BOLTON ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 2 January 2011

Transcription

1 BOLTON ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 2 January 2011 From the BAS Web Gallery..1 Next 2 meetings...1 Partial Eclipse...1 Scope for improvement....2 Orion the Hunter...3 It s all happening on 4 Jan...4 Crossword 1 Solution...5 Crossword Crossword 2 Clues...7 Solar System Objects...8 Next 2 Meetings 4 th January p.m. Supernova Hunting Len Adam BAS 18 th January p.m. Activity Night Show and tell and New Toys BAS Members PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE ON 4 TH JANUARY A partial solar eclipse will be visible from the UK on 4 th January. The eclipse at maximum will appear as shown below. Look out for the Quadrantid Meteor Shower 4 th January 2011 Stargazing Live A series of events across the UK in January programmes/b00wnvpf Unfortunately the maximum occurs at around 08:14 and the sun will not rise until around 08:27 in Lancashire so only the latter part of the eclipse will be seen. Obviously it will require clear skies and an unobstructed view but if any observations are made at all by members positive or negative- any reports of these will be welcome for insertion into the next issue of the Newsletter. IMAGES FROM THE BAS GALLERY Find more like this on the BAS Website Ross Wilkinson Carl Stone Jupiter The Moon T Brandwood Mike Schaffel Jupiter Keith Mallalieu Moon Len Adam M42 David Ratledge Wizard Nebula Please send magazine articles /contributions to Len Adam. lenadam@sky.com MEETINGS: LadyBridge Community Centre Beaumont Drive Bolton BL3 4RZ Non-members invited to drop in to meetings which are held every other Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. 2 charge per meeting or 20 annual membership. Go to to find the next meeting. There are plenty of parking spaces at the centre.

2 Ross Wilkinson led an evening workshop on setting up telescopes on Tuesday 9 th November at the BAS meeting rooms in the Ladybridge Community Centre in Bolton. The meeting room was packed to capacity including many young members who were very keen to inspect the range of different telescopes on display. Ross started the comprehensive demonstration by explaining how telescopes could have different optical structures and different types of mount and that in order to get the best out of any of these it was important to accurately align the mount with the sky and to collimate or align the optical system. Using the range of telescopes on display Ross and expert members of the BAS explained the difference between refracting and reflecting telescopes Newtonian and Catadioptric scopes and altazimuth and equatorial mounts. He then went on to discuss eyepieces how to increase or decrease effective focal length and then looked at the features of different finder scopes stressing the critical importance of accurately aligning your finder scope with the main telescope. Ross then went through a typical alignment process for equatorially mounted telescopes with hints and suggestions on choosing alignment stars and synchronisation. Ross finished with the slide below to summarise the setting up process. The audience then spent a considerable time touring the telescopes on display and getting helpful hints from experienced BAS members.

3 ORION THE HUNTER The Southern Sky at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 21 st December 2010 Orion dominates the Southern sky in December and January giving opportunities to view such objects as The Great Nebula M42 in Orion. However on the night of the 21 st December BAS meeting the almost full Moon causes considerable interference as you can see from the star chart on the right. M42 lies beneath the Belt of Orion in the sword. M42 Image from David Ratledge M42 The Great Nebula in Orion This is an outstanding object that can be seen with the naked eye but is spectacular in binoculars and small telescopes M42 is always a popular object in the winter skies. A challenge is to try and spot the trapezium which are the massive stars providing the energy to cause the nebula to glow.

4 Its all happening on January 4 th! Close conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus Uranus 0.6 degrees North of Jupiter Partial Solar Eclipse Quadrantid Meteor Shower best before dawn on the 4 th Radiant RA 15d 28m Dec +50 Bootes. BAS Meeting 7p.m. Come and find out about Supernova Hunting by amateurs 4

5 PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS ARE AVAILABLE IN PDF FORMAT IN THE MEMBERS AREA OF THE BAS WEBSITE This includes the previous crossword so if you have not done that you may wish to print the previous issue and solve it before looking at the solution below SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD 1

6 BAS CROSSWORD 2

7 CROSSWORD CLUES

8 SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS RISE AND SET TIMES January 1 st 2011 The Sun rises at 08:28 and sets at 16:01. It transits the meridian at 12:14 Mercury rises at 06:41 and sets at 14:48. It transits the meridian at 10:45 and has a Magnitude of 0.14 Venus rises at 04:21 and sets at 13:34. It transits the meridian at 08:58 and has a Magnitude of Mars rises at 09:07 and sets at 16:33. It transits the meridian at 12:49 and has a Magnitude of 1.2 Jupiter rises at 11:27 and sets at 23:05. It transits the meridian at 17:16 and has a Magnitude of Saturn rises at 00:54 and sets at 12:13. It transits the meridian at 06:34 and has a Magnitude of 0.76 Uranus rises at 11:24 and sets at 23:09. It transits the meridian at 17:17 and has a Magnitude of 5.86 Neptune rises at 10:34 and sets at 20:13. It transits the meridian at 15:24 and has a Magnitude of 7.95 Pluto rises at 07:36 and sets at 16:03. It transits the meridian at 11:50 and has a Magnitude of The Moon rises at 05:53 and sets at 13:17. It transits the meridian at 09:36 February 1 st 2011 The Sun rises at 07:57 and sets at 16:52. It transits the meridian at 12:24 Mercury rises at 07:29 and sets at 15:10. It transits the meridian at 11:20 and has a Magnitude of Venus rises at 05:11 and sets at 13:13. It transits the meridian at 09:12 and has a Magnitude of Mars rises at 08:09 and sets at 16:49. It transits the meridian at 12:29 and has a Magnitude of 1.09 Jupiter rises at 09:32 and sets at 21:34. It transits the meridian at 15:33 and has a Magnitude of Saturn rises at 22:51 and sets at 10:13. It transits the meridian at 04:34 and has a Magnitude of 0.63 Uranus rises at 09:24 and sets at 21:14. It transits the meridian at 15:19 and has a Magnitude of 5.91 Neptune rises at 08:34 and sets at 18:18. It transits the meridian at 13:26 and has a Magnitude of 7.97 Pluto rises at 05:39 and sets at 14:05. It transits the meridian at 09:52 and has a Magnitude of 14.1 The Moon rises at 06:58 and sets at 15:22. It transits the meridian at 11:06