North Jersey Astronomical Group

The North Jersey Astronomical Group (NJAG) is an astronomy club composed of about fifty people interested in all aspects of stargazing, including the sun as well as the stars, the planets, and deep sky objects. The NJAG meets regularly (usually the second Wednesdays of each month except August) at Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, NJ. We also hold weekly Public Telescope Nights during the Fall and Spring semesters. These are clear Thursdays, and will be from September 2 to December 9, 2010, except for November 25 (Thanksgiving).

The next monthly meeting will be Wednesday, September 8. Tim Lynch (Montclair Kimberley Academy) will present A Travelogue: Voyages of Discovery and of "Discovery" (Seeing a shuttle Launch and attending SETIcon)

The Wednesday evening monthly meetings are free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served in Richardson Hall, Room 232 at MSU. Remember to pay the parking meter machine, even after dark.

The major event for the fall was the annual club dinner on Sunday November 8, 2009 at 5 PM. Dr. Jenny Greene of Princeton University presented "Weighing Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxy Centers." The dinner was at the Cloverleaf Tavern, 395 Bloomfield Avenue, Caldwell, NJ 07006 from 5-8 PM, $30/person, including door prizes.

Here are directions to MSU. For more information visit our club webpage at http://www.njastro.org.

Our March, 2003 field trip to the Fells Planetarium in Philadelphia was also a lot of fun!

Weekly Public Telescope Nights will be on clear Thursdays January 21 to April 29, 2010, except for March 18 (Spring Break).

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For 2010 the NJAG Club Officers are:

President: Mathew Stein
Vice President/Program Chair: Kevin Conod
Treasurer: Marc Elfenbein
Membership: Joe Marzullo
Recording Secretary: Lori Michel
Corresponding Secretary: Mike Wallace
Website ( www.njastro.org): Adrian Oradean
Trustee: Angelo Restivo
Observations: Joe Marzullo
Librarian:
Astrophotography: Angelo Restivo
Education/Outreach: Maja Britton and Mary Lou West
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The NJAG offers the following to the general public:

• Telescope Nights
• Photos of the Sky and of Astronomy Day Activities
• Monthly Meetings (see below)
• Membership Information
• Astronomy Links

NORTH JERSEY ASTRONOMICAL GROUP
P.O. Box 1472
Clifton, NJ 07015-1472

Programs in 2010:

October 13, Bill Kroth, Sterling Hill Mining Museum, Meteorites

September 8, Tim Lynch (MKA), A Travelogue: Voyages of Discovery and of "Discovery" (Seeing a shuttle Launch and attending SETIcon)

July 14, Dr. Saurabh Jha, Rutgers, Surveying the Universe with Supernovae
The last decade has seen a revolution in our understanding of the history and contents of our Universe. He will describe how we use a class of exploding stars, called type Ia supernovae, to measure the expansion history of the Universe. Observations of bright, nearby supernovae (often discovered by amateur astronomers), combined with measurements of faint, distant supernovae have led us to the astounding conclusion that the Universe is expanding faster and faster, driven by "dark energy" about which much remains to be learned.

Dr. Jha is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University. His research focuses on studying exploding white dwarf stars called Type Ia supernovae, and using them as cosmological tools with which to survey the Universe. A New Jersey native, Prof. Jha received his Ph.D. in astronomy in 2002 from Harvard University, and subsequently was a Miller Research Fellow at UC Berkeley, as well as a Panofsky Fellow in the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 2007 Prof. Jha was a co-recipient of the Gruber Cosmology Prize, as part of the High-z Supernova Search Team, for the joint discovery of the accelerating Universe. His current research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and NASA.

June 9, Phil Fimiani, NJAG, In Search of the Large Telescope: Has the biggest been built?
Some historical perspectives, old and new technologies, the future.
A look at the large telescopes of the world and the technologies within them. Do they still hold promise in future research as Hubble awes and humbles, with all it sees? Can an earthbound telescope still play a significant role in astronomical research? It seems earthbound optical tools still have a significant role to play in our search for clues of the cosmos.

May 12, MSU Student Research Projects in Astronomy and Physics:
1. Laboratory Models of Folding in Geology – Deepa Shah
2. The Trojan Asteroids – Alex Cali
3. Galaxy Collisions – Dawn Haider and Craig Lapierre
5. Variations in Quasar Colors Over Time– Garrett Nieddu
6. The Hubble Diagram– Oscar Patterson
7. The Blinker, A Model of the Eye – Paul McLaughlin

April 14, Kevin Conod, Newark Museum Dreyfuss Planetarium and NJAG, Planetariums: Theaters of Time and Space

March 10, Lonny Buinis, Raritan Valley College, Singing Moon Rocks and Dancing Astronaut - the making of "The Moonrock Rock"!

February 10, cancelled by a blizzard

January 13, Corey Oses, NJAG, The Cold Sky Above Cornell

Programs in 2009:

December 9, Our Annual Winter Solstice Party, please bring finger food

November 11, an informal discussion among club members of observing and projects.

Sunday, November 8, 5 PM, Annual Dinner. Dr Jenny Greene, Weighing Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxy Centers

October 14, Keith Murdock, RAC, The Siberia Beyond Neptune - The Kuiper Belt

September 9, Caroline Moore, RAC, Discovering a Supernova

July 8, Erika Hamden, Columbia University astrophysics graduate student, Total Solar Eclipse this Month! Also, Sharon Anderson and Mary Lou West told about the Galileo Symposium at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia that they attended July 19.

June 10, "400 Years of the Telescope" (video)

May 13 Montclair State student research projects:

• Lunar Feature Depths Calculated from Shadow Lengths (Eric Sonnenwald)
• Time Variations in the Luminosity of Quasars Elizabeth Taylor and Wesley Wan)
• Overview of the MSU Autonomous Vehicle Project (Sam Petrocelli)
• Bubble and Bubble Chains in Magnetic Fluid (Ferrofluids)(James Yoo)
• Taylor Columns in a Rotating Fluid (Sam Petrocelli)

April 8, Lori-Anne Michel and Mike Wallace, NJAG, "The Banyan Stars" Project Astro at Banyan School, where Lori-Anne Michel teaches science to the middle grades.

March 11, Mary Lou West, MSU, Mars: Beautiful but Hostile to Life

February 11, Samuel Tun, NJIT, Storms in Space: The Environment Around Our Active Star

January 14, Journey to Palomar. This PBS documentary video chronicles America's first journey into space. It is the story of George Ellery Hale, who built the largest telescope in the world, four times. It was written by Todd and Robin Mason, 2008.

Programs in 2008:

December 10, Annual Winter Solstice Party, please bring finger foods or drinks!

November 12, Frank Erli, "My Experiences Building Spacecraft, particularly the Mars Observer and Mars Global Surveyor"

Sunday, November 2, Annual Dinner , the Russian Hall restaurant, 4 Woodhull Avenue in Little Falls. Robert Search of Centenary College "Searching for Life in the Solar System," a tour of the modern solar system and discuss how spacecraft missions like Cassini are being used to look for the existence of life forms in our neighborhood of space. (There will sometimes be references to science fiction movies.) Mr. Search is currently pursuing his Ed.D. in mathematics and has received Centenary's Distinguished Teaching Award. Cost is $28.

Astrophotography Contest

Friday October 32, Halloween, 7-10 PM, Autumn Stargazing at Riker Hill Art Park with the Newark Dreyfuss Planetarium staff.
Directions: Garden State Parkway exit 145 or NJ Turnpike exit 15W, Route 280 west, exit 4 to Eisenhower Parkway south, go through the light, go across the railroad tracks and up the hill. After half a mile turn left onto Beaufort Ave., bear right to continue on Beaufort, turn left at the sign for "Riker Hill Art Park." At the stop sign go straight. Bear right at the fork, park at the top of the hill. Telescopes will be set up in the field on your right at the very top of the hill.

October 8, Dr. Andy Garrard, NJIT, "Space Weather Research at NJIT: From New Jersey to Antarctica to NJ Again!" (Magnetometers)

September 10, Mary Lou West, "Astronomy Update 2008, a report from the American Astronomical Society Meeting in St. Louis in June, 2008"

Friday, July 25, 9-11 PM, Summer Stargazing at Riker Hill Art Park with the Newark Dreyfuss Planetarium staff.

July 9, Dr. Charles Liu, CUNY College of Staten Island, "After Galaxies Collide." Galaxy collisions are spectacular cosmic events taking millions or even billions of years to complete. What's left in the aftermath? In one system, called G515, it looks like a quiet, hidden, supermassive black hole! Dr. Liu will trace the history of this enigmatic object, and investigate the black hole lurking within. He is a professor of astrophysics at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island, and an Associate with the Hayden Planetarium and Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

June 11, Theresa Moody, Raritan Valley Community College, New Jersey Astronomy Center for Education, "From a (neglected) Six Inch to Spitzer: A High School Teacher's Telescopic Journey."
An introduction to the International Year of Astronomy, 2009, and the Galileoscope kits.

May 14, Several Montclair State students present the astronomy projects they have done this year. 1. Blazar OJ 287 (Ed Knesevitch, Chrissy Vadovszki, Tim Buli), 2. Comet Holmes (Tim Buli, Chrissy Vadovszki, Ed Knesevitch), 3. Global Warming Calculations (Wesley Wan, Ted Gierlich), 4. Asteroid Warnings (Sam Petrocelli), 5. Galaxy Collisions (Phillip Bevacqua), 6. Supermassive Black Holes (Ed Knesevitch)

April 9, Erika Hamden, Columbia University, "The Orion Nebula Cluster of Stars" and also observing with the MMT.

March 12, Maja Britton, new Solar System Walk at the New Jersey Botanical Garden in Ringwood. Also, Adrian Oradean introduced the club's new webpage. www.njastro.org

February 20, 9-11 PM, Total Lunar Eclipse and spring stargazing at Riker Hill Art Park

February 13, "Some Public Astronomy Sites in China" by Mary Lou West.

January 9, NASA video "Passport to Pluto" about the New Horizons spacecraft, and Kevin and Heidi's baklava.

Previous years' programs were also interesting.