ISSUE No. 12 February 2012

THE BOLTON ISSUE No. 12 ASTRONOMER February 2012

Next Meeting A BUMPER EDITION Attending a Star WITH SOME AMAZING Party IMAGES FROM BAS 7th February 2012 MEMBERS The monthly journal of the Bolton Astronomical Society

In this Issue

Setting up for Astro-imaging Image Processing Secrets 2 January Supernova Discoveries Part 5 by Ross Wilkinson David Ratledge DECONVOLUTION

22 Supernovae

Featured Constellation Images from BAS Members DRACO ARTICLES AND OBSERVATIONS ALWAYS NEEDED FOR THE BOLTON ASTRONOMER

Ross Wilkinson

February Objects of Interest Crossword Number 12 BAS Calendar Carl Stone Jupiter Mike Schaffel Jupiter

Have you spotted it yet?

Please send magazine articles & MEETINGS: Ladybridge Community Centre Beaumont Drive Bolton BL3 4RZ contributions to the Editor Non-members invited to drop in to meetings which are held every other Tuesday evening at 7.30 p.m. £2 charge per Len Adam. meeting or £20 annual membership. [email protected] Go to http:www.boltonastro.org/calendar to find the next meeting. There are plenty of parking spaces at the centre.

SETTING UP FOR ASTRO-IMAGING PART 5 ROSS WILKINSON IMAGES FROM BAS MEMBERS

DavidGerald Ratledge Bramall

David Ratledge

David Ratledge Gerald Bramall David Ratledge

Gerald Bramall Gerald Bramall

David Ratledge Carl Stone

M82

Len Adam 30s Exposure Just watched Stargazing Live on TV – the image of NGC 1365 from South Africa reminded me of the shape of galaxy NGC 2535 that I took the other night. It was good Carl Stone to see the clear skies at Jodrell Bank – it has been raining here in Spain since this morning!! Mars First attempt at taking Mars. Taken at 1.30 am in the morning. Worth the wait.

Dean Kos Carl Stone

M42 Orion Nebula

NOAA 19 Ross Taken using the Wilkinson Society RX1 system NOAA 19 was passing northbound over Europe 83 degrees East. The yellow cross is where the receiver Carl Stone is (Bury Manchester). The image confirms that Jupiter we get clear skies once in a while.

Dean Kos

Ross Wilkinson

Horsehead Nebula Len Adam Flame Nebula Len Adam Crab Nebula Len Adam

SUPERNOVA DISCOVERIES IN JANUARY 2012

2012A was imaged by David Ratledge on 13th January 2012

SN2012A in NGC 3239 13 Jan 2012 at 23:15 – 23: 35 UT RCOS 12.5 inch at f/9 + Apogee Alta U91 X 20 minute exposure with CLS Filter

SN2012A was also imaged by Len Adam on the same night as above but in the early hours of 14th Jan 2012 from Spain

Len Adam also imaged 2012B on 22nd January 2012 as shown below

SN2012B was discovered by Jack Newton and Tim Puckett on 8th January 2012. An image of SN2012E was taken by Len Adam on the same night as above

This supernova was also discovered by Jack Newton and Tim Puckett. (14th Jan 2012)

A potential candidate for a supernova was imaged by the automated Optical Transient detection system called MASTER. MASTER stands for “Mobile Astronomy System of Telescopic Robots” based in Russia. (http://observ.pereplet.ru/) The automatic system detected an “Optical Transient” and asked for independent confirmation of its existence. Guy Hurst at TA Mag issued an email urgent request for confirmation. Len Adam took the image below which showed the transient.

Guy forwarded this image to Moscow State University and eventually circulated this result.

“MASTER OPTICAL TRANSIENT 061730.02+3540.6

The discovery of this object at magnitude 14.5 on 2011 Dec 28 was reported on TA E-Circular 2791 and optical confirmation by Len Adam on 2012 Jan 4 at magnitude 17.13 was included on E-Circular 2793. Tomasella et. al., Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica report on The Astronomer's Telegram 3869 that a spectrum (range 360-810 nm; resolution 2.2 nm) was obtained on 2012 Jan 17.87 UT with the Ekar- Copernico 1.82-m. The spectrum show a blue continuum and a narrow Halpha emission at rest wavelength. The object is therefore not a supernova but most likely a cataclysmic variable. “ For a description of what a cataclysmic variable is see C14 + SBIG ST-9XE 30s this Wikipedia page. exposure Len Adam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_variable_star

Featured Constellation DRACO

The Constellation of Draco or “ Dragon” has a long straggly shape reminiscent of that creature. The constellation contains numerous objects of interest. Many deep sky objects are contained within its boundaries including NGC 6543 a planetary nebula described Cat’s Eye Nebula in Norton’s Star Atlas as a “ Bright oval disk resembling a star out of focus, with a central star of PK_64+15.1 mag. 9.6” better known as Caldwell 6 or the “Cat’s Eye Nebula” M57 Ring Nebula The constellation also includes the galaxy NGC 5866 or M102 otherwise called the “Spindle galaxy”

Use the free Stellarium Cat’s Eye Nebula Programme to research Draco objects – click on the M 56 NGC 6779 objects to see details .

M108Ring Nebula M57 M109

NGC 5866 30s exposure Len Adam Len Adam 30s exp Len Adam M56

C31 M109 M108 IC 410 Len Adam

NGC 5866 from the Hubble Space M13 (NGC 6205) Telescope (Courtesy of NASA) 60s exposure 13thLen May Adam 2010 30s exp Len Adam February Objects of Interest 2012 Venus and Uranus get close Len Adam

On February 9th 2012 Venus and Uranus get to within 15 minutes of arc of each other .

They are shown at 9 pm on the 9th February 2012. They will drop below the horizon less than 20 minutes later. A good time to try and find Uranus in COMET GARRADDyour telescope or binoculars 2009/P1 with its magnitude at 5.92.

M65 NGC 3628

M66 Len

Adam

Len Adam Len Adam

Len Adam th On 25 February 2012 the Moon is closeLen to VenusAdam – shown at 7pm . JupiterLen Adam is higher up the ecliptic between Cetus and Aries On 29th February 2012 at 7pm Mercury is in the position shown not far from Uranus with minor planet Vesta not too far away

The Moon, Saturn and Mars are shown at 6 am on the 11th February above. PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS ARE AVAILABLE IN PDF FORMAT IN THE MEMBERS AREA OF THE BAS WEBSITE

This includes the previous crossword so if you have not done that you may wish to print the previous issue and solve it before looking at the solution below

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD 11 BAS CROSSWORD 12 CROSSWORD CLUES

Moon Meetings Schedule February 2012 to August 2012

Meetings are held each month on Tuesday evenings, commencing at 7:30pm and concluding around 9pm. Our main meeting programme runs from September to May, and features a mixture of formal lectures and informal "Activity Nights" . Admission is free to members, and visitors are welcome at £2 per visit. Over the summer we also get together on the first Tuesdays of June, July and August.

The programme of our future meetings is shown below, but may occasionally be subject to late changes, so if you're travelling from some distance, please contact the BAS Committee by email to [email protected] to confirm before making your journey. There are 9 issues of the Society Newsletter per annum with a summer break in June , July and August The Newsletter is an online PDF that can be downloaded and printed if required.

Sierra Stars 0.61m Cass 180s exposure 02h 38m PST 30 Sep 2011 (10h 38m GMT) Len Adam