Sunday 26 July 2015
Sunday 12 July 2015
Thursday 9 July 2015
New Horizons Pluto Spacecraft Sends Photos As Excitement Builds for Flyby
Dwarf planet Pluto, shown here in the latest high-res image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, will get its close-up in less than a week.
By Nadia Drake, National Geographic
PUBLISHED July 07, 2015
PUBLISHED July 07, 2015
Pluto will get its closeup in less than a week, despite a heart-stopping glitch that briefly silenced the New Horizons spacecraft over the holiday weekend. Now, the craft is back in action and entering what NASA calls encounter mode—where gathering data about the frosted world trumps just about everything else.
Read more...
Wednesday 17 June 2015
Monday 18 May 2015
Dunlop and Lacaille - Deep-sky Marathons at FS Star Party
Visit the ASSA Marathon section
Read more about the first ever marathon we have completed in Central South Africa in 2014 in Nigtfall.
"Nightfall" (2015 April) is the current newsletter of the Deep-Sky Observing Section of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.
- Download the free PDF from the ASSA website at assa.saao.ac.za/sections/deep-sky/nebulae-clusters/nightfall/
Friday 8 May 2015
Free State Winter Star Party - Vrystaat Winter Sterrefees
A Star Part in the warm heart of Central South Africa
12 – 16 June 2015
On the farm Gansvlei close to Brandfort (13km)
GPS Coordinates: 28°47'48.63"S 26°28'25.66"E
Highlights at the FS Star Party
- Observing and Astrophotography
- Deep-sky Marathon
- A visit to Boyden Observatory (Museum and old telescopes)
- A show in the Digital Planetarium on Naval Hill.
- 3 Astro Guest Speakers
Vrystaat Winter Sterrefees
Sterpartytjie in die warm hart van Sentraal Suid-Afrika
Op die plaas Gansvlei by Brandfort (13km)
GPS Koördinate 28°47'48.63"S 26°28'25.66"E
Hoogtepunte by die VS Sterrefees:
- Waarneming en Astrofotografie
- Besoek Boyden Sterrewag met sy museum en ou teleskope
- Vertoning in die Digitale Planetarium op Naval Hill
- 3 Astro Gassprekers
Monday 13 April 2015
First South African Comet Discovery in 35 Years
13 April 2015
First South African Comet Discovery in 35 Years
In the early hours of the 7th April, an un-manned robotic telescope, MASTER-SAAO, situated near Sutherland in the Karoo, discovered a new comet. This is the first comet to be discovered in South Africa since 1978. The Russian – South African run telescope has been scanning the southern skies since it began operating in late December 2014, looking for “transients” – new objects which appear in the sky for the first time. Since then, over 60 new objects have been discovered, most of them being erupting or exploding stars. However, the MASTER-SAAO telescope has just discovered its first comet.
Read more about this discovery
Sunday 29 March 2015
DSLR Photometry Experiments. 4. How many darks?
When performing photometry on DSLR images, should dark frames be stacked and subtracted from the light frames? If so, how many dark frames should be used, and which stacking method should be employed? This experiment attempts to answer the first question by evaluating the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of stars on an image from which different numbers of dark frames have been subtracted.
Learn more...
Working with constellations in DOCdb
Constellations, of course, aren’t “real” objects, but they are a handy way of slicing up the night sky into more manageable chunks.
Having the sky sub-divided in this way immediately suggests an observing project: carefully examine each chunk of sky for anything and everything interesting. This raises the question: when is a particular part of the sky well-placed for observing?
With the recent addition of “constellation place holders” to the DOCdb database, this is now easy to answer, using the DOCdb List Plan option. Here’s the step-by-step guide.
"Nightfall" - the deep-sky observing newsletter
[1] Editorial
[2] News Notes
[8] Three in: Carina by Dave Blane & Auke Slotegraaf
[19] E3 — A curious globular cluster in Chamaeleon by Douglas Bullis
[28] Heartbeat of a Unicorn — Exploring the fascinating but often overlooked constellation of Monoceros by Carol Botha
[31] Birth of a Deep-Sky Marathon — A report from the 2014 Free State Star Party, with guidelines and recommendations for conducting a deep-sky observing marathon by Hannes & Pieter Pieterse
[50] At My Eyepiece — Veteran deep-sky observer Magda Streicher gives us a look at how she observes. by Magda Streicher
[56] Deep-Sky Projects
[57] Photo Gallery
[59] On The Cover
[appendix] Big 5 of the African Sky
Saturday 28 March 2015
Sunday 15 February 2015
Boyden Observatory in the light pollution glow
Click to Enlarge.
The Boyden Observatory is not next to the light pollution from "next door neighbours" anymore. It is right in the glow. Not long before the Milky Way will be an image on the screen and not a magnificent object in the Boyden night sky.
"next door neighbours" - Maselspoort resort and all the owners on the banks of the Modder River.
Earth Observation Group (EOG)
The NGDC Earth Observation Group (EOG) specializes in nighttime
observations of lights and combustion sources worldwide. The group
started working with DMSP data in 1994 and has produced a time series of
annual cloud-free composites of DMSP nighttime lights. EOG's current
focus is on nighttime VIIRS data.
Monday 26 January 2015
15P/Finlay is now a binocular object due to a series outbursts.
Click to Enlarge!
Hot bright news (26 January 2015) Chart date 26 January 2015, 20:30
from Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Source: Comet Chasing in January; Chart: Skytools 3
15P/Finlay is now a binocular object! It brightened by several magnitudes on January 16, on top of a similar episode in mid-December, apparently due to a series outbursts.
Coma Diameter: 3.9'
Earth Distance: 1.4 AU
Sun Distance: 1.1 AU
Elongation: 49°
Tail Position Angle: 65°
Tail Forshortening: 30%
Actual Coma Diameter: 240000 km
DC: 1
Total motion: 3.06 "/min
RA: 2.71 "/min
Dec: 1.44 "/min
Tuesday 13 January 2015
Print a Naked Eye Star Map for the Southern Hemisphere
Click to see example map!
- Download and print Naked Eye Star Map for the Southern Hemisphere
(Select Southern hemisphere, the time and the type of map)
Sunday 11 January 2015
C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Click to enlarge
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) from 11 - 25 January 2015 (21:00) in the South African Night Sky.
Friday 26 December 2014
Flapping UFO's
UFOS: UNEXPLAINED FLAPPING OBJECTS
In SkyNews (January 2015)
On August 5, 2010, I was out with my telescope observing the night sky from my drive- way in southern Hamilton, Ontario, when I looked up toward the zenith and saw a triangular formation of three bright “orbs” of light moving incredibly fast toward the northern sky. By this time, I had already been observing the night sky for two years and quickly realized the lights were moving too fast and were larger in size and appearance than a satellite. They were also switching positions smoothly and swiftly. My next thought was a meteorite breakup, but there was no trail and no change in luminosity, and these objects persisted at a constant brightness for about 20 seconds before disappearing behind a tree. I could not come up with a plausible explanation.
About eight months later, while walking into The Hamilton Spectator building to attend a meeting of the Hamilton amateur astronomers, I briefly witnessed a similar event in the low eastern sky and still had no explanation. My answer finally came in June 2011. While outside on my driveway observing, I noticed five strange objects moving down the eastern sky. Luckily, I had binoculars with me this time. To my amazement—and embarrassment— I discovered that the strange “ufos” I had told numerous friends and fellow astronomers about were, in fact, Canada geese illuminated just enough by city lights from below to give the geese a strange, almost otherworldly glow, which made it very difficult to see any detail with the unaided eye. I could not hear them flying, and because they were moving about one another in formation, flapping their wings and flying at a fair speed, they gave an eerie appearance that had haunted me for almost a year.
Since then, I have seen Canada geese at night on numerous occasions. however, once I look through my binoculars, I laugh at myself and return to observing. if you witness what at first appears to be a strange triangular formation of alien craft, grab your binoculars, because I would wager that it’s some Canada geese happily on their way. and you can blame light pollution for the interruption.
Kevin Salwach
Hamilton, Ontario
(Het self al saans oor Bloemfontein hierdie wit voëls - soos bosluisvoëls gelyk - met my verkyker gesien. Wonder of hulle die stadsligte vir navigasie gebruik? - Hannes Pieterse)
Tuesday 18 November 2014
Rosetta Images Show Philae Lander Bouncing Across Comet
Click to enlarge image
When the European Space Agency's Philae lander descended to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last week, the Rosetta spacecraft's OSIRIS camera was watching from almost 10 miles above. Now a poignant series of images tracks Philae's double rebound — with a parting shot that shows the lander in mid-bounce.
After bouncing twice, Philae settled onto the comet's shadowed surface and operated for almost 57 hours before its batteries ran out.
The lander's current location doesn't show up on the OSIRIS imagery
released Monday, but the Rosetta mission's managers are confident that
it will eventually be spotted.
Source: NBC News
Saturday 15 November 2014
Our lander’s asleep
"Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence," says DLR's Stephan Ulamec, Lander manager, who was in the main control room at ESOC tonight.
Read more
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