Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic’s Resource List « Astronomical Society The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), one of the oldest and most respected science education organizations in the U.S., has announced that Michael Bennett is the 2016 recipient of its Andrew Fraknoi Supporters Award. The Fraknoi Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the ASP and its mission. Michael Bennett began his career in astronomy education at the age of 16 when he got a job as an usher at the Morrison Planetarium in San San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. He worked in the planetarium field for many years, acquiring a master's degree in science education along the way. After a detour into high-tech marketing, he continued to teach at various community colleges. Bennett currently serves as the volunteer Director of the ASP's Advisory Board. Michael Bennett joined the ASP in 1995 as head of the society's newly-formed education department and served as ASP's Executive Director from 2000 to 2007. Under his leadership, the ASP's education and public outreach initiatives greatly expanded and new initiatives were added.

Bennett established a 20-year partnership between the SETI Institute and the ASP to bring the results of NASA SOFIA's infrared studies of the sky to scientists and the public. In a partnership with NASA JPL, Bennett also helped the ASP launch the NASA Night Sky Network -- an active community of amateur astronomy clubs across the nation that look to the ASP for support as they engage the public in astronomy activities. Almost 25 years later, the ASP provides over 500 member clubs in the Night Sky Network with on-line resources, tools, training, and kits. Michael Bennett remains one of the ASP's most avid and enthusiastic champions. He is a tireless advocate of the society, helping garner the donations and gifts allowing the ASP to support amateurs, professional researchers, science educators, and astronomy enthusiasts of every kind all over the world. [caption id="attachment_6185" align="alignnone" width="257"] Katherine Johnson after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls. Click image for high-resolution version.[/caption] The Arthur B.C. Walker II Award recognizes outstanding achievement by an African American in astronomy and for actively promoting diversity in science.

Katherine Johnson celebrates her 98th birthday in August. Her family will accept the award on her behalf on October 22, 2016 during the ASP's Annual Awards Gala in Burlingame, California. Katherine Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015. About Katherine Johnson Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson (born August 26, 1918) is a space scientist and mathematician who made major contributions to aeronautics for NASA’s space programs from 1953 to 1986. Known for the accuracy of her orbital calculations, she determined the trajectory for Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. [caption id="attachment_6186" align="alignnone" width="238"] Katherine Johnson at NASA in 1966. Photo credit: NASA. Click on image for a high-resolution version.[/caption] When NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit around Earth, Glenn insisted that she verify the computer's numbers. NASA dedicated the Katherine G.

Johnson Computational Research Facility at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia on May 5, 2016. This occurred on the 55th anniversary of Alan Shepard's historic rocket launch and splash down, which Katherine Johnson helped make possible through her orbital calculations. After retiring from NASA, Johnson dedicated herself to inspiring young people to pursue careers in science, mathematics, and engineering. About Dr. Arthur B.C. Walker II Arthur B.C. Walker II (1936 – 2001), Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University, was a renowned and highly respected aerospace engineer and solar physicist. While at Stanford, Arthur was an active member of the Center for Space Science and Astrophysics and chaired the Astronomy Program from 1977 until 1980. His most significant contribution to academic life at Stanford was mentoring under-represented graduate students in science, namely women and African Americans. Among these students was Sally Ride, the first female U.S. astronaut. He was also a leader of the African-American community at Stanford and the longest serving member of the advisory committee for the Afro-American studies program. He served as a role model for many of the young African-American assistant professors including Condoleeza Rice.

President Ronald Reagan selected Dr. Walker (along with Neil Armstrong and other luminaries) to chair the most important committee in the history of the U.S. space program, the commission investigating the space shuttle Challenger explosion. NASA recognized his lifetime of service during a combined meeting of the National Conference for Black Students and the National Society of Black Physicists in 2001. Dr. Walker’s devotion to science and service encouraged and promoted African Americans to enter physics as a profession at all levels. About the Arthur B.C. Walker II Award The ASP's Arthur B.C. Walker II Award has been established to honor an outstanding scientist whose research and educational efforts substantially contributes to astronomy and who has (1) demonstrated a substantial commitment to mentoring students from underrepresented groups pursuing degrees in astronomy and/or (2) been instrumental in creating or supporting innovative and successful STEM programs designed to support underrepresented students or their teachers. The Arthur B.C. Walker II Award also includes an “Arthur B.C. Walker II Scholarship” which the recipient gives to a student of their choice. In addition, and perhaps even more important than the financial benefit, the prestigious scholarship from the ASP will help support the student’s academic and career goals.

About The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) The ASP is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to use astronomy to increase the understanding and appreciation of science and to advance science and science literacy. The ASP connects scientists, educators, amateur astronomers and the public together to learn about astronomical research, improve astronomy education, and share resources that engage learners of all kinds in the excitement and adventure of scientific discovery. Current ASP programs and initiatives support college faculty, K-12 science teachers, amateur astronomy clubs, science museums, libraries, park rangers, and girl scouts to name a few. Through its annual awards, ASP recognizes achievement in research, technology, education, and public outreach. The awards include the ASP’s highest honor, the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal awarded since 1898 for a lifetime of outstanding research in astronomy. The Bruce Medal has gone to some of the greatest astronomers of the past century, including Arthur Eddington, Edwin P. Hubble, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, and Vera Rubin. The ASP also presents the Klumpke-Roberts Award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.

Awardees include Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and the Hubble Heritage Project. [caption id="attachment_6060" align="alignnone" width="120"] Prof. Ian McLean[/caption] The Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award recognizes recent significant observational results made possible by innovative advances in astronomical instrumentation, software, or observational infrastructure. The 2016 recipients of the Muhlmann Award are Prof. Ian McLean (University of California Los Angeles) and Prof. Charles ‘Chuck’ Steidel (California Institute of Technology) for their roles as Co-Principal Investigators on the Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infrared Exploration (MOSFIRE) imager, a revolutionary low-resolution multi-object near-infrared spectrograph on the Keck 10-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i. [caption id="attachment_6062" align="alignnone" width="120"] Prof. Charles ‘Chuck’ Steidel[/caption] MOSFIRE is ideally suited for studying galaxy clusters at moderate redshift, and the initial results of large surveys using this instrument are fundamentally changing our understanding of these galaxy clusters.

The increase in the number of objects that can be studied simultaneously, and the significantly improved sensitivity over previous instruments, is transformative for the study of faint, moderate-redshift galaxies. Prof. McLean was responsible for the design and construction of the instrument in his laboratory at UCLA. Prof. Steidel provided much of the scientific motivation and case for MOSFIRE and is using it to lead the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey, which is designed to investigate the interchange of baryons between galaxies and the intergalactic medium in the redshift range 1.8<z<3.0, corresponding to the peak of cosmic star formation. MOSFIRE also enables other investigations of the stellar populations, dust content, and physical conditions within the interstellar medium of typical star-forming galaxies at these epochs. [caption id="attachment_6059" align="alignnone" width="120"] Dr. Chris Impey (Image credit: Jeff Smith/University of Arizona)[/caption] Awarded to an individual or individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy, the Klumpke-Roberts Award for 2016 goes to Dr.

Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Associate Dean at the University of Arizona College of Science. For more than 27 years Dr. Impey has been successfully popularizing science via his classes at the university, public talks, articles, and books. He has written numerous popular science books plus two introductory textbooks for college-level astronomy that have sold more than 100,000 copies. His courses have been recognized for their innovative style and approach to making science accessible to the students. Dr. Impey has pioneered the teaching of massive open online classes (MOOCs) that reach thousands of students around the world. His YouTube channel supports astronomy video content with more than 500 subscribers and more than a million views. His mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students has produced a generation of inquisitive young astronomers. In 2008, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific presented Dr. Impey with the Richard H. Emmons Award for excellence in college astronomy teaching. Dr. Caitlin M. Casey (Assistant Professor, U.

of Texas at Austin) writes: “Chris has dedicated much of his career to the public understanding of astronomy, not least due to his outstanding teaching record, authorship of several popularized astronomy books and introductory astronomy textbooks, [and] giant online presence, but also his infectious enthusiasm for science and dedication to sharing it with everyone.” [caption id="attachment_6057" align="alignnone" width="120"] Dr. Rachael L. Beaton[/caption] The Robert J. Trumpler Award is presented to a recent recipient of a PhD degree in North America whose research is considered unusually important to astronomy. The 2016 Trumpler Award is given to Dr. Rachael L. Beaton, who completed her PhD in December of 2014 at the University of Virginia. Dr. Beaton’s research has focused on “near-field cosmology,” revealing how the structure and evolution of nearby galaxies can provide insight into cosmological processes. Her work has fundamentally contributed to our understanding of stellar populations and galaxy dynamics in the Local Group of galaxies.

She is best known for her research on the Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31), including the discovery and characterization of M31’s central bar through near-infrared imaging. This provided key information on the dynamics of a galaxy considered to be the closest sibling of the Milky Way. Dr. Beaton also led the creation of an extensive photometric catalog upon which all papers in the SPLASH (Spectroscopic and Photometric Landscape of Andromeda's Stellar Halo) collaboration have depended. As her more than 30 refereed publications and 1,200 citations attest, the breadth of Dr. Beaton’s work is extraordinary. Dr. Beaton also has a deep commitment to teaching and outreach, winning numerous accolades including the “All-University Graduate Teaching Award.” Collaborator Dr. Guhathakurta (Lick Observatory) writes, “Rachael is highly intelligent, creative, motivated, and extremely hard working. She is mature well beyond her years and is a first-rate researcher.” [caption id="attachment_6061" align="alignnone" width="120"] Dr. Caroline Simpson[/caption] The Richard H.

Emmons Award — established by Jeanne and Allan Bishop in honor of her father, Richard Emmons, an astronomer with a life-long dedication to astronomy education — is awarded annually to an individual demonstrating outstanding achievement in the teaching of college-level introductory astronomy for non-science majors. The 2016 recipient is Dr. Caroline Simpson, a Professor in the Department of Physics at Florida International University (FIU) where she has taught several large courses (with 150-plus students) to non-science majors each semester since1996. Dr. Simpson is strongly interested in reforming science education and has incorporated the latest inquiry-driven pedagogical techniques into her classes, including collaborative learning methods, learning assistants, and laboratory activities. She was instrumental in helping develop a new student observatory for astronomy education — the Stocker AstroScience Center at FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus. Dr. Simpson was one of the developers and first instructors of FIU’s Great Ideas in Science course, a multidisciplinary science course for non-majors. She laid the foundation for an interactive course and helped spread instructional reform across the sciences, a challenge that required confronting faculty and their often lecture-driven instructional stances.

She also led a skeptical department into online teaching by designing and teaching two introductory astronomy courses for non-majors. This enables FIU to reach a population of students who might not otherwise be able to take courses. Her excellence extends beyond the classroom to include being a strong advocate for students and instructional excellence at FIU. [caption id="attachment_6056" align="alignnone" width="120"] Ms. Jacqueline Barge[/caption] The Thomas J. Brennan Award is given to an individual demonstrating excellence in the teaching of astronomy at the high school level in North America. Ms. Jacqueline Barge, a science teacher and planetarium program coordinator at the Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, Illinois, is the recipient of the 2016 Brennan Award. Jacqueline has spent her 25-year career in the Chicago Public Schools, working with students whose experience is with a night sky that gives no hint of the unimaginable vastness beyond the glow from city streetlights. Jackie has brought the universe into the hands of countless numbers of urban students by communicating the possibilities for exploring space using imaging software, databases, remote telescopes, apps, and other tools.

It is easy to see her excellence as she motivates a group of students to do extracurricular research throughout the year and then takes them to the Jet Propulsion Lab in a culmination project with NASA/IPAC. Whether she is with a visiting class of elementary students, teaching in one of her high school classes, or participating in a teacher training workshop, she always has wisdom to pass on. One of her supporters writes: “I have often thought that Jackie is so exceptional that she could work anywhere — a suburban district, a museum, or in a beautiful natural setting where the sky is clear. Apart from her considerable talents, I genuinely admire Jackie for the dedication as a public school teacher in a district in need of exceptional teachers.” [caption id="attachment_6058" align="alignnone" width="120"] Gena Crook[/caption] Established by Wayne Rosing and Dorothy Largay, the Las Cumbres Amateur Outreach Award honors outstanding educational outreach by an amateur astronomer to K-12 children and the interested lay public.

The 2016 award is given to Gena Crook of the Von Braun Astronomical Society (VBAS) of Huntsville, Alabama, in recognition of her tireless efforts in promoting astronomy since 2001. In addition to being a mathematics instructor at the University of Alabama Huntsville, Gena serves as the VBAS’s Director of Education and Programs and as a NASA Night Sky Network (NSN) Coordinator. She actively promotes and incorporates NSN materials into multiple presentations, including the more than 15 planetarium programs she has written. She has supported numerous VBAS outreach events in the local community such as International Observe the Moon Night at the US Space and Rocket Center, stargazing at Bridgestreet shopping center, Earth Day at Hayes Nature Preserve, and a campout at the Huntsville Madison County Botanical Garden. Gena is registered as an Astronomy Merit Badge Counselor with the Boy Scouts of America, and during the summer of 2012, she inspired young readers to go out and look at the stars by making presentations, on behalf of the VBAS, at eight regional libraries for their summer reading program.

About the ASP Since its humble beginnings in 1889 as a membership society for professional and amateur astronomers, the ASP has evolved into one of the most recognized and well-respected nonprofit astronomy organizations in the country. The ASP is dedicated to bringing together professionals, amateurs, educators, and enthusiasts for the purpose of increasing the understanding of astronomy and improving how we teach that knowledge to others. Boasting a diverse portfolio of astronomy education initiatives funded by NASA and the NSF, professional research journals and publications, and annual awards designed to recognize the achievements of professional and amateur astronomers as well as the work done by formal and informal educators, the ASP is unique in its mission to foster science literacy through the wonder and excitement of astronomy. The ASP is headquartered in San Francisco, and is financially supported by donations, grants, corporate sponsorships, subscriptions, member dues, and retail sales.

It takes more than one kind of telescope to see the light | Science Mission Directorate It takes more than one kind of telescope to see the light It takes more than one kind of telescope to see the light Why we need different types of telescopes to look at outer space Feature Story: NASA NASA Science News presents "Feature Stories", where you can sit back, relax, and enjoy an in-depth look at ongoing research (or sometimes a story that's just plain fun). April 20, 1999: By studying the electromagnetic emissions of objects such as stars, galaxies, and black holes, astronomers hope to come to a better understanding of the universe. Although many astronomical puzzles can only be solved by comparing images of different wavelengths, telescopes are only designed to detect a particular portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers therefore often use images from several different telescopes to study celestial phenomena. Shown below is the Milky Way Galaxy as seen by radio, infrared, optical, X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes. The Multi-Wave Milky Way Galaxy gamma ray Different types of telescopes usually don't take simultaneous readings.

Space is a dynamic system, so an image taken at one time is not necessarily the precise equivalent of an image of the same phenomena taken at a later time. And often, there is barely enough time for one kind of telescope to observe extremely short-lived phenomena like gamma-ray bursts. By the time other telescopes point to the object, it has grown too faint to be detected. So why haven't scientists created a telescope designed to look at everything at once? "Nature has determined the design of our telescopes," says Dr. Martin Weisskopf, an astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The differing wavelengths among the various energies create different instrumental needs. This results in dissimilar, incompatible detecting devices. Right: The electromagnetic spectrum. Radio has long wavelengths and low energies, while gamma rays have very short wavelengths and high energies. Telescopes rely on the interaction between energy and matter. The atomic matter that forms the telescope has to somehow interpret the energy emitted from astronomical objects. This energy is in the form of electromagnetic waves. Although the first telescope was created 400 years ago, we didn't have a complete picture of the electromagnetic spectrum until the early part of this century.

As our knowledge of physics improves, scientists are able to develop increasingly superior telescopes. But as the technology advances and becomes more specialized, differences among telescope designs become more pronounced The Development of Telescopes Most of the universe is invisible to us because we only see the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. When most people think of telescopes they think of visible light, or optical, telescopes. When the first optical telescope appeared in the 1570s, the design was simple - one concave and one convex lens fitted inside a tube. The tube acted as a receiver, or 'light bucket'. The lenses bent, or refracted, the light as it passed through the glass and thus made the scene appear 3 to 4 times larger. Galileo improved upon the design and by 1609 had developed a 20-power refracting telescope. Galileo made the telescope famous when he discovered the valleys and mountains of the moon and spotted four of Jupiter's satellites. Left: Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Italian astronomer, mathematician and physicist.

The glass lenses in the Galileo telescope weren't very clear, however - they were full of little bubbles and had a greenish tinge due to the iron content of the glass. Also, the shape of the glass lenses gave the field of view very fuzzy edges. The magnification of Galileo's telescope could only be improved by focusing the light farther behind the primary lens, which resulted in longer and longer telescopes. But once telescopes reached 140 feet in length they became almost useless for observation. It was impossible to keep the lenses properly aligned at such long lengths. Longer telescopes also required larger lenses, and after a lens reached 1 meter (3.28 ft.) in diameter it would deform, sagging under its own weight. Right: Johannes Hevelius' 150-ft. telescope (Machina Coelestis, 1673). Reprinted with permission by the Royal Astronomical Society, London. Isaac Newton invented the first reflecting telescope in 1671. By using a curved mirror to reflect and focus the light inside the tube, he was able to reduce the length of the telescope dramatically.

The reflecting telescope solved another problem inherent in the refracting telescope: chromatic aberration. In 1672, Newton described how white light is actually a mixture of colored light. Each color has its own degree of refraction, so curved lenses split white light into the colors of the spectrum. This chromatic aberration caused central images in refracting telescopes to be surrounded by rings of different colors. Planets seen through a refracting telescope would appear to be encircled by a rainbow. Left: Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), English mathematician and physicist. By 1730, Newton's reflecting telescope had caught on with the scientific community. Even today, large optical telescopes are based upon Newton's basic design. Yet another bonus of Newton's reflecting telescope is that it can also be used to study ultraviolet and infrared light. The Hubble Space Telescope, famous for its stunning optical images of the universe, also works in the ultraviolet and infrared parts of the spectrum. But it wasn't until the 1930s that astronomers even began looking for other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Karl Jansky inadvertently discovered galactic emissions of radio waves in 1933.

Working at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Jansky was trying to find what caused short-wave radio interference in Trans-Atlantic communications. By building a rotating radio telescope to look at the horizon, he eventually discovered that most of the static resulted from engine ignition noise and distant lightning storms. But Jansky also discovered that some radio noise was coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Left: The "Jansky Antenna" doesn't look much like modern aerials, i.e., TV antennas or satellite dishes, because it was designed to receive shortwave signals coming over the horizon. Like optical telescopes, radio telescopes have reflectors and receivers. Most radio telescopes need to be large in order to accommodate radio's longer wavelengths and lower energies. Resolution is also a factor: low-frequency radio waves would be unfocused and fuzzy in smaller telescopes. Radio telescopes also need to be large in order to overcome the radio noise, or "snow," that naturally occurs in radio receivers. We generate a large amount of noise on Earth as well, so smaller telescopes would lose some astronomical radio signals amid our daily production of rock music, television broadcasts and cellular phone calls.

An example of a modern radio telescope is The Very Large Array in New Mexico (right), composed of 27 antennas electronically combined to give the resolution of an antenna 36 kilometers (22 miles) across. Radio and optical telescopes can be used on Earth, but some resolution is lost due to Earth's atmosphere. By viewing from the other side of the sky, the Hubble Space Telescope allows astronomers to see the universe without the distortion and filtering that occurs as light passes through the Earth's atmosphere. Infrared and ultraviolet light are affected more dramatically by the Earth's atmosphere. Their telescopes must therefore always be positioned high above the ground or in space. Infrared telescopes are placed on mountaintops, far above the low-lying water vapor that interferes with infrared light. Left: The NASA Infrared Telescope Facility 3.0 meter telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Photo courtesy of Ernie Mastroianni. Ultraviolet telescopes have to be placed even higher than infrared telescopes. The Earth's stratospheric ozone layer, located 20 to 40 kilometers above the Earth's surface, blocks out UV wavelengths shorter than 300 nanometers.

By the 1940s, scientists were launching rockets with rudimentary UV detectors onboard. The Earth's atmosphere scatters or absorbs high-energy radiation, protecting us from the damaging effects of UV, X-rays and gamma rays. The atmosphere does such a good job that telescopes designed to detect these portions of the electromagnetic spectrum have to be positioned outside the atmosphere. Studies of astronomical objects in high energy X-rays and gamma rays began in the early 1960s. Although high altitude balloons and rockets can provide X-ray and gamma ray data, the best results come from satellites orbiting completely outside the Earth's atmosphere. NASA's first X-ray telescope was launched from Kenya on Dec. 12, 1970. Because this date was the 7th anniversary of Kenya's independence, the satellite was named Uhuru (Swahili for "freedom"). Left: X-rays can be reflected using a combination of paraboloidal mirrors and hyperboloidal mirrors. This is the arrangement of mirrors in the Chandra X-ray Observatory, scheduled for launch in July, 1999. X-ray telescope mirrors are coated with gold or other metals; Uhuru's mirrors were coated with beryllium, for instance.

The mirrors have shallow angles of reflection because X-rays are so short they only reflect at angles almost parallel to the rays themselves. At steeper mirror angles the rays won't reflect - instead they will penetrate the mirror like a bullet embedding itself in a wall. Because gamma rays are even shorter than X-rays, there is no way to prevent them from passing right through a detection device. Since mirrors can't be used to focus gamma rays, a method had to be developed for detecting gamma rays indirectly. Right: Illustration of a crystal gamma-ray detector. The electrons expelled by gamma-rays act like a trigger on an alarm, letting the detector know when gamma rays are passing through. The American physicist Arthur Holly Compton discovered that gamma rays would expel electrons as they moved through a detector. Modern gamma-ray detectors use crystals or liquids that are triggered by these expelled gamma-ray electrons to record the passing gamma rays as flashes of light. The first gamma-ray satellite, Explorer XI, was launched in 1961, a year before Compton's death. The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, launched in 1991 and still orbiting the Earth today, was named in his honor.

Left: Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962) won the 1927 Nobel Prize in physics for his work with gamma rays. Physics 101 Sign up for our EXPRESS SCIENCE NEWS delivery Most objects give off several frequencies of energy simultaneously. Your body, for instance, glows in thermal infrared down to radio. But in order to get astronomical data about different wavelengths, scientists have to use several different types of telescopes. There is no such thing as an 'all-wave' telescope. The problem with having one telescope able to detect the entire electromagnetic spectrum lies in the differences in detection techniques. "Telescopes are designed with one goal in mind: to build a device that interacts with radiation coming from the cosmos," says Dr. Tony Phillips, a radio astronomer now consulting for the Science@NASA web site. Different energy wavelengths interact with matter in different ways. Radio waves will reflect from a metal that X-rays pass right through. These differences in the interaction between matter and energy have resulted in telescopes designed to only accommodate very specific wavelengths. Right: A mosaic of different astronomical phenomena at various wavelengths. Phillips says that telescopes designed for different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum often look dramatically unlike one another.

"Low-frequency radio telescopes look wildly different from microwave telescopes, even though both study the radio portion of the spectrum," he states. "And low-frequency radio telescopes don't bear the remotest resemblance to X-ray telescopes." With present technology, it is not possible to build one telescope able to efficiently survey the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Scientists follow established laws of physics in building telescopes, and an all-wave telescope would have to break those laws. "That's the wall that keeps us from building one device for everything," says Phillips. Because it is not currently possible to create an all-wave telescope, the next choice is to create a device that uses many telescopes at once. "What we want is a Christmas tree," says Weisskopf. "What we want is a system that can look at all of the emissions simultaneously." Matched telescopes could be aligned to look at the same thing at the same time. A device containing all the different types of telescopes would necessarily have to be a satellite so that X-rays and gamma rays could be detected. Left: If an all-wave telescope were made, it would be on the wish list for both professional and amateur observers.

On the tree, the planets are represented in order of their distance from the Sun (at the top). Several multi-wavelength observatories have already flown - Skylab, the Solar Maximum Mission, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The Skylab space station in particular is hailed as a good model for conducting multi-wavelength studies in space. Launched in 1973, Skylab had eight coordinated telescopes located on its Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM). The eight telescopes studied the Sun's spectrum from X-ray almost down to infrared, all with very high quality resolution. Skylab was coordinated with ground-based astronomers as well. Whenever ground observers detected active solar prominences, flares, or mass ejections, they would notify the astronauts, who would then point their telescopes to record the event. Right: Skylab space station orbiting Earth in 1973. The problem in developing this type of technology today, says Weisskopf, is two-fold. Money is the most immediate impediment. It would cost several billion dollars just to create a high quality combined optical and X-ray telescope. More difficult to tackle is the social mind-set of scientists.

Scientists are often trained to specialize; to study only one segment of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hence we have many X-ray astronomers, radio astronomers, and so on, with fewer scientists following a multi-wavelength approach. Facilities and instruments are built to study only portions of the spectrum, rather than phenomena as a whole. There are no instruments designed to just study globular clusters, for instance. Phillips agrees that wavelength specialization is prevalent in the scientific community, but he believes this attitude is changing. Up until the last thirty years, many astronomers built their own telescopes, thereby focusing all their attention on one portion of the spectrum. Today, engineers build the telescopes based on what the astronomers want to study. Because astronomers no longer build the telescopes, they are more willing to look at other wavelengths. "Astronomers are now becoming more multi-wave literate in order to solve astrophysical puzzles," says Phillips. Because specialized telescopes are so well developed and are still strongly supported by scientists, the most logical approach would be to coordinate the telescopes already in existence. This happened recently due to an accident with satellite equipment.

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (left) once stored data on its satellite tape recorders and dumped data about gamma-ray bursts down to ground stations several times each day. However, in 1992 the tape recorders failed. Since there was no way to save the data, it had to be transmitted instantly. The bright side of this accident was that this instant transmission of information made it possible for other types of telescopes to have immediate, 'real-time' burst alerts. On Jan. 23, 1999, gamma-ray and visible light robotic telescopes coordinated an observation of a gamma-ray burst. When the gamma-ray burst was detected, the GRO quickly sent the information out through the Internet. The Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE), a visible light telescope, used this information to lock on to the burst 22 seconds after it began. This allowed scientists to see for the first time a gamma-ray burst explosion in the visible light portion of the spectrum. Right: The Robotic and Optical Search Experiment (ROTSE), operated by Carl Akerloff at the University of Michigan. "You want to ask, 'Why didn't everyone do it this way from the beginning?'" Weisskopf grins.

"It's because everyone got in their own cars and started driving, and many were just following the cars in front of them." Web Links Goddard Space Flight Center - a fun and easy tutorial about the high energy portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA's Office of Space Science press releases and other news related to NASA and astrophysics Such serendipitous events as the GRO storage tape failure often reveal new ways of looking at old science, causing scientists to rethink ideas previously taken for granted. Although Phillips says an all-wave telescope is not currently a topic of serious discussion in the scientific community, satellites with coordinated telescopes have worked well in the past. Perhaps the success of Skylab and other multi-wavelength observatories, combined with the happy accident of the GRO, will inspire new and revolutionary ideas about telescopes. Join our growing list of subscribers - sign up for our express news delivery and you will receive a mail message every time we post a new story!!!

Into The Constellation Of Sagittarius - Milkyway Into The Constellation Of Sagittarius - Milkyway Taken by Bill Metallinos on August 1, 2016 @ Corfu, Greece Click photo for larger image Into the constellation of Sagittarius - Milkyway From the 10th National Annual Star Party of Greek Amateur Astronomers at mountain Parnon. Special thanks to the Astronomical Union of Sparta! text wikipedia ... stellation) Sagittarius is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for the archer, and its symbol is Sagittarius.svg (Unicode U+2650 ♐), a stylized arrow. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur pulling-back a bow. It lies between Scorpius and Ophiuchus to the west and Capricornus to the east. The center of the Milky Way lies in the westernmost part of Sagittarius.

As seen from the northern hemisphere, the constellations brighter stars form an easily recognizable asterism known as the Teapot. The stars δ Sgr (Kaus Media), ε Sgr (Kaus Australis), ζ Sgr (Ascella), and φ Sgr form the body of the pot; λ Sgr (Kaus Borealis) is the point of the lid; γ2 Sgr (Alnasl) is the tip of the spout; and σ Sgr (Nunki) and τ Sgr the handle. These same stars originally formed the bow and arrow of Sagittarius. Marking the bottom of the teapots handle (or the shoulder area of the archer, are the bright star (2.59 magnitude) Zeta Sagittarii (ζ Sgr), named Ascella, and the fainter Tau Sagittarii (τ Sgr). To complete the teapot metaphor, under good conditions, a particularly dense area of the Milky Way can be seen rising in a north-westerly arc above the spout, like a puff of steam rising from a boiling kettle.

The Milky Way is at its densest near Sagittarius, as this is where the galactic center lies. As a result, Sagittarius contains many star clusters and nebulae. Nebulae Sagittarius contains several well-known nebulae, including the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8), near λ Sagittarii; the Omega Nebula (Messier 17), also known as the Horseshoe Nebula or Swan Nebula, near the border with Scutum; and the Trifid Nebula (Messier 20), a large nebula containing some very young, hot stars. The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is an emission nebula that is located 5,000 light-years from Earth and measures 140 light-years by 60 light-years (1.5°). Though it appears grey in telescopes to the unaided eye, long-exposure photographs reveal its pink hue, common to emission nebulae.[8] It is fairly bright, with an integrated magnitude of 3.0.

The Lagoon Nebula was discovered independently by John Flamsteed in 1680, Guillaume Le Gentil in 1747, and Charles Messier in 1764. The central area of the Lagoon Nebula is also known as the Hourglass Nebula, so named for its distinctive shape. The Hourglass Nebula has its shape because of matter propelled by Herschel 36. The Lagoon Nebula also features three dark nebulae catalogued in Barnards Catalog. The Lagoon Nebula was instrumental in the discovery of Bok globules, as Bart Bok studied prints of the nebula intensively in 1947. Approximately 17,000 Bok globules were discovered in the nebula nine years later as a part of the Palomar Sky Survey; studies later showed that Boks hypothesis that the globules held protostars was correct. The Omega Nebula is a fairly bright nebula; it has an integrated magnitude of 6.0 and is 4890 light-years from Earth.

It was discovered in 1746 by Philippe Loys de Chésaux; observers since him have differed greatly in how they view the nebula, hence its myriad of names. Most often viewed as a checkmark, it was seen as a swan by George F. Chambers in 1889, a loon by Roy Bishop, and as a curl of smoke by Camille Flammarion. The Trifid Nebula (M20, NGC 6514) is an emission nebula in Sagittarius that lies less than two degrees from the Lagoon Nebula. Discovered by French comet-hunter Charles Messier, it is located between 2,000 and 9,000 light-years from Earth and has a diameter of approximately 50 light-years. The outside of the Trifid Nebula is a bluish reflection nebula; the interior is pink with two dark bands that divide it into three areas, sometimes called lobes. Hydrogen in the nebula is ionized, creating its characteristic color, by a central triple star, which formed in the intersection of the two dark bands.

M20 is associated with a cluster that has a magnitude of 6.3. The Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537) is a planetary nebula located at a distance of about 4000 light-years from Earth. NGC 6559 is a star forming region located at a distance of about 5000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Sagittarius, showing both emission (red) and reflection (bluish) regions. The grouping of the Lagoon Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, and NGC 6559 is often called the Sagittarius triplet. In addition, sever

Question: What astronomical feature is sometimes called ‘The Way of St John’?
Answer: Milky Way