CAAPPEELLLLAA
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CAMBRIDGE ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION
www.caa-cya.org
Newsletter 177 Nov / Dec 2015
Registered Charity No. 800782
Farewell to Dippy. CAA and CYA members gather beneath the famous skeleton of the Diplodocus in the main hall of the Natural History Museum.
This skeleton arrived at the Museum in 1905 and has been in the main hall greeting people as they enter since 1979. Dippy will be removed next
year and replaced with a blue whale skeleton appearing to dive down from the ceiling, ….. Meanwhile, Dippy may be restored and travel around
the UK to be displayed at various sites. After the group photo we set off for the Science Museum pausing briefly to look at Sophie, a young
Stegosaurus, the Natural History Museum’s new dinosaur exhibit.
Incidentally, this is a near impossible field of view. Its amazing what Photoshop and lots of tea can do. Your Editor merged 7 photographs
together to make this near perfect group photo. Thanks go to John Whitehead and Dave Allen for all their pictures in this months Capella.
So just for fun, can you spot all the joins and where’s Brian?
Contents this month
Cover - CAA - CYA Trip to Science Museum ……..…....
Chairman’s Report & Courses / Events coming up …....
Speaker Meetings
20th Nov 2015 Dr Lewis Dartnell “Astrobiology in Space”
18th Dec 2015 Damian Peach “High Res Astrophotography”
“Capturing The Iris Nebula & neighbours” by David Davies….
A report on the Science Museum trip by David Roberts ….…..
Photos from the CAA - CYA Trip to London ……..….…...
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CYA News Public Observing, Website, Smart App, etc….
Capella notes and Loan Telescopes …….….…….……….
7 - 11yr Group Meetings ………….…..……...…………
Sat 28th Nov 2015 “Omens of Doom” …………………..
Sat 19th Dec 2015 “Pirates of the Caribbean” …………..
11+ Age group ……..……….…………….…..…………
Mon 2nd Nov 2015 Expansion of the Universe, what next?
Mon 7th Dec 2015 “Astronomy in 2016” …..…………….
CAA & CYA Who’s who contact info. 8
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Cambridge Astronomical Association
& Cambridge Young Astronomers
Chairman’s Report
I am happy to report that the combined CAA and CYA coach trip to London to visit the Natural History and Science
Museums went very well and was thoroughly enjoyable. A big thank you to Brian for all the hard work organising it
and getting over a hundred of us on the coaches, and there and back with breakfast too! You will see some photos here
in this issue. In fact by the time you read this we will be well into the new term and the public observing sessions will
also have kicked off. Some of the practices showed that we were all a bit rusty but I'm sure it will be alight on the night!
I'm looking forward to our "From the earth to the moon" star party too!
Paul
Courses / Events coming up
Exploring Galaxies
The Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education is running a course called Exploring Galaxies,
What's special about our corner of the Universe? How did our galaxy come to be and how might it change in future? This
course will explore the variety of galaxies, from near to far, 'ordinary' to exotic, and investigate how modern space
missions and observatories are changing our understanding of their habits and histories.
The course is taught by Dr Judith Croston, ICE academic director in astronomy and physical sciences. As well as
regularly teaching with us, she currently leads several international research projects investigating jets from
supermassive black holes using ground and space-based astronomical observatories. This weekend course starts on the
27 November and runs until Sunday 29 November.
For more information about this course and to sign up, please visit www.ice.cam.ac.uk/Galaxies-Weekend
Further information
This weekend course costs £260, which includes lunch & dinner over the weekend, refreshments, and tuition. It is also
possible to stay at the Institute’s home, Madingley Hall, over the weekend at an extra cost starting at £50 per night,
subject to availability.
New Scientist Astronomy Event
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Instant Expert: Frontier of Astronomy
A one-day masterclass – hosted by acclaimed author Stuart Clark and featuring six leading experts including Alan Stern
and Carolin Crawford.
Saturday 28th November at the British Library conference centre.
There is some more information about the event here:
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/instant-expert-frontiers-of-astronomy-tickets-18841355000?aff=es2
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Speaker Meetings
Friday 20th November 2015
Speaker : Dr. Lewis Dartnell
"Astrobiology in the Solar System and beyond."
This talk will look at the evidence for the possible habitats for life on the many
worlds of the solar system and beyond
Dr.Lewis Dartnell is a UK Space Agency Research Fellows based in the
Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester.
Friday 18th December 2015
Speaker : Damian Peach
"High Resolution Astrophotography"
Building on his state of the art experience in Astrophotography, Damian will talk
about how it is possible to push the limits of ground based observations and
imaging.
Damian Peach is a highly renowned astro-imager who has produced many
pictures of the planets, showing such detail that you would think you were right
there.
As this is the last meeting before Christmas, as well as festive nibbles and Christmas cake, there will be our
annual Mystery Objects Quiz set by last year’s winner Margaret Sanderson. The winner of the quiz will
receive one of the original stars that used to adorn the base of the telescope dome of the Mead Observatory
building built in 1824, and an 19th century hand coloured print of the Mead building. The winner will also
get to set next year’s quiz and hand the trophies over to next ‘lucky’ winner.
These speaker meetings will be in the Hoyle building of the Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge.
Doors will open at 7.30 pm. and the talks will begin at 8:00 p.m. For security reasons, entry will not be possible
after 8:10pm. As usual, the library will be open before and after the lecture. Refreshments will be available after the
lecture. These meetings are free to members. Non-members are charged £1
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Members Contributions
Capturing The Iris Nebula: Caldwell 4, LBN 487, vDB 139 and NGC 7023
Image and article David Davies
The Iris Nebula in Cephus is an object that I've always wanted to image and I was lucky to get a couple of clear
nights on 5 and 9 September to attempt it. The nebula is formed by the reflected light from a magnitude 7 star
embedded in a dark cloud. A gap in the
cloud reveals the star cluster NGC 7023.
My objective was to reveal as much as I
could of the extent of the dark clouds that
the nebula sits in. I therefore used a Equinox
ED120 refractor plus a 0.85x reducer to
give an 82 x 61 arcminute field of view at
image scale of 1.45 arcseconds per pixel.
The two clear nights enabled me to capture
two hours of luminance data plus three
hours of RGB data in 7-minute subs.
Subsequent
image
processing
has
demonstrated that I need a lot more data to
reduce noise in the darker regions of the
nebula but we've not had one good night
since. So I've tried to make the best of the
data I have.
Equipment:
Telescope: Skywatcher Equinox ED120
refractor plus 0.85 reducer
Camera: QSI 583 plus Astrodon LRGB
filters and SX Lodestar off-axis guider
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6
Software: Nebulosity, Scopefocus, PHD2,
EQMOD, CdC
Location: Cambridge UK
Image processing:
Pixinsight, Photoshop CC 2015
A high resolution version of the image is available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/amyz7bywmdjnpno/C4_NGC7023_LRGB.png?dl=0
I am sure that the members of CAA - CYA would like to know that David has been featured with the image of M27
on the cover of the latest BAA journal. In addition, he has also made the cover of Popular Astronomy with images
of M92 and M5 making a full page spread inside. Well done David.
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Members Contributions
CAA - CYA visit to the Science Museum
Article by David Roberts
On 26 September I was one of 116 people that went up to the Science Museum on a trip
arranged by Cambridge Astronomical Association (CAA). Two coaches had been hired to take
us to the museum from the Institute of Astronomy (IoA) and as we were to pass through the
Natural History Museum, the coaches were named Dippy and Sophie. Dippy was the quiet
coach with mostly adults on board. Sophie was the noisy one with mostly excited children (and
their parent(s) on board). Entertainment was provided by a couple of committee members.
The two coaches that were taking
members to London were labelled
up Dippy Diplodocus the quiet
coach and Sophie Stegosaurus the
not-so-quiet coach, Paul clearly
knows which one he’s travelling in!
It was an early start with tea, coffee, orange juice plus toast and marmalade
or jam from 07.10 at the Institute of Astronomy. Yours truly was toast
master merrily making toast and putting margarine on. With the help of a
couple of other members putting marmalade etc on we got through 4 loaves
of bread and all the margarine. As this was finishing we were ‘ticked of’ and
made our way to the coaches and after a slight query (a couple of people had
not been ‘ticked off’) we were off just after 08.00 on our way to London.
We arrived at almost the appointed time of 10.00 and made our way into the
Natural History Museum and we all wandered off in search of various bits
but with an instruction that we had to be back by Dippy the Diplodocus in the museum for
a group photo. This happened and we were then led around to the Science Museum.
After the Museum let us in, the first group queued up to do the cosmonaut exhibition for
11.15. This was very interesting as some if not most of the exhibits had not been seen in
the west before.
the west before. I thoroughly enjoyed
getting up close to these things and there
were interesting informative panels to go
with them. This group were then free till
13.40 to wander around the Museum and
I did the rocket area and mechanical.
Two more groups went into the
cosmonaut exhibition. After a spot of
lunch I made my way to the IMAX
cinema and with all the group watched a
film that I felt was good but more aimed
at youngsters or those with lesser knowledge of astronomy.
That is a comment not a criticism of the film or the museum.
As we had to climb a number of stairs to get to the IMAX
theatre there was a bit of a rush for the group who had been
first into the cosmonaut exhibition as we were to get back
to the area we had met to see the film. This was because we
were booked into the ‘Apollo’ experience. This was
interesting in that there was a short film with one of the
Apollo astronauts explaining what it was like to go on one
of the missions and then we were taken into another area to’
experience the launch etc. This was a film (some of it from
cameras attached to Saturn V) and the seats rocked etc at take
off or shuddered when separation took place. Altogether an
interesting experience in my view.
For the other groups a bit of wandering around and looking at
items, then the ‘Apollo’ experience but for my group a chance
for liquid refreshment and a further look at exhibits. We were
told to be back at the coach drop off point before 16.45 and most
of us were as this was the time we were planned to leave London.
After a few minutes the late comers were aboard and by
16.55 we were on our way. The traffic was a lot worse
than in the morning but eventually
we were outside London and
cruising nicely. The planned
arrival time back at the IoA was
planned for 18.45 but varied
slightly to 19.00. In fact we
arrived back almost precisely
between 18.45 and 19.00. A long
day but for me an
enjoyable one. A quick
dash back to St Neots
for me as I has
previously arranged to
collect my better half
from the station on her
return from a painting
holiday in Scotland.
CYA members making a 3D plan of the
Natural History and Science museums,
which included Dippy and Sophie
skeletons, a blue whale, a dodo, Apollo
10 capsule, Stephenson’s Rocket and
the lens mechanism of a lighthouse
from Devon.
Photos by Dave Allen
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CAA CYA Coach Trip
London Science and Natural History Museums
Saturday 26th September 2015
This Ammonite Fossil is an
ancient Cephalopod
1957 Sputnik 1 Replica
The most intact Stegosaurus Fossil Skeleton ever found at
three metres tall and six metres Long exhibited in the Earth
Hall at the Natural History Museum.
Apollo 10 Command Module carrying astronauts Thomas
Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan was launched in May
1969 on a lunar orbital mission as the dress rehearsal for the
actual Apollo 11 landing.
USA Astronaut
1944 V2 Rocket Engine
1970 British Black Arrow R4 Rocket Launcher Engine Exhaust
Array. This was a three-stage vehicle, 12.87m tall. The first two
stages were liquid-propelled while the third used a solid fuel
motor.
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CAA News
Subscriptions for next year
Our subscription rates for next year will remain at £4 for those of you paying by regular standing order, and £5 if you choose to pay
just year-by-year in cash, cheque or via electronic banking. We have removed the option for new members to choose the £10 service
that was offered in previous years and for which we posted you a printed copy of the newsletter. This is because most new members
can access it on line and download their own copy and of course print it out if they want to.
A word about paying the fees for Subscriptions, Star Parties and Trips using Electronic Internet banking. You of course can do this,
by logging into YOUR Internet banking service and making a payment direct to our account using these details:
Account Name: CAMBRIDGEASTRONOMICALASS
Account number : 10679844
Sort Code : 20-17-22
When you do this you will be asked for a "reference" - please put SUBS or STARPTY or TRIP followed by your name. Note that
you can only use up to 18 characters in most internet banking systems so you will have to abbreviate it.
For example STARPTY PMFELLOWS will fit!
These details are on the website and the events pages and subscription pages now all link to a page that we also need you to use if you pay
us this way. On that page you can fill in who you are, what you are booking and how much you paid us, and the reference you used. This
helps us work out who has sent us money and why so that we can book you correctly.
We don't have access to your bank details or take anything from your account, and this keeps you safe.
Public Observing Sessions.
These sessions carry on every Wednesday from 7.15pm, it's best if you arrive early at these evening can get very busy especially when
it's clear. There's a talk by someone from the Institute of Astronomy, for the talk schedule see the Institute website
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk If it's clear there's observing with the historic telescopes and the big screen telescope projection set up
operated by the CAA. If it's cloudy there's a consolation cuppa followed by another short talk or two.
Capella Editors notes to members.
Loan Telescopes.
Thanks to our member David Roberts for his interesting
contribution on page 5.
Now is a good time to book a telescope especially as the
instruments have been augmented thanks to the IoA.
We have a pool of nine telescopes and one set of giant
binoculars in our loan programme and all are designed to be
extremely easy to use, but of course we will be happy to show
you exactly what to do.
Come on please don’t be shy!! Remember you are all invited
to contribute anything as a suitable article with photos for
Capella. It is carefully typeset, abridged if necessary and
published every alternative month. Not every item can be
published in the month that you submit it but we will always try
to incorporate your articles where possible. So it could be yours
in the next one.
Please try to submit at least 4 weeks in advance of publication.
I would ask that any information you wish to include must be in
standard text or preferably formatted as a Word document. If
you embed any pictures for your story, please also sent separate
good quality JPG files smaller than 10mb. You can contact me
by email on any content or publication issue at
richard@rwhitestudios.co.uk
Please remember that two of the telescope will not fit in a
standard sized car - the long focus planetary telescope and the
Behemoth. The Behemoth, especially, is not a one person
telescope! As well as being big it is also heavy, and really does
need two people to shift it.
The other telescopes will fit across the back seats of most cars,
and are recommended for first time users of our loan telescopes.
Visit our website (www.caa-cya.org) and click to book an
instrument, or alternatively please ring Mickey Pallett on
01480 493045.
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CYA Meetings
7-11 Year Group
Saturday 28th November 2015 at 10:00am
“Omens of Doom”
For a large part of history, comets were considered bad luck, bringing with them death and/or turmoil especially for kings and other
rulers. While the rest of the inhabitants would have to put up with pestilence or plague. But now several comets have been visited by
space probes and we understand how they behave, what they’re made of and where they come from. There are frequent comets
zooming into the inner solar system, most unfortunately are faint or brighten only when close to the Sun – we are long overdue a really
bright comet (especially in the Northern hemisphere) like the Great comets of 1680,1744, 1843 and 1882 – so keep your fingers crossed!
Saturday 19th December 2015 at 10:00am
“Pirates of the Caribbean”
Blistering barnacles! It’s that time of year when bad jokes have been dragged up from the bilges, brought up on deck and forced to
walk the plank and topple off never to be heard of again (hopefully!).
Between dogs that are scurvy and timbers being shivered there is Astronomy to be found. Of course there will be party food
including ship’s biscuits - weevils are optional!
11+ group meetings
Monday 2nd November 2015 at 19:15pm
“Expansion of the Universe - what happens next?”
Over 85 years ago Edwin Hubble published a paper that would lead to the realization that the Universe was expanding, and by
working out the rate the Universe was expanding we could work out the age of the Universe.
Since then there has been many twists and turns in this theory, with astronomers sometimes disagreeing with each other.
Monday 7th December 2015 at 19:15pm
“Astronomy in 2016”
Looking at astronomy in 2016, what is going to happen, and what to see in the night sky.
If it is clear we will go outside to have a guided tour of the winter sky.
Chairman: Paul Fellows
Treasurer & Membership Secretary: Mickey Pallett
Secretary: Michael Jenkins
Committee: Dave Allen, Kevin Black, Paul Drake, Clive Gilchrist,
Clive Holt, Barry Warman, Christopher Wright and Brenda Field.
Capella Editor and DTP Setter: Richard White richard@rwhitestudios.co.uk
Members should send stories for inclusion where possible by email to Richard.
Alternatively send them to Brian Lister Tel: 01223 420954 (evenings) or
email btl@cam.ac.uk
President: Jim Hysom
Vice President: Carolin Crawford
Vice Chairman: Brian Lister
Cambridge Young Astronomers (both groups): Brian Lister Tel: (evenings)
01223 420954 or email btl21@cam.ac.uk
Telescopes for hire to members: Mickey Pallett Tel: 01480 493045 or
book on -line.
Loan Telescope maintenance: Dave Allen, email day.vid@hotmail.co.uk
Library: Kevin Black Tel: 01223 473121
Website: www.caa-cya.org