The Southern Astronomer

Page 1

The Southern Astronomer No.68 – May 2014

SOUTHERN ASTRONOMER THE

NEWSLETTER OF WORTHING ASTRONOMERS & WORTHING SKYWATCHERS

MARS AT OPPOSITION

This issue Mars at Opposition 'Observing the Planets' Workshop St Audries Bay Star Party Sleepy Satellite? The Polaris Hour Sky Notes for May

front 2 4 5 6 7 -12

Astronomy Meetings All the groups listed below begin their meetings at 19.30hrs BST Worthing Astronomers (WA) meet on the first Friday every two months (February, April, June, August, October and December) Goring URC, corner of Shaftsbury Avenue and Barrington Road, Worthing, BN12 4EA. Admission £3. Adur AS (AAS) meet at Southwick Christian Community Church, 1-5 Roman Crescent, Southwick BN42 4TY.Admission: £5 for guests, £3 for members. Foredown Tower Astronomers (FTA) at Emmaus Charity Premises, on the corner of Manor Road and Drove Road, Portslade Old Village, BN41 2PA. Admission £3 for guests. Worthing Astronomical Society (WAS) meet at Emmanuel URC, St.Michaels Road, Worthing BN11 4SD. Admission: £4 for guests. AAS, FTA, and WA venues have off road parking facilities and grounds adjacent for setting up telescopes when conditions allow. WA members will always be made welcome at these groups. More information 01903 521205 or 07801 692244. Fuller details of what our colleagues in neighbouring societies are doing at their monthly meetings is in the Quick View Diary, page two, Worthing Astronomers is a free to join society with a membership of over 300, all interested in the same hobby of Astronomy. With the aid of this newsletter, regular star parties, workshops and public observing events we hope to encourage and share our interests in observing the sky with the public, our colleagues in our own group and with neighbouring societies.

The planet Mars comes to opposition and closest approach to Earth every two years and these give us a chance to get a relatively close glimpse at the planet. Not all these glimpses however are really good ones. This year, Mars is low in our skies and the effects of atmospheric rippling may cause problems, while the diameter of the planet is a mere 15”-arc, so the diameter of the planet as seen in a good eyepiece is not going to be large. These however are not problems – just challenges. Our members have taken their chances to grab views of Mars during this part of the apparition of the planet. On the night of opposition Steve Bassett, using his 15cm Newtonian, 3x and 5xbarlow lenses and an SPC900 webcam took a series of images at differing magnifications totally about 4000 frames. The result at the top (right) shows the bright northern polar cap at the top and the light and dark desert regions of the planet.

Mars on the night of opposition © Steve Bassett

A few days previously, Gary Isherwood using a Nikon camera captured the planet the north polar cap is clear at the top left while the dark smudge area underneath the polar cap is Acidalia Planitia. The dark features to the lower right of the disk are Syrtis Major Planum and close to the limb of the planet is the Tyrrhena Terra. During May the angular diameter of the planet is still about 14”-arc and the planet remains a -0.8m bright object in the light evening skies. The next best opposition is during late spring 2016, when the planet will still be low in our skies (it never does get too high from the southern UK) but its angular diameter will be 25”-arc.

1

Mars on April 6 © Gary Isherwood To make the most of the appearance of three planets in the evening sky, on the evening of May 10 we plan to hold an observing session down on the Prom at the bottom of Grand Avenue, from about 8 p.m (BST) onwards. Jupiter will still be high in the western sky, the Moon will be almost due south and Mars will be about 8° east of the Moon. Saturn will be about 10° above the horizon in the east at about 9.30 p.m (BST)


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
The Southern Astronomer by Brian Halls - Issuu