March Preparing for Your Stargazing Session
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Rosette Nebula and Monoceros Loop
Oshkosh Scholar Page 43 Studying Complex Star-Forming Fields: Rosette Nebula and Monoceros Loop Chris Hathaway and Anthony Kuchera, co-authors Dr. Nadia Kaltcheva, Physics and Astronomy, faculty adviser Christopher Hathaway obtained a B.S. in physics in 2007 and is currently pursuing his masters in physics education at UW Oshkosh. He collaborated with Dr. Nadia Kaltcheva on his senior research project and presented their findings at theAmerican Astronomical Society meeting (2008), the Celebration of Scholarship at UW Oshkosh (2009), and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in La Crosse, Wisconsin (2009). Anthony Kuchera graduated from UW Oshkosh in May 2008 with a B.S. in physics. He collaborated with Dr. Kaltcheva from fall 2006 through graduation. He presented his astronomy-related research at Posters in the Rotunda (2007 and 2008), the Wisconsin Space Conference (2007), the UW System Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2007 and 2008), and the American Astronomical Society’s 211th meeting (2008). In December 2009 he earned an M.S. in physics from Florida State University where he is currently working toward a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics. Dr. Nadia Kaltcheva is a professor of physics and astronomy. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria. She joined the UW Oshkosh Physics and Astronomy Department in 2001. Her research interests are in the field of stellar photometry and its application to the study of Galactic star-forming fields and the spiral structure of the Milky Way. Abstract An investigation that presents a new analysis of the structure of the Northern Monoceros field was recently completed at the Department of Physics andAstronomy at UW Oshkosh. -
Wildcard Innovations Argo Navis: So Just How Does It Stack up to the Sky Commander? Tom Trusock – 11/2004
Copyright © 2004 CloudyNights Telescope Reviews WildCard Innovations Argo Navis: So just how does it stack up to the Sky Commander? Tom Trusock – 11/2004 Reviewed: Argo Navis Ok – so I’m lazy. Features: • Digital Telescope Well – maybe that’s not quite true. There are Computer some nights I just don’t believe in excess work. • 2 serial interfaces I’m basically a visual observer, and while I do • Dual CPU’s enjoy the challenge of the hunt – I often just • 2 Meg Ram want to get to the target. Years ago, I settled on • Multitude of Catalogs DSC’s as my one of my preferred methods of finding DSO’s – especially faint fuzzies. If you are new to DSC (Digital Setting Circles) you might want to start off by reading “A Digital Setting Circles Primer”. I’ve owned at least a half dozen different units, among them units from JMI, Celestron, Sky Commander and now the newest kid on the block; the Argo Navis. Coming out of Australia, the Argo makes use of modern technology and components, utilizing not one, but two Motorola 5206e ColdFire 40mhz 32bit CPU’s (the same family of CPU’s used in the popular Palm series of Personal Digital Assistants) 2mb of re-programmable flash memory, 512kb of static Ram, WildCard Innovations Argo Navis and 8kb of non-volatile Ram. It’s powered from 4 AA batteries or an 8 to 16V external source. When used with external power, the Argo offers an LCD heater function to assist in keeping the display functional and dew off. -
Messier Objects
Messier Objects From the Stocker Astroscience Center at Florida International University Miami Florida The Messier Project Main contributors: • Daniel Puentes • Steven Revesz • Bobby Martinez Charles Messier • Gabriel Salazar • Riya Gandhi • Dr. James Webb – Director, Stocker Astroscience center • All images reduced and combined using MIRA image processing software. (Mirametrics) What are Messier Objects? • Messier objects are a list of astronomical sources compiled by Charles Messier, an 18th and early 19th century astronomer. He created a list of distracting objects to avoid while comet hunting. This list now contains over 110 objects, many of which are the most famous astronomical bodies known. The list contains planetary nebula, star clusters, and other galaxies. - Bobby Martinez The Telescope The telescope used to take these images is an Astronomical Consultants and Equipment (ACE) 24- inch (0.61-meter) Ritchey-Chretien reflecting telescope. It has a focal ratio of F6.2 and is supported on a structure independent of the building that houses it. It is equipped with a Finger Lakes 1kx1k CCD camera cooled to -30o C at the Cassegrain focus. It is equipped with dual filter wheels, the first containing UBVRI scientific filters and the second RGBL color filters. Messier 1 Found 6,500 light years away in the constellation of Taurus, the Crab Nebula (known as M1) is a supernova remnant. The original supernova that formed the crab nebula was observed by Chinese, Japanese and Arab astronomers in 1054 AD as an incredibly bright “Guest star” which was visible for over twenty-two months. The supernova that produced the Crab Nebula is thought to have been an evolved star roughly ten times more massive than the Sun. -
April 2020 Page 1 of 11
Pretoria Centre ASSA April 2020 Page 1 of 11 NEWSLETTER APRIL 2020 Dear member In the light of the current situation and based upon advice from a virologist at one of the leading pathology laboratories, we regret to have to cancel the March and April viewing evenings and meetings of the Pretoria Centre of ASSA. The situation will be reviewed in time for the May activities and members will be informed of any changes. This decision was not taken lightly, but we believe the health of our members is important and we would not like to be the reason one of our members should fall victim to the virus. We apologize for the inconvenience and trust the skies will be clear wherever you wish to spend time under the stars. Bosman Olivier Chairman TABLE OF CONTENTS Astronomy-related articles on the Internet 2 Astronomy basics: Galaxies 3 Feature of the month: Biggest explosion seen since the Big Bang 3 Astronomy-related images and video clips on the Internet 3 Astronomy basics: Galaxies 3 Observing: A different star cluster - by Magda Streicher 4 NOTICE BOARD 5 Pretoria Centre committee 5 Open Star Clusters with Superimposed Planetary Nebulae: 6 M46/NGC 2438 and NGC 2818/2818A Pretoria Centre ASSA April 2020 Page 2 of 11 Astronomy-related articles on the Internet Is bright Comet ATLAS disintegrating? https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-bright- comet-c-2019-y4-atlas?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=11f7198ca6- EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c64394 5d79-11f7198ca6-394671529 Meet the giant exoplanet where it rains iron. The temperatures on the day side of giant exoplanet WASP-76b are scorching, high enough for metals to be vapourized. -
Spatial and Kinematic Structure of Monoceros Star-Forming Region
MNRAS 476, 3160–3168 (2018) doi:10.1093/mnras/sty447 Advance Access publication 2018 February 22 Spatial and kinematic structure of Monoceros star-forming region M. T. Costado1‹ and E. J. Alfaro2 1Departamento de Didactica,´ Universidad de Cadiz,´ E-11519 Puerto Real, Cadiz,´ Spain. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/476/3/3160/4898067 by Universidad de Granada - Biblioteca user on 13 April 2020 2Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Andaluc´ıa, CSIC, Apdo 3004, E-18080 Granada, Spain Accepted 2018 February 9. Received 2018 February 8; in original form 2017 December 14 ABSTRACT The principal aim of this work is to study the velocity field in the Monoceros star-forming region using the radial velocity data available in the literature, as well as astrometric data from the Gaia first release. This region is a large star-forming complex formed by two associations named Monoceros OB1 and OB2. We have collected radial velocity data for more than 400 stars in the area of 8 × 12 deg2 and distance for more than 200 objects. We apply a clustering analysis in the subspace of the phase space formed by angular coordinates and radial velocity or distance data using the Spectrum of Kinematic Grouping methodology. We found four and three spatial groupings in radial velocity and distance variables, respectively, corresponding to the Local arm, the central clusters forming the associations and the Perseus arm, respectively. Key words: techniques: radial velocities – astronomical data bases: miscellaneous – parallaxes – stars: formation – stars: kinematics and dynamics – open clusters and associations: general. Hoogerwerf & De Bruijne 1999;Lee&Chen2005; Lombardi, 1 INTRODUCTION Alves & Lada 2011). -
Naming the Extrasolar Planets
Naming the extrasolar planets W. Lyra Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, K¨onigstuhl 17, 69177, Heidelberg, Germany [email protected] Abstract and OGLE-TR-182 b, which does not help educators convey the message that these planets are quite similar to Jupiter. Extrasolar planets are not named and are referred to only In stark contrast, the sentence“planet Apollo is a gas giant by their assigned scientific designation. The reason given like Jupiter” is heavily - yet invisibly - coated with Coper- by the IAU to not name the planets is that it is consid- nicanism. ered impractical as planets are expected to be common. I One reason given by the IAU for not considering naming advance some reasons as to why this logic is flawed, and sug- the extrasolar planets is that it is a task deemed impractical. gest names for the 403 extrasolar planet candidates known One source is quoted as having said “if planets are found to as of Oct 2009. The names follow a scheme of association occur very frequently in the Universe, a system of individual with the constellation that the host star pertains to, and names for planets might well rapidly be found equally im- therefore are mostly drawn from Roman-Greek mythology. practicable as it is for stars, as planet discoveries progress.” Other mythologies may also be used given that a suitable 1. This leads to a second argument. It is indeed impractical association is established. to name all stars. But some stars are named nonetheless. In fact, all other classes of astronomical bodies are named. -
Planetary Nebulae
Planetary Nebulae A planetary nebula is a kind of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from old red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer that originated in the 1780s with astronomer William Herschel because when viewed through his telescope, these objects appeared to him to resemble the rounded shapes of planets. Herschel's name for these objects was popularly adopted and has not been changed. They are a relatively short-lived phenomenon, lasting a few tens of thousands of years, compared to a typical stellar lifetime of several billion years. The mechanism for formation of most planetary nebulae is thought to be the following: at the end of the star's life, during the red giant phase, the outer layers of the star are expelled by strong stellar winds. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energizes the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright colored planetary nebula at several discrete visible wavelengths. Planetary nebulae may play a crucial role in the chemical evolution of the Milky Way, returning material to the interstellar medium from stars where elements, the products of nucleosynthesis (such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and neon), have been created. Planetary nebulae are also observed in more distant galaxies, yielding useful information about their chemical abundances. In recent years, Hubble Space Telescope images have revealed many planetary nebulae to have extremely complex and varied morphologies. -
Several Figures Have Been Removed from This Version See Complete Version At
Several figures have been removed from this version See complete version at http://www.astro.psu.edu/mystix Accepted for Astrophysical Journal Supplements, August 2013 Overview of the Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) Project Eric D. Feigelson∗1,2, Leisa K. Townsley1 , Patrick S. Broos 1, Heather A. Busk1 , Konstantin V. Getman1 , Robert King3, Michael A. Kuhn1 , Tim Naylor3 , Matthew Povich1,4 , Adrian Baddeley5,6 , Matthew Bate3, Remy Indebetouw7 , Kevin Luhman1,2 , Mark McCaughrean8 , 9 10 10 5 10 Julian Pittard , Ralph Pudritz , Alison Sills , Yong Song , James Wadsley ABSTRACT MYStIX (Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X- ray) seeks to characterize 20 OB-dominated young clusters and their environs at distances d ≤ 4 kpc using imaging detectors on the Chandra X-ray Obser- vatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, and the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope. The observational goals are to construct catalogs of star-forming complex stel- lar members with well-defined criteria, and maps of nebular gas (particularly of * [email protected] 1 Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, Uni- versity Park PA 16802 2 Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, Penn State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park PA 16802 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4SB, UK 4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State Polytechnic University, 3801 West Temple Ave, Pomona, CA 91768 5 Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics, CSIRO, Underwood Avenue, Floreat WA 6014, Australia 6 School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia 7 Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, P.O. -
How to Make $1000 with Your Telescope! – 4 Stargazers' Diary
Fort Worth Astronomical Society (Est. 1949) February 2010 : Astronomical League Member Club Calendar – 2 Opportunities & The Sky this Month – 3 How to Make $1000 with your Telescope! – 4 Astronaut Sally Ride to speak at UTA – 4 Aurgia the Charioteer – 5 Stargazers’ Diary – 6 Bode’s Galaxy by Steve Tuttle 1 February 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 Algol at Minima Last Qtr Moon Æ 5:48 am 11:07 pm Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for February: M35, M41, M46, M47, M50, M93, NGC 2244, NGC 2264, NGC 2301, NGC 2360 Top ten deep-sky objects for February: M35, M41, M46, M47, M50, M93, NGC 2261, NGC 2362, NGC 2392, NGC 2403 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Algol at Minima Morning sports a Moon at Apogee New Moon Æ super thin crescent (252,612 miles) 8:51 am 7:56 pm Moon 8:00 pm 3RF Star Party Make use of the New Moon Weekend for . better viewing at the Dark Sky Site See Notes Below New Moon New Moon Weekend Weekend 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Presidents Day 3RF Star Party Valentine’s Day FWAS Traveler’s Guide Meeting to the Planets UTA’s Maverick Clyde Tombaugh Ranger 8 returns Normal Room premiers on Speakers Series discovered Pluto photographs and NatGeo 7pm Sally Ride “Fat Tuesday” Ash Wednesday 80 years ago. impacts Moon. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Algol at Minima First Qtr Moon Moon at Perigee Å (222,345 miles) 6:42 pm 12:52 am 4 pm {Low in the NW) Algol at Minima Æ 9:43 pm Challenge binary star for month: 15 Lyncis (Lynx) Challenge deep-sky object for month: IC 443 (Gemini) Notable carbon star for month: BL Orionis (Orion) 28 Notes: Full Moon Look for a very thin waning crescent moon perched just above and slightly right of tiny Mercury on the morning of 10:38 pm Feb. -
FOR an ADVANCED Oaoi
.' ' ' > \ .\i I X-732-67-363 < I A COMPUTER, CONTROL SYSTEM I FOR AN ADVANCED OAOi ) I i I , 1 \ i J'OHN A. ,HRASTAR , P 1 (ACCESSION NUMBER) (THRU) I P > . -. c (PAGES) / + AUGUST 1967 - I . \ \ I, I \ / - k d - GO~DARD'SPACE FLIGHT CENTER ' GREENBELT, MARYLAND . .r A COMPUTER CONTROL SYSTEM FOR AN ADVANCED OAO John A. Hrastar August 1967 Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland A COMPUTER CONTROL SYSTEM FOR AN ADVANCED OAO John A. Hrastar SUMMARY The purpose of the study covered by this report was to determine the feasibility of using an on-board digital computer and strap-down inertial reference unit for attitude control of an advanced OAO space- craft. An integrated, three axis control law was assumed which had been previously proven stable in the large. The principal advantage of this type of control system is the ability to complete three axis reori- entations over large angles. This system, although apparently complex, has the effect of simplifying the overall system. This is because a re- orientation is a simple extension of a hold or point operation, i.e., mode switching may be simplified. The study indicates that a system of this type is feasible and offers many advantages over present systems. The time for a reorientation using this type of control is considerably shorter than the time required using more conventional methods. The computer and inertial reference unit usedinthe study had the characteristics of systems presently under development. Feasibility, therefore is within the present state of the art, requiring only continued development of these systems. -
Feb BACK BAY 2019
Feb BACK BAY 2019 The official newsletter of the Back Bay Amateur Astronomers CONTENTS COMING UP Gamma Burst 2 Feb 7 BBAA Meeting Eclipse Collage 3 7:30-9PM TCC, Virginia Beach NSN Article 6 Heart Nebula 7 Feb 8 Silent Sky Club meeting 10 10-11PM Little Theatre of VB Winter DSOs 11 Contact info 16 Feb 8 Cornwatch Photo by Chuck Jagow Canon 60Da, various exposures, iOptron mount with an Orion 80ED Calendar 17 dusk-dawn The best 9 out of 3465 images taken from about 10:00 PM on the 20th Cornland Park through 2:20 AM on the 21st. Unprocessed images (only cropped). Feb 14 Garden Stars 7-8:30PM LOOKING UP! a message from the president Norfolk Botanical Gardens This month’s most talked about astronomy event has to be the total lunar Feb 16 Saturday Sun-day eclipse. The BBAA participated by supporting the Watch Party at the 10AM-1PM Chesapeake Planetarium. Anyone in attendance will tell you it was COLD, but Elizabeth River Park manageable if you wore layers, utilized the planetarium where Dr. Robert Hitt seemed to have the thermostat set to 100 degrees, and drank copious amounts Feb 23 Skywatch of the hot coffee that Kent Blackwell brewed in the back office. 6PM-10PM The event had a huge following on Facebook but with the cold Northwest River Park temperatures, we weren’t sure how many would come out. By Kent’s estimate there were between 100–200 people in attendance. Many club members set up telescopes, as well as a few members of the public too. -
The MUSE View of the Planetary Nebula NGC 3132? Ana Monreal-Ibero1,2 and Jeremy R
A&A 634, A47 (2020) Astronomy https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936845 & © ESO 2020 Astrophysics The MUSE view of the planetary nebula NGC 3132? Ana Monreal-Ibero1,2 and Jeremy R. Walsh3,?? 1 Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain e-mail: [email protected] 2 Universidad de La Laguna, Dpto. Astrofísica, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 3 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany Received 4 October 2019 / Accepted 6 December 2019 ABSTRACT Aims. Two-dimensional spectroscopic data for the whole extent of the NGC 3132 planetary nebula have been obtained. We deliver a reduced data-cube and high-quality maps on a spaxel-by-spaxel basis for the many emission lines falling within the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectral coverage over a range in surface brightness >1000. Physical diagnostics derived from the emission line images, opening up a variety of scientific applications, are discussed. Methods. Data were obtained during MUSE commissioning on the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope and reduced with the standard ESO pipeline. Emission lines were fitted by Gaussian profiles. The dust extinction, electron densities, and temperatures of the ionised gas and abundances were determined using Python and PyNeb routines. 2 Results. The delivered datacube has a spatial size of 6300 12300, corresponding to 0:26 0:51 pc for the adopted distance, and ∼ × ∼ 1 × a contiguous wavelength coverage of 4750–9300 Å at a spectral sampling of 1.25 Å pix− . The nebula presents a complex reddening structure with high values (c(Hβ) 0:4) at the rim.