Astronomy Wise December 2012 Astronomy EZine

7/30/2019 Astronomy Wise December 2012 Astronomy EZine

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Top Stories Radio Telescopes

The Night SkyGeminid meteor Shower

String Theory?

What’s New?

Three Radio Astronomy Projects

Astronomy Wise Astronomy For All

Event News

AW November Public MeetingAstronomy wise @ the Brownies

Notices

December Public Meeting

14/12/12

Sawdon, North Yorkshire

January 2013

8th,9th,10th

BBC 2

Image Mike Greenham



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Image Mike Greenham



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Image: North Essex Astronomical Society

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ASTRONOMY WISE

Welcome to the December 2012 Astronomy Wise edition. 2012 has been aninteresting year for us, from launching AW back in May which was a 12 pagenewsletter to the e-zine you are reading now. Each month we have brought you

news, articles and our interviews. We have interviewed Astrophysics professionals,students, presenters and authors. We have featured Young Astronomers, FeaturedAstronomers and many guest writers.

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

A big thank you to all who contributed to the EZine over the past year. A big thankyou to all those who read the magazine. We would like you feedback so please letus know what we can do to improve the publication.

Email [email protected]

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

WHO’S WHO?

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

John Harper, The Night Sky, WriterEdward Dutton, Graphic design

Heather Dawn, WriterPaul Rumsby, Telescope Reviews

Pepe Gallardo, WriterAndrew Devey, Solar Explorer, Writer

Zantippy Skiphop, Writer

Guest Writers

Jon Wallace

mailto:[email protected]





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Welcome to the December edition of Astronomy Wise. Thismonth we have another interesting interview from theworld of science and astronomy. So I am pleased tointroduce Paul Halpern.

AW:When did you first become interest-ed in Science and astronomy?

PH: When I was a child I enjoyedvisiting the Franklin Institute ScienceMuseum in Philadelphia, which hasfabulous push-button experiments. Iused to marvel at all the displays. Ialso visited the Worlds Fairs in NewYork and Montreal, which similarlysparked my interest in science. Finally,I was a great fan of the writer IsaacAsimov, and had a chance to meet himwhen I was 12 years old.

AW: Could you tell us about your careerso far

PH: I received my PhD from StonyBrook University in New York, where Istudied chaos in the early universe. Ilooked at the Mixmaster Universe. Itwas exciting for me to visit the scientistJohn Barrow in 1985 at the Universityof Sussex in England, where he men-tored me about the field of cosmology.In autumn 1988 I began my currentposition at the University of theSciences.

Edge of the Universe: A Voyage to the Cosmic Horizon and Beyond ISBN-10:

0470636246

ISBN-13:

978-0470636244

Purchase:

Find this book on Amazon.com

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




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







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

PH: Theoretical physics is the science of trying to understand the workings of natureat its most fundamental level. It helps us understand the basic building blocks of the

universe and the interactions between them.

AW: Could you tell us about your book writing?

PH: After I received my PhD in 1987, I decided to take a short break from themathematical aspects of science and look at explaining science through writing. Istarted writing my first book Time Journeys in the spring of 1988 and it waspublished two years later. I then kept going and have published 13 books to date.

AW: From my research I understand you have received the following awards Gug-

genheim Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, and an Athenaeum Society LiteraryAward. Could you tell us a little about each one?

PH: The Guggenheim Fellowship offers a chance for creative individuals to spend ayear researching a topic or creating a new work. It includes writers, artists, musi-cians, and other creative thinkers. The Fulbright Scholarship is designed to offerAmericans a chance to travel abroad and do research. I did my Fulbright work inBerlin. The Athenaeum Society Literary Award honours writers for their recentbooks. My award was for Time Journeys.

AW: Is it true you featured on theSimpsons in 3D on ice 20th Anniversaryspecial?

PH: Yes I was on the Simpsons 20thAnniversary Special, 3D on Ice. Thedirector Morgan Spurlock contacted methrough his assistant and invited me to

be filmed performing science segmentsrelated to the show. I filmed about fourdifferent demonstrations related to theshow, each pertaining to a particularepisode. It took about two hours. Then,I did something silly, holding up apreserved fish and talking about it.That’s the bit they ended up using! Stillit was amazing participating in aSimpsons special! Morgan Spurlock is agreat guy! Here’s a picture of me with

Morgan Spurlock:



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AW: Apart from featuring in Astronomy Wise(hehe) what would you say is the highlight of your career?

PH: Getting a chance to read AstronomyWise, of course! Seriously, receiving theGuggenheim award was a high academichonour. Blogging for NOVA, a highlyrespected American science programme, hasbeen a great recent experience. In terms of fun accomplishments, being on The Simpsonscertainly ranks up there.

AW: What are your thoughts on exoplanets?

PH:I wrote a book about exoplanets back in1995, The Quest for Alien Planets, when theywere first being discovered. Then in 2004 Iwrote a children’s book Faraway Worlds. By

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

many have been found since then, some being comparablein mass to Earth. These are exciting times for learningabout other planetary systems!

AW: I am very interested in the moon Titan, whatpossibilities are thereof finding someprimitive life there?

PH: If there is life on Titan it would have tobe a very different form of life from which weare familiar, used to its extreme conditions.

Image: NASA (Saturn's Moon Titan)



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AW: Could you tells us about your latestbook Edge of the Universe, which was upfor grabs in our competition?

PH: Edge of the Universe is a look at thewonders of contemporary cosmology tak-ing readers to the very frontiers of ourknowledge. It explores cutting-edge top-ics such as dark energy, dark matter,dark flow, and the idea of the universebeing a hologram.

http://phalpern.com/



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December Night Sky

Welcome to The Night Sky by John Harper

We have a printable sky chart A4 size.

During the first three weeks of the month, the Sun is travellingeastwards through the constella-tion of Ophiuchus and crosses theborder into Sagittarius at around

23h on the 17th. The earliest sunset of the year is on the 12 th, and the latestsunrise is on the 31st. Between them lies the Winter Solstice, which this year takesplace on December 21st at 11h 12 The earth-sun distance at this time is147,160,039 km. The earth’s north pole is tilted as far away as it can be from thesun and this day is the official start of winter, a season which lasts 88.99 days inthe northern hemisphere, and of course summer, south of the equator.

The Moon

The Moon is at apogee, its furthestfrom the earth, on the 25th at21h21, and at perigee, its nearest tothe earth on the 12th at 23h15.

The Last Quarter moon occurs at15h32 on the 6th on the SextansLeo border.

December’s New Moon occurs at08h42 on the 13th, when the sunand moon are close together, themoon passing a degree or so northof the sun in Ophiuchus, theSerpent Bearer.

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

Full Moon at 10h22 on the 28th is the highest FM of the year, above Orion inthe constellation of Gemini, the ‘celestial twins’.

It may be possible to see Earthshine on the waning crescent between the 7thand the 11th and on the waxing crescent moon’s dark hemisphere from the14th to the 18th.

Image; Mike Greenham



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The PlanetsDuring the first half of December, Mercury is favourablyplaced in the morning sky for observation, rising just

two hours before the sun, when it becomes visible lowin the SE sky, above which and to the right is thebrilliant ‘Morning Star’, Venus. Further to the upperright of Venus is Saturn. From the 9th to the 11th (inc),the waning crescent moon with earthshine is in thevicinity of the three planets, and perhaps the best viewis to be had on the morning of the 11th, when at 07h astwilight is beginning, the crescent moon lies 4° to theright of Venus; Mercury is 6° to the lower left of Venusand 5° above the horizon. Together Mercury, Venus,

Saturn and the Moon, together with bright Jupitersetting low in the NW makes for a collection of five solarsystem objects visible at the same time. During thelatter part of the month, Mercury sinks in towards thesun for a superior conjunction with the latter in the NewYear.Venus continues to shine very brightly duringDecember, rising just under three hours before the sunon Dec 1st, reducing to just less that 2 hours before thesun by New Year’s Eve. Like Mercury, Venus is moving

towards its superior conjunction early next year. Lookfor the waning crescent moon and Venus in thecompany of Mercury and Saturn as described above.Because Mars is climbing northwards, throughoutDecember the red planet sets two hours after the sun, just before 18h. Look for it low in the SW sky as twilightfades. Mars leaves the constellation of Sagittarius toenter Capricornus on Dec 25th. If you look into the SWsky on the 15th, you will see the thin waxing crescentmoon with earthshine on its night hemisphere, 6° aboveMars, the latter being just 5° above the horizon.Through a pair of binoculars the fiery red colour of Marswill look beautiful against the fading dark turquoisetwilight.Jupiter is opposite the Sun in the sky on Dec 3rd and istherefore at opposition. Around this time, the largestplanet in the Solar System, is at its nearest to theearth, a distance of approximately 390 million miles. Itis therefore visible all night and reaches its highest inthe south around midnight, when it dominates the skyat an altitude of 60°. Jupiter appears to be is moving

retrograde (east to west) in the constellation of Taurusas the earth overtakes the planet. Mid month it lies above



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Aldebaran, the ‘red eye’ of the Bull, the constellation’s brightest star, and on Dec25th in the evening, lies just 3° to the left of the gibbous waxing moon. By the startof the 26th at midnight, the moon is very much closer and passes just 1° (two moonwidths) below Jupiter. So throughout the whole night the two celestial objectsproduce a delightful pairing at this season.Saturn is a morning object, rising 3 hours before the sun at the beginning, and 5hours before sunrise at the end of the month and the year. The ringed planet lieswithin the western border of Libra, some 15° to the east (left) of Virgo’s brighteststar Spica, near which it has spent most of 2012. The waning crescent moon lies 5°to the lower right of Saturn at 07h on Dec 10th, to the lower left of which may beseen brilliant Venus and Mercury which is actually brighter than Saturn. Withearthshine visible on the dark hemisphere of the moon, this is the start of abeautiful apparition of the three planets with the moon over the next couple of days.

A pre-Christmas treat for astronomers!December is a good time to look at both Jupiter and Saturn through a smalltelescope because the widening northern surface of Saturn’s rings look beautifulright now, and the cloud bands of Jupiter together with the Galilean moons in theirever-changing configurations can be seen. Uranus remains in central Pisces duringthe month, setting just before midnight on the 31st. Neptune in Aquarius sets by20h30 at the end of December. For both of these remote planets, good star mapsare necessary in order to locate them.Of academic interest, the demoted planet Pluto is in conjunction with the sun on Dec30th. The maximum of the Geminid meteors takes place overnight between the

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

Geminids tend to be most numerous around 02h00 when Gemini, their point of origin, is almost overhead. On good nights it is possible to see up to 100 meteors anhour. The moon is new at the time of maximum so conditions are favourable.Peaking overnight on the 22nd/ 23rd is the Ursid meteor shower (fragments of comet Tuttle), which produces about 10 meteors an hour, with occasional outburstsresulting in a greater number, but the gibbous, waxing moon will cause interference

during the night until 03h when the moon is setting in the WNW. Therefore the timeperiod from 03h till dawn is the best opportunity to look for Ursids.Constellations visible in the south around midnight, mid-month, are as follows:Lepus the Hare, Orion, Taurus and Auriga the Charioteer.All times are GMT 1° is one finger width at arm’s length.

By John Harper



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Calcium wavelength and white light solarphotography

By Andy Devey

This month I thought it appropriate to move away from H-alpha wave length andtake a look at CaK and white light solar photography.

Calcium-K solar photography

Calcium light at a very difficult to see because at 3933.7Å it is firmly in the bluepart of the spectrum and on the limit of human vision with younger people having abetter chance of seeing the solar disc and gaining a visual focus. The best chanceof seeing the Sun in calcium K light is to dark adapt for about 10-minutes – not aneasy task on a bright sunny day. I made a frame for my pocket digital camera fromaluminium angel section and thick [2mm] black plastic card fitted to a Velcro lined42mm waste water plumbing connector that fitted onto my zoom eyepiece and

allowed the lens to travel safely out to focus. This was all glued together witharaldite and PVC glue so no expensive engineering tools used and has provedexcellent for showing a live calcium image on my CaK PST to the public duringoutreach activities.

Photo 1 here is the finished

camera frame ready for thecamera to be dropped in andattached with a ¼ inch Whitworthbolt. It has an umbilical toactivate the camera without shak-ing it. It is fitted to H-alpha PSTin this photo.



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Monochrome cameras are particularly

suited to Calcium-K wavelength light andit is a very easy medium to master,however the shorter wavelength whencompare to H-alpha light means that it ismore sensitive to poor atmosphericseeing. Further I personally found thecalcium light to be quite dim eventhrough a 90mm solar telescope and assuch making longer focal lengths moredifficult to achieve and I have made no

attempt to reduce the bandwidth downfrom its standard <2.2Å.Calcium-Kphotography will permit views of thelower chromospheres clearly presentingthe umbra and penumbra of the sun-spots, the extensive plage areas as wellas solar granulation and uniquely thelarge chromospheric network structure.These plage areas can also show thebeginnings of new active regions before

the local magnetic strength increases

sufficient to form pores that go on todevelop single or groups of sunspots.Solar flares are also fairly easy to capturein CaK wavelength and prominences arealso possible to capture photographicallybut they are not a pronounced as inH-alpha light. Filaments are not possibleto photograph. As the prominences aremuch dimmer than in H-alpha to make adisc and prominence photo it is

necessary to make two separateexposures [over exposing for theprominence] and then to combine thetwo in a mosaic.I have only made limited attempts thusfar to make calcium-K animated se-quences using a SM90 CaK telescope.The most notable moving feature is the

Photo 2: Huge detaching prominence incalcium-K this is a composite of twoimages one exposed for surface detailwhile the other is exposed to pick outthe prominence. To date I have notattempted a CaK prominence movie.

Photo 3: Here is 3-framemosaic in CaK showing asubstantial portion of the Sunphoto taken on 2 April 2012

at 15:35UT



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White light solar photographyWhite light solar viewing/photography will only permit a view/capture the Sunsvisible surface, the photosphere and this is the much brighter layer immediatelybelow the chromosphere. In this medium only the umbra and penumbra of sunspots, solar granulation and the very occasional X-class flare as possibletargets. There are two ways of capturing high resolution images in white light

wither using optical or photographic grade Mylar/Baader filter screen fitted overthe objective of your telescope or using a rear mounted “Herschel wedge”. Fullaperture should always be considered rather than a stopped down version takingcare not to damage the filter sheet. I have made several plastic card objectivefilter housings for the Baader sheet and I quickly switched from the 5.1 opticalgrade to the 3.8 grade photographic specification sheet. Make sure the filter isheld firm and cannot accidentally blow off and also ensure a photographic filteris clearly marked up “not for visual use”.

When using a refractor, a Herschel wedgeis fine up to 155mm as confirmed byforum friends that use them on AP155refractors, I personally use a TakahashiTOA130 refractor and in my own experi-ence the Herschel wedge has deliveredbetter results than the full aperture 3.8-grade Baader filter sheet.The best amateur white light images Ihave seen to date were made using aCelestron C14HD at 10.5m focal length! Ipersonally have only been able to achieve4m focal length with my TOA130 but thishas certainly been sufficient to pull outumbral and penumbral detail and thegranulation. Imaging over 20minutes willshow a good representation of thegranulation boiling in an animation whileover an hour is required to see the

penumbra flowing down into the umbra.I have tried several filters including theBaader continuum filter and also a fairlywide band H-alpha at 7A combined withthe Herschel wedge and 3.8 grade Baaderfilter sheet. The Hydrogen has the longerfocal length and makes the image slightlyless susceptible in poorer seeing conditionsthan the continuum filter and going to anarrower wave band makes focusing easier

but the dimmer image slows cameraspeeds.

Photo 4 a white image of AR1569 up on 17 September2012 at 08:53UT at 4m focallength. Note the solargranulation and the ribs run-ning through the penumbra.



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Photo 5 a 200%increase inimage scalereveals lots of detail in thepenumbra.

CamerasI have already mentioned that the most suitable camera is a robust high qualitymonochrome video camera and the industrial camera manufacturers have producedsome excellent models suitable for astronomical application. They come fitted withUSB2, Firewire and USB3 connection. The newer versions at present facilitate up to120 frames per second with the ¼” CCD chips while the larger ones give a muchwider field of view but at a slower frame rate. These cameras are delivering veryhigh data feeds and this is why the newer connections have been developed. Thecamera that I am using it fairly basic and it has a ¼” CCD equipped with 5.6µm pixelsize where as the newer cameras are getting down to 1.55µm. Lots of scope formaking progress here!Some cameras are fitted with 8-bit grey scales while other more expensive oneshave 16-bit grey scales. The leading manufacturers that produce cameras usedwithin the solar observing community that I am aware of are: The Image Source,Luminera, Point Grey and Basler but my list is certainly not exhaustive.The most desired option is to obtain a model with the highest frame rate and thesmallest pixel size that sits within your budget!

Have fun with the Sun

Andy Devey



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Dwarf Planet Makemake Lacks Atmosphere: Distant Frigid World RevealsIts Secrets for First Time

November 9th 2012:

Astronomy wise held its second public evening in November. From the onset theweather was against us, however the village hall in Sawdon provides excellentfacilities for tea, cakes, toilets, warmth and one of John Harpers super talks andpresentations. Chris Almey provide support on the laptop and taking pictures.

There were new faces in the crowd and they were given a tour of the cosmos.Each month on the second Friday we will hold public viewing nights, so if you are

In the area please pop along, full details inthe magazine and website.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2012) — Dwarf planet Makemake [1] is about twothirds of the size of Pluto, and travels around the Sun in a distant path that lies

beyond that of Pluto but closer to the Sun thanEris, the most massive known dwarf planet in theSolar System. Previous observations of chillyMakemake have shown it to be similar to its fellowdwarf planets, leading some astronomers toexpect its atmosphere, if present, to be similar tothat of Pluto. However, the new study now shows

that, like Eris, Makemake is not surrounded by asignificant atmosphere.http://www.sciencedaily.com/

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

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



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

Dave answered the question correctly. I hope Dave enjoys the books,. Thanks to allthose who entered and look out for more competitions next year. Merry Christmas toall and a happy 2013. From the Astronomy Wise team.

STARGAZING LIVE will be returning to our screens inJanuary 2013! Check the BBC for more details

More details…… HERE

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





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‘CATCH A FALLING STAR!’

GEMINID METEOR SHOWER 2012In order to witness the best “Celestial Firework Show” of shooting stars, ormeteors, in the year, watch the sky during the night of December 13th/14th,especially between 10 pm and 2 am. For this is the time when an excellent peak of shooting star activity is expected. Geminids, as the meteors are called, are swiftmoving and often fragment as they enter the atmosphere creating a spectaculardisplay. The RADIANT, or point in the sky from where the meteors appear toradiate, lies in the eastern sky during the evening but climbs high in the southernsky as the night progresses. This radiant lies in the constellation of GEMINI, theCelestial Twins, near one of the brighter Twins’ stars, hence the name of the

shower. Conditions are at their best this year because the moon is absent fromthe sky, as it is in its New phase, in the vicinity of the sun.So you have the opportunity of a dark sky from early evening onwards, all throughthe night until dawn, weather permitting, to see many members of this richmeteor shower. Therefore it will be well worthwhile popping outside to the darkestspot in the garden, if there are few clouds, and watching the sky. The bestdirection to look is straight up, towards the zenith, the overhead point. Lookingupwards enables you to see the entire sky, using peripheral vision. I recommend,therefore, lying flat out on a sunlounger, but make sure you have done twothings: put on several layers of warm clothes, and secondly, warned your

neighbours, who may believe, seeing you lying out in the garden, on a sunloungerat night, that you are a little ‘under the weather’ to say the least! The particles of rock, for that is what these meteors are (typically the size anddensity of coffee granules) enter the Earth's atmosphere at velocities of many tensof kilometres a second and vaporize as they rub against air molecules, This setsup friction, and the particles in vaporising, leave trains of ionised gas.Away from streetlights, out in the country, observers can see between 80 and 120meteors an hour from this stream when there is no moonlight to interfere. TheGeminid Meteor Shower is rivalled only by the Perseid Shower, which can be seenaround August 12th each year.

Geminids are associated with an asteroid called Phaethon, which is a small inertbody passing very close to the Sun every one and a half years. Astronomersbelieve that Phaethon, which incidentally was named after the Greek god Helios’



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

thunderbolt, is the nucleus of a dead comet.Despite the importance of the Geminid shower as being one of the very best wecan see form here, it is not so well known. The reason for this is that at this time of the year, the sky is often overcast during the night, and because the meteors beginto become visible when they are between 100 and 60 miles above Earth’s surface,a height well above the dense December cloud layer, we often fail to see thedisplay.

However if clouds do prevent you seeing the sky fireworks this year, there are twoothers coming up. Firstly, we have the Ursids, which peak overnight on the 22nd to23rd December, at the rate of about 10 every hour. The Radiant is near the PoleStar. Much more interesting though, are the Quadrantid Shower due overnight onthe 3rd/4th January 2013, when for a short while, some 100 shooting stars ormore, per hour, is the maximum rate.

John Harper

Clear Skies!

Graphics generated using Stellarium software. www.stellarium.org



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The Suns Potential Twin

Soaking in a hot bubbly bath watching the foam dissolve Igot to thinking about our Sun, the planets and Sednasstrange orbit which lead me to contemplate the Nemesis

hypothesis, which is a hypothetical twin star to our ownSun. Most stars come in pairs, a binary system, our closestknown star is currently Proxima Centauri with a distance of 4.2 light years away however some scientists believe thatthe Sun has a twin, a Red or Brown dwarf star yet to bediscovered called Nemesis, with a lower mass about 10times smaller than that of the Sun.

The reason this hypothetical star has yet to be confirmed isdue to how dim it would appear as Red and Brown dwarf

stars generally give off very little light, another reason maybe that if it's in orbit with the solar system it would appearbe in a fixed position which means we would have to know

exactly where to look to pin point it in space.

The theory was originally postulated in 1984 to be orbiting the Sun at a distance of about 95,000 AU (1.5 light-years) somewhat beyond the Oort cloud, to explain aperceived cycle of mass extinctions in the geological record, which seem to occurmore often at intervals of 26 million years, if such anobject does exist it wouldcause disturbance uponapproach to the Oort cloudresulting in comets beingslung in towards the innersolar system causing hugecatastrophes especially if even just one was to hitEarth. There is also Sedna arecently discovered dwarf planet, one of the the most

distant objects in our solarsystem. Scientists struggleto explain its highly ellipticalorbit as they have no cluewhat could have caused it,this could theoreticallyprove that nemesis existsand when it came close to the solar system it tugged at Sedna changing its originalorbit to the new stranger one. On December 14th 2009 NASA launched the Widefield infrared survey explorer (WISE) into space to look for objects that are hard to

detect with ordinary telescopes his will help us to detect lots of larger dim and coolerobjects on the outer regions of the solar system in fact one NASA's colleagues, AmyMainzer, recently caused some hype with this following statement at a press



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conference when asked about Wise and if it had discovered a Nemesis type objectthat could be hazardous to Earth I quote her, "Planet X isn’t coming to get us’ and ‘we think THIS IS just a sort of” then she realizes the mistake and tries to fixit ‘if there’s something out there, could be a large body in a roughly circularorbit.” but apparently according to NASA no hazardous object has beendiscovered but the search is still on although lots of dim objects, comets and red

dwarf stars have been observed. I for one am checking updates from WISE on aregular basis and I personally believe that In our lifetimes we will find outwhether our Sun does indeed have a twin or if it is in fact a single wonder, theonly star we know so far, to give life to a planet and for now that planet is Earthand that life is You and Me.

Heather DawnFreelance Writer

[email protected]



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Occultations By John Harper

Key to the Occultation Table

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

listed.

From left to right they are:

1 Day of the Week2 DATE in the format: dd-mm-yyyy3 Universal Time of the event (add one hour when British Summer Time is in forcefor Local Time.The predictions are for Scarborough, which lies midway between London and Edin-burgh, on the North Sea coast of the UK. (N54.27 deg., W00.43 deg.)

4 Occulted star’s visual magnitude 5 P = Phase tells you whether the event is a disappearance (D) or reap-pearance (R) or a Graze (C).6 L = Limb. This indicates whether the event takes place at the dark (D) or bright(B) lunar limb.7 Al. = the Altitude of the moon at the time of the occultation event.8 Az. = The azimuth (angular distance along the horizon, measured from theNorth Point, clockwise.9 Sun Alt = the angular distance of the sun, below the horizon at the time of theevent.

10, 11 & 12 the name or catalogue number of the star being occulted.XZ Cat No. This is the star’s designation in the US Naval Observatory catalogue of over 32,000 stars that can be occulted by the moon.Proper Name. This is the star’ more common name, if it has one! ZC No. The Zodiacal Catalogue of 3539 stars brighter than visual magnitude +7,within 8 degrees of the ecliptic. Some fainter stars are included in this total as well.13 PA = Position Angle. This is the angular position on the limb of the moon wherethe reappearance or disappearance will occur it helps you look at the right part of the moon’s limb. Position Angle is measured from Celestial North (the line of RightAscension running through the centre of the moon’s disc. It is measured clockwisethrough west, south , east and back to north, a total of 360 degrees.



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Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

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






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Three Radio Astronomy Projects

Introduction

I am a science teacher in CT and have long thought that too much stress is placedon visual science since much of our understanding of astronomy is due to non-visualresearch. As a result, I’ve always tried to expose students to non-visual experiences.With this in mind, I started exploring radio astronomy in the early 80’s and joinedSARA (the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers). I received great deal of assistance building projects and have building them ever since (see link below).

Project 1: SuperSID

The first project is a solar radio in the VLF radio frequency range (tens of KHz) whichmonitors the intensity of a radio signal (generally from a Navy submarine communi-cations station) and its reaction to changes in the

Ionosphere due to solar activity. Since we aremonitoring changes in the Ionosphere, thesemonitors are known as SID (Sudden IonosphericDisturbance) monitors.The Ionosphere

The Ionosphere is the layer in the atmospherewhere atoms and molecules are ionized by solarand cosmic radiation. The layer ranges from70-1000km (40-600 miles), and is made up of

several layers labeled C, D, E, and F. Theweakest layer, ‘C’, is tenuous at best.The D layer exists only during day-light hours and the strength increas-es as we rise in altitude to the F layerwhich actually splits into two layers during daylight hours (F1 and F2).Most ionization is created by ultraviolet and X-ray radiation hitting the ionosphere.The increase in strength of ionization is maintained by the highertemperatures and lower pressures at higher elevations.

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

Solar FlaresSolar flares are incredible explosions of material and energy which occur near sun-spots on the surface of the Sun. These eventscan last up to about an hour and can reachtemperatures of millions of kelvins. Mostastronomers believe flares are created whenthe sun’s magnetic field lines get tangled andeventually break and recombine releasing anexplosive burst of energy and materials whichcan travel for thousands of miles off of thesun’s surface. This twisting occurs becausethe sun is a fluid and the magnetic field linesget twisted due to the variable rotation rates

Image: NASA Solar Flare

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







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Chart of a flare at 18:00. Note ‘shark fin’ shape due to the flare.

between the poles and equator (about

25 days at the equator and 36 days atthe poles).Flares are closely tied to the sunspotcycle which lasts for 22 years. Elevenyears at one polarity and then thepolarity of the sun flips (north for southand vice versa) and the cycle begins

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

flares we detect with this monitor are generally caused by X-rays. Flares areclassified as A, B, C, M, and X, each 10 times greater in energy per area than theprevious. Unfortunately, we can only detect the last three with our monitor. Theselast three range from C which is a weak storm to X which can cause radiation stormsand blackouts throughout the planet. You can find more information at the NOAASpace Weather Prediction Center (see link below). They list events by day and timewhich allow you to check your monitor’s results.

SuperSIDTim Haynh of Stanford University designed thisSID monitor to utilize the sound card on adesktop computer. The frequency range of themonitor is 21.4-25.2 KHz and the monitorcollects data from several stations at once.Stanford is producing units with the assistanceof SARA, which are being distributed to schoolsall over the world.The SuperSID monitor comes nearlycompletely built with only the antenna needingconstruction. You will need to make a frame forthe antenna and then wind the wire around theframe and make a couple of simple wireconnections. The software is easy to install anduse and all the data is collected automaticallyon a daily basis. The unit is well supported withvery clear directions and incredible support.

Finally, the data you collect can be reported tothe AAVSO (American Association of VariableStar Observers) on a monthly basis.



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This organization is a collaboration of amateursand professionals and the data is used to studythe sun’s variability. Check out their website tosee how to submit data.

Resources

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

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

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center – www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/indices/events.html

My complete SuperSID set-upat school

Project 2: Radio Jove

IntroductionThis project monitors the shortwave emissions from Jupiter and the Sun.The emissions from Jupiter are the result of interactions between electrons in themagnetic field of Jupiter and the very active moon Io. Solar emissions are relatedagain to active sunspot regions and solar flares.

BackgroundSignals from space were discovered in1955 by radio astronomers at theCarnegie Institution of Washington. It

was originally thought to beinterference, but further analysisshowed that Jupiter was in the beamof the antenna.Jupiter is the largest planet (over 1000Earths could fit inside of it) with a verystrong magnetic field, diffuse rings andover 60 moons. It rotates in aremarkable 10 hours compared withour 24 hour day. The largest moons

were discovered by Galileo over 400years ago with his primitive telescopeand are known as the Galilean Moons.

NASA Photograph of Jupiter and Io



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



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




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












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These include Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

SignalsThe signals we detect are in the shortwave band inthe tens of MHz range (15 -39 MHz). The signalsseem to be linked to three regions named A, B,

and C. When one of these regions faces Earth,there is an increased probability of receiving a sig-nal. In addition, if Io is in the right position in itsorbit the probability of receiving a signal is greatlyenhanced. Remember that Io is within the tidalzone of Jupiter and these gravitational forces areliterally tearing Io apart. This causes Io to releasecharged particles which spiral at high speed alongthe strong magnetic field lines generating synchro-tron radiation, which is the radiation we are de-

tecting.

The signals from Jupiter are unique in that theyhave distinct sounds which can last from a fewminutes to hours. These signals come in twotypes: L-bursts, which sound like waves crashingon the beach and S-bursts, which sound likepopcorn popping or gravel on a tin roof when rec-orded with an audio recorder.Solar bursts often start abruptly and taper off over

seconds to minutes. Thus they tend to look likeshark fins on your chart recording. There are fivetypes of signals that can be detected and these areclassified as follows (from www.radiosky.com/suncentral.html):Type I: Short, narrow band events that usuallyoccur in great numbers together with a broaderband continuum. May last for hours or days.Type II: Slow drift from high to lowfrequencies. Often show fundamental and secondharmonic frequency structure.Type III: Rapid drift from high to low frequencies.May exhibit harmonics. Often accompany the flashphase of large flares.Type IV: Flare-related broad-band continua.Type V: Broad-band continua which may appearwith III bursts. Last 1 to 2 minutes, with durationincreasing as frequency decreases.Check out the Radio Jove site listed below forexamples of all the signals you can detect.

Chart of a Jupiter S-burst storm.Wes Greenman

Chart of a solar flare at 19:04.Note ‘shark fin’ shape due to theflare. Wes Greenman

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







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Radio Jove Receiver.

Radio Jove

About ten years ago, a group of University of Florida graduates working withNASA developed the Radio Jove as an educational outreach program. To date, over1400 Radio Jove kits have been sold and built throughout the world. The kit includesthe receiver kit, most antenna hardware, Skypipe and RJP software and costs under$200. One consideration is that the antenna requires an area of at least 25 feet x 25feet on which to construct it. If you have the room, this project is really worth doing.It allows students to hear as well as chart the data they record. For further infor-mation check out the Radio Jove website below.

ResourcesRadio Jove website – radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Jim Sky’s Radio Jupiter Central site – www.radiosky.com/rjcentral.html. Jim Sky’s Radio Sun Central site – www.radiosky.com/suncentral.html SARA – www.radio-astronomy.org/

Project 3: Itty-Bitty radio Telescope(IBT)

IntroductionThe basic IBT is built using a satelliteTV dish antenna, LNB, and a satellitefinder usually hooked to a meter toshow signal strength. It operates inthe 12 GHz range (roughly 12.2-12.7GHz). The IBT detects the heat fromobjects in the field of view.Background

In 1998, SARA member Chuck Fosterstarted investigating using a satellitedish antenna as a portable radio tele-scope since many were available.Unfortunately, a back end (receiver)couldn’t be found and was difficult todesign. Later that year, SARA mem-ber Kerry Smith was the first to real-ize that the Channel Master satellitefinder could be used as a back end

after helping a friend reposition hissatellite dish with the meter. Sincethen, Kerry has designed and built

http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/


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












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several versions of the IBT thatincorporate oscillators to allow a pitch tobe assigned to the signal so students can ‘hear’ the signal. The directions forbuilding a basic unit are available fromthe NRAO (National RadioAstronomy Observatory) website listed

below.

Signals

As you probably know, all objects give off electromagnetic radiation. You may haveseen infrared goggles that show the heatfrom bodies, etc. Radio emissions are nodifferent. Any object gives off radioemissions related to their temperature.This device allows students to explorethis concept by associating a voltagereading on a meter with increasingtemperature. After you build the IBTusing the directions from the websitelisted below, conduct some tests foryourself before showing students thedevice. First, turn your IBT to ‘darksky’ (anywhere nearly overhead with nostrong signal source) and adjust the gainto 20% of full scale on the meter. Nowturn your IBT towards the ground and seethe difference – the meter reading should

rise sharply. Remember that ‘dark sky’ isabout 3K while the ground is about 300K!Next turn your IBT towards the Sun. Whyisn’t the Sun, with all its enormousenergy (temperature of 6,000K!), pinningthe meter? It turns out that the IBT dishhas a beam width of 3o while the Sun

appears to be only 0.5 o in our sky. Thusthe area of the dish occupied by the sunis small and the signal appears weakerthan the ground at 300K. The IBT canalso detect human radio energy. Point thedish upward toward ‘dark sky’ and have astudent walk in front of the dish, therewill be an immediate increase in signalrelated to the students’ radioemissions.

Itty-Bitty radio Telescope (IBT)

As stated before, the IBT is built using asatellite TV dish antenna, LNB, and asatellite finder usually hooked to a meterto show signal strength. The websitebelow gives a detailed plan for building abasic model of the IBT. I chose to changethe unit to use a tripod for moreflexibility. With the support arm at the

top, students can sight down the arm foran approximate aiming toward the objectthey wish to observe.

Using the IBT

Remember, you must use the IBT outdoors since room temperature and bodytemperature are nearly the same.

Many geo-stationary satellites are in orbit above the Earth and many transmit radiosignals. These satellites give off a very easy signal to detect and students may askwhy the satellite looks like it has more energy than the sun. Remember though thatthe sun is a broadband (extremely!) transmitter whereas the satellite is a verynarrow beam transmitter so all its energy it given off in a very narrow band. It mightbe easier to visualize if you imagine the Sun’s energy curve (extending from lowfrequency radio through UV and beyond) and squeezing it to just a narrow band atyour observing frequency. I think you can see this would create a tremendous signal!Most of these satellites are in the Clarke belt named after Arthur C. Clarke, authorand engineer, who came up with the idea that you could create a geosynchronous

orbit at a certain altitude above the Earth. For more information check the websitelisted below or many other sites. Most of these satellites orbit above the equator(actually, a little below this) so figure out where your celestial equator is by takingyou latitude and subtracting it from 90 o. This is a rough altitude to look for



36

satellites. Remember that the orbit will be near theground in the east and west and forms an arcthrough the altitude you calculated in the south,(remember that your fist at arm’s length is about10o).

Other objects you might try include the Sun, Moon,

and any objects that give off a lot of heat comparedto the background like hot lamps on buildings inwinter, bodies, trees, buildings, etc. You can havestudents try to map the sky with the IBT by findingthe boundaries of objects such as trees andbuildings.You should also try a drift scan of the Sun. Simplypoint the IBT where theSun will be in an hour or so and let the Sun driftthrough. You will get a nice

curve of the Sun’s radiation as it drifts through theantenna.

Drift scan of the Sun on achart recorder. Kerry Smith

Resources

NRAO IBT website – www.aoc.nrao.edu/epo/teachers/ittybitty/procedure.html SARA – www.radio-astronomy.org/ Clarke Belt Information Site – www.spacetoday.org/Questions/PolarSats.html

Conclusion

My goal was to have given you a taste of the kinds of projects you could do in radioastronomy and I hope you will join us at SARA and explore your universe in otherways than you do presently. If you have further questions, please feel free tocontact me or SARA.

Jon Wallace

Twitter: @RadioAstronomy1 Web: http://www.radio-astronomy.org/ The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) is an international society of

radio astronomy enthusiasts.

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




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


https://twitter.com/RadioAstronomy1











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Welcome to Scope Review - Part 1By Paul Rumsby

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

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

To start I need to make some assumptions, I will assume that the old adage ‘Youget what you pay for’ still stands, this is definitely true when buying a telescope. Iwill assume also that somewhere around the £150 mark will not only buy areasonable beginners telescope but will also be ‘affordable’ to most people. In thesedays of economic downturn this may not be the case, if this is true for you then Iwould strongly advise that you refrain from purchasing a much cheaper scope andhold out for one around the guide price, I can honestly say you will be pleased you

did. So many cheap telescopes with fancy boxes end up collecting dust at the backsof cupboards and garages because of inferior materials and optics.

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

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

focuses. Short focal lengths will provide less magnified, wider fields of view thensystems with longer focal length. Scopes intended for planetary or lunar observingtherefore, will need to be the latter. The aperture of a telescope determines howmuch light is able to enter the optical system, normally measured by the diameterof the objective. In nearly all cases the more light the better as larger apertures willproduce brighter and more detailed images. The size of aperture will also determinethe overall magnifying power of the system, a rough guide gives fifty timesmagnification for every inch of aperture. For astronomy, a three inch lens or a sixinch mirror is the smallest you will want to purchase.

The focal ratio of a telescope is determined by dividing the focal length by itsaperture size. So an instrument with a focal length of 2032mm and an aperture of 203.2mm or eight inches will have a focal ratio of f10. The focal ratio and thereforethe telescope can be termed as fast, medium or slow depending on this ratio. Fasttelescopes f3.5 to f6 will provide wider fields of view then medium telescopes of f7to f11 and slow telescopes of f12 and above, will provide very narrow fields.

The most common type of telescope is the refractor. Light from an object is bent,or refracted, by a lens or lenses and brought to focus at the eyepiece. With thistype of instrument the lens is fixed and covers the end of the tube assembly sobenefits from easy set-up and maintenance.

A reflecting telescope, or reflector, uses a concave mirror as an objective which sitsat the bottom end of an open tube assembly. Light is reflected back up the tube



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from the primary mirror, is diverted at 90 degrees out of the tube near the top by asmaller secondary mirror, to focus at the eyepiece. The ‘spider’ that holds thesecondary mirror obstructs some of the light from entering the telescope so as arule of thumb a reflector will need a larger aperture then a refractor but are cheaperto manufacturer. The open end design means the mirror may require cleaning andthe two mirrors and eyepiece need to be in perfect alignment for crisp imagestherefore a degree of maintenance is to be expected. A version of the reflecting tel-

escope called a Dobsonian is very similar in design but the whole assembly sits onanaltazimuth mount, more on mounts in a while.

A more modern design called a Catadioptric include Schmidt-Cassegrains andMaksutov-Cassegrains, these telescopes combine a lens and mirrors to put largeapertures and long focal lengths into a compact size at a reasonable cost.Catadioptric designs incorporate an opening in the primary mirror which allows lightreflected from the secondary to pass through the primary to the eyepiece.

We move on now to the two types of telescope mount available commercially,Altazimuth and Equatorial. This piece of equipment is as important as the telescopeitself, the mount has to provide a stable base for the instrument to sit on. Altazi-muth mounts have two axes of motion, vertical (altitude) and horizontal (azimuth).Most altazimuth mounts will have hand operated slow motion controls for adjust-ments in both axes and more expensive instruments may have motorised/computerisedcontrols. Equatorial mounts are polar aligned and are essential if medium to longexposure astrophotography is being considered as adjustments on one axis only isrequired.

So after that rather lengthy introduction what is on offer for readers wishing topurchase their first telescope? If we stay with our guide price of £150 we havemany to choose from, to many to discuss in any detail here so lets limit the choiceto a few trusted manufacturers.

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

Product Description/Specification:

The AstroMaster Series produce bright, clearimages of the Moon and planets. The mount, aCG-3 German Equatorial, provides a solid plat-form being manufactured from 1.25 inch stainlesstube. The set-up is quick and easy, taking around10 minutes, with no tools required. The telescopecomes with a mounted star-pointer, but manyowners have replaced this with a moreconventional spotting scope, an erecting prismand 2 eyepieces (10mm and 20mm) are includedalong with a copy of The SkyX – First Light Edi-tion astronomy software with a 10,000 object

database. The aperture of the telescope is 90mm (3.54 inches) which gives a focallength of 1000mm (39 inches) and a focal ratio of F11. The eyepieces supplied will



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give magnifications of x50 (20mm) and x100 (10mm).The AstroMaster 90EQ Telescope is a good buy at around £152 when purchased on-line and will serve the beginner well.

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

hand controller.

Product Description/Specification:

SkyWatcher has provided a fantastic entry levelscope with the 130. The EQ2 mount is wellengineered and will comfortably take the weight of additional accessories. The package includes amotor drive on the RA axis which compensates for

the Earths rotation; this would normally be a £30upgrade on instruments in this price range. The130mm (5.1 inches) mirror is good qualityproviding x260 magnification with ideal seeingconditions and makes this telescope an all roundperformer giving crisp images of the Moon, planetsas well as bright galaxies and nebulae. The 900mm(35.4 inches) focal length gives a focal ratio of F7for wider fields of view than the AstroMaster 90EQ.The eyepieces supplied will provide x36 (25mm)

and x90 (10mm) magnifications, a x2 barlow lensis included which doubles the power of each eye-piece giving x72 and x180 respectively. Additionaleyepieces will be required to achieve the maximummagnification of x260

The SkyWatcher Explorer 130m provides abeginners telescope at a great price but comeswith the additional maintenance as stated above.

Skywatcher also produce the Heritage 130 a flexTube dobsonian telescope which isreceiving good reviews from beginners. The Telescope comes with two eyepiecesgiving magnifications of x26 (25mm) and x65 (10mm). The 650mm (25.6 inches)focal length gives a focal ratio of F5 for very pleasing wide field views. Theadvantage of the flex-tube design makes this telescope very portable and can beset up in minutes, perfect on a clear night but with limited time at your disposal.Because of the design the eyepiece is low so a table or stool may make viewingmore comfortable. At around £144 this telescope is good value for money as a parttime or starter scope but lacks a lot of the sophistication the other two scopes hasto offer for an extra £10-£20.

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



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suitable entry level instruments tend to be moreexpensive and may be considered a more interme-diate scope. Remember, if budget is an issue resistbuying a cheaper scope, a half descent pair of binoculars can be a very rewardingalternative while you save for a better qualitytelescope.

This concludes our look at entry level telescopes.Sooner or later the lust for larger apertures may(will) bite so we will go on to look at intermediatescopes next time.

Paul Rumsby

Paul Rumsby

Author of Astronomy Recent Discoveries And Developments

Websites:

http://www.paulrumsby.com/

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

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













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?



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For December I decided to ask our Facebookgroup for a topic for me to research and writeabout. The group came up with “What isstring Theory”?

Often dubbed the ‘The Theory of Everything’ which is a profound strong statement tomake!

A definition I found on the internet was” String theory is research into particle physics;it attempts to reconcile quantum mechanicsand general relativity”.

So to understand this statement we needto know 1) What is Quantum Mechanics2) what is General relativity and 3) whatis everything made of

Quantum Mechanics/Theory- the study of

physical phenomena at a microscopiclevel (very, very small)General Relativity- the study of natureon a large scale eg, planets, galaxies etc.or gravitation

So gravity affects not just large bodies orthe things we take for granted such asour cars, gravity also affects things at amicroscopic level too.

What string theory attempts to do is pullall these theories together to form onetheory.

Everything in the universe is made fromsomething. Our bodies, cars, the Earth,Galaxy and the Universe are all made of something. This something can bebroken down into atoms.

So what is an Atom?Atoms are a fundamental part of

chemistry, chemistry enables life toexist.

Atoms make up elements which form theperiodic table. Compounds are chemicalreactions between elements.

Atoms consist of a nucleus which ismade up of neutrons and protons.Protons are positively charged andNeutrons are neutral in charge these aretightly packed together to form thenucleus. In orbitals or shells you have

electrons these are negatively charge, anatom has equal electrons to protons.

Electron

Nucleus

Proton

Neutron



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Most of the atoms massare in the nucleus. Nowleaving chemistry let’sget into the microscopicworld of the atom. Herewe enter the world of thestandard model.

The standard model is trulya dynamic piece of work,driven by experiment andadvances in theoreticaladvances. The model looksat interactions, interactions

how elementary particlesinteract with each other. Thestandard model is “everything in the universeis found to be made fromtwelve basic building blockscalled fundamental particles,governed by four#fundamental forces”.(CERN)

Source:particleadventure.orgThe standard modeldescribes the fundamentalbuilding blocks and the fourfundamental forces in theuniverse, gravity, electro-magnetism, weak and strong

forces. However gravity isproving difficult to explain,

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

Now enter string theory, the theory at this present time is the most promisingtheory for the theory of quantum gravity.String theory believes that all the fundamental particles are basically different

manifestations of one object, a string.



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Strings can be either open or closed, There are several different versions of string theory which may perhaps be unified under M- Theory.

String theory is a string which is a hypothetical vibrating one-dimensionalsub-atomic structure. Quarks and Electrons are thought to be made up of strings. String theory is consistent with quantum mechanics and also may

contain quantum gravity.To summarise string theory is anextension of the standard model, to date there is no experimental proof thatstring theory is a correctdescription of nature itself.However with experimentssuch as at CERN we couldbe moving closer to theunderstanding if theuniverse and possiblycreation itself.

And Finally how will theHiggs Boson effect stringtheory?

The discovery of a potentialHiggs boson particle plays acrucial role insuper-symmetry - just one

more of the ingredientsneeded to provide evidence of the M-Theory of strings, writes Dr. HenrykFrystacki.

The Large Hadron Collider is helping inthe quest

Sources; Wikipedia, CERN, BBC Article D BoodDisclaimer: The article was put together using different resources on the

Internet, this is one of many opinions on the understanding of the universe.Make up you own mind! Editor……. Dave B



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Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012

A total solar eclipse took place on 13–14 November 2012 (UTC). Because it crossedthe International Date Line it began in local time on November 14 west of the dateline over northern Australia, and ended in local time on November 13 east of thedate line near the west coast of South America. (Wikipedia)

Some images, screen prints from the Panasonic live web feed



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Astronomy Wise

Public Meeting

ALL WELCOME

FRIDAY 14th December

Sawdon Village Hall Nr ScarboroughNorth Yorkshire

Sawdon, North Yorkshire YO13 9DY

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

LOCATED IN THE DARK SKY AREA OF SAWDONFOR THE BEST STARGAZING!

EVERY 2ND FRIDAY OF THE MONTHCONTACT 07951649024 FOR MORE DETAILS



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Rosette Nebula

At about 5,000 light years in our Milky Way there is a huge cloudof dust and gas which is giving birth to new stars. It is inMonoceros constellation. The image shows a great amount of interesting data. This beautiful nebula is also called Caldwell 49and is of emission type.

The X-Rays are pictured in red colors and this color tells us thatthere is hydrogen in the cloud. This colors is located mainly in thecenter of the image, which indicates that in the centre of thenebula there a great number of new stars which form a clusternamed NGC 2244 which was discovered by Herschel in 1784.

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

purple. What is this? It is a huge cloud of gas and dust. Giantpillars also are pictured (a pillar is what remains after an intenseradiation from a massive star). Brightest stars in the clusterexcite electrons in the surrounding cloud. These electrons producephotons.

On the right side of the image there is an intense cluster of starsnamed NGC 2237. Data from Chandray Observatory haverevealed that in this cluster is a continuous birth of low-mass newstars.

As you may note, in the Universe there are several formationswhith particular shapes. One of these is this universal rose, whicheven has e red heart. The great Universe machine agains imitatesthe tiniest forms of our Earth.

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

Words: Pepe Gallardo (Spain)Twitter @aechmu



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

For almost half a century, mostof the countries on our planethave had a common agreementto not exploit off-Earth spacefor the benefit of one country,or to claim any area for acountry. And even thoughspace exploration tends to behighlighted in terms of triumphs for specific countries,most space missions are aninternational effort. It's reallytouching and a hopeful sign inour future that most peopleinvolved in space technologiesreally do want to honor thiscooperation, even with enor-

mous political tensions. And it'swhy China's space program,with a clear military subset of goals, is mostly seen as a respected part of Earthlings' ventures into space, even if it does make some people nervous. Theirprogram is very energized and stable - it isn't seen as being at the whim of politically-motivated defunding. This coming year, they will probably be the firstgroup to soft-land on the Moon since the 1970s.

Credit: China.org

China's lunar spacecraft, Chang'e 3,will be launched the second part of 2013, and will have an orbiter,lander, and rover. The lander willmake a soft landing and work for acouple of weeks testing theenvironment and somespace-technology equipment. Therover will work for about 3 months,sending video back to Earth and

examining the lunar soil, along withscooping some up for a samplereturn in 2017. Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 paved the way by mapping the lunar



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surface, especially the future landing site of Chang'e 3. Chang'e 2 also testedtechnologies that will be used for the soft landing. Besides the lunar mission,China's space program has accomplished so much very quickly, putting spacelabs and humans into Earth's orbit, planning a space station, and they wouldprobably have put a satellite into martian orbit this past year if the Russianrocket that carried it hadn't stopped working once it left Earth's atmosphere.

That was a hard loss, but the China spacescientists have a lot to be proud of.

The Chang'e 3 lander and rover. Source:nasawatch.com

Like many western namesfor space missions andplanets, missions fromChina carry names thattouch people where onlymyth can. The Chang'espacecrafts were namedafter Chang'e (or Chang'o),the Moon goddess. Chang'eis honored at themid-autumn festival, whichis right around the timethat Chang'e 1 andChang'e 2 were launched.Chang'e was an immortal,who then became mortal

for a time. She became the Moon goddess because of a mishap that made herimmortal again. Even goddesses have rumours spread about them, especially if they're involved in some kind of questionable circumstances, so there are asmany versions of her story as there are mouths to pass it on. I picked one to tellyou that seems the most likely to have happened - one disclaimer, though: Ithink maybe in the past, the laws of the Space-Time continuum weren't reallysolid.



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Source: About China

The Earth was being roasted by 10 Suns, who were actuallythe sons of an earthly king. The king was desperate to gethis sons under control before they could destroy the Earth,

and asked Chang'e's archer husband, Houyi, to help. Houyidid help by shooting down 9 of the sons, leaving the 10th tobe the Sun. The Earth was saved! But instead of rewardingHouyi, the king was besmote with grief and anger at the

loss of his 9 sons. The king punished Houyi and Chang'e by forcing them to bemortal and live on Earth.

Houyi loved Chang'e and wanted her to be happy. She was very much unhappy athaving to live as a mortal, so Houyi went on a journey to find something that wouldgive them both back their immortality. He finally was able to reach the Queen

Mother of the West, who gave Houyi a pill of immortality and told him that it wasmeant for him and Chang'e to share, that it was too much for one person alone.Houyi was relieved that he could give immortality back to his wife, but instead of giving it to her right away, he went home, put the pill in a box, told Chang'e to notopen the box, and went back out.

No one has any idea why he went back out at that moment, but maybe it's a “fatalflaw” of legendary figures - like when you forget to let the unicorns onto the Arkbefore pulling up the gangplank. Houyi must have known that coming home from along trip with a present in a box and telling his wife not to look was just unwise.

Chang'e, of course, was overwhelmingly curious and she had to peek. Then whenshe realized Houyi would know she'd opened the box, she popped the pill in hermouth to hide it somewhere else, and ended up swallowing the whole thing. Shethen jumped out the window, but the immortality effect had started, and shefloated upwards into the sky. Houyi wanted to shoot an arrow to bring her backdown and keep her from floating away, but he didn't want to harm her, so shefloated up to the Moon, where she stayed.

Chang'e still lives on the Moon, but sheisn't alone. She has a woodcutter friendwho was banished to the Moon for beinggenerally annoying, and there he has thenever-ending task of cutting down an ev-er-growing tree. Chang'e also has a rab-bit friend.

Chang'e's rabbit friend is the Moon Rab-bit, who had been sent to the Moon Pal-ace as a reward for sacrificing himself.Moon Rabbit is probably the only one

who knows his real story, because hu-mans tell it in all sorts of ways, but he is always the hero. Several animals had



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decided to do a good deed when the Moon was full, and when they came upon ahungry man, they all went about gathering whatever kind of food they normallyate and gave it to the man. The rabbit knew all he could give was grass, so hethrew himself on the fire to give himself. The hungry man turned out to be a fairywise man, and he was so touched at the rabbit's selflessness that he cried, andsent the rabbit to the Moon. If you gaze at the Moon and cross your eyes, you can

still see the smoke from the fire in the shapeof the rabbit's body.

He lives there now pounding herbs of immortality in his mortar and pestle. It'sknown in Japan and Korea that the MoonRabbit also makes rice cakes. It doesn't soundlike a good immortal life to us, but he seems

cheerful. Pic credit: San Diego ChineseHistorical Museum.

Chang'e also gets visitors. The morning of July20, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts werewoken up by Houston control, and before theystarted their day of landing on the Moon, thecommand read them some news and

messages from Earth.

Houston command: “Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, isone asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legendsays a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o has been living there for 4000 years.It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortalityfrom her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit,who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of acinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is notreported.”

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

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



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Last month Astronomy Wise was invitedby Alison Birley to the 3rdScarborough St. Marks Brownie packmeeting. The Brownies were about tostart their Stargazing badge and they

wanted our help. Alison contacted us viaour Facebook group so John Harper,Jason Ives and yours truly agreed to goalong and help them with their badge.The Brownie leaders brought along asmall telescope and we, after looking atthe weather forecast came along with alaptop loaded up with software such asStellarium. Due to the cloudyconditions our aim was to give theBrownies a tour of the night skyvirtually. So once set up we decided thefirst place to tour was our Solar system.John harper who was a former teacherat a local school gave one of his nowfamous presentations, I say famousbecause many a local knows Johnthrough his school teaching days andhis astronomical talks which haveincluded local radio and tv. Jason gavesome of the leaders a small talk on theirtelescope, how to set it up, viewingetc.

Back to the presentation for theBrownies, John in simple termsexplained speed and distances, he saidto the troop imagine your in a spaceshipthat can go at the speed of light. This

captivated the audience. Then launchinghis software we went in to orbit aroundthe sun. From there we voomed off toMercury which again we went into anorbit. For each planet we visited Johngave a little talk about that planet.However the troop were captivated byEarth, the software runs in real time, soday and night are shown as it would bein real life. And on the night side of theplanet the software shows lights fromour cities and towns. Everyone was inawe including Jason and myself. Wethen ventured out to Mars, Jupiter thenSaturn. The troop was again in awe atSaturn, the software showed the planetin its splendour, gravity from one of itsmoons rippled the icy rings. Amazing,and this could be seen on the girlsfaces. Due to time we then ventured tothe other planets before finally arrivingat the dwarf planet Pluto.





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Astronomy Wise December 2012 Astronomy EZine