What’s Up in the Sky December, 2008
By Peter Burkey

“What kind of telescope should I buy?” is a question I hear often at this time of year. With the Holidays coming up and the economy in need of a boost, what better time than now to make such an investment?

Whether you are pondering the purchase for yourself or someone else, there are several important factors to consider. One is the experience level of the recipient. I usually think of a telescope as being appropriate for someone who has already shown an interest in observing the sky without one. So, for the beginner I recommend star charts and a good pair of binoculars.

Consider also how the telescope will be used. For example, I know several individuals who observe from sites near Holland, but they have rather large scopes. You won’t see much with a $300 telescope from your back yard. In that case a good, portable instrument such as the Astroscan by Edmund Scientific may be right. On the other hand, if you live away from the glare of cities and have a yard or nearby field in which to observe, then a larger scope may be the answer.

There are essentially two types of telescopes – a refractor, which uses a lens to form the image, and a reflector, which uses a mirror. Both types require various eyepieces for close-up or wide angle viewing. In fact, the “power” of a telescope is actually determined by the eyepiece and, although widely advertised, is of lowest priority. For a durable, economic, quality, first telescope, I would recommend a reflector.

This type of telescope also comes in essentially two models. The Dobsonian has a long tube in a cradle of sorts that sits on the ground. Looking somewhat like a cannon, it moves up and down and swivels left and right. The other type looks like a giant camera lens mounted on a tripod. They often have a drive motor for aiming and tracking stars. Each has its advantages, but you usually get more telescope (but fewer features) with a Dobsonian.

Finally, you must decide whether or not to get a “go-to” scope. This is a computerized, motorized feature that allows the telescope to automatically point at selected objects. If it is within your budget, I would give this serious thought because it solves one of the most common problems in amateur astronomy – finding things in the telescope.

I recommend online sources for further information. A simple Google search will yield plenty of sites to aid in your quest for the right instrument to observe what’s up in the sky.

This month in history:
Dec. 3: Pioneer 10 spacecraft makes closest approach to Jupiter – 1973
Dec. 7: Apollo 17, final Moon landing mission, launched – 1972
Dec. 11: First auction of Soviet space hardware and artifacts – 1993
Dec. 14: Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 astronaut, is last human to walk on Moon – 1972
Dec 17: Orville Wright makes first powered flight – – 1857
Dec. 24: Apollo 8 makes 10 orbits of the Moon – 1968
Dec. 27: Meteorite ALH 84001 discovered – 1984
Dec. 31: First flyby of Saturn’s moon, Iapetus, made by Cassini spacecraft – 2004

Here are this month’s viewing highlights:
Planets this month: Jupiter and Venus continue

Dec. 1: Crescent Moon is above and to the left of Venus-Jupiter pair at dusk.
Dec. 5: First Quarter Moon
Dec. 12: Full Moon – largest since 1993
Dec. 13-14: Geminid meteors peak
Dec. 19: Last Quarter Moon
Dec. 21: Winter solstice – first day of winter – 7:04 a.m.
Dec. 27: New Moon

What’s Up in the Sky November, 2008
By Peter Burkey

When you think of the night sky, I mean the clear, dark sky that you saw when traveling out west or visiting the Upper Peninsula, you probably remember being amazed by the number of stars. Millions of stars, shining like diamonds against a black velvet background, make a lasting impression on many. That’s probably why humans have been pondering them since earliest times.

Through the ages, many myths and legends were created to make sense of the mysterious lights in the sky. Besides the Greek mythology and constellations with which we are familiar, there exists a myriad of literature about the stars. To the Babylonians, Chinese, Persians, and Native People of North and Central America stars were an integral part of the religion and their understanding of the world.

In grade school we learn that the stars are like the Sun, but far away. The Sun is a star, but close up. And, like our own solar system, stars form out of giant clouds of gas and dust in outer space. Like a hugh cloud that condenses into a layer of rain or snow, stars form out of mainly hydrogen gas that collapses under the force of gravity.

Once a star has formed, its fate is pretty much determined by its mass. Stars like the sun shine because of the energy that is released in the core where hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium. For stars with high mass, the tremendous core temperature and pressure forces the reactions to be faster and the star “burns out” quickly (a few hundred million to a billion years). Low mass stars, on the other hand, live long, slow lives (more than 10 billion years).

In terms of actual brightness, the Sun is more luminous than the vast majority of stars. However, a few stars are extremely luminous, shining as bright as a million Suns and some emit only 5% as much energy as the Sun. This is a much greater range than that of the masses of stars. The most massive stars are only equal to about 100 Suns.

Stars vary greatly in size as well. A neutron star is only a few miles across, the sun is wider than 100 Earths, and if the Red Giant Betelgeuse were located at the center of our solar system, it would extend past the orbit of Mars.

The end stages in a star’s life are also determined by its mass. Giant stars blow up in a supernova explosion leaving behind a neutron star (pulsar) or, for the most massive, a black hole. Sun-like stars eventually shed their outer layers, leaving behind a white dwarf, and lightweights just fade away.
Now you know a little more about those lights we see up in the sky.

This month in history:
Nov. 2: 100 in. telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory sees first light – 1917
Nov. 7: Mars Global Surveyor is launched – 1996
Nov. 12: Great Leonid Meteor Shower – 1833
Nov. 19: Hayabusa spacecraft makes first liftoff from an asteroid – 2005
Nov. 26: France launches satellite, becoming the third nation to do so – 1965
Nov. 29: Australia is fourth nation to launch a satellite – 1967

Here are this month’s viewing highlights:
Planets this month: Watch after sunset each night as Jupiter and Venus close in on each other as month progresses. Saturn is high up in the southeast before dawn.

Nov. 3: Crescent Moon appears close to Jupiter
Nov. 5: First-quarter Moon
Nov. 13: Full Moon
Nov. 19: Last-quarter Moon
Nov. 27: New Moon
Nov. 30: Crescent Moon close to both Jupiter and Venus; look also on Dec. 1

What’s Up in the Sky October, 2008
By Peter Burkey

My Night Sky class was recently able to see an image of M16, the Eagle nebula, using the 12-inch telescope of the Harry F. Frissel Observatory at Hope College. This nebula was made famous in the “Pillars of Creation” picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It reminded me that one of the single greatest scientific instruments ever made was about to receive a new lease on life. In fact, soon the Hubble will be better than ever.

Launched in 1990, Hubble is one of NASA’s longest and most successful space science missions. It has sent hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, helping astronomers understand many of the great mysteries of the universe. Since it orbits the earth, the light it receives is not distorted or blocked by our atmosphere and the images are crystal clear and reveal great detail. With it, astronomers have now confirmed the existence of black holes, sharpened their understanding of the size and age of the universe, peered back in time to distant, young galaxies, and, most recently, studied the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet! It has literally changed the way we view the universe.

The telescope is named after Edwin Hubble, who made some of the most important discoveries in the history of science. Working at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in Pasadena in the 1920’s, he determined the true nature of distant galaxies. Perhaps his greatest contribution was the discovery that the farther these objects are from us, the faster they are moving away from us. This discovery led to the theories of the expanding universe and the Big Bang.

So it is with great pleasure that I report that next month astronauts from the Space Shuttle Atlantis will perform a long overdue refurbishing. During five spacewalks, they will give the telescope new power and guidance systems, install new instruments and repair old ones. Hubble’s life should be extended five years. We can look forward to even more discoveries about what’s up in the sky.

This month in history:

Oct. 1: Yerkes Observatory dedicates 40 inch refractor – 1897
Oct. 4: Space Age begins when Sputnik 1, first artificial satellite, is launched – 1957
Oct. 9: Johannes Kepler observes supernova – 1604
Oct. 15: Yang Liwei becomes first Chinese astronaut when Shenzhou 5 is launched – 2005
Oct. 19: Subramanyan Chandrasekhar born – 1910
Oct. 31: Fifth and final servicing mission to Hubble announced by NASA – 2006

Planets this month: Jupiter, in the south, and Venus, low in the west, dominate the evening sky. Watch their separation shrink through November. Saturn can be spotted in the eastern predawn sky. Mercury makes its best appearance of the year during last two weeks.

Oct. 7: First quarter Moon.
Oct. 14: Full Moon.
Oct. 21: Last quarter Moon.
Oct. 17-30: Look for Mercury just above the eastern horizon 45 minutes before dawn.
Oct. 21-22: Peak of Orionid meteors.
Oct. 28: New Moon
Oct. 31: Look for thin crescent Moon below Venus right after sunset. Use binoculars.

What’s Up in the Sky August, 2008
By Peter Burkey

Much fascinating lore surrounds the Milky Way, the faint, cloudy-white band of light that stretches from the southern to northern horizon, passing nearly overhead this time of year. In fact, the term “galaxy” is from the Greek gala or galactos which simply means “milk”.

In the mythology of many ancient cultures the Milky Way is a heavenly river, a great path to distant worlds and a cosmic bridge between Earth and Heaven. In the first book of the Metamorphoses, Ovid describes the Milky Way as the “Road of the Gods”.

The Milky Way appears in various Chinese writings where it is referred to as the “River of Heaven” or the “Celestial River”. In one legend it is regarded as the source of the Yellow River of central China. Another involves a maiden and a shepherd, separated by the vast river except for one night of the year when a bridge of birds spans it, allowing the Heavenly lovers to meet.

In many Native American legends the Milky Way is the path to the hereafter. The Iroquois and Algonquins saw the bright stars along the way as the campfires of departed warriors. This tradition was shared by the Norsemen who saw the Milky Way as the path of slain warriors on their way to Valhalla.

The actual composition of the Milky Way was first contemplated by the ancient Greeks and pondered by many including Sir Francis Bacon in Shakespearean times. It wasn’t until Galileo made his first telescopic observations that the matter was laid to rest. He described the Milky Way as being composed of “innumerable stars grouped together in clusters”.

Today we know that our galaxy is composed of several hundred billion stars, including our sun. If you imagine two sunny-side-up fried eggs back to back, you get an idea of its shape. We see it as a band of light when we look out towards its edge.

Like the ancients, I also see it as a bridge, not between Heaven and Earth but between cultures separated by time. The quest to understand it is common to every human who, through the ages, has pondered what’s up in the sky.

This month in history:
August 3: First space shuttle repair in-flight – 2005
August 7: Viking 1 orbiter (Mars) ceases operation – 1980
August 11: Deimos, moon of Mars, discovered by Asaph Hall – 1877
August 17: Distance to Voyager 1 is 100 times the distance to the sun – 2006
August 20: First Redstone rocket launched – 1953
August 22: World altitude record for a winged aircraft (354,000 ft) set by X-15 – 1963

Here are this month’s viewing highlights:
Planets this month: Jupiter continues to dominate the southern sky. Watch gathering of Venus, Mercury and Saturn near western horizon at dusk mid-month (use binoculars).

August 1: New Moon. Solar eclipse (not visible from North America).
August 8: First quarter Moon.
August 12: Perseid meteor shower.
August 16: Full Moon.
August 23: Last-quarter Moon.
August 30: New Moon