www.caa-cya .org

CAMBRIDGE ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION

Newsletter 202 Jan - Feb 2020Registered Charity 800782

Cover picture of the Transit of Mercury event …………. 1Chairman’s comments and questionnaire for CAA - CYA …. 217th Jan 2020 Carlos Frenk “Everything from Nothings” … 321st Feb 2020 John Wills “Multi-messenger Astronomy”.. 3Orion as we cannot see it captured and story by Darren Hall 4Story of measuring Winter Solstice by John Whitehead….. 5Exploring the Soul Nebula story and pictures David Davies 6

CAPELLACAPELLA

CAA & CYA Who’s who contact info. P10

This Issue’s Contents

Transit of Mercury on 11th November by Mick Jenkins ….. 8CAA Diary - List of current events for now to end 2020 … 9Display Table, Editors notes & Loan Telescopes …..….…. 9CYA 7-11 group Sat 25th Jan 2020 “Seas of the World” … 10CYA 7-11 group Sat 29th Feb 2020 Mapping the Heavens 1011+ Group Mon 13th Jan 2020 “Life of the Sun” ……….. 1011+ Group Mon 3rd Feb 2020 “The Big Bang” ………… 10All parents, guardians and Visitors Werlcome……….

The CAA & CYA At the Transit of Mercury event

11th November 2019

Picture by Mick Pallett

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Chairman’s Comments

Firstly, a Happy New Year to all our members! I’m looking forward to a great year with all the events that theAssociation has planned for 2020. The lecture programme for our speaker meetings is taking shape, and the CYA isgoing along very well. I’m sorry that I missed out on “Murder at the Observatory”, our pre-Xmas pantomime. It wasthe result of being away on a cruise ship lecturing on astronomy. Still, I’m back in the UK for the rest of the observingseason and hope we can have some great views of the sky over the next ten Wednesday evening viewing sessions. Italso time for us to plan for the “University Open Afternoon” and the “Introduction to Astronomy” course. So there isplenty to keep us busy.

By the way, who's been watching Betelgeuse fading away? Is it going to go pop soon or is it just teasing us?Happy New Year

Paul

Cambridge Astronomical Association& Cambridge Young Astronomers

Could everyone reading Capella consider any issues that you feel are not addressed directly in our Newsletter or that aremissing? Please contact me with your comments and views. Everything sent will be considered carefully and if suitable,included, depending on the time needed to add the feature and of course, keep it up to date. Use the form here and leave itat the registration desk as you come in to the speaker meeting this month.

We spend a lot of time creating Capella by-monthly. Some articles, not all, sent to me, need a fair bit of tidying up forpublication. When you add the time that the author spent creating the story and photos it is a shame that they, as well as I asyour editor, don’t get many comments or feedback on specific stories that have been created. I remember an article by theauthor of a children’s book on Mars who was very keen to get views from the readership. Alas nobody commented at all. Weall need encouragement now and again, so why not get involved making Capella more readable, especially to our CYA readers.

● How about any new subjects you would like to see in the Newsletter?

● I tried introducing astronomical websites that could be invaluable to mention to other readers but dropped it as nobodyadded any to the list I created, or showed much interest in it.

● We all use software and interesting or useful equipment. Should we run a regularly updated list of the bestrecommended by members? We could, for instance, accept reviews of Members Equipment and Software.

● Could we consider adding any interesting features you have seen in other astronomical newsletters or journals?

● I added a page called Members Photos Paste Board. It would need regular pictures of astronomical relevance. Let meknow if you would like to see that feature reintroduced.

● Similarly, astronomical equipment that you would like to pass on to other members could also be listed in a useful “For Sale” page.

● Lastly, how about writing an interesting story of some of your astronomical experiences?

To directly contact me, please email jazzyrjw@gmail.com It is a strange email address but it makessense as I regularly play in several Jazz Groups.

Feedback form from readers of the Capella NewsletterEditor Richard White

Very happy with content More content for CYA. Yes

Reintroduce Members Photo BoardDon’t always have time to read it

For Sale or wanted items could be good

I have equipment to sell

Name Tel or Email address please

Any brief comments would be

These speaker meetings will be in the Hoyle building of the Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road,Cambridge. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. and the talks will begin at 8:00 p.m. For security reasons, entry will notbe possible after 8:10 p.m. As usual, the library will be open before and after the lecture and refreshments will beavailable after the lecture. These meeting are free to members. Non-members are charged £1.

Speaker Meetings“Everything from nothing - how our universe was made”

Friday 17th January 2020Start time : 20:00

Speaker : Carlos Frenk

“Multi-messenger Astronomy”Friday 21st February 2020

Start time : 20:00

Speaker : John Wills

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Traditional astronomical observations have long used the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum and means been havedeveloped to detect signals at many other parts of the spectrum from radio wavelengths all the way to X rays and gamma rays.

In addition, information can now be gathered from the detection of particles, at all energies,ranging from that of neutrinos to cosmic rays. Finally the successful development of threesensitive gravitational wave detectors provides yet another source of information.

The integration in the monitoring of more than one of these kinds of detector provides theopportunity for a better understanding of nature than that provided by observation of theseparate phenomena on their own.

John worked as an electrical engineer and manager and, as he saw retirement approaching, hetook an honours degree in Natural Sciences, focusing on astrophysics. His final dissertationwas a literature survey on Gamma Ray Bursts, for which no text book was then available. Thisrequired him to find, and work directly from, the relevant professional scientific papers to get a grasp of the entire field. Johncompleted his degree in 2006 and many of the trends that he identified then have continued and lead directly to the presentdevelopments in multi-messenger astronomy.

Cosmology addresses some of the most fundamental questions in science.

How and when did our universe begin? What is it made of? How did galaxies and otherstructures form? There has been enormous progress in the past few decades towardsanswering these questions.

For example, recent observations have established that our universe contains an unexpectedmix of components: ordinary atoms, exotic dark matter and a new form of energy called darkenergy. Gigantic surveys of galaxies reveal how the Universe is structured. Largesupercomputer simulations can recreate the evolution of the Universe in astonishing detail andprovide the means to relate processes occurring near the beginning with observations of theuniverse today. A coherent picture of cosmic evolution, going back to a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang, is beginningto emerge. However, fundamental issues, like the identity of the dark matter and the nature of the dark energy, remain unresolved.

Carlos Frenk is helping to answer some of the most basic — yet profound — questions about our Universe and its origins. Theserelate to what it is made of, how matter and energy were organised in the early stages of the Big Bang, and how structure subsequentlyevolved into the pattern of galaxies that we see today. Using incredibly powerful supercomputers, he builds and runs simulationsof the cosmos. The results can then be compared with observations of the real Universe to test theories about its formation, structureand evolution. His techniques are now commonly used within the field of cosmology to explain how the stars and galaxies arose.

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Orion as we cannot see it with our naked eye.Image and story Darren Hall

Member’s Contribution

DSLR Photography

Life is a learning curve; every day brings a different challenge. Astrophotography has its own challenges and peopleovercome them every day using advancing technologies. Over the past few years, the capability of astrophotographycameras has progressed in leaps and bounds. Personally, I prefer using a DSLR camera with two main reasons. Firstly,for the price, a good DSLR that is capable of astrophotography can be picked up cheaply. Second, I can use the samecamera for both deep-sky and widefield photography as well as standard daytime photography.

Living near Cambridge means there is light pollution to deal with. I live in a village, which helps, but I still view froma Bortle 4 sky. To overcome this, I have started to use the UHC clip filter (Ultra High Contrast) that fits into mycamera. For capturing RGB images, the difference is unbelievable.

Here is the most recent image that I have managed to get in the remaining days of 2019. This is M42 the Great OrionNebula and Sh2-279 The Running Man Nebula in the same image.

This is 12 X 5-minutes exposers at ISO 800, with 10 darks and 10 flats all stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and thenprocessed in Photoshop.

Equipment: Canon EOS1300D; telescope Skywatcher 200p Newtonian; mount Skywatcher EQ6 guided with PHD.

Darren Hall

5 Member’s Contributions

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1: 2:32:111: 11:3 12: 12: 12: 12: 1:1 1:3Summer1211 1 pm 2 pmDiagram 3

Diagram 2

Graph ofSummer Solstice

Tilt Angle of the EarthIn relation to the Sun

Time

The best reading at 13:10 28�� June 90° -

Winter SolsticeJohn Whitehead

Winter Solstice Graph

To the left, diagram 1 is a graph plotted fromthe angle of the Sun’s rays at different timesin the Winter Solstice on December 21st from10am through to 1pm.

Below, Diagram 2 is the graph at the heightof the Summer Solstice published in ourCapella Edition 200 on page 6.

It is very clear that the angles of the Sun’srays are completely different in the Winter.

At the bottom of the page on Diagram 3 wherewe calculate the angle of the Sun in the Winter.°

At the bottom, we calculate the actualangle of the Sun in the Winter by takingthe Summer angle 61.4° - Winter solsticeangle at 14.5° making a difference of 46.9°and then dividing it by two = 23.45° whichis very close to NASA’s own figure of23.43°

The method of taking the Sun’s angle thistime was very similar to the Summerexperiment but slightly enhanced to makeit less cumbersome to keep steady.

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Diagram 1© John Whitehead 22ⁿ� June 2019Calculation of the Sun’s Rays to also compute Earth’s tilt axial data.Digitised by Richard White for Capella

Best Reading 14.5° at 11:46 AMi.e. 90° - 14.5° = 75.50°.Therefore 75.50° - our latitude 52.08° = 23.42°

Diagram 3

Tilt

90.00° - 52.08°= 37.92°

Zenith at52.08°

Latitude

Equator

75.5°

14.5°

SummerSolsticeSun Rays

Winter Solstice 21�� Dec 2019Sun’s rays assumed parallel

61.4°

37.92°37.92°

Zenith at52.08°

Latitude

Axis of Earth’srotation

Tilt Angleof theEarthInrelationto theSun

6 Member’s ContributionsDavid Davies

Exploring the Soul Nebula

The Soul Nebula, also known as Westerhout 5, is an emission nebula located in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It is oneof the famous pair of nebulae known as the Heart and Soul with the neighbouring Heart Nebula (IC 1805) just to thewest. The Soul Nebula is sometimes also known as the Embryo Nebula or IC 1848, which is a designation for one ofthe open star clusters embedded within the nebula.

The Heart and Soul Nebulae complex spans an area about 300 light-years across and is a vast star-forming regionilluminated by the light of the young stars surrounded by star-forming clouds of dust and gas. These nebulae are in thePerseus arm of the Milky Way galaxy and are 7500 light-years from us. So although they each have an integratedmagnitude of 6.5, their large size means that they are very faint to observe.

I first encountered these nebulae in 2012 and attempted to image them from my light-polluted garden in Stevenage using anuncooled DSLR camera. No chance. An hour of 5-minute exposures yielded just a trace of the brightest parts of the HeartNebula and of the Soul Nebula, there was no sign at all. I gave up and then realised then that there were targets that my limitedequipment could not image. Move forward to November 2019, and I decided to have another go at the Soul Nebula. The lousyweather limited the evenings I could spend imaging, but by mid-December, I had captured sufficient RGB data to yield the followingimage.

It is a pleasing image, but I can see that there are interesting structures to explore, especially above the centre. I, therefore, set about gatheringsome narrowband data of ionised Hydrogen (H-alpha), Oxygen (OIII) and Sulphur (SII), to explore the nebula further. Note: narrow-bandimaging takes a lot of time. Instead of 5-minute exposures, I now needed 20 minutes each. The H-alpha data looked fine but OIII data wasextremely faint, just 0.2% of full-scale exposure after three hours work. After some effort, I achieved the image on the next page.

Clearly, the narrow-band images show much more detail due to the much higher contrast given by the colours assigned to thedifferent gasses. Of particular interest is the image of the “pillars of creation.” These pillars are being carved out by the stellarwinds from the newly formed stars embedded within it. The star-forming process leaves behind these large pillars of materialpointing inwards. These pillars are very dense and have stars forming at their tips, each spanning about 10 light-years.

These images were gathered using an APM 107 refractor and a QSI 583 camera equipped with Red, green, blue, and 3nmH-alpha, OIII and SII filters. There are three hours each of RGB data and three hours each of the narrow-band data.

David Davies

We can now see the much more detailthe upper centre structures and the“pillars of creation” structures to thelower right where new stars, just onemillion years old, are being formed.

Below are two close-up images forcomparison. The first compares thecentre region. The second pair comparethe Pillars of creation.

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Transit of Mercury

On 11th November 2019, the CAA, in collaboration with both the Institute of Astronomy and the Cambridge UniversityAstronomical Society, held an afternoon of observing to observe the planet Mercury transiting across the face of the Sun.This is an uncommon happening, and the next chance to see a transit of Mercury will be in 2032. I started planning torecord the transit the month before, hoping that the sky at my home location would be clear. I was planning to take imagesin white light and Hydrogen-alpha a using three telescopes from the first point of contact at 12:30 to about 15:00.The day arrived and surprise, surprise it was cloudy. This was very disappointing. Then at 12:00, I checked the sky andthere were a few gaps appearing in the clouds. So I rushed out and had the telescope, mount, computer and camera setup inrecord time and at 12:35 I had my first images.

I managed to take a series of images through gaps in the cloud until the last shot at 14:02. Due to the poor weather, I wasn’table to take images in Hydrogen-alpha. So, I collected only white light images using a Herschel Wedge and a continuumfilter.

The equipment used was: mount SkyWatcher AZ-EQ 5GT; telescope SkyWatcher ED Pro 80mm refractor and the camerawas an ASI174 mono.

I took a total of 17 AVI video files and used processing software, including Photoshop, to turn them into photographs. Thisprocess sharpens the images and is particularly effective when taking close-ups of the surface of the Sun.

The next transit is due on November 13th, 2032, followed by another on November 7th, 2039.

By Mick Jenkins

During the day, there were twolectures in the Sackler LectureTheatre, Hoyle building.

Capella Editor’s notes.

A special thank you to all the new contributors for all theinteresting articles and pictures you sent for this edition.

But don’t stop there. Anything interesting astronomy relatedcan be submitted as long as it is entirely your own work.

Please remember to credit the owner of any picture or articleif you have incorporated it into your story. It can even be aninteresting book or video that you want to recommend toothers or as I have done in this edition, a review of a lecture..

I would ask that any information you wish to include inCapella must be in a standard text or word formatdocument. Any embedded pictures you have used in yourstory should be also sent as separate JPG's. You can contactme by email on any content or publication issue atjazzyrjw@gmail.com or phone 07943 945222

Loan Telescopes.Our four existing loan telescopes are easy to use and easyto transport, and usually with no long waiting periods sowhy not give it a try.

We have new loan telescopes we have now added to theexisting loan stock. There will always be one that isavailable to try.Visit our website (www.caa-cya.org) and click to book anInstrument.Alternatively please ring Mickey Pallett on 01480 493045

Display table

At our speaker meetings, we will put out one or twotables for members to display their photographs, bringalong laptops to present their work or even show objectsof interest. Please contact Paul or Brian to make sureit is not already booked in advance.

CAA/CYA NewsMore Diary Dates See the CAA-CYA website for more details.

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Monday 13th January CYA 11+ Group The life of the Sun CAA

Friday 17th January Speaker Meeting Everything from Nothing Carlos Frank

Monday 3rd February CYA 11+ Group The Big Bang CAA

Friday 21st February Speaker Meeting Multi Messenger Astronomy John Wills

Monday 23rd March Speaker Meeting From Mars to Multiverse Lord Martin Rees

The Michael Penston Lecture

Friday 17th April Speaker meeting New insights from Venus Phillippa Mason

Friday 15th May Speaker Meeting Hubble Distant Galaxies & JWST Steven Wilkins

Friday 19th June Speaker Meeting Solar Storms - effect on the ground Mark Clilverd

Friday 17th July Speaker Meeting Are we dust - or nuclear waste? Robin Catchpole

Wednesday 4th November CYA 11+ Group Variable Stars

Monday 2nd December CYA 11+ Group The Apollo Missions CAA

Anybody with other astronomical event information suitable to notify the membership,

please contact Richard White Editor of Capella jazzyrjw@gmail.com with details for inclusion in this listif acceptable to the committee.

Meetings for the 11+ Group will be held in the Hoyle Building at the Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road from7.15pm to 8.45pm. Free to CAA and CYA members; for non-members there is a £1.00 fee.

“The Life of the Sun”Monday 13th January 2020

Start time : 19:15Speaker : CAA

11 + Group Meetings

Website: www.caa-cya.org

Chairman : Paul FellowsVice Chairman : Brian ListerTreasurer & Membership Secretary : Mickey PallettSecretary : John HodsonEvents Secretary : Jonathan Clough

Capella Editor and DTP Setter : Richard White jazzyrjw@gmail.comMembers should send stories for inclusion where possible by email to Richard orsend them to Brian Lister Tel: 01223 420954 (evenings) or email btlister@btinternet.comPlease make sure that article text contributions are sent as standard Wordfiles and images as .jpg’s wherever possible.

President : Professor Max PettiniVice President : Carolin CrawfordCommittee : Dave Allen, Kevin Black, Paul Drake, Barry Warman, RichardWhite, Brenda Field, Jonathan CloughCambridge Young Astronomers : (both groups): Brian Lister Tel: (evenings)01223 420954 or em ail btlister@btinternet.comTelescopes for hire to members : Mickey Pallett Tel: 01480 493045 or bookon line.Loan Telescope maintenance : Dave Allen, email day.vid@hotmail.co.ukLibrary : Kevin Black Tel: 01223 473121Webmaster : Paul Fellows: email paul.fellows@gmail.com

There are nearly 20 bodies in the Solar System that have seas, and surprisingly, of these worlds the Earth does not even have themost water. Some oceans are made up of liquids other than water or have disappeared during the Solar System's long history.

CYA Meeting7-11 Year Group

“Seas of the Worlds”Saturday 25th January 2020

Start time : 10:00

“Mapping the Heavens”Saturday 29th February 2020

Start time : 10:00

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We welcome all CAA visitors come and join in the Monday and Saturday seminars to the CYA. The subjects are as interesting asthey are diverse. You would be amazed at what you might learn.

With the Sun being closer (on the 5th January) to the Earth than at any point during this century, it'stime to look at our local star. We follow the history of our Sun from its birth in a molecular cloud,its 10 billion years as a G type star fusing hydrogen into helium to its chaotic death as it eventuallyfades and becomes a white dwarf. Fortunately, our Sun is less than half way through its nuclear fuelbefore it becomes a red giant and swallows up Mercury, Venus and maybe the Earth too.

Fred Hoyle first used the term ‘Big Bang’ in a 1949 BBC radio broadcast, when he was comparing hispet steady state theory with a rival expanding universe theory. Eventually Fred’s theory started to fallapart and the expanding universe won the day. We will seeing what has happened to the Universe sincethis cataclysmic Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.

The Big Bang!Monday 3rd February 2020

Start time : 19:15

From the earliest star maps showing only naked-eye stars to the latest satellite catalogue that shows billionsof stars in the Milky Way. Star maps have been useful for research and for tracking down new objects, butcan make a difference between making a discovery and not.