mac march 2012 magazine

Saturn is visible as an evening object during the month, rising at 22:20 at the start of the month. It can be located in the constellation Virgo this month. Uranus and Neptune is not observable this month. General notes Always keep an eye out f o r A u r o r a e . C h e c k o u t w w w . s t r o n g e . o r g . u k /spaceweather.html for the most up-to-date information on the aurorae. Other interesting naked eye phenomena to look out for include the Zodiacal Light and the Gegenschein. Both are caused by sunlight reflecting off dust particles which are present in the solar system.

Finally check out www.heavens-above.com for the latest passes of the International Space Station and satellites, details of Space Shuttle launches and passes and for details of Iridium Flare activity.

Clear skies and good hunting!

By Kevin Daly http://members.aol.com/kdaly10475/index.html

these 2 stars. M65 and M66 are located about 20 million lightyears away. There are tons of galaxies in the Leo area, scan around the area with a low powered eyepiece and see how many you can detect. One note, you'll need good dark skies to start looking for galaxies so head out to your favourite country observing spot and begin your galaxy hunting there. Planets Mercury can be seen as an evening object until around the 10th, after this will become unvisible. Venus is visible in the evening sky during the month. On the evening of the 13th, it lies 3° to the North of Jupiter. It also lies 3° to the South West of M45 – The Pleiades by month’s end. Mars is at opposition on the 3rd and is Leo during the month. It is visible as soon as darkness falls and sets at 06:35 by month’s end. Jupiter is an evening object this month in Aries and sets at 23:00 ST by month’s end.

star (Dubhe), now, follow this imaginary line the same distance out, then move slightly North (toward Polaris, the North Star), scan the area slowly, and you should find 2 smudges, one slightly elongated (M81) and one rounded (M82). This particular pair of galaxies were the first I found, the only description I wrote in my log book was "wow." M81 and M82 are located approximately 7 - 8 million lightyears from us. While in the area of the Big Dipper, there's a nice double star to be glimpsed as well. The second star of the handle (Mizar) is a naked eye double (Mizar and Alcor). While not a binary star system still a treat. Point your scope at it and Mizar itself splits into a double star, this one is a true binary system with a rotational period of several thousand years. Moving on to Leo, which is easy to find by looking for the backwards question mark we have another pair of galaxies which will fit into the same field of view in a low powered eyepiece. M65 and M66 can be located by finding the hindquarters of Leo which is a right triangle to the left (east) of the question mark. The star at the bottom right of the triangle is known as Chort. A dimmer star can be seen down and to the left of Chort (South and East). M65 and M66 can be found halfway between

Telescope Targets Orion and the rest of the winter constellations are still placed well for early evening observing. See December's, January's and February's picks for targets in these. March marks the beginning of Spring Galaxy season. Most galaxies will appear as small grey blobs through amateur equipment. The thrill (at least for me) of looking at these is the vast distances and the fact that you're looking at something not of this galaxy. There's something about actually seeing a remote galaxy first hand that cannot possibly be felt by simply looking at pictures in a book. Granted, the pictures in the book are very nice to look at, but viewing them with your own scope gives you the feeling of "being" there. We'll start off in Ursa Major with a very nice pair of galaxies, M81 and M82. M81 and M82 are usually visible in the same low powered field of view, which makes for a fascinating site. Be sure to use your lowest power eyepiece for this pair. It also shows what 2 different types of galaxies will look like in your scope (an irregular, M82 and a spiral, M81). To find M81 and M82, start with the first star that forms the bowl of the big dipper from the handle (Phecda). Draw a line diagonally to the opposite corner

www.midlandsastronomy.com

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Issue 32- March, 2012

Latest Astronomy and Space News

Kids Astronomy

Quizzes and Games

Monthly Sky Guide

Internet Highlights

Sky Guide - Beginner’s targets for March

Club Notes

Club Observing:

The next club meets every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month for our observing sessions held in the MAC grounds. If you wish to be informed of these sessions please email your name and mobile number to [email protected] who will confirm if the session is going ahead (depending on weather).

MAC is a proud member of

Above: Ursa Major is a constellation visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. Its name means the Great Bear in Latin. It is dominated by the widely recognised asterism known as the Big Dipper or Plough, which is a useful pointer toward north, and which has mythological significance in numerous world cultures.


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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

c o n t e n t sc o n t e n t sc o n t e n t sc o n t e n t s Latest Astronomy and Space News New Comet discovered by Amateur Astronomer .................... 3

Hitchcock haunts a Nebula ................................................... 3

Is Venus’ rotation slowing down? ......................................... 4

Two new Moons for Jupiter .................................................. 4

Mars rules the night ............................................................ 5

Seeing Mars with a telescope ............................................... 5

Mars and the Moon — Not dead yet? .................................. 6

To infinity and beyond!!! ...................................................... 7

A beginner’s guide to photographing the International Space Station ...................................................................... 8

Bucket List Object #1: A Supernova ..................................... 9

Kids Section Kids Korner ....................................................................... 10

Quizzes and Games Exercise your brain ............................................................ 11

Monthly Sky Guide Beginners sky guide for this month .................................... 12

Internet Highlights Special content only available with the online version of the magazine ................................................................ 13

Front cover image: The Rosette Nebula is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers -- but it is the most famous. At

the edge of a large molecular cloud in Monoceros, some 5,000 light years away, the petals of this rose are actually a stellar nursery whose lovely, symmetric shape is

sculpted by the winds and radiation from its central cluster of hot young stars.

The stars in the energetic cluster, catalogued

as NGC 2244, are only a few million years old, while the central cavity in the Rosette Nebula, catalogued as NGC 2237, is about 50 light-years in diameter. The nebula can be seen first-hand with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Unicorn

(Monoceros)

Credit & Copyright: Brian Davis

MAC meets on the first Tuesday of the month in the Presbyterian Hall, High Street, Tullamore from 8pm.

All are welcome to attend. It also holds infrequent Observing Nights at its Observing Site in

Clonminch, or at a member’s house (weather permitting) on the first

Friday of every month..

You can see more about the club and its events on

www.midlandsastronomy.com or contact the club via e-mail at [email protected] Meetings are informal and are

aimed at a level to suit all ages.

Exercise your brainExercise your brainExercise your brainExercise your brain 1. Mu Cephei was given a

nickname by Sir William Herschel, what was it?

� Diamond Portrait � Crimson Entity � Garnet Star � Red Star

2. Eventually, our galaxy

will crash into the

Andromeda Galaxy (M31). But, what will

happen when we

collide?

� The galaxies will pass through each other, most likely no planets even touching, but the gravity of the passing bodies will throw us and others out of orbit.

� Planets will collide and create a mass site of destruction.

� Nothing whatsoever. � The Andromeda Galaxy is

not on a collision course towards the Milky Way.

3. Due to odd star movements in the centre

o f a l l g a l a x i e s , astronomers have come

up with a solution to provide for the odd

"whip-like" movements in star orbits. What is

the theory?

� This happens to be the normal orbit at the centre of a galaxy.

� The gravity of all the stars at the dense centre of a galaxy throws the star's orbit off.

� There is a black hole at the very centre of all galaxies

� A neutron star sits at the centre of a galaxy.

4 5 8 7

5 4 2

6 2

8 9 1 2

1 5 2 3 4

5 8 4 1

8 3

8 7 4

6 5 4 9

SUDOKU

Check your answers

Answer 1: The correct answer was Garnet Star. Mu Cephei is large enough that if placed at the sun's position, it would engulf all planets up to Saturn!

Answer 2: The correct answer was The galaxies will pass through each other, most likely no planets even touching, but the gravity of the passing bodies will throw us and others out of orbit. You will not have to ever worry about this, nor anyone in the distant future. Andromeda is a bigger galaxy than we are, but still a spiral galaxy. Another name for this galaxy is the M31 galaxy.

Answer 3: The correct answer was There is a black hole at the very centre of all galaxies. They did go as far to say there is a massive black hole at the centre. These baffling voids spurred many new ideas about galaxies such as the larger galaxies destroy small ones once they come in contact.

Answer 4: The correct answer was Become a white, then black dwarf. Actually, if the star is not as powerful, they swell then turn into white dwarfs as normal, but instead of creating a big BOOM, they become a black dwarf and just fade away from existence.

Answer 5: The correct answer was Phosphorus. Scientists think it is from phosphorus. The Great Red Spot also contains other compounds like methane and carbon-nitrogen compounds. The scientists theorize that the specific type of phosphorus is red phosphorus. Unfortunately, this happens to be a theory and scientists are not quite sure if the compound is even phosphorus. The arguments they provide make sense: red phosphorus really does appear red, but until later technology, scientists only guess.

Answer 6: The correct answer was Deimos. The smallest moon is Deimos, belonging to Mars. It looks like a potato and is made of light, rocky material. The size of Deimos is not even larger than Manhattan Island!

Answer 7: The correct answer was he died before his ideas were proven correct. He never was alive to see his ideas come true. Halley's comet is known as a short-period comet, meaning it completes its orbit around the sun in under 200 years.

4. Most of the time when

given the term "dying star," we think of a great

bang and then a massive vacuum. But what is the

alternate death course a star can take?

� Become a white, then black dwarf

� It creates a supernova, then either a black hole or neutron star

� Become a quasar � Immediate burn out, star

giving off no more light 5. Jupiter: big, huge, large,

violent. What most likely makes it’s Great Red

Spot red?

� Phosphorus � Bronze Traces � Liquid Hydrogen � Iron Oxide (Rust)

6. What is the smallest

moon in the solar

system?

� Moon � Deimos � Phobos � Triton

7. Edmond Halley is widely

known for his discovery

of Halley's Comet. But, what ironic thing

happened when he proposed his ideas?

� He died before his ideas were proven correct

� After he revealed his findings, a family member died.

� He was rejected, but during the time they realised he was right, he had been on vacation.

� Halley lost all his records when called up to speak about his ideas.


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lot of results in the area, but all were moving eastward while my fuzzy was moving westward. Rocks don’t make U-turns. This was really getting exciting. I had Jen, my better half, an accomplished astro imager, take a look at the images and before I could point out the faint smudge she exclaimed “That’s a comet!”

Still, Fred notes, “it wasn’t a slam-dunk.” The images were faint and there could have been other causes of blurry spots in digital images. But a check of the raw colour data revealed a greenish coloration to the object’s glow, which is indicative of cyanogen and carbon

Using custom-written software to operate a 14″ Meade LX200GPS telescope Fred set his system up to capture images of the sky on that cold evening, not allowing himself to be chased inside by the low temperatures or the bright, rising moon. While making a cursory look through the blink data, Fred was surprised to spot a faint burry object visible moving across three frames. A check of online databases of known objects brought up no positive hits — this was something that hadn’t been seen before.

Fred describes the “eureka” moment on his blog: “A check of known objects in the region had a

“Friday, February 10th 2012 just felt like the perfect night for a comet to be discovered by an amateur astronomer,” writes Fred Bruenjes on his astronomy blog. And, this past Friday night, that’s exactly what Fred did.


New Comet discovered by Amateur Astronomer

Above: Image of Comet C/2012 C2 (Bruenjes) made from ten 60 sec. exposures on Feb. 11, 2012.

emission — typical hallmarks of comets. “Very encouraging,” Fred added.

Another night’s observation was needed. If it was a comet, it would appear again along its expected trajectory. Of course, with an unidentified comet there would be no known orbit, so Fred had to manually extrapolate its position. When he trained his telescope onto his calculated coordinates the following evening and began taking images, there it was… the same faint, fuzzy green blur from the previous night, slowly appearing in the darkening sky right where it should be.

Fred spent the next hour gathering images to send in to the IAU’s Minor Planet Centre, in the hopes of having the object catalogued so that others could locate and observe it. He didn’t have to wait long; within five minutes the object

was listed on the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page, and dubbed C/2012 C2 (Bruenjes), in honour of its discoverer.

Comet Bruenjes is an NEO currently about 0.555 AU away from Earth. Its exact size and orbital period isn’t known, and it may even be a returning comet or piece from a larger one… the official report isn’t out yet. It appears to have a fairly inclined orbit relative to the ecliptic, based on the current diagram created by JPL’s Small-Body Database.

The comet’s total magnitude is 16.6, so it is dim and not visible to the naked eye. It’s in the constellation Aries, about six degrees north of Jupiter. Just after sunset in the Northern hemisphere it’s high in the southwest, nearly overhead.

www.universetoday.com

of years ago and led to the creation of several hefty and very hot stars that are prominent in the new picture.

A nickname for the NGC 3324 region is the ‘Gabriela Mistral Nebula,’ after the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet but I think I’ll start a petition to call it the Hitchcock Nebula. Hitchcock liked to make cameo appearances in his own movies, and perhaps he is making a pareidoliaic guest appearance here.

Hitchcock haunts a Nebula The new image of NGC 3324 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the the European Southern Observatory’s 2.2-metre telescope

at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.


The right edge of the wall of gas and dust in this star-forming region really bears a strong resemblance to the famous profile of the British film director and producer, notorious for his thriller movies from the 1940’s through the 1970’s.

NGC 3324 is located in the southern constellation of Carina, roughly 7500 light-years from Earth. It is on the northern outskirts of the chaotic environment of the Carina Nebula. All the gas and dust here fueled a burst of star birth several millions

First impression after seeing this new image of NGC 3324? It’s Alfred Hitchcock, bulbous nose and all.

Kid’s�

Some curious symbols ring the outside of the Star Finder. These symbols stand for some of the constellations in the zodiac. What is the zodiac and what is special about these constellations?

Imagine a straight line drawn from Earth through the Sun and out into space way beyond our solar system where the stars are. Then, picture Earth following its orbit around the Sun. This imaginary line would rotate, pointing to different stars throughout one complete trip around the Sun—or, one year. All the stars that lie close to the imaginary flat disk swept out by this imaginary line are said to be in the zodiac.

The constellations in the zodiac are simply the constellations that this imaginary straight line points to in its year-long journey.

I n a n c i e n t t i m e s , astronomers did not fully understand how Earth, the Sun, and the stars moved. Nor did they have any idea the Universe is so vast. But they were keen observers of the sky and tried very hard to make sense of it.

People had already imagined that the constellations might be

z o d i a c . ( O t h e r cultures and traditions have recognized as m a n y a s 2 4 constellations in the zodiac.) So the Babylonians p i c ked one , Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12 didn't fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and slopped over into the next one.

When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth's axis (North Pole) doesn't point in quite the same direction.

Now Mimi's August 4 birthday would mean she was born "under the sign" of Cancer (one constellation "earlier"), not Leo.

The constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the Sun spends different lengths of time

Korner�What's Your Sign?

lined up with each one. The line from Earth through the Sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only 7 days. To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the Sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12. Then they assigned each of those 12 constellations equal

amounts of time. Besides the 12 familiar constellations of the zodiac, the Sun is also aligned with Ophiuchus for about 18 days each year.

A s t r o l o g y i s n o t Astronomy! Astronomy is the scientific study of everything in outer space. Astronomers and other scientists know that stars many light years* away have no effect on the ordinary activities

of humans on Earth. No one has shown that a s t r o l o g y

can be used to predict the future or describe

what people are like based only on their birth date. Still, like reading fantasy stories, many people enjoy reading their "astrological forecast" or "horoscope" in the newspaper every day.

important symbols, telling stories of their gods and other myths. It was not a big step to suppose that the changing positions of the constellations at different times of the year might be important to people and events on Earth.

he Babylonians lived over 3,000 years ago. They divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts--like cutting a pizza into 12 equal slices. They picked 12 constellations in the zodiac, one for each of the 12 "slices." So, as Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun would appear to pass through each of the 12 parts of the zodiac. Since the Babylonians already had a 12-month calendar

(based on the phases of the Moon), each month got a slice of the zodiac all to itself.

But even according to the Babylonians' own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the

* A light year is the distance light

travels in one Earth year. This is almost 6,000,000,000,000 (6 trillion) miles! One light

year is 25 million times farther than the moon, or over 60,000 times farther than the

Sun. Remember, nothing in the Universe travels faster than light!

Above: The star-forming region NGC 3324. The intense radiation from several of NGC 3324's massive, blue-white stars has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust. The ultraviolet radiation from these young hot stars also cause the gas cloud to glow in rich colours.



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But a change of 6.5 minutes over a little more than a decade is a huge variation.

Other effects could also be at work, including exchanges of angular momentum between Venus and the Earth when the two planets are relatively close to each other. But the scientists are still working to figure out the reason for the slow down.

These detailed measurements from orbit are also helping scientists determine whether Venus has a solid or liquid core, which will help our understanding how the planet formed and evolved. If Venus has a

solid core, its mass must be more concentrated towards the centre. In this case, the planet’s rotation would react less to external forces.

“An accurate value for Venus’ rotation rate will help in planning future missions, because precise information will be needed to select potential landing sites,” said Håkan Svedhem, ESA’s Venus Express project scientist.

Venus Express will keep monitoring the planet to determine if the rate of rotation continues to change.

www.universetoday.com that suddenly blew itself to bits in a planet-sized nuclear explosion after taking on too much mass from a close companion star. This is known as a Type Ia supernova.

And there's another type… the Type II supernova. This is a

massive star that runs out of fuel and suddenly collapses upon itself, crushing its innards into a dense, scorching brew of radiation and atomic p a r t i c l e s b e f o r e rebounding outwards to release light and radiation and matter.

B o t h t y p e s o f supernova create more energy in a few weeks than our Sun creates in its entire lifetime. Visible light is released,

along with neutrinos and atomic and subatomic particles at high speed. The dangerous X-rays and

During an after-dinner stroll on a cool autumn evening in 1572, the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a blazing new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Tycho knew every star in the sky since his youth, and he lived in a time when many thought the heavens never changed. So when he saw this new star, he was, as he later wrote, “so astonished at this sight that I was not ashamed to doubt the trustworthiness of my own eye.” Tycho was amazed by what's now called a supernova, a massive exploding star which for a few weeks can outshine an entire galaxy. It's a sight you should see for yourself, as luck allows, which is why it tops our celestial Bucket List.

Tycho had no way of knowing the nature of this new star. It would take more than 350 years before astronomers figured out enough physics to understand supernovae and the critical role they play in the creation of new stars, planets.

Now we know Tycho's supernova was likely a small white dwarf star

Now… how do you get to see one of these awesome beauties? Well, they are quite rare… about one every 50-100 years in the Milky Way on average. While many of the stars we see in the night sky will blow up as supernovae, none has been seen in our galaxy since 1604. So we are way overdue. Most stars, including the Sun and nearby stars, are too small to explode in this way.

Here's a short list of nearby stars that will one day detonate as Type II supernovae: Betelguese in Orion, eta Carinae, rho Cassiopeiae, Spica, and Antares and Shaula in Scorpius. Astronomers don't know when any of these stars will blow… it might be next week, it might be a million years. But all will one day shine bright enough to see in our daytime skies and cast shadows by night for weeks before fading away. And though no star is close enough to be dangerous to us, gamma rays and neutrinos from nearby supernova will be detected on Earth.

Your best bet to see a supernova lies in looking at other galaxies. The last naked-eye supernova occurred in 1987 in a nearby dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. At least one extragalactic supernova is discovered with large telescopes every year in more distant galaxies. Some are discovered by amateur astronomers, including a recent discovery by a 10-year-old Canadian girl who found the star in an image taken with a large telescope.

Occasionally, these extragalactic supernovae are bright enough to see in a small telescope. A supernovae bright enough to see with binoculars or a small telescope will surely be announced on the news, or in these pages, so stay tuned and you'll get your chance.

And keep an eye on Betelguese, Spica, and Antares… you just never know. While you're waiting for the “big one”, you can gaze at scattered remnants of supernovae that are visible in small telescopes, including the Crab Nebula and the Veil Nebula. Most are beautiful sights in their own right.

www.oneminuteastronomer.com

New measurements from ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft shows that Venus’ rotation rate is about 6.5 minutes slower than previous measurements taken 16 years ago by the Magellan spacecraft. Using infrared instruments to peer through the planet’s dense atmosphere, Venus Express found surface features weren’t where the scientists expected them to be.

Is Venus’ rotation slowing down?

Bucket List Object #1: A Supernova

Over the next several months, we present our totally subjective list of ten celestial sights to see before you die, or “kick the bucket”, as they say. We call it the “Bucket List for Backyard Stargazers”. Our list is targeted at the casual stargazer, with no special expertise or training or ambition other than to see some of the most beautiful, and in some cases, transient sights in nature. For some of these objects, you’ll need access to a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. Others require travel and good timing and luck. And for others, you need to simply look up. But all these sights are not that hard to see, once you know how and when and where to look for them. We’ll help you with that.

Left: A multi-

wavelength image of the remnants of

Tycho̓s 1572 super-

nova.

Sc ien t i s t s had p r ev i ous l y discovered new Jovian satellites in 2010, and astronomers think there may be more—lots more. "The satellites are part of the outer retrograde swarm of objects around Jupiter," said Scott Sheppard who reported the discovery.

Retrograde satellites are moons that orbit "backward"—in the opposite direction of a planet's axial rotation. Including the two new moons, the Jupiter swarm features 52 known retrograde satellites, which are all relatively tiny.

Two new Moons for Jupiter "It is likely there are about a hundred satellites of this size" in the swarm, Sheppard said. Like most of Jupiter's other retrograde satellites, S/2011 J1 and J2 are also classified as irregular moons, because they orbit far from the planet and have highly eccentric and inclined orbits.

Due to their odd orbits, the moons are likely asteroid or comet pieces that were long ago captured by Jupiter's gravity rather than developing in place during the formation of the planet itself. "Because these outer irregular satellites were captured during the solar system's early years, they can give us insight into the planet's formation and evolution process," Sheppard added.

By establ ished convention, satellites in the Jovian system are named for lovers and descendants

Two new moons have been found orbiting Jupiter, bringing the Jovian family count up to 66 natural satellites, astronomers revealed this month.

of the Roman god Jupiter or his Greek counterpart, Zeus.

www.nationalgeographic.com

What could cause the planet to slow down? One possibility may be the raging weather on Venus. Recent atmospheric models have shown that the planet could have weather cycles stretching over decades, which could lead to equally long-term changes in the rotation period. The most important of those forces is due to the dense atmosphere – more than 90 times the pressure of Earth’s and high-speed weather systems, which are believed to change the planet’s rotation rate through friction with the surface.

Earth experiences a similar effect, where it is largely caused by wind and tides. The length of an Earth day can change by roughly a m i l l i s e c ond and depends seasonally with wind patterns and temperatures over the course of a year.

“When the two maps did not align, I first thought there was a mistake in my calculations as Magellan measured the value very accurately, but we have checked every possible error we could think of,” said Nils Müller, lead author of a research paper investigating the rotation.

Us ing the VIRTIS in frared instrument, scientists discovered that some surface features were displaced by up to 20 km from where they should be given the accepted rotation rate as measured by the Magellan orbiter in the early 1990s.

Over its four-year mission, Magellan determined the length of the day on Venus as being equal to 243.0185 Earth days. But the data from Venus Express indicate the length of the Venus day is on average 6.5 minutes longer.

Above: Venus Express in orbit since 2006 around our nearest planetary neighbour.

gamma rays from a supernova would destroy or degrade life (as we know it) on any planet within an astonishing 50 light-year radius.

But while they are fearsome events, you would not be here if not for supernovae. Here's why… Long before it explodes, a big star turns hydrogen and helium into carbon and oxygen and many heavier elements all the way up to iron. This material is blasted out during the supernova explosion into the space between the stars.

What's more, as the star collapses, neutrons get smashed into atomic nuclei to create and release all the naturally occurring elements heavier than iron, right up to uranium and beyond. The iron in your blood and your frying pan, the gold and silver in your jewellery, the copper and zinc and tantalum in your computer, were all created and released during long forgotten supernova explosions billions of years ago.

Above: Above are the discovery images for one of Jupiter's newest moons S/2011 J2. This object is faint and doesn't have much visual information, but the moon was discovered using the optical telescope Magellan on Sept. 27, 2011.

Currently known as S/2011 J1 and S/2011 J2, the new moons were first identified in images acquired with the Magellan-Baade Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on September 27, 2011.

The objects are among the smallest moons yet discovered in the solar system, each measuring only about a kilometre wide. Unlike Jupiter's four large Galilean moons, which are visible from Earth with even small backyard telescopes, both new moons are dim and very distant from the planet, taking about 580 and 726 days to complete their orbits.


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www.midlandsastron

On March 3, the Red Planet lies 100.8 million km from Earth. And it’s this small disk that earthly astronomers — using telescopes of every size and variety — are magnifying to reveal surface and atmospheric details.

But you don’t need a telescope to see Mars this month. In fact, even from the brightest city, you can spot the planet on a clear night with just your eyes. When

Opposition is when Mars, as seen in our sky, lies opposite the Sun. It rises at sunset, climbs highest at midnight, and peaks in brightness for the year.

But every opposition is not the same because the orbits of Earth and Mars are not circular. During a distant opposition, Mars can be more than 97 million kilometres away. Contrast that with a nearby opposition that places Mars less than 56 million km from Earth.

searching for Mars, keep a couple things in m ind . F i r s t , d u r i n g t h i s opposition, after sunset the Red Planet is the fourth-brightest starlike object overall, but the brightest one in the eastern part of the sky. Second, Mars appears copper or whitish-orange in colour, not a deep red. For centuries, Mars has been called the Red Planet because of iron compounds in its soil and rocks. D u r i n g opposition, however, the planet is too brilliant to be red.

Veteran planetary observer Raymond Shubinski says, “If you use a telescope to view Mars, remember that it’s now late spring in the p lane t ’ s no r t he rn hemisphere, so that part of the globe tips in our direction.”

Observers should have a good view as the north polar cap shrinks under ever-stronger solar radiation. Most other surface features appear as dusky markings. “The best views come when the planet lies highest in the sky around midnight,” Shubinski says, “because that’s when we see it through the least

Mars rules the night Mars reaches a point in its orbit called opposition on March 3, allowing for some of the best views for years. At such times — which occur 780 days apart — the Red Planet is number one on the minds of astronomers.

To help find your way around the night sky, Skymaps.com makes available for free each month a map of the night sky.

The Evening Sky Map is suitable for all stargazers including newcomers to astronomy and will help you to:

• identify planets, stars and major constellations.

• find sparkling star clusters, wispy nebulae & distant galaxies.

• locate and follow bright comets across the sky.

• learn about the night sky and astronomy.

Insert your WebCam into the telescope focusing tube using an adapter (available from astronomy stores) and connect the cables to your laptop. When the ISS is due, start recording and track the space station using a finder scope or computerized mount.

The difficult part of this method is tracking the ISS and keeping it in the field of view of the telescope while recording the video file. It is recommended that you set your mount in “Alt/Az” mode or use a Dobsonian telescope so that you have free movement of telescopes optical tube assembly. You will basically be using the telescope as a giant video camera and you need to keep the ISS in shot for as long as possible.

This method is very difficult as the ISS has been magnified highly while moving very quickly and can be easily lost out of the field of view, or there can be too much movement (shaking) in the video. This method requires much practice.

Once you have been able to get a video of the ISS passing over, you can feed your video file into software such as RegiStax and the program will sort each individual frame, removing bad frames and stacking good frames to create a very clear image.

This method is fantastic for creating close up images with detail on the International Space Station; you

do a couple of long exposure test shots of anything from 15 to 60 seconds. You can do shorter or longer exposures but this is up to you, depending your equipment and how artistic you want to be.

This method will produce a long white streak or line, which will show the path taken of the International Space Station as it passes over. This is the most common method for amateurs.

Method 2: You will need a telescope, a webcam, and a strong mount or tripod. Set up your telescope and mount, along with webcam with a laptop and make sure of the time and where the ISS will be passing over your location.

In this method we will use the telescope to magnify and see the ISS up close while recording a movie (AVI). We will then stack the frames of the recorded movie in a free specialist image enhancing program such as www.astronomie.be/registax

A beginner’s guide to photographing the International Space Station

If you have seen the International Space Station (ISS) pass over a few times with your own eyes, you may want to have a go at photographing it, this simple guide will offer some suggestions on how to get your shots.


can also see docked spacecraft. You can also use this method for trying to image other Earth-orbiting satellites, too.


amount of our image-distorting atmosphere.”

At opposition, Mars shines at magnitude –1.2 in the southeastern part of the constellation Leo the Lion. It then heads west-northwest toward the Lion’s brightest star, 1st-magnitude Regulus. The planet ends the month about 5° shy of that target while glowing at a still-impressive magnitude –0.7.

Mars will not appear this big or bright again until its next opposition April 8, 2014 so don’t miss this opportunity to view Mars.

www.astronomy.com Above: Mars shines brilliantly among the stars of Leo the Lion, where it appears some 10 times brighter than that constellation’s luminary, Regulus.

Above: Global view of Mars as seen by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1980, showing the Valles Marineris (centre), unfortunately you won’t see it this good with your telescope even at opposition.

Mars looks tiny and gives up little detail at a glance. With a little patience, the right tools, and some steady sky, you’ll see detail even in a 3″ or 4″ scope, including…

Red Colour: The striking colour of Mars is the first thing you notice. It’s a result of iron oxides in the layer of fine dust that covers the planet.

While Mars looks lovely in the sky right now, to see any detail on the surface of the planet, you’ll need a telescope. Binoculars won’t show the disk of this small world.

Temper your expectations when you look at Mars no matter how big your scope, Mars won’t look anything like images you see the magazines. In a small telescope,

Polar Caps: Like Earth, Mars has white polar caps. They’re made of frozen water and carbon dioxide, and they grow and shrink with the Martian seasons.

Seeing Mars with a telescope Many new stargazers are disappointed by their view of Mars in a small telescope. But with a little practice and know-how, you can see a remarkable amount of detail with a modest instrument. Here’s what to look for:

Dark Regions: Early astronomers thought these dark regions were green vegetation that waxed and waned with the seasons. These dark surface markings are crater fields, and they do change their appearance slightly over time as Martian winds slowly cover and uncover these regions with fine ochre dust.

Clouds: At high magnification, and with good seeing, you can sometimes see clouds or fog banks on the surface of Mars, or along the limb of the planet. White clouds are visible mostly near the equator or mid-temperate regions.


Above: If you were able to see this much detail of Mars you should count yourself VERY lucky.

Above: A long Exposure Photograph of the ISS taken with a DSLR camera.

Photographing the ISS is very worthwhile and gratifying. There are two basic methods; one being easy and the other being a little more difficult. Both methods are incredibly rewarding and good results can be obtained fairly quickly, once you have mastered the basics.

First off you need to find out when the ISS is going to be passing over your location and where to look for it in the sky. You can do this simply by visiting a website such as www.heavens-above.com

Method 1: You will need a DSLR camera or another type of camera which is capable taking long exposures. Incredibly important is having a tripod or somewhere you can place your camera without it getting vibrations or movement.

Find out when and where the ISS will be passing over your location and choose a part of the sky the ISS is passing through at which you can point your camera.

Experiment with your camera settings, to get colours and exposures correct beforehand and

Above: The ISS and shuttle Discovery as captured -- and annotated -- by Thierry Legault

they report in February 23rd's Journal of Geophysical Research — Planets, the boulders couldn't have been encased in ice and popped loose as the ice melted. Instead, all the evidence points to localized shak ing of the ground — marsquakes — as the cause. And because some of the boulders left still-visible trails as they rolled and bounced down slope, those quakes must have happened recently.

Interestingly, the team hasn't found more boulder cascades elsewhere on Mars, so the situation in Cerberus Fossae could be unique. It's located near a huge volcano, Elysium Mons, and maybe the ground is shifting due to churning in pockets of subsurface magma. So geologists are keeping a close eye on this region in the hope of catching an eruption in the act.

www.astronomy.com

Meanwhile, images from the HiRISE camera aboa rd the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have likewise surprising geologists. This time the target was Cerberus Fossae, a set of fractures that cuts across a fresh lava flow on Mars ("fresh" meaning a few million years old).

HiRISE has spotted clusters of big boulders along the base of several scarps in the fracture zone, which must have toppled down the steep slopes very recently. Rockfalls like these happen all the time on our p l an e t , p a r t i c u l a r l y a f t e r earthquakes. But they can also be tr iggered by the seasonal accumulation and retreat of snowpacks.

Fortunately, HiRISE can pick out surface details no bigger than 30 cm across, and that allowed Gerald Roberts (University of London) and others to carefully analyze the boulders' sizes and distributions. As



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Their thinking goes that Mercury, Mars, and the Moon were once quite hot and and their interiors partially molten. However, since all three are much smaller than Earth, they all cooled off long ago. No heat source, no geologic activity. (The jury is still out on Venus, whose clouds hide its surface from view). But the Moon and Mars might not be completely dead, according to what's turned up recently in super-high-resolution detailed closeups from orbiting spacecraft.

On the Moon, the evidence is a series of tiny narrow valleys, the largest of which are just a few miles long, found in high-resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). Called graben, these features form when the Moon's crust stretches, breaks, and drops down along two bounding faults. Much larger stretch marks surround some lunar maria, but

those formed more than 3½ billion years ago when the upper crust sagged slightly under the weight of the maria's massive lava plains.

The graben systems found by Thomas Watters (Smithsonian Institution) and others are different. In the March issue of Nature Geoscience, the team details how these features are scattered widely across the lunar landscape. It looks as though the Moon's outer crust has expanded slightly here and there — even though overall the Moon should have shrunk slightly as its interior cooled and solidified.

Moreover, the graben appear very fresh, with crisp edges that haven't been disturbed by cratering. Best guess is that they're less than 50 million years old — and they could be much, much younger. Maybe the Moon hasn't completely

solidified after all — a notion buoyed by a recent reanalysis of 40-year-old Apollo seismic data.

"It's exciting when y o u d i s c o v e r something totally unexpected," notes Mark Robinson, who heads the LROC effort, in a NASA press release.

In their study of the solar system, students learn that Earth is the only terrestrial planet that's still undeniably churning with geologic activity. Sure, there have been hints of occasionally stirrings elsewhere — a Martian landslide caught in the act, or changes in the Venusian atmosphere that might signal a volcanic eruption. But there's really nothing that geologists can point to and say, "Hey, that's new!"

Mars and the Moon — Not dead yet?

To infinity and beyond!!!

Perhaps that is a little unfair, after all we have sent out robot explorers to the planets and built a reusable spaceship (now defunct) and other amazing stuff. But with regards the moon – if there was tumble weed on the surface it would be blowing backwards and forwards and around the legs of the Apollo Landers and other abandoned hardware up there.

What if Columbus had gone and seen America, reported its wonder and beauty to his masters and that was the end of it, no one went back. That would of course be ridicules, well, in a sense that is what is happening now. Most of the scientific community believe that the moon will figure in any wider manned exploration of our solar system. The moon may be no more than a small island just off shore when the great ocean beyond beckons to us. We may use it as a staging post, a rallying point for longer and more arduous missions or we may just see it go by in our spaceships window and think “we are really on our way now”.

It seems that mere mortals are expensive items to put in orbit. We need water, food, air, room to move about in, a means of protecting ourselves from the long

blistering pace of almost 58,000 kilometres per hour. It would take over 81,000 years to travel the 4.3 light years from Earth to Proxima Centauri. To put that time-scale into perspective, that would be over 2,700 human generations. Maybe we can double that speed, perhaps we can multiply it by 10, and either way it would hardly be practical to attempt such a voyage.

So what other technologies are there that we could conceive of to propel us to reach the stars within a human lifetime? Maybe we are being too negat ive; a fter a l l we use technologies today that would have been inconceivable to our ancient ancestors. How would you describe the internet to an ancient roman or a mobile phone to a Neanderthal – perhaps in this way we ourselves cannot visualise the future magic that will propel us to the stars. We will have to watch this space.

Declan Molloy is the Chairman of the Midlands Astronomy Club (MAC) having been a member for many years. Declan is also enjoys painting and sketching and has painted a number of astronomical objects.


feel the vibration of the engines. It was almost as if the traditional control levers acted like a kind of tuning fork and this new cockpit was remote and numb to the touch.

I suppose all remote systems place their faith in technology and as such we must cede our trust and our lives to this new technology. Most of the supporters of this technology will argue that removing the capacity for human error will in the long run be safer for all of us – but if the plane is going down I would rather wrestle with the column in front of me than be trying to reboot the computer… ”please wait while your computer restarts”.

Our sun is a middle aged average star set among 2 hundred billion others in our Milky Way galaxy. With the exception of the odd planet orbiting our sun as we do – every other speck of light is another sun like ours, only very, very far away. The nearest star to our own is Proxima Centauri 40 trillion kilometres away. If you travelled at the speed of light you would get there in 4.2 years.

Well that’s settled then, all we need is to build a ship that goes really, really quickly – unfortunately we don’t have the ability to travel anywhere near that fast. The record for the highest speed at which a spacecraft has launched and escaped from Earth's gravity is held by the New Horizons probe*. This 478 kg, piano-sized spacecraft, which launched in January 2006, sped away from the Earth at a

term effects of cosmic radiation and the ability to create some form of artificial gravity or some other means of controlling and slowing the loss of muscle and bone density that zero gravity. Yes we are an expensive luxury perhaps. After all we can send a robotic explorer to mars and not be afraid it will get hungry or run out of water or go insane – well the last part, possibly!

But robotic explorers are slow and diligent – which is both good and bad, but can they replace the eye and instinct of a human geologist to pick up that strangely coloured stone, or the one with the strange pattern. You might say that the controller sitting at his computer screen back on mother earth acts as that eye and has that instinct, perhaps it’s true.

I remember listening to a Lufthansa pilot talking about his new experience of test flying one of the first fly-by-wire passenger jets many years ago. When he was asked if he had enjoyed the experience, he answered most definitely no... He said he was concerned that he could not feel the aircraft in the same way, he could not feel what the control surfaces were doing – he could not

Just over 42 years ago Neil Armstrong stepped out onto the moon’s surface and uttered those immortal words that most school children can repeat… or can they. It is after all 42 years ago and generations have come and rapped and immersed themselves in the bubble of virtually we call the Internet - since 12 good men and true walked on the surface of the moon....yes it was all that time ago – the last man Gene Cernan walked on that dusty plain in 1972. Now it seems that John F Kennedy’s speech - particularly the part that said “and we shall do the other things”… well the other things are no longer being done.

Above: The largest of the newly detected graben found in highlands of the lunar farside is about 1,600 feet (500 m) wide and almost 70 feet (20 m) deep.

*New Horizon’s is NASA’s mission to r obo t i c a l l y e xp l o r e P l u to , unfortunately Pluto is now no longer regarded as a Planet – this was not the case when the probe was launched in 2006. What a bummer. It would be like going to the north pole to see Santa and discovering half way there that he did not exist).

Above: A graben forms when crust is stretched and pulled apart. This stretching causes the material to break along two parallel normal faults; the terrain in

between drops down, forming a valley.

Above: A close-up of Cerberus Fossae on Mars, showing a field of boulders that fell from a nearby scarp — most likely during a local marsquake. The boulders' paths suggest that they fell from a point on the cliff a few tens of meters high.


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www.midlandsastron

On March 3, the Red Planet lies 100.8 million km from Earth. And it’s this small disk that earthly astronomers — using telescopes of every size and variety — are magnifying to reveal surface and atmospheric details.

But you don’t need a telescope to see Mars this month. In fact, even from the brightest city, you can spot the planet on a clear night with just your eyes. When

Opposition is when Mars, as seen in our sky, lies opposite the Sun. It rises at sunset, climbs highest at midnight, and peaks in brightness for the year.

But every opposition is not the same because the orbits of Earth and Mars are not circular. During a distant opposition, Mars can be more than 97 million kilometres away. Contrast that with a nearby opposition that places Mars less than 56 million km from Earth.

searching for Mars, keep a couple things in m ind . F i r s t , d u r i n g t h i s opposition, after sunset the Red Planet is the fourth-brightest starlike object overall, but the brightest one in the eastern part of the sky. Second, Mars appears copper or whitish-orange in colour, not a deep red. For centuries, Mars has been called the Red Planet because of iron compounds in its soil and rocks. D u r i n g opposition, however, the planet is too brilliant to be red.

Veteran planetary observer Raymond Shubinski says, “If you use a telescope to view Mars, remember that it’s now late spring in the p lane t ’ s no r t he rn hemisphere, so that part of the globe tips in our direction.”

Observers should have a good view as the north polar cap shrinks under ever-stronger solar radiation. Most other surface features appear as dusky markings. “The best views come when the planet lies highest in the sky around midnight,” Shubinski says, “because that’s when we see it through the least

Mars rules the night Mars reaches a point in its orbit called opposition on March 3, allowing for some of the best views for years. At such times — which occur 780 days apart — the Red Planet is number one on the minds of astronomers.

To help find your way around the night sky, Skymaps.com makes available for free each month a map of the night sky.

The Evening Sky Map is suitable for all stargazers including newcomers to astronomy and will help you to:

• identify planets, stars and major constellations.

• find sparkling star clusters, wispy nebulae & distant galaxies.

• locate and follow bright comets across the sky.

• learn about the night sky and astronomy.

Insert your WebCam into the telescope focusing tube using an adapter (available from astronomy stores) and connect the cables to your laptop. When the ISS is due, start recording and track the space station using a finder scope or computerized mount.

The difficult part of this method is tracking the ISS and keeping it in the field of view of the telescope while recording the video file. It is recommended that you set your mount in “Alt/Az” mode or use a Dobsonian telescope so that you have free movement of telescopes optical tube assembly. You will basically be using the telescope as a giant video camera and you need to keep the ISS in shot for as long as possible.

This method is very difficult as the ISS has been magnified highly while moving very quickly and can be easily lost out of the field of view, or there can be too much movement (shaking) in the video. This method requires much practice.

Once you have been able to get a video of the ISS passing over, you can feed your video file into software such as RegiStax and the program will sort each individual frame, removing bad frames and stacking good frames to create a very clear image.

This method is fantastic for creating close up images with detail on the International Space Station; you

do a couple of long exposure test shots of anything from 15 to 60 seconds. You can do shorter or longer exposures but this is up to you, depending your equipment and how artistic you want to be.

This method will produce a long white streak or line, which will show the path taken of the International Space Station as it passes over. This is the most common method for amateurs.

Method 2: You will need a telescope, a webcam, and a strong mount or tripod. Set up your telescope and mount, along with webcam with a laptop and make sure of the time and where the ISS will be passing over your location.

In this method we will use the telescope to magnify and see the ISS up close while recording a movie (AVI). We will then stack the frames of the recorded movie in a free specialist image enhancing program such as www.astronomie.be/registax

A beginner’s guide to photographing the International Space Station

If you have seen the International Space Station (ISS) pass over a few times with your own eyes, you may want to have a go at photographing it, this simple guide will offer some suggestions on how to get your shots.


can also see docked spacecraft. You can also use this method for trying to image other Earth-orbiting satellites, too.


amount of our image-distorting atmosphere.”

At opposition, Mars shines at magnitude –1.2 in the southeastern part of the constellation Leo the Lion. It then heads west-northwest toward the Lion’s brightest star, 1st-magnitude Regulus. The planet ends the month about 5° shy of that target while glowing at a still-impressive magnitude –0.7.

Mars will not appear this big or bright again until its next opposition April 8, 2014 so don’t miss this opportunity to view Mars.

www.astronomy.com Above: Mars shines brilliantly among the stars of Leo the Lion, where it appears some 10 times brighter than that constellation’s luminary, Regulus.

Above: Global view of Mars as seen by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1980, showing the Valles Marineris (centre), unfortunately you won’t see it this good with your telescope even at opposition.

Mars looks tiny and gives up little detail at a glance. With a little patience, the right tools, and some steady sky, you’ll see detail even in a 3″ or 4″ scope, including…

Red Colour: The striking colour of Mars is the first thing you notice. It’s a result of iron oxides in the layer of fine dust that covers the planet.

While Mars looks lovely in the sky right now, to see any detail on the surface of the planet, you’ll need a telescope. Binoculars won’t show the disk of this small world.

Temper your expectations when you look at Mars no matter how big your scope, Mars won’t look anything like images you see the magazines. In a small telescope,

Polar Caps: Like Earth, Mars has white polar caps. They’re made of frozen water and carbon dioxide, and they grow and shrink with the Martian seasons.

Seeing Mars with a telescope Many new stargazers are disappointed by their view of Mars in a small telescope. But with a little practice and know-how, you can see a remarkable amount of detail with a modest instrument. Here’s what to look for:

Dark Regions: Early astronomers thought these dark regions were green vegetation that waxed and waned with the seasons. These dark surface markings are crater fields, and they do change their appearance slightly over time as Martian winds slowly cover and uncover these regions with fine ochre dust.

Clouds: At high magnification, and with good seeing, you can sometimes see clouds or fog banks on the surface of Mars, or along the limb of the planet. White clouds are visible mostly near the equator or mid-temperate regions.


Above: If you were able to see this much detail of Mars you should count yourself VERY lucky.

Above: A long Exposure Photograph of the ISS taken with a DSLR camera.

Photographing the ISS is very worthwhile and gratifying. There are two basic methods; one being easy and the other being a little more difficult. Both methods are incredibly rewarding and good results can be obtained fairly quickly, once you have mastered the basics.

First off you need to find out when the ISS is going to be passing over your location and where to look for it in the sky. You can do this simply by visiting a website such as www.heavens-above.com

Method 1: You will need a DSLR camera or another type of camera which is capable taking long exposures. Incredibly important is having a tripod or somewhere you can place your camera without it getting vibrations or movement.

Find out when and where the ISS will be passing over your location and choose a part of the sky the ISS is passing through at which you can point your camera.

Experiment with your camera settings, to get colours and exposures correct beforehand and

Above: The ISS and shuttle Discovery as captured -- and annotated -- by Thierry Legault



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But a change of 6.5 minutes over a little more than a decade is a huge variation.

Other effects could also be at work, including exchanges of angular momentum between Venus and the Earth when the two planets are relatively close to each other. But the scientists are still working to figure out the reason for the slow down.

These detailed measurements from orbit are also helping scientists determine whether Venus has a solid or liquid core, which will help our understanding how the planet formed and evolved. If Venus has a

solid core, its mass must be more concentrated towards the centre. In this case, the planet’s rotation would react less to external forces.

“An accurate value for Venus’ rotation rate will help in planning future missions, because precise information will be needed to select potential landing sites,” said Håkan Svedhem, ESA’s Venus Express project scientist.

Venus Express will keep monitoring the planet to determine if the rate of rotation continues to change.

www.universetoday.com that suddenly blew itself to bits in a planet-sized nuclear explosion after taking on too much mass from a close companion star. This is known as a Type Ia supernova.

And there's another type… the Type II supernova. This is a

massive star that runs out of fuel and suddenly collapses upon itself, crushing its innards into a dense, scorching brew of radiation and atomic p a r t i c l e s b e f o r e rebounding outwards to release light and radiation and matter.

B o t h t y p e s o f supernova create more energy in a few weeks than our Sun creates in its entire lifetime. Visible light is released,

along with neutrinos and atomic and subatomic particles at high speed. The dangerous X-rays and

During an after-dinner stroll on a cool autumn evening in 1572, the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a blazing new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Tycho knew every star in the sky since his youth, and he lived in a time when many thought the heavens never changed. So when he saw this new star, he was, as he later wrote, “so astonished at this sight that I was not ashamed to doubt the trustworthiness of my own eye.” Tycho was amazed by what's now called a supernova, a massive exploding star which for a few weeks can outshine an entire galaxy. It's a sight you should see for yourself, as luck allows, which is why it tops our celestial Bucket List.

Tycho had no way of knowing the nature of this new star. It would take more than 350 years before astronomers figured out enough physics to understand supernovae and the critical role they play in the creation of new stars, planets.

Now we know Tycho's supernova was likely a small white dwarf star

Now… how do you get to see one of these awesome beauties? Well, they are quite rare… about one every 50-100 years in the Milky Way on average. While many of the stars we see in the night sky will blow up as supernovae, none has been seen in our galaxy since 1604. So we are way overdue. Most stars, including the Sun and nearby stars, are too small to explode in this way.

Here's a short list of nearby stars that will one day detonate as Type II supernovae: Betelguese in Orion, eta Carinae, rho Cassiopeiae, Spica, and Antares and Shaula in Scorpius. Astronomers don't know when any of these stars will blow… it might be next week, it might be a million years. But all will one day shine bright enough to see in our daytime skies and cast shadows by night for weeks before fading away. And though no star is close enough to be dangerous to us, gamma rays and neutrinos from nearby supernova will be detected on Earth.

Your best bet to see a supernova lies in looking at other galaxies. The last naked-eye supernova occurred in 1987 in a nearby dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. At least one extragalactic supernova is discovered with large telescopes every year in more distant galaxies. Some are discovered by amateur astronomers, including a recent discovery by a 10-year-old Canadian girl who found the star in an image taken with a large telescope.

Occasionally, these extragalactic supernovae are bright enough to see in a small telescope. A supernovae bright enough to see with binoculars or a small telescope will surely be announced on the news, or in these pages, so stay tuned and you'll get your chance.

And keep an eye on Betelguese, Spica, and Antares… you just never know. While you're waiting for the “big one”, you can gaze at scattered remnants of supernovae that are visible in small telescopes, including the Crab Nebula and the Veil Nebula. Most are beautiful sights in their own right.


New measurements from ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft shows that Venus’ rotation rate is about 6.5 minutes slower than previous measurements taken 16 years ago by the Magellan spacecraft. Using infrared instruments to peer through the planet’s dense atmosphere, Venus Express found surface features weren’t where the scientists expected them to be.

Is Venus’ rotation slowing down?

Bucket List Object #1: A Supernova

Over the next several months, we present our totally subjective list of ten celestial sights to see before you die, or “kick the bucket”, as they say. We call it the “Bucket List for Backyard Stargazers”. Our list is targeted at the casual stargazer, with no special expertise or training or ambition other than to see some of the most beautiful, and in some cases, transient sights in nature. For some of these objects, you’ll need access to a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. Others require travel and good timing and luck. And for others, you need to simply look up. But all these sights are not that hard to see, once you know how and when and where to look for them. We’ll help you with that.

Left: A multi-

wavelength image of the remnants of

Tycho̓s 1572 super-

nova.

Sc ien t i s t s had p r ev i ous l y discovered new Jovian satellites in 2010, and astronomers think there may be more—lots more. "The satellites are part of the outer retrograde swarm of objects around Jupiter," said Scott Sheppard who reported the discovery.

Retrograde satellites are moons that orbit "backward"—in the opposite direction of a planet's axial rotation. Including the two new moons, the Jupiter swarm features 52 known retrograde satellites, which are all relatively tiny.

Two new Moons for Jupiter "It is likely there are about a hundred satellites of this size" in the swarm, Sheppard said. Like most of Jupiter's other retrograde satellites, S/2011 J1 and J2 are also classified as irregular moons, because they orbit far from the planet and have highly eccentric and inclined orbits.

Due to their odd orbits, the moons are likely asteroid or comet pieces that were long ago captured by Jupiter's gravity rather than developing in place during the formation of the planet itself. "Because these outer irregular satellites were captured during the solar system's early years, they can give us insight into the planet's formation and evolution process," Sheppard added.

By establ ished convention, satellites in the Jovian system are named for lovers and descendants

Two new moons have been found orbiting Jupiter, bringing the Jovian family count up to 66 natural satellites, astronomers revealed this month.

of the Roman god Jupiter or his Greek counterpart, Zeus.

www.nationalgeographic.com

What could cause the planet to slow down? One possibility may be the raging weather on Venus. Recent atmospheric models have shown that the planet could have weather cycles stretching over decades, which could lead to equally long-term changes in the rotation period. The most important of those forces is due to the dense atmosphere – more than 90 times the pressure of Earth’s and high-speed weather systems, which are believed to change the planet’s rotation rate through friction with the surface.

Earth experiences a similar effect, where it is largely caused by wind and tides. The length of an Earth day can change by roughly a m i l l i s e c ond and depends seasonally with wind patterns and temperatures over the course of a year.

“When the two maps did not align, I first thought there was a mistake in my calculations as Magellan measured the value very accurately, but we have checked every possible error we could think of,” said Nils Müller, lead author of a research paper investigating the rotation.

Us ing the VIRTIS in frared instrument, scientists discovered that some surface features were displaced by up to 20 km from where they should be given the accepted rotation rate as measured by the Magellan orbiter in the early 1990s.

Over its four-year mission, Magellan determined the length of the day on Venus as being equal to 243.0185 Earth days. But the data from Venus Express indicate the length of the Venus day is on average 6.5 minutes longer.

Above: Venus Express in orbit since 2006 around our nearest planetary neighbour.

gamma rays from a supernova would destroy or degrade life (as we know it) on any planet within an astonishing 50 light-year radius.

But while they are fearsome events, you would not be here if not for supernovae. Here's why… Long before it explodes, a big star turns hydrogen and helium into carbon and oxygen and many heavier elements all the way up to iron. This material is blasted out during the supernova explosion into the space between the stars.

What's more, as the star collapses, neutrons get smashed into atomic nuclei to create and release all the naturally occurring elements heavier than iron, right up to uranium and beyond. The iron in your blood and your frying pan, the gold and silver in your jewellery, the copper and zinc and tantalum in your computer, were all created and released during long forgotten supernova explosions billions of years ago.

Above: Above are the discovery images for one of Jupiter's newest moons S/2011 J2. This object is faint and doesn't have much visual information, but the moon was discovered using the optical telescope Magellan on Sept. 27, 2011.

Currently known as S/2011 J1 and S/2011 J2, the new moons were first identified in images acquired with the Magellan-Baade Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on September 27, 2011.

The objects are among the smallest moons yet discovered in the solar system, each measuring only about a kilometre wide. Unlike Jupiter's four large Galilean moons, which are visible from Earth with even small backyard telescopes, both new moons are dim and very distant from the planet, taking about 580 and 726 days to complete their orbits.


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lot of results in the area, but all were moving eastward while my fuzzy was moving westward. Rocks don’t make U-turns. This was really getting exciting. I had Jen, my better half, an accomplished astro imager, take a look at the images and before I could point out the faint smudge she exclaimed “That’s a comet!”

Still, Fred notes, “it wasn’t a slam-dunk.” The images were faint and there could have been other causes of blurry spots in digital images. But a check of the raw colour data revealed a greenish coloration to the object’s glow, which is indicative of cyanogen and carbon

Using custom-written software to operate a 14″ Meade LX200GPS telescope Fred set his system up to capture images of the sky on that cold evening, not allowing himself to be chased inside by the low temperatures or the bright, rising moon. While making a cursory look through the blink data, Fred was surprised to spot a faint burry object visible moving across three frames. A check of online databases of known objects brought up no positive hits — this was something that hadn’t been seen before.

Fred describes the “eureka” moment on his blog: “A check of known objects in the region had a

“Friday, February 10th 2012 just felt like the perfect night for a comet to be discovered by an amateur astronomer,” writes Fred Bruenjes on his astronomy blog. And, this past Friday night, that’s exactly what Fred did.


New Comet discovered by Amateur Astronomer

Above: Image of Comet C/2012 C2 (Bruenjes) made from ten 60 sec. exposures on Feb. 11, 2012.

emission — typical hallmarks of comets. “Very encouraging,” Fred added.

Another night’s observation was needed. If it was a comet, it would appear again along its expected trajectory. Of course, with an unidentified comet there would be no known orbit, so Fred had to manually extrapolate its position. When he trained his telescope onto his calculated coordinates the following evening and began taking images, there it was… the same faint, fuzzy green blur from the previous night, slowly appearing in the darkening sky right where it should be.

Fred spent the next hour gathering images to send in to the IAU’s Minor Planet Centre, in the hopes of having the object catalogued so that others could locate and observe it. He didn’t have to wait long; within five minutes the object

was listed on the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page, and dubbed C/2012 C2 (Bruenjes), in honour of its discoverer.

Comet Bruenjes is an NEO currently about 0.555 AU away from Earth. Its exact size and orbital period isn’t known, and it may even be a returning comet or piece from a larger one… the official report isn’t out yet. It appears to have a fairly inclined orbit relative to the ecliptic, based on the current diagram created by JPL’s Small-Body Database.

The comet’s total magnitude is 16.6, so it is dim and not visible to the naked eye. It’s in the constellation Aries, about six degrees north of Jupiter. Just after sunset in the Northern hemisphere it’s high in the southwest, nearly overhead.


of years ago and led to the creation of several hefty and very hot stars that are prominent in the new picture.

A nickname for the NGC 3324 region is the ‘Gabriela Mistral Nebula,’ after the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet but I think I’ll start a petition to call it the Hitchcock Nebula. Hitchcock liked to make cameo appearances in his own movies, and perhaps he is making a pareidoliaic guest appearance here.

Hitchcock haunts a Nebula The new image of NGC 3324 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the the European Southern Observatory’s 2.2-metre telescope

at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.


The right edge of the wall of gas and dust in this star-forming region really bears a strong resemblance to the famous profile of the British film director and producer, notorious for his thriller movies from the 1940’s through the 1970’s.

NGC 3324 is located in the southern constellation of Carina, roughly 7500 light-years from Earth. It is on the northern outskirts of the chaotic environment of the Carina Nebula. All the gas and dust here fueled a burst of star birth several millions

First impression after seeing this new image of NGC 3324? It’s Alfred Hitchcock, bulbous nose and all.

Kid’s�

Some curious symbols ring the outside of the Star Finder. These symbols stand for some of the constellations in the zodiac. What is the zodiac and what is special about these constellations?

Imagine a straight line drawn from Earth through the Sun and out into space way beyond our solar system where the stars are. Then, picture Earth following its orbit around the Sun. This imaginary line would rotate, pointing to different stars throughout one complete trip around the Sun—or, one year. All the stars that lie close to the imaginary flat disk swept out by this imaginary line are said to be in the zodiac.

The constellations in the zodiac are simply the constellations that this imaginary straight line points to in its year-long journey.

I n a n c i e n t t i m e s , astronomers did not fully understand how Earth, the Sun, and the stars moved. Nor did they have any idea the Universe is so vast. But they were keen observers of the sky and tried very hard to make sense of it.

People had already imagined that the constellations might be

z o d i a c . ( O t h e r cultures and traditions have recognized as m a n y a s 2 4 constellations in the zodiac.) So the Babylonians p i c ked one , Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12 didn't fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and slopped over into the next one.

When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth's axis (North Pole) doesn't point in quite the same direction.

Now Mimi's August 4 birthday would mean she was born "under the sign" of Cancer (one constellation "earlier"), not Leo.

The constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the Sun spends different lengths of time

Korner�What's Your Sign?

lined up with each one. The line from Earth through the Sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only 7 days. To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the Sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12. Then they assigned each of those 12 constellations equal

amounts of time. Besides the 12 familiar constellations of the zodiac, the Sun is also aligned with Ophiuchus for about 18 days each year.

A s t r o l o g y i s n o t Astronomy! Astronomy is the scientific study of everything in outer space. Astronomers and other scientists know that stars many light years* away have no effect on the ordinary activities

of humans on Earth. No one has shown that a s t r o l o g y

can be used to predict the future or describe

what people are like based only on their birth date. Still, like reading fantasy stories, many people enjoy reading their "astrological forecast" or "horoscope" in the newspaper every day.

important symbols, telling stories of their gods and other myths. It was not a big step to suppose that the changing positions of the constellations at different times of the year might be important to people and events on Earth.

he Babylonians lived over 3,000 years ago. They divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts--like cutting a pizza into 12 equal slices. They picked 12 constellations in the zodiac, one for each of the 12 "slices." So, as Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun would appear to pass through each of the 12 parts of the zodiac. Since the Babylonians already had a 12-month calendar

(based on the phases of the Moon), each month got a slice of the zodiac all to itself.

But even according to the Babylonians' own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the

* A light year is the distance light

travels in one Earth year. This is almost 6,000,000,000,000 (6 trillion) miles! One light

year is 25 million times farther than the moon, or over 60,000 times farther than the

Sun. Remember, nothing in the Universe travels faster than light!

Above: The star-forming region NGC 3324. The intense radiation from several of NGC 3324's massive, blue-white stars has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust. The ultraviolet radiation from these young hot stars also cause the gas cloud to glow in rich colours.


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c o n t e n t sc o n t e n t sc o n t e n t sc o n t e n t s Latest Astronomy and Space News New Comet discovered by Amateur Astronomer .................... 3

Hitchcock haunts a Nebula ................................................... 3

Is Venus’ rotation slowing down? ......................................... 4

Two new Moons for Jupiter .................................................. 4

Mars rules the night ............................................................ 5

Seeing Mars with a telescope ............................................... 5

Mars and the Moon — Not dead yet? .................................. 6

To infinity and beyond!!! ...................................................... 7

A beginner’s guide to photographing the International Space Station ...................................................................... 8

Bucket List Object #1: A Supernova ..................................... 9

Kids Section Kids Korner ....................................................................... 10

Quizzes and Games Exercise your brain ............................................................ 11

Monthly Sky Guide Beginners sky guide for this month .................................... 12

Internet Highlights Special content only available with the online version of the magazine ................................................................ 13

Front cover image: The Rosette Nebula is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers -- but it is the most famous. At

the edge of a large molecular cloud in Monoceros, some 5,000 light years away, the petals of this rose are actually a stellar nursery whose lovely, symmetric shape is

sculpted by the winds and radiation from its central cluster of hot young stars.

The stars in the energetic cluster, catalogued

as NGC 2244, are only a few million years old, while the central cavity in the Rosette Nebula, catalogued as NGC 2237, is about 50 light-years in diameter. The nebula can be seen first-hand with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Unicorn

(Monoceros)

Credit & Copyright: Brian Davis

MAC meets on the first Tuesday of the month in the Presbyterian Hall, High Street, Tullamore from 8pm.

All are welcome to attend. It also holds infrequent Observing Nights at its Observing Site in

Clonminch, or at a member’s house (weather permitting) on the first

Friday of every month..

You can see more about the club and its events on

www.midlandsastronomy.com or contact the club via e-mail at [email protected] Meetings are informal and are

aimed at a level to suit all ages.

Exercise your brainExercise your brainExercise your brainExercise your brain 1. Mu Cephei was given a

nickname by Sir William Herschel, what was it?

� Diamond Portrait � Crimson Entity � Garnet Star � Red Star

2. Eventually, our galaxy

will crash into the

Andromeda Galaxy (M31). But, what will

happen when we

collide?

� The galaxies will pass through each other, most likely no planets even touching, but the gravity of the passing bodies will throw us and others out of orbit.

� Planets will collide and create a mass site of destruction.

� Nothing whatsoever. � The Andromeda Galaxy is

not on a collision course towards the Milky Way.

3. Due to odd star movements in the centre

o f a l l g a l a x i e s , astronomers have come

up with a solution to provide for the odd

"whip-like" movements in star orbits. What is

the theory?

� This happens to be the normal orbit at the centre of a galaxy.

� The gravity of all the stars at the dense centre of a galaxy throws the star's orbit off.

� There is a black hole at the very centre of all galaxies

� A neutron star sits at the centre of a galaxy.

4 5 8 7

5 4 2

6 2

8 9 1 2

1 5 2 3 4

5 8 4 1

8 3

8 7 4

6 5 4 9

SUDOKU

Check your answers

Answer 1: The correct answer was Garnet Star. Mu Cephei is large enough that if placed at the sun's position, it would engulf all planets up to Saturn!

Answer 2: The correct answer was The galaxies will pass through each other, most likely no planets even touching, but the gravity of the passing bodies will throw us and others out of orbit. You will not have to ever worry about this, nor anyone in the distant future. Andromeda is a bigger galaxy than we are, but still a spiral galaxy. Another name for this galaxy is the M31 galaxy.

Answer 3: The correct answer was There is a black hole at the very centre of all galaxies. They did go as far to say there is a massive black hole at the centre. These baffling voids spurred many new ideas about galaxies such as the larger galaxies destroy small ones once they come in contact.

Answer 4: The correct answer was Become a white, then black dwarf. Actually, if the star is not as powerful, they swell then turn into white dwarfs as normal, but instead of creating a big BOOM, they become a black dwarf and just fade away from existence.

Answer 5: The correct answer was Phosphorus. Scientists think it is from phosphorus. The Great Red Spot also contains other compounds like methane and carbon-nitrogen compounds. The scientists theorize that the specific type of phosphorus is red phosphorus. Unfortunately, this happens to be a theory and scientists are not quite sure if the compound is even phosphorus. The arguments they provide make sense: red phosphorus really does appear red, but until later technology, scientists only guess.

Answer 6: The correct answer was Deimos. The smallest moon is Deimos, belonging to Mars. It looks like a potato and is made of light, rocky material. The size of Deimos is not even larger than Manhattan Island!

Answer 7: The correct answer was he died before his ideas were proven correct. He never was alive to see his ideas come true. Halley's comet is known as a short-period comet, meaning it completes its orbit around the sun in under 200 years.

4. Most of the time when

given the term "dying star," we think of a great

bang and then a massive vacuum. But what is the

alternate death course a star can take?

� Become a white, then black dwarf

� It creates a supernova, then either a black hole or neutron star

� Become a quasar � Immediate burn out, star

giving off no more light 5. Jupiter: big, huge, large,

violent. What most likely makes it’s Great Red

Spot red?

� Phosphorus � Bronze Traces � Liquid Hydrogen � Iron Oxide (Rust)

6. What is the smallest

moon in the solar

system?

� Moon � Deimos � Phobos � Triton

7. Edmond Halley is widely

known for his discovery

of Halley's Comet. But, what ironic thing

happened when he proposed his ideas?

� He died before his ideas were proven correct

� After he revealed his findings, a family member died.

� He was rejected, but during the time they realised he was right, he had been on vacation.

� Halley lost all his records when called up to speak about his ideas.

Saturn is visible as an evening object during the month, rising at 22:20 at the start of the month. It can be located in the constellation Virgo this month. Uranus and Neptune is not observable this month. General notes Always keep an eye out f o r A u r o r a e . C h e c k o u t w w w . s t r o n g e . o r g . u k /spaceweather.html for the most up-to-date information on the aurorae. Other interesting naked eye phenomena to look out for include the Zodiacal Light and the Gegenschein. Both are caused by sunlight reflecting off dust particles which are present in the solar system.

Finally check out www.heavens-above.com for the latest passes of the International Space Station and satellites, details of Space Shuttle launches and passes and for details of Iridium Flare activity.

Clear skies and good hunting!

By Kevin Daly http://members.aol.com/kdaly10475/index.html

these 2 stars. M65 and M66 are located about 20 million lightyears away. There are tons of galaxies in the Leo area, scan around the area with a low powered eyepiece and see how many you can detect. One note, you'll need good dark skies to start looking for galaxies so head out to your favourite country observing spot and begin your galaxy hunting there. Planets Mercury can be seen as an evening object until around the 10th, after this will become unvisible. Venus is visible in the evening sky during the month. On the evening of the 13th, it lies 3° to the North of Jupiter. It also lies 3° to the South West of M45 – The Pleiades by month’s end. Mars is at opposition on the 3rd and is Leo during the month. It is visible as soon as darkness falls and sets at 06:35 by month’s end. Jupiter is an evening object this month in Aries and sets at 23:00 ST by month’s end.

star (Dubhe), now, follow this imaginary line the same distance out, then move slightly North (toward Polaris, the North Star), scan the area slowly, and you should find 2 smudges, one slightly elongated (M81) and one rounded (M82). This particular pair of galaxies were the first I found, the only description I wrote in my log book was "wow." M81 and M82 are located approximately 7 - 8 million lightyears from us. While in the area of the Big Dipper, there's a nice double star to be glimpsed as well. The second star of the handle (Mizar) is a naked eye double (Mizar and Alcor). While not a binary star system still a treat. Point your scope at it and Mizar itself splits into a double star, this one is a true binary system with a rotational period of several thousand years. Moving on to Leo, which is easy to find by looking for the backwards question mark we have another pair of galaxies which will fit into the same field of view in a low powered eyepiece. M65 and M66 can be located by finding the hindquarters of Leo which is a right triangle to the left (east) of the question mark. The star at the bottom right of the triangle is known as Chort. A dimmer star can be seen down and to the left of Chort (South and East). M65 and M66 can be found halfway between

Telescope Targets Orion and the rest of the winter constellations are still placed well for early evening observing. See December's, January's and February's picks for targets in these. March marks the beginning of Spring Galaxy season. Most galaxies will appear as small grey blobs through amateur equipment. The thrill (at least for me) of looking at these is the vast distances and the fact that you're looking at something not of this galaxy. There's something about actually seeing a remote galaxy first hand that cannot possibly be felt by simply looking at pictures in a book. Granted, the pictures in the book are very nice to look at, but viewing them with your own scope gives you the feeling of "being" there. We'll start off in Ursa Major with a very nice pair of galaxies, M81 and M82. M81 and M82 are usually visible in the same low powered field of view, which makes for a fascinating site. Be sure to use your lowest power eyepiece for this pair. It also shows what 2 different types of galaxies will look like in your scope (an irregular, M82 and a spiral, M81). To find M81 and M82, start with the first star that forms the bowl of the big dipper from the handle (Phecda). Draw a line diagonally to the opposite corner


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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Issue 32- March, 2012

Latest Astronomy and Space News

Kids Astronomy

Quizzes and Games

Monthly Sky Guide

Internet Highlights

Sky Guide - Beginner’s targets for March

Club Notes

Club Observing:

The next club meets every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month for our observing sessions held in the MAC grounds. If you wish to be informed of these sessions please email your name and mobile number to [email protected] who will confirm if the session is going ahead (depending on weather).

MAC is a proud member of

Above: Ursa Major is a constellation visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. Its name means the Great Bear in Latin. It is dominated by the widely recognised asterism known as the Big Dipper or Plough, which is a useful pointer toward north, and which has mythological significance in numerous world cultures.


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Each month we will try and bring you the best of the web for astronomy online resources such as movies, podcasts and free software. If you have any suggestions for content in these pages please contact us at [email protected]

Please click on the links provided to view the material and not the images.

The latest episode of Cosmic Journeys, enjoy in full HD 1080p. Scientists have been reconstructing the history of the moon by scouring its surface, mapping its mountains and craters, and probing its interior. What are they learning about our own planet's beginnings?



Cosmic Journeys: Birth of the Moon

Internet Highlights

Useful free astronomy resources

IFAS Website h p://www.irishastronomy.org

Stellarium h p://www.stellarium.org

Virtual Moon Atlas h p://www.astrosurf.com/avl/UK_index.html

Celes'a h p://www.sha ers.net/celes'a/index.html

Sky Maps h p://skymaps.com/index.html

Heavens-Above h p://www.heavens-above.com/

Can We Land On a Comet?

http://youtu.be/n1zqA-csMAA

Virtual Star Party February 8th, 2012

ScienceCasts: An Alignment of Planets

http://youtu.be/x8br4JiFEik

Podcast: Messier Catalogue

http://www.astronomycast.com/

50th Anniversary of Mercury Orbital Flight

NASA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first orbital flight by Mercury astronaut John Glenn.

http://youtu.be/rlk6ZyBap6U

Midlands Astronomy Club have created a Facebook page so that our members and non-members alike can:

• Keep up-to-date on future out-

reach events.

• Be informed of upcoming

lectures.

• Have online access to the

latest astronomy news as it happens.

• See photos of all club events

and activities.

Find us on www.facebook.com

Have you ever looked into the sky and noticed a fuzzy blob? That’s a Messier Object, carefully catalogued by Charles Messier to make it easier to find comets. We’ll learn about the history of the catalogue, Messier’s criteria and some of the prominent objects you’ll see in the sky.

Podcast: The Jodcast

http://www.jodcast.net/archive/

A podcast about astronomy including the latest news, what you can see in the night sky, interviews with astronomers and more. It is created by astronomers from The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank for anyone interested in things out of this world.

http://youtu.be/WGTBJHFNywI

Timelapse: Atacama Starry Nights

http://youtu.be/FoePrO4-fGQ

The Atacama Desert of Chile has been called “an astronomer’s paradise,” with its stunningly dark, steady and transparent skies. Babak Tafreshi, an astronomer,

journalist and director of The World at Night (TWAN) is creating a series of timelapse videos from Paranal, and this is his latest.

http://vimeo.com/36957362

mac march 2012 magazine

Documents