Astronomy.com blog

September 5, 2008: The Scutum Star Cloud, the Wild Duck Cluster, and Barnard’s Galaxy

Michael Bakich — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:01:00 GMT

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the Scutum Star Cloud, the Wild Duck Cluster, and Barnard’s Galaxy during the next few days.

Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart to see an accurate map of your sky. It'll help you locate some of this week's key targets. Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to a slew of cool functions.

--Start transcript--

The Scutum Star Cloud, the Wild Duck Cluster, and Barnard’s Galaxy are visible in the next few days. We’ll help you find them in this week’s Astronomy magazine podcast.

Hello, I’m Astronomy magazine senior editor Michael Bakich. Each week, I highlight three different night-sky targets for you to see: One object you can find without optical aid One object to find with a small telescope, and One deep-sky object to find with an 8-inch or larger telescope for you avid astronomers.

A cloud you’ll appreciate

To find our first object, you won’t need any optical aid, but you will need to find the location of the small, faint constellation Scutum the Shield. Use last week’s podcast — in which I helped you locate the Summer Triangle — as a starting point. Find the bright star Altair and its associated constellation Aquila. Scutum lies just off Aquila’s tail.

Under a dark, clear sky, you’ll notice this region of the summer Milky Way looks like it contains more stars than nearby areas. We call such spots star clouds, and, indeed, lots of star formation is happening here.

Once you can find Scutum easily, view it through binoculars. Now that’s a lot of stars!

Smyth’s duck

Our second object looks great not only through binoculars, but also in small telescopes. It’s the Wild Duck Cluster, also known as M11. Nineteenth-century astronomer William Henry Smyth described this cluster as looking like a flock of wild ducks or geese in flight. It’s been known as the Wild Duck ever since.

Sharp-eyed observers can spot M11 with their unaided eyes about 3° west-southwest of the two stars that form Aquila’s tail. You probably spotted it through binoculars while scanning the Scutum Star Cloud. Even a 3-inch telescope reveals several dozen stars in M11.

Bright, but also faint

If you use an 8-inch or larger telescope, insert the eyepiece that gives you the widest field of view, and look for Barnard’s Galaxy, also known as NGC 6822. This object lies in Sagittarius 1.5° north-northeast of 5th-magnitude 55 Sagittarii.

Barnard’s Galaxy shines at magnitude 9.3 — pretty bright for a galaxy. Unfortunately, its light is spread out over an area 16' by 14', so its overall surface brightness is low.

Look for a dim haze roughly twice as long as it is wide. Note the slightly brighter streak that spans NGC 6822’s long axis.

Larger scopes show several star-forming regions along the galaxy’s northern end. To see just these, use a nebula filter. Without a filter, and through a 12-inch or larger scope, look for individual supergiant stars. They’re faint — the brightest glow at only 14th magnitude — but they reveal themselves by lending a granular appearance to the galaxy.

--End Transcript--

Read last week's transcript: August 29, 2008: The Summer Triangle, the North America Nebula, and the Bow-Tie Nebula

Listen to last week's podcast.

SpaceFest 2009

Karri Ferron — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:33:00 GMT

An interesting pamphlet came across my desk about Spacefest 2009, and I thought some of you might want to check it out. After a successful debut in 2007, the sponsor of Spacefest, space memorabilia source Novaspace, has put together a sequel. The 2009 event will take place February 19-22 at the Town & Country Resort and Convention Center in San Diego.

The gathering will have an autograph show featuring pioneering astronauts such as Moonwalkers Buzz Aldrin (member of Astronomy magazine's editorial advisory board), Alan Bean, and Charlie Duke. Bean, an accomplished artist, will participate in an art show, where some of the artists will be working in addition to displaying and potentially selling some of their pieces. Duke is heading the Moonwalker Invitational Golf Tournament, with astronauts and other celebrities leading each foursome. Spots in the some of the foursomes will be auctioned to benefit the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

In addition to those events, a number of big names in space exploration will speak at Spacefest, including Dr. S. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and member of Astronomy’s editorial advisory board. These special guests, along with all the other astronauts and celebrities attending, will be honored at a banquet on Saturday night. Overall, it looks pretty cool to me.

Did any of you attend the 2007 event, or are you planning a trip to San Diego for Spacefest 2009? What do you think of this celebration of space?

Women in astronomy resource guide

Karri Ferron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:15:00 GMT

I have to commend Andrew Fraknoi and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific on a great new web resource that came across my desk yesterday. “Women in Astronomy: An Introductory Resource Guide to Materials in English” is an excellent index for astronomy and history enthusiasts who want to learn more about how the female gender has impacted our study of the universe. It contains print and web references for the general topic of women in astronomy, in addition to references for 32 specific women. And Fraknoi is open to more. His only criterion is that the woman has to have been featured in a popular journal so that her work is explained in a version that students of astronomy can understand.

The web site may be focused on aiding students and educators who wish to cover the topic, but as a history enthusiast, I think it’s great to click on a few of the links in my free time and just read. It’s amazing to learn what some of these women accomplished and the obstacles they had to overcome to do so. And I’m proud to say we’ve covered many of them over the years in the pages of Astronomy.

Michael Bakich on KMOX in St. Louis Sunday night

Matt Quandt — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:39:00 GMT

Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich will talk with Jon Grayson of KMOX radio (AM 1120) in St. Louis Sunday night at 9:10 Central. Jon invited Michael to be a monthly guest on the station's "Reality Check" program. Their conversation typically lasts 15-20 minutes. They discuss articles from the latest issue of Astronomy, what objects are visible in the sky this month, and other space-related topics.

You can listen to Michael's previous conversations by visiting the program's web site and scrolling through the audio archive.

There are times we can get KMOX's signal up here in Wisconsin, so if you're in the Midwest, tune in to KMOX (AM 1120) at a little after 9:00 p.m. Sunday. You can also listen live on the Web.

Potential topics for Sunday's conversation include Venus' appearance in the evening sky, Michael's new weekly observing podcast, Cassini's discoveries at Saturn, and the Go-to telescope pull-out guide that's bound into every copy of the October 2008 issue.

August 29, 2008: The Summer Triangle, the North America Nebula, the Bow-Tie Nebula

Michael Bakich — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:01:00 GMT

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the Summer Triangle, the North America Nebula, and the Bow-Tie Nebula during the next few days.

Targets for August 29-September 4
Naked-eye: Summer Triangle
Small telescope: North America Nebula
8-inch or larger telescope: Bow-Tie Nebula

--Start transcript--

The Summer Triangle, the North America Nebula, and the Bow-Tie Nebula are visible in the next few days. We’ll help you find them in this week’s Astronomy magazine podcast.

Triple treat

To find our first object — which you can see with your naked eyes — I’m giving the easiest instructions ever: Go outside after twilight ends and look up. If your sky is clear, you’ll see three bright blue stars making a large right triangle. Astronomers call this group the Summer Triangle because, during the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s visible all night long.

The Summer Triangle isn’t a constellation. Rather, it’s an asterism. What’s the difference? A constellation is one of 88 star patterns that astronomers recognize as “official.” Constellations cover the sky leaving no gaps, and there’s no overlap between any two groups.

An asterism, on the other hand, is a pattern of stars that makes a picture, but that is not one of the 88 constellations. Constellations can contain asterisms. A good example is the constellation Ursa Major the Great Bear. It contains the familiar asterism of the Big Dipper.

Asterisms also may come from several constellations. Such is the case with the Summer Triangle. Its three stars come from three separate constellations.

The brightest of the three, Vega, is part of Lyra the Harp. Southeast of Vega is Altair, in Aquila the Eagle. Finally, to the north-northeast of Altair sits Deneb, in Cygnus the Swan.

I’ve seen that figure somewhere

Our second object is a great target for binoculars or small telescopes. It’s the North America Nebula, also known as NGC 7000. The “NGC” designation refers to a famous catalog of deep-sky objects called the New General Catalog, which first appeared in 1888.

To find the North America Nebula, look 3° east of Deneb. (Yes, it’s the same Deneb that’s in the Summer Triangle.) The North America Nebula measures 2° across, so if you’re using a telescope, start with the eyepiece that gives you the widest field of view.

You may not see the whole continent at first glance. Start by finding the brightest part — Mexico — then patiently try to see the rest. A nebula filter will definitely help your search.

That’s no planet

Later in the evening, those of you with 8-inch or larger telescopes who observe under a dark sky can search for a planetary nebula called the Bow-Tie Nebula, also known as NGC 40.

The Bow-Tie Nebula sits 5.5° east-southeast of the star marking the head of Cepheus the King, magnitude 3.2 Gamma Cephei. Most planetary nebulae glow with a green or blue color. The Bow-Tie, however, shines with a pale-red glow.

Through a 12-inch scope, NGC 40’s disk shows several bright knots lying toward the southeast and northwest. Increase the magnification to 200x, and look for a dark cavity between the shell and the central star.

--End Transcript--

Previous transcript — August 22, 2008: Jupiter, M57 (Ring Nebula), NGC 1

A new topographic map of Mercury

Daniel Pendick — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:06:00 GMT

Last week, I told you we would show you a new map of Mercury based on the January MESSENGER flyby. Here it is, kindly provided by one of NASA’s master mappers, Robert Gaskell of the Planetary Science Institute in Altadena, California.

This image is an anaglyph — a flat image that simulates a three-dimensional view — of the fault scarp Beagle Rupes as it cuts across the crater Sveinsdóttir. The area shown here is about 160 miles (257 kilometers) square. The view angle is 45 degrees.

This anaglyph is equivalent to an interplanetary “topo map,” showing the elevations of the land surface. Gaskell is now engaged in making topography maps for Mercury based on flat images taken from orbit by Mariner 10 in 1973 and MESSENGER. It’s not a simple task.

Using software he developed, Gaskell deduces slopes on Mercury based on how the surface looks under different lighting conditions. It’s like photographing a mountain at different times of day, and reconstructing the mountain’s exact shape based on the shifting shadows cast on its surface.

Hard work pays off. Gaskell’s topo maps of the asteroid Itokawa show surface details as small as 16 inches (40 centimeters). That earned him a NASA Exceptional Achievement medal.

Eventually, the new Mercury maps will help scientists learn more about Mercury’s geology and history. I’ll check back with Dr. Gaskell from time to time to see how the work is going, and let you know what I find out.

Watch Mercury's master mapper's asteroid animations

Matt Quandt — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:52:00 GMT

In Dan Pendick's blog, "Mercury's master mapper," he told you we were converting two high-resolution animations from Robert Gaskell, a participating scientist in the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, of the asteroids Eros and Itokawa. Well, we're done converting them to Flash, and you can now view them.

We've housed the converted animations on Astronomy.com, so click on the asteroid names below to watch them:

Asteroid Eros

Asteroid Itokawa

Special thanks to Robert Gaskell for sharing these videos with us.

Robert recently sent Dan a sample of his maps of Mercury, and we'll have that blog post up soon.

It’s October issue time at Astronomy.com

Karri Ferron — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:01:00 GMT

The October issue of Astronomy is in the hands of subscribers and hits newsstands next Tuesday. For readers, it means interesting new articles and amazing photographs; for me, it means the time has come to update Astronomy.com to reflect our new issue.

Updating the web site for each issue was a new responsibility given to me just two weeks ago. And while I consider myself pretty computer savvy, analyzing words on paper is definitely more of my strong suit (hence the job position of copy editor here at Astronomy). So obviously I was a little nervous to make my first go at it.

Three days later, the site is all updated. Yes, three days. It takes that long to get every image, every headline, every story, every link ready to reflect a new issue at Astronomy — or a least it took me that long to complete the task while not falling behind on my other responsibilities at the magazine. And that’s not even writing the content, just preparing it for the Web. Maybe I’ll be quicker next month, but I will say it is definitely more time-consuming than it might seem.

With that said, I’d like to commend all those amateur astronomers out there who keep up their own personal web sites to display logs, astroimages, equipment advice, etc. People enjoy your work everyday, but they don’t always appreciate how much you put into bringing your web visitors what they want. On behalf of all of them, I say thank you.

Now that the site is updated, subscribers have exclusive access to October’s web extras. These include: behind-the-scenes images at Arizona State University’s Center for Meteorite Studies, taken by Senior Editor Michael E. Bakich; Contributing Editor Glenn Chaple’s recommendations for red-star reference web sites; more highlights in the constellation Cepheus from Contributing Editor Phil Harrington; and more.

So check out the October issue on Astronomy.com (my favorite part might seem small, but I like the “look inside” page flipper in the top left corner), let me know what you think of how we run things on the web site, and look for the new issue to be posted about this time each month. I’m shooting for 2½ days for the November issue.

Oh the people you'll meet on astronomy tours

Michael Bakich — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:24:00 GMT

It’s funny who you get to know on an eclipse trip. I’ve met corporate executives, small-business owners, professional photographers, and lots of others. On our recent trip to Siberia to view the August 1 total solar eclipse, we met Ed Piwowarski, a guy who paints movie sets.

My wife and I are both big movie fans, so we asked him what movies he had worked on. He mentioned several box-office hits, some independent films, and others not so well known. Over the course of the nearly 2-week trip, he told us many stories about working in the movies. Most of his experiences involved severe deadlines and required lots of imagination on his part.

Skip forward to Sunday. My wife and I went to see the movie Tropic Thunder. As the credits began to roll, my wife remembered Ed chatting about several current movies he worked on, including Tropic Thunder. She wondered aloud if Ed would be in the credits. As she said the words, I exclaimed, “Hey! There’s Ed’s name.”

It’s a small world.

The poetic side of science writing

Daniel Pendick — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Many people — at least, many of the people science writers write for — read to satisfy a basic curiosity about the universe. How does the world work? What’s out there in the unfathomable great beyond of outer space?

Astronomy readers, in particular, enjoy getting their minds bent around improbable ideas like black holes, multi-dimensional universes, and lakes on Titan filled with that stuff in your barbecue grill gas tank.

But can writing about science be more than the imparting of interesting or useful information? Can it be literature, too — what Merriam Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines as writings in prose or verse “having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest”?

The journal Isotope thinks so.

Isotope is a biannual journal of literary writing about science. It covers just about every field you can think of, including astronomy, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, sexuality, urban ecosystems, restoration ecology, physics, and math. In their own words:

“Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing. We are a journal of literary nature and science writing. We are a journal of compelling artwork, poems, lyric and narrative essays, microfiction, short stories and regular features such as, ‘Soliloquy,’ in which we invite a writer or artist to respond to a specific question; ‘Voice,’ in which we feature a long piece or several works by a single writer; and ‘Portfolio,’ in which we display the work of a coherent group of artists or several pieces by a single creator.”

“Microfiction”? Hmmm. Does it come with a magnifying lens? Anyway…

You can find back issues with active links to selected writings in the journal here.

I looked for something about astronomy. This one, in the spring/summer 2007 issue, seemed pretty interesting to me because it captures part of the experience of stargazing that Timothy Ferris, a master of literary astronomy writing, calls “ineffable,” meaning an idea or feeling that one must experience to understand, an idea that cannot truly be put into words:

An excerpt from Earthbound
By James Grinwis

“Big sky flexion,
a guess. I unfold
my map. Here is Aldebaran
here is Polaris. Little crevices
slicing the moon. Walking far,
the corrosive light.
To the left, an odd species
of tree, feeding on dawn.

“Earth at night
reveals things we
diurnal folks wouldn’t believe.”