Highlight Events in Astronomy 2017 a Brief Look at the Year Ahead

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Highlight events in Astronomy 2017 A brief look at the year ahead Vancouver, BC, January 1, 2017 – Conjunction of Mars, Venus, Moon: Jan 31st A conjunction marks one of the perfect viewing opportunities for people. A conjunction is when two or more objects appear close to each other in the night sky. On the 31st of January, Mars, Venus, and the moon will all be in the western sky, setting together. Watch for this spectacular and rare event right after sunset between the 29th and the 2nd, with the best opportunity on the 31st of January. You do not even need a telescope! Juno continues mission around Jupiter Juno arrived at Jupiter earlier in July of 2016, marking a historic feat in space exploration. Having a few minor hiccups in some of the tech on the craft, it has been working fantastically and has already helped us understand the largest planet in our solar system more. The mission continues and more and more data comes pouring in every day. The data has already surprised astronomers, and there is so much to still learn from this mission. Some of our major understandings of Jupiter are being altered because of the data from this mission. Lightsail 2 launches: March The Planetary Society has been pioneering a new way of space flight: riding along the waves of space using the Sun's energy as power. The Lightsail project is aiming to send their second prototype into space for deployment. Just like a sailboat, the Lightsail is pushed along by having a massive collection area where the light from the Sun pushes against the craft, slowly accelerating it. This is remarkable: not only is this the largest not for profit organization in space travel, but it marks a completely new type of space craft and opens up countless new possibilities for space exploration. The Lightsail 2 is scheduled to be launched in March. Total solar eclipse: August 21st Probably the biggest event of this year, the solar eclipse on August 21st will be the first total solar eclipse visible across North America in almost four decades. The syzygy, a 26 point scrabble word meaning alignment of celestial objects, of the Earth, Moon, and Sun casts the shadow of the Moon across North America, blocking out the light from the Sun temporarily. On the morning of the 21st, Vancouver will experience about 90% of this total solar eclipse. The maximal eclipse will be just south of us in Oregon. A fantastic opportunity to (safely!) view a beautiful celestial event. End of Cassini space mission: September 15th The Cassini space mission has been aiding in our understanding of the outer solar system for the past 20 years. Launched in 1997, Cassini has sent back stunning images of Jupiter, Saturn, Titan, and many other objects in our solar system. From this mission, we have uncovered secrets out beyond our reach from just here on Earth. The mission end on September 15th of this year when it makes a final close approach journey in Saturn's ring system to finally end up in Saturn. -30- Media Contact: Lyndsey Barton Director of Community Engagement H.R. MacMillan Space Centre 604.738.7827 Ext 249 [email protected] .

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Journal Issue 26 | October 2019
journal Issue 26 | October 2019 Communicating Astronomy with the Public Spotlighting a Black Hole What did it take to create the largest outreach campaign for an astronomical result? Tactile Subaru A project to make telescope technology accessible Naming ExoWorlds Update on the IAU100 NameExoWorlds campaign www.capjournal.org As part of the 100th anniversary commemorations, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is organising the IAU100 NameExoWorlds global competition to allow any country in the world to give a popular name to a selected exoplanet and its News News host star. The final results of the competion will be announced in Decmeber 2019. Credit: IAU/L. Calçada. Editorial Welcome to the 26th edition of the CAPjournal! To start off, the first part of 2019 brought in a radical new era in astronomy with the first ever image showing a shadow of a black hole. For CAPjournal #26, part of the team who collaborated on the promotion of this image hs written a piece to show what it took to produce one of the largest astronomy outreach campaigns to date. We also highlight two other large outreach campaigns in this edition. The first is a peer-reviewed article about the 2016 solar eclipse in Indonesia from the founder of the astronomy website lagiselatan, Avivah Yamani. Next, an update on NameExoWorlds, the largest IAU100 campaign, as we wait for the announcement of new names for the ExoWorlds in December. Additionally, this issue touches on opportunities for more inclusive astronomy. We bring you a peer-reviewed article about outreach for inclusion by Dr. Kumiko Usuda-Sato and the speech “Diversity Across Astronomy Can Further Our Research” delivered by award-winning astronomy communicator Dr.
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19800023803.Pdf
THE INTERNATIONAL HALLEY WATCH Report of the Science Working Group July 1980 1986 Apparition. Perihelion passage will occur on February 9, 1986, and attempts to recover the comet have already begun. Recovery is expected with some certain- ty no later than late 1983 and could be as early as late 1980. As of this writing, searches at the celestial position of Halley's Comet have established that it has n9t yet reached a brightness of 24.5m. No more I feel the potent spell of Jupiter or ?tars, Or know the magic peace that fell Upon me from the Stars, A f iercer flame - a Comet Love Consumes my spirit now; i cry to you still heavens above, "Oh! Halley's, where are thou?" Punch May 11, 1910 The International blley Watch Science Working Group ........ viii Smry and Conclusions ...................... ix I . Introduction ............................ 1 11 . Background ............................. 4 111 . Synopsis of Comet Properties and Physics .............. 14 IV. Scientific Rationale for Studying Comets .............. 17 V . Why Study Collret Halley? ...................... 18 VI. Scientific Objectives of Cometary Research in the 19809 ...... 27 VII. International Halley Watch Purpose and Organization ........ 28 VIII. Interaction of the IHW with Observing Groups ............ 31 A . Deep Space Observations .................... 31 B . Earth Orbital Observations ................... 31 C . Nonorbital Flight Techniques .................. 35 D . Earth-Based Observations .................... 37 IX. Ground-Based abserving Nets .................... 39 A . Large-Scale Phenomena ..................... 39 B. Near-Nucleus Studies ...................... 42 C . Spectroscopy .......................... 43 D . Photometry. Spectrophotomerry and Polarimetry ......... 46 E . Radio Science ......................... 49 F . Radiometry ........................... 51 G . Astrometry ........................... 53 References ................................ 55 Appendices A Ephemeris for Comet Halley ..................... 56 B Observing Conditions for Comet Halley ..............
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