October 19, 2014 could be a big day for Mars, and the robots that currently roam about its surface. According to preliminary observations, a newly discovered comet named C/2013 A1 may be on a crash course for our red neighbor. I came across this report from Discovery News this morning and found it to be terribly interesting! Projections right now have the comet missing the Red Planet by a mere 63,000 miles (for comparison, that's about 1/4 the distance between Earth and the Moon). Imagine a comet flying between Earth and the Moon! Picture how brightly it would light up the sky! Amazing!
At this point, it's unknown how large the comet is. Comets are smaller than planets, typically between a few hundred meters and several miles in diameter, so if it does impact the planet it won't destroy it. However, the impact would be devastating and would spur on a global event the likes of which nobody alive has ever seen. If the comet is a few miles in diameter, it would produce a crater some 10-30 miles miles in diameter and probably kick up enough debris to completely enshroud the planet. We would get a first-hand look at the awesome power of nature, and perhaps a glimpse into the potential future for our own Earth.
At this point, measurements are too few (and the interaction too far in advance) to accurately determine whether there will be an impact or not. As more observations are made, the window through which the comet will pass will become smaller as its orbit is more precisely defined. Even if the comet misses Mars, it is still bound to be an exciting event - and with any luck, some of those roaming robots will get an opportunity to turn their cameras skyward and snap an image of the passing interloper from the outer solar system.
Speaking of exciting events, comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) continues to grow in brightness. Images from several sources, including Spaceweather.com, show the comets tail growing with time as viewers in the Southern Hemisphere are already able to see it with the naked eye.
Southern Hemisphere viewers actually have two comets: PANSTARRS and Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon). This video created by Alex Cherney shows both comets visible. Look for one comet (PANSTARRS) on the left side of the frame, and the other (Lemmon) near top-center, displaying a nice green hue:
Comets Lemmon and PanSTARRS sweeping through the Southern Skies from Alex Cherney on Vimeo.
Two comets - C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) and C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) can be seen moving through the Southern Sky in this short time lapse video.
By mid-March, we in the Northern Hemisphere should get a glimpse of PANSTARRS, so hopefully my posts in the near future will contain my own images of the sight. Happy viewing!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
SUNY Oneonta Astronomy, now on Facebook!
The SUNY Oneonta Astronomy program now has a presence on Facebook. This is a page where schedules can be found for upcoming events, status updates will be posted for public observing and planetarium shows, images will be posted taken at our observatory, articles will be posted of general astronomy interest, and more. Check us out and "Like" us here: www.facebook.com/SUNYOneontaAstronomy.
Our planetarium was down for repairs during the month of January, which unfortunately meant we had to cancel one of our public shows. This brought be great pain! However, it has been repaired after a marathon session working with the computers, meaning our February 27 show is still a go. For those of you who were unable to register for it before it sold out, keep up with our schedule as I will be posting dates for the late spring and summer months soon.
The weather up here has been terrible lately. I could probably count on one hand the number of clear nights I've seen since 2013 began, which means that my ASTR 271 (Stars and Galaxies) students haven't been up to the observatory at all. One student doing a research project with me has been up once to take images of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, but that has been it. It would be a travesty if we were unable to get up there as a class for lab - I know many of my students are eager to use the telescopes.
While we wait for the Comet PANSTARRS to make its appearance next month, in the news recently has been the upcoming near-miss of the asteroid 2012 DA14. This space rock is expected to approach within just 17,000 miles of Earth, meaning it will actually fly inside the orbits of some of our orbiting satellites. There is no danger, however. NASA scientists have said that this asteroid will miss us and never pose a threat. What it WILL provide is an excellent opportunity to study the object up close. As space engineers go about planning a manned landing of an asteroid in the next decade, being able to study these rocks up close should provide valuable information about their surface terrain, composition, rotation, and more. NASA has provided this diagram depicting the asteroid's trajectory as it flies by:
On this image's scale, the Moon is roughly as far away as the width of this blog entry (depending on the size of your monitor). For those on the night-time side of Earth, this asteroid will still require a telescope to view but it will be moving really fast. For those of us here in Oneonta, we'll be in daylight and won't be able to view it during its close approach. We'll see it as it is receding away from us by the time the Sun has set here.
For more information about the flyby, check out this article from Space.com. I'm willing to bet that the SLOOH Space Camera will be airing the flyby online in real-time too!
Our planetarium was down for repairs during the month of January, which unfortunately meant we had to cancel one of our public shows. This brought be great pain! However, it has been repaired after a marathon session working with the computers, meaning our February 27 show is still a go. For those of you who were unable to register for it before it sold out, keep up with our schedule as I will be posting dates for the late spring and summer months soon.
The weather up here has been terrible lately. I could probably count on one hand the number of clear nights I've seen since 2013 began, which means that my ASTR 271 (Stars and Galaxies) students haven't been up to the observatory at all. One student doing a research project with me has been up once to take images of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, but that has been it. It would be a travesty if we were unable to get up there as a class for lab - I know many of my students are eager to use the telescopes.
While we wait for the Comet PANSTARRS to make its appearance next month, in the news recently has been the upcoming near-miss of the asteroid 2012 DA14. This space rock is expected to approach within just 17,000 miles of Earth, meaning it will actually fly inside the orbits of some of our orbiting satellites. There is no danger, however. NASA scientists have said that this asteroid will miss us and never pose a threat. What it WILL provide is an excellent opportunity to study the object up close. As space engineers go about planning a manned landing of an asteroid in the next decade, being able to study these rocks up close should provide valuable information about their surface terrain, composition, rotation, and more. NASA has provided this diagram depicting the asteroid's trajectory as it flies by:
On this image's scale, the Moon is roughly as far away as the width of this blog entry (depending on the size of your monitor). For those on the night-time side of Earth, this asteroid will still require a telescope to view but it will be moving really fast. For those of us here in Oneonta, we'll be in daylight and won't be able to view it during its close approach. We'll see it as it is receding away from us by the time the Sun has set here.
For more information about the flyby, check out this article from Space.com. I'm willing to bet that the SLOOH Space Camera will be airing the flyby online in real-time too!
Friday, January 18, 2013
Comet #1 of 2013...coming soon!
There has been growing excitement in the amateur and professional astronomical communities lately as 2013 opens before us. This year holds the potential for two (TWO!) naked-eye comets. These two comets are called C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and C/2012 S1 (ISON). Since ISON won't be showing up for awhile, I'll discuss PANSTARRS in this post.
While ISON seems to be getting more of the media headlines, PANSTARRS is actually the one we will get to see first. Originating in a distant region of the solar system called the "Oort Cloud", this comet, like ISON, appears to be making what may be its first every inward sojourn into the inner solar system. This is exciting news for viewers, because this means its condition is pristine and any volatile materials on the surface have not yet been melted or sublimated away. As the comet heats up, potentially for the first time ever, all the ices that are frozen in place will gradually sublimate into space, releasing a tremendous amount of dust in the process. This material produces the fantastic tails that characterize comets. As a comet makes more and more trips through the inner solar system, it is believed that the surface should gradually become tarnished as the ice and loose dust is removed and firmer rock is left behind. Thus, a veteran comet isn't expected to produce much of a show...but a rookie should look fantastic!
There is always the possibility that because this comet hasn't been tested yet, it may be a dud. It could break up as it warms, leaving us with nothing but a debris trail. But let's not think about that.
Instead, here is a diagram from a recent Astronomy magazine I received, predicting the brightness of the comet ("apparent magnitude") and altitude in the sky. The first (yellow) track from January to March is the altitude from the southern hemisphere, while the second (white) track from March to May is the northern visibility. On the magnitude scale, smaller numbers mean that it's brighter.
For us northerners, we are waiting for March when it finally pops up above the horizon. By that point, it will have made its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) and should look quite bright in the night sky. From our friends in the south, we'll know whether it's living up to expectations or not.
Those of you who have never seen a naked-eye comet before (and that includes me), let's join together for some anticipation. We will look for it at the observatory in the spring at our public observing nights, so even as it fades in brightness in April we should still be able to see it easily in a telescope.
I can only imagine viewing a beautiful bright comet through our 1-meter telescope!
Comet PANSTARRS "baby picture", upon initial discovery.
While ISON seems to be getting more of the media headlines, PANSTARRS is actually the one we will get to see first. Originating in a distant region of the solar system called the "Oort Cloud", this comet, like ISON, appears to be making what may be its first every inward sojourn into the inner solar system. This is exciting news for viewers, because this means its condition is pristine and any volatile materials on the surface have not yet been melted or sublimated away. As the comet heats up, potentially for the first time ever, all the ices that are frozen in place will gradually sublimate into space, releasing a tremendous amount of dust in the process. This material produces the fantastic tails that characterize comets. As a comet makes more and more trips through the inner solar system, it is believed that the surface should gradually become tarnished as the ice and loose dust is removed and firmer rock is left behind. Thus, a veteran comet isn't expected to produce much of a show...but a rookie should look fantastic!
There is always the possibility that because this comet hasn't been tested yet, it may be a dud. It could break up as it warms, leaving us with nothing but a debris trail. But let's not think about that.
Instead, here is a diagram from a recent Astronomy magazine I received, predicting the brightness of the comet ("apparent magnitude") and altitude in the sky. The first (yellow) track from January to March is the altitude from the southern hemisphere, while the second (white) track from March to May is the northern visibility. On the magnitude scale, smaller numbers mean that it's brighter.
Visibility track for comet PANSTARS. Copyright: Astronomy magazine.
For us northerners, we are waiting for March when it finally pops up above the horizon. By that point, it will have made its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) and should look quite bright in the night sky. From our friends in the south, we'll know whether it's living up to expectations or not.
Those of you who have never seen a naked-eye comet before (and that includes me), let's join together for some anticipation. We will look for it at the observatory in the spring at our public observing nights, so even as it fades in brightness in April we should still be able to see it easily in a telescope.
I can only imagine viewing a beautiful bright comet through our 1-meter telescope!
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Do we really need all this automation?
As I peruse recent issues of Astronomy magazine I can't help but wonder if the newest technologically-advanced amateur telescopes are actually ruining stargazing. We live in a very fast-paced, instant-reward world where it's easy to expect, or even feel entitled, to get results without the work. The newest motorized telescopes are now coming equipped with built-in digital cameras that automatically take images of the night sky and compare them to their internal databases, allowing it to figure out where on Earth it's located without human input. This means that the user no longer needs to learn how to align their telescope because it will do it on its own.
I get that aligning the telescope can be a pain, particularly if it isn't computerized at all. Once the telescope auto-aligns, it then provides the user with access to a built-in catalog of thousands of night-sky objects that can be found with the click of a button. This means that the user no longer needs to know how to read a star map or locate objects by hand - the telescope finds them automatically and (provided that its auto-alignment went well) the user is rewarded.
Does this help the novice access the night sky? Yes. Does it make it faster to find an object when you're doing a public viewing or star party? Absolutely. But I also believe it acts as a crutch that is too easy to lean on to resist. You don't need to have a mental concept of the celestial sphere, or even be able to identify the location of Pegasus, anymore. Just turn it on, wait a minute, then type in your object. Is it even above the horizon? Who knows, but the computer will tell you! I'm predicting that the next-generation telescope will collimate itself, focus itself, and even have a built-in zoom eyepiece that magnifies and focuses on command. Maybe it'll even have a coffee-maker built in to keep you warm!
I'm a purist, I suppose. The only camera I want is for imaging my target, the only computer I need is one back inside for processing the data afterward. Instant gratification is providing us with the tools to never have to think again, never have to wait too long, and not know how to fix something if anything goes wrong. Grumble, grumble, grumble...oh but it sure is fancy and easy to use! Yes, part of me has great disdain for such a crutch, while another part of me still wants to use it so I don't have to do the darn alignment myself.
Okay, I'm climbing off my soap box, stashing my crotchetiness in my desk drawer, and getting back into the normal mode!
Jupiter is looking wonderful this month. As we approach opposition, the planet is visible all night long and is wonderfully big and bright. Once Taurus rises in the evening, Jupiter is easily spotted as the brightest object around (unless you're looking at the Moon). Keeping track of Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a good test of your optical equipment, and fortunately Sky & Telescope provides a great tool for identifying when it will be visible on a given day. Observing a jovian moon transit (Io passes in front of the king of planets just after midnight EST on the night of December 7/8) is also rewarding for the perspective it provides.
Imagine standing on the surface of Io and looking up at Jupiter dominating your sky! Or better yet, visit Jeff Bryant's website that contains his artistic renderings of this scene, and a multitude of others.
Last month at the public observing night I had the opportunity to view NGC 7009 (the "Saturn Nebula") through the 16-inch and it looked great. There is something very fulfilling about viewing a new object every month. If you have a moderate-sized telescope, give it a try. It's in Aquarius, though, so don't wait too long into the night.
For those of you who are curious...yes, I used the telescope's computer control paddle to find the nebula. I don't have all night ;-)
Happy viewing!
I get that aligning the telescope can be a pain, particularly if it isn't computerized at all. Once the telescope auto-aligns, it then provides the user with access to a built-in catalog of thousands of night-sky objects that can be found with the click of a button. This means that the user no longer needs to know how to read a star map or locate objects by hand - the telescope finds them automatically and (provided that its auto-alignment went well) the user is rewarded.
Does this help the novice access the night sky? Yes. Does it make it faster to find an object when you're doing a public viewing or star party? Absolutely. But I also believe it acts as a crutch that is too easy to lean on to resist. You don't need to have a mental concept of the celestial sphere, or even be able to identify the location of Pegasus, anymore. Just turn it on, wait a minute, then type in your object. Is it even above the horizon? Who knows, but the computer will tell you! I'm predicting that the next-generation telescope will collimate itself, focus itself, and even have a built-in zoom eyepiece that magnifies and focuses on command. Maybe it'll even have a coffee-maker built in to keep you warm!
I'm a purist, I suppose. The only camera I want is for imaging my target, the only computer I need is one back inside for processing the data afterward. Instant gratification is providing us with the tools to never have to think again, never have to wait too long, and not know how to fix something if anything goes wrong. Grumble, grumble, grumble...oh but it sure is fancy and easy to use! Yes, part of me has great disdain for such a crutch, while another part of me still wants to use it so I don't have to do the darn alignment myself.
Okay, I'm climbing off my soap box, stashing my crotchetiness in my desk drawer, and getting back into the normal mode!
Jupiter is looking wonderful this month. As we approach opposition, the planet is visible all night long and is wonderfully big and bright. Once Taurus rises in the evening, Jupiter is easily spotted as the brightest object around (unless you're looking at the Moon). Keeping track of Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a good test of your optical equipment, and fortunately Sky & Telescope provides a great tool for identifying when it will be visible on a given day. Observing a jovian moon transit (Io passes in front of the king of planets just after midnight EST on the night of December 7/8) is also rewarding for the perspective it provides.
Last month at the public observing night I had the opportunity to view NGC 7009 (the "Saturn Nebula") through the 16-inch and it looked great. There is something very fulfilling about viewing a new object every month. If you have a moderate-sized telescope, give it a try. It's in Aquarius, though, so don't wait too long into the night.
For those of you who are curious...yes, I used the telescope's computer control paddle to find the nebula. I don't have all night ;-)
Happy viewing!
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Oneonta Stargazer is now on Twitter!
If you're interested in keeping up with the observing conditions at the SUNY Oneonta Observatory, located at College Camp just north of campus, then you can follow us on Twitter:
Follow @OneontaStargaze
Yes, I know, this blog is called "Oneonta Stargazer" while the Twitter handle is "OneontaStargaze." It turns out, there is a character limit in the length of a Twitter handle and I figured it was easier to tell people "OneontaStargaze" rather than try for "OneontaStargazr" and explain that the last 'e' is missing. So, there it is.
Here I will post updates regarding the status of any public observing nights in real-time, and any other updates that are astronomy-related as well. Follow the Oneonta Stargazer on Twitter!
Follow @OneontaStargaze
Yes, I know, this blog is called "Oneonta Stargazer" while the Twitter handle is "OneontaStargaze." It turns out, there is a character limit in the length of a Twitter handle and I figured it was easier to tell people "OneontaStargaze" rather than try for "OneontaStargazr" and explain that the last 'e' is missing. So, there it is.
Here I will post updates regarding the status of any public observing nights in real-time, and any other updates that are astronomy-related as well. Follow the Oneonta Stargazer on Twitter!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Jovian transits
Jupiter has been on the rise earlier and earlier each evening lately. Look for it peeking above the eastern horizon after 8:00 p.m. (EDT) tonight - but don't confuse it for the reddish-orange star Aldebaran right next to it!
With binoculars or a telescope you can see the four Galilean moons, those moons observed by Galileo when he first turned a telescope toward the stars, as they continue their eternal march around the king of planets. While these moons all orbit along the same general plane, and this plane is mostly oriented along our line of sight, catching any one of these moons in the act of being anywhere but off to the side is challenging. However, on November 7th we get just such an opportunity as the volcanic moon Io ("eye-oh") can be seen transiting its host planet that evening. This event actually reoccurs on November 30, in case you miss it on the 7th. During these two transits, the shadow of Io appears first against the disk of Jupiter because we have not yet passed Jupiter in our orbit around the Sun:
The shadow being cast by Io extends straight back away from the Sun, but because we are viewing the alignment from an angle we see the shadow cross in front of Jupiter first, then Io appears soon after. The shadow makes its first appearance at 10:11 pm EST (NOTE: daylight savings time ends this weekend, so when you're viewing the transit you will be on standard time). Io the crosses against the jovian disk about a half hour later. In case it's cloudy that night, you can see the same event happen again on Nov 30, with the shadow's first appearance at 10:22 pm EST, with Io appearing only about 5 minutes later. This difference in appearance delays reflects the fact that our viewing angle is shrinking as Jupiter approaches opposition (actually, it's due to our movement, not Jupiter's). If the transit occurred exactly at opposition, both the shadow and Io would appear at the same time. Viewed from Earth with a modest telescope, Io will be very difficult to see - so look for the shadow instead.
If it's cloudy both nights, then check out this nice NASA image of a transit as viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope and pretend you're watching it happen live.
I for one will be hoping it is clear that night so I can watch it from the SUNY Oneonta observatory with my students, who will (hopefully) be enjoying an outdoor lab that night.
Happy viewing!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
One meteor shower after another
Wow! Suddenly a whole month has passed since my last post. How time flies once the college semester begins. I think I'm going to need to develop a reminder system so such a delay doesn't reoccur...
This fall has been remarkable for the number of clear nights - except on nights when celestial events are happening, of course. The Draconid meteor shower peaked over the weekend and according to those who observed it there was a fairly significant outburst during the peak, up to a rate of hundreds per hour. Here in Oneonta, it was cloudy. There was also a solar flare that produced northern lights visible as far south as Kansas, but here in Oneonta it was cloudy. Such is life. There is a prediction for moderate aurora activity on Oct. 14-15, when a coronal hole on the Sun rotates Earthward. Keep your eyes peeled!
So what's coming up that is worth checking out? Another meteor shower! The Orionid meteor shower peaks during the night of October 20/21. Like the Eta Aquariid meteor shower earlier this spring, the Orionis meteor shower also results from debris left behind by Halley's Comet. Its name comes from the fact that its radiant, the point from which the meteors appear to originate, lies in the constellation Orion.
The view looking east as Orion rises on the night of Oct. 20/21, seen at 11:30 p.m. EDT.
This meteor shower typically produces around 20 meteors per hour, though it can peak at 60 per hour on good years. During the few days leading up to the 20th and the few days afterward, occasional meteors can be seen as activity rises up to the peak and drops off afterward. Although the radiant is located in Orion, it's actually better to look roughly 90 degrees away from the radiant. This provides the best opportunity to see those meteors that give us a glancing blow, rather than the ones that travel more-or-less right at the viewer. I recommend facing east and looking up. It'll be cold out there, so bundle up! And while you're looking, check out Jupiter.
As a foreshadowing of things to come, next year looks great for comet viewing. Two new comets have recently been discovered that could shine bright enough to be seen with the naked eye! C/2012 S1 (ISON) and C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) will be two comets to keep up with as they rapidly close their distance between themselves and the Sun. It is thought that neither comet has made an approach to the Sun before, meaning there could be a lot of frozen ice and gas present to put on a show as it sublimates into space.
Happy viewing!
This fall has been remarkable for the number of clear nights - except on nights when celestial events are happening, of course. The Draconid meteor shower peaked over the weekend and according to those who observed it there was a fairly significant outburst during the peak, up to a rate of hundreds per hour. Here in Oneonta, it was cloudy. There was also a solar flare that produced northern lights visible as far south as Kansas, but here in Oneonta it was cloudy. Such is life. There is a prediction for moderate aurora activity on Oct. 14-15, when a coronal hole on the Sun rotates Earthward. Keep your eyes peeled!
So what's coming up that is worth checking out? Another meteor shower! The Orionid meteor shower peaks during the night of October 20/21. Like the Eta Aquariid meteor shower earlier this spring, the Orionis meteor shower also results from debris left behind by Halley's Comet. Its name comes from the fact that its radiant, the point from which the meteors appear to originate, lies in the constellation Orion.
This meteor shower typically produces around 20 meteors per hour, though it can peak at 60 per hour on good years. During the few days leading up to the 20th and the few days afterward, occasional meteors can be seen as activity rises up to the peak and drops off afterward. Although the radiant is located in Orion, it's actually better to look roughly 90 degrees away from the radiant. This provides the best opportunity to see those meteors that give us a glancing blow, rather than the ones that travel more-or-less right at the viewer. I recommend facing east and looking up. It'll be cold out there, so bundle up! And while you're looking, check out Jupiter.
As a foreshadowing of things to come, next year looks great for comet viewing. Two new comets have recently been discovered that could shine bright enough to be seen with the naked eye! C/2012 S1 (ISON) and C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) will be two comets to keep up with as they rapidly close their distance between themselves and the Sun. It is thought that neither comet has made an approach to the Sun before, meaning there could be a lot of frozen ice and gas present to put on a show as it sublimates into space.
Happy viewing!
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