 Star Struck - November 2009 The Shoalhaven Astronomers turned out twice in the October School holidays to assist National Parks with their Starry Night" activities but unfortunately were clouded out on both occasions. The events were not without their benefits however. Firstly it prompted most of us to clean our optics and service our equipment to put on a good show. The NPWS had to cancel on the first night as it rained throughout the afternoon but we still had a few "walk - ups" and looked at Jupiter and a few spectacular clusters. It also prompted Mr John Rowntree of Kangaroo Valley to make contact with us and offer to donate a top class telescope to the Society for use in our public displays (see photo). This is a very generous gift and the equipment will be put to good use educating new astronomers and especially children interested in the heavens above. John has also contributed some excellent books for the astronomers. Thank you to John from this generation of astronomers and the next! On the second occasion we had about fifteen children, parents and adults waiting hopefully alongside seven astronomers, five National Parks officers and four telescopes. The SA group put on a slide show about Australian astronomy, demonstrated how their telescopes worked and generally stood around talking optics (as we are wont to do). The National Parks people (Deirdre) gave an interesting talk on the aboriginal night sky, played a few astro games and had a few other activities for the kids. It was very exciting watching for a break in the clouds and the occasional star shining through but sadly no viewing was possible. We hope the next Starry Night" in January has more success and invite all to come along. Valley resident and Shoalhaven Astronomer Hugo Kallus and Juliah inspect our new Telescope! Meteor Shower! The highlight of our November viewing will be the Leonid meteor shower on the 18th. The shower this year occurs at the same time as the New Moon so the sky will be particularly dark. Predictions are that we will pass through a particularly dense part of the left behind trail of Comet Temple-Tuttle which first appeared in the year 1466. The meteors are minute particles of dust and ice that are swept up in our atmosphere as we rocket around the Sun. The movement through our atmosphere ionizes the gases as friction is built up. Most meteors are the size of a grain of sand, rice or smaller. Only the larger ones make it to the Earth and are then called meteorites. The zenith hourly rate could be as high as 500 per hour! The best time for viewing is after midnight on the 17th and through to dawn on 18th as the predicted peak is around 21:30 PM Universal Time (GMT). We are about nine hours ahead during daylight savings so the peak for us will actually occur just prior to dawn but the stream will be building up nicely during the wee hours. Observers in WA and across to India will be nicely positioned. Meteors are one of the best NAKED EYE astronomical activities. In fact there is no other way to view them! Put out a li-lo, have a blanket and pillow ready, set the alarm, make yourself a cup of something , rug up and enjoy. It can be a very spiritual and spectacular experience. Planets - Jupiter continues to dominate our night sky. The "bright star" nearly directly overhead is a great example of instant astronomy in a sky where things happen often on a million year time scale. The Great Red spot drifts across about every nine hours and the moons continually transit or are eclipsed by the planet. Tables predicting these occurrences are found in all astronomical magazines and Astronomy 2009. Our Sun is the other target for instant astronomy but always take great care when attempting to view. Projecting the Suns image is the safest way. I will write an instruction list next month for this activity and am planning a demonstration in the school holidays. We can see sunspots making stately progress and with special filters we can see prominences and flares at the limb. Everything happening on the Sun happened only eight minutes ago (the time it takes light to cover the 150,000,000klms between us). Remember you are welcome to contact me regarding any matters astronomical on gerardk@snoopashoal.com Clear Skies. |