Astro Nerds Astronomy E-Magazine November 2014

EXTANT LIFE ON MARS? GARDEN OBSERVATORY

AND READERS PHOTOS

COMET 67P CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO

ICY SCIENCE PUBLICATION: WWW.ICYSCIENCE.COM: WINTER 2013/14

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WHAT IS IN THIS MONTH’S EDITION

Welcome to the November 2014 edition of Astro Nerds e-magazine. Well summer time is over and the clocks have gone back, this is good news for us astronomers, we can get outside, weather permit-

3. In The News

ting earlier in the evening and enjoy the wonders of the night skies.

6. The North West Astronomy Festival

The Knowledge Observatory held their annual NW

26. Supermoon

what is an ever growing event up in the NW of

28. Murals Wallpaper 30. Oldham & Rochdale Astronomy 40. The Night Sky 50. AR2192 a flaring giant of an Active Region Special thanks to Paul Hill, John Harper, Andrew & Sue Davis,Andy Devey and Sarah Hall for there contribution.

Thanks to Alastiar Leith (UK), Paul Stewart (New Zealand) , Sarah Hall (UK),David Blanchflower (UK) and Andy Devey (Spain) for images

Cover Image Mike Greenham

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astro event last month, we have a full report from

England. There is also our guide to the november night sky, written by John Harper FRAS, he is the founder of the Scarborough and Rydale Astronomical Society and he has done some radio work in the past too.

A big thank you to all who have contributed to this edition and i hope you the reader enjoys our publication.

Editor David Bood

IN THE NEWS

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Antares Rocket Explosion: On Oct. 28, 2014, a commercial Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corporation exploded just after liftoff at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Astronomers have captured for the first time images of nova during its fireball stage. The explosion has been called Nova Delphinus 2013. Dr Gail Schaefer of Georgia state University says “ this is the first time astronomer have been able to witness an expanding fireball with such great detail, rather than a tiny point of light way out in the galaxy”. The exploding nova was first decteted in August 2013 by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki.

- See more at: http://www.icyscience.com/ News/Nova-Delphinus-2013-during-its-EarlyFireball-Stage.html#sthash.vf4RkbZe.dpuf

CONTACT DETAILS W: www.icyscience.com E: dbood@icyscience.com ASTRO NERDS | NOVEMBER

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Waxing Gibbous Moon taken on the 4th October 2014 by David Blanchflower

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The North West Astronomy Festival 2014 The North West Astronomy Festival took place on Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th of October 2014 at The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn. This, our second festival event, with added surprises, surpassed our expectations and was a great success!

‘Astro-festival in Runcorn with John Culshaw and Chris Lintott hailed 'fabulous' success’ Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

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With a wide variety of presentations, activities, stalls and displays, there was something for all ages, interests and experiences, turning The Heath into a spectacle of stars, planets and space!

Venue SOG again pulled out all the stops and The Heath provided a wonderful location for the festival. From Foodini restaurant providing a splendid array of hot and cold food throughout the weekend, to the exhibition hall, lecture theatre and lounges and being on hand to sort out any queries on the day with good grace and efficiency! We are very grateful for their help in both organising and promoting this event, with special thanks to Anthony Stonebanks, Lesley Lunt, Tracey Whitlow and the conferencing & catering team.

What a fabulous weekend! Had such a great time... bought new toys (yippee!), brilliant speakers, won a prize in the raffle, met up with great friends, met new friends, and came home one very happy chickie! Massive thank you to Andrew and Sue, and all the knowledge obs guys for making this weekend what it was! See you all next year!

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Ambassadors Once again our Ambassadors made us proud. This year we had a full team easily identified by our distinctive blue polo shirts and fleeces, working throughout the venue and over the whole weekend. Our thanks go to Jacquie Lightfoot and Emma Doward who again dedicated their weekend to selling entry, presentation and raffle tickets on the front desk. A perfect first point of contact for our visitors! John Liggins and Jonathan Harty, another impressive duo, staffed the conference centre entrance and the telescope advice display, helping our many new to astronomy customers find their way through the maze of telescopes on offer.

Joolz ‫@‏‬farmerswifee What an absolutely amazing weekend at the @NWAstroFest Can't wait to do it all again! a fantastic cause too!

Johnimus Prime ‫@‏‬Johnimus_Prime Still struggling to get it all to sink in & articulate just how good a day it was. Love being @KnowledgeObs crew!

Gary Marshall, Tim Leese, Neil Wilson and Dave Wilkinson provided help and support to the traders, door control and breaks for the team, with Dave Galvin taking great care of our VIP guests. Nicolette Wells was our professional photographer, who also gave her time at no cost and has provided us with a wonderful album of photographs to mark the event.

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The BBC Sky at Night – Our Media Partner We were delighted to have agreed a media partnership for the festival, with the BBC Sky at Night magazine this year. The team were incredibly supportive of the event and we enjoyed a fantastic full page advert in the October edition of the magazine and continuing promotion on the website and through Twitter and Facebook.

The team came up for the festival and enjoyed it so much that they have already agreed to continue the partnership for next year’s festival!

VIPs This year we welcomed several surprise VIPs to the festival. In addition to the advertised presenters, Chris Lintott and Jon Culshaw joined the panel for the Astronomers Question Time, a wonderful treat for all that had bought tickets for this session. Jon then entertained the Social Supper crowd in a hilarious partnership with another surprise VIP Paul Abel from the BBC Sky at Night.

Congratulations on NW Astrofest this year! Our family enjoyed it all very much, and the evening supper was also really good. Well done! Your hard work has paid off. Thank you for our VIP tickets we enjoyed the talks very much, and Steve was delighted with the response to his question.

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The Presentations The presentations in the lecture theatre are for many the highlight of the weekend. And what a line up we had this year! We would like to make sure that our visitors and supporters know that all our presenters give their time for no charge for the festival, so our audiences are privileged to see the top names in astronomy for just a fiver! We would like to thank our presenters for their generosity and we are pleased that they do also enjoy themselves immensely during their visit. On Saturday, Damien Peach, our first presenter of the festival, delivered an inspirational talk to a full theatre. In ‘The Giant Planet Jupiter’, Damien explained how to observe and photograph Jupiter with amateur size telescopes and why the images we take are far more than just pretty pictures. Damien’s breath taking images left the audience awestruck and inspired to improve their

session, plenty of audience participation and

own astrophotography!

inter-active demonstrations.

Will Gater presented the ‘Secrets of Celestial Light’, a story of our fascination with the light that streams from every corner of the cosmos.

In this wide-ranging talk, astronomy writer Will Gater explored the physics of celestial light and how we came to realise that, when it comes to the starry night sky, there’s far more than meets the eye. Will delighted the audience with a humorous and educational ASTRO NERDS | NOVEMBER 2014

Can't wait to see this w great so far and lookin and as you said "Thing

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weekend’s photos, it's been ng forward to Sunday as well gs Can Only Get Better" :-)

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On Sunday, Philippa Browning gave an informative, visual and up to the moment talk entitled ‘Our Active Sun’ Philippa explained how the Sun, our nearest star, affects the Earth in many ways. With wonderful slides and spectacular videos, Philippa illustrated the interaction between these magnetic fields and the hot gas, known as plasma, leading to many kinds of activity, such as sunspots, prominences and - most dramatically - solar flares.

What a fantastic amazing and "UNIQUE" event !!! Can't wait for next year!!

Very much enjoyed the Astronomers question time - someone tell the BBC - it would make excellent TV Had a great afternoon at the festival today. Looking forward to next one. Well done all.

Nick Howes, always a favourite with the audience and back by popular demand, shared ‘The Greatest Scope on Earth’. Nick tells the story of how for over 400 years, humanity has gazed to the heavens with ever more powerful telescopes. Nick introduced the greatest scope on Earth, one due to revolutionise the very future of astronomy, capturing the skies in greater levels of detail than ever before.

Hi, I just wanted to pop a note on here to thank everyone for such an excellent weekend. I don't think that I could pick a favourite part if I tried.

All the talks were exceptional, I loved the Astronomers Q&A and the social supper was wonderful too. We had a great time. Keep up the good work :)

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Astronomer Question time

This popular session was very special at festival 2014! With the surprise addition of Chris Lintott to the panel, the capac-

‘It IS Rocket Science’.

ity audience were treated to a humorous, insightful and

Helen Keen’s highly original look at the history and future

entertaining question and answer session. The panel con-

of cosmic travel, featuring all the enormity of the uni-

sisting of all our weekend presenters plus special guest

verse without any of the boring bits! Including a whis-

provided high level responses and shared a wide range of

tle-stop tour around the Great Brains who put monkeys,

knowledge and expertise with the audience. The hour was

ladies, dogs and gentlemen into orbit, Helen’s show cap-

finished off beautifully by Jon Culshaw with an unexpected

tivated the evening audience and reduced many to tears

and emotional performance of a poem written by Jon for

(of laughter)! A brilliant show and a real treat for those

the late Patrick Moore.

in the final lecture theatre session on Saturday.

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All our presenters were delighted with their time at the festival and wish to be part of next year’s event. In fact Chris Lintott, Paul Abel and Jon Culshaw, who were our VIP guests, have all expressed a desire to play a bigger

• •

Super, another great success.

What an amazing event it was "out of this world" !!!!

part in the festival, so look out for a Sky at Night Saturday in 2015!

Then what should have been a simple presentation of gift to our Ambassadors and Presenters became a show in its own right! Amidst much hilarity, Andrew presented signed books to our Ambassadors to thank them for their hard work during the festival and then handmade ‘unique’ gifts to our Presenters. Anne Jackson had made individual cushions for every presenter, each with an astronomy theme, presented and received with terrific enthusiasm! After a fantastic hotpot supper and wonderful apple crumble, John Culshaw and Paul Abel delivered an absolutely hilarious sketch which left the audience crying with laughter. Our favourites were Brian Cox and John Bishop – unbelievably clever and brilliantly scripted. Both Jon and Paul enjoyed themselves so much that they have already signed up for next year. We anticipate selling out of tickets as soon as they go on sale!

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Many thanks for a splendid day on Saturday, judging by the posts on facebook and twitter, it seems the event was a great success. Paul Abel BBC Sky at Night

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Book Signing We were lucky to have a number of authors at the festival this year, with Will Gater, Chris North, Paul Abel and Nicholas Mee, many people were able to buy personally signed books. This popular activity is something that we will look at developing for next year with pre-advertised dedicated times, so giving everyone the chance to meet and talk to the authors.

Traders We are very grateful for the continuing support from our regular traders who provide our visitors with expert advice and support when buying a telescope or other astronomical resources. The displays and variety of scopes to try was amazing and our thanks go to

Thanks to Nick Howes for donating the amazing raffle prize, a signed picture of Guenter Wendt and thanks to the wonderful Jacqui Lightfoot for giving her prize to me, I am like a kid at Christmas :)

Astronomia, Tring Astronomy Centre and Peak2Valley who have all made a fantastic contribution to both

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The Knowledge Observatory and the festivals. Their knowledge, customer service and variety of products means that our visitors enjoy a first class experience. We are also delighted that they are keen to continue as our trade partners at future events and will be our lead traders at the North West Astronomy Festival 2015. In addition we welcomed back the Space Collective who have also supported us on a number of occasions over the last year and will be part of an exciting development at festival 2015 and

Just a short email to say thanks for an excellent weekend at the Astrofest. We certainly got value for money and the support was good with loads of people to meet and chat to.

The subjects and speakers were spot on.

Nicholas Mee, author from Virtual Image. New to the festival this year were The BBC Sky at Night Magazine and Astronomy Now teams, with subscription offers you could not refuse and Dark Sky Jewellery selling a spectacular range of earrings, cufflinks, necklaces and bracelets. We definitely want Dianne back! We also welcomed the Society for Popular Astronomy and Nigel Marshall and Mickledore publishing, who we hope will also become a regular fixture at our events. A new visitor to the event this year was the IOM Post Office with a beautiful set of first day Dark Skies stamps – still available online if you missed out on the day!

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This year was my first year and it was brilliant, definitely a regular now!

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Education and Outreach We are incredibly lucky at The Knowledge Observatory to have the fantastic support of Alan Brown and Paul Kummer from STFC Daresbury who provide is with the ever popular Stardome and Paul Sapple and Stacey Habergham with the National Schools Observatory team from Liverpool John Moores University. Our visitors thoroughly enjoyed the hands on activities, especially the moon puzzle challenge and we would like to thank everyone involved for giving up their weekend to help make the festival a success. Adding to the activities in the conference centre were Astro 4 Fun and Gary Palmer one of the UKs leading solar imagers. We were particularly lucky with the weather to be able to share wonderful views of the sun throughout the weekend. Martin Goff produced a magnificent display again this year for the British and Irish Meteorite Society. This ever popular attraction proves fascinating for young and old alike as Martin’s incredible knowledge is willingly shared and he patiently answers every question from our visitors.

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Many thanks to bo entertainers for m attend. We are no

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oth of you, your helpers, all the lecturers and making yesterday such an enjoyable event to ow looking forward to next year’s event.

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Clubs and societies We are so pleased to have ongoing support from the Liverpool Astronomical Society, our closest neighbours over the river, as well as Blackpool and District and the Astronomy Centre. We were particularly pleased to welcome Central Lancashire, Eddington and the Isle of Man this year to the ‘club room’ for the first time.

The room was buzzing with interest throughout the weekend and we hear that new member recruitment has been significant. It is also a great opportunity for the clubs to meet up with each other and will hopefully become a major part of future festival activity.

Firstly I would like to thank you and everyone who organized, helped, presented, displayed, lectured, got involved, enjoyed.....sorry could go on forever after attending this year’s second North West Astronomy Festival.

The raffle Who would have thought that the raffle would become an event in itself! From the moment we began posting details of the prizes donated by our traders and supporters, the festival raffle was one of the most closely followed activities of the festival. With fantastic prizes of telescopes, meteorites, subscriptions, theatre ticket, signed books, NASA memorabilia, Dark Sky Jewellery and most importantly Blackpool rock, the draw held on Sunday afternoon in the lecture theatre saw a packed house! Thanks to the generosity of all who donated and those who bought tickets we made a fantastic £750 which will go directly to funding trips for our young people.

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Thanks once again.

I really enjoyed the festival and even more so now I've won a raffle! prize

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Summary

Over the two days around 500 people of all ages, enjoyed the festival both professional,

expert, amateurs and beginner astronomers, with over 85 people enjoying the Saturday

Social Supper.

What struck us as we went through the photographs for this report, was how many

included people laughing. That is the image we take away from this year - laughter –

perhaps not the first thing that most people would expect from an astronomy festival!

The dates, for next year’s North West Astronomy Festival are 3rd and 4th October 2015

and there are some very exciting discussions going on with our partners to bring you

something even more spectacular! Details for future events throughout 2015 can be

found on our website www.theknowledgeobservatory.co.uk where you can also sign up

for our newsletter and check out @NWAstroFest on Twitter and on Facebook for all the

latest information.

Finally, we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who gave their time and support

to the festival. The presenters, our volunteers who worked tirelessly all weekend and stu-

dents from the local schools, college and university and of course our visitors – we could

not have done this without every one of you.

Andrew and Sue Davies

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ANDREW AND SUE DAVIES

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Sunspot by Alastiar Leith

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SUPER MOON Astronomy is a friendly world. The excitement and interest I find in the schools and groups I visit is one of the reasons I enjoy what I do (other than the subject being endlessly mind blowing and kids being endlessly cool).

But there is also a lot of anger in astronomy.

It’s there under the surface, bubbling away like a storm in the lower atmosphere of Jupiter.

Much of it is weather related; the frustration of UK astronomers, of late, is deep and bitter. If clouds could be cleared with hard, angry stares we would be bathed in sunshine and starlight.

Some of it is the endless series of pitfalls and hiccups that beset your nights observation. The scope that refuses to align, the red torch whose battery fails, the dropped and shattered pencil, the dreaded dew descending on your precious lenses.

And I’ve had all those in a single hour.

But nothing seems to catch the anger of stargazers as much as the term ‘Supermoon’.

“Not that old chestnut again!” Deep sigh, hand to face. Blame the media, get cross at ignorant public for invading our territory with their stupid questions and ham-fisted googled explanations and ridiculous astrological terms.

Grrrrrr. Angry face.

And to read some of the online rants I’ve seen recently you would think astronomy was wading into a geopolitical crisis or a medical ethics debate.

I had the experience just the other day in a staffroom. The teacher I was planning with asked me about the recent ‘supermoons’ declaring “The kids were talking about it but when I looked I couldn’t see any difference.” And there in lies the anger. The disappointment, the build of expectation that is defeated by contact with reality. Another ‘civilian’ lost to the cause by shoddy media reporting and the use of astrological terms.

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But is it all bad? If we replay that teachers comment then we realise that her students were talking about astronomy, talking about the moon, voluntarily. Nobody was forcing them to talk or look at it. That’s got to be a good thing. And that teacher had gone out and looked at the moon and then found an astronomer to ask about it. That’s got to be good as well.

I’ve had many different super-moon conversations over the last few years and each one was a chance to spread some knowledge and encourage interest in people who normally would never ask. It was a chance to get people to look up and consider.

Astronomy outreach – never a bad thing even if the original spark was a misconception, surely many of the best educational and learning moments are those that begin with misconceptions?

So while I have to admit to being always slightly irked at phrases like Supermoon, I think we should be grateful that it is putting astronomy in the news, getting it noticed and reminding people that there is a universe to be seen out there. Perhaps we should all calm down a little and embrace the opportunity, take the stage and put forward the science.

Oh and in-case you are wondering, a “super-moon” is the point where the moon reaches it’s closest to Earth which is really called perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system’ (if you want to be fancy). The great thing is, you can explain to people that the Moon’s orbit is elliptical and not circular and as a result the moon varies in size as seen from Earth- not common knowledge! It has no special effect (astrologers I’m looking at you…) with the exception of perhaps a mildly higher tide, though that has nothing to do with illumination of course.

Oh and you will not probably notice the difference visually. Super.

WORDS: Paul Hill FRAS Sirius Astronomy www.siriusastronomy.co.uk BACKGROUND IMAGE: Reuters/Gary Hershorn

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Space Mural Wallpaper and Space Wallpaper Murals Choose from our great selection of space mural wallpaper, space murals and space wallpaper murals below. From vast nebulas to floating astronauts, you can boldy go where no man has gone before!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS MURAL WALLPAPER Call Us +44 (0)151 708 5400 Email Us contact@muralswallpaper.co.uk Find Us 6 Watkinson St Liverpool Merseyside L1 0BE United Kingdom ASTRO NERDS | NOVEMBER

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Oldham & Rochdale Astronomy We have created a new page for anybody with an interest in astronomy, especially within the Oldham and Rochdale area.

Everybody is welcome, this is a place for sharing experiences, images, information, upcoming things to look at in the night sky, or questions and advice.

We are a friendly community for the promotion and development of amateur astronomy, whether you are just starting to gaze up at the skies and looking for some help, or have some experience and knowledge that you would like to share!

Any support you can give to help raise awareness of the page is much appreciated, as we build the group up and look towards developing events and outreach activities in the future.

https://www.facebook.com/oldhamandrochdaleastronomy https://twitter.com/OandRAstro

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The Moon: Here is the Moon from the 04/10/2014 ... 12 images stitched together in a mosaic!! Taken using a Canon EOS 550D on a Skywatcher 200p from Oldham UK Image credits for both images: Sarah Hall & Colin Campbell. They live in Oldham UK and have been doing Astrophotography for around a year and a half! We are both involved in setting up a new local Astro group!

Image Below:- The Aurora (rarely seen this far south): Taken using a Canon EOS 550D on a tripod. Taken on the 27/02/2014 23.03PM. Camera settings: ISO 800, shutter speed 15 secs.

Taken from the M62 Summit above Oldham UK

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http://www.awesomeastronomy.com/

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For more information please contact us via our The solar explorer website for price list and availability http://thesolarexplorer.net/

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Our Star taken by Alastiar Leith

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THE NIGHT SKY NOVEMBER 2014 40

BY JOHN HAPRPER FRAS

Until November 23rd at around 16h, the Sun continues to pass through the constellation of Libra. It then enters Scorpius for about a week, but on the 30th at around 03h, the Sun crosses into the neighbouring constellation of Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

The Moon The Moon is at apogee, its furthest from the earth, at 01h on the 15th . Perigee (nearest to the earth) occurs on the 27th at 23h12, and earlier in the month on Nov 2nd about 23h

Full Moon is on the 6th at 22h23, in Aries, just north of the Cetus border. When it culminates at midnight, it lies at an altitude of 50째 in the southern sky.

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Last Quarter at 15h16 on the 14th is on the Cancer/Leo border, some 6째 below Jupiter.

The New Moon in November takes place on the 22nd at 12h33 in Libra, near the Scorpius border, when it passes 2째 north (above) the sun.

First Quarter is at 10h07, on the 29th. in Aquarius You may be able to glimpse earthshine on the night hemisphere of the waning crescent moon from the 15th to the 21st, and on the waxing crescent from the 23rd to the 28th.

Image left: Crescent Moon taken on the 4th March 2014 by David Blanchflower

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THE

On the first day of November, M

the brightest star in the northern

ern hemisphere. On this day it r

moving into the bright dawn twi

Arcturus which it outshines, and

sunrise on the 21st at around 07

The presence of the moon may h tion. As both objects are within

As Venus was in superior con

est of the planets, sets a mere 4

glimpse the ‘evening star’ as it b

Although the earth is leaving M

the evening sky increases during

sun. Look for Mars at an altitude

star just over 30° above the red

brightness with Mars fractionall

with its beautiful ochre tint. The

early evening of the 25th, and th

cent lies above Mars by some 7°

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E PLANETS

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Mercury lies at its greatest elongation west of the sun (19°) and shines at magnitude –0.5, brighter that Arcturus,

n hemisphere of the sky. This produces the best morning apparition of Mercury in 2014 for observers in the north-

rises just after 05h00, some two hours before the sun. It will remain visible for the first half of the month before

ilight. Look in the ESE sky when at 06h00 Mercury is 8° above the horizon. 30° to the planet’s upper left is the star

d immediately below Mercury, only a few degrees above a clear horizon is Spica, chief star in Virgo. Just before

7h00 in the SE sky, you may spot a very thin waning crescent moon just one day before New at an altitude of 5°.

help you locate Mercury, which at that time lies almost 5° to the lower left of the moon in the ‘seven o’clock’ posi10° of the horizon, binoculars and a clear sky are necessities as Mercury is only 2° above the horizon at that time.

njunction on October 25th, it is unlikely to be seen as it slowly emerges into the evening sky. Indeed this, the bright-

40 mins after the sun at the month’s end. Scan the horizon at this time with binoculars in order to be the first to

begins its emergence from the vicinity of the sun on its way towards an excellent evening apparition next year.

Mars behind and the planet is fading in brightness as a result of the increasing distance, its period of visibility in

g November, and by the end of the month the planet sets at around 18h40, some three and a half hours after the

e of 10° in the SSW at around 17h00 as evening twilight fades. The planet is passing through Sagittarius and the

d planet is Altair, chief star in Aquilla the Eagle at the lower apex of the ‘Summer Triangle’. The two are of similar

ly dimmer than Altair, but the colour contrast between the two is quite noticeable; Altair is white and Mars shines

e waxing crescent moon with earthshine upon its night hemispheres may be seen approaching Mars during the

he two are separated by 10°, with the moon lying to the west (right) of Mars. The following night the broader cres-

°.

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Jupiter rises at 23h00 on the

is the brightest object in the nig

(alpha Leonis), the brightest sta

their ever-changing dance aroun

two produce an interesting conj at the time.

Saturn sets 45 mins after the

into the morning sky, and may b ening twilight requires a pair of

Saturn is currently in the zodiaca the horizon at 07h00.

Uranus in Pisces, having been in opposition early in October,

Neptune is best seen durin

is visible during a good portion of the night in November, albeit

when on the 29th it is at an altitu

through binoculars or a telescope.

The below naked eye visibility pl

This planet, lies 3째 to the SSW of delta Piscium forming a flattened isosceles triangle with the stars delta- and epsilon- Piscium, delta being at the apex of this triangle. Uranus is the faintest of the trio, but is readily visible in a field devoid of stars of a similar brightness.

It shines with a greenish grey tinge and becomes a disc when viewed through a telescope with a magnifying power greater than X60.

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4째 to the left of the fourth ma

(theta Aquarii). First you will spo

star sigma Aquarii in that direc

sigma to the left in the binocula

be found 1째 (two moon widths)

scope with adequate magnifica

see this remote world as a tiny b

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e 1st, and shortly before 22h00 at the month’s end. Its period of visibility increases, and from midnight onwards it

ght sky when the moon is absent. The planet lies in the constellation of Leo, some 8° to the upper right of Regulus

ar in Leo. Carefully focussed and firmly fixed binoculars will facilitate observation of the four Galilean satellites in

nd the planet. Jupiter and the moon are in the vicinity of each other during the night of the 14th/15th and the

junction as they rise at midnight. The, last quarter moon lies 8° below Jupiter and is nearer the eastern horizon

e sun at the start of November, and is in conjunction with it on the 18th. After this date the planet begins its return

be seen rising some 90mins before the sun at the month’s end. However to spot the ringed planet in the brightbinoculars and a little patience, as the planet will be close to the horizon - a horizon clear of clouds is required.

al constellation of Libra and should be searched for in the SE sky at azimuth 120°, and 2° (four moon widths) above

ng the early evening

ude of 25° in the SSW.

lanet is located some

agnitude star Ancha

ot the fifth magnitude

ction. Having placed

ar field, Neptune will

) to the right. A tele-

ation is necessary to

bluish grey disc.

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There are two interesting meteor showers this month, the first of these is the Taurid meteor shower consisting of slow moving shooting stars associated with Encke’s comet and peaking during the 4th and 5th and again overnight on the 12th to the 13th. Conditions are favourable for the latter peak, but the presence of man-made fireworks during the evening of the 5th, and a bright moon, may spoil the show for the earlier maximum. The Taurid shower is noted for producing bright slow moving events. Several years ago, another meteor shower radiating from the constellation of Leo produced several thousand meteors each hour. The Leonid shower has now subsided, and astronomers are not expecting to see more than about 20 an hour during the early morning of the 17th and 18th. The parent body of this shower is comet Temple-Tuttle, which visits the earth about every 33 years.

Constellations visible in the south around midnight, mid-month, are as follows: Eridanus, and the Pleiades in Taurus. Perseus is at the zenith embedded in a rich star field – take a look through binoculars and see!

All times are GMT

1° is one finger width at arm’s length.

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AR2192 a flaring giant of an Active Region During October 2014 we solar astronomers were treated to the spectacle of the largest sunspot in area for over 24 years and it was given the designated Active Region number of AR2192 or NOAA 12192. This active region may have been the same one as AR2172 that appeared during the last two weeks of September and then returned on the 17 October 2014. Because the Sun rotates every 25.4 days at its equator when viewed from Earth [we orbit in the same direction as the Sun’s spin] we are able to monitor these active regions for about 13 days as they cross the face of the Sun before they disappear around the western limb and away from our view for about the same period of time if they survive for further rotation(s).

This photo shows a comparison of AR2192 marked 2014 with the largest sunspot of solar cycle 23 marked 2001 and that of the largest sunspot ever photographed in 1947.

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This photo shows it spanned an area much larger than that of Jupiter and overwhelmed the other active regions.

AR2192 appeared on the Sun’s eastern limb on the 17 October and released 3 C-class flares before it was visible to us.

On the 18th October it became visible and it immediately announced its presence with an M1.6 –class and seven C-class solar flares.

On October 19th it released its first X-class flare an X1.1 [peaked at 05:03UT] and seven C-class flares.

This is one of my white light images of AR2192 shot at 09:35UT on the 19th October 2014.

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It continued to grow and released five M-class flares [M3.9, M4.5, M1.4, M1.7 and M1.2] and nine C-class flares throughout the 20th October.

During the 21 October it released an M1.2 and nine C-class flares.

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The 22 October saw the release of an X1.6-flare [it peaked at 14:28UT] that I was able to image and three M-class flares [M8.7, M2.7 and M1.4] and thee C-class flares.

22 October here is the peak of AR2192 flaring at X1.6-class at 14:30 UT. Image credit Š Andy Devey

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Close up of flare, I was shooting at 0.8m focal length due to poor seeing through thin white clouds.

Image credit Š Andy Devey

October 23 saw the release of an M1.1 that I imaged and five C-class flares.

By October 24th it was at the midpoint of its rotational transit and released an X3.1 flare [peaked at 21:41UT so I made a GONG data movie of it] and an M4.0 that I imaged together with five C-class flares.

M4.0 flare and surge prominence 24 October 2014 this at 08:04UT image Š Andy Devey

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GONG data photo of X3.1 flare at 21:41 UT.

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October 25 brought a further X1.0 flare that peaked at 17:08UT [after sunset for me] and seven C-class flares.

It released an X2.0 class flare that I imaged on the 26 October that peaked at 10:56UT, four M-class flares [M1.0, M4.2, M1.9 and M2.4] together with ten C-class flares.

X2.0 class flare at 11:31 UT on 26 October 2014. Image Š Andy Devey

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Close up of flare The 27 October brought another X2.0-class flare that I imaged that peaked at 14:47UT, there were five M-class flares [M7.1, M1.0, M1.3, M6.7 that I imaged and M1.4] and six C-class flares.

View the movie htt p : / /c d n . a st ro b i n . co m / images/5610/2014/0b7d62884c4c-40f5-b702-8fbb3ceccc98. gif

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Peak of an M6.7 class flare on 26 October 2014 at 10:09UT, I thought that was it for the day but look what I caught next! Image © Andy Devey

Another X2.0 class flare on 27 October 2014 at 14:23 UT image © Andy Devey

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Throughout the 28 October it released three M-class flares [M3.4, M6.6 and M1.6] and three C-class flares.

By the 29th October it was on the western limb and released another five M-class flares [M1.0, M1.2, M1.4 that I imaged, M1.0 and an M2.3] together with seven C-class flares.

Close up of X2.0 flare

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A parting shot an M1.4 class flare as AR2192 crosses the western limb 29 October 2014 at 14:32 UT. Image Š Andy Devey

October 30th saw three M-class flares [M1.3, M3.2 and M1.2] and three C-class flares with three others attributed to AR2201.

In summery this huge active region released six X-class flares, thirty two M-class and no less than eighty four C-class flares during this transit.

What will it have installed for us in the second half of November?

Have fun with our Sun Andy Devey

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MOVIES X2.0 on 27 Oct

M6.7 on 27 Oct X2.0 on 26 Oct X3.1 on 24 Oct GONG M4.0 on 24 Oct X1.6 flare on 22 Oct ASTRO NERDS | NOVEMBER 2014

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