Sky Wise

See the Light Show!

Picture Credit:  NASA STS-68

It's not very often you see a picture of the Northern Lights from space.  This picture was taken in 1994 from the space shuttle Endeavour. 

The Aurora Borealis and it's southern cousin, the Aurora Australis are caused when our sun sends a stream of high energy electrons or protons our way.  As the charged particles interact with the Earth's magnetic field, they stream towards the poles.  They interact with molecules of oxygen and nitrogen, causing them to glow --just like flourescent lights.

The sun has sent another stream of particles our way which should arrive on the evening of Friday September 29th to Saturday September 30th.  Although we know this, we don't know for sure if we'll be directly in the stream or if it will be a glancing blow. If we get good contact with the stream, we may be in for a light show!  In other words, we don't know for sure but it's a good chance we will.  To view the aurora, you have to be away from city lights so those of you who live in the country or are staying at the cottage have the best chance of seeing them.  If you do see them, try and take a picture.  Send it to me and if I have room in the next blog, I'll present it for you!

Warranty Expired -Doing Fine!

Picture Credit:  JPL/NASA

Remember the Mars Rovers named "Spirit" and "Opportunity"?  They are still doing great science, thirty-one months after landing on the red planet.  The two rovers were projected to have a longevity of three months --after that, all bets were off.

JPL scientists are getting excited about the Opportunity rover reaching Victoria Crater.  The picture above shows the waypoints and current posititon of the rover.

Picture Credit:  JPL/NASA

The next picture highlights some of the features visible from the rover as it nears the 800 metre wide crater. 

Image by Starry Night Pro copyright IMAGINOVA

Going to the cottage this weekend?  Take a look overhead just after dark to see our friend "Hercules".  This constellation is easily identified by looking for the keystone shape made by its four brightest stars.  Along one side of the keystone, look for a faint fuzzy star-like object known as M13.  Good skies and good eyes will just be able to see it.  M13 is an easy binocular target and totally incredible in a larger telescope.  What is M13?  Imagine a few hundred thousand stars packed into a small ball.  If you were on a planet inside this globular cluster of stars, you could read by the starlight.  Cosmologists have postulated that M13 and other visible globular star clusters may be the cores of other galaxies, consumed by our Milky Way galaxy, many eons ago.  Burp!

A Brighter Star in the Sky

Photo Credit:  NASA

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely at 6:21 AM today.  It's mission marked a return to the International Space Station and the resumption of construction there.  Canadian Astronaut Steve MacLean and his teamates attached a new set of solar panels, doubling the capacity to generate power.  This is a critical step in the construction of the ISS, allowing many more additions in future shuttle flights.

Picture Credit:  NASA

You can see in this drawing of the ISS, a new set of panels on the lower right.  In addition to adding more electical power, this solar array will make the ISS much more visible when it passess overhead.  It will be likely as bright as Venus when the sunlight bounces off at just the right angle!  I'm looking forward to seeing it again, brighter than ever!  I will keep you posted on when it will be visible again over southern Ontario.

Saying Goodbye to Summer

We're at a magic time of year where the sky starts getting dark a little earlier, allowing us to see the summer constellations for just a little longer.  This is a great time for picking up your binoculars or getting out your telescope to see those summer gems...last  chance!

Look at the sky chart here -you can click on it for a bigger version.  The center of our Milky Way Galaxy lies in this direction.  Sagittarius' brightest stars seem to create the shape of a teapot.  If you are at the cottage under very dark skies, you will see the Milky Way as the "steam" rising out of the spout.  The center of our galaxy is obscured by interstellar dust but it is buried in this steam.  Pluto, now known as not-quite-a-planet by some astronomers is not visible to naked-eye astronomers.  You require a fairly large telescope to locate Pluto.  Don't worry, there's much more to be seen in Sagittarius.  In the steam rising from the spout, binoculars will resolve some fuzzy objects.  They are nebulae.  The Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula are stellar nurseries -vast clouds of dust and gas- giving birth to stars!  Globular star clusters, open star clusters and other nebulae are also visible in the vicinity.

Scanning a little to the left, you can pick out the planets Neptune and Uranus, both of which stand out in telescopes as small disks somewhat blue or blue-green depending on your eyesight.  Neptune is in the constellation Capricornus and Uranus is in the constellation Aquarius.

Perhaps you can join me and other members of the Durham Region Astronomical Association at our next public observing opportunity.  This Saturday, September 16th we will be at the Thickson's Woods Nature Festival.  There, we will have solar telescopes set up during the day to safely view flares and storms on our sun.  Then we'll be back at dusk to share our telescopes with the public as we explore the night sky.  I hope you can join us.         

Skycharts created by Starry Night Software copyright IMAGINOVA corporation

Big, Beautiful Moon

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

On Thursday, September 7th, the Moon reaches Full.  Although some people are referring to this Full Moon as the "Harvest Moon", they are mistaken.  The Harvest Moon is the one which is closest to the Autumn Equinox.  This year, the Harvest Moon is on October 6th.  The Full Moon on September 7th is called the Full Corn Moon.

This is still a special event as Full Moons go.  People in Central Asia -including our troops in Afghanistan- will see a partial lunar eclipse.  As the moon goes into the Earth's shadow, observers will see a "bite" taken out of it. 

The Moon's orbit around Earth is not perfectly circular.  It's a slight ellipse.  This September 7th marks the point where the moon gets it's closest to Earth.  Astronomers call this closest point "perigee".  Some areas of the world will see higher than normal tides when the moon is at perigee. (if you live on the Bay of Fundy let me know what you see).  The opposite of perigee is "apogee", the term we use for when the moon is at it's furthest from Earth.

On Friday, September 8th, weather permitting, the Durham Region Astronomical Association will be holding a free public stargazing event at Purple Woods, just north of Oshawa.  Everyone is invited!  Of course, the moon will figure prominently.  Maybe you and I can share the first views through my new telescope!  This event is held in partnership with the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority -CLOCA .

Blame Me For The Weather

There's a saying among amateur astronomers that if you buy a telescope there will be six full weeks of  clouds, thus denying you of any use of your new toy.

I purchased a telescope...and I'm terribly sorry.

Picture:  Orion Telescopes

My new Orion XT10 arrived in three boxes,  the biggest of which would only barely fit into my Toyota Echo hatchback.  I had been anticipating the arrival of my scope for a couple of days and was delighted to have received it.  As I negotiated the stairs up to my front door with the largest of the packages, I couldn't help but consider that I was responsible for the impending downpour.  Rather than dampen my spirits, I looked forward to assembling the base of the telescope and putting together the electronics.

Now for those of you who don't know me, it is widely accepted that I am the "Anti-Handyman" with only minimal assembly skills.  My wife Gwen usually makes herself scarce whenever I take on projects with screwdrivers and drills, out of concern for her delicate sensibilities and her respect of the fact that I have to win in the battle against the bad thing that is fighting me.  Yes, the difficulty level of my attempted projects is usually measured in curse words.  These days, with a nine year old in the house, the curse words have been replaced with the Flintstones equivalents such as "Frazamazta","Dookentoble" and "Krazellbatz".  The hardest projects get a five "Frazamazta" rating.

Luckily, the good folks at Orion Telescopes have a decent set of instructions to follow and being a long weekend, I took my time.  Only an hour went by before I had a telescope. 

This evening, a hole opened in the clouds.  I hurried down the steps as best I could carrying a huge telescope tube almost as big as myself. Within a couple of minutes I was good to go.  What would be my first object?  My skies were blocked except for mostly overhead.  I opted for a famous double star called Albireo.  As I swung the tube around I relished the thought of the ten inch mirror catching the light of the beautiful pair of stars -one blue and one orange... 

...I'm still looking forward to seeing them, once the clouds part.  Maybe I'll be lucky on Thursday.