CONTENTS Volume 77 Nos 1 & 2 February 2018
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Volume 77 Nos 1 & 2 February 2018 Volume 77 Nos 1 & 2 February 2018 CONTENTS News Notes ................................................................................................................................. 1 SAAO observes the first optical counterpart of a Gravitational Wave source ................................ 1 Inauguration of 10 th Regional Office Coordinated by South Africa-based OAD .............................. 5 Prof. Donald Lynden-Bell CBE, FRS ............................................................................................... 7 Landmark First Group Visit to Completed MeerKAT ..................................................................... 9 HERA: Hydrogen Epoch of Re-ionization Array ........................................................................... 11 Colloquia and Seminars ............................................................................................................. 12 Sky Delights: King Cepheus ........................................................................................................ 17 In this issue: Optical Counterpart of Gravitational Wave Source European Office of OAD Obituary: Donald Lynden-Bell Hermanus Centre visit to MeerKAT and HERA Colloquia and Seminars Sky Delights: Cepheus EDITORIAL OARD Mr Case Rijsdijk (Editor, MNASSA ) The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) was formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the Cape Astronomical Association (founded 1912) and the Johannesburg Astronomical Association Mr Auke Slotegraaf (Editor, Sky Guide Africa South ) (founded 1918). It is a body consisting of both amateur and professional astronomers. Mr Christian Hettlage (Webmaster) Publications : The Society publishes its electronic journal, the Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Mr James Smith (Web Manager) Society of Southern Africa (MNASSA) bi-monthly as well as the annual Sky Guide Africa South. Membership : Membership of the Society is open to all. Potential members should consult the Prof M.W. Feast (Member, University of Cape Town) Society’s web page assa.saao.org.za for details. Joining is possible via one of the local Centres or as Prof B. Warner (Member, University of Cape Town) a Country Member. MNASSA Mr Case Rijsdijk (Editor, MNASSA ) Local Centres: Local Centres of the Society exist at Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Harare, Hermanus, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Sedgefield district (Garden Route Centre). Membership of PRODUCTION Dr Ian Glass (Assistant Editor) any of these Centres automatically confers membership of the Society. Mr Maciej Soltynski (Book Review Editor) Sky & Telescope: Members may subscribe to Sky & Telescope at a significant discount (proof of Mr Willie Koorts (Consultant) membership is required). Please contact the Membership Secretary for details. Internet contact details: email: [email protected] Home Page: http://assa.saao.ac.za EDITORIAL MNASSA, PO Box 9, Observatory 7935, South Africa ADDRESSES Email: [email protected] Council (2017 -2018 ) Case Rijsdijk [email protected] Web Manager: [email protected] President Dr Pierre de Villiers [email protected] Vice-President Prof Matie Hoffman [email protected] MNASSA Download Page: www.mnassa.org.za Vice-President Dr Pierre de Villiers [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS MNASSA is available for free download on the Internet Membership Secretary B. Olivier [email protected] ADVERTISING Advertisements may be plac ed in MNASSA at the Hon. Treasurer Adv A J Nel [email protected] following rates per insertion: full page R400, half page Hon. Secretary Lerika Cross [email protected] Scholarships Dr Claire Flanagan [email protected] R200, quarter page R100. Small advertisements R2 per Members C Stewart [email protected] word. Enquiries should be sent to the editor at Dr Ian Glass [email protected] [email protected] Centre Chairs Prof Matie Hoffman (Bloem) [email protected] CONTRIBUTIONS MNASSA mainly serves the Southern African Johan Smit (Pretoria) [email protected] Eddy Nijeboer (Cape) [email protected] astronomical community. Articles may be submitted P Dormehl (Durban) [email protected] by members of this community or by those with strong J Jooste (Johannesburg) [email protected] connections. Else they should deal with matters of Dr P de Villiers (Hermanus) [email protected] direct interest to the community . MNASSA is published S Devos (Natal Midlands) [email protected] C Rijsdijk (Gdn Route) [email protected] on the first day of every second month and articles are Section Directors due one month before the publication date. Shallow Sky Clyde Foster [email protected] RECOGNITION Articles from MNASSA appear in the NASA/ADS data Deep Sky A Slotegraaf [email protected] system. Double/Variable Stars Dave Blane [email protected] Photometry, Spectroscopy Percy Jacobs [email protected] Cosmology/Astrophysics Vacant Cover Photo: History Chris de Coning [email protected] Artist’s impression of a kilonova. See article on page 1 Dark Sky Vacant Astrophotography Allen Versveld [email protected] Instrumentation Chris Stewart Chris.stewart@alcatel -lucent.com Observing/Outreach K Coronaios [email protected] mnassa Vol 77 Nos 1 & 2 February 2018 News Notes SAAO observes the first optical counterpart of a Gravitational Wave source Following on from the major global announcement in October 2016 on the discovery of the first electromagnetic counterpart of a gravitational wave source, named GW170817, a new paper has just been published on observations undertaken at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), which are compared to the latest model predictions. On 16 October 2016 the SAAO, together with many other observatories world- wide, announced the important discovery of the first gravitational wave source counterpart [1]. The preliminary results from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and other telescopes at the SAAO were featured in a number of multi-institutional investigations utilizing a range of global facilities. This recent paper brings together various observations made at the SAAO to improve upon the original estimates of the luminosity of the remnant kilonova and compares the observations with recent models developed by a Japanese team. Lead author, Dr David Buckley, explained that SALT spectroscopic results were improved upon by taking simultaneous observations of the kilonova’s brightness at three different wavelengths using the MASTER-SAAO facility. The MASTER-SAAO is a southern hemisphere node of a global network of small robotic telescopes, operated from Russia, used to discover and observe “transient” events in the Universe. These include counterparts to gravitational wave sources and gamma ray bursts. The MASTER-SAAO observations were used to more accurately estimate the flux measurements made by SALT. These were then compared to recently published models. It was fortuitous that only a matter of a few months before the observations a preprint of a new paper on kilonova models was posted. Dr Buckley contacted the lead author, Professor Masaomi Tanaka of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), who kindly shared the detailed results in order for us to compare our results with these models, continued Buckley. Fig 1. Master-SAAO Robotic telescope. This allowed a direct comparison with the observations made in the optical with SALT and MASTER-SAAO and in the infrared with the Japanese Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF), also situated at the SAAO observatory site, near Sutherland. The results were very interesting, showing that the kilonova evolved rapidly, over a matter of days, from a very blue to a red object, pretty much as the models predicted. Buckley was quite struck by the matching of the observations to the predictions in the blue part of the spectrum, using just the known distance of the host galaxy. No other parameters needed tweaking. This initial blue component, which disappeared after about two days, was consistent with ultraviolet observations made at an earlier time by the Swift satellite. The SAAO observations, taken over a period of about nine days, showed broad agreement with the predictions of the new kilonova models. These show a rapid reddening of the spectra over timescales of 2 FEBRUARY 2018 days. The results confirmed the conclusions of other investigators that the OBJECT TYPE RA DEC MAG SIZE kilonova explosion, resulting from the rapid (less than a minute) merger of two neutron stars in orbit about each other, resulted in the ejection of a NGC 40 Planetary 00h13m.4 +72°31’.0 10.7 37” fast (5% to 10% the speed of light) outflow of material, which was Nebula observed at a high angle to the orbital plane of the neutron stars. NGC 188 Open 00h44m.5 +85°20’.0 8.1 13’ Cluster It was through good fortune that the SALT observations were able to be NGC 6939 Open 20h31m.4 +60°38’.3 7.8 7’ undertaken. The information on the position of the optical counterpart to Cluster GW170817, crucial for the SALT follow-up, was only received several hours NGC 6946 Galaxy 20h34m.8 +60°09’.0 8.8 12’x12’ before the telescope could observe, from the US and Australian co- Gyulbudaghian’s Reflection 20h45m.8 +67°58’.3 16+ 0.9’ authors. As Dr Petri Väisänen, also one of the papers co-authors and the Nebula Variable SALT astronomer observing that night commented, after a flurry of Nebula messages and emails that afternoon in Sutherland he finally got the NGC 7023 Reflection 21h00m.5 +68°10’.0 7.1 8’ coordinates in time to make the