Northern Sydney Astronomical Society

May NAG on Tues 28th

bobsastro — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:14:18 +0000

The weather forecast for next Tuesday night is saying possible showers, so please check this website Tuesday afternoon to see whether we are doing observing/bringing telescopes for help, or having lecture 4 on Solar System/Deep Space objects.

May General Meeting

bobsastro — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:33:09 +0000

The NSAS May General Meeting will be next Tuesday the 21st at 7:30PM at Regis Hall (lower), St Ignatius College, Riverview. The speaker is Dr Ivy Wong from CSIRO, who will speak on “The Space Shuttle Era”. Her abstract follows:

The space shuttle era concluded 2 years ago. This talk will describe the purpose and impact of its 31 years of operation. Although the impact of the shuttle era reaches well beyond the realms of space exploration and astronomy, I will only have time to present a glimpse of the technological impacts on our every-day life as well as provide an astronomer’s perspective on the significance of this era. Much of our understanding of the Universe would not have been possible without such a program.

Should be an interesting subject. As usual, visitors are welcome.

What’s on at NSAS in May

bobsastro — Sat, 11 May 2013 04:40:08 +0000

Just to remind you of what’s on in May, the General Meeting is Tuesday the 21st, and the speaker is Dr Ivy Wong from CSIRO, who will speak about “The Space Shuttle Era”. The third session of the New Astronomers Group will be on Tuesday the 28th, and if the sky cooperates, will be a practical session on observing. All programs will be at Regis Hall, St Ignatius, commencing 7:30 PM.

Observing report 10 May 2013

nsasobserving — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:41:47 +0000

The clear skies gave us some great views of favourites such as the Jewel box, Eta Carine nebula and M42 Orion nebula but it was the views to Saturn and its moons and Omega Centauri cluster (soon to be reclassified as a dwarf galaxy?) that provided the most interest for visitors. I spent some time observing globular clusters from the Messier catalouge and some lesser known NGC globulars.

Binoculars were put to good use by visitors with some pointers and star hopping advice from members.

Dew appeared on our scopes very early in the evening and created problems particularly for those scopes without any optic heaters. We packed up early just before 10:00pm.
Tim

Observing Friday 10 May 2013 is ON

nsasobserving — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:50:36 +0000

Observing is ON this evening Friday 10 May at the North Turramurra Golf Course, gates will be open around 5:30pm. Visitors are welcome.
Thanks Tim

Observing Report 3 May

bobsastro — Sun, 05 May 2013 02:40:52 +0000

Observation officer’s report for 3 May 2013

There was a good crowd at the Golf Club on Friday night, with both members and visitors bringing telescopes.

The cloud had threatened, but only caused minor inconvenience.

Early on, the sky tours were popular, with the usual suspects being observed by new and old astronomers: Omega Centauri, Jewel Box, Carbon star near Beta Crucis, Eta Carina, Saturn and its moons, a few planetary nebulae including the Ghost of Jupiter and the Blue Planetary Nebula and even some a few dim galaxies – Centaurus A and the Sombrero

As the night gathered momentum and the seeing improved there were some great sights, including the Homunculus in Eta Carina, the Leo Galaxies M95, M96 and M65 and M66. These were followed by an “Easter egg hunt” for galaxies through the Virgo and Coma Berenieces. Targets included M61, M49, M58, M59, M60, M89, M90, Virgo A – M87, Markarian’s Chain – M84, M100, M88, M91, M85 and the globular M53.

A good night was had by all.

Geoff

Observing is ON at NTGC

ijustiniano — Fri, 03 May 2013 05:04:56 +0000

Observing is on today 3-5-13 at North Turramurra Golf Course. Gates will be open just before sunset. See you there.

Geoff.

Partial Solar Eclipse visible in Sydney on early Friday 10th of May

ijustiniano — Fri, 03 May 2013 01:45:00 +0000

This year Australia has been lucky again, being able to witness another solar eclipse (I hope that with a better weather than last year!). This time is an annular eclipse, and the “totality” going to be visible on the north (again!). John O’Byrne, Secretary of the Astronomical Society of Australia, sent us the following information:

New ASA Factsheet

As you may be aware, there is an upcoming *partial* Solar Eclipse early on the morning of Friday 10 May (just over a week away). The eclipse will be annular along a path across northern Australia, but partial for everyone else.

In Sydney for example, the eclipse begins at 7.50 am and ends at 10.14am. Mid-eclipse is at 8.57 am when 39% of the Sun’s diameter will be covered. At that time the Sun will be 24 degrees above the eastern horizon. Many other parts of Australia will see a similar amount or even more of the disk covered.

The eclipse can be safely viewed using a telescope equipped with a specialised solar filter or simply projecting the image through a small telescope. Cardboard framed ‘eclipse glasses’ meeting international standards are also safe to use if their instructions are followed. Suitable ‘eclipse glasses’ are available locally from reputable astronomy shops, public Observatories and Planetaria.

More information about the eclipse and safe ways to view it can be found in a Factsheet produced by the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA). The sheet has been posted on the ASA’s Australian Astronomy web site (http://www.astronomy.org.au). The Factsheet link is:

http://astronomy.org.au/education/factsheets/. You may wish to use this sheet to inform friends, students or the public about this event. The sheet may be freely copied for wide distribution provided the Australian Astronomy and ASA logos are retained.

This time I wish you all CLEAR SKIES to enjoy our partial eclipse down here in Sydney

New Astronomers Group Tues 23rd

bobsastro — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:45:04 +0000

The New Astronomers Group will continue Tuesday night the 23rd at Regis Hall, St Ignatius, commencing at 7:30PM (see the website for directions). The second session will cover What you can see, how to find it, and what are celestial coordinates. Newcomers are welcome, and we’ll have a very short review of the first session.

Quasars – from the Milky Way to the Edge of the Universe with Prof Ron Ekers

ijustiniano — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 03:39:37 +0000

The Media Production Coordinator at Curtin University in Perth, Ms Bex Logan, kindly shared with us a video of a lecture given by Professor Ron Ekers last month to commemorate the publishing of the discovery of Quasars.

About the lecture and Professor Ekers:

“On March 16th, 50 years ago, a joint effort between Australia and the USA led to the discovery of Quasars and fundamentally shifted our thinking about the Universe. This is a fascinating story of scientific debate, monumental leaps in knowledge, and global cooperation. Professor Ron Ekers speaks about what we’ve learned over the past 50 years of peering into space and where we might go next with telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array. Professor Ekers has worked with some of the world’s most renowned astronomers at some of the top University’s and Observatories including Cal Tech and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Foreign Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science, a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He’s a past President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and a member of the Advisory Board for the Peter Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize.”

Here the link: http://youtu.be/t3QoMazg94M

Enjoy!!!