Team Up with a 17,000mph Observatory
Team Up with a 17,000mph Observatory
Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have joined the Citizen Sky project!
Through the northern hemisphere summer of 2010, astronauts on board the ISS will attempt to observe epsilon Aurigae while it is close to the Sun. As many of you know, epsilon Aurigae is currently lost in the glare of the Sun for Earth-bound observers. However, from space they can still see it because the atmosphere is not in the way. Although they have to be careful, the Sun appears much brighter in space also.
This web page will be used too keep track on their progress and show you the data as it comes in.
Updates
100624: The instructions for the observations have just been uploaded to the ISS crew. Click here to read the ISS Daily On Orbit Status Report that describes the project as it was sent to them. When the first data report comes in, we will post it here and update the light curve.
Below is the current light curve. Noticed how the data dramatically drops as the Sun begins to interfere while the error bars increase. We definitely need more data to decide whether a mid-eclipse brightening takes place or not in the coming months. Hopefully, the astronauts can help fill in the gaps.
Hint: if you are new to light curves, check out our 5-Star Data Analysis Tutorial (pdf).
Background
On a cold January day in Boston, we (Brian and Aaron) were sitting at a table in the AAVSO HQ brainstorming projects for the year. We were lamenting the fact that mid-eclipse was going to mostly be during solar conjunction this year. Citizen Sky participants weren't going to be able to observe the project during the time of the fabled "mid eclipse brightening", thus we may not be able to settle that part of the debate for another 27 years. Then it struck Aaron: "What if we just asked an astronaut to look out the window?".
As on Earth, epsilon Aurigae is too bright for telescopes in space. But, as you observers have proven so well time-after-time, the human eyeball can achieve remarkable accuracy. In fact, enough to detect a mid-eclipse brightening, if it occurs. But we need dark skies. So, head to space! Without a real "daytime" and its blue sky to block most of the stars, ISS astronauts will still be able to see the star when it is close to the Sun.
A debate has raged for decades over the existence of this mid-eclipse brightening. If it does exist, it would help shed light on the structure of the eclipsing dust cloud. For example, it could be caused by a hole in the middle of the dust cloud, which would further imply that the cloud is spherically shaped like a torus (a more scientific and nerdy way of saying "doughnut shape"). Even if it does not exist, it still helps by ruling out many of those scenarios.
So, to the best of our knowledge we had a legitimate research question that could only be answered by human beings in space. An added bonus: working in space is cool:
But how to get the request to the right people at NASA? We put out feelers to many people, such as our NSF program officer, Aaron's physics advisor at Tufts (who knows many astronauts), former astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld (who is a longtime friend of the AAVSO) and also tried various NASA education in space solicitations. They all gave us leads to follow. Aaron even tried to send a twitter message direct to the ISS. While all this was going on, Citizen Sky participant Bikeman suggested a similar project on our forums!
The trail went cold in April and it looked like all the leads were hitting dead ends. We were even told by one person that we'd have to pay for such a project. But, happily, someone at NASA found the idea interesting and shepharded it through the right channels. We had to devise some instructions and make a specialized chart. There are interesting limitations to working in space. For example, astronauts can get sun burned by just looking out the window a few minutes too long when the Sun is shining! So they need to observe when the Sun is just behind something blocking it (like the Earth).
M
any NASA folk have gone waaaaayyyyy above the call of duty in helping us out. Not only are the astronauts helping, but ground staff as well. One example: Someone has to do the calculations as to when epsilon Aurigae is observable from the ISS and then send a series of such observation windows to the astronauts weekly. We thank everyone at NASA for their support!
The astronauts are being asked to make visual estimates and/or to take pictures of epsilon Aurigae with their DSLR cameras. But participation is optional and all of this is on their spare time, of which they don't have much. So super thanks go to them.
So keep observing (as much as you can)! You're now working alongside astronauts to help solve a century-old scientific mystery.
Below is a copy of the chart sent to the astronauts, which is a modified version in the 10-Star Tutorial. Note the addition of the location of the Sun on certain days.
