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 January 19 to May 3, 2012, except for March 15 (Spring Break).

The next monthly meeting will be Wednesday, May 9, 2012. MSU students will present their research projects in astronomy and physics this year. This will include:
Black holes, supermassive and stellar - Goran Dojcinoski
Rims of chondrules in meteorites -Travis Keeler
Penetrating cosmic rays, and Exoplanet temperatures - Will Hernandez
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids – Jim Shaw and Brian Ruderman
Spiral stairway to heaven, and Lagrange Points - Wayne Ernst
Hohmann transfer orbits, gravity assists, and Biomechanics of cilia and wings - Pamela Guerron and Danny Barry
Collisions of galaxies – Daniel Mulligan

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.

We had a beautiful star party at the School of Conservation on Thursday June 30, 2011 for the LSAMP program. Jan, Jim, Mary Lou, Roger, Laura, and Paul used four telescopes (including two 12 inch Dobs) to show people Saturn (of, course!), Albireo, Antares, Alcor and Mizar, the double double in Lyra, M13, M27 (the Dumbbell Nebula), M51, M57 (Ring Nebula), M81, M82, the veil in Cygnus, and told lots of constellation stories. We were also treated to the International Space Station, several faint satellites, and a bright shooting star. Jan took a nice picture of the summer Milky Way.

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

Weekly Public Telescope Nights will be on clear Thursdays January 19 to May 3, 2012, except for March 15 (Spring Break).

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For 2012 the NJAG Club Officers are:

President: Lori-Anne Michel
Vice President/Program Chair: Kevin Conod
Treasurer: Marc Elfenbein
Membership: Joe Marzullo
Recording Secretary:
Corresponding Secretary: Mike Wallace
Website ( www.njastro.org): Adrian Oradean
Trustee: Angelo Restivo
Observations: Joe Marzullo
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 2012:

Tuesday, June 5, Transit of Venus, at Riker Hill Art Park in Livingston, 6-7:30 PM

May 9, MSU student research projects in astronomy and physics

April 11, Curiosity, the Next Generation Mars Rover, Kevin Conod, NJAG and Dreyfuss Planetarium at the Newark Museum. Come learn about Curiosity, NASA's new Mars rover, that will land on the red planet this summer. It will explore the planet's climate, geology and the possibility of life. During the 23 months after landing, Curiosity will analyze dozens of samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover. Curiosity will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface, a payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers. Its assignment: Investigate whether conditions have been favorable for microbial life and for preserving clues in the rocks about possible past life.

Friday, March 16, Spring Stargazing at Riker Hill Art Park in Livingston, 8-10 PM, Cancelled by clouds
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.

March 14, Tom Field (Rspec), Introduction to Spectroscopy

February 8, Supernova Physics, Mary Lou West

January 11, Universe or Multiverse? part of the NOVA video "The Fabric of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene

Programs in 2011:

December 14, Annual Winter Solstice Party, bring snacks and drinks!

November 9, Bonnie Witzgall (AAI), Keeping Count of the Solar System with Sub-Totals

Friday October 21, Star Party at Riker Hill Art Park in Livingston, Cancelled by weather

October 12, Kevin Conod (NJAG and UACNJ) " All About Asteroids and the DAWN Spacecraft"

September 14, Rob Teeter (Teeter's Telescopes and NJAG) "Telescope Making, crazy customers, and strange requests" in nine years in the telescope business.He was recently featured in Astronomy Technology Today, on the cover and in a two-page article.

Saturday August 27, 9 AM, IMAX film "Hubble in 3D" free at the AMC Clifton Commons 16.

Saturday, August 20, road trip to Highpoint Scientific Co. (telescope showroom), Dimmick Inn, and High Point State Park, where some climbed the 220 foot tower.

July 13: Joe Marzullo and Gene Falkner (NJAG), Astrophotography.

Friday, July 8, Star Party at Riker Hill Art Park, 9-11 PM with the Newark Museum Dreyfuss Planetarium staff (Cancelled by thunderstorms).

Thursday, June 30, Star Party at SOC 9-11 PM for northern NJ LSAMP program. Super!

Thursday, June 9, Star Party at Schuyler School in Kearny (Cancelled by thunderstorms).

June 8: Dr. Bob Vanderbei, Princeton, "Sizing Up the Universe," his new book with Richard Gott. He will also bring along a few copies to sell for $20.

May 11: MSU Student Research Projects in Astronomy and Physics:
1. Measauring Meteorite Properties - Ann Bannister
2. Measurement of the Lifetime of Charged Muons in Cosmic Rays - Tim Riesz
3. Quasar Color Variations in Outbursts - Matthew Rossi and Garrett Nieddu
4. Anti-cyclonic Vortices in Keplerian Flows in Star-forming Disks– Alex Cali
5. Temperature Effects on Metals and Thermistors – Wayne Ernst
6. Thermocouples to Measure Sap Flow – Korrine Dobosh
7. DNA Flow in Electrophoresis Gels – Travis Keeler

April 13: Krishnadas Kootale, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and Secretary of the United Astronomy Clubs of NJ, "Eyes in Space". Space based observatories have played a key role in the advancement of astronomy in the last few decades. He will take a look at how they are able to contribute uniquely to our understanding of the objects and dynamics in the solar system and beyond by taking a look at a few major telescopes in space and their accomplishments.

March 9: Bob Lindner, Rutgers University, Star-forming Galaxies

February 12: Film BLAST (Balloon-borne Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope) by Paul Devlin. Enjoy the scientific suspense!

January 12: Cancelled by SNOW

Programs in 2010:

December 8, Annual Solstice Celebration

November 10, Bill Kroth, Sterling Hill Mining Museum, Meteorites: What can they tell us about the beginning of the solar system?

October 13, Mary Lou West, MSU & NJAG, Quasars: Beacons from the Past

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

Previous years' programs were also interesting.