ScienceSouth - Tony's Astronomy Corner

January 2012

2012-01-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on January 23^rd. For January, your best viewing nights will be from January 14^th to the 27^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on January 15^th at 9 pm.

Star Names:

Learn the names:

If your hobby is bird watching, one would expect you to know the names of several birds. Therefore, I find it amazing that many amateur astronomers know several constellation names but only a few star names. Let’s take some time this month to discuss the topic of star names.

Since most amateur astronomers know the names of many constellations, this is where you should begin to learn the names of several stars. Most constellations do not have one prominent bright star, example: Big and Little Dipper, Orion, Cassiopeia, Gemini, Sagittarius, Hercules, Pegasus, and Perseus. However, many constellations do have one bright prominent star. If you know these constellations, then you should be able to name that bright star. Here is a list of common constellations and the name of the brightest star in that constellation: Leo the Lion; brightest star is Regulus, in Bootes; Arcturus, Auriga; Capella, Cynus; Deneb, Taurus; Aldebaran, Canis Major; Sirius, Scorpius; Antares, Lyra; Vega. You now have eight star names to begin your list.

In addition to memorizing the name of the brightest star in the well-known constellations above, here is another star name challenge you should try. Choosing the well-known constellations, the Big Dipper (really an asterism) and Orion; memorize all the prominent stars in these two constellations.

Let’s start with the Big Dipper. There are seven stars in the Big Dipper. Starting at the end of the handle you have Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe. See image below.

Additional information: A line starting with Merak and going through Dubhe will point to the North Star (Polaris). Another feature of the Big Dipper stars is the star in the middle of the handle, Mizar. Mizar is a double star, and its companion is called Alcor. On a clear night you can see the faint Alcor above Mizar. If you have trouble seeing it with your eyes alone, it is easily seen with simple binoculars. Add Alcor to your list of star names; now you know eight stars in the Big Dipper.

The constellation Orion also has eight stars that you should learn. Remember, Orion the Hunter forms the shape of a man. The eight stars are as follows: Meissa is the head. His right shoulder is Betelgeuse, the left shoulder is Bellatrix, the right knee is Saiph and the left knee is Rigel. The three belt stars starting on Orion’s right side are Alnitak, Anilam and Mintaka. See image below.

Additional information: Meissa is much dimmer than the seven other stars. Betelgeuse is a red giant star, and its orange color is obvious. Rigel is a hot blue star. Note that I did not list the names of the three apparent stars in Orion’s sword. That is because the top “star” in the sword is really multiple stars imbedded in the Running Man Nebula. The center “star” is actually the Orion Nebula (M42) and the bottom “star” is also made up of multiple stars.

If you learn the names of all the stars I suggested above, you will have 24 star names in your memory bank; a good amount for a new amateur astronomer.

What do the names mean?

Every star name has a meaning, but let’s just focus on some of the stars we learned above. First note that many stars start with the letters Al. This is because many of our star names were given by ancient Arabs, and in Arabic, Al means “the.” Therefore, the star Al-debaran means “the follower” (of the Pleiades). In Orion, the three Arabic names in the belt are, Al-nitak; “the belt,” Al-nilam; “the string of pearls,” and Mintaka which is another Arabic word for belt. Of course, some Arabic star names can be quite difficult, such as Zubeneschamali; “northern claw;” ( Zoo-Ben`-Ess-Sha-Mah`-Lee).

How do you pronounce the star names?

In general, most star names are pronounced as expected from their spelling; however, there are many are not pronounced as expected. One example is the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra. Most of us say “Vay`-ga,” however, the official pronunciation is “Vee`-ga.”

I have found over the years that astronomers sometimes disagree about the “correct” pronunciation of certain stars. I do not worry that much about the pronunciations; I still prefer to say “Vay-ga.”

Many years ago, a friend asked me an interesting question; “Do any stars have a person’s common name, such as Joe, Mary, Sam, etc.” The answer is that only one star has a name that is pronounced but not spelled as a person’s name. In the autumn, when the Northern Cross (Cygnus) appears upright, the star marking the left side of the cross is called Gienah, and is pronounced like the women’s name, Gina. See below.

Naked Eye Sights: Orion is always a joy to look at high in the January sky. If you have any friends that have no knowledge of astronomy, introduce them to the constellation Orion. Jupiter is still visible in the southwest, and Venus will continue to shine brightly in the west after sunset. Venus will continue climbing higher in the sky until early May.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Check out the Orion Nebula, and the Moons of Jupiter.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm: If you received a telescope for Christmas, Jupiter is still a great target in the southwest throughout January.

See you next month!

December 2011

2011-12-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on December 24^th. For December, your best viewing nights will be from December 17^th to the 28^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on December 15^th at 9 pm.

Star Party:

The November 19^th at Lynches River Park turned out to be a great night. On that day a persistent cloud cover continued until just before the 7 pm star party start time. The skies then cleared followed by a short cloud cover again about 9 pm and then clearing again. The absence of clouds does not always imply great viewing conditions because other factors can cause viewing problems. These factors may include atmospheric moisture and thermal layering distortion. However, the clear skies at the Lynches River Star Party resulted in excellent viewing conditions. The favorite target for the night was the planet Jupiter, with all four Galilean moons being visible. The planet was sharp and clear with plenty of color. We usually cannot “push” our Dobsonian telescope to 150 power, due to loss of clarity/resolution, but on that night, Jupiter was still a sharp/clear image even at high power. Below is an image that approximates how we saw Jupiter during the star party, however, our view was much sharper than the image below.

We also viewed the Pleiades (M45), the Dumbbell Nebula (M27), the famous Ring Nebula (M57), the Double Cluster, the blue and gold double star Albireo, and the Orion Nebula (M42).

Lunar Eclipse?

This month you may hear a passing comment about a total lunar eclipse visible over the United States on December 10^th, but it will most likely not be reported on your local news broadcasts. The Moon will be totally eclipsed at 6 am in California, therefore, 9 am in South Carolina. It is really a Pacific Ocean lunar eclipse, and as such, we won’t even see a partial eclipse.

Meteor Shower:

Readers of this column know that there are usually only three prominent meteor showers each year, the Perseids in August, the Leonids in November, and the Geminids in December. Interestingly enough, they all peak about the 12^th through the 14^th of their respective months. A good meteor shower should yield at least one meteor per minute, or 60 per hour. Over the last 10-15 years, the Leonids have had some good peaks, resulting in over 100-200 meteors per hour, however, this is not the norm. Usually, meteors are relatively dim and of course fleeting. Therefore, the main requirement for observing a meteor shower is a dark sky location. Now, you can control your viewing location, but you cannot control the Moon’s location or the weather. This was one of the worst years for viewing meteor showers because each of the three meteor showers mentioned above arrived on or near a full Moon. This month the Geminids peak around December 14^th with an almost full Moon nearby. If you wish, you might try to go out and check the sky about 10 pm, before the Moon rises at about 10:20 pm. However, the best viewing for any meteor shower is after midnight, as the Earth turns toward the approaching meteors. Therefore, it appears that this will not be a good year for the Geminids. There is good future news though; next year, all three major meteor showers will occur at or near a new Moon.

Mars News:

November 26^th marked the liftoff our NASA’s newest Mars Rover, called Curiosity. The Curiosity Rover should reach Mars next August. This rover, shown on the right in the image below is much larger than our previous two rovers.

The Curiosity is 10 feet long and weighs about 2000 pounds. Unlike previous rovers, Curiosity will require a precision landing in the Martian Gale crater. This will require a special landing vehicle to carry the rover to the exact area desired in the crater; see images below.

Curiosity will not search for life, but for chemical compounds that are known to exist in our Earth life forms. In addition, because of its extensive heavy duty equipment, it will greatly expand the knowledge of Martian geology and weather.

What to do this Month:

I mentioned above that the two possible astronomy events this month are really non-events for us. However, for the dedicated amateur astronomer, there is plenty to see this month. See below:

Naked Eye Sights: Venus will surpass Jupiter as the brightest “star like object” this month. However, throughout December, Venus will only be visible for a short time each night. On December 1^st, Venus will set at 7 pm, and by December 31^st, it will be visible only until 8 pm. Jupiter will therefore be the most obvious bright “star like object” throughout this month.

The beautiful constellation Orion returns for its winter visit this month, and its nearby companion, the star Sirius competes with Jupiter and Venus for the brightest star versus star-like object in the sky.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Check out the Orion Nebula, the apparent center star in Orion’s sword. At any power binocular, you should be able to the see the gaseous cloud surrounding the “star nursery” of the Orion Nebula. If viewing conditions are favorable, you may be able to see that the cloud resembles a diving eagle.

Jupiter and its moons continue to be a good target.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): After checking out the Orion Nebula with your binoculars, try the same target with your telescope. It usually looks best through a reflecting scope due the better light gathering mirror. Don’t forget to look at Jupiter and its moons.

See you next month!

November 2011

2011-11-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on November 25^th. For November, your best viewing nights will be from November 1^st and 2^nd and November 17^th to the 30^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on November 15^th at 9 pm.

Star Party:

Note on your calendar that there will be a free ScienceSouth Public Star Party on November 19^th at Lynches River Park from 7-10 pm on the baseball field. Bring binoculars if you have them. So, what exactly is a star party?

September, October and November are often thought to be the best three months for amateur astronomy. Due to favorable viewing conditions, many star parties are run in various places around the country. The traditional star party is a gathering of amateur astronomers at a site removed from light pollution. They are usually run in parks or campgrounds and sometimes at private sites owned by colleges or astronomy clubs; plus a moderate fee is charged for use of the facility. The amateurs usually spend most of the time with their own equipment. In addition, they may also wander about to see various objects through other peoples’ scopes. Note: Star parties are a great way to check out new equipment before making a purchase. At star parties, many people are trying to seek out very dim objects, and some people are deeply involved in astrophotography. Because of this, it is very important that you do not use any white lights at all. If you need a light, only red lights are allowed and kept at a minimum. This is because red light is least likely to disturb your night vision. Also, at normal star parties, the use of green lasers is prohibited. One green laser can ruin hours of long exposure astrophotography.

In addition to the traditional star parties, there are also events called public star parties; this is the type star party we will have on the 19^th at Lynches River. If you are new to astronomy, these are always great events to attend. At a public star party, many if not most people come without a telescope, and these gatherings are usually free of charge. The amateurs will have their telescopes set up to allow people to view various objects, answer questions, and in general help people learn more about astronomy. Green lasers are usually allowed, and are used by the astronomers to help people find various celestial objects. As mentioned above, if you do attend a public star party, be sure to bring a pair of binoculars if possible. A knowledgeable amateur can point to an object with a green laser, and you can just follow the beam with your binoculars to the target; a great way to find your way around the night sky. The image below was taken at our first Lynches River Star Party in November 2007.

Please check the ScienceSouth Website for any changes or weather cancellation of the November Star Party.

Dance of the Planets – Perspective:

As you are well aware, the bright planet Jupiter featured in last month’s column is still visible, and continues to be a great telescope target throughout most of the winter. In addition, the best planetary target, Saturn, is now returning as a morning target towards the end of the month, rising about an hour before sunrise. Thousands of years ago, the ancient astronomers watched as the planets rose in the evening or in the morning, and realized that there was a consistent pattern in their movements. Most ancients were probably not aware about what these moving objects really were, but it appears that at least for the ancient Mayans, they were aware that these objects, like us, were moving in orbits around the Sun.

I feel sure that most of my readers are aware that the appearances of the various planets at different places and different times throughout the years are due to the movement of our Earth around the Sun, coupled with the movements of the various planets in their orbits around the Sun. To add to your knowledge, I want to give a visual perspective of why we see the planets at different times each year.

The images below are views of the Earth and the planets Jupiter and Saturn. The view is looking down at our North Pole and is set for the night of November 15^th and the morning of the 16^th. The white arrow will always point to the south. The yellow line represents your horizon, and when you look up into the sky, you can only see objects that are on the same side of the yellow line as the white arrow.

The first view is sunset on the 15^th. Note that Jupiter is visible low in the east, and Saturn is not visible because it is on the other side of the Earth.

The second is your view from the Earth at midnight. Now Jupiter has moved towards the southwest, and Saturn is still not visible.

The last view is near sunrise. Jupiter is behind the Earth, and is no longer visible. Saturn now comes into view, and is seen low in the eastern sky.

I hope these images gave you a better perspective of the “Dance of the Planets.”

Naked Eye Sights: Jupiter will still be the brightest “star like object” this month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Jupiter and its moons. There are many Messier Objects visible this month, and they are great targets due to the clear skies of autumn.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm: Jupiter and its moons, and various Messier Objects.

See you next month!

October 2011

2011-10-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on October 26^th. For October, your best viewing nights will be from October 1^st and 2^nd and October 19^th to the 29^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on October 15^th at 9 pm.

Jupiter:

Jupiter returns this month and is a great target for your telescopes. The two favorite planets for small telescope observation are Saturn and Jupiter. Saturn is usually the most impressive target because of its beautiful ring system, and Saturn will return next spring. Jupiter is known for its atmospheric cloud bands, red spot (not very red), its four major moons, and its large disk size.

This month Jupiter moves into opposition with the Earth on October 28^th. Opposition occurs when the planet is directly opposite the Sun as seen from Earth. (Lunar opposition is called a full Moon). At opposition, the planet is visible the entire night. Also at opposition, the planet is at its closest distance to Earth. However, due to variability in its orbit, it can be closer or farther away each year. Jupiter is 369 million miles from Earth this month, which is quite close. Jupiter can only be 3 million miles closer than it is now. However, Jupiter can be as much as 44 million miles farther from us at opposition; that is greater than the distance between the Earth and Mars! Although Jupiter opposition occurs at the end of the month, Jupiter will continue to be impressive from October into early March 2012. Therefore, Jupiter will be the brightest star like object throughout the winter. Another plus is that late fall and winter skies tend to give clearer viewing due to the lack of humidity/moisture in the atmosphere.

Telescope Viewing: The very bright Jupiter, strangely enough may result in viewing problems for amateurs. Most amateur astronomers cannot afford to purchase refracting telescopes with highest quality lenses. These high quality lenses are called apochromatic, and can easily add an additional $1000 or more to the price of a good refracting telescope. With standard quality telescopes, very bright objects do tend to cause some viewing problems. This can also occur with reflecting telescopes. Sometimes this can be resolved by “masking" the objective lens, centered masking with a refractor and off center masking of the mirror on a reflector, as shown below.

The “masks” allows only a small amount of the available light to enter your telescope. This may seem strange, because you chose your telescope to collect as much light as possible, but remember, masking is only used in special cases with very bright planets. Note that this planet brightness problem is in part due to the contrast between the bright planet and the dark sky. So another simple trick to enhance your planetary viewing is to look at the planet earlier in the night, during twilight, before total darkness arrives. This trick also works quite well when viewing Venus.

Although you can see Jupiter’s moons with binoculars, a simple telescope will allow you to also view the impressive cloud bands of Jupiter. With a simple telescope on a clear night, you may even see the bands in color!

Binocular Viewing: Jupiter is the only planet that can be enjoyed using simple seven or ten power binoculars. With low power binoculars, Jupiter will not be seen as a disk, but its four major moons, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io, known as the Galilean moons, will be readily visible. These moons move quickly around the planet, therefore each night they will be seen in different positions. In addition, some nights they will disappear as they move in front or in back of the planet. So on any given night, you usually see from one to four moons. The image below approximates what I can see through my large binoculars. Note that the cloud bands are just barely visible at 25 power.

If you have a good astronomy program on your computer, you can check the positions of the four Galilean moons for any given time or night, before you venture out. However, this is not the most convenient method. The best way to check out the positions of the moons is to use a website run by the magazine “Sky and Telescope”;

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/jupiter#. This is a great site, see below.

Some key points about this site. First and most important is the time. This site uses universal time (UT), which is based in Greenwich, England. The time offset is given on the site, and for South Carolina it is -4 hours. Therefore, the image above shows the position of Jupiter’s moons on 10/20/2011 at 1:54 am minus 4 hours or 9:54 pm on the night of October 19^th. Once you get used to this time setup, this site is easy to use. Note: -4 hours is for daylight savings time; in the winter, our time offset will be -5 hours.

Next, notice that the default view of the moon positions is called the direct view. This is the view you will see through binoculars. You can click on the other views based on what kind of telescope setup you have. Don’t forget to use the +- day, hour, minute recalculation boxes to adjust for your viewing times.

Naked Eye Sights: Jupiter will be the brightest “star like object” this month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Jupiter and its moons. Check the Galilean moons positions using the Sky and Telescope website, then go out and see them for real.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm: Jupiter and its moons. Try some twilight viewing of this planet.

See you next month!

September 2011

2011-09-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on September 27^th. For September, your best viewing nights will be from September 15^th through September 31^st. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on September 15^th at 9 pm.

Astronomy at ScienceSouth:

In the next several months, ScienceSouth is planning various astronomy programs. These programs will include the following.

Sidewalk Astronomy: ScienceSouth will bring out our telescopes to various places in the area to allow everyone to view the craters and mountains of the Moon, and any visible planets. Example, Jupiter will be visible from November through next February, Mars next spring, and Saturn next summer. The Sidewalk astronomy program has been run several times in the past few years at local businesses, libraries, churches and at Lynches River Park. Below are some photos from last year at our event next to Rita’s on Irby Street.

In addition the nighttime Sidewalk Astronomy programs, we also hold some daytime viewings of the Sun. We have two solar telescopes, and one solar image projector. This equipment allows us to view both sunspots, and the eruptions off the Sun’s surface called prominences.

Astronomy Nights at ScienceSouth: In addition to reaching out to the public with our Sidewalk Astronomy program, this year we plan to initiate astronomy nights at the ScienceSouth Center at Freedom Florence.

This program will also allow you to view various objects in the night sky. We will have two or more telescopes available. In addition, we encourage everyone to bring a pair of binoculars with them. As I have mentioned in previous columns, binoculars are a great introduction to astronomy. They are easy to use, and can also have many other daytime viewing uses. We have special lasers at ScienceSouth that we use to help you to find many astronomy targets with your own binoculars.

The Astronomy Night programs at ScienceSouth will have one major difference from our Sidewalk Astronomy program; we will be running the program even if it is a cloudy or rainy night! ScienceSouth has a new Star Lab planetarium through a NASA funded grant.

The Star Lab is an inflatable dome planetarium, which can easily hold twenty adults at a time. Unlike the other dome planetarium we have, this new Star Lab is digital, and is driven by a powerful computerized astronomy program. This Star Lab will allow us to show you astronomy events occurring from 100,000 BC to 100,000 AD! We can visit our solar system’s planets, and venture out to the stars our Milky Way, and even out beyond our galaxy. Note: I will feature our new Star Lab and discuss its many capabilities in a future column. In addition, at the astronomy night we will have some short presentations and some astronomy based activities to do. We will also have many different telescopes on display inside the pavilion for a telescope “show and tell.” So if it is a cloudy night, there will be plenty of fun things to do inside our ScienceSouth pavilion. If we do have a clear night, you can enjoy both outside viewing, and if you wish, you can spend some time checking out our Star Lab inside.

Astronomy Workshops: In addition to our planned events discussed above, we have tentative plans to run astronomy workshops at ScienceSouth. The astronomy workshops will be directed at people who enjoy amateur astronomy, or have considered a hobby in astronomy, but really don’t know how to proceed. Therefore, if you own a telescope, feel free to bring it to the workshop. If you only own binoculars, bring them along. If you have neither, you can bring yourself and family, and use ScienceSouth’s equipment. We will be available to teach you how to best use your equipment, and answer any basic astronomy viewing questions. If you are just starting out, we will discuss the purchasing of your first telescope.

We will also teach viewing techniques, and discuss useful astronomy software, books, etc. One key presentation will be on the Messier Objects. Locating all 110 Messier Objects in the night sky is not only challenging and fun, but is a surefire method to find your way around the night sky.

So, we hope to see everyone at some or all of our planned ScienceSouth astronomy events over the next several months. Keep checking out this column, but most importantly, check out our website at sciencesouth.org for the dates of upcoming events.

Our first astronomy program is planned for our first Science After Dark series on September 15^th, 7-9 pm. Note: Our Science After Dark programs will run throughout the year, and each program will feature a different science theme. Again, check our website regularly to confirm the dates and times of our programs.

Naked Eye Sights: Note our star chart above shows that the famous

Summer Triangle is directly overhead at mid-month. This triangle is formed by the three stars: Deneb, Vega, and Altair. At the end of the month you will see a bright star-like object rising in the east in the late evening; this is the return of the planet Jupiter. Jupiter will be the visible throughout late fall and through the winter months.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): If you are looking in the region of the Summer Triangle, take time to use your binoculars to find the interesting binocular asterism, the Coathanger, between Altair and Albireo. The image below will help your search.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Staying in the Summer Triangle, revisit the Ring Nebula (M57) near Vega and the Dumbbell Nebula (M27); both were featured in July’s column.

See you next month!

August 2011

2011-09-02T09:36:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on August 28^th. For August, your best viewing nights will be from August 1^st through August 5^thand August 20^th through August 31^st. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on August 15^th at 10 pm.

Vesta:

This month I would like to challenge everyone to try to locate the asteroid Vesta. Vesta is now in an empty region of the sky, making it difficult to locate. However, the reason that I am featuring Vesta this month is that NASA’s Dawn space probe just went into orbit around this asteroid on July 17^th. This is the first probe that has been placed in orbit around a main belt asteroid. Dawn will orbit Vesta for about one year, at which time it will leave Vesta and visit the largest asteroid, Ceres.

When we hear the term asteroids, we immediately think of a wide band of rocky objects between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Indeed the vast majority of the asteroids are located in this “Main Asteroid Belt.” However there are two other groups of asteroids that rotate around the Sun. The second group lies in the same orbit as Jupiter. These asteroids are called “Trojans” and “Greeks,” and are located 60 degrees behind and in front of Jupiter. The third group of asteroids is called “Near Earth Asteroids” (NEA’s).

The NEA’s are especially important to us because they are in orbits that may result in a collision with Earth. Even a small asteroid only a few miles across would cause devastating effect if it hit our planet. Several small NEA’s have been found that will make very close passes by our Earth in the next fifteen to thirty years.

Before I help you locate Vesta, I would like to discuss the origins of the main asteroid belt. Over the years there have been various theories about the formation of the asteroid belt. First, consider the layout of our solar system. The four planets closest to the Sun are rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars). Then there is a large “gap,” filled with rocky asteroids, followed by the gaseous planets, (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). Some theories state that a rocky planet had formed between Mars and Jupiter, and the gravitational forces of Jupiter tore the new planet apart. Another theory is that the asteroids are merely rocky solar system debris that never formed a planet. I personally like the second theory, but it is seldom explained further. So let me try to elaborate. The theory concerning the formation of the inner planets is that after our Sun formed, the rocky/metallic debris that circled near the Sun was extremely hot and was therefore in a molten state. Gravitational forces caused some of these molten pieces to collide, and form larger pieces. As these larger molten pieces grew in size, they then attracted more pieces until they became a planet like our Earth. The key here is when molten or semi-molten objects collide, they can be easily combined to make larger molten “globs.” Also, because the new planets were molten, and spinning, they easily formed into spheres instead of irregular shapes. This process of planet building can take millions of years, and during this time the molten debris could cool down and become solid. The farther away the molten rocks were from the Sun, the faster they could cool down. The farthest rocky/metallic molten rocks were in the region of the asteroid belt, and being so far from the sun, they could cool down much faster than the regions that would form the Earth or Venus, etc. So the debris in the region of the asteroid belt most likely cooled down to solid rocks before they could form into larger molten pieces. Once they cooled to solid debris, when they hit other debris they would more likely bounce off then be adsorbed as did the molten pieces nearer to the Sun. Only the largest asteroid Ceres (about 500 miles across) formed into a sphere, implying that it formed in a molten state. We hope the Dawn Probe will give us better understanding into the true origin of the asteroid belt.

Now the challenge to locate Vesta. This month Vesta is in the constellation Capricorn. Capricorn is not an easy constellation to see, but it is just to the left of the constellation Sagittarius. Sagittarius is in the south, and is an easy to spot summer constellation, known as the “Teapot Asterism.”

To locate Vesta, we will use a stepwise method called star hopping. Vesta can be seen with binoculars, so we will do the star hopping with seven power binoculars. To star hop, you start with an easy to find target that fits in you binocular’s field of view (FOV), and then move step wise to other targets that can fit into your binocular’s FOV.

We will begin Step 1with the “handle” part of the Sagittarius “teapot” asterism. This handle will fit into your FOV, see below. Now slowly scan to the left until you see the Step 2 group of stars in your FOV.

Next scan more to the left and find the Step 3 right triangle. This month, Vesta will move into and though this right triangle.

Good luck in your search.

Naked Eye Sights: The well-known Perseids meteor shower peaks on the 13^th, however, the full Moon will wash out all but very large meteors.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Vesta.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Once you find Vesta using binoculars, try to locate it with a telescope.

July 2011

2011-07-11T08:35:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on July 1^stand July 30^th. For July, your best viewing nights will be from July 1^st through July 7^thand July 23^rd through July 31^st. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on July 15^th at 10 pm.

Two New Moons:

As you may have noticed above, there are two new Moons this month. When there are two full Moons in a calendar month, the second full Moon is called a “Blue Moon.” There is no generally accepted name for a second new Moon. The reason is simple; we can’t see new Moons. Probably the only people that are following the dates of the new Moons are amateur astronomers. The dark of the new Moon is helpful when searching for distant galaxies, or for observing meteor showers. So enjoy the two new Moons, but don’t expect to hear about them on the nightly news reports.

Planetary Nebulas:

Planetary nebulas have the traditional ionized gas nebulosity, but they have nothing to do with planets! These fuzzy nebulas are often round, but they can also have other interesting shapes. They are called planetary because in the mid 1800’s when they were first observed through lesser quality telescopes, they looked like gaseous planets. Later observations found them to be gaseous nebulas. However, unlike other gaseous nebulas, they tend to have elements of symmetry. Even when they are not ball-shaped, they usually have a symmetrical shape.

As telescopes became more advanced, astronomers noticed that many planetary nebulas had a small star at their center; a white dwarf. As astronomy advanced, the life cycles of many stars were observed and better understood. The mysterious planetary nebulas were determined to be the result of the death of certain stars. When one discusses star death, we tend to think of the spectacular exploding nova and supernova. However, there is a more common type of star death, which is also predicted to be the fate of our Sun. Stars like our Sun will eventually run out of hydrogen to fuse into helium, and when this happens (~5 billion years from now for the Sun) these stars will then collapse upon themselves until the helium begins to fuse, and then the star will blaze again. This second life will cause the star to greatly expand; and in the case of our star, the Sun will swallow our Earth. After the helium fusion shuts down, this type star will undergo a rapid collapse, and the rebound from this collapse will blow off a large cloud of gases resulting in the objects we call planetary nebulas, leaving behind a remnant white dwarf star, which will slowly fade away.

For the amateur astronomer, planetary nebulas were just more interesting fuzzy objects to see, the most famous being the Ring Nebula in Lyra. However, the Hubble Telescope began sending back images of many planetary nebulas, and for the first time we saw how spectacular they were. Among those planetary nebulas were:

The Cat’s Eye Nebula:

The Eskimo Nebula:

The Hourglass Nebula:

Note the clearly visible central star in each nebula. In most planetary nebula visible to amateurs, the central star is too dim to be viewed.

This month try to locate two well-known planetary nebulas that are within the reach of amateur scopes. First you must forget about the beautiful Hubble images with all their color; the best you can hope for is gray-white fuzzy images on a black sky. Your two targets are the Dumbbell Nebula in the constellation of Vulpecula, Messier 27, and the Ring Nebula in Lyra, Messier 57.

Start with the easier target the Dumbbell. Away from the city lights, you can see M27 with 10 X 50 binoculars. It is also an excellent target for big binoculars (25 X 100mm). It is also easily accessible with a Dobsonian reflector, but start at your lowest power. To locate M27, start by finding the Constellation Cygnus (The Northern Cross) in the southeast. In your mind, imagine a perfect trapezoid made with three stars in Cygnus, and an imaginary point, see below. Point your binoculars or scope at this imaginary point, and then move slightly to the right.

Look carefully because it is only a faint smudge; it looks like a small cloud. Below is what you should see at about 30-40 power. It will look the same through your binoculars, but of course it will be smaller.

The next target is the famous Ring Nebula in Lyra, M57. This planetary nebula is easier to pinpoint, but harder to see. Start with the very bright star Vega and note the parallelogram shape in Lyra.

M57 is almost on the direct line between the stars Sheliak and Sulafat.

With my 15 power binoculars, I can just see M57 as a slightly fuzzy star. With my 25 power binoculars, I can see that M27 is not a star, but a fuzzy object. For most observers, the ring shape of this planetary nebula requires 40-60 power to resolve.

Remember, sometime in the distant future, some distant observer may look back this way and observe a planetary nebula resulting from the death of our Sun.

Naked Eye Sights: The Summer Milky Way centered in the southern skies.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Try to locate M27, the Dumbbell Nebula near Cygnus the Swan. Wander through the summer Milky Way.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Try to locate M27 and the Ring Nebula M57. Check out Saturn in the southwest late in the month; it will be at its best tilt angle for this year.

June 2011

2011-06-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on June 1^st. For June, your best viewing nights will be from June 1^st through June 7^thand June 21^st through June 30^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on June 15^th at 10 pm.

Back to Nine Planets?

Last month I discussed why Pluto was removed from the list of solar system planets, and I also discussed dwarf planets in general. Just recently, two astronomers have presented a new theory which claims that there is yet another planet out beyond Pluto. However, this new theory states that this new planet is not small like the dwarf planets, but is four times more massive than Jupiter! This claim has been proposed by professors Whitmire and Matese, two astrophysicists from the University of Louisiana. They have even given this planet a proposed name, Tyche. Last month I mentioned the Ort Cloud, which extends over a thousand times the distance beyond Pluto. The Ort Cloud is proposed to be the primary source of comets. The basis of this new theory is that the trajectories of the many comets leaving the Ort Cloud to head towards the Sun are not random as would be expected. These astrophysicists believe that the trajectories of many comets fit the presence of a large planet in the Ort Cloud. Presently, this new theory is considered to be a “weak” theory, and therefore has not been accepted by most astronomers due to lack of any hard evidence. To quote from the late Carl Sagan, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” However, Whitmire and Matese believe that evidence of their ninth planet, Tyche, has already been gathered by the NASA space telescope WISE.

The NASA space telescope WISE(Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) was launched in December 2009, and had only enough liquid hydrogen coolant to last about ten months. During its short life, WISE captured over 1.5 million infrared images of the entire sky. An infrared telescope sees the heat of celestial objects. So if the planet Tyche exists, because of its size, it would be slow to cool, and therefore would still have enough heat to be detected by the WISE telescope. The search for a large planet beyond Pluto was not one of the goals for the WISE telescope, so it will be awhile before all the data will be available to check out this new planet theory.

Solar viewing:

Sometimes the hot and hazy night time skies of summer may limit you viewing to the Moon. However, the bright sunny days of summer are great for solar viewing. Any mention of viewing the Sun must begin with a serious warning: Never look at the Sun through any regular binocular or telescope; it will permanently blind you! Never try to build or make a filter to put over your binoculars or telescope. If you own or buy an old simple refracting telescope, and it has a small solar filter that screws onto your eyepiece, go throw it into the garbage immediately. Any filter located near your eyepiece will get very hot when in use and will likely shatter! The best way to view the Sun is indirectly by way of a projected image. There are three ways to set up projected images of the Sun. The simple method is to use two pieces of cardboard. Put a pinhole in one piece of cardboard, and project the Sun onto the other piece. The method is shown below:

The second is to set up your telescope so the image is projected out of your eyepiece and onto a piece of cardboard. See images below:

The third way is more costly and requires the purchase of a “Sun Spotter” apparatus. See images below:

The reason to discuss solar viewing at this time is because of the Solar cycle, also called the Solar Sunspot Cycle. Over a period of about 11 years, the Sun moves from low activity to high activity and back to low again. During times of high solar activity, there are many sunspots, solar prominences and possible solar flares; note size of Earth below.

The latest cycle began in December 2008, should peak about 2013/2014, and end in 2019. So for the first time in several years, on any given day it is likely that some solar activity will be visible. If you would like to track the activity of the Sun, go to the NASA Soho Satellite website to see daily images of the Sun; http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html.

Also, keep track of the ScienceSouth website. At various times this year we will have public solar viewing events. ScienceSouth has special equipment that can project the solar images, directly view sunspots close up, and see the solar eruptions on the Sun’s surface.

Naked Eye Sights: View the arrival of Scorpius, Sagittarius, and the summer Milky Way in the south. Try some solar projection viewing, or visit some ScienceSouth solar viewing events.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Wander through the summer Milky Way, beginning at the southern horizon and slow scanning upwards.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): In April I featured the return of the planet Saturn. This month is the last good month to view Saturn.

So if have yet to check out Saturn, do so this month. In the first half of June, between 10 pm and midnight, Saturn will move from due south to the southwest. In the last half of the month, in the same time-frame, Saturn will move from the southwest to the west. Saturn will still be visible throughout July, but it will remain low in the western sky.

May 2011

2011-05-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on May 3^rd. For May, your best viewing nights will be from May 1^st through May 9^thand May 20^th through May 31^st. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on May 15^th at 9 pm.

Pluto and Friends:

A 10-year-old girl named Jillian recently asked me why Pluto is no longer a planet. It was a good question, and I gave Jillian the short answer. I then decided to use this column to give the long answer.

By the late 1800’s, astronomers felt that there was another planet out beyond Neptune that was causing some disturbances to the orbit of Uranus. This “Planet X” was finally discovered in 1930, and called Pluto. Later information proved that Pluto was too small to have any effect on Uranus, and thus the whole Planet X/Uranus theory was disproven. Therefore, it was only by accident that Pluto was discovered and not because of theoretical calculations. Below is an image of the actual photos they used in 1930 when they discovered Pluto.

So for seventy-six years, our solar system was listed as having nine planets. Then in 2006, Pluto was removed from planetary status; why? The short answer is that as our telescopes improved, we began to locate other “small planets” beyond Pluto: Quaor is half the size of Pluto, Sedna is almost the size of Pluto and Eris is equal or larger then Pluto. Therefore, the number of planets in our solar system could possibly increase yearly. It was much easier to demote Pluto and the new “Pluto-like” objects to dwarf planet status then to continually increase our solar system planet count. This approach would then leave us with eight permanent planets, with Mercury being the smallest at twice the size of Pluto.

Below is an image of some of the major dwarf planet compared in size to the Earth. Note that Pluto has now been found to have three moons!

Now astronomers knew that they could not just arbitrarily remove Pluto as a planet. Instead, they set up a list of three rules that would be used to describe a planet.

1. Must be in orbit around the Sun

2. Must be large enough to be a sphere due to its own gravitational force.

3. Must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

All of the newly assigned dwarf planets, including the asteroid Ceres fit the first two rules. However, neither Pluto nor any of the other mentioned dwarf planets fit the third rule. As our telescopes improved we were able to detect thousands of small objects orbiting the Sun in the region of Pluto and beyond. Now if you remember the layout of our solar system, each planet circles the Sun all alone in its orbit except for the tiny meteors we run into each day. Soon after the discovery of Pluto, some astronomers actually thought that there might be an area beyond Neptune, possibly including Pluto that contained millions of small asteroid type objects forming a “halo” around the outer planets. Gerald Kuiper studied this theory in the 1950’s, and it became known as the Kuiper Belt. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the Kuiper Belt was found, and understood. The Kuiper Belt starts beyond Neptune, and extends outward for over 2 billion miles. Like the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the Kuiper Belt contains leftover material/debris from the formation of our solar system. However, the asteroid belt contains primarily rocky or metallic objects, while the Kuiper Belt contains mainly frozen gases and water objects. Pluto and some of our newly found dwarf planets are located in this belt. Therefore, Pluto has not cleared the neighborhood of its orbit.

Note: the Kuiper Belt is sometimes confused with the Ort Cloud. The Ort Cloud can be thought of as the source for most of our comets, and the Ort Cloud is a halo extending 1000 times farther out from the Sun beyond the Kuiper Belt!

The following images should help to explain the origin of the Kuiper Belt. After our Sun formed, it was surrounded by a disk of billions of pieces of debris that were pulled into the Sun’s gravitational neighborhood. This is called an accretion disk, and looked somewhat like the below image #1. The larger objects in the disk pulled close by smaller objects into themselves, and then became much larger objects finally forming our planets; image #2 below.

Much like a rolling snowball, the larger the planet grew, the more debris it pulled into itself, see image #3 below. Over a period of billions of years, this “gravitational vacuuming” cleared away all of the objects in the paths of the planets, as is seen in image #4. Note: the four planets shown in these images represent Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Beyond the orbit of Neptune, there were never any sufficiently large objects to initiate this planet forming and vacuuming, so all that remains is a debris field, the Kuiper Belt, with the largest object being the newly classified dwarf planet Pluto.

Naked Eye Sights: The best grouping of planets this year will occur on the eastern horizon on May 11^th, just before sunrise. Four of the five visible planets will be grouped together; Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): On any month that there are not any special sights, use this time to find more Messier Objects.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Spend your time observing the planet Saturn, which is moving higher into the night sky this month.

See you next month!

April 2011

2011-04-08T06:14:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections: what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on April 3^rd. For April, your best viewing nights will be from April 1^st through April 9^thand April 22^nd through April 30^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on April 15^th at 9 pm.

Saturn:

The return of the planet Saturn to the evening sky is a noteworthy event this year. Every year Saturn is visible at some point as the Earth makes its circuit around the Sun. However, since 2009, the evening arrival of the planet Saturn did not give the usual impressive view. As you know, Saturn is the favorite planetary target because of its spectacular ring system. Over the years as Saturn tilts in relation to us, we see the rings at differing angles. When the viewing angle is at or near zero degrees, the beautiful ring system fades from view; as occurred during 2009 and 2010. A classic Saturn image is shown below.

Of Course, the image you will see through your own amateur telescope will be quite small and sometimes blurry. To illustrate the angle extremes of amateur views of Saturn, below are two images taken through large amateur scopes; the one on the right showing zero degree ring tilt. The image on the right looks more like Jupiter than is does Saturn.

The bad news is that we have had two years of poor Saturn viewing; the good news is that the ring angle is opening back up. The better news is that Saturn will look more and more impressive each year forward peaking about 2017, but still quite impressive until 2022. The years 2024 and 2025 will be the next poor viewing years; see chart below. In reality, Saturn viewing is not as bad as it may sound. Over a period of 42 years, there are only four poor viewing years. If you purchased a telescope in 2009 or 2010, you can just consider it bad timing. You can now enjoy the rings of Saturn for several years.

I have viewed Saturn through my various telescopes all of my life, and I have also had many people look through my scopes. Throughout this time, I have always enjoyed it when someone looks through my telescope and sees Saturn for the first time; it is quite an amazing response. At various times last year, ScienceSouth had free public telescope viewing events using the ScienceSouth Dobsonian reflector and some of my own telescopes. We gave people the chance to see spectacular views of the mountains and craters of the Moon. Also last year people had a chance to view the planet Jupiter and its moons, plus they were able to see the cloud bands of Jupiter in color! Although these views generated various amount of excitement, I never heard the big “wows” I hear when someone sees Saturn for the first time. The big ball of Jupiter looks quite nice, and the small fuzzy ball of Mars is OK, and some people even enjoy the very fuzzy crescent of Venus; but Saturn is special. You can view hundreds of images of Saturn on the Internet, but there is something magical when your see it through your own eyes. So if you have a telescope, you can start viewing Saturn this month in the southeastern sky. Saturn will be in opposition on April 3^rd at 8 pm. This only means that it will be at its brightest for the year. Good viewing of Saturn will continue from now through July. Saturn will leave its good evening viewing position at the end of July. As Saturn says goodbye, it will glide by the planet Venus low in the west early on the evening of August 6^th.

To find Saturn this month, look to the southeast and you see the pale yellow planet. If you are in doubt about its location, then turn your eyes to the north. Find the Big Dipper, and then follow the handle of the dipper to “arc to the star Arcturus” then continue this arc and “speed on to Spica.” Saturn will be the bright object above Spica. If you have dark skies, you will be able to note the contrast of the blue star Spica with the yellow planet Saturn. Below is the position of Saturn in relation to these two prominent stars in early April.

So what should you expect to see? With standard 7 (or 10) X 50 binoculars, Saturn will still look like a star. With 15 power binoculars (tripod needed) it will look like the star has “ears.” I regularly use 25 X 100 mm binoculars, and the rings of Saturn are then clearly visible. Therefore, any scope you use from 25 power on up will allow you to see the rings of Saturn. Below are three views of Saturn that are likely for amateur telescopes. The smaller blurry image represents what you might see with a very inexpensive discount store telescope (best to avoid). The other two images represent views from Dobsonian reflectors ranging from 6 to 10 inches. The bottom line is if you own any telescope, you can see the rings of Saturn; wow!!

Naked Eye Sights: Observe the disappearance of the constellation Orion in the west throughout this month. All of our cold weather always leaves with Orion. Follow Saturn in the southeast and south throughout the month as it moves above Spica.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Continue your Messier hunt as discussed in last month’s column.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Check the return of Saturn and its rings in the southeast.

See you next month!

March 2011

2011-03-02T05:23:00.001-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on March 4^th. For March, your best viewing nights will be from March 1^st through March 10^thand March 23^rd through March 31^st. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on March 15^th at 9 pm.

Messier Marathon:

March is the “Messier Marathon month” for amateur astronomers. I have mentioned the Messier Objects in many of my columns. For new readers, the Messier Objects are a list of 110 celestial objects, which include galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. The objects are usually known by their “M number;” M1, M42, M104, etc. Charles Messier composed this list was composed in the late 18^th century. Messier was a comet hunter, and he recorded this list of objects that looked like comets but were not. This list helped Messier, and his fellow astronomers, avoid objects that might be confused for comets. It is ironic that today this somewhat “negative” list has become one of the most widely used lists of objects used by amateurs around the world. All 110 objects can be found with only a pair of 10 X 50 binoculars under perfect dark sky viewing conditions. However, under normal viewing conditions, about 50% of the objects can easily be seen with simple binoculars. All 110 objects can be seen at about 25 power, using a simple telescope, preferably a Dobsonian, or 25 power binoculars.

I believe the best feature of the Messier List is that while searching for the objects you will learn the stars and constellations of the entire night sky. On many occasions a new astronomer will ask me what else is there to see after they have observed the Moon and the planets. I tell them to try to locate all the Messier Objects; it is fun, and gives you a reason to go outside and enjoy your new hobby. Take the time to look at some of the images of these wonderful objects on the Internet. Below is a composite image of all of the Messier objects.

The images above are quite small, but the two images below show the beauty of some of the Messier Objects.

The Messier Objects are found throughout the night sky every month of the year. However, a rare event occurs every year in March. In mid-March, all 110 Messier Objects can be found in only one night! Of course in order to accomplish this, you also need to have a new Moon. This event is known as a Messier Marathon, and amateur astronomers around the world attempt this task on or about the new Moon closest to the first day of spring (Vernal Equinox). This year the Marathon will be run on the weekend of April 2^nd. The first objects are searched for in the west just after sunset, M77, M74 and M33. Just before sunrise the last objects in your search are M72, M73 and M30. Also, it’s best to work with a partner, and it is a very busy night.

The Sombrero (M104):

Now on a personal note, I have never tried a Messier Marathon; instead I preferred to slowly work through the Messier List over a period of a few years. Sometimes it is enjoyable to find only one new Messier on a given evening. So this month, try for a somewhat difficult but beautiful Messier, M104. M104 is also called the Sombrero Galaxy; see image below.

M104 is listed as somewhat difficult because it is dim, and is not located near any bright stars. You will find it in the southeast rising about 9 pm in mid-March, so wait until later in the evening before you try to locate it. However, this year, you do have a little help, because M104 is rising along with the planet Saturn. So as you follow Saturn over the next few months, you know that M104 is nearby. The best way to locate M104 is to find the constellation Corvus; see charts below. This four star trapezoid is usually easy to locate. Find the star farthest to the left, called Algorab. Next move to the left of Algorab and slightly up until you see a small triangle known as the Star Gate. You may not be able to clearly see the Star Gate, but what should be quite obvious is a small line of about four stars to the left of the Star Gate. These “pointer” stars point directly to M104. This year use Saturn to help your search; M104 is located about halfway between Algorab and Saturn. If you have trouble finding M104, continue trying next month as it rises higher in the sky.

When you find M104 with binoculars or a small telescope, it will not look like the beautiful image shown above. Instead, it will look more like the image shown below.

People, who enjoy amateur astronomy, always get excited viewing these faint “fuzzies;” while most other people will not be impressed. Why are we excited? We are excited because we know that this fuzzy image in our scope is indeed that beautiful object shown up above. In addition, we also know that it took 30 million years for the light from M104 to travel across the heavens and reach our eyes tonight.

Naked Eye Sights: Try to start your Messier List with M42 and M45 (easy). M44 and M13 (harder).

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): See how many Messier Objects you can find this March.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Extend your list of Messiers with your telescope. Check the return of the planet Saturn in the southeast skies.

See you next month!

February 2011

2011-02-14T12:27:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on February 2^nd. For February, your best viewing nights will be from February 1^st through February 9^thand February 22^nd through February 28^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on February 15^th at 9 pm.

The Constellations:

When we bring the ScienceSouth Starlab to area schools, the first question we ask the students is “Does anyone know what a constellation is?” Usually everyone raises their hand. Although many know that a constellation is a group of stars, only a few people can name more than two or three constellations.

A constellation is a group of stars that has a recognizable pattern, which appears to be constant over a period of thousands of years. The shape of a constellation is only as it appears from our viewpoint on Earth. The different stars in a constellation are usually not associated with each other in space, it is only as we perceive them in two dimensions; example, see Orion below.

When ancient people looked at the night sky, there were many more visible stars than we see today because the ancient people did not have any light pollution, or industrial fossil fuel pollution as we do today. It appears to be a natural human characteristic to find some type of order in disorder or randomness. So the ancient people chose some of the brighter stars and looked for some types of patterns. This organization of the stars into recognizable patterns was not done just for fun. The ancient people were well aware that the stars appeared to move through the sky, rising and setting throughout the night, and slowly changing from season to season. Therefore, having identifiable groups of stars allowed the ancients to measure time of night and changing seasons and the location of the viewer as they traveled about the Earth. This information was very useful for planting, harvesting, and navigation. Example: When the ancient Egyptians saw the star Sirius, in the constellation of Canis Major (The Big Dog) rise in the sky just before the sunrise, they knew that the Nile River would soon flood. This information allowed the Egyptians to plant their crops accordingly.

When the ancients identified these star groups, they gave them shapes that seemed to fit the world around them. Many constellations were seen as animals; bears, birds, sea creatures, farm animals, etc. Other constellations were seen as human-like forms usually identified with mythological beings; kings, queens, warriors, hunters, etc. Of course these constellations were all given names, which everyone would know and easily remember. The ancient Assyrians had a star based religion we know of today as astrology. As the Sun passed each month into another constellation, they felt that these stars affected their lives. Today these twelve constellations are known as the Signs of the Zodiac.

Although I have generalized the use of the words “ancient people,” the constellations were actually named over a long period of time. The oldest constellations that we still recognize today are Leo the lion and Scorpius the scorpion. These two constellations were noted on a carved stone shown below dated at about 4000 BC!

The Greek’s strong adherence to mythology added many constellation names over the period from 500 BC to 200 AD, at which time 48 constellation names were in use. The powerful Roman Empire then inherited the Greek myths, and changed the names of the constellations to the Latin names we still use today. From 700 AD to 1600 AD, the Arabs contributed many of the constellation star names we use today. Note: in Arabic the word Al means “the.” Example: the stars; Aldebaran, Algol, Alkaid, etc.

From 1600 AD onward several other constellation names were assigned, many in the Southern hemisphere. Some of these newer constellation names are not too familiar to us such as Telescopium the telescope, Pyxis the compass, and Fornax the furnace, etc. Finally, in 1930, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) finalized the constellation count at 88. In addition, the IAU placed boundaries around each constellation, so that there would be no free space between constellations. This resulted in the sky looking like puzzle pieces; see the region of Orion shown below.

These strictly defined constellation borders help astronomers describe the locations of various objects, such as distant galaxies. Note an “outside” view of our constellation boundaries shown below.

Lastly, we should realize that the constellation shapes and names we use today were all derived from the regions of Europe and the Mediterranean. The ancient peoples inhabiting North and South America, Asia, Australia and part of Africa had many other names and shapes they saw for groups of stars in the sky that applied to their cultures and religions.

Naked Eye Sights: See how many constellations you can find/identify this month.

The International Space Station will make a nice pass over Florence early in the evening of February 20^th. The table below gives the times (24 hr. clock) and altitudes; maximum altitude at about 6:40 PM, right over the top of Orion. Also below is a star chart showing its passage through the stars, and a Google Earth type perspective.

Event	Time	Altitude	Azimuth	Distance (km)
Rises above horizon	18:37:39	-0°	220° (SW )	2,142
Reaches 10° altitude	18:39:39	10°	217° (SW )	1,307
Maximum altitude	18:42:28	63°	146° (SE )	393
Enters shadow	18:45:32	9°	53° (NE )	1,352
Drops below 10° altitude	18:45:27	10°	53° (NE )	1,316

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Take your last look at Jupiter in the southwest until it returns to the sky next fall.

See you next month!

January 2011

2011-01-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on January 4^th. For January, your best viewing nights will be from January 1^st through January 11^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on January 15^th at 9 pm.

A Star is Born:

The theory of the birth of a star is a simple concept to explain, but can be somewhat difficult to conceive. The formation of a star is described as follows:

After the Big Bang, the primary matter existing in the universe was, and still is, hydrogen. Over billions of years, as the universe quieted down somewhat, some of the hydrogen atoms formed clumps (clouds) of hydrogen gas. These hydrogen clouds formed due to gravitational attraction. We also know that the greater the mass, the stronger the gravitational pull. So as the hydrogen gas clouds grew larger, they attracted more and more hydrogen. Eventually, these gas clouds compressed down because of gravity; essentially, they collapsed into themselves. At some point during the cloud’s compression, the gravitational force and temperature of compression became so great that two hydrogen atoms fused into element helium; a process known as nuclear fusion. Einstein taught us that when atoms split or fuse together, a tremendous amount of energy is released. Splitting a uranium atom results in the force of an atomic bomb. Fusing two hydrogen atoms together results in the even greater force called a hydrogen bomb. So when the huge hydrogen cloud compression generated the fusion of hydrogen atoms, the equivalent of billions of hydrogen bombs went off, giving off tremendous heat and light, and a star was born!

Unlike, a typical bomb, the fusion in a star is somewhat controlled with the center of the star fusing hydrogen into helium, and the huge mass of cooler hydrogen in the outer part of the star supplying more hydrogen fuel for the fusion in the center. Our Sun is a medium size star, and it should take about ten billion years for all of the hydrogen to be depleted. Our star is now about half way through its life; five billion years old.

Keeping in mind the age of our star, this month let us search out some young stars in the night sky. There are two groups of young stars that are easy to locate this time of year. The first is the well-known Pleiades Cluster; also known as the Seven Sisters. You can easily spot it above and to the right of the prominent Orion constellation. Most of the stars you see at night are billions of years old, but the stars of the Pleiades are “only” about 100 million years old. These stars are like teenagers in the sky. Our Sun is 50 times older than the Seven Sisters! The image below is the Pleiades seen through seven power binoculars.

The Pleiades bring to mind other properties of young stars. Huge hydrogen clouds often result in the formation of not one but several star births in the same region of space, and are usually surrounded by gases left over from their birth. The younger the stars, the more likely these gases are present. As you stare at the Pleiades through binoculars or a telescope, it is difficult to see any of the leftover gases. However, as shown below, at 25 power, using time exposure and filtered astrophotography, the gaseous afterbirth is quite obvious.

This time of year in addition to viewing the Pleiades “teenagers,” you can also easily see a star nursery. This nursery is the apparent center star of the sword of the constellation Orion. Simple binoculars will show that there is not a star in the center of the sword, but a fuzzy object, called the Orion Nebula (M42); see arrow below.

Remember, the younger the stars, the more obvious the leftover gases. With the Pleiades, it is easy to see the young stars, but hard to see and gases. As you look through your binoculars at the Orion Nebula, you find it is easy to see the gases leftover from star birth, but hard to see the new born stars. So your challenge for this month is to see the young stars inside the Orion Nebula. These stars are less than a million years old, which means that our Sun is about 5000 times older than the stars in the Orion Nebula. Therefore these stars are true “babies,” and this nebula is therefore thought of as a star nursery. The names of these baby stars are the Trapezium. Although there are many stars in the nursery, this name is derived from the four brightest stars, which form somewhat of a trapezoid shape.

It is not really possible to see these stars with simple binoculars. At seven to ten power, you can see that the Orion Nebula has a bright center area. At about 15 power, you can see that there is at least one or two stars in the center, but I find that only with my 25 power binoculars can I resolve them into the four star Trapezium. However, with any simple telescope from 25 power on up, you should easily locate the “baby” Trapezium stars. The below image shows the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula as seen through a 25-40 power binoculars; and yes on a clear night, the Orion Nebula will look like an eagle with its wings out spread.

Keep warm and enjoy Orion’s babies.

Naked Eye Sights: The young Pleiades cluster. Orion’s sword.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): The Pleiades. The Orion Nebula.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): The Trapezium babies in the Orion Nebula.

See you next month!

December 2010

2010-12-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on December 5^th. For December, your best viewing nights will be from December 1^st through December 11^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on December 15^th at 9 pm.

Star Associations:

Again this month, I was asked another difficult question. A recent news article stated that the first planet was found in orbit around a star from another galaxy! It is extremely difficult to find planets circling nearby stars, so how can we find a planet around a star from another galaxy? The operative word here is “from” and not “in” another galaxy. In most of the news reports of this discovery, the news article did clear up the matter by stating the that star in question was indeed in our own galaxy, but this particular star was captured billions of years ago from a galaxy outside of the Milky Way. So now the real question is how does one know that a star in our Milky Way came from another galaxy?

To answer this question, it is necessary to discuss the “proper motion” of stars. Proper motion is the change of position of a star in relation to our solar system. The general concept of our Sun and other nearby stars is that we are all spinning together around the Milky Way galaxy; somewhat like leaves floating along on a river. However, many stars have some type of angular momentum in relation to us, see image below.

Remember, all the stars in the image are spinning around the Milky Way galaxy with us, but some are also moving at various angles and speeds in relation to our solar system. The cause of this erratic motion was most likely due to gravitational interaction of these stars with other stars sometime in their lifespan.

Expanding on this concept, astronomers have found that several stars in certain regions of space sometimes have a similar speed and angle of proper motion. It was also noted that they have a similar age. These star groups are called “star associations,” and it is believed that these stars were all born in a similar region of space, and are slowly moving away from their place of birth.

A well-known star association is the Perseus Association. Simply go out this month and aim your binoculars at the main star in Perseus, Mirfak, and the stars you see around Mirfak are members of the Perseus Association. Also note if you move your binoculars slightly off in any direction, you will see much less stars in your field of view. Using the chart below, you can easily find Perseus and Mirfak by using the constellation Cassiopeia (“W”) as a guidepost. This image shows the sky in mid December facing east and looking almost straight up. Also note that Mirfak is about halfway between Cassiopeia and the Pleiades.

There is another star association that is very easy to see; just look at the Big Dipper. Five of the stars of the Big Dipper are part of a star association. Only the two end stars Alkaid and Dubhe are not part of the association. The other five stars are all moving at the same speed and in the same direction.

This means that in the distant past, the Big Dipper didn’t look like a dipper, and therefore in the distant future, it will not look like a dipper. The green arrows on the image below show the proper motion of the stars in the dipper.

So if you have been following my discussion, you are likely wondering what about the news item above, and how did they know that the star and planet were from another galaxy? Sometimes the proper motion of star associations in addition to moving in the same direction are also moving much faster than common associations and contain many more stars. This type of association is known as a “star stream.” The only explanation for a star stream is that in the distant past our Milky Way galaxy captured stars from another galaxy and we are seeing this stream of captured stars as they pass through our Milky Way. The star mentioned in the news article with a planet revolving around it was a member of a star stream. The artist’s sketch below tries to give an idea of how star streams may be associated with our galaxy.

To all my readers: Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Naked Eye Sights: Check out the Geminids meteor shower, which will peak on the evening of Dec 13^th, and into the early morning of the 14^th.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): The Perseus Association.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Jupiter is still the best target this month.

See you next month!

November 2010

2010-11-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on November 6^th. For November, your best viewing nights will be from November 1^st through November 11^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on November 15^th at 9 pm.

The Harvest Moon:

November is a little late for a Harvest Moon, however I was amazed to have three people come up to me over the last month to ask what is a Harvest Moon. Therefore, I would like to take the time to also give the answer to my readers.

The short and simple answer is that a Harvest Moon is the full Moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox; therefore occurring near the time that farmers harvest their fields. The rising full moon just after sunset would then allow them to extend the time of their harvesting by using the light of the full Moon.

However, there is a longer answer to this question. What few people know is that one to two days after the full Moon, the farmers can still use the Moon to extend their harvesting. This situation only occurs in the autumn, thereby extending the concept of a Harvest Moon. The reason is as follows. The Sun and all the planets are located on about the same plane. This is the reason that you always find the planets by looking in the region of the path of the Sun.

However, the plane of our Moon’s orbit is tilted versus the plane of the solar system. You know this to be true, because if the Moon’s orbit was on the same plane as the solar system, then each month we would have one solar eclipse, and one lunar eclipse. Instead, each month the Moon passes below or above the Sun, and on chance occasions, it eclipses the Sun. Now remember our Earth is tipped 23 ½ degrees, and as we circle the Sun, this effect our Earth/Sun perspective; know as the change of seasons.

Now, back to the Harvest Moon: Combining the above parameters, at any given month of the year, the angle of our Moon’s orbit versus the visible horizon will vary. This change results in an interesting effect on Moon rises. The full Moon in spring near the Vernal Equinox follows a path that results in a large angle of the Moon’s orbit to the horizon, see below.

Direct your attention to the lower left side of the image, and note how far below the horizon the Moon is located each night after the full Moon. The farther the Moon is below the horizon, the longer it will take to rise on the next night.

Now, the full Moon in the fall near the Autumnal Equinox follows a path that results in a small angle of the Moon’s orbit to the horizon, see below.

Again direct your attention to the lower left side of the image, and note how far below the horizon the Moon is located each night after the full Moon. The Moon is relatively close to the horizon on the nights following the full Moon. Therefore, on the nights following the Harvest Moon, the Moon will rise only a short time later than the previous night.

So, during Harvest, the night after the Harvest Moon, the farmer can continue harvesting in the twilight for about 20-25 minutes after Sunset, and again he will enjoy the Moonrise so he can continue his work.

After the springtime full Moon, on the next night the Sun would set, and darkness would come, and it would take about 80-90 minutes after sunset until the Moon rises.

Comet Hartley:

This was definitely not a year for comets. Remember, on most years, there are visible comets, but usually only through good wide field telescopes. For most people, we wait for comets that are visible to the naked eye, or at least visible with simple binoculars.

The only chance you will have to see a comet this year will likely be this month since Comet Hartley has just passed below the plane of the Earth’s orbit, and is now positioned to better reflect light off of its tail. Below is a telescopic view of the comet in October.

There is a great possibility that you will be able to see the comet if you go well away from the lights of the Florence area. If it does not become a naked eye sight, you should be able to follow the comet throughout November using just seven power binoculars. The image below shows the approximate path of Comet Hartley from November 1^st to December 1^st. Note, in general, you should look to the left of the easy to locate constellation Orion. There is one downside, the comet is not visible until late at night, and even better after midnight.

Naked Eye Sights: Jupiter will continue to be the brightest “star like object” this month. Jupiter has been moving “backwards,” to the west for some time. This is known as retrograde motion. On Nov 19^th, it will “stop,” and then return to its normal easterly movement through the starry background.

If we are lucky, Comet Hartley may be visible from a dark sky site.

The Leonid meteor shower will peak from Nov 16^th to 18^th, and although it is not predicted to be a great shower this year, the presence of the nearly full Moon will greatly lessen any chance for a good meteor shower.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Attempt to locate Comet Hartley.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Jupiter remains the best target for this month high in the southern sky.

See you next month!

October 2010

2010-10-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on October 7^th. For October, your best viewing nights will be from October 1^st through October 13^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on October 15^th at 9 pm.

Clear Sky Clock:

This month as you stand under a clear starry night, you may notice that Jupiter’s bands and Messier Objects are not very clear. Your problem is that you assumed that a “clear night” reported by your local weather site also meant a clear night for amateur astronomy; this is not always true.

What an amateur astronomer needs is a weather site designed specifically for astronomers. The site of choice is called “The Clear Sky Clock.” This site gives viewing forecasts for 4048 locations, covering the entire United States (except Hawaii), all of Canada, parts of Mexico, and the Bahamas. The location closest to Florence is the Francis Marion University Clear Sky Clock; http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/FMUObSCkey.html?1. When you go the site to check out the viewing forecast, you may be perplexed. You won’t see any maps or radar, etc; instead you see only a bunch of small colored squares. Therefore, I would like to take time this month to describe how to use this astronomer’s weather site.

First of all, the times listed on the site use a 24-hour clock, the vertical red line denoting midnight. Next, notice that in the far left, the vertical bands tell you that the top four lines of little squares refer to sky conditions, and the bottom three lines of squares refer to ground conditions. These bottom three lines, wind, humidity and temperature, are there primarily there to tell you what clothing, etc. that you might need that evening. Therefore, the top four lines of squares (sky conditions) are where you focus your attention.

For all sky conditions, dark blue squares are great, and white squares are bad. Next, notice that the fourth row of squares, from the top, is for darkness. This information has the least use since you know when it is dark outside. The first row denotes cloud cover. Dark blue, no clouds; white, total cloud cover; and pale blue, partly cloudy. The next two rows supply you with the information that no other weather site will give you. The “transparency” row refers to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. Excessive moisture in the atmosphere will definitely affect your viewing. The “seeing” row refers to atmospheric turbulence due to temperature differences. Therefore, you can have a cloudless night with low atmospheric moisture, and still not be able to resolve the cloud bands on Jupiter because of poor seeing. So, go to the Francis Marion Clear Sky Clock, check the time of night that has all dark blue squares in the first three rows, and go outside and enjoy the stars.

Besides “Clear Sky Clock” basics, there is other interesting information available. If you are a visual type person, you can click on any small square and it will show you the visual map that refers to that information. Also note that you can animate the map if desired. The image below came from clicking on the cloud cover square at 1300 hours on September 28^th; note that the crosshairs denotes the Clock’s location.

Next, look to the right side of the main page of the Clear Sky Clock at a green box labeled “Other Charts.” In this box you can go to all the Clear Sky Clocks in South Carolina, or those nearby Francis Marion University. In addition, you can click on “All,” which will direct you to all 4048 locations. Now notice that you have a choice of “List” or “Map.” If you click on South Carolina List, you will go to the image shown below.

This is an interesting page. It gives a list of all the Clear Sky Clocks in South Carolina, along with comments and links for most sites. Next, under the heading, “Preview,” is a column of the actual first two rows of every site. A quick view of the image shows that the best observing site in South Carolina for this time period is at the “Dixson Lomax Memorial.”

Before leaving this page, note that there is a vertical column of colored squares in the center of this page, under a heading of light pollution. Click on the heading, and you will see an explanation of the colored squares. Note that black means no light pollution at all, and white means too much light (cities, etc.) for amateur astronomy or naked eye viewing. You will also notice that no site in South Carolina is better than a green square, with Florence having only a yellow square.

Now return to the Green Box on the main page, and click on South Carolina “Map.” Now you have a map of South Carolina with all the Clear Sky Clock locations represented as a “push pin” matching the color of the light pollution for every site in our state.

I find it fun to check state lists and maps to find where in the United States might be a good place for an astronomy vacation; check out the southwestern states.

It might be a good week to visit the Hideaway Observatory near Duncan, Arizona.

Naked Eye Sights: Venus is now leaving us, and Jupiter will continue to be the brightest “star like object” this month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): View the double cluster in Perseus on October 9^th, and you may see a comet; 103P/Hartley.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Jupiter remains the best target for this month

September 2010

2010-09-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on September 8^th. For September, your best viewing nights will be from September 1^st through September 13^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on September 15^th at 9 pm.

Perseids Meteor Shower:

My personal observations of the August meteor shower between 1 and 2 am had a count of about 12 meteors per hour; not really enough to be called a shower. A reader of this column, who observed at a darker sky site near Charleston, reported 25 to 30 per hour between midnight and 1 am.

Jupiter:

Jupiter returns as the best planetary target for your telescopes. The two best planets for small telescope observation are Saturn and Jupiter. Saturn is usually the most impressive target because of its beautiful ring system, and Jupiter is known for its atmospheric bands, red spot (not very red), its four major moons, and its large disk size. However, for the last year, and continuing for several more months, Saturn’s rings have been tipped toward the Earth, therefore making them less impressive.

This month Jupiter moves into opposition with the Earth on September 21^st. Opposition occurs when the planet is directly opposite the Sun as seen from Earth. (Lunar opposition is called a full Moon). At opposition, the planet is also visible the entire night. In addition to being at opposition, due to variations in orbits, some years any given planet may be closer or farther away during opposition. If you are younger than 47 years old, this month is the brightest and largest you will see Jupiter since you were born. The last time that Jupiter was this close was October 1963.

As you know, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Although it can be at times over 500 million miles from Earth (460 million this month), due to its size, it is always a good telescopic target. Below is the size of Jupiter compared to our Earth.

Observing Jupiter: Jupiter is the only planet that can be enjoyed using simple seven or ten power binoculars. With low power binoculars, Jupiter will not be seen as a disk, but its four major moons, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io, known as the Galilean moons, will be readily visible. These moons move quickly around the planet, therefore each night they will be seen in different positions. In addition, some nights they will disappear as they move in front or in back of the planet. So on any given night, you usually see from one to four moons. If you would like to try viewing the Galilean moons through low power binoculars, try it on the night of September 24^th. Begin observing between 8 and 9 pm; Jupiter will be low in the southeastern sky. You should see the planet, and three of its moons lined up on the left side. The “missing moon is Io. As the night progresses, Io will swing out to the right side of the planet. Check every hour or so until Io becomes visible. Depending on the quality of your binoculars, and more importantly the clarity of the sky, you should see Io appear between 11 pm and 2 am.

If you use large binoculars, 25 X 100 mm, on a clear night you will also be able to see the cloud bands on Jupiter. The image below approximates what I can see through my large binoculars. Note that the cloud bands are just barely visible at 25 power.

Most telescopes will allow you to easily see the cloud bands of the planet Jupiter. However, there are many factors that affect telescopic viewing. Besides the obvious cloudy or hazy nights, atmospheric moisture and or turbulence are also a problem. On many occasions, your eyes will see a clear night with many stars visible, but atmospheric conditions not visible to the naked eye will affect clear viewing through your telescope. Therefore, if you have a decent refracting or reflecting telescope and are unable to see the bands on Jupiter, keep trying on other nights. The most likely cause is the atmosphere, and not your telescope. However, there is a way to determine if it is truly a good night for superior viewing; the Clear Sky Clock website http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/FMUObSCkey.html?1. This website offers the best viewing condition information for amateur astronomers. If you visit this site, it can be somewhat confusing at first. I will feature the Clear Sky Clock next month and describe all of its capabilities.

Now assuming you are able to view Jupiter this month on a clear night, you should note that something has changed on Jupiter. Jupiter is known to possess two obvious dark bands, know as the northern and southern equatorial belts. However, if you view Jupiter this month, you will notice that the southern belt is missing. It recently disappeared, and is expected to return in the future, but no one knows when it may return. This phenomenon has occurred before, and no one knows the cause. If you look above at the size of Jupiter versus the Earth, you can imagine that this is no “small” event. Below is an image of Jupiter last year compared to this spring.

All in all, this month “belongs” to Jupiter, so go out and enjoy the view.

Naked Eye Sights: Jupiter will be the brightest “star like object” this month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Jupiter and its moons. Try to observe the Io movement on September 24^th.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Jupiter and its moons. Take note of the “missing southern band."

See you next month!

August 2010

2010-08-06T10:02:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on August 10^th. For August, your best viewing nights will be from August 1^st through August 15^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on August 15^th at 10 pm.

Perseids Meteor Shower:

The Perseids meteor shower is a favorite for many observers because it occurs during the warmth of summer, and you don’t have to worry about getting up early for school the next day. Another nice aspect of the Perseids shower is even if you only see a small number of meteors, it is fun just sitting out late at night in August under the stars. The shower should peak on the night of August 12^th and early on the morning of August 13^th. The Perseids shower always has the potential of a good display, but the absence of the Moon this year may result in a better than normal event. Check the weather report a few days before the 12^th. If clouds and/or rain are predicted for the 12^th, you can check out the skies a few days before and after the 12^th.

For the new readers, it is important to review the subject of meteor showers. Meteoroids are small pieces of rocky or metallic debris dispersed throughout the solar system. As the Earth revolves around the Sun, we run into these meteoroids, and as they enter the atmosphere, they become meteors, and the friction causes them to quickly burn up. We see them as a short streak of light, and they are usually referred to as “shooting stars.” This misnomer is a throw back to the distant past when ancient observers really had no idea what the stars were. So on any given night of the year it is likely that you will see a few meteors streak through the sky. In addition to the meteoric debris left over from the formation of the solar system, there is another more concentrated source of meteoroids; comets.

Comets are balls of ice, gases and rocks that circle the Sun in elliptical orbits, and these orbits are usually above or below the plane of the planets in the solar system. A comet’s orbit can be as short as a few years, or as long as thousands of years. As a comet circles the Sun, gases and ice particles are released, along with the release of some of the comet’s rocks. These rocks become meteoroids, however, they do not disperse into the solar system, but instead they remain in the orbit of the comet. So after several thousand years of circling the Sun, the entire orbital path of the comet is littered with meteoric debris. Since there are hundreds of known comet orbits circling the Sun, it is logical that our Earth would pass through some of these orbits at certain times of the year.

When the Earth passes through one of these cometary orbits, we experience a large amount of meteors known as a meteor shower. On a normal night, one might see one or two meteors per hour, but during a meteor shower, one might see from twenty to one hundred meteors per hour or more.

Rules of meteor shower viewing: No binoculars, telescopes or any optical aids are needed, just use your eyes. Due to the position of the Earth and the stars during a particular entry into the meteoroid’s orbit, the meteors appear to be coming from a particular constellation, thus the name of the meteor shower. Therefore, the Perseids meteor shower is centered in the constellation of Perseus, which rises about 10 pm in the northeast on August 12^th. This brings us to another aspect of watching meteor showers; time. For most meteor showers, or for meteor viewing in general, the best viewing is after midnight. The reason is based on the positions of the Earth and you the viewer as the Earth runs into meteoroids. Before midnight, an observer would be on the side of the Earth opposite the direction of the Earth’s movement through space. From midnight onward, an observer would now be looking in the same direction that the Earth is moving through space. Therefore, we could easily see the meteoroids hit our atmosphere; a good analogy is like running through raindrops. Remember, you will still see some meteors before midnight as the graze the upper atmosphere. The sketch below may help to better explain this concept.

So lie on the ground on a blanket, or use a chaise lounge chair to view the shower, using a standard chair may result in neck pain. Look in the direction of Perseus (northeast), but be aware of your peripheral vision since meteors may also appear overhead or toward the north or south. Don’t forget to bring snacks and drinks.

A celestial gathering:

Take note that in the early evening of August 13^th (about 9 pm) you can view three planets and a crescent Moon. Quite a nice send off as Mars, Saturn, and Venus slowly fade into the western horizon this month. The image below shows the locations of the planets and the Moon.

Naked Eye Sights: The Perseids meteor shower on the night of the 12^th. The planets Venus, Mars, and Saturn “dance” with the crescent Moon early in the evening of the 13^th. The return of Jupiter late in the month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): If you stay up late to see the meteor shower, check out Jupiter and its moons in the southeast.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): This is your last chance to view Saturn or Mars, and your first chance to view Jupiter.

See you next month!

July 2010

2010-07-05T13:10:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on July 11^th. For July, your best viewing nights will be from July 1^st through July 16^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on July 15^th at 9 pm.

The Summer Messier Objects:

Remember, if you work your way through the famous Messier List, you will easily learn the night sky. Summer is always a nice time to go out star gazing, although the humidity can sometimes interfere with clear sky viewing. This month I want to take you on a short tour of some Messier Objects of the southern summer sky. Your equipment for this journey: a pair of binoculars, seven to ten power, a lawn chair, beverages, and snacks of your choice. As you look to the south this month, you are looking into the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The fact that we are looking into the center of our galaxy in the summer is why the Milky Way is much brighter in the summer than in the winter when we are looking away from the galactic center. So let’s start our trip by referring to the map of the southern sky shown below.

The first stop is the globular cluster; M22 in Sagittarius. Many say that the globular cluster M13 in Hercules is the best globular cluster of the northern hemisphere, but I vote M22 as the best. This cluster is easy to find with binoculars because it is just to the left of the top star in the “Teapot” asterism in Sagittarius. Although M22 contains more than 70,000 stars, through binoculars, it is just a fuzzy ball, but remember, most Messiers are just fuzzy objects when viewed through simple binoculars.

Next stop is the Lagoon Nebula; M8. This time look to the right side of Sagittarius, and using the “Teapot,” look above the spout to locate M8. This Messier Object lies closest to the direction of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Using binoculars on a clear night, you can see some of the nebulosity of M8 imbedded in a “rectangular” grouping of stars. I have had the wonderful experience of seeing the Lagoon Nebula with my naked eye while at a dark sky site in northern Pennsylvania.

Right above M8 are two other Messier Objects, M21, and a well-known object, the Trifid nebula, M20. I personally have never been able to resolve either of these Messiers with standard binoculars, but you are welcome to try.

Next stop: If you look directly above M22, about twice the distance of M8, you will see the Eagle Nebula. Years ago, this was just another nice Messier Object, until it became famous when the Hubble telescope took the amazing star birth “Pillars” photo in the Eagle Nebula; see below.

The last stop on our short tour is the Omega Nebula, M17, also known as the “Swan Nebula.” You can find M17 just below the Eagle Nebula. I have always been surprised how easy it is to resolve the nebulosity of this object with simple binoculars. I always see it as a side view of a swan, but with a short neck; check it out.

After locating the Messiers in our short tour, you should continue your search for other Messiers in the southern summer sky. Try to find M11, M23, and M25, all in the region above Sagittarius. Then move over to Scorpius and try to locate M6 and M7 near the scorpion’s stinger. Also M4 and M80 near the primary star of Scorpius, Antares. While you are in the constellation of Scorpius, wander with your binoculars throughout the region of the scorpion’s tail and lower body. This region is filled with groupings of stars.

A note on the above images: The small binocular images approximate the view through seven to ten power binoculars, just remember, that the actual images you see will indeed be small fuzzy objects. The images labeled “Large Telescope” actually represent the view of these Messier Objects using long time exposure astrophotography. The time exposure and the use of filters, etc. are required to see the colors of the gases in the nebulas. Therefore, if you have a large Dobsonian reflector, you would see an image similar to that shown for a large telescope, but without the color. I have personally watched amateur astronomers at star parties creating similar beautiful color photos of nebulas, however, this type of astrophotography is quite tedious and can be quite costly.

The Dance of the Planets:

This is a great month for planets lovers. Throughout the month, as you look towards the southwest, you will see three planets. The brilliant Venus will be closest to the horizon, followed by Mars and then Saturn. By mid month they will be nicely lined up, and by the end of the month, Saturn will move past Mars as it approaches Venus.

Naked Eye Sights: The summer Milky Way. Watch the “Dance of the Three Planets” in the southwestern sky.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Follow the directions above, and take a tour of the southern sky summer Messier Objects. Then try to find the other seven Messiers listed above. If you are a dedicated Messier Object observer, there are still other Messiers to find in the southern sky. If you have 25 X 100mm binoculars, all of the Messiers will look quite impressive.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Of the Messiers mentioned above, M22 will probably look the best through a telescope. If you enjoy planet watching, you have Venus, Mars, and Saturn all in the same region of the sky.

See you next month!

June 2010

2010-06-01T08:25:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on June 12^th. For June, your best viewing nights will be from June 1^st through June 16^h. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on June 15^th at 9 pm.

For the Early Risers:

I, like many other amateur astronomers, prefer to observe in the evening hours instead of getting up early in the morning. During a nice clear sky star party, it is often no problem to stay up all night, but to wake up from a deep sleep to go outside and observe is sometimes more difficult. One thing that will make amateurs set their alarm clocks is an event that can only be seen in the early morning hours. There are two such events occurring this month.

First, concerns the planet Uranus. We now officially have only eight planets, we remove our Earth from the list, which leaves only seven planets for us to observe. Of these seven, five planets are easily visible to the naked eye, leaving only Uranus and Neptune to try to locate using optical aid. Now if you use a computer program like Starry Night, and use the method I described in my March column, both Uranus and Neptune will not be difficult targets. However, if you wish to just go outside with binoculars or your telescope and observe these two outer planets, it can be more difficult.

This month however, you can easily locate the planet Uranus, but you will have to get up in the early morning hours. On the morning of June 10^th, Neptune will be directly over the planet Jupiter in the eastern sky. The image below show the general location. However, Jupiter is so bright, you will have no problem spotting it in the east/southeast sky.

You will only need a simple 7 X 50 mm pair of binoculars to locate the planet Uranus directly above the planet Jupiter; see image below.

If you enjoyed my column last month and purchased a “Big Binocular,” at 25 power, you will easily see the pretty bluish color of Uranus. If instead you use a basic amateur telescope, you should also be able to see the blue color of Uranus sitting above Jupiter. With luck, and a clear night, the image below approximates how Uranus will look above Jupiter through a small telescope.

Next: The other reason to rise early this month, is to view a comet. For amateur astronomers, it has been awhile since we have been able to view a relatively bright comet. This month, Comet McNaught will pass through the constellation Perseus from mid to late June. The brightness of a comet is difficult to predict, but this comet is expected to peak at about magnitude 5 late in the month. If it does, it will then be visible from a dark sky location with the naked eye. Either way, Comet McNaught will be an easy binocular target. However, it may be difficult to pinpoint it in the eastern sky. The best time to locate the comet is from about the 15^th onward. Look to the northeast, and refer to the image below, set for June 15th.

Your best approach is to first locate the constellation Cassiopeia, the famous “W” asterism at about 4 am. Next look directly below Cassiopeia, and the brightest star between Cassiopeia and the horizon will be the main star in the constellation Perseus, Mirfak. As you approach 5 am, a much brighter star, Capella will appear on the horizon below and to the left of Mirfak.

Trying to locate a comet having this magnitude is quite easy to do with 7 power binoculars. What is most important, once you know the general location of the comet, is to know the approximate path the comet will take though the sky. The following image gives the approximate path of McNaught from June 14^th to June 24^th.

So on any night in that timeframe, slowly scan the sky along its pathway, and the comet should be easily seen through your low power binoculars. Once located, you can then switch to more powerful binoculars, or to a telescope.

Meteor Shower:

A little observed/noted meteor shower will arrive on the 23^rd. The Bootid meteor shower is seldom ever mentioned since it is not a very good shower. However, in 1998, it greatly improved, having about 100 meteors per hour, and since its parent comet has a six year period, it was also a good shower in 2004. So if this pattern continues, we may see a good display this month. There are two good points about this shower and one bad point.

Good points: It should peak early, between darkness and midnight, and second it is easy to locate since the Big Dipper’s handle will point to the center of the shower. The one bad point is that it will occur during a waning gibbous Moon.

Naked Eye Sights: Try to see the comet McNaught in mid June in the constellation of Perseus. Use both charts above to help your search.

Check out the Bootids meteor shower on June 23^rd.

Note the return of the prominent summer constellations Scorpius, Sagittarius and Cygnus by mid to late month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Try to observe the planet Uranus above the planet Jupiter.

Next, if the comet is not visible with the naked eye, try to find Comet McNaught in mid June in the constellation of Perseus.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Aim your telescope at Jupiter on the morning of the 10^th, and try to see the “Blue Ball,” Uranus.

See you next month!

May 2010

2010-04-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on May 13^th. For May, your best viewing nights will be from May 1^st through May 17^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on May 15^th at 9 pm.

Big Binoculars:

As I have previously mentioned, a good way to begin a hobby in astronomy is to use binoculars. Some of the reasons are: they are light weight, therefore very portable, easy to use, relatively inexpensive, can be used for other things besides astronomy, objects are right side up and not reversed, and you can see a large area of the sky. One downside is their limited useful power. A handheld binocular is only useful at 7-10 power; above that, normal hand shake makes viewing difficult. If your interest continues, you will likely purchase a telescope. The downsides of telescopes are: they are not light weight, therefore not very portable, not always easy to use, can be expensive, and usually cannot be used for things other than astronomy; also objects may be upside down and/or reversed.

For some reason, in the quest to enjoy the night sky, most amateurs totally neglect choosing “Big Binoculars.” Big binoculars usually range from 15 X 70mm to 40 X 100mm in size, but can be even larger. All the benefits of binoculars are retained, with some limits on portability. The price will also increase as the size increases, and all big binoculars require a tripod. Below is a selection of various binoculars. Moving right to left, the smallest is a 35 mm binocular, followed by two 50 mms, then a 70 mm, and on the far left, 25 X 100mm binoculars.

In reality, a binocular is just two refracting telescopes attached side by side. However, there are two main advantages of big binoculars over using a refracting telescope. First, they incorporate prisms, which result in the images being right side up and not reversed. Second, they give better views. Concerning better views: One cold winter evening several years ago I was out viewing the Orion Nebula, M42, at low power through a Schmidt-Cassegrain reflecting telescope. Out of curiosity, I pointed a pair of binoculars at M42 at similar power. I was shocked! The binoculars allowed me to see much more of the gaseous nebula then the telescope. The images shown below give a good approximation of what I saw that night.

After checking with other astronomers, I found out that the striking difference in the views was most likely due to the ability of the brain to better process images from two eyes versus one eye, and not the fault of the particular optics of the two instruments. Without realizing it at that moment, that incident led me to redirect my hobby to becoming a binocular astronomer. Although I still use my standard telescopes, almost all of my astronomical viewing is done through “Big Binoculars.”

Below are photos of my two big binoculars. Both are 25 X 100mm as shown, however, the binoculars on the left have 45 degree viewing, and interchangeable lenses, and the binocular on the right is straight through viewing, with a fixed 25 power eyepiece.

If you decide to venture into big binoculars, on the low price end, 15 X 70mm, 20 X 80mm and 25 X 100mm range in price from about $230 to $350. The only required accessory is a tripod, and these binoculars can easily be placed on a good standard photographer’s tripod. Note my 100mm binocular shown on the right above (weight 10 lbs) is on a simple tripod. The second accessory is not required, but is on my “must have list,” and that is a Red-Dot finder. Again, if you note in the above photos, both binoculars have Red-dot finders attached. Once you start viewing through 25 power binoculars, you will find it somewhat difficult to aim them; sometimes to the point of frustration. These simple little finders will make using big binoculars a joyful experience.

If you have more money available for this hobby, then it would be wise to invest in a 45 degree viewing binocular with interchangeable lenses. However, this will bring the price up to about $1000 to $2000! From my personal experience, the 45 degree viewing aspect is much more important than the ability to increase your power. The reason is that when using a straight through big binocular on a simple tripod, it is almost impossible to view objects above an angle of 50 to 60 degrees; thereby missing a lot of sky. However, I enjoyed using my straight through big binocular for several years. My solution was to just stay up later until the object of choice moved lower and into my range of view, or to look for selected objects at a different month of the year.

However, there are other options/mounts for the straight view big binoculars besides a simple tripod; see below.

If you like to build things, the mount options will increase.

And finally, if you recently won the lottery, you will probably opt for the set up below!

Enjoy the nice stargazing weather this month.

Naked Eye Sights: It is always nice to see Venus near a crescent Moon; this will occur on the evening of May 15^th.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Just enjoy wandering through the stars this month, and consider “Big Binos.”

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Try looking at Venus; you should be able to observe its phases. If you decide to look at Saturn, unfortunately the ring tilt will be at its worst for the year in May.

April 2010

2010-03-31T07:48:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on April 14^th. For April, your best viewing nights will be from April 1^st through April 19^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on April 15^th at 9 pm.

The Dance of the Planets:

This term has often been used to describe the movement of the planets through the stars, and also to the movement of the planets in relationship to each other.

As you know, there are five planets readily visible to the naked eye; four of these five planets are visible in the evening this month.

We can start with an interesting “Dance of the Planets” by viewing Venus and Mercury. Venus returns this month as the “Evening Star.” The interesting “Dance” I am referring to begins on April 1^st right after sunset. The bright Venus will appear in the west, and the fainter planet Mercury will appear slightly below and to the right of Venus. If the weather allows, try to watch them every evening. You will notice that they both seem to be rising higher together. From the 1^st to the 5^th, Mercury looks like it is catching up to Venus. Then from the 5^th to the 9^th, they seem to be traveling together as they both move higher in the sky. It isn’t until the 10^th onward that Venus pulls ahead, and near the end of the month Mercury is lost from view. Note on April 16^th, you can see Mercury, Venus, and the thin crescent Moon just after sunset.

The planet Saturn is bright all month and easily visible in the southeast to south. Saturn is the favorite planet for anyone with a telescope, but the rings still remain just barely tipped toward us. The good news is that Saturn’s rings are tipping more towards us, so we can look forward to an increasingly better view over the next several years.

The last of the four visible evening planets this month is Mars. It will shine brightly in the south/southwest throughout the month, to the right of Leo the Lion. I suggest you take time to view Mars in mid-month because of its location in the sky. On April 15^th through the 18^th, Mars passes by the open star cluster M44, also known as the Beehive Cluster. I have mentioned the Beehive in earlier columns; see below.

This cluster contains about 1000 stars, but only about 30-40 stars are visible through binoculars or a small telescope. It is always fun to try to see this cluster with the naked eye. It should be easy to see on any clear night away from city lights, and this month you can use Mars as a marker to find the Beehive cluster.

The Virgo Cluster:

Springtime gives us the best view of the Virgo Cluster. When one usually mentions clusters, they mean clusters of stars. However, the Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies! Data from the Hubble telescope estimates there are as many as 1500 galaxies associated with this cluster. This galaxy cluster is also referred to as the Virgo/Coma Berenices Cluster. Note in the image below is only a small section of this cluster; every smudge is another galaxy, some like our Milky Way.

As we all know, nothing in our meager amateur scopes compares to Hubble images. If you have a large amateur scope, your best view of the Virgo Cluster may be as shown below.

More likely, views from amateur equipment will show only faint smudges. So why bother? In this column I consistently repeat that the best way to learn the night sky is to try to locate all of the Messier Objects, 109 or 110, depending on whose list you use. So why the Virgo Cluster? A minimum of 16 Messier Objects are located in this cluster, more depending on how you define the limit of this cluster. The location of this galaxy cluster is easy to find because it is right behind the tail of the prominent spring constellation Leo the Lion. The circle on the chart below defines the center of the cluster.

Observation techniques: Whenever your targets are galaxies, you must first find a dark sky site. Make sure you wait for your eyes to become totally dark-adapted; this could take from 5 minutes for the younger observers to 20 minutes for the older crowd. Once adapted, use only dim red lights to work with your charts or other equipment. As I mentioned, some of the galaxies will be visible through binoculars; remember they will be only faint smudges. I have personally easily located 16 Messiers in the center of this cluster by using very large binoculars 25 X 100 mm. Good luck in your search.

Naked Eye Sights: The brilliant planet Venus returns as the “Evening Star” in the west just after sunset. Look for Mercury as is joins Venus rising above the horizon. Using Mars as a guidepost, try to spot the open star cluster M44 (The Beehive) in mid month. If you wish to observe the fifth naked eye planet, you will find Jupiter in the east just before sunrise towards the end of the month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Check out Mars passing by the Beehive Cluster in mid month. Try to locate some of the tiny smudges in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Wander through the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. If you only own a small refractor, it would be best to revert to binoculars. Most reflectors, such as Dobsonians should allow you to spot many Messiers in this cluster.

See you next month!

March 2010

2010-02-26T10:20:00.001-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on March 15^th. For March, your best viewing nights will be from March 4^th through March 19^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on March 15^th at 9 pm.

How to locate any object in the night sky:

This month I would like to get quite technical and describe in detail the method I use to locate any object in the night sky, using a laptop and an astronomy program. This method is so good, that I can locate an object even if I cannot actually see it!

First pick out the scope you plan to use for the night. In this example I chose my 100 mm binoculars. Note: This technique can be used with any pair of binoculars or any telescope. Next I will decide to view/search at 25 power. Note, 25 power is a good choice to search for most amateur astronomy targets, because of the wider field of view, it is easier to locate an object, and then once located, you can place in high power eyepieces.

Next I turn on my laptop computer, and open up my astronomy program, Starry Night Pro.

There are two settings that have to be placed. The first setting is called FOV (field of view); this a one time setting. Turn your scope to any area of the sky; I find it preferable to use a constellation. Choose two stars that are at the opposite edges of your field of view, this may take some searching; below I used two stars in the head of the constellation Hydra.

Now go to Starry Night, change the setting of the cursor from adaptive to angular separation. Using the cursor, find the angular separation of the two stars you choose. Example, for the eyepiece I choose, the separation was 2.3 degrees.

Now open up the FOV window, choose new entry, then name the eyepiece, example Oberwerk 25 X 100, and enter 2.3 degrees.

Now any time I use this scope and eyepiece, I open up FOV, click on Oberwerk 25 X 100, and the circle on the star chart represents what I see through my telescope, see below. Note: You can open more than one FOV circles at the same time.

The second setting must be inserted each time you use your scope. Next turn your scope to any point in the sky; again, it is better to look at a familiar area, such as a constellation. Then with your FOV circle activated, compare the faintest star you can see in your eyepiece with the Starry Night view of the same location. With the cursor set at adaptive (normal setting), place the cursor on one of the faintest stars visible through your eyepiece, and check the listed magnitude; I usually do this on two or three stars. See below the faintest star found visible was magnitude 8.12.

Next click on Options, then scroll to stars and click on stars. This will open a box that has a slider that will allow you to set visible star magnitude. Move the slider to match the magnitude of the faintest star you could see.

When you are done with both settings, what you see anywhere in the sky through the eyepiece of your scope, is exactly what you see inside the FOV circle on the Starry Night screen.

Now let’s go find a target. Let’s try for a somewhat difficult Messier target, M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) in Canes Venatici. This is a beautiful object when seen through a large amateur scope, see below.

Let’s assume it is 10 pm on March 15. First I set up my scope and laptop and open Starry Night Pro. Next I click on FOV at the left of the screen and then click on Oberwerk 25 X 100, which places the correct FOV circle on the screen. Next I check out various places in the sky as described above to find the dimmest star I can see at 25 power; assume the dimmest is magnitude 8.12 (not a good night). I then go to the options on the left of the screen, go to stars and set the limiting magnitude at 8.12; all set!

Looking at my Starry Night screen, I can see that M51 is near the star Alkaid, the last star in the handle of the Big Dipper.

On Starry Night, I then zoom in on Alkaid and position my FOV circle so it “points towards” my target. This places the star Alkaid near the 8 o’clock position on the circle.

I now note that if I move my scope about one FOV in the 2 o’clock direction, I should see only three stars in a triangle. If I see a “smudge” on the right side of the triangle, it can only be my target, M51.

I can then increase my power to better view this galaxy. If I cannot see the target at all, it is just a bad viewing night, but I still can enter into my log book, “Located M51, but could not see it.”

Note: Although this example used binoculars, which see objects as your eye views them, Starry Night can be set for any viewing configuration, upside down, and/or reversed to match the scope you are using.

Naked Eye Sights: The brilliant planet Venus returns as the “Evening Star” just after sunset towards the end of the month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Only month possible to find all the Messier Objects in one night.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Check out Saturn from mid-month onward.

See you next month!

February 2010

2010-02-12T07:18:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on February 13^th. For February, your best viewing nights will be from February 3^rd through February 19^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on February 15^th at 9 pm.

Vesta:

I am going to make a guess that anyone who reads this column and enjoys amateur astronomy has seen most if not all the common night time objects except one, asteroids, primarily because they can be quite difficult to find. If you have not yet seen an asteroid, this is a good month to start. The asteroid to locate is called Vesta.

Vesta is an irregular shaped “rock” with a diameter of about only 330 miles, at a distance of over 100 million miles; quite a challenge for an amateur! Vesta is formally called 4 Vesta because it was the 4^th asteroid discovered. Vesta was discovered in 1807 and is the second largest asteroid; Ceres is the largest with a diameter of about 600 miles. Also, Ceres unlike Vesta is large enough to be spherical, and is therefore classified as a dwarf planet along with Pluto. However, Vesta does hold the honor of being the brightest asteroid, which will also make it easier for you to see. Below is Hubble’s view of Vesta.

Here is another interesting Vesta fact. In October 1960, some men mending fences in Australia saw a large meteor fall to earth. Eventually the site of this meteor’s impact was located, and pieces of the meteor were recovered. It was later determined that this meteor was a piece of the asteroid Vesta! How did they know it really came from Vesta? A scientific method known as infrared spectroscopy is used to scan certain objects and give a type of “fingerprint” of the material. It was found that telescopic infrared spectroscopy of Vesta was a “fingerprint” match of the Australian meteorite. Years later, observation of Vesta by the Hubble telescope showed a massive crater covering a large portion of Vesta; likely the source of the meteorite. Over the years, many other Vesta meteorites have been discovered around the world. These Vesta meteorites are called HED meteorites; a name derived from their chemical composition.

So how did astronomers over the last 200 years discover asteroids? In the beginning, it was totally by chance. An astronomer may have been studying a particular star or other object for several hours or nights. In the process, it was noted that one of the “stars” in the field of view moved. This moving speck of light turned out to be one of many small pieces of rock, which we now call asteroids. The astronomers were also able to determine that these asteroids were in an orbit around the Sun, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Once astronomers were aware that these objects existed, they started to look for new asteroids. The discovery of new asteroids moved slowly until the development of astrophotography at the end of the 19^th century. At that time, several astronomers had discovered a total of 323 asteroids. In 1891 when an astronomer Max Wolf began using astrophotography he discovered another 248 just by himself! By the late 1900’s, a total of a few thousand asteroids were discovered. The next “giant leap” occurred with the use of digital astrophotography combined with computerized analysis. Just one asteroid searching team called LINEAR has alone discovered over 97,000 new asteroids! Below is an image of some dwarf planets beyond the orbit of Pluto, and some asteroids compared to the size of the Earth, note the size of Vesta.

So now it is your turn, and you only have one asteroid to find this month. Why did I choose this month? Since these are tiny and somewhat difficult objects to see, it is good to have a marker in the sky to help out. On February 16th, Vesta moves between the stars Algieba and 40 Leonis in the constellation of Leo the Lion. On that night, Leo will be well above the horizon by 9 pm. Algieba is easily seen and is part of the backwards question mark forming the front of Leo. The chart below shows the location of Algieba in the Leo question mark.

When you look at Algieba with simple binoculars, you will see the star 40 Leonis below and to the right. The charts below show the position of the asteroid Vesta in relation to these two stars over a period of three nights.

So on these nights, at about 8 pm, use a pair of binoculars to locate these two stars and Vesta. Next, make a sketch of the objects you see. Then check again at 10 or 11 pm, and see if the object you thought was Vesta moved. If you are not sure, keep your sketch, and check that location the next night. With luck, you should be able to make your first asteroid sighting. Over the months I will tell you about any other easy to find asteroids.

Naked Eye Sights: Observe as Orion begins its departure in the West while the main constellation of spring, Leo, arrives in the southeast.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Main target this month is the asteroid Vesta. In addition, the great sights such as the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula are still visible.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Mars is now high in the sky. If you have been waiting for the return of Saturn, it is visible in the east after 10 pm at the end of the month. Saturn’s rings will slowly open up throughout 2010.

See you next month!

January 2010

2010-01-04T13:30:00.000-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on January 15^th. For January, your best viewing nights will be from January 5^th through January 20^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on January 15^th at 9 pm.

The Triangulum Galaxy:

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy usually referred to by its Messier #, M33. Its name is derived from its location in the Triangulum constellation. This is one of only two galaxies considered close to our Milky Way Galaxy. Close is a long way off; almost 3 million light years. The second “close galaxy” is the Andromeda Galaxy M31 featured in last October’s column. So this month I want to challenge my amateur astronomy readers to find our other neighbor, M33, shown below.

The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light years away, and it can be seen with the naked eye in a dark location. However, what we usually see with the naked eye or with binoculars is the bright center of the Andromeda Galaxy, and not the faint large spiral. Although the Triangulum Galaxy M33 is only slightly farther away than the Andromeda Galaxy, it has no bright central core. So you will need the right equipment, and near perfect viewing conditions to see it at all! It has been reported that M33 is visible to the naked eye in remote dark regions of the world. It is also interesting to note that there has never been a historical report of this galaxy before the invention of the telescope. Obviously, in ancient times there was no light pollution, or industrial pollution to interfere with viewing the heavens. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians or Chinese should have reported seeing M33. What we can conclude from this information is that M33 is so faint; you can only see it with the naked eye if you know that it exists.

First, the necessary viewing conditions: There are various indicators of a good night to view galaxies. One indicator is that you must be able to see all seven stars of the Little Dipper. Another good indicator is seeing stars inside of the bowl of the Big Dipper. If you can see stars in the Big Dipper’s bowl, most likely you can see M33. Finally, check out my October 2009 column about viewing the Andromeda Galaxy. If you can see the entire Andromeda Galaxy, then you can see M33.

Next, the viewing equipment: A simple refractor will not do. If you have a medium to large Dobsonian, you may pull it off with a 42 mm 2-inch eyepiece. However, the best chance to view M33 is by using two eyes. Therefore, binoculars are your best choice. A pair of 70-100 mm binoculars is best, but you should be able to see M33 with 7 or 10 X 50 binoculars. In addition, it’s good to have a feel of the relative size of M33 as seen through your binoculars. M33 will be slightly larger than the width of two full Moons; see comparison of the Moon versus M33 shown below.

Last is where do you look. M33 is in the region of the sky near M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, so first find M31 before you begin your search for M33. Next you have to check out star charts; below is a chart to direct you to the area of M33; set for 9 pm on January 15^th.

Since you will only attempt to find M33 on a good viewing night, it will be easy to see the constellation Triangulum. Look to the left of Andromeda, or to the right of the Pleiades to find the distinctive “triangle.” This time of year, the triangle looks like an arrow pointing down and to the left; towards the southwestern horizon. Now that you found the triangle, use the star Rasalmothallah, the “point of the arrow” as a marker to find M33. Find Rasalmothallah with your binoculars, and move slightly down and to the right; remember the size of M33 versus the full Moon. Another aid is the star Mirach in the constellation Andromeda. This star is usually used to help you star hop to the Andromeda Galaxy. M33 is about half way between Mirach and Rasalmothallah.

Personal note: I have seen M33 on two occasions, both at a dark sky park in north central Pennsylvania, called Cherry Springs Park. Both times I used 25 X 100 mm binoculars. The first time, I had the binoculars aimed directly at M33, and saw nothing, and then suddenly it appeared, like a faint ghostly image in the sky. Indeed, if I didn’t know it existed, I would not have noticed it at all. So look for a very faint spiral galaxy, not at all as bright as the images above. Below is a representation of how I first saw M33.

Naked Eye Sights: There are two nice ISS (International Space Station) flyovers this month. Use the information on the charts below. Notice there is a good flyover on January 5^th, starting in the southwest at 6:10 pm ending about 5 minutes later in the northeast. The second one is on January 23^rd, starting at 6:23 pm.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): M33, the Triangulum Galaxy.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): The planet Mars returns to the night sky. Look for it in the southeast, especially in the last half of the month. By the end of this month, it will be the brightest it’s been in two years. If you have a “good” telescope, you may be able to see the north polar ice cap of the planet.

See you next month!

December 2009

2009-12-02T07:01:00.001-08:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on December 16^th. For December, your best viewing nights will be from December 6^th through December 22^nd. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on December 15^th at 9 pm.

Meteor Showers

The November Leonids were a washout. Not only did the Leonids give a poor show, in South Carolina there were not enough meteors to even call it a meteor shower. I took a personal count of only 4 meteors per hour. To any of my readers who felt a great let down, I strongly encourage you to check out the Geminids meteor shower in December. There are only three “major” meteor showers each year: The Leonids in November, the Perseids in August, and the Geminids in December. Of the three, the Geminids get the least attention. My personal observations have shown that the Geminids are the most reliable; never overly impressive, but seldom a washout. The Geminids should peak between 1 am and sunrise on December 14. With the Geminids, it is also possible to have a good shower the night before and the night after the peak. So if your schedule work/school permits, give it your last try for 2009 meteor showers. Note: I define a good Geminids shower has 60 or more meteors per hour; good luck to us all.

Mercury

Mercury is one of the more difficult planets to view, only because of its close proximity to the Sun. So whenever there is a good opportunity to view Mercury, I will mention it in my column. It is also nice when the planet is visible just after sunset versus just before sunrise; except of course for the early morning risers. Start looking for Mercury in the southwest, right after sunset on December 17^th, but on the 18^th, you will have the advantage of a thin crescent Moon resting just above the elusive planet. Well above the crescent Moon will be the brightly shinning planet Jupiter. Start checking at 5:15 pm, but your best viewing may be between 5:30 and 5:45 pm. You can continue viewing Mercury for the next several days. If you can see a star just below Mercury, it is the star Nunki, in the constellation of Sagittarius. Your view of Mercury and the crescent Moon may look somewhat like the image shown below.

If you have a telescope, you may be tempted to view Mercury, but please do so only after the Sun has completely set. Never ever turn your telescopes anywhere in the direction of the Sun; to do so would result in severe eye damage. If you do see a telescopic view of Mercury, it will never be seen as a disk, because like Venus, it is between us and the Sun. Below is a size comparison of Mercury and the Earth.

Christmas Shopping

For all the last minute astronomy gift shoppers, I repeat some of the following thoughts/suggestions from earlier columns. Don’t buy telescopes from department stores; do buy telescopes from astronomy/telescope stores (on-line will do). When in doubt, for the beginning young or old astronomer, buy binoculars and star charts and how to guides. An established amateur astronomer always wants more accessories; ask him or her for a wish list. Astronomy software is another great gift; Starry Night software usually sets the standard in this area. Don’t forget astronomy books or magazine subscriptions. Also buy fun stuff like T-shirts and hats that show your hobby is astronomy.

Remember, careful thought and purchases can help lead a young person into a hobby that will last a lifetime. The image below may offer you some suggestions for your astronomy wish list.

To all my readers: Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Naked Eye Sights: The Geminids meteor shower. The planet Mercury. Enjoy the arrival of winter’s favorites: Orion returns to dominate the sky for the next several months. Leading Orion is the wonderful Pleiades/Seven Sisters asterism. Following Orion is the brightest star in our nighttime sky, Sirius/ The Dog Star. The striking Northern Cross/Cygnus will slowly set in the northeast this month. The Cassiopeia asterism in the northeast doesn’t know if it wants to be a W or an M this month.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): The must see binocular sights for a clear December night are: The Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, the Double Cluster in Perseus, the Orion Nebula in the center of his sword, also try to find all three open star clusters in the constellation Auriga; M36, 37, and 38. Hope for the perfect night to view the Andromeda Galaxy. Finally, if you just like to “look at stars” with your binoculars, there are two great places to visit this month. First scan the “V” asterism in Taurus (between Orion and the Pleiades). This area is filled with stars associated with a broad open star cluster, the Hyades. The Hyades is the closest star cluster to Earth, and contains 300-400 main stars. Next visit the constellation Perseus high in the northeast. The brightest star in Perseus is Mirfak. Using Mirfak as your central point, scan the sky around this star, and you will find a wonderful gathering of young stars. This area is known as the Perseus Association; enjoy.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): The planet Mercury; AFTER SUNSET! Aim at the Orion Nebula/M42, which appears to be the center star of Orion’s sword. Above 25 power, you should be able to locate four young stars that were born in this star nursery. These stars are known as the Trapezium, because they form a tiny trapezoid.

November 2009

2009-10-30T10:23:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on November 16^th. For November, your best viewing nights will be from November 7^th through November 21^st. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on November 15^th at 10 pm.

The Leonids Meteor Shower

It is that time of year again, the arrival of the most well known meteor shower of the year, the Leonids. Unlike last year, the best news is that this year the Leonids will peak early morning on November 17^th, right after the New Moon. This will give optimum viewing of the meteor shower.

In previous years, I have discussed meteor showers, and viewing hints, but for readers who missed this information, it would be best if I give a review. First, what are meteor showers? Over the eons, comets dove toward the Sun, and many remained “trapped by our Sun’s gravity, forming long elliptical orbits. These comets periodically return to the Sun, over periods of only a few years, to seventy-six years (Comet Halley) to many thousands of years. The image below shows three such comet orbits.

Comets are really large “slush balls” containing ice, gases, and rocks. As the comets orbit the Sun, there is a continual loss of matter along their orbit, and this debris also circles the Sun in the same orbit. The rocky debris will become our meteor showers; see sketch below.

So each year, our Earth passes though several comet orbital paths resulting in a meteor shower. The Leonids occur when we pass through the orbit of the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which was first observed in 1699. Now the exciting part is that the debris field is not uniform. Therefore, on some years we pass though a thin field of rocks, and on other years, we may pass through a thick/dense field of rocky debris. The Leonid shower can range from about 50 to over 400 per hour. A “normal” Leonids should give a least one meteor per minute, or 60 per hour. Scientists are predicting from 100 to over 500(!) meteors per hour this year. However, don’t set your expectations too high; meteor shower prediction is not a very exacting science. No one really predicted the amazing Leonid meteor storm in 1966. Some observers at Kitt Peak observatory in Arizona estimated about 40 meteors per sec (144,000 per hour!) Note to my young readers, there may be similar Leonid meteor storm in 2032.

Viewing methods: Eyes only, no other visual aid such as binoculars. Use lawn chairs or even better, lounge chairs, and look toward the southeast. The meteors can appear anywhere from near the horizon to directly overhead. Hot chocolate and/or coffee also provide a good addition to viewing meteor showers.

The meteor showers are named for the constellation that appears to be in the center of the meteor shower, so look towards Leo the Lion. The best time to view a meteor shower is after midnight until dawn. The reason is that from early evening until midnight, we are looking away from the direction the Earth is moving in our orbit around the Sun. After midnight until dawn, when we look up at the sky, we are now looking toward the direction the Earth is moving. Remember in a meteor shower, the Earth runs into the rocky debris. So, at 3 am, looking toward the east, we’re hurtling straight into the comet’s orbit; like running fast in the rain, but instead of raindrops hitting our face, rocks are hitting our atmosphere. Remember I said that the Leonids seem to come from the constellation Leo the Lion, well Leo isn’t well above the horizon until 5 am. So, the best viewing times may be from 4 am until 6am, Tuesday morning the 17^th. Unfortunately, this is a school or workday. Rather than staying up late to hope to see a few meteors, it might be better to go to bed early, and set the alarm for 3-4 am; and remember, there are no guarantees that it will be a great shower this year, or any year, but it may be.

The Double Cluster:

There are several deep sky objects that Messier did not feel the need to report, one of which is the Double Cluster in the constellation Perseus. This cluster is one of the beautiful sights of the autumn. It is quite easy to find with a pair of binoculars because of its close proximity to the constellation Cassiopeia. Perseus may not be too obvious to new astronomers, but the “W” asterism of Cassiopeia is easily spotted. You can see its position of the clusters on the image below.

The Double Cluster is two closely packed open star clusters. They are officially named NGC 869 and NGC 884; in another column I will discus the NGC objects. On any clear night this month check out the Double Cluster. They are best observed at low power and in a dark location. If you live or travel away from the cities, they are easily visible to the naked eye. The image below is a wide field view at about 25 power.

Naked Eye Sights: The Leonids meteor shower.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): The Double Cluster

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): If you get up early to see the Leonids, or if you normally rise early, Mars is getting bright, and is in front/to the right of Leo. Saturn is below and to the left of Leo, and you will note that the ring is just beginning to “open up” again. Also, Jupiter is still a great target in the early evening.

See you next month!

October 2009

2009-09-28T10:11:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections: what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on October 18^th. For October, your best viewing nights will be from October 9^th through October 23^rd. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on October 15^th at 10 pm.

Jupiter: As of this writing, there is still significant humidity present in the night skies. As I mentioned last month, October may give us some clearer viewing of the planet Jupiter. So keep trying to find the “perfect” night to view the clouds bands of Jupiter.

The Andromeda Galaxy: October and November are great months to view the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as the Andromeda Nebula, and Messier 31 (M31). The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years away, and is the farthest object that the unaided human eye can see. It is also the closest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. Most recent data show that it is twice the size of our Milky Way. Another interesting fact is that the Andromeda Galaxy is blue-shifted. You may remember the term red-shift. When an object moves away from us at very high speeds, the light we observe shifts toward the red end of the spectrum (Doppler Effect). Most deep sky objects show a significant red-shift, demonstrating that the universe is rapidly expanding. However, the Andromeda Galaxy’s blue-shift means that it is headed right at us, and present data shows that the Andromeda Galaxy will collide with the Milky Way in about 2.5 billion years. The speed that we are approaching each other is 190 mi/sec, or 11,400 mi/minute, or 684,000 mi/hour. So every day we get over 16 million miles closer to collision!

So how do you observe the Andromeda Galaxy? Since you know you can see it with the naked eye, use the chart below, or other charts on the Internet, and try to find the Andromeda Galaxy using only your eyes. It is really easy to see if you can get away from the city lights. The chart below on the left shows the southeast at 10 pm on October 15th. Start by finding the “W”, Cassiopeia, and then move right to the “Great Square of Pegasus,” and finally work your way down the long “V” of the constellation Andromeda. The image on the right shows how you may see the Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye at a very dark viewing site.Next try to view the Andromeda Galaxy through a pair of 7 to 10 power binoculars. Using simple binoculars will allow you to see the Andromeda Galaxy, even with some city lights around. Most people who have seen the Andromeda Galaxy saw it through simple binoculars, or with low power telescopes, and it looks similar to the image shown below.

Now for some surprises: Let’s look at a typical professional astronomer’s image of the Andromeda Galaxy, shown below; wow!

Looking at the two images above, one would logically conclude that the galaxy is just so far away, that the binoculars are just not powerful enough to see the Andromeda Galaxy as the professionals can. So one day you may advance in your hobby, and invest in a more powerful telescope, maybe like our 10-inch Dobsonian. Then you crank up the power, look at the Andromeda Galaxy and surprise, it will be a little bigger, but it still looks similar to what you saw with your simple binoculars! At this point, you may be confused. Allow me to explain. Your binocular view as shown above, is not a distant view of a large galaxy; it is the view of the bright central core of a large galaxy. Even at 2.5 million light years away, a spiral galaxy measuring 200,000 light years across fills an impressive piece of the sky. Such an object would span at least seven Moon widths! Due to the low surface brightness of the Andromeda Galaxy, we don’t see the full diameter. If the Andromeda Galaxy was brighter, and our Moon passed near by, the image below is what you would see through your binoculars!

So, can you see the Andromeda Galaxy this large, (of course without the bright Moon in the way) using only amateur equipment; yes. First, stay away from high power, the galaxy is just too large; stay at 20 to 25 power. Next you need significant light gathering, so a small narrow refractor will not do. A large Dobsonian has a lot of light gathering, but it has too much power. Finally, if you can use two eyes instead of one, you will have even a better shot at success. All these suggestions add up to a 20 to 25 power pair of binoculars with 70 to 100 mm objective lenses as your best equipment to see the full expanse of the Andromeda Galaxy. The last requirement is out of your control, a clear night with a transparent atmosphere. If it is the “perfect night,” you might be able to succeed with just a pair of 7 or 10 X 50mm binoculars.

On a personal note: The image below represents the actual view I saw through my 25 X 100 mm binoculars in October 2003 at a campground star party only 40 miles north of the city of Philadelphia, PA. It was after a storm front had moved through, and it was indeed the perfect night. It was the only time in my life of viewing that I saw the entire Andromeda Galaxy.

Naked Eye Sights: Try for a naked view of the Andromeda Nebula.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): The Andromeda Nebula. Jupiter’s moons.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Jupiter.

See you next month!

September 2009

2009-09-14T07:30:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on September 18^th. For September, your best viewing nights will be from September 12^th through September 23^rd. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on September 15^th at 10 pm.

Jupiter: Although Jupiter was in opposition last month, this month should be a better month for Jupiter watching. First, Jupiter will rise earlier in the evening. Through most of the month, it will be in a good viewing position by 9 pm, and even better at 10 pm. Second, hopefully the humidity will lessen, allowing for clearer viewing. We always see the beautiful large images of Jupiter as I posted last month, but what can you expect to see through your own telescopes? The images below show two good views of Jupiter through amateur scopes. Remember, if you can’t see the cloud bands, it may not be a problem with your telescope, but it may just be a bad viewing night; keep trying.

Telescope Finding Scopes: I have mentioned finding scopes briefly in previous columns, but allow me to expand on this subject.

Many of the readers of this column most likely have a telescope. All of your scopes have to be aimed at your target of choice. New amateur astronomers have to take the time and have patience to learn the night sky. Eventually you will be able to point to a spot in the sky and know that that is where M27 is, or the Hercules Cluster, or the Coathanger asterism, etc. However, no matter how good you become, you still have to be able to aim your telescope at your target. This should be a simple matter. Every telescope comes equipped with some type of “finding scope.” Traditionally, these finding scopes attach to the side of your scope, and are just small low power telescopes, usually 6 to 8 power, and they almost always have crosshairs in the lens to aid in locking the telescope on your target. Now the “problems”: These small finding scopes usually give an upside down and reversed image, which may or may not match the image of your actual telescope. In addition, and probably the most frustrating is that in general, finding scopes give too small an angle of view. Note: In a small box, in my attic is every finding scope that came with every telescope I have purchased.

So how do you aim your scopes? There are two very effective aiming devices. The simplest and cheapest is a Red Dot Finder. The better and more expensive device is a scope mounted Green Laser.

First the red dot finder. The red dot finder does not use a red laser. It uses a red LED light. The LED is somewhat hidden in the back, and a reflection of the light is seen on a plain glass section in the front. As you look through the finder, you will see the red dot on the glass surface. You then simply overlay this red dot on the dark sky, and place it on your target of choice. The initial setup is best done in the daylight. Mount the red dot on your scope, aim your scope at a simple distant target, such as a street light or mailbox, etc and use the vertical and horizontal adjusting screws in the red dot to overlay the dot on the object seen in the center of your scope’s field of view. The red dot finder A below is about $38, and finder B about $65. Finder B has a larger field of view (not really necessary), and also has four different red shapes to overlay on the sky, which is a nice touch. (C below) There is another plus for the red dot finders. Usually, you don’t know exactly where you target is, so you place the red dot in the area where the target should be, and using charts, you search for the target. Once you locate the object in your scope, look through the red dot finder with both eyes open. You will now know the exact location of the object in the sky with the naked eye; this cannot be done with a traditional finder.

Second, the Green Laser Finder. The green laser has been a great tool for teaching astronomy. However, attaching a green laser to your telescope is also a great way to aim your scope. You can see exactly where your scope is pointing as you stand next to your scope and move it around; we use a green laser on our Dobsonian telescope. Allow me to describe a “trick” I use with the green laser. To locate a deep sky object such as the Dumb Bell nebula (M27), you point your scope mounted laser near the place in he sky where it is located based on your star charts, and turn it off. Next, use a pair of 7 or 10 power binoculars to find the object, and while holding the binoculars on the target, turn the laser finder back on and move the laser until you see the laser through the binoculars, “touch” M27. Your scope is now on your target. Note: This method is much easier to do with two people.

The complete laser and mount shown on the left below sells for $120.

Naked Eye Sights: Enjoy Jupiter, and wait for someone to ask you, “What is that bright star?”

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Jupiter’s moons.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): This month and the next may give you your best views of Jupiter. Look for the cloud bands.

See you next month!

August 2009

2009-08-18T07:02:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on August 20^th. For August, your best viewing nights will be from August 12^th through August 25^th. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on August 15^th at 10 pm.

ScienceSouth’s New Astronomy Program! The Sidewalk Astronomer

Update: Our Sidewalk Astronomy Program continues each month. On July 3^rd we were in Hartsville at the Emmanuel Baptist Church 4^th of July celebration. Because of the event timing and fireworks, we spent most of the time with our solar telescope. Since the Sun is very quiet right now, we were very pleased to see three solar prominences. One was especially exciting because it formed a loop. The following image is similar to the sight we saw that evening.

After the Sun set, we brought out a 120mm refractor, and let people enjoy the view of the waning gibbous Moon, until the fireworks began. In general, it was a good evening for all.

Jupiter:

Without question, Jupiter will be the best planetary target for this year. The reasons are as follows: First, it is the largest planet, making it easier to see as a disk. Second, although Jupiter is cloud covered, its clouds exist as beautiful bands, containing swirling features, and hurricane like circular storms. Third, because of its rapid rotation, you should be able to see features move over a period of an hour or so. Fourth, its four major (Galilean) moons can be seen to change each night as they spin around Jupiter. Fifth, because of its size and distance, you can enjoy viewing this planet using simple telescopes; even seven power binoculars will suffice to see its four moons!

Jupiter makes its return to our night sky, rising in the southeast. If you observe early in the month, and early in the evening, Jupiter will likely be too low in the sky, and viewing will be affected by atmospheric haze. The best date for viewing any planet is usually at opposition, which is when the planet is directly opposite the Sun as viewed on the Earth. Opposition will occur on August 14^th. However, to maximize your chances for a spectacular view of the planet that night, you should view Jupiter at or about 1 am. The reason being, is at that time Jupiter will reach its highest point in the sky, thereby allowing you to view through the thinnest layer of atmosphere. Actually, many people may prefer waiting to view Jupiter in September and October when it is higher in the sky earlier in the evening. I will discuss Jupiter further next month.

GoTo or not GoTo?

A question was posed to me just recently concerning whether or not one should purchase a GoTo telescope, so I decided to discuss it here. A GoTo telescope is one that is linked to a computerized controller. Once the telescope is aligned, you simply type in your target, click goto, and the telescope will find the target and track/follow it for as long as you want. I own a GoTo scope (ETX-125), shown below.

Some other GoTo telescopes are shown below.

GoTo’s are quite popular with catiotropic scopes, such as is the ETX-125, however, they can also be used with standard Newtonian reflectors, and with refractors. A GoTo type controller can be used on a Dobsonian reflector, but the nature of a Dob will not allow for motorized tracking.

So this is great, right? No more searching through star charts, trying to learn the constellations, fumbling with finding scopes (which is up/down, left/right?). Want to see the Hercules Cluster, just type in its name, or type in M13, and the telescope finds it for you! Want to see the Orion nebula/M42 this month, just type it in, and the controller tells you it is not visible this time of year; luckily, it will not laugh at you for asking.

The question about GoTo scopes was asked by a beginner amateur astronomer, and I have still not given him a definitive answer. Beginners sometimes have a lot of trouble finding some wonderful celestial objects such as the Ring nebula (M57 or the Whirlpool galaxy (M51). These two objects would be found in seconds with a GoTo telescope. So why has my ETX-125 GoTo been collecting dust for several years? If you only wish to enjoy viewing the vast number of celestial wonders, then perhaps you should invest in a GoTo scope. However, if you want to find your way around the night sky, then you have to do it the “hard” way with charts and diligence and time. Note: If there was a computer that you could set up in the woods, type in a name of any bird, and it would find it for you, would bird watching still be enjoyable. I have no answer. So I posted the question asked of me, but I will leave it up to each reader to decide to GoTo or not GoTo.

Naked Eye Sights: Expect someone this month to ask you “What is that bright star?” at which time you will explain that is not a star, but is the planet Jupiter. Meteor Shower: Check out the famous Perseids meteor shower late night on the 12^th, and early morning on the 13^th, but it may be quite lessened by the presence of a 55% gibbous Moon.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Watch the four Galilean moons of Jupiter as they change positions each night.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): Begin your enjoyment of the planet Jupiter, marking your calendar for the view at opposition on the 14^th.

See you next month!

July 2009

2009-07-07T06:33:00.001-07:00

Tony Martinez

Each month I will describe sights of interest in the night skies of South Carolina. These sights will be broken down into three sections; what you can see with the naked eye, with binoculars, and with a small telescope. The best time to view the night sky is at and around the times when the Moon is not visible, what is known as a New Moon; which will occur this month on July 21. For July, your best viewing nights will be from July 14 through July 28. The Star chart below is set for Florence, SC on July 15 at 10 pm.

ScienceSouth’s New Astronomy Program! The Sidewalk Astronomer

Update: Our Sidewalk astronomy program continues each month. In June we were at St. Anthony Church, for lunar observing. The Moon was a waxing gibbous, and we had great views of the crater rims and the mountain ranges.

On June 20, we were at Lynches River Park with our big Dob, and my personal 25 X 100 binoculars. Although there were no significant clouds, the viewing was poor due to the high humidity. There was a brief clear spell at about 10 pm, which allowed us to resolve some of the stars in the Hercules Cluster (M13), and just barely resolve the Ring Nebula (M57).

We will continue to venture out around the Florence area, but the summer humidity may limit us to the Moon and the planets until autumn.

Summer Viewing:

As mentioned above, it is nice to be out stargazing on a warm summer night, but the humidity sometimes prevents clear viewing. Remember that the sky sometimes clears right after a strong rainstorm, so look outside to check this out after the next rain. Remember also some of the indicators of good sky viewing, such as the stars of the Little Dipper.

On a poor viewing night, you will only see three stars in the Little Dipper, Polaris, Kochab, and Pherkad. If you can see more than these three, especially all seven, then the skies are good for viewing. Of course any night that you can see the Milky Way is a great night for stargazing.

Except for the potential summer humidity problems, summer always gives us a great opportunity because we are looking toward the center of our galaxy when we look to the south. This region is filled with a mixture of nebulae and star clusters. The image below is much more than you can hope for in our local viewing location.

Each summer I will remind you to wander with your binoculars through the summer Milky Way, above Sagittarius and Scorpius. Look for the many fuzzy objects in the region, knowing that each is either a nebula or star cluster. If these fuzzies intrigue you, then bring out your telescope for a better view.

Messier Perspective:

If you love amateur astronomy, then you enjoy searching out the many deep sky objects (DSO’s). As you work through your Messier list, you may enjoy having a better perspective of exactly where are these objects. If you have ever wondered about this, there is a simple freeware program that you can download which will show you where the Messiers are located, in and out of our galaxy. The program is called “Where is M13?” This freeware is available at http://www.thinkastronomy.com/. The program is small, simple/intuitive, and user friendly. Below is a screen shot of the program, showing the Galactic View locations of M13, M57 (the Ring Nebula), and the directions to the Andromeda and Sombrero Galaxies. If you switch to Galactic Map, you will see the locations of the Messiers as are shown on standard star charts. Check this program out!

The Summer Triangle:

The Summer Triangle asterism has risen; formed by the stars Deneb, Vega and Altair, as shown in the image below. This simple, but well known asterism rises almost exactly on the summer solstice each year; however, you can continue to see this triangle of three bright stars until it sets in mid to late December.

Here are four fun targets in or near the Summer Triangle.

First, and the only one visible to the naked eye, the star Albireo. I have mentioned this star in previous columns, but it is a target that one always revisits on any clear night. Albireo is in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan, and would represent the head of the swan, or the foot of the Northern Cross asterism. What makes this star so special is that it is a colorful double star with one having a deep blue color and its companion a yellow/gold color; quite striking through any telescope.

The second target is the Coat Hanger asterism, located in the constellation Vulpecula. This upside down coat hanger is best viewed with a simple pair of binoculars, check it out.

The third target is the Dumbell Nebula (M27) visible with binoculars, and with a reflecting telescope. This remnant of a dead star is in a class called planetary nebulas. On a clear night with a good pair of binoculars, M27 gives a 3D optical illusion of standing out in front of the background stars.

The fourth target is just slightly outside the Summer Triangle, the Ring Nebula (M57), and is a favorite target for telescopes that can handle 50 to 100 power. This is also a planetary nebula.

The cluttered image below will help you locate the above targets.

Naked Eye Sights: Look toward the south, and hope for skies clear enough to see the Milky Way. Locate the Summer Triangle.

Binocular Sights (7 to 10 power): Wander through the region above Sagittarius, and to the left of Scorpius, to view a very rich star field. Check out the Coat Hanger asterism, and the Dumbbell Nebula.

Telescope Sights (60-100mm): If available, use a small Dobsonian to view the clusters and nebulae of the summer Milky Way. Also locate the Ring Nebula, M57.

See you next month!