Round Pizza Pie Are Squared!
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Greetings Fellow Stargazer,
Tis the season that I get many emails and phone calls from parents
wanting to get a telescope for their kids or themselves. The trend is go
get one at a local discount store for a couple hundred dollars. At this
point I usually tell them to get a couple hundred dollars in one dollar
bills, cut them up in fine pieces and throw them off a mountain side in a
strong wind. WHY??? Because one will have much more fun in doing this
then in the frustration they would get from a discount telescope. The
best way to figure out what kind of scope to get is to go to a Star Party
and look through ALL the different scopes and see which one would serve
you best. Then go and buy one just like that. Or join a astronomy club
and rent one. Or get adventurous and enjoy a great family project in
building a scope together:
http://members.aol.com/sfsidewalk/dobplans.htm
When pressed, I tell people that they should get at least a telescope
with the minimum of an eight inch diameter mirror in it. Regarding
telescopes, it's photons to the brain that count... soooo the bigger the
mirror in your light bucket, the better. It is kind of like pizza... the
area goes up as a function of the SQUARE of the radius... that is (pizza)
pi R squared. So bring at least a 8 inch pizza to the next Star Party
and we will calculate its area.
Speaking to Star Parties, where telescopes and pizzas abound, you are
invited to one on December 3rd!
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Star Party Invitation for December 3rd,
Sponsored by the Hawaiian Astronomical Society
http://www.hawastsoc.org
Dillingham Airfield - before sunset 5:49 pm)
(Star Party Directions are at the end of this message)
Bring:
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/planetar...5/12/dec05.pdf
Here is where I go to check the weather on a Star Party Night:
http://www.wunderground.com/radar/ra...&scale=1&noclu
tter=0&ID=HMO&type=N0R&lat=0&lon=0&label=you
If it is clear, you will be able to see many astronomical sights.
It's now that time of year to see Mars and Saturn, the Orion
Nebula, THE Great Square, the Seven Sisters and many other heavenly
bodies!
If you won't be in Hawaii, fear not. Check this link for a Star
Party near you!
http://SkyandTelescope.com/resources/organizations/
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If you miss this month's HAS Star Party then join us at the next:
***** 2006 *****
January 21st
February 18th
April 1st
May 27th
June 17th
July 15th
August 26th
September 23rd
October 14th
November 11th
December 23th
***** 2007 *****
January 20th
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Xena, the Princess 10th Planet
2003 UB313 (magnitude 19, in Cetus) is high in the south by 9 p.m. This
is the newly discovered "tenth planet". Astronomers at the WM Keck
Observatory have identified a moon orbiting Xena, a body they argue is
the 10th planet in our solar system. The discovery team is informally
calling the object Xena and its moon and Gabrielle, for the TV warrior
princess and her companion. The official names they will eventually get
are tied up in committees of the International Astronomical Union.
The California Institute of Technology's Michael Brown explains that
although observations can show that Xena is physically larger than Pluto,
without a companion body, it would be impossible to tell whether or not
it is more massive. "Finding a moon...allows us to precisely measure the
mass of the planet. A more massive planet will pull on the moon tightly
and it will circle the planet more quickly," he writes. "A less massive
planet will allow the moon to have a slow lazy orbit around the planet.
We don't yet know the speed of the moon, but when we do we will suddenly
have new insight into the size and even composition of the 10th planet."
The discovery could also shed new light on the history of the solar
system. Several of the larger Kuiper belt objects, of which Xena is one,
have moons, but how they acquired them is an open question. The
astronomical community has also yet to settle the question of whether
Xena is a planet, and indeed, whether or not Pluto should be given that
status. Many astronomers feel that Pluto ought more properly to be
classed as a minor planet, or even just as a large Kuiper belt object.
Xena's discovery has prompted the International Astronomical Union to
reconsider its definition of a planet. Currently it considers both Pluto
and Xena to be trans-Neptunian objects, and says that until it has drawn
up its new definition, that is what they will remain.
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ASTROPHYSICS: ON MICROBLAZARS
The following points are made by Wei Cui (Science 2005 309:714):
1) Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are some of the most powerful objects in
the Universe, and they are almost certainly powered by very massive black
holes at the center of galaxies. As clouds, stars, or other material fall
into the black hole, some of their gravitational energy is converted into
radiation that we detect on Earth. The accretion of matter by the black
hole is sometimes accompanied by well-collimated and powerful outflows of
material, also known as jets. Blazars are an important subset of AGN
whose jets are closely aligned with our line of sight. New work[1]
reports the possible detection of a long-sought downsized version of
these objects called a "microblazar".
2) Such microblazars could hypothetically exist, given that there is
growing observational evidence for the presence of micro-AGN [2] powered
by black holes less than one-millionth the mass of those in blazars.
These micro-AGN belong to a more general class of sources known as xray
binaries, which are some of the brightest x-ray sources in the sky. An
x-ray binary consists of a stellar-mass black hole or a neutron star and
a normal star bound together by their mutual gravitational attraction. If
a black hole system also produces jets, it is referred to as a
microquasar, and many have been discovered over the past decade. A
microquasar whose jet points at us would be a microblazar. Although
circumstantial evidence exists, the presence of microblazars has not yet
been firmly established observationally.
3) One way to find microblazars is perhaps to look for very energetic
gamma rays from known (or candidate) microquasars. Some positive
detections were claimed but were nearly always disputed by independent
observations with a different (sometimes more sensitive) instrument or
dismissed on other grounds. It is fair to say that there has not be any
credible evidence for the detection of TeV gamma rays from any
microquasar until now. Aharonian et al [1] present a careful analysis of
the fields in their survey of the Milky Way with the High Energy
Stereoscopic System (HESS) array that covered the position of a
microblazar candidate, LS 5039. The image they show indicates a clear
detection of the source at TeV energies. The question remains whether LS
5039 is truly a microblazar. The authors are cautious in this regard.
4) LS 5039 is considered a microblazar candidate because it has been
identified as a counterpart to one of the still-mysterious sources
detected at GeV energies by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope
(EGRET) instrument aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. It is worth
noting that most of the identified EGRET sources are in fact blazars. LS
5039 was subsequently observed and detected at x-ray and radio
wavelengths. An important recent breakthrough came from direct imaging of
the jets in the source at radio wavelengths [3], lending support to its
microblazar candidacy. However, unlike typical blazars, the jets in LS
5039 appear to be only very mildly relativistic; the effects of
relativistic beaming, which play an important role in blazars, should
therefore not be relevant here. Nevertheless, the detection of radio jets
in LS 5039 has generated much excitement and led to detailed studies of
physical mechanisms to produce very energetic gamma rays in microblazars
[4,5].
References (abridged):
1. F. Aharonian et al., Science 309, 746 (2005)
2. I. F. Mirabel, L. F. Rodriguez, Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 37, 409
(1999)
3. J. M. Paredes, J. Marti, M. Ribo, M. Massi, Science 288, 2340 (2000)
4. M. M. Kaufman Bernadó, G. E. Romero, I. F. Mirabel, Astron. Astrophys.
385, L10 (2002)
5. G. E. Romero, D. F. Torres, M. M. Kaufman Bernadó, I. F. Mirabel,
Astron. Astrophys. 410, L1 (2003)
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from: - George Gamow, "Quasar" 1964.
"Twinkle, twinkle quasi-star
Biggest puzzle from afar
How unlike the other ones
Brighter than a billion suns
Twinkle, twinkle, quasi-star
How I wonder what you are."
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The Wanderers (The Planets) this Month
Mercury emerges very low in the dawn late this week, but it's very dim.
Venus (magnitude *4.5, between Sagittarius and Capricornus) is the
dazzling white "Evening Star" in the southwest during and shortly after
dusk. This week and next, Venus is the highest and brightest it will be
in the evening sky during 2005 and 2006.
Mars (about magnitude *1.6, in Aries) shines yellow-orange in the east at
dusk and is highest in the south around 10 p.m. But it's shrinking and
fading as Earth pulls farther ahead of it in our faster orbit around the
Sun. In a telescope Mars is now about 17 arcseconds wide.
Jupiter (magnitude *1.7, at the Virgo-Libra border) shines brightly low
in the southeast during dawn. Fainter Spica is off to its upper right.
Saturn (magnitude +0.2, in Cancer) rises in the east-northeast around 9
p.m., and by midnight it's well up in fine view in the east. Saturn is
highest in the south before dawn, about midway between Pollux and Regulus.
Uranus and Neptune (magnitudes 6 and 8, respectively, in Aquarius and
Capricornus) are still in view in the south to southwest just after dark.
Pluto is hidden behind the glare of the Sun.
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Annual Meteor Showers
Quadrantids: January
Virginids: March/April
Lyrids: April
Scorpiids: May
Delta Aquarids: July
Perseids August
Piscids: September
Orionids: October
Leonids: November
Geminids: December
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Find what is moving overhead after sunset:
http://www.bester.com/
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTim.../JTrack3d.html
Check out when the next Iridium Satellite is available for you to
see:
http://www.heavens-above.com/Neighbo...PlaceID=593409
(for non Oahu Star Gazers...)
http://www.heavens-above.com/selectt...p?CountryID=US
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Check out:
http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/12months/m-dec-i.html
and bring the above list...
As for the rest of the Messiers, check out
http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/messier.html It also has a link to:
http://www.hawastsoc.org/messier/index.html
(all the Messier Objects as photographed by HAS's local Jay Wrathall)
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Star Party Directions
(
http://www.hawastsoc.org/directions/dillingham.html)
To reach the Dillingham observing site, take the H2 to the end at
Schofield Barracks. Drive past Schofield and follow the signs to
Waialua. At the Y intersection at Waialua, bear left and pass under
the bridge. Drive out of town a few miles until you reach Dillingham
Airfield. Dillingham is several miles long. It has three gates. You
need to drive to the far end to the third gate (marked as Gate 1 on
the color map). When you enter the gate, the road will curve left
behind some hangars. It will then take you through a very sharp S
curve. 1/4 mile beyond that is a stop sign in the middle of nowhere.
Turn right at the stop sign, and you will be there. You can find me
by looking for the big red telescope in the corner with a table with
lots of pizza on it.
You will need to reach the site before sunset in order to find the
gate open!!!
A few words on light. We try to maintain dark conditions at the site.
Therefore we have certain rules about light. First, no white
flashlights. The only flashlights that you should use are not too
bright, red ones.
When entering and exiting the site, do not use headlights. Some cars
now can't turn off their headlights. If you have a car like that
please park nearer the windsock then the telescopes. Point it away
from the telescopes. Headlights make you lose your night vision for
up to 30 minutes. It immediately ruins any astro photography that
might be in progress.
Bring some warm clothes, something to sit on, some real powerful bug
spray, a dim or red covered flashlight and some munches to share with
your friends.
Remember there is an absolute need to remain clear of the runway, and
anyone attending the star party needs to remain in the immediate star
party area. Do not be wandering around in areas where we are not
permitted. Especially near any planes (parked or moving)!
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Bishop Museum Planetarium Happenings
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/visitors/dailyschedule.html
Daily Planetarium schedule:
(808) 848-4136 for pre-recorded planetarium schedule.
12:00 a.m. The Stars Tonight (40 Minutes)
12:45 p.m. Explorers of Polynesia in Japanese, (30 Minutes)
1:30 p.m.Explorers of Mauna Kea, (30 Minutes)
2:30-3:15p.m. Observatory is open for solar viewing
3:30 p.m. Explorers of Polynesia in English, (45 Minutes)
Barry Peckham will host the Sky Tonight program on the first Friday
of each month. Reservations are required as there is limited seating
in the planetarium. Call 848-4168 for information and reservations.
Tickets cost $4 for adults, $3 for kids, free to Bishop Museum
members and Hawaiian Astronomical Society members.
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After Dark with Stars in the Park
Waikele Community Park
OR... Kahala Park
(Weather permitting)
***** 2005 *****
December 10th
***** 2006 *****
January 7th
FROM DUSK to 9:30 PM
Bring your children! Tell your friends!
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Visit the cosmos via:
The HAS HomePage:
http://www.hawastsoc.org/ or go to
(or show up at meeting 7:30pm first Tue of month)
and check out the Bishop Museum Planetarium Home Page
http://bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/pla...anetarium.html
and the Institute for Astronomy Colloquia/Seminars
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/
http://apollo-society.org/launchpad39_A.html
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Keep Looking Sky Ward
Namaste...Gary "MacYoda" Ward
http://homepage.mac.com/macyoda/PhotoAlbum6.html
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"The computer is to the mind as the amplifier is to sound."
Paul Maurer
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Life may not be the party we planned on, but while we are here,
we might as well dance. ------ Unknown =-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=
--
The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net
In Garden Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/ingarden
Blast Off Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/starlords