Astronomy Wise October EZine

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www.astronomy-wise.com

stronom

y W

ise stron

omy

Wise

What’s new?

What’s new?

The X-Ray Sky

October Night Sky

IAU Meeting China

Monochrome solar

photography

Lets Talk

Intereview

Asteroids

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Image: Brian Ritchie

CONTENTS

4. What are comets?

6. Astro Camp 10. Lets talk interview

14. News 15. Carolian Astro Society

16. SpaceX news 18. IAU China

22. The Night Sky 28. Monochrome solar photography

32. The Dolphin of The Skies 36. Astrophotography for Beginners by a Relative Beginner

42. Our Moon and The coincidence of Mars 44. The X-Ray Universe

50. Lunar Occultation October 2012

52. Asteroids 58. Rouges Gallery

63. Halloween Across The Universe 68. Mars One News

70. Occultations 80. Competition Time

82. Android Wise 86. Dark Matter

90. Featured Astronomer– Claire Smith

Astronomy Wise was founded in March 2012 by David Bood

& Jason Ives. The EZIne is a free online magazine.

The concept of the website and EZine is to bring astronomy to all and is a truly community based project.

Our motto “ Astronomy For All ” To contact us send an email to [email protected]

Twitter: @AstronomyWise @jasonives101

Credits

Ed & Arrangements

Dave Bood

Rouges Gallery

Jason Ives

The Sky AT Night

John Harper

Template

Edward

Dutton Articles

Caroline Scott Heather Dawn

Zantippy Skiphop John Harper

Dave Bood Jason Ives

James Adams (Bob the Alien)

James Lennie Andy Devey

Pepe Gallardo Ralph Wilkins

Plekhanov Andrey

Sophia Nasr Claire Smith

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Page 2

Welcome……

October is here, the nights are drawing in and

there is a chill in the air, perfect, astronomy season is here. This month Rouges gallery

returns. We have The Night Sky, news features, guest writers and a review from the IAU

meeting in China.

Astronomy wise is running it’s first ever

competition. We are giving away 3 books from our 3 featured authors.

We have Astronomy by Paul Rumsby, In The Lion’s Paw by Ninian Boyle and Edge of the

Universe by Paul Halpern. See page 80 for more details.

We have articles on photography from Andy

Devey and James Lennie.

A special thank you to Sheila Kanani for her interview.

So sit back and relax and enjoy the October

edition of Astronomy Wise EZine.

ED: Dave Bood

Cover Image: Andy Devey

Image: Brian Ritchie

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The Baker Street Irregular Astronomers (BSIA) have spent the last two years

bringing free and informal astronomy events to Central London. Getting established as a society and attracting hundreds of people to each monthly stargazing event in

Regent’s Park has only led to ever more ambitious plans to bring astronomy into people’s lives.

Last year we launched Astronomers in the Pub to add an alcohol-enabled event to

our growing list of free outreach endeavours. Here, guest speakers deliver talks on topics ranging from Aurorae to commercial spaceflight, punctuated with the

occasional astronomy pub quiz. But this year, three of the BSIA committee (Paul Hill, Tom Kerss & Ralph Wilkins) took the plunge and decided to take our relaxed brand

of astronomy into the countryside and throw a camping weekend in Wales. This wasn’t intended as competition to the established star parties such as Kelling Heath

and Kielder (in fact Richard Deighton, who arranges the Kelling Autumn Equinox events, was happy to offer invaluable advice), rather it was an attempt to shake up

the formula and make star parties more welcoming for all… The 2012 AstroCamp

was born.

So why Wales? Well, it’s central, the skies are incredibly dark, the valleys provide protection from the wind and the campsite we found in Cwmdu was just perfect (we

Londoners don’t like to be away from wifi!). The campsite and local pub owners couldn’t do enough to help us out either.

After a few months of nervous

anticipation, we found ourselves pitching tents on the

7th September in glorious sunshine amidst the beauty of

the Brecon Beacons’ Black Mountains to the chorus of

wildlife – another first for we

urban astronomers.

Dawn at AstroCamp – just a bit of dew for the sun to burn

away

We’d deliberately spread the word on Twitter and Facebook as well as communicating with our 2,000+ BSIA members because we wanted to bring friendly

and relaxed astronomy to a wider audience – especially absolute beginners who might find themselves too intimidated to go to one of the established astronomy

events - and most of all, meet new people. The attendees ranged from curious children to dedicated astroimagers, so we set up a child friendly area, an

astrophotography section and most successfully a telescope deck (or ‘Hub’) right in

the centre of the site for people to socialise, share telescope views and experiences with others; whether solar and lunar observing during the day or deep sky object

hunting at night.

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The Hub at AstroCamp

But the real treat for all

of us was the sky! People

used to observing under pristine skies had the

opportunity to learn new tricks and see objects

through other people’s equipment. Those of us

who rarely see such inky black skies could enjoy

the naked eye sights of regular meteors, the

occasional fireball, faint satellites balletically criss

-crossing the sky and the ever present seam of the

Milky Way glowing

overhead. Being able to see the Andromeda

Galaxy and the Double Cluster in Perseus without any optical aid was quite a treat too. And the clear skies stayed with us for both nights.

On the Saturday we caught up on some sleep and did what anyone would’ve done to kill a few hours – we headed for the pub - a lovely local country pub that we

hijacked for breakfasts and our Astronomers in the Pub event in the afternoon. Paul Hill gave a talk on Herschel

and Uranus, complete with a toilet roll that had each sheet

representing an Astronomical Unit. Tom Kerss gave us a

tour of the Hawaiian

telescopes and treated us to his Transit of Venus images

from earlier this year, and I gave away two scopes and a

pair of binoculars to the winners and losers (ahem,

‘beginners’ please!) of an astronomy themed pub quiz.

Astronomers in the Pub – Paul and Tom

entertain the room

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The stars and dust lanes of the Milky Way ever-present overhead

We hooked a scope up to a laptop and streamed lunar

tutorials over the internet once the moon had risen. The local

animals weren’t spared either – magnified SheepWatch,

CowCast and PigeonView were

streamed during the day! Alongside this, Paul blogged

about the event on his Astronomer’s Den website and

Tom & Ralph were recording for their Awesome Astronomy

podcast. The feedback is al-ready in, anonymous of course,

and everyone greatly enjoyed the spectacular views, the advice and social ambi-ence. With such good reactions, we’d be crazy not to do it again.

So what’s next? Well, Tom’s starting his unbiased astronomy equipment reviews

website at www.absoluteastronomy.co.uk, which I’m particularly excited about – having nearly bought equipment on the back of magazine reviews that give

overly-favourable accounts to ensure getting more equipment to review. But the big

news is that the feedback was so good that we’re going to make the AstroCamp a biannual event in April and September and that means more friendly astronomy

each year!

If you want to see more of the amazing pictures from this year’s AstroCamp, go to www.flickr.com/groups/astrocamp and you can book your places for next year at

www.AstroCamp.org.uk

You can follow Paul, Tom & Ralph’s astronomy education feeds on Twitter at @Astro_Den, @TomKerss & @ActiveAstro.

Hoping we’d not drunk too much at the pub, the BBC joined us to film for October’s

Sky at Night. Dr Chris North and the ever- present cameraman wandered around the site interviewing the organisers and attendees and then settled down to some

observing at the Hub - the Moore Marathon providing some quick-fire sky tours.

I’d always felt that the faint summer nebulae and teasing more detail out of nearby galaxies would be the observing highlights for the AstroCamp – especially for those

of us that don’t have the luxury of truly dark skies from our gardens, but I was surprised to find just how dynamic the familiar star clusters actually look under

these conditions. The Pleiades, Double Cluster and the globular clusters in Hercules jumped out of the eyepiece and threatened to steal the show.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.co.uk,

http://www.flickr.com/groups/astrocamp

http://www.AstroCamp.org.uk

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http://awesomeastronomy.com

http://awesomeastronomy.com/home/

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Welcome to the October Lets Talk, This months interview is with a multi talented

young lady who is not only a planetary scientist but also does abit of science comedy too. So let me introduce Sheila Kanani aka Saturn Sheila.

AW: When did you get interested in

Astronomy & Science?

SK: I first became interested in science when I was quite young, as I come from

a medical science family. When I was really little I wanted to be a vet but

when I was 13 I saw ‘apollo 13’ and I realised that I wanted to be an

astronaut. I went home and read about Michael foale, a British-American

astronaut, and learnt that he became an astronaut by following quite an academic

path. He had a degree in physics and a PhD in astrophysics, and it was then I

decided to pursue an academic career!

AW: What is a planetary Scientist?

SK: Planetary science is a broad field of

science that doesn’t have to just be about physics. It covers anything related

to planets, inside and outside of our solar system! If you study the geology of

Mars, the moons of Saturn or hunt for exoplanets, you can call yourself a

planetary scientist. In fact, we are all planetary scientists because we are all

interested in studying the Earth, aren’t we!

AW: I have an interest in Titan what new discoveries are

being made about his exciting moon?

SK:Titan is a very cool moon! A very new discovery that was recently seen on Titan was a huge whirling gas cloud

at the south pole. The cloud is green, made up of me-thane, carbon and nitrogen. It appeared quite suddenly!

We think it is because summer is approaching. This would also explain why we hadn’t seen the cloud before,

because it is the first time a human spacecraft has been at Saturn in saturnian summer, so the first time we could

ever have a look at Titan in the summer!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1207/titanvortex_cassini_960.jpg



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AW: On your website you say you are studying Saturn’s magnetosphere, can you

tell us what the magnetosphere is?

SK: Some of the planets in our solar system are magnetised, like our Earth. Magnetised planets have magnetic field lines, just like a bar magnet. The

magnetosphere is a ‘bubble’ in space around a planet which contains these magnetic field lines. The magnetosphere can protect the planet from the solar wind and aid

the formation of an atmosphere.

AW: Tell us about your presenting work

SK: I love presenting! I enjoy giving talks on anything physics related,

especially space! I have talked at music festivals, in pubs, in theatres,

schools and I was even asked to give

a talk at a pharmaceutical conference in india!

AW: What would you like to do once

your PhD has been completed?

SK: I finished my phd in july, so I am now ‘dr’ Saturn sheila J this year

I am completing my teaching qualifi-cation (in physics) so that I have another string to my bow! I think having a

teaching qualification is a very valuable thing if you want to be able to present science properly. I loved doing my phd but I got very bogged down in the tiny

pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, and with teaching I am able to take a step back and have a look at the bigger picture. By looking at science in this way I hope to be able

to inspire the future generation of scientists, in the same way my physics teacher

wowed me. After this year, I'm not entirely sure what I’ll do next!

AW: Could you tell us about your gigs?

SK: I’ve somehow managed to become involved with stand up science comedy gigs

over the past few years and ive weirdly found that a) I enjoy them and b) people seem to enjoy them too! I never ever thought I’d be able to make people laugh,

especially not about science, but I seem to manage for short amounts of time. Its a scary but exciting experience. I once stood in front of 440 people with a microphone

and got them all to shout ‘Uranus’ at me!

AW: What is Space school

SK: Space school is a residential summer camp run by Leicester university for under

18s who love physics and space. they spend their days building rockets, going to space-y lectures and learning what it really is like to be an astronaut. I went as a

student in 2000 and I won the ‘star student’ award while I was there, which got me a place at space camp usa! Now I teach and provide pastoral care for current

students. http://spaceschool.co.uk/

http://spaceschool.co.uk/

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AW: What is it like to work at Jodrell

bank Observatory?

SK: Working at JBO was fun because

I got to go inside the dish! It had just been repainted and I got white paint

all over my top! You also had to make sure your mobiles were turned

off within a 2 mile radius otherwise they interfere with the radio waves.

At lunchtime the microwave oven was kept in a big lead box so that

wouldn’t interfere with data as well. How funny would it be if you thought

you’d found aliens when in actual fact it was a scientist warming up their dinner!

And Finally…….

Come and see a gig of mine! You’ll find all my info on my website

http://saturnsheila.wordpress.com/

I’ll be doing ‘science uncovered’ at the natural history museum on the 28th

September http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/events/programs/nhm/hall_of_famelab%

3A_science_uncovered_2012.html

a talk during the Physics in Perspective conference for the IoP next February

http://www.iop.org/education/teacher/extra_resources/perspective/

page_41717.html

and I’m in a science calendar in 2013

http://www.sciencegrrl.co.uk/#/about-us/4566816459

http://saturnsheila.wordpress.com/

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/events/programs/nhm/hall_of_famelab%3A_science_uncovered_2012.html

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/events/programs/nhm/hall_of_famelab%3A_science_uncovered_2012.html

http://www.iop.org/education/teacher/extra_resources/perspective/page_41717.html

http://www.iop.org/education/teacher/extra_resources/perspective/page_41717.html

http://www.sciencegrrl.co.uk/#/about-us/4566816459

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Checkout Sheila Kanani Videos

http://saturnsheila.wordpress.com/my-videos/

A big thank you to Sheila for taking time to answer our questions, good luck to

her in the future.

Astronomy Wise

http://saturnsheila.wordpress.com/my-videos/

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The news is back for October, in

this part of the EZine we have a look at news around the internet.

Jupiter Impact Spotted by

Astronomers

Jupiter Impact 10 Sept. 2012 11:35 UT Dallas, USA.

Dan Peterson is reported to observed and

photographed the impact. The video was captured with a 12" LX200GPS, 3x Televue

Barlow, and Point Grey Flea 3 camera. The capture software was Astro IIDC.

More details at

http://georgeastro.weebly.com/jupiter.html

Click the Image to see the Video

Asteroid 2012

QG42 Near Pass to Earth!

On September the 13-14th a

modest size asteroid will have passed earth at a mere 1,770,000

miles from our planet. The asteroid is about 800m

across and was discovered on August 26th. The Slooh camera

tracked its approach.

http://georgeastro.weebly.com/jupiter.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19299984@N08/7976507568/

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GRASSHOPPER TAKES ITS FIRST HOP

On Friday, September 21, SpaceX’s Grasshopper vertical takeoff and landing test

vehicle (VTVL) took its first test flight hop from the company’s rocket testing facility in McGregor, Texas.

Click the image above to watch video of Grasshopper's first test flight hop.

The short hop of approximately 6 feet is the first major milestone for Grasshopper,

and a critical step toward a reusable first stage for SpaceX’s proven Falcon 9 rocket. As seen in the video, Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 first stage, a Merlin-1D en-

gine, four steel landing legs, and a steel support structure. SpaceX is working to develop vehicles that are fully and rapidly reusable, a key ele-

ment to radically reducing cost and increasing the efficiency of spaceflight. Testing of Grasshopper continues, with the next big milestone – a hover at roughly

100 feet -- expected in the next several months.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzXlUw2WhcE&feature=youtu.be

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OCTOBER 7 ANNOUNCED AS TARGET LAUNCH DATE FOR SPACE STATION MISSION

NASA and SpaceX have announced October 7, 2012 as the target launch date for SpaceX’s first resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The

launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for 8:34 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida. October 8 is the backup date. The launch

represents the first of 12 SpaceX flights to the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, and follows a successful demonstration mission

in May when SpaceX became the first

private company ever to attach to the ISS and return safely to Earth. The

SpaceX CRS-1 mission also represents restoration of American capability to

deliver and return cargo to the ISS—a feat not achievable since the retirement

of the space shuttle. SpaceX is also contracted to develop Dragon to send

crew to the space station. SpaceX’s first manned flight is expected to take place

in 2015. On this mission, Dragon will be filled with supplies, which include

materials to support 166 experiments in plant cell biology, human

biotechnology, and materials technolo-

gy. One experiment will examine the effects of microgravity on the

opportunistic yeast Candida albicans, which is present on all humans.

Another will evaluate how microgravity affects the growth of cell walls in a plant called Arabidopsis. Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA

and Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will use a robotic arm to grapple Dragon following its rendezvous with the station,

expected on October 10. They will attach Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony module for a few weeks while crew members unload

cargo and load experiment samples for return to Earth. Dragon is scheduled to return in late October for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific

Ocean off the coast of southern California. Dragon will fly back carrying scientific materials and space station hardware.

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International Astronomical Union-Beijing-China By Caroline Scott

Last month (August) saw the 28th General Assembly of the International

Astronomical Union. It took place in Beijing, China and was attended by astronomers from around the world. I was lucky enough to attend the event with

another two representatives from

Imperial College’s astrophysics group. One particular highlight

was the Opening Ceremony (..the ‘other’ Beijing Opening Cere-

mony..) which saw speeches by Xi Jinping (Vice President of Chi-

na), Robert Williams (IAU Presi-dent), Xiangqun Cui (Chinese As-

tronomical Society President), Jocelyn Bell-Burnell and a whole

host of other entertainment by Chinese drummers, singers,

dancers and acrobatics. Many interesting research presentation

sessions, plenaries and joint

discussions followed. Here are some photos I took from the General Assembly to share with you all.

Caroline Scott

Astrophysics PhD Student, Imperial College & Harvard twitter.com/Astro_Caz

Top Image: Jocelyn Bell-Burnell’s speech at the

Opening Ceremony

Left: Other entertainment at Opening Ceremony

All Images By Caroline Scott

twitter.com/Astro_Caz

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The Astronomy Centre

"Dedicated to the furtherance of Amateur Astronomy"

The Astronomy Centre is a major resource for both amateur astronomers and the

general public. Based above Todmorden in the North West of England, we have

facilities and on-site equipment for both members and visitors, plus

remote access via the Internet for members.

The site offers a good compromise

providing a reasonably dark site, while remaining close to the major

conurbations of Manchester and Leeds.

The Observatory is open to the

public every Saturday evening from 7:30pm onwards. Visitors are

advised to wrap up warmly, with

sensible footwear, as the site can get very cold at any time of year.

There is a nominal charge for non-member visitors of £2 per person

(£1 for children and concessions), though further donations are al-

ways welcome! Groups visits can also be made at other times by arrangement.

Please park on the lower plateau, next to the caravans. Access for unloading of tel-escopes etc. and disabled parking is available at the highest point of the site, next to

the main dome. Further details are on our Location Information Page.

Membership of the Centre is £15 per year, which allows full access to the Web Site, including the discussion forums, full-resolution images from the 'scope cameras etc.

See the Membership Page for more details.

The pictures above show an aerial view of the main observatory, beside images of

the Moon, M42 in Orion and one of the Meade 16" telescopes. For scale, the main dome is about 8.5m (28ft) in diameter.

http://www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

http://www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

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The nights are drawing in and the clear winter nights are on the way. Welcome to the October 2012 sky notes from John Harper.

During all of the month, except the very last day, the Sun is passing through the constellation of Virgo. This constellation is the second largest, area-wise, in the

entire sky – the largest being Hydra (the swamp snake). On October 31st around 00h00, it passes into Libra.

THE MOON

The Moon is at apogee, its furthest from the earth, on the 5th at 00h44, and at peri-gee its nearest to the earth at 01h03 on the 17th.

Last Quarter Moon is on the 8th at 07h34 high in the constellation of Gemini, to the upper left of Orion and is one of the highest Last Quarter

moons of the year.

October’s New Moon takes place on the 15th at 12h03, in Virgo, near the constellation’s brightest star, Spica. The moon passes 3° south of the sun

at this time.

The First Quarter Moon occurs on the 22nd at 03h33 in the eastern part of Sagittarius.

The Full Moon, at 18h50 on the 29th , is often called the Hunter’s Moon.

It is named after Herne the Hunter, who leads the Yell Hounds across the early winter sky, whose ‘yelping’ can be heard in the skeins of wild geese

migrating at this time. Alternative ideas have been put forward for the name given to this Full Moon, however; one is that as the moon is now

higher in the sky when full, it gives more light for poachers to stalk their prey. Another is that when the moon is high in the south at midnight, the constellation of

Orion the Hunter is completely clear of the SE horizon for the first time since last winter. Look for the Hunter’s Moon this year in the constellation of Aries, 9° below

the constellation’s brightest star Hamal.

You may observe the morning cone of the zodiacal light during the second half of the

month. Look for its ethereal glow in the morning sky from 15th to the 27th

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THE PLANETS

Although Mercury is an evening object reaching its greatest

angular elongation of 24° east of the sun on the 27th, its low position near the SW horizon prevents it from being seen.

Indeed, at the time of greatest elongation it sets just 25 mins after the sun.

Throughout October Venus continues to shine splendidly as the

morning star, rising around 4 hours before the sun. It is the brightest star-like object in the night sky and casts a perceptible

shadow on a sheet of white paper. To see the shadow, hold your

finger up between Venus and the paper in a dark corner of the garden, away from external lights. At the start of twilight, around

04h30 on the 12th, Venus will be seen at an altitude of 15° in the east below the figure of Leo, with the thin waning crescent moon

10° below the planet, near to the horizon.

Mars continues to fade during October and is always low in the

SW sky, almost lost in evening twilight. On the 6th, it leaves the constellation of Libra and enters Scorpius, and on the 18th the

planet enters Ophiuchus and is a little dimmer than most of the true bright stars in the sky. Mid month, Mars is two astronomical

units from earth (1 a.u. is the mean sun-earth distance). At the end of October Mars climbs a little higher in the sky and sets

almost two hours after the sun, and is marginally easier to see.

There is an opportunity to spot the thin waxing crescent moon and Mars within 5° of the SW horizon on the 18th at 18h. At that time, Mars lies 2° to the lower right of

the crescent.

Jupiter rises by 20h at the beginning of October and by 18h at the end of the month, and is now shining steadily and serenely all

night long, between the horns of Taurus the Bull. Before Venus rises, Jupiter is by far the brightest object in the night sky. On

the evening of the 5th, the gibbous waning moon may be seen rising 2° below Jupiter in the NE, when a pretty conjunction may

be witnessed around 21h. Look for the Galilean satellites in the usual well-focussed and firmly fixed binoculars.

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THE PLANETS Saturn is lost in evening twilight and on the 26th lies in conjunction with, and far beyond, the sun, to reappear next

month as a morning object.

Neptune is crossing the south meridian, i.e., is due south in the sky at around 21h during October. It is difficult to locate unless

you have star maps as it is over five times fainter than the faint-est star visible to the naked eye, so is not excessively bright in

binoculars. This is not so with Uranus, which on the darkest nights is just visible to the unaided eye. Once again though, it is

necessary to know where the planet is, in order to see it. Neptune is currently in Aquarius, and Uranus in western Pisces.

Some more remnants of Halley’s comet may be seen in the early hours of the 21st,

when the earth encounters the Orionid meteor stream. Up to 25 shooting stars an

hour are expected. These meteors are fast moving and often leave persistent trains. This year’s event should be favourable, as the moon, a broad waxing crescent, will

have set earlier in the evening. The biggest number of Orionids will be visible just before dawn, when the constellation of Orion is high in the south. The radiant, or

point of origin of the shooting stars is some 10° above Betelgeuse, the star which marks the right shoulder of the Giant Hunter. Earlier in the month on the morning of

the 8th, a slight increase in the number of shooting stars overnight marks the peak of the Draconid or Giacobinid (whose parent body is the comet Giacobini-Zinner)

meteor shower, with its radiant in the constellation of Draco the Dragon. Last year the earth passed through some concentrated filaments of particles, producing a high

rate of about 500 meteors an hour. It is not likely, although not impossible, that there is a repeat this year. The moon is at last quarter later on in the day, and so

may interfere with the number of Draconids seen. The meteors have the reputation of being slow moving, but faint.

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

Cetus, Pisces, Aries, Triangulum and Andromeda. Cassiopeia and the Milky Way lie at the zenith, with the Milky Way spanning the sky from east to west.

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

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Words: John Harper Images: Planets Wikipedia

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Monochrome solar photography – a real opportunity to push the focal length of your

telescope(s) and get the very best out of your solar imaging sessions!

By Andy Devey

Hi Guys, for October 2012, I thought I would show you how you could maximise with your

photographic results from your existing solar equipment and maybe help you generate a

little more enthusiasm with your solar imaging activities? Don’t get too obsessed though or

you could end up neglecting the night sky – lots of my friends will laugh at that one?

I mentioned in my article last month that I use a monochrome web camera [DMK21]. The

reason for this is that such a camera has a CCD chip without a Bayer colour mask placed

above it to separate and produce the red, blue and green sensitive pixels that would enable

it to capture and then produce colour images. Essentially, if you use a colour CCD to photo-

graph the Sun in hydrogen-alpha wavelength you will only be utilising 25% of your pixels

[the red ones] so the bulk of your camera pixels [50% green and 25% blue] are doing ab-

solutely nothing. By using a colour camera on the Sun, is like trying to image through a

thick net – your image will also look very weak and flat!

Seeing conditions

The first thing you must consider even before you think about imaging is that you initially

check your local atmospheric seeing conditions. You can check and estimate these at the

eyepiece of your PST or filtered white light telescope when you initially look at the Sun.

BAA – Seeing scale.

1 Clear fine structure in sunspots, granulation easily seen and no visible limb motion.

2 Some fine structure in sunspots, small spots easily seen, granulation visible, slight limb mo-

tion.

3 Granulation barely visible, limb motion looks like it is boiling.

4 Umbra and penumbra of large spots just separable, no granulation visible. Some bad limb

boiling

5 Large spots only can be seen, very bad limb boiling.

The BAA have produced an excellent book called OBSERVING GUIDE TO THE SUN, it is not

expensive, it has been written by some of the top amateur solar observers/imagers in the world

and it certainly is well worth a read. You can buy it through the BAA website at this link.

http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=637%3Aobserving-

guide-to-the-sun&catid=81&Itemid=93

http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=637%3Aobserving-guide-to-the-sun&catid=81&Itemid=93

http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=637%3Aobserving-guide-to-the-sun&catid=81&Itemid=93

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How to get the best out of your solarscope?

Most solar telescopes as manufactured have an Focal-ratio of about F10 [PST as an example] or slightly less. To calculate the F-ratio for your own telescope simply

divide its focal length by the diameter of its aperture. You may have visually used a 2 x Barlow lens with your eyepiece? This combination effectively doubles the F-ratio

of your system pushing it towards F-20 and most people stop there! This also doubles the magnification of your system and also reduces your field of view [or

that of your CCD chip] to ¼ of the original.

You have to remember your CCD chip is very sensitive for capturing light and image processing programs such as Registax 6 or Avistax can compensate to some extent

for atmospheric shimmer.

I did some experimentation earlier this year with my PST using two separate 2 x

Barlows! You will need seeing of grade 3 or better to get any worthwhile results here. I removed the lens element from one of my Barlows and screwed it directly

into the nose adaptor on my DMK21 mono camera – this is the only way you will get your PST into focus with a web camera and you are starting at 0.8m focal

length. I then inserted this configuration into a second [complete] 2 x Barlow unit. My trusted PST was now at a focal length of 1.6m [F-40]. I calculated that at that

focal length each pixel in an image represents just less than 600km x 600km on the surface of the Sun that is approximately 150,000,000km from Earth. I was amazed

and stunned by the results as I consider that they are outstanding for the most in-troductory of hydrogen-alpha telescopes and also that they put it way beyond its

value for money!

[Photo 1 taken with PST at 0.8m focal length F-20 this is an M2-class flare with

attendant shock wave]

[Photo 2 taken with PST at 1.6m focal length F-40 this is an M6.1-class solar flare] I then made a huge number of solar movies using that configuration [check out the

“Recent PST Animations” on my website. This set up will obviously never match that of a larger aperture telescope [when pushed to its limit] but you certainly get the

best out of the equipment that you have and possibly exceed the performance of a larger aperture telescope that is

being used under normal condi-tions!

Naturally, when my SM90’s

then became available for me to use again, I just had to have a

go at a similar configuration to boost their normal focal length

from 0.8 right up to 3.2m or

just under F-35. I have been able to achieve an even better

result; with this configuration and I have since calculated that

each pixel is just about 260km

Photo 1:

30


x 260km on the surface of

the Sun and the system holds it really well but only

in good to reasonable seeing conditions!

[Photo 3 taken with Triple-stacked SM90 at 1.6m

focal length approx F-17 this is a C8-class solar flare]

[Photo 4 taken with Triple-stacked SM90 at 3.2m

focal length approx F-35 you can see the surface struc-

ture resembles a corn field in some places]

I shall keep a movie of one

of my high-resolution sequences shot at 3.2m

focal length on the top of my home page. The results are there to be seen and I trust that they will serve to inspire you to

experiment and push those boundaries even further? An interesting solar event during September 2012.

Here is a look at a huge prominence that detached from the Suns north-west limb

on the morning of 4 September 2012 between 09:48 and 12:28UT – I was lucky enough to capture and make a crisp movie of the whole event [reasonable seeing

and no clouds all day, I love Spain for this]. Here I present a mosaic still of this event. The UT stands for Universal Time and is used by Astronomers world-wide it

is the same as Greenwich Mean Time [GMT]. [Photo 5 taken with Double-stacked SM90 at 1.6m focal length approx F-17 at

11:54UT]

The movie I created shows the evolution of this prominence as it lifts off and it can

be viewed near the top of the home page of my website. I shall discuss double and triple-stacking techniques in hydrogen-alpha systems

amongst other things in the forth coming November issue.

Have fun with our Sun Very best wishes

Andy Devey

www.thesolarexplorer.net

Photo 2:

http://www.thesolarexplorer.net

31


32


DELPHINUS, THE DOLPHIN ---

The Dolphin of The Skies.

One of the smallest but

easily recognisable constellations of au-

tumn evenings is Del-phinus, the Dolphin.

During October eve-nings, its pattern is

quite easy to find alt-hough its stars are not

so very bright. At around 8.30 PM, find

the “Summer Triangle” consisting of the bright

stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. At the time I

mention, all three are

to be found in the southern sky, with

Deneb, quite near to the zenith, the

overhead point, Vega

to the right (west) of Deneb, and Altair

below. Having found the

“Triangle” look at the lowest star, Altair,

which is the second brightest star of the

trio, and about half way up in the southern

sky. Now, in order to find Delphinus, you

should hold your open right hand out at arm’s

length with your little

finger covering Altair. Then, at about the 10

o’clock position, to the upper left of Altair,

your thumb will be near the distinctive pattern of the celestial dolphin. The shape

of the dolphin is outlined by five stars of almost equal brightness, four of them in a diamond shape marking the body of the dolphin, whilst the fifth star, to the

lower right, is the animal’s tail. You must of course use your imagination as the ancient people did to “see” a dolphin there in the night sky, but I think you will

agree with me that the pattern is quite a distinctive one. Delphinus is worth looking at through binoculars as there are many faint stars in the region of the

constellation, lying as it does close to the Milky Way, the “River of Heaven”. Two of the stars in the diamond shape have proper names, which were something of a

mystery to astronomers. Most star names are either Arabic or Latin/Greek; but the names, Sualocin and Rotanev, seem to be neither. Eventually the famous

19th century visual astronomer, the reverend Thomas William Webb, solved the mystery.

He noticed that if the two names are read backwards they are: Nicolaus Venator,

which is the Latinised form of the name Nicolo Cacciatore, assistant to, and

successor of Giuseppi Piazzi, discoverer of the first asteroid called Ceres, and director of the Palermo Observatory in Sicily. Visually, in sharply focussed, firmly

fixed binoculars, Sualocin is seen to be a close double star, of contrasting colours so it is said. However, you will need the higher powers of a small telescope to

detect the pale yellow and green contrast the components are said to show. The top star of the diamond shape is also a double star, but because the distance

“An old print showing Arion and a most

unusual representation of a dolphin!”

33


between the two components is far less than in the case of Sualocin, a small

telescope is required to split them. Let me conclude with one of the ancient stories about how the dolphin got up there into the sky: Once, around 600 BC there was

an accomplished musician called Arion who played the lyre, a harp like instrument and sang so well that he gained notoriety and great wealth. One day on a sea jour-

ney to his homeland, he fell foul of the sailors, who knowing that he was rich decid-ed that they would kill him and share the money out amongst themselves. Arion

however overheard what the sailors were planning and so quite unperturbed, said,

“I will jump overboard, but

grant me one request, that I may play my lyre one last

time!” The sailors had no objection. Arion therefore

played and sang a wonderful song in praise of Apollo, the

god of music, who listened greatly pleased. As soon as

the song finished the sailors threw poor Arion into the sea!

Apollo, however saw all that was happening, and sum-

moned a gentle dolphin to go to Arion’s rescue, which it

did, and plunged under Arion

and lifted him safely, so that he would not sink beneath

the waves. The dolphin then swam with its unusual cargo

to Greece where Arion was deposited unharmed by his

ordeal. Arion then thanked

Apollo for the safe return to his homeland, and had a little statue of the dolphin

placed in Apollo’s temple as a memento of the event. Apollo eventually placed the statue amongst the stars so that mankind would see the brave and friendly little

Words: John Harper Former director of the occultation section, S.P.A, (Society for

Popular Astronomy).

34


35


36


Astrophotography for Beginners by a Relative

Beginner A Four Part Guide by Jim Lennie

The majesty of a clear night sky in winter. The moon shining brilliantly at night and

against a daytime sky. Mars glowering red when at opposition. The flash of a

meteor. The sun, our nearest star. The ISS sailing silently across the heavenly vista.

Many of us have seen these things and have tried to photograph them usually with

disappointing results. I have been actively photographing the night sky for almost a

year now and have picked up lots of tips on how to improve pictures taken of these

objects. I have been a keen amateur astronomer since I was 8 years old but have

been mainly an observer and not a photographer. Now that digital cameras are the

norm it makes this learning curve much easier to negotiate as you can see almost

immediately what you have just photographed and at no cost to you, save for the

time and initial outlay of the equip-

ment.

I am going to concentrate on the

DSLR ( digital single reflex

camera ) as that is what I have

most experience with. It doesn’t

matter what make it is and what

lenses you have for it as the basics

will apply to all of them.

( Left: Example DSLR Camera)

In this first instalment I’m going to

go through some basic

fundamentals which when

understood and practiced will give

the newcomer to this fascinating

and rewarding hobby a good

foundation upon which to build

from. This understanding will be essential later on when we start to use the camera

attached to a telescope as this brings a whole host of new problems for us solve and

work around. It will be fun !

Since astrophotography will normally be undertaken in the dark I’m going to list the

things that you need to be aware of and be familiar with to maximise your

enjoyment and the resulting photographs.

37


1) You need to be comfortable with

using your camera in full manual

mode and that will include focussing.

This will be especially true when

your camera is connected at prime

focus of a telescope. Full manual will

mean setting your aperture ( when

using a camera lens ) and shutter

speed and ISO speed. As things in

the sky are at infinity depth of field

is not important.

2) Be familiar with your camera’s

controls and buttons so that you

know where they all are without

having to continually look for them

in the dark. Have a red light torch

available so you don’t ruin your night

vision. I place red cellophane over

the liveview screen on my camera to

stop it dazzling me at night.

Image: DSLR connected to a telescope: http://www.celestron.com/

astronomy/celestron-nexstar-5se.html

3) Focussing will be a problem at night when using camera lenses as the autofocus

feature likely won’t work on stars. The camera live view screen, if you have one, will

not show stars either. You may be able to see brighter stars through the viewfinder

but not clearly enough to focus on properly in manual mode. What I do when using

camera lenses is this, if the moon is available or brighter planets such as Venus,

Jupiter are visible I get focus lock on them and then turn autofocus off, it’s usually a

slider switch on the lens, this then leaves the lens pre-focussed at infinity so your

star shots will be nice and sharp. If your lens is a zoom then decide what level of

zoom you are going to use before doing the focus lock and if your lens has a zoom

lock button then lock it. What do you do if there is no moon or brighter objects to

get focus lock on ? I focus on a distant streetlight at least 300 meters away and turn

autofocus off as described earlier. If going to a truly dark site then pre focus your

lenses before you go. Most lenses have a infinity mark on them for focus but it’s

easy to go past this mark or it’s not accurate. Astrophotography needs a sharp

focus.

4) You will need a tripod to mount your camera on as star pictures require long

exposures compared to normal photography. Get used to making sure the tripod is

38


level and if you have IS ( image stabilisation ) either in your lenses or in the camera

body then turn it OFF, some lenses, bodies will auto detect a tripod and turn IS off,

check to see if yours does. If you don’t you will likely get soft images.

5) Focal Length, I’m now going to explain what this is and how it applies to both

camera lenses and telescopes and it is important to understand how this varies and

what impact it will have on your photographs. Focal length is the distance from the

light collecting lens or mirror that the image is formed at. In a telescope this dis-

tance where the image is formed is then magnified by an eyepiece. If we have a

150mm F8 telescope then this point would be 1200mm from the lens or mirror. We

multiply the diameter of the lens/mirror ( 150mm ) by 8 to give 1200mm focal

length. So, if the focal length was 900mm the F ratio of this scope would then be F6.

This telescope is collecting exactly the same amount of light at F8 as it is at F6 but

the image at F6 is much brighter so would need less exposure time to capture it,

how can this be ?. The answer is that the image at F8 is much larger than it is at F6

so appears dimmer because the light has been spread over a larger area than it does

at F6. In other words at F8 1200mm the image is magnified more. I’m often asked

how much a lens when used with a dslr magnifies as telescopes, binoculars etc are

always expressed as x7, x10 etc for binoculars and x40, x200 etc for telescopes. The

answer depends on the sensor size that is used with your particular camera and is

known as the crop value. It’s all based on 35mm film when that was the dominant

media for photography. Most DSLR’s have sensors smaller than 35mm so are known

as cropped cameras. Full frame DSLR’s have a sensor size equivalent to 35mm film

but are very expensive and for astronomical purposes don’t provide the needed

reach of the cropped sensors. Ok, I am now going to fit a 200mm zoom to my full

frame DSLR, this will magnify the image at x4.6 . The same lens when fitted to my

Canon cropped sensor DSLR will now magnify at x7.5 so a useful gain. The crop val-

ue of Canon sensors is x1.6 so that 200mm lens becomes 320mm because the

sensor is smaller and sees only a cropped light cone from the lens. Nikon crop bodies

usually have a crop value of x1.5 and Olympus 4/3rds sensors have a crop value of

x2. This will become clear over the next 3 parts of this guide as to why you need to

be aware of these differences.

6) To conclude this first part of the guide get used to taking your pictures in RAW,

this format captures all the data from your camera’s sensor when you take a picture

and is not compressed in any way. Regard RAW as your digital negative from which

you can generate tiffs and jpg’s from without altering your original capture data. I

will go into a lot more detail with this when we come to the image processing part of

this guide.

Next part is using your camera under a night sky with suggested targets and

settings and what to expect ! Also an introduction to using a telescope with your

dslr and why focal length is so important. Finally, an introduction to the rule of 600

in which you will see why I have mentioned focal length and crop values so often !.

39


Examples of DSLR for astrophotography.

Image Credit: Pentax Forums

Image Credit: OptexCom

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/102315-how-connect-my-istd-astronomical-telescope.html

http://optexcom.com/telescopeProducts/TeleProdCat.html

40


In the Lion's Paw

Ninian G Boyle

www.inthelionspaw.com

http://www.inthelionspaw.com/

41


Re-

cent

ASTRONOMY

Recent Discoveries & Developments

From the Reviews:

This book is packed with interest-

ing new topics in easily readable

chunks.

No maths, just plenty of illustra-

tions in glorious colour, sprinkled

with explanations and anecdotes.

An excellent read for kids and

grown-ups alike, ideal for brows-

ing on a journey.

Can't wait for the next edition…

…Margarita

Although the lifetimes of stars and galaxies are played out over hundreds and thousands of mil-

lennia, the field of Astronomy itself is fast paced, with hardly a week going by without a new

discovery or development hitting the headlines.

This book delves into the most significant, ground breaking, headline making stories that have

come out of Astronomy throughout 2011-12 and presents them in an easy to read, easy to un-

derstand format.

The Perfect Introduction

The Perfect Catch-up

Available from Amazon in Kindle and Paperback Formats

For more information go to www.paulrumsby.com

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AstronomyRecentDiscoveriesAndDevelopments

Follow the Author on Twitter @PMRumsby

http://www.paulrumsby.com/

http://www.facebook.com/AstronomyRecentDiscoveriesAndDevelopments

42


Our Moon and The coincidence of Mars

During one of my regular evenings laying in my gold silk sheets looking up at a

clear sky, stars twinkling back at me, I got to thinking about time. The earth takes just over 24 hrs to rotate giving us our day, I have previously been educated that

our moon plays a huge part in the length of an earth day.

4 1/2 billion years ago earth was assaulted by rocks and comets and some hypothesise that a smaller planet impacted the earth

creating an enormous fountain molten rock that formed a sphere 40 thousand miles from earth creating our moon, if this debris

had been any closer to earth it would have crashed back down due to the gravitational pull of our planet and we would not have

our moon today.

Millions maybe even billions of years ago when the Moon was much closer to earth a day was only 6 hours long and as it has

drifted further away over the years our rotation has slowed down, I was quite taken aback to find a day on Mars is extreme-

ly similar to earths at just 24 hours and 37 minutes and as it has no large moon I set out to discover the answer to how this could

be! Taking into consideration that Mars is much smaller than earth would surely mean

that it would rotate more quickly not take slightly longer? Due to its distance from the sun being further away than that of earths you can expect the year to be

much longer, but the day would surely be much different especially with no gravitational influence from a large moon.

I decided that as a full time mum and freelance writer I was in no position to answer these questions so I decided to ask some professionals including an Astro

biologist and Professional Astronomer, I was taken aback slightly upon reading their

answers because they both agreed that the conclusion is that it's a pure coincidence! How can this be? does this mean the moon actually has no influence

over our rotation here on earth I wondered. Ok so what actual influence does the moon have over our planet? I wanted to find

someone with a computer that could simulate mars with a moon like ours placed in a position that represented earths relationship with our moon but apparently the

calculations of this experiment could not equate an accurate reading. I find it very baffling that earth and mars have such similar day lengths when they are so

different and am going to carry on my investigations to try discover why. I hope this article gets some of you thinking about the solar system and it's

"coincidences" although that word doesn't sit too well with my questioning mind. Venus has an

extremely slow day at a rotation of 243 earth days which also gives food for thought.

Heather Dawn [email protected]

freelance.

43


Book Review

http://edgeofuniverse.com/

This month we are reviewing Paul Halperns new

book ‘Edge of the Universe’ A voyage to the cosmic horizon and beyond.

The universe is a vast and complex place. It is

full of mystery and wonder. We can peer out into the galaxy from our back gardens with small

telescopes and see the stars and planets.

However have you ever thought when gazing up how did this magnificent spectacle begin? How

big is the universe? Is there more than one Universe?

Like you I have asked myself these and many more questions.

Dr Paul Halpern who is an American Professor of Physics and a well publisher author may have the answers I am looking for.

I downloaded the book onto my Galaxy Pad, using the Kindle app from amazon. Firstly the book is well laid out and easy to follow. It

is not over complex and the beginner to Astronomy and those with an interest of the universe will quickly be absorbed into the pages.

We soon learn that the universe is full of dark energy and dark matter. There are ideas on multi-universe and unseen dimensions.

Download this book, buy this book in traditional form, which ever you choose get

yourself comfortable and begin your journey to the cosmos.

Astronomy Wise Rating 5/5

We are offering this book as part of our competition.

http://edgeofuniverse.com/

44


45


We can view many wonders through our telescopes

on a dark clear night. Even using a small telescope in the back garden we can view stars, planets and

our nearest neighbour the Moon. Just sitting and looking up with the naked eye we can see the milky

way.

The light we see or visible light is a small part of the

electromagnetic spectrum. Our instruments can see a wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum and

part of this spectrum are x rays. Over the next few issues Pepe Gallardo from Spain will introduce us to

the X Ray sky.

Images: Right: Nasa Below: http://www.webexhibits.org

46


When we look at our Universe through a telescope we get amazed by its beauty, but we are not viewing the whole story. The Universe has an invisible face which

cannot be detected by the naked eye but can be by other instruments. These observations give new details about our current Universe and the past. This is one

of the most striking results from observing the x-ray universe.

The aim of studying the X-ray Universe comes from the fact that

these rays are absorbed by our atmosphere. Though it may seem

empty and scattered, the global atmosphere is thick. If we want to

collect data from X-ray we have to

launch a telescope into outer space. Not the first but NASA's Chandra

observatory, is observing the X Ray universe, named in honour of the

great cosmologist, Indian-born Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

Looking at X-rays is to look for high

energy and short wavelengths, smaller than those wavelengths the

eye can detect. These high energy beams have to come from high energy events in the Universe. For example, if a neutron star is orbiting another star it will catch gas

from the companion. Intense gravity moves the gas and heats it up. This produces an X-ray glow which can be detect, not by our earthly telescopes though.

These kind of events are where X-ray astrophysics focuses. Binary systems,

black holes and supernova remnants. Usually the image X-ray telescopes

see, are not as dramatic as you will see here. The glow, whose emission

spectrum astronomers can study. From these studies astronomers can

see the early make up of the universe.

These observations not only provide

beautiful images (composed with another ones) but are a crucial key to

study our Universe and its origin. We

can try to solve the puzzle called dark

47


matter and dark energy and, finally, to give new clues to that fundamental moment called 'big bang'.

Welcome to the journey with X-rays through Universe!

[Credit for Kepler's supernova: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/D.Patnaude, Optical: DSS]

Words: Pepe Gallardo (Spain) Images: NASA

Image: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4346-heavens-dimmed-for-chandra

-space-telescope.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4346-heavens-dimmed-for-chandra-space-telescope.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4346-heavens-dimmed-for-chandra-space-telescope.html

48


Image ESO Very Large Telescope

Optical data, from ESO's Very Large Telescope, shown in yellow-white and blue colors.

X-Ray, from Chandra, show colors in golden yellow.

Infrared, from Spitzer, in red colors.

In the arms you can see blue stars, formed recently; they are hot and young. The

galaxy shows some kind of asymetry, as on the lower side (the southern most) where new stars are also formed.

Just in that southern arm you can see (labelled) an object called SN 1979C which is

a supernova discovered in 1979 (so its name). Astronomers think that this super-nova formed when a star of about 20 times our Sun's mass collapsed. Data from

several observatories revealed that a bright and steady (from 1995 to 2007) source of X-rays. Details from this source tend to think that in the core of SN 1979C there

is a black hole and either the material falling into it or a binary companion feed it.

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/D.Patnaude et al, Optical: ESO/VLT, Infrared:

NASA/JPL/Caltech

Words:Pepe Gallardo (Spain)

@aechmu

What you see is a dramatic image

showing Galaxy M100, which is a spiral one (like our Milky Way) in the

constellation Coma Berenices. M100 is about 50 millions light-years far away.

It is among the first galaxies spirals ever discovered in 1850. It is reported

that this galaxy may contain the

youngest black hole in our neighbourhood. The image is a

composite one, meaning that it is not as if you could see it through a

telescope. The components are the following:

49


50


Lunar Occultation October 2012 by John Harper

51


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 Week 2 DATE in the format: dd-mm-yyyy

3 Universal Time of the event (add one hour when British Summer Time is in force for 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 reappearance (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 the North

Point, clockwise. 9 Sun Alt = the angular distance of the sun, below the horizon at the time of the

event. 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 where

the 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 Right Ascension running through the centre of the moon’s disc. It is measured clockwise

through west, south , east and back to north, a total of 360 degrees.

John Harper Former director of the occultation section, S.P.A, (Society for Popular Astronomy).

52


53


ASTEROIDS

BY

D BOOD

Image: NASA

54


Rouges of the Solar System

D Bood In September an asteroid called 2012 QG42 swung past the Earth. It passed the Earth at a distance of 7.5 moon distances. Astronomers call this a near earth

asteroid. The solar system contains many asteroids, these lumps of rock orbit our sun much like the planets do. However asteroids seem to be concentrated in two

main locations, the main or inner asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt.

The main or inner asteroid belt lies between the planets Mars and Jupiter. There are many bodies in this belt which range from small pieces of rock to dwarf planet size

such as Ceres.

Most asteroids are irregular

in shape however Ceres is almost spherical.

Asteroids are thought to be

left overs from the formation of the solar

system, over time they have collided and formed

the cratered and pitted Objects we see today.

Some astronomers think it

is possible that the formation of Jupiter

prevented a planet from

forming. The huge gravitational force of

Jupiter may have caused the lumps of rock to collide

and prevented larger bodies forming.

Not To Scale:

The main asteroid belt or the inner asteroid belt which lies between

Mars and Jupiter.

Source: Images Wikipedia Layout: D Bood Software: MS Paint

Unlike the movies, the asteroid belt is

not a dense orbiting body of rocks orbiting our sun (Sol). Spacecraft such

as DAWN have been able to fly through and visit different larger asteroids such

as Vesta. There are some collisions and asteroids have clumped together to

from bigger bodies. The belt is home to asteroids, dwarf planet and meteoroids.

Meteoroids are generally quite small,

less than 50km in size.

55


Facts about the Asteroid Belt

* Area: The main asteroid belt extends from 255 to 600 million km (2.15 to 3.3

astronomical units) from the Sun and may contain over a million objects bigger than 1 km across.

* Diameter: The largest objects are Ceres (1,003 km), Pallas (608 km) and Vesta

(538 km).

* Total Mass: The total mass of all the asteroids is less than that of the Moon.

There are 26 known asteroids larger than 200 km across.

Location: The Asteroid Belt is a region between the inner planets and outer planets where thousands of asteroids are found orbiting around the Sun.

Source: http://www.aerospaceguide.net/asteroidbelt.html

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this

image of the giant asteroid Vesta

Image Source: http://www.space.com

There are some asteroids that do not

orbit in the inner asteroid belt, some orbit near Jupiter called ‘Jupiter

Trojans’ and some orbit near Mars called ‘Martian Trojans’. Others orbit

close to the sun and some orbit near Earth, called Near Earth Asteroids.

So far we have looked at the asteroid

orbits of the inner main belt, but what are asteroids made of?

We now they contain rock, but what

else? Scientist have been able to look at the structure and composition of

asteroids. They have done this by collecting specimens when they have

crashed through our atmosphere and fallen to earth.

From the research carried out

scientists and astronomers have been

able to classify asteroids depending on

there composition, orbits ,spectra and albedo.

http://www.aerospaceguide.net/solarsystem/vesta.html

http://www.aerospaceguide.net/asteroidbelt.html

http://www.space.com/13162-asteroid-vesta-giant-mountain-craters.html

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Albedo the ratio of the amount of light reflected by an object and the amount of incident light; a measure of the reflectivity or intrinsic brightness of an object (a white, perfectly reflecting surface would have an albedo of 1.0; a black perfectly absorbing surface would have an albedo of 0.0). Source: http://nineplanets.org

Beyond the orbit of Neptune sits the

huge disc shaped region of the Kuiper Belt. Here icy cold worlds billions of

Kilometres from the sun orbit. Like the main asteroid belt, objects of all sizes

and composition can be found here. Some well known dwarf planets such as

Pluto and Eris can found in this region.

Image opposite: Eris taken the Hubble

telescope

KUIPER BELT

Image Source: Buko Blog

Objects in the Kupier belt are referred to as

KBOs (Kuiper Belt Objects). Beyond this region we also have the Oort cloud. Together as well as

other objects astronomers refer to them collectively as TNOs (Trans Netunian Objects).

These objects are called TNOs because they orbit the sun beyond

Neptune.

Image: http://

www.orderoftheplanets.org/kuiper-belt.html

http://nineplanets.org

http://blog.buko.net/gbu/?attachment_id=946

http://www.orderoftheplanets.org/kuiper-belt.html



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Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0616c/

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0616c/

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Halloween Across The Universe

BY

Zantippy

Skiphop

Halloween is all about laughing in the face of

Death, pretending it won't actually happen to us, but inwardly knowing that from stardust we came,

and to stardust we will return. The universe knows this, and has placed heartless reminders in the

form of nebulae, the churning nurseries and graveyards of stars. When we look at the horrific

beauty in a nebula, we know that is our awful fate - we will one day be in a cosmic cemetery. So here

are some creepy nebula pictures to help you remember that no matter how cheerful you are at

this moment, the universe is impatiently waiting to call you home.

Image Left: The Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118).

That bright blue star she is wearing as an earring is

the supergiant star, Rigel. This nebula is in the constellation Eridanus (the river), while Rigel is

the left foot of the Orion constellation. I actually think she looks sweet but apparently she gives a

lot of people nightmares. Credit: NASA/STScl/Digitized Sky Survey/Noel Carboni

“Waning moon”

around the chilly mist of the Orion

cloud: Barnard's Loop (SH 2-276) .

Barnard's Loop may be the ionized inner

surface of a hydro-gen cloud. The bright

star hanging off to the lower right of the

“moon” is the star, Rigel. Credit Peter

Erdman.

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This part of the Orion B molecular cloud looks to me like a werewolf, with a

scorpion for a tail. It includes the nebulae M78 (blue cloud near the curve in the werewolf's tail), NGC 2071 (next to the werewolf's left ear) and the bright area

near the top of the tail is McNeil's Nebula, a nebula just recognized in 2004, although back research shows it in some older exposures, at least from the

1960s. Credit: Griffin/Hunter Observatory

This looks like a Death Eater was

casting a cosmic Dark Mark. And that's what it is! This image is of x-

rays ejected from an unfathomably huge black hole in the middle of the

Perseus Cluster of galaxies as the center galaxy gobbles up others.

There is no empathy in those eyes at all. In fact, they look kind of

eager for our flesh. Credit: A. Fabian (IoA Cambridge) et al., and

NASA.

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“Ghost of the Cepheus

Flare” (SH2-136). This one seriously creeps me

out. Those two people on the left are running away

from something scary, something wrapped in a

burial shroud made of cosmic dust. It looks like

they are caught in the shroud like a bug in a

web. Maybe the creature needs to capture them in

order to feed the binary star system hidden in his

cloak. *SHIVER* Credit:

Adam Block, NOAO, AURA, NSF.

Yikes. The Helix Nebula

(NGC 7293) Credit: ESA/VISTA/ J. Emerson; Ac-

knowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.

Dragon! A dragon attacking the

Tarantula Nebula! Credit: ESO/MR, Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud

Survey.

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Ghosts playing poker in nebula

IRAS 05437+2502. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/R. Sahai (JPL).

I'm glad I could share our grim but exquisite future with you all. Have

a great Halloween!

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Words: Zantippy Skiphop

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Mars One Announces First Sponsors

Press Release

AMERSFOORT, THE NETHERLANDS, 29 August 2012 – Mars One is pleased to an-

nounce receipt of initial funding through sponsorship revenue, a major step towards sending a manned mission to Mars.

Mars One is a private Dutch organization whose intent is to land the first humans on Mars in 2023. Following a fully robotic construction of a habitable outpost between

2016 and 2020, subsequent crew arrivals will occur every two years. The existing technical plan of Mars One is unique in that it requires incorporation of only readily

available technologies developed by major, established aerospace companies from around the world. As such, Mars One is a non-political integrator capable of deliver-

ing humans to Mars with less overhead, less total risk, and faster than any other ex-

isting organization. Bas Lansdorp, founder and President of Mars-One offers, “Receipt of initial sponsor-

ship marks the next step to humans setting foot on Mars. A little more than a year ago we embarked down this path, calling upon industry experts to share in our bold

dream. Today, we have moved from a technical plan into the first stage of funding, giving our dream a foundation in reality.”

Self-funded for the prior eighteen months, conceptual development and initial tech-nical development is complete. In the latter half of 2012 and early 2013 Mars One

will move to enable growth of its technical and management staff. From mid 2013 forward, funding will largely be generated through a growing, global media event

built around the selection and training of astronauts for the manned mission. Dan Petrovic, General Director of Dejan SEO: "Mars One is not just a daring project,

but the core of what drives human spirit towards exploration of the unknown. We are privileged to be a supporter of this incredible project."

Mars One corporate sponsorship funds will be used primarily to finance the concep-

tual design studies provided by the aerospace suppliers. These design studies de-mand 500 to 2500 man-hours each, a comprehensive technical design of the various

components of the Mission to Mars. Conceptual design studies will be completed for all components of the mission, from robotic construction of the outpost to the arrival

of the first humans. "We consider landing humans on Mars an imperative mission for the future of hu-

man exploration. We are proud to support this initiative and in a small way, help Mars One achieve it … having invested in a prior initiative headed by Lansdorp, we

have confidence in the success of this bold, challenging objective,” states Gruus van Woerkom, General Director for Byte Internet.

Once the conceptual design studies are complete, the selection of astronauts will commence. Unlike anything ever conducted in the history of space exploration, Mars

One intends to make possible the opportunity for any qualified applicant from any nation to become an astronaut.

Mary Roach, author of best selling Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in

the Void, states, “The Mars One concept takes [colonizing Mars] to another level by adding an element of global audience participation. Yet at their core the Mars One

team are aerospace professionals with the background and contacts to pull together the technical aspects of the mission.”

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Initial sponsors include:

Byte Internet – Silver Sponsor (www.byte.nl) VBC Notarissen – Contributor (www.vbcnotarissen.nl)

MeetIn – Contributor (www.meetin.eu) New-Energy.tv – Contributor (www.new-energy.tv)

Dejan SEO – Contributor (www.dejanseo.com.au) Roelf van Til, owner of New-Energy.tv: “New Energy also stands for facing the fu-

ture, believing in progress and the ancient human dream to discover unknown lands.”

Aart Veldhuizen, notary at VBC Notarissen: “This project may sound fantastic, but bright enthusiastic minds are working on realizing this dream. VBC notarissen is

proud that we can contribute to this ambitious plan.”

About Mars One

Mars One is a non-government, private organization whose intent is to establish a

colony on Mars through the integration of existing, readily available technologies from industry leaders world-wide. Unique in its approach, Mars One intends to fund

this decade-long endeavor through an interactive, reality TV style broadcast from as-tronaut selection to robotic construction of the outpost; from the seven month flight

through the first years on Mars. The Media may contact Mars One at: [email protected]

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

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

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Well I hope you have enjoyed the October Edition. So for the first time, Astronomy Wise is hosting it’s first competition.

The prize is 3 signed books (as shown above). All you have to do is answer this question.

”what is the closest star to Earth”

Rules: i. Open to UK residents only ii. Answers must be emailed to [email protected] iii. All correct answers will be placed into a bucket and drawn out iv. Winner must take a photo of themselves on books for the

EZIne v. Winner will be notified by email and/or phone vi. Email Subject line: Astronomy Wise Competition

Good Luck!

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Android Wise By D Bood

Welcome to Android Wise, looking at apps available on the Android system. All

listed on these pages have been tried, tested and tweeted on my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet. Most apps featured are free however now and again I will have a look at

paid for apps.

Meteor Shower Calendar

Screen Shots

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The meteor shower calendar is a nice free application. It works

nicely on the Galaxy tablet. The calendar will give you the meteor shower name, date it starts, the peak and the end date.

If you press on a shower you wish more details on it will take you too a screen and give you the moon phase. Other bits of

information are also available such as, Average velocity at peak and Zenith hourly rate. You can also go to search and with an

internet connection, it will take you to Google. Where you can get more info. Now if you download another free program called

SkEye it will help you find the meteor shower location.

Google User Rating

stars 454

4 stars 182

3 stars 58

2 stars 21

1 star 27

Average rating:

4.4 742

AW Rating 5/5

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Android Wise

SkEye

SkEye can be used with the Meteor Shower Calendar or as a standalone application.

You can manually set your location. Once set up you can search the skies for objects.

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Explore the night sky with your Android.

SkEye is an advanced Planetarium that can also be used as a

PUSHTO guide for telescopes.

Ever been on a camping trip and wondered what objects are up in the sky? Now you can get familiar with Astronomy by identifying

stars, constellations and deep sky objects from the Messier and NGC catalogs.

If you have a telescope, just strap the phone onto the OTA and you get a PUSHTO

guide! (Google Play).

The app. Is not bad however there are better paid for applications, for a free app it is well worth a download.

Google User Ratings

5 stars 1,439

4 stars 374

3 stars 122

2 stars 37

1 star 79

Average rating

4.5

2,051

AW RATING 4.0/5.0

Images: Google Play

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DARK MATTER

My name is Sophia Nasr, and I am

studying astrophysics at York University. I find many things in the

astronomical field fascinating. However, one of the mysteries that I find truly

captivating is dark matter. But, what is dark matter? The answer to this

question may surprise you: we just don’t know yet. We are aware of its

effects on objects in space, and we have an idea of what it may be. However, the

particle responsible for dark matter has yet to be observed directly, and remains

a mystery in the realm of physics and astronomy. But after the Higgs boson

(a particle predicted by the Standard

Model of particle physics) was finally discovered on July 4, 2012, nearly 50

years after physicist Peter Higgs

proposed it, particle physicists at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) will

undoubtedly be vigorously working on finding the particle responsible for dark

matter. When you observe objects orbiting the Sun in our solar system,

you will find that the gravitational force between the Sun and the planet or

object is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely

proportional to the square of the distance between them. That is, the

most distant the orbiting object is from the Sun, the slower its orbital velocity.

It is natural to expect to

observe the same behaviour to be exhibited in a galaxy

(the farther the object is from the galactic centre, the

slower its orbit about the

central mass). However, that is not what is observed. Plotting the orbital velocities of objects in the Milky

Way from those closest to the centre to those at the edge of the galactic disk on a graph called a rotation curve reveals a curve that is nearly flat.

Plot of orbital velocities

of objects in the Solar System. Image source:

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/

astro801/content/l8_p8.html)

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l8_p8.html)




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Rotation curve of the

Milky Way; red dashed line represents expected

speeds according to “Keplerian” orbits like

objects orbiting our Sun; blue line

represents actual speeds of objects

orbiting the central mass in the Milky Way,

suspected to be a supermassive black

hole, named Sagittarius A* Image source: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/

~js/ast123/lectures/lec16.html)

What this means is that all objects orbit the central mass in the Milky Way at

nearly the same speeds throughout the galactic disk! This was one of the observations that led astronomers to postulate a particle that gives the additional

mass necessary for such behavior—dark matter. Additionally, the amount of observable matter within galaxies providing a gravitational force to bind galaxy

clusters and superclusters together (that is, galaxies gravitationally bound together to form galaxy clusters, and clusters of galaxies gravitationally bound together to

form superclusters) is not enough to explain the amount of mass necessary for gravity to prevent them from flying apart (http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mwhite/

darkmatter/dm.html). These observations have prompted astronomers and physicists to infer a particle that is responsible for the behavior observed in the

universe.

You may be wondering why this particle

is called “dark matter”. Well, it may seem that it was named such since it

cannot be seen. But rather, it is that it is veiled in mystery, and is something

unknown, that earned it that name. There is said to be about 10 times as

much dark matter in the Milky Way galaxy as there is normal matter

(http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/scimodule/Cosmogony/

CosmogonyPDF/MilkyWaySurpriseST.pdf). While some of

the dark matter can be accounted for by MACHOs (Massive Compact Halo

Objects) in the form of black holes,

neutron stars, and brown dwarfs, these objects only contribute to about 20% of

dark matter (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/

galaxies/imagine/dark_matter.html). While we have yet to discover the

particle and do not know exactly what it is, physicists and astronomers are

certain of what it cannot be. Analyses of the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Back-

ground) have revealed that dark matter is definitely not in the form of normal

baryonic matter (in other words, matter composed of protons and neutrons, like

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec16.html)



http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mwhite/darkmatter/dm.html

http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mwhite/darkmatter/dm.html

http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/scimodule/Cosmogony/CosmogonyPDF/MilkyWaySurpriseST.pdf




http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/galaxies/imagine/dark_matter.html



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stars, planets, and interstellar matter) (http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/

dark_matter/index5.html). The reason for this is because clouds of baryonic matter are detectable by an absorption spectrum, and dark matter has not yet been de-

tected in this manner (http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/). Antimatter has also been ruled out as a candidate for dark

matter, as none of the unique gamma rays produced upon the collision and subse-quent annihilation between antimatter and matter have been observed with re-

spect to dark matter (http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/). What astronomers and physicists think is that it must be is a parti-

cle that is massive (predicted to be 100 times as massive as the hydrogen atom), but does not interact with normal matter (http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/

dark_matter/index5.html). These particles have been named WIMPs (weakly inter-acting massive particles). Because it is weakly interacting, dark matter has not yet

been discovered, and will be difficult to detect. While WIMPs are not pre-dicted in the Standard Model of particle physics, attempts at constructing a unified

theory of all elementary particles suggest that they were produced in mass abun-

dances only a fraction of a second after the Big Bang (http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/dark_matter/index5.html).

http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/dark_matter/index5.html


http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/








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If the dark matter particle is a WIMP, then it would make the search for it difficult,

as it does not interact with matter. However, billions of these particles would be passing through our bodies (and the Earth) every second

(http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/dark_matter/index6.html).

It is also possible that WIMPs may at times knock a nucleus out of its atom upon a collision—and THIS is what the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, located half a mile

underground in a Minnesota iron mine, is looking for. However, they have yet to detect a WIMP. Since direct and indirect observations of a dark matter particle have

failed, physicists have proposed a method akin to that which revealed the Higgs boson—create the particle at the LHC by reproducing the conditions that were

present only a fraction of a second after the Big Bang (http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/dark_matter/index6.html). Since the particle is predicted to have been

created in large quantities just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang that gave rise to our universe, when everything was an extremely hot soup at a temperature

of a quadrillion degrees, the LHC, which accelerates particles at nearly the speed of

light (299,792,458 m/s) and reproduces just these conditions, may be our best bet of finding the particle.

follow Sophia on twitter @pharaoness




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Featured Astronomer—Claire Smith

When I was about 6 years old, I loved and used to delve into two subjects, science

and art, especially physics, astronomy and art. At about the same age, someone in my family gave me a book called ‘The Wonder Book of Science’ by Harry Golding

http://childrensbookshop.com/book.php?cno=59908 this book set me off on a journey into the wonderful world of science and

ultimately astronomy. I remember seeing a fantastic picture of an electricity bolt near the

front and a saying at the start of the book, referring to science as a wonderful ‘carpet’ and

this was enough for me to read more! The book was printed in 1931 so the science then was

very different to about the early to mid 70’s but

it served as a precursor to what became an interest that I could never stop. It was later, at

about age 7-8 years old, that I was in my Aunt and Uncles house, that I came across a copy of

Scientific American magazine, that took most of my afternoon and evening away, which was

lead me into yet another world of interest and wonder! This time it was an article in the

magazine about light and lasers complete with diagrams, then another article further into the

magazine, which got me into astronomy, which was about Black Holes and radiation. I remember reading about the fact that at that time, there was a theory

about them emitting radiation and I read a small caption near the picture and thought this was the best thing I have ever thought about ever! I couldn’t put the

magazine down and ended up taking it home with me.

Jump forward another 30 or so years and I still have that same magazine, be it rolled up in my drawer! At around the time of school age, I had still had an interest

in astronomy and science and kept a notebook that I used to jot ideas down onto, which I still have. I also used to create a lot of art and loved space pictures. Jump

forward to the early 90’s. At about this time I bought a small bright yellow telescope, called a short tube 3” Catadioptric. I already had a hand held captain

cook type of telescope, but the Catadioptric was the next step up. I used to stack the normal eye pieces on, then put the lowest magnification one loosely onto the

main one and got great Moon pictures, but I quickly learned they moved across the frame very fast! It also had a small bit of chromatic aberration by the time I had

done all that, but it was worth seeing the Moon craters, even if that did move past very quickly!

In about 1999 I decided to set up a website that had all my passions rolled into one www.cthisspace.com this website was really a spin off from a free non-profit

internet magazine called FTL that a friend had started, which also did well at the

time, and it all started to fire up really well since then. My website has my ideas about science and some space art that I used to create with an art programme.

Later some of my work was used in books and exhibitions and one of my ideas was put into another book. The website has generated lots of other things since, as I

continue to build it now. One example was that I went to a party at astronomer Sir Patrick Moore’s house in 2008 due to being interested in astronomy and having a

http://childrensbookshop.com/book.php?cno=59908

http://www.cthisspace.com

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friend who had his work regularly shown on the BBC programme, The Sky at Night.

There is more about this fantastic event on my site. In about 2006 I went to my first Astronomy Society, which wasn’t in my hometown

at that time, but near a place of work. At the time I thought there must be one nearer, so looked online and joined that too. I am now only a member of my local

town astronomy club where I live. At about the same time I bought another telescope which was a 6” white Russian Tal 2 reflector. With this I got many images

of the Moon and stars. It has a motor mount so it can get clearer pictures which have been good to capture since.

In November 2011, I thought about doing my local Astronomy Society’s twitter page, and it’s taken off since then. It has attracted lots of followers because of our

unique location, Blackpool! I will always be interested in astronomy because it combines so many subjects,

mainly science, physics, art, photography etc. Astronomy is very accessible and ‘live ‘because anybody can just go and look at the night sky, and see, for free, how

amazing the stars and planets are and not only that, it makes you think how

wonderful our universe really is.

Women in Astronomy I think women have a very important part to play in astronomy because; we can

capture the imagination of the public using social clues that make the subject welcoming and interesting. For example, Carolyn C. Porco, an American planetary

scientist, who is in the area of exploration of the outer solar system, has great reaching power that communicates the subject on more concrete levels because

there is directness in her work that can reach beginners and professionals alike. I also think that, because women are closely tied to children, they have a unique

capability to connect the two together, astronomy and children. Because women can

easily get children’s interest at an early age, it enables the use of astronomy as a vehicle, as a way to make children see the relevance of science in general, which is

an even greater thing. It is an art and science in itself to capture people’s imagination into astronomy, and women have that unique talent in making that

happen. At my local astronomy society, I have noticed over the time that I have been a

member, that there are more women attending the group, so something must be going right!

Claire Smith

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@AstronomyWise

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all our writers for the

October Astronomy Wise

EZine.

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