary Michael Wright read the proposal:
The Board of Trustees recommends that an amount not to exceed $2,500 of the AAAP’s general funds be used for the 50th Anniversary Celebration to be held on May 11, 2013.
Kate and Ludy explained that this expenditure would be the club’s maximum contribution towards the event. If the planning committee does not get enough sponsorships, the event will be cancelled or scaled back. $8000 in sponsorships has been committed so far. The fund raising effort is continuing. Checks are coming in. The sponsorships so far would be enough for a bare-bones event, but the planning committee would like to do better. This approval will supplement the sponsorship money so a deposit can be given to the caterer when needed. If enough funds are received from sponsors, the expenditure will be returned to the club reserve. The Board limited the expenditure to $2500 because the Board was comfortable spending that amount. The current cash reserves are at $22,600.
A motion to approve the recommendation was moved by Larry Kane and seconded by Dan Reynolds. The proposal was approved by unanimous vote of 42 paid members present.
Nominations: On behalf of Nominations Chair Jim Poinsett, Michael announced the slate of candidates for the 2013-2014 Board of Trustees as follows:
Director – Jeff Bernardis
Assist. Director – Larry Kane
Treasurer – Michael Mitrano
Secretary – Michael Wright
Program Chair – Kate Otto
Ludy announced that the annual meeting will be held at the 50th anniversary celebration. The only item on the agenda is the Board election. He strongly encouraged all members to attend. The June meeting will be annual planetarium show.
UACNJ: – Ludy announced that the club’s UACNJ membership is due for renewal. He asked for volunteers to be the club’s liason to UACNJ. Bill Murray said he would do it again. He asked what the club’s plans were regarding the observatory at Jenny Jump. Ludy replied that the plans for the remote observatory at Jenny Jump have been abandoned. Disposition of the telescope and existing structure will be up to the next Board.
Outreach: Ludy announced that the club will be participating in Communiversity on April 28 and Super Science Saturday on May 4. Volunteers are needed.
Outreach Chair David Letcher announced the following events:
Observing at 50th Anniversary Celebration: Rex Parker explained that the observing will be outside Wolfensohn Hall after the panel discussion. Guests will pass by on the way from dinner to the panel discussion. There is a parking lot nearby. The plan is to set up around 4:00 p.m. Five members have volunteered so far to set up their scopes. More are welcome. Rex will send a map to those who are interested. AC power will not be provided.
Program Chair: Kate reported that the Franklin Institute is holding a Science in the City program and have invited members to participate by setting up scopes for public viewing. Kate has invited Derek Pitts, astronomer at the Franklin Institute to participate in club events. She hoped that the club participation in the institute’s events would encourage Derek to reciprocate. Ludy said that Derek has not been interested in attending club events in the past. Kate is arranging for speakers for the Fall meetings.
Observatory Report: Observatory Chair Gene Ramsey reported that the park administration would like the club to implement the following for access on public nights:
The park administration’s goal is to remove vehicle traffic from the camping area. After a long discussion, the members concluded this scheme was impractical because the public needs a single access to the observatory until late in the evening particularly when the sky does not darken until 9:30 p.m. Also, the walk in the dark is too long and not safe for the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled. Members discussed various options. Gene said the park will not allow two-way traffic on Brick Yard because it is too narrow. Members agreed the best practical solution would be:
If the park police would call the observatory when they close the main gate, keyholders will tell visitors to exit via Brick Yard Road. Gene will bring this recommendation back to Neil Ferrari. Gene thanked Mary Hayes for making glow-in-the-dark nametags for keyholders.
Gene said that more keyholders are needed because some keyholders have resigned. Anyone who would like to become a keyholder should contact Gene or Larry Kane. Gene is revising the duty roster and will distribute it and post it on the website as soon as possible.
Rex reported the mason is ready to start the column repair authorized at last months meeting. John Church reminded that Brick Yard Road is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays because the nature center is closed. Gene volunteered to unlock the gate for the mason if he wants to work on a Monday or Tuesday.
Sidereal Times: Michael Wright said the submission deadline for the May Sidereal Times is April 30.
StarQuest: In response to a member question, Ludy said that StarQuest is scheduled for Sept. 8. It will be up to the new Board to plan the event over the summer. He is willing to cook again, but he will not organize the event. Bill Murray suggested that it be an observing event for members and guests only.
Ludy adjourned the meeting.
by Michael Mitrano, Treasurer
Our member count now stands at 99, so we will certainly exceed 100 for the year.
There have been no major expenses during the last month. Without any consideration of payments received for the Anniversary event, regular AAAP income and expenses leave a year-to-date surplus of about $1,000
While we have received a considerable amount of member and sponsor payments for the 50th Anniversary event – over $6,700 so far – few of the costs have been finalized and it is therefore too early to estimate the financial outcome.
On a cumulative basis, our surplus – again excluding the Anniversary proceeds — is about $22,900.
Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona is running a campaign to restore the 117-year, old, 24-inch, refracting Alvan Clark Telescope on Mars Hill. The Clark Telescope of course was the scope use by Percival Lowell to study Mars. It also helped found the theory of the expanding Universe and map the moon for Apollo 11. The Clark is the observatory’s primary education tool, and over a million people have looked through it.
The LA Times reported on the campaign:
www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-lowell-observatory-indiegogo-crowdsourcing-20130320,0,3576001.story
and Sky & Telescope published an article that members may have seen:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Restoring-the-Clark-Telescope-197706371.html
More information about the campaign is online here:
www.indiegogo.com/projects/restore-the-clark
Please consider supporting the campaign, which ends May 12.
by Prasad Ganti
A Journey to Earth’s Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Anil Ananthaswamy
Anil’s book contains different stories relating to physics experiments conducted in different parts of the world, most of them remotely located. Travelling to those desolate places is the adventure part. Also, Anil describes the instruments and the experiments along with the relevant physics. The mix of physics and adventure makes this book very exciting. A background of high school physics is enough to understand the experiments.
He starts with the 60-inch and the 100-inch telescopes at Mount Wilson near Los Angeles built by George Hale at the beginning of 1900s. Peeping through these telescopes, the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble and his equally famous assistant Milton Humason, found out in the early twentieth century that galaxies are retreating from each other. This gave rise to the concept of an expanding Universe. Extrapolating this expansion backwards in time led to the now widely accepted Big Bang theory. Later George Hale built a 200-inch telescope on Mount Palomar, but further south to escape the light pollution caused by the growing city of Los Angeles.
The action then moves to a deep mine in Minnesota at Soudan. At the bottom of this abandoned mine is a very sensitive detector for detecting Cold Dark Matter. It is now postulated that most of the matter in the universe consists of dark matter, which is not visible to us as normal matter consisting of atoms. It does not contain the regular subatomic particles like electrons, protons and neutrons etc. Instead it is speculated to contain a very weakly interacting particle called a neutralino. The sensitive detectors consist of ultrapure germanium and silicon crystals cooled to 40µK, just a shade above the absolute zero of -273°C. The detectors have not detected any neutralinos yet. The search is on!
The action then shifts to Lake Baikal in Russia. It has a neutrino observatory deep beneath the ice. Neutrinos, discovered by the famous physicist Wolfgang Pauli, are copiously generated by our Sun. They move quickly; rarely interacting with any matter in its path. Millions of them pass through our bodies each second, and we don’t even know about them. There are very energetic neutrinos, which are generated in the galactic center. Studying them could give us clues about the formation of galaxies. Neutrinos form a streak of blue light when they hit water. A huge amount of pure water contained in Lake Baikal acts as a natural detector for these rare neutrinos from the center of the galaxy.
Next stop is the Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Just 12 km from the Pacific coast, on a 2635-meter high mountain, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) consists of four telescopes, each of 8.2 meters in diameter. The telescopes are used in conjunction with an advanced spectrograph, which can detect different light colors or absence of any color coming from different sources. This is one of the most advanced telescopes in the world used to study the Cosmos.
The next location will most likely house a radio telescope called the Square Kilometer Array. Unlike an optical telescope, which consists of mirrors and lenses, some radio telescopes consist of arrays of radio antennas, all of them connected to a radio receiver. The combined signals are scanned for sources like pulsars and quasars, which emit only radio waves, and no light. Karl Jansky started radio telescopy when he first observed radio signals coming from the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. A mention is made of GMRT (Giant Meter Radio Telescope), an array of thirty 45-meter diameter dishes each located about 50 miles north of Pune in India. Indian astronomer Govind Swarup built each antenna cheaply from 16 tubular steel frames tied by steel ropes.
The stage now shifts to the most desolate of all places, Antarctica. The experiments, called BESS, are conducted by launching balloons packed with detectors. These detectors look for antimatter. Antimatter particles annihilate each other when they come in contact. It is speculated that there is some antimatter in the universe. Some stars and galaxies may be made of antimatter. Matter and antimatter may have formed in nearly equal amounts during the birth of the universe, and thereafter most of the antimatter got annihilated on contact with matter. A few hundred miles from the balloon launch site, at the South Pole is an experiment called IceCube, which has sensors deep in ice cores, to look for neutrinos. It is similar to the Lake Baikal neutrino observatory, but operating in most extreme conditions.
Next is the very famous huge particle collider in Europe that spans the borders of Switzerland, France, and Italy called Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Consisting of a massive underground ring several kilometers in diameter, it generates the highest energies on the planet to accelerate and collide the protons. Built to understand the beginning of the universe, it looks for a particle known as Higgs Boson, which is also called the God particle, (Incidentally Peter Higgs is an atheist). One of the detectors that looks for the aftermath of the collisions is called ATLAS and consists of massive superconducting magnets. If confirmed, the Higgs Boson will open a new chapter in physics.
Towards the end of the book, Anil also mentions about newer telescopes in space such as Planck, which was launched in 2009 to study the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation in greater detail. Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA), to be launched later this decade to detect gravity waves, will consist of three satellites positioned at the vertices of a triangle a million miles apart. The gravity waves, if detected, would represent a ripple in the fabric of space and time.
Free Astronomy Presentations And Solar Observing*
North East Branch of Warren County Library
40 US Highway 46 West, Hackettstown, NJ
908-813-3858
1 PM – Searching for Extra-Solar Planets
Dr. Carleton Pryor, Rutgers University
2 PM – Chasing Solar Eclipses
John Lowe, Amateur Astronomers Inc.
3 PM – Moon Madness
Kevin Conod, Newark Museum
Free Evening PresentationAnd Star Party*
UACNJ Observatory, Jenny Jump State Forest, Hope, NJ
8 PM – Antarctic Adventure
Gil Jeffer, NJ Institute of Technology
*Solar Observing and Star Party if weather permits, presentations take place rain or shine.
For more information, please visit http://www.uacnj.org or write to info@uacnj.org
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton 