Welcome and Notices Moira Greenhalgh EAS

Moira welcomed members, new members and announced notices:

• Note the current Moon in Lancaster exhibition until Wednesday 20th November

Sky Notes for November 2019 – Richard Rae EAS

After sunset at around 7 pm the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter float in a line above the southern horizon. Inside the Summer Triangle, the constellation of Cygnus holds numerous interesting objects – see our Sky Notes for October 2019 for more detail and an October challenge.

Astronomy News Phil Morris EAS

SpaceBit – UK’s first lunar rover

The UK’s first moon rover – and the world’s smallest – will blast off into space in 2021.

Equipped with four legs rather than wheels or tracks, the rover will hitch a ride off of a NASA launch and be able to explore parts of the moon other landers cannot reach.

See Sky News on UK’s first moon rover.

Boris

The first interstellar (from outside the Solar System) comet has been discovered by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov with a 650mm telescope. Closest approach will be at perihelion on the 8th of December.

The trajectory of comet C/2019 Q4.

See Comet 2IBorisov

Exoplanet

In a paper published at the end of October, an Italian team have used the radial velocity technique to identify another exoplanet in the red-dwarf binary system known as Groombridge 34 about 11.6 light years away from Earth. This one is 36 times the mass of the Earth, and has a period of 21 years. A Super Neptune.

A new category of Black Hole?

We currently theorise two types of black hole: stellar and supermassive. A new discovery by two teams of astronomers, including one from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, suggests there may be a third type. Called an “intermediate black hole” its mass is somewhere between the other two, but there is no known process that that would form a black hole of this size.

See also: NASA’s Goddard Space Centre’s New Kind of Black Hole

The origin of the heavy elements in neutron star merges

In our last meeting, we heard from Dr Sue Bowler of the University of Leeds about gravitational waves. Phil spotted an update about how that research enables us to test our theories.

Back in 2017 gravitational waves were detected from the merger of two neutron stars. This merger blew away an expanding shell of debris moving at nearly 30% of the speed of light. In one second 10 to the power 22 neutrons passed through an area of 1 square centimetre. This was one of the few gravitational events for which a light source was identified.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have now reanalysed spectroscopically the light in the 2017 data and have identified about 5-Earth masses of STRONTIUM (Atomic Number 38) produced in the explosion.

So we now have evidence to support the theory of how heavier elements form.

See more: Heavy element creation confirmed in neutron star merger

DESI

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, DESI , will make measurements dark energy. dark energy makes up 68% of the total energy budget of the universe responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. By accurately measuring the expansion history over the past 11 billion years, DESI’s scientific goal is to constrain possible models of dark energy. In order to accomplish this goal, DESI will measure the position and receding velocity of about 40 million galaxies

Kielder Star camp photographs from Stuart Atkinson EAS

Stuart Atkinson displayed some of the Astro-photographs taken with a telephoto lens, some with a tripod and tracker:

Observing with IRAM 30m Telescope and JCMT David Glass EAS

David Glass gave a talk on his observing visits to the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii and the IRAM 30m telescope in Spain. These telescopes operate at mm and sub-mm wavelengths, and David began with an explanation of what can be observed at these wavelengths and what can be learned.

David’s research is looking at the cool interstellar medium (ISM) in early-type galaxies, which can be observed with these telescopes. David went to the JCMT in April, and after explaining how the telescope operates he took us through the practicalities of observing with this telescope.

He then did the same for his visit in July to the IRAM 30m telescope, where the visiting observer is in the “hot seat”. The observer is responsible for setting up the telescope correctly and for carrying out the observations to meet specifications. Overall, observing with these telescopes is hard work but very rewarding. David now has science data from the IRAM 30m telescope which he is examining as part of his research.

Welcome and Notices Ian Bradley

Ian welcomed members and announced notices:

• A 6″ Sky Watcher telescope and equatorial tripod has been offered sale – contact for details through the website
• A visit to Alston Observatory, Preston will meet at the Observatory at 7:00 PM on Tuesday 29th October. A meal at the nearby White Bull immediately before will be optional.

Sky Notes for October 2019 – David Glass

After sunset at around 7 pm the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter float in a line above the southern horizon. Inside the Summer Triangle, the constellation of Cygnus holds numerous interesting objects – see our Sky Notes for October 2019 for more detail and an October challenge.

Astronomy News Phil Morris

Juno

After abandoning a manoeuvre into a 14 day orbit, NASA decided to bring the perihelion of the 53 day orbit of Juno into closer proximity to Jupiter next month. After the recent failure of the main engine, for ten hours from the 30th September NASA burned the Juno thrusters to bring the craft closer when behind Jupiter. Thus, the solar-powered craft will spend less time out of the sun with its batteries at low temperatures.

See Juno’s discovery of a Great Blue Spot in last month’s news.

Proto-galaxy SSA22

12 billion light-years away, the illumination from galaxy SSA22 is being used to detect large-scale filaments of low-density hydrogen and Dark Matter between which galaxy formation is suspected to occur.

Planet 9 or a black hole

A dozen Trans-Neptunian Objects have all been determined to have perihelions all at the same location. So could it be that a goliath planet, some 5 to 15 times the mass of the Earth is hiding far beyond Pluto, and shepherding these TNO’s into their unusual orbit? In a paper posted on 24 ^th September, a study claims that rather than a planet, the culprit is a primordial black hole. These are predicted to have formed within the first few fractions of a second after the big bang, but their existence has never been confirmed.

The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) is looking for gravitational microlensing events. If the alignment is perfect, a heavy foreground object acts as a lens, distorting and amplifying the light from the object behind it. After 5 years’ of observations, researchers uncovered six strange microlensing events that seem to have occurred when objects roughly 0.5 to 20 times the Earth’s mass acted as a gravitational lens.

The paper says:

“Capture of a free-floating planet is the leading explanation for the origin of Planet 9. We show that the probability of capturing a primordial black hole instead is comparable”

Such a captured black hole roaming the outer solar system would influence the orbits of TNO’s in exactly the same way as Planet 9.

The Promise of Gravitational Waves, Dr Sue Bowler, University of Leeds, RAS, editor Astronomy and Geophysics journal

Dr Bowler gave an easily understood and entertaining talk illustrated with images of Gravitational-wave detectors a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) ( LIGO ) and Virgo

Our current way of detecting a gravitational wave is by detecting changes in length caused by the wave stressing space-time as it passes by. Dr Bowler warned of likening the electromagnetic waves in astronomy with gravitational waves in space-time – gravitational waves are more like pressures waves, compressions of space-time. Nonetheless, the classic Michelson–Morley interferometer configuration put us on familiar ground as the basis of a LIGO layout of two mirrors at right-angles reflecting a spilt beam back to the source. The interference pattern shows any change in the distance travelled in the two directions. The interferometer arms are each 4km long but with the laser beam bouncing many times along each arm before the two beams interfere, the effective length is nearer 1200km. The system is so effective, it can detect changes in length of 10^-19m, that is one 10,000th of the diameter of a proton! The technical design challenge is reducing the background noise – people, vehicles, earthquakes… – to allow such tiny changes to be seen.

Over 30 gravitational wave events have now been detected – they have to be seen by both current LIGO detectors Hanford and Livingston. All but one are believed to be created by the merger of two black holes in the final fraction of a second. The rapidly changing orbital situation before they coalesce produces a rapidly fluctuating wave with increasing frequency and amplitude. This produces the detected chirp lasting about 0.2 second. The physics of two such massive objects just before they spin into their combined event horizon is unknown and the subject of research. The other event is a much longer ‘chirp’ event, duration ~100 seconds, is believed to be the merger of two neutron stars. A burst of gamma rays was detected 1.7 seconds later from the resulting ‘kilonova’ enabling precise positional information. Additional gravitational wave detectors are necessary to provide better positional information on black-hole mergers – currently only about 10 degrees – and many are now in construction.

For more information see:

• Video of the Michelson-Morley experiment
• Black Hole merger news by Caltech LIGO and VIRGO

Welcome and Notices Ian Bradley

Ian welcomed members and announced notices:

• A 4″ refractor has been offered sale – contact for details through the website
• An all-day, Saturday 7th of September, Astronomical event hosted by the Preston and District Astronomical Society see our calendar for neighbouring events.
• Our EAS monthly meetings are moving to the first Thursday of the month after the New Year.

Sky Notes for September 2019 – David Glass

See our Sky Notes for September 2019

David’s proposal of a visit to Alston Observatory, Preston was accepted. Meet at 7:30 PM on Tuesday 29th October. A meal at the Black Bull immediately before will be optional.

Astronomy News Phil Morris

Hayabusa2 on the Asteroid Ryugu

The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) has been deployed 41m above the surface on a 17-hour mission to measure the structure, distribution and texture of the surface of asteroid Ryugu. See also What asteroid Ryugu told us

Jupiter

The Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter has discovered a new spot (aka Great Blue Spot) beneath the opaque clouds on the first definite detection of an extra-terrestrial planetary, magnetic field. The Juno mission will end in 2021 after which the next mission to Jupiter, to Jupiter’s moons in fact) may well be called JUICE (JUpiter ICy moon Explorer) .

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble space telescope has been involved in measuring the rate of expansion of the universe, the Hubble Parameter, H . Current measurements from

• the Cosmic microwave background (CMB) give H = 67.4
• the apparent brightness of Supernovae Type 1a gives H = 72
• Hubble recently measuring the distances to red giant stars H = 68.8

Steps are underway to measure the value using gravitational waves – see our Guest Speaker’s talk in October.

Supernovae

The Gaia galaxy-mapping telescope has detected a new type of exploding Supernovae. It seems to be on the periphery of the galaxy, not at its heart. Its mass has been calculated as 200 times that of the sun Its spectrum is different from that of any other supernovae yet detected It seemed to explode twice.

Such massive supernovae have been predicted and the final explosion may involve anti-matter obliterating the star without leaving a black hole .

Dalby Star Camp – Moira Greenhalgh and Richard Rae

Moira and Richard had returned from the Dalby Start Camp on the day of the meeting. A weekend star camp was highly recommended for:

• dark skies
• lectures
• access to many types of equipment
• with your own equipment

Volcanic Processes on Mars Professor Lionel Wilson

Professor Wilson gave an illustrated talk on volcanism Mars often comparing the processes with the volcanism on the Earth. Differences in the Mars environment such as:

• lower gravity field
• lower air pressure
• lack of mobile plate tectonics

explain many of the martian features such as higher and more massive volcanoes (on average twice the size) and the predominance of low profile Shield volcanoes that have a 10 -100 million year history – being less mobile and less degraded by weather – and occur to be in non-linear formations. The evidence of large scale lava flows, in both quantity and flow rates, needs more geological causes, such as low viscosity of the lava. Recent work has been on the distant rills similar to glacial rills on the continent of Antarctica and the discovery of bulges higher, than the volcano caldera , that are being pushed upwards by the large, underground magma chambers that also create subsidiary, lateral outflows and eruptions. For more information see:

• depressed blocks of crust from Graben collapse
• higher plasticity on Martian Pyroclastic flows
• Martian soil characteristics
• Geology of Mars

Welcome

Ian Bradley welcomed members and announced notices. A 200 mm Sky Watcher telescope was brought to the notice of members as used-only-once.

Sky Notes for July 2019

Until late August the sky remains in the twilight throughout the night in Kendal. Noctilucent cloud (NCL) has been witnessed more frequently this year by members. The better times to keep our eyes out are after midnight.

For details of the Summer Triangle, summer constellations of Sagittarius and Hercules see our Sky Note & Observing Evening .

Astronomical News

Remembering Apollo

Two EAS members, Eddie Dealtry and David Glass gave separate presentations on aspects and the background Apollo 11 mission landing the first astronauts on another body in space, the moon.

David illustrated the structure and described the propulsion systems developed through the Saturn rocket family to the eventual moon shot of the Apollo crew on the gigantic Saturn V . The significant engineering issues and trade-offs were demonstrated by the examples of:

• • using kerosene and liquid oxygen in five engined S-IC First Stage that would reduce air resistance and perturbances by minimising the circumference of the first stage while the vehicle was accelerating through the atmosphere – whereas both the second and third stages burnt less volatile but bulkier liquid hydrogen
  • explaining the explosive departure of the Eagle Lunar Landing Module due to the spaying together the ingredients of two self-igniting propellants to maximise the chance of the engine igniting correctly

David then went through the Apollo missions 1 – 10, starting with the initial tragedy of Apollo 1 and finishing with the full rehearsal of Apollo 10. David left Apollo 11 to the extensive media coverage to follow in the next few weeks.

EAS next meeting will be Monday 2nd September

Guest speaker: Prof. Lionel Wilson of Lancaster University on: Martian volcanism

Welcome

Moira Greenhalgh welcomed members and announced notices. The Institue of Physics has changed their programme at Lancaster University next Wednesday 12th May to ‘Pluto’s “desert”: methane ice dunes on a glacier on an airless world’. See our Welcome page.

Sky Notes for June 2019

Moira gave this month’s Sky Notes recommending for the summer nights of continuous twilight in Kendal her personal favourites high declination constellations and Globular Clusters.

Three bright summer stars are Vega, Arcturus and Deneb. The red star Arcturus in Boötes can be identified by following the handle of the Plough (Ursa Major) backwards. Globular clusters such as the compact and bright Hercules Globular Cluster can be found in the constellations of Boötes and in the neighbouring Hercules.

See also our Website Sky Notes

News Roundup for June 2019

Richard Rae presented a round-up of recent Astronomical news.

Comet Wirtanen

Results from observing the tail of Comet Wirtanen, &designated 46P, have detected a Deuterium to Hydrogen ration similar to that in Earth’s oceans. The previous cometary observations have been dissimilar throwing doubt on the proposal that cometary collisions in the early solar system could be the origin of the oceans. The 46P observations have been of the tail as the comet approaches radically close to perihelion, (close solar encounter) when the core of the comet is being blown out into the tail. Hence, the new measurements may well be more representative of the Deuterium to Hydrogen ration out of cometary cores and add weight to the theory that cometary hydrogen is the source of Earth’s oceans.

The Spacex Starlink train

Recent online videos are available showing a trail of 60 satellites through the night sky. The satellites enable greater coverage of the internet over the surface of the earth and Spacex. 20 have been granted permission for a total of 12,000.

What is a Telescope?

Simon White gave a very practical demonstration of not so much ‘What is a Telescope’ more ‘Where is that image inside a telescope’? Pairs of magnifying glasses were handed around. Members could use one glass to create an image and the other to find where it was focused and magnify it with a second glass. The conclusion became obvious, after some experimentation that the image exists behind the object all the time and the optical system of a telescope provides access to and magnifies the focussed image.

Telescope Night

Three of the members’ telescopes and the society’s 11″ Cassegrain telescope were assembled outside in the Museum yard. Members and guests could wander, mingle and question the practicalities of various astronomical telescope designs and the members’ different procedures for observing.

Welcome and member’s photographs

Ian Bradley opened the meeting welcoming members both new and old. He later presented some astrophotographs taken from his recent trip to New Zealand. These included the Moon and Orion completely upside down from the perspective we are used to seeing these objects in the northern hemisphere. Particularly impressive were his views of the Galaxy taken from a dark sky location in New Zealand and images of the large and small Magellanic clouds. These are the two satellite galaxies that orbit our own Milky Way and are not visible from Cumbrian skies.

April’s Moonwatch

April`s Moon watch was particularly successful with many members of the public attending. As sunset is much later during the summer months the next Moonwatch will now be in October 2019.

Sky Notes for May 2019

23rd May – Early Morning – Saturn will lie to the right of the waning gibbous Moon an excellent photo opportunity.

The Ursa Major constellation (The Plough) remains almost directly overhead above where you may be able to observe the galaxies M81 and M82.

On the 28th May, Ceres is at its closest approach to Earth. It will have a magnitude of 7( too faint for the naked eye) so with the help of binoculars you should be able to spot it. A planetarium program such as Stellarium will show you its position in the days before and after its closest approach.

News Roundup for May 2019

The News section contained updates on the two current asteroid sample-return missions: Hyabusa 2 investigating Ryugu and OSIRIS-Rex looking at Bennu. Both are near-Earth carboniferous asteroids. Hyabusa recently fired a copper bullet into the surface of Ryugu, and the mission will seek to capture some of that pristine debris and, like OSIRIS-Rex, then return to Earth.

The other big news was the picture of the black hole – M87* – at the centre of a supergiant elliptical galaxy in Virgo, about 55 million light years away. The image was obtained by Very Long Baseline Interferometry, using eight radio telescopes collecting radiation with a wavelength of 1.3mm. UCLAN are part-sponsors of the James Clark Maxwell telescope in Hawaii which provided one point in one on the baselines and were also involved in analysing the data.

A high-res image of the black hole in M87

Dr Sarah Badman, Lancaster University on “Auroral Activity in the Solar System”

An excellent talk, which was most informative was delivered by the very competent researcher, Dr Sarah Badman. She explained early in her career she was able to work on data received from the Cassini spacecraft just after it had arrived in orbit around Saturn.

The mechanism for the aurora borealis was explained whereby charged particles emitted from the sun interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, are given energy and collide with atoms and molecules in our atmosphere. These collisions result in ionization of the atmosphere which makes up the aurora. Collisions with oxygen produce red and green auroras, while nitrogen produces blue and purple colours.

Aurora in other solar system planets occur only if a magnetic field is present to interact with the solar wind. The images presented in the talk were quite stunning.

Here the image shows a curtain of glowing gas which is wrapped around Jupiter’s north pole.

Members’ Observing Sessions

Now that the clocks have moved forward one hour the next Members’ Observing Session will be in late September. We still need volunteers to organise a few future Members’ Observing Sessions.

Sky Notes for April 2019

• at dusk on the 5th April Mars lies on a straight line between the Hyades and Pleiades
• the Orion constellation is now setting shortly after the sun but Leo (the backwards question mark) is well placed high in the south from dusk containing a number of galaxies
• Virgo, rising at 9 PM, contains Markarian’s Chain and the galaxies of the Leo Triplet including M65 and M66.

• the Ursa Major constellation  (The Plough) is almost directly overhead above Leo again including many galaxies. M81 and M82 are very close together above the ‘saucepan’, and M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy [and actually in Canes Venatici] is just below the end of the ‘tail’. 

News Roundup for April 2019

Hayabusa2 takes fires at Ryugu

At the end of February Hayabusa 2 took a sample from the sub-surface of the asteroid Ryugu after an orbiting module fired a bullet at the surface. The meeting was shown a comparison between Ryugu and Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission . While similar in shape, Ryugu appears smoother and more rounded than a typical asteroid and proves to be hollow and totally lacking water. By contrast, Bennu contains water and volatile molecules possibly from the early solar system.

While cosmological distance determines age the opposite does not have to be true. Some of our faint satellite galaxies prove to have been among the first formed in the Universe.

Furthermore, a star does not need to be far along the in its life before the first planets a formed. From the lack of any elements heavier the Helium, the young HR8799 already has four giant, exoplanets.

The Drake Equation

A member gave a talk on the history of the Drake Equation proposed in 1961 to estimate the probability of another civilization in our Milky Way. Since its proposal, we now have much more quantifiable numbers for factors such as the fraction of those stars that have planets some factors. Nonetheless, many factors, such as the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point are still highly conjectural.

Stuart Atkinson  “Unseen Apollo – Images from the Archives“

EAS member Stuart Atkinson gave an illustrated talk with images from the Apollo programme rarely publicised. Only five images exist of Neil Armstong on the first moonwalk. Other than the reflection of Armstrong in Aldrin’s visor the other four only show parts of his body.

Among a number of lesser-known facts, the size of the Saturn V rocket to launch the modules and their engines to the Moon as compared to the more recent Shuttle.

See also: NASA Apollo missions

Member’s Observing Sessions

An appeal was made for volunteers to organise future Member’s Observing Sessions after this month.

Amateur Radio Astronomy

One of our members gave the first of a series of short talks on opportunities for amateurs using radio equipment.

After a brief history of Radio Astronomy, the possible motives were listed. The natural phenomena of meteors, Jupiter, the Sun and associated Aurora can be monitored together with satellite communications. Although radio astronomy can be carried out during the day at frequencies above 30MHz, frequencies below this are either absorbed or reflected back to earth or back into space by the Earth’s ionosphere. When sunspot activity is low after sunset there is an opportunity to listen to frequencies below 30MHz from space when the F layer of the ionosphere can fade a few hours after sunset. It is then possible to hear radio emissions from Jupiter between 15 and 38MHz.

An example of how to listen to meteors was given, and later some theory to explain why radio waves at different wavelengths are able to penetrate different media . An explanation on different antennas was given with an example of a simple YAGI antenna showing how this and Dishes are able to increase the Gain of a signal and improve the signal to noise ratio. The presentation finished with brief examples of equipment which will be discussed at later presentations.

Sky Notes for March 2019

• Orion only a few more weeks. Betelgeuse at Right Ascension of 6 hrs sets six hours at the Equinox on the (1830 on the 21st).

• from March 26th to 31st – early evening: Mars approaches the Pleiades and Hyades open clusters

• on Friday, March 29th – before dawn around 05:45: Saturn just above the Moon above Uranus

• See also Ian Morison’s Night Sky this Month on the Jodrell Bank site in Sky Notes and our EAS links page

News Roundup for March 2019

Our EAS member, Richard Rae, visited Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral ( the Appollo 11 launch pad) for the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which is now the workhorse for vehicles to and from the International Space Station.

Simon White of EAS “Anatomy of an Astrophotograph”

         

Simon’s talk covered various important steps in capturing the data, including… 

    See also: Simon White’s Orion’s easy target and our Links page:  Software used by our members    

Member’s Observing Sessions

The Chairman for the meeting appealed for volunteers to organise future Member’s Observing Sessions after this month. For this month we will include a waxing, crescent moon hopefully before our Public Moon Watch on Saturday 16th February.

News Roundup for February

• Until Sunday 24th February the Museum of the Moon comes to Preston with an exhibition and events.
• Saturn’s rings are suspected of being a relatively recent phenomenon.
• The Hayabusa 2 landing on Ryugu was delayed last month.
• The Nasa Insight lander begins a two-year mission to monitor any seismic activity on Mars.
• Is this ancient moon rock from Earth?

Sky Notes for February

• Aurora was visible from Kendal – imaged by member Carol Grayson who responded to a mobile phone alert from Glendale Aurora Alert also on our EAS Links Page
• From Saturday the 9th Jupiter, Venus and Saturn will be visible together above the south-eastern horizon for an hour before sunrise at 7:43am in Kendal, joined by the waning, crescent moon on Thursday 28th
• See our EAS Sky notes for this month in our area
• See also Ian Morison’s Night Sky this Month on the Jodrell Bank site in Sky Notes and our EAS links page

Member’s Photographs

An EAS Member displayed his impressive time-lapse video and Astro photographs recently of:

• 40 second time-lapse of last month’s Total Lunar Eclipse
• Image of the Crab Nebula
• Image of the Orion Nebula

Dr Steve Williams of Lancaster University speaking on Nova Explosions

A Nova explosion owes its name to what was once considered a ‘New Star’. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Visible light is suddenly emitted in a characteristic, exponentially decreasing light curve. The known curve allows time of initiation and then the absolute magnitude of the Nova to be determined and thus the distance from any apparent magnitude that was caught on an observation.

Not only visible light is suddenly emitted but also x-rays that do not penetrate the ejected shell of unburnt hydrogen until the shell density drops to a known level that allows the size of the shell to be determined.

Unlike Supernovae, Novae both leave behind a remnant that may last for centuries and the ejected shells fall back onto the remnant. The whole process may subsequently repeat many times in known Recurrent Novae. A number of Recurrent Novae have been discovered by inspection of archived observations. With the current telescopic ranges, all observed novae occur either in our own Milky Way or our companion and satellite galaxies – such as The Andromeda Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. Detection is difficult in the Milky Way because of obscuring dust along the plane of the galactic disc. Around 40 new Novae/year are discovered in the Milky Way – a number still being discovered by Amateur Astronomers.

See also links from Nova on Wikipedia

AGM

Chairman’s report on the work of the committee over 2018.

Chairman stood down and a new committee was elected making seven members in all. Chairman for 2019 to be selected at the next Committee meeting.

Sky Notes for January

Total Lunar Eclipse enters the full eclipse stage 04:45 Monday morning 21st January See: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2019-january-21

and: Upcoming Eclipses

News Roundup

Ultima Thule

After the flyby of Pluto last year, a few days ago the New Horizon mission encountered the most distant object ever visited and returned images of Ultima Thule from the Kuiper belt. Thule is about 31 x 19 km and looks to be two objects that coalesced into a snowman shape.

See also: NASA’s Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

Chang’e 4 landing on the far side of the Moon

On the 3rd, China’s 1.2 ton Chang’e 4 probe made the first landing on the far side of the moon. After touch down a 140kg rover was deployed. A satellite is being kept in a high orbit, around a theoretical Lagrangian point, relaying all the comms between Earth and the remotely controlled lunar vehicles Chang’4 Relay Satellite.

Part of the exploration programme will be to return samples to Earth by Chang’e 5 and Chang’e 6 Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_4

Society Telescopes

The society has a number of telescopes available to members for as long as the member wishes to retain and keep them in good condition. One exception is the recent donation of an 11″ (28cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain. EAS is sharing the telescope with Cockermouth Astronomical Society where it will be available to EAS from late December to late June each year.

Dr James Osborn talk on Adaptive Optics

Dr Osborn gave a talk on his work on providing instrumentation for the world’s large, optical telescopes.

The marked rapid introduction of atmospheric distortion from a small to a large telescope was illustrated where the star images in the latter visibly oscillate. Astronomers and engineers are developing adaptive optics technology to remove such atmospheric bouncing and blurring so that scientists can see distant objects more clearly.

The disturbance to wavefronts from the target area is measured by using a laser to excite sodium atoms in the atmosphere to create an artificial star-like object. Fibre optic communication systems relay measurements of the distorted return signal to computer systems that control the telescope correction equipment. The AO system corrects the atmosphere distortion of the wavefronts from this artificial star in real time by flexing mirrors at a kilohertz rate to compensate for the atmospheric turbulence in the direction of viewing. Conformation and calibration of the laser systems are achieved at sites by a number of proved systems around the large telescope.

Q&A was informative. Included in that was the fact that in many parts of the world where large telescopes are located there is no need to warn aviation when launching 20 watts of laser light into the sky.

See alsohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics