Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Practical Astronomy
April 2010
Remote Control Telescopes
Naked Eye Globular Challenge
Southern Wonder Carina
Radio Reports
Practical Astronomy April 2010
You will also find related resources in the Members’ Area Sponsored By CADSAS.com
(subscribe to get the password, if you’ve not done so yet)
buttons, with a freeware software called Canon EOS 350D with a T2 ring, occular
joytokey by Electracode. adapter and software.
I decided not to use DirectX Inputs directly in I put it all together and the results were
my code for compatibility issues and to be able amazing! I pointed my telescope to the Moon,
to use eventually, other peripherals like external roughly focused with the joypad and clicked
numeric pads to control the motor. My PC automatically downloaded the pics (I
linked the camera and the PC too) and this
allowed me to directly check the image quality.
I fine-tuned the focus with my joypad and in no
more than 5 minutes, I got the right image!
Another advantage of servo control on the focus
wheel, is that it's very firm. It keeps the focus
wheel in position, by opposing a remarkable
torque, so it's very difficult to accidentally lose
the focus.
What’s next?
Next upgrades will be refining the rig, eventually
using some bi-component moldable resin, to
improve soundness and give a better look.
Servo motor interface, lynxmotion SSC-32 Now, my next objective is to go on to deep sky
(wi! soon be boxed) photography. I'll keep you updated with the
results!
It worked fine. I could focus my telescope just
I hope this little
by looking into it and hitting the triggers on my
experience of mine is
gamepad. Smooth movement and very few
interesting for you,
vibrations!
and a big thank you
Adding a connected DSLR camera to Kevin for his
In the meantime I received the last piece of interest and support.
hardware I needed.. a used, but mint condition, Andrea Chiantore
READER’S LETTER
Dear Kevin Brown as a believer, I understand
Thanks for your magazine, for me it is now why we are ordered to
essential fun and reference for my new interest in think about ourselves and the universe.
this field. Anyhow, thinking scientifically, even as a beginner
I have spent most of my life looking down through to astronomy, has a great interest. Thus, I am
our Earth, using geosciences and petroleum tools, looking to get more time for further knowledge of
finding and extracting petrol. I even did a PhD on this very exciting domain.
this in France. But I didn’t get my time and My thanks again and I feel happy for the
amusement by discovering the necessary opportunity to see some of your efforts Sir.
underground... perhaps only the less. From hereby
my 60s age, I am trying to put down my 1st step in
Sincerely,
this new domain.
Dr. Aldelaimi Shallal (Thank you. Ed.)
I am just preparing myself for that. I am just
surprised how small we are, in God’s universe, but
Carina: A Southern Wonder From there you will visit the great lady of the
I started on astronomy a few years ago. Since southern skies NGC 3372, the Key Hole
then, I have run a small blog called Nuncius Nebula and Eta Carina. It will be easy to find,
Australis. It is devoted to some southern being a naked eye object at dark places.
wonders that are easy visible from urban skies. Through the finder you will notice all the
splendor. I do like it on low magnification.
I do live in a huge city (Rio de Janeiro) and I do
most of my observation from my apartment If you have enough resolving power in your
window. Fortunately, I live on the 15th floor and scope, you should increase magnification and
have a clear view of the south horizon. Also go for the Homunculus. Also in the area, you
fortunately, this faces the sea, so the light also notice open clusters involved.
pollution is not the problem you would expect in Just a bit North, less than a scope field, you will
a city of six million
people.
One of my favorite VELA
constellations is
Carina - it’s seated Canopus
on the Milky Way, in
an amazing way. I
expect to present
here, some of the CARINA
most beautiful
targets for those
under the equator.
All the deep sky
targets I mention, VOLANS
are easy prey with
small scopes and
binoculars and are
a must if you visit
the southern skies. see the nice open cluster NGC3293. And then
going south from the nebula, you will see a
First of all you should find Canopus. It’s an easy
personal favorite of mine, NGC 3532. Shining at
target if you’re south of Miami and is
3.0 mag, it’s a very concentrated open cluster
circumpolar for those south of 37deg S. It’s the
and like a “bunch of salt’ against a dark sky.
second brightest star in the night sky.
A bit more discrete and shining at 4.2 mag, is
Following the constellation you will find another
3114. Also a nice target.
famous asterism, the False Southern Cross
that involves Avior (Epsilon Carina), Turalis (Iota And finishing the tour, I present IC2391. It’s
Carina), Kappa and Delta Velorum. actually located in the constellation of Vela, but
See the map above (the deep sky wonders I I believe that should be presented in this list.
present, are there). Really nice and first described by Lacaille, it’s a
gem that must be visited. Easy to find, just by
You should start your tour at IC 2602, the
the side of Delta Velorum, on the False Cross.
Southern Pleiades. Theta Carina is included
and easy visible. On a good night you will notice Good skies.
some nebulosity around, even with the naked
eye. It’s wonderful through the finder or
binoculars.
PS. You might not get quite as big an advertisement as this one.. Guildford AS were quick off the mark!
April is here, and so, hopefully, is warmer pale coloured tints, and many observers report
weather. colours including, yellow, blue and even green;
in fact, it is often quoted as the most colourful
How better to welcome the Spring than
globular in the northern sky.
searching out some great star clusters? And
what’s more, these objects can be regarded as M3 is full of structure and detail including
a challenge to observe with the naked-eye! several dark and mysterious tiny dark patches.
Many of the stars in the cluster are also
It goes without saying that the following
variable. One of the three brightest clusters in
procedure will help your observing: be sure to
the northern hemisphere, it is relatively close at
use averted vision, and make sure that your
a distance of about 35,000 light years.
eyes are well and truly dark-adapted.
In fact, try and get as far away as possible from Finally, Messier 53
civilization and its attendant light pollution. Our final object is worthy of the description
challenging, Messier 53. This is one of the
First, Messier 68
most, if not, the most, challenging globular
Let’s begin our observations by looking at cluster to observe with the naked-eye in the
Messier 68. entire sky.
This is a definite challenge to naked-eye An often ignored globular cluster, which is a
observers, where perfect seeing will be needed. shame as it is a nice object it contains about
However, for those of us who are unable to 100,000 stars, none of which are resolved in
escape from suburbia then this appears only as binoculars, through which it will appear as a
a small, hazy patch in binoculars, but is rather a faint hazy patch with a brighter centre, located
nice cluster in telescopes, with an uneven core in a star field.
and faint halo. Under low magnification, some
Telescopes show a nice symmetrical glow with
faint structure or mottling can be glimpsed
a concentrated core. Some observers report a
which under medium to high magnification
coloured hue to the cluster ñ what do you see?
resolves itself as a myriad assembly of stars.
It stands up nicely to magnification, and indeed
Now, Messier 3 is a lovely sight in telescopes of aperture 10 cm
Now let’s look at Messier 3. This is a splendid and greater. In order to resolve the cluster
object, and can be regarded as a good test for completely, large aperture telescopes will be
the naked eye. It is naturally easily seen in required.
binoculars, and if using giant binoculars with
perfect seeing, some stars may be resolved. A Dr Mike Inglis is a British astronomer now working in
beautiful and stunning cluster in telescopes, it the USA. His latest book, Astrophysics is Easy was
easily rivals M13 in Hercules. It definitely shows recently published by Springer.
PLEASE NOTE:
Full size images (with scales you can read) are available in the Members’ Area
SID observations, sunrise and sunset on 23rd February 2010, may be found in the Members’ Area.
Meanwhile, his work continues with Radio Jove, monitoring radio transmissions from the Sun
and Jupiter...
He writes,
“Dear Friends,
Here is a powerful Solar
storm observed during solar
observation from Gurudev
observatory, Vadodara,
India. It’s likely from
sunspot no.1045. Kindly
have a look and send
comments if any.”
Solar storm recorded on 12th February 2010
Moon Images by
Anthony Jennings
Location: Middleton,
Manchester UK
Top:
Wolf Moon, 29th
January 2010
Bottom:
5 day Moon, 19th
February 2010
This is my first article in Practical Astronomy. I So let’s start from the north polar circle, as most
hope it’s the start of a long long trip with you, of us (in the northern hemisphere) can see its
through all the constellations. constellations constantly. Let us start with Ursa
Why study the constellations? Minor, the central constellation of the northern
celestial hemisphere. I will begin by explaining
Before you use your telescope for my personal impression of this important
astrophotography, or even before you start constellation.
observation of the sky through binoculars, you
will sure need to know a lot about everything Other names of Ursa Minor are Little Bear and
that can be seen with Little Dipper, and I heard people calling it the
your unaided eye. Little "Pan", as
opposed to Ursa Major
Constellations are the that we will talk about in
landmarks of the sky later issues. You may
and no astronomer can find this name
find his way through the abbreviated as UMi in a
heavens, without their star atlas. The
guidance. Every constellation can be
"Practical Astronomer" seen northwards, and
should know everything its height above the
about them, from the horizon differs
stories and myths that according to your
our ancestors wove, to latitude, being about 30
the deepest objects that degrees (slightly above
can be seen through an the northern horizon) for
amateur's telescope. Ursa Minor (the Little Bear) observers at 30 N
Ok.. this topic is covered latitude, to about 90 degrees (directly above
in many astronomy books, but I think there’s still head) for those exactly at the north pole.
a lot to know in every constellation.. all you Not very bear-like?
need is a hint! So I will use what I know about
constellations and what I have learned from my So this is a rather faint constellation, and you
personal observations, to give you (in one brief may perceive it as a dipper more than a real
page in future issues of Practical Astronomy) a bear. Polaris is the brightest star in this
"practical" view of those marvelous reflections constellation; it is a second magnitude star.
of the human mentality on the sky. Anyway you can easily see how our ancestors
figured the shape of this constellation: they
I intend to take you on a step-by-step journey imagined the arm of the dipper (three stars) as a
with every constellation, so you build up more long tail, with the Polaris being the tail-tip. The
information with every article. You may find that body of the dipper (the four central stars) forms
I will speak in detail about the interesting the body of the bear. The rest of the body (the
mythology of every constellation. I have noticed head and legs) is formed by numerous faint
that a lot of astronomers, know just nothing stars that are difficult to see
about these myths. Remember, you will be
frequently asked by people and fresh If you are trying to see Ursa Minor from your
astronomers, about their meanings and stories, rooftop in a city, it is hardly possible to see
especially if you are talking about them amidst a anything except for Polaris. You need a darker
bunch of curious kids! place to see the cephelad, two stars of the
central "box", and an even darker place, away
The story may sometimes help you both from city lights, to see the other stars in the tail,
understand and explain, the shape of the head and legs of the bear.
constellation in the sky and the important stars
that form it. More next time..
Looking East
These maps show the sky view looking in different directions at 20.00 GMT in mid-April, for an
observer at latitude 51 degrees North.
Further South? (but still in the northern hemisphere) Objects are higher above your local
southern horizon, but patterns are the same.
Local time zone not GMT? The view should be much the same at 8pm in your local time (9pm
with Daylight Saving).
Looking South
These maps show the sky view looking in different directions at 20.00 GMT in mid-April, for an
observer at latitude 51 degrees North.
Further South? (but still in the northern hemisphere) Objects are higher above your local
southern horizon, but patterns are the same.
Local time zone not GMT? The view should be much the same at 8pm in your local time (9pm
with Daylight Saving).
Looking West
These maps show the sky view looking in different directions at 20.00 GMT in mid-April, for an
observer at latitude 51 degrees North.
Further South? (but still in the northern hemisphere) Objects are higher above your local
southern horizon, but patterns are the same.
Local time zone not GMT? The view should be much the same at 8pm in your local time (9pm
with Daylight Saving).
Looking North
These maps show the sky view looking in different directions at 20.00 GMT in mid-April, for an
observer at latitude 51 degrees North.
Further South? (but still in the northern hemisphere) Objects are higher above your local
southern horizon, but patterns are the same.
Local time zone not GMT? The view should be much the same at 8pm in your local time (9pm
with Daylight Saving).
* MERCURY Early Close to bright Venus at evening twilight, low in the West
April
Become A Member
www.PracticalAstronomy.com/subscribe
Simply visit our website and subscribe. You’ll be sent the
current password for the Members’ Area.
You’ll also get priority notification when the next issue of
Practical Astronomy is ready to download.