Global Star Party 158

Transcript for Part A:

okay are we still doing
this uh we are still yeah we're still
doing it at least for a few more minutes
we some reason we lost to the live
connection so I'm not sure
why but
uh but stranger things have happened
so no first time
anything first this is the first time
yeah so I'm hanging in there for uh
about another 20 minutes here and we'll
see if uh Chris comes back on I know
he's frustrated um so he's already just
been up there for three nights um and I
wanted to show uh I'll share my screen
here I'll show what um the
um what he's dealing with
let's see here we
go here we
are now let me I didn't share correctly
let's share correctly here we
go yeah you can see that David this is
um this is SIU City and I think that I
think that where the letter c is is
probably some mountains where Chris is
right
now and and um if that's North then you
know we'll be
uh well you can see he's got clouds on
either side of him here
so yeah well kind of mushrooming just
kind of going straight up you know is
interesting
yeah islands often get cloud cover you
know they have localized
weather and so that's
you can see it when you go to like
Kawaii but
um it has mountains so tall in Hawaii
that it gets above you know most of that
cloud cover monay of course gets above
that David I'm curious during all your
Comet uh hunting and Comet uh adventures
and stuff you probably have been to many
many observatories did you go to Mona
have you been there yes
okay up there with
manura Excuse me S yeah I went up there
with manura my 6inch diameter telescope
okay and I did an hour or so of comet
hunting from the summit of Mona from the
summit oh that's right next to the
Subaru telescope oh Subaru okay
telescope found it very difficult to
breathe yes yeah I when I was uh there
for the 91 Eclipse we were right in
front of the Canada France Hawaii
telescope the cfht yeah and
um uh yeah I was there uh nonstop
for four days and three nights you know
and you got view the eclipse from there
b to do the eclipse we were um filming
it it was actually filmed on 35
millimeter Motion Picture film for uh
Nova's uh presentation called the uh
eclipse of the century and um and boy
was it uh you know so that was my first
eclipse and I was running two cameras
simultaneously you know so I had these
mounts with these big 35 millimeter
motion picture cameras and
um uh it was uh after being awake
because I couldn't sleep I couldn't
sleep at the that altitude because of
lack of oxygen so I would about every
four or five hours I would take a break
I would go up into the um uh where the
uh you know the maybe conference room or
relaxation room or whatever for the
astronomers inside the Dome and they had
oxygen there that you could take you
know so I was breathing
oxygen uh and then coming back down but
I just I could not sleep and
so after after a few days of that uh you
know it's
uh you know the the evenings and the
sunrises and stuff like that wow I mean
it's just surreal you know surreal but
we got we did get the eclipse um on four
different cameras and they mixed all
that together and uh uh made for a
really nice documentary so it was fun to
be a part of it you know oh I'm glad it
was
yeah it
was because I was such you know because
it was uh done for Nova um uh there were
so many documentary filmmakers up there
at the time uh including Roger rusme was
there uh shooting for not a video but um
uh taking St still images for National
Geographic and as I was I was and still
am such a fanboy for the National
Geographic Society so it was cool to
work with him a little bit graic
Society seem we have more in common than
I
thought yes
well we're just going to wait a few more
minutes
here it's interesting about the um the
red spot and listening to
U uh Christopher Go's description of the
ovals that uh actually as an amateur
astronomer he's famous for discovering
one of the ovals on Jupiter
yeah he also keeps tabs on all of the uh
Jian impacts that have taken place in so
yeah how do you have you kept track of
how many times has this been an impact
on Jupiter
yeah I don't know but it's uh this may
be uh probably less than 10 but
certainly more than one certainly more
than one yeah oh
yeah it's interesting to me because once
amateur astronomers learn how to see
something how to make an observation
they they are able to find it again and
again you know
so and uh if you tell amateur
astronomers they can't do something that
this is only the realm of professional
astronomers
they always prove the professionals
wrong so for instance like exoplanets
that used to be only in the realm of
multimedia aperture telescopes you know
and uh now they do it with 4 inch
refractors you
know so it's all in the way you
look
yeah and and also too just looking at
back at old data when I was at at uh y's
Observatory and we were looking at some
of the old glass plates and stuff and
they said from time to time in amateur
astronomer and certainly professional
astronomers would pull one of those
glass plates taken you know right after
the turn of the century and I'm not
talking about the turn of you know from
the 1900s to the 2000s we're talking
about 1800s to
1900s uh they had these fabulous glass
plates and they would find data you know
uh of some Celestial phenomena so they
could go way back so that's why it's
important to keep that data you know a
lot of the the old
observatories um you
know were throwing out glass plates and
stuff like that you know
because you know how do they keep them
it is expensive to keep this data so
there is and I'll have to find the guy
that is doing some of this work there is
a a a group that is taken taking
historical glass plates and they are
digitizing them in high resolution um uh
for use uh you know down the road
so uh this was this was uh announced
during the alliance of historic
Observatory meeting that I was at at the
Vatican Observatory about a week ago and
when you did you meet um
brother guy Co Gago I did I sure did
yeah he is a good friend of mine he is a
wonderful guy you know
so and I told him that I said you're a
wonderful guy and he says yes I
[Laughter]
am brother guy is the U Pop's astronomer
and uh yeah he's uh he's got a wonderful
uh very Charming personality a great
sense of humor you know
so
um so I'm I'm I'm honored that I was
able to spend some time uh you know at
at the Vatican Observatory and learn
about them and um learn about the
history of astronomy with the Catholic
Church uh I was impressed by that you
know that they uh have such a deep
program you know and um their of course
their prize instrument right now is not
at the Vatican in Italy uh but it's in
Arizona M Mount Hamilton vat yeah the M
who I'm sorry isn't it Mount Hamilton no
that mount Hamilton is uh where the leak
Observatory is uh it's on
Graham so I got something wrong here on
Mount Graham m Graham sorry yeah yeah
now
Graham yeah so Paul gabber who is um who
is
uh I guess the astronomer in charge
there Vatican
Observatory back to the
vat for
it says the Vatican advanced technology
telescope in Arizona is a multi-million
doll astronomical research complex paid
for by private
donations consists of two parts the
alisp lenon telescope and the Thomas J
Bannon astrophysics
facility I've seen that telescope it's
it's quite a wonderful instrument
yeah here is a
picture of the
uh
Observatory the telescope's 1.8 meter
72inch mirror
F1 wow okay it was uh fabric the Richard
F Caris mirror laboratory University of
Arizona the first mirror ever made using
revolutionary spin spin casting I did
not know that and polishing techniques
that are now used to make giant
telescopes such as the L LBT the lsst
and the giant mellan
telescope Vatican advanced technology
telescope truly lives up to its name its
heart is a 1.8 m uh honeycomb mirror
construction with boros silicate uh
glass and
um so they did uh spin casting and
stressed lap polishing
techniques which are being used for
mirrors now up to four meters in
diameter very
cool we'll have to go up there yep and
there's Mount
Graham I don't know why I had Mount
Hamilton stuck in my head I would love
it very much Scot
yeah so are we gonna just give it up for
tonight and try again tomorrow I think
that's the
plan we'll hear from um I'll probably
get a call from
uh uh Chris later on
and uh we got one more shot at this
before he has to go down the mountain so
um so I'll be in touch with you Dave and
let you know what's happening okay okay
and I thank everybody for tuning in uh
tonight I'm sorry for the interruption
on the the live stream but um these
things happen and um we will be back uh
with uh probably the last install of the
uh uh 158th global Star Party um and
hopefully fingers being crossed that we
get to see the comet from the
Philippines thanks David thank you for
inviting me along tonight and see you
tomorrow thanks for being there so many
nights thanks all right take care bye
bye good night good night good
night okay so again thanks everyone for
tuning in and um we'll uh try to do this
again about the same time which will be
about 4 o' in the morning Central Time
and
um uh until then uh keep looking up
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good day everyone this is David Levy
that's me and I am holding the original
Discovery film
of our most important Comet Comet Shaker
leing n these films were taken on the
23rd of March
1993 Carolyn discovered the uh comet on
these films two days
later and
uh and on about 16 months after that all
of the fragments of this comic collided
with Jupiter giving Humanity its first
view of what happens when a comet hits a
planet and uh and one of the exciting
things about this is that when comets
hit planets they don't just drop uh dust
they also
drop um organic
materials uh carbon hydrogen oxygen and
nitrogen which eventually turn into
proteins amino acids RNA and finally on
one magic day DNA comets Comet impacts
are really the first step in the origin
of life
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oh

Transcript for Part B:

it's just us tonight Just the two of us
Just the two of
us That's
right Just the two of
us
Well here we are
It's tonight is the uh David Levy and
Scott Roberts show and um uh we are
David is live from uh Vale Arizona I'm
here in
Arkansas and
uh I think you
can if you're tuned in here you're
watching us uh this very early morning
here
in central time zone Uh
uh we
are uh without Mr Christopher
go because he was unfortunately clouded
out fairly severely So but um I have a a
little uh video about the Kyper belt um
from NASA and uh and then David will
give a uh introductory remarks and uh it
will be this will be a very brief show
but we wanted to uh um be there for you
and I got a couple of images to show you
This first one uh here is uh from my
daughter Maria Logos Sto And Maria
uh saw her first comet in her life uh
last night
or you know late evening and she took a
picture of it with her smartphone and so
I wanted to show that uh she had never
attempted something like this before and
um David was pointing out that you can
see the anti-tail
uh which is uh pointing directly down uh
like down towards the tree Um so you can
I don't know if you can see that in this
uh image but um I I said anyway Yeah
Okay So here let's watch the video and
then we'll
uh we'll go from there
So go
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Astronomers have just begun imaging
planets around other stars The technique
isn't very advanced yet and it can't see
any planets as small as those in our own
solar system But let's suppose for a
moment that alien astronomers are
looking at our planetary system Could
they find any evidence that planets
existed around the sun even if they
couldn't see the planets themselves the
answer is probably yes That's because at
least one world in our solar system
would make its presence known by its
effects on a huge cloud of dust at the
fringes of the solar system in a place
called the Kyper
belt The Kyper Belt is a kind of cold
storage zone out beyond Neptune occupied
by millions of icy bodies including
Pluto The icy objects in the Kyper belt
released dust that from afar could
appear as a hazy disc at infrared
wavelengths New computer models created
by NASA scientists shown here reveal
what dust in the Kyper belt might look
like to an alien astronomer Neptune
creates the intricate pattern The
massive planet's gravity tugs on the
cloud's dust grains nudging them in
their
orbits Neptune creates a ring structure
in the dust cloud which features a gap
where the planet itself resides And this
gap should make it fairly easy to tell
where Neptune is from afar even at
distances where the planet is too dim to
detect directly Supercomputer
simulations that Mark Kushner and I
performed also allow us to see what the
dust in the solar system may have looked
like when the solar system was much
younger In effect we can go back in time
and see how the distant view of the
solar system may have changed In its
youth the Kyper belt contained many more
objects and consequently lots more dust
In fact the dust was so thick that the
particles themselves often collided
When we included collisions between dust
particles we were really amazed by what
we
saw Successively younger models of the
Kyper belt dust cloud show progressively
simpler structure eventually leading to
a single narrow ring beyond Neptune's
orbit Dust collisions change Neptune's
gravitational imprint The gap in the
ring structure disappears
The amazing thing is we've already seen
ring structures like this around other
younger stars like
Pom dust We now know that these other
systems may look similar to our young
solar
system Dust around other stars can tell
us a lot about possible planets Just as
in our own solar system it could reveal
Neptune
Well good morning
Let me turn off this crazy echo
Much better
Well tonight it's uh it's just David
Levy and myself uh regretfully uh
Christopher Go and his team were uh
enormously kept clouded out Um and uh
you know I don't know if he will be
continuing to make trips back up to the
mountain uh above Cebu City Philippines
but uh I know Chris he he is someone
that uh he doesn't give up But uh today
there will be no broadcast from the
Philippines Um and um so you know uh you
know I know he's disappointed but it was
it was fun to uh be with with him over
the last couple of nights and um
um what are your what what's your
thoughts about being clouded out i know
that we've all experienced it many times
David
Yes we certainly have And it is um even
rained out not clouded out in Arizona
Vil Arizona where I was able to get a
couple of very out of focus images of Oh
yeah Okay Let's see if I pull those up
Let's see
Um we've
got this shot right here
Yeah this is a shot I took and uh it
seems that I forgot to focus my camera
and I will do a little better tomorrow
Yeah but look how bright the comet is
and how long the tail goes all the way
out of the frame uh at the top and then
you can see this line coming down this
glow coming down It comes down quite a
ways
Um and uh that appears to be the
anti-tail Is that right uh yes Yes it
does It is correct Although I would tell
it more of an uncle tale An uncle tail
But it seems that the p the camera
caught it better than I was able to see
it visually Yeah Very cool You'll have
to uh you have to try again uh uh with
that camera or another camera
Uh a lot of smartphone um uh images are
coming in as well Uh I'll try to collect
some of those for the next global star
party that we do Um and then there's
let's see is this one right here ah
there we go Here's another one um where
you can see the comet at the top there
and then the anti-tail goes really far
down like almost to where it's it looks
like it's starting to touch the glow of
the where the sky still has some glow up
there and um uh so it's a really I think
it's a very easy to see comet um you
know uh when I was out with Mary uh we
could see the comet and the tail naked
eye and it was like no problem at all
Uh but I not sure what the uh brightness
looked like The I think that the uh I
mean to me it looked like the brightness
of the uh the head of the comet might
have
been as bright as maybe like Polaris or
something
Oh I believe that it might have been I
think if comet was a little brighter
than that I could easily see it with the
Yes that's right That's right
So well um let's
see I'll just kind of hang out with your
nice image here of
of the comet Now what's up these are
just stars up above right there's a kind
of a trio of stars Yeah Over here right
and this glow down here that we're
seeing is that Tucson
uh yes that is the uh actually that's
just the the sunset The this picture was
taken when the I was still pretty bright
Oh okay Okay Very good Very good Well
excellent I'll turn this over to you uh
David and and you can do your uh
quotation Let's see Yeah we'll do a
quotation tonight It is
from from actually from
McBTH And I've done this before at the
global star
party But uh the interesting thing about
about McBTH is that it shows that
Shakespeare lived in a world of
time and John Milton in a universe of
space And uh but it's a little better
than
that because in the quotation I'm going
to read to you right
now it shows that
um uh McBth has just given up He has
just started to uh
realize you know he's just been informed
that his wife is is dead
and um he really doesn't know what to
say And I imagine Shakespeare in his
study with his laptop is trying to
figure out what speech to give McBth at
this
point And uh it's kind of like he feels
a nudge on his shoulder and he turns
around and he sees God right behind him
And God says "Will take a break." Yeah
Uh take a break It is
um I got this I got this And
uh and the uh quotation is what McBth
says She should have died hereafter
There would have been a time for such a
word Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
creeps in its petty pace from day to day
to the last syllable of recorded time
Out brief candle life's but a walking
shadow A poor player that stretchs and
frets his hour across the stage and then
is heard no more It is a tale told by an
an idiot full of sound and fury
signifying nothing signifying
everything And I like to think that with
that speech Shakespeare is anticipating
general relativity by 300 years
and and
and it is interesting that he does that
Uh but whether whether he does
anticipate general relativity is sort
not for us to
say But it is a beautiful magnificent
thought that Shakespeare is penning down
uh on this final night of our 158th
Global Star Party And on that note I
will give it back to you Scott Okay
Okay All right Well let me let me come
on with you There we are
Um uh so uh yeah we have uh only a
couple of people watching in the chat
right now but uh uh you know uh such
such things teach astronomers you know
when you get clouded out like this We
had our last global star party was about
cloudy nights and uh um and this this
can happen to all of us and we talked
about things that we reflect on and um
uh things that we do uh uh during those
times we're not out able to get out
under the stars you know Uh and so you
know for for me uh when I'm clouded out
I you know I kind of reflect back on you
know kind of contemplate uh still my
place in the universe And
um and it just uh you know I I find it
to be a uh a reprieve that sometimes is
is thrust upon me But uh you know on any
account I I'm I'm uh you know I'm
grateful for even the cloudy nights you
know So
uh but I think tonight after so many
sleepless nights uh uh trying to chase
this comet um able to do it here uh
locally in Arkansas I add the two
previous nights uh or you know would
would have been the first two nights
that I was able to see the comet I
didn't see it very bright I did I did
see it through the clouds and through
the haze and stuff Uh but uh last night
was a real treat uh because it was so
clear and um it can't uh it can't match
David Levy's skies in Vil Arizona but
still from a uh urban uh you know site
actually from my apartments I could I
could definitely see it with the naked
eye So I hope that you're out there uh
checking it out Uh and if you're so
inclined you can send your images uh to
me And my email is really easy It's just
the letter S for Scott but not not Scott
just
sexplorescientific.com And I'll be very
happy to see your images And uh we'll
include some of the uh best of them on
uh the next Global Star Party
Well uh that will be it for tonight for
me and um David thank you again and uh
get some rest Yes And you too and we'll
see you at the next Global Star Party
Okay
all right Take
care and you guys have a good night
Thanks very much for watching
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like to invite all of you to uh to come
to the next global star party They are
run by Scott Roberts of the Score
Scientific and me We we co-host this
program and uh it's usually done on
Tuesdays and uh usually at 6:00 or so
central central time and I hope to see
you all there My name is David Ley and I
hope to see you all at the very next
global star fight Thank you
[Applause]
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It's glorious
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