Sky March 2012

EDITORIAL ................. 2 PARADOX OF THE MOON FACING THE SUN ................... 3 GREAT ASTRONOMERS AND PEOPLE OF SCIENCE ............... 4 FAS NEWSLETTERS ... 6 FIRST STEPS IN OBSERVING 7 STARGAZING LIVE/CLANDON PARK 10 watcher March 2012 MESSIER MARATHON– 2012 12 STARGAZING LIVE/NEWLANDS Sky CORNER .................... 18 CONSTELLATION OF THE MONTH - VIRGO 20 270) - Moonrise over Kugluktuk in Northern Canada Moonrise by over Northern Bates Canada in Glenn Kugluktuk and 450D (Canon a Tamron 18 Page 1 © copyright 2012 guildford astronomical society www.guildfordas.org From the Editor Welcome to another issue of Skywatcher. If there’s a theme to this issue, I guess it would have to be outreach—we have two reports of events that our members have helped out at, and the list of groups that would like us to come along and show young people around the sky shows no sign of diminishing. We’re obviously doing something right! Making telescopes is a particular interest of mine, and I’m also delighted to have Jonathon Slinns’s article on how he made his—especially as it started far, far away in Australia. Lastly, I’ve been asked to let you know that according to the T&Cs of our hire, food and drink should not be consumed within Lecture Theatre L, although they actually wouldn't mind bottled water. Drinks, etc, should be taken outside on the congregational areas on the same floor or in the hall on the ground floor. Peter Dean Editor [email protected] If you would like to contribute an article or other item to Skywatcher, I will be very pleased to include it. Articles can be any length and images are most welcome, so long as they are yours. You can send them via email to the address above. I’m always open to suggestions for ways of improving the magazine, so please feel free to send me any feedback to the same address. Alternatively, start a discussion on the Society Bulletin Board at http://forum.guildfordas.org/ The Zodiac They earned respect, those men of Babylon who drew their legends with imagined lines across the sky, imposing order on the scattered stars with arbitrary signs. In organising things that they had seen they left hypotheses to be improved. The task was hard. The zodiac has been turned inside out, the world itself has moved. Our knowledge of the universe has grown and objects previously out of range recorded, but research has always shown the logic of our system does not change. In sounding out the years from star to star we test the true extent of what we are. Geoffrey Wheatley Page 2 © copyright 2012 guildford astronomical society www.guildfordas.org Paradox of the Moon facing the Sun If you fancy a cosmic conundrum...Steve Batterson may have one for you Mark Egan of Houston Astronomical Society, last night, posted (on the HAS netslyder), that he had The image of the Moon, as seen in the sky, is just seen Jupiter in broad daylight, with the naked shown inset, and will be about 30° above the hori- eye, about 35 minutes before sunset. zon. Notice the angle of the terminator and the direction of the Sun which is below the Moon, 4° The Moon was nearby in the sky (about 5°) which above the horizon. The terminator appears to face would have helped him focus at infinity. Unfortu- upwards in the sky. nately, I missed this, but there is a further oppor- tunity tonight, Tuesday, 2012 January 03, around This visual paradox is commonly seen when the 15.30UT, about 37 minutes before sunset, from Moon and Sun are both above the horizon and has anywhere around Guildford. In the image, (I’ve often puzzled me. I now realise what the explana- used Ocean View in Stellarium to show a mean tion is. level horizon), the Sun will be due south-west at 15.27UT. Jupiter, at -2.4 visual magnitude, will Does anyone else know? be about 10° from the Moon, in the direction of the Sun. Page 3 © copyright 2012 guildford astronomical society www.guildfordas.org Great Astronomers and People of Science - Reverend William Whewell (1794-1866) Jonathon Shinn ponders the life of the now-forgotten Victorian polymath whose writings embraced everything from Gothic architecture to the tides. Together with John Herschel, Whewell bestrode the British scientific world like a colossus during his lifetime. In reading about great contribu- William Whewell was no exception, tors to the world of science, and by 1817, he was President of the particularly astronomy, I came Cambridge Union Society, by 1841 across Victorian Astronomer the he had become Master. He was pro- Reverend William Whewell. fessor of mineralogy from 1828 to 1832 and Knightbridge Professor of Whewell was a Victorian scien- Philosophy (then called ‘moral the- tist with a very wide ranging ology and casuistical divinity’) from interest in science. From archi- 1838 to 1855. tecture, mechanics, mineralogy, moral philosophy, astronomy, William Whewell was also co- political economy to the philos- founder and president of the British ophy of science he appears to Association for the Advancement of have had an influence on the Science, a fellow of the Royal Socie- ... shooting swallows, subject. He could also be considered ty and president of the Geological to be one of the founders of the mod- Society. bathing by half dozens, ern scientific approach to using in- sailing to Chesterton, ductive logic. dancing at country fairs, Whewell was born in Lancashire in 1794. His father was a carpenter, but playing billiards, William’s mathematical prowess at turning beakers into Lancaster and Heversham Grammar musical glasses, schools earned him a place at Trinity College Cambridge in 1812. In 1814 making rockets, he won a medal for poetry and be- riding out in bodies … came second wrangler. ‘Wrangler’ is a term at Cambridge for those stu- (Whewell describing his student days at dents who complete the study of Cambridge) mathematics with first-class hon- ours. ‘Second Wrangler’ indicates that he had the second highest score in his year. Recognition as a highly ranked ‘Wrangler’ opened many doors. At that time, many ‘wranglers’ would become Fellows at the University before moving onto One of Whewell’s greatest contribu- other professions in law, the Church tions was the number of terms that or medicine. University mathematics he gave to science. He suggested the professors in the United Kingdom terms ‘ion’, ‘anode’ and ‘cathode’ to and British Empire were often one of Michael Faraday and has also been the top three Wranglers. credited with the invention of the (Continued on page 5) Page 4 © copyright 2012 guildford astronomical society www.guildfordas.org (Continued from page 4) Britain, including the establishment term ‘scientist’, prior to his day of each port and the effects of the they had been known as ‘natural parallax and declination of the sun philosophers’ or ‘men of science’. and moon. He extended his research to cover short-term but sim- Among the most influential of the ultaneous observations along the works by Whewell was History of entire coast of Great Britain, and the Inductive Sciences from the eventually Europe and America. In Earliest to the Present Time (1837) July 1835, Whewell organized a which Darwin credited ‘great tide experiment’ where the with contributing to the tides were measured every fifteen scientific method he minutes for a fortnight at over 650 used in all of his work, tidal stations in nine countries, in- especially in The Origin cluding Great Britain, France, and of Species. the United States. He used these simultaneous measurements to Darwin quotes Whewell draw a map of ‘co-tidal lines’ to in the The Origin of Spe- determine the motion of the tide cies: "But with regard to wave as it progressed in the oceans. the material world, we can at least go so far as From his research, Whewell deter- this-we can perceive that mined the empirical laws for the events are brought about parallax and declination of the not by insulated interpo- moon and sun, and quite correctly sitions of Divine power, noted the importance of the diurnal exerted in each particu- inequality. He pioneered the repre- lar case, but by the es- sentation of data in graphical form. tablishment of general Airy, the Astronomer Royal laws." acknowledged Whewell’s contribu- tion to scientific analysis. He re- ceived the Royal Society’s Royal Whewell wrote the third Medal in 1838. treatise in the ‘Bridgewater Treaties, John Herschel wrote of Whewell, ‘Astronomy and Gen- ‘a more wonderful variety and eral Physics Consid- amount of knowledge in almost ered with Reference to Natural every department of human inquiry Theology’. The treatise were com- was perhaps never in the same in- missioned by an amateur but terval of time accumulated by any wealthy naturalist, the Earl of man.’ Bridgewater who commissioned and funded the works on his death- Whewell, a keen horseman was bed. thrown from his horse and died in 1866. Whewell’s research in physical astronomy covered ‘tidology.’ By gathering large numbers of observations from around the world, he developed an understanding of the laws of the tides. He analysed long- term observations to determine the tidal constants at the major ports in Page 5 © copyright 2012 guildford astronomical society www.guildfordas.org FAS Newsletters Although the March FAS newsletter may now be available, JohnAxtell gives you more details of the FAS newsletters, and why you’d want to read one Kelling Heath - David's previous FAS is the Federation of Astro- 16" dobsonian has now given way nomical Societies and GAS is of to a 24" beauty he made himself! course a long-standing member.

Load more