Jim calling Earth . . . I read you, Blue Planet. But I’m a little “spaced out,” at the moment. I’ve been waiting for T Corona Borealis to explode as a nova at any moment . . . Over.
Earth calling Jim . . . Sorry, but that’s not going to happen soon. News from last month’s American Astronomical Society meeting puts it off for another year -- at least! Better get back to your Smart Stars blog readers . . . Over.
Jim calling Earth . . . 10-4. Roger that, Earth. I’ll report to my colleagues immediately. Over and out.
T CrB Update and Magi Scopes
This blog is my latest in a few months. As I suggest in my “spacey” epigraph, predictions that T CrB (T Coronae Borealis) would blow up last year were overly optimistic. And, as we know all too well, social media can amplify even relatively minor astronomical stories. A good friend and colleague, Jon Elvert, attended the recent American Astronomical Society meeting a month ago and reported the following:
Bradley Schaefer admits he was overly confident at last year's meeting when predicting T CrB would erupt in 2025. He now anticipates its eruption by late 2025 or early 2026. He summarized T CrB's history from 1866 to 1946 via light curve slides and noted the possibility of a secondary eruption, unusual but possible. AAVSO members can play a critical role by contributing nightly visual observations; monitoring the star’s brightness; and making CCD observations as well. Contact the AAVSO immediately if T CrB begins to brighten! Oh, and cross your fingers too.
So, let’s see, late 2025 +1.3 years = April of 2027. That could be a long wait. I suggest we keep tabs with the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers), which will report any important changes in the star’s brightness.
Here's the link to the AAVSO forum if you want to keep up. There's been a bit of an uptick in discussions this past week or so, with the release of a telegram. But there's still skepticism about the most recent excitement. Check out the very latest here: https://forums.aavso.org/t/observing-campaigns-875-monitoring-t-crb/946/62)
In the meantime, I was happy to see that just in time for the Epiphany, smart telescope vendors offered three new “Magi Scopes” to the world -- my nickname for them because they were released at Christmas time and remind me of the Biblical magi who were wise astrologers. I won’t be able to review any of them yet, but I consider it a good sign that ZWO, Dwarflab, and Celestron have added new scopes to their offerings. In my opinion, this means we smart telescope users are onto something big, and that the number of users will keep increasing.
My wish for the next technical innovation for the smart scopes and their vendors is to find a way to eliminate clouds for at least the first week or two after the scopes delivery. Many shoppers would pay a little extra for that feature…. ;-) Seriously, I’m just making another excuse for not observing much lately. The weather here in Chicago these past few months has been absolutely miserable for stargazers. The few times when it has been clear, the temperature has been forbidding – even for a South Pole veteran like me.
Nevertheless. I have kept busy with astronomy despite the weather. The rest of this blog will provide a glimpse into a week I spent in China visiting the new Shanghai Astronomy Museum and will share some pictures of this remarkable scientific complex. And never fear, I’m also doing some background research for a series of future blog entries that I hope will give smart scope users even better experiences with their instruments.
Shanghai Astronomy Museum
From 2017 until 2020, my most time-consuming consulting assignment was as the exhibition design/astronomy content consultant for the Shanghai Astronomy Museum. The museum was completed in 2022, but I was unable to visit because of COVID quarantine restrictions until 2024. This past November, however, I was finally able to travel and be part of a small seminar of Asian planetarium and science museum professionals and consultants.
The Shanghai Astronomy Museum (SAM for short) is by far the world’s largest astronomy museum/planetarium. Shanghai has a population approaching 30 million people – around 12% more than the population of all of Australia. The museum and surrounding observatory park cover over 408,000 square feet (= 37,900 square meters), the area of 7 American football fields. The exhibition galleries which I worked on cover 129,000 square feet and contain over 300 exhibits. The complex also includes a large planetarium domed theater, but at 23 meters in diameter, it is not one of the world’s largest.
SAM’s attendance numbers reach about 1 million per year. The attendance is capped so that the crowds don’t become overwhelming. Located some 43 miles from the city center, the operators are honestly surprised at its popularity. Eager visitors must secure their tickets online within minutes of when they go on sale every morning. It’s a shame that more people cannot experience this gem of a museum first-hand. That’s why I wanted to share some favorite slides with my fellow astronomy fans. Just an alert to those who might have attended, much of what appears below was part of my presentation to the Naperville Astronomical Assocation.
The museum is complex with interlocking, twisting galleries and ramps; so I’ll forego trying to describe the lay out. (For those who are really interested in seeing the floor-plan, I’ve attached a link to a book offering a careful look at architectural plans.)
When you enter the lobby, you enter this swirling space, which boasts a Foucault Pendulum at its center. Pendulums are not unusual for science museums, but they do serve to remind us that the Earth is indeed rotating on its axis. One of my colleagues from Singapore (latitude 1.35 degrees) frowned as he observed that it would not work at the nearly equatorial latitude of their planetarium.
Just off the main lobby is the first exhibition gallery. This picture gives a flavor of what the extensive exhibit galleries are like. Three major gallery themes address these questions:
1. Where are we in the cosmos? (First floor)
2. Where did we come from? (Located on the next floor, primarily about astrophysics and historical observatories.)
3. Where are we going? (The final major gallery, all about space flight and featuring a full-sized replica of a module from the Chinese space station.)
The other major museum zone is adjacent to the exhibition galleries. It contains the large planetarium dome theater, designed by Ennead Architects (the same group that designed the Rose Center for Earth and Space in NYC). SAMS’s planetarium is housed in a giant sphere suspended above a floor. I don’t know if it is more like a spacecraft ready for launch or a visiting neutron star. In either case, it is a powerful attraction. Unfortunately, the number of seats cannot begin to accommodate the number of eager visitors. Special ticketing is required.
SAM is more than a building of exhibits and a planetarium. It also includes what I call professional “demonstration observatories.” Of course, one can’t do actual research astronomy so close to Shanghai at sea level. The light pollution from the nearby apartment buildings and the weather are both problematic. Nevertheless, the museum has invested in a solar heliostat and a large 1-meter telescope. In the image above, the solar tower is on the right, and the optical telescope dome is near the center. Both structures include ground-level exhibits on the telescopes and how they work.
The 1-meter optical telescope shown on the left has dual foci -- one for an imaging camera and one for public viewing that features an eyepiece. On the right is the heliostat, which directs its beam down the tower to an optical bench with adaptive optics. Both instruments work rather well on the Moon and Sun when the weather is good. The director of SAM also told me that they have a couple of Seestar S50 smart telescopes too, but I didn’t see them. FYI. Seestars and ZWO’s other amazing cameras are made just about 100 km west of Shanghai.
For readers who may be interested in learning more about this gigantic astronomy museum, I recommend this recently published book. Click on the link below to go to Amazon’s page to order one:
Amazon says the book is in Chinese. That is true, but it also has a full English translation alongside the Mandarin. In fact, it was originally written in English by the architects from Ennead in New York who designed the museum. The book reads well and contains interesting perspectives on the project. The images are stunning.
Coffee, Black Holes, and Photons
When I am in any large museum, I eventually feel the need for a cup of coffee. Lo and behold, in SAM’s café, they serve Black Hole Latte!
The drink was entertaining and got me over my caffeine slump, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it over the lattes I make at home. I’m also just not sure what the dark matter mixed in with the milk was. Suffice it to say, I’m still here a few months later to write about it.
The museum also offers an opportunity to share a cup of “pretend” coffee with Dr. Einstein. Here we are discussing black holes and photons in quantum field theory.
I can’t say Albert found my arguments about black holes convincing. He also still has not come around to fully buying into modern quantum physics. Those who know me know I’m a big fan of quantum electrodynamics and study the work of Richard Feynman. Albert was as “thick” in reality as he is in this picture when it came to accepting quantum mechanics.
Conclusion -- Photons and Meaningful Observing – Fourfold Way…
Speaking of photons, I can also report that I have indeed been working on understanding more about how to think of our smart telescopes from the point of view of photons. I’ve long been skeptical when people insist they like to “experience the photons” hit their retinas from distant stars and galaxies. When I’m being snarky, I call it photon worship.
I am, however, sympathetic to the desire to make the observing experience more deeply meaningful, so I’m working on an approach I call “The Fourfold Way.” Stay tuned for that “revelation” in my next blog. In the meantime, raise a cup of good coffee to clear skys and beautiful galaxies.
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Notes:
Image 1. Judy Sullivan shown at the console in the Kennedy Space Center's Manned Spacecraft Operations Building where she would operate during the Apollo 11 mission as she monitored the medical condition of the astronauts. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Sullivan
Image 2. Clipped from the vendors’ web pages.
Images 3 & 11. Ennead Architects
All the rest are mine.
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