The CHESTERFIELD ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Newsletter February 2015
CAS website www.chesterfield-as.org.uk
Registered Charity No. 514048
Secretary: Marilyn Bentley
Newsletter: Sue Silver
newsletter@chesterfield-as.org.uk
President – Reinhold Gasser. Secretary – Marilyn Bentley. Treasurer – Graham Leaver.
Newsletter Editor – Sue Silver. Publicity Officer – Sue Torry, CAS Webmaster – Simon Instone, Committee Member:
– Geoff Fell.
Subscriptions - full membership £60
or £6 per month by Standing Order (10 months)
Senior citizens (60 yrs and over) and students (18 yrs and over) £40
or £4 per month by Standing Order (10 months)
Juniors members - (17 yrs and under) £0.
(All juniors must be accompanied by an adult who must be a fully paid up member).
CAS News
Open Day – Saturday 24th January 2015
The weather was reasonably kind to us which is always good on these occasions. We
had a steady stream of visitors from 1 pm onwards. Some visitors were with us up to
around 10 pm.
A big thank you to everybody who turned up on the day and helped out. Thanks
to Marilyn who carried out the unenviable task of taking money on the gate. Despite the
“on and off” weather we took £222.65 from donations and entry fees. Good work!
Also a big thank you to Mark Eustace who was giving talks throughout the day right
through to the end of the evening. Also to Reinhold, Rob and Peter for their talks.
Near Earth Asteroid 2004 BL86
A few of our members went to the Observatory to view this on Monday 26 th January.
This is from Rob McGregor...............
AN AUDIENCE WITH 2004 BL86
NEAR EARTH ASTEROID
Having recently signed up online with American astronomy magazine “Sky and
Telescope”, I received a notification that Earth was to have a close encounter with an
asteroid on the evening of Monday 26 January, and that it would be visible from the UK.
Not really thinking that we would stand a chance of seeing a Magnitude 10 object in
Chesterfield, I nevertheless contacted John Brown and asked if he would like to join me
and try to find it; I also asked Sue Silver to put an APB out to the general membership
inviting them to join us if the sky was clear.
In preparation, I read the “S&T” article online, and printed off the map showing the
object’s track (passing to the right of Hydra’s head, and then upward through Cancer),
and stars shown down to 9th Magnitude. The map was based on a viewpoint from the
centre of the Earth, so I cobbled together a correction for our viewpoint in the UK with
the aid of a planisphere, a globe, a calculator and the map pinned to a wall.
Shortly before I left for the observatory, the online weather forecast didn’t look good
between 8pm and 11pm, with cloud predicted. However I decided to proceed and I
arrived at the observatory at about 7.30pm. Pete arrived shortly after, and he set up the
scope while I made coffee.
We pointed the 18”scope (using a 32mm Plossl) at Jupiter first, which was a bit fuzzy
but otherwise steady. I collimated the finder with the scope. We went outside and saw
that it was clear, but with the light pollution we could not find Cancer with the naked eye,
and the only two stars we could see near the asteroid were the bright ones in Hydra’s
head. We lined up on one of these, and using the finder I started to star-hop between
the faint stars indicated on the map (which was difficult because the finder view was
reversed). John Brown, then John Bardwell, arrived in the meantime.
At about 8.30pm, after some breaks from the eyepiece and a couple of cups of coffee, I
settled on two stars that I thought were close to where the asteroid would be at 9pm and
I left the scope tracking. We had another break, and we went into the lecture room,
immediately ruining our night vision!
At 8.55pm I looked through the eyepiece (yes, amazingly it was still clear despite the
weather forecast), and at the top right edge, I saw a star that I hadn’t seen earlier. It was
difficult to tell if it was moving so I asked for Pete’s opinion, and he looked and thought
that it was. When I returned to the eyepiece, it had clearly moved downwards in the field
of view. We had found the asteroid! I called the two Johns into the dome and we took
turns to watch it drifting through some star fields for the next hour or so. Pete noticed
that the asteroid faded and brightened on a regular basis – perhaps it was rotating! At
9.55pm John Bardwell was at the eyepiece and noticed another body crossing the field
of view from left to right. It was travelling only slightly faster than the asteroid so it
stayed in the eyepiece long enough for us all to see it. So far we don’t know what it was,
but Paul Money later confirmed that he saw it as well.
At just after 10pm, we called it a night, all having seen something new - an asteroid
(possibly two?) motoring through the Solar System!
(Sorry Folks, our attempts to get photos of it failed)
PS: the video is just an artist’s impression of our first view of it (this is attached to the e-mail).
The “new” car park
For those of you who
have not visited the
Observatory over the
last few weeks you can
see that the drive and
parking areas are
complete.
What an improvement!!
Taken by Graham Leaver
Photo gallery..............
These are from Graham Leaver taken 29/12/14
This is from Graham Jenkinson of Comet Lovejoy.
He says “It was magnitude 4.4 the night of the 3rd january.r.a.4.40.7 dec-12.31 it is just
below and to the right of Orion, well worth a look at.”
That’s a good one!
These are from Graham Leaver.....
“I took 31 x 1min exposures and was able to guide on the comet itself so when I stacked
them the stars trailed. Focal plane of my Celestron 100mm ED f9 refractor ASA 1600”.
This is another one from Graham Leaver
“I had another go at Comet Lovejoy last night, did 23 x 2 min exposures and had a go at them
today, and with really stretching them even got a tail ! Really pleased at that given the sky glow
where I am”.
Here is another from Graham Jenkinson:“I took with my
Skywatcher
Startravel 120
refractor
telescope tonight
(16th). I think it’s
picked up a faint
tail on the comet.
It was a total
exposure time of
20 mins 40
frames stacked
with deep sky
stacker.”
I can see the tail
– great picture!
More from Graham Jenkinson taken Friday 16th January.
This photo
was taken
with my
skywatcher
refractor.
This one took a lot of
aligning to get both
the comet and M45 in
the same field of view
but only just !
It was a total
exposure time of 35
minutes.
This one takes some
beating!!!
They just keep on coming...........
Another one from Graham Jenkinson taken 26th January “it’s a 20 minute exposure at
800 asa taken with my refractor telescope”.
This is the same photograph. The 2nd one has had a bit more work done to show the
tail more clearly.
Things to see in February..........
Monday 1st
Mag. -3.8 Venus is 46 arcminutes south of mag. +8.0 Neptune.
The pair will be visible very low in the west-southwest as darkness
takes hold.
Tuesday 6th
Jupiter is at opposition today. The weeks around opposition
represent the best time to observe this dynamic planet as it now
appears at its biggest and brightest for the year.
Monday 9th
Jovian moon Io is partially eclipsed by the shadow of fellow moon
Ganymede between 21:05 and 21:12 hrs. The main darkening part
of the eclipse occurs from 21:07 until 21:11 hrs between which Io
should appear to dim.
Friday 13th
The 38% lit waning crescent Moon lies 3.5° east of Saturn. Both
are visible in the morning sky at around 06:00 hrs.
Sunday 15th
The Beehive Cluster, M44 in Cancer, is nearly 60° up and due
south at 23:00 hrs with Jupiter lying 9° east-southeast. Binoculars
will show the cluster well.
Monday 16th
Jovian moon Ganymede will partially occult fellow moon Io
between 23:18 and 23:24 hrs. This event will be followed by
Ganymede’s shadow partially eclipsing Io between 23:52 and 23:59
hrs.
Thursday 19th
Jupiter’s moon Io partially occults Ganymede between 23:40 and
23:54 hrs. Ganymede’s brightness should drop a little, Io’s shadow
will transit Ganymede’s disc (an annular eclipse) between 00:35
and 00:43 hrs.
Saturday 21st
This evening and the 22nd mag. +1.3 Mars and mag. -3.8 Venus are
separated by around 0.5° low in the western sky as darkness falls.
Monday 23rd
The Leo Triplet of galaxies is well placed in darkness at the
moment. The three member galaxies – M65, M66 and NGC 3628 –
can be seen with a small telescope. They are located in the back
legs of Leo, 50° up and due south at 01:30 hrs.
ASTROSTUFF
Helicopter could be 'scout' for Mars rovers
Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
A proposed helicopter could triple the distances that Mars rovers can drive in a Martian day and
help pinpoint interesting targets for study.
Getting around on Mars is a tricky business. Each NASA rover has delivered a wealth of
information about the history and composition of the Red Planet, but a rover's vision is limited
by the view of onboard cameras, and images from spacecraft orbiting Mars are the only other
clues to where to drive it. To have a better sense of where to go and what's worth studying on
Mars, it could be useful to have a low-flying scout.
Enter the Mars Helicopter, a proposed add-on to Mars rovers of the future that could potentially
triple the distance these vehicles currently drive in a Martian day, and deliver a new level of
visual information for choosing which sites to explore.
The helicopter would fly ahead of the rover almost every day, checking out various possible
points of interest and helping engineers back on Earth plan the best driving route. Scientists
could also use the helicopter images to look for features for the rover to study in further detail.
Another part of the helicopter's job would be to check out the best places for the rover to collect
key samples and rocks for a cache, which a next-generation rover could pick up later. The
vehicle is envisioned to weigh 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and measure 3.6 feet (1.1 meters)
across from the tip of one blade to the other. The prototype body looks like a medium-size cubic
tissue box.
The current design is a proof-of-concept technology demonstration that has been tested at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
FUN STUFF
Two men met at a bus stop and struck up a conversation. One of them kept complaining of
family problems. Finally, the other man said: “You think you have family problems? Listen to my
situation:
“A few years ago I met a young widow with a grown-up daughter. We got married and I got
myself a stepdaughter. Later, my father married my stepdaughter. That made my stepdaughter,
my step-mother and my father became my stepson. Also, my wife became mother-in-law of her
father-in-law.
Much later, the daughter of my wife, my stepmother, had a son. This boy was my half-brother
because he was my father’s son. But he was also the son of my wife’s daughter which made
him my wife’s grandson. That made me the grandfather of my half-brother.
This was nothing until my wife and I had a son. Now the half-sister of my son, my stepmother, is
also the grandmother. This makes my father, the brother-in-law of my child, whose stepsister is
my father’s wife, I am my stepmother’s brother-in-law, my wife is her own child’s aunt, my son is
my father’s nephew and I am my OWN GRANDFATHER!”
(Good luck with this one!!!!)
That’s all folks.
Sue
This newsletter is sent out to all present members without whom the Society could not survive. Also to
previous members and people with an interest in astronomy in the hope that they may wish to join/re-join
the Society.
If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter by e-mail please let us know. Thank you.