Shoreline Amateur Astronomical Association

by Peter Burkey
January 25, 2008

One of the most famous objects in the sky is the Hubble Space Telescope. Besides being the source of many astounding discoveries, it has also provided us with views of the universe that are unparalleled in their beauty.

Now West Michigan residents may enjoy 30 of the finest Hubble photographs at the Muskegon Museum of Art (http://www.muskegonartmuseum.org/exhibitions.htm) in an exhibit called “Heavens Above: Photographs of the Universe from the Hubble Space Telescope”. The exhibit runs through March 16.

In fact, you may experience a little bit of time travel while viewing these pictures. Mark Voit, Professor of Astronomy at Michigan State University, explained how during a presentation he made for the opening of the exhibit. Since the light travels at a fixed speed, it takes time for it to make the trip between the object being photographed and Earth. Although the speed of light is very fast ( 8 times around the Earth in one second) the objects in the pictures are very far away so light that takes less than a millionth of a second to travel the length of a football field would take almost an hour and a half to get to Saturn, over four years to the nearest star, and 1500 years to the Orion Nebula. That means we are seeing these things as they appeared that long ago. Not much changes in a millionth of a second, but when we view distant galaxies, we see them as they were billions of years ago, when they were quite young and quite different.

At the opening, Dr. Voit took the audience on a journey trough time beginning with Hubble photos of the solar system. In one extraordinary picture could be seen a volcano erupting on one of the moons of Jupiter.

We then entered the realm of the stars, clusters and nebulae. We saw them as they were hundreds to thousands of years ago.

Our final stop was the distant galaxies mentioned earlier. Some were so far away they appeared to us as they were before the Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago. The exhibit also includes time lapse photos of a star that exploded and computer simulations of colliding galaxies which I found to be extremely interesting.

After his presentation, I asked Dr. Voit how any one astronomer is able to use the telescope for his or her research. Each year a call for proposals goes out to the astronomical community. Of the more than 1000 submissions, about 200 are accepted and observing times are then assigned.

I also learned that his most interesting Hubble observation involved images formed by gravitational lensing, and the most memorable event he has witnessed as an amateur astronomer was a display of the Aurora Borealis right here in Michigan. My last question concerned the direction of future astronomical research which Dr. Voit feels will be the search for and study of planets around other stars.

I highly recommend this wonderful exhibit and encourage you to take the time to see it. In this way the Hubble Space Telescope will be completing one of its most important functions - making the wonders of the universe available to us all.

by Peter Burkey

Many of the world’s religions, both current and historical, have connections with things astronomical. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the earth’s ancient people all observed the same sky full of awe inspiring objects. It is no wonder,then, that stars play an important role in many religions and to Christians the Star of Bethlehem is the best known example.

Although we have very little historical information about the Star (only two sentences in the Book of Matthew refer to it) hundreds if not thousands of books and articles have been written on possible astronomical interpretations of the event. In fact, the December issue of Sky and Telescope magazine contained an article by an astronomy student at Michigan State University, Aaron Adair, that summarizes nicely the various theories. His conclusions may surprise you.

Some proposed explanations, such as ball lightning or meteors, never gained acceptance. More popular theories include comets, novae (stars that “flare up”), or planetary alignments, but Adair argues “a closer examination finds severe weaknesses in all of these”.

The comet hypothesis does not seem plausible because comets were most often regarded as omens of evil. A nova or supernova could have been bright enough and lasted long enough to guide the Magi to Jerusalem. But a nova or supernovae would have been recorded by observers in the Far East and no such reports have been found. Also, it is difficult to imagine a comet or supernova behaving as described in the Scriptures.

One of the most popular explanations involves what is known as a planetary conjunction, a gathering of two or more planets in the same area of the sky. With modern planetarium software we can easily recreate these events at the exact time and position in which they occurred. One such example is the very close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter near the star Regulus in the constellation Leo on June 17, 2 BC. This explanation assumes Leo is the constellation representing Judea at that time, but scholars do not agree on this point.
Planetary conjunctions, however, usually had astrological meanings and Adair makes a good argument that Jesus’ Jewish followers probably would not have heeded the warnings of astrologers.

Another recent “explanation” was put forth by Michael Molnar in his 1999 book The Star of Bethlehem. On April 17, 6 BC, the Moon occulted (passed in front of) the planet Jupiter. He argues this could have been interpreted as a good sign that later became the Star. Unfortunately, evidence suggests an occultation such as this would have predicted a King’s death! Equally unfortunate is the fact that the occultation took place in the daytime and would not have been visible to the Magi.

Adair, who is also a show presenter at the Abrams Planetarium at MSU, offers an alternate viewpoint at the end of his article. Since all of the astronomical “explanations” have serious flaws, perhaps we should rely on faith in this case. To read comments on the article go to SkyandTelescope.com/starofbethlehem.

Now, if we could just see some stars around here once, it would be a brighter Holiday Season.

Image of Venus and Saturn captured by Peter Burkey on Saturday June 30th.

The image can be found here: http://www.ynefel.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=930

Folks,

Sunday night was clear on the east side of the state and I was fortunate enough to have my camera arrive to catch the comet going by M57. I had to shorten my truss tubes to achieve in-focus. Then, after reassembling everything, recollimating, and getting the Servocat going I slewed over to M57 and was imaging within 30 seconds.

Note: the moon was waxing gibbous, and you can still see the central star!

Sure hope you guys got to see it - it was truly spectacular, and reminded me of the SAAA observing session at my home years ago in Holland when we watched saturn occult a bright star…

Later,
Robert

Happy Thanksgiving to all in the SAAA. I have many fond memories of you and will treasure my time in your club. Soon I’ll even have to part with the KAS - at least geographically. I close on the new Ann Arbor house at the end of this year. I made sure this time I’ve got a open southern horizon, and Wendy has gone on record that I can build an observatory!

Russ, I sure am glad I met you, too. This is the first time I’ve heard about WordPress, so I couldn’t resist but download and play with it. Aw shucks, I even decided to start up my own website with it. See www.ynefel.com. I’ve embedded Gallery2 into WordPress, so you can more easily integrate your blog with your photoalbum. Have a look - any questions, just ask. I’m just starting out, so pardon my construction dust….

Robert Wade will be leaving us for the Ann Arbor area.
I got to scope with Robert 3 or 4 times.
The very first star party I went to Robert was there, his knowledge and friendship made me feel very welcome. Robert was never put off with any qustion I had for him. He was always willing to share views, point out objects and help me learn the night sky.
Robert you will be missed

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