Koppernigk

Ancient skywatcher's hangouts

"Two historic hubs of scientific inquiry, the 18th-century Jantar Mantar Observatory in India and the 13th-century DengFeng Observatory in China, have been added to the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.

The announcement of the additions came last week, during the U.N. body's annual meeting. Several natural sites also became newly named World Heritage Sites, and some were added or removed from another list that notes sites that are potentially endangered.

The Jantar Mantar complex in Jaipur, begun in the 1720s by a powerful Indian prince, resembles a giant's spilled box of Tinker Toys. The buildings themselves are astronomical instruments, and several of them are among the largest of their kind in the world. Two enormous bowl-shaped sundials — items that would look at home in a modern-day skate park — were designed so astronomers could climb inside to take measurements. The observatory's 19 buildings were completed in 1738.

Near DengFeng City in China's Henan province, the DengFeng Observatory complex includes 13 different monuments. The Yuan Dynasty observatory, built in 1279 near an ancient capital on Mount Songshang, is the most remarkable astronomical feature of the sprawling site. The brick tower, more than 30 feet (9.5 meters) tall and with sweeping stone staircases that wing out on both sides, was used to track the sun's noonday shadow over the course of the year, a key tool for calendar-making.

The selection of these sites by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee coincided with the publication of a joint study conducted by the International Astronomical Union and the International Council on Monuments and Sites, an advising body to the United Nations. ..." (SPACE.com)

Don't twinkle, twinkle, little star

"A breakthrough in adaptive optics allows astronomers to obtain space-telescope-quality images over a wide field of view on Earth. If you are like most people, you probably enjoy the twinkling of stars that blanket the sky on a clear summer night. If you are an astronomer, chances are you find it extremely annoying.

A team of University of Arizona astronomers led by Michael Hart has developed a technique that allows them to switch off the twinkling over a wide field of view, enabling Earth-based telescopes to obtain images as crisp as those taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, and more quickly. ..." (Astronomy.com)

Webb entangled in a web of financial problems

"When it works, and if it works, the James Webb Space Telescope could revolutionize astronomy by peering so deep into space that scientists soon could study the dawn of time.

But construction of NASA's next big telescope has been so hurt by delays and cost overruns that even its staunchest champion in Congress reached a breaking point.

In a letter dated June 29, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., all but ordered NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden to assemble a panel of outside experts to ensure the Webb project doesn't break its latest promise: a 2014 launch on a $5 billion budget.

"We like the concept of the Webb, but I tell you, we're not in the overrun business," said Mikulski, who chairs the Senate subcommittee with oversight of NASA's budget. ... (Orlando Sentinel)

ISS in bright sight

"The International Space Station will be extra visible to observers on Earth this weekend – sometimes up to five times a night – thanks to some favorable sun angles that will light up the orbiting space lab.

The space station flies about 220 miles (354 km) overhead, circling the globe once every 90 minutes. Usually, the station is invisible to skywatchers on Earth during some of those orbits because the sun isn't shining on it.

However, over the next few days, the station's path will align with Earth's day-night terminator, keeping the spacecraft in nearly constant sunlight, according to the website Spaceweather.com, which monitors spacecraft sightings and space weather.

That means that every time it flies overhead, skywatchers graced with clear skies should be able to spot the space station as a moving star that can sometimes appear as bright as Venus. The rare solar line-up ends on Monday. ..." (SPACE.com)

A wobbly telescope mirror

"A sharp view of the starry sky is difficult, because the atmosphere constantly distorts the image. TU/e researcher Roger Hamelinck developed a new type of telescope mirror, which quickly corrects the image. His prototypes are required for future large telescopes, but also gives old telescopes a sharper view. ..." (ScienceDaily)

Big Binos Working Well

"The next generation of adaptive optics has arrived at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona, providing astronomers with a new level of image sharpness never before seen. Developed in collaboration between Italy's Arcetri Observatory of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) and the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, this technology represents a remarkable step forward for astronomy.

Until relatively recently, ground-based telescopes had to live with wavefront distortion caused by Earth's atmosphere that significantly blurred the images of distant objects — this is why stars appear to twinkle to the human eye. While there have been advancements in adaptive optics technology to correct atmospheric blurring, the LBT's innovative system takes this concept to a whole new level.

In closed-dome tests beginning May 12 and sky tests every night since May 25, Simone Esposito and his INAF team tested the new device, achieving exceptional results. The LBT's adaptive optics system, called the First Light Adaptive Optics system (FLAO), immediately outperformed all other comparable systems, delivering an image quality greater than the Hubble Space Telescope, using just one of the LBT's two 8.4-meter mirrors. When the adaptive optics are in place for both mirrors and their light is combined appropriately, it is expected that the LBT will achieve image sharpness 10 times that of the Hubble. ..." (Astronomy.com)

LOFAR gets a highbrow visit

Saturday afternoon, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will open the LOFAR radio telescope, the biggest in the world, and in a way the simplest as well. Lofar is located on 36 fields in the Netherlands and in countries ranging from Sweden to France, and Germany to Great-Brittain.

"LOFAR is a real-time multiple sensor array. Very different sensors can be placed along a common infrastructure and make use of it the same time. LOFAR is being developed by a consortium of knowledge institutes, universities and industrial parties, led by ASTRON. LOFAR is funded by the Dutch governement and the Northern provinces. All participating institutes provide also some of their own resources to the development of LOFAR.

The radio interferometric array of LOFAR consists of many low-cost antennas. This is the main application of LOFAR. There are two distinct antenna types: the Low Band Antenna (LBA) operates between 10 and 90 MHz and the High Band Antenna (HBA) between 110 and 250 MHz. These "sensors" are organised in aperture array stations. The stations (currently, 36 stations are being constructed in the Netherlands) are distributed over an area about one hundred kilometres in diameter (located in the North-East of the Netherlands). Several international stations are to be built in Germany (5), Sweden (1), the UK (1) and France (1). The international stations are owned by their host institutes. Half the stations (18) in the Netherlands will be located in a 2x3 kilometre core area between the villages of Exloo, Buinen and Buinerveen. The remaining stations will be distributed around this core at distances of up to 50 km. The largest baselines across Europe are of the order of 1500 kilometres.

The ICT infrastructure that LOFAR will give rise to holds great potential for non-radio astronomers, enabling them to make strides in monitoring at an accelerated pace. In the geosciences field, it should be possible, for example, to extend the understanding of natural and induced seismicity, subsidence, and water management. The TU Delft, the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and TNO-NITG are participating in the application of LOFAR in the geosciences.

The agricultural application of LOFAR will make use of the (fibre-)infrastructure developed and has chosen as its first application the measurement of the micro-climate in potato crops. This information will be used to improve the advice on how to combat phytophtora within a crop, based on the circumstances within each individual field. Currently further application of sensors for agricultural purposes is developed."

You can find more information on the innovative telescope construction, made up of over 25000 individual telescopes on the LOFAR website.

That is SSRO nice

You're more the picture type of people. So you want to see pictures. Beautiful pictures. Did you ever consider to visit the SSRO-site? The Star Shadows Remote Observatory has a gallery full of pictures. Below is one of them. Find it for yourself, if you don't know it already.

Mars and Regulus together

It's nice and clear out here, real summer weather, but with the clarity of spring. If it's the same at your place (or maybe clarity of autumn, you antipodes) go outside and see Mars and Regulus, the main star of the constellation Leo, low in the west getting close(r). Follow them the coming days as Mars runs around Regulus. And don't forget to peek at Saturn, in the South to South-west.

Not your average scope

In four years the James Webb telescope will take off from Earth as the successor to the Hubble. While the Hubble is a low orbit telescope the James Webb will end up about 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth, in an Earth/Sun Lagrangian Point (L2) in Earth's shadow. Go to New York this week to see a mock up of the Behemoth:

"A life-size model of a huge new space observatory billed as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is taking on the Big Apple this week at the World Science Festival.

The gigantic telescope model – roughly the size of a tennis court – will be on display at New York City's Battery Park from Tuesday through Sunday, June 6. The actual James Webb Space Telescope is slated to launch in 2014.

"The Webb is the world's next great space telescope, and is the scientific successor to the Hubble," said Sally Koris, spokeswoman for Northrop Grumman, the company contracted by NASA to build the telescope."

The full-scale model on display is constructed mainly of aluminum and steel, and weighs 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg). It measures about 80 feet (24 meters) long, 40 feet (12 meters) wide and 40 feet (12 meters) tall. ... " (SPACE.com)

Venus shining bright

Look at the sky these nights and wish away the clouds. If that wish is being fulfilled, you can see Venus shining very bright low in the west. Venus is at a distance of about 1.5 AU from Earth, at the opposite side of the Sun. Because Venus is an inner planet it's a crescent when close to Earth and nearly full like now, when far from Earth and on the opposite side of the Sun. At magnitude -3.8, it's hard to miss.

Let's build a real big scope

"The world's largest optical telescope – to be called, appropriately, the European Extremely Large Telescope – will be built on a mountain in Chile, the observatory's planners announced Monday.

The telescope's newly chosen home is the Cerro Armazones mountain in the central part of Chile's Atacama Desert. This location was picked for its optimal weather conditions – the skies are clear overhead about 320 nights a year, according to its European Southern Observatory (ESO) builders.

Chile's Cerro Amazones beat out a bid by Spain to build the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in that country's La Palma region. But the Chilean location won in the end because of its balance between consistent clear night skies and the ability to work in conjunction with other nearby observatories run by ESO, which is an astronomy collaboration by 14 European countries.

The new mega-observatory will have a primary mirror 138 feet (42 meters) wide and is reportedly expected to cost more than 1 billion Euros (US$1.3 billion).

In comparison, other famous optical telescopes, like the Keck Observatory in Hawaii (with a mirror 33 feet, or 10 meters, wide) and the 27-foot (8.2-meter) Subaru telescope, also in Hawaii, will be dwarfed by its size. ... " (SPACE.com)

Venus and Mercury are alright tonight

These days Venus and Mercury are quite close to each other in the evening sky. Best look between eight and nine local time (DST over here) in the west just above the horizon. Venus will be the easy one, Mercury can be a challenge. They're about three degrees apart. How much is that? Stretch out your arm and give the skies a thumbs up. The width of your thumb at arm's length is about two degrees.

Happy hunting - weather permitting.

Outdoors, young men and women!

Go outside! Art least here it's a bright sky. No Moon until late in the night and Mars and Saturn high (enough) in the sky. If you want info for your own location, navigate to www.heavens-above.com.

Otherwise take out your magnifying glasses and look on the screenshot from Stellarium below. Or download the program yourself.

GLOBE at Night

Participate in Globe at Night, and fight light pollution:

"GLOBE at Night is an annual 2-week campaign in March. People all over the world record the brightness of their night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation Orion with star maps of progressively fainter stars. They submit their measurements on-line and a few weeks later, organizers release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last four GLOBE at Night campaigns, volunteers from over 100 nations have contributed 35,000 measurements.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2009 GLOBE at Night campaign during 16-28 March! Through GLOBE at Night, students — alongside teachers, parents and community members — amassed a data set from which they can begin to explore the concept of light pollution and to research the patterns of light pollution across the globe.

A record number of over 15,000 measurements were received in the 2009 campaign! See this data on the Map page.

An audio podcast (10 minutes) on light pollution and how to participate in GLOBE at Night:

http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/02/03/february-3rd-the-globe-at-night-campaign-our-light-or-starlight/

A powerpoint (with audio and written transcripts) on light pollution and how to participate in GLOBE at Night:

http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=428

Five Easy Star-Hunting Steps:

1) Find your latitude and longitude.

2) Find Orion by going outside an hour after sunset

(about 7-10pm local time).

3) Match your nighttime sky to one of our magnitude charts.

4) Report your observation.

5) Compare your observation to thousands around the world. " (Globeatnight.org)

Mars nearing opposition

Remember that these days in late January you can see the planet Mars quite well. At 22:00 Mars is rising in the Eastern sky at about 30 degrees above the horizon. Bright at magnitude -1 and red as a ruby it's hard to miss. If you're familiar with the night sky you should find the pair Castor and Pollux in Gemini, then follow a diagonal line down to the left and you'll end up at Mars.

Mars will reach opposition on January 29th. That's about one week after my birthday. When I was born in '61, Mars was high in the sky. But that was 49 years ago and I wasn´t really aware of that fact. Doh.

They didn´t come - thus far.... <evil grin>

The next Hubble on its way

"Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. has shipped five James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) beryllium primary mirror segments as well as the engineering development unit (EDU) to Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, for cryogenic temperature testing...."(SpaceDaily)

All I want for Christmas...

.... is a flying observatory.

"A NASA jumbo jet that will help scientists unlock the origins of the universe with infrared observations reached a milestone Friday when doors covering the plane's telescope were fully opened in flight.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a modified 747 jet known as SOFIA, flew for one hour and 19 minutes, which included two minutes with the telescope's doors fully opened. The goal was to allow engineers to understand how air flows in and around the telescope. It was the first time outside air has interacted with the part of the plane that carries the 98-inch infrared telescope. ... "(JPL)

Big, big balloons

We've seen a lot of balloons going up equipped with lightweight cameras reaching high altitudes. It seems that this is serious business, as there's a strong wish to reach the 60 km barrier, more than half the distance to "space".

Read more about the challenges and problems surrounding such an enterprise from Takamasa Yamagami at JAXA's website.

Sun - um- very active

Find the sunspot. Yeah, there is one indeed. Click on the picture for a bigger format.