The Southern Astronomer, May 2017

The Southern Astronomer No.104 – May 2017

SOUTHERN ASTRONOMER THE

MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF WORTHING ASTRONOMERS & WORTHING SKYWATCHERS

The Southern Astronomer No.104 – May 2017

WORTHING ASTRONOMERS No fees, no Committee; just enjoying the night sky together.

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ormed in 2008 by a group of regular and practical observers, Worthing Astronomers is a free to join society now with a membership of over 450 persons, who have a common interest in Astronomy and its associated subjects – no internal politics, no fees, no committees, just astronomy!

The Southern Astronomer This Issue Astronomy This Month, The Planets in May Stargazing Live Report Workshop Report &The Night Sky

Our aim is simple – to bring astronomy to the public in general and to help and assist our membership in observing the night sky.

With the aid of this newsletter, website, social media, 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 those of neighbouring astronomical societies.

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Cover & Comment The cover picture this month is part of a star chart showing the region of deep sky objects that appear in the ‘tail’ of the Leo The Lion which lays almost due south mid evening this month. * How often do you actually read the newsletter. For members of Worthing Astronomers, is it download from the website or viewed on line via ISSUU when notice of its availability is advised from the monthly alert e-mail. For those who are on ‘Skywatchers is it when it is posted on the group Facebook page?

We try and meet at least once a month (when weather conditions allow) to do some observing but at the moment we do hold, every two months, a Workshop evening when we get a chance to meet up, exchange ideas and tips and help each other to make the most of observing the sky above us. Occasionally a guest speaker will talk about an aspect of practical, hands on astronomical observing.

When you do view it is it saved so you can browse it thoroughly at your own leisure or is it a quick glance to pick up any relevant information you may need and then discarded?

These Workshop evenings are held on the first Friday of every other month (February, April, June, August, October and, December) at Goring Methodist Church Hall, Bury Drive (off of Aldsworth Avenue), Worthing, BN12 4XB. The small admission charge of £3 helps pay for the room and free refreshments and goes towards supporting our membership. Doors open at 7.00 pm BST with the meeting starting at 7.30.

Why all the questions? As you know, the present editor stands down in October – the October issue published at the end of September will be their last – and we need to know if the newsletter is useful or an irrelevance to the membership nowadays.

We can be found at: worthingastronomers.org.uk

It grew out of a need to keep members in the early group in touch with what we were doing and it took off from there. However, is there that need today?

A suggestion mentioned to me at the April Workshop meeting was for a website to hold the links to other web sites for all the monthly data anyone wants. All that is need is to hit a link and the information needed will appear on the screen.

There are several astronomical groups in the coastal area of Sussex - several WA members are also members of the Adur Astronomical Society, who meet every first Monday of the month for a lecture regarding an astronomical subject. Details for the AAS can be found at Adur Astronomical Society.

It would save a lot of time and trouble but, will it give the personal service we have now? Is that personal touch needed? The latter really depends on someone (or a couple of members for that matter) to take on the responsibility of the newsletter.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND UNSUBSCRIBING Contributions – written articles (word processed in .txt, .doc or .odt format), photographs, letters, advertising copy to the editor for the June issue should be in by May 15 and sent to the editor at the contact address: editor@worthingastronomers.org.uk

Drop me a line – info@worthingastronomers.org.uk – with your comments and thoughts; they can be passed on to members of the new working group.

Contact addresses: Acting joint coordinators - info@worthingastronomers.org.uk – general society details, Janet Halls or Brian Halls

If you no longer wish to subscribe to the group and cancel newsletters and other information, please send an email to: info@worthingastronomers.org.uk with 'Unsubscribe' in the subject line; we do not want our stuff to end up like spam littering your inbox.

treasurer@worthingastronomers.org.uk – donations contact Janet Halls acting-treasurer.

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.

outreach@worthingastronomers.org.uk – events contact Steve Bassett, Mike Williams

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.

website@worthingastronomers.org.uk – contact for website Perry Wilkins editor@worthingastronomers.org.uk – newsletter content detail Brian Halls

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The Southern Astronomer No.104 – May 2017

ASTRONOMY

THIS MONTH

May 2017

All times expressed as Universal Time (UTC – Co-ordinated Universal Time) unless otherwise stated which can be considered the same as GMT i.e Summer Time, minus 1 hour. Information given, unless otherwise stated is for the 15th of the month at 21.30UT. Lunar and other phenomena in the Quick View Diary are shown to the nearest hour.

Lighter evenings and longer days may put an end to deep sky observing at convenient hours but there is a lot to see in the brief dark hours. Of course brighter objects can be enjoyed in the twilight hours both at the start and end of the day.

MAY QUICK VIEW DIARY Day 1 3 10 12 13 17 19 20 25 26 30 31

UT 03 22 19 22 01 01 05 20 01 16

Sunrise 04.36 Sunset 19.25 Moon: First Quarter Full Moon Moon at apogee – furthest in its orbit from Earth Saturn 3.1°S of Moon Mercury greatest elongation west 26° Moon: Last Quarter Neptune 0.4°N of Moon New Moon Moon at perigee – nearest in its orbit to Earth Moon 2°S of Regulus Sunrise 03.55 Sunset 20.07

LUNAR PHASES FOR MAY Nearly Full Moon © Ady Manser A lunar picture from several stacked and processed images and stitched together using ICE. The picture has been ‘mirror flipped’ from the original to give the correct unaided-eye orientation.

The picture above shows the central norther and north-western area of the Moon. The large Mare Imbrium area dominates.

MOON ‘MAIDEN’ The picture right, by Sophie Watts shows the so-called Moon Maiden feature on the western promontory of the Sinus Iridium. The Maiden has the appearance of a Grecian type bust profile with hair flowing behind. The appearance can only be seen about 8 days or so past new, when the shadows and light trick the eye – in May, about the 5th. Sophie kindly circled the feature! Best seen in an inverting telescope.

This image was taken with a smartphone camera held to the eyepiece of a telescope at the April 7 workshop evening.

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The Southern Astronomer No.104 – May 2017

Planets in May

conjunction with the Sun. It is the planet next out from the Sun, Jupiter that dominates the sky in the evenings at -2.4m laying in the constellation of Virgo. Details of the position of the bright inner moons for each evening and the transits of the Red Spot (GRS) are on the opposite page. The GRS is visible 50 minutes or so either side of the transit times given.

OBSERVING THE PLANETS:

MAY

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ercury, reaches its greatest elongation west just after mid-month. For several days either side of May 15, the planet will be low in the dawn light of the eastern sky. The planet rises about 35 minutes before the Sun at azimuth 78°(due east is 90°) therefore, a good eastern horizon will be needed.

Preceding Mercury into the morning sky is Venus, rising at 02.49UT. The planet is still showing a near 40% phase and will, even in a small telescope look like a waning half moon. By the end of the month it will show a half phase as the planet reaches dichotomy.

Those with larger instruments, as the sky gets lighter, may try and view any shadings that might be visible on the cloud covered face of the planet.

The only other major planet visible in the morning sky is Saturn at 0.2m low in the south. The planet comes to opposition during the early summer. Its ring system never fails to fascinate.

Jupiter and the GRS in May. Image: © Andy Li

Mars is poorly placed for observing – its angular diameter in a telescope is only about 3” (arc-seconds) and it is heading for

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The Southern Astronomer No.104 – May 2017

Transits of the Great Red Spot in May Note: Not all GRS transits listed will be visible from the UK Observing the Planets (continued)

Saturn is prominent in the early morning hours. Though disk details of the planet are not always clearly visible for the telescope user, the ring system that the planet is famous for, is something that should be seen at any time. The ring system is opening up giving us views of the northern face of the rings.

Saturn is becoming more and more prominent in the sky and will coming to opposition in the latter part of June.

The positions of the Galilean satellites in May (inverted view)

STARGAZING LIVE: WORTHING SEAFRONT APRIL 1

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good turn out saw members of the public head towards Worthing seafront at the beginning of April for an evening of looking at the Moon, planets and other objects in the sky with telescopes supplied by members of Worthing Astronomers and Worthing Skywatchers as part of the BBC sponsored Stargazing Live! Events.

Though the weather had been good for much of the day and early evening, cloud did creep in eventually though not before views through telescopes were appreciated by those who turned up.

Š Andy Lee

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The Southern Astronomer No.104 – May 2017 The informality of the meeting gave those who attended a chance to find out what they have been doing and an opportunity to generally catch up with each other and have a chat about what we have been doing. The Clinic Workshops always seem to be quite popular, and this one was no different.

WORKSHOP EVENING: APRIL 7

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he theme for the April meeting was a Telescope & Equipment Clinic.

Tea, coffee, and other refreshment were available through the evening and a thank you to Christa Sutton for her help behind the counter; also a thanks to Richard Pierce for helping at the door and looking after the catering supplies between meetings.

Members bought along their telescopes and equipment to display, show others how they worked and a few members went away that evening with a clearer idea of how their equipment worked.

The next Workshop night is on June 2. As usual ideas and suggestions are always welcome for meeting content. This meeting will be the last Workshop before October as the August meeting has had to be cancelled due to the Church requiring the hall.

The night was clear, and of course there was a chance to do some observing – Jupiter was at opposition that evening and the moon was well placed in the evening sky as well.

THE NIGHT SKY IN MAY To the north-east, the summer constellation of Cygnus is rising – a sign that the year is progressing. As the night passes many of the deep sky objects in the constellation will make themselves known. If a late night is not your thing don’t worry. These features will be more easily visible later in the year.

Many deep sky objects are visible – a large number clustered around the tail of Leo – a detailed chart is on the cover this month. l

The western horizon remains light until well into the evening or early hours of May but M44 – The Beehive cluster in Cancer will be visible on a clear night even with binoculars.

Overhead are the deep sky objects clustered around Ursa Major. Almost due south is Jupiter laying to the south of Virgo.

The evening skies remain interesting for all who wish to see them.

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