Steve’s Virtual Planet

The Magnificent Orion Nebula

When it comes to deciding what objects are the most spectacular in the Winter sky, it’s difficult to understate the beauty of the constellation of Orion, The Hunter. Regardless of whether you are observing just casually or more seriously, naked eye, binoculars or telescope, there is so much to offer at a wide range of magnifications. And of course, when one begins to tour the great expanse, you’re likely to end up spending a lot of time on the Orion Nebula. This grand target in the sky is also known as M42, one of the objects in the Messier catalog, and it’s approximately 1500 light years from earth!

This nebula is one of the most observed and photographed places in the night sky all year ’round. It’s not far from the belt of Orion and I find that it is quite satisfying at magnifications from 10 power through binoculars to upwards of 150 power through a telescope of any size. At low power, with a wide field of view, the entire expanse of the Sword of Orion stretches out to include several significant clusters and other nebulae. When viewed at higher power, you can zoom in on the wonderful structure of the nebulae and pick out some of the individual stars.

To me, any chance to visit the Orion Nebulae at the telescope is always rewarding. But, it’s also interesting to look on the internet for the hundreds of images taken by amateurs and professionals alike. The long exposure views of this complex object reveal so much structure and color that we don’t see with the naked eye. Also, read up on the statistics and astro physics of this object and you will see that it is really in our neighborhood of the Milky Way. Studying the images and the stats will help to further enhance the next live view when you get the chance to see it yourself at the eyepiece. Regardless of the instrument or the preparation, you will always be willing to look at the magnificent Orion Nebula again when you have the chance.

Posted in Observing | No Comments »

Hind’s Crimson Star

Really colorful stars are popular during outreach events. They typically get some good reactions due to their uncommon nature. Some are well know but others are also worth checking out and adding to your repertoire.

In the Winter time, one good telescopic target is Hind’s Crimson Star. Otherwise know as R Leporis, it is a Mira type variable star in the constellation Lepus, the Hare. It’s claim to fame is it’s gorgeous red color, hence it’s nick name. It’s one of several so-called carbon stars, which all have this characteristic deep color. It’s color comes from an effect whereby the star’s light is filtered by carbon in the star’s atmosphere, and its more pronounced when the star is at it’s dimmest.

It’s close to the border with Eridanus and almost exactly at 5 hours RA. It can be found by referencing stars close by in Orion. Draw a line from Mintaka, the right most star in Orion’s belt, through Rigel, and go almost the same distance. The magnitude varies (it’s a variable!) from 5.5 down to 11.7, so you may want to further investigate it 427 day period before you go off hunting. My Fernbank colleagues and I were so impressed by it’s color, we gave this beauty our own nickname - Heinz Ketchup Star!

For more details and some tips on getting the best from this colorful target, check out the additional links on the Wikipedia page.

Posted in Observing | No Comments »

SkyViewCafe Tip #1 - Catching the GRS

One of my favorite tools on the internet is Sky View Cafe (SVC). Its a Java applet that runs in a browser session and its free to use online. It’s so useful that I hope to publish the occasional tip for using it. So here is the first tip, using SVC to plan your GRS viewing. I’ll leave it to you to follow the link above and poke around with it for a while. There is online help available via the “More” button.

Notice that there are several “tabs” visible. I’ve used the tab called “Moon/GRS” a number of times in the last few months to find the GRS. Since the planet us higher in the sky now and we are occasionally getting some better, if not decent, seeing conditions, I’ve been trying to catch the GRS whenever it’s around the front of the planet.

On this occasion, Halloween 2010, I had help by following the shadow of Io, which was right next to the GRS. I was able to see that distinct high contrast dot and I knew the GRS was right next to it. My goal that evening was to catch the GRS using different planetary filters. That’s another story all together, but I was able to find the GRS easily with the SVC printout on hand.

Here is a partial clip of what the SVC display looked like for the event. Click on the image to get a larger view.

Posted in Tips | No Comments »

Winter Solstice Introspective

Well it’s the day after the Winter Solstice 2012 … and … hey … we’re still here! All that talk about the world coming to an end?!?! Pah! Fortunately many of us just waved off that kind of stuff but it was still a lot of fun. I was already expecting the typically punditry about the event, but what was most exciting was to see how extensive the celebrations were in different parts of the world.

Stonehedge always has a big event during the Solstice but this year was even bigger. All the extra publicity must have drawn even more people to Salisbury Hill for the party. This site in England has long been a place that we associate with the changing of the seasons as determined by watching the motion of the sun. And this year was no different .. except bigger!

What was really amazing though was the celebration in Mexico and in the Yucatan in particular. The ancient Mayan sites were just alive with joy and celebration. This was in a sense like the New Year for the Mayan people, but even more special since it was the new baktun, number 14 to be exact, in the base 20 system of the Mayan calendar! It’s one of the inner cycles of their calendar, comprised of 144,000 days, about 394 years.

So for at least a little while, here in modern time, people all over the world were paying attention to the motions of the heavens. We used to do that a lot over the eons as we tried to make our calendars work. The Druids and Mayans did this in spectacular fashion of course.

The seasons “go ’round and ’round in the circle game” .. reminding us where we live in the grand scheme of things. The celebration of the Solstice is a celebration of Astronomy!

Clear skies!

Posted in Events | No Comments »

Europa’s Shadow - Dec 13

Another fun night at Fernbank Observatory spending time with Jupiter. New moon that night and a nice crowd of fellow sky lovers. The GRS was up later so we would miss it but Europa was going to pop into view at 21:52. I had already noted the time using SVC. This would be another chance to show that we can predict these events quite easily.

Sure enough, it was there right on time! It only took a short time for the full brightness of the moon to make it pop out very clearly. The shadow of Europa was visible immediately inside the limb of Jupiter, small but very distinct, as the shadows normally are with good seeing. The sight of Europa emerging right after the egress was quite exciting since there were still a few die hard sky fans up in the observatory. So, we could get all four Galilean moons that night before closing up. It was good fun for all.

Posted in Memorable views | No Comments »

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot - Dec 6

Jupiter is really showing it’s beauty now that it has climbed higher in the sky in the last few weeks. As always when the king of planets comes around, I am always eager to get a look at the Great Red Spot (GRS). The view from Fernbank Observatory on December 6th, 2012 was really special and I was able to share it with quit a few people.

The GRS was not very bold or even a distinct color that evening. In fact, the color was quite pale but the outline was very distinct. For some reason, the seeing that evening was better than normal and the view was certainly better than expected. We had a chance to show off the GRS to a number of people that night that had probably not seen it before. I explained where to look and the shape and color, and people were able to see it right away. I had known for two days it would be there so it was great to see it shine through!

Since Jupiter’s rotation is on the order of 10 hours, the GRS isn’t always out front so if you plan ahead you can determine when the GRS is visible. I use the online tool Sky View Cafe, and with SVC it’s easy to get a chart of Jupiter’s moons and the GRS in advance. Check out some of the other posts on Sky View Cafe and give it a try yourself. Jupiter is around in the evening sky until April, so there are still plenty of chances to got Spot Hunting!!

Clear skies!!

Posted in Memorable views | No Comments »

What planet, where planet?

When you plan your upcoming sky viewing, it’s always a good idea to check what planets are going to be visible. There are a number of ways to layout a plan for the constellations and because they are regular and predictable, it’s easy to get prepared. “Well”, you might say, “planets are regular and predictable, too.” Yes, true, but our solar system neighbors have their own rhythms that don’t coincide with Earth’s yearly cycle.

After searching the internet for some time, I have found a very useful tool for planning your planet watching called AstroViewer. This is an online tool and it is found at www.astroviewer.com. There is a free interactive version of the program that can be used as long as you have a live internet connection. There is also a download version and a license key that can be purchased for about $15US. Chances are you are planning weeks or even months in advance, so the online version should be adequate.

When you go to the web site, you will see a group of tabs across the top of the main page. Click the second tab marked “Interactive Night Sky Map”. It takes a few minutes after that, but you will soon see a grey button appear that says “Start AstroViewer”. (If you don’t see the button, refer to my notes at the end). Click that button and you will get a new browser window with the actual tool inside. The main display will appear with an easy to use sky map that’s very intuitive to use. There is also a view of the solar system in the second tab which you may wish to check out, but the point of this post is on the third tab - “Planets’ Visibility”.

The display may look a little odd at first but when you study it for a moment, you’ll see it’s a 24 hour timeline with a horizontal line for each planet and the moon. Notice the scale below the planet lines; this is the time of day. You will need to set the location over in the left hand side control panel to be in sync. But once you do that, you can then determine when each planet will be visible in relation to the time of day. The view defaults to the current time, but if you adjust the dates using the controls to the left, the real usefulness of this display becomes apparent. You can use the control panel to skip forward in time by weeks or even months or years to see when you favorite planet is up. You will still need a planetarium program or online tool to see exactly where the planet will be, but you will know when to look.

Enjoy!

Notes: AstroViewer relies on Java and need to have an addin for your browser for the tool to work. That’s really beyond the scope of this post, but if Java is missing, your browser will likely prompt you to download the addin. Java is a very useful component and has it’s own internal security so you shouldn’t worry about adding that to your browser.

Posted in Observing | No Comments »

AL Astronomy Outreach Master Level Award

Many of us in the Atlanta Astronomy Club have found a real calling in sharing our love of science and astronomy with the public. And at dozens of events through the year, we do what we can to enrich the lives of people through our love of this activity. A little over a year ago, I received the first and second level award for astronomy outreach from the Astronomical League, the Outreach and Stellar Outreach Astronomical League Award

The previous award was an accumulation of 60 hours logged in 2009. Most of these hours were from my observatory sessions at Fernbank Science Center. There were several outreach events with the Atlanta Astronomy Club as well. Well now, after an additional two years of volunteering at the Fernbank Observatory, I have accumulated an additional 250 hours of logged time. This qualifies me for the Astronomical League’s Master Level Outreach Award.

The announcement was in the June 2012 edition of Reflector magazine, published by the Astronomical League. In receiving this, I join a group of dozens of astronomy enthusiasts that have reached this level of achievement in bringing astronomy to the public. The essay that accompanied my submission is found here, “Astronomy Outreach Techniques”

Posted in Announcements | No Comments »

Stellarium planetarium software

Over the last decade or so, the internet has brought forth many great resources for the hobby of astronomy. Amongst the many pieces of free software I have found, one of the most useful is Stellarium, a downloadable “planetarium” program. Stellarium runs on Windows, Mac and even Linux and gives you a view of the sky that easy to configure and use. Sometimes, just the basic features are all you need and version 10 of Stellarium is perfect for use in the field for astronomy outreach or just showing a simple view of the sky to your friends.

Well, as with many things, the best gets even better. Stellarium version 11 is out and a new stable version has just been announced this month. You start at the Stellarium website and download the program, then install it. The new version still has the same look and feel to version 10, however, its worth working through the list of features on their web site.

I am not going to be able to do a full review of the program in this article, but I still highly recommend the program. The interface is not what you may typically find in Windows programs, but this tool is more universal than what our GUI friends might call “standard”. Nevertheless, take the time to explore the screen once you’ve installed it. And dig into the help feature to see what the mouse and keyboard shortcuts are. Admittedly, this program is a bit of a challenge to get used to but it’s not a very complex interface.

The help screen now has hyperlinks that take you to the documentation wiki, where you can get the full user’s guide. The documentation was there before, but now it’s much easier to get to it from the program. You just have to have a live internet connection when you use it.

Stellarium is a great example of how people get together in hyperspace and create and support a great product. Consider downloading and using this resource for your astronomy outreach and even your personal enjoyment.

Posted in Observing | No Comments »

SVC Tip #4 - Going in circles with the Big Dipper

The northern sky has several memorable asterisms and the favorite one is probably the Big Dipper. It’s actually only part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It’s easy to spot when it swings into view in the early evening this time of year. And the further you are to the north when observing, the better the view will be.

The Big Dipper will contain stars which will be visible at some time on most nights. As those stars move counterclockwise around the northern polar star Polaris, they are said to be “circumpolar”. In other words, if we are at a certain minimum latitude (around 41 degrees), a specific star in the dipper will make a great circle in the sky and never go below the horizon.

Of course, around the suburbs you might be dealing with the tree line but not to worry. You can plan for this using Sky View Cafe (SVC) and on of its options on the Sky tab - the Horizon to Zenith view. Look for the list of options over on the right hand side when using the Sky tab. The first option is probably set to a full sky view, but click the don arrow to list the others and choose Horizon to Zenith. Then, look for the “Select a direction …” button near the Insolation tab and change it to N, for north.

Now you’re looking at a full slice of the northern sky from the horizon to the zenith. By adjusting the time and date values up in the time field, you can preview what your view of the dippers will be. If you also mark the names of the stars for the constellations, you can refer to the chart made in the previous blog on the dippers. And remember, you can print from Sky View Cafe and get a simple chart to use in the field for the exact time and date you’ve selected.

Have a great time with SVC and check out the other tips here SVC Tip #1 & SVC Tip #2 & SVC Tip #3.

Posted in Tips | No Comments »