The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (March-April 2020) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure at www.astropublishing.com.
Yes, the issue is a series of articles about the importance of amateur astronomers coming together as a community through outreach, just in time for a global pandemic to keep everyone from coming together (for a while, anyway). The issue features an opening article by myself and an international perspective (Spain, Catalonia and Italy) by the editor Michele Ferrara and other contributing language editors on the general topics of the state of amateur astronomy and outreach in our respective locations.
For the opening story, I went with a very CNY-centric perspective on some of the great observing/outreach events, as well as their hosts, we’ve known in the past decade-or-so (while trying to name-drop all the area astronomy clubs in the process). These include shout-outs to some of the better-known lectures/observers, including David Bishop with ASRAS, Larry Slosberg with CNYO, James Callens with Western NY Astronomers, Bob Piekiel and his near-rock-solid monthly schedule at Baltimore Woods, my favorite classicist and dark sky proponent Prof. John McMahon, and the late, great Barlow Bob.
For those wanting a quick look at what the issue has to offer, the Table of Contents is reproduced below.
Poster’s Note: One of the many under-appreciated aspects of NASA is the extent to which it publishes quality science content for children and Ph.D.’s alike. Your tax dollars help promote science! The following article was provided for reprinting by the Night Sky Network in March, 2020.
Cancer the Crab is a dim constellation,
yet it contains one of the most beautiful and easy-to-spot star clusters in our
sky: the Beehive Cluster. Cancer
also possesses one of the most studied exoplanets: the superhot super-Earth, 55 Cancri e.
Find Cancer’s dim stars by looking in between the brighter neighboring
constellations of Gemini and Leo. Don’t get frustrated if you can’t find it at
first, since Cancer isn’t easily visible from moderately light polluted areas.
Once you find Cancer, look for its most famous deep-sky object: the Beehive Cluster! It’s a large open
cluster of young stars, three times larger than our Moon in the sky. The
Beehive is visible to unaided eyes under good sky conditions as a faint cloudy
patch, but is stunning when viewed through binoculars or a wide-field
telescope. It was one of the earliest deep-sky objects noticed by ancient
astronomers, and so the Beehive has many other names, including Praesepe,
Nubilum, M44, the Ghost, and Jishi qi. Take a look at it on a clear night through
binoculars. Do these stars look like a hive of buzzing bees? Or do you see
something else? There’s no wrong answer, since this large star cluster has
intrigued imaginative observers for thousands of years.
55 Cancri is a nearby binary star
system, about 41 light years from us and faintly visible under excellent dark
sky conditions. The larger star is orbited by at least five planets including 55 Cancri e, (a.k.a. Janssen, named
after one of the first telescope makers). Janssen is a “super-earth,” a large
rocky world 8 times the mass of our Earth, and orbits its star every 18 hours,
giving it one of the shortest years of all known planets! Janssen was the first
exoplanet to have its atmosphere successfully analyzed. Both the Hubble and
recently-retired Spitzer space telescopes confirmed that the hot world is
enveloped by an atmosphere of helium and hydrogen with traces of hydrogen
cyanide: not a likely place to find life, especially since the surface is
probably scorching hot rock. The NASA Exoplanet Catalog has more details about
this and many other exoplanets at bit.ly/nasa55cancrie.
How do astronomers find planets
around other star systems? The Night Sky Network’s “How We Find Planets”
activity helps demonstrate both the transit and wobble methods of exoplanet
detection: bit.ly/findplanets. Notably, 55 Cancri e was discovered
via the wobble method in 2004, and then the transit method confirmed the
planet’s orbital period in 2011!
Want to learn more about
exoplanets? Get the latest NASA news about worlds beyond our solar system at nasa.gov.
Artist concept of 55 Cancri e orbiting its nearby host star. Find details from the Spitzer Space Telescope’s close study of its atmosphere at: bit.ly/spitzer55cancrie and the Hubble Space Telescope’s observations at bit.ly/hubble55cancrie Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Look for Cancer in between the “Sickle” or “Question Mark” of Leo and the bright twin stars of Gemini. You can’t see the planets around 55 Cancri, but if skies are dark enough you can see the star itself. Can you see the Beehive Cluster?
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!
