Venus, Jupiter and the Moon are gathering in our early morning skies

Image: Stellarium 15 July 2012
(Click to Enlarge)

Venus is now our very bright "morning star" over in the east, before sunrise.
Jupiter is the not-quite-as-bright one a little higher, to the left of Venus.  The fainter reddish one now above Venus is Aldebaran, eye of Taurus the Bull, and over to the right of all this is Orion.

This weekend, the waning crescent Moon moves down through Taurus.  Look on:
- Saturday morning - Moon, Jupiter, Venus in (almost) a straight line
- Sunday morning - Moon just below Jupiter
- Monday morning - Jupiter, Venus and the Moon in a triangle
- Tuesday morning - last look at the old crescent, in a big triangle with Venus and Betelgeuse (shoulder of Orion).

A map of all this is at www.planetarium.co.za

The Moon will re-appear in the early evening skies as a thin crescent over in the west on July 20th, marking the start of the Islamic month of Ramadhan.  Look out for earthshine on the crescent.

Big Sunspot 1520 Releases X1.4 Class Flare

Huge sunspot AR1520, located front and center in the Sun's southern hemisphere, has released an X1.4 class flare.

• Soho
• Spaceweather.com

Sunrise at Reebok

Early one morning!
Photo Hannes Pieterse

Full Moon at Reebok

The Full moon visible in the Earth Shadow
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

Neville Young's Books - Astronomy Within Reach - and Sterrekunde Binne Bereik

Available in English and Afrikaans

Neville Young, a long time member of the Pretoria Astronomical Centre for 25 years, who over the years at star gazing evenings and even when viewing two solar eclipses, and a Venus transit, makes use of the occasion to talk to the public. For this purpose he designed a solar system model which he uses to explain "on the ground" what can be seen. To hear "Oh now I understand" has been for him very rewarding and to then watch his audience moving to the telescopes to see the real thing, gives him a feeling of accomplishment. On these occasions he has been asked the same questions over and over and being as well read as he is, has been able to explain things like "What happened to Pluto?" - the path of the Southern Cross - how Jupiter's moons move and can be seen, even with binoculars -  in ways that are both informative and entertaining. When LAPA Publishers asked him to write a book on astronomy for the layman, his audience suddenly became so much larger. Astronomy Within Reach has been written to answer these questions and many more that will lead to an understanding of the subject. Neville has spent hours drawing many of his own diagrams and researching the answers, before committing them to paper. See the attached flyer for more information. This book is new on the market and has been translated into Afrikaans. Astronomy Within Reach and Sterrekunde Binne Bereik are now available from Neville and at the various outlets.

To purchase the book from Neville please see either www.astronomy-within-reach.co.za

www.sterrekunde-binne-bereik.co.za

where you will find details of how to make your purchase.

In addition to the book Neville is selling on his website, the portable solar system model he has used for so long.This he has produced for use in education and for demonstration purposes. He has other educational aids which he has developed and which are referred to in the book and explained on his website www.starwaders.com Please contact us for any further information  Jen Els Sales & Marketing - Starwaders         "Education for Astronomy" jen@starwaders.com 012 804 5843 083 701 7681

Canon 60Da: Second improved Astro DSLR available

Source: Sky & Telescope (July 2012)

CANON’S RETURN Canon has announced the successor to its long-discontinued 20Da, a DSLR optimized specifi cally for astrophotography. The new Canon EOS 60Da ($1,499) features an 18-megapixel APS-C detector with roughly 4-micron-square pixels and an improved infraredblocking
fi lter that transmits up to three times more hydrogen-alpha light than other Canon DSLR cameras. This modifi cation enables users to record the reddish hydrogen-alpha nebulosity prevalent in the night sky.
The camera incorporates enhanced noise reduction and increased ISO speeds up to 6400, expandable to 12,800. Additional features include a 3-inch fl ip-out vari-angle LCD screen for easy viewing when attached to a telescope. The EOS 60Da’s Live View mode is equipped with Canon’s silent-shooting feature that eliminates shutter-induced vibration. Each purchase includes an AC adapter kit, rechargeable battery, and RA-E3 Remote Controller adapter.

Canon USA
Available through select dealers
www.usa.canon.com

•  dpreview 

• Sample Images ;
• Canon 60Da

Venus transits the sun Bloemfontein 2004

Information: Venus transits the sun. Prof. Matie Hoffman (right) and Hannes Calitz, observer at Boyden Observatory (both from the Department of Physics, University of the Free State) are watching the transit of Venus in front of the sun closely with the “sun telescope” (20 cm Celeostat  Solar Telescope). Notice the small black circle (Venus) close to Prof. Hoffman’s cap, in front of the mammoth sun.  

Date: 8 June 2004

Time: Place: Boyden Observatory

Equipment: Nikon F3 (Film); 50mm f1.8 lens.

Technique: Negatives were scanned and image was finalised in Photoshop

Photographer: Hannes Pieterse

• Live Venus Transit Webcasts 2012

Transit of Venus - Bloemfontein 2004

Date: 8 June 2004

Place: Boyden Observatory

Time: 06:30 – 14:00

Equipment: Nikon F3 (Film), 600mm mirror lens; 2X Converter.

Technique: Red filter. Also without filter. ND filter was used to reduce light.Image Processing: Negatives were scanned and digital images was finalised in Photoshop

Photographer: Hannes Pieterse

Information: Transit of Venus. Nobody alive today has seen a transit of Venus in front of the sun.  The last transit was in 1882.

          Sun's disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Before the space age, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists use the parallax method to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth.

         Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena and currently occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. Before 2004, the last pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The first of a pair of transits of Venus in the beginning of the 21st century took place on June 8, 2004 (see Transit of Venus, 2004) and the next will be on June 6, 2012 (see Transit of Venus, 2012). After 2012, the next transits of Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125.

          A transit of Venus can be safely observed by taking the same precautions as when observing the partial phases of a solar eclipse. Staring at the brilliant disk of the Sun (the photosphere) with the unprotected eye can quickly cause serious and often permanent eye damage. (Wikipedia information)

• Live Venus Transit Webcasts 2012

   
  

Kyk na die Melkweg in verskillende golflengtes

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ISS - Space X, Dragon makes historic space station dock

by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) May 25, 2012

SpaceX on Friday became the first commercial outfit to send its own cargo capsule to the International Space Station, heralding the start of a new era for private spaceflight.
The berthing marked the climax of the California-based company's demonstration mission to become the first to restore US access to the space outpost after NASA retired the three-decade shuttle program last year.
With no humans on board, the Dragon capsule is delivering about a half ton of supplies and science experiments for the ISS, and aims to return a slightly larger load of gear to Earth on May 31.

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