Astronomy

Teacher in charge: Mr T Meldrum

On 4 September last year the Earth passed through the plane of Saturn's rings. In another six years we will be at our greatest angle to the rings so will have an excellent view of them. This photograph was taken on 13 July 2010. The cold night was making the telescope lenses misty so it is not sharp. We had moved far enough in the previous ten months to be looking down onto the rings, not through them.

This photo of Jupiter was taken at 9pm on 6 September 2009 using the telescope and attached camera shown above. Over 1000 shots were taken (5 per second) and recorded on the laptop. These were stacked using Registax software to produce this result. One of Jupiter's Galilean moons (Europa) can be seen to the left.

The light coloured regions are zones and result from upward moving atmosphere. The dark parts are belts of downward sinking material. The boundaries between them are bands and the turbulence there results in blue festoons and brown cyclones, particularly near the equator. The most easily recognised feature is the Great Red Spot, which is actually a light orange cyclone twice the size of the Earth. The key below points out these features. This second photo was taken 30 minutes later, notice that the planet has rotated slightly to the right. It only takes Jupiter 10 hours to make one complete turn, compared to our 24 hours. This fast rotation is the reason the planet is wider than it is tall.

When using a telescope it needs to have the small finder scope on the side accurately set so we can easily identify what we want to view.

This is done during the day by lining the telescope up with the top corner of a building and adjusting the cross-hairs of the finder scope to match.

The photograph on the left shows Orion. Taken from the school on 17 February 2010 at nearly 10pm, it is a 30 second exposure.

The three stars of Orion's belt are easy to recognise, and the nebula in the middle of the sword stands out. This is well worth viewing through binoculars because it contains one of the largest nebulae in the entire sky.

This photo was taken with the Deep Sky Imager camera on 27 February and shows a closer view of the centre of the nebula in Orion's sword above.

The group of four stars is called the Trapezium and light up the nebula from within. These stars will appear as a single point of light through binoculars because of the low magnification.

LUNAR LANDSCAPE

Here the moon is 81% lit.

The details of the surface are easiest to see along the terminator (boundary between light and dark). This photo was taken because the most prominent crater of all (Copernicus) is near the middle of the terminator. You can see the rays of ejecta blasted out from the impact which formed this crater.

Copernicus is 93 km wide
and nearly 4 km deep.

The dark patches are basaltic lava flows, evidence of the moon's volcanic past.

The photo at left was taken through a small telescope. A pair of binoculars should give similar detail.

The photos on this page were all taken from Palmerston North (in the Southern Hemisphere). This is why the moon is upside down compared to the Northern Hemisphere views found in most books. We cannot see a "man in the moon", but there is a rabbit! Look for it and its long ears on the left of the moon above.

CURRENT MOON

lunar phase

MEETING TOPICS	All meetings are about 1 hour long and start at 7-30pm in laboratory C1.
18 March	The Large Magellanic Cloud is high enough to see now. Orion is low in the western sky by the time it becomes dark. Saturn is in the northeast. Omega Centauri is well-placed to see at this time, and being a moonless night should be visible.
22 June	Venus is in the northwest after sunset with Mars and Saturn more easterly. The coma star cluster is low in the northern sky. Scorpius is rising in the east each evening now. The moon is 82% illuminated so deep sky objects are hard to spot.
31 August	Jupiter is low in the east in the evenings now. Sagittarius is high in the sky so the lagoon nebula will be visible on this moonless night.
30 November	Jupiter is in the west as it gets dark. It is another moonless night. The summer star clusters of the Pleiades and the Hyades are visible now in the northeastern sky. Late at night Orion rises in the east.

Visit these links to keep up-to-date

The Auckland Astronomical Society has a vast range of useful New Zealand information.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has news, and a good on-line shop.

Sky and Telescope has articles, and a useful section on astronomy basics.

Probably the best source of space news.

Upcoming astronomical events.

Solar system information.

For those wanting to recognise the stars and planets there is an excellent resource available at www.cybersky.com This freeware programme will turn your computer into a planetarium. It shows a labeled view of what the sky looks like now, or almost any time in the past or future. It is ideal for learning the names of the stars, constellations and planets. Just print out the map, then go outside and identify everything.

For those interested in satellite-watching visit www.heavens-above.com This site will tell you when and where to look to see the next bright satellite pass over your place.

To return to the school culture page click on this photo of the full moon rising over the Gallipoli Oak.