Tag Archives: Stars

ASTRONOMY EVENTS FOR AUGUST 2010

August 2, 2010 9:13 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

2010 August sky

August 1: A Waning Gibbous Moon stands 11 degrees N-NE of Jupiter after midnight.Mars and Saturn are nearly 2 degrees apart in West just after sunset.

August 3: Last Quarter Moon.

August 5: The Moon (32% illuminated) stands within 4 degrees from Pleiades (M45) in east before dawn.Venus-Saturn-Mars forms a perfect triangle in West at the time of dusk. The triangle will barely fit within standard 10x50 binoculars.

August 7: Mercury Greatest Eastern Elongation.

August 8: Venus and Saturn within 3 degrees apart after sunset in West.

August 10: New Moon.

August 12-13: The Perseids Meteor Shower will peak in a “moon-free” night!

August 13: Accumulation of a very thin Crescent Moon joining a beautiful trio of Venus, Saturn and Mars in the West after sunset.

Don’t miss to watch beautiful accumulation of a very thin Crescent Moon joining a beautiful trio of Venus, Saturn and Mars in the West after sunset.

August 14: A Waxing Crescent Moon is within 4 degrees from Spica at dusk in the West.

August 16: First Quarter Moon.

August 17: The Moon is within 5 degrees West of Antares at the time of dusk.

August 18: Venus and Mars are about 2 degrees apart and Venus' Greatest Eastern Elongation.

August 20: Neptune is at opposition, Mag. 7.8 in the constellation Capricornus.

August 24: Full Moon.

August 26: The Moon is around 8.5 degrees from Jupiter.

August 31: Venus is nearly 1 degree W-SW of Spica at 8:00pm in West.

THIS MONTH’S PLANET ROUND-UP

MERCURY: Mercury is very low in the West during this month. The inner-most planet will be at greatest elongation on 7th August.

VENUS: Venus will remain in group with Saturn and Mars through out the month. The brightest planet will provide beautiful show with Mars and Saturn in the Western evening sky after sunset. Venus is at greatest elongation on 18th August. Venus will pass very close from Saturn on 8th August and will pass very close from Mars on 19th. On August 31st, the planet will be just 1 degree from Spica.

SATURN & MARS: Both planets will remain in group with Venus throughout the month. On August 1st, both will be placed within 2 degrees from each other. On August 13th a Crescent Moon will join them.

NEPTUNE: The planet will enter the constellation Capricornus on 14th August. This month is a good time to observe Neptune as it is near opposition on August 20th. The planet will show an angular disc of 2.4” and will shine at magnitude 7.8th.

JUPITER & URANUS: Both planets are in Pisces. Both will be nearly 3 degrees from each other and will get closer and closer during month.

v s / AASTRO


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25 Random Things About…… The Milky Way

May 18, 2010 9:13 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

1. In Greek Mythology, the Milky Way was created by milk spilled when Hera, the wife (and sister!) of Zeus, was nursing Hercules.

2. Wherever you live in the world, and whatever the season, if you have dark sky you can step outside on a clear night and see the nearby spiral arms of the Milky Way.

3. The center of the Milky Way is in the direction of Sagittarius, which is low on the horizon for observers in the Northern Hemisphere. But near the equator, or in the Southern Hemisphere, the center of the Milky Way is almost directly overhead… a spectacular sight!

4. Most of us learned the Milky Way is a type of spiral galaxy.  But in the past few years, astronomers discovered our galaxy is not just a spiral, but a barred spiral galaxy of type SBbc.

5. The Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 ly.

6. And it’s about 1000 ly thick.

7. Our solar system lies close to the plane of the Milky Way, which means the Milky Way seems to split the night sky into two equal halves.

8. Aristotle believed the Milky Way was caused by burning stars in the upper atmosphere.  While he was a fine philosopher, many of Aristotle’s scientific conjectures were way off.

9. There are about 300 billion stars in our galaxy.

10. The Sun lies about 26,000 ly from the center of the Milky Way.

11. The Sun rotates once around the Milky Way every 220 million years.  Our solar system (and therefore the Earth) revolves about the galactic center at 220 km/s.  At this speed, our solar system travels in the direction of the star Vega at a rate of one light-year every 1400 years.

12. The oldest stars in the Milky Way lie near the centre of the galaxy and in a halo about the centre, which consists of globular clusters and lone ancient stars.

13. Along the spiral arms, away from the galactic center, interstellar clouds collapse under the force of gravity into tight fists of gas and dust that ignite into fresh new clusters of stars.

14. As you read this, the Milky Way is colliding with an obscure dwarf galaxy named the Virgo stellar stream.

15. At the center of the Milky Way lies a gigantic black hole with a mass of 4 million suns that is violently gobbling stars and matter and sending out highly energetic  X-rays.  But the Earth is in no danger of colliding with this black hole… so don’t worry.

16. Our solar system lies along the inner rim of the Orion Arm of our galaxy.  The next arm closer to the center is the Carina-Sagittarius arm, and the next arm farther away from the solar system is the Perseus arm.

17. The name for the Milky Way in China, Japan, and other East Asian cultures, is “Silver River” (a much more accurate name, don’t you think?).

18. The north and south Galactic poles, which point 90 degrees away from the dusty galactic plane, lie in the constellations Coma Berenices and Sculptor, respectively.  When you look in the sky towards the poles and away from the galactic plane, you can see into deep intergalactic space where lies millions more galaxies of all shapes and sizes.

19. Galileo was the first to discover the Milky Way is made of stars.

20. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy are the largest  in what’s known as the Local Group of galaxies.  In the Local Group, there are many tiny dwarf galaxies, the largest of which are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.  The Local Group of galaxies is itself part of a much larger cluster of galaxies called the Virgo Supercluster.

21. The Andromeda Galaxy approaches our Milky Way at 100 km/s, and the two giant galaxies will collide in roughly 2 billion years.  The stars in each galaxy won’t collide, but the two galaxies will merge into a featureless elliptical galaxy and lose their beautiful spiral shape and the dust and gas that form new stars.

22. From Thoreau, a beautiful quote to console you when you’re alone with your telescope, wondering if anyone will ever understand why you love the stars so much: “Why should I feel lonely: Is not our planet in the Milky Way?”

23. Most of the mass of the Milky Way is believed to consist of mysterious “dark matter”, the nature of which is still unknown.

24. The oldest star in the Milky Way, called HE 1523-0901 in Libra, is some 13.2 billion years old, almost as old as the universe itself.

25. Because of the effects of light pollution, most children in the world will never see the Milky Way.

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“Jyothishastra sandhya” @ Kollam

May 7, 2010 6:06 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

AASTRO Kollam district chapter had an astronomy outreach program "Jyothishastra sandhya"  at Swathanthrya Samara Vaayanashala,Nellimukku,Kuzhimathicadu on April 17th,2010.AASTRO resource persons Shri.Ajirajan Pillai and Shri.Sujith M Prasad took astronomy classes to students and public. More than 50 people turned up for the program which was associated with Kollam Library council.

Students and public actively took part in the interactive session and got a nice exposure to basics of astronomy.The program was appreciated by organisers and the media too.On the occasion of  Global Astronomy Month,AASTRO conducted vivid activities through out the state and Kollam district chapter will have more upcoming outreach programmes for students,teachers  and public on May this year.One can contact AASTRO Kollam District chapter coordinator for taking up or organising such activities. Contact Phone no : +91-9447104909

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Image-Stabilized Binoculars for Astronomy

April 21, 2010 8:35 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Imaged-stabilized (IS) binoculars give stunning low power views of the night sky without the dreaded “image shake” of standard binoculars. Based on technology developed for military surveillance and laser-based weaponry, IS binos are amazing high-tech wonders.

Inside the body of the binoculars, piezoelectric motion sensors detect the pitch and yaw motion caused by shaking, over-caffeinated arms. The sensors feed into a microprocessor that initiates image stabilization by controlling a vari-angle prism – a pair of glass plates joined by flexible bellows. The space between the plates is filled with a silicon-based oil to maximize image deflection to correct for the unwanted motion.

The motion sensors work in daylight or total darkness and operate at any orientation, so there are no restrictions on where the binoculars can be pointed… up, down, sideways, anywhere.
You switch on the IS feature by pressing a button.  When you do, the image doesn’t “freeze”, but rather wanders slowly enough for your eye to follow. If your arms shift a little, you’ll still see motion, but it’s much slower and steadier than without the IS feature.  The IS still works when you sweep across a field of view, although there is a slight hesitation.  It takes a few seconds for the IS to kick in, and perhaps 10-15 seconds for the IS to really get ahold of the motion of your slightly shaking arms.

One drawback regarding these binoculars are  these devices are battery hogs. You can burn through a pair of alkalines in 5 minutes on a cold night. With rechargeables, you might get 2 hours, or longer with warmer temperatures.  Of course, you can turn off the IS feature when you’re not using it.

Nikon, Canon, and Fujinon, among others, offer some type of image stabilization. Canon models seem to have the widest following among amateur astronomers.And about the price,A Canon 10 >< 30 set is priced 500 USD which is equal to roughly 22,ooo Indian Rupees.But  the more expensive binoculars give you a brighter view of the stars for sure.

v s/AASTRO

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