Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
CASSINIS
SATURN
Every Picture Tells a Story
PAGE 16
The Mysterious
Disappearance
of Luna 2
PAGE 52
Observing:
The Benets
of Keeping a Log
PAGE 32
Ethics in
Astrophotography
PAGE 66
SEPTEMBER 2017
Deep-Sky Wonders:
Late Summer Double Stars
PAGE 54
skyandtelescope.com
ML50100 Image
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2015 11
FEATURES
COVER STORY:
16 Worlds of Wonder
With its 13-year stint at Saturn
coming to a dramatic end, NASAs
Cassini orbiter leaves a legacy of
unparalleled beauty and scientic
24 Black Hole Collision
24 Three Cosmic
Chirps & Counting . . .
September 2017 VOL. 134, NO. 3
S. OSSOK INE / A . BUON A NNO (M A X PL A NCK INSTIT U TE FOR G R AVITATION A L PH YSICS) / SIM UL AT-
By Mathew Wedel 4 Spectrum
By Peter Tyson
32 Keeping Track of the Night
ING E X TREME SPACE TIME PROJEK T, D. STEINH AUSER (AIRBOR NE H Y DRO M A PPING G MBH)
44 Planetary Almanac
An experienced observer describes 6 From Our Readers
the benets and pleasures of 45 Under the Stars
keeping an astrojournal. By Bob King By Fred Schaaf 8 75, 50 & 25 Years Ago
By Roger W. Sinnott
46 Sun, Moon & Planets
38 Searching a Trillion By Fred Schaaf 10 News Notes
Stars for ET
How I helped shrink the possibility 48 Celestial Calendar 14 Cosmic Relief
that really advanced aliens are By Alan MacRobert By David Grinspoon
broadcasting far and wide.
52 Exploring the Solar System 64 New Product Showcase
By Robert H. Gray By Thomas A. Dobbins
70 Astronomers Workbench
66 Ethics in Astrophotography 54 Deep-Sky Wonders By Jerry Oltion
Seeing isnt always believing in the By Sue French
digital age. By Jerry Lodriguss 72 Gallery
57 Going Deep
By Howard Banich 83 Events Calendar
Find us on 84 Focal Point
Facebook & Twitter By Martin Elvis
ON THE COVER
ON THE COVER ONLINE
LAST-MINUTE ECLIPSE PREP ASTRONOMY Q&A BUILD AN ASTRO COMMUNITY
Consult our comprehensive From dark matter and black holes to Find clubs, planetariums, and obser-
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SPECTRUM by Peter Tyson
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4 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
FROM OUR READERS
Truth is a term for philosophers and well get an article on the differences ing recipe, a political endorsement, or
metaphysicians. between the universes created by pornography.
Don Waters Shiva or Ptah, or perhaps by the Flying Jack Harris
Birmingham, Alabama Spaghetti Monster unless, of course, Troy, New York
6 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
From Our Readers
The Two Routes article was a mis- those of S&T, and Ive no intention of run- look to conrm it, Lewisdiscovered the
take. We readers want to know about ning further articles that touch on religion. fainter galaxy certainly a heartwarm-
astronomy, not religion. Granted, it But my fellow editors and I will continue to ing example of father-son collaboration.
was an opinion piece, but theres such a strive to provide intellectually stimulating This was not Edwards rst deep-sky
thing as editorial control, and whoever and provocative content in these pages. discovery. Exactly two years earlier, he
thought this was a good idea missed spied a spiral galaxy now cataloged as
the mark. Does the appearance of this Never Too Young NGC 6382. Edward was 12 at the time,
article mean that its a good idea to Just sending a note of thanks for the making himfar and away the youngest
submit my opinion on how great astrol- ne observing articles penned by Steve contributor to J. L. E. Dreyers seminal
ogy is? Or why I dont believe we ever Gottlieb, Sue French, and Howard New General Catalogue.
landed on the Moon? I can stomach one Banich in the May 2017 issue. Im sure Mark Bratton
of these articles, but if another one like deep-sky observers everywhere appreci- Limerick, Saskatchewan
this appears, my subscription will do ated the stories as much as I did.
the opposite. In his article on interacting galaxies,
Gottlieb mentions NGC 6621, discov- FOR THE RECORD
Terry Barker
Richmond, Virginia ered by 14-year-old Edward Swift on In Jerry Oltions column on DIY solar
June 2, 1885. His father, Lewis, spotted filters (S&T: June 2017, p. 40), the upper
caption should note that eclipse glasses
Peter Tyson replies: I asked Ms. the fainter component of the pair, NGC
Carlisle to write this piece. Not being 6622, the same evening. One imagines provide a one-power (1) view.
religious, I was curious how an editor whom that Edward alerted his father to the The aperture of the WIYN telescope
I respect so highly for her science-based brighter galaxy and that, when taking a (S&T: July 2017, p. 34) is 3.5 meters.
skills and sharply rational mind could square
faith and science, and I felt many readers
SUBMISSIONS: Write to Sky & Telescope, 90 Sherman St., Cambridge, MA 02140-3264, U.S.A.
would also be interested to hear her expla- or email: letters@skyandtelescope.com. Please limit your comments to 250 words; published
nation. Her opinions are her own and not letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.
75, 50 & 25 YEARS AGO by Roger W. Sinnott extensive areas of the earths night omers because its 11th-magnitude
side with full-moon brightness . . . central star does not produce
1942 September 1942 This announcement came after . . . enough energy to make the nebula
War Delays A continuous flow of the National Academy of Sciences shine. The notion that [energy from]
inquiries is received as to progress made public [a critical, fact-finding an unseen, hot companion powered
being made on the 200-inch tele- analysis that] stated, The Com- the nebula was confirmed by obser-
scope . . . Dr. J. A. Anderson [of] mittee sees no scientific value in a vations made with the International
California Institute of Technology satellite reflector system that is in Ultraviolet Explorer satellite in the
has written in part: any way commensurate with the early 1980s.
Last year, even before Pearl costs and nuisance to science of The central star became even
Harbor, it became necessary for our such a system. more intriguing during the winter of
1967 personnel to turn their attention to Several independent studies of 198182 with the sudden onset of
defense work . . . In the optical shop possible systems for Project Able periodic eclipses. According to a
we keep the 200-inch mirror . . . but had been made. These ranged study conducted by Hao Xiang-
the last interval on the grinding of from as many as 12 reflectors 400 liang (Beijing Observatory), in 1985
the mirror was in April, so we may feet across to a single mirror half a the star faded by about 3 magni-
as well say that no work is now mile in diameter. tudes during each eclipse. [By 1987
being done on the optical parts. . . . Astronomers sighed in relief. the star was back to normal.]
A full years work will be required to Early in the Space Age, this con- Amateurs would be well
finish the job, when the war is over. cept and other threats to dark skies advised to add NGC 2346 to their
The Hale 200-inch telescope never gained traction. regular observing rosters in case
1992 the eclipses begin again.
wasnt fully operational until 1949.
September 1992 They havent yet, but two abnor-
September 1967 Mystery in Monoceros Located mal fadings occurred in 1996 and
Mirrors in Space? According to just southwest of 4th-magnitude 2004, each lasting about a year. This
a statement from the White House, Delta Monocerotis, the planetary behavior suggests material ejected
the government has discontinued nebula NGC 2346 is an easy target by the hot companion causes the
feasibility studies of large orbit- for amateur telescopes. The object occasional dimming and almost
ing mirrors that would illuminate has long been of interest to astron- always hides the ongoing eclipses.
8 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
NEWS NOTES
PHYSICS
10 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
EXOPLANETS
IN BRIEF
Mini-Flares Might Threaten Life Around Red Dwarf Stars
TRAPPIST-1h Is Real
lengths, from X-rays to radio, but they Rodrigo Luger (University of Wash-
peak in the ultraviolet, with a signi- ington, Seattle) and colleagues have
cant fraction of the energy released in confirmed the existence of the sev-
the same bands that GALEX observed. enth planet around the ultracool dwarf
Quiet red dwarfs, on the other hand, star TRAPPIST-1 (S&T: June 2017,
p. 12). The team used more than 70
are relatively dim in the ultraviolet a
days of data from NASAs repurposed
contrast that enables a satellite like Kepler spacecraft, taken as part of
GALEX to easily pick out ares. its K2 mission. The craft detected
Illustration of an exoplanet Using specially created software, the planet, TRAPPIST-1h, crossing
orbiting a red dwarf star Million and colleagues studied several in front of its star four times, with an
hundred M dwarfs and found dozens of orbital period of 18.77 days just
A NEW STUDY of data archived from smaller ares that had evaded detec- what the researchers were expect-
ing, based on previous observations,
the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) tion. This result, announced June 6th
the team reports May 22nd in Nature
spacecraft reveals how hard life might at the summer meeting of the Ameri- Astronomy. The transits reveal that
be on exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs. can Astronomical Society in Austin, planet h is 75% as wide as Earth, or
Worlds recently discovered in or near Texas, will help astronomers determine about 40% larger than Mars. Further-
the habitable zones around these dim whether the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets and more, starspots in K2s data enabled
stars have captured our imagination, others like it are truly habitable. the astronomers to clock the dwarfs
from the seven planets of the TRAP- Early indications are that far more rotation period at 3.3 days, consid-
ered middle-of-the-road for nearby,
PIST-1 system to LHS 1140b (S&T: Aug. low-energy ares occur than high-energy
ultracool dwarf stars. Kepler also
2017, p. 12). But theres one problem: ones. But even low-energy ares might didnt reveal much stellar activity, but
the host stars. M dwarfs are known add up to produce inhospitable environ- it did catch at least one notable flare.
to throw tantrums in their youth, ments. Moreover, ares lose energy as Based on the spin and activity level,
unleashing intense ares and winds. they travel through space, so planets in the authors estimate that the stars
With this in mind, Chase Million a red dwarfs close-in habitable zone are age is between 3 and 8 billion years.
(Million Concepts) combed through likely to be hit harder than planets, like CAMILLE M. CARLISLE
archived GALEX data for aring red Earth, that orbit farther away. Read more at https://is.gd/
dwarfs. The stellar eruptions release SHANNON HALL trappist1h.
radiation across a wide range of wave- More at https://is.gd/galexmdwarfs.
2007 2015
of the layers just outside of the iron
core, Adams explains. If the star is too
dense, then when the heavy, inert core
gives way to gravity, the star will col-
lapse quietly.
Reporting in the August Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Soci-
ety, the team has found a star in the
DWA RF STA R ILLUSTR ATION: N ASA / ESA / G. BACON (STSCI);
done just that. The stars light stayed p Before and after shots of N6946-BH1 by the Hubble Space Telescope
roughly constant over a decade before
it changed suddenly in 2009, brighten- glow theres still something there. If with time the infrared glow starts
ing to become 1 million times more The glow could come from warm stel- to brighten, then we might be seeing
luminous than the Sun for several lar debris falling back onto a newly a surviving star emerging from an
months. (Core-collapse supernovae formed black hole. Or it could instead expanding cocoon of dust. But if it con-
become another 10,000 times brighter emanate from dust enshrouding a tinues to fade, then were more likely
than that.) Then the stars visible light surviving star, perhaps one that just seeing stellar remnants feeding the
disappeared. But Spitzer Space Tele- experienced an extreme outburst and black hole, the team suggests.
scope images reveal a faint infrared ejected material. MONICA YOUNG
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 11
NEWS NOTES
MISSIONS
NASAs Lunar Orbiter Takes a Hit
On October 13, 2014, as NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter scanned the landscape 1,834 km (1,139 mi) below,
a tiny bit of space rock struck the cameras big, scoop-
shaped radiator and created this brief vibration. The
attacking particle was just an estimated 0.8 mm across
(no bigger than a pinhead) and 1/1000 of a gram, but it was
moving very fast perhaps 7 km/s (16,000 mph). No
other sensors recorded an anomaly, and LRO personnel
back on Earth might never have known about the strike MISSIONS: N ASA / GSFC / A RIZON A STATE UNIV ERSIT Y
12 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
STELLAR IN BRIEF
Tabbys Star Dims on Cue Jupiter Impact Spotted
1.01 On May 26th, amateur astronomers re-
corded a rare impact flash in Jupiters north
polar region. Its the sixth time that Jupiter
1.00 has been beaned (that we know about).
Corsica amateur Sauveur Pedranghelu
detected it live on video between 19:24.6
Relative brightness
OFFICIALLY KNOWN as KIC 8462852, including both ground- and space-based Two New Jupiter Moons
Tabbys Star dimmed substantially in instruments and professional and ama- A pair of moonlets found orbiting Jupiter
late May, dropping in brightness by 2% teur telescopes. Unfortunately Kepler brings the planets total satellite count to
69. Scott Sheppard (Carnegie Institution
before recovering (see graph above). KIC only detects changes in a stars bright-
for Science) and colleagues announced the
8462852 has previously exhibited deep ness, not its appearance across multiple objects, S/2016 J 1 and S/2017 J 1 (S for
dips over days and weeks, a 4-year-long wavelengths. Nor could it measure how satellite, J for Jupiter), via Minor Planet
dimming trend, and possibly a century- the stars spectrum changed throughout Electronic Circulars in early June. With
long fade behaviors that are difcult a dips evolution. Such observations will magnitudes hovering near 24, these barely-
to explain (S&T: June 2017, p. 16). be crucial to zeroing in on an expla- there moonlets must be only 1 or 2 km (0.6
The latest dip was the rst seen since nation. For example, if a giant comet to 1.2 mi) across. As with the vast majority
of Jupiters moons, both occupy retrograde
NASAs Kepler spacecraft stopped moni- circles KIC 8462852, then the dips will
orbits, meaning that they move in directions
toring the star in 2013, as well as the look different at different wavelengths,
opposite that of the planets spin. The orbits
rst seen since the star attained notori- because the coma wont block all wave- are also elongated and highly inclined. Such
ety in 2015. Notably, the event did not lengths equally. distant, irregular circuits imply that these
come as a complete surprise: In 2016 While the 2% dip ended on May bodies formed elsewhere in the outer solar
LENCE FOR INFOR M ATION SYSTEMS ENGINEERING A ND M A N AG EMEN T / FAIRBOR N OBSERVATORY
My Rock of Ages
On being immortalized far out in the asteroid belt.
ately thought of Antoine de Saint-Exu- and an inclination of 3.5, which takes it using its atoms. As the poet Joy Harjo
prys Little Prince, living on his little slightly out of the ecliptic plane. So its a wrote, I know we will live forever, as
asteroid called B-612 and pulling up the fairly ordinary main-belt asteroid. dust or breath in the face of stars, in the
baobab trees that threaten to overrun it. But its part of a vast reservoir of shifting pattern of winds.
Today theres an organization, called the rocks close enough to Jupiters orbit that
B612 Foundation, dedicated to protect- the big planet sometimes perturbs a DAVID GRINSPOON is an astrobiolo-
ing our planet against future asteroid fragment into a more hazardous orbit. gist at the Planetary Science Institute.
impacts. Indeed, right after emailing In fact, my asteroid orbits just outside of Follow him on Twitter: @DrFunkySpoon.
14 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
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Worlds
of Wonder
With its 13-year stint at Saturn coming to a dramatic
end, NASAs Cassini orbiter leaves a legacy of unparalleled
beauty and scientic discovery.
CREDIT.LEF T X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
SIMPLY STUNNING Saturn surpasses all other planets for its delicate complexity and surreal beauty.
Three months after Cassini arrived, its cameras recorded the mosaic of 102 frames that went into
this dramatic vista. Note the tangled interplay of narrow bands in the inner C ring and the shadows
they cast on the planets equator. Below the dense, outer A ring and the complex, even more opaque
B ring, blue hues arise from sunlight scattering high in the planets atmosphere.
N ASA / JPL / S PACE SCIE N CE IN ST. / M AT TI AS M A LM E R
16 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
The Cassini orbiter, now executing its Grand Finale, has revolu-
tionized our knowledge of the Saturnian system. Its that simple,
and that profound.
by Venus twice, then past Earth, atmosphere of Titan during its descent
an asteroid, and Jupiter on its way to and landing in early 2005. Originally
Saturn. Finally reaching its destina- planned as a 4-year mission, Cassini
tion after a 7-year journey, it went will end its 13 years in residence when
N ASA / JPL
into orbit on July 1, 2004, and later it plunges into the planet on Septem-
released the European Space Agencys ber 15, 2017.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 17
Cassini's Saturn
1.
Since its arrival, the spacecraft has witnessed a storm erupt stocked organic-chemistry lab, featuring giant lakes of hydro-
on Saturn; viewed the planets north and south poles clearly carbons, dynamic clouds and storms, and methane rain.
for the rst time; observed all of Saturns inner moons at close Saturns brilliant rings are ever changing, particularly the
range and dozens of irregular moons from a distance; part- narrow, multi-stranded F Ring, which inhabits the gravita-
nered with the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate Saturns tional Roche zone where satellites and rings co-exist.
auroras; mapped the surface of haze-shrouded Titan; measured Cassini the man discovered Iapetus, Saturns distant,
the composition of its complex atmosphere; plunged through third-largest moon, in 1671, and he soon realized that Iapetus
the watery plumes of Enceladus; and much more. has a bright hemisphere and a dark hemisphere. Cassini
Titan, a moon bigger than the planet Mercury and cloaked the spacecraft discovered that this objects two-toned
in an atmosphere denser than Earths, proved to be a fully appearance results from a feedback loop driven by ices faster
1. STORMY SATURN On February 25, 2011, very dark, probably because of infall of material mination phase angle is 0). The size of the spot
Cassini captured a huge storm churning from Phoebe and other irregular moons orbiting varies from ring to ring and depends upon the
through the atmosphere in Saturns northern farther out. The other half is bright white. An microscopic structure of the ring particles. This
hemisphere (S&T: May 2012, p. 20). By then equatorial ridge, standing up to 13 km (8 miles) opposition effect thus provides a way to investi-
the storm had raged for about 12 weeks, long above its surroundings, gives Iapetus the ap- gate the structure of the rings on scales far too
enough to become quite extended in longitude pearance of a walnut. The ridge probably arose small to be imaged directly. The fainter C ring is
and to wrap itself around the planet. The ring early in the moons history when a ring system at left in this view recorded June 26, 2005.
systems shadow has a strong seasonal effect that surrounded Iapetus after a giant cometary
on Saturns atmosphere, so perhaps this storm impact fell back onto the surface and piled up. 6. FLYING SAUCERS Each of these tiny moons
is related to the change of seasons after the orbits within or near one of Saturns rings. Over
planets August 2009 equinox. The storm was 4. CROSSING OVER Cassini crossed from the time theyve accumulated so many ring par-
a prodigious source of radio noise, arising from sunlit to the unlit face of the rings on January ticles around their equators that they look like
lightning deep in the planets atmosphere. 17, 2007. In the top two images, the broad, enormous flying saucers or ravioli. Ring par-
bright B ring (right half) dominates. The dark ticles seem to cover almost all of Atlas, which
2. ALIEN LANDSCAPE Hyperion has an unusu- but not empty Cassini Division separates it orbits just beyond the A rings outer edge.
al, spongy appearance that probably results from from the dimmer A ring (at left), which sports
its low density, only a bit more than half that of the Encke Gap near its outer edge. Enceladus 7. TOTAL ECLIPSE Cassini recorded the im-
water ice. The low density means that Hyperion appears at upper left in the second frame. ages for this mosaic on September 15, 2006,
must be highly porous, causing craters to form in The bottom two images show sunlight filtering as the spacecraft briefly passed through the
N ASA / JPL / SPACE SCIENCE INST.
a different way than they would as impacts onto through the rings to their unlit side. Here ap- planets shadow. The narrow G ring and broad
a solid surface. This composite, recorded Sep- pearances are reversed: The translucent A ring E ring, both full of tiny particles that strongly
tember 26, 2005, includes images taken through looks brightest, while the more opaque B ring is scatter sunlight, lie outside of the main rings.
ultraviolet, green, and near-infrared filters. dark because very little light filters through. Aegaeon, a tiny moon discovered by Cassini,
is a source of the particles in the G ring, while
3. TWO-FACED MOON Iapetus is the most 5. SUNNY GLINT The bright spot in the B ring Enceladuss plumes provide the particles in the
distant of Saturns regular moons and the third represents the location of opposition, that is, E ring. Earth is faintly visible at the 10 oclock
largest. Most of the hemisphere shown here is where the Sun is directly behind Cassini (the illu- position just within the G ring.
18 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
2. 3. 4.
5.
6.
Pan Daphnis Atlas
10 km
7.
2, 3, 4, 5, & 7: N ASA / JPL / SPACE SCIENCE INST.; 6: N ASA / JPL / TILLM A N DENK
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 19
Cassini's Saturn
SPACE SCIENCE INST.; 10: N ASA / JPL / UNIV. OF A RIZON A / UNIV. OF IDA HO
8: N ASA / JPL / SPACE SCIENCE INST. / JASON M A JOR; 9 & 11: N ASA / JPL /
(closer to equator), which together form a crude, sideways H.
20 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
12.
N ASA / JPL / S PACE SCIE N CE IN ST. / JASO N M A JO R
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 21
Cassini's Saturn
13.
22 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
14.
planet rotates. Mission scientists once thought that the period carbon dioxide and hydrogen into methane as an energy source.
of this variation was synced with the spin rate of the planets Enceladuss ocean might even contain such simple lifeforms,
interior and should not change with time. But Cassini has though that will only be determined by a future mission.
found complicated variations in the radio emission, so the These are but a few of the discoveries by the 12 science
planets true spin period remains unknown. instruments of the Cassini spacecraft. All have provided
Perhaps the most spectacular discovery of the Cassini mis- troves of observations that will fuel scientic discovery for
sion is that Enceladus, the second smallest of Saturns classi- decades. Here we have showcased some of the almost 400,000
cal satellites, sprays thousands of tons of salty water each day images taken with Cassinis narrow- and wide-angle cameras
into space from geysers near the moons south pole. Beneath and what they've taught us about this incredible destination.
its icy shell, Enceladus harbors an ocean, the source of the
observed plumes. The plumes contain both solids ice grains LUKE DONES, a member of Cassinis imaging team,
and small silica particles and gases, including methane, explores planetary rings, the dynamics of comets and aster-
nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. On Earth, primitive oids, and the impact history of the solar system at Southwest
microorganisms known as archaea use the chemical reaction of Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 23
3
GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE ASTRONOMY by Vicky Kalogera
Cosmic
Cosmic
Chirps &
T here are events in everyones life that are so trans-
formational, they freeze into memory even the most
mundane circumstances around them. The detection of
For most of the last century, that goal seemed like
a pipe dream. Albert Einstein published his theory of
general relativity in 1915, and a year later he penned the
ripples in the fabric of spacetime was just such an event. theorys implications for the existence of gravitational
That Monday, September 14, 2015, started as a rather waves. These spacetime disturbances propagate at the
ordinary day for all the scientists involved in the Laser speed of light, like electromagnetic waves (except the lat-
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. LIGO is ter are oscillations of electric and magnetic elds). How-
a giant pair of L-shaped detectors, each arm 4 kilometers ever, until the end of his life, Einstein was clear about one
(2.5 miles) long, built to sense the innitesimal stretch- thing: It would never be possible to conrm that gravita-
ing and squeezing of spacetime created by a passing tional waves exist. Any astrophysical signal would be far
gravitational wave (S&T: Dec. 2015, p. 26). too weak and the technological limitations incredible.
Even waves created in our own galaxy by merging two
black holes, the universes most compact objects, would
Until the end of his life, Einstein was clear only momentarily expand and contract Earths diameter
by the size of the uranium nucleus. Thats equivalent to
about one thing: It would never be possible a change of one part in one thousand billion billion. No
to confirm that gravitational waves exist. device could ever detect such a tiny effect.
24 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Counting
Yet, on that Monday, we did it. From that rst detection p GRAVITATIONAL DANCE This frame from a computer simulation
...
reveals the complex pattern of gravitational waves emitted by a pair of
and the ones that followed we conrmed general relativitys
S. OSSOK INE / A . BUON A NNO (M A X PL A NCK INSTIT U TE FOR G R AVITATION A L
Making Waves cooking dinner at home. While preparing the dinner table, I
For yours truly, the 14th of September was a hectic day: received a text message at 5:42 p.m. (yes, I saved the texts!)
running children to school and then myself to back-to-back from my former graduate student Ben Farr (now a professor
meetings, with no time for lunch and barely even bathroom at the University of Oregon):
(AIRBOR NE H Y DRO M A PPING G MBH)
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 25
Gravitational-Wave Astronomy
Later that evening I hopped onto a Skype chat with Ben. No way, I told Ben. If we are receiving a real signal just
Our research group has been a key contributor to the devel- days after the detectors came back online, then these events
opment of software that takes LIGO candidate signals and must be happening frequently why did we not see them
extracts information about what types of astrophysical with LIGOs rst attempts? And black holes with 30 times the
objects could have created them. As pairs of compact objects mass of the Sun? No rm electromagnetic measurements of
such as black holes or neutron stars spiral in toward each stellar-mass black holes have found such heavyweights, so it
other, they emit gravitational waves that, if converted to would be incredibly unlikely that we would detect a system
sound waves, would sound like bird chirps. As the two objects like that as our rst signal.
drew closer together, those chirp-like signals would become This must be a blind injection, I said: a scientic fake-out in
louder and higher-pitched until the objects merged then which only three or four people (out of more than a thousand)
the signal would fall silent. From such events our calcula- in the whole LIGO team know that a simulated signal has been
tions can determine the mass of the compact objects involved inserted in the data. The rest of the collaboration is tested on
in the death spiral, how fast they were spinning before they handling it as a real signal. But they should have chosen more
merged, and their distance from Earth. realistic values clearly whoever did it wasnt familiar with
26 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
September 14th at 09:50:45 UT. Seven milliseconds later, they
hit the LIGO detector in Hanford, Washington. Then they
continued past Earth into the cosmos beyond.
Following a pre-existing plan, my collaborators and I on
the detection committee and across the whole international
scientic collaboration worked around the clock for weeks,
laboring through a list of more than 170 checks and ques-
tions that needed to be addressed before we could conclude
with condence that the signal was real. We tested the data,
hardware, software, and hundreds of thousands of chan-
nels recording extraneous noise. We came up empty-handed.
There was only one possibility left: This was a bona de sig-
nal. We called it GW150914.
A second signal reached us on October 12, 2015, dubbed
LVT151012. It was not nearly as strong it ended up being
what scientists call a 1.7-sigma detection, with only a prob-
ability of about 85% that it is of astrophysical nature; theres
a 15% chance were just looking at noise.
Then another event arrived on December 26, 2015, named
GW151226, also from a binary black hole but with smaller
members of about 7.5 and 14 solar masses respectively. This
event was strong enough to clearly be a real cosmic signal.
The chirps were here! We had ofcially progressed from
theory into observational astronomy.
Since then, LIGO has continued to nd merging black
holes. Both detectors detected an event on January 4, 2017,
during the upgraded observatorys second observing run (see
page 10). The component black holes, about 30 and 20 solar
masses respectively, ll in the gap between the GW150914
and LVT151012 events.
The Sound of Gravitational Waves signals from almost all around us,
just as our ears can hear sounds from
Even though we often discuss Second, and more importantly, the
any direction behind us, below us,
gravitational-wave signals as if they LIGO detectors function more like our
above us, and in front of us. With two
were sounds, its important to realize ears than our eyes. Eyes and most
electromagnetic telescopes have detectors, LIGO can localize sources
that theyre not, in fact, sound waves.
pointing capabilities. That is, they to narrow strips of sky that neverthe-
Nevertheless, the analogy is useful
for a couple of reasons. can detect a signal as long as theyre less cover a lot of area. But with more
First, LIGO is sensitive to wave pointing in the same direction as the ears, we can triangulate the signal
frequencies of tens to thousands signals source. But LIGO doesnt and better pinpoint its source. Thats
N ASA / C. HENZE (3)
of hertz. If these frequencies were have strong pointing capabilities. why the addition of Virgo data to
sounds, our ears could hear them. Instead, it detects gravitational-wave LIGOs two detectors is so vital.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 27
Gravitational-Wave Astronomy
0.5
holes. In these regions of strong gravity, the motion a particle
0.0 experiences as it slides along spacetimes curvature approaches
the speed of light. The black holes LIGO detected were zipping
0.5 around each other at about 50% the speed of light before they
merged about 500 times faster than the speeds relevant
1.0 to the best observational test before now. This is the regime
where, if general relativity were to break down, we might begin
to nd unexpected effects in the gravitational-wave signal.
Einsteins fans will be relieved to know that, at present,
1.0 LIGO Livingston Data the LIGO data do not support any measurable deviations
Predicted from general relativity. While some have recently claimed
Strain (10 21 )
0.5
heavy stellar-made black holes. Although supermassive black
0.0 holes of millions or billions of solar masses exist, they didnt
form from a single star (S&T: Jan. 2017, p. 24). The black
0.5 holes that LIGO has detected, on the other hand, are probably
the remains of individual, albeit massive, stars.
1.0 Before LIGO, astronomers could only see stellar-mass
LIGO Hanford Data (Shifted)
black holes when they siphoned off gas from a companion
star, heating the plasma to X-ray-emitting temperatures
0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45
before devouring it. Among these systems, the most massive
Time (seconds) black hole contained about 20 times the mass of the Sun. The
vast majority of theoretical predictions also homed in on this
p FIRST SIGNAL On September 14, 2015, a set of gravitational waves
mass as an upper limit. In fact, only since about 2010 have
passed through the LIGO detector in Livingston, Louisiana, and 7 mil-
liseconds later, through the detector in Hanford, Washington. The data
some theorists suggested that stars of low metallicity might
matched perfectly the brief signal expected from two black holes spiraling produce black holes with masses several tens of times that of
toward each other before coalescing into one. the Sun. But these predictions werent widely recognized as
GW150914 Sept. 14, 2015 (O1) 29 MSun, 36 MSun 62 MSun 1.2 billion
LE AH TISCIONE / S&T, SOURCE: LIGO
LVT151012* Oct. 12, 2015 (O1) 13 MSun, 23 MSun 35 MSun 2.5 billion
GW151226 Dec. 26, 2015 (O1) 7.5 MSun, 14 MSun 20.8 MSun 1.2 billion
GW170104 Jan. 1, 2017 (O2) 20 MSun, 30 MSun 48.7 MSun 2.2 billion
O1 and O2 refer to the first and second observing runs, respectively. The masses of merging black holes do not add up to the final mass because some of the
mass is radiated away as energy, in the form of gravitational waves. Error bars excluded for simplicity. *Candidate detection.
28 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
t SEEING BLIND LIGO is often called a
blind detector in the sense that it cant tell
exactly where a signal is coming from, as
demonstrated by this sky map of the origins
of the four signals seen during the first two
observing runs. With only two detectors,
LIGO cannot easily triangulate position; the
sources of GW150914 (blue), LVT151012
(green), GW151226 (orange), and GW170104
(magenta) lie somewhere in the linear fields
marked on the map. The areas of these fields
are 600, 1,600, 1,000, and 1,200 square
degrees, respectively. Additional data from
the Virgo detector in Italy should significantly
improve our ability to pinpoint future sources.
made clear by my initial reaction on September 14th. inception in the early 1970s, numerous physicists and astro-
The rst LIGO discovery, on the other hand, provided solid physicists doubted this measurement would ever be possible.
observational evidence that black holes more than 25 to 30 When I joined the collaboration as a young postdoctoral
times the mass of the Sun form in nature. Mergers of these researcher about two decades ago, for example, the majority
heavy black holes can create even more massive beasts, with of my astronomy mentors advised me against it.
as much as 50 or 60 times the Suns mass. The newest detec- Yet today LIGOs results represent the most precise mea-
tion in January 2017 supports this result. These discoveries surement ever achieved by humans in any eld of science and
challenge our understanding of massive stars evolution. engineering: LIGO detects changes on the order of one part
Coupled with X-ray observations, LIGOs discoveries also in one thousand billion billion (10 21). And with Advanced
indicate that black holes have a wide range of masses. Under- LIGOs sensitivity in 2015, we can hear black hole merg-
standing this population, especially the binaries origins and ers out to more than 8 billion light-years. By the time the
evolutionary histories, is now one of the most exciting inves- Advanced LIGO detectors reach their design sensitivity in a
tigations in modern astrophysics. few years, well gain yet another factor of three in reach.
Finally, for experimentalists and observers, gravitational- These discoveries represent a completely new way of
wave detections are of historic signicance. Since LIGOs observing the cosmos, distinct from the electromagnetic
Black Holes
Black ofKnown
Holes of Known Mass
Mass
GW150914
70
60
LVT151012
LIGO
50
Solar Masses
GW150914
40 GW151226
M ASS CH A RT: LIGO / CA LTECH / SONO M A STATE (AURORE SIM ONNE T );
FA RR); M A P: CON TOURS: LIGO / CA LTECH / LEO SING ER, MILK Y WAY:
TIME CH A RT: LIGO / CA LTECH / MIT / UNIV ERSIT Y OF CHICAGO (BEN
30
GW170104
20
X-Ray Studies
GW170104
10
0 1 2
LVT151012
Time observable by LIGO (seconds)
GW151226
0
p MASSIVE DISCOVERIES Left: LIGOs detections have uncovered a population of massive, merging black holes that X-ray observations hadnt
revealed. Historically, black holes have made themselves known by the X-rays they emit as they feed on gas pulled from a companion star. LIGO has
A X EL MELING ER
shown that some black holes are far more massive and electromagnetically silent, having long ago swept up any gas and other potentially X-ray-
emitting material. Right: This chart shows reconstructions of four gravitational wave signals, three of them confident detections and one more
tentative, seen by LIGOs Hanford detector and shown as a function of time. Only the portions of each signal that LIGO was sensitive to (the final
moments leading up to the merger) are shown here.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 29
Gravitational-Wave Astronomy
Ophiuchu
Op h s
Ophiuchus
S pe
Superc
rcluster
er
Supercluster
Hercules
Capricornus err
Supercluster
Void
LIGO 20152
n ced 01
6
va
Ad Coro
C o ona
Coronaa Borealis
Bor
Bo
Microscopium Vo
Void
d
Void
Pavo
vo ndd
Pavo-Indus Vo d
Void
Supe
S perclus
c ter
Supercluster
180 C
Co
Coma
A 36
627
7
3627 W
Wall
A4
403
0 8
4038
Ce t r
Centaurus
W
Wall C e t r
Centaurus
S
Superc
u t r
Supercluster
Scu
Sc ptor
Sculptor C o
Coma
270 90
Vo
V d
Void Virg
Virgo
V S
Supe
perclust r
p
Supercluster
Sc
Sc pto
ptor
p
Sculptor Supe
Su
S p rc s er
pe
Supercluster
Phoe
hoe x
Phoenix W
Wall
LI Hydra
H yd
S
Su perclus
perc st r
Supercluster GO 2010 S upe
p rc
rclust
l t r
Supercluster
0
Fornax Leo
Leo
Void Perseus-Pisces
P rseus-Pi
e s-Pi ce S
Superc
perc st r
p
Supercluster
Supercluster
Supercluster
Columba
Columba
Supe
S up rcluster
Supercluster
COSMIC REACH For its rst eight years of operation, LIGO could hear gravitational waves from neutron star mergers out to about 70 million
light-years (yellow sphere), and black hole mergers as loud as GW150914 out to about 1.9 billion light-years (not shown) but it found nothing.
Once Advanced LIGO came online in 2015, with signicant improvements made to its dectectors' sensitivity, the reach quadrupled (red sphere),
upping the volume accessible to LIGO by roughly a factor of 40.
30 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
waves on which modern astronomy has been based for the which produce electromagnetic as well as gravitational waves
past four centuries and historic astronomy for several mil- (S&T: July 2017, p. 16). Meanwhile, as a network of ground-
lennia. Now that gravitational-wave astronomy has become and space-based gravitational-wave detectors joins the effort,
a real eld, its also ushering in the era of multi-messenger we may soon detect gravitational signals from collapsing
astronomy: the study of the same astrophysical objects using stars and their supernova explosions, persistent waves from
two different message carriers, namely gravitational waves misshapen, spinning neutron stars, and a broadband hum-
and electromagnetic waves (see box below). ming from the combined noise of many individual sources in
So far no one has detected a counterpart at any wave- the faraway universe. True multi-messenger astronomy is just
length of light to any of the LIGO discoveries with the around the corner.
potential exception of a possible gamma-ray burst reported
by the Fermi team and associated with the rst black hole VICKY KALOGERA is the Haven Professor of Physics and
merger LIGO detected (S&T: Aug. 2016, p. 14). However, Astronomy at Northwestern University and the director of
other observational teams have questioned this claim of asso- CIERA, the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Re-
ciation it may be only a coincidence. search in Astrophysics. She has been a member of the LIGO
The issue is, we dont expect electromagnetic bursts Scientific Collaboration since 2000 and has contributed to the
from black hole pairs. Long before they merge, the orbit- astrophysics research of gravitational-wave sources, the analy-
ing black holes ought to sweep up any surrounding gas or sis of LIGO data, and the discoveries of black hole mergers.
other ordinary matter that could produce radiation. In other
words, these merger events should be invisible to all but
gravitational-wave detectors. If instead these events were in The Light Side of Gravitational Waves
fact accompanied by gamma-ray or other ashes of radiation,
BY GOVERT SCHILLING
then it would be an unexpected and exciting develop-
ment. Only by continuing to watch the gravitational sky will
we nd out for sure.
If you know the direction of origin of a gravitational-
wave signal, then it makes sense to scan that region of
The Future of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy
the sky in search of electromagnetic counterparts. The
LIGO is now a true cosmic observatory. By the time Advanced
main problem: Astronomers cant precisely determine the
LIGO reaches its design sensitivity in 2018 or 2019, we
sky position of gravitational-wave sources. With only two
anticipate dozens of detections a year. These new discover-
detectors, LIGO scientists can only narrow in on long, thin
ies will allow us to uncover the range of black hole masses
regions that encompass hundreds of square degrees.
and determine which masses are most common. The signals
Two new facilities are more or less tailor-made for the
might even reveal an intermediate-mass black hole with
electromagnetic counterpart hunt. The first one is the
hundreds to thousands of solar masses, a hypothesized class
Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at the Palomar Observa-
without any conclusive examples yet.
Because the chirps include information about the black tory in southern California. Its a sensitive, 600-mega-
holes spins, we can also begin to probe the role that angular pixel camera mounted on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin
momentum plays in black hole formation and growth. For Schmidt telescope, providing a 47-square-degree field
example, the black holes initial spins will differ depending of view. According to project scientist Eric Bellm (Uni-
on whether they were born in orbit around each other, or if versity of Washington), ZTF has a response time of less
two individual stars instead underwent gravitational inter- than a minute and is able to reach 21st magnitude in 30
actions, such as via cosmic slingshots and ybys, to become seconds. First light is expected in August 2017.
part of a binary pair. The second one, in the Southern Hemisphere, is
Virgo, a third gravitational-wave detector in Italy, will also BlackGEM, due to become operational in 2018. Con-
join the network this year. The most important impact of trolled from Radboud University in Nijmegen, the
having a third detector will be an improved ability to pinpoint Netherlands, BlackGEM will start as an array of three
a signals origin on the sky. LIGO could only localize its rst automated 65-centimeter telescopes, at the La Silla Ob-
event to a long, thin arc covering roughly 600 square degrees, servatory in Chile. In the future, the array may expand to
equivalent to the sky covered by the constellation Orion. 15 identical telescopes, each equipped with a sensitive
With Virgo in the mix and with all three detectors at design 110-megapixel CCD camera. BlackGEM is very flexible.
sensitivity, we may be able to decrease the implicated sky area If the search area is elongated, each telescope in the
by more than a factor of ten, facilitating easier follow-up with array can focus on just one part of the banana-shaped
electromagnetic telescopes. region. If the search area is small, or if a counterpart has
The opening of this new eld of gravitational-wave astro- already been detected, the telescopes can observe in
physics is bound to take us further than black hole mergers. concert, resulting in a much higher sensitivity.
LIGO and Virgo should also detect neutron star mergers,
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 31
32 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
OBSERVING LOGS by Bob King
R
NEBUL A: N ASA , ESA , J. HESTER (A RIZO N A STATE U NIV.); NOTEBO OK PAG ES: S. N. JOHNSO N-ROEHR; IPHO NE: EMIL IM A RIE TLI / BIGSTOCK PHOTOS.
ecording ones thoughts and actions in writing and of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) sought crucial observa-
FACING PAGE: PHOTOILLUSTR ATION: PATRICIA GILLIS- COPPOL A / S&T; BACKG ROU ND: IGOR STE VA NOVIC / BIGSTOCK PHOTOS.CO M; CR A B
pictures its an ancient urge, akin to collecting, and tions of the variable central star in the planetary nebula
humans have been at it since the rst cave paintings. NGC 2346. I dug back through my logbooks and gave them
CO M; JUPITER: N ASA / ESA / A . SIM O N (GODDA R D SPACE FLIG H T CEN TER); TELESCOPE SK E TCH: STA RI / BIGSTOCK PHOTOS.CO M
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 33
Observing Logs
p TOUCH UP Michael Vlasov captured this view of the Orion Nebula with a graphite pencil sketch on white paper while observing with an 8-inch f/5
Newtonian reflector under a red light. After his observing session, he scanned, inverted, and processed the sketch in Adobe Photoshop.
things were privileged to behold in this drive-through life- Want to nd that observation you made of the Orion Nebula
time of 80-odd years. eight years ago? Open the le, type Orion Nebula in the
While writing and sketching will never go out of style, nd box, and hit enter. For drawings, I enjoy the software
there are other great options for tracking your observing, approach, because erasing mistakes and starting over again is
too: recording an image or voice with a smartphone; entering so much easier thanks to Ctrl-Z!
a nights observations into specialized computer software; Its important to remember that perfection isnt required
or sketching a view with Photoshop and other digital draw- when writing up an observation. Dont like drawing? Skip it
ing tools. An advantage of using a computer to track your and expand on descriptive writing. Whatever you write, dont
data and store your sketches is the ease of future searching. sweat verb tenses and sentence structure. Just lay it out there.
p IN THE BEGINNING Left: David Levy discovered 22 comets, either independently or with Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker. But his expertise had to
start somewhere. This page from Levys notebooks covers some of his earliest observations, including his first identification of Regulus, the bright-
est star in Leo. Right: Levy has kept a continuous logbook from 1962 to the present. This page features observing notes and a sketch of the totally
eclipsed Sun on July 11, 1991. Levy lives by the words of long-time Canadian amateur astronomer Isabel K. Williamson: Observations not written
down are not observations.
34 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Including these soul-stirring moments as part of
the nights entry deepens that inner dialogue we
carry on all our lives between us and the Big All.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 35
Observing Logs
about your view or what you want to record, revisit these sug- Red Spot this season, and how do cloud textures vary preced-
gestions for some guidance. ing versus following the Spot? Are the equatorial belts single
or double? Does their texture vary with longitude? Whats
Planets the current position of the planets moons? Use the Sky &
Mars: Use an online tool such as the Sky & Telescope Mars Telescope tool to identify them (https://is.gd/JupMoons).
Proler (https://is.gd/marsproler) to nd out which hemi- During shadow transits, examine the size of the shadows and
sphere and what dark albedo marking face you at the time how their paths over the planet vary. Before long, youll know
of observation. Watch for clouds, limb hazes, and the bright which moon-shadow is which without even checking.
orange clouds that signify major dust storms in progress.
Note the expansion or contraction of the polar caps with the Saturn: Is Cassinis Division visible? How many belts stripe
changing seasons. the planet? Can you discern the gray-topped polar regions?
Do color lters improve the view of certain features? Search
Jupiter: Note the color of the cloud belts and whether for the ve brightest moons using the Sky & Telescope Saturns
theyre continuous or broken. Are there any dark curls (fes- Moons tool (https://is.gd/SatMoons).
toons) in the broad Equatorial Zone? What color is the Great
Deep-Sky Objects
q RECENT OBSERVATIONS This sample of entries comes from the Globular clusters: Is the core compact or loose? Can you
authors more recent astronomy journals and includes observations of a resolve stars in the halo? In the core? How does the cluster
close Mars apparition, nebulae in M33, and Comet 153P/Ikeya-Zhang. change in appearance with averted vision? Some globulars
BOB KING
36 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
display apparent whorls or sprays of stars that give them a
very distinctive appearance.
Bright nebulae: Can you see the nebula with direct vision,
or is averted vision necessary? Whats the shape of it, and do
brightness and texture vary across its face? Are there any stars
involved in the nebulosity? If youre looking at an emission
nebula, ask: Does a nebular lter increase contrast or expand
the extent of the nebula?
Dark nebulae: How dark is it? Does the cloud stand out
against the starry backdrop in an obvious way or more subtly?
How large is the nebula? Does it have a shape? Is it con-
nected to others within or just out of the eld of view? Use
the Lynds Scale to determine how truly dark the nebula is,
rating it from 1 (least opaque) to 6 (most opaque).
Finishing Up
I like making a rough drawing in the eld along with notes
on what to add later. Then I tidy up the nal product in the
warm, windless environment of my home.
Remember, none of the above suggestions is obligatory, but
when youre stumped, theyre a good place to start. Good luck
and good observing!
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 37
SETI IN BULK by Robert H. Gray
Searching a
Trillion Stars
for
ET How I helped shrink the possibility that really advanced
aliens are broadcasting far and wide.
NR AO / AUI
with thousands or millions of radio-signaling civilizations, billions of habitable Earths. Admittedly, theyre 2 mil-
all of whose transmitters are relatively weak. lion light-years distant. But if even one of those stars hosts
p THE LISTENERS The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in Socorro, New Mexico, consists of 27 radio dishes each 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter.
Their data are combined interferometrically to create radio images with the sensitivity of a single 130-m dish, but with much higher spatial resolution.
38 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
N
p ANYBODY HOME? Overlaid on M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, are the five radio fields of view that the author imaged with the Very Large Array in
his search for narrowband artificial signals. Billions of habitable planets should be within the circles. If any of them had radio engineers continuously
directing at least a 1017-watt signal to blanket the Milky Way at just the right frequency, he would have found it.
a long-lived civilization that wishes to make itself known to radio emissions, though not as narrow as alien radio engi-
the cosmos, it could plausibly build a transmitter thats bath- neers might use for the best stand-out visibility. Drake and
ing our entire Milky Way with a signal strong enough for the Sagan looked at 212 spots covering M33 for about 1 minute
VLA to detect. each. They could not see M31; Arecibos big antenna couldnt
point far enough away from Puerto Ricos zenith.
Choosing a SETI Strategy I could point toward both galaxies easily with the VLAs
Even using todays most sensitive radio telescopes, the only 27 fully steerable dishes. On the visible-light image of M31
type of alien signal we have much hope of hearing is a above, the ve circles show the arrays -wide eld of view
deliberate, powerful beacon signal one that somebody or for the ve sky areas I observed.
something designs to be detected by far listeners like us. Any Another daunting issue facing SETI efforts is the vast
plausible leakage from a civilizations own internal com- range of radio frequencies that hypothetical aliens could
munications will be much too weak and messy for us to hear choose for their beacon: any of about 10 billion channels,
across many light-years. if their beacon broadcast is a highly efcient signal 1 Hz
Another key point: Any beacon that we pick up is almost wide. Where on this enormous dial should we tune? I chose
certain to have been broadcasting for millions of years. Thats a narrow range around the ubiquitous hydrogen emission at
because shorter-lived ones would have only a minuscule 21 cm wavelength (a frequency of 1.420 gigahertz), as many
ADAM E VANS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC-BY-SA-3.0
chance of overlapping our own moment in cosmic time. So SETI projects have done. The hope is that radio astronomers
any ETs currently announcing themselves to the cosmos have anywhere will think that radio astronomers anywhere else
almost certainly had all the time in the world (literally!) to will pay close attention to it.
build up their hailing transmitter to tremendous power.
If this logic is correct, then for listeners like us, playing From Dream to Reality
the numbers game makes sense. (See Smarter SETI Strat- I proposed this project to the VLA it is open to anybody
egy, S&T: Apr. 2001, page 50, or https://is.gd/setistrategy.) anywhere in the world and somewhat to my surprise, the
Following this logic, Frank Drake and Carl Sagan searched Time Allocation Committee granted me 12 hours. Its com-
four galaxies in the early 1970s using the 300-meter Are- plicated to tell the 27-dish array what you want it to do, but
cibo dish in Puerto Rico. They examined frequency channels the help staff enabled my observations to go successfully.
1,000 hertz (Hz) wide, narrow enough to screen out natural Everything in SETI is a tradeoff. I had the array dwell on
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 39
SETI in Bulk
40 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
OBSERVING
September 2017
46 DAWN: Mars glimmers less than 16 DAWN: Look for 1st-magnitude 22 AUTUMN BEGINS in the
1 from Regulus, the brightest star in Regulus 4 below the dazzle of Venus. Northern Hemisphere at the equinox,
Leo, on these three mornings, with Binoculars may reveal the close pairing 4:02 p.m. EDT.
Mercury about 3 right or upper right of Mercury and fainter Mars 7 lower
of the pair. Use binoculars to pick up left of the star. DUSK: The thin waxing crescent Moon
all three very low in the east, about 16 hangs about 7 upper left of Jupiter in
below or lower left of brilliant Venus. 1730 DAWN: The zodiacal light is the west-southwest.
visible in the east 120 to 80 minutes
10 DAWN: Mercury, now shining before sunrise from dark locations at 26 EVENING: Look southwest to
at magnitude 0.0, glows only 1 lower mid-northern latitudes. Look for a tall, spot yellow Saturn about 3 below the
right of 1.3-magnitude Regulus. broad pyramid of light, tilted to the right, fat waxing crescent Moon.
Dimmer 1.8-magnitude Mars is about with Venus and Regulus in its base.
3 lower left of the pair. Discovered by William Herschel in 1798, the
18 DAWN: Venus, Regulus, the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 6946 lies
DUSK: Find Spica twinkling about 3 hair-thin waning Moon, faint Mars, about 22 million light-years away on the bor-
der of Cygnus and Cepheus. Ten superno-
lower left of bright Jupiter, very low in and Mercury form a nearly vertical
vae have been detected in NGC 6946 in the
the west-southwest in bright twilight. line some 12 long, in that order from past 100 years, prompting astronomers to
top to bottom, low in the east as dawn informally refer to it as the Fireworks Galaxy.
12 MORNING: The waxing gibbous brightens. Bring binoculars.
Moon beams in the Hyades. The Photo: NASA / ESA / STSCI / R. GENDLER /
SUBARU TELESCOPE (NAOJ)
Moon occults Aldebaran in darkness 19, 20 DAWN: Less than 1 separates
or morning twilight for Hawaii and bright Venus and weak Regulus on
western North America; see page 50. these two mornings.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 41
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING North
Lunar Almanac
Northern Hemisphere Sky Chart
LY N X
D G
V oub al
Op aarbia les ayxy
11 Di nen lbeles tSatra
G ff c r
4h
9 Pl lob use lCulsu tsatrar CAM
an ul en tset
ELO
et ar be re Fa PA R
ar Cl ublua r ci P DAL
y l
Ne utsetre a
ER IS
n ` _
bu r
SE
g
la
NE
U Al
S go
l a
C
Yellow dots indicate M3 Do lust
4 ub er
which part of the le
Moons limb is tipped AS
C
the most toward Earth
a
SI
TR
by libration. O Polaris
IA
PE
N ASA / LRO
NG
IA b _
AR
23
UL
a a
24
CE
UM
IE
_
PH
` EU +80
M3
S
`
3
MOON PHASES
M5
AN
2
`
M3
DR
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI S AT
1
j
b
PIS
1 2
OM
c _ b
LA
+
ED
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 CE +60
CE
_
M39
S
RT
Great Square
Deneb
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
of Pegasus
A
1
h
Facing East
`
a
_
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
61
b
C Y G N U S
d
a
Zenith
+
PEGASUS
M29
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Albireo
a
r
_
`
Ci rc let
M2 VU
FULL MOON LAST QUARTER c 7 LP
M15
EC
SA UL
a
September 6 September 13 GIT A
DE
TA
LP
W ar
c
at
07:03 UT 06:25 UT
HI
e
J
Altair a
er
EQ
NU
A
UU
S
+
Q
LE
U
`
AQU
US
A
d ILA
September 20 September 28
R
b
M2
IU
05:30 UT 02:53 UT M e
Se oo
S
pt n
`
M
5 h
DISTANCES b _
SCU
-1
Perigee September 13, 16h UT ` Moon
e
369,860 km Diameter 32 19 0 Sept 1
M3 CA 20
0 E C
1 PR
IC L I P
Apogee September 27, 07h UT 2 OR T I C
22h
NU
404,347 km Diameter 29 33 3 S
Fa
o
4
ci
g c
n
SE SA
FAVORABLE LIBRATIONS Planet location
Russell Crater September 9 shown for mid-month
CORONA
USING THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE MAP
Pythagoras Crater September 11 AUSTRALIS
Go out within an hour of a time listed to the
Mare Smythii September 23 right. Turn the map around so the yellow
label for the direction youre facing is at the 19
Humboldt Crater September 24 bottom. Thats the horizon. The center of the
map is overhead. Ignore the parts of the map
above horizons youre not facing. Facing
42 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
LACERTA
14
Facing 1
12
7
+60
e
h
k
7331
10
h
+
W Stephan's
N
g Quintet
n
ci
R
O 73 38
5
a
AJ SA
F
bin
M R 67
ocu
M82 M81 U ` s
lar vie w
+80 _
64
72
28 a
pe
r
63 PEGASUS
Dip ig b
R B 78
MINO
URSA
S I
NE IC
79
lcor
C A AT
CO ICES
& Azar
er ` c 61
N
Dipp e _ Thu
ban Mi
VE
Littl 85
a
MA
_
r d 51
M E N 60
Binocular Highlight by Mathew Wedel
BER
q c
d f
`
CO
M3
DRA e
a
i
`
a h
13
+
M92
Facing West
BOREALIS
CORONA
R
HERCULES
d
VIRGO
Vega
Arcturu
_ Theres at least one exception, however: NGC
C
b
/
_
c
`
M57
northern reaches of the constellation. To find NGC
(CAP ENS
SERP
b
A
Au
_
g
necessarily be an easy catch, especially in light-
5
66 polluted skies. But observers in only moderately dark
e IC4 `
A 70
a
2 skies have spotted it with 750 binoculars. So far Ive
0 M1 ` needed at least 1050s to pull it out, and 1570s are
A
0 S b
M1 U
R
SERPENS
H better still but when is that not true? It helps that
IB
M
M11 (CAUDA) C
IU the galaxy is big, 10 4, which is comparable to the
L
H c _
P a largest Virgo galaxies. The large apparent size (as
O n
Moo 28
UTUM
d these things go) corresponds to ample proportions in
M16 A u g
` real life. With a diameter of 130,000 light-years, NGC
M17 M23 i
7331 is larger than our own Milky Way.
b
M25 M21 Saturn NGC 7331 isnt just unusually bright for a Pegasus
M20 m
es
_ / galaxy, its also an astrophysical oddball. Several
M22 M8 M1
9 tar M4
An recent studies suggest that the galaxys central bulge
SW
m o
2 rotates in the opposite direction of the spiral arms.
M6 16h
g
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 43
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Planetary Almanac
PLANET VISIBILITY: Mercury: Visible approximately Sept. 6 to 26, dawn, low or very low east
Venus: All September, dawn, east Mars: All month, dawn, very low to low east Jupiter: All month,
Mercury dusk, low to very low WNW Saturn: All month, evening, south to SW.
The Sun and planets are positioned for mid-September; the colored arrows show the motion of each during the month. The Moon is plotted for evening dates in the Americas when its waxing (right
side illuminated) or full, and for morning dates when its waning (left side). Local time of transit tells when (in Local Mean Time) objects cross the meridian that is, when they appear due south and
at their highest at mid-month. Transits occur an hour later on the 1st, and an hour earlier at months end.
44 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Under the Stars by Fred Schaaf
band of the inner corona, the most The most briliant star any of us had cloud-corona ring. This was the most
spectacular of all eclipse phenomena: ever seen had appeared at the edge of staggering beauty Ive seen in all my
the diamond ring. This diamond is truly the Sun. The diamond brightened and years of skywatching.
brighter than all of Earths diamonds hung, still starlike, second after second.
combined. But during the eclipse of Feb- What happened next Ive described Contributing Editor FRED SCHAAF
ruary 26, 1979, in Manitoba, I got to see best in my book Wonders of the Sky: As has been writing about the skies above
a diamond wonder beyond all wonders. the diamond brightened, two perfect us for more than 40 years.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 45
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Sun, Moon & Planets by Fred Schaaf
Morning Marvels
Look to the pre-dawn sky for a series of close planetary pairings this month.
t These scenes
Dusk, Sept 1 Dawn, Sept 11 13 are drawn for
45 minutes after sunset 1 hour before sunrise near the middle
Arcturus Pleiades
of North America
(latitude 40 north,
` longitude 90
west); European
Moon observers should
Aldebaran move each Moon
10
c Sept 11
(occulted!)
symbol a quarter
Moon of the way toward
Moon
Sept 13 Sept 12 the one for the
TA U R U S previous date.
In the Far East,
move the Moon
halfway. The blue
10 scale bar is
Betelgeuse
about the width of
Jupiter your fist at arms
ORION length. For clarity,
the Moon is shown
Spica a Vir
three times its
actual apparent
size.
Rigel
46 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
To nd out whats visible in the sky
from your location, go to skypub.com/ December
solstice
almanac.
Mars Venus
the year, magnitude 7.8, and shows its Uranus
Mercury
greatest apparent diameter, 2.4.
Uranus rises in Pisces during March Sept.
Jupiter equinox
equinox
evening twilight and culminates a few Earth
Sun
hours before morning twilight. Finder
charts for Uranus and Neptune are at Saturn Neptune
skyandtelescope.com/urnep.
June
DAW N solstice
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 47
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Celestial Calendar by Alan MacRobert
ing scale. In this instance the dark disk around the star. Shearing over a single
urn. The infrared-glowing ma-
surrounds not a star, but a brown dwarf orbit rules out diffuse dust clumps as the
terial around the star actually
or a giant planet. Visual observers with cause, they write in a paper to appear in
extends 100 times farther out small scopes may also be able to detect the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro-
than the ringed companion. its expected eclipse event. nomical Society. The characteristics of
48 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
the eclipses are consistent with transits Observations Wanted to record any evidence of ring gaps.
by an unseen low-mass planet or brown The next eclipse is predicted to run from But careful visual observers with 4- or
dwarf with a mass of 1.8 to 70 Jupiters. about September 9th to 30th, plus or 6-inch scopes should be able to at least
This object would be circling the star at minus 10 days. The two past eclipses verify an eclipse happening.
a distance of about 2 a.u. Its disk would showed gradual fading and rebrighten- The discovery team is running
be an enormous 0.3 a.u. wide. ing. If the next happens on schedule, this campaign through the American
Whatever the eclipsing body is, its astronomers hope to assemble a fuller Association of Variable Star Observers.
next pass across the star should last for picture of the ring system and what it For updates, comparison-star charts,
much of September. may tell us about any exomoons. and to subscribe to the discussion, go to
PDS 110 (also known as HD 290380) This will require getting as complete aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-584.
is about 1,100 light-years distant, and continuous a light curve as pos- As for when to start watching, the
located in the Orion OB1a Association sible. Orion will be observable for only sooner the better. Signicant changes in
of young stars. Its estimated to have the two or three hours before dawn the star have been seen at odd times.
1.6 solar masses. About a quarter of its from any one site; it will be rising from If the eclipsing disk dims the star on
light is absorbed by nearby dust, which low in the east-southeast to high in the schedule, the planet (or brown dwarf)
re-emits it as infrared radiation. southeast. Photometric observers are will become the only conrmed low-mass
Osborn and his team spotted the wanted all around the globe to hand off ringed object orbiting a star outside our
star dimming in data from automated the job ever westward as dawn intrudes. solar system.
surveys, including WASP and KELT. Dawn begins about 1 hours before This system is becoming a hot item.
The depth of the dimmings made them your local sunrise. Spectroscopy will eventually determine
particularly interesting. Moreover, they Doing this for a month will require the companions mass. Millimeter-wave
appeared somewhat ragged and irregu- lots of observers with lots of clear observations by ALMA in Chile may
lar, indicating that the putative eclips- nights! Coverage is especially needed in reveal additional material or companions
ing object has complex structure. sparsely populated longitudes. Hawaii in more distant orbits. If you contribute
Whats exciting is that during both and Tahiti, are you listening? observations now, you can say you were
eclipses, we [saw] the light from the star CCD photometry will be necessary there when it was all getting started.
change rapidly, and that suggests that
+1
there are rings in the eclipsing object,
says coauthor Matthew Kenworthy 5h 35m 5h 30m 5h 25m
(Leiden University).
Five years ago, Kenworthy was a
member of the team led by Eric Mama-
jek (University of Rochester) that
discovered similar behavior in the ORION +0
young star J1407 (ofcially, 1SWASP
J140747.93-394542.6) in Centaurus. But b 22
that system has only shown one eclipse
s t
so far. The intricate light curve of that n el
event suggested more than 30 separate io B
r 27
ring structures in a disk 1.2 a.u. wide O
around an exoplanet. As in the much 1
smaller rings of Saturn, the gaps may 31
PDS 110
indicate embedded moons (S&T: June
2015, p. 12). The PDS 110 companions
4
ring system could be showing similar
Star magnitudes
signs of exomoons. 5
6
7 2
u Easily found west of Orions Belt is little PDS
8
110, usually but not always magnitude 10.4. 9
d
From bright Delta Orionis, an arc of three 5th- 10
magnitude stars (31, 27, and 22 Orionis) makes 11
this an easy star-hop. The fainter asterism
around 27 provides a distinctive pointer for the
last step. To print a comparison-star chart with
standard magnitudes for all observers to use, 3
see aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-584.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 49
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Celestial Calendar
Jupiter's Moons
Sept 1
Moon Occults Aldebaran 2
ON TUESDAY MORNING September a.m. CDT; Toronto, d. 8:49, r. 10:00 a.m. 3 EAST WEST
12th for North America, the Moon once EDT; Atlanta, d. 8:56, r. 9:52 a.m. EDT;
4
again occults the brightest star it ever Pittsburgh, d. 8:51, r. 10:01 a.m. EDT;
can. The event happens in daylight for Washington, DC, d. 8:58, r. 10:05 a.m. 5 Callisto
the eastern and central parts of the con- EDT; New York, d. 8:59, r. 10:07 a.m. EDT;
6
tinent, and before or during dawn for Boston, d. 9:01, r. 10:08 a.m. EDT.
the West. Aldebaran will vanish on the Predictions for hundreds of loca- 7
bright limb of the waning gibbous Moon tions, including the altitudes of the Sun
8
and will reappear up to an hour or more and Moon, are at lunar-occultations. Europa
later from behind the Moons dark limb. com/iota/bstar/bstar.htm. (The page 9
For the disappearance youll need a for each star displays three long tables 10
telescope no matter where you are, and with less-than-obvious divides: for the
youll also need one for any chance at disappearance, the reappearance, and 11
seeing the reappearance unless youre the locations of cities.) 12
near the West Coast. Hawaii sees both In the hours leading up, the Moon
events in darkness. will also mow down several stars along 13
Here are some times: the southern branch of the Hyades. The 14
Los Angeles, disappearance 4:34 a.m. brightest of these, magnitudes 3.4 to 3.8,
PDT, reappearance 5:49 a.m. PDT; Seattle, are Gamma Tauri and the Theta1 and 15 Ganymede
d. 4:43; a.m., r. 5:54 a.m. PDT; Phoenix, Theta2 Tauri pair. Timetables for each are 16
d. 4:48, r. 6:00 a.m. MST, Denver, d. 6:05 at the link above, but youll need a pretty
17
a.m., r. 7:24 a.m. MDT; Chicago, d. 7:37, dark sky with the Sun at least 12 or so
r. 8:51 a.m. CDT; Austin, d. 7:39, r. 8:16 below the horizon (Sun Alt 12). 18
Io
19
20
50 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Join in Iceland!
October 15 21, 2017
Fifth Annual Aurora Tour
Past Participants:
2016: The pace was comfortable. Days were full but not exhausting.
2015: Our Icelandic tour guide, Erin, was beyond superb.
2014: Liked seeing the Northern Lights and meeting some great people best.
2013: The country of Iceland is very unique. All of the day tours
were fantastic in our opinion.
Explore this fascinating island by day, then seek Icelands aurora borealis by night.
800.688.8031 skyandtelescope.com/iceland2017
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Exploring the Solar System by Thomas A. Dobbins
52 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Fifty miles from Wilkins observa-
tory in Kent, his close collaborator Pat-
rick Moore, host of the BBCs popular
television program The Sky at Night,
kept a vigil with a 12-inch reector.
In a seemingly striking corroboration of
Wilkins observation, Moore reported
seeing a minute pinpoint of light at
According to Hungarian observer Mikls Lovas, Luna 2s impact created a dark cloud of debris
21:02:23 UT. It appeared suddenly and that enlarged and dimmed for about 20 minutes. Modern impact simulations suggest such an
faded out within half a second . . . in obvious splash would not have occurred.
the Hyginus area, close to Schnecken-
berg. Moore cautioned that the phe-
nomenon was so uncertain and so close observation and with each other; there impact of Luna 2 remain an elusive
to the limit of visibility that it seemed were ashes, luminous glows, and dark needle in a vast haystack.
unwise to trust it. expanding spots dotted over a huge area More recently, telescopic observers
Meanwhile, at Konkoly Observatory of the Moon! This conrmed a view that have indeed witnessed chunks of inter-
in Budapest, a young assistant observer none of us had in fact seen the true impact. planetary debris crashing into the Moon.
named Mikls Lovas turned a 7-inch When straining to catch a glimpse of an But those impacts are much faster, and
refractor on the Moon. Recounting the excessively faint phenomenon, without the observed strikes have all occurred at
events of that night a half century later, even knowing its position in advance, it is locations darkened by lunar night.
he recalled: only too easy to be deceived. In three months youll have a golden
opportunity to watch for impacts on the
The Soviets had only provided the time, so Modern-day consensus, based on unilluminated portion of the cres-
I had to t an eyepiece that allowed one to the observations of the impacts of other cent Moon. In the predawn hours of
see the whole face of the Moon. I think they spacecraft on the Moon, holds that the December 14th, Earth and Moon will
didnt even know where it would hit . . . crash of Luna 2 would not have been sweep through the stream of particles
All of a sudden, a dark speck appeared. visible against a sunlit background. The shed by the near-Earth asteroid 3200
The phenomenon lasted twenty minutes. sightings of Moore and his contempo- Phaethon during the annual Geminid
It expanded and faded slowly. At rst it raries are classic cases of the phenom- meteor shower. Cosmic shrapnel will
was quite dark, but it turned to gray and enon that psychologists call expectation strike the lunar surface at roughly 36
was much fainter toward the end . . . The bias, the proclivity of observers or exper- km (22 miles) per second, an order of
rst detection of the speck (21h 02m 30s) imenters to allow their expectations to magnitude faster than Luna 2 did. At
agreed well with the termination of the affect the outcome and the tendency such speeds, a meteoroid with a mass
radio signal of the probe (21h 02m 24s). to distort recalled events to make them of only 5 kg can excavate a crater more
t expectations. than 9 meters across and hurl 75 metric
Lovas slowly fading dusky cloud was Its worth noting that the impact tons of lunar soil and rock on ballistic
located in Palus Putredinus, on the sites reported by Wilkins, Moore, and trajectories above the lunar surface.
southeastern edge of the Mare Imbrium, Lovas are all consistent with the rock- The Moon will be a narrow waning
not far from the outer ramparts of the ets initial ballistic trajectory, Jodrell crescent only 14% illuminated. Keep a
crater Archimedes but hundreds of kilo- Banks determination of its accelera- vigil on the dim, earthlit portion of the
meters from the bright ashes reported tion, and radio interferometry measure- lunar disk, where Geminid impacts will
by Wilkins and Moore. ments of its course by Soviet tracking appear as ashes of light as bright as
Damningly, a series of photographs stations. Although impact specialists 6th to 9th magnitude.
taken that night through the 24-inch have grave doubts about Lovas observa- The Meteoroid Environment Ofce
refractor at Pic du Midi Observatory in tion, Palus Putredinis is nonetheless at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center
France failed to record anything out of listed as the impact site of Luna 2 in monitors meteoroid impacts on the
KONKOLY OBSERVATORY / WOLBACH LIBR A RY
the ordinary. In time, Patrick Moore most databases. Moon in collaboration with the Asso-
would recant: Painstaking examination of Lunar ciation of Lunar and Planetary Observ-
Reconnaissance Orbiter images has ers. Their websites are noted below.
Eleven months later, when I was turned up traces of 32 spacecraft or
in Moscow, I discussed the optical components that have crashed into or Contributing Editor TOM DOBBINS
observations with authorities at the landed on the Moon but the tiny has observed most reported phenomena
U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences and studied crater and ejecta blanket created by the on the planets, both real and illusory.
the other reports. They were, to put it
mildly, in violent disagreement with my Learn more at https://is.gd/NASA_lunar_impacts & https://is.gd/ALPO_lunar_impacts.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 53
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Deep-Sky Wonders by Sue French
Mu Botis
Showpiece Doubles
Point your telescope toward these gems of the late-summer sky.
N
54 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Alpha
torturous history evolved from a word regular variable with a magnitude range Herculis
meaning club into a corrupted form of about 2.7 to 3.6 and a mean period
of another word thats supposed to of roughly 126 days. The primary also
signify a shepherds staff. appears to be binary, resolved three
Through my 105-mm scope at 28, times at separations 0.16 to 0.19.
white Mu1 is widely separated from One of my favorite doubles is Beta
yellow Mu2, which stands a roomy 109 () Cygni, Albireo (al-BIH-ree-oh).
to the south. At 127 Mu2 splits into a Strangely, the common name is mean-
close pair of yellow stars, one shining ingless. The story begins with Ptolemys N
at magnitude 7.1 and the other a half name for Cygnus, ornis (bird), which
p The multiple-star system Alpha Herculis,
magnitude fainter. The Mu2 pair is a was transliterated into Arabic. The
popularly known as Rasalgethi, marks the head
visual binary with a period of only 265 Arabic name was then transliterated into of Hercules, who kneels upside down in our
years. This is a good time to observe the Latin during the Middle Ages, and one night sky.
pair since its stars are currently 2.2
apart, close to their greatest separa-
tion, with the brighter one south of its
attendant. While Mu1 is also a binary,
COMA
the components always appear too close LY R A
together to discern. HERCULES
Are the two pairs physically related? The color contrast
A Bayesian probability analysis by Ed makes Alpha Hercu-
lis an attractive split.
J. Shaya and Rob P. Olling (Astrophysi- Here the pair is shown
cal Journal Supplement, 2011) places the as viewed through an
likelihood at nearly 100%. However, 8-inch f/5.9 Newtonian
a 2014 study by Olga Kiyaeva and col- refractor at 240.
leagues (Astronomy Reports) indicates
that differences in the heavy-element
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 55
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Deep-Sky Wonders
Beta Cygni
CYG NUS: A K IR A FUJII; A LBIREO PHOTO: BOB FR A NK E; A LBIREO SK E TCH: MICH A EL V L ASOV
2.8 southwest. At any magnication
high enough to split this pair, the much
dimmer, 12th-magnitude companion
shyly standing off 63 to the east-north-
east hardly looks like a true companion.
The close pair is a visual binary with a
period of 918 years. Its apparent separa-
tion will increase for nearly four centu-
LY R A ries to a maximum of 4.8. From a hypo-
thetical planet circling the yellow-white
dwarf star, the subgiant primary would
shine with the light of several thousand
CYGNUS
full Moons, effectively banishing the
Cygnus, the Swan, dives
night with its presence. What a sight!
along the bright line of the
summer Milky Way.
Contributing Editor SUE FRENCH
N welcomes your comments at scfrench@
nycap.rr.com.
56 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Going Deep by Howard Banich
4
5 What Is It? A third phase of star formation is
6 M17 is a bright H II region in the Milky ongoing in the outer regions of M17s
M16 Way with a colossal but hidden star GMC, involving about 1,000 stars.
7
8 14 cluster cataloged as NGC 6618. Its also The massive O-class stars in NGC
SCUTUM
the brightest portion of a giant molecu- 6618 blast out intense ultraviolet radia-
lar cloud (GMC) located approximately tion that excites the hydrogen gas in
6,000 light-years away in the Sagittarius the M17 molecular cloud to emit visible
spiral arm. That makes the optically light, creating the emission nebula/H II
visible portion of M17 roughly 15 light- region were so fond of naming.
16
years in length.
M17 M17 has nourished three waves of The Swans Neck & Head
star formation. The rst formed roughly All but one of M17s names implies a
M17 IM AG E: ESO
2,000 stars between 2 and 5 million loop somewhere in the nebula, which
SAGITTARIUS M18 years ago, followed by the rapid com- represents the head and neck of my
pression of gas and dust. That increase favorite shape, the Swan.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 57
SEPTEMBER 2017 OBSERVING
Going Deep
SKE TCH: HOWA RD BA NICH; HERSCHEL SKE TCH: POPUL AR SCIENCE MONTHLY / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / PUBLIC DOMAIN
rably high contrast region with the Extending mostly east-west, the swans infrared wavelengths, this might be the
bright head and neck curving around it. body is the brightest and most detailed most spectacular part of M17.
On close inspection I was able to
see two faint stars in the foreground of
the darkness close to its south and 2
northwest edges. I also noticed a rather Tail
sharp corner on the inside edge near the Very dark
molecular cloud
top of the 2.
Farther down the neck, and almost
on the border with the black molecular
cloud, shine three rather prominent
stars, which are opposite a star of
comparable brightness right near the The Wake
southern end, or top, of the 2. These
are some of the visible stars of the NGC Heart Wing
6618 cluster. Just east of the center of
the three stars is a small, bright knot of
nebulosity that I see only on the most
transparent nights.
Continuing the curve past the top of p In this sketch by the author, the components of M17 have been labeled to match the de-
the 2 are two subtle, not quite parallel scriptions in the text. Note how dark the molecular cloud inside the curve of the head and neck
appears, as well as the sharp corner it makes. Can you spot the two arcs of relatively faint stars
streaks that ow into a faint haze that highlighted by the dashed lines? These stars reinforce the appearance of the faint haze in this
circles back to the base of the 2. This area, looking as if theyve collected the last bit of nebulosity that drained from the darkness inside
faint nebulosity completely encloses the the 2. North is down, west is to the left.
58 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
The Wake p This infrared image shows the massive NGC 6618 star cluster thats still forming deep inside
North and east of the body ranges a the gas clouds of M17. Notice how the head of the Swan disappears at near-infrared wavelengths.
North is down, west is to the left.
complex of much fainter loops and
patches of nebulae. Theres a lot of the swans body use higher powers to East of the tail is a large, faint loop
subtle detail here, especially under see them best. A nebula lter will give that arcs south to north at about 90
ideal skies. Look for small, subtle dark the fainter wisps and dark areas greater degrees to the body of the swan. It can
patches as well as bright ones. The most contrast and will, for that matter, boost be surprisingly prominent on a good
prominent are off the northern edge of the contrast of the entire nebula. night but doesnt quite connect to the
tail. The northern end of the arc leads
to the patches of nebulae just north of
the swans body, which in turn connects
to the base of the neck and suggests
SK E TCH: HOWA RD BA NICH; COLOR IM AG E: 2M ASS / U M ASS / IPAC / CA LTECH / N ASA / NSF
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 59
S&T Test Report by Richard Tresch Fienberg
60 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
fully charged. The chargers cord is not I tested it with my Explore Scientic
quite 4 feet (1.2 meters) long; with the 80-mm f/6 refractor, which tips the
mount sitting on my desk, I had to use scales at about 10 pounds including its
a household extension cord to reach the 850 nder, star diagonal, and a 2-inch
nearest power outlet. It took less than eyepiece. With such a light telescope,
an hour to top off the batterys charge. iOptron says the mounts counter-
(Subsequent charges, done after drain- weight isnt necessary, but I used it any-
ing the battery in the eld, took only a way, for a total payload of 20 pounds.
few hours.) For proper alignment of the AZ
Mount Pro, you need to make sure the
Assembly and Setup telescope aperture points in the same
The quick-start guide says to install the direction as a small white triangle on
three level-adjustment screws into the the dovetail saddle. This little indicator
tripod head and then place the mount isnt very prominent, and it gets covered
atop them. However, the tripod pictured by the dovetail bar. It would be helpful
in the quick-start guide and in the to have additional white triangles on
full users manual didnt match my the saddles sides, so that you can dou-
tripod, which had two sets of holes for ble-check after attaching the telescope.
the adjustment screws. I gured out I also balanced the telescope in the
which set to use by looking at the holes saddle as indicated in the quick-start
p iOptron includes a rugged case with a cus- in the bottom of the mount. iOptron guide to avoid straining the mounts
tom foam insert to hold the mount head, Go To should incorporate new photos into altitude motor.
controller, and several small accessories. future versions of these documents. The rst time I put everything
For the AZ Mount Pro to operate together, I did it indoors and then
supplied to us sells with product code properly, it needs to be level. Level- carried it outdoors. Too heavy! Subse-
8900, which ships in two boxes. One ing the tripod itself isnt critical; you quently, I took the gear outside in pieces
box includes the mount head, hand just level it by eye using the adjustable and assembled it at my observing site.
controller, battery charger, cables, level- legs. You then level the mount on the
ing screws, and tripod-locking knob, all tripod by twisting the leveling screws On the Sky
neatly tucked into a foam-tted carry- as needed to center the built-in bubble The AZ Mount Pros claim to fame is its
ing case. The other contains a heavy- level on the base. self-calibration routine. I wasnt entirely
duty tripod with 2-inch-diameter legs, The AZ Mount Pro is rated for a sure what would happen when I rst
a 10 lb. (4.5 kg) counterweight, and primary payload of 33 pounds (15 kg). powered up the mount, because I found
a triangular spreader to stabilize the
tripod and lock its legs in position.
Upon opening the case, I found
a quick-start guide but not a more
detailed manual. The guide lists some
online resources available on the
companys website including a PDF
version of the users manual, which I
downloaded. Call me old-fashioned,
but I think a product in this price range
should include the printed manual. (As
Ill explain later, there were two other
items absent that I think should have
been in the box too.) I went to the Sup-
port section of iOptron.com, scrolled
through the list of available instruction
manuals, and downloaded the PDF for t Orientation of the saddle plate is impor-
the AZ Mount Pro. tant for the mounts level-and-go setup. Your
telescopes aperture must point in the direction
Step 1 in the quick-start guide says to
of the small white triangle on the plate. Above:
charge the mount using the included AC Attaching the AZ Mount Pro to the 2-inch tripod
charger, which has an LED that turns requires first installing three leveling knobs
from red to green when the battery is within the inner set of threaded holes.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 61
S&T Test Report
arrow keys has no effect. This seems (listed in an appendix to the users
to imply that the star will already be manual) numbers more than 250, and
centered vertically, but it turns out that some are 4th magnitude. Most of us
youll adjust the up-down pointing in need to consult a star chart to identify
the next step. such faint stars. Accordingly, I think
On this rst attempt to have the iOptron should include in its users
mount align itself to the sky automati- manual a rudimentary all-sky chart
cally, my telescope ended up pointed that labels all the alignment stars for
several degrees from the target star quick reference in the eld.
in both azimuth and altitude, placing With the mount successfully
it outside the nderscope eld. I used aligned/calibrated, I commanded it to
the hand controller to get closer in point to a selection of stars and deep-
azimuth, then loosened the altitude- sky objects scattered all over the sky.
p There are three input ports on the base of lock knob and manually adjusted the Initially I tted my refractor with an
the mount. The HBX port accepts the Go2Nova aim closer in altitude too (I didnt yet eyepiece providing a generous 3 eld
hand controller, while the RS232 serial port
know that the up- and down-arrow keys of view. Not surprisingly, every slew put
is used to connect to a computer, though
youll need to provide your own serial-to-USB
would be activated in the next step). the target in the eld, usually near the
adapter if your computer lacks a serial port. With the star now in the nder eld, I center. Next I switched to an eyepiece
The port at right is for the AC charger. centered it on the crosshair and con- giving a 1 eld. Each new target still
rmed that it was in the eyepiece, then landed in the eyepiece, though not as
conicting instructions in the quick- pressed ENTER. The hand controller consistently near the center.
start guide. Step 10 says to ip the then reported a successful alignment. As for the stability of the mount, I
power switch to ON and wait for the Before describing what happened found the AZ Mount Pro on its beefy
mount to perform its self-calibration. next, I need to offer two observations. tripod to be rock-steady. My telescope
But Step 13 says that when you power First, neither the quick-start guide nor settled down within 2 to 3 seconds
up the mount, a message on the hand the users manual say anything about after a light tap on the eyepiece. And it
controller will ask if you want to run using a low-power eyepiece or nder- tracked its targets tenaciously. I could
the assist alignment wizard if you scope when aligning the mount they leave the scope unattended for an hour
do, youre supposed to press the ENTER assume you already know to do this. or so, and when Id come back, the last
key, and if you dont (that is, if youd Second, the hand controller identies object Id been looking at was still vis-
prefer to manually perform a one-, alignment stars by name. I think its ible in the eyepiece.
two-, or three-star alignment), youre fair to expect amateur astronomers The more I used the mount, the more
supposed to press BACK instead. to know the names of bright 1st- and comfortable I became with the hand
It turns out both are true. The hand 2nd-magnitude stars, but the AZ Mount controller, which is really quite intuitive
controller does indeed ask for the users Pros internal catalog of alignment stars in its operation. It takes no more than
input but doesnt wait very long for it. If
you dont respond within a few seconds,
it assumes you want it to self-calibrate
and proceeds accordingly. The mount
makes a complete turn in azimuth and
swings the telescope between horizontal
and vertical; concurrently, it establishes
a GPS satellite link to determine your
geographic location and local time.
After a brief pause in the so-called
zero position (facing south with the
telescope at the zenith) it determines
a suitable naked-eye alignment star,
identies it on the hand controller, and
slews toward it.
Once the mount stops moving, the
instructions on the hand controller
say to center the target star using the
left- and right-arrow keys, then press p A retractable counterweight shaft is secured using a collet-style twist-lock system. Its most
ENTER. Pressing the up- and down- useful when using scopes weighing more than 12 pounds.
62 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
press the programs Go To button, and initial calibration accuracy. Following
the AZ Mount Pro slews to the target the step-by-step instructions in the
without hesitation. users manual, I updated both the hand
Once aligned to the sky, the mount controller and the mounts main elec-
had no trouble putting objects in the tronics board, and after that the initial
eyepiece, no matter how long the slew. alignment routine went much better.
But I kept having trouble with the
initial self-calibration, rarely getting Final Thoughts
the auto-alignment star in the eyepiece, So, who is the AZ Mount Pro for? I
let alone the nder. It occurred to me dont think itd be a good rst mount
that perhaps this could be xed with a for a newcomer to amateur astronomy,
software update. The only item I hadnt because its operation requires at least a
yet removed from the aluminum case modicum of knowledge and experience
was the supplied RS232-RJ9 serial cable, in the hobby. But for anyone looking to
which is included for this purpose. But match a small- to medium-size opti-
my laptop PC doesnt have a 9-pin serial cal telescope assembly with a sturdy,
port, and I suspect yours doesnt either; full-featured alt-az mount for visual
p iOptrons Go2Nova 8407 controller includes much like parallel ports for connecting observing, the AZ Mount Pro would be a
a database of more than 212,000 objects,
printers, serial ports have been replaced terric choice. With its automated align-
including the Messier, NGC, and IC catalogs,
as well as many solar system objects (though by USB ports on modern computers. ment routine and superb pointing and
excluding Pluto). A bracket is included on the I needed a serial-to-USB adapter, and tracking, it takes backyard astronomy to
mount to conveniently hang the hand paddle iOptron sells one for $25. Fortunately, a whole new level of convenience.
when not in use. I already owned one, but this accessory
should be included with the mount. RICK FIENBERG served in a variety of
two or three button-pushes to navi- I went to the Support section of iOp- roles at Sky & Telescope from 1986 to
gate to different celestial catalogs and trons website and saw that not only was 2008, including eight years as Editor in
choose objects to view. If I picked some- there new rmware for the AZ Mount Chief. He is now the American Astro-
thing that wasnt up yet, the controller Pro, but that it purportedly improved nomical Societys press officer.
helpfully said as much. And if you do a
little exploring and sweep up a star or
faint fuzzy whose identity youre not
sure of, the controller will identify it for
you if its in one of its catalogs which
is likely, as the database includes more
than 200,000 objects.
Additional Features
The mount normally tracks at the side-
real rate, but it can also track at solar
or lunar rates, though youll need to
switch to these speeds manually. I was
disappointed that Pluto is missing from
the solar system menu. Pluto may no
longer be an ofcial planet, but it hasnt
been kicked out of the solar system!
Another nice feature of the AZ
Mount Pro is built-in Wi-Fi connectiv-
ity. When you turn on the Wi-Fi system
with the hand controller and connect
to its network with your smartphone
or tablet, you can remotely control the
mount with a compatible planetarium
program. I used SkySafari Pro on my
iPad, and it worked like a charm: Touch p An optional Vixen-style saddle ($79) is available that replaces the counterweight, permitting
an object on the screens sky chart, users to mount a second telescope.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 63
NEW PRODUCT SHOWCASE
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take your own photographs of the night sky. Paperback, 260 pages, ISBN 978-1-59193-557-5
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Additional features include through-the-mount cabling,
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BIG ASTROGRAPH u
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The telescopes rear cell includes active cooling fans and
accepts up to 3-inch focusers, producing a 60-mm non-
vignetted field. Its hybrid aluminum/carbon fiber dovetail
mounting system promises to reduce deformation by a
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64 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
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s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 65
IMAGING INTEGRITY by Jerry Lodriguss
Astrophotography
Is it real, or is it Photoshopped? night sky for real. But, more importantly, when a fraud is
exposed, it erodes the general publics condence in whats
hats often the rst thing we ask ourselves when seen in astronomical images. Fraudulent imagery desensitizes
@FakeAstropics handle on Twitter. as captured by Julian Wessel. The photo displayed both the
Experienced astrophotographers are justiably upset ISS and Saturn perfectly exposed, with the space station
when fabricated images garner attention, because they know perfectly placed exactly in the center of as well as exactly
rsthand how much effort and skill it takes to shoot the the same size as the disk of the planet. The problem wasnt
66 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
t FULL DISCLOSURE The Moon was added to this image of the Some leading astrophotographers, quite upset about the
Philadelphia skyline by the author for planning purposes to deter- ISS and Saturn fabrication, objected strongly on the APOD
mine its position and size. It was never published until now. forums. Planetary imaging expert Damian Peach wrote, It
is a total slap in the face to every imager that had dedicated
p PROPER EXECUTION The real photo of the Moon setting over in some cases thousands of hours of time to getting the best
Philadelphia, shot on the evening of April 1, 2016. The author
real images they can. Incidents like this also serve to under-
waited three years for the combination of Moon phase, location,
time, and weather to cooperate. The Moons brightness was dimin-
mine the pro/am relationship that exists in the planetary
ished by high clouds. imaging community.
APOD now includes a brief ethics statement on the
that this was a multiple-exposure composite. It was that it submissions page that states, APOD accepts composited or
was misrepresented as being a real image from that event digitally manipulated images, but requires them to be identi-
when, in fact, it was faked. Wessel recorded the images of
the ISS and Saturn on different days, and the Sun-Saturn-ISS t THE FIRST FAKE
SK Y LINE: JERRY LODRIGUSS; FIRST FA K E: HIPPOLY TE BAYA RD
geometry was all wrong. Wessel initially claimed the scene This photograph by
was real but later recanted when confronted with the facts. Hippolyte Bayard, taken
in 1840, is considered
The other basic deception is plagiarism, when an individual
to be the first staged
takes anothers work and claims it as his or her own. On Jan- photograph. Entitled Self
uary 12, 2017, APOD published an image of NGC 891 with Portrait as a Drowned
a copyright by Alessandro Falesiedi. But actually it had been Man, it depicts the
taken from an original photo by Adam Block. The editors of photographer pretend-
ing to have committed
APOD removed his image and replaced it with Blocks when
suicide in response to
the similarities between the two images were pointed out. the French government
Both of these images Wessels and Falesiedis now acknowledging Louis
reside in shame, with others, on the APOD retractions page Daguerre as the inventor
on Facebook at bit.ly/2szepXi. of photography.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 67
Imaging Integrity
Blurred Lines
Fakes have existed in photography since the invention of the
medium, but in its early days forgeries were more shocking
when exposed because of that reality element of photogra-
phy. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed in the truthful-
ness of the faked Cottingley Fairies photos.
Today we dont have any problem accepting ction as
entertainment. Think of all the computer-generated special
effects used in movies. We dont think Gollum is real in Lord
of the Rings. We dont feel a sense of betrayal by them because
p CONVINCING FAIRIES The Cottingley Fairies are a famous example we know up front that they are ction. Historians consider
of an early photographic deception. Acquired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Ansel Adams a realist nature photographer, yet one of his
in 1920 to illustrate an article on fairies in The Strand Magazine, the pho-
tos were presented as genuine, though decades later the two cousins most famous images Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico is
who took them admitted they were faked using cutouts from a popular extremely unrealistic. The photograph depicts the rising gib-
childrens book. bous Moon in a pitch-black daytime sky taken when the Sun
was still above the horizon (S&T: Nov. 1991, p. 480). View-
ed as such and to have the techniques used described in a ers in this case willingly accept the emotional impact of the
straightforward, honest and complete way. art of the image without worrying about it being exactly as
Phony images that undermine our belief in science are Adams camera recorded the scene.
a real concern. Photographs are incredibly powerful to us, Astronomical images can also present some interesting
because our visual system is so connected to our survival. It is ethical considerations when it comes to image manipulation,
the primary way we interact with the world we think, liter- especially in this age of digital photography and Photoshop.
ally, that seeing is believing. Some imagers believe astrophotos should reect what
Photography is also important to science because it objects should look like if they could be seen visually. But if
extends human vision to reveal things that are invisible to the this argument was enforced, almost all long-exposure, deep-
eye, even when looking through giant telescopes (including sky images would be merely shades of gray, because the eye
wavelengths beyond those visible to our eyes, such as ultra- just doesnt see colors under faint illumination.
violet, infrared, and radio wavelengths). This comes from its Others, especially those in journalism, feel an image
ability to integrate exposures and keep collecting photons for should strictly be presented as it came out of the camera, in a
much longer time periods than the eye is capable of, reveal- single frame, without any changes. But this is unrealistic and
Disk of Saturn
15.6 arcseconds
International
Space Station
24.1 arcseconds
68 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
p PLAGIARISM Another APOD post, on January 12, 2017, shows the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891 (left). Although credited to Alessandro Fale-
siedi, it shared many similarities with an image taken by well-known astrophotographer Adam Block. The unique light scattering around the bright
stars is one of several characteristics that helped conclusively identify the deception. Blocks original is seen at right.
uninformed. All images from a digital camera are manipu- persons image intentionally stolen? Almost everyone would
lated to some degree, including by the camera itself. The raw agree that those behaviors cross the ethical line.
data are linear. Yet human vision is nonlinear, so special Its really pretty simple. It comprises two of the rst things
adjustments are applied to the image before its displayed. we learn in life: Dont steal, and dont lie.
To make faint details visible, most deep-sky astrophotos
require contrast enhancement far beyond what we would do So Is It Real?
to a normal daytime image. Color is produced from mono- Photography can be an honest and believable representation
chrome sensors by the clever use of red, green, and blue lters of reality. It can also be fantasy and fabrication. The crucial
over alternating pixels. At its most fundamental level, a digi- thing is to be honest about how you create an image and then
tal photograph is just a series of colored blocks! its viewers can make their own judgments.
Many other examples demonstrate how lines are blurred We trust our eyes and, by extension, we trust images.
when manipulating an image. Some are considered accept- But in reality, were placing our trust in the photographer.
able almost without question, such as white balancing to It is only when fake images are deliberately presented as the
produce natural colors. Others are more complex, such as truth that potential problems arise. These forgeries, whether
high-dynamic-range processing, which has the potential to in news stories or as astronomical images, erode the publics
be more truthful to a scene in nature, and to what the eye ability to distinguish between ction and reality, desensitiz-
actually saw, than what a single frame can record, because ing us to differences between the two.
the eye has a much greater dynamic range than a camera What the unscrupulous fail to realize is that with the
does. For instance, the wide range of brightness within the scrutiny that many amateurs invest in examining astropho-
solar corona visible during a total eclipse of the Sun is impos- tos, it is extremely difcult to fool us. The perpetrators repu-
sible to capture in a single exposure. tations are seriously compromised after being revealed. After
A DA M BLOCK / M OUN T LEM M ON SK YCEN TER / UNIV ERSIT Y OF A RIZON A (2)
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 69
ASTRONOMERS WORKBENCH by Jerry Oltion
EVERY AMATEUR ASTRONOMER plans and making notes. I need to be of materials than if he had decided
needs something to sit on. Those of us sitting down. As the design of my stool on a hexagonal shape.
who do star parties often need some- took shape in my head, I could see that He started by cutting the sides of
thing for kids to stand on. We also need the seat could also serve as a storage the box, using half-inch-thick particle
something to carry our gear in. And container and homing beacon to guide board, and gussets for the corners (both
its nice to have a visual guide to help me between my truck and telescope. top and bottom) out of 1.4-inch particle
locate our scopes in the dark. Practicality, utility, durability, and board. He screwed and glued those pieces
Australian ATM Tony Morris has functionality were uppermost in his together, then added the feet, which are
answered all these needs with a single mind. He also wanted it to be light, made of 1-by-2-inch hollow steel tub-
project: a multi-purpose seat/stand/ strong, and stable. That led him to a ing that he splayed outward slightly to
storage compartment/marker light. three-legged design to ensure stabil- improve stability. He didnt have to bend
Tony says, I nd that far more than ity on uneven surfaces. This in turn the tubing; he simply mounted the legs
half of my viewing time is spent poring steered him toward a triangular seat at an angle when he drilled the holes to
over my star atlas, checking my viewing that required less complicated cutting bolt them in place. He usually observes
on hard ground, so he hasnt had to plug
the feet yet, but he plans to do that with
angle iron when necessary.
The oor of the box is Masonite,
and the lid is -inch particle board
edged with angle aluminum. The edging
extends below the outer sides of the box
and keeps the lid from slipping sideways.
The triangular box gives the stool
strength and rigidity. It easily supports
Tonys weight with no wobble. The stool
weighs 15 lbs. when empty, light enough
to carry easily but heavy enough to not
tip over when you bump against it.
Tony painted it glossy white inside
and out to increase visibility of the
accessories he stores in it and to keep
from tripping over it in the dark, but his
observing site is dark enough that that
wasnt quite enough. That led him to
the idea of lighting it from within and
drilling holes in the sides and top so the
light could shine outward.
The light is simply a jumbo red (10
mm) LED mounted through a hole in
a small piece of Perspex acrylic sheet
taped to a 9-volt battery. A little experi-
mentation led him to use a 420-Ohm
Tony Morris with his multi-purpose resistor in series to drive the LED with
TON Y M ORRIS
70 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
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As the countrys oldest dome
manufacturer, Observa-DOME
has developed unmatched
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provide stability. Angle aluminum edging keeps
use, the climate, the installa-
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tion, the design, or your loca-
tion, Observa-DOME meets
p At night the interior LED provides a soft glow
the challenge.
visible from a fair distance, yet is not too bright
when the box is opened.
371 Commerce Park Drive, Jackson, MS 39213
Phone (601) 982-3333 (800) 647-5364 Fax (601) 982-3335 mail@observa-dome.com
see the seat from quite a distance. But
the light level is so low that no other
astronomer has ever complained when I
have lifted the lid to nd some item.
The holes in the lid serve a second,
valuable function: They provide markers
Get more of a great thing
for where to put your feet when standing
on the stool. This is especially useful at
A Jumbo version of S&T s Pocket Sky Atlas
star parties when children need to stand
tall to reach the eyepiece. The holes are
drilled near the outer edge to serve as a
We wanted a clear and detailed atlas,
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TON Y M ORRIS (2)
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 71
GALLERY
72 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
t ANCIENT SUNS
Ron Brecher
3525250 @30% The globular star cluster Messier 10 is easy to spot
in central Ophiuchus. Its densely concentrated
stars are more than 11 billion years old.
DETAILS: Astrosysteme Austria ASA Astrograph 10N
with SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera. Total expo-
sure: nearly 5 hours through LRGB lters.
q GLOWING PHANTOM
Eric Africa
Cassiopeias Sh 2-173, a cloud of glowing hydro-
gen listed in Stewart Sharpless catalog, has been
nicknamed Phantom of the Opera Nebula.
DETAILS: Takahashi FSQ-106N astrograph with
SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera. Total exposure:
14 hours through H and RGB lters.
Visit skyandtelescope.com/gallery
for more of our readers astrophotos.
Gallery showcases the nest astronomical images submitted to us by our readers. Send your best shots to gallery@skyandtelescope.com.
See skyandtelescope.com/aboutsky/guidelines.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 73
GALLERY
74 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
u pq t TITLE X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Photographer
Text1.Mendoza serif text is used here.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
3525250 @30% xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
DETAILS: What camera and other information like set-
tings are used here. Total exposure: how many hours.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
u pq t TITLE X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Photographer
Text1.Mendoza serif text is used here.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
DETAILS: What camera and other information like set-
tings are used here. Total exposure: how many hours.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Visit skyandtelescope.com/gallery
for more of our readers astrophotos.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 75
GALLERY
DELICATE AUROR A
Jamie Cooper
Lots of aurora photos show riots of color, but
this view from near Tromvik in northern Norway
captures delicate braiding.
DETAILS: Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera with
24-mm lens. Total exposure: 2 seconds at ISO 5000.
76 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
FOCUS ON
Four Columns Study Center, Fayetteville, WV
Sky & Telescopes The ASH-DOME pictured is 126 (3.8m) Model REB housing
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ACCESSORIES (continued) CAMERAS (continued)
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TELESCOPES CLASSIFIEDS
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INSIDE
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s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m SEPTEMBER 2017 83
FOCAL POINT by Martin Elvis
rapidly to the best-positioned player. we must choose wisely. Every ten years MARTIN ELVIS is a senior astrophysi-
Today, if you make an ultraviolet- astronomers from the National Acad- cist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
band discovery with Hubble, within emies perform a decadal review. Their for Astrophysics. He has worked on qua-
a year you can check it out in X-rays task is to make a wish list of large- and sars and now on near-Earth asteroids.
with Chandra and in the infrared with medium-size missions, in priority order. All opinions expressed here are his own
Spitzer. Thats why they are called the So far, so good. But once a list reaches and not those of the Smithsonian.
84 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SK Y & TELESCOPE
Are YOU Prepared?
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3PNO[^LPNO[HUKWVY[HISL
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