Voyager 2 Approaches Termination Shock

Voyager 2 is set to cross the Termination Shock either this month or early next year. The termination shock is the point at which the solar winds change dramatically from about a million miles per hour to around 250,000 miles per hour, in other words, little Voyager is leaving home and the effects of our Sun. The Voyager will then be in the Heliosphere, after that intergalactic space. Voyager 2 launched August 20 1977 on a five year mission to explore our planets and their moons, well it is 30 years later and both the Voyager 1 spacecraft, (which by the way reached the Heliosphere back in 2004) and Voyager 2 spacecraft are still in daily contact with the Deep Space Network sending new and unknown information from afar. Voyager 1 is about 10 billion miles from Earth, and it takes 14 hours for information from the spacecraft to reach Earth, Voyager 2 is around 8.0 billion miles from Earth and it's signal takes 11 hours to reach us. Both spacecraft carry with them a message on a gold record just in case aliens decide to pull them over, hopefully friendly aliens, since we gave them the directions to get here.

Just a friendly reminder that the Geminids meteor shower is just a week away, look at the date of this article, did I miss a time warp or something? The above photo was taken by Anna over at My Only Photo. Anna got a good shot last August of a Perseid meteor, awesome shot, check out her other work as well. Anna is my Blackholes and Astrostuff roving reporter out east(unpaid), she has a a cool Story Blob blog you should check out as well. The Geminids will start Thursday December 13th at around 9 pm EST and continue on through the night until Gemini sets in the west early Friday morning. The Geminids are the most reliable of the meteor showers producing around 50 meteors an hour or about one a minute. The Geminids originate from the 3200 Phaethon asteroid. The shower appears to radiate from the Gemini Constellation which will be low in the east around 9pm, as the night progresses Gemini travels to the SE, then the south ,then SW then sets in the west around 10 am EST Friday, bonus, look for Mars, a bright orange object in the constellation as well that night.

Being Christmas time and all I thought I would link to my Buying a Telescope post, it has a lot of good information in it, if your looking to buy a telescope for someone special this year you should find this post useful. Isn't that a nice summery picture above? I decided to go out to my cold backyard and take a picture as it looks now.

I don't usually give names to my photos, but this one I call "WINTER SUCKS"

Total Lunar Eclipse

Well another total Lunar Eclipse has come and gone and guess what, I was able to view it, oh happy day! The images I took above are from the top to bottom; totality, almost totality, start of totality and start of the eclipse.

When I woke up Monday morning I noticed the Moon was smack dab in the middle of the neighbor's trees, I had to formulate a plan of attack if I was to view and take pictures of the eclipse. My options were, the school ground or the park just down and across the street from me. Then as I was pulling into work, it hit me, the mall where I work would be perfect, wide open view of the south west sky and my own personal security guard, score! The next hurdle I would have to overcome is how I was going to get my Big A_ _ scope, that's right my big Arm scope, because that's what I break every time I move it; to the mall, an employee friend of mine

volunteered the use of his truck, problem solved.

Now there was the small problem of the forecast, the weather channel was saying rain , but the Clear sky clock, which is very accurate for a 24 hour time period, said the weather would be clear for Saskatoon between 1 and 5 am, I told my wife this and she laughed, probably thinking poor crazy Bob. At 9:30pm, T-5.5 hours and counting, it was raining, I was thinking, stupid rain, stupid clouds, stupid hobby and stupid clear sky clock. and went to sleep. I woke up at 1:30am to head over to the mall and put the time in just in case hell froze over, and to my surprise I had clear skies! Yes Clear Sky Clock rules!

So I get to the mall set up the scope, get my own security guy and we wait. Well of course while we're waiting I proceed to tell the guard all about eclipses, how the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and casts a shadow on to the lunar landscape and it's orange and brown because Earth's atmosphere scatters and absorbs the blues and allows the reds of the Sun's light through to the Lunar surface, we then got into Quantum Mechanics and Superstring Theory, well I did anyways but I could tell he was just soaking it all in. I don't know what happened to him, I went in to the office to get another eyepiece and when I came out he was gone, must have been called away to an emergency. Below is a pic of the scope and guard.

Check out Anna's site, she was going to be out this morning as well trying to get some pics of the eclipse, hope everything went well for her too. Actually my guard did come back, he finally started talking, he's a history buff, we got talking about the American civil war actually, something I am very interested in, great eclipse, great weather, and great conversation.

Practicing For The Lunar Eclipse

Just came in from the cold, doing a dress rehearsal for the Total Lunar Eclipse this coming Tuesday August 28th. 3:52 am EDT. The above image is my latest, took it a couple hours ago, 65X magnification with a #21 wratten (light orange) filter to dim the bright light of the almost full moon, and to bring out more detail of some of the major craters. I held my Olympus camera up to my telescope eyepiece, focused the scope and snapped the pic, as long as the clouds participate this coming Tuesday, I should get some lunar eclipse pictures.

Tycho Crater named after Tycho Brahe is the major crater near the top of the moon and off to the left, the crater with all the bright lines coming from its center. It's a very steep crater, about 14,500 ft high and 52 miles in diameter. The next major crater is Copernicus Crater named after Nicolaus Copernicus , the guy who brought forward the idea that the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun, not the other way round. Copernicus is the bright crater just to the right of centre in the middle of the moon. The third major crater I would like to point out is Plato Crater, named after Plato the Greek philosopher. Plato is near the bottom, right of center, it is the darkest crater on the moon. All three of these craters are known hot spots for Transient Lunar Phenomenon.

(note: Telescope optics invert objects, ie. Tycho crater is actually on the bottom of the moon when viewed without a telescope)

The picture below was taken tonight as well, without the filter and at 50X magnification. I will probably end up taking some pics in each magnification. Well it's T-73.5 hours and counting and and the weather station's calling for variable clouds, with any luck at all and my fingers crossed, I should be taking my first eclipse pics since 2004.

Astrostuff You Need To View Astrostuff

I was going through an astrostuff type of magazine and picked out a few things I really, really, really, need. My wife is always telling me that I exaggerate way too much, I don't see it, can't remember the last time I did, but instead of me saying I really,really,really need this astrostuff, I will say I need this astrostuff.

The nicest telescope. There is a rule of thumb with telescopes, if it's bigger than you, it's nicest.

This scope is so nicest that when you look through the eyepiece, the nebula/galaxy/ even star clusters will be in color, just like the Hubble! It is a RC optical systems 20"truss system. Base price is nicest too, around $54,300.

Below is what I have, sure it's nice, not nicest nice, but nice.

All I'd have to do is call up NASA tell them the type of scope I have, the nicest scope, and they could hire me out to do work for them when they send probes to the Moon/Mars, like they did with Parkes observatory and Apollo 11. Lets say they pay me $1,000 an hour, for even just 54.3 hours, the scope would be paid up for in just a couple of days. Just to keep my wife happy I'll cut what they pay me to $500.00 an hour, don't want to be accused of exaggerating, the scope would be paid up in just 4 days.

Next, because of the size of the nicest scope, you have to have a nicest observatory to keep it in.



Sirius Observatories sell the nicest university model for, well it doesn't even say, but it's their nicest and again , work for NASA , the observatory would pay for itself in just a few days.

Below is what I have, it's more in the category of cute, which is fine for puppy dogs, but when your dealing with astrostuff you need at least nice, preferably nicest.



Now, because you will be spending a lot of time in your nicest observatory working for NASA, you'll need a Sony LCD TV. Full 1080p HD, and only $3,600, that's only 7 hours of working for NASA. Below is what I have. Oh wait , I don't have one yet, all the more reason to get one. There are more nicest astrostuff I need such as nicest eyepieces, camera, fridge, sofa, stove, but it will have to wait till I get the basic nicest stuff first.

The space shuttle Endeavour unlocked from the International Space Station at 7:56 am EDT. Sunday morning, one day earlier than planned to allow the shuttle to land Tuesday before Houston has to prepare for Hurricane Dean. Below is a picture of Hurricane Dean taken from the space shuttle. To keep up with the shuttle news NASA TV has all the latest happenings.

Buying a Telescope

Bob I'm thinking of getting into Astrology, what should I be looking for in a telescope? Well first of all I explain the difference between the 2, "Astronomy not Astrology" , then if I haven't bored them to tears and they are still with me, I try to explain what to look for in a scope.

When I first decided to buy a scope I was overwhelmed at the amount of information on the internet, not only about what to look for when purchasing one but the amount of variations of telescopes that are out there. Buying a telescope can be a bit confusing, I hope to be able to make it a little easier by passing on some of the knowledge and experience I have gained through buying and selling as well as using many different types of telescopes.

Before taking the big plunge get to know the night sky, a good book to get is "The Backyard Astronomer's Guide" . If you have binoculars, use them, with them you can see dozens of lunar craters, dozens of star clusters. several nebulae and 7 planets. Get yourself a sky atlas and learn the constellations and where some of the brighter galaxies and nebulae are. An excellent sky atlas is "Sky Atlas" . Once your familiar with the night sky your ready to go.

Where to start? There are a lot of different types of telescopes out there, but they generally fall into 1 of 3 types.

1. Refractor type; The light goes through a lense and is refracted to the eyepiece to form an image. This is the type of scope you see in all your tv programs and movies, usually in the corner of somebodies apt. since they are ideal for city apt dwellers. It is the most expensive of the 3 types per inch of aperture, ( diameter of mirror/lense of the telescope). This type of scope is excellent for viewing the planets and lunar surface. An example is the "Celestron First Scope", I have used this scope before and was very satisfied with its performance. The main disadvantage of the refractor is the high cost for the larger apertures which is what you need if you want to view deep sky items such as nebulae and galaxies.



2. Reflector type; this type uses mirrors to gather light and form images, It is the best value for your money. an excellent telescope is Celestron 6" Starhopper . Notice The 3.5 inch refractor above costs the same as the 6" starhopper reflector. Also note the 2 different types of mounts. The refractor has an alt-az mount, simple up/down(altitude) left/right(azimuth), the Starhopper has a dobsonian mount, which is a type of alt-az mount with a low center of gravity which glides very easily just using your fingers. The dobsonian mount is used a lot on your bigger aperture amateur telescopes. I owned a Celestron 10" Starhopper for many years and highly recommend either the 6" or 10" for deep sky and planet/lunar viewing.



3. Catadioptric/Compound type; this type of scope uses a combination of mirrors and lenses to gather and form images. A very popular type of this category of scope is the Schmidt-Cassegrain, the 8" aperture model has been the top selling serious recreational telescope. Its combination of generous aperture, portability, astrophotography adaptability and overall good performance has made it the telescope of choice for the serious Backyard astronomer. I have the Meade LX 200r and highly recommend it.

You know the 3 basic types of telescopes, now you have to make a decision on how much you want to spend and what you want to get out of the hobby. For $299.00 you can get a 3.5 inch refractor or a 6" reflector, the 6" reflector will allow you to see more deepsky objects but at the cost of portability, what is more important to you? Bigger is not neccessarily better especially if you live on the 5th. floor of an apartment, chances are on the 5th. floor of apartment there is so much light pollution that no matter how big your scope is it wouldnt be able to gather enough light to view deepsky objects, but the refractor would be portable and be perfect for lunar and planetary viewing, since light pollution does not hinder their viewing. If you are looking for a telescope primarily to view deepsky objects then you want a minimum of 6" aperture. The Celestron Starhopper above would be a good pick.

Changing magnification of your scope is as easy as changing eyepieces, which brings us to another point, what is your scopes maximum magnification? A simple rule of thumb is 50x per inch of aperture, so if you bought the 6" starhopper your maximum magnification would be 300x and thats on a good night. It may intrest you to know that the magnification I use the most is only 120x I have a 12" scope and can go up to 600x, but I rarely do, I have gone to 450x on Saturn and Mars, but on the deepsky objects it is anywhere from 40-120x.

How do you calculate magnfication? Well every scope has a focal length, the distance from the primary mirror/lense to the point at which it forms an image (eyepiece), it will be in your manual or on your scope near the eyepiece. Every eyepiece also has a focal length, a 25mm comes with the above Starhopper, The Starhopper's focal length is 48 inches or 1200mm, to determine the magnification, simply divide the focal length of the scope (1200mm) by that of the eyepiece, so the (25mm) will produce 48x. You'll notice that this is one of the few hobbies that uses both inches and mm, which confuses everything even more.

I have just lightly touched on some of the basic things to look for when considering a scope primarily for visual use. My pick would be a 6"-10" reflector on a dobsonian mount. Celestron, Meade or Orion are all very good companies to deal with. For astrophotography you get into more expensive computerized telescopes, equatorial mounts and the more expensive apo refractors which I will get into in later posts. Another guide to follow is Sky and Telescope . I'll leave you with a youtube video on what to look for when buying your first scope. Purchasing your first scope