Worthing Astronomers September 2014 newsletter

The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014

SOUTHERN ASTRONOMER THE

NEWSLETTER OF WORTHING ASTRONOMERS & WORTHING SKYWATCHERS

This issue The One To Watch This Month Workshop Report IAS 2014 Report BAA Summer Meeting Report For The Beginner: Telescopes Observing Notes – Quiet Sun, InOMN Night, the Planets, Meteors and Comets, the Milky Way, Sky Chart InOMN Data sheets InOMN Event Poster

front p.2 p.3 p.4 p.6 p.8 p.12 p.14,15 p16

Astronomy Meetings

All the groups listed below begin their meetings at 19.30hrs BST Worthing Astronomers (WA) meet on the first Friday of the month, every two months (February, April, June, August, October and December) at Goring URC, corner of Shaftesbury 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.

THE ONE TO WATCH THIS MONTH International Observe The Moon Night (InOMN)

September 6 The beginning of September sees the return of International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN). On this night amateur astronomers around the world will be observing the Moon, with each other and hopefully, members of the public.

As part of our ongoing outreach programme Worthing Astronomers will be holding two moon observing evenings; a Lunar Observing Night on September 5 and InOMN Night on September 6.

Please print out the poster on the back page and display where it can be seen.

We shall be meeting where we have for sometime now, the promenade at the bottom of Grand Avenue.

As we had planned for last year (but were outwitted by the weather) we shall be holding a competition for the best moon image taken at either event night, with a telescope and mobile phone camera. Prizes have been donated by 365 Astronomy – clip on lenses for smart phones - many thanks to Zoltan at 365.

Younger attendees will receive a certificate to say that they have taken part in the event.

On both nights the Moon will show a gibbous phase – halfway between a First Quarter Moon and Full.

Most of the major dark plains – maria (latin for seas) – will be prominent.

Worthing Astronomical Society (WAS) meet at the Highdown Room at the Emmanuel United Reformed Church, St Michaels Road, Worthing, West Sussex BN11 4SD Admission: £4 for guests. Note new venue WA, AAS, FTA, venues have off road parking facilities and grounds adjacent for setting up telescopes when conditions allow.

Towards the terminator – the line dividing the lunar day from the lunar night - the bright crater Aristarchus in the upper north-west quadrant of the Moon will be prominent as will other lunar features that stretch along that section of the Moon.

WA members will always be made welcome at these above 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 persons all interested in the same hobby of Astronomy.

Some of these features are mentioned in the InOMN observing information sheet at the end of this newsletter.

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 Moon as it will appear on September 6

Graphic by Virtual Moon

More in the Sky Notes section, inside.

As usual, the weekend is dependent on the weather conditions – the event this year is a month earlier than 2013 so we may have the weather on our side; keep checking the WA website and Worthing Skywatchers Facebook page for observing updates.

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014 WORKSHOP EVENING August 1 Our guest speaker for the evening was member John Slinn who spoke about getting the best from your time at the telescope.

QUICK VIEW ASTRO EVENTS DIARY

September

All times shown are Universal Time (UT = BST minus 1 hour)

John spoke about the many hints and tips that make observing comfortable. Obviously the first thing to do is dress properly for an observing session under the stars and quite often, chilly night For AAS, FTA and WAS details, see front page air. Apart from the obvious dress warmly. John suggested that thick soled shoes be worn as these insulated the feet better from the cold and damp ground. And of course a warm hat.

1 Sunrise 0515h : Sunset 1852h If observing away from home and on a dark site make sure you have at least one other observing Mars 4.1° S of Moon (01h) companion and a fully charged mobile phone just in case you need to get in contact quickly with AAS: The Norman Lockyer Observatoryothers.

100 Hundred Years of Astronomy Have a flask of you favourite hot drink and something to chew on – a chocolate bar or two are best and popular with astronomers.

For long periods of observing John uses a camping ground sheet to stand his telescope on; again this helps insulate the area from which you are observing and plus in the dark, the lighter material of the sheet will show against the darker ground – a great way to find anything you may drop.

Take some form of comfortable seating – this helps to make the observer more comfortable and it might make observing easier as the telescope might be adjusted in height to give the observer views through its eyepiece while seated comfortably.

Picture © David Woods

2 Moon: First Quarter (11h) 5 Moon Observing (front page) Herstmonceux Science Festival 6 InOMN (front page) Herstmonceux Science Festival 8 Moon at perigee* (03h) 9 Full Moon (01h) Piscid Meteors peak (01h) 16 Moon: Last Quarter (02h) 17 WAS: Supernovae 18 FTA: Comets – Ancient & Modern 20 Moon at apogee (14h) 21 Piscid Meteors second peak (01h) 23 Autumn Equinox (02h) Sunrise 0549h : Sunset 1802h 24 New Moon (06h) 25 Astro-Photo Camp, Herefordshire. Start 28 Astro-Photo Camp. Close 29 Mars 5.6° S of Moon (18h) 30 Sunrise 0600h : Sunset 1747h

*Not technically a 'super-moon' but still a One of the big problems is dark adaptation. The human eye requires time to adapt to dark good photo opportunity. conditions; one handy tip is to use sunglasses to help the eyes to adapt. Increasing the dark adaptation pays dividends when looking through the eyepiece at a star-field or a deep sky object.

Useful too is a red torch but the red should be as dark as possible so the light does not ruin those Herstmonceux Science Festival dark-adapted eyes of yours – or others; if observing from home try and choose the darkest 10th – Anniversary Show portion of the garden to observe from. John showed a variety of torches with red lights/filters on For the last ten years the Herstmonceux them – even a small lamp that fits to the head, if covered correctly will do a good job.

Science Festival – often referred to

affectionately as 'Hersty' – has been part of Always make sure that powered equipment (usually battery operated) is fully charged before the astronomy scene. going out – there is nothing worse for a power-pack to die just as the observing session is getting underway!

To celebrate their 10th Anniversary on the 5th

John described the types of telescopes available and their various uses and went on to describe eyepieces. There are two basic types of eyepiece – the 1.25” (31.75mm) barrel and the 2” (50mm) barrel. Most telescopes had the availability for fitting both types. The 2” type are more expensive but the manufacturers are sometimes able to do more with the optics that they could not do with the 1.25” type. John briefly mentioned that up to a few years ago there was a third size, the .965” (24.5mm) type are no longer made. *

and 6th of September the organizers have got together an extra special team of lecturers for the weekend.

It kicks off on Friday for a special talk by Professor Donald Lynden-Bell CBE FRS of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge.

There are lectures on Saturday and Sunday and some of the speakers for these days are well known names, Dr Andrew Coates, Pete After the tea-break, John gave a brief presentation of how to use the image processing software Lawrence, Nik Szymanek (these two speakers, you can bet will be talking about Autostakkert 2 - an alternative to using the latest version of Registax 6. Compared with Registax, Autostakkert is a simpler piece of software to use and does the same sort of job as the getting the best from imaging), Dr Lucie Green and, Professor Alec Boksenberg the former though the latter does have its benefits; the usual process is to process ones AVI files in last Director of the RGO.

Interest was certainly raised by members with the number of questions asked.

Autostakkert and then use Registax's wavelet sliders to complete the composition.

In real time John processed a lunar image and then a hydrogen-alpha image of the Sun in Autostakkert. Both images were then completed in Photoshop using the layer features to give a clear, atmospherics free images of their respective subjects. Again many members had questions for John which he handled – Adobe Photoshop CS is now available as a free download but of course there are other free image processing software available – notably GIMP – which has many (but not all) of the Photoshop features.

The members at the meeting wished John and his wife Janet all the best for their future plans for an astronomy centre in the South of France. *A few years ago the only type available were 1¼” threaded eyepieces and were known as RAS-threaded (Royal Astronomical Society) and were threaded at 16 threads per inch. These will some times still appear in sales. Ed

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As usual there are camping facilities for those wanting to stay over the entire weekend.

There will be of course trade stands, exhibitions and just maybe visitors or two from a Galaxy Far, Far Away in the shape of Imperial Storm Troopers and their leader Darth Vader – a great favourite with kids of all ages!

Further details at: www.the-observatory.org/astronomy_festival

The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014

THE INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY SHOW 2014 Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, 7-8 June 2014 A report by Mike Williams

On Saturday 7th June, Chris Pennells, Graham Williams and myself headed off to the Midlands, unsure of what the weather was going to throw at us. We were expecting heavy downpours of rain, thunder and lightning along the journey but fortunately our timing was impeccable and we managed to miss almost all of the bad weather apart from a short shower and clap of thunder as we left Worthing.

he fancied using for wide field astrophotography with his trusty Nikon.

(Incidentally I failed to talk him out of it; more to the point I talked him into buying it but, he did manage to negotiate a good price though)!

Left: Dave Woods of Hants-Astro and IO Astronomy was eagerly talking to customers on the Altair stand.

We arrived at the show just after 9:30 - plenty of free parking, no queues of people; just walk in, purchase a ticket and then all the time we needed to peruse the vast range of astronomical equipment available to play with and purchase assuming you’d saved up your pocket money!!

Among the trade stands were local company 365 Astronomy manned by Zoltan and his willing support team; plenty of accessories to examine and compare side by side with other brands.

He is seen here discussing the delights of Altair's Deep Field Ritchey Chretien astrograph.

It was easy to be distracted with so much shiny kit everywhere you looked, like the highly polished antique-style brass telescopes (below).

Some real serious telescope!

All images in the article © Mike Williams unless otherwise stated

There were key-note speakers offering talks on various astro related topics. Chris had booked himself onto a lecture by Pete Lawrence a presenter on the long running BBC Sky At Night programme, the topic being the astronomical highlights of 2014.

Pete introduced some of the astronomical observing highlights for the last half of this year.

He provided information about the events, tips on how to observe them and, where appropriate advice for photographing them.

An on-site refreshments area serving sandwiches, all day breakfasts, teas, coffees etc. was always busy but not too busy to stop us making the most of what was on offer.

Moving on we split up to explore the 59 trade stands which also included some used equipment for sale.

My main item of interest to track down was the ‘Southern Stars SkyFi’ device that operates with an iPhone/iPad device running the Sky Safari Pro app.

This plugs into the Synscan handset of a Skywatcher mount to enable telescope control via the iOS device. These were available from the Widescreen Centre stand but no discounts on the store price were available, so a wander over to the Telescope House stand saw the identical item re-branded with ‘Orion’ logos for £25 less.

The Moonraker stand – all telescopes hand made

Pocket money all spent, we made our way back to the refreshment area for a final cuppa before heading home in the sunshine.

Also on the list was a 2” Quartz diagonal and if possible a nice 2” eyepiece all of which were found and at very good prices.

As we entered West Sussex we decided to have a break at the ‘Travellers Joy’ pub in Southbourne, a decent meal with drinks was enjoyed, then back to the car for the final journey home.

Chris had his eye on a nice Tele-Vue Powermate and also asked me talk him out of purchasing a Skywatcher Merlin Synscan mount

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014 IAS 2014 continued

BAA SUMMER MEETING Observational Astronomy then and now: the Legacy of Sir Patrick Moore

Other members (known to many of us) also went along.

John Bush and Eric Gibson helped Zoltan on his Astronomy 365 stand for the weekend and had an interesting time meeting lots of people.

The theme of the BAA Summer Meeting held at UCL London was a tribute to Patrick Moore.

And David Woods – no stranger to many of us - was there. David writes: “Visitor numbers were down this year as they changed the format, and they are returning to a Friday/Saturday event for 2015.

It's still developing as a show and the talks were not as well attended as last year, which is one of its main draws. It's a bit of a trek from the south coast, but worth it as there some fantastic deals that more than offset the cost of going. I missed out on some deals myself! How did that happen?

The first speaker was meeting organiser, Dr John Mason (left) who had collaborated with Patrick on a great number of occasions.

He has been archiving all of Patrick's observing log books the first of which date back to Picture © Mike Nicholls the mid-1930's.

Because we saw so many of our customers on the Altair stand, we will be taking a stand there as Io Astronomy and again at AstroFest next year.

It is hoped that copies of these will be made generally available in the course of time. During his astronomy life Patrick encompassed a large range of astronomical topics - lunar, solar, planetary and variable star.

There is talk of another third national event for next year, so watch this space! 2015 is already shaping to be an exciting time for astronomers who want to get out and see all the latest astronomy gear and attend some excellent talks.”

Regardless of evidence to the contrary, Patrick stuck with the theory that the craters of the Moon were created by volcanism rather than by asteroid/meteor impact, for most of his life. He was a firm believer that the Sun should only be observed via projection of the solar image onto a white screen; much later in his life he was unhappy at observing the Sun even using an h-alpha telescope despite many reassurances that it was safe.

He was also a director of the Mercury & Venus Section of the BAA where he coordinated the observations of the two inner planets. He made over 3000 variable star magnitude estimates as well during his lifetime.

He began his interest in astronomy as a child and it developed when he became the 'director' of a private observatory near his home when he was just a teenager.

When in the RAF during World War 2 his enthusiasm for astronomy rubbed off on other flyers in his squadron and they would report back to Patrick regarding observations of aurora and other astronomical phenomenon observed by them while flying.

The next speaker was Bill Leatherbarrow, BAA Lunar Section Director. Patrick began observing the Moon seriously after the second world war often using his famous 12.5" reflector (named Oscar) plus, through his friendship with the then BAA lunar section director H P Wilkins, many of the world's largest telescopes - many observations were made using the Paris Observatory at Meudon 33" telescope. Patrick eventually took on the directorship of the BAA Lunar section. As the previous speaker had mentioned, Sir Patrick advocated the volcanic theory for the creation of craters and other lunar features; almost certainly he had maintained this stance out of “..sheer bloody mindedness...” as in recent years he began to acknowledged the impact creation of craters.

Zoltan (right who supplied the picture) and his 'crew'. Familiar faces, Eric Gibson (far left) and standing next to him, John Bush, also lent a hand over the weekend.

Not all the stands were instrument or equipment orientated; the opportunity to own a bit of space was there to. A company called Space Rocks (UK) were selling meteorite materials (below).

His observing journals were full of observational drawings of lunar features he had observed over the last 80 years or so.

With the coming of the space-age it seemed observational lunar astronomy was dead but Patrick with his usual enthusiasm encouraged anyone who could, to regularly observe the Moon, draw it, photograph it. Serendipity appeared in the form of transient lunar phenomenon (TLP) – coloured glows or cloudy features on the lunar surface that some observers reported seeing during their observations of the Moon. Again Patrick enthusiastically encouraged an observing programme that would stimulate studies of these by members of the BAA lunar section.

Picture © John Bush

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014 Legacy of Sir Patrick Moore (continued)

Patrick's favourite sayings.

Using a sample of some of Patrick's observations, Dr Boyd produced some graphs, showing the rises and falls in the brightness of the stars in question. He also overlaid the raw magnitude estimates that Patrick had made of some of historical observations with the final results and showed what a good observer Sir Patrick was as his estimates were 'bang-on' with the final and collected results from other observers.

Lyn Smith, pictured right, Director of the BAA Solar Section described how she had been encouraged into astronomy by watching Patrick on The Sky At Night television programmes during the 1960's.

Every month he would teach her another aspect of astronomy and it was how she became interested in observing the Sun.

The science and astronomy historian Dr Alan Chapman (left) was the last speaker of the day.

Picture © Lyn Smith

He had known Patrick for a large number of years and had been a guest on The Sky At Picture © Mike Nicholls Night on a number of occasions.

Lyn spoke on how to observe the Sun from the basics of white-light projection as espoused by Patrick (and still the best and safest method of observing the white-light Sun) to more modern methods As mentioned previously, in Patrick's lifetime there had been advances in amateur solar astronomy that could only have been dreamed about even a score years ago. The use of specialised (and safe to use) solar filters which allow the observer to see the Sun and activity in narrow-bands of light like the red area of hydrogen-alpha and the blue-violet area of K-line calcium light.

Patrick was a great populariser of astronomy and Dr Chapman said that Patrick was the latest in a line of notables, among them Faraday, Ball and Proctor who took astronomy and science to the masses – Dr Chapman noted that curiously all these 'popularising ancestors' were married to wealthy heiresses or widows which enabled them to carry on their popularising 'crusades' to enlighten the public regarding astronomy.

Many amateur observers are now - along with the daily recording of sunspot numbers and activity - producing white-light and narrow Patrick it should be said had his foibles - his so-called 'discoveries' band images of the Sun that were, up to only a few years ago the of the Mare Orientalis' and the Alpine Valley rille on the Moon are province of the professional or academic observatory. well known but it could be said he also had a heart of gold. At a book signing in a Liverpool book shop a few years ago a boy went Lyn showed a presentation of many solar observations taken up to him with a scrap of paper and asked him to autograph it. during this present and rather strange solar cycle.

Everyone had a book except this young lad who, it was obvious, The lunch recess enabled many of the delegates to the meeting a was not in a good financial position to purchase one. Patrick went chance to enjoy the pleasant weather – the air-conditioning in the with him to the shelves and asked him to pick a book of his own lecture theatre had failed – so a chance to stand in the fine choosing which the boy did. Patrick then went and paid for it sunshine while in a draughty spot was most welcome. himself and then proceeded to autograph it and wished the young man all the best and sent him on his way.

The first afternoon speaker was Pete Lawrence who was a regular collaborator with Sir Patrick on BBC The Sky At Night in the later Dr Chapman described Patrick as a raconteur - someone who years. could spin a good story, be it true or partially true; who has not heard of Patrick's tale of accompanying on the piano, Albert Pete looked at methods of recording detail seen through the Einstein who was playing the violin? And then there is the story of telescope. When he started his astronomical life he was recording 'Lorna' his lost love - killed it was said by Patrick, during a German what he saw by means of pencil on paper. This was (and still is) a bombing raid. Martin Mobberley in his labour of love biography of valuable method of recording what you see at the eyepiece and he Patrick, "It Came From Outer Space Wearing an RAF Blazer" showed some recent planetary drawings that Paul Abel had concludes that the 'Lorna' story was perhaps only partially true - not produced; Pete was unable to show his early drawings as his actually a real young woman; perhaps the words 'Lunar' and 'Lorna' archive was destroyed by flooding in Chichester a few years ago. being interpolated as lunar astronomy was Patrick's really true love.

Pete had then moved onto photography but of course the main Sir Patrick, it could be said, had changed the life of many people, problem was getting the clarity because of Earth's atmosphere. many of them sitting in the lecture theatre in front of the speaker The use of web-cams as astronomical cameras came to the rescue that afternoon. and Pete took on this new technology.

Finally he gave a live demonstration how to turn an AVI movie-file captured with a webcam of the Moon into a crystal clear final image using the free software, Registax.

The next speaker was Dr David Boyd who spoke about observing variable stars.

Patrick had, as seen from his observing note books, observed a number of variable stars on a regular basis, estimating their brightness and logging the observations - the mantra, "an unrecorded observation is a wasted observation" was one of

The day was a fine tribute to Sir Patrick.

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014

FOR THE BEGINNER Mounting Your Telescope Let me get this straight. You will not be required to mount your telescope in the same way you would some four-legged creature such as a horse, mule or donkey – or anything else that might take your fancy.

I am referring to of course supporting your telescope on a rigid and sturdy assembly.

In the last issue we discussed the term – altazimuth – a simple mounting for a telescope that allows the observer to move the telescope horizontally and longitudinally while observing; for larger telescope the Dobsonian mount is ideal; a simple box cradle that the telescope sits in; there are no gears or wheels with this type of mount – it uses special plastic strips that glide together smoothly on the connecting parts. Known as PTFE, these plastic parts are better known by their DuPont trademark name – Teflon.

A small equatorially mounted refractor – note the T-shaped mount

of the T is the right ascension and points towards the pole star.

The telescope is placed on one end of the Dec. axis and a suitable counterweight on other end of it. The RA axis has bearings below the T-joint, that allows the telescope to be moved east to west in a smooth fashion.

Ideal for long exposure photography, the GEM does not suffer from a phenomenon that the hybrid types – described later – do; field rotation.

A Dobsonian mount (without telescope tube)

Newtonian telescopes go naturally with this kind of mounting.

The modern GEM can be purchased with either manual or analogue drives or with a digitally controlled 'go-to'; Steve Bassett has produced some amazing images using just such a set-up.

Dependent on manufacturer, conversion kits can be bought and a standard GEM can be converted to a digitally controlled unit.

The 'Dob' mount is simple, cheap and portable and allows a telescope to be looking at the sky within minutes of being set up.

Great for viewing the sky with the eye, these telescopes have to be manoeuvred by hand to keep an object in view and so are not best adapted for imaging though one of our members, Sinead Woods, has taken some stunning photographs with her telescope mounted on just such a mount.

The mount itself has to be mounted on some sort of pillar or sturdy tripod to make for a sturdy base.

Several members use them because of their ease of use and is quite an economic way to get a large telescope system at a fairly reasonable price. A 25cm Dob system is cheaper than a similar 'conventionally' mounted telescope.

For portable instruments a tripod made of aluminium or stainless steel tube is the favourite medium – a small telescope as in the picture above – will have a wooden one; all tripods should have extendible legs that lock into place.

Member, Bob Leggett uses a Dob which has an added advantage over some others – the base is tilted so making it an equatorial which is the second type of popular mount.

Patrick Moore always stated that a telescope (or would that be 'jelly-scope'?) that had unsteady mount was next to useless – and he is right.

The principle of this type of mount is that if the mounting is aligned with a certain amount of precision towards the pole star, the telescope mounted on it and pointed at an object of interest will track the object either by the gentle guiding hand of the observer or by a mechanical drive from east to west without the regular alterations one has to do when using an altazimuth mounting.

A telescope may have very good optics but if it is mounted on anything less than sturdy and it shakes when the operator touches it, or when a mild breeze blows, or even a leaf falling off of a tree in your next door neighbour's garden starts it trembling, the telescope for all its light grasping power is not usable.

Fortunately most manufacturers and suppliers of astronomical equipment produce suitable tripods or stand for their products or even universal parts that might fit a variety of manufacturers equatorial assemblies. Steve Bassett wrote an interesting article in the Southern Astronomer last year about building a pillar in his

These sort of mounts come in a variety of shapes. The most popular is the 'German Equatorial Mount' – GEM for short.

The primary structure is a stylised T-shape, where the lower bar of

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014

Mounting Your Telescope (continued)

back garden for his telescope mount (September & October 2013 issues - available on request) .

Back to equatorial mountings.

Another popular type is the open-fork mount - basically a U shaped cradle between which arms the telescope sits. The U is mounted on an angled block – a wedge – that is the same angle of latitude of the telescope. The wedge and open fork are placed so the base of the open fork is pointed towards the pole-star.

An English-equatorial mount (above)

A 20cm SCT mounted in an open-fork mount

These usually come with some sort of motor drive as well.

There are a variety of others equatorial systems that are no longer popular though may be found associated with large home built telescopes – the English Mount for example (pictured top right).

A hybrid system (without telescope)

telescope lay in the distant future. It was never ever a Russian rival to the 200” Hale-Telescope at Palomar.

In the last few years hybrid-systems have become popular, and controlled with a simple hand held controller.

Manufacturers of telescopes and stands have also been quite ingenious.

These are basic altazimuth mounted telescopes, however they are motor driven and controlled by a small internal computer which permit them to track objects for long periods in the sky. They have a go-to facility – a small database of objects that can be found by pressing commands on the hand held (plugged in, PC or, wi-fi) controller.

For example, the iOptron mounts its power pack on the end of the declination axis and it doubles as a counterweight, thus saving having to lug around separate power packs (and keeping the cables safe and out of the way).

There is a lot out there to choose from. If you are thinking of buying your first telescope or, even upgrading your existing to something different, I hope this article and the one in the last issue have been of use.

The only drawback for imaging is a phenomenon known as field rotation. Unlike the GEM which follows an object through the sky in a smooth arc, the hybrid moves in azimuth and altitude in small smooth steps – this will have an effect of slightly rotating any objects being imaged. A number of images taken during the evening will need to be aligned or synchronised in software during processing.

Naturally I have only briefly covered the subject of telescopes – I have not even gone into the area of specialised telescopes for certain subjects such as the h-alpha and CaK telescopes used for observing the Sun.

Another drawback with this system is that it is quite expensive. The plus side is that many of our members use such telescope mounts There are plenty of books and even resources available on-line out and they produce some stunning deep sky images with the aid of there and of course the monthly new-stand magazines such as them and they would not be without this type of mounting.

Astronomy Now, The Sky@Night, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy all have some sort of section viewing up the new stuff out there.

This method of controlling a telescope is not new however. The large 236”reflector built in the 1960's during the days of the old There is of course always your fellow members who I know Soviet Union used a similar method for telescope control – it was will be only to happy to help and advise. years ahead in its design but the technology to get the best of the

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014

OBSERVING NOTES September

All times are expressed as Universal (UT) and can be considered the same as GMT (BST minus 1 hour) Information, unless otherwise stated is for the 15th of the month

BEWARE OBSERVING THE SUN IF YOU ARE NOT SURE HOW TO DO IT SAFELY - THEN DON'T! ASTRO LINGO Maunder Minimum – a period of quiet Sunspot activity which lasted from the mid 17th-century to the second decade of the 18th-_century.

Edward W Maunder was an Edwardian astronomer in charge of the solar department at Greenwich observatory who wrote some papers about this sunspot famine. The term 'Maunder Minimum' was coined by astronomer John Eddy in the 1970's. naked-eye sunspot – a sunspot of a certain size so it can be seen without telescopic aid.

Lunar and planetary visibility mid-month

Meteorological autumn falls on the first day of the month but traditionally autumn starts at the equinox – and the colour style of this newsletter has changed to autumnal brown – a sure sign that the autumn is fast approaching. The equinox or period of equal night and dark is on the 23rd with the exact point of the equinox occurring at 02h. From now on the days start getting shorter and the nights longer.

The term is a bit misleading – you should never look at the sun with the naked (unprotected) eye.

If you want to look for sunspots like these use a pair of solar eclipse glasses of the type which are distributed for solar eclipses or (which I prefer) a 14 grade welders glass.

The Earth passes through the plane of the orbits of the satellites of Jupiter which causes some interesting, 'mutual' phenomenon – for example, the shadow of one satellite crossing the face of another. Next month Saturn is eclipsed (occulted) in daylight by the young Moon. A lot to be to Even if using these, never look at the Sun be looking forward to and getting on with.

The amateur astronomers long summer rest is over and the dark evening skies beckon.

One of the fascinating things about observing the Sun is that it presents a different face every day – and sometimes when things are really zipping along – every few hours. Sunspots grow and decay, and the Sun as seen from Earth rotates daily at about 13o so long lasting sunspot groups appear to cross the face of the Sun in about two weeks or so.

That is of course if any sunspots are visible. The Sun should be at the peak of its activity as we are at solar maximum. It is not unusual to have large and complex naked-eye sunspot groups appearing, writhing and crackling with magnetic activity.

That however is not the case.

A usual solar maximum would have regular large groups and many smaller types of sunspot groups. The largest sunspot recorded was in 1947. The image above is more recent and comes via the SOHO website.

We are indeed seeing a large number of sunspot groups but these are shadows of what they might be – a case of sunspot quantity without the quality of large and interesting groups.

for periods of more than half a minute at a time.

Better and safer still, check out the daily progress of the Sun online until you are sure how to observe the Sun. Feel free to ask or drop a line to us.

Our observatory which is geared up for solar observing is open to members who wants to see what is happening on the Sun – weekends are best and of course when it is clear! Call 01903 521205 for details. B&JH SOLAR ACTIVITY IN JULY Brian States observing from Guildford observed the Sun on 31 days – so again, a well done to him for his perseverance!

Between the two of us and combining our daily sunspot counts we got a relative sunspot value – R - for the month of: R70.53.

On the other side of the coin, this also makes the Sun interesting to observe regularly as you can never be sure if there is a spectacular (if small) sunspot group visible or if the Suns face is Brian's personal value for the month was littered with small tiny groups.

84.06 while mine (I observed on only a few So, what is happening to the Sun why the dearth of sunspot activity? The Sun has powerful magnetic fields emanating from the nuclear furnace below the visible face we call the photosphere. The Sun rotates differentially – the equator rotates faster than the higher northern and southern latitudes – due to the photosphere not being a solid in the sense the crust of our Earth is.

This causes the magnetic field lines to get stretched and distorted over many rotations of the Sun. As these stretch they knot and twist and the magnetic fields become more intense which causes cooling of the photosphere. These cool patches evolve into sunspots. The more convoluted the magnetic fields become, the larger the sunspot or group of spots become.

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days – 8 in fact) was 57.

The un-smoothed International Sunspot number derived from the International Sunspot Data Centre in Belgium was R72.5.

BH

The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014 Observing Notes continued

It would appear that the solar magnetic field overall has weakened over the last couple of decades or so, as we have seen a dropping off of sunspot numbers in the recent past.

JUPITER SATELLITE MUTUAL EVENTS September 2014 There are three mutual events in September – two of them occur while Jupiter is below our local horizon.

The third event will be visible during the early hours of September 29 when Callisto (4) eclipses Europa (2) Start 2014 9 29 2 47 6

Ends Event 3 13 15 4E2

The cause for this weakening is unknown. The Sun is 4 billion years old. We as humans have been studying the Sun for a mere 400 years. In 1645 sunspot numbers began to decrease – the invention of the telescope had happened a little over thirty years previously – and astronomers unsure of solar behaviour watched with interest. This sunspot famine is now known as the Maunder Minimum and it lasted until about 1715 when solar activity once more began to increase.

Perhaps the Sun fluctuates like this on a regular basis of every few hundred years or so – we just do not know. Maybe the study of sun-like stars will give astronomers a clue.

InOMN Lunar Features Hopefully we shall all get a chance to observe the Moon at some time this month as it ties in with the InOMN initiative (see front page).

What will be on display that night and the night before?

The Moons phase will have passed First Quarter (or half-moon) with all the wonders that are half-lit by sunlight or hidden by shadow. The phase will now be stretched over a large expanse of dark lunar plain known generally as the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) but actually also comprises the Mare Imbrium, Mare Insularum, Mare Nubium and Mare Humorum.

At the back of this issue of The Southern Astronomer is the InOMN organizations observing guide to the various features it recommends observing though you will note that the Mons Rümker may not be visible as the lunar map is timed for the continental USA! But there are lots of other things to see as well.

Many of the features will be visible on the 5th as well – Aristarchus will be on the terminator mid-evening. Some observers report the 'diamond' shaped plateau on which it sits as the only really colourful object on the Moon visible to the human eye – it is reported as orange coloured – can you see it that colour on the 6th?

To reuse an old phrase, a map like this is not just for InOMN but can be used when ever the phase of the Moon is similar.

If you join us down on the seafront or decide to observe from the comfort of your own back garden or favourite observing spot, enjoy the views and have a good time.

Faint planets Uranus and Neptune are visible if low, in the southern sky while Mars and Saturn disappear into the evening twilight soon after sunset.

Venus is a morning object, rising just before the Sun while Mercury sets just after the Sun and is poorly placed for viewing during the month.

STORMS ON URANUS In early August storms were observed in the upper atmosphere of Uranus.

Though storms have been observed before these were particularly big, and the BAA Saturn Section were asking any BAA members with telescopes in the 200mm or above range to try and get a look of the planet and see if they were visible.

Jupiter is placed in the dark sky after midnight and will, over winter, become an evening object. Every few years, the orbit of our Earth crosses the plane of the orbit of Jupiter. It is during this piece of astronomical geometry and alignment we observers on Earth can see what are termed 'mutual events' of the satellites of Jupiter. The side bar (left) gives the details for September. Don't worry if you miss it – these mutual events will go on until August 2015.

The position of Jupiters' moons relative to the planet (shown as the central black line) is also shown for September.

Comets & Meteors The Perseid meteor shower, almost as if it was aware that moonlight may spoil the actual night of maximum, showed some bright meteors during the week leading up to it.

A large 'lady' called Bertha who swept in from the Atlantic put paid to our proposed and informal get together at Nepcote Green on the August 9 – quite a change from last year's pleasant evening we spent scanning the skies.

Steve (Bassett) had caught a bright meteor during the first week of August which had all the hallmarks of being a Perseid (picture, next page) and this ties up with other reports from

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014 Observing Notes continued

around the UK regarding the appearance of Perseid meteors in the run up to the peak at 0h on the August 13.

If you have captured any images of Perseid meteor(s) then please pass them on to the BAA meteor section via meteor@britastro.org along with any information regarding the date, time, and details of when and where the picture was taken.

Early Perseid (left side streak) © Steve Bassett

To find out more about observing meteors and reporting your observations then go to: http://www.britastro.org/sectioninformation/4944

OUTREACH MATERIALS Thank you for the response regarding the email sent out in late July regarding the question concerning the purchase of a portable gazebo.

The response was a “go for it” and one has now been purchased along with side walls and will hopefully be of use to the group and members when involved in outreach events at fairs, fetes etc. So, if you are likely to be involved in something and you are representing the WA, then the gazebo might be of assistance. Just drop us a line and let us know when you need it.

Thank you also to those members who kindly donated money to assist in the purchase of the above – very much appreciated, thank you.

This month we see the Piscid Meteor shower appear. This is a multiple radiant shower which means that there are three points in the constellation of Pisces where these meteors appear to emanate from during the month.

I would also like to thank Andy Lee for his donation of outreach materials that we can use to give to members of the public at a public viewing event, plus posters, DVD's etc . These will be of use to help not just the The first appearance will be on September 9 which is full moon so if you are willing to attempt this public but teachers, scout-groups etc.

one follow the suggestions for the Perseids – get into a shadowy area of the garden out of moonlight! The hourly average or zenith hourly rate (ZHR) is 10. Slow moving meteors are a feature of this shower.

Many thanks, Andy.

Brian

The second appearance will be on September 21 when moonlight will not interfere. The expected ZHR is half that of the earlier shower.

The third appearance is actually about mid-October – 13th – again about the time of full moon.

There is a suspicion that many multiple streams such as the Piscids are not actually related showers but are part of something called the anti-helion radiant or ANT (see side-bar) a drifting point in space where some meteor streams appear to come from.

Much study into the ANT is needed and observations of all meteor streams are considered important for astronomers to get a better idea of what is going on.

THE ANTIHELION RADIANT (ANT) The ANT is a large, roughly oval area around 30° by 15° in size, centred about 12° east of the solar opposition point on the ecliptic, hence its name.

It is not a true shower at all, but is rather a region of sky in which a number of variable, if weak, active minor showers have their radiants.

IMAGES Some excellent deep sky and lunar images have been taken by members over the last month or two – some can be found at our Flckr page at: www.flickr.com/groups/worthingskywatchers /pool and more can be found at the Worthing Skywatchers Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/Skywatchers10 1/ Images of comet C/2014 E2 (Jacques) from August 1 01.47UT © Graham Greene

Mid-September comet Jacques is in the head of Cygnus – it will be south of Albireio mid evening of September 15; Seiichi Yoshida predicts a brightness of 7m for the comet, so it is still an object for binoculars and small telescopes. Its journey passes it through the Milky Way but there are few deep sky objects it might be confused with.

For a few days before, it traverses the 'neck' of the Swan.

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014 Observing Notes (concluded)

Stellar & Deep Sky: Overhead during the month the Milky Way is prominent if seen from a relatively dark sky location. Get away from the street lighting even by a little will enhance the faint 'cloud' of the Milky Way. Mid-evening it stretches from the north-east, overhead and to the southwest.

During August many members honed up their imaging skills by taking photographs of the Milky Way, and some of these are shown on this page.

MILKY WAY FACTS As long ago as 500 years before our common era (i.e. 500 BC) the Greek philosophers Anaxagorus and Democritus suggested that the faint 'haze' of the Milky Way was due to them being stars too faint to resolve into individual bright stars.

To remind ourselves, the Milky Way is the galaxy in which our star and ourselves live – as do all the other stars we see in the night sky. Less than a hundred years ago, it was believed that the Milky Way and its contents comprised the whole universe, hence the name of M31, The Andromeda Nebula - which was discovered to be a galaxy like our own Milky Way as were many other so-called 'nebulae' in the sky. Our Sun is just one of an estimated 200 - 400 billion stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is an estimated 100 000 to 120 000 light years in diameter; in turn, our Milky Way galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies that exist.

When we look at some other galaxies – like M31 in Rob Aro's beautiful image(left) – we are observing a representation of what our own galaxy approximately looks like.

It was not until 1609-10 when Galileo first turned his new telescope to the night sky was the mystery of the Milky Way solved.

The fainter parts of the Milky Way are the outer spiral arms (towards Perseus, for example) while the thicker centre of the Milky Way, towards the constellation of Sagittarius are thicker with stars, though we are unable to see them all, due to interstellar gas and dust.

Sagittarius is well placed in the summer skies from our location in the southern UK. A dark sky is best to see the Milky Way – though of course the colours that are captured by our members in their images are lost due to the lack of colour perception in the dark.

M31 © Rob Aro

Despite that there is nothing like wrapping up warm on a clear evening and going outside to a dark and comfy spot in the garden and watching the Milky Way span out across the heavens above.

The Milky Way over the sea from Ferring Beach © Andy Li

The Milky Way with the bright flare of an Iridium communications satellite. © Robin Durant

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The Southern Astronomer No.72 – September 2014

Stellarium

The sky from Sussex at around 21.30 UT (22.30 BST) on September 15 Contributions – written articles (preferably word processed in .txt, .doc or .odt format), photographs or letters to the editor for the October issue should be in by September 15 and sent to the editor at the contact address: editor@worthingastronomers.org.uk If you no longer wish to subscribe to the group and receive newsletters and other information, please send an email (to the address above) with Unsubscribe in the subject line; we do not want our stuff to end up like spam littering your inbox. Volunteers are always welcome: if you want to find out more, call 01903 521205 or drop us a line at the e-mail address above.

If you like the newsletter or its content please feel free to distribute it to anyone you know who might be interested.

Content is subject to copyright to the group and/or the individuals whose images or articles are used.

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International Observe the Moon Night 2014

The above map depicts the Moon as it will appear at approximately 10:30 PM EDT and 7:30 PM PDT on International Observe the Moon Night, September 6, 2014. With the terminator (the line between the day and night side of the Moon) near the western edge of the Moon, we will be able to see detail in the topographic relief of a number of fascinating features in this area. However, most of the Moon’s visible surface will experience the flatter lighting associated with the approaching full Moon phase. While this flat lighting makes viewing topographic relief much more difficult, it enhances our ability to see features that are distinguished by their albedo, or amount of reflectance. See the reverse side for a description of selected observing targets. http://observethemoonnight.org

Selected Features for InOMN 2014 Mons Rümker – A large complex of overlapping, low, shield volcanoes. (1) Aristarchus Plateau – An exceptional region of impact craters (Aristarchus, Herodotus) and volcanic features such as Schroter’s Valley, the greatest of the Moon’s sinuous rilles, formed by a river of lava. (2) Marius Hills – A cluster of many small volcanic domes and cones. (3) Wargentin – After it formed from an impact, lava erupted from cracks on the floor of this 84 km-wide crater, filling it to its rim. It now resembles a plateau more than a crater. (4) Schiller – Most lunar craters are round but Schiller is exception. Highly elongated at 179x71 km, it may have been formed by an asteroid impacting at a very low angle. Some have even suggested that it marks where a former moon of the Moon spiraled into the lunar surface. (5) The Rays of Tycho – 65 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the Moon, forming the crater Tycho and sending sprays of light-colored pulverized rock across wide areas of the Moon’s surface. How far can you trace these bright rays? (6) The Rays of Messier – A very low-angle impact formed the crater Messier, sending a spray of light, pulverized rock preferentially away from the direction from which the impacting asteroid came. (7) Linne – This small (2.4 km wide) crater is normally quite inconspicuous. But near full Moon, it is seen to be surrounded by a bright patch that has caught observers’ attention for many years. (8) Mare Pyroclastic Deposits – Near full Moon, the darker basaltic lava rock of the lunar mare or seas stands out particularly well from the lighter rock of the lunar highlands. This is seen well through binoculars or even with the unaided eye. Through a telescope, a number of mare show even darker patches of pyroclastic deposits. These widespread deposits of ash came from later eruptions of volcanic fire fountains. See southern Mare Humorum (9), and southwest Mare Serenitatus (10).

Mons Rümker

Aristarchus Plateau

Marius Hills

Wargentin

Schiller

Tycho

Messier

Linne

Humorum

Serenitatis