Mark Kelly, twin brother enlisted for NASA study

This undated photo provided by NASA, astronauts Mark Kelly, right, STS-124 commander, and Scott Kelly are pictured in the check-out facility at Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA announced Friday, March 7, 2014, that Mark Kelly and astronaut Scott Kelly will participate in 10 different investigations. Craig Kundrot, deputy chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program, says in a news release that the brothers provide a unique opportunity to study two people with the same genetics who were in different environments. Officials say Scott Kelly spent a year in space while Mark Kelly was on Earth. NASA says it is hoping the studies can be the basis for future research initiatives. (AP Photo/NASA)

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John Dobson - Sidewalk Astronomy Evangelist (1915–2014)

• Washington Post
• AAVSO
• Wikipedia
• Universe Today
• Sky and Telescope
• The Sidewalk Astronomers
• Astronomy Magazine
• The Globe and Mail
• The Times
• Huff Post
  
• Official facebook Page

Klubbyeenkoms: ASSA Bloemfontein - 1 Februarie 2014

Die Bloemfonteinse Amateur Sterrekunde Vereniging  (ASSA Bloemfontein) hou op Saterdag 1 Februarie sy eerste byeenkoms van die jaar. Voornemende amateur sterrekundiges is welkom om die geleentheid by te woon.

Op die program is onder meer:

• Die gebruik  van 'n teleskoop insluitende die eienskappe van verskillende oogstukke;
• Wat kan gesien word in die nagruim in verskillende ligomstandighede (Limiting Magnitude);
• Ons kyk ook na `n nova wat onlangs uitgebars het en met `n verkyker sigbaar is;
• As die weer saamspeel soek ons die Perdekopneuwel in Orion.

Koste: Gratis vir lede en R50 per persoon vir besoekers. Die bedrag word terugbetaal as jy by die   vereniging aansluit. Ledegeld is R100 per jaar vir `n gesin.

• Stuur e-pos aan assabfn@gmail.com om vir die geleentheid te bespreek.

Datum: 1 Februarie 2014
Tyd: 18:30 (Ons braai, so bring jou eie kosmandjie met vleis, eetgoed, eetgerei en koeldrank. Braaivuur en roosters is beskikbaar.)
Plek: Boyden-sterrewag (Langs Maselspoort)

Naked Eye Nova Centauri 2013 - Astronomy Picture of the Day

Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day 

 Naked Eye Nova Centauri 2013
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution)

Explanation: Brightest stellar beacons of the constellation Centaurus, Alpha and Beta Centauri are easy to spot from the southern hemisphere. For now, so is new naked eye Nova Centauri 2013. In this night skyscape recorded near Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean southern Atacama desert on December 5, the new star joins the old in the expansive constellation, seen at early morning hours through a greenish airglow. Caught by nova hunter John Seach from Australia on December 2 as it approached near naked eye brightness, Nova Cen 2013 has been spectroscopically identified as a classical nova, an interacting binary star system composed of a dense, hot white dwarf and cool, giant companion. Material from the companion star builds up as it falls onto the white dwarf's surface triggering a thermonuclear event. The cataclysmic blast results in a drastic increase in brightness and an expanding shell of debris. The stars are not destroyed, though. Classical novae are thought to recur when the flow of material onto the white dwarf eventually resumes and produces another outburst.

1% Solar Eclipse in Bloemfontein, South Africa

Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2013 Nov 03 - 1% visible in Bloemfontein - 3:51 - 4:35pm (Sunday - 3 November 2013)

Frans Human, member of the Bloemfontein Center of The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa took this image of the hybrid eclipse on Sunday, 3 November 2013. Some sunspots are also visible.

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

Official Opening of the Naval Hill Digital Planetarium

Official Opening of the Naval Hill Digital Planetarium in Bloemfontein, South Africa

Live Streaming

Friday 1 November 2013 

10:45 - 13:00

• http://www.ufs.ac.za/ufslivestreaming/

The University of the Free State (UFS) is implementing an innovative and exciting project, namely the establishment of a ‘Centre for Earth and Space’ on Naval Hill in the centre of Bloemfontein. 

The 86-year old Lamont-Hussey Observatory on Naval Hill, also known as the Sterrewag Theatre, is home to the planetarium. The planetarium is the first component of a proposed Centre for Earth and Space.

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.

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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

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

International Observe the Moon Night - 12 October 2013

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

International Observe the Moon Night - 12 October 2013

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!