Sun Dogs

Not everything interesting in the sky is actually out in space. Sometimes our weather and atmosphere can produce some interesting sights.

Here is a picture sent to me by new AAVSO member, Dr. Douglas Allen of an atmospheric effect called sun dogs. You can see a portion of a circle, the halo, against the sky, and two bright spots either side of the sun. The bright spots are sun dogs.
















Sun dogs are created by hexagonal atmospheric ice crystals refracting sunlight. Sun dogs are visible when the sun is near the horizon and on the same horizontal plane as the observer and the ice crystals. As sunlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent by 22 degrees before reaching our eyes, so sun dogs always appear the same distance and angle from the sun.

The movement and orientation of the ice crystals determine a sun dog's shape, sharpness, and color. Mottled, wobbling, or tall crystals, generally result in more diffuse or colorful displays. An excellent web page describing sun dogs can be found at the Atmospheric Optics website.

Despite the fact this picture was taken on a frigid, 4 degrees F, Iowa morning yesterday, sun dogs don't require cold ground temperatures. The atmospheric phenomena can be seen around the world in any season—probably even on other worlds. Octagonal ammonia crystals in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, may spawn quadruple sun dogs!

Comet Simonsen

I don't observe comets very often. Unless they have reached naked eye brilliance and sport a magnificent tail, they're just not that exciting to look at. Most are faint fuzzy balls with no real tail to speak of; not what most people picture in their minds eye when they think of a comet.

That said, it would still be pretty cool to stumble upon one in the course of an evening observing variable stars. I spend a lot of time out under the stars with my eye to the eyepiece. After years observing variables, most of the star fields have become very familiar. I've seen lots of unexpected things- meteors streaking through the field of view, asteroids masquerading as new stars, satellites and aircraft blazing through the field, but I've never happened upon a comet.

Tuesday night I was working my way from Auriga, Canis Minor and Gemini heading to Cancer. Cancer has a disproportionate number of cataclysmic variables for such a small, faint constellation, so I always look forward to that part of my program. But just before I get there I make a little side trip to Hydra. I can only view faint objects to a certain angle above the horizon, and much of Hydra is just too low for me. So I only have two stars I observe in Hydra.

When I pointed the scope to the first one, CT Hydra and put my eye to the eyepiece everything seemed normal at first. CT Hya was too faint for me to see, so it was not in outburst. I checked my usual comparison stars to see how faint a limit I would record in my report. When I glanced toward the 14.0V comparison star I was shocked to see a fairly bright fuzzy blob just to the SE of it!

I moved the telescope ever so slightly, back and forth, to make sure it wasn't a reflection in the EP, and it stayed right where it was in relation to the field stars. I looked at it for a while and decided it was real enough, so I took the paper chart out of its page protector and drew the position and size of the object, as accurately as I could, in relation to the stars on the chart.

At this point, I was intrigued enough to go inside and try to identify just what comet this was that had intruded into my night of variable star observing. I fired up my planetarium program and asked it to show all comets within a degree of CT Hya. Nothing. I logged into the Minor Planet Checker website, typed in the coordinates of my 'comet' and searched for anything within 30'. Nothing.

How on earth did the surveys miss anything this bright this close to the celestial equator near new moon? Did I just discover a new comet? Now I was getting excited.

I emailed several observer friends and asked them to take CCD images of the field for confirmation. Then I logged into Global Rent A Scope (GRAS) in New Mexico, and fired up scope 4 which has a pretty enormous field of view for a CCD. I scripted it to run and take a 240 second exposure with a clear filter. If it was real, it should show up as a bright fuzzy object near the middle of the image.

No one got my message until much later or the next morning, but I did get two images of the area from the GRAS scope. I examined them online and was disappointed to see nothing where I expected a bright comet to be.

In the time it took to check for known comets, email friends, start the telescope, cool the CCD, autofocus, slew to the target, take images and upload them to the GRAS site, it had begun to cloud over here at home. I didn't get a second chance to see what was going on in the eyepiece of my telescope. I chalked it up to mysteries of the universe and turned in for the night. I also never made it to my variables in Cancer.

Thursday at lunch time, I was working on my data from Sonoita Research Observatory (SRO) in Arizona, so I had my photometry software up and running on the computer. I decided to download the images I took of the CT Hya field to see if I could detect the variable and submit a positive faint observation of it. When I pulled up the images on the screen and zoomed in, there was my comet!

It was a lot fainter than I expected to see, and it had moved considerably from the position I indicated on my chart, but it was there in both images, and it looked like it had moved in a straight line away from my original sighting between exposures.

I got excited all over again. Here was proof. I had pictures of Comet Simonsen! Not being an expert in cometary images, properties or motion, I emailed my images to several people, some of them experts in CCD imaging and photometry, for feedback. Was this a comet? Can they move this far in an hour or so? How come its so faint? Did I do something wrong? Or is this an artifact on the images?

I was hoping it was a comet. My comet...Comet Simonsen...discovered serendipitously while observing variable stars...I could see the headlines. What are the chances I could see something in the eyepiece, take CCD images of it and nothing was really there. I mean, C'mon, man. It's got to be a real comet, right?

I got the bad news later that night and then confirmation that it was "an interesting artifact, but not a comet" again the next morning. Stop the presses. It's not a comet.

I still don't know what I saw in the telescope that night. I'm gonna call it a UFO: Unidentified Frustrating Object. I'd have been a lot happier just working my way through my CVs in Cancer that night. As it turns out I missed an outburst of one of my favorite stars, SY Cnc, while I was messing around trying to discover Comet Simonsen 2009.

Stuff happens...

Send a message to space

I stumbled across this site on Twitter the other day. http://www.sentforever.com/index.cfm

Their ad reads, "SentForever transmits your personal message into deep space. Once that message starts traveling, it will continue for an eternity. If you've ever wanted to give someone special a personal and very unique gift, why not send them a message that will last forever."

The way it works is, you write your personal message and submit it to their website. Then they transmit the message into space via a large radio telescope. They send a certificate to the person you want to dedicate or send the message to, along with a personal tracking number so you can track how far the message has traveled into deep space. You can also receive e-mail updates to find-out when your message passes key milestones if you want.

This service normally costs £9.95 (approximately 20 US Dollars). Right now they are offering free messages, so I tried it out just so see how it works and what you get for your money.

It works pretty much as advertised. I wrote a message to send into space "You are not alone. There is life in the universe," submitted it and had it sent to my wife. The following day, they sent me an email notifying me of the transmission, along with a link to view the progress of my message into space at the speed of light. I checked in as I'm writing this and can see how far my message has progressed to date-

This message from Mike Simonsen was transmitted into deep space on 20 February 2009 at 04:47 UK time. Going at the speed of light, your message has traveled 37,639,662,291 miles to date.

I'm usually not in favor of doing stuff like this. I really have a problem with the companies that sell 'name a star' services. If you've ever had the uncomfortable experience of someone coming up to you at an observatory open house and asking to see 'the star named after my dear departed Aunt Mary', you know why. It's a scam, and one that can hurt people when they are told some anonymous star with an obscure catalog name can not really be named after Aunt Mary, no matter how much money they plunk down.

Then there are the people who sell real estate on the Moon or Mars. If this is done in good faith and humor as a fundraising tool for a non-profit, fine. But if it's done to make a profit off of gullible, uninformed people, I think they should be jailed.

This service though, is something different. These people actually can send a message into space that will travel forever. Sending a message that is verified electronically to a loved one as a gift or Valentine's Day card doesn't hurt anyone.

I can see how this could be used to demonstrate the scale of the solar system, our immediate stellar surroundings and the scale of the universe. How many miles are in a light year? How long will our message take to get to Pluto? How long to catch up to the Voyager spacecraft? How long to get to the nearest stars?

You could write a short eulogy for a friend or relative and have it transmitted into space, or write a message from the heart and send it to a girlfriend or spouse. Just remember, if you're going to send a love note, you can't take it back three years from now when you find out she has fangs and a mental disorder. A tattoo you can remove with some difficulty. This is forever...

And if you're going to send it to your wife, you might want to make your message a little more romantic than mine. Admittedly, I was trying to think of what it is I'd actually want to hear if I picked up a signal from deep space. Confirmation of alien intelligence, for sure!!

Now I may have to spring for the twenty bucks to send something romantic.

Carnival of Space #91

The Carnival of Space #91 is hosted this week by Brian Wang at the Next Big Future blog.


Nextbigfuture is the Lifeboat Foundation Technology Research News Website. The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity.

Big Eyes on a Big Star

Mass is constantly being recycled in the universe. One of the most common ways recycling is achieved is through stellar mass-loss. All stars exhibit some form of mass loss. Smaller stars can be quite stingy and hold onto their mass by burning away slowly. Other massive stars can lose prodigious amounts of mass each year. The rate at which a star loses mass depends on its initial mass, age, spectral type, luminosity class, rotation rate, evolutionary stage, even the proximity of a companion star.

The first generation of stars consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium. These stars then seeded the interstellar medium with heavier elements, shedding material via massive winds, planetary nebulae and supernova explosions.

This material then became the building blocks for the next generation of stars and planets. Understanding mass loss is essential for following the evolution of single stars, binaries, star clusters, and galaxies.

However, mass loss is among our weakest areas in understanding fundamental stellar processes. In large part, this is due to lack of detailed, direct observations of stellar photospheres and the mass-loss process. High-resolution optical interferometry with telescope arrays is beginning to provide these data, ushering in a promising a new era in mass-loss studies.

The angular resolution that a telescope can achieve is proportional to its diameter. The larger the telescope, the better its resolution. The purpose of astronomical interferometry is to mix signals from a collection of telescopes to produce images having the same angular resolution as an instrument the size of the entire collection.

The Very Large Telescope Array (VLT)

Recently, a team of French astronomers captured one of the sharpest color images ever made. The team members are Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin and Antoine Mérand (ESO), Sylvestre Lacour and Stéphanie Renard (LAOG, CNRS, Grenoble, France), and Eric Thiébaut (AIRI, Observatoire de Lyon, France).

The image was taken over several consecutive nights with ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), a virtual telescope about 100 meters across. The result is an amazing image that reveals a spherical molecular shell around an evolved Mira star, T Leporis, 500 light-years away!

Image showing T Leporis' atmospheric layers and the size of the star relative to the diameter of the Earth's orbit.
(Credit: ESO)

Miras are giant pulsating variable stars. Evolved stars like this have used up most of their nuclear fuel, causing them to swell up to enormous radii and become unstable. This internal instability causes them to expand and contract more or less regularly. T Lep pulsates with a period of 380 days, and in the process loses the equivalent of the Earth’s mass every year to space. In the end, all that is left is a white dwarf, the ash of the core, surrounded by the gases lost to space from the star’s wind and tenuous grip on its outer layers. We see these stellar remnants as planetary nebula elsewhere in the galaxy. Our Sun will become a Mira in a few billion years, engulfing the inner planets in its final blaze of glory.

Mira stars are among the biggest factories of molecules and dust in the Universe. Since the molecules and dust are formed in the outer layers of a Mira's atmosphere, astronomers would like to be able to see these layers to better understand the processes of mass loss and dust formation. Until now, this has been all but impossible due to the distance to even the nearest stars. The angular size of even giant swollen stars like T Lep were too small to image from Earth.

“T Leporis looks so small from the Earth that only an interferometric facility, such as the VLTI at Paranal, can take an image of it. VLTI can resolve stars 15 times smaller than those resolved by the Hubble Space Telescope,” says Le Bouquin.

“We were able to construct an amazing image, and reveal the onion-like structure of the atmosphere of a giant star at a late stage of its life for the first time,” says team member, Antoine Mérand. “Numerical models and indirect data have allowed us to imagine the appearance of the star before, but it is quite astounding that we can now see it, and in color.

Obtaining images like these was one of the main motivations for building the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. We have now truly entered the era of stellar imaging.”

400 years after Galileo turned his tiny telescope towards the sky, we can now actually see stars atmospheres directly, using some of astronomy's most amazing new tools of discovery.

Precursor To An Outburst?

Dwarf novae are compact binaries where one star is a sun-like star and the other member is a white dwarf, orbiting so close that it is literally stripping the outer atmosphere off its partner. The material streams over to the white dwarf but can’t slam down to the surface. Instead, it goes into orbit around the white dwarf, forming what is known as an accretion disk.

Image used with permission. Copyright Mark A. Garlick. Do not use this image without permission.

Eventually, the accretion disk builds up enough material to become unstable. The disk material falls down onto the surface of the white dwarf, causing a thermonuclear explosion that releases all kinds of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum. Optically, we see these as sudden brightenings of several magnitudes in a matter of hours. These outbursts can last from days to weeks. The system eventually simmers down into quiescence and the whole process starts over again.

The majority of these binaries have periods measured in hours. Think about that for a second. Imagine a white dwarf racing around our sun in a few hours, so close it is stripping material from the surface. Everything about these systems is extreme.

Some dwarf novae, like SS Cygni, go into outburst every couple weeks. Some may take years or decades to build up enough steam to explode into outburst. No one knows when the next outburst will occur, making these a favorite target for amateur astronomers to monitor on a nightly basis.

Occasionally, one of these cataclysmic variables will tip its hand to an upcoming outburst, by becoming active a week or more before the big event. Sometimes they will actually have a minor precursor outburst, fade to quiescence and then go into a major outburst.

Over the last couple nights, several UK observers have reported an increase in the quiescent level of V630 Cas. It has been measured peeking its head into the 15th magnitude range, slightly brighter than its normal quiescent magnitude around 16.5V.
V630 Cas is rare example of a dwarf nova with a long orbital period. Its period is measured in days, not hours.

The last recorded outburst of V630 Cas was in 1992, and lasted about three months from beginning to end. That is a long time for an outburst to last! The only other recorded outburst was in 1950. Obviously, outbursts of this system are very rare, so astronomers will be excited to catch every last detail from beginning to end of the next outburst.

This current 'activity' could be the precursor to an upcoming outburst. Observers will be paying close attention to V630 Cas in the coming weeks to make sure that a rare, and possibly long, outburst isn't missed.

I’ll let you know what happens.

Speakers Bureau

Another interesting outreach initiative from the AAVSO is the Speakers Bureau. The Speakers Bureau is a service established for people and groups looking for enthusiastic, knowledgeable speakers to provide informative presentations for astronomy clubs, star parties, banquets, Scout Troops, Astronomy Day activities and other public and private astronomy functions.

You can see a list of the available speakers, along with the list of topics they can cover here. This is only a list of topics the speakers have spoken to in the past. If you're looking for something specific, just ask. We can probably accommodate you.

Most speakers are willing to travel a reasonable distance, generally two hours drive from home, free of charge. Reimbursement for speaking engagements requiring more miles and time can be negotiated on an individual basis with the speakers themselves. The speakers' home town and distance they will travel are included on the web page.

To request a speaker for your astronomical function simply send an email to aavso at aavso dot org with 'Speakers Bureau' in the title. We will put you in touch with the individual you request or suggest one for you.

Some of the speakers from the bureau and I will be giving talks at this years Astronomical League Convention (ALCon 2009) in New York, NY this August. If you are going to attend, look me up. I'm always glad to get to know fellow astronomers.


If you are unable to get a speaker for your event due to time, money or geographical challenges, AAVSO also offers a library of ready-made PowerPoint presentations you can use to give a talk yourself. These are available free for download from the AAVSO Education and Outreach Pages.

Mentor Program

Getting started in the hobby of astronomy can seem overwhelming. I mean, it is the study of the Universe! That's a pretty staggering concept. There is so much to learn; constellations, the motions of the stars, Sun, Moon, planets, just getting the names and pronunciations right can be tough without some good help, or a mentor.

Most observers start out in just about that order, it's a natural progression. Once they've learned their way around the sky and can name many of the bright stars and constellations they gravitate towards the Moon and planets. For many of us, that first magical look through a telescope at Saturn and her majestic ring system is all it takes to get us hooked for life.



Soon after purchasing their first telescope, most amateur astronomers begin seeking out deep sky objects, like the Messier objects. Locating them and learning how to discern the subtle detail available in the eyepiece is a fun and rewarding experience.

Most people find that adding to their understanding of the objects they observe adds to the enjoyment. Knowing that the planetary nebula you are looking is the gaseous remains of an old stars atmosphere, glowing in space due to the energy released by the white dwarf in its center makes them even more exciting to observe. Soon, reading astronomy books and magazines, even astronomy blogs!, becomes a regular activity.

The variable star AE Aurigae is embedded in the Flaming Star Nebula, aka IC 405.
Photo credit: Jorge Garcia, Astronomy Picture of the Day

For me, it was the things that changed from day to day, or even in the course of a few hours, that were always the most interesting things to observe. Watching sun spots rotate around the solar disk, tracking the changing orientation of the Galilean satellites from night to night, watching a prominent feature on Mars rotate out of sight and watching the Moon pass in front of a bright star or planet has always been the biggest thrill for me. Proof that the Universe was alive with motion and packed with action I could see with my own eyes or in a telescope.

Many amateurs can continue on chasing after ever fainter, more elusive 'faint fuzzies', or spend the rest of their life perfecting the technique of obtaining the perfect image of a galaxy or star cluster, but for some, they reach a fork in the road, where they decide they want to actually contribute to science in some meaningful way. For many of these amateur scientists, variable star observing (VSO) provides the answer.


Getting started in VSO presents many of the same challenges as starting out in general astronomy. You need to be able to find your way around the sky, learn the terminology, and learn how to get the most out of your equipment and what the limitations are. And just like other astronomical pursuits, its a lot more fun if you understand what it is you're looking at and why it is interesting to professional astroomers.

Fortunately, the AAVSO has a program for beginning observers, the AAVSO Mentor Program. The AAVSO has a long tradition of experienced observers helping new observers learn the ropes of VSO. Many of us can trace our knowledge back several generations to some of the most prolific and famous amateur observers of all time. Even William Tyler Olcott, the founder of the AAVSO, started out by learning VSO from another observer.


The mentor program has volunteer instructors in the US, Canada, Europe, South America and Australia. There are mentors for visual observers just stating out and knowledgeable amateurs who can teach you to use a CCD or photoelectric photometer.


"...it is a fact that only by the observation of variable stars can the amateur turn his modest equipment to practical use, and further to any extent the pursuit of knowledge in its application to the noblest of sciences."

William Tyler Olcott, March 1911

If you'd like to turn your modest equipment to practical use observing variable stars, and want to get off to a good start, contact the AAVSO, or email me at mikesimonsen at aavso dot org to request a mentor to help get you started.

Most observers start out doing VSO because they want to contribute to science. The observers who stay with it for years and years do it because its a lot of fun. So come on and join in the fun, but be forewarned, you may get hooked...

"I feel it my duty to warn any others who may show signs of star susceptibility that they approach the observing of variable stars with the utmost caution. It is easy to become an addict and, as usual, the longer the indulgence is continued the more difficult it becomes to make a clean break and go back to a normal life."

Leslie C. Peltier, Starlight Nights, 1965

Writers Bureau

Nearly every astronomy club and society in the world publishes a monthly newsletter as a benefit of membership. These range from one or two page notices of upcoming events and meetings, to full blown news publications with articles, color images, calendars, sky maps and advertising.

Many of the editors of these newsletters scramble for content each month to fill the pages of their publications. Many use the articles supplied by NASA to fill out their pages. In fact, I see the same article in a bunch of newsletters each month. There's nothing wrong with that, but wouldn't a little variety and choice be a good thing?

The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) has an education and outreach program you just might be interested in, The AAVSO Writer's Bureau.

We have partnered with some of the best astronomy bloggers on the Internet and made an arrangement to bring their content to you for reproduction in your newsletters. We have obtained permission for you to download and use this content when you want, as often as you please, for your astronomy club publications, FREE!

Pick one article each month or ten, it's up to you. Think of it as an AP wire service for astronomy news.

Here is a list of our current contributing bloggers and links to their blogs. Check it out; this is a great collection of space and astronomy news.

• Astroblog- Ian Musgrave
• Astroengine- Ian O'Neill
• Astronomy Blog- Stuart
• Bad Astronomy- Phil Plait
• Cosmic Ray- Ray Villard
• Professor Astronomy- Kurtis Williams
• Simostronomy- Mike Simonsen
• Slacker Astronomy- Michael Koppelman, Doug Welch
• Space Center Blog- Dr. Rosa Williams
• Space Disco- Dave Mosher
• Star Stryder- Pamela L. Gay
• Starts With A Bang!- Ethan Siegel
• Systemic- Greg Laughlin
• The Spacewriter's Ramblings- Carolyn Collins Petersen
• Tom's Astronomy Blog- Tom
• Twisted Physics- Jennifer Ouellette
• Visual Astronomy- Sean Welton
• Whats Up?- Alan Dyer

Each month we select a number of articles from the best bloggers and place them on a private weblog. This blog is not visible to search engines or to the public, only to newsletter editors who have subscribed and to the authors of the content. If you'd like to subscribe, simply email me at mikesimonsen at aavso dot org. I'll send you an invitation to log in by email.

In order to use this material, editors are required to give full credit to the author, publish the blog name and url associated with the article in their newsletter, and leave a comment on the writers bureau blog for each piece you download, stating where and when it will be
used.

This way the authors get proper credit for their work and publicity for their blog. When you leave a comment stating the usage of the material they get a running tally of the number of copies of their content for their purposes; such as obtaining grants to do outreach and explaining to their bosses why they spend so much time producing excellent science articles for free!

What you get is informative, scientifically accurate, professionally written content gleaned from the top writers on the web all in one place each month for you to use in your newsletter!

Since this is an AAVSO initiative, the articles we select are positive, informative pieces mainly focusing on variable stars, novae, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, transiting exoplanets, black holes, stellar evolution, CCD and visual observing techniques, photometry, all sky surveys, as well as book, software and equipment reviews.

We have about 50 editors subscribing to the bureau serving around 8,000 readers from the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia. If your astronomy club or society could benefit from this service, contact me or have your newsletter editor email me anytime.

Carnival of Space #89

The 89th edition of Carnival of Space is now online. This week it is hosted by Darnell Clayton of The Moon Society Blog.

This week's Carnival includes a couple good pieces about super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies. There are also tips on how to do astronomy outreach via radio and podcasts.

There are several articles on the Moon, Mars and planets, here around the Sun as well as elsewhere, orbiting distant stars. There are even some interesting articles about the possibility of aliens inhabiting far off planets.

My blog about Gomez's Hamburger is featured this week too.

As usual, a nice collection of interesting articles from the blogosphere. 'Tip of the hat' to the Moon Society Blog for putting it all together in a nice package.

Happy Birthday Astronomical Society of the Pacific

From the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast on February 6:

"On Feb. 7, 1889 there was a triumphant meeting of a San Francisco club of amateur photographers to celebrate their successful "shooting" of a total eclipse of the Sun. At this gathering, a group of 40 astronomers, educators, and astronomy enthusiasts signed the Charter Membership Roll of a group they called the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. As we celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, we also commemorate the 120^th anniversary of the founding of the ASP -- the first national (and international) astronomical organization in the U.S."


The ASP website also has some special features and articles this month commemorating this special anniversary.

Restless Universe Episode 2

The AAVSO podcast, Restless Universe is on the air again. Our podcast airs on the 7th each month at the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast website.

There are tens of thousands of known variable stars. Professional astronomers don’t have the time or telescopes to keep track of the changes to thousands of stars, so amateurs play an important role in variable star research.

This week Travis, Rebecca and I discuss the methods and instruments used to observe variable stars. How to locate them in the sky, how to measure their brightness over time and how to collect and submit your data to the AAVSO so you can contribute to real science!