Astronomy Cast 328: Telescope Making, Part 2

By: Fraser Cain

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Astronomy Cast 328: Telescope Making, Part 2 - Video

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Dec-2013

Contact: Dave Finley dfinley@nrao.edu 575-835-7302 National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Using the new capabilities of the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), scientists have discovered previously-unseen binary companions to a pair of very young protostars. The discovery gives strong support for one of the competing explanations for how double-star systems form.

Astronomers know that about half of all Sun-like stars are members of double or multiple-star systems, but have debated over how such systems are formed.

"The only way to resolve the debate is to observe very young stellar systems and catch them in the act of formation," said John Tobin, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). "That's what we've done with the stars we observed, and we got valuable new clues from them," he added.

Their new clues support the idea that double-star systems form when a disk of gas and dust whirling around one young star fragments, forming another new star in orbit with the first. Young stars that still are gathering matter from their surroundings form such disks, along with jet-like outflows rapidly propelling material in narrow beams perpendicular to the disk.

When Tobin and an international team of astronomers studied gas-enshrouded young stars roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth, they found that two had previously-unseen companions in the plane where their disks would be expected, perpendicular to the direction of the outflows from the systems. One of the systems also clearly had a disk surrounding both young stars.

"This fits the theoretical model of companions forming from fragmentation in the disk," Tobin said. "This configuration would not be required by alternative explanations," he added.

The new observations add to a growing body of evidence supporting the disk-fragmentation idea. In 2006, a different VLA observing team found an orbiting pair of young stars, each of which was surrounded by a disk of material. The two disks, they found, were aligned with each other in the same plane. Last year, Tobin and his colleagues found a large circumstellar disk forming around a protostar in the initial phases of star formation. This showed that disks are present early in the star formation process, a necessity for binary pairs to form through disk fragmentation.

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New studies give strong boost to binary-star formation theory

Ted Wolfe captured this image using the telescope installed in his Naples backyard.

Astrophotographer Ted Wolfe looks up at the night sky through telescopes from his home in Southwest Florida and photographs it through specialized cameras. His pictures of colliding galaxies, dying stars, supernovas, glowing nebulas, etc., are published in the leading national magazines in the field of astronomy. Exhibits of his pictures have appeared in numerous science museums, universities and institutions, including a 20-month show featuring a large number of his images at the Kennedy Space Center. A full collection of his pictures are on permanent display at the Center for Space Studies at the University of Florida.

Nebulas in space can form intriguing shapes that can bring our imagination into play. This object is a good example. A man named Robert Burnham wrote a classic astronomy book called the Celestial Handbook. Burnham saw a throne or pedestal shape in this picture and he titled the object The Throne of God.

While its more common name is the Cone Nebula, I have always preferred the more dramatic Throne of God. In this heavenly setting the role of God is being played by a brilliant blue-white seventh-magnitude star named (undramatically) HD 47887. It seems to be hovering right over the throne.

Making the whole thing even more pertinent to the holidays is the fact that HD47887 is also part of another, much larger object, not shown here, which is called the Christmas Tree Cluster. It is an open cluster of bright young stars which form the shape of a Christmas tree with HD47887 being the top star on the tree.

So this wonderful blue star fires our imagination different ways depending on what we see around it governed by the size of the field covered by the telescope.

It gets better or more Christmassy. The man who discovered the throne was Sir William Herschel, the great English astronomer. When did he discover it? Well, the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 1785. Unfortunately, Herschel was a mathematician, not a literary figure. He named it simply H V.27. So much for putting a little pizzazz on it.

The throne lies about 2,600 light years away from us over in the constellation Monoceros. This is in the relatively nearby Orion arm of the galaxy not to be confused with the Orion constellation, although many of the objects in the constellation reside in that spiral arm.

The thrones size is about seven light years in length. This makes it a pretty large object. Remember that one light year is equal to 6 trillion miles.

What is the throne made out of? It is a pillar of gas and dust that has been carved out of the surrounding red field of gaseous nebulosity. The bright blue star above it, HD47887, is a spectral type B3 giant. It would appear that the ultraviolet radiation from this star is the cause of the trunk-like shape of the throne.

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Looking Up: The Throne of God: A very appropriate nebula for the holidays

Newly Discovered 400-Foot Asteroid To Zip Past Earth | Orbit Animation

December 30th, 2013

The space rock was discovered on Dec. 23rd, 2013 and will be makes its closest approach to Earth (3.6 lunar distance) on Jan. 3rd, 2014. Its is estimated to be 102 meters or 400 feet-wide.

WATCH LIVE NOW: Russian Cosmonauts Taking 7-Hour Spacewalk Outside Station

December 27th, 2013

Two Russian cosmonauts are tackling a seven-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (Dec. 27) to install commercial high-resolution cameras and other new experiments on the orbiting lab's hull. You can watch the spacewalk live here.

Mars Express to Fly Within 'Touching Distance' of Moon Phobos (Video)

December 23rd, 2013

A European spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet is set to make its closest flyby yet of the largest Martian moon, Phobos, on Sunday (Dec. 29).

Saturn's Rings and Clouds Dominate Amazing New Photo

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Astronomy News - Space Science - Articles and Images | Space.com

December 30, 2013

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Astronomy enthusiasts will be able to ring in the new year with a January 1 supermoon one of two that will occur during the first month of 2014, and the first of five that will take place before the end of the calendar year.

The second supermoon will occur on January 30, according to Bruce McClure of Earthsky. However, the moon will be at the new phase on both days, meaning that very few people will actually be able to see the phenomena.

At the vicinity of new moon, the moon hides in the glare of the sun all day long, rising with the sun at sunrise and setting with the sun at sunset, McClure explained, noting that the people living in far-western North America or on islands in the Pacific Ocean might be able to spot an extremely-thin young moon with binoculars after sunset.

Why western North America? Thats the last largely populated time zone before January 2 dawns at the International Date Line, he added. By the time the sun sets there, the moon will have had time to pull some distance away from the sun on the skys dome so careful observers might spot it!

By definition, a supermoon does not require the moon to be full, McClure said. Richard Nolle, the astrologer credited with inventing the term, defined them as any moon at or within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth (361,863 kilometers), meaning that the January 1 and January 30 moons technically qualify.

While it might be disappointing that neither January supermoon will be largely visible, it is interesting to note that this will be the last time that two will occur in a single calendar month until January 2018. Fortunately, the three remaining 2014 supermoons which will occur in July, August and September will all be full moons.

On the morning of June 23, 2013, the moon was in a nearly full moon phase when it was at its closest point, also known as perigee. According to redOrbits Dr. John P. Mills, at 7:32am on that day, the moon was closer to Earth than it was at any point during the year, resulting in a more impressive supermoon than can be expected this Wednesday.

Even so, Dr. Mills said that the June 23 supermoon was actually not that great, and that better ones would be coming in the years ahead. The best one of the century wont happen until December 6, 2052, he added, and the Moon will not cross within 356,400 kilometers until January 1, 2257 (356,371 km).

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January Will Be A Super Month For Supermoons

Astronomy Forecast - Asteroids, Fireballs, Quadrantids Meteor shower, Venus, Winter Circle
December 28, 2013 2011 BT15 0.0322 AU 12.5 LD Size 120-270m CLose Approach 3:33 p.m. UT 2011 YD29 0.0157 AU 6.1 LD 1457.027 miles Size 15-33m Close Approach...

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Astronomy Forecast - Asteroids, Fireballs, Quadrantids Meteor shower, Venus, Winter Circle - Video

Voivod - Astronomy Domine (Radio Edit)
pink floyd cover.

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Voivod - Astronomy Domine (Radio Edit) - Video

Outreach: The Real Astronomy - Why should we do astronomy?
First published: Feb 15, 2009 Professional Astronomers talk about why astronomy is important for society. This is the ninth and last podcast in the "Real Ast...

By: Swinburne Commons

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Outreach: The Real Astronomy - Why should we do astronomy? - Video

The Year In Astronomy 2013 Trailer
Hello Space Fans! Join Tony Darnell and Scott Lewis as they discuss the most important and amazing events of astronomy in 2013! On 27 December 2013 at 8 p.m....

By: Deep Astronomy

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The Year In Astronomy 2013 Trailer - Video

Vintage telescope masterclass - Hand held telescopes (Part 2)
In this episode we take a first look at two important developments in the hand-held telescope -- the achromatic lens and the subsequent rapid proliferation o...

By: Astronomy and Nature TV

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Vintage telescope masterclass - Hand held telescopes (Part 2) - Video

Distant Starlight - Creation Astronomy Now
A discussion of the Distant starlight problem as seen on the Creation Astronomy Now Podcast Episode 8 http://www.creationastronomynow.com/episode8 Download t...

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Distant Starlight - Creation Astronomy Now - Video

CUPERTINO -- The lights went down in the cavernous theater and the children gasped with excitement. They had waited weeks for the show. They were bouncing in their chairs, whispering to friends, gazing up at the screen with big smiles.

The latest Disney movie? "Iron Man"? "Hunger Games"?

Hardly. Today's marquee attraction wasn't about cartoons or superheroes, but about eclipses and the moon's orbit, space travel and constellations. And the kids in attendance weren't the sons and daughters of Palo Alto tech entrepreneurs visiting an expensive private space camp. They were 114 third-graders, nearly all Latino, from Rocketship Si Se Puede Academy, an East San Jose elementary school where 91 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunches and 66 percent are English-language learners.

The planetarium's dome screen comes alive as students from Rocketship Si Se Puede visit Fujitsu Planetarium at De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif. on Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. (Jim Gensheimer, Bay Area News Group)

"Has anybody seen the moon lately?" said astronomer Karl von Ahnen.

Dozens of hands shot up. "What did it look like?" he asked. "Full moon!" shouted the kids, all wearing matching purple shirts. "That's right," he said. "It's big and bright right now. Let's talk about why it looks that way."

For the past three years, similar scenes have played out at the Fujitsu Planetarium at De Anza College in Cupertino. The facility, which last year hosted 30,000 Bay Area children in school field trips to supplement their class work and spark interest in science, has been able to drop the $5 per-student admission for schools in low-income areas, allowing roughly 3,000 kids a year who otherwise wouldn't have a chance to visit the planetarium to come for free.

But now the donations to fund the free program have run out. Dozens of teachers eager to immerse their 8- and 9-year-olds in hands-on science from schools across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties are being turned away.

"You feel like it's not fair. We all feel awful," said Caron Blinick, dean of community and continuing education at De Anza. "We know that for many of these students it's a critical part of their learning. Every student should have the same opportunity."

With help from Wish Book readers, the planetarium hopes to raise $15,000 so it can provide field trips to another 3,000 low-income children next year. They money funds staff time, utilities and other basic costs to run the facility, which was built in 1967 and upgraded in 2007 with state-of-the-art equipment.

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Wish Book: Astronomy field trips open up new horizons for students

Astronomy Forecast - Asteroids, Fireballs, Comet Ison, Winter Solstice, Big Dipper
December 20, 2013 2013 WR45 0.0446 AU 17.4 LD Size 18-40m Close Approach 3:17 a.m. UT 2013 CL19 0.0976 AU 38.0 LD Size 120-260m Close Approach 5:17 p.m. UT 2...

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Astronomy Forecast - Asteroids, Fireballs, Comet Ison, Winter Solstice, Big Dipper - Video

Outreach: The Real Astronomy - Astronomy is a Collaborative effort
First published: Jan 21, 2009 Professional Astronomers talk about the importance of collaborations for astronomy. Many astronomy projects are now so large in...

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Outreach: The Real Astronomy - Astronomy is a Collaborative effort - Video

The Year in Astronomy 2013
Please join Tony Darnell and Scott Lewis on 27 December at 8 p.m. EST as we celebrate that ISON didn #39;t kill us and discuss some of the biggest astronomy stor...

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The Year in Astronomy 2013 - Video

Astronomy Cast 327: Telescope Making, Part 1
Why pick up a low quality, wobbly telescope from the department store when you can craft your own - just like Galileo, and all the great astronomers from his...

By: Fraser Cain

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Astronomy Cast 327: Telescope Making, Part 1 - Video

What is Space? Where does it Begin? - What is Astronomy - MoT Basics of Astronomy
Justin Higgins discusses how the start of space is hard to define because the atmospheres density changes as you go higher in altitude. But, we need a define...

By: minutesofteaching

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What is Space? Where does it Begin? - What is Astronomy - MoT Basics of Astronomy - Video

If youre curious about what lies in the worlds beyond ours, Tennessee State University has just the thing.

For the third year, TSUs astronomy department has released a wall calendar filled with amazing images and fascinating scientific facts about the galaxies, stars and planets out in space. Its free to anyone interested.

We thought it was a really good opportunity for public outreach and to share some of the exciting results our research team is doing at TSU, said Matthew Muterspaugh, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at TSU and an astrophysicist. We thought this would be a good forum to spread this information.

The calendar is put together by undergraduates who do the research, compile the information and create the colorful pages for each month. Along with information about what TSU is researching in space, the calendar also includes interesting factoids that will liven up any New Years Eve party: Who knew that on Jan 7, 1610, Galileo discovered there are moons orbiting Jupiter? Or that Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879?

The calendar includes popular sky items and also ones that are related to the research were doing at TSU, Muterspaugh said. In particular, the calendar includes observations made with TSUs fully robotic telescopes that are located in Southern Arizona. They are operated from downtown Nashville.

Each year the calendar has gotten better and better, he said. This year is the best yet. They are all new images this year. We have not had to repeat any images in three years.

Last years calendar included images of a dwarf galaxy 10 million light-years away, the Bubble Nebula, created from stellar wind from a massive young central star, and the constellation Andromeda, 300 light-years away. Its mind-blowing.

In a state that needs hard-science graduates, TSU has become a rising star. In 2008, two TSU astronomers made a discovery that caused an international stir in the science world. Gregory Henry and Francis Frekel, as part of a national team, revealed that in a faraway solar system about as old as the Earths, two planets had collided and annihilated one another, leaving a dense cloud of warm dust. It raised new questions about whether there might have been life there before that happened. The findings were published.

TSU scientists also participated in the widely controversial debate over the definition of a planet that demoted Pluto from planet status to dwarf planet. Just last week, Muterspaugh participated in research at Lowell Observatory.

Astronomy is one of those fields that is as old as human thought, Muterspaugh said. Everybody has an innate desire to wonder whats out there. Are we alone? What is our role in the universe? The calendar is an opportunity for outreach to the sciences in general. We have such a strong research component in astronomy, we hope to encourage people.

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Gail Kerr: Seek new worlds with TSU astronomy calendar

Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) December 24, 2013

Vito Technology has announced the release of their award-winning astronomy guide Star Walk for Android. Star Walk is an educational augmented reality app for spotting over 200,000 stars, planets, constellations, satellites and galaxies in the night sky. The Android version includes everything users need to navigate through the night sky, learn about any object, travel in time to a specific date and much more.

Star Walk is a handy astronomy guide that shows celestial objects (stars, constellations, satellites, etc.) in the exact positions on the sky above, providing comprehensive information about them. It helps anyone even remotely interested in astronomy find their way across the sky, determine where to look for any chosen object, rewind or fast-forward time to see how celestial bodies move. It inspires curiosity about the Universe and helps understand amazing cosmic phenomena.

The main and the most impressive feature of the app is called Star Spotter. It turns on automatically when users hold their device over their head towards the sky and starts following their motions as they pan around. The image on the device will correspond the actual star map for that location. If the device has a back-facing camera, it can be used in the Augmented Reality mode to overlay actual sky images with Star Walk map.

Having looked around, users might want to learn more information on something they find interesting. They can just tap the object and an (i) will appear next to its name. Star Walk information database was built in collaboration with European Space Agency (ESA) to provide users with most accurate data and stunning pictures.

App Highlights:

Language Support:

English, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish

Device Requirements:

Android 4.0 120 MB

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Award-Winning Stargazing Guide Star Walk Now Available on Android

Andors new Astronomy Brochure brings together a wide range of high performance astronomy cameras, offering technical information, specifications, case studies and application recommendations.

Belfast Andor Technology plc (Andor), a world leader in scientific imaging and spectroscopy solutions, today announced the launch of its Cameras for Astronomy brochure, providing an overview of Andors astronomy products. The brochure is rich with information, covering camera technology overviews (CCD, EMCCD and sCMOS), and providing detailed information on individual cameras, including specifications, applications and selected case studies. The brochure also provides links to even more detailed information via Andors Learning Center, a portal to further resources including concise technical briefs and key features videos.

Andor has been a supplier of high performance cameras for the astronomy community for over 15 years, with an outstanding reputation for delivering off the shelf solutions, cutting edge next generation technology and bespoke solutions via the unique Customer Special Request (CSR) function within engineering. As well as being the leading manufacturer of deep cooled back-illuminated CCDs, single photon sensitive EMCCD cameras, a key technology for astronomy applications such as adaptive optics or lucky imaging, Andor continues to bring new technologies to the market. The cutting edge Scientific CMOS (sCMOS) range has become the camera of choice for the Solar Astronomer.

Colin Duncan, Physical Sciences ApplicationSpecialist at Andor, said; I am delighted to be able to showcase our exciting portfolio of astronomy cameras. The clear layout, the multi-layered information sources and the sectioning into the main detector technologies, CCD, EMCCD and our newest ground breaking sCMOS technology, makes this a great gateway into our products.

For further information please visit http://www.andor.com/astronomy.aspx

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Andor Launches Cameras for Astronomy Brochure