Hamilton Amateur Astronomers January 2002 Volume 9 Issue 3 Hubble Suggests First Stars Opened in a Blaze of Glory The deepest views of the M. Lanzetta of the State Uni- hundred million years after cosmos from NASA's versity of New York at Stony the big bang. Though stars Hubble Space Telescope Brook and colleagues lead to continue to be born today in yield clues that the very first the preliminary conclusion galaxies, the star birthrate stars may have burst into the that the universe made a could be a trickle compared universe as brilliantly and significant portion of its stars to the predicted gusher of spectacularly as a fireworks in a torrential firestorm of star stars in those opulent early finale. In this case though the birth, which abruptly lit up the years. finale came first, long pitch-dark heavens just a few before Earth, the Sun This new idea of a and the Milky Way continually escalat- Galaxy formed. ing rate of star birth the farther Hubble If this interpretation is looks back in time correct, it offers a offers a dramatic re- tantalizing possibility vision of previous that astronomers Hubble Deep Field may behold this stel- studies that pro- lar blaze of glory posed that the star when they use birthrate in the early NASA's Next Gener- universe ramped up ation Space Tele- to a "baby boom" scope and other fu- about halfway back ture space tele- to the beginning of scopes to probe the universe. even farther into the very early universe. "If this can be veri- fied it will dramati- Studies of Hubble's cally change our un- deepest views of the derstanding of the heavens by Kenneth (Continued on page 4) inside... Chair's Report page 2 February Night Skies page 5 Year in Review page 3 Calendar of Events page 6 Hubble (continued) page 4 Page 2 Chair's Report Chair's Report After a dominantly hat you will all join me in cloudy December, I thanking Rosa for doing a am pleased to re- wonderful job - as they say port that I am writing this col- "You will eat lamb in par- umn from Cerro Tololo Inter- adise!" EE vent Horizon is a publication of the Hamilton Amateur American Observatory in Astronomers (HAA). Chile. The temperature is If you made it to this meeting, The HAA is an amateur astronomy wonderful, the sky is always you will have noticed that it is club dedicated to the promotion and clear and the moon has been at the Steam Museun instead enjoyment of astronomy for people of mostly absent from the night- of the Spectator. This is a all ages and experience levels time sky. Who can complain?! result of the change in book- One downside is that I will ing policy of the Spectator The cost of the subscription is miss the January 2002 HAA auditorium - we can't reserve included in the $25 individual or $30 meeting, but I am grateful to it for whole years in advance. family membership fee for the year. Grant Dixon for standing in for The next two meetings (Feb Event Horizon is published a me and to Stewart Attlesey for and Mar) are definitely at the minimum of 10 times a year. preparing another interesting Spectator Auditorium. We will talk. do our best to keep the meet- HAA Council ing place as immobile as pos- Hon. Chair Jim Winger Chair Doug Welch One sad piece of news is that sible! Second Chair Grant Dixon Rosa Assalone, our longtime Secretary Margaret Walton Event Horizon editor, has de- Finally, it is my pleasure to Treasurer Barbara Wight cided to step down after many announce that Anthony Obs. Dir Stewart Attlesey years of service to the club. Tekatch has decided to Publicity Sheila Overall The few brave souls who "throw himself on the Editor Rosa Assalone have been editors in the past grenade" and to takeover as Membership Dir. Ann Tekatch can testify to the thankless- Event Horizon editor. Plet us Webmaster Anthony Tekatch ness of having to compile and all get him off to a running print a newsletter in the last start by contributing articles Councillors few nanoseconds before a well in advance of the Feb Ray Badgerow meeting, due to the tardiness 2002 article deadline!! of many contributors - such as Web Site http://amateurastronomy.org/ the Chair! I'm Happy New Year and Clear s u r e Skies in 2002! Mailing Address PO Box 65578 Dundas, ON L9H 6Y6 t Doug Welch Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 3 2001: A Space Year in Review (sort of) Mars at the same time I was T T his article deals with spacecraft will commence a rather quick sum- visiting Victoria Falls. mapping of Mars in January. mary of some of the astronom- ical events of the year 2001, as August 24- Discovery of the November 16- The Genesis I saw it. In case I left anything binary KBO 2001 QW 322, spacecraft enters into a quasi- out please excuse me as I did with a separation of 100,000 stable orbit about the L1 la- this article in a bit of a last km. grangian point to begin its col- minute rush. Feel free to add lection of solar wind particles. your own if you like. September 5- Milky Way's black hole weighs in at 2.6 November 17/18- Leonid Me- January 9th- Total Lunar million solar masses. teor Storm. The shower was Eclipse visible from North by all accounts spectacular, America, and apparently even though the observed well observed. rates were lower than ex- pected. I was fogged out February 14- The and didn't see anything. NEAR spacecraft touches down on the December 14- Annular surface of the asteroid solar eclipse visible from Eros revealing features Central America, it was as small as 3 cm. largely clouded out but some people saw the June 13- Mars reaches event. its best opposition since 1988 and is widely ob- Other items include more served. Closest ap- binary asteroids: 87 proach happens on June Sylvia,107 Camilla,22 21,the day of the sum- Kalliope, and the trojan mer solstice. 617 Patroclus. The largest KBO to date 2001 June 21- Total solar eclipse September 22- The Deep KX76(28978) has an approxi- visible from sub-equatorial Space 1 spacecraft flies past mate diameter of 1200 km, Africa. I observed this event comet Borrelly and reveals the thereby dethroning Ceres the from Zambia along with thou- best views of a cometary nu- largest asteroid. In addition sands of others. The skies were cleus. there was also the discovery of clear throughout the dry sea- possible ancient Martian lakes son. October 24- The 2001 Mars by the MGS spacecraft. Odyssey spacecraft enters into June 26- A global dust storm orbit about Mars much to the breaks out on the surface of relief of NASA officials. The Ray Badgerow Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 4 Hubble... (Continued from page 1) it is invisible," he says. ternate measure of star for- universe," said Dr. Anne Kin- mation. "Because they are ney, director of the Astron- Based on an analysis of point sources of light, super- omy and Physics division at galaxy colors, Lanzetta con- novae are not subject to the NASA Headquarters, Wash- cludes that the farthest ob- same cosmological ington. "Because stars are jects in the deep fields must brightness-dimming effects the building blocks of galax- be extremely intense, unex- like galaxies (which are ex- ies and the birthplace of so- pectedly bright knots of blue- tended sources of light)," lar systems, proving that white, hot newborn stars em- says Lanzetta. countless numbers of stars bedded in primordial galax- began forming so early after ies that are too faint to be Don Savage the birth of the universe seen even by Hubble's far Headquarters, Washington could cause us to rethink a vision. It's like seeing only lot of our theories." the lights on a distant Christ- Nancy Neal mas tree and inferring the Goddard Space Flight Cen- Lanzetta bases his conclu- presence of the whole tree. ter, Greenbelt, Md. sion on a new analysis of galaxies in the Hubble deep Likewise, Lanzetta deduced Ray Villard fields taken near the north the total population of stars Space Telescope Science and south celestial poles (in in the early universe based Institute, Baltimore 1995 and 1998 respectively). on observing only the bright- He reports in an upcoming est stars with the Hubble The Association of Universi- issue of the Astrophysical telescope. Because such far ties for Research in Astron- Journal that the farthest ob- extrapolations are built on omy, Inc. operates the jects in the deep fields are certain assumptions, this Space Telescope Science only the "tip of the iceberg" of conclusion will require further Institute for NASA, under an effervescent period of analysis and observation. contract with the Goddard star birth that is unlike any- Space Flight Center, Green- thing the universe will ever Lanzetta next plans to use belt, Md. The Hubble Space see again. Lanzetta con- Hubble's Advanced Camera Telescope is a project of in- cludes that 90 percent of the for Surveys, to be installed in ternational co-operation be- light from the early universe early 2002, to look even tween NASA and the Euro- is missing in the Hubble deeper into the universe to pean Space Agency. deep fields. "The previous try to directly verify some census of the deep fields portion of the missing light. missed most of the ultraviolet He will also look for very light in the universe; most of distant supernovae as an al- Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Page 5 "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go camping, and pitch their tent under the stars. During the night, Holmes wakes his companion and says: 'Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you deduce.' Watson says: 'I see millions of stars, and even if a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life.' Holmes replies: 'Watson, you idiot. Somebody stole our tent.'" CALENDAR OF EVENTS * January 11, 12, 18, 19 BINBROOK OBSERVING NIGHTS - For confirmation or directions call February 8, 9, 15, 16 Ann Tekatch 575-5433, Marg Walton 627-7361, Rob Roy 692-3245 * Friday, February 8, 7:30pm HAA GENERAL MEETING - The meeting will be at the Spectator Building auditorium. * Friday, March 8, 7:30pm HAA GENERAL MEETING - The meeting will be at the Spectator Building auditorium. Event Horizon - Hamilton Amateur Astronomers