Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
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ISSN 0024-8266 africa of southerna ssocietys the astronomicala APRIL 2013 of notesn mmonthly notes of the astronomical society of southern africa Vol 72 Nos 3 & 4 • SSellingelling StarnamesStarnames • FFireballireball ObservationsObservations 20112011 - 20122012 • • DDaytimeaytime BolideBolide ofof 1212 MarchMarch 20132013 • AfricanAfrican Star-LoreStar-Lore • • MMargaretargaret TThatcherhatcher ((19251925 – 22013)013) • BookBook ReviewReview • monthly notes of the astronomical society of southern africa editorial board Mr Case Rijsdijk (Editor, MNASSA) Mr Auke Slotegraaf (Editor, Sky Guide Africa South) Mr Chris� an He� lage (Webmaster) Prof MW Feast (Board Member, Univ. of Cape Town) Prof B Warner (Board Member, Univ. of Cape Town) mnassa Mr Case Rijsdijk (Editor, MNASSA) production Dr Ian Glass (Assistant Editor) Mr Maciej Soltynski (Book Review Editor) Mr Willie Koorts (Layout Editor). editorial address MNASSA, PO Box 9, Observatory, 7935, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] webpage: h� p://mnassa.saao.ac.za MNASSA Download Page: www.mnassa.org.za subscriptions From January 2011 MNASSA is available free of charge on the Internet. Paid subscrip� ons will no longer be available (see MNASSA, August 2010, p.113). advertising rates Adver� sements may be placed in MNASSA at the following rates per inser� on: full page R400; half page R200; quar- ter page R100; classifi ed R2.00 per word. Enquiries and copy should be sent to the editor at [email protected]. contributions MNASSA mainly serves the Southern African astronomical community, professional and amateur. Ar� cles and papers may be submi� ed by members of this community and by those with strong Southern African connec� ons, or else the papers should deal with ma� ers of direct interest to this community. Due dates for contribu� ons are: Vol 72 Nos 5 & 6 (Jun 2013 issue), 01 May 2013 Vol 72 Nos 7 & 8 (Aug 2013 issue), 01 Jul 2013 recognition Ar� cles in MNASSA appear in the NASA/ADS data system. Cover: The Southern Pinwheel One of the fi rst light images of the three new LCOGT 1-m telescopes was, very fi � ngly of M83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. This face-on spiral galaxy is located in the constella� on of Hydra, some 15 million light years away. Nicolas Louis de Lacaille discovered this object on 23 February 1752 from the Cape of Good Hope. Almost to the day, 261 years later, this galaxy was imaged around 23 February 2013, while commissoning the LCOGT telescopes. (See ar� cle on p.53.) mnassa Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa Vol 72 Nos 3 & 4 April 2013 Who owns the rights to names? In the past there has Can One Buy the Right to increasing – meaning that always been a problem Name a Planet? many more exoplanets with people “selling” stars In the light of recent will undoubtedly be – usually because there events, where the discovered in the months was no agreed central possibility of buying the and years to come. registry, which meant rights to name exoplanets that ul� mately more the has been adver� sed, Recently, an organisa� on one person became to the Interna� onal has invited the public to sole proprietor of a star. Astronomical Union (IAU) purchase both nomina� on Now with the discovery wishes to inform the proposals for exoplanets, of large numbers of extra- public that such schemes and rights to vote for solar planets, people are have no bearing on the the suggested names. In selling the rights to name offi cial naming process. return, the purchaser these planets. But the The IAU wholeheartedly receives a cer� fi cate ques� on remains as to welcomes the public’s commemora� ng the how you can sell, or name, interest to be involved in validity and credibility something you don’t recent discoveries, but of the nomina� on. Such own! The Interna� onal would like to strongly cer� fi cates are misleading, Astronomical Union, IAU, stress the importance of as these campaigns have has maintained that they having a unifi ed naming no bearing on the offi cial are the only recognized procedure. naming process. They will interna� onal body control not lead to an offi cially- the naming of Moons, More than 800 planets recognised exoplanet stars, planets etc. outside the Solar System name, despite the price have been found to paid or the number of The IAU released the date, with thousands votes accrued. following press release on more wai� ng to be 12 April 2013 in Paris in confi rmed. Detec� on Upon discovery, response to a recent name- methods in this fi eld exoplanets and other selling campaign: are steadily and quickly astronomical objects mnassa vol 72 nos 3 & 4 41 april 2013 editorial receive unambiguous their alterna� ve naming public contest, asking for and offi cial catalogue schemes cannot be people to submit names designa� ons. While adopted. for extrasolar planets. exoplanet names such as Sugges� ng a name cost 16 Cygni Bb or HD 41004 However, the IAU US$4.99; vo� ng cost 99 Ab may seem boring when greatly appreciates and cents. Most recently considering the names of wishes to acknowledge the naming of alpha planets in our own Solar the increasing interest Centauri B was focussed System, the vast number from the general public on and raised in excess of objects in our Universe, in being more closely of US$10 000, which galaxies, stars, and involved in the discovery according to Uwingu, planets to name just a and understanding of our will be donated to space few - means that a clear Universe. As a result in explora� on and educa� on and systema� c system for 2013 the IAU Commission projects, a� er expenses naming these objects is 53 Extrasolar Planets and have been deducted. vital. Any naming system other IAU members will be is a scien� fi c issue that consulted on the topic of But what happens if must also work across having popular names for more than one such diff erent languages exoplanets. The results company does the same and cultures in order to will be made public on the thing? Who will be the support collabora� ve IAU website. Meanwhile, fi nal arbiter to say which worldwide research and astronomers and the exoplanet has which avoid confusion. public are encouraged to name? And whilst public keep using the exis� ng par� cipa� on is to be To make this possible, the accepted nomenclature welcomed, should any IAU acts as a single arbiter - details of which can be fi nancial rewards accrue of the naming process, found on the Astronomy to any one organiza� on? and is advised and for the Public sec� on of A� er all, what cons� tutes supported by astronomers the IAU web page, under expenses? within diff erent fi elds. As Naming Astronomical an interna� onal scien� fi c Objects. The IAU should, as the organisa� on, it dissociates offi cially recognized body itself en� rely from the The un-named on ma� ers astronomical, commercial prac� ce of organiza� on men� oned administer this process, selling names of planets, above is probably Uwingu. and by all means invite stars or even “real estate” It is a space-educa� on public par� cipa� on, but on other planets or moons. company based in not for fi nancial gain for These prac� ces will not be Boulder, Colorado, who the IAU or loss to any recognised by the IAU and recently launched a individual. mnassa vol 72 nos 3 & 4 42 assa news MNASSA and the SAO/NASA Abstract Service IS Glass and WP Koorts A resource for all! searches. They can also trophysics Data System Some readers may be useful in cases where (ADS) is a Digital Library not know that prac� - a journal restricts access portal for researchers cally all the astronomi- to recently published in Astronomy and Phys- cal journal literature is material, as many do for ics, operated by the freely available to them commercial reasons. Smithsonian Astrophysi- using the SAO/NASA cal Observatory (SAO) Abstract service. This MNASSA and the SAO/ under a NASA grant. can be accessed at h� p: NASA Abstract Service The ADS maintains three //adsabs.harvard.edu/ For quite a few years, bibliographic databases abstract_service.html. MNASSA ar� cles were containing more than digi� zed by the SAO/ 10.1 million records: As- Items can be searched for NASA Abstract Service tronomy and Astrophys- under authors’ names or but in recent � mes this ics, Physics, and arXiv e- words that occur in � tles, has not been the case, prints. The main body of abstracts or full texts. although the � tles of data in the ADS consists The result of the search ar� cles have con� nued of bibliographic records, gives full bibliographic to be listed by them. which are searchable references and abstracts. However, par� cularly through highly customiz- In most cases it is pos- since MNASSA became able query forms, and full- sible to download the all-digital, there has text scans of much of the full text of an ar� cle in been a gap in coverage. astronomical literature pdf form. It is also pos- Consequently, in order which can be browsed or sible to see what other to make sure our ar� cles searched via our full-text papers have referred to reach the maximum pos- search interface. Inte- the item being looked sible readership, we have grated in its databases, at. This reveals who else since provided SAO/ADS the ADS provides access may be working in the with lis� ngs that include and pointers to a wealth same fi eld.