MAC December 2013 astronomy magazine by MAC Realta

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Sky Guide - Beginner's targets for December The good news in December is that it gets dark nice and early allowing for long observing sessions. The bad news for those of us in the North is that the price we pay for the early evenings is the cold that accompanies it. So, fill your thermos with some nice hot coffee or hot chocolate and enjoy the wonderful winter skies. We'll start off again this month naked eye. The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks on the 13th. This is usually one of the best meteor showers of the year and should offer excellent viewing this year as the moon is in good position (waning crescent). The Geminids will seem to radiate from a point near the stars Castor and Pollux. Castor and Pollux are to the upper right of the famed Betelgeuse in Orion. Watch this area of the sky from a dark site and you can expect to see as many as 60 - 80 meteors an hour. Telescope Targets December continues to offer wonderful views of Cassiopea, Andromeda, Auriga and Perseus. See October's and November's picks pages for targets in these constellations. The Pleiades (M45) or also known as the Seven Sisters is a wonderful low power open cluster in the constellation Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters, and is

Issue 49 - December, 2013

probably the best known, and is certainly the most obvious to the naked eye. It is easily identified high in the Southeast early after sunset. Look for 6 stars that appear to be a miniature version of the big dipper. Point your telescope with it's lowest power eyepiece at this and you'll be shocked at how many stars are visible. They are located at a distance of 400 light years from us and contain 100 stars. This cluster is approximately 78 million years old. Also in the same area of sky are the Hyades. This is one of those targets best seen with binoculars. The Hyades are a huge open cluster of 350 stars located at a distance of 150 Light years from us. The Hyades are below the Pleiades. Look for the "V" shaped grouping of stars and point your binoculars or your telescope toward them. The Hyades hold the distinction of being the closest open cluster to us.

Above: Taurus is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It sits large and prominent in the Northern Hemisphere winter sky, between Aries to the west and Gemini to the east; to the north lie Perseus and Auriga, to the southeast Orion, to the south Eridanus, and to the southwest Cetus. Behind the star Aldebaran lie the Hyades, the nearest distinct open star cluster, that with it form a V, or an A, in the sky marking the bull's head. In the west of the constellation lie the Pleiades, one of the best known open clusters, easily visible to the eye. Another object, visible in a telescope, is the Crab Nebula (M1), a supernova remnant northwest of Îś Tauri. The explosion, seen on Earth on July 4, 1054, was bright enough to be seen by day. It is mentioned in Chinese history texts.

Well, that's about it for this month. Orion is rising in the south and will offer lots of targets for late evening this month also. Clear skies and good hunting!

Latest Astronomy and Space News

By Kevin Daly

http://members.aol.com/kdaly10475/index.htm

Club News

Club Notes Club Observing: The club meets every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month for our observing sessions held in the MAC grounds. If you wish to be informed of these sessions please email your name and mobile number to midlandsastronomy@gmail.com who will confirm if the session is going ahead (depending on weather). MAC is a proud member of

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Kids Astronomy Above: The Pleiades cluster is dominated by hot blue stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster, but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium that the stars are currently passing through. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbourhood.

Quizzes and Games Monthly Sky Guide Internet Highlights

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine MAC meets on the first Tuesday of the month in the NEW LOCATION of the Clonamore House Hotel, Tullamore from 8pm.

All are welcome to attend. MAC also holds infrequent Observing Nights at it's Observing Site in Clonminch, or at a member's house (weather permitting) on the first Saturday of every month. You can see more about the club and its events on www.midlandsastronomy.com or contact the club via e-mail at midlandsastronomy@gmail.com Meetings are informal and are aimed at a level to suit all ages.

The next new meteor shower

Choosing a New Telescope – GoTo or not GoTo that is the question

Why are Dobsonian telescopes a favourite for amateur astronomers?

The Ghost of Mirach

Club News 9.

Club News

Kids Section 10.

Kids Korner

Quizzes and Games 11. Front cover image: Exactly what caused the eerie apparition was sure: one of the best auroral displays in recent memory. This spectacular aurora had an unusually high degree of detail. Pictured above, the vivid green and purple auroral colours are caused by high atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen reacting to a burst of incoming electrons. Birch trees in Tromsø, Norway formed an also eerie foreground. Many other photogenic auroras have been triggered by recent energetic flares on the Sun. Credit & Copyright: Ole C. Salomonsen (Arctic Light Photo)

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Exercise your brain

Monthly Sky Guide 12.

Beginners guide for this month

Internet Highlights 13.

Special content only available with the online version of the magazine.

Question 2 The corona, the uppermost part of our sun, is what colour to the naked eye? • Yellow • Gray • Orange • It is invisible to the naked eye Question 3 What happens to all objects that orbit the sun, the closer they get to the sun? • They rise higher than normally • They slow down • They speed up • They move lower than normally Question 4 If not for the gravitational effect of this planet, the Earth would most likely be frequently bombarded with cosmic debris. • Venus • Mercury • Mars • Jupiter Question 5 When a neutron star and a black hole orbit each other, the gases sucked off of the neutron star cause what kind of disk around the black hole before disappearing into it? • Chandrasekhar Disk • Double Disk • Funnel Disk • Accretion Disk

Question 8 These huge clouds of helium and hydrogen serve as the birth place of stars. • Novas • Nebulae • Constellations • Auroras Question 9 Which of these forces of our universe is the strongest? • Weak Force • Strong Force • Gravity • Hammons' Force Question 10 While being sucked into a black hole, objects are stretched out by what force of gravity? • Expansion Force • Tidal Force • Miller - Urey Force • Relative Force

2 4

5 6

7 7 8

5 9

Check your answers

Answer 5: Accretion Disk. This large disk of gas turns white hot just before entering the black hole itself.

about stellar formation

Question 7 The ability of these celestial bodies to spin rapidly, yet at a very precise rate, once caused scientists to suggest that they were actually messages sent by distant aliens. • Neutron • Stars • Quasars • Pulsars

Answer 1: Theory of Relativity. The theory of relativity established Einstein as one of the greatest minds that ever lived.

"Elephant Trunks" crowd distant star cluster, raising new questions

Answer 6: It is not large enough. Only stars far more massive than the Sun are capable of creating black holes.

Answer 7: Pulsars. These objects pulse out radio waves because of their immense rotational speed.

"Freakish" Asteroid has six tails, sheds stuff into space

Answer 2: It is invisible to the naked eye. The corona is an envelope of highly ionized gas that surrounds the chromosphere (2nd uppermost part) of our sun.

SUDOKU

Answer 8: Nebulae. After being born in these clouds of gas, the star then wanders out to live the rest of its days wherever gravity takes it.

Second Planetary System like ours discovered

Question 6 Why is it impossible for our sun to turn into a black hole eventually? • It is not impossible • It is too close to the edge of the universe • It has planets • It is not large enough

Answer 3: They speed up. The increase in speed is caused by the sun's gravity, which increases its effects on an object the closer the object gets to it, "slingshotting" the object around, keeping it in planetary motion.

Question 1 This theory by Albert Einstein explains why all "observers" have their own separate measure of time because of the finite speed of light. • Theory of Relativity • Theory of Universal Evolution • Theory of Expansion • Planck's Theory

Answer 9: Strong Force. Contrary to popular belief, gravity is an extremely weak force relative to the others. Hammons' force however, does not exist.

ISON after Perihelion: The undead maybe somewhat ex-Comet

Answer 10: Tidal Force. Miller and Urey are known for experiments in biology, relative and expansion forces are not forces of gravity.

Answer 4: Jupiter. Jupiter, the most massive planet in our solar system, is larger than all of the other planets combined and doubled. Its great gravitational tug redirects most objects that would otherwise be on a journey towards Earth.

Latest Astronomy and Space News

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Kid's Korner

What are Constellations anyway? the belt, is 1340 light years away. And Mintaka at the right side of the belt is 916 light years away.Yet they all appear from Earth to have the same brightness.

A constellation is group of stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle. If you join the dots--stars, that is--and use lots of imagination, the picture would look like an object, animal, or person. For example, Orion is a group of stars that the Greeks thought looked like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt. Other than making a pattern in Earth's sky, these stars may not be related at all. For example, Alnitak, the star at the left side of Orion's belt, is 817 light years away. (A light year is the distance light travels in one Earth year, almost 6 trillion miles!) Alnilam, the star in the middle of

Even the closest star is almost unimaginably far away. Because they are so far away, the shapes and positions of the constellations in Earth's sky change very, very slowly. During one human lifetime, they change hardly at all. So, since humans first noticed the night sky they have navigated by the stars. Sailors have steered their ships by the stars. Even the Apollo astronauts going to the Moon had to know how to navigate by the stars in case their navigation instruments failed.

Finding the Constellations We see different views of the Universe from where we live as Earth makes its yearly trip around the solar system. That is why we have a different Star Finder for each month, as different constellations come into view. Also, as Earth rotates on its axis toward the east throughout the hours of the night, the whole sky seems to shift toward the west. The Star Finder charts are for a latitude of 34º N, which is about as far north of the equator as Los Angeles, California. (Charts are from The Griffith Observer magazine.) The farther north you are, the more the constellations will be shifted south from the Star Finder charts. The Star Finder charts show the sky at about 10 PM for the first of the month, 9 PM for the middle of the month, and 8 PM for the last of the month. These are local standard times. For months with Daylight Savings Time, star chart times are an hour later. The star charts are maps of the sky overhead. So, to get the directions lined up, hold the map over your head and look up at it, and turn

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it so the northern horizon side is facing north. If you live where big city lights drown out the beauty of the stars, you may see only a few of the brightest stars and planets. How sad! But see if you can find at least one or two constellations on a clear, Moonless night. What Else are Constellations Good For? Star patterns are also very helpful for navigating a spacecraft. Most spacecraft have steered by the stars--or at least checked the stars once in a while to make sure the spacecraft was still on course and pointed in the right direction. Space Technology 6 is a mission to test a new, very small and energyefficient kind of reference system. This new system is called an Inertial (in-ER-shul) Stellar Compass, or ISC. The ISC is made up of a star tracker and a gyroscope. Working together, they keep the spacecraft on course. The star tracker, like a camera, takes a picture of the star patterns in its view and compares the picture with its built-in star maps. This is how it can tell the spacecraft exactly which way it is pointed. In between pictures from the star tracker, the gyroscope tells the spacecraft how it is pointed. Together the star tracker and gyroscope keep the spacecraft stable and oriented in the right direction in space (for example, not flying "upside-down" or sideways). But the gyroscope can hold stable for only a short time. To keep the gyroscope perfectly accurate, information from the star tracker is sent to the gyroscope every few seconds.

ISON after Perihelion: The undead maybe somewhat ex-Comet Yesterday, comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) zoomed over the surface of the Sun, barreling through the star’s intolerable heat and light.We all waited on the edge of our seats to see what would happen, and amazingly, a few hours later, something came out the other side. But what, exactly? We’re still not sure. But here’s my guess, based on what I’ve seen and heard. Let me give you a quick overview first. The comet itself was a chunk of rock, gravel, and dust held together by ice, smushed into an object perhaps two kilometers. It came from the Oort cloud, a vast repository of such icy chunks well outside the orbit of Neptune. The orbit of ISON is extremely close to an escape trajectory for the solar system, meaning this is likely its first and only dip into the neighborhood; it may not ever return, and instead be ejected into interstellar space (or at least not be back for many, many, millennia). As it approached the Sun on Nov. 28, it suddenly got very bright, which could have been from an outburst (perhaps due to solar heat seeping under the surface, reaching a pocket of ice, changing it directly from a solid to a gas, and triggering a sudden expulsion of that gas as it expanded), or even a disruption event. Since the ice holds the comet together, losing

that ice means losing the infrastructure of the comet itself. It can break apart into smaller chunks, like other comets have in the past. Still, it looked solid enough as it kept heading for the Sun… for a while. But a few hours later it had faded considerably. The trail of stuff narrowed toward the tip, but we didn’t see a single, bright spot there, which is what we expected for an intact comet. Those of us who were punditing at the time were, understandably, becoming convinced ISON was breaking up. Then it got too close to the Sun for SOHO to see it. We waited. And waited. At some point after perihelion I made a decision. I drew a line in the sand, saying I thought this was an ex-comet. But then, not long after, like Lazarus or a zombie, ISON came back from the dead.

Within a few hours it was clear something had made it around the Sun. But was it an intact comet, or just a dust cloud of debris ripped apart by the terrible forces it experienced? That brings us to now. What of the comet? Well…we’re not really sure. The latest pictures do show a condensed blob of something, and it doesn’t look quite as much like a debris cloud as it did. Best guess: As it rounded the Sun the solid nucleus fell apart. It may have released a lot of junk — dust, gas, whatever — but a sizeable chunk remained. That itself is still being heated by the Sun, and so is surrounded by a fuzzy coma of material. We can clearly see a tail of dust following behind it in the same orbit, and another tail of fine dust getting blown out by the solar wind. So I wouldn’t say the comet survived, so much as some of it wasn’t destroyed. A subtle difference, perhaps, but clearly something is still there.

The thing that is new and different with the Space Technology 6 ISC is that the two devices are combined into one tiny, light-weight system that needs little power to run. The ISC was tested on the U.S. Air Force TacSat-2 microsatellite, and it worked just fine. Now the ISC technology can be used on future spacecraft sent on missions of discovery

Above: Bright, brighter, brightest: these views of Comet ISON after its closest approach to the sun Nov. 28 show that a small part of the nucleus may have survived the encounter.

Above: One of the finest pictures to date of Comet ISON by ace astrophotographer Damian Peach taken on Oct. 27

The trajectory of the comet hasn’t changed. Gravity is far and away the dominant force steering the comet, and it’s still on its way out. It’s still bright, though not nearly as bright as it was. And it’s still very close to the Sun, just a few degrees

away, so it won’t be visible just yet. However, after a few days, if it stays bright, it may be visible in the predawn sky. I wouldn’t bet on it, but geez, I wouldn’t bet against it either with this comet. Look low to the eastern horizon while the sky is still dark; you may need binoculars. As far as I can tell, the tail (if any) will stick more or less straight up away from the horizon. It may be visible after sunset in the west-northwest as well, but the angle of the tail won’t be as good. The comet, or what’s left of it, will make its closest approach to Earth at the end of December, when it will be 60 million kilometers away. A few weeks later, it’s possible that we’ll pass through the debris trail from ISON, and see some meteors from it. At this point, given the capricious nature of the comet, I’d score this one as a firm maybe. We’ll know more in the coming weeks. I don’t think there’s any real danger from big pieces, since the comet itself will be millions of kilometers away at the time, so don’t fret. We should be safe from needing Bruce Willis’s help here. www.slate.com

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Second Planetary System like ours discovered A team of European astronomers has discovered a second planetary system, the closest parallel to our own solar system yet found. It includes seven exoplanets orbiting a star with the small rocky planets close to their host star and the gas giant planets further away.The system was hidden within the wealth of data from the Kepler Space Telescope. KOI-351 is “the first system with a significant number of planets (not just two or three, where random fluctuations can play a role) that shows a clear hierarchy like the solar system — with small, probably rocky, planets in the interior and gas giants in the (exterior),” said Dr. Juan Cabrera,

of the Institute of Planetary Research. Three of the seven planets orbiting KOI-351 were detected earlier this year, and have periods of 59, 210 and 331 days — similar to the periods of Mercury,Venus and Earth. But the orbital periods of

Above: A comparison between our solar system and a second planetary system: KOI-351.

"Freakish" Asteroid has six tails, sheds stuff into space A lawn sprinkler in space.That’s one of the descriptions NASA has for the curious P/2013 P5, which is spewing not one, not two, but six comet-like tails at the same time. “We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it,” stated David Jewitt of the University of California. “Even more amazing, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It’s hard to believe we’re looking at an asteroid.” It appears that the asteroid is rotating so quickly that it is ripping its very surface apart. They’ve ruled out a collision because the dust leaves in spurts; calculations

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by team member Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Lindau, Germany estimated this happened on April 15, July 18, July 24, Aug. 8, Aug. 26 and Sept. 4. Once the dust gets loose, the sun’s continuous stream of particles then pushes the debris into these extraordinary tails. It’s also possible that this “radiation pressure” contributed to the asteroid’s high spin rate. It appears the team is looking to find more of

these planets vary by as much as 25.7 hours. This is the highest variation detected in an exoplanet’s orbital period so far, hinting that there are more planets than meets the eye. In closely packed systems, the gravitational pull of nearby planets can cause the acceleration or deceleration of a planet along its orbit. These “tugs” cause the variations in orbital periods. They also provide indirect evidence of further planets. Using advanced computer algorithms, Cabrera and his team detected four new planets orbiting KOI-351. But these planets are much closer to their host star than Mercury is to our Sun, with orbital periods of 7, 9, 92 and 125 days. The system is extremely compact — with the outermost planet having an orbital period less than the Earth’s.Yes, the entire system orbits within 1 AU. While astronomers have discovered over 1000 exoplanets, this is the first solar system analogue detected to date. Not only are there seven planets, but they display the same architecture — rocky small planets orbiting close to the sun and gas giants orbiting further away — as our own solar system. these objects to see if this is a way that smaller asteroids commonly fall apart. “In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch

Most exoplanets are strikingly different from the planets in our own solar system. “We find planets in any order, at any distance, of any size; even planetary classes that don’t exist in the solar system,” Cabrera said. Several theories including planet migration and planet-planet scattering have been proposed to explain these differences. But the fact of the matter is planet formation is still poorly understood. “We don’t know yet why this system formed this way, but we have the feeling that this is a key system in understanding planetary formation in general and the formation of the solar system in particular,” said Cabrera.

Recent Events

Upcoming Club Events

Stargazing in Stradbally

December 3rd: “Mini Astronomy Expo”, This will be confirmed later, but the committee are currently talking about a planned Astronomy Expo Night ahead of Christmas with information and advice on all aspects of Astronomy, especially telescopes. More details late.

MAC were invited by Catherine Casey of Laois Heritage Forum to come back to Stradbally in Co. Laois to host an event for Science Week. “Stargazing in Stradbally” was hosted by Seanie Morris, Declan Molloy and Larry Rigney on Saturday November 17th in Stradbally Library. Armed with telescopes, slideshows, demonstrations and more, a full house of families and enthusiasts gathered for the event indoors before heading out with the telescopes for much of the night. This was part of Science Week which ran from November 10th to 17th

The team is extremely hopeful that the upcoming mission PLATO will receive funding. If so, it will allow them to take a second look at this system — determining the radius and mass of each planet and even analyzing their compositions.

All our lecture nights take place on the 1st Tuesday of the month. They start at 8pm, admission is only €2 and includes that month’s SkyMaps. Lectures are aimed at all levels of interest. Got an Astronomy lecture suggestion? Email us at midlandsastronomy@gmail.com or get in touch with any committee member.

Keep an eye out for...

www.universetoday.com

www.skymania.com

January 21st: Annual General Meeting Open to All February 4th: “Binocular Astronomy in Spring” by Seanie Morris, MAC Secretary.

Follow-up observations will not only allow astronomers to determine how this planetary system formed, it will provide hints as to how our own solar system formed.

more,” Jewitt stated. “This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come.”

January 7th: “The Chelyabinsk Meteorite” by Michael O’Connell Connolly, MAC.

Above: Seanie Morris with Chloe, Paddy and Aisling Mills at Stradbally Library, taken from the Leinster Express. Photo by Michael Scully. Photographing the (Winter) Night Sky

MAC PRO Dave Connolly presented our November talk, giving tips on using primarily a DSLR camera and software to capture different targets (without a telescope) of the night sky. Dave also showcased some of his own images, which can be found on his Facebook page.

Comet ISON – Comet ISOFF – Comet ISON again?

By now you are familiar with what happened to Comet ISON as it made its trip round the Sun. We still have to wait (at the time of print) to see what happens next as it continues its journey through the Solar System. It should still make a pass close to Earth some time around the 26th this month. It did appear to make it through, but it might be more than just an asteroid left. Keep an eye on the internet for more.

Change of Meetings Venue

We have moved home! From January onwards, all our meetings will take place in Clonamore House on the Arden Road in Tullamore. We express our ‘Thanks!’ to Rev. William Hayes for the use of the Presbyterian Hall since 2006.

Mercury It is estimated that less than 5% of the world’s population know they saw Mercury at some stage. Also known as the ‘Elusive Planet’, Mercury presents itself for short periods of time at various stages of the year at sunrise or sunset. The innermost planet, Mercury takes just 88 days to go once round the Sun. Currently, for the first 2 weeks of December, it will be in Libra and seen little more than 30-40 minutes before sunrise. This will shorten as the month progresses due to its motion getting closer to the Sun. All it appears as is a very bright, flickering star in the morning twilight preceding sunrise. Spot it from around 7am onwards, and you will join this elite group of observers who can claim to have seen the Elusive Planet! In a telescope or large binoculars, Mercury, like Venus, will show phases like the Moon according to where it is in its orbit. But be careful: is close proximity to the Sun at times makes it a viewing hazard!

Thank You & Goodnight!

It is with a heavy heart we say thank you and (a temporary?) farewell to John Lally as our Vice Chairperson and Réalta Editor. John has been a staunch member of the club since 2007, but due to work commitments will need to take a break from MAC for a while. Thank you for all your hard work John!

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

The Ghost of Mirach

"Elephant Trunks" crowd distant star cluster, raising new questions about stellar formation

The overhead skies of late northern autumn hold few bright stars. During these months the northern night side of our planet faces out of the starry plane of the Milky Way and into bleak intergalactic space. The sky here is packed with galaxies. Andromeda and Pegasus, especially, hold dozens of galaxies visible in a small telescope. Most are a little tricky to find. But there’s one strange little galaxy in Andromeda that could not be easier to locate. Yet seeing this galaxy is a challenge and a reward for the persistent stargazer… This little 11th-magnitude galaxy is cataloged as NGC 404. It’s located just 1/10 of a degree (6’) northwest of the 2nd magnitude red-giant star β Andromedae (Mirach). Even at high magnification, the galaxy will be in the same field of view of the star. And that’s the problem. Because of its comparative faintness, the galaxy is washed out by the glow of Mirach itself. At first, many observers think the galaxy is a ghost image or some reflection in the optics. That’s why NGC 404 is

Star winds are pushing the gas around NGC 3572 into “elephant trunks”, as you can see if you look carefully as this picture snapped by a La Silla Observatory telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. It’s a demonstration of the power of the youngster blue-white stars embedded in the cloud, which are generating huge gusts blowing the gas and dust away from them.

sometimes called the “Ghost of Mirach” (see image above). As you search for the galaxy, don’t look right at Mirach. If you do, you expose the least light sensitive part of your eye. Instead, move Mirach to the southeast edge of the field and look at the center of the field to effectively avert your vision and expose the sensitive part of your retina. The galaxy will jump out as a fuzzy star basking in the glow of bright Mirach.

Above: Mirach and NGC 404 in visible light (left) and UV light (right). NGC 404 is a “lenticular” galaxy, which means it’s shaped like a lens and has little evidence of winding spiral arms. At a fairly modest distance of 10 million light years, the galaxy lies just on the edge of the Local Group and is likely bound to a group of galaxies in the Coma-Sculptor cloud. This dwarf galaxy is about the same size as the Small Magellanic Cloud. But it’s intrinsically a little brighter and much farther away.

Lenticular galaxies tend to have little starforming activity. But astronomers have discovered NGC 404 is ringed by newly-formed stars and excited hydrogen gas. Above: Location of the star Mirach in the constellation Andromeda. NGC 404 is 6′ northwest Studies suggest the little galaxy of Mirach. Red circle marks the location of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy

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was jostled by the gravity of another galaxy about a billion years ago, an event which triggered a wave of star formation from the last remnants of gas within this tiny star group. www.oneminuteastronomer.com

It’s common for young stars to form in groups. After a few million years growing together, their respective gravities pushes everything further apart, and the stars then finish their lifetimes on their own. Looking at young star clusters such as this gives astronomers a better sense about how our own Sun began its life. If we zoomed closer to those elephant trunks, they would look similar to the famous “Pillars of Creation” image captured in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope in the Eagle Nebula (M16). NASA also did a follow-up observation using infrared wavelengths in 2005

• find sparkling star clusters, wispy nebulae and distant galaxies. • locate and follow bright comets across the sky. • learn about the night sky and astronomy.

www.universetoday.com

As for the picture of NGC 3572, the high-resolution image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ ESO 2.2-metre telescope is also revealing new mysteries that will require further investigation, ESO stated. “A strange feature captured in this image is the tiny ring-like nebula located slightly above the centre of the image,” ESO wrote. ”Astronomers still are a little uncertain about the origin of this curious feature. It is probably a

Astronomers confirm that debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR should create a sky show on May 24, 2014.

• identify planets, stars and major constellations.

Astronomers were also surprised by seeing stars older than 10 million years old within this image that were still picking up mass, which implies that planetary formation could take longer than previously believed.

and 2011, which made the young stars a bit easier to see amid the gas and dust.

The next new meteor shower Available free each month, Skymaps.com offers you an evening sky map suitable for all stargazers and will help you:

dense leftover from the molecular cloud that formed the cluster, perhaps a bubble created around a very bright hot star. But some authors have considered that it may be some kind of oddly shaped

planetary nebula — the remnants of a dying star.”

Most meteor showers, like this week’s Leonids, occur when Earth plows into the debris trail left behind by a comet. The comet throws this debris off as it’s heated by the Sun, but while all comets heat up as they enter the inner solar system, many do not have orbits that intersect with Earth’s. That’s why the number of major meteor showers per year has remained relatively constant, even though we’re regularly discovering new comets.

Comet 209P/LINEAR was discovered in 2004 by an automated observing campaign. With a period of just over 5 years, the comet stays relatively close to the Sun and inner solar system. Detailed calculations of its orbit indicated that in May 2014 the comet’s debris trails would pass extremely close to Earth. These thousands of particles could burn up in Earth’s atmosphere as meteors when our planet plows through the debris field.

The tried-and-true list of showers might change soon, though. As we noted in 2012, the comet 209P/ LINEAR, which passed by the Sun in 2009, may produce a big meteor shower on May 24, 2014. New calculations by Quanzhi Ye and Paul A. Wiegert refine that prediction — and make it a little less optimistic.

Ye and Wiegert used images from the comet’s last visit in late 2008 and 2009 to model the comet’s trajectory and predict what kind of shower its crumbs might create. The shower’s strength depends on the size of debris particles left behind. Although astronomers can’t go out with a net and collect the particles for measurement,

Above: NGC 3572 seen with a 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. they can find this information encoded in the curve of the comet’s grand dust tail. The curve’s shape depends on the interplay between the radiation pressure and gravity of the Sun, and different sized particles will produce tails with different amounts of curvature. As Ye and Wiegert report the team’s calculations suggest that the comet has been producing relatively large particles (on the order of 1 mm), meaning that the upcoming meteor shower may be chock-full of bright meteors. But their work also places limits on the overall rate of meteors, suggesting a rate of 200 per hour under ideal conditions. That’s in the same ballpark as previous, independent work by Jérémie Vaubaillon (IMCEE, France) and Mikhail Maslov: Maslov, for example, estimated between 100 and 400 meteors per hour. But Ye and Wiegert warn that, “given the current relatively weak dust production of the comet, rates

could be much lower.” With the low dust production, as well as the team’s lower estimate of how many debris streams from the comet's previous passes are hanging around in this region of space, it’s highly unlikely that we’re in for a “meteor storm” (1,000 per hour) — although the team couldn’t quite rule it out. Whatever the outcome, it’ll be worth going out to look in May. The meteor shower is set to peak around 7h Universal Time on May 24, 2014, with the radiant point in the constellation Camelopardalis. That’ll be a fist-width or two above the horizon for those around latitude 40° N; the shower should be easily visible from much of the Northern Hemisphere. www.skyandtelescope.com

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Why are Dobsonian telescopes a favourite for amateur astronomers?

Choosing a New Telescope – GoTo or not GoTo that is the question Astronomers are often asked by people “I’m a beginner, so what telescope should I buy?” Or more often, what GoTo telescope would you recommend for someone starting out in astronomy? When venturing out and buying your first telescope, there are a number of factors to consider, but because of glossy advertising and our current digital age, the first telescope that people think of is a GoTo. Do you really need a GoTo or would a manual telescope suffice? In order to make a good decision on what telescope to buy, you need to decide on what you want to use the telescope for — observing, photography, or both and does it need to be portable or not? This will help you make the best decision for the mount of your telescope.

GoTo telescopes are usually advertised as being fully automatic and once they have set themselves up, or are set up by the user, they can access and track and many thousands of stars or objects with just a simple touch of a button. These features have made GoTo scopes are very desirable with many astrophotographers. Manual telescopes are not automatic or driven by motors as GoTo scopes are. They are predomina ntly used for observing (using your eyes instead of a camera) and the scope is moved by hand or by levers by the user to find different objects in the eyepiece. Manual telescopes usually have a finder scope, red dot finder or laser finder to aid in finding objects in the eyepiece. They are unable to track objects, which can make them unsuitable for photography. GoTo Vs Manual Compared to GoTo telescopes, manual telescopes are much more economical as you are basically buying a very simple mount and an optical tube assembly (the telescope tube, or OTA). With GoTo

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Welcome to the scary and expensive world of buying your first, or replacing your old telescope! I am asked all the time “What telescope should I buy” or “What telescope do I need to see X with?” Nine times out of ten, I recommend a Dobsonian Telescope. So what is a Dobsonian telescope and why are they so good? Read on to find out why.

you are adding electr onics and control mecha nisms to drive the scope, which can add heavily to the cost. A small GoTo telescope could cost the same as a lot larger manual Dobsonian telescope. Good GoTo telescopes make astrophotography very accessible and enjoyable, especially with the addition of cameras and other kits. As opposed to manual scopes, GoTos can be used for long exposure astrophotography. Be aware though, that much astrophotography is done with very expensive imaging equipment, but good results can be achieved with web cams and DSLR cameras. Manual telescopes are brilliant at helping you discover and learn the sky as you have to actually hunt or star hop for different objects. I once met a person who had been using a GoTo telescope heavily for a year, and at a star party I asked her to show some kids where a well known star was with my laser pointer, she didn’t know because she was used to her GoTo scope taking her to objects. So which one should you buy? I would recommend for pure visual observing a manual telescope such as a large Dobsonian or Newtonian telescope. The human eye needs as much light to enter it as possible to see things in the dark, so a big aperture or mirror means greater light gathering and more light entering your eye, so you can see more. What you saved by not having GoTo, you can spend on increasing the size of your telescope.

A Dobsonian is simplicity in itself; a simple set of optics on a simple mount. But don’t be fooled by this simplicity. Dobsonian telescopes are incredibly good and are great for amateurs and profess ional astronomers alike. They are also very economical compared to other telescopes.

If you want to add photography or imaging capabilities then I would definitely recommend a good quality GoTo scope or mount.You will get a smaller aperture compared to the manual scope for the same money, but the scope will track for astro-imaging and can also be used for visual observing. Be prepared to spend a lot more money, though. Consider how you want to use your telescope and the size of your budget. Avoid buying low end, cheap, budget, or what is known as “department store” telescopes to avoid disappointment. Save up a little longer and get a good telescope.Visit your local astronomy store or telescope distributor and before you buy ask an astronomer, they will be glad to help. www.universetoday.com

The optical part of the telescope or OTA (Optical Tube Assembly) is the same as a Newtonian reflector telescope. It consists of a primary parabolic mirror and a flat secondary mirror in an open ended tube, with a focuser for an eyepiece set on the side. Light enters the tube, reflects off of the primary mirror at the base and is then focused onto the smaller flat secondary mirror and then finally, into an eyepiece. Simple!

The benefit of this type of optical arrangement is the telescopes light gathering ability. The more light gathered, equals more fainter objects to be seen. A light bucket! Dobsonian/Newtonian telescopes have a big advantage over telescopes with lenses such as ref ractors and Cassegrain telescopes, as mirrors are a lot cheaper to make than lenses. Plus they can be a lot bigger! Both Dobsonian and Newtonian telescopes are measured by the size of the diameter of their primary (big) mirror. Dobsonian sizes range from starter scopes of 6 inches up to 30 inches, but common sizes are 8 to 16 inches in diameter. They can be many times larger and less expensive to produce than scopes with lenses. The second part of a Dobsonian telescope is the mount. As with the optical part the mount is just as simple, if not more so! A basic manual mount which supports the optical tube and can be manually moved by hand in the Altitude (up/ down) and Azimuth (left/right) axis.

The mount is usually made from wood or metal with bearings and support for the two axis of movement. More so lately, some manufacturers have put GoTo systems with motors on some Dobsonian mounts. Personally I think it’s a bit over kill for a Dobsonian, as finding objects manually by star hopping or other manual methods helps you learn the sky better and can be fun. Resist the urge to spend lots of money on small computerized scopes that will eventually never get used, as they can be too complicated or you may not see much through them apart from thebrightest objects such as the Moon. A Dobsonian is a great allaround telescope, and are available in almost all telescope stores. Some people make their own homemade Dobsonian scopes too!

simplicity, they are very economical and popular with astronomers of all levels of ability. My own and most favourite telescope is my Skywatcher 10-inch Dobsonian and I will probably be using it for many more years to come, as it is difficult to beat! The name of the Dobsonian telescope comes from its creator John Dobson, who combined the simple design of the Newtonian telescope with the Alt-Azimuth mount. He originally made simple homemade scopes from household materials and ground mirrors out of the glass of old ship portholes. John Dobson is the grandfather of Sidewalk Astronomy and cofounder of the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers. www.universetoday.com

Due to the nature of the Alt-Az mount, Dobsonians are not suitable for long exposure astro imaging. For that you will need an equatorial mount, which will track the stars equatorially.You may have some success with webcam imaging with some of the GoTo Mounts though. Dobsonian telescopes are designed to be simple, easy to use and gather as much light as possible. Because of this robust

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Why are Dobsonian telescopes a favourite for amateur astronomers?

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

The Ghost of Mirach

"Elephant Trunks" crowd distant star cluster, raising new questions about stellar formation

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• find sparkling star clusters, wispy nebulae and distant galaxies. • locate and follow bright comets across the sky. • learn about the night sky and astronomy.

www.universetoday.com

Astronomers confirm that debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR should create a sky show on May 24, 2014.

• identify planets, stars and major constellations.

and 2011, which made the young stars a bit easier to see amid the gas and dust.

The next new meteor shower Available free each month, Skymaps.com offers you an evening sky map suitable for all stargazers and will help you:

dense leftover from the molecular cloud that formed the cluster, perhaps a bubble created around a very bright hot star. But some authors have considered that it may be some kind of oddly shaped

planetary nebula — the remnants of a dying star.”

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Above: A comparison between our solar system and a second planetary system: KOI-351.

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Recent Events

Upcoming Club Events

Stargazing in Stradbally

Keep an eye out for...

www.universetoday.com

www.skymania.com

January 21st: Annual General Meeting Open to All February 4th: “Binocular Astronomy in Spring” by Seanie Morris, MAC Secretary.

Follow-up observations will not only allow astronomers to determine how this planetary system formed, it will provide hints as to how our own solar system formed.

more,” Jewitt stated. “This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come.”

January 7th: “The Chelyabinsk Meteorite” by Michael O’Connell Connolly, MAC.

Above: Seanie Morris with Chloe, Paddy and Aisling Mills at Stradbally Library, taken from the Leinster Express. Photo by Michael Scully. Photographing the (Winter) Night Sky

Comet ISON – Comet ISOFF – Comet ISON again?

Change of Meetings Venue

Thank You & Goodnight!

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Kid's Korner

What are Constellations anyway? the belt, is 1340 light years away. And Mintaka at the right side of the belt is 916 light years away.Yet they all appear from Earth to have the same brightness.

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Above: Bright, brighter, brightest: these views of Comet ISON after its closest approach to the sun Nov. 28 show that a small part of the nucleus may have survived the encounter.

Above: One of the finest pictures to date of Comet ISON by ace astrophotographer Damian Peach taken on Oct. 27

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine MAC meets on the first Tuesday of the month in the NEW LOCATION of the Clonamore House Hotel, Tullamore from 8pm.

The next new meteor shower

Choosing a New Telescope – GoTo or not GoTo that is the question

Why are Dobsonian telescopes a favourite for amateur astronomers?

The Ghost of Mirach

Club News 9.

Club News

Kids Section 10.

Kids Korner

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Exercise your brain

Monthly Sky Guide 12.

Beginners guide for this month

Internet Highlights 13.

Special content only available with the online version of the magazine.

2 4

5 6

7 7 8

5 9

Check your answers

Answer 5: Accretion Disk. This large disk of gas turns white hot just before entering the black hole itself.

about stellar formation

Answer 1: Theory of Relativity. The theory of relativity established Einstein as one of the greatest minds that ever lived.

"Elephant Trunks" crowd distant star cluster, raising new questions

Answer 6: It is not large enough. Only stars far more massive than the Sun are capable of creating black holes.

Answer 7: Pulsars. These objects pulse out radio waves because of their immense rotational speed.

"Freakish" Asteroid has six tails, sheds stuff into space

Answer 2: It is invisible to the naked eye. The corona is an envelope of highly ionized gas that surrounds the chromosphere (2nd uppermost part) of our sun.

SUDOKU

Answer 8: Nebulae. After being born in these clouds of gas, the star then wanders out to live the rest of its days wherever gravity takes it.

Second Planetary System like ours discovered

Answer 9: Strong Force. Contrary to popular belief, gravity is an extremely weak force relative to the others. Hammons' force however, does not exist.

ISON after Perihelion: The undead maybe somewhat ex-Comet

Answer 10: Tidal Force. Miller and Urey are known for experiments in biology, relative and expansion forces are not forces of gravity.

Latest Astronomy and Space News

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Issue 49 - December, 2013

Well, that's about it for this month. Orion is rising in the south and will offer lots of targets for late evening this month also. Clear skies and good hunting!

Latest Astronomy and Space News

By Kevin Daly

http://members.aol.com/kdaly10475/index.htm

Club News

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Quizzes and Games Monthly Sky Guide Internet Highlights

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Internet Highlights Each month we will try and bring you the best if the web for astronomy online resources such as movies, podcasts and free software. If you have any suggestions for content in these pages please contact us at midlandsastronomy@gmail.com Please click on the links provided to view the material and not the images.

Virtual Star Party November 24, 2013

Weekly Space Hangout November 22, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBHTe5p3g9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_JPoe_O67g

Cosmic Journeys: Mars: World That Never Was

Podcast: SOHO As we’ve mentioned before, the Sun is a terrifying ball of plasma. It’s a good thing we’re keeping an eye on it. Operating for more than 18 years now, SOHO has been making detailed observations of the Sun’s activity though an almost entire solar cycle. With so many years of operation, SOHO has some amazing stories to tell.? http://www.astronomycast.com/

Podcast: The Jodcast A podcast about astronomy including the latest news, what you can see in the night sky, interviews with astronomers and more. It is created by astronomers from The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank for anyone interested in things out of this world. http://youtu.be/JgMXPXdqJn8

http://www.jodcast.net/archive/

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine Secrets of the Sun It contains 99.9 percent of all the matter in our solar system and sheds hot plasma at nearly a million miles an hour. The temperature at its core is a staggering 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. It convulses, it blazes, it sings.You know it as the sun. Scientists know it as one of the most amazing physics laboratories in the universe. Now, with the help of new spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes, scientists are seeing the sun as they never have before and even recreating what happens at its very center in labs here on Earth. http://youtu.be/wisdfag6WIQ

Black Holes

What's Up for December 2013

Black holes are objects of extreme density, with such strong gravitational attraction that even light cannot escape from their grasp if it comes near enough.

Track comet ISON's journey as bright planets and starry events fill the sky this December.

http://youtu.be/Qlxkwhxo_vw

http://youtu.be/_UlmGDoUI5Y

Useful free astronomy resources Midlands Astronomy Club have created a Google+ page so that our members and non-members alike can: • Keep up-to-date on future outreach events. • Be informed of upcoming lectures. • Have online access to the latest astronomy news as it happens.

IFAS Website

http://www.irishastronomy.org

Stellarium

http://www.stellarium.org

Virtual Moon Atlas

http://www.astrosurf.com/avl/UK_index.html

Celestia

http://shatters.net/celestia/index.html

Sky Maps

http://skymaps.com/index.html

Heavens-Above

http://www.heavens-above.com/

• See photos of all club events and activities. http://goo.gl/jajnw