Download december 2012 - Holt Planetarium

FRIENDS OF THE PLANETARIUM NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2012
Season’s greetings everyone and the season is Jupiter viewing season. The largest planet in our solar
system is a very bright object clearly visible in the northern sky. Jupiter currently sits among the stars of
Taurus the Bull. The reddish coloured star Aldebaran, representing one of the bull’s eyes, is just a few
degrees to the right of Jupiter. Aldebaran is a red giant star about 40 times the diameter of the Sun. The
inverted V-shape of stars running above and between Aldebaran and Jupiter is the face of the bull. This
group of stars, not including Aldebaran, is known as the Hyades star cluster. Jupiter is a fantastic object
to look at through binoculars or a telescope. On a clear night the equatorial cloud bands and four of
Jupiter’s moons are clearly visible. These four moons, known as the Galilean moons, orbit Jupiter so
quickly that their positions can be seen changing in just a single evening’s viewing.
In November, several of us went to Australia to witness the total solar eclipse. It was an incredible
experience, meeting new friends, visiting some amazing places, and witnessing one of Nature’s greatest
natural wonders. The late Sir
Patrick Moore (more about
Sir Patrick later) once said
“There is nothing in Nature to
rival the glory of a total
eclipse of the Sun. No written
description, no photograph,
can do it justice.” He was
right. It is one of the few
things in Nature that you
can’t possibly describe to
someone who hasn’t had the
experience. Astrophysicist
and legendary eclipse chaser
Fred Espenak has a rating
scheme for natural wonders. "On a scale of 1 to 10,"
he says, "total eclipses are a million." Apparently, this
is true even when the eclipse is almost completely
clouded out. NASA production editor Tony Phillips
experienced such an eclipse on Four Mile Beach
outside the resort town of Port Douglas. “Even now, I
can't quite get it out of my mind. Maybe a million is an
underestimate, after all.” These two photos were
taken by one of our new friends, Greg Priestley. He
had nine cameras on the go throughout the eclipse.
The first one (above) is about as close to a human eye
view as possible. The second (right) shows the
corona, part of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, as a wispy
glow surrounding the outline of the lunar disc.
Astronomers, both professional and amateur, throughout the world, were saddened to hear of the death
of Sir Patrick Moore in December. He was the reason many of them became interested in the stars in the
first place. For 55 years, from 26 April 1957 until his final broadcast on 3 December 2012, he was the
monthly guide to the stars, earning him a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longestserving TV presenter of the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history,
The Sky at Night. During his 55 years as presenter he only missed a single episode and from 2004 the
programme was broadcast from his home as arthritis meant he was unable to travel to the studios any
longer. He was Director of the newly constructed Armagh Planetarium in Northern Ireland from 1959
until 1968 when he returned to England to live at Farthings in Selsey. He covered all the Apollo missions
for television, reported on the Voyager and Pioneer programmes and in 1966 was the only amateur
astronomer to be elected a member of the International Astronomical Union. The Caldwell catalogue of
astronomical objects was compiled by him and asteroid 2602 Moore was named in his honour. He gave
lectures, tours and public appearances, seemingly to anybody who asked and was happy for people to
visit his observatory at his beloved home in Selsey, which became effectively an open house and science
centre.
When the news of his
death broke, tributes
poured in from friends
and colleagues across
the UK and around the
world, many feeling
they had lost, not just
the man responsible for
sparking their interest
in astronomy, but a
mentor and friend,
many had stories of his
generosity to share.
Chris Lintott, Sir
Patrick’s co-presenter
on the Sky at Night said
“Sir Patrick dedicated
his life to talking about astronomy at any opportunity – not out of a desire to make a name for himself
or to further an agenda, but because he thought the world would be a better place if he did so.”
A sun-like star in our solar system's backyard may host five planets, including one perhaps capable of
supporting life as we know it, a new study reports. Astronomers have detected five possible alien
planets circling the star Tau Ceti, which is less than 12 light-years from Earth, a mere stone's throw in
the cosmic scheme of things. One of the newfound worlds appears to orbit in Tau Ceti's habitable zone, a
range of distances from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface. With a minimum mass
just 4.3 times that of Earth, this potential planet would be the smallest yet found in the habitable zone of
a sun-like star if it's confirmed. The five planet candidates are all relatively small, with minimum masses
ranging from 2 to 6.6 times that of Earth. The possibly habitable world, which completes one lap around
Tau Ceti every 168 days, is unlikely to be a rocky planet like Earth, researchers said. It might be a 'water
world,' but at the moment it's anybody's guess. Tau Ceti is slightly smaller and less luminous than our
sun. It lies 11.9 light-years away in the constellation Cetus (the Whale) and is visible with the naked eye
in the night sky. Because of its proximity and sun-like nature, Tau Ceti has featured prominently in
science fiction over the years.
A giant helium balloon is slowly drifting above Antarctica, about 36 kilometers up. Launched on
Christmas Day from the National Science Foundation's Long Duration Balloon (LDB) facility on Earth's
southernmost continent, it carries a sensitive telescope that measures submillimeter light waves from
stellar nurseries in our Milky Way.
Why not make a New Year’s resolution to get two of your friends to become Friends of the Planetarium.