Oct 2014 Newsletter
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Volume20, Issue 02 NWASNEWS October 2014 Newsletter for the Wiltshire, Swindon, Beckington OF COMETS AND PROBES Astronomical Societies and Salisbury Plain In the September meeting the Wiltshire As- ulated on their successful mission to Mars. tronomical Society held its AGM and report- Not many can claim that, and they did it on Wiltshire Society Page 2 ed steady account balance through the year a comparative shoe string budget. NASA Swindon Stargazers 3 with a reserve that means we will not be and the ISA are already in agreements upping fees for membership or attendance. about future combined missions. Beckington and SPOG 4 We elected a new vice chairperson, Keith NASA also inserted the Maven probe and Bruton, and agreed to elect Jon Gale and both will be at Mars ready to image the 19th Space Place 5 Tony Vale as observing coordinators. I October close pass by comet Siding Mira: Variable stars thank them all for standing, and wish them a Springs of the planet Mars. The closest fruitful period in the committee and hope we ‘miss’ to a planet we have witnessed. will all support them as the need arises. Comet Panstarrs is also still showing lots of Comets and Asteroids 6-7 One chap (ple) who has to do a lot of sort- promise as a 40,ooo year long period comet Nick Howes ing when things go wrong at the last minute but has ducked to the southern skies. What Square Kilometre Array 8-10 is our speaker secretary, Peter. He was let is the difference between a long period down last week by the listed speaker but comet and a short period comet? Well I has made alternative ‘A’ plans: have included some definitions within the Rosetta Mission landing 11-13 Due to circumstances outside our control full newsletter. The bottom line is a rough Gemma Lavender has dropped out of cut off of 200 years to orbit the Sun. This sends comets on their highly elliptical orbit Space News: Mars mis- 13-16 speaking to us (again). to outside Neptune for short period comets. sions and the 19th October So on Tuesday Nick Howes will be giving us comet/Mars close approach Long period comets are the more likely to a presentation on "The Greatest Scope on produce great comets, and many are only Earth" the Square Kilometre Array. Observing Logs 16-17 coming round for the first time in recorded I have included part of the Wikipedia article history. (Halley’s could be called the excep- on the SKA (as Nick will doubtlessly abbre- tion, passing close enough to Earth to be a What’s Up October 2014 18 viate it), in the newsletter. spectacular sight in its 79 year orbit of the There is also quite a large piece about com- Sun. Constellation of the Month 20-21 ets in various forms, with Rosetta announc- Our last observing session got clouded out Pegasus ing it has chosen the landing target on the as we arrived. It was bright at 6pm when we memorably named peanut shaped comet Comet Definitions 22 made the GO decision, and forecasts were Churyumov-Gerasimenko. fair, but got steadily worse through the Then there are the two missions arriving at evening. We used 4 different forecasters to Space Station Timings 23 Mars orbit in the last weeks, the Indian give the shout but were defeated. Here’s to MOM orbiter and imager that is showing the a better October, and we are due two mete- dust storms breweing surface wide across or showers. Future Observing Sessions 24 Mars at the moment. The first images are in Clear skies Andy and Indian Space Agency must be congrat- The North American neb- ula and the Pelican near bright Deneb in Cygnus. This is a picture taken using an 85mm lens on a 3/4 frame DSLR (Nikon D300), 2 minute expo- sure, tracked using Vixen Polaris mount. The dust regions looking into the Milky Way stars obliterate the light from many stars behind giving is the dark patches to the mid lower edge of this picture. Occasionally stars are born in the region and they light up the dust cloud around them to give this pink glow in the hy- drogen range. Andy Burns Page 2 Volume19, Issue4 Wiltshire Society Page Membership Changes in fees to be discussed. Could be lowered! Wiltshire Astronomical Society Meeting nights £1.00 for members £3 for none members Web site: www.wasnet.org.uk Wiltshire AS Contacts Meetings 2007/2008 Season. Andy Burns (Chairman, and Editor ) Tel: 01249 654541, NEW VENUE the Pavilion, Rusty Lane, Seend email: [email protected] Meet 7.30 for 8.00pm start Vice chair: Keith Bruton Beginners session for 15 minutes before each talk Bob Johnston (Treasurer) 2013/2014 Season Philip Proven (Hall coordinator) Peter Chappell (Speaker secretary) 7th October: Nick Howes, The Greatest Telescope on Earth Nick Howes (Technical Guru) 4th November: Dr Stuart Eves, The Future is out of this Observing Sessions coordinators: Jon Gale, Tony Vale World. Contact via the web site details. This is to protect individuals 2nd December: Andrew Lound, Apollo - A Moon Odyssey. from unsolicited mailings. 2015 6th January: Richard Fleet, Glows, Blows & Haloes. 3rd February: Dr Susanne Schwenzer, The Mars Science Laboratory Rover - Curiosity at Gale Crater. 3rd March: Dr Leigh Fletcher, Jupiter Revealed: Explor- Rusty Lane, Pavilion ing the Archetypal Giant Planet. 7th April: Dr Andrew Morse, Meteorites. 5th May: Dr Sarah Roberts, Dwarfs in the Backyard. 2nd June: Martin Griffiths, Exoplanets + AGM. Nick Howes Observing Sessions Nick will be The Wiltshire Astronomical care shown we may get the giving his Society’s observing sessions National Trust to do some- are open, and we welcome thing with them! World Space visitors from other societies October 24th next viewing Week talk at as well as members of the evening. Wiltshire As- public to join us. PLEASE see our proposed tronomical We will help you set up changes to the observing Society to- equipment (as often as you sessions, contacting and morrow night need this help), and let you other details. Back Page on the re- test anything we have to help markable you in your choice of future SKA Tele- astronomy purchases. Please treat the lights and scope. It's a return to full working order project he before leaving. With enough was proud to work on for over a year, redeveloping the entire (and vast!) website. Writing a book's worth of content, and gaining a vastly bigger grasp of the scale of this mam- moth telescope. The event is 8pm tomorrow night (*Tuesday 7th) at the Pavillion Hall in Seend, near De- vizes. Come along, and hopefully you'll see a unique talk, no powerpoint, just ... well....you'll see! ‘The Square Kilometre Array to me, from working on it, is the Apollo of this generation... in scale, ambition, size and the fact that the technology simply does not exist right now to make it happen... we'll need to wait and hope Moores law et al catch up.’… Page 3 Friday 19 Dec 2014 Swindon’s own astronomy group Programme: Christmas Social and Astro Bring & Buy Sale The club meets once a month at Liddington Hall, Church Road, Liddington, Swindon, SN4 0HB at 7pm Dates for 2015 Ad-hoc viewing sessions near Uffcott and National Friday 16 Jan 2015 Astronomy Week Programme: Ian Morison – The Story of Jodrell Bank Once again, we are looking forward to a new winter Friday 20 Feb 2015 season of stargazing, with plenty to see in the night sky. Regular stargazing evenings will be organised Simon Barnes - The Moon Landings - A Retrospec- near Swindon. To join these events please visit our tive website for further information. Friday 20 March 2015 We meet regularly at a lay-by just outside the village of AGM plus Jon Gale: Patterns in the Night Sky – Ex- Uffcott, near Wroughton. Directions are also shown on ploring and Observing Asterisms the website link below. Friday 17 April 2015 When we use East Kennett, we meet at the public car park just below The Red Lion pub at Avebury; we usu- Owen Brazell: Dark Nebula ally hang on for 10 minutes and then move on to our viewing spot at East Kennett. Information about our Friday 15 May 2015 evenings and viewing spots can be found here: Prof. Malcolm MacCallum - Cosmology http://www.swindonstargazers.com/noticeboard/ Friday 19 June 2015 noticeboard06.ht Ian Coster – Double Stars: Jewels of the Night Sky If you think you might be interested email the organiser Robin Wilkey (see website). With this you will then be Friday 18 Sept 2015 emailed regarding the event, whether it is going ahead Telescope Evening & Astro Bring & Buy Sale or whether it will be cancelled because of cloud etc. Friday 16 Oct 2015 We are a small keen group and I would ask you to Paul Roche: X-Ray Binaries note that you DO NOT have to own a telescope to take part, just turn up and have a great evening looking Friday 20 Nov 2015 through other people's scopes. We are out there to Programme: TBA share an interest and the hobby. There's nothing better than practical astronomy in the great cold British win- Friday 18 Dec 2015 ter! And hot drinks are often available, you can also Christmas Social plus a presentation bring your own. Enjoy astronomy at it's best! Website: Members of the Wiltshire Astronomical Society always http://www.swindonstargazers.co welcome! Chairman: Peter Struve Tel No: 01793 481547 Email: [email protected] Meetings for 2014 Address: 3 Monkton Close, Park South, Swindon, At Liddington Village Hall, Church Road, Lid- SN3 2EU dington, SN4 0HB – 7pm onwards Secretary: Dr Bob Gatten (PhD) The hall has easy access from Junction 15 of the M4, Tel Number: 07913 335475 a map and directions can be found on our website at: http://www.swindonstargazers.com/clubdiary/ Email: [email protected] directions01.ht Address: 17, Euclid Street, Swindon, SN1 2JW Friday 17 Oct 2014 Programme: Lillian Hobbs: “Wish You Were Here for Astronomers” Friday 21 Nov 2014 Programme: Bruce MacDonald: George Alcock – the back garden astronomer Page 4 BECKINGTON ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY SALISBURY PLAIN OBSERVING GROUP We also have a new website www.beckingtonas.org where September to December 2014 details of our programme and other useful information can be We will alert session updates via email and via our Twit- found.