Aylesbury Astronomical Society
Registered Charity Number 276313
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“Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler” (Einstein)
AYLESBURY ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
For Heaven’s Sake!
Aylesbury Astronomical Society Newsletter
January 2012
Issue No. 525
Welcome to the official newsletter of the Aylesbury Astronomical Society. If some of the following is not clear, please contact the editor or member of the committee.
See also www.aylesbury-astronomy.org.uk/ if you have access to the web.
50th Anniversary of the AAS
2012 is the 50th anniversary of the AAS. If you have any past information about the society – anything at all, please contact Ian Macdonald at meetings or by email sandymacdee@btinternet.com. Ian is putting together a history for our 50th year. For example, if you were around when the dome blew off the observatory, a photo would be great.
OBSERVING
Observing is from 8pm on Fridays 13th & 20th Jan. (Dates selected to miss full moons.) In case of doubtful weather, please check with a committee member before attending.
The Winchendon Observatory is available at any time to key holders. Keys are available from Steve Edwards, 01296 427098 or steven.l.edwards@ntlworld.com.
Outside observing nights we ask that you attend with at least one other person in case of mishap at the site and check clashes with visiting groups although helpers are welcome. Please record your visit in the log book provided.
Please do not turn on the electricity in the observatory dome building where there is some problem with damp. The meeting hut and Meade telescope shed are all okay.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
All at 7.30 pm at the Scout Hut, Oakfield Road, Aylesbury unless otherwise stated.
Monday 9th January: Video and discussion evening. Note this is the second Monday in January -- we might be still be recovering on the first Monday!
Monday 6th Feb: Dr Lucy Rogers author of “It’s only rocket science”.
Monday 5th March: Visit to South West Herts Planetarium TBC.
Monday 2nd April: Viewing from the observatory (and also on the following Friday 6th April).
WHAT’S UP? January Night Sky
General view: Auriga dominates overhead with its bright yellow star Capella. Orion will be at its highest Due south, the three belt stars pointing south-east towards Sirius and north-west towards Taurus and the Pleiades. In the western sky Cetus, Pisces and Eridanus are setting. Ursa Major and the distinct shape of its brightest seven stars which form the Plough is now high in the north-eastern sky. In the eastern sky, Leo is now clear of the horizon, and many galaxies come into view as we look away from the plane of the Milky Way. Between Leo and Gemini, a bit higher is the faint Cancer, with its bright open cluster M44, the Beehive Cluster or Praesepe.
The following shows the night sky at 22:00 on 15th.
The Moon: 1st & 31st - First quarter; 9th - Full; 16th - Last quarter; 23rd - New.
The Moon will be close to: 14th - Mars; 16th & 17th - Saturn; 26th - Venus.
The Moon will be close to: 14th - Mars; 16th & 17th - Saturn; 26th - Venus.
Mercury is speeding into the morning dawn in the south east just before sunrise and will be quickly lost in the Sun’s glare. WARNING – DO NOT TRY TO LOOK FOR MERCURY AFTER THE SUN HAS RISEN.
Venus is becoming very prominent in the evening sky after sunset – with altitude and brightness increasing throughout January, becoming magnitude –4 by the end of the month. Showing a gibbous phase through a telescope. WARNING – DO NOT TRY TO LOOK FOR VENUS BEFORE THE SUN HAS SET.
Mars rises by 9 pm by the end of the month. Still very small with a telescope but will improve over the next few months as it becomes closer.
Jupiter is past its best but still big and bright at magnitude -2.2 and dominates the evening sky. Sets before midnight by the end of the month.
Saturn is visible high up in the morning sky at magnitude 1.7. The disk is tilted at about 15 degrees towards Earth making good viewing for ring detail. It is slowly losing altitude over the next few years, so make the most of any observing opportunities you can.
Uranus & Neptune are too low down in the evening twilight to observe easily.
Comet Garradd (C/2009 P1) is still visible in modest scopes, this bright comet is moving northwards through Hercules throughout the month and now best viewed in the early morning but should will be starting to fade slowly approaching the bright Globular Cluster M92 by the end of the month.
The Sun is in the middle of a new solar cycle, and the Sun has had a recent McFlurry of sunspot activity with some nice large spots groups now appearing regularly. Large prominences and some quite active flare regions have been visible so take a look if you have access to a solar scope so could be worth look through our solar scope, Contact Ralph Campbell or Steve Edwards to borrow this.
Phobos -Grunt Mars explorer is soon to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and best guesses are it will re-enter the atmosphere on 15th/16th Jan and burn up. The Russian space agency (Roscosmos) stated that some 20-30 pieces around 200 kg in total might survive the destructive and impact the surface somewhere so keep your umbrella handy.
Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a nearly Earth-sized planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own. Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and models suggest it has a temperature of about 22°C. However it is too early to say whether this is an “Earth 2.0” because it is not yet known if Kepler 22-b is made from rock, gas or liquid. During the conference at which the result was announced, the Kepler team also said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets - nearly doubling the telescope's haul of potential far-flung worlds.
Kepler 22-b was one of 54 exoplanet candidates in habitable zones reported by the Kepler team in February 2011, and is just the first to be formally confirmed using other telescopes. More "Earth 2.0" candidates are likely to be confirmed in the near future, though a redefinition of the habitable zone's boundaries has brought that number down to 48. Ten are close to Earth-sized but so far all of the confirmed planets are larger than Earth.
The Kepler space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 150 000 stars. The telescope is sensitive enough to see when a planet passes in front of its host star, dimming the star's light by a minuscule amount. Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.
Kepler Space Telescope. Kepler 22-b lies 15% closer to its sun than the Earth is to our Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, the planet's host star puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.
The results were announced at the Kepler telescope's first science conference, alongside the staggering number of new candidate planets. The total number of candidates spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 207 are approximately Earth-sized. In total, the results suggest that planets ranging from Earth-sized to about four times Earth's size - so-called "super-Earths" - may be more common than previously thought. As candidates for planets similar to Earth are confirmed, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) has a narrower focus for its ongoing hunt. "This is a superb opportunity for Seti observations," said Jill Tarter, the director of the Center for Seti Research at the Seti Institute.
"For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems - including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analogue in the habitable zone around its host star."
Stephen Hawking at 70
British scientist Stephen Hawking had to miss a symposium to mark his 70th birthday owing to ill health. Prof Hawking was discharged from hospital on Friday and a recorded speech was played to the symposium, at the university, instead. Prof Hawking urged the continued exploration of space "for the future of humanity"
He used his talk, entitled A Brief History of Mine, to warn that the human race would not "survive another thousand years" without beginning to colonise other parts of space. As well as running through his personal history and pronouncements on the future of the human race, he also used the conclusion of the speech to call on people to "be curious". "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist," he said. He went on to say it had been "a glorious time to be alive, and doing research in theoretical physics". "Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal in the last 40 years and I am happy to have made a small contribution. "The fact that we humans who are ourselves mere
CONTACTS www.aylesbury-astronomy.org.uk/contact us.html
Chairman:
Ralph Campbell 81 Narbeth Drive, AYLESBURY, HP20 1NY 01296 421328 Chairman@aylesbury-astronomy.org.uk
Secretary:
Sue Macdonald 107 Willis Road, Haddenham, AYLESBURY, HP17 8HG 01844 299031 Secretary@aylesbury-astronomy.org.uk
Editor:
Simon Leach 28 Vicarage Road, Winslow, Bucks, MK18 3BE 01296 713061 Editor@aylesbury-astronomy.org.uk