Astronomy Wise Jan 2013 Astronomy Magazine

www.Astronomy-Wise.com

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Welcome to another edition of

Astronomy Wise online magazine.

This month is a limited publication

with Xmas and New Year we

decided last minute to run the

Edition. A big thanks to Edward

Dutton and Rob Watson for putting

the publication together for Jan

2013.

Happy New Year to all……

Dave Bood

A big thank you

to all for sup-

porting AW in

2012 and here

is to 2013

Credits

Heather Dawn Extreme Planets And Their Orbits

Andy Devey Solar Explorer

John Harper The Night Sky, Occultations, Sir Patrick Moore

Pepe Gallardo Eye of Sauron, VV 340

Paul Rumsby Scope Review PT 2

Mike Greenham Lunar/Planetary Imaging/ Images

Michael Knowles: Total Solar Eclipse

James Adams: Voyager Mission

Jason Ives: Voyager Mission, Brief History Of Telescopes

Rouges Gallery.

David Bood Education

Editor: Edward Dutton & Rob Watson


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Credits

Heather Dawn Extreme Planets And Their Orbits

Andy Devey Solar Explorer

John Harper The Night Sky, Occultations, Sir Patrick Moore

Pepe Gallardo Eye of Sauron, VV 340

Paul Rumsby Scope Review PT 2

Mike Greenham Lunar/Planetary Imaging/ Images

Michael Knowles: Total Solar Eclipse

James Adams: Voyager Mission

Jason Ives: Voyager Mission, Brief History Of Telescopes

Rouges Gallery.

David Bood Education

Editor: Edward Dutton & Rob Watson

Mike Greenham: Andromeda with the Canon 500D and Skywatcher ED100. 90 to 240 second

exposures @ iso800 giving a total of 120 mins

Contents

4. Eye of Sauron

6. Total Solar Eclipse - Palm Cove Australia

8. NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula

10. The Solar Explorer

12. Rouges Gallery

16. Sir Patrick Moore Tribute

18. VV 340

20. Astronomy Education

24. ERESO - UK

30. Scope Review Pt. 2

34. Apollo Unseen

38. A Brief History Of The Telescope

49. Lunar/Planetary Imaging

44. The Solar System– Beginners Guide

46. Extreme Planets And Their Orbits

48. Voyager The Mission

54. The Night Sky

56.Occultations

60. Sky Chart


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In the "Eye of Sauron"

It may seem that we are not going to write about "The Lord of the Rings" or something

related with the astronomy in the novel. The astronomers have a very rich imagination

and so they have called so this galaxy which is properly labeled as NGC 4151 ("NGC"

stands for New General Catalogue of nebulae and clusters of stars). It is 43 million light

years away from the Earth and is one of the nearest galaxies that is known to contain

an actively growing black hole at its central region.

You can mainly see three colors in the composite image: red (radio emission from

NSF's Very Large Array), blue (X-rays as Chandra observatory recorded), yellow

(optical data from Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma) and white (the central re-

gion of the galaxy where the black hole is). The image is only the 'pupil' of the Eye not

the entire one.

An study has shown that the X-ray emission is caused by an outburst coming from a

super massive black hole in the center of the galaxy (the white region in the image).

Two theories have been proposed: as the matter falls onto the black hole it emits an

intense bright radiation which strips electrons away from the atoms in the gas. These

electrons recombine again with the ionized atoms and the recombination produces X-

rays. This situation may be caused by an abnormal growth of the central black hole.

Other theory suggests that the material falling onto the black hole releases energy

which is heated to X-ray emitting temperatures.

Since NGC 4151 is near to the Earth it offers a very good chance to study the interac-

tion between a super massive black hole and the surrounding gas in its host galaxy.

Pepe Gallardo

@aechmu


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


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Total Solar Eclipse 14th November 2012 Palm Cove Australia.

November 2012 people from all over the world besieged North Queensland Australia to

witness a total solar eclipse.

After viewing two previous total solar eclipses I was hooked. Travelling half way round

the world did not deter me. Eager anticipation gripped thousands of people desperate to view the wondrous spec-

tacle. I chose Palm Cove beach as my Eclipse van-

tage point. Trepidation filled the air as each wave

rolled in. Increasing num-bers of people staked out

their beach position in the early hours.

Cloud masked the horizon all through the partial

eclipse phases. Hopes

were diminishing with the ever decreasing light. Un-

cannily a few minutes prior to second contact the

clouds parted revealing the most awesome solar totality that I’ve ever experienced. The bailies beads effect were

the most prominent I’ve witnessed out of two previous total solar eclipses chases I’ve done. The Pacific Ocean provided an awesome backdrop which fused together with the

deep uncanny rich totality gave a deep greenish, purple sombre spectacle. It is not sur-prising ancient civilisations feared this spectacle due to lack of knowledge.

Totality occurred at 06:38:35 at Palm Cove beach.

Palm Beach crowd build up prior to solar eclipse.

Prior to second contact phase. After third contact phase.


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Total Solar Eclipse 14th November 2012 Palm Cove Australia.

Frequency of Eclipses The conditions for an eclipse to occur are similar to those for transits of planets across the Sun. That is at the time of New Moon (for Solar eclipses) or Full Moon (for Lunar

eclipses) the Moon must be close to one of the points (nodes) at which it crosses the ecliptic. The positions of the Moon's nodes effectively revolve round the Earth relative to

the Sun with a period of just over 18 years. As a result there is no fixed time of the year

at which eclipses occur. The nodes are revolving in a retrograde direction (opposite to the direction of rotation of the Earth about the Sun). The "eclipse year" is therefore

shorter than a calendar year approx 346.6 days. Eclipses tend to occur earlier each suc-cessive year. They must oc-

cur at New or Full Moon. After 18 years (6585 and a

third days, i.e. 18 years and 11 and a third days)

the Lunar nodes return to the same place enabling

similar eclipses to occur. This period of time is

known as the Saros. Due to the third of a day in-

volved positions of the

eclipses on the Earth's sur-face move round by about

120° of longitude. Similar eclipses recur at a similar

position on the Earth after 3 Saros. However changes

of latitude occur. The Nov 14th 2012 was a Saros

Total disbelief scoured Palm Cove beach

esplanade as clouds vacated to show thousands a wondrous total solar

eclipse.

Dr. John Mason MBE was our

professional astronomer.

Australian Nov 14th 2012 Total Solar Eclipse Track

Michael Knowles.

Radio Programmer


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Capturing the Suns large scale suspended magnetic structures.

This month I thought that I should cover how to capture the Sun’s suspended magnetic structures such as filaments, promi-

nences and post flare loops. These are spectacular targets that can offer excellent views of plasma flowing through them from

the Corona back to the Chromosphere. These structures can ex-hibit some tremendous diversification in movement and in some instances they lift off as coronal mass ejections. As with active

regions, I initially get a reasonable idea of the dynamics of the current suspended structures from the GONG site movies before

selecting which areas to photograph. On a few occasions, I have been able to predict when a large filament/prominence is be-coming unstable and ready to lift off. When these huge struc-

tures start to escape they can trigger ribbon flares, a beautiful spectacle to record. I consider that capturing a time lapse of

such an event a real bonus as they are far less frequent than solar flares.

When I am trying to capture such a structure, I always consider its initial size and try to allow for any lift off potential before I

choose the F-ratio and how much solar disc to include in the frame. I was caught out on one occasion when for the first 30 minutes I was at F40 and then had to quickly switch to F20 dur-

ing mid sequence so as to capture the expanding arc as a huge prominence lifted off. I later had to double the image scale of

the F20 images to make the final movie. The final movie speed will depend on the interval between individual still [I rarely go above 4 minutes] and the frame rate selected to run the se-

quence.

These escaping events can develop

into gigantic but very tenuous struc-tures as their form

gradually starts to expand and evapo-

rate as their mag-netic connections to the solar surface

become severed. Their proportions can extend for hundreds of thousands of kilome-

tres and estimated as a proportion of the Suns diameter (1,500,000km). The duration of such an event depends upon its size and escape velocity. Its form is a just a matter of its position either prominence ejections if located on the limb or as irruptive filaments if face on.

Photo 1: Here a large prominence has

detached from the north-west limb on 4

September 2012 and is in the process of

lifting off, I captured the whole event at

1.6m focal length over a 3 ½ hour dura-

tion.

Photo 2: Here anoth-

er large prominence

has detached from

the north-west limb

on 13 April 2010. Its

height is equivalent to

the distance from the

Earth to the Moon.

This is a mosaic com-

bining a disc and an

edge image.


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The slinky post flare loop structures that follow large flares

are best imaged on the limb, they can last for hours and in time-lapse can show the plasma flowing from the centre of

the loop and simultaneously down both sides to the chromo-

sphere.

When imaging limb features

always consider whether you want to concen-

trate the eye on the feature it-

self and if so over expose your image so that later you will achieve

a bright featureless disc or use a black blanking disc as

some imagers chose. You will need to double stack or use a 12 or 16 bit grey scale camera to get disc and

prominence features on the same exposure setting unless they are very bright. The alternative is to take

two images one of the disc and the other for the limb

and merge them into a mosaic.

Out in the garden

I always use the British Astronomical Association seeing scale as a reference and generally only

attempt to image from grade 1 to grade 3 seeing, unless a major flare/event goes off that I just have to try to capture! I have found that my local seeing of-ten seems to deteriorate during the peak period of the larger

solar flares.

There are quite a number of free download image processing

programs such as Registax 6, Avistax or Autostakkert that produce higher quality still pictures from averages of the captured video data to help reduce the effects of the local

atmospheric shimmer.

I build my kit up outside and use a homemade wooden ob-

serving box. My longest continuous solar imaging session to date was 6 hours so comfort is vital. My observing box is lined with black cloth and the outside is painted white to re-

flect the heat. I fitted the rear top with a hinged flap housing a small solar panel to recharge the internal 12v-battery that

powers a 100mm fan to keep the laptop and my head cool. The box has a Velcro strip around the front opening to at-tach an observing blanket. This box has proved excellent for lengthy imaging sessions even in

45ºC temperatures!

Have fun with the Sun!

Andy Devey

Photo 3: Here is a large filament that lifted split

into two and then reformed.

Photo 4: Here is a large post flare structure photo-

graphed on the 19 July 2012.

Photograph 5: An observing session in the UK.

The box has the fan cut into the far side. The

small triple solar scope has the two PST’s

mounted on a piece of laminate floor boarding

while the larger triple set up is assembled on

to a homemade aluminium cradle.


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Image: James Lennie


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David Lupton

Our Christmas Day Occultation: From L to R: Callisto,

Ganymede, Jupiter, Europa & our Moon


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


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Patrick Moore

FRAS

1923 - 2012

It was my honour and privilege to be invited to say a few words on all the local

BBC radio stations in this area, following the sad news of the death of Patrick Moore, earlier this month. Undoubtedly he is the man who will be forever known as

the ‘Father of Amateur Astronomy. Patrick was unique, not only because he was the presenter of the longest running BBC television series, The Sky at Night which

made available astronomy to everyone, but also because he was one of the founder members of the Junior Astronomical Society, which later became, and is now

known as the Society for Popular Astronomy, one of the three UK nation-wide

astronomical societies we currently have, the others being: The Royal Astronomical Society, and the British Astronomical Association, in all of which Patrick was a long

serving and renowned member.

I first met him at the old City Museum in Park Row, Leeds, (HSBC bank now stands on the site), when at the tender age of 16, I was enthralled by a lecture

given by an enthusiastic young man, the presenter of Sky at Night, a ‘short’ series which had just started on BBC TV. He clearly knew his stuff, and his enthusiasm

was infectious. I vividly remember coming away from the lecture with the thought that one day we would know whether or not there were aliens like those shown in

the slide of one of his mother’s paintings, on the planet Mars! So the decades passed, and we now know the answer, there are not! At the beginning of the 21st

century I was able to bring Patrick up to North Yorkshire to open the Astronomy Facility in the North York Moors National Park in Dalby Forest. The event was well

attended and everyone fell silent as I escorted the larger than life Celebrity of

Astronomy to the gathering of people around the two domes which the Scar-borough and Ryedale Astronomical |Society had constructed, near the old Visitors’

Centre. Everyone was surprised and amused as Patrick started taking photos with his old ‘Brownie’ camera as he approached the multitude. The event was well cov-

ered by the local press and radio, and everyone had the chance to speak with the maestro during the ‘bun feast’ that followed the ‘opening ceremony’.


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Afterwards, we drove him back to ‘Farthings’ in Selsey, his home on the Channel coast, south of Chichester, to be entertained by him for the rest of the weekend.

Reminiscing about that occasion, several amusing things come to mind. Firstly, the surreal occasion, when after arriving late at night, I had the opportunity to sit with

Patrick in his lounge watching an edition of BBC’s Sky of Night at one in the morning, sipping a triple brandy which he insisted I pour out for myself, after pouring his! Pat-

rick’s famous xylophone keeping us company in the corner. The second occasion was when I was with him in his study. There on the wall was a huge frames display of all

the honours he had achieved, including his ‘spurs’ of knighthood. He said to me “---and do you see that one?” pointing to a rather beautiful badge-like object. “Yes” I

replied and wondered what award it might be. “Oh”, he replied, “That fell out of a Christmas Cracker!”

Patrick Moore, was an unique individual who has inspired scientists and amateurs

alike to look at the stars. There will never be another Patrick Moore! We are so fortu-

nate to have lived during the time of this great man. The next time you look at the moon, try to spot the greyish patch right on the western limb (new lunar nomencla-

ture) of the lunar limb, at full or during the moon’s waning phase. If you can, then raise your ski hat and remember Patrick! That feature was discovered and named by

him- and is the Mare Orientale. I have one of the moon maps he made, which he gave me on one of my walls at home, and I am reminded that Patrick was an avid

moon observer. NASA used his maps when they were deciding where the Apollo mis-sions should land. How strange that both he and Neil Armstrong departed this world

and this life in the very same year. Both will be remembered. Rest in peace,

Sir Patrick!

John Harper, F.R.A.S Former Director, Occultation Section, Society for Popular Astronomy


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VV 340

Sometimes the Universe seems strange, fussy or even funny. If you look

at this image for a moment you will realize that these two galaxies form an exclamation point! Beyond this fun fact there are deeper reasons to

study the image.

This "object" known as VV 340 or Arp 302 is an example of two galaxies colliding. One of its interesting features is that it seems to emit energy at

a rate much larger than a typical galaxy. What is the reason of this? One is that a supermassive black hole is growing and swallowing the galaxies.

This black hole seems to be in the upper galaxy (technically VV 340 North). This part produces the most part of infrared energy (more in-

tense that the lower part, or VV 340 South). Another reason is that an

intense burst of star formation is taking place out there. In any case the galaxies are in an early stage of their interaction. Because of its bright in

infrared light this object is classified as LIRG (Luminous InfraRed Gal-axy).

Most of this images are formed by a combination of infrared and optical

light. In this case, X-ray bright in purple and th optical light is shown in red, green and blue. It is an astonishing chance to view how two galax-

ies melt down in a similar way as our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy will likely do in about billions of years from now on.

You can find VV 340 in the constellation Boötes and it is about 450 light

years far away.

Pepe Gallardo

@aechmu



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Astronomy

Education In recent years education has become more accessible, this is mainly down to the internet.

Many Universities are offering distance learning courses, the market for providers has

opened up. Any budding scientist can now apply to many Universities worldwide. For this

article I am not going to look at the cost of these courses, but what

courses are available and where. However I will have a look at free

courses available.

For those of you who are looking for a career in Astronomy, Cos-

mology, Astrobiology and other physics based courses then it is

possible you will be looking at one of the Universities, which I will

include the Open University. However later on in the article we will

have a look at distance learning.

With most of the physics based courses a good level of maths is required, mainly algebra.

The ability to take a formula and transpose it is a skill required.

Astrophysics/Astronomy

(Greek- Astro meaning star, Physics meaning nature) (Wikipedia)

Astrophysics deals with the physics of the universe, which include the structure, properties

and motion of the planets, stars and galaxies. Astrophysics can be broken down into

Observational and Theoretical.

Astrobiology

Astrobiology is the study of the origin and evolution of life, here on planet Earth, the solar

system and galaxy. It looks at possible life in the future here and elsewhere.

Cosmology

Cosmology is the study of the origins and the fate of the universe. It also looks at the

natural laws that keep the universe in order.

Planetary Science

Planetary science is the study of the planets, including moons.

If you are looking to study from home then the OU (Open University) is a good place to

start. The OU offers a wide range of courses, from Certificates in Astronomy to Degree courses. Here is a link to a search I did for Astronomy:

http://search.open.ac.uk/public/search/C.view=default/results?

http://search.open.ac.uk/public/search/C.view=default/results?q=astronomy&s=&sa=0&hf=10


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Another option is http://www.studyastronomy.com/. Like the OU they offer certificate cours-

es in Astronomy, Cosmology, Planetary Science and Astrobiology. They also offer Degree courses.

With both providers look at the pros and cons on what is on offer, look at the costs, most of

these courses carry a fee.

The following is an example of an Astronomy Course via studyastronomy.com provided by

UCLAN (University of Central Lancashire).

Course at a Glance

All modules can be combined towards the BSc(Hons) degree. Level 1 modules (equivalent to

Year 1 of a full-time degree) can be combined towards a Certificate of Higher Education, while the addition of the Level 2 modules (equivalent to Year 2 of a full-time degree) can

lead to a Diploma of Higher Education. Some modules are prerequisites for other modules, and students must complete study at lower levels before progressing to higher levels. Not all

modules run every year. The Level 3 modules (equivalent to Year 3 of a full-time degree) are only available on the BSc(Hons) degree programme.

Year 1 (Level 1 - not necessarily taken in Year 1) Introduction to Astronomy 1

Introduction to Cosmology 1

Introduction to Astrobiology 1

Sun, Earth & Climate 1

Great Astronomers in History 1

Energy, Matter & the Universe 1

IT for Astronomy 1

Investigations in Astronomy

Year 2 (Level 2 - not necessarily taken in Year 2) The Milky Way 2

Galaxies beyond the Milky Way 2 UV, optical & infrared astronomy 2

Exploring the solar system 2 Solar Astrophysics 2

Solar-Stellar Connection 2

Year 3 (Level 3 - not necessarily taken in Year 3)

Cosmology & Relativity Extreme States of Matter

Origins Collaborative Investigation Astronomy Dissertation

Notes 1. Available as a University Certificate 2. Available as part of a University Advanced Certificate Modules contributing to smaller awards can be later combined into larger awards of the ap-

propriate Level.

http://www.studyastronomy.com/


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Links with Professional Bodies: The programme is recognised by the Royal Astronomical Society.

Assessment: All assessment is completed from home, with no need to attend exam centres. Course work

includes question sheets, essays & reports on practical work. Practicals include naked eye observing, data analysis & experiments suitable for the home.

Learning Environment: The course materials, assessments and other resources are provided online via the Universi-ty's elearning facility, with bandwidth-hungry material provided on CD-ROM. Tutorial sup-

port is available by telephone, by email via a dedicated address or online using the elearning facility. Students can interact with tutors and each other online, and assessed work is re-turned after marking with extensive, supportive feedback. While most of the modules have

no attendance requirement, an optional observatory weekend is offered, and staff attend astronomy fairs around the country. Every module has a dedicated tutor, supported by one

or more other tutors and the course leader for all the Astronomy programmes.

Careers: Most of our students are studying for the interest, but some of those completing these

courses have used them professionally for example to meet their employers’ IT training re-quirements. The good full BSc(Hons) degree may qualify a student to progress to a research

degree upon completion, provided they choose appropriate options and final dissertation.

Other Opportunities: Students can also study with our partners Jodrell Bank Observatory and Liverpool John Moores' University, incorporating modules from those institutes into our awards. Contact the

course team for more details of this arrangement.

It is worth noting that a good level of maths is required with most university courses, the

ability to understand formulas and transpose to get the elements you need.


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Free Courses

We all love something free. Well there is a new provider called Coursera,

www.coursera.org .

Coursera provide free courses which last between 5 and 9 weeks long. They have linked up with universities from all over the world. One course astrobiology which is run by the Uni-versity of Edinburgh https://www.coursera.org/course/astrobio which i have signed for runs

for 5 weeks. These courses offer no qualification, and some offer a certificate after comple-tion. What these courses do is give you a taster of what a fully course would be. I looked at

the Astronomy Course which was mostly astrophysics and the science of the universe.

The content consists of weekly video lectures followed by homework. Each week to get full

credits you must complete the video lectures and homework to the hand in date set.

The courses are interesting but

they do require time to watch

the content, maybe more than

once and complete the tasks.

There are forums for help.

UK Space Education

Next month we are going to

look at Universities, however

the ESERO-UK have kindly pro-

vided us an article for their ed-

ucation program.

Dave Bood

Image: http://hannibalphysics.wikispaces.com/Ch+4+Newton%

https://www.coursera.org/course/astrobio

http://hannibalphysics.wikispaces.com/Ch+4+Newton%27s+Laws


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Astronomy teaching resources and the UK

Space Education Office - ESERO-UK ESERO-UK, also known as the UK Space Education Office,

aims to promote the use of space to enhance and support the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

(STEM) in schools and colleges throughout the UK.

The project is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Department for Education, and the office has been established at the National STEM Centre at the

University of York. The ESERO-UK office is part of a larger family of offices spread throughout Europe and established by ESA in collaboration with national and institu-

tional partners active in science education.

The National STEM Centre, which hosts the ESERO-UK office, also houses the larg-

est open collection of resources for teachers of STEM subjects.

Resources for use with early years to post-16 students are freely available as physi-cal and eLibrary collections. The eLibrary currently contains over 5,800 teaching re-

sources for the STEM subjects of which over 250 have a space theme. These mate-rials include:

Contemporary print, multimedia, interactive and practical teaching materials

Digitised archive resources drawn from recent decades

Research publications with bearing on classroom practice

Cross-curricular resources to aid innovative STEM teaching approaches

The UK Space Education Office (ESERO-UK) collection of space education resources

Space-themed resources from the Astronomy and Cosmology sub-collection:

A vital part of the project is the ESERO-UK collection of space resources. ESERO-UK

has built a collection of space-themed teaching and learning resources. Below are

some examples that you may find of interest:


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All About Telescopes

Produced by ESERO-UK, these short video clips look at a range of different tele-

scopes and give advice and guidance on choosing a telescope particularly for

schools, as well as advice on how to make use of remote telescopes.

Space - Careers

Our article on the STEM careers site, Future Morph, is part of their section dedicat-

ed to careers related to space.

Life of a Star: Planetary Nebula Lithograph

This resource from NASA describes how low-mass stars expand in size and become

red giants at the end of their lives. Then they shed their outer layers and become

planetary nebulae. The image of NGC 2440, a planetary nebula, is on the first page

of the lithograph.

Stars and Forces

This Nature of Science book looks at the history of astronomy and how scientists’

understanding of the solar system, forces and gravity has developed. The story in-

cludes the revolutionary ideas of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton and the theory of

magnetism.

Resources from the Royal Astronomical Society

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes

the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related

branches of science.

Cosmology: the Origin and Development of the Universe

This book introduces the history of measurements in cosmology, from Aristotle to

Galileo and Newton.

Stonehenge and Ancient Astronomy

This booklet describes how the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge appears to be

an ancient astronomical observatory. In recent years, by combining evidence from

archaeology and astronomy, some researchers believe that the monument could

have been an observatory, calendar or device for calculating.


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If you are doing activities with schools then these teaching resources, from the Roy-

al Observatory Edinburgh, contain some good practical activities related to astrono-

my:

Exoplanets

Galaxies

CPD for teachers

ESERO-UK works with other partners in the UK to provide continuing professional

development for teachers. We promote these via the events section of our website.

For further information and to access the resources visit www.esero.org.uk

Authors:

Allan Clements

ESERO-UK Manager

Tom Lyons

ESERO-UK Teacher Fellow

Alice Coates

STEM Project Officer


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Image http://www.esero.org.uk/


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ESERO UK

The UK branch of the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO-UK), also

known as the UK Space Education Office, has been established to promote the use

of space to enhance and support the teaching and learning of science, technology,

engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in schools and colleges throughout

the UK.

The project is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Department for

Education, and the office has been established at the National STEM Centre at the

University of York.

The principal aims of ESERO-UK are to:

share good practice, and space-related teaching and learning resources, with

teachers and college lecturers;

be the first point of contact for the education and space communities when

seeking information about space education and careers;

raise the profile of the education work of ESA, the UK Space Agency and the

wider UK space community with schools and colleges.

You can find out more and access teacher support at www.esero.org.uk

http://www.esero.org.uk


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Welcome to Scope Review Part 2

This is the second of three articles covering astronomical telescopes.

In December’s edition of Astronomy Wise we took a look at begin-ner’s telescopes around the £150 mark as well as discussing some of the terminology that may be encountered during a first time buyers

search for a telescope. This month we will look at intermediate scopes currently on the market before moving on to more advanced

and of coarse more expensive equipment next month.

As you can imagine, competition for this share of the market is fierce which is good for the buyer, bringing a raft of features but also a

multitude of possibilities.

You will be parting with a sizable chuck of cash so it is strongly rec-

ommended to define your budget and stick to it and also to ask yourself a few questions. What do you want to achieve with the telescope? What objects do you intend to observe, the

moon and bright planets or feint nebula and galaxies, or a combination of the two? The an-swers to these questions will define the scope you buy so take some time and consider them before purchasing. You may also want to consider what you will be doing with the scope in a

year’s time or harder, five years. Is your goal to carry out serious amateur astronomy or to remain a casual observer? Consideration should be given to spending additional money on

features you may not necessarily use right now but will later on, an extra few hundred

pounds spent now may negate the need to sell on and buy better equipment later.

The Skywatcher Skymax 127 Telescope comes with SupaTrakTM, a motorised multi-speed

alt-azimuth mount with hand paddle for easy slewing to and tracking of astronomical objects. The 127mm or 5” primary

mirror will give bright views of planetary and deep sky objects.

The telescope comes with two eyepieces 10mm and 25mm

which gives magnifications of x60, x120, x150 and x300 when combined with the x2 barlow lens. The Maksutov-Cassegrain

design of this scope gives a long focal length of 1500mm and a focal ratio of F11.8. The mount is made of aluminium and is supplied with an accessory tray, simple and well designed this

scope, at around £340.00 is ideal as a lower end intermediate

scope for the casual observer.

The Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT Computerised Telescope at around £360.00 is a great pack-age that is highly portable for observers in light polluted areas that need to travel to dark

sites or for those that want to be up and observing in a few minutes.


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The hand held GOTO computer has over 4,000 objects in its data base and the 102mm or

4” lens provide crisp views of the moon and bright planets with some surface detail visible on larger objects. At F5 the scope gives a wide 1.7 degree field of view so comes into its

own for sweeping stellar fields. Short exposure photography is possible with an attachment

for digital cameras.

SkyWatcher Explorer-200P 8" Reflector Telescope is a superb instrument when combined with the robust heavy duty EQ-5

mount. The telescope costs around £450.00 and ships with the normal accessories: 10mm and 25mm eyepieces along with the x2 barlow give magnifications of x40, x80, x80 and

x100 with the highest practical power of x400. The 200mm or 8” primary mirror allows 77% more light gathering capaci-

ty than 150mm or 6” mirrors and with a focal length of 1000mm gives a focal ratio of F5. The tripod is manufactured from 1.75” stainless tube and has hardly any flex providing a

solid base.

Unfortunately motors to drive the RA and Dec axis are not included so will be an additional cost (£90) and essential if

long exposure photography is being considered.

The BBC Sky at Night Magazine

said “The Explorer-200P passed all our tests with flying colours and was a delight to use both optically and mechanically... The

overall stability of the system impressed us”

Next we have the Skyliner-250PX 10" Parabolic Dobsonian Tele-

scope which at around £450.00 gives a fantastic aperture to cost ratio, an incredible 254mm or 10” primary for under £500! These

telescopes are simple by design and are meant to be driven by

hand but can be motorised if required.

The Skyliner comes with the familiar 10mm and 25mm eyepieces giving magnifications of x48 and x120 but has a highest practical

power of over x500.

With a focal length of 1200mm, giving a focal ratio of F5, and the larger aperture this

scope will be a good all round performer. This telescope is Ideal for the traditional, hands on observer, who wants to explore and learn the night sky the old fashioned way and be

rewarded with incredible views. The scope is portable and easy to set up…light gathering at

its best.


32

The Bresser Refractor 102/1000 EXOS 2 is a 102mm or 4” achromatic refractor that will

give outstanding views of the moon and planets. The 1000mm focal length gives a focal ratio of F9.8 and comes with a single 26mm 2” plossl eyepiece with a highest practical

power of x200.

This is a well designed, well built piece of equipment

costing around £670.00 that will give years of enjoy-

ment for the astronomer with a bigger budget

Lets stay with Bresser and finish this selection with the 102’s bigger sibling the Bresser Refractor 152/1200

EXOS 2. For around £950.00 you get the same design and build quality but with an eye popping 152mm or

6” primary. This is a serious piece of equipment and until recently would have been beyond all but the most dedicated of astronomers. The additional light gather-

ing capacity of this telescope compared with the 102 will deliver stunningly contrasted, high resolution im-

ages of nebula and galaxies as well as the moon and

planets.

The 1200mm focal length gives a nice focal ratio of F7.9 and a highest practical power of x300. The telescope comes with

the same 26mm 2” eyepiece for beautiful wide field views

and the sturdy Exos 2 equatorial mount.

To sum up: for under a thousand pounds you can get a truly stunning, robust, well engineered piece of equipment. The message here I think, is aperture. Go for the largest you can

afford. For me, the 10” dobsonian and 6” refractor stand out and as the former costs roughly half that of the latter should

suite budgets at both ends of the scale. You may be sur-prised at the lack of computerised telescopes in this selection but I think for true computerised, GOTO telescopes you have

to go above the one thousand price bracket, into the realms of large apertures and larger price tags. That’s where we are

headed next month as we conclude this short series of arti-

cles with a look at equipment for the advanced astronomer.

Paul Rumsby


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34


35


36


37


38


39

Jason Ives


40

Lunar/Planetary imaging Pt. 1

Firstly let me introduce myself. I’m Mike and ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with the universe.

How can something be so large, if I flew in a straight line for long enough would I reach the edge of the uni-

verse and if so what would I find? Is there intelligent life out there? I’d watch and read anything I could to

help me better understand the environment we find ourselves occupying.

I don’t know why but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I purchased my first

telescope and instantly became hooked. Being able to see with my own eyes

things that I had seen in books and on the television was incredible. Before

long I had upgraded to a larger telescope in order to gain better views.

I was observing the moon one day and wanted to show the family what I

could see so put my phone against the eyepiece and took a blurred image of

the moon. On the right is that first picture.

I was amazed that I could capture that amount of detail on my phone and be-

gan researching how to take better images. It seemed a lot of people were

using digital SLR’s for astrophotography so I brought a Canon 500D and the

adaptor needed to connect it to telescope and could be found every clear

night in the garden playing with my new toy. All of a sudden I was able to capture detailed views of the

complete moon and with an eyepiece projection can could take very nice close ups along with the planets.

Anyone with a telescope and a mobile phone can take pictures of the moon as I did above. I’ve seen pic-

tures taken this way with phones, Ipads and point & shoot cameras. Try it, next time your out put whatever

device you have against the eyepiece and take a shot.

There are brackets available that allow you to connect your

point and shoot camera to the eyepiece that will obviously

give the camera stability and improve the results. If you

already have a DSLR then all you need is a T ring to con-

nect to the telescope. Connecting in this way will allow you

to capture the complete moon in a single shot as shown on

the left. Any DSLR has this capacity but you really want one

that supports Live View. Live view allows you to connect the

camera to a laptop and view a live feed on the laptop

screen from the camera sensor. This makes focusing much

easier than relying on the camera’s small LCD screen. You

can zoom in on a region and adjust the focus until the cra-

ters appear to be in best focus.

Alternatively you can purchase a Brathinov mask, shown

below, and focus on a bright star. Brathinov masks are

great and remove all the guesswork out of focusing. They

produce a pattern on the screen that clearly shows you

when perfect focus is achieved.


41

If you want to achieve more detailed images you have a few options open to you. Firstly you can pur-

chase a Barlow lens and add this into the optical path. Basically a Barlow lens increases the focal length

of the telescope. The focal length tells us how much of the sky the telescope can see. The longer the fo-

cal length the smaller area of sky it can see. A x2 Barlow doubles the focal length, x3 triples it and so

on. Another method would be eyepiece projection. This works by projecting the image seen in the eye-

piece onto the camera sensor so the higher magnification the eyepiece is the closer into the moon the

image will appear. Some eyepieces such as the Baader Hyperions allow direct connection of a DSLR but

even cheap standard eyepieces can be used. In order to use these you need an eyepiece projection can

that you slide the eyepiece into. The DSLR then attaches to the can and is placed into the eyepiece tube

of the telescope.

The Image on the left

shows a Canon 500 con-

nected to a Revelation

32mm eyepiece.

The image on the right

shows the camera with

an eyepiece projection

can attached.

The image on the right was taken with a standard eye-

piece that came with the telescope using the eyepiece

projection method. As you can see we are now getting

in nice and close and if we wanted we could take a se-

ries of images covering the entire moon and create a

mosaic. I use a free program called Microsoft Ice for

stitching images of a mosaic together. I can’t really go

into exposure and Iso settings as its going to be differ-

ent for each scope so it’s really dependant on your set-

up. What I will say is try to keep exposure times down

to a minimum to minimise the effects of a turbulent

atmosphere. And remember as we increase the focal

length with Barlows and eyepieces we increase the F

number which results in a required longer exposure.

Let me rewind a bit and just explain. The f number of a telescope is the focal length divided by the aper-

ture. So a telescope with a 200mm aperture and 1200mm focal length has a F number of 6 (1200 divid-

ed by 200). F6 is a nice fast scope but a 1200mm focal length isn’t going to get you the close ups of the

moon you want. Add a x3 Barlow and it has tripled our focal length to 3600mm so now our F number is

18 (3600 divided by 200). Trouble is the exposure required isn’t tripled. Roughly it would require 14 x

the exposure time in order to capture the same amount of light. So if we were using 1/500s exposure at

F6 we would need 1/36s at F18. The knock on effect of this longer exposure is it is more susceptible to

turbulent air (what we call seeing). So as you can see it’s a bit of a trade-off.

Ok so now we can take complete moon shots, close up shots and stitch them together. You can now

have a try at stacking images to increase the sharpness. I use two free programs called Registax and

Autostakkert. Both allow you to put your captured stills into and will align and stack them for you. I’m

not going to go into depth in the use of the software as there are tutorials already out there explaining it

much better than I can.

So what if you want to take it another step. Lots of people modify standard webcams to use with the

scope. This is something I haven’t done but have read a bit on when considering doing one myself so

know there is lots of info out there on the web. If you choose to modify a webcam the following section

detailing capture and processing is pretty much the same.


42

There are a lot of different dedicated planetary/lunar cameras available but

they all do basically the same thing. They attach to the telescope in place of

the eyepiece and allow you to capture a movie containing lots of individual

stills in a short space of time. So what benefits does this have. Well the

more images we stack the more sharpening we can apply and the less

noise will be visible. Not only that but if I have a movie of 2000 images

some of the images will be

much sharper than others

due to seeing so you can

cherry pick the best ones. It’s

not something you have to do

manually, just tell Registax or

Autostakkert what percentage

of images to use and it’ll do it

all for you. Once it has

stacked them we can then

adjust the wavelets in order

to sharpen the image.

When considering a camera think about what you want to image. Colour cameras allow you to quickly

produce a colour image of the planets but the trade-off for this convenience is they are less sensitive.

This is because they have a Bayer matrix in front of the imaging chip turning the pixels either red, blue or

green. Mono camera‘s obviously don’t have this and are therefore more sensitive but in order to obtain a

colour image we need to take red, green and blue images to combine by using filters. So do you want a

convenient way to grab a quick image or are you a perfectionist? Another consideration is the imaging

chip size. A 6mm chip acts much the same as a 6mm eyepiece. To work out the magnification with an

eyepiece we divide the focal length of the telescope by the eyepiece size so a 6mm eyepiece on a

1200mm focal length telescope gives us a 200x magnification. Therefore a camera with a 6mm diagonal

chip also achieves roughly a 200x magnification. The resolution of the camera has no impact on the mag-

nification it is just the resolution that you will achieve at that given magnification. Also look at the speed

that the camera can capture at. Faster is better especially if you using a non-driven mount. You need to

capture as many frames as possible before your target leaves the field of view.

Below is a series of images of the Copernicus Crater captured at varying focal lengths with a 6mm diago-

nal chip. The first one is at a focal length of 1200mm, the second at 2700mm and the final one at

6000mm. The process for capturing these images is exactly the same. The only thing that varies is the

exposure time and gain setting on the camera. I try to keep the gain nice and low while not exceeding

30ms exposure. If you up the gain you up the noise and that’s something we want to try and avoid.

Even after saying above about colour cameras being less sensitive some great images can still be ob-

tained. Here is Jupiter captured using the QHY IMG132e, a colour camera. The exposure used to capture

this was 32ms and the gain was set at around 30%. An avi of 2000 stills was captured and I stacked the

top 1000 in Registax.


43

I frequently get asked which telescope is the best but in short I

don’t believe there is such a thing. For the moon and planets we

want the long focal lengths found in Mak’s and Schmidt Casse-

grain’s while for deep space photography we want a fast scope with a low F number in order to catch as many

light photons as possible in the shortest amount of time. For this reason many astronomers find themselves

owning a number of telescopes. The same is true for cameras. No one camera will do everything well. I own a

mono and a colour planetary camera along with the DSLR for

deep space objects and still find myself wanting a dedicated

mono CCD for deep space. It really depends how far you want to

take this hobby. As I’ve shown the DSLR is very versatile and

capable of doing both but limited when you want to get in really

close for individual craters. My advice to any wannabe astropho-

tographer would be to get yourself a second hand DSLR, play

with it and see how

you get on. It will be

capable of producing

images such as this

M31 Andromeda gal-

axy below so will

serve you for many

years

before you outgrow it.

Mike Greenham


44


45


46

Extreme Planets and their Orbits

As I as I stepped out into the cold winter rain it trickled down my unbuttoned coat and wet my warm chest, I began to wonder about temperature and how it varies in our gal-

axy and the universe all around us and the extreme orbits occurring in other solar sys-tems.

Gravity is universal it is responsible for holding together our Solar system and binding

the entire universe. Our solar system consists of 8 planets (poor Pluto) and over 300 moons but what is actually unusual is that all these heavenly bodies have a very stable orbit and travel around the sun and indeed one another like clockwork, some in circular

orbits others elliptical.

The universe is a very hostile place and there's lots of chaos and violence going on in deep space, there are extreme orbits, colliding galaxies and stars tearing other stars

apart, what I find most interesting is that the Kepler telescope recently discovered Hot Jupiter's ,Gas giants orbiting extremely close to their parent star, I decided to investi-

gate how this could have possibly occurred.

Large gas giants actually commonly migrate in towards their inner solar system like surfers riding a wave, their wave is a gravitational force pulling them towards their par-

ent star, thank goodness our gas giants don't appear to be on this path! Some planets get so close to their star that they are devoured by it as the atmosphere is stripped

away and then eventually the remaining matter. Some planets are so large and hot that as they approach the inner solar system they de-

flect the terrestrial planets and send them off into deep space turning them into orphan rogue planets in search of a new star some forever to be lonely rocky bodies surrounded

by darkness, these planets may well become moons to other mighty planets. Other earth like planets are destroyed in the immense heat given off

by the large intruders, so unlike our Jupiter which is stable and keeps its distance from Earth there are huge wanderers looking

for a hot spot to home in on near their parent star.

I personally find it remarkable how there are so many diverse systems out in the far regions of deep space but isn't it more

wondrous that we as humans on this modest blue planet have developed the technology to make these huge telescopes and

computer systems that give us the capacity to gather infor-mation in such volume about the unknown reaches of space, al-

ien stars and their solar systems and everyday we are develop-ing our knowledge to provide answers we so long to receive.

I for one am looking forward to seeing what information the fu-ture holds for us and what magic awaits our questioning minds.

Heather Dawn


47

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona


48


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50


51


52


53


54

The Night Sky By John Harper

All times are in UT (GMT)

January

On January 2nd at 04h38 the Earth is at perihelion, its very nearest to the Sun, when the

solar distance is 147,098161 km from the earth’s centre.

At the start of January, the Sun lies in the constellation of Sagittarius until, on the 19th at

around 18h, it crosses the astronomical border into Capricornus, where it remains for the

rest of the month.

The Moon

During January, the moon is at its furthest from the earth (apogee) at 10h52 on the 22nd,

and is at its nearest to the earth (perigee) on the 10th at 10h26.

Last Quarter is at 03h58 on the 5th, just north of the Virgo/Corvus border, 7° to the west

of Spica.

New Moon is on Jan 11th at 19h44 in Sagittarius, passing north of the sun.

First Quarter on Jan 18th at 23h46 on the Pisces/Aries border.

Full Moon, on Jan 27th at 04h39 in Cancer, and is one of the highest full moons of the

year.

Look for earthshine on the night hemisphere of the waning crescent moon 6th to 9th and on

the 13th to the 17th on the waxing crescent moon.

Earthshine is the faint glow on the night hemisphere of the moon caused by reflected sun-

light from the earth.

Planets

Mercury starts the year 10° west of the sun, but rising only 30 mins before it. Superior

conjunction, when the planet passes beyond and behind the sun is on the 18th, so for most

of the month the innermost planet cannot be seen. However, at the end of the month it

begins to reappear in the evening sky and at this time sets an hour after the sun.

The final apparition of Venus as the ancient ‘morning star’ Phosphorus takes place this

month before it disappears into morning sunlight. There is a good opportunity to see Venus

in conjunction with the thin waning crescent moon on the morning of the 10th as the two

objects rise at around 07h. After this time as they rise higher in the SE in the dawn light,

they lie 2° apart (4 moon widths). The thin crescent moon with earthshine illuminating its

night hemisphere will be seen immediately above the brightest of all the planets. As the

month progresses it is very noticeable that Venus is apparently moving in towards the sun.

Back

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55

As Mars climbs higher through the zodiacal constellation of Capricornus, it sets one hour

after the sun at the start of January, and so may be looked for as a bright first magnitude

‘star’ as bright as Deneb in Cygnus but with a reddish tinge, which makes it immediately

noticeable.

There are no bright starts in this area of the sky so there should be no problem in identify-

ing the red planet. The very thin waxing crescent moon with earthshine illuminating its

night hemisphere may be seen just over 6°, immediately above Mars on the 13th. Look to-

wards the SW, with a clear horizon, and you will see Mars half way between the waxing

crescent and the horizon.

Jupiter was in Opposition, (opposite the sun in the sky), and therefore at its nearest to

the earth last month. During January therefore, it is visible for most of the night lying in

the constellation of Taurus the Bull, to the upper right of Orion. The Pleiades are some 7°

to the upper right of the bright planet, which by the end of the month sets at around 04h

in the morning. The waxing gibbous moon may be seen approaching Jupiter during the

evening of the 21st, and passing just over 1° (2 moon widths) south of the planet at 03h

on the morning of the 22nd, when the pair are 10° above the WNW horizon. During Janu-

ary, a pair of well focussed, firmly fixed binoculars are capable of showing Jupiter’s four

largest satellites, as tiny star-like points on either side of Jupiter’s disc, changing positions

in relation to the planet on a nightly basis.

Saturn is a morning object in the western part of Libra. At the beginning of January it ris-

es at around 03h, but by the end of the month it rises just an hour after midnight. The

northern surface of the rings are well presented during 2013 and will delight observers of

any age, especially on seeing it for the first time through even a small telescope. At around

04h on the 7th, the rising broad waning crescent moon may be seen 5° below Saturn which

is as bright as Spica, Virgo’s brightest star over 15° to the upper right of Saturn. To en-

hance the spectacle, half way up in the sky above the moon and Saturn, is Arcturus, the

brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere; whilst opposite them bright Jupiter is

setting in the WNW.

Uranus is an evening object, at the limit of naked eye visibility in the constellation of Pi-

sces, some 10° east of the circlet of stars, which marks the position of the western ‘fish’.

At the beginning of January, Uranus sets at around midnight, but by the end of the month

sets two hours earlier. The two eastern stars of the great Square of Pegasus (Alpheratz, in

Andromeda and Algenib in Pegasus) point directly towards Uranus, which lies the same

distance below these two stars as they are apart. Use binoculars and you will identify Ura-

nus as the brightest star-like point in the field of view at that position.

Neptune is a much more difficult object to spot, lower in the sky, in the preceding con-

stellation of Aquarius. The outermost major planet in the solar system sets at 20h at the

beginning of the month and at around 18h30 at the end. Currently it lies between theta-

and iota- Aquarii.


56

Recent research has shown that the parent body of the Quadrantids was an ‘asteroid’ 2003

EH1, which broke up some 500 years ago. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks at 12h00

on the 3rd, when a Zenithal Hourly Rate of up to 80 shooting stars an hour may be seen

from the night hemisphere of the earth. The best time to look is early morning of the 3rd,

before dawn. Turn your back on the gibbous waning moon and look up into the northern

quadrant of the sky. These tiny fragments of dust appear to radiate from a point to the low-

er left of Alkaid, the most easterly star of the Plough. It has been suggested that the Quad-

rantids show colours, blue and yellow amongst them.

Constellations visible in the South, around midnight, mid-month are as follows: Gemini,

Cancer, Canis Minor and the ‘head’ of Hydra.

All times are GMT 1° is one finger width at arm’s length.

© John Harper


57

Day Date Time UT Mag P L Al Az Sun's Alt XZ Proper Name Zodiacal PA

d m y h m s ° ° ° Cat No. Cat. No. °

Tue

01-01-

2013 01:31:40 5.5 R D 42 154 -55 14350 omega Leonis 1397 323

Tue

01-01-

2013 05:56:54 7.3 R D 31 236 -20 14490 EI Leonis 1412 295

Tue

01-01-

2013 08:07:04 7.4 R D 13 264 -3 14570 279

Tue

01-01-

2013 22:20:04 7.3 R D 12 98 -53 15311 294

Thu

03-01-

2013 02:35:44 7.9 R D 32 150 -48 16686 285

Thu

03-01-

2013 07:59:45 6.6 R D 19 239 -3 16905 1629 260

Fri

04-01-

2013 03:07:14 6.7 R D 26 147 -44 17853 1726 315

Fri

04-01-

2013 07:04:14 7.2 R D 26 212 -10 17985 349

Sat

05-01-

2013 02:26:53 7.6 R D 14 128 -49 18778 1835 319

Sun

06-01-

2013 04:41:08 6.9 R D 17 149 -31 19682 1968 236

Mon

07-01-

2013 06:35:47 7.3 R D 17 164 -14 20590 2104 325

Tue

08-01-

2013 07:09:16 7.8 R D 13 159 -9 21676 2255 276

Tue

08-01-

2013 07:42:44 7.9 R D 14 166 -5 21717 348

Tue

08-01-

2013 07:53:51 7.8 R D 15 169 -4 21711 296

Wed

09-01-

2013 06:27:08 7.3 R D 4 137 -15 22661 V2106 Ophiuchi 2415 228

Mon

14-01-

2013 16:22:09 7.4 D D 26 209 -3 30469 3259 74

Mon

14-01-

2013 17:33:09 7.5 D D 19 226 -12 30505 113

Mon

14-01-

2013 18:14:25 7.8 D D 15 236 -18 30506 351

Wed

16-01-

2013 17:41:29 7.7 D D 36 208 -13 32079 23

Wed

16-01-

2013 22:12:44 7.9 D D 4 271 -50 21 2 133

Thu

17-01-

2013 17:01:47 8 D D 43 182 -7 921 86

Thu

17-01-

2013 18:18:39 7.8 D D 41 207 -18 967 69

Fri

18-01-

2013 20:33:08 5.5 D D 37 234 -37 2250 pi Piscium 240 44

Fri

18-01-

2013 20:45:53 6.8 D D 35 237 -39 2264 241 69

Sun

20-01-

2013 16:58:22 7.7 D D 45 132 -6 4130 117

Mon

21-01-

2013 23:02:41 7.8 D D 42 242 -53 5380 14

Mon

21-01-

2013 23:07:42 5.5 D D 41 243 -53 5396 omega 1 Tauri 614 64

Tue

22-01-

2013 01:05:41 7.8 D D 25 269 -54 5467 85

Tue

22-01-

2013 03:13:54 7.2 D D 8 294 -41 5541 49


58

Wed 23-01- 03:59:19 6.5 D D 8 293 -35 6577 107 Tauri 769 148

Wed 23-01- 20:17:42 7.6 D D 53 149 -33 7580 873 77

Wed 23-01- 20:34:24 7.1 D D 54 155 -36 7583 47

Wed 23-01- 23:57:43 6 D D 47 231 -55 7762 NSV 16714 888 120

Thu 24-01- 00:17:13 7.7 D D 45 236 -55 7767 152

Thu 24-01- 01:28:59 5.9 D D 35 254 -52 7851 57 Orionis, NSV 02722 895 126

Thu 24-01- 05:32:19 5.1 D D 2 302 -21 8178 64 Orionis, NSV 02803 913 62

Thu 24-01- 18:54:22 7.6 D D 37 111 -21 9384 113

Thu 24-01- 19:44:01 7.6 D D 44 124 -28 9433 70

Fri 25-01- 00:07:47 7.5 D D 50 218 -55 9695 127

Fri 25-01- 01:46:04 7.1 D D 39 246 -51 9773 1038 41

Fri 25-01- 02:33:26 7.3 D D 32 257 -46 9810 166

Fri 25-01- 17:17:21 7.2 D D 16 82 -7 10991 1116 54

Fri 25-01- 22:18:59 5.4 D D 51 159 -48 11245 1141 47

Sat 26-01- 00:21:16 7.8 C D 51 211 -54 11331 18

Sat 26-01- 20:24:06 7.9 D D 33 113 -34 12564 105

Sun 27-01- 21:01:45 5.2 R D 29 114 -39 13869 kappa Cancri 1359 271

Mon 28-01- 00:30:23 7.8 R D 46 174 -54 13988 1372 309

Mon 28-01- 04:02:09 7.2 R D 32 239 -34 14131 1384 355

Mon 28-01- 23:08:33 7.6 R D 34 136 -52 15070 1469 275

Tue 29-01- 03:25:07 6.2 R D 36 215 -39 15225 14 Sextantis 1482 308

Tue 29-01- 05:44:49 7.3 R D 21 249 -19 15311 343

Tue 29-01- 06:57:49 5.8 R D 10 264 -8 15340 19 Sextantis 1495 233

Tue 29-01- 20:28:27 6.3 R D 5 92 -34 16106 36 Sextantis 1566 349

Thu 31-01- 01:49:38 7.6 R D 30 159 -49 17573 250

Thu 31-01- 04:13:60 7.6 R D 30 200 -32 17649 1705 314


59

A big thanks to Dave Walker

for providing the image.


60

Jan

ua

ry 2

013

’s S

ky

Ma

p


61


62

Disclaimer:

As far as reasonably practicable all information is used with the owners

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Astronomy Wise is a non-profitable organisation.

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Astronomy Wise Jan 2013 Astronomy Magazine