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MESSAGE OF THE MONTH
A 99 leaves Neil wanting Moore
On 10 May I took out my Dobsonian reflector telescope and pointed it at the first quarter Moon. I don’t use my telescope as much as I would like to but I was really interested in what I saw that night – what appeared to be the number ‘99’ within a crater on the Moon. I attached my mobile phone adaptor and took these photographs, then I remembered that Sky at Night Magazine had recently published a reprint of Sir Patrick Moore’s excellent Moon Map (issue 200, January 2022). I looked it out and compared my photos to it, and was able to distinguish that it was crater Clavius in the lunar southern region that I was looking at. This has fired my interest to take my telescope out more and to try taking more pictures of the night sky. I’m especially keen now to try some astrophotography after reading the article in May’s magazine on ‘Learning About Layers’. Looking forward to it, and thank you for publishing a great magazine.
What a fascinating account Neil; it’s great to hear that you put the poster that came with our 200th issue to such good use! The ‘99’ you imaged in crater Clavius is what’s known as a lunar ‘clair obscur’ effect called the ‘Eyes of Clavius’.
This month’s top prize: two Philip’s titles
The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2022 and Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Constellations
Winner’s details will be passed on to Octopus Publishing to fulfil the prize
Phone success
I was just reading Pete Lawrence’s extremely interesting and helpful online article about taking photos of the night sky, sunsets, etc using your phone’s camera (see https://bit.ly/SANsmartphone). I also enjoy Pete’s section on the show. Astro imaging is an area I’ve been looking to improve, and I will be trying out his ideas and suggestions. In the meantime, as per the suggestion at the end of the article, I’d like to share this photo I took earlier this year which turned out quite well due to my phone camera’s night mode – no manual adjustment necessary. My phone is Huawei P30 Pro. I took these pics at the Campsie Fells, north of Glasgow. The reflection is my car roof, and the glow on the horizon is from the city lights.
Clear skies
Thank you to Ron Brecher for his excellent article on observing productivity in March’s Sky at Night Magazine (‘Boost Your Observing and Imaging Productivity’, March 2022 issue). I have to ask though, which planet is he on to have clear nights 60 per cent of the time?!
Wobbly trails
I was interested to read the message from Robert Bowers in the May issue (‘Interactive’, Trail finder, May 2022 issue) about a wobbly trail he captured on 26 February 2022. I observed a similar wobbly trail passing M81 and M82 on the following night and managed to capture this photo of it. I too am extremely curious as to what it might have been.
Varying orbit
I enjoyed Colin Stuart’s article in the previous issue (‘Seeing the Solar System’s Future’, June 2022 issue). However, in discussing Earth’s distant future there is no discussion of, firstly, our planet’s orbit moving outwards as the Sun’s mass diminishes, so possibly escaping being engulfed; and, secondly, the unlikelihood of Earth and the other planets being in the same orbits as they are now, in five billion years time. Passing or impacting asteroids and comets, and other events, may change their orbits in the future, possibly very significantly, as happened in the distant past.
Most of the predictions about the Solar System in five billion years account for the change in orbit due to the Sun’s mass loss. However exactly how the planets’ orbits will change is highly uncertain, making Earth’s future even more difficult to predict.
CORRECTIONS
In the June 2022 issue’s ‘Inside the Sky at Night’, and the Looking Back section covering Voyager 2’s encounter with Neptune, we mistakenly said the planet was barely visible to the naked eye and discovered in 1781 by William Herschel. These are the characteristics and discovery history of Uranus. Neptune is invisible to the naked eye and was discovered in 1846 by astronomers who had calculated its position by observing the effects of its gravitational pull.
Tweet
II+II Padawan @Zs3ml3 • May 21
#Boeing #Starliner on the docking process. Only 208m from the #ISS. 14” Dob with manual tracking, 3xBarlow, @zwoasi 174MM with A.P 642 IR PASS filter. @SkyAtNightMag #SpotTheStation @VirtualAstro
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WE ASKED: What’s your favourite astronomy song or album?
Carol Miller Major Tom (I’m Coming Home), by Peter Schilling
Paul Beach Fly Me To The Moon, by Frank Sinatra
Keith Moseley Intergalactic Touring Band – a1970s concept album.
Jimmy McPartland Between the Rings, by Stellardrone
Cheryl Rowlands Urban Spaceman, by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
Bryony-Mae Hopkinss Life Beyond soundtrack, by MelodySheep
Tim Murphy Into the Void, by Black Sabbath
Dewi Griffiths The Race for Space, by Public Service Broadcasting
Philip Craig Exogenesis Symphony, by Muse
Emma Hugo Starman, by David Bowie
Jim Palmer Alone In The Universe, by Jeff Lynne’s ELO
Kris Derry Destination Moon, by Nat King Cole.
Bob Inkster The Space Race Is Over, by Billy Bragg; Monochrome, by The Sundays
Lewis The Intergalactic Laxative, by Donovan?!
Alan Davidson Space Oddity, by David Bowie
Derek Lightfoot ’39, by Queen
Steven Douglas Cygnus X-1 and Countdown, by Rush
David Knight Master of the Universe, by Hawkwind
Steve Green The Sky at Night theme tune!
explorer200p • 23 May 2022
The waxing gibbous Moon from the 13th of May 2022. Some nice and steady seeing on the 13th for a nice lunar session. Copernicus crater stands out so well in this phase as well as the Aristarchus Crater, both on the western lunar landscape. Also an inverted view of this phase. It really makes the smaller details pop out. #moon #moonphotography #moonphases #moonpics #photography #spacephotography
SOCIETY IN FOCUS
On Sunday 24 April, as part of International Dark Sky Week 2022, the Somerset Levels Stargazers (SLS) celebrated its 10th anniversary by joining forces with the Commission for Dark Skies to present a day-long seminar entitled Dark Skies, Saving the Stars.
The event was held in Othery Village hall on the Somerset Levels, and attendees were also able to join us via Zoom. It was a free community event to raise awareness of the issue of light pollution. Speakers included Bob Mizon, the UK co-ordinator of the Commission for Dark Skies, who emphasised that all living creatures – not just humans – are affected by strong artificial light at night.
Becky Collier of CPRE, the Countryside Charity, spoke about its yearly Star Count, and other speakers included Jo Richardson, resident astronomer and dark skies adviser for Exmoor National Park – the UK’s first Dark Sky Reserve – Jim Patterson of Moffat Community Observatory in Scotland and Steve Tonkin, who gave a tour of easy-to-see deep-sky wonders.
The Somerset Levels Stargazers was founded in 2012 by friends Paul Adamson and John Martin, and holds monthly meetings at Othery Village Hall both in person and on Zoom. It has held many public events and astronomy outreach days for local schools and children’s clubs.
Paul Adamson, Chairman, SLS > www.somersetlevelsstargazers.co.uk
SCOPE DOCTOR
Our equipment specialist, Steve Richards, cures your optical ailments and technical maladies
Email your queries to scopedoctor@skyatnightmagazine.com
I want to circulate air through my Celestron C11Edge, which has two vents, to help it reach equilibrium. Is there a DIY option?
The Celestron C11 Edge is a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) which has a closed optical tube, so it can take a very long time to reach temperature equilibrium with the outside air. Failure to reach equilibrium results in air currents in the tube, which produce a poor quality view. Anything that you can do to accelerate the cooling down process is welcome and pumping air into the tube can be very effective.
It is quite easy to build a device to do this using an 80mm 12V DC fan, a fine fan filter, a plastic funnel, a length of 22mm overflow water pipe, a 22mm end cap and some duct tape. You should arrange for the telescope to point downwards and for the fan to blow air into the telescope via the visual back port, making sure that the pipe isn’t long enough to touch the secondary mirror.
Commercial solutions are also available, such as the Starizona Cool Edge or the Asterion Cooler Cat for SCT and Maksutov Telescopes.
Steve’s top tip
Can I use my glasses when observing?
If you suffer from astigmatism, wearing glasses while observing can generally be beneficial. Using high magnifications, however, which results in a small diameter exit pupil (aperture divided by magnification), might allow you to observe well without your glasses. There is no advantage to wearing glasses if you are simply long- or short-sighted, as adjusting the telescope’s focus will correct for this.
Because wearing glasses increases the distance you can place your eye to the eyepiece you may not be able to observe the full field of view with some oculars, so it would make sense to buy long eye-relief eyepieces to alleviate this problem.
Steve Richards is a keen astro imager and an astronomy equipment expert