The CHESTERFIELD ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Newsletter July 2015

CAS website www.chesterfield-as.org.uk Registered Charity

No. 514048

Secretary: Marilyn Bentley

Newsletter: Sue Silver

newsletter@chesterfield-as.org.uk

President – Reinhold Gasser. Secretary – Marilyn Bentley. Treasurer – Graham Leaver. Newsletter Editor – Sue Silver. Committee Members: – Sue Silver, Peter Cory and

Calvin Karpenko

Subscriptions - full membership £60 or £6 per month by Standing Order (10 months) Senior citizens (60 yrs and over) and students (18 yrs and over) £40 or £4 per month by Standing Order (10 months) Juniors members - (17 yrs and under) £0. (All juniors must be accompanied by an adult who must be a fully paid up member).

CAS News Solstice Day .......... This was a pleasant day which started at 3pm. The weather in the afternoon did not allow any solar observing so Mark Eustace gave a talk on his holiday back in March. Mark took a trip to the Faroe Islands to chase the solar eclipse on March 20th. His next step of the journey took him to Iceland and he finally ended his trip in Northern Ireland. We were shown some great photographs of all three places with some of the solar eclipse and the Northern Lights. Mark accompanied these with his usual fluid, informative and interesting presentation. Many thanks Mark. We did however manage to view the sun around 6:30/7:00 when the sky cleared. Sadly the event was poorly attended with only eleven members present but a very enjoyable day nevertheless. Coming up................... Talk at the Observatory – Friday 24 July -- Pluto: Exploring New Horizons. Another talk by Calvin Karpenko regarding the arrival of NASA's New spacecraft which will fly past the dwarf planet on 14th July. As it approaches Pluto already NASA's scientists are already beginning to see what seems to be broad surface markings including a bright area at one pole, possibly a polar cap. This should be an interesting talk so we hope to see a good "audience". Photo Gallery.............. These are from Graham Leaver taken 8th June. There is some good detail on the Sun. Saturn is a challenge this year as it is low in the sky.

These are great. I was watching that "arced" prominence most of the day!

This one from Graham on 11th June......... This one on 24/06/5 Thanks Graham This cluster of sun spots has been around for a few days.

Things to see in July............................. Wednesday 1st Venus and Jupiter are approximately 0.5° apart this evening, visible low in the west-northwest shortly after sunset. To the naked eye the planets will look like a mismatched double star. Thursday 2nd The first full Moon of the month occurs today. This is a great time to look out for the Moon illusion because the fuller phases occur when the Moon is low in the sky. The Moon illusion makes it artificially look much larger than it actually is. Sunday 5th Comet C/2014 Q1 PanSTARRS should be around maximum brightness at the moment but a tricky find in the dawn twilight before sunrise. Monday 6th Dwarf planet Pluto comes to opposition today. It is in Sagittarius on the lip of the bowl of the Teaspoon asterism. Earth is at aphelion and farthest from the Sun in its orbit at 20:41 BST. Tuesday 14th A 4% lit waning crescent Moon lies 13° to the west (right) of mag. - 1.2 Mercury this morning. Look for both objects low in the northeast from about 04:10 BST until shortly before sunrise. Wednesday 15th A must see sight for summer is the spectacular binary star Albireo. Through a telescope the yellow primary and blue secondary are quite breathtaking. Even if you have seen them before it is worth taking a moment to revisit them. Thursday 16th A very tricky close encounter between Mars and Mercury occurs this morning, with Mars just 9 arcminutes to the north of Mercury. The planets will be low in the northeast just before sunrise. Mercury is mag. -1.4 and Mars a fainter mag. +1.6. Friday 17th The Summer Triangle asterism is high in the southern part of the sky around midnight. If you have dark skies look out for the fabulous Milky Way running down through the triangle towards the southern horizon. Sunday 26th As the sky darkens look out for the 76% lit waxing gibbous Moon towards the southern part of the sky. The brighter dot to its right is mag. +0.7 Saturn, the one below is mag. +1.0 Antares. Friday 31st The second full Moon of July 2015 occurs today. A modern term for the second full Moon in a single month is to call it a "blue Moon" although the origins of this originally stem from a publication mistake.

Quasars result from violent galactic merges

New research indicates that quasars are born when galaxies crash. Illustration credit: Michael S. Helfenbein/Yale University. “The Hubble images confirm that the most luminous quasars in the universe result from violent mergers between galaxies, which fuels black hole growth and transforms the host galaxies,” said C. Megan Urry, the Israel Munson Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Yale University, and co-author of the study published online June 18 in The Astrophysical Journal. “These mergers are also the sites of future black hole mergers, which we hope will one day be visible with gravitational wave telescopes,” Urry said. Quasars emit a light as bright as that of one trillion stars. Over the past two decades, researchers have concluded that the energy for quasars comes from super massive black holes inside the cores of distant galaxies. But where do the super massive black holes get their fuel? It had been theorised previously that such energy could come from the merger of two galaxies. The new study confirms it by using Hubble’s sensitivity at near-infrared wavelengths of light to see past the intense glow of the quasar, to the host galaxies themselves. “The Hubble observations are telling us that the peak of quasar activity in the early universe is driven by galaxies colliding and then merging together,” said Eilat Glikman of Middlebury College in Vermont, lead author of the study and a former Yale postdoctoral researcher. “We are seeing the quasars in their teenage years, when they are growing quickly and all messed up.”

Glikman decided to look for “dust reddened quasars” in several ground-based infrared and radio sky surveys. These quasars are enveloped in dust, dimming their visible light. Using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, Glikman looked at 11 such quasars from the peak of the universe’s star-formation era, 12 billion years ago. “The new images capture the dust-clearing transitional phase of the merger-driven black hole scenario,” Glikman said. “The Hubble images are both beautiful and descriptive.” FUN STUFF TECH TALK -- My software never has bugs. It just develops random features. -- Definition of an upgrade: old bugs out, new ones in. -- C:\> Bad command or file name! Go stand in the corner. -- Why doesn't it ever say "EXCELLENT command or filename"? -- As a computer, I find your faith in technology amusing. -- Southern DOS: Y'all reckon? (Yep/Nope) -- >File not found. Should I fake it? (Y/N) -- A computer's attention span is as long as it's power cord. -- Disinformation is not as good as datinformation. -- Windows: just another pane in the glass. -- All computers wait at the same speed. -- Smash forehead on keyboard to continue. -- Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue. -- Press any key to continue or any other key to quit. Bill Gates is hanging out with the chairman of General Motors. "If automotive technology had kept pace with computer technology over the past few decades," boasts Gates, "you would now be driving a V-32 instead of a V-8, and it would have a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour. Or, you could have an economy car that weighs 30 pounds and gets a thousand miles to a gallon of gas. In either case, the

sticker price of a new car would be less than $50." "Sure," says the GM chairman. "But would you really want to drive a car that crashes four times a day?" That’s all folks.

Sue This newsletter is sent out to all present members without whom the Society could not survive. Also to previous members and people with an interest in astronomy in the hope that they may wish to join/re-join the Society. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter by e-mail please let us know. Thank you.