As AAAP treasurer for the past seventeen years, one of my duties has been collecting the mail each week at our post office box in Carnegie Center. For many years that was a productive task since members paid dues by check and many new members joined by mail. In recent years, most members have switched to using PayPal on our web site to join and renew. Most of the times when I visit the PO box now, it is empty. In their wisdom, the USPS has also doubled the cost of the box rent over the past five years.
So, along with our telescope clock drives and film imaging, we are saying good-bye to the PO box. Members who pay by dues (which is still very welcome) should send checks to the treasurer:
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton, Inc. c/o Michael Mitrano 5 Wrick Avenue Titusville, NJ 08560
The meeting was convened in Peyton Hall by Director Rex Parker at 1930. Following a brief introduction Program ChairVictor Davis introduced speaker Professor Gary Rendsberg of Rutgers University who gave us a presentation entitled The Jewish Calendar: An Ingenious Integration of the Lunar and Solar Cycles. His talk was followed by fifteen minutes of questions and a seven minute break. Attending were 28 in person and 26 online.
Some 22 continued with us in the auditorium after the break when we reconvened at 2100 with an Unjournal Presentation by Member Peter Wraight on The Design of DIY Astronomical Binoculars Using 3D Printing. His homepage at petertinkerer.com is a hard copy of much of his talk and other pages describe nine.com of his creations. He recommends tinkercad.com and Sky Guide for a smartphone planetarium app.
Member Ira Polans followed with his Unjournal Presentation of Simplified Celestial Navigation.
The business meeting opened at 2130 with a recap of Autumn events by Outreach Chair Bill Murray. Of seven past events, 6 were cancelled due to weather. He expressed thanks for Members Victor Davis, Kathy Goff, Rich Karvir, Jeff Pinyan, Dave Reis, and Dave Skitt who represented the AAAP by bringing scopes to the Halloween Night Hike and Stargazing Program at Mercer Meadows Pole Farm on October 28. Upcoming events are a sky talk and stargazing for the Friends of Princeton Open Space on November 18 and a How to Buy a Telescope presentation at the NJ State Museum Planetarium on November 25.
Observatory Co-Chair Dave Skitt reported that the observatory was only partially winterized because some further Keyholder training was still planned. A GSO focuser was acquired very inexpensively at the NJAA flea market that will provide an upgrade to the stock focuser on the Orion XT12i Dobsonian. The passing of longtime Member John Miller was regretfully shared. He was involved with the AAAP from an early age and was a current Keyholder, often sharing his enthusiasm and extensive astronomical knowledge with those at observatory Public Nights. He held the office of Assistant Director from 2004-2006, Director from 2007-2009, and Secretary from 2014-2019. He had developed a close relationship with many of the Princeton faculty and had special privileges in auditing courses to satisfy his endless thirst for more knowledge. In 2020 Member Rich Sherman filmed a video of John giving An Introduction to the AAAP which included a tour of the Princeton campus in the context of astrophysics. It offers a memory of John that we will cherish: https://vimeo.com/883636037/d12559f16c
Rex concluded with comments about our continuing evaluation of double and triple bandpass astrophotography filters under consideration for purchase for use in the observatory and the meeting was adjourned.
Membership currently numbers 203, with 54 having joined in 2023. There have been 115 renewals while 44 have allowed their membership to expire, giving us a 72% retention rate. Submitted by Secretary Gene Allen, 11/24/2023
I am very saddened to hear that John Miller is no longer with us. I met him back in 1999 when I first got started in astronomy and joined the AAAP. He and I quickly became good friends. Not only did we share an interest in astronomy, but we also both liked to play tennis and the two of us hit balls together many times back in the early 2000’s.
As I recall, it was in 2005 when John was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. And, his diagnosis was only a month or two after John Bahcall was diagnosed with the same illness. For those of you who don’t know (or remember), John Bahcall was the Chair of the Astrophysics Department at the Institute for Advanced Study here in Princeton. And, his wife, Neta was, and still is, an active faculty member in the Astrophysics Department here at Princeton University.
Anyway, both John’s were told that they would probably pass away less than a year after the diagnosis. John Bahcall did succumb to the cancer only months after being diagnosed. John Miller luckily and amazingly got to be with us for almost twenty more years. So, I’m very sad that he’s no longer with us but I’m also very happy that we got to be with him many more years than we expected. He was a great person and I’m glad that I got to be one of his friends.
A young JohnA very nice photo of John John’s love of astronomy took him to amazing places.Vast open space brought him here to this beach to watch the cosmos.
After I had been attending the meetings of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton for a few months, I found myself asking about “that grump who sits up toward the back of the auditorium and says ‘no’ to just everything.” With a chuckle, the name came back, “John Miller.” I was informed that while highly opinionated, he is intensely passionate about astronomy, science and the club, and he has been a vital force within the organization for many decades.
Some months later John and I became acquainted on a public night at the observatory. Aviation provided additional commonality, since he had earned his private license some years prior and I earned his respect, having completed an aviation career between the Air Force and American Airlines. I was impressed with his enthusiasm and the richness of his knowledge, experience, and dedication. He was on a first name basis with many of the Princeton astrophysics faculty and claimed the “special privilege” of asking questions when auditing their courses. His campaign to delete “Amateur” from our name failed to generate sufficient momentum to overcome more than a half century of history on its first round, but I am confident more rounds would have been launched.
John’s friendship felt like an honor to me. He would call me now and then, asking if I had time for a quick question. He would open with a query about thrust reversers or some aspect of airline operation, or maybe share some event that caused him frustration or irritation. We would invariably end up going from topic to topic for over an hour. I knew he lived alone and struggled against numerous severe health issues, so I was eager to provide a cheerful and respectful ear. I always gave him however much time he wanted, and when my wife heard his voice on speaker, she would smile and roll her eyes, knowing I was indisposed for an extended period.
Recently, John had requested my assistance in creating Excel graphs of some of his medical test data. He felt the doctors were inadequately monitoring trends and wanted to see the longitudinal data for himself. I offered to set them up from data he sent or go to his home and do it with him, but he never got far enough out from under his latest health challenges. He apologized to me more than once, of all things, for putting off that project.
We have all been aware that he has been living on borrowed time, but news of his passing was surprisingly painful. He has left a far bigger hole in my personal life than I would have expected. I truly enjoyed every conversation I had with him, and I will miss them. I had never seen the video of John pitching membership in the AAAP, and I will long cherish it. Thank you so much for that, Richard Sherman.
Link to the video that Rich did with John in 2020:
Astrophysics for People in A Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson Published 2017 Grade: A Hardback $9.99 on Amazon 224 pages
Okay, so it’s not a new book but with the holidays right around the corner “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” would make a great gift for your family and friends who wonder why you are so interested in the night sky. It is well-suited for the beginner to intermediate, easy to read, and does a solid job on all the topics. It has 12 chapters, and with 224 pages you might think it is long, but the hardback measures only 4.75” x 7.5” so it is a quick read. There are no images in the book, but that is certainly one of the reasons the hardback costs less than $10. There are lots of interesting details throughout. For example, Chapter 8, “On Being Round” discusses the universe’s preferred geometric shape of the sphere. Dr. Tyson has developed a reputation for interpreting astronomy and astrophysics for the layman and this book is a perfect example of what he does well.
The One Thing You Need to Know by Marcus Chown Published 2023 Grade: A- Hardback $22.14 on Amazon 256 pages
This is not an astronomy nor astrophysics book, but one that addresses a variety of scientific topics. Fortunately for us, it delves into many things we care about, like quantum theory, special relativity, general relativity, black holes, and the Big Bang to name a few. There are lots of other interesting topics in the 21 chapters, such as plate tectonics and evolution. The chapters are short and concise, and Mr. Crown tries to boil all the concepts down to one basic idea—much like that high school English teacher who required a clear topic sentence in each paragraph. Of course, these concepts are complex and it is quite a challenge to know where to stop the discussion. I particularly enjoyed the final chapter, “The Big Bang” that reminds us of the three reasons it remains a theory and not science. I would put this comfortably in the “intermediate” category. Club members with Ph.D.’s in scientific fields may find this book too basic, but I think the rest of us can appreciate its breadth and clarity.
Euclid is a space based telescope launched by ESA (European Space Agency) in July 2023. Since then it has traveled to its home at the L2 Lagrangian point in space about a million miles from Earth. And sent back first images of what it has seen. Whenever a new space based observation mission is launched, I am curious to find out how it is different from other missions in the past.
Euclid was launched on SpaceX’s workhorse rocket Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida (closer to my home). Why would ESA launch from the US ? ESA’s Arianne 6 rocket was not ready at that time while Arianne 5 was retired. Due to the ongoing Ukrainian war, Russian launch options were not feasible either. Since then Euclid has traveled to the L2 Lagrangian point on the Sun-Earth axis, away from Earth and Sun. It is the same parking lot where the James Webb Space Telescope is also positioned. Balanced by the gravitational pull of the Earth and the Sun, the Telescope consumes minimal energy and its fuel is expected to last for six years. The picture shown below, courtesy NASA shows the various Lagrangian points. Though not drawn to scale, it illustrates the concept well.
Euclid’s mission is to look at large swaths of sky and produce a survey of all the galaxies and their red shifts in the form of a 3D map. The distribution of the galaxies shows how much dark mass is around. While dark matter cannot be seen, its effect can be felt. While the red shift of the galaxies, which measures how fast the galaxies are receding from each other, measures the dark energy. Unlike the narrowly focused telescopes like James Webb, it will not focus on any individual galaxy or any other object. But would be observing and constructing a panoramic view of the universe dominated by dark matter and dark energy. The sharp pictures produced would be built from 600 million pixels each.
Euclid will observe galaxies which have dark matter in front of them. Any big lump of matter sitting between us and the object, creates a distorted view of the object behind because light bends in the presence of a gravitational field. This concept is known as gravitational lensing. Regular gravitational lensing causes arcs, rings and multiple images of the objects behind. When dark matter is in front, it produces a weak gravitational lensing instead, It helps us study the dark matter by looking at the images.
Another set of observations would involve Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) which are remnants of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. The structure of the universe shows clustering of galaxies in pairs and separated by some distance. This distance is related to the sound waves in plasma in the early universe. Plasma represents the ancient cosmic soup consisting of ions. The BAO is related to these sound waves. The BAO would give some clues about the universe’s expansion and the strength of dark energy at different times during the universe’s lifetime.
Coming to the first light received by Euclid, is a galaxy nicknamed the “Hidden Galaxy” closer to our Earth. Given below is the picture courtesy ESA. It looks like an ordinary picture taken by any other telescope. The galaxy is located behind our galaxy, as viewed from edge on. We do not have a ringside view of this galaxy. Instead the galaxy is behind a mountain of dust and gas which block our view. Euclid’s piercing vision made this image possible. And this is just the beginning.
The Greek mathematician Euclid is considered as the father of geometry. He lived in Alexandria about twenty three hundred years ago. The Euclid mission will map the geometry of the universe. We will have to wait for six years to see a comprehensive 3D map of our dark universe. I am waiting to get this poster to be hung in my home.
How NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Will Chronicle the Active Cosmos NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will pair space-based observations with a broad field of view to unveil the dynamic cosmos in ways that have never been possible before. “Roman will work in tandem with NASA observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, which are designed…more
-scitechdaily
Cosmic Clarity: Gravitational Lensing Reveals the Fine Fabric of Dark Matter A team of researchers has used the gravitational lensing of the MG J0414+0534 system, observed with ALMA, to map dark matter distribution in unprecedented detail, confirming theories of cold dark matter and paving the way for further discoveries about the universe’s dominant but elusive component…more
-phys.org
Scientists find 14 new transient objects in space by peering through the ‘Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster’ An international team of scientists, led by University of Missouri’s Haojing Yan, used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to discover 14 new transient objects during their time-lapse study of galaxy cluster MACS0416—located about 4.3 billion light years from Earth—which they’ve dubbed “The Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster.”…more
-skyandtelescope
Asteroid will cover Betelgeuse, may reveal its visible surface Astronomers are gearing up for an unusual celestial event: an asteroid’s occultation, or total covering, of an iconic star. Imagine your favorite constellation without one of its brightest stars. For a brief moment on December 12th, this may happen to Orion, at least for viewers in a narrow stretch from central Asia and southern Europe to Florida and Mexico….more
-sciencealaert.com
Dozens Of Massive ‘Runaway’ Stars Found Fleeing The Milky Way The Milky Way can’t hold onto all of its stars. Some of them get ejected into intergalactic space and spend their lives on an uncertain journey. A team of astronomers took a closer look at the most massive of these runaway stars to see if they could find out how they get ejected….more
-phys.com
One step closer to unveiling dark matter with ARRAKIHS The ARRAKIHS consortium, for which EPFL has the science lead, has just successfully passed the mission definition review of the project, a very important first milestone towards full completion of the mission preparation. ARRAKIHS is a satellite selected by ESA to address the nature of dark matter, to be launched in 2030…more
-debrief.org
European satellite spots mysterious glow coming from Mars A European Space Agency satellite has detected a mysterious glow coming from Mars. Measured in the visible spectrum with the NOMAD-UVIS instrument on board the European Space Agency (ESA) Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) satellite, the unexpected glow emanates from the night side of Mars and was observed in the planet’s upper atmosphere…more
-space.com
1st black hole ever imaged by humans has twisted magnetic fields and scientists are thrilled Spiraling light at the edge of a distant supermassive black hole could help matter escape from being consumed by this cosmic titan. The supermassive black hole of M87 — also known as M87* — has a mass equal to around 6.5 billion suns. It especially came to the public’s attention in 2019 when an image of M87*, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)…more
-space.com
Euclid ‘dark universe’ telescope captures 1st full-color views of the cosmos (images) On Tuesday (Nov. 7), astronomers hailed the Euclid telescope’s ability to capture stunning intricacies of the universe in remarkably few hours as they revealed the mission’s first portfolio of full-color images. “We have never seen astronomical images like this before, containing so much detail,” René Laureijs, Euclid project scientist, said in a statement…more
-NYT
Oldest black hole discovered dating to 470 million years after the Big Bang Scientists have discovered the oldest black hole yet, a cosmic beast formed a mere 470 million years after the Big Bang. The findings, published Monday, confirm what until now were theories that supermassive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe…more
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton 