AAVSO CONVENTION IN HAWAII
------------------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies
john.pazmino@ferc.gov
2002 July 25
[Original 4-part posting combined with minor editing]
Introduction
----------
The 91st spring meeting of the American Association of Variable
Star Observers convened in Hawaii on 2002 June 30 to July 6. All
procedings were held at the Outrigger hotel on the Kona side of the
Big Island. The convention had three main components: the AAVSO's own
sessions, several trips around the Big Island, and a joint AAVSO-NASA
workshop.
Getting to Hawaii
---------------
There was no 'cheap and simple' way to reach the convention from
New York. In fact, the toughest chore in preparing for this trip was
securing airline flights that got me to and from Kona without
excessive cost or idle time. Eventually I did get flights on United
Airlines to arrive on Sunday evening, the 30th of June, and depart fro
New York in evening of Sunday, the 7th of July. Due to the absurd
airfare, my agent tempered the pain with a discount coupon for a
helicopter trip on the extra free day of Sunday. This was a very
welcome relief!
The journey to and from Kennedy airport was by transit, quick and
convenient from my home in Brooklyn. The flights themselfs were pretty
boring and dreary, as for me are all airline flights when travelling
alone. There was no group coming from New York to accompany and I
missed any AAVSOers at the plane change in San Francisco.
I arrived a wee late for the formal start of the convention, a
luau, or Hawaiian lawn party and barbeque, but caught the last half of
this festival. There was plenty of eats besides pork and rice. The
native dancers, specially the one with the fire batons, were
excellent. I missed the hula-hula dancers at the beginning, put on so
you can tell your friends that, yes, you saw hula-hula dancers.
World Trade Center
----------------
Airport security measures, according to the delegates generally,
were not so much increased as they were more consistent. Scanner
agents looked at the X-ray screens; some people were pulled off
boarding lines for deeper searches; some bags were hand inspected. In
my case, I heard announcements at all four boardings (two each way)
about minding your luggage, possible random selection for search, and
having photo IDs.
But the only 'new' feature I encountered, really an old one lapsed
several years ago, was that photo IDs were examined on the boarding
line when turning in the boarding pass. Announcements instructed
passengers to have the ID and boarding pass in hand ready for
inspection; don't hand over the entire ticket folder and paperwork.
On my way from Los Angeles to New York there was a delay from a
checked bag found with no matching passenger on the flight. The bag
was removed before releasing the plane for take off. Other than that,
the security at all the airports seemed about normal for preWTC, just
more carefully carried out.
Hometown poster
-------------
There was one weird incident while at the convention. On trips
where there are delegates from other states and countries I bring
along a hometown poster of New York. This is a large sheet of drawing
paper with pictures of the City taped to it. The poster is hung with
low-tack masking tape on the hotel door to illustrate and educate
about the City.
The poster was made several years ago from postcards and tourist
photos no newer than the mid 1990s. So there were many ediurnate
scenes on the poster, including ones of the World Trade Center in
those of Lower Manhattan. At this convention, as at other previous
ones, the delegates liked the poster and it generated much convo about
the City.
On the last day of the meeting, while on a tour of the volcanos by
van, a National Park Service ranger asked me about the poster and the
pictures on it. I figured he somehow saw the poster, so I noted that
it is an old one from a couple years ago. Some pictures are out of
date, but still characterize the City. He was satisfied with that
explanation.
It seems that someone at the hotel saw the poster in the morning,
after we left for the volcano park, and was 'worried' or 'concerned'
about the World Trade Center. This person, unknown to the ranger and
me, called the local police!
Since we already left the hotel, the police called the National
Park Service to see me about the poster! Altho the ranger found no
cause for further query after learning about the poster and seeing
that I was with the astronomy convention, he did have to file his
report and close out the inquiry. This took about twenty minutes,
after which he apologized for the delay and shook my hand. We chatted
for a few more minutes about, erm, the World Trade Center and even let
a fellow conventioneer take a picture of him with me!
The hotel
-------
The Outrigger is a vacation resort hotel with all the usual
amenities. Altho it is a modern design, it had appointments alluding
to Polynesia. The interior and guest rooms were acclimatized while the
lobby and other open air facilities were not. Never the less, at no
time was the air oppressive in this summer period. There was always a
place to stay in shade and breeze.
Breakfast was by buffet or menu, the former being quick and
spontaneous for the days with early activities. Food was Americanized,
but good and tasty. Lots of fruits and juices prevented dehydration.
Dry items, like whole fruit and cookies, I scooped up for snacks
before bed or on trips.
The crew was most attentive and helpful in every way. I never met
a rude or indifferent person. In some cases I think the hotel went a
bit overboard, but that's better than being ignored or short-serviced.
A faulty bathroom fixture, for instance, was repaired within hours
after I reported it to the front desk. The hotel was extra generous to
me after the episode about my hometown poster. As examples, it gave me
a free coupon for lunch, my room until I was ready to leave well
beyond normal checkout time, and a steeply discounted fare for the
shuttle bus to Kona airport.
The only real downside of this -- and other hotels on this western
coast of hawaii -- is isolation. Most of the delegates had no car,
altho rentals were available at the airport, and were essentially
confined to the hotel grounds. There was nothing in the walking
vicinity to explore nor any routine transit among the hotels or
surrounds. This was offset by all the tours beginning at the hotel via
bus or van. My helicopter trip had a pickup and return car to the
hotel.
The Big Island
------------
Every thing for the meeting was on Hawaii's Big Island, the island
of Hawaii itself. Unless you had made extra arrangements, there was no
travel to the other islands. Those whose air flights took them thru
Honolulu, on Oahu island, could take extra days to explore there.
The Big Island is a typical Pacific island in that it has two
totally separate regimes of climate on the east and west side. The
barrier on Hawaii between the two sides are the mountains Mauna Kea
and Mauna Loa. These rise to over 4 kilometers above the sea and
divert prevailing winds from the east away from the west side of the
island. The result is that the island has an east side which is wet,
hot, cloudy, windy, tropical and a west side that is calm, dry, cool,
sunny, desert. As a further illustration of the two regimes of
climate, Hilo on the east coast gets five METERS of rain per year
while Kona on the west gets a few centimeters per year.
This dichotomy fooled many folk scouting for a viewing site for the
1001 solar eclipse. At that time the only handy weather data were from
Hilo airport. Its reports were uniformly dismal: rain, cloud, fog,
humid. They dissuaded eclipse chasers, with no inkling that the Kona
side was sunny, cool, dry, clear.
Actually the two Maunas are the tallest mountains on Earth when
measured from their rising off of the seabed. The Pacific Ocean covers
the lower five kilometers of their full nine kilometer height!
Latitude adjustment
-----------------
Hawaii is the southernmost place in the United States, more or
less in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, near latitude 19 degrees
north. This twenty-two degrees south of New York, making for a radical
alteration in the placement of constellations on the sky. Polaris
hovered low in the north; the Big Dipper set in the early morning
hours. Rasalhague was almost overhead. I faced north to see Vega.
The far south stars of New York are high in the sky, above the
trees of the hotel campus. These include Lupus, Scorpius, Sagittarius,
and the galactic center. Below these are the 'hidden' stars of Norma,
Ara, Triangulum Australe, and a few dimmer groups.
July evenings were a bit too late for the classical southern
groups of Carina and Crux. The Centauri set soon after dark. But Venus
was way up there! And Jupiter was glimpsed by a couple sharp-eyed folk
just above the sunset point, altho he was near superior conjunction.
Hawaii remains on standard time, a fact that threw off many
delegates used to the late sunset on the mainland! With the Sun's more
vertical angle of attack against the horizon, darkness comes quickly
after sunset.
Ny only personal souvenir relates to this latitude shift. You
probably know that the vast bulk of starcharts and starbooks are made
for the mid northern latitudes, for Europe and US mainland. It's tough
to find material specificly for other latitudes. But at the visitors
center of Mauna Kea, among the shlock books on stars and tall
mountains, was a curio I snapped up. It's 'The sky tonight' compiled
for Hawaii. Its charts are neatly and accurately drawn for the
Caribbean, mid Mexico, far southern Florida, Baja California, and
other places in this same latitude band. The text includes Pacific
star folklore from Hawaii, Korea, China, Japan, Polynesia.
Volcanos
------
Hawaii is the most actively volcanic place on Earth; its volcanos
are continuously erupting and excreting lava. From Kona it looks so
peaceful and pleasant, making it a favored holiday destination. Yet in
the center of the island, it is a raging Hell. No human can endure for
long in the sulphurous air, scorching steam, searing lava ground, open
pits of fire.
Part of the volcano territory is enclosed in Volcanoes National
Parks (yes, it uses that extra 'e'), which has trails and tours within
the volcanos. Because the activity shifts by place and time, you must
enter the grounds only at the visitor stations and plan your itinerary
with the rangers. Many areas are off limits due to the dangers of
instant incineration with a wrong step or chance fall.
Mauna Loa is currently live. There are a couple peripheral active
volcanos, too, on Hawaii Island. Mauna Kea is [supposedly] dormant;
that's where the observatories are. There is some interference at the
top of Mauna Kea from the fires of Mauna Loa, so far tolerable.
Between the two mountains is the Saddle, where they overlap, which
is itself at no mean elevation, about 2,500 meters. Roads across the
Saddle are the main connection between the two sides of Hawaii and
give access to starviewing areas.
Lava oozes out gently and steadily with few stereotypical
eruptions. The last major blowup of Mauna Loa was in 1984, flooding
and entombing whole towns in the south part of Hawaii. Some of these
are now open for tours. The lava rolls down the slopes along, for now
anyway, tame paths to the sea. It spills over cliffs into the Pacific
Ocean , raising up billows of steam and adding about 200,000 square
meters of land to the island each year. Alas, during this meeting, the
flow ebbed and the helicopter trip couldn't find any to show me. (I
did see such an awesome cascade in 1991.)
Attendance
--------
This was the largest ever AAVSO meeting, with about 180 attendees.
However, there was a bit of 'stuffing' in that some thirty delegates
were part of a teacher training convention for astronomy that ended in
the week before the AAVSO meeting. This was the 'Toward other
planetary systems' (TOPS), an annual affair run by the Institute for
Astronomy at University of hawaii. Being that this time AAVSO
cooperated with U of H, it extended the teacher's stay for the very
AAVSO meeting.
The TOPS delegates presented several papers of their seminars and
workshops at the AAVSO sessions. They also set up a poster display at
the rear of the convention hall, which we all admired during the many
breaks. Most of the teachers were from Hawaii, all islands, with a few
from the mainland. (Hawaii IS a state, so you can't say, 'back to the
states' or some such.)
The regulars of AAVSO members from the fall meetings, always in
Massachusetts, were for the most part missing. This absence is likely
due to the length of the meeting, a week as against a weekend, and the
complexities of assembling sensible and affordable airline flights.
However, a good representation from AAVSO headquarters was on hand,
including Director Janet Mattei.
This meeting was billed as a Pan-Pacific meeting to attract
attendees from Pacific nations. Australia and New Zealand each sent
several delegates, who marvelled at the 'northern' skies. Japan sent a
few and Marshall Islands fielded one. Other overseas (from mainland
viewpoint) delegates came from England, Belgium, Canada, and Finland.
Presentations
-----------
This was the first AAVSO convention where NO chemophotography was
employed in the presentations! I myself, for my own first time, put my
visuals into a computer file and burned it into a CD. This I took with
me and gave to the 'projectionist' to load onto a local computer.
There was nothing fancy about this show. It was merely the digitized
equivalent of a classical slideshow. It so happened that I use
PowerPoint at work and i figured to give it a try for AAVSO. I just
scanned into digital images some chemophotographic slides and printed
pictures, assembled them on the computer into a sequence of 'slides',
and canned the whole thing into a PowerPoint file.
Every one else used either this method or viewgraphs, 'overheads',
for their papers. The conventional slide projector, in the center
aisle of the room, sat unused thruout the whole week of the meeting.
There is still a learning curve for most of the speakers with both
viewgraphs and digital shows. There were 'slides' with all too small
lettering, tiny pictures, color clash, thin lined charts and graphs,
raw copies from books or webpages, and all that.
People did ask why all my picture were nicely sized and fitted to
the screen. I cut-&-pasted in hardcopy first, whited or blacked out
the extraneous stuff, and scanned the finished sheet into the image.
Due to the large number of papers, time was limited to 10 or 15
minutes each. Yet each speaker ran over a bit, including me, throwing
the schedule off. Time was regained in shortening the breaks a bit.
Street stars
----------
My paper, on July 2nd, Tuesday morning, was about activities for
home astronomers who are sandbagged against orthodox stargazing. In
fact, stargazing in general is actually a tough pursuit in the best of
conditions. About the most routine complaints I hear in my astronomy
work are about lack or loss of stargazing for this or that reason.
Naturally there are plenty of ways to miss out on stargazing in
New York, so we evolved over the decades many alternative ways to
carry on home astronomy. My talk showed such features of New York
astronomy as several kinds of indoor meetings, joint meetings with
other clubs (even nonastronomy ones), science theater and exhibits,
patronizing astronomy-named businesses (coffee shops and diners in my
examples), visiting places with astronomy decorations and ornaments.
The talk went over well, with lots of questions and discussion
during the breaks. Most other towns never really considered any thing
but stargazing as the nature of home astronomy. Some attendees noted
that their clubs are atrophying because stargazing is heavily
curtailed. Light pollution isn't the only or even main enemy! Things
like fees and insurance for parks, low social attitude toward
astronomy, oppressive seasonal weather, long runs of rain or clouds,
air pollution and smog, insects, wild animals, crime action, home and
work obligations, breakdown or damage of car, to name a few.
One listener was Dr Meech, of University of Hawaii, who on Monday
evening (when I got dunked, see below) gave a talk on early astronomy.
She mentioned certain astronomy monuments on remote, uninhabited,
waterless islands of Hawaii. When I got to the scenes of astronomy
motifs on Manhattan, I called her attention to a remote (from Hawaii)
island, with no native fresh water, and allegedly uninhabitable. She
laughed!
Variable stars
------------
The AAVSO papers discussed, ahem, variable stars. Two themes were
of special interest this time. First was the upcoming mass migration
of AAVSO starcharts to the Tycho II standard. To track a variable
star, AAVSO issues for it a starchart of the variable's field. Certain
circumstantial stars have their magnitude ratings marked by which the
brightness of the variable can be assessed. Over the decades it was
learned that there were several standards for these magnitudes, used
on various charts with little correlation among them.
With the completion of a definitive allsky photometry to about
11th magnitude, compiled from the HIPPARCOS mission, AAVSO is gearing
up to reissue its charts. This process will take many years, maybe
until the end of this decade.
In the meantime, observers are urged to note in their observing
reports the date of the chart and the particular field stars used for
each observation. Eventually, when the new chart is issued the old
records can be converted into the Tycho II system.
The other theme was the ongoing appreciation that stars can alter
their physical properties on a timescale of decades. This was most
noticed among red giants, long a favorite target of AAVSO members.
Such stars were among the earliest variables discovered and now have a
deep history of observation. The typical account showed the period of
the star's light cycle increased or decreased steadily over the years.
That a star can alter its period so quickly, within a human
lifetime, indicates massive global evolution of physical conditions
inside the star! Some of these are now known; others remain a mystery.
Yet it is thru the accumulated records from home astronomers that
enables study of these red giants.
Secular period alteration was showed also for eclipsing binaries.
Here the mechanism is a shift in the size of the orbit due to exchange
of mass between the two stars. This was deduced from the longterm
records of AAVSO, as built up by home astronomers.
Light Pollution
-------------
There were no papers or other formal discussions on light
pollution. The corridor banter included much BMWing about local light
pollution all over the United States. I happened not to hear too much
from other places, except Belgium, which from personal visit there at
an AAVSO meeting about 12 years ago, the luminous graffiti is, uh,
gross.
Attendees from Arizona were disgusted from the disenforcement of
the supposedly model regulations in and around Tucson. On paper, they
are touted as marvels of light abatement law. In the street they are
loosely obeyed and weakly enforced. The problem is that the businesses
who violate the rules, by obnoxious billboards, gasoline stations,
and suburban housing. are in cahoots with the politicians. The pols
depend on the bizmen for support and contributions, so they leave
business alone despite the civic mandate to look after the light
pollution laws.
There were the routine 'interrogations' about how we in the City
managed to abate luminous graffiti so well. Most delegates, by
personal visits to the City or news from other visitors, know that our
skies are as good as (or as bad as) those of an outer suburb. Which to
them is incredible given the humongous size and area of the City. They
asked how New York is doing with the 'Promise for starry eyes' issued
in 1999 as a challenge for the new millennium. New York sort of let
the deadline slide to 2012, in time for the Olympics.
Influence of Manua Kea
--------------------
The major astronomy presence on Hawaii atop Mauna Kea weighs
heavily on outdoor lighting on the Big Island. Legend has it that
there are no offensive lights.
Bull feathers.
To be fair, the overall amount of outdoor illumination is far less
than in comparable settings on the mainland. There are just fewer
lamps. This does make a dark landscape in the parts I happened to see
at night. Being that Hawaii is utterly founded on the automobile, this
is not such a problem. For pedestrians, the darkness can be a hazard.
There are few sidewalks, poorly lighted curbs and terrain changes, and
intense glare from the headlamps of passing cars.
The lamps themselfs on buildings and for street lighting are
mixed, star-friendly and star-hostile. A store may have a shielded
lamp and a bare brilliant one side by side. Some lamppoles are
shielded, others are not. Some signs were internally lighted, others
have uplighting spilling well beyond them. Stuff like that.
So how does Mauna Kea live? Basicly, it's the cloud deck BELOW the
peak that caps the upward lights! During the day the peak is scarfed
by clouds. We rode right thru them on our tour. In evening, the air
chills and the clouds, by some mechanism of weather I'm not sure of,
collapse from 5,000 meters to around 3,000 meters. The air above is
clear, like really clear. The lights of the towns are smothered by the
thick clouds ringing the mountain below the observatories. All in all,
Mauna Kea enjoys about 275 nights per year suitable for critical
photometry and spectrometry. An other 50ish are so-so, good for plain
imaging.
Lighting at the hotel
-------------------
For a vacation resort, the Outrigger is not all that lousily
lighted at night. It has mushroom pylons of shielded lamps, up-&-out
floodlights, and gross spillage of light from the open-air wings of
the hotel. These did interfere with our starviewing from the grounds,
altho by receding to the very beach, we were in the shade of trees.
The area and path lighting, while superficially star-friendly, was
actually pretty hazardous. The mushrooms, a meterish in height, were
scattered along the paths in no logical order and did not confidently
delineate their winding sloping alignments. I found my self walking
between two of these lamps, right into grass or sand hidden in the
'valley' between the 'puddles' of light.
On Monday night, the 1st of July, I got lost and ended up at a
snack kiosk. I asked the server where the luau ground is, for Dr
Meech's talk. He pointed toward it and noted it's right beyond those
white chairs. Well, there WERE white chairs, and tables, all around
this kiosk, so I stepped around them onto what looked like smooth
stone. Continuing in darkness between lamppoles, I suddenly found my
self calf deep in warm water!
I did see a pool a few meters away with a blue basin, underwater
lights, and people swimming in it. I did not see a still unoccupied
unlighted children's wading pool in front of it. Its bottom was laid
with sand of the same color as the footpath around it. During the
talk, after finding the luau arena, I took off my shoes and socks.
They dried quickly in the cool breezy air. I shook out the sand
repeatedly all thru the talk.
High elevation
------------
If you as an astronomer go to Hawaii for any reason, you simply
have to take a tour of the observatories on Mauna Kea. This requires
ascent to very high elevation and could cause major trouble if you're
not prepared for thin air. At the summit (as close to it as you can
get 'coz the very peak is left natural) of Mauna Kea you're some 4,200
meters above the sea. You're above 1/3 of the atmosphere, above 2/3 of
its water vapor. The chemical mix is the same as at sea level, but
each inhale brings you only 2/3 of the oxygen you expect.
It is easy, without preparation and caution, to deplete of oxygen
and get terribly sick. In such a case there are emergency vans at the
peak to shoot you down to lower level, first to the visitor's station
and then to sea level. On the other hand, if you be in general good
health, do not tire easily while doing normal sea level tasks, and are
within your weight-height limits, you'll have the trip of a lifetime.
The vans take you first to the Visitor Information Station at
2,700 meter elevation, one that essentially everyone can cope with.
You stay here for 1/2 to 3/4 hour to acclimate (and to buy the junk
the station sells). There's free juice, chocolate, coffee, and
some cookies. For our tour we had a picnic lunch of sandwiches, soda,
cookies, trail mix, fruit.
Please use the restroom! This is very important!! With the
relaxation of outside air pressure, your internal pressure may
overwhelm you on the summit.
The station is accessible by anyone by car with the roads being
paved and marked. It's used for public starviewing and local home
astronomers come here. From here to the peak you must be taken by the
observatory vans.
At the peak the rule is simple. Walk slowly and deliberately.
Never run or even jog, like to catch up to a friend. You may leave a
heavy shoulder bag in the van for you may tire out by carrying it. The
van and all the observatory buildings have oxygen tanks, the little
ones with the plastic face mask, and a paramedic.
Surprisingly, the sky by eye, according to our hosts, is not as
spectacularly spangled with stars as you would expect. The eyes are
deficient of oxygen and the vision clouds up. The effect is described
like that of the momentarily obscuration of vision when out of breath
from exercise or heavy labor. To see the legendary skies of Mauna Kea,
you need to inhale fresh oxygen. Hardly anyone does this for being
indoors at their computer consoles.
All the domes are air conditioned to match the outside temperature
and have ventilation to push residual warm air out at dusk quickly.
Within the facilities, it's easy to forget you're at high elevation,
like by skipping up a stairs. Please don't!
General health
------------
With the thin ultra dry air, your body will lose water and chill
off rapidly. Bring a liter bottle of water, bought at the hotel (for a
nasty high price of a few dollars!), and sip from it regularly along
the way. Don't gulp, just take in a swig and let it trickle down. Top
off the bottle at the visitor station and, later for other high
elevation trips, from the tap water in your hotel. Don't buy more
bottles; keep the one and refill it.
Bring also a jacket or sweater. At sea level the air is summery
and you may sweat if sitting in the Sun. As you ascend, the air
gradually cools off to the point the van turns off the air condition.
The vans have jackets for those who missed theirs, but do try to bring
your own.
If you're concerned about bringing to Hawaii a winter coat for a
onetime use, don't. I had a linerless jacket and a long-sleeve shirt
(also for Sun protection). I tucked a small blanket from the airplane
in my shoulder bag. i never needed it, which I would have wrapped
around Indian style under the jacket. The shirt and jacket were
plenty.
The Sun is thoroly unfiltered by the clean dry air above you. Keep
sensitive skin areas out of the Sun. There is a surplus of infrared
rays with so little moisture above you. Wear a brimmed hat, long-
sleeve shirt and long-leg slacks. Mind the neck and cheeks! I draped a
pillow case, from the hotel, under my hat as a shroud around the face,
like some desert soldier.
One little goof in the advice we got was that of sugar. No one
specificly told us to take in sugar, altho the lunch had sweets with
it. Body sugar is consumed much faster at elevation and must be
replaced. Bring candies.
For myself, I felt no ill effects from the Mauna Kea trip, just a
nagging want for a deep breath every so often. The walk around the
observatories was not at all strenuous, with the hosts keeping the
pace slow and easy.
The above advice applies to a helicopter (or airplane) tour but
far less severely. You're strapped into a seat, not moving around, and
the flight is at most a couple hours. The craft is cool, maybe air
conditioned. Besides, you're caught up in the excitement of flying.
Visitors Information Center
-------------------------
Our Mauna Kea trip was on Wednesday 3 July, all day. We stopped
first at the visitor station. This is one of the most awful visitor
centers of any observatory I ever saw in my life! It's a house about
10 meters square with side rooms and restrooms and one large central
room. The place is crowded with poster exhibits, snack table, souvenir
counter, chairs, telescopes, tools and equipment, a video projector,
computers. The exhibits looked like high school projects, badly
organized, poorly labelled, weakly lighted. The snack table, despite
the small daily visitorship, was messy with fixings, utensils, napkins
scattered about. The souvenirs were awful, except for the one gorgeous
book I mentioned earlier. Just ordinary starbooks, books on mountains,
standard starfinders, lots of T-shirts, hats, dolls, coffee mugs. And
NO SLIDES! Not even CDs!!
The furniture was shoved in odd corners, too crowded to seat all
of us on the trip. The very first thing you see on entering the place
are several large commercial home telescopes. They're put up front for
ease of bringing them outside for the public viewings, but they are a
low ambiance front face for Mauna Kea.
What the computers were for I never figured out. It wasn't clear
if we were even supposed to handle them, altho they were fired up with
static screen displays of various celestial images. A nearby
collection of rocks, some volcanic, with paper labels rounded out the
features to explore here.
Definitely this is NOT how to welcome the public to the most
prestigious collection of observatories on Earth!
I do applaud that the crew was outgoing and attentive. It set out
a solar viewing scope, a la Carl Schurz Park, for white light and H-
alpha. There were permanent piers for hanging fork-mounted scopes for
the home astronomers who come here at night, and a couple of the
Sunspotter contraptions sat on the parapet. The substantial shift in
latitude was demonstrated by the steep inclination of the pier wedges.
Gemini North
----------
The peak is occupied by, I think, thirteen different facilities
with room for three more to come. We visited three of these and
cruised around by van to the others. I can't start to describe in
detail the observatories! They are quite exciting to see!! First up
was Gemini North, pronounced by the hosts 'JEH-mih-nigh', not like the
constellation 'JEH-mih-nee'. If you never saw a real large telescope,
this thing is GIGANTIC. I did visit, some dozen years ago, the then-
largest scope in the world, the six-meter jobbie at Zelenchukskaya,
Russia. THAT was HUGE. It's obvious why an orthodox polar-aligned
mount would be out of the equation in the design for Gemini North.
The 'North' comes from this scope being a twin of Gemini South, in
Cerro Pacho'n, Chile. The two do not yet operate in unison but
eventually they will. For now they run independently altho on some
targets simultaneously. At the time of the visit, the instrument was
stacked with crew working at the Nasmyth foci. The dome was closed
with interior lights on.
The anticipated sheer bulk of the scopes cued me to try for wide
angle pictures. I brought along an addon lens for my rangefinder rig.
This lens is one of a pair I bought ages ago on a lark; the other in
the kit is a portrait lens. Each screws into the camera lens. It's a
bit tricky to use the wide angle, almost fisheye, lens because when
attached its cell blocks the light meter. I have to take a reading
without the lens, set the camera to that reading, screw on the lens,
take the picture, remove the lens, reset to auto exposure. In the thin
air this is extra hard to keep track of!
I expected to goof on some pictures. Amazingly, when I got my
slides back, every picture with the fisheye lens came out perfect!
Two cute sidelights. One is that Gemini North is running on its
original aluminized mirror. Gemini South had to realuminize its mirror
twice already. It's location is inhabited by mountain birds. These
birds are scared from seeing their magnified reflection in the giant
mirror. In defense, they sit in the scope's trusswork and poop all
over the mirror!
How do you clean such monstrous mirrors? These are monoliths, a
single disc 8.1 meters across. The observatory uses Proctor & Gamble
Orvix! Plain store-bought Orvix.
Keck I
----
An other pair of scopes, this set being only 85 meters, one short
city block, apart on a low podium of offices and utility rooms. We
entered only Keck I. If Gemini North was huge, this mother is
HUMONGOUS! As yet this (and its twin) is the largest single-aperture
optical telescope in the world. The scope was stacked with the dome
closed. The lighting here was much dimmer than in Gemini North so the
fisheye picture is a bit harder to interpret.
In April 2002 native Hawaiians, leftover from the population
before Europeans came along, claimed that a certain insect lives only
next to the Keck Observatory and must be preserved. Keck wants to
place six satellite 'outrigger' scopes, each 1.6-meter aperture, on
the insect's habitat to complete its interferometer network. The issue
is in state court.
It turns out that this insect lives all over Mauna Kea and in
other parts of the Big Island. It's blown by winds and seems to thrive
where ever it lands. Hence, it looks like Keck will get its way and
the insect is not endangered at all.
We visited the control rooms of both observatories. All the
excitement is gone. In the old days the control room had lots of
dials, wheels, knobs, buttons, cables, wires, tools. The staff walked
around with clipboards and wrote notes on them. They wore uniforms!
Machines whirred and hummed.
Now, a control room looks like a computer lab. Clean low desks
with assorted computers on them. The operators are in dressdown
civvies. They slouch and hunch. Once in a while they tickle the
keyboard; the screen washes down; a discdrive light flickers.
Submillimeter Array
-----------------
The last facility we examined was the Submillimeter Array, named
for the wavelength region it explores and not the aperture. Radio
observatories do this, you know? The apparatus consists of ultimately
eight six-meter dishes on equatorial mounts and pylons. Six are ready
now with an other in the fabrication room we visited. When completed -
- they're in partial operation now -- the dishes can be set on eight
of twenty-six pods scattered around the fabrication house, which also
has the support and control facilities. A crawler hi-low of ample
proportions litterally lifts the entire pylon off of one pod, ambles
it to the proper other one, and sets it down. The pylon is pin-aligned
on the pod and then bolted to prevent the wind from whisking it away.
Winds can be VERY strong on Mauna Kea.
While we were on site, some of the dishes were under calibration
by targeting Venus, then in high sky east of the Sun. Submillimeter
radiation is observable in optical daylight and thru most cloud. By
the way, this region of the spectrum is between the far infrared and
the microwave zones, there being no formal boundary among the regions.
Infrared radiation
----------------
At ground level moisture and water vapor absorbs the infrared
spectrum. To study the heavens in infrared, observatories are built in
low-humidity sites, like the peaks in Chile, or at very high
elevation, like Mauna Kea and La Palma. At Mauna Kea the air has about
1/3 of its sea level humidity, which is not much to begin with.
Typical relative humidity at the summit is around 5%. This is why your
body moisture is sucked out, helped by the breeze, and you will
dehydrate in unprotected exposure.
Infrared spans the zone from around 750 nanometers (7,500
angstroms) to a few thousand nanometers, or a couple micrometers.
('microns' is still common.)
Altho infrared can obviously be best studied from satellites, it
can be explored quite well in certain bands from Earth. There are
large windows of infrared that penetrate the air, with absorptions in
between. Hence, a telescope on Mauna Kea built for optical studies can
be used for infrared. It fact, it's over precise for infrared, but
that's OK.
Longer wavelengths, in the tens and hundreds of microns, comprise
the submillimeter band and the instruments resemble radio telescopes,
except the 'mirror' is made of solid steel or aluminum plates. Longer
still are the millimeter waves and these are examined with more or
less conventional radio telescopes.
One boon for infrared and submillimeter observations is that the
Sun emits weakly in certain parts of these bands. Work can procede
when it is optical daylight, but in the peculiar wavelength of
infrared or submillimeter it is always 'night'.
Wavelength and energy
-------------------
Depending on the history of a particular part of the spectrum its
photons are specified by wavelength, frequency, or energy. They are
all equivalent by the properties of photons. The relation is
E = h * f = h * c / lambda
E is energy in joule, h is the 'big' Planck constant (with the 2pi
factor embedded), f is frequency in hertz, c is the speed of light,
lambda is wavelength in meter. Note that E and f vary directly while
lambda is varies inversely to E and f. That is, E ~ f ~ 1/lambda.
There are both pluses and minuses for making telescopes for the
region longer in wavelength than optical. The plus side is that the
'optics' may be less refined with rougher surface polish. A common
rule is that a mirror of 1/8 wavelength error for surface figure
yields diffraction-limited imaging at its focus. For light of 500
nanometers (5,000 angstroms), this error amounts to about 63
nanometers. Such a polish does render a crisp mirror finish to the
surface. But it is tedious and tricky to get this figure, whence arose
the arts of mirror grinding.
For an infrared mirror, running at 16 micrometers, the error of
1/8 wave is 2 microns, which to the eye gives a diffuse finish to the
surface. It is far easier to make such a mirror. A submillimeter dish
operating in 500 micrometers can have a surface error of 63
micrometers. You can feel the roughness with your fingernail and there
is no specular reflection; you can not comb your hair by it. Such a
mirror can be cast and machined by ordinary mechanics.
Resolution
--------
Offsetting the increasing simplicity of making the optics is the
loss of resolution. The angular resolution is basicly the wavelength
times 206,265 and divided by aperture. If we seek a one arcsecond
resolution from an optical telescope, with 500 nanometer radiation, we
need a mirror of 103 millimeter aperture. This is a very modest home
size instrument! We don't actually get this resolution due to
turbulence in the atmosphere, yet the HIPPARCOS spacecraft in outer
space had such a small scope and did exquisite astrometry.
For the 16 micron infrared band, the one arcsecond resolution
requires a 3.3 meter mirror. This is a good size scope! For the 500
micron wavelength the mirror has to be of 103 meters; we got a mother
of a scope on our hands.
For such large apertures, the road leads to interferometry, long
used in radio telescopy. Only in the last ten years has it been
possible to try it in the optical range, due to the previous lack of
devices for light comparable to those in electronics. The
Submillimeter Array, for instance, is a combination of apertures, the
dishes, set apart on the pods up to 100 meters apart. Hence it can
synthesize a 100 meter aperture for a one arcsecond resolution.
Astrophysics workshop
-------------------
A major draw for this convention was the workshop on high-energy
astrophysics, run by AAVSO and NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center,
Huntsville, Alabama. It ran on July 4th and 5th, Thursday and Friday.
This is the second running of this workshop; I missed the first one in
spring of 2000. According to the delegates who did attend that one,
the present workshop was about the same, updated for the two years
advancement in experience and knowledge. Altho it was largely a
repeat, every one, old and new, was thoroly enriched by this workshop.
Technicly you had to 'apply' for the workshop. This apparently was
a NASA formality because I found no one at the convention who was
turned down. However, there was some selection for financial aid to
attend the conference. I did not request any but I met a couple
delegates who were helped bu it.
The procedings were similar to those of the main AAVSO paper
sessions on July 1 and 2, but the papers were a class-hour long in the
stead of the 10 to 15 minutes. There were fewer of them, but each was
a full-length lecture. All the presentations were either viewgraphs or
computer projection. No ordinary photographic slides.
Litterature
---------
As background and homework for the workshop we were issued a thick
pack of litterature. This had booklets, brochures, flyers, posters,
postcards, and about six CDs. I didn't play any CDs during the
convention and none were actually part of the reading chore; we had to
peruse only the printed material. Certain items were for the first day
of the workshop; the remainder, the second day.
Altho the procedings were intended for the home astronomer of
modest technical expertise, it really, like really, helped to have
such training. This could come from schooling in physics or
engineering, work or career, or a self-study regimen. The delegates
all seemed to follow the lectures, with some good, even technical,
questions after each. I did not encounter anyone who felt overwhelmed
or lost, or 'ashamed' that he wasn't up to the level of the talks.
It's just that there was a lot of science presumed already.
The printed matter was grownup and mature in style, layout, and
content. These were not the usual pablum shoveled out to the public,
altho any one may get these booklets for the asking. Much of the
contents was also embedded in various websites, all accessible by any
one. Reading the items before the sessions made the presentations far
easier to appreciate.
For myself, the major new information was in the details of the
high-energy spaceprobes. I knew of the 'big name' craft, but there are
many lesser known ones of extreme importance. As a matter of fact, I
felt all the more enlightened because I finished reading a couple
months ago the book 'New cosmic horizons'. It's the history of the
spaceage thru astronomy missions. Hence, my memory was still fresh
from that book, which I reviewed for the National Space Society's New
York chapter newsletter. The workshop pulled all of this history
together quite tightly.
High-energy radiation
-------------------
High-energy radiation is electromagnetic radiation of shorter
wavelength than ultraviolet. What I noted above about energy and
wavelength applies here. Such radiation is collected and sensed by
instruments superficially quite odd compared to normal optics. The
detectors are developed from those at atomic physics labs.
The radiation beyond ultraviolet is divided into two vast regions,
X-ray and gamma-ray. There is no formal breakpoint, but most
physicists put it in the high tens of kiloelectronvolts of energy. One
electronvolt is about 1.6e-19 joule. The terms are legacy from the
late 19th and early 20th century. The strange rays discovered by
Roentgen were strange indeed; they penetrated soft material, notably
human flesh, and imprinted a shadow image on photographs. The 'X'
alludes to the strangeness, altho the rays were called Roentgen rays
for a while.
Gamma rays from history were the third kind of emanation for
radioactive atoms. The alpha ray was later found to be a helium
nucleus. The beta ray was eventually sussed out as the electron. The
gamma ray was nothing more than a very short wavelength photon. But it
was very penetrating, requiring massive shielding to protect atomic
workers from it. The term gamma ray or gamma particle is also commonly
used for any photon, regardless of energy.
For all intents and purposes the study of X and gamma radiation
from celestial targets is the absolute derivative of the spaceage.
Despite the high energy of these photons, our atmosphere is entirely
opaque to them. Virtually all studies of these radiations come from
spaceprobes with only minor efforts from balloons or high aircraft.
Missed out from this workshop were three other emanations from
celestial objects. They are neutrino flux, cosmic nuclear bombardment,
and gravitational waves. These three are not electromagnetic
radiations.
Sources and processes
-------------------
Several celestial objects and phaenomena produce X and gamma
radiation. They include galactic blackholes, neutron stars, supernova
remanents, quasars, and certain binary stars. And, not to be left out,
the Sun. Depending on the process of generating the radiation, various
parts of a target, like the shell of a supernova, can be seats of
assorted energies of radiation. Thus it is vital to monitor these
targets in several bands of the spectrum.
It is feasible now to do cosmochemistry from mapping the locations
and motions of hotspots of radiation at various energies. Unlike
optical spectra, those of X and gamma rays are generated by nonthermal
processes. The radiation is itself not part of the target's blackbody
or Planck radiation. Understanding the mechanisms of production came
from close collaboration with atomic labs, where in some cases the
radiation can be duplicated. In many situations, the celestial target
is the laboratory because the physical environment there is beyond
what can be simulated in Earth labs. So the information flow can run
from astronomy back to nuclear physics.
Electromagnetic radiation is fundamentally produced by charged
particles under acceleration. In general, these are protons (hydrogen
nuclei) and electrons moved by intense magnetic fields. As the
particle is propelled or retarded or made to spiral along the magnetic
lines of force, they change their velocity. The change of motion
induces an electromagnetic outflow from the particle, which is
indicative of the means of acceleration.
The spectrum of X- ad gamma- radiation tends to be very irregular
and fluctuating with time. The peaks and valleys, still called 'lines'
after the analogy with densitometer tracings in the optical spectrum,
correspond to the mix of energies in the flux.
The current grand mystery source of gamma rays is the 'gamma ray
burster'. This is apparently a compact source sitting cosmologicly
remotely, billions of lightyears away, yet emitting so strongly that
home astronomers can, and do!, catch them in the optical region.
Granted, this requires some well-built observatory, but it is within
reach of the more affluent and ambitious home astronomer.
Cataclysmic variable stars
------------------------
Cataclysmic variable stars are stars suffering global upheavals or
eruptions. This is a large category, encompassing many different
behaviors of star. The bulk of cataclysmic variable stars are binaries
where the two stars are so close that they jive together. They distort
each other gravitationally and magneticly, exchange bulk streams of
gas, and radiate fiercely in many high-energy spectral bands.
The brighter specimina were discovered decades ago or in the 19th
century from their variations of luminous output. The star waxed and
waned in brightness as seen by visual observers. In time a good
selection of these brighter samples were enrolled in the AAVSO
observing program. AAVSO members routinely monitor them. Many are
bright enough to monitor is small home telescopes.
With the discovery, by satellites, of the energetic radiation from
these stars, the role of the home astronomer suddenly blossomed almost
overnight. The long record of visual observations were crucial to the
study of the high-energy output of these stars. Any theory for the
high energy spectrum must also satisfy the optical behavior.
In the early 1970s NASA commissioned Einstein, an X-ray
observatory in Earth orbit. Einstein needed warning about when certain
stars were favorable to inspect. Many stay at low activity, too dim
for Einstein or just uninteresting. AAVSO from its inflow of visual
observations, could alert the Einstein control office when these stars
were starting to act up. Thus, in a genuinely real sense, the home
astronomer governed the mission of a spaceprobe!
Yes, if anyone asks you how a person can ever take part in space
exploration, the answer truthfully is that he has been doing so for
over a full generation!
This close collaboration between the home and campus astronomer
continues to this day. One example cited was that of SS Cygni, a star
whose jivings were first noticed in 1896. Since then SS Cygni blows
off repeatedly at unpredictable instances with timescale of a couple
months. It started to erupt in October of 1996, when the EUVE and
Rossi satellites were preparing to observe it. The satellite operators
asked AAVSO to advise of the star's actions so they could judge when
to start their observing runs. At that moment, many observers were
heading to the fall 1996 AAVSO meeting in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Observing was curtailed during the travel to the meeting!
When I walked into the conference, the air was filled with banter
about it. A bunch of us hightailed it to the observatory on the
Holyoke College campus, near the convention motel. We opened the
place, under instructions from its director Dr Zissel, and got a good
look at SS Cygni. It was in full blown eruption!
Data were taken visually thru one scope and photometricly thru an
other. These were brought back to the meeting and given to AAVSO
Director Mattei. She called the EUVE and Rossi teams to get going on
their runs. This episode was the first time SS Cygni was successfully
monitored in several spectral bands simultaneously: visual,
ultraviolet, and X-ray.
Miscellaneous topics
------------------
Among the lectures was a mix of extra topics, including a tenth-
anniversary talk about the Keck Observatory by its Director Chafee.
Some papers were on unsolved problems with certain stars which home
astronomers can help with. One was a binary star with an intense
magnetic field, called a polar. Questions relate to the migration of
the magnetic poles relative to the companion star and its influence on
the stream of gas from the latter to the former. I and others foreseed
that when the pole migrates too far off line, the opposite pole
approaches the companion star. There could then be a flipping of the
gas stream breaking off of the receding pole and gushing to the
approaching one. The lecturer agreed that this is a real possibility
but so far this phaenomenon hasn't yet occurred.
The fundamental role of spacecraft was repeatedly emphasized. This
WAS a NASA cosponsored affair, OK? Over the years, from the maturation
of the spaceage in the mid 1960s, the spectrum outside the optical was
a prime objective of hundreds of spacecraft. These were commissioned
by NASA, Soviet Union, ESA, Japan, and a few other countries. In all
the recent probes, several countries join forces to outfit a 'bus'
with national instruments, which work together.
The Chandra and XMM-Newton were highlighted as the present premier
X-ray stations in Earth orbit. The popular press sometimes makes like
they are competing satellites: NASA versus ESA. They are complementary
vehicles teaming together in many observing runs.
In the future there are many probes from the spacefaring nations
on the books. With the Internet being the medium of global information
exchange to any one, all of the future probes will disseminate their
data via the Internet. Home astronomers (and any one else) can harvest
the data in furtherance of the astronomy profession.
In the evening of July 4th we feasted at a lawn party and saw a
fireworks display. It was for Hawaii, a bona fide state, Independence
Day. Some of us joked about the beautiful gamma ray bursts!
Volcano tour
----------
The conference included a ground visit to Volcanoes National Park
and I myself took a helicopter trip to the volcanos. All the cautions
for high elevation travel are valid here but not so severely. We were
at most up to 2,500 meters elevation, safe for just about every one.
There was one extra precaution, strong shows. You must wear shows that
attach firmly to the feet, not flipflops or sandals. The ground in the
lava fields is rough, sharp, broken up. It takes very little to slash
into your foot thru weak shoes. On top of this is heat. Lava on the
trails can be 60C to 80C, causing bad burns thru weak shows.
It is more over vital to avoid falls. Walk slowly and carefully.
You'll do this on account of the irregular and unfamiliar terrain.
Falling on hot sharp stone can inflict major wounds and burns.
The day for the ground trip, Saturday 6 July, was cloudy, cool,
and breezy. As we walked around the lava, we had the odd experience of
being cool, requiring a jacket, from the waist up. From the waist down
it felt like we had a room heater under our feet. The ground was hot
not so much from absorbing sunlight as from percolating upward heat
from the molten rock under it!
The trail was marked by yellow tags glued to the rocks and also by
orange plastic poles every fifteen or so meters. Stay on the trail!
The rock off of the trail may look solid but may be extra hot to burn
thru the shoes. Or, worse, it may be a thin weak crust overlaying the
liquid rock underneath. Because of the constant movement of the lava,
the trail markers have to be reset frequently.
The vans roamed thru a caldera, now dormant, and stopped for
pictures at various places. We took lunch at the Volcano Lodge and
freshened up for the ride back to the Outrigger.
At this point in the convention, the final phase, some of us opted
to return to Mauna Kea for nighttime stargazing. Some vans loaded with
these folk. Others, with me, went back to the hotel. I did not sign up
for the night observing for concern about the cold and thin air and
for the very late hour of returning to the hotel.
Helicopter ride
-------------
With the convention formally over on the evening of the 6th, I had
an extra day on Sunday the 7th before my flight back home. Because my
travel agent found the airfare to Hawaii so obscenely high, she
finagled a discount ride via helicopter.
It seems that this ride counted as an airline flight from Kona to
Hilo and back, so she made it part of my main flight from New York to
Kona to Hilo and return. As such the price the ride was, uh, ZERO
because the airfare was the SAME with the ride or without it!
I took a similar helicopter ride during the eclipse trip of 1991
and rode in helicopters a few times elsewise. There's really nothing
to it. You're firmly strapped into your seat, mine being in front with
the pilot and a panorama view out the huge front window. The chopper
seats, I recall, five riders.
The company picked me up at the Outrigger and took me (and a
couple other riders) to the heliport. While waiting my turn the crew
gave a safety briefing and handed out life vests. These are like the
ones on airplanes packed into sacks you tie around your waist. After
the flight, you give back the sack or toss it into a large bin.
There were no special requirements for the ride, save that of body
weight. At my 78ish kilograms, there was no problem. The company
arranges the passengers in the seats according to weight. The seats
are about the size of airplane seats, so an overly girthy person may
have to be left out with a refund of his fare. As for high elevation,
you really can't exert yourself. You're in the seat for the whole
flight and the cabin is air conditioned.
All in all, the ride is pretty much like a deluxe IMAX show with
rumbling seats! The noise and vibration are about those of an
intercity bus on a highway. You wear headphones so the pilot can speak
to you, but there is no microphone to respond or ask questions. The
narration was excellent, with many features of the terrain and lots of
history about Hawaii.
Because I could not communicate with the pilot, for lack of a
mike, I had to take my pictures, erm, on the fly. There were plenty of
occasions when the pilot rotated the chopper so riders on both sides
could see a certain feature.
The volcanos were mighty awesome! The chopper hovered over lava
outpourings and lakes and flew thru steam, vapors, and clouds. The
only major feature missed, for there was none to be seen on this day,
was the actual dripping of lava off cliffs into the Pacific Ocean.
We landed in Hilo airport for soft drinks and snacks while the
helicopter was refueled, a fifteen minute task. Then we continued the
ride. The total trip was about 2-1/2 hours. I got a little extra
ride. The courtesy car by mistake dropped me off at the Orchard, a
wholly other hotel than the Outrigger! No problem; the lobby desk
called the heliport to get the car back for me.
The rest of that Sunday the 7th was blessedly breezy and cloudy. I
caught up on sleep, chewed thru the workshop litterature, reviewed my
notes, took a lazy lunch.