Northern Sydney Astronomical Society

The archives show the articles from the main page for the last 60 days.

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Picture taken of Comet Hartley (103P) 15th Oct (Click to Enlarge)

The picture on the left was taken on Oct 15th of Comet Hartley (103P)  which is currently approaching the Sun. This comet is drawing closer to Earth and will be at it’s closest distance in 3 days time when it passes us on Wednesday 20th October. On Wednesday the comet will be a little diffacult to see as it will only be 16 degrees above the horizon.

However, the good news is that the comet will be visible higher above the horizon over the next few weeks…. and with it’s current magnitude the comet will be visible to the naked eye until November 18 after which you will need your telescope. To see the comet you will need to look for it after 4am each morning.

Keep an eye on this page over the next few weeks for more details and pictures taken of comet Hartley and when and where you will see it.

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This is a cluster of around 100 stars which was discovered in 1787. Also known as NGC  457, this cluster is given the name ET cluster due to the similarities to the Steven Spielberg movie character of that name.

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This is a picture of what the Moon currently looks like today. There is a lot of detail visible of the craters on the right and this is a fine example of why the Moon is a popular target for Star Gazers. When you look at the Moon there is always something interesting to see.

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The Running Man Nebula (posted 26th September)
The picture on the right was taken this morning shortly before sunrise and you can see in the left most image of the picture that the 

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light was beginning to effect the quality of the picture. The image has been processed to remove the effect of the light and this is shown in the right hand side of the picture.The Running Man Nebula, or NGC 1977, is a reflection nebula which can be seen near the Orion Nebula and it contains stars which are between 2 million and 4 million years old. Looking at the picture you can easily see the light reflecting off the clouds of interstellar cloud. The quality of the picture is not that great due to the sky beginning to lighten in the early morning.

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This is a recent picture of the Dumbbell Nebula ,or M27. Taken a few days ago, you can see in the very middle of this nebula it’s central star which is a hot blue subdwarf.

Planetary nebula are shells of gas shed by stars late in their life after using up all of their nuclear fuel. The star then ejects a significant portion of its mass in a gaseous shell, which is illuminated by its extremely hot central star, which is just the core left from the original star. This a normal process for stars in a late period of their life which also our sun will undergo in a few billion years.

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Today’s picture on the left shows the Horesehead Nebula which is located below the furtherst star left on Orion’s Belt. We only have a black and white shot of the nebula today as the color image was a little washed out by the light from the moon.

However, you can easily make out in the picture for why this nebula is called the Horsehead Nebula.

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Cluster M71 (Click to Enlarge)

The picture of M71 on the left shows the globular cluster M71 as it was seen through the telescope a few hours ago.

The image on the left shows the wide view of the cluster with the closest shot being on the right.

The image is not the best as there was patchy cloud in the sky earlier this morning when this picture was taken which has had an effect on the qualit of the image through the telescope.

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Orion Nebula (Click to Enlarge)

This picture was taken of the Orion Nebula today however there was haze in the area which resulted in the picture appearing faded. You can see this in the image in the left of today’s picture. Fortunately when processing the image afterwards you can remove the haze effect and improve the picture a thousand percent as shown in the image on the right of the picture.

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Galaxy M110 (Click to Enlarge)

Today we look at M110 which is a satellite galaxy of  the Andromeda Galaxy.

M110 is an eliptical galaxy whose size makes it twice as long as it is wide. With the length of this galaxy, it would take light 5400 years to reach one end of the galaxy to the other.

M110 is not a galaxy you will see easily tonight. It rises at around 10:30pm but is best seen at 2am tomorrow morning. However at 2am it will only be around 14.3 degrees above the horizon which is as high as it will be seen.

M110 is still a great galaxy to see. The picture on the left was taken today and shows M110 in the middle with the Andromeda Galaxy in the bottom left hand corner.

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Jupiter 21 august 2010 (Click to Enlarge)

This picture on the left shows today’s shadow transit of Jupiter by the moon Europa.

If you look closely at the picture, you will be able to see the Great Red Spot clearly visible on Jupiter’s surface.  You will the shadow of Europa in close proximity to Jupiter’s Red spot. Europa itself can be seen in the bottom right of the picture.

Another thing you may notice from today’s image of Jupiter is that the Southern Equatorial Belt which has been missing since the beginning of the year looks like it is now beginning to reappear.

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The picture on the right was taken of the Moon early this morning on 20th August 2010.

Moon 20th August 2010 (Click to Enlarge)

The Moon is currently in a phase called a Waxing Gibbous Moon which is where 51 to 99% of the Moon’s surface is visible. When the Moon is in this phase it is normally visible late in the afternoon and most of the Night.

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Despite the overcast conditions which settled over Sydney last night, I was still able to do some observing of sorts yesterday.

I was able to look at a number of objects ….. Jupiter being one of them….. but the most interesting view was that of the planet Uranus.

Widescreen View of Uranus 18th August ( Click to Enlarge)

The picture above is a widescreen shot taken from the telescope yesterday showing Uranus against a backdrop of stars.

While looking at the planet Uranus, I thought I picked up one of the moons orbiting the planet…..possibly a moon called Miranda. It was a very small dark grey speck of light sitting to the right hand side of Uranus. But as I watched , the moon seemed to disappear from the view …..so I am not sure if I saw Miranda or not.

Closeup View of Uranus 18th August (Click to Enlarge)

Below is a zoomed in shot of  Uranus taken yesterday.

I also managed to see Jupiter as well. Eight months after disappearing, the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) has still not reappeared on Jupiter. While viewing Jupiter yesterday, I was happy to see the planets famous Red Spot appear from the left hand side of the planet and over the space of 40 minutes it moved right heading across the surface of the planet.

I will explain how I managed to see Uranus and Jupiter live yesterday and this will be the topic of the New Astronomers Group this coming Tuesday.

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Apollo 14 (Click to Enlarge)

You can explore the surface of the Moon up close and personal using images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. These images can be very detailed and can show features that are as small as 50 cm across in size.

While exploring the lunar surface, you may happen across any one of the many man-made objects left behind on the Moon.

For example, in the picture on the left you will see in the left most image the landing site of  Apollo 14′s Lunar module which landed on the Moon on February 5,1971. You can clearly see the module itself. In the image on the right side of the picture, the large white impact mark shows the crater which was formed by the impact of the Apollo 14 Saturn IVB booster. The booster was intentionally impacted into the lunar surface on February 4, 1971.,.

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Tracks on the Moon (Click to Enlarge)

The picture here was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and shows a number of boulder tracks, rollers, bouncer and tumblers.

It is possible that these tracks are the results of the boulders rolling down slopes but it is not exactly known what causes these various boulder tracks. It may have been a nearby meteor impact….. or possibly the result of a moonquake.

These boulder tracks were first discovered by orbiters back in the 1960s

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We know Neptune was hit by a huge comet 200 years ago, but now a huge 100km wide asteroid has now been found following behind Neptune as the planet orbits the Sun. This is because the asteroid is caught in an area where the gravitational force from Neptune and the Sun is exactly the same and the asteroid therefore follows behind the planet at a fixed distance. This asteroid is following but not orbiting Neptune.

It is not expected that this asteroid will impact with Neptune.

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Starting at 11pm on Wednesday night , the moon of Europa will begin casting it’s shadow on Jupiter. The shadow will be best seen at 12:26am Thursday morning as shown in the picture below and will be seen crossing the surface of Jupiter until 1:52am.

Europa Shadow on Jupiter Thursday 12:30am

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Northern Sydney Astronomical Society had a great observing night last friday night with a number of scopes being available for the observers. All planets but for Neptune were observed on the night which would have to be a great experience for those who attended the observing  night.

There was also some strange sightings reported by our observers to add some mystery to the night.

Click on the following link to read the report from Peter.

http://nsas.org.au/2010/08/12/observing-night-friday-13th-august-tomorrow-night/#comment-71

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Orsola De Marco at NSAS on 17th August 2010

This will be a very interesting presentation ……. don’t miss it.

This month at NSAS we are fortunate to have Orsola De Marco from Macquarie University as our guest speaker for August. Orsola will be presenting “Planetary Nebulae:  Death shrouds of lonely stars or aftermath of binary interactions?”

Orsola will explain the alternate evolutionary scenario for some of the most popular objects in our night sky.

Refer to our Events Link below for more information on next Tuesday night’s presentation by Orsola De Marco.          Visitors and Members are welcome.

http://nsas.org.au/events/

.,You can read more about Orsola De Marco here : http://research.amnh.org/~orsola/