Astronomy

Master in charge: Mr T Meldrum Co-captains: Logan Augustine and Stephen Burnett

On 12 April 2011 we held the first astronomy evening of the year. It was a still, warm and cloudless night. Observed were Saturn and Titan, the Jewel Box, omega Centauri, the Orion Nebula and the Moon. The photographs below show the Dobsonian and Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes in use that night. On the left Logan is setting up the Dobsonian to view Saturn.

On 4 September 2009 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. Later in 2011 we are hoping to be able to produce better photos of Saturn.

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 2011 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 2011	All meetings are about 1 hour long and start at 8-30pm in laboratory C1.
12 April	The moon is at first quarter now, so the sky is not dark. We should be able to identify regions along the terminator. The only planet is Saturn. Orion is setting in the west as Scorpius rises in the east. The large Magellanic Cloud is high enough to see.
21 June	This is a moonless night so the clusters of Scorpius should be easy to find. The Coma star cluster is low in the northern sky.
30 August	Another moonless night. Saturn is low in the west, setting at 10pm. Sagittarius is high so the lagoon nebula should be visible.
15 November	Another moonless night. Jupiter rises during the evening. The summer star clusters of the Pleiades and Hyades are visible low in the northeastern sky.

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.comThis 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.