Astroblog

Evening sky looking west as seen from Adelaide at 20:00 pm local daylight saving time on March 26 showing Venus and Jupiter near the crescent Moon. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. Click to embiggen.

The March edition of Southern Skywatch is now up.

The Moon occults Omicron Scorpii on the 13th.

Venus is prominent in the early evening sky, not far from Jupiter. The two arec oming cloaser together and Venus and Jupiter are closest on the 14th. Venus is close to Jupiter and the crescent Moon on the 26th, and the crescent Moon alone on the 27th.

Jupiter is low in the early evening sky, but is now a difficult telescopic object in the early evening.

Mars is at opposition on the 4tg and is close to the Moon on the 8th.

Saturn enters the evening sky sky and is close to the Moon on the 11th.

Labels: southern skywatch

The Full Moon is Thursday March 8. Venus is easily visible in the western evening sky close to Jupiter. Jupiter is low in the evening sky in the north-west once Venus has set. Venus and Jupiter come closer together during the week. Mars is in the late eastern evening sky, not far from Saturn, which is near the star Spica. Mars is at opposition on the 4th, and is close to the Fulll Moon on the 8th.

Evening sky looking east as seen from Adelaide at 11:00 pm local daylight saving time on Thursday March 8 showing Mars near the Full Moon and Saturn near Spica. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. The inset shows the telescopic appearance of Saturn and it's Moons at this time. Click to embiggen.

The Full Moon is Thursday March 8.

Mars is in the constellation of Leo. It is the brightest object in the north eastern sky, and its distinctive red colour makes it easy to spot. Mars is rising around 8:00 pm (local daylight saving time), and is at its highest around 1 am. On the 8th Mars is close to the Full Moon.

Mars is at opposition on March 4, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth. Sadly, this is a poor opposition and Mars will be fairly small in modest telescopes. Even so, you should be still able to see the polar caps, so still have a go if you have a telescope.

Saturn is above the north- eastern horizon, not far from the bright star Spica. Saturn is high enough in the northern sky in the early morning for telescopic observation, but is rising about 11:00 pm local daylight saving time.

Mercury is lost in twilight.

Evening sky on Saturday March 3 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 8:30 pm local daylight saving time in South Australia showing Venus in Pisces, with Jupiter not far away and the crescent Moon in between them. The insets shows the appearance of Venus and Jupiter and its Moons as seen telescopically at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen)

Bright white Venus is readily visible in the evening western twilight sky from around half an hour after sunset for somewhat over an hour and a half.

Venus is in Pisces this week and continues to come closer to Jupiter. The pair are quite easy to see together.

In the evening Jupiter is readily visible in the northern-western sky, from about twilight. Telescopic observation of Jupiter is now very difficult.

However, Jupiter is still a great binocular object. Jupiter is visible until around 10 pm local daylight saving time.

With Mars at opposition and Saturn rising, there are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEDST, Western sky at 10 pm AEDST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch (this will be up dated to February a little later).

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd imaged with iTelescope T14 on February 26 close to the Galaxy NGC 6015. Stack of 5 images 120 sec each, stretched with FITS liberator and stacked then summed with imageJ (click to embiggen, it's a bit big but worth it) with a light despeckle.

Comet Garradd is still going strong, on the 26th of February it passed this very nice little galaxy NGC 6015. You can see quite a bit of detail in the two tails, especially the one heading off to the bottom (I think this is the ion tail).

But there is more to come, on the 2nd of March it will pass across the face of the Ursa Minor Dwarf galaxy. Lets hope the skies stay clear for this encounter.

Labels: astrophotography, C/2009 P1 Garradd, comet, comets, iTelescope

Carnival of Space #238 is now up at The Next Big Future. There's an eclipse from space, Marsquakes, the 25th anniversary of supernova 1987a, John Glenn's cake, and much much more. Zoom on over and have a read.

Labels: carnival of space

As you may have guessed, I've been clouded out over the past two days, as the Line-up progressed. But here are some nice images that have been going around the intertubes (copyright belongs to the photographers, please play nice).

Andrew Thomas, based in Ballarat Victoria has some amazing images from Friday and Saturday. From Berkshire we have a nice one from John Talbot, and here he gives us a close-up. Another close up of Venus and the Moon through a gap in the clouds from Ian Jones. Here's one from Italy with the Moon and Venus peaking out from behind trees, and another of them above the trees. Another one from Italy from Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Observatory.

Labels: astrophotography, Jupiter, Moon, Venus

Left image: The crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter line up in the evening sky half an hour after susnet. Right Image: the reflection of the crescent Moon in the water. Click to embiggen Its worth it).

Labels: astrophotography, Jupiter, Moon, Venus

Seen on campus

GJ 1214b visualised in Celestia.

I'm still continually amazed about what we find out about extrasolar planets, I know I shouldn't be, but I am.

Just finding these worlds is amazing enough, but for a couple of these worlds we know what's in their atmospheres. For a Neptune sized world 40 light years from us, GJ 1214b, it looks like it's a water world.

Weeellll sort a water world, according to a recently released paper, it's a hellish steam bath world, with perhaps 50% of it's atmosphere water vapour at a temperature of 230° Celsius (but see this paper as well, which is more suggestive of haze). The rest of the atmosphere is more likely hydrogen and helium. Of course, more onservation is needed, but it's amazing to think we can glimpse what this world is like from fleeting dips in a stars light.

Hubble press release here, and thoughtful commentary by the Bad Astronomer. Once again I've made Celestia files for the system. One for the star (which isn't in the default files) and one for the planet.

As usual, copy the data here to plain text files (GJ1214.stc and GJ1214b.ssc), copy both of the files to the Celestia extras folder. The star is around 950 lightyears away in Lyra, so in the Celestia star browser, you will have to show around 500 stars to see Kepler-20 in the list.
I'll have to update my Celestia Exoplanet Tour as well.

===============GJ1214.stc======================================
#Mearth Project

"GJ 1214"
{
RA 258.8292
Dec 4.9639
Distance 40 # light years from published data
SpectralType "M4.5"
AppMag 14.67
}
=======================================================
==================GJ1214b.ssc============================
"b" "GJ 1214"

# Neptune like world
# All data from original papers or URL

{
Texture "exo-class4.*"
NightTexture "exo-class4night.*"


Mass 6.55 # M.sin(i) = 6.55 Earth
Radius 17080.284 # 2.678 Earth radi, from URL

#InfoURL "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GJ_1214_b"
#InfoURL "http://exoplanet.eu/star.php?st=GJ+1214"

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.004326842
SemiMajorAxis 0.014
Eccentricity 0.27
ArgOfPericenter 267 #guess
Inclination 88.8
#MeanAnomaly 271
}

# likely to be in captured synchronous rotation
}

AltSurface "limit of knowledge" "GJ 1214/b"
{
Texture "extrasolar-lok.*"

}

==============================================================

Labels: celestia, exoplanet, extrasolar planet

View of the visit of the Crescent Moon to Venus and Jupiter as seen from the beach at Adelaide looking west at 8:30 pm ACDST, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. Simulated with Stellarium.

Between Thursday February 24, 2012 and Monday 27 February, the crescent Moon will come close to Venus and then Jupiter in a series of beautiful encounters as it climbs in the twilight sky. Venus and Jupiter come closer too. You will need a clear level horizon to see the lineups at their best, but even moderately cluttered horizons will show the the spectacle nicely. Start looking to the west from around half an hour after sunset.

Mercury is in the mix too, but unless you are looking out over ocean you wont have a chance to see it (and even if you do it will be hard to pick up)



Video of simulated Moon and plaentary encounters.

Labels: Jupiter, Moon, stellarium, Venus

Correspondent John Kent has alerted me to the restoration of the Great Melbourne Telescope. This scope, once the second largest in the world, played an significant role in southern hemisphere astronomy, and next time I'm in Melbourne I'll head out to the observatory and look it up.

Labels: history, telescope

Hurry on over to the Planetary Society Blog, where Emily Lakdawalla shares an amazing picture of sunset on Mars.

What, your still here? Go now!

Labels: Mars

The First Quarter Moon is Thursday March 1. Venus is easily visible in the western evening sky close to Jupiter. Jupiter dominates the evening sky in the north-west once Venus has set. On the 25th, 26th and 27th the thin crescent Moon is near Venus and Jupiter, making a delightful sight. Mars is in the late eastern evening sky, not far from Saturn, which is near the star Spica.

Evening sky looking east as seen from Adelaide at 11:00 pm local daylight saving time on Saturday February 26 showing Mars and Saturn near Spica. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. The inset shows the telescopic appearance of Saturn and it's Moons at this time. Click to embiggen.

The First Quarter Moon is Thursday March 1.

Mars is in the constellation of Leo.

Mars is in the eastern sky late in the evening, rising around 9:00 pm (local daylight saving time), although it is still highest in the early morning. Mars continues to brightens rapidly.

Saturn is above the north- eastern horizon, not far from the bright star Spica. Saturn is high enough in the northern sky in the early morning for telescopic observation, but is rising about 11:00 pm local daylight saving time.

Mercury is lost in twilight.

Evening sky on Saturday February 26 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 8:30 pm local daylight saving time in South Australia showing Venus in Pisces, with Jupiter not far away and the crescent Moon in between them. The insets shows the appearance of Venus and Jupiter and its Moons as seen telescopically at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen)

Bright white Venus is readily visible in the evening western twilight sky from around half an hour after sunset for somewhat over an hour and a half.

Venus is in Aquarius this week and continues to come closer to Jupiter. The pair are quite easy to see together. The Moon visits them this week to make quite a nice sight. On the 25th of February the thing crescent Moon is juts below Venus. On the 26th it is between Venus and Jupiter, then on the 27th the crescent Moon is close to Jupiter.

Jupiter was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on Saturday the 29th of October.

However, Jupiter is still a great binocular object. Jupiter is visible for most of the night in the north-western sky, setting half an hour after midnight.

In the evening Jupiter is readily visible in the northern-western sky, from about twilight.

Now is a still good time for telescopic observation of this massive world (although the window for observation is narrowing), or follow its moons in binoculars. For good telescopic observation Jupiter is best from 9 pm - 10 pm.

Although Jupiter is the most prominent now, there are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEDST, Western sky at 10 pm AEDST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch (this will be up dated to February a little later).

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

Carnival of Space #237 is now up at Universe Today. There's cleaning up space junk, the hunt for Earth 2.0, weird exoplanets, exo-Plutos, a Valentines from the Moon and much, much more. Pop on over for a read.

Labels: carnival of space

My latest contribution to The Conversation is now up, it's on the debate about whether Universities should teach courses in Complementary and Alternative Medicines. Why vipers? Read it and see.

It's a good antidote to a rather overwrought piece at the Drum (we are all out to crush poor innocent CAM for gain, sigh).

Labels: homeopathy, Pseudoscience, science communicators

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd imaged with iTelescope T4 on February 3 close to M92. Stack of 4 images 120 sec each, stretched with FITS liberator and stacked with imageJ (click to embiggen).

Yes, I know I promised, after putting up the low resolution spotter images, to put up the fully processed images of comet C/2008 Garrad when it passed close to the globular cluster M92.

Well, life happened, and I'm only just processing them now. Here is the first, a close up using T4. I'm not happy with it, and I think I'll have to go back and retry the stretch and stack. I'm doing something wrong somewhere (don't ask about my colour efforts).

I'll post links to other peoples images of Garradd later.

Labels: astrophotography, C/2009 P1 Garradd, comet, comets, iTelescope

At birthday party with SmallestOne, racing Scalextric cars.

I wanted to write about other things, but I was reading the story of Rachel North in Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" when I read about the invasion of the Plasma Universe people over that Emily Lakwandallah's blog, and the paper from Michael Majerus's last experiment landed on my desk.

There were so many resonances I felt I had to write about this. If you are an amateur astronomer, at some stage you will come across people whose views are wildly divergent from what is accepted by science. Given that this is 2012, we are bound to come across them sooner rather than later. Do you ignore them or engage them?

There are dangers in engaging these people, it's a bit like entering a world of Fun House Mirrors where you can be trapped in endless, increasingly bizarre discussions. Fortunately, most of us will never have the experience of Rachel North, a survivor of the London Underground bombings.

Conspiracy groups insisted that she did not exist, but was a fabrication of an MI6 disinformation group. Leonid Elenin had a related experience, where various fringe groups (godlikeproductions, I'm looking at you) proclaimed he did not exist, and that his name was a code word for Extinction Level Event, but the rejection not of only your existence but of the traumatic experiences you survived is a fundamental blow to who you are as a person.

When you encounter these people, what can you do? You could ignore them. This is what most of us would do. Life is short, and arguing with people who have severely divergent views of reality, and very little willingness to give them up, is a long hard grind that can seem to sap your life away. Rachel North engaged them, she blogged on her experiences, and commented in the conspiracists threads. This bought more disbelief in her existence and death threats (why you would threaten someone who you thought didn't exist beggars belief). Eventually she turned up at a meeting of the conspiracy theorists, to show them she really existed.

Mike Majerus's story was a bit different, no one claimed he didn't exist. He wrote about the evolution of the Peppered Moth. Creationists seized on his work and claimed that it showed that the moths were not subject to natural selection, others muttered darkly the classic work had been faked. Mikes response was to create the most detailed outdoor experiment on natural selection in moths ever.

For six years he climbed trees, patiently observed moths in the early dawn as well as doing his normal work. His massive compliation of data unequivically shows the action of natural selection. Sadly, he died before he could publish he findings, but his colleagues banded together to ensure their publication.

Few of us have the courage of Rachel North, or the dedication of Mike Majerus, let alone the energy of the Bad Astronomer or the quiet patience of Leonid Elenin, what should we do when faced with contrarians? Is it worth our limited time and more meager reserves of courage and patience to face off with these people? After all, despite the best efforts of Rachel, Mike, BA and Leonid the contrarians have not given up their views.

The hard core contrarians will never give up their views, but around them are people who can be persuaded, and when contrarians show up we should keep them in mind. To me, that's why we should not be dismissive, but patiently explain why the current scientific view exists. I like to come at things a bit sideways, to try and get people to think about what the world would be like if the contrarian view was true. Be prepared to repeat yourself over and over again (it helps to have a preprepared list of links you can quickly cut and paste to good sources of information, like when someone claims there is no evidence of water in comets).

You may still think it's too much effort, and it can be hard work when all you want to do is take pictures of the sky, but I'd like to think that in solidarity with Rachel North we can stand up for rationality from time to time.

Labels: Pseudoscience, Science Blogging, science communicators

First things first, before reading any further, put on the Angels song "Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again" as loud as compatible with domestic harmony.

First things second,I liked this eBook novella, I really, really liked it. Now I have to qualify this statement.

Because I know the author, Phillip Berrie. Heck, he's one of my best friends (despite the fact I haven't actually spoken to him for a decade, that's my hyper disorganization). We've bush walked together, played chess and D&D together and he's had me help out on his real-time RPG's. Without out him, I would have never won an award for role playing a demented squirrel. And he supported my nascent attempts at writing fiction.

So you can see that I could be a wee bit biased when I praise his eBook. Now I need to convince you that the praise is worthy.

For as long as genres have been genres, their supposed boundaries have been transgressed. Almost as soon as we had hard bitten, roughly hansom detectives with monosylabic names, their trench-coated forms have been found trudging the streets of Mars or Magical Kingdoms (or Magical Kingdoms on Mars). It's giving nothing away to reveal that "The Changeling Detective" is located in the Sci-Fi**/Fantasy spectrum of "Trench-coat" Detective fiction*.

The Sci-Fi/Fantasy trench-coat detective crossover has given us an enormous number of variants on the central detective character. We've had ordinary humans in a magical world (Garrett; TunFair), magical Humans in an "ordinary" world (Harry Dresden; Chicago), marginally magical (and marginally competent) Humans in a magical world (Thraxas; Turai), we've had vampire detectives, robot dectectives, steampunk anti-magical detectives and bird-like alien detectives who live in inverted cones on Mars. Does the world need another Sci-Fi/Fantasy detective novel?

Heck yeah! The central character's ability (cue David O'Dohert's "very mild superpowers") is refreshingly original and cleverly thought out. Okay, so it's vaguely related to the powers of the bad guy in Larry Niven's "the Meddler", and the powers of the bad guys in "Faded Steel Heat", but the characters ability is sufficiently different, and drives the story in interesting directions, that these vague antecedents are irrelevant. You will note I haven't told you what the ability is (or the name of the central character). We'll, I'm not going to, even though the ability is revealed in the first chapter, the pleasant surprise of finding out what it is (and the clever ways it is used) is worth it.

Okay, having said that I have given readers of this review A Clue, see if you can work it out.

"The Changeling Detective" has appropriate nods to the trench-coat detective genre, but with refreshing twists and playful inversions of tropes. There is the obligatory attractive red-haired woman (Glenn Cook, I'm looking at you), but whose role is anything but eyecandy or the clichéd roles normally reserved for this archetypical character. Her story takes the plot in an parallel direction to the one triggered by the main character (cue the Angels again "She Keeps No Secrets From You"), and she plays important roles in the action.

The "Changelingverse" is a modern day world very similar to our own, there are no clouds of pixies or bands of grumpy dwarfs, and no pseudomedieval castles loom over the action. There are gormless bartenders, nosey neigbours and zombie savvy kids (no zombies actually feature in the novella though).

Oh, yes, there's action, the plot fairly kicks along at a cracking pace (but not in the Hollywood sense of "the plot's not making sense? Here's an explosion or two to distract you"). The plot also has as many twists and turns as the back road to Mt. Tambourine** so even as a somewhat jaded Krimi*** reader I was turning the pages to see what happened next.

You may notice I haven't given a synopsis of the plot. A large chunk of the plot evolves from the central characters ability, so I can't discuss the plot without revealing the ability. Suffice to say there's a Dame With A Case, bad guys with guns, gunshots, sirens in the night and enough of the Trenchcoat Detective tropes to keep Sam Spade happy. The ability is consistent in the Changelingverse (with plenty of "hey that's cool" and "how is the ability going to get them out of that" moments), no Deux ex Machinations occur and there is a sufficent smattering of the self-depreciating humour Australians are famous for.

The novella ends on a cliff-hanger, in the sense that although the immediate plot issue is resolved, there are clear loose ends that make you impatient for the next novel (in the same way the Jo Nesbo's detective solves the immediate crime, but the unresolved story of his partners murder leads into and ties together the next few novels).

My only real issue with "The Changling Detective" is that there isn't a good feeling of "sense of place". While the story is set in modern day Canberra, Australia's capital, it could be anywhere in the English speaking world. I've been to a number of the locations mentioned in the novella, and I didn't feel the book took me there.

True, Phil has two serious barriers to making a real sense of place. Firstly, it is Canberra, famously described as "a bloody good paddock ruined". It's the kind of place that makes Milton-Keynes and Bonn look exciting. Getting a sense of place from such a setting is difficult, even if you do mention Tuggeranong (but then, maybe the bland anonymity is its sense of place).

Secondly, the work is a novella, and you are up against space. It takes more than driving a Holden into a kangaroo while eating a meat pie to give a sense of place, just like it takes more than Jo Nesbo mentioning Fiords, rollmops and towns called Hallorgenvasenbaad gives you the sense of place in Norway, and more than walking out into a cloud of Pixies for Glenn Cook to give you the feeling of TunFair.

It takes space to subtley draw this out. It's easier for Jo Nesbo, his novels are 500+ page doorstops (even when you throw in Nazi's, Skinheads and gypsy crimelords there's plenty of space for exposition of "place"). In a novella you have to draw the plot more tightly, and Phil has used no cheap shortcuts. I am pleased to report no character cracks a tinny of Fosters in the whole novella. I think Phil has done a good job in the face of these limitations.

So if you want a fresh and engaging Sci-Fi/Fantasy trench-coat detective story whose character has a novel ability, and whose plot moves along at a cracking pace, I highly recommend "The Changling Detective". I give it 4.5 enchanted daggers out of 5 and I'm waiting for the next instalment.

* As opposed to police procedural, Sherlock Holmsian and "little old lady" versions of the detective genre

**Don't give me grief over Sci-Fi vs SF or whatever acronym you wish to use, I was there in the 70's. The arguments were pointless then and are still pointless.

*** see what I did there. Also, don't try this road in a camper van if you don't want a heart attack every 100 meters

**** one of the few lasting effects of my European postdoctoral stint is a tendency to call murder mystery novels Krimi's, helped along by our Swedish friends sendinging us Scandinavian Krimi's. Hence the Jo Nesbo references.

Labels: book review

The New Moon is Wednesday February 22. Venus is easily visible in the western evening sky, drawing close to Jupiter. Jupiter dominates the evening sky in the north-west once Venus has set. Mars is in the eastern evening sky, not far from Saturn, which is near the star Spica. The Globe at Night light pollution survey is on from Feb 12-21.

Evening sky looking east as seen from Adelaide at 11:30 am local daylight saving time on Sunday February 12 showing Mars and Saturn, with the Moon very close to Spica. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. The inset shows the telescopic appearance of Saturn and it's Moons at this time. Click to embiggen.

The New Moon is Wednesday February 22.

Mars is in the constellation of Leo.

Mars is in the eastern sky late in the evening, rising around 9:15 pm (local daylight saving time), although it is still highest in the early morning. Mars continues to brightens rapidly.

Saturn is above the north- eastern horizon, not far from the bright star Spica. Saturn is high enough in sky in the early morning for telescopic observation, but is rising about 11:00 pm local daylight saving time.

Mercury is now lost in twilight.

Evening sky on Saturday February 18 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 8:30 pm local daylight saving time in South Australia showing Venus in Pisces, with Jupiter not far away. The insets shows the appearance of Venus and Jupiter and its Moons as seen telescopically at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen)

Bright white Venus is readily visible in the evening western twilight sky from around half an hour after sunset for somewhat over an hour and a half.

Venus is in Aquarius this week. It comes close to Epsilon Piscium on the 23rd. Venus may drown the star out with its brightness.

Jupiter was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on Saturday the 29th of October.

However, Jupiter is still a great binocular object. Jupiter is visible for most of the night in the north-western sky, setting half an hour after midnight.

In the evening Jupiter is readily visible in the northern-western sky, from about twilight. It is coming closer to Venus, and the pair look very nice in the western evening sky.

Now is a still good time for telescopic observation of this massive world (although the window for observation is narrowing), or follow its moons in binoculars. For good telescopic observation Jupiter is best from 9 pm - 10 pm.

Although Jupiter is the most prominent now, there are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Globe at Night, the international light pollution survey, is running its second survey this year from February 12-21. Visit their website for easy to follow instructions and charts to estimate how dark your sky is.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEDST, Western sky at 10 pm AEDST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch (this will be up dated to February a little later).

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

Northern sky at 10 pm local daylight saving time in Australia showing Orion.

Globe at Night, the international light pollution survey, is running its second survey this year from February 12-21. There are two more to come March 13-22 and April 11-20. Visit their website for easy to follow instructions and charts to estimate how dark your sky is.

Basically, an hour or so after sunset (8-10 pm) head out, look to the north to find Leo, (if you are in the northern hemisphere) or south to find Crux (for us southern hemisphere types) or Orion (for everybody) then check how many stars are visible, and report your observations. It's a great excuse to get outdoors and look at the sky. You might even see the International Space Station or an Iridium flare.

This year you can submit your results a smart phone or tablet. To do this, you can use the web application at www.globeatnight.org/webapp/. Globe at Night is also on Facebook and Twitter.

Labels: globe at night, light pollution

I'm virtually saturating the media at the moment.

This Sunday (19 February) I will be on Ashley Walsh's program on 891 ABC Adelaide at 11:40 am ACDST (UTC +10:30) talking about the upcoming year in astronomy.

If you are not in Adelaide the LiveStream will be here.

On Monday evening I did an interview with ABC local radio Port Piri on a new drug which might hold promise for treating Alzheimer's disease. If it wasn't clear from the interview, so many drugs show promise in animal models, but fail utterly in humans. Wait for the human clinical trials before getting excited.

Monday evening also saw a Today Tonight program screen on the homoeopath Monika Milka, which features an interview with me and a demonstration of what homoeopathic dilutions look like (see image above). It's on the web at Today Tonight Adelaide (currently it's the first video "homoeopath", it will scroll down as the days go on). If you scroll down further, the current second last video (Chemical Cans) has an interview with me as well, in which I get the last word. These will eventually scroll into the archive section but look for homoeopath and Chemical Cans will find them.

I also have an article coming up in The Conversation, so keep your eyes peeled. My previous articles are here and here.

Labels: scepticism, science communicators

Just a reminder that Australian Science Communicators SA is kicking off 2012 with SPEED NETWORKING and the SA Inspiring Australia grants Science communication is about people. We are lucky to have loads of science communicators in South Australia, some with years of experience, others with fresh approaches using innovative ways to communicate with their audiences. If you are new to science communication, this is the perfect way to make contacts and find out more about what ASCSA has to offer. You’ll also have the chance to hear about the SA Inspiring Australia grants available in 2012.

WHEN: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

WHERE: The Science Exchange,
55 Exchange Place
Adelaide, South Australia 5000
Australia

ENTRY Free, but please book through http://ascsaspeednetworking2012.eventbrite.com/

Labels: science communicators

Left image: The Kepler-20 solar system, simulated in Celestia. Right image: Simulation of the view from orbit around Kepler-20e, with Kepler-20b visible in the sky. Click on an image to embiggen.

The Kepler-20 system made a bit of a splash back in December, when it was announced that the system, previously known to have three Neptune sized worlds in it, had two Earth-sized worlds in it.

And this time Earth-Sized actually Means Earth-Sized, with the planets Kepler-20e being 0.87 times the radius of Earth and Kepler-20f being 1.03 times the radius of Earth. The previously smallest world was 1.42 times Earth’s radius, and most of the "Super Earths" are much larger.

This report was an important demonstration that earth-sized worlds can be picked up by Kepler. Kepler 20 is a G8 star very similar to the Sun, but its solar system is crammed into a space inside Mercury's orbit. Kepler-20e would have a surface temperature hotter than 1000 degrees C, and Kepler-20f would be more Venus like.

The interesting thing is that these are almost certainly rocky worlds. Many exoplanetary systems have gas giants very close to the parent star, and the current thinking is that the Gas giant form far out in the developing solar system, then migrate inwards. This should expel any rocky worlds closer to the star. The fact the Kepler-20e and f have survived suggests that we may still find terrestrial worlds in some of these systems (Kepler-20e could have been an ice-world that migrated in and had its ocean boiled off, leaving a rocky core, but Kepler-20f is too far out to be a boiled down ice-world).

You can read the NASA press release here, and thoughtful commentary by the Bad Astronomer and Emily Lakdawalla. The paper just came out in the print copy of nature, so I've used this as an excuse to make Celestia files for the system. One for the star (which isn't in the default files) and one for the planet.

As usual, copy the data here to plain text files (Kepler-20.stc and Kepler-20-planets.ssc), copy both of the files to the Celestia extras folder. The star is around 950 lightyears away in Lyra, so in the Celestia star browser, you will have to show around 500 stars to see Kepler-20 in the list.
I'll have to update my Celestia Exoplanet Tour as well.

===============Kepler-20.stc======================================
#Kepler survey

"Kepler-20"
{
RA 287.7000
Dec 49.3386
Distance 945.9 # light years from published data
SpectralType "G8"
AppMag 12.423
}
==============================================================================

==================Keper-20_Planets.ssc=================================
"b" "Kepler-20"

# Neptune like world
# All data from original papers

{
Texture "exo-class4.*"
NightTexture "exo-class4night.*"


Mass 8.7 # M.sin(i) = 8.7 Earth
Radius 12181.98 # 1.91 Earth radi, from paper

#InfoURL "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-20b"

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.0101
SemiMajorAxis 0.04537
Eccentricity 0.32
ArgOfPericenter 267 #guess
Inclination 86.50
#MeanAnomaly 271
}

# likely to be in captured synchronous rotation
}

AltSurface "limit of knowledge" "Kepler-20/b"
{
Texture "extrasolar-lok.*"

}

"c" "Kepler-20"

# Neptune like world

{
Texture "exo-class4.*"
NightTexture "exo-class4night.*"


Mass 16.1 # M.sin(i) = 16.1 Earth
Radius 19580.46 # 3.07 Earth radi, from paper

#InfoURL "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-20b"

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.0297
SemiMajorAxis 0.0930
Eccentricity 0.4
ArgOfPericenter 267 #guess
Inclination 88.39
#MeanAnomaly 271
}

# likely to be in captured synchronous rotation
}

AltSurface "limit of knowledge" "Kepler-20/c"
{
Texture "extrasolar-lok.*"
}

"d" "Kepler-20"

# Neptune like world

{
Texture "exo-class4.*"
NightTexture "exo-class4night.*"


Mass 20.17 # M.sin(i) = 20.1 Earth
Radius 17539.5 # 2.75 Earth radi, from paper

#InfoURL "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-20d"

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.21249
SemiMajorAxis 0.3453
Eccentricity 0.6
ArgOfPericenter 267 #guess
Inclination 89.570
#MeanAnomaly 271
}

# likely to be in captured synchronous rotation
}

AltSurface "limit of knowledge" "Kepler-20/d"
{
Texture "extrasolar-lok.*"
}

"e" "Kepler-20"

# earth like world

{
Texture "venussurface.*"
# Using venus although it may be a magma world


Mass 1.67 # M.sin(i) = 1.67 Earth, upper limit of theoretical range
Radius 3844.5167 # 0.868 Earth radi, from paper

#InfoURL "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-20e"

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.0167
SemiMajorAxis 0.05073
Eccentricity 0.28
ArgOfPericenter 267 #guess
Inclination 87.50
#MeanAnomaly 271
}

# likely to be in captured synchronous rotation
}

AltSurface "limit of knowledge" "Kepler-20/e"
{
Texture "venussurface.*"
OverlayTexture "ganymede-lok-mask.png"
}

"f" "Kepler-20"

# earth like world

{
Texture "ganymede.*"
# Using Ganymede as it may be giant ice world
# NightTexture "gasgiantnight.jpg"


Mass 3.04 # M.sin(i) = 3.04 Earth theoretical maximum
Radius 6569.34 # 1.03 Earth radi, from paper

#InfoURL "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-20f"

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.0536
SemiMajorAxis 0.11038
Eccentricity 0.32
ArgOfPericenter 267 #guess
Inclination 88.68
#MeanAnomaly 271
}

# likely to be in captured synchronous rotation
}

AltSurface "limit of knowledge" "Kepler-20/f"
{
Texture "ganymede.*"
OverlayTexture "ganymede-lok-mask.png"
}


==============================================================================

Labels: celestia, exoplanet, extrasolar planet

Carnival of Space #236 is now up at the AARTScope blog. There space drives for the future, amazing aurora, a recurrent nova in the Andromeda galaxy, why the Moons brightness is so variable, asteroids falling into black holes and much, much more. Pop on over and have a read.

Labels: carnival of space

A while back I reported on the recovery of comet C/2003 T13 SOHO (now renamed to P/2012 A3 SOHO). Now Comet Al has blogged about his experience here, accompanied by some great shots taken with iTelescope T11, a masterful piece of astrophotography where the comet is right on the limit of twilight.

Labels: comet, Comet Al, comets, iTelescope

Left image: Earth as seen from Mars looking north-west in the twilight of February 12, 2012, shortly after Sunset, as visualised in Stellarium. The location is approximately the same latitude on Mars as Adelaide is on Earth. The right image is what Earth would look like through a telescope. Click on any image to embiggen. An earlier version from November 2011 is here.

The evening sky on Mars is quite lovely at the moment, with Earth, Venus and bright Jupiter all lined up. Earth will disappear from view very soon as Mars moves into opposition (where the earth is directly between Mars and the Sun. From our point of view, Mars will be at it biggest and brightest and visible all night long).

Once again one of the top search terms for people visiting my blog, is "Earth from Mars", probably in response to more publicity about the "John Carter on Mars" movie. So, once more, here it is for you searchers.

Labels: Earth, Mars, stellarium

Caught this iridium flare as it passed below Canis Major (click to embiggen). Unfortunately, I was a bit late, so I jogged the camera as i tried to get the shot. Still, not too bad. There's another falre below Canis major tomorrow night, so I'll have another go then.

Labels: iridium flares

Australian Science Communicators SA is kicking off 2012 with SPEED NETWORKING and the SA Inspiring Australia grants

Science communication is about people. We are lucky to have loads of science communicators in South Australia, some with years of experience, others with fresh approaches using innovative ways to communicate with their audiences.

If you are new to science communication, this is the perfect way to make contacts and find out more about what ASCSA has to offer.

You’ll also have the chance to hear about the SA Inspiring Australia grants available in 2012.

WHEN: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

WHERE: The Science Exchange,
55 Exchange Place
Adelaide, South Australia 5000
Australia

ENTRY Free, but please book through http://ascsaspeednetworking2012.eventbrite.com/

Drinks can be purchased from the bar.

Labels: science communicators

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday February 15. Venus is easily visible in the western evening sky. Jupiter dominates the evening sky in the north-west once Venus has set. Mars is in the eastern evening sky, not far from Saturn, which is near the star Spica. On the 10th the waning Moon is near Mars, and on the 12th it is close to Saturn.

Evening sky looking east as seen from Adelaide at 11:30 am local daylight saving time on Sunday February 12 showing Mars and Saturn, with the Moon very close to Spica. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. The inset shows the telescopic appearance of Saturn and it's Moons at this time. Click to embiggen.

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday February 15.

Mars is in the constellation of Leo.

Mars is in the eastern sky late in the evening, rising around 9:30 pm (local daylight saving time), although it is still highest in the early morning. Mars brightens rapidly this week. The Moon is close to Mars on the 10th.

Saturn is above the north- eastern horizon, not far from the bright star Spica. Saturn is high enough in sky in the early morning for telescopic observation, but is rising about 11:00 pm local daylight saving time.

On the 12th, Saturn is close to the waning Moon, which is less than half a fingerwidth from the bright star Spica.

Mercury is now lost in morning twilight.

Evening sky on Saturday February 11 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 9:00 pm local daylight saving time in South Australia showing Venus in Aquarius, with Jupiter not far away. The insets shows the appearance of Venus and Jupiter and its Moons as seen telescopically at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen)

Bright white Venus is readily visible in the evening western twilight sky from around half an hour after sunset for somewhat over an hour and a half.

Venus is in Aquarius this week. It is closest to Uranus on the 10th. You will need binoculars to see Uranus, Venus may drown the planet out with its brightness.

Jupiter was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on Saturday the 29th of October.

However, Jupiter is still a great binocular object. Jupiter is visible for most of the night in the north-western sky, setting half an hour after midnight.

In the evening Jupiter is readily visible in the northern-western sky, from about twilight. It is coming closer to Venus, and the pair look very nice in the western evening sky.

Now is a still good time for telescopic observation of this massive world (although the window for observation is narrowing), or follow its moons in binoculars. For good telescopic observation Jupiter is best from 9 pm - 10 pm.

Although Jupiter is the most prominent now, there are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEDST, Western sky at 10 pm AEDST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch (this will be up dated to February a little later).

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

Carnival of Space #235 is now up at The Constant Amateur. There's solar storms, parallax for amateurs, Pluto an a Stamp and much, much more. Pop on over and have a look.

Labels: carnival of space

via @Plutokiller http://mkwc.ifa.hawaii.edu/current/cams/camsanim.cgi?location=subaru-E&mode=multi

Labels: miscelaneous

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd next to the globular cluster M92 (click to embigen).

These are just the preview images taken with iTelescope T4 and T 20 respectively. I've been remiss in blogging this fantastic comet/cluster pairing, but I've been organising graduate student lectures instead (missed out on two days of imaging because I was distracted by lecture preparation and didn't press the button to launch my observing run :-(.

Exhausted now, heading to bed, I'll do proper analysis on the FITS images tomorrow, after a long sleep.

Labels: C/2009 P1 Garradd, cluster, comet, comets, iTelescope