Peninsula Astronomical Society May 2008

A May Schedule
D May 5 Mon - NEW MOON 3:18 a.m. PDT

May 9 Fri - PAS General Meeting: “Planet Formation” with Joe Baranco of SF State.
Room 5051, Foothill Campus. 7:30 p.m. Parking $2.00.

May 10 Sat - Astronomy Day Star Party at Foothill College. Bring your telescope! Sunset at 8:07
Also - Foothills Park Star Party. More details inside!

May 14 Wed - PAS Board Meeting Foothill Observatory. 7:30 p.m.

May 19 Mon - FULL MOON 7:11 p.m. PDT

June Schedule

Jun 3 Tue - NEW MOON 12:23 p.m. PDT

Jun 7 Sat - Foothills Park Star Party See last month’s issue for details. Sunset 8:28 p.m.

Jun 13 Fri - PAS General Meeting: To Be Announced 7:30 p.m., usual location.

Jun 18 Wed - PAS Board Meeting Foothill Observatory, 7:30 p.m. Members welcome!
Also: FULL MOON 10:30 a.m. PDT

PAS Club Information and Foothill Observatory Hours

Foothill College Observatory is open to the public every clear Friday evening from 9:00pm to 11:00pm. The Observatory
is also open for solar observing through special Hydrogen-α solar filters every clear Saturday morning from 10:00am until
Noon. These programs are FREE, except $2 parking fee at Foothill (see next page) and everyone is welcome to attend.
For information, please call the Foothill Observatory Information at (650) 949-7334 any time for a recorded message.
Check out the Club’s Web Site at http://www.foothill.fhda.edu/ast/pas.htm
To download a PAS membership application and information sheet, check our Web site (above), and send to:
Peninsula Astronomical Society, PO Box 4542, Mountain View, CA 94040
PAS Board Members Read Your Mailing Label Oak Ridge Road Gate
and Driveway Chain
Officers The mailing label on a member copy of
Instructions (New!)
__________________________________ includes the Oak Ridge Road
gate combination for the current month, OAKRIDGE ROAD GATE: There is a gate at the
President and Bill Sorrells the driveway combination lock, as well as entrance to the Oak Ridge Road Observing site. An
Nite Skies editor (408) 370-1215 the membership expiration date. All are electronic keypad is located to the left of the car
sorrellw(at)tycoelectronics.com driver. Enter the combination numbers in sequence
printed on the top line of the label. The (as shown on the label from left to right), one at a
Oak Ridge Road gate combination is time. Make sure to begin with the “#” sign! If you
Vice Pres. Sarah Wiehe first, the combination for the lock on the make a mistake, just try again. The general gate
procedure is as follows:
shwiehe(at)hotmail.com driveway chain is next and the expiration
date is last. If the label says "Dues #1. Stop car directly over concrete pad in front of
Sect./Treasurer Rick Rodgers Expired!" or "(No Disclaimer)" on the top the gate.
line, then read the next two paragraphs. #2. Enter combination on keypad.
(650) 493-2098 #3. Gate opens inward.
Judrick557pa(at)comcast.net #4. Drive through. Gate shuts automatically.
"Dues Expired!" means that your
Chairpersons membership in the PAS has expired. If
you wish to renew, dues are $25 per year
DRIVEWAY CHAIN:
The three-number combo will appear on the top of
__________________________________ your mailing label if you’ve sent in your Disclaimer
for Senior and Family member-ships, form. The lock works the same as any Master Lock -
Foothill Gary Baker and $10 per year for Junior (16 years of -
Observatory (650) 424-2620 age and under) memberships. Make
#1 - Turn right (clockwise) three turns to the first
gary.j.baker(at)lmco.com checks payable to Peninsula number (on mailing label).
Astronomical Society and mail to the #2 - Turn left past the first number to the second
Oak Ridge Phelps, Sorrells, address below. #3 - Turn right again directly to the third number
Barrett If you’re the last to leave Oakridge, PLEASE
“(No Disclaimer)" means that we have make sure the chain is put back up and locked.
Programs Ken Lum
not received an Oak Ridge Road Site
(650) 508-1879
Use Disclaimer form from you. To get a
lum40(at)comcast.net
copy, please send a self-addressed
stamped envelope to the club at the Foothill Parking
Telescope Oliver Barrett
Loans (408) 749-0551
address below along with a note asking
for the Disclaimer form, and we'll send Fee Reminder
orbs(at)triangulum.net you one. If we receive your dues and/or
your completed Disclaimer form before A parking fee is required for all visitors 7
days a week, from 7am to 10pm. This
the next PAS Board Meeting, you should
Membership William Phelps find the Oak Ridge combination on the
means that all attendees to our General
(650) 493-4742 Meetings will have to pay $2.00 for a parking
label of your next copy of . permit or face the possibility of a parking ticket
wm(at)meier-phelps.com The club's formal business and mailing (at last check, $25.00). Foothill College
address is: Observatory users will also have to display a
Michael Kran Peninsula Astronomical parking permit. Parking permits are available
(415) 888-3293 Society from RED dispensers using $2.00 in
quarters; or from the hi-tech YELLOW
P.O. Box 4542 dispensers which take $1 bills, (permit cost
michaelkran(at)kran.com Mountain View, CA 94040 still $2, but you won’t need quarters!)

Terry Terman
(650) 967-0223 The Peninsula Astronomical
terry(at)termanweb.net

Steve Banville Society would like to thank Dan

banville(at)microcosmos.com

Jeff Buell
Walsh and family of DJ Electronic
(408) 252-9261
j_buell(at)pacbell.net
Graphics in Sunnyvale for their
Brian Day support in the production and
(408) 323-3350
brian.h.day(at)nasa.gov printing of .
 May Meeting: Planet
Embryos in Vortex Wombs:
The Origin of Planetary
Systems
by Ken Lum
The next PAS General Meeting will be this Friday, May
9 at 7:30PM in our regular venue in Rm. 5015 in Bldg.
5000 near Parking Lot #5 at Foothill Community Col-
lege in Los Altos Hills. Our speaker will be Dr. Joseph
Barranco of San Francisco State University who will be
speaking on “Planet Embryos in Vortex Wombs: The
Origin of Planetary Systems”.
The past 15 years have witnessed the discovery of plan-
ets in the most unexpected of places: terrestrial-size plan-
ets around such “dead” stars as pulsars , gas giant plan-
ets that orbit their parent stars much closer than Mer-
cury does our Sun , and now even planets around “failed”
stars known as brown dwarfs. Besides these unusual
systems, astronomers have now discovered more than
200 planets around other Sun-like stars, and the search
continues as we try to find a system that looks just like
our own. Clearly, the mechanisms of planet formation
are far more robust and varied than had been first imag-
ined. These new discoveries have sparked a Renais-
sance in planet formation theory, an understanding of
which is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on mechan-
ics (both solid & fluid), thermodynamics, electromagne-
tism, astrophysics, and geophysics. Dr. Barranco will
present recent computational simulations of the settling
of dust sub-layers in the protoplanetary disks of gas &
dust out of which planets must form. Alternative mecha-
nisms will also be described for concentrating dust, in-
cluding 3D vortices (“giant hurricanes”) in protoplanetary
disks, which trap dust grains in the “eyes” of such storms.
Dr. Barranco attended Harvard University where he
earned a B.A. in Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics,
Magna Cum Laude, in 1993. His undergraduate thesis,
“Velocity Coherent Structure in the Dense Cores of Dark
Molecular Clouds,” was done under the guidance of Pro-
fessor Alyssa A. Goodman. He earned his Ph.D. in As-
trophysics in 2004. His Ph.D. thesis, “Theory and Nu-
merical Simulation of Three-Dimensional Vortices in
Protoplanetary Disks,” was done under the guidance of
Professor Philip S. Marcus in the Berkeley Computa-
tional Fluid Dynamics Lab. In 2006, his thesis won the
Nicholas Metropolis Prize for Outstanding Doctoral
Thesis in Computational Physics from the American
Physical Society. He also received a National Science
Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fel-
lowship, which was split between the Kavli Institute for
Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa
Barbara and the Institute for Theory & Computation at
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He
joined the Department of Physics & Astronomy at San
Francisco State University in the summer of 2007.
Fortuitously, as my record of having our guest speakers
track recent articles in the popular literature continues,
the latest May issue of Scientific American has an ar-
ticle on the mechanisms of planet formation by Douglas
C. N. Lin of UC Santa Cruz titled “The Genesis of
Planets” if you want to prepare for this talk. Someday,
we will also hear from him on this topic as well since he
is nearby. I will let you know on our pastro network on
the possibility of dinner with our guest at Chef Chu’s
Chinese restaurant in Los Altos. If this happens, it will
be held at 6PM.
Don’t forget that parking is $2.00!
Astronomy Day May 10 at
Foothill Observatory
Mark your calendars for this Saturday, May 12, when
we will celebrate Asronomy Day with two public star
parties! First, we plan to have our “standard” public view-
ing outside Foothill Observatory so all members are
invitied to bring your telescopes and show the wonders
of the heavens to the public (and each other!). Sunset is
at 8:07 p.m., so try to be set up by then.
In addition, we plan to have the solar telescope in the
dome up and running for most of the day, so members
who haven’t had the chance to see the new solar promi-
nence telescope will have a fine chance to do so.
If you would prefer to join William Phelps at Palo Alto’s
Foothills Park the same evening, you will find details on
the next page. Either way, we hope you will come out
and have fun with PAS on Astronomy Day!
 Foothills Park Star
Party - May
by William Phelps
The next Palo Alto Foothills Park public star party for
2008 (the first “official” one) is scheduled for this Satur-
day, May 10. Sunset is at 8:07 PM; a 35% waxing cres-
cent Moon sets at 1:08 AM on Sunday.
As usual, anyone bringing a telescope gets in free and
does not need to be a Palo Alto resident. If asked, tell
them at the gate that you are an amateur astronomer
participating in the public star party. This event is orga-
nized by PAS but you do not need to be a PAS member
to participate. The view from Vista Hill is quite pleasant
- bring a picnic supper and come early to watch the sun-
set!
The park entrance will close at 10:00 PM; the star party
ends at 11:00 PM for the public. Astronomers may stay
later if they wish and a PAS officer is present to hold the
gate key.
Foothills Park is approximately 3 miles up Page Mill Road
from Highway 280; the entrance is at the apex of a hair-
pin turn and pretty easy to find. The star party itself is
held on Vista Hill, the highest spot in the park that you
can drive to. Ask the ranger at the gate for directions or
simply follow the signs. Astronomers may drive past the
cones blocking the road and park at the top of the hill
(assuming there is room left - the limited parking fills up
quickly!).
For further information contact myself at:
william (at) meier-phelps.com
or Ranger Curt Dunn at
curt.dunn (at) cityofpaloalto.org
If you are planning on going, *please* let me know so
we will have an idea of how many scopes we will have.
The next Foothills Park Star Party after this one is sched-
uled for June 7.
Sunset & Moon data from: http://aa.usno.navy.mil
Fraknoi to Speak on
“Fiction Science” in SF
May 16th
The Center for Inquiry, San Francisco presents: ‘The
White House Astrologer, the Roswell UFO, the
‘Face’ on Mars, and > a Young Universe: A Skepti-
cal Look at Fiction Science” , a nontechnical talk by
astronomer Andrew Fraknoi, Friday May 16th 2008, at
the World Affairs Council Auditorium, 312 Sutter St., 2nd
Floor, San Francisco.
Thanks to the popular media, an enormous amount of
attention has been given to some pretty amazing claims
on the fringes of astronomy. These include the idea that
your life path and romantic destiny are determined by
the position of objects in the sky at the moment of your
birth; that extraterrestrial space-craft have regularly
landed on our planet (and kidnapped innocent citizens
without being noticed); that an ancient race left us a
message on the planet Mars in the shape of a human
face; and that the entire cosmos is less than 10,000 years
old.
In this illustrated talk, Foothill’s own Andrew Fraknoi
will discuss the most famous ‘fiction science’ claims re-
lated to astronomy, and provide the background and
analysis needed to appreciate them properly. He will un-
veil some recent detective work about these cases, and
show how there is often a lot LESS to them than initially
meets the eye. And he will demonstrate how a few skep-
tical questions and a bit of careful investigation can often
help bring these extra-ordinary cosmic claims down to
Earth.
Presentation starts at 6:30 pm, doors open at 6:00 pm.
$10 General Admission, Free to ‘Friends of the Cen-
ter for Inquiry’ For more information, contact: Michael
D. Adkisson, Coordinator, Center For Inquiry, San Fran-
cisco, 2215R Market St #418, San Francisco CA 94114.
Call 415.335.4618.
Website: www.centerforinquiry.net/sf
Andrew Fraknoi is the Chair of the Astronomy De-
partment at Foothill College and Senior Educator at the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He served as the
Society’s Executive Director for 14 years, and has or-
ganized over 20 national workshops on teaching
astronomy. Fraknoi is the lead author of “Voyages
Through the Universe,” which has become one of Carter Roberts In Memoriam
the leading astronomy textbooks in the country and re-
cently wrote a book for children, “Disney’s Wonder-
ful World of Space.” He appears regularly on local and PAS mourns the loss of longtime East Bay Astronomical
national radio explaining scientific developments in ev- Society President Carter Roberts. He was well known
eryday language. In 2007, he was selected as the Cali- to virtually all of the amateurs on the West Coast, and
fornia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Endow- will never be forgotten by any of us. See the obituary by
ment for Higher Education and won the Gemant Prize of Norm Sperling on the Sky and Telescope Web site:
the American Institute of Physics for a lifetime of contri-
butions to combining physics and culture. The Interna- http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/18360994.html
tional Astronomical Union has named asteroid 4859 As-
teroid Fraknoi in recognition of his contributions to the
public understanding of astronomy.

This remarkable shot by PAS member Dr.Chris Kitting was taken in late
December from Oak Ridge. It shows THREE comets (none of which is the
outbursting comet Holmes, which was out of the image to the left). Compos-
ite of two exposures. Attendees at the March meeting may remember we
spotted the second comet (which turned out to be comet Lovas) on the pro-
jected image, and Chris found the third (NEAT) later on closer inspection.
Chris expresses his thanks to Richard Nolthenius for assistance in identi-
fication.
Peninsula Astronomical Society
P.O.Box 4542
Mountain View, CA 94040

May 2008:
Friday, May 9th in Room 5015, Foothill College

“Formation of the
Planets”
Join us for Dr.Joe Baranco of SF State, who will
explain where and how the planets came into
existence. More inside, including June schedule.
Meetings are free and open to the PUBLIC.
$2 Foothill Parking Fee required. Park in Lot #5

Inside:
Astronomy Day
Fraknoi on “Fiction Science”