Astronomy Log

Last week I bidded on an Astro Engineering Pro Pier on eBay, luckily at the last minute I won the auction. I do find that these kinds of pier don’t appear that regularly on the 2nd hand market, as most people are using them, so I’m glad I got it.

The only problem was that the pier was 200 miles away in Chester. So on Sunday I made the journey over to Chester in 3hrs, really easy when you have a Sat Nav!

Gosh those piers are heavy, it took two of us to put it on the backseat of the car and my wife had to help me get it out of the car when I got back.

There was a slight bit of rust on the bottom, so I am considering getting some smooth Hammerite and painting it.

I also purchased a 2nd hand Meade Ultra Wedge a while ago so now I have the set up. The next thing is to look for a shed and start that observatory project, as I’m fed up with the weight of the LX200 10″ and the time it takes me to set up.

So I shall be posting regularly and keeping you up to date on my observatory project.

Last night I attended a talk at the Institute of Astronomy by a Microsoft employee named Jonathan Fay about the World Wide Telescope program.

It was great talk, and good to see a live demo on a piece of software from Microsoft which is free to download and use on Mac/PC and soon Linux or you can use the web client version.

The World Wide Telescope is an initiative from Microsoft that allows anyone to browse the Universe from the comfort of their own laptop. Combining up-to-date images from space- and ground-based telescopes with features such as expert guided tours, it is a project that can both inspire and educate anyone from the complete novice to the informed amateur.

The program is very similar to Starry Night Pro or Stellarium, but it includes lots of different images including Hubble Telescope images and X-ray images. The amount of features in the program is amazing.

There are some major features of the World Wide Telescope, such as being able to view images in 3D by wearing standard 3D glasses. We were treated to views of Jupiter and it’s moons in 3D as well as viewing valleys on Mars in 3D.

You can also control your computerised telescope via the program, via the ASCOM platform (not available in the web client version). The program can also show you what your imager (e.g. Celestron or Meade) will also see in the sky.

There are also some amazing panorama images such as the Apollo landings, and the program allows you to zoom-in on say the astronauts footprints.

The interface is really easy to use, you can also zoom in and view the Earth.  You can also view the sky from different angles and actually leave our galaxy and look back at it.

The only downside to the program, is that you need a fairly new PC to install the client application, it says you need at least a 2Ghz Dual Core CPU. I don’t think a lot of people keep this kind of powerful PC in their observatories, but most people should have this power in their home PC.

If you don’t have this type of PC, then you can use the web client version which runs through a browser, you will have to install Silverlight first though. The disadvantage of using the program through a browser is that the program runs a little slower and that some features get omitted from this version, such as viewing in 3D and the Telescope control via ASCOM.

But do give it a go, it may become your main astronomy program.

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

The official print sales website of the Science Museum, National Railway Museum and National Media Museum is now online, and it incorporates the Royal Photographic Society Collection.

Currently there are 40,000 images to choose from in a range of sizes and finishes. Categories include Astronomy, Natural History, Vintage Posters, Rail Transport, Road Transport, Water Transport, Aeronautic Prints, War, Sports and more.

You have the choice of how you would like to buy the print. You can have the print on it’s own, or have it framed, or have it turned into a canvas and even have the canvas framed.

There are over 60 pages of Astronomy prints on the website, last time I checked that equated to around 1,600 astronomy prints.

These are just some examples of the Astronomy Prints available:

There are images of the Moon, close up Saturn images, Galaxies, historical astronomy prints of telescopes and NASA missions, Solar Eclipses, Lunar Eclipses, Astronomy Buildings etc. There is something for everyone.

Any of these Astronomy prints would make a great astronomy gift for an avid astronomer, maybe something to hang up in your observatory or your house.

View the complete Astronomy Print range now at SSPL.

Last night was the 50th anniversary meeting of the CAA in Cambridge and as well as the Mayor of Cambridge attending we also had Professor Robert Kennicutt as our guest speaker.

His talk was entitled “Hot Results on Cool Galaxies: The Hidden Universe Revealed.” Robert Kennicutt is the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and the Director of the Institute of Astronomy.

The talk was very interesting and Professor Kennicutt started off by talking about William Herschel’s experiment which discovered that there was heat beyond the visual spectrum of colour and into the infrared.

We were told that most IR radiation is blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, and that viewing objects in space in the Infrared from ground telescopes is also very difficult, as everything around the scope glows. This has meant that the best way to conduct IR experiments is from space.

Some of these IR telescopes include the IRAS in 1983, ISO from 1995 to 1998, Akari from 2006 to 2007 and the Spitzer telescope from 2003 to 2009.

Professor Kennicutt also took us through various findings of a Spitzer survey (SINGS) and then told us about the new Herschel telescope with it’s 3.5m silicon mirror as well as the Planck microwave satellite which are going up into space together at the same time via an Ariane 5 rocket.