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SkyNewsThe Canadian Magazine of Astronomy & Stargazing

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

NEW HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGE OF SPIRALGALAXY NGC201, DISTANCE 200 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS

Cosmic sights up to 11 billion light-years distant

When and Where to Watch October’s Total Lunar Eclipse and a Partial Eclipse of the Sun

Hunting a quasar from a backyard observatoryReview: MallinCam UniverseStargazing from Wood Buffalo National Park

ASTONISHINGASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

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CONTENTS

COLUMNS

05 EDITOR’S REPORT TERENCE DICKINSONPushing the Frontiers of Backyard AstronomyA quasar 11 billion light-years distant is captured in photo taken from Ontario backyard observatory

20 WILDERNESS ASTRONOMERPETER McMAHONWood Buffalo National ParkSee the full glory of the aurora in a dark sky park that’s larger than Switzerland

40 ON THE MOON GARY SERONIKIn and Around the Sea of CrisisThe most accessible mare for evening viewing is also one of the most interesting, whether you’re using a telescope, binoculars or even just your eyes

50 OTHER WORLDS IVAN SEMENIUKGood VibrationsThe recent loss of a Canadian nanosatellite has not diminished the power of a bright idea

54 NORTHERN NIGHTS KEN HEWITT-WHITEOverturning ConventionI’m no expert on telescopes, but I know what I like: large, good-quality optics that don’t break the bank. And John Dobson delivered.

DEPARTMENTS

10 LETTERS

26 SCOPING THE SKY KEN HEWITT-WHITEThe Finest Cluster You Can Hardly SeeCharles Messier never saw it. You might miss it too. But the open cluster NGC7789, in western Cassiopeia, is certainly worth a try.

28 STAR CHARTNight Sky for Early Autumn for Canada and the Northern United States

43 THE BIG PICTURE LYNN HILBORNSummer Milky Way Over Lake Ontario

49 CONSTELLATION CORNERKEN HEWITT-WHITEPegasusA celestial creature of considerable majesty

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014Volume XX/Issue 3

COVER: Discovered by astronomer WilliamHerschel, NGC201 is a barred spiral galaxysimilar in structure toour own Milky WayGalaxy. It lies 200 mil-lion light-years fromEarth in the constella-tion Cetus. COURTESYNASA/ESA/HUBBLE

12124440

FEATURES

12 EDITOR’S CHOICE

PHOTO OF THE WEEKCONTEST WINNERSFor our 12th annual photo contest, the SkyNews editors selected these outstanding celestial images

30 EXPLORING THE NIGHT SKY BY ALAN DYER

ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND MOONIn October, Canadians are treated to two eclipses two weeks apart: a total eclipse of the Moon followed by a partial eclipse of the Sun

44 PRODUCT REVIEW BY GLENN NORMAN

THE MALLINCAM UNIVERSEWe test a versatile astronomical video camera

30

4 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

VOLUME XX, ISSUE 3

Founding Publisher Canada Science and Technology Museum

Editor Terence DickinsonE-mail address editor@skynews.ca

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David H. Levy, Peter McMahon, Ivan Semeniuk, Gary Seronik, Ken Hewitt-White

ContributingAstrophotographers Lynn Hilborn, Yuichi Takasaka

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 5

QUASARS ARE ULTRABRIGHT geysers of matter and energy powered bysupermassive black holes at the cores of remote galaxies. The nearest one ismore than two billion light-years away. It looks like a 13th-magnitude star

in a medium-sized amateur’s telescope. But most quasars are far more distant than thatand are therefore fainter. One of them, catalogue number HB89 1256+280, happens to belocated in the same line of sight from Earth as Abell 1656, a large cluster of galaxies thatcontains over 1,000 identified galaxies. Along with the Leo Cluster (Abell 1367), Abell1656 is one of the two major galaxy clusters comprising the Coma Supercluster, in theconstellation Coma Berenices, from which it takes its name. I will get back to the quasarbehind the galaxy cluster in a moment, but first some perspective.

Pushing the Frontiers of Backyard AstronomyA quasar 11 billion light-years distant is captured in photo taken from Ontario backyard observatory

by Terence Dickinson

EDITOR’S REPORT

ABELL 1656 CLUSTER OF GALAXIES HB89 1256+280, a faint starlike 21st-magnitudequasar, was captured in this image taken by Lynn Hilborn of Grafton, Ontario, on April 23, 24and 26, using a 140mm apo refractor at f/5.3 and an FLI MicroLine 8300 CCD camera. Thequasar’s position is indicated by pointer bars on the negative guide image below.

NGC4889

NGC4874

Quasar HB89 1256+280

tidal tail

ABELL 1656

6 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

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As in most astronomical images, theview is a 3-D vista on a flat 2-D surface. In this case, three main layers are blendedinto the 2-D view. The primary one is thecluster of galaxies, Abell 1656, filling thecentral region of the image with yellowishfuzzballs that look like spiral galaxies withno spiral arms. Which is, in fact, what theyare. When this many galaxies are bunchedclose together, there are inevitable close en-counters over time that gravitationally stripaway the spiral arms. Abell 1656’s distance from Earth is about

320 million light-years. Its 10 brightest spi-ral galaxies have apparent magnitudes of 12 to 14, making them potentially visible as faint puffs in a large backyard scope. Thecentral region is dominated by two giant elliptical galaxies, NGC4874 and NGC4889.Known as cannibal galaxies, this voraciousduo has gravitationally swallowed dozensof smaller galaxies over the past 10 billionyears. The tidal tail beside NGC4874 is vis-ible evidence that part of a galaxy is beingeaten by the monster.Between the galaxy cluster and Earth

are several stars in our Milky Way Galaxy

that are only a few thousand light-years distant. Most prominent among these arethe two blue objects above centre andslightly to the right—a pair of blue giantstars in our galaxy.At the other extreme is the quasar, a

barely visible starlike speck 11 billion light-years from us. To put this in perspective,imagine the two blue giant stars in ourgalaxy as two houseflies on your livingroom window, one metre in front of you.The galaxy cluster Abell 1656 would be the downtown buildings of a city about 100 kilometres away. The quasar, on theother hand, would be a megalopolis in Europe, more than 5,000 kilometres fromyour front window.A quasar is the most powerful beacon

in the universe that is not a relatively briefexplosive event. It is energized by a super -massive black hole with the mass of a bil-lion suns. As matter spirals into the blackhole at the core of a quasar, it releases enor-mous amounts of light and other formsof radiation that make the quasar visibleacross the universe. Like a cannibal galaxy,only more powerful, a quasar black hole

swallows prodigious amounts of neigh-bouring matter—galaxies, nebulas, dust,gas—in a frenzy that marks the youthful eraof our universe, when it had yet to expandto the universe of the present.Quasars are a feature of a more crowded

past, when galaxies were much closer to-gether. That’s what the speck in the photorepresents. And for backyard astron omerslike Lynn Hilborn, who took the image, it represents a new frontier for amateur astronomers.

VISUAL AT-THE-EYEPIECE SKETCHINGBefore photography was widely used in

astronomy—that is, before the late 1800s—research astronomers got as comfortable aspossible behind the eyepiece of an observa-tory telescope and sketched what they saw.There were two main categories of sketch-ing: the surface features of bright objects,primarily the Moon and planets; and fainttargets that we now call deep-sky objects. Sketching was not universally adopted

by 18th- and 19th-century astronomers. Forinstance, William Herschel (1738-1822),probably the greatest observer of all time,

8 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

attempted a few sketches but eventually gaveup on it. Despite his momentous achieve -ments in astronomy—discovering the planetUranus, building the largest telescope in theworld and finding and describing thou-sands of deep-sky objects—he never madea notable sketch. When Alan Dyer and I

were looking for illustrations for our book,The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide, I searchedHerschel’s books and published papers and came up empty. Of the few sketches I found, we decided not to include any inthe book. The great man clearly had no aptitude in this area.

By the middle of the 20th century,sketching of all types was abandoned by research astronomers as being too subjec-tive and subject to the observer’s artisticskills, or lack thereof. Sketching by amateurastronomers—both planetary and deep sky—continued to be the main technique useduntil the 1960s, when it went into decline.Since then, sketching has survived in thehands of a few skilled practitioners.

One of these, John Karlsson, frequentlysketches deep-sky objects, as seen in his 15-inch telescope, for Ken Hewitt-White’sScoping the Sky department. Karlsson’ssketches bring both a realistic representa-tion and an astronomical accuracy to whatis, frankly, a languishing aspect of backyardastronomy.

In my long past and inevitably misspentadolescence (late 1950s, early 1960s), sketch -ing was in vogue in amateur astronomy.After I acquired my first Christmas trashscope—a rickety 60mm refractor—I avidlyembraced sketching: the Moon, double andmultiple stars, Jupiter’s moons, Saturn. Up-grading to a quality 3-inch refractor onlyfuelled the flames of self-discovery.

DEEP-SKY SKETCHING Our resident sketch-meister, John Karlsson, whose illustrations appearregularly in Ken Hewitt-White’s Scoping the Sky department, prepared this illustration of the dim but incredibly rich star cluster NGC7789 (see page 26).

What was not as obvious at the time was how sketching and the accompanyingnote keeping honed my observing skills.Looking back, it was the best thing I couldhave done, along with variable-star estima-tions, which was another in-vogue amateuras tron omer activity in that era.One more thing about John Karlsson’s

sketches. The one of NGC7789, on the fac-ing page, takes me back to my first look at this cluster with my new 8-inch Newto -nian. I was bowled over by the delicacy ofthis gem in a good telescope under a blackrural sky—wow!

MORE MEDIA HYPE: 3 SUPERMOONS! One year ago in this space, I commented

on the 2013 “supermoon”—the largest fullMoon of the year. As the Moon traces its(slightly) elliptical orbit around Earth, itpasses the perigee and apogee points (clos-est and farthest from Earth, respectively).The full Moon that occurs nearest perigee,which happens once every 13 to 14 months,is technically the biggest and brightest fullMoon of the cycle. This full Moon is nowwidely announced by the news media as the“spectacular” supermoon.The designation supermoon is not an

astronomical term. It was coined by astrol -oger Richard Nolle in 1979. Nolle may haveoffered some astrological mumbo jumboabout the supermoon’s significance, but thefact is, there’s nothing special to see on a supermoon night. On a supermoon night, there is no

way of detecting that anything out of theordinary is occurring unless you use spe-cialized equipment. The difference in sizeand brightness of the full Moon at perigeeor apogee cannot be ascertained by the unaided eye. The size difference is compa-rable to the difference between a quarterand a nickel—easy to see when they are sideby side, but not when viewed weeks apartand alone in the night sky. (It is most unfortunate that astrology

and astronomy sound so much alike. As-trologers may not care about being con-fused with astronomers in the public mind,but astronomers certainly do! When I amintroduced as a speaker to groups such asservice clubs and at professional conven-tions, I hear, as often as not, “Our speakerthis evening is astrologer. . .” Sigh.)When the latest supermoon date was

approaching, I learned through the newsmedia, as you probably did, that this year,

we would be treated to three supermoons.Huh? Later that day, CBC Radio called formore details. Then e-mails started arrivingfrom SkyNews readers asking what’s up?Here’s the full answer.The real (i.e., closest) supermoon, at a

distance of 356,896 kilometres, was on Au-gust 10. Those on the nights of July 12/13and September 8 were imposters, a smidgenfarther away (358,260 and 358,389 kilome-tres, respectively), the result of the Moon’stracing an elliptical path, which causes itsdistance from Earth to vary by the hour,

though not by much. But none of this matters, because to human vision, one fullMoon looks pretty much the same as the next. In other words, the whole thing is media hype—technically correct, but inflating expectations through a simple, attention-grabbing sound bite.“Can you condense that to one sen-

tence,” the CBC guy asked, laughing. Ofcourse, he wanted a sound bite. We live in a sound-bite universe, like it or not. Buthere in a magazine for backyard astron -omers, we supply the full story. F

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10 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

LETTERS

MEDIA HYPE AND A METEOR SHOWER THAT WASN’T Another anticipated astronomical event,the predicted “new” meteor shower (early-morning hours of May 24)—the so-calledCamelopardalids—was another almost in-evitable disappointment for all but the hard-core meteor aficionados among amateurastronomers. That’s two duds in less thansix months, the one previous being the fizzled Comet ISON in December 2013. Iwonder whether there shouldn’t be a con-versation among astronomy communica-tors about how astronomical events are explained to the general public. I’m notcon cerned about inviting the public to viewthe planets or even some deep-sky objectsor about publicizing eclipses, conjunctions,regular meteor showers like the Perseids,and so on. We know when and wherethey’ll occur and what they’ll look like, sothe only barrier is the weather. But whenever the visibility of something

is iffy—many comets and “new” meteorshowers, in particular—almost inevitablythey suffer from the Kohoutek Effect. (Forreaders too young to remember, manymonths of anticipation surrounded thenewly discovered Comet Kohoutek back inthe early 1970s, along with much specula-tion about how stunningly bright and im-pressive it was expected to be as it passedthrough the inner solar system. It didn’t liveup to expectations at all, unfortunately.) I love sharing astronomy with the gen-

eral public; I’ve been doing it for nearly 60 years. But we risk alienating people bydrawing attention to astronomical eventsand objects whose “performance” we canonly guess at in advance. If they go out inthe middle of the night and don’t see whatthey’ve been told to expect—thanks to ex-cessive news media hype—such as a snow-storm-like meteor shower or a dazzlingcomet as bright as the Moon, they go awaydisappointed and even angry. Need I re-mind readers of the fable of the boy whocried wolf? We need to think long and hard about

how we engage the public, especially whenit involves using the popular news media,whose first love is conflict and controversy.General reporters (as opposed to that rare

breed, science reporters) don’t seem to knowanything about the topic we love and almostalways get it wrong.

David A. RodgerNorth Vancouver, British Columbia

Editor’s Note David Rodger was the found-ing director of Vancouver’s H.R. MacMillanPlanetarium. A version of this letter wasfirst published on our website (skynews.ca),but we thought it touched on a subject ofparticular interest to many of our readers.Here at SkyNews, we are acutely aware of the problem. In the case of both CometISON and the predicted Camelopardalidmeteor shower, we were very careful not to overhype these events, even though wewere in the minority, especially among the magazines displayed beside us on thenewsstands or on other websites. Readercomments are welcome.

EXOPLANET RESEARCHThe May/June SkyNews was filled with fascinating articles, but one of them wasparticularly interesting to me. It was IvanSem eniuk’s piece on imaging planets orbit -ing other stars using the recently installedGemini Planet Imager on the Gemini SouthTelescope in Chile. In the photo of the team“jumping for joy” at the successful first-light observation, Bruce Macintosh, a mem -ber of the design team, can be seen leapingup with straight legs. Bruce was one of myformer high school students at KingstonCollegiate and Vocational Institute. Hewent on to the University of Toronto beforedeparting to the United States to pursue hiscareer in astronomical research, especiallyin adaptive telescope optics attached to new“monster” reflector telescopes planned forthe near future. Many thanks for a wonder-ful magazine.

Don CroppKingston, Ontario

SUBMITTING LETTERS AND PHOTOSSkyNews editor Terence Dickinson welcomesyour letters about your astronomical observ-ing activities and your comments about any-thing you read in the magazine. Submissionof photos as attachments is encouraged. Photos should be in jpeg format. Send to: editor@skynews.ca

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North Frontenac has some of the most southerlydark skies in Canada. “The Dark Triangle” encompasses four counties: Frontenac, Lennox & Addington, Hastings and Renfrew. For peoplein southern Canada and the northeastern U.S.,this is likely the best view of the night sky and the Milky Way you will experience. The Dark Sky Preserve is a public space with

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12 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

12th ANNUAL

For our 12th annual photo contest, the SkyNews editors selected these

outstanding celestial images

WHEN ALL THE PHOTOS are gath-ered and sorted, there are usually twoto three dozen that are obvious con-tenders. Selecting the winners of this

contest from these is the task of our five-member judgingpanel. Astro-imaging is now a major part of amateur as-tronomy for two reasons: Digital-imaging equipment isbetter than ever, and it is available at increasingly attrac-tive prices. And here’s a tip: If you want to break intoastro photography, try the tripod-mounted unguided cat -e gory. Typically, a 10- to 30-second exposure with a normal DSLR camera takes first prize in this category.

—Terence Dickinson, Editor

EDITORS’ CHOICE

SkyNews

PHOTOof theWEEKContest Winners

GRAND PRIZECanon 70D

DSLR camera

cameracanada.com

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 13

GRAND PRIZEWinner:While in Australia this spring, Warren Finlay of Edmonton, Alberta, captured this ethereal image of the Milky Way from an airstrip at 2:38 a.m.on March 31 under totally dark skies. It is a 122-second exposure, f/3.5, ISO 3200, with a 15mm Sigma fisheye on a Canon 6D tracking with an Astro-Trac mount. “This was my fourth attempt to try to get this shot,” says Finlay, “after clouds and rain had skunked me on previous nights. It was my lastnight, and I had actually given up after waiting to see if the clouds would clear. However, just as I was leaving to go back to bed, I saw a band of clear-ing on the horizon, so I waited, and the skies cleared long enough for me to take this photo. Sometimes, patience pays off!”

14 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

BEST DEEP-SKY WITH DIGITAL SLR OR WEBCAM-TYPEIMAGERWinner: Philippe Moussette of Cap-Rouge, Quebec, captured the iconicNorth America Nebula, in Cygnus,with exceptional subtle detail using a Canon 1DX with a 300mm f/2.8Canon lens. Seven 5-minute images at ISO 1600 were digitally stacked to produce the final photo. This nebula is so huge, it is visible in 7x50binoculars on a clear, moonless nightwell away from light pollution. Its estimated distance from Earth is 200 light-years.

Honourable Mention: The nearestspiral galaxy similar in size to ourhome galaxy, the Milky Way, is theAndrom eda Galaxy, a favourite targetfor beginning astrophotographers.Yet it is not an easy subject. For thisimage, Jeff Donaldson of Enfield,Nova Scotia, used an Orion f/4 astro-graphic Newtonian reflector with a filter-modified Canon XSi DSLR cam-era to take fifteen 5-minute exposuresat ISO 800. These were then digitallystacked, resulting in the celestial portrait seen here.

PHOTO of the WEEKCONTEST WINNERS

Category: Best deep-sky with digital SLR or webcam-type imager

Prize: Meade Series 5000 24mm ultrawide eyepiece

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BEST DIGITAL-CAMERA PHOTO/LUNAR AND PLANETARYWinner: This fine image of Saturn, taken on May 31, 2014,shows why most backyard astronomers turn their tele-scopes to the ringed planet at every opportunity. Astro-imager Roch Levesque of Terrebonne, Quebec, notes that “it was my best shot of Saturn this year.” Our judges remarked on the subtle belts in the planet’s atmosphereand the lack of processing artifacts in the photo. Levesqueused an ASI120MM CCD camera on an 11-inch CelestronSchmidt-Cassegrain working at f/20 for the R-RGB image.

Honourable Mention: In this region of the first-quarterMoon, the landscape is wall-to-wall craters, many of themdating back more than three billion years, to a period ofheavy bombardment following the formation of our solarsystem. The prominent crater with the central peak at bottom middle is 115-kilometre-wide Maurolycus. JeanGuimond used a 12.5-inch PlaneWave CDK from his homeobservatory in Quebec, Quebec, with a PGR Grasshoppermonochrome video camera for this shot. The final image isa digital stack of 180 sixteen-millisecond frames selectedfrom more than 1,200.

Category: Best digital-camera photo/lunar and planetaryPrize: Celestron Skyris 618C

CCD camera

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 15

Category: Best deep-sky digital high-resolution imagery

Prize: Black Diamond ED 80mm OTA package with aluminum case and focal reducer

www.skywatchertelescope.net

16 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

BEST DEEP-SKY DIGITALHIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGERYWinner: Lonnie Hunker of Thorsby, Alberta,used a Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED apo refractor for this ultradeep 26-hour exposure of the Elephant Trunk Nebula taken at WizardLake, Alberta, over four nights (September 10-13, 2013). Baader filters in H-alpha, O-III and SII were used to provide exceptional detail forthe relatively small telescope employed.

Honourable Mention: Selecting an infrequently imageddusty region in Cepheus known as Cohen 129—the yellowknot of nebulosity in the upper middle—Keith Egger ofPrince George, British Columbia, used an Atik 383L+ MonoCCD on a Sky-Watcher 190mm Mak-Newtonian for this 20-hour image. Colour data collected from a filter-modifiedCanon XSi DSLR on a 90mm refractor.

http://www.optcorp.com/

13th ANNUAL SKYNEWS EDITORS’ CHOICE

photoof the week

contest

Category: Best digital-camera photo/lunar and planetary

Prize: Celestron NexStar Evolution 8

celestron.com

HOW TO ENTER:Go to skynews.ca/contest-rules for contest rules, detailed instructions for submitting your photos and other information. To be eligible to win,

submissions must be received at SkyNews by June 1, 2015. You may enter as often as you wish, but please don’t send more than 10 of your best

photos per entry. This contest is open to residents of Canada only.

Category: Best tripod-mounted unguided photo

Prize: iOptron SkyGuider

ioptron.com

Category: Best deep-sky with digital SLR or webcam-type imager

Prize:Meade Series 5000 24mm Ultra Wide Angle eyepiece

meade.com

THREE EASY STEPS:Step 1. Send us your astrophotos. Please keep e-mail files under 2MB.Step 2. Contest closes June 1, 2015. We’ll choose the best and publish a new photo everyweek at skynews.ca.Step 3. The winning photos and honourable mentions will be published in the September/October 2015 issue of SkyNews.

Category: Best deep-sky digitalhigh-resolution imagery

Prize: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer multipurpose mount and EQ wedge

www.skywatchertelescope.net

view new Photos of the Week at

ATTENTION CANADIANASTROPHOTOGRAPHERS!

Send us your best photos, and you could win in one of the categories belowor be chosen as the overall grand prize winner.

Join the swelling ranks of fine Canadian astrophotographers. Go to skynews.ca/contest-rules for the POW contest rules and hundreds of amazing images and tips from the pros.

Enter today. . .and every week!

13th year of your amazing photos

2013 GRA

ND PRIZE WINNER DANIEL BO

RCARD

GRAND PRIZERitchey-Chrétien 8" telescope

mallincam.com

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 19

BEST TRIPOD-MOUNTEDUNGUIDED PHOTOWinner: Calgary-based photographer RobertBerdan was at the right place at the right time to record this stunning aurora at 1:05 a.m.on August 30, 2013, on the edge of PreludeLake, 30 kilometres outside Yellowknife, North-west Territories. He used a Nikon D800 with a 14-24mm f/2.8 lens (at 14mm) for the 15-second exposure at IS0 800.

Honourable Mention: Many astro-images have been collected in Ontario’s Algonquin ProvincialPark over the years, and here’s a particularly fine example. Dave Crombie used a Nikon D700 at ISO 3200 with an ultrawide 14mm lens at f/2.8 for 30 seconds for this panoramic portrait of thesummer Milky Way and the stinger of Scorpius appearing to merge with low clouds and the dis-tant glow of light pollution from urban centres 150 to 200 kilometres to the south.

Category: Best tripod-mounted unguided photoPrize: iOptron SkyTracker

ioptron.com

STRADDLING THE ALBERTA/NORTHWEST TERRITORIES bor-der, Wood Buffalo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site andthe second largest protected area in the world. Large enough to envelop

Switzerland (or Saturn’s moon Mimas), Wood Buffalo covers 44,807 squarekilometres and features vast expanses of northern boreal forest; the Peace-Athabasca Delta, one of the largest inland freshwater deltas on Earth; theworld’s longest beaver dam, spanning 850 metres and visible from space; oneof the planet’s largest herds of free-roaming wood bison; and the last wild nest-ing site of the endangered whooping crane.

by Peter McMahon

WILDERNESS ASTRONOMER

Wood Buffalo National ParkSee the full glory of the aurora in a dark sky park that’s larger than Switzerland

20 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

In 2013, Wood Buffalo also became theEarth’s largest dark sky preserve and theonly one under the northern hemisphere’sauroral oval, a ring of aurora activity cen-tred roughly on the north magnetic pole.The land over which the auroral oval pre-dominantly hangs is in northern Canada.“It’s like a cosmic gymnast twirling her

ribbons across the sky,” says Amy Lusk,looking at the night’s offering of northernlights. A resident of nearby Fort Smith(population: 2,496), Lusk is out here on thepark’s vast Salt Plains with a few friendsafter learning on-line of a possible solarstorm tonight. It’s a warm Northwest Territories eve -

ning in September as a dim fountain ofwhite turns into a prominent purple-greenarc that stretches from the eastern horizonall the way to the west. Around 1 a.m., thearc of light lets loose, turning into a full-out, all-sky display. Tidal waves of auroracrash overhead. It’s as if we’re standing atthe bottom of a sea of light. “This is, by far,the best I’ve ever seen,” says Lusk, notingthat she’s viewed the aurora throughoutthe Rockies but never with this muchmovement.No wonder the Northwest Territories

recently declared itself the aurora capitalof the world, a claim backed up by datafrom a new project called AuroraMAX, a collaborative initiative between the Uni-versity of Calgary, the City of Yellowknife,Astronomy North and the Canadian SpaceAgency. The study suggests that auroralactivity in the North is relatively constantyear after year, regardless of where the Sunis in its 11-year sunspot cycle.

FIRE TOWER VIEWPOINT In the Wood Buffalo/Fort Smith region, the primary aurora-viewing seasonis April through late May (a good time to avoid thesummer bugs) and late August through late October.PHOTO BY PETER MCMAHON

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 21

Extra tourists drawn by the buzz aboutthe current solar maximum and new mo-mentum generated from the AuroraMAXdata have tour companies and govern -ment staff rushing to capitalize on a “spacetourism” trade that has doubled in the lastyear alone. Since Wood Buffalo was designated a

dark sky preserve by The Royal Astronom-ical Society of Canada in 2013, the park hasestablished an annual August star festival inconjunction with the local astronomy cluband purchased two inflatable planetariumswith state-of-the-art digital projectors.“The planetariums have been excellent

outreach tools,” says Tim Gauthier, WoodBuffalo’s communications officer. With thehelp of a number of interpretation and digital-media staff, Gauthier has used thedomes to rocket park visitors off the Earth,send them into orbit around planets andfly them through the dense spiral arms ofthe Milky Way. And these are just a few of the cosmic adventures he and the parkstaff have hosted. “The domes let us absolutely immerse

people not only in spectacular astronom -ical programs,” says Gauthier, “but also invideo-based environments that really givea sense of the immensity of this park.”The planetariums are outfitted to travel

between Wood Buffalo’s Visitor ReceptionCentre in Fort Smith and remote locationsacross the Northwest Territories and north -ern Alberta, as well as larger centres, likeYellowknife and Fort McMurray, wherethey can deliver dark sky shows and bringthe park’s daytime wonders to large num-bers of people.

GETTING THEREWood Buffalo is one of only two nationalparks in the Canadian North that you canreach by car. For those willing to do a fairlyhefty 16-hour dawn-to-dusk drive up High -way 2 and the Mackenzie Highway, youcan get from Edmonton to Fort Smith in aday. For a less extreme pace, travellers canstop in Peace River, one-third of the way tothe park, or in High Level, roughly halfwaythere. Both northern Alberta towns featureall major amenities.For faster access to the park, North-

western Air offers daily flights from Ed-monton to Fort Smith. A direct flight inone of the airline’s twin-engine 19-seaterstakes about two hours.Most places in Fort Smith are within

walking distance, but if you want to visitthe park’s dark sky observing locations,you will need a personal or rental vehicle(or be able to hitch a ride with someone).

WHERE TO WATCH: PINE LAKE (ALBERTA)Campsites, cabins and a group campingarea with a log shelter sit by the beautifulaquamarine waters of Pine Lake, 60 kilo-metres south of Fort Smith. This is the onlyroad-accessible campground in the park.A level gravel observing pad on the

shores of the lake is available for setting up telescopes and other stargazing gearand is used for park astronomy events,such as the Wood Buffalo Dark Sky Festi-val. As with all sites in the park, there is no electricity. Potable water is available freeof charge at the Pine Lake Campground.

WHERE TO WATCH: SALT RIVER DAY-USE AREA (ALBERTA)An interpretive trail near one of the park’smost fascinating waterways features ex-hibits, a picnic area and an octagon-shapedlog shelter in a large clearing. As of thisyear, the shelter is also the occasional homeof one of the park’s new planetariums.

WHERE TO WATCH: SALT PLAINS VIEWPOINT AND DAY-USE AREA (N.W.T.)By day, you can see hundreds of bizarre saltmounds up to two metres high across the200-square-kilometre Salt Plains, about 50kilometres west of Fort Smith. Bordered bysalt-tolerant plants, such as red samphireand sea blight, the plains are one of the reasons Wood Buffalo was designated aUNESCO World Heritage Site and areargu ably the park’s most iconic destination.By night, you can watch the stars and thenorthern lights move over this flat other-worldly ecosystem.

WHERE TO WATCH: PARSON’S FIRE TOWER VIEWPOINT,SWEETGRASS STATION (ALBERTA)Stop by and watch the night sky above stun -ning panoramic views of the boreal land-scape in the shadow of Parson’s Fire Tower,a 30-metre giant that stands atop a gently

AURORAS (ALMOST) GUARANTEED Situateddirectly under the auroral oval—a ring of maximumnorthern lights activity—Wood Buffalo National Parkis among the finest aurora-watching locations on Earth.PHOTO BY PETER MCMAHON

rising hill on Parson’s Lake Road, south-west of Fort Smith. The deltaic meadowsof Sweet grass Station, located in the remotesouthern interior of the park, offer pristinewide-open skies near Lake Claire, the larg -est lake (1,436 square kilometres) entirelywithin Alberta. Getting to Sweetgrass Station is a chal-

lenging wilderness trek by road, followedby a boat trip across the mighty PeaceRiver and, finally, a 12-kilometre hike onfoot. The site offers comfortable cabins.“It’s a park that doesn’t always give up her secrets easily,” says Gauthier. “But theamaz ing discoveries that await visitors arewell worth it.”

WHERE TO STAYFor the most part, this dark sky treasure ispossibly the easiest northern park to get toand get around in. While several observinglocales offer tent, RV or cabin-based camp-ing, you may prefer to use one of the morecivilized accommodations in town as thebase of operations during your stay.Wood Buffalo Inn, in Fort Smith, is a

brand-new 10-suite hotel featuring stylish

modern kitchens and bathrooms, comfort-able furniture, satellite TV, wireless In ter -net and air-conditioning. The Pelican RapidsInn, built in 1997, offers more than 40 roomswith satellite TV, air-conditioning and wire -less Internet, as well as an on-site res tau -rant and bar. There are also several B&Bs,cabins and rental houses/suites in the area.The Whooping Crane Guest House (an octagonal log home) and R House B&B are among the best.

WHERE TO EATA healthy trade in mail-order spices, dips,sauces and marinades among federal gov-ernment and tourism-based employees hasbrought a highly cosmopolitan dinner-party scene to the suburbs of “greater FortSmith.” The Pelican Restaurant has decentChinese food, and don’t leave town with-out trying the sinfully good donair slice at Berro’s Pizzeria. But the top restaurantin town, by far, is Anna’s Home Cooking—

JAMES PUGSLEY is taking aurora forecasting to the streets. The aurora-watchingcheerleader behind AstronomyNorth.com recently implemented what could be themost imaginative community-outreach program in years: the Northern Lighthouse

Project in Yellowknife, the world’s first street-level early warning system for space weather.This isn’t an alarm system for preventing damage to satellites or electrical grids. It’s

a publicity tool to get people excited about seeing the aurora borealis. With the help oflocal and territorial sponsors, Pugsley and the nonprofit Astronomy North Society teambuilt five model lighthouses and installed them in high-traffic areas.Based on the aurora forecast for the coming 24 hours, the Northern Lighthouses flash

different colours:

n blue for a period of relative auroral calmn green for the likelihood of an average evening of northern lightsn red for the chance of geomagnetic storms that could trigger vibrant multicoloured auroral displays across the sky

“Lots of people photograph the lighthouses,” says Pugsley. “I’ve gone up to change a light and watched a group of visitors jump up and down with excitement. It’s been adramatic way to alert locals and tourists what’s in store for them in the sky each night.”

‘NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSES’ MAKE STREET-LEVEL

SALT PLAINS SCENIC VIEWPOINT Fabulousclear skies and frequent auroras have made this afavourite site for visiting astronomers and naturalists.The author took this photo during a nine-day visit toWood Buffalo this spring. PHOTO BY PETER MCMAHON

22 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

JAM

ES P

UG

SLEY

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 23

AURORA PREDICTIONS

best described as mouthwatering, healthyand spunky. Owner-chef and fitness in-structor at the gym next door, Anna Kikoakserves made-from-scratch organic stews,soups, sandwiches, roasts and ethnic cui-sine items along with a full slate of smooth-ies. Every few hours, to let customers knowwhat’s cooking, Anna posts pictures anddescriptions on Facebook of the dishesshe’s whipping up.

WHEN TO GO / WOOD BUFFALO DARK SKY FESTIVALFor aurora gazing (and to avoid clouds ofbugs), the best time to travel to Wood Buf-falo is in the spring (April through May)or from late August through October.

Each year, the park hosts a three-dayDark Sky Festival, which draws amateurastrono mers and neophyte skygazers fromacross the country and features overnightcamping, astronomy presentations, a plan-etarium experience, night-sky viewing anda family science and activity fair.

Past speakers who have visited the parkinclude such high-profile guests as pho -tographer and former Canadian astronautRoberta Bondar, who says that Wood Buf-falo is her favourite park.

“It’s our intent,” says Gauthier, “to be-come known as one of the best centres forastronomy-related tourism.”

At this year’s festival (August 22-24),

I am presenting a visual tour of Canada’sdark sky preserves as well as a talk entitled“Celebrity Tour of the Night Sky,” aboutreal astronomical places that have ap-peared in TV, movies and other areas ofpop culture. I hope you’ll join us at what’sbecoming the most exciting new skygazingexperience in Canada.

IN THE AURORA’S LIGHT It’s another night at Wood Buffalo’s PineLake observing pad, and we are enjoyingthe full glory of the aurora borealis—everycolourful wisp, strand, curve and filament,as well as the sparkling river of the MilkyWay beyond.

I’m so tired from four consecutive latenights of all-sky auroral displays that I’m almost wishing it would cloud over.Then I look at my photos from the previousnight, and I’m reenergized.

As I watch the latest sky show overhead,I realize that I am literally looking at apiece of our Sun—a nuclear furnace a mil-lion times the size of our planet—reachingout across the solar system to tickle theEarth’s atmosphere. F

For more photos from Wood Buffalo, resultsof the AuroraMAX project and links to thetourist amenities and events mentioned inthis column, go to WildernessAstronomy.comand click on “Magazine.”

You could say this is the lowest-tech space “app” ever made. Whenever space weatherfrom the Sun heralds a possible change in northern lights activity, Pugsley and a team ofvolunteer Northern Lighthouse Keepers, the youngest of which is nine years old, walk,drive or take public transit to one of the five locations around town to flip the light oneach lighthouse from one colour to another.

“It’s a high traffic area here,” says Pugsley as he aims a specialized remote control atthe lighthouse on the roof of Sushi North, a restaurant in downtown Yellowknife, tochange the beacon from green to red. “At the very least, we’re pretty much reaching theentire sushi-craving community.”

All kidding aside, most of the project locations—a car dealership and an art galleryamong them—were chosen for maximum exposure to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. An interpretive plaque mounted near each Northern Lighthouse explains to passersbyhow the system works.

For the next stage of the project, Pugsley says he wants to be able to update the light-houses remotely via a web-based alert system. Such a system would make the lighthousebeacons even timelier and allow additional lighthouses here and in other northern com-munities to be synchronized. It’s an idea that already has people beyond Yellowknife raving. Since the project’s launch last October, Pugsley and his team have been fieldingrequests to install lighthouses in several other towns in the Northwest Territories.

The MallinCamUNIVERSErepresents years of design and researchin a colour CCD camera that is capableof live constant refresh with a maximumdownload of one second per frame. Thenew Constant Refresh System (CRS) is afirst in a CCD camera, in which the CRSsoft ware downloads a live image for full-frame review on your computer monitor.The camera acts as a video system, dis-playing a non-stop new image at everyexposure.The MallinCam UNIVERSE is 100% USB2.0 controlled, and the image is alsotransferred through USB. A deep-coolingsystem with a sealed sensor chamber allows cooling to reach –45°C to ensurethe lowest noise and dark current where,in most cases, a dark frame is not gen-erally required. A first in the industry.Taking publication-quality images is nowpossible and easier than ever with thisnew system. A constant live image is dis-played for those who wish to use thecamera as a live observing system. Withits super-large sensor, its total opticaldiagonal size of 28.4mm across and itslarge pixel size of 7.8 x 7.8 microns, thecamera excels in delivering live colourimages. The CCD sensor has a total of6.31 mega-pixels. The sensor’s horizon-tal size is 25.10mm, and its vertical sizeis 17.64mm. The active pixels (6.11 mp)deliver a total size of 3032 x 2016. TheNew MallinCam UNIVERSE can also beswitched from colour mode to black andwhite with a click of the mouse.Live processing is done on the fly usingfeatures such as full histogram adjust-ment, full gamma range, full contrastrange and auto white balance or manualRGB colour balance.The unique “Hyper Circuit” found on allother MallinCam systems has been incor-porated into this new design, allowingthe MallinCam UNIVERSE to deliver a total variable gain of 26.06+ db, a dynamic range of 80 db and a signal-to-noise ratio of 60 db. The MallinCam UNIVERSE comes com-plete with a 5-metre USB cable; a 2"threaded adapter; a 1.25" converter, al-lowing the use of an optional 1.25" eye-piece adapter; 110 volts AC to 12 voltsDC power supply; driver; and softwareCD-ROM.

MallinCam announces the return of the original MallinCam PRO – now with additionalfeatures. This new camera is called the MallinCam Jr PRO.It comes complete with 25’ Video/Powercable, 120 VAC to 12 VDC regulated powersupply, the highly acclaimed 1.25" Deluxeadapter found on all other MallinCams, anRCA to BNC adapter, choice of a PixelWireless Exposure controller, completewith batteries, or a PC-only version withRS232 cable!The Jr PRO can be purchased with either the standard 1/2-inch-size Sony ceramic CCDsensor (Cer-Dip) or the optional EXview HAD sensor for an additional $100.00. Eithertype of CCD sensor is available in colour or B&W. $599.99

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one composite image to help see thedark and bright parts of an image. Thisfeature can extend shutter speeds above17 seconds without saturation. A uniqueMallinCam system.

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SCOPING THE SKY

THE FINEST CLUSTER YOUCAN HARDLY SEE

Charles Messier never saw it. You might miss it too. But the open cluster NGC7789, in western Cassiopeia, is certainly worth a try. by Ken Hewitt-White

26 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

ROUGHLY 7,500 LIGHT-YEARS FROM EARTH, NGC7789 is a fairly evolvedopen cluster featuring some red giant stars at least one billion years old. The 6.7-magnitude group packs far more stars than Cassiopeia’s two Messier clusters,

M52 and M103, yet it’s tough to see in a grey city sky. That’s because few of the nearly 600members of NGC7789 are brighter than magnitude 11.0, and their collective glowis spread across ¼ degree of sky. Might this dim and delicate spray of stars bevisible from my suburban yard? One night last fall, I decided to find out.My star-hop to NGC7789 began at second-magnitude beta (β) Cas-

siopeiae. Using 8x56 binoculars, I drifted 2½ degrees southwest to awide pair: the orange-yellow, semiregular variable rho (ρ) Cas, whichfluctuates between fourth and sixth magnitude, and the dimmer vari-able V373 nearby. Almost two degrees south of this pair, I sighted aright-angle triangle dominated by fifth-magnitude sigma (σ) Cas. Be-tween sigma and rho is a chain of seventh- and eighth-magnitude stars.

1° telescope field of view

β

NGC7789

CASSIOPEIA

α

σ

ρV373

IT’S A CLOUD OF STARS! Beside the“W” of Cassiopeia, a celestial treasurehunt awaits. Visible in binoculars as a dim

cometlike puffball, NGC7789 iseasy to overlook, but in a

telescope of any size—though the larger, thebetter—the faintfuzzy reveals itselfas a delicate yetdense cluster ofdistant suns.

CHART BY GLENN LEDREW

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 27

East of the chain, closer to rho than sigma,I spotted an 8.5-magnitude star guardinga faint haze farther eastward. Bingo! Myhefty tripod-mounted 15x70 binocularsimproved the haze to a grainy patch.Time for some telescopic exploration.

Squinting into the 6x finder of my 4¼-inchf/6 Newtonian, I followed the same star-hop from beta Cas through rho to sigma. Istopped at sigma because it’s a close binaryworth seeing. Sigma’s 7.2-magnitude com-panion, separated from the primary by only3.2 arc seconds, challenged my small reflec-tor, but I was able to detect it at 186x. Beforecontinuing on to the cluster, I backed off to27x. Right away, I noticed something nearsigma, just above the right-angle triangle.What had appeared in the 8x binoculars as an eighth-magnitude star showed in mylow-power eyepiece (and even in the 15x70s)as an evenly matched pair.At 27x, the telescope framed the entire

sigma-to-rho star chain. Spaced well apartnear the middle of the chain was a 7.2-mag-nitude red star and an 8.2-magnitude bluestar, which formed the base of a triangle

pointing eastward to the aforementioned8.5-magnitude “guardian.” Beyond that red -dish orange star, I spotted a 10.3-magnitudeblue-white star on the cluster’s west edge.Barely perceptible along that side was anorth-south zigzag of 11th-magnitude starsI dubbed “red giant row.” Overall, the clus-ter was a textured haze whose graininess in-tensified with increasing magnification. Atbetween 50x and 100x, my averted visioncaught a few dim stars across the mottledpatch, plus others spilling past red giantrow to the 10.3-magnitude star. Charts plotthat star and the 8.5-magnitude guardianinside the cluster boundary, though theyare almost certainly foreground objects. I turned to my 10-inch Newtonian and

centred sigma again. The tight twosomesplit nicely at 140x. And remember the 7.2-magnitude red star between sigma and rho?The 10-inch at 58x revealed an 11th-mag-nitude companion 36 arc seconds to thenorthwest. From there, I nudged the scopeto NGC7789. At low power, it displayed numerous stars over a powdery haze. Theraggedy red giant row was distinct, with two

main star pairs highlighting the zigzag line.A 155x ocular pulled in dim dots all over,but resolving the background powder intoeven fainter stars remained beyond reach.A night in the country solves that prob-

lem. The dark sky view of NGC7789 in my10-inch is stunning. At 47x, the cluster is ablizzard of suns that blends into the MilkyWay all around, except along the sharp-edged west side. Even there, faint outliersextend west of red giant row almost to the8.5-magnitude guardian star. Also, I canpick out a few roughly parallel dark lanes,or voids, running eastward from red giantrow. John Karlsson’s sketch of NGC7789(see page 8) captures much of this detail.I recall one perfect dark rural night

when I observed NGC7789 with 7x50 bin -oculars. The cluster materialized as a tiny,round, featureless patch of light—a deadringer for a comet without a tail. CharlesMessier would have loved it. F

Contributing editor Ken Hewitt-White hasobserved deep-sky fuzzies over southern Brit -ish Columbia for more than four decades.

AUG. 31 N Crescent Moon, Mars and Saturn in tight triangle low in southwest in evening sky

SEPT. 2 First-quarter Moon

SEPT. 8 N Full Moon, 9:38 p.m., EDT; Harvest Moon; Moon at close perigee(358,389 km) for higher-than-usual tides

SEPT. 10 Gibbous Moon 0.5° to 2.5° east ofUranus (occultation from eastern Canada)

SEPT. 14 Gibbous Moon 2° east of Aldeb aran

SEPT. 15 Last-quarter Moon

SEPT. 19 Neptune just 0.5° north of sigma Aquarii

SEPT. 20 Thin waning crescent Moon 5° below Jupiter in dawn sky

SEPT. 21 Zodiacal light visible in easterndawn sky for next two weeks; Mercury atgreatest angle (26°) away from Sun (poorposition in evening sky)

SEPT. 22 Equinox, 10:29 p.m., EDT (autumn officially begins)

SEPT. 24 New Moon, 2:14 a.m., EDT

SEPT. 27 Thin waxing crescent Moon 2° from Saturn in evening sky

SEPT. 29 Mars 3° above Antares in eveningsky, and waxing Moon 5° above Mars

OCT. 1 First-quarter Moon

OCT. 7 Uranus at opposition (closest to Earth; rises at sunset)

OCT. 8 N Full Moon, 6:51 a.m., EDT; total lunar eclipse; Moon just 20 arc minutes north of Uranus during totality

OCT. 12 Waninggibbous Moonpasses 0.5° aboveAldebaran in pre -dawn hours

OCT. 15 Last-quarter Moon

OCT. 17 Waningcrescent Moon 6° from Jupiter in dawn sky

OCT. 20 Zodiacallight visible in east-ern dawn sky fornext two weeks

OCT. 21 Orionid meteor shower peaks(moonless conditions)

OCT. 22 Thin crescentMoon 3° above Mercurylow in dawn sky

OCT. 23 N New Moon, 5:57 p.m., EDT; partial solareclipse over much of NorthAmerica

OCT. 25 Venus in superior conjunc-tion behind Sun

OCT. 27 Waxing crescent Moon 7° aboveMars low in evening sky

OCT. 30 First-quarter Moon

NOV. 1 Mercury at greatest elongation(19°) west of Sun in morning sky

N Impressive or relatively rare astronomical event

OUR CHART SHOWS the major stars, planets and constellations visible from Canada and the northern United States withinone hour of these times:

EARLY SEPTEMBER: 11:30 P.M.; LATE SEPTEMBER: 10:30 P.M.EARLY OCTOBER: 9:30 P.M.; LATE OCTOBER: 8:30 P.M.THE EDGE OF THE CHART represents the horizon; the overhead point is at centre. On a moonless night in the country, you willsee more stars than are shown here; deep in the city, you will see fewer. The ecliptic is the celestial pathway of the Moon andplanets. The star groups straddling this line are known as the zodiac constellations. The Moon is shown for selecteddates.

USING THE STAR CHART OUTDOORS: The chart is most effective when you use about one-quarter of it at a time,which roughly equals a comfortable field of view in a given direction. Outdoors, match the horizon compass directionon the chart with the actual direction you are facing. Don’t be confused by the east and west points on the chartlying opposite their location on a map of the Earth. When the chart is held up to match the sky, with the directionyou are facing at the bottom, the chart directions match the com pass points. For best results when reading thechart outdoors, use a small flashlight heavily dimmed with red plastic or layers of brown paper. Unfilteredlights greatly reduce night-vision sensitivity.

For more detailed information, see the Observer’s Handbook 2014, published by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (www.rasc.ca or 888-924-7272).

THE PLANETSMERCURY reaches its greatest elongation east ofthe Sun on Sept. 21 but is too low in the eveningsky for sighting from Canada. A better opportu-nity comes in the last week of October as Mercuryrises higher into our morning sky, reaching itsgreatest elongation west of the Sun on Nov. 1.

VENUS can be sighted early in September low in the eastern dawn sky, but by the end of the month, it is immersed in solar glare until mid-December.

MARS can be seen low in the southwest eveningsky as a 0.6- to 0.9-magnitude reddish “star” in the evening twilight. On Sept. 29, Mars, Antaresand the Moon appear close together in a verticalline 8° long.

JUPITER continues to emerge from behind theSun, climbing higher into the dawn sky this sea-son. Look for it shining brightly at magni tude –1.9on the Cancer-Leo border. The waning crescentMoon passes Jupiter on the mornings of Sept. 20and Oct. 17.

SATURN is visible very low in the southwest atdusk in September, but in October, it drops too close to the Sun to see. On Sept. 27, the thinwaxing crescent Moon sits just 2° from Saturn in the twilight.

URANUS can be found as a 5.7-magnitude objectin southern Pisces. Uranus reaches opposition onOct. 7, the night before the eclipsed Moon passesjust 20 arc minutes above Uranus during totality.

NEPTUNE reached opposition on Aug. 29 and is now well placed for viewing in the south east -ern evening sky. It can be seen as a 7.8-magnitudeobject in central Aquarius, a tele scope eyepiecefield north of the 4.8-magnitude star sigma Aquarii.Nep tune passes 0.5° north of sigma on Sept. 18-20.

NE

SE

EAST

CELESTIAL CALENDAR

Cartography and design by Roberta Cooke. Base chart data de rived from maps drawn by Roy Bishop for the Observ er’s Hand book, published by The Royal Astro nomical Society of Canada.

STAR CHART for Early Autumn

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 29

ROTATING NIGHT SKY: During the night, the Earth’s rotation on its axis slowly shifts the entire sky. This is the same motion that

swings the Sun on its daily east-to-west trek. The rotational hub is Polaris, the North Star, located

almost exactly above the Earth’s North Pole. Every-

thing majestically marches counter- clockwise around it, a motion that be comes evident

after about half an hour.

CONSTELLATIONS:The star groups

linked by lines are the con stellations created

by our ancestors thousands of years ago as a way of mapping

the night sky. Modern astronomers still use the traditional names, which

give today’s stargazers a per manent link to the sky myths and legends of the past.

NORTH

NW

WES

T

SW

SOUTH

30 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

ECLIPSES of the

SEE A PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE—SAFELYOn the afternoon of October 23, most of thecountry can witness the Moon cover a good

portion of the Sun—the first solar eclipse visiblefrom most of Canada since May 20, 2012. Manyastronomy clubs, observatories, planetariumsand science centres will host eclipse parties,

often with eclipse glasses and filtered telescopesavailable for safe viewing. (Note man at centre

holding a smart phone above the telescope eye-piece to record a photo.) PHOTO BY ALAN DYER

LUNAR ECLIPSE BONANZA Six full Moons afterthe April 14/15 lunar eclipse shown here (hyped inthe media as a “blood Moon”), the Moon once againundergoes a total eclipse on the morning of Octo -ber 8. Only Atlantic Canada misses out on seeingsome portion of totality. PHOTO BY STEPHEN BEDINGFIELD

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 31

In October, Canadians are treated to two eclipsestwo weeks apart: a totaleclipse of the Moon followed by a partialeclipse of the Sun by Alan Dyer

WE’RE NOW IN THE MIDDLE of an abundance of lunareclipses, with the second of four total eclipses over two yearsset for the wee hours of October 8. We had a total lunareclipse on April 14/15, and most of North America will also

see two more total lunar eclipses in 2015: on April 4 and September 27/28. By contrast, solar eclipses seem more rare of late, with the last one in North

America on May 20, 2012. The next one won’t be until the long-awaited totalsolar eclipse of August 21, 2017. But on October 23 this year, central and westernCanada can watch the Moon cover 60 to 80 percent of the Sun in a substantialpartial solar eclipse.After a profusion of planets in spring, autumn brings a planetary drought,

with Mars and Saturn disappearing into the evening twilight and Jupiter just emerging into the dawn sky. Mercury does put in its best “morning star”apparition of the year. And don’t forget Uranus and Neptune, both now at theirbest for the year in the evening sky.

EVENING PLANETSCatch Mars and Saturn early in the season as they shine together low in the southwestevening twilight. On August 31, Mars, Saturn and the crescent Moon form a tidy trianglelow in the dusk. As September opens, the Moon is moving away from the Mars-Saturnpairing, while Mars begins to outdistance Saturn. The ringed planet is left to sink towardthe Sun, disappearing from view by October. Mars hangs in, trekking eastward against the background sky about as fast as the Sun

does, allowing Mars to keep ahead of the Sun and shine low in the south all autumn. As it

SUN AND MOONEXPLORING THE NIGHT SKY

MARS AND SATURN AT DUSK On the last day of August, catch thewaxing Moon close to Mars and Saturnlow in the southwest evening twilight.The Moon climbs higher as it waxes to-ward full in the first week of September.COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION

CURRICULUM CORP.

SW

Moon With Mars and SaturnAUGUST 31 TO SEPTEMBER 3, EVENING SKY

SOUTH

SAGITTARIUS

Saturn

Sept 3

EclipticSCORPIUS

LIBRA

Mars

Sept 2

Sept 1

Aug 31

does so, Mars moves from Libra, near Sat-urn, into Scorpius and, in October, acrosssouthern Ophiuchus into Sagittarius.

At the end of September, Mars passesnorth of Antares, whose name means “rivalof Mars.” Both objects shine with a rustyreddish tint, and the last week of Sep -tember provides a great chance to see thesetwo red rivals competing for attention inthe twilight.

A bonus comes on September 29, whenthe crescent Moon joins the red duo toform a neat vertical line of worlds in Scor-pius. Two nights earlier, the thin crescentMoon appears just two degrees from Sat-urn low in the southwest, Saturn’s last hurrah before hiding behind the Sun.

AN EARLY HARVEST MOONAutumn arrives in the northern hemi-sphere at 10:29 p.m., EDT, on Septem -ber 22. That’s when the centre of the Sun’s disc crosses the celestial equator asthe Sun heads south for the winter. Aroundthe date of equinox, the days and nights are of almost equal length and the Sun rises due east and sets due west.

By tradition, the full Moon closest tothe autumnal equinox is dubbed the Har-vest Moon. This year, that honour goes to the full Moon of September 8. On thatevening, the rising Moon will look quite

PLANET SEVEN REVEALED On the evening of September 10, observers using small telescopes in eastern Quebec and AtlanticCanada will see a relatively rare event: the planet Uranus appearingfrom behind the Moon. At 9:39 p.m.,ADT, for Halifax (or within a couple of minutes of that time elsewhere ineastern Quebec and Atlantic Canada),sixth-magnitude Uranus will material-ize out of the black sky next to theMoon. Actually, it will be emergingfrom behind the dark edge of the not quite full Moon. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

THE EVENING MOONS OF OCTOBER By the end of October, Saturn is gone, as it heads towardconjunction behind the Sun in mid-November. But Mars lingers in the south, first in Ophiuchus theserpent bearer, then in Sagittarius the archer. The crescent Moon passes far above Mars on October 28. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP. (BOTH)

32 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

THE EVENING MOONS OF SEPTEMBER By the end of September, Mars has moved well east of Saturn into southern Ophiuchus, where it shinesabove Antares, its reddish rival in Scorpius. The crescentMoon passes close to Saturn on September 27, thenjoins Mars and Antares on September 29.

SW

Evening MoonsSEPTEMBER 27 TO 30 AT DUSK

OPHIUCHUS

Saturn

Ecliptic

SCORPIUS

LIBRAMars

Sept 29

Sept 28

Sept 27Antares

Sept 30

Evening MoonsOCTOBER 26 TO 29 AT DUSK

SW

OPHIUCHUSEcliptic

Mars

Oct 29

SOUTH

SAGITTARIUS

Oct 28

Oct 27

Oct 26

Uranus ReappearsSEPTEMBER 10, HALIFAX

9:39 P.M., ADT

Uranus

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 33

RISING GOLDEN MOONS any rising mooncan look golden yellow (this was the full moon of august 2013, a month before the official Harvest moon). but on the prairies, in particular,dust raised by combines busy with the harvestabsorbs blue wavelengths, tinting the low moona lustrous harvest yellow. PHOTO BY ALAN DYER

HARVEST MOON GEOMETRY the september full moonstands out from other full moons because for several daysaround full, the moon rises only 15 to 20 minutes later eachnight, making it prominent in the early evening. the shallowangle of the ecliptic path in the eastern sky in autumn mini-mizes the moon’s nightly change in altitude as it orbits alongthe ecliptic and, in turn, minimizes the change in its rise times.COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

NEPTUNE AT ITS BEST This is thebest season for sighting Neptune.Planet number eight is now well placedin the early-evening sky in the south-east, in the constellation Aquarius.Look for a 7.8-magnitude object, whichwill appear, under high power, as a tinyblue disc, not starlike. Neptune’s prox-imity to the 4.8-magnitude star sigma(σ) Aquarii (a.k.a. 57 Aqr) all seasonmakes it easier to find. Use a star chartor planetarium software to locate thestar, which is readily visible in a finder-scope. Or simply punch in Neptune onyour GoTo telescope and use this chart(north is up here) to help you figure outwhich “star” north of sigma is Neptune.

NEPTUNE NEAR SIGMA AQUARII during the third week of september, neptune passes close to sigma (σ) aquarii. neptune lies only 0.5 degree (one moon diameter) above, or north of, sigma, on the nights of september 18 to 20, well within the telescope field of a moderate-power eyepiece. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

full because the exact moment of full Moonoccurs at 9:38 p.m., EDT, only a couple ofhours after moonrise for eastern Canadaand almost precisely at moonrise for west-ern Canada.

In addition, the Moon is just 22 hourspast perigee (its point of closest approachto Earth)—and a close perigee at that, withthe Moon 358,389 kilometres away. This isa little farther from us than it was in Augustat the hyped “supermoon,” but by a mar-ginal difference of just 1,493 kilometres. As such, the Moon will technically appeara little larger than most full Moons of theyear, though the difference in size is impos-sible to detect with the unaided eye.

Nevertheless, the full Moon of Septem-ber 8 will be impressive, with many peopleconvinced it looks huge. It will also appearyellowish, tinted by the absorption of bluewavelengths by earthly atmospheric dust.

People will notice the Harvest Moon fortwo other reasons: It rises almost due east,placing it at the end of many roads andhighways, and it rises at a similar time fortwo or three nights in a row, an effect of theshallow angle of the ecliptic to our easternhorizon on autumn evenings.

Path of NeptunesEptEmbEr and octobEr

Sept 1

sigma (57) Aqr

0.5°

Sept 10

Sept 20

Sept 30

Oct 10

Oct 20Oct 31

Harvest MoonssEptEmbEr 7 to 9, EvEning sky

SE

Ecliptic

EAST

AQUARIUS

CAPRICORNUS

PISCES

Sept 9

Sept 8 (full Moon)

Sept 7

So if you miss it—or see it—one night,you will see it again at close to the sametime and under similar lighting conditionsthe next night. Get out and enjoy what prom -ises to be a photogenic and popular 2014Harvest Moon. And don’t forget, any Har-vest Moon is equally as photogenic as it setsin the west at sunrise.

MORNING PLANETSOur “morning star” for much of 2014,Venus bows out this season as it passes behind the Sun. It shines low and buried in the dawn twilight in September, but by October, it is gone. It returns in 2015,however, when we will be treated to a stunning eve ning show by Venus. Just setyour favourite planetarium software for the evening sky on February 20 and on June 30 to see two remarkable upcomingVenus sky events.

As for the remainder of 2014, Jupiter isour primary morning planet as it begins toclimb higher in the east and increases itsangular separation from the Sun. The wan-ing crescent Moon slides past Jupiter on themornings of September 20 and October 17,though neither is a close conjunction.

Instead, the most notable morning-skyresident this season is Mercury, putting in its best dawn appearance of 2014 for

34 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

OLD MOON MEETS MERCURY The high angle of the autumn dawnecliptic also swings Mercury up as high as it gets for the year as a “morningstar.” On October 22, as Mercury begins a two-week-long appearance, theageing Moon passes the planet a day before the new Moon eclipses theSun, producing a partial solar eclipse over much of North America.

MORNING MOONS OF OCTOBER A month later, Jupiter is much higher and shining in a darkersky. The waning crescent Moon passes Jupiter on the mornings of October 17 and 18. The high angleof the ecliptic in the morning sky at this time of year provides the best sighting opportunities for thin“old” Moons at dawn. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP. (BOTH)

MORNING MOONS OF SEPTEMBER The thin waning Moon passes five degrees below Jupiter on themorning of September 20. If you have very clear skies onSeptember 22, you might spot the razor-thin Moon nearVenus, low and deep in the dawn twilight. This is the lastchance to see Venus before it drops close to the Sun.

MERCURY AS A ‘MORNING STAR’ Mercury reaches its greatest elongation west of the Sun at dawn on November 1, which means that the last week of October and the first week of November is the best period in 2014 for sighting the small inner planet in the morning sky. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP. (BOTH)

SEEAST

Jupiter

Ecliptic

Venus

LEO

CANCER

Sept 21

Morning MoonsSEPTEMBER 19 TO 22, DAWN SKY

Sept 22

Sept 20

Sept 19

SEEAST

Jupiter

Ecliptic

LEO

Morning MoonsOCTOBER 17 TO 21, DAWN SKY Oct 17

Oct 18

Oct 19

Oct 20

Oct 21

SEEAST

Mercury

Ecliptic

VIRGO

Moon

Typical 7° field of binoculars

Mercury at Its HighestOCTOBER 31, DAWN SKY

Moon by MercuryOCTOBER 22, DAWN SKY

SEEAST

MercuryVIRGO

Ecliptic

Canada. Mercury reaches its greatest elon-gation west of the Sun on November 1. Inthe last week of October, we’ll see it nicelyplaced as high as it gets in our eastern dawnsky. How high Mercury gets at each of itsbrief appearances in a typical year dependsmostly on how high the ecliptic is angledabove our horizon. On autumn dawns, theecliptic shoots up from the horizon at itssteepest angle in the morning sky, placingMercury at its best as well.

On October 22, the very thin crescentMoon, in its waning phase, sits within abinocular field above Mercury. Use binoc-ulars to sight the slender Moon near Mer-cury, low in the bright twilight. This is agood chance to see the ageing Moon just aday before it passes across the Sun, creatinga partial eclipse.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOONDon’t plan to get much sleep on the nightof October 7/8. That’s a Tuesday night intoWednesday morning. Hardly convenient,but such are the sacrifices the sky demandsof astronomy fans!

The occasion is the next total eclipse of the Moon, when the full Moon willturn—dare I say it?—blood-red! The lasttotal lunar eclipse was much ballyhooed

The positions of Jupiter’s four larg est moonsare shown for each night of the two-monthperiod. Jupiter is rep re sen ted by the centralvertical shaft, while the moons are the fourwavy lines. The hori zontal lines mark 8 p.m.,EDT, on the dates in di cated. Time flows fromtop to bottom, so look proportionatelybelow the line for later times on a par ticulardate. East is to the left, and north is at thetop, as seen in bino c ulars. From closest tofarthest, the moons are Io, Europa, Gany - mede and Cal listo. Orbital periods are 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 16.7 days, respectively.

KEY:

Io Europa Ganymede Callisto

JUPITER’S MOONSSeptember and October 2014

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 35

A BINOCULAR COMET AT DAWN This autumn, Comet PanSTARRS returns to our sky. Officially known as C/2012 K1, this isnot the same Comet PanSTARRS that everyone had hoped would be spectacular in spring 2013. C/2012 K1 was, in fact, a respect -able telescopic and photogenic comet in spring 2014, as it passed near the Big Dipper (see photo, page 20, July/August SkyNews).It then travelled south, spending the summer close to the Sun and reaching perihelion on August 27. In the predawn hours oflate September and early October, the comet emerges from the solar glare to make a brief appearance low in our Canadian sky as it travels from Hydra into Puppis. That’s also when it is expected to be at its brightest, at magnitude 5.9, making it a good bin -ocular target under dark skies. The best viewing period, when the comet is at its highest and before the waning Moon interferes,is the first week of October. Or look for it during the October 8 lunar eclipse! COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

Comet PanSTARRS C/2012 K1PREDAWN SKY

CANIS MAJORHYDRA

SE SOUTH

PUPPIS

Sept 20

Oct 15

Sept 15

Sept 25

Oct 10

Oct 5

Oct 1

Sirius

36 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

in the news media as the “bloodMoon,” implying that it had somerole in signifying yet another end-of-the-world prediction. Of course,lunar eclipses are nothing of the sort.

The blood Moon stuff came from somecleverly timed publicity for a book aboutthe prophesy, which was hyped just beforelast April’s lunar eclipse.

A total eclipse of the Moon is a wonder-ful event we can all enjoy, as it unfolds overtwo to three hours. For the October 8 eclipse,the Moon enters our planet’s shadow at 5:14 a.m., EDT (2:14 a.m., PDT), when thefirst obvious shadowy bite appears on thelimb of the Moon. Over the next 71 min-utes of the partial eclipse, the Moon movesmore deeply into the umbral shadow.

By 6:25 a.m., EDT (3:25 a.m., PDT), the Moon is completely engulfed in theEarth’s shadow. This is the start of total -ity. For the next 59 minutes—a generouslength for any total lunar eclipse—theMoon will appear orange to deep red as itis lit by red sunlight filter ing through theEarth’s atmosphere. The red tint is a signthat we have an atmosphere. If Earth wereairless, the Moon would be completely hid-den during totality and we would see ablack hole punched in the starry backdrop.

At this eclipse the Moon passes north ofthe umbra’s centre. This means the north-ern, or top, edge of the Moon will appear

THE ECLIPSE SEQUENCE While the timeand duration of a solar eclipse vary with loca-tion, everyone sees the same lunar eclipse last-ing the same length of time. The difference intiming is due only to the time zone. The farthereast you are, the later the eclipse occurs. Aswith all lunar eclipses, little is visible until theMoon enters the Earth’s dark umbral shadowand the partial umbral eclipse begins. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

This eclipse starts late at night, even from west-ern Canada, and goes until dawn on October 8.For central and eastern Canada, the turningEarth will bring on moonset while some portion of the eclipse is in progress.

n In zone 1 (Newfoundland and parts of Nova Scotia), the Moon sets before totality begins.

n In zone 2 (parts of Atlantic Canada, Quebec and eastern Ontario), the Moon sets during totality.

n In zone 3 (most of Ontario), people see all of totality, but the Moon sets during the final partial phases.

n In zone 4 (Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan), the Moon sets after totality and the partial phases are complete.

n Only Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories (zone 5) see the entire eclipse, including the penumbral phases.

COURTESY FRED ESPENAK/NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

The ECLIPSE ZONE

Penumbral Eclipse Ends

9:33 a.m., EDT

Penumbral Eclipse Begins4:15 a.m., EDT

Midtotality6:55 a.m., EDT

Umbra

Penumbra

Partial Eclipse Ends8:34 a.m., EDT

Total Eclipse Ends7:24 a.m., EDT

Partial Eclipse Begins5:14 a.m., EDT

Total Eclipse Begins6:25 a.m., EDT

Total Lunar EclipseOCTOBER 8

All EclipseVisible

Eclipse atMoonset

No EclipseVisible

Eclipse atMoonrise

All EclipseVisible

Longitude

Latitud

e

180° W 120° W 60° W 0° 60° E 120° E 180° E

0°

30° N

60° N

30° S

60° S

12345

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 37

LUNAR ECLIPSE TIMETABLE (All times a.m.)

Penumbral Partial Total Eclipse Total Eclipse Partial PenumbralLocation Eclipse Begins Eclipse Begins Begins Midtotality Ends Eclipse Ends Eclipse EndsVancouver (PDT) 1:15 2:14 3:25 3:55 4:24 5:34 6:33Calgary (MDT) 2:15 3:14 4:25 4:55 5:24 6:34 7:33Regina (CST) 2:15 3:14 4:25 4:55 5:24 6:34 Moonset: 7:23Winnipeg (CDT) 3:15 4:14 5:25 5:55 6:24 7:34 Moonset: 7:50Toronto (EDT) 4:15 5:14 6:25 6:55 7:24 Moonset: 7:29 —Montreal (EDT) 4:15 5:14 6:25 6:55 Moonset: 7:06 — —Halifax (ADT) 5:15 6:14 Moonset: 7:24 — — — —

THE ECLIPSE FROM ALBERTA From western Canada, the eclipsed Moon sits 20 to 30 degreesabove the horizon in the southwestern sky at midtotality, which occurs long before the sky begins tobrighten with morning twilight. With the full Moon dimmed, the Milky Way will appear during totality,spanning the sky from northwest to southeast. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

Pleiades

Lunar Eclipse From the WestCALGARY, 4:55 A.M., MDT (MIDTOTALITY)

SWSOUTH

ORION CASSIOPEIA

Deneb

Eclipsed Moon

WEST

Eclipsed Moon and UranusOCTOBER 8, 5 A.M., MDT

Uranus

Umbra

22 arc minutes

brighter than the southern limb closer tothe dark umbral centre.

At 7:24 a.m., EDT (4:24 a.m., PDT), theMoon begins to emerge from the umbra as totality ends. Another 70 minutes of thepartial phase rounds off the nearly three-hour event. In Canada, however, only thosewest of the Great Lakes see the entireeclipse. From eastern Canada, the Moonsets while in some phase of eclipse.

Don’t despair! A Moon setting while ineclipse produces some of the best eclipseimages. Be sure to shoot from a scenic location, with a photogenic foreground tothe west, and send us your best shots.

From western Canada, observers canenjoy the sight of the eclipsed Moon fairlyhigh in the western sky in the wee hours. Ifyou can, view and photograph the eclipsefrom a dark site to enjoy the experience of seeing the Milky Way “turn on” as theMoon and the night sky darken, trans-forming a bright full-Moon night into a“dark-of-the-Moon” night.

For the best view of the subtle colourvariations across the disc of the Moon, usebinoculars or a low-power telescope. Andbe sure to look for green Uranus less thana Moon diameter below the redMoon. Uranus is now at oppo si -tion, so it, too, lies opposite theSun, placing it beyond our plan -et’s shadow. The Earth’s shadowreaches into space only far enoughto eclipse the Moon—not nearlyenough to eclipse distant Uranus.

Don’t worry about filters here.Lunar eclipses are perfectly safe to look at with any binoculars ortelescope you have at hand. Not sowith this month’s other eclipse, onOctober 23. F

RED MOON BY GREENPLANET The eclipsedMoon passes less than aMoon diameter aboveUranus, which will appear asa dim greenish “star” belowthe red Moon. Use a longtelephoto lens or a wide-fieldtelescope to capture animage of this rare conjunc-tion of red and green worlds. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE

BISQUE

MOON BITES SUN The October 23 solar eclipse is best seen from western Canada. These illustrations depict the amountof Sun covered by the Moon at mideclipse from select western cities and the orientation of the Moon’s bite of the solar discrelative to the horizon. Despite the large chunkof Sun missing, the day sky won’t get noticeably darker, except perhapsfrom Yel low knife, N.W.T., and certainly points north. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP. (ALL FOUR)

PARTIAL ECLIPSE SUNSET From most of Ontario and western Quebec,the Sun sets while the eclipseis in progress. The farther east you are, the less of theeclipse you see. From Toronto,the Sun sets with 44 percentof its disc covered by theMoon. From Montreal, theMoon takes only an 18 per-cent bite before the Sun sets. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/

SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

Vancouver2:57 p.m., PDT

Eclipse magnitude = 66%

Calgary4:06 p.m., MDT

Eclipse magnitude = 70%

Winnipeg5:24 p.m., CDT

Eclipse magnitude = 69%

Yellowknife3:48 p.m., MDT

Eclipse magnitude = 78%

Zenith Zenith Zenith Zenith

Toronto6:21 p.m., EDTEclipse magnitude = 44%

PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

TWO WEEKS AFTER THE LUNAR ECLIPSE, the Earth, Moon and Sun align again, thistime with the Moon in the middle. On the afternoon of Thursday, October 23, the Mooneclipses the Sun, covering up to 80 percent of the solar disc as seen from western Nunavut.

No one on Earth sees a total eclipse on October 23. The Moon’s umbral shadow passes well abovethe North Pole. At this eclipse, only the Moon’s penumbra sweeps across Earth, with Canada as primepen umbra territory. Even from southern Can ada, the Moon covers a respectable 60 to 70 percent of the Sun, with western Canada favoured. From east of Winnipeg, the Sun sets while still in eclipse.From points east of Thunder Bay, the Sun sets before maximum coverage occurs. Eastern Quebec, Atlantic Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador miss out entirely on this

eclipse. They can’t complain, however, as those were the only regions in Canada that saw the partialphases of the November 3, 2013, hybrid solar eclipse. For the rest of Canada, the last solar eclipse wesaw was the partial phases of the May 20, 2012, annular eclipse. Depending on where you are, this is a mid- to late-afternoon or early-evening eclipse, with the Sun setting into the southwest. Its lowaltitude will provide some great photo opportunities, though capturing the scene will require com-bining a filtered image of the Sun with an unfiltered image of the landscape. Even with 70 percent of the Sun covered (as it is from Calgary, for example), enough of the Sun

remains that the day will not become noticeably darker. You will have to travel to Yellowknife, North-west Territories, and points north to experience any darkening of the sky from the eclipse, and eventhen, it will be a subtle but eerie effect. What you will notice from any site is that natural pinholes

formed by leaves on trees (if your trees still have leaves) will projectnumerous images of the crescent Sun onto the ground or brightwalls. Or you can puncture a piece of cardboard with pinholes toproject your own display of solar crescents. It’s a safe way to viewthe eclipse and a fun activity for kids to do at eclipse parties.The next solar eclipses are remote events, such as the March 20,

2015, total eclipse in the North Atlantic and the March 9, 2016,total eclipse in the western Pacific. Our next opportunity to see a total solar eclipse from North

America is August 21, 2017.This is the long-awaited GreatAmerican Eclipse, the firsttotal eclipse of the Sun tocross part of the continentalUnited States since 1979. Thepath of totality tracks acrossthe entire United States, fromOregon to South Carolina.The eclipse of October 23 thisyear is your last chance at adress rehearsal from Canada.

Greatest Eclipse

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P4

0.60

0.40

0.20

20:3

0 U

T

21:0

0 UT

21:3

0 UT

22:0

0 UT

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LUNAR SHADOW ZONE The Moon’s penumbral shadowdarkens all of North America except eastern Quebec, the Mar-itimes and Newfoundland and Labrador. Those within thewestern half of the red oval (northwestern Ontario and easternManitoba) see the Sun set with the eclipse in progress. Those inthe eastern half (western Quebec and southern Ontario) seethe Sun set before the eclipse reaches its maximum coverage.

The farther north you are, the more of the Sun you see cov-ered by the Moon. Maximum coverage is 80 percent in ArcticCanada. However, anyone in Canada west of the Great Lakesstill sees a generous 65 to 70 percent of the Sun covered atmid eclipse. COURTESY FRED ESPENAK/NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

38 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

OCTOBER 23 SOLAR ECLIPSE TIMETABLE All times p.m.

Partial Partial Sun Altitude at MaximumLocation Eclipse Begins Mideclipse Eclipse Ends Maximum Eclipse Eclipse Vancouver (PDT) 1:32 2:57 4:16 24° 66%

Whitehorse (PDT) 1:08 2:28 3:47 17° 71%

Calgary (MDT) 2:43 4:06 5:22 18° 70%

Edmonton (MDT) 2:41 4:02 5:18 16° 72%

Yellowknife (MDT) 2:29 3:48 5:02 11° 78%

Regina (CST) 3:58 5:17 6:29 13° 70%

Winnipeg (CDT) 4:08 5:24 Sunset: 6:21 8° 69%

Thunder Bay (EDT) 5:20 6:31 Sunset: 6:52 3° 65%

Toronto (EDT) 5:39 6:20 Sunset: 6:21 0° 44%

Montreal (EDT) 5:38 5:53 Sunset: 5:55 0° 18%

Quebec City (EDT) 5:37 5:42 Sunset: 5:43 0° 7%

For more details and times, see The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Observer’s Handbook 2014.

Everyone knows it isn’tsafe to look directly at the Sun. That’s true anyday of the year. An eclipse isno different. It is no more dangerous to look at the Sunduring an eclipse than at any other time. The increasedrisk and public warnings come simply because it’s onlyduring an eclipse that most people have any desire to look at the Sun. If they do so without taking properprecautions, permanent eye damage can be the result.

The wrong way to look at an eclipse is with home -made filters, including those once thought to be safe. DO NOT use smoked glass, pieces of dark photographicfilm, such as exposed negatives or X-ray film, polarizingor other dense photo filters or any type of sunglasses. Allare unsafe. While they can dim visible light, home-brewfilters can let harmful levels of infrared or ultraviolet lightthrough, damaging your eyes without your realizing it.

No part of the October 23 eclipse is safe to look atwithout a filter. Safe filters are available from telescopedealers across Canada. Use only filters designed specifi-cally for solar viewing. All filters should go in front of anyoptics you use. NEVER, NEVER put on eclipse glasses thenbring unfiltered binoculars up to your eyes for a closelook. The binoculars will focus the sunlight, burning ahole through the filters and perhaps into your eyes.

Watch the Eclipse SAFELY

SHOOT THE ECLIPSE Holding a handheld filter up to the Sun in front of a camera is one affordable way to shoot a solar eclipse safely. Close-upviews require a long telephoto lens or a telescope equipped with a securelymounted solar filter in front of the optics.

FILTERS ON! Experienced eclipse chasers (like David Makepeace, left,and colleagues at the November 2012 total solar eclipse) use safe solarfilters, such as a #14 arc welder’s filter, Mylar eclipse glasses or metal-coated glass solar filters in front of any lenses and telescopes. For per-sonal viewing without a telescope or binoculars, we recommend solareclipse glasses made of aluminized Mylar or black polymer plastic, usu-ally available through science centres and planetariums and at publicevents hosted by astronomy clubs across the country. (Of course, if yousaved your free transit of Venus solar eyeglasses from the May/June 2002SkyNews, you are already equipped!) ALAN DYER (BOTH)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 39

40 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

by Gary Seronik

ON THE MOON

In and Around the Sea of Crisis

e most accessible mare for evening viewing is also one of the most interesting—and

that’s true whether you’re using a telescope, binoculars or even just your eyes

ISPEND A LOT OF TIME observingthe Moon. Some nights, however,there’s only the opportunity to glance

out the window before retiring, while atother times, I get to enjoy a long session at the telescope exploring a small region in great detail. Regardless, I always take aquick look at Mare Crisium.Crisium provides a great yardstick for

judging the current libration angle—theMoon’s subtle up-down, left-right noddingthat allows us to view nearly 60 percent ofthe lunar surface instead of merely half.When the Moon’s eastern limb is favour -ably tilted (remembering that east and weston the Moon are opposite sky directions),Crisium appears nearly circular. But whenthe western limb is favoured, the marecompresses into a north-south ellipse. Youcan see the difference quite readily withyour eyes alone.You can confirm another interesting as-

pect of 550-kilometre-wide Mare Crisiumwith your naked eye: It’s the only mare thatis completely isolated—its lava plains don’tjoin those of any other mare. Crisium ismore like a self-contained lake than anocean. Within and around that “lake,” youwill find a host of features that can be seenin a small telescope.Among those features, the first that

you’re likely to notice is a pair of small,simple craters sitting on the otherwisesmooth mare floor. Peirce, the smaller ofthe two, spans only 17 kilometres, com-pared with 24 kilometres for neighbouringPicard. Much more attention-grabbing is the 28-kilometre-wide rayed crater Pro-clus, which lies near Crisium’s westernshore. I discovered Proclus. At least, that’swhat I thought when I first encountered itas a 12-year-old taking in the lunar surfacewith my first telescope. I couldn’t believethat I had overlooked such a conspicuouscrater in my previous explorations. In my

CRISIS MANAGEMENT Mare Crisium and its surroundings provide a wealth

of detail for observers with small telescopes. PHOTO BY GARY SERONIK

Cleomedes

MAREUNDARUM

A

E

Proclus

Peirce

MARECRISIUM

Picard

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 41

excitement, I managed to convince myselfthat this startlingly bright feature must benew! It wasn’t. Although relatively fresh,Proclus likely formed a few hundred mil-lion years before I trained my little tele-scope on it.

Proclus is one of the Moon’s best exam-ples of an oblique impact. Notice how therays are missing along much of its westernside, the result of the Proclus impactercoming in at a steep angle and sprayingmost of the resulting ejecta downrange to-ward Crisium. But look closely at the crateritself, and you’ll see that it’s mostly circular.How can that be? Extensive ballistic testsperformed in the 1970s demonstrated thatcraters remain essentially round unless theprojectile strikes at an angle which is lessthan 15 degrees from horizontal—a muchmore oblique angle than that of the objectthat excavated Proclus.

For my money, the star attraction of the Crisium region is the 126-kilometre-wide crater Cleomedes, situated near themare’s northern rim. The crater floor ismostly flat, with just the tip of the centralmountain peak poking up above the lava surface. The interior of Cleomedes is scarred by four small craters, the larg -est of which is Cleomedes E, which is 22 kilometres wide and shares its north-eastern rim with Cleomedes A. Run yourtelescope’s magnification up to 150x or soto take in these details.

Finally, if your check of Crisium revealsa favourable libration of the eastern limb,take a look at Mare Undarum. Like MareAustrale to the south, Undarum is a bit of an oddball, consisting of a bunch ofmare patches rather than one contiguouspool like Crisium. In spite of its disparateappearance, Mare Undarum is probably related to Crisium, since it lies between the Crisium basin’s well-defined main rim (which encloses Mare Crisium itself)and its somewhat obscure second rim. Undarum likely formed at the same timethat lavas seeped to the surface to fill theCrisium impact basin. F

Longtime lunar observer Gary Seronik is the editor of this magazine’s website,SkyNews.ca

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42 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 43

SUMMER MILKY WAYOVER LAKE ONTARIO

THE BIG PICTURE

Our contributing photographer Lynn Hilborncaptured this image on June 22, 2014, fromthe north shore of Lake Ontario looking toward Rochester, New York. That’s Lynn himself in the foreground acknowledging the exceptionally clear sky that night. For this25-second exposure, he used a Canon 6DDSLR with a 28mm lens at f/2.8 and ISO 3200.

SINCE 2010, I’ve had the privilege of trying out Rock Mallin’s VSS+ and Xtremevideo CCD cameras, both of which impressed me with their ability to presentnear real-time views of night-sky wonders in detail—and full colour—on a com-puter monitor or TV screen. So when I heard about a new MallinCam model,

dubbed Universe, I jumped at the opportunity to test it.When the package arrived, I quickly realized that the Universe is a very different crea-

ture from the MallinCams I had come to know. For starters, it isn’t so much “the latestMallinCam” as it is a whole new addition to the toolbox of amateur astronomers—a significant step closer to a high-performance CCD camera than previous versions.What’s really new is the Constant Refresh System (CRS) that presents a full-frame

preview on the monitor every time the camera acquires another picture while aimed atthe same celestial object. So you can essentially display real-time images while simulta-neously acquiring multiple shots for stacking and manipulating once your observing ses-sion is over.While earlier MallinCams still amaze me with their quality imagery, I learned that

the Class 1 CCD sensors they use are only 380 kilopixels in size, while the Universe has a6.3-megapixel sensor—16 times bigger. The results are nothing short of staggering.Mallin’s earlier models were specifically designed as an “aid to visual observation.”

Because of the small size of the video CCD sensor, you could acquire bright, full-colourimages of deep-sky objects in well under a minute. But frame grabs often resulted in lesssatisfying representations than what was displayed on the monitor, as enlarging the imagesshows pixelation. However, the Universe’s Class 0 large scientific-grade sensor delivers an image that is 3032 x 2016 pixels—plenty big enough for gorgeous images. Even moreimportant, the time it takes to gather the images is substantially reduced. The bottom line:You can now take great images in very short order while still retaining the ability to displaylive, or near live, images as the camera does its job.

USING THE MALLINCAM UNIVERSEThe Universe arrives in a package containing the big camera (2.2 pounds) with its built-in cooling system, a 2-inch threaded adapter, a 1.25-inch converter, an AC adapter (100V AVto 12 V DC) power supply, 16 feet of USB cable and the Panel Manager software and driv-ers (delivered in a classy USB flash drive). MallinCam also offers an optional 0.5x focalreducer and a spacer for Universe, a good idea if you want to capture images of extendedobjects, like those on the facing page.Now to the setup. Universe runs from your computer laptop, which can also be

attached to a large-screen monitor for group viewing. Ideally, a GoTo telescope is the best equipment for Universe, enabling you to minimize the intervals between movingfrom object to object. Mounting the camera in your telescope’s eyepiece holder adds

44 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

UNIVERSE COMPONENTS The Universe camera (centre) and its acces-sories provide the complete package forarming your telescope for video astronomy.PHOTOS THIS PAGE BY GLENN NORMAN

THE MALLINCAMUNIVERSE

PRODUCT REVIEW

We test a versatile astronomical video camera by Glenn Norman

MALLINCAM IMAGING SETUP Thecamera replaces the telescope eyepiece.

AN ASTRONOMER’S DREAM With the MallinCam Universe camera andjust about any planetarium software driv-ing your GoTo telescope, it is possible to acquire images from beside the telescopeor more remotely from inside your home.Imagine that when February rolls around!

weight and requires counter balancing thetelescope tube. For a GoTo telescope totrack properly, the telescope must be bal-anced. Once the camera is installed on thetelescope, you don’t have to touch it again.Everything else is controlled by the com-puter’s software.I’ll state right here that I’ve never done

CCD imaging before other than to snatchsome frame grabs for my 2010 review of the MallinCam VSS+ in SkyNews (go to:www.skynews.ca/review-mallincam-video-camera). However, I quickly found the Uni-verse straightforward to use, and I couldn’tbelieve the quality of the images I managedto obtain on my first night out.A combination of several factors makes

this possible, and the detailed User’s Guideleads you through each step of installing thesoftware and hardware, then learning howto use the various settings in the Universe’ssoftware. (You can download a PDF copy ofthe guide at http://mallincam.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/mallincamuniverseuserguideversion107.pdf.) And if there’s anything you still don’t

understand, Mallin has a whole army ofvolunteers ready to help you on a numberof on-line forums. (I’m particularly indebtedto François van Heerden, who was alwaysready to answer any of my questions in sim-ple terms I could understand.)By following the User’s Guide, one cau-

tious step at a time, I soon had the Universerunning by simply clicking a “Start Cam-era” button on the Panel Manager. Im -mediately, things began happening. A lineunder “Exposure” showed that the Universewas rapidly acquiring an image, and a mo-ment later, the preview window on my lap-top displayed a blurry image of the Moon(I thought it wise to begin on a large, brightobject). I had the camera plugged in to my friend Gordon Skerratt’s older-modelMeade 10-inch LX200, which has a Moto-focus that makes focusing easy.A section on the Panel Manager marked

“Area Display” allows a small portion of the object being imaged to expand to fullscreen. Once you’ve done that, it’s a simpleprocess to get the image as sharp as youroptics—and the seeing—will allow. (It’s

also a great way to fine-tune the collimationof your Schmidt-Cassegrain or Newtoniantelescope.)Other main tabs on the Panel Manager

allow you to select specific settings for acquir -

ing a single image or multiple images andto choose where the images are to be storedon your computer. While it is possible formore experienced astro-imagers to makenumerous subtle changes to the image ac -

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 45

ORION NEBULA (M42) Using the MallinCam Universe, Daniel Borcard recorded this digitallystacked image of the Orion Nebula with a 140mm TEC apo refractor. Borcard and other users are setting new standards for the emerging field of video astronomical imaging.

OMEGA NEBULA (M17) From his home located well inside Toronto’s vast dome of light pollution,astro-imager Chris Appleton has been able to capture digitally stacked images of deep-sky gems suchas M17, in Sagittarius, using his 9.25-inch Celestron and the MallinCam Universe.

46 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

qui sition, I am happy to report that youdon’t need to. Mallin has provided simple,quick ways to ease new users into the worldof CCD imaging.

For example, I thought the histogram at the top of the Property tab would be a nightmare to grasp until I realized that you can simply click on “Auto,” and thecamera will take care of those settings foryou. And if you want to be more hands-on,you just left-click the left side of the his-togram graph, then right-click the edge ofthe right side to get your image exactlywhere you want it.

When you are ready to take an image,you click on the “Capture” button. After the exposure time you have selected haspassed, you click on the Picture tab, andthere’s your image. Nothing to it—even foran “old dog” like me.

However, a single image capture isn’t really the raison d’être for the MallinCamUniverse.

Its prime purpose is to capture multipleimages that you can stack and manip ulate(using programs such as DeepSkyStacker,RegiStax, AutoStakkert! and myriad others—all available to download for free).

Note: You can utilize the Universe’s ownStack function, but the camera then uses allthe images you’ve acquired, including anytracking glitches, passing clouds, aircraft,satellite trails, and so on.

Mallin has made the multicapture pro -cess as simple as possible by incorporatinga Sequence Capture Mode on the mainProperty tab. You just select how many images you’d like to acquire, then click theCapture button and watch as it countsdown your images. Once it’s finished, youclick on the Picture tab to see the results.

I was fighting clouds, bad seeing, a wax-ing gibbous Moon, swarms of mosquitoesand less-than-perfect tracking on my firstnight with the Universe. So when the cloudsfinally turned into a solid overcast, I sur-rendered and went inside to play with theimages I had managed to acquire.

SPECTACULAR LUNAR VISTAS The Moon and videoimaging are made for each other. There is no denyingthe power of video CCD astronomy, whether used on amon i tor for group viewing or for assembling portraitslike these. Both Universe images are digital composites. PHOTOS BY GLENN NORMAN (TOP); DANIEL BORCARD (BOTTOM)

I seem to have had the most successwith a series of twenty 10-millisecond im-ages of the southern half of the Moon, so I fired up RegiStax and asked the programto stack my images and meld them intoone, and I could not believe the final imageit delivered. Tycho seemed to jump out of the photo, almost as if it were in 3-D. Thecraters along the Moon’s lower limb allshowed gorgeous, sharp detail—and thiswas just my first attempt.

When the Moon gets out of the way, I

will be dipping into deep-sky imaging. Butsince Chris Appleton and Daniel Borcardhave already mastered this with the Uni-verse, I’ll let their images do the talking.

As to the reactions of others who have

seen my Universe images, there has been much jaw-dropping. People can’t believehow good the images are and how littletime it took me to acquire them. I have afeeling that I’ll be spending many latenights out in the dark with my “new bestfriend,” the MallinCam Universe. F

Glenn Norman has been an amateur astron -omer since the early 1960s and still can’t waitto get out under the stars on a clear night. Helives near Mount Forest, Ontario.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 47

VIDEO ASTROPHOTOGRAPHYImages like these suggest that video CCDimaging might be the next Big Thing inastrophotography. Left: a beautiful deepimage of the Hercules globular cluster(M13). Right: a digital stack of images ofthe faint Bubble Nebula. PHOTOS BY DANIEL

BORCARD (LEFT); CHRIS APPLETON (RIGHT)

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CONSTELLATION CORNER

RIGHT FROM BIRTH, Pegasuswas no ordinary nag. He some-how materialized from a drop of

blood shed by the hideous snake-hairedMedusa, whom heroic Perseus had decap-itated. It seems strange, indeed, that pearl-white Pegasus should inherit his angelicwings from the most horrific creature inclassical mythology. The flying horse appears on coins dat-

ing to 550 B.C. A variation on the namePegasus can be traced even further, to theseafaring Phoenicians, who referred to the“bridled horse,” a figurehead attached tothe bow of a ship. This is consistent withthe fact that only the front end of Pegasusis depicted in the sky. To the early Egyptians, Pegasus symbol-

ized an entire sailing vessel. Perhaps the asterism we call the Great Square—a box -like star pattern, roughly 15 degrees square,its corners marked by four medium-brightstars—was once the celestial hull of a largeriverboat plying the Nile. More modern storytellers have linked

horse to hero a second time by inserting

Pegasus into one of thebest-known yarns of Greekmythology: the rescue ofPrincess Andromeda, thedaughter of King Cepheusand Queen Cassiopeia,from the clutches of Cetusthe sea monster by bravePerseus on horseback. (Allsix characters are constel-lations.) We see such de-pictions in art dating backto the Renaissance.But according to a

more ancient legend, thewinged horse belonged to a different Greek in an unrelated story. The warriorBellerophon engaged Pegasus to help himslay the fire-breathing Chimera, a bizarrecombination of lion, dragon and goat. Theemboldened warrior then infuriated thegods when he dared steer his mount upward toward Olympus. Jupiter caused Pegasus to bolt, tossing Bellerophon to anundignified end. Thus it was Pegasus, notBellerophon, that was awarded immortal-ity by being placed among the stars. There,he became the Thundering Horse of Jovethat bore the divine lightning. Today, the stately steed soars across

our autumn night sky, albeit upside down.His body is formed by the Great Square of Pegasus. His neck sprouts from theSquare’s southwest corner, which is markedby 2.5-magnitude Markab (“shoulder”),and stretches westward toward 2.4-magni-tude Enif (“nose”). His two front legs ex-tend from the northwest corner, which ismarked by 2.4-magnitude Scheat (“shin”).Only half a horse, yes, but revered and unmistakable. F

Never mind that Pegasus has no hindquarters, is riderless and wings his way upside down through our autumn skies—here is a celestial creature of considerable majesty by Ken Hewitt-White

PEGASUS

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Moffat is the lead Canadian scientist onthe BRITE mission, a collaboration that involves the novel use of nanosatellites tostudy the brightest stars in our sky. The goalis to do what would once have been consid-ered impossible, explore the interiors ofthese energetic bodies to better understandtheir complex physics. The subject is morethan academic. The most luminous starsare also the most likely to go supernova and distribute the necessary elements forplanet formation and life back into thegalactic ecosystem. They may be few innumber, but they are crucial regulators ofour cosmic environment.

The way to study how bright stars be-have on the inside is to watch them vibrateon the outside. Stars are giant balls of roil-ing plasma that boom with sound wavesfrom end to end. The character of suchwaves is affected by an individual star’s particular internal structure and dynamics.Since the sound waves cause disturbancesat the surface of the star, they convey in -formation about the inner layers throughwhich they pass. Viewed from a great dis-tance, this information looks like tiny vari-ations in a star’s brightness, on the order ofone thousandth of a magnitude.

Subtle changes of this type cannot bemeasured from the ground. Our constantlychanging atmosphere readily masks the minuscule oscillations embedded in the incoming light of distant stars. Observingfrom space is the only alternative, but untilrecently, it has been an impractical one.

Space telescopes are generally too busyto commit the weeks of time needed totease out the vibrations of a single brightstar. BRITE neatly cracks this problem by using a fleet of tiny space telescopes todo the observing rather than one big one.The satellites are small—about the size of atoaster—and they can be launched into low

by Ivan Semeniuk

OTHER WORLDS

50 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

Good Vibrations e recent loss of a Canadian nanosatellite has not diminished the power of a bright idea

TAKE A MENTAL TRIP ALONG THE MILKY WAY, and you will find your-self, in quick succession, running into the lion’s share of the brightest and mosteasily recognized constellations in the night sky. There’s Orion, Centaurus, the

hook of Scorpius, the Summer Triangle, the “W” of Cassiopeia and then over to Orionagain, round and round.

This is no coincidence. Bright stars are more numerous along the plane of our galaxy,and the most luminous among them, although rare as a group, dominate the view withinour local volume of space out to a few thousand light-years.

“As it turns out, the apparently brightest stars in the sky are also intrinsically bright,”says Anthony Moffat, an emer-itus professor of astronomy atUniversité de Montréal.

TARGETING SCORPIUS GIANTS The fishhookshape of Scorpius is one of the most distinctive con-figurations in the night sky, largely owing to a richsupply of intrinsically bright stars that will soon bestudied by Canadian nanosatellites. PHOTO: T. DICKINSON

Earth orbit for a modest price. In this orbit,Earth is always blocking half the sky at anygiven moment, but with enough satellitesflying around, there’s generally at least onein the right place to gather data from a target star. The satellites are identical exceptthat some are equipped with red filters and some have blue. When the data arecompared, this adds an additional layer ofcolour information.

The concept is a marriage of creativityand opportunity. It was cooked up morethan a decade ago when Robert Zee, direc-tor of the University of Toronto’s SpaceFlight Laboratory decided that nanosatel-lites were the way of the future and some-thing Canada could do well. What heneeded was an application. University ofToronto astronomer Slavek Rucinski, nowretired, provided the answer: With an arrayof nanosatellites, it would be possible tomonitor the vibrations of the brightest starsdown to fourth magnitude and build up adetailed picture of their properties.

Previously, a task like this would havebeen out of the question for such a tinyspacecraft. A small satellite has less inertiathan a big one, which makes it far more dif-ficult to point accurately and hold steady,yet this is essential for astronomical obser-vations. The technology that makes BRITEscientifically feasible lies in the specially designed reactions wheel on board eachunit. A Canadian invention, this wheel cankeep each nanosatellite pointed in the rightdirection to within 30 arc seconds. That’snot so impressive by Hubble Space Tele-scope standards, but when looking at thebrightest stars in the sky, it does the job.

A three-nation collaboration, BRITEnow boasts four satellites, all created usingthe same Canadian design. Austria has twoin orbit, and Poland has one, with a secondon the way. Canada was to have had two inorbit, but during launch in June, one of thepair was lost. Early analysis suggests that itwas not released from its Russian booster.The other is doing well.

Fortunately, the collaboration is basedon all partners sharing data equally, so theloss to Canada is not as devastating as itmight have been. And now other countriesare expressing interest in joining the col -laboration, which would add units and in-crease coverage.

The satellites have already taken a lookat Orion’s luminaries and are wrapping upin Centaurus. Next stop is Cygnus, withScorpius to follow in the New Year. As Mof-fat notes, this is the first time that astron-omy has been conducted using such smallsatellites.

It’s also a great idea that warrants morepublic-outreach support from the Cana-dian Space Agency, which funded it. Ca -nadian space science missions are few and far between. One as innovative as thisshould be allowed to shine like a star. F

Ivan Semeniuk is a science reporter for TheGlobe and Mail newspaper and website. Hiscolumns appear regularly in SkyNews.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 • SKYNEWS 51

SKYNEWS CLASSIFIEDBUY & SELL TELESCOPE EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES on Canada’s premier astro-classified website.New ads daily. Place your free ad at: www.astrobuysell.com

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56MMASTRONOMICALBINOCULARSSkyNews editor Terence Dickinson has always wanted to offer readers first-class 8x56 astronomical binoculars.Now he has found them: Celestron’s SkyMaster 8x56 binoc-ulars, the best combination of quality optics and reasonable price availablein this size. “In many ways,” he says, “the 8x56 is the ideal binocular for thebackyard astronomer.” Collecting 25 percent more light than standard50mm binoculars and 96 percent more than 40mm binoculars, the 56mm isthe largest binocular that is still comfortable to hand-hold. More over, theCelestron SkyMaster 8x56 is the lightest 56mm binocular we’ve tested.

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Overturning Convention I’m no expert on telescopes, but I know what I like: large, good-quality optics

that don’t break the bank. And John Dobson delivered.

54 SKYNEWS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014

WHEN I TOOK OUT astu dent membership inthe Ottawa Centre RASC

way back in 1967, my goal was to meet otherobservers and to talk telescopes. I was out-growing my backyard telescope, a 4.5-inchTasco reflector on a wonky German equa-torial mount, but what else could a youngteen afford?After one of the monthly meetings, a

senior student member generously offeredme his late father’s homebuilt 8-inch f/8Newtonian reflector. Wow! The next day,however, I beheld not a functioning tele-scope but a pile of parts that included an un-usually thick mirror in a heavy cell, a verylong tube, a hefty German equatorial mountmade of car parts and a cinder-block pier!The assembled beast—I named her BigBertha—was awarded a permanent spot atour club’s rural observing site. There, Berthaseduced me every clear night with the won-ders of deep space.In 1970, I decided to build Bertha a

better mount. Oh, dear. Without consultingmy tech-savvy RASC friends, I dreamt up aGerman equatorial that was bulkier than theone I already had. Carpenter Ken assembledan ungainly combination of large plywood“axles” that turned on coarsely threadedpipe flanges so that the scope could wobblearound in right ascension and declination.The unwieldy works sat atop a plywoodpyramid that was more Matterhorn thanmount. But unlike the famous Swiss peak,my mountainous monstrosity was peril -ously top-heavy and not as solid as a rock.Constructing anything other than a

German equatorial mount never enteredmy mind. A century of entrenched thinkinghad made it the telescope maker’s mount ofchoice. (Think of those classic observatoryrefractors from the 1800s that turned onimmense German equatorials on towering

piers.) Moreover, I had no clue that a radicalnew approach to amateur telescope makingwas being advanced by a middle-aged star -gazer in San Francisco named John Dobson,an impoverished former monk. Dobson’ssingle-minded mission was to show peoplethe heavens, but the only way he could realize his quest was to build his own in -expensive, bare-bones reflectors. To thatend, the eccentric innovator came up withsome unconventional ideas. Content to trackcelestial objects manually in two motions,Dobson worked up a boxy plywood mountwhose “rocker” base swivelled in azimuth,while the tube, which extended from a boxresting on the rocker, swung in altitude.Teflon pads acted as bearings, producingsilky smooth motions.Dobson wanted to make lots of scopes,

and that meant lots of mirrors. He didn’tmuch like the received wisdom about op-tics—in particular, the dogmatic assump-tion, enshrined in amateur telescope-mak-ing circles since at least as far back as the1920s, that only thick mirrors could prevent

optical distortion. Dobson couldn’t afford to buy thick glass. He scrounged around the San Francisco dockyards for thin Navyporthole glass, then ground and polishedthe pieces into long-focus telescope mirrors.Defying the experts, he showed that whenrestricted to alt-az motion, a thin mirrorsupported by a strap around its edge stayedcollimated and unstrained. The thrifty think -ing paid off in other ways too, since the thinglass weighed less and cooled faster at night-fall. The bigger the scope, the more impor-tant these considerations became.Dobson’s simple but ingenious innova-

tions spread quickly throughout the ama-teur astronomy community. Folks startedbuilding large, cannonlike “Dobsonians” atamazingly low cost. By 1970, Dobson him-self had fashioned a trailer-mounted 24-incher boasting a 14-foot-long solid tube.His basic design has evolved a lot since then.Today’s short-focus, truss-tube Dobs breakdown easily for travel. Some feature motor-ized computer control, allowing them tofind and track objects automatically. Evenphotography is Dob-doable: An astro-im-ager I know put his huge Dobsonian on anangled Poncet base that provides two hoursof equatorial motion without compromisingthe delicate mirror-in-a-sling component.In 1973, I split up with my first love—Big

Bertha—and moved to Vancouver, where Ifinally heard the rumours about someone inCalifornia sparking a revolution in telescopemaking. Later, I met the celebrated “starmonk” and witnessed his big light-bucketsin action. Those scopes proved that thickglass and pricey equatorial mounts aren’tcrucial to appreciating the deep sky. Whoknew? John Dobson knew. F

Contributing editor Ken Hewitt-White hasobserved with his 10-inch and 17.5-inch Dobssince the mid-1980s.

by Ken Hewitt-White

NORTHERNNIGHTS

The author in 1970with Big Bertha onher ungainly mount.PHOTO BY LES MACDONALD