In my day to day job, when not backfilling a brick and mortar store, I am on the road. And, yes, for me, driving from location to location is a very pleasant experience. I get to ride, sometimes, for many hours. During the last long haul I decided to put a few of my favorite books, from the library, onto my iPhone. I do on occasion, listen to ‘books on tape”. So it may not come as a complete surprise, that I have meandered thru the aural equivalent of taking the road, least traveled. Please do not mistake me for Robert Frost. I do not pine for poetry’s sake (1).
Unfortunately, as is with most human beings, the spoken word is about the least efficient way to communicate information. Clearly, me speaking to you, thru this essay, is about as effective as if I were in your presence. Too long. Too boring. And often times not completely accurate. We are creatures that learn most effectively, if immersed into a world of the visual, if only to be accompanied by the audio spectrum. Perhaps, I have waved my arms, danced by jig, and done as much chalk tossing, euphemistically speaking, to overcome the odds of my non-traditional methods of conversational writing. Drat. Too long. BOOO-RING.
Oh, a Ring! Ah yes. The audio books. Panic in Level 4 (Richard Preston). The 4% Universe (Richard Panek). Eruption (Steve Olson), and Gravity’s Engines. I didn’t make it to Eruption, and absolutely recommend Panic in Level 4. However it was about two, or so hours into Gravity’s Engines, by Caleb Scharf, when I heard an alarm go off. Go ahead, say it. It was a “ring”.
I am not going to replay hours of Scharf. Not going to happen. So I encourage you to either buy the book, or download the audio, by way of Overdrive, the app. What I recall hearing was that the well of a black hole, is pumping out relativistic electrons, and streaming outward. They carve into the void, double jets of powerful radiation. And I made a mental link. It quickly became cannon fodder for me, to consider that radiating jets, from massively dense objects can form a scaffold on which ionizing gas may accrete. And my visual construct had me seeing two vast expanding conic sections. The cones had their genesis at a white dwarf, while their nebulous gaseous outreach formed dumb-bells. Yup. M27. Dumbbell Nebula. That is a real thing. Two iotas stood in my way. Nebulae are gaseous globes of ions. And they don’t require a dance partner.
Both are poor assumptions. Planetary nebulas come in dozens of shapes and sizes. I further challenged myself to look for what was not main stream. That is, Binary stars are the key to understand planetary nebulae.
I accessed YouTube, last night. Here is the link.
I will not go any further than to state that few Planetary Nebula that you see, in the night sky, were formed by one Sol. When that is the case, that is, old Solo Mio, then the gas would have vaporized much more quickly, than you or I could have lived to see, by means of a telescopic experience. Nebulae, such as these, are so rare, that they do not last more than a thousand years. Hence, there are White Dwarfs a plenty – having dissipated off their gas clouds long before you, or I could make the trek, by means of Amateur Astronomy, in our lifetimes. However, binary star systems are the new orange. Is that that bananas are the new yellow? Or am I just plain bananas? Or is that plain Vanilla? I digress. There are two of everything. Almost.
Hopefully by now you have bypassed my pablum, and have struggled thru the audio of the IAC presentation, in the above link. What I have to contribute, hopefully not to the disappointment of Dr. Henri M. J. Boffin (ESO, Garching), is that the sibling of a White Dwarf, in the presence of a Planetary Nebula, is a gentle black hole. And upon the scaffolding of outbound radiation, I present to you, the myriad structure of ionized, and visible gas.
I wasn’t too certain of what I had heard. It was helping me to conjure up ideas of light, red-shifting form the ultra-violet to our visible spectrum.
There was a chapter that buzzed by, that discoursed relativistic velocities of electrons and its relationship to the wavelength of light.
I can’t seem to find web references, for citations.
Mostly, I have taught outreach that ultra-violet light, stemming from a white dwarf, at the center of the ring nebula, interacts with the nebula and re-radiates into the visual spectrum.
Hence, I teach the public that light that cannot be seen, from the Ring Nebula, can be seen, due to an effect of re-radiation.
When I can remember, I use a small ultra-violet flashlight source, and a string of uranium glass beads, to illustrate this re-radiation.
Now, I am considering a different approach – relativistic electrons or “local” fast moving space-time – and I am now stuck without any citations.
It would become my next essay, for my Astronomy Club – however I wanted to lean away from meta-physics, and move myself towards an information essay, with solid citations.
Take this, of course, with a grain of salt. (All the best ions are salts). That if you paid attention, during Dr. Boffin’s lecture, you would have made a quick study of the light curves of these Planetary Nebulae. And that there were periodicities noted in the data. Also, giving the devil his due, we note that there were elemental studies done, on the light spectrum, yielding exacting clues as to the nebulous neighbor of our binary star systems.
Perhaps where there is no light, there is only a hole. Look closely and find periods, with no complementary light spectrum, sans the ever present White Dwarf. Pretty binary, isn’t it, my dear Watson? That is correct, my dear Amateur. Holmes, never said this was going to be Elementary.
With the occurrence of the four tiger stripes on the Southern Region of Enceladus, we turn our cats’ eye view to the ejecta. Cassini, having done four fly-bys, and directed thru the plumes, had done her analysis. And the results are quite something to speculate on, for an Astronomer, on this fine Sunday morning.
The interaction of Saturn’s E ring, notably coats the sides of Saturn’s inner moons with grains. This is cause for hurrah, as the surface of Enceladus thus becomes anew, and refreshed, sans any other geological activity. However, hold onto your hats. Da Plume! Da Plume!
The icy jets and water, exhumed from the inner workings of Enceladus, has of course been imaged by Cassini, as far back as 2005. Ultimately, there were seven fly thru’s, directly tasting gas and ice particles. The 2015 direct dive, thru the plume, detected small silica grains, by means of the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA). Author Linda Spilker, in her write up of Gas Giant Planets and review of 13 years of discovery, (Science, 14 June 2019, pp. 1046-1051), excites me with the most likely source of these less than 10 nm in size particulates originating from Enceladus’ ocean (H.-W. Hsu Nature 519, 207-210, year 2015). Hydrothermal vents.
Imagine my flurry of excitement, as my visual cortex summons National Geographic of old. Our native hydrothermal vents, seated on the sea floor, spew high temperature. And deposits ejecta to build a mound, topped with heat that life cannot withstand. Almost. I say, “almost” as surrounding the hydrothermal vent mounding, is life. Life abounds in the form of adapted worms, and crustaceans. You now know my thoughts. What I see, is now what you see. Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor of Enceladus has life.
Hydrothermal based life forms have been brought to her, by means of tidal interactions. The squish and squeeze of her mass, produces energy that is life giving. Diving below her 26-31 km thick ice shell, and within the 10 km ocean, (Spilker et al, citing L. less et al., Science 344, 78-80, year 2014) combined with the detection of organic fragments, leaves me breathless. I struggled this morning, over toast and coffee, to share with you, my thoughts of life on another planet.
I am not bound by the principles of those that cloak themselves as the priests of science. So take a moment, and congratulate yourselves on my ignorance. That I may share with you, an unfettered view, that we are not alone, after all.
gross key frequencies found in the sound of two black holes collapsing
First, some caveats. Ok. Lots of caveats. However, they are important points to remember, prior to, while reading, and after finishing this essay.
Professor Frans Pretorius never personally produced black hole merger sounds. It may read differently, further down in the essay. I wanted to be clear, and up front, that Professor Pretorius had, however, provided me a link, for a nice sound file, made by LIGO, for the first event.
The link can be found, elsewhere in this essay. However, I’d like you to have the opportunity to leave, visit, and come on back, here it is:
Having had a little email correspondence with Professor Hughes, it is imperative to point out additional caveats, before you and I proceed further, into this essay.
It is important, not only to myself, however, to Professor Hughes, that you can trace back the files, to their origin. So, in an effort, and to not be out of context, and to insure you can learn about the original calculations, please visit the above link. Here it is, again:
When you visit the MIT webpage, please take note of the added links, on the right side of their page. There you will access the sound files, that I used. By clicking on “binaries” on the MIT web page, you will transit here:
On the above link, I sourced the below file that was described as LIGO targets:
Binary black holes, each of 50 solar masses: m=100
And by clicking on “m=100”, above, it will bring you to the below page, with a resource, innocently named, “page4_3.wav”.
Moving forward, a tad, we then access, in our essay, sound files for LISA targets:
Binary black holes, mass ratio 3:1. First, with no spin effects included: hp_nospin
And by clicking on the hp_nospin link, above, it will bring you to the below page, with a resource, innocently named, “page4_4.wav”.
Another LISA target, described as follows, was accessed by clicking on “hp_rapid“:
Binary black holes, mass ratio 3:1. Each now spins very rapidly: hp_rapid
And by clicking on “hp_rapid”, above, it will bring you to the below page, with a resource, briefly named, “page4_5.wav”.
You might be inquiring, at this point, as to why I am being so particular, in making sure the links are properly cited. Please know that it is very important for you, to trace back to Professor Hughes, as he has written me on the topic and to impress: “to learn about the original calculations, to understand the nature of the model, and to learn about the shortcomings that might be present in the models.”
The sound files that I have downloaded have additional caveats:
(a) are based on approximate models for the “true” binary black hole waveform;
(b) are sampled at a finite rate;
(c) are converted to audio formats that (probably) imply a certain degree of lossiness; and
(d) are old.
Please know that I am indebted to our AAAP Astronomy Club for hosting excellent lectures. And am hopeful that you will join with us, some day, and listen in! I am further happy to say, thank you, to Professor Frans Pretorius, for his reply, as I am to Professor Scott A. Hughes, and their Research in the Group for Astrophysical general relativity at MIT. And a special thank you, to Thea Paneth, who currently is assistant to Professor Hughes, Thea took the time to take my call, and permit me the opportunity to reach out to herself, and to Professor Hughes.
And on a more personal note, you WILL find errors in my essay analysis, as well. Perhaps I have dropped a zero, in a programming comment. Or perhaps did not adjust the sample rates, in the FFT, as you would have – to produce excellent results.
I recall my photometrics, while making a video on a targeted asteroid. It wasn’t until many weeks later, at an IOTA meeting that I discovered that light measurements require calibration on known stellar targets! I would imagine, that my brief foray into “Gross Key Frequencies”, will also take a dab at my ego, and remind me once again, that learning is always on on-going process. So, please be gentle, and keep an open mind, as you read.
Later on I will decry, that I will start the essay.
Here now is the essay. Clearly, a false start.
Yup. Back in the saddle, again. Hi Ho Silver, AWAY!!
Ok. That was fun. You ALL deserved a break!
Did you remember to pause the video, or is YouTube playing the entire series? hehe.
It was over a year ago, this past March, when I had the benefit of lecture, from Frans Pretorius, during one of our clubs’ Tuesday night lectures. A few weeks later, Professor Pretorius was present in the lecture hall, and available for questioning, just as Kip Thorn was, during a talk on LIGO. A question and answer session followed. A club member ushered me onwards to go up and ask questions. My memory kicked in.
When I was in high school, I merited the opportunity of a lecture, given by Isaac Asimov, at Columbia University. I recall, all of the students, gathering around Dr Asimov, at the lectures conclusion. It so much looked liked those students that reveled in the light of Kip Thorn, some thirty or so, years later.
I decided that I wasn’t in high school, anymore, and must make the fullest attempt at making sense of the guests lecturers that were before me. I stepped up to the plate, and asked Frans Pretorius, if I could make a graphic analysis of the interferometer readings. Having tucked my BFA in digital design, discretely in my back pocket I was all too ready to bring some art to the table, for our clubs outreach. Frans P. said, convincingly so, that the data was one dimensional. So, for me, I begged off, as this was a no-go for any design thoughts.
Then, more than a year later, and for some unknown reason, I decide to take a stroll through YouTube videos. I am about half-way thru my 4th edition text on molecular biology and saw that I had exhausted most of the videos. It still remains a hidden, locked away secret, as to why I keyed in, “Fourier Transforms”. Perhaps my mind had slid off the track, and back a few years when I was experimenting with sound capture files, and Arduino.
It wasn’t until I spoke to another club member, at UACNJ, and re-admitted myself for a second splash in Fourier Transforms, where I finally embued and imprinted that I needed to learn Fast Fourier Transforms. After all, why would someone want to wait 32 years for a calculation, where you could get the answer in minutes, instead?
Then it hit me. Apply FFT to the “Sound of Two Black Holes Colliding”, with Audio Credit to “Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab.” The MP4 video can be found here:
What to do? I had no training. Not an inkling of how to proceed. I recalled, vaguely, that MATLAB could be used to do graphic analysis. Too expensive. I Googled for open source, software. Octave! Yes. Or rather, “no”. I wasn’t up to re-installing X-Code for Mac, and to source Github packages. The learning curve, for me at least, would have been painful.
The second runner up, which by the way is as good as it gets, is found in SCILAB.
I sourced a 100 hz, and a 250 hz tone file for analysis. These tone files can be accessed, here:
I ran thru the SCILAB sample file, where a SIN and COS were merged with noise data. And then I ran the supplied FFT on all. Decent results. Amateurish, as the peak frequencies were found at one-half their actual values. However, the results were consistent.
I ventured out to the links are in the sound files that are research in the group of Professor Scott A. Hughes. And passed a wav file from a “no-spin” binary and then a “spin”, binary example.
And then downloaded then Hanford/Ligo MP4 video, and separated out the audio file. And saved it as MP3. Then converted it to WAV.
FAILURE. All zeros. A flat liner. Dead in the water.
I remember when I first produced an Arduino Cloud Height detector. And the heights were definitely off. It took a half day to realize that I had left out a zero. All fixed, and the data was shiny and new. And a three part video was published on YouTube.
I was hopeful that I wouldn’t need a half day. Maybe an hour. Off for another cup of coffee. A phone call to my friend Eric. A plea for a better conversion file.
Tic the toc.
I am a hack. I must apologize to the community at large. I took code, under my wing, and re-ordered it so that I could produce some graphs. And when the last graphic didn’t work, an hour later it would. All it took was to extend the sample size from 1000, to 10000.
Another email, shortly went out, to our math expert, Eric Leonard, saying, “all is well”. No worries.
Time to write up an essay. Here it is:
“Gross key frequencies are found in the “Sound of Two Black Holes Colliding”, with Audio Credit to Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab.”
Below is my graphic FFT analysis of the Hanford MP4 file:
FFT Analysis of Two Colliding Black Holes
I converted the MP4 video to WAV format, and ran it thru code, on SCILAB.
The analysis is crude, and the peak frequencies should be doubled.
So if peaks are roughly found at 250, 500, 1300, 1700, and 2000 hz, the frequencies discovered are 500, 1000, 2600, 3400 and 4000 hz.
I apologize for intruding on your what may be your day off, from a very busy schedule. Please know that my request is certainly not of a high order. It may be perceived as an unnecessary step, into understanding the construct of a detected gravitational wave event.
It is for me, however, my second baby-step into the depth of your understanding. And I thank you for your time, today.
I have had the pleasure of listening to you twice, Professor. Once at our Princeton’s Amateur Astronomy Groups lecture at Peyton Hall, over a year ago, during April 2018. There our club had the opportunity to embrace your computational science and programming contribution to gravitational wave detection. And once again, a short while thereafter, at a Princeton sponsored lecture Kip Thorn and yourself. There you had the misfortune of me asking, as a novice, after the lecture, to describe the dimensions of the audio files waveform. There you had the happenstance to answer this novice, that the waveform was one dimensional. I had the thought that I could provide a graphic view, of the architecture of the waveform, however learning from you, first-hand, I decided that was not possible. This one dimension construct left little for this graphic artist to interpret.
Today, I stumbled upon a YouTube video, that briefly educated me on a subject that had long escaped my ability to comprehend. It was on Fourier Transforms. I had employed others programming techniques, while learning how to deploy micro-controllers in audio sampling. And Fast Fourier Transformations (FFT) were at the crux of the code. Loosely, then, I had some idea of what a microphone would pick up – as “one-dimension” could be analyzed by the FFT, and decode the population of separate frequencies. That hyperbole was subsequently lost on me, as I drifted to other subjects of interest, namely Astronomy, and microscopy.
Having had my noggin refreshed with ideations of Fourier analysis, and having visited a page, or few on LIGO, this July 4th morning, I was going to ask a friend of mine, to assist me in passing the data, from the first LIGO detection of a gravity wave, thru a Fourier transform, and list the individual frequencies, therein.
My friend, Eric Leonard, would likely jump on the chance opportunity to teach me more math. I did not want a shameful repeat of something that you have already accomplished. Would it be possible for you to direct me to the web resource page, where you have listed the separate component frequencies, analyzed by a Fourier Transform, for the peak observation of the first LIGO detection?
I would then incorporate the listed frequencies into an essay, to be published for my club’s next newsletter. In essence, I wanted interested readers to know that the audio file, from LIGO’s first detection, had a complex flavor of a multitude of embedded frequencies.
I completely understand that in the data, there are injections or glitches that may reside within. However, as an Amateur, and essayist, (a poor one at that!) I am more interested in writing about how the next young mind could embrace this analysis. Hopefully, an essay would spark young minds, or even those a little older, to embrace some of the complexities of your work, and to dig a little deeper into the literature of gravity waves, black holes, neutron stars, their collapse and signature events, as recorded by LIGO. And in doing so, enrich my learning, and shorten my learning curve at tad, at my next Astronomy outreach.
Professor Pretorius, once again, if you already have the frequencies listed, for the time period of the detection that you had constructed for the audio presentation, that would be wonderful.
I am hopeful that some basic viewpoint, into the art, of the structure of the frequencies, if only superficially on my part, would provide another viewport into the fingerprint of the first detection. And become a base of discussion for minds, both young and old that come out to the events that I out-reach to, for Astronomy. In particular, an enlightening others and leading them to understanding gravitational collapse.
Thank you so very much,
Ted Frimet
Of course, you all know the results. They are printed above. If you want to take a peek, under the sheets, and see what 6 hours of study can yield, then venture forth, you brave souls:
y=wavread(“/Users/theodorefrimet/ligo20160211v2.wav”,[1 10000]) //the first 10000 samples
q=fft(y);
//plot(q);
sample_rate=10000;
t = 0:1/sample_rate:.05;
N=size(t,’*’); //number of samples
f=sample_rate*(0:(N/2))/N; //associated frequency vector
n=size(f,’*’)
plot(f,abs(q(1:n)))
Below is a synopsis of the work that I did, for the past few hours, with the bottom graph being my failure, until I adjusted the sample size.
I installed SCILAB into my Mac, and hacked to produce the below code.
The sound file is a 30 second WAV of 250Hz
y=wavread(“/Users/theodorefrimet/250Hz_44100Hz_16bit_30sec.wav”,[1 1000]) //the first 1000 samples
q=fft(y);
//plot(q);
sample_rate=1000;
t = 0:1/sample_rate:.05;
N=size(t,’*’); //number of samples
f=sample_rate*(0:(N/2))/N; //associated frequency vector
n=size(f,’*’)
plot(f,abs(q(1:n)))
It produced this graph, which appears to peak at [one-half] the hz of the sound file:
Here is my Octave program…
Eric Leonard has re-written the code for Octave, so that we get a proper result for the 250 Hz file.
cd c:\EricFiles\Astronomy\TedFiles
y = load(‘250Hz_44100Hz_1000Samps.txt’);
q=fft(y);
% plot(q);
sample_rate=44100;
N=length(y);
f=sample_rate*(0:(N/2))/N; % associated frequency vector
n=length(f);
plot(f,abs(q(1:n)), ‘b-x’)
axis([0 400 0 300]) % to obtain the magnified view
grid on
If you follow that lead, with Octave, or with Matlab, your results will be precise.
I re-tested on a 30 second WAV of 100 Hz:
It appears to me that the “peak” from the FFT, is identifying the key “frequencies” at [frequency/2].
Going forward, I downloaded a sample audio file, from MIT.
It was produced by Professor Scott A Hughes.
The naming conventions were a tad basic.
The WAV file is for two binary black holes, with 50 solar masses, each, so the total mass = 100!
I downloaded that target file, and processed it using SCILAB, and FFT.
Below is the graphic that resulted:
Am I off my bird, or is the above 100 kHz * 2 = 200 kHz frequency for Professor Hughes sample?
Then, I downloaded the “no-spin” binary example:
and finally the “spin” binary examples:
And here is MY FAILURE. I downloaded the Hanford/Ligo MP4 video, and separated out the audio file. And saved it as MP3. Then converted it to WAV.
Here is the code:
y=wavread(“/Users/theodorefrimet/ligomp3.wav”,[1 1000]) //the first 1000 samples
q=fft(y);
//plot(q);
sample_rate=1000;
t = 0:1/sample_rate:.05;
N=size(t,’*’); //number of samples
f=sample_rate*(0:(N/2))/N; //associated frequency vector
n=size(f,’*’)
plot(f,abs(q(1:n)))
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by Rex Parker, Phd director@princetonastronomy.org
June 11 Meeting (7:30pm) – at the NJ State Museum Planetarium. We’ve come to the last meeting of our “academic” season, to be held at the NJ State Museum Planetarium in Trenton. The museum is located at 205 W State Street next to the NJ State House (gold dome). Park in the lot at the bottom of the hill behind the museum next to the planetarium dome. See Ira’s section in this issue for program information.
Galaxies of Late Spring. It’s not too late to observe some of the Virgo-Coma supercluster of galaxies through telescopes this month. This gigantic grouping of galaxies spans about 15 million light years with approximate center about 60 million light years away. Dozens of the larger and higher brightness magnitude galaxies in this group can be seen in telescopes with 8-16 inch mirrors, such as the Celestron-14 at the AAAP observatory in Washington Crossing State Park. The view angles presented by different galaxies range from edge-on to face-on, which along with distance greatly affect surface brightness and aspect ratio in the telescope. One of the prototypical face-on galaxies in the Virgo group is Messier 100 (M100), a beautifully structured spiral about 50 million light years away from us. The image below is processed from about 45 hours of CCD data (luminance, red, green, and blue) for M100 acquired by remote astrophotography using a 16-inch telescope at Cerro Tololo in the Chilean Andes. The final image shows M100’s distinct morphology and predominantly blue color with patches of glowing red ionized hydrogen H-II regions of new star formation. As discussed at recent meetings, visual observing through the eyepiece won’t reveal these colors due to low light level constraints in human eye physiology. Still, many observers subjectively feel a profound cosmological sensation from seeing spiral galaxies like M100 in a telescope eyepiece.
Messier 100, spiral galaxy in the Virgo-Coma Supercluster. Image by Rex Parker using the 16-inch PROMPT2 telescope from Cerro Tololo, Chile (Star Shadows Remote Observatory).
Skynet Project Renewal. Good news! AAAP has renewed the contract with Skynet for another two years. Two years ago we began a project to bring access to remote astrophotography to AAAP members. Skynet is the brainchild of Dr Dan Reichart of the Physics and Astronomy Dept at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The internet-based queue scheduling program runs on a computer at UNC which accesses a system of observatories created for remote imaging. This system, the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network, comprises more than a dozen telescopes around the world at observatories in Chile, Australia, Italy, Canada, and US. Each telescope is set up with robotic tracking mount, CCD camera, and filters for remote color image acquisition. Tutorial videos are available to help a user get up and running. For further background read my article in the June 2017 issue of Sidereal Times available from the AAAP website archive.
Whether you’re a first-time astronomer or seasoned observer, Skynet’s easy-to-use yet powerful interface allows you to get images of celestial objects from the Messier and NGC deep sky catalogs. Skynet also includes a basic image processing program “Afterglow” that runs on the server, so you don’t need any special software on your PC. You also can download and process your images locally with your own programs like CCD Stack or Maxim DL if you like. While there are limits on the length of exposures, Skynet is a great way to get onto the learning curve for astro-imaging and understanding how the modern practice of astronomy works. Current AAAP members who have used the system will have new credits added to their accounts. If you are interested in access to Skynet send me an e-mail note to get a new user account.
The Moon in All It’s Glory. Celebrating the achievements of the Apollo program will reach a crescendo this summer for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing in July. With kudo’s to our May speaker, James Chen (author of How to Find the Apollo Landing Sites, published by Springer), I took the liberty of assembling a composite of all the lunar landing sites on an image of the nearly full moon I took a couple years ago with a small refractor telescope. One of many remarkable aspects of the landings is how close together they were in both time and space on the moon’s surface. Only a small fraction of the landscape was sampled by the 6 locations. All the landings were done in less than 3-1/2 years, a feat that seems impossible today.
Recently, a fellow board member of Astronomy and Science Club from my retirement community brought to my attention an intriguing New Jersey site. Though, at the time of this writing, I have not had an opportunity to visit it myself, I thought its existence should be brought to the attention of the AAAP membership.
I called the InfoAge Space Exploration Center, ISEC, located at 2300 Marconi Rd in Wall Township, NJ and found that the Center sports the TLM-18, a 60 foot operational radio telescope. This telescope was refurbished by a team from the Info Center and Princeton University. It is currently used to detect radio signals from the Milky Way. Center visitors can see the telescope in use and discuss its galactic data gathering with its operators.
If you should get to see the Center and the TLM-18 soon, please let me know what you think about both. The ISEC is open to the public on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Admission costs are $5.00 per person.
In addition, at the last meeting of the Board of Directors, I assumed the responsibility for managing the AAAP “Meet Up” account. This means that I will be listing and updating all relevant events in which our club will be participating. So, if you have a Meet Up account, stay tuned. If not, open one to stay abreast.
The June meeting of the AAAP, and our last until next September, will take place on June 11th at the Planetarium of the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. The meeting starts at 7:30 PM.
In addition to our regular club meeting, attendees will view the latest show CAPCOM GO! The Apollo Story. “One small step…” From the producers of the award-winning fulldome shows ‘We Are Stars’ and ‘ASTRONAUT’ comes ‘CAPCOM GO! The Apollo Story’. An immersive, historical documentary that showcases the achievements of the Apollo program and what it took to put the first human on the Moon. It introduces a new generation to the immense challenges they overcame and will inspire them to become the explorers, designers, engineers, thinkers and dreamers of the future.
There is plenty of parking in front of the planetarium entrance behind the museum. Museum is located at –205 W. State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625.
If you are registered for the Celestial Navigation class on June 15-16 you will receive an email from me with the latest details this weekend (June 1-2). If you believe you are registered and do not get this email please contact me at program@princetonastronomy.org
Every Outreach Event is an opportunity for EVERY Member to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for things astronomical, not just those who have a telescope. Come out to see what these events are all about, log some time at an eyepiece, and experience the wide variety of hardware owned by your fellow Members.
Following is a listing of all the Outreach Events currently on the calendar. Most still need more support, so please take a look at your calendar and see which ones you could arrange to attend. The two library events listed here are not part of the Summer Library Presentation listing because they are only seeking star gazing evenings, not presentations.
Saturday, June 8, at Simpson Observatory
25-30 Cub Scouts, some Boy Scouts, and parents of Pack 44 of Pennington will be visiting. We need at least 3 Keyholders to open and some Keyholder or Member scopes to afford more viewing opportunities. Volunteers to date: Dave Reis (s), Jeff Pinyan (s)
Thursday, June 20, at Simpson Observatory
We need both Keyholders to open and Keyholder or Member volunteers who can bring additional scopes to offer a star gazing evening to 20-40 participants in the Delaware River Sojourn, a paddle trip that began in Hancock, NY. They will be camping overnight in WCSP before continuing south on the river. Volunteers so far: Dave Reis (s)
Friday, June 21, at Simpson Observatory
Twenty or so 3rd grade Girl Scouts and parents will be joining us, so we need Members who can bring additional scopes or just come to share your knowledge and enthusiasm. Volunteers to date: Jeff Pinyan (s)
Wednesday, July 9, in Lambertville
Folks at the Lamberville Free Public Library are planning a simple star gazing evening. They have 2 telescopes but limited knowledge and are requesting some assistance setting them up and using them. Details about their scopes have been requested. Members who have similar scopes and can bring theirs would be most helpful, but we may just need a few Member scopes. Rain/cloud date is next night, July 10. Please advise availability for both nights.
Saturday, July 20, at the Planetarium
Special program is requesting support in the form of Members who can bring solar scopes for public viewing from 1-4 in the afternoon. More details will be provided as they become available., but this could be a great family day.
Saturday, July 20, at Simpson Observatory
MEMBERS’ NIGHT! All Members, especially those who who have never been, are encouraged to come out to our Observatory in Washington Crossing State Park on this special day. Members are welcome to bring along family and friends.
Wednesday, August 7, at Mountain Lakes House in Princeton
A star gazing evening is planned by the Princeton Public Library. We need Members to bring telescopes. Public arrives at 7:30, set up earlier if you can. Volunteers to date: John Miller
With the State of New Jersey proclaiming a summer reading program theme of “A Universe of Stories,” we have experienced a deluge of requests. More distant libraries have been referred elsewhere, and two have requested just a star gazing evening, and we are left with ten which want some sort of presentation about astronomy. After searching in vain for something we could just pick up and use, I have created “An Introduction to the Night Sky” myself. The first draft of a Power Point, including a speaker narrative, is nearly complete. It will be reviewed by a few of our more qualified members and then made available to those who volunteer to offer it to one or two libraries. It is basically a walk through the distances of cosmic objects and sizes of planets and stars. It includes a fun exercise for both kids and adults of building a Pocket Solar System that they can then take home. The execution time for the presentation has not yet been determined, but portions can be omitted or rushed as needed. The exercise can be left out, but I like it so much I would find something else to delete.
Here is a list of the ten libraries that have been offered our support:
Jim Peck has graciously volunteered to make presentations at Old Bridge and Cranbury, since they are near his home. A few other members have expressed a willingness to make a presentation or two, and now is the time to speak up for whichever ones might be of particular interest to you. There is certainly no obligation to use the Power Point I have created if you have something appropriate that you would rather present.
Scheduling the presentations will happen next. That can be handled by me, trying to meet their requests, or directly by those speaking up for particular libraries, if they would prefer that approach. Most of the contact persons have remained flexible in spite of their wish to nail me down months ago.
Only Hickory Corner must be a daytime presentation.
Hopewell Branch has requested August 14.
Ewing, Hickory Corner, and Robbinsville Branches have requested July, with Robbinsville requesting a Monday.
Hopewell Branch, Robbinsville Branch, and Pennington Public have specifically requested telescopes for star gazing. Others may add that to their very non-specific initial requests, and I will be recruiting additional members who can bring telescopes to these events.
If you can, please step up and lend a hand in this effort. It is probably the biggest opportunity we have had in decades to really reach a great number of people. Let’s make a good showing and impress them.
Have you been enjoying the wonderful speakers but feeling uncomfortable or intimidated about visiting the Observatory? Not worth making the drive or staying up late to look at dim fuzzies? Time to shake that off and get out there! In case you haven’t heard, July 20 is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. There will be a special program at the Planetarium in Trenton during the day. That evening, if our miserable New Jersey weather cooperates, we will be holding a special night for members at Simpson Observatory.
All AAAP Members, especially those who have never been, are encouraged to come out to our Observatory in Washington Crossing State Park from 8pm to midnight or so.
This event is not open to the general public, but members are welcome to bring along family and friends. Check out the Observatory web pages to see how to enter the Park off Bear Tavern Road. Link to the AAAP Twitter page where a weather cancellation would get posted.
All scope-owners are more than welcome to offer additional viewing opportunities or get help with your set-up.
If you are considering a scope purchase, this could be a great chance to look through various optics.
It would be nice to know who is planning to attend, but those bringing a scope, and Keyholders who can help staff the Observatory, please be sure to respond to outreach@princetonastronomy.org. Check the calendar entry to see who else is coming.
♦ Rex opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. He then talked about the Apollo memorabilia he brought and put on display. He also brought a telescope to look at the Apollo landing sites after the meeting.
♦ Prasad conducted the voting for next year’s board of directors. The slate was the same as this years except for a new secretary, John Miller. The proposed board was approved unanimously by the members present, 30 – 0.
♦ Dave and Jen talked about their trip to the Yerkes Observatory.
♦ Speaker James Chen spoke about his book on finding the Apollo landing sites.
♦ The celestial navigation course is all set, 15 students total.
♦ Bill reported that New Jersey’s moon rocks are missing. There will be moon chips on display at the museum during the Apollo anniversary display.
♦ Our June meeting at the Planetarium will feature a new show about the moon landing.
♦ Discussion about spaceflight and humanity sparked by the book by Martin Rees, “On The Future”
• It took 12 years to go from Sputnik to Apollo
• 50 years later Apollo is still the high point
• In the 60s NASA was 4% of the US budget, now it is only .6%
• Since Apollo we have been restricted to low earth orbit and NASA is constrained by risk
• Robotic technology has blossomed
• Besides China, the future lies with private funds and companies.
• An active discussion followed
♦ From outreach
• Communiversity was a success
• 10 Libraries are expecting a summer program
• Watch the calendar for upcoming events.
♦ From the observatory
• There will be solar observing Memorial Day weekend
• Needed maintenance will be discussed at the board meeting
♦ There will be a board meeting May 28th in the Dome room in Peyton Hall.
• Director Rex Parker brought the meeting to order at 7:40 PM
• Rex Parker, Director; Larry Kane, Assistant Director; Michael Mitrano, Treasurer; John Miller, Secretary; Ira Polans, Program Chair; David and Jennifer Skitt, Observatory co-chairs; Gene Allen, Outreach Chair; Bill Murray, member and Tom Swords, member were in attendance.
• The Skynet remote imaging service renewal was discussed. Rex Parker made a motion to renew the service for an additional two years. Membership is $1,000 for the two year agreement. Approximately 280 minutes of imaging time was used by AAAP members during the past contract. The motion was passed to renew the service for another two year period.
• Treasurer: Michael Mitrano reminded our fiscal year ends in June. As of this date, the club’s account holds $15,117 with about $1000 pending accounts payable. Fiscal year payables have included: Speaker fees: ~$600. Observatory operation: ~$2,500. Receivables are primarily membership dues ~+$3,800, to date.
• StarQuest: It was reported that participation in StarQuest has lessened during the last five years and is running in the red. Rex proposed other venues closer to the Princeton/Hopewell area. The board agreed to cancel the current contract with the Hope, NJ facility immediately. Rex proposed an alternative site: The Barn at Gravity Hill in Hopewell, NJ – adjacent to Washington Crossing State Park. It was unanimously agreed to move forward with negotiations with The Barn at Gravity Hill.
• Equipment Donation: An 8 foot diameter prefab dome observatory and used SCT had been recently offered to the club by a private donor. It was decided, due to logistics, liability and other factors not to accept the equipment.
• Observatory: Bill Murray recommended that all public-night Team Leaders should be responsible for learning the operation and use of the telescope camera/video cameras and accompanying software. Gene Allen suggested managing large groups visiting the observatory into smaller groups.
• Social Media: The club has been paying for a “Meetup” site. This online promotional system has not been actively managed. Larry Kane volunteered to work on this. John Miller mentioned extensive previous Meetup site management experience and would offer assistance.
More than two years ago, when I first became interested in Amateur Astronomy, a co-worker and I were vying to figure out where all the Earth bound water had come from. By the end our of conversations we (or perhaps by now – only I, due to a fractal memory), decided that there would be little or no chance of the high number of comets required to impact Terra Firma and produce our oceans, and lakes. Two years later, there is a geology read for me to discover.
And the latest read, based on the coat-tails of a recommended tome by Rex, (Allegres’ From Stone to Star, A View of Modern Geology), has me thinking of just where all the water has come from. Ah, once again – a good question will yield to an answer that will probably not have me at its Genesis. What the heck, let’s strike the rock twice with our staff?
I read about the homogeneous versus the heterogeneous theories of Earth composing itself, in an Accretion Theory. And decided that water, as in H2-plenty was Well within the grasps of our early crust, mantle and core. H2O, being less dense than the material that surrounded it, as is here-to-fore told in both theories, rose from its rock-bed repose.
In the few pages that preceded my recent read, I rediscovered that the densities of iron, lodes of it beneath our feet, vary according to the pressure that this element is being exposed to. I recall that the density will vary from 11 to 13 grams per cubic centimeter. Lots of pressure will yield a greater density. Made plenty of sense to me. What about meteors?
The meteorites that are iron based have measured densities, and are iron and nickel rich. Blasted from the core of distant planets, and small bodies, we get the instinctual premise that measuring the density of said visitor, will yield the pressures that were imposed upon it prior to its departure point. And by a brief thought process, we can deduce the size of the birthing planetoid. Teaser. Higher iron density will reveal more massive planets.
Unfortunately for me, this doesn’t pair well with the very primitive meteorites that were carbonaceous and brought water to Earth. I was hoping to pin the tail on the donkey, and be finished with this essay, having said that meteors brought us all our earth borne water. No cheating, you say? Ok. Comets you say? Nay-sayer! My coworker, and some very fine sane amateur astronomers all agreed that there could not have been sufficient impacts to account for all of the water. Enter the Giant Impact Hypothesis.
Theia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet) accessed Saturday May 25, 2019 9:54 AM), was an ancient planet that slam dunked our home world. This colossus of impacts shewn off a rather big tear of both participants – leaving a ring of dust, or perhaps two smaller moons, that would eventually coalesce into our Luna. And happy be the amateur to further participate in this hypothesis of the less mad, and suggest that, Theia, and our previous incarnation of what was our proto-typical planet, brought the lions share of water.
One of my latest forays into metaphysics briefly entangled me with a Divinity student, via an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Member Community discourse. It was brief, to be sure. In his search for the presence of a Calabi-Yau geometry manifold, to hide Eden from our view, he may have unhinged me entirely. Mad! Mad, I say. The monkeys be damned – here it is:
The Universe expands, as do the D-Brane vibrations that compose her. Within her sullen sheets of creation, lay the bisected Calabi-Yau manifold. And as the manifold expands, therein lay dimensions where we find water, water, everywhere! But not a drop to drink. As is Eden hidden from our view, our most creative scientific thoughts of water and its Genesis, continues to be hidden in the best hypothesis offered, herein. Hardly a good theory to be found. Yes, Dear Liza. There is a hole in the bucket.
Messier 100, spiral galaxy in the Virgo-Coma Supercluster. Image by Rex Parker using the 16-inch PROMPT2 telescope from Cerro Tololo, Chile (Star Shadows Remote Observatory). 
