Astronomy.com blog

July 3-10, 2009: The False Comet, open cluster M23, and globular cluster M69

Matt Quandt — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:56:00 GMT

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich, a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky.

In each episode, Michael highlights:

One object you can see without any optical aid
One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope
One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope

Targets for July 3-10, 2009

Naked eye:

Small telescope:

8-inch or larger telescope:

The weekly observing podcast is available to registered members of Astronomy.com. The podcast remains FREE, so please register with the site to make sure you don't miss an episode!

Listen to this week's podcast.

This week's podcast is brought to you by Celestron — one of the world's leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality optical equipment. Learn more about Celestron and their products at www.Celestron.com.

Square Kilometer Array pathfinder projects

Matt Quandt — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Here's the latest update from “Our man in Cape Town,” Benne Holwerde, researcher at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and a member of a team building a new radio telescope called MeerKAT (Karoo Array Telescope):

At a recent conference in Groningen, The Netherlands, four instruments stood out as pathfinders for the future Square Kilometer Array (SKA). The SKA will be such an enormous undertaking — financially, politically, technically, and scientifically — that there are several smaller projects under way to learn how to do it. The SKA will be as expensive as the Hubble Space Telescope but much more complex technically.

Pathfinder projects explore the how’s and what’s of building a large telescope in the two sites under consideration for the SKA: the MeerKAT in South Africa’s Karoo Desert and the ASKAP in Western Australia. Meanwhile in the Northern Hemisphere, two other precursors are under way: the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and the Westerbork Radio Telescope in The Netherlands.

Both telescopes are being upgraded with the new type of instruments we expect to use on SKA. The VLA is getting more dishes and better receivers and will be known as the Extended VLA (EVLA). The Westerbork telescope will get APERture Tile In Focus (APERTIF), a type of radio-camera that can take pictures of large parts of the sky.

Scientifically, this progress is very exciting. These pathfinders play a crucial role in working out what science to exactly go for with SKA (and thus optimize its design for).

The MeerKAT and EVLA will be good for detailed observations. These telescopes are to be pointed at things of interest. ASKAP and APERTIF will survey the entire sky for the radio emission of hydrogen gas, the building material of stars and galaxies.

We can then look at what they find in high-resolution detail with the EVLA in the North and MeerKAT in the South. All these machines will be coming online in 2013-14.

Interesting times indeed.

Previous updates:

A great scope in a great location

Michael Bakich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:44:00 GMT

In June, Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher and I visited developer Gene Turner’s Rancho Hidalgo in Animas, New Mexico. On Saturday, June 20, the three of us, plus eight more guests, visited an observatory that stands at 6,500 feet (1,980 meters) elevation on a mountain Turner owns.

Outside the facility, we observed the Sun through a high-quality Hydrogen-alpha filter belonging to Turner.

Once inside the facility, he gave us a brief description of the 24-inch Ritchey-Chrétien reflecting telescope. We took a video of his impromptu presentation, during which he also shared some future plans for the scope.

Watch the video here.

Related

Image gallery: Rancho Hidalgo
Editor blog: Roaming through summer’s deep-sky objects at Rancho Hidalgo
Editor blog: Deep-sky observing with Rancho Hidalgo’s 30-inch reflector

Pouring concrete for the Karoo Array Telescope

Matt Quandt — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:50:00 GMT

Here's the latest update on the Karoo Array Telescope (MeerKAT) project from “Our man in Cape Town,” Benne Holwerda, researcher at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Engineers on the Karoo Array Telescope (MeerKAT) project are constructing a seven-dish prototype, KAT-7. These first seven dishes will help the engineers learn how to build dishes that do not cause interference in observations, connect them up, point them all, and build the software.

This latest development is an exciting new phase in the MeerKAT project. No matter how nice the technical drawings look, it is awesome to see foundations poured and dishes going up.

The support site, the operations building and residences for the technicians and astronomers are finished. These facilities are for KAT-7, the later MeerKAT, and hopefully Square Kilometer Array in the more distant future.

The dish assembly shed is the latest structure to be finished. “Shed” is a misnomer for a building with a clean industrial work floor, air conditioning, and generous space for dish construction. The structure houses the dish mold in which the composite dishes will be poured.

These composite dishes are a unique feature of the KAT-7 and MeerKAT. Most other radio telescopes are metal grids with chicken wire. The composite dish is lighter and more durable.

Benne sent several updates, so stay tuned for more soon!

Previous posts

Astronomy contributing editor talks outreach with local newspaper

Matt Quandt — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:56:00 GMT

The Sun, a Jacksonville, Florida, newspaper, recently interviewed Mike Reynolds about his life in astronomy. Reynolds is the dean of liberal arts and sciences at Florida Community College at the Jacksonville Kent Campus and won an AstronomyOutreach 2009 AstroOscar for spreading awareness of astronomy education. He is a contributing editor for Astronomy magazine.

Read the Q&A, "Astronomy expert Mike Reynolds."

Congrats, Mike!

Recent equipment reviews by Reynolds include:

Orion EON 80mm ED Apochromatic Refractor Telescope (June 2009)
DayStar's Quantum filter reveals the Sun (March 2009)
Easy imaging with the DSI III (September 2008)

Countdown to Apollo 11 anniversary

Karri Ferron — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:56:00 GMT

As we get closer and closer to July 20, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 and celebrating man’s first steps on the Moon, more cool ways to commemorate the Apollo program are popping up. NASA has a bunch of events planned already, and I’m sure they’ll announce more in the weeks ahead. Here are a few highlights:

July 2: Take a virtual tour of the Apollo Lunar Sample Processing Lab and Storage Vaults at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. You can also ask lunar sample scientists Gary Lofgren and Andrea Mosie questions via Ustream and Twitter between 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EDT. Submit questions to the Johnson Space Center’s Twitter account, @NASA_Johnson, ahead of time or via Ustream live during the event. The tour and the question-and-answer session will be broadcast live on NASA TV in addition to Ustream.

July 16: Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s launch at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex with astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11, pictured at right), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), Al Worden (Apollo 15), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), and Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7). You can also be the first to view a new exhibit at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, the Apollo Treasures Gallery.

July 16: Attend the NASA History Panel’s Apollo 40th Anniversary Symposium, which will take place at NASA Headquarters Auditorium in Washington, D.C. at 1 p.m. EDT. The discussion will also be broadcast live on NASA TV.

July 18: Catch a free concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. “Salute to Apollo: The Kennedy Legacy” will feature Denyce Graves, Chaka Kahn, Jamia Nash, narrators Buzz Aldrin and Scott Altman, and the Soldiers Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band.

July 19: Join the festivities of Moonfest 2009, hosted by NASA Ames Research Center just outside of Mountain View, California. The day includes a variety of exhibitors, speakers, music, and kids’ activities.

July 19: Catch up with the Apollo 11 crew members as they host the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum’s Annual John H. Glenn Lecture. The event is sold out, but the event will still air live at 8 p.m. EDT on NASA TV.

July 20: Watch as NASA and the Newseum of Washington, D.C., broadcast a special panel event commemorating the first human landing on the Moon. The panel will include Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin and CHARLIE Duke, among others. You can watch the 2 p.m. EDT panel discussion on NASA TV or from one of six museums and science centers (Boston Museum of Science; California Science Center, Los Angeles; Denver Museum of Nature and Science; Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago; St. Louis Science Center; and American Museum of Natural History, New York).

Photo courtesy of NASA

Book review: Painting Apollo: First Artist on Another World

Matt Quandt — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:48:00 GMT

Special contribution from Astronomy magazine illustrator, Roen Kelly

Very seldom do I get a request to write for the magazine. Smart move on management’s part. However, it just so happened a book of paintings arrived at the Astronomy offices. The book, Painting Apollo: First Artist on Another World, showcases the paintings of Alan Bean. Who better to review the book but one of the staff artists?

The book is unique in that, as many of you know, Alan Bean was an astronaut. He is famous for piloting the lunar module on Apollo 12 and is the fourth man to have set foot on the Moon. At the age of 49, during the time he was training for a space shuttle mission, Bean decided to leave the space program. Why? Because he wanted to pursue his artistic talents full time. Twenty-eight years later, a body of glorious paintings fills the pages of this book.

It is fascinating to me because I illustrate pictures for Astronomy magazine all day but must rely on my imagination and references to depict scenes. Here is a person who went to space, walked on the Moon and has the ability to paint about the experience.

The book is divided in sections. Essays on Bean’s art from art critic Donald Kuspit, writer William L. Fox and museum director Louis A. Zona appear at the beginning. The book chronologically depicts Bean’s paintings from the Apollo missions from the time they were painted, 1982 to 2008. Quotes by famous writers, scientists, and visionaries appear in juxtaposition to Bean’s paintings. Afterward, Gene Kranz, Apollo flight director, describes what it was like to be a part of the space program during the time of the Apollo missions. At the end of the book are Bean’s indexed notes on his featured paintings.

Some of the paintings are didactic in nature, recording astronauts using tools and equipment. Other works are romantic and somewhat conceptual. For example, an astronaut is shown, with one foot on Earth, reaching out to grasp an object in space. The book’s reproductions pick up the expressive use of brush strokes. Large transparent footprints and craters appear on some of the paintings, as if the scenes were painted right on the surface of the Moon.

You can view a sampling of Alan Bean’s paintings online by going to www.alanbeangallery.com.

This is serious community astronomy

Michael Bakich — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:28:00 GMT

“Now therefore, we, the Board of Trustees and its President, do hereby proclaim the dark sky over the village of Barrington Hills a fitting attribute for the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.”

So states the proclamation dated December 15, 2008, and originating from Village Hall, Barrington Hills, Illinois. Just before the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) began, the village’s board of trustees took up the cause against light pollution. In so doing, they pledged to conserve energy, reduce glare, maintain desirable community character, safeguard wildlife in its natural environment, and restore the view of the starry sky.

In an interview with the Barrington Courier-Review, Village Administrator Bob Kosin said the village will look into legislation to preserve the “celestial landscape” by limiting artificial light and using lights in more effective and energy-efficient ways.

“It’s not like the Milky Way is going away or the Moon is going away; they’re just becoming more obscured,” he said in the same interview. Sarah Kenney, planning and zoning coordinator, added, “One of the village’s missions is to preserve the environment, and the sky is part of that.”

In a letter dated December 23, 2008, and addressed to Robert G. Abboud, president of the Barrington Hills board of trustees, Illinois Governor (then Lieutenant Governor) Pat Quinn commended the board for its work in minimizing outdoor light pollution. In so doing, he said that Barrington Hills had distinguished itself as a role model for communities across Illinois.

IYA2009 celebrates the 400th anniversary of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei pointing a telescope skyward. Astronomy magazine’s May 2009 issue was a special collector’s edition honoring Galileo, the history of the telescope, the telescope’s greatest discoveries, and great current telescopes for observers. For more information about IYA2009, visit www.astronomy2009.org.

"Train Like an Astronaut" sweepstakes

Karri Ferron — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:23:00 GMT

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a real astronaut? What would it be like to feel the g-forces of spaceflight? How do you perform everyday tasks out in space? Well, here’s your chance to find out.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of man’s first steps on the Moon, Astronomy magazine is teaming up with Borders and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to bring astronomy enthusiasts the “Train Like an Astronaut” Sweepstakes. Now through July 27, you can find a form at Astronomy.com to enter for a chance to win a 4-day trip to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex outside Orlando, Florida. Three Grand Prize winners will each receive roundtrip airfare for the winner and three guests, three-night accommodations in Cocoa Beach, car rental for four days, and the chance to participate in the Family Astronaut Training Experience at Kennedy Space Center. The program includes a mock space shuttle mission, ride flight simulators, lunch with an astronaut and a guided tour of Kennedy Space Center with a close-up view of the space shuttle launch pads and the Apollo/Saturn V Center — the home of a 363-foot long Saturn V Moon rocket.

One First Prize winner will receive a Meade 6" ETX-LS telescope, 10 Second Prize winners will each get a 1-year subscription to Astronomy magazine, and 10 Third Prize winners will each collect a Deep Space Mysteries calendar produced by Astronomy magazine.

And even if you don’t win, you can still save $5 on admission to a 2009 trip to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Find the coupon on page 17 of Astronomy’s August 2009 issue (on newsstands June 30), a special issue highlighting man’s potential return to the Moon by 2020.

Roaming through summer’s deep-sky objects at Rancho Hidalgo

Michael Bakich — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:37:00 GMT

On Saturday night, June 20, once again a clear night, good friends, and a 30-inch telescope combined to make a memorable observing session. Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher and I had been at developer Gene Turner’s Rancho Hidalgo in Animas, New Mexico, for 2 nights already, but both had been cloudy. (See my blog about why.)

See more pictures from Dave and Michael's trip to Rancho Hidalgo.

Earlier in the day, Turner proclaimed, “Tonight will be clear.” As the hours passed, it became apparent he was right, and Dave and I literally quivered with anticipation. Each of us had compiled an observing list full of the faint, the little-known, and the obscure.

We started with many objects on Dave’s list. I urge you to read his blog for a more complete picture of what we saw.

One of the first picks from my list was NGC 6000. This is a magnitude 12.2 spiral galaxy that measures 1.9' by 1.6'. So far, that’s pretty unremarkable, but it holds the distinction as the only NGC galaxy in the constellation Scorpius. That, and the fact that I hadn’t seen it in 32 years, made me want to revisit it. This galaxy also is one astronomers label “highly obscured,” meaning its light passes through a great deal of the Milky Way’s gas and dust.

The lack of entries in Scorpius from the New General Catalogue lies in the fact that the constellation’s position is nearly atop our galaxy’s center. Dust and gas in this region heavily obscure distant galaxies, dimming their apparent brightnesses. You'll find other galaxies here to be sure, but their magnitudes place them below the NGC's threshold for inclusion.

After a few more nice views, I requested that Turner point his leviathan at Seyfert’s Sextet in Serpens. Most observers rate this group of six dim galaxies (magnitude 13.8 and fainter) as a difficult object to spot. Through an eyepiece that yielded 135x, we immediately saw four of the sextet. Higher-power eyepieces revealed the other two, but we noted the seeing (the measure of atmospheric steadiness) was not as good as it had been on any of our previous trips. This was understandable given the amount of moisture and clouds that had just rolled through the whole Southwest.

Although many of our targets were faint “challenge” objects, we chose some bright ones based on different criteria. Some had interesting shapes. Others exhibited nice color. Some were deep-sky pairs or even threesomes.

To view one noteworthy pair, Turner targeted open cluster NGC 6520. This magnitude 7.6 cluster was dazzling. And it seemed even brighter by comparison because one of the sky’s great dark nebulae sits just to its west-northwest — Barnard 86. True, you don’t need a 30-inch telescope to observe this pair, but everyone agreed that this was one of the night’s great spectacles. One unusual thing that I noticed is that B86 wasn’t truly dark. The 30-inch telescope has enough light grasp to show more than a half dozen ultra-faint stars strewn across the face of this dark nebula. Instead of being distracting, these dim, twinkling points of light added a nearly three-dimensional quality to the scene.

Next, I chose a planetary nebula that exhibits some color through smaller scopes. My hope was that the 30-inch reflector would make it bright enough to fire our eyes’ color receptors and, well, knock our socks off. My first glance at the Emerald Nebula (NGC 6572) in the constellation Ophiuchus confirmed my hopes. Here was a vivid green object an observer didn’t need averted vision to view. It also had such high surface brightness that we could magnify it to our hearts’ content. Unfortunately, it shows scant detail, but it’s the color here that matters.

One other legendary challenge object we viewed was the Hercules Galaxy Cluster (Abell 2151). This object has been my favorite deep-sky treat since I was in 7th grade. At that time, I purchased a 35mm slide of Abell 2151 from the Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories. I recall marveling at the number, shapes, and interactions of galaxies that one slide showed. Back when the 200-inch Hale reflector took that picture, astronomers exposed a glass photographic plate for 13 hours over a 4-night period. What it revealed was a cluster of about 100 galaxies lying 650 million light-years away.

As I climbed Turner’s observing ladder, I remembered that the night’s seeing was soft, and that thought dampened my expectations. No worries, though — I immediately saw two dozen galaxies, and I wasn’t done counting. All were faint and shimmering slightly. To me, the view looked like someone had strewn a handful of rice grains across a black velvet blanket.

Funny. After all these years, looking at the object I first saw on a black-and-white slide 42 years ago still gives me chills. After all the astronomy lectures I’ve given, after all I’ve written for the magazine, after all the observing I’ve done through every imaginable telescope, I’ve retained my awe for the Hercules Galaxy Cluster. Maybe it’s the vast distance or that, in one view, I’m seeing roughly 100 trillion stars. More likely, it’s the magical feeling most observers get when standing under a dark sky.

As luck would have it, Steve Cullen, President of LightBuckets, shot an image with the LightBuckets Rodeo, New Mexico All-Sky Camera Saturday night. Rodeo sits right next to Animas, and Cullen thought our readers would like to see what the region’s sky looks like.

LightBuckets’ all-sky camera is an SBIG STL11000 CCD camera with a fast fisheye lens. It takes 120-second images, which Cullen says is definitely overkill for an all-sky, but it works great. He continued, “On both Saturday and Sunday we were seeing a sky darkness around the theoretical maximum of 22 magnitudes per square arcsecond or a naked-eye limiting magnitude of about 6.6 (per our Sky Quality Meter).”