Komeet C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) is op die soeklys!

As ek so na die weerfoto op Kobus Botha se webtuiste kyk (15:30 - Saterdag) gaan die wolke vanaand weer die wenner wees. (Loer gerus hier na die infrarooifoto). En vanaand is die maan so vanaf 21:30 op sy pos. Dit kan net beter word met die maan wat aan die taan is.

Maar ek is seker die lekker oop donker aande is op pad. So saam met die Volksblad-kunstefees.

Die ouens wat lanklaas `n komeet gesien kan gerus hulle verkykers en klein teleskope uithaal en na C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) gaan soek. Die komeet is op my Nr 1 "Wanted"-lys om die winter se waarnemings mee te begin. Laat weet as julle hom sien.

• Die foto regs bo, is deur Michael Mattiazzo geneem.
  Kliek hier vir sy webtuiste
  

Hier is `n klompie inligting om dié komeet op te spoor:
(Almal Pdf-formaat - Lees met Acrobat-leser.)

• Algemene lys van komete wat nou in die hemelruim sigbaar is (of nie).
  
• C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) se inligting (Skytools 3)
• C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) se posisie op `n sterkaart (Skytools 3)
• C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) se posisie op `n sterkaart (TheSky6)
• C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) se posisie vir volgende 20 dae (TheSky6)
  

Totsiens Sonvlek 1024!

GOOD-BYE SUNSPOT 1024: The biggest, most active sunspot in two years is about to disappear. Sunspot 1024 is approaching the sun's western limb and, later today, it will go around the bend. Pavol Rapavy sends this photo from Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia.

Readers with solar telescopes should train their optics on the edge of the sun. Even minor eruptions from sunspot 1024 could hurl photogenic blobs of hot plasma high over the limb where they would shine in beautiful relief against the black of space beyond. The parting shots could be the best of all.

• Besoek www.spaceweather.com vir meer inligting en nog foto's
  

Gratis sagteware

Final release of RegiStax 5

Vir die ouens wat Registax gebruik om prentjies op mekaar te maak is daar goeie nuus.

Die nuwe verbeterde Registax 5 se finale weergawe is vroeër beikend gestel. Dit is gratis sagteware en jy kan die hier aflaai:

• Registax

DeepSkyStacker 3.3.0

• Laai hier af
  

Ander gratis sagteware

• Laai hier af.
  Sommiges is gratis, ander is 30 dae en daar is ook wat te koop is. Kliek bo aan die blad op "Software" en volg die skakels volgens jou behoefte.
  

Kokerboom-sterrewag op Springbok

Al die astrogeeks wat iewers in Namakwaland gaan blomme kyk, kan gerus by Kokerboom-sterrewag op Springbok `n draai gaan maak.

Blog: Klik hier

Artikel in Kontrei (Volksblad): Klik hier

Laai dokument met meer inligting af (398kb): Klik hier
(Wees geduldig)

Francois de Jager De Jager se kontakinligting:
Sel: 072-199-7615 of
epos: francois.dejager@telkomsa.net

Gratis sterkaarte vir waarnemers

Gaan kyk bietjie na hierdie hoë kwaliteit sterkaarte wat José Ramón Torres and Casey Skelton op hulle webtuiste gratis beskikbaar maak.

The TRIATLAS Second Edition

- 3 full MAIN DEEP SKY ATLASES up to 9, 11 and 13 magnitude

- 2 standard-alone COMPLEMENTARY EDITIONS

• www.uv.es/jrtorres/triatlas.html

As daar belangstelling is sal ek die sterkaarte ook op die Astronomy DVD beskikbaar maak. Laat weet asseblief voor ek begin aflaai.

Die grootte van al die lêers is so 945 megagrepe, as jy self wil inspring en aflaai.
Elke kaart is `n hoë kwaliteit pdf.

Onverwagse sonvlek nou sigbaar

Waarskuwing: Moenie met jou blote oog na die son kyk nie. Ook nie met `n verkyker of teleskoop wat nie met die nodige sonfilters toegerus is nie!

Gaan loer op die veilige manier na hierdie sonvlek by www.spaceweather.com of kliek hier

Inligting verkry van Spaceweather.com:

SUDDEN SUNSPOT: What a difference 48 hours can make. Only two days ago the sun was blank and calm, displaying the sort of unrelenting quiet we've come to expect from the deepest solar minimum in a century. Then, with startling rapidity, sunspot 1024 burst onto the scene: movie. Unlike other recent "sun-specks", this active region is a full-fledged sunspot group with more than a dozen planet-sized dark cores, crackling with B- and C-class solar flares.

"Sunspot 1024 is putting on a spectacular show," says amateur astronomer David Tyler of Buckinghamshire UK, who caught it in mid-flare on July 5th.

Kyk aanlyn wanneer Hubble en die ISS in jou omgewing sigbaar is!

Hier is `n nuttige aanlynprogram om te bepaal wanneer die Hubble-teleskoop en die Internasionale ruimtestasie in jou omgewing gaan sigbaar wees.

Volg die eenvoudig instruksies op die skerm en gou word `n lys van tye op die skerm uitgespoeg. Al wat jy moet kies is jou land, provinsie en dorp. Nie te moeilik nie. Maak vir jou `n uitdruk en gaan soek hom!

Let op die am en pm vir soggens en saans.

• Kliek hier

Ask the Astronomer

Besoek gerus hierdie webblad. Baie van jou vrae oor sterrekunde sal beantwoord word. Kliek op die verskillende afdelings. Dit gaan jou vir ure besig hou.

• Ask the Astronomer
  

Hier is 'n voorbeeld van 'n vraag met `n antwoord.

How many meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere every day?

Lots!

In a recent article in the journal Nature, March 28, 1996 vol. 380, page 323, Dr.s A.D. Taylor, W. J. Baggaley and D. I. Street at the University of Adelaide in Australia discuss the results of their 1 year radar monitoring of incoming meteors. When meteorites slam into the atmosphere, they produce ionization in the atmosphere. Radar echos from this momentary ionization allow the velocity, altitude and distance to be determined if you have two or more such installations for triangulation. The AMOR radar in New Zealand was used for a year in this fashion to detect 350,000 faint echos from very small meteorites with sizes between 10 - 100 microns. This works out to nearly 1000 every day, just from this site alone! Over 1508 of these meteorites ( 0.9 percent) were found to be traveling at speeds up to several hundred kilometers per second!

On any given day, the estimates are than the Earth intercepts about 19,000 meteorites weighing over 3.5 ounces, every year of which fewer than 10 are ever recovered. About 2800 meteorites are in museums from previous 'falls' and are chemically found to represent about 20 or so distinct parent-bodies. The Earth acquires about 100 tons per day of dust-sized micro- meteoroids.

Device Makes Radio Waves Travel Faster Than Light

Written by Nancy Atkinson

A scientist has created a gadget that can make radio waves travel faster than light. Einstein predicted that particles and information can't travel faster than the speed of light, but phenomena like radio waves are a different story, said John Singleton, who works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Read more

Mach 1 can be quite visual.

What Supersonic Looks Like

The breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual.

This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

Read more...