ASTRO NERDS Astronomy Ezine - July 2014

EXTANT LIFE ON MARS?THE MARS SOCIETY

ICY SCIENCE PUBLICATION: WWW.ICYSCIENCE.COM: WINTER 2013/14

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Contact:E: [email protected]: @DavesAstronomy

p.6

6.Exploring the Suns dynamic activity

22. July Night Sky

32. Distro Astro 2.0

Plus iMAGES FORM THE FACEBOOK GROUP

http://www.onlineastronomycourses.co.uk/

FRONT COVER IMAGE MARY SPICER

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Image: Dave White

A prime focus image taken with a Canon 450D and Meade LX200 7 scope. It was a mosaic of five images stacked using Microsoft ICE

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Exploring the Suns dynamic activity - by Andy Devey

[The solar explorer]

Many of us just lay there relaxing in the sunshine

or take a walk in the nice weather and even enjoy a

round of golf? To live in Spain offers far more oppor-

tunities to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle and the sun-

shine but there is far more to the Sun than meets the

eye so to speak!

For any one that may have an interest in astronomy

the Sun offers us the most dynamic target in the solar

system and an up close and personal view of a star

in action demonstrating all aspects of its magnetic

cycles and a window into the workings of it and all

of the other stars.

I personally have had a lifelong interest in astronomy

but only bought my first telescope about 10 years

ago and little did I know then that it would become

an over whelming obsession that would lead to a life

changing direction for me. I am now probably the

Worlds leading amateur solar movie maker and to

date I have made about 1500 movies of solar activity

ranging from the very small scale activity such as

the fleeting spicules [jets of gas that are just a few

hundred miles high and only last for 5 minutes]

to huge plasma ejections that stretching well over

500,000 miles before they leave the Sun and form

a part of the solar wind.

I must add a note of caution, before considering

the Sun as an astronomical target always take the

utmost care so as not to sustain any eye damage

or any equipment breakage. If you are new to

astronomy or just venturing into it and are con-

sidering the Sun as a potential target then ask a

more experienced astronomer on how to proceed

safely before starting or buying anything. I must

add a note of caution, before considering the Sun

as an astronomical target always take the utmost

care so as not to sustain any eye damage or any

equipment breakage. If you are new to astron-

omy or just venturing into it and are consider-

ing the Sun as a potential target then ask a more

experienced astronomer on how to proceed safely before starting or buying anything. At present [June 2014]

we are right in the middle of a solar maximum [the peak activity part of this present 11-year cycle] and the

Sun is becoming an ever more active and dynamic target. You will have no problems with light pollution in

this aspect of Astronomy and you may even get a tan while you are out observing/imaging.

The Sun is so large at about 900,000 miles in diameter that if we put the Earth at its centre, by the time we

travel to the Moon we would be only half way to the surface. It is of sufficient volume that it would be pos-

sible to fit 1.3 million Earths inside it. It is a huge nuclear fusion reactor that converts about 600 million tons

of hydrogen to 595 million tons of Helium every single second! That loss of mass of about 5 million tons is

converted to pure energy and this is what makes it shine! It has been burning like this for about 4.6 billion

years and is only about half way through its main sequence life cycle. It loses about 1 billion tons of matter

every second to form the solar wind [a constant stream of charged particles] that flood the solar system

and it is so massive that by the end of its life it will only have lost about 1% of its mass to the solar wind!

As we reside quite close to the sea level here on planet Earth we experience atmospheric pressure of about

1 atmosphere. The centre of the Sun experiences pressures equivalent to about 270 billion times that of

our atmospheric pressure and is sufficient to fuse the hydrogen atoms together to eventually form helium

atoms at temperatures in its core of about 15 million degrees Centigrade. The temperature falls rapidly trav-

elling towards the surface the photosphere [sphere of light] its visible outer edge is at about 6000 degrees

Centigrade. Residing just above this is the Chromosphere at about 10,000 degrees, a layer that is only about

2,500 miles thick and then there is the Corona the Suns outer atmosphere that starts at about 2 million

Centigrade and falls away rapidly as the distance from the Sun increases. It is only possible to see the corona

during a total solar eclipse. I have only been to one total solar eclipse in Cornwall in 1999 and saw nothing

because of the clouds typical for the UK and one of the reasons for being here in Spain.

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Photo 1 - Here I filmed a huge prominence [gas cloud]

erupting from the surface of the Sun on 3 September

2013. It is seen here already at a height of about 200,000

miles and lifted vertically upwards over an 80 minute

period.

I personally started to specialise in solar observing and

solar imaging in 2006 and like the majority of solar astron-

omers initially I was in pursuit of ever better still photo-

graphs. However after about 5-years, for me, the best

way to capture and present the real beauty of the Sun

is through preparing time lapse movie sequences of the

unfolding solar events. The Sun is so dynamic; it rotates

on its axis every 25.4 days [that we can see] as we are travelling around it in the same direction as its spin at a speed

of 68,000 miles per hour! You got it; it takes us a year to do the full orbital tour. To the Amateur astronomer in the 21st

century there are the options of highly filtered white light systems [normal telescope with a simple solar filter] or the

narrow band telescopes namely Hydrogen-alpha [red light] and Calcium-K [blue light] filtered telescopes available to

even those on fairly modest budgets. In my opinion the H-alpha wavelength offers the most dynamic view of the Sun

by revealing the chromosphere [this is the outer atmosphere just above the photosphere] and its unique features to

the observer. These include spicules, prominences and filaments [suspended curtains of hydrogen], sunspots [concen-

trated bundles of magnetic fields], flares [huge thermal explosions] and post flare loops [magnetic coils], CMEs [ejec-

tions of plasma] and even Moreton waves [Sun-quakes or shockwaves], These features can even be captured with the

most introductory of H-alpha equipment such as the Coronado PST [Personal Solar Telescope]. When such an instru-

ment is used in combination with a reasonably fast monochrome web camera the results are simply stunning!

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Photo 2 - This is the largest solar flare that I have captured to date one

of the highest energy X-class events and the explosion covers an area 5

times the diameter of Earth. All of the surface detail seen here is in the

chromosphere.

We astronomers can prepare to image part of the Sun or shoot the sep-

arate areas ready to prepare a mosaic of the Suns full disc or even stay

in the same area for quite a time with the view of making a solar time-

lapse movie sequence. I personally have made moving sequences that

have lasted as short as a few minutes to over 7 hours in duration. Some

of the final results have taken 20 to 30 hours work in total to complete.

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When there are cloudless days we capture high-frame rate videos on that selected area at regular intervals say every minute on a fast event or every 4 minutes on a slowly unfolding event. We use free download programs to help compensate for any atmospheric shimmer during the imaging to obtain high quality still images. There are loads of image processing links on my website.

Photo 5 This is a sunspot group known as an Active Region and each one is assigned a unique AR-number. These sunspots are like whirlpools and the material runs from the outer edge into the dark cores in structures that look like tubes [clearly visible here - photo 25 July 2013]. The main sun-spot has a width of about four planet Earths.

We always make a written record of the observing session and in print the date and Universal Time [UT] into

the AVI or still image file names immediately on capture. These then form a very useful and unique scientific

record of solar activity. I submit monthly solar data sets to an international observing program that has been

running for over 150 years.

Our Sun is about 93 million miles away but with my present equipment configuration I am now able to achieve

a resolution of about 60 miles/pixel on the Suns surface!

Photo 3 p.11 These are the very rare post flare

loops that follow the largest of the solar flares

and they demonstrate the magnetic field lines

reorganising themselves and are notoriously dif-

ficult to capture. Seen here on 23 February 2014

I filmed them for a continual six-hour period.

Below: Photo 4 - This is a mosaic image showing the full

disc of the Sun in the chromosphere level.

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Photo 6 This is a photo of me outside my observatory in the Sierra de los Filabres mountain range.I personally have achieved several huge scoops in recent years; I gained the cover photo of the British As-tronomical Association year book for 2011 with a photo of a large coronal mass ejection. I made the front page of the NASA spaceweather website on 9 September 2011 and 14 April 2014 with videos of large solar flares. In January 2012, I was the first amateur to gain permission from the head of the US National Solar Observatory to use and present their GONG [Global Oscillations Network Group] data of the major solar events and make a unique video record of them and keep them on a dedicated page on my website. In March 2012 I recorded what is possible the first amateur capture of a shock wave travelling through the Suns chromosphere.I am a passionate outreach astronomer. We moved here in late 2011 and within about two years I have mastered the new language and already given classes on astronomy to Uleila del Campo and the Sorbas high school to over 60 pupils, 7 teachers and one headmaster and all in Spanish!I would be delighted if reader would visit my browser busting website www.thesolarexplorer.net. It is a huge resource for reference; I have compiled a massive electronic library of well over 600 publications dating back to the year 1182 and a film/documentary/video archive containing over 140 entries dating back to the 1950s. It is also a major training resource used to inspire the international amateur solar astronomy community and there are well over 1000 of my videos to view. If you visit it and have slow in-ternet access then please be patient while the videos load up. If you would be interested in a holiday and make use my equipment we now have B&B available.Andy Devey - June 2014.

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Michael Carter

Eagal Nebula

Equipment Used

Nikon D5100 camera attached to a Celestron 8 SCT, mounted on a Celestron Advanced VX

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Daniel Leclerc

Saturn, June 1st 2014 at 11h13pm, done in our backyard at Pointe-aux-Trembles (Montreal).

Sky-Watcher 8-inch Newtonian telescope.

DBK21AU618.AS camera, Barlow 4X, UV/IR-cut filter, 60fps.

Used 68% of a 4800-frames avi file. Stacking with AutoStakkert2!, wavelet filtering with Iris, Tim ( http://trait-ement-d-images-tim.webnode.fr/ ).

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Mary Spicer- 2014 K1 PanSTARRSEquipment

Helios 102mm refractor and a Canon 1100D. Its a single exposure of 90

seconds at ISO-1600.

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JulyAt first, the Sun lies within the constellation of Gemini, until the 20th/21st , when at around midnight, it crosses the

border into neighbouring Cancer, the Crab. A significant date is July 4th, when at 0h13, the earth is at aphelion, or the

furthest distance that our planet can be from the sun. the two are separated by 152 093 407 km (94 506 462 miles),

centre to centre. As in June, twilight persist all night during this month.

The MoonMoon is at perigee, its nearest point to the earth, on the 13th at 08h28.

Apogee, when the Moon is at its furthest from the earth, is on the 28th

at 03h. This apogee is the farthest the moon can be from the earth in

2014; the earth-moon distance will be 406,568 km (252,630 miles).

First Quarter is on the 5th, at noon in the middle of the constel-lation Virgo.

Julys Full Moon is on the 12th at 11h25 in Sagittarius, and, as that of last month, is one of the lowest full moons of the year.

Last Quarter Moon, in Pisces, is on the 19th, at 02h09, as our natural satellite is approaching the Aries border.

New Moon in July is on the 26th at 22h42, whilst it is passing through the constellation of Cancer, at an angular distance of 6 south of the sun.

The PlanetsMercury is hardly likely to be seen during July, although it reaches its greatest elongation west of the sun (21) on the 12th. However, on this day, at around 03h00, if you locate Venus , which

will be at an altitude of 9 at this time, and using a pair of binoculars, you may be able to spot this

elusive little world twinkling in bright twilight. Centre Venus in your binocular field and scan to the

lower left of the planet (in the eight oclock position), and you may locate Mercury 7 away from

Venus and just 4 above the horizon. After its elongation Mercury moves in towards the sun for its

superior conjunction early next month.

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Throughout July Venus rises at around 02h, some two hours before the sun. It will be a glorious Morning

Star in the early morning sky. Venus passes 4 north of

Aldebaran on the 2nd. On the morning of the 24th, the

thin waning crescent moon may be seen approaching

Venus, some 7 to the right of the bright planet. The

two are at an altitude of 8 at 03h in the ENE sky.

Mars sets at 00h on the first of July and by 22h on the last day of the month. The planets motion is direct in Virgo and passes a little

over 1 north of Spica on the evening of the 13th, when the two may

be compared for the colour contrast they exhibit. Mars is reddish and

is slightly brighter than Spica, which shines with a blue-ish white radi-

ance. The first quarter moon may be seen approaching the pair on

the evening of the 5th and at 22h, all three may be seen 10 above

the SW horizon as twilight begins to fade. At this time the moon is

2 to the lower right of Mars and Spica is 5 to the right of the half

illuminated moon.

Jupiter is in conjunction with the sun at 20h on the 24th. Prior to its conjunction the planet may be glimpsed

during the first week of the month, using a pair of binoc-

ulars, within 5 of the NW horizon at around 21h , but in

bright twilight. During this period, Jupiter sets just under

an hour after the sun.

During July, Saturn lies a couple of degrees above Zubenelgenubi (alpha Librae) and may be observed in the SW sky when twilight fades. The planet sets at 01h at the beginning of the month and 23h at the

months end; so the period for observing the ringed planet is becoming limited. On the evening of the

7th the gibbous waxing moon may be seen approaching Saturn and just before they set at 0h the two

objects are separated by just 2 (four moon widths).

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Because of bright twilight during the first half of July, the remote

worlds Uranus and Neptune are not worth looking for because of

their faintness and low altitude in the eastern sky at astronomical

midnight. However, by the end of the month the two worlds are

some 20 above the SE horizon and the darker skies at astronomi-

cal midnight give the opportunity for trying to locate these distant

planets. Uranus, on the threshold of naked eye visibility, lies 15

beneath the star gamma Pegasi (Algenib), the pivotal point of the

square of Pegasus as it rises in the eastern sky. The angular dis-

tance from this star to Uranus is the same as the angular distance

between the four stars making up the square of Pegasus. In the vicin-

ity of Uranus are two fourth magnitude stars which will enable you

to home in on Uranus. These are epsilon and delta Piscium, with

which Uranus forms the lower apex of a triangle. The angular dis-

tance from delta is 3 and from epsilon 2. Uranus is approximately

five times fainter than both these stars but is easily identified in a

pair of binoculars. At astronomical midnight, Neptune, three times

fainter than Uranus, lies in the constellation of Aquarius, 1.5 to the

east (three moon widths) in the ten oclock position of the fifth

magnitude star sigma Aquarii. There are no other objects as bright

as Neptune at that location, so the faint star you see there through

binoculars is Neptune.

On July 4th, at 03h, the dwarf planet Pluto is in opposition in the constellation of Sagittarius, to

the west (right) of the Sagittarian triangle of the three stars pi, omicron and xi Sagittarii and very

near the fifth magnitude star 29 Sagittarii, which lies in line with the stars omicron and xi, some

2 to the west. Unfortunately this tiny demoted planet lies in a rich star field in the Milky Way and

requires expert attention with a good astronomical telescope to identify it.

Two minor meteor showers take place at the end of the month. One is the Capricornids, which are

active during July and August. Three peaks are recorded for this shower July 8th, 15th, and 26th.

Unfortunately, twilight at this time of year, may interfere.

On the 29th, and again on August 6th,we have the maximum of the delta Aquarids, with up to 20

an hour, although these meteors tend to be rather faint.

Constellations visible in the south around midnight, mid-month, are as follows: Sagittarius, Sagitta,

Aquila, Lyra and Cygnus. The latter constellations contain Patrick Moores Summer Triangle, con-

sisting of the three bright stars, Altair in Aquila, Vega in Lyra, and Deneb in Cygnus. Cygnus is some-

times called the northern cross because of the cruciform shape of its five main stars.

All times are GMT 1 is one finger width at arms length.

July Sky Notes by John Harper FRAS (Scarborough, UK)

Images: NASA

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3130


Adam Leach

My first ever solar images! The sun in white light today. Whole sun taken with 1100D - single shot. Closeup of sunspot group taken with ASI120MC - best 80% of 2500 frames, stacked in Autostakkert2 and waveletted in Registax 6. Finished off in Lightroom.

Taken with Starwave 102ED Refractor and Baader Solar Film filter.

Quite pleased with these for a first go, and surprised how much detail can be made out filament-wise on the close-up, even in white light!

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DISTRO ASTRO 2.0

For those who do not know what Linux is, it is basically

a free open source operating system created by Linus

Torvalds. In 1991 he was a Finnish student who devel-

oped the platform and then released it to the open source

community.

Linux can be pronounced one of two ways (Lin)(ux) or (Line)

(ux) . From its early conception the operating system has

come on leaps and bounds, however it may not dominate

the desktop market it does dominate in the server market

and Google android is based on a Linux kernel.

It is thought that the Linux kernel is far more stable than

that of Windows and it is reported Microsoft are going to

use the Linux kernel on one of its Nokia phones. In the

early days it was difficult to get any hardware to work well

under Linux,and software was limited. Now with compa-

nies such as Ubuntu, SuSE and Mandriva to name a few

this has changed. Linux is plug and play, however some

hardware that uses Windows drivers eg Broadcom wireless

card are sometimes tricky to get working, however drivers

can be downloaded through a software centre to enable

these cards to work. (Use Network Cable).

There are plenty of free astronomy tools in the Linux environment. The most

famous is of course Stellarium which is also available on Windows.

What the Distro Astro team have done, is create an astronomers paradise bring-

ing all the tools you need, for free all pre installed. Distro Astro 2.0 is based on

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise LTS and Linux Mint 13 Maya. The desktop is easy to navi-

gate and the background images are from NASAs APOD. I tested the live version,

which was easy to install onto a pendrive. However I had to use my network cable

for internet access. The system boots quickly and the desktop looks smooth and

slick. There are icons down the left hand side which you can access your Apps.

Click start and favourites are displayed. I opened up Explore the night sky. This

is Stellarium 0.12.1, the software opened up quickly and just like in MS Windows

it is easy to navigate and use. One nice trick is WINE is pre installed and config-

ured. This means some MS Windows software will run on the Linux platform.

WINE fools programmes to think they are running on a Windows system and a

programme that runs well is Registax 6.1. For those who use Linux a lot will know

some MS Office versions can run under the WINE system.

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For your internet needs Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client are installed,

both are easy to use and configure.

For those of you who Astrophotography is a must then this distro has plenty of tools, it is

packed with graphics editors such as Gimp, stacking tools and webcam tools.

I recommend this Linux Distro, however caution to the novice. Linux is not Windows. It is

a completely different operating system however, it is a lot of fun and a serious tools once

you become familiar with it.

It can be installed as a standalone system or alongside Windows. However be careful when

opting for this option if you do not know what you is dong get help. You can by mistake

delete Windows.

You can get Distro Astro here

http://www.distroastro.org/

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ASTRO NERDS Astronomy Ezine - July 2014