Astroblog

The evening sky facing east in Australia on March 18 at 7:45 pm AEDST (6:45 pm AEST) showing Venus and the crescent Moon.

The March edition of Southern Skywatch is now up. There's observing Saturn during its opposition. Lots of Moon action, with a once every 25 years second "Blue" Moon, Mars close to the Moon, Saturn close to the Moon and Venus close to the Moon. As well, there is observing Vesta .

Labels: southern skywatch

This blob is Mars. It's a blob because we are having lovely warm weather here in Adelaide (no point in clicking to embiggen, it doesn't get any better).

You would think that warm weather would be ideal for astronomy, as you don't have to dress up in multiple layers like the Michelin Man or run the risk of losing favourite extremities to frost bite. On the other hand, the warm air and ground means atmospheric turbulence, and to an astronomer, the atmosphere is the enemy.

Warm air rises from the warm ground, cooler air percolates down, and all this happens chaotically, rather than smoothly. These bubbles of warm and cold air act as lenses magnifying or reducing the image of the Moon or planet, unfortunately, they do it chaotically, and ever changeingly, so the image of the planet (and its focus) jiggles around like a diseased chicken (see the video of the Moon down below to see what I mean). Now, there are ways to get around this, using a video-type camera taking tens of frames in one exposure, you can use a program like registax to sift through the frames, eliminate the real stinkers and average out the rest to give an acceptable image.

But when things are really bad nothing will help. The bubbles twinkle faster than the shutter speed of your video camera (in my case a Phillips ToUCam web cam) and the image is hopelessly blurred beyond all the help of fast Fourier transforms or wavelet analysis. It is then that sketching comes in handy, your eye has better time resolution than any web cam, and you can catch the fleeting moments when the planet is in focus and set them down.

Mars changes in size over the month (click to embiggen).

Where in the sky the planet is matters as well. From Adelaide, Mars is barely 30 degrees (5 handspans) above the horizon. Mars is still close to all the murk that hangs around close to the horizon. And because of line of sight effects, the light from Mars has to travel through a whole lot more atmosphere (with a whole lot more chance to get bumped and bubbled around. That's why winter oppositions when the ecliptic is high in the sky and the air is cold and still, is the best for observing planets.



Twinkle, twinkle little star? It looks great in the sky, but if the stars near the planet you want to observe are twinkling furiously, forget getting the telescope out, the planet will be jiggling like demented jelly in your eyepieces.

Labels: Mars, Observational Astronomy

My Brother has sent me a link which people may find interesting and helpful. CreatioNova is a website that allows you to find out what is visible in the night sky. It is customisable for location, time of observation, limiting magnitude and objects you want to see, and returns Sunrise/Sunset, Moonrise/Moonset, planets, deep-sky objects and constellations. Deep-sky objects and Constellations come with links to explanatory information as hot links. Locations are all in right accession/declination and azimuth/altitude, so you need to have an idea of what these are, or a good skymap on hand. Give it a go.

Labels: Observational Astronomy

The northern sky about 1 hour after sunset in Australia. Rigel and Betelgeuse outline the constellation Orion (click to embiggen).

Five years already? It seems like only yesterday the Globe at Night started surveying light pollution around the world. Well, it's on again, from 3 March to 16 March the world wide survey opens. Everyone can be involved, hopefully students and teachers too. Basically, an hour after sunset head out, look to the west to find Orion, then check how many stars are visible, and report your observations. It's a great excuse to get outdoors and look at the sky, see bright red Mars and take out the binoculars to look for Vesta. You might even see the International Space Station or an Iridium flare.

There is a pod-cast and a powerpoint presentation that explains about light pollution and how to do the sky survey, and special activities for kids. So go on, get out and have a go!

Labels: light pollution

The news is abuzz with the report of the Science and Technology Select Committee, Evidence Check 2: Homoeopathy (read it here). Isn't it amazing, decades of scientific and clinical research showing homoeopathy doesn't work fail to hit the headlines, but let a parliamentary committee even hint that maybe, just maybe as homoeopathy doesn't work the government should pay for it and the story is all over the airwaves. The non-controversial finding that homeopathy is a fancy kind of placebo even made in onto the ABC news.

Naturally, a spokesperson for the homoepaths was a little annoyed; "they dismissed all kinds of evidence" she said. No, that's wrong. They looked at all forms of evidence, put put more weight on strong evidence rather than weak evidence. But this is typical of homoeopaths ability to ignore evidence they don't like. I'll use an example from the evidence presented to the committee itself.

The report is humongous, and I have not read the main submissions in depth, but one thing caught my eye.

testimony of a homoeopath

Mr Wilson: Arnica, which is for bruising, and is
extremely useful in post-operative care. There was a
major trial done on arnica and, indeed, there is one
that has just been published, the Witt Trial, which
was done by the Charite´ Hospital in Berlin. It was a
large trial—3,700 patients involved—and that has
shown clearly that there is a strong benefit in
homeopathic use to these patients with long-term
chronic conditions. One of the subjects of that trial
was arnica."

Okay... Now, the actual trial is here. Complement Ther Med. 2006 Dec;14(4):237-46. Epub 2006 Oct 13. Homeopathic arnica therapy in patients receiving knee surgery: results of three randomised double-blind trials. They investigated the effectiveness of homeopathic Arnica montana on postoperative swelling and pain after arthroscopy (ART), artificial knee joint implantation (AKJ), and cruciate ligament reconstruction (CLR).

Here is the actual description

From November 1996 to December 1997, a total of 343 patients were included in the three trials: 237 in ART, 35 in AKJ, and 71 in CLR

Note the patient numbers, not 3,700 (and the final results were with fewer subjects 57 in CLR 30 test, 27 control). There were numerous tests, and no evidence of correction for multiple statistical analysis (which means the statistics are very likely to give false positives). In only one operation (the cruciate ligament CLR one) was there any indication of a benefit. This should be a red flag, if Arnica is doing something, it should work on all of these operations (and certainly be picked up in the trial with the largest number of patients), this fact screams "false positive".

The benefit in CLR, far from strong, was a marginal reduction in knee
diameter, but not pain, fluid exudate and number of punctures. The only value
they got marginally significant was neither their primary endpoint (relative knee diameter reduction) or their secondary endpoint (absolute knee diameter reduction), but a value obtained by doing an interesting data manipulation which I can't reproduce (ratio of mean difference and pooled pretreatment SD's, in theory not bad, I can't get their values, but its not clear what actual
values they were using). Worse, this effect was significant only for day 1 after surgery, by day 2 (when knee diameters were still increasing), the effect went away. Again, this is consistent with "false positive".

So, all in all NOT a strong benefit shown as claimed by the pro-homoeopathy person. A marginal result in a small trial where the result could easily be due to chance (and has all the red falgs indication it was just a chance result). Hmm, homoeopathy still wildly exaggerating after all these years. Sorry folks, it's not the parliamentary committee ignoring evidence, it's the homoeopaths.

See also Orac and Ben Goldacre for more info.

Labels: scepticism, Science Blogging

Hello out there and welcome to issue #142 of the Carnival of Space! The Carnival of Space has returned to the Southern Hemisphere again, and boy do we have some goodies for you, even if you have to read them counter clockwise. To start the ball rolling, Cumbrian Sky reflects on what amazing times we live in. On a similar theme, Steve of Steve's Astro corner is torn between his love of adventure and love of gizmos when it comes to space exploration.


Earth and Atmosphere:

Dynamics of Cats presents a dramatic video of the Solar Dynamics Observer launch destroying a Sundog. The Noisy Astronomer talks more about the Solar Dynamic Observer and Space Weather. On a more down-to-earth note, WeirdWarp talks about plate tectonics.

Spaceflight:

A Babe in the Universe reports that NASA administrator Charlie Bolden reassured anxious Johnson Space Center employees that human spaceflight is far from over. Ironically, at this time CollectSpace reports that NASA has announced the winning patch design in end-of-shuttle contest. On the theme of the shuttle, The Universe Today presents a gallery of images from the STS-130 mission: Scenes from Space; the best images from the first part of the STS-130 mission.

If we are going to remain in the space race, we need better space drives. The Next Big Future looks at propellantless space drives using the Mach Effect. Centauri Dreams sends ''Pushing Up Against Lightspeed", where near C speeds make interstellar hydrogen lethal and time dilation rules. Discovery news looks at this and other problems, and possible solutions, to making a working warp drive. Cheap Astronomy investigates the possibility of becoming a black hole at high speed.

After all the exciting theorizing, 21st Century waves asks "Can the Private Sector Take Us into Space?"

Around the Solar System:

I've been blogging about the view of the sky from other worlds a lot lately. This week I ask what would the current opposition of Vesta look like from Mars, and how bright would Vesta get? The Lounge of the Lab Lemming has a different take on asteroids (good for a chuckle). Alices Astroinfo has two entries this week. The first is "How long does it take to communicate with Mars?" and ponders what an interplanetary internet looks like. "Why is Rust Red?" is a nice piece of chemistry geekiness that I, a chemistry geek, can get right into. Also relevanyt to the colour of Mars.

Gishbar sends in animated simulation of four flybys of Io planned for the Jupiter Europa
Orbiter, a mission currently aiming for a 2020 launch and a 2025
arrival at Jupiter.

Deep Space:

Lots of galaxy action this week. Chandra's Blog has a magnificent composite picture of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), in X-ray, visible, and infrared light. StarryCritters explores the new Hubble, Spitzer, and GALEX image of interacting galaxies that make up Hickson Compact Group 31. Will Gater has 10 incredible infrared space images from the WISE spacecraft featuring planets, nebula and Galaxies as you have never seen them before.

Speaking of galaxies, the Space Writer finds that things aren't like they used to be, when we look at galaxies in the early Universe. While not quite as deep sky as the early galaxies, AARTScope blog goes deep while imaging the Eye of the Seagull nebula, with a stunning 12.9 hour exposure. Meanwhile, StarStryder tries to get to grips with Einsteins concept of gravity.

Well, that's the carnival for this week! If I've managed to miss you out, or messed something up, drop me a line and I will add you/fix it/stare embarrassedly at my shoes.

Umm, and why the pokemon? When Fraser asked me to do this he said "I choose you", instant theme.

Labels: carnival of space

The Full Moon is Monday March 1. Mars has faded and is now the second brightest object after Sirius in the late evening sky. Asteroid Vesta is still bright. In the morning, Saturn is easily seen above the northern horizon near the bight stars Regulus and Spica and is close to the Moon on Tuesday March 2. Mercury is near bright stars in Capricorn. Venus appears low in the twilight.

Morning sky looking east showing Mercury at 6:15 am local daylight saving time (5:15 am non-daylight saving) on Friday February 26. Click to embiggen.

The Full Moon is Monday March 1.

Saturn is visible high in the northern morning sky as the bright yellow object between the bright stars Regulus and Spica. Saturn is near the Moon on Tuesday March 2. Saturn is actually rising around 9 pm daylight saving time, and is easily seen in the east in the late evening sky. However, Saturn is still best seen in the morning and well worth a look in a telescope. Saturns' rings are opening, and look quite beautiful.

Mercury is lowering in the morning twilight, and is becoming difficult to see without a flat, level horizon. At the beginning of the week Mercury is extremely close to the bright star delta Capricornii. After this encounter Mercury is rapidly lost in the twilight.

Bright white Venus continues to rise above from the twilight glow. People with flat, level horizons and good eyesight can see Venus above the western horizon half an hour after Sunset.

Jupiter is lost to view in the evening twilight.

The asteroid Vesta is visible in binoculars not far from Regulus. It is within a binocular field of Gamma Leonis (see Mars diagram below, this PDF map and this description of the opposition of Vesta). Vesta is still bright this week and and will be visible to the unaided eye under dark skies. Over the week you can see Vesta draw further away from gamma Leonis.

Northern horizon showing Mars and the Moon at 10:00 pm local daylight saving time (9:00 pm non-daylight saving) on Friday February 26, click to embiggen.

In the evening Mars can be seen low in the north-eastern sky as the brightest (and clearly red) object in the sky. Mars was at opposition on January 30, but now is still a good time to look at our sister world in a telescope. Shortly after 10:00 pm local daylight saving time (9:00 pm non-daylight saving time) Mars is at is highest in the sky, this is the best time to look at Mars in a telescope. Mars is a distinct nearly full disk in a small telescope, although somewhat small. Larger telescopes will be needed to distinguish surface features. Red Mars is in the constellation of Cancer, nearly halfway between Pollux and the Beehive Cluster. Mars is at a standstill for this week.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm ADST, Western sky at 10 pm ADST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch. Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

I missed this back in December, but the Cosmopoetry group has a special series of poems (and images) dedicated to the International Year of Astronomy. Pop on over and have a read.

Labels: International Year of Astronomy, Poetry

Spleen Guy Chapter 2 Page 5, click to embiggen

Spleen Guy Rides again! This is the second chapter of MiddleOnes Web comic, it's the story of a spleen. This is the fifth page.

It should be read right to left Manga style, except when it's left to right (like this starting page) or out of sequence. The right side bar is usually the last panel (anyone who has read "Fruits Basket" will recognise the style). Spelling and punctuation mostly as in original.

RANDOM GUY: He had nothing to do with the burger
SPLEEN GUY: Too Bad I'm going home.
DEVIL: Cookies!
ANGEL: Better Cookies
STOMACH: You may want to get a book.
HEART GUY: ?
DEATH: Hmmm, now this could be tricky to decide. (see Spleen Guy 1, part 6)

Labels: Spleen Guy

Track of ISS and Shuttle around maximum height above ground (roughly 20:34 -20:36 ACDST, this image is printable, click to embiggen).

Short notice sorry, but if you live in South Australia (and places close to the SA/Vic or SA/WA border) you can see the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle pass in front of the Moon at around 20:34 or 20:36 (Heavens above and the Human Spacecraft centre have a two minute difference in the pass time) tonight (Sunday February 21).

If you live in parts of the Northern Territory (eg Alice Springs, you can see the Space Shuttle and ISS but they will not be near the Moon (7:34 pm and 7:38 pm for the Shuttle and ISS pass respectively). In all cases the shuttle and ISS are passing in twilight, the ISS should be easy to see, while the Shuttle may be more difficult. The shuttle is 2 minutes ahead of the ISS. Elsewhere the pair rise during daylight or are not seen at all.

More realistic view of the sky when the pair are passing over.

From SA, the pair rise in the west and head for the Northwest, passing over the Moon. It's best to start looking around 20:30 so that your eyes are accommodated and you are oriented in the sky. In NT the pair rise in the south and head east (19:30 in NT).

Don't give up if the pair are a little late, this can happen. For local timings see http://www.heavens-above.com/ (require free registration) or http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ (no registration but data for only a few cities in any given state).

UPDATE: Bah! Humbug! Cloud!

Labels: ISS, Satellite, Space Shuttle, transit, unaided eye

Left Panel, asteroid Vesta as seen from Mars on the 11th of February (for Earth reference see here), Right Panel, Vesta as seen from Mars at the time of Opposition on Mars on & May 2010. Image visualized in Stellarium, location approximately latitude of Adelaide on Mars (as always, click to embiggen).

In my series of posts about seeing things from other worlds, (opposition of Mars from Mars and Venus), I'm having a look at the opposition of the asteroid Vesta. (My photographs and sketches here and here) Vesta is just visible to the unaided eye at the moment (if you are some place far from city lights). Mars is much closer to Vesta than Earth, how would Vesta look there?

Well, it's still a featureless dot, but it's much brighter. At opposition, it's a bit under magnitude 5, which means you could see it from the suburbs (if you had suburbs on Mars). However, as Mars's orbital plane is a bit angled to that of Earth's, Mars doesn't see Vesta glide between 40 and gamma Leonis, but sees it not far from the bright star Denebola in the tail of the Lion, rather than in the Head, as we see it.



Vesta's position in relation to Earth and Mars on 22 February and & March 2010, respectively. Mars's opposition of Vesta is much later than ours, as It has to catch up with the slower moving Vesta, while speedy Earth has already passed it by. Orbits visualised in Celestia.

Labels: asteroids, Mars, Opposition, stellarium, Vesta

Vesta near gamma and 40 Leonis on 18 February as imaged with my Canon IXUS (ASA 800, 1.3 sec exposure) attached to my 4" reflector with the 20mm eyepiece using my camera adaptor. This is an overlay of two images taken an hour apart, the image is upside down and back to front from the point of view of a binocular observer.

You can see Vesta has moved a little bit over the hour. Compare this to the images taken with the 8" and webcam, where you can see much more movement, due to the larger magnification, and my sketches. Click to embiggen.

The location of Vesta is actually a bit distorted, due to images taken in different parts of the eyepiece field, and the rotation of the field of viw over the hour.

Labels: astrophotography, Opposition, Vesta

This is the trapezium in Orions' Sword as imaged with My Canon IXUS (ASA 1600, 1 sec exposure) attached to my 4" reflector using my camera adaptor. Click to embiggen.

Not bad for an unguided shot. Have to try it out on Don the 8" reflector.

Labels: astrophotography

Carnival of Space #141 is now up at Starry Critters. There's the last night launch of the shuttle, Rubick cube sized satellites, microgravity research, Hubble in ultraviolet, astronomical Valentines and much, much more. Blast on over and have a look (and ignore the fact I've been a complete twit in the comments).

Labels: carnival of space

Snowball Earth, Image Credit NASA/University of Bristol.

Tim Lambert (Deltoid) debated Viscount Monckton on Friday 12 February, (Charles Darwin's Birthday). The debate can be seen here, audio here, slides here and a transcript and some discussion here, and further discussion here. The conduct of the debate shows why researchers and experts are unwilling to take part in debates with global warming “sceptics”/creationists/anti-vaccinationists. Too often the contrarian debater is an accomplished showperson who rapidly delivers a series of statements with such confidence that the audience is unaware they are talking rubbish, and the expert is left trying to decide which misrepresentation to tackle in the short time allotted them.

Such was the case in the Monckton –Lambert debate. Monckton is confident, speaks clearly and with flair (and a smattering of self depreciating jokes). It would be a rare non-expert audience member who would know that he is completely misrepresenting his material.

However, Tim was able to get in a telling point very early on. Monckton uses a paper by Pinker et al. to support his claim that climate sensitivity is low, and increased CO2 will have negligible effect on temperature and climate. Tim was able to read out a statement from the author that Monckton was wrong (in delightful irony Monckton kept on calling the lead author male, but she is female), and had made a fundamental mistake in his calculations.

Monckton recovered quickly, and spun a delightful story to reinforce his claim that climate sensitivity was low using an Australian setting. There are two places in Australia where the Curly Mallee grows, these are on outcrops of cap carbonates laid down around 750 million years ago*. Monckton claimed the cap carbonates showed that the atmosphere contained around 300,000 ppm CO2 (compared to the roughly 387 ppm CO2 at present, though he might have meant 30,000 ppm, it’s hard to tell from the recording) during a major glaciation, and implied that the CO2 levels could not be consistent with the climate sensitivity everyone else calculates.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

He’s talking about Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth!

Neo-klatting-proterozoic Snowball Earth, when the world was nearly totally covered in ice down to the equator (1). Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth (1) does not argue for low climate sensitivity for a number or reasons. Firstly, the world a quarter three quarters of a billion years ago was not the same as it was today, the Sun was 4-6% cooler than today, and the continental distribution was different (which alters ocean currents and their heat distribution amongst other things, as well as the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere). Secondly, the cap carbonates are from the end of the glaciation, when the ice was melting/had melted (3). The important point is that the glaciation began and grew when CO2 was low(1). Eventually the whole world was covered in ice, up to the tropics (whether the topical seas were icy or not is still controversial). A bit like Hoth, but without the rebels (or any large organisms, evidence for any sort of metazoans, let alone anything bigger and more complex than a slime mold then is pretty thin).

Permian glaciation scratches on Neoproterozoic rock at Hallet Cove.
Neoproterozoic glaciation scratches at Hallet Cove.

This has two consequences. One is that the Earth is very highly reflective, which means that a lot of radiation which could potentially warm the planet is reflected directly out into space. Remember that CO2 acts by trapping the longwave radiation that is emitted by the earth after it has absorbed the shorter wave incident solar radiation. With the Earth covered in glaciers, the snow almost acts like a mirror reflecting the incident short wave radiation back, with very little long wave radiation for CO2 to trap.

The other is that the weathering processes which remove CO2 from the atmosphere effectively had stopped (new CO2 is constantly being injected into the atmosphere by volcanoes and similar geophysical processes).

These two factors combine. The first (a highly reflective Earth) means that you need a lot of CO2 to warm the Earth to melt the ice, and the second means that a lot of CO2 will build up during the Snowball Earth until the melting point is reached, and then beyond until the excess CO2 is removed by weathering and formation of cap carbonates. Moncktons’ claim that this shows that climate sensitivity to CO2 must be low in this scenario is dead wrong, in fact simulations show that with the sensitivity most researchers claim for CO2, you still need a huge amount of CO2 to melt a Snowball Earth with a fainter Sun (1,2 and the measured CO2 after the glaciation ended was around 12,000 ppm, not 300,000 as was apparently claimed in Mocktons’ talk, 3). With a low climate sensitivity, the Earth would never unfreeze.

Now, you would have to be pretty canny to know about the Snowball Earth, it doesn’t come up much in the discussion of climate change in the recent epochs, but as a bit of a paleo-wonk and having stood on scrape marks caused by Snowball Earth glaciers I’ve had an interest in Snowball Earth, so I am familiar with some of the issues here (and you can get Celestia add-ons for a Snowball earth). Tim wasn’t (but who would be, and still be familiar with the telling points Tim had found?) and was caught on the back foot. Despite his being able to come up with a very pertinent point (that the Sun was dimmer then), it was hard to dent Moncktons’ confident presentation, even though the facts are almost the exact opposite of what Monckton claimed.

Again, this points to the core problem, showmen like Mockton can confidently spout off numerous factoids and misrepresentations in minutes, each one of which requires several minutes to refute. Tim got in several other good points (especially showing how Moncktons’ claims for low climate sensitivity were diametrically opposed to his fellow traveler Ian Plimers’ claims which require high climate sensitivity). However, despite Tim being right on the science, to people with no scientific background, it’s just a “he said” “she said” show, and Moncktons’ showmanship wins hands down, despite several of his critical claims being soundly refuted by Tim.

This is why generally, researchers refuse to debate Creationists. It is very hard to win, no matter what, the results are always spun against you, and the debate is used as validation for their position (you are debating them; therefore they have a legitimate point). In the case of the Monkton-Lambert debate, it was spun is just that way, being presented as Tim being the only one brave enough to debate Monckton (what was the Monckton-Brookes debate then? Chopped liver?)

This was also very pertinent to the SA Science Communicators presentation on Monday on Communicating Risk, where there was a lively debate on how scientists and researchers should tackle people like Monckton. Sadly, amongst other things it appears that researchers have been so badly burnt by the media they don’t want to enter into these kinds of discussions for fear of misrepresentation.

Good on Tim for getting up against Mockton, no matter what, there was no way he could win, even his mere appearance was spun as a win for the “skeptic” side. But he did serious damage to one of Moncktons’ show pieces. Hopefully that information will percolate through and maybe Monckton will stop misrepresenting Pinker et als research. Hopefully also we can stop Monckton from doing more snowjobs with Snowball Earth.

*Well, actually around 650 Million years ago (3).

References (note the titles):
1. Hoffman, P. F., Kaufman, A. J., Halverson, G. P. & Schrag, D. P. A Neoproterozoic
snowball Earth. Science 281, 1342–1346 (1998).
2. Pierrehumbert, R. T. High levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide necessary for the
termination of global glaciation. Nature 429, 646–649 (2004).
3. Bao, H. M., Lyons, J. R. and Zhou, C. M. 2008. Triple oxygen isotope evidence for elevated CO2 levels after a Neoproterozoic glaciation. Nature, 453, 504-506.

Update: Orac has some pertinent thoughts on debating "sceptics" here.

Labels: global warming sillyness, science communicators

Last night (16 February, 2010), the Asteroid Vesta (the dot with the "v" next to it in the sketch, compare with this sketch) passed between 40 Leonis and Gamma Leonis. My plan to watch Vesta over the week as it approach the pair of stars was stymied by cloud and the occasional need to sleep.

Fortunately, the sky was clear on the 16th, unfortunately it was also fairly warm, making for horrid seeing conditions. This wasn't much of a problem for binocular sketching, but I also planned to follow Vesta in Don the 8" Newtonian reflector and my ToUCam WebCam.

The field of view of the webcam is pretty restricted, but I calculated that Vesta and 40 Leonis would fit in.


Surprisingly, after a brief interlude where I got the scope on completely the wrong stars, getting Vesta recorded with My ToUCam pro wasn't much of a problem. I did have to crank the shutter speed all the way down and the brightness all the way up (hence the background is blue in this overlay image).

I was able to image for about an hour (between Vesta being high enough to clear the trees and having to go to sleep from exhaustion). The movement of Vesta is clearly seen in the overlay image, and here is an animated gif file of Vesta's movement.

Labels: animation, asteroids, astrophotography, Vesta

The First Quarter Moon is Monday February 21. Mars is now the brightest object in the late evening sky. Asteroid Vesta is still bright. In the morning, Saturn is easily seen above the northern horizon near the bight stars Regulus and Spica. Mercury is near bright stars in Capricorn. Venus appears in the morning twilight.

Morning sky looking north showing Saturn at 3:30 am local daylight saving time (2:30 am non-daylight saving) on Sunday February 21. Click to embiggen.

The First Quarter Moon is Monday February 21.

Saturn is visible high in the northern morning sky between the bright stars Regulus and Spica. Saturn is actually rising before 11 pm daylight saving time, but is still best seen in the morning and well worth a look in a telescope. Saturns' rings are opening, and look quite beautiful.

Mercury is lowering in the morning twilight, and is becoming difficult to see without a flat, level horizon. By the end of the week Mercury is very close to the bright stars gamma and delta Capricornii.

Bright white Venus is slowly rises from the twilight glow. People with flat, level horizons and good eyesight can see Venus above the western horizon half an hour after Sunset by the end of the week.

Jupiter is lost to view in the evening twilight.

The asteroid Vesta is visible in binoculars not far from Regulus. It is within a binocular field of Gamma Leonis (see Mars diagram below, this PDF map and this diagram). Vesta is still bright this week and and will be visible to the unaided eye under dark skies. Over the week you can see Vesta draw away from gamma Leonis.

Northern horizon showing Mars and the Moon at 10:00 pm local daylight saving time (9:00 pm non-daylight saving) on Thursday February 25, click to embiggen.

In the evening Mars can be seen flow in the north-eastern sky as the brightest (and clearly red) object in the sky. Mars was at opposition on January 30, but now is a good time to look at our sister world in a telescope. Shortky after 10:00 pm local daylight saving time (9:00 pm non-daylight saving time) Mars is at is hihest in the sky, this is the best time to look at Mars in a telescope. Mars is a distinct nearly full disk in a small telescope, although somewhat small. Larger telescopes will be needed to distinguish surface features. Red Mars is in the constellation of Cancer.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm ADST, Western sky at 10 pm ADST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch. Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

When we talked about seeing the Earth - Mars Opposition from Venus, you might have wondered what Earth would have looked like as seen from Mars on the night of the opposition, January 30th.

Well as Earth has to be directly between Mars and the Sun for there to be an opposition, you wouldn't have seen much at all (if you wanted to keep functioning eyes that is).

You would have had to wait until February to see the Earth, and on the 15th of February if you were on Mars you would have seen Earth and Mercury peeking up over the horizon.

Mars scape imaged as usual in Stellarium 10.2

Labels: Mars, Occultation, stellarium

Don't forget the South Australian Branch of the Australian Science communicators meeting this Monday, 15th February at 6:00 pm.

The Dilemmas of Science Reporting: Complexity, risk, and the dissident voice
Panellists: Clare Peddie, Rob Morrison, Susannah Elliot and Rod Irvine.
MC- Richard Musgrove,

Time: 6pm – 8pm
Venue: RiAUS, The Science Exchange
Cost: ASCSA members: free
Non members: $10
Non member students: $5
Bookings: http://asccommunicatingrisk.eventbrite.com/

Labels: science communicators

.. picked blackberries in the hills with the Bettdeckererschnappender wiesle, the kids and some friends.

Which is why my devestating critique of the Monckton-Lambert debate will have to wait.

Labels: home life, miscelaneous

Spleen Guy Chapter 2 Page 4, click to embiggen

Spleen Guy Rides again! This is the second chapter of MiddleOnes Web comic, it's the story of a spleen. This is the second page.

It should be read right to left Manga style, except when it's left to right (like this starting page) or out of sequence. The right side bar is usually the last panel (anyone who has read "Fruits Basket" will recognise the style). Spelling and punctuation mostly as in original.

BANG ... Spleen Dodge ... Spleen Squirt
HEART GUY: WAAGGGH! ... I Can't See!
Spleen ... PUNCH
Uhh DOOM
SPLEEN GUY: YES!

Labels: Spleen Guy

By now you have learnt that when a planet is in opposition with Earth, Earth lies directly between it and the Sun. Now what if we were standing on a planet inside the orbit of Earth, would we see Earth and Mars bright and close together?

The answer is a qualified yes, if the planet itself is nearly in a straight line betwen the Sun, Earth and Mars.

When Mars and the Earth were aligned, Venus was pretty much in a straight line with them and the Sun as well. Unfortunately, Venus was on the other side of the Sun, so Mars and Earth were invisible in the Suns glare on the night of the opposition (Not that you could have seen it anyway as the surface of Venus is shrouded in dense clouds of Sulphuric acid).


On the next opposition, 2012, Venus is well to the side of Earth and Mars, so they don't line up at opposition.


Mercury was a bit better off this opposition, it was off to the side, so Mars and Earth didn't align as seen from Mercury on the night of the Opposition, but some time later.

The top image is Earth and Mars as seen from Venus (if you could actually see through the atmosphere, that is) on February 2, when Earth and Mars pull away from the Sun. Th lower image is Earth and Mars on the 14th of February as seen from night-side Mercury. The close pair would be quite spectacular, and are in an interesting bit of sky (should have turned the atmosphere off for that oe though).

Both images are rendered in Stellarium 0.10.2, which allows to to image the sky from other planets.

Labels: Mars, Opposition, stellarium

The North-east horizon as seen in Australia at 11 pm local daylight saving time (10:00 pm non-daylight saving time) showing the location of Vesta (click to embiggen) on the 10th of February.

While Mars is the focus at the moment, another opposition is upon us. That of the asteroid Vesta. Remember, an opposition is any time we are directly between an astronomical object and the Earth. Oppositions of Mars and Jupiter can be spectacular, but even humble chunks of rock can have oppositions. We generally don’t notice them, because they are invisible to the unaided eye.

One asteroid is an exception. At certain times the asteroid Vesta (hardly a humble chunk of rock, but the 4th largest asteroid) is visible to the unaided eye. Okay, so its magnitude 6, at the threshold of the eyes ability to see, and even in a strong amateur telescope, Vesta is a featureless dot. But still you are able to see a real asteroid, that was once counted as a planet, a left-over from the era of the formation of the Solar system.

This year, Vesta is not only visible (just, and then only if you are out at dark sky sites away from city lights), but it is relatively easy to find, being within a binocular field of the bright star Algieba (gamma Leonis) in the constellation of Leo. Algieba is the second brightest star in the distinctive, hook-shaped “sickle” of Leo which stars from the bright star Regulus. If you look to the north-east at around 11 pm local daylight saving time the sickle of Leo is clearly visible above the horizon to the right of distinctive red Mars (see Map above). Follow the sickle down from Regulus and you will find Algieba easily. Vesta will be off to the left of Algieba until the 16th, then it will be on the right. Vesta starts off on the 10th one and a half fingerwidths from Algieba, and gets closer every night until the 16th, when Vesta shoots between Algieba and the nearby 40 Leonis. There is only one other star as bright as Vesta within 2 fingerwidths radius of Algieba, and Vesta is obvious as it’s the one that moves from night to night.

Binocular Map showing the location of Vesta from 10-26 February, as seen through 10x50 binoculars (circle indicates field of view, click to embiggen) a printable PDF map is here.

Vesta will be at its brightest (and visible to the unaided eye) from 16-22 February, although it will be closest on 22 February (although it will take light 12 minutes to reach you from Vesta). While the challenge is to see Vesta with the unaided eye (again, you will need to be somewhere dark away from city lights to see Vesta without instruments), following Vesta in binoculars is very easy and highly rewarding.

You can test out your sketching skills by sketching the position of Vesta from night to night. The highlight of this opposition will be Vesta passing between Algieba and 40 Leonis on February 16th (update: see my observations here). This is best observed with binoculars or the low power eyepiece of a telescope (otherwise you won’t get both stars and Vesta in the field). Vesta moves fast enough that you can see it drift between the two bright stars.

Labels: 4 Vesta, asteroids, binocular, Observational Astronomy, Opposition, Vesta

Comet Al, indefatigable chaser of STEREO comets (what, 11 this year is it Al?), has a new blog. Drop over and check it out.

Labels: comets

Carnival of Space #140 is now up at Lights in the Dark. There is refined estimates of the age of the universe, black hole dancing, quasars colliding, fusion engines, the latest shuttle mission, interstellar archaeology and much, much more. Wander on over and have a read.

Labels: carnival of space

The New Moon is Sunday February 14. Jupiter disappears in the western twilight. Mars is now the brightest object in the late evening sky. Asteroid Vesta at its brightest. In the morning, Saturn is easily seen above the northern horizon near the bight stars Regulus and Spica. Mercury is low in the morning twilight and is near the crescent Moon Friday February 12.

Morning sky looking South-east showing Mercury at 5:30 am local daylight saving time (4:30 am non-daylight saving) on Friday February 12. Click to embiggen.

The New Moon is Sunday February 14.

Saturn is visible in the northern morning sky between the bright stars Regulus and Spica. Saturn is actually rising before 11 pm daylight saving time, but is still best seen in the morning and worth a look in a telescope. Saturns' rings are opening, and look quite beautiful.

Mercury is low in the morning twilight, having passed close to some of the brighter stars of Sagittarius. On Thursday January 12 Mercury is below the crescent Moon (see image above)

Western Horizon (above the sea) at 20:20 local daylight saving time (7:20 pm non daylight saving time on Tuesday the 16th of February.

Bright white Venus is all but invisible the twilight glow. People with flat, level horizons and good eyesight may try and see Venus next to Jupiter not far from the thin 4% illuminated crescent Moon on the evening of Tuesday February 16. Binoculars may be needed.

Jupiter is very difficult to see very low in the western twilight sky, it is near Venus on the 16th, and is lost to view after that.

The asteroid Vesta is visible in binoculars not far from Regulus. It is within a binocular field of Gamma Leonis (see Mars diagram below, this PDF map and this diagram). Vesta will be at its brightest this week (starting Monday February 15) and be visible to the unaided eye under dark skies. Between the evening of Tuesday February 16 and the morning of the 17th, Vesta will pass between gamma and 40 Leonis, a very interesting encounter to watch over the course of the night/morning.

North-eastern horizon showing Mars and the Beehive cluster (Paerasepe) at 10:00 pm local daylight saving time (9:00 pm non-daylight saving) on Saturday February 6, click to embiggen.

In the evening Mars can be seen from around 9:00 pm local daylight saving time low in the north-eastern sky as the brightest (and clearly red) object in the sky. Mars was at opposition on January 30, but now is a good time to look at our sister world in a telescope. Mars is a distinct nearly full disk in a small telescope, although somewhat small. Larger telescopes will be needed to distinguish surface features. Red Mars is in the constellation of Cancer and is within a binocular field of the Beehive cluster (Paerasepe) early in the week.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm ADST, Western sky at 10 pm ADST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch. Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

The Science Communicators meeting notice is below the Vesta article, scroll down or click this link.

Labels: miscelaneous, science communicators

Right: Sketch of Vesta near gamma Leonis on the 6th and 7th of February (Vesta indicated by a "v"), Left; Skymap Pro chart of same area.

While Mars is hogging the limelight at the moment, asteroid Vesta is heading for opposition later this month. As Vesta is near Gamma and 40 Leonis, finding it in binoculars is very easy (and Vesta will pass between gamma and 40 Leonis later in the Month too, a very interesting sight).

Since my webcam based imaging system isn't really up to faint stars, I've been sketching through binoculars. My sketches haven't turned out too badly, and the positions of stars and Vesta are pretty good considering I'm just holding my pad (size differences due to my binoculars having a smaller field of view). Some of the stars appear "double", but thats me just trying to darken up the dots, and missing the original in the dark. I can make out stars down to magnitude 9 through the binouclars on a bark night under suburban skies!

Anyone else sketching or imaging Vesta can send me their images if they like and I'll put them up here.

Labels: asteroids, Observational Astronomy, sketch, Vesta

The South Australian Branch of the Australian Science communicators has another great event coming up. Given the controversy about reporting important scientific issues, (and the hash made of reporting climate change made by most Australian papers), this event is highly topical.

The Dilemmas of Science Reporting: Complexity, risk, and the dissident voice
Panellists: Clare Peddie, Rob Morrison, Susannah Elliot and Rod Irvine.
MC- Richard Musgrove,

Given the public (including policy makers) have the right to accurate information, how do scientists/science communicators break down and report complex results in digestible form, without missing vital information or getting the story wrong? Secondly, how does a scientist/communicator approach an interview or story which concerns risk, knowing that the public may use that information to inform lifestyle choices? Lastly, how we deal with dissident voice(s), particularly if the issue involves risk or, equally; how do you get your point across if you are the dissident voice??

Guidelines on Science and Health Communication prepared by the RiGB, The Royal Society and The Social Issues Research Centre are available on http://www.sirc.org/publik/revised_guidelines.shtml


Date: February 15, 2010
Time: 6pm – 8pm
Venue: RiAUS, The Science Exchange
Cost: ASCSA members: free* (see why & how to join below)
Non members: $10
Non member students: $5
Bookings: http://asccommunicatingrisk.eventbrite.com/

Labels: science communicators

Spleen Guy Chapter 2 Page 3, click to embiggen

Spleen Guy Rides again! This is the second chapter of MiddleOnes Web comic, it's the story of a spleen. This is the second page.

It should be read right to left Manga style, except when it's left to right (like this starting page) or out of sequence. The right side bar is usually the last panel (anyone who has read "Fruits Basket" will recognise the style). Spelling and punctuation mostly as in original.


HEART GUY: NOW - ITS a Duel to the Finish!
SPLEEN GUY vs the HEART!

Labels: Spleen Guy

My first Mars image of this opposition taken with Don the 8" reflector, my ToUCam and Vega. Roughly 40 images stacked with Registax.

Memo to self, when stars higher in the sky than Mars are twinkling, don't even bother. Couldn't even see the polar cap as I did when I was sketching last week.

Labels: astrophotography, Mars, Observational Astronomy, Opposition, webcam

Hubble Images of Pluto: Image credit M. Buie /NASA, ESA, Southwest Research Institute

Often you see illustrations of Pluto as being white, but really, it's red. This is just one more link showing the Pluto is a big Kuiper Belt object (these are red too, due to UV action on the organic compounds in their ices). The black parts in the image probably represent organics that have been polymerized into taryy gunk.


Back in 1994 Hubble took some images of Pluto and made a map of the distribution of reddish patches. Not bad since Pluto is pretty small even in Hubble, and a lot of features are only a couple of pixels wide. Now Hubble has released a new map,which shows changes since 1994, the north pole gets brighter and the south pole darker over 10 years. There are some more images here, and a great animation of Pluto rotating here. Sure, it's interpolated to heck and back, but it sure is fun.

Labels: hubble, Pluto

The evening sky facing north-east in Australia on February 6 at 10:00 pm AEDST (9:00 pm AEST) showing the Mars and the Beehive Cluster (click to embiggen) .

Mars has been within a binocular field of the Beehive Cluster (M44, Praesepe) for most of this week, and will continue to be close for another week, however, between now and 7 February Mars will be closest to the Beehive.

The Beehive cluster is a beautiful , large, open cluster that is just visible to the unaided eye. Naturally it is much better under dark sky conditions. While you can see this with the uniaded eye, binoculars will give a better view. Through binoculars red Mars floats below a delicate scattering of jewels.

Mars as seen in 10x50 binoculars on February 6, near the Beehive Cluster (top).

Mars will be even closer to the Beehive in April, but not as bright.

Labels: binocular, cluster, Mars, Observational Astronomy, Opposition, unaided eye

Image Credit NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles). Photo No. STScI-2010-07

Comet P 2010/A2 was always a strange beast, one of the few known comets that orbited in the main asteroid belt. Well, turns out to be weirder than that, a close-up view from the Hubble Space telescope suggests that the tail of P 2010. A2 is not a cometary tail, but a debris tail resulting from the collision of two asteroids. See also here.

Labels: asteroids, comets, hubble

The evening sky facing north-east in Australia on February 6 at 10:00 pm AEDST (9:00 pm AEST) showing the Mars and the Beehive Cluster (click to embiggen) .

The Opposition of Mars was on January 30th, 2010. Since then the ruddy planet has been slowly growing smaller and dimmer but for the rest of the month at least, it still repays close attention. This post will give you a brief guide to observing this fabled world. At least for those of us not clouded out by the ex-tropical storm soaking Queensland.

You don't need a telescope or complicated imaging equipment to observe Mars, although a telescope or binoculars helps. Before I describe observing Mars, a few words about the opposition.

This year is a fairly poor opposition of Mars. We will have to wait until 2014 to see better though, and we will have to wait until 2018 for a really good one. What is an opposition? Opposition refers to when a planet is opposite the Sun in the sky. This can only happen to outer planets, as Earth must pass between the Sun and the planet. The Earth passes Mars in its orbit every 26 months, and at this time we get a good view of the Red Planet.

When Mars is also making its closest approach to the Sun, our view is very good indeed. While Mars is on average 228 million km from the sun, due to Mars's elliptical orbit this varies by 42 million kilometers. If Mars is at its furthest from the Sun at opposition, Mars is also around 99 million km from Earth, while if Mars is at its closest to the Sun during opposition, this value narrows to only 57 million km. Favorable oppositions occur only once in every 15 to 17 years. During the Great Opposition of 2003, Mars and Earth were a mere 55.8 million km apart. This degree of closeness will not be achieved again until 2287. This year, Mars and Earth will be 99.3 million km apart.

Oppositions in the early months of the year, when Mars is furthest from the Sun, are always poor. The best oppositions occur around August. This is very good for Southern observers, as Mars is high in the sky, and the winter sky is usually still and transparent, ideal conditions for watching Mars. This years opposition occurs during January and February. The conditions are fairly poor for Southern Observers. The warm weather makes watching pleasant, but atmospheric turbulence is likely to be high, making Mars's markings harder to distinguish. However, the polar cap is currently easily visible. The visible disk of Mars is now 14 arc seconds (an arc second is approximately 1/3600th of your fingerwidth). While this sounds astoundingly small, 14 arc seconds will give a smallish but passable disk in most amateur telescopes, even the small ones from Tasco.

What you can expect to see:

Unaided eye. The best observing will be from February to mid March. Mars rises rather late, so Mars is best observed from midnight daylight saving time or 11 pm standard time for most of this period. At 11 pm AEDST Mars is the brightest object in the sky, its distinctive red colour making it easy to identify. In February Mars is in the northeast, and 4 handspans above the northeastern horizon as seen from Melbourne (when your hand is held out flat, thumb in, with your arm outstretched, your hand covers 6 degrees of sky, see diagram at right, people in Adelaide and Sydney should add an extra handspan, Brisbane and Alice Springs an extra two and from Darwin Mars is 6 handspans high). See the diagram at the begining of the post to see what you should expect.

Mars is between the distinctive pair of bright stars Castor and Pollux (the bright stars of Gemini, the twins) and bright Regulus in Leo. Mars is also not far from the beautiful open cluster, the Beehive cluster. On the 6th and 7th Mars is closest to the Beehive. Mars starts February at magnitude -1.3, and is the brightest object in the late evening sky. Mars fades over the month to magnitude -0.7, making it the second brightest object in the sky after Sirius.

Aside from just watching Mars every few nights (especially the nights it is close to the beehive if you are in a dark sky site) you can do more detailed observation. Plotting the position of Mars every few nights (use a torch covered in red cellophane to stop your night vision being destroyed while you draw its position) will be interesting. In late February Mars is stationary, and reverses direction during March. This is called retrograde motion, and occurs due to Earth overtaking Mars in its orbit. Also, by comparing the brightness of Mars every couple of nights you can plot the fall in the brightness of Mars.

Mars as seen in 10x50 binoculars on February 6, near the Beehive Cluster (top).

Binoculars. Mars is not visible as a disk with 10 x 50 binoculars and larger this opposition. However, watching Mars approaching the Beehive cluster (in February an later in April) is best done with binoculars - telescopes just can't get the Beehive into their field of view.

Telescopes.The best time to observe Mars is when it is highest in the sky, unfortunately this occurs well after midnight for a large proportion of best viewing times, and not long after midnight for the rest. Be prepared for some late nights if you want the best telescopic views.

Mars shows clearly visible markings in a 50 mm refractor telescope (if you have a 6 mm eyepiece), and significant detail can be seen in a 4" reflector, while 6" and 8" instruments will give better detail still. No current Earth-bound telescope can reveal the huge volcano, Mons Olympus, or the huge valley of Vale Marensus, which are seen in many of the spacecraft images. However, the polar caps will be seen clearly in even a small telescope. Significant features such as Syrtis major may be visible in 4" telescopes with good eyepieces under good observing conditions. See the Google Mars Map for significant Mars features, or the JPL solar system simlulator to see what part of Mars is facing you when you are observing.

Mars as seen at this opposition through a 6" reflecting telescope with a 12 mm eyepiece.

The Martian day is about 40 minutes longer than the Earth day, so if you observe at the same time each night, you can see the surface features rotating into and out of view. Dust storms can also occur, sometimes lasting days. Wind removal and deposition of the reddish, iron rich dust can also reveal or obscure features, so Mars's appearance can be somewhat different between each opposition. Seasonal winds alternately covering and uncovering darker features with lighter dust were once interpreted as seasonal plant growth. Studying the Martian storms and the changing surface features is a valuable amateur activity.

So February to mid March is an excellent time to dust off that old telescope lying around in the garage, or to beg a view from a friend or neighbour with a telescope. Better yet, many astronomical clubs hold open nights, and this is an excellent opportunity to see this fascinating world in a decent telescope. Also, some of the local planetariums may be showing off Mars if they have telescopes.

For recording the appearance of Mars, all you need is a sheet of paper on a sturdy background, a pencil (or coloured pencils if you want to try recording the colors you see), a small torch covered in red cellophane and a watch. Make sure you and your telescope are located in a relatively dark place, and have modest circles predrawn on your paper (I use a 20 cent piece or my telescope eyepiece cap). Have your telescope out for a while beforehand so that it is at ambient temprature, to prevent air currents in the telescope from ruining the image. Record the date and time, and the weather (if it is windy, how much cloud, how much moonlight, what is the dimmest star you can see, etc.). Make sure you are wearing warm clothing, then make yourself comfortable at the eyepiece, preferably with a chair that allows you to sit and view comfortably, and, well, start drawing. It may take a few tries before you get the hang of recording what you see by red light, but you will feel a warm glow of accomplishment when you can.

Here are some links to Mars sites of interest:

The Marswatch site, co-ordinating amateur observations of Mars.

Assoc of Lunar and Planetary observers has feature maps of Mars

The Mars newsletter of the ALPO

Solar system simulator, view Mars from Earth at any time.

Google Mars

The Nine Planets Tour, more info about Mars.

OnLine Astronomical Societies in Australia

Australian Planetariums (scroll down)

Mars Global Surveyor pages at NASA

The Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity

Mars Express

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Of course, no site would be complete without a link to the Face on Mars.

Labels: Mars, Observational Astronomy, Opposition, unaided eye observation