Transcript March 2016
Research at AAI: Sperry Observatory 24”, Jenny Jump 14”, Personal telescopes Mary Lou West, 2016 Exoplanet Transits Exoplanets are planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Some of their orbits lie in our line of sight, so they transit across the face of their star from our point of view. Observations of the amount of light blocked, and the duration of the transit allow us to calculate the radius of the planet and the radius of its orbit. Speckle Interferometry of Close Double Stars The most important property of a star is its mass. If we can determine the orbit of a pair of binary stars, then we can determine their masses. The orbit is found by years of observations of relative positions, the faster and closer, the better. Spectroscopy Low resolution spectra (SA 100) of emission nebulae and of stars of different temperatures. Clif Ashcraft and his night assistant Boomer. A triple star system A 597 at 1.4 arc seconds separation resolved by spatial Fourier analysis. We will observe 15 transits in support of the Hubble Space Telescope’s observations of infrared spectra to search for water vapor and for clouds. We will also observe possible transits of exoplanet candidates for confirmation. Cepheid Variable Stars in Globular Cluster M5 Observations with a DSLR camera over a month show the cyclic brightening and fading of Cepheid variables V42 and V84. Henrietta Swan Leavitt showed that the period of these stars can indicate their distance from Earth. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is Shrinking Emily Mailhot, Alan Midkiff, Jim Nordhausen, Dennis Conti, Mary Ducca, John Kozimbo, Mary Lou West, Al Witzgall, Tolga Gumusayak, and Clif Ashcraft at the Sperry 24” telescope in Cranford. The brightness of a star over several hours showing a 1.5% decrease in brightness due to its planet passing across its face. Lower data are steady comparison stars. References: •Ashcraft, C. (2007), Double Star Report, Journal of Double Star Observations, , •Ashcraft, C. (2016), Speckle Interferometry with a Low Read-noise CMOS Video Camera, JDSO, 12 (3), 280-286 •Genet R., Rowe, D., Ashcraft, C., Wen, S., Jones, G., Schillings, B., Harshaw, R., Ray, J., Hass, J. (2016), Speckle Interferometry of Close Visual Binaries with the ZW Optical ASI 224MC CMOS Camera, JDSO, 12 (3), 270-279 Astrophotography Sun Helder Jacinto Moon Clif Ashcraft Planets Clif Ashcraft Planets Tony Sharfman Star clusters Helder Jacinto Nebulae Michael Lamonaco Nebulae Tolga Gumusayak Nebulae Galaxies Tolga Gumusayak Tolga Gumusayak