Astral Projections Online August 2022
Check our Website for updated content at www.astra-nj.com
Club Presentations Wanted:
Does anyone have any astronomy items of interest to share with the membership?
Please let us know at Club Contacts.
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS ONLINE (APO for short) is an email-linked publication for members only. If you exit APO to the club website or other resources you will need to use the emailed link again to get back to it. If you wish to retain a copy please bookmark or refer back to the email. We will make all efforts to post by the first week of the month.
Submissions Welcome: Members are invited to submit articles, photos, news, or stories for inclusion with Astral Projections Online. Please contact the ASTRA Webmaster.
Event Calendar
ASTRA’s next meeting will be Friday, September 9, 2022, at 8 PM EST. This will be an in-person meeting at the Planetarium. We will be suspending the Zoom sessions starting in September. We will utilize Zoom if we go back under COVID restrictions, campus closure or if the weather is severe enough to warrant it.
ASTRA PICNIC - August 13 -
The Club picnic is being held on Saturday, August 13th, and is hosted by Geoff and Jackie Redington at their home. This is the same location as last year. If intend to participate address and RSVP can be found on the emailed notice. It will start at 4 pm and last until 8 pm. The food, water, soda, iced tea, and beer will be supplied by the club. Should you want to bring your own specialty hard beverage feel free to do so. Also please bring your own chair. There is no cost to attend. However, we do need you to RSVP by August 8th so that we can order the proper amount of food.
Jakes Branch Public Star Party - Saturday, August 20, 2022, at 8:30 PM
Lavallette Yacht Club - Thursday, September 1, 2022, at 7:30 PM
Jakes Branch Public Star Party - Saturday, September 17, 2022, at 7:30 PM
Jakes Branch Public Star Party - International Observe the Moon Night - Saturday, October 1, 2022, at 7 PM
Jakes Branch Public Star Party - Saturday, November 19, 2022, at 6 PM
Island Beach State Park Moonlight hikes begin July 1 every Friday evening at 8 PM, until August 26. If you would like to volunteer to help out please let one of the executive board members know. We set up our telescopes in Parking Lot 13. This is not an ASTRA event, the public would need to contact Island Beach State Park to register.
EVENT Cancellations: Members will receive email notifications of an event cancellation.
Upcoming County Park Presentations 2022
Public Outreach, if any member wishes to support ASTRA outreach efforts with the public, please let Vinny, Ro, or Jim know of any interest. Currently, we have nothing scheduled at this time.
Website Updates …
Please visit our club website. We continue to have additional updates, if there is some content that would be useful to members please let us know.
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
- Carl Sagan - Astronomer
ASTRA Meeting - July 8
Due to weather concerns, our observing meeting was canceled and we had enough time to schedule a meeting for our membership for July at the Planetarium. As ASTRA President I want to thank the Planetarium for accommodating us on short notice. It means a lot to us.
For the July 8 meeting, we held a member’s Show and Tell and we had plenty of participation. Some of the items were homemade observing bench, finderscopes, and red flashlights. Some interesting books observing tools were shared and a demo of PixInsight.
Below is a gallery of some of the pictures taken during the meeting.
We discussed some changes with Island Beach Star Park access requirements. We will be using ASTRA Membership ID cards along with the usual permit document. Both will be required to have on hand if the gate asks for them.
If there are any difficulties at the park gate please do not argue with the attendant.
It is best to leave and then contact ASTRA staff to work with the park to see what happened. We need to be mindful that while it may be disappointing at the time, it could be worse if we are permanently denied access due to conduct.
We’ve been given an initial okay to set up a display for ASTRA in the lobby at the planetarium. With this in mind, Jim Webster will share some items he has along with some imaging from membership. We also have a QR code card for ASTRA that when scanned with a cell phone will take the individual to the club website. We will share these cards with the parks that host our presentations and star parties. Hopefully, this will help increase the membership. The QR-coded card includes the telescope image with the Milkyway from ASTRA member Vic Palmieri. It is one of the best astronomy representations that are available to us. … Thanks, Vic.
Wrapping up our July meeting review with a discussion on comet 2/2017 K2 that was imaged and shared on our Slack Imaging channel and already published, at the time of this APO posting, the James Webb Space Telescope images.
An after-meeting outing to the Office Lounge on Route 37 was a good way to wrap up this eventful evening.
Event Reports
The July 23 Beginner Astronomy at Cloverdale Farm was canceled.
We’ve had several star parties for Island Beach State Park Moonlight Hike as well as Cloverdale Farms County Park. Below are some images from Cloverdale Farm on July 23.
Save Barnegat Bay - July 29
On Friday July 29 Jim Webster provided a light pollution presentation via Zoom for the Save Barnegat Bay Captain’s Table. The presentation and Q&A lasted about 30 minutes.
Our Nearest Neighbor
Let’s explore some interesting features, facts, or myths about our nearest neighbor, the Moon. Without it, life on Earth would be totally different, if not at all.
Monthly Lunar Destination - by Vic Palmieri
Looking at the above photograph it would be very easy to assume that this month’s Lunar Destination has something to do with the Apollo Program. It does and in particular Apollo 15. Those interested in studying the Moon and who especially remember the Apollo flights have our favorite Apollo missions. Mine are Apollo 8 and Apollo 15.
Apollo 8 because it was only the third flight of the Saturn V rocket. The first launch was a perfect success whereas the second launch was plagued with engine problems. Engineers were satisfied that these engine issues were solved and the decision was made to go ahead with the third Saturn launch and make it a crewed flight. Remarkable to me and many others was the decision to go ahead and aim for and orbit the Moon with this flight. The best way to test something was to try it. Apollo 8 was a big success orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968.
Previous to Apollo 15, Lunar missions concentrated on flight hardware, safety, and operating systems. Science was performed on all Apollo missions but not to the degree the missions beginning with Apollo 15. These new missions were referred to as “J” missions.
Apollo 15, the Hadley-Apennine Mission, was the first to have the Lunar Rover. Improvements in the Lunar Module’s engines permitted landing larger payloads safely onto the Lunar surface (the Rover) and lifting heavier soil samples into Lunar orbit for rendezvous with the Command Module. The astronauts performed three EVAs totally of 18 hours and 37minutes and drove the Lunar Rover 17.5 miles. This was the only mission to land adjacent to a Lunar Rille. There are about 50 rilles visible in an amateur telescope from Earth. To date, I have seen over half of them. It takes time, excellent seeing, and a ton of patience. Apollo 15 had many firsts and if interested there are many online sites dedicated to the Apollo Program.
When I did my research for this article I discovered that Phil Harrington, a contributor to Astronomy magazine and author of “Starware”, also made the landing site of Apollo 15 one of his observing challenges. If it is good enough for Mr. Harrington it must be the perfect challenge!
When to see the Apollo 15 landing site when first illuminated by the sun: Eight days after New Moon. I would even try the ninth day after New Moon. Use at least 100x.
Apollo 15 Crew:
David R. Scott, Commander
James B. Irwin, Lunar Module Pilot
Alfred M. Worden, Command Module Pilot
Liftoff from Pad 39A on July 26, 1971
Above images: Apollo 15 Landing Site - NASA
Outreach material below is distributed free for public outreach.
Around The Web
Bob Salvatore at our July 8 meeting shared some finder scopes with us. As luck would have it I found some video overviews for them. The finder scope is probably the most useful accessory to have on any telescope, but if it is not in tune with your telescope it can become more of a hindrance than a help. The linked video from Small Optics on YouTube may be of some help.
All About Finderscopes Set-Up To Using
Another video is from New Astronomer on YouTube.
Let’s Explore Space - What’s in the Sky August 2022?
Ring Nebula - M57
A planetary nebula in the mildly northern constellation of Lyra. Such a nebula is formed when a star, during the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf, expels a vast luminous envelope of ionized gas into the surrounding interstellar space. Wikipedia
Radius: 1.3 light-years
Magnitude: 8.8
Age: 7,005 years
Distance to Earth: 2,283 light-years
Coordinates: RA 18h 53m 35s | Dec +33° 1′ 45″
Constellation: Lyra
Angular size: 1.2 arc minutes
The Ring Nebula is probably the most well-known, studied, and photographed object of its kind and a perennial favorite with amateur astronomers. Many of our ASTRA members have observed this object as well as imaged it.
Discovered by Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in January 1779, it is a difficult 10x50 binocular object, appearing at best as a faint out-of-focus star. It's much easier to spot when using larger 20x80 models. Small telescopes fair better and a 100mm (4-inch) scope reveals a small grey puffed out, a slightly elliptical patch of light. However, seeing the ring shape with its central hole is challenging even when using averted vision. When viewed through a 200mm (8-inch) telescope, the shape is much clearer with finer details also visible.
For more check out Exploring the Structure of the Ring Nebula from NASA Video on YouTube.
Also Eyes On the Sky: A guide to the Ring Nebula.
On the lighter side of astronomy …
Members Submitted Articles & Items
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Nothing for August
What’s Up:
Sky Watching Tips from NASA
Provided by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Is usually updated anywhere from the first day of the month to the fifth day of the month. Check back to this linked image if it hasn’t been updated yet.
For more go to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory webpage: What’s Up: Skywatching Tips From NASA
This article and images are distributed by NASA Night Sky Network
The Night Sky Network program supports astronomy clubs across the USA dedicated to astronomy outreach.
Visit nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov to find local clubs, events, and more!
Artemis 1: A Trip Around the Moon and Back!
By David Prosper
We are returning to the Moon - and beyond! Later this summer, NASA’s Artemis 1 mission will launch the first un-crewed flight test of both the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft on a multi-week mission. Orion will journey thousands of miles beyond the Moon, briefly entering a retrograde lunar orbit before heading back to a splashdown on Earth.
Follow along as Artemis 1 journeys to the Moon and back! A larger version of this infographic is available from NASA at: nasa.gov/image-feature/artemis-i-map
The massive rocket will launch from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The location’s technical capabilities, along with its storied history, mark it as a perfect spot to launch our return to the Moon. The complex’s first mission was Apollo 10 in 1968, which appropriately also served as a test for a heavy-lift launch vehicle (the Saturn V rocket) and lunar spacecraft: the Apollo Command and Service Modules joined with the Lunar Module. The Apollo 10 mission profile included testing the Lunar Module while in orbit around the Moon before returning to the Earth. In its “Block-1” configuration, Artemis 1’s SLS rocket will take off with 8.8 million pounds of maximum thrust, even greater than the 7.6 millions pounds of thrust generated by the legendary Saturn V, making it the most powerful rocket in the world!
Artemis 1 will serve not only as a test of the SLS and the Orion hardware, but also as a test of the integration of ground systems and support personnel that will ensure the success of this and future Artemis missions. While uncrewed, Artemis-1 will still have passengers of a sort: two human torso models designed to test radiation levels during the mission, and “Commander Moonikin Campos,” a mannequin named by the public. The specialized mannequin will also monitor radiation levels, along with vibration and acceleration data from inside its mission uniform: the Orion Crew Survival Suit, the spacesuit that future Artemis astronauts will wear. The “Moonikin” is named after Arturo Campos, a NASA electrical engineer who played an essential role in bringing Apollo 13’s crew back to Earth after a near-fatal disaster in space.
Full Moon over Artemis-1 on July 14, 2022, as the integrated Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft await testing. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston Source: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/a-full-moon-over-artemis/
The mission also contains other valuable cargo for its journey around the Moon and back, including CubeSats, several space science badges from the Girl Scouts, and microchips etched with 30,000 names of workers who made the Artemis-1 mission possible. A total of 10 CubeSats will be deployed from the Orion Stage Adapter, the ring that connects the Orion spacecraft to the SLS, at several segments along the mission’s path to the Moon. The power of SLS allows engineers to attach many secondary “ride-along” mission hardware like these CubeSats, whose various missions will study plasma propulsion, radiation effects on microorganisms, solar sails, Earth’s radiation environment, space weather, and of course, missions to study the Moon and even the Orion spacecraft and its Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS)!
If you want to explore more of the science and stories behind both our Moon and our history of lunar exploration, the Night Sky Network’s Apollo 11 at 50 Toolkit covers a ton of regolith: bit.ly/nsnmoon! NASA also works with people and organizations around the world coordinating International Observe the Moon Night, with 2022’s edition scheduled for Saturday, October 1: moon.nasa.gov/observe. Of course, you can follow the latest news and updates on Artemis 1 and our return to the Moon at nasa.gov/artemis-1
When will Artemis 1 Launch?
At a July 20 briefing, it was announced that the Artemis 1 current launch date is August 29, 2022 as its first launch window. If it needs to be pushed out the next launch window will be September 2 followed by September 5.
Reported by Spacenews.com
Tonight’s Sky: August
Look for the Vega and Lyra constellations, which point to Epsilon Lyrae and the Ring Nebula. You can also spot three bright summer stars: Vega, Deneb, and Altair, which form the Summer Triangle. Keep watching for space-based views of these and other stars and nebulas.
Submissions Welcome
Members are invited to submit articles, photos, news, or stories for inclusion with Astral Projections Online. Please contact the ASTRA Webmaster.