The Cape Fear Astronomical Society Newsletter - Editor Ric Longren
This Month's Meeting will be: Sunday, July 9, 2006
Featuring a presentation by Ben Steelman entitled "Constellations and How They Got That Way" - don't miss this one!
Gastronomy! Join us before the meeting for dinner at Rock-Ola Cafe next to Sam's, at 5:15 pm.
Meeting Minutes for June 4th, 2006 - by CFAS Treasurer and acting Secretary Ben Steelman
President Ronnie Hawes called the June 4 meeting of the Cape Fear Astronomical Society to order around 7 p.m. in UNCW's Morton Hall. Thirteen members were eventually present, plus one guest who joined up before the night was over.
Officer's Report:
Treasurer Ben Steelman reported the Society still had a checking balance of around $1,780 after donating a $200 cash memorial to Hospice of Lower Cape Fear, in memory of longtime member Samuel D. Bissette. President Ronnie and others hailed Sam's contributions to the club, including his invention of astromicroscopy (deep-sky observation by examining an unmagnified 35mm negative of a segment of the sky under a microscope) and his forging ties with our sister club in Australia.
President Ronnie issued a call for programs for our monthly meetings, either new or recycled. He also asked for volunteers to help with educational programs for a children's camp at Boiling Spring Lakes. The camp will meet July 24-28 and Society members may be asked for programs on any of those nights. For details, contact Ronnie.
Ben also reported that he had not yet heard from the Astronomical League regarding club dues.
Old Business:
Tom Jacobs reported that he had not had time to inspect the Yamacraw viewing site. Meanwhile, owner Clint North has said he has another site available, with higher elevation and better drainage. Tom promised to check these two out, along with a third Pender County site suggested by Alan Hilburn. Then the Society can decide which, if any, to rent. As Tom said, "You can't have too many dark-sky sites."
New Business:
Members discussed the possibility of road trips to Ingram Planetarium or somewhere else. Tom Jacobs said the Society had been invited to visit the Raleigh Astronomy Club's observatory, a formidable structure north of the city with a 24-inch 'scope and a unique rotating mount and staircase. Dates for this excursion will be announced for sometime in the fall.
Members also debated plans to illuminate the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Ronnie noted that several letters to the editor, opposing the idea, had appeared in the local newspaper, none of them from Society members.
By consent, the next meeting was postponed to 7 p.m. July 9 to avoid conflicts with the Independence Day holiday.
One new member joined: Jonathan Guetta of Wilmington.
The program was a further installment from "Apollo XI: Man on the Moon," this time with footage and still photos from the extra-vehicular activity.
News Cluster
Rich Williams' daughter Kim was married on June 24th. Congratulations Kim! On behalf of all of us at CFAS, we wish you a wonderful and happy new life.
The next meeting of the Cape Fear Astronomy Club is July 9 starting at 7:00. The program for the evening is entitled "Constellations and How They Got That Way" presented by Ben Steelman.
Ronnie Hawes and Chris Babson, in her scout uniform, were at the Boy Scout Camp Bowers June 19th to help with the scouts astronomy merit badge. All had a great time with mostly clear skies. The program was completed by 10:30 pm. Ronnie and Chris will be doing this Monday and Thursday nights this month. If anyone wants to attend call Chris Babson or Ronnie Hawes.
Don't miss Letisha's progress report (below)!
Event Calendar
July 01 - Moon at apogee, 4:11pm (251,312 miles)
July 03 - First quarter Moon, 12:37 pm, Earth at aphelion, 7 pm
July 05 - Moon passes 5 degrees south of Jupiter, 10 pm
July 09 - CFAS July Meeting 7:00 pm
July 10 - Full Moon, 11:02 pm
July 13 - Moon at perigee, 1:33 pm (226,358 miles)
July 17 - Last quarter Moon, 3:13 pm
July 22 - Moon passes 6 degrees north of Venus, 8 pm
July 21/22 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions
July 25 - New Moon, 12:31 am
July 29 - Moon at apogee, 9:02 am (251,908 miles)
July 28/29 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions
- - - All times are EDT - - -
Astronomical History During the Month of July (Date - Milestone)
July 04, 1054 - Chinese astronomers observe Crab Nebula supernova
July 04, 1997 - Pathfinder spacecraft and Sojourner rover land on Mars
July 14, 1965 - Mariner 4 makes first successful photographic flyby of Mars
July 16, 1994 - The 21 fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 begin crashing into Jupiter,
producing immense dark spots in planet's atmosphere
July 20, 1969 - First landing of humans on Moon (Apollo 11)
July 20, 1976 - First successful robotic landing on Mars (Viking 1)
Progress report from Letisha McLaughlin:
Hello everyone!
I thought I would write a progress report for the monthly newsletter so that the group wouldn't forget about me! Joking, of course! Currently I am at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. My internship is part of the MSU Solar REU program, or research experience for undergraduates. Along with twelve other students from all over the world, I am working to obtain knowledge concerning many different topics in solar physics. Specifically, my task for the summer is to accompany Dr. David McKenzie and graduate student Sabrina Savage in their mission to thoroughly understand a phenomenon called SADs, or supra-arcade downflows, using images received from the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) aboard Yohkoh and the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) telescope.
In active regions of the sun, strong magnetic fields exist as coronal loops which may become unstable when stressed by the convective forces in the photosphere. The field lines are rooted in sunspots, which are constantly being pushed around as a result of plasma convection. With each movement along the sun's surface, they may become twisted and distorted, building energy in the form of an electric current sheet between them. Once a loop is stressed beyond its threshold, it will reconfigure itself; the magnetic field line does this by reconnecting with another, which causes a chain reaction in the surrounding loops as they also begin reconnection (Zirker, 181). The plasma in between loops is evaporated up into the legs of the field lines as a response to the lower pressure in the coronal loops than in the surrounding chromosphere. These plasma filled regions form the familiar flare arcades seen in many x-ray photographs.
For reasons not quite understood yet, the arcade fan will become illuminated with x-rays. It is here that several years ago Dr. McKenzie and his team observed the supra-arcade downflows as dark voids in the x-ray images. As my mentor theorizes in his paper in the Solar Physics journal titled "Supra-Arcade Downflows in Long-Duration Solar Flare Events," these dark spots may be the result of magnetic tension; the flux tubes- or bundles of field lines- are undergoing reconnection then retracting back towards the top of the arcade (381). Figure 1 is a diagram showing the anatomy of the arcade and where the flux tube pierces the arcade fan. At present, there is not much information concerning SADs, only theories about what they may be. My internship, however, is focused on extracting information about these phenomena using a program Dr. McKenzie and Ms. Savage have developed over the last year. In a nutshell, the program, 'Findsads' as it is called, analyzes images from SXT and TRACE for these voids, then allows the user to review the possible candidates to verify whether or not these are actually SADs. There are more parts to the program, but at the moment this is the only one with which I am familiar. In the next week or so, I will be taught how to use the program to find such characteristics of the downflows like velocity and magnetic field. Ultimately, the information we derive from Findsads will give researchers more insight into the process of magnetic reconnection.
Figure 1: A reconnected flux tube retracting through the current sheet. Courtesy of Dr. McKenzie.
The first two weeks have been quite a learning experience. Having little prior knowledge of computer programming has designated me as the program problem-finder, which I must say I am very good at. Fixing the snags, on the other hand, is a completely different story! After work and weekends are just as exciting as the research; our undergrad group has become quite close and living in the mountains have afforded many opportunities to hike and raft. Next weekend we will visit Yellowstone National Park for the annual star party, "Stars over Yellowstone." I cannot wait to get back to Wilmington and tell you all about it! Until then I'll just have to keep you posted in the newsletter!
Your fellow space-lover,
Letisha
P.S. - In addition to what I have been taught here at MSU I have found knowledge about the sun in other places, including Journey from the Center of the Sun, a book by Jack B. Zirker. Also, Dr. McKenzie has a very nice research page, which can be accessed at http://solar.physics.montana.edu/mckenzie/research.html. Another interesting website he has pointed me to is http://solar.physics.montana.edu/nuggets/, where I found many amazing videos and images of solar activity.
What's Up Down Under? (News from our Sister Society in Albury-Wodonga, Australia)
David Thurley, Solar eclipse images - David presented audio-visual images and comment on the Solar eclipse and associated activities as well as providing northern Aurae images compiled by a New Zealand member of the Touring Group. All were excellent and members congratulated David for his extremely interesting and stimulating presentation.
Dr Graeme Wren, Our Place in the Stars' audio-visual presentation - Special welcome to Graeme and brief Curriculum Vitae by Secretary Allan. Graeme's discussed the Earth's position within the solar system, Milky Way Galaxy and known Universe as well as the general types of celestial objects and their relativity and interaction to each other. His discussion was supported by excellent visual computerised images of objects, including the physics and chemical interactions involved. An excellent presentation that was enjoyed by members. Bob Price thanked Graeme on behalf of all members.
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CAPE FEAR ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. All Rights Reserved.