AAGG Show #9: Show Notes

Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!

Welcome to Astronomy a Go Go for Thursday February 9, 2006!

Welcome!

I have had some wonderful conversations lately listeners, Tom from Boston who is an amateur astronomy who measures and records variable star information for the American Association of Variable Star Observers and Brian a PhD candidate at UCIrvine!

Find a group!

I have touted the merits of astronomy clubs in past shows. They are a wonderful way to learn more about astronomy and there is nothing better than to have someone say "Hey come over and look at Saturn!" or help you learn your way around the sky or answer all the questions you have about space or telescopes or even the best books to read.

Astronomy clubs aren't the only place you can interact with others who are also interested in science. Brian Hart who is a Ph.D. student at University of California, Irvine Brian uses observations done by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory -- a satellite orbiting about the Earth -- to learn about the structure of the Universe and formation of galaxies.

So well and good, he is dealing with a end of the electromagnetic spectrum we haven't talked about yet right now we have been mainly focused on the VISIBLE light portion of that spectrum.

Okay but where I was going with this description was other groups.
Brian is the fearless leader of the The Southern California Science Cafe is a comfortable, Cafe setting where science and life come together

Chandra X-ray observatory
Science Cafe
The Science Cafe Blog
Find Saturn here!
Next week the Science Cafe group has a field trip, of sorts, to the UCI Observatory and just guess what they will be talking about..Saturn and the Orion Nebulas! Brian says to bring yourself, bring a friend, and bring your mp3 player with your favorite astronomy podcasts to keep you entertained while you are in line. Heck, if you are going to do that then spread the joy, Bring those Y-jacks and a spare set of headphones, it is much easier that trying to describe a podcast to someone.

Finally, another way to commune with your fellow amateurs is to just plunk a telescope down on the sidewalk outside your house and entertain the neighborhood. You could be the first sidewalk astronomer on your block.

Tips and Tricks

Naked eye viewing So did you go out and use the notes from the last podcast to find the woman in the moon? The moon is a waxing gibbous and will be full by Monday so we are back to looking at really bright objects. The full moon not the best time to look at the moon, it is flat and missing all of it's dramatic features but here is a trick if you do want to pull out the binoculars...put on your darkest sunglasses first or you'll not be able to see much afterwards! It is bright! Better yet hold a piece of stiff white paper about a foot away from the eyepiece and then focus to the paper. It is a lot of fun and you can share the view with others.

So since we have this full moon and you have already found the woman in the moon let's see if you can find these other shapes...the rabbit making rice cakes, a leaping rabbit, the cow, the man, and the soccer player? Take a look and we will post the images on the show notes next week.

Binocular viewing-Put on those shades and use your binoculars to find the Mare Imbrium and for Sinus Iridium or the Bay of Rainbows.

Also! On Valentines day don't fall for the "Buy your loved one a star" all you are paying for is a piece of paper instead grab your binoculars and a tripod and go out and look west just after sunset and look for Mercury, it will be pinkish and just off the horizon. 3,000 mile wide Mercury will be joined by the 32,000 mile wide Uranus only 1/2 a degree about one full Moon width away from each other with the blue Uranus closer to the sun/horizon than Mercury So give your sweetie a little personal sky view and some nice chocolate, it is a lot cheaper and much more personal!

Telescopic viewing- Now even though the moon is bright you can still get out with that telescope and have some fun. Use the java script from Sky and Telescope to help you identify the moons around Saturn in the evening or Jupiter's moons in the morning!
What I like about these scripts is that it will allow you to 'fix' the image to match the inverted view that a dobsonian or newtonian scope has as well as the mirror reverse image of a cassigrain or a refractor with a diagonal.

What do we think about in March? Charles Messier!

The year 2006 will offer an opportunity for the Messier Marathon on the weekend of March 25/26, and a second chance on April 01/02. Amateur astronomers around the world battle it out against the weather, time, the elements, sleep and even each other to try and find all 110 of Charles Messier's catalogued objects. So how did these objects some into being?

During his professional life, Charles Messier observed and carefully recorded 44 comets. his passion was looking for, discovering, and observing comets. He was considerably successful in this endeavor, with 13 first discoveries and 7 more independent co-discoveries. His nick name "The Comet Ferret" given to him by Louis the XV of France was well earned.

Messier information

• My favorite star charts for Telrad and Messier object by John Small from the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston website
• SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space)
• SEDS Messier Marathon Page
• Messier Marathon old hat? Try the Messier Plus Marathon
• Want to take it at a slower pace? The 12 month Messier Marathon
• History of Charles Messier
• Some of his original drawings and star charts

So how would y'all feel about a little Astronomy a Go Go! Messier Marathon? I plan on being out on April Fools night with the student club helping them with their own personal goals so we will try and put some of those highlights on the air so to speak. If you plan on participating in a Messier Marathon let us know in the show notes for show #9. We will talk more about this as the day draws nearer but for the mean time, start looking at those websites!

News

Who is the neighborhood bully, the Milky Way Galaxy that's who!
Like many of the small dwarf galaxies that surround our Milky Way, the globular cluster M12 has been pillaged and plundered by its much larger neighbor -us- losing nearly 1 million stars. This cluster is about 23,000 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus, and it's known to contain about 200,000 stars The group predicts that M12 has another 4.5 billion years of life before the stripping process reduces it to nothingness

SuitSat! Alas, it seems that suitsat didn't transmit as loudly and many of us would have liked. I never found it but many others reported faint transmissions.

Binary Trojan Asteroid 617 Patroclus and Menoetius Partoclus is the son of Menoetius and the friend of Achilles. But as asteroids they are Trojans and binaries the other oddity is that one study has suggested that unlike most "asteroids" it may not be made of rock but instead of ice, like the core of a burned out and captured comet from the Kuiper belt.

Trivia

Answer's for Show# 8 Trivia Who gets all the credit for 'inventing' the telescope and who's patent application is the closest documentation to proving who really did invent the telescope? Answer: Hans Lipperhey (http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/lipperhey.html)
Trivia for Show #9
1. Which constellation has the most Messier Objects?
2. What constellation mentioned tonight is the 'missing' constellation of the zodiac?

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Music

Slackstring -"Wednesday Morning"
Maria Danes -"Rollin"