Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Earth-sized 'lava world' discovered

Source: BBC Science and Environment

A doomed "lava world" with a similar mass and density to that of Earth has been discovered orbiting a star 400 light-years away.

Observations suggest the planet, named Kepler 78b, is composed mostly of rock and iron, much like our own planet.
But its extremely close proximity to its host star - a hundredth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun - remains something of a puzzle.
Details of the work by two teams of researchers appear in Nature journal.

More...
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Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Priceless to me - Letter from Sir Patrick Moore

Click to enlarge!

Ok, Sir Patrick Moore did not write directly to me! I was dwelling in the Bibliophile in Clarens looking for the big catch. After all Clarens is a quiet little drinking  town with a fishing problem! And if you're not the fishing kind of man, then the place to hang out is the Bibliophile.

That was where I found the second hand book - Brilliant Stars written  by Patrick Moore. And inside, with some newspaper clippings, was this letter, typed on that famous typewriter and signed by that legendary astronomer - Sir Patrick Moore.

A Mister DW Suchterlonie from Clarens wrote to Moore asking about the absolute and apparent  magnitude of Sirius  on page 13. He received the above letter from Moore.

In another book - Stars and Planets of the Southern Hemisphere (Lionel Warner) DW Suchterlonie wrote his name and also Planetarium, 3rd April 1982 in the front cover. Anyone from ASSA Johannesburg recognizing the name?

- Hannes Pieterse


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Sunday, 27 October 2013

Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2013 Nov 03 - 1% visible in Bloemfontein


- 1% visible in Bloemfontein  3:51 - 4:35pm (Sunday - 3 November 2013)

- Johannesburg Planetarium

- Map (Pdf - Johannesburg Planetarium)

- NASA Eclipse Web Site

- More NASA information
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Sunday, 13 October 2013

International Observe the Moon Night - 12 October 2013

 Photo: Pieter Pieterse
(Samsung S3 cellphone through eyepiece + Tiny Touch of Photoshop)


 Boyden Observatory  - Bloemfontein, South Africa

Our club evening was dedicated to old Mister Moon. Do the following names mean anything to you? Not a clue.  Then it is time to grab a moon map, your telescope and some time to observe this nuisance in the sky....

Aristoteles, Valis Alpes, Morites Alpes, Mont Blanc, Cassini, Aristillus, Archimedes, Spurr (not that one), Patricia, Mons Huygens, Pallas, Herschel, Ptolemaeus; Arzachel, Purbach, Stoller and Shomberger to mention a few.

We also watched a video - "Earth without the moon!" 

Thanks for everyone attending!


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Sunday, 29 September 2013

Vinnige Verklaring Vir Vreemde Vlieënde Voorwerp (VVVVVV) oor Suid-Afrika)


Hier is 'n foto ongeveer 19h00 geneem van agter my huis in Bloemfontein - Herman Bonnett, ASSA Bloemfontein
Willie Koorts se boodskap op Facebook: 
Die vreemde verskynsel wat vanaand (29 Sep. 2013) net na 19:00 wyd waargeneem is oor Suid-Afrika - ook deur Matie Hoffman vanaf Bloemfontein - blyk, volgens baassatellietjagter, Greg Roberts, 'n "fuel dump" te gewees het van die Falcon 9 vuurpyl wat vanmiddag om 18:00 (SA tyd) vanaf Vandenberg in Amerika gelanseer is. 
Die loonvrag is om 18:52 in sy wentelbaan geplaas waarna dit om 19:03 oor Antarktika gevlieg het en 'n paar minute later oor Suid-Afrika. Dit is toe dat die oortollige brandstof uitgespuit is wat die skouspelagtige sirkelvormige wolk veroorsak het wat wyd waargeneem is. 
 Greg en ek het al tevore so iets gesien en ek moet saamstem dat dit nogal iets is om te sien. Dankie vir die foto's en stuur gerus nog!
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M8 - Lagoon Nebula uit Bloemfontein

Foto: Herman Bonnet - ASSA Bloemfontein
Klik op foto om te vergroot

Foto van M8 geneem op 1 Sept 2013
50  "lightframes" van 150 sek elk
50 "dark frames"
50" bias frames"
50 "flat  frames"
"Stacking"-Deepsky stacker
Processing - PS
Teleskoop-120 mm Skywatcher Equinox
Mount- CGE PRO
Kamera- Canon 60 Da
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Friday, 27 September 2013

Laser Strike


Published on Apr 4, 2013
Laser strike incidents against aircraft have increased dramatically since 2009 and pose a serious threat to aviation across the U.S. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in association with the LASD Aero Bureau, Homeland Security and the FBI has produced a video about the possible dangers of green laser pointers.
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Sunday, 15 September 2013

Voyager 1 Leaves Solar System, NASA Confirms

This artist's concept shows the general locations of NASA's two Voyager spacecraft.
Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA.

Dan Vergano
National Geographic
Published September 12, 2013
It’s official: Voyager 1 has slipped from the solar system.
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 traveled past Jupiter and Saturn and is now more than 11.66 billion miles (18.67 billion kilometers) from the sun, becoming the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Proof of this long-anticipated milestone for the storied spacecraft comes in a study released Thursday by the journal Science and announced at a celebratory NASA headquarters briefing.

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Sunday, 18 August 2013

Nova Delphinus 2013 - Brightest in many years


Click to Enlarge


Some links to learn more about this Nova
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Sunday, 11 August 2013

Pale Blue Dot: Distant Spacecraft Photograph Earth (Cassini spacecraft)



 Click to Enlarge

July 23, 2013:  Color and black-and-white images of Earth taken by two NASA interplanetary spacecraft on July 19 show our planet and its moon as bright beacons from millions of miles away in space.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away. MESSENGER, the first probe to orbit Mercury, took a black-and-white image from a distance of 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) as part of a campaign to search for natural satellites of the planet.

More information
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