The latest Stellarium available

2011/11/04

Stellarium 0.11.1 has been released!

The Stellarium team is proud to announce the release of version 0.11.1. This is an important bug fix release closing more than 20 bugs in the main application and in the plug-ins. It also brings small GUI usability improvements. A huge thanks to all community bug reporters who helped us a lot finding bugs! You can find the full list of changes the change log.

We have updated the configuration file and the Solar System file, so if you have an existing Stellarium installation, you need to reset the settings after you install the new version.

•  Download now (55MB)

• Bring a memory stick to the next meeting (ASSA Bloemfontein).  It will be available!

Hot News: Supernova 2011gv in Galaxy IC4901

Supernova 2011gv in Galaxy IC4901

by gregbradley

 

 

This image shows supernova SN2011gv, discovered last week by IceInSpace member Greg Bock as part of the amateur BOSS supernova searching team. The supernova is in the galaxy IC4901, in the constellation Pavo and is marked by the 2 lines near the centre of the galaxy. Greg Bock has taken tens of thousands of images hunting for supernova over the years, and to finally get one must be very satisfying for him. Image by Greg Bradley with an FLI Microline 8300 and Planewave CDK17, 70 mins exposure.

ASSA Johannesburg se besoek aan Boyden

 

Brett besig om foto's te neem

Nog foto's van die besoek

Sterrekundewoordeboek / Dictionary of astronomy

Sterrekundewoordeboek 

Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns gee vir ons `n aanlyn  Sterrekundewoordeboek / Dictionary of astronomy.

(Afrikaans – Engels)

Voorbeeld

aangroeistroom (akkresiestroom) : accretion stream

aangroeitempo (akkresietempo) : accretion rate, rate of accretion

aangroeiteorie (akkresieteorie) : accretion theory aanjaagvuurpyl : booster rocket aanraking (kontak) : contact aantrek : attract aantrekking : attraction aantrekkingsfeer (sentrosfeer) : attraction sphere, centrosphere aantrekkingskrag : attractive force

•  Aanlynwoordeboek 

- Die Engels/Afrikaans-weergawe is later beskikbaar

Ruimtewoordeboek in Afrikaans

`n  Engels/Afrikaans  en Afrikaans/Engels Woordeboek van Ruimteterminologie is in Kaapstad  deur die Internasionale Akademie van Ruimtevaart  (IAA) bekend gestel.

• Dit is ook aanlyn beskikbaar   (Meer inligting sodra die skakel werk)

Pharos Speller Speltoetser

Nog `n stukkie inligting vir ouens wat met Afrikaanse spelling van woorde sukkel.

Die gewilde Pharos Speller Speltoetser & woordafbreker is pas opgedateer en bygewerk en is nou versoenbaar met Windows 7.

• Laai gratis af

 

A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way

A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way
Edward Emerson Barnard, Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin

Edward Emerson Barnard's Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way was originally published in two volumes in 1927. Together these volumes contained a wealth of information, including photographic plates of the most interesting portions of the Milky Way, descriptive text, charts, and data. Only 700 copies were printed, making the original edition a collector's item. Reproduced in print for the first time, this edition combines both volumes of Barnard's Atlas. It directly replicates Barnard's text, and contains high resolution images of the original photographic plates and charts, reordered so that they can be seen together. It also includes a biography of Barnard and his work, a Foreword and Addendum by Gerald Orin Dobek describing the importance of the Atlas and additions to this volume, and a pull-out section with a mosaic of all 50 plates combined in a single panorama.

• Cambridge University Press

Speed-of-light results under scrutiny at Cern

Enormous underground detectors are needed to catch neutrinos, that are so elusive as to be dubbed "ghost particles"

Source: BBC

 
By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A meeting at Cern, the world's largest physics lab, has addressed results that suggest subatomic particles have gone faster than the speed of light.

The team has published its work so other scientists can determine if the approach contains any mistakes.

If it does not, one of the pillars of modern science may come tumbling down.

Antonio Ereditato added "words of caution" to his Cern presentation because of the "potentially great impact on physics" of the result.

The speed of light is widely held to be the Universe's ultimate speed limit, and much of modern physics - as laid out in part by Albert Einstein in his theory of special relativity - depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it.

Thousands of experiments have been undertaken to measure it ever more precisely, and no result has ever spotted a particle breaking the limit.

"We tried to find all possible explanations for this," the report's author Antonio Ereditato of the Opera collaboration told BBC News on Thursday evening.

"We wanted to find a mistake - trivial mistakes, more complicated mistakes, or nasty effects - and we didn't.

"When you don't find anything, then you say 'well, now I'm forced to go out and ask the community to scrutinise this'."

Friday's meeting was designed to begin this process, with hopes that other scientists will find inconsistencies in the measurements and, hopefully, repeat the experiment elsewhere.

"Despite the large [statistical] significance of this measurement that you have seen and the stability of the analysis, since it has a potentially great impact on physics, this motivates the continuation of our studies in order to find still-unknown systematic effects," Dr Ereditato told the meeting.

"We look forward to independent measurement from other experiments."

 

The Ten Commandments for Amateur Astronomers

 Sourced from October Canopus, Newsletter - ASSA Johannesburg Centre

• Articles about the Bloemfontein visit in Canopus.

Submitted by Annelie Hoberg; Source: www.physlink.com, Anonymous

1. Thou shalt have no white light before thee, behind thee, or to the side of thee whilst sharing the night sky with thy fellow stargazers.

2. Thou shalt not love thy telescope more than thy spouse or thy children; as much as, maybe, but not more.

3. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's telescope, unless it exceeds in aperture or electronics twice that of thy wildest dreams.

4. Thou shalt not read "Astronomy" or "Sky & Telescope" on company time, for thine employer makes it possible to continue thine astronomical hobby.

5. Thou shalt have at least two telescopes so as to keep thy spouse interested when the same accompanies thee under the night sky or on eclipse expeditions to strange lands where exotic wild animals doth roam freely.

6. Thou shalt not allow either thy sons or thy daughters to get married during the Holy Days of Starfest.

7. Thou shalt not reveal to thy spouse the true cost of thy telescope collection; only the individual components and that shall be done with great infrequency.

8. Thou shalt not buy thy spouse any lenses, filters, dew shields, maps, charts, or any other necessities for Christmas, anniversaries, or birthdays unless thy spouse needs them for their own telescope.

9. Thou shalt not deceive thy spouse into thinking that ye are taking them for a romantic Saturday night drive when indeed thou art heading for a dark sky site.

10. Thou shalt not store thy telescope in thy living room, dining room, or bedroom, lest thou be sleeping with it full time.

Neville Young's book "Astronomy - Yes You Can"

New book - by Neville Young This composite photograph shows Fred Oosthuizen with the Stevick-Paul telescope that he built and mounted inside his observatory on the roof of his house. The photograph is being included in Neville Young's book "Astronomy - Yes You Can" which will reach the bookshops in March next year. Neville is a former chairman of the Pretoria Centre and is still a member of it. 

The book is also being translated into Afrikaans by Bosman Olivier, a committee member of the Pretoria Centre. The book is intended to interest the layman in astronomy particularly and in science generally, but has been received with great interest by the experienced amateur Michael Poll and the professional Barbara Cunow, who are helping Neville to ensure that the content of the book will be accurate. 

• Source: ASSA PretoriaCentre - August Newsletter

NASA’s Cassini orbiter snaps unbelievable picture of Saturn

 

Click to enlarge

Science fiction movies have spoiled us on high definition views of our planetary neighbors, but real-life photographs with equal jaw-dropping potential are exceedingly rare. That's what makes NASA's awe-inspiring snapshot of Saturn (hi-res version here) such a stunning piece of eye candy.

Taken by NASA's Cassini robotic orbiter, the shot was captured from the dark side of Saturn as the Sun's bright rays illuminated every piece of dust and debris circling the planet. Cassini has offered astronomers a never-before-seen look at Saturn and revealed more information about the planet than any craft before it. The craft has taken so many pictures of the ringed wonder that they were recently made into a short flyby film that looks like it was created by George Lucas rather than a robotic space explorer.

The Cassini probe was launched in 1997 and took a further 7 years to reach Saturn's orbit. The total cost of its overarching objective of studying the ringed planet stands at a staggering $3.26 billion. However, the wealth of information it has wrought — including amazing pictures like the one above, and recordings of massive lightning storms on the planet — have already made it one of the best investments in space exploration. Hopefully Juno — which began a 5-year trek to Jupiter just last month — will bring us some equally stunning shots of Saturn's neighbor.
[Image credit: NASA]

Transit of Venus, 2012

The next transit of Venus will occur on June 5–June 6 in 2012, succeeding the previous transit on June 8, 2004. After 2012, the next transits of Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125.

• Where visible