Astronomy Wise December EZine

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Top Stories

Radio Telescopes

The Night Sky

Geminid meteor Shower

String Theory?

What’s New?

Three Radio Astronomy Projects

Astronomy Wise Astronomy For All

Solar Explorer

Event News

AW November Public Meeting

Astronomy wise @ the Brownies

Notices

December Public Meeting

14/12/12

Sawdon, North Yorkshire

Stargazing Live January 2013

8th,9th,10th

BBC 2

The Night Sky by John Harper

Image Mike Greenham

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Image Mike Greenham

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Image: North Essex Astronomical Society

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ASTRONOMY WISE

Welcome to the December 2012 Astronomy Wise edition. 2012 has been an

interesting year for us, from launching AW back in May which was a 12 page newsletter to the e-zine you are reading now. Each month we have brought you

news, articles and our interviews. We have interviewed Astrophysics professionals, students, presenters and authors. We have featured Young Astronomers, Featured

Astronomers and many guest writers.

Apologies there is no Rouges gallery this month, however it will be back in the New Year.

A big thank you to all who contributed to the EZine over the past year. A big thank

you to all those who read the magazine. We would like you feedback so please let us know what we can do to improve the publication.

Email [email protected]

As usual we are packed with news and articles and the winner of our book(s) competition, see inside for details.

WHO’S WHO?

David Bood Editor, Co Founder Jason Ives Co Founder, Rouges Gallery

John Harper, The Night Sky, Writer Edward Dutton, Graphic design

Heather Dawn, Writer Paul Rumsby, Telescope Reviews

Pepe Gallardo, Writer Andrew Devey, Solar Explorer, Writer

Zantippy Skiphop, Writer

Guest Writers

Jon Wallace

mailto:[email protected]

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Welcome to the December edition of Astronomy Wise. This

month we have another interesting interview from the world of science and astronomy. So I am pleased to

introduce Paul Halpern.

AW:When did you first become interest-

ed in Science and astronomy?

PH: When I was a child I enjoyed visiting the Franklin Institute Science

Museum in Philadelphia, which has fabulous push-button experiments. I

used to marvel at all the displays. I also visited the Worlds Fairs in New

York and Montreal, which similarly sparked my interest in science. Finally,

I was a great fan of the writer Isaac Asimov, and had a chance to meet him

when I was 12 years old.

AW: Could you tell us about your career

so far

PH: I received my PhD from Stony Brook University in New York, where I

studied chaos in the early universe. I looked at the Mixmaster Universe. It

was exciting for me to visit the scientist John Barrow in 1985 at the University

of Sussex in England, where he men-tored me about the field of cosmology.

In autumn 1988 I began my current position at the University of the

Sciences.

Edge of the Universe:

A Voyage to the Cosmic Horizon and Beyond

ISBN-10:

0470636246

ISBN-13:

978-0470636244

Purchase:

Find this book on Amazon.com

http://www.nasw.org/users/Halpern/books/universe.html

http://www.nasw.org/users/Halpern/books/universe.html

http://www.amazon.com/Edge-Universe-Paul-Halpern/dp/0470636246/

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AW: What is theoretical physics? How does it help us understand the universe?

PH: Theoretical physics is the science of trying to understand the workings of nature

at its most fundamental level. It helps us understand the basic building blocks of the universe and the interactions between them.

AW: Could you tell us about your book writing?

PH: After I received my PhD in 1987, I decided to take a short break from the

mathematical aspects of science and look at explaining science through writing. I started writing my first book Time Journeys in the spring of 1988 and it was

published two years later. I then kept going and have published 13 books to date.

AW: From my research I understand you have received the following awards Gug-genheim Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, and an Athenaeum Society Literary

Award. Could you tell us a little about each one?

PH: The Guggenheim Fellowship offers a chance for creative individuals to spend a

year researching a topic or creating a new work. It includes writers, artists, musi-cians, and other creative thinkers. The Fulbright Scholarship is designed to offer

Americans a chance to travel abroad and do research. I did my Fulbright work in Berlin. The Athenaeum Society Literary Award honours writers for their recent

books. My award was for Time Journeys.

AW: Is it true you featured on the

Simpsons in 3D on ice 20th Anniversary special?

PH: Yes I was on the Simpsons 20th

Anniversary Special, 3D on Ice. The director Morgan Spurlock contacted me

through his assistant and invited me to be filmed performing science segments

related to the show. I filmed about four different demonstrations related to the

show, each pertaining to a particular episode. It took about two hours. Then,

I did something silly, holding up a preserved fish and talking about it.

That’s the bit they ended up using! Still

it was amazing participating in a Simpsons special! Morgan Spurlock is a

great guy! Here’s a picture of me with Morgan Spurlock:

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AW: Apart from featuring in Astronomy Wise

(hehe) what would you say is the highlight of your career?

PH: Getting a chance to read Astronomy

Wise, of course! Seriously, receiving the Guggenheim award was a high academic

honour. Blogging for NOVA, a highly respected American science programme, has

been a great recent experience. In terms of fun accomplishments, being on The Simpsons

certainly ranks up there.

AW: What are your thoughts on exoplanets?

PH:I wrote a book about exoplanets back in

1995, The Quest for Alien Planets, when they were first being discovered. Then in 2004 I

wrote a children’s book Faraway Worlds. By

that time, many more had been found. It is amazing how

many have been found since then, some being comparable in mass to Earth. These are exciting times for learning

about other planetary systems!

AW: I am very interested in the moon Titan, what possibilities are there

of finding some primitive life there?

PH: If there is life on Titan it would have to

be a very different form of life from which we are familiar, used to its extreme conditions.

Image: NASA (Saturn's Moon Titan)

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AW: Could you tells us about your latest

book Edge of the Universe, which was up for grabs in our competition?

PH: Edge of the Universe is a look at the

wonders of contemporary cosmology tak-ing readers to the very frontiers of our

knowledge. It explores cutting-edge top-ics such as dark energy, dark matter,

dark flow, and the idea of the universe being a hologram.

http://phalpern.com

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December Night Sky Welcome to The Night Sky by John Harper

We have a printable sky chart A4 size.

During the first three weeks of

the month, the Sun is travelling eastwards through the constella-

tion of Ophiuchus and crosses the border into Sagittarius at around

23h on the 17th. The earliest sunset of the year is on the 12th, and the latest

sunrise is on the 31st. Between them lies the Winter Solstice, which this year takes place on December 21st at 11h 12 The earth-sun distance at this time is

147,160,039 km. The earth’s north pole is tilted as far away as it can be from the sun and this day is the official start of winter, a season which lasts 88.99 days in

the northern hemisphere, and of course summer, south of the equator.

The Moon The Moon is at apogee, its furthest

from the earth, on the 25th at 21h21, and at perigee, its nearest to

the earth on the 12th at 23h15.

The Last Quarter moon occurs at 15h32 on the 6th on the Sextans

Leo border.

December’s New Moon occurs at 08h42 on the 13th, when the sun

and moon are close together, the moon passing a degree or so north

of the sun in Ophiuchus, the

Serpent Bearer.

First Quarter Moon on the 20th at 05h20 in western Pisces, near the circlet of stars marking the ‘western fish’.

Full Moon at 10h22 on the 28th is the highest FM of the year, above Orion in

the constellation of Gemini, the ‘celestial twins’.

It may be possible to see Earthshine on the waning crescent between the 7th and the 11th and on the waxing crescent moon’s dark hemisphere from the

14th to the 18th.

Image; Mike Greenham

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The Planets

During the first half of December, Mercury is favourably placed in the morning sky for observation, rising just

two hours before the sun, when it becomes visible low in the SE sky, above which and to the right is the

brilliant ‘Morning Star’, Venus. Further to the upper right of Venus is Saturn. From the 9th to the 11th (inc),

the waning crescent moon with earthshine is in the vicinity of the three planets, and perhaps the best view

is to be had on the morning of the 11th, when at 07h as twilight is beginning, the crescent moon lies 4° to the

right of Venus; Mercury is 6° to the lower left of Venus and 5° above the horizon. Together Mercury, Venus,

Saturn and the Moon, together with bright Jupiter setting low in the NW makes for a collection of five solar

system objects visible at the same time. During the

latter part of the month, Mercury sinks in towards the sun for a superior conjunction with the latter in the New

Year. Venus continues to shine very brightly during

December, rising just under three hours before the sun on Dec 1st, reducing to just less that 2 hours before the

sun by New Year’s Eve. Like Mercury, Venus is moving towards its superior conjunction early next year. Look

for the waning crescent moon and Venus in the company of Mercury and Saturn as described above.

Because Mars is climbing northwards, throughout December the red planet sets two hours after the sun,

just before 18h. Look for it low in the SW sky as twilight fades. Mars leaves the constellation of Sagittarius to

enter Capricornus on Dec 25th. If you look into the SW

sky on the 15th, you will see the thin waxing crescent moon with earthshine on its night hemisphere, 6° above

Mars, the latter being just 5° above the horizon. Through a pair of binoculars the fiery red colour of Mars

will look beautiful against the fading dark turquoise twilight.

Jupiter is opposite the Sun in the sky on Dec 3rd and is therefore at opposition. Around this time, the largest

planet in the Solar System, is at its nearest to the earth, a distance of approximately 390 million miles. It

is therefore visible all night and reaches its highest in the south around midnight, when it dominates the sky

at an altitude of 60°. Jupiter appears to be is moving retrograde (east to west) in the constellation of Taurus

as the earth overtakes the planet. Mid month it lies above

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Aldebaran, the ‘red eye’ of the Bull, the constellation’s brightest star, and on Dec 25th in the evening, lies just 3° to the left of the gibbous waxing moon. By the start

of the 26th at midnight, the moon is very much closer and passes just 1° (two moon widths) below Jupiter. So throughout the whole night the two celestial objects

produce a delightful pairing at this season. Saturn is a morning object, rising 3 hours before the sun at the beginning, and 5

hours before sunrise at the end of the month and the year. The ringed planet lies within the western border of Libra, some 15° to the east (left) of Virgo’s brightest

star Spica, near which it has spent most of 2012. The waning crescent moon lies 5° to the lower right of Saturn at 07h on Dec 10th, to the lower left of which may be

seen brilliant Venus and Mercury which is actually brighter than Saturn. With earthshine visible on the dark hemisphere of the moon, this is the start of a

beautiful apparition of the three planets with the moon over the next couple of days.

A pre-Christmas treat for astronomers! December is a good time to look at both Jupiter and Saturn through a small

telescope because the widening northern surface of Saturn’s rings look beautiful right now, and the cloud bands of Jupiter together with the Galilean moons in their

ever-changing configurations can be seen. Uranus remains in central Pisces during the month, setting just before midnight on the 31st. Neptune in Aquarius sets by

20h30 at the end of December. For both of these remote planets, good star maps are necessary in order to locate them.

Of academic interest, the demoted planet Pluto is in conjunction with the sun on Dec 30th. The maximum of the Geminid meteors takes place overnight between the

13th/14th of December. At this time you should be able to see these bright fast moving shooting stars associated with asteroid 3200, Phaethon, the remains of a

spent comet.

Geminids tend to be most numerous around 02h00 when Gemini, their point of

origin, is almost overhead. On good nights it is possible to see up to 100 meteors an hour. The moon is new at the time of maximum so conditions are favourable.

Peaking overnight on the 22nd/ 23rd is the Ursid meteor shower (fragments of comet Tuttle), which produces about 10 meteors an hour, with occasional outbursts

resulting in a greater number, but the gibbous, waxing moon will cause interference during the night until 03h when the moon is setting in the WNW. Therefore the time

period from 03h till dawn is the best opportunity to look for Ursids. Constellations visible in the south around midnight, mid-month, are as follows:

Lepus the Hare, Orion, Taurus and Auriga the Charioteer. All times are GMT 1° is one finger width at arm’s length.

By John Harper

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Calcium wavelength and white light solar

photography

By Andy Devey

This month I thought it appropriate to move away from H-alpha wave length and

take a look at CaK and white light solar photography.

Calcium-K solar photography Calcium light at a very difficult to see because at 3933.7Å it is firmly in the blue

part of the spectrum and on the limit of human vision with younger people having a better chance of seeing the solar disc and gaining a visual focus. The best chance

of seeing the Sun in calcium K light is to dark adapt for about 10-minutes – not an easy task on a bright sunny day. I made a frame for my pocket digital camera from

aluminium angel section and thick [2mm] black plastic card fitted to a Velcro lined 42mm waste water plumbing connector that fitted onto my zoom eyepiece and

allowed the lens to travel safely out to focus. This was all glued together with araldite and PVC glue so no expensive engineering tools used and has proved

excellent for showing a live calcium image on my CaK PST to the public during

outreach activities.

Photo 1 here is the finished

camera frame ready for the camera to be dropped in and

attached with a ¼ inch Whitworth bolt. It has an umbilical to

activate the camera without shak-ing it. It is fitted to H-alpha PST

in this photo.

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Monochrome cameras are particularly

suited to Calcium-K wavelength light and it is a very easy medium to master,

however the shorter wavelength when compare to H-alpha light means that it is

more sensitive to poor atmospheric seeing. Further I personally found the

calcium light to be quite dim even through a 90mm solar telescope and as

such making longer focal lengths more difficult to achieve and I have made no

attempt to reduce the bandwidth down from its standard <2.2Å.Calcium-K

photography will permit views of the lower chromospheres clearly presenting

the umbra and penumbra of the sun-

spots, the extensive plage areas as well as solar granulation and uniquely the

large chromospheric network structure. These plage areas can also show the

beginnings of new active regions before

the local magnetic strength increases

sufficient to form pores that go on to develop single or groups of sunspots.

Solar flares are also fairly easy to capture in CaK wavelength and prominences are

also possible to capture photographically but they are not a pronounced as in

H-alpha light. Filaments are not possible to photograph. As the prominences are

much dimmer than in H-alpha to make a disc and prominence photo it is

necessary to make two separate exposures [over exposing for the

prominence] and then to combine the two in a mosaic.

I have only made limited attempts thus

far to make calcium-K animated se-quences using a SM90 CaK telescope.

The most notable moving feature is the

Photo 2: Huge detaching prominence in

calcium-K this is a composite of two images one exposed for surface detail

while the other is exposed to pick out the prominence. To date I have not

attempted a CaK prominence movie.

Photo 3: Here is 3-frame

mosaic in CaK showing a substantial portion of the Sun

photo taken on 2 April 2012 at 15:35UT

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White light solar photography

White light solar viewing/photography will only permit a view/capture the Suns visible surface, the photosphere and this is the much brighter layer immediately

below the chromosphere. In this medium only the umbra and penumbra of sunspots, solar granulation and the very occasional X-class flare as possible

targets. There are two ways of capturing high resolution images in white light wither using optical or photographic grade Mylar/Baader filter screen fitted over

the objective of your telescope or using a rear mounted “Herschel wedge”. Full aperture should always be considered rather than a stopped down version taking

care not to damage the filter sheet. I have made several plastic card objective filter housings for the Baader sheet and I quickly switched from the 5.1 optical

grade to the 3.8 grade photographic specification sheet. Make sure the filter is held firm and cannot accidentally blow off and also ensure a photographic filter

is clearly marked up “not for visual use”.

When using a refractor, a Herschel wedge

is fine up to 155mm as confirmed by forum friends that use them on AP155

refractors, I personally use a Takahashi TOA130 refractor and in my own experi-

ence the Herschel wedge has delivered better results than the full aperture 3.8-

grade Baader filter sheet. The best amateur white light images I

have seen to date were made using a Celestron C14HD at 10.5m focal length! I

personally have only been able to achieve 4m focal length with my TOA130 but this

has certainly been sufficient to pull out umbral and penumbral detail and the

granulation. Imaging over 20minutes will

show a good representation of the granulation boiling in an animation while

over an hour is required to see the penumbra flowing down into the umbra.

I have tried several filters including the Baader continuum filter and also a fairly

wide band H-alpha at 7A combined with the Herschel wedge and 3.8 grade Baader

filter sheet. The Hydrogen has the longer focal length and makes the image slightly

less susceptible in poorer seeing conditions than the continuum filter and going to a

narrower wave band makes focusing easier but the dimmer image slows camera

speeds.

Photo 4 a white image of

AR1569 up on 17 September 2012 at 08:53UT at 4m focal

length. Note the solar granulation and the ribs run-

ning through the penumbra.

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Photo 5 a 200%

increase in image scale

reveals lots of detail in the

penumbra.

Cameras

I have already mentioned that the most suitable camera is a robust high quality monochrome video camera and the industrial camera manufacturers have produced

some excellent models suitable for astronomical application. They come fitted with

USB2, Firewire and USB3 connection. The newer versions at present facilitate up to 120 frames per second with the ¼” CCD chips while the larger ones give a much

wider field of view but at a slower frame rate. These cameras are delivering very high data feeds and this is why the newer connections have been developed. The

camera that I am using it fairly basic and it has a ¼” CCD equipped with 5.6µm pixel size where as the newer cameras are getting down to 1.55µm. Lots of scope for

making progress here! Some cameras are fitted with 8-bit grey scales while other more expensive ones

have 16-bit grey scales. The leading manufacturers that produce cameras used within the solar observing community that I am aware of are: The Image Source,

Luminera, Point Grey and Basler but my list is certainly not exhaustive. The most desired option is to obtain a model with the highest frame rate and the

smallest pixel size that sits within your budget!

Have fun with the Sun

Andy Devey

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News Astronomy Wise Public Night

Dwarf Planet Makemake Lacks Atmosphere: Distant Frigid World Reveals

Its Secrets for First Time

November 9th 2012:

Astronomy wise held its second public evening in November. From the onset the

weather was against us, however the village hall in Sawdon provides excellent facilities for tea, cakes, toilets, warmth and one of John Harpers super talks and

presentations. Chris Almey provide support on the laptop and taking pictures. There were new faces in the crowd and they were given a tour of the cosmos.

Each month on the second Friday we will hold public viewing nights, so if you are In the area please pop along, full details in

the magazine and website.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2012) — Dwarf planet Makemake [1] is about two

thirds of the size of Pluto, and travels around the Sun in a distant path that lies

beyond that of Pluto but closer to the Sun than

Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System. Previous observations of chilly

Makemake have shown it to be similar to its fellow dwarf planets, leading some astronomers to

expect its atmosphere, if present, to be similar to that of Pluto. However, the new study now shows

that, like Eris, Makemake is not surrounded by a significant atmosphere.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121121145516.htm

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News BBC Stargazing Live Series 3 back in January 2013

Competition Winner

I am pleased to announce the Dave Walker was the winner of the 3 signed books.

Dave answered the question correctly. I hope Dave enjoys the books,. Thanks to all those who entered and look out for more competitions next year. Merry Christmas to

all and a happy 2013. From the Astronomy Wise team.

STARGAZING LIVE will be returning to our screens in

January 2013! Check the BBC for more details

More details…… HERE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019h4g8

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‘CATCH A FALLING STAR!’

GEMINID METEOR SHOWER 2012

In order to witness the best “Celestial Firework Show” of shooting stars, or meteors, in the year, watch the sky during the night of December 13th/14th,

especially between 10 pm and 2 am. For this is the time when an excellent peak of shooting star activity is expected. Geminids, as the meteors are called, are swift

moving and often fragment as they enter the atmosphere creating a spectacular display. The RADIANT, or point in the sky from where the meteors appear to

radiate, lies in the eastern sky during the evening but climbs high in the southern sky as the night progresses. This radiant lies in the constellation of GEMINI, the

Celestial Twins, near one of the brighter Twins’ stars, hence the name of the shower. Conditions are at their best this year because the moon is absent from

the sky, as it is in its New phase, in the vicinity of the sun. So you have the opportunity of a dark sky from early evening onwards, all through

the night until dawn, weather permitting, to see many members of this rich

meteor shower. Therefore it will be well worthwhile popping outside to the darkest spot in the garden, if there are few clouds, and watching the sky. The best

direction to look is straight up, towards the zenith, the overhead point. Looking upwards enables you to see the entire sky, using peripheral vision. I recommend,

therefore, lying flat out on a sunlounger, but make sure you have done two things: put on several layers of warm clothes, and secondly, warned your

neighbours, who may believe, seeing you lying out in the garden, on a sunlounger at night, that you are a little ‘under the weather’ to say the least!

The particles of rock, for that is what these meteors are (typically the size and density of coffee granules) enter the Earth's atmosphere at velocities of many tens

of kilometres a second and vaporize as they rub against air molecules, This sets up friction, and the particles in vaporising, leave trains of ionised gas.

Away from streetlights, out in the country, observers can see between 80 and 120 meteors an hour from this stream when there is no moonlight to interfere. The

Geminid Meteor Shower is rivalled only by the Perseid Shower, which can be seen

around August 12th each year. Geminids are associated with an asteroid called Phaethon, which is a small inert

body passing very close to the Sun every one and a half years. Astronomers believe that Phaethon, which incidentally was named after the Greek god Helios’

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son, who drove his father’s chariot so erratically that Zeus had to zap him with a

thunderbolt, is the nucleus of a dead comet.

Despite the importance of the Geminid shower as being one of the very best we can see form here, it is not so well known. The reason for this is that at this time of

the year, the sky is often overcast during the night, and because the meteors begin to become visible when they are between 100 and 60 miles above Earth’s surface,

a height well above the dense December cloud layer, we often fail to see the display.

However if clouds do prevent you seeing the sky fireworks this year, there are two

others coming up. Firstly, we have the Ursids, which peak overnight on the 22nd to 23rd December, at the rate of about 10 every hour. The Radiant is near the Pole

Star. Much more interesting though, are the Quadrantid Shower due overnight on the 3rd/4th January 2013, when for a short while, some 100 shooting stars or

more, per hour, is the maximum rate.

John Harper

Clear Skies!

Graphics generated using Stellarium software. www.stellarium.org

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The Suns Potential Twin

Soaking in a hot bubbly bath watching the foam dissolve I

got to thinking about our Sun, the planets and Sednas strange orbit which lead me to contemplate the Nemesis

hypothesis, which is a hypothetical twin star to our own Sun. Most stars come in pairs, a binary system, our closest

known star is currently Proxima Centauri with a distance of 4.2 light years away however some scientists believe that

the Sun has a twin, a Red or Brown dwarf star yet to be discovered called Nemesis, with a lower mass about 10

times smaller than that of the Sun.

The reason this hypothetical star has yet to be confirmed is

due to how dim it would appear as Red and Brown dwarf stars generally give off very little light, another reason may

be that if it's in orbit with the solar system it would appear be in a fixed position which means we would have to know

exactly where to look to pin point it in space.

The theory was originally postulated in 1984 to be orbiting the Sun at a distance of about 95,000 AU (1.5 light-years) somewhat beyond the Oort cloud, to explain a

perceived cycle of mass extinctions in the geological record, which seem to occur more often at intervals of

26 million years, if such an object does exist it would

cause disturbance upon approach to the Oort cloud

resulting in comets being

slung in towards the inner solar system causing huge

catastrophes especially if even just one was to hit

Earth. There is also Sedna a recently discovered dwarf

planet, one of the the most distant objects in our solar

system. Scientists struggle to explain its highly elliptical

orbit as they have no clue what could have caused it,

this could theoretically prove that nemesis exists

and when it came close to the solar system it tugged at Sedna changing its original

orbit to the new stranger one. On December 14th 2009 NASA launched the Wide field infrared survey explorer (WISE) into space to look for objects that are hard to

detect with ordinary telescopes his will help us to detect lots of larger dim and cooler objects on the outer regions of the solar system in fact one NASA's colleagues, Amy

Mainzer, recently caused some hype with this following statement at a press

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conference when asked about Wise and if it had discovered a Nemesis type object

that could be hazardous to Earth I quote her, "Planet X isn’t coming to get us’ and ‘we think THIS IS just a sort of” then she realizes the mistake and tries to fix

it ‘if there’s something out there, could be a large body in a roughly circular orbit.” but apparently according to NASA no hazardous object has been

discovered but the search is still on although lots of dim objects, comets and red dwarf stars have been observed. I for one am checking updates from WISE on a

regular basis and I personally believe that In our lifetimes we will find out whether our Sun does indeed have a twin or if it is in fact a single wonder, the

only star we know so far, to give life to a planet and for now that planet is Earth and that life is You and Me.

Heather Dawn

Freelance Writer

[email protected]

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Occultations By John Harper

Key to the Occultation Table The columns of the table give data specific to each of the Lunar Occultation events

listed.

From left to right they are:

1 Day of the Week 2 DATE in the format: dd-mm-yyyy

3 Universal Time of the event (add one hour when British Summer Time is in force for Local Time.

The predictions are for Scarborough, which lies midway between London and Edin-

burgh, on the North Sea coast of the UK. (N54.27 deg., W00.43 deg.) 4 Occulted star’s visual magnitude

5 P = Phase tells you whether the event is a disappearance (D) or reap-pearance (R) or a Graze (C).

6 L = Limb. This indicates whether the event takes place at the dark (D) or bright (B) lunar limb.

7 Al. = the Altitude of the moon at the time of the occultation event. 8 Az. = The azimuth (angular distance along the horizon, measured from the

North Point, clockwise. 9 Sun Alt = the angular distance of the sun, below the horizon at the time of the

event. 10, 11 & 12 the name or catalogue number of the star being occulted.

XZ Cat No. This is the star’s designation in the US Naval Observatory catalogue of over 32,000 stars that can be occulted by the moon.

Proper Name. This is the star’ more common name, if it has one!

ZC No. The Zodiacal Catalogue of 3539 stars brighter than visual magnitude +7, within 8 degrees of the ecliptic. Some fainter stars are included in this total as well.

13 PA = Position Angle. This is the angular position on the limb of the moon where the reappearance or disappearance will occur it helps you look at the right part of

the moon’s limb. Position Angle is measured from Celestial North (the line of Right Ascension running through the centre of the moon’s disc. It is measured clockwise

through west, south , east and back to north, a total of 360 degrees.

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Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

http://www.radio-astronomy.org/


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Three Radio Astronomy Projects

Introduction

I am a science teacher in CT and have long thought that too much stress is placed

on visual science since much of our understanding of astronomy is due to non-visual research. As a result, I’ve always tried to expose students to non-visual experiences.

With this in mind, I started exploring radio astronomy in the early 80’s and joined SARA (the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers). I received great deal of

assistance building projects and have building them ever since (see link below).

Project 1: SuperSID

The first project is a solar radio in the VLF radio frequency range (tens of KHz) which

monitors the intensity of a radio signal (generally from a Navy submarine communi-cations station) and its reaction to changes in the

Ionosphere due to solar activity. Since we are monitoring changes in the Ionosphere, these

monitors are known as SID (Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance) monitors.

The Ionosphere

The Ionosphere is the layer in the atmosphere where atoms and molecules are ionized by solar

and cosmic radiation. The layer ranges from 70-1000km (40-600 miles), and is made up of

several layers labeled C, D, E, and F. The weakest layer, ‘C’, is tenuous at best.

The D layer exists only during day-

light hours and the strength increas-es as we rise in altitude to the F layer

which actually splits into two layers during daylight hours (F1 and F2). Most ionization is created by ultraviolet and X-ray radiation hitting the ionosphere.

The increase in strength of ionization is maintained by the higher temperatures and lower pressures at higher elevations.

www.weather.nps.navy.mil/~psguest/

EMEO_online/module3/ionospherediagram.gif

Solar Flares

Solar flares are incredible explosions of material and energy which occur near sun-

spots on the surface of the Sun. These events can last up to about an hour and can reach

temperatures of millions of kelvins. Most astronomers believe flares are created when

the sun’s magnetic field lines get tangled and eventually break and recombine releasing an

explosive burst of energy and materials which can travel for thousands of miles off of the

sun’s surface. This twisting occurs because the sun is a fluid and the magnetic field lines

get twisted due to the variable rotation rates Image: NASA Solar Flare

http://www.weather.nps.navy.mil/~psguest/EMEO_online/module3/ionospherediagram.gif

http://www.weather.nps.navy.mil/~psguest/EMEO_online/module3/ionospherediagram.gif

31


Chart of a flare at 18:00. Note

‘shark fin’ shape due to the flare.

between the poles and equator (about

25 days at the equator and 36 days at the poles).

Flares are closely tied to the sunspot cycle which lasts for 22 years. Eleven

years at one polarity and then the polarity of the sun flips (north for south

and vice versa) and the cycle begins

again for 11 more years. We are currently entering the 24th recorded cycle. The

flares we detect with this monitor are generally caused by X-rays. Flares are classified as A, B, C, M, and X, each 10 times greater in energy per area than the

previous. Unfortunately, we can only detect the last three with our monitor. These last three range from C which is a weak storm to X which can cause radiation storms

and blackouts throughout the planet. You can find more information at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (see link below). They list events by day and time

which allow you to check your monitor’s results.

SuperSID

Tim Haynh of Stanford University designed this SID monitor to utilize the sound card on a

desktop computer. The frequency range of the monitor is 21.4-25.2 KHz and the monitor

collects data from several stations at once. Stanford is producing units with the assistance

of SARA, which are being distributed to schools all over the world.

The SuperSID monitor comes nearly completely built with only the antenna needing

construction. You will need to make a frame for the antenna and then wind the wire around the

frame and make a couple of simple wire connections. The software is easy to install and

use and all the data is collected automatically

on a daily basis. The unit is well supported with very clear directions and incredible support.

Finally, the data you collect can be reported to

the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) on a monthly basis.

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This organization is a collaboration of amateurs

and professionals and the data is used to study the sun’s variability. Check out their website to

see how to submit data.

Resources

SARA – www.radio-astronomy.org/ AAVSO – www.aavso.org/observing/programs/

solar/sid.shtml

Stanford’s SID Program – solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/sidmonitor/

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center –

www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/indices/

events.html

My complete SuperSID set-up at school

Project 2: Radio Jove

Introduction

This project monitors the shortwave emissions from Jupiter and the Sun. The emissions from Jupiter are the result of interactions between electrons in the

magnetic field of Jupiter and the very active moon Io. Solar emissions are related again to active sunspot regions and solar flares.

Background

Signals from space were discovered in 1955 by radio astronomers at the

Carnegie Institution of Washington. It was originally thought to be

interference, but further analysis showed that Jupiter was in the beam

of the antenna. Jupiter is the largest planet (over 1000

Earths could fit inside of it) with a very strong magnetic field, diffuse rings and

over 60 moons. It rotates in a remarkable 10 hours compared with

our 24 hour day. The largest moons were discovered by Galileo over 400

years ago with his primitive telescope

and are known as the Galilean Moons.

NASA Photograph of Jupiter and Io


http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/solar/sid.shtml

http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/solar/sid.shtml

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/sidmonitor/

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/sidmonitor/

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/indices/events.html

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/indices/events.html

33


These include Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Signals

The signals we detect are in the shortwave band in the tens of MHz range (15 -39 MHz). The signals

seem to be linked to three regions named A, B, and C. When one of these regions faces Earth,

there is an increased probability of receiving a sig-nal. In addition, if Io is in the right position in its

orbit the probability of receiving a signal is greatly enhanced. Remember that Io is within the tidal

zone of Jupiter and these gravitational forces are literally tearing Io apart. This causes Io to release

charged particles which spiral at high speed along the strong magnetic field lines generating synchro-

tron radiation, which is the radiation we are de-tecting.

The signals from Jupiter are unique in that they have distinct sounds which can last from a few

minutes to hours. These signals come in two types: L-bursts, which sound like waves crashing

on the beach and S-bursts, which sound like popcorn popping or gravel on a tin roof when rec-

orded with an audio recorder. Solar bursts often start abruptly and taper off over

seconds to minutes. Thus they tend to look like shark fins on your chart recording. There are five

types of signals that can be detected and these are classified as follows (from www.radiosky.com/

suncentral.html): Type I: Short, narrow band events that usually

occur in great numbers together with a broader

band continuum. May last for hours or days. Type II: Slow drift from high to low

frequencies. Often show fundamental and second harmonic frequency structure.

Type III: Rapid drift from high to low frequencies. May exhibit harmonics. Often accompany the flash

phase of large flares. Type IV: Flare-related broad-band continua.

Type V: Broad-band continua which may appear with III bursts. Last 1 to 2 minutes, with duration

increasing as frequency decreases. Check out the Radio Jove site listed below for

examples of all the signals you can detect.

Chart of a Jupiter S-burst storm.

Wes Greenman

Chart of a solar flare at 19:04.

Note ‘shark fin’ shape due to the flare. Wes Greenman

http://www.radiosky.com/suncentral.html


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Radio Jove Receiver.

Radio Jove

About ten years ago, a group of University of Florida graduates working with NASA developed the Radio Jove as an educational outreach program. To date, over

1400 Radio Jove kits have been sold and built throughout the world. The kit includes the receiver kit, most antenna hardware, Skypipe and RJP software and costs under

$200. One consideration is that the antenna requires an area of at least 25 feet x 25

feet on which to construct it. If you have the room, this project is really worth doing. It allows students to hear as well as chart the data they record. For further infor-

mation check out the Radio Jove website below.

Resources Radio Jove website – radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Jim Sky’s Radio Jupiter Central site – www.radiosky.com/rjcentral.html. Jim Sky’s Radio Sun Central site – www.radiosky.com/suncentral.html

SARA – www.radio-astronomy.org/

Project 3: Itty-Bitty radio Telescope

(IBT)

Introduction The basic IBT is built using a satellite

TV dish antenna, LNB, and a satellite finder usually hooked to a meter to

show signal strength. It operates in the 12 GHz range (roughly 12.2-12.7

GHz). The IBT detects the heat from objects in the field of view.

Background

In 1998, SARA member Chuck Foster started investigating using a satellite

dish antenna as a portable radio tele-

scope since many were available. Unfortunately, a back end (receiver)

couldn’t be found and was difficult to design. Later that year, SARA mem-

ber Kerry Smith was the first to real-ize that the Channel Master satellite

finder could be used as a back end after helping a friend reposition his

satellite dish with the meter. Since then, Kerry has designed and built

radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/

http://www.radiosky.com/rjcentral.html



35


several versions of the IBT that

incorporate oscillators to allow a pitch to be assigned to the signal so students can

‘hear’ the signal. The directions for building a basic unit are available from

the NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) website listed

below.

Signals

As you probably know, all objects give off electromagnetic radiation. You may have

seen infrared goggles that show the heat from bodies, etc. Radio emissions are no

different. Any object gives off radio

emissions related to their temperature. This device allows students to explore

this concept by associating a voltage reading on a meter with increasing

temperature. After you build the IBT using the directions from the website

listed below, conduct some tests for yourself before showing students the

device. First, turn your IBT to ‘dark sky’ (anywhere nearly overhead with no

strong signal source) and adjust the gain to 20% of full scale on the meter. Now

turn your IBT towards the ground and see the difference – the meter reading should

rise sharply. Remember that ‘dark sky’ is

about 3K while the ground is about 300K! Next turn your IBT towards the Sun. Why

isn’t the Sun, with all its enormous energy (temperature of 6,000K!), pinning

the meter? It turns out that the IBT dish has a beam width of 3o while the Sun

appears to be only 0.5 o in our sky. Thus the area of the dish occupied by the sun

is small and the signal appears weaker than the ground at 300K. The IBT can

also detect human radio energy. Point the dish upward toward ‘dark sky’ and have a

student walk in front of the dish, there will be an immediate increase in signal

related to the students’ radio

emissions. Itty-Bitty radio Telescope (IBT)

As stated before, the IBT is built using a

satellite TV dish antenna, LNB, and a satellite finder usually hooked to a meter

to show signal strength. The website below gives a detailed plan for building a

basic model of the IBT. I chose to change the unit to use a tripod for more

flexibility. With the support arm at the top, students can sight down the arm for

an approximate aiming toward the object they wish to observe.

Using the IBT

Remember, you must use the IBT outdoors since room temperature and body

temperature are nearly the same. Many geo-stationary satellites are in orbit above the Earth and many transmit radio

signals. These satellites give off a very easy signal to detect and students may ask why the satellite looks like it has more energy than the sun. Remember though that

the sun is a broadband (extremely!) transmitter whereas the satellite is a very narrow beam transmitter so all its energy it given off in a very narrow band. It might

be easier to visualize if you imagine the Sun’s energy curve (extending from low frequency radio through UV and beyond) and squeezing it to just a narrow band at

your observing frequency. I think you can see this would create a tremendous signal! Most of these satellites are in the Clarke belt named after Arthur C. Clarke, author

and engineer, who came up with the idea that you could create a geosynchronous orbit at a certain altitude above the Earth. For more information check the website

listed below or many other sites. Most of these satellites orbit above the equator

(actually, a little below this) so figure out where your celestial equator is by taking you latitude and subtracting it from 90 o. This is a rough altitude to look for

36


satellites. Remember that the orbit will be near the

ground in the east and west and forms an arc through the altitude you calculated in the south,

(remember that your fist at arm’s length is about 10o).

Other objects you might try include the Sun, Moon,

and any objects that give off a lot of heat compared to the background like hot lamps on buildings in

winter, bodies, trees, buildings, etc. You can have students try to map the sky with the IBT by finding

the boundaries of objects such as trees and buildings.

You should also try a drift scan of the Sun. Simply point the IBT where the

Sun will be in an hour or so and let the Sun drift

through. You will get a nice curve of the Sun’s radiation as it drifts through the

antenna.

Drift scan of the Sun on a

chart recorder. Kerry Smith

Resources

NRAO IBT website – www.aoc.nrao.edu/epo/teachers/ittybitty/procedure.html

SARA – www.radio-astronomy.org/ Clarke Belt Information Site – www.spacetoday.org/Questions/PolarSats.html

Conclusion

My goal was to have given you a taste of the kinds of projects you could do in radio astronomy and I hope you will join us at SARA and explore your universe in other

ways than you do presently. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me or SARA.

Jon Wallace

Twitter: @RadioAstronomy1 Web: http://www.radio-astronomy.org/

The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) is an international society of radio astronomy enthusiasts.

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/epo/teachers/ittybitty/procedure.html


http://www.spacetoday.org/Questions/PolarSats.html

https://twitter.com/RadioAstronomy1


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38


Welcome to Scope Review - Part 1

By Paul Rumsby This is the first of three articles covering astronomical telescopes. This month we will look at scopes currently on the market for beginners. In the coming months we

will move on to intermediate and more advanced equipment for the more serious amateur.

To start I need to make some assumptions, I will assume that the old adage ‘You

get what you pay for’ still stands, this is definitely true when buying a telescope. I will assume also that somewhere around the £150 mark will not only buy a

reasonable beginners telescope but will also be ‘affordable’ to most people. In these days of economic downturn this may not be the case, if this is true for you then I

would strongly advise that you refrain from purchasing a much cheaper scope and

hold out for one around the guide price, I can honestly say you will be pleased you did. So many cheap telescopes with fancy boxes end up collecting dust at the backs

of cupboards and garages because of inferior materials and optics.

Before we look at the scopes on offer I will run through the different types of instruments and some of the definitions you will encounter as this may well help

define the telescope you ultimately purchase.

Let’s start with focal length. All optical telescopes use an objective, a lens or mirror, to gather, bend and concentrate light from an object. The focal length of an optical

system is simply the distance from the objective to where the light converges or focuses. Short focal lengths will provide less magnified, wider fields of view then

systems with longer focal length. Scopes intended for planetary or lunar observing therefore, will need to be the latter. The aperture of a telescope determines how

much light is able to enter the optical system, normally measured by the diameter

of the objective. In nearly all cases the more light the better as larger apertures will produce brighter and more detailed images. The size of aperture will also determine

the overall magnifying power of the system, a rough guide gives fifty times magnification for every inch of aperture. For astronomy, a three inch lens or a six

inch mirror is the smallest you will want to purchase.

The focal ratio of a telescope is determined by dividing the focal length by its aperture size. So an instrument with a focal length of 2032mm and an aperture of

203.2mm or eight inches will have a focal ratio of f10. The focal ratio and therefore the telescope can be termed as fast, medium or slow depending on this ratio. Fast

telescopes f3.5 to f6 will provide wider fields of view then medium telescopes of f7 to f11 and slow telescopes of f12 and above, will provide very narrow fields.

The most common type of telescope is the refractor. Light from an object is bent,

or refracted, by a lens or lenses and brought to focus at the eyepiece. With this

type of instrument the lens is fixed and covers the end of the tube assembly so benefits from easy set-up and maintenance.

A reflecting telescope, or reflector, uses a concave mirror as an objective which sits

at the bottom end of an open tube assembly. Light is reflected back up the tube

39


from the primary mirror, is diverted at 90 degrees out of the tube near the top by a

smaller secondary mirror, to focus at the eyepiece. The ‘spider’ that holds the secondary mirror obstructs some of the light from entering the telescope so as a

rule of thumb a reflector will need a larger aperture then a refractor but are cheaper to manufacturer. The open end design means the mirror may require cleaning and

the two mirrors and eyepiece need to be in perfect alignment for crisp images therefore a degree of maintenance is to be expected. A version of the reflecting tel-

escope called a Dobsonian is very similar in design but the whole assembly sits on an

altazimuth mount, more on mounts in a while.

A more modern design called a Catadioptric include Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maksutov-Cassegrains, these telescopes combine a lens and mirrors to put large

apertures and long focal lengths into a compact size at a reasonable cost. Catadioptric designs incorporate an opening in the primary mirror which allows light

reflected from the secondary to pass through the primary to the eyepiece.

We move on now to the two types of telescope mount available commercially,

Altazimuth and Equatorial. This piece of equipment is as important as the telescope itself, the mount has to provide a stable base for the instrument to sit on. Altazi-

muth mounts have two axes of motion, vertical (altitude) and horizontal (azimuth). Most altazimuth mounts will have hand operated slow motion controls for adjust-

ments in both axes and more expensive instruments may have motorised/computerised

controls. Equatorial mounts are polar aligned and are essential if medium to long exposure astrophotography is being considered as adjustments on one axis only is

required.

So after that rather lengthy introduction what is on offer for readers wishing to purchase their first telescope? If we stay with our guide price of £150 we have

many to choose from, to many to discuss in any detail here so lets limit the choice

to a few trusted manufacturers.

Let’s start with a great refractor from Celestron the AstroMaster 90EQ Telescope

Product Description/Specification:

The AstroMaster Series produce bright, clear images of the Moon and planets. The mount, a

CG-3 German Equatorial, provides a solid plat-form being manufactured from 1.25 inch stainless

tube. The set-up is quick and easy, taking around 10 minutes, with no tools required. The telescope

comes with a mounted star-pointer, but many owners have replaced this with a more

conventional spotting scope, an erecting prism

and 2 eyepieces (10mm and 20mm) are included along with a copy of The SkyX – First Light Edi-

tion astronomy software with a 10,000 object database. The aperture of the telescope is 90mm (3.54 inches) which gives a focal

length of 1000mm (39 inches) and a focal ratio of F11. The eyepieces supplied will

40


give magnifications of x50 (20mm) and x100 (10mm).

The AstroMaster 90EQ Telescope is a good buy at around £152 when purchased on-line and will serve the beginner well.

The next offering, the SkyWatcher Explorer 130m reflector telescope, is slightly over our guide price at £161 but benefits from a motor on R.A. and multi-speed

hand controller.

Product Description/Specification:

SkyWatcher has provided a fantastic entry level

scope with the 130. The EQ2 mount is well engineered and will comfortably take the weight of

additional accessories. The package includes a

motor drive on the RA axis which compensates for the Earths rotation; this would normally be a £30

upgrade on instruments in this price range. The 130mm (5.1 inches) mirror is good quality

providing x260 magnification with ideal seeing conditions and makes this telescope an all round

performer giving crisp images of the Moon, planets as well as bright galaxies and nebulae. The 900mm

(35.4 inches) focal length gives a focal ratio of F7 for wider fields of view than the AstroMaster 90EQ.

The eyepieces supplied will provide x36 (25mm) and x90 (10mm) magnifications, a x2 barlow lens

is included which doubles the power of each eye-piece giving x72 and x180 respectively. Additional

eyepieces will be required to achieve the maximum

magnification of x260

The SkyWatcher Explorer 130m provides a beginners telescope at a great price but comes

with the additional maintenance as stated above.

Skywatcher also produce the Heritage 130 a flexTube dobsonian telescope which is receiving good reviews from beginners. The Telescope comes with two eyepieces

giving magnifications of x26 (25mm) and x65 (10mm). The 650mm (25.6 inches) focal length gives a focal ratio of F5 for very pleasing wide field views. The

advantage of the flex-tube design makes this telescope very portable and can be set up in minutes, perfect on a clear night but with limited time at your disposal.

Because of the design the eyepiece is low so a table or stool may make viewing

more comfortable. At around £144 this telescope is good value for money as a part time or starter scope but lacks a lot of the sophistication the other two scopes has

to offer for an extra £10-£20.

I have deliberately left the Catadioptric type of telescope out of this article as

41


suitable entry level instruments tend to be more

expensive and may be considered a more interme-diate scope. Remember, if budget is an issue resist

buying a cheaper scope, a half descent pair of binoculars can be a very rewarding

alternative while you save for a better quality telescope.

This concludes our look at entry level telescopes.

Sooner or later the lust for larger apertures may (will) bite so we will go on to look at intermediate

scopes next time.

Paul Rumsby

Paul Rumsby Author of Astronomy Recent Discoveries And Developments

Websites:

http://www.paulrumsby.com/

http://www.best-astronomy-books.com/

http://www.telescopesale.co.uk/

http://www.paulrumsby.com/



http://www.telescopesale.co.uk/

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?

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For December I decided to ask our Facebook group for a topic for me to research and write

about. The group came up with “What is string Theory”?

Often dubbed the ‘The Theory of Everything’

which is a profound strong statement to make!

A definition I found on the internet was” String theory is research into particle physics;

it attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity”.

So to understand this statement we need

to know 1) What is Quantum Mechanics 2) what is General relativity and 3) what

is everything made of

Quantum Mechanics/Theory- the study of physical phenomena at a microscopic

level (very, very small) General Relativity- the study of nature

on a large scale eg, planets, galaxies etc. or gravitation

So gravity affects not just large bodies or

the things we take for granted such as our cars, gravity also affects things at a

microscopic level too.

What string theory attempts to do is pull all these theories together to form one

theory.

Everything in the universe is made from something. Our bodies, cars, the Earth,

Galaxy and the Universe are all made of something. This something can be

broken down into atoms.

So what is an Atom?

Atoms are a fundamental part of

chemistry, chemistry enables life to

exist.

Atoms make up elements which form the periodic table. Compounds are chemical

reactions between elements.

Atoms consist of a nucleus which is made up of neutrons and protons.

Protons are positively charged and Neutrons are neutral in charge these are

tightly packed together to form the nucleus. In orbitals or shells you have

electrons these are negatively charge, an atom has equal electrons to protons.

Electron

Nucleus Proton

Neutron

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Most of the atoms mass

are in the nucleus. Now leaving chemistry let’s

get into the microscopic world of the atom. Here

we enter the world of the standard model.

The standard model is truly

a dynamic piece of work, driven by experiment and

advances in theoretical advances. The model looks

at interactions, interactions how elementary particles

interact with each other. The standard model is

“everything in the universe is found to be made from

twelve basic building blocks called fundamental particles,

governed by four #fundamental forces”.

(CERN)

Source:

particleadventure.org The standard model

describes the fundamental building blocks and the four

fundamental forces in the universe, gravity, electro-

magnetism, weak and strong forces. However gravity is

proving difficult to explain,

the thing that affects everything is the less understood at a microscopic level.

Now enter string theory, the theory at this present time is the most promising

theory for the theory of quantum gravity. String theory believes that all the fundamental particles are basically different

manifestations of one object, a string.

46


Strings can be either open or closed, There are several different versions of

string theory which may perhaps be unified under M- Theory.

String theory is a string which is a hypothetical vibrating one-dimensional sub-atomic structure. Quarks and Electrons are thought to be made up of

strings. String theory is consistent with quantum mechanics and also may contain quantum gravity.

To summarise string theory is an

extension of the standard model, to date there is no experimental proof that string theory is a correct

description of nature itself. However with experiments

such as at CERN we could be moving closer to the

understanding if the

universe and possibly creation itself.

And Finally how will the

Higgs Boson effect string theory?

The discovery of a potential

Higgs boson particle plays a crucial role in

super-symmetry - just one more of the ingredients

needed to provide evidence of the M-Theory of strings, writes Dr. Henryk Frystacki.

The Large Hadron Collider is helping in

the quest

Sources; Wikipedia, CERN, BBC Article D Bood

Disclaimer: The article was put together using different resources on the Internet, this is one of many opinions on the understanding of the universe.

Make up you own mind! Editor……. Dave B

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Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012

A total solar eclipse took place on 13–14 November 2012 (UTC). Because it crossed

the International Date Line it began in local time on November 14 west of the date line over northern Australia, and ended in local time on November 13 east of the

date line near the west coast of South America. (Wikipedia)

Some images, screen prints from the Panasonic live web feed

48


Astronomy Wise

Public Meeting

ALL WELCOME

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Sawdon Village Hall Nr Scarborough North Yorkshire

Sawdon, North Yorkshire YO13 9DY

COME AND SEE THE STARS WITH ASTRONOMY WISE PUBLIC VIEWING NIGHTS, FREE AND FUN FOR THE FAMILY!!

LOCATED IN THE DARK SKY AREA OF SAWDON FOR THE BEST STARGAZING!

EVERY 2ND FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

CONTACT 07951649024 FOR MORE DETAILS

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50


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Rosette Nebula

At about 5,000 light years in our Milky Way there is a huge cloud of dust and gas which is giving birth to new stars. It is in

Monoceros constellation. The image shows a great amount of interesting data. This beautiful nebula is also called Caldwell 49

and is of emission type.

The X-Rays are pictured in red colors and this color tells us that there is hydrogen in the cloud. This colors is located mainly in the

center of the image, which indicates that in the centre of the nebula there a great number of new stars which form a cluster

named NGC 2244 which was discovered by Herschel in 1784.

Red is surrounded by other colors such as blue, orange, blue and

purple. What is this? It is a huge cloud of gas and dust. Giant pillars also are pictured (a pillar is what remains after an intense

radiation from a massive star). Brightest stars in the cluster excite electrons in the surrounding cloud. These electrons produce

photons.

On the right side of the image there is an intense cluster of stars named NGC 2237. Data from Chandray Observatory have

revealed that in this cluster is a continuous birth of low-mass new stars.

As you may note, in the Universe there are several formations

whith particular shapes. One of these is this universal rose, which

even has e red heart. The great Universe machine agains imitates the tiniest forms of our Earth.

Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane, et al.

Words: Pepe Gallardo (Spain)

Twitter @aechmu

52


China's lunar probe, Chang'e 3. Image Credit: China.org.cn.

For almost half a century, most of the countries on our planet

have had a common agreement to not exploit off-Earth space

for the benefit of one country, or to claim any area for a

country. And even though space exploration tends to be

highlighted in terms of

triumphs for specific countries, most space missions are an

international effort. It's really touching and a hopeful sign in

our future that most people involved in space technologies

really do want to honor this cooperation, even with enor-

mous political tensions. And it's why China's space program,

with a clear military subset of goals, is mostly seen as a respected part of Earthlings' ventures into space, even if it does make some people nervous. Their

program is very energized and stable - it isn't seen as being at the whim of politically-motivated defunding. This coming year, they will probably be the first

group to soft-land on the Moon since the 1970s.

Credit: China.org

China's lunar spacecraft, Chang'e 3,

will be launched the second part of 2013, and will have an orbiter,

lander, and rover. The lander will make a soft landing and work for a

couple of weeks testing the environment and some

space-technology equipment. The rover will work for about 3 months,

sending video back to Earth and examining the lunar soil, along with

scooping some up for a sample

return in 2017. Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 paved the way by mapping the lunar

53


surface, especially the future landing site of Chang'e 3. Chang'e 2 also tested

technologies that will be used for the soft landing. Besides the lunar mission, China's space program has accomplished so much very quickly, putting space

labs and humans into Earth's orbit, planning a space station, and they would probably have put a satellite into martian orbit this past year if the Russian

rocket that carried it hadn't stopped working once it left Earth's atmosphere. That was a hard loss, but the China space

scientists have a lot to be proud of.

The Chang'e 3 lander and rover. Source:

nasawatch.com

Like many western names

for space missions and planets, missions from

China carry names that touch people where only

myth can. The Chang'e spacecrafts were named

after Chang'e (or Chang'o), the Moon goddess. Chang'e

is honored at the

mid-autumn festival, which is right around the time

that Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 were launched.

Chang'e was an immortal, who then became mortal

for a time. She became the Moon goddess because of a mishap that made her immortal again. Even goddesses have rumours spread about them, especially if

they're involved in some kind of questionable circumstances, so there are as many versions of her story as there are mouths to pass it on. I picked one to tell

you that seems the most likely to have happened - one disclaimer, though: I think maybe in the past, the laws of the Space-Time continuum weren't really

solid.

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Source: About China

The Earth was being roasted by 10 Suns, who were actually the sons of an earthly king. The king was desperate to get

his sons under control before they could destroy the Earth, and asked Chang'e's archer husband, Houyi, to help. Houyi

did help by shooting down 9 of the sons, leaving the 10th to be the Sun. The Earth was saved! But instead of rewarding

Houyi, the king was besmote with grief and anger at the loss of his 9 sons. The king punished Houyi and Chang'e by forcing them to be

mortal and live on Earth.

Houyi loved Chang'e and wanted her to be happy. She was very much unhappy at having to live as a mortal, so Houyi went on a journey to find something that would

give them both back their immortality. He finally was able to reach the Queen

Mother of the West, who gave Houyi a pill of immortality and told him that it was meant for him and Chang'e to share, that it was too much for one person alone.

Houyi was relieved that he could give immortality back to his wife, but instead of giving it to her right away, he went home, put the pill in a box, told Chang'e to not

open the box, and went back out.

No one has any idea why he went back out at that moment, but maybe it's a “fatal flaw” of legendary figures - like when you forget to let the unicorns onto the Ark

before pulling up the gangplank. Houyi must have known that coming home from a long trip with a present in a box and telling his wife not to look was just unwise.

Chang'e, of course, was overwhelmingly curious and she had to peek. Then when she realized Houyi would know she'd opened the box, she popped the pill in her

mouth to hide it somewhere else, and ended up swallowing the whole thing. She then jumped out the window, but the immortality effect had started, and she

floated upwards into the sky. Houyi wanted to shoot an arrow to bring her back

down and keep her from floating away, but he didn't want to harm her, so she floated up to the Moon, where she stayed.

Chang'e still lives on the Moon, but she isn't alone. She has a woodcutter friend

who was banished to the Moon for being generally annoying, and there he has the

never-ending task of cutting down an ev-er-growing tree. Chang'e also has a rab-

bit friend.

Chang'e's rabbit friend is the Moon Rab-bit, who had been sent to the Moon Pal-

ace as a reward for sacrificing himself.

Moon Rabbit is probably the only one who knows his real story, because hu-

mans tell it in all sorts of ways, but he is always the hero. Several animals had

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decided to do a good deed when the Moon was full, and when they came upon a

hungry man, they all went about gathering whatever kind of food they normally ate and gave it to the man. The rabbit knew all he could give was grass, so he

threw himself on the fire to give himself. The hungry man turned out to be a fairy wise man, and he was so touched at the rabbit's selflessness that he cried, and

sent the rabbit to the Moon. If you gaze at the Moon and cross your eyes, you can still see the smoke from the fire in the shape

of the rabbit's body.

He lives there now pounding herbs of immortality in his mortar and pestle. It's

known in Japan and Korea that the Moon Rabbit also makes rice cakes. It doesn't sound

like a good immortal life to us, but he seems

cheerful. Pic credit: San Diego Chinese Historical Museum.

Chang'e also gets visitors. The morning of July

20, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts were woken up by Houston control, and before they

started their day of landing on the Moon, the command read them some news and

messages from Earth.

Houston command: “Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend

says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o has been living there for 4000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality

from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit,

who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not

reported.”

Apollo: “okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.”

“One giant leap for rabbitkind.” Credit: blog.sgbinky.com.

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Last month Astronomy Wise was invited

by Alison Birley to the 3rd Scarborough St. Marks Brownie pack

meeting. The Brownies were about to start their Stargazing badge and they

wanted our help. Alison contacted us via our Facebook group so John Harper,

Jason Ives and yours truly agreed to go along and help them with their badge.

The Brownie leaders brought along a small telescope and we, after looking at

the weather forecast came along with a laptop loaded up with software such as

Stellarium. Due to the cloudy conditions our aim was to give the

Brownies a tour of the night sky

virtually. So once set up we decided the first place to tour was our Solar system.

John harper who was a former teacher at a local school gave one of his now

famous presentations, I say famous because many a local knows John

through his school teaching days and his astronomical talks which have

included local radio and tv. Jason gave some of the leaders a small talk on their

telescope, how to set it up, viewing etc.

Back to the presentation for the

Brownies, John in simple terms explained speed and distances, he said

to the troop imagine your in a spaceship that can go at the speed of light. This

captivated the audience. Then launching his software we went in to orbit around

the sun. From there we voomed off to Mercury which again we went into an

orbit. For each planet we visited John gave a little talk about that planet.

However the troop were captivated by Earth, the software runs in real time, so

day and night are shown as it would be in real life. And on the night side of the

planet the software shows lights from

our cities and towns. Everyone was in awe including Jason and myself. We

then ventured out to Mars, Jupiter then Saturn. The troop was again in awe at

Saturn, the software showed the planet in its splendour, gravity from one of its

moons rippled the icy rings. Amazing, and this could be seen on the girls

faces. Due to time we then ventured to the other planets before finally arriving

at the dwarf planet Pluto.

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1. With an adult you know, go outside when it is dark and do the following.

**Look at the stars. **Point out the Plough and use it to find the North Star.

**Point out two other constellations. **Look at the stars through a telescope or binoculars. Know what are good condi-

tions for stargazing. 2. Tell other Brownies the stories behind the two constellations you pointed out in

clause 1. 3. Visit a planetarium, observatory, museum or website with an astronomy section.

Tell the tester four things you found out. 4. Make a mobile or draw a picture to show the phases of our moon.

5. Name the planets in our solar system. Find out some facts about four of them and use this to make a game or puzzle for other Brownies.

6. Explain why sailors in ancient times needed to know about the stars.

A good evening was had by all, and I hope the Brownie troop learnt something

about our night sky.

Alisons Comments

“Thanks again for coming to my brownie pack. We

were working on Seasons badge & the Stargazers

badge. Your group coming to our meeting

has helped us so much. We would like you to

come again to let us about the stars as well”.

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http://stargazyisland.blogspot.co.uk/

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Astronomy For All

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