Ып45п3skynews september october 2015 by looswqdwq

STAR CHARTS AND OBSERVING TIPS FOR AUTUMN

SkyNews SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

The Canadian

Magazine of Astronomy & Stargazing

INCREDIBLE

COSMIC IMAGES DON’T MISS IT: Peak time for Milky Way gazing, plus tips on viewing and photographing the last lunar eclipse until 2018! Visit Jasper’s Dark Sky Preserve Planetarium First Mars-Sized Exoplanet Tips for Viewing the Messiers Cutting-Edge Astronomical Research With Tiny Dragonfly Telescope visit skynews.ca STAR BIRTH REGION IN THE CONSTELLATION CARINA

contents

sePteMber/october 2015 Volume XXI/Issue 3 16

coluMns

04 editor’s rePort terence dickinson

Our Galaxy on View September is peak time for Milky Way gazing and imaging

18 Wilderness astronoMer Peter McMahon

‘Weatherproof’ Rocky Mountain Stars Jasper opens North America’s first full-time planetarium in a dark sky preserve

38 other Worlds

ivan seMenuk

features

First Mars-Sized Exoplanet Astronomers are still in the early stages of discovering the rich variety of planets orbiting other stars

42 on the Moon

gary seronik

The Great Black Lake on the Moon One of the most eye-catching features on the lunar surface is also one of the most fascinating

46 northern nights

10 editors’ choice

PHoto of tHe Week contest Winners Here’s our selection for our 13th annual photo contest— the best of the best from our readers who submitted images over the past year

ken heWitt-White

Analyzing Andromeda Stare at a photo of the Great Andromeda Galaxy. What do you see? A picture on a page or a study in space-time?

16 innovative research by dan falk

dePartMents

dragonfly catcHes galactic Prey

08 letters

Cutting-edge astronomical research is performed through the imaginative use of an array of small telescopes

22 scoPing the sky ken heWitt-White

A Fine Galaxy With Extras Take a long look at NGC7331. This moderately bright galaxy in Pegasus is a miniature version of the Great Galaxy in Andromeda.

24 star chart

26 exPloring the night sky by alan dyer

tHe last lunar ecliPse On the evening of September 27, the last total eclipse of the Moon until January 2018 turns the full Moon a deep red for viewers across Canada

Night Sky for Early Autumn for Canada and the Northern United States

36 the big Picture Prairie All-Sky Aurora June brought several outstanding light shows that were seen from much of the nation

41 constellation corner ken heWitt-White

Capricornus What manner of beast is this? Half fish, half goat.

cover: this brilliant tapestry of young stars known as Westerlund 2 resides in a stellar breeding ground known as gum 29, located 20,000 light-years from earth in the constellation carina. the hubble space telescope’s Wide field camera 3 pierced through the dusty veil shrouding the stellar nursery in near infrared light, giving a clear view of the nebula and the 10-light-year-wide cluster of stars. NASA PHOTO

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EDITOR’S REPORT by Terence Dickinson

Our Galaxy on View September is peak time for Milky Way gazing and imaging

lMost every year in tHis sPace, i return to the glories of my skywatching opportunity. as you can see in favourite celestial object, the Milky Way, which powders moonless late- the photo below, which i took that night, summer and early-autumn evenings conveniently right after dusk. in an the Milky Way was visible right to the horiattempt to get an early jump on the Milky Way gazing season this year, i started watching zon. this, in itself, is a rare treat anywhere the weather in mid-June around new Moon for the signs of an upcoming perfect night— other than high-elevation deserts. those signs being the arrival of a high-pressure cell, with its dry, low humidity, deep blue Binoculars revealed mottling and many skies and transparent nights. of the dusty rifts in the great bulge that conditions looked favourable on the evening of June 16, so i packed some camera gear defines the core region of our giant star sysand binoculars and headed for the lennox & addington county tem. M6 and M7, two comdark sky viewing area, a half-hour drive from home. as the night pact clusters of stars, appear MILKY WAY AT ITS BEST unfolded, it soon became obvious that this would be an exceptional as small starry knots midway the central hub of our home between the two trees at the galaxy, the Milky Way, bulges bottom centre of the photo. above the southern horizon on normally dimmed by horimoonless nights in september from observing sites well away zon haze or light pollution, from sources of light pollution, M6 and, especially, M7 are such as this view from the lennox binocular treasures. & addington county dark sky to the unaided eyes that viewing area, north of napanee, night, the Milky Way was PHOTO BY TERENCE DICKINSON ontario. a distinct gauzy band that transformed into a glittering river of stars in binoculars. seeing our home galaxy with such clarity gives a powerful sense of reality to the idea that we live near the edge of a wagon-wheel-shaped star system, with its hub bulging to the south, its nearer spiral arm reaching toward us high overhead in cygnus and its dimmer, outer ragged rim seen in Perseus, on the north horizon. this perfect evening reminded me of my first awareness of the starry night sky from the backyard of my home in suburban toronto in the late 1940s. i remember seeing the Milky Way amidst the myriad stellar points of night and wondering what it might be. on a clear night more than half a century later, i returned to that same street, stood as close as i could to that same spot and gazed up to look at the night sky. i could see fewer than two dozen stars and not the vaguest hint of the Milky Way. i might have been able to see a few more stars but did not want to arouse suspicion continued on page 7 4

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• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

SkyNews voluMe xxi, issue 3 founding Publisher canada science and technology Museum editor terence dickinson e-mail address dickinsonskynews@gmail.com art director Janice Mclean associate editor alan dyer editorial assistant Jody Morgan Production Manager susan dickinson contributing editors randy attwood, christine kulyk, glenn ledrew, david h. levy, Peter McMahon, ivan semeniuk, gary seronik, ken hewitt-White contributing astrophotographers klaus brasch, lynn hilborn, yuichi takasaka Publisher associate Publisher Advertising Sales business Manager customer service

greg keilty colleen Moloney Greg Keilty 613-966-6225 david Webster denise havers 1-866-759-0005 service@skynews.ca

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HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH SKYNEWS • To subscribe: the easiest way to subscribe to SkyNews is to call toll-free 1-866-759-0005 and order by credit card. it’s a free call from both canada and the united states. by mail, use the postage-paid subscription card bound into every issue. • To order a gift subscription: by credit card, use the toll-free line: 1-866-759-0005. by mail, use the postage-paid gift-subscription card bound into every issue. • Our mailing list: occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies whose products and services may be of interest to our readers. if you prefer to have your name removed from this list and not receive these mailings, please write to us at the above address or call toll-free 1-866-759-0005. • Change of address: call toll-free 1-866-759-0005, and have your old address label handy for reference. or write: SkyNews, box 1613, belleville, on k8n 5J2 • Problems with your subscription or questions about your astronomy associate membership: call toll-free 1-866-759-0005, and have your address label handy for reference. or write: SkyNews, box 1613, belleville, on k8n 5J2 • Letters to the Editor: We welcome letters, especially letters about your astronomy and stargazing experiences. e-mail: dickinsonskynews@gmail.com • Submitting photographs: We welcome submissions of astronom ical photos taken by our readers. digital images by e-mail should be sent in jpeg format to dickinsonskynews@gmail.com • Submitting articles: Please request our writers’ guidelines. Mail: SkyNews editor, box 10, yarker, on k0k 3n0 e-mail: dickinsonskynews@gmail.com ©2015 SKYNEWS INC. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from SkyNews.

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ANNOUNCING THE 14th ANNUAL SKYNEWS EDITORS’ CHOICE

photo of the week contest send us your best photos, and you could win in one of the categories below or be chosen as the overall grand prize winner. Enter today...and every week! see page 41 for more details.

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CATEGORY: Best tripodmounted unguided photo Prize: Ritchey-Chrétien 8" telescope

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CATEGORY: Best deep-sky with digital SLR or webcam-type imager Prize: 16-inch LightBridge Dobsonian telescope

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14th year of your amazing photos

IS THE AURORA SEASON OVER?

night of June 22/23 and shown in his photo here and on page 36. so the process primarily originates with activity on the sun, which approximately follows the sunspot cycle. With the cycle winding down, what can we expect? less rather than more. But nature is whimsical and often serves up the unexpected. F Editor Terence Dickinson invites your comments and astronomy-related photos. Send to: dickinsonSkyNews@gmail.com.

PHOTO BY JAMES EDGAR

continued from page 4 by standing on the sidewalk any longer looking above the roofs of homes at night (“Who’s that out there?”). as nature gets beaten back further and further from questioning minds, particularly young minds, what have we lost? Here in the 21st century, for millions of canadians, there is no familiar real starry night sky to wonder about.

Predicting the visibility of auroras (northern lights) has always been an imprecise science. the 11-year sunspot cycle is the most reliable gauge of auroral activity, but even that has let us down. the last solar maximum, which peaked in early 2014, was the weakest maximum in a century. this has resulted in less frequent and less intense auroras in southern canada compared with previous maxima in the early 2000s and, before that, the late 1980s. What causes the northern lights? electrons primarily originating with eruptions on the sun called coronal mass ejections (cMes) collide with the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere and are energized through acceleration processes in the earth’s magnetosphere. the accelerated electrons follow the magnetic field of earth down to the polar regions, where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere. in these collisions, the electrons transfer their energy to the atmosphere, thus exciting the atoms and molecules to higher energy states. as they return to lower energy states, they release their energy in the form of light. this is similar to how a neon light works. the aurora light typically forms 80 to 500 kilometres above the earth’s surface. the earth’s magnetic field guides the electrons into two ovals roughly centred at the magnetic poles. during major geo magnetic storms, these ovals expand away from the poles such that aurora can be seen over most of canada. sometimes auroral forms appear as tall rays that look much like a curtain made of folds of cloth. in the evening, these rays can form arcs that stretch from horizon to horizon. late in the evening, near midnight, the arcs often begin to twist and sway, as if a wind were blowing on the curtains of light. at some point, the arcs may expand to fill the whole sky, as was seen by rasc president James edgar of Melville, saskatchewan, on the SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

LETTERS dark skies doWn under When the time came for my wife and me to plan our dream vacation to australia, i asked SkyNews associate editor alan dyer, who has visited the land down under many times, to recommend a star party that might coincide with our dates. He suggested the ozsky star safari, which he had attended in 2014. although my wife is hardly fooled by such “coincidences,” she kindly allowed me to stay on an extra week to take it in. this annual event, organized and hosted by a dedicated group of volunteers from 3rf australia, takes place over the week of the new Moon in april. More a private event than a star party, ozsky is limited to 36 observers and attracts devoted amateur astronomers from all over the world eager to experience the night sky below 30 degrees south latitude. ozsky is held at the Warrumbungles Mountain Motel on the outskirts of the

small town of coonabarabran, new south Wales. the entire property is booked, allowing the organizers to black out the site to ensure optimum viewing conditions. guests are assigned three to a room, all of which are outfitted with kitchenettes. My group included a native of sydney, who kindly drove our roommate and me on the six-hour trip from sydney. We picked up groceries in town for breakfast and lunch, and most nights, we signed up for the evening meal in the motel’s dining area. a dozen large-aperture telescopes— mostly dobsonians—were set up on the observing field behind the motel for the shared use of all participants. the largest of these, a 30-inch f/4.5 made in australia by sdM telescopes, offered up superb views of the southern-hemisphere “eye candy.” i’ve made three trips to the atacama desert in chile, at 23 degrees south. it was wonderful to revisit omega centauri,

eta carinae and its Homunculus nebula, 47 tucanae, the large and small Magellanic clouds and many more old friends. at 31 degrees south, everything appeared just that much higher in the night sky. But climbing up and down the ladders to view through the larger dobs took some getting used to! in september 2014, i’d travelled with terry dickinson to new Mexico, where i tried my hand at astrophotography for the first time (see SkyNews, Jan./feb. 2015, page 22). i was eager to improve my technique, and for this trip, i borrowed and packed the essentials: a small but sturdy velbon tripod, an ioptron skytracker, a sigma art 35mm f/1.4 lens and a canon 60dH (Hutech spectrum-enhanced) camera. the remote shutter release accessory allowed me to set up and take hundreds of images, and i found the fast 35mm lens ideal for capturing the magnificent Milky Way (below) through crux and eta carinae

SOUTHERN MILKY WAY skywatchers from the northern hemisphere who travel down under are captivated by this part of the Milky Way, which includes alpha centauri, left, the coalsack dark nebula, centre, and the carina nebula, right. PHOTO BY GREG MERRICK

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• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

AWESOME OZ VIEW a giant dobsonian reflector at the ozsky star safari is silhouetted by the same Milky Way region as seen on the facing page. PHOTO BY ALAN DYER

and for imaging scorpius rising high in the east, with saturn less than one degree to the north—all of it facing the wrong way to my eyes!

coonabarabran is called the “astronomy capital of australia” for its proximity to both the siding spring observatory and the australia telescope compact array, which consists of six 22-metre antennas used for radio astronomy. the ozsky organizers arranged excellent behind-thescenes tours of both facilities. siding spring is home to the 3.9-metre australian astronomical telescope and half a dozen smaller but equally impressive instruments. of particular interest was the recently opened itelescope.net observatory, which contains more than 15 remotely accessible telescopes under a gigantic roll-off roof, most for rent to the public by the minute. in addition to the off-site tours, 3rf volunteers gave a presentation each day before dinner on topics ranging from australian impact craters to Wolf-rayet stars. each talk was well attended and brought the group together for an interesting discussion. as at all star parties, participants are at the mercy of the weather. i’m told past events have offered five to seven nights of clear skies, though we had only three (a few

cloudy nights did present some holes to aim the dobs through). it could have been worse. We watched nightly to see which edge of an enormous weather system we’d be on. sydney, 450 kilometres to the southeast, was experiencing severe floods in a freak “storm of the century.” ozsky 2016 has been scheduled for the week of april 2 to 9, 2016. it’s too far for me to make an annual pilgrimage, although i do hope to visit again someday. for anyone considering the trip, you’ll find amazing sights out of reach to us northerners and make some new friends down under. Greg Merrick Toronto

SUBMITTING LETTERS AND PHOTOS skynews editor Terence Dickinson welcomes your letters about your astronomical observing activities and about anything you read in the magazine. Submission of photos as attachments is encouraged, as we publish many photos in each issue. Send photos in jpeg format, keeping compressed file size to less than 3MB, to: dickinsonSkyNews@gmail.com.

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Background photo: M42, Orion Nebula by Alan Dyer

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

EDITORS’ CHOICE

SkyNews 13th ANNUAL

PHOTO

WEEK

of the Contest Winners Here’s our selection for our 13th annual photo contest—the best of the best from our readers who submitted images over the past year

Hoosing tHe Winners of this contest is growing more difficult as the quality of the images noticeably improves each year. With digital dslr cameras becoming more capable as the technology advances, astrophotography is now more popular than ever. our contest reflects all skill levels involved. for example, the tripod-mounted unguided photo category requires no more than the camera and a tripod to keep it steady during the dusk or night-sky exposure. typically, a thoughtfully composed 1- to 30-second exposure with a 15mm to 50mm lens nets the photographer first prize in this division. —Terence Dickinson, Editor

GRAND PRIZE Ritchey-Chrétien 8" telescope

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SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

GRAND PRIZE Winner: from his backyard observatory near grafton, ontario, lynn hilborn obtained this beautifully detailed portrait of the andromeda galaxy, the nearest spiral galaxy similar to our home galaxy, the Milky Way. the most remarkable aspect of this shot is that it was taken with a lens the size of a lunch box thermos: a canon 200mm f/2.8 lens used at f/3.5. the camera was an fli Ml8300 ccd on a takahashi nJP temma-2 mount for a total exposure of 8.5 hours. hilborn is a self-taught virtuoso of astronomical image processing, which gives his images a quality associated with photos taken with much larger optics. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 â&#x20AC;˘ SKYNEWS

BEST DEEP-SKY WITH DIGITAL SLR OR WEBCAM-TYPE IMAGER Winner: astro-imager daniel Posey of victoria, british columbia, recorded this image of the giant spiral galaxy M101 at the observatory of the victoria centre of the royal astronomical society of canada, located on the grounds of the dominion astrophysical observatory on little saanich Mountain. he used a canon eos 6d dslr camera attached to the facility’s Meade 14-inch schmidt-cassegrain telescope to acquire an exposure of 2 hours 40 minutes at iso 1600. Honourable Mention: this image of the california nebula (also known as ngc1499), in Perseus, by Maxime Poirier emphatically illustrates recent advances in amateur astrophotography. taken from Montcerf-lytton, Quebec (about 300 kilometres northwest of Montreal), Poirier’s photo combines 14 eight-minute exposures at iso 1600, captured using a commercially modified canon eos rebel t3i dslr camera attached to an astro-tech 65mm f/6.5 apochromatic refractor telescope. not long ago, a photo of this quality would have required a largish telescope, a lengthy session of painstaking manual guiding and a specialized ccd camera. that said, this was not an easy capture—just easier than it used to be!

Category: Best deep-sky with digital SLR or webcam-type imager Prize: Meade Series 5000 24mm Ultra Wide Angle eyepiece

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SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

PHOTO of the WEEK CONTEST WINNERS

BEST DIGITAL-CAMERA PHOTO/LUNAR AND PLANETARY Winner: for a few months every five to six years, the orbital plane of the four major Jovian satellites is edge-on to earth. at these times, the moons can pass in front of one another. the most recent of these alignments occurred this past winter and spring. here, we see ganymede, the largest moon, as it partially eclipsed io on april 28, as imaged by Quebec astrophotographer daniel borcard using a celestron 9.25-inch schmidt-cassegrain. Honourable Mention: in mid-february, a huge filament one million kilometres in length—more than twice the earth-Moon distance—spread east-west across the lower half of the sun’s face. this solar portrait, taken february 10 by Jean guimond from his Quebec city observatory, shows a plethora of detail revealed by a lunt ls80 h-alpha solar telescope (80mm diameter at f/7) and a Pgr grasshopper monochrome video camera. the image is a stack of the best 100 of more than 1,000 frames.

Category: Best digital-camera photo/lunar and planetary Prize: Celestron NexStar Evolution 8

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BEST DEEP-SKY DIGITAL HIGHRESOLUTION IMAGERY Winner: among the most photo graphed objects in the heavens, the cup-shaped orion nebula (M42) and its companion, the blue running Man nebula (ngc1977), are exquisitely captured in this image by ron brecher of guelph, ontario. he used a 10-inch f/3.6 asa astrographic reflector for the ccd image. for further details, see his website at www.astrodoc.ca.

Honourable Mention: canadian astro-imager Jack newton took this remarkably detailed portrait of comet lovejoy’s diaphanous gas tail on January 16 from his winter observatory in arizona sky village, near Portal, in southeastern arizona. using a Meade 14-inch schmidtcassegrain telescope fitted with a hyperstar f/2 astrographic imaging system, newton took two exposures, then digitally stitched them together in Photoshop. the gaseous filaments so clearly evident here are being “blown” by the solar wind, a stream of charged particles released by the sun. the name “comet” derives from the ancient greek word for “hair”; hence comets were called hairy stars.

SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

Category: Best deep-sky digital high-resolution imagery Prize: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer multipurpose mount and EQ wedge

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BEST TRIPOD-MOUNTED UNGUIDED PHOTO Winner: on december 20, 2014, at 1:30 a.m., calgary photographer brett abernethy saw this brilliant bolide meteor light up the night while he was taking a time exposure of a winter scene in banďŹ&#x20AC; national Park. abernethy instantly knew that he had the shot of a lifetime. Honourable Mention: early risers who scan the morning sky an hour or so before sunrise are occasionally rewarded with an astro-treat like this before breakfast. at 5:04 a.m. on July 24, 2014, steve irvine of big bay, ontario, used a break in the clouds to record this shot of the waning crescent Moon along with venus, at top centre, and dimmer Mercury, at lower left. exposure was 1.6 seconds at iso 200 with a tripod-mounted canon 6d and a 24-105mm lens at 65mm and f/5.6.

Category: Best tripod-mounted unguided photo Prize: iOptron SkyGuider

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 â&#x20AC;˘ SKYNEWS

THE POWER OF DRAGONFLY ten state-ofthe-art canon telephoto lenses attached to a robust equatorial mount have proven to be a formidable tool for astronomers at the university of toronto and yale university. by combining, or “stacking,” images of distant galaxies in the coma cluster of galaxies (below, right), some 320 million light-years distant, previously unseen, dim and diffuse galaxies, such as dragonfly 44, were detected and studied. PHOTOS COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Dragonfly 44 70,000 light-years

Coma Cluster 6 million light-years

dragonfly CATCHES GALACTIC PREY cutting-edge astronomical research is performed through the imaginative use of an array of small telescopes by Dan Falk

t’s one of the world’s smallest professional telescopes, but it’s opening a new window on the universe. the telescope, which is actually a miniature telescope array, is called dragonfly, and it is the brainchild of university of toronto astronomer roberto abraham and his colleague Pieter van dokkum of yale university. in fact, it’s not made up of telescopes in the traditional sense of the word; rather, it is ten 400mm canon telephoto lenses, each with an aperture of just 51⁄2 inches. But why would astronomers use off-the-shelf photography gear to reach for the stars? it turns out that in astronomy, bigger isn’t automatically better. sure, to resolve fine detail, you need a large lens or mirror; 16

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• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

the same goes for detecting very faint objects. But if your target is not only faint but also spread out (that is, if it has “low surface brightness”), then focal ratio and image quality become the most important factors. and, as it happens, some of the most pressing problems in astrophysics, involving galactic structure and the distribution of matter in and around galaxies, require that astronomers probe this low-surface-brightness realm. traditional reflectors aren’t up to the task, because the aluminum coating on the surface of the mirror scatters light. reflectors also require a secondary mirror, which causes further scattering. astronomical refractors have less scattering but are typically

photographically “slow” (they have high focal ratios), with narrowish fields of view. a breakthrough came when van dokkum, an avid amateur photographer, heard about a new canon telephoto lens with a state-of-the-art, low-dispersion optical coating, known as a “subwavelength structure coating,” intended to reduce light scattering. (for anyone interested in picking one up for backyard astrophotography, it’s the ef 400mm f/2.8l is ii usM, and it retails for u.s. $10,000.) “Pieter said, ‘i bet these new coatings would be spectacular for this,’ ” recalls abraham. “and i’m like, ‘nah, i bet they wouldn’t be that good.’ so we made the bet, bought the lens and tested it out.”

innovative researcH the results of those tests, carried out from a dark sky site in Quebec in 2013, were spectacular. later, with an array of 10 lenses and a prime observing location in new Mexico, they imaged several dozen galaxies of a previously unknown type: objects that are as large as the Milky Way but are only one-thousandth its mass. the finding was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. (located on the outskirts of the coma cluster, some 320 million lightyears from earth, the galaxies have been described in news reports as “fluffy,” but abraham prefers the term “ultradiffuse.”) How these unusual galaxies formed remains unknown. astrophysical models suggest that such diffuse structures ought to be torn apart over the eons or absorbed into larger structures. and yet, there they are. elsewhere, dragonfly has revealed elements of galactic structure that were not visible in earlier images, as well as faint dwarf galaxies. When the array was aimed at ngc2841, a peculiar galaxy known as a “flocculent spiral,” a curved or ringlike structure was recorded far beyond the known edge of the galaxy. the findings could play a key role in testing current models of galaxy formation, which suggest that galaxies form “bottom

up” as small structures come together to form larger ones. However, the models predict more structure—more “stuff ”— than today’s telescopes have been able to find. for example, our own Milky Way ought to have more companion galaxies than we’ve been able to observe so far. abraham hopes that dragonfly can start to fill in some of the blanks. “this whole low-surface-brightness world has been unexplored,” says abraham. “it’s terra incognita in astronomy.” the array’s name is an homage to the compound lenses found on insects and also to van dokkum’s hobby of photographing dragonflies. (in fact, says abraham, there’s a third connection: some of the first engineering work on lens coatings was inspired by studies of the optical properties of dragonfly wings.) dragonfly has 10 lenses at the moment, says abraham, but there’s no obvious limit to the number of lenses that can be added. (the light from each lens is recorded by a ccd camera, and the output is “stacked” using software.) dragonfly’s total lightgathering power can be increased by simply adding lenses. eventually, muses abraham, it could rival that of the world’s largest refractor, the 40-inch telescope at the yerkes

observatory, in Wisconsin. “When we get to 51 lenses,” he says, “we’ll have, effectively, the largest refractor in the world.” effective focal ratio improves as you add lenses too, although only in proportion to the square root of the number of lenses. (so while each individual lens is f/2.8, an array of 10 lenses works like an f/1 lens.) and while each lens is expensive by hobbyist standards, it’s actually rather inexpensive in the world of professional astronomy. in its 10-lens configuration, says abraham, dragonfly costs no more than a couple of nights’ worth of observing with the keck telescope, in Hawaii. But it’s not just a question of doing astronomy on the cheap. rather, it’s a whole new realm for astronomers to investigate, with the bonus that it can be done easily and affordably. ultimately, it’s about trying new ideas and taking chances. “you throw five things at the wall, and maybe one of them will stick,” says abraham. “you can still do that in astronomy. dragonfly was meant to be a fun way of testing that out.” F Dan Falk is a science journalist based in Toronto. His books include the science of shakespeare and in search of time.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

WILDERNESS ASTRONOMER by Peter McMahon

‘Weatherproof ’ Rocky Mountain Stars Jasper opens North America’s first full-time planetarium in a dark sky preserve

PLANETARIUM SKY Jasper national Park offers visitors an indoor planetarium (pictured) plus the real outdoor experience under dark rocky Mountain skies. PHOTO BY PETER MCMAHON

ust four years after Jasper national Park was designated a dark sky preserve, astronomy visitorship here has risen from a few dozen to many thousands per year. traditionally, most of these “polar-fleece stargazers” have dropped by each october for the annual Jasper dark sky festival, which now boasts attendance so high that local hotel rooms are booked solid well in advance (this year’s special guests are the edmonton symphony orchestra, cast members of the discovery channel’s “Mythbusters” and a return appearance by canadian astronaut chris Hadfield). in an attempt to build on awareness from the dark sky festival, Jasper recently became the first dark sky preserve to offer year-round daily astronomy programming. the first part of that programming happens in a six-metre-diameter planetarium—an inflatable dome that is permanently housed at Mountain Park lodges’ Marmot lodge. the 30-seat star theatre uses a state-of-the-art, fish-eye-lens pro18

SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

jector, similar to the small to midsized planetariums at museums and science centres around the world. inside, visitors are treated to daily interactive tours of the northern lights, constellations of the local first nations, planets, nebulas and the brilliant band of the Milky Way above the mountains, canyons, glaciers and other iconic landscapes of Jasper. “the planetarium lets us show off the park’s dark skies even when it’s cloudy or when the time of day or time of year would otherwise have kept us from seeing many stars,” says scott eady, general manager of Jasper raft tours, one of two collaborating companies in the planetarium venture. “We explore not only the natural wonders of the night under the dome but also daytime treasures that visitors might not have had the chance to see.” the second new program allows park visitors to see the wonders of the universe live through a suite of telescopes. By day, visitors can view solar flares through safety-filtered hydrogen-alpha telescopes.

at night, chartered buses take visitors out of town to observe stars and planets through 16-inch optics—the largest public telescopes in the rockies. “We’d been looking to launch a darksky product ever since the preserve was established,” says Paul Hardy, owner of sundog tour co., which cofunds the project. “We already had the transportation infrastructure in place, so taking people into the park at night was a perfect fit for us.”

ASTRONOMER-IN-RESIDENCE since the first time i saw a truly dark sky as a child, i’ve dreamed of living permanently under such a sky. this fall, i’ll be making the move to Jasper to become the first fulltime resident astronomer in a dark sky preserve, overseeing the management of the planetarium and telescope observing sessions, training staff and delivering many of the programs throughout the year. it’s surreal to be in a place where just four years ago, astronomy tourism was almost an annoying pet project, in the way of all the “serious” tourist attractions that bring people to the rockies. now cosmic exploration in Jasper is big business. the prime challenge these days isn’t so much finding people who want to explore the cosmos but scheduling the astronomy activities so that everyone who wants to take part gets a chance. it’s a dark sky preserve dream come true, one i think will become a reality for more and more locales across canada as these special places continue to defend the night and bring the universe down to earth. F For a full listing of planetarium showtimes, day-to-day astronomy tours and details on this October’s Jasper Dark Sky Festival, go to WildernessAstronomy.com and click on “Magazine.”

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SCOPING THE SKY

a fine galaxy With extras Take a long look at NGC7331. is moderately bright galaxy in Pegasus is a miniature version of the Great Galaxy in Andromeda. by ken hewitt-White

ocated soMe 50 million light- PEGASUS PRIZE high overhead on NGC7331 years from earth, NGC7331 can’t moonless autumn evenings, the square match the magnificence of the of Pegasus is prominent. Just off its upper right corner is eta (η) Pegasi, ken’s guide andromeda galaxy (Messier 31), only 2.5 star, shown in the small box in the circular million light-years away. even so, this lit- finder chart. the larger guide chart comtle galaxy in Pegasus fascinates me. pletes the trek to this near When i scrutinize ngc7331 twin of our Milky Way. SKETCH AT RIGHT BY JOHN in my telescope, i imagine KARLSSON; CHART BELOW that it’s what our majestic BY GLENN LEDREW neighbour in andromeda would look like if it were 20 times farther away. the reality is that M31 and ngc7331 are remarkably similar in size, structure and shape. Both are large spirals with broad central bulges and NGC7331 Oc t2 tightly wound arms. their discs are each tilted slightly to our line of sight. Stephan’s Quintet the modest dimensions of ngc7331— approximately 10 by 3 arc minutes—are in the same attractive proportion as those of its famous cousin. our mini-andromeda even has a few “companions,” although they’re fundamentally unlike the sibling systems accompanying M31. More on this intriguing aspect in a moment. ngc7331 resides northwest of the 38 Peg 1° field of vision great square of Pegasus, near the constellation’s northern boundary. My star-hop begins at second-magnitude beta (β) Pegasi, or scheat, a red giant of irregular variability marking the northwest corner HD212988 of the great square. from there, i head northwest for 8½ degrees, past third-magnitude eta (η) Pegasi, to a pair of sixthmagnitude stars almost one degree apart, slanted southwest-northeast. the southern star is orangey Hd212988; the northern star is bluish 38 Pegasi. using these stars as pointers, i sweep northeastward for 2⅓ dePEGASUS grees to the area of the 9.5-magnitude tarη Peg get. a low-power eyepiece captures it. My most recent study of the Pegasus galaxy took place late last summer at a 22

SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

high-elevation site in southern British columbia. observed under a black sky in my 10-inch f/5.5 dobsonian at 58x, ngc7331 was a small but contrasty elliptical cloud oriented north-south in a pretty star field. at first, the object looked roughly twice as long as it was wide. However, after a few minutes of patient staring with averted vision, i noticed that each end of the galaxy was beautifully tapered. those vanishingly faint tips changed the profile of the galaxy to a more slender ratio of about 4:1. it was an impressively sleek streak that begged closer inspection. at 200x, the streak became a galaxy, complete with disc, central bulge and surrounding halo. What about the dust lane? images of ngc7331 reveal several dark lanes curving around its west flank, and i was hoping i’d detect at least a single dusky thread spanning that side. My attempt to do so failed, but i did note that the galaxy exhibited a well-defined west edge. upping

to 280x resulted in glimpses of a pinpoint nucleus inside the large, strongly elliptical bulge. that luminous central portion abruptly faded into the wispy, tapered disc with its sharpish west edge and diffuse east edge. i almost convinced myself i was viewing the andromeda galaxy at low power in a backyard scope. now for some extras. three tiny galaxies lie in a triangular formation beside our feature fuzzy. (for a photo reference, see page 44 of the Jan./feb. SkyNews.) unlike the two dwarf ellipticals attending Messier 31, this trio only appears close. in reality, the three galaxies—NGC7337 (magnitude 14.4), NGC7340 (magnitude 13.7) and NGC7335 (magnitude 13.4)—are full-sized specimens clustered at least 300 million light-years beyond ngc7331. immediately north of them is an even more remote galaxy, 14.5magnitude NGC7336, which resembles an unfocused star in bigger scopes. John karlsson’s sketch (facing page), which he made

beside me with his 15-inch dobsonian, shows all four “companions.” My smaller scope at 280x produced two pale blobs. How many can you see? an even more challenging extra is a halfdegree hop south-southwest of ngc7331 (also in the photo in the Jan./feb. SkyNews). Stephan’s Quintet is five 13th- and 14thmagnitude galaxies crammed into an area of sky less than four arc minutes wide. at 200x in my 10-inch dob that night, the ultracompact galaxy group masqueraded as a teensy, dim nebula. However, 280x resolved the wee patch into two blurry bits: NGC7320 plus the interacting pair of NGC7318A and NGC7318B. deepsky keeners take note: large aperture and high power are needed to resolve stephan’s Quintet into five easy pieces! F Contributing editor Ken Hewitt-White has observed deep-sky fuzzies over southern British Columbia for more than four decades.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

STAR CHART for Early Autumn OUR CHART SHOWS the major stars, planets and constellations visible from canada and the northern united states within

one hour of these times: NE

EARLY SEPTEMBER: 11:30 P.M.; LATE SEPTEMBER: 10:30 P.M. EARLY OCTOBER: 9:30 P.M.; LATE OCTOBER: 8:30 P.M. THE EDGE OF THE CHART represents the horizon; the overhead point is at centre. on a moonless night in the country, you will see more stars than are shown here; deep in the city, you will see fewer. the ecliptic is the celestial pathway of the Moon and planets. the star groups straddling this line are known as the zodiac constellations. the Moon is shown for selected dates. USING THE STAR CHART OUTDOORS: the chart is most effective when you use about one-quarter of it at a time, which

CELESTIAL CALENDAR

THE PLANETS

SEPT. 1 neptune at opposition (rises at

MERCURY reaches greatest elonga-

sunset and at its brightest for 2015) SEPT. 4 Mercury at greatest angle

away from sun (27°) in evening sky, but it scrapes the horizon from canadian latitudes

SEPT. 10

N Waning crescent Moon

SEPT. 12 Zodiacal light visible in

2° from venus and 4° from regulus in morning sky

N Waning crescent Moon 3° from Mars and 4° from Jupiter in morning sky

OCT. 9

OCT. 11 uranus at opposition (rises

at sunset and at its brightest for 2015); very thin waning crescent Moon 1° from Mercury in morning sky OCT. 12 new Moon, 8:06 p.m., edt;

zodiacal light visible in moonless dawn sky for next two weeks

partial solar eclipse visible only from southern africa and antarctica

N Mercury at greatest angle away from sun (18°) in morning sky in a fine appearance from canadian latitudes

SEPT. 18 Waxing crescent Moon

OCT. 17 Mars and Jupiter ½° apart in

moonless dawn sky for next two weeks SEPT. 13 new Moon, 2:41 a.m., edt;

OCT. 15

1.5° above saturn in evening sky

morning sky

SEPT. 21 first-quarter Moon; venus

OCT. 20 first-quarter Moon

at greatest brilliancy (magnitude –4.8) in morning sky

OCT. 21 orionid meteor shower peaks

SEPT. 23 equinox (4:21 a.m., edt);

autumn officially begins in northern hemisphere SEPT. 25 Mars ¾° above regulus, in

leo, in morning sky SEPT. 27

N full Moon, 10:51 p.m.,

SEPT. 28 asteroid vesta at opposition

(brightest for 2015, at magnitude 6.2) OCT. 1 Waning gibbous Moon ½° from

aldebaran (midnight sky into predawn hours of oct. 2), with daytime occultation from western canada

N venus, Mars and Jupiter in 4.5° triangle in morning sky, with Mercury below

OCT. 23

OCT. 25

N venus and Jupiter 1° apart

today and tomorrow in morning sky OCT. 26 venus at greatest angle away

from sun (46°) in morning sky OCT. 27 full Moon, 8:05 a.m., edt;

VENUS reaches its point of great-

est brilliancy on sept. 21, when it blazes at magnitude –4.8. it reaches its greatest elongation away from the sun on oct. 26, shining high in the eastern dawn sky. venus and Jupiter pass within 1° of each other on oct. 25 and 26. MARS can be seen as a 1.8-magni-

tude reddish “star” in the morning sky, shining amid the stars of cancer and leo. Mars is very close to regulus on sept. 25 and Jupiter on oct. 17. JUPITER begins to emerge into the dawn sky in september, appearing as a bright object (magnitude –1.7) in southern leo. Mars passes ½° from Jupiter on oct. 17, while venus passes 1° from Jupiter on oct. 25. SATURN puts in its last appearance for the year as a

0.6-magnitude object just above beta scorpii, low in the southwest evening sky. URANUS reaches opposition on the night of oct. 11,

when it rises at sunset and appears due south in the middle of the night. uranus is then at its brightest for 2015, at magnitude 5.7, about 1.5° southwest of the fifth-magnitude star zeta Piscium.

hunter’s Moon OCT. 28

N venus, Mars and Jupiter in

4.5° triangle in morning sky

N Impressive or relatively rare

NEPTUNE reaches opposition on sept. 1, when it can be

found as a 7.8-magnitude bluish “star” halfway between the stars lambda and sigma aquarii. neptune retrogrades toward sigma throughout the autumn.

astronomical event

For more detailed information, see the Observer’s Handbook 2015, published by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (www.rasc.ca or 888-924-7272).

edt; total lunar eclipse visible across canada (10:11 p.m. to 11:23 p.m., edt); harvest Moon and “supermoon” (Moon at closest perigee of 2015)

(dark skies after 2 a.m.)

tion from the sun twice this season: first in the evening sky on sept. 4 and then in the morning sky on oct. 15. from canada, however, only the october morning elongation is favourable. look for a first-magnitude object low in the east, well below the trio of venus, Mars and Jupiter.

1 pt Se

3° from venus and 5° from Mars in morning sky

N Waning crescent Moon

0 t3 Sep

occults aldebaran from eastern canada (12:04 a.m. to 12:41 a.m., edt, for toronto)

OCT. 8

EAST

SEPT. 5 last-quarter Moon; Moon

OCT. 4 last-quarter Moon

Oct 27

roughly equals a comfortable field of view in a given direction. outdoors, match the horizon compass direction on the chart with the actual direction you are facing. don’t be confused by the east and west points on the chart lying opposite their location on a map of the earth. When the chart is held up to match the sky, with the direction you are facing at the bottom, the chart directions match the compass points. for best results when reading the chart outdoors, use a small flashlight heavily dimmed with red plastic or layers of brown paper. unfiltered lights greatly reduce night-vision sensitivity.

Cartography and design by Roberta Cooke. Base chart data derived from maps drawn by Roy Bishop for the Observer’s Handbook, published by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

NORTH ROTATING NIGHT SKY: During the night, the

WEST

Earth’s rotation on its axis slowly shifts the entire sky. This is the same motion that swings the Sun on its daily east-towest trek. The rotational hub is Polaris, the North Star, located almost exactly above the Earth’s North Pole. Everything majestically marches counterclockwise around it, a motion that becomes evident after about half an hour.

Oc t2 3

t 26 p e S

20 Oct

(lu Se na pt re 2 cli 7 ps e)

CONSTELLATIONS:

The star groups linked by lines are the constellations created by our ancestors thousands of years ago as a way of mapping the night sky. Modern astronomers still use the traditional names, which give today’s stargazers a permanent link to the sky myths and legends of the past.

SOUTH SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

exPloring tHe nigHt sky

e Have a Busy scHedule of sky events in store for autumn, as four naked-eye planets converge in the morning sky for a rare planet dance in the dawn. Mercury climbs up as high as it gets in the morning, appearing below the trio of venus, Mars and Jupiter. at the end of october, they converge into a tight triangle we won’t see repeated until the 22nd century. the highlight of the autumn celestial calendar is the total eclipse of the Moon on the evening of sunday, september 27. the convenient timing and its visibility across north america will make this a hugely popular event. that this eclipse also occurs at a “supermoon” and a Harvest Moon won’t hurt the Pr either. 26

SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

tHe last

lunar ecliPse on the evening of september 27, the last total eclipse of the Moon until January 2018 turns the full Moon a deep red for viewers across canada by Alan Dyer

ECLIPSE AT MOONSET at the last total lunar eclipse, on april 4, totality occurred in the dawn hours as the full Moon was setting in the west, moving from left to right. the geometry for the september 27 eclipse is just the opposite: an evening event with the full Moon rising in the east, moving from left to right, in a mirror-image version of this photo, taken from Monument valley, on the utah-arizona border. PHOTO BY ALAN DYER

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 â&#x20AC;˘ SKYNEWS

LAST CALL FOR SATURN

moves slowly east against the background stars during the autumn to cross the border into scorpius in mid-october. as the season progresses, saturn and its home constellations sink lower into the

While most of the planetary action takes place in the dawn sky this season, the evening is not without its planetary attractions. saturn starts september in libra but

Waxing Moon near saturn sePteMber 18, evening

ecliptic

SAGITTARIUS

beta (β) Sco

Saturn

Antares

SCORPIUS

SOUTH

Waxing Moon near saturn october 16, evening

eclip t

SAGITTARIUS SCORPIUS beta (β) Sco

Saturn

Antares

Waning Moon near venus and Mars sePteMber 10, Morning

CANCER

ec li

GEMINI

SAGITTARIUS Mars

Venus

Regulus

EAST

southwest, putting the planet too low for respectable telescope views after mid-october. But a fine unaided-eye scene awaits on september 18, when the waxing crescent Moon shines just 1.5 degrees directly above saturn for a photogenic conjunction. the waxing crescent Moon returns to the vicinity of saturn a month later, on october 16, saturn’s border-crossing day, but in a wide passage some six degrees to the east of the planet. By mid-october, saturn shines close to the bright star graffias, also known as beta (β) scorpii, creating an attractive douLIBRA ble star in the evening twilight. However, scorpius is then low in our canadian sky, so the grouping of Moon, planet and star may be tough to sight above your southwest horizon. SATURN IN THE SOUTHWEST on september 18, the waxing crescent Moon shines 1.5 degrees above saturn, the lone naked-eye evening planet. the pair is low in the southwestern twilight sky. on october 16, the Moon passes a wide six degrees from saturn, both skimming the southwestern horizon.

to see the best planet show of the year, look east before sunrise as a remarkable dance unfolds in the twilight sky. three planets (Mars, JuCOURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/ SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP. (BOTH) piter and venus) converge and pass one another in a performance we haven’t seen in two decades. september contains a couple of dawn dates of note to set your alarm clock for an early rise. first up, on september 10, the waning crescent Moon shines between venus and Mars for an attractive trio near the head of leo. eleven days later, on september 21, venus reaches its greatest brilliancy, at magnitude –4.8, becoming a blazing morning “star.” By september 25, Mars has moved against the background stars, bringing it ORION very close to leo’s brightest star, regulus. the red planet and the white star shine just ¾ degree apart, close enough to frame in a telescope. Mars then shines at magnitude 1.8, about half a magnitude dimmer than regulus, for a slightly mismatched pair. Mars is also far from earth, presenting a disc just four arc seconds across, too small Sirius to show details of the peach-hued planet through a telescope. Just sighting it so close to bright regulus will be reward enough for SE a sunrise session.

DAWN-SKY PRELUDE on september 10, the waning crescent Moon shines near venus and Mars in the eastern predawn sky, a taste of the many planetary meet-ups coming a month later, in october. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

THE DAWN DANCE BEGINS

FOUR PLANETS AT ONCE as we head into october, venus and Mars remain paired in the twilight, and Jupiter

Mars near regulus CANCER tic

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LEO Mars

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Regulus

EAST RED PLANET MEETS REGULUS on the morning of september 25, look east at dawn to see reddish Mars shining just ¾ degree above regulus, the brightest star in the constellation leo. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

Waning Moon Passes Planets

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See Canada's largest inventory of telescopes, CCD cameras, mounts and accessories in our 3,500-square-foot facility in Kitchener.

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EAST WANING MOON PASSES PLANETS by early october, the Moon has moved into the morning sky as a waning crescent near venus and regulus on october 8, near Mars and Jupiter on october 9 and close to Mercury on october 11. sighting that last conjunction will be a challenge, with both worlds low in the eastern twilight. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

Mercury at its Best october 15, Morning Regulus

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EAST MERCURY EASY IN MORNING by october 15, Mercury has climbed higher into the east and reaches its greatest angle away from the sun. the steep angle of the ecliptic swings Mercury up as high as it can get from canada in our morning sky. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

rises into view to join them. all three begin to converge near regulus, in leo. the second week of october is a great one for watching the changing configuration of dawn worlds. on october 8, the waning crescent

JUPITER’S MOONS september and october 2015

The positions of Jupiter’s four largest moons are shown for each night of the two-month period. Jupiter is represented by the central vertical shaft, while the moons are the four wavy lines. The horizontal lines mark 8 p.m., EDT, on the dates indicated. Time flows from top to bottom, so look proportionately below the line for later times on a particular date. East is to the left, and north is at the top, as seen in binoculars. From closest to farthest, the moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Orbital periods are 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 16.7 days, respectively. KEY:

Europa

Ganymede

Callisto

Moon shines near venus and regulus, with Mars and Jupiter below. the next morning, october 9, the Moon joins Mars and Jupiter for a wonderful grouping that is sure to attract the attention of early risers and photographers.

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CONJUNCTION FROM WAY BACK the last tight triangle of venus, Mars and Jupiter happened all the way back in november 1995. to find a similar event before that, we have to go back even further, to June 16, 1991, when the trio shone over the calm waters of ottawa lake, Wisconsin, with the crescent Moon nearby. PHOTO BY ALAN DYER

SKYNEWS

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

two mornings later, on october 11, the Moon—now a thin crescent—sits just one degree below Mercury, then beginning its best appearance of the year as a morning “star.” you’ll need a very clear sky and an unobstructed eastern horizon to sight this conjunction of Mercury and the Moon. But if you do, you can check off a sighting of the Moon and four planets in the same region of the sky at once—a rare opportunity. the Moon bows out after october 11, leaving the planets to occupy the dawn stage. Mercury climbs higher, reaching its peak in altitude on october 15, the date of its greatest elongation away from the sun. it then stands 18 degrees west of the sun and shines at a very respectable magnitude –0.4, making it nearly two magnitudes brighter than Mars, sitting above it. its low altitude gives Mercury its reputation for being a tough sighting. if your dawn sky is very clear, however, you should have no problem picking Mercury out of the morning twilight, with venus, Mars and Jupiter clustered together near regulus—in all, a rare sight. But it gets even better.

PLANET DANCING IN THE DAWN Mercury drops from view quite quickly in the third week of october, but above it, the planet trio begins the main event of the planetary dance card. on october 17, two mornings after Mercury’s greatest elongation, Mars passes a scant ½ degree above Jupiter. Mars and Jupiter then separate but remain within a binocular field of each other until month’s end, and venus descends to meet the pair. on october 23, the three worlds converge to form a triangle 4.5 degrees apart, tight enough to fit into any binocular field. two mornings later, on october 25, it’s venus’s turn to meet Jupiter, as it passes about one degree below the giant planet. this isn’t quite as close a conjunction of these two worlds as we enjoyed in our evening sky on June 30 and July 1, but it’s not bad. Most important, we now have the bonus of Mars a mere 3.5 degrees below Jupiter and 3.75 degrees below venus. Mars is definitely the dimmest of the trio, but its proximity to venus and Jupiter is a rare occurrence. this is the tightest gathering of the season, a sight not to be missed. circle this date: sunday, october 25. the last notable configuration of the dance for october occurs on the morning of october 28. the trio re-forms a triangle,

DANCE OF THE DAWN PLANETS During the last two weeks of October, the trio of Venus, Mars and Jupiter performs a series of moves to create a wonderful show in the morning sky.

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Mars Meets Jupiter october 17, Morning

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COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO

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VENUS AND JUPITER two mornings later, venus passes Jupiter, with the two brightest planets just one degree apart, reprising their evening conjunction of June 30. Mars appears close by, a little less than four degrees below venus, for the tightest gathering of the series (inset). COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION

Mercury

Planet trio #2

JUPITER IN THE MIDDLE by october 23, Jupiter has moved above Mars while venus has descended, creating a tight triangle with the three worlds just 4.5 degrees apart. even high-power binoculars with a five-degree field will contain the trio (inset). COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/

Typical 7° field of binoculars

Mercury

venus Meets Jupiter

MARS AND JUPITER the dance begins on october 17 with a close conjunction of Mars and Jupiter at dawn, the two worlds only ½ degree apart. venus appears seven degrees above the pair, just fitting within a binocular field (inset).

VENUS IN THE MIDDLE three mornings later, on october 28, venus has descended below Jupiter, but the trio of worlds now regroups to form another tight triangle, this time with bright venus between the other two. the three worlds again lie just 4.5 degrees apart for a pleasing view in binoculars (inset). COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/ SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP. (BOTH)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

ALDEBARAN OCCULTATIONS The waning Moon shines amid the Hyades star cluster twice this season. On both occasions, the Moon hides the bright star Aldebaran. The September event is visible from eastern Canada, while the October event can be seen from western Canada.

Moon in Hyades Reappears

sePteMber 5, 1 a.M., halifax

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occultation of aldebaran sePteMber 4/5, Midnight MOON HIDES THE BULL’S-EYE all of canada can see the lastquarter Moon shining near the hyades star cluster on the night of september 4, when the Moon rises at midnight, and into the dawn hours of september 5. only from eastern canada, however, does the Moon pass in front of bright aldebaran. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

MIDNIGHT OCCULTATION on the night of september 4/5, observers in eastern canada can watch as the red giant star aldebaran winks out behind the bright limb of the waning quarter Moon, then reappears from behind the dark lunar limb about 25 to 45 minutes later. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

LOCATION

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HALIFAX MONTREAL TORONTO

12:59 A.M., ADT 12:05 A.M., EDT 12:04 A.M., EDT

1:46 A.M., ADT 12:32 A.M., EDT 12:41 A.M., EDT

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occultation of aldebaran october 2, sunrise

MOON AMID THE HYADES a month later, on october 1, the waning gibbous Moon is back amid the hyades, appearing far from aldebaran in the dark late-night sky. the Moon creeps closer to aldebaran during the night, then occults the star in the daylight hours of october 2 for most of canada. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

SUNRISE OCCULTATION on the morning of october 2, observers in alberta and british columbia can watch aldebaran disappear behind the Moon before sunrise, then reappear from behind the dark limb of the Moon after sunrise, in a bright sky. from farther east, the entire occultation occurs in broad daylight, with the Moon low in the west. COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP.

LOCATION EDMONTON VANCOUVER

SKYNEWS

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• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

this time with venus midway between the other two. the grouping is still contained within a 4.5-degree field. the last time these three worlds appeared as close together as four degrees was in the evening sky on november 18, 1995, when they were just two degrees apart low in the southwest. clouds must have prevented me from capturing that scene, but i did shoot their previous close conjunction, in mid-June 1991.

remarkably, for the next conjunction of venus, Mars and Jupiter that will bring the trio within 4.5 degrees of one another and far enough from the sun to be visible in a darkened sky, we have to look all the way ahead to the morning of november 20, 2111. fortunately, the three planets are spaced close together for almost a week. that ups the chances of clear skies on at least one morning to sight this truly rare—dare we say “once-a-century”?—planetary gathering.

TOTAL-ECLIPSE TIME! for the past two years, we have been enjoying a run of beautiful total eclipses of the Moon. the eclipses of april 15 and october 8, 2014, could both be seen from across most of canada. on april 4 of this year, a barely total predawn eclipse was observable from western canada. now, six months later, the full Moon once again passes into the earth’s umbral shadow, this time deeply, providing a gen-

FINDING THE ICE GIANTS Both of the outermost major planets shine at their brightest this season, as Neptune reaches opposition on September 1, followed by Uranus on October 11. On these dates, the respective planets lie opposite the Sun and are closest to Earth. They rise at sunset and appear due south in the middle of the night, placing them high in the sky for a late-evening search.

finding uranus

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FINDING URANUS uranus shines at magnitude 5.7, technically naked-eye but certainly within easy reach of binoculars. the trick to seeing it is finding its area of sky. uranus is now in a star-poor region of central Pisces, near fifth-magnitude zeta (z) Piscium and fourth-magnitude epsilon (e) Piscium. uranus appears a little dimmer than zeta. use zeta as a stellar stepping-stone to find uranus, which spends the autumn retrograding west away from zeta. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE (BOTH)

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close-uP chart FINDING NEPTUNE neptune shines at magnitude 7.8 amid central aquarius, an even sparser field than that of central Pisces. fourth-magnitude lambda (l) aquarii is the closest naked-eye guide star to begin a search. but you’ll have to scan a finderscope field (about six degrees) southwest of lambda to get to the neptune field. once there, look for a moderately bright blue “star.” Pour on the power to confirm its tiny 2.3-arc-second disc, the giveaway that you are looking at a planet, not a star. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE (ALL)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

lunar eclipse scene

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ECLIPSE IN THE EAST from eastern canada, the eclipsed Moon appears about 35 to 45 degrees up in altitude, high in the southeast at mideclipse. framing it and the horizon will require a wide-angle (18mm to 24mm) lens and will result in a tiny Moon. employing a telescope with a long telephoto lens for close-ups might be the best photo option.

ECLIPSE IN THE WEST from western canada, the eclipsed Moon shines at an altitude of about 6 to 25 degrees, putting it low in the east to southeast. that makes it more prone to haze and cloud but easier to frame with normal and modest telephoto lenses for a dramatic image of a red Moon over a scenic landscape.

COURTESY STARRY NIGHT PRO PLUS™/SIMULATION CURRICULUM CORP. (BOTH)

lunar eclipse sequence sePteMber 27, evening Penumbra Penumbral Eclipse Ends 1:22 a.m., EDT

Umbra Total Eclipse Ends 11:23 p.m., EDT

Umbral Eclipse Ends 12:27 a.m., EDT

Total Eclipse Begins 10:11 p.m., EDT

Penumbral Eclipse Begins 8:11 p.m., EDT Midtotality 10:47 p.m., EDT Umbral Eclipse Begins 9:07 p.m., EDT

erous one hour and 12 minutes of totality. on sunday, september 27, we can enjoy the last in this tetrad series of four total lunar eclipses in a row. the best news is that the event occurs in the evening and can be seen from right across canada. only from the West coast is the view somewhat compromised by bright twilight, as totality begins just 15 minutes after moonrise.

WHEN TO LOOK With lunar eclipses, the major events in the sequence all occur at the same time for everyone across the country. the only difference in timing comes from which time zone you are in. i’ll provide the times here in eastern daylight time. observers in atlantic canada need to add one hour, while those on central time need to subtract one 34

SKYNEWS

ECLIPSE TIMES although it looks as if the earth’s shadow is moving across the face of the full Moon, it is really the Moon that’s doing the moving, orbiting from west to east against the background stars and through the earth’s shadow. the Moon’s left limb first hits the umbral shadow at 9:07 p.m., edt. the last shading of the umbra departs the right edge of the Moon at 12:27 a.m., for an eclipse lasting 3 hours 20 minutes. however, the Moon is completely within the umbra for 72 minutes of totality, from 10:11 p.m. to 11:23 p.m.. add one hour for atlantic time; subtract one hour for central, two hours for Mountain and three hours for Pacific. COURTESY THESKYX™/SOFTWARE BISQUE

• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

Path of

Moo

hour. for Mountain time (true of saskatchewan as well), subtract two hours; for Pacific time, subtract three hours. some news reports may give the start of the eclipse as 8:11 p.m., edt. although technically true, that’s when the Moon first touches the earth’s outer penumbral shadow. you won’t see any evidence of this at all. not until a couple of minutes before the start of the umbral phase of the eclipse, at 9:07 p.m., will you detect a subtle darkening of the Moon’s left edge. once the full Moon begins to enter the umbra, you will see a dark bite being taken from the lunar limb, which grows to engulf the Moon over the next hour. the Moon is completely immersed in the earth’s shadow at 10:11 p.m., edt. that’s when totality begins. so if there is a best time to look, it’s from now until 11:23 p.m., a 72-minute-long window for seeing the

total eclipse, when the full Moon is completely within the dark umbral shadow cast into space by earth. the only sunlight able to reach the shadowed Moon is red-lightfiltered and refracted by the earth’s atmosphere. from the Moon, you would see a total eclipse of the sun by earth, with earth rimmed by a red ring of sunlight shining through our thin atmosphere. that red sunlight produces the hallmark feature of this and every total lunar eclipse: its red or rusty colour. this trait has been popularized recently by zealous predictors of the end of the world as a “blood moon,” a term picked up by news media outlets looking for a sensational headline. as if that weren’t enough, this eclipse will get a Pr boost from the fact that it is also a “supermoon,” the largest and closest full Moon of 2015. this will make the lunar disc appear a little larger than usual, an effect you’ll notice, if at all, only when using a telescope to shoot the eclipse. But the usual selling point of a supermoon—its marginal extra brightness—is defeated by the eclipse. However, this supermoon is unusual in that it is a particularly close one, at 356,877 kilometres away, reaching this perigee point just one hour before midtotality. coastal regions can expect extra-high tides this night.

roy Bishop explains the details in the 2015 HOW TO SHOOT THE ECLIPSE Lunar eclipses can be photographed using a rasc Observer’s Handbook (page 178). choice of techniques, from simple to complex, from a basic camera on a tripod More valid as a visual selling point is to a telescope. Whatever method you use, send your eclipse shots to SkyNews for consideration in a future roundup gallery. that this full Moon is also the Harvest Moon, the full Moon closest to the autumTHROUGH A TELESCOPE nal equinox. the Harvest Moon is known you’ll need a focal length of at least 600mm to zoom in on the for appearing a golden yellow as it rises, Moon well enough to make an impressive image of its reddened often quite impressive in itself. for most disc. But that’s no problem for a telescope. However, typical teleof canada, the rising full Moon will then scopes are f/6 to f/10 in speed, requiring the use of fast iso setturn white and, in theory, be a little brighter tings during totality and a telescope on a motor-driven mount to than usual. later in the evening, it will turn follow the sky, preferably at the lunar drive rate. While exposures red in eclipse, making this a stellar night for of the bright partial phases can be fractions of a second, exposure Moon watchers. PHOTO BY STEPHEN BEDINGFIELD times during dim totality are typically 4 to 40 seconds at iso 800 the last total lunar eclipse to coincide to 3200. with a Harvest Moon was on september 16, 1997, an eclipse not visible from THROUGH A TELEPHOTO LENS north america. the next will be the Moon sits in star-poor Pisces at this eclipse, so using a teleon september 7, 2025. photo with a field of several degrees won’t produce an image of totality ends at 11:23 p.m., edt, the dark red Moon amid a rich field of stars. But it may be worth followed by another 64 minutes of a shot. for the best results, attach the camera and lens to a small a partial umbral phase. the event tracking platform or telescope mount to follow the sky so that is essentially over by 12:27 a.m., the Moon and stars won’t blur during the several seconds of when the full Moon departs the exposure. to minimize shutter speed, shoot at f/4 or faster, if posumbra. By then, most eclipse fans PHOTO BY DAVID McCOLM sible, and at iso 800 to 1600. will have retired for the night, happy in having checked off a supermoon, THROUGH A WIDE-ANGLE LENS a Harvest Moon and an eclipsed Moon all the easiest technique to capture a striking photo is in one night. to use a camera on a tripod with a lens wide enough WHERE TO LOOK to take in the eclipsed Moon and the landscape the eclipse occurs with the Moon in the below. this will be most effective from western eastern sky, in the constellation Pisces. Howcanada, where the Moon appears lower in the sky. ever, the summer Milky Way will be well scout out a great site to frame something photopositioned, arcing across the sky from north genic below the red Moon. High iso speeds are still to south. While you can certainly see this the norm, but exposures can be short enough that PHOTO BY ALAN DYER lunar eclipse from an urban location, i sky rotation won’t introduce trailing. implore you to go to a dark site. from a for an ambitious project, try a series of exposures at regular intervals (5 to 10 minrural location, you can experience not just utes apart) at a low iso speed and wide aperture, gradually lengthening the exposure the eclipse but also the wonderful sight of time during the partial phases prior to totality, then decreasing it after totality. expothe Milky Way “turning on” as the Moon sures should be short enough to record the Moon well, likely leaving the sky and foreand sky darken. ground dark and underexposed. then shoot at least one exposure long enough during from eastern canada, the Moon is high totality and at a higher iso speed to record details in the landscape itself, to use as a in the east. the farther west you live, the base image. stack them all later in your favourite image-processing program to create lower the Moon is in the sky. from the West a multiple-exposure composite of the entire sequence over the landscape. coast, the Moon is just a few degrees above the eastern horizon as totality begins, so at. indeed, be sure to view it with binoculars pear brighter than its upper northern limb. seek a site with a clear view to the east. you have more than an hour to enjoy seeing the red Moon from British or a low-power telescope to better reveal the the view. revel in it, as we won’t see another columbia may be a challenge at first. But subtle colours across the disc. look for fringes of blue and green at the total lunar eclipse until January 31, 2018, as totality progresses, the Moon will climb higher and the sky will darken, providing a edge of the earth’s shadow during the partial when all of north america can observe it beautifully photogenic setting of the red phases, then shades of red and orange across in the wee hours of a winter morning. after the disc during totality. you are seeing the that, the next total lunar eclipse for north Moon in a twilight sky. subtle effects of what’s in our atmosphere america is also a winter event, late on HOW TO LOOK obscuring and tinting sunlight entering our January 20, 2019. so enjoy the convenient While we need to say this at every eclipse, shadow. at this eclipse, the Moon passes timing and sheer comfort of september’s it bears repeating: unlike a solar eclipse, an through the southern edge of the umbra, so total eclipse. it might be the last one we see eclipse of the Moon is perfectly safe to look the Moon’s lower southern edge should ap- for a while. F SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

THE BIG PICTURE

Prairie all-sky aurora June brought several outstanding light shows that were seen from much of the nation

On the night of June 22/23, the Saskatchewan sky was alive with a display of dancing northern lights that, at times, was brighter to the south than the north. James Edgar of Melville, Saskatchewan, was at the right place at the right time to record the aurora using a Canon 60Da camera with an 8-15mm fish-eye lens at 9mm and f/4 for this 10-second exposure at ISO 800. The dark clouds at the bottom are along the southern horizon. Beige clouds at left offered only occasional intererence.

SKYNEWS •• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER2015 2015

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

GRAVENHURST MUSKOKA FAMILY STARGAZING EVENT Friday, Sept. 11, and Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 Gravenhurst KOA, 1083 Reay Road and Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Site SATURDAY, Gravenhurst Opera House 11 am – 1:30 pm: Solar Viewing Free Draws! 2 pm: Workshop (registration required) • Setting Up Your Scope and Binoculars Properly • Astronomy on a Shoestring

7 pm: ASTRO TALK “Year of Discovery in Astronomy” by Francois van Heerden, Life Member, RASC Toronto Centre Talk will be followed by stargazing at Gravenhurst KOA and Torrance Barrens, with experts at KOA to answer questions. Extra equipment will be available for use. • 25% discount at KOA, some cabins available 1-800-562-9883, e-mail gravenhurstkoa@cogeco.net contact direct for discount • Hotels: Marriott 705-687-6600 (discount available for this event) For more information, contact Alan Keates at 705-687-4364 or e-mail Gerry Flaherty at mgeraldflaherty@gmail.com

www.gravenhurst.ca www.muskokaconservancy.org www.peterboroughastronomy.com

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

OTHER WORLDS by Ivan Semeniuk

First Mars-Sized Exoplanet Astronomers are still in the early stages of discovering the rich variety of planets orbiting other stars

ason roWe was still a high school student in Mississauga, just west of toronto, 20 years ago when the first exoplanet orbiting around a sun-like star was confirmed. since then, a few thousand more exoplanets have turned up, including many that rowe himself has identified and studied as part of nasa’s kepler Mission. But the result, he says, is more diverse than most scientists or even science fiction writers would have predicted. Which is to say that within the limits of physical plausibility, just about every kind of planet that can happen has apparently happened. the kepler Mission has repeatedly shown that two planets of roughly equal radius can have very different masses depending on their composition and formation histories. and planets of similar size can have radically different orbits, which suggests there are many scenarios for how planets can form and evolve. that message was reinforced this past June when rowe and his colleagues reported the first ever exoplanet with a measured mass as small as that of Mars. it’s impossible to “weigh” a planet that small in the conventional way, using the doppler shift to see how much its host star wobbles back and forth in response to the planet’s gravitational pull. the planet is simply not massive enough. instead, the kepler team carefully timed

the three planets in the kepler-138 system as they repeatedly crossed in front of their star. Because the planets are all close to one another, their mutual gravitational attraction throws off that timing in a way that allowed all three of their masses to be measured. at roughly 6.6 percent of one earth mass, kepler-138b is, by far, the lightest exoplanet mass ever measured. in 1995, when Michel Mayor and didier

MEASURING EXOPLANET MASS the three-planet system around the star kepler-138 includes a planet (foreground) with a mass similar to that of Mars. the mass of such a tiny world cannot be measured directly. instead, astronomers measured a discrepancy—shown here as a double image—between when the planets should have been seen to cross in front of the star and when they were actually observed to do so. the discrepancy revealed the degree to which the planets are tugging on one another. from this, the masses of all three were then calculated. ILLUSTRATION BY DANIELLE FUTSELAAR, SETI INSTITUTE

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• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

Queloz of the university of geneva reported their detection of a planet around the nakedeye star 51 Pegasi, the surprise was not so much that exoplanets exist but that they can be so different from the planets of our own solar system. the discovery was the first “hot Jupiter” —a planet as massive as a gas giant that orbits its star closer than Mercury orbits the sun. Because it’s hard to imagine such a large

Mass and radius of kepler-138 Planets 2

SIZE RELATIVE TO EARTH (RADIUS)

GASEOUS

1.5

MIXED

Kepler-138d

ROCKY

Earth Venus Kepler-138c

Mars 0.5

Kepler-138 planets Solar system planets Kepler planets

Kepler-138b

Mercury

MASS RELATIVE TO EARTH

SMALLEST EXOPLANETS YET Measuring just six percent of the earth’s mass, kepler-138b is closer in size to Mars than is any object astronomers have ever detected beyond our solar system. even more remarkable is the fact that systems like this one, with multiple small worlds orbiting very close to their stars and to one another, are now known to be relatively common. NASA ILLUSTRATION

and diffuse world forming next to the blast furnace of heat coming from a star, the finding launched the theory that some planets migrate after they are born. the question then became: What makes solar systems with hot Jupiters different from our own? that question has yet to be answered in full. But after 51 Peg, hot Jupiters came pouring out of the celestial woodwork for a while because big planets with tight orbits were the easiest planets to find with the technique Mayor and Queloz were using. kepler could sample more broadly. its findings show that hot Jupiters turn up in only about one in a thousand solar systems. But kepler has given astronomers a different surprise: systems in which multiple planets comparable in size to earth or smaller can coexist within an orbital radius that is smaller than Mercury’s. kepler-138 is one such system. another, kepler-11, has five planets orbiting closer than Mercury is to our sun, with a sixth just beyond. the question is, How can such planets form and survive if they are so close together? “clearly, nature is capable of making these compact systems of planets that persist for billions of years around their host stars,” says Brett gladman, a planetary astronomer and professor at the university of British columbia. along with postdoctoral fellow kathryn volk, gladman analyzed the dynamics of such systems and found them to be less persistent than they appear. they are unstable

over the long term, so those which can still be found in the kepler data are the lucky stragglers. But such systems account for at least one in fifty, according to kepler, which suggests that many more solar systems, including our own, started out looking like a kepler-138. Mercury itself could be the lone survivor of a planetary roller derby that unfolded in the innermost regions of our solar system long ago. a test of this idea could come as early as 2017, once the transiting exoplanet survey satellite begins searching for planets among nearby stars brighter than 12th magnitude. the stars in this sample will have a far broader range of ages than those seen by kepler. if gladman and volk are right, then a larger proportion of those younger stars will host compact systems. Meanwhile, Jason rowe has moved from the seti institute, in california, to the université de Montréal, where he is supporting canada’s involvement in the James Webb space telescope (JWst). the JWst should routinely enable spectroscopic studies of exoplanet atmospheres, which will amount to another new method of comparing worlds. once those data come online, he says, there is the exciting prospect that even more flavours of exoplanets will emerge. the next 20 years could hold more surprises than did the last 20. F Ivan Semeniuk is a science reporter for the globe and Mail newspaper and website. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

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constellation corner

14th ANNUAL SKYNEWS EDITORS’ CHOICE

photo caPricornus of the What manner of beast is this? Half fish, half goat. by Ken Hewitt-White

t first BlusH, capricornus seems too bland to possess significant sky lore. its mostly dim stars, all but one fainter than magnitude 3.0, trace no outline of the peculiar fishgoat of greek legend. However, its angular pizza-slice shape is easy to spot just above the treetops. in classical times, capricornus was the most southerly constellation of the zodiac, and the observer-priests eyed it warily. the sun “bottomed out” here at the time of the winter solstice. Perhaps in recognition of the sun’s rebirth and because of the star group’s apparent proximity to the ground, yawning capricornus was sometimes viewed as the gateway through which human souls passed when they ascended to heaven. the odd combination of fish and goat can be traced to a yarn about Pan, the greek god who once appeared as a goat adept at playing the panpipes. if that doesn’t challenge the imagination, try this:

in a panic to elude the rampaging monster typhon, the goat plunged into a river and tried to mutate into a fish. unfortunately, Pan did not realize the river was shallow. His hindquarters became a tail fin, while the rest of him, still above water, remained as it was. Happily, the fish-goat made his getaway. Pan then helped rescue Zeus, who, despite his exalted position as king of the gods, also found himself vulnerable to the monster. Zeus later dispatched typhon with a lethal thunderbolt. in the end, Zeus rewarded our heroic panpiper with a cushy job in the elite band of the zodiac. there, between sagittarius and aquarius, Pan became capricornus the sea goat. the label is a slight misnomer, since the “fish” component resulted from Pan’s diving into a river, not the ocean. today, capricornus is often called, simply, the goat. this agrees with the arabic names of two key stars. Marking the constellation’s western end is 3.6magnitude alpha capricorni, or algedi, meaning “the kid,” an appellation that suggests the star pattern as a whole symbolizes a young goat. at its eastern end is 2.8-magnitude delta capricorni, or deneb algedi, “the kid’s tail.” the colourful story about Pan may be rooted in the mythology of the Babylo nians, whose god of wisdom was half man, half fish. not to be outdone, latin poets described capricornus as an offspring of neptune, the sea god. Perhaps so—this watery constellation is where the planet neptune was discovered in 1846. F

week contest HoW to enter:

go to skynews.ca/contest-rules for contest rules, detailed instructions for submitting your photos and other information. to be eligible to win, submissions must be received at SkyNews by June 1, 2016. you may enter as often as you wish, but please don’t send more than 10 of your best photos per entry. this contest is open to residents of canada only. THREE EASY STEPS: Step 1. send us your astrophotos. Please keep e-mail files under 2Mb. Step 2. contest closes June 1, 2016. We’ll choose the best and publish a new photo every week at skynews.ca. Step 3. the winning photos and honourable mentions will be published in the sept./oct. 2016 issue of SkyNews.

rules and instructions CONTEST CLOSES JUNE 1, 2016. there are no entry fees or entry forms. SEE PAGE 6 FOR PRIZE DESCRIPTIONS. Photos previously submitted to the SkyNews Photo gallery, including those not published, are automatically eligible. do not resubmit photos already sent. you may enter as often as you wish, but please don’t send more than 10 of your best photos per entry. Submit digital photos (prints and slides are no longer accepted) in JPeg format by e-mail to dickinsonskynews@gmail.com. submit photos by mail to: SkyNews, box 10, yarker, on k0k 3n0. digital images submitted by mail must be on disk in JPeg, gif, tiff or Pict format. Winning photos will be published in the sept./oct. 2016 issue of SkyNews. Composite images (for example, those with foregrounds added digitally) are not eligible. Please include as many of the following details as possible: camera make, lens, focal ratio, exposure time, location and date. Put your name, phone number and address on your disk or include in your e-mail. SkyNews is not responsible for loss of or damage to materials submitted. Mailed photos will be retained on file unless accompanied by a selfaddressed envelope with sufficient postage.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • SKYNEWS

ON THE MOON by Gary Seronik

The Great Black Lake on the Moon One of the most eye-catching features on the lunar surface is also one of the most fascinating

Area of enlargement below

LAKE VIEW the best time to view Plato is shortly after the first-quarter phase, when the Moon is a waxing gibbous, as seen here, or just before the last-quarter phase, when the lunar disc is waning. PHOTO BY GARY SERONIK

2.0

2.2 2.4

2.1

ltHougH tHere’s still a great deal we don’t know about our nearest celestial neighbour, we’re far ahead of where we were in the 17th century, when telescopes were first aimed skyward. the fanciful names appearing on early Moon maps suggest an aura of mystery and wonder that is almost impossible to conjure today. for example, consider the feature named lacus niger Major (great Black lake) by Johannes Hevelius in his 1647 book Selenographia. the crater is now known as Plato, but which name best conveys what it actually looks like? lacus niger Major—Plato—is easy to spot. look for a dark pool of grey set against the light-hued arc that separates the northern shore of Mare imbrium from Mare frigoris. at first glance in a telescope, the crater’s surface seems utterly placid and smooth. and that’s odd. Plato spans some 109 kilometres, easily big enough to have a jumbled, boulder-strewn floor punctuated with a distinctive central mountain peak, like the ones found in nearby craters such as aristillus and eratosthenes. Where is Plato’s peak? it’s there, but you can’t see it. along with the rest of the original floor, it’s buried under lavas that welled up and filled Plato to a depth of 2.2 kilometres. that’s A SITE FOR SORE EYES lacus niger Major, or Plato, is a fine sight in any telescope, but seeing the craterlets on its floor is an observing challenge. this high-resolution image was taken by nasa’s lunar reconnaissance orbiter. the craterlet diameters (in kilometres) are indicated.

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• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

just deep enough to completely submerge the central peak. a feature you can see is the prominent scallop on the crater’s western rim (remember that east and west on the Moon are the opposite of sky directions). it’s pretty obvious what occurred here. at some point after Plato was excavated and its floor flooded, a 15-kilometre-long section of the rim broke away and slumped downward. there’s another, less conspicuous collapsed section just to the north. Plato affords me one of my favourite Moon activities. i love watching as the jagged shadows cast by its eastern wall retreat across the crater’s floor during lunar sunrise. the timing is tricky, though—you have to catch the waxing gibbous Moon as the terminator slowly sweeps across the region. it never ceases to amaze me how much those fanglike shadows can change over the course of an hour. if you have good, steady seeing conditions, crank up your telescope’s magnification and examine Plato’s floor more carefully. see anything? a number of small craters there serve as a test of optical quality, visual acuity and (mainly) atmospheric steadiness. four of the craterlets can be glimpsed with some difficulty in moderate backyard scopes. the largest of the quartet spans 2.4 kilometres, and the other three craterlets are close to 2 kilometres across. under the right lighting conditions, it should be possible to see them in a 6-inch scope or perhaps one even smaller. can you make them out? in the 17th century, it was generally believed that the Moon was a world very like our own earth—even peopled with “selenites,” as Hevelius named the presumed lunar inhabitants. the next time you explore Plato with your telescope, try to imagine seeing it through the eyes of a 17th-century astronomer, and let your imagination roam free. Who knows, perhaps you’ll even spot a selenite or two plying the still waters of lacus niger Major. F A veteran lunar observer, Gary Seronik is the editor of Antonín Rükl’s classic atlas of the Moon and Charles A Wood’s the Modern Moon. He is also editor of this magazine’s website, SkyNews.ca.

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NORTHERN NIGHTS by Ken Hewitt-White

Analyzing Andromeda Stare at a photo of the Great Andromeda Galaxy. What do you see? A picture on a page or a study in space-time?

clean My office regularly —usually once each spring so that i can find buried tax receipts. getting the urge to purge last april, i removed a mountain of magazines cluttering my desk. out of the pile squirted the Jan./feb. SkyNews, which fell open at page 38. the full-page spread, titled “next-door star city,” featured a stunning colour picture of the andromeda galaxy (M31). the glitzy portrayal made the cover too. Wow! time to stare. cleanup delayed. that superb image of M31, reproduced at right, was taken by ontario astrophotographer lynn Hilborn. according to the original caption, Mr. Hilborn used a 5.5-inch refractor—amazing! But wait. that statement was an editorial error, later corrected to a 200mm f/2.8 camera lens. i’m gobsmacked! needless to say, the gorgeously panoramic yet richly detailed portrait of andromeda showcases Hilborn’s skill with both camera and computer. that the product originated with such small optics only emphasizes the power of digital image processing today. Hilborn’s masterfully crafted M31 teases me with notions of faraway space and look-back time. the star city next door—a mere 2.58 million light-years away—is often touted as a spiral galaxy much like our own. But M31 is no twin of the Milky Way. the disc of our galaxy is 90,000 light-years across. andromeda is at least one-third larger and sports between 400 and 600 billion suns, roughly double the number here. at its core is a black hole far more massive than that of its modest Milky Way cousin. andromeda is home to 500 globular clusters, almost triple our galaxy’s population of globulars. and M31’s photogenic disc exhibits not spiral arms but, intriguingly, ragged rings of active star formation. More on this later. 46

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• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

Hilborn’s image of that agglomeration is strikingly three-dimensional. Partly, it’s because M31 is tilted only a dozen degrees from edge-on and thus presents a distinct

THE BIG PICTURE

NEXT-DOOR STAR CITY About one-third larger than the Milky Way, our home galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is 2.6 million light-years distant

SKYNEWS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

A hazy oval patch in the constellation Andromeda, M31 is visible to the unaided eyes in the northern hemisphere in rural, moonless locations away from light pollution. Recent estimates of the Andromeda Galaxy’s distance place it at 2.6 million light-years, making our big neighbour galaxy the most remote object that can be seen without optical aid. However, any binocular will improve the view, and glasses with main lenses 40mm or larger in diameter will bring out some of the detail seen in this photo, such as the main dust lanes. But the colour and fine detail captured in this superb image taken through a 140mm refractor by astrophotographer Lynn Hilborn of Grafton, Ontario, remain beyond visual detection, even in a large telescope.

andromeda galaxy page from the Jan./feb. issue of SkyNews. see page 11 for a larger version of this image. PHOTO BY LYNN HILBORN

near side and far side. But the 3-d effect is enhanced by all the fine detail in the picture. several dust lanes enwreathe the galaxy, and to my delight, i can follow the dark threads around the disc to M31’s far side. tiny pink patches—star-forming emission nebulas— are visible back there too. i’m not sure i’ve ever traced those features so deeply into the mist of andromeda’s far flank. a table in the rasc’s Observer’s Handbook 2015 provides some revised statistics on M31. and we are looking at a big object. light from the far edge of the galaxy’s disc takes almost 150,000 years longer to get here

than light from the near edge. the far-side photons registering on human retinas— and cameras—date from an earlier time. indeed, andromeda’s far side is nearly 150,000 years younger than its near side. My mortal mind struggles with this. My brain takes a further beating from the latest data on the two dwarf galaxies in orbit around M31. studying Hilborn’s picture, my initial take was that the larger satellite, M110, floats ahead of the parent galaxy, while smaller M32 seems partially obscured behind its hazy outskirts. Wrong. the recently refined distance to M110 is 2.61 million light-years, which places it a bit beyond andromeda. the updated estimate for M32 is 2.51 million light-years, which means it lies slightly in front of the disc. let’s put that mix into motion. radial velocity measurements indicate that M31 is approaching us at 300 kilometres per second. the siblings are slower, especially M32, whose “blue” velocity is only 200 kilometres per second. staring at the photo again, i sense M32 curving back toward M31 and plowing right through the disc. astronomers believe it has done so before. in the process, a mere dwarf spoiled andromeda’s spiral structure, its long arms of dust and gas slowly morphing into the rings of star formation i mentioned earlier. clear autumn nights are ideal for admiring M31, the most remote object visible to our bare eyes. that faint cloud is the nearest major galaxy to us, and yes, it’s creeping closer. they say it will collide with the Milky Way in a few billion years. Whoa. i’m boggled enough as it is! F Contributing editor Ken Hewitt-White observes the night sky from the mountains of British Columbia, which place him a bit closer to Andromeda.