stronomy Wise E-zine July 2012

Transit of Venus

Interview

SpaceX History In The Making

Caroline Scott Astrophysics Student

The Night Sky

Image gallery

The Night Assistant

Astronomy Wise

Welcome to the July edition of Astronomy Wise online newsletter/online magazine (E-Zine). This month is packed with features and articles. We have our review of the Transit of Venus, we have the Lets Talk.. Interview with Ph.D. student Caroline Scott. Jason Ives gives us a review of mobile applications for Apple and Android based systems. We have two pieces of work from John Harper which include the July Night Sky, and a piece on Arcturus. During our Venus transit event I met a couple (Cheryl Crooks & Michael Knowles) who travelled from Nottingham to Scarborough, Michael Knowles who has kindly emailed me some of his work regarding Sherwood Observatory Astronomical Radio Meteor Capture. It is a pleasure to include this in the July edition. June was an interesting month. Not only did we have the Transit of Venus, but another historical event, was the first ever commercial company docking of a spacecraft module to the International Space Station (ISS). With kind permission from Space X I have included a small piece on the company and the historical docking. I would also like to say thank you to Awesome Astronomy who gave us a mention on the their podcast. Details are in this publication on how to listen to the Awesome Astronomy podcast, which is out each month, most recommended. Finally If you have an event of society/club function and want some FREE advertising please contact us. If you wish to write in and have your letter published please email us. If you are interested in advertising on the website or in this publication contact details are available on the last page of this edition. Thank You...

Interview With Caroline Scott

Astronomy Wise

Page 2

Contents

Transit of Venus A journey to the stars Lets talk Awesome Astronomy The Night Sky

Credits
Layout: Edward Dutton Editor: David Bood Writers: Jason Ives Michael Knowles John Harper F.R.A.S President, and founder of Scarborough & Ryedale Astronomical Society (1976) Interview: Caroline Scott Special thanks to Space X for permission for use of their material.

The Night Sky Assistant Arcturus the guardian of the bear Paul Rumsby Astronomical Radio Meteor Capture

News In Brief Cassini Shows Why Jet Streams Cross-Cut Saturn ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) Turbulent jet streams, regions where winds blow faster than in other places, churn east and west across Saturn. Scientists have been trying to understand for years the mechanism that drives these wavy structures in Saturn's atmosphere and the source from which the jets derive their energy.

Hubble Views Globular Cluster M10 ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) Like many of the most famous objects in the sky, globular cluster Messier 10 was of little interest to its discoverer. Charles Messier, the 18th century French astronomer, catalogued over 100 galaxies and clusters, but was primarily interested in comets. Through the

Inside Story Headline

telescopes available at the time, comets, nebulae, globular clusters and galaxies appeared just as faint, diffuse blobs and could easily be confused for one another.
A particularly strong jet stream churns through Saturn's northern hemisphere in this false-colour view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/JPLCaltech/SSI)

*Area for image*

The Transit Of Venus 5-6th June

The transit of Venus was a spectacle I did not want to miss, with the next one being some 105 years away. Even with todays rate of technology advancements the likelihood of my life being extended to then is nil. So knowing what the great British weather is like I planned to see the event firstly online, then at 03:00 I planned to drive up to Scarborough to watch the final stages with like minded friends. Twitter was a buzz with links from all over the world, astronomical societies from the USA to New Zealand had set up live webcam links. Even the main players such as Nasa and Slooh had live links ready for the world wide audience. At about 23:00 (5th June UK) I had three links ready to go. The main link I used was via Google + and the hosts were Bad Astronomy. They had several cams setup with people offering live coverage of what they were viewing. My son Jordan decided to stay up all night with me to watch and experience this historical event.

Scarborough 6/6/12 (03:30 onwards)

My son and I decided to stay up all night and watch the transit online. At 03:00 we had arranged to meet Christopher Almey at the Friendly Forrester pub car park in Bridlington. The weather was miserable with rain and mist, however we decided to continue and meet up with everyone else at the clock tower, Esplanade , Scarborough. Being the first to arrive we got out of our cars and debated setting up. First a coffee was in order as my eyes were starting to sting with tiredness. About 15 minutes later a car arrived, a couple had made the journey up from Nottingham, so after a brief introduction we discussed the up coming event. Shortly after Jason Ives came along the road, I must say we could hear his van before we could see him. From about 04:15 others arrived with the usual suspects out in force, Tracey Young and son, Neil Samples the event co host John Harper and his better half Sheila. We decided to set the equipment up despite the weather, John Harper entertained us all with his cut out cardboard sun and a black dot for Venus. A big thank you to all that came and a big thank you to Michael Knowles and partner for coming up from Nottingham, although we did not see the transit we all had a good time and laugh.

Space X: A Journey To The Stars by D Bood Several months ago when the Astronomy Wise website was launched one of the topics we followed was commercial space flight. One company that caught our attention was Space X, this was before all the big media hype of recent months. For me it was a chance to see on my lifetime a non government body, commercial company getting to the stars. Space X is a company from the USA and its chief executive is no stranger to innovation and business. Anyone who has shopped on eBay will have come across this persons work. This man is the co-founder of the online payment system PayPal, Elon Musk. Musk who has interests in other businesses is a driving force in the Space X company. His skills do not end there he also is the chief designer at Space X, so with a person like this at the helm it is no surprise Space X are the first commercial company to successfully dock with the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft used to dock with the ISS is called the Dragon Spacecraft, the means to get this craft into space is a rocket called Falcon 9.

Falcon 9

powered launch vehicle. It uses the same engines, structural architecture (with a wider diameter), avionics and launch system. The Falcon 9 rocket delivered back-to-back successes with its first three debut launches. All three flights achieved 100% of mission objectives and the third flight made history, making SpaceX the first commercial company in history to visit the International Space Station. (Space X) Dragon Spacecraft The Dragon spacecraft is the means in which cargo will be delivered to the ISS. It is designed to carry humans and cargo and part of its design is that the craft is reusable. Once in space the craft becomes free flying. We have a series of images which show the Dragon from launch to splash down. Images used with permission of SpaceX.

Length:69.2 m (227 ft.) Width:3.6 m (12 ft.) Thrust (sea level):5.88 MN (1,320,000 lbf)

The Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched and tested on June 4th 2010. Falcon 9 is a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1)

Lift off of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle carrying Dragon C2 spacecraft, from the SpaceX launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, May 22, 2012. Photo: SpaceX

Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station on May 25, 2012 for grapple and berthing . Photo: NASA

View of Dragon's sensor bay as seen from the space station as the spacecraft approaches. Photo: NASA

View from the International Space Station of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as the stations robotic arm moves Dragon into place for attachment to the station. May 25, 2012. Photo: NASA

European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuiper's inside the Dragon spacecraft. Photo: NASA

Splash Down : NASA

http://www.spacex.com

Lets Talk Caroline Scott Interview

Welcome to another interview with someone from the world of astronomy and science. For the July edition I am pleased to introduce Caroline Scott who is a PHD astrophysics student at the Imperial College London. As usual we have asked Caroline a series of questions on her work and studies and from her answers you can feel the passion she has for the subject and for anyone looking to pursue astrophysics or cosmology as a career choice , Caroline will certainly inspire you. So with out any more delay I give you Caroline Scott AW: When did you become interested in science, physics, astronomy? CS: I've always had a general interest in science and astronomy. My undergraduate degree was actually in pure mathematics and so it was quite a leap to go into a PhD in astrophysics. I gained more of an interest in astronomy and cosmology after reading some popular science books and watching TV documentaries, and then started reading textbooks and academic journals. Image: 9-inch telescope at the Harvard Smithsonian
Centre for Astrophysics

AW: Where do you study and why did you choose that university? CS: I'm based at Imperial College London. I chose Imperial mostly based on the reputation of the astrophysics group and the research taking place there, and also in part because I like living in London. However, I'm currently in America doing a pre-doctoral fellowship at Harvard. AW: what are your study areas? CS: Galaxy evolution and interactions; QSO selection using variability AW: what projects are you currently studying or working on? CS: At Imperial I'm working with Sugata Kaviraj, studying galaxies that are in the process of merging and how this affects observable properties such as star formation and morphology. In particular we are looking for hints that interactions can ignite incredibly powerful physical processes in the centre of galaxies; known as an active galactic nucleus. This is where material is accreted onto a galaxy's central supermassive black hole, leading to outflows of high energy radiation surrounding the nucleus. I've been working with data from Hubble Zoo; the latest of science projects

from the Galaxy Zoo team. Images from the Hubble Space Telescope are now being utilised and thanks to classifications by volunteers online we can take our studies of galaxy mergers to higher redshifts - allowing us to see how galaxies were behaving when the universe was much younger. At Harvard Im working with Pavlos Protopapas. His team have been applying modern computer science methods to astronomy, enabling galaxies with an active galactic nucleus to be extracted directly from large-scale photometric surveys (by looking at variability features in light curves). We are now applying this analysis to a large sample of photometric data from Pan-STARRS. AW: There has been talk recently on the news , which in the science world has been talked about for quite a while and that is Andromeda galaxy hurtling toward ours in about 4.5 billion years. What do you think will be the impact of this on our own galaxy? CS: Itll be on the news for quite a long time before anything changes. There is a vast amount of space between the stars and planets within a galaxy, and during a merger its a misconception that everything will collide. Gravitational forces will affect the structure of the colliding galaxies, and our solar system will likely be thrown further out from the centre. But by this stage its more likely well have been wiped out by increasing temperatures caused by the stellar evolution of our sun. AW: Can you briefly explain Redshift? CS: The colour of light is determined by its wavelength. Redshift is an observed increase in wavelength (imagine a wave being stretched out), which results in us seeing an object as redder than if we were to observe it up-close. Because the universe is expanding, galaxies appear to be receding from us and their light is redshifted (small-scale so-called peculiar motions should also be considered, but these are comparatively negligible outside of the local universe). Galaxies that are further from us appear to be receding faster and will thus have a higher redshift. This is very important, because we can gauge how far away an object is by comparing its observed (redshifted) light to what we would expect to see in the rest-frame.

AW: What do you think is the next big news in astrophysics, astronomy, cosmology? CS: Hopefully the work taking place at CERN will offer insight into the nature of dark matter. Currently we include dark matter profiles in just about all models of cosmology and galaxy evolution, but nobody actually knows what it is. Some could argue that its not essential that we understand what it is, as long as we can profile dark matter halo masses we can account for its gravitational effects and continue modelling and simulating galaxy evolution. However, an understanding of dark matter would certainly open a new chapter in scientific discoveries.

"Tom and Ralph are both amateur astronomers, astronomy communicators and educators intent on making the world of astronomy less intimidating to the beginner and more fun for the initiated. The monthly Awesome Astronomy podcast is all about educating and entertaining in equal measure by bringing you the latest astronomy news, a descriptive guide to the month's skies, a guest interview and answers to listeners astronomy questions. You can listen to it via the website or iTunes.

WWW.AWESOMEASTRONOMY.COM

If you want to get involved in the show, you can send your questions to the Facebook Group http://on.fb.me/NSyNK7 (email them to the team (http://awesomeastronomy.com/contact/) or tweet them to @AwesomeAstroPod. You can also record an astronomy question and email it to them at inbox@awesomeastronomy.com. The Facebook Group is also a forum to discuss anything astronomy related. Its Your Show!" http://www.activeastronomy.org/

THE NIGHT SKY JULY 2012 by J Harper

At first the Sun lies within the constellation of Gemini until on the 20 th, at around noon, when it crosses the border into neighbouring Cancer. A significant date is July 5th, when at 15h32, the earth is at aphelion, the furthest distance that our planet can be from the sun, just over152million km from the UK. As in June, twilight persist all night.

The Planets

The innermost planet Mercury is visible during the very first few days of July, but with difficulty. You will need to scan the NW horizon, slowly with binoculars in order to see the planet in the bright evening twilight. Thereafter it sinks into the suns glare to pass through inferior conjunction, its closest to the earth 5 below the sun. It then moves into the morning sky for a fairly good apparition in the middle of August. Venus is a brilliant morning object rising at 02h at the beginning, and 01h at the end of the month. Try to see the crescent phase of Venus through binoculars, which looks like a miniature waning crescent moon, only very much brighter and smaller. In days gone by, the ancients knew Venus, when in its morning apparition, as Phosphorus, the Morning Star. Earth continues to increase its distance from Mars at the rate of 18.5 miles per sec in the case of the earth compared with the 15 miles a second of Mars, so that by mid-month the planet is 1.5 astronomical units, about 138 million miles or 222 million km. (1 astronomical unit is the average sun-earth distance) from earth. The planet is moving eastwards in Virgo and may be seen approaching Saturn, and the constellations brightest star Spica, so that at the end of the month Mars is about 10 from Saturn and Spica. If you look low in the WSW sky on the 24 th July at around 21h you will see the broad waxing crescent moon 5 below Mars, slightly wider apart than Saturn and Spica further over to the left. At the beginning of July, Mars sets just after 23h but a few minutes before 22h on the last day of the month. As the sky is brightening, at around 03h as the month begins, Jupiter and Venus are 5 apart in the ENE sky. The pair lie between the Pleiades and Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus. There is an extremely close conjunction between the waning crescent moon and Jupiter as they rise at about 01h on the 15th July. The two may be seen, side-byside, separated by just one moon width (0.5). If you can, continue to watch as the two gain height. The moons rapid eastward movement means that by 02h the planet Jupiter appears to be sitting on the northern horn of the moon with the two objects just 10 above the ENE horizon. A pair of binoculars in sharp focus will show the four major moons of Jupiter with two on either side of the planets disc; on the left the moons Callisto and Ganymede, with Io and Europa to the right.

This is possibly the most beautiful event of the year and an excellent subject for a photograph! Observers living to the SE of a line connecting Bournemouth through North London to Aldborough on the Suffolk coast will se an occultation of the planet (The planet is hidden by the moon). Observers living to the NW of this line including Devon, Somerset and Cornwall and south of a line from Cardiff to Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast will see a grazing occultation, where part of the planets disc is hidden by the moon. The rest of the country will see an appulse, or very close encounter as described above. At the end of the month, Jupiter rises by 00h. The best time to see Saturn in the SW sky is during the late evening throughout July, when the northern surface of its rings can be seen very clearly in a small telescope. The planet sets at 0h as the month begins, but at 22h20 on July 31 st. On the 25th, the moon almost at First Quarter, lies 3 to the lower left of Spica, which in turn is 4 south of Saturn. Mars is some 11 to the right of the trio. Look towards the WSW to see this interesting grouping at around 21h when all four objects are about 10 in altitude in that direction. During July, Uranus rises before midnight, and is to be found on the Pisces/Cetus border at the apex of a shallow downward pointing triangle consisting of Uranus and the two stars delta- and omega- Piscium. The planet is in a part of the sky devoid of bright stars, but once found, in a small telescope, its tiny grey-green disc may be seen. Neptune, the furthest major planet from the sun is so remote that it is 15 times fainter than the faintest star visible with the unaided eye. It rises earlier in the evening as it approaches opposition and nearest to the earth in August. Neptune is currently in Aquarius near the centre of the triangle produced by linking sigma-, iota-, and theta- Aquarii. This latter star has the proper name Ancha. Neptunes appearance is of a faint blue-white star, which a good telescope will show as a tiny disc. Two minor meteor showers take place at the end of the month. They are the Capricornids, which are active from the 10th of July to the 5th of August, peaking around the 30th. Twilight may interfere. On the 28th, we have the maximum of the delta Aquarids, with up to 20 an hour, although the shower is active from the 15th July to the 19th of August. Constellations visible in the south around midnight, mid-month, are as follows: Sagittarius, Sagitta, Aquila, Lyra and Cygnus. The latter constellations contain Patrick Moores Summer Triangle, consisting of the three bright stars, Altair in Aquila, Vega in Lyra, and Deneb in Cygnus. Cygnus is sometimes called the northern cross because of the cruciform shape of its five main stars. All times are GMT (UT). 1 is one finger width at arms length.

The Moon

July 3rd Full Moon 18h52 low down in the constellation of Sagittarius

Last Quarter Moon, in Pisces, is on the 11th, at 01h49

New Moon in July is on the 19th at 04h25

First Quarter is on the 26th

Moon is at perigee, its nearest point to the earth, on the 1st at 18h02 and also on July 29th at 08h31 Apogee, when the Moon is at its furthest from the earth, is on the 13tht at 16h48. Julys Full Moon is on the 3rd at 18h52 low down in the constellation of Sagittarius. Last Quarter Moon, in Pisces, is on the 11th, at 01h49, beneath and to the left of the Great Square of Pegasus. New Moon in July is on the 19th at 04h25, when nearing the Gemini/Cancer border. The Moon will pass 4 south of the sun at that time. First Quarter is on the 26th, at 08h57 in eastern Virgo and 15 from a triangle made up of a triangle made up of Spica, Saturn and Mars.

accurate answer to, but not only that. Very clever programming For as long as man has looked into the night sky, he has on countless occasions and very clever astronomers tried to make the learning, have allowed understanding and viewing of the night us, everyone to sky an easier task. Four hundred years pick up our I-pads or tablets, even smart ago, Galileo first took his magnifying phones, and lift them up and track the instrument and pointed it into the night sky and see sky and almost immediately set exactly what is there, even in daytime. about trying to improve his way of viewing what he was looking at, but also My aim in writing this article, over the next few months, is to give all our where he was looking. Over the readers an insight into those apps. years mathematical calculations have To help you decide which apps are, lets told us, as astronomers, where to not say the best, but to give you an look, but that is all too often easier insight into which is the best for said than done, you practically, and by that I mean especially whether your passion is the Moon, Mars when it comes to or just surfing the sky, we will give you a heads up on what's good and locating the outer what's not so that you don't waste your money or time with an app that planets, isn't for you. globular Now, instead of bombarding you with a clusters and the huge list of apps and what they are fainter comets. As a boy I remember such problems and it wasn't until you did capable of, I am going to select some from each category i.e. solar some serious re-search or watched system, universe or any other. Also the sky at night or waited for the news please bear in mind that my review on on T.V to announce some major any app is purely my own perspective event, that you ever got to find out about where things were and when. The through having used the app in question. Also if there is an app resources for new astronomers weren't regarding astronomy that you feel I that easy to find. Please bear in mind I am talking about a time when there was should review that I don't include in my lists, please feel free to let no internet or mobile telephones with astronomy-wise.com know and we will internet capabilities around. It was a test it out. case of, if you wanted to know Sky Safari Pro & Sky Safari Plus something, the library was the place to This particular app is my personal go. favourite and is most probably the best Today, for the up and coming new astronomy app on the market. astronomer, the lesson is somewhat easier. Today, we have help which in my This app is available as a free download but is limited in its usage and features, time, as a young astronomer, I would so my recommendation is to download as never have dreamed would be around. a free app and if you find that it works Today, we have "apps", for you, go for the full pro version which applications, real time aides that at the touch of a screen we can call upon, ask a at a cost of 27.99, for me it was well worth it. Why you ask, well question and get a very

The night sky assistant: Words: Jason Ives

apart from the 15 million stars and other celestial objects in its data banks, it also has a minor body feature, which can be updated at any time which will calculate where in the solar system any and all comets and asteroids, new and old, are in the sky and viewable from any given position on the planet. However this function does have a flaw and has been rectified in Sky Safari Plus and that is that the Pro version will continue to update comets that no longer exist, due to break-up, and will still predict its orbital track or ghost track, so effectively it could send you on a wild goose chase, as I can testify. The gyroscope sky tracking feature is always a part of these apps that gives most people a thrill, see a star in the sky, lift up your phone in that direction and there on the screen you will the name of the star, tap on it and you will get its constellation, visual magnitude, image and exact coordinates. This is one of the most appealing features of this app, especially as a research tool, its vast knowledge stored in its programming is simply unsurpassed as well as its smoothness when tracking the night sky. As with most apps on this track, you can do the time travel bit, i.e. go back in time and say, find out where Jupiter was in 1066 or find out a dated list of the transit of Venus, bearing in mind it has only been viewed on eight occasions, you could go back and with your reasonable calculations, go and get the exact times and dates for the transit and copy a generated image of the transit, say four thousand years ago. Occultation's are another great use with this kind of app. If you have a heads up on what will be occulted and what by, you can just key in what and what time and that gives you a good start for getting set up and ready to observe. Besides some of the usual feature that new apps hold such as night vision, links to Nasa, fantastic images, Sky Safari pro holds a fantastic feature in its arsenal, Skyfi and Skywire. If you have a GoTo telescope such as a Meade or Celestron, you can use this app to guide your telescope around the sky simply by touching the screen. As I said earlier, comets are a great feature for this app, so if you select a comet that is being tracked by the program, all you have to do is, once your telescope is connected to your device, and this can be from mobile, tablet or laptop, tap on the screen to select, press GoTo and wait for the telescope to align, and assuming your telescope is correctly set-up, your eye piece will display exactly what you selected. This can be done in one of two ways, either by sky-wire or sky-fi, both self explanatory. Simply put this program bypasses all hand sets for GoTo telescopes purely because of the vast amount of objects that you can select using Sky Safari that are just not available in the handsets with these telescopes. Having used this app on multiple devices and tested the Skyfi, I can wholly recommend this app as not only a beginner must have but also a must for the serious observer.

Images: Sky Safari Image below: I pad

ARCTURUS THE GUARDIAN OF THE BEAR

By John Harper The brightest star in the entire sky is of course the sun, which when above the horizon, prevents us from seeing the rest of the stars. There are many people who express surprise on learning that the sun is a star, but it most certainly is. The sun is just one of an estimated one hundred thousand million stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy, or star city in which we live. The sun however is much closer than the rest of the stars, and so we see it as a disc in the sky as opposed to the rest of the stars, which are much, much further away, and appear as tiny points of light. The idea of distance can be understood, if we imagine an Interstellar spacecraft with the ability to travel at the speed of light (approximately 186,000 miles per second). Such a craft would be able to reach the sun in just over 8 minutes, yet to reach the next nearest star, we would have to travel at the same speed for four years and four months! Discounting the sun, the brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, the bright star, which seems to twinkle with all the colours of the rainbow to the lower left of the well-known constellation of Orion, during winter nights. Sirius lies south of the celestial equator, and never climbs very high in our northern skies. The next two stars in order of brightness are also southern stars, and lie so far south that they never rise above our horizon. They are Canopus in the constellation Carina, and Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to the solar system. After these three, comes Arcturus, the fourth brightest star in the entire night sky, and the brightest star north of the celestial equator. So we turn our attention to this most beautiful of the northern stars. Finding Arcturus is easy at this time of year when the sky at night is clear. Face west during the late evening and look at an altitude of about 50-60 degrees in that direction.. There you will see the seven stars of the Plough, or Dipper. Follow the curve of the three stars of the Dippers handle to come to a bright star below and to the left of the Plough asterism. The bright star is Arcturus. The name Arcturus means Guardian of the Bear and was probably given because of the stars position relative to the large constellation of the Great Bear, Ursa

Major, of which the Plough is a part. The fainter stars some distance to the left of Arcturus make up the constellation of Botes (pronounced Bow-hurtease), the Herdsman, which is a large but relatively ill defined group of stars, somewhat resembling a diamond shaped kite, with Arcturus at the base. Arcturus itself is a most beautiful star, which shines with a pale orange hue, immediately evident in a pair of binoculars. Even to the unaided eye, the orange tinge is noticeable. It is a very old star being one of the first stars in a halo of stars surrounding our galaxy that formed long before our sun came into being. In size Arcturus has an estimated diameter 21 times that of the sun, which amounts to approximately 20 million miles. It is classified as an orange giant star with a surface temperature of around 4500 degrees C, and lies 36 light years away (one light year = 6 million, million miles!). Sensitive Infrared recording devices have been able to measure the heat received from the star despite being so far away, and is found to be equal to that of a single candle at a distance of 5 miles! Finally it is interesting to note that Arcturus became a famous object in 1933 when its light, focused through a number of telescopes on photoelectric cells was used to create an electrical current which was used to turn on the floodlights at the Century of Progress exposition, opened in the spring of that year in Chicago, U.S.A. Arcturus was chosen because the stars distance was then estimated to be 40 light years. So it was figured that the light being used to switch on the expo lights set off from the star in 1893 when a similar exposition had been held in Chicago.

Paul Rumsby
Although the lifetimes of stars and galaxies are played out over hundreds and thousands of millennia, the field of Astronomy itself is fast paced, with hardly a week going by it seems, without a new discovery or development hitting the headlines. A new book by Paul Rumsby titled ASTRONOMY - Recent Discoveries & Developments delves into the most significant, ground breaking, headline making stories that have come out of Astronomy throughout 2011-12 and presents them in an easy to read, easy to understand format. Each section is accompanied by full colour images and illustrations which beautifully reinforces the subject. Discover Stars that are rotating at a dizzying 1 million miles per hour, others that are only as hot as a cup of tea, another that should not exist and one that literally changed our Universe. Discover why Galaxies are the ultimate recyclers and how mysterious dark matter is not behaving as predicted. Discover all this and more in this exciting round up from the world of Astronomy. The book, intended to be accessible to a wide audience, needs no previous knowledge of Astronomy to be fully enjoyed and forms a perfect catch-up or introduction for anyone with an interest in this fascinating field of science. About the Author: Born in 1962, Paul spent his early years growing up in the wilds of the Norfolk countryside in the UK. After school, A lust for travelling fuelled a five year 'road trip' around Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Returning home, Paul resumed a lifelong fascination for Astronomy. "I purchased my first telescope when I was around 12 years old" Paul recalls, "I have b e e n p r e t t y m u c h h o o k e d e v e r s i n c e " . He spends his free time running several web sites, studying Astronomy and reviewing Astronomy and Cosmology related books for Springer Books (Europe). Paul lives in the small village of Catfield, in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, with his partner Jenny and can contacted via his web site www.paulrumsby.com

Email: paulrumsby@gmail.com Twitter: @PMRumsby

Sherwood Observatory Astronomical Radio Meteor Capture.

Words: Michael Knowles. An explanation below gives an insight, techniques and methods used to capture meteorite showers using Radio system detectors. Meteorites are entering the earths atmosphere all the time velocities ranging from around 11 kilometers per second up to 72Km(7 to 45 miles) per second. Earths gravitational effect increases a meteorites velocity by (1.9 miles) per second or more. The speed of meteors encountering the earth depends on the orbit they are in and the comet associated with the particular meteor shower event. Example the Gemini meteor showers have less velocity due to the comets orbital track, location in relation to the Earth. now seems to be accepted by recent studies and radar velocity measurements.

The Leonids and Perseid meteor showers are associated with comets that much larger orbits and thus attain higher velocities when encountering the Earth. The minimum speed for a meteoroid entering the Earths atmosphere is around 11.2 km/sec velocity. The Leonids for example enter at 71 km/ sec. It is believed that meteors with higher velocities are of inter-stellar origin. The latter was controversial but

3.Elliptical orbit of a Comet.

Oort cloud and kieper belt schematic.

Most comets have elongated elliptical orbits that take them close to the Sun for a part of their orbit, and then out into the further reaches of the Solar System for the remainder. Comets are often classified according to the length of their orbital period; (Short period orbit comets under (200 years) within the ecliptic plane Kuiper belt) - (long period comets (over 200 years) 3 Comet orbit comparisons.

It is the comets debris left behind its orbital path through space that is encountered by our own Earths orbital path. Meteor showers evolve at these encounters as the comets debris is burned up in the upper layers of our atmosphere.

Radio Meteor Transmitter and Receiver system setup. The ionized plasma trail of a meteor, or the ionization cone around the head of the meteor, can if suitable conditions allow to reflect, or scatter, radio waves. A Meteor event can create a trail of ionized particles that can persist for up to several seconds. The ionization trails can be very dense and used to reflect radio waves. 3. The frequencies that can be reflected is determined by the intensity of the ionisation caused by fiery entry of the meteor in turn creating an ion trail. Another factor is the initial size of the meteor particle. Frequencies ranges are generally between 20 MHz and 150 MHz frequency. Distance over which receiver contact is established is determined by the altitude at which the ionization is created (triangulation) shown in the above diagram. How radio meteor systems detect and analyse meteors. Below are images of configuration option setups to attain the best meteor frequency with the radio receiver meteor setup. An icom 706 receiver and a dipole antenna was utilised for this particular event at our Observatory.

A compressed list below highlights the functions of the necessary systems components needed to capture, analyse meteors and meteor showers. Antenna. 1.The antenna dipole or wire picks up radio wave electricity. 2 Radio waves are invisible waves of electricity and magnetism. 3. Different transmitters can send out different frequencies. 4. A station at "600 kHz" on the tuning dial sends out radio waves with twice as much space between them as one at "1200 kHz". A station at 1200 kHz sends out twice as many waves per second as one at "600 kHz. The number of waves per second is called frequency. 5. The waves propagate out from the station like water waves travel out after a disturbance at 186,000 miles each second. 6. For an antenna to work it has to radiate. An antenna, whether TV or radio has free electrons running through it. 3. These free electrons can resonate. 5. Radio waves hit the antenna comparing like ocean waves hitting the shore. 6. Radio waves make electricity flow up and down the antenna wire. 7. Radio wave electricity flows back and forth about a million times each second. It changes back and forth faster for a shorter distance between the waves. Engineers call this Radio Frequency electricity, or RF. 8. Antennas convert electromagnetic waves into electrical currents and vice versa. Grounding the Earth. The Earth wire connects the radio system to the ground. The Earth conducts electricity to give the antenna electricity some place to flow to. This enables the antenna to have more gain and increases the power from the radio wave source. Detector The detector changes the radio wave electricity into sound electricity. Radio stations make the radio waves get stronger and weaker as the sound changes. The strength of the radio waves copy the sound vibrations.

Below my AOR 5000 receiver captures meteors using spectrum lab software to analyse the meteor demise through our Earths atmosphere.

Tuner. The tuner uses the radio station frequency to separate stations and tune in only the station you want. The tuner uses resonance to make the radio sensitive to just one frequency at a time. At the event we chose several transmitters stations to compare signal meteor strengths. These options enabled us to achieve the desired strong meteor signal capture. The frequency transmitter options were 48.25 Mhz, 55.26 Mhz, 59.57 Mhz, 49.74 Mhz. 48.25 Mhz proved the best. Choosing the strongest distant emitting transmitter prevents the incoming meteor from being eradicated or over whelmed by the transmitter signal. Sporadic meteors were detected through the night as this particular time was not a major meteor shower event. Sound pings emanating from the receiver detected the demise of the meteors burning through the ionosphere 90 km altitude came thick and thin. What also was evident was the Doppler shift of the sound that is caused by the high altitude winds effecting the meteors ionisation trail deflection (drift) of the radio signal in turn altering the frequency of the meteor being detected.

Specula reflection This is wave interference. Radio waves are scattered from all parts of a ionised meteor trail.

( R ) Receiver

( T ) Transmitter

Available computer software can also be used to analyse meteor Radio counts, ionisation reflection magnitude, Velocity, direction.

Meteor Calendar Quadrantids January 3-4 Frequency: 40 or so bright, blue and fast (25.5 miles per second) meteors will radiate from the constellation Bootes, Parent Comet: 2003 EH1</DIV Lyrids April 21-22 Frequency: Hitting our atmosphere at a moderate speed of 29.8 miles per second. Luminous trains of dust that can be observed for several seconds. Parent Comet: C/Thatcher</DIV April Lyrids April 21-22 Frequency: Bright Lyrid meteors disintegrate after hitting our atmosphere at a moderate speed of 29.8 miles per second. . Parent Comet: C/Thatcher</DIV

August Perseids August 12-13 Frequency: This shower produces about 60 meteors per hour, and its performance is fairly consistent from year to year. Parent Comet: 109P/Swift-Tuttle</DIV Orionids October 21-22 Frequency: Produces a peak rate of 20 yellow and green meteors per hour, which are fast moving at 41.6 miles per second and are known to produce fireballs. Parent Comet: 1P/Halley</DIV November Leonids November 17-18 Frequency: The Leonids best known for their 33-year peaks, during which 100s of meteors per hour can be observed. The last of these peaks occurred in 2001. Parent Comet: 55P/Tempel-Tuttle</DIV December Geminids December 13-14 Frequency: The most reliable meteor shower of the year, the Geminids are characterized by their multi-colour display--65% being white, 26% yellow, and the remaining 9% blue, red and green. Parent Comet: 3200 Phaethon Michael Knowles. Copyright. Many thanks to Michael for his article. Michael is currently planning a new website , Astronomy Wise will be adding the web link on our website and it will feature in our newsletter.

Noctilucent Clouds By D Bood

The question if Noctilucent clouds (NLC) was part of astronomy or meteorology was raised recently on the Awesome Astronomy Facebook group page. Whatever your views and thoughts there is no doubt that these clouds are a beautiful phenomena to view and photograph. NLC s were first observed in the summer of 1884, the year after the famous volcano Krakatoa erupted. It was thought that the large ejections of ash and debris forced high into the earths atmosphere was the possible cause. It is said however this is not the case, but it did cause people to view the twilight summer skies in more detail. The name itself means shining in lain (Wikipedia) The causes of these clouds is not clear however it is though they are formed by dust particles and water ice crystals which form high up in the earths atmosphere or in the mesosphere (76 to 85 Km) (47 to 53 miles). The dust particles could be from micro meteor impacts, volcanic ash or possibly pollution (possible theory). NLCs can be seen against the twilight sky background when the sun is below the earths horizon. The clouds will occupy a sunlight portion of the sky. Best time to view these clouds is between mid May and Mid August in the northern hemisphere. The sun will be around 6 to 16 below the horizon. (nlcnet)

NLC By Ray Gilchrist

29/7/11
Image: Ray Gilchrist

www.nlcnet.co.uk

Image: NASA NLCs have become more common in recent years, if they are caused by climate change and pollution are these clouds are warning, the calm before the storm? Or are they formed from alien invaders of micro meteorites? For more images please visit Ray Gilchrist

http://www.raygilchrist.co.uk/

Image gallery

Dave Walker- Solar brulee

Below image by ray gilchrist

@Astronomy_365 29/5/12 SATURN

25-06-12 Cloudy Sun with Canon 500D and Canon 400mm zoom James Lennie

Blackpool & District Astronomical Society (BADAS) is a growing and active society in the North West of England and has around thirty members from novices to experienced observers and imagers. Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of every month, at St Kentigerns Parish Centre, Newton Drive, Blackpool. Meetings are friendly, quite informal and beginners are especially welcome. Joining an astronomy club can be daunting to those just starting out in the hobby. So BADAS tries to encourage new members by advising them each month what fascinating wonders can be seen in the night sky, either with modest equipment or none at all. BADAS also help and advise members who are considering purchasing astronomical equipment. In addition they try to engage and enthuse established members who are trying to progress in the hobby by having regular "members' sessions" after the main speaker has finished on their meeting nights. The society hold regular star parties and observing sessions, weather permitting, either where they meet at the club or at a rural location near Blackpool. Membership subs are 20 per year, and unlike many other societies they meet all year round. Visitors are welcome and your first meeting is free. Please see the BADAS website for further details www.blackpoolastronomy.org.uk - You can also follow their twitter account @badas_tweets.

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