Universe Today

July 16, 2009April 26, 2016 by Tammy Plotner

A High Definition Telescope? Yeah… The Celestron EdgeHD!

In this new generation of everything high def – from computer screen to televisions – is it possible to create a high definition telescope? The answer is yes… And the designer is Celestron. As always, I keep my eyes and ears open when it comes to the latest in astronomy equipment. While I’ve seen a lot of things come and go over the years (including other Ritchey-Chretien and astrograph knock-offs), the Celestron EdgeHD is a design that I think really deserves a closer look…

First let’s start the story off where it deserves to be started… the basic Schmidt Cassegrain design. Some four decades ago, the SCT was cutting edge technology. Its predecessor the Cassegrain, used a primary concave mirror and a secondary hyperbolic convex mirror to focus the light back through the hole in the primary to the eyepiece or camera. The Schmidt design allowed for a corrector plate to be added to the optical path to help eliminate spherical aberrations – the increased refraction or reflection of the light rays when they strike near the mirror’s edge. This produced great flat-field images and long focal lengths in an extremely compact design – but it also introduced a very expensive telescope. One the average consumer couldn’t afford.

Enter Celestron…

In 1970 Celestron telescope designers and engineers announced a revolutionary method of producing Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes at a reasonable cost and in volume. This optical breakthrough was incorporated in the first Celestron C8. The popularity of the C8 Celestron telescope in the consumer marketplace led to the C5 Celestron telescope and then to larger versions, including an 11″ and 14″ telescope. The “orange tube” telescopes became an instant classic and many of them are still in use today… But the design could be a little bit better, couldn’t it? Yeah. It could be aplanatic.

Aplanatic telescopes can be designed with two aspheric mirrors, configured to correct spherical and coma aberrations – a design which minimizes astigmatism and can be optimized to have no vignetting across the field. What’s more, the aplantic design also allows for a significant reduction in scale sizes when it comes to astrophotography, making them extremely compatible with finely-pixilated modern imaging equipment, like CCD cameras. But that would also make it very expensive wouldn’t it? Yeah… It would. But still, that design could get a little bit better couldn’t it? Sure. It could be an astrograph!

In this case, the astrograph is a telescope designed for the sole purpose of astrophotography. Not so great if you want to use it visually… But just dandy if you’re interested in wide field surveys of the night sky. It’s a pure research grade telescope – designed to work in conjunction with a specific shaped photographic plate or CCD detector. With an astrograph you could work on things like astrometry, stellar classifications and, with time, even proper motion of nearby stars. An astrograph means the possibility of finding things like asteroids, meteors, comets, variable stars, nova, and even unknown planets. But an astrograph means you’re talking about a mighty expensive telescope, right? Right.

Enter Celestron…

Just like 40 years ago when Celestron revolutionized the affordability factor of the Schmidt-Cassegrain design (once also the domain of researchers only), they are about to revolutionize amateur astronomy once again by giving the world its very first high definition telescope – the Celestron EdgeHD.

Is Celestron making promises it can’t keep? Let’s take a look at the track record of some major telescope manufacturers.

It hasn’t been that long since Meade also introduced a similar design telescope known as the ACF, or Advanced Coma Free. It was a knock-off of the Ritchey-Chretien design, and supposedly free of third-order coma and spherical aberration, and heavily advertised as being as the same design as the Hubble Space Telescope. Well, we all know what happened right off the bat with the Hubble, don’t we? Darn right. One little wrong tweak in the optical design led to a major Hubble error and one wrong move in poorly executed RCT design will lead to fifth-order coma, severe large-angle astigmatism, and comparatively severe field curvature.

When companies compete with comparative design models for the consumer, they’re putting out a lot of advertising hype your way. But let’s cut to the chase. Two companies… Both produced a sky navigation product – one failed and one endured. Which one? Yeah. The Celestron SkyScout. You’re getting the picture. Let’s take our own IYA Live Telescope as another example. The Meade ETX lasted through 28 observations and I have a Celestron 114 that’s 22 years old and I can’t even begin to fathom how many times it’s been used. Try calling or writing the companies for customer service or questions… See which one answers you and which one doesn’t.

Will the Celestron EdgeHD telescope be all that? The image you see here was taken by Andre Paquette using Celestron EdgeHD Optics. I’ve examined it upside down, backwards, forwards and from edge to edge… and what I see are perfect stellar images. (Open the full-sized image and check it out yourself. You’ll be impressed!)

Celestron promises the light becomes more concentrated when focused precisely. This maximizes image brightness, improves resolution and limiting magnitude when compared to telescopes of equal aperture. I know for a fact that you can’t beat Celestron’s Starbright XLT coatings, because I’ve never had to recoat a Celestron mirror yet. I look at the modern ergonomic design and I don’t see “cool” the same way as others… I see a self contained unit that isn’t going to be dragging or snagging on things – one with cooling vents located on the rear cell allow hot air to be released from behind the primary mirror. I see a telescope that’s going to perform incredibly in both visual and photographic capabilities…

So where’s the bottom line? The cost. Don’t start selling your gold dental fillings or thinking about taking out a second mortgage on your home, because Celestron has done it again. Just like so many years ago when they made the SCT affordable to backyard astronomers, they are now putting cutting edge, research grade design telescopes into the realm of possible. The average price is only about 1/3 more for the optical tube assembly than a standard SCT and it gets even lower as the aperture goes up. If you need the complete telescope package with a mount and tripod? Sure. It’s expensive – but the high quality of the mount is what you’re paying for and it’s worth it. (Remember two little telescopes – one that lasted through 28 observations and one that’s still going strong after 22 years.) What kind of faith do I have in Celestron? The same faith I’ve always had. Every Celestron product I’ve purchased over the years is still functioning… and the same cannot be said of other “M”anufacturers.

Go on… Take a look at the Celestron EdgeHD for yourself! You’ll find much more information and illustrations at the Celestron EdgeHD Tour pages, and you can take a look at pricing, specifications, and other information through Celestron’s premier dealers such as OPT, telescopes.com, Scope City, High Point, Hands On Optics, Astronomics and Adorama.

What will they think of next??

July 16, 2009December 24, 2015 by Anne Minard

The Eagle Has … Arrived

Eagle Nebula, courtesy of the European Southern Observatory

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We’re still a few days out from the 40th anniversary of the touchdown of Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle. (The launch went off 40 years and just an hour or so ago.)

Presumably to hold us over, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released this stunning new image of the Eagle Nebula.

Located 7000 light-years away, towards the constellation of Serpens (the Snake), the Eagle Nebula is a dazzling stellar nursery, a region of gas and dust where young stars are currently being formed and where a cluster of massive, hot stars, NGC 6611, has just been born. The powerful light and strong winds from these massive new arrivals are shaping light-year long pillars, seen in the image partly silhouetted against the bright background of the nebula. The nebula itself has a shape vaguely reminiscent of an eagle, with the central pillars being the “talons.”

The star cluster was discovered by the Swiss astronomer Jean Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745–46. It was independently rediscovered about 20 years later by the French comet hunter Charles Messier, who included it as number 16 in his famous catalogue and remarked that the stars were surrounded by a faint glow. The Eagle Nebula achieved iconic status in 1995, when its central pillars were depicted in this stunning image obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The newly released image, obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla, Chile, covers an area on the sky as large as the full Moon, and is more than 200 times more extensive than the iconic Hubble visible-light image. The whole region around the pillars can now be seen in exquisite detail.

The “Pillars of Creation” are in the middle of the image, with the cluster of young stars, NGC 6611, lying above and to the right. The “Spire” — another pillar captured by Hubble — is at the center left of the image.

Finger-like features protrude from the vast cloud wall of cold gas and dust, not unlike stalagmites rising from the floor of a cave. Inside the pillars, the gas is dense enough to collapse under its own weight, forming young stars. These light-year long columns of gas and dust are being simultaneously sculpted, illuminated and destroyed by the intense ultraviolet light from massive stars in NGC 6611, the adjacent young stellar cluster. Within a few million years — a mere blink of the universal eye — they will be gone forever.

Source: ESO. More videos there allow you to zoom in on the Eagle Nebula, pan across it, or cross-fade into several views — all while listening to music that is quite ethereal.

July 15, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Q & A with Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins

Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins. Credit: GeekoutNewYork

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Michael Collins has always been one of my favorite people (I even wrote a song about him). He’s funny, he’s humble, he’s passionate, he’s a great writer, and oh yeah — he’s an astronaut. Collins was the command module pilot for Apollo 11 and he also flew on Gemini X in 1966.

Now, at 78 years of age, Collins decided not to give any media interviews during the hubbub of the Apollo 11 40th anniversary, and instead issued a Q & A of the questions he is most frequently asked. He did a great job of being both the interviewer and the interviewee, showing his humorous and honest nature. Collins took some of his answers from his book, Carrying the Fire, and any of the following sections in quotation marks are from that reference. Read on and find out for yourself if Mike Collins is a grumpy recluse!

Q. Circling the lonely moon by yourself, the loneliest person in the universe, weren’t you lonely?

A. No.

“Far from feeling lonely or abandoned, I feel very much a part of what is taking place on the lunar surface. I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have. This venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two. I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what
on this side.”

Collins suiting up for Apollo 11. Credit: NASA

Q. Did you have the best seat on Apollo 11?

A. No.

“The cancellation of 014 also freed Borman-Stafford-Collins for reassignment, and reassigned we were, but not as a unit. Tom Stafford moved up a notch and acquired his own highly experienced crew, John Young and Gene Cernan; they became McDivitt’s back-up. Score one for Tom. Borman and Collins got promoted to prime crew of the third
manned flight, picking up Bill Anders as our third member.

In the process, Collins also got ‘promoted’ from lunar module pilot to command module pilot, and lost right then and there his first chance to walk on the surface of the moon. The reason I had to move up was that Deke at that time had a firm rule that the command module pilot on all flights involving LM must have flown before in space, the idea being that he didn’t want any rookie in the CM by himself. Since Bill and Anders had not flown, I was it. Slowly it sunk in. No LM for me, no EVA, no fancy flying, no need to practice in helicopters anymore.”

Q. Were you happy with the seat you had?

A. Yes, absolutely. It was an honor.

Q. Has the space program helped young people become interested in careers in math and science? Don’t you tell kids to opt for these choices?

A. Yes and no. We definitely have a national problem in that kids seem to be going for money rather than what they consider ‘nerdy’ careers. Other countries are outstripping us in the quality and quantity of math and science grads, and this can only hurt in the long run. But a liberal arts education, particularly English, is a good entry point no matter what the later specialization. I usually talk up English.

Q. Turning to your flight, what is your strongest memory of Apollo 11?

A. Looking back at Earth from a great distance.

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified facade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.”

Small, shiny, serene, blue and white, FRAGILE.

Q. That was 40 years ago. Would it look the same today?

A. Yes, from the moon, but appearances can be deceiving. It’s certainly not serene, but definitely fragile, and growing more so. When we flew to the moon, our population was 3 billion; today it has more than doubled and is headed for 8 billion, the experts say. I do
not think this growth is sustainable or healthy. The loss of habitat, the trashing of oceans, the accumulation of waste products – this is no way to treat a planet.

Q. You are starting to sound a little grumpy. Are you grumpy?

A. At age 78, yes, in many ways. Some things about current society irritate me, such as the adulation of celebrities and the inflation of heroism.

Collins' official astronaut photo. Credit: NASA

Q. But aren’t you both?

A. Not me. Neither.

Heroes abound, and should be revered as such, but don’t count astronauts among them. We work very hard; we did our jobs to near perfection, but that was what we had hired on to do. In no way did we meet the criterion of the Congressional Medal of Honor: ‘above and beyond the call of duty.’

Celebrities? What nonsense, what an empty concept for a person to be, as my friend the great historian Daniel Boorstin put it, “known for his well-known-ness.” How many live-ins, how many trips to rehab, maybe–wow–you could even get arrested and then you would really be noticed. Don’t get me started.

Q. So, if I wanted to sum you up, I should say “grumpy?”

A. No, no, lucky! Usually, you find yourself either too young or too old to do what you really want, but consider: Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, Buzz Aldrin 1930, and Mike Collins 1930. We came along at exactly the right time. We survived hazardous careers and we were successful in them. But in my own case at least, it was 10 percent shrewd planning and 90 percent blind luck. Put LUCKY on my tombstone.

Q. Okay, but getting back to the space program. What’s next?

A. I hope Mars. It was my favorite planet as a kid and still is. As celestial bodies go, the moon is not a particularly interesting place, but Mars is. It is the closest thing to a sister planet that we have found so far. I worry that at NASA’s creeping pace, with the emphasis on returning to the moon, Mars may be receding into the distance. That’s about all I have to say.

Q. I understand you have become a recluse.

A. I’m not sure that’s the word. I think of the Brown Recluse, the deadliest of spiders, and I have a suntan, so perhaps. Anyway, it’s true I’ve never enjoyed the spotlight, don’t know why, maybe it ties in with the celebrity thing.

Q. So, how do you spend your time?

A. Running, biking, swimming, fishing, painting, cooking, reading, worrying about the stock market, searching for a really good bottle of cabernet under ten dollars. Moderately busy.

Q. No TV?

A. A few nature programs, and the Washington Redskins, that’s about it.

Q. Do you feel you’ve gotten enough recognition for your accomplishments?

A. Lordy, yes, Oodles and oodles.

Q. Oodles?? But don’t you have any keen insights?

A. Oh yeah, a whole bunch, but I’m saving them for the 50th.

For more information about Michael Collins, read his books (Carrying the Fire, Flying to the Moon)or check out his official NASA astronaut biography.

Source: Michael Collins, via NASA

July 15, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Listen to Apollo 11 Conversations the Earth Didn’t Hear

Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission. Credit: NASA

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The whole world watched as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface of the Moon. Everyone listened intently to every word said between the Eagle lander and mission control. But what did Neil and Buzz say to each other when the microphone was off? Now you can find out. NASA has made the onboard audio tapes available online, so everyone can listen in the what happened inside the spacecraft. These are not necessarily major milestones of the mission but are some of the more interesting and clearly recorded conversations the crew members had among themselves as the mission progressed.

For example, here’s one exchange between Armstrong and Aldrin:

“I would appreciate if you could … see if you could … find the map …”

“Trade you that for a piece of gum. There it is.”

Find the Apollo 11 audio highlights here.

And here’s the Apollo 11 onboard voice transcription.

All of the Apollo spacecraft included onboard voice recorders, activated during much of each mission to record the crew’s conversations. The transcripts of those recordings were publicly released in the mid-1970s and they have been posted on the Internet for years. But only recently were the actual onboard recordings from Apollo 11 digitized so that the recordings could be made available on the Internet.

The Apollo 11 Onboard Audio Tape Database cross references the tape numbers to the Mission Elapsed Time (MET) that was on each tape. The database includes a description of the mission status at that time. It is best to listen to the tapes while simultaneously viewing the same mission elapsed time on the transcript, since often the recordings are faint.

Source: NASA

July 15, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Where In The Universe #62

Here’s this week’s image for the WITU Challenge, to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until tomorrow. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

If you need some more challenges, look back at all previous 61 Where In the Universe Challenges.

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below

This the is Apollo 11 anniversary edition of WITU!

This is a microscopic look at one of the Moon rocks returned by the Apollo astronauts. It shows a glass spherule (about 0.6 mm in diameter) produced by a meteorite impact into lunar soil. Features on the surface are glass splashes, welded mineral fragments, and microcraters produced by space weathering processes at the surface of the moon.

The astronauts brought back 841 pounds of rocks from the lunar surface, and scientists say the rocks are completely unique and couldn’t have come from Earth. There is little or no water in these rocks, plus they are peppered with tiny micrometeorite hits, as seen on this sample. This could only happen to rocks from a planet with little or no atmosphere… like the Moon.

Enjoy the Apollo 11 anniversary hubbub and come back next week for another WITU challenge!

July 15, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

De-Orbit the ISS in 2016? Don’t Bet On It

International Space Station. Credit: NASA

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There’s been a fair amount of outcry this week regarding a quote in the Washington Post from International Space Station program manager Michael Suffredini that the ISS would be decommissioned, de-orbited and destroyed in 2016. Suffredini made that statement to the Augustine Commission, the presidential panel reviewing NASA’s future plans, at a hearing in June. But please don’t think ditching the space station is a done deal. Fiscal year 2016 is currently when the existing agreements between the international partners – and the all-important funding – expire. Suffredini also told the panel that discussions with the partners indicate all involved would like to see station operations continue past FY2016. NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told Universe Today that the heads of the participating space agencies recently reaffirmed their common interest in using the station “to its full capacity for a period that is meaningful for our stakeholders and its users.”

Additionally, Humphries said the international partners recently noted that as things stand now, a continuation of operations beyond 2015 wouldn’t be precluded by any significant technical challenges.

“NASA is working with the international partners to understand if there are any technical constraints to extending the life beyond 2016,” he said. “That’s the first step in confirming the belief that we don’t have any major technical concerns.”

The FY 2016 date was originally based on how long the station would be operational. That doesn’t take into account delays that have occurred in bringing various modules and hardware to orbit.

“Based on the projected design lifetime of the hardware that we have in orbit, the current International Space Station program baseline does have operations ending in fiscal year 2016, which is the end of calendar year 2015,” Humphries said. “However, there hasn’t been any policy decision made as to whether to continue or preclude any additional space station operations beyond 2016. And NASA hasn’t taken any action to preclude those operations.”

Humphries said that no one at NASA is going to speculate how long – or short – the station’s life might be. “NASA’s policy is not to make or allow any decision to be made that would cause the space station to be terminated on a particular date,” he said.

But as in all government sponsored space activities, funding is the biggest question mark. “The continued funding of the station is a decision that will be made by the leadership in the nations that are participating as partners in the endeavor,” Humphries said. However, he added, the heads of agencies did commit to work with their respective governments to assess whether or not they can support the station after 2015.

Suffredini simply laid out the course of action that would occur if agreements with the partnering nations were allowed to expire, which seems unlikely. As far as the funding, those details are up to the governments — and the taxpayers — of the participating nations. So if you have an opinion — one way or the other — make your voice be heard.

But what does Suffredini really think? As he told the Augustine Commission, “My opinion is it would be a travesty to de-orbit this thing.”

Sources: Washington Post, phone interview with Kelly Humphries

July 15, 2009December 24, 2015 by Anne Minard

Mercury’s Craters Get Artsy New Names

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The MESSENGER mission has been revealing more of Mercury’s surface, including plenty of craters so interesting that geologists have been christening them with names.

The International Astronomical Union released new names for 16 impact craters this week. All of the craters were discovered during the flyby in October, which is also when MESSENGER snapped these images–five minutes apart–as it left.

The IAU has been the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919. In keeping with the established naming theme for craters on Mercury, all of the craters are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, or authors. The newly named craters include:

Abedin, after Zainul Abedin, a Bangladeshi painter and printmaker who first attracted attention with his sketches of the Bengal famine of 1943.

Benoit, after Rigaud Benoit, an early member of the Haïtian art movement known as Naive Art, so-called because of its members’ limited formal training.

Berkel, after Sabri Berkel, a Turkish painter and printmaker.

Calvino, after Italo Calvino, an Italian writer of short stories and novels.

de Graft, after Joe Coleman De Graft, a prominent Ghanaian writer, playwright, and dramatist who was appointed the first director of the Ghana Drama Studio in 1962.

Derain, after Andre Derain, a French painter and co-founder of the Fauvism movement with Henri Matisse.

Eastman, after Charles A. Eastman, a Native American (Sioux) author, physician, and reformer who helped found the Boy Scouts of America.

Gibran, after Kahlil (Khalil) Gibran, a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer, best known for his 1923 book The Prophet, a series of philosophical essays written in English prose.

Hemingway, after Ernest Hemingway, an American writer and journalist who had a significant influence on the development of 20^th century fiction.

Hodgkins, after Frances Hodgkins, a New Zealander painter.

Izquierdo, after María Izquierdo, a Mexican painter who used the landscape and traditions of Mexico as inspirations for her artwork.

Kunisada, after Utagawa Kunisada, a Japanese woodblock printmaker considered the most popular, prolific, and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19^th century Japan.

Lange, after Dorothea Lange, an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration

Matabei, after Iwasa Matabei, a Japanese artist who specialized in genre scenes of historical events and illustrations of classical Chinese and Japanese literature, as well as portraits.

Munkácsy, after Mihály Munkácsy, a Hungarian painter who lived in Paris and earned international reputation with his genre pictures and large-scale biblical paintings

Ngoc Van, a master in Vietnamese oil painting whose painting style was influenced by the French impressionist, Gauguin

Some of the names were suggested by MESSENGER team members, some were suggested by members of the public, and others were selected from a list of names that the IAU had previously approved for use on Mercury.

“Exploring new landforms on Mercury is a special experience that should be shared by everyone on our planet,” says MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “It is highly appropriate that the naming of such features similarly acknowledges the contributions that individuals from all cultures have made to mankind’s advances.”

More information about the names of features on Mercury and the other objects in the Solar System can be found at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Planetary Nomenclature Web site.

The addition of these craters, along with the 27 features previously named, brings the total to 43 newly named surface features on Mercury since MESSENGER’s first flyby of the innermost planet. In September 2009 MESSENGER will complete a third and final flyby of Mercury before becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the planet, beginning in March 2011.

Lead image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. A portion of the same sequence, totaling 198 images in all, has also been made into a movie.

Source: MESSENGER

July 15, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Invasion of the Noctilucent Clouds

Noctilucent clouds over Blair, Nebraska, USA. Credit: Mike Hollingshead

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Be on the lookout for unusual – and beautiful – noctilucent clouds that are invading the North American and Europe. SpaceWeather.com says that these mysterious “night shining” clouds are on the increase. Some scientists think they’re seeded by space dust. Others suspect they’re a telltale sign of global warming. Whatever the reason, they are an amazing site, appearing around sunset. Mike Hollingshead took this gorgeous image on July 14 near Blair, Nebraska USA. “I’ve never seen noctilucent clouds before, even though I am often out looking,” he said. “These were wonderful.”

See below for another NLC image from my good buddy Stuart Atkinson in the UK:

Stuart Atkinson's image of NLCs near Kendal Castle in the UK. Credit: Stuart Atkinson

Stu took his NLC images (see more on his website Cumbrian Sky) in mid-June near historic Kendal Castle in the UK (one of Henry the 8th’s wives lived there, Stu says).

SpaceWeather.com has a great gallery of NLCs, which also includes observing tips. The site says reports of these clouds are pouring in from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, central California and possibly northern Nevada. These sightings are significant because they come from places so far south.

When noctilucent clouds first appeared in the late 19th century, they were confined to latitudes above 50 degrees N (usually far above). The latitude of Blair, Nebraska, is only 41°30′ N. (Cumbria in the UK is about 54 degrees N.) No one knows why NLCs are expanding their range in this way; it’s one of many unanswered questions about the mysterious clouds. Find out more about NLCs here.

When and where will NLC show up next? “No idea,” said Stu. “We can’t predict them in advance. They just… appear. All we can do is keep looking, on every clear night, just in case. We do know that this summer is expected to be a very good one for NLC-spotting because they appear more at “solar minimum”, and we’re in a deep, deep minimum now, so all we can do is keep an eye on the sky, and cross our fingers!”

And if you love clouds of all kinds, check out Mike Hollingshead’s website, Extreme Instability, which hosts an absolutely amazing collection of cloud images.

Source: SpaceWeather.com, Mike Hollingshead, Cumbrian Skies

July 15, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Ejected Black Holes Drag Clusters of Stars With Them

This artist’s conception shows a rogue black hole that has been kicked out from the center of two merging galaxies. The black hole is surrounded by a cluster of stars that were ripped from the galaxies. Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute

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The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been violently kicked out of a galaxy represents a new kind of astronomical object which may provide telltale clues to how the ejection event occurred. “Hypercompact stellar systems” result when a supermassive black hole is violently ejected from a galaxy, following a merger with another supermassive black hole. The evicted black hole rips stars from the galaxy as it is thrown out. The stars closest to the black hole move in tandem with the massive object and become a permanent record of the velocity at which the kick occurred.

“You can measure how big the kick was by measuring how fast the stars are moving around the black hole,” said David Merritt, professor of physics at the Rochester Institute of Technolyg. “Only stars orbiting faster than the kick velocity remain attached to the black hole after the kick. These stars carry with them a kind of fossil record of the kick, even after the black hole has slowed down. In principle, you can reconstruct the properties of the kick, which is nice because there would be no other way to do it.”

In a paper published in the July 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal, Merritt and his colleagues discusses the theoretical properties of these objects and suggests that hundreds of these faint star clusters might be detected at optical wavelengths in our immediate cosmic environment. Some of these objects may already have been picked up in astronomical surveys. .

“Finding these objects would be like discovering DNA from a long-extinct species,” said team member Stefanie Komossa, from the Max-Planck-Institut for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.

The astronomers say the best place to find hypercompact stellar systems is in cluster of galaxies like the nearby Coma and Virgo clusters. These dense regions of space contain thousands of galaxies that have been merging for a long time. Merging galaxies result in merging black holes, which is a prerequisite for the kicks.

“Even if the black hole gets kicked out of one galaxy, it’s still going to be gravitationally bound to the whole cluster of galaxies,” Merritt says. “The total gravity of all the galaxies is acting on that black hole. If it was ever produced, it’s still going to be there somewhere in that cluster.”

Merritt and his co-authors think that scientists may have already seen hypercompact stellar systems and not realized it. These objects would be easy to mistake for common star systems like globular clusters. The key signature making hypercompact stellar systems unique is a high internal velocity. This is detectable only by measuring the velocities of stars moving around the black hole, a difficult measurement that would require a long time exposure on a large telescope.

From time to time, a hypercompact stellar system will make its presence known in a much more dramatic way, when one of the stars is tidally disrupted by the supermassive black hole. In this case, gravity stretches the star and sucks it into the black hole. The star is torn apart, causing a beacon-like flare that signals a black hole. The possibility of detecting one of these “recoil flares” was first discussed in an August 2008 paper by co-authors Merritt and Komossa.

“The only contact of these floating black holes with the rest of the universe is through their armada of stars,” Merritt says, “with an occasional display of stellar fireworks to signal ‘here we are.’”

Source: Rochester Institute of Technology

July 14, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Spirit’s Psychedelic Visions

While the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was taking exposures with different color filters during the 1,919th Martian day of the rover's mission (May 27, 2009), dust devils moved across the field of view.

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The Spirit rover has had memory problems, arthritic-like symptoms in her wheels, as well as her current dilemma of being stuck in loose Martian soil. But now, is she having psychedelic visions, too?! No, not to worry; she’s not having hallucinations or smoking any mind-altering Martian weed. This image is just a combination of three images taken seconds apart through different colored filters to create a special-effects portrait of a huge, moving dust devil on Mars. It shows the dust devil in different colors, according to where it was on the horizon when each exposure was taken.

Images from May 27, 2009 of a huge dust devil near Spirit. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/ASU

Amazingly, Spirit has recorded over 650 dust devils during her mission on Mars. This one is a whopper. Dust devils occur most frequently during the Martian springtime, when solar energy heats the surface, resulting in a layer of warm air just above the surface. Since the warmed air is less dense than the cooler atmosphere above it, it rises, making a swirling thermal plume that picks up the fine dust from the surface and carries it up into the atmosphere.

The rover team is working on creating a large color panorama of the area and these are three of the shots, which happened to catch the dust devil in action. The dust devils are interesting, and also have provided enough breeze to clean off Spirit’s solar panels, giving her a huge boost in energy. She’s been staying awake at night, taking astronomical images while stuck in her current location at “Troy.”

Back on Earth, the attempts to “Free Spirit” are proceeding at JPL. Using the engineering rover in a simulated test bed, engineers are trying out different ways to move the rover to best get her out, including a crablike backward drive, with the wheels turned indifferent directions. Keep current with the ongoing tests at the Free Spirit website.

Sources: JPL, Free Spirit