Newsletter of the Peterborough Astronomical Association The Reflector Volume 16 • Issue 10 December 2017 ISSN 1712-4425 peterboroughastronomy.com twitter.com/PtbAstronomical These images of Florida and the Bahamas were captured by a satellite called Suomi-NPP. The image on the left was taken before Hurricane Irma and the image on the right was taken after the hurricane. The light color along the coast is dirt, sand and garbage brought up by the storm. Image credit: NASA/NOAA Studying Storms from the Sky See “VIIRS” on page 12 TEAGAN WALL T he United States had a rough hurricane season this year. Scientists collect infor- mation before and during hurricanes to understand the storms and help people stay safe. However, collecting information during a violent storm is very difficult. Hurricanes are constantly chang- ing. This means that we need a lot of really precise data about the storm. It’s pretty hard to learn about hur- ricanes while inside the storm, and instruments on the ground can be broken by high winds and flooding. One solution is to study hurricanes from above. nasa and noaa can use satellites to keep an eye on storms that are difficult to study on the ground. In Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria was so strong that it knocked out radar before it even hit land. Radar can be used to predict a storm’s path and intensity — and without radar, it is difficult to tell how intense a storm will be. Luckily, scientists were able to use information from a weather satel- lite called GOES-16, short for Geosta- tionary Operational Environmental Satellite – 16. The “G” in GOES-16 stands for geo- stationary. This means that the satel- lite is always above the same place on the Earth, so during Hurricane Maria, it never lost sight of the storm. GOES- 16’s job as a weather satellite hasn’t officially started yet, but it was collect- ing information and was able to help. From 22,000 miles above Earth, GOES-16 watched Hurricane Maria, and kept scientists on the ground up to date. Knowing where a storm is — and what it’s doing — can help keep people safe, and get help to the people that need it. Hurricanes can also have a huge impact on the environment — even after they’re gone. To learn about how Hurricane Irma affected the Florida coast, scientists used images from an environmental satellite called Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership,
Transcript
Newsletter of the Peterborough Astronomical AssociationThe ReflectorVolume 16 • Issue 10
December 2017ISSN 1712-4425peterboroughastronomy.comtwitter.com/PtbAstronomical
These images of Florida and the Bahamas were captured by a satellite called Suomi-NPP. The image on the left was taken before Hurricane Irma and the image on the right was taken after the hurricane. The light color along the coast is dirt, sand and garbage brought up by the storm. Image credit: NASA/NOAA
Studying Storms from the Sky
See “VIIRS” on page 12
Teagan Wall
The United States had a rough hurricane season this year. Scientists collect infor-
mation before and during hurricanes to understand the storms and help people stay safe. However, collecting information during a violent storm is very difficult.
Hurricanes are constantly chang-ing. This means that we need a lot of really precise data about the storm. It’s pretty hard to learn about hur-ricanes while inside the storm, and instruments on the ground can be broken by high winds and flooding. One solution is to study hurricanes from above. nasa and noaa can use
satellites to keep an eye on storms that are difficult to study on the ground.
In Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria was so strong that it knocked out radar before it even hit land. Radar can be used to predict a storm’s path and intensity — and without radar, it is difficult to tell how intense a storm will be. Luckily, scientists were able to use information from a weather satel-lite called GOES-16, short for Geosta-tionary Operational Environmental Satellite – 16.
The “G” in GOES-16 stands for geo-stationary. This means that the satel-lite is always above the same place on the Earth, so during Hurricane Maria, it never lost sight of the storm. GOES-
16’s job as a weather satellite hasn’t officially started yet, but it was collect-ing information and was able to help.
From 22,000 miles above Earth, GOES-16 watched Hurricane Maria, and kept scientists on the ground up to date. Knowing where a storm is — and what it’s doing — can help keep people safe, and get help to the people that need it.
Hurricanes can also have a huge impact on the environment — even after they’re gone. To learn about how Hurricane Irma affected the Florida coast, scientists used images from an environmental satellite called Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership,
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President’s Message
Letter from the Editor
The Reflector is a publication of the Peterborough Astronomi-cal Association (P.A.A.) Founded in 1970, the P.A.A. is your local group for astronomy in Peterborough and the Kawarthas.
A nother year nears its end. It was a busy year for the club with respect to public outreach as attested in
these pages. Everyone involved in this orga-nization should be proud.
Rick Stankiewicz continues with the sec-ond part of his summer vacation series with a trip to Mont Megantic National Park. He also shows us some cool philatelic examples commemorating this past August’s total so-lar eclipse. A fascinating article indeed. And speaking of public outreach, Rick accepted an award of recognition from the Peterbor-ough Family Health Collective. See you next month and clear skies.
In December of 2015 I wrote my final president’s message and handed the bell to Jaime Morales. I promise
this will be my final, final message. The paa has had a very busy year and I hope I played some part in the success.
It’s election time again and John Cameron has done a great job as elec-tion chair. John has managed to fill the slate of directors for the next year and in some cases the next two years. Well done John.
The sample permit for our usage of Armour Hill has arrived. I suggest we have an executive meeting in early Janu-ary to finalize dates and other plans for the coming year. The permits have to be returned to city hall before the end of January. I will pass this paperwork on to our new president at the December meeting.
In the gallery check out the amazing images from Brian McGaffney and John Chumak.Phillip Chee Editor, The Reflector
Year End
It’s time for our “Annual General Meet-ing & Christmas Social.” This meeting will see the election of directors for the club and our Christmas Social. You are invited to bring “goodies” in the form of cookies, cakes, tarts etc., to share during the social.
You may recall that we had a Skype session with Dr. Julie Banfield this time last year all the way from Australia. We are fortunate this year to have Dr. Ban-field here in person for a talk on Citizen Science.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. Thanks for your support over the last six months.
Reminder. It’s membership renewal time. Rodger Forsyth Acting President
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How I Spent My Summer Vacation – Part 2
(Mont Megantic National Park)
Figure 1. Park Entrance. Photo by Rick Stankiewicz. See “Mont Megantic” on page 8
Rick STankieWicz
W hile returning home this summer from a vacation with my wife in Quebec’s St. Law-
rence Region, we decided to take a detour into the Eastern Townships. I had heard lots of great things about Mont Megantic National Park (locally, Parc National Du Mont-Mégantic), so we took a few days to explore the region. First thing we learned was that this is not a truly “national park” in the Canadian sense, but it is in the Quebec sense. You will understand this when you realize that Quebec City is the “National Capital”. My point is, names can be deceiv-ing and this park is a provincial park. To get there we drove through Lac-Mégantic, town of the deadly rail disaster in 2013. This is about a 50 km drive from the Park. The
drive through the Townships was worth every kilometre. It was much hillier than we expected. We also learned that this area is only a stones throw from both the Maine and New Hampshire (U.S.) borders.
The Park has over 70 km of walking trails and plenty of camping opportunities, but you would have to book well in advance dur-ing the peak season as this is a very popular destination with over 50,000 visitors per year. (Figure 1) Luckily, you can drive to the main summits for photo ops and to check out the observatories. Our visit was timed such that we were at the start of the off sea-son, but I can just imagine the Parks narrow roads and hairpin switchbacks during peak season. Go slow and look out below!
Figure 2. ASTROLab Visitor Centre. Photo Rick Stankie-wicz.
We started out touring the visitor cen-tre called, ASTROLab, as it runs tours and activities both day and night. (Figure 2) Most tours require pre-registration and are at set times or are weather dependent. The indoor theatre and self-guided displays are provided in a combination of French and English, but mostly French. Unfortunately
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Astronomy in Philately What will they think of next?
continued on next page
Rick STankieWicz
Figure 1. United States Postal Service eclipse stamp “pane”, in the cooled state.
Figure 2. United States Postal Service eclipse stamps in the warmed state.
F or decades countries around the world have been coming up with weird and wonderful ways to make
postage stamps visually unique and appeal-ing to collectors and the public alike. There have been embossing techniques for a 3D effect, the use of metal foils, odd shaped stamps and the ever popular holographic imaging. In the 1970s, thermochromic inks or special dyes were developed as tempera-ture sensitive compounds that temporarily change color with exposure to heat. A leuco dye (from the Greek leukos: white) is a dye which can switch between two chemical forms; one of which is colorless. Reversible transformations can be caused by heat; re-sulting in an example of thermochromism. The colorless form is sometimes referred to as the leuco form and with this came its ap-plication for thermoprinting. Since at least 2001, when Britain used this technology to celebrate the centenary of the Nobel Prize using thermochromic ink, various countries have taken their turn to try out this unique and flexible means to create two stamps for the price of one.
This year was the first time that the U.S. Postal Service has issued a thermochromic postage stamp design. Issued June 20th, 2017, in time for the August 21st total solar eclipse, this square-shaped nondenominat-ed (49-cent valued) “Forever” stamp depicts a black, round silhouette that covers the face of the Sun, surrounded by a ghostly grey corona shooting out into space. (Figure 1)
When the stamps surface is warmed by the pressure of a finger or a warm breath, the black ink covering the silhouetted Full Moon, melts away revealing the craters of the lunar surface. (Figure 2) As the stamp
cools, the thermal ink once again conceals the lunar disk and the silhouetted Moon again covers the Sun, as was to be wit-nessed on the afternoon of totality, August 21st, 2017.
Care must be taken to not overexpose these stamps to the ultraviolet rays of the Sun or the inks may breakdown and fail to work as intended. For a premium, a custom black protective sleeve was offered with the stamps, when a pane of 16 stamps was pur-
Vo l 16 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 1 7 • 5 The Reflectorcontinued from previous pagechased. A map of the Aug. 21 total eclipse path across the continental U.S. is printed on the reverse of the stamp pane. The design for the stamp was based on a photo-graph taken by famous astrophysi-cist Fred Espenak (Mr. Eclipse), from his trip to the total eclipse in Jalu, Libya, March 29, 2006.
This stamp issue has proved very popular with the pub-lic, resulting in many sold out locations around the U.S. by time the day of the eclipse came around. I made ar-rangements to secure my sheet of stamps with local resi-dents that I connected with in advance of my eclipse travels down to Hopkinsville, KY.
However, the United States was not the only country to issue a thermochromic stamp for the eclipse in 2017. In order to get in on the action and potential philatelic success of the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017, Guernsey Post issued a mini-sheet of six commemoratives at their standard definitive rates, for the island of Alderney, on 19 July, 2017. Alderney is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guern-sey, a British Crown dependency. This was a
novel idea because it was a means by which the island of Alderney could work them-selves into this astronomical event and a way to market their unique stamps to an international market.
This set of stamps feature six different “coastal eclipse” locations, which were to be treated to a partial eclipse on the day of totality in the United States. The 44-pence denomination was for Van-couver, Can-ada; 59-pence was for Mi-ami, U.S.A.; 60-pence for Hamilton, Ber-muda; 73-pence for Dakar, Sen-egal; 80-pence for Saint Anne, Alderney (of course) and the 90-pence for Anadyr, Rus-sia. The stamps in their cooled state depict a
yellow solar disk depicting the maximum eclipse for that location. The time and date of the depiction is also part of the design. (Figure 3) When warmth is applied, the Sun’s disk is fully exposed and the altitude and direction of the as well as a tiny map for each locale are presented to the viewer. (Figure 4)
As a first time eclipse chaser and a philat-elist, this year’s offering of unique stamps to commemorate this astronomical event was a thrill and made for a great collection of related souvenirs. You have to wonder though, “What will they think of next”?
Figure 3. Guernsey Post, Alderney eclipse stamps “mini-sheet”, in the cooled state.
Figure 4. Guernsey Post, Alderney eclipse stamps in the warmed state.
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PHOTO GALLERY
Hi folks, here is my first image from my new location in Roslin. Been a lot of work, but up and run-ning (80%).
This unit is of sh129 and Ou4 in the constellation Cepheus. Taken with G4-16000EC and a 14 inch Ceravolo modified for ƒ/4.2. This was a 15 hour exposure, and is mainly Ha-Ha-LRGB. I am using also the very expensive research grade filters (Goldman). This is a reduced jpeg to allow email consump-tion.
Anyway, that’s it.LaterBrian
sh129 + Ou4
Vo l 16 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 1 7 • 7 The Reflector
I reprocessed my NGC-281 Pacman Nebula, a 5 hour narrow band (HA, OII, SII) shot taken with my 6” Celestron Newtonian Scope and ZWO 174MM cooled cmos camera. This time I tried to bring out as much detail as possible in the dark dust clouds. It was a bit tough keeping things from overexpos-ing near center … but I worked it out. NGC 281 still looks like something ripped a hole in the fabric of space … which makes me want to jump through that opening, to see what is on the other side! LOL!
NGC 281, a.k.a., The Pacman Nebula and inside is open cluster IC 1590. Some say the entire nebula complex looks like a heart — this star formation region is about 50 light years across — and located at 9,500 light years (2,900 parsec) away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Captured from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio on 22 September 2017.
John Chumack www.galacticimages.com
Pacman Nebula
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continued from page 3Mont Megantic
Figure 4. Mont Megantic. Photo by Rick Stankiewicz.
Figure 5. Main observatory. Photo by Rick Stankiewicz.
for us, the vast majority of printed material is in French-only and this included almost all the souvenirs. It was pretty clear who the client base is or is it the Quebec language laws? (I’m not sure.)
Mont-Mégantic N.P. is also the core of the world’s first International Dark Sky Reserve, as designated by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) (Figure 3). It encompasses the Regional County and mu-nicipalities in the area, including the City of Sherbrooke. The process that led to the IDA designation in 2007 contributed to the development of a new regional expertise in outdoor lighting management. As a result, the Reserve’s encompassing 34 municipali-ties, developed outdoor lighting regula-tions that have contributed to the control and limited growth of area light pollution, which had doubled during the preceding 20 years, over an area of 5,500 km2. Approxi-mately 2,500 light fixtures were replaced, resulting in a 25 percent reduction of area light pollution and a reduction in energy consumption of some 1.3 gigawatt-hours per year. The project is a model for many industrialized countries seeking a com-promise between outdoor lighting needs and concerns about energy efficiency and preservation of the natural night environ-ment. Interestingly, the Park mascot is the Luna Moth.
Mont-Megantic is the highest location in eastern Canada, accessible by car (1,111 m continued on next page
Figure 3. International Dark Sky Reserve signage. Photo by Rick Stankiewicz.
or 3,645’). (Figure 4) There are commanding views of the surrounding countryside from several different vantage points within the Park. The Observatory of Mont-Megantic is located at the summit (Figure 5) and
was established in 1978. The Observatory is run by Université de Montréal, Laval, and McGill Universities, utilizing students and researchers from as far away as France. The dome contains the second largest telescope in eastern Canada at 1.6 m, next to the Da-vid Dunlap Observatory (DDO, Richmond Hill) and the fourth largest in Canada. The telescope’s primary mirror weighs one ton and was crafted by Perkin-Elmer, the same company that produced the mirror for the Hubble Space Telescope. The total weight of the telescope, including the equatorial mount is 24 tons. Depending on the particu-lar research being conducted, this telescope can be outfitted with ccd cameras, infrared cameras, spectrographs and polarimeters. Due to the size and weight of the primary
Vo l 16 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 1 7 • 9 The Reflector
Figure 7. Popular observatory view. Photo by Rick Stankiewicz.
continued from page previous page
mirror, they are able to service and re-surface the mirror annually on site (like at the DDO). Valerie and I took a French tour of the facility, but our guide was nice enough to provide us with English booklets to “self-guide” along with the tour. After the tour, we were allowed to get up close and personal with the telescope. (Figure 6) It is an impressive piece of equip-ment!
The “Popular Observatory”, is located a short walk down from the main observatory. This is where most of the public observ-ing and educa-tion is done “under the stars”. The main observatory is not open to the public at night, as it would be conducting research then. We were not able to take in a night show at the Popular Observatory as it was booked solid during our stay, but the daytime view was impres-
sive. (Figure 7) The area around this obser-vatory was well appointed with long bench-es that sloped backwards for easy viewing of the night sky, as might be used during a laser tour of the constellations. Apparently, in the dome is located a 61 cm (24”) telescope that you get to look through on clear nights,
but I have no idea what configura-tion it might be. Maybe I’ll find out on a subsequent visit?
There are plenty of lodging opportuni-ties in the area too. We stayed at an Airbnb about 15 km from
the Park. Our hosts were fluently bi-lingual and very accommodating. It turns out Mont Megantic is right on the centre-line of the next total solar eclipse in 2024. Does anyone want to get a little closer to the Sun during the next eclipse? Put on lots of sunscreen!
Figure 6. Up close with the 1.6m telescope. Photo by Rick Stankiewicz.
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The Sky this MonthMercury is visible in the evening sky early in the month. Reaches perihelion on the 12th and inferior conjunction the day after. Returns to morning sky later in the month.Venus is briefly visible in the morning twilight before disappearing into the Sun’s glow.Mars crosses from Virgo into Libra om the 21st. Approaching Jupiter for a con-junction in 2018.Jupiter becomes more prominent in the morning twilight during the month. Saturn is too close to the Sun to see. In conjunction on the 21st and reaches southern most point of its 29.5-year or-bit.Winter Solstice arrives on the 21st at 11:28 AM.Geminid Meteors peak on the 14th at 2 AMUrsid Meteors peak on the 22nd at 10 AM.
Moon PhasesFull Moon 10:47 AM December 3Last Quarter 2:51 AM December 10New Moon 1:30 AM December 18First Quarter 4:20 AM December 26
Vo l 16 • I s sue no. 10 • December 20 1 7 • 1 1 The Reflector
Rick STankieWicz
In the middle of November, the paa was contacted by Kim Sargent of the Peterborough Family Health Col-
lective, to arrange a meeting to discuss four successful years of the “Wishes” Events held the third Friday of September. This non-profit community event has been well received over the years and appreciated by many families in the Peterborough area. Kim and her organization of volunteers, has annually pulled together a fun evening of music, dance, crafts, cookies and sparklers up on Armour Hill (in the pavilion beside the Museum). The paa has always been part of this event and much to the delight of all the young children and parents that partici-pate. Whether looking at the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, star clusters or the Andromeda Galaxy, it has always been a perfect way to cap off the evening.
Kim presented me (on behalf of the paa) with a small token of the Collective’s ap-preciation for our continued involvement in their annual event and I gratefully accepted
A Thankful Wish
on your behalf. There is already talk of organizing for next year’s Wishes Event and it is tentatively being planned for Saturday, September 22, 2018. The paa has built some great partnerships over the years with like-minded organizations and individuals and this is another example of just such a part-nership. Of course, none if this is possible without the volunteer efforts of members of the paa, that’s you! This is a “Thank You” to those members that have been part of this annual event and if you have not been out yet, it looks like you will get another chance next year. Keep looking up!
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ArticlesSubmissions for The Reflector must be received by the date listed below. E-mail submissions are preferred (Microsoft Word, OpenDoc, ASCII and most common graphic formats are accept-able). If your article contains photso or graphics, please provide a separate file for each. Typed or hand-written submissions are acceptable pro-vided they are legible (and not too long.) Copy-righted materials will not be published without written permission from the copyright holder. Submissions may be edited for grammar, brev-ity, or clarity. Submissions will be published at the editor’s sole discretion. Depending on the volume of submissions, some articles may be published at a later date. Please submit any ar-ticles, thoughts, or ideas to:[email protected]
Next submission deadline:December 27, 2017
Meetings The Peterborough Astronomical Association meets every first Friday of each month, except July and August, at the Peter-borough Zoo Guest Services and Rotary Educa-tion Centre (inside the main entrance at the north end of the Zoo) at 7 p.m. P.A.A. general annoucements will begin each meeting with the guest speaker starting at 7:30 p.m.
VIIRScontinued from page 1
or Suomi-NPP. One of the instruments on this satellite, called VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imag-ing Radiometer Suite), took pictures of Florida before and after the Hurricane.
Hurricane Irma was so big and powerful, that it moved massive amounts of dirt, water and pollution. The information captured by VIIRS can tell scientists how and where these particles are moving in the water. This can help with recovery efforts, and help us design better ways to prepare for hurricanes in the future.
By using satellites like GOES-16 and Suomi-NPP to observe severe storms, researchers and experts stay up to date in a safe and fast way. The more we know about hurricanes, the more effectively we can protect people and the envi-ronment from them in the future.To learn more about hurricanes, check out nasa Space Place: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/hurricanes/
This article is provided by NASA Space Place.
With articles, activities, crafts, games, and lesson plans, nasa Space Place encourages ev-eryone to get excited about science and technol-ogy. Visit spaceplace.nasa.gov to explore space and Earth science!
