A Southern Comet on its way to us

 Copyright © 1995 by Tim Puckett

This image was taken by Tim Puckett (Villa Rica, Georgia, USA) on 1995 December 28.99, using a 0.30-m f/7 Meade LX-200 and an SBIG ST-6 CCD camera. It is a 300-second exposure.

• Visit the webpage

16 August 2011: Closest approach of the brightest comet of the year
Comet: 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková
Visible: August until September, fading in October
Magnitude: 6
Finder charts: Sky Guide (pg 31)

 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková

• Info from Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand

 The comet Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is expected to brighten rapidly in August as it passes to the south of the Earth. It will be observable from the southern hemisphere for about 2 weeks before getting too close to the Sun.

At its closest the comet will be 0.060 AU from the Earth, that is about 9 million kilometers away. While this is close for a comet, it is still about 24 times the distance of the moon. When it is first at magnitude 10, on the evening of August 9/10 it will be visible from New Zealand throughout the night, setting only briefly during daylight hours. For the next few nights until August 16 it will be circumpolar although low in the sky in the evening. On the 17th it will set briefly in the evening to rise again about midnight.

Over the next few days, as the comet moves north it will rise after midnight so becoming a morning object. Its elongation from the Sun will decrease as the comet moves away from the Earth towards the Sun and it will rise later in the morning to become lost in the morning twilight by about August 23.

By mid September Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova will be an 8th magnitude object rising about 90 minutes before the Sun into the dawn sky. The comet will then be slow moving in Leo, a few degrees from Regulus. By mid October it will have faded to magnitude 10.

45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková is a periodic comet discovered by Minoru Honda December 3, 1948. The comet is named after Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos and Ludmila Pajdušáková. The orbit is elliptical with a period of 5.252 years. The comet nucleus is estimated to be 1.6 kilometers in diameter. (Information from Wikipedia.) 

45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
Perihelion: 2011 September 28
Maximum magnitude about 7 

 

Vaarwel aan NASA se ruimtependeltuig, Atlantis

Willie Koorts:

Wat ‘n fantastiese manier om die Pendeltuig program vaarwel te roep!  Na Oleg se voorspelling dat die twee ‘n paar minute uitmekaar sou wees en Rudie se opmerking op Facebook dat hulle verby die Suiderkruis gaan vlieg, het ek my foto beplan deur op een plek te konsentreer en agterna die fotos te kombineer.  Ek was so besig om te konsentreer op Atlantis, dat ek eers later besef het dat ISS so kort na dit volg, om die waarheid te sê, hulle was naby genoeg om in een veld te pas, maar ek moes deurdruk met my beplande foto.
Dit was wonderlik dat ons so goed geplaas was vir die swanesang, en boonop ook nog perfekte weer in die middel van die winter!

• Besoek gerus OOg se webblad vir nog `n paar foto's

Happy first birthday, Neptune!

On 12 July, Neptune will celebrate its very first birthday because exactly one Neptunian year -- or 164.79 Earth years -- will have passed since its discovery.

Neptune was mathematically predicted before it was first telescopically observed on 24 September 1846. Astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle and his assistant Heinrich Louis d'Arrest used Urbain Le Verrier's calculations to locate the planet. It was found to be within a single degree of where Le Verrier had predicted it would be and it was the first planet to have been discovered deliberately.

More...

How to tick the Horesehead nebula of your astro bucket list

Seeing the Horsehead with a filter is a real accomplishment; finding it without one is something to very be proud of!

Dark Nebula w/nebulosity

aka B33, LDN 1630

Minimum requirements to detect: 8-inch scope under dark skies

• More information to to tick this of your astro bucket list

Nog `n maanverduisteringfoto

Frans Human van ASSA Bloemfontein het hierdie samestelling van die totale maanverduistering afgeneem.

Total Lunar Eclipse , 15 June 2011 - Animation

Click on Picture to view eclipse animation

Photos: Hannes Pieterse

Onthou: Algehele Maanverduistering, 15 Junie 2011

 Laai groter grafika af

 Tye volgens The Sky 6:

19:24: Beweeg in Penumbra in
20:23: Beweeg in Umbra in (Verduistering is meer sigbaar)
21:23: Algehele verduistering begin. Maan in in rooi gloed gehul.
23:03 Algehele verduistering eindig. Beweeg in penumbra in. (Maan word meer strokie-vir-strokiesigbaar)
00:04 Maan uit Umbra en in Penumbra.
01:04  Maan uit Penumbra en algehele verduistering is verby.

Reminder: Total Lunar Eclipse, 15 June

NGC 3324, Gabriela Mistral nebula vanaf Boyden-sterrewag, Bloemfontein

Klik om te vergroot

NGC 3324, Gabriela Mistral nebula
Constellation: Carina (Car)
Foto: Brett du Preez, ASSA Bloemfontein

Atik 383L+
280mins Ha data
20mins subs
127mm Apo triplet refractor
Cgem off axis autoguided with Meade dsi pro
Captured with Maxim DL 5, Sigma stacked, processed with startools and Photoshop cs5

ATM: Amaterur teleskoopmakers in Bloemfontein bymekaar

Thinus van der Merwe van ASSA Bloemfontein wys hier hoe `n spieël geslyp moet word by `n inligtingsessie om jou eie teleskoop te bou.

• Meer inligting oor die projek

Die "Jet Stream" beïnvloed jou waarnemingsomstandighede!

 Kliek om te vergroot

 Die Suidelike "Jet stream" soos op 4 Junie 2011 besig om oor Suidelike Afrika te beweeg. Tog as jy na die Wolkekaart van Kobus Botha (hieronder) kyk is dit oopgetrek oor Suid-Afrika.  

Kliek om te vergroot

Hoe gaan die "seeing" vanaand by Boyden wees? Waarskynlik onstabiel. Is dit nie `n nfaktor wat ons amateurs nie in gedagte hou as ons observasieaande beplan nie. Agterna kla ons oor die voorwerpe wat rondspring.

Lees gerus die artikel hieronder wat ek op `n webtuiste raak ge-google het.  Onderaan is 'n paar skakels.

How the Jet Stream impacts astronomical "seeing" 

Source: Astronomy Club of Asheville

"Seeing" refers to the the amount of "blurring" caused by the earth's atmosphere -- most apparent in a telescope using higher magnifications.  Astronomers refer to this atmospheric turmoil as "bad seeing".  Seeing well at high magnifications is only possible when the air is steady.

Excellent seeing means, at high magnification, you will see fine detail on planets.  In bad seeing, planets might look like they are under a layer of rippling water and show little detail at any magnification, but the view of galaxies is probably undiminished.

Bad seeing is caused by turbulence combined with temperature differences in the atmosphere.  The turbulence may be caused by ground level winds as well as higher level air movements created by the jet stream. When the jet stream is overhead, seeing is generally poor.

Bad seeing can occur during perfectly clear weather.  Often good seeing occurs during poor transparency.  It's because seeing is not very related to the water vapor content (transparency) of the air. 

Skakels

- Stel animasie op van Suidelike "Jet Stream" 

-  Grafika van vandag se Suidelike "Jet Stream" 

-  The Atmosphere and Observing - A guide to Astronomical seeing.

-  Predicting the seeing (over Holland) is that possible?! 

-  Chapter 8 -- "Astronomical Seeing"