Posts Tagged ‘postaweek2011’

Older Entries »
h1

Astronomy Events – March 2012

February 29, 2012

by yaska77

February saw some nice astronomical activity, but what can we look forward to in March? Evenings are slowly getting warmer while remaining nicely dark, so here are some upcoming astronomy events for the next month to keep you looking skyward!

Thursday 1st March - First Quarter Moon

Saturday 3rd March – Mars is at opposition in the constellation Leo. This means it’s in an opposite position in the sky to our Sun so will rise at sunset and set at sunrise

Monday 5th March – Mars is at its closest to the Earth today (image below), and Mercury is at greatest Eastern elongation meaning it’s at its furthest from the Sun. It should be visible in the west (under favourable conditions) for the first 2 weeks of the month just after sunset

Mars is at its closest to the Earth today (this time around!), and can be found in the constellation Leo as shown at 21:00 GMT (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching.co.uk/Stellarium

Thursday 8th March – Full Moon, sometimes known as the Worm Moon

Saturday 10th March - The Moon is at Perigee (362,400 km), the closest point of its orbit this month

Tuesday 13th March – Tonight the two planets Venus and Jupiter appear only 3° apart in the night sky. Although they will be closest tonight, the distance between them will only increase slightly over the next few evenings

Jupiter and Venus conjunction as shown to the west at 19:00 GMT on 13th March 2012 (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Thursday 15th March – Last Quarter Moon, plus the Jupiter and Venus conjunction continues in the western sky after sunset

Tuesday 20th March – Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere

Wednesday 21st March – The planet Mercury is in Inferior Conjunction (closest to the Sun) so it will be too bright to be visible

Thursday 22nd March – New Moon which doesn’t rise until the Sun comes up, so with it out of the way it’s a good night to view some deep sky objects

Jupiter, Venus and the Moon in alignment from 23rd February 2012

Jupiter, Venus and the Moon in alignment from 23rd February 2012 (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Saturday 24th March – The planet Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun; and Venus, Jupiter, the Moon and Mercury are aligned at sunset (in a switch around from the above), although Mercury will be lost in the glare from the Sun

Sunday 25th March – British Summer Time (BST) begins in the UK and clocks go forward one hour from 01:00 GMT to 02:00 BST. Following on from yesterday evening’s alignment, the Moon will appear to the right of Venus this evening, closer than they appeared on 26th January (as below)

Venus twinkles brightly near to the earthshine bathed crescent Moon from 26th January 2012 (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Monday 26th March - Moon is at Apogee (405,780 km) the furthest point of its orbit from the Earth

Tuesday 27th March – Venus is at greatest Eastern elongation, and takes part in a great night sky display this evening. The Moon sits between the Hyades (in Taurus) and Pleiades star clusters, just above Venus and the setting Jupiter

A great target for those with a DSLR camera, why not tweet us any images you get? Shown at 21:00 BST (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Friday 30th March - First Quarter Moon

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy! :)

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – February 2012
Astronomy Events – January 2012
Astronomy Events – December 2011

Posted in Astronomy, Moon, Night sky, Planets, Resources, Stars, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

h1

My own night spent stargazing live

February 3, 2012

by yaska77

When it comes to astrophotography, occasionally I get a break and things go well. I should probably state from the offset that getting perfect scope alignment is nigh on impossible due to my house being in the way of Polaris! That doesn’t mean I haven’t got close but it does mean I still get some object drift across the field of view.

That hasn’t put me off trying though, and after watching the first episode of the recent Stargazing LIVE (on the BBC) I set up my scope and took advantage of the clear night sky. First off was a look at M42 the Orion Nebula, which I’ve imaged before but thought I’d have another look as the conditions were so good!

M42 the Orion Nebula with faint M43 Nebula top left (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

For the first time I caught some of the faint nebula M43 to the top left of the image, and you can also see the stars that make up the Trapezium cluster in the centre of M42. Of all the things I’ve seen since I got my telescope, the Orion Nebula will always remain a favourite. Beautiful!

I next looked towards M1, the Crab Nebula, which I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to see through the light polluted skies over where I live. To my surprise the stacked images clearly define the shape of the nebula.

M1 the Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant in the constellation Taurus (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Because I know now that I can find M1 and image it I’m hoping to try again soon using a 2x magnifying barlow lens, to see if any more details can be caught!

Passing back through Orion I aimed now towards the Rosette Nebula. I was sure it would appear too large in my camera’s field of view, but as star cluster NGC 2244 is at the centre I was hopeful I’d be able to get some details.

NGC 2244 is an open cluster of stars in the heart of the Rosette Nebula (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The stars of the open cluster shine brightly, surrounded by the gas and dust that make up the Rosette Nebula. You can even make out some of the darker lanes to the top right of the cluster.

By now it was into morning, and the prospect of getting up for work in a few hours was pushed from my mind. I was having too much fun and was sure I was getting some good results. So I decided to stay out in the cold a while longer and push my luck. I’d imaged the Andromeda Galaxy in October last year, but could I get two galaxies in the same image?

Two for the price of one! Galaxies M96 (left) and M95 (right) in the same shot (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Despite being small in the image, you can clearly make out the spiral shapes of both galaxies, M96 and M95, located in the constellation Leo. M96 is the closer of the two at 31 million light-years away, with M95 being 38 million light-years away.

The cold was setting in now and dew was beginning to build up, but I thought I’d try one more target and see what happened.  It was already 3 hours past when I should have gone to bed, what difference would another half hour make?!

Messier 37 is the richest open cluster in the constellation Auriga (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The M37 open cluster is roughly 300 million years old and contains over 500 stars (many of insufficient magnitude to be seen in this image). The camera finished clicking away as the battery warning light started flashing, and I could see dew building up on the scope’s mirror so I finally called it a night. I’d taken over 10 gigabytes worth of images and now had the stacking to look forward to.

So I finally got them all finished and they’re now here for your perusal :)   Was it worth the 3 hours sleep I got and the tough day at work that followed? Most definitely!

To not only see these sights with my own eyes, but to capture them in pictures too has more than justified the cost of the scope and camera as far as i’m concerned, and there can only be more to come!

Thank you to Stargazing LIVE for inspiring the nation (and me to stay up way too late!), we hope we can help keep the interest going!

Equipment used:
Unmodified Canon EOS 550D (with T-Ring)
Sky-Watcher Explorer 200P EQ5 PRO SynScan 200mm Newtonian Reflector Telescope
Intervalometer
DeepSkyStacker Software

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Galaxy, Nebula, Night sky, Stars, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

h1

Astronomy Events – February 2012

February 1, 2012

by yaska77

January was packed with astronomy interest, partly due to a little program called Stargazing LIVE! But what to fuel the fires of interest ongoing? Maybe we can help you there.

Here are some upcoming astronomy events during February to help keep us all watching the skies!

Wednesday 1st February – We love the Pleiades star cluster (M45), but it could be a challenge to see the Seven Sisters as the waxing Moon appears just below it this evening. Look for it high up to the south at 19:00 GMT. Can anyone get a photo showing both?

M45 The Pleiades cluster is just above the Moon at 19:00 GMT (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Friday 3rd February – Comet Garradd (C/2009 P1) begins a pass of globular cluster M92 this evening (at the top of the constellation Hercules). The cluster will dip down close to the northern horizon around 21:00 GMT but be up again in the north east by 02:00 GMT (4th February). At this time the comet will be above and to the right of the cluster, but moves up passing through the constellation Draco by the end of the month

Tuesday 7th February – Full Moon and Mercury is at superior conjunction. This means the planet won’t be visible until into the second half of the month

Thursday 9th February – Venus appears less than half a degree from Uranus this evening, can anyone image them both in the same shot? If so, why not send them to us on Twitter? We’d love to see them!

Saturday 11th February – Moon at Perigee, the closest point of its orbit at 367,920 km

Mars passed through the Beehive Cluster in October 2011, as seen in our image above (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Monday 13th February – The Beehive Cluster (or “Praesepe”, Messier 44) is at its highest in the south at 23:00 GMT, almost right in the centre of the constellation Cancer. We got a quick look at this great sight in October 2011, and it should be visible with good binoculars or a small telescope

Tuesday 14th February – Last Quarter Moon

Sunday 19th February – Neptune is in conjunction with the Sun

Tuesday 21st February – New Moon which sets just before nightfall, so tonight is one of the better ones for observing deep sky objects like galaxies and nebulae. We hope you have clear skies!

With the Moon appearing as a thin crescent it should make it easier to image with Venus alongside (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Saturday 25th February -  Venus and the crescent new Moon appear together this evening, shown above as they will appear in the western sky at 19:00 GMT. Close conjunctions such as these can make good photograph targets, as seen below of the Moon and Venus conjunction from the end of January

Venus and the Moon in conjunction on 26th January 2012, complete with Earthshine in our image above! (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Monday 27th February – Moon at Apogee (404,860 km), the furthest point of its orbit from the Earth

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy! :)

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – January 2012
Astronomy Events – December 2011
Astronomy Events – November 2011

Posted in Astronomy, Moon, Night sky, Planets, Resources, Stars, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

h1

BBC’s Stargazing LIVE inspires the UK

January 28, 2012

by yaska77

Short of avoiding TV, radio, newspapers and magazines you can’t have failed to notice the success of the recent TV run of Stargazing LIVE. The explosion of interest it caused saw UK telescope sales jump up over 500% in the week the three shows aired, and with organised Stargazing events all around the country astronomy became truly accessible to all with an interest.

New stargazing fans saw the bright planet Venus beneath the crescent Moon on 26th January 2012 (complete with "Earthshine" in our image above) - click to enlarge - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

And what an interest there is! People turned out in their thousands all over the UK, going to gatherings of astronomical societies and enthusiastic amateurs who shared their time (and their telescopes!) with everyone who wanted a look.

Social media also played a bigger role than ever too. The Twitter hashtag #bbcstargazing was a flurry of activity, trending as the second most mentioned term worldwide for a time, with people actually working on the show often responding to comments.

Suddent dips can be caused by a planet transiting it's star

Stargazing LIVE encouraged members of the public to help analyse scientific data - Credit: Planethunters.org

And as if all this success wasn’t enough, BBC viewers helped identify a brand new planet with “citizen scientists” flocking to the Planethunters website, working through data to spot anomalies. Anyone can sign up and spend as little or as much time as they want helping sift through the info they have, so why not help science!

Another movement now gaining pace after Stargazing LIVE is that of the call to reduce light pollution in UK skies. For a time (as organised by Stargazing LIVE) the Somerset town of Dulverton turned off all its lights to demonstrate the effects of light pollution.

This recent image taken from the ISS demonstrates perfectly the scale of the light pollution from the UK and Western Europe (click to enlarge) - Credit: NASA

A petition has been created on the HM Government website for all who would like to see light pollution reduced. If it can reach 100,000 signatures it will prompt a debate in the House of Commons, and we might be able to affect change to reclaim our night skies.

Please take a few minutes to sign the petition if you agree, your participation can make a difference!

Astronomy is fascinating and this has proved it can be more accessible than you think (there are events ongoing), so perhaps if we all get involved we can reclaim the night sky for all.

Easy links:
Planethunters.org
Nationwide Stargazing Events
HM Government Stargazing e-petition

Posted in Astronomy, Exoplanet, Moon, Night sky, Stars, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Asteroid to fly-by Earth today

January 27, 2012

by yaska77

An asteroid will pass by the Earth today in one of the closest approaches recorded since tracking of NEO’s (Near Earth Objects) began.

Represented by the blue line, Asteroid 2012 BX34 will come within 0.17 lunar distances of Earth on today - Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The asteroid (dubbed 2012 BX34) will come to within about 60,000km of Earth – less than a fifth of the distance to the Moon – making its closest approach at about 16:00 UTC/GMT.

Estimated to be about 11m (36ft) in diameter (about the size of a Bus), it was first detected on Wednesday.

Astronomers stress that there is absolutely no cause for concern.

The asteroid’s path makes it the closest space-rock to pass by the Earth since object 2011 MD in June 2011.

Posted in Asteroid, Astronomy, Earth, NASA, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Older Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,893 other followers

%d bloggers like this: