Enjoying Jupiter through new eyes

After a couple of weeks of wild weather, including snow, ice storms, high wind, and heavy rain, the greater Seattle area is enjoying something most unusual: a clear, calm winter night.

Jupiter doesn't look quite like this through my backyard telescope,
but a Tele Vue Radian eyepiece is giving better views than
I've ever had before. Cassini snapped this one on its way to
Saturn in 2000. Photo: NASA.

The timing is both right on and a bit off for astronomy buffs in the area. At nightfall the Moon was pleasantly centered between Venus and Jupiter, making for a picture postcard view. However several area astronomy clubs have their monthly public star parties scheduled for Saturday evening, and the forecast is for the clouds to move back in after our brief respite from precipitation.

I took advantage of the clear night to haul my telescope out of the basement and take a look. I had a peek at the gibbous Venus, and looked at the crescent Moon for a bit. But I have been watching Jupiter for most of the evening. I find the clockwork of old Jove’s moons endlessly fascinating. Io was in transit across the giant planet’s disk between about 7 p.m. and 9:15. Io’s shadow is following about an hour and 15 minutes behind, and will complete its transit of Jupiter at around 10:30.

I’ve got to throw in a plug for a relatively new eyepiece in my case. Last year right after Christmas I used some gift cash (thanks, Mom!) to buy a 10mm Tele Vue Radian. Using it to look at Jupiter this evening made me feel as though the scales had fallen from my eyes and I was seeing the planet for the first time!

I have an 8-inch “Intelliscope” from Orion, and it’s pretty much as it came out of the box (though my aching neck convinced me to replace the straight-through finderscope with a right-angle model, and I added a Telrad finder, which is pretty useless from my West Seattle backyard observing location, given the few bright objects that can be seen through the thing.) My high-power eyepiece had always been the 10mm Sirius Plossl that came with the scope. It’s OK, but has minimal eye relief. I typically found that I got much better views from a 17mm Plossl and a 2x Barlow.

Then I sprung for the Radian. Wow. I got some eye-popping views of Saturn through it earlier this year, but looking at Jupiter with its detailed bands, zones, and clouds, the difference a top-quality eyepiece can make is readily apparent. Even in transit, Io was easy to spot. The Red Spot stood out clearly, and though seeing has not been all that transparent this evening, in moments of clarity I’ve seen detail on Jupiter tonight that I’ve never seen under the best of conditions before. The Radian set me back about $235.

By the way, Tele Vue has discontinued the 10mm Radian and some are speculating they’ll drop the line entirely in favor of the new Delos line that came out in the middle of last year. They have the same eye relief but a wider field of view. I’m really impressed with the Radian. I have one other Tele Vue eyepiece, a 24mm Panoptic, and it, too, is marvelous, offering tremendous, wide-field views. They’re on the pricey side, but well worth it for the quality views they deliver.

What are your favorite eyepieces?

Alas, as I’m wrapping up this post at about 11 p.m. Friday the clouds have indeed rolled in. I had planned to get back out there. I’m working on the Astronomical League Urban Observing program, and one of the last items I need to spot is NGC 3242—The Ghost of Jupiter. It’s a planetary nebula that’s only visible around here from about now until early spring. We don’t get enough clear nights this, or any, time of year. NGC 3242 transits a little after 2 a.m. Saturday. It looks like it will do so behind the clouds and the quest will have to wait for yet another night.

Let’s hope for some clearing for a peek at the Ghost of Jupiter, and for all of those clubs planning star parties for Saturday evening. Check our calendar for details about one near you.

Beyond pretty pictures; amateurs contributing to astronomical science

Ralph Megna is an amateur astronomer only in the sense that he doesn’t get paid for his work. But he’s making some major contributions to the science and working with the big guys.

Megna is a co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Solar System Studies, an amateur organization that is building several observatories in Landers, California, in the Mojave Desert east of Riverside. He’s a long-time astronomy enthusiast, but a real estate developer by daytime profession. He and several colleagues at the Center, CS3 for short, recently wrapped up a project to provide some critical data for NASA’s DAWN mission to Vesta and Ceres. This is somewhat akin to a hobbyist who is pretty good at softball suddenly being asked to play second base for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ralph Megna of the Center for Solar System
 Studies is an amateur astronomer, but he and CS3
colleagues are doing real work with NASA.
Megna spoke Sunday at the annual banquet
of the Seattle Astronomical Society.
Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

Megna talked about the experience Sunday night as the keynote speaker at the annual banquet of the Seattle Astronomical Society. The involvement with NASA came because, as DAWN approached Vesta, it couldn’t make much sense out of data collected by a framing camera, a key part of the craft’s navigation.

“Their own stuff turned out to be crap,” Megna said of NASA’s data on Vesta. They knew of the work being done at CS3 and turned to them get better information about Ceres.

“We were recruited by NASA to collect some specialized photometric data,” Megna said. CS3’s Earth-based telescopes and cameras made precise observations of Ceres and its phase angle, rotation, albedo, and the like. They imaged the asteroid between last September and earlier this month. The data will help DAWN better navigate its way when it leaves Vesta and heads for Ceres this summer.

“We were told by NASA that this was the first time in NASA history that it had turned to amateurs to provide it with mission-critical data in order to guide an interplanetary spacecraft,” Megna said. “We were pretty proud to be asked to do that.”

Megna’s talk was titled “Beyond Pretty Pictures: How Amateur Astronomers are Making Discoveries & Changing Solar System Science.” He noted there’s been an explosion in interest in astrophotography in recent years.

“We’ve now probably passed the one billionth picture of M42,” Megna joked about the Orion Nebula, one of the most photographed celestial objects. Part of their mission at CS3 is to push the envelope.

“We’re exploring some new territory with respect to the contributions that amateur astronomers can make to real science in astronomy,” he said, adding that the main thing that makes those contributions possible is relatively inexpensive and readily available technology, especially scientific-quality CCD cameras.

“That single thing has really leveled the playing field between us and professionals and has made it possible for us to make real contributions to real science,” Megna said. Amateurs are making amazingly precise observations of variable stars, finding supernovas, monitoring planets, tracking exoplanet transits, and doing his thing—asteroid photometry.

“All of these things are now possible because, frankly, the technology has become accessible and affordable to amateur astronomers,” he said. “The kind of information that amateurs are collecting gets sucked up by the computer models that are being created by professional astronomers and astrophysicists. This has led to some exciting new theories on the evolution of the solar system.”

Chief among these is the Nice model of solar system evolution, which proposes that the gas giant planets were once much closer to the Sun, but migrated out, flinging lots of material clean out of the solar system in the process. Megna said much of the data that the model crunched was collected by amateurs.

Discoveries of binary asteroid systems and measurements of asteroid shapes and orbital dynamics are cool and important, but Megna said that’s not really what drives him.

“I can’t tell you what a rush it is to watch that light curve get composed by the computer on the screen and know that I am the first person in human history to know what the length of a day is on another celestial body,” he explained. “This may be a footnote to a footnote to a footnote in science, but it is a moment of discovery.

“This moment of personal discovery is an incredibly important motivator to what I do,” Megna added. “It hearkens to the notion of being an amateur astronomer. The origin of the word amateur is to love; I do this because I love to do it.”

He’s pretty good at it, too.

Enceladus and the platinum age of planetary exploration

Ours is a great time to be alive if you have an interest in learning about other worlds, at least according to Ron Hobbs, a NASA Solar System Ambassador and museum educator and public programs assistant at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

“For most of us the golden age of planetary exploration was the ‘70s and early ‘80s,” Hobbs said. “The time of the Apollo Moon missions—particularly those that did a lot of science—the Viking missions to Mars, and of course Voyager.”

At least four distinct plumes of water ice spew out from the
south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus in this dramatically
illuminated image, shot on Christmas Day 2009 by Cassini.
Light reflected off Saturn is illuminating the surface of the moon
while the Sun, almost directly behind Enceladus, is backlighting
the plumes. Photo: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

After that, things slowed down a lot, but in recent years there’s been something of a renaissance in the solar system.

“The first decade of the 21st Century has been as good as, if not better than, the golden age,” Hobbs believes. “Some people have called it the platinum age of planetary exploration. And if there’s a flagship of that platinum age of planetary exploration it’s got to be the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.”

Hobbs gave a talk about Cassini, titled “Seven Years in the Saturn System,” last month at the museum. The presentation featured lots of the spectacular photography from the mission, including the discovery of seasonal colors on the second-largest planet in the solar system. Hobbs also discussed discoveries about Saturn’s rings and the intense study of the huge moon Titan. But the most fascinating part of the talk centered on the moon Enceladus, which Hobbs says has joined the astrobiologists’ short list, along with Mars and Europa, for further study.

That’s largely because of the discovery of enormous geysers at the south pole of Enceladus, which spew out ice crystals that form Saturn’s E-ring and cover Enceladus with fresh snow, making it one of the brightest objects in the solar system. The interesting thing about the E-ring is that it contains salt.

“The salt had to come from somewhere,” Hobbs explained, “so somewhere down in Enceladus there must be water in association with hot rocks. So you’ve got an energy source, you’ve got water. We don’t know yet, but maybe we have organic chemicals. If we do, this becomes one of the likeliest places we could find life in the solar system.

“Enceladus has rapidly become one of the most important bodies for us to study,” he added.

Cassini’s work in the Saturn system is planned to continue until the summer of 2017, when it will make a handful of spectacular proximal orbits very close to Saturn’s cloud tops before it runs out of fuel and is crashed into the ringed planet.

That’s presuming Cassini keeps working. Hobbs notes that while the warranty has long since expired, the school bus-sized craft hasn’t missed a beat since it was launched in 1997.

“Space is a harsh environment, particularly when you go a billion miles from the Sun,” Hobbs noted. “It gets cold out there, and every time you go into the shadow of Saturn or one of the moons, it drops dramatically. So given our experience with technical things, it is kind of a surprise” that Cassini is still functioning, he said. “On the other hand, we in America seem to be building some really good stuff these days.”

It will be fascinating to see what wonders Cassini finds before the mission ends five years from September.

Engineers become dreamers at NASA Future Forum

With a panel of aerospace engineers set to discuss commercial space investments and their benefit to the nation at the NASA Future Forum Dec. 9 at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, one was prepared for some heavy number crunching and rocket science. Instead, the group of representatives of various firms involved in commercial spaceflight focused entirely on the intangibles of inspiration, innovation, and vision.

A great example comes from Sierra Nevada Space Systems, which named its space vehicle Dream Chaser. Mark Sirangelo, head of the company, talked eloquently about the appeal of the industry.

A panel discussed Commercial Space Investments and Benefits 

for the Nation at the NASA Future Forum Dec. 9 at the Museum 

of Flight in Seattle. L-R: Moderator Doug King, president and 

CEO of the museum, Phil McAlister of NASA, Gwynne Shotwell of 

SpaceX, Peter McGrath of Boeing, Mark Sirangelo of Sierra 

Space Systems, Robery Meyerson of Blue Origin, and 

Steve Isakowitz of Virgin Galactic. Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

“It’s being able to see something built and grow from nothing, from an inspiration,” he said. Sirangelo noted that the companies involved are full of dreamers, and used Seattle’s aerospace giant as an example.

“There was a Boeing. It was a family and it was a person like we are,” he said. “We’re individuals who believe in something and believe that we can make a difference and be able to change something in the future.

“That’s the personal inspiration for me, being able to do something that hasn’t been done in this way before, to be able to fly something that I hope to be able to fly in the next few years, and understand that this is something that we’ve designed and built and developed. There’s no better satisfaction than being able to take that dream and make it a reality.”

Most of the panel participants were of similar age to the author. I was born two weeks before the launch of Sputnik, so my life is the space age and as a kid I was fascinated by the race to the Moon. It is the reason I am interested in space and astronomy today. Everyone on the panel told a similar story. Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said it’s important to remain interesting to the next generation.

“Space has to be cool. It has to be cool to be technical and enter into these kinds of fields,” Shotwell said. “Space is the best place to inspire children to do great things and study hard and focus on changing the world.” Her message to kids: “It’s OK to be a nerd!”

Peter McGrath of Boeing is a chip off the old block—his father also was an aerospace engineer—but he, too, took inspiration from Apollo.

The St. Nick on duty at the Museum
of Flight seems to have a preference for
the local aerospace company.
Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

“I would also say it was seeing somebody walk on the Moon,” McGrath said of his career motivations. “We need to create that next environment, somebody walking on the Moon, to really energize the next generation of aerospace engineers.”

“We’re a nation of explorers,” said Robert Meyerson, president of Blue Origin. “Space represents that next frontier. I believe that strong investments in science and technology will make us stronger.”

The engineers did get around to tackling some problems. Steve Isakowitz, chief technology officer for Virgin Galactic, said the cost of space flight is a big hurdle. He noted that technology is making a lot of things easier and cheaper; Moore’s law holds that computer power doubles every 18 months while the cost drops. Unfortunately, that has not yet translated to space.

“In fact if you look at the economics of space travel, the cost has either remained the same or even increased, depending on how you do the math,” Isakowitz said. “I think the challenge to the panel here is to change that, to create our own law. Perhaps every five years the price of space travel will be cut in half, so that more and more people will have the opportunity to enjoy space travel and allow us to push the frontier of space exploration.”

NASA of course remains the major player in the field, but Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development, said it’s perfectly logical for the companies represented on the panel to help take us to space.

“For lower orbit, where the International Space Station travels, that’s a place that we’ve been many times over the last 40 years,” McAlister said. “So we feel like it’s time now to transition some of the responsibility for launching crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit to the private sector.”

McAlister also noted that having the private sector involved will provide a buffer of sorts to the vagaries of federal spending.

“If this commercial crew and cargo industry takes off we’re no longer dependent on just NASA’s budget going up and down,” he said. “The private market will spur these innovations, spur these opportunities, so when kids get closer to high school they’re going to see these opportunities. It won’t just be about NASA. The pie will be bigger.

“That’s why I believe this is the right path not only for NASA but for the nation.”

You can watch the entire panel discussion on the NASA TV video below.

NASA Future Forum panel discusses importance of technology andinnovation

Those looking for real-life applications of all of the cool technology NASA creates need look no further than cleaning appliances or one of the biggest fad toys of a decade ago.

“The computational power that was used to make an Apollo spacecraft successful is now embodied in a Furby,” said Dr. Ed Lazowska. “It’s not clear that this is the greatest social use for that technology, but it’s still a remarkable comment on what we’ve been able to do.”

This panel discussed "The Importance of Technology and Innovation
for our Economic Future" at the NASA Future Forum Dec. 9 at
 the Museum of Flight in Seattle. L-R: are Joseph Parrish and Robert
Pearce of NASA, Dr. Kristi Morgansen of the University of Washington,
Dr. Roger Myers of Aerojet, and Dr. Ed Lazowska, UW.
Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, was speaking as part of a panel about “The Importance of Technology and Innovation for our Economic Future” at the NASA Future Forum held Dec. 9 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. He sees robotics as a major area of innovation in the coming decade.

“NASA has been a pioneer in robots in unstructured environments, where they have to be autonomous and they have to respond to unanticipated situations,” Lazowska said. “You see these in your home today in the person of the Roomba vacuum cleaner.”

“This notion of robots in unstructured environments working with us is going to be transformative in the next ten years,” he said.

Robert Pearce, NASA’s head researcher, says today’s jetliners are a prime example of how the agency’s work has made it out into common use. Instrumentation, wing and engine design, the shape of the planes, even the way the pilots work together all were born from the space agency.

“The DNA of everything that flies started at NASA,” Pearce said, though he noted one exception. “When you turn and go down into the airplane and you see all of those tight, cramped, uncomfortable seats—that’s not NASA.”

Joseph Parrish, who moderated the panel and is NASA’s deputy chief technologist, takes exception to the often-expressed view that the space agency is doing little more than blasting scarce tax dollars into space.

“We’re not actually packaging up a bunch of dollar bills into the nose cone of a rocket and firing it out to Mars, to be spent by Martians, on a prank,” Parrish said. “We’re spending that money on planet Earth, and in the process of developing the systems that we do send to Mars and to Jupiter and to Saturn and beyond we’re enabling things here on planet Earth. We’re creating high-technology jobs that in turn inspire new ideas and create and new ecosystems of supporting companies. Think of all the companies that support Boeing. Think of all the companies that are going to support this burgeoning commercial launch industry that NASA is helping to kick off.”

One of those companies is Redmond-based Aerojet. It’s executive director for electric propulsion and integrated systems, Dr. Roger Myers, says his company is working on better ways to get spacecraft from here to there.

“Today’s propulsion systems are pretty inefficient,” Myers said. “That means that you have to carry a huge amount of fuel, you have to launch a tremendous amount of propellant, to get beyond low-Earth orbit. It takes big, expensive, unique rockets to do that.”

“We have to change that paradigm,” Myers added. “If we’re going to explore deep space we need a balanced set of investments, in both the launch architecture, the way that we launch people and cargo, and also we need a parallel set of investments in deep-space transportation architectures.”

Lazowska said that a big problem with technological innovations is that the uses are seldom obvious.

“It’s often not clear at the outset what the real benefit of an innovation is going to be,” he said. “When people were working on the Internet, ARPANET, nobody was thinking about email or the web or ecommerce or digital media. It was for remotely using expensive mainframe computers. You see this pattern again and again.”

Lazowska said the concept of technology transfer is important but often misunderstood.

“The goal of university technology transfer is to put publicly funded innovation to work for the public good,” he explained. “People have to get over the notion that somehow you’re going to float the institutional boat on licensing revenues, and realize that the goal is to make our nation the world leader, and make our regions regions of innovation.”

You can watch the entire panel discussion on the NASA TV video below.