Sep Temb Er 2010

Te Patiki – Palmerston North Astronomical Society Inc September 2010 September 2010 September Headliners The NEXT MEETING Spring on Titan brings will be at the Manawatu sunshine and patchy Observatory on Wednes- clouds day, September 29th, http://www.astronomy.com/asy/ at 8.00 p.m. default.aspx?c=a&id=10253 Jupiter’s Disappearing Belt Many of you who have http:// read Te Patiki over the www.oneminuteastronomer.com/2 010/09/09/jupiters-disappearing- years will no doubt realize belt/ that many of our members Possibility for White Dwarf specialize in deep-sky pho- Pulsars? http:// tography and are amongst www.universetoday.com/74300/ New Zealand’s leading white-dwarf-pulsars/ proponents of this field of In this issue: astronomy. The Big Wet before the Big Dry? There are however more The Planet Mercury has a strings to our bow than comet-like tail. astrophotography as you Google finds a new impact crater in Egypt will find out when you come along and listen to Weird water lurking inside giant planets our featured talk by one of our newer members, Awesome death spiral of a bizarre star Carl Knight, who now Above: Carl Knight with his pride and joy, a 12 lives on the rise just NW NASA to Send a Probe Into inch (30cm) Meade Cassegrain set up outside our the Sun of Bulls. observatory last year for an open night. Carl has Ancient Greeks spotted Hal- ley's comet since established himself at a dark sky site on the Carl will be speaking to us Mars moon may have rise north of Bulls heading towards Wanganui. formed like our own about his journey into, ―Variable Star Observ- The Beauty of a Barred Spi- ral ing.” The talk will cover curve – Visual, CCD meas- We hope to have another the HR Diagram and stellar The star photographers who urements and a visual frac- member’s talk about their captured the night sky evolution, types of variable tional estimation exercise. particular passion in as- stars and where they fit Earthquake Damages Some Organising your VS ob- tronomy soon. into the evolutionary pro- Canterbury Observatories serving – preparation and Ian Cooper. What’s The Use of Astrono- cess. UW Trianguli—an charts. Contact numbers my? international flap. A case Variable Star organisations. Most Massive Star Found (So study in international co- Variables to observe and President: Ian Cooper 329 7829 Far) operation. report on for next month. Secretary: Peter Wilde 358 4857 Light curves and what they Treasurer: George Ionas 358 7007 tell us. Getting the light Editor: Jeremy Moss 359 4498 Te Patiki – Palmerston North Astronomical Society Inc September 2010 THE BIG WET BEFORE THE BIG DRY? If you think that this rain we have been Palmerston North’s 10 most sunniest above list, but only just! This is not be- yond possibility with the advent of La having lately is a little over the top then years ranked. Niña starting during this spring. A La you aren’t mistaken! From the time of Niña phase of the S.O.I. (Southern Os- writing (and there is still 4.5 days left in cillation Index) is usually beneficial to September, this month is the 5th wet- Rank Year Sunshine Hours astronomers in the Manawatu region. test since records for Palmerston 1 1935 2013 North began in June 1928. There is still 2 1947 2003 On the following page I have included a a chance that this month may move up graph of the S.O.I. produced from Dar- the list, unfortunately. 3 1933 1982 win in the Northern Territory of Aus- tralia (originally called Palmerston by 4 1974 1972 the way). I have highlighted a number of 5 1950 1967 years that show up in the lists on this Below is a list of the wettest recorded page for interest and easier identifica- months for Palmerston North: 6 1948 1962 tion. 7 2003 1960 I started into active astronomy at the Rank Month/Year mm of rain 8 2008 1958 end of 1973. As can be seen from the 1 Feb 2004 303.4 9 2000 1951 graph this was the end of a deep El Ni- ño period. That spring was a typically 2 Jun 1947 265.1 10 1934 1948 nasty El Niño style spring, but fortu- 3 Jan 1953 247.2 nately there was an abrupt change to La Niña conditions in early January 4 Jul 1974 245.2 As far as sunshine is concerned 2010 is 1974 (the month I brought my first 5 Sep 2010 227.8 not a contender for the list above but telescope. Talk about timing Trev!) more likely it could be in the top 10 6 Oct 1935 224.9 cloudiest of years as measured by sun- As a rule of thumb my best years in 7 May 1948 224.1 shine totals. astronomy all feature above the line on the graph, i.e. they are during La Niña 8 Dec 1966 221.0 periods of the S.O.I. We are currently 9 Mar 1965 218.5 The 10 cloudiest years on record are; heading to a moderate to strong La Niña phase so don’t be surprised if the 10 Jun 1935 211.5 Rank Year Sunshine Hours weather patterns also change soon. Here is hoping any way. 1 1992 1341 Some more intersting facts that emerge 2 1980 1397 Some Background. from the meta data. 1935 features 3 1983 1432 twice on the list above so it is no sur- Why are "El-Niño" and prise that it is 2nd on the list for wet- 4 1979 1524 "La-Niña" so named? test years with a total of 1,351.9mm. 5 1942 1531 "El-Niño" is named after a Peruvian First on the list is also no surprise, 6 1991 1569 Christmas festival where the warming 2004 with 1,376mm. of the waters off Peru is said to occur 7 1953 1588 near the birthday of "The Boy" (El Ni- It is also intersting to note that no 8 1981 1608 ño), or the Christ child. Meteorologists years in the decades of the 1980’s thus named the phenomenon the "El- through the 1990’s (i.e. 1981-2000) had 9 1976 1628 Niño Southern Oscillation", or ENSO any months where the rainfall exceeded for short. The reverse phenomenon, 10 1929 1636 the cooling of the eastern Pacific wa- 200mm! ters, was at first called "Anti-El-Niño", It is very interesting to note that where until it was realised that this literally 2010 currently sits at 1,191 hours with 1935 really surprises is that it is top of meant the Anti-Christ ! To avoid this just on three months left. We would unfortunate connotation, it was re- our most sunniest of years too! need the next three months to average named "La-Niña" (or "The Girl"). around 150 hours each to avoid the Te Patiki – Palmerston North Astronomical Society Inc September 2010 Above: The La Niña years are the peaks above the zero line shown in blue, whilst the El Niño periods are the spikes below the line and shown in red The ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscilla- Yes it has been bad so far this year, but back at you. tion Index) is one of the main climate if we can get over this low of unfavour- drivers on the planet. Others include able conditions then we should all be the AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscil- raring to go when the conditions are Ian Cooper. lation) which has a 60 year cycle that better soon. There is not better sight strongly mirrors global climate varia- for sore eyes than to see another tired tion. astronomer with eyelids half open and a satisfied grin on their face beaming Ostensibly the coming La Niña period Below: Out here in the New Lake District (temporarily anyway) widespread surface is expected to bring wetter weather to flooding was the order of the day. These paddocks on Main Drain Road were typical. the east coast of mainly the North Is- land but also to the South Island as well. Anti cyclones, or ‘highs,’ are expected to lie to the centre or south of Cook Strait and therefore there is likely to be a predominance of winds from the eastern and southern quarters over central New Zealand. For west coasters on the L.N.I. (Lower North Island) and the South Island too this will mean drier, sunnier conditions (ergo, clearer night skies as well) should prevail based upon past experi- ence. Te Patiki – Palmerston North Astronomical Society Inc September 2010 The planet Mercury has a comet like tail Posted on September 22, 2010 by Anthony ROME and BOSTON – Scientists from meeting in Rome, Italy this week. Watts Boston University’s Center for Space Physics reported today that NASA sat- The STEREO mission has two space- http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/22/the- planet-mercury-has-a-comet-like-tail/#more- ellites designed to view the escaping craft, in orbits just inside and outside 25201 atmosphere of the Sun have also rec- the earth’s orbit around the Sun, and Via Eurekalert: Mercury found to orded evidence of gas escaping from thus increasingly ahead and behind the have comet-like appearance by the planet Mercury. The scientists re- earth (STEREO, or Solar TErrestrial satellites looking at sun ported these findings at the European RElations Observatory, is the third Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program). This configuration offers multi-directional views of the electrons and ions that make up the escaping solar wind.

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