The entries in this year's SA Science Lens competition represented a wide range of science areas and many techniques were used to capture them, from state-of-the-art electron microscopes to digital and standard cameras. View the winning entries!
Friday, 11 December 2009
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Meteoor! O, Meteoor!
So ver as Kimberley, Reitz en dan natuurlik verder Noord het mense hierdie vuurbal gesien. `n Muur het self gekraak na die impak op die grond. Iewers by 'n wildplaas. Vir ander het die ding net hier agter die koppie geval.
Gaan loer gerus op Auke Slotegraaf se webtuiste na die videos wat tot nou beskikbaar is. Ook wat die ouens sê wat hierdie ongelooflike gebeurtenis waargeneem het.
Die webadres: Klik hier
(Ek is groen van jaloesie.)
Groete
Hannes Pieterse
Gaan loer gerus op Auke Slotegraaf se webtuiste na die videos wat tot nou beskikbaar is. Ook wat die ouens sê wat hierdie ongelooflike gebeurtenis waargeneem het.
Die webadres: Klik hier
(Ek is groen van jaloesie.)
Groete
Hannes Pieterse
Monday, 16 November 2009
Leonid Meteor shower + Komeet 88P/Howell
Komeet 88P/Howell in Sagittarius
Leonid Meteor shower
Vir die ouens wat snags wakker lê. Laat weet gerus of julle iets gesien het!
This month is the time to look out for the Leonid Meteor shower. Maximum number of meteors per hour is expected on the 17th to 18th. Conditions are expected to be favourable and particularly dark, since this will be only a few days after new moon. As the name indicates, the radiant of the meteor shower will be located in the constellation of Leo. The radiant is the point in the sky from which all the meteors appear to originate from. Meteors, or more commonly called “shooting stars”, are small particles of space dust and debris that enter our atmosphere at high speeds, and burn up due to heat generated by air friction. For keen and enthusiastic observers, the radiant of the shower will be up above the horizon from about 03:00 to 04:00 in the mornings. (Source: The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)
Stay up late or get up early this morning to catch the Leonids. Each year we pass through the
filaments—both old and new—of Comet Tempel–Tuttle’s debris, and the chances of encountering a
particular stream from any particular year becomes a matter of mathematical estimates. We know
when it passed. . . We know where it passed. . . But will we encounter it and to what extent?
(Source: The Night Sky Companion)
Loer gerus op die Blog (regs bo) vir al die waarnemingshulp ens
Komeet 88P/Howell
Ek het die komeet Saterdagaand so 20:30 deur die stad se ligbesoedeling in die Weste vanaf Boyden opgespoor. Baie dof, maar sigbaar. As jy `n kaart wil hê om dit op te spoor kan jy vir my e-pos stuur. Sal vir jou `n pdf-kaart stuur.
Hier is inligting oor die komeet.
On this night 88P/Howell is best visible between 19:55 and 20:17, with the optimum view at 20:15. Look for it in Sagittarius, fairly high in the sky during evening twilight. It is detectable visually in the Orion SkyQuest XT10 Dob. Use the Ultima 42mm for optimum visual detection. It is magnitude 9.3 with a diameter of 5.1'.
In the following 30 days this object is detectable visually from November 17-26, and again from December 3 on, with the best view coming on November 17. During this period it will fade by about 0.8 magnitudes and will remain constant in altitude.
88P/Howell will next reach perihelion in mid April 2015. It also is predicted to reach maximum brightness of magnitude 9 in mid April. The best visibility from Bloemfontein, South Africa near maximum brightness is predicted to be in mid April when it will be approximately magnitude 9. At that time it will be in Aquarius, fairly high in the sky during morning twilight and will be detectable in the Orion SkyQuest XT10 Dob. The previous perihelion was mid October 2009. Note that the magnitude and visibility of a comet can be very unpredictable.
Groete
Hannes Pieterse
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Measuring The Sky (One-Minute Astronomer)
The Basics
• Astronomers measure angular separation of objects in degrees. There are 360 degrees in a circle. And the angular separation of any point on the horizon and the point directly overhead (the zenith) is 90 degrees. Halfway from the zenith to the horizon is 45 degrees. So far, so good.
• Smaller angles are a little trickier. But your hands and fingers are a remarkably accurate (and convenient) measuring tool. When you hold your hand at arm’s length, you can estimate angles like this:
- Stretch your thumb and little finger as far from each other as you can. The span from tip to tip is about 25 degrees
- Do the same with your index finger and little finger. The span is 15 degrees
- Clench your fist at arms length, and hold it with the back of your hand facing you. The width is 10 degrees
- Hold your three middle fingers together; they span about 5 degrees
- The width of your little finger at arms length is 1 degree.
- Do the same with your index finger and little finger. The span is 15 degrees
- Clench your fist at arms length, and hold it with the back of your hand facing you. The width is 10 degrees
- Hold your three middle fingers together; they span about 5 degrees
- The width of your little finger at arms length is 1 degree.
A Deeper Look
• Now let’s go smaller. When you look through a telescope, you see a field of view of 1 degree or less… a very small slice of sky.
• Astronomers measure angles smaller than 1 degree in arcminutes, or “minutes of arc”. There are 60 arcminutes in one degree, so 1 arcminute is 1/60 degree. The symbol for arcminutes is ‘. So the full Moon, for example, is about 30′ (thirty arcminutes) across. Coincidentally, so is the Sun.
• Each arcminute is divided into 60 arcseconds, or “seconds of arc”. So 1 arcsecond is 1/60 arcminute and 1/3600 degree. The symbol for arcseconds is “. The face of Jupiter, which you can see this summer, is about 50″ across. The two components of the double star alpha Herculi are 4.6″ apart. A good optical telescope in steady skies can resolve down to about 1″ (one arcsecond).
Source:Visit One-Minute Astronomer
Source:Visit One-Minute Astronomer
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Centaur vuurpyl laat die mense reg oor Suid Afrika en Europa wonder (UFO?)
Photo: Federico and Chiara Bellini of Bodio Lomnago, Italy.
Sondagaand het `n klomp sterrekykers na hulle kameras gegryp en hierdie vreemde verskynsel afgeneem.
UFO het die mense op OFM die plaaslike radiostasie in Bloemfontein gesê. Die kenners het natuurlik met die antwoord gekom:
Gaan loer gerus by hierdie webwerwe wat werklik gebeur het. Ongelooflik.
`n Plaaslike webwerf met sekerlik die beste foto's: Klik hier
Ook by Spaceweather kan jy gaan loer: Klik hier en beweeg af op die blad
Prof Matie Hoffman van die Fisika Departement by die UV gesels Donderdagaand om 20:30 met Hennie Maas op Sterre en Planete oor die verskynsel.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Luister Sterre en Planete op RSG
(Elke Donderdagaand om 20:30)
Medewerkers reg oor die land gaan vir Hennie Maas met die program help, na die afsterwe van Louis Barendse.
Prof. Matie Hoffman van die Fisika Departement aan die UV gaan ook vorentoe sy beurt kry.
Vanaand is `n ou bekende in die sterrekunde-omgewing, Willie Koorts van SAAO, aan die beurt.
Inligting oor die uitsending vanaand:
* Gesels oor die LCROSS-sateliet wat in beheerde omstandighede met die maan gebots het in `n soektog na water.
* Luister ook na die liedjie wat die projekleier oor die projek en die water op die maan geskryf het.
* SALT se oogoperasie word bespreek. Baie interessant hoe die 90 ton monster werk.
* Ook inligting oor die Galilean Nights van 22- 24 Oktober .
Webtuiste: http://www.galileannights.org/
Die praatjie is ook op die web beskikbaar om na te luister of af te laai by hulle potgooi-afdeling of die klankargief
Groete
Hannes Pieterse
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Astronomy Night At The White House
And the quote of the night from the President, who said this in response to a young girl who was 14 when she discovered a supernova, and a high school sophomore who found a rare type of pulsar:
NASA’s equipment is some pretty powerful stuff. But astronomy also depends on the curiosity and contribution of amateur astronomers. [...] If they can discover something great, so can any of you other students who are here tonight. All you need is a passion for science.Damn straight. And awesome.
Source: Blog / Bad Astronomy
October 9th, 2009
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Watch Nasa bomb the moon
The LCROSS shepherding spacecraft attached to the Centaur upper stage. Credit: NASA
Seth Borenstein
Washington - Nasa will throw a one-two punch at the big old moon Friday and the whole world will have ringside seats for the lunar dust-up.
Nasa will send a used-up spacecraft slamming into the moon's south pole to kick up a massive plume of lunar dirt and then scour it to see if there's any water or ice spraying up.
The idea is to confirm the theory that water - a key resource if people are going to go back to the moon - is hidden below the barren moonscape.
The crashing spaceship was launched in June along with an orbiter that is now mapping the lunar surface.
LCROSS - short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and pronounced L-Cross - is on a collision course with the moon, attached to an empty 2.2-ton rocket that helped get the probe off the ground.
Thursday evening, about 10 hours before smashing into the moon, LCROSS and its empty rocket will separate.
Read more... Another read more...
- A live NASA TV Broadcast is planned for the LCROSS impacts starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9, on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.
- Where and how to observe the LCROSS impacts
(Only visible in the USA)
- Observations and Impact Timing
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
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