What’s Up in the Sky October, 2007
By Peter Burkey

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, an event of tremendous implications at the time. And this year marks the 30th anniversary of an event overlooked by many, yet vastly more important in terms of our understanding of the solar system – the launch of Voyagers 1 and 2.

The twin interplanetary probes, launched in the late summer of 1977, were supposed to last five years and explore only Jupiter and Saturn. Due to a rare alignment of the outer planets and marvelous work by NASA engineers, Voyager 2 was able to continue on to Uranus and Neptune and scientists continue to receive data from both spacecraft today.

They have enough thruster fuel and electrical power to last until 2020. Both are headed toward the outer boundary of the solar system, known as the heliopause, the limit of the sun’s magnetic field and solar wind. Their current mission is known as the VIM, Voyager Interstellar Mission, to study the interstellar and interplanetary media, and continue doing ultraviolet Astronomy.

The two spacecraft are currently the most distant human-made objects, with Voyager 1 holding the record at almost 10 billion miles. That is more than twice as far as Pluto. The round trip time for a radio signal is over 24 hours.

Yet we are still receiving radio transmissions from both spacecraft. Each is operating at a power level below 300 watts and transmit data at only a few watts so the signal received on Earth is miniscule – billions of times smaller than the power output of a digital watch. In fact, improved technology at the receiving end, the Deep Space Network, is one important factor that has allowed the mission to continue.

Also memorable is the Golden Record, conceived and recorded by Carl Sagan and attached to each spacecraft. The record contained 115 images and a variety of natural sounds and spoken greetings along with an eclectic sampling of music including Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”. As Dr. Sagan said, “. . .the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.”

This month in history:
Oct. 1: First observations with 300-foot radio telescope at Green Bank, WV – 1962
Oct. 4: Sputnik 1, first artificial satellite, launched – 1957
Oct. 9: Johannes Kepler observes supernova – 1604
Oct. 13: M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy) observed by Charles Messier – 1773
Oct. 19: Subramanyan Chandrasekhar born – 1910
Oct. 22: First recorded solar eclipse – 2136 BC
Oct. 31: Two new moons of Pluto discovered by Hubble Space Telescope – 2005

Planets this month:
– Jupiter is still bright, but sinking low in the SW.
– Mars between Orion and Gemini in predawn hours.
– Venus and Saturn dominate eastern horizon before dawn (see Oct. 7).

Oct. 3: Last-quarter Moon.
Oct. 7: Lovely gathering of Venus, Saturn, Regulus, and crescent Moon in the east 90 min. before sunrise.
Oct. 11: New Moon.
Oct. 18: First quarter Moon.
Oct. 21-22: Peak of Orionid meteors.
Oct. 25: Full Moon (the closest of the year – 221,676 miles from Earth)

What’s Up in the Sky September, 2007
By Peter Burkey

This month ushers in a new season of observing, the autumn constellations being some of my favorites. Overhead Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila contain the stars, Deneb, Vega, and Altair, which form the summer triangle, Sagittarius (also known as the Teapot) dominates the south, and the Great Square of Pegasus can be seen high in the east. Skimming the treetops in the northwest is Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) which can be used as a guidepost to the constellations Bootes in the west and Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper) in the north.

Find the three stars in the handle of the Big Dipper and follow the arc to Arcturus, the bright star low in the west. In fact, Arcturus is the brightest object in the sky after Jupiter. Arcturus lies at the bottom of the kite-shaped constellation Bootes.

Return to the Big Dipper and find the two stars forming the right-hand side of the bowl. These are the pointer stars Merak and Dubhe. Follow a line drawn between them up and to the right and you will come to Polaris, the North Star.

Polaris is probably one of the most famous stars in the sky, although there are almost 50 others that appear brighter. Its fame stems from its location. If you extend the Earth’s axis straight up from the north pole, that line will point almost directly at Polaris. Thus, all the other stars appear to travel in circles around the North Star due to the Earth’s rotation. The next time you’re on a playground merry-go-round look up at the trees and you will see the same sort of motion.

This also means Polaris never rises or sets but remains fixed in the northern sky , acting as a cosmic guidepost. For centuries navigators referred to it as the Lodestar or Steering Star, seamen called it the Pivot Star and voyagers the Latin Navigatoria. Authors such as Dante, Wordsworth, Keats, and even Shakespeare make reference to it in their writings. Many ancient temples, such as the Hindu Kandariya Mahadevi Temple in India and the Great Temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, seem to be symbolic representations of ancient legends surrounding Polaris.

So the next time you’re admiring the North Star, think about all the people throughout history who considered it of great importance. It is but one of many cosmic connections to be found up in the sky.

This month in history:
Sept. 3: Last two lunar landings canceled by NASA – 1970
Sept. 8: Genesis spacecraft crash-lands on return to Earth – 2004
Sept. 11: Mars Global Surveyor arrives at Mars – 1997
Sept. 17: First powered flight of X-15 rocket plane – 1959
Sept. 23: Neptune discovered by J. G. Galle – 1846
Sept. 29: First launch of a satellite form Alaska – 2001

Here are this month’s viewing highlights:
Planets this month: Mercury visible before sunrise as August begins. Jupiter continues to dominate the southern sky, seen just above the star Antares in Scorpius. Mars high in ESE in predawn hours.

Sept. 3: Last-quarter Moon
Sept. 11: New Moon.
Sept. 19: First quarter Moon.
Sept. 23: Autumnal equinox – first day of fall in Northern Hemisphere.
Sept. 26: Full Moon (the Harvest Moon)

What’s Up in the Sky August, 2007
By Peter Burkey

This month offers some great observing opportunities, including a meteor shower and a lunar eclipse.

To see the lunar eclipse you will have to get up very early on the morning of August 28. You probably won’t notice any darkening of the Moon’s surface until 5:00 a.m. with totality beginning around 6:00 a.m. As dawn approaches, the moon will set while still engulfed in Earth’s shadow.

On the night of August 12-13 Earth passes through the trail of dust and debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle during its 130-year trip around the Sun in past centuries. Think of the times you’ve driven through a heavy snow storm and encountered snowflakes whizzing past your windshield. They seem to emanate from a single point in front of you – called the radiant when applied to meteors. Careful observation of the shower shows that the meteors also emanate from a radiant located in the constellation Perseus, hence the name Perseids.

The particles from the comet range in size from sand grains to pebbles and hit the earth’s atmosphere at 37 miles per second. This creates an incandescent trail of hot, glowing air. What you see is this trail, not the tiny meteoroids themselves.

The best way to view a meteor shower is to find a place with a good view of the entire sky far away from the glare of city lights. Bring a lawn chair, bug spray and a sleeping bag or blankets, lie back facing northeast and be patient. The best time to watch is after midnight when you may see as many as 60 to 90 meteors per hour. An added benefit this year is that there will be no moonlight to wash out the dimmer meteors. For more info check out http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors.

While you’re at it, you may want to notice the constellations to the north, such as the Big and Little Dippers. As the night progresses you will notice that stars in this part of the sky neither rise nor set, but circle around the star in the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. This is Polaris, also known as the North Star because Earth’s axis, when extended into space, points in the direction of this star.

Next month I will talk more about Polaris, one of the most famous stars up in the sky.

This month in history:
August 2: First televised liftoff of lunar module – Apollo 15’s Falcon – 1971
August 5: Neil Armstrong born – 1930
August 10: Magellan spacecraft orbits Venus – 1990
August 18: Helium discovered in the Sun – 1868
August 20: Voyager 2 launched – 1977
August 24: Voyager 2 flies past Neptune – 1989

Here are this month’s viewing highlights:
Planets this month: Mercury visible before sunrise as August begins. Jupiter continues to dominate the southern sky, seen just above the star Antares in Scorpius. Mars high in ESE in predawn hours.

August 5: Last-quarter Moon
August 12: New Moon.
August 12: Perseid meteor shower.
August 20: First quarter Moon.
August 28: Full Moon.

What’s Up in the Sky July, 2007
By Peter Burkey

According to Prof. Gareth Wynn-Williams of the University of Hawaii, the history of astronomy can be viewed as having four ages, the first being Naked Eye which went from zero to Galileo. From 1600 to 1880 was the age of the Simple Telescope, the kind you had to look through and then sketch what you saw. The age of Spectroscopy and Photography came next, lasting until 1940 after which technological breakthroughs and new telescopes, including many in orbit, ushered in the age of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers may no longer look through their telescopes, but the telescopes are capable of seeing much more than just visible light.

Electromagnetic radiation includes such things as infrared (heat) radiation, X-rays, gamma rays and radio waves, the distinguishing characteristic being the wavelength. So the difference between visible light and X-rays is the same as the difference between middle C and high C on a piano. Up until the 1940’s astronomers were like concertgoers who could only hear the notes E and F. Now we can hear the whole symphony and radio waves are the bass notes. Their wavelengths are very long so the telescopes have to be very large.

I recently had the privilege of taking a short course through the Chautauqua Institute taught by Dr. Wynn-Williams and held at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank WV. The course was interesting and very informative, but the highlight was that we were able to tour the world’s largest movable radio telescope – simply named the Green Bank Telescope or GBT. Because the telescope was down for repairs, we were able to go all the way to the top, visiting the receiver room and control room on the way.

The following day some of us used a 40 foot dish to observe the galaxy M87, a strong source of radio emissions due to a black hole at its core whose mass appears to be 3 billion suns.

Looking through your telescope is still fun, but by combining observations in many wavelengths we are able to see even more of what’s up in the sky.

This month in history:
July 1: Mt Wilson observatory receives 100 in. mirror – 1917
July 4: Supernova, whose remnant is known as the Crab Nebula, is witnessed – 1054 Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars – 1997
Deep impact collides with comet – 2005
July 6: Newton’s book, Principia is published – 1687
July 20: Humans walk on Moon for the first time – 1969 Viking 1 lands on Mars – 1976
July 30: Apollo 15 fourth mission to land on Moon – 1971

Here are this month’s viewing highlights:
Planets this month: Venus now getting lower in the west at dusk. Use binoculars or a telescope to view crescent. Look at 10:00 p.m. each night to see separation between Saturn and Venus increase. Jupiter shines brightly in the southern sky.

July 1-2: Venus – Saturn form close pair.
July 7: Last-quarter Moon
July 14: New Moon.
July 16: Spectacular gathering of Moon, Venus, Saturn, Regulus.
July 22: First quarter Moon.
July 29: Full Moon.