Star gazing

I don't suppose it was a too bad a program, although it seemed to focus more on the social effects it had on Human Beings in different countries than the wonders of the actual Moon. There really didn't seem to be much scientific facts about the Moon.....they didn't even mention how big [width] it is or the theories on how it was formed. I actually found the Kayakers riding the "still" wave more interesting than anything else, but it was good to see how the Moon brought the Schools out and the delight of the kids watching the Eclipse!!
I'm just watching the program on BBC 4 "Do we really need the Moon?" presented by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock.......which might focus more on the Moon etc.

 

Well, the second program "Do we really need the Moon?" was a much better, informative, interesting and factual program than the first program "Wonders of the Moon". Maggie posed some really interesting questions about situations that might effect the Earth should the Moon move further away, how we can in the future put the Moon to use, how the Moon was formed, etc, and I enjoyed her style of presentation. She takes part in the "Sky at Night" program so she knows how to explain science in simple language while not dumbing it down.

 

Great shots, Bilbo.
If you ever want to go onto a Telescope I have two Newtonian's [an 8" and a 10" aperture] in mint condition that I'm not using and you can have one for pennies, as I can only use one Telescope at a time.

 

Top notch images, Bilbo, I think you've definitely got the Star Gazing bug and you know how to use a camera. You've captured the Nebula fantastically.

I took this image of the Orion Nebubla on the night of 1st February [the night after the "Super" Moon]. The Moon didn't arrive into the South East until 11pm so I had the Orion Nebula nicely out of the glare of the Moon.
Because of the natural magnification of the combination of the focal length of the camera and the focal length of the Telescope being around X345 I can't fit all the Orion Belt into the frame and have to take each Star at a time.


Like so......


Are you taking your images in RAW or Jpeg, Bilbo??

 

1,344 Light years [8064 Trillion miles away]!!

You can get free image processing software which will let you take images in RAW and then convert it to Jpeg. I shoot in RAW as you get every photon data in that mode and you can see exactly what the sensor has recorded. Processing it is easy, [well, I can do it] and I think you'd enjoy the processing work which doesn't take long. Jpeg images are those processed by the computer in the camera and it's geared to what image the Manufacturer thinks the Public wants. Do a little research and see what you think

Try getting the Moon in the scope first, not that easy as you know, then, keeping the Moon in the center, adjust the laser pointer to center on the Moon. That way both the scope and the Laser are "seeing" exactly the same image, and then you can use the Laser knowing it's calibrated to the Telescope.

Shoot in RAW and you'll push it further.

And so you should be, those really are top notch images!!

 

These pics were taken on 1 Feb, the night after the "Super" Moon. The skies were pretty clear for most of the evening until around 00.15am when the cloud appeared from the West.

 

Images of Stars taken on 1st Feb, the night after the "Super" Moon...........

 

A full Moon is not so good for taking pics as the glare of the Sun makes any shadows, apart from on the rim, disappear so making less detail and also "flattening" the images. I always find the Moon in it's Waxing or Waning phases to be more interesting as the shadows highlight the craters, Mountains, and faults in the surface.

 

"Mars appears more Earth-like to us than most of the other planets because we can observe its surface, atmospheric clouds and hazes, and its brilliant white polar caps. The latter are composed of frozen CO2 and underlying water ice, and wax and wane during the Martian year. These aspects, along with the changing seasons and the possibility of life, have made Mars one of the most studied planets in our solar system.

The Red Planet Mars offers both casual and serious observers many challenges and delights, as well as providing astronomers a laboratory to study another planet’s atmosphere and surface. Some Martian features even appear to shift position around the surface over extended periods of time. There are several cooperating international Mars observing programs under way to assist both professional and amateur astronomers. These include the International Mars Patrol (I.M.P.) coordinated by the Mars Section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (A.L.P.O) and the Terrestrial Planets Section of the British Astronomical Association (B.A.A.). Information for observing Mars during a typical apparition is presented in a separate report titled, “General Information for Apparitions of Mars.” Also, you can find gobs of information at this site.

With the advent of modern CCD camera technology the amateur can produce useful images of Mars when it is as small as 3.5 arcsec. Early in an apparition, Mars rises in the east or morning sky and sets with the rotation of the Earth in the western or evening sky. During the past few apparitions (2010-2016), observers began to take CCD images when Mars was only 32 degrees away from the Sun. Since Mars was only a visual magnitude of ~1.8 then the planet would have been difficult to locate bright twilight hours.

In the pre-apparition reports the observer will find the motion of Mars in our sky, the characteristics for that particular apparition, information pertaining to the polar cap(s) and any special events that may be seen during that particular apparition. As usual a calendar of events will be included with each report that contains cardinal dates for seasonal activity and orbital information of Mars.

MOTION OF MARS IN OUR SKY

As a general rule, an "apparition" begins when a planet emerges from the glare of the Sun shortly after conjunction. Mars will be in conjunction with the Sun on July 26, 2017 (38.9° Ls); however, it will not be safe to observe Mars until after September 02, 2017 when it is at least 12 degrees away from the glare of the Sun.

The apparent declination of Mars begins at 13.5° in early September 2017 in the constellation Leo and during mid-October will descend south into the constellations Virgo. Two weeks later Mars will be south of the celestial equator throughout the apparition until January 02, 2019 when Mars will begin to ascend in declination. This is not good news for those observing in the Northern Hemispheres because Mars will be seen fairly low in their sky during the entire apparition. Good news for southern hemisphere observers however. The declination of Mars will continue to descend south of the celestial equator reaching -23.6° by March 26, 2018 and will remain below -20° until October 16, 2018. After that Mars will cross from the constellationCapricornus into Aquarius in early-November and ascend northward for the remainder of 2018 to cross north of the celestial equator in January 2019.

By March 24, 2018, a ‘0.4’ visual magnitude Mars is seen rising early in the morning sky in the constellationSagittarius, it will be at western quadrature and the phase or terminator will be at 40.2°. NOTE: The Solar Elongation for Mars is the angle between the lines of sight from Earth to the Sun and from Earth to Mars. When these lines of sight form a right triangle then Mars is at quadrature (eastern or western). For detailed definitions and graphics for the motion of Mars in our sky see these excellent web sites: Planetary Aspects and Elongations and Configurations.



Figure 1. A heliographic chart of the orbits of Mars and the Earth showing the relative positions of both planets. Quadrature is when Mars is directly east or west of Earth as shown.

The 2018 apparition of Mars begins retrogression, or retrograde motion against the background stars eleven months after on June 28, 2018 (201.1° Ls) and continues through August 27, 2018 (238.2° Ls). Each night for this brief period of time; before, during and after opposition the Red Planet will appear to move backwards toward the western sky in the Capricornus.

Since the Martian year is about 687 Earth days long -- nearly twice as long as ours, the Martian seasons are similarly extended. While the Earth's seasons are nearly equal in duration, the Martian seasons can vary by as much as 52 days from each other due to that planet's greater orbital eccentricity (see Figure 2)


Figure 2. A heliographic chart of the orbits of Mars and the Earth showing the relative seasons of both planets in the planetocentric longitude system Ls. Graphic Ephemeris for the 2018 Aphelic Apparition of Mars. Original graph prepared by C.F. Capen and modified by J.D. Beish.

2018 APPARITION CHARACTERISTICS

Another general rule for predicting oppositions of Mars is from the following: the planet has an approximate 15.8-year periodic opposition cycle, which consists of three or four Aphelic oppositions and three consecutive Perihelic oppositions. Perihelic oppositions are also called "favorable" because the Earth and Mars come closest to each other on those occasions. We sometimes refer to this as the seven Martian synodic periods. This cycle is repeated every 79 years (± 4 to 5 days) and, if one were to live long enough, one would see this cycle nearly replicated in approximately 284 years. The 2018 Mars apparition is considered Perihelic because the orbital longitude at opposition will be 31.1° from the longitude of perihelion (250° Ls)

From the above factors the ALPO Mars Section has selected the 2018 apparition to be among the 15 favorable. The aspects considered were the planet's declination (δ), its photographic or photoelectric intensity, and its apparent size during any particular apparition. From these considerations, it appears that the 1956 apparition (-9.9° δ) with an apparent diameter of 24.8" meets all the above requirements and should be considered the best. Even though Mars presented a larger apparent diameter of 25.13'' in 2003, its low -15.7° declination places that year in second place. The Mars Section has concluded that 2003 will be remembered as the second best apparition the 20th century, at least for the majority of observers.

Mars will exceed 24'' in diameter between July 23rd and August 9th, 2018. This is 97 percent of the maximum of 25.13'' diameter attained during the last of the "favorable" apparitions, which occurred in 2003. During the 2003 apparition, Mars came within 34.6 million miles to Earth, closer than at any time in over nearly sixty thousand years! The Red Planet will be only 1.2 million miles further away in 2018! What makes the 2018 apparition so favorable is that Mars will be less than one second of arc smaller than it was in 2003, but will be 9.8 degrees lower in the sky for observers in the northern hemisphere; however, Mars will be favorably placed for observers in the southern hemisphere of Earth.

Opposition occurs 12 months after conjunction when Mars is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. At that time, the two planets will lie nearly in a straight line with respect to the Sun, or five weeks after retrogression begins. Opposition will occur at 0507 UT on July 27, 2018 (218.9° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 24.3 arcsec. Mars will remain visible for more than 12 months after opposition and then become lost in the glare of the Sun around July 27, 2019 as it approaches the next conjunction (September 02, 2019). The cycle is complete in 780 Earth days.
Closest approach occurs at 0751 UT on July 31, 2018 (221.4° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 24.3'' at a distance of 0.3849629 astronomical units (AU) or 35,785,537 mi (57,590,630-km). During closest approach in 2018 the apparent diameter of Mars will be 5.7 arcsec larger than it was at the same period in 2016 and it will be 4.4 degrees higher in the sky – not quite as good for observing the Red Planet for observers in the northern hemisphere. It should also be noted that closest approach between Earth and Mars is not necessarily coincident with the time of opposition but varies by as much as two weeks.



A simulated view of the appearance of Mars during opposition at 0507 UT on July 27, 2018 (218.9° Ls, CM 143.9°)

The observable disk diameter of Mars will be greater than 6 arcsec from February 12, 2018 [-21.4° δ] (128.3° Ls) and will not fall below this value until February 06, 2019 (336.4° Ls), lasting 11.9 months or 208 degrees Ls."

In other words, folks, it looks like 2018 will be a good year for viewing Mars!!

 

SpaceX has started a live stream of its “starman” – the dummy in the Tesla Roadster cruising toward Mars.





View from SpaceX Launch Control. Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth

Elon Musk has tweeted out an update on the upper stage – his Tesla Roadster is cruising through high-energy radiation belts circling the Earth, toward deep space.

The projected path of the car would bring it close to Mars, but Musk has said there is only an “extremely tiny” chance that it might crash into the planet. If it stays on course, it would instead drift through space, potentially for millions of years.

 

Alhena, the third brightest star in the constellation of Gemini and is about 109 Light Years away [654 Trillion miles]is losing it's Hydrogen core and is in it's first stage of dying. It's about 5 times the size of our Sun and has a strong magnetic field.



Rigel. is 863 Light Years [498 Trillion miles]away, and is a blue/white Super giant which has also burnt out it's Hydrogen core and has swollen to around 115 times the size of our Sun.and
is in te Constellation of Orion.


Betelgeuse, is around 640 Light Years [3840 Trillion miles] away in the Constellation of Orion. It too has burnt out it's Hydrogen core and is classed as a Red Super Giant, who's so big that if it were in the center of our Solar System it would engulf Mercury, Venus, Mars and maybe Jupiter!!



Alnilam is one of the three stats that make up Orions Belt. It's about 817 Light Years[4902 Trillion miles] away.and is classed as a blue super giant about 28 times bigger than our Sun.


Mintaka is also one of the three stars making up Orions Belt and is around 915 Light Years [5490 Trillion miles]away. It's actually a Double Star with both stars orbiting around each other.