Perth Observatory Newsletter | December 2022

WA Astrophotographers On Show

This year’s astrofest astrophotography exhibition is now at the observatory until mid January

Payback For The Dinosaurs

Learn how NASA hit an asteroid so we can find ways to protects ourselves from the next big meteor.

Is Passengers Worth A Watch?

We review the movie with Chris Patt and Jennifer Lawrence, it’ll make you question how you would go all alone in the great void between the stars.

Find Out What’s Happening At The Observatory

We got an update on our latest projects and we review the latest two major astronomical events

DECEMBER 2022

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Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.

Maria

Mitchell,

Astronomer Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

A View Through The Eyepiece

Kaya and Welcome

Perth Observatory Volunteer Group acknowledges we operate on the traditional lands of the Whadjuk-Noongar people.

It’s the end of the year! We are in the season of Birak, it’s getting hotter and hotter but luckily the sea breeze is also rolling in. It’s a season to reflect on the year passed, to gather with loved ones and celebrate the holidays.

These past three months have been eventful, with new tours, new events, and a new board voted in at our AGM. The Observatories Annual General Meeting was held on the 21st November and we had a record amount of volunteers attend. It was great to see so many volunteers gathered and to see all the progress made in the last year. We have worked really hard with our JTSI funding and have started many new and exciting projects. 2022 may have been a year of planning but we hope that 2023 will be the year to finish some of these projects and maybe start even more.

This month has also been the start of a new exhibition hallway, which you can read more about in this issue, but it has also seen a lot of progress being made with our museum refurbishment. It is looking great and will be open again to the public really soon. You can learn more in the Program Manager’s report about what other projects are ongoing

This issue also has a write up about the NASA DART mission, which could be our saviour in times of Apocalyptic asteroids and following the theme of things falling from the sky there is a write up of our Geminids Meteor Shower event.

So, happy end of the year, have an excellent holiday season and if you are feeling the stress of family gatherings and over-spending then remember to take some time and have a look upwards at the stars. It might not help your problems, but boy are they pretty.

POVG pay our respects to Noongar Elders past, present, and emerging.

Zoé Fraussen Editor

Upcoming Events

8th of January

Intro To The Stars Festival

Time: 11 am - 1 pm & 1 pm - 4 pm

Price: $55 per family (2 adults and 3 children)

$20 per adult

$15 per concession

$10 per child (Ages 5 to 17)

This school holidays, we’re holding our Intro to the Stars Festival. Bring the family up and experience a fantastic day of activities, tours, and talks to get the kids fascinated with space and astronomy.

17th of January

Star Light Star Bright School Holiday Program

Time: 10 am - 12 pm (Doors open at: 9:30 pm) Price: $15 per child (1 guardian spot included)

Learn about stars, constellations, and how Astronomers discover new stars, planets, and asteroids. In this program, we will look at one of our historical telescopes and how it used photographic plates to find new stars. We will then go on a tour of our night sky (through the program Stellarium) and the constellations that make it up.

19th of January

Our Special Star School Holiday Program

Time: 10 am - 12 pm (Doors open at: 9:30 pm) Price: $15 per child (1 guardian spot included)

Learn about our Sun, the light and energy it gives off and how we can use it to tell the time, or power our electronics. In this program, we will look through a solar telescope at our sun and learn about sunspots and solar flares, and how we can use shadows to tell the time.

24th of January

Crash Landing! School Holiday Program

Time: 10 am - 12 pm (Doors open at: 9:30 pm)

Price: $15 per child (1 guardian spot included)

Learn about the rocks that float in space and what happens when they crash land into the Earth.

In this program, we will observe a real meteorite and learn about what happens when they land on Earth. Then we will make our own meteors and learn about impact craters.

2nd of February

Lunar Photography Workshop

Time: 7 pm - 10 pm Price: $120 per person

This promises to be a fun relaxed evening of photographing the Moon on some fantastic telescopes using your camera. Using a combination of Astrophotography Australia telescope and equipment, and the Perth Observatory telescopes, we will have a wide range of focal lengths (magnifications) and types of telescopes available. You will be able to take photographs of the moon that feature the full disk, and photographs that are at much higher magnification.

14th of February

Valentine’s Night Tour

Time: 8:30 pm - 10 pm Price: $55 per adult $25 per concession

Love is in the air at the Observatory. book on our special night sky tour so you can spoil that special someone in your life. Our Volunteers will take you on a grand tour of the Southern Hemisphere’s sky

The observatory will be open earlier as well so you can have a lovely picnic dinner on our back lawn with the kangaroos.

2nd of March

Lunar

Photography Workshop

Time: 7 pm - 10 pm Price: $120 per person

This promises to be a fun relaxed evening of photographing the Moon on some fantastic telescopes using your camera. Using a combination of Astrophotography Australia telescope and equipment, and the Perth Observatory telescopes, we will have a wide range of focal lengths (magnifications) and types of telescopes available. You will be able to take photographs of the moon that feature the full disk, and photographs that are at much higher magnification.

25th of March

Astrophotography

Workshop

Time: 1 pm - 10 pm (Doors open at 12:30 pm) Price: $280 per person

Want to get started in astrophotography?

We’re running a workshop where you’ll learn to use your camera and a telescope. You’ll also learn what your equipment is capable of so you can try your hand at nightscapes and deep-sky photography.

It’s a fantastic full day of astrophotography that gives you a small group experience learning.

The Jubilee Dome With the

Orion Constellation

Image Credit: Roger Groom

By Matt Woods

This past November we were lucky enough to observe one of the more beautiful astronomical events, a Total Lunar Eclipse. There’s something magical about seeing a blood-orange moon in the night sky, and it’s perfect for Astrophotography as we don’t have the blinding light from the moon hiding stars around it.

This eclipse was going to be already in totality (Within Earth’s inner shadow called the Umbra) as it rose above the horizon which caused an issue for us at the Observatory. Due to the trees surrounding the viewing area, we knew this would prevent us from seeing the blood-orange moon at the Observatory, meaning we had to go offsite. This also gave us a chance to organise one big event with the help of our friends at the Astronomical Group of Western Australia (AGWA), Stargazers Club

WA, and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), which they all were enthusiastic about.

With the lovely Swan River meandering through our city, it creates lots of stunning views to enjoy, so the plan was to make sure we chose the site that showed the best view possible and also be able to handle hundreds to thousands of people. This was important so we didn’t get the same issues we had with the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in December 2020 when we had 4,000 or so people at Coogee Beach. We ended up choosing Matilda Bay next to the University of Western Australia, which has a lovely little beach, plenty of space if we end up getting thousands of people, and gorgeous views of the Perth CBD with Kings Park, and the Narrows Bridge. As usual with eclipses,

Image Credit: Roger Groom

we were going to live stream the eclipse for timeanddate.com and with the delay in seeing the moon, we realised with Matilda Bay, we could provide Time and Date with footage of the spectacular scenery as an option to show on their live stream. We book Matilda Bay for the event, and I started the process of getting our volunteers and telescopes organised, plus also started praying for good weather on the night.

I obviously wasn’t praying hard enough, because, as we got closer and closer to the day, the weather reports were getting worse. This is why clouds are jerks and our mortal enemy, they always try to and ruin an astronomical event.

After a day of doing radio and TV interviews, it was time to head down and start getting ready for the event. Absolutely heartbroken, I drove down under completely cloudy skies until just before I drove past the Perth CBD. That’s when there started to be a glimmer of hope that we might be able to see the last total lunar eclipse until September 2025 as the blue sky started to reveal itself. Arriving at Matilda Bay gave me more hope as we had this lovely fresh breeze and the clouds receding faster so we had a good chance that would see the eclipse.

Image Credit: Michael Goh

With everything set up, live interviews with Channel 9 news, Channel 10 news, and Time and Date completed, it was time to start the event and welcome the 400 or so visitors that came along to experience this magical event with us, and they weren’t disappointed. While we waited for the Moon, the visitors played at the beach and set up their equipment, we even had a playful dolphin decide to check us out and provide some of the visitors with amazing shots of it playing in the water. We did have to wait until 15 minutes before the end of totality, but we managed to see the Moon in all its glory, and you could hear the collective amazement of the crowd. We were lucky enough that the cloud stayed away for the rest of the night so we could see the whole of the second partial phase of the eclipse as well.

While I was pleased the night went extremely well, the highlight for me as it always is, is seeing the looks on people’s faces as they saw the blood-orange moon through binoculars and/or telescopes. It doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s always the same expression of amazement and wonder. One added advantage of being able to live stream the event is that we’re able to show a lot of visitors at the same time, what the Moon looks like through the telescope on one of my screens.

We couldn’t do the live stream this time without the help of Paywise who lent us their 5G mobile router and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development who lent us their Starlink satellite dish which was our backup, but we tested it for them as we’ll need it for the Total Solar Eclipse in Exmouth next April.

The funniest thing about eclipses is that once you’ve seen your first one, the next thing you want to do is find out when the next one is. While the next Total Lunar Eclipse we’ll see in Perth won’t be until September 2025, we do have the Total Solar Eclipse in Exmouth (70% partial solar eclipse in Perth) next April, the saying “the best things come to those who wait” is very true.

Image Credit: Michael Goh

Image Credit: Roger Groom

Image Credit: Michael Goh

Image Credit: Michael Goh

BULLSEYE For DART Mission

By Jodie Sims

On 24th November 2021, NASA launched an ambitious mission called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) as part of their planetary defense program. This mission launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and was destined for an impact with the asteroid Dimorphos, to see if we could change its trajectory. We have never before tried to change the path of any celestial body. For the first time in history, Earth is striking back!

Dimorphos, is a 160m wide minor-planet moon with a 12-hour orbit time of the near-Earth asteroid 65803 Didymos. Didymos, which means twin in Greek, is a sub-kilometre asteroid measuring a total of 780 m wide that falls into the category of potentially hazardous asteroids and a near-Earth object (NEO) of the Apollo group. This group of asteroids are particularly hazardous due to their elliptical orbit with a perihelion less than 1.017 AU passing close to both Earth and Mars. Most asteroids lie between Mars and Jupiter in an enormous ring known as the asteroid belt. This belt of rubble is left over from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago and holds more than 200 asteroids larger than 100km in diameter.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

As of April 2022, a total of 28,772 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered and 878 have a diameter of one kilometre or larger. This particular NEO is situated 11 million kilometres from Earth. The main objective of the DART mission was to determine how much DART’s kinetic impact could alter Dimorphos’ velocity by measuring the change in its orbit around Didymos once impacted. This technology may then be used in the future to deflect any potential asteroids on a collision course with our home planet.

The main DART body measured 2.6m across and weighed 600kg, driven primarily by DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation). A camera imaging the approach to the asteroid system using a star tracker for positioning in space. DRACO was the eyes feeding the images to SMART Nav (Small body Manoeuvring Autonomous Real Time Navigation). Using computational algorithms SMART Nav guided DART autonomously. Any small errors in the positioning system could have spelled disaster for the mission.

Adjoining DART was a small, shoe box sized spacecraft built by the Italian Space Agency (ISA), know, as the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids (LICIACube). It was DART itself that collided with Dimorphos; the job of LICIACube, when separated from DART on Sept. 11, was to fly close by and take images of the moonlet before and after the impact. Precise measurements of the orbit before and after impact was also taken by an array of Earth-based telescopes, including NASA’s Deep Space Network of radio telescopes in Barstow, California, Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia.

DART intercepted the small moonlet asteroid at 7:14 p.m. EDT on September 26th, 2022. Impacting at a speed of approximately 6.6 kilometres per second creating a plume of debris caught on camera by LICIACube. On the 11th of October after critical examination of all the data collected NASA announced the DART mission a resounding success, confirming it had shortened Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos by approximately 32 minutes.

Throughout history there has been more than 30,000 meteorites discovered on the surface of the Earth ranging in size. With an estimated 40,000 metric tons of space debris falling to earth each year. Thankfully asteroids large enough to cause catastrophic damage very rarely hit earth with the last known impact 66 million years ago. This cataclysmic event occurred when a 10 to 15 km diameter asteroid crashed off the Yucatan Peninsula causing a mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

On a smaller scale more recently on the 15th February 2013, a large explosion from an object entering our atmosphere occurred in the skies above Chelyabinsk just to the east of the Ural Mountains in southern Russia. Most of the object burned up in the atmosphere, but some pieces made it down to Earth. One smashed through the ice of the frozen Lake Chebarkul, leaving a hole 7 metres wide. This debris was recovered by divers in October 2013 and weighed in at 570 kilograms. Astronomers estimated from the debris collected that the explosion was an asteroid 17 to 20 metres across with a mass of 10,000 tonnes. The initial blast, at an altitude of about 30 kilometres, carried an energy equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT – about 30 Hiroshima bombs.

Other smaller objects have occasionally been known to hit people, but there have been no confirmed deaths in modern history. One such incident occurred in November 1954. A small meteorite crashed through the roof of a house in Alabama, bounced off a piece of furniture and hit 34-year-old Ann Elizabeth Hodges. Amazingly she survived to tell the tale.

A fantastic place to keep an eye out for potential impacts is the Sentry Earth Impact Monitoring database. Sentry is an automated collision monitoring system that scans the current asteroid catalogues for potential future impacts with Earth over the next 100 years. Daily observations and orbit calculations for Near-Earth objects are received and inputted from the Minor Planet Centre Cambridge, Massachusetts. Even though there has not been a major asteroid collision for millions of years there is always the potential that a large asteroid could be on a collision course with the Earth.

However, DART has shown that Earth has never been more equipped to monitor and deflect potential galactic threats than now and planetary defence will continue to improve into the future with the ultimate goal of protecting humanity.

Image Credit:

Left Image: The launch of the Dart Mission on a Falcon 9 Rocket. Mashable India

First Image: DART mission by NASA above asteroid Didymos on its way to the moonlet Dimorphos. The Global Economics

Second Image: Hubble Space Telescope shows a split stream of dust and rock streaming off the Moonlet Dimorphos. NASA, ESA, STSCI, HUBBLE

Third Image: Plumes of debris erupting out of the asteroid Dimorphos. ASI Italian Space Agency

Fourth Image: DART’s Final Images Prior to Impact. NASA/ Johns Hopkins APL

Fifth Image: Dimorphos’s original and new orbit around asteriod Didymos. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

Promoting Western Australia’s Astrophotographers

By Zoé Fraussen

There’s always something new happening at the Perth Observatory, new tours, new volunteers, sometimes even new telescopes, and now a new exhibition space. If you have visited the Perth Observatory before you may recall the long corridor that leads from the foyer to our back lawn. These walls used to be donned with our star adoption certificates, Government Astronomer photos, and some

beautiful astrophotography pieces for sale. Well, all of these have been moved to the corridor that leads to our new classroom (see Project Managers report for more details) and this hallway is our new exhibition space. It’s not much but we are proud to have an area where we can showcase new and exciting things to our visitors. We will now have a new exhibition in this space every 3 months, which happily coincides with the release of this newsletter, how fortuitous.

We are kicking off this new space with a travelling exhibition from the Astrofest Astrophotography competition. This astrophotography competition has been running for

13 years, the last 3 being curated by Astrophotographer and Perth Observatory volunteer Roger Groom. We were lucky enough to work with Roger to showcase the finalists for 2022 in our new exhibition space. We also had the amazing opportunity to host an opening event for the artists involved.

On Thursday the 15th of December the Observatory hosted an extremely talented group of Astrophotographers who came up to the Observatory to discuss techniques, locations, software usage, and all things photography.

The night was kicked off with an introduction from Roger, and then a talk from 2022 Astrofest Astrophotography Best Astro Photo and Best Deep Sky Photo winner Carlos Taylor. Carlos spoke of his journey in astrophotography and the equipment used to take the winning photo. Roger led a Q&A with Carlos and the other photographers chimed in with insightful questions of their own.

The night was finished with hot drinks and canapes and a walk around the exhibition.

If you want to come along and see the exhibition yourself, it will be open until the end of February. You can visit during the week from 10 am - 4 pm, or on a Sunday from 1-4 pm or come along on a night sky tour. For more information on the Astrofest Astrophotography Competition visit the website

One thing that became very obvious over the night was how amazing the astrophotography community is. It was great to see the photographers finally meet face-to-face people they knew only from online groups. It was a lovely night filled with passionate people who came together with no rivalry after a competition.

Image Credit & Copyright: Zoé Fraussen & Matt Woods

Keeping Up With The Volunteers

By Julie Matthews

James Hockridge – Inspiring our children

day and night

The sound of excited young voices float through the corridors of Perth Observatory as a class of students arrive for a School Day Tour. Our popular school day tours are targeted at years 3 to 6, and the schools come from far and wide, including one from Geraldton and another from Singapore.

James Hockridge joined Perth Observatory in September 2020, and being passionate about learning new things, graduated as an Amateur Astronomer for Night Sky Tours within his first 6 weeks. This year he also became a School Day Tour presenter.

“I really love to give kids good opportunities to learn new things and knock on the door of astronomy” beams James. “Our tours encourage the children and inspire them in an easyunderstanding way with hands on activities. I find it meaningful to help young people find their interests and fulfilling to give back to the community.”

James shares his love for astronomy with his 7-year-old daughter and together they share fun evenings exploring the story behind the stars. James enthusiasm is infectious and he has become a valuable member of the team.

If you have time during school hours, love working with young people, and would like to join our happy team, please contact us by clicking the button below. Astronomy experience is not essential as all training is provided.

New Year Resolution – learn a new skill

Whilst you’re resting over the holiday break and setting your New Years Resolutions for 2023, give a thought to learning a new skill. Join us as our volunteer and we can find a role to suit you. We are looking for people to train as Presenters for our STEM activities, Tour Guides for Sunday Guided Tours, Till Operators for our Night Sky Tours, researchers for our Heritage group, Presenters for School Tours and of course, Amateur Astronomers for our Night Sky Tours. Our next intake for Night Sky Tours will be in early March 2023 so get your applications in now.

From The Desk Of The Program Manager

by Paul Wadham

It has been a busy year at the Observatory with projects arising from our Lotterywest grant plus the activities from the State Government Grant via the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (JTSI). Below I have detailed some of the highlights and changes that have taken place at the Observatory this year.

The state grant funding and approvals from The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) has enable us to make some great improvements to the Observatory. Possibly the most significant has been the transformation of our Board room into a Classroom equipped with new furniture, a large touch screen and new equipment storage cupboards.

We have also made improvements to our public toilet block, giving it a much-needed facelift.

For years now the trip to the public viewing area was poorly lit with old and broken 12-volt lights, this year with the aid of the State grant we were able to start upgrading the lights. It is still a work in progress but the first section from the back lawn to the Meridian dome has been completed with the rest to follow in the new year.

Before After Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Before After Image Credit: Paul Wadham Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Before After

The grant has also allowed us to buy some much needed equipment for our school day tours, night tours, and some office equipment. Next year’s funding will continue the gradual improvements to the Observatory to improve the customer experience and provide better equipment and facilities for our amazing volunteers and staff.

There are still three projects running from our 2018 Lotterywest grant the most exciting being the refurbishment of our museum. Work commenced on schedule on the 17th of October to decommission the existing Museum. The room has now been painted, and preliminary electrical work completed. The frames for the displays were delivered on the 16th of November, and work continues as the displays are being installed. We expect it to be finished in mid-January.

The second project is our new outdoor interpretative signage, the signs were designed inhouse and the frames were designed and created by “Angry Panda” a local metalwork artist. The design is based on the Perth Observatory logo.

The need for inclusivity was identified as part of the POVG’s 2018 Lotterywest grant. Due to the physical requirements for optical telescope viewing at the Observatory, some visitors are unable to negotiate the stairs or ladders to view our amazing southern sky’s. The Lotterywest grant has enabled us to purchase AV equipment that will make it possible for the POVG volunteers to display and transmit audio and video throughout the site. It will make live images of the night sky or the Sun accessible from various locations onsite without the need to climb stairs or ladders. It also creates the potential for live streaming via the internet for those unable to get to the observatory, making the whole experience more accessible.

Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Im age

Credit: Pa ul Wadham

Image Credit: Paul Wadham

The final project I would like to mention is the Hallway gallery project. The relocation of the Hallway doors in the eastern hallway has made a significant improvement to the layout of the admin building. It has opened up the hallway to produce a 22m long gallery to display educational material and art works. The longer hallway has also provided more space for the school Day Tours on rainy days, as the space is also used as an activity area and the newly created Classroom is now accessible without having to leave the hallway doors open creating a secure “Staff” section of the building during activities in the hallway and the classroom.

The POVG would like to thank Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and Lotterywest for making all these improvements possible. I would also like to thank all the staff and volunteers who have worked hard to help turn our plans into reality.

Image Credit: Paul Wadham

Image Credit: Ronny Kaplanian

Passengers Movie Review

By Bryn Durrans

Synopsis:

A malfunction in a sleeping pod on a spacecraft (called the Avalon) traveling to a distant colony planet wakes one passenger 90 years early.

Review:

This part romance, part science fiction, and part drama has something for everyone. The production design, views of space, ideas of future space travel, etc. will appear to science audiences. The drama and thought-provoking aspects of the story (won’t say more or else spoiler alert!) will appeal to drama audiences. Having Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt as some of the main actors in the film will also lead to interaction between the two in some form or other offering romantic aspects.

During the film, the star Arcturus is mentioned. This is a star we can see in our Southern Night Sky. If you come along for a Night Sky Tour at the observatory, ask one of our friendly Amateur Astronomers to point it out to you, and feel closer to Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.

Overall, I enjoyed the film a lot, and found it one of the more subtle science fiction films, which personally I usually find more appealing than the in-your-face-action-and-effects over substance style ones that are so common nowadays.

Sunday Day Tours

Sundays are perfect to take family and friends sightseeing on a beautiful drive through the Bickley Valley for a special Guided Day Tour of the Perth Observatory.

Come up and see a jewel in the state’s history. See why the Observatory was so important to help the growth of WA and maybe see some Kangaroos as well. We’ll be doing guided site tours of the Observatory and solar experience tours at 1:30 pm, 2 pm, 2:30 pm and 3 pm.

Guided Site Tour

Learn more about Perth Observatory with stories from Mt Eliza (1896 to 1965), our move to Bickley in 1966 and what we’ve done since then. Step back in time in our museum and tour the Meridian, Astrograph & Calver Telescopes. Be enchanted with Worl Wangkiny and discover what we are doing now with the Lowell, RCOP and Obsession Telescopes.

Solar Experience Tour

See our Collins Sundial and learn how it works and what an analemma is. View the Sun safely through our Coronado Solar Telescope (If the weather permits) and be amazed at how sunspots and coronal mass ejections are created and how they cause the auroras here on Earth. Also, find out cool facts about the Sun and the space probes that are helping us learn more about it

Museum Tour

Learn about the timekeeping the Perth Observatory did and why it was so important. Discover how photos were taken of the night sky and how they are taken today. Touch the Mundrabilla Meteorite and find out what meteors are.

Image Credit: Matt Woods

The Lagoon & Trifid Nebula M8 & M20

Image Credit: Kyle Yau

What’s In January’s Skies

By Matt Woods

Planets:

During January, Mercury is visible in the morning, with the other four naked-eye planets still visible in the evening. Mercury reappears low in the southeast in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) in the middle of January. It’ll also be at its greatest elongation in the West on the 30th of January, it will then begin its way back towards the Sun from that day.

Venus starts off January in the constellation of Sagittarius, but after a few days, it’ll move through the constellation of Capricorn (The Sea-Goat) and eventually into the constellation of Aquarius (The Water Bearer). You can find Mars in the northern evening sky in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull) during January below the red giant Aldebaran (The Red Eye of Taurus).

Jupiter can be found throughout January between the constellations of Cetus (The Sea Monster) and Pisces (The Fish). Saturn can be found in the evening sky very low in the west between the constellations of Capricornus and Aquarius, and it’ll be very close to Venus on the 22nd and 23rd of January. Uranus can be found in between the constellations of Aries (The Ram), Cetus, and Taurus. Neptune is near Jupiter again in January. It can be located in between the constellations of Pisces, and Cetus.

Mercury’s greatest elongation in the West in the morning of 30/01/23. Image Credit: Stellarium

Mercury on the 15/01/23 at 04:30 am. Image Credit: Stellarium

All the planets except Mercury on the 15/01/23 at 08:30 pm. Image Credit: Stellarium

Astronomical Events:

Earth At Perihelion:

The Earth will be at its closest point to the Sun (At Perihelion), about two weeks after the January Solstice at 03:00 pm (AWST) on Sunday the 4th of January. The Earth will be 147,105,052 km away from the Sun that day and this occurs because the Earth’s orbit is elliptical. Approximately every 100,000 years, Earth’s orbital path changes from being nearly circular to elliptical.

This is due to the gravitational influences of other planetary objects, particularly the Moon. The difference in the Earth’s orbital path from a perfect circle is known as its eccentricity. Also, the word Perihelion comes from ancient Greek, where Peri means close, and Helios means the Sun.

The Quadrantids Meteor Shower:

The Quadrantids are the first major shower of the year, and for those living in North America, much of Europe, and the majority of Asia you’ll be able to view them. Unfortunately, for us living in Australia and lower portions of South America and Africa, we won’t be able to view this shower as their radiant point (Where the shower appears to be coming from) is in the Northern Hemisphere’s sky.

Earth’s orbit around the Sun changes. Earth is closest to the Sun in its orbit when its summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Image Credit: Time And Date

Meteor fireball break up. Image Credit: John Chumack

The Quadrantids are an annual shower that has one of the highest predicted hourly rates of all the major showers (40-120 meteors per hour to be more accurate) and it’s comparable to August’s Perseids for the Northern Hemisphere and December’s Geminids for the Southern Hemisphere. The object that causes the Quadrantids was tentatively identified back in 2003 by Peter Jenniskens as the minor planet 2003 EH1, which could be related to the comet C/1490 Y1 which was observed by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers some 500 years ago.

The name comes from the former constellation Quadrans Muralis, which was created in 1795 by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande and is now part of the Boötes Constellation. The meteor shower was first noticed in early January 1825, by Antonio Brucalassi in Italy who reported that “The atmosphere was traversed by a multitude of the luminous bodies known by the name of falling stars.”, and that they appeared to radiate from the Quadrans Muralis Constellation. In 1839, Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory in Belgium and Edward C. Herrick who was in Connecticut independently suggested that the Quadrantids were an annual shower.

Quadrantid meteor shower radiant point. Image Credit: Stellarium

The meteor shower is active from the 28th of December through to the 12th of January with the peak being on the morning of the 4th of January. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and want to view the Quadrantids, you need to get up at around 2 am and look towards the Boötes Constellation which is the radiant point for the shower and not far from the Big Dipper. This year the Moon will be in its Full Moon phase, so people will have to deal with a lot of light pollution from it, which means you won’t see the fainter meteors.

Celestial Wonder To Look At This Month:

The Wishing Well Cluster:

Wishing Well Cluster (NGC 3532) is an open cluster in the constellation of Carina (The Keel). The cluster is located 1,600 light-years from Earth and is 24 light-years across. 677 stars are recognised as members of the cluster, and the cluster is rich in binary stars. It is estimated to be around 300 million years old and 2,000 solar masses.

To the naked eye, the cluster looks like an enhancement of the Milky Way, but by using a pair of binoculars or a telescope you’ll see five dozen or more stars. Its discovery is credited to 18th Century European explorer Louis de Lacaille who included it in his 1755 catalogue. The cluster is also known as the Firefly Party Cluster, and Black Arrow Cluster.

Wishing Well Cluster on the 15/01/23 at 09:00 pm. Image Credit: Stellarium

NGC 3532

The Wishing Well Cluster

Image Credit: ESO/G. Beccari

What’s In February’s Skies

By Matt Woods

Planets:

Mercury rises early in the early morning in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) at the start of February, and as the month goes on, it’ll move into the constellation of Capricorn (The Sea-Goat). Venus starts off February in the constellation of Aquarius (The Water Bearer), but it’ll move between the constellations of Cetus (The Sea Monster) and Pisces (The Fish). You can find Mars in the northern evening sky in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull) during February below the red giant Aldebaran (The Red Eye of Taurus).

Jupiter can be found throughout February between the constellations of Cetus and Pisces (The Fish). At the end of the month, Jupiter will get very close to Venus, and it’ll get even closer in March. Saturn is lost to the Sun’s glare at the start of the month, and we won’t see it until March when it reappears in the morning. Uranus can be found in between the constellations of Aries (The Ram), Cetus, and Taurus. Neptune can be located in between the constellations of Pisces, and Cetus. At the end of the month, we’ll lose it to the Sun’s flare as well.

Mercury on the 15/02/23 at 04:30 am. Image Credit: Stellarium

Alignment of The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter on the 23/02/23 at 08:00 pm. Image Credit: Stellarium

All the planets except Mercury on the 15/02/23 at 08:00 pm and Saturn. Image Credit: Stellarium

Celestial Wonder To Look At This Month:

Eta Carinae And The Carina Nebula:

Variable brightness and colour, Eta Carinae is one of the most remarkable stars in the heavens. When we say “Eta Carinae” we refer to the star itself which for Perth is a circumpolar star (We see the star all year round) and not the nebula.

Carina Nebula on the 15/02/23 at 09:00 pm.

Image Credit: Stellarium

Eta Carinae is 100 times the Sun’s mass and 4 million times brighter; this brightness has been unstable with the star being recorded over the past 300 years between magnitude -0.8 which is as bright as Canopus and +7.9. It’s a star that is sometimes in the news as it’s expected to become a supernova within the next 1 million years and will be a spectacular sight when it occurs, being visible by day and possibly bright enough to read by at night.

Eta Carinae is very likely a binary star with a smaller partner orbiting in a highly elliptical orbit of 5.5 years. The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which surrounds Eta Carinae, is a large, bright starformation region that has produced several very massive stars including Eta Carinae. At around 260 light-years the Carina Nebula is around 7 times the size of the Great Orion Nebula, but due to its greater distance, it only spans twice the width. There are many O-type stars, young (~2 million years), hot and bright that energise the entire Carina nebulae.

The Carina Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Ignacio Javier Diaz Bobillo

What’s In March’s Skies

By Matt Woods

Planets:

Mercury can be found in the constellation of Capricorn (The Sea-Goat) in the early morning. It’ll be lost to the Sun’s Glare after the first week of March. Venus starts off March between the constellations of Cetus (The Sea Monster) and Pisces (The Fish) and by the middle of March, it’ll move into the constellation of Aries (The Ram). You can find Mars for most of March in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). By the end of March, it’ll move into the constellations of Gemini (The Twins).

Jupiter can be found up very low in the west until the middle of March in the constellations of Pisces. On the 2nd of March, Jupiter will be extremely close to Venus. It’ll be within half a degree away (One moon-width) from Venus. Saturn reappears very low in the eastern morning sky. You can locate it in the constellation of Aquarius (The Water Bearer) throughout March. Uranus can be found in between the constellations of Aries (The Ram), Cetus, and Taurus. on the 31st of March, Uranus is very close to Venus. Neptune reappears in the morning sky at the end of March. It can be located in between the constellations of Pisces, and Cetus.

Saturn on the 15/03/23 at 05:00 am.

Image Credit: Stellarium

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus on the 15/03/23 at 07:30 pm. Image Credit: Stellarium

Venus, and Jupiter on the 02/03/23 at 08:00 pm.

Image Credit: Stellarium

Astronomical Events:

The March Equinox:

On Tuesday the 21st of March, The Northward Equinox occurs at 05:24 am (AWST), marking the beginning of astronomical Spring for the Northern Hemisphere, and the start of Autumn for the Southern Hemisphere. This is an exact moment when the Sun’s declination equals 0 as seen from the Earth. The two points where the ecliptic or the imaginary path the Sun seem to trace out along the celestial sphere meets the celestial equator are known as the equinoctial points.

The Equinox (literally meaning ‘equal nights’ in Latin) means that night and day are nearly equal worldwide, and that the Sun rises due east of an observer on the equinox and sets due west. The term Equilux is sometimes used to discern the difference between the true Equinox and the point when sunlight length equals the length of the night. Several factors play a role in this, including the time it takes the physical diameter of the Sun to clear the horizon, atmospheric refraction, and the observer’s true position in their respective time zone. The Equilux occurs within a few days of either Equinox.

Equinoxes and Solstices. Image Credit: Time And Date

Celestial Wonder To Look At This Month:

Centaurus A Galaxy:

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is an elliptical galaxy that we see edge-on. The galaxy is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky and one of the closest radio galaxies to earth. It’s between 10 to 16 million light-years away from us and it can be found in the Centaurus constellation.

The galaxy itself has a diameter of 60,000 lightyears making it 40% smaller than our galaxy and at its centre, it has a supermassive black hole with a mass of 55 million suns. It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop from Parramatta, in New South Wales.

Centaurus A on the 15/03/23 at 09:00 pm. Image Credit: Stellarium

It’s a starburst galaxy meaning that it is undergoing a period of intense star formation compared to an average galaxy. Studies have confirmed that this high rate of star birth is caused by a collision between itself and a smaller spiral galaxy. The bright central bulge and the dark dust lane can be easily viewed using an amateur telescope however a larger telescope is required to view greater detail and contrast. Centaurus A is an extremely bright radio object, X-Rays in particular. The central supermassive black hole is the source of this with two long radio jets extending well beyond the visual bounds of the galaxy.

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