From The Program Chair

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by Victor Davis, Program Chair

May Meeting
The May, 2024 meeting of the AAAP will take place in Peyton Hall on the campus of Princeton University on Tuesday, May 14th at 7:30 PM. As usual, the meeting is open to AAAP members and the public. Participants can join the meeting in-person at Peyton Hall or log in to the Zoom session as early as 7:00 pm to chat informally before the meeting begins. This evening’s guest speaker is Tea Temim, Research Astronomer in Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysics. She will describe her work using JWST imagery to study supernova remnants. Center.

Options for Attending the Meeting
You may choose to attend the meeting in person or participate via Zoom or YouTube as we’ve been doing for the past few years. (See How to Participate below for details). Due to security concerns, if you log in before the host has set up internet connectivity in Peyton Hall, you may need to wait in the Waiting Room for a few minutes until the host is prepared to admit you into the meeting. You’ll need to unmute yourself to make comments or ask questions. It’s polite, though not required, for you to enable your camera so other participants can see you. A week or so after the meeting, the video of the lecture and Q&A will be posted on AAAP’s public YouTube channel.

Meet the Speaker Dinner
The club will host a “Meet the Speaker” dinner at Winberie’s Bar and Restaurant, 1 Palmer Square, Princeton, NJ, just across the street from the campus of Princeton University. The reservation is prior to the meeting on May 14th at 5:45 pm. Please contact the Program Chair if you plan to attend.

Here’s the anticipated agenda for May, 2024’s monthly meeting of the AAAP:

(Times are approximate)

Getting to Peyton Hall
The parking lots across the street (Ivy Lane) from Peyton Hall are now construction sites, unavailable for parking. We’ve been advised by the administration of the astrophysics department that we should park in the new enclosed parking garage off Fitzrandolph street and walk around the stadium and athletic fields. Here’s a map of the campus and walking routes from the parking garage to Peyton Hall. The map shows the recently completed East Garage. Not shown is an access road Sweet Gum that connects from Faculty Road to an entrance at the lower left corner of the garage. Stadium Road connects from Fitzrandolph Road to another entrance at the opposite corner (and higher level) of the garage. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk from the parking garage to Peyton Hall.

Featured Speaker:

Dr. Tea Temim
Research Astronomer
Department of Astrophysics, Princeton University
temim@astro.princeton.edu

Peering into Supernova Explosions with JWST
Supernova explosions are among the most energetic events in the universe and they play a key role in shaping the energy balance, structure, and chemical content of galaxies. They are responsible for the formation and distribution of heavy elements and dust grains that enrich the environments in which they evolve. Moreover, these explosions leave behind compact objects whose high densities and magnetic field strengths represent matter under some of the most extreme conditions known, while some serve as “standard candles” with a crucial role in determining cosmic distances and the expansion history of the Universe. 

Despite their great importance in astrophysics, key questions remain about what type of stars produce supernovae and how they explode. In its first year of observations, JWST has provided an unprecedented view of supernova explosions, allowing us to peer into the deepest layers of ejected material, illuminating early dust formation, and revealing remarkable, never-before-seen details in the structure of young supernova remnants. Dr. Temim will review some of these recent JWST observations and what they tell us about supernova explosions.

Tea Temim
Dr. Temim earned her PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2009. She was subsequently a predoctoral fellow then a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Astrophysics/Harvard and Smithsonian. She was a research scientist and postdoctoral fellow at NASA Goddard. She recently worked on JWST’s Mid-infrared Instrument (MIRI) at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).

Her research focuses on understanding how supernova explosions of massive stars affect their environment and enrich the interstellar medium. She is particularly interested in the evolution of supernova remnants and pulsar winds, the connection between stellar progenitors and explosions and their observed remnants, dust production and processing by supernovae, and dust evolution in galaxies.

How to Participate (Links)
zoom-blue
Join Zoom Meeting. Click here for the link.

YouTube-Live


Join YouTube Live. Click here for the link.

A look ahead at future guest speakers:

DateFeatured SpeakerTopic
June 11
2024		NJ State Museum planetarium’s Bill Murray, and Jacob Hamer, Assistant Curator

AAAP’s traditional annual pilgrimage to the NJ State Museum planetarium in Trenton, where members will experience a presentation and a preview of the planetarium’s latest sky show.

As always, members’ comments and suggestions are gratefully accepted and much appreciated.
victor.davis@verizon.net
program@princetonastronomy.org
(908) 581-1780 cell

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Dr. John Church: Reflections on Six Decades with the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

Club Director Dr. Rex Parker interviews Dr. John Church who has been a member of the Amateur Astronomers Association since 1970. Dr. Church shares several stories, including the acquisition of the club’s historic Hastings-Byrne refractor and the building of the observatory at Washington Crossing State Park, as he reflects on a lifetime of observing the skies both day and night.

Watch the interview here.

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Book Review

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by Michael DiMario

Title: For The Love Of Mars: The Human History Of The Red Planet
Author: Matthew Shindell
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Publication Date: 2023
Total Pages: 248

National Air and Space Museum curator and science historian Matthew Shindell describes how human history around the world made sense of the red planet which collimates to our present-day Martian fascination. Shindell discusses Mayan priests who wrapped Mars into seasonal calendars and religious ceremonies, of the Babylonian priests who foretold unexplained events and the influence of Mars, and the beginning of astronomy that tried to make sense of what Mars revealed to its earliest scientific observers.

For the Love of Mars discusses the evolution of human imagination from the very earliest astrologers to the present-day Mars missions. Human fascination with Mars sets the stage and kindles the spirit of solar system exploration and all its possibilities. From the believe of Martian canals flowing water with vegetation along the banks of Martian canals, to the invasion of Earth by Martians authored by HG Wells, to our kinship with the Mars rover Oppy, Shindell expertly takes the reader of a tour of human Mars history and the influence upon our present day culture and how we perceive Mars.

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Eclipse from Ohio

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by John Church

I and my wife and two of our children were fortunate to have seen this spectacular eclipse under mostly cloud-free skies at a fairgrounds near Urbana, Ohio.  I had expected a large crowd, but there were only a few others.  One couple had come from West Virginia; they had also seen the 2017 eclipse from another location in Oregon.

The most striking feature was the strip of naked-eye prominences along the southern limb as totality was almost over. I had never seen such a display at my three previous eclipses.

I’ve attached a photo taken with my Canon.  The extremely bright inner corona is washed out, but the outer corona shows up nicely.  The little dot in the circle isn’t the long-lost Vulcan, but just a dead pixel.

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Partial Solar Eclipse Report Observed April 8, 2024 Ewing, NJ

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by Tom Swords

The images that AAAP members have captured and animated are a true visual record of the event, inspiring and amazing.

I did something different. I watched the eclipse and recorded the temperature!

I had two telescope rigs set up here in Ewing. A 60mm finder scope with Baader solar film and a 14mm TV Radian for white light viewing that was mounted on a Ioptron Minitower (previously owned by the late Gene Ramsey). 

The other instrument was a Lunt LS50 Hydrogen Alpha telescope mounted on an Ioptron AZMP.  The LS50 had a ASI585 camera mounted with no filters. I used ASI Capture on a HP laptop to send live screen video to a 48” monitor inside our kitchen where it was nice and dark!

I had assembled, calibrated and tested all the equipment the previous day.

We sat and watched the monitor to observe first contact at 2:09. For the next hour we switched between indoor to outdoor for white light views. Waiting outside for the last moments prior to the maximum partial totality to arrive, we observed birds returning to their roosts. The light was dimming into grey. Shadows from tree leaves were making crescents. The moon covered the sun to 89.2% at 3:24 PM…at which time the heavy clouds arrived!

I saved no direct camera images of the eclipse but it looked great on the monitor indoors. I had first adjusted the scope to show solar prominences but retuned to show surface details as it looked better for an eclipse. I learned quite a bit about pressure tuning, adjusting the gain and exposure with the histogram tool in ASI Cap to optimize the view.

I had set up a data logger to record the temperature over the duration of the eclipse.

IBM 440SThinkPad, Elitech-RC-5 Temperature recorder, Elitech software, Data was exported as PDF and XLS.

The data recorder was in the shade suspended in air 15 inches away from any surface.

Here is the result recorded at 1minute intervals beginning at 1:54 PM to 4:34PM. Note that the chart times are in 24Hr format.

It was quite sunny and rapidly warming at the time of the data run start (1:54PM). The temperature rose 1 degree to 69.80 Deg after first contact at 2:09 PM but then began to steadily decrease. At the time of maximum partial totality (89.2% at 3:24 PM) the temp was 63.50 Deg and still decreasing. After an additional 5 minutes the temperature dropped to the lowest point of 63.10 Deg. 

The temperature remained at 63.10 Deg until 3:35PM and thereafter began to rise. At 4:22 the temperature was 65.50 Deg and the recorder was stopped. It was now very cloudy and a brief rain shower occurred.

Summary: A measured change of 6.7 Deg due to an 89.2 percent reduction of the suns light. There was a delay of 5 minutes between the max totality and the lowest temperature. The duration at the low of 63.10 Deg was 6 minutes.

Please contact me if you would like a copy of the PDF or Excel data sheets.

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Dispatch from Stowe, VT.

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by Victor Davis

Unsettled weather along the path of totality upended the viewing plans of many umbraphiles on the week leading up to April 8th’s total solar eclipse. So it was with our intrepid band of me, my wife Susanna, and two other couples who early on had made plans to travel to the Historic Leakey Inn close to the Mexican border in Leakey, Texas. When the weather forecast for our chosen site became reliably dismal, we instead packed up our car and drove from NJ to stay with our friends (one of the couples mentioned above) at their home in Stowe, Vermont.  There we scoped out a great viewing site at the top of their road. We experienced 2 minutes 50 seconds of totality. Several prominences that we’d seen in the H-alpha scope prior to totality shone without filtration with brilliant red fluorescence at second contact.  It was glorious. We chose not to photograph the eclipse except for a few “souvenir” cellphone shots a few folks took through eyepieces of my Questar and the two-tiered gizmo shown above. I’ll be looking for images captured by others that highlight the streaming corona and the brilliantly fluorescent prominences that excited us visually. The drive back to NYC on Tuesday took about ten hours, and  memories of “Oh my God!” moments will always stay with us.

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Chasing the Eclipse

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by Surabhi Agarwal

In Dallas, storm clouds made me flip,
To Niagara, where clouds could eclipse.
Then Watertown, I tried,
But the clouds did deride,
In Burlington, at last, caught the eclipse’s grand trip!

Now with joy, I recall that eclipse,
Though my journey had twists, turns, and skips.
For the next one in sight,
On August twelve, twenty twenty six, oh, the delight!
Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, or Spain, the next eclipse grips!

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Darkness at Noon

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti

Millions of people made long journeys across the US to catch a glimpse of the total solar eclipse on April 8th 2024. The totality lasted up to 4 mins. First I will write about the logistics of getting to the path of totality and watching the eclipse. The second part is about the science of the sun and eclipses.

The path of totality was about 115 miles wide and passed diagonally from Texas to Vermont. It was a much hyped event as the next total eclipse is not expected for another two decades in the US. I may not be around to watch that. The laws of economics kicked in to capitalize on this opportunity. Airline fares, hotels, rental cars all had jacked up prices. We decided on a strategy to guarantee sighting the most sought after event without spending a fortune.

From our home in Jacksonville, Florida, the nearest place geographically was Jonesboro, Arkansas, about 800 miles away. We decided to drive instead of flying. The nearest city which was outside the path of totality is Memphis, Tennessee, which had reasonable hotel rates. We checked in Memphis a couple of days earlier and saw the National Civil Rights Museum at Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. Also Beale Street, the home of Blues music.

We checked the weather forecast the night before. In addition to Jonesboro, we had three other towns as alternates within a 25 miles radius. Based on the weather forecast, we settled on Walnut Ridge, which was about 25 miles west of Jonesboro, and had a longer duration of eclipse (3:46). On April 8th morning we started early in the morning crossing the Mississippi river into Arkansas. Early morning fog started burning up as we moved closer to our destination. There was not much traffic and we arrived at Walnut Ridge City Park a good 3 hours before the start of the eclipse. Few clouds were there but nothing threatened the viewing of the eclipse.

Around 1230, the moon started covering the sun. Nothing much happened till a significant portion of the sun was covered. The light dimmed and the temperature dropped. It was a peculiar kind of light, not that of dusk, but a hue not observed normally. Suddenly it became dark and the distant lights in the Park came on automatically. The sight of a black circle in the midst of the sun was memorable. It lasted close to 4 minutes. And then the events occurred in reverse order before full sunlight was restored. Pictures taken using my iPad pro capture the event. The pictures are more of a personal memorabilia than representing any semblance of excellence in astrophotography. The first picture shows the eclipsed Sun with 3 visible planets – bottom right, top right and top left.

Second picture shows the lights in the Park which came on automatically as the eclipse created darkness.

On the way back, getting out of the Park was easier. The town of Walnut Ridge, unknown to most people, had its 15 minutes of fame. As someone was heard saying “Walnut what ?”. Someone else said “Where is the Ridge ? As it was all a flat open land”. As we moved away from the town towards Memphis, the traffic increased. The eclipse traffic from the nearby towns of Arkansas came to converge at the bridges across the Mississippi river into Memphis. We got stuck for three hours. It was an OK price to pay for the wonderful natural spectacle. Rest of the trip home was uneventful.

Now to the science of eclipses. A small body like the moon can blot out the entire sun because coincidentally the ratio of the size of the sun to the moon is the same as the ratio of the distance of the sun and the moon from the earth, which is about 400. Total eclipses dont happen often because the orbital plane of the moon around the earth is tilted compared to the orbital plane of the earth around the sun. Not in the same country for several years or decades.

Incidentally, the outer layer of the sun called corona is about 2 million degrees, much hotter than 10,000 degrees on the surface. This corona normally gets totally outshone by the sun. During a total eclipse, the corona comes into view. During one such eclipse in the 1800s, the sunlight on the edges was analyzed spectroscopically and a new element called Helium was discovered. It is a very rare element on the earth.

Most famous experiment done during an eclipse was in 1919 when Arthur Eddington set out to prove Einstein’s general theory of relativity that light bends in the presence of gravity. Stars in the sun’s proximity which are not normally visible are visible during a total eclipse. Eddington led a team to Brazil while another team went to Africa just as a backup in case the first team hit clouds. Both the teams measured the bending of starlight while it passed through the outer fringes of the sun. And the bending of light agreed completely with Einstein’s calculations.

While eclipses help do the scientific observations, now with the benefit of space probes with coronagraphs (which block most of the sun, like eclipses do), it is easier to do observations any time round the clock. NASA’s Parker probe and India’s Aditya are observing the sun from millions of miles closer to the sun.

While reminiscing about the past eclipse, waiting for the total eclipse in India about a decade from now.

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Chasing Shadows: Witnessing the Total Solar Eclipse from Pine Tree State

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by Ira Polans

My wife and I had long planned to travel to outside of Waco Texas to see the April 8 eclipse. But as the eclipse drew near, the weather in Texas, didn’t seem to be matching long-reange predictions. When taking another look at the expected weather along the path of totality I decided that Maine might be a good place to go. Fortunately, I have some family there, plus I was able to find an Airbnb very near the path. After cancelling our long-held reservations. The trip was rebooked. We ended up staying the night of April 6 in Scarborough, ME, then spent the nights of April 7 & 8 in Waterville, ME. On the day of the eclipse, my brother, my wife, and drove towards Jackman, ME. From the perspective of being in the path of totality, we went from around 90% in NJ, to 95% in Scarborough, to 99% in Waterville, to 3:08 minutes of totality on the way to Jackman. Driving up to Jackman was uneventful. My brother who was driving kept mentioning, that the further North we went the fewer cars there were. When we finally got close to Jackman (20+ miles) we pulled over into a pull-over (where others had stopped). The sky was crystal clear and waited for the event to begin.

Since we were planning to go to Texas to view the eclipse, I had purchased the Celeston EclipSmart 50mm telescope. What attracted it to me was the fact that it conveniently fits under the seat in front of you (including the tripod)! The one upgrade I made was getting the equivalent of a slow-motion control for the telescope. This provides easier adjustment and makes using a Barlow much easier. Since this was my wife’s first Solar eclipse I also brought a pair of EclipSmart 10 x 42 binoculars along.

I’ve included a couple of photos that I took with my Panasonic point and shoot camera. Plus, a couple of photo taken with my cell phone (using the appropriate filter).

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May 2024 Sidereal Times Astroimaging

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by Michael DiMario, AAAP Astroimaging Chair

The month of April 2024 has brought out the tremendous skills, innovative engineering, techniques, excitement, and frankly the true astro-grit of AAAP members chasing the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse. Many members, including those whose images are displayed here, traveled to the line of eclipse totality path through the United States from Mexico to Maine. What made this event even more challenging was the typical cloud weather pattern did not behave as typically forecasted with eclipse chasers abandoning their expected clear skies in Texas for the northeast such as New York, Vermont, Maine, or Canada.

The taxonomy of a solar eclipse and summary consists of the eclipse phases of C1 that is the moment the Moon starts obscuring the sun. C2 is when totality begins. C3 is when totality ends. C4 is when the moon stops obscuring the Sun. The eclipse solar events include the diamond ring effect, Bailey’s Beads, the solar corona, and solar prominences.

The diamond ring effect takes place just before totality and right before it ends at C2 and C3, the Moon nearly fully covers the Sun and a final bright spot of sunlight called the “diamond” remains visible. This bright visual effect resembles a diamond ring, hence the name.

The Baily’s Beads effect, named after the British astronomer Francis Baily, is when light appears around the edge of the Moon during the seconds leading up to totality and just after. Baily’s Beads are caused by sunlight passing through valleys and between mountains on the Moon’s irregular surface. The thin reddish edge is the Sun’s chromosphere.

The solar corona is the Sun’s outer atmosphere, composed of plasma and extending millions of miles into space. The Sun’s intense brightness hides it, but it is visible during totality. The corona appears as a halo of blue-white, wispy light surrounding the dark silhouette of the Moon. The shape of the corona changes over time and the changes may be viewed by comparing past eclipse images of coronas.

The solar prominences are large, bright loops of plasma that extend from the Sun’s surface into the corona. During totality, solar prominences appear as red or pink arches near the edge of the solar disk, sometimes extending out into the corona. At times, a coronal loop may be seen as a well-defined arch-like structure in the corona made up of dense plasma confined and isolated from the surrounding medium by magnetic flux tubes. Coronal loops begin and end at two base points on the photosphere and project into the upper chromosphere and corona.

Image descriptions are edited or authored by Michael DiMario unless noted.
Image capture data are by the imager.

David Ackerman – Eclipse Images

This image shows Bailey’s Beads, solar prominences, the beginning of the diamond ring effect, and the corona. If look closely, faint coronal loops may be seen at the nine to ten o’clock positions.

These two images show the eclipse transitioning from C2 to C3 with their corresponding diamond ring effects, Bailey’s Beads, and prominences.

This image shows the corona in all its glory during totality. If look closely, faint coronal loops may be seen at the four, five, and six o’clock positions.

Eclipse images were captured at Magog, QC using a Nikon DSLR with a 400mm + 1.4xTC on an iOptron SkyGuider on a photographic tripod. A total of 1130 frames were captured. David used Solar Eclipse Maestro for hands-off operation requiring an Intel Mac running an antique operating system.

Lisa Fanning – Eclipse Progression

Eclipse was imaged in Morganville at 90% coverage. Image progression was taken with a Canon PowerShot SX70HS with Baader Astrosolar film and assembled in Bazaart.

Dave Wilton – Eclipse Composite Captured Hand Held

The eclipse composites were taken manually and handheld using a Canon 6D Mark II and Redcat 51. The tripod was inadvertently left behind in the garage. The eclipse images are exceptional given that it is nigh impossible to hold a camera and long lens, in this case a Redcat 51 refractor, steady while trying to magnify the view on the camera screen to get good focus. There was also light cloud cover which obscured the outer corona.

Rich Sherman – Eclipse Diamond Ring

This image of the eclipse’s diamond ring effect was taken in Dallas, TX

It was captured with a Nikon d800 camera, 480 mm focal length at ISO 200, f/8, at 1/8th of a second. It was processed using Lightroom.

Purnendu Gupta – Eclipse Prominences and Bailey’s Beads

Image reveals the plumes of prominences rising from the red arc of chromosphere. The thickness of the arc corresponds to 10,000 km that could house the Earth. There is a hint of the solar corona in the background. Still visible are tiny white portions of the Sun, the photosphere, shining through the lunar craters and valleys forming Bailey’s Beads.

Robert Vanderbei – Eclipse Totality and Prominences

Total eclipse image captured using a 3.5” Questar and ZWO ASI2400MC Pro camera. Images processed with SharpCap Pro Sequencer; location was Plattsburg, NY.

Michael DiMario – NGC 2477 Electric Guitar Open Cluster

NGC 2477 was imaged with a Takahashi FSQ-85ED Baby Q with a ASI 2600MC Pro camera and an Antilla Triband filter of 60 sub-light frames at 90 seconds each; processing in PixInsight.

NGC 2477 Electric Guitar open cluster image was taken March 31st at Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida. This open cluster is typically a southern object and was taken about 25 deg above the southern horizon. Located about 2300ly – 6200ly, it is comprised of about 300 stars in the constellation Puppis. Star on left is b Pup, a rotating variable star believed to be a binary.

Lisa Fanning – Lunar X and Lunar V at First Quarter

Lunar First Quarter terminator image captured the Lunar X and Lunar V features of April 15, 2024 using an Apple iPhone 13 digiscope adapter attached to a Swarovski Optik Spotting Scope.

Lunar X is a “clair-obscur effect” where light and shadow creates the illusion of the letter ‘X’ on the rim of the Blanchinus, La Caille and Purbach craters. The Lunar V is also visible, formed by Ukert crater and several small craters.

Michael DiMario – NGC 3372 Carina Nebula

NGC 3372 Carina Nebula image comprised of 23 subframes at 30 sec using a Takahashi FSQ-85ED, Antilla Triband filter, and ASI 2600 MC Pro camera; processed in PixInsight.

NGC 3372 Carina Nebula was imaged March 31st at Big Cypress National Preserve 1-2 degrees above the southern horizon making it a very difficult object to capture. NGC 3372 Carina Nebula is one of our Galaxy’s largest star-forming regions spanning over 300 ly at a distance of 7,500 ly. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the bright star next to the central dark notch in this field. The difficulty of imaging near the horizon is the amount of air mass that light of your target must pass through. The number of air masses at the horizon is 40. That is, stellar light passes through 39x more atmosphere than at the zenith. To check out the effects on magnitude and the derivation, see https://asterism.org/resources/atmospheric-extinction-and-refraction/.

Joshua Verma – Total Solar Eclipse Prominences

This total eclipse image with prominences was captured in Cleveland, Ohio. As the official photographer of Nottingham Baptist Church, Joshua used a Skywatcher Star Adventurer, Evostar 72ed, and Canon EOS 500D and an Orion telescope for others to use. With snacks and drinks provided for all 50 people at the event, it turned out quite fun; many memories were made. A lot of people wanted to take a look inside the telescope, which provided a much closer look at the sun than they could get with the glasses. Most thoroughly enjoyed it, especially during the end of totality when the pink triangle “sun mountain” was visible. The clouds, rather than completely hindering the experience, actually created a nice effect during totality, reflecting light in such a way to create a white halo in the sky.

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