I had Bruce and Kelly, the astronomers, on Tuesday. We made star wheels to show us how the stars move across the sky at different times of the night year round. We talked about how the position of the earth’s orbit around the sun affected what we could see in the night sky.

We did a demonstration to see why the sky looked different at different times of the night and different times of the year. We made a circle around the table and put a water bottle representing the sun in the middle, and we were the earth. When we turned toward the table (and the sun) it was daytime, and when we turned away from the sun it was nighttime. In the nighttime position we could all see different things around the room. Then we traveled around the table like we were turning to a different time of the year. When we turned away from the sun (nighttime) then we saw different things then we saw the first time.

We also made bottle rockets out of clay, straws and a plastic water bottle. My rocket shot from one end of the room to the other. It was fun making them and seeing how far they would shoot.

On Wednesday we went outside with telescopes to look at the stars and different planets. We saw Venus, Mars and Saturn. When I looked at Saturn through the telescope I saw the rings around it and I thought that was really cool.

Then we made a pocket solar system. I still have it in my cabin. It’s interesting that Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are all in a little clump close to the the sun and all the other planets are spread out around the solar system.

On Thursday night we went outside with telescopes just like we did on Wednesday. I saw Jupiter. You could see two little lines going around it. I also saw two of Jupiter’s little moons. Then I went over to another telescope and saw Mizar and Alcor. Mizar was blue, Alcor was yellow and bigger and I could see both of them even without the telescope. At one point in the night I saw a golden shooting star that made a half circle in the night sky.

It was really fun and interesting learning about the stars and I also liked looking through the telescopes and seeing stars and planets. I glad I came to camp this week to learn about astronomy.

(Editors Note: On Friday Maddy joined me and about 20 others for a late-night observing session. Maddy outlasted most of the others, including her parents, rumored to have fallen asleep on the mattresses provided for the meteor observers. We kept finding interesting things through the eyepiece including several galaxies, clusters and nebulae. Keep looking up Maddy! You’re destined for greatness!)

I’m going to be the featured speaker at the Annual Cookout meeting of the Amateur Astronomical Society of Rhode Island (known as the Skyscrapers) on July 10th at 4:00pm. The title of my talk, “Fame, Fortune and Discoveries in the Occult” is a play on the ‘other’ meaning of occult, but since I’m an astronomer I think we can all agree that I’m not going to be casting any spells that day.

Here’s the blip on the talk from the Skyscrapers website.

“Many opportunities exist for amateur astronomers to make contributions to scientific research. My interest is in helping to classify asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects for the scientists at MIT and Williams College, and also to report my observations through a worldwide network called the International Occultation Timing Association. One of the better ways to gather data on these distant objects is by recording the light curves of certain stars as the asteroids eclipse or occult them. It only takes simple, inexpensive equipment to get started, and from there you can take it across the world, as I’ve been able to do.”

“Bruce Berger has lectured on amateur astronomy, occultations and telescope making across the US, South America and Asia. His passion for astronomy and astronomy gadgets fuels his desire to learn more and to share his experiences with others through his Scopemaker.com website. As a long-time member and past president of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Bruce has promoted professional-amateur collaboration projects with scientists at the MIT-Williams College Occultation Consortium and the San Pedro Martir National Observatory of Mexico. Along with John Briggs and several others, Bruce is a co-author of a just published (6/17/10) article in Nature titled “A Glimpse of an Icy World in the Outer Solar System” He has given talks about amateur astronomy and telescope making to groups in Brazil, Japan and China.”

The paper on 2002 TX300 or KBO 55636 was (finally) published in Nature magazine.  It’s exciting for me, because even though I was one of many researchers involved in the project, it was a first in science and a first for me, though I hope it won’t be the last. Jim Elliot and his team were able to deploy 21 observing stations across the globe in an unprecedented attempt to measure the size, and perhaps more, of an object that’s about 4 billion miles from the sun. To put this into a scale that we can understand, it’s somewhat like taking a photograph of a silver dollar from 800 miles away.

I’ve written about my personal KBO55636 adventure before – capturing the object eclipsing a star using the 1.5 meter telescope belonging to the Observatorio Astronomica Nacional’s San Pedro Mountain Observatory in North Baja California state n Mexico. Although I did not observe the actual occultation, it was observed from 2 points in the state of Hawaii, and my observation of a non-event was important because it helped define the size of the object.

Another important discovery is the apparent brightness, or albedo, of 55636. Scientists would expect that the object, though composed mainly of ice, would have scooped up so much space dust in the billion years since it’s creation that it would be kind of dull. But the paper presents data that the object is one of the brightest in the solar system Noted occultation specialist Bruno Sicardi speculates that if the object is as reflective as reported then scientists may need to redefine their theories on the evolution of KBOs.

For those interested in the technical details, here’s a link to the full text article. For those that may prefer a more simplified explanation of the significance of this important discovery, here are some external links from around the world.

• SKY & TELESCOPE – Kelly Beatty
• BBC
• PHYSORG.COM
• MIT PRESS RELEASE
• GOOGLE NEWS
• ABC SCIENCE (AUSTRALIA)
• SBS (AUSTRALIA)
• MSNBC
• GERMANY
• GERMANY
• RUSSIA
• NETHERLANDS

Last winter I showed off the SCORE setup at the monthly meeting of my astronomy club. Bob Naeye, Editor in Chief of Sky and Telescope, was at the meeting and took special interest in the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston’s cooperative participation with the MIT Planetary Astronomy Lab’s research on Kuiper Belt Objects. Bob later contacted me to ask more about the equipment that I put together for asteroid occultation timing, so I pointed him to my article on SCORE and sent him a photograph. Yesterday I received an advance copy of July’s Sky & Telescope, which features a prominent mention of the MIT/ ATMoB connection and a photograph of me with SCORE as I prepared for the 20000 Varuna occultation event in Brazil.

From Bob Naeye’s July Sky & Telescope Spectrum column,

“… during the November 2009 meeting of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, MIT astronomer Michael Person and several club members described their travels to Mexico, Australia, and Nebraska to observe an asteroid occultation of a star in order to pin down the asteroid’s size and shape. I was fascinated by the scientific objectives and the travel adventures. After the talks, club member Bruce Berger showed me his electronics for an upcoming occultation expedition to Brazil. I was amazed that he could cram so much gear into such a small carrying case. I almost felt like I was talking to James Bond!”

I’ve been called many things before, but never have I been compared to James Bond. Thanks Bob, and thanks Sky & Telescope!